Alonzo Billips '20 (mechanical engineering) joined Fr. Kevin O’Brien for an episode of Bridging the Distance, where he shared how he and his senior design teammates are keeping their project on track while working from home in different parts of the country. Watch it here. And find the entire Bridging the Distance series here.

Aditya Krishnan '20 (computer science and engineering and engineering physics majors, with minors in mathematics and sustainability) has been accepted to the Ph.D. program at UC Davis, USC, and Vanderbilt. He will be joining UC Davis with a full fellowship. Besides being a student in four departments, Aditya is a peer educator in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Chamber Choir singer.

Shreyes Nallan '20 (double major electrical and computer engineering and physics), has received a full fellowship to start his Ph.D. studies at Carnegie Mellon University this coming fall. Shreyes is a current member of Dr. On Shun Pak's Complex and Biological Flow Laboratory, which studies problems at the interface of fluid mechanics and biology, and is president of the Society of Physics Students.

Bridget Woody '20 (bioengineering major, history minor) has won a Fulbright award! Her winning Fulbright project proposed traveling to Kingston, Jamaica, to conduct research into how past technological innovations historically affected the colonized slave populations there, as a way to inform modern-day, ethical engineering innovation. Read more.

SWE Book Club: The Society of Women Engineers is staying connected, continuing to put on events to bring members together, including industry speakers, outreach with local middle schoolers, and social events for SCU students. One of the virtual programs implemented for the quarter is "SWE Book Club," in which members meet periodically to chat about their thoughts on Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg.

SWE Sisters are keeping their community strong. They recently held a Bob Ross Paint-along! Participants gathered supplies they had around the house—paint, colored pencils, paper or canvas—and joined the fun via Zoom. Pictured: Bridget Woody, Uma Bahl, Zena Fasheh, Keala Johnson, Angelus McNally and Nanki Sekhon.

Tau Beta Pi Tutoring: Support for our engineering students is ongoing, even in times of remote learning. TBP, the engineering honor society, is here to help. Students can find tutors, their availability, and contact information on this Google Document. Tutors are organized in different sheets by departments of the classes in which they are able to tutor.

Tenure and promotion: Congratulations to Dr. Yuhong Liu (computer science and engineering) who has received tenure and was promoted to the rank of associate professor! With expertise in trustworthy computing and cybersecurity, Dr. Liu’s primary research interests include online social network security and privacy, trust management in cyber-physical systems, and trustworthy cloud computing.

Tenure and promotion: Congratulations to Dr. On Shun Pak (mechanical engineering) who has received tenure and was promoted to the rank of associate professor! Dr. Pak’s research is in the area of fluid mechanics, and his current research interests include low-Reynolds-number flows, biological flows, microswimmers, and complex fluids.

Dr. Jessica Kuczenski (general engineering) has been promoted to Senior Lecturer! With a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, Dr. Kuczenski is SCU’s General Engineering Program Director, and teaches courses which are commonly found in first years of an engineering education—introduction to engineering, engineering graphics, statics, and dynamics—or are heavily based in engineering design.

Dr. Maryam Mobed-Miremadi (bioengineering) has been promoted to Senior Lecturer! A chemical engineer by training with an emphasis on transport and microencapsulation technologies for bioengineering applications, following graduate school she spent 12 years in the biomedical industry, in diagnostics, genomics, and biomedical devices.

Dr. Ahmed Amer (computer science and engineering) writes about the importance of getting our analogies straight when discussing COVID-19. Read his thoughtful treatise in Illuminate, Bright Ideas from SCU Thought Leaders, found here.

Dr. Prashanth Asuri (bioengineering) has been invited to serve as a guest editor for the journal Polymers on the topic: Synthesis, Characterization and Biomedical Applications of Hydrogels. The Special Issue will highlight articles that describe the synthesis and characterization of hydrogels for various biomedical applications, including the delivery of therapeutics, self-healing, scaffold design, biofabrication, and regenerative medicine. More here.

Bonita Banducci, adjunct lecturer teaching Gender and Engineering, was asked by 2020 or Bust to participate in a 48-hour online Earth Actions for Impact Conference, a collaboration of non-profits encouraging action in Environment, Technology, Health and Peace. The topic: Gender Partnership and Social-Emotional Intelligence for the SDG's Planet 50/50. (Sustainable Development Goals).

Dr. Maryam Khanbaghi (electrical and computer engineering) gave an invited talk, ”Controlling the Duck Curve: Dilemma of 21st Century Power Grid,” via Zoom for Sonoma State University’s Engineering Lecture Series. The talk provided an overview of the existing power grid and how control theory can be used to provide input for design of the grid of the future.

Dr. Hohyun Lee (mechanical engineering) has been selected to participate in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Visiting Faculty Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the Summer 2020 Term. Kaleb Pattawi '20 (mechanical engineering) will also join the project over the summer.

Dr. Xiang Li (computer science and engineering) has received a $169,201 award from the National Science Foundation. These funds will support her project, "Data-Driven Cascading Failure Abstraction and Vulnerability Analysis in Cyber-Physical Systems." The project embraces advances in machine learning and puts forth a data-driven framework for cascading failure abstraction and vulnerability analysis in cyber-physical systems.

Dr. Nam Ling (computer science and engineering), with Minqiang Jiang (formerly SCU) and colleagues from Hisilicon/Futurewei and Marvell, have a new U.S. Patent awarded, "Systems, Methods, and Devices for Image Coding," Patent number US10587900B2, granted March 10, 2020. Find it here.

Dr. Bill Lu (bioengineering) has received a $410,768 award from the National Institute of General Medical Services to support his project, "Development of a novel exosome-based enzyme replacement therapy for the treatment of human lysosomal storage disease (LSDs).” The goal of this research is to develop a targeted therapy for the treatment of LSDs, the largest family of human hereditary diseases.

Dr. Robert Marks (mechanical engineering) mentored a Presentation High School junior who won a 1st Place Award at the 2020 Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship with her project, "Developing a Test Procedure for Layer Adhesion Strength of FDM 3D Printed Plastics," which involved the mechanical testing of 200+ 3D printed specimens in the MECH Materials Lab.

Bob Schaffer's ENGR111 (STEM Outreach in the Community) class and first-generation SCU students in his non-profit, Elevate Tutoring, are providing over 1000 hours of free online STEM tutoring this quarter to low-income K-12 and Community College students who are adjusting to distance education during the coronavirus crisis. Elevate has distributed $7500 in scholarships since the shelter in place began.

Spring Engineering News is online now! From making face shields for healthcare workers, to helping beekeepers keep their hives from swarming, our Bronco engineers are as busy as ever. Find out what's been going on in the Spring edition of Engineering News. Find it here.

The Senior Design Conference is going virtual! We've changed the date and the venue, but seniors will be presenting their capstone projects before an audience of judges, friends, and family, as they have for 50 years. Don't miss the 50th Annual—and first-ever virtual—Senior Design Conference, Thursday, May 28, 2020. More details here and to come in the weeks ahead.

Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering: Partnering with Skanska USA, CESE students are among the first in the nation to use the beta version of the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator to compare the Global Warming Potential of available construction materials and complete a life cycle inventory. CESE students will perform a partial analysis of components of SCU’s new Athletic Excellence Center using this tool.

Help for healthcare workers: Working in shifts, a small team of engineering graduate students, faculty, and staff is cranking out 3D printed medical face shield parts to fulfill orders of more than 25,000 shields requested by local hospitals and healthcare professionals. Learn more about this humanitarian project here.

Frugal Innovation Hub and Senior Design Projects: Senior Design Students working with FIH and international clients have switched gears toward the remote implementation of their projects. Students, FIH faculty, and clients are working this spring quarter to guarantee the successful implementation of all six international projects and all projects supported and facilitated by FIH.

Anne Hunter (Maker Lab)  was the featured guest on Fr. Kevin O'Brien's video series, Bridging the Distance. Anne shared the work she and others are doing in the Maker Lab to 3D print parts for healthcare worker face shields. Find the video here.

Distinguished Engineering Alumni Nominations: Help us find our superstars! Nominate candidates for the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award. The highest honor bestowed by the School, the DEA Award recognizes graduates whose accomplishments in their professions, communities, and University services have set them apart. Find the nomination form here.

Ned Biglieri '51 BSME passed away March 24. Ned's career spanned 43 years as an engineer at General Electric, first in Schenectady, NY, and later with the Nuclear Energy division in San Jose. For many years, he mentored Bronco engineers and served on the School of Engineering's Alumni Board, in recognition of which he earned the School's Outstanding Service Award. A warm and dedicated friend to the SoE, he will be missed.

Career Help: SCU’s Career Center is here to support students and alumni during this unprecedented time. Every other Wednesday at 10 am through the end of May, they are hosting LinkedIn Live discussions on a series of topics related to career strategies and support in this new landscape. Find out more here.