The University of Pittsburgh’s Tatsuya Sakurahara served as technical program chair for the conference, coordinating with 22 committee members to organize 220 presentations into 50 technical sessions. The conference gave Pitt students in Sakurahara’s Risk Analysis and Reliability Engineering (RARE) Laboratory the chance to present their research, network, and see the inner workings of a conference. For Emmie Stouffer and Krzysztof Radziszewski, the experience changed their trajectory.

“Today, with everything from technology to climate to the threat landscape changing so quickly, a conference dedicated to developing safer and more reliable systems is incredibly important,” said Sakurahara, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at the Swanson School of Engineering. Sakurahara combines probabilistic and non-probabilistic uncertainty theories and models to assess risk and improve safety and efficiency in nuclear energy systems.

“PSAM is one of the largest international conferences in this field, and for my students who helped it run smoothly and who presented their research, it was a special experience,” Sakurahara added. “It was an honor to showcase Pittsburgh, the Swanson School, and its students.”

One such student was Emmie Stouffer. She has always liked math and statistics, and last year as she began looking for research opportunities, she was drawn to Sakurahara’s RARE Lab. “It's important to understand large systems and how they might fail and the probability of those failures, especially if you’re thinking about something like a nuclear power plant,” she said.

Stouffer reached out to Sakurahara and joined during the summer of 2025, the start of her second year as a mechanical engineering student. “Since joining, I’ve worked with a PhD student, designing a framework for a natural gas subnetwork of an integrated energy system. I’ve been building a Python code that can calculate the risk given various uncertainties.”

Prior to this July, Stouffer had never attended let alone supported an international conference like PSAM. “Just looking at the list of research labs and companies participating was incredible,” she said. “I met so many professionals from around the world.”

She also had the opportunity to present her research, “Probabilistic Risk Assessment for Multi-Network Integrated Energy Systems: Gap Analysis and Preliminary Results,” available on the research repository D-Scholarship at Pitt. For two weeks before the presentation, she would find an open classroom in Benedum Hall and deliver her talk to empty chairs.

“I was leaning towards going straight to a career after graduating,” she said, “but this conference helped me see how much I enjoy research. I can see myself continuing with it at the graduate level.”

Stouffer added, “I’ve always wanted to do something that makes a difference. At the conference and in the RARE Lab, that’s what I’m doing.”

Like Stouffer, Krzysztof Radziszewski joined the RARE Lab in 2025 and participated in the PSAM conference. A collegiate swimmer on Pitt's Swimming and Diving team who earned his mechanical engineering degree this May, he had little experience with risk assessment and probabilities or even laboratory research but, as he said, “Dr. Sakurahara gave me a chance, and here I am.”

Radziszewski began investigating uncertainty quantification in modern nuclear reactors, such as small modular reactors and microreactors. He set out to see how new forms of automation and digitization in these systems impact Human Reliability Analysis, which seeks to determine the likelihood and the consequences of human error affecting a complex system.

The work fascinated him. As Radziszewski said, “I fell in love with the field.”

His research resulted in an academic paper, in which he is the first author. “Quantifying and Reducing HRA Uncertainty in Advanced Reactors: Bayesian Inference Approach” is available on the research repository D-Scholarship at Pitt.

Like Stouffer, Radziszewski presented his work at the conference, an experience he found nerve-racking but rewarding. As he said, “I’d literally just earned my bachelor’s degree and was presenting to a room of experts.”

In addition to fielding these experts’ questions, he networked with them. “It was new to me, talking to researchers from peer universities, national labs, and industry, and it was super valuable.”

Before the RARE Lab and the PSAM conference, Radziszewski had considered pursuing a master’s degree, but that changed. “I applied for the PhD program, and this fall will continue working with Dr. Sakurahara in the RARE Lab,” Radziszewski said. “Dr. Sakurahara has been an amazing mentor, and I’m excited to continue my research to help keep complex systems safer.”

What began in 2004 as five students from the Swanson School of Engineering working with a few faculty members today is a university-wide initiative. This year, 35 students across disciplines were paired with a Pitt faculty member, and for ten weeks they traded the classroom for the lab, becoming full-time researchers alongside their mentors, graduate students, and community partners.

On Wednesday, July 22, that research will be presented at the 2026 Summer Sustainability Research Symposium, where students will deliver eight-minute presentations of their projects. Free and open to the public, the event takes place on Wednesday, July 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., on the fifth floor of the William Pitt Union.

“It's amazing to see the students grow and learn, to see what they accomplish in ten weeks,” said Gena Kovalcik, co-director of administration and external relations at MCSI, who helps direct the program. “Very quickly they become experts, in their own way, on the topic they've been working on.”

Connecting students, faculty, and the community

Each fall, MCSI invites its approximately 100 sustainability-associated faculty members from across Pitt to propose research projects. In January, students can apply, selecting their top two projects. The selection committee reviews the applications and works with faculty to match students to projects.

“It's a competitive program,” Kovalcik said. “This year we had 114 applicants for our 35 spots. All the students were incredibly talented, so it’s difficult to pick who gets funded.”

From May to July, students conduct research for ten weeks and work in labs, in the field, or at computers alongside their faculty mentor and that mentor’s graduate students. In addition to research, students attend weekly lunch-and-learn events where featured speakers discuss sustainability, and they participate in two service projects. They partnered with Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Global Links to explore ways to mitigate medical waste, and they also worked in the Oakcliffe area of South Oakland to remove invasives and cut back overgrown plants and to help maintain the garden.

“The students are working full-time for their faculty member getting specific research experience, but we're also trying to give them a broader understanding of sustainability,” Kovalcik said.

This year, the program grouped students into three cohorts with University partners: Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory (water); Office of Sustainability in the Health Sciences (sustainable healthcare); and HAIL (AI and data science). “We wanted to connect students so they could explore their topic more deeply with their peers and with partner centers across campus,” said Kovalcik.

“They really learn skills that are different from what they learn in the classroom, where everything's kind of prescribed for them.” The independence, Kovalcik added, gives students a genuine taste of graduate school as well as the kind of problem-solving they will encounter in the workplace.

The relationships students build over the ten weeks can extend well beyond the summer. Faculty frequently keep strong students on in their labs, and for some, the experience can shape a career, as former summer research participant Pocket Pizzutillo’s story attests.

A transformative experience

“This summer program gave me the opportunity to fully immerse myself in the role of a researcher compared to my previous part-time research experience,” said Mia van Heerden, a bioengineering student who worked with Steven Little, distinguished professor and department chair of chemical and petroleum engineering. “I could take full ownership of starting and managing a new project that I had little to no knowledge about. Besides the lab work, through this program I learned to present my research in different formats.

“Outside of research, it was fascinating to learn about Pittsburgh's environmental history and the university's sustainability practices. This experience confirmed that I genuinely love the day-to-day work of research.”

Added William Peralta, an industrial engineering student who worked with Amin Rahimian, assistant professor of industrial engineering, “The research this summer provided me with the opportunity to see how individual actions can improve the sustainability efforts of a community. This includes my own research but also discussing the other efforts my peers have done. I hope to continue with sustainable efforts in my engineering career, no doubt inspired by this summer.”

“The MCSI Summer Research Program completely transformed how I see myself as an engineer,” said Sophia Prybyslavskyy, an environmental engineering student who worked with Jacob King, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering. “In just ten weeks, I went from calibrating a pH probe and pipetting standards to building my own two-cell electrochemical setup to treat acid mine drainage.

“Collecting samples from impacted sites around Pittsburgh and analyzing them in the lab taught me how to troubleshoot real-world problems. Working on a sustainability challenge that directly impacts our region made the work incredibly meaningful. This experience strengthened my confidence as a researcher, and it has inspired me to keep pursuing solutions to water quality and environmental challenges.”

Engineering alumni and friends help fund the Summer Research Training Program in Sustainability. In addition to funding from Jack Mascaro, some students are also supported through the generosity of Charles and Linda Sorber, Doug Condon, and Frank and Daphna Lederman.

Wanting to round out his education, Pizzutillo applied to the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) Undergraduate Summer Research in Sustainability program. He was paired with Pitt’s Wei Xiong, a professor he admired, and for ten weeks Pizzutillo investigated more sustainable alternatives to cobalt as a binding agent in tungsten carbide.

His project and the research experiences that followed proved invaluable. They helped Pizzutillo land a job as a process engineer at 6K Additive, a local company that sustainably transforms scrap metal into high-performance metal powders. And they prepared him to thrive at his work.

“I came to Pitt because of the co-op opportunities and because I liked how we all started as just engineers and had a year to decide on the specific field we would pursue,” said Pizzutillo, who enrolled in fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. “It was all online then, and I’d learn about the different fields during Zoom calls with department heads.”

A meeting with Associate Professor and Materials Science and Engineering Program Director Markus Chmielus piqued Pizzutillo’s interest. “Materials science was all about why things behave the way they do. I’d never thought about that, about how, for example, different types of steel behave differently.” When his first year ended, he knew the field he would pursue.

By the end of his third year, Pizzutillo had completed co-op rotations at Stratus Materials, Inc. and Timet, and he was ready for a new challenge. “I’d taken Dr. Xiong’s Materials Thermodynamics course and wanted to conduct research to balance the industry side. I’ve always been drawn to sustainability and applied to the MCSI summer research program.”

Through the program, he was paired with Xiong, associate professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. Pizzutillo set to work investigating binding agents that didn’t contain cobalt.

“Carbides are composites that contain hard materials, like tungsten, and they’re cemented together using a metallic binder like cobalt,” Pizzutillo said. “Cemented carbides can be used to create drill bits or tools that cut through surfaces as hard as diamonds. Most anything that functions under extremely high heat requires these carbides.”

While a highly effective binder, cobalt is carcinogenic and often unethically mined. “We were looking for a more sustainable alternative,” Pizzutillo said.

He started his project by reading the scientific literature and then began running thermodynamic simulations and calculations. After he helped narrow possible alternative materials, he got into the lab preparing the samples and viewing them under an electron microscope, characterizing them and comparing the various samples against each other and against more traditional binders. From his findings, he wrote a paper and presented his work.

The experience afforded Pizzutillo a unique window into research. “I worked with PhD and postdoctoral researchers in Dr. Xiong’s lab and got to see firsthand what investigating more sustainable solutions looks like.”

They produced five carbide binders that used iron-nickel alloys, some that included zirconium or other metals, and of those samples they focused on three. “In our initial testing, the three alternatives showed promise in producing strong tungsten carbides, but they will require more research,” Pizzutillo said. “While it’s uncertain if this research will change the industry, the experience was incredibly rewarding and reflects the promise of finding sustainable alternatives.”

Indeed, what started that summer continued into the fall as Pocket became a fixture of Xiong’s lab.

“Pocket is an excellent example of the impact of the MCSI summer internship program. He continued to work with me after the summer internship program through his senior research design project in my lab,” Xiong said. “He grew as a researcher and produced an excellent senior project.”

This past November, Pizzutillo accepted a position as a process engineer at 6K Additive. The company turns scrap metal into high-quality metal powder that can be used in 3D printing. “We take scrap metal out of the supply chain and reintroduce it as a high-quality material,” he said.

Pizzutillo added, “Research is vital to my work as an engineer, and being comfortable working independently, learning as I go, and using my hands all started with the summer program. Now I get to do that every day, for a company dedicated to sustainability.”

For the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering’s American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter, the 2026 National Concrete Canoe Competition on Friday, June 26, was their first chance to compete at nationals, the result of years of fine tuning their mix and design, learning to row together, and most importantly, solving problems as a team.

Making concrete float

"Concrete is almost synonymous with civil engineering," said Mae Cook, president of Pitt’s ASCE student chapter. "Civil engineers essentially figure out how to use concrete in a variety of applications, and instead of buildings and roads, we're building a canoe."

Although the challenge has inspired ASCE student chapters since the 1960s, it wasn’t until 1988 that concrete canoe races were officially sanctioned. The event has become popular at the symposia, which feature challenges in bridge building, surveying, and problem solving. Today, the National Concrete Canoe Competition draws teams from around the world and across the country.

“It’s a commitment and a team effort,” said Cook. Pitt’s team splits responsibilities across mix design, construction, project management, aesthetics, and of course the actual rowing. Everyone comes together to lift the unwieldy boat.

Finding the right mix

Essential to a concrete canoe is finding the right mix of concrete. For Pitt’s team, that process is ever evolving. Over the years, they have compiled what Amelia Kuzneski (BS CEE ’26), last year’s mix co-lead, calls “a big messy Excel sheet” that has become a comprehensive calculator used to determine the mix.

“Improving upon our mixes from previous years, we were finally able to figure out the combination that got us here [nationals],” said Sanjna Goyal, the mix design captain this past year. “Our main goal was to decrease the density, which is why we added Poraver. I like to think of it as glass popcorn — it’s a super light material that helps fill space without adding weight. To help maintain strength, we still use Portland cement but also incorporate silica fume, fly ash, and Re-Act 4, which are sustainable cement replacements. Additionally, acrylic fibers help with holding our concrete together and further strengthen the mix.”

The team tests as many as 12 to 13 mixes, compressing and pulling apart concrete cylinders to gauge its strength. They test its slump, or how much it will droop before hardening.

Kuzneski, an environmental engineer, has applied her learning to help produce a mix with a smaller carbon footprint. “Concrete is not very sustainable, at least not the production process,” she said. “We try and do good to the environment. Half our boat is probably some form of recycled glass.”

Building a canoe

After the team settles on its mix, the construction leads organize the pour, utilizing a CNC company to cut a mold out of Styrofoam, which arrives in three pieces. Then comes the fun.

“Everyone comes in at 6:00 a.m., and we fit the pieces together and make sure everything is lined up. We line it with epoxy, so the concrete won’t stick,” said Kuzneski, this year’s construction co-captain along with Greg Herbst (BS CEE ’26). “Everyone gets to trowel, though we end up using our hands a lot.”

Between layers, the team adds mesh to reinforce the concrete and help the canoe keep its shape. For increased buoyancy, they fill caps in the fore and aft with foam and then apply more concrete. This year they added concrete ribs for increased strength. (Two years ago, the team dropped the canoe and had to duct-tape the stern to keep it together. They raced, but the boat capsized at the finish line.)

“This is the best one I’ve ever seen,” said Charles “Scooter" Hager, CEE Structures / Materials Technician at Pitt. He works in the Benedum Hall sub-basement and, as Cook said, “helps with literally everything we need, even teaching us how to row.”

The Andy War-Hull

Beyond questions of design and mix are the canoe’s name and its theme. At meetings, students share ideas, most with a nod to Pittsburgh, until one or two take hold. Last year, the team settled on the alliterative Monongahela Megalodon. Before that it was the Three Rivers Safari.

This year, they turned to one of Pittsburgh’s favorite sons: pop artist Andy Warhol. Punny names ensued, and the Andy War-Hull stuck. For artistic inspiration, team members took a guided tour of the Warhol Museum on Pittsburgh’s North Shore.

“After the canoe cured and we sanded it, the aesthetics team set to work, drawing designs in pencil before staining them into the concrete,” said Kayley Dorfman, an aesthetics co-lead and next year’s project management captain. “The team did everything by hand.”

The boat is adorned with pickles, Heinz condiments, a banana, Marilyn Monroe lips, Dippy the Dinosaur, a panther paw, and the Cathedral of Learning.

Rowing a concrete canoe

Constructing the canoe is a remarkable feat. Rowing in it isn’t particularly easy either. At 215 pounds and 17.5 feet long, the Andy War-Hull requires stamina and skill to weave through buoys in the slalom or to sprint 200 meters.

In previous years, the teams did little in the way of actual rowing practice. Experience was spotty, and the results weren’t always great.

Hager has set out to change that. He has a canoe and lives near the Ohio River. For the past 17 years, he has encouraged students to come and practice, and two years ago, they took him up on the offer. “That first practice, we just sent them out,” Hager said. “They got a lot of time on the water, just figuring out how to work together.”

This spring, their teamwork and the rowing practice paid off. At the 2026 ASCE Mid-Atlantic Student Symposium in Johnstown, PA, Pitt’s Concrete Canoe team placed first overall, earning them the trip to the nationals.

Nationals

This year’s ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships was held at Fairmont State University in Fairmont, West Virginia. Concrete Canoe teams from as far away as China, India, Quebec, Seattle, and San Diego brought their boats to nearby Tygart Lake State Park to compete.

Pitt’s team rented a Penske truck, and Miles Hartlage, next year’s construction co-lead, drove the Andy War-Hull two hours south, maneuvering the winding roads to the state park. He parked amid a long row of trailers typically used for race cars, many emblazoned with university logos.

While a niche college event, Concrete Canoe has its own flair. Teams wore matching shirts, one team even matching party hats. Pitt’s team, during the regional competition, dressed as their boat’s namesake, donning silver wigs.

Members of one team walked the banks of the lake banging drums. Another team hoisted a cowbell the size of a garbage can and clanged it (a three-person endeavor) whenever their canoe set out to the starting line. Teams twirled ratchet noise makers.

The canoes themselves are amazing, ornately stained, with designs that tell stories of its university, city, or state. A few boats even had cement figureheads – a pelican, for instance – on the bow.

There are five events: women’s and men’s slalom, women’s and men’s sprint, and co-ed sprint. Boats are timed individually. As the rowers navigated buoys or frantically dug their paddles into the water to go faster, teammates and fans on the shore cheered them on and chanted their school’s name. They waved university flags. Everyone was having fun.

Beyond racing and the fun, the students gained practical experience that will help them after they graduate. Each team must develop an extensive proposal submitted to judges, which outlines details such as the cement mix, the design, the construction, and the cost. At the competition, students must pitch their canoe, selling judges on its merit and fielding questions. The canoe itself is rigorously tested and judged.

“The idea is that we are designing a concrete canoe that will be manufactured on a wide scale,” Cook said. "The canoe is a working prototype and the presentation is a business pitch. The racing is more for fun.”

While Pitt’s team couldn’t repeat its regionals performance, for their first time at nationals, they held their own. Beyond the results, the team bonded, sharing snacks and stories, lifting members into and out of the Andy War-Hull, working together to navigate a complex slalom course. They met fellow engineers from far-off schools and talked with industry representatives eager to see what the students had created.

“I could not be more proud of them,” said Amir Alavi, the team’s faculty advisor and associate professor and B.P. America Faculty Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "It’s so rewarding to see how much heart the students put into this work. Concrete Canoe is not just about building and racing a canoe. It is about students learning to trust each other, solve problems together, and see that civil engineering is also about creativity, imagination, and teamwork,”

“Our department is close knit and supportive, and Concrete Canoe captures this spirit,” said Kate Volna (BS CEE ’26), project management captain this year. “Even though this was my last go round with Concrete Canoe, I’ll always be cheering them on.”

For over a decade, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering students have been up for this challenge. Pitt’s Chem-E Car has weathered competitions where their car didn’t start or where it veered out of bounds or went backwards or wouldn’t stop. Yet the opportunity to build a battery from scratch, design and create a car, and devise a stopping mechanism continues to captivate Pitt students eager to hone their engineering decision-making skills.

This past spring, at the AIChE Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference, held at Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia, the Pitt team’s car came .02 meters (an eighth of an inch) from advancing to the national competition in November, and the team hopes that it might get there yet.

Starting

“Three years ago, as a second-year student, I joined Chem-E Car because it was a hands-on opportunity to work with chemicals,” said Toby Rozengarten (ChemE BS ’26), president of the club this past year. “I liked the problem-solving aspect of it as well as the freedom to design what we choose.”

The heart of each Chem-E Car is its power source, and each year the team must decide what kind of battery. Standard lead-acid battery? Hydrogen fuel cell, or an electrochemical cell? How will it fit safely into a model car? And how much power will it provide?

Questions like these are answered collectively, with upper-level students mentoring newer members. Pitt’s team had 12 members this past year, and they decided to develop a lead-acid battery.

“We’d seen these batteries at previous competitions and wanted to make one of our own,” said Rozengarten. They develop a system composed of six electrochemical cells wired to deliver about 12 volts, more than enough to power the motor and gears.

Beyond the chemistry involved in building the battery, the team designs and creates the car, which this year included a lighthouse structure, which inspired the car’s name, Lighthouse.

“This was my first real experience working as a team to design and build something,” said Ben Hill, who just finished his first-year at the Swanson School. “It pushed me to learn things that weren't explicitly taught in the classroom.”

“Last year, we had an electrical engineer who did all our circuitry, but she graduated,” said Alette Kegerreis (ChemE BS ’26). “We needed to start from scratch, and I took the opportunity to learn something new. It was a great experience.”

It was also successful. Each year, around 20 teams compete in the Mid-Atlantic region, and of those teams, about half, sometimes more than half of the cars won’t even start. In 2024 and 2025, the Pitt team’s car didn’t make it past the start line.

This year, the team had to tune their car to reach 17.22 meters (56.6 feet). In the allotted hour, they calculated and mixed the chemicals, which they added to the reactor and the battery. They flipped a switch and the Lighthouse came to life. Staying within bounds, it began rolling, heading toward the finish line.

Stopping

Unlike a traditional car race, in the Chem-E Car Competition, speed isn’t as important as stopping. To qualify, a car must stop within three meters of the set distance.

To do so, the Pitt team turned to a process used at some crime scenes: chemiluminescence. “We used luminol, which helps investigators detect blood,” said Luke Roup (ChemE BS ’26). “The chemical compound reacts with the iron, producing a light-blue glow.”

The team built a reactor, which they placed atop the lighthouse. They used an iron-based catalyst, which would determine how long the light would glow. “We set up a sensor that reads the light’s brightness, and as soon as it’s not bright enough, the sensor shuts off the entire system,” Roup said.

Ostensibly, if the team mixes the correct concentration of reactants and catalysts, the car rolls to a stop at the finish line. And the team did calculate correctly… for the dusty floors of the Benedum Hall sub-basement, where they also share a space with researchers testing concrete.

“On the smooth surface at the competition, the Lighthouse kept going,” said Kegerreis.

It rolled past the finish line and came to a stop at 20.24 meters.

Waiting

In a competition where nearly half the cars don’t even make it past the starting line, to finish just beyond the outer bounds was both maddening and gratifying for the team.

“An eighth of an inch and we would’ve placed fifth,” said Roup. “The top five cars go on to compete in the nationals.”

The team has hope, though: they will apply to a waitlist. “The official judging our race told us that we need to apply, that we were so close to qualifying that we have a great chance of getting in.”

Even if they miss nationals, the experience has been extremely rewarding. The competition is about much more than starting and stopping a model car through chemical reactions. It’s about the creative, collaborative problem solving and decision making that occur all year. It’s about the connections that form in Benedum Hall and beyond. As part of the competition, teams present posters and share ideas. Pitt’s team fielded many questions about their unique stopping mechanism and the high voltage of their battery. Teams network. On race day, they cheer each other on.

“I’m so proud of our Pitt team,” said Taryn Bayles, professor and director of undergraduate education in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. Bayles has been the team’s faculty advisor since 2016. “They were incredible representatives of the Swanson School, and their car reflects a creative, innovative approach essential to our program.”

This past spring, Ibragimov and his team partnered with students from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Industrial Engineering to visualize stronger healthcare ecosystems. The senior design capstone project was one of three collaborations between the Swanson School and UPMC. From mapping care ecosystems, to applying human factors to critical-care tools, to building interactive models for capacity planning, these projects highlight how new perspectives can create lasting solutions.

“I was craving that outside view.”

Last fall, Ibragimov read an email about the UPMC-Swanson School partnership, where students applied industrial engineering principles to healthcare challenges. Intrigued, he met with Lisa Maillart, Leighton E. and Mary N. Orr Professor and department chair of industrial engineering, and Scott Streiner, assistant professor of industrial engineering and undergraduate program director, and soon a project came into focus.

Ibragimov and colleague Collin Morrow, director of finance for Community Ambulatory Services, work to “provide an integrated approach between the physician and the hospital side, in everything from the urgent care standpoint, to surgery centers, to outpatient imaging.”

“Our goal,” as Morrow said, “is to build stronger ecosystems across Western Pennsylvania where patients can access convenient care and doctors spend less time traveling.”

They welcomed the outside perspectives of industrial engineering students Brady Fintan, Jordan During, Alan Ghosh, Danny Marren, and Max Rimdzius.

“We provided the team with data of all the appointments surgeons and patients have, and how far they must travel to different locations,” Ibragimov said. “We asked them to document the current state and develop an optimized system based on an ecosystem model that decreased a surgeon’s ‘windshield time’ and that created a better experience for patients.”

The team met in person weekly and, as Morrow noted, “We approached this project by having them serve as consultants and we were the client.”

Every week and then bi-weekly, the students returned with fresh analysis and visualization. What they produced far exceeded expectations: a series of interactive maps highlighting facility types near urgent care centers and the drive time of doctors across the system. They also overlaid the UPMC network on census-based maps to highlight population shifts in and around Pittsburgh.

“We could clearly see how the region is changing and where we have gaps,” Ibragimov said. He and Morrow called the project a “game changer” that could play a vital role in decision making. 

“I enjoy programming and solving complicated operational challenges, and this one was unique,” said team member Danny Marren, who noted that the data analysis and visualization skills would carry into his career. “My favorite part was unlocking a whole new view for them.”

“It’s a high-pressure, high-risk, low-frequency event.”

In the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, two emergency carts hold supplies needed in the unlikely event of opening a patient’s chest to provide immediate life support.

“The carts have been around for over 50 years, and they weren’t designed with a systematic approach that applies human factors elements,” said Holt Murray, medical director of the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital and assistant professor of Critical Care Medicine. The carts are also infrequently used.

“Even our higher-volume procedures, like an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), happen around 90 times a year. When you factor in a nurse’s schedule, working three and a half shifts a week, there is low exposure to them,” he said.

Yet the specialty supplies are extremely time-sensitive, and someone with minimal experience must be able to reach them quickly.

Murray was eager to partner with the Swanson School to rethink how the carts were constructed and organized. “I was delighted to have a bunch of engineers come in and look at our processes.”

Those engineers were Pitt seniors Maya Jain, Cindy Lkhagvasuren, Garrett Rojik, Madelyn Shaw, and Aidan Wolynn. The team visited the hospital and met with Murray, nurse practitioner Lorenza Schwartzmiller, and nurses on the floor. They worked closely with Schwartzmiller, combining physician nursing and engineering to solve a complex problem. 

“From the get-go, we understood how high-risk it is,” Jain said.

As they began the redesign, the team ran tests, timing nurses as they pulled equipment from the existing carts. “They could see within a few nurses what the fundamental engineering problem was,” Murray said.

The students inventoried the carts, measuring and weighing all items, and set to work modeling and designing something new. “We really had to understand how all the supplies were used so we could develop the order in our cart,” said Rojik.

“We turned to our visual management techniques. You know, when operators go on the manufacturing floor, they know exactly where their tools are. They have an outline for it and a standard workspace,” Jain added.

The two carts are used for different lifesaving procedures. As the team explored models, they chose to combine both into one larger cart, with each half devoted to a procedure. “We spent hours trying to figure out how we could fit everything into the carts,” Jain said.

After they settled on a design, the students took the project a step further: they built a full prototype. “We were cutting wood and putting it together, sanding, painting, attaching wheels, and labeling everything,” Rojik said. “I liked woodworking in high school, so to get my hands dirty again was great.”

Then they were pushing the cart up the hill to Presbyterian Hospital, where they ran tests again with nurses, this time using their cart. The results reflected success.

“The team did a great job starting from square one,” Murray said. “We’re moving forward with steps to implement them on a large scale.”

“They don’t come in with any preconceived notions.”

Although Audrey Alcorn (ENGR BS ’84) works in healthcare administration at UPMC Shadyside, she’s an industrial engineer, and a Pitt alum. She knows the perspective industrial engineers can bring to healthcare.

“This was my ninth project through the partnership with UPMC and the Swanson School,” said Alcorn, PE and CSP, and innovation improvement specialist at UPMC Shadyside. “Previous projects focused on efficiency, effectiveness, and process improvement. This one was different.”

Adjacent to Shadyside Hospital is the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, recognized worldwide for its treatment. Shadyside provides inpatient cancer care while Hillman delivers outpatient services. “As we continue to bring on highly recognized oncologists, we’re receiving many more patients,” Alcorn said.

With the increase, her team needed to understand how adding physicians and patients would affect capacity and current resources. “It was time to apply an engineering mindset.”

That mindset came from students Andrea Adamski, Camren Corbett, Ava Hartman, Alexis Hong, and Yuankai Zhang. The team received a trove of real operational data and set to work making sense of it.

“In our classes, the data is clean,” said Hong. “For this project, we were working with real data. We had to work around gaps and make assumptions.”

Added Corbett, “The most challenging aspect of the project was cleaning the data so it could be properly modeled.” 

The team analyzed oncology patient capacity to understand how increased physician recruitment and patient volume would impact resources. In Microsoft Excel, they created interactive, color-coded tables that let users input hypothetical changes and see immediate results: if a result appears red, they’re over capacity; if it’s green, they have room. 

On both the inpatient and outpatient side, the models help administrators understand how facilities are used and provide the data necessary to improve decision making and patient care.

“Everybody’s been blown away,” Alcorn said. “They’re like, ‘wow, wow, wow,’ because it’s different from what they’re used to seeing. The project has helped us see gaps and opportunities to care for more patients.”

The project also impressed judges at the Swanson School’s 23^rd Design Expo, where the project won second place in Industrial Engineering.

“Knowing who this project would impact definitely motivated us,” Corbett said.

Indeed, across these projects, students understood the gravity of their work. Each team treated their capstone project like a consulting engagement, meeting regularly with UPMC leaders, testing assumptions against real constraints, and turning engineering analysis into tools that clinicians and administrators can use.

As Ibragimov noted, “This was a great experience, and I’m truly going to miss it.”

Each spring at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Student Symposia, engineering students from across the country compete in events that capture the essence of civil engineering. They design and build bridges, survey land, solve problems, and create and race concrete canoes. They also have fun.

This year at the 2026 ASCE Mid-Atlantic Student Symposium, the University of Pittsburgh ASCE Student Chapter saw 55 of its members compete, its best participation to date, and the collective effort paid off. In a field of almost thirty university student chapters, Pitt placed first overall.  

The competition was held April 17-19, 2026, at the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown, in Johnstown, PA. The event fostered community across teams and universities and provided students with valuable opportunities to use their hands and apply their learning. 

"Our teams overcame so many obstacles and put in so much hard work this year,” said Mae Cook, a fourth-year civil engineering student and incoming president of Pitt’s ASCE student chapter. “The team captains took last year's judge's feedback and focused on improvement. They enhanced the teams' strengths while also optimizing the needed areas. Their passion for their work could be felt by everyone, which I think contributed to high participation and placement." 

Across events, the Pitt team shined:

• The Concrete Canoe team placed first overall, earning qualification for the national concrete canoe competition June 25 – 27 at Fairmont State University, West Virginia.
• The 3D Printed Bridge team placed first in presentation and design and second place overall.
• The Surveying team placed first in field tasks, third place in the Civil 3D map competition, and second place overall.
• In its first year with an entirely student-led team, Sustainable Solutions received strong feedback from judges on their work related to water cooling, energy use, and stormwater treatment.
• The Steel Bridge team achieved its best build time in more than six years, successfully passed load testing, and improved in all but one category relative to previous years.

“Over the last couple of years, Pitt’s Concrete Canoe has always been one to watch,” said Kate Volna, who graduated this spring with her degree in civil engineering and who served as Project Management Captain for the team. “I love watching the progression and feeling relief once the boat finally gets placed in the water. We design, pour, construct, stain, seal, and transport this boat in just a couple months.”

In a nod to Pittsburgh, the team named their new boat the Andy War-Hull. During competition, they dressed up like the famous artist to cheer on the rowers as they sprinted or competed in the slalom event.

In addition to placing first overall, the team tied for first place in the technical proposal and first in presentation and the men’s sprint and slalom. The team placed second in display and in women’s slalom, and third in women’s sprint.

“Last year, watching the nationals made us extra ambitious, and it’s truly amazing to see how we’ve achieved them,” said Volna. “I am extremely grateful for all our faculty, staff, mentors, and especially alumni who still check in on our team. They are our biggest support and help us succeed.”

On land, the 3D Printed Bridge team had its best showing yet in the symposium’s newest event. “Our team spends the year designing a bridge, creating it in SolidWorks, and then printing it with a 3D printer,” said Chase Ferraro, who is beginning his fourth year in civil engineering and served as the team’s co-captain. The bridge must hold 70 pounds.

Ferraro added, “One of our goals was to improve our presentation skills as a team, and I feel we met that after receiving the best presentation award.

Like its 3D-printed counterpart, the Steel Bridge team also gained momentum this year. Instead of designing and printing a bridge, the competition involves developing a 20-foot model of a bridge capable of holding 2,500 pounds. The team builds the pieces and assembles them at the competition on deadline.

“This year is the second year in a row where we qualified in the competition,” said Jobi Cook, who graduated this spring with a degree in civil engineering. “These last two years, we have improved our build time to meet the 45-minute hard deadline with a build time of 43 minutes last year and 32 minutes this year.”

For Cook, who has completed two internships with a general contractor and has worked as a heavy equipment mechanic, the opportunity to use his hands to design, fabricate, and construct a bridge has been hugely rewarding.

This year’s competition also saw the return of a Pitt Sustainable Solutions team, which hadn’t competed for three years. Sustainable Solutions engages students to solve a real-world problem through the lens of sustainability. Teams develop a proposal and a poster and present their solution.

“We wanted to bring a sustainability-focused team to Pitt and give other students interested in sustainability a chance to find a place within ASCE,” said Rose Genco, a fourth-year civil engineering student and co-captain of the team.

“The challenge this year was to design a sustainable data center,” Genco added. “As this was our first year competing as a team, we did not expect to place well, but we achieved seventh out of fourteen teams!”

Beyond restarting the team and exceeding their expectations, the team built community. “My favorite part about participating in the competition was how close we all became,” Genco said. “We bonded throughout the year and even more at the competition.”

“This achievement would be impossible without the extraordinary efforts of our students and mentors,” said Vikas Khanna, professor and interim chair of civil and environmental engineering. “The outstanding leadership, commitment, and countless hours of work from our student leaders made this success possible.” 

The student leaders hope that the momentum from this year’s success will continue to generate more interest in Pitt’s ASCE student chapter and expand the community that it fuels. As Ferraro said, “ASCE has provided me with so many new friendships and opportunities. The competition teams are an easy way to meet new people and get involved in your major and future career path.”

Now finishing his third year in chemical engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering, Bender can be found, quite literally, all over Benedum Hall. A mentor at Pitt Makerspaces, a vice president of the Hydroponics Club, and an endlessly curious researcher making rubies on the loading dock or transforming a 3D printer on the ninth floor, he has found his place.

The basement

Bender, who grew up outside of Philadelphia, reached the semifinals of the National History Bee in eighth grade. “I was always good at history, but throughout middle school, I wasn’t pushed in science,” he recalled. “It wasn’t until my junior year of high school, when I took AP chemistry from a great teacher, that I realized I could do it.”

Uninterested in passively learning, Bender “dove down a rabbit hole on YouTube.” He found inspiration watching scientists create lasers and make synthetic rubies.

“I started trying to make rubies with a blowtorch and a crucible in my backyard, with my dad. It didn’t work,” Bender said. “The rubies didn’t go anywhere until I came to Pitt.”

As a first-year student at the Swanson School, Bender gravitated toward the Makerspaces in the Benedum Hall basement. Filled with 3D printers, laser cutters, heat presses, sewing machines, and other tools, the Makerspaces became his second home. After his first semester, he became a Makerspaces mentor, helping his peers design and create.

He also joined Pitt Hydroponics, a club that has built a garden where tomatoes and greens thrive outside the Makerspaces. Bender was eager to learn about hydroponics and how to build growing systems.

From the basement to the loading dock

If Benedum’s basement was a refuge, so too was its loading dock. Bender had never lost interest in the idea of making rubies and during his first semester set to work finding the right combination.

With two terracotta flowerpots, an arc welder, a pound of aluminum oxide, some chromium oxide, drill bits, and carbon electrodes, as well as safety protocols, Bender began creating his own gemstones. The arc welder was key, allowing him to produce enough heat to melt the aluminum oxide and chromium oxide, which crystallizes into a ruby.

Three years in, Bender’s pursuit of purer rubies persists. He’s fascinated by the chemistry and by the investigation it has inspired (he’s currently trying to generate hydrogen and oxygen to make a flame, which is how synthetic rubies are produced industrially). He’s also trying to find the best way to polish the gems. Bender wants, as he said, “to democratize the high-energy crystal space.”

Ultimately, he plans to produce a ruby pure enough to make a laser. The first laser, produced in 1960 by Theodore Maiman, used a synthetic ruby to generate the pulse of red light.

Journey to the ninth floor

During Bender’s second semester, he chose to pursue a degree in chemical engineering and minor in electrical engineering. 

Emily Kerr, undergraduate academic advising manager for the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, sensed, upon meeting Bender, that he would thrive with new challenges. As she explained, “I started to reach out to professors in our department who could keep up with his insatiable curiosity.”

Last year, Bender and Kerr connected with James McKone, a professor of chemical engineering whose lab was conducting experimental electrochemistry. Bender joined the team on the ninth floor.

“The research involves developing and testing the reactions of electrochemical catalysts,” Bender said. “We’ve been testing ethanol-based films, which can be as small as two centimeters by two centimeters, and that need to be applied to a surface consistently. It’s a slow and messy process.”

Bender believes that a reconfigured 3D printer might change that. Last year, he received a used 3D printer as a gift recognizing his third semester as a Makerspace mentor. However, he already owned a 3D printer and wondered what to do with this one.

“Last fall, I started thinking about the project I was working on in Dr. McKone’s lab and realized a 3D printer is just a controllable set of axes and motors. You can put anything on it that you want to move,” Bender said.

He began modifying the machine, attaching a spray gun in place of the extruder and securing it with rubber bands. He taught himself how to write G-code, which is used to program 3D printers. He needed to find a way to program the motor to pull the spray gun’s trigger at set intervals.

Bender relished the challenge of working with circuits and devising a way to control the voltage powering the fan and then the motor itself. Through hours of trial and error, he created a machine with an attachment that can move and spray the film precisely and consistently.

“This project has been an excellent foray into all these skills. I’ve created 13 prototypes of the mount itself,” Bender said.

Into Oakland

When Bender isn’t roaming Benedum Hall, he volunteers at the local music venue Haven, running the lights. Bender plays guitar and loves to attend live shows. Watching bands and designing the lights has inspired what may well be his next creation.

“I want to learn more about signals and systems, about music waveforms. And I want to turn that into a project,” Bender said. “I’d like to create a vest that you would wear while you’re playing. It’d take the signal from the guitar and change color as you play based on the frequency.”

While Bender still loves history, he’s never regretted choosing engineering. He’s grateful that his high school teachers and now his professors and his advisor have fueled his desire to experiment and to understand how things work.

“My favorite thing in the world is creating,” he said. “And since getting into chemical engineering, it’s just been an exponential cascade, upwards and out.”

As part of the program, Chakraborty will be paired with a mentor and conduct research at the U.S. Navy’s Naval Service Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock Division. Located in West Bethesda, Maryland, the center is a hub of engineering and research into ships and ship technology. Chakraborty, who will visit NSWC Carderock this summer, will work in their submarine and boating divisions.

A member of the American Society of Naval Engineers, Chakraborty credits his interest in mechanical engineering to his grandfather, a mechanical engineer who served with the U.S. Air Force. “He would always tell me these great stories about working on planes, and when I got to high school, I started taking engineering classes,” Chakraborty said.

“This is a dream come true. I’ve been interested in boats for years, and since coming to Pitt, I’ve been involved in Pittsburgh Electric Propulsion [PEP],” added Chakraborty, who serves as the vice president of PEP, a Pitt club dedicated to electric boats and EV and battery technology. The club designs, fabricates, and races electric boats.

“Carderock was my top preference,” Chakraborty said. “I’m excited to have this amazing opportunity to work there after graduation and apply what I’ve learned at Pitt to support the Navy.”

This challenge of building and racing an autonomous robotic sailboat has intrigued college and high school students for years and led, in 2006, to the creation of the International Robotic Sailing Regatta (SailBot).  

In 2019, two University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering students who’d grown up sailing on the Chesapeake Bay also felt the allure of this challenge and launched Pitt SailBot. Since then, the club has attracted Pitt students of varying majors, backgrounds, and experience with sailing and robotics. What unifies these members is the chance to collaborate, think creatively, use their hands, and build a winning sailbot from scratch.

From nothing to Dan Marina

Although he had little experience with sailboats, Leo Goldberg, president of Pitt SailBot who recently graduated with a degree in computer engineering, joined the club in his first year at Pitt. In high school, he had built a computer and was on a robotics team. “I was intrigued by the challenge of building a robotic sailboat, with all its moving parts and complex problems to solve,” said Goldberg, who grew up in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

Every two years, Pitt’s SailBot builds a new boat from scratch. As Goldberg said, “This past year, from nothing, we just started with the design process. Everything mechanically is done in house. We don't outsource any manufacturing. Anyone, any year, any level, can come in and help build the boat.”

To build a boat, SailBot relies on two teams, the mechanical and the controls. Using 3D modeling software, the mechanical team designs the boat and runs simulations. They pick out all the materials, and they fiberglass, paint, seal, and sand it.

Throughout the process, the team collaborates with Pitt Makerspace in the Benedum Hall basement. For their new boat, the team used a 3D printer to create the shell for the hull.

The controls team, meanwhile, develops the electrical components and code required to program the boat. They design and test circuits, solder components into place, wire the boat, and integrate sensors and microcontrollers. 

The club draws students with little robotics experience to those who have worked on many teams. As Goldberg said, “Whatever their experience, we have space for them.”

He added, “It's a breadth of engineers who make a new boat. You’d expect it to be mechanical and electrical and computer, but our president and our mechanical design lead last year were both bioengineers.”

It’s not all engineers either. The club has had computer science, English, and anthropology majors. Some students have sailed but many haven’t. As Goldberg said, “It gives us a more well-rounded approach.”

Throughout the process, upper-level students provide valuable guidance to newer members of Sailbot. In addition to providing tutorials on everything from soldering to SolidWorks software, the students share insight into classes, internships, and co-ops.  

The result of the collaborative, creative, and collective effort of around 25 members is an autonomous sailboat with sensors atop the mast and an ability to adjust its sail and rudder. Last year, the team christened its newest boat. In a nod to Pitt alumnus and legendary Miami Dolphins quarterback, they named it Dan Marina.

Regattas

Once a year, teams from universities and high schools from across the U.S. and Canada, and from as far away as Brazil and Germany, meet to test their sailbots. The regatta is held at the previous winning team’s institution. This June, Cornell University will host the regatta on Cayuga Lake, in Ithaca, New York.

Pitt’s team rents an Airbnb and carpools. When they arrive, the mechanical and controls teams set to work putting their boat back together, testing their systems, and preparing for each event.

Regattas involve four required and three optional challenges. In addition to a fleet race, the boats must navigate buoys, they must enter a 40-meter by 40-meter square and stay in the box for five minutes before exiting, and they must race one nautical mile in a test of endurance. Optional events include taking on a payload and avoiding a collision with an unexpected boat. 

“Even though it’s a competition, it’s a special, friendly environment,” Goldberg said. “You’re putting electronics in the water, so inherently there’s going to be a struggle. Nobody's afraid to say, ‘Hey, I just fried my Raspberry Pi. Can I borrow one of yours?’ It's cool to see how people are willing to work together. There’s a lot of quick thinking involved.”

Last year, when the Dan Marina’s keel didn’t function properly, the team had to race to a nearby hardware store and improvise. In the end, they placed third.

“There are so many factors that can get in your way when designing the boat,” Goldberg said. “Our number one issue is that we’re in Pittsburgh, so it's not as easy to test the boat.” Rivers aren’t ideal.

The challenge of building and troubleshooting a complex system, though, has rippled far beyond Pitt SailBot’s office. As Goldberg said, “It helped me on my co-op rotation. I could take on a long-form project, comfortable that I would be working on it for a while. It also helped me land a full-time job.” In July, Goldberg will begin working at Near Earth Autonomy, a Pittsburgh-based company advancing autonomous flight.

Pitt Sailbot, which started racing in 2022, has placed third in its first four regattas. This year, the team has taken what it has learned from the previous races to fine tune their boat. They’ve driven north, to Lake Arthur, and endured cold and rain to test the Dan Marina. They hope that the spirit of collaborative, creative, and hands-on problem solving that defines their club can propel them to victory.

“If we can win and bring the regatta to Pittsburgh, I’m not sure where we’d race,” Goldberg said. “But that would be another good problem to solve.”

A member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemical Society, and the Women’s Chemists Committee, Dolata will graduate from the Swanson School of Engineering next December with an honors degree in chemical engineering.

Dolata has served as an undergraduate teaching assistant in chemical engineering and has conducted research into sodium alginate films with Susan Fullerton, associate professor of chemical engineering and Bicentennial Board of Visitors Faculty Fellow and Vice Chair of Education. She has completed a co-op with the Hershey Company as a process engineer, and she interned at Thermo Fisher Scientific. The co-president and co-founder of Pitt’s Hooks and Books, a club that celebrates reading and fiber arts, she also runs a small baking business, Crumbs of Perfection. In 2024, Dolata received the $10,000 Future of Chemistry Scholarship for Women through the Chemours Women’s Network.

This year’s finalists also include:

• Katie McGuire, a mechanical engineering student who will graduate this spring.

• Garret Phipps, a civil engineering student who will also graduate this spring.

As finalists, McGuire and Phipps will receive a $500 cash prize and a $2,500 Dean’s Fellowship to pursue graduate studies. 

“The George Washington finalists are remarkable students and individuals,” said Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor in Industrial Engineering. “Cailey, Katie, and Garret have made lasting contributions to the Swanson School and the larger Pitt community, and all three are highly deserving of this recognition.”

Each year, the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania awards the George Washington Prize to recognize the incredible work of engineering students in Western Pennsylvania and to encourage them to pursue graduate degrees.  

Meet the finalists. 

This year, however, PARC and the Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering had a unique opportunity neither Shaffer nor Wendt could have anticipated when they joined the club. NASA chose Pitt as one of eight academic institutions to track the Orion space capsule during the Artemis II mission. PARC members designed and assembled a system on the roof of Benedum Hall to track a manned craft hurtling through space.

“This has been an amazing opportunity to work with a team to design and build a system that incorporates AI and the analog technology that attracted us to the club,” said Shaffer, president of PARC and a fifth-year computer engineering student.

The first social media

More than a century ago, amateur radio at Pitt launched in 1915, when the University received experimental license 8YJ from the Department of Commerce. Widespread use of AM radio didn’t exist then. In fact, it was Westinghouse, in Pittsburgh, that launched the first commercially licensed AM radio in 1920.

Since its inception, the club has provided Pitt faculty and students the opportunity to work with new technology and connect with people from around the world.

Located on the twelfth floor of Benedum Hall, the PARC office - nicknamed “The Shack” - is chock full of ham radios and electronics. The walls are filled with postcards and awards from competitions where students make the most points of contact with other operators.

“Ham radio is the first social media,” said Juan Manfredi, professor of mathematics and faculty sponsor for the club.

Connecting and creating

“I was always the kid who would run around fixing teachers’ computers,” Shaffer said. In fact, during Covid, his high school hired him to help establish a virtual network and support teachers during remote learning.

At Pitt, Shaffer joined Pitt Digital, where a colleague told him about PARC. Although he had no experience with amateur radio, he attended a meeting and, as he said, “I was fascinated with it. I started studying for my technician’s license.”

Wendt, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, has always liked to fix things too. Growing up, he would take apart and put back together any device he could get his hands on. As a Boy Scout, he learned about ham radio and received his technician class license.

By the time he came to Pitt, Wendt’s interest in radios had waned, but then he attended a PARC meeting. “There were all these radios and electronics, and we just started working on them. I fell back in love with it.”

Today, he’s studying to get his general class license.

Finding community around the world 

Manfredi’s interest in electrical engineering started in Spain, where he grew up. To make ends meet, his father fixed electronics in the evening, and, as Manfredi recalled, “I got to see all these devices and thought, ‘I want to work with that.’”

Although he would study mathematics, Manfredi never lost interest in electronics and radios, and after coming to America for graduate school at Washington University, he visited the radio club. “I saw the antennas and thought, ‘I’m going there.’”

Manfredi came to Pitt in 1989, and in 2010, after the unexpected passing of Glenn Alec Stewart, Dean of the Honors College, he stepped into the role of PARC faculty sponsor. Manfredi had never forgotten the community he found at that first radio club.

Connecting with Orion

PARC meets weekly and members share updates, discuss competitions, and work on projects. Each year, members volunteer with the Pittsburgh Marathon. “We bring hand-held radios and stand with the EMS services in case cell service goes down during an emergency,” Shaffer said.

This year, through the collaboration with NASA, they turned their attention to space.

“NASA is interested in seeing if faculty and students can use amateur equipment to track Orion,” said Samuel Dickerson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and Vice Chair for Education and Director of Computer Engineering Undergraduate Program. “We were fortunate that they selected Pitt.”

PARC members and Pitt faculty designed the system and with the support of Alan George, Department Chair, R&H Mickle Endowed Chair, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and SHREC and Pitt Space founder, acquired needed equipment.

“For the past few months, we’ve been building the antenna, the dish, and the helical feed. We’ve been getting all the software to work with software-defined radios,” said Wendt. “It's given us a chance to work with new equipment.”

The team has used AI to develop a tool to track Orion in relationship to Pitt and another to interpret any data they receive.  

“The signal could be so low we won’t know if we’ve even received anything,” Shaffer said.

After the mission launched, PARC members and Pitt faculty would meet on the roof of Benedum Hall, sometimes in the early morning hours of 4:00 a.m. They would work to locate Orion and position the dish and antennas to receive a signal.

Beyond connections

“When you have a ham radio and a license, wherever you go in the world, you have friends,” Manfredi said.

When PARC members hear from people visiting Pittsburgh, they reach out. They’ve provided advice about places to stay and sights to see. Sometimes they share a meal.

“We never talk about politics. We never talk about religion. We talk about radios instead,” said Manfredi. “We talk about food.”

The club now has something else to talk about: the remarkable work Pitt students did to connect with Orion during its historic mission.

While Manfredi’s fascination with ham radios first led him to advise the club, it’s the students who keep him there. “I like to be surprised by the students,” he said. “And they are always doing something new and exciting.”

The event provides first-year students with the experience of a professional conference. Students presented research papers and design protypes developed in classes ENGR0012 and ENGR0715. The students shared their work, which provides solutions to real-world problems, with their peers, parents, faculty, and alumni.

Colin Huwyler (BS MEMS ’15), CEO and co-founder of biofuel systems company Optimus Technologies, delivered the keynote address. He discussed how clear communication of ideas is an essential ingredient to making a real-world impact. He also stressed the role that failure and perseverance have in success.

“Success and failure are often separated only by the moment you decide to quit,” Huwyler told students. “In engineering, things rarely work the first time. That’s part of the process. What matters is having the perseverance to keep going; if you quit, you'll never know how close you were to success.”

The conference represents a partnership between the Swanson School and Pitt’s Writing Center, which aims to prepare new engineers with communication skills that will help them thrive in college and in their careers.

View more pictures from the conference.

This year’s top papers in each program were:

Best MIX

“Bidirectional Communication in Neural-Controlled Prosthetics with Tactile Feedback,”  by Uma Foster and Siddhant Nair

Bioengineering

“Connecting to the Brain: Exploring the Current Feasibility and Ethics of Brain-Computer Interfaces in Medicine,” by Felix Diaz-Tafel, Pierce Latona, and Justin Aldric Razon

Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

“The Emergence of Fungal-Induced Carbonate Precipitation in Self-Healing Concrete Systems,” by Zachary Ramdass and Ty Regan

Civil and Environmental Engineering

“Water Quality and Public Health: Detecting Microbial Contaminants with the Use of Electrochemical Biosensors,” by Anshi Patel, Rakshita Sivakumar Venkataraman, and Thatcher Hartman

Electrical and Computer Engineering       

“Developments and Implementations of Thermal Energy Storage Systems in Commercial Buildings,” by Reed Feltenberger, Matthew Harding, and Evan Jennings

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

“Applications of Laser-Etched Topography for Antimicrobial Surface Mimicking Sharkskin,” by Katelyn Coyne, Alanna Robinson, and Cullen Quinn

Levenson, a Pittsburgh native who continued a family tradition of attending Pitt, became interested in materials science during her first year in the Swanson School after she was introduced to the different engineering fields. “When I learned more about materials science, there was no question. There’s so much you can do with it,” she said.  

Last year, she completed an internship with Ellwood and loved it. She had the opportunity to calculate grain sizes for a copper-nickel alloy and to verify if aluminum met forging standards. “Ellwood was a great place to intern,” she said. “I’ve never seen a company provide so much for their interns and give them such opportunities to problem-solve and learn.”

Levenson, who will receive a $25,000 scholarship, is excited to return to Ellwood this summer, where she’ll work with a new team and learn more about metallurgy and the company. “I’m honored to receive this scholarship,” Leveson said. “It’s a great opportunity, and the financial support truly helps.”

Like Levenson, Bauman found his passion in materials science. Bauman grew up outside of Philadelphia, and, as he said, “Living in the Steel City, there’s such a focus on metallurgy, and I got interested in that.”

This summer, Bauman, who will receive a $10,000 scholarship, will intern at Ellwood Aluminum, in Hubbard, Ohio, where he will gain firsthand experience working with aluminum. “My classes have focused more on steel and steel alloys, so I’ll get to expand what I know, seeing up close what’s similar and different. We get the opportunity to work on real projects that we take on ourselves.” 

“We’re grateful for Ellwood’s ongoing, generous support of our students,” said Buddy Clark, professor and interim department chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. “They provide valuable financial assistance and hands-on experience that can’t be taught in the classroom. Margo and Koh are incredibly deserving students, and I’m excited for the summer opportunities that await them.”

Taking inspiration from practices such as Canada’s Iron Pin Ceremony for incoming engineering students, as well as the White Coat Ceremony for those studying medicine, this pin ceremony underscores the immense responsibility students are undertaking when they enter a field like industrial engineering.

“The event marks the beginning of an annual tradition for our department, one that builds community and celebrates professionalism, pride, and the values of engineering from day one,” said Mostafa Moussa, assistant professor of industrial engineering who spearheaded the effort. “I’m honored to bring this tradition to Pitt.”

To kick off the event, Michele Manuel, U. S. Steel Dean of Engineering, provided the opening remarks, welcoming the new class and reflecting on the unique responsibility that comes with industrial engineering. Lisa Maillart, Leighton E. and Mary N. Orr Professor and department chair of industrial engineering, shared insight into what makes the program special. She then introduced guest speaker Kerry McCarthy (BSIE ’07), a Principal at LMI Consulting, who shared his perspective of the field as an alumnus now working in industry.

After faculty and staff were introduced, leaders from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE) student chapter and Alpha Pi Mu shared an overview of the organizations. The ceremony ended with the incoming class taking a group oath and receiving their Pitt Swanson School Industrial Engineering pins.

“I’m excited to have been welcomed into a family of like-minded engineers,” said Anthony Tabak, an incoming industrial engineering student. “I really enjoyed celebrating such an important milestone together with the other IE students and starting to build connections that will last a lifetime.”

Added incoming industrial engineering student Abby Ivory, “The event was a great way to introduce the first-year engineers to the world of industrial engineering. It made such a special moment even more meaningful. I enjoyed meeting the faculty and staff and hearing what they had to say about the program. It made me even more excited to start my journey in IE. 

“We’re so excited to welcome our newest class of future industrial engineers with this wonderful event,” said Maillart. “Essential to our program are an ethical commitment, a deep sense of purpose, and the close-knit community that defines Industrial Engineering at Pitt. This celebration embodied all three.” 

Helbig, a third-year PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering, is researching ways to replace distribution transformers with power electronics to develop more energy efficient, agile, and resilient systems. As one thrust of her research, she is developing a DC-to-DC converter that can boost DC voltage to higher levels for grid applications, which could improve how energy stored in batteries integrates into the grid. Another project, in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, aims to advance AC-to-AC solid-state transformers by using new types of transistors as switches in different circuit topologies and incorporating multiple ports to better manage power flows.

Innomotics launched this scholarship ten years ago to provide valuable financial support to promising electrical engineers and to celebrate inventor Peter Hammond. In 1993, Hammond developed revolutionary motor speed control technology in nearby New Kensington, Pennsylvania, where it is still produced today. The technology helps industrial equipment like large pumps and compressors operate more efficiently.

“As a PhD student working to develop independence, it can be hard to step back and observe research impacts on the future with what we are working on now,” said Helbig. “It’s such an honor to receive this recognition and have Innomotics see my work and how it aligns with their values, which Peter Hammond embodied.”

The Peter Hammond Award is one of many honors Helbig has received since starting at Pitt. While Helbig was an undergraduate, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) awarded her a Power & Energy Society (PES) scholarship, and later recognized her with a Charles LeGeyt Fortescue Graduate Scholarship while she earned her master’s degree. She was one of 25 female graduate and postdoctoral students invited to participate in the Epistimi-ACG-LUCE Summer Leadership Workshop for Women in Energy in Greece.

Helbig has also held many leadership roles, including serving as president, in Pitt’s IEEE Beta Delta student chapter, helping the organization earn multiple Outstanding Chapter Awards. She was featured on the cover of the Swanson School’s 2025 annual report as part of an article on the School’s interdisciplinary research in energy.

“From the moment Sabrina first stepped foot in Benedum Hall, she has been a tremendous addition to the Swanson School,” said Brandon Grainger, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and Eaton Faculty Fellow. “She is an exceptional scholar and innovator who is always building community in our program and across the school. She is an ideal recipient of this honor.”

Past awardees of this scholarship have included Jacob Friedrich, Thomas Cook, Ryan Brody, Michael Sullivan, Josh Lubin, and Todd Marzec, all of whom are still active in the electric power conversion business, with two working for Innomotics in their R&D department.

“When manufacturers truly get integrated with university faculty, not only can they impact the lives of younger engineers, but they can easily see the exceptional talent who can be hired to impact their business units,” said Grainger. “This helps ensure the electric power field continues to thrive with the number of electrical engineers needed to solve current and future problems.”

“We didn’t have any hands-on experience working with cloud-native computing or developing actual solutions to issues,” said Granieri.

That changed in the fall of 2025, after the two enrolled in ECE 1894: Industry Projects, a course that provides undergraduate electrical and computer engineering (ECE) students with opportunities to work with industry partners to solve real-world problems.

Nekib and Granieri were soon collaborating with a lead software engineer from Microsoft, diving into a new platform, learning new coding languages, and becoming part of a community of computer engineers dedicated to improving the technology.  

Issue #1698 

Kubernetes allows companies to store, manage, and run applications across multiple platforms. The system ensures that different parts of an application, each in their own containers, communicate and function correctly.

Open Elastic Block Store (OpenEBS) is an open-source storage system that runs on Kubernetes. Within OpenEBS, developers can use the Mayastor storage engine to create, test, and debug software in a controlled environment.

All this was foreign to Nekib and Granieri, but it wouldn’t be for long. Their professor, Minhee Yun, in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, connected the two with Brian Smyth, Principal Software Engineer Manager at Microsoft’s Pittsburgh office.

Smyth guided the pair to GitHub, where the OpenEBS community manages and shares code and tracks and solves issues.

“We had to find a problem that we could solve over the course of the semester,” said Nekib. “We chose #1698.”

The issue, ”Prometheus Exporter: Provide metrics for Mayastor node status (online, cordoned, etc) #1698,” focused on identifying the status of nodes, the individual units that provide the central processing, memory, and storage to run an application.

“It was difficult to know if the nodes were on or offline, if they were cordoned off, and if they were close to failing,” said Granieri. “As a result, developers could overwrite code and lose important work.”

Joining the open-source community

After conferring with Smyth, the Pitt students reached out to the OpenEBS community, who welcomed their efforts to improve Mayastor.

“It was nerve-racking at first because we were partnering with someone from Microsoft, and we wanted to make a good impression,” Granieri said. “And it was like, ‘here’s a new technology stack, now get to work.’ It was fascinating to explore cloud computing. We used Rust and Go, which were new programming languages for me.”

“We would meet with Brian and exchange design reviews and discuss architectural problems,” said Nekib.

The team developed metrics that allowed users to understand how each node was functioning and take appropriate action as needed.

“Brian was such a great mentor,” said Granieri. “He provided us enough support so that we knew what we were doing, but he gave us freedom throughout the process.”

They also engaged with members of the OpenEBS community, who shared ideas and asked the two students for their input.  

If Nekib and Granieri were nervous about making a good impression, their concern proved unnecessary. On December 2, 2025, they presented their solution at the Microsoft office.

“PJ and Iyan did tremendous work,” said Yun, who advised the project. “Their final presentation demonstrated exceptional clarity, technical competency, and industry-level communication skills. The feedback from their mentors reflected appreciation for their professionalism, depth of understanding, and real-world impact of their work.”

“It was like a whole new field,” said Nekib. “We were doing development operations, which I’d always wanted to do.”

“It was cool to be an active member of the OpenEBS community, not just a passive user,” said Granieri. “It was a great experience to solve a problem that will make the technology work better.”

For the 2025 – 2026  year, the IEEE PES selected 244 PES Scholarship Plus recipients across the nine IEEE regions. In the Mid-Atlantic region, 18 scholarships were awarded, with five going to these Pitt engineering students:

• Alexis Shafer
• Anthony Spadafore
• Joaquin Tristan
• Jack Wasco
• Jillian Zitcovich

The PES Scholarship Plus Initiative awards promising students based on their excellent grades, engagement in and outside of the school, and passion for power and energy fields. 

In addition to receiving as much as $10,000 in financial aid assistance, scholarship recipients can access mentoring with industry professionals as well as a free, one-year student membership for IEEE and IEEE PES.

“These scholarships speak to our students’ high quality of work and commitment to power and energy,” said Robert Kerestes, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the electrical engineering undergraduate program. “I’m extremely proud of Alexis, Anthony, Joaquin, Jack, and Jillian, who continue a tradition of Pitt students receiving IEEE PES scholarships.”

Since 2014, Swanson School students have received IEEE PES scholarships each year, including triple scholar Kaye Baron and the three Carnovale brothers, who IEEE PES profiled.

Co-taught by  William (Buddy) Clark, Professor and Interim Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Breelyn Styler, Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering and Robotics Scientist at PickNik, the course provides students with the opportunity to develop coding, wireless networking, and robotics skills vital to mechanical engineering. For some students, the course has illuminated new pathways to pursue after graduation.

“Given the wide interest of students in our department and the growing robotics industry here in Pittsburgh, we realized that we needed to give students an opportunity to get hands-on experience in this field,” said Clark, who developed and taught the course last year with Professor Mark Miller.

This fall, Clark collaborated with Styler, who has extensive expertise in software and robotics. The two expanded the breadth of the course to involve two types of robots—the playfully nicknamed pinchers and burgers (the former an articulated arm with a gripper, the latter a mobile circular unit).

The students, in pairs, built their burger robots from kits and set to work programming both the arm and the mover. In their lab space, they applied the concepts that they learned in lectures.

“My biggest takeaway was learning all the fundamentals and then actually implementing them—getting that hands-on experience working with inverse kinematics and motion planning, and learning more about the world of robots,” said Sam Kester, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student.

All semester, the teams worked toward their final project. They programmed the pinchers to retrieve a highlighter pen and place it in a storage bin connected to the burger. The burger would then maneuver through the maze and drop the pen at the other end. 

While all teams completed the same basic tasks, they did so differently, applying various navigation and sensing techniques. Students also developed different capabilities. Some pincher robots could sense the color of the pens, collecting only certain ones. One burger pushed the pen while others held it in a bin. Another even shot the pen out of its storage tube when it reached its destination.

“The students had freedom to show their creativity and grasp of robotics. With two robots, there are so many ways for them to demonstrate what they’ve learned,” said Styler. “And of course, since it’s robotics, there are many ways for it to go wrong.”

Indeed, during the final projects, as robots hit snags, students problem-solved in real time and soon had their creations on track. As one student, poring over the code on his laptop, said, “There’s so much to this.”

“A big part of this class has been error checking and perseverance. It's never going to work right the first time,” said Kester. “In the future, I hope to have a job where I can create and problem solve.”  

“To code for myself and work through these problems was a great experience,” added fellow fourth-year mechanical engineering student Angus Nicholson. “This course made me realize I’d like to move toward a design-based engineering career after graduation.”

See more pictures of the students and their robots in action.

“The Design Expo is a unique opportunity for our students to gain real-world experience solving industry problems,” said Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor in Industrial Engineering. “Students are learning important skills that extend beyond developing their technical abilities. They’re working as a team and thinking creatively. They’re using their hands and innovating. I’m grateful for everyone—from faculty and staff to industry partners and volunteer judges, and of course our students—who make this amazing event happen.”

An integral aspect of the Design Expo is mentoring and collaboration across faculty and disciplines. Pitt alumni, faculty, and industry volunteers judged the event, engaging with the teams and sharing ideas and experience. Faculty and other Pitt schools as well government agencies, nonprofits, and industry sponsored teams as well, providing valuable insight while students developed their projects.

Winners below. Visit Flickr for the Expo Photo Album.

Best Overall Project
GaN Motor Controller 
Fredrick Laudati, Connor Watson, and Joseph Zaradzki

People’s Choice Award
Adaptive Assist Robotic Joint 
Elizabeth Novikova, Julia Koma, and Jillian Zitcovich

DEPARTMENT AWARDS

Bioengineering

1^st Place E-Z CVC: Improving Ultrasound-Guided Central Line Placement
Tristyn Auth, Alexis DiNapoli, Colin Henchy Tyler Johnston, Abrahim Kashkoush, Phillip Lavrenyuk, and Trin Murphy

2^nd Place High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation Chest Wiggle Detection Device
Isabella Hsia, Isabelle Lisi, Connor Rees, and Jaiden Steele

3^rd Place Streamlining Transabdominal Ultrasound-Guided Oocyte Extraction Process
Sydney Barber, Ashlyn Odenwald, Ishan Patel, Arshia Shams, Colby Shores, Astrid Yerardi, and Lyric Zimmermann

Civil and Environmental Engineering

1^st Place (tie)
Oakdale Pump Station
Anna Abelev, Owen Gaskill, Patrick Lovenguth, and David Nisula

Clearwell Replacement
Marie Flinchbaugh, Lily Leh, Jack Schlegel, and Julianna Sergi

2^nd Place ALCOSAN Primary Sedimentation Basin
Quincey Kilbridge, Julia Resch, and Sameer Ul Haque M Sayed

Electrical and Computer Engineering

1^st Place GaN Motor Controller
Fredrick Laudati, Connor Watson, and Joseph Zaradzki

2^nd Place VR Tremor Assessment System During MRgFUS
Colton Tamburri, Aidan Uher, and Noble Woodall

3^rd Place Paint the Canvas
Connor Marsh, William Muckelroy, Connor Murray, and Greg Soltys

Industrial Engineering

1^st Place Enhancing Productivity with 5S Solutions for Tooling and Calibration Management
Alison Bergkoetter, Christos Mavrogeorgis, Maiah Ruby, and Rylee Shaffer

2^nd Place Steel Coil Transfer Optimization Using SIMIO
Jake Johnson, Alison Ngau, Morgan Powers, and Henry Veltum

3^rd Place Project Centargo: Enhancing Bayer’s Injector Line Production for Optimum Efficiency 
Cameron Case, Tara Nguyen, Ethan Snyder, and Jason Wiedmann

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

1^st Place Remote Control Vehicle for Use in Contaminated Environments
Sebastian Carre Jordan, Jacob Korus, Caelin Langton, Angus Nicholson, and John Profozich

2^nd Place Advanced Head and Neck Support System for Patients with Disorders of Consciousness (DoC)
Owen Bishop, Jared Kartschoke, Aishani Ramoju, Randy Saintjean, and Rachel Thomas

3^rd Place Functional Requirements for Thermal Fatigue and Additive Manufacturing
Tanay Agrawal, Ethan Kinyon, Dylan Noker, and Gabriel Warriner

Medical Product Prototyping

1^st Place Perfect Pessary
Francesca Chioda, Karla Frank, Kyla Frenja, Angelina Pribozie, and Jace Statam

2^nd Place MicroTymp
Saif Abbas, Mateen Atassi, Bharath Ramineni, and Peter Wood

Product Realization 

1^st Place Canales Cleaning Device
Josh Lee, Mike Lee, Kyla Frenja, Adam Price, and Sophia Roa

Founded in 2009, Pitt’s INFORMS Student Chapter is comprised of approximately 20 industrial engineering graduate students who foster connections and help students develop academically and professionally in areas such as operations research, data science, and analytics.

“When I was a first-year PhD student, new to America, Pittsburgh, and the PhD program, I wanted to be more involved, and I heard about INFORMS,” said Soroush Akbarijokar, the chapter’s president last year. “They were hosting events both academic and social.”

Since getting involved, Akbarijokar has helped expand the chapter’s work. “Last year, with new members who wanted to contribute more, we reenvisioned how we conducted the organization,” he said. “Previously, we hosted events once a month, but we began doing it weekly.”  

These events include:

• Informal social gatherings.
• Coffee with faculty members.
• Guest speakers.
• Mock qualifying exams or research presentations.
• Workshops to teach undergraduate students skills like Python coding.

“Qualifying exams can be extremely stressful,” said Akbarijokar. “The opportunity to practice them or practice delivering an academic paper is so useful, especially for non-native English speakers.”  

The chapter also reaches out to undergraduates in industrial engineering and related fields like math and economics to discuss operations research and what a graduate pathway might look like.

For Rie Huntington, the effects of this outreach altered his trajectory. “As an undergraduate here at Pitt, I wasn’t sure about pursuing a PhD,” he said. “I didn’t know much about it.”

That changed this past February, when members of the INFORMS Student Chapter shared their experiences in graduate school to prospective undergraduates.  

“They showed us around their offices and took us to dinner,” Huntington said. “They made an unfamiliar environment feel more familiar and less insurmountable.”

Today, Huntington is the chapter’s treasurer as he pursues his PhD.

Beyond the Swanson School and Pitt, last year members of the chapter visited Pittsburgh Woolslair PreK – 5 STEAM magnet school. “We taught fifth grade students math using examples of operations research and optimization,” said Jared Lawrence, the chapter’s current president. 

The visit was a success. “We simplified the math and chose accessible problems,” said Prem Shenoy, a second-year PhD student who served as the events coordinator last year and is now the chapter’s secretary. “Events like these are important because there are always students who realize that this kind of work interests them, that it’s something they could pursue.”

“Our INFORMS student chapter has been invaluable to Pitt’s industrial engineering community,” said Lisa Maillart, Professor and Chair of Industrial Engineering. “Their work promoting the field and creating a welcoming culture fuels success across our department.”

“Doctoral programs can be isolating,” said Huntington. “You're doing research that few others understand, working all day at a computer, which can be tough.

“Community makes challenging situations more bearable, and creating community is something that our department does well.”

The Pitt team of Emily Bosworth, Nathaniel O'Stafy, Dechen Xie, Tianyi Hu, and Juliana Capozzi developed and presented three solutions. Their proposal, with design elements that Alstom has begun to implement, recently won third place in the prestigious MHI College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE) Capstone Design Competition.

Alstom is a leading manufacturer of trains, automated people movers (APM), monorails, and more. In West Mifflin, the company builds APMs for airports, but it has encountered issues with expensive, heavy axles, which too often arrive damaged and thereby slow production and increase costs.

The company was looking for new ideas the supplier could implement that would increase protection while reducing waste through reuse.

“We toured the facility and saw how Alstom manufactures their trams,” said Bosworth. “We got to see half-built trams and ride in one on their test track.”

After meeting with the Alstom team, the students set to work brainstorming and using computer-aided design (CAD) to assess the current packaging and develop new models. Throughout the process, they communicated with Alstom engineers and developed three solutions, which addressed the company’s need while providing flexibility.

The result was their presentation “Boxed In: The Axle Crisis & Refining the Handling Process.” 

Based on the strength of this project, Bopaya Bidanda, the Ernest E. Roth Professor of Industrial Engineering, encouraged the team to enter MHI’s CICMHE competition. MHI is the largest materials handling, logistics, and supply chain association in the US.

“These students did a fantastic project,” Bidanda said. “They worked cohesively and creatively to develop three designs, which impressed Alstom.”

It also impressed the judges, who cited the data-driven methodology and the practical engineering solution it provided as some of the defining strengths of the project.

By placing third, the team received a cash prize and a new accolade. More importantly, they gained valuable, hands-on experience that continues to guide them as they are pursuing graduate degrees or beginning their careers in industry.

“The project challenged me,” said Bosworth. “Though I’d done internships, I’d never had this level of engagement with a company to help develop a solution. Having the opportunity to communicate with engineers and floor workers has been so useful now in my current role at U. S. Steel.”

That year, fighting cabin fever, Raul Casas and his college roommate began building wooden skateboarding structures and transporting them to an abandoned lot in Oakland’s Panther Hollow. Soon, skaters from around Pittsburgh, equally starved for community, began showing up, and with them came sounds that had grown foreign: laughter, encouragement, the whir of wheels on pavement, the click of a skater landing a trick.

Casas, then a mechanical engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering (BS MEMS ’22), established what today is the Oakland DIY, an officially recognized skatepark filled with concrete structures. In 2024, before Casas left Pittsburgh, he passed the project to another Pitt mechanical engineering student, Andrew (AJ) Haddon. Together, with tremendous support from the community, the two have engineered a thriving community place.  

Wood

Growing up outside of Philadelphia, Casas was introduced to engineering by his dad, an electrical engineer. “He would show me what he was working on,” Casas said. “His work is more computer based, but I’ve always been hands on and went into mechanical engineering.”

At 15, he started skateboarding and fell in love with the sport, which since the 1950s has connected fellow skaters from across towns and even the world. 

As skateboarding evolved, so did structures like half-pipes, ramps, rails, boxes, even stairs, which drew skaters to congregate to test their skills and find creative ways to land tricks. These structures would eventually form the crux of the Oakland DIY skatepark.

In 2018, Casas came to Pitt to study engineering. There weren’t many places to skate around Oakland, and after the pandemic hit, he decided to help change that. He built the first wooden structure and kept going. “As an engineer, I’ve always loved to build stuff.” 

As an engineer, Casas also knew that the wooden structures wouldn’t last long in the Pittsburgh weather. By 2021, he realized it was time to build something more permanent. And fortuitously, he was about to meet someone who shared his passion for building a skatepark.

Concrete

AJ Haddon’s interest in engineering started in Sandpoint, Idaho, where each summer the Chicago native would visit relatives who own a logging operation. As a boy, the huge trucks and excavators fascinated him, and his interest hasn’t waned.  

In 2022, Haddon enrolled in the Swanson School of Engineering after visiting Pittsburgh and realizing, as he said, “how cool the city was.” The day he moved into his dorm, he saw an Instagram post from a skateboarder. “They were pouring concrete and needed help.”

“AJ helped on every pour that we did,” Casas said. “Concrete pour days are exciting, and many people come to help, but the days leading up to them aren’t as fun. Fewer people show. AJ, however, was always there.”

Haddon, who started skating in fifth grade, loved it. He enjoyed constructing the forms and laying rebar and mixing concrete. He was meeting new skateboarders, learning more about the scene in Pittsburgh, and applying what he was learning in school.

Feature by feature, Casas, Haddon, and a team of dedicated skateboarders, rollerbladers, and BMX and scooter riders began transforming the abandoned lot into a connected series of concrete structures.

In the process, the two mechanical engineers became close friends. As Haddon said of Casas, “He mentored me through my first years of college. We had the same classes and professors. He taught me everything he knew about building the skatepark, and he left me with this huge project to finish.”

Community

“At first I had zero idea what I was doing,” Casas said, “but other skateboarders were coming here, old heads from Pittsburgh who had experience. I’m still so grateful for them.”

Casas also found that the skills he was learning in school would benefit the skatepark. He began designing new structures using computer aided design (CAD) software.

As Haddon became more involved and then took over the project, his engineering education was equally useful. In addition to using CAD, he investigated Pennsylvania building codes and city safety standards and load-bearing structures. He modeled complicated features using simulation software to uphold the standards.

“I was doing all the calculations,” he said. “I knew that we needed to overbuild it.”

Engineering a skatepark went far beyond modeling structures and mixing concrete. Casas and Haddon maintained GoFundMe and Venmo accounts, where they have raised more than $20,000 to build new structures. They’ve tracked down donations of concrete, railings, and even astroturf. They’ve managed builds. They’ve even begun hosting events with food trucks and bands.

Outreach

This fall, Haddon learned a new skill: advocacy.

During the summer, a Panther Hollow homeowner launched an effort to shut down the skatepark. For two months, construction was halted.

Before he knew it, Haddon was creating presentations to share with the Pittsburgh City Council. He organized fellow supporters to testify at a City Hall hearing to decide the fate of the park. Eighty supporters attended and forty, including Haddon, spoke.    

Their efforts worked, and the Oakland DIY is now a recognized park. It continues to grow and has even begun to attract pro skating teams who have visited while touring parks around the country.

“It’s extraordinary,” Haddon said. “I get to build something that I love to do. I get to skate it and see other people skate it and appreciate it.”

Although Casas now lives in Norfolk, Virginia, where he repairs nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, he still returns to Pittsburgh to skate the park that he helped build.

“We’re expanding, one corner at a time,” Haddon said. “There are still so many projects, but when we complete a new one, everyone comes and checks it out.”

He added, “Having a third place, a place that people love, is so important. Everyone needs their community.”

Thanks to the many possibilities she’s encountered at the Swanson School and through her department, Frye has experienced many personal firsts, including traveling out of the country for the first time to study abroad in Prague, in the Czech Republic, and serving as an undergraduate teaching assistant and as a research assistant. This past July, she even attended the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) First Year Engineering Experience (FYEE) Conference alone, where she presented a paper she’d written and participated on a student panel.

“I try to live by the principle that there’s no such thing as a bad opportunity,” said Frye. “As a first-gen student, I can find myself worrying about the future, so I always try to take new opportunities when they’re presented.”

Last school year, that meant helping Scott Streiner, assistant professor of industrial engineering, with his research into the relationship between moral intuition and exposure to ethics education in first-year engineering students.

“We have a customized research concentration,” said Streiner. “Students can work with faculty as undergraduates and be paid or receive credit for the research.”

“Originally, I was going to clean up and analyze data,” said Frye, who is considering pursuing a graduate degree. But when she was presented with the chance to write a paper and attend a conference, she jumped at it.

At the end of July, she traveled to the University of Maryland and participated in the three-day conference. “I got to attend many interesting panels and talks and even a session where participants were pitching their ideas,” Frye said. “I presented my paper and spoke on a panel of other TAs.”

Her experiences in Maryland provided Frye with valuable confidence. As she remembered, “I’ve always been drawn to math and science and wanted to pursue engineering, but I worried that I wasn’t cut out for it. My AP Physics teacher in high school convinced me I was.”

Now, Frye plans to build off her many firsts as she continues to research with Streiner. “I’m going to write another paper that I hope to present at a larger ASEE conference. I plan to continue this research.”

“With the opportunities available in industrial engineering, Aleia will graduate as lead author on at least two conference papers and probably co-author on at least one journal paper—as an undergraduate,” Streiner added.

Whether she becomes the first in her family to attend graduate school remains to be seen, but whatever her next first, Frye will be ready to take on the opportunity.

Paramo, a senior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, had seven weeks left working in Distinguished Professor Steven Little's Little Lab at Pitt to complete his experiment, “Characterization of Release Kinetics from Liposome-Based, Controlled-Release Fertilizers.” 

“It looked like dead skin flaking off,” he remembered. “The first thing I thought was, it was my fault.”

While the original experiment was lost, Paramo learned how to navigate setbacks and to pivot and persist. Indeed, instead of discouraging him, the experience fueled his interest in graduate research.  

The Pre-PhD Program has provided students from across the country with their first taste of laboratory research. By affording students the opportunity to learn firsthand what a PhD program looks like, the internship has opened countless pathways.

Over the past 20 years, 88 students have participated. Of those, 54 transitioned to graduate school, 13 of whom earned their PhDs in engineering from the Swanson School, and seven of whom completed their MS degrees at Pitt. Currently, 12 Pre-PhD students are pursuing PhDs in engineering at the Swanson School.

This year, six students participated, working in the labs of Bryan Brown, David Gau, Steven Little, Warren Ruder, Helen Schwerdt, and Jonathan Vande Geest. 

“Students have a unique opportunity to spend nine weeks immersed in graduate research,” said Sussan Olaore, Associate Director of Wellness and Engagement Graduate Programs. “They read scientific literature, write papers, conduct hands-on research with professors and graduate students, and present their findings. They get to see everything that the Swanson School has to offer.”

A springboard to a career working for cleaner air

In 2014, Harold Rickenbacker graduated from South Carolina State University (SCSU) with a BS in Civil Engineering Technology. He’d recently learned about environmental engineering and began formulating a plan to pursue a master’s degree in the field. 

A mentor encouraged Rickenbacker to look at Pitt’s engineering program, and on a recruiting trip to the Swanson School, he learned about and applied for a Pre-PhD Summer Internship.

“I was coming from a teaching school and didn’t have much experience with research,” said Rickenbacker. “The Pre-PhD Program directly led to my success at Pitt.”

Rickenbacker worked with Melissa Bilec, George M. and Eva M. Bevier Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, researching indoor air quality, which profoundly affects people’s wellbeing. This first taste of research would help convince Rickenbacker to pursue his PhD at Pitt, where he continued this important work.

Rickenbacker earned his PhD in 2019 and has been helping to improve air quality indoors and outdoors ever since. He worked first at the Environmental Defense Fund before moving to the Environmental Protection Agency. To improve the lives of people in under-resourced communities, he has contributed to countless projects, from hyperlocal air monitoring to helping develop $3 billion air quality and climate legislation.

“This program was a springboard,” said Rickenbacker. “It pivoted me to where I am today.”

A window into biomechanical research

David Jordan graduated from Louisiana State University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and like Rickenbacker was interested in graduate school, but he had no research experience until he was accepted to the program in 2016.

“I was paired with Professor Mark Miller and studied biomechanics of the distal radius of the wrist. I conducted two experiments and gathered data.

“At the time, I wasn’t committed to any specific field, but I really enjoyed bioengineering and the research. I stayed at Pitt and pursued my PhD.”

For the next five years, Jordan worked with Miller and investigated the failure properties of a ligament of the elbow, which is especially important for baseball pitchers.

After earning his PhD in 2021, Jordan took a Postdoctoral Research Associate position at the University of Arizona, where he investigated the biomechanics of the hand and wrist affected by the musculoskeletal disorders carpal tunnel syndrome and osteoarthritis. In 2025, he accepted a faculty position in the College of Engineering at Illinois State University.

“If I’d been offered a job in industry right after undergraduate, I probably would’ve taken it,” said Jordan. “The Pre-PhD Program started me on this research trajectory I’ve been on these past ten years.”

The power of a lasting community

Now in her fifth year of the PhD program in Bioengineering at Pitt, Remi Shittu took a different path to graduate research. After earning her BS in biomechanical engineering from Boston University, she worked in industry at Thermo Fischer Scientific.

“Before I got too far into my career, I wanted to pursue a PhD,” Shittu said. She applied to Pitt and during the recruitment process learned about the Pre-PHD Program.

“I wasn’t used to being in school mode, and the program provided a window into graduate school,” said Shittu. “I also got weekly mentoring from Professor Sylvanus Wosu, who directs the program.”

“You get to wade into the pool before you take a plunge,” Shittu added. “And the program provides a community. Graduate school can be isolating, and having the people I met in that program has been so important.”

Since finishing the program, Shittu continues to engage with incoming Pre-PhD scholars and has made many new friends. “The community and mentorship have made such a difference,” she said.

A real look at research

Back to Gerardo Paramo. After his experiment failed, he talked to his graduate student advisor, Mohammadzadeh Alireza, who was equally perplexed. With a background in microbiology, Paramo set out to discover why the cellulose-based dialysis bags broke down in the pore water. And then he set out to use 3D printing to develop a new capsule that would hold the nanoparticles. He made the most of his remaining weeks. 

“I learned so much more about research because I had to do more than set steps for the release experiment,” Paramo said. “I learned a new set of skills through 3D CAD. I learned qualitative data about degradation. I learned when something goes wrong, sometimes you need to take ten steps back. 

“I also got a better sense of graduate school. Even though one part of the experiment failed, I kept going and had a project that I owned and that I delivered. When you encounter setbacks, you need to find new ways to move forward.”

For University of Pittsburgh computer engineering students Dikchhya and Nischal Kharel, the compact objects hurtling through space and pelted by radiation are unique challenges.

Through a partnership with the University of Pittsburgh’s NSF Center for Space, High-Performance & Resilient Computing (SHREC) and Lockheed Martin, the two undergraduates had a unique opportunity to develop and deploy applications to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit (GEO), 22,236 miles above the earth. 

Discovering SHREC

As the cousins were nearing graduation from the Swanson School of Engineering last spring, neither had concrete plans to attend graduate school. That changed after a conversation with Samuel Dickerson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

“When Professor Dickerson learned that we both loved space and wanted to work at NASA, he asked if we knew about SHREC,” Nischal said. “Somehow, we didn’t.”

Dickerson amended that, introducing them to Alan George, Department Chair, R&H Mickle Endowed Chair, NSF SHREC Space Center Director, and professor of electrical and computer engineering. George provided Dikchhya and Nischal with the opportunity to earn credits conducting space research with Linus Silbernagel, a second-year PhD student, and Evan Gretok, a SHREC postdoctoral researcher.

Solving real-world problems

On November 1, 2022, Lockheed Martin launched an In-space Upgrade Satellite System (LM LINUSS) into GEO, which enables satellites to orbit at the same rate as Earth's rotation, making them appear stationary from the ground. Today, as the mission nears completion, the CubeSat satellite serves as a test bench.

In GEO, more than 20,000 miles farther out than satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), LINUSS provides an opportunity to test code and applications in more challenging conditions.

“Lockheed Martin approached Dr. George about the possibility of building and running tests in a GEO satellite because of SHREC’s expertise in satellite hardware and software,” said Silbernagel. “We had some problems that Dikchhya and Nischal could help solve.”

The limits of memory

CubeSat satellites are incredibly small—some fewer than four inches—and thus constrained in their computational power, reducing function efficiency. Tiny onboard cameras, for instance, can capture wavelengths that the human eye can’t process but that create enormous files that waste time and energy to transmit back to earth.

“I worked on a project called CNN JPEG, which a graduate student had started and that uses machine learning to compress data in satellite photos,” said Nischal. “I wanted to deploy the technology on LINUSS.”

The LINUSS satellite uses a ZCU102 computing board, and the team replicated Lockheed Martin’s satellite configuration on it.

“Lockheed Martin packages their apps in a certain way,” Nischal said. “We got the technology running on our test board and sent it to them to be transmitted to LINUSS.”

Unfortunately, although the app worked on Earth, it was too large to run in the satellite. “In classes, we’re taught about memory constraint, but it’s different when you actually run into it,” said Nischal, who has been working to optimize CNN JPEG.

Making it work in space

Satellites generate many images, but most are irrelevant. They depict stretches of ocean or forest, or just clouds. “Satellites send back many images of little interest to researchers, wasting memory and bandwidth, which creates delays,” said Dikchhya.

To solve this problem, Dikchhya set out to run a machine-learning model on LINUSS. The model, trained by Gretok, enables autonomous onboard classification on a constrained system. The application reduces massive images to tiles and categorizes them to help eliminate redundant data. “My job was to make it work in space,” Dikchhya said.

She did just that.

Using the ZCU102 board, she programmed and packaged the application and sent it to Lockheed Martin.

“Mine is a smaller model, so it ran without issues,” said Dikchhya. “After our final tests, the Lockheed Martin team sent it up to LINUSS, ran the application, and the model correctly classified the images. Watching something we built operate successfully 22,000 miles above Earth was a major milestone and an exciting opportunity.”

“It would be impossible for students to do something this big without Lockheed Martin’s partnership,” said Silbernagel. “Dikchhya and Nischal got to join the team remotely during the testing and deployment. It’s the first time Pitt undergraduate students have run apps in GEO.”

“This project represents an essential aspect of SHREC,” said George. “Through university and industry partnerships like this one, students get these incredible opportunities that propel them into space research and prepare them for careers in space engineering.”

“When we started,” said Nischal, who like Dikchhya is now a SHREC graduate student, “we were undergraduate students with almost no real-world research experience. We encountered problems that others hadn’t, and we had to figure out how to solve them.” 

This year, four students from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering were selected from a competitive pool of applicants to participate in the prestigious conference, which will focus on the theme “Artificial Intelligence: Unlocking the Algorithms and Their Impact.”

The event will be held November 2 – 4, 2025, in Annapolis, Maryland, with approximately 45 students from across the country and the world invited to join. Students are nominated by the dean or president of their institutions.

The four Pitt students chosen to attend are:

• Zach Hale (engineering science), who is pursuing the Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate Program.
• Soumik Chakraborty (mechanical engineering), who is active in Pittsburgh Electric Propulsion and the American Society of Naval Engineers.
• Ari Kalinsky (industrial engineering), whose AI-focused undergraduate research aligns directly with this year’s conference theme.
• Addison Cope (mechanical engineering), who is studying nuclear engineering and recently made a strong academic transition from the University of Pittsburgh - Johnstown. 

These students will hear distinguished guest speakers and attend panels, breakout group discussions, and poster sessions. They will have numerous opportunities to network and share ideas with future leaders in the Navy and Marine Corps.  

“I am so proud of these students. They represent the inquisitive, thoughtful, motivated nature that is cultivated here at the University of Pittsburgh,” said Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor of Industrial Engineering and senior associate dean for academic affairs. “This conference is an incredible opportunity, and I’m excited to see how it inspires these students as they pursue their engineering degrees and their career goals.”

After enrolling in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, a program called STEMnetX would lead them to that doorway in Schenley Place, home of Pitt Space. They’d taken different routes to the Swanson School, but both shared a passion for space exploration.

“All this time,” Samiya said, “I didn’t realize my biggest interest had been right down the street from our engineering classes.”

All their roads led to the Swanson School

Samiya, a Philadelphia native, has always loved space. “In fourth grade, when we reached the space unit, my teacher got 100 percent of my attention,” she said.

Her family later moved to Harrisburg, where her high school algebra instructor screened Hidden Figures. The movie, about three Black women who worked at NASA during the Space Race, gave her new insight into her future.  

“I know it might sound cliché,” she said, “but that was the moment I realized there was a place for me in physics and space engineering too.”

Samiya would go on to earn a BA in physics from Duquesne as part of a three-plus-two dual-degree major program. After her third year, she came to Pitt to pursue a BS in mechanical engineering and a certificate in Innovation, Product Design, and Entrepreneurship.

Akriti’s journey began on the other side of the globe. In 2016, during her freshman year in high school, she and her family emigrated from Janakpur, Nepal, to Pittsburgh.

Akriti loved astronomy, but at Pitt she followed in her older sister’s footsteps, studying pre-med. “I was all set on becoming a doctor, but after my first year, I felt lost. My friends told me about engineering, and I was intrigued because I already liked physics.”

Launching to Pitt Space

In the spring of 2024, Associate Professor Matthew Barry, with a reputation for seeing the potential in his students, told them about summer fellowship opportunities through STEMnetX. The nonprofit initiative was developed by Rama Bala, a faculty member in the Pitt Space program, to promote STEM education and careers in underserved communities.

Akriti and Samiya applied, were accepted, and in June traveled to Washington, PA, for a weeklong STEM boot camp at William & Jefferson College.

It was, Samiya recalled, “an intense week,” with daily Python coding courses, seminars, and networking. However, one day the participants in STEMnetX’s Space Engineering Pathways pilot program left for a tour of Pitt, which was when Akriti and Samiya discovered the Pitt Space program in Schenley Place. Their experience was a revelation.

“It was inspiring to meet graduate students and professors involved in projects that were on the International Space Station,” Akriti said.

Schenley Place also houses the NSF Center for Space, High-Performance & Resilient Computing (SHREC), the nation's leading academic research center in the field of computer and electrical engineering for mission-critical systems, from spacecraft to supercomputers. SHREC is “mission control” for experiments currently in orbit on the ISS.

“I thought, ‘This is crazy.’ NASA is my dream job—even if I just work there one summer as an intern,” Samiya said. “The trip was part two of my Hidden Figures moment because I realized how many people around me have similar interests and how the school fuels those interests.”

Another window into the real world

For Akriti and Samiya, STEMnetX has offered an out-of-this-world experience, while the opportunities they’ve had at the Swanson School have made engineering more tangible.  

Samiya for example was a MEMS Facilitating Inclusive Research Experiences (FIRE) Summer Research Intern, working with Associate Professor Patrick Smolinski. She studied quadricep tendons in ACL reconstruction surgery, testing their ultimate strengths, and applying different forces to simulate how the tendons would react in a body.

“My passion is with space, but my interests in engineering are wide ranging,” said Samiya, who will resume the research this fall. “In the lab, we’re working with cadavers and collaborating with orthopedic surgeons to advance understanding of quadricep grafts.”

In 2024, Akriti began working with Barry, who is developing a next-generation radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Akriti models and analyzes thermal insulators under different conditions and is helping construct a numerical model of plate fins on the thermoelectric generator. “I want to understand every aspect of what I’m doing,” she said.

Stepping confidently into the future

In the spring, Akriti’s and Samiya’s paths will again diverge. Samiya, who wants to be a design engineer in the aerospace and aviation industry, is taking a quick detour to law school.   

“I want to study intellectual property, which will go hand in hand with my engineering design career.”

Akriti plans to continue her research in grad school. “The STEMnetX program and my work with Dr. Barry have combined my two main interests: space and research.

“Research is such an important aspect of a student’s experience. I’m so glad I’ve had this opportunity to understand why I’m doing this—why I want to do it. I know I’m on the right path, and in my graduate school interviews, I can show that this is what I’ve wanted,” Akriti said.

“And I love it.”

The spirit of camaraderie has thrived in the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) student chapter, which hosted its own trivia night among other events that fostered community and created opportunities for industrial engineering (IE) students to excel. In recognition of this engagement across Pitt’s campus and beyond, IISE recognized the chapter with a 2025 Frank F. Groseclose Gold Award, its highest honor.

“We held our first trivia night this year, with students and professors participating. It was a fun evening that brought people together,” said Ethan Snyder, president of the chapter. “We got a trophy for the winning team, and we’re going to make it a yearly tradition now.”

Along with trivia, the chapter held several general body meetings where students networked with peers, participated in interview and resume workshops, and prepared for exams. The chapter also organized its annual formal and its fall fest, a barbecue hosted off campus by an IE professor.

The chapter helped organize the annual IE career fair as well, with over 20 companies including Deloitte, Connors Group, PNC, and UPS visiting Benedum Hall to meet students and discuss co-op and career opportunities.

“I received my co-op position at the career fair,” Snyder said. “Seeing fellow students land co-ops and jobs at the event, seeing the tangible effects—it’s inspiring.”

To provide new opportunities for students to grow professionally, Pitt’s student chapter this year worked with the national IISE chapter to provide an asynchronous, online Lean Six Sigma Certification course, a prestigious industry certification which builds problem-solving skills.

Members also attended the spring ISE regional conference at the University of Buffalo. Since hosting a regional conference two years ago, Pitt’s IISE chapter has participated in these events, traveling to universities to network and attend talks.

“We had such a great experience,” Snyder said. “We met engineering students from across our region and made connections.” 

“I love working with students and seeing them take off,” said Scott Streiner, assistant professor of industrial engineering and faculty advisor for the student chapter. “Having been an undergraduate and a PhD student at Pitt, I have a deep connection here and am always an ambassador for industrial engineering. This chapter represents the energy and strong community around IE.” 

For graduation this year, the chapter introduced another way to celebrate that community: they bought cords and stoles for IE graduates. “One professor, on her own time, even printed the Pitt ISE logo on the stoles,” said Snyder. “Everyone is in it together, wanting to help. The students loved it.

“We’ve only received the Gold Award five times in the past twenty-five years,” he added. “When I heard the news, I was so happy for all the students and faculty who helped make this year so special. It’s a group effort—and our faculty advisor and all the IE professors help make these special opportunities happen.”

Alkanaan grew up in Green Tree, just west of Pittsburgh, and when she enrolled at Pitt and chose engineering, she continued what had become a family tradition. Her parents had moved to the US from Saudi Arabia to pursue graduate degrees at Pitt, with her father earning a master’s degree in civil engineering and her mother in medicine. Her older brother earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.

For Alkanaan, though, her path wasn’t as smooth. “Two years into school,” she said, “I was struggling academically and personally, and I second-guessed my place in engineering. I almost transferred out.”

Getting out into the field

With encouragement from her advisor she persisted, and during her third year, Alkanaan landed an internship with Fay, S&B USA Construction, where she would gain experience estimating projects. But it was a visit to a construction site that first inspired her.

“This is so cool,” she remembers thinking, wearing a hard hat and steel-toed boots, as she stood amid the structures being built around her. “This was better than sitting at a desk working on AutoCAD.”

Alkanaan had spent so much time on paper and behind screens, but now she was watching calculations and drawings turn into real structures. It clicked. “I was lost before I did this internship. I realized, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

That summer, she met two important mentors: Juliah Seymour, a project engineer at Fay, and Josh Fetcko, a senior estimator and project manager at Gulisek. “They taught me estimating and helped me grow my passion for construction management. They also told me about a student estimating competition.”

Each year, the Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania (CAWP) holds its Student Estimating Competition Championships. Teams from universities across the region compete over a weekend to estimate and bid on a major construction project.

The event intrigued Alkanaan. “I’d been estimating a single project for months. It seemed crazy you’d do that in two days.” 

But first, do you want to be the president?

To get involved, Alkanaan emailed the president of Pitt’s Associated General Contractors (AGC) Student Chapter, who was graduating and responded to her questions with a question: would she like to be the chapter’s president?

A little over a year after she’d considered leaving engineering entirely, Alkanaan accepted.

She soon grew into her leadership role with the support of Professor John Sebastian, Pitt’s AGC faculty advisor; Fernanda Morales-Viveros, the chapter’s vice president; the rest of the AGC student board; and Jason Koss (CAWP), Bob McCall (Masters Builders Association of Western Pa. Inc.), and Joseph Neubert (Independence Excavating), industry professionals who donate time and help fund AGC activities. Alkanaan set out to share with members the experience of visiting construction sites. She has never lost her love of seeing construction management in action.

“We’ve visited probably 20 sites—many of the construction sites on Pitt’s campus and across Pittsburgh, including a trip to Pittsburgh International Airport and its terminal modernization project. We even went to an operating engineer site and got to operate cranes and excavators,” Alkanaan said. “That was the coolest thing ever.”

May the estimations be ever in your favor

Were it not for the CAWP estimating challenge, Alkanaan believes she may never have developed the leadership skills as president of Pitt’s AGC chapter. She also would have missed two of the more intense and rewarding weekends of her life.

“It’s a big commitment—it’s something you have to make time for every week,” said Alkanaan.

All school year, to prepare for the challenge, teams learn the ins and outs of estimating from industry professionals who generously donate their time to mentor them.

After months of preparation, teams check into the Marriott Hotel in Cranberry on a Thursday evening in April. They receive a set of plans for an existing, real-life project but don’t know yet what they’re estimating for.

Early the next morning, the lead engineer on that project addresses the teams and announces the specific challenge. With that, they race to rooms where, sequestered, they pore over the plans, delegate, solve problems, answer questions, print out their work and reasoning, compile it into a binder, and, of course, make their bid.

In the end, teams race—sometimes literally sprint—their bids and their folders to the judges’ table. If a team is even a second late, they lose 25 points, a steep deduction. “It can feel a little like The Hunger Games,” said Alkanaan.

Redemption, and well-organized folder

Alkanaan’s 2024 competition with the Benedum Builders (one of the two Pitt teams) didn’t go how she’d hoped. The challenge was to bid on an emergency bridge replacement, and Alkanaan was responsible for the concrete—and she “completely ran out of time.”

The team also ran out of time to organize their binder, an important step. They finished fifth.

While she was proud of the team’s work, it nagged her all year, how she’d run out of time, and Alkanaan worked hard to be more prepared.

This April, they approached the competition differently. For one, Alkanaan and Morales-Viveros stopped at Staples ahead of the weekend and bought organizers for their binder. “We were playing classical music and organizing everything as we went. We were way calmer, and everyone was so supportive,” Alkanaan said, of teammates Fernanda Morales-Viveros, Joshua Zielinski, Tyler Jacobson, Justin Winslow, and William Jacobs. “It was chaotic toward the end, sure, but in a more peaceful way.”

After teams submit their bids and their binders, they must create a presentation and discuss their work. The judges—eight engineers from construction companies around the region—question them on their rationale and provide constructive feedback.

This year, the judges singled out the Benedum Builder’s binder. “They said it was one of the best they’d seen. Fernanda and I were so proud about that,” Alkanaan said.

The team placed second, missing by just seven points to Penn State. It stung, but much less than the previous year. They received a $1,000 prize. Far more satisfying than the money, though, was working together to solve problems and develop a compelling bid, for which they received such positive feedback from industry leaders.

For Alkanaan, this challenge was her last chance to help Pitt to an elusive victory. “I get to graduate together with my older sister,” she said, keeping alive what is a family tradition of Pitt scholars. “But I told Josh [Zielinski], the new AGC president for Pitt, they have to get it next year!”

Through her time with the AGC, through the many opportunities she’s had to don a hard hat and visit construction sites, and of course through the grueling estimating challenges, Alkanaan, a Saudi American female civil engineer once full of doubt, has found her community, a supportive, exciting place where she can thrive.

Teams of two to eight students were mentored by Pitt faculty and local industries, and their projects were judged by Pitt alumni and faculty as well as by industry volunteers. Attendees also voted on their favorite project, which earned the People’s Choice Award.

“Each year, the Swanson School’s many industry partners generously pose real-world problems for the Design Expo,” said Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor in Industrial Engineering. “Seeing how our students work together to solve these challenges, for me, is an endless source of inspiration. This spring, the new venue has only added to the event’s success. We are grateful to the judges, our partners, and the attendees for their support of our students and engineering at Pitt.” 

Visit Flickr for the Expo Photo Album.

Winners below:

Best Overall Project
Vision-Language-Action Model for a Generalist Robotic Manipulator 
Benjamin Carnovale, Samarth Chopra, Alexander McMoil, and Evan Sokolson

People’s Choice Award
Standardizing Starline’s Warehouse Pickings
Maggie Altschaffl, Bikai Fang, Sarai Morato, Xindi Shao, and Matt Tarone

DEPARTMENT AWARDS  

Bioengineering 

1^st Place Improving Bag Value Masks in Emergency Medicine  
Kelly Isola, Connor LaMarca, Ben McCutcheon, Rebecca Miller, Brock Pemberton, Madison Smith, and Erica Taylor 
  
2^nd Place Adjustable Pediatric AFO with Locking Flexion Hinge for Diplegic Cerebral Palsy  
Aritra Ghatak, Semira Kizhakkey, Kshitija Koli, Andrea Moore, Francine Sanoy, and Danielle Yakubisin 
  
3^rd Place Still Grip: Ergonomic Surgical Grip  
Michael Christofidis, Maya Franklin, Ryan Ging, Tarnini Ravikumar, Suyash Sinkar, Peter Wood, and Eileen Zhang  

Civil and Environmental Engineering 

1^st Place Bullock-Pens Park Project 
Erica Beigi, Madelynn Bennett, Brandyn D’Amico, Connor Kane, Paige Mancia, and Nick Rocco

2^nd Place BNY Mellon Center Retrofit 
Trey Blystone, Michael Constantine, Ashley Lucente, Michael Makowski Jr, Daneil Schaub, William Schmidt, and Grace Walker

3^rd Place Sylvan Ave Slope Stabilization Project 
Liam McLaughlin, Fernanda Morales-Viveros, Chris Moran, Cora Nevel, and Daniel Parks

Electrical and Computer Engineering

1^st Place Vision-Language-Action Model for a Generalist Robotic Manipulator
Benjamin Carnovale, Samarth Chopra, Alexander McMoil, and Evan Sokolson

2^nd Place Satellite Tracking Directional Antenna Array (STARR-LOC)
Kaye Baron, Thomas Eckrich, Aidan Gresko, and Adam Nichols

3^rd Place (tie) 
Cheap High-Performance Advanced Storm Equipment (CHASE) 
Rohan Ari, Noah French, Ruizhe Gao, Natan Herzog, and Beryl Sin 

CAVEMAN – Cave Autonomous Vehicle for Exploration, Mapping, and Navigation 
Benjamin Esquieres, Tyler Hansen, Kushal Parekh, Pavel Serhiayenka, and David Zhang

Industrial Engineering

1^st Place Lunar Intelligence and Reconnaissance Initiative (LIRI) 
Connor Cosgrove, Katherine Gonzalez, Felicity Thatcher, Andrea Toader, and Brian Trieu

2^nd Place Standardizing Starline’s Warehouse Pickings 
Maggie Altschaffl, Bikai Fang, Sarai Morato, Xindi Shao, and Matt Tarone

3^rd Place NurturePA: Streamlining Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder (PMAD) Assessment 
Hannah Bradfield, Xiangyy Cheng, Jordan Henry, Xinkai Li, and Roan McCall

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

1^st Place Vibration Durability of Printed Electronics for UAVs 
Ezra Dugosh, David Engler, Adam Gosden, Nathan Hoffeditz, Minh Nguyen, and Brittany Sadej

2^nd Place (tie) 
Multimodal UAV Detection  
Dmitri Asay, Matthew Houston, Jayden Provance, and Alex Schehadi 

Acoustic Noise Reduction for Urban Homeless Populations  
Rebekah Burns, Ben Fidler, Elizabeth Fillman, Maia Gulley, Brendan Lang, Hannah Muschinski, and Steven Panico

Development of Thermal Management Solutions for AI Datacenters Using High Thermal Conductivity Materials – B  
Lauren Beck, Ryan Carroll, Emma Murphy, Ganesh Selvakumar, Taorui Su, and Ruiqi Wang

Product Realization

1^st Place Wearable Fall Injury Protection via Expandable Foam 
Shane Conlin, Eric Eversbusch, and Kenechukwu Nnake

2^nd Place Alternate (Renewable) Energy Sourcing at Commercial Scale  
Arjun Bains, Bhargav Gadiparthi, John Nelligan, and Brigit O’Bannon

3^rd Place “Smart” Medicine Dispenser  
Jeremy Fresh, Cindy Lkhagvasuren, Jessica Wong, and Danielle Yakubisin

Clad in construction helmets and electric green safety vests, 22 Pitt students walked onto a snow-packed field dotted with chrome geodesic domes linked by a maze of pipes. They arrived in the otherworldly landscape of the Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant just hours after their plane touched down in Keflavík, Iceland. It was day one of the University’s spring break, but these students were engaged in learning.

This semester, the Swanson School of Engineering launched Sustainable Engineering in Iceland: Culture, History and Innovation, a three-credit course taught by Matt Barry, an associate professor of materials and mechanical science. The study abroad course, which combined classroom lessons and a weeklong field experience, was Pitt’s first faculty-led excursion to Iceland.

“Iceland’s ethos is conservation. Their technology, their commitment to carbon neutrality and their drive to make processes better is inspiring,” said Barry.

“My goal was to have students gain a holistic understanding of Iceland’s engineering practices, including the influences of history and culture,” he added.

Students spent spring break touring highlights of eastern and southern Iceland, including glaciers, black sand beaches and a volcanic crater — the Northern Lights even made an appearance. Daily, they reflected on their adventures in an online travelogue, and you can read all of their reports on the course site.

Lessons from the ground

Iceland is an island about the size of Kentucky. Still, it plays an outsize role in global geothermal ingenuity. Most simply, geothermal energy extraction taps into the Earth’s crust, bringing hot water and steam to the surface. This technology has countless applications: Hot water can be diverted to homes and greenhouses for heating and channelled under sidewalks and roads to melt ice and snow. Steam is used to drive turbines and generate electricity.

Geothermal sources currently account for 66% of Iceland’s primary energy use. The nation also hosts the Unesco Geothermal Training Programme to support developing countries' adoption of geothermal technology.

Iceland’s geological makeup makes it uniquely suited to produce geothermal energy, said Barry. The country is one of the most active volcanic regions on Earth thanks to its location over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are slowly drifting apart, making space for magma in the Earth’s interior to flow upwards — that’s a very powerful heat source warming surrounding rocks and water.

On their visit to the Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant, one of the world's largest producers of geothermal energy, students got an up-close look at production by touring the inside of one of the geodesic domes on site. The domes house wellheads where carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, byproducts of geothermal energy production, are added to groundwater and injected below ground for carbon capture and storage, ensuring the plant’s energy production produces almost zero emissions.

“Before studying in Iceland, I rarely heard geothermal energy mentioned, and I didn’t understand how it could sustain a country. Seeing how Iceland has harnessed the Earth's natural energy was astounding,” said Chris Ash, a sophomore mechanical engineering student.

Confidence beyond the classroom

In 2024, 18% of Pitt engineering students graduated with a global education experience on their resume, far exceeding the national average of 5.4% reported by the Institute of International Education’s Open Door survey.

The takeaways from accessing education overseas can positively impact a student's career trajectory, said Nora Dougherty, global and engineering professional development consultant in the Swanson School.

“In my experience, meeting with employers, they are looking for global experience because there are skills students learn studying abroad that they can’t learn in the classroom,” she added. “Pitt students studying abroad soon realize the skills they are learning go beyond academics; they are gaining tools that will assist in their professional life: individual sensitivity, independence and risk-taking and flexibility.”

Participating in a University-sponsored global experience can be an entry point for students to travel internationally and to be open to international assignments in their careers.

“Having guidance from the Swanson School on how to prepare and pack was very useful for building my confidence to go abroad in the future,” said Kalinda Wagner, a David C. Frederick Honors College student and junior in mechanical engineering. “I now know how to price flights, use my phone overseas and customs aren’t scary. That can all seem intimidating if you’ve never done them before.”

Though Sustainable Engineering in Iceland is a course taught in the Swanson School, it’s open to all Pitt students, a point that strengthens learning both for engineering students and students from other programs, Barry said.

“Engineering programs can silo students, and I wanted to create a course accessible not just to engineers; it’s important to have intellectual diversity and include students from other schools,” he said.

Students like Megan Duda, a junior environmental studies major in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, who joined the class to deepen her knowledge of thermodynamics.

“I aspire to enter a career in environmental economics, and a common research topic is energy and natural resources, determining how developed countries can transition to renewable energy sources to lower emissions. Travelling to Iceland was a chance to learn about renewable energy, its applications' practicality and feasibility,” Duda said.

Bridging sustainability and resilience

On their journey along the coast of southeast Iceland, students witnessed the country’s climate change challenges and how engineers adapt and respond to the ever-changing landscape.

“Engineering is humanity,” said Barry. “You can’t separate the two. Anytime you go somewhere and you see how people are not only surviving but thriving, that’s their unique engineering perspective.”

A hike to the Sólheimajökull Glacier illustrated the magnitude of its ice loss in the past 130 years. The Sólheimajökull Glacier has lost a little over a mile of ice, with 25% of that loss occurring in the past 15 years.

There are vast threats to Iceland’s infrastructure related to glacial melt, including increased volcanic activity. As the ice mass dissipates, the weight it exerts over reservoirs of magma also decreases and eruptions can occur, leading to hazardous volcanic ash becoming airborne. Melting glacier ice also leads to flooding and shore erosion, which threatens road and bridge infrastructure and requires flood mitigation in and near towns.

Students also saw firsthand how engineers respond to a changing climate on a visit to the memorial for Skeiðará Bridge, which was destroyed by flooding in 1996.

Below the surface of Iceland’s southern coast is a few hundred meters of silt, not bedrock. So, in flood-prone areas, engineers design suspension bridges that are anchored by concrete blocks, which act as a floating foundation that remains standing even in shifting sand.

“Balancing resiliency and sustainability is tough,” Emme Blanchard, a junior mechanical engineering student, wrote in her travelogue. “But Iceland proves itself time and time again with its grand efforts and admirable pioneers.”

After graduating high school, though, he realized that “it could be pretty difficult for me to make a living that way.” When he turned 24, Baron sensed it was time to find another path, as he said, to “be the person I wanted to see. I wanted to give back to the world.” He began looking for a new opportunity and found the U.S. Coast Guard.  

After bootcamp, Baron was stationed in Astoria, Oregon, a small town on the Columbia River. There, he found himself scraping barnacles off enormous buoys and climbing inside to clean them, doing a job that Mike Rowe made famous on his TV show Dirty Jobs. Of this new situation, Baron said, “I had a great time.”

Baron thrived and took on new responsibilities. He began attending aviation technician school, where he finished first in his class. He moved to Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco and worked as an avionics electrical technician, fixing components on airplanes and helicopters. He loves to fly and was an aircrewman and hoist operator as well, helping to pull people out of the ocean and assisting during wildfires and hurricanes.

Every day, Baron was problem solving and troubleshooting. It seemed like he was always fixing a helicopter’s servo component, so issue-prone and quick to cause problems, and he began thinking that he wanted to solve larger systemic problems. He started teaching himself math. “On the side, I taught myself college algebra up through multivariable calculus,” he said, “because I started thinking of pursuing engineering.”

In 2021, Baron left the Coast Guard, where he was credited for recording 606 flight hours and saving 18 lives. Through his service he had, as he desired, given back. Now he was ready to make a difference through innovation.    

Baron was drawn to the University of Pittsburgh and how accommodating they were to his veteran status. He liked Pittsburgh’s lower cost of living and its rich history in power and energy. With his cat Louise, he drove east, bought a house, and, 15 years after finishing high school, stepped onto a college campus.

At Pitt, Baron has excelled academically, but it wasn’t until his junior year that he found his focus. In the Coast Guard, as he fixed systems, he would find himself thinking more about the power that had been harnessed so they could function. After taking the course Power Fundamentals with Robert Kerestes, Director of Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Programs and Associate Professor at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, he knew that his winding path had led him to the right place. He took Power Conversion Theory. Then he enrolled in Power Quality.

Kerestes, seeing Baron’s work ethic and success in and outside of classroom, told him about a scholarship opportunity through the Institute of Electronics and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Baron applied for the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus. In addition to receiving this scholarship, he earned the IEEE PES John W. Estey Outstanding Scholar award and the IEEE PES G. Ray Ekenstam Memorial Award, given to veterans pursuing a degree in engineering.

“He’s the first triple scholar they’ve had for the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus program,” said Kerestes, himself a veteran of the United States Navy (Active Duty and Naval Reserve), having served as Third Class Petty Officer, and who has published research on medium voltage DC architecture and infrastructure and energy storage systems. “That’s pretty historic.”

Baron’s accomplishments continue an impressive streak for Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. “Kaye winning the John W. Estey award gives us six winners in the last eight years,” said Kerestes. “Having a top scholar six of the last eight years is amazing.”

For a student who never planned to attend college, this recognition has affirmed Baron’s intentional approach. As he said, “You don’t have to be a genius. You just need to be sincere and apply yourself… you know, wake up every day and think, ‘What should I do?’ And then do that thing.”

That thing, for Baron, involves electric power engineering. He has started taking master’s level courses and plans to pursue a research master’s degree at Pitt. Where that ultimately leads, he’s unsure, but he plans to use his engineering education to give back to the world. He is still driven by a desire to do, as he said, “something bigger than myself.”

Q: Can you tell me your full name and preferred pronouns?

Anna Bailes: Sure! I'm Anna Bailes, and I use she/her pronouns.

Q: What is your current research focus?

Anna Bailes: I have the opportunity to work in two different labs since I am co-advised for my PhD. I work with Dr. Gwen Sowa in the Ferguson Lab, where we study low back pain. Particularly, I am working with the LB3P project which is a large phenotyping study to identify subgroups of chronic low back pain patients with the purpose of developing more targeted treatments. My other advisor is Dr. Rakié Cham in the Human Movement and Balance Lab (HMBL). In HMBL we use motion tracking technology to study human movement impairments. I’m specifically focused on how pain-related psychological factors affect movement in people with chronic low back pain, especially looking at gait.

Q: What made you consider this program?

Anna Bailes: Toward the end of undergrad, I realized that I was only really interested in the rehabilitation and biomechanics aspects of bioengineering. So then I started googling—and I ultimately came across both Pitt and Northwestern’s DPT- PHD programs, and that's when I realized that this was the type of bioengineering I wanted to pursue.

Q: What made you choose Pitt?

Anna Bailes: I chose Pitt because I felt more comfortable in the city and the university. It felt very down to earth and welcoming, and just like somewhere that I could imagine myself being. I also really liked the variety of research they had here. They did a lot of really cool neural and stroke related research at Northwestern, but those weren't really things that I was interested in. When I toured here, there were three or four labs that I was really interested in, so I felt like I would have a lot of options to choose from.

Q: What about the program at Pitt stood out to you?

Anna Bailes: Both the PT school and the bioengineering department at Pitt are incredibly strong, and I think being part of two robust departments was invaluable. I also had great mentorship throughout the program. Dr. Pat Sparto is the co-director of the program and is such a supportive mentor who looks out for you beyond just research. He was also extremely helpful throughout the application process when I was deciding to apply to the program. Additionally, doing both the DPT and PhD at the same university allowed me to build long-term connections with faculty in both departments, which has been beneficial for my education and career. 

Q: Why pursue both a DPT and a PhD, not just one or the other?

Anna Bailes: My mom is also a physical therapist and got her PhD while I was in high school and college, so I had some insight into the world of PT research. So I knew what research was like, and she introduced me to some different people that she worked with. As a practicing PT, I find clinical practice and research each differently exhausting, so it’s nice to have both of them so I can switch my brain into different ‘modes.’ I don't think I could just do one. I really like being able to do both, because I can directly help individuals in the clinic, and then also make an even larger impact by trying to improve interventions through research. 

Q: What advice would you give to prospective students considering this program?

Anna Bailes: First, really think about whether you want to pursue an engineering PhD or a movement science/kinesiology PhD. Engineering opens a lot of doors, but you should make sure it aligns with your long-term goals. Also, know that your time will be different from your PT classmates—you’ll be juggling PhD work on top of PT school. It’s a lot, but it’s also rewarding. You’ll find that being able to speak both clinical and engineering “languages” makes you a valuable asset in the field, so that’s something to keep in mind when deciding.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add or anything I didn’t ask about?

Anna Bailes: One thing I’d add for prospective students is that Pitt is flexible about the PT school requirements. If you’re coming from an engineering background and don’t have all the required shadowing hours or certain prerequisites, they’re willing to work with you. Also, when choosing a mentor, focus on finding someone supportive, not just someone who has an interesting project. Projects change, but a good mentor will guide you throughout your entire journey.

Q: Your thesis defense is early next year, and I hear you have a postdoc offer lined up. 

Anna Bailes: Yes! I’ve been offered a postdoctoral position at Stanford where I’ll be working on a project using wearable sensors to improve monitoring and interventions for youth and adolescents with chronic pain. I’m also hoping to work in their pediatric pain clinic as a PT. I’m excited to dive more into the psychological aspects of pain and to work on more clinical trials and intervention research.

Hosted by the School’s Office of Philanthropic and Alumni Engagement, the event offered space for families to ask questions and learn about opportunities available to their students. Topics included adjusting to life as a college student, support resources available, professional development offerings in the Swanson School, information about co-ops and internships and global experiences, among others.

Families got an inside look at all the school has to offer and after the discussion were invited to take tours of the building with Swanson School Student Ambassadors.

Guests provided positive feedback, with one parent sharing that the information received affirmed confidence in their decision to send their student to Pitt. Because of the tremendous response and feedback, there are plans to make it an annual event.

Tian and her team (that includes Professors Bopaya Bidanda, Jay Rajgopal and her advisor Bo Zeng, along with faculty from Medicine, Surgery and other social scientists) developed an integrated analytical toolset for the PITS-Kenya study, a sub-project of BloodSafe, paving the way for innovative advancements in Kenya’s blood transfusion systems. This includes the first comprehensive process map of Kenya's blood system, a large-scale digital twin using discrete event simulation and interactive blood drive planning tools. 

These innovations are streamlining local blood bank operations, supporting the clinical trial in local hospitals, impacting 30,000 patients and aiming to increase the national blood supply coverage from 30 percent to 50 percent. The tools are designed to be practical and scalable, providing a framework for regional adaptation.

“By developing solutions that are both practical and advanced, we're not just aiming to improve healthcare delivery—we, the entire PITS-Kenya team, are truly committed to saving lives,” said Tian. “I’m proud that this recognition highlights the practical, hands-on approach we've taken, grounded in extensive fieldwork to ensure we fully grasp the complexities of the problems we're solving.”

The INFORMS award celebrates student research and practice that has societal impact and features work that partners with public and private organizations to yield tangible and beneficial outcomes for individuals, communities and organizations.

And it paid off, as he’s now working at a tech startup in Los Angeles, California focused on sustainable satellite launching systems. 

Brody pursued not only his PhD at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, but also his master’s and bachelor’s degrees. He decided to stay not only for financial and health reasons, but because of his interest in Pitt’s electric power engineering program. He knew it would open doors for him in the energy sector. 

"I wasn't impressed with the job offers and opportunities others were getting with their master's or bachelor's degrees—at least not for me," Brody said. "I knew that if I wanted to break into a specialized industry and receive a higher salary, I had to push my education as far as possible, and Pitt’s program was just really unique and offered significant funding.” 

While working under advisor Brandon Grainger, associate professor and Eaton Faculty Fellow of electrical and computer engineering, Brody developed a keen interest in replacing Rare Earth Elements (REE) in the permanent magnet machines often used in electrical vehicles. Electrified transportation systems rely on magnets made from REEs to operate, but REE material supply chains are dominated by other countries and regions, creating a need for sustainable and affordable alternatives. An SBIR grant from the Department of Energy (DoE) helped Brody investigate the use of magnesium bismuth as a replacement of the state-of-the-art permanent magnets. The results weren’t only promising from the scientific perspective, but it put a spotlight on Brody’s capabilities as an industry researcher and built him a large network throughout the country. 

“The Pitt power program was never recognized as a program that worked on next generation motor designs. Through the AMPED consortium leadership, working closely with Paul Ohodnicki (associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, and having the technical leadership skill sets that Ryan possesses, we were able to set a foundation to successfully complete our first DoE program in the electric machine area with great success,” Grainger said. “We even had international exposure in a recent issue of the IEEE spectrum magazine that each IEEE member receives monthly.”

During his time at Pitt, Brody explored as many internship opportunities and co-ops as possible, working at Eaton, Nikola Motor Company, Curtiss-Wright EMD, and Wolfspeed. 

“Even though I stayed at Pitt for my education, I still received opportunities to live in Phoenix, Arizona and Durham, North Carolina while being a student,” Brody said. “This gave me an idea of where I wanted to go and why I wanted to be there.” 

After completing his PhD program, Brody began receiving job offers nearly everyday through LinkedIn. He accepted his current position as an electromagnetic design engineer for Auriga Space in California for the state’s start-up culture, economy and opportunities in the energy sector. 

Brody acknowledged that the decision to pursue a graduate degree is not an easy one, considering the emotional and financial challenges that come with it. But it has clearly paid off. He was able to expand his network through various graduate level internships, attend many IEEE conferences annually to showcase his work supported by the DoE, was able to work on cutting edge and high demand research with faculty, submit many journal manuscripts, and filed one provisional patent on his machine design efforts. Grainger and Ohodnicki believe Brody is one of the success stories of educating advanced students through multidisciplinary education - in this case, electrical engineering and magnetic materials. 

“You need to focus on your interests and future goals,” Brody said. “Instead of just relying on rankings, I strongly recommend finding a school that fits your needs and offers a supportive environment—you’re going to need that.”

At the symposium, students presented two posters that explored the effects of interdisciplinarity  and integration of curriculum into a makerspace community. Both drew on the team’s own experience, projects they’ve completed and classes they’re involved in. 

“Many people stopped to ask us about workshops and what makes them work,” said Kara Nghiem, team president and a senior studying bioengineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. “We also received advice from other spaces to help us gather more information on general usage of our spaces, which the team is super excited to bring back and work on implementing.” 

Nghiem also took part in a student-led panel discussion about their experiences as leaders in makerspaces and noted that despite each makerspace’s uniqueness in how they evolved, they still face similar challenges, like the recruitment of non-engineering students. 

As a team, the group said they felt inspired after hearing makerspace leaders’ passion and vision, which motivated students to bring further change and innovation to their own community at Pitt. 

“I'm hoping it will give us the push we need to be able to make lasting change,” Nghiem said. “In addition, as we've built our own goals for this year, bouncing ideas off others who have a wide variety of experiences with makerspaces has helped us to reframe how we think about those goals and get creative in thinking about how we can achieve them.” 

ISAM is the preeminent annual meeting for the academic makerspace community. Over a span of 3 days every autumn, more than faculty, staff, students, and industry leaders gather to share makerspace knowledge,  experience and inspiration in order to maximize impact on both the student learning experience and alumni success.

Other team members that attended included student engineers Lauren Beck, Sarah Shegogue, Andrea Moore and Natan Herzog. They were joined by Daniel Yates and Amelia Dubendorf from the Innovation and Entrepreneurship program in Pitt’s Swanson School,  which provides administrative support to student leadership.

The research group recently attended two major space conferences this past summer: the joint IEEE Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology (IEEE SMC-IT) and the Space Computing Conference (SCC), as well as the Small Satellite Conference (SSC), to demonstrate to attendees the capabilities and most recent research produced by the center.

“This is an exciting time for Pitt’s launch into space research and workforce development,” said Alan George, R&H Mickle Endowed Chair and Professor and Department Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and founding director of SHREC. “Having a presence at these conferences greatly contributes to  Pitt being recognized as a national hub for this type of knowledge and exploration. What is especially inspiring is that our amazing graduate students are Pitt’s ambassadors because they have the hands-on knowledge and experience to present these advances.” 

IEEE SMC-IT/SCC

The IEEE SMC-IT/SCC conferences, especially SCC, showcase a wide range of cutting-edge research areas pursued by the ECE department and SHREC, such as onboard processing, autonomous operations, innovative computing architectures for space, fault-tolerant computing, radiation effects on complex devices, and advanced memory technologies. These technologies have been developed by SHREC and applied thus far to three mission experiments on the International Space Station, with the Pitt campus serving as Mission Control.

SHREC presented three research papers at this joint space conference:

• “Reliable, ML-Based Image Processing and Compression for An Accelerated Onboard Imaging Pipeline,” which focuses on an AI-based data compression system that SHREC developed to improve data downlink speeds and make more efficient use of onboard storage resources.
• “Toward a Radiation-Tolerant Display System,” which is a collaboration between SHREC and NASA on developing new astronaut displays for deep space.
• “Performance Characterization of Gemini APU Processing-in-Memory Devices for Space,” which explores a new kind of hardware architecture that can be used in orbit.

Additionally, new alumnus Tyler Garrett MSECE ’18 PhD ECE ’24 participated in the workshop panel “Balancing Performance, Fault-Tolerance, and Security for Future Space Systems,” and presented “Advancing Onboard Processing and Sensing Capabilities Through Radiation-Tolerant Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Hybrid Design Methods.” The presentation covers the evolution of SHREC’s space missions, technologies, and research efforts from Pitt’s perspective. Other panelists included members from NASA, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, European Space Agency, international universities, and Airbus.

“The knowledge gained from our experience at these conferences, along with our years of experience in space computing, allows us to better equip our Pitt colleagues with the processing capabilities required to enable other areas like medicine, engineering, and science to achieve their own research objectives,” Garrett said.

The IEEE SMC-IT/SCC was also attended by fellow SHREC contributors and PhD students Michael Cannizzaro and Diego Wildenstein.

Cannizzaro used the opportunity to learn more about Microchip Technology’s High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor chip, a novel space-qualified processor that will soon be available to the space industry, while Wildenstein presented SHREC’s research alongside Garrett.

“Attending conferences like these is critical to help grow Pitt's space research program,” Wildenstein said. “The exchange of ideas during conferences like this helps us to better understand the direction and needs of the space community so that our research can build off of that. It is also helpful to present our research in front of the greater space community, which provides us with important feedback and new ideas on how we can continue to improve.”

Small Satellite (SmallSat) Conference

A small satellite is even smaller than a mini-fridge, which makes them all the more complicated to launch into space.

The SmallSat Conference is an opportunity for researchers to explore how “automation is being integrated into small satellite systems across space, launch, ground, and user segments.”

SHREC hosted a booth on the main convention floor, showcasing their research at Pitt. Both Wildenstein and PhD student Ian Peitzch presented papers. Wildenstein focused on data compression using AI, while Peitzch delved into image processing and classification.

PhD students and SHREC contributors Linus Silbernagel and Cannizzaro were also in attendance. Cannizzaro noted how conferences like SmallSat help build connections and engage with the space community that directly impacts their work, including with other universities and labs.

“We work a lot with industry,” Silbernagel said. “They help drive our research, so when people discover our booth, we use that opportunity. And boom. We have new connections and potentially new collaborators.”

Wildenstein added that the experience is “inspiring.”

“We can take what they’ve done and take what we’ve done and see if there’s any way to collaborate or possibly spur any ideas for what we can do in the future,” Wildenstein said.

But, he realized early on that he needed to figure out what path was best for him: academia or industry. 

“In Pittsburgh alone, there are several opportunities for research and internships,” said Sturdivant, who just recently completed his master’s thesis for the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “I knew early on that I had to explore as many options as I could to really find where I’d fit.” 

In his very first days as a first-year student in Benedum Hall, home of the Swanson School, he turned to Pitt EXCEL, a program focused on the retention and support of underrepresented engineering students, for answers. 

“Maurice is never above learning more,” said Yvette Moore, Director of Pitt’s EXCEL and Equity and Inclusion for Undergraduate Strategic Initiatives. “When I first met him, he was the type of scholar that wanted to take advantage of every opportunity in front of him.” 

Sturdivant decided to explore every avenue he had, leading to his internship in power electronics with Eaton that evolved into a full time position starting this summer. His position will require him to begin an entirely different position from his internship. This isn’t out-of-ordinary for Sturdivant, who could never learn enough. 

His path is, intentionally, never linear. 

A Fresh Start at Pitt

When Sturdivant first met Brandon Grainger, associate professor and Eaton Faculty Fellow of electrical and computer engineering, through Pitt EXCEL’s Summer Research Internship (SRI) program, he didn’t know how to solder or design circuit boards –  necessities in the electrical engineer’s skillset. 

That’s pretty standard for an engineer. What isn’t standard is learning how to do it in a student’s first year. 

The SRI program looked promising to Sturdivant because of its ability to help him develop these skills, which he would apply in co-ops and internships outside of Pitt.

“I wanted to gain experience outside the classroom as soon as I could,” Sturdivant said.

Trying to always be one step ahead, it was a no-brainer for Sturdivant to enroll. Scholars in SRI are assigned to faculty mentors who lead research teams and complete a research project in their field of engineering. Sturdivant reached out to Grainger to be his mentor for not only his work in power electronics, but because of his approachability and willingness to mentor first-year engineering students. 

Grainger and Sturdivant started from scratch, spending at least 30 hours together a week in Grainger’s Electric Power Technologies Lab. He studied a Texas Instruments reference design for USB Type-C chargers and learned to use circuit simulation and PCB design tools to understand the engineering research and design process. 

“Professor Grainger used that summer to teach me the fundamentals of the engineering design process,” Sturdivant said. “Because of his approach to the program, the things I learned routinely came up again throughout my time at Pitt as both an undergraduate and graduate student.” 

Grainger continued to mentor Sturdivant well-after the completion of the SRI program, including undergraduate course selections, choosing companies to work for through the CO-OP program or summer internships, and finally overseeing his research work up to his defense in May of this summer. 

“It was natural that Maurice stayed involved with me,” Grainger said. “We were always asking, What was the next step? What part of electrical engineering would scratch that itch for him? We continued that journey for over six years and were able to sharpen his skills a little more each year.” 

As the mentorship continued and Sturdivant built his skills, he was now a two-time recipient of a scholarship from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power and Energy Society (PES), further funding his explorations.  

A Future of First Days 

Sturdivant continued to take power electives through his time as an undergraduate. 

Through his various internships at Ford Motor Company and GE Power Conversion, his enthusiasm about the field grew. 

“There’s always a first day for something,” Sturdivant said. “I always went into each position with an open mind to learn about the opportunities for growth. That’s why mentorship is so important. You don’t always know what possibilities there are until you meet new people and build relationships..” 

He realized that he still wanted to learn more about electric power engineering and research. He stayed at Pitt for his graduate studies to pursue that intertest. 

Grainger, with colleague Paul Ohodnicki, recruited him to continue work in his lab and the Advanced Magnetics for Power and Energy Development (AMPED) Consortium. Ohodnicki is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, and collaborates with Grainger on advancing power and energy technologies. This is when Sturdivant’s interest in power electronics really started to take off. 

His research was supported by the US Department of Energy Technology Office and the Graduate Engineering Education Scholarship (GEES) from the Swanson School’s Office of Diversity. He focused on modeling and experimentally measuring specific power losses in inductors – critical components to power electronic systems. 

“Several factors can increase losses in an inductor, causing them to perform worse than expected,” Sturdivant explained. “I studied the impact of air gaps, a standard inductor design feature, on the power loss in their magnetic cores.” 

By using the findings of his work and software tools, Sturdivant was able to optimize inductor designs to identify which magnetic core materials could provide the best balance between mass and power loss for a given application. 

“These metrics are important because increasingly efficient and compact devices are needed to support the development of electric vehicles.”

Now that his thesis is done, Sturdivant is closing his chapter in research – for now. What’s next for Sturdivant? 

He recently started with Eaton in their Cherrington facility for the first year of his leadership development program. He described the field of electric power engineering as “vast,” so he has plenty to explore. He plans on learning more about the ways that power electronic technology supports power conversion, circuit protection and the overall energy transition through Eaton and its Leadership Development Program. In the future, he plans to focus on integrating more novel power electronics with existing technology so it can make a positive impact while also being safe and reliable.

He wouldn't be at this point if it wasn’t for the mentorship he actively sought out along the way.

“Every experience taught me something different which led me to where I am now, but there’s that cyclical need for mentorship,” Sturdivant said. “It's important for students and professionals to share what they know and make themselves a resource. It's easy to think that you don't know enough or that you're too young to be a ‘mentor,’ but your experience and advice is still valuable to someone else.” 

Dolata, who considers herself STEM-minded, decided to pursue a career in chemical engineering because of her first love: baking. 

“Recipe, steps, instructions, numbers – that makes sense to a brain like mine,” Dolata said. “A recipe is even more soothing to me when it’s in metric.” 

Dolata has operated her baking business, Crumbs of Perfection, which specializes in cookies and cakes, since high school. 

However, it wasn’t until recently that she made the connection between baking and engineering during her co-op at The Hershey Company. She’s working as a product commercialization engineering intern this summer, helping process engineers to design new products. 

“I realized early-on that I could do a lot with the food industry if I studied chemical engineering,” Dolata said. “And at Hershey, it feels like a substantial amount of people have a chemical engineering background.”  

During a regular day at Hershey, Dolata received news that would make it possible to pursue her passion. She received the $10,000 Future of Chemistry Scholarship for Women through the Chemours Women’s Network, which is solely focused on supporting self-identified women who plan to continue their STEM education in college.

Dolata submitted her application during finals week after seeking feedback from her friends. She thought her chances of receiving it were low. 

“When I got the email of my acceptance, I couldn’t believe it was real,” Dolata said. “Tears filled my eyes.” 

During her application process, she was asked what women inspired her career. The answer wasn’t as straightforward. Rather than historical figures, Dolata found that she valued women she encountered on a day-to-day basis as her source of inspiration – particularly Taryn Bayles, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering and vice chair of undergraduate education at Pitt. 

Bayles was the one who recommended Dolata apply for the scholarship. 

“Cailey is an exceptional student,” Bayles said. "She has demonstrated a strong work ethic and the determination to not only be an accomplished chemical engineering student, but also an incredible baker!  She has an unwavering commitment to excellence in all that she pursues.” 

Dolata will always be a baker at heart, citing it as one of the reasons she has been so successful at the Swanson School. 

“It’s such a stress reliever,” Dolata said. “Sometimes, I just drive home and spend hours in the kitchen. I come back to campus feeling rejuvenated.”  

But what monitors their safety? 

A team of industrial engineering seniors at the University of Pittsburgh created RocketWatch, a software tool that detects potential rocket threats to geosynchronous orbit satellites. Nathan Carney, Lauren Hoge, Jessica Kneller, and Alison Linares Mendoza developed RocketWatch as their spring 2024 senior design capstone project at the Swanson School of Engineering. 

“RocketWatch provides a simulation-based method to visualize what could happen in the orbital space domain. It takes unidentified rocket variables, like launch location and approximate maximum thrust, and uses the Python programming language to optimize the thrust to hit a certain point in space,” Hoge said. “The goal is to predict how close a rocket can get to a geosynchronous orbit satellite.”

Rocket science… how hard can it be?

To design an ordinary differential equation replicating a rocket’s real-life motion, the students used Newton’s Second Law of Motion (F=ma), taking into consideration the rocket’s changing mass due to fuel consumption and distance-dependent gravitational forces. The team coded their equation using Python and confirmed it was accurate by replicating a rocket’s orbit around Earth.

The team’s final step was converting the Python script into an optimization problem using a Pyomo Ipopt Solver, which also helped create a three-dimensional visual of a rocket’s orbit and trajectory. This solver is an open-source framework for multiscale process modeling, optimization, and advanced analytics.

“Our objective was to minimize the distance of a rocket and satellite within a six- to eight-hour time frame,” Carney said. “That’s where the ordinary differential equation we developed came into play. It controls the rocket’s motion by adjusting the engine power at each step in an attempt to minimize its distance from a satellite.”

We have liftoff

RocketWatch won Best Poster at the MDS-Rely 2024 Spring Meeting, and at the Swanson School’s Spring 2024 Design Expo, they won First Place in Industrial Engineering and Best Overall Project. The team credits making their presentation user-friendly and easy to follow so audience members could understand the software’s value.

“We developed a simple, three-step process where a visitor could select a rocket, its constraints and launch location to see if any geosynchronous orbit satellites were at risk,” Mendoza said. “We also used a large television screen and globe so people could visualize their choices and watch the code run in real-time.”

The RocketWatch project is part of the Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications, and Processing Laboratory’s (SDA TAP Lab) Apollo Accelerator Program, which includes other universities and companies that work on various aspects of space domain awareness. The National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) sponsored the team’s trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, for SDA TAP Lab’s Demo Day where the team demonstrated how their project fits into larger mission scopes.

“We met with our client at SDA TAP each week during the semester, so one of the most important things about presenting this project at the demo day was meeting them in person,” Kneller said. “It was a highlight to meet students like us who are just beginning their careers and professionals who have been doing this kind of work for decades.”

Jason Bernstein, a postdoctoral associate with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Oliver Hinder, assistant professor of industrial engineering, provided advisory support throughout the semester.

“I was proud to witness the students begin the semester with minimal knowledge in rocket physics and nonlinear optimization, and by the end, deliver an outstanding demonstration of their skills in their final presentation and report,” Hinder said.

What’s more, Pitt also fielded startup Korion Health whose CEO and founder, Anna Li, is an MD/PhD student at Pitt. 

Chris Wilmer, associate professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow of chemical and petroleum engineering, accompanied the students to the competition and said he was incredibly proud to see Pitt stepping into the global arena. 

“This is a historic achievement, which I hope will inspire other Pitt students and prove that the heights of our success know no bounds,” Wilmer said. “The competition was very fierce this year, but our students did a phenomenal job representing Pitt’s entrepreneurial spirit and ambition.” 

Malleous

The first Pitt competitor was Malleous, co-founded by Benjamin Leslie, a senior bioengineering student, Adi Mittal, a student at the School of Medicine, and Amna Imran, a junior bioengineering student. The team created an instrument that combines retraction and suction functions to help surgeons and declutter operating rooms. In a clinical trial, the device reduced neurosurgeons’ simulated procedure time by 28% and prevented the need to suction on average every 40 seconds.

“It was a great experience to see some of the other startups being formed around the world,” Leslie said. “It was an excellent way to measure ourselves and our progress compared to others and to speak with other students pursuing similar goals. Talking with some of the competing founders helped us learn from the experiences of others and gain insight into what others were doing to navigate some of the common challenges we all face as startups.”

FlowCellutions 

Swanson School of Engineering PhD student Becca Segel, a graduate student researcher in Pitt’s Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, says her startup, FlowCellutions, aims to reduce carbon emissions by advancing energy storage. The battery diagnostics company consists of experts spanning software engineering, electrochemistry and energy markets.

It was great meeting over 200 investors throughout the weekend, because we were able to get advice from the decision makers who would potentially give us investment in the future,” Segel said. “No other opportunity so far gave us insight into how investors think. The event was really well organized and it had a very exciting atmosphere for three days straight, from the initial practice pitches and elevator competition all the way until the final pitches at the end of the weekend.”

Percy Curtis, a senior majoring in environmental engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was the recipient of this year’s George Washington Prize at the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania (ESWP) Engineering Awards Banquet. They received a $2,500 cash prize and a $7,500 Dean’s Fellowship to pursue graduate studies.

“Percy has maintained a perfect GPA throughout his tenure here,” said Sanjeev Shroff, interim dean of the Swanson School. “Meanwhile, they were also balancing research and service on top of course workload. To say that it’s impressive is an understatement.” 

Curtis entered the environmental engineering program as a sophomore and was immediately noticed by their professors. Curtis then joined Professor Carla Ng’s research group through a “Research for Undergraduates” position funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Through collaborating with PhD students and postdocs, Curtis was a leader in evaluating  the use of green infrastructure to control stormwater in the Pittsburgh region. 

Curtis is also committed to improving the life of their fellow students and others around the world. They serve as president of the Pitt chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World, and is the undergraduate co-chair for the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Committee.

 The finalists will receive a cash award of $500 and a $2,500 Dean’s Fellowship to pursue graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Finalists include: 

• Kyra Cunningham, a senior majoring in industrial engineering 
• Benjamin Leslie, a senior majoring in bioengineering  

The George Washington Prize is intended to promote excellence in engineering education and encourage students to pursue additional engineering training at the graduate level by presenting a cash award, and a fellowship to well-rounded students in their senior year of undergraduate engineering studies.

Meet this year’s winner and nominees 

The scholarship, which is in its fifth year, benefits graduate students in Pitt’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering by alleviating financial barriers for promising engineers while also harnessing their potential. It is named for Peter Hammond, the now-retired inventor of the Perfect Harmony drive and esteemed engineer at Siemens. Hammond’s Perfect Harmony drive is a high-power, medium voltage, multilevel, motor drive that controls the speed of large motors and has been revolutionary in decreasing the carbon footprint of industrial equipment.

"We are incredibly excited about this scholarship and the opportunity it will provide for a graduate student studying electric power engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering," said Kevin Wissner, Director of Research & Development at Innomotics based in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. "Our dedication to fostering local talent and future engineering pioneers is at the heart of this scholarship fund. The initiative is one of many ways we strive to contribute to the development of the engineering field and support the cultivation of young, innovative minds.”

Several supply chain issues make it difficult to obtain rare earth metals needed for permanent magnet machines. Lubin’s research focuses on how non-rare earth metals, a more abundant resource, can be used in permanent magnet machines and the research effort is sponsored by the Department of Energy.

One issue currently of interest to the electric machine community is predicting when permanent magnet demagnetization will occur.  Former Peter Hammond Scholar Ryan Brody has been evaluating this problem as part of his PhD work. Lubin, rather than looking at just the electric motor, is extending this work by studying demagnetization effects when the motor drive goes under different types of short circuit conditions. If the magnets reach a demagnetization state, the system is classified as a motor drive failure. Motor failure forces the manufacturer to undergo a long and costly process of remagnetizing the magnets. 

“What Josh is doing now is reflective of what Innomotics is looking for in future engineers as part of their business units,” says Brandon Grainger, associate director of the Energy GRID Institute, Eaton Faculty Fellow, and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Swanson School. “His research in permanent magnet based motor drives is making an impact in the electric power industry space including renewable energy and electric vehicle markets. A university who develops strong company collaborations like this will find it instrumental in implementing novel ideas to benefit people in society, and helps bring confidence that projects will be almost 100 percent successful. Technology-to-market strategies are critical for any investment being made in new technology directions.”

Lubin completed his undergraduate degree in electrical and computer engineering in 2023 at the Swanson School. By taking so many undergraduate courses before graduating, Lubin was able to complete three graduate level courses that transferred to fall 2023 when he began his MS.

“I am very proud to receive this scholarship,” Lubin said. “It will further drive my current research and inspire me to produce results that can push the field of electrical engineering in a positive direction.”

More than 200 students and faculty from colleges and universities across the U.S. participated this year to present solutions to a business ethics case. This year’s hypothetical case highlighted the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence to assist NASA with accurately quantifying the risk of a collision between a detected asteroid and Earth. Competitors were challenged to work together to find a solution to help determine if an asteroid detected by an existing ground-based telescope is a concern.

The University of Pittsburgh competed against Drexel University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Penn State University, and the United States Coast Guard Academy in the competition. In the finals, Rice University emerged victorious over runner-up The Citadel. The quarterfinals featured students from Drexel University, Michigan State University, Penn State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, and University of Southern Mississippi.

During this year’s event, students learned about Lockheed Martin’s mission, attended HR-sponsored workshops, participated in a paper airplane competition, and went on off-site tours.

Students also had opportunities to experience simulators and try out virtual reality stations.

Participants heard from Lockheed Martin executives and a panel of employees who are part of LM’s Early Career Leadership Development Program.

Featured speaker Bob Behnken, LM’s Director of Ignite Technology Acceleration and former astronaut, shared his experiences in space and talked about his current role at LM. He was joined by LM Program Manager Sandra Freund who shared her experiences leading the OSIRIS-REx Mission.

Lockheed Martin hosts this annual event in partnership with our faculty advisors to help students consider the importance of addressing ethical business practices in the fast-paced world of technology. As college students prepare to enter the workforce, exposure to case competitions provides an opportunity to explore their ethical decision-making processes.

To learn more about the event, visit Lockheed Martin's Ethics Academic Outreach page.

From a pedestrian lift bridge and hybrid energy systems to surgery tools and fast fashion, the winning projects at the Swanson School of Engineering’s 18th biannual Design Expo revealed how undergraduate students were applying their nascent knowledge to solve real world problems. 

Hosted by the School’s Office of Academic Affairs on Thursday, December 7, 2023, the Design Expo featured 70 student teams from across five departments, with some sponsored by faculty from other University of Pittsburgh schools as well as UPMC hospitals, government agencies, and industry. Several projects were presented by seniors in the School’s Capstone Design or Product Realization courses, and all were judged by Pitt alumni, faculty, and industry volunteers. 

“Classroom lectures and lab sessions are the basic parts of engineering education; what makes an engineering student successful is being able to apply what they learned in hands-on research, development, and execution,” explained Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor of Industrial Engineering. “Since we launched the Design Expo in 2014, it’s become an end-of-semester competition that showcases not only our students’ ingenuity, but also their passion for engineering and problem solving.” 
 

Winners below; view the program for a full list of participants. Visit Flickr for the Expo Photo Album.

 
Best Overall Project 
Nasal Surgery Tool 
Mentor: Michael McDowell – Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh 
Sebastian Gutensohn, Claudia Kiely, Briana Malik, Natasha Mody, Raymond Murray, Alisa Zhang 
 

People’s Choice Award 
Regional Adjustable Pressure Prosthetic Socket 
Kristin Bindas, Katherine LeClaire, Camilo Rodriguez Rozas, Azariah Torain, Madeline Viteri, 
Savannah Waymer 
 

DEPARTMENT AWARDS 

Bioengineering 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Mark Gartner 

1st Place Colorimetric Urinometer Apparatus 
Mentor: Jim Ibinson, MD, PhD – VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System 
Zainab Almuallim, Christopher Garland, Stephanie Hachem, Katelyn Lipa, Edwin Rock, Nickolas Sierra, Ariella Tucci 

2nd Place Nasal Surgery Tool 
Mentor: Michael McDowell – Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh 
Sebastian Gutensohn, Claudia Kiely, Briana Malik, Natasha Mody, Raymond Murray, Alisa Zhang 

3rd Place Regional Adjustable Pressure Prosthetic Socket 
Kristin Bindas, Katherine LeClaire, Azariah Torain, Camilo Rodriguez Rozas, Madeline Viteri, Savannah Waymer 
 

Civil and Environmental Engineering 
Faculty Advisor: Professor John Sebastian 

1st Place Bridgeville Pedestrian Lift Bridge 
Faculty Mentors: Dr. John Oyler, Dr. Kent Harries, Professor John Sebastian 
Industry Mentor: Justine Cimarolli – Bridgeville Borough 
Justin Barlow, Wesley Conklin, Nicholas D’Andrea, Jenna Wilson 

2nd Place Robb Hollow Intersection Improvements 
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Mark Magalotti, Dr. Alex Stevanovic, Dr. John Oyler 
Zachary Busch, Matthew Lewis, Griffin Mikovitz, Connor Mondock 

3rd Place Chartiers Creek Dam Removal 
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Werner Loehlein 
Industry Mentor: Lisa Hollingsworth-Segedy – American Rivers 
Victoria Herron, Cesar Rodriguez, Adele Sedlar, Jenna Sutton 
 

Electrical and Computer Engineering 
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Mohamed Ashraf S. Bayoumy and Dr. Nathan Youngblood 

1st Place Music Notation to Audio A 
Mason Dill, Nathan Evans, Maggie Killmeyer 

2nd Place Music Notation to Audio B 
Jack Carnovale, Chloe Hale, Cameron Henning 

3rd Place Hydropanic Chamber 
Industry Mentors: Sean Dowhy, Ray Kovacs Jr. – Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc. 
Ashton Bloom, Jake Higgins, Tamer Muddi, Killian Rush 
 

Industrial Engineering 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Scott Streiner 

1st Place Stop the Spread: UPMC Infection Prevention 
Kathryn Burkert, Matthew McCormick, Michael Reynolds, Elizabeth Sidelnikov 

2nd Place Efficient Heart Stalking: Streamlining Cardiac Telemetry Monitoring and Distribution at UPMC Shadyside 
Ken Ching, Sierra LeRoy, Ahsen Malik, Anna McDonald 

3rd Place (TIE) ID(ea)L Collator Configuration Analysis 
Industry Mentor: IDL Print 
Alex Amentler, Maria Luciana, Stephen Vandrak 

3rd Place (TIE) Matching Moms to Mentors with Machine Learning 
Industry Mentor: Nurture PA 
Tom Chimes, Gloria Givler, Nicole Lipa, Andrew Polar 
 

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Schmidt 

1st Place Acoustically Enhanced Uniaxial Extension Tester: A Novel Approach to Detect Tissue Damage 
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Timothy Chung 
Yuqi Chen, Peter Jacobs, Elias Mignogna 

2nd Place Indirect Adaptive Control of a Cyber-Physical Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell Hybrid Energy System (Engineering Science | Faculty Advisor: Dr. Paul Ohodnicki) 
Mychal Amoafo 

3rd Place Design for Manufacture of a Loading Platform for Standing CT Scanning 
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mark Miller 
Ryan Bagett, Derick Basile, Daniel Schultz, Justin Starcich 
 

Art of Making: Hands-On System Design and Engineering 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Joe Samosky 

1st Place Custom Cane: A Walker-Cane Fusion to Make Bathrooms More Accessible to Individuals with Limited Lower-Body Mobility 
Eden Brunner, Rachel Da Cruz, Aragya Goyal, Amna Imran, Joshua Summers

2nd Place The Fashion Library: Extending the Life Cycle of Fast Fashion Clothes 
Lauren Gilfillan, Lauren Harrington, Caeden Wargo, Jason Worrell, David Zhang 


Product Realization 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Eric Winter  
Project Mentors: Marc Weber Tobias – Security Laboratories and Ilana Hull, MD, – UPMC 

1st Place MyDose 
Shreyo Das, Amilia Niksic, Jacob Rendall, Elizabeth Sidelnikov, Megan Toner

2nd Place Enclosed Space Control 
Rachel Eskander, Paul Kyros, Rahul Reddy, Maggie Walker

 

The Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering hosted its third annual Global Day, a showcase of senior projects that address problems and opportunities across the globe.  

Projects are developed in the capstone course, CHE 055 Systems Engineering I: Dynamics and Modeling, taught by Professor Ipsita Banerjee. This year, 51 students presented 11 projects in eight foreign countries with collaborations from 19 global partners. Judges were from both academic and industrial backgrounds, including PPG and Pitt’s School of Medicine. 

“By engaging in global projects of this kind, and ensuring that they are working with local collaborators, these young engineers are learning that there is no one-size-fits-all engineering solution for most problems in the world,” said Allyson Delnore, executive director of academic affairs at Pitt’s University Center for International Studies. “People’s lived experiences and local contexts must be taken into consideration. The students develop a global mindset that will be incredibly valuable as they advance in their careers.”

This year’s projects include: 

Improving water treatment in Karachi (Pakistan) 

Team: Ruiqi Wang, Kyleigh Zurawski, Benjamin Barash, Alex Brokaw, and Addison Kishbaugh 

Foreign Partner: Minahil Muddasir 

Water treatment (Brazil)

Team: Ryan Power, Nate Fisher, Kaela Guest, Alexandra Reitz, and Livia Lanna 

Foreign Partner: Leticia Lanna Da Silva 

Access to hot water (Brazil) 

Team: Sean Cotton, Brenno Ferreira, Gerald Caraway, Viraj Patel, Dillon Donnelly, and Aaron Kernick 

Foreign Partners: Gustavo Donato and Caixais Freitas 

Treatment of potable water (Ecuador) 

Team: Lauren Bayer, Colin Landis, Emily Lott, Gillian Morganstein, and Gabrielle Sharpe 

Foreign Partners: Rachel Conrad, Darwin Paredes, Emily Conrad, and Wilmer Santa Cruz 

Deicing wind turbines (Canada) 

Team: Katie Harris, Ekaterini Papazekos, Isabella Steinley, and Lienne Su 

Foreign Partner: Michael McKinnon 

Conversion of coal power plants to nuclear (Germany) 

Team: Daniel Lipinkski, Deirdre Kelly, Dylan Lawson, and Josh Luxemburger 

Foreign Partner: Jacob Stotte 

Revitalizing the Deutsche Bahn (Germany) 

Team: Sofia Sonnet, Alex Fuller, Emma Smith, and Richard Aversa 

Foreign Partner: Ursula Haas 

Integrating renewable energy in rural areas and communities (Morocco) 

Team: Dana Bartoletta, Delaney Benchoff, Darren Kobert, Hannah Scharf, and Hannah Zucco 

Foreign Partner: Jasmine Hajar 

Combatting rolling blackouts (West Africa) 

Team: Peter Dadson, Kayla Kendricks, Onyinyechi Ndukwe-Ajala, and Renee Stolz 

Foreign Partners: Simon Teledezi (Ghana), John Nana Know Acquch (Ghana), Emeka Nwachukwu (Nigeria), and Lucky Ariwodo (Nigeria) 

Access to clean water (India) 

Team: Joe Bilski, Alison Bisbing, Hayden Prein, Abbey Ramos, Chelsea Smith, and Vidhya Thiyagarajan

Foreign Partner: B. Thiyagarajan 

Loss of biodiversity (India) 

Team: Maddy Korowicki, Adekunmi, and Cameron Wodon 

Foreign Partner: Samsher Sidhu

Electrical engineering undergraduates Benjamin Carnovale, who received a scholarship last year, and Abigail Miller have been selected for their strong GPAs and distinctive extracurricular commitments. 

“These two students should be incredibly proud of this remarkable achievement,” Robert Kerestes, associate professor of ECE and director of the electrical engineering undergraduate program, said. “This award proves their dedication to their studies while also their future contributions to the outside world.” 

The duo are among 85 recipients across 58 universities throughout the United States and Canada. The students will receive a financial award, one year of IEEE PES student membership, and have the opportunity to be mentored by leading professionals in the power and energy industry.

In addition to the scholarships, Carnovale received the John W. Estey Top Scholar Award for the Mid-Atlantic region. 

This annual award recognizes the top PES Scholar in each of the six IEEE regions located in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada. This marks Pitt’s fifth John W. Estey Scholar in the past six years. Carnovale’s brothers, Jack and Nate, were winners in 2019 and 2022. 

Students from the Swanson School have consistently received  IEEE PES scholarships since 2014. 

SWE selects students who excel both in and outside of the classroom. The goal of the scholarships is to help propel their careers as engineers. 

“We applaud all of our students that receive scholarships, but it’s particularly admirable when they receive something at the national level,” said Mary Besterfield-Sacre, senior associate dean for academic affairs and the Nikolas A. DeCecco Professor of Industrial Engineering. “Our values as an engineering school align with the mission of SWE, and we strive to provide an education that supports the women engineer in all of her endeavors and professional goals.” 

This Year’s Awardees 

Amateur Radio Digital Communications Scholarship 

Ni Gayatri, graduate student, ECE 

Rachel Krauss, undergraduate student, ECE 

Judy Simmons Memorial Scholarship

Grace Haas, graduate student, BioE 

Women’s Network Scholarship 

Vidhya Thiyagarajan, undergraduate student, ChemE

SWE awarded 330 scholarships to both undergraduate and graduate students in engineering programs, totaling more than $1.5 million for the 2023-2024 academic year.