February 19, 2018

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Did you know this is Engineer’s Week? Along with several of our student chapters, we are sponsoring these events:

An engineering competition, 4-6 p.m. tomorrow in Rettner Hall.
A Society of Women Engineers engineering experience panel, 7-8 p.m. Wednesday on the second floor of Carlson Library.
A Grand Challenges Scholars Program Info Session, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Thursday in Lattimore 306A.
Spring E-Social, 3-5 p.m. Friday in Rettner Hall, including free food, insomnia cookies, and friendly competition with Hajim swag prizes.

See Facebook for more information.

For the second year in a row, several of our students, mostly sophomores, visited companies in Silicon Valley during winter break on a three-day trip sponsored by the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections. The itinerary included visits to companies like Google, Twitter, Mulesoft, and KLA-Tencor where students could talk to UR alumni who now work there. Students also participated in student/alumni networking events, and had dinner with Kathy Davies, a Stanford University lecturer who led the students in a group activity, using 1-, 5- and 10-year road maps for planning their careers. “The students really loved her,” says Justin Freeman of the career center.

The trip was “definitely helpful,” says Noah Chartier ’20 of mechanical engineering, one of 21 students who participated. “It gave me a very useful insight into big versus small companies as well as Silicon’s general work environment and atmosphere. It was really beneficial to talk to the alumni during the trip because I know that they have been in the exact same position I am in right now. I was able to learn a lot about different projects they pursued in college, how they marketed themselves to companies, and the goals they had when they were looking at positions or internships.” An added plus, he says, was “being exposed to constant networking during the trip, which helped me to reinforce my skills in talking to employers and recruiters. I feel like I am definitely more confident at approaching recruiters and speaking about myself in a direct and purposeful way.” Noah, by the way, has already had a second-stage interview for an internship he learned about during the visit to KLA-Tencor.

First-year students, especially, please take note: This is just one example of the many ways the Greene Center can help you start thinking about internships and careers, and how to best structure your courses to meet those goals. Now that you’ve got your first semester under your belt, please find time to schedule a visit. “We have staff here who are very dedicated to first-year students,” Freeman says. Or drop by anytime to bounce ideas off a student peer advisor. It’s never too early to create an account in Handshake, a career connection resource, so you can start building a resume, search for internships, network with employers, join communities of students with similar aspirations — and be notified about great opportunities like the trip to Silicon Valley.

It’s also never too early to start thinking about study abroad. Just ask Madison Saliba ’19 who started her planning as a freshman, and as a result was able to take summer courses before her sophomore year. This made it easier to fit a semester studying at University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, into her schedule last fall. She encourages Hajim School students interested in studying abroad to start the process as early as possible. “Studying abroad is an AMAZING experience and something I want more engineers to do,” she says.

Students interested in studying abroad this fall have until March 1 to apply to the Global Engineering Education Exchange (Global E³) program, which provides access to 39 top engineering schools in 23 countries. A letter of recommendation is required. Students interested in financial help for study abroad this summer or fall have until April 1 to apply for a $500 Hajim School International Experience Scholarship. For more information, contact Rohan Palma at the Center for Education Abroad Office.

A warm welcome to our new undergraduate program coordinator at The Institute for Optics. Dustin Newman has had experience in teaching, counseling, customer service, inventory, organization, and logistics after working at Frontier Communications and serving in the U.S. Army, finishing active duty as a captain. Dustin is a graduate of Houghton College. He and his wife Julie have two daughters.

Congratulations to Amit Goyal (’88 MS, 91 PhD), a materials science alumnus who has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering for “materials science advances and contributions enabling commercialization of high-temperature superconducting materials.” Amit is Empire Innovation Professor at SUNY- Buffalo where he is also founding director of the RENEW Institute, an interdisciplinary institute dedicated to research and education on globally pressing problems in energy, environment, and water. He is known for his research in the area of large-area, low-cost, high performance, “flexible electronic” devices, including superconducting devices, photovoltaics, ferroelectrics, multiferroics, as well as in 3D self-assembly of nanodots and nanorods for device applications. He was awarded the University of Rochester’s Distinguished Scholar Medal in 2006. Amit was advised by Stephen Burns and Paul Funkenbusch while earning his PhD here. Read more about Amit’s accomplishments here.

The NSF I-Corps Short Course is now open to both graduate and undergraduate students. The course, hosted by the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, is for participants who are interested in exploring the market potential of their technical work and in learning entrepreneurial skills. At the end of the program, teams will have conducted customer interviews, learned about the business model canvas, and will have clear plans for taking the next steps. The course kicks off February 23. The program is limited to eight teams. Apply online by noon tomorrow. Contact Matthew Speilmann to learn more.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman