February 18, 2019

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

A bubble machine — created by the chemical engineering senior design team of Tiwalade Dairo, Bradley Porceng, Charles (C.J.) Ruff, and Benjamin Walker — was a big hit at Golisano Children’s Hospital recently. Gracyn Chappell, 5, completing a 22-day stay at the hospital, was clearly delighted as she pushed buttons, causing different colors to shine up through the air bubbles gurgling in a vertical tube filled with water.

“We’re trying to normalize the experiences of the children who come here as much as possible,” says Geri Sehnert, a child life specialist in Golisano’s pediatric surgical center. “When we can give them things like this to interact with, that let the children experience normal sensations, it makes a big difference in their healing.”

“I’m really impressed at how the students took all the information we gave them and were able to create a device that will work for us.”

And it took only one semester. Well done, Team Biscotti! Read more here.

Congratulations as well to:

Jackson Abascal ’19 and Qiuyue Sun ’20 of computer science, who have been recognized by the Computing Research Association (CRA) with Outstanding Undergraduate Research Awards. Jackson, who was a finalist, did mathematics research during a summer REU and has done computer science research with professors Lane Hemaspaandra and Muthu Venkitasubramaniam. His paper with Lane and undergraduates Shir Maimon and Daniel Rubery studies the closure/nonclosure properties of the class of rankable sets. Jackson will present the paper at the 13th International Conference on Language and Automata Theory and Applications. Qiuyue, who received honorable mention, has been researching with professor Yuhao Zhu since Spring 2018. What started as a Raspberry Pi experiment led to research in VR and a paper submission to the ApSys Workshop, a top-tier workshop in the area of computer systems. Qiuyue currently conducts research in project transformation operations and high-level synthesis using FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays). Read more here.
Alison Christopherson, a PhD student in mechanical engineering, who was awarded the 2019 Laser and Particle Beams Young Scientist Award for research that she presented at the 39th International Workshop on High Energy Density Physics with Intense Ion and Laser Beams in Hirschegg, Austria. Alison’s presentation was on “Thermonuclear Ignition and the Onset of Propagating Burn in Inertial Fusion.” The journal awarded Alison with 2000 euros to attend an international physics conference.
Andrea Clark-Sevilla, a master’s student in data science, who was in Madrid, Spain recently to be recognized with other students who have received scholarships from Iberdrola, the multinational electric utility, and its US subsidiary, Avangrid. Andrea’s Avangrid Scholarship for Master’s Studies pays for her tuition for an entire year, plus a stipend of $25,000 to cover living expenses. Andrea says the best of part of the ceremony was “getting to know the other scholars and their different perspectives and goals. It was really nice to see that many past scholars were taking the skills they learned from their various programs and using them for the betterment of humanity.” Meeting Queen Letizia of Spain, who handed out the awards, was also “quite the honor!”

Here’s an opportunity for students participating in our NAE Grand Challenges Scholar competition to fulfill their competency in entrepreneurship: The 2019 New York Business Plan Competition. At least three of the categories this year – Energy & Environment, MedTech and Well-being, and Technology and Entertainment – would appear to be appropriate for projects addressing NAE challenges in sustainability, health, and joy of living (especially virtual reality). The contest is free to enter and a complete business plan is not required. Student teams must submit their applications via an online application by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, March 17, 2019. Top teams from the Finger Lakes Regional Competition, to be hosted by our University on April 10, will advance to a final statewide competition in Albany where the teams will go head-to-head for cash and in-kind prizes. Contact Matthew Spielmann, senior program manager at the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, for questions about the competition, or Emma Derisi, our director of NAE Grand Challenges Scholars, with questions about the program.

Here’s someone worth listening to: Rich Handler ’83, CEO of Jefferies Financial Group and chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, will discuss lessons learned and observations from his career at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Wegmans 1400. Rich is the longest tenured CEO on Wall Street. This event is sponsored by the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections. Log in to Handshake or SimonWorks to register.

Save the date: This year’s University Technology Showcase, sponsored by the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences and the Center of Excellence in Data Science, will be held from 1 to 5 p.m., April 4, at the Doubletree, 1111 Jefferson Road. This is a great opportunity for faculty members and researchers in optics, imaging and photonics, data science, energy and materials, and biomedical technology to share their work with industry professionals. Register at https://ceis.wufoo.com/forms/moa11nv1mhui4d/

Have a great week,

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman