April 8, 2019

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Congratulations to our two latest National Science Foundation CAREER award recipients.

Zhiyao Duan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, will develop a human-computer collaborative music making system that allows humans to collaborate with machines on harmonizing pitch, coordinating musical timing, and conveying expression in music. Using signal processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning algorithms, Zhiyao will improve current automated accompaniment systems by empowering machines with stronger music perception skills, more expressive performance, and deeper understanding of music theory and composition.

Wyatt Tenhaeff, assistant professor of chemical engineering, will develop a novel chemical vapor deposition process to enable gels to be used as safer electrolytes for lithium ion batteries. Gels offer a compromise between current liquid electrolytes, which are combustible, and solid electrolytes, which are difficult to integrate within existing battery designs, especially within the porous electrodes where charge is stored. The chemical vapor deposition process Wyatt’s lab is developing would infiltrate the pores with polymeric material designed to absorb liquid, filling the pores with a gel electrolyte.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. Zhiyao and Wyatt certainly exemplify those qualities. Well done! This brings to 20 the number of current Hajim School faculty members who have received the CAREER award.

Thirty-three years ago, Arthur Ashkin showed how a very tightly focused laser beam attracts tiny particles towards it. When the laser beam moves, the particles move with it, held in the focus of the “optical tweezer” Ashkin created. This discovery, which earned Ashkin a share of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics with Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD optics) and Gerard Mourou, has since been applied in a variety of ways. Now, Nick Vamivakas and his lab, along with collaborators at RIT, have come up with another use that could shed new light on the fundamental properties of lasers, test the validity of some basic theories of quantum mechanics, and perhaps lead to better sensors and accelerators. Read more here.

Thanks to chemical engineering alumnus Shawn D. Rochester ’97 who gave a fantastic talk Friday on “The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America” as part of the AS&E Discussions on Topical Challenges lecture series.  Shawn related the history of structural racism, resulting in less than 2% of the wealth in this country being within the Black community. He has proposed a framework he calls PHD: Purchase, Hire and Deposit to stimulate jobs and economic growth within the Black community.  Shawn is an outstanding speaker, and presented a very persuasive case for his plan.

Reminder to our Class of ’19 seniors:  there’s still time submit your nominee for this year’s Dottie Welch Award. The award, named after the former undergraduate coordinator in biomedical engineering, recognizes a Hajim School staff member “whose performance and dedication enriches the student experience” in the tradition exemplified by Dottie during her 25-plus years of service. PLEASE NOTE: This award is for staff members only. Send the name of the person you would like to nominate and why to hajimschool@ur.rochester.edu by April 17; the winner, selected by a committee, will be announced May 2 at our Design Day.

Members of a Hajim School student team will be heading to Washington, D.C., April 19 to determine if they will be one of five teams from the United States who will compete against an equal number of teams from the UK and China in the Global Grand Challenges Summit to be held in London this fall.  The summit, jointly hosted by the UK, US and Chinese academies of engineering, is inspired by the NAE’s 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering, which provide the framework for our Grand Challenges Scholars program. EZ Water team members — leader Muhammad Miqdad ’19, Areem Abdel ’22, Tatenda Jonga ’22, and Afnan Ahmed ’21, all of chemical engineering, and Sara Anis ’20 of biomedical engineering — have prepared a proposal that tackles head on one of the competition’s sub-themes — can we sustain 10 billion people?’ How? By distributing portable, low cost water filters developed by PakVitae, a startup company, for which Muhammad is business development head. The filters provide clean drinking water for a family of 5 for 3 years for only $15.

Did you miss the University Technology Showcase sponsored last week by the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences and the Center of Excellence in Data Science? If so, click here and scroll to page 24 for summaries of 51 projects— 37 involving Hajim School researchers — that were featured at the poster session. The projects represent an impressive range of research, which is why this is such a great event to attend.

An equally impressive gathering took place in the Feldman Ballroom Friday when the Industrial Associates of The Institute of Optics met with students and faculty for the symposium portion of their four-day spring meeting. As you can see, it was a jam-packed agenda. Thanks to all of the companies who attended. The annual spring and fall IA meetings on our campus offer great opportunities for our students to network with company representatives and learn about internships and jobs.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman