April 15, 2019

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Lots of congratulations are in order!

Danielle Benoit, associate professor of biomedical engineering, will receive the University’s College Award for Undergraduate Teaching and Research Mentorship at the Undergraduate Research Exposition on Friday afternoon. The award, first given last year, salutes tenured faculty members in Arts, Sciences & Engineering who excel as scholars, teachers, and mentors of undergraduate students. Click here to read why Danielle so richly deserves this award.

I am also pleased to announce that Danielle will become director of the materials science program effective July 1. Danielle’s strong background and outstanding research in materials science eminently qualify her for this position. Her track record of collaborations with Medical Center, Hajim School, and Department of Chemistry faculty will enable her to pull together PIs from multiple disciplines to bring exciting new research focuses to the program and generate new collaborative, multidisciplinary projects. One of Danielle’s goals is to make participation in the program as rewarding as possible for faculty and students alike, and I have every confidence that she’ll achieve this goal.

All four of our University’s recipients of grants this year from the Davis Projects for Peace program are Hajim School students. Junior Beauclaire Mbanya ’20 of chemical engineering will host “Togetherness for Peace” in his hometown of Douala, Cameroon from mid-July to mid-August. The program will focus on peace and restorative justice education, entrepreneurship skills, and community engagement training for 40 participants ages 17 to 26. Eve Marealle ’21 and Joyceline Marealle ’20, both of chemical engineering, and Kapambwe Chalwe ’20 of electrical and computer engineering, will oversee “Peace Through Entrepreneurship in the United Republic of Tanzania”—a six-week program beginning in early June that will establish a greenhouse farming business run by teenage girls who were forced to leave school and to work in abusive environments. Read more here.

Suman Kumar ’19 of mechanical engineering has worked hard to build shelters for earthquake survivors and rebuild schools in his home country of Nepal. He was among local students honored at the 36^th annual Rochester Area College Continuing Education awards ceremony last week for excelling academically while successfully combining college education with family and community commitments. The way Suman has balanced academics with “a relentless commitment to his home country is nothing less than extraordinary,” according to the consortium that sponsors these awards.

These Optics students received awards during the recent Industrial Associates meeting:

Undergraduates:

Fujimara Prize: Doran Teverovsky
Britton Award: Megan Frost
Faculty Prize: Katherine Donnelly and Colleen Stone
Polster Prize: Ankur Desai
Sommargren Award: Dylan Beckman and Nicole Naselaris
Kevin Thompson Award: Max Bruggeman

Graduate students:

Jim Fienup MS Academic Achievement Award – Pellegrino Conte
Optics 1^st year PhD Academic Achievement Award – Saleem Iqbal and Melanie King
Fall 2018 Best Teaching Assistant Award – Jingwei Jiang
RPO Graduate Research Award (sponsored by Rochester Precision Optics ) – Robert Pettit

The Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Human Powered Vehicle Challenge team, in only its second year of competing, acquitted itself well at the recent E-Fest North ASME HPV Competition at Michigan State University. The team finished 14^th overall out of 50 teams, compared to 29th last year. In the individual events, the team finished 6^th in design, 19^th in men’s drag race, 27^th in women’s drag race, and 27^th in endurance. Read more here.

Last call for seniors to submit their nominees for the Dottie Welch Award, given annually to a Hajim School staff member “whose performance and dedication enriches the student experience” in the tradition exemplified by Dottie, the former BME undergraduate coordinator. Send the name of the person you would like to nominate and why to hajimschool@ur.rochester.edu by Wednesday.

Last call as well for Hajim School undergraduates to apply for the Charles and Janet Forbes Entrepreneurial Competition by 4 p.m. Thursday. Submit your business plan online. Contact Heidi Mergenthaler with questions.

To our graduating seniors: Here are 3 ways you can help us ensure this year’s Commencement goes smoothly:

Contact your department’s undergraduate coordinator by Friday if you do NOT intend to participate in the Hajim School diploma ceremony.
If you plan to participate, and are receiving two Hajim School degrees, you may make arrangements to walk across the stage twice or choose to receive both diplomas from one department.
If you are a graduating senior in BME, CHE, ECE, ME or OPE, and would like to participate in the Order of the Engineer induction ceremony on May 18, please see your department’s undergraduate coordinator no later than next Monday, April 22, to order your ring and pay the $12 fee, cash only. Read more about the ceremony here (note the deadline has been extended one week).

Looking for something to do this weekend? Bring your kids to campus for Family Science Day from 1 to 4 p.m. this Saturday in Rettner Hall. More than 30 student clubs on campus have created exciting science, technology, engineering, and math experiments that everyone can enjoy. No cost to attend, and free food will be provided. You can’t beat that!

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman