April 27, 2020

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

While we are adjusting to life under the coronavirus pandemic, it is important to remember that we still have a lot to be thankful for and to celebrate. We also face some significant challenges as a University and school in the months ahead. I address these in my spring State of the School message, which I encourage you to read. I welcome your feedback and comments. We are a strong and resilient community, and I have no doubt we will emerge from the current challenges in a position to continue providing world-class education and research and making the world “ever better.”

For example, Hajim School faculty have pivoted quickly to address the medical challenges and explore the social impacts of the pandemic.

James McGrath, professor of biomedical engineering, and Benjamin Miller, professor of dermatology with joint appointments in biomedical engineering and optics, are pursuing opportunities to use their ultrathin silicon nanomembrane and silicon and photonic chip technologies, respectively, to develop devices that can detect antibodies to the coronavirus far more quickly than the RNA-based tests now being used. Read more here.

Jiebo Luo, professor of computer science, and the students in his lab are gleaning a wealth of information from Twitter users to document the social impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic. In a new study, for example, they find that the increased use of terms like “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus” on the social media platform correlated strongly with a rise in media reports of attacks on Chinese and other Asians. They were also able predict with more than 80 percent accuracy which Twitter users are more likely to use the terms based on their age, gender, geographic location, “social capital,” and political affiliation. Read more here.

We have several student achievements to celebrate.

This year’s recipients of University Student Life Awards, also known as “Rockys,” include:

UR Women in Computer (WIC), recipient of the Meliora Values Award for exemplifying this year’s featured value, equity. This student organization, now numbering more than 300 members, has helped create a strong sense of community among the growing number of women undergraduates now enrolled in a discipline that has been male dominated for many years.  It recently changed its name to WIC-MIC (adding “Minorities in Computing”) to show its commitment to welcoming and supporting students from other underrepresented groups in the field. Its members, largely on their own initiative, have worked hard at outreach to Girl Scouts and students in local high schools.

Daniel Green ’20, of biomedical engineering, who is also completing a minor in psychology, is recipient of the Award for Outstanding Fraternity and Sorority Leadership. This also recognizes significant contributions to the greater campus community. Daniel has volunteered at the Child/Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry Unit at the Medical Center working with patients, as a tutor for a Sigma Phi Epsilon spelling bee competition for disadvantaged city school students, and as a student volunteer-in-training coordinator and teacher for a youth education program at Temple Beth El.

Tiffany Nicholas ’20 (T5) of biomedical engineering, who is also earning a minor in music, is recipient of the Percy Dutton Prize, awarded to a student of the graduating class who has excelled in “wholesome, unselfish, and helpful influence” among fellow students. Tiffany has served as a campus tour guide, teaching assistant, orientation leader, communications and graphics assistant, admissions interviewer, peer advisor, tutor, and student alumni ambassador. Her Take 5 topic is Gender Hallmarks and Representation: Using Media to Examine Gender Perception in Society.

Olivia Canavan ’20 of audio and music engineering is recipient of the Transfer Student Award. The award is for a student who has demonstrated a quick and successful transition to the institution and has taken full advantage of their time at the University. Olivia, who transferred to the University for her sophomore year, has certainly done that. The Patrick P. Lee Foundation Scholar has been a LEAP tutor for city elementary school students at the Rochester Center for Community Leadership, a Xerox Engineering Research Fellow, president of the Audio and Engineering Society, a peer advisor for other transfer students, and a TA for two AME classes. She has played trumpet in the River Campus Wind Symphony and assisted in installing hardware and acoustical treatment in the new recording studio at Gavett Hall.

Forty-seven Hajim students were recently inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society. Membership is by invitation only, and students are selected by faculty members who are also members of the society. Members are chosen based on exceptional academic performance and a letter of recommendation from a faculty or staff member. Particularly strong candidates are elected as juniors, the rest as seniors. Here are this year’s inductees:

Audio and music engineering: Molly Robins

Biomedical engineering: Sofia Guarnieri ’21, Gabriel Sarch, Sydney Shannon

Chemical engineering: Bianca Dyer, Riley Flower, Maxwell Kearns, Joyceline Marealle, Amanda Tatem, Baris Eser Ugur ’21, Anna Weldy, Claire Wilson ‘21

Computer science: Michael Chavrimootoo, Xin Lu, Cole Miller, Sarmishtha Prathivadhi-Bhayankaram, Yongsoo Ra, Forest Shi, Minh Tran, Samuel Triest, Melissa Wen, Jarrod Young

Data science: Justin Clifford, Zi Qing Liang, Faner Lin, Anna Shors, Sahaj Somani, Weitao Tan, Chenwei Wu, Tianyou Xiao, Haizhu Yang

Electrical and computer engineering: Jacob Hertz, Anthony Pericolo, Matthew Rosenbloom ‘21

Mechanical engineering: Sabastian Abelezele, Daniella Aceves, Diwas Gautam, Kai Kindred, Katherine Korslund, Loren McDonald, Noah Meyers, Marcos Dos Santos, Nathan Nickerson, David Reynoso, Daniel Troyetsky ‘21, Benjamin Zirps

Optics: Liam Young

If you haven’t already done so, please cast your ballot for the People’s Choice Award as part of this year’s Art of Science Competition. Polling remains open until this Thursday, April 30.

And please mark your calendar: Our Senior Design Day will be held as a virtual event starting next Monday, May 4. This will be a great opportunity for parents, friends, staff, faculty, and alumni to show their support for the hard work our seniors have put into their projects. The students and their faculty have shown great resiliency in pivoting to cleanly wrap up projects that had to be abruptly shut down, as sometimes happens in the “real world.” More information on how you can participate will be provided in the next Hajim Highlights.

Also, a virtual workshop on Algorithmic Ethics: Perspectives from Philosophy and Computer Science will be held from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT this Friday, May 1 by the Goergen Institute for Data Science and the Department of Philosophy. Experts in ethics, philosophy, and computer science from Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford universities, and University of Southern California will join Jonathan Herington, lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, to discuss the ethical implications of algorithmic decision-making. RSVP in advance for the Zoom link. This nicely complements the “Ethics of Technology” cluster.

Congratulations to the Hajim students — among more than 4,000 students in Arts, Sciences and Engineering and the Eastman School of Music — who successfully registered for fall courses last week in UR Student. Registration continues through the summer, so if you have not registered for your fall semester classes, please do so as soon as possible. If you need to make a change to your schedule, please see the UR Student guide on how to Drop, Swap and Add a course or section. Additional information can be found on the UR Student portal, or you can contact the registrar’s office with questions.

Finally, it is with a very heavy heart and great sadness that I inform you that Randal Nelson, associate professor of computer science, passed away recently. Randal had been at the University for more than 30 years, and was very involved in the undergraduate program of the department, leading the UR Robotics group and teaching a course on robot construction among others. This is a huge loss not just to the computer science department but to our entire community. Our condolences to his family, his students, and his colleagues.

Please be safe,

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman

Hajim School students, staff, faculty, friends, and alumni are encouraged to share their stories about learning, working, and teaching remotely — for example the obstacles you’ve overcome and what you’ve learned and achieved — or other ways you’re coping with the pandemic. Email bmarcotte@ur.rochester.edu