April 11, 2022

During his senior year, Ben Kevelson is developing flat panel speaker technology. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Here’s an example of how the Hajim School and our University provide great opportunities for our students.

When Ben Kevelson ’22 of audio and music engineering took an acoustics course taught by assistant professor Mike Heilemann, he asked if there were any projects he could help with over the summer. As a result, Ben spent last summer working full time in Mike’s lab on developing flat speaker technology that can function as acoustic and tactile interfaces—no external microphones or speakers needed.

Ben has continued to work on the project up to 10 hours per week this school year. He has now been accepted into our master’s program in electrical engineering and is working on the project this semester for both his senior design project and graduate research credit.

He is grateful for the opportunity to “get my hands dirty” with the project, Ben says. “It’s very different compared to other things that are research-based in audio.”

The idea of using panels as speakers has been around for nearly a century. “It never caught on because the sound quality was always much worse than that of conventional speakers,” Mike says. Ben is proud to be part of a research team that may finally make some noise in that field. Learn more about this exciting project.

DOTTIE WELCH AWARD

Past recipients of the Dottie Welch Award are Jennifer Condit, Barbara Dick, Cindy Fitzgerald, Taimi Marple, Rachel Monfredo, Dustin Newman, Lisa Norwood, and Dan Smith. Who will join the list this year? The Class of ’22 will decide.

Seniors: Has a Hajim School staff member had a positive impact on your experience as an undergraduate? Now is your chance to recognize that person’s hard work and dedication. Nominations for our Dottie Welch Student Enrichment Award are being accepted until this Friday, April 15. The award recognizes a staff member whose performance and dedication enriches the student experience in the tradition exemplified by Dottie, the former undergraduate coordinator of biomedical engineering, during her 25-plus years of service to students.

Here’s the list of eligible staff members. Please email the Hajim School Dean’s Office (hajimschool@ur.rochester.edu) with the name of the staff member you are nominating and a few sentences explaining why you think that person is deserving of the award.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPO

Several Hajim School undergraduates will give presentations and show their posters at the annual Undergraduate Research Exposition this Friday, April 15.  A Speakers Symposium of selected presentations will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Hawkins Carlson Room of Rush Rhees Library, starting with engineering and math presentations at 9 a.m. A poster session involving all participants will be held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the Feldman Ballroom of Douglass Commons, followed by an awards ceremony including Students’ Association Professors of the Year recipients. See more details here.

Please drop by if you have a chance to learn more about the exciting research being done by undergraduates from across the College and congratulate them on their hard work. A Virtual Poster Fair displaying the projects will be made public at 9 a.m. on Friday at ResearchExpo2022.virtualpostersession.org

ALUMNI UPDATE

“I know firsthand how challenging it is to only rely on cash,” says Anis Kallel ’17 (KEY), a computer science alumnus from Tunisia. “When I applied to the University and other U.S. colleges, it was a process to get them my applications and SAT scores. I had to travel to someone I knew who had a bank account. Then, I had to give that person cash so that he could use his account to pay for my information to get forwarded to each institution.”

In 2018, Anis cofounded a financial technology company called Kaoun, which means “universe” in Arabic. Anis, who is also CTO, chose the name to reflect his global aspiration to increase financial opportunities for the 1.7 billion people in the world who don’t use or have access to a bank account. Learn more here about how his undergraduate and KEY experiences helped him, the app his company is developing to help the ‘unbanked’ people of the world, and the “anti-fragile” mindset he recommends for budding entrepreneurs.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman