November 27, 2023

(University of Rochester composite image / J. Adam Fenster)

The Department of Mechanical Engineering recently revamped two upper-level lab courses to incorporate modern engineering methods and scale to meet growing enrollment demands. Led by chair and professor Renato Perucchio, the department consulted with its program advisory board composed of industry-connected alumni about ways to build a stronger foundation for students in applied engineering methods.

Students in Professor Douglas Kelley‘s ME 240: Fundamentals of Instrumentation & Measurement class and Associate Professor Jessica Shang’s ME 241: Mechanics Laboratory are now benefiting from revitalized procedures and new gear including thermal cameras and thermocouples, microphones and ukuleles, launchers, strain gauges, amplifiers, motors, controllers, and data acquisition equipment.

“The entire overhauling process proved the importance of the interaction between our program advisory board and the faculty,” says Renato. “Their input during the initial stages of creating the new ME 240 lab course helped us quite a bit in selecting the labs and the experiments which would be consistent with the needs of modern industry.”

Check out the revamped labs on the News Center.

GIDS SEED FUNDING PROJECTS

Top row left to right: Matthew McCall, Yuhao Zhu, Zhiyao Duan, Pablo Postigo, and Benjamin Miller. Bottom row left to right: Michael Huang, Tong Geng, Kaave Hosseini, Daniel Stefankovic, and Anson Kahng

The Goergen Institute for Data Science (GIDS) announced seed funding awards for seven collaborative projects for the 2023-2024 year. The goal is to support projects that could eventually attract major external funding, with a particular focus on work aligned with data science research priorities.

As always, the projects showcase an exciting array of interdisciplinary work. This year’s principal investigators and project titles include:

• Matthew McCall, associate professor of biostatistics: Estimation of Cancer-Relevant Gene Regulatory Networks from Perturb-Seq Data
• Yuhao Zhu, assistant professor of computer science: Energy and Carbon Footprint Modeling of Visual Computing Systems
• Zhiyao Duan, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science: Language Guided Audio Source Separation
• Pablo Postigo, professor of optics, and Benjamin Miller, professor of dermatology, biochemistry and biophysics, biomedical engineering, and optics: Enhancement of Sensitivity and Yield in Integrated Optical Biosensing by Machine Learning
• Michael Huang, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Tong Geng, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science: Nature-Based Dynamical Systems for Energy-Efficient Neural Rendering
• Kaave Hosseini, assistant professor of computer science, and Daniel Stefankovic, professor of computer science: Investigating the Power of Partial Learning vs Total Learning
• Anson Kahng, assistant professor of computer science and data science, and Nikhil Garg (Cornell Tech): Fairer and More Accurate Large Language Models via Social Choice and Crowdsourcing

Go to the GIDS website for more information about these projects.

TAU BETA PI’S NEWEST INITIATES

(Photo provided)

Congratulations to the 26 students who were initiated into Tau Beta Pi this fall. Rochester’s chapter of the national engineering honor society was founded in 1957 and is active both on campus and in our local community.

Please join me in congratulating the following students who were initiated at a ceremony earlier this month:

• Megan Bell ’25 BME
• Ilaria Benciolini ’25 BME
• Paul Berggren ’25 ECE
• Colin Blake ’24 ECE
• Anna Boyd ’24 AME
• Noah Bryan ’25 AME
• Ivy Chang ’25 BME
• Rebecca Choi ’24 CHE
• Elena Dapi ’25 BME
• Lindsey Deng ’24 AME
• Anjeli Estrada Alvarez ’25 ME
• Peri Fogel ’24 CHE
• Natalie Fullerman ’24 OPE
• Tim Guida ’25 BME
• Linbo Jing ’24 OPE
• Steven Kang ’25 ME
• Yunji Kim ’25 AME
• Justin Landis ’25 CHE
• Sicheng Qian ’25 ME
• Kendall Smith ’24 OPE
• Allie Tay ’25 BME
• Calvin Tourangeau ’24 ME
• Gavin Wong ’25 BME
• Ashlynne Xavier ’25 BME
• Wendy Zimmerman ’24 BME
• Aiyinsi Zuo ’24 ECE

COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENT SHARES HER PATHWAY TO RESEARCH

(Photo provided)

A Hajim School computer science student recently shared her path to research and how she found her niche enhancing online communication for people with Parkinson’s. Adira Blumenthal ’23 (computer science), ’24 T5 was featured in a recent Q&A for the Computing Research Association’s (CRA) Student Pathways into Research in Computing series.

Adira discusses how she found her way to the HCI lab co-led by Associate Professor Ehsan Hoque and Assistant Professor Zhen Bai. She said Rochester stood out when she was a prospective student because of the HCI lab’s focus on assistive technologies.

“I always knew that my area of interest in computer science was assistive technology,” she says. “I needed to explore beyond the standard curriculum to delve into this truly. In choosing a college, I prioritized institutions with a strong emphasis on human-computer interaction, especially around accessibility.”

Read more about Adira’s path on the CRA website.

BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITY FORUMS

Join Kathleen Gallucci, VP for Human Resources, and Joe Testani, Deputy to the President, at noon on Friday, December 1 for a discussion forum about the University’s Boundless Possibility 2030 strategic plan. An overview of the plan will be followed by a conversation with Gallucci about our commitment to faculty and staff success. Members of the University community are invited to join the discussion and ask questions. It is free and open to all staff, faculty, and students but registration is required.

Another discussion forum takes place December 15. Visit the schedule for a full list of upcoming forums.

 DESIGNING YOUR LIFE

Students interested in adding an elective to their schedules in the spring may want to consider Designing Your Life (CASC 104), a 1-credit 8-week course that applies design thinking to career exploration.

Design thinking is a productive way of testing ideas to evaluate and refine goals. The course takes students through defining their current career thinking, ideating new ideas, prototyping by talking to people and researching, and testing their ideas.

The engineering-specific course section is CASC 104-9, which meets Fridays from 11:50-1:05. The course is open to all class years.

EXPLORE THE COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL OF YOUR OPTICS AND PHOTONICS IDEAS

The Ain Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation recently shared an interesting opportunity for researchers in optics and photonics interested in commercializing a technology they’ve developed. The IN I-Corps Hub is currently accepting applications for a Regional Course, running from January 8 to February 9, 2024. Teams will have the unique chance to develop their entrepreneurial skills, as well as conduct customer discovery research to gauge the need for their technologies in the current market.

This is a hybrid course; the majority will be held online, but there is a group trip to the SPIE Photonics West Conference in San Francisco. Travel reimbursements will be provided. Email I-Corps for more information and submit an application form by December 13.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman