December 4, 2017
Dear members of the Hajim School community,
An exciting project to adapt battery-operated toys for use by children with special needs is ready to take its next step. A group of interested students, in partnership with the Hajim School and Golisano Children’s Hospital, have formed Toys for All Tots, and would appreciate donations of new or lightly-used battery-operated toys starting this Wednesday, December 6 through December 19. A collection box will be located on the first floor of Rettner Hall next to the Baja SAE display. This is a wonderful project. The ability to activate and use a toy can be a great incentive for children with special needs to develop other skills. Students will have an opportunity to participate in community-engaged learning. This could create opportunities for senior design projects. And this is a shining example of how our University seeks to engage with the Rochester community. Questions about the Toy Drive or about joining the group can be directed to Rachel Monfredo, lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and students Aasha Krishnan and Bryan Schellberg.
After one of the best competitive seasons ever for our Baja SAE team, “the design for this season’s car is coming along and manufacturing is rolling,” says team president Charles Patterson ’20 of biomedical engineering. He reports that for the first time Baja SAE will compete in all three off-road competitions to be held next spring against other universities. “Attending three competitions provides us the opportunity to improve our designs, learn from our competitors, and enable more members to experience all that Baja has to offer,” Charles writes. To help make this happen, the team is hoping to raise $15,000 during December. Click here to contribute, and here to see a team newsletter describing changes in this season’s car.
We have a new “Oscar” winner in our midst! Congratulations to Wyatt Tenhaeff, assistant professor of chemical engineering. His collaboration with a team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on a safer lithium ion battery for electric cars received one of this year’s R&D100 awards, also known as the “Oscars of Invention,” from R&D Magazine. The Safe Impact Resistant Electrolyte (SAFIRE) they developed causes the liquid electrolyte to solidify when a collision or other impact occurs, preventing risk of fire. Kudos as well to PhD student Brian Shen who spent time at Oak Ridge helping to develop the material. Read more here.
Congratulations as well to Plate Technologies team, which finished first in the 2017 Hult Prize @University of Rochester Quarterfinal Competition. The Hult Prize is the world’s largest social entrepreneurship competition. The team, including Dilshawn Gamage ’19 of biomedical engineering and data science, has come up with an alternative to open fire cooking for populations in developing nations: portable stoves powered by renewable energy sources. The team advances to a regional semifinal competition next March.
Dennis O’Donnell, director of communications in the Athletics Department, is compiling profiles of the University’s Division III sports champions, reliving their athletic achievements, but also catching up on what they’ve done since. Optics alumnus Alex Gaeta (’83, ’85M, ’91PhD), one of Professor Robert Boyd’s former PhD students and now the David M. Rickey Professor of Applied Physics and of Materials Science at Columbia, is among the champions being profiled. Alex teamed with Robert Swartout to win the Division III men’s doubles tennis championship in 1983. Read more here.
In a recent issue we mentioned that Optics graduate students and alumni had recently completed analysis of data gathered during cryogenic testing of the James Webb Space Telescope at Johnson Space Center. Renee Gracey, a ’90 graduate of the Institute, is a principal optical engineer at Ball Aerospace who has been involved in ground test systems for the telescope. Ball Aerospace designed and procured the beryllium mirrors, developed the wavefront sensing and mirror alignment systems, and built much of the optical test systems for the telescope.
The deadline to apply to the University’s NSF I-Corps Site program for the Spring 2018 cohort has been extended to Monday, December 11. This program, open to University undergrads, grad students, doctoral candidates, faculty, staff, and recent alumni, provides entrepreneurial training (two required workshops and biweekly meetings) and modest funding (up to $3,000 in a grant award) to enable teams to explore the market potential of their ideas through customer discovery interviews and the completion of a Business Model Canvas. Click here to apply. Contact Senior Program Manager Matt Spielmann at the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship with any questions.
Students can learn about the master of science program in technical entrepreneurship and management (TEAM) at an information session this Thursday, December 7, from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, 1-211 Carol Simon Hall. TEAM students take half of their courses in one of nine technical concentrations and half in specialized business courses at the Simon School. PhD candidates can earn the TEAM MS degree along the way to their PhD. RSVP to 276-3500 or via email, andrea.barrett@rochester.edu.
Have a great week!
Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman
