December 18, 2017

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Congratulations to 34 Hajim School students who have been initiated as members of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, the second oldest Greek-letter honor society. Engineering students of junior standing and higher are elected based on scholastic achievement and exemplary character. Our new members are all seniors except as noted:

Audio and music engineering: Jillian Donahue.

Biomedical engineering: Jeremy Deniega, Emily Grey, Andrew Hollomon, Harshita Narang, Chang Gui ’19, Amanda Hornick ’19, Chantelle Lim ’19.

Chemical engineering: Hyojeong Lee, Venice Magunga, Johanna Oasan, Yang Xue, Yifei Yan, Nikolas Angyal ’19, William Funkenbusch ’19, Preston Hollopeter ’19.

Electrical and computer engineering: Wentao Hu, Natalie Jara, Steffen Jensen, Theodore Reiss, Yiming Yang, Kelly Cheung ’19.

Mechanical engineering: Min A, Sean Boylan, Thomas Kittross, Zhongdi Liu, Meghan Patrick, Eric Pinsker-Smith, Muhammad Hadi ’19, Apoorva Khadilkar ’19, Benjamin Martell ’19, Desmond Wentling ’19, Haley Wohlever ’19.

Optical engineering: Ankur Desai ’19.

Congratulations as well to Wayne Knox, professor of optics, who has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Wayne has 50 U.S. patents and about 150 worldwide for his work in telecommunications, fiber optics, optical switching systems, and ultrafast lasers. Especially exciting is the potentially game-changing technique of correcting vision he co-invented with Krystel Huxlin, the James V. Aquavella Professor of Ophthalmology. The technique uses femtosecond lasers to noninvasively modify the cornea. It also works with contact lenses and intra-ocular lenses. Read more here about Wayne’s interesting career as a researcher and inventor, including the gadgets he built at home as a teen, and the first patent he received while an undergraduate here.

In an article in Nano Letters, James McGrath, professor of biomedical engineering, and Greg Madejski, a PhD student in the McGrath lab, describe a novel nanoscale device they developed with ultrathin layers to detect DNA biomarkers affiliated with disease. Their design, developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Ottawa, is ingenious. Special kudos to Greg for the remarkable illustrations and video (posted at the end of the Nano Letters article) he created to help explain the research. Read more here about how an accidental exhalation of breath provided Greg with an important insight.

The American Council of Engineering Companies of New York will award scholarships of $2,500 and $5,000 to undergraduate students intending to become consulting engineers. Deadline to apply is January 12. Click here to learn more.

Thanks to Mattel Inc. for donating 28 of their battery-operated toys to our Toys for All Tots student project. Students attended a workshop on Friday to learn how to adapt the toys so they can be used by special needs children at Golisano Hospital. New or lightly used battery operated toys can be dropped off at donation boxes on the first floor of Rettner Hall and at 201 Wilson Commons through tomorrow.

Two other worthy causes are hoping to raise money this month. Our Baja SAE team is accepting donations here to enable members to compete in all three off-road competitions to be held next spring against other universities. And donations of up to $25,000 to the Kevin P. Thompson Optical Design Innovator Award will be matched this month. The award fund, created by the Optical Society to recognize contributions to optical engineering, lens design, or metrology at an early career stage, was established in honor of the late scientist at The Institute of Optics. Read more here.

Due to the holidays, the next issue of Hajim Highlights will be January 8.

I wish all of you a joyous holiday season.

Have a great week,

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman