Schaefer School of Engineering and Science newsletter header
Schaefer School of Engineering and Science newsletter header


NEWSLETTER | JANUARY 2025

DEAN'S OFFICE

Welcome back to the 2025 Spring Semester!

  • Congratulations to the following faculty for achieving the nation's highest honors:
    • Victor Lawrence, ECE professor and senior research scientist, has been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Biden, joining luminaries like Grace Hopper, Gordon Moore and Steve Jobs among the recipients of our nation's highest honor for technological achievement. Dr. Lawrence was celebrated during a White House ceremony for revolutionizing global connectivity.
    • On January 15, President Biden awarded Nicholaus Parziale, ME Professor, and nearly 400 scientists and engineers the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.
 
  • Congratulations to the following faculty on their appointments:
    • Jennifer Kang-Mieler, BME Professor and Chair, was appointed to a five-year term as George Meade Bond Endowed Chair, effective January 1, 2025.
    • Hongbin Li, ECE Professor, was reappointed to a three-year term as Charles and Rosanna Batchelor Memorial Chair, effective January 1, 2025.
    • Eric Koskinen, CS Associate Professor, was reappointed to a three-year term as Charles Berendsen Associate Professor, effective September 1, 2024.
 
  • SES welcomes the following new faculty and staff:
    • Wenting (Tiffany) Li, CS Assistant Professor
    • Hongyuan Liu, CS Assistant Professor
    • Lisa Capestro, ECE Graduate Academic Advisor
    • James Manzella, ECE Office Manager (temp)
    • Reginald Merores, CEMS Office Manager
    • Tim Liddy, ME Academic Advisor
 
  • The 2025 Stevens Day of Giving will be held on Thursday, February 12. For 1,870 minutes the SES community, Inspired by YOU will rally together celebrating the many members of our community that come together to support Stevens and its students. Click here to learn more about how you can help spread the word and encourage others to give.
  • The next SES Networking Ideas and Exchange (NIEx) Forum will be held on Monday, February 3, from 12:00-2:00 p.m. in McLean 510. The theme for this session is Institution Initiatives in Research and Grant Development.
  • An induction ceremony into the Order of the Engineer will take place on Tuesday, May 20, from 4:00-6:00 p.m. in DeBaun Auditorium. Graduating Seniors receiving a Bachelor's of Engineering are the focus of this event and will receive an email invitation. Faculty and staff are invited to participate, as well. Please contact Dakota Van Deursen to confirm eligibility and schedule a ring sizing.
  • Summer Cureton-Gustave was promoted to SES Digital Marketing Manager, effective January 1, 2025.
 
  • Departmental Events
    • The 3rd Annual BME Day at Stevens will be held on Friday, February 7, from 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. in the UCC Tech Flex. Click here to learn more and register to attend.
    • CEOE Research Fair will be held on Wednesday, February 12, from 3:00-4:30 p.m. in the UCC Gallery. Click here for more information.
    • CS Carnival Open House will be held on Wednesday, February 12, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in Gateway South.

FUNDING NEWS

Nicholaus Parziale (ME)

Nicholaus Parziale, ME Professor and Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) recipient, received a  $1M award from The White House to advance the understanding of high-speed fluid mechanics.

A portrait of Nicholaus Parziale

Jinho Kim (BME)

Jinho Kim (PI), BME Assistant Professor, received a DoD award of $915K for his project “Leveraging Personalized Stem Cell Therapy to Overcome Airway Reconstruction,” with Mount Sinai as prime.

A portrait of Jinho Kim

Dibyendu "Dibs" Sarkar (CEOE)

Dibyendu "Dibs" Sarkar (PI), CEOE Professor & SCS Director; and Hadeer Saleh (Co-PI), CEOE Visiting Research Scholar, received a HUD award of $800K for their project “Lowering Lead Bioavailability in Residential Soils of Variable Physico-Chemical Properties using Sustainable In-Situ Treatment Methods. Phase-II: Validating under Scaled-up Field Conditions.”

A portrait of Dibyendu Sarkar

Yi Bao (CEOE) and Cheng Chen (CEOE)

Yi Bao (PI), CEOE Associate Professor, and Cheng Chen (Co-PI), CEOE Associate Professor and Nariman Farvardin Professor, received a DOE award of $500K for their project “Development of Wireless Artificial Intelligence-powered Multi-functional Fiber Optic Sensors for Hydrogen Production in Gasification-based Systems.”

Portrait of Yi Bao
A portrait of Cheng Chen

Jon Miller (CEOE)

Jon Miller (PI), DL & CEOE Research Associate Professor, and Laura Kerr (Co-PI), DL & CEOE Research Engineer, received an NFWF/TNC award of $421K for their project “NFWF Marsh Pipeline.”

A portrait of Jon Miller

Jae Chul Kim (CEMS)

Jae Chul Kim (PI), CEMS Assistant Professor, received a South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy award of $411K for his project “Low-Expansion Mid-Nickel Material for Ultra-Long Cycle Life,” with POSCO Future M Co. as prime.

A portrait of Jae Chul Kim

Jon Miller (CEOE), Matt Janssen (CEOE)

Jon Miller (PI), DL & CEOE Research Associate Professor; Laura Kerr (Co-PI), DL & CEOE Research Engineer; and Matt Janssen (Co-PI), DL & CEOE Research Assistant Professor, received a National Parks Service award of $200K for their project “Horseshoe Cove Marsh Loss Investigation.” 

A portrait of Jon Miller
A portrait of Matt Janssen

Annie Zhang (ME)

Annie Zhang (PI), ME Assistant Professor, received an NSF REU Supplemental award of $10K for her project “CAREER: Investigation of Thermal Transport in Moiré Pattern Structured Materials to Push the Extremes of Thermal Modulation.” 

A portrait of Annie Zhang
 

FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS

Sesha Sridevi Alluri (CCB)

Sesha Alluri, CCB Senior Lecturer, has received the New York Section of the American Chemical Society's 2024 Outstanding Full-Time Lecturer Teaching Award.

A portrait of Sesha Sridevi Alluri

Hongjun Wang (BME, CHI)

The work of Hongjun Wang, BME Professor & CHI Director, and his team was published on the cover page of Advanced Sensor Research (Vol. 4, Issue 1, January 2025). Read the article.

A portrait of Hongjun Wang

Zhaozhuo Xu (CS)

Zhaozhuo Xu, CS Assistant Professor, was selected for the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 2025 New Faculty Highlights, which recognizes outstanding AI researchers who have recently embarked on their academic careers as new faculty members. His talk, "Compression-Aware Computing for Scalable and Sustainable AI," will be featured at the 39th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

A portrait of Zhaozhuo Xu
 

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Port Authority of NY & NJ College Challenge Finalists

ME undergraduate students Adrien Susino, Dominic Souza, Christian Osowski, and Noah Golan; and ECE undergraduate students Mauricio Sanchez and Jared Surajballi; advised by Anthony Shupenko, CEOE Teaching Associate Professor, were selected as finalists for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 2024-2025 College Challenge for their project on "Vehicular Tunnel Catwalk Robotics." The team will receive a $10K grant to build a working prototype this coming semester and will also get an internship at PANYNJ this summer. The project involved designing an unmanned robot to patrol the catwalks in the Lincoln and other tunnels.

Portrait of the Best paper winner, the advisor and judges with Welcome SC24 in the background

Order of the Engineer Graduate Induction Ceremony

On Wednesday, December 4, 2024, the SES Office of Graduate Studies hosted its first graduate induction ceremony. Norman Eng ‘09 (M.Eng. in Systems Engineering) and 37 engineering graduate students were among the inductees honored.

A photo of SE student Mohamed Moghed with his family on stage
A photo of two students at the ceremony with their hands raised
A photo of two faculty members with the ring that says order of the Engineer

International Concrete Repair Institute Metro New York Scholarship Winners

CEOE master's students Julie Garry and Emily Leiby,  were each awarded the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) Metro New York Chapter $2.5K scholarships.

Portrait of Julie Garry
Portrait of Emily Leiby

2023/2024 NCNJ American Society of Highway Engineers Scholarship Winners

For two years in a row, CEOE undergraduate students won the first, second and third place scholarships of the NCNJ American Society of Highway Engineers, receiving a total amount of $11.5K per year. 

  • 2024 scholarship winners (pictured right):
    • Erin Zabriskie, 1st place, $5K
    • Faith Machionne, 2nd place, $3.5K
    • Odalys Perez, 3rd place, $3K
  • 2023 scholarship winners:
    • Robert Stepien Jr, 1st place, $5K 
    • Julie Garry, 2nd place, $3.5K
    • Jacob Wills, 3rd place, $3K
Portrait of Erin Zabriskie
Portrait of Faith Macchione
Portrait of Odalys Perez
 

Have you worked on an interesting project, or won an award or competition? 
Submit your student achievement to be considered for the next SES Newsletter. 

 

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS

Yi Bao and Jianmin Qu Secure $1M DOT Grant to Revolutionize Pipeline Safety and Integrity

This groundbreaking project aims to improve pipeline design and maintenance, reducing catastrophic incidents while enhancing the safety, reliability and resilience of energy infrastructure

A stock image of pipeline workers connecting two pieces of pipeline

Zining Zhu Helps Developers and Users Navigate 'Adversarial Helpfulness' in Artificial Intelligence

Stevens computer science researcher and his team are exploring the unreliability of AI models

A stock image of an AI chat bot with the words ''Hello! I am chatbot.''

NASA Awards Jacob Gissinger $206K to Study How Resins React at High Temperatures

From supporting safer space travel to helping build better cars and batteries, this research has astronomical potential to power breakthroughs in chemical engineering and materials science

A spaceship taking off

Detecting and Mitigating ‘Forever Chemicals’ With a Quantum Assist

EPA grants $1.5 million to four universities, including Stevens, to detect and degrade PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in soil and water using quantum and materials science techniques

Water drops with ''PFAS'' written inside them
MORE HIGHLIGHTS
 

EVENTS 

Abbreviation for February
Seventeen

President's Day — No Classes; Offices Closed

 

02/05/25: Stevens Faculty Meeting

 

02/07/25: BME Day

 

02/12/25: CEOE Research Fair

 

02/12/25: CS Carnival/Research Open House

 

02/12/25: Stevens Day of Giving

 

02/18/25: Monday Class Schedule

 

02/20/25: NIH Workshop

 

02/26/25: Ducks on Display: Faculty and Staff Remix

 

02/26/25: Annual Employee Recognition Ceremony

 

The archive of past SES Newsletters can be found here.

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