FALL 2026

Warm regards,

Mandar Dewoolkar
Dean
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

Through the Richard Barrett Scholars Program, CEMS undergraduate students are putting classroom knowledge into action, tackling complex engineering challenges through hands-on research that connects innovation, sustainability, and community impact. For more than two decades, the Barrett Foundation's generosity and vision have empowered students to work alongside faculty mentors and industry professionals on meaningful, hands-on research with the potential to benefit communities in Vermont and beyond.

Congratulations to our 2026 Barrett Scholars: Eli Baer ’27, Emma Bergsten ’27, Piper Floyd ’28, Sophia Golub ’27, Jess McGovern ’27, Bryn Miller ’27, Bella Mowrer ’29, Caleb Quinn ’27, and Riley Shue ’27. We can't wait to see where their research leads!

Read more about their impressive projects

What happens when engineering students take what they've learned in CEMS classrooms into the world's most biodiverse cloud forests?

An independent team of undergraduate engineering students is developing autonomous water-monitoring stations to help conservation partners in Ecuador's biodiverse Intag region collect reliable environmental data. Their work supports local efforts to monitor water quality and protect vital ecosystems from potential impacts of mining.

With funding support from UVM’s Office of Fellowships, Opportunities, & Undergraduate Research (FOUR), mechanical engineering Master's student Gabe Johnson recruited an interdisciplinary team of undergraduate students, including Finn Duncan, Henry Myatt, Ginger Thralow, and Finn Dabish, to build multiple monitoring station prototypes before traveling to Ecuador to field-test their design.

Learn more about their unique project

CEMS welcomed local semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries to campus last month for a day of engagement with students, faculty, and staff.

The event kicked off with Stephan Grunow, GF Senior Director of Module Engineering at the company's Essex fabrication plant, presenting three student scholarships. As part of GF's ongoing commitment to developing workforce talent in the semiconductor industry, these annual scholarships support students enrolled in undergraduate degree programs in physics and electrical, mechanical, biomedical, or environmental engineering.

This year's recipients were seniors Matthew Fournier (Mechanical Engineering), Aiden McHugh (Electrical Engineering), and Aidan Weymouth (Mechanical Engineering).

Anna Grunes, a 2025 graduate of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Master’s program and current Fulbright Scholar in New Zealand, is the lead author of a new study published in the science journal Water Resources Research. The study shares an improved model developed by UVM-led researchers to better represent snowpack and snowmelt conditions found in the Northeast—and uses it to explore how snowpack and runoff may respond to changing temperature and precipitation.

Read more about the recent study

This summer, middle- and early high school students got to try engineering for themselves at CEMS Engineering & Design Camps. In the FabLab, MAKERS I campers used 3D modeling and rapid-prototyping tools to build and test model cars powered by mousetraps. At the Robotics Design and Testing Camp, students learned how microprocessors work and designed robotic devices to meet a challenge. Thanks to the camp leaders and student counselors who made room for curiosity, experimentation, and plenty of hands-on learning.

Learn more about our Summer Camp programs

UVM’s newest supercomputer, IceCore, is here—ushering in a new era of discovery across campus. With 100 petaflops of GPU power—a 25-fold increase over previous capacity—IceCore will transform research at UVM, enabling breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, medicine, computational modeling, robotics, climate studies, and more. As part of the Vermont Advanced Computing Center’s (VACC) mission to drive high-impact, multidisciplinary research and academic opportunities, IceCore is more than a technology upgrade—it’s a catalyst for collaboration.

Across CEMS, faculty researchers such as Nick Cheney, Juniper Lovato, Peter Dodds, Josh Bongard, and Laurent Hébert-Dufresne are harnessing the power of IceCore to advance groundbreaking studies and further enhance the undergraduate and graduate student research experience.

Learn more about their research and the power of IceCore 

What determines whether a leading journal accepts a scientific paper?

New research from Mathematics and Statistics Assistant Professor Sam Zhang offers an unprecedented look inside that process—and fittingly, the study has now been published in Science Advances, one of the very journals it examined.

In collaboration with researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, Zhang analyzed more than 110,000 manuscript submissions to Science and Science Advances, shedding new light on the editorial and peer review processes that help shape scientific discovery. The study found that factors such as team size, institutional prestige, geography, and research topic are associated with publication outcomes at elite journals, offering new insight into a process that has long remained largely hidden.

Zhang is pictured here with members of his Science and Humanity Lab.

Read more about Zhang's research

This year, Computer Science Professor Laurent Hébert-Dufresne was honored with two prestigious awards from the international network science and complex systems community.

At the  German Physical Society (DPG) annual meeting this past March, Hébert-Dufresne received the Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics. Awarded annually to a scientist under 40, the honor recognizes “outstanding original contributions that use physical methods to develop a better understanding of socio-economic problems.”

Last month, the Network Science Society (NetSci) named Hébert-Dufresne the 2026 recipient of the Erdős–Rényi Prize. Widely regarded as the field’s top honor for early-career researchers, the Erdős–Rényi Prize is awarded annually to a young scientist for “outstanding achievements in network science and contributions to the interdisciplinary development of the field.”

How do physical forces shape the way our cells behave—and why do some cellular changes persist long after those forces are gone? 

Those are some of the questions driving Assistant Professor Kaitlin McCreery’s Multiscale Bioengineering Lab at UVM. Bringing together engineering, physics, and molecular biology, McCreery and her students are investigating how cells interact with their physical environments—and how those interactions can influence health and disease.

Recently named an Allen Institute Next Generation Leader, McCreery is building an interdisciplinary research program alongside PhD students Libby Murphy, Audrey Clay-Streib, and Chaoran Yang. Their work spans fibrosis, collective cell behavior, and the assembly of collagen networks—all contributing to a deeper understanding of how our tissues function, heal, and respond to disease.

Read more about McCreery's Multiscale Bioengineering Lab

The UVM research team, led by CEE associate professors Kristen Underwood and Matthew Scarborough, will use advanced computational modeling, machine learning, and environmental engineering to better understand how PFAS move through Vermont ecosystems and pose risks to human and environmental health.

The UVM project is part of the recently established PFAS Environmental Research Network (PERN), a statewide initiative formed by Bennington College faculty member Tim Schroeder and funded through a four-year, $7.9 million award supported by the National Science Foundation's EPSCoR Research Incubators for STEM Excellence (E-RISE) program.

Joining the CEMS researchers are Associate Professor Bindu Pannikar in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, and Professor Jana Kraft in UVM's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Learn more about this exceptional collaboration

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jihong Ma has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for her groundbreaking research in quantum-inspired vibration control. Along with her team of undergraduate and graduate researchers in the Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Dr. Ma is exploring how principles from quantum mechanics can help engineers better control vibrations in structures like bridges, aircraft, buildings, and even microelectronics—leading to safer, more resilient infrastructure and technologies. By studying vibrations as waves and designing advanced metamaterials that can localize and measure those vibrations in real time, her research could transform the future of dynamic control systems across industries.

Learn more about Ma's research

A landmark new study by Vermont Complex Systems Institute Director and Professor of Computer Science Peter Dodds and a team of UVM researchers challenges decades of conventional thinking about how language works.

Published last month in Science Advances, the study reveals that human language isn’t primarily organized around emotion—as widely believed for more than 70 years—but instead around something even more fundamental: the need for safety. By analyzing billions of words across real-world texts, the researchers found that language consistently favors safety-related expressions over danger-related ones, suggesting communication may be deeply rooted in our need to navigate risk, signal stability, and support survival.

Along with Dodds, who served as senior author, the study features contributions from an interdisciplinary group of UVM researchers, including postdoctoral fellow Julia Zimmerman; Assistant Professor of Computer Science Juniper Lovato; postdoctoral associate Shawn Beaulieu; VCSI data research engineer Michael V. Arnold; and Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Chris Danforth.

Read more about the new study

A trio of CEMS researchers is part of an interdisciplinary team that won the Gund Institute for Environment's inaugural Impact Award.

The funding will support an expansion of their ongoing project to bring cheaper, cleaner energy to Alaska’s Northwest Arctic Borough—one of the coldest and most remote communities in the United States.

Associate professor Mads R. Almassalkhi and postdoctoral associate Jayashree Raharam Yadav (pictured) in the Electrical and Computer Engineering program, along with civil and environmental assistant professor Kathryn Hinkelman, are part of the winning team, which includes associate professor Bindu Panikkar from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

Learn more about their winning project

This spring, Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Marilyn J. Cipolla was awarded the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)—making her the first UVM researcher to receive this prestigious national honor. Dr. Cipolla is also a professor of neurological sciences at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine and holds joint appointments in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences and pharmacology.  

The Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award is a highly competitive, seven-year research grant awarded to scientists who have demonstrated exceptional excellence and productivity in NINDS-supported neurological research. The award—totaling up to $4.7 million—will support Dr. Cipolla’s pioneering work on how the brain regulates blood flow and how conditions such as high blood pressure damage cerebral blood vessels. 

Read the announcement from the Larner College of Medicine

Artificial intelligence has extraordinary promise—and raises big questions. Computer Science Professor Josh Bongard explored both in a lively opening talk for UVM’s Presidential Lecture Series, taking the audience through AI’s evolution, capabilities, and challenges. As director of the Morphology, Evolution & Cognition Laboratory, Bongard works with student researchers to study how form and evolution shape intelligence. His pioneering work includes AI-designed xenobots, described as the world’s first living robots, and has made him a prominent voice in conversations about AI’s future.

Senior capstone projects bring together years of coursework and hands-on lab experience. CEMS engineering teams recently shared early ideas with visiting College Advisory Board members and received valuable feedback as they prepare to tackle their capstone challenges. 

All CEMS majors complete an applied, project-based culminating experience, commonly known as a capstone, during their senior year. These projects can range from working alongside a community organization to develop a new data analytics dashboard to creating physical prototypes for an industry partner. We are grateful to our Advisory Board members for sharing their expertise and helping guide the next generation of engineers as they bring these innovative projects to life.

Learn more about CEMS senior capstone programs

A collaboration between the Vermont Research Open-Source Program Office (VERSO), Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships, Center for Rural Studies, and the Vermont State Data Center, the newly launched Vermont Data Collaborative (VDC) initiative is designed as a tool for municipalities to find the data they need to tackle issues from housing and conservation to community health and well-being.

Using the Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA) program that VERSO Director Kendall Fortney created to hire and train students to serve as consultants on time-intensive public data projects, the VDC initiative aims to host, translate, and package data into user-friendly reports and help local communities better understand their needs.

Learn more about the Vermont Data Collaborative

CEMS faculty and staff joined our visiting Advisory Board for an insightful seminar on the “Expectations for AI Literacy in the STEM Workplace.” The panel featured industry leaders at the forefront of technology, data, and artificial intelligence: Christopher Tar, Software Engineering Manager at Google DeepMind; Artur Adib, Head of Embedded AI at Beta Technologies; Ezra Hall, Senior Director of the Aerospace, Defense and Critical Infrastructure End Market at GlobalFoundries; and Zachary Rivers, Director of Health Systems Data and Analytics at the Green Mountain Care Board.

Moderated by Computer Science Associate Professor Nick Cheney, the discussion covered a broad range of AI-related topics, from the rapidly evolving skill sets desired by today’s high-tech industries to how leading research universities like UVM can adapt to meet that demand.

More than 200 K–12 students have visited UVM’s STEM complex so far this year for physics demonstrations that bring science to life. Physics Professor Luke Donforth and lab technicians Patrick Charron and Sam Beauchemin tailor activities to students’ ages, including demonstrations on cloud formation and static electricity. The visits give young learners a chance to ask questions, see surprising results, and glimpse the science happening at UVM.

Read more about a recent outreach program

Mechanical Engineering Professor and Department Chair Michael J. Leamy has received a $350,000 National Science Foundation award to study how waves travel through structures joined together from multiple parts. Working with a team from Rice University, the researchers hope to develop new analytical and experimental approaches to understanding these connections. 

Congratulations to Linda Schadler, UVM’s Interim Provost and Senior Vice President, on being selected for the prestigious Materials Research Society’s 2026 Woody White Service Award. The award recognizes sustained service and contributions to the materials research community. A materials scientist, member of the National Academy of Engineering, and former CEMS dean, Schadler has advanced research, engineering education, and cross-disciplinary collaboration throughout her career.

Mechanical Engineering Senior Lecturer and the director of the Senior Experience in Engineering Design (SEED) capstone program, Keith Epstein, has been named one of this year’s recipients of UVM's Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award.

The prestigious award recognizes faculty members for their excellence in teaching undergraduate courses, including creating an environment conducive to and encouraging learning.

New research from CEE Associate Professor Gregory Rowangould, director of UVM’s Transportation Research Center (TRC), is advancing our understanding of transportation-related air pollution and environmental equity across the United States.

In a recently published study, Rowangould and his colleagues—including TRC research analyst Clare Nelson and recent TRC postdoctoral scholar Brittany Antonczak—provide the most comprehensive and spatially detailed analyses of traffic-related emissions ever conducted. 

A research project developed by Mechanical Engineering Lecturer Alireza Fath and Professor Dryver Huston has been awarded advanced hardware and computing resources to support AI research by the NVIDIA Academic Grant Program.

Their winning proposal focused on developing next-generation AI and robotic technologies to inspect and monitor critical infrastructure, including bridges, underground utilities, and other built environments.

Physics Research Professor Larry Medsker was recently featured in the Shelburne News for his work as editor and contributor to the new AI and Ethics Handbook, as well as his long-standing contributions to advancing conversations about responsible AI. The handbook brings together experts from around the world to explore AI's impacts across disciplines and aims to help professionals navigate a rapidly changing technological landscape.

The Computer Science Department is hosting its first High School AI Coding Challenge, Catamount Cubs Code! No coding or AI experience is required. Participants will receive instruction and mentorship from Computer Science faculty throughout the event.

Open to any high school junior or senior, participants need only bring a laptop or Chromebook and their creativity. With up to $1,750 in prizes on the line, students can compete individually or in teams to use AI to tackle a real-world Vermont challenge.

The free event will take place following the annual Computer Science Fair (12:00-3:00 p.m.) on Friday, December 11, from 3:00-6:00 p.m. in UVM's Davis Center. Registration opens on Monday, November 2 and closes on December 2.

Learn more about the Catamount Cubs Code event

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