October 2018 Five10 Report

Todd M. Goolkasian '85, P.E., S.E., M.ASCE has won the 2018 ASCE Civil Engineering Entrepreneur of the Year Award for founding Cornerstone Structural Engineering Group, Inc., and his strategic business savvy as a top-notch entrepreneur who has made a tremendous impact within his community and within the civil engineering industry.

Meet the Interim Dean, Jon Strauss! The School of Engineering welcomes Jon Strauss, Ph.D., as the Interim Dean of the School of Engineering. Dr. Strauss brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his role, having led some of the nation’s most prestigious engineering programs. Read more.

Shawn Lange '06, mechatronics program graduate, is founder of L2F, Inc., a local robotics and automation services company recently recognized as being one of the fastest growing private companies in Silicon Valley: #4 on the “Fast Private” list and #11 on the SF Business Times list. 

SCU's Web Design and Engineering program was ranked #1 by 10 Best Design, the premier source for reviews and rankings in design. See the list of top ten U.S. programs here.

On Shun Pak (mechanical engineering) has received $338,440 in funding as a Co-Principal Investigator on a NSF-funded collaborative project between the University of Utah (the lead institution), University of Minnesota, and Santa Clara University to design new robotic devices that travel along pathways of the human body for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. More information.

Bioinnovation and Design Lab has 5 new corporate, medical, and NGO partners. The lab will collaborate with Cepheid, Jaipur Foot, Pediatric Wellness Group, Proteus Digital Health, Inc., and Varian Medical Systems on joint engineering design projects spanning a diverse array of technical challenges from diagnostics, prosthetics, and bio-wearable devices. Read more.

Bronco Undergraduate Engineering Alums: Your gift to the School of Engineering or to your engineering department can help unleash $1 million in funding for SCU STEM from the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation!! Please make a gift today, and choose your favorite engineering fund from the dropdown boxes!

Fall Engineering News is online now! Catch up on our undergraduate student researchers’ summer work, read about a new venture launched by one of our engineering Ph.D. alums and his SCU MBA colleague, and find out what our faculty were doing in Crete. These stories, and more, here.

Help us find our super-engineers! Nominate candidates (yourself, included!) for the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award (see past winners). The highest honor bestowed by the School, the DEA Award recognizes graduates whose accomplishments in their professions, communities, and/or University services have set them apart. Find criteria and nomination form here.

Ballots and Bots: Democracy in the Age of Data, Diverse Conversations and Perspectives on Past, Present, and Future.  All are welcome to attend this event bringing together specialists in technology, social scientists, and players to address cyber security, the influence of social media, and potential effects of fake news on our democracy. Come for the entire day, or drop in for a single session. Fri., Oct. 26, 9am-5pm, Locatelli Activity Center, Santa Clara University.  

Grace Hopper Celebration: SCU had 45 attendees at the world's largest gathering of women technologists: 30 female undergrads (3 with a GH scholarship), 14 female graduate students, and one computer engineering professor, Angela Musurlian. Two alumnae presented workshops: Shweta Panditrao '14, Google—Accessibility and Inclusive Design; and Aaraadhya Narra '14, M.S. '16, Nvidia—Research Topics in AI.

Lauren Oliver '18 (civil engineering)  wrote a blog post for Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, "5 Lessons Learned from Creating a Sector-Specific Accelerator Program." Lauren started working with the Miller Center as a Global Social Benefit Fellow in 2017. 

James Wang '19 (electrical engineering) has been selected by the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) as a 2018-19 IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative recipient for his potential to make an impact across the power and energy industry. Read more.

Silvia Figueira (Frugal Innovation Hub, computer engineering) is participating in a plenary panel at the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, Oct. 18-21, San Jose, (GHTC 2018) led by Kofi Taha, from MIT's D-Lab. Figueira is the current GHTC Technical Program Chair, and will be the Program Chair next year. She was also recently appointed Chair of IEEE SCV SIGHT—Santa Clara Valley, Special Interest Group for Humanitarian Technology.

IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC 2018): This week, 34 SCU students, advised by 9 faculty, are presenting 9 of the 78 papers at the international flagship conference on the application of technology to meet the needs of underserved populations around the world and in support of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG). Wow!

Jes Kuczenski (general engineering), with other members of the Committee on Lecturers and Adjuncts, received a Presidential Special Recognition Award for their work, which has influenced University policies and practices on behalf of SCU lecturers and adjunct faculty for many years. Members of this group have been instrumental in helping University leadership understand and develop responses to the important concerns of SCU lecturers and adjunct faculty.

Jeff Abercrombie '84 (civil engineering) of Fresno, CA, was a lead engineer on Caltrans' new Big Sur Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge redesign. Since the bridge was completed, Caltrans has been lauded for its successful effort and has received numerous awards for its work on the new span. 

Amin Ghafooripour was keynote speaker at the opening ceremony, and he and Reynaud Serrette (both civil, environmental, and sustainable engineering) were jurors for the first Silicon Valley International Invention Festival (SVIIF), organized by the Korea Invention Promotion Association, hosted by International Federation of Inventors' Associations, and supported by Santa Clara University.

Sarah Kate Wilson (electrical engineering), has received the prestigious Harriett B. Rigas Award from the IEEE Education Society. The award recognizes excellence in teaching, development of educational technology which enhances student learning, and active participation in encouraging increased participation of women in electrical and computer engineering. Read why she was selected here.

Engineers Without Borders: Jonathan Borst '19, David Gilbert '21, Isabella Morales '20, Sydney Thompson '19 (all mechanical engineering), Shiyin Lim '19 and Lauren Serfas '20 (both bioengineering), and advisor Tonya Nilsson (civil, environmental, and sustainable engineering) traveled to Rwanda this summer to assist EWB's partner tile-making cooperative, introducing a solar-powered cart for hauling clay. More about SCU EWB here.

Godfrey Mungal (mechanical engineering) with former Stanford President John Hennessy and the office of State Senator Jerry Hill, successfully worked to have a 5-mile stretch of the 101 Freeway dedicated to Frederick E. Terman, the father of Silicon Valley. The signs may be seen driving north past Shoreline Boulevard and driving south past Embarcadero Road.

Christopher Kitts (mechanical engineering) received SCU’s 2018 Brutocao Family Foundation Award for Curriculum Innovation. Cited for creating and revising numerous courses, Kitts was also instrumental in creating the popular Design Thinking Pathway and crafting the innovation, design, and entrepreneurship minor. Read more here.

Nam Ling (computer engineering) was named Guest Professor by Zhongyuan University of Technology (ZUT), China, on Aug. 20, 2018. In addition, he received renewal of his Distinguished Professorship (2018-2021) from Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications, China, in August, 2018.