Opinion l Infrastructure bill helps put Philadelphia on solid ground.

by Ahmed Faheem & Xiaonan Lu
November 23
Now that President Biden has signed the $1 trillion dollar infrastructure package into law, much of the news coverage has been on the perceived enormity of the investment. While $1 trillion is substantial, continuing to ignore our infrastructure comes at a far greater cost. A report published earlier this year by the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that our nation's aging infrastructure, coupled with continued disinvestment, would cause "the loss of $10 trillion in GDP and lead to a decline of more than $23 trillion in business productivity cumulatively over the...

Creating a cough to study pathogen transmission 

by Eric Horvath
November 17
Autumn is the season of the nagging cough. That stubborn tickle in the back of your throat that is often the sign of an incoming cold or flu. Then why on Earth would anyone want to create a cough simulator? One senior design team hopes to create one such device to help reproduce the human cough, focusing on pathogen transmission from patients to healthcare workers through droplet exposure—an issue that has become acutely more important in the age of COVID-19. "We hope to improve the efficacy of personal protective equipment (PPE) and provide a system that can be useful...

Making their mark: Temple engineering students win CARAS grant for antimicrobial coating research

by Eric Horvath
October 20
Two Temple undergraduate engineering students are putting their fingerprints on researching high-touch surfaces in their own way.Powered by a Creative Arts and Scholarship grant from Temple and working with mechanical engineering professor Dr. Dmitriy Dikin, Celine Miro and Patrick Case are investigating the mechanical properties of antimicrobial paints and coatings available for commercial applications. The primary focus is on products containing silver and graphene ions and coatings applied to high traffic surfaces and exposing them to common bacteria such as E. Coli,...

The green team: engineering students use campus to inform design for green roof

by Eric Horvath
October 12
As main campus has continued to transform in recent years, Temple outlined an ambitious but necessary goal as part of its updated Climate Action Plan released in 2019: becoming carbon neutral by 2050. A key component of this push? Retrofit current buildings and communal spaces to incorporate updated sustainability features, such as green roofs. Green roofs aim to provide better stormwater management and improve temperature efficiency within the building are coupled with lush greenery—equal parts form and function. Many Temple schools and colleges began work to support the...

Jordan Langston awarded prestigious NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship 

by Eric Horvath
October 08
The award will focus on Langston's work on developing novel computational and omic approaches to investigate endothelial cell dysfunction in sepsis. Ph.D. bioengineering student Jordan Langston was recently honored with the prestigious F31 National Research Service Award (NRSA) Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. The three-year award will allow Langston to continue his work with Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Mohammad Kiani, on studying sepsis, a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by the body's dysregulated host response to an infection. Langston plans to...

New interdisciplinary course aims to track & tame cyber threats 

by Eric Horvath
September 16
In the wake of Hurricane Ida—among the debates on climate change and disinvestment in infrastructure—lies another reminder: the fragility of critical systems is not confined to natural disasters. Threats can materialize from the digital space to impact many of the same systems. A recent partnership between faculty at the College of Engineering, College of Science...

Temple bioengineering professor Ruth Ochia named to IAspire Leadership Academy

by Eric Horvath
September 02
The national program aims to help STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds ascend to leadership roles Ruth Ochia, Professor of Instruction, was recently named a fellow in the third cohort of the IAspire Leadership Academy, a leadership program aimed at helping STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds ascend to leadership roles at colleges and universities. The academy is part of the Aspire Alliance's Institutional Change Initiative, which the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the University of Georgia lead. "Dr. Ochia has already...

Welcome back: let's get to work

by Dean Keya Sadeghipour
August 17
To the Temple Engineering community,As we prepare to welcome the newest class of Temple students this fall, I wanted to reiterate the university's recent message about keeping our communities safe. Whether you are a current student, faculty, staff, alumni or friend of the college, please refer to the latest university guidance when coming to campus. While there is much to look forward to, as all of us seek to nurture this fragile return to a robust on-campus experience, the pandemic is still present. However, this should also ground us in the importance of engineering. The...

Shifting the solar paradigm

by Eric Horvath
August 13
How one researcher's solar research seeks to support the power grid.To some, the phrase solar power is an oxymoron at worst or a big ask, at best. How can science expect to harness sunlight to become a key player in the global sustainability matrix, nudging past non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuels? Sometimes, engineering can be aided by a sense of service with a healthy dash of audacity. Maybe that is necessary.When speaking with Dr. Xiaonan Lu and his student and postdoc researchers in his Advanced Power Electronics (APECS) group, the sense of purpose is...

The future of fat: Discussion with Dr. Evangelia Bellas on her NSF CAREER Award

by Caroline Stepchuk
July 30
Dr. Evangelia Bellas was recently awarded the prestigious NSF CAREER research award, which supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as an academic role model in research and education. She is the fourth College of Engineering faculty member since 2019—and the first bioengineering assistant professor—to win the NSF CAREER award. In this particular proposal, both for the research and educational portion, Dr. Bellas put the focus on fat. On the research side, Dr. Bellas proposed how blood and lymphatic vessels in fat tissue can support or hinder...

Sweet success: one mechanical engineering student’s internship experience with Hershey

by Eric Horvath
July 23
What do calculus and chocolate have in common? Ask Emma Lazar.Originally from Dillsburg, a small farm town near Harrisburg, Emma took to calculus and first majored in physics at Temple. After joining Temple Formula Racing, she shifted her focus to mechanical engineering. "I loved the stuff I was doing," she said, adding that hands-on experience is something she hopes to pursue with her career—and she is doing just that as a mechanical engineering plant intern with Hershey. "I work for the plant packaging engineer, so all my projects revolve around packaging automation,"...

Acting globally: Two Temple Engineering teams makes it to finals of EWB Engineering for People Design Challenge

by Eric Horvath
July 20
Two teams of Temple engineering students landed in the final round of eight teams in the recent Engineers Without Borders global competition, Engineering for People Design Challenge. The contest challenged undergraduate teams to broaden their awareness of the social, environmental and economic implications of their engineering solutions, with finalists invited to pitch their ideas to a panel of industry experts. Both teams focused on water solutions for residents of Lobitos and Piedritas, communities in northern Peru: one Temple team looked skyward for their solution by...

Making space: Allyse Andrews recognized with Philadelphia Women in Construction award

by Eric Horvath
June 11
Like most engineering students, Allyse Andrews wants to know how things work. Originally, she came to Temple as a Biology major before turning to Engineering Technology. Recently, the Northeast Philadelphia native was recognized by the Philadelphia chapter of Professional Women in Construction with the Student Recognition Award. "I wanted to be a medical examiner, but it wasn't for me," she said. "Once I became more acclimated to Temple, I began to make friends with people in NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers) and that influenced me." Though Allyse was connected to...

Shifting service: Temple Engineers Without Borders connected to a local project during COVID-19

April 21
In a year where travel opportunities have largely been diminished by the pandemic, Temple's Engineers Without Borders shifted its focus to make an impact closer to home. In fall of 2020, the group finalized documentation of its most recent international trip, 3,200 or so miles away in Saccha, Peru, after completing a multi-year project to bring clean water to the village. Their next partnership brings them about just five miles from Main Campus, to South Philadelphia.Philadelphia Engineers Without Borders worked with the Temple student chapter and VietLead, a South Philadelphia...

Before joining Comcast, Michael Sydnes, ENG, '21, to speak at Engineering Commencement

by Eric Horvath
April 16
With the College of Engineering Spring 2021 Commencement ceremony around the corner, the roster of speakers is coming together. Student speaker Michael Sydnes, an electrical and computer engineering major from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, counts three older siblings as Temple alumni, including his sister Abby Sydnes, ENG, '17, a product manager at Comcast who was recently named to the Temple 30 Under 30's 2021 cohort.As Michael wraps up his team's senior design project—launching a high-altitude balloon that will travel 100,000-120,000 feet, measuring carbon dioxide content as...

Better together: Meet Temple’s newest Goldwater Scholar

April 07
It was the achievement that almost didn't happen.Last year, after Leo Battalora, Class of 2021, who was studying electrical engineering with a computer engineering concentration, had begun his application for the coveted Goldwater Scholarship—one of the most prestigious undergraduate STEM awards—the humble native of Germany considered dropping out of the running."Leo thought he didn't have enough research experience to make him competitive," recalled Barbara Gorka, director of Scholar Development and Fellowships Advising at Temple. A few days later, Gorka started...

Temple club partners with local school to build a puppy prosthetic prototype

April 06
On Feb. 23, Temple Prosthetics and Orthotics club (TemPO) hosted part one of their second annual Puppy Prosthetic Build. The event, which was held virtually this year and livestreamed to the general public, showcased the partnership between TemPO and high school students from Tower Hill School, an independent school in Delaware. Both groups are working virtually to build a prototype to assist pets that have limited mobility of the hind legs.Last year, the club worked on a similar project to create a prototype for an actual dog, and the event was documented on Temple's YouTube...

Dr. Mohammad F. Kiani honored with Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching 

by Eric Horvath
April 05
Dr. Mohammad F. Kiani, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was recognized with the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching recently, as part of Temple's annual celebration of faculty achievement. The awards recognize faculty in the areas of teaching, service, creativity and research, and are the highest honors given to teachers and scholars at the university."Since coming to Temple in 2004, Dr. Kiani has been a true force at the College of Engineering, both as a talented researcher and educator who is fiercely dedicated to our students," said Keya Sadeghipour, Dean of the...