Postdoc from Gligorijevic lab wins early career research grant

by Sarah Frasca
March 03
When Ines Velazquez Quesada, a bioengineering postdoctoral fellow, first learned that she received the METAvivor's Metastatic Breast Cancer Early Career Research Grant Award, she did a double-take.  "I had to read it three, four times, then one week after I kept reading just to make sure it was true," Velazquez Quesada said. Velazquez Quesada's proposal, titled "Impact of the neuron-breast cancer cell interactions on the growth and survival of brain metastasis" is part of her research on metastatic breast cancer. The early investigator award will support two years of research. ...

Archibald Filshell, ENG, '88, named 2023 Delaware Valley Engineer of the Year by Engineers' Club of Philadelphia

by Eric Horvath
February 21
The Engineers' Club of Philadelphia announced that Archibald S. Filshill, Ph.D., 1988 graduate of Temple University College of Engineering, and chief executive officer of Aero Aggregates of North America, has been elected as the 2023 Delaware Valley Engineer of the Year. This distinguished award recognizes a standout local engineer who emulates the qualities and talents that define professional excellence, civic duty, society leadership and community stewardship. Filshill was selected by representatives of local, multi-disciplinary, engineering and technical societies and will...

Temple Engineering professor earns NSF CAREER Award for energy research

by Sarah Frasca
February 07
Liang Du, an electrical and computer engineering professor, was at the mall for Thanksgiving weekend when he received an email from the National Science Foundation explaining that his project proposal was being considered for funding."It felt unreal and exciting," he said.Now, Dr. Du is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award for his project "Redesign of Ancillary Services via Aggregation and Disaggregation of Information, Flexibility, and Capability."The Faculty Early Career Development Program seeks out early-career faculty who could be future academic role models and leaders in...

A big pitch in 90 seconds: Temple Engineering PhD student wins IEEE research competition 

by Sarah Frasca
January 31
Electrical and computer engineering doctoral student Nazia Rahman was awarded first place in the 2022 IEEE Sensors Conference Big Idea Pitch competition in Dallas, Texas, this past fall. Rahman pitched her research topic, "Identifying Benign and Malignant Breast Tumor Using Vibro-Acoustic Tactile Imaging Sensor," in 90 seconds at the conference. The project in development at Temple's Control, Sensor, Network, and Perception Laboratory aims to use a noninvasive smartphone-based system to capture images of mammary tumors and then process and characterize them. Mammograms are not...

Temple engineering students repair damaged watershed during Wellness Day

by Sarah Frasca
January 18
The Temple chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Engineers Without Borders tweaked their October Wellness Day experience, dedicating their time to environmental fieldwork.The crew replanted more than 50 trees along a tributary of the West Branch of Chester Creek after the area was clear-cut of trees during a PennDOT expansion project on U.S. Route 322. Student volunteers, like civil engineering major and co-president of Temple ASCE Caroline Merrill, dug holes, planted trees and added cages to protect them from wildlife."I participated because I knew it would...

Senior design team developing technology for visually impaired public transit users

by Sarah Frasca
December 07
In some ways, the odds were stacked against Chan Yoo, Wole Kiyesi and Mikell Williams from the start.The senior design team proposed creating a solution for transit riders experiencing visual impairments under advisor Dr. Fauzia Ahmad. However, the project called for at least four computer and mechanical engineering students with an understanding of machine learning. Yoo and Kiyesi are electrical engineering majors, and Williams studies civil engineering.As Chan Yoo told his teammates, "If we finish this project that really means we're built different."Their team was disrupted...

A brace with impact: senior design project focuses on support brace for dropped head syndrome

by Sarah Frasca
November 16
Bioengineering major Ciara O'Donohoe called it a "Grammy moment," when her team's senior design project earned top honors at the Fox School of Business "Be Your Own Boss Bowl."The project sought to improve upon the design for the Headmaster Collar, a neck brace that supports individuals with dropped head syndrome. The team—O'Donohoe, Grace Buckwalter, Elena Paoli, Lucy Eppert and Rachel Gouveia—are in the end stages of their design after being connected with a sponsor through the Temple University Prosthetics and Orthotics student professional organization. They...

Finance and flexibility: a student’s internship experience in data engineering 

by Sarah Frasca
October 24
For Olubukola Famuyiwa, the journey to his recent internship with FS Investments has been a winding one. The senior industrial and systems engineering major has lived in Long Island, Queens and Nigeria, attended community college and even pursued a career as a mechanic. One common thread remains from his engineering education and experience as a data engineering intern in a new field for him: flexibility.  Olu spent his summer focusing on data engineering as a technology intern at the South Philadelphia finance firm. There, he worked on a project focused on data access for...

Steppingstones to success: Temple Engineering welcomes high school students for hands-on summer lab experience 

by Sarah Frasca
October 12
This summer, a group of eager Philadelphia high school students interested in pursuing engineering in college got the chance at a bit of a head start, thanks to a new research and mentorship program.  The partnership between the Temple University College of Engineering and Steppingstone Scholars welcomed 17 high school students to engineering labs over July and August for a paid research experience. The aim, according to Jeremy Heyman of Steppingstone Scholars, was to open pathways to future opportunities and forge meaningful relationships between high school and college...

Paving pathways for Hispanic engineers through SHPE

by Sarah Frasca
September 20
Temple University has long been affiliated with The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), an association that empowers the Hispanic community to impact the world through STEM awareness, access, support and development. Now, Temple has been asked to join the new SHPE Academic Partnership Council. What is it and who does it help? Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the College of Engineering Shawn Fagan, Ed.D., (pictured right) explains.Temple University's College of Engineering recently joined the SHPE Academic Partnership Council. Can you describe what this...

Sparking progress Temple Formula Racing makes history at Michigan competition with team's first female driver behind the wheel.

by Sarah Frasca
August 30
Temple Formula Racing finished 29th overall and 17th in the endurance event out of about 100 teams at the recent Formula SAE competition in Brooklyn, Michigan. This represented the best overall result in the team's history, thanks to some key changes.The students designed a car with a smaller 10-inch wheel package in 2021 compared to the previous 13-inch wheel, and this year they shrunk its track width by 10 inches and its wheelbase to the minimum length.The team also pursued a renewed emphasis on inclusion, welcoming mechanical engineering major Lillian McEachen as the first...

Drive for decades: Cohen scholarship to support keeping Temple Formula Racing students behind the wheel

by Sarah Frasca
August 05
Of the 38 years of stories collected by Dr. Richard Cohen, retiring associate professor of mechanical engineering, one stands out as an example of engineering problem solving with students. It may have included the Temple Formula Racing team and a fiery mechanical failure.Though the team now competes in Formula SAE competitions, their first few cars were built for Baja SAE, a competition for small off-road cars. In their very first year, the team designed and built their car in a student's auto body shop. As they were leaving for competition—Dr. Cohen was already on his...

New NSF CAREER Award inspired by robotic teamwork

by Eric Horvath
August 04
As the saying goes, "there's no I in team," but there is one in robotics. And a new research award from the National Science Foundation will study how robots can work better as a team. Temple University College of Engineering assistant professor of mechanical engineering Philip Dames, PhD, recently secured a 5-year, $557,678 NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award to further study robotic coordination. According to Dames, the project takes inspiration from sports analytics, which quantifies contributions from individual players toward the team-level objective of...

Making his mark: a bioengineering student’s internship experience at the FDA

by Sarah Frasca
August 03
Prem Ganesh, a senior bioengineering student with a concentration in engineering devices, came to Temple from Collegeville, PA, pursuing studies that combine work in the medical field with engineering. He found the perfect balance at the Food and Drug Administration.This summer, he has taken on the role of an ORISE Summer Fellow for the CDER Biomarker Qualification Program at the FDA.Prem's project involves creating a database of biomarker submissions for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, a rare and advanced form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Biomarkers are ways...

Shoot for the stars: Temple Robotics aimed high at 2022 NASA Lunabotics competition

by Sarah Frasca
July 18
Temple Robotics dug its way to success at the 2022 NASA Lunabotics competition.The team collected 0.4kg of gravel at Kennedy Space Center this May, securing 35 out of 71 points for their overall score. The competition challenges collegiate robotics teams to engineer a robot capable of excavating the surface of the moon to collect gravel amongst BP-1, a lunar regolith simulant. Teams that mine at least 1 kg qualify for mining points, but very few teams achieved this. "Temple did very, very well," said John Helferty, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and...

Temple University engineering researchers seek answers on bone health in space

by Eric Horvath
July 12
For generations, the journey into space has been a primary focus of those who escape the gravity well of planet Earth. We have a good idea about the health effects of low gravity in low earth orbit (LEO), but what about the effects of living on a new planet?  A pair of Temple University researchers are pursuing that very question, and their work just may have good bones. Laura H. Carnell Professor and Bioengineering Department chair Peter Lelkes and newly-minted PhD Justin Braveboy-Wagner ecently published their joint work, studying how partial gravity...

Opinion: Philly’s poor waste management is environmental injustice

by Aliya Poblete and Gangadhar Andaluri
April 28
This weekend, students from the Temple University College of Engineering joined activist YaFav Trashman — former Streets Department employee Terrill Haigler — on his Earth Day trash pickup 5K event in Kensington. It is one thing to see the impact of trash and litter on neighborhoods through social media posts, but it is another experience entirely to glove up and grab a trash bag.While it was heartening to see the turnout of Philadelphians eager to pitch in, it also made us wonder: What if we weren't there? If we don't pick up trash, what does that mean for...

Robert Rashford, ENG, ‘82, to deliver alumni keynote at May graduation ceremony

by Eric Horvath
April 12
Aerospace leader Robert Rashford, ENG, '82, president and founder of Genesis Engineering Solutions, is scheduled to deliver the alumni keynote address to the Class of 2022 at the College of Engineering graduation ceremony on May 4th. Rashford began his career as a structural and test engineer for General Electric Space Division and Fairchild Space Company. He also served as Product Development Lead for the First Servicing Mission of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at Lockheed Martin. He would go on to found GES in 1993 to provide engineering and product development support of...

Prof. Vallorie Peridier honored with Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching

by Eric Horvath
March 24
Dr. Peter Cavallo was also recognized with the Part-Time Excellence in Teaching and Instruction Award.This week, mechanical engineering professor Vallorie Peridier, PhD, was honored alongside other standout Temple faculty with the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. As part of the program, Dean Keya Sadeghipour shared a story that came from Dr. Peridier to show just the kind of impact she has had on students over the years. After Dr. Peridier joined the faculty at the College of Engineering in 1989, she did so following seven years in industry and eager to impart that...