Members of the FlashFood team include (left to right) Jake Irvin, Loni Lehnhardt, Eric Lehnhardt, Katelyn Keberle, Steven Hernandez and Ramya Baratam. Mary Hannah Smith is not pictured. Photo: Jessica Slater/ASU

Posted May 17, 2013

FlashFood, the entrepreneurship team of current and former Arizona State University engineering, business and sustainability students, recently finished a close second in national voting for Inc. Magazine’s Coolest College Startup of 2013.

The team was one of 12 student startup ventures from around the country to be selected to vie for the public’s votes that were cast through Inc. Magazine’s website.

FlashFood emerged in part from the Engineering Projects in Community Service program (EPICS) in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The team created a mobile-phone application to help develop a network to collect donations of surplus food from restaurants, banquet halls and catering services and deliver it to communities with people in need.

The mobile app is designed for use in establishing communications between food donors, collectors and community distribution centers to get food to people in need in a timely fashion.

A pilot operation is now being tested with participation from two food donors – a dining hall and an organic juice company – and two community centers serving as food distribution sites. To date, the operation has collected and delivered more than 600 meals.

FlashFood team members are ASU graduates Eric Lehnhardt (biomedical engineering), Steven Hernandez and Ramya Baratam (computer science), Jake Irvin (marketing and sustainability), Loni Lehnhardt (sustainability), Mary Hannah Smith (sustainability and global studies) and senior materials science and engineering major Katelyn Keberle.

The team’s selection to compete in the Inc. Magazine contest is only the latest step in the endeavor’s progress.

In April, FlashFood members competed in the Rice Business Plan Competition at Rice University in Houston, winning $700 to help fund the startup.

Some team members also traveled to Boston for a workshop organized by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance E-Team Program. As one of 40 teams from around the country selected to participate, FlashFood received $5,000 in travel and venture capital funding. The workshop focused on development of business models and strategies.

Finishing high in the Inc. Magazine contest brings valuable exposure to FlashFood. “Every time you have an event like this, you get fresh contacts, and in this case we met a lot of people in the Phoenix area who can become a part of our program,” Eric Lehnhardt says.”

It’s one more in a string of accomplishments that includes:

• First place at the 2012 U.S. Microsoft Imagine Cup competition
• Best in Showcase at the 2012 YUM! Global Sustainability Challenge
• People’s Choice Award at the international Dell Social Innovation Challenge
• Winning support from the ASU Innovation Challenge, the Entrepreneurs @ ASU Elevator Pitch and the ASU 10,000 Solutions Leap Day Challenge

In addition, FlashFood has earned support from the ASU Venture Catalyst program’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, which provides funding, mentorship and office space for promising student entrepreneurship efforts.

Learn more on the FlashFood website.

Written by Natalie Pierce and Joe Kullman

Media contact:
Joe Kullman, Joseph.Kullman@asu.edu
(480) 965-8122
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Bobby Scarsella took the overall first-place award at the spring semester ‘Roadeo’ competition organized by the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Posted May 16. 2013

A group of Arizona State University construction management and construction engineering students took part in an entertaining and competitive event to demonstrate their skills at operating some of the heavy equipment used in the building industry.

During the recent spring semester 17 students in the Del E. Webb School of Construction Programs participated in the Arizona Equipment Safety Partnering Roadeo, organized by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). They were joined by a number of construction management students from Northern Arizona University for the event at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix.

The Roadeo tested students’ knowledge skills through a written test, an equipment diagnostic challenge, an obstacle course and safety training activities.

Students had to pick up and egg and place it in a cup using a mini-excavator and maneuver a 35,000-pound excavator through an obstacle course to lift a concrete black and put it in a specific location.

A third exercise required student to perform an inspection of a piece of constructive equipment and determine which of its components had been sabotaged.
Students’ performances in each activity were judged by ADOT officials and representatives from the various construction equipment supply businesses. Awards were given for first, second, and third place.

ASU junior Bobby Scarsella earned the overall first-place award with the fastest time in the egg-and-excavator competition and perfect marks on three equipment inspections.

The event helped make the students more knowledgeable about the kind of equipment used by construction laborers who the students may someday have to manage during their future careers, says Aaron Cohen, the Associated General Contractors lecturer in the Del E. Webb School of Construction Programs.

“It gives students an appreciation for the jobs of those individuals who handle heavy machinery and technical equipment on the job every day,” Cohen said.

The ASU students challenged Cohen to try the egg-and-excavator race. “I destroyed all of their times until Scarsella got up and beat my time to win by two seconds,” he said.

Scarsella said he’s enjoying the “big fancy belt buckle” he was awarded for his first place finish and plans to return next hear to defend his title.

The Del E. Webb School of Construction Programs is part of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Written by Rosie Gochnour and Joe Kullman

Media Contact:
Joe Kullman, joe.kullman@asu.edu
(480) 965-8122
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Students in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering are again among those who have been awarded some of the most prestigious fellowships to support graduate studies and advanced research.

The fellowships from both public and private sources are sought after by thousands of top students from the most prominent colleges and universities throughout the country.

# # #

Dean Paul Johnson congratulates Teagan Adamson at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering convocation ceremony. Adamson received her master’s in biomedical engineering in December 2012. She recently won a Fulbright Scholarship and a Whitaker Fellowship to pursue advanced studies and research abroad.
Photo: Jessica Slater/ASU

TEAGAN ADAMSON will be pursuing her goal to aid the battle against cancer with support from two of the most prominent organizations dedicated to advancing the careers of young researchers.

Adamson, who has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering at Arizona State University, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship as well as a Whitaker Fellowship. She plans to use the funding the awards provide to do research at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBS) at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica.

Funded by the Institute of International Education, the Fulbright and Whitaker programs seek to promote international relations and cross-cultural collaborations among scholars and researchers.

The Whitaker International Fellows and Scholars Program sends promising young biomedical engineering and bioengineering researchers from the United States overseas to advance their careers as well as promote the professions on an international level.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards grants to students and young professionals in a broad range of fields throughout more than 150 countries, seeking to unite scholars and researchers from various cultures and backgrounds who are seeking solutions to global societal challenges.

Adamson, a student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honor College, as an undergraduate, began making strides in her research efforts by assisting faculty members in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

With support from the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative, she worked for two years in the lab of assistant professor of bioengineering Jeffrey LaBelle. She helped advance research for the development of a new electrochemical diabetes monitoring meter, a technology that could be developed for use in detecting other diseases.

As a result of her contribution, she and a fellow member of the Multiplexed Diabetes Management research team were selected to present their work at the 2nd World Congress on Diabetes & Metabolism in Philadelphia in 2011.

“We were the only undergraduates to speak at this conference,” where the audience was a group of physicians and Ph.D.’s “who were all experts in their fields,” Adamson recalls. “It was really intimidating but it was also a lot of fun.”

In 2012, she was the lead author of an article based on her undergraduate research that was published in the research journal Analyst. The report became the basis for the master’s thesis she completed later that year.

Around that time Adamson decided not to pursue her Ph.D. and instead to focus her future plans on post-graduate research. She began searching for work and institutions offering opportunities to pursue advances in personalized medicine, specifically cancer therapeutics.

“I am going to use the unique antibodies developed in the IBS lab as a platform to engineer new bi-functional molecules,” she explains.

The function of these molecules will be to bind with polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in most pharmaceuticals and also with commonly found receptors on the surface of cancer cells.

By producing molecules with these antibodies, Adamson and the IBS research team will seek to enhance medicine containing polyethylene glycol, specifically targeting it to cancer cells.

“This biomedical advancement would reduce the effects of normal tissues being exposed to the anti-cancer medicines, which as we know has really bad side effects,” she says. With further research, the antibodies could be tailored to individual types of cancer cells.

Even with, securing a position at the IBS lab, support from a Fulbright Scholarship was not a certainty.
“For the Fulbright program, the number of people who will be accepted [to do research in any particular country] varies from country to country, and for Taiwan only 10 people were selected to do research there,” Adamson says.

Her academic record and research experience proved impressive enough to earn her a dual fellowship through which the Fulbright and Whitaker programs will share funding of her research, travel and cost-of-living expenses for a year, beginning this fall.

Teagan Adamson presents her work in multimarker diabetes management research to faculty mentor Jeff La Belle at the culmination of her senior capstone design project.
Photo: Jessica Slater/ASU

The fellowship will also support Adamson as she continues studies in Taiwan. She will be doing coursework in molecular medicine at IBS and also taking classes in Mandarin.

“I did my minor in Chinese, and since I’m going to be in the country I might as well study a little bit more,” she says.

With family members in medical and engineering fields, Adamson’s study of biomedical engineering as well as the Chinese language seemed pre-determined. Her family had some roots in East Asian culture.  Her grandparents lived in Taiwan.  Her grandfather was an endocrinologist there and and her father grew up there.

Through a high school program, Adamson studied Chinese and came to embrace the culture, while at the same time developing a deep interest in engineering, technology and science.

“These life experiences of Chinese culture, along with exposure to medicine and engineering through my grandfather, a physician, and my brother-in-law, an aerospace engineer, eventually led me to Arizona State University,” Adamson says.

Through the cultural experience she will get in Taiwan and the involvement in advanced research to improve cancer treatment, Adamson says she hopes to enhance her marketability for other research positions in the future.

Gaining an international perspective on the biomedical research field will enable her to collaborate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds and those who have varied skills sets, she says.

As an undergrad at ASU, Adamson was active outside of the classroom and the lab. She was a member of the Engineering Student Council and the student organization representative for the Theta Tau engineering fraternity, as well as the fraternity’s vice president of public relations. She also served as a senator representing the engineering schools in the Undergraduate Student Government.

During her graduate semester, Adamson founded the Biomedical Engineering Adventure Movement (BAM!), a club that promotes social and professional networking among biomedical engineers and students through seminars and other events.

She also founded and served as director of outreach for the Students for the Outreach of Diabetes Awareness (SODA). The group provides screening of diabetes to at-risk populations and leads educational seminars on the topic.

Adamson’s hometown is Chandler. She graduated from Horizon Honors High School, an extension of Horizon Community Learning Center.

# # #

NATHAN GAW has won a graduate fellowship from Tau Beta Pi, The Engineering Honor Society. He will use it to complete work for a master’s degree in biomedical engineering at ASU.

He’ll do research with the director of the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, focusing on upper-limb cognitive neuroscience. His goal will be to create a control model of the upper-limb neuromuscular system for use in education and in programming prosthetics that better emulate human motion.

A student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honors College, as an undergraduate he assisted in research in the Neural Control of Movement Laboratory, the ASU-Mayo Clinic Radiology Informatics Laboratory and the Spinal Biomechanics Laboratory at the Barrow Neurological Institute.

Gaw did research at ASU through the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative. He recently won a first-place award from the Phoenix section of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers for the best student research paper and presentation, plus the second-place award in the Southwest Region stage of the competition.

Gaw served as a representative to industry for the ASU chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

He was the featured student speaker at this year’s spring semester Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering graduation ceremonies.

He graduated from Chaparral High School in his hometown of Scottsdale.

# # #

THAO NGO will use a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue a doctoral degree in chemical engineering at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne.

As an undergraduate, Ngo won scholarships from the ASU Parents Association (now the Sun Devil Family Association) and the Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research Community, among others.

She conducted research at ASU with support from the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative and a NASA Space Grant internship. She participated in summer projects at the University of Kentucky and Kansas State University through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program supported by the National Science Foundation.

She has been working in the lab of ASU chemical engineering program chair Lenore Dai for the past three years. That research has included work on recycling of electronic circuit boards catalysts for energy systems, and applications of nanoparticles.

Ngo hopes to go into a field in which she can apply her chemical engineering expertise to developing new energy sources and technologies.

She served as an undergraduate teaching assistant in engineering courses and a mentor for ASU’s Motivated Engineering Transfer Student program.

A native of Vietnam, Ngo’s family moved to Sierra Vista, Ariz., more than seven years ago. She graduated from Buena High school in Sierra Vista.

# # #

JUSTIN ECHOLS has won a National Science Foundation Research Fellowship to support his studies toward a doctoral degree in electrical engineering.

He was awarded his bachelor’s degree this spring semester and will begin doctoral studies at ASU in the fall with his graduate studies adviser Armando Rodriquez, a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering.

Echols will focus on research on control systems – flight control in general and specifically control of hypersonic vehicles.

During his undergrad years, he did an internship in electrical engineering research with the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. His project involved examining the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (sending certain signals into the brain) in reducing seizures in epileptic rats. The goal was to develop a micro-electronic control system that predicts and prevents seizures.

During his undergrad years, Echols worked in the Engineering Tutoring Center, assisting students with theoretical and applied mathematics, physics and engineering concepts.

Echols attended Mountain View High School in his hometown of Mesa.

# # #

JANET REYNA will continue work to earn a doctoral degree in civil, environmental and sustainable engineering at ASU with support from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Her studies and research will focus on urban sustainability under direction of her adviser Mikhail Chester, an assistant professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

She received her master’s degree in the field at ASU this spring after earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue University in 2011 – with minors in French, environmental and ecological engineering,  and in global engineering studies.

Her research includes a team project to develop urban infrastructure and energy sustainability assessments for the city of Los Angeles.

She has done a study of transit-oriented development in metropolitan Phoenix to develop strategies for mitigating negative environmental and human health impacts as the urban area continues to develop.

Other research projects involve developing improved assessments of air quality in Phoenix and the surrounding region and work with the Central Arizona Planning Long-Term Ecological Research project (CAP-LTER) to assess the impacts of the building infrastructure in Phoenix on area’s ecosystems.

Another ongoing study focuses on assessing the environmental and energy impacts of water-usage patterns and building infrastructure in the Phoenix area.

Her research has earned grants from the CAP-LTER and the national Air and Waste Management Association.

Reyna’s studies abroad have taken her to France, China and Turkey. She is a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, Pi Tau Sigma (Mechanical Engineering Honors Fraternity), Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society) and the Society of Women Engineers.

Reyna is from Oklahoma, where she grew up in Tulsa and graduated from Jenks High School.

# # #

MICHAEL THOMPSON will continue to pursue a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering at ASU with support from a GEM Fellowship. He earned his bachelor’s degree in the field at ASU in 2012.

GEM is the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM), a non-profit consortium of universities and major corporations.

Thompson’s research focus is on modeling, analysis, control and design of micro scale/nanoscale air vehicles, which are expected to be critical to development of the next generations of mobile sensing, intelligence gathering, defense and military technologies.

His research advisors are Armando Rodriguez and Kyle Squires, professors in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy.

During his undergrad years, Thompson did an internship with Intel Corp. and completed more than 20 specialized training courses at the company in manufacturing-related specialties.

He will do an internship this summer with Ford Motor Co. in Michigan, working on computational fluid dynamics.

He was awarded the 2012 Vertical Flight Engineering Scholarship from the American Helicopter Society and made a presentation at the National Science Foundation Engineering Education Awards Conference.

Alongside doctoral students at ASU he was the only undergraduate from the university to make a presentation at the Emerging Researchers National Conference in Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics.

Thompson has made a patent submission for a discovery in drag reduction in computational fluid dynamics – a result of work he did in the summer of 2011 at the University of Alabama as part of the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates.

During the past year, he was the academic director for the ASU chapter of Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers for ASU.

He also worked with the president of the Arizona Alliance of Black School Educators to develop and implement an educational outreach program called STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics program).

The STEAM Enrichment Program works with traditionally underserved youth to expose them to the STEAM fields through hands-on learning activities, and to promote their interest in pursuing careers in these areas.

Thompson was an active member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and before enrolling at ASU was vice president of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Club at Glendale Community College.

He grew up in Phoenix and graduated from Greenway High School.

# # #

JENNIE APPEL will continue studies to earn a doctoral degree in electrical engineering at ASU with the aid of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in the field in 2011 from Auburn University in Alabama. The same year she came to ASU as a research associate. Since then she has won the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Fellowship Award and the Fulton Fellowship Award.

While still an undergraduate at Auburn, she spent a summer at ASU participating in the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) Research Experience. There she worked with Junseok Chae, an associate professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering.

The project helped convince to pursue graduate studies at ASU. Chae is now her graduate studies and research adviser.

Appel’s research focuses on micro electro-mechanical systems, and using them to design and build sensors for devices that can detect signs of diseases or other health problems or improve detection of environmental hazards.

During her undergraduate years, her industry experience included a series of internships with the Southern Nuclear Company Plant in Augusta. Ga., from 2007 through 2009

Appel is a member of Tau Beta Pi, The Engineering Honor Society. She is also a mentor for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization.

She graduated from Auburn High school in Auburn, Ala.

# # #

JACELYN RICE won a graduate fellowship supported by the National Science Foundation through ASU’s Decision Center for a Desert City. She will use it to complete studies for a doctoral degree in environmental engineering.

Rice earned a master’s degree in the field from ASU in 2011, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 2007 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she served a stint as vice president of the National Society of Black Engineers.

She has worked as an assistant civil engineer at Kimley-Horn and Associates, a land development intern for Pardee Homes, and a planner and maintenance engineering intern for the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Her research focuses on water quality and treatment, disinfection byproducts, wastewater reuse and energy usage related to water systems and infrastructure.

To support her graduate studies, Rice has also won GK-12 Graduate Fellowship from ASU funded by the National Science Foundation and a Diversity Across Curriculum Fellowship from the ASU Graduate College.

Rice grew up primarily in Georgia and Florida and graduated from Mojave High School in Las Vegas.

# # #

ERIC C. STEVENS will pursue a doctoral degree in chemical engineering with support from a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

He plans to focus on studies and research in renewable and alternative energy at North Carolina State University.

Stevens is the 2013 Outstanding Graduate from the ASU’s chemical engineer program, graduating summa cum laude.

As undergraduate at ASU, he conducted research with support of an ASU/NASA Space Grant and the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI), working with the chair of the chemical engineering program, Lenore Dai. He also worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for a Department of Energy summer research program.

He earned his bachelor’s degree with support from awards, scholarships and grants from the Provost Scholarship, the Moeur Award, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honorary Society, the ASU/NASA Space Grant and FURI, among others.

Stevens served one-year terms as secretary and vice president of the ASU chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, was a lead counselor for ASU’s Summer Engineering Experience, and served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for three chemical engineering courses.

With faculty advisors Lenore Dai and Hanqing Jiang, and fellow Ph.D. students, he co-authored a peer-reviewed journal article and presented his research at professional conferences and research symposia.

Stevens hopes to continue his research on renewable and alternative energy in a scientist position at a national government laboratory.

He graduated from Horizon High School in his hometown of Scottsdale.

Written by Joe Kullman and Natalie Pierce

André Borschberg (left) and Bertrand Piccard, the pilots at the lead of the Solar Impulse Across America mission, addressed the 2013 spring graduates of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Photo: Jessica Slater/ASU

Posted May 16, 2013

Before being handed their diplomas last week, the newest Arizona State University engineering graduates were told the world needs them to go beyond merely being good engineers and become passionate pioneers.

The plea came from two men in the midst of their own pioneering mission.

In a surprise visit to the May 9 convocation ceremony, the pilots attempting to become the first to complete a transcontinental flight in an airplane relying only on solar power addressed the crowd of about 10,000 people.

“We need to invent a better future” and young engineers need to help lead the way, Bertrand Piccard said to the gathering of nearly all of the 1,123 receiving degrees this semester from ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering – plus about 9,000 family members, friends and other guests in attendance.

Piccard was joined on stage by André Borschberg, his fellow pilot on the mission titled Solar Impulse Across America, just days after successfully completing the first leg of the flight from Moffett Federal Field near San Francisco to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

The two natives of Switzerland said they could not pass up the opportunity to address so many graduates from a major American university “because our mission is not only about an airplane. It is about inspiration,” Borschberg said.

Along their planned route through Phoenix, Dallas, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., to New York, they and their team hope to connect with students, teachers and community and government leaders.

They want to use the interest generated by their endeavor to spark more dialog about the need to pursue innovation in technology and other areas that can promise to provide a growing world better resources to support itself – particularly more energy from sources such as solar power that are renewable, sustainable and less of an environmental detriment.

So far, they are getting a growing amount of positive response, largely through social media, from people encouraging their efforts. The Solar Impulse website recently posted a photo of Piccard and Borschberg posing with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, and more than 2,200 people came to Sky Harbor airport to see their airplane.

They considered their visit to ASU to speak to engineering graduates as a meaningful part of their voyage. “Our project involves almost all the different dimensions of engineering, so this is a significant moment,” Piccard said.

Behind the scenes of Solar Impulse is a team of about 90 engineers, technicians, technical advisers, organizers, and communications and media managers. In addition as many as 80 companies have lent support in various ways.

The pilots pointed out that the project involves the kind of diversity of skills and collaboration among experts in a variety of fields that is exemplified by ASU’s interdisciplinary approach to education and research.

The concept for the Solar Impulse adventure began to emerge about a decade ago and the plane has been in design and building stages throughout the past five years.

The project would never have come to fruition if team members had not overcome obstacles – technical and otherwise – that at times seemed insurmountable. Borschberg told ASU engineering graduates the lesson to take from the team’s perseverance is that “every difficulty is a potential  opportunity” to devise innovative solutions and achieve major advances.

Piccard and Borschberg are not strangers to achievement.

Piccard, a well-known psychiatrist and psychotherapist, is also a world-class aviator and adventurer. He and a partner won a transatlantic hot-air balloon race and later, with another partner, he made the first nonstop balloon flight around the world.

He has earned some of the highest distinctions bestowed by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the National Geographic Society and the international Explorers Club.

Borschberg is an engineer who also holds a degree in management science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a pilot in the Swiss air force and has been a successful financial manager and business investor and entrepreneur in technology- and Internet-based industries.

He has been a member of prestigious international groups, including the World Presidents’ Organization, a global association of current and former chief executive officers of major companies.

The two pilots’ flight across the United States is a step toward another accomplishment they plan to pursue two years from now: flying a solar plane around the world.

“The visit from the Solar Impulse team, in the middle of their historic voyage across the U.S. made this a special and memorable convocation for our graduates,” said Paul Johnson, dean of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

“The message Andre and Bertrand delivered was inspiring, and it resonates with our students because Fulton Engineering is home to world-renowned experts in photovoltaic solar-energy systems and ASU has the largest portfolio of solar-energy installations of any university in the U.S.,” Johnson said. “Plus the culture of ASU and our engineering schools encourages innovation, risk taking, sustainability, and pursuing your passions.”

Read more about the Solar Impulse Across America mission and see a video of Borschberg and Piccard speaking at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering convocation on the Solar Impulse website.

Media contact:
Joe Kullman, Joseph.Kullman@asu.edu
(480) 965-8122
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

The team of middle school students developed Non-Toxic by TOXIC, a combination of natural ingredients that removes bacteria and wax from fruits and vegetables. The project stemmed from an FLL challenge to explore food safety. Through their research, the team found that wax applied to fruits and vegetables can trap mold and bacteria underneath. Their solution is inexpensive and safe to humans and the environment.

In addition to being honored at the ceremony, the students had the opportunity to network with more than 400 business leaders and innovators who attended the event. Team TOXIC was the youngest finalist among well-established companies and startups.

Previously, the team won the 2011 FLL State Championship tournament at Arizona State University and went on to compete in the FLL World Festival, where they took first place in the research category.

ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering serves as the Arizona operational partner for FLL, an international program designed to spark young students’ interest in innovation. Each year, teams are tasked with a different real-world problem, then work together to research and devise a solution.

The Edison Awards is a program of Edison Universe, a not-for-profit organization that is focused on fostering innovation to create a positive impact on the world. To see all of the 2013 award winners, visit www.edisonawards.com.

Learn more about the Arizona FIRST LEGO League program:

Biomedical engineering student Dillon Mir.

Posted May 10, 2013

Biomedical engineering junior Dillon Mir’s DNA research project won a first-place award in the preliminary round of an international competition.

Mir placed first in the engineering, math, computer science, physics and astronomy section of the undergraduate awards in the recent Sigma Xi Showcase.

Sigma Xi is an international multidisciplinary scientific research society with about 60,000 members in more than 100 countries. Sigma Xi has more than 500 chapters throughout colleges, universities, industrial research centers and government laboratories around the world.

The Sigma Xi Showcase competition attracted more than 160 participants that included undergraduate and graduate students from more than 100 schools, among them Harvard University, Yale University, Marquette University and the University of Maryland.

Mir’s project focused on DNA amplification, the process of taking a small sample of DNA and multiplying it to an amount large enough for medical testing.

He was mentored on the project by Antonio Garcia, a professor in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.

The DNA amplification process involves the use of several chemicals and enzymes and the heating of a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tube that contains the DNA mixture to a specific temperature.

There are currently devices on the market that achieve DNA amplification in a similar way, but Mir says these devices are expensive and bulky.

“The goal of my research is to create a smaller, cost-effective method of doing DNA amplification that is portable and inexpensive enough to be taken into the field for quick on-site testing and for use in developing countries where they cannot afford expensive machinery,” he says.

DNA amplification technology in developing countries would enable more testing for diseases, better health and improved quality of life, Mir says.

The competition was conducted online, with students required to create a presentation website. As many as 400 judges were able to assess the projects via the websites.

Mir’s research took several months, while he squeezed in time for lab research in addition to a heavy load of classes and homework.

“Although an online presentation is not the traditional or most common form of research presentation,” he says, “it was a great experience to learn about the concepts behind doing research.”

View a presentation  about Mir’s research.

Written by Rosie Gochnour

Media Contact:
Joe Kullman, joe.kullman@asu.edu
(480) 965-8122
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

The group has had strong support toward its goal of raising $17,650 through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, including a significant boost from Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Axosoft.

G3Box is a “more than for profit” company that sells shipping containers converted into medical clinics to customers seeking a durable, semi-mobile, and stand-alone facility that is ideal for remote environments.

After Axosoft CEO Hamid Shojaee saw the campaign on Facebook, he encouraged employees to contribute with the incentive that Axosoft would give 4:1 for each donation. Employee donations and company matching raised $5,000 for G3Box.

“I recently came back from a vacation to Africa, one of the most amazing places I had visited,” says Shojaee. “During this vacation we went to a local village and witnessed first-hand how beneficial a simple health clinic could be to Africa’s poor communities. It’s the type of thing that actually saves lives. It’s not just for research in the hope for an eventual cure that might someday save lives—it’s actual saving of lives using simple technologies we already have in the modern world.”

“Ultimately, the goal is to save and sustain lives in developing countries. Getting the word out about this campaign and garnering this incredible community support is just the beginning of doing that,” says Susanna Young, CEO and co-founder of G3Box.

Over the past two years, G3Box has been working to develop and create a system for delivering quality healthcare to communities that currently lack access to care, equipment and space. Their innovative solution repurposes unused shipping containers into portable medical clinics—adding ventilation, insulation, power, potable water and waste removal.

The containers provide medical workspace and a comfortable environment along with access to power and potable water.

Kenya, with a maternal mortality rate of 530 women per 100,000 live births, is the initial deployment target for G3Box. The group says that not only will mothers’ and newborns’ lives be saved, but the clinics will be staffed by local physicians and nurses providing jobs for the community.

With the support of DPR Construction and Smith GroupJJR, G3Box is ready to send the maternity clinic to Kenya where it will be placed, operated and maintained by partners of the International Medical Equipment Collaborative (IMEC). Funds raised will be used to ship and install the clinic.

The idea for G3Box was formed through the EPICS program at Arizona State University, with two projects ultimately merging into one to form G3Box.

“ASU fosters an entrepreneurial community, giving students not only hands-on projects early in their academic experience, but—similar to G3Box—inspiration and resources to establish companies that solve real-world problems,” says Paul Johnson, dean of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The company—whose name stems from a commitment to Generate Global Good—provides durable, semi-mobile, stand-alone facilities that can be used to provide access to health facilities in remote areas, or when access to facilities is limited after a natural disaster. A portion of the profits go to support efforts to convert the containers for maternity clinics in developing countries.

G3Box has created a maternity clinic that is ready to go to Kenya.

G3Box has been named College Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 by Entrepreneur magazine, runner up Coolest College Startups of 2012 by Inc. magazine and has twice received funding and mentoring support through the ASU Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative.

Young’s (B.S. ’11 and M.S. ’12) partners include Clay Tyler (B.S. ’11 and M.S. ’12), Billy Walters (B.S. ’12) and Gabrielle Palermo, a recent graduate in biomedical engineering and Fulton Engineering Outstanding Graduate.

To learn more about the G3Box Indiegogo campaign, visit http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/g3box-ship-a-maternity-clinic-to-kenya.

To learn more about G3Box, visit http://www.g3boxllc.com/.

Gabrielle Palermo (far left) is the 2013 spring semester Outstanding Graduate of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. She’s among other top ASU spring engineering grads with a record of exceptional achievement and contributions through their studies, research and community service. Palermo is pictured with her partners in the G3Box business startup, (from left) Clay Tyler, Susanna Young and Billy Walters. Photo: Jessica Slater/ASU.

Posted May 7, 2013

Top ASU engineering grads excelled in academics, research, community service and internships

At the end of the fall and spring semesters, the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering bestows special recognition on a number of students from among the undergraduates who will receive their bachelor’s degrees at each semester’s commencement.

Faculty members in each engineering program designate one student to be the program’s Outstanding Graduate.  From among these students, one is selected to receive an award presented by the Arizona State Alumni Association as the Fulton Schools of Engineering Outstanding Graduate.

In addition, several students who have exceedingly exemplary records of accomplishment in endeavors beyond the classroom are named Distinguished Graduates.

This semester, as in most, the honored graduates have not only earned high grades in their classes but have excelled in research, leadership of student organizations and community service projects. They have also earned real-world experience through internships, entrepreneurship ventures, and engineering and technology competitions with students from other universities.

In addition, they have furthered the Fulton Schools of Engineering’s mission by volunteering their time to mentor and tutor fellow university students and instruct younger students through K-12 education outreach.

The students selected for these honors for the 2013 spring semester are:

Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Outstanding Graduate – Gabrielle Palermo

Palermo began putting her education in biomedical engineering to work by the time she was little more than half way through her undergraduate studies.

In early 2011 Palermo became the co-founder with three other ASU students of G3Box, a venture to convert large steel shipping containers into portable medical clinics and mobile disaster-relief stations.

Within two years, the team raised $50,000 in funding from grants and donations, and completed two mobile clinics with support from DRP Construction company.  Palermo and G3Box won Entrepreneur Magazine’s National College Entrepreneur of 2011 award.

The team would also be a featured college-student startup in Fast Company magazine, become a finalist in an international contest for student innovation and be the subject of stories by national news media.

Now, at graduation, Palermo is chief operations officer of the business that is moving beyond concept and design into the organizational, construction, manufacturing and supply-chain system stages.

Despite the time and effort devoted to the entrepreneurial endeavor, Palermo has performed well enough to make the Dean’s List each semester for the past two years while chalking up other accomplishments.

She got real-world experience in her field of study through an internship at Advanced Cardiac Specialists in which she worked with cardiac rehabilitation patients. As part of a team competing in the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering Health Data Collegiate Challenge, Palermo helped create a website designed to provide safe medical care by centralizing hospital and personal health care data.

She earned an Engineering Dean’s Student Scholarship. She served as a peer counselor, helping younger students develop their résumés, learn job-interview skills and explore career opportunities. She was an undergraduate teaching assistant and mentored students on project management, grant applications and project presentation.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/Aerospace Engineering – Michael King

King earned a 3.81 grade point average and made the Dean’s List for six consecutive semesters.

He was a member of the national Tau Beta Engineering Honors Society, which accepts only the top 5 percent of engineering students, and served a stint as its treasurer.

He served as a teaching assistant, helping to plan classroom lessons and instructing younger students in fundamentals of engineering, design and renewable energy class projects.

He developed and instructed a summer freshman course in spatial visualization and conducted an experimental demonstration for children at ASU’s annual Night of the Open Door public outreach event.

He participated in advanced research on carbon nanotubes through the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative.

As a mechanical engineering intern with the Extreme Environments Robotics and Instrumentation Laboratory, he helped develop a micro submarine that was deployed to Antarctica in January to explore sub-glacial lakes and looks for signs of life.

He also worked as a manufacturing engineer intern with a packaging company and is working on building a robot to participate in the NASA Robo-ops competition at the Johnson Space Center in June.

He grew up in Chandler and graduated from Hamilton High School.

King has been hired to work in the engineering department of Cisco in San Jose, Calif.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/Chemical Engineering – Eric C. Stevens

Stevens maintained a 4.0 grade point average and made the Dean’s List for seven semesters while building a collection of awards, scholarships and grants from the NASA Space Grant Project, the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society, the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative and the national Safety and Chemical Engineering Education program, among others.

Stevens served one-year terms as secretary and vice president of the ASU chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, was a lead counselor for ASU’s Summer Engineering Experience and a mentor to freshman engineering students.

He was an undergraduate teaching assistant in both lower- and upper-level chemical engineering courses.

He conducted research with support of a NASA Space Grant, worked in a Department of Energy summer research program at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and was a summer research intern at ASU, working with the chair of the chemical engineering program.

With faculty members and fellow students he co-authored several research papers and presentations, including some presented at professional conferences and research symposiums.

He will pursue a doctoral degree in chemical engineering.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering – Joseph Harrington

A student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honors College, Harrington maintained a 4.0 grade point average and made the Dean’s List each semester. He was involved with several leadership positions with student organizations, most significantly the ASU chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

He was the chapter’s design captain for a team that competes in the annual ASCE Steel Bridge Competition at the Pacific Southwest Conference. He also served as a conference coordinator for ASCE at the event.

Harrington also helped younger students as an undergraduate teaching assistant in the civil engineering structural analysis and design course. He was recognized as an Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Assistant for his contributions to the course for the past three semesters.

Harrington worked internships with Stanley Consultants, Kimley-Horn and Associates, and most recently with DLR Group, an architectural firm with in-house structural engineering.

He has been accepted into the engineering graduate program at ASU to pursue a doctoral degree in engineering with a focus on structures and materials. He was awarded the Dean’s Fellowship and a Fulton Fellowship to fund his studies.

Harrington’s hometown is Chandler. He graduated from Seton Catholic Preparatory High School.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/Computer Science – Chloe Patterson

A student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honors College, Chloe Patterson has maintained a cumulative 4.0 grade point average while also earning a minor in mathematics.

Patterson was a National Merit Scholar finalist and an Advanced Placement National Scholar.

She worked as a summer intern with Microsoft and became a certified math tutor at ASU, mentoring students and assisting in conducting math classes.

She also was a lab assistant at ASU’s LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science, where she worked on computer programs and equipment to support operation of a particle accelerator.

Her skills in a wide range of computer programming languages and systems enabled her to aid fellow ASU students as a computer science tutor in the Fulton Schools of Engineering Tutoring Center.

Patterson is from the Portland, Ore. area, and will return to the Pacific Northwest after graduation for a job as a software engineer.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/Computer Systems Engineering – Joseph Babb

Babb came to ASU after graduating with honors from Central Arizona Community College. His academic performance earned him scholarships, grants and fellowships from the Motivated Engineering Transfer Students program, ASU Parents organization, Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative, and the American Society of Engineering Education among others.

He was an undergraduate research assistant for an ASU computer systems engineering faculty member. His work in development of formal online autonomous reasoning led to a research paper published in the Cambridge Journal of Theory and Practice of Logic Programming. It also spurred development of the CPlus2ASP 2.0, an open-source project that provides generalized reasoning for offline and online problems.

Babb did an internship as a software engineer at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma and has been employed for more than year in a computer systems operations position with Solomon Technologies, focusing on development of mobile prenatal medical solutions. He is the lead Android application developer for the company.

He worked with the METS program to recruit students from community colleges to transfer to ASU and advise them on the transfer process.

Babb plans to earn a master’s degree in computer science from ASU by the spring of 2014. He is contracted to do work for the U.S. Department of Defense after completing the master’s program.

# # #

Outstanding Gradate/Construction Engineering – Christopher Procopio

Procopio earned a grade point average of 3.42 while getting a range of on-the-job experiences during his undergraduate years.

He worked in a civil engineering position with Alpha Geotechnical & Materials Inc. and as a project engineer with Hill International Inc.

Procopio was a transportation engineering intern with the Arizona Department of Transportation, working with the agency’s Phoenix Region Design Team.

He also worked as a community assistant in the Engineering Residential College on ASU’s Tempe campus.

He passed the Fundamentals of Engineering exam and will receive an Engineer in Training Certification upon graduation, and then pursue a professional engineer license.

Procopio was a member of a team that won a second-place award at the Associated Schools of Construction Reno Competition, a major annual student construction management event.

He was a member of Chi Epsilon, a national civil engineering honors society and the ASU chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

He has accepted a full-time position in Dallas as a project engineer with McCarthy Building Companies.

He grew up in Ahwatukee and his family currently resides in Chandler. He graduated from Seton Catholic Preparatory High School.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/ Construction Management – Skyler Holloway

A student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honors College, Skyler Holloway earned more than 20 scholarships to support his undergraduate studies, including awards from the Associated General Contractors of America, the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering, and Design-Build Institute of America.

He captained ASU student teams that participated – and won top awards – in regional and national competitions sponsored by major construction industry organizations.

Holloway has earned a cumulative grade point average of 4.0 while also completing minors in sustainability and business. He has made the Dean’s List in each semester during his undergraduate years at ASU.

Holloway gained work experience through internships with companies, including DPR, Whiting-Turner, McCarthy, Penhall, and PENTA – all while carrying a heavy course load in school. He still made time for introductory piano lessons, ballroom dancing and a poetry class while at ASU.

During his undergrad years, he went on study-abroad trips to Costa Rica and Australia, as well as volunteered in El Salvador and Mexico to work on projects to build homes and a hospital. He also worked with Habitat for Humanity in Phoenix.

This summer Holloway will travel to Fortaleza, Brazil, to present his undergraduate thesis at the International Group for Lean Construction Conference and has been awarded the largest fellowship granted by Stanford University to begin studies in the fall for a master’s degree in sustainable design and construction.

Holloway’s hometown is Las Vegas, Nev., where he graduated from Green Valley High School.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/ Electrical Engineering – Andrew Rogers

Rogers maintained a 4.0 grade point average at ASU after transferring from Mesa Community College. By the time he began studies at ASU he had already started his own small-business venture, Air Audio, an online business that provided audio wiring solutions for professional audio applications.

He got real-world experience as an undergraduate research scholar for the Future Renewable Electrical Energy Distribution and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center at ASU, part of a National Science Foundation consortium.

Results of research in which he took part were published in the conference proceedings of national meetings of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Rogers also made a presentation on his research at a national conference for undergraduate researchers.

He served as an undergraduate teaching assistant and participated in ASU’s K-12 engineering education outreach through Night of the Open Door, More to Explore and Engineering Jump Start.

In June he will begin working as an applications engineer with Microchip Technology in Chandler.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/Engineering Management – Samantha Sanders

Sanders maintained a 3.50 grade point average, earning a Provost’s Full Tuition Scholarship and made the Dean’s List for three semesters.

She was a member of the ASU student chapters of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers. She earned a Six Sigma Greenbelt Certification for leadership skills in quality-improvement project management.

Sanders worked as a product development engineering intern for Microchip Technology in Chandler and a customer and product support project management intern for Honeywell Corp. in Tempe.

She has worked the during the 2011 and 2012 National Football League seasons as a cheerleader for the Arizona Cardinals. Sanders was chosen “Star of the Game” for her cheerleading in both of her seasons with the Cardinals cheerleaders and got a Cheerleader of the Week award in the 2012 season.

Born in Philadelphia, Sanders grew up in Scottsdale, where she graduated from Desert Mountain High School.

After graduation, she will begin a full-time job as a senior specialist tech project manager with AT&T in Austin, Texas.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/ Industrial Engineering – Kristin Lehnhoff

Lehnhoff maintained a 4.0 grade point average while earning a certificate in international business in addition to her engineering degree.

She participated in a project that applied Lean Design and Six Sigma managerial strategies for Taser International and L-3 Warrior Systems.

Lehnhoff got involved in community outreach through ASU’s Engineering Projects in Community Service program, ASU’s Student Alumni Association, and the World’s Championship Bar-B-Q Cook-off Committee for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

She worked a summer internship in an organizational and logistics position with Weatherford International Northwoods Manufacturing in Houston.

She is a member of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi at ASU and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

Lehnhoff is from Missouri City, Texas, where she graduated from Lawrence E. Elkins High School.

This summer, she plans to travel to Europe, Costa Rica, Mexico and Washington, D.C., before leaving for China, where she will begin an intensive language program in Mandarin and an internship in Beijing.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/Informatics – Wesley Roberts

Wesley Roberts earned a 3.89 grade point average at ASU after transferring from Paradise Valley Community College. He later earned a scholarship from ASU’s Motivated Engineering Transfer Student program and made the Dean’s List and President’s Honors List several times during his undergraduate years.

He was also member of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society.

Since May 2011 he has worked as a software developer and network automation intern for GoDaddy! in Scottsdale.

He also did a programming and information technology internship with HBI International in Phoenix and worked for almost three years with ASU’s Engineering Technical Services department.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/Materials Science and Engineering – Emily D. Sutton

Sutton made the Dean’s List for seven semesters, earning a grade point average of 3.65. She was awarded an ASU President’s Scholarship for exceptional academic achievement and the Panhuise Engineering Scholarship for two consecutive years.

She did an internship for Refrac Systems in Chandler in which she did quality testing for metal and metal alloy products.

She is now doing an internship in research and development for Paragon Vision Science in Mesa, where she is developing innovative contact lenses with capabilities beyond vision correction.

Her lab assignments focused on nanowires and superconductors. Her primary research experience has been in working with carbon nanotubes for biomedical applications, specifically as a method to treat atheroma – a leading form of heart disease.

She has served as an undergraduate learning assistant, overseeing and assisting in lab experiments by freshman materials science and engineering students.

Sutton has been an active member of the ASU chapter of the Materials Advantage professional science and engineering organization. In that role she has worked as a volunteer to give laboratory tours and demonstration to elementary school students.

Her hometown is Phoenix, where she graduated from Greenway High School.

Sutton plans to return to ASU to earn a master’s degree in materials science and engineering.

# # #

Outstanding Graduate/Mechanical Engineering – Paul Strong

As a student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honor College, Strong earned a grade point average of 3.83 and qualified for the Dean’s List each semester during his undergraduate studies.  He came to ASU with support from a National Merit Scholarship.

His time at the university was highlighted by becoming one of the five founders of 33 Buckets, a venture to design, build and develop a sustainable water purification and distribution system that could be used in remote communities in underdeveloped countries. The team plans to travel to Bangladesh this summer to implement its first system.

The 33 Buckets team was one of five teams selected from among more than 1,800 applicants as a finalist in the Dell Social Innovation Challenge in 2012. The team also won funding from the ASU 10,000 Solutions competition.

For almost two years he has helped tutor ASU students in math, science and engineering courses, and led study sessions for exams.

He plans to complete work next year to earn a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at ASU.

Strong is from the town of Sammamish, Wash., and graduated from Eastside Preparatory School in nearby Kirkland.

# # #

Distinguished Graduate Taylor Barker

Chemical engineering major Barker maintained a grade point average of 3.83 as a student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honors College. She won the ASU Presidential Scholarship and the Dean’s Exemplar Student Scholarship to support her undergraduate studies.

Barker is a co-founder and director of operations of SafeSIPP, an entrepreneurship venture founded by a group of ASU engineering students that developed a patent-pending system to purify and transport water for developing-world communities.

She helped write proposals and make presentations that brought more than $35,000 in funding to support SafeSIPP. The founders won the Engineering Projects in Community Service Team of the Year award, and Barker was selected as one of the program’s Make a Difference Students.

Barker also developed a website application for an interactive medical calendar allowing users to keep track of medical appoints and incentivize people to be proactive about maintaining their health. It won a prize in the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering Health Data Collegiate Challenge.

She worked as an engineering product supply intern for the Procter & Gamble company. At ASU, she served as an undergraduate teaching assistant, and helped with high school education outreach efforts through Engineering Projects in Community Service.

She also was a mentor for E2 Camp, the freshman orientation experience for ASU engineering students.

Barker got experience in commercializing developing technologies through work with Arizona Technology Enterprises, the exclusive intellectual property management and technology transfer organization for ASU.

She was a member of the ASU student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

#  # #

Distinguished Graduate Darcy Frear

As a student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honor College, biomedical engineering major Frear maintained a grade point average above 3.5, won an ASU President’s Scholarship and the Dean’s Exemplar Student Scholarship. She made the Dean’s List regularly.

Frear spent a summer at the University of California working in a highly sought-after intern position in the Center for Integrated Nanomechanical Systems. She was also a programming intern for Northrop Grumman, a global security systems company.

She worked under associate professor of bioengineering Stephen Helms Tillery in ASU’s Sensorimotor Research Group through funding she earned from the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative.

She was peer mentor for freshman engineering Barrett honors students, treasurer for ASU chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, and the secretary and then president of the ASU chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

She was also a volunteer for C.U.R.E., an organization that provides medical equipment to third-world countries.

Frear plans to earn a doctoral degree in speech and hearing bioscience at Harvard University, where she will begin studies in the fall.

She is from Phoenix. She graduated from Desert Vista High School in Ahwatukee.

# # #

Distinguished Graduate Catrina Garcia

Garcia, a mechanical engineering student, earned a 3.48 overall grade point average, made the Dean’s List for four semesters, won an ASU Presidential Scholarship and the Academic Decathlon Top Score Scholarship.

She made exceptional contributions outside of the classroom. With the Fulton Ambassadors, she promoted ASU’s engineering programs through outreach to high schools, giving campus tours and helping to staff University events.

She was a member of a student committee that worked to improve the E2 Camp orientation for freshman engineering students and was a peer mentor liaison at the camp. She was also an undergraduate teaching assistant and provided guidance to new students.

Garcia was a member of a senior-year capstone design team sponsored by the W.L. Gore company that won a competition against teams from the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University to build a compact, portable, leak-proof and easily assembled rain booth.

Her hometown is Phoenix. She graduated from Cesar Chavez High School in nearby Laveen.

# # #

Distinguished Graduate Suyana Lozada

A chemical engineering major and student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honors College, Lozada has maintained a grade point average of 3.86 after transferring to ASU from Arizona Western College after earning a Phi Theta Kappa All-Arizona Academic Team Award, which provided her a tuition scholarship.

Lozada also earned scholarships from the Society of Women Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, among others.

She has been an active member of those societies as well as the ASU Coalition of International Students and the ASU chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

She worked at the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology at ASU’s Biodesign Institute, where she conducted research to optimize microbial electrochemical cells, and at the ASU Sustainability Consortium.

She worked a summer engineering internship at Henkel Consumer Goods Inc. in Scottsdale and completed a research internship with the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels.

She also served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for upper-division chemical engineering courses. She has also been a peer mentor to freshman engineering students.

Lozada was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador, and went to high school there at Colegio La Salle through her junior year. For her senior year she went to high school in France as a cultural exchange student.

Lozada now has a full-time position as a supply chain and manufacturing engineer at the Gowan Company.

Media Contact:
Joe Kullman, joe.kullman@asu.edu
(480) 965-8122
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Erick Ponce struggled in his early days at ASU, but now is graduating with strong career prospects.
Photo: Jessica Slater/ASU

Posted May 2, 2013

One of Erick Ponce’s uncles, Jaime Garcia, is making the trip from Guatemala to see Ponce’s graduation this spring from Arizona State University. It’s an especially meaningful journey for them.

When Ponce was a boy, he says, “I used to go into his office and see some of the projects he was working on, and it was like, ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do.’ By the time I was 12 I knew what I wanted to be.”

It was Garcia’s engineering designs that had captured the young Ponce’s interest. Now he is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and in the fall will begin studies to earn a master’s degree in the field.

At the time Garcia’s work first inspired his nephew it was far from certain Ponce would ever get the opportunity to realize his ambition.

Leaving his homeland

At five years old Ponce had demonstrated exceptional academic potential, earning him a scholarship from a private organization to study at a private school in Guatemala City. It was a three-hour trip from the small rural community of Izabal where Ponce’s family lived, so he moved in with Garcia and his wife in the city and stayed until he had graduated from high school at 16.

Ponce’s parents, however, didn’t have the resources to send him to college, so he returned to his hometown with uncertain prospects for his future.

That situation helped to prompt a big step by his stepfather, Daniel Aldana, a native Guatemalan who at one time had lived in the United States for 14 years and had become a U.S. citizen. He decided the entire family would benefit if he returned, and soon the family moved to Phoenix, where two of Aldana’s brothers already lived.

It proved to be a particularly fortuitous new home for Ponce, given his aspirations.

“I heard that ASU had a great engineering school, so I wouldn’t have to apply anywhere else and then have to move again to go to a good university,” he says.

First he had to help support himself and his family. Ponce found a job with a landscaping and construction company and worked full-time – plus a lot of overtime – for two years before saving enough to enroll at ASU.  He also managed to squeeze in time to take a few community college classes along the way.

Ponce will focus on transportation studies in his pursuit of a master’s degree in civil engineering.
Photo by: Jessica Slater/ASU

Finding key to success

His first semester at ASU was “horrible,” he recalls. “I didn’t know anybody. I wasn’t prepared for the transition to a big school. I struggled in classes.”

What kept him going, he says, was that “I didn’t want to let go of my dream.”

Then he got a break – a chance meeting with the president of the student chapter of Society of Professional Hispanic Engineers (SHPE), who later introduced him to the people who ran the Motivated Engineering Transfer Students (METS) Program in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

“That was the key to success for me,” Ponce says. Through SHPE and METS he found mentors who tutored him in how to study, set goals, build a résumé, get involved with student engineering organizations and competitions, and how to pursue internships.

“I was impressed with Erick the first time I first met him and my first impression has not changed,” says METS program director Mary Anderson-Rowland, an associate professor in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering.

“When Erick started coming to the METS Center I learned of his situation and that he had supported himself since he was 19. This is a big responsibility for someone at that age,” she says.

Ponce worked for a time in the METS Center and soon earned a scholarship through the program.

“He has become a leader, and he is someone who is always willing to help others,” Anderson-Rowland says. “We’re proud of his accomplishments, and especially thrilled that he is going on to graduate school.”

Showing strong work ethic

Ponce earned a few other scholarships, including one from the Arizona Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), to support his undergraduate studies. Along the way, he would join SHPE and the ASU student chapter of the ASCE, and travel throughout the country to attend the national conferences of the organizations.

In each of the past three years, the ASCE chapter received a certificate of commendation for its achievements from the organization’s national headquarters. Ponce “was one of the hard-working members who contributed to this success,’’ said the chapter’s faculty adviser Kamil Kaloush, an associate professor of civil engineering in the School for Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

Ponce was an officer for a year in the ASU chapter of the civil engineering honor society Chi Epsilon, and spent another year as vice president of the ASU SHPE chapter. He helped the METS center coordinate academic and professional development workshops for fellow students.

He also got hands-on engineering experience with a team of fellow ASU students working on a project through the international Bridges to Prosperity organization. It took him back to Guatemala on two trips to help with the planning, design and construction of a bridge to help improve life in a rural community.

He would serve two years as a construction captain for an ASU team participating in the popular ASCE national student Concrete Canoe Competition.

“Erick’s contribution to the team was essential to its success,” Kaloush says. “His positive energy and work ethic inspired many of the younger students who will be here to carry on the effort in years to come.”

Gaining confidence

Ponce’s improved academic performance and extracurricular endeavors helped him land summer internships each of the last three years, first with a water engineering and management consulting group, then Southwest Gas Corp. and then with the major international mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. He’ll return this summer for a second internship stint with Freeport-McMoRan.

His variety of experiences have been empowering, he says, taking him from doubt about reaching his goals to “having a lot of confidence in my abilities.”

He’s become confident enough that he will pass up an opportunity to immediately begin a full-time job after graduation and take the time to earn a master’s degree. He figures the higher level of education will broaden his employment options in his field.

Along with all the other achievements during his time at ASU, Ponce, now 24, also became an U.S. citizen. He says he feels fortunate that his family was able to move to the United States. “I’m very grateful for all the doors that have been opened for me,” he says.

While he thinks this country offers him the best opportunity to get established in an engineering career, Ponce says he hopes to one day be able to use his skills to aid his native land.

Guatemala “is in desperate need of educated people who have the will to change things there for the better,” he says. He hopes to eventually be one of them.

Ponce demonstrated his leadership abilities as the construction captain for two years on an ASU team that excelled in the national student Concrete Canoe Competition organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Photo by: Jessica Slater/ASU

Media Contact:
Joe Kullman, joe.kullman@asu.edu
(480) 965-8122
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

ASU engineering student Bethany Smith is helping to develop nanoscale batteries in the lab of assistant professor Candace Chan at the new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building IV. Photo: Andy DeLisle/ASU

Posted April 30, 2013

Arizona State University’s newest and largest research building, the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4 (ISTB4), is designed to foster collaboration between faculty members in various areas of engineering and science, and to open opportunities for more students to get hands-on lab experience.

Materials science and engineering major Bethany Smith is among those working with faculty members who welcome aspiring young researchers into their new ISTB4 labs.

Only a sophomore, Smith is assisting in efforts to develop more efficient and powerful batteries at the nanoscale level. She’s working in the lab of Candace Chan, an assistant professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy.

Chan says of ISTB4, “Everyone loves it here and we get to interact with faculty from other departments that we normally would not have ever met.”

Says Smith, “I love the fact that everything is a bit more open. There are windows so that you can see what other labs are working on and the general public can look in on what you’re doing. Having these open labs can let other people say ‘Oh hey, there are real people working in there.’”

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