Student Spotlight

The Joukowsky dissertation award in the Life Sciences goes to Cel Welch, who completed their Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering this spring. Through their dissertation, titled Novel Devices, Physical Mechanisms, and Analytical Techniques for Use in Next Generation Cellular Diagnostics, Welch developed novel electrical and acoustic methods to process tissue into single cells for direct sequencing.

Two Engineering students claim coveted Fulbright student scholarships to conduct research, teach abroad next year.

After taking a leave of absence from her studies to kickstart a keyboard business, chemical engineering Ph.D. candidate Ana Oliveira Kannan has returned to complete her dissertation.

Hornbuckle, a rising junior, draws on her rural roots as she explores urban environmental studies.

Building and executing an experiment to test a novel idea for improving wind turbine efficiency was the senior capstone project of Alex Koh-Bell ’22, funded in part by a spring semester Halpin Prize.

A senior capstone and Halpin Prize winning project of Ilan Upfal ’22.5 focused on optimization strategies for tidal energy capture, an experimental system approached from a signal processing viewpoint.

Inspired by the small-scale self-assembly of objects due to the interaction of gravity and surface tension in liquid, mechanical engineer Maya Lewis ’23 used a DiMase Family Summer Internship to apply new methods and materials to explore the interaction of larger sets of objects at a fluid interface.

Funded in part by a Nielsen summer fellowship, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and mechanical engineer Joseph Massi ’22.5 spent the summer researching the mechanics of electrode and electrolyte materials for multifunctional structural batteries and supercapacitors.

A 2021 summer Mitchell Award enabled biomedical engineer Phillip Schmitt ’22 to advance a novel tissue scaffold design for the heart inspired by the Coulombe Lab, using a biodegradable polymer to repair damaged tissue.

Using his own steady hands and funds from a DiMase Family Summer Internship, Manuel Alejandro Lopez ’22 is exploring ways to expand the use of rGO (reduced graphene oxide) films to identify the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of top indoor air pollutants.

Biomedical engineer Eliza Sternlicht ’22 and applied math and economics concentrator Jack Schaeffer ’22 took top honors at the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship’s Brown Venture Prize competition with their redistribution model for unused pharmaceuticals.

Halpin Prize enables Lizzie Kimmel ’21 to engage in interplanetary space mission

As researchers explore faster data transfer rates in the terahertz range, new strategies for thwarting eavesdropping attempts by utilizing atmospheric effects were investigated by Malachi Hornbuckle ‘22, funded in part by a Nielsen summer fellowship.

Energy storage technology interests led mechanical engineer Elizabeth Healy ’21 to the Sheldon Lab. A DiMase Family Internship allowed her to develop those interests in an academic research setting, pushing the boundaries on next generation lithium-ion batteries.

Jayakumar Fellowship allows Andrew Duncombe ’21 to design computer architectures that make the implementation of complex computing processes, like neural networks, feasible for real-world applications. 

Halpin prize funds enable undergraduate engineer to iterate bio-inspired wings, test designs in wind tunnel

Ph.D. candidate Yuan Liu will graduate this May with his doctoral degree in chemistry, after utilizing the Open Graduate Education program to earn his engineering master's degree in May 2018.  In July, he will begin a postdoctoral associate position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Center for Ultracold Atoms.

Halpin prize helps launch online training and certification program during pandemic

DiMase Family Summer Internship recipient Eric DuBois ’20 is passionate about the intersection of design and research, and where the two may lead.

Sriram R. Jayakumar ’13 Award allows Jon Nelson ’20 to explore deep learning algorithms for embedded devices.

With help from the Doris M. and Norman T. Halpin Senior Capstone Prize and fellow engineers, Thomas Skipper ’19 investigates steerable guide tubes for deep brain stimulation treatment.

Gabriel Weedon ’19 wins Doris M. and Norman T. Halpin Senior Capstone Prize for his neural network and chemical computing project.

A DiMase Family Summer Internship allows Zachary Neronha ’19 to examine the collective migration of individual and groups of cancerous cells.

With help from a Carl Nielsen ’56 Summer Research Fellowship, Katie Wu ’19 furthers Breuer Lab work on a robotic flapping wing with implications for both biological and engineering communities.

A non-traditional educational path led engineering concentrator Jason Webster ’18 to the Rosenstein Lab and a Doris M. and Norman T. Halpin Senior Capstone Prize to explore an electronic nose.

With help from the Doris M. and Norman T. Halpin Senior Capstone Prize and fellow Brown students, Matthew Lo ’18 is designing an affordable prosthetic leg that could change the lives of amputees in developing countries.

From the time she first stepped foot onto College Hill, there was little doubt Ileana Pirozzi ’18 was right where she belonged.

In the rapidly growing intersection between electronics engineering and neuroscience, Caleb Tulloss ’18 seems to have found his place. The electrical engineering concentrator from Weston, Mass. is working to develop a fully-implanted solution to eye-tracking.

Perseverance: Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.