Spotlight Stories

With a dual appointment in engineering and computer science, Associate Professor Nora Ayanian looks at solutions for end-to-end multi-robot coordination – that is, making a team of robots work without roboticists on hand to monitor their progress.

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.

Corporate Advisory Board member Dan Leibholz credits Brown experiences, in and out of the classroom, for his semiconductor industry success.

Supportive parents and a balanced life are keys to success, according to this product engineer and entrepreneur.

As the Fluids faculty at Brown continues to expand, Assistant Professor Monica Martinez Wilhelmus tackles tangible contributions to climate science.

Assistant Professor Mauro Rodriguez brings to Brown Engineering his own realization, reaffirmation, and reclamation as mentor and educator.

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

Biomedical engineering alumnus Josh Cohen ’14 partnered with Justin Klee ’13 eight years ago to build a company dedicated to the development of therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

Linda Abriola is ready to reclaim her faculty identity. The computational modeler, National Academy of Engineering member, National Academy of Arts and Sciences member, U.S. State Department Science Envoy, and former dean at Tufts has arrived on College Hill for an opportunity to strike out again as an educator, teacher and researcher — something she hasn’t been able to singularly focus on since early in her career.

If the name seems familiar, it’s likely because Dr. Selim Suner has been frequently sought by newspapers and television stations in Rhode Island for his expertise on how local hospitals are handling the COVID-19 crisis.

As an employee of General Motors, Yue Qi was involved early with the Collaborative Research Laboratory partnership established between GM and Brown University. Continuing these collaborations with Brown colleagues as her career progressed from industry to academia, Qi’s return to campus in July as the newest engineering faculty member was eased by the familial feelings she already had for Brown Engineering.

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

A team of engineering faculty, students, alumni and other collaborators are designing and creating prototypes for low-cost ventilators with a device constructed of 3D printed and off-the-shelf components specifically designed for the COVID-19 crisis.

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

Professor Kimani Toussaint joins the Brown Engineering faculty, cultivating inspiration for new collaborations in engineering and beyond.

Brown Professor of Engineering Roberto Zenit believes in the importance of understanding and predicting fluid behavior.

Alumnus Harvey A. Heffner ’61 co-owns Empire City Iron Works, which manufactures, installs, and renovates steel works.

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

Brown engineering’s first female full professor, Tayhas Palmore, awarded the endowed professorship named after engineering’s first female Ph.D. graduate, Elaine I. Savage.

“Good afternoon, investigators,” boomed the voice welcoming players into the shadowy, otherworldly scene. “This is a class R, section 8C containment situation.” Eerie string music with intermittent bubbling cauldron sounds plays softly in the background. “We can afford to expose you to the specimens for a limited time. You will enter the unauthorized home laboratory of disgraced chief scientist Ko Tanaka …”

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.

Vikas Srivastava recently joined the Brown School of Engineering and Center for Biomedical Engineering as an assistant professor. Srivastava’s background is in solid mechanics and mechanics of materials.

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.

Taking risks and embracing change helped steer Steven Moya ’94 in bold, new directions.

Pioneering earthquake early warning technologies, Zizmos’ eQuake smartphone application is steadily gaining traction in the commercial industry, bolstered by winning multiple competitions and earning government funding.

Professor Kurt Pennell is bridging the gap between environmental engineering and public health.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Frances Bivens, class of 1988, is continuing to evolve as her interests change and grow.