Stevens Indicator - Fall 2014 by Office of Development and Alumni Engagement, Stevens Institute of Technology

FALL 2014

THE MAGAZINE OF THE STEVENS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

MAKING A WORLD OF

Difference

S P IS EC SU IA E L

STEVENS ALUMNI & PROGRAMS INFLUENCE THE GLOBAL STAGE

STEVENS AWARDS GALA SATURDAY

MARCH 28, 2015 THE PLAZA HOTEL FIFTH AVENUE AT CENTRAL PARK NEW YORK, NY

Join us at the historic Plaza Hotel for the third annual Stevens Awards Gala, as we honor the remarkably accomplished alumni and friends of Stevens. BL ACK TIE

For further information and sponsorship opportunities:

www.stevens.edu/awardsgala

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LOG WRITING A LONG FAMILY TRADITION

TECHNOLOGY HELPS KEEP THE CLASS LOGS COMING

I was going through my father’s files (George F. Wolf, Class of 1925) and I found a copy of the class log of the Class of 1925. It was probably in a 1930 Stevens Indicator. I recognized some of the names from that class because I attended many of the reunions as a son. My father did not take over as class log writer until the late 1930s. He wrote the class log for close to 30 years.

Technology is such a great word — not only to those of us Stevens people, but also to the whole world. It is now especially important to those with disabilities. In my case, being nearly blind, I am able to open The Indicator and place a page face up on a machine, which automatically reads the print in a clear, totally synthesized voice. And the “Indy” keeps me up on the great things happening at Stevens. Not only that, but now I am writing the 1943 class log on my computer, using a screenreading program that repeats each word as I type and will read the whole document, if I wish. For those who can’t type, another program will write the words as they are spoken.

I took over as the Class of ’52 log writer/ Bob Wolf ’52, at his 60th class secretary in 1987. If I can continue in class reunion in 2012. reasonably good health, I hope to continue at least through 2017. I do feel that the world of printed news is continuing to decline, however, my remaining class members continue to appreciate The Indicator and the log.

So wonderful. Technology rolls on. And, in my world, it and The Indicator make life better. F. Leroy Garrabrant, Jr. ’43 Editor’s Note: Mr. Garrabrant started writing the Class of ’43 log more than two years ago and is a faithful contributor.

I am considering writing a history from the years I have served as class log writer. I have been impressed by my class members, especially our class leaders whom I have had the good fortune to work with and write about. I would not have been able to perform as well without the support and assistance of you and all the members of the Alumni Office staff. Please continue to tell them how much those efforts are appreciated. Bob Wolf ’52 Editor’s Note: Mr. Wolf is one of The Stevens Indicator’s most dedicated and prolific class log writers.

FALL 2014, VOL. 135, NO. 3 Executive Director Michael Smullen

Executive Director Emeritus Anita Lang

Editor

Beth Kissinger bkissing@stevens.edu

Associate Editor

Lisa Torbic ltorbic@stevens.edu

Contributors

Joe Arney Stevens Office of Academic Communications & Marketing Paul Karr Stevens Office of Communications & Marketing Robert Kulish Assistant Athletic Director for Communications & Events Blythe Nobleman Stevens Office of Academic Communications & Marketing Young Soo Yang Stevens Office of Communications & Marketing

Art Direction/Design

Letters to the Editor

Additional Art Direction/Design

Class log submissions

www.DanFlintDesign.com Jason Rodriguez

Published quarterly by

Indicator Correspondence

editor@alumni.stevens.edu alumni-log@stevens.edu

General SAA inquiries

Contact the Alumni Office Phone: (201) 216-5163 Fax: (201) 216-5374 alumni@stevens.edu

The Stevens Indicator Stevens Alumni Association Castle Point Hoboken, NJ 07030 Phone: (201) 216-5161 Fax: (201) 216-5374 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PER ASPERA AD ASTRA

FALL 2014 1

FEATURES FALL 2014

THE MAGAZINE OF THE STEVENS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

THE MAGAZINE OF THE STEVENS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION FALL 2014

DEPARTMENTS 1.......................................... Letters to the Editor

Stevens on the 8-26 Global Stage Meet some of our amazing alumni from six continents who are bringing the Stevens name to the world’s attention, through their outstanding achievements in fields such as healthcare, STEM education, technology and business. And learn how Stevens’ expanding international partnerships and programs are also making a positive difference in the world.

4-5..........................................Presidents’ Corner 6-7...........................................Grist from the Mill 33.......................................... Calendar of Events 34-35.......................... Alumni Business Directory 36............................................................. Vitals

10-15 Asia

Tony Wang M.M.S. ’73, China Sachin Shah ’89 M.S. ’93, Japan S. Yawar Ali ’69 M.M.S. ’72, Pakistan Stevens Partnerships in Asia

16 Australia

Rebecca (Walz) Zeus ’00 and Zachary Zeus ’98

17 Africa

Victoria Butegwa ’09, Uganda

18-22 Europe

Sarah Rodriguez ’02, Sweden Niamh Joyce ’01 M.S.M.T. ’01, Ireland Mike Murphy M.Eng. ’82 Ph.D. ’97, Ireland Demetri Politopoulos ’90 M.S. ’90, Greece Stevens Partnerships in Europe

24-25 Latin America

Dayro Cardenas ’84 M.M.S. ’86, Colombia Tomas De Rossi ’73, Peru Stevens Partnerships in Latin America

26 North America Vern Brownell ’80, Canada

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27 A Conversation with the Provost

Stevens Provost George Korfiatis explores why it’s vital for Stevens to expand its international reach at home and abroad.

28 International Reflections

Meet five international students, learn why a Stevens degree is so important to them and discover their joys and challenges.

29 From Morocco to Hoboken

Nadira Najib M.Eng. ’11 Ph.D. ’15 discusses her journey from Morocco to Stevens as she embraces new opportunities in the U.S.

30 Battling Implant Infection

For the past five years, Stevens students and professors have collaborated with colleagues from the University Medical Center Groningen in The Netherlands on research to fight implant infection.

Above, from left: Stevens’ international programs include a research collaboration with the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands; a two-week course in Naples for students from Italy, Mexico and the U.S. (including Stevens); Victoria Butegwa ’09 helps educate Ugandans about sustainable energy products.

On the Cover Stevens — through its alumni and programs — is making a positive difference across the globe, in many fields. The cover captures some of the university’s research areas in which its professors, researchers and students, as well as its alumni, are making an impact: energy, finance, defense, healthcare and STEM education. Illustration: Stephanie Dalton Cowan

32 For Love of Service and Soccer

The Stevens women’s soccer team believes in giving back and spent their spring break in Paraguay on a service trip that also included a little soccer.

37-40 From Your Alumni Association

Learn more about services provided by the Stevens Alumni Association and see how your engagement with Stevens makes a big difference in the university’s future. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PER ASPERA AD ASTRA

FALL 2014 3

PRESIDENTS’ CORNER THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF STEVENS In the year 2014, The Stevens Indicator is celebrating 130 years of continuous publication. Traditionally it has been the source of information that tells the story of the Institute – its students, its alumni, its faculty, and its administration, while providing information for, about, and between alumni after leaving Stevens. It has focused not only on events and news from Stevens, but elsewhere as well, which is very much as its first editor, C.W. Whiting, Class of 1884, originally envisioned. Like so many before it, this current issue gives just a glimpse of the many amazing accomplishments and exciting activities at Stevens and around the world. Be sure to check out the stories beginning on page 8. One highlight I’ve noticed from recent issues is the rise of Stevens alumni club chapters around the world. I am proud to say that the Stevens Alumni Association now boasts official club chapters in China, Korea, and Taiwan, with several new international groups nearing approval for this year. We are truly alumni on the move.

Of course, Stevens has been an institution of international esteem right from the start. Our early focus on ocean-going vessels, maritime research, and the realization of rail transportation in America, is due in no small part to the efforts of John Cox and Edwin A. Stevens. It was the Stevens brothers who built the yacht America, sailing around the Isle of Wight in England and winning the first America’s Cup. Stevens’ original, pioneering curriculum in engineering was created from the best practices of various German and French technical schools. And in 1914, the Stevens Alumni Association held its very first official clubs meeting, already including chapters from both Europe and Japan. When I was admitted to Stevens in 1959, I was already a Hoboken resident as I grew up in that city. I knew Stevens as a hidden gem on the Hudson – a school with a great reputation for academic excellence and rigorous expectations, but I still thought of it as a local place. If only I knew then what I know now! So take this opportunity to learn about Stevens’ global presence. Make sure to share these exciting developments with friends, family, and future potential students. And join me and your fellow alumni to express, once again, a renewed sense of joy and pride in the excellence of our alma mater!❖

Proudly yours, Per aspera ad astra Even back in 1914, Stevens alumni were international, as this SAA gathering shows, with clubs stretching from Wisconsin to Japan, from Brooklyn to Europe.

This special edition of The Stevens Indicator is intended to show you exactly how Stevens and its alumni are having a global impact. From China to Greece, Australia to Colombia, and in Hoboken, New Jersey, you can see the true impact of our alma mater across the globe.

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Thomas Moschello ’63 M.S. ’65 President, Stevens Alumni Association tmoschello@aol.com

PRESIDENTS’ CORNER

THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF THE STEVENS IMPACT Dear Friends, It has been nearly a decade since Thomas Friedman’s best-seller, The World is Flat, vividly depicted the implications of globalization on life, work, entertainment, the economy, and nearly every aspect of human existence. A “flattened” world — Friedman’s metaphor for an increasingly interconnected world in which small players with ingenuity and agility are able to effectively challenge established and well-funded corporate giants — exists due to new capabilities enabled by technological innovation, principally in computing and communications technology, high-speed networking, and the proliferation of Internet access worldwide. Those of us born in the mid-20th century need only think about the changes we have seen in how we perform simple tasks—from buying books and music, to paying bills, to keeping in touch with friends and family. As these trends continue and accelerate in the years and decades to come, institutions like Stevens have the opportunity and responsibility to prepare students for a dynamic and uncertain future— and for careers that may not yet exist. This issue of The Indicator explores some of Stevens’ global connections—from alumni leading international corporations to education and research partnerships with international universities, to the experiences of our current students in study abroad programs. It is both impressive and inspiring to understand the depth and breadth of Stevens’ impact and connections around the globe. It is also quite evident that the tremendous educational foundation that Stevens has provided to its graduates for more than 144 years has helped prepare alumni for leadership roles in the U.S. and abroad, from major organizations like Samsung, LG Display, and Seacrest Shipping to international universities, to successful startup companies everywhere. The world described by Friedman challenges us to prepare for the opportunities and complexities that come with interconnectedness and globalization. Cybersecurity, marine and port security, socio-technical and economic systems—these are but a few of the areas in which Stevens is engaged in research to develop solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time. I am delighted and proud to share that most recently, Stevens researchers have received significant national recognition for research programs and the potential of future impact on a global scale: a $60 million award from the U.S. Department of Defense for the Systems Engineering Research Center; a $10 million award from

the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a Center of Excellence for Maritime Research, and a $3 million award from the National Science Foundation to fund scholars in cybersecurity. A few statistics illustrate the current international reach of Stevens: As of Fall 2014, Stevens draws undergraduate students from 19 countries and graduate students from 68 countries. Our alumni are distributed in 89 countries. We have study-abroad and research exchange programs in 12 countries, and we will soon have substantive education and research programs with more than a dozen of the world’s premier universities. With this foundation, Stevens is poised to make an even more significant impact on the global stage. By engaging our greatest assets — our alumni and faculty — we will strategically increase our international presence to strengthen education programs and targeted research initiatives at Stevens: by building partnerships in countries of strategic importance; by increasing study- and internship-abroad opportunities for students; by recruiting more international undergraduate students; by strengthening curricular offerings in foreign languages, and many more efforts both large and small. Clearly, Stevens is no longer a regional university. Stevens’ global partnerships, our international students and alumni, and our engagement in research with global impact combine to have a very substantial influence on the University we are — and the University we will become. We think like a world-class university. We act like a world-class university. And we will soon be recognized as a world-class university.❖

Per aspera ad astra,

Nariman Farvardin President, Stevens Institute of Technology president@stevens.edu 201-216-5213

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GRIST FROM THE MILL RUESTERHOLZ CENTER OPENS The Stevens Office of Undergraduate Admissions has moved to its new location in the Ruesterholz Admissions Center, which is in the building just north of the Howe Center, formerly known as Colonial House. Through the generosity of Virginia and Kevin Ruesterholz, both Class of ’83, this historic building will provide beautiful and functional space to showcase the Stevens campus to prospective students and their families. All undergraduate admissions activities have been fully transitioned to the Ruesterholz Admissions Center, including interviews, campus tours, information sessions and academic department tours. ❖

A LEGACY OF GIVING A scholarship foundation that honors the memory of a Stevens alumnus who died on 9/11 held its annual awards event this past spring on campus. The Jerome Lohez 9/11 Scholarship Foundation awarded five scholarships to students from France, the United States and China. Among the recipients was Elodie Nguyen Thanh Nhan from France, who is pursuing a dual degree in information systems and software engineering from Stevens and the École Pour L’Informatique et les Techniques Avancées (EPITA) in France. Jerome Lohez M.S. ’97, a French national who worked in the World Trade Center’s North Tower, attended EPITA and Stevens, where he met his wife, Dening Wu Lohez M.S. ’97. The foundation, started by Lohez in 2005, promotes educational and cultural exchange among the U.S., China and France. A Stevens student is always among the recipients. Her husband would be pleased. “He’s a very modest man… he would say thank you, but you didn’t have to do that,” she says. “Giving was his legacy.” The scholarship helps with living expenses and has much meaning, said Nhan. She praised Lohez. “She’s very kind and very courageous,” Nhan said.❖ —Beth Kissinger Dening Wu Lohez M.S. ’97, third from left, congratulates recipients of the Jerome Lohez 9/11 Scholarship, including Stevens/EPITA student Elodie Nguyen Thanh Nhan, far left.

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STEVENS WELCOMES NEW VP FOR DEVELOPMENT Brodie Remington, a fundraising professional with 30 years of experience in higher education, joined Stevens in June as its Vice President for Development. He succeeds Ed Eichhorn ’69, who recently retired. During his 39year career, Remington has led five successful fundraising campaigns for three universities. He joins Stevens from the University of Maryland, where he served as adviser to the vice president for University Relations and Director of Leadership Gifts. Remington previously served as the president of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, where he executed the $1 billion Great Expectations campaign. Prior to the University of Maryland, he served as vice president of Development and Alumni Programs at Trinity College, leading fundraising efforts that surpassed a $125 million goal. At the University of Oregon, he played a lead role in executing a campaign that concluded with more than $100 million raised above expectations. ❖

GRIST FROM THE MILL

LONGTIME ADMISSIONS COUNSELOR RETIRES

 U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) headlined a small business forum on social media and technology at Stevens recently. The event, held in July 2014, highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship to the nation’s economy and the vital importance of technology to the success of small businesses. About 275 people attended the event, which was hosted by Booker and The Internet Association.

Edwina Fleming, the first female admissions counselor at Stevens, retired this summer after a 38-year career with the university. Fleming joined the Stevens Admissions Office in September 1976 and traveled to 22 countries on behalf of the admissions team. She estimates that throughout the years, she has met 6,500 students. “I enjoyed meeting so many fantastic students and their families,’’ she said. “So many of the students that I met have become leaders in their industries.’’ For now, Fleming hopes that retirement brings her a chance to relax and enjoy some hobbies, such as attending sporting events with her husband. ❖ —Lisa Torbic

A ‘SURE HOUSE’ Inspired by the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, Stevens students will build ‘SURE HOUSE’ as a storm-resilient home — and their Solar Decathlon 2015 entry. The Stevens team announced this spring that their home for the prestigious competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, will be both sustainable and resilient, taking into account new flood maps issued by FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and designed to meet the needs of middle and working class residents of coastal areas in New Jersey and New York. This net-zero, solar-powered house will be built on the Stevens campus over the next year, then shipped to Irvine, California, for the international competition in Fall 2015. ❖ To learn more, visit www.surehouse.org

NEW HONOR FOR STEVENS Stevens has been selected as the lead institution for a new Center of Excellence for Maritime Research (CMR). The selection, announced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate, will provide Stevens with $2 million per year for five years. The work will help the United States address challenges in the maritime domain. The center will also include the following partnership schools: MIT, University of Miami, Rutgers University, University of Puerto Rico and Elizabeth City State University. ❖

HOMECOMING WEEKEND OFFERS FALL FUN Stevens’ Homecoming Weekend promises an exciting, expanded schedule of events this fall. The weekend, Oct. 17-19, will feature an Oktoberfest, with the best brews and foods of the season; alumni baseball and alumni men’s and women’s lacrosse games, and an alumni swim meet; an alumni “playalong” with the Jazz Band and sing-along with the Stevens Choir; and the return of the Alumni Legacy Reception for alumni families. Old favorites also return, including a Performing Arts Showcase, community barbecue, athletic games and 20 14 the 2014 Athletic Hall of Fame Induction.❖ For the Homecoming schedule, Hall of Fame inductees and registration information, visit stevens.edu/homecoming

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Diff

M A K I N G A WO R L D O F ALU M N I ,

PROG R AM S

o longer a “hidden gem on the Hudson,” Stevens Institute of Technology, its reputation and impact are growing, reaching across oceans and across mountains, touching nearly every continent of the globe. At stake: opportunities for Stevens students to gain global experiences; introduction of varied cultural perspectives that impact both the curriculum and campus; extension of Stevens innovation into both developed and undeveloped nations; and acceleration of the university’s mission of tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Stevens is opening doors globally, in significant ways: Fostering collaborative research agreements and international partnerships: The university is exporting technological know-how to three continents, through collaborative research and academic courses that cover everything from the ecological study of the Amazon to the nurturing of entrepreneurship within Malaysia.

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Expanding exchange and study abroad programs: Through organized programs and a commitment to expanding opportunities for current students, Stevens will bring more global experiences than ever to its student body, and is increasing the number of international students we host through special programs and exchanges.

fference MAK E

TH EI R

MAR K

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I NTER N ATI O N A L

S TAG E

FUN FACT

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ILLUSTRATIONS BY STEPHANIE DALTON COWAN

Diversifying our international student population: internationally-based Stevens alumni who are makOur international student body brings diverse perspecing an impact – are examples of the increased reach tives to the classroom and campus culture. These perof the Stevens network. Our alumni stories are as Stevens alumni are truly spectives add tremendous value to an education rooted varied as they are inspiring: serving with the United international, as they can in fostering high-impact solutions in a shrinking global Nations; leading Fortune 500 companies; guiding be found in 89 countries. economy. the STEM education of an entire country; bringing Bringing Stevens innovation to the world through technology to remote areas; fostering excellence in alumni success: Stevens alumni have been making a healthcare; founding local companies that create positive impact on the international stage for generations. From leading jobs and improve the lives of their fellow citizens. global corporations to bringing clean energy to people in need, Stevens This special, globally-themed Indicator will travel from Hoboken to alumni can be found on almost every continent, making a positive dif- Korea, from Sweden to Brazil, from Uganda to Australia and beyond, to ference. showcase how Stevens and its alumni are making a world of difference. The alumni profiled in this issue – just a sampling of more than 1,000 Please enjoy the journey.❖

ASIA

F U N FACT

Dr. Jang H. Chun Ph.D. '84 is president of Kwangwoon University, a private research university in Seoul, Korea.

MAKING HISTORICAL IMPACT THROUGHOUT ASIA

tevens’ presence in Asia is historical and remains strong today. In Beijing, China, Stevens has partnered for more than a decade with the prestigious Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) to offer graduate programs in telecommunications management and physics to BIT students. The two institutions have also engaged in an undergraduate “2+2” arrangement in which enrolled BIT students complete two years of undergraduate studies at Stevens and two at BIT. Also in Beijing, Stevens’ Howe School offers joint master’s degree programs in enterprise project management (EPM) and business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) at the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE). In Shanghai, Stevens’ Schaefer School of Engineering and Science (SES) has developed a new partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), one of China’s top universities.

Approximately a dozen SJTU graduate students will travel to Hoboken to study this fall in disciplines including maritime systems, computer science, ocean engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and stochastic systems. Efforts to forge further collaborations with additional Chinese institutions continue as well. Stevens recently signed memoranda of

understanding with both the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and the Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications that bear watching as Stevens continues to expand its global programs. In Singapore, Stevens’ School of Systems and Enterprises (SSE) operates a dual-degree partnership with the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The program leads to a Stevens master’s in systems engineering and a master’s in systems and project management (from NTU); students may apply through either university, and four Singaporean students studied in Hoboken in 2014 under the exchange program. Also in Singapore, the National University of Singapore (NUS) is one of three universities worldwide joining forces with Stevens in a new collaborative effort to study coastal urban resiliency. The program, which also includes partner institutions in England and the Netherlands (see p. 18), is headed by a Stevens team including Stevens’ SES Dean Michael Bruno and SSE Dean Dinesh Verma, Center for Coastal Resilience and Urban Xcellence (CRUX) Director Alexandros Washburn and Davidson Laboratory Director Alan Blumberg. Since 2010, Stevens has offered an introductory course in Malaysia at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The course, which consists of both online and personal instruction from Stevens faculty and focuses on technical  Students and educators from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Stevens enjoy an Entrepreneurship Day event in Malaysia.

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entrepreneurship, dovetails with the Malaysian government’s mandate that all university freshmen enroll in at least one entrepreneurship course. The program later spawned Stevens’ entrepreneurship workshops at two dozen additional Malaysian universities. Also in southeast Asia, Stevens established a relationship in 2012 with the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), the national university of Brunei. After researching U.S. engineering institutions extensively, UBD selected Stevens to provide guidance on core curriculum as the nation looks to expand its educational programming and diversify its largely oil-dependent economy. The Stevens Design Spine curriculum has been a key piece of that initiative. Additional partnerships, exchanges and energy research initiatives could follow. In the United Arab Emirates, Stevens has an ongoing collaboration with the Petroleum Institute (PI) in Abu Dhabi. Stevens is assisting the PI to modernize their academic and operational processes and capabilities. More than 60 PI students have participated in Stevens’ summer programs over the past two years. And in India, Stevens has signed memoranda of understanding with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, in Mumbai; Anna University, in Tamil Nadu; Sree Narayana Gurukulam College of Engineering (SNGCE), in Kerala; and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Administrators envision research collaborations and student and faculty exchanges.❖ —Paul Karr

Korean alumni hosted several receptions for Stevens Provost George Korfiatis and Dean Dinesh Verma during their trip to the country this past spring. The Stevens officials also enjoyed a tour of Samsung, where they met with Samsung Electronics Senior Vice President Steve Hah M.S. ’93 Ph.D. ’95, and Samsung Electronics Vice President Sangbom Kang M.S.’93 Ph.D. ’96. The trip also provided an opportunity to meet with other prestigious Stevens alumni in Korea.

Korea has a thriving Stevens alumni group — and some truly illustrious alumni. One shining example: Dr. Sang-Beom Han M.S. ’85 Ph.D. ’91, who is the Chief Executive Officer and President of LG Display, the world’s largest LCD panel maker, based in Seoul. Dr. Han — the 2014 recipient of Stevens’ prestigious International Achievement Award — is one of the world’s leading IT experts and is credited with leading LG Display’s IT and TV business units to positions of worldwide prominence. This past April, Dr. Han, pictured at far right, provided a tour of LG’s headquarters in Seoul to Stevens Provost George Korfiatis, second from right, and Dean Dinesh Verma, second from left, of Stevens’ School of Systems & Enterprises, during their trip to Korea to meet with alumni, a number of them top executives and academics. Pictured with them is Timothy Lee, of the Seoul-based REXHRM Economic Research Institute. Dr. Han later visited Stevens, where he met with Korean students and Stevens officials. LG Display recently donated 31 information display units to Stevens. The units have been installed in lobbies, lounges and conference rooms throughout campus, significantly elevating the university’s technology infrastructure. ❖

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FRANCHISE PLAYER, FOOD NETWORKER TONY WANG M.M.S ’73, RULED THE ROOST IN CHINESE RESTAURANT EXPANSION Ta-Tung “Tony” Wang M.M.S. ’73 took an unusual path to Stevens, and then an even more remarkable journey to the summit of the Asian restaurant and franchising business. It’s a testament not only to Wang’s skill as a manager and entrepreneur, but also to his persistence first as a student and, later, pursuing ventures in China during an era when business entry to that country was nearly impossible.

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a Chinese restaurant (foreshadowing) to help fund his education; and acquired a master’s degree in management. “Obtaining my degree, getting married and having a child were real accomplishments,” he remembers. “I moved from the student dorm, to the single dorm, to the married dorm.” After beginning a career with the pharmaceutical firm Schering-Plough — an interview arranged by a Stevens faculty member helped him secure the position — Wang received a fateful phone call that changed his life. Kentucky Fried Chicken executive Donald Doyle, who would later become president of the company’s U.S. division, saw promise in the young man and offered him a post with KFC’s New Jersey office. After some hesitation and reflection Wang accepted, thrived and was soon bound for the West Coast, where he served as district manager of and then junior partner in a

series of successful Wendy’s and KFC franchises in both northern and southern California. A chance meeting with a Chinese official resulted in an offer to bring his business model to Asia, and in 1982 Wang returned home and opened the first joint Chinese-American restaurant venture in history, Orchid Foods. KFC CEO Richard Mayer, who had been unsuccessfully attempting to enter the Chinese market, noticed and soon convinced Wang to return to the fold as vice president for all KFC Chinese and Southeast Asian operations. He would eventually open the first KFC and first Kenny Rogers Roasters locations in China, and create a new restaurant brand known as La Jazz, among other accomplishments, before finally moving over to academia. Today he’s known as the “father of fast food in China,” and Wang credits his time at Stevens with setting him squarely on the path to busi-

ART COPYRIGHT: KCHUNG / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

oday, Wang divides his time between summers in California with his adult children and academic years spent teaching franchise management and retail management in the MBA program at both Chung Yuan Christian University and Tunghai University in Taiwan, where he remains very active with the Stevens Taiwan Alumni Club. But in 1969 he was still a new arrival in the U.S. with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in hand, a desire to obtain a graduate education — and no firm destination. A friend then enrolled at Stevens, Roger Lo, tipped him off to Castle Point, and he dug into the coursework. Those years in Hoboken would prove eventful. By the time he graduated the master’s program in 1973, Wang had reconnected with elementary-schoolmate Yvonne, now in New York City, and married her; welcomed a son, the first of three children; worked part-time in

Stevens alumni have a large presence in China and Taiwan, which boast the second and third largest number of contactable international Stevens alumni, respectively, behind only India. The university has a number of long-established academic partnerships with universities in China, and the Stevens Alumni Association has recently held several successful alumni events in both China and Taiwan. Below: This past June, Dr. Gregory Prastacos, dean of Stevens’ Howe School of Technology Management, welcomed the Beijing Alumni Club to a reception in Beijing. Both graduate and undergraduate alumni and newly admitted Stevens students from China attended.❖

Tony Wang M.M.S. ’73 is known as the “father of fast food in China,” having served as vice president for all KFC Chinese and Southeast Asian operations.

“

One of the best investments I made in my life was going to Stevens. —Tony Wang M.M.S. ‘73

”

Stevens’ largest international concentration of contactable alumni is in Asia. India is the top country for international contactable alumni, followed by China, and Taiwan being a close third. France and Greece round out the top five.

FUN FACT

ness success — one of the reasons he named his next two children Steven and Stephanie. “The strategic planning I learned at Stevens proved extremely useful,” he recalls. “Interestingly, the higher the position you reach in management, the more you remember and then need to use what you had learned in graduate school. You’d think it would be the other way around, but university teaches the principles you need for success, and you don’t necessarily see the whole picture until you begin rising in an organization. One of the best investments I made in my life was going to Stevens.”❖ —By Paul Karr

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ART COPYRIGHT: ONEFLY / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

THE CHINA CONNECTION

TSUNAMI AMONG METLIFE JAPAN CEO’S

MANY LIFE-DEFINING MOMENTS

urrent MetLife Japan CEO and President Sachin Shah ’89 M.S. ’93 had been the company’s COO for two months when the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the country struck on March 11, 2011. The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami would leave close to 16,000 people dead, an estimated economic cost of $235 billion, and the country under nuclear threat, after the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Shah, who was on business in Mexico City when the disaster struck, immediately caught a plane for Tokyo. He was one of four people flying in. “When I landed, everyone was trying to leave,” he says. “I felt that it was important to be there. We’re an insurance company. When

14 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

disaster strikes, our business becomes real.” Shah had 11,000 employees and 7 million customers to think of, in what he could only describe, over the two to three weeks that followed, as “the most stressful, bizarre, war-like days of my life.” As he and his team worked to get food and bottled water to MetLife employees — as well as essential supplies and payments to customers — the Tokyo headquarters, about 230 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter, experienced up to 8.4-magnitude earthquake aftershocks. Skyscrapers and apartment buildings swayed and creaked, as they also feared a nuclear disaster. “It was our moment to deliver on our promise to our customers, and I feel that we performed admirably,” Shah says. “It really shaped my belief in the importance of insurance and the importance of what we do.” Making key decisions that affect the lives of millions of customers and employees — and leading a corporation that has a significant presence in Japan — is what Shah does. Shah, who was named CEO and President of MetLife Japan in August 2013, has been with MetLife since 1999, starting as vice president in the company’s U.S. Institutional Business and steadily rising through the ranks to oversee the company’s strategy for its international business. He later helped to integrate Alico, a unit of AIG, into MetLife in 2010 — a $15.5 billion deal. So, during a recent phone interview from

his Tokyo office, he laughs heartily when he’s read his own “Famous Last Words” to his graduating class in The Link: “Keep in touch. You might want to know me while I am president of some big company.” “I really cherished my time at Stevens,” he says. From playing varsity baseball — with neither turf nor lights and loving every minute of it (“We played our hearts out every game.”) — to classes, he pauses to laugh and remember. “The problem solving skills that we were taught have served me very well,” he says. In a corporate environment, companies must constantly improve, re-invent themselves, know the risks, he says — solving problems at each step. After graduation, Shah started an engineering career, but knew that he needed a different path to fulfill his dream of running a company. A graduate school professor at Stevens, Lemuel Tarshis, encouraged him to consider financial services and referred him to a friend at Pershing, where he began his career in the field. “It ultimately brought me to where I am today,” Shah says. Shah, who lives in Tokyo with his wife and two children (a third child attends Babson College in Massachusetts), praises their life in Japan and in Asia — “a dynamic and greatly varied part of the world” — and the opportunity his children have to experience the world more fully. “I have been exposed to what a global world we live in — but how small it is,” he says. “I am honored.” ❖ —Beth Kissinger, Editor

ART COPYRIGHT:MEGAPIXELINA / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

 Sachin Shah ’89 M.S.’93 was named CEO and President of MetLife Japan in August 2013.

From the U.N. to the farm,

alumnus gives back to

Pakistan & the world

FALL 2014 15

PHOTO: JEFF VOCK | UNITED NATIONS COPYRIGHT: ANDYKAZIE / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

yed Yawar Ali ’69 M.M.S. Ali has a gentle, dignified man’72 stops by Stevens one ner. Clad in a dark suit, there’s a June morning, after finstillness and thoughtfulness about ishing an annual meeting at the him. United Nations, where he serves His prominent family has a on the Committee on Contristrong record of philanthropy in butions — the U.N. committee Pakistan, having founded Liaquat which recommends the contribuNational Hospital & Medical Coltion of each member state toward lege in Karachi and Lahore Unithe United Nations budget. versity of Management Sciences, Before heading home to Laas well as the Ali Institute of Eduhore, Pakistan, the chairman of cation to train high school teachNestlé Pakistan has taken time ers. Ali has held many prestigious for a tour of campus, lunch with board positions, including the Nestlé Pakistan Chairman Syed Yawar Ali ’69 M.M.S. ’72 serves with the President Nariman Farvardin — State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan United Nations and founded an NGO to help small dairy farmers in Pakistan. and a reunion with an old friend, International Airlines and the AgCharlie Perruzzi ’63. At this moricultural Development Bank of ment, Ali and Perruzzi are talking with an average family of seven. Pakistan. Recently, he’s taken on dairy cows. For Ali, serving the people of Pakistan has perhaps an even greater challenge. The average dairy cow in Pakistan produces been a longtime family tradition. Ali serves as co-chairman of the Pakistan1,000 liters of milk per year while the average Ali’s father, the late Syed Amjad Ali, served India Joint Business Forum, representing dairy cow in the U.S. produces 9,000 liters. But as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S. from 1953 Pakistan. The forum was constituted by both by using U.S. Fresien Semen with local cows, to 1955, was his country’s Finance Minister governments in 2013, with a vision of taking the genetic potential of these crossbreed cows and became Pakistan’s permanent representasteps toward advancing the two countries’ increases to 5,000 liters of milk per year. UStive to the U.N. in 1965, right around the time trade relations. AID has been working with an NGO (Dairy his son started at Stevens. The elder Ali chaired “Time for India and Pakistan to move forand Rural Development Foundation) created the same U.N. committee upon which Yawar ward,” he says. by Ali; this partnership has trained 2,000 arAli now sits, from 1967 to 1991. But this June day, Ali, who is married to tificial insemination technicians, 5,000 women “These are big shoes to fill,” his son says. Nighat and has two sons and three grandchillivestock extension workers and 9,000 dairy This top corporate leader has spent much dren, takes a moment to reflect on his alma farmers in Pakistan. The project aims to train of his career with family businesses, including mater, which feels “very familiar and comfortsmall dairy farmers in best farm practices, rePackages Ltd. and Milk Pak, a major producer ing” he says. He sees his time of working long sulting in higher milk production and leading of milk and milk products in Pakistan. Ali be- hours and solving tough problems at Castle to poverty alleviation. (See www.dairyproject. came Nestlé Pakistan chairman in 1992, on the Point as benefitting him for the challenges org.pk). heels of a joint venture with Nestlé and Milk ahead. “This is pay-back time,” Ali says. “We can Pak. These days, he’s looking to make a more “I think that it prepared me for all kinds of improve lives; it can impact 70 million people,” local impact in his country. situations,” Ali says.❖ —Beth Kissinger, Editor as he counts 10 million farmers in Pakistan, “I’m interested in being of value,” he says.

AUSTRALIA

Life In ‘Oz’ Provides New Opportunities A

new job brought Zach and Rebecca (Walz) Zeus to Australia in 2004. Rebecca ’00 and Zach ’98 thought the time away from family and friends in the U.S. would be for two years, but 10 years after the move, they find themselves loving their new life “Down Under.” Life in Sydney is busy for the couple, revolving around work and their two pre-school children, Zaden and Zia. “You adjust to whatever your situation is, and we’ve also been fortunate to develop some great friendships here, many with people in similar situations and happy to reciprocate support,’’ Rebecca said, adding that Skype and FaceTime help bridge the 10,000 miles between the U.S. and Australia. Rebecca was working for BOC in 2002 in their Murray Hill, New Jersey, facility as a fuel gas engineer. In 2004, the cylinder business was sold and BOC Australia needed someone with knowledge of the acetylene engineering requirements, and thus began their new life in Australia. Today, she holds the title of SHEQ (Safety, Health, Environment, Quality) improvement manager for the South Pacific region (Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands) for BOC, a member of the Linde Group, a position she has held since 2011. Rebecca helps improve SHEQ processes, with her greatest achievement so far being an overhaul of the internal incident/accident investigation process. She led the delivery of “a hands-on, interactive three-day training to over 200 investigators, and the program is now being looked at globally,’’ she said. For Zach, the move to Australia provided a new entrepreneurial opportunity. He started his own company, BizCubed, a business intelligence technology leader in the Australian mar-

Zach ’98 and Rebecca (Walz) Zeus ’00 have called Australia home for 10 years. Here, they enjoy a day out with their kids, Zaden and Zia.

ket, in 2006. Named “Asia-Pacific Partner of the Year in 2008’’ by Pentaho, a business analytics company, BizCubed’s team has successfully managed projects for large companies, state and federal government agencies and Australian Stock Market (ASX)-listed organizations. “There were a number of factors that contributed to starting BizCubed, though it was primarily opportunistic. There was a coalescence of a committed customer, local business partners and a strategic technology alliance that allowed us to see if this business could work. From there we’ve been growing and innovating in this market,’’ Zach said. But it wasn’t easy. “When you work in a

When you work in a small business, there are lots of things that you need to do that may not be your core strengths. —Zach Zeus ’98 ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: SERGEYPYKHONIN / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

16 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

small business, there are lots of things that you need to do that may not be your core strengths, like marketing, human resources, sales and sometimes just the office maintenance,’’ Zach said, adding that his education helped him solve the problems that come up with being an entrepreneur. After 10 years in Australia, the couple is candid when they talk about being ex-pats. “We definitely still think of ourselves as Americans living in Australia. Even though we’ve lived here now for 10 years and I have dual citizenship, we still talk about ‘when’ we move back to the U.S.,’’ Rebecca said.❖ — Lisa Torbic, Associate Editor

AFRICA

Life After Stevens In Africa, Teaching About Sustainable Energy Products SPIDERRADIO

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYED IN SOUTH AFRICA

T Victoria Butegwa ’09 just finished a fellowship in Uganda, helping to educate Ugandans about sustainable energy products.

drivers, so they don’t have a set salary. They are not really looking at these products as helping to save the Earth, they are looking at them as ways to save money. And yet, these products do have many long term benefits.’’ Households in Uganda spend a large percentage of their monthly income on energy, Butegwa said, as a majority of Ugandans use firewood for fuel and charcoal for cooking; by comparison, just one percent of Ugandans use clean energy technology cookstoves. She sounds passionate when talking about sustainable energy ways for everyone. “Providing access to clean and accessible sustainable energy means businesses can grow because they are able to stay open longer using a solar lighting system or expand their inventory using energy savings; children can study after dark; women do not have to travel long distances to fetch unsafe drinking water because they can filter safe drinking water at home. Sustainable energy not only gives people new opportunities, countries are able to grow their economies as well,’’ she said.❖ —Lisa Torbic, Associate Editor

echnology developed by Stevens professors Rajarathnam “Mouli” Chandramouli and Suba Subbalakshmi is being used as part of a pilot trial in the government of South Africa to address that country’s needs for low-cost, broadband Internet access. SpiderRadio is an Internet cloud-controlled cognitive wireless router which solves some of the key challenges in dynamic spectrum sharing and management. Conventional fiber or copper-based Internet is not always economically feasible, especially in rural settings. The University of Pretoria in South Africa, in collaboration with Stevens, will demonstrate SpiderRadio’s ability to aggregate data rates from multiple low cost long-range wireless links in the WiFi bands. Also on the Stevens team is Vidya Sagar, a Ph.D. student. The pilot trial will demonstrate SpiderRadio under various conditions, such as dynamic interference, random and burst packet losses, delays and connection loss plus application requirements, such as prioritized flows, HD video casting, voice and data for telemedicine and remote education. Deeper broadband penetration can help economies grow.

SpiderRadio will automatically give priority to first responder communication during an emergency situation and continually sense and switch between multiple networks or spectrum. It can operate on any available spectrum in a given location, including LTE, 4.9GHz, and WiFi. ❖ — Blythe Nobleman

Vidya Sagar, a Ph.D. student and an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Doctoral Fellow at Stevens, holds a SpiderRadio prototype. FALL 2014 17

ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: IDESIGN2000 / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

ictoria Butegwa ’09 didn’t take a typical post-graduation path. She didn’t go to law school or graduate school. No, for Butegwa, the path after Castle Point was simple: returning to her native Africa and teaching people there about sustainable energy as a way to not only save money, but to save the Earth as well. Butegwa just finished a year-long fellowship in Kampala, Uganda, working for Micro Energy Credits (MEC), a company that marries innovative science with its application to improving the lives of others around the world. She calls her job the “forefront of clean energy and microfinance.’’ “The fellowship gave me a rare opportunity to work in the field. My main role involved working on-site as a program manager with two microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Uganda to design, implement and monitor a successful clean energy lending program,’’ she explained. The programs help MFI clients afford and gain access to clean energy products, such as solar home systems, improved cookstoves and water filtration systems. Butegwa lived in several African nations (Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe) as a child before coming to Stevens for her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. She was a programme intern at the United Nations’ Environment Program, working and learning about environmental policy in Ethiopia, and also worked with the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). She saw first-hand how her job in Uganda improved lives in ways big and small. “I got to see the impact right away. The people I served in Uganda are mostly low-to-moderate income earners like small business owners and taxi

EUROPE Diverse Programs Define Stevens’

Presence In Europe

rograms across Europe continue to grow and deliver the Stevens advantage to European students and researchers

alike. Stevens faculty, including SSE Dean Dinesh Verma, have delivered a summer program in Sweden for more than 15 years. The course, Systems Engineering Fundamentals, is taught on a small island near Stockholm and provides professional development in the field for members of Swedish industry. University College London, one of the United Kingdom’s leading universities and a longtime Stevens partner in naval engineering research through the Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design and Control of Small Ships (ACCeSS), is drawing even closer to Stevens through a new partnership in coastal urban resiliency including institutions in the Netherlands and Singapore. In Paris, France, Ecole Pour L’Informatique et les Techniques Avancées (EPITA) partners with Stevens’ Howe School to offer a joint master’s degree program allowing candidates to concurrently pursue an EPITA engineering degree and a Stevens master’s in information systems. Half of the degree credits required are earned in France and can later be transferred to Stevens, where the joint program is normally

completed within one additional year. In the Netherlands, Technical University Delft will participate in the multi-institution partnership to study coastal urban resiliency. Stevens also maintains financial research collaborations through the Howe School with Eindhoven University of Technology. In Germany, Stevens is the only U.S. member of ERCIS, the European Research Center for Information Systems in Münster. This prestigious group hosts regular conferences and workshops to share developments and best practices in the IS field, and encourages close ties between researchers. SSE has operated a summer short course program for two years in partnership with the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. Students from Italy, Mexico and the U.S. (including from Stevens) have attended. The two-week immersion course tackles the subject of Entrepreneurial Analysis of Engineering Design. And, in Spain, SES professor of chemical engineering and materials science Ron Besser has taught a two-week, master’s-level course in renewable energy engineering in Madrid for three years. Besser teaches a mix of Stevens and international students about global energy issues and technologies including wind, solar and hydroelectric power.❖ — Paul Karr

LONDON VISIT EMPHASIZES VALUE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS EDUCATION For a business education to be complete, it needs a global perspective. That’s been the philosophy of Stevens’ Howe School, which requires courses in international business and employs faculty from around the globe, in a bid to create global citizens, able to share the course of business wherever they find themselves. A recent study abroad trip for 30 undergraduate students went to London to learn about how business is done in one of Europe’s largest cities. The trip offered a mix of professional and cultural opportunities. Students visited landmarks such as Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace and got to meet and ask questions of executives from Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Lloyd’s of London.❖ —Joe Arney

owe School students who visited London met with Spyros Polemis ’61, founder, chairman and managing director of Seacrest Shipping Co. Ltd., the London representative of a large group of shipping interests with a history of more than 200 years in the business. Polemis, a Stevens Trustee who lives in London, hosted a luncheon for students at the Baltic Exchange, where he spoke about his experience in the maritime industry. In his 50-year career, Polemis has been an illustrious figure in maritime commerce, shipping and yacht-building. He is past chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping and of its sister organization, the International Shipping Federation.

18 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

Patent Attorney Thrives In New Life In Sweden ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: UNKREATIVES / 123RF STOCK

arah Rodriguez ’02 settles in for a phone call inside her apartment in Gothenburg, Sweden, a city of half a million along the country’s west coast where sea-faring has thrived for almost 400 years and the summer light will last until almost 10 that evening. Rodriguez, a U.S. patent attorney with Zacco, Europe’s largest IP consulting firm with offices throughout Scandinavia and in Germany, never dreamed she would end up here. original goal was to go to graduate school and “It’s been a good experience. It’s not some- get a research job in industry. But she later thing that I planned,” she says. “Life brought discovered that long-term research held less me here.” interest for her, and while she loved the techniShe met her husband, Henk Wymeersch of cal side of the work, she longed for a bit more Belgium, at Massachusetts Institute of Tech- variety. She decided to explore patent law and nology, when she was studying for her master’s attended Suffolk University Law School in in electrical engineering. They wed, and he was Boston at night, while working as a technoloffered a position as an electrical engineering ogy specialist at a law firm during the day. Her professor with Chalmers University of Tech- impressive research experience includes work nology in Gothenburg. Their adventure began. at MIT’s NanoStructures Laboratory and at the But Rodriguez’s journey is also a story of University of California at Berkeley Sensor and deep talent and drive, inspiration from her Actuator Center, under the lab’s co-founder strong mother and mentors, and what she says Richard Muller ’55. was the essential support of the Stevens TechRodriguez was the first person in her famnical Enrichment Program (STEP). ily to graduate from college. Her mother, who At Zacco, Rodriguez’s knowledge of U.S. came to New York from Puerto Rico at 17, patent law is invaluable because the U.S. is one was an inspiration. A single mother to three of the largest and among one of the most im- daughters, she rose from an entry-level posiportant IP markets for Swedish companies. She tion to a manager at Verizon and worked past works directly with inventors, helping them retirement to help her youngest daughter afdetermine what is patentable and working to ford college. protect their inventions by drafting and filing “She was very strict, but I appreciate it now,” patent applications. Recent inventions that Rodriguez says. “I was her last hope to get a she’s worked on include a helmet-like device college degree, so she pushed me hard.” that offers a non-invasive option for detecting Of all her higher education experiences strokes, and design aspects related to autono- Rodriguez immediately says that STEP was the mous vehicles. She enjoys the technical variety most helpful and enduring. Not coming from and the entrepreneurial side of the business. a college-educated family, she remembers feel“It’s really exciting to work on something ing intimidated when she first started at Steand later see it come out in the market,” she vens. STEP, with its built-in support systems says. and friendships, made all the difference. An engineering physics major from “It really acts as your personal cheerleader,” Farmingdale, Long Island, N.Y., Rodriguez’s she says. “It gave me confidence. (STEP direc-

 U.S. Patent Attorney Sarah Rodriguez ’02 has called Sweden home since 2009.

tor) Deborah Berkley did a great job.” Rodriguez and her husband have lived in Sweden since 2009, and she sees a difference in the work environment from the U.S. that she finds refreshing. “There’s much more of a work/life balance, especially for women,” says Rodriguez. Parental leave is generous, as 18 months is common. Most companies give six weeks of vacation. This self-described city girl now enjoys hiking, and she and her husband have traveled to China, Russia, India and around much of Europe. Rodriguez’s mother has also been a travel companion, accompanying her daughter on her newest adventures.❖ —Beth Kissinger, Editor

FALL 2014 19

OBGYN credits her success to unique Stevens curriculum

t’s not unusual to hear of a Stevens graduate who has obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees during commencement. It’s not unusual to hear of a Stevens graduate who has obtained three degrees from this University. But it is unusual to hear of a Stevens graduate who has obtained three degrees in one year in varied disciplines: engineering, literature and management technology. late to people on a human level, to understand them,’’ she said. And while Joyce is living and working in Dublin, she hasn’t gotten Hoboken completely out of her system: she recently taught an online WebCampus course on medical pathophysiology to Stevens biomedical engineering students, something she hopes to continue. In layman’s terms, the students learned the process of how a disease progresses in the organs. So, for example, they learn about a healthy cardiovascular system and then learn the different presentations of heart failure – angina, heart disease, etc. Teaching the next wave of engineers was enjoyable, she said. “The students were not medically trained, but they were impressive, bright students. They really kept me on my toes.’’ After graduating from Stevens, she worked at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, New York, on post cardiac surgery patients, working under the supervision of famed cardiac surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz. There, she also got to work on a heart pump project, an opportunity she credits to her Stevens engineering education. She reflects on her college choice. “At Ste-

Dr. Niamh Joyce at work at Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.

vens, I was taught how to think the problem through and that was the best lesson for me,’’ she said.❖ —Lisa Torbic, Associate Editor

Stevens Baseball Head Coach Kristaps Aldins helped guide the Latvian National Team this past summer in the European Baseball Championship. Aldins, a dual citizen of the United States and Latvia, began managing the Latvian team in 2011 when it competed in the European Qualifier in Antwerp, Belgium.

FUN FACT

Niamh Joyce, B.A. ’01 B.E. ’01 M.S.M.T. ’01, sums up her years at Stevens with few but powerful words: “Stevens is a place for those who are not just true engineers, but rather true entrepreneurs.’’ Currently, Joyce is a physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology in Ireland, her ancestral home. She works for the free, public healthcare system in Ireland at Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, named “Maternity Hospital of the Year for 2013’’ at the Irish Healthcare Centre Awards. Previously, she worked at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin. As an OBGYN, Joyce’s long hours are typical – the day of this interview, Joyce was coming off of a 26-hour shift. But the field of obstetrics is ultra-rewarding, she said, as she comes into someone’s life during a time of immense joy: the birth of a child. “It’s an incredible job when it all goes positively. And when it doesn’t… well, it’s tough.’’ Joyce said that her Stevens education in literature and engineering is an asset in her field. “Both the arts and engineering are a help in medicine. As an engineer, I am very linear in dealing with problems. But in regards to the arts, I know how to relate to someone through language and communication. Before I am a physician, I am a human being first. A physician has to be able to re-

ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: TRIBALIUM123 / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

20 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

Advancing STEM education in the Emerald Isle

Technology Blanchardstown and Institute of Technology Tallaght – to create one practicebased and research-informed technological university. Previously, for just over a decade, he held the position of director and dean of the College of Engineering & Built Engineering at DIT, Ireland’s largest engineering school in the heart of Dublin. Coincidentally, DIT is where he did some of his studying while a student at Trinity.

To him, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is the genesis of sustainability. “STEM education is critical,’’ he emphasized. “You cannot ignore its value: to the individual, to the company and to the nation. It’s the engine that drives so much of what occurs in the world today. STEM jobs and careers position the world for sustainable growth."❖ —Lisa Torbic, Associate Editor

Murphy is working to unite, within the higher education landscape, three Irish institutes of technology—DIT, Institute of Technology Blanchardstown and Institute of Technology Tallaght—to create one technological university.

FALL 2014 21

ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: UNKREATIVES / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

ike Murphy M.Eng. ’82 Ph.D. ’87 was all set to attend a Canadian graduate school. The year was 1980, and he had just earned his B.Sc. in engineering at Trinity College in his native Ireland. But, by chance, he met a friend who loved the education he was receiving at Stevens. “Apply there,’’ the friend urged him. “It’s got a great engineering program.’’ So armed with this endorsement, Murphy, with no knowledge of the United States or Hoboken, took his friend’s advice and applied to the electrical engineering master’s program at Stevens. Decades later, Murphy still feels that coming to Stevens was the best thing for him. “The decision to apply to Stevens changed my life,’’ he said. “It was an excellent graduate school, so it was a no-brainer for me. The faculty was truly supportive and gave me great freedom to learn.’’ After earning his Ph.D. in 1987, Murphy worked in New Jersey for several years, and married a Stevens alumna, Mai Tan ’86. But when his company wanted to move staff to Ireland in 1990, Murphy jumped at the chance to return to the Emerald Isle. In 2002, he began working at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). Currently, Murphy, a Dublin resident, serves as programme coordinator of the TU4Dubin Programme at the Dublin Technological University Alliance. It’s a post he’s had for about seven months now and one that could change the way technology is taught in Ireland. Murphy is working to unite, within the higher education landscape, three Irish institutes of technology – DIT, Institute of

Microbrewer Moves Greek Mountains For Newest Product He may be on to something. In 2013, his company received the silver medal in the International Brewing Awards for the second best specialty wheat beer in the world, Class I division. Two years earlier, Macedonian Thrace was named the 2011 Country Representative by the European Business Awards, chosen as being a “beacon of best practice in their nation.’’ Politopoulos came to the United States for college in the 1980s. His journey back to Greece began when he convinced his father and his brother, Michael, who is now his business partner, to invest in a small brewery. And he thinks his newest venture, brewed iced tea, might be his most lucrative venture yet. But Politopoulos had to convince the Greek parliament to get rid of an antiquated law on the books that said that brewers can produce beer, and only beer. For Macedonian Thrace, the law prohibited the brew tanks from being used to create soft drinks. Politopoulos pushed hard

and in 2012, the Greek parliament changed the law to allow bottled soft drinks and mineral waters on the same production lines used to produce beer. Tuvunu (pronounced Too-view-nu)— Greek for “of the mountain’’—is Macedonian Thrace’s bottled iced tea, brewed with leaves grown in the Greek mountains. Politopoulos believes strongly in supporting a local economy and is proud to point out that his company employs 96 full-time people, and supports 500 local farmers who supply the barley for Vergina wheat beer. In addition, another 200 farmers supply the herbal tea leaves for Tuvunu. “I pay everyone a fair wage. I want Greece to thrive, and I help support the local economy.’’ Politopoulos is humble when asked what he is most proud of. “I make an excellent beer and I see the results daily in making the Greek farmers happy. What more could I want?’’ ❖ —Lisa Torbic, Associate Editor

I want Greece to have a great local beer. And we make a great beer. — Demetri Politopoulos ’90 M.S. ’90

BOTTOM ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: FELIX PERGANDE / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

22 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

TOP ILLUSTRATION: MARK HESS

he amber-colored glass of beer sits on the table at a Hoboken restaurant. Demetri Politopoulos ’90 M.S. ’90 isn’t drinking beer today (he’s got a business meeting later on), but he can’t help himself. He grabs the glass and holds it up to his nose. He inhales deeply. “Hops,’’ he says to his tablemates. “I smell the hops. It’s nice.’’ If Politopoulos says that he can smell the hops and it’s nice, then trust him. For the past 17 years, Politopoulos has been the CEO of Macedonian Thrace Brewery SA, a mid-sized microbrewery in the mountains of northern Greece. Politopoulos has worked long and hard to get Macedonian Thrace, and its chief brand of beer, Vergina, into the Grecian marketplace. The Dutch conglomerate Heineken owns the lion’s share of the market and that company’s familiar green bottles are prevalent in restaurants and bars. Getting Vergina into the hands of consumers in Greece has been a real “David vs. Goliath’’ struggle. But Macedonian Thrace has been making strides lately, producing 200,000 barrels a year and carving out about eight percent of the beer marketshare – not huge, but leaps and bounds over where his critics thought he would get to, which was nowhere. And successfully getting Vergina into the marketplace is a sweet victory, given what Politopoulos went through in a country dominated by one beer brand. His tires were slashed. He was offered three times the value of his company if he sold. But the native Greek refused to give in. To him, the reason to keep his company afloat was simple. “I want Greece to have a great local beer. And we make a great beer,’’ he said.

Sending Students Out Into The World

ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: YURKAIMMORTAL / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

tevens offers students the opportunity to study abroad in several countries. Almost 80 students took advantage of the program for the 2013-14 academic year, spending time learning in faculty-led courses, study abroad or undergraduate research programs. The students had the chance to learn at partner universities in places such as Italy, England, Spain, Ireland and Cyprus. At Stevens, students have the option of spending a semester or academic year internationally and can use their financial aid award to pay for tuition and fees. “The opportunity to study abroad is vital to being a well-rounded individual, to experience all the world has to offer. Interacting with global communities enriches a student’s life personally and professionally and we are proud that Stevens students have the chance to participate in this partnership with other universities worldwide,’’ said Susi Rachouh, director of the Office of International Programs at Stevens.

“The entire experience surpassed my expectations, and each day I learned more about myself and the world around me." — Kristin Salmins, Mechanical Engineering major

“It was a really good idea to study abroad. I learned a lot from lectures and labs I have done. I met many nice people coming from different places, which was the best part of this program.’’

“As someone who has never been outside of the country before, it was a truly enlightening experience to be living in a different culture, even for only two weeks.’’ — Martin Burns, Biomedical Engineering major

— Xin Li, Computer Engineering major

FALL 2014 23

SOUTH AMERICA STEVENS EXPANDING ITS REACH

IN LATIN AMERICA

tevens’ expanding presence in Latin America includes several initiatives in Brazil, a growing area of interest worldwide, and various dual degree and summer programs in Mexico and Colombia. In 2011, Stevens was selected to participate in the Brazilian Science Mobility Program (BSMP), part of that country’s effort to support as many as 100,000 emerging student leaders as they study abroad at the world’s top universities. The program places students at Stevens for one academic year, including some work experience. To date, more than 60 graduate and undergraduate students have traveled to Stevens from Brazil to study through the program, in such areas as electrical engineering, global innovation and project management. Discussions are also underway to create wider partnerships with the national Universities of Sao Paulo and Rio, two of Brazil’s leading universities. Stevens is actively involved in ecological research in Brazil as well, through a consortium of about 80 international faculty and graduate students known as Amazon Pulse. The initiative will eventually establish an observatory and research program with the long-term goal of designing and constructing an observation and forecasting system modeled after Stevens’ NYHOPS system. In 2013, two Stevens students, as well as SES Dean Michael Bruno and Davidson Laboratory Director Alan Blumberg,

FUN

FACT

León Esteban Febres-Cordero ’53 was President of Ecuador for a four-year term from Aug. 10, 1984, to Aug. 10, 1988. During his presidency, he sought to introduce market oriented reforms.

were joined by 40 students and 10 faculty members from the U.S. and Latin America for two weeks of study and In 2013, several Stevens students and professors joined 50 fieldwork in Brazil. A subse- students and faculty members from the U.S. and Latin America for two weeks of study and fieldwork in Brazil. The program is one of a quent research visit in March growing number of Stevens’ initiatives in Brazil and Latin America. 2014 also included Bruno and Blumberg, during which U.S. and Brazilian scientists spent five days travel- prepare students for leadership positions. ing along the Amazon River through mudflats, In 2013, Stevens and Instituto Tecnologitidal mangroves and coastal regions, sampling co Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) developed and studying. dual master’s degree programs combining the Graduate school applications to Stevens academic prestige from ITAM and Stevens to from Brazilian students sponsored by the deliver programs that strengthen cross-border BSMP jumped from zero to more than 60 dur- collaboration and complement skill competening the past year. cy and education needs for today’s professionStevens entered into a memorandum of als across Mexico, the U.S. and the globe. The understanding with Instituto Tecnologico y de multidisciplinary dual degrees strive to expand Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in and complement student knowledge in the arMexico in 2011 and developed dual master’s eas of Information Technology & Management degrees combining the academic leadership (through ITAM), and in Systems Engineering, of ITESM — Campus Guadalajara (CG) and Software Engineering and Engineering ManStevens. The dual degree programs are relevant agement (through Stevens). to the skill competency and education needs of Stevens’ involvement in Mexico has protoday’s industry and government profession- vided a surge of students during the summer als and are part of cross-border collaboration. months. In 2014, more than 33 students and The multi-disciplinary dual degrees in Systems faculty members from ITESM attended the Engineering/Quality Systems & Productivity; program “Academic-Cultural Experience, Financial Engineering/International Business- Computational Modeling and Visualization Business Administration-Finance; and in En- Camp.”❖ —Paul Karr gineering Management/Quality Systems & Productivity-International Business strive to

ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: :NASIROH BT DIARTO SANMARTA / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

24 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

Brazilian students participating in the Brazilian Science Mobility Program are studying at Stevens as part of an ongoing initiative between the Brazilian government, Stevens and other top universities.

ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: ALEKUP / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

STILL INTRIGUED BY THE MECHANICAL SIDE OF THINGS

omas De Rossi ’73 grew up in Peru hearing about Stevens. His father, Guido, was Stevens Class of 1939, so a young Tomas always knew he would be applying to the Hoboken school. And since he liked mechanical engineering theories, Tomas De Rossi ’73 with his 1956 Continental Mark II. it seemed like a natural fit. But, decades later, he remembers how he underestimated the ment that offsets the warm temperatures of Peru, cooling agriculture quickly to 32 level of difficulty in some courses. “It was tough, no question about it,’’ degrees F, when needed. De Rossi foundDeRossi reminisces, and he’s not talking ed the construction company in 1987 about just the curriculum. When he ap- and today serves as owner and technical plied to Stevens, he was fluent in Spanish manager. Asparagus, avocados and citrus fruits and French, but knew not one word of English. But his father knew a rigorous are handled at Aliterm-built plants. Days English-language immersion course was before this interview, one plant built by necessary. In Tomas’ case, the learning Aliterm processed 160 metric tons of avocados in one day. “I would say that curve was a challenge. “Those first few humanities courses if you go to a supermarket in the U.S. at Stevens, I did terribly. I just didn’t and pick up some asparagus, chances are have a grasp of the language,’’ he admit- it came through a plant I built,’’ he said ted. “Now, the mechanical engineering proudly. De Rossi points out that he still likes courses, I got. I have always liked the mechanics of things, of learning how the mechanical side of things. His hobby they work, so those courses were better.’’ is restoring classic cars, something he The De Rossi family has a long Ste- has done for years. He’s got several clasvens legacy: Guido, in 1939; and both of sics in his garage that he’s rebuilt: a 1957 Tomas’ brothers, Marco in 1968 and Al- Porsche, a 1956 Continental Mark II, a fredo in 1977. Since graduating, Tomas 1957 Austin-Healey, and he’s just begun has put his mechanical engineering de- restoration on a 1929 Ford Model A. He credits his Stevens education with gree and his entrepreneurial know-how preparing him for the world. “I always to good use. His company, Aliterm S.A., based tell my family and friends that if you go in Lima, Peru, specializes in the design, through Stevens, you can handle anysupply and build of processing plants thing,’’ he said.❖ —Lisa Torbic, Associate and rooms for the agriculture and food Editor industry. Aliterm uses modern equip-

FROM MEDELLIN TO HOBOKEN AND BACK

n his first-ever trip to the New York area, Dayro Cardenas ’84 MMS ’86 had journeyed from his native Medellin, Colombia, to Miami, to Newark Airport. Last stop: Hoboken. Someone told the new Stevens freshman to just take the PATH. “I’m in the airport. How can I take the path?” he had asked — remembering 34 years later with his joyous laugh. Cardenas made it to Hoboken, and would go on to both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stevens. Even today, as a successful businessman back in Medellin, he reflects on his years at Castle Point with great fondness and still feels their impact. “I always thought that I could do a business on my own,” says Cardenas, who founded Visual Systems, a Medellin-based software engineering company, in 1994. “I knew that I had to do this, and thanks to Stevens, I had the training and experience.” Building something for Colombia and for the Latin American market was always in his thoughts, Cardenas says. He feels that he’s done this with Visual Systems, which designs transactional documents, specializing in invoices, and counts Grupo Nutresa, Yamaha, Avon, Pfizer and a number of Fortune 50 companies among its clients.

When he arrived at Stevens, Cardenas knew no one and had little money. But he was seeking new experiences – and a good engineering education– and realized that an opportunity had opened for him. He thrived at Stevens — building an electric wheelchair (controlled by an Atari joystick), joining the squash team, and forming lasting friendships through the Latin American Association. “You always had something going on,” he says. “The days were fantastic!” After working in the New York area for 15 years, Cardenas returned to Colombia in the 1990s and lives in Medellin with his wife, Ana Patricia, and three children. He is fiercely proud of Colombia. After suffering through violence triggered by warring drug cartels in the 1980s and early 1990s, Medellin has transformed itself and was named the most innovative city in the world in 2013, he reminds you, in a competition organized by the non-profit Urban Land Institute. Medellin played host to the U.N.’s World Urban Forum this past April. “We have a country that has shifted 180 degrees,” Cardenas says. “Today, the country has transformed itself. I feel that I have become a small part of that.” ❖ —Beth Kissinger, Editor

Dayro Cardenas ’84, far right, gathers with his family, with his beloved Medellin, Colombia, as their backdrop. From left are daughter Isabela, wife Ana Patricia, son Sebastian, and daughter Daniela.

FALL 2014 25

NORTH AMERICA

A MORE POWERFUL COMPUTER IT LOOKS LIKE D-WAVE, A COMPUTING SOLUTIONS FIRM BASED IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA THAT USES QUANTUM MECHANICS TO SOLVE THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS, IS STILL MAKING NEWS. THAT’S GOOD NEWS FOR ITS PRESIDENT AND CEO, VERN BROWNELL ’80. The Indicator profiled Brownell and DWave in its Spring 2013 issue. Since then, D-Wave has continued to make an imprint. Featuring a small-but-impressive list of clients, including some Fortune 500 companies, governments, and academia, D-Wave recently added two more big-ticket names to the list. In

May 2013, NASA and Google, together with a consortium of universities, announced a partnership with D-Wave to investigate how the company’s computers could be used in the creation of artificial intelligence. And Time magazine recently featured DWave, and its revolutionary quantum comput-

er, as its cover story in February 2014. Brownell is a serial entrepreneur who has worked for more than three decades with computing solutions firms, even founding and serving as CEO of Egenera, a global leader in that field. Lockheed Martin, a U.S. defense contractor, was an early client of D-Wave, purchasing an early version of a quantum computer from D-Wave and upgrading the technology to commercial scale, thus becoming the first company to use quantum computing as part of its business. Quantum computing is faster than traditional computing, often taking mere minutes to solve an equation that takes traditional computers weeks, if ever, to solve. When The Indicator caught up with Brownell in the spring of 2013, he was quick to point out that D-Wave’s work could be used to solve some of the biggest problems in the world. For instance, DWave’s supercomputer could be used in cancer therapy regimens, trading algorithms and risk analytics, he explained. “D-Wave’s Quantum Computer is today outperforming classical computing for some narrow types of problems. We’ll soon be able to solve problems that classical computing just can’t solve. It’s exciting to be on the cusp of this great technology – it’s the days of the age of quantum computing, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us,’’ Brownell said recently.❖ —Lisa Torbic, Associate Editor

FUN FACT

NORTH AMERICA CLAIMS THE LARGEST NUMBER OF CONTACTABLE STEVENS ALUMNI. ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: ECROW / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

26 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

QA With The Provost

tevens Provost George Korfiatis recently spoke about the importance of

expanding the university’s global presence around the world and in Hoboken. Stevens’ Strategic Plan calls for expanding its international partnerships. What are some goals? We are not looking to sign many agreements of collaboration that sit on the shelf. What we’re looking for are very few partnerships—deep partnerships—with top universities around the world that will be longlived and strategic. We’re looking to institutionalize these relationships to enhance our mission and our global presence. Some of these current partnerships—involving everything from research to courses to dual-degree programs—include the National University of Malaysia, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, CUFE and Beijing Institute of Technology in China, and the University College London. We are currently pursuing others. Why is it important to expand these partnerships? Stevens has long been a national asset. We want to expand that so Stevens becomes recognized internationally for its global impact. It helps with our reputation, it helps with the common social welfare, and it goes to our mission of solving pressing societal problems around the world. Another goal is to increase international study for students. What’s being done? We have hired Susi Rachouh, the new director of international programs who is working on how to increase our student exchange programs, both semester abroad and short-term courses. We want to be in a position where we can provide a study abroad opportunity for any student who wants it. Our engineering curriculum is lock-step, and it may be difficult to do a semester overseas and adequately transfer credits, but we are exploring options. We also want to offer more international study experiences during the summer months and the winter intercession, and we have expanded winter intercession by a week, starting this fall, to accommodate this.

How does study abroad benefit students? It enhances their cultural awareness. When students go out into the workforce, they will often be called upon to collaborate and work with colleagues from other countries. Having a cultural knowledge of how other engineering, science and business organizations work compared to the U.S., and the skills that they gain from this experience, will give them a leg up in finding a job and excelling in the future. The world is flatter now than ever before, with many multi-national firms. Having that experience will give them a competitive edge but also an enriched understanding of global issues. Stevens wants to attract more international undergraduate students. Why? We have a goal to increase our international undergraduate student population to 10 percent (from 4 percent). Our students’ lives are enriched if they’ve been exposed to international students. The more you know, the better that you are able to manage projects, manage people and deal with people of different backgrounds. There’s professional, personal and cultural enrichment and understanding. For students returning to their countries, Stevens can have alumni distributed around the world, and this presents the opportunity to increase our name recognition through the value that our graduates bring to the economic growth of their countries. The more this impact becomes known, the more Stevens can also draw students from these countries. Finally, we have people who come from around the world to be part of the U.S. university system and technology economy. They enjoy great benefits from it. And we get the best of the best. A lot of these students who choose to stay here contribute significantly to the brain power of the U.S. and to the competitiveness and marketplace dominance of our country. How would Stevens’ larger international footprint benefit alumni? Our alumni form strong bonds based on their love for Stevens and form networks that enrich their professional careers. Imagine this network expanding globally, with thousands of alumni distributed across the world. This will also be very powerful for the future of this Institute.❖ —Compiled by Beth Kissinger

FALL 2014 27

AN INTERNATIONAL

CONVERSATION

ecently The Stevens Indicator caught up with several international students—both undergraduate and graduate, from countries across the globe— asking them to reflect on the joys and challenges of life at Stevens and in the U.S. ❖ —Compiled by Beth Kissinger, Editor

I’m always proud for the broad spectrum education; I’m a computer engineer who studied chemistry lab and aesthetics. That’s what really opened my horizons and made me a well-rounded individual and electrical engineer. It made me a thinking person, an active citizen.

Small schools like this don’t exist in Canada… [Stevens] provide[s] you with a lot more support and help[s] you get through.” Hill works as a teaching assistant and is helping his professor start a company. “I don’t think that I’d ever get the chance to do that as an undergraduate anywhere else. Cameron Hill

Stavros Tsarpalis ‘03, M.Eng. ‘06

Program: Electrical engineering, B.E. and M.Eng.

Program: Financial engineering, Ph.D.

Home: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Home: Patras, Greece

The Stevens attraction: Smaller classes; proximity to New York; chance to play sports (he’s captain of the golf team) Challenge: U.S. health care system

The Stevens attraction: High quality education, high return on investment Challenge: Distance from family and fiancée

American people are more about entrepreneurship and competitiveness. I like that, but I also like the comfort (of the lifestyle) that you have in France… I want to enjoy this eagerness in the U.S. This is a country that if you want it, you can get it — if you work hard enough, if you have a little bit of luck. Elodie Nguyen Thanh Nhan

Home: Beaumont-Sur-Oise, France

Program: Information systems and software engineering, M.S.; dual degree program with EPITA, Paris, France.

The Stevens attraction: Longtime goal of international study; job opportunities in the U.S. in computer science Challenge: Paperwork required for international students

I really like the students and the people in general. They’re open-minded and really friendly. People seem caring… everyone is creative. The professors—they really encourage you to have your own ideas, and they really want to help you out. Siran He Program: Engineering management, B.E.; dual degree program with Beijing Institute of Technology Home: Beijing, China The Stevens attraction: Proximity to New York City and job opportunities; smaller class sizes and attention from professors Challenges: Language, distance from family

We are so proud of Stevens. At any Saudi embassy gathering, I tell them: ‘Stevens is the place for you.’… Stevens is one of the best schools and one of the oldest schools. They have seen the outcomes. They have seen the graduates. Fuad Binjubeir Program: Management, M.S. (His wife, Muna, is also studying for her master’s.) Home: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

28 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

The Stevens attraction: Stevens’ strong academic reputation in Saudi Arabia; combination of theory and empirical/ experiential learning, not just lectures and exams. Challenges: Distance from family, winter

Close International Community

Entices Graduate Student L

ove brought Nadira Najib, M.Eng. ’11 Ph.D. ’15 from Morocco to the United States. Her then-boyfriend (now husband) is an American who was planning on attending graduate school at Harvard

University. Najib, who always excelled in math and physics, wanted to continue her graduate studies in the U.S. and went with him to Boston. But the massive size of Harvard and nearby MIT intimidated her. “English is my fourth language, and I was worried that I didn’t know enough of it to really pursue a master of engineering in the U.S.’’ she said. So she enrolled in an English language immersion course, learning English for almost a year before she reconsidered grad school. A friend from Harvard was a Stevens alumnus and recommended it for its excellent engineering program and for its close-knit community. She took a tour and was sold. “Harvard was overwhelming to me,’’ she said frankly. “I liked Stevens’ small size and the good connections you can make with your professors. I liked the large international community at the graduate level at Stevens.’’ After earning her M.Eng. in 2011 in environmental engineering, Najib continued in the discipline at Stevens and expects to complete her Ph.D. in May 2015. Currently, she is in the lab at Stevens most nights and weekends. During the day, she’s a full-time environmental engineer with Langan Engineering in Elmwood Park, New Jersey. Najib is honest about the educational opportunities afforded to her because she is in the United States, pointing out that when she enrolled in the School of Science and Technology, Hassan II University in Mohamedia, Morocco, she was one of only four women accepted into the chemical engineering program. That was in 2003. “(In Morocco, a woman) earning a high school degree was considered a big achievement back when I earned my baccalaureate

Nadira Najib M.Eng. ’11 Ph.D. ’15, right, came from Morocco to Stevens. She’s now pursuing a Ph.D. in environmental engineering.

(the Moroccan high school degree). But in the U.S., there are so many more opportunities, so much expectation. Here, there is no difference between a man and a woman in the workforce,’’ she said. And she’s grateful. “In America, the classroom is more like a discussion, where you really have a dialogue with the professor and the other students. It’s a better way of connecting. In Morocco, most professors are men and what they say goes. There’s no questioning authority.’’

She appreciates all that she has, especially since she can see the finish line in terms of her Ph.D. “At Stevens, I learned that if you work hard, you will be rewarded for it,’’ she said.❖ —Lisa Torbic, Associate Editor

FALL 2014 29

N I O J S R E H C R A E S E T R R S O F N F E E STEV RNATIONAL INTE N O I T C E F N I T N A L P M I T H G I F O T

atient infection following implant surgery—from knee and hip implants, to dental implants and heart valves—is a worldwide prob-

lem. So Stevens is tackling this challenge with a truly international effort. For the past five years, a team of Stevens professors and students has worked with colleagues at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherlands on research to help create infection-resisting biomaterials to ensure safer and more effective medical implants. From professors to Ph.D. candidates to undergraduate students, this group of researchers — whose work has been funded by the National Science Foundation — has launched a number of related research projects in the area, as they try to understand and control how bacteria interact with synthetic implant surfaces and create surfaces that battle infection. Their approach to this complex problem is truly interdisciplinary, with Stevens researchers from chemical engineering and materials science, chemistry, computer science, mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering lending their expertise. Since 2009, seven Stevens professors and some 21 undergraduate students have participated, along with one student who earned a Ph.D. in a Stevens-UMCG dual program and another Ph.D. student currently studying.

30 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

“We want to make biomaterials that not only meet the need to promote healing but that are also resistant to infection,” says Matthew Libera, Stevens professor of materials science whose work with UMCG is funded by the NSF and the Army Research Office. Infection causes failure in about 1 percent of hip implants, 4 percent of knee implants and more than 15 percent of implants associated with orthopedic trauma, where wounds are often open and dirty, such as from an accident or from battlefield injury. These infections involve the costly and traumatic process of removing the implant, curing the infection, and then re-implanting the device. Sometimes, they can be fatal. Stevens Professor Matthew Libera, right, congratulates Eva Wang, who earned a dual Ph.D. in a Stevens-University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) dual program. With them is UMCG Professor Henk Busscher. 

UMCG — part of the 400-year-old University of Groningen — is the leading European research group studying biomaterials-associated infection. Since 2011 Stevens, with help from UMCG, has hosted the Stevens Conference on Bacteria-Material Interactions that has attracted interdisciplinary scientists, engineers and clinicians from around the world to Castle Point to share the latest research on infectionresistant biomaterials. The next conference will be held at Stevens on June 17-18, 2015. (Visit stevens.edu/ses/stevens2015 for details. While Libera and his Stevens colleagues have ongoing research collaborations with UMCG colleagues, the undergraduates par-

STEVENS RESEARCH

ticipate in what is called the UMCG-Stevens research experience, spending four to five weeks in May and June doing research at UMCG, based on research performed during the school year, and continuing their work at Stevens through the remainder of the summer. The partnership taps into each university’s area of expertise and research facilities. In the Netherlands, Stevens students have, for example, done real-time measurements of biomolecule-surface interactions using a quartz crystal balance, a micro balance that can measure molecular adsorption with nanoscale resolution. Other students have focused their studies on bacterial biofilms — colonies of bacterial structures that can grow on implants and are extremely resistant to antibiotics; bacteria-material interactions; and biomaterials associated infections. “This combined UMCG-Stevens program lets Stevens students simultaneously pursue high-level research activities and enjoy the benefits of living in a different country and culture in a way that fits seamlessly into their curriculum.” says Keith Sheppard, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academics within Stevens’ Schaefer School of Engineering and Science. The latest group of Stevens undergraduates returned from UMCG this past summer, filled with enthusiasm for their research and stories of lessons of life outside of the U.S. Victoria Albright ’15, a chemistry major, has worked with co-polymer hydrogels, which can absorb large amounts of water and can be used as a coating on implant devices to inhibit bacterial adhesion and the development of biofilms. UMCG has the advanced laboratories that allowed her, for the first time, to test her samples. She also worked alongside some 30 Ph.D. students from UMCG, who bring diverse research knowledge. “It’s kind of cool. You can talk to them, they have a different perspective,” she says. Jeffrey Turner ’15, a mechanical engineering major, worked on the anti-bacterial resistance of nanomaterials, focusing on the use of titanium for hip and shoulder implants.

 Stevens student Palash Mehta, left, at work with a colleague this past summer at the UMCG in the northern Netherlands.

And Palash Mehta ’16, a chemical engineering major, focused on the quicker detection of bacterial infections in hospital settings. Current testing methods usually take three to four days, and Mehta worked on a project to introduce a new technology that does the same thing in only one or two hours by using DNA diagnostic approaches. “We are developing a system that will help save lives,” he says. “You feel that what you learn in the classroom, you want to put into research that means something.” The students praised the opportunity they had to improve their technical knowledge. Their time in the Netherlands also proved eyeopening. They worked with researchers from the Netherlands, Germany, France, India, Portugal, Great Britain – a hard-working group which still observed the Dutch workday of leaving the lab promptly at 5 p.m. “They’re not stressed all the time. It’s definitely nice to experience. It’s a different style of living,” Turner says.

The trio did get a chance to travel. While Albright praised the breathtakingly unique architecture of Rotterdam and Mehta marveled at The Louvre, Turner’s most searing memory was bicycling through Paris, at night. They are seeing the impact of their work. Albright expects to publish a paper soon on her research with her adviser, Stevens Professor of Chemistry Svetlana Sukhishvili, while Turner may also co-publish with his mechanical engineering advisor professor Chang Hwan Choi. While the trio contemplates their future career plans, Libera reflects on students who came before them, many of whom went on to graduate school or medical school. “It’s really nice to see the student successes after they have participated in this international research experience,” Libera says, “and that’s what keeps me, and a lot of other people at Stevens, annually organizing this program.” ❖ —Beth Kissinger, Editor

ILLUSTRATION COPYRIGHT: LONELY11 / 123RF STOCK PHOTO

FALL 2014 31

SPORTS UPDATE SPRING BREAK IN PARAGUAY LEAVES A LASTING IMPRESSION

here is a poverty-stricken city in Paraguay called Tobati, where approximately 70 percent of the population lives in relative poverty. In Tobati, a small city of about 9,600, men make bricks by hand while women labor as domestic servants for as little as $1 per day. Children work, too, with under-resourced schools operating in short shifts so they have time to contribute what they can to their families’ incomes. The city’s medical clinic faces a severe shortage of basic supplies, so malnutrition and other serious ailments are common among the residents. Last year, the Stevens women’s soccer team chose to spend their spring break in Tobati, helping the community, learning about life and people in this corner of central South America — and sharing a common love of soccer. Close to two dozen players and members of the coaching staff worked alongside other American and Paraguayan volunteers to help build classrooms for a local school; they also spent a day laboring in a sugarcane field. And they played soccer — with local school children and against professional and local teams. The trip left such an impression that students have started fundraising for a future trip to Tobati, possibly for Spring Break 2016. “The experience our team had in Paraguay was truly one that we will carry with our team throughout our lifetime,” says senior captain Ann Heine, who attended the 2013 trip. “It was a humbling journey to Tobati, a town that has practically nothing, and seeing the joy they find in the simplest things. We were able to make an impact on the schools and students, who deserve a better life than what they have.” The team’s trip was coordinated through Team Tobati, a nonprofit organization of educators and students who are dedicated to improving the standard of living for Tobati youths by improving the local education and health-

32 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

 Highlights of the Stevens women’s soccer team’s service trip to Tobati, Paraguay, in 2013.

care infrastructure. In addition to their service work and soccer, the Stevens team did some hiking and sightseeing around the mountainous region, learned a few words of Spanish and Guarani, the indigenous language of Paraguay, from local schoolchildren, and taught them some basic English. “It was an incredible experience that continues to be a part of our everyday lives,” says Stevens Women’s Soccer Coach Jeff Parker. … “Servanthood and thankfulness are two of our

core values, and we were able to witness each other applying this firsthand on a daily basis throughout our stay. The people taking part and those we met during our travels are what made it truly remarkable.” During the trip, the students blogged, with daily recaps and photos. The complete trip diary can be found at www.stevensducks. com/paraguay. Those interested in supporting the 2016 trip can email Coach Jeff Parker at jeff.parker@stevens.edu ❖ —Robert Kulish

OCT

WE D N E S DAY Dean’s Seminar Series Peter Shainin

OCT

17-19 FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY Homecoming www.stevens.edu/ homecoming

WEDNESDAY Provost’s Lecture Series Linda Sanford

WEDNESDAY Dean’s Seminar Series Roger Gurnani

OCT

For SAA and alumni club events, visit www.stevens.edu/alumni

NOV

M O N DAY SAA Executive Committee meeting

DEC

MONDAY SAA Executive Committee meeting

WEDNESDAY Stevens Washington, D.C., Alumni Club’s annual holiday party

THUR SDAY SAA Houston Alumni Club holiday party

DEC DEC

CALENDAR OF EVENTS FALL 2014 33

ALUMNI BUSINESS DIRECTORY

For more information on the Stevens Alumni Association and its benefits, visit www.stevens.edu/alumni

Since 1951

Store Hours: 7:00 am – 4:30 pm

34 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

Store Hours: 7:30 am – 5:00 pm

ALUMNI BUSINESS DIRECTORY

FALL 2014 35

VITALS MARRIAGES Fred Grigni ’82 to Lisa Pierro on Oct. 26, 2013. Mike Bocchinfuso ’08 to Caroline Binder on July 4, 2014. Ray Kirchhof ’09 to Rianna Maharaj ’11 on July 5, 2014.

BIRTHS To Samantha Herman Jachens, M.D., and Adrian Jachens, M.D. ’04, a son, Carter Harrison, on Feb. 18, 2014.

OBITUARIES C.L. Scott ’41............................ 2/11/14 + S.H. Crandall ’42.................... 10/29/13 + R.H. Duklauer ’42....................... 2/3/14 + H. Hoertel ’43............................1/17/14 R.W. Welti ’43........................... 3/31/14 J.N. Connelly ’44........................ 6/1/14 E. Fitzwater ’44........................ 6/24/14 + C.F. Eisenhardt ’45.................... 3/27/14 F.N. Wells, III ’45........................ 7/7/14 C.W. Mosher ’46......................... 6/7/14 J.F. Mahon ’48.......................... 7/16/14 A.L. Anthony ’49....................... 5/13/14

36 THE STEVENS INDICATOR

+ J.L. Arata ’49............................ 2/11/13 + L.R. Laikin ’49.......................... 9/23/13 R.G. Barnes ’50........................ 7/15/14 + L.R. Blackledge ’50................ 10/10/13 + H.D. Conant ’50....................... 9/24/13 + N.H. Rittenhouse ’50.................. 8/4/13 + R.V. Brady, Jr. ’51....................... 7/8/13 + W.R. Danielson ’51.....................8/9/13 + C.W. Davis ’51.............................. 2013 R.F. Mattlage ’51.................... 11/20/13 J.P. Spindler ’51........................ 3/21/14 + C.H. Hevert ’52........................ 4/27/14 D.E. Martin ’53......................... 1/30/14 J.F. Rose ’54............................ 5/12/14 H.G. Kopp ’55...........................7/11/14 + A.A. Bodner ’57....................... 12/1/13 + D.M. Fantozzi ’57........................ 4/4/14 R. Cabrera ’58.......................... 7/29/14 + J.P. Larmann ’59........................3/2/13 A.L. Course ’62........................ 6/29/14 M.A. Balik ’63.......................... 9/20/13 T.J. Nozza ’65........................ 12/11/03 A.R. Strong ’65......................... 7/11/12 M.D. Masi ’68........................... 7/28/14 E.J. Atkins ’70............................ 6/9/14 + T.J. Kelly ’72.............................. 5/2013 T.A. Marks ’72............................ 4/1/13 L.E. Waivers ’74........................ 3/15/12

+ R.E. Korth ’76......................... 10/23/13 + F.R. Bruchbacher ’77.................. 9/6/13 G.R. Kollar ’80.......................... 4/29/14 P.A. Santoro ’80....................... 3/31/14 + M.J. Barno ’85....................... 10/26/13

GRADUATE SCHOOL W.H. Detlefs, M.S. ’52.................. 2/22/14 F.C. O’Hern, Jr., M.S. ’54............ 11/20/13 S.R. Goldberg, M.S. ’57................ 5/20/14 A. Soltesz, M.S. ’63...................... 6/24/14

FACULTY I.R. Ehrlich, Hon. M.Eng. ’82........ 7/31/14 E.E. Kunhardt, Hon. M.Eng. ’96...... 8/4/14 + Obituary in this issue

S P E C I A L S T E V E N S I N D I C AT O R S E C T I O N

Having direct access to an extensive alumni network (40,000 strong in all 50 states and 89 countries) is the chief benefit of remaining active with Stevens. Alumni and friends stay connected through robust programming and communications. The fun? Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just a bonus.

F.P.O.

Are you INformed? ■ Keep your contact info current. Does Stevens have your current mailing and e-mail addresses, and phone number? Updating your contact information is the key to being INFORMED.

■ Update your business information. Stevens uses this information to target industry groups for networking events, lifelong learning opportunities, mentoring, and more. As we continue to enhance our program offerings, it is increasingly important to have your current business information.

■ Keep up with Stevens emails. From the Alumni Association’s Castle Point E-newsletter, featuring the latest stories about current students and fellow alumni around the world, to NewsPoints, Stevens’ monthly email newsletter about university accomplishments, and special messages from President Nariman Farvardin (did you read his “First 1,000 Days in Office” report?), members of the Stevens community reach out regularly to keep you in the know about the most important news and information from Castle Point.

■ Learn more about Stevens events. You should! Stevens hosts more than 75 events annually that are open to alumni and friends, both on campus and sponsored by alumni clubs around the U.S. and the world.

■ Connect with us via social media. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and engage with us on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with Stevens announcements and events.

■ Read the Stevens Indicator. If you are reading this message, then chances are you already do. But if you’re borrowing a friend’s copy, make sure to update your contact information.

 How to be INFORMED: • Update your info at stevens.edu/development/updatemyemail

Are you INvolved? ■ Attend or host Stevens alumni events. With more than 75 events annually, there’s plenty of networking to do. Save these dates for our signature events: • Homecoming: October 17-19, 2014. • Third Annual Awards Gala at the historic Plaza Hotel: March 28, 2015. • Alumni Weekend & Reunion Celebration: June 5-7, 2015.

■ Join an alumni working committee. Alumni working committees address various aspects of the community, all with the same goal: to enrich and strengthen the Stevens community. Whatever your interest—Greek life, athletics, regional programming—Stevens needs your help to strengthen our efforts and plan our future.

■ Nominate alumni and faculty for Stevens’ Awards. Stevens recognizes its most illustrious and dedicated alumni, faculty, and friends annually. Nominate someone today for one or more of the Stevens’ Awards listed at the web address below.

■ Help recruit future Ducks. Alumni are often the best student recruiters. Prospective students and their families love to interact with alumni to hear first-hand about their Stevens experience.

■ Participate in our speaking opportunities. Stevens hosts panel discussions and guest lectures throughout the academic year led by Stevens alumni for current students.

■ Mentor current students and young alumni. Share your knowledge and guidance with Stevens students; they’re always looking for insights into life after Stevens.

■ Hire Stevens students for full-time positions or internships. Stevens provides a focused approach to professional development education, with an emphasis on advance planning. During their time on campus, students develop the critical thinking skills needed to manage a career over a lifetime and serve as outstanding potential colleagues for your organization.

■ Engage our faculty and students on your research. With any project, collaboration is key. Your Stevens research team will approach your project from all levels, from budgeting and planning, to proposed solutions and prototype testing, to final implementation.

How to be INVOLVED: • Register for an event: stevens.edu/alumni/community/events/calendar • Submit a nomination: stevens.edu/nominate • Email to explore your opportunities: alumni@stevens.edu

Are you INvested? ■ Contribute to Stevens annually. Alumni participation is a key indicator used in national university rankings and in securing major grants to support new initiatives. When measuring participation, every gift counts equally no matter the size. Your annual gift reflects your feelings toward Stevens in a very simple way, whether as gratitude for your education, appreciation for the opportunities provided, or pride in your accomplishments.

■ Encourage fellow alumni to give back to Stevens every year. 16% of Stevens alumni contribute to the university. We know we can do better, and that Stevens deserves better. We need the help of alumni like you! Please connect with fellow graduates and encourage them to donate.

■ Be an ambassador for Stevens. Share the extraordinary achievements of Stevens and its alumni when speaking with prospective students, companies, and organizations.

 How to be INVESTED: • Make a gift: stevens.edu/makeagift • Learn about the Ad Astra Task Force: email Melissa.Fuest@stevens.edu

Stevens Alumni Association stevens.edu/alumni alumni@stevens.edu (201) 216-5163

Office of Development stevens.edu/development development@stevens.edu (201) 216-5241

Thank you for being IN with Stevens! Stevens Institute of Technology recognizes and thanks the many dedicated alumni volunteers whose leadership, loyalty, and love for Stevens made this past year a great success. We are especially proud of the members of President Farvardin’s inaugural Ad Astra Task Force, whose enthusiasm, energy, drive, and passion made possible the gains achieved in our alumni participation rate in the 2014 fiscal year.

The 2014 Ad Astra Task Force Mr. John A. Abom Ms. Gina M. Addeo Mr. Enrique L. Blanco Mr. George Blazeski Mr. Michael Bocchinfuso Mr. Bruce Boylan Mr. Keith B. Cassidy Mr. Leo F. Collins Dr. Thomas A. Corcoran Ms. Devin N. Corson Mr. Phil P. Crowley Esq. Mr. John J. Dalton Mr. John R. Dearborn, Jr. Mr. Fred Dietrich Ms. Mary A. Doddy Mr. Larry B. Giannechini Mr. John H. Hovey Mr. Owen P. Jappen George W. Johnston, Esq. Mr. Andrew G. Kaplan Mr. Arthur V. Ketterer Mr. Alan E. Lager Mr. Ronald P. LeBright Dr. Joseph A. Llano Dr. Richard S. Magee Mr. John B. E. McDonnell Mr. Jim L. Mersfelder Mr. Nicholas M. Mestanas Mr. Wayne R. Monsees Mr. Thomas J. Moschello Mr. Erwin E. Muller Mr. Julius J. Nagy Mr. Charles J. Perruzzi Mr. Joseph T. Polyniak Mr. Peter T. Queenan Ms. Annmarie J. Rizzo Mr. Joseph E. Scerbo Mr. Frank J. Semcer, Sr. Mr. William B. Silvestri Mr. Michael P. Stegura Mr. John Stevens Mr. J. Scott Swensen Mr. Marty P. Valerio Mr. Robert H. Walker

1965 1986 1972 2010 2008 1963 2009 1959 1967 2013 1971 1960 1979 1961 1980 2012 1957 2013 1972 2009 1961 1956 1955 2001 1963 1972 1964 1958 1971 1963 1952 1963 1963 1963 1972 1986 1955 1965 1952 1972 1972 1974 1968 1958

“Sit down and evaluate what your Stevens education has done for you. If you do that, I promise you will feel good about giving back.” John C. Eilertsen, Sr. ’62

Create Legacy

Your

Now it’s easier than ever to create a better tomorrow with Stevens’ NEW gift planning website. This comprehensive site outlines the many ways you can show your support and appreciation for Stevens, while accommodating your personal, financial, estate-planning and philanthropic goals.  COMPARE various gift types to see which best meet your goals.  IDENTIFY which gifts can provide you with payments in return.  DISCOVER which gifts might save you taxes. Gift planning for Stevens today is an important investment in the education of tomorrow’s students.

http://stevens.giftplans.org

Ready to

make your mark? Visit stevens.giftplans.org to get started today. Contact for more information Michael Governor Director of Planned Giving 201.216.8967 michael.governor@stevens.edu FALL 2014 41

THE STEVENS INDICATOR STEVENS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 1 CASTLE POINT HOBOKEN, NJ 07030

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