I’m excited to share with you our Annual Report for the 2024 calendar year and just some of the tremendous successes from the Swanson School of Engineering. Since arriving in Pittsburgh last September, I have been getting to know this incredible community and I’m thankful for the many well-wishes I’ve received. I am honored to serve as the school’s 11th dean of engineering and look forward to further engaging our global community of Pitt Engineers.
I am continually impressed by the pride within the Swanson School community, and I believe we can leverage this toward greater impact, research growth, and student success. Our strategic planning is underway and informed by the Plan for Pitt. One of my goals during this process is to engage students, faculty, staff, alumni, and others to think big and go far. The Swanson School is already established in areas including energy, healthcare, manufacturing, and sustainability, beyond our current ranking among the top 25 public engineering programs. I know we have tremendous potential for more.
Our research portfolio continues to grow, with 217 funding awards reaching a record $63 million. Seven faculty received early career awards – four from NSF, two from ASME, and one from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). Most impressively, the Swanson School generated 38 patents in FY24, almost a third of those awarded to the university.
The breadth and depth of our research also has regional and national impact. A $2 million award from the Department of Energy has established the Cyber Energy Center under the leadership of Dr. Dan Cole to benefit national security. The interdisciplinary heart of the Swanson School also has a tremendous impact on human health, with faculty leveraging funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop a smartphone blood pressure monitor, study new methods to identify and treat endometriosis, and lessen the environmental and economic impact of surgical procedures.
Additionally, while finalizing this report we learned that Dr. Fang Peng, the RK Mellon Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, only three years after his election to the National Academy of Inventors!
I am continually impressed by our students and their accomplishments not only in the school but in various societies and throughout the community. Herein you’ll read about one such student, Maurice Sturdivant, who was mentored by Dr. Brandon Grainger and learned that he had a greater potential beyond his bachelor’s degree. And in the awards section, you’ll see the top university awards and national honors our students have won.
Of course, these stories and more are only possible through the excellence of our exceptional faculty, staff, students, and supporters. Although every year brings new and unexpected challenges, I know what we as an engineering community can accomplish.
Lastly, I especially want to thank my predecessor, Distinguished Professor Sanjeev Shroff, for his leadership as interim dean and his commitment to excellence in academics, research, and collaboration.
My thanks to you for your welcoming messages and I hope for your continued support in this new year.
Sincerely,
Michele V. Manuel, PhD U. S. Steel Dean of Engineering
BY THE NUMBERS
RESEARCH
EARLY CAREER CELEBRATION
The National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is the most prestigious and competitive award for young faculty. For 2024, five assistant professors won a combined $2.75 million in funding and matched a previous Swanson School record for the number of CAREER awards in one funding cycle.
“The CAREER award is a launch pad for young faculty,” noted David Vorp, senior associate dean for research and facilities, and professor of bioengineering. “Since 2016, 27 of our faculty have received NSF CAREER awards, with almost a quarter of them winning on their first attempt.”
Sara Haig
Drinking Water Treatment & Distribution – The Environmental Training Grounds for Pathogens to Evade the Human Immune System
Dr. Haig was also recognized by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists as one of its 2025 40 Under 40
Rajkumar Kubendran
Reinventing Computer Vision through Bioinspired Retinomorphic Sensors, Corticomorphic Compute-InMemory Processors and Event-based Algorithms
Qihan Liu
Robust, Reversible, and Stimuli-Responsive Thermodynamic Adhesion in Hydrogels
SWANSON SCHOOL RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Dr. Liu also received the ASME Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering Award
Nathan Youngblood
Multi-Dimensional Photonic Accelerators for Scalable and Efficient Computing
Dr. Youngblood also received the the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award
Ioannis Zervantonakis
Illuminating the Effects of Hypoxia on MacrophageEpithelial Crosstalk in Engineered 3D Environments
Dr. Zervantonakis also received the ASME Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering Award and the BMES Cell and Molecular Bioengineering Rising Star Junior Faculty Award
RESEARCH EXPENDITURES (in $millions)
Annual spending from sponsored research funding in the last five fiscal years for primary faculty.
Sara Haig Rajkumar Kubendran
Qihan Liu Nathan Youngblood
Ioannis Zervantonakis
DOE FUNDS $2M CYBER ENERGY CENTER AT PITT TO IMPROVE NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY MEASURES
Pennsylvania is the lead producer of energy in the United States and exports more electricity than any other state in the country.
However, the infrastructure protecting these various energy sources has gone digital and shielding it from cyber-attacks requires far more than improving information technology cybersecurity.
To meet these growing concerns, the White House released the National Security Strategy in March 2023 that called for an up-leveling of cyber security measures and practices nationwide.
The University of Pittsburgh was awarded $2.2 million from the United States Department of Energy to establish the Cyber Energy Center, a collaborative ecosystem for regional energy industries and stakeholders to help improve the cybersecurity for the region’s energy system. The scope of the Center’s work will venture outside of Pennsylvania and reach 21 utilities in 13 states.
“The pandemic caused an unemployment surge in Pennsylvania at a time when we need an increased cybersecurity presence more than ever,” explained Daniel Cole, principal investigator and associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science. “As geopolitical tensions increase, so does the need to be vigilant for cybersecurity threats that could impact our nation’s energy infrastructure.”
The Center will integrate interdisciplinary research experts from Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, School of Computing and Information, Center for Energy, the Energy
SWANSON SCHOOL RESEARCH ACTIVITY
GRID Institute, School of Public and International Affairs, and Institute for Law Policy and Security to give it a portfolio of expertise that includes artificial intelligence and machine learning, grid engineering, law and policy, and energy-efficient computing.
Research at the Center will address how to better integrate information technology and operational technology to meet industry needs by using modern tools like digital twins to achieve better intrusion detection and tolerance, improved modeling and implementation for real-world applications, and identifying the barriers for energy providers when determining robust cybersecurity programs.
More than 20 industry partners, working with both the Center and Department of Energy leadership, will serve on an Industry Advisory Board to help define, shape, and steer research projects for the Center to ensure that its activities are providing value and meeting the needs of the energy industry.
To expand the Center’s reach nationwide, it will offer several education and workforce development programs to provide Pitt students deep experiential learning opportunities where they can tackle current problems from industry partners. Replicating this innovative program across the country will provide companies nationwide with up-todate solutions and a workforce that is able to address rapidly evolving threats. ■
217 FUNDING AWARDS RESEARCH EXPENDITURES $63M (primary faculty)
18 $1M+ AWARDS
$6M INDUSTRY-SPONSORED RESEARCH RESEARCH EXPENDITURES $127M (primary + (engaged) secondary faculty)
132 GRANTS AWARDED
502 PROPOSALS SUBMITTED
Daniel Cole
SUSTAINABILITY
“ We make many decisions in patient care that lead to a big environmental footprint, and this research helps us guide efforts to integrate sustainability into orthopedic surgery.”
Freddie H. Fu, MD
A SURGICAL FIX TO GREENHOUSE GASES
A University of Pittsburgh study inspired by the late Freddie H. Fu, MD, one of the world’s leading orthopaedic surgeons, is tackling a significant contributor to climate change – the healthcare sector1. Engineers and physicians examined how one procedure in particular – anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction – contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and how its impacts can be reduced.
The paper, “How Can the Environmental Impact of Orthopaedic Surgery Be Measured and Reduced? Using Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction as a Test Case,” was co-authored by Melissa M. Bilec, PhD, the George M. and Eva M. Bevier Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and co-director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation. First author is Nathalia Silva de Souza Lima Cano, MSc, Fulbright/CAPES PhD Fellow at Pitt. Bilec partnered with Fu and his team at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, where he served as chair.
The investigators utilized a method known as life-cycle assessment (LCA), which analyzes the entire life cycle of a product, service, or industry, from raw material extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use, and end-of-life. Bilec was the first to apply this process to examining hospital room infant births in 2012 in a study with UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.
“While LCA and material flow analysis (MFA) are tools in engineering and sustainability research, their potential has only recently been adapted to understanding the incredible impact that healthcare has on climate,” noted Bilec, who is also the Special Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability at Pitt. “This
“cradle-to-grave” assessment takes a hard look at every product and process involved – in this case, with ACL surgery, everything from the materials used to make the devices used in surgery to the energy consumed, and the cost of disposing of the material.”
An Unrivaled Carbon Footprint
Greenhouse gas emissions seem easy to understand – a fuel is produced and consumed, and emissions are released into the atmosphere, like when driving a car or flying in a plane. However, according to first author Nathalia Cano, conducting an LCA on a complex process such as construction of a building or performing surgery results in astonishing carbon footprints.
“As healthcare professionals and researchers, we must explore ways to make our practices more sustainable without compromising patient outcomes,” Cano said. “With LCA and MFA as our toolbox, we examined scenarios throughout the operation to reduce environmental impact, including reducing resources, optimizing surgical practices, and exploring innovative materials and circular economy approaches.”
The carbon footprint of one ACLR is 47 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent eq) or driving a gasoline-fueled passenger vehicle about 120 miles
“Though the most important priority in surgery is excellent patient care, surgeons can and should also be mindful of the carbon footprint of our surgeries,” noted Ian Engler, MD, Orthopedic Sports Medicine Surgeon at the Central Maine Medical Center (previously a research fellow at Pitt.
“We presented this idea to Dr. Fu several months before he passed. He said, “I thought I knew everything about the ACL, and here is something I didn’t know.” His contagious enthusiasm jumpstarted the research and is the reason it came to be.”
Fu launched UPMC’s sports medicine program and was head team physician for Pitt’s Department of Athletics. ■
1 From the article: “The healthcare sector in the United States has increased its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent since 2010 and today has the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions globally. In 2018, the US healthcare sector emitted 550 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq), representing 8.5 percent of the total annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Recently, more than 872 hospitals have pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through the White House’s Health Sector Climate Pledge in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services.”
The 130,000 ACLRs each year in the U.S. produce approximately 6,110 metric tons of CO2eq per year, or about 15 million miles driven
contributing most to global warming potential:
1% DISPOSABLE PLASTICS 6% OF GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL 58%
Melissa Bilec
BIOENGINEERING
Biomedical engineering anticipates an amazing future for the field, its researchers, and students.
A NEW, COMPREHENSIVE ROADMAP FOR THE FUTURE OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE EMBS), published in 2024 a detailed position paper on the field of biomedical engineering titled, “Grand Challenges at the Interface of Engineering and Medicine.” The paper, published in the IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology (IEEE OJEMB), was written by a consortium of 50 renowned researchers from 34 prestigious universities around the world, and lays the foundation for a concerted worldwide effort to achieve technological and medical breakthroughs.
Representing the University of Pittsburgh in the position paper is Sanjeev G. Shroff, Distinguished Professor of and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair in Bioengineering, and Professor of Medicine.
“What we’ve accomplished here will serve as a roadmap for groundbreaking research to transform the landscape of medicine in the coming decade,” said Dr. Michael Miller, senior author of the paper and professor and director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. “The outcomes of the task force, featuring significant research and training opportunities, are poised to resonate in engineering and medicine for decades to come.”
“Since the founding of our Department of Bioengineering 25 years ago, we have witnessed transformative advances and new technologies developed through partnerships between Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, School of Medicine, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Brain Institute, and UPMC,” Shroff said.
“The field of biomedical engineering is at a critical juncture in its evolution, with a need to reflect on the past and identify singular challenges that will continue to improve humanity, These new Grand Challenges, developed through a global debate, will help guide our academic programs and research as well as prepare the next generation of bioengineers.”
The position paper was the result of two years of discussion culminating in a two-day workshop organized by IEEE EMBS and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California San Diego. Through the course of the workshop, the researchers identified five primary medical challenges that have yet to be addressed, but by solving them with advanced biomedical engineering approaches, can greatly improve human health. ■
The Five Grand Challenges Facing Biomedical Engineering
1. Bridging precision engineering and precision medicine for personalized physiology avatars
2. Pursuing on-demand tissue and organ engineering for human health
3. Revolutionizing neuroscience using artificial intelligence (AI) to engineer advanced brain-interface systems
4. Engineering the immune system for health and wellness
5. Designing and engineering genomes for organism repurposing and genomic perturbations
A NEW APP TO “UNCUFF” BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING
Ramakrishna Mukkamala, professor of bioengineering, is passionate about developing accessible blood pressure (BP) detection tools. Instead of designing a new medical device to monitor BP, Mukkamala decided to take advantage of what is in nearly everyone’s pockets – smartphones – and figure out how to detect blood pressure using sensors already built into them.
“The most significant thing you can do to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease is to lower high blood pressure through lifestyle changes, but in underserved populations, many people don’t have access to blood pressure cuffs, regular doctor’s appointments, or even know it’s a problem,” Mukkamala said. “But they do have smartphones.”
Mukkamala’s team harnessed tools already built into most smartphones, like motionsensing accelerometers, front cameras, and touch sensors to build a smartphone application on an Android that can measure an individual’s pulse pressure. The results, published in Scientific Reports, demonstrate a promising new technology that could uniquely help reduce the burden of systolic hypertension globally.
Turning a smartphone into a monitoring device is no easy task, as Vishaal Dhamotharan, graduate student in the Cardiovascular Health Tech Laboratory,
found out through multiple iterations of app development. Because smartphones don’t have force sensing tools, a crucial element of the project was figuring out how to replicate the effects of a traditional blood pressure exam using only a cell phone, which the team solved by using a familiar force – gravity.
“Because of gravity, there’s a hydrostatic pressure change in your thumb when you raise your hands up above your heart, and using the phone’s accelerometer, you’re able to convert that into the relative change in pressure,” Dhamotharan said.
By pairing this hand-raising motion with guided thumb maneuvers on the smartphone, the team was able to calculate each participant’s pulse pressure: the difference between your upper (systolic) and lower (diastolic) numbers. For Sanjeev Shroff, collaborator and bioengineering department chair, this publication is a promising advancement for blood pressure measurement devices.
“Development of a cuffless blood pressure measurement device that does not require any external calibration is the holy grail – such a device currently does not exist,” Shroff said. “The research work reported in this publication is encouraging for additional work aimed at obtaining systolic, diastolic, and mean pressures.”
“This app would be really useful in low-income settings where people may not even have existing access to blood pressure tools,” Dhamotharan said. “Being able to measure blood pressure more frequently would allow an individual to track any significant changes in blood pressure, monitor for hypertension, and be able to manage their conditions with that knowledge.” ■
endometriosis affects roughly women worldwide 1 in 10
ENDOMETRIOSIS
RESEARCH IS THE FOCUS OF A NEW HUB AT PITT
Since 2016, Allison Vorp couldn’t make sense of a chronic, worsening pain in her lower right abdomen.
“It was this severe, sharp shooting, pinching pain,” she said. “It started to be that it was my constant companion – it was always hurting.”
Explanations ranged everywhere from ovarian cysts and hip arthritis to irritable bowel syndrome. She dieted, eliminating and reintroducing major food groups to see if it would make a difference.
It didn’t, and it wasn’t until her 40s that Allison, a research administrator at Pitt’s School of Medicine, thought to mention one more possibility to her gynecologist – endometriosis.
Endometriosis is a condition where cells that line the uterus start growing outside of it, mainly on the ovaries, fallopian tubes and supporting ligaments and tissues that line the pelvis.
Symptoms include painful periods, heavy bleeding, severe menstrual cramps, chronic pain in the lower back and pelvis, pain during or after sex, and infertility.
Because of these varied symptoms, endometriosis is often the last to be considered compared to other potential causes, even though it affects roughly one in ten women worldwide.
Allison’s doctor sent her to the UPMC Magee-Womens Center for Endometriosis and Chronic Pelvic Pain (CECPP), where she met former Pitt surgeon Ted Lee. In less than 10 minutes, he suspected she had stage 4 endometriosis.
Around the same time Allison was searching for answers, incoming PhD student Isabelle Chickanosky was searching for a faculty mentor in the Department of Bioengineering, hoping to study that same disease – something she has endured since she was 16 years old. Her search led her to David Vorp,
David and Allison Vorp
senior associate dean for research and facilities at the Swanson School of Engineering and director of Pitt’s Vascular Bioengineering Lab (VBL) – and by coincidence, Allison’s husband.
“I had this huge passion for endometriosis, but at the time, Dr. Vorp didn’t do any research in the field,” Chickanosky said. “For months, I sat on this idea of, you know, do I want to go into a lab where I can focus on endometriosis? Or do I want to go to the Vorp Lab and learn something new?”
Chickanosky decided to join the VBL, hoping to pursue endometriosis research after earning her PhD. Then, in fall 2021 when Allison was diagnosed with endometriosis, David remembered Chickanosky’s interest in the disease and her own medical history, and immediately contacted her.
“I eagerly went home to get all these papers I had set aside because endometriosis was still my passion project,” Chickanosky said. “Within the next few weeks, we scheduled hourly sessions to talk about this disease, about new research in the field, and build up what we wanted our own project to be.”
Inspired by Allison and Chickanosky, David sought to learn what was being done at Pitt in endometriosis research, which led him to Nicole Donnellan and David Peters, both professors of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences. They realized that together they could move the needle on endometriosis research and care.
The team created the Hub for Endometriosis Research (HER), which includes about a dozen interdisciplinary researchers and clinicians across multiple Pitt schools, including the Swanson School Engineering and School of Medicine, and the UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital and the Magee-Womens Research Institute. With five distinct goals – education, research, clinical care, advocacy and outreach – HER endeavors to become a comprehensive research hub that will tackle not only the science, but also the widespread lack of information about endometriosis among patients, clinicians and researchers alike.
According to Donnellan, the average endometriosis diagnosis period is eight to 11 years, and the only way to officially diagnose a patient is with an exploratory surgical laparoscopic procedure. The disease, she explained, is stealthy when it comes to traditional diagnostic procedures.
“There are no biomarkers for endometriosis,” said Donnellan, who is also medical director of gynecology at Magee-Womens Hospital. “There are no noninvasive diagnostic tests like a blood sample, endometrial biopsy sample, or even a pap smear, and there are limitations in imaging such as CT scans or MRIs. You can have a normal ultrasound, normal blood work, and a normal physical exam, and still have a disease that is causing symptoms.”
HER collaborators are studying tissue samples from these procedures, but surgery is expensive, and funding and affordability are some of the biggest challenges in studying endometriosis. To decrease the financial burden and the amount of doctor visits for patients, Chickanosky’s PhD dissertation work includes the development of EndoDx, a tool that would be compatible with gynecology offices and use machine-learning to predict a patient’s likelihood of having endometriosis.
HER collaborators have five different seed projects in various stages and are searching for starter funding from government, foundations and others, while looking forward to expanding this multidisciplinary group toward one common goal.
“Bioengineers are very good at identifying a problem and uncovering the knowledge or therapies that would be associated with it, but the Hub for Endometriosis Research is not just me, and not just bioengineering,” David Vorp said. “Dr. Donnellan and Dr. John Harris provide critical links to patients, Dr. Peters provides a fundamental understanding of the disease process, Drs. Bryan Brown and Ioannis Zervantonakis provide additional bioengineered models and techniques, and collaborating pathologists, biostatisticians, cancer experts and more will complement our scientific approaches – the whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts in this case.” ■
The team created the Hub for Endometriosis Research (HER)
CHEMICAL & PETROLEUM
NOSY CHEMISTRY
“Electronic noses” are electronic devices that can “sniff” and identify vaporized odors and flavors. Typically connected to a significant amount of laboratory equipment, these synthetic noses are not readily portable, motivating researchers to devise new, transportable sensors that can identify a broad range of chemicals.
Principal investigator Anna C. Balazs, Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, with lead author and postdoc Moselm Moradi, and postdoc Oleg E. Shklyaev, designed a small-scale system that forms threedimensional patterns, which serve as chemical “fingerprints” that allow chemicals in solutions to be identified.
“Catalysts are highly selective; only certain reactants can trigger a particular catalytic reaction. Due to this selectivity, catalysts in a solution can reveal the identities of the reactants. If the right reactants are added to the fluid, then the resulting reaction generates the spontaneous flow of the fluid; the flow, in turn, can bend and shape flexible objects immersed in the solution,” Balazs explained. “If flexible posts are tethered to the base of a fluid-filled chamber and coated with specific enzymes, then the added reactants will force the posts to bend in different directions and form distinct visual patterns.
“What is amazing is that each reactant, or combination of reactants, produces a separate pattern. In effect, the chemicals
leave a distinctive “fingerprint” which allows us to identify the chemical composition of the solution.”
In the simulation, Moradi constructed a chamber four millimeters square and one millimeter in height, with 81 flexible posts. Only a few posts at locations were coated with one of three types of enzymes. “If we examine specific reactions, we can discern the shapes they contribute to the overall pattern. Consequently, we can control the patterns and tune their appearance,” Moradi said.
“Moreover, if the reactants are added one at time, we can form a chemical kaleidoscope as one pattern smoothly morphs into another when the previous reactants are consumed by the reaction and a new reactant is added to the solution.”
Shklyaev added that these results are notable because the posts are like electronic nodes. “The posts are like on-off switches and move in a specific direction regulated by the flow,” he said, “and the patterns reveal the chemical fingerprints. The chemistry happens on the nanoscale, and we observe at the millimeter-scale visible patterns formed by the post, which can reflect light and thus could be detected by the naked eye.”
On a conceptual level, the patterns are an analogue of the electrochemical responses the brain makes to identify odors or scents.
Balazs said, “Since each reactant leaves a specific fingerprint, we can form a database of patterns. We can use this database to detect a hazardous chemical or water-born toxin by comparing the generated pattern with others in the database to identify a match.
“Our system lays the groundwork for a simple, portable toolkit that allows you to add the chemical into a chamber and the resulting visual pattern identifies the substance. It’s a beautiful yet simple chemical nose.” ■
Top view of the final arrangement of the posts in a 13×13 square array, where APcoated posts are place in specific symmetric positions to generate mandala-like pattern.
M. Moradi,O.E. Shklyaev,& A.C. Balazs, Integrating chemistry, fluid flow, and mechanics to drive spontaneous formation of three-dimensional (3D) patterns in anchored microstructures, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 121 (11) e2319777121, https:// doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2319777121 (2024).
Anna C. Balazs
THE CLUES FOR CLEANER WATER
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Drexel University in Philadelphia, along with Brookhaven National Laboratory, are working to solve a multipart mystery to make water disinfection treatments more sustainable.
Scalable electrochemical ozone production (EOP) technologies to disinfect dirty water may someday replace centralized chlorine treatments used today, whether in modern cities or remote villages. However, little is understood about EOP at the molecular level and how technologies that make it possible can be made to be efficient, economical, and sustainable.
Their research, “Interplay between Catalyst Corrosion and Homogeneous Reactive Oxygen Species in Electrochemical Ozone Production,” was published in the journal ACS Catalysis. Lead author is Drexel PhD student Rayan Alaufey, with contributing researchers from Drexel, including co-PI Maureen Tang, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering; Andrew Lindsay, postdoctoral researcher; Tana Siboonruang, PhD student; and Ezra Wood, associate professor of chemistry. Pitt researchers include co-PI John A. Keith, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering; and Lingyan Zhao, graduate student. Qin Wu from Brookhaven also contributed.
“People have used chlorine to treat drinking water since the 19th century, but today we better understand that chlorine may not always be the best option. EOP for example can generate ozone, a molecule with about the same disinfecting power as chlorine, directly in water. Unlike chlorine, which stably persists in water, ozone in water naturally decomposes after about 20 minutes, meaning it is less likely to damage people when consuming from water at a tap, when swimming in a pool, or when cleaning wounds in a hospital,” explained Keith, who is also R.K. Mellon Faculty Fellow in Energy at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering.
“EOP for sustainable disinfection would make a lot of sense in some markets, but doing it requires a good enough catalyst, and because we have yet to find a good enough EOP catalyst, EOP is too expensive and energy-intensive for broader use.”
Solving the mystery of how EOP catalysts work is crucial in understanding how to better engineer one of the most promising and least toxic EOP catalysts known to date: nickel- and antimony-doped tin oxide (Ni/Sb–SnO2, or NATO).
Therein, said Keith, lies the conundrum: what is every atom’s role in NATO doing to help EOP? Is ozone formed catalytically in ways we want it to, or does it form
because the catalyst is decomposing, and future work needs to be done to make NATO catalysts more stable?
Surprisingly, the researchers discovered that it is probably a mix of both.
By using experimental electrochemical analyses, mass spectrometry, and computational quantum chemistry modeling, the researchers created an “atomic-scale storyline” to explain how ozone is generated on NATO electrocatalysts. For the first time, they identified that some of the nickel in NATO is probably leaching out of the electrodes via corrosion, and these nickel atoms, now floating in the solution near the catalyst, can promote chemical reactions that eventually generate ozone.
“If we want to make a better electrocatalyst, we need to understand what parts are working and not working. We know that electrochemical water treatment works on small scales, but the discovery of better catalysts will boost it to a global scale. The next step is finding new atomic combinations in materials that are more resistant to corrosion but also promote economically and sustainably viable EOP,” Keith said. ■
John A. Keith
CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL
Aleksandar Stevanovic
It’s a Monday, and you’ve overslept. You skip breakfast and rush to your car, hoping to make it to work on time.
But a notoriously long red light delays you. You’re not just frustrated – you’re late.
A SMARTER, SAFER WAY TO MONITOR OUR PITTSBURGH STREETS
For engineers who specialize in transportation, ensuring others arrive to work on time is just one of their priorities.
“When we talk about road transportation, we have three areas that shape our work,” said Aleksandar Stevanovic, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. “Safety is our primary concern, but we also think about efficiency and environmental implications. Most of the time, these areas go together.”
Stevanovic has spent much of his career researching traffic control – which can be through road signs, traffic signals and pavement markings – on arterial streets. He has published more than 250 journal and conference papers and presented at more than 100 international, national and state seminars and professional meetings on the subject. He has been principal investigator on more than 40 research projects for almost $5 million in funding and has worked with various transportation agencies on the national, state and local levels.
That’s a lot of time spent on the road(s).
Smarter Streets
Most recently, Stevanovic is part of a $160,814 project with the city of Pittsburgh to improve the city’s intelligent transportation system’s infrastructure and operations in disadvantaged neighborhoods, or SmartPGH. With Stevanovic’s help, the city plans to deploy different smart technologies on its streets that support multimodal operations.
“By multimodal, I mean accessible public transportation by providing transit signal priority for buses, providing better detection of pedestrians, and more protected signal phasing for crossing the street,” Stevanovic said.
“We are also looking into bike volumes and what areas people are delayed in their cars.”
There is one caveat for Stevanovic and his team: when these technologies are installed, it’s uncertain how efficiently they’ll function together since they typically operate independently. Worst case scenario: less than ideal performance from these technologies.
“We can’t test in the field because we could potentially put lives at stake,” Stevanovic said. “Instead, we use a very sophisticated, high-fidelity simulation to replicate the conditions that we have in the field with the same technologies that will be implemented.”
The simulation is more like that of a digital twin than virtual reality, meaning the research group can control different conditions to produce a result in order to form accurate predictions.
Reinventing the (Steering) Wheel
Unlike SmartPGH, Stevanovic and his team are incorporating virtual reality into a $120,000 project, in collaboration with the University of Virginia, under a consortium of regional universities led by Morgan State University.
In his lab, there’s an interactive environment where one person drives a car, another walks as a pedestrian, and a third rides a bike – all within the same virtual space. All other cars, pedestrians, bicyclists and landscapes are simulated. The environment itself is based on a corridor in Newark, Delaware because of its notable multimodal environment, maintained by the Delaware Department of Transportation.
Stevanovic emphasized that calling it a mere driving simulation system doesn’t capture its complexity.
“This creates a perfect environment for us to investigate multiple, multimodal traffic scenarios,” Stevanovic said. “By using these human agents in that environment, we can replicate some of the potential conflicts that happen and test the ability to avoid and resolve these conflicts without actually working with the people in the field. No one gets hurt.”
Though remote work has become more common, Stevanovic doesn’t believe it to be the perfect solution to traffic conditions. Stevanovic said it’s possible that multidisciplinary researchers could look at something as simple as the wheel and a car’s design to improve traffic conditions.
“We’ve never really questioned what a car should be –its design, features, or purpose,” Stevanovic said. “We typically follow evolutionary changes, not revolutionary ones. Maybe it’s time for a radical redesign to improve how we use our time, reduce delays, enhance safety for everyone, and make cars more eco-friendly.” ■
WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS
With flooding becoming more frequent and severe because of climate change, the stakes are rising. Recent estimates place global flood-related damage at over $50 billion annually, and experts predict an increase in damage to U.S. communities by the end of the century without new interventions.
Researchers from the Swanson School and Vanderbilt University received more than $729,307, with $317,811 coming to Pitt from the National Science Foundation for a three-year project to address one of the most critical threats to flood protection infrastructure: backward erosion piping (BEP). This phenomenon, a major cause of levee and dam failures, occurs when water seeps through and erodes sand beneath flood barriers, potentially leading to catastrophic failures.
Alessandro Fascetti, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and Roberta Luxbacher Faculty Fellow at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, and Caglar Oskay, professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt, are developing a novel computational, artificial intelligence-driven model designed to predict BEP and help mitigate risks. Their project aims to revolutionize how flood protection systems are designed, maintained and monitored.
“Flooding is the most common and costly disaster in the U.S., and BEP is one of the least understood threats to levees and dams,” Fascetti said. “By developing a model that simulates BEP progression, we can provide engineers with the tools to predict when and where failures might occur, enabling them to take preventative action.”
The project also includes a public outreach and education component. The team will engage with K-12 students and the public through interactive demonstrations, including an Augmented Reality Sandbox that simulates flood scenarios and demonstrates the importance of infrastructure in flood protection. ■
SETTING A FOUNDATION FOR A NEW INFRASTRUCTURE FUTURE
The Swanson School of Engineering and College of Business Administration in 2024 established a new partnership with S&B USA, a Pittsburgh-based creator of safe and innovative infrastructure solutions, to develop future talent and share knowledge advancing the development and construction of critical infrastructure in Southwestern Pennsylvania and beyond.
At the event, Peter MacKenna, President & CEO of S&B USA Construction, noted that S&B USA seeks partnerships like this to ensure it is positioned for this investment with a pipeline of future engineering, business and heavy-civil construction talent to power the delivery of megaprojects that develop, design and build sustainable infrastructure.
The formal memorandum of understanding establishes areas of collaboration including: student recruitment (undergraduate and graduate/doctorate); experience-based student learning; business and engineering integration opportunities; direct participation with student groups; presenting and sharing educational insights and industry trends; and access to S&B USA’s regional and global infrastructure projects.
Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Swanson School of Engineering, said, “Industry, government, and the private sector have for decades been critical to the success of our engineering program and a pathway to student engagement and future employment across the university. S&B USA has been a long-time partner as well as employer of generations of alumni, and so we are excited to further expand our partnership.” ■
ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER
PITT SPACE
IS
BRINGING RESEARCHERS
The University of Pittsburgh boasts a long and distinguished history in space education and research, from the analysis of moon rocks brought back by the Apollo 11 mission to the groundbreaking contributions of Samuel Pierpont Langley, a faculty member who led the renowned Allegheny Observatory.
In response to the growing research and workforce needs of the U.S. space industry, Pitt is building on this rich legacy with a new, rapidly expanding initiative: Pitt Space.
“Over the past several decades, space innovations and technologies have dramatically impacted our nation,
TOGETHER AT THE START OF A NEW SPACE RACE
and the world, in terms of communications, navigation, weather, defense, health, science, entertainment and more,” said Alan George, department chair and R&H Mickle Endowed Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Today, the space field is even more active and exciting than the Space Race of the 1960s, where a large and growing community of agencies, companies and universities are contributing with new space missions and technologies.”
Pitt Space is built around three core areas of strength, each guided by distinguished leaders in their respective fields.
Space Engineering – led by George – focuses on designing, operating and optimizing advanced spacecraft systems. It emphasizes onboard sensing, processing, storage, communications and AI integration while striving to enhance spacecraft reliability, performance and adaptability. A key objective is to minimize power, size, weight and cost.
Space Biomedicine – under the leadership of Afshin Beheshti, professor of surgery and computational and systems biology and associate director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine – will propel the integration of space biology with advanced biomedical
continued on page 18
From left: Robert Cunningham, Zoë Karabinus, Justine Kasznica, Rob A. Rutenbar, Alan George, Michael Ramsey, William Wagner
35% by 2035 REDUCE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM COSTS
SWANSON SCHOOL ELECTED TO RECEIVE $3.3M TO DEVELOP NEW ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY
The University of Pittsburgh is among four groundbreaking high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission research and development projects that are selected to receive a total of $11 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) and Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EERE). The awards are part of the Innovative DEsigns for high-performAnce Low-cost HVDC Converters (IDEAL HVDC) funding opportunity.
Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering will lead a $3.3 million university/industry partnership using artificial intelligence to optimize an HVDC converter design for increased power density and decreased cost.
“The Swanson School is proud to lead this important effort with our partners, the Pennsylvania State University, Eaton, HICO-Hyosung, and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL),” said Brandon Grainger, associate professor, Eaton Faculty Fellow, and PI of the program at the Swanson School. “By utilizing our unique Electric Power Technologies Lab (EPTL) at the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District, our goal is to design, build, and test a 13.8kVac to 25kVdc power converter necessary for this transmission technology.” Grainger, who is director of the EPTL, is also Associate Director of the Energy GRID Institute, and Co-Director of the Advanced Magnetics for Power and Energy Development (AMPED) Consortium with its founder, Paul Ohodnicki, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science.
According to DOE, these projects will help to affordably integrate more renewable energy generation on land or far from shore (e.g., offshore wind) onto the grid via HVDC lines, reduce transmission system costs by 35 percent by 2035, and promote widespread technology adoption.
The IDEAL projects are primed to help reinvent the power grid, which serves as an interstate highway for high-voltage electricity. HVDC transmission systems are more efficient than traditional alternating current (AC) transmission systems to deliver electricity over long distances at a lower cost while minimizing power losses. ■
PITT SPACE...
continued from page 17
research. Its mission is to develop technologies that safeguard human health in space while applying space research to improve health care on Earth. The program also fosters education and outreach, preparing the next generation of researchers and collaborating with both domestic and global partners.
Space Science – led by Michael Ramsey, professor of geology and planetary science in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences – spans multiple departments and disciplines, focusing on data analysis, modeling and mission development. It covers a range of topics, from theoretical studies of exoplanets and galaxy clusters to planetary surface research within our solar system, and even Earth’s dynamic processes.
The Swanson School of Engineering, home to the National Science Foundation space center known as SHREC, is rolling out a suite of new graduate and undergraduate courses, including Intro to Space Engineering taught by Zhi-Hong Mao as well as Dependable Systems, Extreme Environment Electronics, and Space Systems Project. These courses and others will be foundational to the new graduate certificate and undergraduate minor being proposed in space engineering.
Similar programs are in the works for space science and space biomedicine. ■
INDUSTRIAL
“ Drug shortages cause real disruptions in patients’ lives, often resulting in interrupted or delayed treatment.”
GAINING GREATER INSIGHT INTO DRUG SUPPLY CHAINS
Reports of drug-related supply-chain issues were 40 percent less likely to result in drug shortages in Canada versus the United States, according to a new study from University of Pittsburgh researchers and published today in JAMA.
The analysis looked at drugs that had reports of supply-chain disruptions between 2017 and 2021 in both countries and found that within 12 months of an initial U.S. report, nearly half resulted in drug shortages in the U.S. versus about one-third in Canada. There was also a consistently lower risk of shortage in Canada at each month after the reports.
“Drug shortages cause real disruptions in patients’ lives, often resulting in interrupted or delayed treatment,” said senior author Katie J. Suda, Pharm.D., MS, professor in the Pitt School of Medicine and associate director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing. “We can learn from other countries that are having success in mitigating the effects of drug shortages on patients.”
The researchers used supply chain-issue reports drawn from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and Health Canada. They then compared these reports to actual drug usage in both countries, defining a drug shortage as a decrease in monthly purchased units of at least 33 percent relative to average units in the six months before the report.
“Comprehensive, interdisciplinary collaboration between pharmacy, medicine, public health, and industrial engineering has been key to understanding the different impacts of drug supply chain disruptions in these two countries,” explained Lisa Maillart, PhD, interim chair of industrial engineering. “These research partnerships are critical to finding ways to improve human health and industry processes.”
Most reports of supply-chain issues were due to manufacturing or shipping problems. However, one-quarter of the U.S. reports did not specify a reason. Generic drugs accounted for 95 percent of reports in both countries, and sole-sourced drugs made up one in five. However, the route of administration, time since approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and drug price per unit did not predict drug shortages.
“The pharmaceutical supply chain is global, and every single person who touches a drug is essential, from manufacturers to port workers to pharmacists,” said lead author Mina Tadrous, Pharm.D., PhD, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. “Shocks to the supply chain will happen, and it’s important to cooperate internationally to develop strategies for minimizing disruptions for patients.” ■
Lisa Maillart
PITT
ENGINEER
RECEIVES $1M TO REIMAGINE THE CORONARY BALLOON DEVICE
According to the World Health Organization, heart diseases are the leading cause of death globally.
One in particular – coronary artery disease also called ischemic heart disease, happens when plaque builds up in the arteries that supply blood to the heart, thereby constricting the arteries and restricting blood flow.
Several treatment options include dual antiplatelet drug therapy, drug-eluting stents, and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) drug-eluting balloons. These balloons are coated with an antiproliferative drug on the surface which is released directly to the lesion during balloon inflation. The drug inhibits the growth of smooth muscle cells in the arterial wall, reducing the risk of
restenosis and maintaining continuous blood vessel patency.
Youngjae Chun, professor of industrial engineering with a secondary appointment in bioengineering, is part of a consortium that received $1.1 million in USD from the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Healthcare Technology R&D Project to revolutionize the design of the coronary balloon device.
“Our consortium, which includes members from industry, academia, and research, is aiming to create a new device that will feature an innovative drug eluting mechanism that will help improve healing and lessen the risks of restenosis and late thrombosis, as well as improve the outcomes for many cardiovascular patients throughout the world,” he explained. Chun’s lab, the Translational Medical
Device Research Laboratory, will provide the numerical analysis on the drug elution with the microparticles produced through a new fabrication method. The Pitt team will work with lead investigator and medical device manufacturing company Osstem Cardio, as well as Daegu Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation Foundation, located in South Korea.
The three-year project, “Development of a next-generation PTCA drug-coated balloon catheter coated with 4μm class biodegradable tissue-adhesive drug delivery microparticles for the effective vascular recovery,” supports innovative medical device companies and their collaborative institutes to commercialize the device technologies. ■
Youngjae Chun
MECHANICAL & MATERIALS SCIENCE
A WINNING LOOK AT NEW SURFACES
Surfaces impact everything in our daily lives – and we impact them. For Tevis Jacobs, those surfaces can unlock secrets to improve them for thousands of uses – and earned him the coveted Startup of the Year Award from the University of Pittsburgh. Jacobs, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Mechanical and Materials Science, was one of several Pitt innovators and businesses recognized.
“Humans encounter countless surfaces every day, but we rarely even think of our interactions with them unless a machine breaks down or our shoes slip on the floor,” Jacobs says. “For over a decade, my group has been focused on surfaces and how to make them better. We developed not just a sciencebased approach but also integrated machine learning in a unique combination that allows us to do what no one else can do. By taking a nanoscale look at how surfaces interact, we are improving production efficiency across many technologies from metals to medical devices and even footwear.”
Surface Design Solutions emerged from the research of Jacobs’ lab, which focuses on surfaces and how to make them perform better, whether that is to be more – or less – slip-resistant, more bio-compatible, or less bio-compatible. Surface Design has developed a machine-learning platform, optimized with thousands of prior surface analyses, that delivers robust, physics-informed analysis of surface conditions for any production environment.
Using existing data from the customer’s manufacturing environment, its patented algorithms build predictive models that pinpoint performance indicators and inform production efficiency, delivering its analysis in seconds, not weeks that traditional trial-and-error testing requires. The platform is broadly applicable to a wide range of industries from powdered metal industrial components to flooring to medical devices.
“Tevis and his students have given researchers a new perspective on how surfaces interact and how we can improve them. And thanks to recent advances in AI and computational modeling, not only can they see those surfaces, but they can also alter materials at the nanoscale to improve their functionality at lower costs,” noted Brian Gleeson, Harry S. Tack Professor and MEMS Department Chair. “Pitt’s focus on innovation and entrepreneurship allows faculty like Tevis to spin out their ideas into commercial products and also recruit former students as employees.”
For example, Luke Thimons was a PhD student in Jacobs’ lab who took a job with industry after completing his studies. After the formation of Surface Design, Jacobs approached him to join the company. He is now director of customer success where he is the company’s interface with its initial customers to help them implement the platform and bring learning back to the company for refining the user experience. ■
Tevis Jacobs
“ I am extremely excited to spend a full academic year pursuing new research directions in soft tissue biomechanics...”
ANNE ROBERTSON SELECTED AS 2024-2025 HARVARD RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE FELLOW
A yearlong Radcliffe fellowship provides the rare opportunity to intensely pursue ambitious projects in the unique environment of the Institute. Each fellowship class is drawn from some of the most thoughtful and exciting contemporary scholars in the humanities, science, social sciences, and arts – along with writers, journalists, playwrights, and other distinguished professionals. For this year’s historic 25th anniversary class, Radcliffe accepted just 3.3 percent of applicants.
Anne Robertson, Distinguished Service Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, will delve into fundamental inquiries concerning the mechanical functions of various vascular calcification phenotypes and explore how this understanding can enhance medical approaches to diseases that affect brain arteries.
This year’s Radcliffe fellows will be part of a unique disciplinary and creative community that will step away from routines to tackle projects that they have long wished to move forward. Throughout the academic year, fellows convene regularly to share their work in progress with the community and public. With access to Harvard’s unparalleled resources, Radcliffe fellows develop new tools and methods, challenge artistic and scholarly conventions, and illuminate past, present, and future. Alumni are quick to say it was the best year of their career.
“This program provides a unique opportunity to immerse myself in a vibrant community of scholars with diverse expertise that extends beyond engineering,” Robertson said. “It’s an opportunity I never previously imagined would be possible. I am extremely excited to spend a full academic year pursuing new research directions in soft tissue biomechanics, including collaborations with scientific leaders at Harvard, such as Elena Aikawa, co-director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
“I am deeply grateful for the support from the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, my department and the Swanson School of Engineering for making this possible.” ■
Anne Robertson
NOTEWORTHY STUDENTS
DEVELOPING LIFE-SAVING RESEARCH IN KENYA
Yiqi Tian, a PhD student in the Department of Industrial Engineering, received the “Doing Good with Operations Research” INFORMS award for her research that aims to address the life-threatening blood shortage in Kenya. The INFORMS award celebrates student research and practice that has societal impact and features work that partners with public and private organizations to yield tangible and beneficial outcomes for individuals, communities and organizations.
Tian and her team, Professors Bopaya Bidanda, Jay Rajgopal, and her advisor Bo Zeng, along with faculty from Medicine, Surgery, and other social scientists) developed an integrated analytical toolset for the PITS-Kenya study, a sub-project of BloodSafe, paving the way for innovative advancements in Kenya’s blood transfusion systems. This includes the first comprehensive process map of Kenya’s blood system,
a large-scale digital twin using discrete event simulation and interactive blood drive planning tools.
These innovations are streamlining local blood bank operations, supporting the clinical trial in local hospitals, impacting 30,000 patients, and aiming to increase the national blood supply coverage from 30 percent to 50 percent. The tools are designed to be practical and scalable, providing a framework for regional adaptation.
“By developing solutions that are both practical and advanced, we’re not just aiming to improve healthcare delivery – we, the entire PITS-Kenya team, are truly committed to saving lives,” said Tian. “I’m proud that this recognition highlights the practical, hands-on approach we’ve taken, grounded in extensive fieldwork to ensure we fully grasp the complexities of the problems we’re solving.” ■
30% to 50% BLOOD SUPPLY COVERAGE INCREASE
Jay Rajgopal
Yiqi Tian Bopaya Bidanda
Bo Zeng
“ Every experience taught me something different, which led me to where I am now, but there’s that cyclical need for mentorship.”
THE NON-LINEAR PATH TO ENGINEERING SUCCESS
Maurice Sturdivant never worried about being pigeonholed when he chose to become an engineer.
But he realized early on that he needed to figure out what path was best for him: academia or industry.
“In Pittsburgh alone, there are several opportunities for research and internships,” said Sturdivant, who just completed his master’s thesis for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “I knew early on that I had to explore as many options as I could to really find where I’d fit.”
In his very first days as a first-year student he turned to Pitt EXCEL, a program focused on the retention and
support of underrepresented engineering students, for answers.
“Maurice is never above learning more,” said Yvette Moore, Director of Pitt’s EXCEL and Equity and Inclusion for Undergraduate Strategic Initiatives.
“When I first met him, he was the type of scholar that wanted to take advantage of every opportunity in front of him.”
His path is, intentionally, never linear.
A Fresh Start at Pitt
When Sturdivant first met Brandon Grainger, associate professor and Eaton Faculty Fellow of electrical and computer engineering, through Pitt EXCEL’s Summer Research Internship (SRI) program, he
didn’t know how to solder or design circuit boards – necessities in the electrical engineer’s skillset. That’s standard for an engineer. What isn’t standard is learning how to do it in a student’s first year.
The SRI program looked promising to Sturdivant because of its ability to help him develop these skills, which he would apply in co-ops and internships outside of Pitt.
“I wanted to gain experience outside the classroom as soon as I could,” Sturdivant said.
Trying to always be one step ahead, it was a no-brainer for Sturdivant to enroll. Scholars in SRI are assigned to faculty
Maurice Sturdivant
mentors who lead research teams and complete a research project in their field of engineering. Sturdivant reached out to Grainger to be his mentor for not only his work in power electronics, but because of his approachability and willingness to mentor first-year engineering students.
Grainger and Sturdivant started from scratch, spending at least 30 hours together a week in Grainger’s Electric Power Technologies Lab. He studied a Texas Instruments reference design for USB Type-C chargers and learned to use circuit simulation and PCB design tools to understand the engineering research and design process.
“Professor Grainger used that summer to teach me the fundamentals of the engineering design process,” Sturdivant said. “Because of his approach to the program, the things I learned routinely came up again throughout my time at Pitt as both an undergraduate and graduate student.”
Grainger continued to mentor Sturdivant well after the completion of the SRI program, including undergraduate course selections, choosing companies to work for through the CO-OP program or summer internships, and finally overseeing his research work up to his defense.
“It was natural that Maurice stayed involved with me,” Grainger said. “We were always asking, What was the next step? What part of electrical engineering would scratch that itch for him? We continued that journey for over six years and were able to sharpen his skills a little more each year.”
As the mentorship continued and Sturdivant built his skills, he was now a two-time recipient of a scholarship from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) Power and Energy Society (PES), further funding his explorations.
A Future of First Days
Sturdivant continued to take power electives through his time as an undergraduate.
Through his various internships at Ford Motor Company and GE Power Conversion, his enthusiasm about the field grew.
“There’s always a first day for something,” Sturdivant said. “I always went into each position with an open mind to learn about the opportunities for growth. That’s why mentorship is so important. You don’t always know what possibilities there are until you meet new people and build relationships.”
He realized that he still wanted to learn more about electric power engineering and research. He stayed at Pitt for his graduate studies to pursue that interest.
Grainger, with colleague Paul Ohodnicki, recruited Sturdivant to continue work in his lab and the Advanced Magnetics for Power and Energy Development (AMPED) Consortium. Ohodnicki is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and collaborates with Grainger on advancing power and energy technologies. This is when Sturdivant focused on modeling and experimentally measuring specific power losses in inductors – critical components to power electronic systems.
“Several factors can increase losses in an inductor, causing them to perform worse than expected,” Sturdivant explained. “I studied the impact of air gaps, a standard inductor design feature, on the power loss in their magnetic cores.”
By using his findings and software tools, Sturdivant was able to optimize inductor designs to identify which magnetic core materials could provide the best balance between mass and power loss for a given application.
“These metrics are important because increasingly efficient and compact devices are needed to support the development of electric vehicles.”
Now that his thesis is done, Sturdivant is closing his chapter in research – for now.
What’s Next for Sturdivant?
He recently started with Eaton in its Cherrington facility for the first year of his leadership development program. He plans on learning more about the ways that power electronic technology supports power conversion, circuit protection and the overall energy transition through Eaton and its Leadership Development Program. In the future, he hopes to focus on integrating more novel power electronics with existing technology so it can make a positive impact while also being safe and reliable.
He wouldn’t be at this point if it wasn’t for the mentorship he actively sought out along the way.
Sturdivant said, “It’s important for students and professionals to share what they know and make themselves a resource. It’s easy to think that you don’t know enough or that you’re too young to be a ‘mentor,’ but your experience and advice is still valuable to someone else.” ■
Brandon Grainger
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI
SWANSON SCHOOL RECOGNIZES TRACEY T. TRAVIS AS ITS 2024 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNA
Tracey T. Travis has been Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Estée Lauder Companies since August 2012, with responsibilities for Global Finance, Accounting, Investor Relations, Information Technology, and Strategy and New Business Development. Ms. Travis also co-leads the company’s major cost savings and process improvement initiatives. Previously, Travis was Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Ralph Lauren Corporation, with responsibilities for Global Finance, Accounting, Tax and Treasury, and Business Development, as well as Investor Relations and Information Technology. In both roles, she has successfully led and supported multiple acquisitions, the development of enhanced capital structures and shareholder returns, and technology transformations.
Travis received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA in Finance and Operations Management from Columbia University.
Previously, Travis was with Limited Brands in Columbus, Ohio, as Chief Financial Officer of Intimate Brands Inc. and as Senior Vice President of Finance for Limited Brands (2001-2004); Chief Financial Officer of the Americas Group of American National Can (1999-2001); and various management positions at PepsiCo/Pepsi Bottling Group (1989-1999).
Travis currently serves as a director on the Board of Accenture PLC and the Board of Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly, Facebook), and previously served on the Boards of Campbell Soup Company (2011-2017) and Jo-Ann Stores Inc. (2003-2011) where she also chaired the Audit Committee. She is a member of the Board of Overseers for Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, and recently served as a trustee on the Board of the University of Pittsburgh. In addition, she serves as a director on the Board of Lincoln Center Theater in New York the Board of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2019, Travis became a member of the Economic Club of New York.
Travis was recognized in 2005 by Treasury and Risk magazine as one of the “Top 25 Women in Finance,” and in 2012 as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance.” In 2008, she was granted the Best CFO award by Institutional Investor magazine. She has been named one of the “Top 100 African Americans in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise magazine, and in 2019, she was included on the publication’s list of “The Most Powerful Women in Corporate America.” In 2011, Travis was asked to serve as an inaugural member of the Wall Street Journal’s CFO Forum. In 2016, she received Legal Momentum’s Aiming High Award, and in 2019, she was honored with an Achiever Award by Cosmetic Executive Women.
Tracey T. Travis, BSIE ’83
AWARDS & HONORS
Bioengineering
Kurt Beschorner, Associate Professor: Provost’s Award for Diversity in the Curriculum
Harvey Borovetz, Distinguished Professor: Inaugural Vishnu H Ingle Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs
Tamer Ibrahim, Professor: American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows
Arash Mahboobin, Associate Professor: Swanson School Outstanding Educator Award
David Vorp, Senior Associate Dean for Research & Facilities and John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering: Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Academic Leaders Network Cohort
William Wagner, Distinguished Professor: Marlin Mickle Outstanding Innovator Award
Savio L-Y. Woo, Distinguished Professor Emeritus: Inaugural Fellow of the Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering
Ionnis Zervantonakis, Assistant Professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow: ASME Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering Award; Biomedical Engineering Society Cell and Molecular Bioengineering Rising Star Junior Faculty Award
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Prashant Kumta, Distinguished Professor: National Academy of Inventors
Steven Little, Distinguished Professor and Department Chair: American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Fellow; Bevier Endowed Chair
Giannis Mpourmpakis, Associate Professor and Bicentennial Alumni Faculty Fellow: Provost’s Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Amir Alavi, Associate Professor and B.P. America Faculty Fellow: ASME Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering Award
Carla Ng, Associate Professor: Appointed to Environmental Protection Agency Advisory Board
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Brandon Grainger, Associate Professor and Eaton Faculty Fellow: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Outstanding Engineering Educator Award
Jingtong Hu, Associate Professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow: Design Automation Conference Under-50 Innovators Award; Humboldt Research Fellowship, Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation
continued on page 28
AWARDS AND HONORS...
continued from page 27
Industrial Engineering
Bopaya Bidanda, Ernest Roth Professor: Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering Lillian Gilbreth Award; Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Industrial Engineering Award; IISE Best New Paper
Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Peyman Givi, Distinguished Professor: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Dryden Lectureship in Research; Royal Academy of Engineering, Spain
Brian Gleeson, Department Chair and Harry S. Tack Chaired Professor: Materials Science & Technology Career Symposium
Qihan Liu, Assistant Professor: ASME Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering Award
Paul Ohodnicki, Associate Professor and RK Mellon Faculty Fellow in Energy (with National Energy Technology Laboratory): R&D 100 Award
Anne Robertson, Distinguished Service Professor: Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Xiayun Zhao, Assistant Professor: ASME Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering Award
Staff
Brandon Barber, bioengineering design, innovation, and outreach coordinator: Chancellor’s Award for Staff Excellence
Yvette Moore, MS, Pitt EXCEL Director: New Pittsburgh Courier’s 2024 Women of Excellence Award
Students
BIOENGINEERING
Peter Gueldner: American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship
Taylor Hobbs: Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship
Benjamin Leslie: American Society of Engineering
Education Cooperative & Experiential Education Division 2024 Student of the Year; University of Pittsburgh Big Idea Competition Grand Prize (with Rohit Mantena, DSA&S); University of Pittsburgh Emma W. Locke Award
Meagan Mularczyk: National Institutes of Health F31 Fellowship
Zachary Miller: Dick Thornburgh Forum Disability Service Award
Alireza Mohammadzadeh: University of Pittsburgh Graduate and Professional Student Government Leadership and Service Award
CHEMICAL AND PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
Vidhya Thiyagarajan: Society of Women Engineers Collegiate Director
CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
Percy Curtis: George Washington Prize
ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
Eta Kappa Nu: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Outstanding Chapter
Ryan Caginalp: Code-A-Chip Travel Grant
Lucas Cornell: Swanson School Co-op Student of the Year
Ehab Hamed: IEEE SSCE Student Travel Grant Award
Sabrina Helbig: Epistimi-ACG-LUCE Summer Leadership Workshop for Women in Energy
Joshua Lubin: Innomotics Peter Hammond Scholarship
INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
Maya Jain: Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers UPS Scholarship
Yiqi Tian: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences “Doing Good with Operations Research” Award
