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{contents}
FEATURED STORIES
Engineering solutions for a sustainable planet
At Iowa, Cheryl Reuben discovered a passion for solving environmental problems and developed research skills to make a difference.
SECTIONS
winning streak A year of 'yes' A step in the right direction
ISE alum continues driving
Alumni
In memoriam: Adrianus “Adrian” Korpel
In memoriam: Ralph I. Stephens In memoriam
Graduation by the numbers Consider
Welcome from the Dean
Greetings, friends and alumni of Iowa Engineering!
I am excited to bring you this year’s issue of Iowa Engineer!
My first year as dean has been filled with many new experiences. I took part in my first College of Engineering Welcome Fair, where I interacted with our engaged and entrepreneurial students, met with student organizations, and saw firsthand the dedication of our faculty and staff to enhancing the student experience across the college. I have toured our research centers and learned of the ways in which we are transforming the lives of Iowans as well as innovating in ways that will have an impact across the country and around the world. I have met with faculty across all of our academic departments, learning about their cutting-edge research projects and their commitment to creating a dynamic teaching and learning experience. Most importantly, I have seen how this college can come together as a community to recognize and celebrate our achievements and foster the welcoming environment that we value.
As collegiate stakeholders, you have long known about our strengths in environmental health, transportation, healthcare, and intelligent systems. In the pages that follow, you will see our excellence in each of these areas through groundbreaking projects, national and international awards, and hands-on student experiences that position our undergraduate and graduate students to become leaders in each of these areas.
I am also eager to see how our college can address pressing issues in society through engineering innovation and education. We will find new ways to deploy automation to make transportation safer and human-machine interfaces more responsive. We will utilize AI to improve healthcare assessment and delivery and will use systems engineering to make the healthcare system more efficient and responsive. We will develop new materials that can be applied to naval technology in support of industry and government agencies. We will advance our understanding of environmental contaminants to improve quality of life and further sustainable practices.
Our College of Engineering has an exciting future ahead of it. I look forward to spending more time hearing how we have transformed the lives of students, learning about the impact of our distinguished alumni, and listening to the needs of stakeholders who are as invested in this college and its successes as we are.
Thank you for being a part of our engineering family.
Ann McKenna Dean, College of Engineering
Roy J. Carver Professor of Engineering
{research excellence}
A web of opportunities
BME professor Xuan Mu investigates medical and environmental benefits of naturally occurring silks.
In the comics, Spiderman’s web can stop a school bus full of kids from careening off a bridge or sling the masked vigilante between buildings high above the ground. While fictional, a backbone of science exists behind Spidey’s webs.
“Popular culture meets science and engineering,” said Xuan Mu, University of Iowa assistant professor of biomedical engineering. “The possibilities of what we can do with a spider’s web are not just science fiction or a cartoon. It is ambitious but largely based on the depth of our understanding of how a tiny creature processes protein solutions into super-strong materials.”
A spider’s web comes from natural silks that are nearly identical to the materials integral to Mu’s research. Instead of trying to trip up bad guys, Mu is using the natural material to improve medicine.
Upon arriving at Iowa in 2022, Mu set up his laboratory on the first floor of the Seamans Center. The lab has a generous supply of tightly spun pellets of silk harvested from silkworms via the circular sericulture industry, in which silkworms are raised for the production of raw silk. The pellets are liquified into a solution for use in experiments and biofabrication.
Mu and his team are studying the molecular mechanisms of silk proteins to manipulate the macroscopic properties and devise innovative fabrication approaches with monolithic silk feedstocks. Put another way, Mu is trying to mimic the natural silk spinning process that yields incredibly strong, flexible material.
The silk materials, due to their superior compatibility with the human body, are valuable and unique feedstocks for fabricating tissue patches, drug delivery systems, clinical implants, and other biomedical devices.
FACULTY FEATURE
Tightly spun pellets of silk harvested from silkworms are integral to Xuan Mu’s research.
Silks also offer environmental benefits.
“Silks are made entirely of protein, so they are biodegradable, compostable, and edible,” Mu said. “If we can use silks instead of plastics, we can eliminate so much waste and preserve energy and resources on our planet.”
Mu added that, despite substantial progress in past decades, there is still a lot we can learn from the silk spinning found in spiders and silkworms.
The potential benefits of silkspinning inspired biofabrication are endless, even beyond medicine.
—XUAN MU
The incredibly strong, flexible material found in natural silks, such as spider webs, offers untapped potential for medical and environmental benefits.
Xuan Mu
Unraveling eye disease with the help of AI
ECE professor Milan Sonka is on a multidisciplinary team with Carver College of Medicine faculty.
Electrical and computer engineering professor Milan Sonka is part of a multidisciplinary team of University of Iowa engineering and medical scholars working to unravel the underlying biological processes of the "wet" form of age-related macular degeneration, an eye disease that can blur one’s central vision.
Elliott H. Sohn, associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, Sonka, also the Lowell G. Battershell Chair in Biomedical Engineering, and Jon C.D. Houtman, professor of microbiology and immunology, are principal investigators of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. The intent is to find new targets and therapies for this more severe form of macular degeneration, which affects approximately 2 million Americans.
The neovascular or "wet" form of age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD) is caused by blood vessels that leak fluid under the retina, interfering with clear vision in the direct line of sight.
A focal point in the study is matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), a type of enzyme found in the retinal blood supply. A better understanding of MMP9 could unlock clues to how nvAMD forms and why it persists in some people despite treatment.
Sonka will lead a portion of the study in which artificial intelligence, machine learning, and quantitative image analysis are used to analyze optical coherence tomography images in hopes of learning new features and, subsequently, new treatment approaches associated with different severities of genetic risk for patients afflicted with nvAMD.
NIH obligated $540,439 for the first year of the study, which is expected to receive funding of $2.16 million over four years.
Sonka co-edited a new academic medical book called Medical Image Analysis, which is part of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society book series.
Medical imaging is seen as a foundation of many breakthroughs in biomedical science. The book is intended as a graduate textbook as well as a resource for understanding medical image analysis methods and their applications in a variety of healthcare and biology domains.
Analysis of optical coherence tomography images could lead to new features and, subsequently, new treatment approaches for patients afflicted with nvAMD.
Ching-Long Lin has been developing a deep learning model that can evaluate and classify data from lung images.
NIH grant targets long COVID
Ching-Long Lin has been developing a deep learning model that can evaluate and classify data from lung images. >>>
New tools being developed at the University of Iowa could help patients suffering long-term complications in the lungs from COVID-19 with new support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Ching-Long Lin, departmental executive officer and Edward M. Mielnik and Samuel R. Harding Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been developing a deep learning model that can evaluate and classify data from lung images. The information can assist in management and treatment of long-term lung infections in post-COVID patients.
Patients who battled severe respiratory infection because of COVID-19 may experience long-term consequences, such as persistent infection in the lung. The lung is the primary site of viral infection.
The focus of the five-year, $3.6 million NIH grant is to train the model to detect what researchers believe will be a progression of characteristics or biomarkers unique to COVID-19 survivors. The model will mature based on images from chest X-ray, which is more accessible, and computed tomography, which is more accurate.
The study will follow up with patients three to four years after preliminary clinic visits to assess the progression features of their clinical and imaging biomarkers. In addition, computational fluid and particle dynamics techniques will be applied to derive mechanistic biomarkers to explain the efficacy of inhaled drug delivery and the susceptibility to risk factors that might augment disease progression.
Lin is the principal investigator of the research project. Co-investigators include Tianbao Yang, Eric A. Hoffman, and Alejandro Comellas.
“The goal is to create a diagnostic model that hospitals and clinics can use when performing chest X-rays on patients who’ve had COVID-19, so health care providers can make better decisions and improve care for patients dealing with long COVID-related lung infections,” Lin said.
A legacy of driving safety
ISE’s Daniel McGehee prepares students to make an impact.
Grant Wood’s 1935 painting Death on the Ridge Road hangs on the office wall of Daniel McGehee, director of the University of Iowa’s Driving Safety Research Institute (DSRI).
Two cars are traveling on a rural two-lane road, cresting a hill while a large box truck careens toward them. No shoulders, no escape. Telephone poles stand as abstract crucifixes along the road edge while dark clouds gather on the horizon.
“In rural America, there is little room for error,” said McGehee, professor of industrial and systems engineering. “People often think of crashes as accidents, but each crash has six, seven, eight, or more causes. The goal of our research is to eliminate one or two of these factors and lessen the severity and likelihood of a crash and ultimately injuries and fatalities.”
McGehee has been integral to Iowa’s international reputation in driving safety research for over 30 years, expanding knowledge on driver behavior under impairment, distraction, and the effectiveness of new vehicle technologies.
The Washington state native has led DSRI (home of the National Advanced Driving Simulator) since 2016, which is also when he joined the College of Engineering faculty. Prior to that, he directed the Human Factors and Vehicle Safety Research Division at the University of Iowa Public Policy Center.
Alumni of McGehee’s programs have landed across the globe at Apple, Volvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Ohio State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Zach Noonan worked under McGehee designing a software-hardware interface for naturalistic bicycling research. McGehee also advised Noonan’s PhD in industrial and systems engineering focused on social interactions in automated driving.
“As I have moved on in my career and worked with a lot of other PhDs, I realized that along with the skills
Death on the Ridge Road by Grant Wood, 1935.
Daniel McGehee poses in front of several research vehicles outside DSRI’s facility in Coralville, Iowa.
Dan taught me directly, he also allowed me the room I needed to be able to develop big, new ideas—a skill that is not easy to teach to a new researcher,” said Noonan, now a researcher at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics AgeLab in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Emily Shull studied under McGehee as a master’s and PhD candidate. Now an engineer at NHTSA, Shull investigates crash avoidance and advanced driver assistance systems. Shull credited McGehee and other industrial and systems engineering faculty for helping her transition from a “nonengineer” psychology major to conducting engineering research.
“Dan has a way of looking at things from a very high level, which is really helpful when you’re stuck in the weeds of your own research,” Shull said. “I found this particularly valuable when it came to writing my dissertation. It can be tough to look past the numbers and data and really understand the impact of the work as a whole.”
Morgan Price, a 2013 Iowa biomedical engineering major who added two master’s and a PhD to her resume, has worked with McGehee both as a student and after graduating from Iowa. The methodology she learned at Iowa of conducting studies and applying findings to a product remains fundamental to her work.
9 TAKEAWAYS
The ADS for Rural America project was one of the first in the world to test a highly automated vehicle (AV) on rural and gravel roads. The top nine findings included:
Sensors may not “see” far enough to safely turn onto a high-speed road (55+ mph), and stationary objects may hide oncoming traffic from sensor view.
Particulates in the air such as dust clouds or spray from water sprinklers can sometimes be recognized as obstacles.
“All of the significant opportunities that have shaped the early stages of my career are in some way connected to Dan,” said Price, human factors design engineer at Apple. “He is a fantastic connector with an excellent network. Dan’s legacy is so far reaching.” Learn more or access the publicly available data at adsforruralamerica.uiowa.edu
Automation doesn't slow down or adapt to weather/environmental conditions or to blind hills and curves.
When the AV comes to a stop, it can creep and be slow to start.
The AV cannot go into an oncoming lane of travel, so it cannot pass farm equipment or other slow-moving vehicles on a two-lane road.
Horse and buggies are categorized as standard vehicles, so the automation doesn't adjust as most humans would when driving by them.
Pedestrian categorization is not always accurate.
For vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, cellular signal loss can be an issue, especially in remote areas.
Gravel roads are often not wide enough for two standard lanes of travel. Programming the AV to drive closer to the center of a gravel road and then nudging it to the right when needed is difficult behavior to mimic.
Time magazine’s invention of the year
Jun Wang, the James E. Ashton Professor of Engineering, contributed to a project that Time magazine named one of its best inventions of 2023.
Wang, also a professor and departmental executive officer of chemical and biochemical engineering, is Iowa’s lead investigator on NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO). The space instrument hovering 22,000 miles above North America is expected to help scientists understand the sources of pollution by revolutionizing how real-time air quality data is collected.
Wang is developing a novel algorithm for TEMPO to map how smoke particles from fires are distributed in the atmosphere. Time noted the invention as a breakthrough in real-time air quality info.
Also in 2024, Wang was one of six Iowa faculty members to be honored with a Regents Award for Faculty Excellence for extraordinary contributions and a sustained record of excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service. In addition, Iowa’s vice president for research recognized Wang as the 2024 Scholar of the Year, celebrating nationally recognized achievement in research, scholarship, and/or creative activities.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA's TEMPO launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on April 7, 2023. (NASA)
Philanthropy boosts research
An environmental biotechnology firm is innovating how philanthropy can support University of Iowa research in hopes of creating a business case for diverting waste from the landfill and converting it into energy.
Idaho-based Valkyrie Analytics has pledged $1.5 million to the Bioenergy Innovation Fund to support the research of Craig Just, the Donald E. Bently Professor in Engineering and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Just, who says that waste is just a misplaced resource, leads Iowa’s Wastewater and Waste to Energy Research program, which will benefit from the funds. The goal is a scalable approach to turning animal biproducts and food waste into renewable energy, a breakthrough that could reduce carbon footprints worldwide.
"This collaborative agreement will further our efforts for a better, cleaner future where we can measure by the ton the impact we have on the carbon mitigation efforts, moving from a theoretical calculation model to more real-time monitoring supported by real-time analytics,” said Will Charlton, president of Digester Doc, the primary shareholder of Valkyrie Analytics.
Collecting wildfire data from the sky
University of Iowa engineering students, supported by staff at the Operator Performance Laboratory (OPL), took to the Georgia sky to capture data that could enhance the ability to remotely detect wildfires.
NightHawk, an instrument developed at Iowa, was the catalyst for the research. The low-light imaging sensor is designed to collect nighttime ground data via four 2D imagers with primarily visible wavelengths, including red, blue, green, and near infrared channels.
Steve Tammes and Will Julstrom, graduate students studying chemical and biochemical engineering, conducted the research at Fort Stewart, a United States Army post in Georgia.
OPL members Randall “Tarzan” Marzen, Spenser “Savage” McIntyre, and Todd Gibbs provided air support in OPL’s Beechcraft A36 Bonanza, on which NightHawk was mounted to gather data.
An example of an anaerobic digester in Middlebury, Indiana.
The NightHawk instrument was mounted inside the Operator Performance Lab’s Beechcraft A36 Bonanza so Iowa engineering researchers could collect data about wildfires.
{college news}
Raghavan named associate dean for graduate education
Suresh M.L. Raghavan, professor of biomedical engineering, was appointed as associate dean for graduate education, a newly created position.
Raghavan has twice served as the director of graduate studies for the Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering. An expert in cardiovascular and pulmonary biomechanics, critical care devices, and biomaterials, Raghavan has mentored 14 PhD students, nine postdoctoral fellows, and numerous MS and undergraduate student researchers.
He is a past recipient of the President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence. He is well recognized professionally, including being inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and receiving the Fulbright Distinguished Chair Award.
The associate dean for graduate education will provide leadership and administrative oversight for graduate programs, develop and implement new initiatives to grow graduate enrollment, and establish new graduate opportunities such as online master's and graduate certificate programs in engineering.
Suresh M.L. Raghavan
Yong Chen named DEO of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Yong Chen has been appointed as the departmental executive officer (DEO) of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE).
Chen joined the College of Engineering as assistant professor of industrial engineering in 2003 and reached the rank of full professor in 2016.
Chen’s research focuses on data analytics and machine learning for industrial and healthcare applications. He co-authored a book on industrial data analytics published by Wiley and has received several best paper awards.
Chen has been the director of undergraduate studies for industrial engineering for more than 10 years, successfully leading the program’s reaccreditation by ABET during its last two review cycles. He has also received several collegiate and university awards, including the College of Engineering Service Award and the Faculty and Staff Career Impact Award.
Chen has held the role of interim DEO of the ISE department since 2023.
Gary E. Christensen named DEO of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Gary E. Christensen has been appointed as the departmental executive officer (DEO) of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).
Christensen received BS, MS, and DSc degrees in electrical engineering and a BS degree in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Christensen joined the ECE faculty in 1997. He holds the rank of professor and has served as ECE undergraduate coordinator since 2017. He has a joint appointment in the Department of Radiation Oncology.
Christensen has published over 220 scientific papers and is coinventor on four patents. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association. His current research interests include finding better ways to treat lung cancer.
Christensen succeeds Er-Wei Bai, who served as DEO for 10 years.
Jun Wang named DEO of the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Jun Wang has been named the departmental executive officer (DEO) of the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (CBE).
Wang, James E. Ashton Professor of Engineering, joined the College of Engineering in 2016 and holds the rank of professor. He served as interim DEO of CBE since 2022 and is assistant director of the Iowa Technology Institute.
Renowned in the fields of aerosols and remote sensing, Wang had 25 active external grants totaling $10 million in 2022 and 2023 alone. He has been a science team member of 10 NASA satellite missions, including the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO), which Time magazine named a 2023 Invention of the Year.
Wang has received the College of Engineering’s Faculty Excellence Award for Research, the University of Iowa’s Scholar of the Year Award, and the Regents Award for Faculty Excellence.
Without a doubt, our research, and by extension our teaching, will make the world safer.
—ANN MCKENNA
McKenna reflects on first year at Iowa
WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS AFTER YOUR FIRST YEAR AS DEAN?
I have been so impressed with the way this college can come together as a community. Whether we are starting the year off with our annual block party, celebrating achievements at our Excellence Celebration, or gathering for all-college meetings, I have been delighted to see the engagement across our faculty and staff and the mutual respect that characterizes this college. In my conversations with faculty and staff, I have heard about the college’s history of research excellence as well as its long-held commitment to supporting our students not only in classrooms and laboratories but also through their interactions with our local and statewide communities and their participation in student organizations and co-curricular offerings.
Dean Ann McKenna walks past students during the College of Engineering’s commencement ceremony.
HOW DO YOU SEE ENGINEERING IMPACTING SOCIETY IN TERMS OF EDUCATION AND RESEARCH?
Our students graduate from this college not only as skilled engineers; they are also trained to understand the ethics of engineering and its global impact. Engineering innovation does not occur in a vacuum—issues of accessibility, privacy, unintended bias, and professional ethics are interwoven into new technologies and developments. In this way, our education and research are connected because our faculty members and researchers create breakthroughs that make the world safer while they also focus on the societal impact of discovery and innovation. Without a doubt, our research, and by extension our teaching, will make the world safer and will deploy technologies that will transform society, all under the broad notion of engineering for a common good.
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE RESEARCH STRENGTHS OF THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING?
I believe our college has a number of areas that demonstrate our research excellence: environmental health, transportation, healthcare, and intelligent systems. We conceptualize these research strengths broadly, in part because the work of our faculty and researchers is so diverse. In particular, we are uniquely positioned with a robust healthcare campus just a short walk to the other side of the river, which allows our researchers to collaborate with colleagues in medicine, nursing, public health, dentistry, and pharmacy. We have cutting-edge facilities that innovate solutions for automated vehicles, aerospace, hydroscience, and naval technology. Our environmental engineering research is making our world more sustainable and is mitigating the impacts of disasters such as floods. In short, the research underway in our college is improving quality of life for people everywhere.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?
Importantly, we are committed to increasing enrollment in our college, for both undergraduate and graduate students. The total number of students in the college has varied over the last 10 or so years, and we would like to see more students enrolled, especially as a percentage of the overall number of students at the university. Increasing our graduate student population will not only provide more students with access to faculty mentors who are leaders in their fields but will also position our college as a training ground for the next generation of faculty innovators and industry leaders. As our student population grows, we will be able to bring in more funding for the college, which will allow us to enhance facilities, recruit and retain faculty members, and grow our engineering footprint on campus and throughout the state.
Watch video of Dean McKenna and students enjoying the College of Engineering annual welcome fair.
Dean Ann McKenna poses with Herky during the College of Engineering welcome fair at the beginning of the fall 2023 semester.
Celebrating 150 years of civil engineering
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering celebrated its storied history in 2023, marking 150 years of service to students, the profession, and the state of Iowa. The occasion was marked during the 2023 Homecoming Week. Faculty, students, staff, and alumni reconnected with a series of events including an open house, two symposiums, tours of the Water Treatment Plant and Seamans Center, and the unveiling of the new Steel Sculpture outside the Seamans Center.
For the last 150 years, we have taken great pride in molding future engineers and shaping the trajectory of civil engineering. This milestone invites reflection and celebration of our exceptional faculty, staff, and students who have advanced our natural and built environment through the ingenuity of engineering since 1873.
—ALLEN BRADLEY
The Steel Sculpture was installed outside the Seamans Center and revealed for CEE’s 150th anniversary celebration during the fall semester of 2023.
Allen Bradley
150 YEARS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AT IOWA
1873
Course of study in civil engineering approved as a 4-year degree
South Hall, home to civil engineering, burns to the ground.
1901
1896
Course requirements for the 3rd and 4th years include geology, military drill, sanitary engineering, and steam engine.
A tradition begins in which engineering students design, build, and erect a massive Corn Monument on the Pentacrest lawn.
1919
1912
Archibald Alexander, the first engineering graduate to become a member of the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Academy, earns a civil engineering degree.
Floyd Nagler, a professor of hydraulic engineering, founds and directs the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research.
1931
1920
First hydraulics lab constructed, jump-starting a legacy of waterbased research and innovation.
Emma Upham Morgan becomes the first female graduate, receiving a bachelor’s in civil engineering.
1943
1936
The civil engineering program is first accredited by ABET.
The Iowa Flood Center is formed in response to catastrophic flooding events.
CEE faculty play a large role in bringing the center to life.
2008
1998
VC Patel and Subhash Jain start the first International Perspective study abroad course in India.
The graduating class has 84 students, including 46 civil engineering degrees, 17 environmental engineering degrees, 14 Master of Science degrees, and seven PhDs.
2023
2017
The new environmental engineering program is approved and later accredited in 2021.
Faculty achievements
Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering
Kim “Avrama” Blackwell, professor and departmental executive officer of the Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering, was awarded a $2.86 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the correlation between substance abuse and female sex hormones. Blackwell will explore the role of female sex hormones in mechanisms underlying memory storage in a part of the brain involved in substance use disorders.
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Gregory R. Carmichael, Karl Kammermeyer Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, was named to lead a new international initiative of the United Nations World Meteorological Organization called the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch. The effort was established to provide standardized worldwide reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
A research team led by Keri Hornbuckle, UI Distinguished Chair and CEE professor, published findings in Environmental Science & Technology that building materials, particularly glass block windows, used in a Vermont school could pose health risks to the school’s students and staff. The team included Jason Hua, the paper’s first author and a CEE PhD candidate, and Rachel Marek, a research scientist and coauthor.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Er-Wei Bai, ECE professor, received the Automatica Paper Prize honoring outstanding contributions to the theory and practice of control engineering and science. “Sparse system identification for stochastic systems with general observation sequences” was published in Automatica, a leading publication in the field of systems and control.
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Xuan Song, ISE associate professor, has been awarded the highly competitive Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Program award. The award will support research on additive manufacturing of energetic materials, which will aid the design and manufacture of novel energetic materials with superior tailorability and exceptional energetic performance.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Through a new two-year study sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Rachel Vitali, ME assistant professor, plans to modify the teaching approach in the middle two years of an engineering program to see if that helps correct perceptions as well as intentions to persist in the engineering major and workforce.
{art meets science}
Teaching AI with dance
Iowa researcher finds collaborator through YouTube
A noted Indian dancer traveled to the University of Iowa in fall 2023 to help an engineering professor train and test artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to recognize and classify changing features through a classical dance called Bharatanatyam, which originated in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Ananya Sen Gupta, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been working with Subhajit Khush Das, an artist and choreographer from Kolkata, India, on this STEAM effort. STEAM refers to an approach to learning that integrates art into the traditional STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.
Sen Gupta, an expert in pattern recognition for environmental sensing, studies salient information across sensor data collected in dynamic oceanic and space environments. A difficult challenge is to train and
test popular machine learning techniques to discover and learn feature patterns that change dynamically with time-varying environmental conditions. This is where dance can help.
Sen Gupta had watched Das’s YouTube videos and believed his ability to create geometrically accurate and intricate patterns using the human form could teach AI to recognize patterns and shapes in other environments, such as the ocean or space.
For example, AI may struggle to differentiate between a mine buried on the ocean floor, an interesting rock, or marine life that has come to investigate.
“Features morph,” said Sen Gupta, also a faculty affiliate of the Iowa Technology Institute. “They change their shape and can get entangled like dreadlocks. That’s where algorithms of today are not smart enough to detangle the overlapped morphing features, as it is hard
Ananya Sen Gupta, left, and Subhajit Khush Das, right.
to separate features against the interference, non-linear overlaps, and changing environmental conditions. It’s hard to know what they are looking for using conventional training and testing setups. A lot of classical theory falls.”
Sen Gupta uses Das's unique hand gestures (mudras), which resemble smoothly changing geometric features, for their research.
Das began his maiden United States tour working to create a unique geometric data set for use in AI research. Das spent several weeks at Iowa’s campus, where he performed and customized dances that could be recorded and used to train and test the AI.
As part of the visit, Das also copresented with Sen Gupta at the Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy colloquium and to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering advisory board. Sen Gupta jointly presented a paper on the research with Das at OCEANS 2023, a conference sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Oceanic Engineering Society.
To facilitate these research and collaborative activities, where Das was the performing artist and Sen Gupta the scientist, Sen Gupta utilized Iowa Technology Institute departmental funds to cover all trip costs and Das's honorarium. The data analysis portion of Sen Gupta’s research is being sponsored by the Office of Naval Research with expected funding of $300,720 over three years.
The STEAM collaboration between Das and Sen Gupta also enabled other faculty to meet and collaborate with Das. While on campus, Das taught masterclasses in the Iowa Department of Dance and collaborated with Tyler Bell, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, in a virtual reality experiment.
Subhajit Khush Das demonstrates a hand gesture he created to represent the lotus flower, which he incorporates into dance.
Photo by Pratyush Roy Dasgupta
Humanizing water quality issues
Colleges of Engineering and Liberal Arts and Sciences collaborate on NSFsponsored BlueGAP
Artists, writers, and scholars are putting a face on the impacts of nitrogen pollution in waterways and watersheds through a new University of Iowa collaboration between engineering and the arts and humanities.
“This project gives voice and narrative to those impacted,” said David Cwiertny, William D. Ashton Professor of Civil Engineering. “How do we make this real? We bring people to the issues through art, dance, creative writing, papermaking.”
Cwiertny is the Iowa lead on the National Science Foundation (NSF) project called the Blue-Green Action Platform (BlueGAP). The project aims to connect communities across watersheds to address economic and health challenges caused by nitrogen pollution in their water and local environment.
BlueGAP came to life as graduate students from the arts and humanities presented Fluid Impressions: A Water
Quality Exhibition at the Public Space One Close House in Iowa City.
The students used ceramics and choreography, journalism and creative writing, critical cartography, and papermaking and book arts to explore community issues, reflect on the importance of preserving natural resources in places we call home, and gaining insight from personal stories and experiences.
The hope in telling the stories in diverse ways is to provide people with actionable information to become more engaged, said Cwiertny.
Eric Gidal, an English professor, is leading the arts and humanities contributions to the project, which will have a new cohort of graduate students next year. Too often, understanding and solving environmental problems are left to the sciences, but the arts and humanities also should have a critical role in the solutions, Gidal said.
David Cwiertny, left, interacts with guests at Fluid Impressions: A Water Quality Exhibition, a component of the BlueGAP project.
“This is an ideal model of what humanities, sciences, and the arts can do together,” Gidal said. “What we are doing alone is not enough.”
Richard Frailing, a second-year graduate student in the Nonfiction Writing Program originally from Norfolk, Virginia, created the series Flyover Country featuring three “drone essays” that form a triptych—a piece composed or presented in three parts or sections.
Overhead video footage is overlaid with Frailing’s narration and music. In it, Frailing contemplates what constitutes beauty and how choices are made in managing land. Frailing’s perspective comes from interviews with farmers and work at the Iowa State University Extension, where he educated the public about natural resource concerns and wrote about the perspectives of conservation farmers.
“It became apparent that there was a lack of communication between the upstream Midwest and downstream Gulf communities’ nutrient pollution and related water quality concerns,” Frailing said. “BlueGAP, as far as I know, is the clearest example of an academic partnership between opposite ends of the Mississippi watershed.”
Students used ceramics, choreography, journalism, creative writing, critical cartography, papermaking, and book arts to communicate the impact of nitrogen pollution in waterways and watersheds. Their work was on display at Fluid Impressions: A Water Quality Exhibition, a component of the BlueGAP project.
Home is Where the Water Is, created by Clara Reynen, an MA student in Library and Information Sciences.
Hands and Rivers, created by Javier Espinosa, an MFA student in ceramics.
{welcoming spaces}
Pollinators abuzz in new staff garden
More than 100 plants, flowers, shrubs, and grasses native to Johnson County, Iowa, have been sowed.
The Engineering Staff Advisory Council (ESAC) has installed a pollinator garden on the back side of the Seamans Center. The garden was the University of Iowa’s first project as part of the Bee Campus USA initiative, which commits to reduce pesticides, provide educational opportunities for pollinator conservation, and increase native plantings.
Approximately a dozen volunteers, supported by campus arborist Andy Dahl, UI Landscape Services, and the Bee Campus USA committee, sowed more than 100 plants to bring the plot to life. The planting area is approximately 9’ by 18’, and the intent is to expand the footprint in the future. The garden is expected to take a few years to mature.
The garden is made up of plants, flowers, shrubs, and grasses native to Johnson County, Iowa, including at least 20 species.
Plant species include echinacea, purple prairie clover, white wild indigo, rough blazing star, button snakeroot, milkweed, foxglove beard tongue, purple coneflower, smooth blue aster, New Jersey tea shrubs, and several more.
A pollinator garden is an example of pollinator habitat, which consists of a variety of flowering plants to provide food, water, and shelter for monarch butterflies, bees, birds, and other pollinators.
Funding for the garden came from ESAC funds, a UI LiveWell Wellness Grant, and a UI Staff Council grant.
> Bike to Work Week
ESAC partnered with the College of Education’s SoWell Committee to host a “pit stop” breakfast for Bike to Work Week in May. Commuting to work via public transit, biking, walking, and van/carpool can reduce traffic congestion and emissions, ease parking constraints, and provide exercise, fresh air, and mental health benefits. More than 100 commuters attended the event, which was held under the Seamans Center skywalk.
Kristine Roggentien, a staff member in the College of Engineering, prepares a plant for the ground in the ESAC pollinator garden outside the Seamans Center.
Home away from home
Faculty, staff, and students from the College of Engineering, Division of Student Life, and Housing and Dining worked on the project for more than a year
University of Iowa engineering students now have a new space to bring their ideas to life—the Engineering Makerspace is on the lower level of Burge Residence Hall.
Students can collaborate at one of a half dozen workstations in a large open area. Smaller spaces in the back house a wet room, 3D printers, and a textile space. Glass walls are perfect for scribbling down equations and designs, and outlets suspended from the ceiling provide plenty of power.
“Students no longer need to crowd their dorm rooms or make their way back to the Seamans Center to collaborate,” said Clàudia Archer, a biomedical engineering student and president of the Iowa 3D Club. “Having an engineering space closer in proximity to residence halls will incentivize students to more frequently brainstorm and act upon their ideas.”
A team of faculty, staff, and students from the College of Engineering, Division of Student Life, and Housing and Dining worked on the project for more than a year before it opened in October 2023. The design saw 14 iterations before the final concept.
“Students, this is your space," Dean Ann McKenna said during an opening celebration in October 2023. "We want you to be proud of it.”
Nicole Grosland, the college’s associate dean for academic programs, said the space was designed to go beyond a place to imagine, problem-solve, create, and innovate. Grosland envisions the space will build teamwork and communication skills.
"Perhaps most importantly, it is designed to foster a sense of belonging and to build community," Grosland said. Burge is home to the People in Engineering Living Learning Community, so it was a natural choice for the Engineering Makerspace.
With hundreds of students living in rooms on the floors above, the grand staircase in the Burge lobby descends directly to the Engineering Makerspace. Large windows allow a glimpse at the creations occurring inside.
Archer said students will be able use the space to build up from the initial design concept to assembling prototypes. No matter what stage of the project, there are tools easily accessible and ready for use, she said.
Engineering students gather around a work bench in the Makerspace in Burge Residence Hall.
{student success}
Captains of corn
Corn monument design-build offers CEE students a crash course in project management and leadership.
Tyler Mroz and Cody Hall entered the fall 2023 semester with plans to design and construct one of the most visible symbols of the University of Iowa’s annual homecoming festivities—the corn monument.
The civil and environmental engineering undergraduates had just five weeks to pull it off.
“It was a crash course in project management, engineering style,” Mroz said.
Iowa engineering students are believed to have started the corn monument tradition during the 1919 homecoming, and it has continued with some lapses over the years. The towering structure coated with corn kernels serves as a beacon for Hawkeye pride.
The UI chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has assumed the mantle of leading the effort. Former ASCE and corn monument advisor Bill Eichinger, a long-time professor of civil engineering who died in 2023, helped revive the corn monument tradition in 2015 after a hiatus.
Each year’s committee brings their own twist: the Old Capitol, a Kinnick Stadium goal post, the Park Road bridge, and I-O-W-A letters are some past examples.
The 2023 version would take the shape of a large “I” with a machined etching of the Tigerhawk.
Mroz, of Aurora, Illinois, and Hall, of Dallas Center, Iowa, who both graduated in May 2024, quickly discovered the project had a much broader, more complex scope than they realized.
Tasks were numerous and far reaching: design approval, risk management, campus permitting, safety protocol training, budgeting, fundraising, creating a work plan, delegating duties, and construction. The last step was recruiting a couple dozen
Volunteers work to erect the 2023 corn monument on the Pentacrest west lawn.
volunteers to assemble the finished product for all to see on the west lawn of the Pentacrest.
Given the short timeline, planning was critical.
The design had to be straightforward to assemble and detailed so volunteers could operate efficiently. Each build day had to be structured with tasks and necessary materials to keep volunteers engaged.
“Not many engineers design a project and then see things through on the construction side, from start to end,” Hall said. “Creating the design and seeing how it will be executed in the real world was a valuable experience.”
Much credit goes to the corn monument advisors, Rick Fosse and Brandon Barquist, the students said.
Barquist, shop manager at IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering, was a resource for construction, offering guidance on design feasibility and teaching building techniques.
“The accelerated build schedule meant they needed to have weekly materials lists and goals planned while maintaining a decent turnout without burning out the volunteers,” Barquist said. “Overall, they did a great job bringing it all together for a successful design and build.”
Fosse, professor of practice in civil and environmental engineering, provided guidance on the management and regulatory aspects, particularly safety.
“This is a great opportunity to develop their project management skills, which will be valuable to them in their careers as engineers,” Fosse said. “Few of our captains begin with a full appreciation for the effort it takes to assemble a random group of volunteers into multiple productive teams that have all the tools, materials, and direction they need. That is one of the things that makes this a valuable leadership experience.”
The tradition continued with the 2023 installment of the corn monument erected on the Pentacrest west lawn.
ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE PLANET
STUDENT FEATURE
Cheryl Reuben heard her parents discuss the food scarcity prevalent in their home country of India.
Those stories impacted Reuben’s outlook as a child in Eastern Iowa. Her mind opened to precarious environmental issues and the hope that she could become part of the solution.
"In Marion, we draw water from the Jordan aquifer and that water source is depleting,” said Reuben, a University of Iowa chemical and biochemical engineering student who is expected to graduate in May 2025. “It is not sustainable. When you think about it, you can see a lot of issues impacting me and my community.”
Science was not a favorite subject as a young student, but Reuben eventually embraced STEM as her passion for sustainability and the environment grew.
At Iowa, she has worked in and out of the classroom to gain fundamental skills and experiences critical to becoming the difference maker she aspires to be.
At the Atmospheric and Environmental Research Lab, directed by Jun Wang, James E. Ashton Professor of Engineering, Reuben applied Python computer programming skills and machine learning to analyze data measuring air humidity, soil moisture, and soil temperature. Reuben then created predictive models, like weather forecasting but for soil properties, to help farmers manage resources with a goal of reducing erosion and wasted resources.
“She showed excellence in scientific programming with Python as well as excellent working ethics,” Wang said. “She demonstrates the persistence
As a researcher, you learn how to solve problems and then apply them to real-world scenarios.
You learn how to adapt and be flexible. Those are skills I will take with me.
—CHERYL REUBEN
Cheryl Reuben measures ingredients to test a chemical reaction needed for the Chem-E-Car Competition.
Cheryl’s notes
toward making good progress in research, the openness to learn new methods and ideas, as well as the willingness to make changes and accept advice.”
Over the summer of 2023, Reuben interned at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, with a focus on clean hydrogen energy production. Two professors nominated her for a summer 2024 internship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which had awarded Reuben the Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship.
"Cheryl impressed me not only with her politeness but also with her unrestrained enthusiasm for acquiring new knowledge,” said Shaoping Xiao, a mechanical engineering professor who mentored Reuben in machine learning and data analysis and was one of the nominators. “She proved to be a remarkable quick learner, easily mastering complex concepts. Cheryl exhibited qualities of diligence, independence, responsibility, creativity, and productivity as a young researcher.”
Peers have benefited from Reuben’s engagement in clubs, such as the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and Omega Chi Epsilon, the chemical engineering honors society.
One project was prepping for the Chem-E-Car Competition. As the team co-captain, Reuben spent hours in the lab testing chemical reactions that would propel the car closest to a specified distance.
Reuben was featured in Iowa’s Dare to Discover banner campaign, in which student researchers are displayed around downtown Iowa City. She was also featured in several news articles, including a KCRG-TV spotlight for “Introduce Girls to Engineering Day.”
Unexpectedly, research has become a focal point of Reuben’s present and future goals. After graduation, Reuben plans to pursue a PhD and continue as a researcher with a focus on renewable energy sources.
Cheryl Reuben was included in the University of Iowa’s Dare to Discover banner campaign, in which student researchers are displayed around downtown Iowa City. Reuben’s banner hung outside of Pancheros Mexican Grill on Washington Street.
From books to baskets
Addison O'Grady and Taylor McCabe balance engineering and basketball
By Payton Spindler
When a record-breaking 18.7 million people tuned in to watch Iowa play South Carolina in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game in Cleveland, Ohio, University of Iowa engineering student-athletes Addison “Addi” O’Grady and Taylor McCabe were in the middle of the action.
O’Grady, a forward/center, and McCabe, a guard, played important minutes for the Iowa Hawkeyes team that captivated the nation and beyond. The squad won a third consecutive Big Ten Championship, capped a March Madness run with a second straight NCAA finals appearance, and put women's sports on the map like never before.
“It was crazy,” O'Grady recalled. “It's just really hard to wrap my head
McCabe added, “A lot of people wanted to watch Caitlin (Clark), but there were so many more people that fell in love with the idea of our team and all of the joy that we brought to the game. I just hope that it continues to grow, and we keep moving in the right direction.”
O’Grady, a third-year chemical engineering major, and McCabe, a second-year civil engineering major, strived for success on the court, all the while juggling the rigors of being engineering majors. They reflected on their groundbreaking basketball season, tackling homework and tests while traveling from game to game, and managing the spotlight that came with being at the center of the sports landscape.
Taylor McCabe
“It's definitely changed our day-to-day lives,” McCabe said. "It’s really fun to get that recognition, but you also have to be more aware of everything you’re doing. You always want to be an example on the court, but off the court as well.”
O'Grady recalled how much the game has changed in her three years at Iowa. "It’s really cool to see how much it’s grown, even since I first started playing college basketball.”
Despite the pressure to succeed on the court and the extra attention off it, O’Grady and McCabe have not forgotten their roles as students. That often meant doing homework “on the bus, on the plane, anytime you can find,” McCabe said.
Coaches, faculty, staff, and classmates have played important roles in their academic success, accommodating their schedules, granting an extension to finish a project, and encouraging them along the way.
While the student-athletes are eager to get back on the court, they are also looking forward to their futures as engineers. McCabe plans to pursue architecture and structural engineering, hoping to someday design skyscrapers. O'Grady is still exploring the opportunities chemical engineering will create in her future.
“We both enjoy being engineers,” McCabe said. “We wouldn't rather be doing anything else. It might be challenging to balance some days, but there's still plenty of time to be a regular student and enjoy yourself.”
Addison O’Grady
Position: Forward/Center Points: 149
Rebounds: 71
Position: Forward/Center Points: 149
Rebounds: 71
Hometown: Aurora, Colorado
Hometown: Aurora, Colorado
Major: Chemical Engineering Year: Junior
Major: Chemical Engineering Year: Junior
Taylor McCabe
Position: Guard Points: 110
Position: Guard Points: 110
Rebounds: 23
Hometown: Fremont, Nebraska
Rebounds: 23
Hometown: Fremont, Nebraska
Major: Civil Engineering Year: Sophomore player info
Major: Civil Engineering Year: Sophomore
Addison O’Grady
PhD student balances academics and family life
Prarthana Parepalli planned to present her dissertation a month ahead of the anticipated arrival of her second child. Mother Nature had other ideas.
Prarthana Parepalli spent nearly seven years working as a computational fluid dynamics engineer with Ford Motor Company before starting the University of Iowa’s PhD program in mechanical engineering.
She moved to Iowa City in 2018 when her husband, Sajan Goud Lingala, accepted a faculty position in biomedical engineering and radiology, and she found the opportunity to continue her education at Iowa too good to pass up.
“I always had a passion for physics, and the reason I chose mechanical engineering is my inclination toward aerodynamics,” said Parepalli, who earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan–Dearborn before working at Ford. “When I came to Iowa, I was really impressed with the variety of research that is done here, especially in my discipline, and also the specialized coursework available.”
Although reacclimating to academic life—one punctuated by two pregnancies and a pandemic— wasn’t easy, Parepalli said the support she received at Iowa allowed her to advance her knowledge while also starting a family. In fact, she gave birth just days after successfully defending her dissertation.
Prarthana Parepalli gave birth twice—once just three days after successfully defending her dissertation.
WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA?
I admit I had reservations coming to Iowa City, especially because I had lived in bigger cities like Detroit, Michigan. But after coming here I was really surprised by how close-knit the community is. Everything is so accessible, including excellent health care. I am very fortunate to have delivered both my children at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics— the doctors and staff there are extremely friendly and knowledgeable. I love the whole university atmosphere and how vibrant it is.
I also found that I had to quickly adapt to classroom life. That first year was tough, I won’t lie. I was in the thick of exams, quizzes, and regular assignments, and it was overwhelming. Fortunately, the faculty were very helpful. With their dedicated office hours, I could approach them with any kinds of questions, and the teaching assistants also helped me through the transition from industry to academia.
WHO WAS YOUR MOST IMPORTANT MENTOR ON CAMPUS?
My advisor, Professor H.S. Udaykumar. Working toward a PhD can get stressful, and his unique style of mentorship really helped me navigate the journey. He is an inspiration. His constant feedback ensured continuity in my research. I particularly appreciate the high standards he always set for technical writing and presentations, and his strong support during my last few months was crucial for me to graduate on time.
TALK ABOUT THE CHALLENGES YOU FACED AT IOWA AND HOW YOU OVERCAME THEM.
During these past five and a half years here, I had my two kids. My first child is now four years old, and my second one is one month old. Navigating the coursework and academic research while tending to my first kid was challenging, particularly balancing childcare duties and the lack of childcare during COVID. I was being exposed to several exciting new research areas that required me to invest dedicated time and there was a steep learning curve, but the excellent support I received from my lab colleagues calmed my nerves. I don’t know if it was a coincidence, but at that time I took a course called Communicating Data through Stories with Professor Michelle Scherer. It helped me become an effective speaker, especially in communicating my research to a lay audience, and that gave me confidence.
The final seven months of my PhD were the most intense. I was pregnant with my second baby and tending to a super energetic toddler, while also ramping up my research to complete my dissertation before the delivery. Professor Udaykumar helped me put together a solid dissertation, “Multiscale Modeling of Heterogeneous Energetic Materials,” and we came up with a realistic plan of defending it one month before my due date. I enjoyed presenting my work during the final thesis defense, but it was physically challenging, and I sensed something was wrong.
Three days later I learned there were complications in my pregnancy and had to have an emergency delivery, but thanks to all the knowledgeable and caring providers at UI Hospitals & Clinics, I was fortunate to have a healthy baby and—with some recovery—a healthy me.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?
I plan to continue in academia. I am currently on a maternity break, but I am applying for an exciting postdoctoral position with the National Research Council Research Associateship Programs funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Eglin Air Force Base. This would give me an opportunity to broaden my current expertise in multiscale modeling of reactive materials.
Overall, I learned a lot and increased my skills during my PhD journey, and I am very happy that I was able to come through it without compromising my personal life and tending to my kids. That was only possible with the strong support from my mentor, faculty, colleagues, and the overall Hawkeye community. I am now proud to call myself a Hawkeye grad!
Hometown: Hyderabad, India
Degree: PhD in mechanical engineering
What’s next: Applying for a postdoctoral position with the National Research Council Research Associateship Programs funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory
Year
WINNING STREAK
2020
Winner
Moala Bannavti, CEE
2021
Winner and People’s Choice
Emily Schmitz, CEE
2022
Winner Riley Post, CEE
Engineering students' communications skills shine during four-year run as Iowa’s 3MT champion
>>>
University of Iowa engineering students are rewriting the script to show that one can be an excellent engineer and an excellent communicator.
The Graduate College holds a universitywide Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition for graduate students to communicate complex research clearly and concisely to a non-specialist audience in no more than 180 seconds.
When David Ramotowski, a PhD candidate in civil and environmental engineering, won the competition this fall for his topic, “Unlikely Heroes: Keeping Toxic PCBs Out of Our Air with Bacteria and Biochar,” it was the fourth consecutive victory by a College of Engineering student, all from CEE.
Riley Post, the 2021 winner, attributed the success to CEE’s requirement of four semesters of the Communication Coaching Seminar in addition to the public speaking course required by the college.
“In this seminar students hone their research narratives in a variety of formats and get a lot of direct feedback from multiple instructors,” Post said. “The fact that the past four 3MT winners are products of the CEE system is a testament to how important this course is to the department’s graduate curriculum.”
2023
Winner David Ramotowski, CEE
Hundreds of universities worldwide have embraced the 3MT competition format to enhance presentation, research, and academic communication skills and support the development of research students’ capacity to explain their work effectively.
The exercise helps students gain experience in effectively explaining their research while avoiding overwhelming the listener with jargon, advanced terminology, and too much technical detail.
The University of Queensland, Australia, is credited with launching the 3MT format in 2008.
A year of ‘yes’
BME student packs varied experiences into his college career
Matt McDonnell ran the London Marathon in the spring of 2023 followed by the Berlin Marathon in the fall, marking the second and third on his journey to complete the six world majors of marathon running.
The biomedical engineering and cinema dual major caught the long-distance running bug when he joined a friend for the October 2022 Chicago Marathon. Advertisements for the “Six Star Medal”—the prize for running the marathons in Chicago, New York City, Boston, Berlin, Tokyo, and London—appeared during the last few miles of the race and captured his imagination.
“I like to travel, and realized I could be one of the youngest—if not the youngest—ever to complete all six majors,” he said, noting he intends to wrap up the circuit with the Tokyo Marathon in spring of 2025.
Impressive as it sounds, the marathons—three in less than twelve months—were only the third biggest accomplishment of the year for the aspiring doctor.
The internship at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, was at the top of his list. There he worked in an exercise physiology lab, helping astronauts stay fit in space. Number two was serving as the executive director of the University of Iowa Homecoming Council, which organizes the week of festivities capped by the Homecoming Parade.
McDonnell has kept a packed schedule.
When not in class, studying, running, completing internships, or coordinating one of campus’s largest annual events, the pre-med student has been working at University of Iowa Health Care as an operating room nursing assistant, is on the broadcast production team for University of Iowa Athletics, and has served as a resident assistant for University Housing and Dining.
Given his varied interests, it is no surprise that McDonnell wants to blend as many of those as possible into his professional journey. His career ambition is to become a space flight crew surgeon for NASA.
McDonnell’s approach to college life has been to get involved, be spontaneous and flexible, and say “yes.” These opportunities do not come along every day, he said, and it has worked for him so far.
“I have my plan, and I don’t want to demolish that, but the plan isn’t everything,” McDonnell said. “If I’m not saying ‘yes,’ then I’m not doing everything I can to get the most out of college. College is a unique experience that you only have once. You have to squeeze every last ounce out of it that you can.”
Matt McDonnell worked at an exercise physiology lab, researching how to keep astronauts fit in space during an internship at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Matt McDonnell sits atop an “Iowa” decoration as he poses with the University of Iowa Homecoming Council.
A step in the right direction
BME students patent senior design invention and launch company.
A four-person biomedical engineering senior design team laid the groundwork for commercializing a novel prosthetic device for the lower leg that can adjust as children grow. The adaptable below-the-knee pediatric prosthesis showed enough promise that the students filed for a provisional patent and formed a limited liability company, GroLimb, LLC.
“We are trying to keep the kids out of the clinic and reduce the cost out of pocket for parents,” Claire Catlett said.
The design was accepted into a competition at the 2024 Design of Medical Device Conference, hosted at the University of Minnesota in April. It won the grand prize, beating out competition from Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, and Duke University, among others.
“We’d been working on this project for a year and didn’t
realize how big of a deal it was,” said Clàudia Archer, who has been passionate about prostheses since the fifth grade.
The team consists of Catlett and Archer, as well as Tushar Mitra and Madelyn Timm. Archer and Mitra plan to pursue graduate degrees after graduation, while Catlett and Timm plan to begin their professional careers.
Ashley Hulshizer of the Limb Lab in Iowa City served as mentor on the project, along with Colleen Bringman, associate professor of instruction in biomedical engineering, and Kristan Worthington, associate professor of biomedical engineering.
The product consists of three separate components: a socket, a pylon, and the foot. Importantly, the components can expand in length and width. Each
Claire Catlett, Clàudia Archer, Madelyn Timm, and Tushar Mitra (left to right)
component is unique in their mechanisms. The fact they work together as an all-encompassing system that parents or guardians can adjust themselves caught the attention of judges and others at the competition.
“This validates the design is something people see potential for and there is a need for it,” Timm said.
In the United States, one in 1,900 babies are born with a congenital limb difference and 2,536 children are generally impacted by lower limb loss each year, according to the team’s research.
Most of the existing adjustable prostheses on the market are designed for adults and not kids. The students’ design could last a year, which would be an improvement over quarterly replacements that can be the reality during a child’s growth spurt.
The students have identified a need for Food and Drug Administration approval to begin clinical trials, a utility patent, additional testing, and to develop a network of clinicians, patients, and companies. This promising invention entails substantial work before the product is to be brought to market, but the team is excited to embark on the journey.
“This project really grew beyond anything we could’ve ever expected. We’re very excited to continue working on this as we branch out from Iowa and gain more experience in our corners of the industry. The hope is that we’ll be able to work bit by bit over the next couple years, before coming back together and really tackling this thing head on,” said Mitra.
look on.
Suresh M.L. Raghavan, left, inspects a prosthetic device invention during a biomedical engineering senior design showcase as Claire Catlett, Madelyn Timm, and Clàudia Archer (left to right)
{always a hawkeye}
Donald R. Doerres II, Elizabeth T. Bernard, Katherine A. Golden, Cara Hull, Keith E. Jasperson, Jason Case, Cassie Lee, Pareen
Honored Alumni Awards
The University of Iowa College of Engineering celebrated the second installment of the Honored Alumni Awards on April 11, 2024. The awards recognize leadership in the profession, service to the college, early career accomplishments, and career achievement. A day full of tours, a Q+A with students, and a senior design showcase were capped with the awards banquet in the evening, at which nine alumni were honored.
Mhatre, Ronald R. Knoche (left to right).
Ronald R. Knoche and Dean Ann McKenna
Ching-Long Lin and Cassie Lee
Alumni Merit Award
Elizabeth T. Bernard BSE, 2000
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Jason Case MS, 1999; BSE, 1998
Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering
Katherine A. Golden BSE, 1991
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Cara Hull BSE, 1992
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Keith E. Jasperson BSE, 1987
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Distinguished Engineering Alumni Academy
Donald R. Doerres II BS, 1973
Alumni Service Award
Ronald R. Knoche BS, 1996
Outstanding Recent Alumni Award
Pareen Mhatre BSE, 2022
Cassie Lee BSE, 2003
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dean Ann McKenna and Pareen Mhatre
Donald R. Doerres II and his wife, Denise
2023 was a year of celebrations for ECE alum
Steve Davis co-founded Bio::Neos with classmates from the College of Engineering
By most measures, Steve Davis had grown successful in the years since graduating from the University of Iowa in 2003. Yet, he still battled imposter syndrome, particularly around bearing a lofty chief executive officer title.
The year of 2023 may have finally put those doubts to rest.
Davis's business Bio::Neos celebrated its 20-year anniversary. He earned the Prometheus Award for CEO of the year from the Technology Association of Iowa. And, the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC) named Davis mentor of the year.
“The awards were very unexpected,” Davis said. “I’ve never been comfortable calling myself CEO, but I think it is time. I think I have to admit I’m running a big enough organization to have a three-letter acronym for a title.”
Bio::Neos, a company that creates custom innovative software tools in healthcare, education, and the life science fields, traces its roots to the classrooms and research laboratories of the College of Engineering.
Davis, a native of Mequon, Wisconsin, came to Iowa to continue competing in gymnastics. He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2001 and earned a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering (ECE) in 2003.
Davis began working with classmates Mike Smith and Brian O’Leary in the Coordinated Laboratory for Computational Genomics led by ECE professor Thomas Casavant. The lab provided bioinformatics tools and data analysis for ophthalmologists in the Carver College of Medicine (CCOM).
“Bioinformatics felt like a cool field that would make a big impact on a lot of things, including how we personalize medicine,” Davis said. “I’m not a lab guy. I’m a software guy. This was a way to have a close connection to people in the lab while contributing to big discoveries and impacts.”
After graduating, the students co-founded Bio::Neos. Smith serves as the chief technology officer and O’Leary eventually moved on. Postdocs from the lab—Todd Scheetz, now a professor at CCOM, and Terry Braun, now a biomedical engineering professor at Iowa—along with Casavant remain scientific advisors.
Davis reflects on lessons that helped at Iowa and the early years of establishing Bio::Neos: persistence, work ethic, innovation, a connection between team culture and success, and leaving the shell if it stood in the way of goals.
"I am looking for ways to keep getting better and keep improving,” Davis said. “That is part of why I am so bullish on our company’s future. But we need to make sure we don’t grow at an unsustainable rate to where we lose culture.”
ISE alum continues driving research at NHTSA
Shull focuses on crash avoidance, advanced driver assistance systems, and other intelligent vehicle technologies
After Emily Shull earned a PhD in industrial and systems engineering, the University of Iowa College of Engineering graduate embarked on a professional career at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
Shull works in the Office of Vehicle Crash Avoidance and Electronics Controls Research as a general engineer. On an interdisciplinary team of scientists, Shull focuses on crash avoidance, advanced driver assistance systems, and other intelligent vehicle technologies. Shull embraced the
beginning of her professional career at NHTSA and is eager to continue to build collaborative relationships along the way.
At Iowa, Shull served as an undergraduate and graduate research assistant at the Driving Safety Research Institute (DSRI). She used her background in psychology (she earned a BA in 2018) to apply a unique perspective of human attention to driving safety research.
“Emily Shull is one of the most dedicated and qualified students I’ve had the pleasure to work with,” said John Gaspar, DSRI director of human factors research. “I have no doubt that Emily will become a leader in science and engineering and contribute substantially to the future of automotive human factors.”
Shull’s primary research interest was understanding how the transition of control can be effectively facilitated from partial automation back to the driver. Shull captured global interest when she presented her research on “The Gap Effect in Shifting Attention in Conditional Automation” at the International Conference on Traffic and Transportation Psychology in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2022.
Shull was awarded the 2023 UTC Student of the Year Award by the DOT at the Council of University Transportation Centers Annual Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C. Shull was also awarded the SAFER-SIM Excellence Award.
Shull offered words of wisdom for other PhD students: “The support you have around you means everything during your PhD studies. I could not have done this without the continued mentorship and guidance I received from everyone at the Driving Safety Research Institute. Go Hawks!”
Alumni news
1993
Vivek Goyal (93BSE) is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
2012
Bryan Fiscus (12BSE) started a new role as vice president of operations for KT Pacer in Marion, IA.
Claudia Welp (12BSE) was promoted to director of operations at Cage Engineering in Illinois.
2015
Yin Yu (15PHD) is an associate professor at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Science.
2016
Randall Berdon Jr. (16BSE, 19MS) is an aero-hydrodynamicist at Maritime Applied Physics Corporation.
2022
Maria Hsieh (22BSE) was promoted to technical project manager at Intel Corporation in Arizona.
2023
Dalen Acton (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Geo Alberico (23BSE) is a continuous improvement specialist at Mars, Inc. in Topeka, KS.
Emily Althof (23BSE) is a manufacturing engineering development program at Pratt and Whitney in East Hartford, CT.
Madelynn Andersen (23BSE) is a rhythmia mapping specialist at Boston Scientific in Omaha, NE.
Maya Argenta (23BSE) is a missionary at Con-Solatio.
Jide Babawale (23BSE) is a reliability engineer at Abbott in Columbus, OH.
Oluwaferanmi Badejo (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Carson Baldes (23BSE) is pursuing a PhD at the University of Iowa.
Alexa Barnes (23BSE) is a process engineer at ADM in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Maxwell Barten (23BSE) is an associate software engineer at Wellmark in Des Moines, IA.
Samuel Baule (23BSE) is pursuing a medical degree at Marian University.
Danielle Bauman (23BSE) is a rotational process engineer at Hydrite Chemical Co. in Waterloo, IA.
Alex Bawek (23BSE) is an environmental engineer at Veenstra & Kimm, Inc. in West Des Moines, IA.
Werner Bayas (23BSE) is a software engineer at Bank of America in Charlotte, NC and is pursuing a Master of Science at Johns Hopkins University.
Andrew Behrens (23BSE) is pursuing a medical degree at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
Prabhav Bhatt (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign.
Audrey Birk (23BSE) is a project engineer at Martin Harris Construction in Reno, NV.
Brooke Bowman (23BSE) is a customer relationship engineer 1 at FCA Packaging in Moline, IL.
Carter Boyenga (23BSE) is a chassis mounting engineer at Dur-A-Lift, Inc. in George, IA.
Abigail Bright (23BSE) is an associate software engineer at Northrop Grumman in Rolling Meadows, IL.
Thomas Bruno (23BSE) is a strategic sourcing analyst at Elevance Health in Chicago, IL.
Jeffrey Buck (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa
Jared Capuano (23BSE) is an office/ field engineer at Kiewit Corporation.
Dalton Carstens (23BSE) is an electrical engineer at Design Engineers in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Gianna Caruso (23BSE) is a Salesforce technology consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP in Chicago, IL.
Christopher Chanath (23BSE) is a refining engineer 1 at Marathon Petroleum in Findlay, OH.
Hannah Chicchelly (23BSE) is a validation engineer at Delta ModTech in Ramsey, MN.
Kyle Christensen (23BSE) is a mechanical engineer at Crystal Group in Hiawatha, IA.
Olivia Coder (23BSE) is a design quality assurance engineering intern at Arthrex in Naples, FL.
Jacob Collogan (23BSE) is a software engineer at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Kusai Contractor (23BSE) is a transportation design engineer at Stanley Consultants in Chicago, IL.
Ryan Cooper (23BSE) is a sales engineer at Johnson Controls in Baltimore, MD.
Jonathan Cordero (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Brittany Cunningham (23BSE) is a water resource engineer in training at Ecosystem and Planning Restoration in Cary, NC.
Matthew Cunningham (23BSE) is a software engineer at ExoAnalytic Solutions in Colorado Springs, CO.
Lucas Dahl (23BSE) is an engineerin-training at Stanley Consultants in Muscatine, IA.
Heribe De Haro (23BSE) is an auxiliary equipment operator at Constellation Energy.
Marie Grace Deli (23BSE) is a technical solution engineer at Epic Systems in Verona, WI, and is pursuing a Master of Science.
Benjamin Denson (23BSE) is an integration team lead for backhoe and front-end loaders and a software product verification and validation team member at John Deere in Dubuque, IA.
Caleb Derrig (23BSE) is a G.Future associate at Gerdau in Wilton, IA.
Ben DeSollar (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Paxten DeVilbiss (23BSE) is a design engineer at E91 in Dubuque, IA.
Cole Dingman (23BSE) is a design engineer at CIVCO in Coralville, IA, and is pursuing a Master of Science.
William Dorian (23BSE) is an associate process engineer at Bridgestone Americas in Aiken, SC.
Madison Drilling (23BSE) is a hardware design engineer at General Motors in Detroit, MI.
Ryan Edwall (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Morgan Ellerman (23BSE) is a supply chain associate at Quaker Oats in Columbia, MO.
Wasil Elsafi (23BSE) is an electrical design engineer at Qorvo in Hiawatha, IA.
John Elwart (23BSE) is an electrical engineer at Milwaukee Tool in Brookfield, WI.
Josemaria Espinoza (23BSE) is a civil analyst at Kimley-Horn in Georgia.
Myles Graciano Evangelista (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Brendan Figus (23BSE) is a mechanical engineer at BP in Whiting, IN.
Kaylee Finnegan (23BSE) is a quality engineer at Civco Radiotherapy in Orange City, IA.
Curt Fitzgerald (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science in computer science and engineering at the University of Iowa.
Olivia Fletcher (23BSE) is at Bishop Engineering in Iowa City, IA.
Alex Ford (23BSE) is a manufacturing engineer at Grace Technologies in Davenport, IA.
Michael Gartlan (23BSE) is an associate engineer at ComEd in Oakbrook, IL.
Reagan Gorman (23BSE) is a civil analyst at Kimley-Horn in Austin, TX.
Alexander Greimann (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Ryan Griffin (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Mario Guerrino (23BSE) is at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, IA.
Madeline Haase (23BSE) is a manufacturing technology engineer at DuPont in Midland, MI.
Drew Hall (23BSE) is a sales engineer – controls at Johnson Controls in Milwaukee, WI.
Joshua Halverson (23BSE) is a supply chain associate at Quaker Oats in Columbia, MO.
Logan Hammond (23BSE) is a project engineer 1 at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Jacob Harrison (23BSE) is a software engineer at John Deere in Chicago, IL.
Dalton Hawe (23BSE) is a manufacturing engineer at Stellar Industries in Garner, IA.
Abby Hayes (23BSE) is a mechanical engineer at Design Engineers in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Ella Hink (23BSE) is an environmental engineer EIT at HDR in Denver, CO.
Benjamin Hinz (23BSE) is a process development engineer at Boston Scientific in Maple Grove, MN.
Zachary Hogan (23BSE) is a software developer at Epic Systems in Verona, WI.
Elizabeth Holbrook (23BSE) is an electrical engineer at Northrop Grumman in San Diego, CA.
Nicholas Hughes (23BSE) is a field engineer at Turner Construction in Des Moines, IA.
William Hutchinson (23BSE) is a manufacturing engineer at Bosch in Charleston, SC.
Ashley Hytrek (23BSE) is a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, VA.
Emily Jansen (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Isaac Johnson (23BSE) is a systems engineer at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Madelyn Johnson (23BSE) is in the engineering track at Syngenta in Greensboro, NC.
William Johnston (23BSE) is an associate in data and digital consulting services at RSM in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Hima Joseph (23BSE) is an integration engineer at Epic Systems in Verona, WI.
Chelsey Julander (23BSE) is a process engineer at Red Star Yeast in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Teddy Kaeppel (23BSE) is an associate engineer at Kirby Building Systems in Portland, TN.
Govind Kannoly (23BSE) is a product development engineer at HNI Workplace Furnishings in Muscatine, IA.
Megan Kelly (23BSE) is a consultant engineer 1 at FM Global in Chicago, IL.
Nicholas Kennedy (23BSE) is a reliability and maintainability systems engineer at Boeing in St. Louis, MO.
Chris Krohe (23BSE) is a manufacturing technology engineer at DuPont in Edina, MN.
Andrew Klinkrodt (23BSE) is a project engineer at Granite Construction in Reno, NV.
Annie Krage (23BSE) is a software engineer at Genova Technologies in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Noah Krchak (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Yajatra Kulkarni (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Jack LaDieu (23BSE) is an engineer 1 at V3 Companies in Woodridge, IA.
Benjamin Lange (23BSE) is a software engineer – IOS developer at State Farm in Bloomington, IL.
Mitchel Larson (23BSE) is an electrical engineer at Constellation Energy in Cordova, IL.
Ben Lepsch (23BSE) is an associate software engineer at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, CO.
Austin Letsch (23BSE) is an implementation consultant at Fast Enterprise in Centennial, CO.
Manuela Lizarazu Bernhardt (23BSE) is a research and development neuroscientist at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, IN.
Shay London (23BSE) is a back-end developer at IBM in Rochester, MN.
Cathryn Lyons (23BSE) is a systems engineer at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Gage MacLin (23BSE) is pursuing a PhD at the University of Iowa.
Casey Marvin (23BSE) is a quality engineer at PMX industries in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Kevin Masterson (23BSE) is with the quality leadership development program at BAE Systems, Inc. in Nashua, NH.
Michelle Matejka (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at Northwestern University Fienberg School of Medicine.
Marissa McFadden (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Peter Mertka (23BSE) is a data analyst at Capital One in McLean, VA.
Micah Miller (23BSE) is an IOT engineer/system administrator at Magna International in Montezuma, IA.
George Miller (23BSE) is a project engineer at United States Gypsum Company in Plaster City, CA.
Smridhi Mittal (23BSE) is an associate district representative at Nalco Water, An Ecolab Company in Naperville, IL.
Dillon Moore (23BSE) is a civil analyst at Kimley-Horn in Plantation, FL.
Sean Moriarty (23BSE) is a civil engineering specialist at STV Inc. in Chicago, IL.
Hadley Mosby (23BSE) is pursuing a PhD at the University of Virginia.
Pamela Moya (23BSE) is a systems engineer at Northrop Grumman in Rolling Meadows, IL.
Jacob Murphy (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Ethan Myers (23BSE) is an assistant civil engineer at Burns and McDonnell in Kansas City, MO.
Jace Myers (23BSE) is a prime rotating engineer at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Jacob Myers (23BSE) is a design engineer at Terex Corporation in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Katelyn Namanny (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at Georgetown University.
Camryn Norton (23BSE) is with the engineering development program at John Deere in Ankeny, IA.
Kyle Novak (23BSE) is a manufacturing engineer at Quality Manufacturing Corporation in Urbandale, IA.
Marie Ohlinger (23BSE) is a project manager at Epic Systems in Madison, WI.
Bergen Olsen (23BSE) is with the engineering development program at Polaris.
Jamilynn Ostrowski (23BSE) is a technical solutions engineer at Epic Systems in Madison, WI.
Valerie Pardo (23BSE) is a water source engineer 1 at Baxter & Woodman Consultants in Chicago, IL.
Kyle Patterson (23BSE) is an engineering intern at Geosyntec Consulting in Wilmington, NC, and is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Imani Patterson (23BSE) is a Generac engineer at Zonatherm in Buffalo Grove, IA.
Emerson Peaslee (23BSE) is a design engineer at ICON engineering in Denver, CO.
Jacob Peterson (23BSE) is a civil design engineer 1 at FM Global in Park Ridge, IL.
Bryanna Popejoy (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Jake Pors (23BSE) is a distribution engineer at Sargent & Lundy in Orlando, FL.
Margaret Praska (23BSE) is a consultant engineer 1 at FM Global in Park Ridge, IL.
Ashley Preston (23BSE) is a technical specialist at Shumaker and Sieffert in Woodbury, MN.
Mason Rahe (23BSE) is an engineer tech at Shive Hattery in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Jordan Ramey (23BSE) is an embedded software engineer at Vermeer in Ames, IA.
Alan Ramierz (23BSE) is an electronics engineer at the Federal Aviation Administration in Des Plaines, IL.
Kiana Elizabeth Resch (23BSE) is a supply chain associate at PepsiCo (Quaker Oats) in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Orlando Reyes (23BSE) is an electrical engineer at Crystal Group in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Austin Rice (23BSE) is a process engineer manager at A to Z Drying Inc. in Osage, IA.
Carson Rice (23BSE) is a mechanical engineer at Cemen Tech Inc. in Indianola, IA.
Noah Robbins (23BSE) is a scheduling analyst at Collins Aerospace in Melbourne, FL.
Andrew Rohret (23BSE) is a civil engineer at Shive-Hattery in Iowa City, IA.
Ricardo Roman (23BSE) is an engineer at John Deere.
Justin Rowe (23BSE) is a supply chain associate at PepsiCo (Quaker Oats) in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Joshua Schmitt (23BSE) is an electromechanical continuous engineer at Schneider Electric in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Elias Scott (23BSE) is a process engineer at Graphic Packaging International in Kalamazoo, MI.
Brandon Seamer (23BSE) is a software engineer at John Deere in Moline, IL.
Ian Silva Trenkle (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Noah Sinclair (23BSE) is pursuing a PhD at the University of Minnesota.
Connor Sindt (23BSE) is a software engineer at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, IA, and is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Jacob Sindt (23BSE) is an RF systems engineer at SpaceX in Los Angeles, CA.
Mason Skidmore (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Justin Spiekermann (23BSE) is a civil engineering consultant at CivilTech in Chicago, IL.
Jake Stansky (23BSE) is a construction engineer at Benesch in Naperville, IL.
Sophia Stribos (23BSE) is an associate structural engineer at Axiom Consultants in Iowa City, IA, and is pursuing a Master of Science.
Nicole Stubbe (23BSE) is a technical solutions engineer at Epic Systems in Verona, WI.
Thomas Subaric (23BSE) is a business analyst at Origami Risk in Chicago, IL.
Matthew Swamberger (23BSE) is a supply chain analyst at PepsiCo (Quaker Oats) in Columbia, MO.
Emma Taylor (23BSE) is a lead software engineer at FarrPro Inc. in Iowa City, IA.
Cole Taylor (23BSE) is a project manager at Gleeson Constructors and Engineers in Sioux City, IA.
Johanna Theeler (23BSE) is pursuing a medical degree at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
Joshua Theodore (23BSE) is an electrical engineer at the Army Corps of Engineers in Rock Island, IL.
Brendan Thomas (23BSE) is a technical solutions engineer at Epic Systems in Madison, WI.
Ryland Threlkeld-Wiegand (23BSE) is a product engineer at Phillips Medisize in Hudson, WI.
Amanda Torres (23BSE) is an industrial engineer at Collins Aerospace in Coralville, IA.
Tiffany Tran (23BSE) is a design engineer at Vermeer in Pella, IA.
Eric Trautsch (23BSE) is an AI operations engineer at Collins Aerospace and is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Rylie Tu (23BSE) is a wind tunnel model design engineer at Boeing in Seattle, WA.
Demir Tuken (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science and medical degree at the University of Iowa.
Jordan Utesch (23BSE) is an assistant engineer at Olsson in South Sioux City, NE.
Katherine Vaiciulis (23BSE) is pursuing a PhD at the University of Iowa.
Cory Vaillancourt (23BSE) is a design engineer at General Kinematics in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Emilie Vaske (23BSE) is pursuing a PhD at the University of Iowa.
Bhavya Vats (23BSE) is pursuing a PhD at the University of Michigan.
Mark Vollmer (23BSE) is a sales engineer 1 at Emerson in Marshalltown, IA.
Anthony Wagner (23BSE) is a process design engineer at CITGO Petroleum Corporation in Lemont, IL.
Michael Wagner (23BSE) is a mechanical design engineer at Axiom Consultants in Iowa City, IA.
Tyler Wahlstrom (23BSE) is a design engineer at M&W Manufacturing in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Max Wascher (23BSE) is a lean engineer at Pentair in Delevan, WI.
Luke Weger (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Wyatt Wenzel (23BSE) is a manufacturing engineer at HNI in Muscatine, IA.
Michael Williams (23BSE) is an engineer 1 at Pactiv Evergreen in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Zachary Williston (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science and PhD at the University of Iowa.
Julia Wizeman (23BSE) is a technical solutions engineer at Epic Systems in Verona, WI.
Joshua Wolf (23BSE) is a mechanical engineer 1 at Syska Hennessy in Chicago, IL.
Emily Wolf (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at Northwestern University.
Thiago Xifra (23BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Maggie Yadlosky (23BSE) is a process development engineer at Boston Scientific in Maple Grove, MN.
Bethany Yert (23BSE) is a process development engineer at MODUS engineering in Waterloo, IA.
Robert Yerushalmi (23BSE) is a water resources/hydraulic engineer at HR Green in McHenry, IL.
Hunter Zieser (23BSE) is an engineering coordinator at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, IA.
Austin Zwaschka (23BSE) is a staff engineer at McClure.
2024
Clàudia Archer (24BSE) is pursuing a degree at the Orthotics and Prosthetics Program at Baylor College of Medicine.
Cole Arduser (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Tyler Armstrong (24BSE) is an electronic instrumentation engineer at Citgo in Downers Grove, IL.
Ethan Banks (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Beau Benzing (24BSE) is a pilot trainee at the United States Air Force in Enid, OK, and pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Daniel Bodin (24BSE) is a software developer at QCI in Des Moines, IA.
Louis Boudreau (24BSE) is a civil engineer in the United States Air Force.
Nyvaeh Bowen (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Ryan Byrd (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Kyler Castro (24BSE) is in the engineering development program at HNI in Muscatine, IA.
Paige Christensen (24BSE) is a quality engineer 1 at Medtronic in Brooklyn Center, MN.
Celesta Cox (24BSE) is an assistant chemical engineer at Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City, MO.
Carson Currie (24BSE) is a leadership development program engineer 1 at Atkore Inc. in Chicago, IL.
Jacob Dagys (24BSE) is an engineer at Julian Electric in Lockport, IL.
Jakob Decker (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Colton DeLanoit (24BSE) is a mechanical engineer at Modus Engineering in Iowa City, IA.
Jatin Dhamrait (24BSE) is pursuing a medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Diego Diaz (24BSE) is a gas transmission electrical engineer at Entrust Solutions in Warrenville, IL.
Nicholas DiPatri (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science and PhD at the University of Iowa.
Olivia Dohm (24BSE) is an assistant chemical engineer at Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City, MO.
Abygale Drexler (24BSE) is a process automation engineer at Experitec in Lenexa, KS.
Evan Felts (24BSE) is a staff engineer at Manhard Consulting in Dallas, TX.
Maximelio Finch (24BSE) is an autonomy software engineer 1 at Hexagon A&P in Morton, IL.
Claire Fluent (24BSE) is a quality engineer 1 at CIVCO Medical Solutions in Kalona, IA.
Jacob Gault (24BSE) is an engineer development program design engineer at John Deere in Waterloo, IA.
Zachary Gilbaugh (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Aden Gomez (24BSE) is an entry level transportation engineer at HR Green in Des Moines, IA.
Alexander Gralczyk (24BSE) is an engineer officer at the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in Fort Drum, NY.
Whitcomb Haefner (24BSE) is an engineer at Kohler in Kohler, WI.
Cody Hall (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Braeden Harrell (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Hunter Hathcox (24BSE) is an engineer 1 at KEDbluestone in Iowa City, IA.
Zachary Heggen (24BSE) is a quality engineer 1 at CIVCO Medical Solutions in Coralville, IA.
Russell Hingst (24BSE) is a division engineer at Grain Processing Corporation in Muscatine, IA.
Nolan Hinrichs (24BSE) is a performance engineer at Basin Electric Power Co-Op in Stanton, ND.
Joseph Hoffman (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Blake Hohmann (24BSE) is pursuing a Juris Doctor at the University of Iowa.
Michael Horstman (24BSE) is an industrial engineer at Titan International in Quincy, Il.
Tate Houser (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Emma Hovey (24BSE) is pursuing a Doctor of Dental Surgery at the University of Iowa.
Sophia Hunzelman (24BSE) is a manufacturing engineer at HNI in Muscatine, IA.
Leonardo Islas (24BSE) is a structural engineer at Stantec in Chicago, IL, and pursuing a Master of Science and MBA.
Alexander Itzenhuiser (24BSE) is a software engineer at Navistar Inc. in Lisle, IL.
Wesley Johnson (24BSE) is an industrial engineer at Crystal Group in Hiawatha, IA.
Eli Johnson (24BSE) is a manufacturing engineer 2 at Trane Technologies in LaCrosse, WI.
Fatima Kammona (24BSE) is an application engineer 1 at Cadence Design Systems in San Jose, CA.
Annabelle Kinerk (24BSE) is in the Genesis rotational program at Siemens in Chicago, IL.
McKenzie Kroll (24BSE) is a manufacturing engineer at John Deere in Ankeny, IA.
Aayush Lamsal (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at Northeastern University.
Madeline Liegois (24BSE) is a water/ wastewater engineer in training at Stanley Consultants in Muscatine, IA. Eleanor Lopez (24BSE) is an assistant chemical engineer at Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City, MO.
Noah Lyon (24BSE) is a transportation engineer in training at Stanley Consultants in Phoenix, AZ.
Luke Maharry (24BSE) is a structural designer at Shive-Hattery in Iowa City, IA, and pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Quinton McArthur (24BSE) is in an industrial engineering rotation at Collins Aerospace in Jamestown, ND.
Hailey McCoy-Munger (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Benjamin McMillan (24BSE) is pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky.
Alan Meyer (24BSE) is an inside sales engineer at Setpoint Mechanical in Johnston, IA.
Drew Miner (24BSE) is a supply chain associate at PepsiCo in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Tushar Mitra (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Minnesota.
Angela Mrksic (24BSE) is a civil analyst at Kimley Horn in Warrenville, IL.
Tyler Mroz (24BSE) is an assistant civil engineer at Burns & McDonnell in Chicago, IL.
Maxwell Murphy (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Applied Professional Studies at the University of North Carolina.
Tanner Naeve (24BSE) is an industrial engineer at Arconic in Bettendorf, IA.
Eric Najar (24BSE) is a field engineer level 1 at Turner Construction Company in Des Moines, IA.
Samuel Nicklaus (24BSE) is a software implementation consultant at Siemens Government Technologies in Milford, OH, and is pursuing a Master of Science.
Olivia Nilsson (24BSE) is a systems engineer at Collins Aerospace in Richardson, TX.
Gannon O’Brien (24BSE) is a manufacturing engineer at Collins Aerospace in Windsor Locks, CT.
John OLeary (24BSE) is an operations engineer and sales support rotational at Convergint in Schaumburg, IL.
Tristan Pawlenty (24BSE) is a software engineer at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Austin Piper (24BSE) is an electrical engineer at Softronics Ltd. in Marion, IA.
Samantha Pothitakis (24BSE) is a product engineering intern at John Deere in Moline, IL, and pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Josiah Power (24BSE) is pursuing a PhD at Johns Hopkins University.
Anthony Prucha (24BSE) is an arthroplasty specialist at Artemis Surgical, Arthrex in Burr Ridge, IL.
George Ralle (24BSE) is a process engineer 1 at Procter & Gamble in Iowa City, IA.
Rafael Rangel de la Tejera (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Jordyn Reents (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Iowa.
Jack Renning (24BSE) is a consultant engineer at FM Global in Chicago, IL.
Ashley Rhodes (24BSE) is pursuing a Master of Science at Duke University.
Kory Rogers (24BSE) is an associate engineer – product development at Caterpillar in Peoria, IL.
Tyler Roy (24BSE) is a project manager at Cedar Valley Steel in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Sushma Santhana (24BSE) is a process development engineer 1 at Boston Scientific in Maple Grove, MN.
Natalie Schneider (24BSE) is in the accelerated leadership development program – purchasing path at Schaeffler Group in Fort Mill, SC.
Brian Schneider (24BSE) is a module industrial engineer at Texas Instruments in Dallas, TX.
Sawyer Schulte (24BSE) is a consultant engineer at FM Global in Park Ridge, IL.
Justin Schumacher (24BSE) is a data analyst at Athene in West Des Moines, IA.
Rose Schweitzer (24BSE) is a bridge program coordinator in the Engineers in Action Bridge Program.
Samuel Seyller (24BSE) is a technical sales engineer at Mi-Jack Products in Homewood, IL.
Emily Shie (24BSE) is a civil engineer at Shive-Hattery in Iowa City, IA.
Braeden Smith (24BSE) is a project engineer at Carl A. Nelson & Co. in Burlington, IA.
Logan Stropich (24BSE) is an industrial engineer at General Motors in Toledo, OH.
Hannah Stuppi (24BSE) is an electrical design engineer at Schneider Electric in Columbia, SC.
Lane Swartzendruber (24BSE) is an associate chemical engineer at Citgo in Downers Grove, IL.
Anna Teeple (24BSE) is a civil engineer intern at Shive-Hattery in Iowa City, IA.
Abigail Temple (24BSE) is in the critical skills recruiting program at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, and pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign.
Dalton Torbert (24BSE) is a production engineer at Primient in Decatur, IL.
Rogelio Valle (24BSE) is a computer engineer at Northrop Grumman in Baltimore, MD, and pursuing a Master of Science at Johns Hopkins University.
James Vranas (24BSE) is pursuing a PhD at the University of Minnesota.
Liam Warren (24BSE) is an engineer –HVAC/mechanical at Sargent and Lundy in Chicago, IL.
Katelyn Weber (24BSE) is a project engineer at cGMP Consulting in Illinois.
Justin Wheeler (24BSE) is a rehabilitation technician at Adapt Health in St. Paul, MN, and pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Minnesota.
Wimar Widiatmo (24BSE) is a transportation engineer at HDR in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Maren Williams (24BSE) is a project engineer at Blackstone Environmental in Overland Park, KS.
Charles Wilmot (24BSE) is a systems engineer – SMART Scholar at United States Space Force in El Segundo, CA, and pursuing a Master of Science and PhD at the University of Virginia.
Emily Woepking (24BSE) is a traveling field engineer at Mortenson Construction.
Evan Wulfekuhle (24BSE) is an engineer at Fehr Graham Engineering in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Paul Zambrano (24BSE) is a field engineer at Robinson Engineering in Frankfort, IL.
Justin Zellinger (24BSE) is an engineer associate at Cargill in Fort Dodge, IA.
Michael Zolna (24BSE) is a project financial analyst at Collins Aerospace.
Adrianus “Adrian” Korpel
Remembering Adrian Korpel 1932-2023
Long-time University of Iowa engineering professor Adrianus “Adrian” Korpel, who earned acclaim for advancing knowledge of the interplay of sound waves and light waves, died at age 91 on October 1, 2023, in Oro Valley, Arizona. Korpel was a beloved teacher and renowned researcher of acousto-optics.
Born on February 18, 1932, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Korpel survived the German bombing of Rotterdam in 1940 during World War II and then lived in foster care for two years. Entering adulthood, Korpel studied electrical engineering, earning a bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
After serving as postmaster general in Melbourne, Australia, Korpel moved to Zenith Radio Corp. in Chicago in 1960, ultimately directing research in engineering physics before his 17-year career there ended in 1977. His 1966 invention, Bragg Diffraction Imaging, created an optical technique for sound field visualization and inspired his PhD thesis in 1969.
“As director of research, you do everything except research,” Korpel would tell his students as he turned to academic life. At Iowa beginning in 1977, Korpel developed broad theories in the field of acousto-optics. His focus expanded to investigate nonlinear waves, experiment with subharmonic generation and selfrefraction in capillary-gravity waves, and explore microscopy and metrology. During his career, Korpel patented nearly 40 inventions and authored more than 120 technical and scientific papers.
Honors were numerous: IEEE Fellow, recognition for “one of the most significant new technical products of the year,” Citizens’ Council of Metropolitan Chicago’s Outstanding New Citizen, Associate Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, and Fellow of the Optical Society of America.
His impact was felt long after former students made their own contributions to the world. Former mentees traveled to Arizona to celebrate his 90th birthday and published a biographical article titled “Adrian Korpel: A Life in Science,” in the December 2022 edition of Optics & Photonics News, a scholarly journal.
“Dr. Korpel was among the rarest of scientists with a genuinely Renaissance man bend,” Monish Chatterjee, a former master’s and PhD student and now professor at the University of Dayton, wrote upon his death. “The window of his mind was wide open to every possible area of human (and humane) interest, even though he was deeply rooted in the queries and discoveries of science, which stimulated him like nothing else.”
Outside the university, Korpel contributed a monthly column called “At Random” to the Iowa City PressCitizen and founded the Kalevala Writers’ Group for poetry and fiction.
Korpel is survived by his third wife, Ann Ellsworth, with whom he became snowbirds in Arizona in retirement. They traveled to Mexico and the Netherlands and participated in bike and barge tours. Korpel’s first wife, Abalone (Loni) Israel, died after nearly 40 years of marriage. His second wife, Patricia Gants, died of cancer not long after they were married. Joost Korpel, his adult son, died in 2013. Other survivors include members of his blended families, including a nephew, stepchildren and their spouses, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Ralph I. Stephens
Remembering Ralph Stephens 1934-2024
Ralph Stephens, a mechanical engineering professor emeritus who was internationally renowned in fatigue and fracture mechanics, died at the age of 89 on May 8, 2024. Stephens left a professional legacy of developing student abilities by creating opportunities for them to experiment. Throughout his career, Stephens would also provide cultural and professional observations as he lectured and taught around the globe, including in the Soviet Union and other communist nations.
Stephens was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 3, 1934. After earning a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Stephens was hired by the University of Iowa. He and wife, Barbara, moved to Iowa City in 1965 with their young children, Susan and Bob. Their third child, Kristen, was born in 1966.
At Iowa, where he would work for 47 years, he helped start the bioengineering program and designed instruments to aid in research performed by bioengineers and medical professionals. Students would recognize they could make worthwhile contributions to mankind and their own training as they applied engineering to medicine, he stated at the time.
Underscoring his commitment to young engineers, he and Barbara donated to the Department of Mechanical Engineering to support the Professor Ralph and Barbara Stephens Experimental Engineering Lab. This led to a new class offering, equipment, and annual funding.
Austin Krebill, a mechanical engineering lecturer, called the lab a critical resource for students and a “space for students to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, preparing students for professional engineering challenges,” and to expand their creativity and deepen their understanding.
“A professor’s major role should be more toward motivating a student rather than one toward giving detailed directions,” Stephens was quoted in a 1970 edition of Automotive Engineering. “More independent training should be incorporated into the undergraduate curricula at all levels.”
Stephens continued to learn and gain understanding through his many undergraduate and graduate students as well as travels, which included Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, West Germany, and the United Kingdom. In a visiting professor’s essay published in 1979 in a Korean newspaper, he stated, “My answer to ‘why Korea?’ is that I felt I could contribute to a developing Korean nation and its people and at the same time expand my own knowledge and experience as a person and as a University Professor.”
Stephens was active in the Society of Automotive Engineers and American Standard for Testing and Materials. He also had many hobbies, including auto racing, which he incorporated into the research and teaching of experimentation, mechanical systems design, independent investigation, and vehicle dynamics and simulation. Above all, he is remembered as a loving husband, father, and grandfather.
In memoriam
1940s
Joseph Trocino (45BSCHE)
1950s
James Andrews (57BSME, 59MS)
James Bear (58BSME)
Edward Diekmann (52BSCE)
C. LeRoy Hansen (56BSME)
Jared Hills (59BSME)
Jack Holmquist (51BSME)
Richard Koll (51BSME)
Verne Lausen (58BSME)
Mark Luttenegger (57BSEE)
John McMillin (57BSEE)
Herbert Morch (56BSEE)
John Newlin (50MS)
Russell Pierson (52BSCHE)
Kenneth Ploen (58BSCE)
John Ruckdaschel (55BSEE)
Frederick Saemisch (51BSCE)
William Schwind (59BSME)
Joseph Sutcliffe (54BSME)
1960s
Bruce Arnold (63MS)
Daryoush Assadi (69MS)
Robert Barry (64BSCE)
P. Michael Boyd (64BSCE, 69MS)
Richard Chrysler (63BSCHE)
Milton Connelly (67BSEE)
Braja Das (67MS)
Terry Fleener (63BSME)
Marvin Frerking (65MS)
Donald Hospodarsky (65BSEE)
Richard Konzen (61BSCE, 64MS, 70PhD)
Elden Molter (60BSME)
John Rice (64MS)
Jerry Sandifer (68MS)
Darvin Schroeder (60BSME)
Eugene Schuchert (63BSME)
M. Duane Snyder (63BSME)
Donald Stouse (60BSCE)
David Topinka (65BSEE)
1970s
William Boyd (70BSCE)
Jon Fussell (76BSCE)
Harold Gehle (72MS)
Daniel Johnson (75BSEE)
Phillip Paul (78MS)
Merrill Peterson (73BSCE, 74MS)
1980s
Michael Arn (86BSE)
David Eicher (80BSEE)
Dean Franzen (81BSME)
Douglas Frederick (85BSE)
Mukunda Kantamneni (85MS)
William Shebetka (88BSE)
Dallas Turley (82BSME)
Robert Ubinas (80BSE)
1990s
Jon Freesmeier (95BSE, 97MS)
Michael Hermann (93MS)
Jennifer (Kraus) Kearney (96BSE)
Steven Kunert (90BSE)
Rebecca (Robertson) Schindler (97CER, 97MS)
2000s
Bridget (Waltz) Sievers (03BSE)
2020s
Mitchell Glazier (22BSE)
Did you know?
The College of Engineering has a young alumni advisory board comprised of members who have graduated from the college within the past 10 years. The Engineering Graduates of the Last Decade (eGOLD) Board connects and engages recent alumni with the college and its students. Members benefit from connecting with current and future alumni, and they provide a young alumni perspective to students who may need support in their future careers.
If you are interested in learning more about eGOLD or would like to join, visit our website and complete the application form.
