A Leader’s Legacy
CELEBRATING SRIHARI’S 15 YEARS AS WATSON
Watson
REVIEW
THOMAS J. WATSON COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE
DEAN
Krishnaswami “Hari” Srihari
SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS AND ADMINISTRATION
Peter J. Partell, MA ’97, PhD ’99
ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES
Meera Sampath
SENIOR ASSISTANT DEAN FOR FINANCE AND HUMAN RESOURCES
Lisa Gallagher ’89, MBA ’92
SENIOR ASSISTANT DEAN FOR STRATEGY AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Elizabeth Kradjian
ASSISTANT DEAN OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
Deborah Howell
ASSISTANT DEAN, ACADEMIC DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE
Carmen Jones
WATSON REVIEW
EDITOR
Chris Kocher
ART DIRECTOR
Burt Myers
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jonathan Cohen
VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING
Greg Delviscio
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE SERVICES
Gerald Hovancik Jr.
COPY EDITORS
Natalie Blando-George
Eric Coker
Scott Sasina
DEAR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS:
H
ow we generate energy and how it gets to our homes and businesses are among the most important issues facing our world today. As climate change continues to alter our environment, we need better and greener ways to power our lives.
Binghamton University is at the forefront of this new energy revolution. Earlier this year, the National Science Foundation designated upstate New York as one of 10 inaugural NSF Regional Innovation Engines. The initiative, which is led by Binghamton University and its New Energy New York (NENY) coalition of partners, will get $15 million for the first two years and up to $160 million over 10 years.
The NSF Engines award builds on a strong foundation established by NENY, which earned the U.S. Economic Development Administration Build Back Better Regional Challenge award in September 2022 and the designation as a federal Battery Tech Hub in October 2023. Binghamton is the only U.S. university to receive all three designations. In less than two years, NENY has aided more than 30 high-tech startups and developed a host of programs to support the growth of the battery and energy storage manufacturing industry. The research and economic benefits only will accelerate in future years.
In this issue of the Watson Review, we look at other smart energy research being conducted at Watson College. Faculty members are investigating innovations from a variety of angles, from electric generation and transmission to optimizing the power grid.
You also will read about how the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) program has connected our faculty and students to small New York state companies for 30 years to solve persistent problems and move technology forward. Binghamton University is an economic driver in the state, and this is one of the programs that contributes to that growth.
We continue to celebrate our outstanding alumni. One with great professional success who continues to give back is Nana Banerjee, PhD ’96. In this issue, he discusses how his company uses artificial intelligence to offer better weather information. Also, we highlight the best senior capstone projects from the 2023–24 academic year. Watson students continue to inspire me every day!
As I wrap up my tenure as dean, I want to thank everyone who has lent their skills and support over the years to the success of Watson, especially our excellent students, faculty, staff, alumni and donors. You have built Watson College into a world-class institution doing important scholarship and research that profoundly influences the next generation of engineers and computer scientists. I am humbled and grateful.
For Watson College and Binghamton University, the best is yet to come!
Krishnaswami “Hari” Srihari
Dean and SUNY distinguished professor
Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science
‘The
Watson team
helped us to move forward’
Srihari reflects on his tenure as dean
By Chris Kocher
Since 2009, Dean and Distinguished Professor Krishnaswami “Hari” Srihari has led Watson College through a period of remarkable growth and unprecedented challenges. ● Srihari stepped down as dean on May 31, and he will return to the Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering faculty in fall 2025. ● Atul Kelkar, most recently the chair of Clemson University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, will start his tenure as dean this summer. (Learn more about him on page 7.)
Earlier this year, Srihari looked back on his time as Watson’s leader.
Q:
What do you see as the college’s biggest achievement during your tenure as the dean?
A:
Watson has an excellent team of superb professionals, staff and faculty all working together for the betterment of our educational mission. Whether it is having impact on a first-year student or a doctoral student or a postdoctoral research associate, everybody in Watson is working toward a better educational environment for our principal customer. While there are always things we can be doing better, we’re always going to be chasing “the rainbow.” Are we better off today than we were 15 years ago? The quantitative metrics and the qualitative outcomes all point in that direction.
Q:
One big challenge during your tenure was the COVID-19 pandemic. How did you and the team keep Watson College on the right track? And what other challenges does Watson face?
A:COVID was an event without precedent in our lifetime. During that time, the Watson team came together and found solutions. There was no playbook for how to deal with COVID or the impact on education. From an online perspective, we had programs and systems in place, but not the quantity of classes that COVID required of us. Watson was able to pivot and offer classes online in spring 2020, and then we got feedback from students so that we did a better job for fall 2020. That shows the resilience and innovative attitude of the Watson team. We relied on each other for support. We banked on each other’s academic knowledge, professional ideas and intellectual capital.
“Are we better off today than we were 15 years ago? The quantitative metrics and the qualitative outcomes all point in that direction.”
— Dean Srihari
Similarly, if you look at our graduate growth, it is not the outcome of one person or two people. Many people in all our departments are working hard at it, from graduate directors and faculty to department chairs and our graduate recruiting team, to the dean, associate and assistant deans all working together with a single-minded mission. How do we enhance the quality of our graduate programs by attracting larger numbers of high-caliber students? How do we bring in a more diverse population?
One thing I’m very happy about is our focus on diversity. We were the first academic unit on campus to have our own director for diversity, equity and inclusive excellence, and the numbers show that we are doing much better in faculty, staff and students than 15 years ago. But diversity is another area where we have a lot more to do.
Those are just a couple of examples. We can talk about research. We can talk about scholarship. All of them show how the strength of the Watson team helped us to move forward.
Q:
How important are the strong ties between Watson and its industrial partners for research and education, and how did you try to build those during your tenure?
A:Watson started 40-plus years ago thanks to the efforts of industry. The name Watson College stands testimony to that. But over the last four decades, the faculty and staff at Watson have developed the ability to work in a unique model with different segments of industry, from the service sector to the hospital sector, from the defense sector to commercial products, from local industry to international industry, working in different regions across the globe.
That’s helped us immensely, because we’re able to bring that knowledge back into the classroom. We can use case studies and practical applications to complement what you can learn from a textbook. It is not just theoretical knowledge, and that puts students in a better position when they enter the job market.
For example, everyone became familiar with supply-chain management during the pandemic when it took us a couple of months to get
something like a washer and dryer. But we have been teaching that at Watson for 25 years.
Q: How important are alumni to Watson’s success?
A:
Our alumni are very, very helpful by giving back to Watson, especially with networking, hiring and mentoring, whether they are local to Broome County, or they’re in Silicon Valley, Singapore or Mumbai. They help not only their colleagues and peers, but also our graduates.
I hope our current students will carry on this tradition of helping others 20 years from now.
Q: Where do you think Watson goes in the next 10 to 20 years in terms of growth or focus? Are we setting a good trajectory now?
A:
The short answer is yes. Watson has the next generation of economic leaders, the next generation of administrative leaders, the next generation of staff leaders, and the generation after that. We have an incredible resource in our people, and I am super-confident that for the next 20 years, the people who are here will ensure that Watson keeps growing as we keep striving for increased excellence.
This search for excellence is never going to stop. We’re never going to say, “Wow, we have climbed Mount Everest and have nowhere else to go.” It’s a pathway to continuous improvement. As technologies change and the landscape evolves, Watson and its people can make the right decisions at every step.
From left, Jeffrey Schake ’96, MS ’98, then-Professor Krishnaswami “Hari” Srihari and Wilhelm Prinz von Hessen, former manager of process support for Universal Instruments Corp.’s Surface Mount Technology Lab.
A record of success
DEAN HARI SRIHARI SPEARHEADED MANY ACCOMPLISHMENTS DURING HIS TENURE. HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS.
■ In 2020, the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science became the THOMAS J. WATSON COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE, reflecting both the considerable growth since it was founded in 1983 as well as a forwardthinking view of what Watson College will be in the future.
■ Watson’s graduate programs climbed to #95 IN THE U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT RANKINGS, with industrial and systems engineering at #47, biomedical engineering at #66 and computer science at #99.
■ The $66 million ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE BUILDING opened at the Innovative Technologies Complex in 2011. State-of-the-art, flexible research lab spaces are included among its 125,000 square feet.
■ THE ENGINEERING BUILDING, CONSTRUCTED IN 1976, RECEIVED A $22 MILLION RENOVATION from 2019 to 2021, updating technology and reorganizing space to accommodate current needs.
■ THE WATSON CAREER AND ALUMNI CONNECTIONS OFFICE, established in 2012, offers employment guidance specifically for engineering and computer science students, as well as fostering close ties with alumni all over the world.
■ WATSON WAS THE FIRST ACADEMIC UNIT ON CAMPUS TO HAVE A CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER, appointing a director of diversity programs and initiatives in 2014 and elevating the position to assistant dean in 2020.
■ With support from corporations and donors as lead sponsors, the WATSON COLLEGE SCHOLARS PROGRAM for economically challenged and underrepresented students was established, enrolling the first cohort in fall 2021.
■ WATSON INDUSTRIAL OUTREACH HAS ADDED 55 MICROCREDENTIALS through the Continuing Education program, delivering market-valued skills to more than 4,000 learners. Also, the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Insurgence (SPIR) celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2024. (See story, page 16.)
■ Fifteen faculty members have been elevated to SUNY DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORS since 2009. More than 10 percent of Watson faculty hold this rank.
■ Since 2009, 22 Watson faculty members have earned prestigious NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION CAREER AWARDS supporting early-career researchers.
■ Thanks to an anonymous donor, WATSON ESTABLISHED ITS FIRST NAMED PROFESSORSHIP — the George Klir Professor in Systems Science. Luis Rocha, PhD ’97, who studied under Klir, was the first appointed to the role in fall 2021.
Praise from the President
“Dean Srihari has been a tremendous teacher, researcher and leader at Binghamton University and Watson College since he arrived here in 1988. In his role as dean, Hari has led an impressive transformation of Watson College, growing its enrollment, increasing research expenditures and adding important diversity programs and initiatives. My deepest thanks and congratulations go to Hari for all his accomplishments, and I wish him the best in his next chapter.” — President Harvey Stenger
Q: What are you going to miss most about being the dean?
Thanks from the Provost
“On behalf of the faculty and staff of Watson College, I would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to Dean Srihari for his many years of excellent service. He has long had a bold vision for the college’s future and his hard work and dedication have made that a reality. I’m also thankful for Hari’s commitment to Watson College’s faculty, staff and students through his mentorship, leadership and friendship to so many over the years. He has left a significant legacy and will be dearly missed.”
A: We have excellent people working on the Watson team, and I’ve had the opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with them. As I transition to the next stage of my professional life, I think that will be the thing I miss the most. We have incredible individuals who work tirelessly each and every day for the betterment of Watson, for the betterment of our academic environment and for the betterment of the campus. They do things that go above and beyond without ever being asked, or without ever expecting to be thanked or congratulated. They’re not looking for kudos, but they keep doing it. That is the caliber of folks that we have here.
— Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Donald Hall
Q: Are you looking forward to transitioning back to a faculty role focused on research, teaching and mentoring?
A: Absolutely. Throughout my tenure as dean, I’ve had the opportunity to work with grad students, although not as much as I would have liked. I also love being in the classroom. It is something that I really want to do once again, because I haven’t taught a class since the fall of 2010. And being a member of the faculty again, serving the campus, serving Watson, serving my home department in a different way and, most importantly, serving our students in a different way — I look forward to that as well.
Dean Hari Srihari helped to oversee the construction of the Engineering and Science Building at the Innovative Technologies Complex, which opened in 2011.
Kelkar named new Watson dean
By Ethan Knox ’20
After a national candidate search, Atul Kelkar was selected as the new dean of Watson College, starting this summer.
“As always, Binghamton University engaged many exceptional candidates,” President Harvey Stenger says, “but Atul’s experience and dedication to his students and his alignment with our mission made him the best choice as we move into the next stage of growth for Watson College.”
“I
look forward to taking the college to new heights by building on the strong foundation that my predecessors have laid before me.”
—
Dean Atul Kelkar
Kelkar comes from Clemson University, where he was the D.W. Reynolds Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. While serving as the program director of the National Science Foundation, he co-led the Dynamics, Control and System Diagnostics program in the CMMI Division of Engineering Directorate. At Iowa State University, he served as founder and chief executive of five technology startups; associate chair for research, industry engagement and entrepreneurship in mechanical engineering; and professor-in-charge for industry research and entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering.
Kelkar received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pune, India, before earning his master’s and doctoral degrees at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. He has a variety of administrative management experience, as well as expertise in research, teaching, mentorship and professional service.
“I am so thrilled to offer Atul my full support as he steps into the role with his expansive management and teaching experience,” Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Donald Hall says. “I am confident that he will be just what we need to take our research and programming to new heights and reach an exciting level of excellence at Watson College and Binghamton University as a whole.”
Kelkar believes in creating a culturally inclusive environment and, thanks to the policies in place, is confident he’ll succeed in achieving this goal.
“I am honored and thrilled to embark on this new journey as the dean under the great leadership of President Stenger and Provost Hall,” Kelkar says. “I look forward to taking the college to new heights by building on the strong foundation that my predecessors have laid before me. I am eager to collaborate with the talented faculty, staff and students, working together to inspire learning, drive innovation, shape a future of academic excellence and foster economic development of the region.”
Weather Man
Nana Banerjee, PhD ’96, leads a company using AI for better forecasting and more
By Ethan Knox ’20
Most people look at their weather app to know if it’s raining or snowing, so being caught off guard can be a pain. Picking activities and outfits can seem impossible: How likely is a storm while I’m out running this afternoon? What activities should we do in Cancun next week? Can my kids go to school tomorrow in summer clothes?
Thanks to Nana Banerjee, PhD ’96, and the team at Pelmorex, the company’s newest app — Your Weather Assistant — could make these challenges a thing of the past.
“If it’s connected to climate or weather in any way, we have an answer,” Banerjee says. “Your Weather Assistant is designed to be the one-stop shop and comprehensive repository of climate information, fully integrated into a proprietary ensemble of Large Language Models, enabling magically useful responses with the power of artificial intelligence. We were the first to use generative AI to do that — no one has caught up yet — and we’re already working on the next generation to make it more valuable and interesting for our users.”
As president and CEO of the weather and data analytics company, Banerjee believes climate is the driver of human industry and activity, influencing everything from the goods people buy and use to their daily schedules. To fill that market need, Your Weather Assistant goes beyond the local forecast of temperature and precipitation to provide personalized wardrobe suggestions, travel recommendations and historical climate information both online and in a handy smartphone app.
Established in 1989, Pelmorex Corp. serves clients around the world. The company also operates the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination System, the backbone of Canada’s public alerting system, delivering potentially lifesaving alerts such as active shooter notifications, extreme weather events and AMBER alerts.
“IF IT’S CONNECTED TO CLIMATE OR WEATHER IN ANY WAY, WE HAVE AN ANSWER. … WE WERE THE FIRST TO USE GENERATIVE AI TO DO THAT — NO ONE HAS CAUGHT UP YET —
AND WE’RE ALREADY WORKING ON THE NEXT GENERATION TO MAKE IT MORE VALUABLE AND INTERESTING FOR OUR USERS.”
An alumnus of Watson College’s systems science program, Banerjee previously led McGraw Hill as CEO, where he felt a responsibility to use his knowledge to make education accessible for learners across the world. At other points in his career, he was a senior advisor to Cerberus Capital Management, served as chairman of Comscore, and was group president and officer at Verisk.
— Nana Banerjee
Recently, he launched the Peggy Slavik Summer Student Internship and Professor Jim Geer Summer Scholarship to give back to the Binghamton University community. Now, he has brought that same dedication to Pelmorex.
“We have a very simple, humble mission: to keep people safe and informed. I think we’re succeeding,” Banerjee says. “Between our alerting business and our focus on technology that makes weather local and gives people personalized, contextualized and customized reports, these technologies allow us to help people, both responsibly and ethically.”
With the motto “Your Weather When It Really Matters,” Pelmorex looks ahead to a world increasingly influenced by climate change and aims to excel at telling the story before, during and after extreme weather events. Through its reconstruction to a more AI-centered company, Pelmorex focuses on built-in privacy measures while also providing users with the most tailored predictions it can offer.
“Using our app is like having a supersmart, informed best friend who has nothing to do during the day except look out for you and keep you safe preemptively,” says Alex Leslie, Pelmorex’s chief technology officer. “When you need to know something, it’ll surface and let you know — a little tap on the shoulder saying, ‘You might want to adjust your plans.’”
Banerjee and his team continue to improve their AI program every day. Their proprietary historical weather data, algorithms and predictions meld naturally with a generative AI program in a way that other companies cannot replicate.
As Pelmorex continues to evolve in the climate space, Banerjee returns to its core mission: to protect, educate and serve people.
“There’s so much more to be done in the climate education space. Most folks are unsure how to prepare themselves for the major shifts that climate change is bringing,” he says. “It’s the role of companies like us to predict, prevent, mitigate and support an appropriate response. We’re only in the first half of the first inning when it comes to climate-based concerns.”
thePowering Future
Researchers develop clean-energy technology
By Chris Kocher
As climate change increasingly threatens humanity — with 2023 as the hottest year on record worldwide — many scientists and engineers are seeking better ways to power our high-tech lifestyle without dangerous levels of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere.
Several initiatives at Binghamton University have received significant attention and funding over the past few years, mainly centered on the lithium-ion battery research of Nobel Prize winner and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry M. Stanley Whittingham. Those include the New Energy New York coalition of academia and industry partners, which the National Science Foundation named one of the 10 inaugural NSF Regional Innovation Engines eligible for up to $160 million in funding over the next 10 years.
Researchers at Watson College are taking the lead on other aspects of clean-energy technology, receiving more than $9 million in funding over the past five years. The college hopes to hire eight new faculty members specializing in energy research for 2024–25.
Here’s an overview of what they’re working on now.
GENERATION
For decades, nearly all solar panels have used silicon as their semiconductor material, but the element is expensive to mine and purify, and silicon-based photovoltaic cells are difficult to recycle after their time producing power is over. By 2050, 80 million metric tons of decommissioned panels could accumulate globally.
As the director for the Center for Autonomous Solar Power (CASP), Associate Professor Tara P. Dhakal from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has investigated a better system based on perovskite, a crystal structure initially named for a calcium titanate mineral.
Perovskite solar cells generate comparable power to their silicon counterparts and are less expensive, because they can be manufactured using a roll-to-roll printing method. Their major drawback is they fail faster in adverse weather conditions, so Dhakal’s research focuses on making perovskite cells more durable so they can spend years outside capturing and converting the sun’s rays into electricity.
“Silicon still wins in terms of stability, but although the cost has come down over time, it remains costly,” he says. “Perovskite has stability issues, but if we can overcome that, then it is cheaper. The material is abundantly found anywhere, including the U.S. If we can really produce perovskite solar cells with long-term stability, that’ll be good for society and our future.”
Dhakal has been developing stable perovskite solar cells using $700,000 in funding from the NSF and the Department of Energy. Based on the technology developed at CASP, a spinoff called Pinwheel Solar was established, and it is seeking Small Business Innovation Research, Small Business Technology Transfer and similar seed grants to scale up and commercialize it.
Dhakal Choi
Das Zhang
As the Internet of Things connects more devices into a collective network — even singleuse sensors like food packaging, agriculture or “smart bandages” — ECE Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi is developing biobatteries that use organic reactions to generate tiny amounts of electricity for sensors, tags or similar devices.
One project creates power from human sweat, while others use spore-producing bacteria. An ingestible version of the spore biobattery can be swallowed so that doctors can get a better look at the hard-to-reach small intestine. Other variations can produce power for weeks and potentially would still work after 100 years.
Choi has won nine federal grants since coming to Binghamton — seven from the National Science Foundation and two from the Office of Naval Research. In the past five years alone, he has received $1.75 million in energy research funding and published the results in top engineering journals.
The most challenging application for the Internet of Things, he believes, will be wireless sensor networks deployed unattended in remote and harsh environments.
“My ultimate target is to make it really small,” he says. “We call this ‘smart dust,’ and a couple of bacterial cells can generate power that will be enough to operate it. Then we can sprinkle it around where we need to.”
TRANSMISSION
For more than 80 years, the power grid has relied mainly on large synchronous generators providing alternating current along transmission lines to places both near and far. Thousands of generators are synchronized through the power network to provide stability when problems arise.
Renewable energy, however, has different properties to what large coal- or gas-fired plants produce. Most renewable and energy storage systems interact with the power grid through power-electronic-based inverters known as inverter-based resources (IBRs). Those IBRs will introduce a very different dynamic behavior to our future power grids, so the operation and protection strategies of a carbon-neutral grid need to be revisited.
Several Watson faculty members are leading efforts to keep the electric current running. Associate Professor Ziang “John” Zhang from the ECE Department and his research team won a $1.2 million NSF grant in 2023 to better understand the behavior and improve the transient dynamics of the future grid.
“The dynamics of the current power system are dominated by synchronized generators that weigh many tons and put out a couple hundred megawatts each,” Zhang says. “If there’s a fault, it will create a disturbance to the grid, but those are typically absorbed by the rotating mass of synchronous generators. There are multiple lines of defense that power system engineering has designed based on the electromechanical dynamics of these generators.”
His collaborators — from Cornell University, Texas Tech University, the Illinois Institute of Technology and the New York Power Authority — include experts in both power systems (like he is) and power electronics who develop inverters for connecting renewable resources to the grid. The tools and theories they develop will be tested with NYPA in a simulated New York transmission system.
Solid-state transformers convert between AC and DC, as well as “step up” electricity for transmission and then “step down” for everyday use. In 2023, ECE Associate Professor Pritam Das won a $537,959 NSF CAREER Award to build transformers that are more efficient, deliver more power density, have fewer components and are less expensive to manufacture.
“We want to come up with better solutions by improving the system one little bit at a time, and in the future, we can actually make the world better. That is my hope.”
— Yong Wang
“I hope that this research will result in more investments in the work that we are doing here and also will attract commercialization partners that incorporate our transformer technology into products deployed in the field,” he says.
OPTIMIZATION
Several Watson College researchers are taking a wider view of the power grid, not just maintaining its reliability but also improving its performance.
One is ECE Associate Professor Ning Zhou, who is developing ways to increase situational awareness for power grid operators. He dives deep into past data to create mathematical models that will use artificial intelligence to find the delicate balance of sustainability, cost and reliability.
“Without situational awareness, a lot of power system engineers tend to be conservative,” he says. “They want to make sure the power grid will survive any events. Sometimes they are more conservative than necessary, and that means a lot of customers will lose their power supply.”
Zhou and Zhang also are working together on a $400,000 research project sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop open-source inverter-based resources that will better connect renewable energy and storage systems to the grid.
To help guide future policy decisions, Assistant Professor Neha Patankar from the Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering uses energy system models that input thousands of data points about how electricity flows into and out of the power grid.
Before coming to Binghamton in 2022, she earned a PhD in operations research from North Carolina State University and served as an associate research scholar at Princeton University. She worked on the REPEAT and Open Energy Outlook projects, which provide an independent environmental and economic evaluation of federal energy and climate policies.
Patankar and her students use a tool called Community Energy Compass to model different alternatives that look at costs, resources and other factors. Is it better to rely mostly on solar power? Where can new wind farms be built? How do we accommodate more electric vehicles?
And how can we wean ourselves off fossil fuels? You can see some of the work that she and her collaborators have done at repeatproject.org.
“Our power system is going to be changing the most in the next 10 years, more than the residential sector or the transportation sector or the industrial sector,” she says. “What we need to know are the tradeoffs between different options or different pathways that all will get us to the same goal.”
SSIE Associate Professor and Associate Chair Yong Wang is formulating energy solutions from a variety of angles, with the goal to balance the supply and demand of our electric needs. Through the Watson Institute for Systems Excellence (WISE), which embeds graduate students into industry to solve real-world problems, those projects include detecting smart grid cyber-intrusion, improving recharging of lithium-ion batteries and analyzing off-peak usage as one way to ease the strain on the grid. Industry partners for the research include GE Renewable Energy and Eos Energy Enterprises.
Wang is also developing better ways to detect and prevent cyber-intrusion in the power grid, using an optimization algorithm to help stop hackers.
“We want to come up with better solutions by improving the system one little bit at a time, and in the future, we can actually make the world better,” he says. “That is my hope.”
Zhou Patankar
Wang
ADHD PROJECT COMPETES FOR MICROSOFT PRIZE
According to the World Health Organization, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects 5% of children and 2.5% of adults worldwide. While medication can alleviate the worst symptoms, two Watson College students have a tech-savvy way to keep those with ADHD on track — and their idea was a finalist in a Microsoft Corp.-sponsored contest.
Clay Battle and Ever Goldin, who will be seniors in the Department of Computer Science this fall, competed in Microsoft’s 2024 Imagine Cup with their company Roadmap, along with Georgia Tech student Aaliya Jakir.
ROADMAP WAS ONE OF THREE FINALISTS CHOSEN AMONG HUNDREDS OF ENTRIES FROM MORE THAN 50 COUNTRIES.
The competition celebrates students who build startups with artificial intelligence at their core. Roadmap was one of three finalists chosen among hundreds of entries from more than 50 countries. The winning team received $100,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, while the two runners-up — including Roadmap — each got $50,000.
The trio collaborated as first-year students at a HackBU hackathon. When Jakir transferred to Georgia Tech, they continued to work on Roadmap, an AI coach that offers advice for users to keep themselves on track.
After entering their project into accelerator programs through the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator and Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X Startup Launch, they received $5,000 in seed funding. Roadmap utilizes OpenAI’s ChatGPT, starting with a quick questionnaire about how users accomplish tasks. As they input more information, the suggestions become increasingly personalized over time.
“Right now, it looks like a chatbot and is a chatbot, but we want it to be so much more,” Goldin said. “This is just the prototype — we want the whole application to mold around how you work best.”
Clay Battle, Ever Goldin and Aaliya Jakir
PHOTO PROVIDED
WATSON COLLEGE CELEBRATES
40
YEARS
On June 15, 2023, exactly 40 years after the establishment of the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering, Technology and Applied Science (now the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science), a reception celebrated the milestone with current faculty, staff, alumni, colleagues and public officials as well as many faces from Watson’s past.
Dean Hari Srihari reflected on the college’s legacy over the past four decades and where Watson College goes next. He also welcomed others to share their thoughts on what Watson has meant to them.
Speakers included Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, MA ’83; State Sen. Lea Webb ’04; Gary Kunis ’73, LHD ’02; Geraldine MacDonald ’68, MS ’73, LittD ’17; Mary O’Malley-Trumble, MBA ’99, senior location executive for IBM Endicott; Don Kunkel ’86 (Watson College’s director of information technologies); and former Associate Dean Michael McGoff ’69, MA ’74, PhD ’80 (later Binghamton University’s senior vice provost and chief financial officer).
HELPING
hand
SPIR aids small companies by solving tech problems
By Chris Kocher
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, companies must utilize the latest advances in technology to succeed. Keeping up with these developments, though, can be costly.
That’s where the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) can lend a hand. Since 1994, New York state has helped fund partnerships at four State University of New York (SUNY) engineering programs — Binghamton, Buffalo, Albany and Stony Brook — that seek solutions to thorny technological problems.
From left, William Bernier, PhD ’79, CEO of ChromaNanoTech and retired chemistry professor; PhD student Zechen Zhang; and Department of Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Scott Schiffres are collaborating on a project through Watson College’s Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) program.
Watson College’s SPIR program assists small and midsize businesses through projects that bring together students, faculty and industry personnel. In addition to problem-solving services, SPIR assists entrepreneurs in developing their concepts into demonstrations or prototypes for attracting venture capital or licensing agreements.
Started by Gov. Mario Cuomo and supported by Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo since her election to the state Legislature in 2004, SPIR has helped to create or retain about 2,500 jobs in the Binghamton region, generating $90 million a year. Hundreds of students also have benefitted from applying their skills to real-world problems.
“The staying power of SPIR and the fact that it remains a viable program after 30 years is a testament to the positive effect it has had on our regional economy, faculty and students,” says Michael Testani, MS ’02, Watson College’s senior director of outreach and engagement who oversees the SPIR program.
“SPIR is a true ‘win-win’ scenario where small and startup businesses gain access to the outstanding assets of a premier research and academic institution. The University also benefits by providing valuable, real-world technical challenges that expand the perspectives of our faculty and students.”
Companies and entrepreneurs apply to the SPIR program with their proposals, and if accepted, a cost-sharing plan pays for the labor. One graduate student gets a tuition scholarship and stipend, and the faculty member gets a stipend for serving as an advisor.
About a dozen companies work with Watson College on more than 20 projects during an academic year, primarily in hardware and software product development, information technology services and manufacturing support. Among the projects for the 2023–24 academic year were the development and testing of energy storage systems, evaluating systems for water desalination and analyzing additive manufacturing technology.
That last project is with ChromaNanoTech, founded in 2014 by Binghamton University chemistry professors William Bernier, PhD ’79, and Wayne Jones to implement patented technology they developed. It operates at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator under the START-UP NY program, which offers tax incentives to new businesses that partner with a state college or university.
ChromaNanoTech has partnered with SPIR for the last few years to perfect two main products.
One Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence project is trying to find a better way to 3D print pure copper.
One is a method of printing barcodes directly onto metal that would withstand weathering, and the other would improve 3D printing of pure copper.
“We have a lot of companies that are interested in both of these technologies, and SPIR has done some of the fundamental work to help us develop them,” says Bernier, who serves as ChromaNanoTech’s CEO.
Copper is a key component for circuit boards and heat sinks that keep our electronics running smoothly, but the properties that are most useful to engineers — high electrical conductivity, high thermal conductivity and malleability among them — also make it a difficult metal for additive manufacturing.
The copper project came from an idea that Bernier and Associate Professor Scott Schiffres, a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, discussed several years ago. Now, Schiffres is guiding the possibilities through SPIR.
“Hopefully we’re going to have a patent, a paper and a product, which is not so common for academic research,” he says. “It’s very nice to have that trajectory.”
Once a copper piece has been printed, it needs to undergo testing to judge its quality. SPIR allows small companies like ChromaNanoTech to access Binghamton’s superior lab spaces for the characterization process.
Zechen Zhang, Schiffres’ PhD student, uses the various equipment at the Analytical & Diagnostics Laboratory at the Innovative Technologies Complex on campus. An initiative of the Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging Center (S3IP), a New York State Center of Excellence, the ADL offers more than 50 devices for advanced materials analysis, including optical microscopy, electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, acoustic imaging and 3D X-ray imaging.
“This collaboration is very good for my future career,” Zhang says. “As a PhD student, I get to see how industry works and how products are invented. We received valuable advice from both industryfacing and research-focused perspectives.”
LEARN more
Find out more about the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence and how to apply for the program.
By Emily Maldonado ’25
Mechanical engineering seniors, from left, Marcus Johnson, Justin Damon, Alexander Franciamore, Isabelle Homan and Eniola Aderonmu made a pedal-powered theater project.
Capstone projects give seniors real-world experience
Before earning diplomas, many Watson College undergraduates need to complete senior capstone projects responding to real-world challenges. Here are just a few of the interesting projects from the 2023–24 academic year, one from each Watson department (except computer science, which doesn’t have a capstone requirement).
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Harpur College’s Theatre Department wanted an interactive performance that would entertain children and generate interest in STEM concepts.
Team leader Isabelle Homan and her fellow ME students came up with the idea of a “pedal-powered theater” operating on audience participation.
“Green energy is an important topic these days, and we want to promote STEM ideas to kids from late elementary school to middle school by bringing the idea to life,” Homan says.
The system has one pedal box and two hand cranks that can either be moved around or are stationary in the audience. Once engaged, these mechanical components generate roughly 10 minutes’ worth of electricity to power small household appliances, such as LED strips, lamps and a buzzer to simulate an alarm clock.
Accessibility to the interactive components of this performance was crucial to consider, which led to the inclusion of the hand cranks and the pedal box.
“The Theatre Department wanted to have devices that were accessible for all kids, especially those who might have a disability,” Homan says. “These two devices encompass most if any possible disabilities that kids might have so they can all use them and all be able to have fun participating in the performance.”
2024
Justin Damon
Isabelle Homan
Coby Gottlieb
Marcus Johnson
Alexander Franciamore
The Binghamton University Theatre Department hosted its first performance using the pedal-powered theater device during the School of the Arts’ inaugural Student Showcase in May.
“It has been really nice to mix my previous knowledge with opensource code and all the information you can find on the internet to tailor a solution.”
— Alexa Varlamos
ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
Solar energy is one of the most abundant sources of energy in the world. However, this resource is unattainable for many households across the U.S. due to financial constraints.
With support from AVANGRID, this ECE team created a portable, handheld power station that can be used on the go or in the home. The device is around 2 feet by 1 foot by 1 foot and weighs under 40 pounds. It can be used almost anywhere, as long as weather conditions don’t pose a risk to the components inside. In such scenarios, the device has been fitted with a wall outlet for recharging.
It can store enough electricity to power small appliances and electronic devices and is equipped with one
detachable solar panel that can be folded and carried.
“Our goal is similar to existing portable solar generators for families experiencing power failures. Anyone can have it,” says Laura Cunningham, the team’s leader.
Through the development of this capstone project, the team overcame hardships and sharpened their skills.
“You have to think of everything,” Cunningham says. “Even if you don’t know what ‘everything’ is, you need to go searching on your own and figure out if there are any risks or details you missed that you weren’t even aware of.”
“Everything I’ve learned about batteries and the charge controller interested me,” Stephen Bauer adds.
aura Cunningham
Stephen Bauer
Ethan Hamlin artosz Obszynsk
Above: Electrical engineering majors, from left, Laura Cunningham, Ethan Hamlin, Stephen Bauer and Bartosz Obszynski created a portable solar generator for their capstone project.
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Hospitals in the United States use more than 2 million needles per day, and preparing these syringes can cost hospitals both money and time.
Working with United Health Services in Binghamton, this biomedical engineering team designed an automated preparation system for syringes so hospitals could cut down on these expenses and boost productivity.
“Orthopedic physicians have hired personnel to follow them around all day and prepare syringes, and that is very expensive for the hospital,” Alexa Varlamos says.
To use the device, a nurse first scans a barcode for a particular drug vial, and then a linear actuator motorized system releases the desired volume of that medication into the syringe. The medications can be distributed within 30 minutes of the initial preparation.
“A doctor would say, ‘I need a shoulder injection of this many milliliters.’ Then it gets put into the system, and the device would output a fully prepared syringe,” Varlamos says.
This syringe-filling system would eliminate waiting periods in emergency rooms and greatly benefit large and small healthcare facilities.
“It has been really nice to mix my previous knowledge with open-source code and all the information you can find on the internet to tailor a solution,” Varlamos says.
Biomedical engineering seniors, from left, Gabrielle Taylor, Daniel Kozersky and Alexa Varlamos built an automatic syringe-filling machine as their senior capstone project.
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Ahy on Koh A ssistan Professor Qianbn Wang
Alexa Varlamos
aniel Kozersk abrielle Taylo
Assistant Professor Neha Patankar, left, and Associate Professor Yong Wang, right, consult with seniors Leah Krym, Derrick Weisburd, Nicol Haywood and Eva Greenspan about their hydrogen fuel project.
SYSTEMS SCIENCE AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
Renewable hydrogen power holds untapped potential in the transportation sector. However, due to its high cost to generate, harnessing hydrogen power for widescale use has been a challenge.
With support from AVANGRID, the goal of this SSIE team was to create a prototype of a hydrogen fuel station that can power hydrogen fuel cell bikes.
“Our two professors want to create the first hydrogen fueling station on the East Coast,” says Nicol Haywood, the team’s leader. However, stations used to make fuel for hydrogen-powered vehicles are colossal, so “they are out of the scope of what we can do in 2024.”
Haywood and the SSIE team decided with their advisors to use one bike and one electrolyzer for their project so they could create enough power to test the bike.
Because of the electrolyzer’s size and the hydrogenpowered bike being shipped from overseas, the team had to wait a while before putting the project together for testing.
The electrolyzer generated hydrogen through the electrolysis process using water and electricity. After testing the hydrogen’s purity, the team pressurized it and filled the e-bike for testing.
“We are trying to create something that will hopefully be used by future Binghamton students, faculty and the general public,” Haywood says.
AssociateProfessorYongWang Nicol Haywood
A ssistantProfessor NehaPatanka r
Eva Greenspan Leah Krym
Derrick Weisburd
AWARD WINNERS
Four Watson College faculty members were elevated to SUNY distinguished professors this spring: SB Park (mechanical engineering), Hiroki Sayama (systems science and industrial engineering), Lijun Yin (computer science) and Guangwen Zhou (ME). The rank is conferred on faculty having achieved national or international prominence and a distinguished reputation through significant contributions to research and scholarship in their fields.
The 2023 State University of New York Chancellor Awards for Excellence (which recognize consistently superior professional achievement) included several for Watson College: Excellence in Teaching for Yong Wang (systems science and industrial engineering) and Excellence in Faculty Service for Kartik Gopalan (computer science). Michael Testani (Office of Industrial Outreach) also won a University Award for Excellence in International Education.
Professor Yu Chen from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering was elected a 2024 fellow by SPIE, the international professional society for optical engineering. He was honored for his contributions to the security, privacy and authentication of optical imagery, particularly his research regarding deepfake videos.
Noel Varughese, an undergraduate from the Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, was chosen as a student researcher for the 2023–24 All of Us Research Scholar Program. The National Institutes of Health program is an opportunity for health research professionals to be paired with earlycareer investigators, including those in high school, undergraduate or graduate/professional school.
Chen
DONORS DEDICATE BIOMEDICAL LAB IN SON’S MEMORY
Donors Gary Kunis ’73, LHD ’02, and Connie Wong are advancing pathbreaking cancer research at Watson College with the dedication of a new biomedical engineering lab.
Their son, who graduated with a bioengineering degree from the University of Rochester, died of brain cancer at age 33. In 2018, Kunis and Wong established the Douglas Hsu Memorial Scholarship in Biomedical Engineering at Binghamton to support first-year students. Now, they have expanded their support to further honor their son’s memory and foster biomedical engineering research that could help combat the disease. In recognition of their generosity, Binghamton has named a lab in the Biotechnology Building as the Douglas Hsu Research Laboratory.
Their support provides for the purchase of crucial equipment and other items related to the research conducted in the lab, which includes developing therapeutic cancer vaccines through a genome-editing technology that converts a patient’s cancer cells into vaccines that mobilize their own immune systems to eliminate tumors.
left, Connie Wong, Gary Kunis ’73, LHD ’02, and
new
Carlos Gershenson
Kimberly Harry Systems Science and Industrial Engineering PhD: Virginia Tech
Dali Ismail Computer Science PhD: Wayne State University
Yincheng Jin Computer Science PhD: SUNY Buffalo
Sadamori Kojaku Systems Science and Industrial Engineering PhD: Hokkaido University
Eric Atkinson
Patrick Chen Computer Science
faculty members joined Watson College during the 2023–24 academic year.
From
Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger at the dedication of the Douglas Hsu Research Laboratory.
NEWERA PARTNERSHIP BRINGS TOGETHER BINGHAMTON, HBCUS
A 2023 summit at Binghamton University — organized by Watson College and Dean Krishnaswami “Hari” Srihari — has led to a groundbreaking partnership with six historically Black colleges and universities.
The New Educational and Research Alliance (newERA) will foster closer ties with Alabama A&M University, Central State University, Tuskegee University, Prairie-View A&M University, University of the District of Columbia and Virginia State University. Plans for newERA are supported by Provost Donald Hall and Thurgood Marshall College Fund founder N. Joyce Payne.
More than a dozen faculty members and students from the HBCUs toured the college’s laboratories and met in research affinity groups with Watson faculty to discuss holistic, equitable and sustainable collaborations built on the shared missions of education, research and service.
The 2023–24 Watson College Recognition Awards were announced at a staff luncheon in February.
Early-Stage Distinguished Research: Fuda Ning (systems science and industrial engineering) and Pu Zhang (mechanical engineering); Outstanding Research Achievement: Daehan Won (SSIE); Distinguished Educator: Ping Yang (CS); Outstanding Faculty Service: Koenraad Gieskes ’04, MS ’10 (Engineering Design Division); Outstanding Staff Service: Bridget Tiska (ME); Distinguished Alumni: Patrick Samedy, MS ’17, and Bo Long, PhD ’08
Eight Watson College students won Graduate Student Excellence Awards in Research for fall 2023. The Graduate School honored Nazila Bazrafshan (industrial and systems engineering), Ali H. Foroughi (mechanical engineering), Bryce Kingsley (ME), Ahmed Gailan Qasem (ISE), Zahra Rafiee (electrical and computer engineering), Guojun Shang (materials science and engineering) and Jianyu Wang (MSE) for research, and Stefano Calabro (biomedical engineering) for teaching.
Sriniwas Pandey
Siyuan Rao
Wagner
Qianbin Wang
Zhen Xie
Jingzhou Zhao
Jian Zhou
Thurgood Marshall College Fund founder N. Joyce Payne tours the Center of Excellence data center at the Innovative Technologies Complex with Research Professor Srikanth Rangarajan.
Thomas
J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science
PO Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
The need for speed
Watson College hosted the first Watson Fabrication Lab e-Go Kart Extravaganza in April. Fab Lab personnel competed against the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) in go-karts they built themselves. Funding came from the Watson Dean’s Office. Organizers hope to expand the competition this fall.