RES News - President's Message

Dear Fellow Engineers,

While Covid has made in-person meetings difficult, I have had the opportunity to meet with numerous engineers within the community. A while back I met with Dominick Patriarca from Gleason Corporation. He encouraged me to focus more on the people within our community, in part, because that is why we have chosen to reside here. That was really great advice. Last month we started a new column highlighting young pre-college aspiring engineers. I have taught courses in biomedical engineering at the University of Rochester for the last 20 years. If you had told me that young pre-college individuals were capable of building and creating electronic circuits and programming Arduinos, I probably would have not believed you. I am humbled and amazed at the problems that young individuals take on for “fun” projects. In this issue, we highlight the achievements of Micah Kim (pg 14), an individual who sought to increase the range of his family’s home wifi system. I live in a single level home that has always suffered from this problem. When I have tried to solve this problem, it usually entails reviewing the latest routers that are available on the market. Imagine building your own wifi system – when you were in 11th grade – while being homeschooled. Micah, when you are ready to begin a career in biomedical engineering – call me. For everyone reading this, do you have a kid doing amazing engineering things at home? If so, let’s continue to highlight these bright stars in our community.

In the same spirit, there are a number of $1,500 scholarships that are available to college engineering students (pg 8). The David Fergusson, Susan Costa, Joseph Campbell, and Keith Amish scholarships are a few of the awards that we provide for current undergraduate students. Many of these recipients have gone on to become remarkable engineers. In the next few months, we will highlight the achievements of past recipients. If you have ever received an award or scholarship, you recognize how important this can be for young individuals. Please encourage deserving individuals to apply for our scholarship program. All recipients will be recognized at the 118th RES Gala in April (our 125th Anniversary)!

I am never surprised to learn about the developments in the area of optics in Rochester. However, I am always surprised by the number of companies in Rochester that are involved in the medical device industry. Navitar is one of those pleasant surprises! Take a look at the lead article (pg 10-12) that highlights a number of the medical products that utilize Navitar optics as the front-end for imaging technologies. This is incredibly exciting because the advancement of multi-spectral light sources has opened the door for using light to interact with living tissues in ways that have never been previously explored. This area of biophotonics will inevitably lead to new medical applications, therapeutics, and surgical procedures. Navitar will clearly be an important player in this space, and I couldn’t be happier that they are located in Rochester!

Finally, we are always looking for interesting articles for the Rochester Engineer. Do you have something to say? If so, please contact us to discuss how you can contribute!

All my best, Greg Gdowski, PhD President, RES

Greg Gdowski, PhD University of Rochester RES President June 1, 2020 - May 31, 2022