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Our Year in Summary
June 2020
It's our great pleasure to share with you the annual report from the University of Pittsburgh’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) for the 2019-2020 academic year. While the report provides extensive detail as to our operations and outcomes, we’d like to highlight some of the key developments from MCSI over the past year.
First, MCSI has made strong moves to support research into design for a circular economy; this new thrust dates from late 2018, upon awarding of an Ellen MacArthur Challenge grant to a Swanson School of Engineering (SSOE) team (PI: Eric J. Beckman), regarding redesign of currently unrecyclable multi-layer packaging. This work then led to one of the first NSF Convergence Grants on Design for a Circular Economy, where Pitt was the lead institution (PI: Melissa Bilec, CEE and MCSI Deputy Director) and partnered with faculty from the University of Illinois, University of Maine, and Rochester Institute of Technology. Given this pathbreaking grant, MCSI was recently asked by a group of NSF program directors to submit a proposal to support a workshop on design for a circular economy whose goal would be to create a research roadmap for the field in general. Finally, MCSI also led the Pitt team (SSOE, Chemistry, Law) that was awarded one of the first two University of Pittsburgh Momentum Scaling Grants to jump-start our work in attacking the global plastic waste problem.
On the education side, David Sanchez (CEE and MCSI Assistant Director) was awarded a Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award recognizing his outstanding use of active project-based learning techniques. David has brought his unique and student engagement-driven teaching style to the two pillar courses that bookend the University-wide Undergraduate Sustainability Certificate.
MCSI is also proud to have supported the early work that has resulted in Dr. Paul Leu’s selection for the AmericanMade Solar Prize, a U.S. Department of Energy competition designed to incentivize entrepreneurs toward U.S. solar energy innovation and manufacturing. The project is led by Leu, Sajad Haghanifar (Leu doctoral candidate), and Sooraj Sharma (senior studying materials science and engineering who began developing this project in 2018 through the MCSI Undergraduate Summer Research Program). The team is evaluating new methods to improve the top glass sheet in solar panels.
Finally, we are especially proud of our team’s perseverance and flexibility despite the obstacles and challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Led by Gena Kovalcik and David Sanchez, MCSI quickly adapted our two signature summer programs (MCSI Undergraduate Summer Research and Teach-the-Teacher) to provide Pitt undergraduates and regional middle school teachers remote online programs. We are pleased to report a full cohort in both programs.
MCSI remains committed to addressing global sustainability issues, connecting our domestic and international pursuits to create synergies locally, nationally, and internationally. We hope you enjoy this summary of the past year’s impacts, and we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about the report's contents and MCSI's programs.
Sincerely, Sincerely,
Dr. Eric J. Beckman, PhD Co-Director Gena M. Kovalcik, MPPM Co-Director
