USD Engineering Magazine 2020

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IMAGINE. INNOVATE. INSPIRE.

SHILEY-MARCOS SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO, FALL 2020

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Imagine. Innovate. Inspire.

For the past several months, I have often found myself reminiscing about our personal interactions and the thrill of seeing students hustling in the halls to get to their classes; the sometimes-flamboyant declarations of faculty emanating from their classrooms; and the queue of students waiting for advice. We often met and celebrated our USD association over food and drink, speaking of an experiential allegiance and trying to facilitate advancement in our great institution.

It is commonplace, now, to assume that each of us will confront COVID-19 in a very personal way. If that happens to any of us, I pray that our caregivers will have the energy to persist and love as they attempt to cure while facing harm’s way. I pray that our care will not confront politics, but instead find compassion for all and that we will emerge stronger, more caring and exemplify the values upon which USD stands.

In this issue, you will discover that our Toreros have quickly pivoted to selflessly tackle the urgency of this global challenge. I have been a witness to incredible heroic acts and resilience in our faculty, students and alumni —— they simply will not stop driving forward. Our alumni, students and staff members have been ramping up production of critical care ventilators and COVID-19 testing instruments or printing and producing 3D-printed face shields for our medical heroes.

Others are working to provide critical food and supplies to its customers. For each of these Changemakers, the focus goes beyond a mere technical solution. They are devising compassionbased solutions —— and it’s working.

The world is tackling more than the pandemic. We are at a crossroads —— a defining moment in time when we have the opportunity to choose a just path. It is difficult to stand by silently as people and nations are suffering at the hands of racial injustice and social inequities. I encourage all of us to take a stand and walk with our brothers and sisters as equals. I also encourage all of us to unify our efforts to become positive stewards of our environment and create long-term, collaborative solutions that will serve generations to come.

Our mission is to develop the next generation of ethical leaders and compassionate citizens.

They come from varied backgrounds and thrive in an environment where the dual BS/BA degree program is reshaping the boundaries of engineering —— in what they do and how they serve society.

Our alumni are helping us create relevant experiences for our students that will provide a foundation in data ethics and data fairness. We are sending students abroad in search of solutions to local and global water challenges. Our faculty are creating curriculum and co-curricular structures with a more socially and racially just lens that bring different perspectives into how we conceptualize engineering and computer science.

I feel it is important that we face challenges head on, but that we also focus on the positive —— finding the good amidst the chaos. The road ahead is onerous, but if we truly come together as leaders of change and teach the principles of academic excellence, collaboration, empathy and global awareness, then we can continue to be an amazing beacon to the world.

Chell Roberts, PhD Founding Dean, Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Darlene Marcos Shiley established USD’S Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering in 2013 with a transformational gift that honors the philanthropist’s dedication to education and pays tribute to her late husband, Donald P. Shiley, renowned engineer and inventor of the tilting disc artificial heart valve. Her gift gives USD engineering and computer science students the chance to be true Changemakers.

USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Chell Roberts, PhD Founding Dean croberts@sandiego.edu Elisa Lurkis Director of Development/ Alumni Relations elurkis@sandiego.edu Michelle Sztupkay Communications Manager michelles@sandiego.edu Magazine Staff DESIGNER

Marcy Alyn Associate Director Creative Services EDITOR

Michelle Sztupkay WRITERS

Caroline Baillie, PhD Ryan T. Blystone Liz Harman Elisa Lurkis Michelle Sztupkay Contact University of San Diego Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering 5998 Alcalá Park

San Diego, CA 92110 (619) 260-4627

Contents 2

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A Long Road Ahead: The Broader Context of Engineering Asking hard questions about the role that engineering plays in society.

Engineering Clean Water Access in Uganda Access to clean water in remote parts of the world is tough to find and requires willing problem solvers.

BY CAROLINE BAILLIE, PhD

BY RYAN T. BLYSTONE

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Award Promotes Latinx Success Alex Mejia, PhD, receives the school’s first ever National Science Foundation’s CAREER award.

Remembering the Humility and Generosity of Larry Kull Endowed Student Award may well become the epicenter of technology innovation at USD.

BY LIZ HARMAN

BY ELISA LURKIS

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Flying High, Under the Radar Computer Science alumnus and former Uber executive, Curtis Chambers, reconnects with USD in a big way.

BY ELISA LURKIS

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Experiencing Israel’s Water Innovations Four mechanical engineering students share inspiring stories of their trip to Israel.

BY ELISA LURKIS

Eye on Alumni: Finding Solutions During a Pandemic Engineering alumni share stories of how they are innovating critical COVID-19 solutions.

BY ELISA LURKIS

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The Sound of Hope USD-engineered face shields deliver hope to USD’s Hahn School of Nursing, Scripps Mercy Hospital and UCSD Medical Center.

BY MICHELLE SZTUPKAY

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Department Highlights See the latest engineering and computer science department updates.

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Faculty Achievements Catch up on the latest research, publications and more from our esteemed faculty.

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Virtual Showcase Demonstrates Real Success The shift to an online presentation format welcomes nationwide audience participation.

BY LIZ HARMAN

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Alumni Notes Catch up with computer science and engineering alumni.

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News Briefs Explore highlights on diversity and inclusion, new graduate programs, the first named CS scholarship and ExSJ partner awards.

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Class of 2019-20 See what’s new for our recent graduates.

A Long Road Ahead: The Broader Context of Engineering As we have been sitting in our homes over the past several months, locked down or seriously restricted in our ability to spend time with family and friends, many of us have been wondering,... how did we get to this point?

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What, in fact, caused the pandemic in the first place? What could have been done differently?

How can we ensure nothing like this happens again and also be sure that, when things go wrong, it is not so much worse for some than others? How can we make sure that one person’s pain does not become another’s gain? How, as engineers, can we help?

Those of us who are seriously committed to equity, justice and sustainability have a lot of questions to answer. Universities are places where knowledge can and should be created —— both through research and teaching —— but it needs to be co-created, taking into consideration the needs of all people and of our planet.

Over the past few years, USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering (SMSE) has been asking the hard questions about the role that engineering plays in society and working with communities near and far to ensure that what we are doing benefits those who usually have no access to such knowledge. But what is next in the light of the pandemic, which has changed everything we know in such a short time?

When COVID-19 hit, engineers all over the world, as well as in our own school, immediately stepped into action using their creativity, technical skills and equipment to develop face shields, face masks and ventilators to support medical teams. This desire to help is commonplace among engineers.

Many in the engineering profession have chosen to enter this field because of the service we provide to society — the roads, the sewers, the trains, the hospitals, the medical equipment, the medicine, the … wait ... nearly everything we use on a daily basis… everything in life. In fact, if we engineers laid down our tools today, most everything would soon stop.

Nothing would work. Nothing would move. This thought can make you feel very powerful or very responsible.

Of course, we are not alone in having this ability to respond.

Many factors make up what society is and does. Social, political or economic structures influence what and how we

engineer, as well as for who we engineer it for. What, how and who we engineer for, in turn, influences society and makes it what it is. If all professionals come together, we can make a difference in how we affect society.

At the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, our faculty and students have the amazing opportunity to work alongside colleagues from across our Changemaker campus and beyond, to address society’s problems at a transdisciplinary level. But to do it right, to really make a difference, to understand how to respond to huge contemporary problems —— such as COVID-19, systemic racism, global poverty or climate change —— we must do what we ask of our students: think critically and question assumptions about how we live and what we do, and how our actions affect others.

We must critique our past, understand what decisions were made and the impacts they had, and learn from our mistakes. We need to question our purpose, position and impact in the world at a macro and micro level. We might consider our purpose in manufacturing and increasing the variety and number of products which create non-recyclable waste. We might consider our position on the development of systems to do things at bigger and bigger scales and how this impacts sustainability of resources, ecosystems and ultimately human health. We might question the equity of impact of our systems and products on different groups of people.

One example of how we are doing this in the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering is through the course, “Engineering and health: working towards peace and justice,” which launched in

Spring 2020 and is hosted jointly with the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies.

Dr. Paul Kadetz, a public health expert and medical anthropologist, joined with Dr. Necla Tschirgi from the Kroc School and SMSE’s Dr. Caroline Baillie, to support students in examining the interrelationship between development, engineering and public health.

The class started in-person in January 2020. By March, students moved to remote learning and had a perfect case study for learning — they considered what might have caused the COVID-19 public health crisis and its intersection with engineering and development. Students found that every single part of the class was critically relevant to that question which emerged around them as they studied.

That we are leading with such critical transdisciplinary work is a consequence of the school’s head start through our Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) program, and more recently, the Engineering Exchange for Social Justice (ExSJ). We are actively partnering with engineering deans from Catholic universities across the nation to work collaboratively on enhancing curricula to include issues of social and environmental justice. We have also launched a Post-COVID-19 Task Force to address the questions raised in this article.

We are just at the beginning and there’s a long road ahead. The world’s problems do not know disciplinary boundaries and we must join with other professionals to work toward the future health and well-being of our planet and all all our people. —— Caroline Baillie Video: sandiego.edu/ForestSchool

Award Promotes Latinex Success University of San Diego Assistant Professor of Integrated Engineering Alex Mejia has received USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering’s first-ever National Science Foundation’s (NSF) CAREER award. With the $579,399 grant, Mejia will look at ways to promote Latinx student success in engineering by reducing the barriers they face in the field.

While growing numbers of Latinx students are attending college, their participation and success in engineering has lagged. According to the National Science Board, the percentage of engineering degrees awarded to Latinx students has increased from 7.3% to 12.8%, but the number of Latinos employed in science and engineering occupations accounts for only 6%.

“We want to change the perception that Latino and Latina students have deficits and start talking about the assets they bring to engineering,” says Mejia.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is the NSF’s most prestigious award in support of faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and lead advances in the mission of their department and organization.

Latinx students “bring a wealth of knowledge” from their cultural and social backgrounds that can benefit engineering and be incorporated into curriculum and the classroom, especially as engineering expands to solving not just technical, but societal problems, Mejia says. “The more we can draw from multiple sources and cultures, the better prepared engineering will be to solve the problems of the future.”

Under the study, “Breaking the Tradition of Silence through Conocimiento and Consciousness Raising among Latinx Engineers,” Mejia will observe Latinx students in their institutions, classrooms, homes and communities to see the “disconnects” that are keeping them from completing their degrees and succeeding in the field.

USD and other schools are trying to attract more Latinx students, “but if we’re not ready to support them, it won’t matter how many students we bring in,” Mejia said. “Across the country the demographics are changing and we need to be prepared to know exactly how to have better pedagogical tools and better programs for our students” to promote their success.

The research project is expected to analyze and contribute to the growing body of knowledge related to student-centered initiatives, the diversifications of the engineering field and the identification of institutional practices that may perpetuate or alleviate the adversity faced and perceived by Latinx students in engineering and foster a culture of inclusivity in engineering education.

“We are very pleased to receive this award, which reflects the NSF’s confidence in Professor Mejia’s outstanding abilities and the commitment of USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering to create a diverse workforce committed to improving the lives of all groups in society,” says Dean Chell Roberts. —— Liz Harman Video: www.sandiego.edu/NSFCareerAward

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Flying High, Under the Radar A few years ago, Curtis Chambers was not really on anyone’s radar at the University of San Diego, despite the fact that he was part of the founding team at Uber and had nearly completed his computer science degree at USD. That’s because, until Spring 2019, he was still two courses shy of graduating, so his name did not appear on any alumni lists.

Serendipitously, it was one of Chambers’ former classmates and friends who mentioned his name, while having dinner with Dean Chell Roberts and Elisa Lurkis, the director of development for USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering.

“We were having dinner with Lisa Johansen ’04 (CS) in Seattle a

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couple of years ago, and she casually said, ‘You know that one of the guys who helped create Uber studied computer science at USD, right?’ My eyes almost popped out of my head,” Lurkis recounts.

Dean Roberts reached out to arrange an initial meeting with Chambers, who was living in San Francisco at the time.

“When I first met him, I couldn’t believe how young and humble he was,” Dean Roberts recalls. “You would never guess that this young guy was the software genius behind Uber.”

Through a series of meetings, in San Francisco and on-campus, USD determined which classes Chambers needed to complete his degree. The curriculum had changed considerably, so it was not a simple matter. But the biggest question: was he willing to come back to campus for a semester to finish his final two classes?

A variety of factors came together to influence Chambers to return to campus to finally finish his degree. He and his wife, Shirley, were renovating their San Francisco home and needed to relocate during the renovations.

Both of their parents live in San Diego and were happy to welcome them home indefinitely, particularly since Curtis and Shirley would be bringing their two young daughters with them.

But the primary influencer was Shirley.

“My wife said to me, ‘How are we going to convince our daughters to get their college

degrees when their own father hasn’t finished his?’ She had a point, so I figured I’d better fix this,” Chambers says with a laugh.

So in May 2019, 18 years after originally beginning classes at USD, Curtis Chambers became an official Torero alumnus.

Of course, up until that time, he certainly wasn’t alone in being a computer science wizard who had dropped out of college. Think Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, to name just a few.

There were a number of reasons that Chambers left USD repeatedly, back in the early 2000s. Mostly, he was so busy writing code to launch companies that finishing his degree was not his top priority.

Between creating a point-of-sale software platform for Harney Sushi in Old Town (for which he was paid in free sushi and beer) to building the software for Expensify (an online expense management system for business and personal use), one could say that Chambers was otherwise occupied.

And then came Uber.

The original idea, conceived by former CEO Travis Kalanick and co-founder Garret Camp was created so they and their friends could have a driver at their disposal to frequent parties and bars in San Francisco without worrying about driving. Before long, other friends learned about this and wanted in. It soon became clear that there was a market for beckoning a car service using a cell phone app. Over the course of the next seven years,

Chambers helped turn this startup into a global presence, branching out from the original business to also form UberEats and UberFreight. The rest, of course, is history. He officially retired from Uber in 2017.

Since reconnecting with USD, Chambers has been in high demand. He gives his time generously, presenting in classes, speaking at events and mentoring students with start-up ideas of their own.

And he is a generous philanthropist, as well. For the past two years, he and Shirley provided half of the funds needed to support a cohort of students to spend spring break on a study abroad tour of Israel. The tour was part of a mechanical engineering course focused on water challenges and solutions in both California and Israel. This year, Chambers joined the group in Israel, spending time with students as they visited the Old City of Jerusalem, an ancient aqueduct, a wastewater treatment plant and keeping up with the students as they explored Israel’s nightlife. Chambers and his wife are Jewish, and liked the idea of giving students an opportunity to visit Israel.

“Israel is a complex country with many different narratives. A lot of people in America have formed opinions on the country based on what they see on the news or online, but we think it’s critically important to get firsthand experience on the ground,” Chambers explains. “The best way to truly understand the situation there is to meet with the locals from all walks of life, learn about the challenges and form your own opinions. Many people also aren’t aware of what a leader Israel is in the realm of water innovation.

We support this program because we believe it provides the opportunity for students to experience Israel for themselves so they have first-hand experience in the country. Also, they are then able to bring knowledge of the advanced water technology back to California, which desperately needs better water systems.”

And, although he tries to remain diplomatic, Chambers has been vocal in his critique of the way computer science is taught in higher education. He has not shied away from sharing his perspective that computer science in higher education tends to be too theoretical, outdated and disconnected from real-world skills.

Seeing this as another problem that needed to be solved, Chambers has generously donated funds to hire a Professor of Practice in Data Science in the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering. Once hired, the hope is that this professor will establish a data sciences minor at USD. According to Dean Roberts, this is exactly what the school needs right now.

“Data science has become one of the key drivers of our economic future,” Roberts states. “The ability to hire a data science professional with extensive industry experience is critical in helping us create relevant experience for our students and in providing them with a foundation in data ethics and data fairness. We hope to become a national leader in these areas.”

Suffice to say that Chambers is no longer flying under the radar.

—— Elisa Lurkis Link: www.sandiego.edu/CurtisChambers

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For two years running, Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering Frank Jacobitz led a student trip to Israel over spring break to study Israel’s water innovations.

The trip was a mandatory component of a semesterlong elective course titled, Water in California and Israel: Challenges and Solutions.

Experiencing Israel’s Water Innovations Below are interviews with four of the students who participated in the trip to Israel. Most of the costs for student travel and lodging were covered by an anonymous donor and matched by the Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative (MGSDII).

MIRA WILEY ‘21 What were your impressions, if any, of Israel before going on this trip?

I really didn’t know much about Israel, even though I was part of the Jewish student union in high school. I’m not Jewish, but have always been fascinated with Jewish culture. I had learned a surface-level kind of knowledge

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about the Israel/Palestine conflict, but again, that was entirely from the Jewish perspective.

How did your perceptions of Israel change after spending spring break there?

This was my first time traveling off of the continent. The only time I had ever left the U.S. before this trip was to travel to Mexico. I expected people and everything to be really different. But after spending time with the Israeli students, they seemed just like us.

I knew that Israel represented some big religious communities, but I didn’t realize how much it was part of everyday life. Seeing the young women on the train reading the Torah was not what I was used to.

Before the trip, I had the impression that Israel was a developing country. I came to realize how ahead of us they are in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to technology, and water technology specifically. And they are a world leader when it comes to entrepreneurism.

Did this trip have any influence on the direction you would like to take for your professional career?

It absolutely did. I learned that I have a passion for water, which I didn’t know until I learned about all of the issues with water. I conducted research with Dr. Jacobitz over the summer. It was a continuing project that he has overseen, looking at ways of removing e-coli from water sources in Uganda.

Any highlights that stand out?

There are many! Experiencing the nightlife and interacting with local people was so much fun. Also, it was really interesting seeing all of the military there —— people with high-powered machine guns that they carried around, almost casually. And I thought it was extremely valuable to go to the Yad Vashem museum. It was gutwrenching, but I think it was also so important for us to understand that history and the role it played in creating the nation of Israel.

BRANDON KENNEDY ’20 What were your impressions, if any, of Israel before going on this trip?

I had very little knowledge about what the world looked like outside of the U.S. prior to this trip. I thought that Israel would be really

hot, like the desert, and nothing more than dirt roads. I grew up Catholic, so I had heard about Israel my whole life. But I had no idea what to expect.

How did your perceptions of Israel change after spending spring break there?

It was so different from what I thought it would be. So many different types of people and religions, a lot of green everywhere, which was not what I expected at all. I also didn’t expect to see the types of people that I saw. I expected everyone to look like they came from the Middle East.

Instead, there were many people who looked like what you would see in any American city. Seeing the sights in the Old City of Jerusalem was very impactful.

Seeing all of the historic monuments brought the deep history to life for me.

Did this trip have any influence on the direction you would like to take for your professional career?

Yes, definitely. I was very intrigued by the water management structure in Israel. And learning about similarities and differences in California makes me want to go into water management and help work toward sustainability. I am actually going to pursue an MA in Peace and Justice at USD’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, as a way of trying to pursue this interest.

I want to look at the role of water in peace and justice issues.

Any highlights that stand out?

I really like being in nature, so I loved being at the Dead Sea and Masada and the hidden waterfall area (Ein Gedi). I loved getting away from the urban center. I felt very much at peace, even though it was close to a border area.

Wandering around Jerusalem, seeing all of the little shops and the different kinds of people was

so interesting. And the difference between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv was so striking.

JOE BECERRA ’21 What were your impressions, if any, of Israel before going on this trip?

At first, I was a bit hesitant to go because of the conflict that nations have with Israel, and the differing ideas and religions. But I was really interested in learning more about the purification of water and all of the engineering, which overpowered any concerns I had.

How did your perceptions of Israel change after spending spring break there?

I was blown away. The resilience of the people, how much they have overcome, was incredible. The people were so nice. You could start a conversation with anybody about anything, even about politics and religion.

VICTORIA (TORI) KLAZURA ’20 What were your impressions, if any, of Israel before going on this trip?

I thought Israel was going to be a very religious place because of all of the things I read about in the Bible. I also was kind of expecting it to be not completely safe. People back home warned me that I should be really careful and to never go anywhere by myself while I was there. I wasn’t expecting it to be so modern. I was expecting the desert or something like the Old City.

How did your perceptions of Israel change after spending spring break there?

I still think that it’s religious, but in a different way than I was expecting. There are so many different religions there and varying levels of intensity in religiosity. It’s also more developed than I

my eyes to the possibility of maybe pursuing something in waterrelated technology, perhaps within the biomedical field.

Any highlights that stand out?

I absolutely loved the wastewater treatment plant. I loved getting to see all of the processes that we learned about in class and seeing how water is actually treated. It made everything that we were learning in the class make sense. It really helped us to see the big picture when we were treating the wastewater samples.

I also liked the City of David water tunnels. The City of David was just unreal, looking across to the Mountain of Olives and east Jerusalem. In the tunnels, I wasn’t expecting it to be pitch black and so narrow. At the very end, a word came to mind, “siloam,” which means “sent.” I had read about it

Did this trip have any influence on the direction you would like to take for your professional career?

I’ve always been inclined toward environmentalism and I’ve always wanted to use my skills for that purpose. But I hadn’t thought about water. Now, after seeing all of the science that goes into water health, I am definitely interested in looking into some sort of career in water.

Any highlights that stand out?

The trip was amazing. The lectures and the labs and the tours were so great. But the main thing that stands out for me was the food —— especially the quality of the food.

Everything was so fresh. I kept asking people why it was so good.

The answer that I got was that everything we were eating was grown right there. It was so impressive to me because the majority of Israel is desert.

thought it was going to be. I didn’t know that Tel Aviv was such a 21st century city. I felt completely safe while I was there.

Did this trip have any influence on the direction you would like to take for your professional career?

Yes and no. I’m pretty firm that I want to pursue something in the biomedical field. But it has opened

in my Gospel of John class and realized that this was where Jesus had sent the blind man to be cured.

Again, connecting those dots between what I had read in the Bible and where I was right at that moment was amazing.

—— Elisa Lurkis

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Engineering Clean Water Access in Uganda people —— that it can make the world better —— is something that will stay with me.”

The project, The Development of a Remediation Approach for the Removal of Bacteria and Toxic Metals for Use in Rural Uganda, is a work in progress —— it was their senior engineering capstone design project and Bellizzi’s Honors Program senior thesis, as well. The two, working in a collaborative effort with resources in and beyond the engineering school, leave USD with a foundation on which future students can build.

Project Timeline

Think of precious resources needed to sustain life and think no further than clean water. While for the most part it is not difficult to find in the United States, access to clean water in other parts of the world is tougher to find and requires willing problem solvers.

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Enter Ava Bellizzi and Christina Kozlovsky, Class of 2020 mechanical engineering graduates from USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering. For the past two years, they have worked to improve access to clean water in rural Uganda —— a country heavily impacted by poor water quality issues. They conducted research and testing on a filtration device that can ultimately help keep bacteria and toxic metals out of the water there and expand to other countries with similar issues.

“When you think of water quality being such a global problem, this was a huge challenge. Our thinking was ‘How do we put a dent in this problem?’” Bellizzi says.

“We created a device that removes contaminants and filters the water through at a reasonable rate, Kozlovsky says. When we were struggling with a solution, the thought of this device helping

In Fall 2018, Bellizzi attended a Humanities Center class co-taught

by Mechanical Engineering Professor and Chair Frank Jacobitz, PhD, and Theology and Religious Studies Professor Florence Gillman, PhD, called, “Water Now and Then: Cape Town’s Crisis, California, Modern Israel, and the Biblical World,” to gain a historical context on water.

Bellizzi and Kozlovsky spent the Spring 2019 semester working with Jacobitz on initial research. They presented their findings to Jacobitz and Chemistry Professor Jim Bolender, PhD, who leads a USD-Uganda water-quality project with help from USD and international academic and NGO contacts.

The project took an experiential, international turn when Kozlovsky was part of an eight-student research team with professors Bolender, Jacobitz, biology’s Keith Macdonald and nursing’s Martha Fuller, PhD, in Uganda in January 2020. There Kozlovsky did bacteria

testing using local items such as eucalyptus to sharpen the user-design experience.

“I took the water samples we’d get and run them through plant xylem, testing to see if the bacteria increased or decreased,” Kozlovsky said. “Ava and I want this device to be sustainable in Uganda using locally sourced products. Getting the chance to come to Uganda and test the trees most found here is extremely helpful.”

They had a prototype in place prior to Kozlovsky’s trip to Uganda and, upon Kozlovsky’s return, the two kept working through spring until they had to shift due to the COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate.

The week before classes went remote in mid-March, Bellizzi and Kozlovsky spent a lot of time in the engineering machine shop to finalize design work on the device so they could perform tests from home.

“We tested the flow rate using applied pressure from household items such as bricks, hand weights and textbooks, anything to provide a heavy force to the system,” Bellizzi said. “This device will be used in Uganda households and not in a lab so people in Uganda are more likely to use something like a brick. This helped us better understand the user’s perspective.”

Making the Most of the Opportunity COVID-19 might have kept them off campus, but their work ethic paid dividends a few times over by the end of the semester.

They presented at USD’s Creative Collaborations in April, at the Engineering and Computing Showcase in early May and then at the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society’s Virtual Student Scholars Symposium in mid-May, where the two won the Undergraduate Division category.

“The care, motivation and dedication to create a really good presentation reflects on the work they’ve done throughout the project,” Jacobitz said. “Knowing what might work and what doesn’t, shows me a lot of self-motivation and dedication to move the project forward.”

Bellizzi and Kozlovsky did their part while at USD. They’ve got a solid experiential learning opportunity to draw from, they worked with supportive faculty and they made the most of the benefits of the engineering school’s unique BS/BA dual degree.

“This project would not be where it is without the support of the faculty,” Kozlovsky said. “The level of faculty interest and support they give to students shows what’s important to them.

I think it shows how much USD cares, that it is about educating the student as a whole. They’re not spitting out a carbon copy of an engineer. The dual-degree program helps us grow, faculty support helps us figure out who we want to be as engineers and what engineering means to us.”

—— Ryan T. Blystone Video: www.sandiego.edu/ UgandaResearch

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Remembering the Humility and Generosity of Larry Kull Intrigued, Lurkis phoned Vosti

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back right away. She learned a

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school’s eTrack Initiative, where

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accomplished engineer and

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Engineering was only six years old.

teams whose projects seemed

entrepreneurial spirit. Vosti felt

It has a small, young group of

most likely to succeed as a startup venture.

that USD’s engineering and

alumni and out-of-the-box

entrepreneurship goals were a

thinking was necessary to raise

strong match with Dr. Kull’s life’s

the necessary funds for the

work and accomplishments.

Vosti was certain that he and others would be able to raise

school. So, Lurkis eagerly sent

significant funds in a short period

Vosti some options to consider.

of time. Lurkis was cautiously

After a few conversations, and

10 | I 3 @ USD, FALL 2020

capstone design projects are

physicist who had helped SAIC

optimistic and took a wait-and-

hallmarks. His early career as a

hope is to host it in Spring 2021,

Initiative is starting to get noticed

see approach.

navigator in U.S. Navy destroyers

when the first student award will

by people who played a key role in

served him well in the

be made.

What she did not expect was the overwhelming generosity from

tempestuous seas that would roil

According to Venkat Shastri, PhD,

Kull’s family, friends and former

SAIC’s course from time to time.

director of the eTrack Initiative,

colleagues.

Tough as he needed to be, Larry

“The vision, energy and generosity

building San Diego’s culture of entrepreneurship.” —— Elisa Lurkis

had a softer side too. As someone

of Mr. Vosti and his former

the sky,” Lurkis recalls. “Every day

else said: ‘If SAIC’s founder, Bob

colleagues made it possible for us

Thank you to the donors to the Larry Kull Endowed Student Award in Engineering and Entrepreneurship:

for weeks on end, another check

Beyster, was the brains of SAIC,

to establish the Torero

Steve Ayers

would arrive. It felt like Christmas

Larry was its heart.’ I still think of

Entrepreneurship Challenge (TECh).

The Beyster Family*

every day.”

and miss him nearly every day.”

As we started to put the details of

June Chocheles

“The checks started falling from

Within the course of six months, they had raised more than

Stephen Dalich, former

the competition together, we

executive vice president and SAIC

realized that the Larry Kull Award

$400,000, establishing an

board member, remembers Larry

could well become the epicenter

endowed fund that would allow a

as a wonderful friend, mentor and

of technology innovation on

student award to be made in Larry

boss. He added that “one of the

campus. And I thought, what

Kull’s name each year, in

beautiful things about Larry was

better way to celebrate the impact

perpetuity.

his humility. He never realized, or

of Larry and SAIC on the tech

recognized, how important he was

community in San Diego!”

The generosity speaks volumes about how much Larry Kull was

Wayne and Barbara Coleman James and Lindsey Cuff Stephen Dalich* Richard and Byrne Eger John and Cynthia Glancy* Thomas Grojean James Hakeem* William Hanan* Dennis Heipt*

loved and admired by those who

Mark and Susan Hughes

knew him.

Roger Johnson

According to Vosti, “Larry was a

Hugh and Wendy Kendrick*

special person, technically brilliant,

Racquel Kolsrud

with a humble style of leadership.

Lynda Kull*

He acted with integrity and

Peter Lobner

honesty, with a strong sense of

John Nelson

fairness to the employees and the

Charles Nichols*

company. He put others’ interests

Victor and Jeanne Orphan*

first and gave his time to help anyone succeed or reach their

Lou Poanessa

potential, professionally or

Howard Pratt

personally. This made him a

Cheryl and Steve Rockwood

wonderful mentor to many, a

Bill Roper

positive role model for SAIC and a

Paul Sager

reliable friend.”

Serving later as Kull’s deputy, Hugh Kendrick remembers how Larry became his best friend soon after they first met in 1968 when they worked for Bob Beyster at General Atomics before he founded SAIC. “Complete honesty, integrity and loyalty were Larry’s

to the company and so many people. Many times, he was a bit

Dean Chell Roberts was delighted about the success of

like an island of sanity in the

this effort. “We are extraordinarily

middle of chaos.”

grateful to Larry Kull and his

The original plan was to host an

friends and family for their

event on campus to meet

generosity in launching this award

members of Kull’s community and

program. It speaks volumes about

introduce the student teams who

the kind of man that Larry was to

would be vying for the first award.

inspire such generosity. And it is

Unfortunately, COVID-19 caused

wonderful to know that our eTrack

Matthew Tobriner* Randy Vosti* Joe and Mary Walkush Joseph and Jean Walsh John and Helga Warner* * Names will appear on the donor wall at the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Link: www.sandiego.edu/LarryKull

the event to be canceled. Now the

W W W.S A N DIEGO. EDU/ENGINEERING | 11

Eye on Alumni: Finding Solutions During a Pandemic for the front lines and has made it possible for me to oversee the quality and operating functions of our critical care ventilators. I am proud to be here in person to work for this effort!

The Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering at the University of San Diego reached out to alumni to learn how they are working on solutions to assist with managing the COVID-19 crisis. Below are only a few examples of how our alumni are providing solutions.

12 | I 3 @ USD, FALL 2020

Adam Krebs ’15 (ME), is a manufacturing and mechanical engineer for Ventec Life Systems, which has partnered with General Motors (GM) to ramp up production of critical care ventilators.

Tell me about your current position and how you and your company are interfacing with the COVID-19 situation.

My current position at Ventec is in Supplier Quality, where I ensure supplier qualification and part conformance and facilitate continuous design improvement of VOCSN ventilator units. Within the last month, our company has partnered with GM to ramp up production from 150 ventilators per month at our Bothell facility to 5,000+ ventilators per month at GM’s Kokomo, Ind. manufacturing

facility to get VOCSN critical care ventilators to the front line fight to combat COVID-19.

Is this work similar to the type of work your company did before the pandemic?

The scope of work that we are doing is unchanged, however the production ramp we are implementing in the one-month timeframe is vastly different from all other projects I have been a part of. Our team has spent countless hours with the GM team to source parts, execute the manufacturing plan and train personnel how to produce critical care ventilators.

Are you working remotely or in person? How is that going?

I am currently working onsite in Kokomo, Ind. Being in person has allowed me to support this new team to successfully build devices

Is there a particular example from this crisis that stands out for you?

The entire project is an example of what is possible when we put our minds together to reach goals where failure is not an option.

Thousands of individuals have worked tirelessly to make all of this possible, whether it was sourcing the 245+ different parts, confirming the quality of every part that goes inside or assembling all of the components of the critical care ventilators that will ultimately help front-line professionals combat COVID-19.

Danielle Gadbois ’19 (ME) is a mechanical engineer for GenMark Diagnostics. We asked her to tell us how the COVID-19 situation impacted her work.

Tell me about your current position and how you and your company are interfacing with the COVID-19 situation.

I work for GenMark Diagnostics as a mechanical engineer for our Instrument Engineering department. My company manufactures a sample-toanswer diagnostic test system.

Our instrument is currently used to test a Respiratory Panel and Blood Culture Identification Panel. When the outbreak of COVID-19 hit in China, our scientists raced to come up with a test for SARSCoV-2 using our existing

instrument. The company was able to produce and release a research-use only product for COVID-19 in only 20 days. Once we released this news to our existing customers and the public, the company had an extraordinarily increased demand for our instrument and test kits. Because of the increased demand, I was asked to help our field team install our instrument at customer sites in the Bay Area in early March.

Since then, we continue to work tirelessly to keep up with the demand for these tests and instruments.

Is this work similar to the type of work your company did before the pandemic?

Yes, my company does the same type of work, but now at an increased demand. My role is mostly the same, but has shifted a bit to help the field teams to improve ability to place instruments.

Are you working remotely or in person? How is that going?

I mostly work remotely and go into the office as needed. I feel my company has been able to successfully shift a good portion of the company to at-home work.

For those who need to come to the office, such as those who work in manufacturing and quality control, we have health screenings to enter the building.

Is there a particular example from this crisis that stands out for you?

My company’s drive to meet the huge demand and our company culture of empowering customers has been really inspiring. People have been working really hard to ensure our product gets to hospitals and to maintain high quality products.

Matthew Craig ’03 (ISYE) is Senior Vice President of Meijer, a large supermarket retail chain in the Midwest. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Meijer, like grocery stores across the country, remains on the front lines, trying to protect its workers while providing critical food and supplies to its customers.

Tell me what Meijer did to approach this situation.

We wanted to make sure we were listening to what our team members and the community needed. With the stay-at-home order, hundreds of restaurants shut down and there were thousands of people without work.

Meanwhile, Meijer was busier than ever, trying to restock our shelves to provide for our customers. We hired hundreds of laid off restaurant workers, which helped us and helped them, in turn.

We were very transparent with our grocery store teams —— with the risk they were putting themselves in, while also providing full protective gear, gloves, masks and hand sanitizer. We paid them two dollars an hour more to try to compensate them as much as we could. I think we built a lot of trust with our team.

Outside of the canned foods and toilet paper that were essential, we focused first on our team. And once the team was feeling OK, we knew we could serve our community well. If you don’t have a solid team, nothing works. Once our team understood how they were serving the larger community, we all went to work with a common purpose.

Tell me about the curbside operations you implemented.

We have three stores that are actively doing curbside. There is high demand for it and so much stress on the supply chain that it’s

hard to keep everything on the shelves that people want. In one store, we tested a premade order for food banks, which worked really well for those organizations.

Mostly, people are learning to shop less frequently, but buying more each time. So, they are reducing their trips to the store, which makes sense even in the long run. Industrial engineers would call it a bit of a sunken cost if you’re going to the store every other day. Now folks are being more strategic and more efficient.

Any one story that stands out for you over the past couple of months?

Just the need for all of us to care about each other. I had a phone

call with a woman in her 60s who had tested positive and was very worried. One of our supervisors called her every single day to check in on her. She says he saved her life because he gave her a stronger will to live. She has now recovered and has gone back to work. If we all learn from this to listen to people and let them know we care, we can all do better together. Oftentimes we focus on a spreadsheet or technical solution, but the most important thing is a human compassion solution. —— Elisa Lurkis Video: www.sandiego.edu/ PandemicSolutions

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Amidst the COVID-19 campus shutdown, the stillness within what used to be a thriving learning space now conjures up images out of a western movie. One would almost expect a tumbleweed to drift down the deserted halls that connect the labs and classrooms. The silence is deafening ... except for a distant whirring that begs to be heard.

The Sound of Hope Step back to the third week of March 2020, when Dean Chell Roberts of USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering was orchestrating the logistics of his on-ground team during the initial COVID-19 campus closure. It was then that he met with Dean Jane Georges from USD’s Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science.

“I asked if there was anything our school could do,” Roberts recalls. “Dean Georges expressed an urgent need for personal protective equipment (PPE) in hospitals. She suggested that other institutions were manufacturing PPE and would welcome our help.”

Roberts immediately conducted a search and found detaied specifications for 3D-printed face shield prototypes to be used by medical professionals. Knowing the school had available lab space, equipment and skeleton staff, he contacted Mechanical Lab Manager, Steve Saxer, and asked if we could

14 | I 3 @ USD, FALL 2020

reasonably produce any of these PPE prototypes.

Uncertain of the specifications or materials required to create an effective face shield, Saxer responded, “Possibly.” The wheels were set in motion.

Georges selected the optimal prototype and connected Saxer with Clinical Assistant Professor Nicole Martinez, who also works as a nurse practitioner at Scripps Mercy Hospital.

“It was a wonderful experience to collaborate with Steve —— to be able to go to the workshop and see how the masks were developed with my feedback and to share my stories of what we were experiencing in the ER,” explains Martinez.

The process was slow to start, initially yielding only six to eight face shield headbands per day.

And as the iterations gained momentum, the whirring of the 3D printers quickly graced the silenced hallways with the sound of hope.

Saxer and crew were not alone in their quest. They also enlisted the

help of alumnus Michael Korody ’20 and Chadmond Wu, president of the USD 3D Printing Club, to print face shields from their homes.

After a few short weeks of collaborative work, the engineering team delivered the first group of over 250 desperately needed face shields to the School of Nursing that were, in turn, donated to Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego.

Around this time, two USD alumnae from Collins Aerospace, Carol (Daniels) Palguta and Renee Thomashow, had reached out to Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Leonard Perry in search of a partner in the assembly and distribution of face shields for UCSD Medical Center.

By mid-May, the arrangement was finalized with Collins, and the team began producing higher volumes of a different style of face shield.

“Over time, improved stacking led us to be able to print 60 shield frames per day five days per week,” Saxer says. “Collins now

picks up 200 a week. I continue to support our nursing school with roughly 100 shields weekly.”

When asked about the school’s long-term goal for the face shields, Saxer confirms, “We will keep printing them until there is no more need or until our printers break down.”

These are the silver linings that emerge in the face of adversity.

Where inspiration and collaboration push us beyond our personal and professional limitations and stretch us to do more —— to be more. To be Changemakers.

“Being a part of USD, which is an anchor institution here in San Diego, has really reinforced our core values of compassionate service,” says Martinez. “This is another example of how this is such an amazing university who helps out community, especially during a crisis such as this.” —— Michelle Sztupkay Link: www.sandiego.edu/FaceShields

Department Highlights Our esteemed educators come from a diverse range of backgrounds with a deep commitment to challenging, inspiring and mentoring students. Their dedication is one of the reasons the programs are so highly rated among peer institutions.

COMPUTER SCIENCE

The Computer Science department is pleased to welcome Jennifer Olsen, PhD, as its newest tenure track faculty member, starting in the Fall 2020 semester.

Dr. Olsen earned her PhD in human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University in 2017, and has since been a postdoctoral fellow at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland. Her area of specialization is human-computer interaction in learning and instruction. The 2019–20 academic year marked the first year that computer science seniors participated in full-year capstone projects, led by Drs. Charles Pateros and Jay Kunin. Some student teams worked on industry-sponsored projects, while others completed entrepreneurial projects. In November 2019, six USD teams competed in the Southern California regional International Collegiate Programming Contest. Additionally, the Association for Computing Machinery club had another active and successful year, hosting workshops and industry speakers, and participating in programming competitions.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

The Electrical Engineering department celebrated several major milestones this year. Ernest Kim, PhD, Michael Morse, PhD and Kathleen Kramer, PhD, each celebrated 30 years of service at the University of San Diego.

Professor and Chair of Electrical Engineering Mikaya Lumori celebrates 20 years of service this year as well. Associate Professor Sherry Abbasi has served our engineers well during the last four years and has accepted a tenure-track faculty position at the University of Portland. As one of the founding faculty members of the USD engineering program, we thank Thomas Schubert, PhD, for his years of dedication to the university. Dr. Schubert retired officially in the spring of 2020 after dedicating more than three decades to helping shape the department and inspiring electrical engineering students.

INDUSTRIAL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

The Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) department continued to thrive with new student and faculty achievements this year. Student teams won second place and an honorable mention in the Simio International Student Competition in December 2019 and took home several awards from the 2020 Global Social Innovation Challenge. The Junior Mentorship program grew stronger with advisory board members’ dedication and support.

The ISyE Industry Advisory Board welcomed its newest member, Melody Ablola ’04 (ISyE).

Department faculty engaged in scholarly activities with students through impactful research/ service projects and journal

publications. Faculty work ranged from improving USD structural and operational effectiveness, modeling residential energy consumption and developing new materials and processes for biomedical applications to helping a local Blind Community Center and an underserved population in the Dominican Republic. The department is proud to announce the tenure and promotion of Jae Kim, PhD, to associate professor, and we are excited to have Maryam Keshtzari, PhD, our newest assistant professor, join us in Fall 2020.

INTEGRATED ENGINEERING

There is so much going on in the Integrated Engineering department, it is hard to keep track. The number of majors continues to grow, with nine graduates for the 2020 academic year and 18 second-year students.

Professor and Chair Susan Lord will be on sabbatical for the 2020–21 academic year, and Diana Chen, PhD, will step in as interim chair to lead the department.

Matteo Salom ’19 was the first integrated engineering alumnus on the ENGR 101 alumni panel in Fall 2019, while a new student society —— the Society for Integrated Engineering —— was formed in Spring 2020. Students can now choose the biomedical engineering concentration. Faculty offered new and continuing courses, including: GENG 294, An Integrated Approach to Energy, which was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant; a new collaborative course on Engineering and Health with faculty from nursing and peace studies; a new collaborative

course on Cities/Urban Design using GIS, with faculty from EOSC and SOLES; courses in bioinformatics and biomaterials; and ENGR 311 Materials Science, a new module in which students considered environmental and social implications of plastic straws. Alex Mejia, PhD, was awarded the NSF CAREER grant and Mark Chapman, PhD, was awarded the NSF-IRES grant from the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE). Gordon Hoople, PhD, took a collaborative 30-foot wooden sundial sculpture, About Time, to Burning Man in 2019. And to top it all off, Dr. Hoople and his wife welcomed their second son in February 2020.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Much has transpired in the mechanical engineering department during the last year. In 2020, Daniel Codd, PhD, received tenure and was promoted to the rank of associate professor.

Matthew McGarry, PhD, was on sabbatical and returned to teaching for the Fall 2020 semester. One-unit courses were developed during the academic year, including Designing Your Life, which applies the engineering design process to non-technical problems. Former Chair of Mechanical Engineering Ming Huang, PhD, celebrated his 15-year anniversary with the University of San Diego. We are proud to announce that Shannon Bailey and John Mullen joined the mechanical engineering advisory board in Fall 2019, with GB Singh Chauhan joining in Fall 2020. We also wish to extend our appreciation to Phillip Young for 14 years of service on the board.

W W W.S A N DIEGO. EDU/ENGINEERING | 15

Faculty Achievements Each of our faculty members has a breadth of practical experience, as well as a strong commitment to student learning and scholarship.

Our devoted personnel connect with students individually to make the technically challenging learning environment more hands on and personable.

Caroline Baillie, PhD, professor of praxis of integrated engineering, designed two courses that address the COVID-19 situation.

The first, Engineering and Health, Working Towards Peace and Justice, looks at the intersection of international development, public health and engineering. The second is the Forest School STEAM certificate professional development program, which helps school teachers integrate STEM with arts, social science and literature within an outdoor

16 | I 3 @ USD, FALL 2020

setting. Dr. Baillie is also the faculty lead for the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Post-COVID Task Force, charged with addressing the ways the engineering and computer science professions can support vulnerable communities.

Mark Chapman, PhD, assistant professor of integrated engineering, published an article in the journal, Cell Reports, titled “Skeletal Muscle Transcriptomic Comparison Between Long-Term Trained and Untrained Men and Women” in collaboration with colleagues in the research lab of Dr. Carl Johan Sundberg at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Chapman was also awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant from the Office of International Science and Engineering for $299,200 titled, “IRES Track I: US-Sweden Clinical Bioinformatics Research Training Program” to create a summer research program for U.S. students at the Science for Life Laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden.

Link: www.sandiego.edu/MChapman

Diana Chen, PhD, assistant professor of integrated engineering, will step in as interim chair to lead the integrated engineering department while Susan Lord, professor and chair of integrated engineering, is on sabbatical for the 2020-21 academic year.

Daniel Codd, PhD, associate professor of mechanical engineering, received tenure and was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 2020. He developed and taught a second offering of the technical elective, “Solar Energy Conversion and Storage” to meet growing engineering student demand. The course allowed students to dive deep into solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies and present research on a topic of interest. Recent publications in solar energy technology with USD students and colleagues from McGill, MIT and Tulane include Renewable Energy, Applied Energy and Current/Sustainable Energy Reports.

Odesma Dalrymple, PhD, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering and faculty lead of the

Engineering Exchange for Social Justice, collaborated on the NSF-funded STEMWoW program with faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences. The collaboration was described in the 2020 Scientia article, “Building the STEM Students We Need” and presented at the 2019 SACNAS Conference and 2020 Association of African-American Educators Conference. With the transition to online learning in Spring 2020, she facilitated a successful collaboration between her ENGR 103 students and members from the San Diego Blind Community Center to develop project ideas to serve this community’s needs.

Video: www.sandiego.edu/ AskTheExperts

Melissa Gibbons, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, in collaboration with colleague James Kohl, PhD, presented a study at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition.

The study was titled “Using Finite Element Analyses to Assess the Effect of a Thickness Gradient on the Stress Profile at the Epoxy/ Silicone Interface of Thin Coatings

Subjected to Pull-Off Loading,” which was accepted for publication in the International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives.

Gordon Hoople, PhD, assistant professor of integrated engineering, received the inaugural studentnominated Faculty Recognition Award. He founded a new art collective, Art Builds, which fosters interdisciplinary collaboration in participatory art installations. Dr. Hoople also partnered with colleagues and students across the USD campus to design, build and transport a 3,000-pound wooden sundial sculpture, About Time, to Burning Man 2019. Dr. Hoople and Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, PhD, of the Kroc School of Peace Studies, published a book, Drones for Good, in Spring 2020. He also published seven articles with colleagues and student co-authors.

Ming Huang, PhD, professor of mechanical engineering, published “On Dimension Synthesis of Hart’s Inversor III Straight Line Mechanism as a Precision Robotic End-of-Arm Tool,” at the proceedings of the 2019 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Additionally, Dr. Huang and colleague Elizabeth Reddy, PhD, published “Robots at Your Service: An Entrepreneurial and Socio-

Technical ACL Module,” at the 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition in Tampa, Florida.

Frank Jacobitz, PhD, professor and chair of mechanical engineering, received the University Professorship Award for the 2019–20 academic year and the Mens et Spiritus Award of the USD Honors Program. He visited Aix-Marseille University to perform research on the acceleration of fluid particles in stratified shear flows. Results were presented at the 11th International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena and the 72nd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics. Dr. Jacobitz taught the course, Water in California and Israel: Challenges and Solutions, which included a trip to Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem.

He also visited Uganda with an interdisciplinary USD team, including President Harris, to work on a water project.

Jae Kim, PhD, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering, was promoted from assistant professor to tenured associate professor in Spring 2020. Additionally, Dr. Kim prepared and led students to compete in the 2019 Simio Simulation Competition, with nearly 300 submissions from all over the world. His Entities team

placed second, and his Sim Diego team won an honorable mention.

Susan M. Lord, PhD, professor and chair of integrated engineering, received the William Elgin Wickenden Award, along with colleagues from Purdue University, Rose-Hulman and USD, for the best paper published in the Journal of Engineering Education in 2019 for “Beyond Pipeline and Pathways: Ecosystem Metrics.” Dr. Lord was an invited Electrical and Computer Engineering Distinguished Seminar speaker at the University of Michigan in 2019. Her presentation was entitled, “Enhancing Learning and Inclusivity in Electrical Engineering.” Based on their National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored research, Dr. Lord and colleagues from across the U.S. produced advice for military veterans considering engineering, and for faculty and administrators interested in supporting student veterans in engineering.

Alex Mejia, PhD, assistant professor of integrated engineering, and Susan Lord, PhD, facilitated workshops on decolonizing engineering education at the Research in Engineering Education Symposium in Cape Town, South Africa, and the Frontiers in Education conference. Dr. Mejia also received the prestigious NSF CAREER grant to promote “Latinx” success in engineering.

Truc Ngo, PhD, professor and chair of industrial and systems engineering, recently published a research article, “Surface Morphology and Drug Loading Characterization of 3D-Printed Methacrylate-Based Polymer Facilitated by Supercritical Carbon Dioxide”, in the peer-reviewed Journal of Supercritical Fluids. It was co-authored by undergraduate students, former ME graduate Lauren Hoffman, and engineering colleague Gordon Hoople, PhD. Dr. Ngo collaborated with other engineering and business colleagues to develop two new coffee courses, one with global diversity level 2 flag and another as part of the USD Honors program. Dr. Ngo’s research team had to postpone its 2020 humanitarian trip to the Dominican Republic due to the pandemic and hope to travel next summer to complete their mission.

Leonard Perry, professor of industrial and systems engineering, is working as the technical lead alongside facilities management on a collaborative campus project for Stride 2024. With Brad Chase from ISyE and Simon Croom from the School of Business, the team is utilizing operations excellence (lean six sigma) methods to optimize the custodial services on campus, which includes adding new COVID “super cleaning” steps.

PAG E 16

Frank Jacobitz, PhD Susan Lord, PhD Ming Huang, PhD PAG E 17

Truc Ngo, PhD ISyE Team: Drs. Kim, Perry, Chase, Tinnakornsrisuphap, Olson, Dalrymple and Ngo Mark Chapman, PhD

W W W.S A N DIEGO. EDU/ENGINEERING | 17

Virtual Showcase Demonstrates Real Success Engineers are innovators and problem solvers, so when the COVID-19 crisis required students to finish projects remotely and present them online, the response was “can do.”

Moreover, the virtual format allowed friends and family members who could not have attended in person to participate in the event.

18 | I 3 @ USD, FALL 2020

At the University of San Diego Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, students imagine, innovate and inspire to create solutions to any number of societal challenges. At this year’s Engineering and Computing Showcase, the resilience of our seniors was put to the test —— and they passed with flying colors.

The showcase featured more than 40 capstone design projects, including one that’s already won an award, from graduating seniors in computer science and electrical, industrial and systems, integrated and mechanical engineering.

The virtual showcase, in poster format, attracted more than 400 viewers who navigated between five Zoom rooms and were able to chat with students about their projects.

For computer science senior Matt Hickman, the event became a family affair as his mother, grandmother, aunt, sister and cousin watched him and his teammates present the Sunshine Box, a solar-powered mobile charging unit used to bring reliable energy to places that lack it in developing countries. “It was great having them get to see our project,” he says. “We worked all year on it and many of them didn’t even really know what I was working on.”

“Seeing, learning about the Sunshine Box made me, once again, appreciate how much engineers bring to the world,” says his grandmother, Barb Epidendio, who tuned in from just outside of Portland, Ore. “I found the concepts embodied in the project and what the box could do for the world so uplifting.”

Minoo Gupta, a member of the school’s Executive Advisory Board, also gave the virtual format rave reviews. “I thoroughly enjoyed the virtual sessions of the engineering meeting and showcase,” she says.

“Very cool to be able to interact with the engineers and the projects directly. I could have

never imagined the fun I had watching in this format. Thank you for leading the way to the virtual showcases in future!”

“The event really demonstrated the resilience and hard work of our students, faculty and industry partners,” says Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Dean Chell Roberts. “Based on the feedback we will definitely offer a hybrid event incorporating a digital option for future showcases.”

Other projects in this year’s showcase demonstrated the depth and breadth of innovation and research by students, faculty and their industry and community partners, ranging from nonprofit service projects to entrepreneurial ideas for new products and services.

Projects included a Mile STEAM Collaboratory to allow for safe transportation of tools, equipment and software to promote science and technology learning onsite with community partners and a public transportation fare processing system for people with disabilities. Another project

designed a system to purify water and remove contaminants for communities in rural Uganda.

There also was a field launchable micro-drone platform for search and rescue operations sponsored by General Atomics and HITS, a system for tracking potentially dangerous hits and performance in contact sports, such as football.

As the virtual showcase concluded, Assistant Professor of Integrated Engineering Gordon Hoople summed up the unusual end to the semester prompted by the pandemic and the impact it will have on students: “Our students have really risen to the challenge of distributed teamwork. In my class, as many businesses were doing at the time, we actually had students make contingency plans for their projects in case remote work was required. Their plans really set them up for success.” As they move to their jobs and careers, “they will no doubt learn many valuable lessons from rising to the challenge.”

Graduate Employment The USD Career Development Center compiles data on students completing their undergraduate degrees. Here is a snapshot of the next steps USD engineering and computer science graduates are taking as they embark on their careers. Of the 148 SMSE students who graduated between July 2018 and June 2019, 73.6% provided data on how they have jump-started their futures.

GRADUATE OUTCOMES

95.4

%

of 2018-19 respondents are employed, in graduate school, in the military or in full-time volunteer service.

7 7.8% Employed Full-Time

3.7% Employed Part-Time

9.3% Furthering Education

3.7% Military Service

4.6% Seeking Employment

0.9% Self-Employed

REPRESENTATIVE EMPLOYERS OF GRADUATES Boeing Clarity Design, Inc. G2 Ops General Motors

Illumina SDG&E Intuit Solar Turbines Northrop Grumman Tesla Qualcomm Viasat

FIRST JOB OFFER

93.5

%

of 2018-19 respondents who are employed full-time reported that they received their first job offer within three months of graduating (65.2% before

graduating, 28.3% within 0-3 months and 6.5% within 4-6 months.)

ANNUAL SALARIES

71,000 % 53.3 $

Median

NUMBER OF JOB OFFERS of respondents who are employed full-time reported that they received more than one job before accepting a position.

This chart represents a detailed breakdown of the respondents’ job offers.

46.7% One offer Photos taken at the Engineering and Computing Expo in December 2019.

2 6.7% Two offers 13.3% Three offers 13.3% Four offers

W W W.S A N DIEGO. EDU/ENGINEERING | 19

Alumni Notes An active and engaged alumni network benefits current and future students, the university and fellow alumni. Across San Diego and around the globe, our alumni imagine, design and create innovations while maintaining a deep understanding of the profound impact they have on society.

project engineering intern from USD and

cortical circuits underlying visual

assemblies at Cobham in San Diego. He

welcomes more interns from USD to

perception. Each spring, he teaches a

and his wife, Monica, are blessed with

gain hands-on engineering experience

laboratory course on microscopy to

two tremendous little boys who fill their

and exposure.

undergraduates majoring in

lives more than they expected.

Gislene Weig (EE) is originally from

neuroscience. Dr. Nauhaus will go up for

2 0 07

Brazil, and moved to the U.S. to get her

tenure in Spring 2021.

degree at USD. Since graduating, she

2004

has worked on low-voltage system

Melody Ablola (ISYE) has been featured

family-owned business focusing on real

twice on lists of “40 Under 40” for her

estate ownership and development and

Information Technology Systems (ITS),

work in engineering building design and

investments. Jadeite Group launched

audio visual and security systems. Her

is the newest member of UDS’s

its first residential project in Kuwait in

design portfolio includes museums,

Industrial and Systems Engineering

May 2020. Simsim Outstanding

large hospitals, colleges, multi-story

advisory board.

Shawarma, a Jadeite Group subsidiary,

2 0 05

opened its second restaurant location

integration and implementation of

offices and mixed-use buildings. Her passion is to design highly efficient and sustainable buildings. She is the author

2000 Commander Nathan Schneider (EE) and family moved from Hawaii back to the

of several industry articles, such as “How to Tackle 4 Challenges in Planning Smart Buildings,” Facilities.net and

Thomas Congdon (EE) is working at Google as a senior hardware design engineer focused on bringing the next generation Google Nest camera

Ali AlMatrouk (EE) is vice chairman and managing director at Jadeite Group, a

in Carmel Mountain in Fall 2019. Ali was elected as a board member in the Wedian Real Estate Company, his grandfather’s real estate arm.

products to market. His wife and

2 0 08

3-year-old son recently relocated to

Chris Gianelli, PhD, (EE) graduated from

the Bay Area from San Diego.

the University of Florida with his PhD in

associate principal at Integral Group, a

Matthew Dominick (EE) completed his

electrical and computer engineering

Ricardo Valerdi, PhD, (EE) has been

deep green engineering consulting

NASA astronaut training candidacy in

named Distinguished Outreach

company.

January 2020 and became eligible for

Professor at the University of Arizona.

2 0 02

mainland December 2019. He is living in Corpus Christi, Texas, and is a T-45 instructor pilot out of VT-22 in Kingsville, Texas.

He is a Professor in the Department of Systems & Industrial Engineering.

2 0 01

“Wireless: Plan it Now or Pay it Later,” Building Operating Management Magazine. Currently, she works as an

Ian Nauhaus, PhD, (EE) lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and children ages 5 and 3. He is an assistant professor in

spaceflight, including assignments to the International Space Station, Artemis

2 010

comes after more than two years of

Lauren Kennedy (ISyE) works at

Psychology at the University of Texas at

Management. As a member of the USD

Austin. He is the principal investigator of

Alumni Council, she has employed a

a lab that uses microscopy and signal

Marcos Vargas (EE) works as a

processing methods to understand

responsible engineer, sustaining a

basic training.

2006

production line of integrated microwave

Michael Bagian ’16 PAG E 2 1

Matt Leigh ’10 Cristina Garcia-Cartagena ’16 Rishika Daryanani ’16 Kim Woodbury ’15

20 | I 3 @ USD, FALL 2020

the cold weather and exploring the city

missions to Mars. The graduation

Technologies as head of Program

Jessica Buckley Carlson ’13

He and his wife have been adjusting to with their dog, Mimo.

the Departments of Neuroscience and

PAG E 2 0

engineer with Aptiv in Indianapolis, Ind.

missions to the moon, and ultimately,

Sally Herr (EE) is working at TrellisWare

Gislene Weig ’01

and took a position as a radar systems

YouTube as a technical program manager. She and her husband, JP, love to cook with their daughter and were excited to welcome their new baby in November 2019.

Matt Leigh (ME) recently won a Grammy® for engineering work on Willie Nelson’s “Ride Me Back Home.” This is

2 01 2 Aaron Paxton (EE) was recently promoted to a marketing and

Matt’s first Grammy® win after two

applications manager position at Texas

previous nominations with Natalie

Instruments. He continues to reside in

Grant. Matt continues to work as a

Tucson, Ariz.

music producer in Nashville, Tenn.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson (ISyE) NROTC, recently left active-duty service with the U.S. Marine Corps as a KC-130J pilot. She continues as CEO of a national nonprofit organization, Dogs on Deployment, and is currently enrolled in USD’s PMBA program with husband and alumnus, Shawn Johnson.

2 01 3 Jessica Buckley Carlson (ME) and her husband, Brett, are currently living in Swansea, Wales. The couple were “alloyed” in Estes Park, Colo., last August and moved to the UK for Brett’s post-doctoral research position three weeks later. After working as an engineer in the tunneling industry for

2 01 1

three years, Jess is exploring the

Chase Tushaus (ISyE) recently joined

education sector during their time

his father and brother in business

abroad.

as a financial advisor for Tushaus

2 014

Wealth Management, where he and their team provide guidance to others, especially during economically challenging times such as these. He and his wife, Julia, enjoy living in downtown San Diego where Julia eagerly hopes to be surprised with a puppy one day!

Tay Young (ISyE) recently started as the quality materials manager at Purple Innovations, based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Philip Hoskinson, PhD, (ME) published his thesis and used his degree to good measure by teaching MENG 260 at USD in Spring 2020 after buying his first house.

2 015 Adam Krebs (ME) transitioned roles from manufacturing to supplier quality. The company he works for, Ventec Life Systems, is urgently ramping production at their Bothell, Wash., facility in parallel with partnering with General Motors at their Kokomo, Ind., facility to meet the demand for critical care ventilators to combat COVID-19.

Samuel McClay (ME) continues to work

Troy Zawlacki (ME) is approaching his

as a nuclear submarine officer for the

fourth year working for Apple, Inc., in

U.S. Navy, where he is stationed at

the Bay Area. Since his start, he has

Trident Training Facility in Kings Bay, Ga., as a submarine tactics instructor, responsible for the training and certification of Ballistic and Guided

been in several different positions, but currently works as a mechanical design engineer in the hardware organization.

Missile submarine crews prior to at sea

2 016

operations. He and his wife, Taylor, a

Michael Bagian (ME) is at Solar Turbines

2014 graduate of the USD English department, celebrated their second wedding anniversary in June 2019.

and has been keeping busy during this pandemic with work. He is slowly switching from a mechanical design

Dan Partynski (CS) moved to Japan in

focus to a controls design focus. Bagian

March 2019, where he intends to pursue

is also happy to announce his recent

his online contract work while

engagement to fellow Torero, Lauren

immersing himself in Japanese culture

Riley ’17.

—— a lifelong dream. His mom, Maureen Partynski ’82, is supportive and intends to learn Japanese so they can converse.

Rishika Daryanani (ISyE) is an industry solutions and services consultant with Accenture and continues to provide energy companies on the West Coast

Kim Woodbury (ISyE) continues to work

with premier technology services.

at Thermo Fisher Scientific as a kit

Though she rarely stays still, she is

development manufacturing engineer.

enjoying some time with her family in

Based in San Francisco, she has been

San Diego and is utilizing her party-

working with her team, research and

planning skills to throw digital get-

development and operations, on new

togethers. If you need any tips or

product development and continuous

tricks, feel free to reach out!

improvement initiatives supporting their Clinical Next-Generation Sequencing Division. As much as she misses San Diego, she is really finding her place in San Francisco, as she has become actively engaged in Thermo Fisher’s Women’s Employee Resource Group, participated in her first set of 5Ks, the

Cristina Garcia-Cartagena (ME) continues to work for BN Builders managing construction projects for the pharmaceutical industry. Earlier this year, she traveled to Graceland to celebrate her promotion to senior project engineer.

2019 San Francisco Pride Parade and networking by coordinating team building events.

W W W.S A N DIEGO. EDU/ENGINEERING | 21

2 017

Tanner Franklin (CS and 2018 MS Cybersecurity Operations and Leadership) moved to Maple Valley, Wash., where he proudly works as a system security engineer at Boeing. He is assigned to the Presidential Airplane, commonly referred to as Air Force One. Additionally, Tanner works as a police officer for a neighboring town, Black Diamond, Wash. Tanner has been married to Ashley for more than five years and they have three sons: Noah (4); Isaac (3); and Joshua (1).

Duy Ngo (ME) continues to work as a

November 2019, Sheehan transitioned

mechanical systems engineer at

into the R&D department where he

Boeing’s 787 program in Everett, Wash.,

works as a design engineer for the

while starting the MBA program at

Access and Advanced Technology

University of Washington, Bothell, and

Team. When quarantine is over, he is

getting a private pilot’s license.

looking forward to visiting his parents

producibility transformations in the

Brandon Prussak (EE) continues to work

and three sisters in his hometown of

Aerostructures division. In 2019, Grindle

as an operations program manager at

Denver, Colo.

was granted a patent, which was filed

Viasat Inc. leading a team in the

2 019

in 2016 during his internship at UTC

commercial aviation sector.

Laura Becerra (EE) is currently a PhD

Aerospace Systems. He returned to the

2 01 8

graduate student in the Electrical and

Kiefer Grindle (ME) continues to work at Collins Aerospace (formerly UTC Aerospace Systems) as a manufacturing engineer supporting manufacturing operations and

University of San Diego’s School of Business in 2019 to pursue his graduate

Keanu Gututala (EE) continues to work as an RF hardware engineer for Northrop Grumman in San Diego, Calif.

During quarantine, he has been honing several important skills, including solving jigsaw puzzles, wine critiques and long hair management.

studies through an MBA. management consultant at Accenture

loves his new position within Substation

in his hometown of Seattle, Wash. Jake

Construction and is working to learn

is part of the customer sales and

and soak up all that he can.

service strategy practice and has spent model strategy, business process

scientist at Vanguard where she and

design and large-scale digital

her team are developing and deploying

transformation engagements.

Management Group.

head-banging at punk concerts.

own software platform, City Flavor,

to implement safety systems in

which provides event planners with

industrial processes. He and his

the means to create, manage and

fiancée, Abby Flannery ’17 (ISyE), live in

organize their events through a large

Los Angeles and spend their time

network of vendors and venues.

exploring the city and relaxing with their

City Flavor also manages mobile food

family in Orange County.

services for corporate and residential properties and events in more than 15 U.S. cities.

PAG E 2 3

Laura Mohrman ’19

22 | I 3 @ USD, FALL 2020

and how to apply them to different his off-time playing drums, boxing and

and his team are designing new ways

Michael Doyle ’18

techniques in AI and machine learning

dermatology and skin care company, addition, he continues to build out his

Austin Hirsh ’19

learning engineer, researching new

government projects. He likes to spend

engineer for VEGA Americas, where he

Karly Jerman ’16

The MITRE Corporation as a machine

development for the rapidly growing Apostrophe, in Oakland, Calif. In

PAG E 2 2

Michael Doyle (EE) continues to work for

Ian Lituchy (EE) works in software

Eric Robbibaro (EE) works as a sales

Brian Lee ’19

enjoying it very much. He recently received a promotion to engineer II. He

most of his early career on business

processing tools for the Investment

SDG&E for the past two years and is

Jake Hallgrimson (ME) works as a

Karly Jerman (ISyE) is a senior data

machine learning and natural language

Devyn Bryant (ME) has worked for

Ross Dwelley (ISyE) graduated only a couple of years ago, but his athletic prowess showed in the 2020 Super Bowl, where he played tight end for the San Francisco 49ers.

Chris Sheehan (ME) started his career after graduation as a quality engineer for Alphatec Spine, a medical device company that designs implants and instruments used in spine surgery. In

Computer Engineering program at UCSD. She is co-advised in the nanoengineering department, where she investigates haptic feedback and flexible electronics for medical devices.

She balances her time by salsa dancing, running half marathons and visiting family back home.

Danielle Gadbois (ME) continues to work as a mechanical engineer at GenMark Diagnostics in Carlsbad, Calif., where she works on implementing reliability improvements for their ePlex system, a sample to answer diagnostic system.

Most recently, GenMark Diagnostics has had such a high demand for their product that Danielle spent time installing new systems at UCSF and UC Davis for COVID-19 testing, as well as performing maintenance on existing systems at Stanford, and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco for Respiratory Panel testing.

Austin Hirsh (ME) graduated in June with an MS in Entrepreneurship from the University of Washington’s Foster

School of Business. He has now

Mechanical, Inc. in the Bay Area.

launched his own start-up, The 2050

Despite working from home since mid-

Company, which aims to reduce food

March, she has been working full speed

News Briefs

waste and create “food for the future.”

ahead designing the HVAC system for

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

This summer, Hirsh’s company

two high rise residential buildings in San

launched its first product, The 2050

Francisco, Calif. During the COVID-19

Smoothie, which transforms rescued

crisis, Mohrman donated blood in mid-

produce into a non-perishable, ready-

April in order to help those in need, and

to-blend smoothie.

plans to continue to do so going

Brian Lee (ME) has been working as an

forward.

engineer for the Naval Information

Matteo Salom (IntE) continues in his

Warfare Center – Pacific, down the road

first year at Qualcomm Government

from USD in Point Loma. He has been

Technologies as an embedded software

working as a design engineer for

engineer. There, he supports various

various projects and systems that help

projects to help the government

increase the reconnaissance and

leverage the full potential of

surveillance capabilities of the U.S.

commercial technology. He remains in

Navy. Outside of work, he occupies his

close (virtual) contact with his fellow

time with his wife, Ally, and two kids, by

integrated engineers while adjusting to

USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering envisions a culture of change that is dedicated to addressing humanity’s urgent challenges, including social and racial injustice. As Changemaking engineers, we seek to consider all societal contexts and serve all of society and we are taking actions to transform ourselves to be more inclusive and challenge the current inequitable systems. In a renewed commitment to diversity and inclusion, the school provided laptops and remote learning equipment for students in need when USD pivoted to remote instruction. We are also prioritizing our focus on scholarship fundraising, particularly to increase access for underrepresented students, including the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers. We are proud to have the support of Darlene Marcos Shiley, who has gifted $500,000 to support scholarships for engineering students with financial need to increase access to a USD education.

going on daily walks, gardening and

post-grad life.

tinkering around in his workshop.

Michael Sween (ME) works as a test

Molly McGarvey (ME) has settled into her

engineer at Blue Origin. Blue Origin is

new role as a manufacturing support

developing rockets, engines and lunar

team Member Asc at Lockheed Martin

landers to carry astronauts (including

Aeronautics in Fort Worth, Texas.

USD alumni) to the moon as part of

Despite the hurdles brought by COVID-

NASA’s Artimes Program.

19, she continues to report to work

Taylor Wong (CS) is now a technical

each day and some weekends to support the Defense Industrial Base.

Since moving to Dallas, Texas, after graduation, McGarvey has enjoyed exploring the new city and now looks forward to relocating to Fort Worth in the coming months to be closer to work.

Lauren Mohrman (ME) continues to work as a project engineer for Critchfield

product manager for RiskSense, a provider of risk-based vulnerability management technology. Her expertise spans security automation, web application security, black box penetration testing and machine learning for risk quantification. She recently closed on her first house in Albuquerque, NM.

LAUNCHING PROFESSIONAL GRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS

The Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering has been developing and launching professional graduate degree programs since 2016.

Cybersecurity engineering was launched first, with a Master of Science in Cybersecurity Engineering, and has already experienced recognition for its program excellence. Building on its success, the school started to offer the cybersecurity program online starting May 2020. Two new programs are currently in plan for the academic year 2020. In August 2020, the school launched the Master of Science in Applied Data Science program, followed by the Master of Science in Applied Artificial Intelligence. USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering is also working with the School of Business on an online master’s program in innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.

FIRST NAMED COMPUTER SCIENCE SCHOLARSHIP

It is with great honor that USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering announces the university’s first named scholarship in computer science. The Spencer McDonald Scholarship in Computer Science and International Study Abroad was made possible through the generosity of Kirby and Diane McDonald and named after their grandson, Spencer ’18 (CS). It supports computer science majors with financial need, up to $10,000 total per year, wishing to study abroad.

ENGINEERING EXCHANGE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE PARTNERSHIPS

The Engineering Exchange for Social Justice honored a variety of partnerships in Spring 2020 with awards that were funded by USD’s Strategic Initiative and donor funding. Strategic initiative awards went to: the Laurel Tree Charter School in Arcata, Calif., to facilitate a partnership between the school and Primo Energy; the Blind Community Center (BCC) to support collaborations between the BCC and USD; a Primo Energy collaboration with Tobago to use wind turbine technology to power small farm systems; and USD Strategic Initiative funds and donor contributions support STEAM teacher Debbie Stein and the Viejas Band of the Kumeyaay Nation to honor three years of collaboration with USD.

W W W.S A N DIEGO. EDU/ENGINEERING | 23

Class of 2019 and 2020 In 2020, USD’s ShileyMarcos School of Engineering graduated 173 students. The class was composed of 29 computer scientists, 37 electrical engineers, 38 industrial and systems engineers, nine integrated engineers and 60 mechanical engineers.

Come take a look at what many of them have been doing since graduating.

COMPUTER SCIENCE Megan Bailey received two job offers and is working as a site reliability engineer for Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) based out of San Diego, Calif. Bailey had an internship with GTRI while attending USD. Elanor Cecelia Barnhill received two job offers and is now working as an associate software engineer for Cubic Transportation Systems in San Diego, Calif. Barnhill had an internship with Cubic through the Industry Scholars Program.

Michael Dana is working as a quality engineer for ServiceNow in San Diego, Calif. He held an internship position with the company while at USD, prior to joining the firm full time.

Althea Fastidio received two job offers

Elizabeth Kresock turned down two job

Christopher Jung received three job

internship program and is now working

offers to attend the University of Tulsa

offers and is now working as an

as a data scientist for the firm in San

to earn a PhD in computer science

associate software engineer in San

beginning Fall 2020. Also a math major,

Diego, Calif., for Insulet Corporation.

Diego, Calif.

Link: www.sandiego.edu/AChristensen

Kresock will be part of the TU-Team8

Cassidy Kuhn received two job offers

Emily Cockell is a data analyst at Intuit

Cyber fellows program, which selects 10 students from different STEM disciplines to complete an accelerated PhD in four

intern for the firm while studying at the

James Pala was commissioned in the U.S. Navy, beginning training as a

Caleb Benson received two job offers

Surface Warfare Officer over the

prior to graduation and is now serving

summer. He received the Alcalá Award

as an industrial engineer for Medical

for the Class of 2020. The Alcalá Award

Devices, based out of San Diego, Calif.

is presented to two seniors who have

Charles Bullard launched a company,

achieved the balanced and holistic development that is the goal of a University of San Diego education.

Video: www.sandiego.edu/ AlcalaAward20

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

as a TDP engineer I for AT&T in El

Evan Grattendick received three job

Segundo, Calif.

offers prior to graduating from the

Zach Fukuhara received two job offers

Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering

position as software engineer for

in San Diego, Calif. Cockell worked as an

Northrop Grumman in Baltimore, Md.

INDUSTRIAL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

years.

before graduation and is now working

prior to graduating and accepted a

and works as an electrical engineer for

and is now working for Spacex in Hawthorne, Calif., as an associate build

Clearwater Analytics, which is based

reliability engineer intern.

out of Boise, Idaho.

Andrew Jones accepted a job as a test engineer for General Atomics based out of San Diego, Calif.

called LyfBox, which provides a natural disaster base of operations barrack — a novel expanding structure that deploys out of a shipping container. The Lyfbox entrepreneurship team participated in five pitch competitions over two years leading up to graduation, winning thousands of dollars in seed funding.

Lyfbox was awarded the Innovation Award in the 2020 Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge.

Arica Christensen worked an internship for Booz Allen Hamilton while attending USD. She was one of 400 interns selected from more than 7,000 applicants across the U.S. to participate in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Summer Games

24 | I 3 @ USD, FALL 2020

Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering.

Abby Dykas moved to Boise, Idaho, where she works as a management trainee for Simplot, one of the largest privately owned companies in the world.

Brianna Dyrdahl is working as a systems engineer in cybersecurity for Lockheed Martin in Moorestown, NJ. Juan Paulo Galindo-DeWitt received three job offers and is now working as a manufacturing transformation production supervisor for Bimbo Bakeries USA in Montebello, Calif. In his role, he monitors procedures and standards to ensure and maintain a food safe environment.

Video: www.sandiego.edu/JPGalindo Daniel Ley started a new position as supply chain intern at Bumble Bee Foods in San Diego, Calif.

Alvaro Martinez is working in San Diego, Calif., for Chosen Foods, LLC as a data

analyst to develop automated forecasts

firm’s Mission Systems as a software

electronics engineer for Northrop

Fisher Scientific working in the

through software tools.

engineer in their San Diego, Calif.

Grumman.

Waltham, Mass., location within their

location. She will be working on a

Kellen Gaeir interned for DPR

operations leadership development

John Pendas is working as a data analyst for Viasat in Carlsbad, Calif. He obtained the opportunity through an on-campus recruiting function.

Danielle Romasanta was hired directly

by Northrop Grumman, starting as a manufacturing engineering intern while attending the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, and now serves as an industrial/manufacturing engineer in

product called TIGER used for testing and training.

Eduardo Ortega received two job offers and is now working as an associate test engineer for Insulet Corporation in San Diego, Calif. Ortega’s role is to conduct automated tests and to debug solution implementation for Insulet Omnipods, an insulin delivery system.

Woodland Hills, Calif.

Michael Stead received four job offers

Samantha Terranova is working for

software developer for Leidos based

General Atomics in Poway, Calif., as a price/cost analyst. This position is responsible for analyzing statistical and proposal data to develop independent price and cost recommendations to support negotiations with customers and suppliers.

William Trevena received the University of Florida Graduate School Preeminence Award for their PhD program. The GPSA program helps academic units offer highly competitive research/teaching assistantship stipends to their most

and accepted his current role as out of San Diego, Calif. His position requires him to aid the software architect and algorithm team to develop a cohesive system that works across multiple platforms using

Construction while studying at USD.

program. Morfitt connected with

Gaeir received three job offers prior to

Thermo Fisher at USD’s Fall Career Fair.

graduation and is now working as an

Alexander Scalco is a test engineer at

inside sales representative for DMG, Inc. in San Diego, Calif. DMG sells construction equipment to contractors, such as HVAC equipment, chillers and water pumps.

Andre Held is working as an associate engineer at Hi-Q Environmental Products Co. based in San Diego, Calif.

Erica Jenkins worked an internship with Dexcom as a student at USD and after graduation, started her professional career as a technical project manager I

General Atomics working out of their San Diego, Calif., office.

Zach Sourwine found his first professional job out of college through the USD Fall Engineering Career Fair.

Sourwine works as a naval architect for the Southwest Regional Maintenance Centerfor NAVSEA in San Diego, Calif.

Kyle Williams received three job offers before graduation and is now working as a test engineer for General Atomics in Adelanto, Calif.

for Dexcom in San Diego, Calif.

CLASS OF 2020 VALEDICTORIAN

operating systems.

Bryan Leonor interned at Cubic

Active in undergraduate research, a

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Transportation Systems while studying at USD and is now an associate

member of three honor societies and

different programming languages and

serving twice on the board of the

Michael Dopkiss worked as an intern for

mechanical engineer for the firm in San

Dassault Systemes while at USD and is

Diego, Calif.

now working full time as a consultant

Madison Minier worked as an intern for

Valedictorian Ava Bellizzi graduated with

Raytheon while studying at USD and is

an impressive 3.99 GPA in mechanical

for the firm in San Diego, Calif.

American Society of Mechanical Engineers student organization,

attractive PhD applicants.

Kaleb Duke accepted a position as a

now a full-time mechanical engineer

engineering. Bellizzi also found time to

INTEGRATED ENGINEERING

mechanical engineer for the Southwest

working on a combination of design and

participate in the USD Honors Program

Regional Maintenance Center for

analysis out of the firm’s Sunnyvale,

and was a member of the school’s

Madeline Nelson interned for Northrop

NAVSEA in San Diego, Calif.

Calif., office.

Industry Scholars Program and

Grumman while studying embedded

Valeriya Fox is working in Redondo

Creighton Morfitt received two job offers

Industry Mentorship Program.

software and is now working for the

Beach, Calif., as an associate

and accepted a position at Thermo

Link: www.sandiego.edu/ABellizzi

W W W.S A N DIEGO. EDU/ENGINEERING | 25

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