New CEMS Faculty

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICAL Join us in welcoming some of the new members of the CEMS family!NEW FACES IN CEMS SCIENCES

PARAMITA SAHA CHAUDHURI Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Statistics NICHOLAS CHENEY Assistant Professor, Computer Science ELIZABETH DORAN Research Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering MATTHEW GALLAGHER Lecturer, Electrical and Biomedical Engineering

SCOTT HAMSHAW Research Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering DAVID JANGRAW Assistant Professor Electrical and Biomedical Engineering WEI LI Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering JIHONG MA Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

EMILY MALCOLMWHITE Lecturer, Mathematics and Statistics JEREMIAH ONAOLAPO Assistant Professor, Computer Science KEVIN PLIS Lecturer, Computer Science EMMA TOSCH Assistant Professor, Computer Science

JENNY WEATHERHOLTZ Major Gifts O cer, UVM Alumni Foundation (CEMS) KC WILLIAMS Assistant Dean and Director, O ce of Student Services JEAN- GABRIEL YOUNG Research Assistant Professor, Computer Science

BIONIC GROWTH

THE BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING (BME) DEGREE PROGRAM IN CEMS WAS RECENTLY GRANTED PRESTIGIOUS ABET ACCREDITATION.

A student in the Biomedical Engineering program works in a lab. Photo: Sally McCay

BY GEEDA SEARFOORCE

UVM’s BME program is now one of a handful of accredited BME programs co-located on the same campus as a medical school. UVM’s program and the Larner College of Medicine (LCOM) are a quarter mile apart and some of the faculty in Biomedical Engineering have labs in LCOM. ABET recognized this valuable asset in its evaluation, in particular noting the unique opportunities that UVM students have had for coursework, design projects, internships, and research experiences in collaboration with the medical school faculty.

According to Dean Linda Schadler, the ABET accreditation affirms the BME program’s excellence and vitality. “Not only did we receive accreditation, we have created a unique curriculum with an outstanding design sequence, access to the Center for Biomedical Innovation, and opportunities for entrepreneurship, as well as medical school experiences. I am thrilled to see the program reach this mature status,” Schadler says. Students are also proud to be part of this program. Recent graduate Lara Weed noted, “As a direct result of UVM BME and my experiences in the program, I was selected for a highly competitive year-long co-op at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a summer internship at Merck, and a Bioengineering PhD program at Stanford University.” Weed says, “The ability to walk from the engineering building to the medical school and hospital made getting involved with real research and engineering as an undergrad incredibly accessible. This in an invaluable opportunity that distinguishes UVM from other programs.”

Started in 2016, the BME program has already grown to be UVM’s second largest engineering program. Its students have graduated to join companies like Medtronic and GE Health Care or have gone on to pursue graduate degrees at schools such as Duke, UCLA, and Stanford. While at UVM, students have conducted research with the BME faculty in engineering and medical researchers

in the Larner College of Medicine. Several have held internships at UVM’s Instrumentation and Modeling Facility where they have designed and fabricated custom instrumentation for researchers.

With accreditation, UVM is doubling down on its investment in BME. The program has recently hired an expert in neuroengineering and brain-computer interfaces to join its faculty and is introducing a new project- and design-intensive curriculum. This new curriculum takes advantage of the Center for Biomedical Innovation (CBI), Nursing and Health Sciences (CNHS), and the Grossman School of Business (GSB), to develop new technologies and devices that improve the delivery of high-quality health and wellness care. CBI is a design studio that opens its doors to design projects for students starting in their fi rst year. When innovations in CEMS, LCOM, and CNHS have been prototyped, commercialization eff orts are supported by entrepreneurship faculty from GSB. Example CBI projects

a partnership between CEMS, LCOM, the College of include the “Vermontilator”—a low cost emergency use ventilator—and PanicMechanic—an app to manage panic attacks, and a new virtual reality interface for children undergoing surgery. These projects have been covered by The New Yorker and CBS News and are already helping to improve human health across the world.

Through the curriculum, BME students have opportunities to solve real biomedical engineering problems starting in their fi rst year. These projects help students develop the skills and experience needed to apply engineering principles to improving human health and making a positive impact on humankind.

Photo Caption, maybe a brief history of AERO?

AERO DYNAMIC

Formula Hybrid judges awarded UVM's Alternative Energy Racing Organization (AERO) the fi rst-ever Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Excellence in Project Management Award. “With the combination of the graduating students and the upand-coming members, I think we did a really good job with project management,” says Cullen Jemison, whose experience with AERO helped him land a job at Packetized Energy, founded by a fellow UVM alumni.

A SENSE OF SPACE

VANESSA MYHAVER ’20 LAUNCHES TOWARD NASA CAREER

BY SARAH TUFF DUNN

Vanessa Myhaver, pictured here at the CS Fair, has found that her work with professors at UVM has off ered her enriching research and a way forward toward a bright career.

Chaos typically tends to overwhelm people, not excite them.

But this is a diff erent type of chaos, and Vanessa Myhaver ‘20 is a diff erent type of person. A CEMS student who’s already dedicated most of her life to the magic of mathematics, Myhaver is now applying her passion toward the study of black holes, and the chaos within them. She recently earned an internship at NASA Goddard, where she’ll bring a unique perspective on problems.

“Complex systems are a huge fi eld of study that’s very, very new for the world,” says Myhaver. “And our school is one of the only ones to off er the right setting for it.” Growing up in New Hampshire, Myhaver once stood in the space-enamored shadow of her older brother, who adored Star Wars and space documentaries. But when Myhaver arrived at UVM, she discovered complex systems, eventually earning a coveted spot in NASA’s L’SPACE program.

Myhaver gives a massive amount of credit to Professor Jim Eddy for the trajectory of her studies and career. As she writes in a letter to Computer Science Professor and Chair Christian Skalka, Eddy and the course CS121, Computer Organization, “have changed my future career and the technical skills I have added to my skillset. I absolutely believe this has been the most benefi cial course I have taken at UVM. I learned more in this course than I have in any course I have taken thus far.”

CAPITOL LETTERS

VTSGC travels to Washington, D.C.

BY SARAH TUFF DUNN

Students from the Vermont Space Grant program in Washington, D.C. Photo: Courtesy Debra Fraser

On February 25, the Rayburn House Foyer in Washington, D.C., transformed into an out-ofthis world space as the 1990-founded Vermont Space Grant Consortium (VTSGC) celebrated 30 years of achievements beyond the stratosphere with interactive exhibits starring Green Mountain research contributions.

“The Vermont Space Grant Consortium 30th Anniversary Exhibition was an amazing opportunity to showcase what VTSGC is doing,” says Debra Fraser, Program Coordinator for the Vermont Space Grant Consortium. “It really put Vermont on the map.”

The daylong festivities included virtual reality, robotics, sounding rockets, and lunar and Mars models, among other hands-on opportunities. A highlight was a NASA Space Grant alumni delivering a message from the International Space Station. Then it was time for the hand-off to a reception with refreshments and a special moment with NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.

As Fraser explains, Space Grant had been planning a 30th Anniversary event since fall 2019, when nationwide Space Grants were asked to submit proposals. Out of the 52 consortiums, VTSGC was one of the 22 states chosen to set up an exhibit. Part of the Green Mountain goods was a video called “I am NASA Space Grant,” featuring the RockSat-C 2020 team sponsored by VTSGC.

As mechanical engineering major and Rock-Sat C 2020 team leader Shawn Cimonetti ‘21 explains, they reached out to VT Space grant with an idea to partake in this a sounding rocket program that would allow them to conceptualize, design, build, and launch an experiment as payload on a NASA sounding rocket. They also connected with Benchmark Space Systems, whose co-founder Ryan McDevitt earned his Ph.D. at UVM in 2014 after graduating in 2011. This allowed them to study fl uid micronozzle mixing, and the diff erence between a Benchmark intern’s masters thesis results on Earth and in microgravity on the rocket.

“We've been extremely lucky to be helped and supported by Benchmark, with the ability to reach out to their propulsion engineers and ask some questions about making custom diaphragm propellant tanks or stop by on lunch break and check out the latest iteration of a fl uid mixing experiment in their lab,” says Cimonetti. “VT Space Grant has made all these connections and learning happen, diving into this complicated and industry-relevant hands-on project has been one of the most robust learning experiences of my undergrad. Two years ago I liked aerospace engineering but didn't see a path into the sector, but space grant has grown my interest further and started to open up connections and experience.”

One of the only high school students showcasing her work was Nina Shah, a South Burlington High School senior who’s a member of the local UVM chapter of Girls Who Code (GWC), to which the Space Grant donated funds in 2019. Shah showed off such projects as an Arduino-based robot and a personality quiz programmed in Python. (The very serious test included a short series of questions to determine, “Which Hogwarts house are you?) Says Fraser, “Nina made Vermont proud.”

Fraser called the experience for Vermont Space Grant on Capitol Hill a “once in a lifetime exposure.”

BY SARAH TUFF DUNN

WRITTEN IN THE STARS

UVM STUDENTS LAND OUTTA-SIGHT NASA INTERNSHIPS

Avrey Carifa ’20 was 8 years old, in the midst of a family move from Chicago to Connecticut, when she read the Magic Tree House book Midnight on the Moon. She was soon transfi xed by the work of NASA and the magic of space, staring at the planets and stars that her mother painted on the walls of her new bedroom.

Time travel more than a decade, and Carifa is now one step closer to those sparkling constellations, thanks to a NASA internship facilitated by the Vermont Space Grant Consortium (VTSGC).

Founded in 1992 as a statewide program to promote STEM education and to train and encourage students to pursue careers in aerospace-related areas, among other missions, VTSGC funded seven NASA internships across the country for summer 2019, three of them from UVM.

“Avrey was over the moon about the internship,” says Debra Fraser, the VTSGC program coordinator who’s especially enthusiastic about connecting students and space this year, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. Calling herself the “chief cook and bottle washer” of VTSGC, Fraser helps oversee the program that brings undergraduates from myriad Vermont college to opportunities that give them a major boost in aerospace careers.

Lasting Legacy

One recent student, for example, landed a job at Space X. “He stated to me, unequivocally, that he would not have gotten the position without the NASA internship on his resume,” reports Fraser, who now works in the absence of former VTSGC director Darren Hitt. He was instrumental in selecting candidates for the prestigious summer research, but died unexpectedly in May. stars of UVM to the bright stars of space continues.

“I’m so grateful that Vermont Space Grant allowed me to have this incredible opportunity, says Carifa, who “spontaneously” applied for the internship. Her project title at NASA Langley is “Nanostructured Membrane System for Molecular Transport and Control.” That means working on a system that could benefi t human space exploration beyond low earth orbit; the technology might also apply to other day-to-day activities such as drug delivery, waste treatment, and energy transport that require fast transport of small molecules.

Powerful Experiences

Fraser adds that VTSGC interns get a $7,300 stipend along with the perks of participating in the next frontier of space research fi rsthand. Any student from any Vermont college can apply for an internship, as the selection process has already opened up for summer 2020. And students can be from majors beyond those that are space-related; VTSGC selected a history major for this summer, partly to coincide with the Apollo 11 anniversary.

Long-Term Impacts

While jumping from a college campus to NASA research centers might seem daunting, Carifa explains that the communication and time management skills she has learned at UVM—along with regular presentations in the Honors College—have helped her in her internship.

“I would love to keep working for NASA,” she says. “This internship wasn't in a fi eld that I was familiar with, and I have learned so much so far. Ultimately, I chose engineering because I wanted to help people, and NASA gives me a way to merge that with my interest in space. I know what I'm doing will eventually have a much larger benefi t.”