In April 2026, Kwon was named the winner of the Best Technical Execution / Innovation award at the ASME E4C AI Pilot Hackathon. Competing as a solo participant under the team name “Mechy AI,” Kwon stood out among more than 100 participants from across the globe.

Kwon developed Frontier, a sophisticated 25-step agentic AI workflow designed to generate Design Exploration Briefs for engineering and sustainable development. Unlike “black-box” AI systems, Frontier utilizes four distinct AI models—specializing in drafting, structuring, fact-checking and fast lookup—to cross-reference datasets from the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank and the Engineering for Change Solutions Library.

The judging panel, which evaluated entries on responsible AI use and technical depth, specifically cited Kwon’s “trust but verify” philosophy. The Frontier system source-tags every claim with a confidence level and requires human intervention at multiple checkpoints.

“Frontier identifies gaps in existing solutions rather than just generating new ones,” says Kwon. “The goal was to support human decision-making by highlighting where real-world needs are not being met by current technologies.”

Prior to his success in the hackathon, Kwon secured the first place award in the Technical Poster category at the ASME 2026 E-Fest in March. His project, “Developing a detachable and portable joint with high alignment accuracy for antenna positioned GPS tracking in the celestial sphere,” showcased a modular joint system capable of arcsecond-level alignment.

The design, which features a hybrid of carbon fiber-reinforced 3D printed parts and CNC-milled aluminum, has potential applications in satellite tracking, radio astronomy and aerospace payload mounts. The work originated in the first-year Introduction to Engineering Design and Manufacturing course at Harvey Mudd. Kwon credited his E4 team members Ever Diaz-Ramos ’27, James Cassidy ’27 and Thiven Anderson ’27 for their work on the original course project, which his award-winning poster builds on. Engineering Professor Qimin Yang guided the original coursework and physics Professor Jason Gallicchio provided the technical context.

Kwon’s recent successes come as he prepares to return to the Harvey Mudd campus this fall as a sophomore, following the completion of the eighteen-month mandatory military service in South Korea. On campus, he is the Vice-President of the Mudd Automotive Club.

Kwon is directing his combined $2,800 in prize winnings toward his independent research in piezoelectric actuators. Looking beyond graduation, he aims to tackle bottlenecks in mechanical components to better integrate AI into physical hardware.

“My broader goal is to advance hardware that allows AI to be integrated into everyday human life in a sustainable and impactful way,” Kwon said

The GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. Program participants are seen as future experts who will contribute significantly to research, education and innovation in the ������Ƶ fields.

Computer science and mathematics major Mithra Karamchedu has been involved in three main research projects as a student at Harvey Mudd. “Since my freshman year, I’ve been working with computer science professor Lucas Bang on research in graph algorithms, where we study the problem of generating the spanning trees of a graph G up to the automorphisms or ‘symmetries’ of G,” he says. “I’ve also been doing research in Ramsey theory with former HMC President Maria Klawe, my brother Chaitanya Karamchedu ‘21 and mathematics professor Andrés Vindas Meléndez. In our research, we attempt to determine the Ramsey numbers of graphs known as ‘double stars.’ As part of an REU program with the Santa Fe Institute after my sophomore year, I’ve also been working with Cristopher Moore and Gülce Kardeş, researching the so-called ‘phase transitions’ in hard computational problems.”

Karamchedu is a member of the HMC improv club DUCK! and has been an Academic Excellence tutor for mathematics and a CS department grutor. This fall, he will begin a PhD in theoretical computer science at Columbia University, where he hopes to specialize in combinatorial algorithms and complexity theory.

During her sophomore year, engineering major Marika Ragnartz conducted research in Professor Steven Santana’s lab, working on developing a 3D bioprinter to print synthetic tissue. However, she says, “most of my experiences have actually not been in research labs. I was part of the Summer Entrepreneurship Studio at Mudd and worked on a project with my friend Sara Wexler ‘26 making a thermoelectric-cooling wearable for multiple sclerosis patients. We received multiple grants to continue working on it past the summer. I’ve worked with two other startups, Lifemotion Medical Technology for Clinic and Telos Health during an internship, on devices for heart and lung failure patients and stroke patients.” Ragnartz also was a grutor and teaching assistant for E79 and has been a member of the 5C hip-hop group Groove Nation throughout her time at Harvey Mudd.

In the fall, Ragnartz will begin a PhD program in mechanical engineering at Northwestern University, doing research on soft robotics and controls for rehabilitation robotics.

“Models of opinion dynamics have the potential to explain how individual beliefs and collective opinions spread in a social network. However, many canonical models in this field are deterministic and thus fail to capture uncertainty present in social interactions,” says mathematics major Madeline Reeve. “My mathematics senior thesis focuses on how adding randomness affects long-term behavior in a class of opinion dynamics models called bounded-confidence models. In particular, my work focuses on when adding noise promotes consensus, or when all agents eventually adopt the same opinion.”

Reeve made the most of her summers during college. In 2023, she conducted biostatistics research at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. This work helps explain the natural history progression of oral cavity cancer when untreated in an individual. In 2025, she conducted research at Williams College as part of the SMALL REU, studying chip-firing games on Graphs, “totally different from my thesis and the more applied work I’ve done otherwise,” she says. “My research team and I proved theoretical results about a quantity called the gonality of a graph, a discrete analog of a classical concept in algebraic geometry.”

Since 2023, Reeve has worked for the Office of Career Services as a peer consultant, hosting workshops, meeting with Mudders to review their resumes and cover letters and helping organize OCS events. She has also been a mathematics department grutor, including for Math131: Mathematical Analysis 1, and an Academic Excellence mathematics tutor/facilitator. Reeve also served as a North Dorm president. 

After graduation, Reeve will move to Salt Lake City to pursue a PhD in mathematics at the University of Utah, where she plans to conduct research in applied mathematics and/or mathematical biology.

Lilian Zhu is a mathematics major with emphasis in environmental analysis and data science. With her thesis advisor, mathematics and climate professor Robert Sanchez, Zhu researched salinity feedbacks in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) for different climate models and studied how to disentangle natural versus anthropogenic forces in the AMOC response to rising CO2.

In 2024, Zhu participated in an REU at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) with advisors Rodney Johnson and Dennis McGillicuddy. Zhu investigated mesoscale eddy transformations using Argo float and satellite altimetry data and took part in weeklong research cruises to collect data. Zhu also worked at BIOS as an education intern, developing Python tutorial workshops for local Bermudian students to expand oceanographic data science knowledge for the BIOS Curriculum Enrichment program. 

“I spent the last two summers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research studying humidity trends in the U.S. Southwest with advisor Isla Simpson,” Zhu says. “Climate models simulate a rise in humidity contradicting observations that show a decline. My work analyzed evapotranspiration regimes within models and observations to diagnose this problem.”

At HMC, Zhu served as a grutor for the mathematics and CS departments. Having benefitted from the College’s Gateway to Exploring Mathematical Sciences program as a high school sophomore, Zhu volunteered as a mentor for the program’s monthly workshops throughout her time in college.

After graduation, Zhu will pursue a PhD in physical oceanography at MIT-WHOI, studying coral reef hydrodynamics and using machine learning to optimize the performance of autonomous underwater vehicles. “I’m excited to continue my outreach through both community education and creative science communication,” she says.

Both pianists study under the tutelage of Hao Huang, the Bessie and Cecil Frankel Endowed Chair in Music at Scripps College. Huang praised the duo’s dedication, noting that their success is a testament to months of rigorous preparation. “Both Chengyi and Lucy are talented, devoted young pianists who have attained a really high level of musical as well as technical expertise as performers,” said Huang. “Their repertoire spanned different time periods, style genres and national identities. The music played by these outstanding young pianists was international in scope.”

Tang, who received a $1,200 prize intended for further musical study, called Professor Huang “the most influential person” in his musical development. “He taught me how to feel the music instead of just playing the note. I really developed my musicality studying from him.”

For Tang, the Polk Award—established by legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz to honor filmmaker and impresario Rudolph Polk— follows another significant achievement. Having also won this year’s Claremont Concert Orchestra (CCO) Concerto Competition, Tang is set to perform Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the CCO at Garrison Theater on May 3.

Tang’s audition program reflected his intellectual and cultural curiosity:

• J.S. Bach: Fuga a 3 Sogetti from The Art of Fugue. Tang describes the unfinished piece as a “one-person quartet” that opens space for the imagination.
• Frédéric Chopin: Ballade No. 4. A technical and emotional piece that Tang has studied since childhood; he started playing the piano at age 3.
• Zhang Zhao: Pi Huang. An experimental work inspired by Beijing Opera. “I chose it because I wanted to bring something of my own cultural background into the audition,” Tang said.

As a student at Harvey Mudd, Tang’s interests in music and science converge in the Music Information Retrieval Lab, where Tang works with TJ Tsai, associate professor of engineering, on signal processing algorithms and machine learning models involving music. Tang practices the piano every day. “Piano is a relaxing time for me, so it’s not an additional stress,” he said. While Tang aims for a research career in computer science “with strong social impacts,” the piano remains “indispensable,” and he is considering music school.

Will, an engineering major with an interest in the aerospace industry, impressed the judges with a program that showcased a wide range of musical time periods and techniques. Her audition included Mozart’s Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, ���DZ辱��’s Scherzo No. 2, ���������������Բ�’s Nocturne Op. 38 No. 4, and the fourth movement of Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 2.

She credits her musical growth to a lineage of mentors. “I’ve benefited from having amazing teachers in school and at summer music festivals who have always inspired me to play at my best,” she said. Much like Tang, Will uses the piano as an essential outlet to balance her rigorous coursework.

The Polk Award is administered by The Claremont Colleges Services and is given on the basis of superior musical ability. Auditions for the Polk Award are open to students of the Claremont Colleges who play the violin, viola, cello, double bass, or piano.

Leilani Elkaslasy, an engineering major with an emphasis in environmental analysis, will pursue a project titled “Designing Inclusion.” Traveling to Argentina, Brazil, Kenya, Egypt and Thailand, and guided by the question, “What does it mean to be disabled, and how can small adaptations help people thrive?” she will work with communities and organizations serving people with disabilities to explore how adaptive design can foster inclusion and improve quality of life. She will then co-create assistive technologies tailored to local needs.

Her work will span a wide range of contexts—from collaborating with an inclusion-focused nonprofit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to engaging with special education programs in Brazil to supporting mobility aid fabrication efforts in rural Kenya to helping design an accessible, community-run coffee shop in Cairo. She plans to conclude her travels in Thailand, working with rural communities to develop tools that improve access to education for children with disabilities.

Her approach emphasizes relationship-building and collaboration, using adaptive design as a way to better understand the lived experiences of individuals and the cultural contexts that shape inclusion. By working closely with community members, she aims to develop sustainable solutions and share knowledge that can continue beyond her time in each location.

On campus, Elkaslasy founded and grew Harvey Mudd’s Adaptive Design club, partnering with organizations such as AbilityFirst, Pilgrim Place and The Danbury School, to create assistive technologies. She is also involved in SALSA Mudd and the Society of Women Engineers. Her research experience spans water sustainability in the Bahena Lab and materials science in the Krauss Tribology Lab.

Miski Nopo, a mathematics and physics major, will explore the relationship between mountain regions and the people that inhabit them. Her project, “Mountain Communities,” will take her to China, Bhutan, Japan, Morocco and New Zealand, where she will examine how cultural, spiritual and environmental perspectives shape human connections to mountainous landscapes.

Nopo’s project is inspired by her upbringing in Peru and her connection to the Andean cosmovision, in which mountains—known as Apus—are regarded as living spiritual beings that protect and guide surrounding communities. This perspective contrasts with Western views of mountains as barriers and informs her interest in how different cultures understand and relate to the natural world. Through her Watson year, Nopo aims to learn from diverse communities and explore what these relationships reveal about conservation, connection and social development.

At Harvey Mudd, Nopo has combined rigorous scientific research with campus leadership and mentorship. She serves as director of the Committee for Activities Planning on the Associated Students of ������Ƶ Executive Board and has supported student life through additional roles, including as a mentor, academic excellence facilitator and president of the Minoritized Genders across Physics Club. Her research spans multiple institutions and disciplines, including work in biology professor Danae Schulz’s Lab, collaborations with faculty at Harvey Mudd and Pomona College and international research at CERN, applying machine learning to astrophysical models. Her senior thesis, advised by HMC physics professor Brian Shuve, focuses on dark matter interactions, and she has also conducted research in nuclear physics using deep learning at Texas A&M, presenting her work at the American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics.

Nopo and Elkaslasy, who plan to begin their travels in July, exemplify the curiosity, initiative and global perspective that define Watson Fellows, using their year abroad to pursue work with both intellectual depth and meaningful human impact.

The Beckman Scholars Program is designed to stimulate and support research activities by talented, full-time undergraduates. At Harvey Mudd, the program will provide a distinct 15-month mentored research experience in chemistry, biochemistry, the biological and medical sciences, or interdisciplinary combinations of these fields.

A New Standard for Interdisciplinary Excellence

The 2026 BSP is designed to leverage the College’s highly interdisciplinary ������Ƶ enterprise by serving as a distinct and prestigious research fellowship that is open to students in biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics, as well as those pursuing computer science as a joint major with another discipline. This integration reflects the College’s institutional commitment to building the interdisciplinary pedagogy central to its mission.

“Engaging students in cutting-edge, graduate-level research is a hallmark of our mission to help young scientific investigators learn, grow and thrive,” said Karl Haushalter, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty. “The tenets of Arnold Beckman’s life—innovation and integrity—are at the bedrock of Harvey Mudd’s mission. Implementing the Beckman Scholars Program is instrumental in shaping the future of our research endeavors, setting a new standard for excellence in leadership and discovery.”

The Scholar Experience: Beyond the Lab

Each Beckman Scholar will receive a $26,000 award package ($21,000 stipend for the student and $5,000 for mentor and institutional support). The 15-month commitment includes two full-time summer research terms and academic year research credits.

Beyond laboratory work, Scholars will participate in a comprehensive professional development suite:

• Leadership & Networking: Scholars will plan and host the Beckman Scholars Program Seminar Series, inviting and networking with renowned external scientists.
• Scientific Communication: Students will undergo training in scientific writing, oral presentation and guided peer review. During the College’s fall research conference, Beckman Scholars will showcase the research they conducted during the summer and share their experiences participating in the BSP.
• Advanced Mentorship: Scholars will be trained on high-caliber instrumentation and receive personalized coaching for employment and graduate school preparation and for prestigious fellowships such as the NSF-GRFP, Hertz and Goldwater scholarships.

Cultivating Future ������Ƶ Leaders

The Beckman Foundation’s focus on fostering the invention of new methods and materials aligns seamlessly with Harvey Mudd’s vibrant research enterprise. The College has a proven track record with the program; former HMC Beckman Scholars have gone on to forge successful careers in medicine, academia and the private sector, with two having served on the College’s board of trustees.

Participating Faculty Mentors

The 2026 cohort will be supported by faculty mentors across diverse disciplines:

• Chemistry: Spencer Brucks, Colm Healy, Maduka Ogba, David Vosburg, Bilin Zhuang
• Biology: Danae Schulz
• Physics: Mark Ilton
• Engineering: Albert Dato
• Mathematics: Lisette de Pillis
• Computer Science: Calden Wloka

Application Information

The application for the Beckman Scholars Program opened to rising Harvey Mudd sophomores, juniors and seniors on Jan. 16, 2026, and closes on Feb. 6, 2026. The selection process is designed to identify and support outstanding students from a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences who demonstrate a strong commitment to advancing their academic and professional goals in ������Ƶ.

������Ƶ ������Ƶ: ������Ƶ is the premier liberal arts college of engineering, science and mathematics. The College’s mission is to educate engineers, scientists and mathematicians of the highest ability who also have a clear understanding of the impact of their work on society.

������Ƶ the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation: Located in Irvine, California, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation supports leading-edge research in chemistry and the life sciences, and fosters the invention of methods, instruments and materials that open up new avenues of research and application.

That could have been the happy end of this story, but, thanks to a new initiative by BeamNetUS, the project continued. During their research for the Clinic project, the team investigated the possibility of testing their work on the Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator (NLCTA), a 60–120 MeV high-brightness electron beam linear accelerator used for experiments on advanced beam manipulation and acceleration techniques. “We didn’t have sufficient funds in our normal Clinic budget to test at SLAC,” says Nebiyu Samuel ’25, referring to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, which houses the NLCTA. That’s when Emma Snively, the director of the NLCTA beam, made them aware of a call for proposals from BeamNetUS, a new consortium of accelerator science research organizations that as part of its mission promotes and funds projects, collaborations and access to accelerator infrastructure.  

The students applied for and received the grant, the first to be offered by BeamNet US. Through the funding and with access to the NLCTA, the team was able to test their design on an accelerator with higher beam energies than with those used during the Clinic project, an exciting and unusual opportunity for undergraduate students.

“It was great!” says Samuel. “The people that were helping us through the process were super insightful throughout and made it a valuable experience for us. As far as I know, none of us on the team had ever been to SLAC before.”

The work took place successfully at SLAC in May 2025, and the team produced a manuscript which was submitted for publication over the summer. The manuscript reports on the performance of a secondary electron monitor (SEM) grid designed and manufactured by the students, used to measure the transverse profile of an MeV range electron beam. Developed for real-time diagnostics of MeV-range electron beams, this SEM grid has potential applications in both industrial and medical contexts.

“The sensor is a diagnostic one,” says Samuel. “It is used to show the shape of the beam so technicians can dial in the desired shape and size of the electron beam for a more efficient dose of radiotherapy. A medical radioisotopes company like NorthStar uses electron beams to create those radioisotopes, which are then used to help treat and diagnose cancer. Because our sensor is a diagnostic tool, it would have uses wherever high average power electron beams are used.”

The students, Nebiyu Samuel ’25, Gabriel Klinger ’25, Stephanie Allen ’25, Abigail Baxter ’25, Emily Kendrick ’26, Naomi Horiguchi ’26, Ella Allgor ’26 and Damilola Dada ’26, credit the BeamNetUS funding for the opportunity to experience new aspects of engineering that they hadn’t been exposed to before. Samuel says that the complexity of the project combined with a multitude of constraints forced the team “to reach out to a lot of experts and scientists that informed our project heavily. Because the project was so open-ended, we were able to fully flesh out our system from the user interface to the product itself, which was super enjoyable.”

The relationship between BTO particle size, filler-matrix interactions and the properties of BTO-PDMS nanocomposites haven’t historically been completely understood. The multi-disciplinary research team, led by advisor Albert Dato, professor of engineering and associate director of the Engineering Clinic Program, discovered that the phenomenon could be due to a decline in the dielectric constant of BTO at smaller particle sizes and filler—matrix interactions that deform the structure of BTO. Experiments and computer simulations suggest this happens because the smallest BTO particles lose some of their natural ability to hold electric charge, and because of how they interact with and change shape inside the surrounding silicone material.

The impetus for the team’s research was a Clinic project, “Permittivity of Ferroelectric Nanoparticles in a Silicone Composite,” initiated by Sandia National Laboratories. The national lab sponsored the Clinic team’s research into barium titanate, widely used in electronics and energy storage due to its ferroelectric properties. The team of Brigitte Lynch Johnson ’25 (physics), Vanessa Bartling ’26 (engineering), Kayla Long ’26 (engineering), Miranda Brandt ’26 (engineering), Ian Smith ’26 (engineering), Luis Lorenzana ’26 (engineering), Natalie Smith ’26 (engineering), Ian Osborne ’26 (engineering) and Warren Pham ’26 (engineering) fabricated the nanocomposites to measure how the properties change with nanoparticle size and performed density functional theory simulations to understand how the silicone molecules bind to the surface of a barium titanate particle.

“They sought to uncover the fundamental science behind these materials,” says Dato. “Our initial vision was that this knowledge would eventually guide the design of advanced capacitors for Department of Energy applications, such as grid storage and electric buses. However, writing and publishing our recent paper helped us realize that the potential of silicone-matrix nanocomposites containing barium titanate extends far beyond those original goals.”

Silicone filled with barium titanate is an active area of research in the scientific community. These flexible, durable materials can store electrical energy, generate electricity from mechanical motion and even sense changes in pressure, vibration or movement, making them promising candidates for next-generation clean energy and smart-material technologies. They can enable lightweight, flexible power sources and sensors for aerospace systems, wearable and self-powered medical devices and soft robotic components. Because they combine the elasticity of silicone with the remarkable dielectric, piezoelectric and sensing properties of barium titanate, they can be engineered into stretchable, shape-conforming devices that harvest, store and detect energy wherever it is needed.

“The team’s research represents an intersection of materials science, physics and engineering design and highlights how undergraduate research can drive innovation with real-world impact on the future of sustainable technology,” says Dato. “By combining creative experimental approaches with advanced modeling, the students uncovered new insights that could guide the design of next-generation energy storage, sensing and energy harvesting devices.”

In addition to the published study, the students presented their findings at the following national scientific conferences:

• April 7–11, Materials Research Society Spring 2025 Meeting, Seattle, Washington. “Examining Surface Interactions at the Filler-Matrix Interface in Silicone-Matrix Nanocomposites Containing Barium Titanate Nanoparticles for Energy Devices.”
• March 23–27, American Chemical Society Spring 2025 Meeting, San Diego, California. “Investigating Structure-Properties Relationships in Polymer-Matrix Nanocomposites Containing Barium Titanate Nanoparticles” and “Simulating Surface Interactions at the Filler–Matrix Interface in Silicone–Matrix Nanocomposites Containing Barium Titanate Nanoparticles.”
• March 16–21, 2025 American Physical Society Global Physics Summit, Anaheim, California. “Exploring Structure-Properties Relationships in Polymer-Matrix Nanocomposites Containing Barium Titanate Nanoparticles” and “Simulating Surface Interactions at the Filler-Matrix Interface in Silicone-Matrix Nanocomposites Containing Barium Titanate Nanoparticles.”

LS Power acquired a well-bred engineer: after HMC, French earned an M.S. in environmental engineering from Drexel University and joined the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers, where she served as president. In 2017, the organization’s St. Louis chapter named her Engineer of the Year. At LS Power, French’s interests went beyond industry to social good: She joined the firm’s Environmental, Social and Governance Committee as a key proponent of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that align with environmental, social and governance initiatives. 

But the path hasn’t always been an easy one for French. In a male-dominated field, she was one of a growing number of women who encountered a variety of challenges to leadership. She adamantly avoided the note taker role, often assigned because she was the only woman in the room, navigated project sites without restroom facilities for women, and found herself holding firm to and presenting her position when senior male colleagues suggested her input was irrelevant. Speaking about her journey in the Mudd Talk, “,” French defined the what leadership has meant to her, how she developed the skills to lead, and the challenges and opportunities of navigating a leadership position as a woman in ������Ƶ. 

For the nearly three decades since French graduated from Harvey Mudd, the College’s faculty, staff and students have come to know her as a steady campus figure. Before taking the reins as president of the Alumni Association Board of Governors, French chaired several committees and served as board treasurer and vice president. She has offered resume reviews through the Office of Career Services and held office hours for students in the Café, along with serving as an admissions ambassador. French has also served on key College committees such as the Task Force on Clinic and Corporate Partnerships, 2024 Inauguration Committee, Strategic Plan Steering Committee and the Student Experience Working Group. If all of that wasn’t enough, she’s remained an avid donor to the College.  

Why invest so much time and energy into giving back to her alma mater? For French, it’s because Harvey Mudd played a significant role in shaping her future. “My career trajectory was a result of the broad education I received at Mudd,” she says. And the role models she encountered at Mudd, including former president Maria Klawe, helped guide her career. “Watching another woman get to be herself in a leadership position made it easier for me to stay true to myself as I have gone up the leadership ladder,” says French. 

E72 evolved alongside updates to the College’s Core Curriculum. The semester-long course, previously half a semester, was redesigned to tailor specifically to engineers and support their learning of mathematical engineering. Required for engineering majors, E72 provides students with new mathematical tools and guides them on how to apply the tools to solve complex real-world engineering problems. Through mentoring, students are connected with peers who completed the course and are provided guidance with coding and other E72 concepts.

Yong and Bassman designed and co-teach E72 in a strategic format that helps students build off past curriculum to support in-class learning. A key goal is to help students understand and apply engineering concepts in real-world scenarios.

“Being able to calculate things is just one part of mathematical proficiency,” said Yong. “We want students to interpret their findings in light of the application area or context for the problem.”

Engineering major Sebastian Heredia ’27 found E72 to be engaging, with tailor-made opportunities to tackle complex problems, collaborate with peers and more.

“Each week we were assigned concepts we learned in previous classes,” Heredia said. “This was super helpful in bridging the gap between old material and new applications, which built my confidence and intuition and made me feel like I was capable of problem solving. Nearly every day in E72 was an engaging work session. These activities gave me the opportunity to work with new peers and practice listening and vocalizing my reasoning.”

One of the goals of the course is to increase students’ confidence in their math skills.  

“Students often have ‘aha!’ moments during finals,” said Yong. “When students reach the end of that single large problem they’re working toward, we can often see a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that they tackled something complicated and were successful. It is fun to watch their growing sense of confidence in their own mathematical abilities.”

E72 is taught in a “studio” format, allowing students to actively confront engineering problems during class, resulting in a hands-on, immersive experience. The learn-by-doing approach includes individual weekly homework assignments that students complete outside of class, but review collaboratively in-class with students and instructors for a holistic assessment of their findings.

“Daryl and I developed this class to really help students use all of the Core math that they had learned to solve complex engineering problems,” said Bassman. “We were inspired by thinking about it like a studio math class, where people were working on hard problems in class—complex problems that didn’t have simple textbook answers.”

One strategy that Yong and Bassman use to help students excel in the course is the just-in-time learning approach, which involves teaching students the skills and knowledge needed for a task after they have struggled with it. This strategy allows students to understand how to select the appropriate problem-solving method and encourages active learning, independence and confidence in students’ mathematical skills.

“As the course progresses, we try to give students more and more freedom to make their own decisions about the appropriateness of various mathematical tools so that they can grapple with these issues themselves,” said Yong.

“One of my best ‘woah’ moments actually happened when my friend and I

helped another friend think through a MATLAB problem,” said Heredia. “He and I were discussing, and I caught myself saying things that were so logically sound and in perfect math vocabulary that I couldn’t believe the words were coming out of my own mouth. At this moment, I realized that I had actually learned E72 pretty well.”

Using Real Tools to Solve Real Problems

E72 introduces students to a wide range of mathematical curriculum, from Fourier Series and transforms to systems of nonlinear equations and integer linear programming. The subjects learned can be applied to real-life engineering scenarios students encounter outside the classroom.

Mathematical tools, such as the Laplace transform, dimensional analysis, Matlab and Mathematica software, are central components of the course that allow high-level computations. Helping students learn how and when to use such tools and methods is a priority for Yong and Bassman.

Compelling real-world problems challenge E72 students. They’ve been asked to find the finite difference of heat conduction for under-floor heating, or to describe the mathematical engineering behind electric vehicle charging stations and blood pressure regulating equipment. They analyze bird flight, road grade planning and zipline designs.

Because engineering problems vary, Yong and Bassman discuss the limitations and requirements of each mathematical tool so students understand which tools are appropriate for the task.

“To solve a problem, we must clearly define its decision variables, objective function and constraints,” said Yong. “We learn how to solve complex mathematical problems by breaking them up into pieces.”

In addition to E72, engineering students are required to take Experimental Engineering (E80), which boosts understanding of E72 concepts.

“Students complete E72 and E80 simultaneously, which really gives them confidence in their hands-on experimental skills,” said Bassman. “This parallel, challenging class really elevates their ability to use analytical and computational skills.”

Heredia says that he’lll continue applying what he’s learned from E72 throughout his educational career and beyond. “Collaboration, gratitude, and grit are my biggest takeaways from this class,” he said.

Steady-State problem with Brock Bownds ‘27.

Matlab-themed cupcakes made by Professor Bassman on the last day of E72.

A slider activity for building intuition with Planar, Unforced, LTI Systems.

The Carreras’ gift includes an endowed fund to support student shop proctor wages, the shop’s largest expenditure, and an unrestricted gift to expand raw materials, equipment, training and workshops. 

“Both of these contributions together are making the space more available and inviting to students,” says Machine Shop Manager Drew Price.  

Carl Carrera’s enthusiasm for the machine shop and its potential to benefit students dates back to 1973 when he made his own set of tools in E54. He particularly enjoyed making his own ball peen hammer, including the wooden handle. Carl donated his early design hammer to the shop together with his entire tool set in the original HMC issued tool box.  

“I had always enjoyed woodworking but never had any real exposure to serious metal fabrication until I got to HMC,” Carl says. “The experience I had in making all these tools helped me in my career as a design engineer.”

“Carl’s hammer is interesting because the E4 hammer design changed after Carl graduated,” says Price. “I don’t know the exact year we started doing a new design, sometime in the late ’70s or early ’80s, and we’ve been using that new design since. Carl gave us an early one, and it’s the only example we have here in the shop.”   

The shop’s student staff has grown significantly since Carrera’s day, from five to 10 proctors in the 1980s to 25 by the time Price took over six years ago from former director Paul Stovall. Now the shop has 50 proctors. Proctors receive training in both technical and interpersonal skills to ensure the environment is welcoming to all students, regardless of background or prior experience. The machine shop’s new location beside the makerspace and recent remodeling also help increase its visibility, and the staff works hard to spread the word about its offerings. 

“We’re at a point where we have open hours in the afternoons every single day, and we’re open for six to eight hours on weekends,” says Price. “We’re offering student-led workshops, subsidizing raw materials for projects. We are getting more in-depth into current computer-controlled manufacturing. We’re offering activities that mesh with what the makerspace is doing and bringing in students who want to make things for fun in addition to making things for coursework.”

The use of the machine shop has grown significantly, with students from a range of majors (not just engineering) using the facilities for academic and personal projects. Biology students have used the shop to create custom beehives designed for observational research, and a group of chemistry students fabricated a mounting device for a display representing rising earth temperatures made from Legos.  

Carrera has continued to engage with the machine shop, stopping by whenever he is on campus to talk with the proctors and students working there. 

“Carl’s gift is helping us provide a lively and welcoming space for experiential learning where students gain hands-on skills, learn from peers and can pursue passion projects,” says Price. “We’re not just a support space for coursework anymore, we’re a maker hub for all.”