无忧视频

Prof. Lori Bassman: Forging a Better Future

Student researchers participate in a program that is both transformative and timely.

For nearly two decades, engineering professor Lori Bassman has led students in cutting-edge metallurgy research, with a recent focus on developing safer metal alloys. Her collaborative work with an Australian university, students and global partners may help transform the plumbing industry.

鈥淟egislation coming into effect around the world limits the amount of lead that can be in brass that is part of drinking water systems,鈥� says Bassman. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 not a really good alternative to leaded brass.鈥�

In 2020, Bassman and her students filed a provisional patent for a new family of copper-based alloys. These compositionally complex materials are their starting point to eliminate the use of lead in brass plumbing fittings and fixtures鈥攃omponents found in most household water systems. While leaded brass is favored for its superior machinability and self-lubricating properties, its toxicity and increasing regulation have pushed researchers and manufacturers to seek alternatives. 鈥淒rinking water passes through these fittings, and even small amounts of lead can be harmful,鈥� Bassman says.

Bassman and her students continue to develop promising formulations that mimic leaded brass. Working with one of the world鈥檚 largest brass producers based in Europe, they are evaluating alloys that not only meet mechanical performance standards but may also cost less to produce than current commercial alternatives. Unlike many lead-free options on the market today, Bassman鈥檚 designs are able to incorporate a wider range of recycled metals鈥攎aking them both environmentally and economically viable.

During summer 2025, Bassman鈥檚 student team鈥攖hree engineering majors and one chemistry student worked on a new class of copper-based alloys. Shifting from plumbing to mechanical engineering applications, the group investigated compositionally complex bronzes for use in bearings and bushings. These parts often rely on leaded materials for self-lubrication, but as Bassman notes, 鈥渢he wear particles end up in the environment.鈥� Their latest alloys show early signs of promise and may even outperform conventional leaded bronze in some ways.

The work blends hands-on experimentation with advanced computational modeling. In the lab, students use arc melting and induction furnaces to fabricate alloys from pure metals. They then analyze the resulting microstructures and mechanical properties to understand how changes in composition and heat treatment affect performance. Audrey Thiessen 鈥�26, a chemistry major and returning team member, computationally investigated solidification shrinkage and porosity鈥攖wo key concerns in casting copper alloys. She used first-principles calculations to explain why the group鈥檚 complex alloys exhibit less casting shrinkage than conventional alloys.

The collaboration isn鈥檛 confined to Claremont. Bassman鈥檚 research program is based in Australia at the University of South Wales, Sydney, where students live, work and play together for the summer. When they weren鈥檛 melting metal or running simulations, they were snorkeling, watching rugby, trying local cuisine and even learning to play netball. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really fun city,鈥� Bassman says. 鈥淲e took public transportation everywhere, and the students really got involved in the culture.鈥�

Since 2009, Bassman has brought more than 40 students to Australia through this program, supported by several National Science Foundation grants, the Jude and Eileen Laspa Fellowship in Applied Mechanics and the Engman Fellowship in Applied Mechanics. The program is a meaningful blend of academic research, global learning and professional development. This past summer, she worked solely with Harvey Mudd students, though two previous year鈥檚 teams included students from University of California Merced, where co-principal investigator Aurora Pribram-Jones 鈥�09 is a professor. Pribram-Jones has been a co-mentor for the group鈥檚 students for more than 10 years.

With her ongoing commitment to student mentoring and her team鈥檚 potential to shape safer, smarter materials, Bassman directs a program that is both transformative and timely. 鈥淣othing鈥檚 going to have all of the properties of leaded brasses and bronzes,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut we鈥檙e getting close鈥攁nd for some applications, possibly even better.鈥�

Prof. TJ Tsai: At the Intersection of Music, Signal Processing and Machine Learning

This professor uses music as a vehicle to guide and mentor students toward mastery in signal processing and machine learning.

TJ Tsai has loved music, including classical piano, chamber music and jazz, for much of his life. During his PhD program, Tsai began reading works on music processing and information retrieval written by Meinard M眉eller, professor and chair of semantic audio processing at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Bavaria, Germany, who has been an influential mentor in Tsai鈥檚 professional life. Through M眉eller鈥檚 work, Tsai discovered he could pursue his interests in music and engineering while doing rigorous scientific research. And at Harvey Mudd, he helps students discover how to do the same. 

鈥淭ackling problems with music is usually very intuitive and accessible,鈥� says Tsai, associate professor of engineering and director of the Music Informational Retrieval (MIR) Lab at Harvey Mudd. 鈥淪tudents come in with skills and expertise in different genres and work on projects tailored to their musical interests and abilities. When students bring experience in musical traditions that I don鈥檛 have, it allows our lab to do research that I could not do without their expertise.鈥� 

Through the MIR Lab, Tsai uses music as a vehicle to guide and mentor students toward mastery in signal processing and machine learning. 鈥淢y work brings me a lot of joy: interacting with students, solving problems and building systems,鈥� says Tsai. 鈥淭he students are awesome 鈥� they鈥檙e eager, curious and motivated to learn. And Harvey Mudd has given me a lot of freedom to develop new courses that uniquely reflect my own combination of interests and background.鈥� 

Tsai is the creator of a two-part elective that was launched in fall 2022. The first course in the series is Digital Signal Processing: Theory and Application, and the second course is Machine Learning: Theory and Application. The complete sequence provides students with a chance to learn how to work with signals collected by devices and teach machines to recognize patterns. Tsai believes the possibilities of combining these two areas are endless. 

While he was in high school, Tsai developed an interest in math competitions. Later, in college, he gravitated toward signal processing, a branch of engineering that is math heavy and very focused on practical applications with real data.  Tsai went on to receive his bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University and PhD from UC Berkeley. He joined the Harvey Mudd faculty in 2016 and has imparted his love of music, applied math and engineering to Harvey Mudd students.

When conducting research became challenging during the pandemic, Tsai and two students decided to learn a piano trio. Each recorded their part in isolation and built a system that combined their individual recordings, changed their tempos, and mixed them together to produce a complete performance. 鈥淲e pursued our hobbies by learning a piece together,鈥� says Tsai. 鈥淲e also ended up developing a technique through the project that was presented at an international conference. And the best part was when we got back together and performed the piece together, in-person.鈥� 

In 2022, Tsai received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for his project, 鈥淥rdered Alignment Methods for Complex, High-Dimensional Data.鈥� The grant has allowed Tsai to take a group of MIR Lab students to Germany in the summer for a collaborative workshop with M眉eller鈥檚 graduate students. 鈥淭he grant allows for this great cross-cultural and collaborative learning experience for the students,鈥� says Tsai. 

Aside from teaching, mentoring students and research, Tsai is involved with the 5CIV Christian Fellowship at Harvey Mudd which provides holistic mentoring for students. He also stays busy with family life, including his two young children. Tsai鈥檚 latest personal research project includes developing a virtual piano concerto accompaniment system in collaboration with M眉eller. 鈥淢ost pianists never have the opportunity to play a piano concerto with a real orchestra,鈥� says Tsai. 鈥淲e鈥檙e working on making it possible for amateur musicians to play music with a virtual orchestra that accompanies them in real time.鈥� 

Prof. Qimin Yang: “It’s the ‘Aha’ Moment for Me”

For this professor, watching students succeed has made teaching a rewarding career choice.

For engineering professor Qimin (CHEE-min) Yang, there are so many incredible moments throughout a teacher鈥檚 career, 鈥渁nd I never get tired of experiencing all of it,鈥� says Yang. 鈥淪tudents start a course or project unfamiliar with concepts and undergo a transformation along the way. Seeing that progression and the 鈥榓ha鈥� moment, when they鈥檝e understood a concept they were previously struggling with, is rewarding to be a part of,鈥� says Yang.

Yang鈥檚 interest in 无忧视频 developed early in her life: she preferred the logic math provided to that of humanities and social sciences. Yang received her bachelor鈥檚 degree in electrical engineering from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, and her master鈥檚 degree in the same subject from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. She went on to receive her PhD in electrical engineering from Princeton University. 

Yang modeled her career path after her PhD advisor, a mentor and great influence in her life who encouraged her to pursue academia as a teacher. In the 1990s, fiber optic lines were a catalyst behind the rise of the internet and dot-com. 鈥淎t the time, there was global growth in the field of fiber optics for long haul telecommunications systems, and new devices and systems were also being applied across broader industries鈥� says Yang. And while she participated in optics research, architecture and systems prototyping during her studies, not long after she completed her PhD, Yang chose a career path of undergraduate teaching. “I have always loved interacting with students. As I age, I have grown to think of students as my children who I get to guide along a journey, and that brings a strong sense of mission.鈥� 

Yang joined Harvey Mudd in 2002 as a professor of engineering and, over her 21 years of service, has taught a variety of courses, including the advanced signals and systems, analog circuits, writing, engineering designs and fiber optics. As an interim Clinic director and associate Clinic director, she was instrumental in keeping the program running during the pandemic, supporting student work on dozens of simultaneous remote projects. Yang is also a member of the College鈥檚 Society of Women Engineers. 鈥淲e have a lot of women engineers at Harvey Mudd, in a field that has historically been largely populated by men,鈥� says Yang. 鈥淚n my courses, I like to stay present as much as I can for my students who may feel intimidated by the field. I want them to feel comfortable seeing me in this role and know that they can solve circuit problems, design complex projects and do so much more.鈥� 

One of the highlights of her experiences was a student-led solar lights project for underdeveloped countries. Yang鈥檚 students developed prototypes for solar lights, considered costs, viability and sustainability, and involved younger kids and seniors in the local community as an educational collaboration, and shipped the lights to Haiti. 鈥淪eeing the students make connections between their learning and its real-world impact鈥攖hose are such enjoyable moments,鈥� says Yang. She also treasures conversations with former students, hearing where they are in their lives now personally and professionally. 

And it鈥檚 not just the Harvey Mudd students who have been special to Yang. 鈥淚 have had colleagues who have been great mentors, supporting and encouraging me throughout my career,鈥� says Yang. 

Outside of teaching, Yang has enjoyed watching her three children grow and thrive: this year, each completed a milestone graduation and moved on to new adventures. Her personal interests have also ventured into the arts and history: during the pandemic, Yang took up drawing and photography and continues to pursue her interests in reading when she has time. 

Prof. Leah Mendelson: Fish Out of Water

Can biological propulsion be replicated?

Leah Mendelson grew up in Owego, New York, down the road from where IBM was founded, surrounded by engineering companies like Lockheed Martin, whose outreach insured they were well-known at local schools. It鈥檚 no wonder she went on to study mechanical engineering. But the tie to her interest in fluid mechanics? Mendelson notes her many years as a competitive swimmer.

Today, as a fluid mechanics researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Engineering, Mendelson looks at methods for instrumentation and flow field measurement. But she also focuses on biological propulsion鈥攕tudying fish and trying to model some of their behavior in mechanical systems, such as underwater vehicles. While a PhD student at MIT, she studied jumping fish, like archerfish, which are able to propel themselves a distance of a couple of times their size out of the water.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 cool about this behavior is that they do it from right below the surface,鈥� says Mendelson. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have a running start. All that power to propel themselves, all that acceleration has to be done in a limited space.鈥�

Students in Mendelson鈥檚 lab work on reproducing the trends fish exhibit to have a better understanding of the physics behind the behavior and to see if it would be useful to replicate.

鈥淲ith the rise of unmanned robotics, suddenly it doesn鈥檛 seem so crazy to have something that could function in both water and air,鈥� Mendelson says. 鈥淏ut we need a strategy for getting between the two. So we鈥檙e looking to see if replicating fish behavior might be a viable way to do that.鈥�

Mendelson鈥檚 own educational experience at Olin College, a small engineering and 无忧视频 school in Massachusetts, is what inspired her to come to Harvey Mudd, a similar institution on the West Coast, to teach.

鈥淚 felt a lot of the skills I had when I graduated鈥攖he things I knew how to do in a lab, the way I went about solving problems鈥擨 had those skills because I went through a small, student-centered curriculum,鈥� Mendelson says. 鈥淚 benefited from having those things in my own education, and I wanted to be able to provide that same experience to other engineering students.鈥�

Mendelson joined Harvey Mudd in 2017 and now teaches Continuum Mechanics, an introductory solid and fluid mechanics course, and Introduction to Engineering Design (E4), a project-based class for first- and second-year students. Mendelson is also developing a course in mechanical design, which will launch in spring 2020 and will take the skills learned in her two previous classes and apply them to building mechanisms.

鈥淭he thing I love the most about teaching is when something finally comes together for students: some piece of a research project or assignment where they step back and see what they really accomplished,鈥� says Mendelson. 鈥淢ost of the time, students are so focused on achieving the end result that they don鈥檛 always realize how many skills they had to draw from and how many different tools they had to utilize. That moment when they do is always a fun experience.鈥�

Prof. Steven Santana 鈥�06: Improving the Human Condition

The Santana lab explores microfluidic devices and synthetic tissues

Students are designing microfluidic devices and synthetic tissues. Making a positive impact on a community is important to Steven Santana 鈥�06, and he鈥檚 spent his educational career gathering the knowledge and skills to do just that.

The engineering and Spanish alumnus has a master鈥檚 in education (Loyola Marymount University) and a doctorate in mechanical engineering (Cornell University). He鈥檚 worked as a math teacher in Los Angeles and has designed a program for Denver Public Schools in Colorado to help all students get access to higher education opportunities and meaningful careers. As a doctoral researcher, he examined the use of microfluidics to isolate and study cancer biomarkers and designed microfluidic devices for this purpose.

Teachable Moment

When considering the faculty position at Harvey Mudd, Santana saw it as a great opportunity to impact yet more students while creating solutions to improve human health. Santana joined the faculty as a visiting professor in 2018 and became an assistant professor in 2019. During this time, he developed a microfluidics and nanofluidics course, which looks at fluid mechanics, chemistry and physics and how these fields connect to device design.

鈥淢y class pulls heavily from subjects students have already covered,鈥� says Santana. 鈥淚 can rely on the background content they learned in the Core, and students can jump right in and apply that knowledge to fluid mechanics and microfluidic device design.鈥�

Santana also runs a microfluidics and biomaterials lab in which students design microfluidic devices and synthetic tissues. In graduate school, he used such devices to capture metastatic cancer cells, and now he鈥檚 working on engineering small biomaterials to program cell behavior. To explain the research鈥檚 importance, Santana uses the example of someone who has suffered a heart attack.

鈥淧art of their heart tissue has died, but what if you could take stem cells directly from this person and do something to the stem cells so that they could be programmed to become muscle cells? Then you can put them into this same person whose heart tissue has died, and you have a way for them to regenerate tissues.鈥�

Students in Santana鈥檚 lab work on the foundational science behind this question. He uses microfluidic devices to make very small tissues about the diameter of a human hair, loads them up with cells and varying chemical and mechanical signaling factors and measures the way the cells respond.

鈥淚 love that I can do research to answer interesting questions and advance topics of human health, while at the same time work directly with talented and curious students and watch them have those great ah-ha moments,鈥� says Santana. 鈥淭here are few schools that are high-caliber where you can do both of those things well, and that鈥檚 why Harvey Mudd is such a compelling place.鈥�

Prof. Josh Brake: He’s Lighting the Way

Professor Brake uses biophotonics to study tissue

Ever wonder why your hand glows red when you shine a flashlight through it? Or how this is connected to the fact it鈥檚 tough to see through fog? The same physical phenomenon鈥攐ptical scattering鈥攊s behind both. To learn more, we turn to Josh Brake, assistant professor of engineering, who is teaching students about biophotonics, the study of the science at the intersection of optics and biology that is increasingly playing a role in biomedical diagnostics and therapies.

At Caltech where he earned his PhD in electrical engineering, Brake worked on developing new tools to see deep into scattering media, like biological tissue, and on applying these tools to biomedical challenges in the life sciences and neuroscience. This work can help generate more accurate, more complete and less-expensive optical images of tissue samples. The investigation of ways to extract information from scattered light in tissue coupled with work on computational microscopy make up the focus of his new lab, which will be equipped with lasers, cameras, microscopes, computers and spatial light modulators to enable Mudd students to get involved in the development of next-generation optical microscopes.

With student researchers, he鈥檒l work on developing methods to noninvasively focus light deep inside tissue, thus creating new tools and measurement schemes to make sensitive measurements of key biological markers, such as blood flow. Such measurements can help determine which parts of the brain are being activated, how fast blood is traveling or when certain neurovascular events occur, for example. By using scattered light to 鈥渢ease out information deep inside tissue,鈥� he explains, we have the potential to make functional MRI-like imaging cheaper and more accessible.

Brake will introduce students to methods such as wavefront shaping (a class of techniques used to reclaim scattered light), optical phase conjugation, and Fourier ptychographic microscopy, a microscopy technique which enables wide field-of-view, high-resolution imaging that was developed in his PhD lab at Caltech.

Brake鈥檚 enthusiasm for research and the potential of biophotonics to improve people鈥檚 lives extends to his teaching. For his first class, he taught Microprocessor-based Systems: Design and Applications (E155 or 鈥淢icroPs,鈥� as it is affectionately called by students), an advanced technical elective where students apply their digital design skills using programmable logic and microcontrollers. The final assignment requires students to use a microcontroller and a field-programmable gate array along with a piece of new hardware they haven鈥檛 used before to build a device that is 鈥渇un or useful.鈥�

鈥淚 love working one-on-one with students and am passionate about seeing each of my students thrive as individuals,鈥� says Brake, who especially enjoys helping students build and debug hardware. 鈥淎s someone who has gone through the struggle and experienced the joy of learning new and complex concepts many times myself, I want to help guide students as they pursue their own journeys of learning.鈥�

Drew Price: Crafting Collaboration

Find out what鈥攁nd who鈥攊s new in the HMC shop

If you walk down to the basement in Galileo and navigate through the halls that echo with clacking and whirring, you鈥檒l find the HMC machine shop, a center for creativity and learning on campus where students bring their ideas and designs to life.

In the middle of the shop floor, Drew Price, machine shop manager, moves expertly between a mill and his desk. After being hired by the Department of Engineering in fall 2019, Price pulled the desk out of a closet-like space to a spot where it is easily seen, allowing him to be available for whatever need may arise. He calls it 鈥済etting rid of the curtain.鈥�

Price is enthusiastic about carrying on the tradition of the shop being a space that welcomes learning and creativity. He succeeds Paul Stovall, who retired after working in the shop for nine years, Mike Wheeler (16 years) and Ed Stubblefield (27 years). Like past managers, Price instructs students on design techniques, oversees projects in the machine shop and ensures that students and faculty members learn the correct techniques to safely use the equipment.

鈥淚t surprised me how the position at Mudd aligned with what I had been doing and what I enjoy doing,鈥� says Price, who grew up with a knack for cars and making things and a desire to design race cars. Taking on the job at HMC seemed like the next logical step.

While a student at Northwestern University, he founded and served as head engineer and frame and suspension captain of the Formula SAE Northwestern Racing team. Through his involvement with the team, Price was introduced to the student machine shop and learned to use computer numerical control (CNC) machining and other equipment that is similar to that available in the shop at Mudd. He also was a student shop trainer, a position mirroring the HMC shop proctor.

鈥淭hat background was the basis for everything else I have learned in my career,鈥� Price says. 鈥淚 am passionate about that mix between the academic and the practical applications.鈥�

After graduating from Northwestern (B.S., mechanical engineering), Price managed a car repair shop to maintain the machining techniques he had learned. He then worked for the Pilot Group, a company that did contract design work building custom equipment. This exposed him to new methods of manufacturing and machinery, and he was able to work on a variety of projects, from aerospace hardware to farm equipment.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 really important to have a good fundamental background that will enable lifelong learning,鈥� Price says. 鈥淚鈥檓 lucky to do as a career what I did then. I鈥檝e just shifted to an instructional setting.鈥�

Price says there is no 鈥渢ypical鈥� day in the machine shop. A range of student projects and faculty requests keep his days interesting. Last semester, he worked with Ziyad Dur贸n 鈥�81, Jude and Eileen Laspa Professor of Engineering, to build new components for the load cells Dur贸n uses in the safety analysis for hydroelectric dams. Price also helped Steven Santana 鈥�06, assistant professor of engineering, build assembly tooling for his research lab.

鈥淭he best part of my day is the people I work with,鈥� Price says, adding that HMC students鈥� keen interest in learning is an added bonus.

One of Price鈥檚 goals is to make the shop feel open and welcoming. In addition to placing himself in the center of the action, he鈥檚 added a table and a whiteboard where users can talk through ideas before putting them into action. He鈥檚 looking into additional services the shop could offer as well as resources for shop users who may want to work on open-ended projects, such as those for a Clinic project or art course. 鈥淭his will mean that our amazing shop proctors and users will be able to think of the available tools more creatively to make their designs really come to life,鈥� Price says.

He looks forward to helping students and faculty achieve their goals and creating an environment that encourages collaboration, something that will be a prominent feature of the new makerspace in the Scott A. McGregor Computer Science Center, slated for completion in early 2021. The machine shop will be repositioned so that it is adjacent to the makerspace, a multidisciplinary hub. Price is excited for this new configuration because the floor plan will allow students and faculty to pass easily between the two spaces for prototyping and manufacturing.

In the meantime, Price is focused on the spring 2020 semester and working with students in Introduction to Engineering Design and Manufacturing (E4) as they learn machine fundamentals and start designing class projects. He also plans to hold training sessions with shop proctors to teach them advanced techniques in wood working, welding, workholding devices and setup, SolidWorks and CNC machining.

鈥淚 value the students鈥� openness and enthusiasm,鈥� Price says as he surveys the activity around the machine shop. 鈥淓veryone is here to learn.”

Prof. Albert Dato: Better Than Diamonds

Failed experiments provide a lesson in perseverance

When Albert Dato devised a method of turning alcohol into graphene, he was thoroughly disappointed. The black powder his experiments rendered was not at all what he was hoping for.

鈥淥riginally, I was throwing vodka into a machine because I was trying to grow diamonds,鈥� says Dato, Iris and Howard Critchell Assistant Professor ofEngineering. 鈥淲hen my experiments failed, I was turning vodka into graphite.鈥�

The machine he used for this experiment, a microwave plasma reactor, uses ionized gas to break apart the ethanol in vodka, a process he originally hoped would produce a diamond, one of the two stable forms of carbon. Instead he produced single layers of graphite, the other stable form of carbon, aka pencil lead, aka not as exciting as diamonds. But it turns out that graphene, which is a single layer of graphite, is perhaps an even better result than diamonds, for reasons that are scientific, environmental and economic.

Graphene is the strongest material ever measured. It also conducts heat and electricity well. It鈥檚 a material that could potentially be used in any number of applications. And, up to the point of Dato鈥檚 discovery, graphene was incredibly difficult to produce as it had to first be mined as graphite, then separated from impurities, then broken down into a single layer.

鈥淎t the time of my first experiments, I was disappointed because it鈥檚 really tough to grow diamonds when you鈥檙e forming graphitic materials. But once I realized what I had, I put the diamond research aside,鈥� Dato says. 鈥淚 realized we can make graphene easier than with breaking down graphite, and that, because of its properties, we could make something useful with it to address problems in the world.鈥�

Mining Confidence

Having made his own big discovery after many failed experiments, Dato encourages his students to persevere. 鈥淭he way I run my lab is to give students a goal and then let them figure it out,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 how I learned, and it helped me grow as a scientist. I love to teach, and I love the process of scientific discovery. It鈥檚 even better when your student experiences it.鈥�

Students in Dato鈥檚 energy and nanomaterials lab at 无忧视频 agree. Chance Bisquera 鈥�19 says he was having a tough time academically when the opportunity to participate in a materials engineering research project in Dato鈥檚 lab became available. 鈥淭hat was a turning point for me as a struggling Mudder,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 was looking for an extracurricular activity that I enjoyed and that allowed me to apply what I learned in the classroom to a project that can have an impact on society. My time spent thus far in lab has provided me with a renewed sense of confidence, helped me improve as a critical thinker and scientific explorer and has taught me some of the basic research skills that I will need should I choose to attend graduate school in the near future.鈥�

鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 trade one HMC student for three grad students,鈥� Dato says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e really passionate about what they do. Students in the Dato Lab are excited about taking ownership of their projects.鈥�

Graphene Is a Guy鈥檚 Best Friend

鈥淚 remind myself of 鈥楤ubba鈥� from the movie Forrest Gump when I talk about the potential applications for graphene,鈥� Dato says, referring to the character Benjamin Buford 鈥淏ubba鈥� Blue, who spent his time thinking and talking about all the ways one can cook shrimp. 鈥淐ar parts, airplane parts 鈥︹�� Dato says, laughing.

Indeed, there are a lot of ways graphene could be used in practical applications. However, using his current technique, Dato is only able to produce tens of milligrams of graphene per hour.

鈥淭he barrier to all the applications is being able to produce a lot of high quality graphene,鈥� Dato says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 still cheaper to mine graphite for use in pencils. But the mined graphite is full of other things. The lab stuff we make in our lab is pure carbon. So that鈥檚 the prime advantage; it鈥檚 much higher-quality graphene. The goal is to improve the production to make kilograms versus milligrams.鈥�

After students modeled what happens inside the microwave plasma reactor, where ionized gas breaks apart ethanol to produce graphene, the next step was to build a new plasma box that鈥檚 cheaper and smaller than existing models, but they had to figure out how. Results came after a lot of trial and error.

鈥淪o many designs, so much frustration and failure,鈥� Dato says, adding that as it鈥檚 all part of the process. 鈥淚 failed so many times. Me figuring out how to make graphene out of ethanol was a failure because I failed to grow diamonds. You fail, you learn, you move on.鈥� After several semesters of work by several students, a late-night text from one of them delivered good news. 鈥淗arry Fetsch 鈥�20 sent me a video of the ignited plasma in a chamber,鈥� Dato says. 鈥淗e figured it out!鈥�

Multifaceted Potential

In thinking about the many uses for graphene, Dato has focused on one area of research on its potential as part of composite materials that are stronger but more lightweight than existing products鈥攖hink car or aircraft panels that can withstand more impact to improve safety and also weigh less, to improve fuel economy.

To develop a composite, Dato and students are experimenting with mixing graphene and epoxy. 鈥淲e think it will outperform any other composite that鈥檚 been published so far,鈥� Dato says.

When Nicole Subler 鈥�16 was at Harvey Mudd (she鈥檚 now an engineer at Bolt Threads), she spent 10 weeks in the lab developing an epoxy/graphene composite specimen and then creating molds to reproduce it. Jacob Knego 鈥�18 took the project from there, working to perfect the process of making the specimens. The results of their tests have indeed shown that graphene improves the strength, stiffness and ductility of the epoxy.

This year, Kevin Nakahara 鈥�20 and Nathan Sunbury 鈥�21 continue the next phase of the research, which is to determine why the graphene has the effect it does on the epoxy structure.

鈥淭he most interesting part of the research isseeing how such a simple step in adding nanofillers can have such a profound effect on the performance of the specimens,鈥� Nakahara says. 鈥淣ot only can you see the enhancement in the data but you get a sense of this during the testing process, which in itself is exciting due to the suspense created when we are breaking the specimens.鈥�

Students in the Dato Lab are also investigating how graphene might be used as a medium for 3-D printing. 鈥淚n particular, we are trying to determine if the inclusion of a certain carbon nanoparticle improves any of the material properties (ultimate tensile strength, ductility, elastic modulus, strain at break, toughness) of specimens printed from standard 3-D printing resin,鈥� says Bisquera, who is beginning his second semester on the project.

Bisquera says working in the Dato Lab is challenging, academically fulfilling and fun. He鈥檚 also inspired to think about his future as an engineer. 鈥淚 can see my research potentially having an impact on society,鈥� he says. 鈥淎s an engineer who greatly enjoys prototyping, design and building, I have always been fascinated by 3-D printers for their ability to transform a digital design into a physical reality. Ultimately, I can see the work done in this project as having an impact on the quality and durability of 3-D printed designs.鈥�

For Dato, working at Harvey Mudd is fundamentally about his love of teaching, his passion for graphene research and his desire to, along with his students, tackle engineering鈥檚 grand challenges. By combining all three ideas, he hopes to form a collaboration between his students and an industry partner to learn if they can make current graphene composite applications better. 鈥淚f we make cars and aircraft lighter, you have better fuel efficiency, less emission鈥攖he goal in the Dato Lab is always to make something to help the environment,鈥� he says.

And the diamonds? 鈥淒iamonds can wait,鈥� Dato says. 鈥淟et鈥檚 focus on this material that can make the world a better place.鈥�

Prof. Nancy Lape: Innovative Engineering Educator

Distinguished teacher welcomed as visiting professor at Princeton

Nancy Lape, associate professor of engineering at 无忧视频, has been awarded the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. The award is given to individuals 鈥渨ho have set standards for exceptional scholarship and distinguished teaching.鈥�

Selected for demonstrated excellence in teaching and for her capacity to bring new ideas in undergraduate teaching to the campus, Lape will spend her 2018鈥�2019 sabbatical year at Princeton. She鈥檒l teach an undergraduate course and engage in other activities aimed at improving teaching at Princeton, such as workshops for faculty and graduate students, demonstration lectures and classroom visits.

鈥淭he William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching is an exciting opportunity to teach and learn from other professors in another rich research environment,鈥� says Lape, who adds that she鈥檚 also looking forward to exploring Princeton鈥檚 teaching and learning centers and hearing more about the university鈥檚 work on its sequence of integrated science, mathematics and engineering freshman courses and how this might inform potential revisions to Harvey Mudd鈥檚 Core Curriculum.

Lape joined the Department of Engineering at 无忧视频 in 2005 and serves as the director of the Patton and Claire Lewis Fellowship in Engineering Professional Practice. Her research focuses on energy-efficient composite gas separation membranes and chemical transport across human skin. She received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota. In 2009, she received a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Lape is interested in finding innovative approaches to engineering education. With fellow Harvey Mudd faculty Rachel Levy and Darryl Yong, she conducted a at Harvey Mudd. Their work, which provides evidence-based recommendations to 无忧视频 educators, was publicized widely, including in the Los Angeles Times and in .

Lape also co-authored an award-winning paper that describes the redesign of the College鈥檚 Engineering Systems course from the lecture model to a model that includes active learning (flipped classroom) tutorials and hands-on practicums. The paper 鈥淚ntegrating Theory and Hands-On Practice Using Underwater Robotics in a Multidisciplinary Introductory Engineering Course,鈥� won second place in the First-Year Programs Division and first place for presentation in the same division at the 2017 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition. Lape and Department of Engineering colleagues Lori Bassman, Christopher Clark, Albert Dato, Angela Lee, Matthew Spencer and Erik Spjut, and Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness Laura Palucki Blake, collaborated on the paper, which includes results that show major increases in student learning and increased positive attitudes toward engineering.

Lape is a member of HMC鈥檚 Faculty Executive Committee (FEC), the FEC subcommittee on diversity, inclusion and equity, and the Core Review Planning Team, which helped lead an external review of the College鈥檚 Core Curriculum.

The William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching was established as part of the Princeton鈥檚 250th anniversary celebration in 1996. Lape鈥檚 colleague, Chris Clark, professor of engineering and associate department chair, held the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching before joining 无忧视频 in 2012.

Prof. Philip Cha: Exciting Vibrations, Inspiring Students

An expert in mechanical vibration, Professor Cha shares research and collaborates with students

Before he became an engineering professor at Harvey Mudd, Philip Cha worked as a Senior Research Engineer at the Ford Motor Company Research Laboratory鈥檚 chassis systems department, where, among other things, he constructed mathematical models to simulate the behavior of anti-lock brakes. 鈥淚 liked what I did, but this is so much more fun and gratifying,鈥� Cha says of teaching. 鈥淲hen a student gets excited about a subject, it鈥檚 really fulfilling.鈥�

At Mudd, Cha studies mechanical vibration. One of his research interests lies in seeking ways to minimize and suppress vibration on a structure to improve its lifespan and safety. His work with students, however, is all about expanding knowledge and developing novel ways to analyze vibration.

Cha, C.F. Bran & Company Fellow, is currently collaborating with a graduate student and his advisor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, studying vibration suppression. 鈥淭he advisor was a student of mine when I taught at Tsinghua University in Beijing during my sabbatical from 2004 to 2005,鈥� Cha says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so exciting to have a student become a professor with students of his own. I love to think back about what he was like as a student and to see him now as a teacher.鈥� They鈥檝e had some exciting results in their research collaboration, which Cha happily demonstrates through a computer animation of vibration of a harmonically excited plate. By enforcing nodes at various locations, they are able to mitigate vibration in specific regions of the plate. They published a paper on their research last year and have just submitted another one for review based on an extension of their previous work.

In his lectures at Harvey Mudd for his upper-level technical electives, Cha likes to share many of his research findings with his students. 鈥淚 expose them to as much of my research as I can. I want them to be excited about mechanical vibration and structural dynamics,鈥� he says. When something sparks a student鈥檚 interest, Cha asks if they want to collaborate on research in that area.

One such collaboration has been studying eigenvalue perturbation theory with Austin Shin 鈥�18. 鈥淢any engineering problems involve a system of differential equations, which depend on many parameters in the system, such as different masses, spring stiffnesses and damping coefficients,鈥� says Shin. 鈥淪olving an eigenvalue problem associated with the system reveals interesting characteristics about the dynamics of the system, but it can take a significant amount of time and computing power to do so, and if any of the parameters are changed, the entire problem must be solved again.鈥� Cha and Shin are developing an efficient method that can quickly approximate the new system鈥檚 eigenvalues and eigenvectors.

鈥淲e use the eigenvalue perturbation method, which provides us with closed-form expressions containing simple matrix multiplication, and matrix multiplication can be done exceptionally quickly with software,鈥� Shin says. 鈥淲orking with Prof. Cha is great practice in doing research and being a part of academia. He has high expectations for the results and the work that you present and write. He鈥檚 very understanding and knows that as students, we can be very busy at times. And he鈥檚 great at communicating, easy to contact and believes in your ability to perform and deliver, which I find most helpful.鈥�

Prof. David Money Harris: Aerial Altruism

This pilot and professor donates flights to help conservationists

When engineering professor David Money Harris鈥檚 family wants hamburgers for dinner, they like to go to one of two favorite California locations, the Beachside Cafe in Santa Barbara or Landings in Carlsbad. Both locations are quite a long drive away from Claremont, which is why they fly.

In the 20 years that Harris has held his pilot鈥檚 license, he鈥檚 flown for many reasons, in addition to a quest for good burgers鈥攂usiness travel, family vacations, bypassing Los Angeles traffic. Harris has also flown for another reason: volunteer work.

Fifteen years ago, Harris flew for AngelFlight, doing nonemergency medical transportation for people in need. 鈥淚 took some kids and adults who lived in remote areas for cancer treatments in L.A.,鈥� Harris says. 鈥淚 also got to ferry an injured Iraq War vet to visit his family.鈥� Recently Harris has resumed his practice of donating flights for a good cause, this time via LightHawk, a non-profit organization that supplies pilots, planes and flight time for conservation projects that benefit from the perspective of aerial views.

After seeing LightHawk鈥檚 advertisement in aviation magazines for many years, Harris met a representative from the organization at an event last year and signed up. Donating his time and the expenses of flying his plane, an A36 Bonanza, Harris flies passengers involved with various conservation organizations on missions related to their projects.

鈥淟ightHawk keeps a mission board, and I sign up for flights based on my availability, location and the suitability of my aircraft for the task,鈥� Harris says.

His first mission, in June, was to assist the Heal the Bay organization by taking the California Fish and Game Commissioner to see how marine-protected areas off the coast of Palos Verdes and Catalina have contributed to the revitalization of the ecosystems there.

In October, Harris flew members of the Bay Foundation from Santa Monica Bay to Point Conception to examine marine-protected areas that do and do not allow fishing. Though similar to his previous flight, this one required extra precaution. 鈥淭he trip was far enough off-shore that we had to wear life jackets,鈥� Harris says.

Most recently, in December, Harris flew with the Surfrider Foundation to observe the impact of a king tide event, a regular occurrence that can help provide an idea of what a permanent rise in sea level might look like. 鈥淚 carried a foundation official, a Carlsbad city councilwoman (who was a former pro surfer) and two KPBS reporters,鈥� Harris says. 鈥淭he 6.9-foot tides were up against the sea cliffs along most of the route between San Onofre and the Mexican border, with just a bit of the largest sand beaches showing.鈥�

Not only does working with LightHawk allow Harris to fly for a good cause, it also has potential for being exciting and unusual.鈥淚 almost carried an endangered wolf across the country to a breeding program last year,鈥� Harris says, 鈥渂ut the wolf is very sensitive and wouldn鈥檛 have done well if I got delayed by bad weather, so my plane wasn鈥檛 the right one for the task.鈥�

Having flown marine-related flights so far, Harris, an avid hiker, looks forward to the chance to be involved with land conservation efforts as well. 鈥淚 write hiking guidebooks,鈥� he says, 鈥渟o I have a strong personal interest in the health of our mountains and deserts.鈥� Given his close proximity to several mountain ranges and deserts in Southern California, there鈥檚 a good possibility Harris will get that chance. In the meantime, he can always take the family out for burgers.

Curricular Innovation and Our General Engineering Program

How do we ensure HMC students become standout professionals? Here are some insights from the 2017 Engineering Faculty Retreat

How does a College improve upon an engineering program that is routinely ranked No. 1 or 2 in the nation? By employing one of the field鈥檚 time-honored methods: continuous improvement.

During a Department of Engineering faculty retreat in January 2017, emeriti professors and current faculty members participated in a discussion about the development of HMC鈥檚 engineering program and where it stands now.

In devising the program, engineering department Chair Liz Orwin 鈥�95 sought to gather diverse perspectives on HMC鈥檚 engineering program in order to inform discussions about the curriculum as the department evolves to meet student and industry needs.

Providing insight were engineering faculty leaders from the earliest years to the present.

• Mack Gilkeson, Professor of Engineering Emeritus (1961鈥�1986); co-inventor and co-founder of the Clinic Program
• Richard Phillips, Professor of Engineering Emeritus (1966鈥�2002); former department chair and Engineering Clinic director (17 years)
• John Molinder, Professor Emeritus of Engineering (1970-2015) and former department chair
• Jim Monson, Professor Emeritus of Engineering and former department chair
• Tony Bright, John Leland Atwood Professor of Engineering Science, former department chair and former Engineering Clinic director
• Ziyad Dur贸n 鈥�81, Jude and Eileen Laspa Professor of Engineering and former department chair
• Nancy Lape, associate professor of engineering, former associate department chair
• Chris Clark, professor of engineering and associate department chair
• Gordon Krauss, Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design
• Albert Dato, assistantprofessor of engineering

The panel considered several questions, including: What has the general engineering curriculum meant for our identity as a program? What are the biggest changes you鈥檝e seen? Is there something you wish we鈥檇 done, or something you would have changed in retrospect? How should the liberal arts context and the changes to the Colleges Core Curriculum inform our thought process?

鈥淲e鈥檙e talking a lot about our curriculum,鈥� says Orwin. 鈥淲hat do we want to change, innovate? We want to make sure we don鈥檛 lose what makes us special. I thought this panel would be a way to get many perspectives to help us think about our curriculum over time and moving forward.鈥�

Discussions revealed that some things are relatively conserved. The idea of general engineering and educating generalists is one thing everyone agrees on. That鈥檚 the department鈥檚 niche: generalists who are able to see the big picture and are able to make necessary connections to solve complex problems.

Molinder commented, and all agreed, that the biggest change that has impacted the program is the dramatic increase in computing power and the development of computer science, something that affects all engineering fields.

Monson said, 鈥淥ur general engineering/design/systems way of thinking has contributed strongly to the perception that the Harvey Mudd engineer can take on anything and do it well.鈥�

Participants also shared ideas about how to have a more intentional connection between technical work and humanities, social sciences and the arts/liberal context of education/impact on society.

The desire for the department鈥檚 connection to industry remains. The Clinic Program, an innovation of the engineering department in 1963, is strong and is an important way for engineering faculty to maintain ties with industry.

In a recent survey of engineering alumni and students, two areas of improvement that were identified were software proficiency and professional skills. Discussions are underway about where to add software courses into the curriculum.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 part of the reason for this panel,鈥� says Orwin. 鈥淲e are asking questions like, has software engineering risen to the level of an engineering science, or is it something that should be included throughout all of our courses. And what do we give up if we add it?鈥�

Regarding professional skills, panelists discussed how the department could be more intentional about helping students improve in this area. The recent addition of leadership development expert and entrepreneur Werner Zorman, the first to hold the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair in Leadership, is one step toward helping students become standout professionals.

鈥淲e鈥檙e continually informed by what鈥檚 going on in the outside world,鈥� says Orwin. 鈥淲e want to graduate students who can hit the ground running, whether they go to grad school or into industry.鈥�

Prof. Matthew Spencer: The Aggressive Dabbler

Here’s Professor Spencer’s strategy for making Harvey Mudd a powerhouse school for analog engineering

As a UC Berkeley graduate student working on his dissertation, Matt Spencer sought a way to explain how to design circuits using micro-electric mechanical systems. So, of course, he created an interpretive dance video using cowboys and kung-fu.

He entered it in the Gonzolabs鈥� 鈥淒ance Your PhD鈥� competition.

鈥淲ith my martial arts background and various choreographers I knew, I thought for sure I would sweep it,鈥� Spencer says. 鈥淏ut by the time I got around to entering, the quality of competition had improved tremendously, and I got fairly stomped.鈥�

Martial arts are just one of many extracurricular passions for Spencer, an HMC engineering professor and self-described 鈥渁ggressive dabbler.鈥� Others include swing dancing, choir singing and most recently tai chi, which is easier on the body than wushu (another hobby), which involves wielding a six-pound wooden bench, among other items.

Spencer was introduced to wushu鈥斺�渘ot to be confused with moo shu, which is pork鈥濃�攚hile earning his PhD in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley, which claims the oldest collegiate wushu club in the nation, dating back to 1987.

A Harvey Mudd visit becomes permanent

Initially, Spencer had planned to work in an industrial research lab and then make a bid for an R1 research university. Then, HMC engineering Professor David Harris recruited him at a conference and sold him on visiting Harvey Mudd for a year. Spencer enjoyed teaching and thought it would be a nice break before 鈥渉opping into the industrial millstone for the next 30 years.鈥�

鈥淚t was a really good year,鈥� Spencer says. 鈥淭he students exceeded my expectations, my coworkers were great, I liked all the professors, and the job was fun.鈥�

A tenure-track position opened up the following year, and he applied.

Coming to Harvey Mudd allowed Spencer to broaden his research interests to include radio-frequency design, phase change memory, automated analog design and PCB ground plane optimization.

His radio-frequency lab is up and running thanks to the efforts of several students who were involved every step of the way from specifying parts, ordering equipment and winning government auction bids. The team also built software that allows the lab instruments to be controlled by student laptops, which allows more complex automation of the facility.

鈥淭he lab would not be in the shape it鈥檚 in today without the help of four students who worked on it with really great success, and I鈥檓 really grateful to them,鈥� Spencer says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 getting traction, and I鈥檓 excited about that.鈥�

He鈥檚 planning on offering a radio-frequency design course in the spring largely built around the radio-frequency lab. That course is one of several advanced electives he hopes to bring online, including an advanced analog course where students can explore how to make a chip that takes complicated mixed signal measurements.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of room for Harvey Mudd鈥檚 analog curriculum to grow, and I鈥檓 super excited about making Mudd a powerhouse school for analog engineering,鈥� Spencer says.

Emerging technology devices require a ground-up rethink

One of Spencer鈥檚 research projects is exploring the design of ground planes on circuit boards, a venerable problem. Ground planes ensure that every device on the circuit board has the same reference voltage, and their design can be tricky if sensitive analog circuits and noisy digital circuits are packed close to one another.

鈥淭here are various ways to design these things but, remarkably, no one has published a credible paper on what actually works and what doesn鈥檛,鈥� Spencer says. 鈥淲e are doing that.鈥�

He鈥檚 particularly interested in the prospects presented by emerging technologies, an area of research that is gaining traction.

鈥淓merging technology devices have radically different physics than we are used to, and they work differently than devices that are currently on the market,鈥� Spencer says. 鈥淎s a result, the circuit design you have to use in order to incorporate them into computers requires a ground-up rethink of how you would normally build memory. And being able to do that ground-up rethink is pretty rewarding. There鈥檚 a lot of room for creativity.鈥�

Several of Spencer鈥檚 students are working with him on software called the Berkeley Analog Generator to automate analog design, something that has challenged researchers since the 1980s. The software could impact industry by allowing people to codify existing, complex, analog designs in a way that can be repeated.

鈥淎s that gets off the ground, we鈥檒l start building some interesting chips and see where that takes us,鈥� Spencer says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going slowly, but we鈥檒l get there.鈥�

Beyond his research, Spencer is part of a faculty committee working to revise the curriculum for E79, the introductory engineering class that all Harvey Mudd students take as part of the College鈥檚 interdisciplinary focus, and E80, the follow-up course for engineering majors.

After a decade of having students build rockets for their final project, students in E80 now construct sophisticated underwater robots and deploy them in the ocean off of Catalina Island. Students in E79 have the opportunity to build simpler underwater robots that can be tested in the Bernard Field Station lake across the street from the College.

鈥淭hese are students who have never done any engineering before,鈥� Spencer says. 鈥淭hey will have to assemble a robot and build a payload capable of measuring temperature and pressure so they can plumb the depths of the lake and figure out its temperature profile.鈥�

Prof. Gordon Krauss: The Cutting Edge

Engineering professor challenges students to question traditional assumptions

The next time you slide a razor over your skin, think of Gordon Krauss.

It was Krauss, working for Schick, who invented a shaver lubrication strip that transformed the industry. Today, the Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design is using his design and development knowledge to instruct 无忧视频 engineering students. It all began in his father鈥檚 New Jersey machine shop, where Krauss learned the fundamentals of problem solving as he snipped solder and performed other tasks.

鈥淢y dad taught me to use a mill, a lathe and more,鈥� Krauss says. He says his dad showed him how to troubleshoot existing problems to find the root cause and to imagine soutions beyond those readily available. 鈥淏eyond that, he showed me how to cooperatively find solutions that worked for all those involved and to have a broader vision than optimizing mere narrow self-interest.鈥� The die was cast.

Challenging assumptions

Raised in Haddonfield, N.J., Krauss earned a PhD in mechanical engineering at Boston University. He soon joined the Ford Motor Co. Research Lab as a technical consultant analyzing the abrasiveness of diamond coatings. Later, he was hired by Schick, where he honed the skill of challenging traditional assumptions鈥攁 skill he now dispatches to his students.

鈥淏y carefully deconstructing the system and understanding how every aspect worked and contributed to the overall shave, I was able to invent the lubricating strip that went onto the Schick Hydro product,鈥� Krauss says, adding that since the strip lasted longer people experienced an improved shaving experience. 鈥淲e started by challenging many of our assumptions.鈥�

Along the way Krauss developed a strong interest in teaching future engineers, and in 2013 he joined 无忧视频, where his current research interests include friction, wear and lubrication in mechanical and biological systems, as well as design education. For the latter, Krauss examines how students provide feedback to each other on their design projects. Aspects of that involve written versus oral feedback, anonymous versus face-to-face feedback, and the differences in effectiveness of the feedback methods for men and women.

Feedback lessons

鈥淎s a student and later a professional, it occurred to me that designers鈥攂oth students and professionals鈥攁re reticent to provide candid feedback on the performance of their design colleagues,鈥� he says. 鈥淥ne of the things we鈥檙e looking at is how you teach people to give critical feedback with an appropriate professional tone.鈥�

To Krauss, 无忧视频 is the perfect training ground for such instruction.

鈥淗arvey Mudd has very smart students who are well engaged and really want to learn,鈥� says Krauss, whose fall teaching schedule includes two courses: Introduction to Engineering Design, Manufacturing and Management (E4), and New Product Development (E181). 鈥淥ur students are involved in their work, very dedicated and are really invested in helping each other. Those are qualities I appreciate.鈥�

The multi-faceted engineer

They also are qualities that enable Krauss to press forward with the overriding goal he has for his students: to become outstanding, multidisciplinary engineers.

鈥淚 want them to be optimally positioned and well-informed to make excellent career and life choices,鈥� he says. 鈥淢udd has an amazing advantage in that we don鈥檛 have a disciplinary engineering program鈥攕tudents don鈥檛 throw up a wall and say, 鈥業鈥檓 a mechanical engineer鈥擨 can鈥檛 do chemical engineering.鈥� Our students are trained in all the engineering disciplines, and often that gives them a leg up.鈥�