Sparking Student Interest

Members of Dartmouth’s Society of Women Engineers (SWE) brought 13 students from fifth to 11th grade to the West End for Women in Engineering Day. Thayer students led activity stations— including building and racing cars that use water as fuel (above)—and shared their experiences in STEM. “I attended a similar event when I was in middle school, and it really sparked my interest in pursuing engineering,” says organizer and SWE board member Abigail Hughes ’25. “I’m proud SWE was able to pass the same great experience to the next generation of emerging engineers!” It was the type of community effort that earned Dartmouth Engineering a silver award— the highest level of distinction—from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Diversity Recognition Program. Thayer was recognized for its representation of women among faculty and graduate students as well as “commitment and efforts made toward infrastructure, recruitment and access, community engagement, and retention and success,” according to ASEE. At Thayer, female faculty comprise nearly 25 percent of engineering faculty, exceeding the national average of 19 percent; students comprise 47 percent of students enrolled in master’s programs, exceeding the national average of 30 percent.

AWARDED: SME named Professor William Scheideler a 2023 Delcie Durham Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer. Scheideler, who also earned the school’s Woodhouse Excellence in Teaching Award, researches fabrication of 2D-metal oxides for electronics and energy applications.

PUBLISHED: PhD student Andrew Hederman Th’24 and Professor Margie Ackerman coauthored “Leveraging Deep Learning to Improve Vaccine Design,” published in Trends in Immunology.

RECOGNIZED: The Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center was awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification, the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest designation for sustainable design.

AWARDED: The ENGS 89/90 capstone project, “Low Cost, Open Source PFAS Filter Design for Small Cleaning Businesses and Beyond,” received a $10,000 grand prize from the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. The student team of Ariana Arvelo Marchan ’23, Abbi Fitzpatrick ’22 Th’23, William Gano ’22, and Eliana Ray ’23 also received the inaugural Don Stayner Th’16 Changemaker Award during Investiture.

HONORED: The Dartmouth Graduate Student Council recognized Professor Kimberley Samkoe’s commitment to fostering the professional and personal development of graduate students with its 2023 Guarini School Faculty Mentoring Award.

PUBLISHED: PhD students Julia Huddy Th’24 and Huan Zhao Th’26, research associate Anand Tiwari, and Professors Yan Li and William Scheideler coauthored “Graph Theory Design of 3D Printed Conductive Lattice Electrodes,” published in Advanced Materials Technologies.

AWARDED: PhD Innovation student Andrew Closson Th’23 received second prize and $10,000 from the inaugural Dartmouth Innovation Accelerator for Digital Health (DIADH). Andrew—along with Billy Jin Th’23 and Professor John Zhang—is developing a wearable blood pressure monitor called PulseFlex.

LOADED: Professor Simon Shepherd’s latest addition to the international Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN)—profiled in the Fall 2022 issue—is fully functional and collecting data.

APPLIED: Research scientist Aleah Sommers and Professor Colin Meyer have successfully applied a subglacial hydrology model to the Helmheim Glacier in Greenland to predict high water pressure and other variables in seawater movement under glacial ice. Their findings were published in the Journal of Glaciology.

PLACED: PhD student Savannah Decker Th’25 won second place at the 2023 Early-Career Investigator Symposium of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine with “Expanding the Inclusivity of Cherenkov Surface Dosimetry by Quantifying the Effects of Skin Tone in a Multi-institutional Human Study.”

AWARDED: Professor Weiyang (Fiona) Li earned the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Award—with nearly $700,000 in research support. Li is developing nonflammable solid-state electrolytes for use in batteries.

PUBLISHED: PhD students Becca Thomson ’22 Th’21 Th’22 and Afton Limberg Th’27 and Professor Douglas Van Citters ’99 Th’03 Th’05 Th’06 coauthored the review paper, “Nanoparticles in Joint Arthroplasties,” published in Nano Life.

ATTENDED: The largest delegation of Dartmouth representatives to date gathered in Houston, Texas, for CERAWeek ’23, one of the world’s most significant climate and energy conferences. The Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society led a group of Dartmouth faculty, students, and staff, including Dean Alexis Abramson, who participated in a panel on “Energy Efficiency and Making the Built Environment More Energy Efficient,” and Professor Erin Mayfield, who participated in panels on “Building Equity and Fairness in Climate Solutions” and “The Current State of Climate Change.”