Rossin Connection
29 episodes - English - Latest episode: 22 days ago -Rossin Connection is a podcast about all things Lehigh engineering, and comes to you from the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science at Lehigh University. It’s a show for students, alumni, faculty, and staff—current, former, and future—and for anyone interested in the many creative ways that engineers are solving the world’s problems.
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Episodes
Making the Internet a Safer Place
April 11, 2024 10:00 - 9 minutes - 6.58 MBLike a lot of kids, Dominic DiFranzo spent loads of time on the internet when he was growing up. It was where he could connect with other people who shared his passion for “nerdy things” like science fiction and Japanese anime. Pretty soon, the web itself captivated him–how it worked technologically, and eventually, how people built online communities. Today, he researches how to make the internet more “pro-social,” and a safer space for kids, older adults, and really, for all of us. Rossi...
Towards a More Resilient Energy Future
October 31, 2023 10:00 - 12 minutes - 8.52 MBJavad Khazaei came to the U.S from Iran. He was the first member of his family to leave the country, and at first, the transition was a tough one. But he pushed through what he calls, “the challenge that every international student has to overcome.” Today, he’s an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. In this episode, he talks about an influential trip he took as a kid with his dad, how the encouraging words of his advisor changed the course of his career, and how his r...
The "Holy Grail" of Materials
July 12, 2023 10:00 - 14 minutes - 9.75 MBGrowing up, Siddha Pimputkar spent summers at his grandparents’ house, which meant spending lots of time figuring out how to maintain an old house and a large garden. That love of problem solving stayed with him, and he eventually turned it into a career in materials science, a discipline that, he says, connects to all the others in some shape or form. Today, he’s researching a novel method of growing cubic boron nitride, a material that has the potential to–among other things–solve the very...
"You can do this."
January 24, 2023 11:00 - 34 minutes - 23.7 MBWhen Farrah Moazeni started out as a chemical engineering student in Iran, she figured she’d end up working for her country’s petrochemical industry. But the environmental impacts of the business made her change course. She came to the U.S. to study renewable energy and got her PhD in civil engineering. After an invaluable (and memorable!) experience working in industry, she came to Lehigh where she’s now an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering researching ways to make ...
Combating Antibiotic Resistance
December 05, 2022 19:00 - 28 minutes - 19.7 MBAccording to the Centers for Disease Control, antibiotic resistance is a global public health threat that was associated with nearly 5 million deaths worldwide in 2019. In this episode, associate professor Angela Brown explains why these powerful, important drugs can also do harm, how her research has influenced how and when she takes them, and the work her lab is doing to develop new strategies to fight bacterial infections. We also learn why she never intended to become an engineer in the ...
Inspired by Animals
November 09, 2022 10:00 - 27 minutes - 19 MBIt’s really, really hard to make something swim like a fish. But understanding just how these animals move can help in a range of applications–from the design of renewable energy devices, to underwater vehicles, and forecasting the impact of climate change on fish populations. In this episode, associate professor of mechanical engineering Keith Moored talks about how his childhood love of the ocean led him to diving with manta rays as a grad student, and eventually to a career researching bi...
The “Magic” of Materials Engineering
July 05, 2022 16:00 - 12 minutes - 8.77 MBChances are, you’ve never given much (if any!) thought to the films that coat things like your phone charger. But without them–and without their exact dimensions of thickness and hardness–the technology we rely on every day would be useless. In this episode, associate professor Nick Strandwitz explains what he calls the “magic” of atomic layer deposition, a thin film growth technique that, among many other things, helps our computers and smartphones do what they do–and do it fast. He also ta...
Following your dreams
April 20, 2022 14:00 - 13 minutes - 9.2 MBAs a kid growing up in Amman, Jordan, Karmel Shehadeh knew she wanted to one day be a professor and a researcher. Today, she is an assistant professor in the department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. And at the end of her faculty profile, she includes an unusual line. It’s not a sentiment you typically come across in such write-ups, but it’s targeted toward a special group of students. In this episode, you’ll find out why she makes a point of including that sentence not only in her p...
“They nailed it.” Engineering the James Webb Space Telescope
March 01, 2022 14:00 - 23 minutes - 16.4 MBThe James Webb Space Telescope launched into orbit on Christmas Day 2021. It’s the largest, most powerful space science telescope that has ever been built. It will enable us to look more than 13 billion years back in time, helping us answer questions like, Where do we come from? and Are we alone? It took 20 years, thousands of technicians, scientists, and engineers, and 40 million hours to build. One of those engineers is Lehigh alum Scott Willoughby. He graduated with a degree in electrica...
An honor, and a challenge
December 06, 2021 14:00 - 16 minutes - 11.5 MBSibel Pamukcu is an expert in the field of electroremediation of soils and groundwater, and her pioneering research spans more than three decades of work. But Sibel is a pioneer of another sort as well. She was the first woman faculty member of the department of civil and environmental engineering. In this episode, she talks about becoming an engineer, her groundbreaking research, the challenges she faced in her early years in the department, and what she’s learned from her colleagues today ...
"You are valued."
October 04, 2021 19:00 - 36 minutes - 25.4 MBWhen Hannah Dailey says she feels like she's been at Lehigh her whole life, she means it. She did her undergrad in mechanical engineering here, came back for her master's and PhD, and today she’s an assistant professor specializing in medical devices. In this episode, she talks about her journey from "terrified" transfer student to entrepreneur to helping surgeons improve patient care. She also talks about the efforts to get more female students and faculty into mechanical engineering, and t...
Coffee and Cosmetics
August 02, 2021 13:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBHow can we get more students interested in chemical engineering? Ask the students. The result of that somewhat novel approach is a new course called Coffee and Cosmetics: Engineering of Consumer Products. In this episode, Professor James Gilchrist shares the origin story of the class, the unique role of its creators, and how for the first time in his teaching career, Gilchrist wasn’t the expert in the room. The episode begins with Gilchrist telling the origin story of his own interest in ...
How engineers treat disease
January 04, 2021 15:00 - 26 minutes - 17.9 MBAnand Ramamurthi is the new professor and chair of Lehigh's bioengineering department. In this episode, he talks about his research journey, and how an early fascination with the human body led to the realization that engineers can play a significant role in treating disease. Rossin Connection is hosted and produced by Christine Fennessy, with support from the Dean's office at the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. Talk with us @RossinPodcast.
Solving life’s "What if...?" problems
November 19, 2020 19:00 - 19 minutes - 13.4 MBMatt Bilsky is a Lehigh alum and an entrepreneur. Growing up, he was constantly building and inventing things, and that creator mindset helped him not only design his own PhD program, but start two companies focused on solving those “Wouldn’t it be nice if...?” situations. Here’s the story of how a K’NEX kid became a problem-solving CEO—and what startup life sounds like in the era of COVID-19. Learn more about FLX Solutions in South Bethlehem. Rossin Connection is hosted and produced by C...
Can cartilage be regrown?
October 26, 2020 23:00 - 31 minutes - 21.3 MBOsteoarthritis occurs when the protective cartilage that cushions the ends of your bones wears down over time. It’s the most common form of arthritis, and it affects more than 31 million Americans. Lesley Chow recently received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for her work on a technique that may someday help cartilage regrow. In this episode, Lesley talks about the role of cartilage in the body, why injuries to it can be so devastating, the novel approach her lab is takin...
The Astronaut, Part 2
October 08, 2020 12:00 - 44 minutes - 30.8 MBThis is the second half of our interview with professor of practice, Terry Hart. It begins in 1978, just after Hart was selected from 8,000 applicants to be one of 35 astronauts known as Group 8, the first to include African Americans, Asian Americans, and women. Hart talks about training for his historic 1984 mission to space, why weightlessness was initially pretty awful, and about the one failure NASA didn’t anticipate. He also explains why he left the astronaut corps, his view on the f...
The Astronaut, Part 1
September 24, 2020 01:00 - 39 minutes - 27.3 MBTerry Hart '68, '88H, is a Lehigh alum and a professor of practice in mechanical engineering and mechanics. He's also a former telecommunications executive, fighter pilot, and astronaut. His life is a series of remarkable stories, some of which he was planning on sharing with students as commencement speaker for the 2020 class. But like everything else, graduation was upended by the pandemic. Host Christine Fennessy caught up with Terry to learn more about the path he took after his own gra...
From injured runner to researcher
September 03, 2020 23:00 - 22 minutes - 15.8 MBAt the time, it was the hardest decision he'd ever made. But when Peter Schwarzenberg '16 quit running cross country in his junior year, it was a move that changed his life. Today, he's a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering and mechanics developing a virtual technique that can help doctors better predict healing in tibial fractures. That research made him just one of 10 recipients in the U.S. last year of the Institute of International Education’s Graduate International Research Experien...
Kathleen Egan: Athlete, Activist, CEO
August 21, 2020 17:00 - 29 minutes - 20.2 MBKathleen Egan is a surfer, skier, environmental activist, and the CEO and cofounder of ecomedes, a company whose mission is to reduce the cost and impact of buildings. She's also an alum of the industrial and systems engineering program at Lehigh. She got her MBA at Harvard Business School, grew seven venture-backed startups with three successful exits, and has held senior leadership positions at companies like Oracle, Revionics, Quri, and Wiser Solutions, Inc. In this episode, Egan talks a...
Breaking the stereotype
July 08, 2020 15:00 - 14 minutes - 9.8 MB"It took me a long time to find my voice in engineering," says Christina Haden, professor of practice in the department of mechanical engineering and mechanics. According to data from the American Society for Engineering Education, just 21.9 percent of engineering bachelor's degrees were awarded to women in 2018. Haden wants to change that. She helped create Lehigh Women Engineers, a three-day experience that is part of Lehigh's preLUsion program, and designed for self-identifying women. T...
Expanding the worldview of students
June 18, 2020 15:00 - 23 minutes - 16 MBOn July 1st, Sabrina Jedlicka will become the new associate dean of academic affairs for the Rossin College. In this episode, she talks about how psychology played a big role in who she became as an engineer and as a professor, how a chance meeting with a female mentor shaped her path as a researcher, and how she’ll use her new role as associate dean to broaden the worldview of students, and to help address the inequity in engineering.
Caring for the COVID Convalescent
June 04, 2020 12:00 - 26 minutes - 18.1 MBDr. David Adinaro is an alum of the Healthcare Systems Engineering program, and the chief medical officer of the East Orange-Alternative Care Site in East Orange, New Jersey. From early April to about mid-May, he was in the same role in the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey, which had been converted into a temporary medical station meant to ease the burden on local hospitals overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. Dr. Adinaro and his team care for the COVID convalescent, t...
The Journey of Onur Denizhan
May 26, 2020 15:00 - 25 minutes - 17.5 MBOnur Denizhan is a PhD student in the department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, and the recent recipient of the RCEAS Graduate Leadership and Service award. He calls the award “proof of my life at Lehigh.” As an international student from Turkey, the path to such recognition hasn’t always been easy. But Onur has found that his struggles have only made him stronger.
“I was pleasantly surprised.”
May 13, 2020 16:00 - 6 minutes - 4.52 MBEllie Christman is a chemical engineering major and a freshman. Having to finish out her first year at Lehigh at home was a huge bummer, but she’s gotten more out of remote learning than she anticipated.
“Hospitals are desperate for solutions.”
May 06, 2020 22:00 - 18 minutes - 12.6 MBA small team at Lehigh led by Brian Slocum brings you inside their labs and work spaces to explain how they are responding to the shortage of personal protective equipment, and made more than 1200 face shields for local healthcare providers.
“We’re feeling the lack of closure.”
April 28, 2020 08:00 - 11 minutes - 7.6 MBSusan Perry is a professor of practice in the bioengineering department. As the semester comes to a close, Susan shares how she figured out how to teach a lab online, how her students figured out how to build prosthetics at home, and the unusual visitor who crashed her Zoom meeting. She also has a special message for all you seniors. She understands what you're feeling because she feels it, too.
“We’re feeling the lack of closure.”
April 28, 2020 08:00 - 11 minutes - 7.6 MBSusan Perry is a professor of practice in the bioengineering department. As the semester comes to a close, Susan shares how she figured out how to teach a lab online, how her students figured out how to build prosthetics at home, and the unusual visitor who crashed her Zoom meeting. She also has a special message for all you seniors. She understands what you're feeling because she feels it, too.
"It's a hard time to be a senior."
April 20, 2020 17:00 - 10 minutes - 7.1 MBSeanna Corr is a bioengineering major, and a senior. She talks about the goodbyes she didn’t get to say to friends and professors on campus, her worries about the future, and her two secret weapons helping her through it all.
"There are positives to this."
April 10, 2020 21:00 - 10 minutes - 7.27 MBFirst-year engineering student Alexander Spivey talks about the challenges he faced when the coronavirus pandemic forced students to leave campus, and how he’s staying focused, and positive.