November 2020
Our monthly email newsletter highlights just a few of the many ways that the Penn State College of Engineering works to inspire change and impact tomorrow.
College of Engineering kicks off 125th anniversary with virtual celebration
The College of Engineering will begin a yearlong celebration of its upcoming 125th anniversary with a virtual event at 1:25 p.m. EST on Nov. 12. Titled, “Engineering125: Building Toward the Future,” the event will be open to the public and will stream live at engineering125.psu.edu.

Penn State receives $3 million to contribute to national Center of Excellence
The national Center of Excellence (COE) for Thermal Fluids Applications in Nuclear Energy at Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory has a new member. Elia Merzari, associate professor of nuclear engineering, received $3 million to lead a university consortium in partnership with the COE and industry members to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear reactors.

“What architectural engineering does is make it possible to do things better in the buildings we
use—and that’s exactly what we did for ourselves with this studio space over the summer.”

The Department of Architectural Engineering transformed an engineering design studio space into a mixed-mode, socially distanced classroom with cameras and other audio visual technologies for the benefit of remote students, as well as completely rebuilt windows and new window exhaust fans designed to create a constant flow of fresh air to maximize air quality
and safety.
Inexpensive and rapid testing of drugs for resistant infections possible
Antimicrobial resistant infection is one of the major threats to human health globally, with the potential to grow to 10 million deaths annually by 2050 without improved techniques for detection and treatment. Now, a rapid and simple method for testing the efficacy of antibacterial drugs on infectious microbes has been developed and validated by a team of electrical engineering researchers.
Generating renewable hydrogen fuel from
the sea
The power of the sun, wind, and sea may soon combine to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel, according to a team of civil and environmental engineering researchers. The team integrated water purification technology into a new proof-of-concept design for a sea water electrolyzer, which uses an electric current to split apart the hydrogen and oxygen in water molecules. 
New method enables automated protections for sensitive data
An approach known as differential privacy may be able to better preserve a manufacturer’s business, sensitive design details, and overall company reputation, according to a team of industrial engineering researchers and graduate students.

"The scientific collaboration and innovation the pandemic demanded of researchers was significant, and I am happy to say I was a part of the response."

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to sweep across the world, many researchers shifted focus to fight the virus, including biomedical engineering graduate students.
Bacteria virus combo may be cause of neonatal brain infections in Uganda
A newly identified bacteria and a common virus may be the underlying cause of infection-induced hydrocephalus in Uganda, according to an international team of researchers led by Steven Schiff, Harvey F. Brush Chair in Engineering and professor of engineering science and mechanics, neurosurgery, and physics.


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