18 minute read
Engineering Projects Illustrate Open Lab at Behrend
FASENMYER DESIGN CONFERENCE SHOWCASES STUDENT INGENUITY
MORE THAN 280 STUDENTS presented their capstone projects during the School of Engineering’s Richard J. Fasenmyer Engineering Design Conference. The projects included a robotic drum kit, a cold-weather pickleball, and a titanium-alloy container for the core samples NASA plans to collect from the Psyche asteroid.
“Capstone research teams work closely with business and industry sponsors to develop creative solutions to engineering design challenges,” said Dr. Tim Kurzweg, director of the School of Engineering. “The process distills what students have learned in class and in the lab and applies that knowledge to integrated engineering projects.”
This year’s conference included projects sponsored by Northrop Grumman, Parker LORD Corporation, Wabtec, and Westinghouse Electric. NASA funded six teams, each of which advanced an element of the Psyche mission, which will study the remnant core of a metal-rich asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.
A SPACE CAPSULE
THE PSYCHE SPACECRAFT is scheduled to launch in August and arrive at the asteroid in 2026. Scientists hope to photograph craters on the surface of Psyche in order to learn more about the asteroid’s origins. Some believe it is a failed planet.
Four Behrend students—Colton Hervatin, Easton Hooks, Jacob Sampsell, and Thomas Zbezinski—designed a containment vessel for a follow-up mission, when NASA plans to collect core samples from Psyche and return them to Earth.
“We had to design a vessel that can endure a harsh environment,” Sampsell said. “It also has to protect the samples on their return to Earth. It will take NASA several years to collect that material. We don’t want all that effort to be wasted because of a crack in the container.”
With help from their faculty adviser, Dr. Charlotte de Vries, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, the team designed a vessel that can hold twelve rods packed with core samples. To close it, they designed a lid with a tucked hinge. They didn’t have to look far for a working model: The charging case for their Apple AirPods closes the same way.
A COLD-WEATHER PICKLEBALL
A SECOND TEAM OF STUDENTS—Tristan Grimm, Amy Nolte, and David Peterson—designed a product for use in another challenging outdoor environment: Minnesota’s pickleball courts.
The students created a cold-weather pickleball. The project’s sponsor, GAMMA Sports, believes the new material—a blend of polypropylene and high-density polyethylene—can extend the northern season for the sport, which combines elements of tennis, badminton, and Ping-Pong.
Pickleballs tend to crack in cold weather. The ball designed by the Behrend team is more durable, due to both the material blend and the decision to spin-weld the ball’s halves. The spinweld eliminates the seam, where any variation makes the ball vulnerable to cracking.
“It also makes the ball bounce faster,” Grimm said. “Good players are going to notice that.”
The students didn’t know much about pickleball at the start of the project. Neither did their adviser, Dr. Gamini Mendis, assistant professor of engineering. Now, he keeps a paddle in his office.
Capstone research teams work closely with business and industry sponsors to develop creative solutions to engineering design challenges.
A ROBOTIC DRUM KIT
WHEN THE DRUMMER HAD ANOTHER COMMITMENT, Alison Huffman would sometimes sit in with the Penn State Behrend Jazz Ensemble.
“The drummer is the core of any band,” she said. “They’re the time-keeper. When you don’t have that, it’s a lot harder for the rest of the band to practice.”
Dr. Joel Hunt, associate teaching professor of digital music and director of the jazz ensemble, asked Huffman to come up with another option. She and two classmates, Kushal Kharel and Katrina Stevenson, designed a robotic drum kit, with a control box that simultaneously can play a cymbal, snare, and kick drum. The system can maintain different tempos in four time signatures.
“It took a lot of trial and error to get there,” Huffman said. “Technology is binary. It’s very black-and-white. Music isn’t like that. It’s a real challenge to make technology match up with anything related to art.”
Like most capstone projects, the drum kit is a prototype, with some DIY engineering mixed in: The pulley wheels are tied to the pedals with fishing line. Ten-pound dumbbells hold the motor boxes in place.
It works, though. The students ended their Fasenmyer presentation with a brief concert: One note, played again and again, just the way they had programmed it.
In 1948, Mary Behrend initiated a culture of philanthropy by gifting her 400-acre Glenhill estate to Penn State. Since then, giving by donors, friends, alumni, and the college community has continued, without fail, to bring excellence to the Behrend student experience.
As we conclude the University-wide campaign, A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence, on June 30, 2022, it’s clear how the vision and generosity of so many is making a difference. Our alumni, friends, community leaders, and business and industry partners; the members of our Council of Fellows; our college leadership, faculty, and staff: All have contributed to our current success.
By every metric—academics, research, outreach, and service—Penn State Behrend excels. Fundraising is no exception. Among the forty-four units of Penn State that fundraise, Behrend is in the top ten! We began with a campaign goal of $52 million, which was later raised to a target of $60 million. As of this writing, Penn State Behrend donors have committed more than $75 million to encourage and support our students, advance research, enhance the college, and enrich the community.
The work doesn’t end on June 30. The past two years have reinforced a basic tenet of life: To thrive, people and organizations must adapt. During its nearly 75-year history, Penn State Behrend has continually evolved to meet emerging student needs and a changing world. Campaigns begin and end, but the goal of educating our best and brightest remains.
Penn State was founded on the notion that everyone with a desire for higher education should have the opportunity to pursue it. Private support helps to ensure that talented students from every background have access to a Penn State degree that will open doors.
To all those who supported the campaign, A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence, and to those whose generosity will be evident again in future giving, thank you for making a difference in the life of the college and in the success of our students.
KEVIN MOORE ’89, ’85 DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS KEM7@PSU.EDU
Encouraging Students
The success of every Behrend student relies on the support of many, including generous alumni and friends whose gifts open the doors to a Penn State education and enrich the academic and co-curricular learning experiences of our students. Gifts to Penn State Behrend made during the campaign, A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence, have combined to make an impressive impact.
NEW SCHOLARSHIPS
Since the start of the campaign, Penn State Behrend alumni and friends have established 54 new scholarships, generating an additional $1.4 million annually in new award monies to Behrend students. Many of the scholarships leveraged University matching funds to maximize the impact of donor support.
A Behrend Political Science graduate, Sam Epps IV ’95 and his wife, Zabrina, created an Educational Equity scholarship to benefit students whose gender, race, and ethnic, cultural, and/or national background contribute to the diversity of the Behrend student body. Epps serves on the executive board of the Penn State Alumni Association.
Dr. Bhagwati Prasad Gupta ’69, ’64, who taught engineering courses as an adjunct faculty member at Behrend for more than two decades while working for GE, established an endowed scholarship for high-achieving Behrend engineering students who have demonstrated financial need. The scholarship also honors the memory of Bhagwati’s late wife of 60 years, Krishna Gupta.
Earlier in the campaign, the Guptas’ daughter, Nishi Gupta ’82, established the Gupta Family Educational Equity Scholarship to support students who bring diversity to the Behrend student body. She also created an Open Doors scholarship for engineering students, with preference given to female students in engineering majors.
Brian ’90 and Pam ’89 Kupchella created a Trustee scholarship to provide financial assistance to undergraduate students majoring in nursing who have demonstrated need. Brian is chief executive officer of Clarience Technologies, a role he has held since 2016 with Truck- Lite. He is also a member of the board of directors of Penn State Behrend’s Council of Fellows.
Friends of the college Mark and Lisa McCain created two scholarships: an Open Doors scholarship to support students in Behrend’s Pathways to Success: Summer Start (PaSSS) program and a scholarship that honors Mark’s mother, Patricia McCain, with preference given to graduates of Erie’s Villa Maria Academy.
Retired banking executives Larry ’94, ’84 and Charlotte Neizmik created an endowment to benefit Behrend economics majors who have financial need. Larry, who earned his MBA from Behrend, is a lecturer in economics in the Black School of Business.
James ’68 and Sandra Schlaudecker established a scholarship for adult learners enrolled in Behrend’s mechanical engineering technology and electrical engineering technology programs. James is retired after a long career with Procter & Gamble. The couple also created the Schlaudecker Family Fund for Innovation Commons.
Ann ’99, ’82 and Thad ’83 Scott established an Open Doors scholarship to benefit underrepresented students from the Erie area participating in the college’s PaSSS program. Ann is the current chair of the board of directors of Penn State Behrend’s Council of Fellows.
To honor the memory of her parents, Arden Sonnenberg ’85 created a scholarship to support students who may benefit from academic or financial support to launch their academic careers. Sonnenberg previously established the Kenneth Sonnenberg Poetry Award at Behrend in memory of her deceased husband, a 1985 graduate of Behrend and a published poet.
Encouraging Students
THE EXCELERATE PROGRAM
With a $1.5 million gift, matched by $2.5 million in University funds, Erie Insurance is collaborating with Penn State Behrend to provide scholarships for first-year students and funding for upper-level students to gain experience working with local businesses and nonprofit organizations.
The program, known as Excelerate, benefits as many as 50 students a year— with scholarships to those participating in Behrend’s Pathways to Success: Summer Start (PaSSS) program and with stipends to those engaged in research, internships, or co-op experiences. The program is intended to broaden the pathway to a college education for more Erie area young people and help build the talent that powers economic revitalization of the region.
The Excelerate program is a foremost example of Erie Insurance’s longtime support of Penn State Behrend and its students. The company’s philanthropy to Behrend also funds scholarships, youth outreach programs, financial literacy efforts, and research by Pennsylvania Sea Grant, among other activities of the college.
THE MIRROR PROJECT
Earlier this year, Larson Texts Inc. made a $100,000 gift to jumpstart a funding effort to cover the full cost of tuition for Behrend students who major in elementary and early childhood education. The effort, known as The Mirror Project, is the brainchild of Dr. Eric Corty, retiring director of Behrend’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Corty’s vision is for Behrend to contribute to the diversity of teachers in Erie’s public schools by covering the four-year tuition of local students who agree to remain in their hometown to teach after getting their degree. He describes the challenge to be addressed with this project in this way: “Most urban schools have few teachers who look like many of their students. Teachers who look like their students serve as role models and mentors, help students learn and dream higher, and reduce dropout rates. Although it will take time, The Mirror Project can generate the financial resources to produce such teachers.”
The near-term goal of the project is a minimum of $500,000— two-thirds of that amount to come from gifts such as that from Larson Text and the other one-third from a match by Corty.
BOOSTING ATHLETICS
The generosity of numerous alumni and friends of the college is contributing to the student-athlete experience at Penn State Behrend.
A group fundraising effort to honor Dr. Roger Sweeting ’63, former director of athletics and faculty emeritus of exercise science, resulted in the creation of the Roger Sweeting Endowment for Athletics. Sweeting himself gives regularly to numerous Behrend athletic endowments, including those for men’s basketball, men’s soccer, and baseball.
The men’s basketball program is benefitting from the support of a new endowment established in memory of Ethel Kochel by her son and daughter, Jeff Kochel ’72 and Patricia Kochel Young. Ethel was the wife of longtime Behrend administrator Irvin Kochel and a strong supporter of Behrend student-athletes. The endowment provides much-needed funds for uniforms, equipment, and team travel.
As a first-year student in 1965, Bob Yerkey ’70 began serving as student manager of Behrend’s baseball team, but he reports that his “personal favorite” sport has always been basketball. Reflecting this, in 2019, he established the Robert L. Yerkey Men’s Basketball Endowment with an initial gift of $50,000, and he continues to add to the fund.
Advancing Education and Research
Top-ranked academic and research programs begin with top-tier faculty and world-class facilities and technologies. Gifts to Penn State Behrend through the campaign, A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence, support the faculty and resources to inspire our students to success.
Ed ’91, ’85 and Elaine ’85 Auslander made a gift of $400,000 to establish an endowed professorship to support the teaching and research of a Behrend faculty member in the first decade of their career. Auslander, retired president and CEO of LORD Corporation, named the endowment in honor of a former English professor, the late Dr. Chester “Chet” L. Wolford, Jr. The Auslanders made a second gift of $400,000 to create the Dr. Martin W. Trethewey Early Career Professorship in Mechanical Engineering at University Park.
An early-career professorship established with a $150,000 gift from Clarience Technologies will fund research and design projects by Behrend faculty members and students in the field of data analytics over the next three years. Behrend’s School of Engineering has a 15-year history of contributing to research and product development for Clarience’s flagship brand, Truck-Lite.
More Behrend biology students will have the opportunity to engage in undergraduate research experiences through a fund established by the son and daughter-in-law of Irvin Kochel, who served as Behrend’s chief administrator from 1954 to 1980. The endowed fund established by Jeff ’72 and Pam ’73 Kochel supports the college’s Open Lab strategy of learning and discovery, which positions students to engage with external partners from business, industry, and community organizations.
The college’s women’s health initiative, undertaken in partnership with Magee-Womens Research Institute, is advancing with an endowment established by the combined gifts of a number of donors, including Ed ’91, ’85 and Elaine ’85 Auslander, Frank “Shelly” and Shirley Czulewicz, Priscilla Hamilton ’78 and Gary Rafferty, Brian ’90 and Pam ’89 Kupchella, Mary Swed Lincoln, David Meehl, Richard Merwin, Daniel and Elaine Park, Kathryn Smith, Ashleigh Walters, and Halina Zyczynski, M.D., in addition to Hamot Health Foundation and The Erie Community Foundation.
Plastek Industries and the Prischak family are among Penn State Behrend’s most ardent supporters. Their latest investment of $1.1 million will establish the Prischak Automation Lab, to be equipped with state-of-the-art robotics and manufacturing technology to advance mechatronics education in our School of Engineering.
A number of alumni and friends of the college have signaled their support for women’s health research now being undertaken through Penn State Behrend’s partnership with Magee-Womens Research Institute.
An in-kind gift of software from Riskalyze gives students in the Black School of Business access to that company’s investment risk-management tools for use in stock-trading simulations and management of the school’s Intrieri Family Student Managed Fund.
Enhancing our College
Students choose Penn Behrend not only for world-class academic programs but also for enriching experiences that prepare them to become leaders in their fields. Through the campaign, A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence, the philanthropy of individuals and organizations has elevated facilities and programs that advance student success.
Students in the nursing program are learning in updated and expanded nursing labs as the result of a $900,000 gift from the Orris C. Hirtzel and Beatrice Dewey Hirtzel Memorial Foundation. A second gift of $500,000 is being used to upgrade equipment in the Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Center (AMIC) and Otto Behrend Science Building.
The Dr. and Mrs. Arthur William Phillips Charitable Trust made gifts totaling $90,000 during the Greater Penn State campaign—to support enhanced nursing simulation labs, new equipment in the School of Science, and women’s health research now being undertaken by the college in partnership with Magee-Womens Research Institute.
A $1 million investment by Erie-based HERO BX to create a 1,500-square-foot chemistry lab in AMIC is giving students a new opportunity to collaborate with an industrial research partner. In the lab, students are working alongside company researchers to identify ways to reduce the sulfur in biodiesel feedstocks.
When the Intrieri Family Student Managed Fund launched in 2012 with a gift from Vincent Intrieri ’84 and his wife, Joanne, it promised not only to give students real-world experience in investment management but also to generate scholarships once the balance had grown to $1 million. That day has come, thanks to additional gifts by the Intrieris, Samuel P. “Pat” Black III, and others—and, notably, due to the sound investment strategy of student managers. SUSAN HIRT HAGEN CORE AT FEDERAL HOUSE
The college’s historic Federal House has been restored and expanded to create a new home for the Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research and Evaluation (CORE). The $6.3 million project was funded by private support and by the University to broaden the center’s service to the community, including positive youth development programs that engage more than 3,000 young people every year.
To date, five students have received scholarships.
Numerous individual and corporate gifts have combined to create a $2.13 million endowment that will expand Behrend’s Innovation Commons, where student teams support projects for local entrepreneurs and start-ups. Donors include Eriez, David Meehl, Mark ’88, ’87 and Valerie Rose, James ’68 and Sandra Schlaudecker, and Zurn Industries. The lab now bears a new name: the James R. Meehl Innovations Commons powered by Penn State Behrend.
Many of the 200 species of trees on the Behrend campus, like the benches that dot the pathways, are the result of gifts by alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of the college. They include four Flower of Kent trees—the type under which legend has it Isaac Newton was sitting when the apple fell—that were funded by a gift from former School of Science director Dr. Roger Knacke.
Enriching our Community
Penn State Behrend has a rich history of service to the region and beyond. Through gifts to the campaign, A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence, the college is expanding on that commitment—growing its role in economic development; serving business and industry partners; educating and entertaining the community; and providing outreach to area youth and educators.
A $3 million gift from Samuel P. “Pat” Black III and his daughter, Sumi James-Black, will amplify the role of Behrend’s Knowledge Park as an engine for economic growth in northwestern Pennsylvania. Their gift was matched by Penn State’s Economic Development Matching program, which doubles a donor’s impact for select initiatives that drive job and business creation in the Commonwealth.
Family-owned businesses are the economic backbone of many communities, and those in the Erie region are no exception. Penn State Behrend’s Center for Family Business is designed to meet the unique needs of these businesses—with programming, access to faculty expertise, counsel on key issues, and peer group involvement. The center’s membership is growing, thanks to expanded resources made possible by endowed funds and corporate partnerships from H. Bender; Finish Thompson; Phil and Christina ’02 Katen; Greg ’99, ’85 and Heather ’00 Yahn; Knox McLaughlin Gornall and Sennett, P.C., and Marquette Savings Bank.
One of the college’s longest running cultural programs, Music At Noon: The Logan Series, continues to delight adults and youth with chamber music presented in an informal, welcoming environment. Established in 1989 by the late Kay Logan, the series continues through the support of the Kay Hardesty Logan Foundation, the Erie Arts and Culture Foundation, and the John Nesbit Rees and Sarah Henne Rees Charitable Foundation. During this campaign, the Rees Foundation also made a gift of $80,000 to support scholarships for students who hail from Crawford, Forest, Warren, and Venango counties in Pennsylvania.
Many of Penn State Behrend’s students in education majors go on to teach in the Erie region. A gift of $20,000 made by Dr. Greg ’13 and Janis Filbeck (Greg is director of Behrend’s Black School of Business and Janis a lecturer in English) helps to pay for professional clearances and other costs associated with student teaching. A gift by the Filbecks during this campaign also supported the Intrieri Family Student Managed Fund.
Every year, Behrend engages with more than 24,000 youth and educators in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) programs. Much of that youth outreach programming, such as Math Options and Women in Engineering, is supported by the philanthropy of corporate donors, including Erie Insurance, National Fuel Gas, and Wabtec.
