Faculty & Research
Villanova Professor Publishes a “Model-Based Investigation of Cytokine Dynamics in Immunotherapies”
Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering Dr. Jacky Huang’s Biological and Environmental Systems Engineering group recently published a paper in the journal Processes detailing a modeling-based strategy to combat cytokine release syndrome, which is a deadly side effect found in immunotherapy patients.
This Villanova Researcher Is Using Earthworms to Substitute Human Blood | Philadelphia Magazine, 12/18/19
Associate professor Jacob Elmer says the critters may hold the secret to a viable and sustainable replacement for human blood donations.
Villanova Engineer Investigating Potential Blood Substitute To Help Save Soldiers and Others Who’ve Been Badly Wounded
Dr. Jacob Elmer, associate professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, is investigating a protein-based blood alternative that won’t require refrigeration and will match any blood type, making it ideal for emergency situations.
Model Could Offer Noninvasive Way to Study Brain Injury | The Doctor’s Channel “Video of the Week”
A team of engineers led by the College of Engineering’s Dr. Qianhong Wu have constructed a model brain that provides a noninvasive new way to study brain injury. The model—which was informed by real patient data—is laden with pressure sensors that determine the impact of trauma.
Resolving the Critical Facilities Labor Shortage | Mission Critical, Oct. 23, 2019
This article in Mission Critical highlights the Center for Energy Smart Electronic Systems (ES2), of which Villanova is one of three university partners. Through its research, ES2 is focused on making electronic systems—primarily data centers—more energy efficient. It also serves as a training ground for graduate engineering students who will be tomorrow's critical facilities industry professionals.
Villanova Engineering’s Dr. Robert Caverly Elevated to Life Fellow Status of IEEE
Professor Robert Caverly has been recognized as a Life Fellow by IEEE “for contributions to modeling and design of radio frequency switching devices."
German PhD Student Advised by Villanova Engineering Professor Wins International Thesis Contest
Since 2016, Dr. Moeness Amin, together with Dr. Abdelhak Zoubir at TU Dramstadt, has been supervising the work of Ms. Ann-Kathrin Seifert who, this September, won the Three Minute Doctoral Thesis Contest at the European Signal Processing Conference. Her topic: “Signal Processing for Radar-based Medical Gait Analysis.”
Civil and Environmental Engineering Professors Lead Flood Prediction and Response Research
Drs. Seri Park and Virginia Smith in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have been awarded funding by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Transportation Research Board to document “Practices for Integrated Flood Prediction and Response Systems.”
International Thermal Engineering Expert Joins Mechanical Engineering Faculty
Dr. Sylvie Lorente joins 澳门二分彩 as the College of Engineering Chair in Mechanical Engineering. A native of France, she spent the past 20-plus years with the University of Toulouse, National Institute of Applied Sciences. She is known worldwide, however, for her research on flow systems, which has taken her from China and South Africa to Mexico and the United States. This spring, Dr. Lorente will teach a senior-level course in Constructal Theory and Design; next academic year, she hopes to teach a graduate course on heat transfer.
Dr. Xun Jiao Honored with Best Paper Awards in IEEE and ACM Conferences
Despite only receiving his PhD one year ago, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Xun Jiao has already been recognized with two awarded papers in the field of embedded and cyber-physical computer systems.
"Smart Brain" Could Help Doctors See Full Impact of Trauma, NBC10 News, Sept. 6, 2019
Mechanical Engineering's Dr. Qianhong Wu has developed and patented a smart brain that can demonstrate the effects of head injury.
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Welcomes New Faculty
The Department has brought on two new faculty members, including a Villanova Engineering alumna. Kelly (Donmoyer) Good ’09 CE, PhD, PE, will teach Mechanics, Fluid Behavior and Graphical Communications. Shweta Shrestha, PhD, will lead courses in Engineering Economics and Geosynthetics. Both will serve as advisors in Capstone Design.
Department of Energy Program Provides Villanova Professor and Students with Research Opportunity
This summer, Dr. Bo Li, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of 澳门二分彩’s Hybrid Nano-Architectures and Advanced Manufacturing Lab, was selected for the Department of Energy Visiting Faculty Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, TN. The 10-week program provides faculty and their students with financial support as well as access to high-end facilities to conduct research in DOE’s areas of interest.
NovaCell Partners with Redbud Labs on Improved Bioreactor for T-Cell Therapy
Redbud Labs has invited Dr. William Kelly, director of NovaCell, Villanova’s Center for Cellular Engineering, to participate in a National Institutes of Health project to improve the bioreactors used to provide controlled delivery of nutrients and biomimetic stimuli in order to influence T-cell growth.
Flapping Wings and a Sense of Smell: How Insects Can Inform Tomorrow’s Robotics
How do flying insects balance a sense of smell with aerodynamics to navigate their surroundings? And what can we learn from them that can be applied to unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles? Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Chengyu Li, PhD, is using computational fluid dynamics to find answers to those questions.
Professors Develop Means for Accelerating Fatigue Testing to Determine Structural Stability
Dr. C. Nataraj, Mechanical Engineering professor and director of the Villanova Center for Analytics of Dynamic Systems, and Professor and Department Chair Dr. Sridhar Santhanam, have completed phase one of an industry-sponsored project to economize and reduce the time consumption of fatigue testing, the method by which aircraft companies test aircraft parts under varying loads to determine structural stability.
Villanova Engineering Researcher to Contribute to NIH Study on Mobility of MS Patients
Dr. Meltem Izzetoglu, associate research professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Biomedical Signals, Systems and Analysis Laboratory, is part of a multi-institutional team awarded a $704,983 National Institute of Health grant for "Brain systems of locomotion and falls in older persons with multiple sclerosis."
Dr. Virginia Smith Leads Study Examining the Use of Fossils to Model Rivers through Climate Change
The $538,583 NSF project will examine ~35 million-year-old sediments from an ancient river network to quantify how changes in precipitation, vegetation and temperature in the past caused changes in river discharge and flood magnitude.
Supporting a Professor’s Commitment to Catholic Social Teaching
A long-time champion of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, Chemical Engineering Professor Vito Punzi, PhD, PE, has been recognized by 澳门二分彩 with a VERITAS grant and a visiting scholar position with the Center for Peace and Justice Education.
How the Yankees can benefit from virtual reality training | Pinstripealley.com, April 5, 2019
The New York Yankees are another MLB team considering the potential impact of Dr. Mark Jupina’s virtual reality technology as a training device for hitters.
Professor’s Electronics Expertise Tapped by Industry to Develop DC-Microgrid for Battery Charging
Dr. Nisha Kondrath is a specialist in the field of power electronics and analog electronics. Recently, EnerSys, a Reading, Pa., company that manufactures batteries for multiple applications, enlisted her help in developing a DC-microgrid for battery charging.
Villanova’s Dr. Al Ortega at the Forefront of Research in Advanced Liquid Cooling of Data Centers
Cloud computing and AI applications are increasing demands in power consumption and heat dissipation in data centers. Because of the difficulty in cooling these hot electronic servers with air, cooling techniques using liquids are increasingly being adopted, and Dr. Al Ortega’s research in this area has propelled him to the forefront of the field.
Assistant Professor Wenqing Xu Takes Lead on $1.46M Research Project to Address Explosive Residuals at Military Training Sites
Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Dr. Wenqing Xu and a multi-institutional team of researchers have received a Department of Defense grant for “Optimizing Carbon Amendments that Simultaneously Adsorb and Transform Legacy and Insensitive High Explosives.”
Fighting Remote 鈹侼ational Guard Magazine, February 2019
Villanova Mechanical Engineering Professor C. Nataraj is quoted in this article about how robots and other remotely-controlled devices will change the battlefield and domestic response.
Villanova’s Dr. Xun Jiao is Leading Innovations in Embedded Computing Systems
After only one semester as an assistant professor in 澳门二分彩's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Dr. Xun Jiao has already established himself as a leader in the field of embedded computer systems. In addition to his research and teaching, he is actively involved in related academic and industry associations, including serving in editorial positions and leading conference sessions.
Villanova’s Dr. Al Ortega Appointed Associate Director of the Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems
Dr. Alfonso Ortega, the James R. Birle Professor of Energy Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been appointed to the new position of associate director of the multi-university National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2). In this role, he will assist the Center’s three university sites with strategic planning and aligning the overall ES2 vision with industry partners.
Villanova Engineering Faculty Awarded Grant for Transformative Wastewater Treatment Process
Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Metin Duran, PhD, and Assistant Professor Wenqing Xu, PhD, have received a $101,153 research grant from Renmatix, Inc., a Philadelphia-area biotechnology company, to develop an anammox-biochar system for one step, sustainable and cost-effective nitrogen removal and phosphorus recovery from wastewater.
Villanova Engineering Professor is Leading the Future of Wireless Networks
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Mojtaba Vaezi, PhD, arrived at 澳门二分彩 in spring 2018 with a new book to his credit (Multiple Access Techniques for 5G Wireless Networks and Beyond) and recently added to his list of accomplishments by presenting at the IEEE Communications Society’s international flagship conferences. He also received the 2018 IEEE Communications Letters Best Editor Award.
NovaCell Grant Supports Improved CAR-T Therapy Manufacturing
A grant from the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals is supporting a NovaCell project under the leadership of Dr. William Kelly, professor of Chemical Engineering and NovaCell director. “A Transcriptome-based Model for Improved CAR-T Therapy” aims to improve cell growth rate, which is a limiting factor in CAR-T therapy research.
Petroleum Engineering Course Teaches Students Where Energy Comes From and How We Get It
Dr. Scott Jackson brings his 33 years of expertise with DuPont to the classroom for a new course in Petroleum Engineering. In addition to providing an understanding of the industry, he addresses the environmental issues associated with fossil fuels.