Celebrate Gannon

An Experience You Can Count On 

Celebrate Gannon offered me the perfect opportunity to celebrate the academic path that I have set for myself. Following this semester, I will be continuing on from undergraduate work to pursue my Ph.D. in mathematics and hopefully go on to be a professor. Celebrate Gannon not only allowed me to showcase my undergraduate research, but, more than that, it allowed me to experience what it will be like to present my findings as a graduate student and what it’s like to teach a topic in mathematics. It encompassed what I have learned and prepared me further for the future. 

In doing so, I have been gratefully reassured in my choice to study mathematics and my choice to pursue it at a higher level. The confidence I gained from presenting will surely guide me into the next step of my journey! Opportunities like this are so valuable for students such as myself and it was a beautiful thing to behold so many others sharing their academic research as well. 

I am thankful, not only for this event, but for Gannon as a whole, for guiding me into the next stage of life! This is truly something to celebrate. 

Serving the Community and Our Environment 

I often jokingly state that I have lived my life in reverse: family, work and finally college graduate. I am a mother of two grown children and a contributing team member of the Global Regulatory Compliance Department at LORD Corporation for over 22 years. Managing a home, fully committed as a full-time working professional and a part-time student requires good communication, time management and organizational skills, and an overwhelming desire to do the best job possible. 

I started discussions with Dr. Michelle Homan regarding the senior thesis process and requirements months before the 2017 fall semester. I had investigated various environmental projects at LORD Corporation, but none had fit the Gannon project timeline. Dr. Homan and I discussed several topics for both individual and group projects.  

I recall the moment Dr. Homan mentioned the project for the Community Shelter Services relating to an energy assessment. I immediately got excited; I thought, “Yes, this is the project for me!” With the knowledge I have gained at Gannon and my experience of project management and organization at LORD Corporation, I was confident in my ability to complete this project with a high degree of success. 

The project goal was to develop energy conservation recommendations to reduce energy usage and associated costs for Community Shelter Services (CSS) by conducting an energy audit for the Lodge on Sass, a 50-unit housing facility. The multi-faceted project had its challenges, including keeping to an aggressive timeline, scheduling activities and managing tasks. The rewards of helping CSS, getting to know the friendly staff and tenants, and the knowledge gained by working with Joy Knapp (NWPAGE) and Steve Lipchik (The Energy Center, LLC) far exceeded the challenges. 

The success of this project is a direct reflection of all that I have learned from my managers at LORD Corporation, Gannon professors and especially Dr. Homan, who has guided me on this incredible journey to graduation. 

Inspired to Pursue International Possibilities 

Celebrate Gannon is an opportunity every April to come together as a University to view research projects done by the students. Since our major (Biomedical Engineering) is research-driven, this event is one we look forward to every spring. Gannon does a fantastic job at organizing this event with future employers to open career pathways. As Celebrate Gannon alumni, we were very excited to present at this year’s conference. 

The project we chose this year was: “A Numerical Bioheat Transfer Model to Estimate Time of Death with Application in Forensic Science.” This project utilized state-of-the-art software (ANSYS-Fluent) Gannon’s Engineering Department provides students. The main goal was to analyze the effect of fat tissue on the time of death calculation. We analyzed underweight, normal and overweight body sizes to run a simulation utilizing ANSYS-Fluent to calculate internal body core temperature for 12 hours in 3-hour increments. 

This software is commonly used in industry today by top corporations. Our advisor, Dr. Saeed Tiari, worked with us multiple times per week for the entire spring semester, educating us on the many practical uses of ANSYS-Fluent. Dr. Tiari’s enthusiasm and expertise on the subject motivated us to take our project further, and we will be participating in the internationally recognized American Society of Mechanical Engineer’s International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE) conference in Fall 2018. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to present at Celebrate Gannon and receive feedback from professors to help move us forward to an international conference. One of our favorite parts of Celebrate Gannon is reading posters from other departments and talking with fellow Gannon students on their research. We know the hard work and dedication it took to prepare, and all the students are respectful and excited for one another. The environment at Celebrate Gannon makes us very proud to be a part of this family. Go Golden Knights! 

A-maze-ing Engineering 

The Micromouse is an autonomous robot that competes against others to solve and find a path to a certain destination within an unknown maze, with the fastest Micromouse winning. The Micromouse project was student-led and student directed. While a faculty advisor and Gannon’s Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department provides encouragement and financial support, every technical design and decision was made by the team. After developing the autonomous robot for two and a half semesters, the team not only proudly presented at Celebrate Gannon, but also won third place in the Micromouse competition at the 2018 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Region 2 Student Activities Conference, where 295 students represented 29 different universities. 

The team displayed its commitment to the project, meeting every Sunday afternoon for three-hour sessions and more throughout the week. Together, the team drove the decisions behind the work and implemented them while keeping consistent communication on our individual progress. With their passion and dedication for engineering design, the team proved that college students are capable of leading and implementing self-driven engineering projects. The team hopes to pave the way for future Gannon students and to inspire more students to pursue extracurricular electrical engineering design activities. 

The team was the first Gannon team to compete in any conference robotics competition and win a prize. Gannon’s ECE Department has shown its pride in the team and all its students as they continue to encourage and support student-led projects.