2021 College News
In Memory of Dr. McAssey
The Villanova University community mourns the loss of Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering Edward V. McAssey Jr., who died peacefully in Lancaster, PA at the age of 86. In addition to his many professional and scholarly achievements over the course of forty years at Villanova, including serving as the Interim Dean of the College of Engineering and formal recognition for innovative research and excellence in teaching, Dr. McAssey was well-loved for his kindness and concern for students, good humor, and family-oriented nature.
NovaCell welcomes Janssen as First Consortium Member
NovaCell Director William Kelly, professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, recently welcomed Janssen Research & Development, LLC as the first member of Villanova’s Consortium for Cell and Gene Therapy (CCGT). With the partnership comes a new one-year project: “Investigating the effects of bioprocess conditions on killer T cell growth, differentiation and function.”
Summer 2021 E2SI Team Uses Anaerobic Digestion to Combat Food Waste
An E2SI 2021 student team that included Brandon Caridi ’23 EE and Gerremy Ferguson ’24 CLAS, used their passion for sustainability to develop a unique solution to the food waste problem in the restaurant industry. The five-person team devised their own version of an anaerobic digester called “Food Crew”, a smaller-scale, more personalized version than existing models. Their machine converts unusable food waste into biogas, enabling restaurants to efficiently manage their own food waste while reducing their carbon footprint in the process.
Villanova University Receives $87,000 Grant from the United Engineering Foundation to Launch the Career Compass Collaborative
The Career Compass Program was established in 2015 as a tool to help engineering students think critically about professional outcomes throughout their academic career. A recipient of the 2021 Innovation Award by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET), the program is now slated to continue its trajectory of success, thanks to an $87,000 grant from the United Engineering Foundation that will help pilot a new initiative called the Career Compass Collaborative. The enhanced program will include a collaborative workshop to be held on Villanova’s campus in summer 2022, and an increased focus on ethics and equity in the engineering profession.
Students Investigate the Use of Natural Materials to Treat Drinking Water Sources
A highlight of Villanova’s Chemical and Biological Engineering program is the department’s two-semester Senior Project Studio through which undergraduates can participate in an industry-sponsored or faculty-advised design or research project. This year, three teams are working with professors Dorothy Skaf and Vito Punzi to explore the use of natural materials to treat water for colloidal suspended solids removal.