Engineering & Computational Sciences News & Events

See news and events in Merrimack College’s School of Engineering and Computational Sciences.

News

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By: Joseph O'Connell
Merrimack's new Shared Instrumentation and Research Facility (SIRF), will serve as an on-campus research hub for biology, chemistry and other life science initiatives.
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By: Michael Cronin
Samantha Fagundes ‘24 hopes to one day become a Disney Imagineer through the park’s internship program.
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By: Michael Cronin
Three alumni turned educators speak on their love for Merrimack and why they chose to come back.
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By: Joseph O'Connell
Associate Professor Marc Veletzos and Christopher Cole ’04 were recently honored by the Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
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By: Michael Cronin
Associate Professor, Dr. Azam Noori, will use the nearly $400,000 award from the National Science Foundation to study how nanomaterials impact plant life and human health.

Notable & Quotable

Dr. James Kaklamanos, associate professor of civil engineering, was one of two earthquake engineers interviewed by Interesting Engineering on the multitude of buildings that collapsed in Turkey and Syria following the devastating earthquake.

Dr. Brandi Baldock, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is our final STARTer of the semester. Her project, “Inclusive Learning in the STEM Gateway: Design & Evaluation of Robust Alternative Assessments for Chemistry Curriculum,” focuses on developing strategies to support and evaluate student achievement of non-cognitive chemistry program outcomes, with the ultimate goal of improving inclusivity and student retention in STEM fields.

Paul Zipper, adjunct lecturer in criminology and a detective lieutenant atthe Massachusetts State Police, was interviewed for a May 8, 2017,Channel 4 I-Team report on how state investigators pinpoint the causes of fire. Zipper said each fire is like a mystery. “To simplify it, we are doing an autopsy,” he said. “We have a death of a building, and we try to figure out what caused it.”

Dr. Brandi Baldock and co-authors Dr. Anthony Fernandez, Dr. Jimmy Franco, Dr. Brian Provencher and Dr. Mark McCoy from Merrimack’s department of chemistry & biochemistry recently published an article in the Journal of Chemical Education entitled “Overcoming the Challenges of Remote Instruction: Using Mobile Technology to Promote Active Learning.”

Janine LeBlanc-Straceski, associate professor and chair of biology, published a paper, “A Conserved Role of the Unconventional Myosin 1d in Laterality Determination,” in the March 2018 issue of Current Biology. The paper was an international collaboration with colleagues in Germany and France and the culmination of many years of work with LeBlanc-Straceski’s students.

Mechanical Engineering Department assistant professors Anthony Di Carlo and Rickey Caldwell Jr., and former student Courtney Videchak ’19, have co-authored the paper, “Optimization of Spatially Distributed Soil Conductivities for Horizontal Ground Heat Exchanger” which has been accepted by the journal Applied Thermal Engineering.

Assistant professor of mechanical engineering Roselita Fragoudakis recently had a paper published in the International Journal of Structures Integrity and has a chapter to be published in the upcoming book “Engineering Failure Analysis.”

Five faculty members were awarded tenure in January by President Christopher E. Hopey. They are:Jimmy Franco, assistant professor of chemistry;Brittnie Aiello, assistant professor of criminology;Sally Shockro, assistant professor of history;Susan Marine, associate professor and program director in the higher education master’s program; andSirkwoo Jin, assistant professor of management.

Eight faculty members from four schools at Merrimack attended the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies conference in Amsterdam last semester. They include associate professors Luis Saenz de Viguera Erkiago and Cinzia DiGiulio of the World Languages and Cultural Studies Department, Civil Engineering Department assistant professor Cynthia Carlson, visiting associate professor Ellen Fitzpatrick, Women and Gender Studies Department professor Simona Sharoni, Graduate Education Department associate professor Susan Marine, Accounting and Finance Department associate professor Ana Silva, and Education Department assistant professor Laura Hsu.

Cynthia Carlson, assistant professor of civil engineering, was first author on a paper, “Storm-Water Management as a Public Good Provision Problem: Survey to Understand Perspectives of Low-Impact Development for Urban Storm Water Management Practices Under Climate Change,” that won Best Policy-Oriented Paper of 2016 from the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The paper explored how storm water could be thought of as a “public good” and be managed better.

Events

Graduate Info Session & Tour

Explore the Merrimack College community, gain tips on what makes a strong application, hear about our fellowship opportunities, take a tour and more!

Arcidi Welcome Center

Graduate Student Celebration

Graduate Student Celebration is an exciting event where prospective and accepted students can get a glimpse into becoming a warrior through information sessions, campus tours, and opportunities to connect with faculty, staff, and peers!

Arcidi Welcome Center