Nolan Buckley completed his plastics engineering degree in December, but he’s putting that career on hold as he begins his rookie season of Major League Rugby with the Dallas Jackals.

Catnap, a device designed to alert parents when their sleeping child is having an asthma attack, won the ninth annual DifferenceMaker Francis College of Engineering Prototyping Competition, held recently at University Crossing.

Prof. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline and Asst. Teaching Prof. Akshay Kokil were awarded funding totaling $1 million by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology for projects that aim to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills and the environment each year.

Three students and three faculty members traveled to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27, the United Nations climate summit, where they were the only delegation from a public university in Massachusetts.

Prof. Ramaswamy Nagarajan of the Department of Plastics Engineering, a highly regarded researcher and teacher, has been named Distinguished University Professor, the top accolade bestowed on a UMass Lowell faculty member.

A community-based project led by Civil and Environmental Engineering Prof. Pradeep Kurup to test and monitor the quality and safety of drinking water for thousands of Merrimack Valley residents has been awarded a research grant totaling nearly $2.5 million by the National Science Foundation.

With the help of a student research team, Transene Company is offering etching solutions to its semiconductor customers that don't contain the toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

A research team led by Biomedical Engineering Asst. Prof. Bryan James Black is developing a way to screen non-opioid drugs for use in treating chronic pain.

Civil engineering alum Julie Eaton Ernst ’14, ’17 spoke about her work to make Boston’s waterfront more climate-resilient at the inaugural James B. Francis Lecture on the Built Environment.

The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy awarded fellowships to plastics engineering major Abby Mastromonaco, entrepreneurship Ph.D. student William Zhou and Chemistry Asst. Prof. Juan Artes Vivancos.

Mechanical engineering majors Giancarlos Jaime-Guzman and Chris Jorge-Rosario competed against teams from across the country in the annual Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race, a carnival-like spectacle that blends science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.

A team of researchers headed by Electrical and Computer Engineering Prof. Kavitha Chandra is developing interdisciplinary programs that target graduate education and future workforce training in using digital technologies for automotive and manufacturing industries.

The National Science Foundation has recognized Mechanical Engineering Asst. Prof. Marianna Maiaru with the agency’s most prestigious faculty early-career development award, for research that could lead to improvements in the performance of everything from booster rockets to sports equipment.

The Office of Sustainability and the University Library created the Sustainable Publishing Fund to help researchers, like Chemical Engineering Asst. Prof. Fanglin Che, publish their sustainability-related work in open-access journals.

The New England Consortium at UMass Lowell will provide safety training courses for hundreds of students looking to work in the offshore wind industry, thanks to a $300,000 state grant administered by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

UMass Lowell has been recognized with the first Outstanding Radiation Safety Program award by the Health Physics Society, an international nonprofit organization of more than 5,000 scientists, physicians, engineers and other professionals.

After a two-year break during the pandemic, Lowell middle school students once again visited UMass Lowell’s Francis College of Engineering last week as part of Idea Camp.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has named Lara Thompson ’03 as one of three recipients of this year's Alan T. Waterman Award, the nation's highest honor for early-career scientists and engineers.

A team of faculty researchers led by Biomedical Engineering Asst. Teaching Prof. Yanfen Li has been awarded a six-year grant totaling nearly $1.5 million by the National Science Foundation to create a diverse and competitive pool of students who could become future faculty candidates in engineering.

Asst. Prof. Yuzhang Lin was recently awarded a five-year, $500,000 faculty early-career development grant by the National Science Foundation to conduct a study that will help better predict and visualize power distribution capacity and consumers’ power demand in real time.

Amara, a social media platform designed to create a more positive experience for users, took top honors at the Rist DifferenceMaker Institute’s 10th annual $50,000 Idea Challenge, held recently at Moloney Hall.

With mixers that follow a speed-dating format, the Honors College is matching more honors students with faculty mentors for research opportunities and final honors theses and projects. The college offers $1,500 fellowships to support student researchers, who may also be paid through faculty grants.

Researchers led by Chemical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Hsi-Wu Wong was recently awarded a three-year, $1.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy to help reduce waste plastic films.

Electrical engineering major Roman Shepeliev, who emigrated from Ukraine to the U.S. with his mom in 2016, is concerned about family and friends facing a Russian invasion back home.

As part of his internship with local startup company Tertill, mechanical engineering major Max Prescott tested its solar-powered weeding robot at the Rist Urban Agriculture Farm on East Campus.

A device to assess the body’s core alignment and an app for buying and selling stock opinions took home top prizes at their respective Rist DifferenceMaker Institute engineering and business pitch contests at University Crossing.  

Two Honors College students who started their UML careers during the pandemic hosted a Discord server to keep in touch with other students they’d met at the summer Student Success Summit. “Riverhawk Rendezvous” has grown rapidly by hosting study groups and connecting students to clubs – and each other.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a team of researchers from UMass Lowell and Oak Ridge National Laboratory a $400,000 grant to develop machine learning-based approaches for simulating molten salts used in advanced nuclear reactor systems.

The new ADVANCE Office for Faculty Equity aims to change the culture across campus for faculty from underrepresented and marginalized groups. It builds on the programs and research of the five-year, National Science Foundation-funded Making WAVES program.

An interdisciplinary group of faculty members from UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative attended the recent United Nations global climate summit, aka COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, where they observed progress being made — but also missed opportunities.

Fifty students from Lowell High School and Greater Lawrence Technical High School, along with their teachers, learned about plastics recycling and environmental sustainability during the Plastics Sustainability Forum, held recently at the Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center on North Campus.

Students learned about internship opportunities at a dozen early-stage medical device and biotech startups during a networking event co-hosted by the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) and the UML student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

Liam Henderson, a graduate of Billerica Memorial High School who obtained a degree in civil engineering at UMass Lowell this year, decided that the summer after his graduation would be the perfect time to complete the Appalachian Trail.

A team of researchers from UMass Lowell, Physical Sciences Inc., the University of Connecticut and Merck is developing a manufacturing method that would allow mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines to be transported and stored at room temperature.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Chemical Engineering Asst. Prof. Gulden Camci-Unal a five-year grant worth nearly $2 million to support her research on repairing and regenerating bone.

The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy has awarded 2021-22 fellowships to Assoc. Prof. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Cordula Schmid, Analytical Chemistry Ph.D. candidate Elizabeth Farrell and chemical engineering major Andrew Parker.

An interdisciplinary team of UML faculty, led by Assoc. Profs. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline and Chris Hansen, have received a nearly $3 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship award for a new graduate student program focused on developing sustainable materials and chemicals that won’t harm water resources.

Assoc. Prof. Joyita Dutta of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has been awarded a $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research that could help shed light on the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

If everything goes according to plan, SPACE HAUC, UMass Lowell’s first satellite, will launch into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday, Aug. 28, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A team of researchers from UMass Lowell and Northeastern University is creating and testing a low-cost, automated wireless sensor network that could detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the air and in wastewater potentially days before an outbreak occurs.

UMass Lowell, in partnership with the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, has received a $241,300 grant from the Commonwealth to develop academic pathways that increase the participation of underrepresented populations in the offshore wind industry.

“Integrating Climate Change into the K-12 Classroom,” a free professional development workshop hosted by EEAS Assoc. Teaching Prof. Lori Weeden and the university’s Climate Change Initiative, showed teachers how they can address the topic through a variety of educational lenses.

Solomont School of Nursing faculty will soon assist with clinical trials on rapid COVID-19 tests that are being developed as part of a massive federal effort. Assoc. Prof. Ainat Koren is leading the initiative, which will deploy nurses and nursing students to existing testing sites to gather patient samples and data.

At DifferenceMaker Demo Day, the four biomedical engineering majors of Digital Life Prosthetics were among nine teams that showed off revamped pitches, thanks to a four-week summer boot camp. During the camp, the women of Digital Life got a chance to see the success of Rajia Abdelaziz '16 and use her inspiration to fuel their project.   

SPACE HAUC, UMass Lowell’s first satellite, recently passed a critical test that cleared the way for its upcoming launch into Earth orbit. The satellite was designed and built by more than 100 students from the Kennedy College of Sciences and the Francis College of Engineering over the course of five years.

The UTeach program, which turns science, math and engineering majors into classroom teachers, is now in its 10th year at UMass Lowell. Graduates are in great demand at local high schools, and one was named a finalist for Massachusetts STEM Teacher of the Year.

Associate Prof. Tzuyang Yu, associate chair of the Civil Engineering Department, and his students are working with Lowell officials to analyze the integrity of the city’s infrastructure as part of the students’ coursework.

UMass Lowell is the first university in New England to offer Hacking for Defense, a course sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense that pairs interdisciplinary student teams with defense and intelligence organizations to rapidly address emerging national security challenges using entrepreneurial methods.

Transportation engineering graduate student Jenna Howard ’19 is leading the design of UML’s Pawtucket Greenway project through her work as a transportation infrastructure designer for the civil engineering firm TEC.

The university paid tribute to former chancellor, William T. Hogan, with the unveiling of space on campus that will serve as a testament to his visionary leadership for future generations of River Hawks.

Several recent UML alumni are doing their part to bring the COVID-19 pandemic to an end through their vaccine production work at pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer.

Two researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering – Asst. Profs. Yan Gu and Marianna Maiaru – were recognized by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force, respectively, with faculty early career development grants totaling $1,015,000. The funding will help advance research on robot walking and the process modeling of composite materials.

Researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering used a drone equipped with an infrared camera to help Facilities Management identify energy inefficiencies in campus buildings and heating systems.

UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative, in partnership with the Environmental, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department and the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy, is hosting a virtual spring seminar series featuring experts from across the country.

Ketan Muni ’87 and his son, Ronak Muni ’19, are part of the Earlens team that developed an innovative hearing device, which was recently recognized by Time magazine as one of the “Best Inventions of 2020.”

It was a cousin’s lacrosse injury that inspired Alyssa Mulry to dream up ConnectKnee, a brace that tracks a patient’s recovery time. And at the recent DifferenceMaker Francis College of Engineering finals, her team -- ConnectKnee -- topped 16 other teams for first place.

Mechanical Engineering Prof. and Dept. Chair Christopher Niezrecki has been named the 2020 Distinguished University Professor for exemplary teaching, research and service to the university.

The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy has awarded its inaugural fellowships to Asst. Prof. of Economics Kelly Hellman, plastics engineering major Kerry Candlen and chemical engineering major Maria Fonseca-Guzman.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded researchers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering a three-year, $500,000 grant to develop a new, wireless high-temperature sensor network for smart, coal-fired boilers used in industry.

Michele Woodland and Shanice Kelly do almost everything together: They’re both in the Honors College and they both do renewable energy research with Physics Prof. Robert Giles. They both work at the new telescope on South Campus – and they’re president and vice president of the UML Astronomy Club.

Students who miss being on campus — and incoming freshmen who want to meet fellow River Hawks outside of the remote classroom this fall — can connect virtually on HawkCraft, the university’s official Minecraft server.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to cripple social interaction, upend education, endanger health and disrupt business, the university’s researchers are exploring the ever-widening aspects of the virus’ presence. Several UML researchers recently earned grants to explore a wide array of COVID-19's effects.

Two dozen incoming first-year and transfer students got a jump on their engineering studies — and a preview of college life during the coronavirus pandemic — through the Francis College of Engineering’s Research, Academics and Mentoring Pathways (RAMP) program.

Thanks to a state grant, the university’s Fabric Discovery Center acquired equipment to test PPE that could be used to prevent transmission of COVID-19. Now, staff are conducting PPE testing for the state emergency management agency, hospitals, and regional companies that are ramping up to manufacture high-quality masks and gowns. And that’s just the beginning.

Gulden Camci-Unal, assistant professor of chemical engineering at UMass Lowell, along with biomedical engineering and biotechnology doctoral candidate Darlin Lantigua, are developing a rapid, at-home COVID-19 test.

In his recently published book, “Opus in Brick and Stone: The Architectural and Planning Heritage of Texas Tech University,” architect and author Brian Griggs reveals how Texas Tech’s roots became intertwined with UMass Lowell nearly a century ago.

With labs closed and all academic programs now online due to COVID-19, seniors are adapting their capstone projects. Some capstones have even taken on new relevance because they address aspects of the pandemic.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Asst. Prof. Danjue Chen’s research into the complex traffic interactions between self-driving and human-driven cars has won a five-year, $500,000 faculty early-career development award from the National Science Foundation.

Plastics engineering majors organized a small-scale COVID-19 response effort, using their 3D printing capabilities to crank out supplies for health care workers.

As high school seniors weigh college decisions without the chance to visit campuses, UMass Lowell’s Admissions team is offering one-on-one admissions counseling, individual virtual tours of campus by student tour guides, and social media forums where prospective students can ask questions.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a two-year, $1.4 million grant to Mechanical Engineering Asst. Prof. Murat Inalpolat to develop and test a new, sound-based sensor system for monitoring the structural health and integrity of wind turbine blades.

The River Hawk Rising program provides structured support and a personal connection to students of color, transfer students and first-generation students during their time at the university, setting them up for success in college and beyond.

As Massachusetts officials advised everyone to stay at home to prevent further spread of the novel coronavirus, students are adapting to studying online – and adopting coping strategies to help manage the upheaval.

Graduate students from the Francis College of Engineering’s Solar Energy Association are helping the community by inspecting the city of Lowell’s solar-powered parking meter kiosks as part of an extracurricular service-learning project.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Asst. Prof. Sheree Pagsuyoin’s study on the impact of drug abuse on the environment has been recognized by the National Science Foundation (NSF) with a CAREER award. This prestigious national faculty early career development award highlights the research being conducted by the nation’s best young university faculty-scholars.

Faculty and student researchers examined what the state must do to incorporate renewable energy sources into the electrical grid to reduce carbon emissions in “The State of Grid Energy Storage in Massachusetts,” a report commissioned by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

UMass Lowell has opened a state-of-the-art lyophilization facility that will help drive innovation and discovery in biopharmaceutical manufacturing in New England and beyond.

They went, they conquered, they left. And in their dust were some top Boston universities. Ambulatory Innovation emerged atop the heap at the annual Beantown Throwdown pitch competition.

The National Science Foundation recently recognized Asst. Prof. Hsi-Wu Wong of the Department of Chemical Engineering with a prestigious faculty early career development grant, called the “CAREER” award. This highly competitive annual program selects the nation’s best young university faculty-scholars “who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization.”

Students from Manning Women in Business and the Society of Women Engineers learned how the tech industry is addressing diversity issues in a panel discussion hosted by the Donahue Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at the UMass Club in Boston.

A research team led by Asst. Prof. Gulden Camci-Unal of the Department of Chemical Engineering is developing new “breathable” biomaterials that can repair heart muscle damaged by disease or heart attack.

Rover the River Hawk, an Industrial Capstone Senior Design project that Engineering students are building to clean debris from the city’s canals, received a Green Design award from the Lowell Sustainability Council and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan.

KettlePizza, a company co-founded a decade ago by industrial technology alum Al Contarino ’92, was chosen to represent Massachusetts at the 2019 “Made in America” product showcase at the White House.

A total of 35 first-year engineering majors participated in this year’s UML Launch and RAMP summer programs, which were designed to prepare the students for the rigors of college life. 

Nearly 20 community college students are taking one of three STEM classes on campus this summer – for free.

IDEA Camp, a collaboration between the UMass Lowell Francis College of Engineering and Lowell Public Schools, featured.

Alum Erin Keaney of Nonspec is on a mission to make prosthetics affordable around the world -- and that means using medical-grade plastic.

The UMass Lowell Center for Lowell History digitized a collection of more than 60 photos, videos and documents from the university’s hang gliding club, which was active on campus from 1974 to 1996. The collection was loaned by the club’s co-founder, Bill Blood.

Reactor system fundamentals and technology and advanced reactor designs were just some of the topics discussed at this year’s Intercontinental Nuclear Institute (INI), an annual summer fellowship program organized by UMass Lowell and the Czech Technical University in Prague.

Julie Chen was presented with the Doctor of Science for distinction in engineering from Northern Ireland’s Queen’s University Belfast on June 29. 

A new study out of UMass Lowell shows eggshells, which most of us throw in the trash, could help grow and heal human bones.

A team of UMass Lowell researchers led by Chemical Engineering Asst. Prof. Gulden Camci-Unal has developed an innovative way of using powdered eggshells for engineering bone tissue that could lead to improved results for bone repair and healing. 

Distance runner Paul Hogan, a civil engineering major from Burlington, capped his stellar college career by becoming the first UML track athlete to earn All-American status by placing 11th in the 10,000 meter run at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin, Texas.

A team of researchers from UMass Lowell, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and China Agricultural University in Beijing has developed a new, sustainable way of converting wet biological waste into diesel-compatible fuel, using heat and water.

The rising cost of textbooks is hurting students’ wallets – and their academic success. Campus leaders, faculty, the university libraries, the bookstore and students are working together to lower costs.

More than 280 students finished the academic year by presenting their work at the annual Student Research & Community Engagement Symposium. Many of the students’ research projects aimed to solve or engage real-world problems, from public health to violent crime.

The university celebrated a $50 million renovation of Perry Hall, which is home to academics, research and industry partnerships in fields including biomedical, chemical and environmental engineering, as well as biomanufacturing and clean energy.

After a year and a half of construction, Perry Hall at University of Massachusetts Lowell has reopened transformed by a $50 million renovation.

Alum Nicole Falotico ’11 was one of five Tesla employees who recruited UML students for summer internships and co-op positions via a video conference presentation at Saab ETIC’s Perry Atrium.

Invisawear CEO Rajia Abdelaziz originally hails from New Hampshire and invented the wearable safety device while attended college at UMass Lowell.

To help protect medical information from cyberattacks, the National Science Foundation has awarded a three-year grant totaling nearly $1 million to a team of researchers led by Prof. Yan Luo of UMass Lowell’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to develop a secure cyberinfrastructure for translational research.

U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan learned about the latest technology used in parachutes and other battlefield innovations while touring the HEROES lab on Feb. 20.

U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan toured UMass Lowell's HEROES Center on Wednesday, checking out the bomb suit technology.

The National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $1 million in grant to a team of researchers led by Prof. Yan Luo to develop a secure and compliant cyberinfrastructure for translational research.

Francis College of Engineering at UMass Lowell in partnership with Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School received $116,000 to purchase new CNC milling machines from the state's latest round of funding: $3.3 million in Skills Capital grants.

Facilities Management completed a $50 million renovation of Perry Hall over winter break and continued to make progress on several other major projects across campus.

A team of first-year students rooted at UMass Lowell captured top honors and $5,000 in prize money at the first Hack Haverhill 24-hour hackathon competition, topping 14 other teams from colleges, high schools and the professional world.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a three-year, $1 million grant to a team of researchers led by a UMass Lowell mechanical engineering professor that is working to develop renewable fuel additives from sawdust and other wood byproducts.

UMass Lowell students have earned more than $24 million over the past five years through the Professional Cooperative Education program, helping them pay for college while gaining valuable real-world work experience. 

Twin brothers Bhavan and Bhuvan Somayanda, who both earned master’s degrees in plastics engineering in 2015, returned for the Fall Career Fair to recruit for their current employer, Applied Medical.

Two student organizations, Manning Women in Business and the Society of Women Engineers, co-hosted a conversation with Chancellor Jacquie Moloney on women’s empowerment.

A total of 30 undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from colleges across the campus competed during the first Future Pack Design Challenge, held at the new Fabric Discovery Center.

Students in the Society of Women Engineers hosted a Repair Café for the campus and community last month. Along the way, they learned some useful skills themselves, such as how to take apart a microwave oven, fix a lamp and hand-sew patches for denim jackets.

Marjorie Yang, chair of the $1 billion Hong Kong-based textile company Esquel Group, visited campus and talked to students about sustainability and social responsibility. Her father, Y.L. Yang, earned a master of science in textile chemistry from the Lowell Textile Institute in 1948.

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently awarded a five-year, $14 million grant to a partnership of faculty and student researchers from UMass Lowell and other universities in New England to create a regional Transportation Infrastructure Durability Center.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $1 million grant to a team of researchers led by UMass Lowell to develop renewable fuel additives made from sawdust from sawmills.

Business grad Mai Pham and engineering alum Nabil Saleh, who both landed jobs at Dell Technologies after graduation, returned to campus to tell students about opportunities in the field of supply chain operations.

Engineering student Shawn Reese had a summer internship at M.I.T.’s Lincoln Laboratory. He is beginning work on a four-year degree in engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

The Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW) has launched an online continuing education program to help nurses prevent musculoskeletal injuries in clinical care settings.

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center sponsored nine high school students to do research for eight weeks on campus under its High School Apprenticeship Challenge program.

The Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science departments have moved to a remodeled (and renamed) Dandeneau Hall – one of Facilities Management’s several major renovation projects this summer.

Slated to open next year on campus, a new center will provide students with access to Dassault Systemes' 3DEXPERIENCE platform and its design and collaboration applications.

The new RAMP summer camp for incoming women engineering students aims to build their skills and connect them with future mentors so they stay the course. The first-year students say it’s boosting their confidence – and helping them make friends.

UML assistant professor of chemical engineering Gulden Camci-Unal's research uses structures inspired by origami for tissue regeneration.

Origami – the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes and figures – dates back to the sixth century. At UMass Lowell, it is inspiring researchers as they develop a 21st century solution to the shortage of tissue and organ donors. 

UMass Lowell seniors Benjamin Tran, 21, and senior Katie Elwell, 22, of Tewksbury, created a wind turbine component of the renewable energy "traveling classroom" for their mechanical engineering capstone.

Invitation to Innovation, which was held May 4 at the Tsongas Center, was attended by more than 2,000 schoolchildren, educators and community and corporate partners.

Mechanical engineering senior Deborah Fowler and chemical engineering senior Erin Shaughnessey have each won a 2018 Graduate Research Fellowship Program award from the National Science Foundation.

Industrious and driven to entrepreneurship, 25-year-old mechanical engineering grad Justin Lozier ’17 invented TopaCan, “the most convenient ashtray in the world.” 

A dozen civil and environmental engineering majors created their own senior capstone class to take on the challenge of designing home sanitation systems for a community in Haiti. The students traveled to Haiti to learn more about the people and local conditions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a group of UMass Lowell student researchers a “P3” grant to develop an innovative technology that would turn seafood waste into fertilizer.

The smart jewelry company began in 2016 as a DifferenceMaker project but is gaining big-time sparkle as it launches to the rest of the world.

Sixty academic, government and industry leaders and researchers from across the region came together for “The Internet of Things: Enabling Technologies & Emerging Trends,” a forum hosted by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

Robert S. Ward, president and CEO of California-based ExThera Medical Corp. and a 1971 chemical engineering graduate of UMass Lowell, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Mechanical engineer students, led by senior lecturer Michele Putko, are helping improve energy efficiency at the Lowell Transitional Living Center through an independent study project funded by a mini-grant from the university’s Sustainability Encouragement & Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) Fund.

Chemical engineering Assistant Professor Gulden Camci-Unal and her team of student researchers are designing new biomaterials that could someday be used to repair, replace or regenerate skin, bone, cartilage, heart valve, heart muscle and blood vessels, among others.

A group of engineers from iRobot, including alumni Eva Moscat and Anne (Faber) Gambino, shared how they overcame academic adversity during a panel discussion with STEM students dubbed “#PermissionToFail.”

A new research partnership between Avangrid, its subsidiary Central Maine Power and UMass Lowell will bring together researchers from the company and the university to advance the development and implementation of clean energy technologies - including hydropower, wind energy, power grids, energy storage and data sciences - over the next decade. UMass Lowell students will also benefit from the partnership, which calls for them to participate in on-campus research and for CMP to explore opportunities for co-ops, internships and fellowships. 

The NERVE Center and Toxics Use Reduction Institute both moved to new homes over winter break, while Facilities Management steamed ahead on renovations at Perry and Pasteur halls and on the construction of University Suites Dining.

Assoc. Prof. Sukesh Aghara, director of UMass Lowell’s Nuclear Engineering Program, shares his perspective on what we can expect to see in the geopolitical landscape in the coming year.

E Ink is expanding its partnership with UMass Lowell beyond co-ops and internships, thanks to a $196,000 workforce training grant that the Division of Online and Continuing Education helped the high-tech company obtain from the state and the opening of more innovation labs on campus.

Students learned about potential careers in the growing field of sales engineering at an alumni panel discussion co-sponsored by the Francis College of Engineering and the Manning School of Business.

Thanks to the support of the Pernick Fund, faculty and students at UMass Lowell and Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Israel have joined forces to study and produce new coatings that make surfaces from glass to metal self-cleaning. That research, which is covered by two patents, could revolutionize the aerospace, automotive and building industries, among others. 

How do you take the world by storm while lending it a hand? The co-founders and partners in Nonspec Inc., an emerging business that makes affordable prosthetics, are finding out after they landed a $50,000 prize as one of the Top 26 startups at MassChallenge, the Boston-based business accelerator. 

Engineering students from the River Hawk Racing club have teamed up with business students from Collegiate DECA to build a race car that will compete next summer at an international event hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers in Lincoln, Neb.

Evan Jones and Andrew Terrill, both freshmen in the Francis College of Engineering, turn heads and draw smiles by riding unicycles to get around campus.

Two UMass Lowell graduate students were part of the teams that recently won top prizes at two “hackathons” organized by MIT, the U.S. Department of Defense MD5 program and the Naval Postgraduate School.

Asst. Prof. Kacey Beddoes has won a prestigious National Science Foundation grant to investigate how gender affects the workplace experiences of new engineers.

UML Professor Sam Mil'shtein and three of his Electrical Engineering students, led by Mukhammaddin Zinaddinov, recently partnered on the project, with the UML contingent visiting the high school on a weekly basis.

Prof. Joey Mead of the Department of Plastics Engineering, a highly regarded teacher and researcher, has been named Distinguished University Professor, the top accolade bestowed on a UMass Lowell faculty member.

For her first honors class at UMass Lowell, plastics engineering major Brianna Atwood wanted to do community service. She called a neighbor, the nun who is principal of the St. Patrick School in Lowell, and soon had a dozen student volunteers tutoring in multiple languages.

UMass Lowell engineers are creating new, cost-effective sensor-laden textiles that can be used to monitor the structural health of vital infrastructures across the country.

Electrical engineering alum Vala Afshar ’94, ’96, chief digital evangelist at Salesforce, shared his insights with students on business trends and the power of social media.

NextFlex has awarded three projects with a total contract value of $4.4 million to researchers from the UMass Lowell Nanomanufacturing Center, defense contractor Raytheon IDS and SI2 Technologies.

NextFlex has awarded three grants of more than $4 million to teams of researchers from the UMass Lowell Nanomanufacturing Center and defense contractor Raytheon IDS.

The university’s new Urban Agriculture Greenhouse, run in partnership with Mill City Grows, will be a testing ground for water and energy efficiency — while also providing food for the local community.

Every year, more than 200 first-year students receive merit-based, $4,000 Co-op Scholarships in their acceptance packages. The scholarships pay them to do research with a faculty member, intern at a community agency or study abroad.

Should your self-driving car protect you at all costs? Or should it drive you into a ditch to avoid hitting a school bus? The National Science Foundation has awarded a $556,000 grant to three philosophers, a transportation engineer and two public health experts so they can figure out ethical safety algorithms for self-driving cars.

Michael and Nicholas Forsyth of Acton mirror more than each other’s appearances – the identical twins, after five years sharing the same classes, textbooks, and college commute, recently graduated with master’s degrees from UMass Lowell and with plans to pursue careers in robotics.

Prof. Donald Leitch, who taught the first cohort of undergraduates to major in civil and environmental engineering at Lowell Tech, is still going strong after 49 years and two university name changes. The founding adviser of the Concrete Canoe Team and the student chapter of ASCE won the 2017 Manning Prize for Excellence in Teaching, UMass Lowell’s top teaching award.

UMass Lowell’s role as a leader in the emerging energy industry got a lift from a recent $95,000 grant from the UMass President’s Science & Technology (S&T) Initiatives Fund.

A new UMass systemwide research center, launched with a $25,000 grant by the UMass President’s Science & Technology Initiatives Fund, will study the science of how bone and muscle systems work under different conditions.

Nathaniel Swanson's love of chemistry started at Ipswich High School. Now, the UMass Lowell graduate is moving on to his dream job to work in cancer treatment. Swanson, 22, was picked as one of four out of more than 1,000 applicants for a two-year rotational program at Genentech Inc. in San Francisco.

The university’s construction projects are kicking into high gear this summer, from the renovations of Perry and Pasteur halls to the completion of the new Fox Hall elevators and Haverhill satellite campus.

The university’s first-ever Invitation to Innovation (i2i) event drew a crowd of more than 1,000 to see student projects, research and products coming out of the university’s labs and classrooms.

The UMass President’s Office recently awarded a total of $75,000 to three teams of UMass Lowell faculty researchers to develop new technologies aimed at detecting cancer, improving the cost and quality of plastic products and creating highly stable battery power supplies.

The two students, one undergraduate and one graduate, selected by a panel of administrators to deliver speeches at Commencement won the honor through hard work and inspirational messages.

The Model United Nations Team brought home six awards from its latest competition in Belgium and recently hosted its 13th annual Model U.N. for regional high schools. Alumni have started Model U.N. clubs at area schools whose graduates often matriculate at UMass Lowell and join the team.

Physics Asst. Prof. Wei Guo and mechanical engineering Assoc. Prof. Fuqiang Liu are among seven early-stage researchers recently awarded funding through the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) Catalyst Program to develop promising products and technologies in the fields of clean energy and clean water.

UMass Lowell has named its engineering MakerSpace in honor of business leader and alumnus Lawrence Lin at a dedication ceremony attended by students, faculty, staff and industry representatives.

Mechanical engineering alum Marcelle Durrenberger ’16 is working with rocket scientists at Los Angeles “fashion-tech design house” to revolutionize the high-heel shoe.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently awarded a team of nuclear engineers and scientists led by chemical engineering Assoc. Prof. Dean Wang a three-year, $800,000 grant to develop tools to help keep America’s nuclear power plants safe during extended power disruptions.

UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School, together with MIT, are spearheading the state's efforts in the newly formed National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals.

The four oldest Forsyth brothers came to UMass Lowell to study engineering — and more of their siblings could follow in other programs.

Honors students are learning about the hero’s quest in a new film and literature class, A Call to Adventure, and preparing to become the heroes of their own adventurous lives.

The university has launched Making WAVES, a campuswide effort to address barriers to professional advancement for women and minority faculty in STEM fields. A five-year, $3.5 million National Science Foundation grant is supporting the research initiative.

With the groundbreaking vLabs:Engineering project, students can access the university’s full suite of graphics-intensive engineering software from any internet-connected device, even their phones.

The Toxic Use Reduction Institute has funded three UMass research projects, aiming to find safer alternatives to toxic chemicals that harm human health and the environment.

Mechanical engineering students visited Lowell middle schools and after-school programs to get kids excited about science. It was a service-learning project that was part of a required course, Materials Science for Engineers.

Chemical engineering major New Michael Ingemi is a writer, performer and co-founder of Asperger’s Are Us, a comedy troupe that’s the subject of a new documentary by the same name.

NextFlex, a public-private consortium of companies, academic institutions, nonprofits, and government, has awarded a $1.89 million grant to a team of researchers from the UMass Lowell Nanomanufacturing Center and Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.

The recent student-organized Graduate Volunteer Day gave grad students across all disciplines a chance to help the local community while building connections with one another.

Students from the eNABLE Lowell group fitted 8-year-old Liam Haggerty with a custom-made artificial hand at the South Campus basketball court.

Mechanical Engineering Asst. Prof. Scott Stapleton and research collaborators are developing tissue-engineered heart valves that can be implanted in a less invasive procedure that can cut the cost of the operation and the patient’s hospital recovery time, especially for the young and elderly.

Mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Tina Dardeno ’14, who was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award, is developing a non-contact, non-invasive method for monitoring the insertion and seating of cementless femoral implants in real-time.

Asst. Prof. Joyita Dutta, who leads the Biomedical Imaging and Data Sciences Laboratory at UMass Lowell, is working to develop novel image- and data-processing tools that merge traditional signal processing with the emerging field of data science.

A team of researchers led by electrical and computer engineering Assoc. Prof. Hengyong Yu is developing a new ultralow-dose CT screening method to improve the image quality and resolution of CT scans while reducing the radiation dose.

The Francis College of Engineering has launched a biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduate bachelor’s degree program this fall, the first offered by a public university in the Commonwealth.

Chemical engineering Asst. Prof. Prakash Rai was awarded a grant by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NCI/NIH) totaling more than $725,000 to study a combined, nanotechnology-based diagnostic/therapeutic strategy for the targeted treatment of breast cancer.

In unveiling a fresh structure, the university’s engine of entrepreneurship and economic development celebrates those who get it there.

Sophomore plastics engineering major Brian Amici combines his love of domino designs and Taylor Swift’s music into an internet sensation.

Twenty-two-year-old plastics engineering senior Michael Akerstrom has been racing speedboats in international circuits since 2013.

Senior mechanical engineering major Jesse Knowlton and chemistry grad Kelly Dinning ’16 won a quidditch national championship with Boston Night Riders team.

In study-abroad course in Czech Republic, Assoc. Prof. Jana Sladkova’s students see immigration issues and refugee crisis through different lens.

Mechanical engineering Prof. Christopher Niezrecki and Asst. Prof. Murat Inalpolat are among the researchers from eight academic and research institutions across the state who have received grants from the Commonwealth totaling nearly $700,000 to advance offshore wind energy research and development.

A group of psychology, math, engineering and education professors and students, working with fiber artists, are using textiles to teach STEM concepts with the hope of reducing math anxiety in girls and young women and improving learning for all.

At UMass Lowell, high-merit students in the Co-op Scholars Program are given opportunities to conduct summer research after their freshman year.

A new partnership with Hanscom Air Force Base is expanding. It’s just one highlight of the Division of Online and Continuing Education’s workforce development program.

Three teams of UMass Lowell researchers — led by Prof. Holly Yanco and Assoc. Prof. Yu Cao, both from the Department of Computer Science, and Asst. Prof. Seongkyu Yoon from Chemical Engineering — are among the recipients of $834,000 in grants from this year’s UMass President Science & Technology Initiatives Fund.

More than two dozen people from across the campus community share what’s on their summer reading lists. Their responses run the gamut—with authors ranging from the Dalai Lama to Kurt Vonnegut and topics spanning quantum physics to dieting strategies, and everything in between.

A team of 16 students from the Francis College of Engineering and Manning School of Business took second place in the national Collegiate Wind Competition.

Held each spring, the Student Research and Community Engagement Symposium enables students to showcase their work through presentations to peers, faculty and guests. 

Mechanical Engineering Asst. Prof. Juan Pablo Trelles is developing a new process to convert waste carbon dioxide from power plants and factories into sustainable fuels and high-value chemicals.

As they prepare for commencement, some of our seniors reflect on how they found their place at UMass Lowell and what legacy they’d like to leave behind.

If everything goes as planned, in 2018 a small satellite designed and built by a team of undergraduate students will be launched into Earth orbit.

College Writing II students visited Lowell High to speak about college as part of a study on whether service learning leads to better academic outcomes for UMass Lowell students.

Ten teams pitched and vied for a piece of the $35,000 purse in the fourth annual DifferenceMaker Idea Challenge.

One year after receiving a $4 million grant, students like Kyle Homan are already working in the high-tech Printed Electronics Research Collaborative at UMass Lowell.

A team of researchers led by Prof. Peter Avitabile recently received more than $425,000 in funding from Eglin Air Force Base to help improve the efficiency of the bunker buster’s conventional fuze.

The Navy recently awarded Asst. Prof. Alireza V. Amirkhizi with a three-year grant totaling more than $300,000 to find the mechanisms of premature wear, damage or failure in materials exposed to cavitation conditions.

Asst. Profs. Hunter Mack and Hsi-Wu Wong are developing new processes to make biofuels and to evaluate their performance.

Spring Career Fair gives alumni like Tiffany Soun a chance to extend a helping hand to students seeking co-ops, internships and full-time positions.

Nearly 100 students from across the region gathered at the Innovation Hub to bring good things to life — by hacking them.

To harness the power of "Big Data," a team of university researchers are building a campus network cyber infrastructure to quickly access and share vast datasets with other collaborators.

Asst. Prof. Juan Pablo Trelles and his team are synthesizing sustainable fuels using solar energy and carbon dioxide as well as water or methane from natural gas.

More than 30 middle-school and high-school students from the Merrimack Valley spent six weeks at UMass Lowell, designing and building a robot for an international robotics competition.

T-shirt cannons, sled races and a blue-haired dean highlight the Francis College of Engineering’s annual Dean’s Cup Challenge during National Engineers Week.

Two UMass Lowell students, Felipe Nascimento and Upkar Singh, co-founded startup Veloxity, maker of the new cell phone charging kiosk located at University Crossing.

Faculty and students from a wide swath of disciplines demonstrate why the university is increasingly becoming known for its entrepreneurial prowess.

Three students from the Francis College of Engineering turn coveted internships at Tesla Motors in California into launching pads for young careers.

New graduate degrees combine specialized knowledge in humanities and sciences with business management, data analysis and leadership skills.

Electrical and computer engineering Assoc. Prof. Dalila Megherbi and graduate student Iliana Voynichka have been conducting research on facial recognition, especially with facial expressions or disguises that vary over time.

UMass Lowell’s concrete canoe and steel bridge teams scored impressive wins at this year’s regional competitions organized by the New England student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

A total of about 400 seventh- and eighth-grade students from Lowell Public Schools toured the campus as part of the University's STEM outreach effort.  

Eleven research abstracts winged their way from UMass Lowell to Washington, D.C., where they joined 800 others in a national competition.

UMass Lowell has acquired a brand-new Zeiss focused ion-beam scanning electron microscope to enhance the University’s research capabilities in the areas of nano materials and biological sciences.

UMass Lowell’s innovative after-school educational program is quickly becoming one of the state’s leading providers of informal K-12 education in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

Goodrich Corp.’s ISR Systems has recently signed a four-year, $100,000 commitment for UMass Lowell’s Future Engineers Center and DesignCamp program.