Welcome to the Rossin Connection Podcast!
Rossin Connection is a show for students, alumni, faculty, and staff—current, former, and future—and for anyone who is interested in the many creative ways that engineers are solving the world’s problems.
Learn more about the show, where to find it (and if you’re a podcasting newbie, how to subscribe!), and where to submit feedback and episode ideas.
Episode 14: Solving Life’s What-If Problems
November 19, 2020
Matt Bilsky is a Lehigh alum and an entrepreneur. Growing up, he was constantly building and inventing things, and that creator mindset helped him not only design his own PhD program, but start two companies focused on solving those “wouldn’t it be nice if” situations. Here’s the story of how a K’NEX kid became a problem-solving CEO—and what startup life sounds like in the era of COVID-19.
Episode 14: Can cartilage be regrown?
October 27, 2020
Osteoarthritis occurs when the protective cartilage that cushions the ends of your bones wears down over time. It’s the most common form of arthritis, and it affects more than 31 million Americans. Lesley Chow recently received a CAREER award for her work on a technique that may someday help cartilage regrow, and help people avoid debilitating pain.
Episode 13: The Astronaut, Part 2
October 8, 2020
This is the second half of our interview with professor of practice, Terry Hart '68, '88H. It begins in 1978, just after Hart was selected from 8,000 applicants to be one of 35 astronauts known as Group 8, the first to include African Americans, Asian Americans, and women. He talks about training for his historic 1984 mission, why weightlessness was initially pretty awful, and about the one failure NASA didn’t anticipate. He also explains why he left the astronaut corps, his view on the future of space exploration, and why he calls being named commencement speaker for the 2020 class, “the honor of my life.”
Episode 12: The Astronaut, Part 1
September 24, 2020
Terry Hart '68, '88H, is a Lehigh alum and a professor of practice in mechanical engineering and mechanics. He's also a former telecommunications executive, fighter pilot, and astronaut. In part one of a two-part interview, Hart talks about the event that initially captured his imagination about space, the edge engineering gave him as an Air Force pilot during the Vietnam War, the most fortuitous failure of his life, and why Sally Ride was his favorite copilot.
Episode 11: From injured runner to researcher
September 3, 2020
If there’s an upside to being injury-prone, Peter Schwarzenberg ’16 found it after deciding to leave the Lehigh Cross Country team when he was a junior. It was a move that suddenly freed up hours for things he’d never really considered before. He’s now in his final year (“Fingers crossed,” he says) of the PhD program in mechanical engineering and mechanics. And the work he’s doing on a virtual technique to predict bone healing in tibial fractures has already brought him high-profile recognition from the National Science Foundation.
Listen to the episode and read more about Peter Schwarzenberg >>
Episode 10: Kathleen Egan: Athlete, Activist, CEO
August 21, 2020
Kathleen Egan ’90, is an alum of the industrial engineering program (now called industrial and systems engineering), and the CEO and cofounder of ecomedes, a company whose mission is to reduce the cost and impact of buildings. Despite a successful career as a serial entrepreneur, she talks about still being haunted by imposter syndrome. But she’s turned it into her superpower. In this episode, she explains how she does it, and what else students can do to get an edge as they begin their own careers.
Episode 9: Breaking the stereotype
July 8, 2020
Professor of Practice Christina Haden has two goals for the students who attend the Lehigh Women Engineers PreLUsion program: to make friends, and to feel, through the connections they make with female faculty and peer mentors, that they belong in the field of engineering. Through the voices of past participants, listeners will hear how that’s exactly what’s happening.
Listen to the episode and read more about Christina Haden and Lehigh PreLUsion >>
Episode 8: Expanding the worldview of students
June 18, 2020
On July 1st, Sabrina Jedlicka will become the new associate dean of academic affairs for the Rossin College. In this episode, she talks about how psychology played a big role in who she became as an engineer and as a professor, how a chance meeting with a female mentor shaped her path as a researcher, and how she’ll use her new role as associate dean to broaden the worldview of students, and help address the inequity in engineering.
Listen to the episode and read more about Sabrina Jedlicka >>
Episode 7: Caring for the COVID Convalescent
June 4, 2020
David Adinaro, '88 ’15 M.Eng., is an alum of the Healthcare Systems Engineering program, and the chief medical officer of the East Orange-Alternate Care Site in East Orange, New Jersey. There, he and his staff care for the COVID convalescent, those in the last 5 to 7 days of their hospital stay. The experience of working on the frontlines of the pandemic has been full of challenges, surprises, and countless acts of humanity. And for an emergency physician like Dr. Adinaro, it has also been a struggle.
Episode 6: The Journey of Onur Denizhan
May 26, 2020
Onur Denizhan ’15G is a PhD student in the department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, and the recent recipient of the RCEAS Graduate Leadership and Service award. He calls the award “proof of my life at Lehigh.” As an international student from Turkey, the path to such recognition hasn’t always been easy. But Onur has found that his struggles have only made him stronger.
Episode 5: “I was pleasantly surprised.”
May 13, 2020
Ellie Christman is a chemical engineering major and a freshman. Having to finish out her first year at Lehigh at home was a “huge bummer,” but she’s gotten more out of remote learning than she anticipated.
Listen to the episode and read more about Ellie Christman >>
Episode 4: “Hospitals are desperate for solutions.”
May 6, 2020
A small team at Lehigh led by Brian Slocum brings you inside their labs and work spaces to explain how they’ve responded to the shortage of personal protective equipment, and made more than 1200 face shields for local healthcare providers.
Listen to the episode and read more about Brian and the Wilbur Powerhouse >>
Episode 3 - “We're feeling the lack of closure."
April 28, 2020
Susan Perry is a professor of practice in the bioengineering department. She says the thought of teaching remotely—especially teaching labs remotely—was pretty daunting at first. But it was her students who ended up easing her anxiety.
Episode 2 - “It's a hard time to be a senior."
April 21, 2020
Seanna Corr is a bioengineering major, and a senior. In this episode of Rossin Connection, she talks about the goodbyes she didn’t get to say, her worries about the future, and her two secret weapons who are helping her through it all.
Episode 1 - “There are positives to this."
April 14, 2020
First-year engineering student Alexander Spivey talks about the challenges he faced when the coronavirus pandemic forced students to leave campus, and how he’s staying focused.