Student Success

He was surprised. And also not surprised.

John Kershner, a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, was in the middle of an internship a month ago when he went online and saw that his application for a Fulbright research award had been accepted. His heart started racing. And his thoughts started colliding.

I’m going to move to Germany. That is so exciting! Oh my gosh. I’m at Penn State right now. I’m not even at Lehigh. And I have to move to Germany in like six months.

A team of Lehigh University students recently won the F1TENTH Virtual Competition Head-to-Head Race.

Before he was a mechanical engineer, Ryan Matthiessen ’21 ’23G was a behavioral neuroscientist.

“I've always enjoyed math, but I’ve also liked understanding more about what drives a person to do better, to act better, and to learn,” says Matthiessen, who earned his bachelor’s degree in Lehigh’s College of Arts and Sciences last year. “I’ve always tried to apply what I was learning in classes to my own life, so I thought neuroscience was a very applicable degree.”

Jorge Hernandez has two semesters remaining in the 18-month Master’s in Management Science and Engineering (MGSE) program at Lehigh University, but he already has his sights on his ultimate goal: opening his own brewery-distillery.

“I love chemistry,” Hernandez says, “and the engineering background that goes into brewing and distilling that nobody sees is really interesting.”

The manufacturer wanted to get a better handle on cycle counting, the system used to compare inventory listed on a company’s records against what is actually in stock.

Accurate counts allow companies to find and fix discrepancies quickly, reducing error, avoiding theft, and ultimately saving money. 

But complicating the company’s goal was the fact that it produced a multitude of products at dozens of facilities. There was no uniformity to its cycle counting method.

“My graduate education has probably been the smartest choice I’ve made for myself,” says Jacob Nelson ’17 ’19G.

Nelson is a fourth-year PhD student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). His research involves distributed systems and using Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) technology to solve problems associated with coordination between multiple actors and processes. 

When the students in Lehigh’s Bridge System Design Class received the requirements for their class competition designing a long-span bridge over a major river, they didn’t know they were based on an actual bridge industry design-build proposal.

Nor were they aware that their work would be reviewed by engineers who designed a span—the new Goethals Bridge that connects New York’s Staten Island and Elizabeth, New Jersey—to meet those requirements in real life.

LU Aero, Lehigh’s aerospace engineering club, participated in the 2022 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Design/Build/Fly Flyoff, held April 21-24. The team placed 48th out of the 65 teams that attended the event, hosted by Textron Aviation, in Wichita, Kansas. 

Student speaker Praveen Sreeramagiri ’22 PhD (mechanical engineering): "Curiosity and encouragement are crucial for science and can lead to unimaginable and breathtaking discoveries.”

Materials science and engineering PhD student and recent bioengineering graduate Andrew Kitson ’21 has been recognized by the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The prestigious fellowships are awarded annually to promising students pursuing research-based advanced degrees in STEM fields.