Meet our Star Students

Undergraduate Student Achievements

Karol Stephaniuk, Hugo Gallegos and Dan Totong 2007 SSMP Innovations Award
MEC one of five US teams at International Capstone Design Fair in Korea 2006
American Council of Engineering Companies of New York 2007 Scholarship Winners: Jonathan Bielik, Milan Karunaratne, and Jessica Newman
Arkwin Industries, Inc. 2007 Scholarship Winners: Michael Espinoza, Mohammad Imran, Chui Yan Ivy Hau, Yizhan Zheng and Guangqiang Ao

Graduate Student Achievements

Craig Capria, NSF Award for international research collaboration
Dake Feng, team ranked no. 2 in 2006 IEEEXtreme Programming Challenge

Achievements of Former Students

Anurag Purwar , Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student
Evren Azeloglu, Howard Hughes Foundation Scholarship Recepient
Vanessa Capanzano, Dayton T. Brown Scholarship Winner and 2004 recipient of the NSF Graduate Student Fellowship
Mr. Liron Dror, a licenced EMT and fomer member of the Linwood Police Department
Jesse Fite, 2003 recepient of the GT Equipment Technologies Scholarship

Highlights of Achievements by Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Students

Karol Stephaniuk, Hugo Gallegos and Dan Totong won the 2007 SSMP Innovations Award for their senior design project “Automatic Retractable Wheelchair Canopy”. They developed a switch activated rain protector for wheelchair bound handicap people under the guidance of Prof. Fu-pen Chiang, the faculty advisor, and Prof. Yu Zhou, the instructor. This award was created by an intellectual property law firm – Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser PC to prepare, file and prosecute patent applications for our best senior design projects on assistive devices. Moreover, this project has been selected as one of the four finalists in the ASME Student Mechanism Design Competition which is part of the 2007 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, the largest Design Engineering conference in the world. The project has been supported by a donation from Rockwell International Trust.

The mechanical engineering senior design project “Accessible Medication Dispensing Device” was selected as one of only five US teams to compete as finalists in the Second International Student Capstone Design Fair in November 2006. This project is a timed automatic medication dispenser designed for residential use to help a patient manage multiple prescription medicines, developed by a team of three mechanical engineering undergraduate students, Ayman Sawas, Warren Halbig and Mohammad Yusuf, under the guidance of Prof. Raman Singh, the faculty advisor, and Prof. Jeff Ge, the instructor of the capstone senior design course. Prof. Jeff Ge and Ayman Sawas represented Stony Brook University at the Design Fair with all expenses paid by the government of South Korea. Held at the EXCO Convention Center in Taegue, South Korea, this event was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Energy of Korea, Korea Technology and Engineering Foundation and Capstone Design Education Center of Seoul National University of Technology. The design project was part of the senior design program for developing assistive devices to aid people with disabilities. The program was established by Professors Jeff Ge and Fu-pen Chiang, and has been supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation as well as generous donations from Rockwell International Trust.

2007 Scholarship Winners

Three mechanical engineering undergraduate students received 2007 scholarships from the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York. The Hazen and Sawyer, P.C. Scholarship ($2,500) was awarded to Jonathan Bielik. Jonathan excels both academically and in extracurricular activities. A member of the football team in his freshman year and the club lacrosse team, he also participates in competitive rock climbing, and is a Triathlete in half iron man and Olympic distance races. He is the student representative for FIRST Robotics. The DMJM Harris Scholarship ($2,500) was awarded to Milan Karunaratne. Milan is treasurer of the Residence Hall Legislature and a member of the university’s cricket team. Milan is also a guitarist, drummer and vocalist, who composes and performs his music with his band. During summer, Milan served as a field and equipment engineer for Con Edison and also a research assistant at Stony Brook. The Earth Tech, Inc. Scholarship ($2,500) was awarded to Jessica Newman. Jessica is a mechanical engineering major with a strong interest in other scientific fields including meteorology and natural phenomena. She has gained valuable experience in internships, the most current at EDO Corporation, an aeronautical defense systems company where she worked on calculations and stress analysis for Air Force and Navy projects. She has also interned at Brookhaven National Laboratory. She is a student ambassador for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is also a member of Women in Science and Engineering, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the Golden Key International Honor Society. All the three students are members of the Stony Brook Motorsports Baja SAE team, participating in the development of the racing vehicle for Baja SAE competitions. Jonathan also serves as Treasurer of the team, Milan Director of Human Resources, and Jessica Director of Marketing.

Five mechanical engineering undergraduate students received the 2007 Arkwin scholarship ($5000/each) from Arkwin Industries, Inc., a Long Island based manufacturer of precision hydraulic and fuel system components for civil and military aircrafts and special applications. They are Michael Espinoza, Mohammad Imran, Chui Yan Ivy Hau, Yizhan Zheng and Guangqiang Ao.

Highlights of Achievements by Mechanical Engineering Graduate Students

Craig Capria, a mechanical engineering PhD student supervised by Prof. Imin Kao, received an NSF award for international research collaboration. He spent three summer months at ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) in Taiwan to work on collaborative research in robotics and intelligent diagnosis. He was also invited to present in the 2007 NSF(US)-JST(Japan) workshop in Tokyo.

Dake Feng, a mechanical engineering graduate student, joined an inter-departmental team of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and competed in the 2006 IEEEXtreme Programming Challenge organized by IEEE. The team ranked No.2 among 47 international college student teams.

Achievements of Former Students

Anurag Purwar - Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student

Mr. Anurag Purwar, Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been named a recipient of this year's Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student.

Mr. Purwar has taught MEC 112 (C/C++ Programming for Scientists and Engineers), MEC 572 (Geometric Modeling for CAD/CAM), and MEC 510 (Object Oriented Programming for Scientists and Engineers) for last three years. His thoughtful approach to the subject matter, gifted ability to transmit what he knows and availability to help outside the classroom earned him excellent evaluations from Mechanical Engineering undergraduate and graduate students as well as from Mechanical Engineering faculty. In his nomination letter, Prof. Wang, (Graduate Program Director) wrote, "Anurag believes in life (in an examined life), in philosophy, in the frontiers of science, in the excitement and the limitless horizon of engineering, and in teaching the coming generation to share this excitement".

Mr. Purwar came to Stony Brook from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, India to do a PhD. His graduate work under the direction of Dr. Jeff Ge is in the field of Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing. Despite demanding research commitments, Mr. Purwar finds time to help the Mechanical Engineering Department in its foremost mission--the unparalleled education of the next generation.

Evren Azeloglu - Howard Hughes Foundation Scholarship Recepient

Everen Azeloglu is the 2003 recepient of the Howard Hughes Fellowship in Biological Sciences. Mr. Azeloglu, a native of Turkey.

He spent nearly two years assisting with research on an NSF sponsored research project entitled "Whole Field Deformation Measurement of the Heart with CASI". Dr. Irvin Krukenkamp of the Department of Surgery who is a co-PI with Dr. Fu-pen Chiang. This grant and several important papers have resulted from this collaboration.

Mr. Azeloglu’s talents have gained the attention of other benefactors outside the Stony Brook campus. For example, he received second place in the Student Paper Competition of the 2002 ASME Pressure Vessels And Piping Division Conference in Vancouver, Canada. He also received a Weining Foundation Fellowship (2001-2002), GT Equipment Technologies Scholarship (2002-2003), Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Research Award (2002-2003) and the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Program Fellowship (Summer 2002).

Mr. Azeloglu is studying in the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Biomedical program. He continues his study of the biomechanics of the heart and will be pursuing a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering.

Vanessa Capanzano - Dayton T. Brown Scholarship Winner and 2004 recipient of the NSF Graduate Student Fellowship

Ms. Capanzano, graduated in 2004 as a Mechanical Engineering Major at the State University of New York at Stony Brook is a young woman of exceptional promise and skill. Throughout her course of study at Stony Brook, Ms. Capanzano maintained a place on the Dean’s list. She graduated with a grade point average of 3.97. Considering how rigorous a Mechanical Engineering Major is, this is quite an accomplishment

Since June of 2003, Ms. Capazano worked with Professor Lili Zheng on studying the dynamic behavior of cerebrospinal fluid. With Dr. Zheng, she designed and built experimental apparatus for the characterization of shunts and catheter tubing. To work on this, Ms. Capazano was the recipient of a very prestigious URECA (Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity) fellowship. Very few students are bestowed this honor and opportunity.

Outside campus, Ms. Capanzano worked for PALL RAI Corporation as an Engineering Intern. As such, she assisted in Engineering Analysis for Quality Control. I encourage our Mechanical Engineering Students to put what they learn in the classroom to practical use by participating in high technology internships through the SPIR (Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence) program. This experience makes our students better prepared for the engineering profession.

In spite of her busy schedule, Ms. Capanzano volunteered her time with the WISE program (Women in Science and Engineering), in the physics help room and as not only a member but treasurer of the honor society, Tau Beta Pi.

Ms. Capanzano is, this Fall, at Johns Hopkins University as a graduate student in the Biomedical Engineering Department. The $30,000 NSF Fellowship with additional money for overseas travel and laboratory equipment, will supplement the generous fellowship Johns Hopkins has already awarded Ms. Capanzano.

Mr. Liron Dror, a licenced EMT and fomer member of the Linwood Police Department, joined Mechanical Engineering because of his love of airplanes. He joined a group of dedicated airplane enthuiasts and formed the Aerowolf Airplane Team. The first task these students had to complete was to find a faculty advisor and Dr. Hui Zhang graciously agreed to serve as the Team's advisor.

In addition to Dr. Zhang, the Aerowolves gathered builders in the field of aviation who volunteered their time and expertise to the project. Except for the engine which was supplied by the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Aerowolf plane was custom-made. Liron estimates that the work, which spanned two semesters, took the student about 20 hours per week. Their goal was to enter the SAE competition in Palm Dale, CA, June 3rd to 5th, 2003, For a brand-new effort, this was an ambitious goal but was one the team met despite some initial set-backs. In spite of all the set-backs, the Stony Brook Aerowolf plane took 14th place out of 42 and was even photographed in flight for an Antelope Valley Gazette news story. Liron enjoys the challenge of aviation and is thinking of making it his career. He designed the wing profile and calculated drag co-efficient. A vital member of the Aerowolf team, Liron epitomizes the typical Mechanical Engineering student: a team player, innovative, generous and skillful. He sacrificed free time to launch an aviation initiative in our Department.

Jesse Fite was the 2003 recepient of the GT Equipment Technologies Scholarship. Jesse was an officer of the student Chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers whose faculty advisor, Research Associate Professor, John Metzger, described Jesse in a recommendation letter for the GTE award: "Jesse is a mature, serious and hard working, and I have a high regard for him both as an engineering student and an individual".

Jesse was a student assistant under John Metzger’s supervision this past summer. Dr. Metzger placed Jesse, through the New York State-supported SPIR Program, at eele Laboratory. In this position Jesse worked with the laboratory’s scientists and engineers to develop a high-intensity light source and set up a manufacturing process for the light source. Jesse aided the laboratory’s efforts and they were pleased with his contribution to their organization.

Jesse’s academic record, according to Dr. Metzger who taught him for two semesters, is outstanding: "In all his classes, he has demonstrated maturity, responsibility, a good understanding of the engineering principles presented and the ability to apply these engineering principles. Jesse is an independent, self motivated thinker.

Jesse has also assumed the role of the student chapter President of the NSPE at Stony Brook. He has demonstrated leadership, energy, and excellent organizational skills.