Penn State Berks is helping a future generation of engineering students succeed through the college’s Engineering Ahead Program, which is now in its eighth year. The goal of the four-week summer “bridge” program, which ran from June 25 to July 21, is to increase retention rates among a diverse group of engineering students by enhancing academic preparedness and developing a support network.
Seven incoming Penn State Berks students were awarded a scholarship to study engineering through the campus' Leveraging Innovation and Optimizing Nurturing (LION) STEM Scholars Program. The program, funded through a National Science Foundation grant, is in its second year and provides support in the form of a four-year, renewable $6,250 scholarship to talented engineering students with demonstrated financial need.
First-year engineering students at Penn State Berks put their problem-solving skills to the test when they were tasked with designing and constructing escape room puzzles for their engineering design introductory course.
Penn State Berks celebrated the 23nd anniversary of its Careers with Math Options Conference on May 9. A record total of 188 seventh grade students and 24 chaperones from 13 schools around the Berks County area attended the day-long event. The mission of the event is to generate excitement for STEM topics early in young female students’ education.
Two Penn State Berks students received an honorable mention at the Mid-Atlantic Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting, which was held from March 31 to April 2 at the University of Delaware. Erin Horack, a second-year biotechnology major, and Quang Vinh Lu, a second-year biology major, presented their research, titled “Antibiotic-Resistant Gene Expression in Water Quality Indicators, Escherichia coli, and Enterococci, Extracted from the Delaware River Basin.”
Two Penn State Berks students took first place in the fourth Women in Engineering Design Competition at Penn State Altoona earlier this month. Lillie Mohn, a mechanical engineering major, and Jenicy Strong, a computer engineering major, received a cash prize of $3,000 for their efforts.
Eve Gibbs, a senior biochemistry and molecular biology major and chemistry minor at Penn State Berks, is well on her way to an exciting career in science research. This past summer, she completed an internship with the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. And after the spring semester ends, she will spend the summer working at the National Institute of Health through their Undergraduate Scholarship Program.
The 10th annual Penn State Berks Losoncy Lecture in Physics and Astronomy will be presented by Rosi Reed, associate professor of physics at Lehigh University. Reed will present “A Recipe for Quark Soup: Understanding the Primordial Broth at the Beginning of the Universe” on Wednesday, April 5. This event is free and open to the public.
As part of Startup Week, the Flemming Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development Center at Penn State Berks will host a webinar discussing the success of its Customer Discovery Lab, which connects budding entrepreneurs with mentors. The March 20 webinar will include students and mentors from two startups: GroupIt LLC and Streamline Charging LLC. Registration is required in advance.
The challenges of the coronavirus pandemic led two Penn State professors — one at Penn State Berks and the other at Penn State College of Medicine — to collaborate on ideas for how health care facilities could be redesigned to provide optimal, resilient care during pandemics and other situations with mass casualties.
