University of Virginia Rodman Scholars

Rodman Scholar participation in the Policy Internship Program is a longstanding tradition that we love to see - showing us all that there are many ways to lead as an engineer. Thanks to Rider Foley for all your work as you take the program into the future.

What a treat to have Sharon Lee come speak to my first year Rodman class!!!! Sharon took intro to engineering from Gregory Lewin and me in 2012 ... and then teamed up with Benjamin Oslund to work with us all summer in 2013 to transform Rice 120 from a glorified event space into a first-year maker design innovation studio. The dream lives on today as first-year engineering classes at UVA use Rice 120 all day every day to engage in problem finding, ideation, prototyping, and more. With the mentorship of people like David C. in the UVA BME Department, Sharon has grown into an amazing product designer in the digital health space - see more here https://lnkd.in/eKe4id35 UVA Engineering University of Virginia University of Virginia Rodman Scholars

Our newest batch of Rodman Scholars - the Class of 2028 - has arrived! We loved having RodAlum Caleb Neale visit class virtually during week 1 to share what he has been up to since graduation. Seeing how his work at Tinder is not just coding but a few steps above that - figuring out what features to code and how to measure success - really highlighted the types of technical leadership roles graduates from UVA Engineering take on. University of Virginia University of Virginia Rodman Scholars

Ishan Bhikha is a third-year Rodman - and one of our Rodman Council Co-Presidents. It is great to see him engaged in such forward-looking work at the intersection of research and design at NASA Langley Research Center.

How might a children's museum deeply engage young children in the world around them?… with exhibits that are accessible, educational, interactive, and sustainable for the long term? Come to the Virginia Discovery Museum (VADM) to see how 2 teams of first-year Rodman Scholars answered this question – as both of their designs are or soon-will-be on the floor and out for kids to play with. Their final products were the result of rigorous and intentional design processes.?The teams loved working with Lindsay Jones, Operations Director at the VADM this past spring.?One team designed an interactive sensory tree for 0-2 year olds to be part of the museum's complete redesign of their sensory studio – which centered around an actual fallen tree from Charlottesville's Greenleaf Park.?The other team created and manufactured ingenious modular cars for the museum's racetrack – which were needed because the existing cars broke too easily. Great work teams (Clare O'Dwyer, Shaadaan Burn, Lora Oh, Sophia Crowder, Leah Devendorf, Saemee Kim, Eli Boyden, Maddie Azrak, Liz Faughnan, Haoqin Zhang, Jack Gardner, and Parani Saravanapavan) and thanks for Lindsay for being an amazing client – with real needs to meet and years of experience as an exhibit designer that the teams could learn from.

How might an elementary school deeply engage their kids in nature play through transitioning an interior courtyard into an outdoor learning space? ? With this motivating question, two teams of first years started and ended their design projects where one should: with the people most affected by the project. Big(!) thanks to the kids at Greenbrier Elementary for helping us all see the impact engineers can have on people. ? Two teams of first-year Rodman Scholars have enjoyed working with one of my OG clients for first year design, Katie Rogers, on 2 projects this term (Katie is an elementary school teacher in Charlottesville … we first worked together in 2011!).?One team created a Scientist Field Station that encourages kids to explore the natural world around them - weighing things, seeing what floats, looking up close with a magnifying glass. The other designed and built the Water Exploration Troughs (WET!) where kids learn how water flows downhill and how you need to apply work to make it go uphill. ? Great work teams! Scientist Field Station - Mara Williams, Genavive Lotfi, Niharika Chandna, Yoseph Hassan, Frederic Ramirez Melenciano, Youssef Bousada Water Exploration Troughs - Zahra Arshadi, Noreen Hossain, Lilie Puck-Karam, Aliyah Oakley, Sabrina Berry, and Savannah Overby University of Virginia UVA Engineering University of Virginia Rodman Scholars

Never have I ever thought that my name could be uttered in the same breath with astronauts and rockstars, but here we are! So grateful to uniphi space agency and #NationalAstronautDay for this tremendous honor! Thank you for including me in this incredible list of rockstar awardees led by the legendary Astronaut Pioneer Alan Shepard, the first American to explore suborbital space! I would also like to thank HIGHER ORBITS FOUNDATION and my mentor Michelle Lucas as well as our cadre of astronaut mentors there for the inspiration and all out support they have given students like me as we pursue our paths in STEM and space. I am also thankful for all of the extrordinary mentors and cheerleaders who have encouraged me in many ways and many times more than I can count, including organizations that have worked with me and enabled me to found initiatives that inspire next generation youth: Virginia/National 4-H, Virginia SpaceGrant Consortium, R.T. Arnold Public Library, Southside Virginia Community College, and southside’s Microsoft Data Center. Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to grow and learn, and most importantly, share with and inspire others. Special shout out to my STEMSquad kids whose curiosity and love of learning inspire me every day. This is incredibly humbling and I am so grateful. ??

Student governance is alive and well in the Rodman program! Looking forward to working with Ishan Bhikha and Hunter Oakey next year. And hats off to our 2023-24 presidential triumvirate Jalen Pryor, Christopher Recupero, and Alice Pandaleon for their leadership this past year :D

A great story about Rodman Scholar Reese Hertel’s journey! Not mentioned is his leadership within the Rodman program, where this term he led a RodSem on beer brewing - which included a behind the scenes visit to Random Row Brewing Company, LLC thanks to Random Row co-founder and Rodman alum Robert Thiele, MD, MBA in addition to hands-on actual brewing. University of Virginia Rodman Scholars

How Might We use IOT to improve the student dorm experience? First-year Rodman Scholars have enjoyed working with Matthew McFarland from PointCentral and Alarm.com on 2 projects this term aimed at exploring IOT use cases for dorm life.?One device alerts students if a dresser or desk drawer is opened when they are out of the room while the other monitors sound levels for RAs. Both teams designed and built integrated functional prototypes - electronics, backend server and data, housings, and user interfaces - that they tested with users to gain insights about key factors affecting product desirability. UVA Engineering University of Virginia Rodman Scholars. Great work teams (Arjun Ramakrishnan, Kyle Phillips, Franz Villarroel, Evin St Clair, Maya Degafe, Shriya Dale, Lauren Tran, Joseph Attia, Simone Steverson, Cherry Lin, Matthew Batmunkh, Vincent Zhang, and Micah Shelton) and hats off to Matthew for helping create such an authentic design experience.