Students, faculty, alumni and industry professionals met in rooms 101 and 103 on Thursday, April 17 for Vaughn College’s sixth annual Technology Day Conference and industry advisory council meeting. During the morning session, students received updates about recent developments in the engineering and technology departments, new program developments, internships and program accreditation status. In the afternoon, students presented their technical research work and papers.

Vaughn President Dr. John C. Fitzpatrick and President-elect Dr. Sharon DeVivo opened the conference by welcoming the guests and providing an overview of the College’s ongoing redesign, including the continued on-campus construction. Dr. Hossein Rahemi, chair of the engineering department, then discussed new developments for the department, including a recap of the accreditation process that Vaughn began in fall 2013, and introduced the day’s speakers.

Speakers included Oliver Scheel of US Didactic, who spoke to the attendees about equipment for electrical engineering laboratories; Dr. Yves Ngabonziza of LaGuardia Community College, who discussed collaborations between LaGuardia and Vaughn, and the opportunity for work-study programs for the colleges’ students; and Dr. Frank Scalzo of NASA, who discussed the availabilities for fellowships and scholarships from the organization. In the afternoon, Vaughn students spoke to attendees about academic and extra-curricular activities made available to those in the engineering program, and presented their prize-winning capstone projects and works in progress.

“I’m very happy that our students can show off their work at this event,” said Rahemi. “They work hard throughout the year, and giving them an opportunity like this shows them that we care and are proud of their success.”

The winning papers included: First place research paper: “PCM-3500 Automated Powder Coating Machine” by Robert Anderson, Michael Nigro and Kevin Alarcon; second place research paper: “A Portable Traffic Light” by Nixon Oyugi; and third place research paper: “Effect of Lumped Mass on the Fundamental Frequency of a Riveted Plate” by Mustafa Bhatti and Muhammad Aziz.

First place works in progress: “Flow Separation Active Control Using Synthetic Jet Actuators” by Othman Amr, Vladimir Zulin and Cesar Revelo; and “Disability Approved Aircraft Seating” by Jennifer Rosati.

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Left: Dr. Hossein Rahemi, chair of the engineering department, welcomes guests to the Technolgy Day conference. Right: Jefferson Maldonado, president of the Vaughn College robotics club demonstrates the functionality of some of the club’s robots.