Dr. Eryn Hassemer, associate professor in the BioMolecular Engineering program within the Physics and Chemistry Department, was named an Engineering Unleashed 2020 Fellow for her contribution to engineering education, specifically entrepreneurial engineering.

Hassemer, along with 28 other faculty members from 24 higher education institutions across the country, started their journeys as fellows by participating in the Engineering Unleashed Faculty Development Program. The year-long faculty development program is designed to help faculty integrate the entrepreneurial mindset into practices that benefit both students and the community.

The development program required participants to identify potential projects. Hassemer’s project, “How Clean is Clean?” involves educating and motivating others on the detection system in place for unculturable microorganism. The project requires students to examine and detect microbes.

“My Engineering Unleashed card started out as having students actively involved in determining how microbes on their cell phone can be detected without growing them in a lab setting. Due to the current state of our world, this topic will be modified to include microbes that could be involved in a pandemic,” explained Hassemer. 

Hassemer plans to implement the project at MSOE through either a conference presentation, such as KEEN or ASEE, or by publishing it in a paper. She also hopes to involve the CREATE Institute and other faculty members.

“I would also like to involve the CREATE Institute in disseminating this information and to motivate more faculty to create engaging cards for our colleagues both at MSOE and nationally. I look forward to expanding on this topic and having hands-on student involvement.”