2024 Longsview Fellowships Support Interdisciplinary Research

The College of Engineering has announced four recipients of this year’s Longsview Fellowships. The program rewards research-active tenure-track or tenured faculty members who demonstrate a commitment to the pillars identified in Drexel University’s College of Engineering Strategic Plan and the broader Drexel 2030 areas of excellence and is particularly focused on fostering interdisciplinary collaboration at the intersections of Drexel researchers’ existing expertise.

Funds are used to promote new collaborative research projects that will lead to high quality scholarship, technology commercialization, submissions for extramural support, and awards from NIH, DOD, NSF, and other governmental agencies and foundations. Submissions for awards were reviewed by the college’s research advisory committee.

This year’s fellows and the associated strategic plan pillars are as follows:

Smart Cities and Integration

James Lo, PhD, associate professor of civil, architectural, and environment engineering, was awarded for his work with Yuan An, PhD, associate professor and director of international programs of information science. The title of their project is “Application of Large Language Models (LLMs) for Knowledge Seeking in Building System Design and Operation.”

Resource Stewardship and Sustainability

Josh Snyder, PhD, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering, was awarded for his work with Michel Barsoum, PhD, distinguished professor of materials science and engineering. The title of their project is “Grid-Scale Long-Term Energy Storage and Anthropogenic Carbon Remediation with an Aqueous Bicarbonate/Formate-Proton Battery.”

Renewable Energy and Power

Wesley Chang, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics, was awarded for his work with Edward Kim, PhD, associate professor of computer science. The title of their project is “Decoupling Ultrasonic Transmission of Heterogeneous, Composite Battery Electrode Layers Informed by Sparse Coding.”

Wei-Heng Shih, PhD, professor of materials science and engineering, was awarded for his work with Wan Y. Shih, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering science, and health systems, Mitchele Kutzler, PhD, associate dean for faculty and professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology, and Elias El Haddad, PhD, professor of medicine. The title of their project is “Aqueous Non-toxic ZnS quantum dots as gene delivery vehicle for DNA vaccine.”