Ohio Northern University T.J. Smull College of Engineering

Experiential learning: internships, co-ops, and research opportunities all provide a pathway for students to explore their interests and passions. So proud of our students!

When engineering and neuroscience converge, it can bring forth innovations that aid individuals with motor impairments. This is the space where Ohio Northern University senior Aleece Al-Olimat wants to make her mark.

This summer, she’s getting a head start by interning at the University of Pittsburgh’s Rehab Neural Engineering Lab.

At age 4, Aleece was diagnosed with epilepsy. Her subsequent health journey ignited her interest in the complexities of the human brain.

At ONU, the Ada, Ohio native who graduated from Ada High School (Ada Bulldogs), is a double major in computer science in the Ohio Northern University T.J. Smull College of Engineering and neuroscience in the Ohio Northern University Getty College of Arts & Sciences.

“My aim is to one day design transformative engineering systems to restore mobility and independence to those who have lost them.”

Her work in Dr. Phil Zoladz’s research lab at ONU, which included the chance to attend and present at a national neuroscience conference, led to her research internship at the University of Pittsburgh.

During her experience, she’s witnessing firsthand the ways that technology can empower individuals with physical limitations.

“It’s changed what was previously an interest of mine into a passion.”

She describes the Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy device and exoskeleton robotic arm she is working with this summer “as some of the coolest pieces of technology that I’ve had the pleasure to geek out over and use.”

As an undergraduate working in a lab with M.D. and Ph.D. personnel, she’s had to “let go of the fear of appearing lacking in comparison.”

“I’ve learned to acknowledge that nobody starts off as a master. Being fully transparent about what I do and do not know has allowed me to learn more, and it’s turned this opportunity into one of the most formative learning experiences of my college career.”

Our engineering majors ... doing awesome things this summer!

A majority of our students in the college of engineering complete at least one internship during their four years at ONU and as Chelsea said, an internship or co-op can open doors to future opportunities and help a student figure out what they want to do in the future. Go Bears! 🧡 🖤

Congratulations to our four engineering students (three of whom are now gradutes) and their advisor, Dr. Louis Diberardino, on a job well done!

Mechanical engineering faculty member, Dr. David Sawyers, captured these shots of the engineering building yesterday as a massive shelf cloud passed over Ada!

Benjamin McPheron, BSEE ’10, Ph.D., has been named assistant dean of Ohio Northern University’s T.J. Smull College of Engineering. McPheron replaces Tom Zechman who retired at the end of the 2023-24 academic year.

Most recently, McPheron served as an associate professor of electrical engineering and chair of the Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering at Anderson University in Indiana. Before Anderson, he taught electrical engineering at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

A Polar Bear, he received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from ONU and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Penn State University. Ben and his wife, Mallory (Bloom) McPheron, BS ’12, reside in Kenton with their two children on the Bloom family farm. While ONU students, Ben and Mallory both competed on the cross country and track teams and were involved in many campus organizations.

Yesterday, we welcomed nine campers to our Pathways to STEM camp which we are hosting with our friends in the Ohio Northern University Getty College of Arts & Sciences. Today our campers spent some time in the engineering college. They met with Engineering's Assistant Dean McPheron and A&S's Assistant Dean Hoyt-Brackman to learn about opportunities in both the sciences and engineering. Afterwards, they spent some time with Dr. Heath LeBlanc in the electrical and computer engineering labs working with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC's) - and making a stop light operate correctly - and then completed a soldering project.

We welcomed the first of our incoming first year students today! Orientation #1 done, three more to go! Welcome class of 2028!

Senior Mechanical Engineering majors Wyatt Fryer and Jackson Kelly and Junior Mechanical Engineering major Aaron Hess recently participated in the NASA ULI (University Leadership Initiative) workshop on Urban Areal Systems (UAS).

The workshop, hosted by Virginia Tech, is part of a research grant awarded to several universities by NASA for the purposes of conducting research into Urban Areal Systems (UAS). The ONU students spent the week with around 15 other undergraduate students learning about Drone Propulsion and Aeroacoustics. The sessions were taught by faculty members from Boston University and Virginia Tech. While at Virginia Tech, students were able to explore graduate school, work side-by-side with graduate students to learn about their research and hear from/talk with engineers and researchers from various companies and government organizations working on UAS research. The event ran from May 20-24, 2024.

The students are thankful to Mechanical Engineering faculty member, Dr. David Sawyers, who brought the workshop to their attention and recommended that they apply to attend.

At the Order of the Engineer/Pledge of the Computing Professional ceremonies on May 19, we also celebrated our College of Engineering faculty. Dr. Fan Ye, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, was awarded the college's Teaching Innovation Award and Dr. Khalid Al-Olimat, Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, was awarded the college's Prof. Henry Horldt Outstanding Teacher Award.

Congratulations to Dr. Ye and Dr. Al-Olimat!

On May 19, the "Engineering, Traditions, and Culture in Germany" class, led by Dr. Bryan Boulanger and Dr. Todd France, arrived in Munich. The day was planned around anticipated delays for air travel, but they didn’t have any delays and the weather was beautiful so the class spent a lot of time outside exploring the main tourist attraction areas of Munich before heading off for the rest of their planned activities.

In addition to commencement and the Engineering Ring Ceremony, the college also held The Pledge of the Computing Professional ceremony on May 19 for our computer science and computer engineering graduates. One faculty member, Dr. Farha Jahan, also participated in the ceremony. Congratulations to all!

Congratulations to all of our computer science and engineering graduates! What a wonderful day!

More presentations from last week...our first-year engineering students presented their finished designs on May 9, after working all semester to develop assistive devices for differently abled individuals.

Huge thank you to all of our community partners from the local schools, boards of developmental disabilities, and adult care facilities who welcomed us for tours, answered student questions, and joined us for judging!

Thank you as well to our college advisory board members who joined us as judges and all those who help us make experiences like this possible for our students.

What else is going on besides app fairs, presentations and exams at the end of the semester? Our SAE Baja team, Polar Bear Racing, is competing in Williamsport, PA! The event is hosted by the Pennsylvania College of Technology. GO BEARS!

https://www.sae.org/attend/student-events/baja-sae-williamsport

Final exam week is almost over! Commencement is on Sunday, May 19. Leading up to today, we've been busy!

Last Tuesday, the Programming 2 classes held an App Fair to display and demonstrate the games they created by reimagining the classic "Oregon Trail" computer game using women's diaries from that era.

Lots of folks out today for the 3rd annual End of Year Bash!! Half a dozen different musical acts from viola to grunge, and everything in between. Wrapping up with LeBlanc-Zeppelin singing Stevie Nicks in the bass register. Definitely something for everyone!

We celebrated Tom Zechman's retirement today. Thank you to all who joined us to celebrate his 16 years with the college! More pictures to come.

Congratulations to Tom Zechman, assistant dean of the Ohio Northern University T.J. Smull College of Engineering, on his retirement from ONU! While he said he will miss the faculty and staff he worked with and the facilities he worked in, it's the students he will miss most.

"The students are No. 1. I've been here 16 years, and when I came here, I thought it would be about five, but the quality of students we get to be around all day, every day, is just fantastic," he said. "The people, whether students, faculty staff, it's the people. It's exactly what makes ONU, 'ONU.'"

Our very own Dr Logan was featured for her volunteer work with Tau Beta Pi!

In observance of National Volunteer Week, we are pleased to introduce Lauren H. Logan, Ph.D., OH D ’10, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Ohio Northern University (ONU).
Lauren planned from an early age to follow the academic path and become a professor, believing knowledge creation and inspiring students to “do more, be more” are the keys to a successful future for society. While on an NSF fellowship, she earned a Ph.D. from the Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Lauren’s research incorporates biology and policy into the engineering aspects of the energy-water nexus, and recently, Life Cycle Assessment and its impact within sustainability education. She’s been featured as a guest expert on Spectrum One News, science podcasts, and in the new Water Matters initiative by True Elements.

Lauren earned B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and geological sciences from Ohio University, and an M.S. degree in biological sciences from Purdue University. She received a TBP scholarship in 2009 and was a 2011 TBP Fellow. A District 7 Director, Lauren’s volunteer service to Tau Beta Pi includes a three-term presidency of OH D; five terms as a Chapter Advisor for OH D, IN A, and OH I; three terms as president of the Central Illinois Alumni Chapter; and one term as the Student Advisory Board chair. Attending every Convention since her 2006 initiation, Lauren was chair of the 2008 Rituals Committee, crafting a lasting change to the ritual. With the tremendous help of the University of Dayton, she planned the D7 spring conference this year.

In addition to her TBP service, Lauren volunteers for Ohio 4-H as a judge and contributor to Engineering Excitement Day at the Ohio State Fair, and was the alumni guest speaker at the 2023 4-H Celebration of Youth event. Passionate about the recruitment and retention of under-represented groups into engineering programs, she serves on several DEIB committees at ONU. Lauren is married to licensed mechanical engineer Daniel Newkirk, and they have four pets: Gandalf the cat, Greg the cat, Aragorn the dog, and Arwen the puppy.

Thank you, Lauren!

Know a young person who may be interested in an academic, music or sports camp? Have them check out what's available at ONU!

Ohio Northern University has a full slate of academic, music, and athletic camps for students in middle school and high school for summer 2024. The following opportunities are available:

*Pathways to STEM Camp will be offered June 9-13, 2024. Open to students entering their junior or senior year, this camp will give students the opportunity to explore different areas related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

*Pharmacy Camp will be offered June 9-13, 2024. The camp, which is open to students entering their junior or senior year, includes hands-on experiences that will expose them to a vast array of pharmacy disciplines.

*Summer Music Camp will be offered June 16-22, 2024. Students in grades 7-12 are eligible. Campers may register to participate in band, choir, and/or orchestra. Classes offered include: music theory, music technology, world music, music history, rock ‘n’ roll, conducting, piano classes, and jazz improvisation.

*ONU Athletic Camps are offered throughout the summer and fall in a variety of sports and age groups. Sports include: football, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, and volleyball.

For more information and to register, visit:

Camps, Conferences, Workshops and Community Events Every year ONU hosts K-12 students & community members on campus for camps, workshops, concerts & special events. Explore all of our public offerings.

We celebrated Dr. Jed Marquart's upcoming retirement yesterday! Congratulations, Jed!

The Ohio Northern University T.J. Smull College of Engineering recently celebrated the career of Dr. Jed Marquart, BSME ’80, ahead of his upcoming retirement after more than 30 years of service to the university.

A native of Bluffton, Ohio, he has had a lifelong affinity for Northwest Ohio. After graduating from ONU, he worked in the engineering workforce and obtained graduate degrees from the University of Dayton. In 1991, he returned home and spent the next 33 years teaching at his beloved alma mater.

“People have always asked me, ‘Do you think about moving somewhere else?’ and I really never have,” Marquart said. “I’ve had people contact me about being a department chair at a different university or something, and I had no interest in going anywhere else.”

He said teaching at his beloved university was the perfect combination.

“I love teaching and knowing the university, knowing what the students were going to be like, knowing what their emphasis is on undergraduate education,” he said. “It was just the place to be. I really felt like God was really pointing me here, bringing me here.”

After 33 years, teaching remains his favorite part of the job, especially in a favorite concentration.

“I’ve been the advisor for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. I’ve seen a lot of students interested in aerospace engineering, and I’ve been able to provide that background for them. To see them go off and work in the aerospace industry and go on to grad school, that’s been exciting.”

Seeing the construction of the James L. Kennedy Engineering Building, and utilizing its thermal sciences lab with a research wind tunnel and operational jet engine, has also been a career highlight.

He leaves his students with one piece of professional wisdom:

“Number one, don’t look at just the money,” he said. “You know, big dollars can be attractive, but you’ve got to be happy going to work every day. So, if you get to the point where you are not happy with a job, it’s time to move to a different one. Don’t sit in, just waiting for retirement, putting up with a job.”

And for prospective students looking to attend ONU, he wants them to know that ONU professors are there for them.

“We know our students, when they’re struggling, if they’re not struggling. We know the ones that are doing well. We know what they’re involved with. Just that personal relationship building is great here,” he said.

Tuesday was a very busy day for the college! Not only did we host our industry partners for meetings and lunch, but we also had our annual Senior Design Showcase! All 28 capstone teams had their projects on display. Just a few more weeks until our seniors become our newest alumni!

Polar Preview Admissions event this morning! Students and faculty enjoyed speaking to and providing tours to high school sophomores and juniors and their families. 🧡 🖤

Yesterday was Honors Day at Ohio Northern University. Congratulations to all of the engineering and computer science students who were honored at the college's ceremony!

Thanks to engineering students Elizabeth Pierce, Amber Wolford, and Jennifer Zayac for taking good care of Mittens the dog on Monday. Mittens' owners Brett Mason, BSEE '86, and Cheryl Mason, BA '86, were on campus this week. Cheri spoke to students across campus and shared insights about her journey of leadership as a military spouse, attorney, and eventually as Chairman-Board of Veterans' Appeals at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington D.C. Cheri also signed copies of her new book, "Dare to Relate."