Engineering Unleashed Faculty Development

Dr. Kwaczala is an undergraduate educator at Western New England University. She teaches biomechanics, prosthetic and orthotic design and biomedical engineering capstone. Her research focuses on assistive technology devices to measure and evaluate human body motion and improve movement in people with limited mobility. Andi's research focuses on developing technical design skills in undergraduates so they can improve their confidence through independent execution of their innovations. She is passionate about making classroom activities that are inclusive and hopes to bring more awareness to assistive technology so we can create products that matter for people living with disabilities. The design of assistive technologies in the undergraduate engineering classroom can help in professional formation. This all starts with real conversations with real clients with a product need using user-centered design activities. She believes that by creating products that can better society, we can also improve our engineering self-efficacy and confidence and help young engineers persist in engineering!

Devina Jaiswal received her M.S. in Bioengineering from Pennsylvania State University where she worked in bone tissue engineering and therapeutic ultrasound. She continued her work in tissue engineering as a researcher at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Devina received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut with a concentration in biomedical micro-electromechanical devices used for 3D cancer spheroid manipulation and characterization. Her research interests include point-of-care devices, micro electro-mechanical devices, cell-microenvironment interaction, and drug delivery. She has published research articles in various peer-reviewed journals. Currently, Devina is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Western New England University. She teaches undergraduate engineering courses based on cell and tissue engineering, biomaterials, and drug delivery. She is passionate about developing enriching classroom environments based on student-centric and entrepreneurial-minded learning.

Rob received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Lafayette College. After college he served as a combat engineer officer in the 4th Infantry Division of the United States Army. After service in the Army, Rob worked for Baxter Healthcare Corporation as a Principal Engineer in the Medication Delivery Division. At Baxter Rob worked on medical device design for medication delivery systems. From Baxter, Rob went back to school for his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering where he focused on biomaterials, specifically protein adsorption onto metallic surfaces and corrosion of metallic biomaterials. Rob is now on the faculty of Western New England University where he is Professor and Chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department. Rob likes to work on biomedical device design from surgical tools to nano scale drug delivery methods.

Michael J. Rust received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) in 2003 and 2009, respectively. In 2009, he joined the faculty of Western New England University, where he is currently a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of Experiential & Entrepreneurial Learning. He teaches undergraduate courses in data acquisition, physiology, lab-on-a-chip, and global health. As a result of his work with students in the classroom, Dr. Rust received the Excellence in Teaching Award at Western New England University (2022) and the Biomedical Engineering Teaching Award from the American Society for Engineering Education (2013).