Young professors Miles Canino, PhD, and Namita Shrestha, PhD, are among a select group of college educators named Engineering Unleashed Fellows for 2022 in recognition of their contributions to engineering education and, in particular, the development of students with an entrepreneurial mindset.

This year’s fellows include 21 faculty members from 16 institutions across America, all of whom participated in the Engineering Unleashed faculty development national workshop program. They were nominated by workshops’ peer coaches.

Each fellowship is accompanied by $10,000 institutional grant from the Kern Family Foundation, with the fellow listed as principal investigator, to advance the impact of their work.

Canino, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has re-developed a major project in his mechatronics course after attending the 2021 Making With Purpose workshop. Mechatronics is a course that many mechanical engineering students take but may not feel a strong affinity toward. This project intends to make the subject more engaging for students.

A member of the Rose-Hulman faculty since 2020, Canino enjoys making classroom content engaging and fun for students. Besides mechatronics, his teaching interests include system dynamics and robotics, and his research has specialized in rehabilitation robotics. Canino earned master’s and doctorate degrees from Clarkson University after earning a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York’s campus in Canton, New York. 

Meanwhile, Shrestha, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is integrating multiple entrepreneurial mindset ideas into her courses. She's interested in continuing this work and sharing it in multiple forums. Shrestha participated in Integrating Curriculum with Entrepreneurial Mindset (ICE) workshop during the summer of 2021.

Since 2020, Shrestha has taught courses on geographical information systems, introduction to design for first-year civil and environmental engineering students, introduction to environmental engineering, civil engineering codes and regulations, and aquatic environmental chemistry. She also has led the department’s career preparation seminar. 

Both Rose-Hulman professors will share their ideas and learn about other educators’ projects through a virtual meeting on October 24.

Engineering Unleashed is a community of more than 4,500 engineering faculty and staff from diverse universities across the United States, like Rose-Hulman, with a shared mission to graduate engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset so that they can create personal, economic and societal value through a lifetime of meaningful work.