Principal Investigator

Catherine G.P. Berdanier, Ph.D

Catherine…

Current Members

Gaby Sallai

Gaby is a PhD candidate in the Mechanical Engineering department. Her research seeks to characterize engineering graduate students’ experiences in graduate school through multiple lenses. She has explored the costs that students associate with persisting, the coping mechanisms and stressors they experience, why students enroll and persist through their graduate degrees, and first-year and departing students’ experiences in their programs. Gaby received her Bachelor’s degree in physics and women & gender studies from Franklin & Marshall College. In her time at Penn State, she has been a member of the Diversity Roundtable for the College of Engineering and has held multiple executive board positions for the Graduate Women in Engineering organization. She also loves spending time with her friends, rock climbing, and petting all the dogs!

Awards & Accolades

  • NSF GRFP 2021-2024 recipient
  • Alfred P. Sloan Minority Scholarship 2023
  • Julie D Erdley Graduate Scholarship 2022
  • NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowship 2020-2021
  • Gabron Graduate Fellowship in Mechanical Engineering 2019
  • Posse Foundation Leadership Scholarship 2015-2019

Kyeonghun Jwa

Kyeonghun Jwa is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. His research uses mixed methods techniques to investigate doctoral engineering attrition and international students’ academic literacy and adjustment experiences in the U.S. He earned his Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Mechanical & Automotive Engineering from the University of Ulsan in South Korea. In his Master’s work, he investigated autoignition characteristics for alternative fuels. Prior to attending Penn State, He served as a visiting scholar of Engine Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study the effect of various injection methods on gasoline compression ignition combustion.

Awards & Accolades

Sam Splendido

Sam Splendido is a second-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering. She received bachelor’s degrees in Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University in 2022. Sam joined ECRL in Fall 2021 as an undergraduate researcher working with agent-based modeling. Her main research areas are in engineering graduate student thriving and agent-based modeling qualitative data.

Luis Roberto Delgado Jr.

Luis is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Penn State University. He earned a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at El Paso and an MS degree in Civil Engineering with a minor in Public Policy from Penn State. Along with his role as a Ph.D. student., he is also a graduate research assistant at the Leonhard Center for Enhancement of Engineering Education at Penn State. His research interests are engineering education, graduate mentoring, and diversity, equity, & inclusion in engineering. Luis also serves in multiple roles/organizations at Penn State that strengthen underrepresented students’ careers and foster an equitable and inclusive environment for graduate students.

Autumn Deitrick

Autumn Deitrick is a first-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State. She recently received her Master’s Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. Her master’s research focused on improving our understanding of the physical processes of sediment erosion and deposition in order to better assess long-term sediment and carbon retention in mangrove forests. She hopes to combine her love of teaching, mentorship, and the environment throughout her PhD research. Autumn is also a proud Penn State alumna and graduated with her B.S. in Civil Engineering as a Schreyer Honors College Scholar in 2021. She is looking forward to engaging in educational outreach, mentorship, and environmental initiatives at Penn State this year. Outside of the lab, Autumn enjoys taking in the beautiful Pennsylvania scenery on long runs, unwinding with yoga, and exploring her creative side through drawing and cooking!

Awards & Accolades

  • 2023 MIT CEE Trond Kaalstad (Class of 1957) Fellowship
  • 2021–2026 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship
  • 2021–2022 MIT Presidential Fellowship
  • 2020 Barry Goldwater Scholarship

Former Members

Matthew Bahnson, Ph.D.

Dr. Bahnson is a postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical Engineering studying engineering education at Penn State University. He holds a BA from the University of Northern Iowa in Psychology and Human Sexuality, an MA from the University of Chicago in Social Sciences, and a Ph.D. in Applied Social and Community Psychology from North Carolina State University. Matthew completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Berdanier in the E-CRL researching postdoctoral mentorship in engineering and computer sciences. His research interests focus on professional identity development in engineering and biological sciences. Within this, research on gender and race-based discrimination, degree attrition, and mentorship at the graduate and postgraduate levels hold particular salience. He is currently a Research Scientist at Purdue University and Visiting Scientist at Cornell University working with Dr. Allison Godwin and the UBelong Collaborative to investigate interventions to promote belonging and academic equity in STEM education.

Kanembe Shanachilubwa, Ph.D.

Kanembe is currently the Associate Director for the McNair Scholars Program at Harding University. He completed a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering at Harding before joining the ECRL and completing his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Penn State University. While in ECRL, his research pursuits surrounded STEM graduate student experiences, well-being, and socialization.

Ellen Zerbe, Ph.D.

Ellen was a Ph.D. student who graduated in 2022.