College of Engineering graduate Hani Qaqish has excelled as a student and accepted a job offer at Siemens Digital Industries Software. Through internships and extracurriculars, Hani Qaqish jump-started his career while still in school. The Wayne State University senior, who will earn a degree in biomedical engineering with minors in computer science and business administration, accepted a job offer from Siemens Digital Industries Software as a technical program manager nearly three months ahead of graduation. With some resume support from the College of Engineering’s Career Resource Center, Qaqish secured an internship with Siemens in January 2022. Already familiar with the company’s NX Design software through his work teaching it to others as a student assistant in Basic Engineering 1200 and 1500, Qaqish was an immediate fit and a quick study. In his current role, Qaqish is still working with NX Design, this time as a program manager overseeing a team testing and improving the tool through updates. “It’s a really exciting thing for the company to be seeking my input — I see it from both sides as an employee and student,” he said. “They ask for my complaints and feedback, and I get to help them make the software easier for other students to learn.” Beyond thinking about the next generation’s experience with the software, Qaqish has already started helping other students make early professional connections. As a member of Siemens’ ambassador program, he has coordinated a variety of campus events where students can meet with industry leaders to discuss how to enter the field, secure an internship, continue their professional development, explore career paths and more. “One of the most valuable things I’ve learned is how important networking is,” Qaqish said. “I want to help others be able to always put their best selves forward and make those connections. They make a huge difference.” Born in Jordan, Qaqish is eager to work at a global company that has allowed him to network with professionals around the world. The role is an opportunity he feels well-prepared for because of the diversity on Wayne State’s campus. “The industry is becoming increasingly diversified, which is great,” he said. “I knew that I wanted to learn in a diverse environment, and that’s part of the reason I chose to study at Wayne State.” Hands-on experience As a self-described “curious problem-solver,” Qaqish has felt at home in the College of Engineering and appreciated the opportunities to engage in hands-on learning as a first-year student. He recalls touring Associate Professor Carolyn Harris’ lab and participating in the college’s annual Student Design and Innovation Day, where Warriors showcase projects that they’ve built. “Being in the lab early on helped open my eyes to what I wanted to do and how a degree in engineering fit into the picture,” said Qaqish, who has been recognized for numerous academic achievements and routinely named to the Dean’s List. “We were given the tools as freshmen to design and present our ideas right away.” As an undergraduate, Qaqish was also worked as a part-time research coordinator at Henry Ford Hospital and participated in an interdisciplinary project with Iman Bajjoka, Pharm.D., director of operational research at the hospital. The study assessed an app created by Johns Hopkins University that is intended to connect kidney donors and families in need of a donation. “The app worked to make those connections and raise awareness,” Qaqish said. “Technology plays a role in everything — there’s always an engineer of some kind involved!” Connecting outside the classroom Qaqish said he also benefited greatly from getting involved on campus outside the classroom. In addition to his role as a student assistant in the College of Engineering and his academic accomplishments, Qaqish took every opportunity to connect with his peers. He was active in the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Society of Computer Developers and the Tau Beta Pi engineering honors society. He was also involved in the ACCESS organization, helping commuter students like himself make connections and engage on campus. “Because I was so involved, I never studied alone,” he said. “Some of those core classes were difficult and remote learning was a challenge, but we helped keep each other accountable and motivated.” Outside of academics, Qaqish is an avid pickleball player, making new friends through the sport and traveling for tournaments. He also keeps busy with carpentry and home renovation projects, using skills he learned from his dad. Looking back, reaching forward Qaqish attributes his successes to the support of his parents and friends. “Being able to live at home and focus on school was a huge benefit,” he said. “And being able to really throw myself into making friends and connecting on campus has been so rewarding.” In addition to his new role, Qaqish will enroll at Wayne State in the fall as a master’s student pursuing a degree in computer science. He hopes to one day earn an M.B.A as well. “I was drawn to Wayne State because there are plenty of opportunities and resources here,” he said. “Where else would I go for my next degree?”

By Mark Richardson Wayne State University has received an $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how volatile organic compounds contribute to preterm births. The five-year grant will be used to fund the Center for Leadership in Environmental Awareness and Research, where scientists will study the link between volatile organic compounds and preterm births in the City of Detroit. One goal is to create new ways to pinpoint the sources of industrial pollutants, and develop ways to mitigate their negative health effects. Carol Miller, professor of civil and environmental engineering and co-leader of the program at Wayne State University, said the ultimate goal is healthier moms and babies. "Very specifically, we're looking at how those contaminants impact women of childbearing age, and may be a factor influencing the high preterm birthrate in the Detroit area," Miller explained. Preterm births occur before 37 weeks, often leaving infants with breathing and feeding issues, developmental delays, or problems with seeing and hearing. According to the March of Dimes, among large American cities, Detroit has the highest rate of preterm births, at 14.6%. Volatile organic compounds are toxic vapors or gases, mostly generated by industrial sites. There are hundreds of contaminated sites in Detroit, and researchers theorize the effects of the compounds contribute to Detroit's high preterm birthrate. Dr. Melissa Runge-Morris, professor of oncology at and co-leader of the program, said preterm births most often occur in marginalized communities. "We are particularly plagued by environmental health disparities that affect and impact the most vulnerable members of our urban community," Runge-Morris emphasized.

By Frank McGeorge and Brandon Carr  Getting hit in the chest isn’t something that happens often in everyday life, but during athletic activities, getting hit in the chest isn’t unusual.  Fortunately, those blows don’t usually lead to cardiac arrest. In this particular case, doctors are concerned about a very rare condition called commotio cordis, in which the  chest is hit at the exact right time to cause the heart to go into an abnormally deadly heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation. In the department of biomedical engineering at Wayne State University, the chairperson, Dr. Cynthia Bir, studies injury biomechanics. “It’s predominantly in the youth population,” said Dr. Bir. “We’ve seen it occur more often in children under 18 based on the data that we’ve looked at, so it’s not something that occurs very often once you get past that 18 to 20 years of age.” One focus of WSU research is chest protection. “We looked at a lot of different chest protectors, and sometimes they’re protective, and sometimes they’re not,” Bir said. “There’s some protectors that have been called heart guards, and they didn’t perform as well as some of the other chest protectors performed…“I think that the chest protectors, there’s not one that’s going to necessarily prevent commotio cordis, we know that we’ve looked at it, there’s some that probably do better than others in terms of preventing that transmission of force. But the main thing that could help prevent a serious fatal outcome is having the AED close to the field.” 

For Amesite Inc., the beginning of the fourth quarter is an opportunity to look back on some of its exciting news as well as the momentum it has built from the third quarter. This includes some key partnerships with universities, multi-institution buyers and businesses. In August, Amesite announced it was expanding its partnership with Wayne State University’s College of Engineering to move their Amesite-powered platform — Warrior TechSource — to Amesite’s V5 eCommerce platform. This gives Warrior TechSource the added capabilities of Amesite’s scalable e-commerce ecosystem, to expand its streamlined and integrated course learning services to a 30,000-strong student and alumni network. 

By Jena Brooker Detroit is a national leader for the most preterm births – and Wayne State University is setting up a new research center to collect more data on why. WSU in September received an $11.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how one type of air pollution – volatile organic compounds, or VOCs – contribute to preterm births. The five-year grant has funded the formation of the Center for Leadership in Environmental Awareness and Research (CLEAR), where researchers will study the link between VOCs and adverse birth and health outcomes. “There really hasn’t been a significant body of work that’s been done till this point in time trying to understand the environmental link to that [preterm birth] rate,” said Carol Miller, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Wayne State and co-leader of the new center. Melissa Runge-Morris, a physician and co-leader of CLEAR, said the medical field is lagging in its understanding of how environmental factors contribute to health outcomes compared to lifestyle and genetic factors. “As far as environmental exposures, all of medicine is playing catch up,” she said. “We’re no different here in Detroit.”

Wayne State University has received a five-year, approximately $11.3 million award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to create a new Superfund Research Program, the “Center for Leadership in Environmental Awareness and Research (CLEAR).” The Center will be dedicated to understanding and mitigating adverse birth outcomes and serious developmental health problems that have been associated with urban environmental exposure to volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), a special class of pollutant found in the subsurface of post-industrial cities like Detroit. Headquartered on the Wayne State campus, CLEAR will focus on Detroit as the principal study site. The CLEAR team consists of engineering and biomedical scientists, educators and community partners. The CLEAR research team is led by Melissa Runge-Morris, M.D., and Carol Miller, Ph.D, who also co-lead the One Health Initiative at Wayne State University. 

Michigan has over 11,000 bridges, but less than 4,000 are considered to be in ‘good’ condition and over 1,100 are in ‘poor’ condition. Michigan is behind on bridge maintenance and playing catch up is a challenge. Bill Shuster, the chair of the Wayne State University department of civil and environmental engineering, discusses how Michigan’s bridges have come to reach this state of disrepair. “We have multiple types of infrastructure that are degraded just as fast as each other and competing for funds. The state of perpetual catch-up, in terms of assessment, evaluation…this is where project management comes into play. How do we take a situation where we have a dearth of material and interrupted supply chain and then take that and assessment data to determine how close to disaster are we…there’s so much going on in the civic infrastructure space, we’re divided as to how much we can put toward bridges…”