By Karen Flores, Staff Writer
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at Manhattan University started the semester off on a high note after receiving the section achievement award for its various accomplishments during the 2023-24 academic year.
According to asme.org , the organization’s official website, they’ve referenced their goals as the following, “Enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society.”
Dev Harrop-Williams, a senior mechanical engineering major, is the current president of ASME and elaborated on how the team has prepared themselves for the selection process.
“We had to fill out a form based on certain criteria in May as well as document all the events we did throughout the year which included campus, off-campus and ASME-connected events,” Harrop-Williams said. “Some events included us going to the ASME student leader weekend conference in Boston, being MU student representative for engineering for prospective students who were applying to colleges and hosting speaker events.”
Harrop-Williams shared with The Quadrangle that Manhattan University created the Black Box, which is now done nationally within other ASME chapters. It’s an event centered around the creation of a chain reaction Rube Goldberg machine, a contraception that completes simple tasks in an indirect yet complex way.
“The ASME organization decided to model our event and made it something they wanted other schools to implement on a national scale as well,” Harrop-Williams said. “Essentially each team gets a black box filled with unknown items and they’re expected to create a Rube Goldberg machine within a certain time frame and are given a score based on points and specific criteria.”
Sabrina Scalzo, a mechanical engineering graduate student at MU, was one of the previous presidents of the ASME chapter as she began her presidency in the midst of COVID-19. She spoke about her time within the group.
“During my second year at MU, COVID had begun and the group did a couple of virtual events and it was during my third year, which is when I became president, and everyone was slowly coming together again that the group made a cool transition,” Scalzo said. “But a big part of me being the first president after COVID was strengthening the communication with our advisor, Dr. Saboori, as well as making a space for people to get to know each other.”
Kelly Roff, a sophomore mechanical engineering major and the social media coordinator for ASME, emphasized the importance of broadcasting and sharing information about events and the opportunities that come out of joining student organizations.
“I think having this college chapter prepares us for the real world and gives us access to a network of people within the profession,” Roff said. “It’s harder to get people that continue to come back and stay and for them to keep going to events. Some of the professors would talk about different events, and then we would try to recruit [at] them. We really just want to make it so people continue to want to come back.”
Harrop-Williams said that while budget cuts and other uncertainties were and continue to be prevalent, he is proud of all the work he and the previous e-board members have done in order to keep the chapter a success.
“Learning how to be creative with money, whether it’s fundraising or where to cut costs and figuring out how to make events that still achieved our goals of engagement and sense of professional development has been a group effort,” Harrop-Williams said. “We just want to keep improving and take some sort of action that wasn’t taken before but that will have a lasting positive impact on the group.”
Scalzo expressed being thrilled by the group for their recognition and encourages students to get involved in groups that can help them meet people and further their knowledge about their potential career paths.
“I just want to first say how proud I am of the whole organization,” Scalzo said. “I think that every single executive board has really done so much, including my own, and everyone before me. I think that all this hard work has really paid off. I’m glad that they are getting the record, the recognition, and I just hope that freshmen get involved and learn as much as they can while they are at MU.”