Celebration of Innovation
Jefferson As the Makerspace of the Future
By Mike Bederka and Peter Nichols
09.17.21
The full breadth of students’ talents and ingenuity took center stage at this year’s Celebration of Innovation. The May 5-6 virtual event highlighted seven diverse projects that featured interdisciplinary collaborations from across the University.
“I am absolutely blown away by our students and their innovation projects,” said Provost Mark Tykocinski, MD. “Jefferson is the makerspace for the future for higher education. We’re preparing students for tomorrow with the deep grounding in knowledge and skill, and the nimble-footed creativity they need to go out into a very different world—fully prepared for what will come next.”
“What I’ve learned through this process,” said architecture student Olivia Birritteri of her collaboration on the Solar Decathlon Design Challenge, “is this is what I’m meant to do. I’m on the right path.”
Student innovator Madalynne Aubry put it like this: “Jefferson changed my perception of life. It changed a lot of things. It taught me to speak up when things need to be changed. And if I need to ask questions, to ask questions.”
From creating a cookbook system that teaches people with intellectual disabilities to cook, to COVID-19 volunteering and training initiatives, students transformed their ideas into practice to make the world a better place.
Student Innovator Projects
Students collaborate with industry partner Carousel Connections to help young adults with disabilities live independent and healthy lives. The team is creating a cookbook system that teaches individuals how to cook, while imparting job skills that provide opportunities in the food and beverage industry.
Students
Madalynne Aubry
BS, Visual Communication Design
MS, User Experience and Interactive Design
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Cynthia Jih
Occupational Therapy Doctoral Candidate
College of Rehabilitation Sciences
Faculty Advisers
Michael Barrett, OTD, OTR/L
College of Rehabilitation Sciences
Sarah McNabb, MEd, OTD, OTR/L
College of Rehabilitation Sciences
Kimberly Mollo, BFA, OTD, OTR/L
College of Rehabilitation Sciences
Elizabeth Shirrell, MFA
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Students team up to experience hands-on how vaccines are made at the Jefferson Institute for Bioprocessing and in Center City labs. The students are seeking ways to use creativity for advancements in optimizing processes, scaling up, and making gene therapy affordable, ingestible, and tolerable.
Students
Myettia Peck
MS, Biopharmaceutical Process Engineering
Jefferson Institute for Bioprocessing
James Walker
MS, Medical Laboratory Sciences and Biotechnology
College of Health Professions
Faculty Advisers
Sean Chadwick, MS
College of Health Professions
Geoffrey Toner, MS, MB (ASCP)
Jefferson Institute for Bioprocessing
Based on one student’s personal story and inspired by her fear and love of the ocean, this collaboration unites textile design with fashion. The project brings a collection to life with designs that incorporate two students’ visceral response to the ocean’s expansiveness and strength.
Students
Vanessa Fath
BS, Fashion Design
MS, International Fashion Design Management
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Olivia Manning
BS/MS, Textile Design
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Faculty Adviser
Marcia Weiss, MFA
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Supported by the Eileen Martinson ’86 Fund for the Undergraduate Capstone Experience
Working with partners at universities in China on a team competing in the Solar Decathlon, the Jefferson students are developing a building façade that meets requirements for sustainability, innovation, versatility, and design aesthetics. The final full-scale structure will be on display near the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Students
Olivia Birritteri
BS, Architecture
College of Architecture and the Built Environment
Cevan Noell
BS, Architecture
College of Architecture and the Built Environment
Faculty Adviser
Kihong Ku, DDES
College of Architecture and the Built Environment
A team of medical students in the scholarly inquiry design track collaborated with the Jefferson Center for Autism and Neurodiversity to consider how an interactive healthcare passport could help in emergency rooms. They assisted in interviewing emergency medical professionals and designed solutions for patients with autism spectrum disorder and neurodiversity.
Students
Kathryn Achuck
Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Zane Gouda
Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Faculty Advisers
Morgan Hutchinson, MD
Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Bon Ku, MD
Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Wendy Ross, MD
Jefferson Center for Autism and Neurodiversity
11th annual competition sponsored by industry partner Tenneco
Students from Kanbar’s industrial design, engineering, and business programs find solutions that use a Tenneco product in unique and unintended ways. Each team receives a braided substrate material, reimagines a use for it, and competes in real-world pitches to have the product produced.
Students
Lauren Kloos
BS, Engineering
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Clara Miller
BS, Industrial Design
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Ehson Shirazi
BS, Accounting
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Faculty Advisers
Muthu Govindaraj, PhD
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Michael Leonard, MAEd, MSEd, IDSA
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Les Sztandera, PhD
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Matt Umbriac, MBA
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Nursing and medical students work together on volunteer and training opportunities that support Jefferson in COVID relief, including vaccine administration. Trained students have worked in Philadelphia’s mass vaccination clinic at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which gives more than 6,000 daily vaccines.
Students
Lindsay Killian
BS, Nursing
College of Nursing
Alexandra Leto
Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Faculty Adviser
Jennifer Bellot, PhD, RN, MHSA, CNE
College of Nursing
We are that next generation of creativity. We are creating the future.
Leader of Innovation Medal
Mary Lynne Bercik, BS, ’90, PMP, PMI-RMP
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Appointed, Executive Director Global Operations Sourcing
Organon & Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc.
Bercik is an expert in new-product launch, supply chain management, and overall innovation. She has more than 30 years of global experience in sourcing and procurement across multiple industries and commodities, and more than 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Bercik serves on the Jefferson Institute for Bioprocessing Industry Advisory Board as Idea Founder and on the Kanbar College Advancement Council.
Tracy-Gene G. Durkin, Esq., BS, ’83
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Director, Sterne, Kessler Goldstein & Fox
Durkin is the practice leader of the Mechanical & Design Practice Group and a member of the Trademark & Brand Protection Practice at Sterne Kessler, an intellectual property specialty law firm. She was the first woman elected equity director to the firm and the first woman to serve on its executive committee. Financial Times named her one of the Top Ten Legal Innovators in North America, noting she is “a leading authority on design patents.”
Francisco J. Morales, BS, ’98
Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, 5.11 Tactical
Morales is the CEO and cofounder of 5.11 Tactical, the leading global supplier of purpose-built apparel, footwear, and gear for first responders and military personnel. Many of the patents held by 5.11 have been awarded to Morales. At age 30, he became a member of YPO, the global leadership community of extraordinary chief executives, and he is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the International Business Honor Society.
Fredric Rieders, PhD ’52 (awarded posthumously)
Jefferson College of Life Sciences
Fredric Rieders was a path-blazing and world-renowned forensic toxicologist. He served as Philadelphia’s chief toxicologist and was professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Thomas Jefferson University.
Eric Rieders, PhD
President & Chief Operating Officer, NMS Labs
Chairman, Fredric Rieders Family Foundation
Eric Rieders has a doctorate in mathematics and serves as an adjunct professor of forensic science at Arcadia University and is a member of Jefferson’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Advisory Council.
M. Fredric Rieders, PhD ’85
Jefferson College of Life Sciences
Treasurer and Director, NMS Labs
Board Member, Fredric Rieders Family Foundation
M. Fredric Rieders is a member of the American Public Health Association, the Society of Forensic Toxicologists, and the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and serves on the board of the National Association of Medical Examiners.
Innovator of the Year
Mauro Porcini
Senior Vice President and Chief Design Officer
PepsiCo
Porcini is infusing design thinking into PepsiCo's culture and leading a new approach to innovation by design. He is host of the video podcast “In Your Shoes with Mauro Porcini” and a presenter and judge on “New York by Design” and “America by Design,” which air on CBS and Amazon Prime Video. Porcini has been singled out with numerous honors, which include top spots on lists of the world’s most-influential, most influential, most creative, best dressed, and hottest rising stars.
