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Two School of Engineering faculty receive Presidential Early Career Awards
January 17, 2025 - By Carly Bowling
The White House named two faculty members at the University of New Mexico as recipients of an award widely recognized as the highest honor bestowed upon early-career scientists and engineers. Professor Vanessa Svihla and Associate Professor Matthew Lakin were each named as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Both were nominated by the National Science Foundation.
PECASE recognizes scientists and engineers who show exceptional potential for leadership early in their research careers. The award recognizes innovative and far-reaching developments in science and technology, expands awareness of careers in science and engineering, recognizes the scientific missions of participating agencies, enhances connections between research and impacts on society, and highlights the importance of science and technology for our nation’s future. Individuals can receive only one PECASE award in their careers.
The NSF selects its PECASE nominees from among its highest-achieving CAREER Award recipients. Nominees must showcase innovative research, demonstrated community service and a commitment to equity, diversity, accessibility or inclusion in STEM. Each year, the NSF nominates no more than 26 people.
Vanessa Svihla
Framing Agency in Making and Engineering
Vanessa Svihla is a professor in the Organization, Information and Learning Sciences who also holds an appointment in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. She also serves as special assistant to the dean for learning sciences in the School of Engineering. In 2018, she received an NSF CAREER Award for Framing and Reframing Agency in Making and Engineering.
Professor Svihla was awarded for her work related to framing agency in engineering classrooms. Through her research, she aims to clarify and design instructional tools and activities that can help students take ownership over their learning. Because classes are often structured around students answering problems that have a single correct answer, they don’t always understand how to direct their own study when faced with real-world, open-ended design problems. Through her research, Svihla has found that engineering students who felt more responsible for framing problems in their design courses felt more confident and more like they belonged in engineering. This confidence was shown to create a stronger commitment to pursue engineering careers in students from minoritized racial and ethnic groups.
Svihla also developed the Wrong Theory Protocol. An alternative to traditional brainstorming, the Wrong Theory Protocol first asks designers to quickly frame a problem, then come up with ideas that would be harmful or humiliating to the stakeholder before generating beneficial ideas. She has found the protocol helps designers develop concepts that are more creative and empathetic. The theory has since been featured in NPR and utilized by people outside of STEM fields.
"For me, the PECASE award adds affirmation that focusing on problem framing, rather than problem-solving, and on enhancing students' agency are valuable. The award also bolsters my commitment to understanding ways to further improve design education in engineering and our recently created undergraduate Interdisciplinary Design Certificate at UNM,” Svihla said. “Doing so means we can reach more equitable and just outcomes for New Mexican students. In particular, I am investigating how we can activate students' everyday and cultural experiences by asking them to work on design problems that impact New Mexico while emphasizing querencia—their knowledge of and responsibility to the places they come from.”
Matthew Lakin
Robust Heterochiral Molecular Computing in Mammalian Cells
Matthew Lakin is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science who also holds an appointment in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He received an NSF CAREER award in 2021 for his research on Robust Heterochiral Molecular Computing in Mammalian Cells.
Associate Professor Lakin received the PECASE for bioengineering work that aims to enhance the utility of non-living DNA-based molecular devices by engineering systems that include mirror-image DNA, known as L-DNA. DNA typically forms a double-helix structure, which in nature usually twists to the right in strands known as D-DNA. Scientists can run into problems when using naturally occurring D-DNA to create molecular devices, because the natural defense system of cells can recognize them and break them down. However, using mirrored L-DNA offers greater resilience. Lakin uses both experimental work and computational modeling to help him use L-DNA and D-DNA together to create hybrid devices that can sense or control biological processes more effectively.
Lakin’s work has also strengthened the biotechnology educational pipeline through a collaboration with ¡Explora!, a local hands-on science museum. Every year since 2022, Lakin’s CAREER award has supported a biotechnology summer camp for high school students from the Albuquerque area where the students carry out experiments to gain practical laboratory skills.
“It's a tremendous honor and a privilege to receive this award, and a total surprise!” Lakin said. “I've been really fortunate to work with some great students at UNM on our interdisciplinary biocomputing projects, which lie at the intersection of computer science and bioengineering. I'm grateful for the support I’ve received from both the NSF and from UNM that has enabled our work to progress to this point and I’m excited to see where it goes next."