Fourteen of this year's awardees, including Grogan, who earned a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, will receive a cash stipend of $10,000. Two of the 34 will study mechanical engineering. All fellows are members of Tau Beta Pi and may do their graduate work at any institution they choose.
Grogan will simultaneously pursue his master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Pennsylvania , where he will conduct research in the area of manufacturing engineering.
While at Stevens, Grogan was very active in campus life. He was a member of Sigma Nu, an Orientation Leader, a founding member of the Five Elements Club, Co-Chair of 'Boken 2004 and of the Senior Week Committee. He was also treasurer of the Stevens student chapter of the Tau Beta Pi Society. An excellent student, he was among the top three graduates in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens, graduating with a 3.86 grade point average.
Grogan was also a Stevens Scholar who spent two summers performing research in robotic design. His Senior Design Project, done with a student team advised by Professor Zhenqi Zhu, was a biomedical engineering application for the non-invasive, secure remote placement and stitching of aortal stents.
His advisor, Dr. Zhu, explained that, to get a feel for the project, "Joe went to observe a standard surgical procedure performed by one of his relatives ho is a surgeon. Seeing the real thing gave Joe ideas about how to design the remote internal stitching device." Grogan also wrote a proposal to fund the project, which was successfully submitted to the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). The project and its presentation recently won the first prize at the New Jersey Chapter meeting of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE). The Stevens team will be privileged to present their project, fully titled "Remotely Operated Stitching Devices for Secure Treatment of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms," at the ISPE annual international fall conference held in San Antonio, Texas.
Joseph Grogan currently resides in Port Washington , N.Y. , with his parents Ginny and Joe Grogan.
Tau Beta Pi is the only engineering society representing the entire engineering profession. It is the nation's second-oldest society, founded at Lehigh University in 1885 to recognize students of distinguished scholarship and exemplary character. There are now collegiate chapters at 228 US colleges and universities, active alumnus chapters in 16 districts across the country, and a total initiated membership of 467,577.
Established in 1870, Stevens offers baccalaureate, masters and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science, management and technology management, as well as a baccalaureate in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has enrollments of approximately 1,740 undergraduates and 2,600 graduate students. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.Stevens.edu.
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