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May 11, 2026

Ģ����ý photo / Lauren Petracca

It’s hard to believe that Commencement week has already arrived, but we are all thrilled to celebrate the class of 2026 and their accomplishments! This is truly a special time of year as more than 700 graduating Hajim School students prepare to embark on exciting next steps in industry, nonprofits, and at top graduate programs.

Commencement festivities for the Hajim School begin at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, with the Order of the Engineer induction ceremony at Strong Auditorium. The University-wide commencement ceremony takes place at 8:45 a.m. on Friday at Fauver Stadium at the Brian F. Prince Athletic Complex. A livestream will be available. Later that day, a doctoral graduation ceremony takes place at 2 p.m. at Kodak Hall on the Eastman Campus. Bachelor’s and master’s candidates will be recognized during departmental events and ceremonies throughout the day on Saturday.

I look forward to seeing the class of 2026 as well as their friends and families this weekend! Learn more about a few of our newest graduates at the Making Their Mark page and see a full schedule of this weekend’s festivities on the University’s commencement website.

LISA ALTMAN RECEIVES DOTTIE WELCH STUDENT ENRICHMENT AWARD

Ģ����ý photo / Gary Kong

During Design Day, we presented the to Lisa Altman, the graduate program coordinator for the . The annual award for student enrichment recognizes a Hajim School staff member “whose performance and dedication enriches the student experience in the tradition .”

Lisa supports data science graduate students throughout their academic journey and was praised by students for her willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty. One student said Lisa “is truly the heart of GIDS-AI and the most deserving person for this award.”

Design Day was an impressive display of ingenuity and innovation with nearly 300 students presenting their capstone projects. You can relive the event through , , and .

INAUGURAL HAJIM SCHOOL STAFF INNOVATION AWARD RECIPIENTS

I am proud to announce the first class of recipients of the — a new recognition honoring staff members who have gone beyond their day-to-day responsibilities to rethink, redesign, and improve the systems and processes that power our school.

This year’s honorees were selected because they did something more than simply working hard: they identified inefficiencies, engineered smarter solutions, and built improvements that will benefit students, faculty, and/or colleagues. Each recipient demonstrated a willingness to take informed risks and to learn from outcomes — the hallmarks of a true innovator. The 2026 recipients include:

• Jennifer Condit, undergraduate program coordinator for the Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering
• Michele Foster, senior academic administrator of graduate programs for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Jana Head, undergraduate program coordinator for the Department of Computer Science
• Mary Méndez-Rizzo, graduate program coordinator for the Department of Computer Science
• Sylvia Tiballi, institute administrator for the Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
• Nick Valentino, assistant director of Hajim School undergraduate advising

Please join me in congratulating this outstanding group. Their ingenuity and dedication make the Hajim School a stronger, more effective place for all of us. This summer, Hajim Highlights will feature a spotlight on each winner’s innovative project or collaboration.

UROCHESTER NSBE CHAPTER ATTENDS ANNUAL CONVENTION

Earlier this semester, 14 members of the attended  the NSBE Annual Convention in Baltimore, Maryland. The experience provided Hajim School students the opportunity to network and build meaningful connections with fellow engineering students, professionals and company recruiters. Chapter President Lorraine Tshamekang ’26 (chemical engineering) said the experience “gave us valuable insight into what our future careers in STEM could look like. As minority students, seeing representation in these spaces was especially meaningful and inspiring.”

Thank you to Hajim School alumnus Shawn Rochester ’97 for providing financial support to help send our students to the convention.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT ON DAY OF GIVING

I wanted to send a heartfelt thank you to the Hajim School community for all the support we received on Ģ����ý’s . I’m pleased to report that we met the match and challenge set up to make your contributions go even further. Gifts of $100+ made to Hajim School funds were matched dollar-for-dollar with $15,000 thanks to the generosity of alumnus Scott DeGhetto ’87. And because more than 125 donors gave to Hajim School funds, an additional $25,000 was unlocked by my challenge.

By the end of Day of Giving, more than 165 supporters gave over $113,000 to support Hajim School funds and 3,860 total supporters donated more than $2.6 million to areas across the University. Well done! If you weren’t able to participate during the Day of Giving, .

NEWLY FUNDED RESEARCH

Congratulations to Associate Professor from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who received $329,871 from the National Science Foundation for a titled “Diffraction Database and Intelligent Analysis.”

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman