2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

1. Dr. Davide Piovesan Gannon University [biography]

   Davide Piovesan was born in Venice, Italy on October 10 , 1978. He is currently Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at Gannon University and the director of the Biomedical Engineering Program. He received his M.S.M.E in 2003 and D.Eng in Mechanical Measurement in 2007 at the University of Padova, Italy. His dissertation presented a set of experimental and analytical validation techniques for human upper limb models. From 2004 to 2008 he was a visiting scholar and post-doctoral fellow at the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Lab at Brandeis University. There, he worked on the mechanics of movement adaptation in non inertial environments as part of a NASA extramural funding program. He joined Northwestern University in 2008, working as a post-doc fellow at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago until 2013 in the field of rehabilitation robotics. Davide’s main research interest is to gain insights on the role of biomechanics in the neural control of movements, with applications to rehabilitation engineering.

2. Dr. Karinna M. Vernaza Gannon University [biography]

   Dr. Karinna Vernaza joined Gannon University in 2003, and she is currently a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department and Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Business. She earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Her B.S. is in Marine Systems Engineering from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Her primary teaching responsibilities are in the solid mechanics and materials areas, including biomaterials. She was awarded the 2012 ASEE NCS Outstanding Teacher Award, 2013 Gannon University Distinguished Faculty Award and 2013-2014 Gannon University Faculty Award for Excellence in Service-Learning. Vernaza does research in the area of alternative fuels (biodiesel), engineering education (active learning techniques), and high-strain deformation of materials. She is currently the PI of an NSF S-STEM and ADVANCE-PAID grants.

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