Fulton Schools Wrapped: 2022 year in review

By Monique Clement
December 21, 2022

The Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University has had a stellar year. From solidifying Arizona as a top semiconductor and microelectronics hub to achieving record student enrollment, the Fulton Schools is making an impact in Arizona and beyond through innovative work by faculty and students alongside industry and government partners.

Revisit some of the year’s most impactful achievements published on our engineering news blog, Full Circle, and ASU News. Through these stories, you’ll get a firsthand view of how the Fulton Schools cultivates excellence, delivers innovation that matters, encourages bold thinking, fosters a collaborative community of learning and builds a foundation for all to be successful.

A world-class engineering school

This year the Fulton Schools has increased its reach into domestic manufacturing advances with the addition of the School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks and is exploring innovative engineering learning modalities through The Engineering & Design Institute in London, known as TEDI-London. The Fulton Schools also welcomed more than 50 new faculty members during the 2022–23 academic year. These are only a few of the many milestones reached by the Fulton Schools in 2022.

Fulton Schools graduates celebrate on stage at Convocation in Spring 2022.

ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering hits record enrollment

Elizabeth Arnold working at the Luminosity Lab

Renowned Luminosity Lab joins Fulton Schools of Engineering

A group of 13 Grand Challenges Scholars from the Fulton Schools

ASU celebrates largest cohort of Grand Challenges Scholars

A woman uses a VR headset at the School of Arts, Media and Engineering’s Digital Culture Showcase in 2019.

In the MIX: ASU looks to the future with new emerging technologies building, faculty, programs

High honors

Fulton Schools engineering programs continue to be highly ranked, and faculty members and students have demonstrated excellence in numerous ways. Our professors were selected for top faculty honors: Ying-Cheng Lai was named Regents Professor, the highest faculty honor awarded to no more than 3% of ASU faculty for nationally and internationally recognized outstanding achievements in their field; Andrea Richa and Tom Sugar were designated President’s Professors, another of ASU’s most prestigious faculty honors that rewards innovation in teaching, inspiring original and creative work by students, mastery of their subject matter and scholarly contributions.

At the national level, Samuel Ariaratnam earned an appointment to the USDOT advisory pipeline committee and was named a Distinguished Member of ASCE. Other faculty members also achieved recognition for their notable contributions, including Daniel E. Rivera and Sarah Stabenfeldt, who earned prestigious Fellow distinctions in AIChE and AIMBE, top organizations in their respective fields.

Students at all levels in the Fulton Schools were high achievers too, including Flinn Scholar and mechanical engineering major Katie Pascavis, who earned both a Goldwater Scholarship and a Udall Undergraduate Scholarship this year.

"Top 25" "6 Fulton Schools areas of focus ranked in the Top 25 - U.S. News & World Report, 2022-23"

Fulton Schools of Engineering jumps nine spots in two years in US News rankings

Engineering student volunteers show a group of children are shown how to use a static generator at the Fulton Schools Homecoming Block party

Online graduate engineering programs ranked among the nation’s best

ASU Old Main building

Industrial engineering doctoral student receives prestigious Quad Fellowship

Josh Tint in front of a green background with assorte graphics

Computer science student wins big at Apple app development competition

A growing semiconductor hub

The Fulton Schools are putting Arizona on the map for domestic semiconductor manufacturing research and advancement. With the signing of the CHIPS and Science Act this year, ASU and the Fulton Schools are poised to help close the microchip manufacturing gap and have attracted several high-profile visits from government officials to ASU’s MacroTechnology Works, a facility in the ASU Research Park in Tempe, Arizona, that is accelerating semiconductor, advanced materials and energy device research in the United States. President Joe Biden also visited the site of a future fabrication facility for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, also known as TSMC, which will benefit from the Fulton Schools’ trailblazing research and high-achieving students who will contribute their diverse skills and ideas before they graduate and as industry professionals. Other Fulton Schools research centers like the STAM Center are also making great strides toward this effort.

Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu meets Associate Professor Zachary Holman to begin a tour of MacroTechology Works in the ASU Research Park

Defense under secretary visits ASU MacroTechnology Works

Arizona State University Associate Professor Zachary Holman (right) leads a tour of the MacroTechnology Works at the ASU Research Park in Tempe on Aug. 30. The tour showcased the university's and the Valley’s commitment to making Arizona a manufacturing hub for microchips. U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo (center), President Michael Crow (left), U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton (second from right) and other dignitaries talked about the recently signed CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 that will provide more than $50 billion for subsidies to build chip plants in the U.S.

US policymakers tour ASU’s MacroTechnology Works facility

A screenshot of a 12 News Sunday Square Off video with Kyle Squires discussing the future of semiconductor chips in the Valley.

Biden visit puts focus on AZ chips industry

A photo of microelectronics components at the STAM Center at Arizona State University.

Securing the microelectronics supply chain

Driving economic growth

The Fulton Schools are part of a statewide effort to bring high-paying jobs to Arizona and increase economic output through the New Economy Initiative. Part of this initiative is the establishment of five Science and Technology Centers, or STCs, which bring together innovative research and industry for technology transfer in key areas of economic development in Arizona. Industry leaders and local lawmakers had the opportunity to find ways to collaborate with STCs on state issues during ASU Proposers Day. See how two of the STCs — Manufacturing, Automation and Data Engineering, or MADE, and Advanced Materials, Processes, and Energy Devices, or AMPED — are making impacts so far.

M. Faisal Riyad using a 3D printer

MADE: Stimulating manufacturing innovation

An illustration representing solar power research.

AMPED: Harnessing the sun, powering the future

Workforce development

Another element of driving economic growth in Arizona and the nation is effective workforce development opportunities to prepare students for success in critical industries. A new speaker series with Intel will connect academia with the semiconductor industry for an improved understanding of needs and possibilities for collaboration. Through this and many other industry partnerships, the Fulton Schools actively aligns curriculums with the professional skills in demand at top companies.

An illustration depicting the connections for workforce development.

Creating the future cybersecurity workforce

classroom with speaker presenting

Local industry partner prepares students for Industry 4.0

Second-year aeronautical management technology (professional flight) student Billy Kitchen (left), faculty member Greg Files and recent graduate Taylor Hayslett (right) go through pre-flight checks in the CRJ 200 cockpit simulator on ASU’s Polytechnic campus

ASU degree programs offer a flight plan for COVID-19 air travel recovery

ASU Professor Leila Ladani working with a student in her research lab.

A human-centered design approach for the biomedical industry

Increasing diversity in engineering

As ASU measures its success by whom it includes and how they succeed, it supports a variety of programs that help first-generation and other underrepresented student groups thrive in their chosen academic fields. The Fulton Schools has a range of Fulton Student Organizations in which diverse groups of students can find a supportive community, including the National Society of Black Engineers chapter and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers chapter. A robust Fulton Ambassadors program, in which current students share their experience as an engineering major with prospective students, is also increasing the diversity of role models for future engineers.

Graphic showing a diverse group of women.

Student groups help women thrive in engineering

A portrait of David Eduardo Flores-Prieto on a colorful graphic background.

Student’s extensive advocacy aims to increase Hispanic representation in STEM

Brianne Arviso and Kristen Parrish

Breaking new ground

Members of the Helios Rocketry student org stand at their Fulton Schools Homecoming Block Party Exhibit

Preparing Navajo engineers of the future

a group of students gathered at ASU's Luminosity Lab

$15M scholarship donation expands Luminosity Lab participation

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly speaks during a panel titled "Using Digital Learning to Catalyze a More Skilled Workforce" during the Congressional Conference held at ASU

How Arizona can advance innovation, access in digital learning

Entrepreneurship

ASU — No. 1 in innovation for the eighth straight year — and the Fulton Schools are powerhouses of entrepreneurship, with ASU ranked No. 8 for U.S. utility patents issued to universities worldwide the previous year. ASU was also named the lead institution of a new National Science Foundation I-Corps Hub to accelerate the translation of research ideas into the marketplace. The competitive Fulton Entrepreneurial Professorship Program provides additional support to Fulton Schools faculty members to accelerate their ASU ventures and increase their impact. For student entrepreneurs, ASU hosts an international competition sponsored by local industry leaders, ASU Innovation Open, which draws top student ventures.

A graphic depicting the capabilities of the Argos Vision AI-powered traffic camera.

ASU entrepreneurs develop smart street cameras

overhead view of a village

ASU professor wins McNulty Prize for global impact

Technicians run pressure checks on the MechanicalTree on March 8 during its installation near the Biodesign C building on ASU's Tempe campus. The large canister forms the base of the tree; when it is fully extended, a column of disks holding "leaves" of a special sorbent material will remove carbon dioxide from passing air to combat global warming at scale.

First ‘MechanicalTree’ installed on ASU’s Tempe campus

ASU Professor Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown and Assistant Professor Daewook Kang (now with the University of Toledo) in an ASU file photo from 2017. Krajmalnik-Brown, Kang and Professor James Adams are three of six co-inventors who were awarded a patent for their treatment for autism and related symptoms.

Treatment for autism symptoms earns ASU researchers patent

Innovative research and initiatives

Fulton Schools faculty and student researchers are involved in a wide range of interdisciplinary and transformative research projects, including those supported by 11 new National Science Foundation CAREER Awards. Students also participate in use-inspired research with faculty mentors and present their findings at the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative, or FURI, Symposium in the spring and fall. These and other projects and initiatives are driving innovation in a variety of topics, including advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and computing, cybersecurity, health, extreme heat, energy, infrastructure, space exploration, sustainability and water issues.

Read our top stories in the following areas:

Advanced manufacturing

Engineering an advanced manufacturing ecosystem at ASU 

Factories of the future: How ASU will help industry work on the cutting edge of tech

AI and computing

Infrastructure

Building stronger, cost-efficient roads: ASU’s Southwest Pavement Technology Initiative connects faculty and students with industry and agency partners to transform infrastructure costs

The transportation equation: ASU researcher Xuesong “Simon” Zhou creates an open-source mapping system to streamline transportation modeling research

Learn more about what others are saying about the Fulton Schools on our external news page.

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