Nath, Vernengo named 2025 Engineering Unleashed Fellows

Paromita Nath, Ph.D., an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Andrea Vernengo, Ph.D., an associate professor of chemical and biomedical engineering, have received national recognition for innovative education practices aimed at preparing engineering graduates to identify opportunities for creating positive economic, societal and personal value throughout their lives.

Both faculty from the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering were selected by the Engineering Unleashed community as 2025 Engineering Unleashed Fellows. They are among 29 engineering faculty from 23 institutions across the United States to receive the honor.

The Engineering Unleashed Faculty Development Program highlights entrepreneurially minded learning as central to the development of engineering graduates prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing world. 

Each year, the program attracts more than 300 engineering and STEM faculty who create resources that will help them and intercollegiate colleagues advance the mission to integrate the entrepreneurial mindset into practices that benefit their students, their institutions, and greater society. As part of the workshop, participants identify potential projects and hone their ideas with coaches for up to one year, after which select faculty are nominated and named Engineering Unleashed Fellows.

Fellowships are accompanied by an institutional award from the Kern Family Foundation, with the recipients as principal investigators, to advance their project’s impact.

Nath’s project teaches students to examine problems more thoughtfully before diving into design. Her project aims to embed habits like systems thinking and customer-centric design alongside sustainability and inclusion principles. 

“This project encourages students to engage in deliberate problem-scoping before initiating the design phase,” Nath said. “Embedding systems thinking, customer-centricity, and sustainability principles encourages deeper learning, makes the design process more efficient, and equips students to navigate the complexity of real-world engineering challenges.” 

Vernengo’s project is designed to equip engineering students with an entrepreneurial mindset through collaborative activities and structured journaling.  

“What makes this project unique is the structured, evidence-based journaling prompts,” Vernengo said. “It creates space for students to reflect, reframe challenges, and recognize their capacity for innovation. Combined with cooperative classroom activities, it aims to translate entrepreneurial mindset into skills they can carry with confidence into their professional careers.”

The fellowship is recognition of a commitment to developing engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset (EM). It is awarded as part of the Engineering Unleashed initiative, which is a community of engineering faculty and staff who are bringing EM to undergraduate engineering programs throughout the nation. This community is powered by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), a partnership of 70 colleges and universities dedicated to graduating engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset so they can create personal, economic, and societal value through a lifetime of meaningful work. 

About KEEN: The Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) is a partnership of undergraduate engineering programs around the United States. KEEN focuses on one mission: to graduate engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset so they can create personal, economic, and societal value through a lifetime of meaningful work. There are currently 70 universities and colleges working together to instill this mindset in engineering students. For more information, go to EngineeringUnleashed.com. 

About The Kern Family Foundation: The Kern Family Foundation invests in the rising generation of Americans, equipping them to become tomorrow's leaders and innovators. Established in 1999, the Foundation is based in Wisconsin and invests in fields that impact human flourishing, including medicine, educational leadership, and engineering education.