Rowan University’s Montalbo-Lomboy named 2026 Engineering Unleashed Fellow

Melissa Montalbo-Lomboy, Ph.D., an associate teaching professor in the Experiential Engineering Education Department at Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering, has been named a 2026 Engineering Unleashed Fellow. She is one of 30 engineering faculty across the U.S. to receive this year’s honor. 

The national recognition is given for innovative education practices aimed at preparing engineering graduates to identify opportunities for creating positive economic, societal and personal value throughout their lives. 

Engineering Unleashed is a community of more than 6,000 faculty members from more than 400 institutions of higher education, powered by KEEN, a 70-partner collaborative that shares a mission to graduate engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset who are equipped to create societal, personal, and economic value. 

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. 

The fellowship is accompanied by an institutional award from the Kern Family Foundation, with the recipient as principal investigator, to advance the project. 

Montalbo-Lomboy’s project will challenge sophomore engineering students to design, model, build, test, and refine an integrated water filtration and water tower system. She will also survey students and faculty before and after the course to develop instructional resources, guides and assessment materials that other instructors can use. 

“What's great about this project is there are many possible solutions that the students can develop to address the problem,” Montalbo-Lomboy said. Students will be assessed on their thought process, pitch delivery, ability to overcome obstacles, and ability to deliver a product that meets customer needs. 

“The bottom line is they learn from their successes and failures,” said Montalbo-Lomboy, who earlier designed a clinic project centered around beer brewing experimentation and engineering design.

She joins previous Engineering Unleashed Fellows from Rowan University, including faculty members Andrea Vernengo, Paromita Nath, Justin Major, Cassie Jamison and Gerard Capellades. Rowan faculty have contributed a dozen instructional resources available through KEEN to more than 400 higher education institutions. 

“Rowan is making an impact,” Montalbo-Lomboy said. 

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.