Engineering grad students network with NASA, Moog and other industry leaders

Graduating students need jobs. Companies need new talent.

That, in a nutshell, is the framework for the second annual Career Perspectives and Networking Conference hosted last week by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

The event, which brought representatives to Davis Hall from NASA, Moog, Praxair, National Grid, Iconics and other leading companies committed to supporting UB, featured lectures, poster presentations, workshops, panel discussions, networking events and other activities.

It was designed to promote the excellence of UB’s engineering graduate students, as well as provide companies and individuals access to some of its brightest students.

Among those giving lectures were Michael Sinicropi, executive director of Global Safety and Engineering Systems at Praxair in Buffalo; Dexter Johnson, chief of the Structural Systems Dynamic Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center in Ohio; and Russel Agrusa, founder, president and CEO of Iconics Inc. All three are UB alumni.

The conference was organized by Mark Tomaszewski, Andrea Sacco, M. Atif Afzal, Matthew Whittaker and Andrew Kroetsch — all of whom are members of graduate student associations in SEAS — and Gary F. Dargush, associate dean for graduate education and research in the engineering school.

Conference sponsors include UB’s International Student and Scholar Services, UB Career Services, the UB Alumni Association and the UB Student Association.

The event was conceived in 2015 by UB doctoral candidate Matthias J. Schmid.