The 29 students were divided into teams and paired with faculty advisors who guided them throughout the yearlong process.

鈥淭hese students got this project in August in the form of a two- or three-page document and an email address to contact, and they took it from there,鈥� said Will Pluer, assistant professor of engineering. 鈥淭hey broke down their projects into subsystems and tasks, we had weekly scrum meetings where it felt like only little things were being achieved and eventually those little things turned into mockups in the fall and full prototypes this spring.鈥�

One team partnered with Gilbarco Veeder-Root to improve security measures for gas station pumps that had experienced break-ins. The group added a sensor to the bottom of the machine to alert owners to unauthorized access, reinforced the bottom latch and installed an electrical component designed to preserve data during power outages.

Rahv Tupac-Yupanqui 鈥�26, a mechanical engineering major from Virginia Beach, Virginia, said the project was a thorough culmination of years of coursework.

鈥淲e take classes where you do specific projects here and there, and eventually, down the line, it turns out that a skill, or many skills, that you learned on a specific project will help you do larger projects,鈥� Tupac-Yupanqui said.

While students had worked with clients in previous engineering courses, Tupac-Yupanqui said the scale of the project and the level of communication with the company made this experience different.

鈥淚t feels like a huge privilege to be able to communicate with a company at such an intensive rate,鈥� Tupac-Yupanqui said. 鈥淚鈥檓 really glad I got to do it because it gives me a really good perspective on what an engineering company does. Even though no engineering company works the same way, there is always a level of understanding that happens between engineers.鈥�

Another team partnered with Driver Rehabilitation Services to redesign a Sure Grip vehicle driving system for people with physical impairments.

The original system had a “jerking” and rotational movement when pulled to accelerate the vehicle. Students redesigned the mechanism, so it moved back and forth along a single plane.

鈥淲henever you pulled it back for acceleration, instead of moving in a straight line forward and back, it would rotate a little bit toward the center of your chest,鈥� said Wiley Falter 鈥�26, a mechanical engineering major from Fayetteville, North Carolina. 鈥淚t鈥檚 fine for a driver that has full arm strength, but quadriplegic drivers only have strength coming from their shoulder, and so everyone would push in. It made it really awkward to push it back out, get it back into idle and brake.鈥�

Like Tupac-Yupanqui, Falter said working with a real client was one of the most valuable parts of the experience.

鈥淚t was cool to communicate with the engineers who work there,鈥� Falter said. 鈥淲e all really enjoyed that part the most because it gave you a view into the real world of engineering and not just the bubble of being in college. It was super fun to get really constructive criticism on everything that we did.鈥�

Pluer said the hands-on, client-based experience is what makes the course unique.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really important for us to give our students real problems to tackle,鈥� Pluer said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e moving out of the classroom into careers, so we give them projects from clients that push them and make them realize that engineering is truly a service industry, serving others through design.鈥�

The piece highlighted Go Baby Go, a national program that helps provide modified ride-on cars to children with mobility disabilities. The initiative gives children greater independence and opportunities for movement through specially adapted vehicles designed to meet individual physical needs.聽 On April 4,聽 the Elon Engineering Club, Phoenix Racing Club and the Department of Physical Therapy brought the Go Baby Go Initiative to Elon鈥檚 campus for the first time.

鈥淚 think it was really special to see the students have a lot of fun with the event and really be so focused in customizing these cars,” said Julianna Millet 鈥�26, an Elon engineering student who helped spearhead the effort. 鈥淎t the same time, it really gives back to helping local families and helping kids. It鈥檚 kind of a win-win.鈥�

The story was also featured on WFMY News 2, the CBS affiliate in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Lumen Scholars will work closely with their mentors during the next two years to pursue and complete their projects. Efforts traditionally include coursework, study abroad, research both on and off campus, internships locally and overseas, program development, and creative productions and performances.

“It was another very competitive year, and the Lumen Advisory Board saw many good applications,” said Michael Carignan, director of the Lumen Prize and professor of history. “These 15 represent truly special talent and engagement. We look forward to watching the projects unfold over the next two years.”

The name for the Lumen Prize comes from Elon鈥檚 historic motto, 鈥淣umen Lumen,鈥� which are Latin words meaning 鈥渟piritual light鈥� and 鈥渋ntellectual light.鈥� The words, which are found on the 福利亚洲国产精品 seal, signify the highest purposes of an Elon education.

2026 Lumen Prize Winners

Tajallah Amirkhil
Mentor: Molly Green
Major: Public Health & Biochemistry
Project: Barriers and Resilience: Exploring Mental Health among Afghan Refugee Women in North Carolina

Emma Brice帽o
Mentors: Dan Burns & Tita Ramirez
Major: English (Creative Writing)
Project: The Desert Lighthouse, a Novel: an Exploration of Queerness and Safety through Body Horror, Immortality, and Genre Reinvention

Kelley Calvillo
Mentor: Renay Aumiller
Major: Dance Performance and Choreography
Project: The Body Knows: Developing a Feminist Framework for Distributed Choreographic Authorship

Chloe Cone
Mentors: Eryn Bernardy & Ahlam Armaly
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Solutions in the Soil: Unearthing Novel Antibacterial Compounds from Soil Microbes to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

Sanai Crosby
Mentors: Lauren Kearns & Matt Wittstein
Major: Exercise Science & Dance Science
Project: Dance and Neural Activity: Examining Neural Activity Across the Choreographic Process and Performance Environments

Fleur Helmantel
Mentor: Scott Wolter
Major: Biomedical Engineering & Chinese Studies
Project: Development of Tissue-Mimicking Phantoms for the Treatment of Breast Cancer

Anna Keller
Mentor: Scott Morrison
Project: Perceptions and Practices of Outdoor Literacy: a Two-Part Mixed-Methods Study

Nevaeh Kimmie
Mentor: Katrina Jongman-Sereno
Major: Psychology & Economics
Project: To Code-Switch or Not to Code-Switch: Authenticity, Psychological Outcomes, and Social Judgement of Black College Students in Predominantly White Academic Spaces

Lisa Kranec
Mentors: Hwayeon Ryu & Efrain Rivera-Serrano
Major: Biomedical Engineering & Applied Mathematics
Project: Mathematical Modeling of Excessive Collagen Production in Cardiac Fibrosis

Jordyne Lewis
Mentor: Steve DeLoach
Major: Economic Consulting & Data Analytics
Refugees, Emotional Wellbeing, and Financial Inclusion in Uganda

Kendall Lewis
Mentor: Jen Uno
Major: Biochemistry & Mathematics
Project: Can the Microbiome Heal the Brain?Evaluating Butyrate鈥檚 Efficiency in Reducing Stroke Severity within the Context of Obesity

Ja鈥橫ir Parham
Mentor: Zack Hutchens
Major: Astrophysics
Project: RESOLVE, ECO, and eRASS: Probing Galaxy Growth through Cold and Hot Gas

Danny Stern
Mentor: Karl Sienerth
Major: Chemistry
Project: From Backlog to Breakthrough: Use of Fluorescence Quenching for the Development of an Explosive Identification Database

Ainsley Thompson
Mentor: Yuko Miyamoto
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Decreasing Platinum Chemotherapy Resistance by Downregulating STAT3 and Upregulating PTEN in the SKOV3 Cell Line

Scout Winter
Mentor: Bill Evans
Major: Exercise Science
Project: Effects of a Whole-Food Plant-Based Diet on Insulin Resistance and Inflammation in Adults with Type 1 Diabetes

Related Articles

• Strategic multifaith engagement shapes the Elon campus experience
• Elon welcomes ninth class of Multifaith Scholars

At 福利亚洲国产精品, faculty say preparing students means helping them understand the people they will interact with throughout their lives, and that includes the influence of faith and religious identity.

That commitment to multifaith understanding is a primary goal of the university鈥檚 Multifaith Strategic Plan, which strives to 鈥渟upport opportunities for multifaith learning and engagement for all members of the academic community.鈥�

鈥淓lon鈥檚 Multifaith Strategic Plan is a promise to our students, faculty, staff and the wider community that we will take them seriously as whole, complex people,鈥� said Brian Pennington, director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society.

The multifaith experience

The Multifaith Scholars Program is a two-year program, founded in 2016, that emphasizes interdisciplinary learning as student scholars undertake original research projects and study in global contexts connected with religious diversity and multireligious societies.

鈥淥ur work is richer when we have students bringing questions from their own disciplines,鈥� said Amy Allocco, director of the program and professor of religious studies. 鈥淚t is a sign of a vibrant campus ecosystem when not only students but also their mentors can see their interests and expertise 聽intersect with questions of interreligious contact, religion and society.鈥�

Allocco says that the breadth of disciplines represented by students and mentors participating in the program has widened each year. The current cohort includes students with diverse majors such as psychology, theatrical design, history, economics consulting, political science, religious studies, and international and global Studies. Owen Hayes 鈥�26, a history major with minors in political science and religious studies, is a 2024-2026 Multifaith Scholar studying the historical and contemporary relationship between Christian missionaries and Indigenous Australians.

鈥淚’ve always been interested in understanding the interreligious encounters of the world, like global Christianity and understanding how different communities can come together and understand such an important religious concept in such different, varying ways, but still have that belief of Christianity,鈥� Hayes said.

The interreligious studies minor also allows students to analyze the historical and contemporary encounters between and interactions among religious communities and traditions.

鈥淓lon has done incredible work in enfranchising multifaith as an academic as well as a student affairs initiative and aligning and even blending those areas in meaningful ways that enhance the student experience,鈥� Allocco said.

Multifaith in the classroom (and clinic)

In the Department of Nursing, faculty don鈥檛 just train future healthcare professionals on specific medical assessments but, as Assistant Professor of Nursing Lori Hubbard says, they 鈥減repare students for the diversity in the populations they will serve,鈥� including religion.

鈥淒iversity in people is understanding their religious background, because religious practices are often infused into health practices and health beliefs,鈥� said Hubbard, who teaches the Healthcare Relationships course, which focuses on understanding diverse backgrounds in healthcare.

The course is just one component of the Department of Nursing鈥檚 commitment to equitable healthcare teaching, which is incorporated throughout the curriculum.

鈥淔rom birth to death and everywhere in between, the people that are going to be important in a person鈥檚 wellness or their healing may come from their church body,鈥� said Hubbard, who says they also want students to understand the role of the chaplain in a hospital setting. 鈥淧eople may have members of a church congregation bring them meals, they may have pastors and friends visit to pray with them. A person’s support network is a social determinant of health.鈥�

In December 2025, a faculty team consisting of Pennington, Jeanmarie Koonts, assistant professor of nursing; Molly Green, assistant professor of public health, and Helen Orr, assistant professor of religious studies, was awarded a $60,000 Faith & Health Campus Grant from Interfaith America to promote awareness of how religious diversity impacts healthcare space and medical decision-making.

Engineering a multifaith course

Along with nursing, several Elon courses across disciplines integrate multifaith understanding. Orr is co-teaching a new course, Engineering A Better World, with Professor of Engineering Sirena Hargrove-Leak on ethical practices in engineering.

鈥淩eligion is an important category for a lot of people, and it informs not only beliefs, but also everyday practice and ritual, including when people fast, how they dress and how they interact in professional spaces,鈥� Orr said. 鈥淥ne of our sessions in the course focuses on the value of multi-faith spaces in professional working environments. Those spaces can be beneficial both for religious people and non-religious people, while also encouraging us to think about how environments themselves can be designed to be more inclusive.鈥�

Hargrove Leak says the engineering curriculum requires an ethics course and, historically, faculty advised students to choose an ethics course through the Core Curriculum. The downside, she says, is they may not connect what they’re learning to engineering practice. This new course, she says, connects the dots directly.

鈥淭he work of engineering professionals has the potential to impact people directly; therefore, ethical practice is critically important,鈥� said Hargrove-Leak.

Communicating religion

While Orr and Hargrove-Leak鈥檚 course is new this semester, Professor of Journalism Anthony Hatcher has been studying and teaching the intersection of religion and media for more than 20 years. His course Religion and Media analyzes how the two interact through media coverage of religious issues and themes, religion’s use of television and the Internet and media portrayals of religious people and traditions.

Hatcher began teaching the course in 2003, coming from a longtime interest in the intersection of the two subjects.

鈥淚t has always sparked my interest how religion intersects not only with a news item, but how it intersects with popular culture,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 tell my students, 鈥業f there is a secular entity of some sort, there is a religious corollary to it.鈥欌��

Finding religious connections in culture is endless for Hatcher, who says he never runs out of material for the course. For one assignment, students must attend a house of worship outside of their own faith and do a research project on the experience. The projects range from more well-known religious practices to lesser-known, like a student who visited a coven of witches in Hillsborough, North Carolina

鈥淚 make it clear: this is not a religion class. I’m not here to teach you about the scripture,鈥� Hatcher said. 鈥淲hen they go (to these houses of worship), it’s not just a religious thing. I say, 鈥榃hat kind of media did they use? Do they have cameras? Do they have a single microphone? Do they use screens and slides? Is it a majestic organ? What are you seeing there? Did they give you a paper program? Everything that’s media.鈥� It gets them thinking about all the mediated ways that they experience religion.鈥�

The course is open to all majors, and Hatcher says it can be relevant for all professions.

鈥淭he subject matter is so important,鈥� Hatcher said. 鈥淚t’s like how study abroad is mind-broadening. I think understanding where somebody else comes from, especially if faith is a big part of who they are, is a big deal.鈥�

And for Pennington, Elon鈥檚 approach to multifaith learning is an example for others to follow.

鈥淲e live in a moment where we can clearly see that the faith commitments and religious practices interact with our global politics, our legal systems, our media environments, and our healthcare systems,鈥� said Pennington. 鈥淏y attending to multifaith education across academic departments and programs, Elon is leading the way in preparing its students for a rapidly evolving world.鈥�

This story is part of a series of stories focusing on 福利亚洲国产精品鈥檚 Multifaith Strategic Plan.聽

On April 4,聽 the Elon Engineering Club, Phoenix Racing Club and the Department of Physical Therapy brought the Go Baby Go Initiative to Elon鈥檚 campus for the first time. Founded in 2012 at the University of Delaware, Go Bo Baby is a national initiative that modifies ride-on toy cars to meet the individual physical needs of young children who experience mobility challenges.

Six young children zipped across the pavement in brightly colored toy cars, laughter trailing behind them. These weren鈥檛 ordinary rides; they had been carefully reimagined by those same students inside, transformed into custom vehicles designed just for the kids who drove them.

The collaborative effort between the Elon Engineering Club, Phoenix Racing and the Department of Physical Therapy brought the Go Baby Go Initiative to Elon鈥檚 campus for the first time. Founded in 2012 at the University of Delaware, Go Baby Go is a national initiative that modifies ride-on toy cars to meet the individual physical needs of young children who experience mobility challenges.

Julianna Millett 鈥�26 spearheaded Elon鈥檚 effort with fellow engineering majors Diego Hernandez 鈥�26 and Abigail Johnson 鈥�27, after learning about the program through their Tikkun Olam Makers Fellowship. The TOM Fellowship Program is a nine-month international program that supports campus leaders, students and faculty in leading 鈥渃ommunities鈥� of students who use their engineering and design skills to co-create TOM Solutions for problems faced by people with disabilities, the elderly and the poor.

鈥淔or a lot of children, this is their first mobility device. Insurance isn’t going to cover a mobility aid because kids grow so fast,鈥� said Millett. 鈥淲ith this car, it’s giving them almost a first experience of having some autonomy over their movement.鈥�

On Saturday, engineering students adapted the car鈥檚 gas pedal to be a button on the steering wheel so the children could drive the car more efficiently, and physical therapy students helped adjust five-point harnesses so the children could also ride comfortably.

Sirena Hargrove-Leak, professor of engineering, views this work as an extension of Elon鈥檚 Engineering Design for Service course, where students work in small teams to design devices for systems that aid a local community client.

鈥淣ow it becomes an extracurricular engagement for students who are really motivated by that type of work to be able to continue it, and it connects them to a much larger organization,鈥� said Hargrove-Leak. “It鈥檚 international and several other institutions of higher education are part of this, so just having that connectivity with other people who are doing similar work and moving it into the extracurricular space broadens and deepens that experience.鈥�

Rebekkah Manning鈥檚 4-year-old son, Henry has cerebral palsy and works regularly with the Department of Physical Therapy. Manning says Henry has not been able to play like other children his age due to his condition.

鈥淎 lot of options are not open to him. Even the rides at the city park are not adaptable and accessible,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 discouraging to try to be the mother and father of a child who wants to play, and he can’t.鈥�

Henry was fitted into his car on Saturday while his father controlled the driving through a remote control, and Henry was also able to use the steering wheel button to drive.

鈥淚t is a dream come true because it’s something that we realized that we couldn’t do with Henry unless we had help,鈥� said Manning. 鈥淲hen he got in, he got a little bit nervous, and everybody was watching, but then after a few laps here, did you see his smile grow? And he started interacting more. So, it is definitely a confidence builder.鈥�

Carrie McCollum heard about the Go Baby Go program through their family鈥檚 physical therapist at Cone Health, who is an Elon alum. McCollum鈥檚 daughter BillieAnn has cerebral palsy, and while her older brother had driven her in his toy car, McCollum says it’s safer and better for BillieAnn to now drive her own.

鈥淚 hope to see her getting outside more often,鈥� said McCollum. 鈥淲e live on a farm, we have plenty of open space for her to move around on, but the wheelchair does not go well on gravel or rough terrain. I hope that this will be a way for her to drive around and see things out in our yard and on our farm.鈥�

Hargrove-Leak says while this experience has been beneficial for the families involved, the students and her find it rewarding as well.

鈥淚t is so fulfilling to be able to serve as a mentor for these students,鈥� said Hargrove-Leak. 鈥淚 have just enjoyed watching them grow as servant leaders, using their knowledge and skills to help other people. That’s always been my dream as an engineering educator, to try to encourage students to use what they’re learning for good in the world.鈥�

Butterbach鈥檚 path to research started in a cell biology course taught by Assistant Professor of Biology Efrain Rivera-Serrano, where she consistently asked questions and engaged deeply with the material. This curiosity led her to join the interdisciplinary project.

鈥淚t was a very 鈥榬ight place, right time鈥� circumstance,鈥� Butterbach said. 鈥淭his research was exactly the sort of thing I was looking to get involved in.鈥�

Through her Lumen Prize, Butterbach is working alongside two faculty mentors from different fields of study, Associate Professor of Mathematics Hwayeon Ryu and Rivera-Serrano, to study viral myocarditis, or heart inflammation, that occurs during the infection of many viruses. Her research is focused on examining the pathways that lead to excessive inflammation and how inflammation can be reduced without compromising the immune system鈥檚 ability to clear the virus.

鈥淢y research focuses on creating math out of biological reactions,鈥� Butterbach said. 鈥淯ltimately, the goal is to create a framework that helps us better understand and predict how cardiac inflammation progresses.鈥�

Viral myocarditis occurs when inflammation damages heart tissue, sometimes leading to long-term complications or sudden cardiac failure, particularly in young, active individuals. Although inflammation is a natural immune response, Butterbach鈥檚 research is exploring what causes that response to become excessive.

Butterbach uses mathematical modeling to integrate biology and immunology into a modeling framework to identify factors that most strongly drive harmful inflammation, revealing pathways that could be therapeutically targeted.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a balancing act to use equations to model what鈥檚 happening,鈥� Butterbach said. “If the model is too simple then it is not realistic to the human heart, but if the model is too complex, it becomes difficult to work with.鈥�

Taking an interdisciplinary approach

This research project鈥檚 strength lies in its collaboration and intersection between mathematics, biology and engineering. Mathematics offers the language and tools to create the models, while biology provides the foundation for understanding the disease. Engineering ties it together through design, problem-solving and a systems-level mindset.

鈥淭his project works precisely because it sits at the intersection of all three areas,鈥� Rivera-Serrano said. 鈥淓lise is especially well suited for this work because she is genuinely interested in connecting these disciplines rather than treating them as separate silos.鈥�

Ryu echoed this statement on Butterbach鈥檚 interdisciplinary approach.

鈥淓lise approaches research with a rare combination of intellectual curiosity, maturity and persistence, and she is genuinely committed to understanding how mathematics and biology inform one another,鈥� Ryu said. 鈥淗er ability to engage across disciplines and contribute thoughtfully at that intersection is what makes her such a strong and promising researcher.鈥�

Butterbach, Rivera-Serrano and Ryu meet weekly to refine their model, troubleshoot challenges and discuss literature.

鈥淭he steady back-and-forth is one of the strengths of the project,鈥� Rivera-Serrano said.

For Butterbach, working across disciplines has shaped how she approaches problems.

鈥淚鈥檝e always found that when different disciplines collide, it actually becomes easier to understand complex concepts,鈥� Butterbach said. 鈥淲orking across engineering, mathematics and virology is fascinating because each discipline approaches the same problem in a completely different way. Learning to think adaptively across disciplines and translate between them has been one of the most valuable parts of this experience.鈥�

Butterbach is motivated by the possibility of using interdisciplinary research to better understand human disease.

鈥淭he interdisciplinary nature and the way the team bring together mathematics, biology and engineering is not always easy to achieve, but Elise has embraced it fully and become an essential part of that process,鈥� Ryu said.

Collaborating on this research has been rewarding not only for Butterbach, but for her mentors as well.

鈥淲orking with Elise has been incredibly rewarding,鈥� Rivera-Serrano said. “She approaches a difficult project that requires her to be conversant in multiple disciplines with curiosity, maturity and persistence.鈥�

One takeaway she learned from working in disciplines outside of her major is that discoveries in one field almost always influence others.

鈥淏y learning how to think like a biologist, a mathematician and a physicist, I have become much more comfortable applying ideas from one subject to another, even when they seem unrelated at first.鈥�

She also values the work with her two mentors, Rivera-Serrano and Ryu, as they have helped her grow as a researcher.

鈥淒r. E spends a lot of time looking for resources that I can use to calculate the values of different parameters,鈥� Butterbach said. “Similarly, Dr. Ryu works tirelessly to not just improve my mathematical skills but also teaches me how to see mathematical theory working in the real world. They鈥檙e not just dedicated to this project; they鈥檙e also thinking about what comes next for me.”

Expanding her research

Butterbach was recently selected for a competitive Physical, Engineering and Biology Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at Yale University, focused on physics, engineering and biology. Butterbach hopes to expand her research on the cardiovascular system.

鈥淓lise鈥檚 acceptance is especially meaningful because it reflects national-level recognition of her promise as an undergraduate researcher in an interdisciplinary space,鈥� Rivera-Serrano said.

For Butterbach, the opportunity was surprising and motivating.

鈥淚 tried not to set any grand expectations for myself, so when I received the email I was genuinely surprised to be selected for the program,鈥� Butterbach said. 鈥淚t felt incredibly validating of the hard work and dedication I鈥檝e put into my studies.鈥�

At Yale, the program, like her research, is interdisciplinary covering biology, physics and engineering. She will expand her experience in computational and biological modeling while working alongside researchers.

鈥淭o me, this program represents the opening of new doors,鈥� Butterbach said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an opportunity to continue growing as a researcher, meet people working at the forefront of interdisciplinary science and explore new directions that I may not have encountered otherwise.鈥�

Approximately 1,200 attendees visited campus from March 21-22 for the 2026 福利亚洲国产精品 District Competition.

鈥淥ur university community supports events that develop students’ STEM skills and promote teamwork, problem solving and perseverance as they carry out their project work,鈥� said Scott Wolter, associate professor of engineering and chair of the Department of Engineering. 鈥淲e encourage learning at all levels as students explore what discipline of study excites them most.鈥�

In addition to matches and practice sessions, attendees toured campus, enjoyed an ice cream social and explored the engineering learning spaces in Innovation Hall and Founders Hall.

Eastbots (Team 4795) won the competition and will advance to the FIRST North Carolina Championship in Greensboro from April 10-12, 2026.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a part of , a nonprofit organization devoted to helping young people discover and develop a passion for science, engineering, technology and math.

Elon was selected as a host site after a nonprofit representative reached out to gauge the university鈥檚 interest in hosting the regional competition. Following internal discussions and planning, the Department of Engineering partnered with organizers to bring the event to campus.

鈥淔or the students who participated, we hope we conveyed Elon鈥檚 support of educational activities and academic offerings as we see tremendous growth in our engineering program,鈥� Wolter said.

Go Baby Go is a national initiative that modifies ride-on toy cars to meet the individual physical needs of young children who experience mobility challenges. At Elon, the program brings together students from physical therapy and engineering along with members of the Elon Phoenix racing team, to combine clinical insight, technical design, and hands-on fabrication skills. Before cars are built, the team is focused on recruiting student volunteers and connecting with local families for evaluation. These evaluations help determine each child’s specific mobility needs and guide design decisions for the custom ride-on cars.

Sirena Hargrove-Leak, professor in the department of engineering, is co-mentoring the Go Baby Go project with engineering students Julianna Millett, Diego Hernandez and Abbey Johnson, who initiated the project as part of the TOM Fellowship Program.

Paula DiBiasio, associate professor in the department of physical therapy education and a pediatric physical therapist, has run Go Baby Go projects in the past and is co-mentoring the project and is leading efforts to recruit families, and providing the physical therapy evaluations to assess the mobility, seating, and switch needs for the children. For each evaluation, PT and engineering students are working with DiBiasio to gather data, engage with the children/families, and problem-solve the buildout. Together with DiBiasio, the team plans the equipment needed for each individual child鈥檚 car.

Physical therapy students play a key role in assessing trunk stability, limb movement and safety consideration, while engineering students contribute to design, electronics, and fabrication planning. Members of the Phoenix Racing team add technical expertise and hands-on problem-solving on the day of the event.

The program not only supports children and families in the surrounding community, but also gives students a unique opportunity to apply classroom learning to a real-world challenge with meaningful impact. By working across disciplines, students gain experience in teamwork, human-centered design, and problem solving.

Students interested in learning more about the program or getting involved can reach out to jmillett@elon.edu聽 or 410-812-8770.

This article investigates how the human immune system responds to SARS-CoV-2 infection, with a particular focus on natural killer cells and cytokine regulation and their roles in determining disease severity. Using a mathematical, within-host model that combines viral dynamics with immune interactions, the study explores how different immune responses can lead to either viral clearance or severe inflammation. The findings provide insight into key immune mechanisms and offer guidance for identifying potential targets for future COVID-19 treatments. This work is a result of聽a聽National Science Foundation-funded project听辞苍听COVID-19 mathematical modeling.

is an interdisciplinary journal promoting cutting-edge research, technology transfer and knowledge translation about complex data and information processing at the interface of mathematics, biology, medicine and engineering.