SSE News
Stay updated on recent achievements, research highlights, and news within the SSE community.
Reimagining Mobility: Tulane Students Design Low-Cost Device for Foot Drop
In a biomedical engineering lab at Tulane University, a group of students is working on a problem that shapes everyday life for thousands of patients but rarely gets attention outside clinical settings.
It is called foot drop. And for those who live with it, something as simple as walking becomes unpredictable.
Tulane EENS Undergraduate Students Reach for the Stars—Literally
What does it take to send an experiment to space? For a group of Tulane University undergraduates, the answer involved late nights in the lab, creative problem-solving, rigorous proposal writing—and a healthy dose of scientific ambition. Through the NASA-affiliated Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), Tulane students competed against their peers for the chance to fly a real scientific payload aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
How Sophomore Ariana Reyes Found Her Path in Research
Growing up in Peru, Ariana Reyes never saw herself going into science. She wanted to be a pastry chef. With much of her family working in medicine and health related fields, though, she felt “some” pressure to follow the same path.
"Lots of people in my family are in the medical field, so that just kind of like drew my interest in that a little bit, and I kind of felt pressured to follow the pre-med track," she said.
Two Tulane Students Win '26 Goldwater Scholarships
Newcomb-Tulane College is proud to have two students receive the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. Auto Breaux, a junior double-majoring in physics and mathematics, and Trishita Paul, a sophomore biomedical engineering major with a public health minor, were recently awarded the scholarship for their impressive academic accomplishments and research activities.
Alumni Spotlight: Bridging the Gap from Campus to Career with John Harkins (SSE ’21)
The transition from student to professional is a journey of growth, but for Tulane University engineering alumnus John Harkins, it has also been a full-circle experience. Returning to the uptown campus as a recruiter for Intralox, Harkins found himself on the other side of the table at the School of Science and Engineering (SSE) career fair.
The Future of Farming in Orbit: Tulane Students Pitch Fungi for the ISS
Across the labs of Tulane University’s School of Science and Engineering (SSE), a team of undergraduate researchers is looking toward the stars to solve some of Earth’s- and space's- most pressing agricultural challenges. Students Kristen, Vincent, and Yolanda have spent 2025 and the early part of 2026 developing a compelling proposal for NASA’s Student Spaceflight Experiment Program, aiming to secure a spot on the International Space Station (ISS) for their study on Aspergillus niger.
Ibrahim Demir invested as Michael A. Fitts Presidential Chair in Environmental Informatics and Artificial Intelligence
Tulane University invested Ibrahim Demir as the Michael A. Fitts Presidential Chair in Environmental Informatics and Artificial Intelligence during a ceremony held recently at Richardson Memorial Hall on the uptown campus.
The chair, established by Carol Lavin Bernick, a 1974 Newcomb College graduate and a longtime university supporter, aims to advance the work of an internationally recognized scholar who is addressing critical global challenges.
Tulane Engineering Students Design New Inhaler to Help Patients With Lung Disease
A team of Tulane biomedical engineering seniors is designing a new type of inhaler that could help patients with severe lung disease receive medication more effectively.
The students are developing an enhanced dry powder inhaler designed specifically for people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive lung disease that weakens breathing capacity over time. The goal is simple but challenging: deliver medicine deep into the lungs for patients who physically cannot generate a strong enough breath to use most inhalers.