The University of Rhode Island has long been part of Nevan Clancy Hanumara’s life.  Living five minutes from campus, with a father who teaches statistics at the University and mother self-employed as psychotherapist, Nevan grew up swimming in the URI pool, playing tennis on its courts and attending its theater productions. 

He first visited URI’s College of Engineering during his junior year of high school at the Prout School.  “I met Dean Vandeputte, heard about the International Engineering Program [IEP], and was hooked.  I applied only to URI and was immediately admitted as a Centennial Scholar,” he remembered.  The five-year IEP program combines engineering and foreign language degrees with a half-year professional foreign internship.

      Nevan began his engineering studies at URI in September 1999 and quickly  fell in love with the University.  Over time the Engineering Computer Center and IEP house became his second office and home.  On the subject of combining two seemingly disparate fields Nevan remarked, “The liberal arts component of the French program was an essential complement to my technical formation and provided me with a well rounded education in the classical University tradition.”

    “My mechanical engineering experience was entirely positive.  I found the environment to be challenging yet cooperative and supportive.  Teamwork is the norm and competition is more of a personal challenge than a contest.  The professors’ interest in and continual support of their students means that when I visit I will be coming to see not only people I respect, but friends,” said Nevan.

    URI’s College of Engineering not only turned him into a mechanical engineer, but into a “lab rat” as well.  Nevan worked for Dr. Christopher Hunter and the Transportation Research Center in the summer of his sophomore year.  It was his job to monitor, maintain and collect data from cameras around the state for research into the red light running habits of Rhode Islanders. 

Since the summer of 2002, Nevan has worked for Professor Donna Meyer in the Tribology and Fluid Mechanics Lab, studying the wear debris generated by artificial joint replacements, with the long-term goals of developing a joint prognosis tool and aiding in increasing joint life through improved design.

In his super-senior year, Nevan and a team of students from mechanical, biomedical, and electrical engineering developed a single-switch automated page-turner for people who lack sufficient strength and manual dexterity to hold and manipulate a book.  The development came out of work in the multidisciplinary Assistive Technology course.  “The device has commercialization potential and I have just returned from a Rehabilitation Conference in Orlando where our design generated considerable interest,” said Nevan proudly.

Nevan interned in France in the spring and summer of 2003 as part of the IEP program.  He worked at ZF Boutheon, a fabricant of transmissions for light trucks and tour buses.  “From St. Etienne, nestled in the Loire valley, I wandered around and immersed myself in the French culture,” he noted.  In addition, he traveled to Switzerland, England and Germany, where he visited other IEP students and attended a ZF workshop on “Interkulturelles Management” outside Friedrichshafen, the corporate headquarters.  Despite all the time and energy he focused on mechanical engineering, Nevan still found time to serve as president of ASME and be involved in the Catholic Center.  As a member of a South Kingstown town council-appointed committee studying the reconstruction of Route 138, he provided the perspective of both a student and a local resident.

Nevan graduated in May 2004 with a dual major in mechanical engineering and French, plus a minor in physics.  His overall QPA was 3.978/4.00.  His experience at URI was so positive that he believes he will someday teach at the university level.  This coming fall he will start his master’s degree studies at MIT, funded by a graduate fellowship, with the goal of obtaining a PhD in mechanical engineering, focusing on design and Mechatronics.  “I have every confidence that URI’s College of Engineering has prepared me for whatever the future may hold for me professionally, personally and globally.”