Turning faculty investment into industry-ready graduates
A faculty fellowship awarded to Dr. Adolfo Delgado is expanding hands-on research and industry engagement to prepare students for high-impact engineering careers.
For many, scholarships are the first thing to come to mind when they think about giving. While scholarships are transformative, they are not the only way donations directly impact students.
The Mechanical Engineering Industry Advisory Council (IAC) Faculty Fellowship, awarded to Dr. Adolfo Delgado, is a powerful example of how investing in faculty excellence creates meaningful opportunity for students at every level. Through this fellowship, Delgado received seed funding to explore new research areas, efforts that led to a 15% increase in research expenditures and opened doors to new sponsor partnerships. Those partnerships, in turn, translated into more hands-on projects, industry engagement and real-world learning experiences for students.
The fellowship also enabled Delgado to hire additional student researchers, expand conference participation and create new learning opportunities. This includes the IAC Turbomachinery Summer Research Experience and a paid six-week apprenticeship for two high school students.
Dr. Adolfo Delgado
Participants work alongside research engineers in the Turbomachinery Laboratory to gain foundational knowledge in dynamics and vibrations of rotating equipment. They perform real experiments while receiving compensation for their work. For many students, this kind of early exposure can shape an entire academic and career trajectory.
The long-term impact of these investments is best reflected by student success stories. Nick Bishop ’23, a former undergraduate research assistant in the lab, now works in the Rotating Machinery Dynamics Section at Southwest Research Institute.
“This role directly expands upon my experience at the TurboLab. Gaining hands-on experience, a background knowledge of turbomachinery, and an understanding of research practices has helped my transition to the rotating machinery field tremendously,” Bishop said. “The TurboLab sparked a strong interest in rotating machinery that I am still cultivating today, in a field I was very unlikely to learn about elsewhere.”
Today’s most innovative industries and national laboratories are seeking graduates who bring more than classroom knowledge. Students who gain hands-on research experience, technical depth and professional exposure while still in school enter the workforce prepared to contribute from day one.
Support for faculty fellowships does more than just advance faculty research — it multiplies opportunity. It also empowers professors to innovate while strengthening industry connections by creating paid and highly qualified experiences that prepare students for high-impact careers.
When you invest in faculty, you invest in every student they teach, mentor and inspire.
