Penn State Great Valley has again earned national recognition for academic excellence, securing top rankings in the 2025 U.S. News & World Report "Best Online Programs" list for engineering management, software and systems engineering and IT programs.
A swimming race taught Colin J. Neill a valuable professional lesson about good technique that he took with him as he became a systems and software engineer, then a professor and now chancellor and dean at Penn State Great Valley. Although his students often found it challenging to learn new techniques, Neill often hears them express appreciation for their graduate education and how their studies accelerated their careers.
Daniel Kumankumah, a Penn State Great Valley software engineering student, was thrilled to land a competitive summer internship with Amazon. When he faced obstacles, he sought help from his team and succeeded in solving coding problems while gaining valuable experience, he said.
As a graduate student in software engineering, Chandan Shivalingaiah said he values the wealth of opportunities he has at Penn State, including research, an internship and teaching underserved high school students.
Kathryn Jablokow, a professor of engineering design and mechanical engineering at Penn State Great Valley who also has appointments at Penn State University Park in the department of mechanical engineering and the School of Engineering Design and Innovation, will serve as on the American Society of Mechanical Engineering's Board of Governors as one of 12 members overseeing all the society's activities.
Joanna DeFranco, associate professor of software engineering and associate director of Penn State World Campus’ Doctor of Engineering program, is working with researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop the Secure Federated Data Sharing system, which allows secure data access where the data resides, rather than exchanging or being centrally stored.
Kathryn Jablokow, professor of engineering design and mechanical engineering, recently received a prestigious National Science Foundation Director’s Award as part of the team that created the Engineering Research Initiation program.
The ceremony recognized graduates from the 2021-22 academic years as well as from 2019-20, when graduates were unable to have an in-person commencement.
At this year's convocation celebration, Great Valley honored Minyoung Cheong, assistant professor of management and organization; Richard Wall, adjunct instructor in the management division; Youakim Badr, associate professor of data analytics; and Ashkan Negahban, assistant professor of engineering management for their work and dedication to the campus.
