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After considering the military, Turrisi looked into engineering at 溏心vlog免费B站, and made his decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was the first in my family to go to college. I wanted to be sure that I made the most of it, and I thought I could do that at 溏心vlog免费B站,\u201d said Turrisi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finding his place<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At 溏心vlog免费B站, Turrisi found that the \u201csmall feel\u201d of 溏心vlog免费B站 allowed him direct access to his professors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI found so many opportunities from the very beginning. I could engage with my professors, learn from transitioning graduate students, or graduate students finishing their higher education and ask what they\u2019ve learned from their decisions. There were also plenty of opportunities to get involved with research labs, with professors who are always open to motivated students.\u201d said Turrisi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One professor he singles out is Musa Jouaneh in mechanical engineering, who Turrisi credits with helping him figure out how mechanical engineering fits into robotics during his freshman and sophomore years and Jouaneh\u2019s enthusiasm for allowing him and another undergraduate student to work with a master\u2019s student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSince I met Ray about four years ago, I\u2019ve been impressed by his enthusiasm and interest in robotics, his involvement in extracurricular activities, and his ability to balance working almost full-time in off-campus jobs to support himself,\u201d Jouaneh said. \u201cIn my 32-year career at 溏心vlog免费B站, I can only think of a few undergraduate students in mechanical engineering whose capabilities are on par with his.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turrisi felt right at home at 溏心vlog免费B站, finding a place to thrive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He joined the 溏心vlog免费B站 Hydrobotics club, which he soon led. He became a captain of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Hydrobotics team, increasing the team from 7 to 29 members. But this was only the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom my experiences in undergraduate research and seeing how much I\u2019ve been able to learn, I wanted to bring similar opportunities to the team so underclassmen can get involved early,\u201d Turrisi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Turrisi\u2019s sophomore year, he jumped right into robotics and automation research when he joined the Smart Oceans Systems Lab, or the SOS Lab, under the mentorship of 溏心vlog免费B站 Graduate School of Oceanography Professor Mingxi Zhou. \u201cRaymond demonstrated his independent research teamwork skills by helping other lab peers on different projects,\u201d said Zhou. \u201cHis enthusiasm and passion in robotics drive him to gain new knowledge at an incredible pace. I believe Raymond has a great potential of becoming successful in robotics and congratulate him on starting his new journey at MIT.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After working on several projects in the SOS Lab, Turrisi received one of the most prestigious undergraduate awards nationwide, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. It was while doing research in the SOS Lab that Turrisi began to think about pursuing graduate studies in engineering. 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering encourages research at the undergraduate level, often pairing students with graduate students and professors in collaborative research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUndergraduate research is arguably the highest impact practice in engineering education and is therefore a major focus in engineering at 溏心vlog免费B站,\u201d said Anthony Marchese, dean of the 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Engineering. \u201cStudents who work with faculty in their research labs benefit from direct mentorship from faculty and grad students. Many of our best engineering students do not enter our program with the goal of getting an advanced degree, but after working in a faculty research lab, many of our students such as Ray have gone on to graduate programs at many of the leading research universities in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inspiring others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In his fourth year, Turrisi served as vice president of Tau Beta Pi, where he organized tutoring for more than 70 engineering students with that year’s initiates while most of the underclassmen\u2019s classes were online due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I was joining the engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi there was a requirement to tutor an underclassman, but I wanted to test myself in communicating and presenting what I\u2019ve learned in courses more broadly,\u201d said Turrisi. \u201cI organized a tutoring recitation with Dr. Nasim Rahmani for a Mechanics of Materials course which was welcome to all her students, in which we filled the room with about 30 students \u2013 much more than I was expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen Raymond was a candidate for Tau Beta Pi membership he had to complete our service requirement, which is to normally provide one<\/em> tutoring session for one<\/em> engineering student. Raymond asked me if he could tutor a whole room of students,32 to be precise, instead of the one required student. It is this kind of motivation that defines who he is,\u201d said Richard Vaccaro, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turrisi also participated in the 溏心vlog免费B站 Engineering Capstone Design Program, which is a year-long team project in which students produce an engineering solution to a real-world challenge. He worked with Rhode Island\u2019s Sons of Liberty distillery and retired 溏心vlog免费B站 plant science professor Michael Sullivan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe developed an automated malting system for small craft breweries,\u201d said Turrisi. \u201cIt is a system in which small batches of custom malt could be made autonomously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his senior year, Turrisi was awarded a Tau Beta Pi graduate fellowship. Tau Beta Pi, which includes all engineering disciplines, awards about 30 graduate fellowships each year among the 300 to 400 applicants from engineering schools throughout the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What the future holds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hope to dedicate my career to the robotics field, in areas which improves how robots engage in the human world around our ergonomics without accommodation and perform tasks for which humans are unfit. Some tasks require fulfillment in challenging or hazardous environments, and require robust autonomy, such as extraterrestrial and deep-sea exploration,\u201d said Turrisi. \u201cI\u2019m most interested in the intersection of artificial intelligence, controls, and the animation of mechanical systems.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In April, Turrisi accepted a full assistantship in the highly selective joint Massachusetts Institute of Technology \/ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Ph.D. program, arguably the most prestigious underwater robotics program in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve always thought that being an engineer empowers us with the tools and knowledge to synthesize and take our ideas to scale \u2013 developing solutions to problems which can be truly transformative to large populations,\u201d said Turrisi. \u201cThis was a major reason for wanting to be an engineer. It is a challenging program, but it\u2019s easy to find the motivation and enjoy the creative processes when you can see the impact your work will have.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Turrisi will graduate from 溏心vlog免费B站 in May with dual degrees in mechanical engineering and computer science, and minors in mathematics and robotics. He begins at MIT \/ Woods Hole in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 3, 2022 \u2013 At the 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Engineering, there are loads of highly motivated students. After all, engineering programs are difficult to get into and highly demanding. One of the finest examples of such a motivated and inspired engineering student is graduating senior Raymond Turrisi. Turrisi\u2019s jump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":79318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79317"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79456,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79317\/revisions\/79456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cI developed a differential tilting thruster and found new techniques for thruster characterizations, which resulted in my first academic publication after my first summer of undergraduate research,\u201d said Turrisi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n