UConn Engineering faculty, alumni and students all made the news recently. Here are a few items that got our attention:

– Freeman Cos., the civil engineering firm founded by Alumnus Rohan Freeman, is featured in the Hartford Courant. Freeman is looking to substantially increase his company’s staff. Freeman, who founded the company five years ago, grew up in Jamaica and came to Hartford after he graduated from high school

From the Courant:

Freeman took classes at Hartford State Technical College before transferring to UConn in 1986, but he had to leave college because he couldn’t afford to stay. He worked as a security guard, a land surveyor, and a public works employee.

“Whatever I could to make money to get through school,” he said. He finally graduated in 1995.

Go here to read the full article, by Mara Lee.

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Also Featured in the Courant recently is Dura Biotech, the company founded by UConn’s Eric Sirois. The article highlights innovations in Connecticut. Sirois has developed a novel heart valve replacement, which could be ready for animal testing later this year. From the article:

At the University of Connecticut, Eric Sirois recently graduated with a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. He used academic ties, his background as a submariner and medical industry experience to create a heart valve, inserted using a catheter, that’s 40 percent smaller than valves now in use.

Sirois founded Dura Biotech in 2012 at the UConn Technology Incubator Program after working for several years in the lab of Wei Sun, a UConn professor. Sirois also had a class with Hadi Bozorgmanesh, an engineering professor who helps students spin off startup firms. Previously, Sirois had been a machinist’s mate, supervising the engine room of the USS Virginia submarine, based in Groton.

Go here for the full article, by Dan Haar.

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And the Middletown Press features engineering students Rosse Gates and Caleb Gates, along with their two brothers, for an article about their family’s Eagle Scout legacy.

The newest to join the rank of Eagle Scout, Eli Gates, is a senior at East Hampton High School. He joins brothers, Drew Gates, 22, a University of Connecticut graduate, and twins, Rosse Gates and Caleb Gates, 20, both juniors studying engineering at the state college.

Go here to read the full article, by Kathleen Schassler.