Nicholas D’Angelo learns how engineers can influence public policy

Some day soon, Nicholas D’Angelo Jr. will be working to solve the enormous challenges corrosion poses to our country’s infrastructure. Thanks to a nine-week internship this summer in the nation’s capital, he’s well versed on the part public policy can play in meeting those challenges.

The corrosion engineering major was one of 12 students chosen from across the United States to be part of the nine-week WISE Program (Washington Internships for Students of Engineering). The goal of the WISE Program is to introduce future engineers and scientists to the public policy making process. The students learn how they can contribute their growing technical knowledge to impact the legislative process and policy making.

The program was a good fit for D’Angelo, who chose his major so that, “I could make a difference in a field that affects almost every aspect of our lives,” he notes.

“Working in Washington, D.C., was an unbelievable experience,” adds the enthusiastic D’Angelo, a Williams Honors Scholar who will graduate in 2018. “I had the opportunity to meet with White House officials, tour the East Wing of the White House, visit U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office, and visit various think tanks and political organizations. Through my research, I had the opportunity to talk with government officials and people from private industry concerning clean water regulation.”

The result of his research, like the other interns, appears in the 2016 edition of the WISE Journal of Engineering and Public Policy. D’Angelo, who wrote “An Aging Infrastructure: Policy Recommendations to Modernize Aging Water Distribution Networks to Protect Human Health,” was sponsored for his internship by ASTM International.

The 2016 WISE interns — UA's Nicholas D'Angelo Jr. is at the top on the left.

The subject of D’Angelo’s research has been very timely, given the lead contamination discovered in the water supply of Flint, Mich., earlier this year.

“We’ve divested and forgotten about our water distribution infrastructure,” explains D’Angelo, a graduate of Theodore Roosevelt High School in Kent. “The goal of my research was to identify how these regulations can be crafted to incentivize lead-based piping replacement and ensure water systems have the tools required to mitigate future issues.”

D’Angelo had the opportunity to present his research on Capitol Hill and he will be doing the same in November at the 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

He hopes to continue this research in graduate school, where he plans to earn a master’s degree in material engineering or engineering and public policy.

For now though, he’s focused on his cooperative education experience this semester at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. He is currently exploring nondestructive electrochemical measurement techniques to identify corrosion degradation mechanisms.

“What fascinates me are the implicit connections between public policy, basic laboratory research and engineering applications,” says D’Angelo. “The flow of federal funding supports critical American academic and commercial research priorities throughout the nation. I’ve been able to witness this firsthand from my work in Akron’s research labs, projects during my co-ops and my summer internship. I couldn’t be more proud to be a Zip.”