Congratulations to the over 100 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Fall 2025 graduates! Family, friends and members of the NC State ECE community gathered at McKimmon Center on December 11, 2025 to celebrate.
Dr. Morgan Dalman, a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. graduate, served as the student speaker. Dr. Dalman’s dissertation, “Contact-based simulation of glenohumeral loading and kinematics for understanding the mechanical underpinnings of musculoskeletal morphology and injuries,” reflects her research interests in using musculoskeletal modeling and simulation to investigate the mechanics of muscle and soft tissue, as well as how injury and disease affect these systems across the lifespan.
“When you model the human shoulder, or any complex system, you quickly learn that stability does not come from a single structure,” said Dr. Dalman. “It comes from a coordinated effort. From muscles that share loads, tissues that adapt and systems that self correct. In other words, strength is distributed. And that’s true for us too. Every one of us here reached this moment because of our own hard work and resilience, but also from a network of teachers who inspired us, mentors who guided us, friends who supported us, classmates who stayed up late debugging code with us, and families who believed in us, even on the days when we doubted ourselves. Today’s achievements belong to us, and to those who helped stabilize us along the way.”
Dr. Philip LeDuc was the guest speaker for this year’s ceremony. Dr. LeDuc (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University; post-doctoral fellow, Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School) is the William J. Brown Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, with appointments in Biological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computational Biology. He is a graduate of the department and a member of the #NCStateMAE Alumni Hall of Fame.
“I want to bring you back to NC State, a place that’s very near and dear to my heart,” said Dr. LeDuc. “It’s not just what you learn here, but who you meet, and your friends and your connections here. The people that I met here are still lifelong friends of mine… I implore you to look at your friends, look around you, and keep these connections for the rest of your life, and keep that as a part of who you are as an NC State grad.”
View the full image gallery from the ceremony here.
Once again, congratulations to the NC State MAE Class of 2025!