[{"id":1827,"date":"2026-10-21T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1827"},"modified":"2026-10-20T18:20:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T18:20:52","slug":"meet-the-faculty-gustavo-cardona-department-of-mechanical-and-nuclear-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/10\/21\/meet-the-faculty-gustavo-cardona-department-of-mechanical-and-nuclear-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Faculty: Gustavo Cardona, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gustavo Cardona, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/a>, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, joins the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) College of Engineering from the University of Delaware. In this Q&A series, we get to know faculty who recently joined VCU Engineering. Cardona shares his thoughts on why he joined VCU, his research, teaching and what he enjoys doing outside the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What attracted you to the VCU College of Engineering?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I was drawn to VCU Engineering for the opportunity to build an interdisciplinary robotics research program in a growing research environment. My work sits at the intersection of robotics, control, artificial intelligence and human-robot interaction, so I was especially interested in a university that encourages collaboration across traditional disciplinary boundaries. Virginia Commonwealth University also offered me the opportunity to develop my own research group, the Planning, Autonomy, and Reliable Control for Embodied-Systems (PARCE) Lab, while collaborating with faculty working in areas ranging from autonomous systems to nuclear engineering and other safety-critical applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the application of your research? How are you planning to continue that work with VCU Engineering?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My research focuses on developing autonomous robots that can operate safely and reliably in complex environments, particularly when they interact with people or other robots. One part of my work studies human-robot collaboration and shared autonomy, where a human and a robot must decide how to distribute control and responsibility during a task. I also work on formal methods, planning, multi-robot systems and techniques that let us mathematically specify what a robot should do and verify whether its behavior meets those requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At VCU, I am building PARCE Lab. We are working with platforms like humanoid robots, robotic manipulators and teams of aerial robots. My goal is to combine theoretical work in planning, control and formal verification with experiments on real robotic systems. I also see strong opportunities to work with researchers across VCU on applications where reliable autonomy and human interaction are particularly important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope to accomplish during your first five years at VCU?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My main goal is to establish a research group with a strong identity in safe and reliable robot autonomy. I want PARCE-LAB to be a place where undergraduate and graduate students can work on both the theoretical foundations of robotics and experiments with real systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a research perspective, I hope to develop a sustained program around human-robot collaboration, formal methods for robotics and multi-robot autonomy, while building partnerships within VCU and with researchers at other universities and government laboratories. I also want to support students in publishing strong research, attending major robotics and control conferences, and developing the technical independence they will need for their own careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get into your field of research?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I was drawn to robotics because it brings together several areas I found interesting: mathematics, control, computation and physical systems. What became especially intriguing to me was the question of how we can make autonomous systems behave reliably when the environment is uncertain and when people are part of the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That eventually led me toward control, formal methods and human-robot interaction. Rather than asking only whether a robot can complete a task, I became interested in questions such as whether we can specify precisely what the robot is expected to do, reason mathematically about its behavior and provide guarantees about safety while still allowing the robot to adapt to a human or a changing environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you describe your teaching style, and what can students expect when they step into your classroom?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I try to connect mathematical concepts to physical intuition and implementation. In robotics and control, students often encounter equations before they have a clear picture of what those equations mean for an actual system. I prefer to start with the physical problem, develop the mathematical model, then show how the mathematics becomes an algorithm or controller that can be implemented on a robot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students can expect me to emphasize understanding rather than memorization. I want them to be able to explain why a method works, what assumptions it depends on, and what happens when those assumptions no longer hold. Whenever possible, I also connect the material to simulation and real robotic systems so students can see the relationship between theory and practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you enjoy most about your field and about working with students?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One thing I enjoy about robotics is that abstract ideas eventually have to confront the physical world. A method can look elegant mathematically, but putting it on a real robot quickly exposes assumptions, limitations and new research questions. I enjoy that combination of theory and experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with students is rewarding for a similar reason. I particularly enjoy seeing students move from learning an existing method to asking their own questions about why something works and how it could be improved. That transition from following instructions to thinking independently as an engineer or researcher is one of the most satisfying parts of advising students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides your academic work, what is something you’re passionate about or like to do in your free time?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I am a big basketball fan. I enjoy watching the NBA and following the season, and I also like playing basketball whenever I can. It’s one of my favorite ways to disconnect from work and stay active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are you liking Richmond so far? Have you discovered something in particular you enjoy, a place or an event?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have really enjoyed Richmond so far. One of my favorite things about the city is the James River and having such a large outdoor space so close to downtown. I have also enjoyed the weather and being able to spend more time outside. Richmond has a great variety of restaurants as well, so trying different places around the city has been a fun part of getting to know the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gustavo Cardona, Ph.D. joins VCU’s Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, where he is establishing the PARCE Lab to advance research in autonomous robotics, safety-critical control, and human-robot interaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1829,"featured_media":1828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1238,1145],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mne","tag-gustavo-cardona","tag-new-faculty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1829"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1829,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions\/1829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1821,"date":"2026-10-20T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1821"},"modified":"2026-10-19T17:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:30:32","slug":"new-dry-powder-system-aims-to-deliver-two-treatments-to-the-lungs-at-once","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/10\/20\/new-dry-powder-system-aims-to-deliver-two-treatments-to-the-lungs-at-once\/","title":{"rendered":"New dry powder system aims to deliver two treatments to the lungs at once"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

P. Worth Longest, Ph.D., left, and Michael Hindle, Ph.D., demonstrate an aerosol delivery device. Named VCU’s 2025 Innovators of the Year, they have spent two decades attacking inhaled drug delivery from both ends: Longest on devices and transport in the College of Engineering, Hindle on formulation in the School of Pharmacy. (Photo credit: Will Rummel)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A VCU Commercialization Fund award will help Michael Hindle and P. Worth Longest test a platform that repairs the lung’s surfactant layer while delivering a drug to the same tissue.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By John Battiston<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inhaled medicine sounds like it should be the simplest kind of medicine there is. You breathe it in, and it goes where it needs to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It usually doesn’t. The respiratory system evolved as a filter, engineered to trap foreign particles high in the airway so that mucus can clear them. Even the most modern commercial inhalers deliver only about 20% of a dose to an adult’s lungs; scale those airways down to a premature infant, and the figure falls to roughly 1%. Inhaled therapeutics fail in testing often because too little of the drug arrives, not necessarily because it is wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For two decades, Virginia Commonwealth University researchers Michael Hindle<\/a>, Ph.D., and P. Worth Longest<\/a>, Ph.D., have been engineering that delivery problem from both ends. Hindle, the Peter R. Byron Distinguished Professor and interim chair of the Department of Pharmaceutics<\/a> in the School of Pharmacy, focuses on formulation. Longest, the Alice T. and William H. Goodwin Jr. Distinguished Chair in the College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering<\/a>, handles the device and transport side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Named VCU’s 2025 Innovators of the Year<\/a>, the pair is now advancing a patent-pending platform that does something no inhaled product currently does: treat the lung’s own damaged machinery and the disease at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three ingredients, one particle<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The platform combines a therapeutic \u2014 whether an anti-inflammatory, an antibiotic, an antiviral or a vaccine antigen \u2014 with a phospholipid-based synthetic lung surfactant and a hygroscopic material such as salt or sugar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the lung, the lipid layer that lines the alveoli and lets them expand and collapse without sticking shut is called the surfactant layer. When a lung is injured, it is among the first things to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Damage to the surfactant layer is greatly underappreciated right now, because it just hasn’t been treatable before without a highly invasive procedure,” Longest said. “You need to treat that damage and restore surfactant function, but you also need to treat the inflammation that comes with it. You can think of it as a co-treatment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the lung surfactant replaces the damaged surfactant layer, the hygroscopic material absorbs moisture in the lung and swells, so particles small enough to slip past the throat don’t simply get exhaled again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surfactant also spreads on contact, carrying the co-delivered drug across the enormous internal surface area of the lungs in a thin film. It can potentially carry a drug to regions that are poorly ventilated and therefore hard to reach otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Even modern commercial inhalers deliver only about 20% of a dose to an adult’s lungs, and roughly 1% to a premature infant’s. A $50,000 VCU Commercialization Fund award will help Hindle and Longest test a platform that pairs a therapeutic with synthetic lung surfactant and a moisture-absorbing material to reach deep lung tissue. (Photo credit: Will Rummel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What the funding unlocks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hindle and Longest received a $50,000 Commercialization Fund award from VCU TechTransfer and Ventures<\/a> \u2014 part of the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation<\/a> \u2014 to generate the preclinical efficacy data the platform needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their team has already produced highly dispersible formulations pairing the surfactant with a corticosteroid, several antibiotics and an antiviral. What it has not yet done is show, in a preclinical model of acute inhalation injury, that the combination outperforms either component alone. Proving that level of effectiveness includes three milestones:<\/p>\n\n\n\n