After serving seven years in the Air Force following high school and completing two years at Anne Arundel Community College, AJ Lozano is transferring to Johns Hopkins University this fall as a junior pursuing an undergraduate degree in civil engineering.

His decision to make the leap to one of the nation’s top research universities was shaped by his experience in the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute’s (ROSEI) 2024 summer research program. Now a National Science Foundation-funded initiative known as REU Site: Research on Sustainable Energy Technology and Systems (ROSETAS), the program introduced him to renewable energy research and the broader JHU engineering community.

AJ Lozano

“I was given a lot of creative freedom for this research project, but the general directive was to look into assessing potential offshore wind farm sites, particularly off the East Coast,” said Lozano, of Chesapeake, Virginia.

Lozano’s project involved building a tool using GIS software and publicly available survey data from sources such as the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The result was an interactive map that provided charts and created graphs comparing historical weather and oceanographic data for selected locations.

He worked under the mentorship of Yury Dvorkin, associate professor of civil and systems engineering and electrical and computer engineering, and Tomás Tapia, a PhD candidate in electrical and computer engineering. He also connected with other ROSEI-affiliated faculty, including Susanna Thon (associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and ROSEI associate director), Ben Schafer (the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil and Systems Engineering and ROSEI director), and Dennice Gayme (professor of mechanical engineering).

“Research, particularly in the field of renewable energy, was not something I had considered working on when I started my college education. So, it was very interesting to learn not only about the subject matter but also the process and applications of that field,” he said.

But it was the people he met that became the biggest factor in his decision to transfer. Though not a member of the Promoting Research Opportunities in Engineering Labs (PROPEL) program, he joined its organized trips and events, giving him multiple opportunities to meet people across the Homewood campus.

“The people I was put in contact with, however, had a big impact on my decision to apply to Hopkins. I met so many wonderful people, both inside and out of the ROSEI program, and I’ve already been able to reconnect with many of them. I’m excited to meet more,” said Lozano. “I’m certain that Hopkins will provide many opportunities to do all these things, both because of the diverse nature of the people there and its location in Baltimore.”

After graduation, Lozano plans to work in civil engineering—ideally for Baltimore City.

“I really like the idea of creating, maintaining, and improving systems that we all use and rely on every day,” he said.