Vanessa Rigoglioso

I'm Vanessa Rigoglioso! I graduated from Boston College in Fall 2025, majoring in Human-Centered Engineering and minoring in Mathematics.

I'm one of the 27 inaugural engineers at BC (read more about HCE here). I put all of my favorite engineering projects throughout my time at BC in this Google Drive folder (my top two are my e-waste project from Junior year and my water filtration project from Senior year).

I worked in the BC Experimental Math and Machine Learning Lab (ExpMMLL) in 2025.

My email is vanessarigoglioso@gmail.com or vanessa.rigoglioso@bc.edu

Senior Impact Project: 2025

Here's a quick video about mine and my classmates' senior engineering projects! My group's project, Systematic Parallel Processing of Point of Use Ceramic Water Filters, is first for each category (time stamps are 0:45 for motivation and 1:45 for problem statement).

My group members were Will Gotanda and Alice Huang! A huge thank you to Prof. Ali Salifu for being such an amazing advisor, and our Senior Impact Project professors, Profs. Glenn Glaudette, Siddhartan Govindasamy, and Susan Pan.

Outside of class...

Outside of class, I spend most of my time as a volunteer with the American Cancer Society. I had the honor of being a co-President of Boston College Relay For Life as a Junior and Senior, and attended the ACS Campus Leadership Summit in 2023 and 2024. BC Relay is one of the largest collegiate Relays in the nation, and has been at BC since 2007. Over the past 18 years, the BC community alone has raised over $2,000,000 for the American Cancer Society. BC Relay goes beyond fundraising: we have advocacy initiatives on campus to raise awareness, volunteer at the Boston Hope Lodge (free housing for cancer patients receiving treatment), provide a safe space for those impacted by cancer, and, most importantly, built a community of kind students at BC.

I've volunteered with the ACS since 2018 as a member of my high school's Relay For Life, but I got much more involved with RFL when I got to BC as a freshman and became Chair of Mission and Advocacy as a sophomore.

Relay For Life (Vertical).mov

BC Relay For Life 2025

Candy Land for a Cure

This year, we raised over $81,000 for the American Cancer Society. This is the 8th most of any college/university in the U.S. Not only did we have more participants and fundraised more than last year, but we had more mission, advocacy, and volunteering initiatives than ever before.

ACS Campus Leadership Summit 2025

This is from the 2024 RFL Campus Leadership Summit in Chicago, where BC Relay was recognized as a Top Event! We met with the most impactful ACS volunteers from all over the nation.

I was the founding Vice President of Boston College's chapter of Society of Women Engineers for Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years! Nava Bozorgmehri was my amazing president; I am super proud of how hard she worked at establishing the chapter, and we were successful! I am so excited to see how the club grows throughout the coming years.

Outside of Boston College...

Outside of class, I love running, reading, watching hockey, and crafting. I love using my engineering skills to create things -- from 3D printing Christmas decorations and to building and painting shelves for my room. As for hockey, I had never really watched hockey until I was a Freshman at Boston College, and attended a BC men's hockey game. I was immediately obsessed, and decided it would be my new thing. I learned everything I could about hockey, and went to every single BC game I could possibly go to as an undergrad. My favorite NHL team is the Devils, and PWHL team is the Fleet. From there, I became the "sports girl" amongst my friends; they started talking to me about whatever sport they were into, and I started getting sucked into those, too. I've learned a lot about baseball and football since then -- I've always been a NY Yankees fan and a NY Giants fan.

I am also a high school and college math tutor, which I've been doing for a few months and really enjoy.