For the Record, June 5, 2026

Article by UDaily staff Photo by Evan Krape June 05, 2026

University of Delaware community reports new honors and promotions

For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent honors and promotions include the following:

Honors

The University’s Blue Hens robotics team won the prestigious “Excellence in AI” award at the 2026 Farm Robotics Challenge. Team members competed against 59 four-year universities from the U.S. and around the world, showcasing their skill set in solving real-world agricultural problems. The Blue Hens focused on solving a physically demanding task — harvesting watermelons — by engineering an AI-powered pick-and-place mobile rover with a collaborative robot arm. The technology also included a vision-guided compliant vacuum gripper that could gently lift heavy, delicate watermelons without damaging them. Yin Bao, assistant professor in both plant and soil sciences and mechanical engineering, led the team, and James Adkins, director of the Carvel Research and Education Center, provided insight into the challenges watermelon growers face. Team members included undergraduate students Joseph Farley, Michael Acevedo, Katlego Matsipane, Thomas Nicosia, and Colin Coope as well as graduate students Ashish Reddy Mulaka, Annamalai Muthupalaniappan, Karthikeyan Mohan, Dharun Rajasekaran, Avdhesh Gaur and Ekaterina Hampton.

Promotions

The University of Delaware Police Department has announced the promotions of four of its officers:

Capt Adrienne Benevento was appointed to the UDPD in 2008. She was promoted to master corporal in 2015, sergeant in 2017, and lieutenant in 2020. She has served the agency as the Crisis Negotiations Team commander, the public information officer, and as a field training officer and certified instructor. She has had the opportunity to attend several leadership trainings such as the Delaware State Police Leadership Development Program, the ULEAD Fellows program and the Police Executive Research Forum: Senior Management Institute for Police. She currently serves as the support services commander.
Lt. Daniel Garibaldi was appointed to UDPD in 2008. He was promoted to master corporal in 2013, sergeant in 2015 and lieutenant in January of 2026. Garibaldi is a liaison officer with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a member of the UDPD Critical Incident Response Team and a member of the departmental Firearm’s Training Unit. He assists the department with various in-service departmental trainings and assists outside law enforcement agencies with instructor-level training as well. Garibaldi is currently assigned as the patrol operations commander.
Lt. Michael Baez was appointed to UDPD in 2008 and served in patrol until 2011. He was assigned to the Community Resource Unit from 2011 to 2017, promoted to master corporal in 2017 and to sergeant in 2019. He has served as the supervisor for the Criminal Investigations Unit since 2022 and has served on the Critical Incident Response Team since 2010. He has received a Life Saving Award, several letters of appreciation and distinguished unit citations. Baez was assigned as the Auxiliary operations commander.
Sgt. Richard Mantici was appointed to UDPD in 2010 and promoted to master corporal in 2016. He has served in Patrol, the Criminal Investigations Unit, as the Cadet Program coordinator and the training coordinator. He has received a Life Saving Award, Two Department Commendations, a Military Service Award and a Distinguished Unit Commendation.

To submit information for inclusion in For the Record, write to ocm@udel.edu and include “For the Record” in the subject line.