When Glenn Foley’s trombone teacher needed a replacement for a breathing device he used to increase his students’ lung capacity, he knew where to turn for someone who could design and build an improved contraption.
As a music major who also studied mechanical engineering in a five-year dual-degree program at Notre Dame, Foley was able to design and 3D print a tube that forces trombone students to engage their diaphragm to increase air flow. The tube, similar to the Inspiron breathing device that respiratory patients might use in hospitals but which is no longer in production, can be adjusted to require more effort as the user improves.
“You buzz into it and then the ball goes up, and the cool thing about it is that if you inhale enough, the ball will stay up,” Foley said. “So it’s forcing you to constantly be switching back and forth. This thing would sort of combine the controllable aspect of the Inspiron with the fundamental principle of the Breath Builder. I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.”
Foley’s design is a perfect example of combining the creative elements of the right brain with the analytical functions of the left brain, a rare fusion he exemplifies at the 2025 Commencement.
His trombone teacher, Mark Fisher of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, agreed that the device was a “perfect marriage” of Foley’s capabilities as a musician and engineer.
“Very few people are able to do all that he does and at such a high level, certainly a rare and ultimate example of dichotomous, left/right brain ability and learning,” Fisher said. “He is an extraordinary person and student, having impressively juggled his engineering and music degrees during his time at Notre Dame with grace and distinction.”
Foley grew up in Evanston, Illinois, the youngest of three brothers. Both parents put themselves through college by working as a golf caddy or in a machine shop, and Foley said he learned from his parents to enjoy keeping extremely active.
“If I do something, I want to do it thoroughly and do a good job at it,” he said. “I like being busy, and I’m most productive and organized when I have a lot of things to manage.”
He started playing piano in second grade and trombone a year later. “I remember a funny picture of my first time holding it, where the trombone looks twice as long as I am tall,” Foley said.
While his parents may have pushed him toward that instrument, he likes the range and variety of sound the trombone can make.
“I think it approximates the human voice a little more than other wind instruments,” he said. “I’m not much of a singer, but that element brings a lot of freedom. The trombone’s role can range from choral church music to a brass band.”
Foley said he always liked making things in his grandfather’s machine shop. His oldest brother also studied mechanical engineering, but none of the family attended Notre Dame before him. He chose South Bend over the highly ranked engineering program at the University of Illinois in part due to the tight-knit community of Notre Dame’s residence hall culture.
The other draw was the Reilly Dual Degree Program in Engineering/Arts and Letters, which is designed to help “those most intimately engaged in the creation and implementation of technology have skills that go beyond technical competence and the opportunity to reflect deeply on the world their technical work will transform,” the website reads. The Reilly program also ensures that enrollees will be able to receive financial aid for all five years it takes to complete both degrees.
The divergence of the two disciplines attracted Foley from the start. When he needs a break from studying engineering, it feels great to practice for an upcoming recital or band performance. The pressure of a music performance makes giving an engineering presentation less stressful.
The Notre Dame Marching Band provided a sense of community, Foley said, especially after members began marching together following the COVID limitations of his first year. The 30-person trombone section included four music majors, he said, but he was the only one to specialize in trombone performance.
Being solo is why Foley sought out Mark Fisher, who also teaches trombone at DePaul University. He was able to combine a few in-person lessons a month with visits home. “I get to take lessons with a really amazing trombone teacher,” Foley said. “So in a way, it’s a good thing that I’m the only one because I get to follow my own path more.”
Foley landed his first engineering internship the old-fashioned way: His father drove him around to small engineering shops in Chicago during one break so he could hand-deliver his resume. That experience helped him get his next internship the following summer at Notre Dame’s Turbomachinery Lab. After another internship at Marmon Holdings in St. Louis, Foley found the high note with an internship at Northrop Grumman in San Diego.
“My site made an electronics unit for F-35s (a fighter plane)—that’s like the radio so the planes can talk to each other and identify other objects in the sky,” he said. “The downside of being an intern is that you’d have to have clearance to get near the really important stuff.”
What Foley did get was a job offer for after graduation. He will start as a manufacturing engineer in a Baltimore mission systems facility for his first year in Northrop Grumman’s rotational program. He’s sure he will be able to find some kind of band there, because his music days are not yet finished.
“I think it’s good for my brain to have another pursuit—they complement each other,” he said. “The process of preparing a musical performance, and the confidence it brings, has certainly been applicable to engineering-related situations such as job interviews or design presentations. And the technical approach of engineering is helpful in the music world if I’m struggling with a passage while practicing.”