ISU College of Engineering

College of Engineering E-News

		College welcomes new IMSE chair Gary Mirka joined the faculty July 1 as the new chair of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Prior to coming to Iowa State, Mirka served as a professor, associate department head, and director of graduate programs in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University. Mirka, who earned his PhD at Ohio State University in 1992, has more than $1 million in active research funding and has completed more than $2 million in sponsored projects. Mirka’s primary research interest is ergonomics, including spine biomechanics, cumulative trauma disorders, and biomechanical modeling. (News article) Workshop draws prospective students Students design and build a boat as part of the 2006 Engineering & Beyond workshop. During the next few weeks, 150 high school seniors will spend three days on the Iowa State campus as participants in Engineering & Beyond. Three sessions—July 8–11, 15–18, and 22–25—are filled to capacity with 50 students each. Fifty engineering faculty and staff and five student counselors—Megan Lamb, MSE 3; Bethany Lintin, IMSE 4; John O’Brien, ME 3; Dustin Salmons, AerE 1; and Kristina Staley, CBE 4—will help the students explore the breadth of opportunities offered in engineering. The office of Engineering Outreach and Recruitment runs the camp with Sadie Kohlhaas as program coordinator. Over the last five years, more than half of the participants have enrolled at Iowa State, including O’Brien and Staley. Staley says the workshop convinced her Iowa State was the place for her and helped her choose her major. She was drawn to chemical engineering after attending a session about insulin delivery research. New summer program offered The high interest in engineering summer programs has led to the development of the Engineers’ Impact Academy. The office of Engineering Outreach and Recruitment and the Department of Mechanical Engineering organized the event planned for July 22–24. Jodi Gilbertson is program coordinator. Faculty participants include LeAnn Faidley, Terry Meyer, Gloria Starns, Shankar Subramaniam, Sriram Sundararajan, and Eliot Winer. Jonathan Jones, AerE 3, and Rachel Terry, CBE 1, are counselors. Thirty high-ability high school students, who will be seniors in the fall, were selected based on applications that included an essay about an engineering-related issue they feel will affect society in their lifetime. Topics included biorenewable energy, health, waste, nanotechnology, and the advancement of technology. During the academy, faculty will engage the students in discussions and problem-solving activities related to political, economic, social, and technological aspects of such issues. Safety in the workplace The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech University has raised questions about safety on a university campus. A representative of the Iowa State Department of Public Safety (DPS) will give a 30-minute presentation on Tuesday, July 10, at 1:30 p.m. in 209 Marston. Topics that will be discussed include when to call DPS, what constitutes harassment, and what to do in a worst-case scenario. Bring your questions to this interactive presentation.			New technology makes top 10 list Designated an AE50 winner by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) in 2004, a fertilizer application system designed by Mark Hanna, ABE, has now been named one of the top 10 new products of the last 20 years. In honor of its centennial celebration, ASABE selected the top 10 new technologies in agriculture, food, and biological systems industries from among the 1,000 winners chosen since 1987. The awards program focuses on innovative achievements that improve the environment and people's lives. With research support from the Leopold Center, Hanna and his research team designed the technology that has the potential to reduce the amount of ammonia typically used on crops. Called the Impellicone, the technology is licensed to CDS-John Blue Company, an agricultural equipment manufacturer in Huntsville, Alabama. The technology will be showcased at the 20th anniversary celebration of the Leopold Center on July 11. (News release) Alum settles into new home in orbit From left: Clay Anderson, Fyodor Yurchikhin, and Oleg Kotov AerE alum Clay Anderson is now living and working on board the International Space Station. While his Russian colleagues, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, continue to troubleshoot computers, Anderson has been performing leak checks on the microgravity science glovebox. Anderson and Yurchikhin are also preparing for a spacewalk on July 20. To get Anderson’s perspective on his experience, check out his in-flight journal. National/international honors for students Mary Rasmussen, CCEE 6, earned the top score on course evaluations at the Intensive Program on Renewable Biomaterials held in Toulouse and Tarbes, France. The two-week program draws students from universities in the United States and Europe. Iowa State ABE students earned the top three places at the K. K. Barnes Student Paper Awards at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers meeting in Minneapolis. Ross Muhlbauer received first place with “Low-Cost Method for Monitoring Flow from a Vegetative Treatment System”; second place went to Jacob Bolson, “Temperature Stability of Zeltex AccuHarvest Mobile Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Units”; and Bryan Whitman took third with “Dairy Windrow Composting Infiltration/Rainfall Simulation.” Alum named dean at MIT Subra Suresh, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named dean of the MIT School of Engineering. He earned his MS in mechanical engineering at Iowa State in 1979. Suresh will assume his new leadership role July 23. (News release) Daniels wins IBM award Tom Daniels, ECpE assistant professor, won a 2007 IBM Faculty Award. The IBM Faculty Award program is a worldwide competitive cash awards program that fosters collaboration between researchers at leading universities and those in IBM research, development, and services organizations. With this award, Daniels will conduct research aimed at helping business computer application developers build more secure applications. (News release)


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