Four faculty receive NSF CAREER Awards

Aliprantis	Cochran	Lin	Zou

Reaching an important milestone in their careers, four assistant professors in the College of Engineering have been awarded 2009 CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The faculty honored with this highly competitive award--Dionysios Aliprantis, ECpE; Eric Cochran, CBE; Zhiqun Lin, MSE; and Qingze Zou, ME--will each receive approximately $400,000 over five years in support of their respective research and educational efforts.

"The college is very proud of our four NSF CAREER awardees this year," says Balaji Narasimhan, associate dean of research and economic development. "These prestigious awards play a major role in launching our junior faculty's careers since they recognize the importance of integrating cutting-edge research and innovative educational programs." (News release)

New appointments for Mallapragada and Heindel

	Mallapragada

Surya K. Mallapragada, CBE professor and the Richard Stanley Chair in Interdisciplinary Engineering, has been named chair of CBE effective August 16. A member of the faculty since 1996, Mallapragada is also fieldwork proposal leader for bioinspired materials at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory. She succeeds James C. Hill, who has served as department chair since 2005.

	Heindel

Ted Heindel, professor and associate chair for academic affairs for the Department of Mechanical Engineering, assumed the role of interim chair of mechanical engineering on July 1. He will hold this appointment until the next permanent chair is in place. An open search for the chair position will begin in the fall. Heindel succeeds Jonathan Wickert, who is now dean of the College of Engineering.

New fiscal year brings changes to ECM

A (mostly) new name, a more strategic focus, a formal work-request process, and some retooled Web pages are just some of the changes being introduced by ECM as of July 1.

Yes, we're still ECM but the full name is shortened to Engineering Communications. And just as we've simplified our name, the changes we're making are intended to make us more efficient and focused while allowing us the flexibility to serve more of a strategic role in the College of Engineering.

Requesting work from ECM will now be done through a form on the Web. Feel free to contact someone on the staff if you have questions or wish to talk about a potential project, but all requests for work must be made via the standardized form. Also, all accepted work requests will be prioritized by us. Collegewide strategic initiatives come first; other college jobs are next; and noncollege work comprises the third tier. We will still strive to offer a wide variety of services and to meet tight deadlines when possible, but our focus is on the communications needs of the college.

You will see other changes, too. ECM will be reaching out to offer expert guidance to departments and units that are taking a bigger hand in providing their own communications needs. And be sure to visit the revamped college home page, with links to new video and news formats. Our own unit pages also feature some new elements.

We welcome your input as we implement these changes. Our goal is to improve continuously as we adapt to rapid developments in the communications field.

Iowa State to host colloquium on international engineering education

The College of Engineering and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will host the 12th Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education, October 22-25, 2009, at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center in Ames. This year's theme is Engineering for the Future--Global Pathways. The colloquium will provide a forum for leaders from universities, government, industry, and nonprofits to discuss and share ideas and best practices pertaining to the education of engineers for today's global workplace. For details, please see 12th Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education.

Chris Chu wins IBM Faculty Award

Chu

Figuring out how to meet the computing challenges of the future is a tough task for engineers, and it requires researching and developing solutions no one has tried before. One Iowa State computer engineer, Associate Professor Chris Chu, is conducting innovative research to improve integrated circuit (IC) designs used in computers and other electronic devices. The research is supported by a 2009 IBM Faculty Award Chu received this summer. (News release)

Grad student awarded Carver Scholarship Prize

	Wright

Mark Mba Wright, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering with a chemical engineering minor, has been awarded the 2009 George Washington Carver Scholarship Prize for Outstanding Student Achievement in Biorenewables. This is the second year the Bioeconomy Institute and the Biotechnology Industry Organization have awarded the $4,000 prize recognizing the research contributions of a student in Iowa State's biorenewable resources and technologies graduate program. (Featured news)

ABE faculty/students recognized at national meeting

A number of ABE faculty members received awards for outstanding service, dedicated leadership, and exemplary contributions at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) annual international meeting held in Reno, Nevada, in June. Congratulations to Matt Darr (Gale A. Holloway Professional Development Award), Matthew J. Helmers (Nolan Mitchell Young Extension Worker Award), Robert T. Burns (G. B. Gunlogson Countryside Engineering Award), Charles V. Schwab (NAMIC Engineering Safety Award), Hongwei Xin (Presidential Citation), and Ramesh Kanwar (John Deere Gold Medal). In addition, a paper by Betsy Pappas (USDA soil and water researcher and PhD alum), Ramesh Kanwar, Jim Baker, Jeff Lorimor, and Steve Mickelson received a superior paper award for their paper published in the 2008 Transactions of the ASABE.

An ABE student and two student clubs also received honors. Gayle Bishop, AE4, received the first-place award in the K. K. Barnes Student Paper Competition. The ASABE Student Club (engineering) received the first-place Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) Trophy Award, and the Agricultural Systems Technology Club (mechanization/technology) received the second-place AEM Trophy Award in recognition of outstanding initiative and accomplishments in ASABE student branch activities. With 28 undergraduate students in attendance, Iowa State received the first-place Student Mileage Award for traveling the most miles in the nation to participate in the 2009 ASABE annual meeting and conference.

E-News schedule

The next E-News will be published August 19. If you have news items or event items to include, please send them to mglanvil@iastate.edu by August 14. Beginning in September, E-News will be published twice a month.

News links and media spotlight

Intelligent compaction set to help secure civil infrastructure, says CCEE researcher--July 8

ECpE prof's new solar technology could pay off for Micron Technology--July 7

ME researchers develop software to simulate 'walking inside a body'--July 7

Iowa State gets virtual reality platform partner--July 1

The future of biorenewables descends on ISU--Video spotlight

Mark your calendars!

July 19 and July 26--Engineering & Beyond

July 23--STEM Camp

July 30, August 6, and August 11--Engineering--The 2050 Challenge Camp

August 8--Iowa State University Summer Commencement

E-News is distributed by Engineering Communications and Marketing.
If you have questions or news items to suggest, please contact Mary Jo Glanville at mglanvil@iastate.edu or call 515 294-8787.


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