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Cover Story
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Structural lab gift A $150,000 gift from Wallace and Julia Sanders will result in the renovation of the Structural Engineering Laboratory II in Town Engineering. Plans include the construction of a testing floor and reaction frames, which will make the laboratory conducive to testing structural components. “We’d like to see the gift make a significant improvement in the ability of the facility to support structural research and training and to inspire others to help the department improve all of its laboratories,” Wallace Sanders said. “We wanted to return something in recognition of those benefits while we could see their effects on the department and university,” he added. “We also appreciated the education our two children had at ISU.” Their daughter, Linda, is a 1981 graduate of the hotel, restaurant, and institution management program, and David, their son, is a 1984 graduate in civil and construction engineering. Defense grant awarded Shanker Balasubramaniam, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was recently awarded a $450,000 Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) research grant. His research, which is in conjunction with the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana where he worked before coming to Iowa State, will focus on developing methods for conducting computer simulations of proposed defense systems. The grant is for three years and will help fund Balasubramaniam’s work on fast time-domain integral equation solvers for large-scale electromagnetic analysis. High-speed jet propulsion technology receives a boost John Tannehill was recently awarded a $58,000 grant from NASA to develop a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method to analyze the performance of air-breathing engines called scramjets (supersonic combustion ramjets). These engines are under consideration for future launch vehicles to potentially replace the space shuttle. One idea is to improve the performance of scramjet engines by using a magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) energy bypass system. Tannehill, a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, and two of his graduate students are currently using CFD techniques to predict the theoretical performance of a scramjet MHD energy bypass system. Simulating the flow field inside the engine, according to Tannehill, is critical to improving the aero-thermodynamic and propulsion efficiency of scramjet engines. They have developed a new code to compute two-dimensional, supersonic MHD flow fields more accurately and efficiently. The ultimate goal of the research is to compute the entire flow field inside an MHD energy bypass propulsion system. Computer security device wins award Palisade Systems Inc., an ISU Research Park company started by Doug Jacobson, has received a 2001 R&D award. The company markets Packethound Protocol Management Appliance, a computer security network device that manages or blocks access to bandwidth eating, file sharing, and streaming applications. The device is based on technology developed by Jacobson, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of ISU’s Information Assurance Center. It is a combination of computer software and hardware that allows systems administrators to manage, monitor, or completely block file sharing and streaming applications (Napster, Gnutella, Freenet, RealAudio/RealVideo) on a machine-by-machine or network-by-network basis. According to Jacobson, managing these applications is crucial because Napster, Gnutella, and other such services can hurt a company’s organizational productivity and network bandwidth. “The use of PacketHound can increase a company’s bandwidth, reduce liabilities, and monitor or enforce a company’s Internet usage policy,” Jacobson added. “We have had customers who have seen more than a 50 percent increase in bandwidth by using PacketHound.” Faculty honors Max Porter, professor in the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, was recently named an honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). An honorary membership recognizes the individual’s acknowledged eminence in a branch of engineering, arts and science related to engineering, and the fields of engineering education and construction. Fewer than 500 honorary memberships have been awarded since ASCE’s inception in 1852. Karl Gschneidner, Jr., Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of Engineering and senior scientist at the Ames Lab, received an honorary membership to The Japan Institute of Metals (JIM). In an award ceremony held at Chiba Institute of Technology in Narashino City, Japan, Gschneidner was recognized for outstanding achievements in advancing the science and technology of metallurgy and materials science. He presented an invited lecture during the institute’s annual meeting held in conjunction with the award ceremony. Roger Berger, professor in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, recently received an award established in his honor at the 13th Annual Quality Management Conference held in Orlando, Florida. He has the distinction of being the first recipient of the award, which will bear his name in recognition of his long-term commitment to the Quality Management Division of the American Society for Quality. The award also recognized his initiative in establishing the conference 13 years ago under joint sponsorship with ISU. |
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