Aerospace & Energy Systems Building Moves Ahead
The college’s program plan for the proposed Aerospace and Energy Systems Building cleared its first set of hurdles in March, gaining approval from the Boulder Campus Planning Commission, the Chancellor’s Executive Committee, and the CU Board of Regents. The proposed building, which would be a future addition to the Engineering Center Complex north of the Discovery Learning Center (DLC) and east of the aerospace wing, will now go on to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education for review.

The program plan was developed to support two major strategic investments for the college and campus, and it would allow for expansion of the aerospace engineering department along with portions of ECE and CEAE that are involved in energy systems and sustainability. As envisioned, the building would include 43,924 assignable square feet, similar in size to the DLC.

Engineering Entrepreneurship Certificate Launched
The Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program is partnering with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship to offer an Engineering Entrepreneurship Certificate at both the undergraduate and graduate levels starting this fall.  The undergraduate “E-ship” curriculum will be integrated with the departmental senior design project courses to provide a hands-on entrepreneurship experience. Students enrolled in the certificate program also will take core courses in business management, marketing, and finance taught by EMP faculty, before entering the Deming Center’s capstone course in business plan development. Undergraduate engineering students will emerge from the program with a prototype product and business plan enabling them to launch a real-world venture. For more information, contact Kurt Smith, EMP scholar in residence, at kurt.smith@colorado.edu.

COSGC Students Win High-Altitude Flight
A team of first-year CU engineering students has won a flight through NASA’s High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) competition.  The team, which includes students Brock Kowalchuk, Grant Fritz, Kyle Kemble, Viliam Klein, Matt Zemel, Josh Hecht, Ahna Isaak, Gavin Kutil, Evan Townsend, and Scott Randolph, will continue work on the project it started in the Gateway to Space course last fall—the demonstration of a stratospheric observing platform system. 

At the end of the course, the students worked with COSGC Director Chris Koehler and science advisors from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Dartmouth College to submit a proposal to the HASP program, which offers a NASA flight opportunity designed to carry up to 12 student payloads to an altitude of 36 kilometers using a small-volume, zero-pressure balloon. The project may lead to further opportunities with SwRI and Dartmouth team, and ultimately could lead to the development of an observing platform as powerful as the Hubble Telescope.  Launch of the 20-kilogram CU Space Grant HASP payload is scheduled for September 2008.

Honors & Awards
Congratulations to the following individuals on their outstanding achievements:

Faculty
David Clough of chemical and biological engineering has been selected to receive the Robert Stearns Award from the CU Alumni Association in recognition of extraordinary service to the university. The award will be presented at a ceremony scheduled for May 7.

Wei Tan, Harold Park and Ronggui Yang of mechanical engineering, along with Scott Bunch who will join the ME department in August, have been selected to receive Young Faculty Awards from the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, Microsystems Technology Office. The awards provide $150,000 to each faculty member to develop and validate an innovative concept during the coming year.

Penina Axelrad of aerospace engineering sciences has been named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Martin Dunn of mechanical engineering has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Klaus Timmerhaus, professor emeritus of chemical engineering has been selected to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Engineering Education's chemical engineering division.

The following faculty are recognized for milestones in their years of service to the university during the spring semester:
Wayne Ambler, Herbst Humanities, 5 years
Will Medlin, chemical and biological, 5 years
Christine Hrenya, chemical and biological, 10 years
Victor Bright, mechanical, 10 years
Elizabeth Bradley, computer science, 15 years
Jeffrey Forbes, aerospace, 15 years

Staff
The following staff are recognized for milestones in their years of service to the university during the spring semester:
JoAnn Zelasko, dean’s office, 5 years
Lee Ann Stevens, civil, environmental and architectural, 10 years
Denise Carlson, ITL Laboratory, 15 years
Sandy Spahn, chemical and biological, 20 years
Cyndi Alvarado, civil, environmental and architectural, 20 years

Rebecca Scala of aerospace engineering sciences received the Employee Recognition Award for March.

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