THE HUMAN FACE OF ENGINEERING Civil engineering graduate student Amelia Lyons gets help at the water pump from a Nepalese girl during an Engineers Without Borders visit to the rural farming community of Namsaling, Nepal. The CU student chapter is working on a safe drinking water plan for the community among other projects. During its May-June visit, the team also helped install a wireless local network to allow a government health worker to communicate with doctors at a remote hospital, and taught school children how to design and build LED lights for their classroom. (Photo/Tony Makepeace)

Fall 2008 Enrollment Grows
Engineering enrollment increased this fall to a record high of 4,255 students, including 3,022 undergraduates and 1,233 graduate students (of which 179 are enrolled online). The total enrollment includes 758 new first-year undergraduates, 85 new transfer students, and a total increase in the undergraduate population of 3.7 percent (108 students) over last fall.

The undergraduate enrollment is comprised of 20 percent women and 8 percent underrepresented minorities, which represents a small gain in diversity over last year. The graduate enrollment is 21.5 percent women and 4.9 percent underrepresented minorities. >> More information on enrollment trends and breakdowns by departments

Strategic Plan Looks Ahead to 2020
The college has completed a new strategic plan, “Engineering 2020: Vision for Excellence,” which will guide the college through the next decade. The plan outlines high goals, including continuing growth of the student body, along with faculty, staff, and research programs; enriching the educational experience of our students, and increasing the diversity and excellence of our students, faculty, and staff. For more information, select Engineering 2020.

Launch of High Altitude Student Payload

CU aerospace undergraduates Grant Fritz, Kyle Kemble, Ahna Isaak, and Viliam Klein went to New Mexico to support final integration and launch of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium’s High Altitude Student Payload (HASP) in September.

The 20-kg payload measured sky brightness during a 32-hour flight to provide greater evidence that lighter-than-air astronomical observing platforms are feasible. Images were sent to the ground in real-time from the 11.8 million-cubic-foot, zero-pressure balloon, which ascended to a near-space environment of 120,000 feet.

HASP is a NASA program run by the Goddard Space Flight Center. >>Additional photos and information

Prospective Student Video
The college has produced a new video for prospective engineering students, which can be viewed online through the college website as well as on the popular website, YouTube. Select student video to view the five-minute film.

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

Faculty
Ryan Starkey and Dale Lawrence of aerospace engineering sciences have been named Associate Fellows in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. They will be honored at a dinner in conjunction with the 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit in Orlando, Fla., in January.

Robert Leben of aerospace engineering sciences and CCAR has won a $560,000, five-year subcontract on a U.S. Department of Interior grant to Science Applications International Corp. to perform the  remote sensing component of a study on the "Dynamics of the Loop Current in U.S. Waters."

Bernard Amadei of civil, environmental and architectural engineering delivered the Georgia Institute of Technology Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering's Annual Distinguished Lecture in September. He spoke on "The Role of Engineers in Poverty Reduction: Challenges and Opportunities."

David DiLaura, who retired last year from civil, environmental and architectural engineering, was honored by the department at a Sept. 19 banquet attended by 100 alumni, faculty, and students.

The following individuals received faculty fellowships this fall:
Ronggui Yang, mechanical engineering, Sanders Faculty Fellowship
Jerry Qi and Harold Park, mechanical engineering, Chair's Faculty Fellowships
John McCartney, civil, environmental and architectural engineering, Barry Faculty Fellowship

Staff
Courtney Staufer of the Dean's Office received the Employee Recognition Award for October.

Students
Ryan Kennedy of computer science and applied mathematics has been selected to receive a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Former astronaut Vance Brand visited campus to present the award Oct. 1.

Amal Ramachandran Nair of aerospace engineering sciences won the American Geophysical Union's Outstanding Student Paper Award in Space Physics and Aeronomy for his presentation of “Inter-hemispheric comparison of gravity waves observed in PMCs from the CIPS experiment on board the AIM spacecraft” at the 2008 Joint Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

New Faculty & Staff
Welcome to the following new staff joining the college:
Cheryl Graham, administrative assistant, chemical and biological engineering

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