Aerospace engineering assistant professor Ryan Starkey, at left, looks over a mini jet engine he is developing for unmanned aerial vehicles with undergraduate Chris Van Poolen, center, and doctoral candidate Nathan Woods, right. The research is funded by the Center for Space Entrepreneurship through its eSpace Venture Design program.

$5 Million Endowment Supports Engineering for Developing Communities Program
The teaching and outreach work of civil engineering Professor Bernard Amadei and his colleagues in the Engineering for Developing Communities program will take a giant leap forward, thanks to a $5 million commitment from Mort and Alice Mortenson, and builder M. A. Mortenson Company.  

A $500,000 commitment of university matching funds from the office of CU-Boulder Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson puts CU’s newly renamed Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities well on its way to becoming self-sustainable for the long term.

The gift establishes the endowed Mortenson Chair in Global Engineering for Amadei, whose renowned work has included the founding of humanitarian nonprofit Engineers Without Borders-USA. It also will support undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, research assistantships, curriculum development, Earn-Learn student apprenticeships and other activities of the Mortenson Center.

Mort Mortenson is a 1958 civil engineering graduate of CU-Boulder and chairman of M.A. Mortenson Company.

ME Senior Design Team to Compete in Eco-Marathon
A team of mechanical engineering seniors is preparing to compete in the 2009 Shell Eco-Marathon, making CU-Boulder’s second entry in this national competition to design and build the most fuel-efficient vehicle. The team hopes to achieve as many as 1,000 miles per gallon with its single-occupant car in the April 15-18 competition at the California Speedway.

Project manager T.J. Sharp says this year’s entry will use the same carbon-fiber faring developed for last year’s car, but will be completely different in all other respects. The team is advised by lecturer Marcelo Bergquist and Durning Laboratory Coordinator Greg Potts.

Service Learning as a Component of Funded Research
A new document detailing significant funding opportunities available for service learning as a component of National Science Foundation-funded research has been posted to the college website.
>>More info

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

Faculty
Jeremy Siek of electrical, computer, and energy engineering received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for his project, Bridging the Gap Between Prototyping and Production. The research aims to discover the scientific principles necessary for a single programming system to effectively support the incremental refinement of prototypes into production software, resolving classic conflicts between flexibility and safety, and between abstraction and performance.

Kenneth Strzepek of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering has been appointed the sixth Arthur Maass-Gilbert White Fellow by the Institute for Water Resources (IWR) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Strzepek will assist with the launching of an expanded IWR program aimed at developing technically sound, practical plans and procedures for water adaptation to climate change.

Bernard Amadei of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering of civil, environmental and architectural engineering received the Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award from the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University.

Kristi Anseth of chemical and biological engineering has been named a fellow of the Materials Research Society.

Christopher Bowman of chemical and biological engineering has been selected to receive the Charles M.A. Stine Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Materials Engineering and Sciences Division.

Dejan Filipovic of electrical, computer, and energy engineering has received a $650,000 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program grant that will fund a fully functional anechoic chamber for electromagnetic testing in the 1-110 GHz range.

Students
Brian Rigney, who just completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering, has been chosen as one of four finalists for the conference-wide Best Student Paper Award at the 2009 American Control Conference.  Lucy Pao and Dale Lawrence co-authored the paper, “Adaptive Inverse Control for Settling Performance Improvements.”

The Wilberforce Pendulum Microgravity Team led by aerospace engineering sciences senior Kristian Hahn has been accepted into NASA’s 2009 microgravity flight season and assigned a flight on the KC-135 between June 4 and June 13.  The team’s mission is to determine the coupled angular and linear modes of a spring pendulum without the influence of gravity. A similar experiment was attempted during a NASA Skylab mission, however the students believe their novel design will have improved results.

Staff
Laurels Sessler of environmental engineering has given 30 years of service to the university

New Faculty & Staff
Welcome to the following new staff joining the college:

Michael Holberg, program assistant, chemical and biological engineering
Sandra Crotteau Krizek, general professional, chemical and biological engineering

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