|
If you have trouble reading this e-mail, go to http://ecadw.colorado.edu/eNotes/may08
|
|||||||
 |
May 2008 CU Engineering News & Events | ||||||
|
In This Edition click to view topic
Domino Award Presented in Computer
Science |
CU Students Enter Shell
Eco-Marathon |
|
|||||||
Domino Award Presented in
Computer Science The Domino Award was co-founded by Professor Clayton Lewis and alumnus Herb Morreale (CompSci ’91), who explain: “Domino Theory is a framework that helps people understand that no matter how large or small your hopes and dreams are, you can meet them by seeing the world around you as a set of dominos…All it takes is one small strategic action to set big things in motion!” According to Morreale’s blog: “Did you know that in a topple of only nine dominoes, it's possible to knock over a domino 15,000 times the mass of the first domino? And, when the last domino falls, it will have more than 2 million times the energy of the first?” The student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery set up a 1,200-piece domino topple for the award ceremony. CU Students Enter Shell Eco-Marathon
CU-Boulder mechanical engineering students stepped up to a new challenge by entering this year’s Shell Eco-Marathon, a national competition among university teams to design and build a car that maximizes fuel efficiency. Approximately 250 engineering students from across the country gathered at the California Speedway April 11 to see how far their cars could travel on a single gallon of gas.
The challenge was a good match for CU students because of their strong interest in sustainability, and the Eco Marathon vehicle attracted several interested sponsors who donated materials. The CU team, which included students David Levine, Jack Conner, David Boguski, Anna Cowan, Buck Kempner, Andrew Gordon, Greg Paluska, and David Morse, designed and built the lightest weight vehicle in the competition (weighing about 70 pounds), with a carbon-fiber faring and modified small airplane combustion engine. Daria Kotys-Schwarz, who advised the students along with Greg Potts, said it was a phenomenal project from a materials perspective, although it was a lot to take on for the first year. The team experienced a last-minute mechanical problem, but the department plans to continue the project with a second team competing in the 2009 event.
CBPI Helps Golden Achieve
Sustainability Goals While citizen groups have identified a number of promising efforts that could be explored to accomplish their objectives, City Manager Mike Bestor saw the need for a different type of support that aligned perfectly with the CBPI’s area of expertise. Frequently, businesses and governments know what they want to do, but have difficulty in achieving their objectives due to the lack of a sound strategic planning and policy deployment process, according to CBPI Director Steven Ouellette. Graduate students in the Engineering Management Program, who are taught just such a process as part of their curriculum, are now helping teams in Golden create a hierarchical structure and a plan for how to accomplish their objectives. By identifying critical measures, determining the improvement required, and prioritizing and organizing the activities, the EMP students can provide great value to the city.
Honors
& Awards
Faculty Regan Zane of electrical and computer engineering was selected to receive the Peebles Innovation in Education Award. The winner of this $2,000 college award is selected by John and Mercedes Peebles from nominations made by students. Dan Connors of electrical and computer engineering received the Sullivan-Carlson Innovation in Teaching Award, presented at the Engineering Design Expo on April 26. The winner is selected by the students of the Engineering Excellence Fund. John Zhai of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering has been selected to receive an environmental award for Green Faculty at the 2008 CU-Boulder Sustainability Awards Ceremony. The award, which was presented by the chancellor April 25, announces the campus’ appreciation for his commitment to reducing the burden that the CU campus places on the environment. Bill Emery, Steve Nerem, George Born and Bob Leben of aerospace engineering sciences were selected to participate on NASA’s Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) Science Team. The OSTM Jason-2 satellite will be launched on June 15, 2008 and is a follow-on to the very successful TOPEX/POSEIDON and Jason satellite altimeter missions. Fred Glover of electrical and computer engineering has joined the scientific board of the LANCS Initiative, a new research undertaking launched in the United Kingdom. The initiative will receive approximately $26 million over a five-year period from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and four universities within the UK, and includes among its stated aims “the development of a major program of international outreach to support collaborations with colleagues from around the world.”
The following faculty members are planning retirements this summer:
Staff Ellen Morrison of civil, environmental and architectural engineering received the Employee Recognition Award for May.
Students Aerospace engineering sciences students took first and second place in the team category for their papers at the AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference in April. Students S. J. Lawrence-Simon, S. Wilson, and Christina Wolfskill took first place; David Berman, C. Hatcher, and Lindsay Marek took second place.
The
following undergraduates won awards at the April 18 Discovery Learning
Symposium:
The
following students received the Distinguished Senior Award at the
Engineering Awards Banquet April 25:
Annual Ski
Race
New Faculty & Staff |
|||||||
