Happy 20th Anniversary, WIEP!

Nearly 200 alumnae, industry supporters, faculty, staff, and students joined in the Oct. 16 celebration of the Women in Engineering Program’s 20th anniversary. Above, from left to right, 1993 alumna Dewi Feaver celebrates with her daughter Kristin Feaver, a current student, 1993 classmate Dawn Henderson, and Miriam Maslanik, founding WIEP director.

Engineering Sampler Attracts 700
CU-Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science hosted more than 700 prospective students and parents at the Oct. 11 Engineering Sampler. Participants came from across Colorado and throughout the United States. 

Participants explored the various engineering disciplines by attending departmental information sessions and lab demonstrations.  Students and parents also had the opportunity to learn more about the Engineering Honors Program, the Engineering Quadrangle, and financial aid and scholarships, as well as to meet with faculty, staff, and students in the college. 

Astronaut Vance Brand Visits College
CU Alumni-Astronaut and Longmont native Vance Brand visited the College of Engineering and Applied Science Oct. 1—coinciding with the 50^th anniversary of NASA―to present a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation to senior Ryan Kennedy.  

Brand earned bachelor’s degrees in business and in aerospace engineering at CU, and also was awarded an honorary doctor of science by the university. Brand is a veteran of four spaceflights; the first was in 1975 on the historic Apollo-Soyuz test project, the first link-up of U.S. and Soviet spacecraft.

Brand told the audience, “The future of the space program depends on two things: continued public support and a pool of scholars like Ryan to carry on from the old guys like me.” Kennedy is a computer science and applied math major who also hails from Longmont.

ITL Awarded NSF Grants for New Initiatives
The National Science Foundation has awarded two Innovations in Engineering Education, Curriculum and Infrastructure grants to the college’s Integrated Teaching and Learning Program for research on engineering education.

The NSF grant to the new “GoldShirt Transitional Program” provides one-year pilot funding to create expanded opportunity and a performance-enhancing year for graduating high school students who are motivated but not yet fully prepared to succeed in an undergraduate engineering program. While increasing enrollment and retention of students historically underrepresented in engineering, Jackie Sullivan as primary investigator will lead engineering education research that unearths the key conceptual issues at the root of achievement gap and diversity barriers. The pilot program begins in fall 2009 with 15 students.

A second NSF grant provides three years of funding for a new program called “One Day’s Pay.” The goal of the program is to provide innovative and reasonably-priced design services for low-income customers in urban Denver and rural Colorado that are aimed at creating significant impact on lives while being extremely affordable — costing less than a single day’s pay. The approach involves creating an Engineering for American Communities student organization to manage design opportunities, while primary investigator Derek Reamon will direct the engineering education research, including the work of two PhD students, to examine the impacts of altruistic engineering on learning, attitudes, recruitment and retention.

Meanwhile, the ITL’s TEAMS initiative is expanding to include as one of its focus schools the new STEM certificate program starting in 2009 at Longmont’s Skyline High School. TEAMS will support the Skyline program through extensive professional development with science and math teachers, preparing them to incorporate engineering design projects in their classes—and to teach engineering-focused design electives highlighting contemporary engineering topics.

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

Faculty
Larry Carlson of mechanical engineering and Jackie Sullivan of ITL presented the Gordon Lecture at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Engineering Oct. 25. Their talk was called “Engineering—Because dreams need doing!”

Bernard Amadei of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering has been selected to receive the Golden Vector Award from the Pan American Federation of Engineers Associations, to be presented Dec. 2 in Brazil. He also is the recipient of the 2008 International Human Rights Award from the United Nations Association of Boulder County, for which he will be honored at a reception Dec. 10.

Alexander Repenning of computer science has been awarded a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation for his work on the IDREAMS project, aimed at engaging students in computer science through game design.

Roseanna Neupauer of civil, environmental and architectural engineering received the Charles A. Hutchison Memorial Teaching Award for 2008.

John Falconer of chemical and biological engineering received the Max S. Peters Faculty Service Award for 2008.

Doug Gin of chemical and biological engineering received the College of Engineering Faculty Research Award for 2008.

Staff
Bernadette Garcia of Space Grant received the College of Engineering Outstanding Staff Award for 2008.

Mindy Zarske of the ITL Program received the Employee Recognition Award for November.

The following staff will pass milestones in their service to CU-Boulder in November/December:
Carol Rowe ―10 years
Jana Murphy ― 20 years

New Faculty & Staff
Nathan Wright joins the college this month as director of recruiting and access, while
Lelei Finau-Starkey starts a new position as first-year experience coordinator.

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