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| Home : Volume 31 : Fall 2004 : | |
| College Notes | |
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HP donates equipment, funds for student programs
Hewlett Packard donated a variety of equipment in February 2004 to engineering student groups including the Society of Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, American Indian Science and Engineering Society, and the National Society of Black Engineers. The equipment includes digital cameras, monitors and printers. HP also donated funds for the college's Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program.
Douglass L. Henderson
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Henderson named associate dean for diversity affairs
Engineering Physics Professor Douglass Henderson has been named the college's associate dean for diversity affairs. He had been assistant dean for diversity since January 2001. Under his leadership, the office has expanded its recruitment and retention to include pre-college and graduate recruitment programming, and undergraduate and graduate community-building programs in the form of the undergraduate LEEDS (Leaders in Engineering Excellence and Diversity Scholars) and graduate GERS (Graduate Engineering Research Scholars) programs. He received his PhD in nuclear engineering from UW-Madison in 1987 and has previous work experience at both Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Kenforschungszentrum-Karlsruhe in Germany prior to joining the faculty in 1989. The Office of Diversity Affairs is a major player in recruitment and retention efforts for under-represented minority students on campus.
Engineering physics adds bachelor's degree
A new BS degree in engineering physics exposes students to the department's diverse, emerging technology-research programs and provides graduates with highly developed skills in those areas. Its initial focus areas — plasma science & engineering, nanoengineering, and scientific computing — will be modified as emerging technologies change and mature. The degree emphasizes research, math, physics, engineering and specialized education in an emerging technology, enables students to choose a technical focus area in their junior year, and includes a team project that culminates in a senior thesis. The degree consists of 63 common credits in the first two years and 65 required upper-level credits, which emphasize technical courses and activities aligned with current faculty research programs.
$6.9 million initiative aims to improve health measurement tools
Industrial Engineering and Population Health Sciences Professor Dennis Fryback will lead a four-year, $6.9 million project funded by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. Under "Norms and Performance Comparisons for 5 Health Indexes," Fryback, other UW-Madison faculty and graduate students, and collaborators from the University of California-Los Angeles and RAND Health, the University of California-San Diego, the University of Alberta, and the University of York in England, will address problems with current health-related quality-of-life questionnaires. The group hopes to use broad, nationally collected data sets to develop "crosswalks" among the different instruments so that their results can be compared. In addition, the researchers will establish health "averages" for U.S. adults as measured by the questionnaires, study how the way in which the surveys are administered (via phone or pen and paper) affects the results, and develop standards for measuring the results regardless of the method of administration.
Engineers Without Borders program wins fellowship
A project developed by the UW-Madison chapter of Engineers Without Borders to improve existing water conditions in the African country of Rwanda has been named a 2004-05 Wisconsin Idea Undergraduate Fellowship recipient by the UW-Madison Morgridge Center for Public Service. The fellowship program supports innovative service-learning projects and community-based research projects. The Rwanda project seeks to improve water systems in the country and identify sources of biological and chemical water contaminants in the rural community of Muramba. Students involved in the project include Matthew Bretl, Timothy Miller and Evan Parks, under the advisement of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Peter Bosscher.
New MBA program targeted toward engineers
A new master's of business administration program, "Strategic Management in the Life and Engineering Sciences" (SMILES), is being launched this fall and aims to help fulfill the global need for leaders in dynamic life sciences, agribusiness and engineering organizations. The program offers an opportunity for engineers to develop key business skills in the context of the university's internationally recognized depth in the life and engineering sciences. Curriculum for this new program includes leadership, entrepreneurial finance, negotiation and strategic management of knowledge assets, including intellectual property. Students interact with international professionals from high-impact firms, while graduates work in areas such as biotech, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, human interfaces with digital technologies, medical devices, law, accounting or consulting. "In concert with its sister part-time MS in biotech program, SMILES aims to solidify Madison's reputation as the best place in the world to find the fusion of strategic thinking, public policy and world-class science," says Mason Carpenter, an associate professor of business and executive director of the program. For more information about the respective programs, visit www.bus.wisc.edu/mba/smiles/ and www.ms-biotech.wisc.edu/.
Two research professors named
David H. Gustafson
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David Gustafson, formerly a professor in industrial engineering, has been named a research professor. Gustafson's interests in decision, change and information theory applied to health systems converge in the design and evaluation of computer-based systems to help people of all socioeconomic levels prevent and cope with major illness. His research teams have created systems to detect suicidal propensity, help teens adopt healthy behaviors, help health-care organizations implement quality improvement, and help people facing cancer, AIDS/HIV, heart disease, Alzheimer's, alcohol abuse, teenage smoking and sexual assault. A fellow of the Association for Health Services Research and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Gustafson joined the faculty in 1966 and retired in 2002. Currently he is director of the Network for Improvement of Addiction Treatment, director of the $10 million National Cancer Institute Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research, and principal investigator for CHESS: Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System.
John Santarius
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John Santarius, senior scientist in the Fusion Technology Institute, has been named a research professor. Santarius has been a scientist and educator at UW-Madison for 24 years. He is internationally known for research achievements in the use of advanced fusion fuels for electrical energy production and space propulsion. His designs for space-propulsion engines that can achieve specific impulses of 1 million seconds are revolutionary. In addition, his work with the college’s Fusion Technology Institute includes contributing to the design of a tandem mirror materials test facility for the Karlsruhe Nuclear Laboratory in Germany; he has been PI or co-PI on more than 20 U.S. contracts that brought in more than $3 million in research funding to the university. Santarius has volunteered to teach or help teach three engineering physics courses and has advised at least 15 graduate students on their research topics during the past two decades.
International engineering enrollment shows increase
Twenty-seven students are studying engineering abroad this fall, according to international engineering program director Marianne Bird Bear. That brings enrollment in the program back up to pre-9/11 levels. "After Sept. 11, 2001, we experienced a big drop in participation. This fall, we're seeing things go back to where they were before the terrorist attacks," says Bird Bear. One of the largest groups of students this fall is studying together in Australia, while another large group is in Denmark. Other countries where students are studying this fall include Spain, Hungary, Japan, Sweden and Finland. The program is also working on a certificate in international engineering, which is slated to be up and running for fall 2005.
College to see record number of co-ops this fall
The college will set a record for the number of students completing co-op terms for academic credit this fall. It's the first indicator of growth in several years, according to co-op and internship director John Archambault. A total of 164 students will be employed as co-op engineers. This number includes 12 MS and seven PhD students who are taking advantage of a new graduate student co-op program first offered in 2002. A total of 108 of the fall co-ops will be working in Wisconsin locations.
Steel bridge team finishes fourth at nationals
The UW-Madison steel bridge team placed fourth at the national American Society of Civil Engineering Steel Bridge Competition held in late May in Colorado. The UW-Madison team finished in the top three in four of the six subcategories that comprise the overall competition. The team finished second in speed and economy, and third in lightness and aesthetics. A team from North Dakota State University won first place in the competition.
Researchers build mechanical single-electron transistor
A College of Engineering and Ludwig-Maximillians University team has made a single-electron transistor using a nanoscale arm of silicon tipped with gold. Unlike earlier single-electron transistors, the new device does not need to be cooled to cryogenic temperatures. Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Robert Blick and German Physicist Dominik Scheible used a simple two-step fabrication process to create the device. It could have a variety of practical applications in building ever-smaller logic devices. It also will be useful in studying mechanically controlled transport of single electrons. News of the development was featured in both PhysicsWeb.org and The Register in the United Kingdom.
COE vehicle wins two major green awards
Zero Carbon
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A College of Engineering vehicle named Zero Carbon won two awards at the prestigious Tour de Sol competition sponsored by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. The Zero Carbon vehicle won in the Hydrogen Vehicle category by converting the one-seat electric vehicle into a battery-powered car that can run on energy from a hydrogen fuel cell, a solar panel or wind turbine. The team of students that worked on the vehicle developed collapsible solar panels and a wind turbine that can be stored in its trunk.
For developing the novel method for powering the car, the Zero Carbon team also won the competition's coveted Technology Innovation Award. The Tour de Sol, held May 21-25 in New York and New Jersey, showcases automotive technology aimed at developing cleaner-running and more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Barrel Tatoo Machine wins Schoofs place
2004 Schoofs Prize for Creativity, fourth place (tie) — Barrel Tattoo Machine
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The Spring 2004 story about INNOVATION DAYS winners inadvertently omitted this photo of mechanical engineering student Andrew Lawson (BS '04), who tied for fourth place in the Schoofs Prize for Creativity with his invention, the Barrel Tattoo Machine. The improved device is battery-operated and easier for artists to handle.
College receives two national communications awards
Assistant Dean for External Relations Karen Walsh and Senior Broadcast Specialist Jeff Stevens have received a second-place award from the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC) in its annual communications competition. They received the award for the fund-raising video, "Engineering a Bright Future: The New Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Building Project."
Also, the Engineering External Relations office received an award of excellence for the 2003 college annual report.
NAGC is a national not-for-profit professional network of federal, state and local government employees who disseminate information within and outside government.
Content by perspective@engr.wisc.edu
Date last modified: Friday, 10-Jun-2005 15:29:43 CDT
Date created: 29-Nov-2004
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