Home : Volume 33 : Spring 2007 :
College Notes

U.S. News ranks college graduate programs 14th

In its March 30, 2007, issue, U.S. News & World Report ranked the UW-Madison College of Engineering 14th in the nation for graduate education, compared with 15th in 2006. The college tied with Texas A&M University. UW-Madison has nine disciplines ranked in the top 20, with chemical engineering and nuclear engineering ranked in the top five.

DARPA gives $1.1 million to UW-Madison researchers for quantum-box semiconductor lasers

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a $1.1 million grant to a team of UW-Madison researchers. Led by Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Dan Botez, Assistant Professor Irena Knezevic, Professor Luke Mawst and Chemical and Biological Engineering Professors Thomas Kuech and Paul Nealey, the team will develop and perform research on quantum-box semiconductor lasers emitting in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) range with 25 times higher electrical-to-optical power conversion efficiency than conventional mid-IR lasers. This work will develop the first practical mid-IR lasers for a vast array of applications ranging from defense to medical diagnostics. The team members’ broad expertise includes nanophotonics, nanopatterning, nanofabrication, crystal growth and nano-device modeling. The project will benefit from technologies developed in the Reed Center for Photonics and the NSF-funded Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

Nuclear energy research initiatives funded

Competing in an overall field of 79 proposals, UW-Madison research teams received three of 10 recently awarded Department of Energy University-Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (U-NERI) grants, which support innovative research in advanced nuclear technologies. Under the grants, which total approximately $1.73 million over three years, the researchers will conduct multiscale modeling and experimental projects to study fission product transport in TRISO-coated particle fuels, oxidation and surface modification treatments of candidate materials for very high temperature reactor pressure vessel applications, and materials corrosion and heat transfer issues in the use of liquid salts as media for process heat transfer from very high temperature reactors. The researchers include Engineering Physics Professors Michael Corradini and Gerald Kulcinski, Assistant Professor Todd Allen, Research Professor Kumar Sridharan and Associate Scientist Mark Anderson, and Materials Science and Engineering Assistant Professors Izabela Szlufarska and Dane Morgan.

Marianne Bird Bear (Large image)

Bird Bear named IAESTE U.S. advisor of the year

International Study Abroad Program Coordinator Marianne Bird Bear was named the 2007 United States faculty advisor of the year at the IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience) 2007 conference in Washington, D.C. in February. IAESTE members are committed to the core goals of promoting the importance of global skills through international experience, developing leadership skills, and preparing engineering and science students with the global competencies necessary to be more responsible and effective citizens of the world.

ISyE rated No. 1 in scholarly productivity

Academic benchmarking company Academic Analytics rated the UW-Madison Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering first in its newly released 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index. The index ranks 7,294 doctoral programs in 104 disciplines at 354 institutions. Productivity for each faculty member was measured in grant dollars, publications, journal citations, and honors and awards received. The aggregated z-score for the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering placed it in the top 1.5 percent of productive departments. UW-Madison also was rated third in nuclear engineering. Read more at chronicle.com/stats/productivity/.

Three students tie for Steuber Writing Prize

“The Pterodactyl and the Amoeba” by biomedical engineering sophomore Vidhya Raju, “You can’t live on the outside” by mechanical engineering sophomore Eyleen Chou and “Response and recovery pattern similarities between mangrove forests and Carribean coral reefs after hurricane activity” by biomedical engineering junior Michele Lorenz tied for the top prize and $3,000 each in the 2007 Steuber Prize for Excellence in Writing. Two students received an honorable mention and $1,000 each for their essays. Electrical engineering sophomore Thomas Fleming wrote “The boy who would be king” and biomedical engineering senior April Zehm wrote “Where have all the cowgirls gone?”

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Date last modified: 05-Jun-2007
Date created: 05-Jun-2007

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