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| COE Homepage : Faculty and Staff Award Recipients | |
| 2004 Faculty and Staff Award Recipients |
Benjamin Smith Reynolds Award for Excellence in Teaching
Eric E. Hellstrom
Materials Science and Engineering Department
Byron Bird Award for Excellence in a Research Publication
B. Ross Barmish
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
The 2004 Ragnar E. Onstad Service to Society Award
Kenneth W. Potter
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
Bollinger Academic Staff Distinguished Achievement Award
Thomas J. Murray
Kurt F. Wendt Library
College of Engineering Classified Staff Distinguished Service Award
Jean Hoover
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Eric E. Hellstrom |
His colleagues describe Materials Science and Engineering Professor Eric Hellstrom's teaching as "exceptionally imaginative, inspiring, interactive and inclusive," and call him a mentor and positive influence both in the classroom and via informal interactions with students. "He is the kind of person that merely by being around him, you feel as though you can accomplish more than you believed," says a former student.
Shortly after it began, Hellstrom joined UW-Madison's Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment program, a time-consuming endeavor that helps committed faculty improve their teaching by understanding how students learn. As a result, he made a number of effective changes to all his courses to increase student participation and understanding.
Characteristic of Hellstrom's approach to teaching is in-depth, hands-on interaction — and never time-minimization. In his introduction to materials course, students learn via "controlled destruction": They disassemble boom boxes and study each component see how materials science enables modern technology. "He is not only introducing the concepts and skills, he is deeply committed to helping the students formulate theiruncertainties and to express their ideas, both orally and in class discussion, but first of all one-on-one as the experiment takes place," says a former student.
As an instructor in the college's introduction to engineering course, and as an advisor for student presenters in the university's ESTEAM and SOAR programs for high school students, Hellstrom demystifies materials science and engineering for potential students. "His ability to convey to us the excitement of the materials field was a major factor in my decision to pursue MS&E here," says a former student. Hellstrom, who worked for five years at Sandia National Labs, joined the department in 1985. Since then, he has taught or guest-lectured in 15 different courses and, despite the extra work, has taught courses for faculty on sabbatical and volunteered to teach courses vacated by retirees — all with high student evaluations.
"Professor Hellstrom taught me not with a PowerPoint presentation or with board and chalk," says a former student. "Now, as a professor myself, I can say that I can partially 'blame' him for my decision to join the academia."
B. Ross Barmish |
Professor B. Ross Barmish works on problems which are often considered to be an engineering nightmare — problems which seemingly have no answers. More specifically, he creates tools for fixing the kinds of problems that arise when one is "stuck" with a bad model of a system. These models, which occur in science and engineering, have variables with tolerances which can be as high as 20 or 30 percent. With such highly uncertain models, designers have to engineer methods to control those systems. For example, in an airplane, many systems have to perform despite wide variations in factors such as temperature, pressure and wind speed. In other words, the systems have to be stable and robust over very large ranges of parameter variation.
Barmish is the 2004 winner of the Byron Bird Award for Excellence in a Research Publication for his work related to the stability of systems with large uncertainties and the book he authored that synthesizes a decade of research in the field, New Tools for Robustness of Linear Systems.
In the case of stability, Barmish championed an approach called set-valued frequency response methods. He says that the problems can often be boiled down to a simple math equation involving polynomials and their roots; he is an expert on problems which arise when the polynomial has variations in its coefficients because of the physical uncertainty in the system. Barmish searches for robust results — results that guarantee satisfactory system performance no matter how the parameters of the system change.
Colleagues say several of his results will likely become part of the "standard canon" of control. Others cite his tremendous impact in the field of automatic control over the past two decades as evidenced in his appearance on Thompson ISI's "Highly Cited" roster of researchers. He is also a Fellow of the IEEE and has received two best journal publication awards from the International Federation of Automatic Control.
Barmish earned his BS in electrical engineering from McGill University in 1971. He earned his MS and PhD from Cornell University in 1972 and 1975 respectively. Barmish joined the College of Engineering in 1984 after working at Yale and the University of Rochester. In his free time, Barmish enjoys outdoor pursuits including running, cycling and cross-country skiing.
Kenneth W. Potter |
Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Ken Potter's dedication to the environment extends well beyond his laboratory and classroom walls.
Potter has maintained an active commitment to environmental issues for a number of years. His work has won him national recognition, including his appointment as the vice chairman of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences. The consortium, which includes more than 80 universities and is funded by the National Science Foundation, was founded in 2001 to foster study and research on hydrologic sciences. Potter served as the initial chairman of the consortium's board of directors. He also serves as a member of the advisory council to the Greater Everglades Restoration, one of the nation's largest wetlands and conservation restoration efforts.
But Potter is perhaps best known for his work on behalf of the environment in Wisconsin and Dane County. He is a member of the Yahara Lakes Advisory Group, established to help county officials and the state Department of Natural Resources improve the quality of the Madison area's signature lakes. The Yahara Lakes Association recognized Potter for his work on behalf of the lakes in 2002 by naming him its Citizen of the Year.
He has also worked on behalf of the North Fork Pheasant Branch Task Force, which strives to maintain one of Dane County's crucial watershed areas; the Middleton Conservancy Lands Commission; and the Middleton Water Resources Commission. His work with the water commission helped the city of Middleton adopt some of the most progressive storm-water management policies in the state.
In addition, Potter has worked on environmental issues for the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, the UW-Madison Arboretum, the university's Facilities Planning & Management Office, the state DNR, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Dane County Public Works Department, and villages and cities throughout Wisconsin. He also served on the steering committee for the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters on its "Waters of Wisconsin" program, a two-day conference held in 2002. The conference led to the official designation in 2003 by the state of Wisconsin as the "Year of Water."
Thomas J. Murray |
When there was a need on the College of Engineering campus, Tom Murray asked, "What can I do to help?" Under his direction, the college's Kurt F. Wendt Library has been a temporary home to the Engineering Career Services offices, a permanent site for Computer-Aided Engineering labs and classrooms and, most recently, a vibrant, collaborative student learning environment.
In an electronic era where the role of libraries is uncertain, Murray articulated a vision for Wendt Library that addressed the changing needs and expectations of today's library users. As a result, he and his staff developed state-of-the-art, user-centered, technology-based library services that influenced the entire university library system.
He helped strengthen the Wisconsin TechSearch technical information service, extending the university's resources far beyond campus. Under his leadership, Wendt became a leader in providing online access to journals, databases and library collections, and pioneered a fast electronic document delivery system that was the foundation for the campuswide Library Express service. He has worked with the university's Division of Information Technology to make electronic course reserves available to students.
As Wendt Library added more electronic information resources and moved lesser-used volumes to storage, Murray supervised the installation of a new floor over a former balcony, moved out bookshelves, and moved in tables, chairs and more computers. By fall 2001, the library's fourth floor became a high-profile central location for students to study together and seek academic support services. Under his vision, continues to evolve.
He is quick to credit others for these achievements. But one of his strengths as an administrator lies in his ability to help his colleagues identify and develop their individual strengths while inspiring them to contribute to a common vision.
Murray retired from the college in August 2004, where he served the UW-Madison campus for 37 years. He became the library's acting director in 1988; its director in 1991. Previously, he was director of the Engineering Publications Office, director of the university's Energy Information Project, and a writer for UW-Madison's University-Industry Reseach Program and the Institute for Environmental Studies.
Jean A. Hoover |
Remember those old mimeograph duplicating machines that churned out copies that smelled funny? Jean Hoover, a 30-year veteran of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering does.
In the three decades Hoover has worked as a classified staff employee, she's gone from the crude technology of those mimeograph machines to computers that can be programmed to print every which way.
Hoover, who oversees document duplication for the department, has learned to adapt to such changes, earning her the College of Engineering's inaugural Classified Staff Distinguished Achievement Award.
"In her 30 years with the electrical and computer engineering department, Jean has seen the service she provides change dramatically," wrote ECE's department Chair Christopher DeMarco in nominating Hoover for the award. "She has continually educated herself to stay ahead of this wave of development."
The college created the award this year to recognize the many contributions made by classified staff employees. Dean Paul Peercy says classified staff employees are often the first people that members of the public come in contact with, and often provide critical continuity for many departments.
Others who work with Hoover credit her for saving duplicating costs for the department, training student employees, and working closely with the department's teaching assistants, many of them international students who are beginning to learn the English language. And she always does it with a smile on her face.
"She has the knack to deal with everyone in a calm and resourceful way," says department program specialist Donna Lewis. "Although Jean is extremely busy, she has not forgotten the personal touch that makes work more enjoyable."
In fact, Hoover's reputation in running the department's duplication center is so well regarded that others in the college seek her out for hard-to-handle copying jobs.
"I admire her ability to juggle and meet typically short and urgent deadlines imposed by her clients with grace and wit," says Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs Sarah Pfatteicher. "Her standards of excellence are invaluable and her personal skills are a benefit to the college and the ECE department."
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