2004-2005 HIGHLIGHTS

Research grants and invention disclosures

College of Engineering faculty, staff and students made 116 invention disclosures in fiscal year 2005, with 91 U.S. patent applications filed and 29 patents issued. This is the fifth consecutive year the college has reported more than 100 disclosures. Total research expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30 reached $110,084,000. See the 2004-2005 Financial Summary.

New funding for research

With $16 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation, UW-Madison transportation engineers will drive their research, education and technology-transfer efforts to the national level. The "Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Act: A Legacy for Users" designated UW-Madison as one of 10 National University Transportation Centers charged with advancing research on critical national transportation issues and expanding the workforce of transportation professionals. Researchers associated with the new center will tackle a range of national transportation priorities — some of which include aging infrastructure, freight capacity and management, traffic congestion, materials sustainability, and environmental issues such as air quality and pavement runoff. They will collaborate with university experts in industrial and systems engineering, business, urban and regional planning, public affairs and other areas.
During the past year, the College of Engineering became a partner in its second Department of Homeland Security national center for research on terrorism. The three-year, $15 million Homeland Security Center for Food Protection and Defense will conduct research, develop new technologies, and establish best practices for preventing and detecting intentional contamination in food production, packaging and delivery.
Chemical & Biological Engineering Professor Thomas Kuech, Materials Science and Engineering Professor Susan Babcock and Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Luke Mawst are collaborating with colleagues at Duke University, UC-San Diego, Brown University and several government and industrial concerns on a five-year, $4.9 million, wide-ranging program in the growth, integration and device fabrication of large lattice mismatched materials. The Army Research Office Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Program is funding the work.
Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Xiaochun Li, Materials Science and Engineering Professor Sindo Kou and Wisconsin Distinguished Professor of Engineering Physics Rod Lakes received a four-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) program. The grant will fund their project, "Fundamental study of bulk magnesium alloy matrix nanocomposites fabricated by ultrasonic cavitation-based solidification processing."

>> Faculty honors and recognition >>

The future of engineering education is taking shape on our campus. We are creating the facilities and culture to give our faculty, staff and students every opportunity to compete in this increasingly competitive and global economy.

The first phase of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Building is well under way. Once completed, this modernized campus landmark will provide state-of-the-art research and education space, freeing its users to unlock engineering potential that could hardly have been imagined when the original building was constructed.

We have selected a design and will soon begin converting the old interview complex on the first floor of Engineering Hall to expand our Engineering Student Learning Center.

We routinely remind each and every student that we want them to succeed and will provide them with tutoring and resources to help them master their courses. Our students responded by filling the group study and tutoring space in the Wendt Library Student Learning Center on most nights during the semester. There was a time when a student might have been reluctant to seek tutoring. That has changed. Now, the Engineering Student Learning Center is the place to be seen.

Paul S. Peercy, Dean
Tel: 608/262-3482
Fax: 608/262-6400
E-mail: perspective@engr.wisc.edu
www.engr.wisc.edu
2610 Engineering Hall
1415 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI 53706

The addition to the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Building under construction

During the past year, the first floors of the college's Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Building addition have taken shape in the portion of the building formerly known as "the Sawtooth."