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WELCOME TO THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING E–NEWSLETTER!
NEWS
News
Faculty Recognition
Grants and Contracts
Published
Student Accomplishments
Events of Interest
Obituaries
Is Your News Listed Here?
In recognition of Ed Whitacre’s 17 y ears of leadership as chairman
and chief executiv e of f icer of AT&T, its Board of Directors announced
a $5.35 million contribution to TTU’s College of Engineering. The f unds
will be used to broaden academic programs in engineering while
supporting the dev elopment
of
tomorrow’s
communications
technologies. Two endowed chairs in electrical and computer
engineering will be named f or Whitacre, and the Edward E. Whitacre Jr.
Endowed Scholarship will help to recruit outstanding undergraduate and graduate
students to major in engineering. A portion of the f unds will expand the nanophotonics
lab, supporting the purchase of equipment. Dean Pamela Eibeck said, "Through AT&T’s
support, Texas Tech will strengthen the breadth and scope of what students and
f aculty can accomplish at the College of Engineering."
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdv n=news&newsarticleid=24028
Texas Tech Univ ersity is part of a consortium of state agencies, priv ate companies, and other univ ersities known as the Lone
Star Wind Alliance that submitted a proposal to the Department of Energy (DoE) to design, construct, and operate an
adv anced wind turbine blade test f acility . The bid was in response to DoE's announcement that it was looking f or partners to
build a f acility capable of testing the saf ety and ef f iciency of newly designed blades up to 70 meters long. The DoE will
prov ide $2 million to construct the wind turbine testing lab in Ingleside, about 18 miles north of Corpus Christi. The lab should
be operational by 2009. A similar f acility will be built in Massachusetts. Being part of this v enture is “a natural f it” f or Texas
Tech, said Andy Swift, ScD, PE, civ il engineering prof essor and director of the Wind Science and Engineering Research
Center. Jamie Chapman, PhD, a member of the senior research f aculty in the Wind Sciences and Engineering Research
Center, coordinated the College of Engineering ef f orts with the Univ ersity of Houston, who will manage the f acility , and other
alliance members.
http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/062607/loc_062607032.shtml
The Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation receiv ed an Interagency Cooperation
Contract to perf orm "liv e load testing" of an experimental bridge that will utilize a Sandwich Plate Sy stem (SPS)
f or the deck. The bridge, which will be built in Wise County , Texas starting in the f all, will be the f irst bridge
using the SPS technology in the United States. The SPS sy stem is made up of a steel-elastomer-steel
composite plate. The sy stem has the potential to speed construction, reduce superstructure weight, and
prov ide a longer serv ice lif e. The product was originally dev eloped f or steel platf orms and supertanker hulls.
Intelligent Engineering, a worldwide company , markets the product. Charles Newhouse, PhD, an assistant
prof essor in the Civ il and Env ironmental Engineering department, will ov ersee the f ield testing and analy ses f or the project.
The picture shown is of a similar bridge built in Quebec, Canada, f rom the Intelligent Engineering SPS Bridges brochure.
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FACULTY RECOGNITION
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Dan Cooke, PhD, prof essor of computer science, serv ed as program chair f or the 19th International
Conf erence on Sof tware Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, July 9-11, in Boston. Serv ing on the program
committee were Rattikorn Hewett, PhD, prof essor of computer science, and Michael Shin, PhD, assistant
prof essor of computer science. http://www.ksi.edu/seke/seke07.html
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GRANTS AND CONTRACTS
Proposals Awarded:
Electrical and computer engineering Assistant Prof essor Ary ton Bernussi was awarded $110,906 by the Science Research
Laboratory f or "Research in Electrical Engineering." Senior Research Associate Thomas Knapczy k will work with Dr. Bernussi.
Electrical and computer engineering Associate Prof essor Tim Dallas was awarded $50,000 f rom the Robert A. Welch
Foundation f or "Atomic Force Microscope on a Chip."
Electrical and computer engineering Prof essor Michael Giesselmann was awarded $59,446 f rom Applied Phy sical Electronics,
L.C. f or "Dev elopment of a Rapid Capacitor Charger f or Commercialization."
Chemical engineering Prof essor Uzi Mann was awarded $98,389 f rom the Department of Energy /Honey well f or "Dev elopment
of a Process to Produce Urea Particles with Narrow Size Distribution."
Chemical engineering Prof essors Uzi Mann, PI, and Karlene Hoo, co-PI, were awarded $264,787 by the West Texas Research
Group f or "Dev elopment of a Continuous Process to Produce Biodiesel, Phase II, Pilot Plant Demonstration."
The Center f or Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation was awarded $42,665 f rom the Texas Department of
Transportation f or "Sandwich Panel Sy stem Liv e Load Test." Civ il and env ironmental engineering Assistant Prof essor Charles
Newhouse is the PI.
Industrial engineering Prof essor James L. Smith was awarded $61,291 by the Center f or Disease Control/National Institute f or
Occupational Saf ety and Health (NIOSH) f or "NIOSH Training."
Proposals Submitted:
Chemical Engineering
PI Sindee Simon submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation in the total amount of $180,000 f or Nanotechnology
Undergraduate Education: Using Nanotechnology to Teach Traditional and New Engineering Concepts." Co-PIs are Lenore Dai,
Tim Dallas, Jav ad Hashemi, Naz Karim, Mark Vaughn, Brandon Weeks, and Ted Wiesner.
Mark Vaughn is PI on a $629,800 proposal to the Department of Def ense/Def ense Threat Reduction Agency f or "Blood and
Transendothelial Transport of Mustard Vesicants and Organophosphate Toxins." He is also co-PI on a $450,000 proposal to the
same agency f or "Dev elopment of Functionalized Microporous Gels with Engineered Nanoscale Architecture f or rapid
Detection of Nerv e Agents."
PI Brandon Weeks with co-PI Mark Vaughn submitted a $737,000 proposal to the Department of Def ense/Def ense Threat
Reduction Agency f or "Def eat of Bacterial and Viral Pathogens Using Chemically Modif ied Explosiv es."
Electrical and Computer Engineering
PI Timothy Dallas with co-PI Brandon Weeks (chemical engineering) submitted a $452,250 proposal to the Department of
Def ense/Def ense Threat Reduction Agency f or "Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear, and High Explosiv es Sciences."
Mechanical Engineering
PI Jordan Berg with co-PIs Mark Holtz, Darry l James, and Alan Jankowski submitted a $5 million proposal to the Texas
Env ironmental Research Consortium and Houston Adv anced Research Center f or "Nanotechnology f or NOx Reduction:
Application to Low Cost and High Perf ormance Fuel Cell f or Vehicular Auxiliary Power."
Michelle Pantoy a submitted a proposal to the National Institutes of Health in the amount of $137,978 f or "Highly Porous
Metallic Foams f or Biological Applications."
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PUBLISHED
The June 2007 issue of the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology f eatured articles by petroleum engineering personnel.
"Analy sis of Errors in Historical Use of Archie’s Parameters" was authored by Lloyd R. Heinze, PhD (chair and prof essor),
Awolusi S. Olufemi (’05 MSPE), and Olu Fasesan, PhD (research associate). "Phy sical and Analy tical Studies of Sand
Production f rom a Supported Wellbore in Unconsolidated Sand Media with Single- and Two-Phase Flow" was co-authored by
Hadi A. Belhaj, PhD, new assistant prof essor in the department.
http://www.petsoc.org/images/June07_jcpt.pdf
The research that Andrew Jackson, PhD, and co-inv estigators hav e done on the widespread occurrence of natural
perchlorate was highlighted in the June 6 issue of Env ironmental Science & Technology Online News. Jackson, civ il and
env ironmental engineering (CEE) associate prof essor, is lead author on a manuscript dealing with atmospherically deriv ed
perchlorate in the southwest to be published by the Env ironmental Science & Technology journal in July . Co-inv estigators are
Ken Rainwater, PhD, PE, civ il and env ironmental engineering prof essor and director of its Water Resource Center; Todd
Anderson, PhD, associate prof essor, Institute of Env ironmental and Human Health; Srinath Rajagopalan, Water
Resources Center research associate; and Rao Balaji, CEE doctoral student.
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/june/science/nl_perchlorate.html
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STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Senior electrical and computer engineering major Bry ce Bradf ord, together with his wif e, Stef anie, a mass communications
senior, won the 2006/2007 Texas Instruments Analog Design contest. Their paper cov ered the dev elopment of a lossless
digital audio link between a personal computer and a high f idelity home stereo sy stem.
http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/landing/univ ersity program/index.htm
Senior petroleum engineering students Nicholas Eaton, Justin McBroom, and Maanisaad Shahriar are recipients of scholarships
f or the 2007/2008 academic y ear f rom the Dallas section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). TTU students
receiv ed more scholarship dollars f rom SPE than any other univ ersity .
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EVENTS OF INTEREST
Andy Swift, ScD, PE, spoke at the monthly meeting of the Tech Renewable Energy Society on June 21. He
presented a multidisciplinary v iew of the economic and technologic aspects of wind and the desalinization of
water, along with way s wind power can help solv e water problems.
Exciting Summer Activities in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
This summer f aculty in Electrical and Computer Engineering spent a signif icant amount of time to
encourage K-12, community college, and undergraduate students to choose careers in
engineering. Tanja Karp, PhD, taught and organized the engineering sections of the “Shake
Hands with Y our Future” summer camp f or students entering grades 4-11, organized by the TTU
Institute f or the Dev elopment and Enrichment of Adv anced Learners (IDEAL). Participants built
and programmed LEGO Mindstorm NXT robots to perf orm specif ic tasks that might be perf ormed
at a cosmic space station.
Drs. Mary Baker, Brian Nutter, and Mohammad Saed of f ered six-week internships to 12 students. The students were
placed in groups that consisted of a high school student, an incoming TTU f reshman, a community college student, and an
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ECE undergraduate student. Each group worked on solutions to real-world engineering problems, with special emphasis on
technologies and products to assist in healthy aging, energy and water conserv ation, and adaptiv e dev ices. In both programs,
f emale-only teams were established to prov ide special encouragement to choose a career in the engineering f ield and to help
them be conf ident that they possess the qualif ications to succeed.
Mohammad Saed, PhD, f acilitated the f if th Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program (ECE
SURF 2007). This summer 12 ECE undergraduate students were selected to work on research projects f or
eight weeks, under the mentorship of f aculty f rom the ECE department. Sixty -sev en f ellowships were giv en to
undergraduate students through this undergraduate research program.
Richard Gale, PhD, of f ered industrial internships to high school students to work at local companies,
identif ied partially through collaboration with Lubbock’s WorkSource.
Tim Dallas, PhD, worked with eight undergraduate students f rom univ ersities around the country who are
taking part in research in adv anced micro and nano dev ices this summer. The div erse group of students
worked with TTU f aculty and graduate students to design and implement a number of microf abricated dev ices
into a v ariety of applications spanning f rom biomedical to data storage. The students hav e taken a short
course on microelectromechanical sy stems (MEMS) and gav e biweekly presentations on their
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OBITUARIES
Charles Ross Baker, engineering technology student, died in a tragic accident on June 9. The f lag at Memorial Circle was
lowered to half staf f in his memory on June 18.
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IS YOUR NEWS LISTED HERE?
If not, submit it through y our department's editor:
Civ il and Env ironmental
Andrews, Glenna
Petroleum
Blackmon, Joan
Computer Science
Digby , My sti
Mechanical
Hernandez, Carmen
Chemical
Hudson, Jan
Engineering Technology
McMurray , Jodi
Electrical and Computer
Willingham, Sandi
Industrial
Wilson, Terry
The COE e-newsletter will be posted online on the first week of the month. News submission deadline is the 28th of the month for inclusion in the following
month's e-newsletter.
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The College of Engineering Today is published by:
The College of Engineering at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
Dean of Engineering: Pamela A. Eibeck, PhD, PE
Editors: Jeff Woldstad, PhD, CPE; Sharon Smith
Technical Editor: Nick Rinker
Photography Credits: Artie Limmer/Joey Hernandez
Mailing Address: Box 43103
Lubbock, TX 79409-3103
Phone: 806-742-3451
Web site: http://www.coe.ttu.edu
© 2007, Texas Tech University
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