Points of Excellence
Nationally & internationally recognized scholars
Joseph Shaw honored as fellow for optical remote sensing expertise. Joseph A. Shaw, associate professor of
electrical engineering and director of the Optical Technology Center (OpTec) at Montana State University, has been
selected as a fellow of SPIE. SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and
application of light. Shaw has been recognized for his specific achievements in optical remote sensing technology and as
an expert in the optical remote sensing community. His technical achievements encompass the broad areas of optical
remote sensing technology and science based on radiometry, lidar, and polarimetry, with applications in environmental
science and surveillance. Shaw is also a fellow of the Optical Society of America and a senior member of IEEE, an
international professional association for the advancement of technology.
Brown earns NSF International Fellowship. Jennifer Brown, a recent doctoral graduate in
engineering from Montana State University, has received one of 30 National Science Foundation
International Fellowships awarded in 2008. Brown will work with Paul Callaghan’s research
group of chemists and physicists at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, for
approximately 18 months. In her doctoral work, Brown studied colloidal suspensions, tiny
particles suspended in fluids, with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) microscopy. In New
Zealand, Brown will study how polymer molecules behave when deformed mechanically and will
use NMR techniques to study samples in motion. Understanding how complex fluids behave can
be valuable when applied in medical treatment, food and material processing, and oil recovery.
Gannon awarded two fellowships to conduct research in Germany. Paul Gannon, recent
doctoral graduate in engineering, has received two fellowships to conduct materials research at the
Institute for Energy Research (IER) in Jülich, Germany. He received one of 30 National Science
Foundation international fellowships awarded in 2008 and an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
(AvH) fellowship. AvH fellowships support extended periods of research in Germany with academic
hosts at research institutions. Gannon will investigate corrosion of steel used in advanced coalenergy conversion systems that operate at high temperatures. Gannon’s host, W. J. Quadakkers,
and the IER are international leaders in developing methods to characterize high-temperature
corrosion and protection processes of coated and uncoated steel. Protecting steel components from
corrosion, and thereby making them more durable, is likely to be important for building advanced energy conversion
systems to meet the world’s growing need for sustainable energy.
Two ECE doctoral candidates receive NSF fellowships. The National Science Foundation
(NSF) has announced that Sarah Lukes and Christopher Colson, electrical and computer
engineering (ECE) doctoral candidates, are among new recipients of NSF Graduate Research
Fellowships. Lukes is a researcher in David Dickensheets' lab, and Colson is conducting
research under the direction of Hashem Nehrir. Lukes earned her bachelor’s degree in
mechanical engineering with highest honors from Montana State University and was the 2005
Gold Medal winner from the Montana Society of Engineers. Colson graduated from the U.S.
Naval Academy and is a former Navy nuclear engineer and fast-attack submarine officer. His master’s degree in
engineering management is from Old Dominion University. Each of the prestigious NSF awards provides a $30,000
annual stipend for three years, plus additional funding to cover full tuition and fees. Other universities with two
recipients of this year’s NSF graduate research fellowships include Texas A&M; Yale; University of Colorado at Boulder;
University of California, San Diego; Rutgers and Michigan Tech.
ECE doctoral candidate holds National Defense Science and Engineering graduate fellowship. ECE doctoral
candidate Andrew Dahlberg holds a three-year National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship.
This highly-competitive fellowship is awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense and can be used at the recipient’s
choice of universities. Dahlberg is conducting research under the direction of Joseph Shaw, associate professor in
electrical engineering.
4/24/2008
Alumni Success
MSU engineering grads light up Times Square. What is arguably the
biggest, brightest, and most photographed sign in New York's Times
Square was designed and engineered by six Montana State University
graduates. At 130 feet long and more than 50 feet high, the ribboned,
curved sign at 7 Times Square highlights the ABC studio. The sign's
current design and engineering is the work of Bozeman-based Advanced
Electronic Designs, a firm founded by MSU electrical engineering graduate
Bryan Robertus. Jason Kay, Jon Koon, Brett Swimley, Chip Lukes, and
Jason Daughenbaugh, all MSU engineering graduates, are the other
engineers working at AED. More...
Bryan Robertus stands near the ABC Studio in Times Square. His company,
Bozeman-based Advanced Electronic Designs, engineered and designed
the 50-foot tall sign. Photo courtesy of Bryan Robertus
Student-centered campus
Graduating seniors continue to surpass peers in FE Exam. In October 2007, College of Engineering graduating
seniors once again outperformed all of their peer groups nationwide on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam.
The eight-hour exam is the first step toward acquiring a professional license. COE seniors across all engineering
disciplines achieved a pass rate of 90%, while the aggregate national pass rate was 79%. MSU COE is among the 10
percent of engineering programs that require all graduating seniors to take the exam.
Computer science graduating seniors outperform their peers. In fall 2007, MSU’s Computer Science students
achieved a median score of 82% on the Major Field Test in Computer Science, compared to the national median of 74%
in the same session. These are from the second round of results following a new requirement for graduates to take the
exam, which is used to measure student academic achievement in their major.
Eight COE students and their mentors honored with Awards for Excellence. Eight College of Engineering
students are among 39 of Montana State University's top seniors recognized at the 26th annual Awards for Excellence
Banquet. The MSU Alumni Association and the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce sponsor the banquet. Honored students
were nominated by faculty in their college or department. Qualified seniors must have a 3.5 grade point average on a
4.0 scale as well as demonstrated campus leadership and community service. In turn, the award-winning students each
selected a mentor who was honored with them at the event. COE recipients and their mentors are Don Brockett,
mechanical engineering/Ruhul Amin; Elisabeth Brown, civil engineering and math/Joel Cahoon; Elisabeth Driscoll,
mechanical engineering and German/Theodore Lang; Brock Hedegaard, civil engineering/Anders Larsson; Patrick
Kujawa, computer engineering and physics/Brock LaMeres; Ian Lake, computer science and physics/John Paxton; Jay
Rutherford, chemical and biological engineering/Joseph Seymour; and Nina Smith, electrical engineering/Heidi Sherick.
Opportunities for hands-on, active learning
Students raise $30k in one night for clean water in Kenya. Drinking water is hauled by hand in rural, southwest
Kenya. The student chapter of Engineers Without Borders at Montana State University aims to change that by helping
communities get wells drilled at schools. The students surprised themselves recently by raising $30,000 in one evening
during its first annual "Clean Water for Kenya Jubilee." Donations made during the event and other monies the group
has raised will pay to send 10 to 15 students to Kenya this summer and to drill three fresh-water drinking wells for
schools in the Khwisero District of Kenya. "What this really means is 1,000 to 2,000 schoolchildren will have clean water
by September," said Katy Hansen, EWB president and a sophomore in industrial engineering. More...
Nathan “Nate” Brown moves between the nacelle
and the rotor hub of a wind turbine–230’ above
the ground. photo courtesy of Rubin Meuchel
MSU to be one of first university Wind Application Centers
Two MSU engineering faculty members, Robb Larson, and Chris
Jenkins, and three mechanical engineering technology (MET)
seniors, Rubin Meuchel, Drew Nash, and Nathan Brown, toured
the 90-turbine Judith Gap Wind Farm north of Big Timber. The
students are doing a wind energy capstone project as part of the
MSU Wind Applications Center (WAC). The U.S. Department of
Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab has selected MSU to be
one of the first six university-based WACs. The tour included the
control room, an operation overview, and a look at computer
monitoring and power prediction programs, site maps and
maintenance logs. In full safety gear, the group climbed a 220foot turbine tower to a nacelle. The nacelle sits atop the tower
and contains the gear box, low- and high-speed shafts,
generator, controller, and brake. The climbers popped out on
top — 230 feet above the ground — and down a hatch into the
rotor hub to look at pitch control and layout.
4/24/2008
MSU’s Heavy Civil team takes 2nd at nationals after a
long day. MSU’s Heavy Civil Construction Engineering Team
took second at the 2008 Associated General Contractor's
Associated Schools of Construction national competition.
Starting at 6 a.m., competing teams analyzed construction
documents and prepared detailed bid packages that they
submitted at 10 p.m. On the second day, teams explained
their project analysis and pricing to judges who had
evaluated the bid packages and answered the judges’
detailed questions. The team qualified for nationals by
winning the Region 6 contest where they bested 11 other
universities in the Rocky Mountain States, including Colorado
State and Arizona State. At nationals, MSU competed
against the other six regional champions, including
Clemson, Michigan Tech and California Polytechnic State
University (Cal Poly), the winning school.
Alex Yudell,
bending, Steve
Schwitters at left,
Mike Vogel (center)
and Vic Cundy
examine camelina
pellets coming
from a pasta
maker. Photo by
Kelly Gorham
Left to right: Bryce Hove, Dean Peterson (faculty coach), Mike
Tonn, Chad Welborn, Nik Grout, Adam Beck, Tyler Schmidt
Engineering faculty and students among people at
MSU finding ways to use camelina. Montana State
University’s Biobased Institute is building a well-rounded
research base to support local economic development
efforts. Vic Cundy, mechanical engineering professor, and
his students have made pellets from camelina meal, a byproduct of making biofuels and livestock feed. They first
used a pasta maker to make stove pellets with higher BTUs
per pound than premium wood pellets. Cundy and students
will use commercial-grade equipment to make best-burn
camelina pellets that are consistent with industry
standards. The pellets will go to the Townsend Middle
School as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
“Fuels for Schools” project. More...
Leading Research
Center for Biofilm Engineering research team publishing and striving to help improve patient health. The
Medical Biofilm Laboratory team at Montana State University’s Center for Biofilm Engineering has recently had several
noteworthy publications. An image illustrating a publication by the team appeared on the cover of Wound Repair and
Regeneration, a scientific journal. The team’s publication describes how the team looked for biofilms in both chronic and
acute wounds. They found a statistically significant difference between the two wound types and evidence that biofilms
may be abundant in chronic wounds. In another publication that appeared in BMC Microbiology, team members stated
that bacterial populations in chronic wounds cooperate to promote their own survival and the infections’ chronic nature.
The team found that different wound types contained different bacterial populations and that wounds supported
bacterial populations not typically recognized as wound pathogens. Because the team found that traditional culturebased diagnostic methods failed to correctly identify the primary bacterial population in all but one wound type, they
concluded that clinicians need better diagnostic methods. Only with this and a better understanding of how bacterial
communities interact does the team expect clinicians to have greater success in treating wounds and improving
patients’ prognoses. Details are available at the CBE home page. http://www.cbe.montana.edu
Utah DOT and WTI recognized for innovation. The Utah Department of Transportation received a “Best of ITS”
award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) for the Evaluation of its Weather
Operations/RWIS (WO) Program, done in partnership with the Western Transportation Institute (WTI). The awards
honor the most innovative and effective uses of advanced technologies in surface transportation. A select panel of
judges selected five winning programs from more than 60 entries. The Utah program won top honors for the “Best
Return on Investment.” WTI’s evaluation for UDOT identified and quantified benefits of its WO Program, particularly in
its winter maintenance operations. Using an artificial neural network model to analyze labor and materials costs for
each of UDOT’s 77 maintenance sheds is unique to the UDOT-WTI evaluation. UDOT’s WO Program saves an estimated
$2.2 million per year for snow and ice control and has a benefit-cost ratio greater than 10:1.
South Dakota DOT and MSU faculty work to protect fish and aquatic habitats. People are increasingly aware of
how roads affect wildlife, but the effects of culverts on fish are largely unknown. The South Dakota Department of
Transportation (SD DOT) is working with the Western Transportation Institute (WTI) and faculty in Montana State
University’s civil engineering and ecology departments to study how culverts affect Topeka shiners. An endangered
species of fish, they live in small streams with high water quality in several prairie states. The SD DOT has taken a
proactive stance to ensure that its shiner population and habitat remain viably healthy. The team is investigating how
culverts act as barriers to distribution and genetic diversity of Topeka shiners. They are also finding ways to retrofit
existing culverts and improve new culvert designs to improve passage of the shiners and other warm water fish species.
The project results will be useful to other DOTs who must build and maintain safe, cost-effective roads without
destroying aquatic habitats and connectivity.
4/24/2008
Service & outreach
FIRST robotics tournaments inspire young students.
Montana State University hosted 22 high school teams and 38
middle school teams from Montana, Utah, and Wyoming for FIRST
Robotic tournaments in 2008. Robots inspire young students.
When compared to their peers who haven’t participated in FIRST
activities, FIRST students are: More than three times as likely to
major specifically in engineering, roughly 10 times as likely to
have had an apprenticeship, internship, or co-op job in their
freshman year; significantly more likely to expect to achieve a
post graduate degree; more than twice as likely to expect to
pursue a career in science and technology; nearly four times as
likely to expect to pursue a career specifically in engineering;
more than twice as likely to volunteer in their communities.
More...
Hunter Lloyd, referee and adjunct instructor in
MMEC delivers $138 million economic impact to Montana
computer science, works with a team competing at
manufacturers. From October 2005 through September 2007,
the FIRST LEGO League robotics tournament held at
Montana Manufacturing Extension Center (MMEC) clients have
Montana State University.
reported, through an independent survey, over $138 million in
economic impact as a result of direct MMEC services. The
independent survey collects data quarterly to assess the effectiveness of center services in delivering measurable
returns to clients and stakeholders. MMEC’s Lean Manufacturing services, in particular, bring discipline to cost
reduction and productivity for hundreds of Montana companies. Now, MMEC is adding the same disciplined approach
to top line growth with Eureka! Winning Ways®.
World’s leading optics researchers visit MSU to discuss light and color in nature. About 45 scientists from the
United States, Canada, and six western European countries came to Montana State University to attend the ninth
international conference on light and color in nature. Joe Shaw, associate professor in electrical engineering and head of
Montana State University’s Optical Technology Center, organized the event. The meeting highlighted original research
on natural optical phenomena and emphasized optics in the atmosphere. Topics included rainbows, coronas,
iridescence, mirages, lightning, auroras, and generally light-scattering phenomena in the atmosphere and natural
environment. Presenters also shared novel techniques for observing and measuring optical phenomena. For the first
time at the conference, scientists discussed snow crystals and sky colors related to nocturnal insect vision. More...
4/24/2008