K-State achievements--2006 Engineering

Kansas State University achievements

2006 Engineering

* It was an award-winning time for Kansas State University chemical engineering students at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Nov. 12-17, in San Francisco. At the meeting, K-State's student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering earned its 12th consecutive Outstanding Chapter Award. In addition, K-State's entry in the institute's 2006 Chem-E-Car competition placed fifth, earning the university its fourth top 10 finish in the competition in the last five years. Also at the meeting, Jon King, senior in chemical engineering, was K-State's 13th recipient in the last 14 years of the Othmer National Scholarship from the American Institute for Chemical Engineers. Levi Houk, senior in chemical engineering, won first-place honors for his poster in the reactions and catalysis division at the meeting. December 2006

* A U.S. Department of Education grant that will help K-State partner with other Big 12 universities to offer a nuclear engineering program to students at-a-distance also will help K-State foster regional policy support for multi-university programs. K-State has received a grant of more than $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. The three-year project builds on the efforts of K-State's Institute for Academic Alliances and the College of Engineering to form an academic alliance across the Big 12 Conference. The engineering collaboration supported by the grant will have the potential to lay the groundwork for a long-term partnership among schools in the Big 12 Conference, said Mo Hosni, professor and head of K-State's department of mechanical and nuclear engineering and a key leader of the project. Current focus of the consortium will involve nuclear engineering. November 2006

* Body armor with greater ballistics resistance is the aim of the research being carried out by Youqi Wang, K-State associate professor of mechanical engineering, with support from two U.S. Department of Defense agencies. The Army Research Lab and Army Research Office awarded Wang grants totaling $350,000 for her new approach to how next-generation ballistic-resistant fabrics/textiles/materials might be designed. The three-year projects are "High-speed penetration failure mechanisms of textile fabrics and armor-grade textile composites" and "High-performance cluster for the simulation of ballistic penetrations." An earlier composites design project sponsored by the Air Force brought Wang's unique design approach to the attention of the Army agencies. She is developing a computational model for the ballistics simulation of a fabric given its basic physical and mechanical properties. November 2006

* As a 2006-2007 Fulbright Scholar, K-State's Mark Schrock will use his expertise in alternative and renewable fuels and machinery systems management to help the people of the Philippines find ways to modernize their agricultural industry. A professor of biological and agricultural engineering, Schrock recently arrived in the Philippines and will stay through February 2007. he will lecture on general mechanization topics and machine design at the University of the Philippines in Los Banos. He also wants to do research on the production and harvesting of perennial oil crops, or biodiesel feedstock, that can be grown in the tropical places like the Philippines. November 2006

* The K-State Associated General Contractors student chapter has been named the 2005-2006 first-place award winner in the Outstanding Student Chapter Competition by the Associated General Contractors of America. The chapter has received first-, second- or third-place awards every year for the past 17 years, more than any other school in the nation. November 2006

* Mohammad Hosni, professor and head of the department of mechanical and nuclear engineering at K-State, has been elected chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Executive Committee of Mechanical Engineering Department Heads. He will assume his first duties at the 2006 American Society of Mechanical Engineers Congress, Nov. 5-10, in Chicago, Ill. The two-year appointment also includes a position on the board of directors, Center for Education, for the professional society. The committee, made up of nearly 245 mechanical engineering department heads nationwide, operates under the charge of encouraging communication, collaboration, and innovation in education among faculty leaders and allied programs worldwide. October 2006

* Steve Starrett, associate professor of civil engineering, is part of a collaborative effort between researchers from the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City that will examine graduate ethics education in engineering and science education. The University of Kansas Initiative on Ethics Education in Science and Engineering, with a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, will bring together experts in ethics, educators and graduate students in the sciences and engineering, and determine best practices related to learning methodologies to address this area of need. October 2006

* Trisha Culbertson, graduate student in biological and agricultural engineering, has been awarded a fellowship funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency through its Science to Achieve Results program. The fellowship supports and encourages students in environmentally related fields. It provides two years of funding for a master's degree or three years of funding for a doctoral degree at up to $37,000. September 2006

* A collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories is allowing K-State students and faculty to shape the next generation of flight computers for rockets and re-entry vehicles, as well creating future engineers with knowledge of systems not encountered in most engineering schools. The K-State electrical and computer engineering department is in its fourth year of working with Sandia in the ongoing development of a new type of flight computer. The basis for the computer was designed more than two years ago at K-State by two then-graduate students who now work for Sandia. A first version of the flight computer performed a simulated flight test this spring. Faculty and students are continuing to develop the flight computer through both research and work in the classroom. September 2006

* The K-State department of computing and information sciences' student mobile robotics team recently captured first place in the Scavenger Hunt competition at the 15th Annual Robot Competition and Exhibition at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence Annual Conference in Boston. The K-State team of four members directed the "KSU Willie" robot as it searched the conference hotel area for a checklist of given objects, such as orange cones or stuffed toys, located at specific locations. The task required the competing robots to navigate and map among moving people and objects to acquire the specified objects to satisfy the checklist. September 2006

* Larry Erickson, a professor of chemical engineering at K-State, has been recognized by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for his outstanding contributions and achievements in the preservation and improvement of the environment. Erickson will receive the 2006 American Institute of Chemical Engineers' Lawrence K. Cecil Award at the institute's national meeting in November in San Francisco. Qualifications for the award include demonstrated leadership in research, teaching and engineering; new discoveries or development of processes in protecting the environment; and distinguished service in environmental protection as a professional engineer or educator. Erickson has been a K-State faculty member since 1964. He also is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. August 2006

* K-State Engineering Extension has been awarded a $675,000, five-year contract to recruit, evaluate, train and provide student interns to the Environmental Protection Agency Radiation and Indoor Environments National Laboratory in Las Vegas, Nev. The program will provide ongoing opportunities for semester- and summer-long paid internships at the national laboratory and provide full-time paid internship opportunities to K-State undergraduate and graduate students in areas such as environmental science, physical science, health physics, engineering, computer science, chemistry, communications and public relations. August 2006

* Alok Bhandari, a K-State associate professor of civil engineering, and students from his natural resources and environmental sciences capstone class conducted a bathymetric survey of Fort Scott Lake to determine the lake's water capacity as part of a service-learning project. Through the survey, the students were able to calculate the lake's current storage capacity and rate of sedimentation. The data collected saved the city an estimated $30,000. August 2006

* Students and faculty from K-State's biological and agricultural engineering department earned top awards in several categories at the international meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, July 9-12, in Portland, Ore. The K-State American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers student branch received the first-place Student Engineering Branch Award, and the K-State Agricultural Technology Management Club received first runner-up honors for the Student Mechanization Branch Award. The K-State Fountain Wars student design team placed second in the 2006 Fountain Wars Design Competition, as well as being recognized for best use of electronics. Kyeong-Hwan Lee, December 2005 doctoral graduate, received first place for the Ph.D. Graduate Student Research Award; and Marsha Roberts, December 2005 bachelor's graduate and now a master's student, was the first-place recipient in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Undergraduate Student Poster Competition. Faculty honors included Gary Clark, professor and head of the department of biological and agricultural engineering being named the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Outstanding Reviewer for 2005; and the 2006 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Superior Paper Award to K-State faculty members Ronaldo Maghirang, professor of biological and agricultural engineering; Mark Casada, adjunct professor of biological and agricultural engineering, and Dan Brabec, engineering technician, both of the U.S. Grain Marketing Production Research Center; and Ekramul Haque, professor of grain science and industry. July 2006

* The K-State Powercat Tractors Design Team finished first in the ninth annual American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers International Quarter-Scale Tractor Student Design Competition, June 1-4, in Peoria, Ill. K-State is the only school that has placed in the competition's top three, including five firsts, continuously since 1999. The competition began in 1998. This year, competing against 28 teams from the U.S. and Canada, the K-State team scored first in performance -- the pulling competition -- and first in both the written design report and oral presentation, the two other main categories of the competition. The team is made up of undergraduates in biological and agricultural engineering, agricultural technology management, and mechanical and nuclear engineering. June 2006

* Volunteering with a Junior Achievement program has turned into an award-winning endeavor by Kansas State University's student chapter of the Associated General Contactors. The chapter has received the President's Volunteer Service Award for its involvement with Junior Achievement's "Our City" program. The chapter was nominated for the honor by Junior Achievement of Northeast Kansas. Chapter members presented the program to third-graders in Manhattan during the 2005-2006 school year. The award recognizes Americans who have made a sustained commitment to volunteer service. June 2006

* A gardener's best tool just might become a computer, thanks to a K-State professor and students who have been working to make gardening easier for some Kansas City-area gardeners. David Gustafson, professor of computing and information sciences, led a team of four students in a project helping K-State Research and Extension Master Gardeners keep track of the work they do at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. The team has been working to create software specific to the gardeners' work at the arboretum. The software makes it easier for the arboretum's Master Gardeners to catalogue general information like plants' uses and to log other activities. The information system will help gardeners provide better plant care and maintenance; allow arboretum visitors to get better information about what they see at the arboretum and what's in bloom. In addition, the information will be accessible to home gardeners, too. June 2006

* A recent K-State graduate, and now graduate student, will use a fellowship to research how a new generation of nuclear reactors can help produce an increasingly important commodity: hydrogen. Josh Van Meter, a May 2006 bachelor's graduate in mechanical engineering, has been named a 2006 Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative/Generation IV University Fellow. He was one of 12 students chosen from across the nation. The grant program offers as much as $42,500 for up to 18 months to students working toward master's degrees and whose fellowship research and subsequent theses support the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative/Generation IV program. The topics also must be approved by the U.S. Department of Energy. Van Meter will investigate the performance of compact heat exchangers, a key component needed to maintain the thermal energy for a high-temperature chemical reaction that produces hydrogen. Van Meter said researchers are interested in the compact heat exchangers because of their size and efficiency. May 2006

* K-State's Stephen A. Dyer , professor of electrical and computer engineering, was recognized April 25 with the Distinguished Service Award from the Instrumentation and Measurement Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The award consists of a $2,000 honorarium and a certificate, and is given annually by the I&M Society to one of its present or past members who has given outstanding service to the society and to the profession. Dyer, professor of electrical and computer engineering at K-State, is serving his third term as president of the Instrumentation and Measurement Society. He is a former editor of the I&M Transactions, founding editor-in-chief of the Instrumentation and Measurement Magazine and vice president for two terms. Dyer was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1996. May 2006

* K-State's Jeremy Dreiling, senior in architectural engineering, with a minor in leadership studies, has been selected as one of 35 Tau Beta Pi Fellows for 2006-2007. Dreiling will received a $10,000 cash stipend for one year of graduate study. Jonathan Ferlas, junior in mechanical engineering, and Nicholas Van Sickel, junior in computer engineering, were awarded Record Scholarships worth $2,000 from Tau Beta Pi. The scholarships are for the 2006-2007 academic year of engineering study. May 2006

* Two K-State engineering students have received National Academy for Nuclear Training undergraduate scholarships. Aaron Holloway, sophomore in mechanical and nuclear engineering and mathematics, and Amir Bahadori, senior in mechanical and nuclear engineering and mathematics, were two of 69 students awarded the national, $2,000 scholarships. May 2006

* David Soldan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the recipient of the Robert M. Janowiak Outstanding Leadership and Service Award from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association. The award is presented annually to an individual in the association who has provided substantial leadership and service contributions. As a longtime member, Soldan has previously held posts of secretary-treasurer, vice president, president and member of the board of directors. He also is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and has served on the Accreditation Board of the Engineering and Technology Engineering Accreditation Commission since 2003. March 2006

* Jeremy Dreiling, fourth-year student in architectural engineering, Hays, is the recipient of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers' Frank M. Coda Scholarship for the 2006-2007 academic year. The one-year, $5,000 scholarship is awarded for outstanding scholastic ability, character, leadership, potential service to the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration profession and need for financial assistance. It is one of only eight scholarships awarded annually by the organization to an undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor of science or engineering degree, and who is enrolled full-time in a program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. Candidates must have a cumulative college grade point average of a least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. February 2006

* Three teams of architectural engineering and construction science seniors from K-State were honored with first-, second- and fourth-place finishes in the Concrete Construction Competition put on by the Construction Liaison Committee and the Kansas and Missouri chapters of the American Concrete Institution. January 2006

* K-State has signed partnership agreements with a technical society and an industry to help meet real-world educational needs. The College of Engineering has signed an agreement with the 350,000-member American Society of Mechanical Engineers to be the credit provider for its undergraduate college credit program, made available worldwide to the organization's members as distance education courses. In a second, separate agreement, K-State is working in cooperation with The Boeing Company to co-create a plan that is piloting the first round of American Society of Mechanical Engineers/K-State credit courses offered to meet the needs of continuing education for practicing professionals. Tom Roberts, assistant dean for recruitment and leadership development for the College of Engineering, said the agreeements provide a creative and innovative horizontal alignment of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Boeing, the College of Engineering and K-State's Division of Continuing Education to provide for engineering professional development needs on a worldwide basis. January 2006

K-State College of Engineering