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K-State Today

August 3, 2012

Recent news from the College of Engineering

Submitted by Communications and Marketing

ZJ Pei, professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, has been named program director for the manufacturing machines and equipment program, a part of the advanced manufacturing cluster of programs within the civil, mechanical and manufacturing innovation division at the National Science Foundation. He will begin the two-year, rotating position in August.

Kyle Douglas-Mankin, professor of biological and agricultural engineering, and Aleksey Sheshukov, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, are recipients of 2012 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Superior Paper awards. Mankin was recognized for his work on "An Environmental Trading Ratio for Water Quality Trading," and Sheshukov for "Seasonal and Annual Impacts of Climate Change on Watershed Response Using an Ensemble of Global Climate Models."

John Hatcliff, university distinguished professor of computing and information sciences, served as co-chair of the International Workshop on Software Engineering in Health Care in Zurich, Switzerland, June 4-5.

The National Science Foundation/National Institutes of Health-funded work of computing and information sciences and electrical and computer engineering faculty on the medical device coordination framework, led by Hatcliff; Dan Andresen, associate professor of computing and information sciences; Patrice Chalin, associate professor of computing and information sciences; Robby, associate professor of computing and information sciences; Eugene Vasserman, assistant professor of computing and information sciences; and Steve Warren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was described in an article in a June issue of the Economist titled "When code can kill or cure."

Simon Ou, associate professor of computing and information sciences, received a $74,716 grant from HP Labs Innovation Research Program to support his research into enterprise network security. This is the third consecutive year Ou has won the program competition. He also received a $30,000 grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to study techniques for security risk analysis and mitigation for enterprise networks.

David Steward, professor of civil engineering, was an invited speaker in Berlin, Germany, at the third Water Resources Horizon Conference, sponsored by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, July 10-11.

Behrooz Mirafzal, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, presented a paper at IEEE Power and Energy Society.

David Soldan, professor of electrical and computer engineering, was named chair of the IEEE Committee on Engineering Accreditation Activities.

Bill Kuhn, professor of electrical and computer engineering, received a grant from Honeywell FM&T for his work on "High-Frequency Characterization of Thin Film Metals on Low-Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic (LTCC)."

Steve Warren delivered the keynote address on his work, "Biomedical Device Design for a Connected Wireless World," at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Automation Engineering in Zhangjiajie, China.

Mary Rezac, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Center for Sustainable Energy, led a 10-week summer National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program where 11 students selected from around the nation were immersed in an educational experience designed to produce independent researchers and potential future leaders in the areas of biomass-derived fuels and chemicals.

The seventh Dialog on Sustainability was July 21 with oral presentations, working dialog sessions, as well as posters and exhibits for the 80 people in attendance. Hosted by the Center for Hazardous Substance Research, the dialog supports efforts to advance sustainability at K-State, in Kansas and in the world. More than 20 organizations were represented. More information is available on the center's sustainability website.