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For the week of May 21th, 2010
@COE will be published on a bi-weekly basis beginning May 21. The next edition will be sent out on Friday, June 4.
Please send your submissions for @COE to Kim Cowart in the Engineering Communications Office at [log in to unmask] by noon on Thursdays.
Faculty Updates
EECS Professors Receive NSF Grant
Dr. Fangxing (Fran) Li, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Kevin Tomsovic, CTI Professor and Head, both of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), received a three-year, $300,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The objective of this NSF project, entitled “Ensuring Security and Reducing Price Volatility of Power Systems with Extensive Controllable Load,” is to develop an approach to reduce the electricity price volatility while ensuring security in the future power systems with a high penetration of controllable loads. The approach is based on an expanded concept of a critical load level, where a price step change occurs, combined with a feedback control considering load response to time-delayed price signals. The research will assist the faster adoption of controllable loads and renewable energy as both financial and reliability risk would be reduced.
The project is funded by the Power, Controls and Adaptive Networks (PCAN) program under the Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) division of NSF. It will start on May 15th, 2010 and run through April 30th, 2013. Dr. Li is the Principal Investigator and Dr. Tomsovic is the co-Principal Investigator of this effort.
MSE Professor Organizes International Conference
Last week, Dr. Gajanan Bhat, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, attended the Fiber Society International Conference in Bursa, Turkey. Dr. Bhat, who was the president of the Fiber Society, was one of the key persons responsible for organizing this meeting for the first time in Turkey. Dr. Bhat presented a research paper on “Improvement in Tensile Properties and Morphological Changes on Draw-Annealing of Melt Spun PPS Fibers.” The paper was coauthored by his PhD student Prabhakar Gulgunje, who graduated last week. The conference was attended by more than 300 delegates from 25 countries. The fiber society organizes two technical conferences every year, with the spring conference being held in an international venue and the fall conference in the US. Additional information on the conference and the fiber society is available at http://www.thefibersociety.org/
Tolbert Gives Seminar in Thailand
Dr. Leon M. Tolbert, Min Kao Professor in the Min Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, gave a one-day technical seminar, "Power Electronics Applications for Transportation and Energy," May 11 at the Provincial Electrical Authority in Bangkok, Thailand. His talk was co-sponsored by King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang and covered topics such as hybrid electric vehicles, silicon carbide power electronics, multilevel converters, reactive power compensation, and Smart Grid applications.
Wang Receives 3-Year Grant
Dr. Xiaorui Wang, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received a 3-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This $258K grant from the Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) will support Dr. Wang’s research on power-aware chip multiprocessor (CMP, i.e., multi-core processor) design from 2010 to 2013. Since power consumption has become a major constraint for the further throughput improvement of CMPs, Dr. Wang’s project will try to optimize the performance of a CMP within a power budget limited by the CMP’s cooling, packaging, and power supply capacities. This award is the 4th NSF grant that Dr. Wang received as PI since 2007. After joining UT, Dr. Wang has received $1.76M of external research funding (his personal share), including $1.15M from NSF.
ENGINEERING DIVERSITY PROGRAMS UPDATE
Pippin Receives Alex Haley Award
On May 16, 2010, James T. Pippin, outgoing Director of the Office of Diversity Programs (retiring June 30, 2010), received the prestigious Alex Haley Scholarship for Education at the Seventh Annual Alex Haley Scholarship Auction & Celebrity Golf Tournament Reception. Pippin was selected by the Alex Haley Black Millennium Focus Committee. Presenting the Award to Pippin was Anthony Howard UTK College of Engineering Alum and engineer with General Motors Corporation. The reception was held at Knoxville’s Crown Plaza Hotel.
EDP Welcomes New Director
The Office of Engineering Diversity Programs welcomes Todd Griffin as the new director of EDP. Travis is excited about working with the COE faculty and staff to enhance the EDP initiatives. He may be reached at 974-1956 or via e-mail at [log in to unmask].
Student News
MSE Professor and Student Receive Research Awards
On Friday, April 23, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering undergraduate seniors Arnold Bunch, Jeff Edlund, and Amanda Matthews provided a demonstration for a group of fifty 5th graders at Bearden Elementary School in Knoxville. The team gave the students a brief introduction to the use of hydrogen in fuel cells to generate electricity and then showed the students the working scale car they had built that was powered by a small hydrogen fuel cell.
The car was the one used by the team to take fourth place in the ChemE Car Competition at the regional annual student meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, held in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 10. The UT CBE students then demonstrated how chemical reaction times can be controlled by using different concentrations of reactants by showing the iodine clock reaction and having the students guess how long it would take for the reactant mixture to turn dark blue.
After the presentation, the students came up to the demonstration table to view the car and ask questions. UT senior Arnold Bunch remarked, “I was surprised at the level of excitement and genuine enthusiasm of the students. It was fun to see them excited about the possibility of one day making their own hydrogen powered car.”
In November, a different group of students will take the car to the national competition in Salt Lake City to compete with 60 other teams from around the US and Puerto Rico.
Upcoming Events
Agriculture Campus Hosts Research Symposium
The Comparative & Experimental Medicine and Public Health Research Symposium will be held June 14 & 15, 2010, on the University of Tennessee Agricultural Campus. Eighty-eight animal and human health-related presentations have been scheduled, as well as several keynote addresses by experts in the fields of public health genomics, stem cells, and exercise science.
The event is free, and you may attend as many presentations as you would like, however do please register in order to help coordinators of the event with the logistics for the symposium. (However, if you are presenting, there is no need for you to register). Deadline for registration is Friday, June 4.
To register for free, please click here.
To find out more about the symposium, please visit their site. Links to featured speakers are online, and a preliminary program and schedule will be coming soon.
UT Harvest Market
The UT Harvest Market will take place on Friday, May 21 from 2-4 PM (or until sold out) in the Friendship Plaza of the UT Gardens. The market is the result of a multi-disciplinary internship program for UT students through a market garden on the Organic Crops Unit at the ETREC to stimulate interest in beginning farming and preserving farmland. Five student interns have participated in all aspects of the farm market from business planning to production to marketing.
The market will feature kale, Swiss chard, green onions, spicy greens, peas (in limited quantities) and strawberries.
Accepted methods of payment include cash, check and credit (Visa, MC or Discover) or debit.
Parking is limited; please consider walking, carpooling, biking or taking the bus.
Come early for the best selection!
Attention COE Seniors: Senior Gift 2010
Visit the Senior Gift 2010 web site in order to make your contribution online to the College Fund for Engineering or to one of the seven department funds.
Gifts of any size are welcome; however, seniors or graduate students who donate at least $50 will receive commemorative honor cords to wear at graduation as well as have a personalized brick placed on the Senior Sidewalk in Circle Park. Call the Tyson Alumni House at 974-3011 for more information.
Your support is important, as it will benefit your fellow engineering students. Recently, the College Fund for Engineering has served as a crucial resource for college-wide programming such as Engage, expanded advising services, and the Pre-Collegiate Scholars Program as well as for purchasing specialized equipment and facility renovations.
Additionally, a Senior Gift will allow the college to seize future opportunities and jump-start future initiatives. Please consider joining your classmates in support of Senior Gift 2010. Your Senior Gift will not only serve the immediate needs of engineering students, but it will set a wonderful example for other seniors, graduate students, underclassmen and future engineering students.
Please visit the Senior Gift web site or the Office of Engineering Development in 120 or 121 Perkins Hall in order to make a Senior Gift via check or credit card or contact them via email at [log in to unmask] for more information.
Student Opportunities
Journal of Undergraduate Research Solicits Submissions
Pursuit: The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee
Call for Submissions
Fall 2010, Volume 2, Issue 1
Pursuit: The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee is the first UT publication dedicated to undergraduate research. The inaugural issue was released in March 2010. Please find the online version and more information here.
Submissions for the Fall 2010 Issue will be accepted from April 1, 2010 through May 31, 2010. Pursuit accepts advanced, original, research-based submissions from undergraduate students in all academic colleges at the University of Tennessee. Graduates may submit their work within one year of their graduation date.
More information is found here.
Contact the editors at: [log in to unmask]
Outreach News
Pre-Collegiate Research Scholars program
On May 7, 2010 the Pre-Collegiate Research Scholars program held its year–end celebration and student poster session at Farragut High School. Now in its fourth year, this outstanding program places well-qualified high school students in research laboratories at UT.
A very special thank you for the efforts of the College of Engineering faculty who made this program a success by mentoring students in their laboratories this year:
Dr. Qiang He, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Dr. Bin Hu, Material Science and Engineering
Dr. Veerle Keppens, Material Science and Engineering
Dr. Husheng Li, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Dr. Mingjun Zhang, Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Quihong Zhao, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Dr. Xiaopeng Zhao, Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering
A bonus at the poster session was a demonstration of the Farragut FIRST robot. Farragut was one of 3 local high school FIRST teams mentored this year by the MABE department.
Pictures from the Poster session.
Engineering Professional Practice Announcements
PLEASE NOTE: Students receiving engineering co-op or internship offers must go through Engineering Professional Practice if they want recognition for them on their UT transcript. Students receiving offers directly from employers may forward the information to the office and inquire about how to fulfill program requirements and receive credit for their work.
Engineering Professional Practice Student Feature
Featured student: Tony Mathis
Tony Mathis is a mechanical engineering major who spent the fall 2009 term working a co-op rotation with Shaw Industries.
“My co-op experience with Shaw Industries, Inc. has been great! I have worked on lots of projects for the plant to keep me busy – from building a box for United Way donations, to designing a room for a machine that I have to get from a plant in Washington to the plant where I work in Ringgold, Georgia.
“All of the engineers I have spoken with have said that they had a co-op. They said that it has been vital to their careers because they had that on-the-job experience before going into the job market, and knew what they did and did not want to do.
“Also, lots of employers will not even consider candidates without that on-the-job experience. I would definitely recommend!”
For information on engineering co-op and internship assignments, contact Engineering Professional Practice at [log in to unmask] or 865-974-5323.
Career Services Announcements
Be ready for Fall Recruiting!
| Part Time Job Fair | Wednesday, August 25 |
| Engineering Career Success Week | Monday–Friday, September 12–17 |
| Graduate School for Engineers Workshop | Tuesday, September 14 |
| Volunteer & Service Corps Fair | Wednesday, September 15 |
| Logistics Fair (Industrial Engineers invited) | Monday, September 27 |
| Fall Job Fair | Tuesday, September 28 |
For more information, visit the Career Services website.
If you have submissions for @COE, the college's electronic newsletter, please send them to Kim Cowart at [log in to unmask] by 12:00 noon on Thursdays.