For the week of May 20, 2011

@COE will be published on a biweekly basis for the remainder of the summer; the next edition will be sent out Friday, June 3.

Please send submissions for @COE to Julie Stansberry in the Engineering Communications Office at [log in to unmask] by noon on Thursdays.

Student News

Prados Scholars Honored

Shelley Parker of Afton, Tenn., and Jacob Buchkovich of Knoxville, Tenn., were honorees at a May 5, 2011 luncheon recognizing their accomplishments as the University of Tennessee’s (UT) John W. Prados Chemical Engineering Scholarship graduates.

Those awarded the Prados Scholarship majored in chemical engineering while also pursuing a minor in business and participating in the Engineering Professional Practice co-op program. Parker, who just graduated in May, worked five rotations with Dow Chemical Company and is starting work this summer with Flowserve Corporation in its Cookeville, Tenn., location. Buchkovich, who also just graduated, worked three co-op rotations with Eastman Chemical in Kingsport and served as the lead ambassador for two years in the Engineering Professional Practice office co-op ambassador program. He plans to start his career in the chemical industry in New York later this summer.

UT alumnus J. Michael Stone (BS/ ChE, '63) created and sponsors the Prados Scholarship in honor of Dr. John W. Prados, professor emeritus of the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, and his lifetime commitment to the university, its students and the profession. The Prados Scholarship recipients are encouraged by Stone to follow a lifelong pursuit of engineering, business and leadership learning after graduation.

The recent luncheon was hosted by the Engineering Professional Practice office which oversees UT's College of Engineering co-op and internship program.

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Engineering Student, Business Partner Win Again

Aeron Glover, an engineering student, and Kaliv Parker, a business student, both at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT), have won another competition for their website, howstheliving.com. This website helps college students learn more about student housing around the world.

Tennessee Technology Development Corporation (TTDC) awarded a $10,000 business development grant to Glover and Parker.

In December 2010, Glover and Parker’s company won the $25,000 first prize in the Movers & Changers competition, a national business pitch competition sponsored by mtvU and the New York Stock Exchange. In the fall, they won the Vol Court Competition, which gave How's the Living $1,000 with additional services valued at $22,000.

TTDC’s Venture Showcase competition was part of the Tennessee NEXT 2011 Conference held in Nashville on May 5 and 6. Tennessee NEXT is the state’s only conference focused exclusively on innovation-based economic development.

Glover and Parker have used their winnings to put together a new and improved website which will allow college students to rank features of their new residence halls at more than 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide.

For more information about How's the Living, contact Aeron Glover at [log in to unmask] or Kaliv Parker at [log in to unmask].

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CEE Students Excel in Track at UT

Two civil engineering honors students, Eric Ryan and Chris Rapp, were both finalists in the 1,500-meter run in the Southeastern Conference Track and Field meet in Athens, Ga., this past weekend. Ryan scored for the Vols, finishing 8th in the finals. Rapp finished 2nd in the qualifying heat with the second fastest time but couldn’t quite maintain that pace in the finals and finished just out of the top eight.

Ryan ran for Cornell as an undergraduate before coming to UT for his M.S. work; because of injuries, he still had one year of eligibility left when he came to UT in the fall of 2009. While the NCAA ruled him eligible, SEC regulations kept him from active competition until this spring outdoor season. Finishing in the top eight in the 1,500-meter run at the conference meet was a reward for a lot of frustration and hard work. He will receive his M.S. degree this summer and has accepted a position with Vertex Engineering in Boston.

Rapp received his B.S. degree in May with honors. He excelled as a member of the cross-country team in the fall and just completed a successful career in track at UT. He will be a graduate research assistant at the University of Illinois this fall where he will be specializing in high-speed rail and doing research on prestressed concrete cross-ties.

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Undergraduate Research Announcement

Pursuit, the Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee, is now accepting submissions for its Fall 2011 issue. Advanced, original, research-based submissions from undergraduate students in all academic colleges at UT will be accepted. If you are interested in submitting to Pursuit, you may do so through Trace at the following website: http://trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit/. The deadline for submissions for the third volume is May 31, 2011, for priority consideration and June 30, 2011, for all other submissions. Please consider submitting your work for publication! 

Faculty News

EECS Professor Publishes 2011 Edition of Engineering Textbook

Dr. Dave Icove, PE, research professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has just published the 2011 edition of an engineering textbook he co-authored.  Kirk's Fire Investigation is the leading and most widely read engineering textbook in the field of forensic fire and explosion investigation.  New material in the text is based upon the latest computer fire modeling research conducted here at UT's College of Engineering. 

Engineering Professional Practice Student Feature

Featured student: Matthew Johnson

Matthew Johnson is a recent computer engineering graduate who completed a co-op assignment in the summer of 2010 with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He shared the following about his experience:

“My responsibilities at JPL were to oversee a few operational aspects of the
supercomputers in the lab, as well as to run certain jobs on the machines,
run operational benchmarks and keep information up-to-date as new systems
were discussed and put into place.”

While on his co-op assignment, Johnson described the new technical skills he learned: “I had the opportunity to learn Parallel Matlab as well as MPI, PBS Pro and many other software packages from using the supercomputing resources.”

The most valuable benefit he received by accepting his co-op assignment was “learning about new cultures in different places, meeting new people and getting to experience new places and things.”

Students may read more about their peers’ co-op/internship experiences by logging into their Engineering Professional Practice profile via www.coop.utk.edu, clicking “Resource Library” (on the left margin) and selecting “Students at Work – In Their Own Words.”

For information on engineering co-op and internships, contact Engineering Professional Practice at [log in to unmask] or 865-974-5323.

Center for Transportation Research News

Transportation Academy Video Wins Golden Press Card Award of Excellence

The online video news story, "Girls Learn About the World of Transportation at Transportation Academy," was a big winner at the 2010 East Tennessee Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (ETSPJ) annual awards program, the Golden Press Card Awards, held on April 29, 2011. The story features the innovative summer outreach program developed and hosted yearly by the Center for Transportation Research and the Southeastern Transportation Center, with support from the College of Engineering. The production earned the “Award of Excellence for Online Use of Video.”

Whitney Holmes and Nick Chafin of UT's Office of Public Relations produced the story. The ETSPJ awards program is specifically for East Tennessee journalists, recognizing outstanding professional achievement and service to the community. 

The video is featured on Iowa State University's Go! Explore Transportation! e-magazine and The University of Texas at Austin's Center for Transportation Research News. Watch the video by clicking here!

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If you have submissions for @COE, the college's electronic newsletter, please send them to Julie Stansberry at [log in to unmask] by noon on Thursdays.