For the week of May 06, 2011

@COE will now be published on a biweekly basis; the next edition will be sent out Friday, May 20. Please send submissions for @COE to Julie Stansberry in the Engineering Communications Office at [log in to unmask] by noon on Thursdays.

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Engineering Professional Practice Student Feature

Featured student: Bin Zheng

The featured student this week is Bin Zheng, a senior majoring in chemical engineering. Zheng completed his Spring 2011 semester co-op experience at Dow Chemical Company in Freeport, Texas.

Zheng explains the department and his responsibilities during his co-op experience at Dow: “In this term, I was assigned to the Epoxy One Production plant in Freeport, Texas. I was hired as an improvement engineer, and my responsibilities were multiple improvement projects. The majority of the project was improving plant operation and safety. The projects I worked on were PSV sizing, safety project documentation and calculation, reactor exotherm study and process control flow sheet creation.”

He advises new co-op students accepting assignments with this employer to “have good communication with all the engineers, maintenance and operators." He also describes the most valuable benefit from this co-op assignment as being the "hands-on experience with different equipment and working with other engineers to solve daily problems."

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.

Student News

Boyd Venture Fund Accepting Applications

The Boyd Venture Fund, administered by the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Business Administration, is soliciting applications from student companies for its inaugural seed-funding grants.

All UT students, regardless of academic discipline or degree program (doctoral, masters or undergraduate) are eligible to apply. Solicitations will be made each fall and spring semester.

To qualify for the grant money, each business must be legally established (federal tax ID, state business license, LLC, etc.). The student owners must be enrolled in a UTK degree program at the time of application. However, meeting with the grant-evaluation committee after graduation is acceptable.

The Anderson Center will work with any business that receives a grant to connect it with a volunteer “mentor,” an experienced individual with interest in the type of business being awarded a grant.

To apply for the grant, the student(s) owner(s) representing the company should submit an executive summary of the business, a pro forma budget, and a “use of funds” statement detailing how the grant funds would be spent to move the business forward. This information should be sent to:
[log in to unmask]
Subject Line: The Boyd Venture Fund

Deadline for grant-application submissions is May 13. Those businesses invited to “pitch” to the grant-award committee will be notified by May 20 with presentations to the committee scheduled for the week of May 23. Pitches may be done by Skype, video conferencing, etc., for management teams not on campus.

Up to $10,000 is available to be awarded; the money may be allocated to one company or among several worthy companies. It is not necessary that all available funds be awarded this round. Grant funds will be paid out against invoices.

The grant-award committee will consider:
• Need for capital
• Viability of the business concept
• Growth potential

The Boyd Venture Fund is made possible by the generosity of Randy Boyd, President and CEO of Pet Safe Corporation, a business built on the knowledge that pets are members of the family. PetSafe’s 400 worldwide employees produce the industry’s most popular and innovative products in pet training, containment, safety and lifestyle for an audience dear to their hearts: their own pets.

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Don't forget: Spring 2011 Tennessee Engineer Now Available

Download your copy of the 2011 Tennessee Engineer newsletter by clicking on the icon to the left. You may also stop by 207 Perkins Hall for hard copies.

 

Faculty News

Governor's Chair Professor Honored for Most Cited Article

Congratulations to Dr. Thomas A. Zawodzinski, Governor's Chair professor in Electrical Energy Storage in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, for his Polymer Most Cited Article 2006-2010 for his paper entitled, "Multiblock sulfonated-fluorinated poly(arylene ether)s for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell." The paper was published in Polymer, Volume 47, Issue II (2006) and was co-authored by H. Ghassemi and J.E. McGrath.

Career Services Announcements

Be ready for Fall Recruiting!

Part-Time Job Fair
Wednesday, August 24

Career Services Kick-Off Cookout
Thursday, September 1

Engineering Career Success Week
Monday–Friday, September 12–16

Volunteer & Service Corps Fair
Tuesday, September 13

Graduate School for Engineers Workshop
Wednesday, September 14

Logistics Fair (Industrial Engineers invited)
Monday, September 26

Fall Job Fair
Tuesday, September 27

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Students who need an appointment to review their resume, discuss their job search or who have any career-related questions are encouraged to contact the College of Engineering Career Consultant, April Gonzalez at 865-974-5435 or via e-mail at [log in to unmask].

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For more information, visit the Career Services Web site.

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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.