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For the week of July 22, 2011
@COE will be published on a biweekly basis for the remainder of the summer; the next edition will be sent out on Friday, August 5.
Please send submissions for @COE to Julie Stansberry in the Engineering Communications Office at [log in to unmask] by noon on Thursdays.
Student News
Rural Teen Driver Education Program featured in Iowa State's Go! E-zine
What editors are calling "an exemplary rural road safety program for high school students" is the lead story in Iowa State University's Go! e-zine. The Rural Teen Driver Education Program is the brainchild of civil engineering graduate student Lawson Bordley and the members of UT's student chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). Bordley supports this program through the funds he received as an Eisenhower Fellow and from the Southeastern Transportation Center. Other sponsors are the URS Corporation, the Tennessee Section of the ITE and WUTK 90.3 FM.
Dr. Stephen H. Richards is the faculty advisor for this project, and Bordley's student partners in the project are Qiang Yang and Ryan Overton, simulator coordinator research directors; and Stephanie Hargrove and Clement Oigbokie, instructors.
The lively and informative article can be read online here.
"Go! exploring the world of transportation" is published by the Institute for Transportation, which is the University Transportation Center (UTC) at Iowa State. The Southeastern Transportation Center, headquartered in the Center for Transportation Research at UT, is the UTC for the southeast region. The UTC program is funded by the USDOT.
Faculty News
EECS Professor Named Society of Fire Protection Engineers Fellow
Dr. Dave Icove, PE, a research professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), was named as a Fellow in the Society of Fire Protection Engineers last week. Icove's research work in EECS centers on the development and use of high-performance computer modeling in evaluating the impact of large-scale fires and explosions.
CEE Professor Appointed to Two Boards
Dr. Stephen H. Richards, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and director of the Southeastern Transportation Center, has been appointed to a 3-year term on the Executive Board of the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC). Richards’ board term will begin Aug. 1.
CUTC provides a forum for the universities and centers to interact collectively with government and industry. CUTC's membership represents more than 70 of the nation's leading university-based transportation research and education programs.
Last month, Richards was appointed to International Research Board (IRB) of the Key Laboratory of Urban Transportation Complex Systems Theory and Technology – Ministry of Education of China. This Key Laboratory is headquartered at Beijing Jiatong University. It directs Chinese and international research in five major urban transportation technical areas: Transportation System Theory and Technology; ITS Theory & Technology; Public Transportation Traffic Operation &Technology; Traffic Organization and Optimization; and Sustainable Transportation Environment.
The IRB provides input to the Key Laboratory to plan and develop relevant programs in transportation education, research and technology transfer. The IRB also assists the Chinese Ministry of Education in identifying and planning open fund projects. These open fund projects result in sustainable international efforts to contribute to urban transportation research fields.
EECS Professor Chairs Symposium on Application Acceleration for High Performance Computing
The University of Tennessee College of Engineering hosted the Symposium on Application Acceleration for High Performance Computing (SAAHPC) in Knoxville on July 19-20, 2011. The conference was chaired by Dr. Gregory D. Peterson, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
The SAAHPC brings together developers of computing accelerators and end-users of the technology to exchange ideas and learn about the latest developments in the field. This was the seventh year of the conference.
COE Receives NSF-Funded Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) Grant
The goal of the National Science Foundation (NSF) STEP program is to increase the number of U.S. students receiving degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, and the UT College of Engineering (COE) has recently received funding from NSF for its proposed program Research and Instructional Strategies for Engineering Retention (RISER). The RISER program will receive $2 million over five years to promote the retention of engineering students.
The principal investigators (PI) examined the students leaving the COE and targeted two main groups: women in the honors program and students who were not enrolled in the Engage Engineering Fundamentals Program in the fall of their freshman year. The former group generally left the COE to pursue majors in health related areas. The program will address this group by offering them funded undergraduate research assistantships either at UTK or Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The RISER program addresses the latter group by creating an entirely new branch of the Engineering Fundamentals Program with increased involvement from the COE faculty and other engineering students.
The PI’s for the RISER proposal are Dr. Claudia Rawn and Dr. Veerle Keppens, faculty from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE); Dr. Richard Bennett, director of the Engineering Fundamentals Division; Dr. Christopher Pionke, director of the Engineering Honors Program; and Margaret (Margie) Russell, director of Engineering Advising Services.
Engineering Professional Practice Announcement
Stay up-to-date with Engineering Professional Practice information and events by clicking the “Like” button on the program’s new Facebook page, following the program on Twitter, visiting its website at www.coop.utk.edu or calling 865-974-5323.
Students, please note: If you receive a co-op or internship offer, please contact Engineering Professional Practice for help with paperwork and any preparations you may need – [log in to unmask], 865-974-5323 or 310 Perkins Hall.
Engineering Professional Practice Student Feature
Featured student: Michael Bailey
Our featured student this week is Michael Bailey, a mechanical engineering student. During the summer 2011 semester, his co-op assignment was at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, Tenn.
Bailey described the department and what his responsibilities and projects were in relation to the department’s operations: “I worked in the Shops Department of the Central Maintenance and Services Division. In the ‘Big Shop,' they had an eight-week rotating schedule so that I could get ‘hands-on’ experience with everything that goes on in the shop."
He spent a lot of his time in the machine shop with the following tasks: programming machines, heat treating, dynamic balancing, welding, digital reproduction, vessel inspection and maintenance.
"Throughout this semester, I learned very much with all of the experiences that I was exposed to," Bailey said. "At the end of my term, I worked on a few projects that I was able to design and build including a hinge and mount for a powder coating gun.
"The Shops Department is very well organized and has a great program for co-op students,” Bailey said.
He also said the most valuable benefit he received by accepting this co-op assignment was "hands-on experience in engineering applications.”
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.
Advising Announcements
Students Now Can Apply to Graduate Through MyUTK
All students who have not already applied to graduate in Summer 2011, Fall 2011 or Spring 2012 can now apply for graduation online through MyUTK. It is very important that students' profile information is up-to-date before they submit a graduation application. This information includes the student's degree, major, concentration, minor and catalog year.
Students can apply for graduation by going to the "UTK Student Academic Links" inside MyUTK. Before submitting their graduation application, they should view their information in MyUTK from the "View Your Profile" tab. If the student's profile information is not correct, the following staff should be contacted to update the profile:
Undergraduate students should contact their college advising center, academic department or dean's office to have the correct information entered into the system. Undergraduate students who have other questions can contact the Office of the University Registrar at 974-2101.
Graduate students should contact the Graduate School at [log in to unmask] or 974-2475 for information on changing academic programs.
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.
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