For the week of September 2, 2011

@COE is published on a weekly basis. The next edition will be sent out on Friday, Sept. 9.

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

Outreach News

Two Students Share Study Abroad Experiences

Stewart Goodwin, a senior in mechanical engineering, and Jasmine Kelley, a senior in industrial engineering, have returned home from their study abroad experiences in the Caribbean and England, respectively. Goodwin participated in the "Engineering a New Tomorrow" themed Caribbean cruise of the Semester at Sea program. Kelley participated in the "From the Cloister to the College: Birth of the University" program at Cambridge. To view their in-depth stories from their trips, click here. Check back next week for two new study abroad testimonies from John Scobey and Catherine Julson!

Student News

Summer 2011 Record Year for RMC Interns

Reliability and maintainability engineers are in very high demand for internships and hire. The Reliability & Maintainability Center (RMC), now in its 15th year, had a record number of summer interns placed into RMC member companies. The director of the RMC, Dr. Klaus Blache, has had requests to hire more than 50 reliability/maintainability engineers in the past six months. The RMC placed 35 students into various assignments across the United States. In the past three years, students have been placed into about half of the states across North America.

The RMC bridges between industry and academia to provide education, research and development and information exchange in the application of reliability and maintenance engineering tools and concepts.

A few examples of assignments are:
• Lubrication scheduling & routing software (DuPont – Virginia)
• Develop risk based model to optimize economic reorder points (Fluor – South Carolina)
• Setting up vibration analysis database (DuPont – Ohio)
• Setting up maintenance work procedures (Jacobs – Texas)
• Effectiveness testing of nitrogen purging the drilling tools (Schlumberger – Louisiana)
• Planned to Predictive Maintenance Program for bearings replacement – (Schlumberger –    Louisiana)
• Infrared analysis of electrical components and Weibull analysis (Schlumberger – Colorado)
• Root cause failure analysis and rapid improvement events (Novelis – Georgia)
• Develop predictive maintenance training template (Owens    Corning – Ohio)
• Reliability engineering (Dow – Michigan)
• Aviation component reliability on helicopters (Redstone Arsenal –    Alabama)
• Maintenance and reliability improvements (Nissan – Tennessee)

Gary (Anthony) Hathaway worked with infrared technology at Schlumberger in Colorado, where he utilized predictive maintenance techniques to monitor circuit boards. He also came back with a Level I Thermography Certification.

This summer, Novelis, an aluminum rolling company, hired three UT engineering students (Darius James – electrical engineering, Miles Chase – mechanical engineering, Tom Singleton – mechanical engineering) and a mechanical engineering student from Texas A&M (Billy Gifford) as interns for Novelis Corporate Reliability Group. The interns were based in Novelis’ Global Headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., and traveled to various North American plants to participate in activities such as rapid improvement events, root cause failure analysis and more.

RMC is looking for about 40 interested ME, EE or IE students for 2012. They should send their resume to Kim Kallstrom at [log in to unmask].

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2012 Ford Diversity Fellowship Applications Now Accepted

Starting Sept. 1, 2011, applications will be accepted for the 2012 Ford Diversity Fellowships Program for Achieving Excellence in College and University Teaching. Full eligibility information and online applications are here.

Application deadline dates:
• Predoctoral: November 14, 2011
• Dissertation: November 17, 2011
• Postdoctoral: November 17, 2011

For further information, please contact:

Fellowships Office
National Research Council of The National Academies
500 Fifth Street NW
Keck 576
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202.334.2872
Fax: 202.334.3419
Email: [log in to unmask]

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UT Nuclear Engineering Students win Coryell Award for Undergraduate Research
 
On Aug. 29, 2011, University of Tennessee (UT) students Ben Farr and Jeremy Townsend received the Charles D. Coryell Award in Nuclear Chemistry.  This award, presented annually by the American Chemical Society’s Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology (ACS-DNCT), recognizes undergraduate excellence in nuclear chemistry research.  Farr and Townsend were presented the award at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver. The award includes a $500 prize for each from ACS-DNCT.
 
Farr and Townsend have been supporting the acquisition, installation and testing of a hybrid K-edge densitometer/X-ray fluorescence (HKED) system that is being installed in the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for training purposes and algorithm development. The International Atomic Energy Agency uses HKED systems for verification measurements at nuclear fuel reprocessing plants throughout the world, including those in France, Japan and the United Kingdom.
 
HKED is used to monitor the amount of uranium and plutonium in process solutions, which is important for both safety and safeguards purposes. The instrument at REDC is the only such unit within the U.S. and will serve as a research and training asset for improving methods for quantitative analysis of the actinides in balance-of-plant materials accounting. 
 
Both students presented their research at the recent 2011 Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) meeting.  Their work will be published in the meeting proceedings through INMM, and a more complete paper is planned for the Journal of Nuclear Materials Management in the near future.
 
Dr. Howard Hall, Governor's Chair professor of Global Nuclear Security in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, and Jeff Chapman of ORNL mentored Farr and Townsend in their undergraduate research, which was performed at ORNL and UT.  Both students received their B.S. degrees in nuclear engineering in May 2011, and are continuing as graduate students with Hall’s research group in the Department of Nuclear Engineering.

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Registration Now Open for Research Commercialization Introductory Course

The Research Commercialization Introductory Course, which begins on Monday, Sept. 20, 2011, is a very popular online course designed to help science and engineering researchers better understand how research commercialization works. Generally more than 4,000 researchers from across the U.S. take the course each time it is offered.

Each lecture is a live 90-minute online class with Q&A. This workshop course is offered free of charge, but registration is required.

For more information about this webinar contact [log in to unmask] or visit http://center.ncet2.org.

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College of Engineering Online Store Coming Soon!

COMING IN SEPTEMBER 2011: The University of Tennessee, College of Engineering (COE) Online Store! COE students, alumni and friends will be able to purchase apparel and accessories that identify them not just to the University of Tennessee, but to the College of Engineering, all from their computer with just a click of a button. This is COE merchandise that can only be found at the online store. A link to the store can be found on the main menu of the COE website in mid-September!

Faculty News

NE Professor Participates in International Symposium

Dr. Belle Upadhyaya, professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering (NE), participated in the International Symposium on Future of Instrumentation & Controls for Nuclear Power Plants (ICI 2011) from Aug. 21-24 in Daejeon, Republic of Korea. He chaired technical sessions at the conference and presented a paper titled, “Control, Co-generation, and Sensor Placement Strategy for Integral Small Modular Reactors.”  He also visited research facilities at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in Daejeon and presented a seminar to the Instrumentation, Controls and Human Factors research group. Upadhyaya discussed future research collaboration with KAERI in nuclear plant monitoring, diagnostics and prognostics area.

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Center for Transportation Research in the News

One of the Center for Transportation Research's (CTR) transportation economists, Dr. Larry Bray, was interviewed by Nashville Public Radio about a proposed river sport expansion in Clarksville. To read the article, which also references a study done by the CTR, click here!

Engineering Professional Practice Student Feature

Featured Student: Kevin M. O'Rear

This week’s featured student is Kevin M. O’Rear, a mechanical engineering student who has completed his summer semester at Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Watts Bar.

O'Rear described his reponsibilities: “I worked in mechanical maintenance. As the intern, I was assigned to make a database for relief valves that the shop owned. After I created the database, I coordinated with the craft workers to show them how to use it. I also went into the plant numerous times to see what the real side of engineering was. The engineers would explain and show hands on just what all the equipment did. The craft workers also showed me exactly how things worked and were maintained.”

During his co-op assignment, he learned about Microsoft Access and how to use basic macros and Visual Basic.

"I learned many nuclear power-specific skills and underwent much of the same training as the full-time employees such as radiological worker training,” O'Rear said.

The most valuable benefit he received by accepting a co-op was "real job experience."

"I learned what working at a place like this would be like,” he said.

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.”

Seminar Announcements

Materials Graduate Seminar
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
1:25 p.m. Dougherty Engineering Building Room 612
Speaker: Asta Richter and Roger Smith

Some Aspects of Irradiated ODS Steels: Experiment and Simulation

Nanostructured ferritic oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloy is a promising candidate particularly for the use of a first-wall and blanket structure of the future generation of reactors. This material contains relatively high fractions of nano-sized oxide particles such as Y2O3 oxide, perovskite YAlO3 (YAP), monoclinic Y4Al2O9 (YAM) and Y2Al5O12 garnet (YAG). The behavior of this material under long-term neutron irradiation is a subject of high interest. It has been demonstrated that ion implantation is a suitable method in order to simulate the damage caused by neutrons and their transmutation products. Simultaneous dual beam implantation of Fe+ and He+ ions enables the creation of damage in a very short time and over a wide range of the He/dpa ratio without any nuclear activation of the material.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a very promising technique for joining ODS materials without oxide particle agglomeration and loss of mechanical properties in the weld zone. However, the irradiation effect of friction stir welded ODS steels is still unknown. The preliminary results show that FSW modified ODS material with high dislocation density performed well in irradiation resistance with a diminished effect of irradiation hardening.

Ion implanted PM 2000 ODS material (with and without FSW) was investigated by nanoindentation, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS). Results of changes in the hardness of the material after irradiation and the related microstructure are presented.

For the second part of the talk, some preliminary results of a UK-India collaboration will be presented. Collision cascades in ODS steels will be considered. This model is based on the inclusion of yttria nanoparticles, whose sizes are taken from a distribution, which is experimentally measured in an Fe matrix.

In addition, a simple model of nanoparticle ripening based on a vacancy mechanism will be presented. It will also be shown how the methodology can be extended to include the long time evolution of radiation enhanced defects in these and other materials.

Biography: Dr. Richter is in the Department of Engineering at Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau (Berlin). Dr. Smith is in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK.

For more information, please contact Dr. Peter Liaw, [log in to unmask], 974-6356.

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Ambassador Linton Brooks to Speak at Baker Center

On Sept. 19, 2011, Ambassador Linton Brooks will speak at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee (UT) on 21st Century Nuclear Challenges.

During the Cold War, discussion of nuclear weapons was everywhere. Nuclear issues were front and center in the headlines, underpinned our nation’s defense posture, defined superpower politics, and were the reason why all school children knew where the local bomb shelter was located. Despite the perhaps even greater dangers nuclear weapons and material pose today—the nuclear programs of rogue states Iran and North Korea, the threat of nuclear terrorism, increasing numbers of nuclear weapons in volatile or fragile parts of the world like Pakistan, the nuclear disaster in Japan — the nuclear security agenda has receded in the national debate. Global stockpiles of nuclear weapons, vulnerable nuclear material worldwide, and the byproducts of nuclear energy production will remain among the central challenges to U.S. national security and global stability throughout the 21st century.

Brooks will offer his perspectives on these important issues in a public lecture at the Baker Center. Brooks has more than five decades of experience in national security, much of it associated with nuclear policy. While he currently is a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a distinguished research fellow at the National Defense University, he previously served as the administrator of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and chief negotiator of the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, as well as in other key U.S. government positions. Prior to his government service, he was a career Navy officer deployed on four nuclear-equipped ships.

What role should nuclear weapons play in our national defense? Are nuclear weapons the most useful tool to combat today’s adversaries? In light of today’s budgetary constraints, how should the U.S. spend its more limited resources on defense? What strategies can be employed to control rogue states with nuclear programs like Iran and North Korea? Do we have adequate security in place to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons-usable material or technology? These are just some of the questions Brooks will address as he examines how to best shape the U.S. nuclear posture and policies in the 21st century.

This event is sponsored by the Hudson Institute, Partnership for a Secure America, the Stanley Foundation, and the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.

This event is free and open to the public. The presentation begins at 6 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium. For more information, please contact Dr. Howard Hall at [log in to unmask].

Career Services Announcements

Eastman Chemical Company Looking for Applicants for 4th Leadership Development Program Class

If you meet the qualifications listed below, please consider applying for this program.  Class attendance is mandatory for the program so please check the dates closely to ensure that you can attend all sessions before submitting your resume (participants receive a $350 stipend upon completion of the program).  This is an excellent opportunity to learn from vice presidential level professionals from a Fortune 500 Company.  To apply for consideration, please log into your HIRE-A-VOL account and search for Eastman Chemical under the Employers. Don’t miss your chance - the application deadline is Sept. 12.

 ****This is not a job or internship.  It is a Leadership Development Program*****

Eastman Chemical Company
Leadership Development Program
 
Eastman Chemical Company, a Fortune 500 company located in Kingsport, Tenn., is accepting applications for its Leadership Development Program. The program is designed to assist participants in developing the leadership skills necessary to succeed in today's dynamic workplace.
 
Juniors with a 3.0 GPA and above are encouraged to apply for this competitive program.  Students must be majoring in one of the below disciplines:

• Accounting        
• Industrial Engineering
• Chemical Engineering    
• Logistics
• Electrical Engineering    
• Marketing
• Finance               
• Mechanical Engineering
 
The program will run through Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters and will include a total of eight sessions taught by executives at Eastman. Participants will meet in the West Wing of the Haslam Business Building between the hours of 6-8 p.m. for the majority of the sessions.  

Upon successful attendance of all sessions, a $350 stipend will be awarded to each participant.

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It’s Coming: Engineering Career Success Kick-Off Week
Mark your Calendars: Sept. 12-15

Monday, Sept. 12, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Career Carnival
Ferris/Perkins Courtyard
Free Popcorn, Rita’s Italian Ice & Soda (while it lasts), COE student organization showcase and giveaways.
Sponsored by: ConAgra Foods, Inc./Rita’s Italian Ice Knoxville/Career Services
 
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2-5 p.m.
Social Impact Fair
UC Ballroom
Explore volunteer and career opportunities that make the difference.
 
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 4-5 p.m.
Ready for the World
SERF Auditorium
Learn from Laura Paddock, Talent Acquisition Manager with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), about managing your career over your lifespan.
Presented by the TVA
  
Wednesday, Sept. 14, 6-7:30 p.m.
Gaining Admission into Highly Competitive Graduate Schools for Engineers
University Center Auditorium
Presented by Don Asher. Learn about identifying programs, contacting professors, components of the application and more!
Sponsored by: Career Services/College of Engineering
  
Thursday, Sept. 15, 6-8 p.m.
Speed Networking Session
University Center Ballroom
Participate in a speed networking event with employer representatives to practice your elevator speech in preparation for the Job Fair on Sept. 27!
Employer representatives include: ORNL, B&W Y-12, Jacobs Engineering, DENSO Manufacturing, Oak Ridge Energy Corridor
This event is limited to the first 30 student registrations. Students must register via HIRE-A-VOL at www.career.utk.edu to participate.
Sponsored by UT Career Services and the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership

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Fall 2011 Job Fair
Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011
2-6 p.m.
Thompson-Boling Arena

More than 134 companies are currently registered for the job fair and are looking to fill full-time post-graduation, short-term contract and internship positions.

Sample employers include:

• Altec Industries
• AREVA
• Avery Dennison
• Bechtel Corporation
• Belden
• BNSF Railway
• CGI
• ConAgra Foods
• Dell
• DENSO Manufacturing
• Eaton Electrical
• Enercon Services
• Gerdau
• International Paper
• Johnson & Johnson
• Lauren Engineers & Constructors, Inc.
• Microsoft Corporation
• National Nuclear Security Administration
• NAVSEA-NORFOLK NAVAL SHIPYARD
• Norfolk Southern Corporation
• Novelis
• Oak Ridge National Lab
• PolyOne Corporation
• Sargent & Lundy
• Schlumberger
• URS Corporation
• AND MORE: Log onto www.career.utk.edu

Dress professionally, and bring extra copies of your resume!

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ATTENTION INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING MAJORS

Don’t forget to attend the Logistics Fair
Monday, Sept. 26, 2011
4-6 p.m.
Thompson-Boling Arena

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