Open an engineering textbook, and you’re sure to find charts, graphs, and complex equations. Hard enough to decipher, imagine parsing that information if you were blind or visually impaired. Conveying the detailed visual information that goes hand-in-hand with disciplines in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields isn’t necessarily impossible. But, according to Cris [...]
Changing the way engineering feels: A project to improve the accessibility of STEM fields for the visually impaired
May 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Iowa State formula racers think engine problems are finally behind them
May 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Iowa State’s Formula SAE racing team has been fighting engine problems the past few summers. Three years ago, the team’s mini open-wheel racer was stopped by cracked welds that flooded the fuel mixture with air and killed the engine. Two years ago, the team fell behind schedule and never turned a wheel on track. And last year, [...]
ME professor and graduate assistant discover new way to manipulate fluid stream flow
May 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Two Iowa State researchers teamed up with researchers from UCLA and Princeton University to create an innovative way to engineer the flow of fluid streams, which is important in biological processing, controlling chemical reactions and creating structured materials. Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Yu Xie, research graduate assistant in mechanical engineering, recently [...]
Iowa State’s Team LunaCY ready to repeat last year’s top results at NASA competition
May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The student-engineers of Team LunaCY say they’ve built an even better robot. That’s a big deal, considering last year’s robot won three of the contests in NASA’s annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (The wins were in mining, outreach and efficient use of communications power.) Team members were recently in their campus lab assembling, [...]
Cork Peterson named to Iowa State Construction Engineering Hall of Fame
May 17, 2013 By 1 Comment
Gale M. “Cork” Peterson, Jr. (BSConE’66), a longtime supporter and collaborator with the Iowa State construction engineering program, was recently named to the Iowa State University Construction Engineering Hall of Fame. Peterson joined his business partner, Cordell Peterson, in 1968 to co-own Peterson Contractors, Inc. (PCI), after graduating from Iowa State and serving two years [...]
Dean’s Research Initiatives see successes in second year
May 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Two years into their work, leaders of the Dean’s Research Initiatives (DRIs) presented their progress in an open forum held April 22. In 2011, the College of Engineering established the initiative and awarded $500,000 to three interdisciplinary teams to help the groups pursue larger funding opportunities in important research areas. Initiative for a Carbon Negative [...]
Iowa State engineers design, test taller, high-strength concrete towers for wind turbines
May 15, 2013 By 2 Comments
Grant Schmitz, eyes inches from a 6.5-by-12-foot panel of ultra-high performance concrete, studied the smooth surface for tiny cracks. He and other research engineers carefully marked every one with black markers. Schmitz, an Iowa State graduate student of civil, construction and environmental engineering, and Sri Sritharan, Iowa State’s Wilson Engineering Professor and leader of the ’s College [...]
Power Pullers preparing for national competition with new quarter-scale tractor
May 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment
By Fred Love, Communications Specialist, ISU News Service. What’s that old expression about the size of the dog in the fight? A team of students at Iowa State University is putting the finishing touches on a built-from-scratch 1/4-scale tractor to enter in a nationwide engineering competition at the end of the month. The Cyclone Power Pullers hope [...]
It’s all about reliability for this year’s Iowa State Baja racing team
May 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Students swarmed the Baja SAE garage last week, assembling their mini off-road racer and manufacturing spare parts for their two summer races. “The big thing we tried to address this year was reliability,” said Scott Brehm, a graduating senior from Rickardsville who’s a mechanical engineering major and the technical director of Iowa State’s Baja SAE team. The team [...]
Caroline Hayes named 2013 ASME Fellow
May 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Caroline Hayes, chair of the mechanical engineering department and Lynn Gleason Professor of Interdisciplinary Engineering, recently became an ASME Fellow. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers recognizes members who have had 10 or more years of practice in the field and an active membership with ASME. Throughout her time as a member, Hayes has been [...]
Gaming at ECpE
May 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment
This feature debuted in the Spring 2013 issue of ECpE Connections Magazine Brian Kraus, Robert Romore, and Jacob Cramer are architects, but they don’t build museums. They’re designers, but they don’t lay out magazines. They work with physics, but they’re not physicists. All three are software engineering majors, but they consider themselves game developers at heart. [...]
Spring 2013 student marshal, outstanding seniors announced
May 6, 2013 By 3 Comments
Prasad Raman, a senior in aerospace engineering from Eden Prairie, Minn., will serve as the College of Engineering’s student marshal in Iowa State University’s spring 2013 commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 13. He will be accompanied by Alric Rothmayer, a professor in aerospace engineering and mathematics. “I have had the opportunity to interact with some [...]
ECpE’s Fayed wins NSF CAREER Award
May 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Power management is a critical aspect in many electronic devices, and Ayman Fayed is working on a new approach to the problem. Fayed, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award to develop dynamic on-chip power grids for energy efficient and cost effective power conversion in integrated [...]
ABE past meets present at beam signing
May 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Ask any student, and they’ll say that their experience on campus left a mark on them. On a windy VEISHEA Friday, students and faculty of the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering past and present were able to return the favor. The construction crew working on the new ABE complex left out one of the [...]
Iowa State chemical engineering senior champions academics, research, service
May 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Chemical engineering senior German Parada is a natural leader who has advanced every student organization he has become involved with. He also advocates the importance of “soft” skills such as communication, interpersonal relations and teamwork in an engineer’s career, with goals of making technological and process advances mainstream. Exemplary efforts in these areas have awarded [...]
Iowa State civil engineering senior places 3rd nationally for manure, greenhouse gas research
May 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Kelsey Bruning, a senior in civil engineering who emphasizes environmental engineering at Iowa State, showcased her research project in the Ron Sheffield Memorial Student Poster Contest in Denver, Colorado, and placed third with her submission. The poster contest took place at the inaugural Waste to Worth: Spreading Science and Solution National Conference from April 1-5, [...]
ISU astronaut alumnus teaches aerospace freshman importance of industry and persistence
April 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment
In the aerospace engineering department’s Next Generation interactive classroom, astronaut and former Iowa State University student, Clayton Anderson guest lectured the next generation of aerospace freshman on the importance of knowing their industry. Specifically, who the heavy hitters are, what type of spacecraft designs are currently being developed, and where students can find employment in [...]
Aluru invited to White House Big Data Workshop
April 30, 2013 By 1 Comment
As research in Big Data continues to gain momentum at the national level, Srinivas Aluru is among those recognized as a key stakeholder in the field. Aluru, the Ross Martin Mehl and Marylyne Munas Mehl Professor of Computer Engineering, has been invited to participate in the White House Big Data Workshop, being held May 3, [...]
Fifteen from engineering join Cardinal Key society
April 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Fifteen students from the College of Engineering recently became members of Iowa State’s Cardinal Key honor society, an organization established in 1926 to recognize students, faculty, and staff at the university for their outstanding leadership, service contributions, scholarship achievements, and character. The following engineering students were inducted into the society during a ceremony on April [...]
Material Advantage students advocate science funding to members of Congress
April 26, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Iowa State engineering students recently got a rare chance to explain the importance of their research to members of Congress. The university’s student chapter of Material Advantage sent members to Washington D.C. to promote the importance of science as part of the national organization’s Congressional Visit Day, April 10-11, 2013. Material Advantage organizes the event [...]
Ames Laboratory interim director named
April 26, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Thomas Lograsso has been named interim director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. Lograsso will succeed Alex King, who is stepping down to the lead the laboratory’s Critical Materials Institute, a $120 million DOE Energy Innovation Hub announced in January. Lograsso will assume the Ames Lab directorship as soon as funding for the [...]
Iowa State’s Kejin Wang named American Concrete Institute Fellow
April 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Civil, construction and environmental engineering (CCEE) Professor Kejin Wang was recently named to the 2013 class of American Concrete Institute (ACI) Fellows at the 2013 ACI Convention in Minneapolis, Minn. An ACI Fellow is honored when he/she has served at least 10 years as an ACI member and has made outstanding contributions to the production [...]
Attinger working to put more science behind bloodstain pattern analysis
April 18, 2013 By
Daniel Attinger paused before handing over a photo of a crime scene. “Are you bothered by the sight of blood?” There was good reason for his question: The photo showed blood pooled and smeared on a floor. Blood drops ran down a nearby wall. A single shoe was left in the evidence of violence and [...]
Systems engineering student invited to present paper at national conference
April 18, 2013 By
While studying systems engineering through Engineering Online Learning, Carl Kirpes knew an opportunity to apply his coursework onsite at his job might crop up from time to time. What he didn’t know was that it would earn him third place in the Society for Engineering and Management Systems Student Paper Competition and a chance to [...]
