Sean Rollag, a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering, won first place in the graduate research poster competition at the TCS 2018 conference on thermal and catalytic sciences. Rollag’s poster shows the physical changes in the structure of biomass during thermal deconstruction.
World War II servicemen studying mechanical and agricultural engineering will be honored at Iowa State’s Gold Star Hall ceremony at 3:15 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 12 in the Memorial Union Great Hall. William Howard Butler, who studied ag engineering in the 1940s and died in China in 1945, and Richard Wayne Suesens, who came to Iowa State to study mechanical engineering in 1937 and was killed in action during the Battle of Midway in 1942, will be remembered during the Gold Star Hall ceremony, part of a week of events on campus dedicated to honoring veterans.
Adjunct professor of materials science and engineering Iver Anderson was recently inducted into the Michigan Tech Academy of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. Anderson, who is also a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, was honored for his extraordinary contributions to the materials discipline, the educational activities he coordinates at the national level, and his ongoing support of the department. Among his many accomplishments, Anderson is best known as the inventor of a lead-free solder used in 70 percent of electronic devices in the world.
The Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering is a winner of the Iowa State University Alumni Association’s Impact Award, honoring “individuals, businesses, organizations, or units whose programs or accomplishments brought broad recognition to the university and increased the involvement of ISU constituents.”
Four Cyclone Engineers and one engineering department will receive college and Iowa State University Alumni Association awards at the ISUAA 2018 Honors and Awards Ceremony. Tim Anderson (’73 chem engr) will be awarded the Anson Marston Medal, Jim Fay (’74 chem engr) and Amzi Yahya (MS ’85, PhD ’88 agri engr) will receive Professional Achievement Citations in Engineering and John Kevern (PhD ’08 civil engr) will receive a Young Alumni Award from the College of Engineering. The ISU Alumni Association’s Impact Award will go to the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering.
Matt Darr, professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, has been named administrative leader of Iowa State University’s BioCentury Research Farm and Precision Agriculture and Industry Partnership Fellow.
Alex King, Iowa State professor of materials science and engineering, is the recipient of the 2019 Acta Materialia Hollomon Award for Materials and Society. The award recognizes King’s outstanding leadership in promoting the understanding of material science’s significant impact on society.
Meet young alum Pamela Rodriguez (’16 indust tech), who is now a production supervisor at Cargill in Mason City, Iowa.
Matt Helmers, professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, has been named director of the Iowa Nutrient Research Center. The center funds research by scientists at Iowa State, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa to address nitrogen and phosphorus nutrient losses to surface waters.
Fifteen College of Engineering faculty and staff received the highest Iowa State University honors at the annual awards ceremony on Friday, Sept. 14.
At the 2018 Convocation on Sept. 13, James L. and Katherine S. Melsa Dean of Engineering Sarah Rajala recognized engineering faculty and staff for excellence in teaching, research, extension and student experience.
College of Engineering faculty are developing evidence-based strategies to ensure diversity and inclusion in engineering education – all with an aim of boosting diversity in STEM fields. Here are four of our research projects studying teaching methods and student experience.
Cassandra Rutherford, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, is studying how to improve foundation design of tidal current turbines – with an aim of helping offshore renewable energy generation go mainstream. Her project examining suction caissons as an economical and green option for tidal turbines is supported by an NSF CAREER award.
Materials science and engineering Ph.D. student Trishelle Copeland-Johnson launched her research career with internships at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, located right here on the Iowa State campus, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Now, Copeland-Johnson works at Brookhaven Lab to improve materials used to prevent potential disasters at nuclear reactors.
An interdisciplinary research team at Iowa State University, including professor of mechanical engineering Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, turned to crowdsourcing to help them design a machine-learning algorithm that could speed up the process of breeding new crop varieties with desirable traits. The recently published research focuses on identifying tassels in images of corn plants, but the work could have implications for other crops as well.
