CoE News

  • Brent Shanks
    CBE’s Shanks named Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Fellow

    Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering faculty member Brent Shanks has been named an American Chemical Society (ACS) Industrial & Engineering Chemistry (I&EC) Fellow for the Class of 2023. Read More

  • Anna Hackbarth holds a sousaphone
    What does community sound like? For Anna Hackbarth, it’s marching band music

    "When I heard the ISU Cyclone Marching Band practicing during my first tour of campus, I just immediately fell in love. I knew I wanted to come to Iowa State and be in the band and be a part of all of it. And, lucky for me, because I always planned to major in engineering, Iowa State is a great band school and a great engineering school." Read More

  • Photo of Ashlock and a student collecting data from the device
    How big should a new foundation be? Students determine ideal foundation size in soil strength course

    In Civil Engineering 462/562, Site Evaluations for Civil Engineering Projects, seniors and graduate students use hands-on methods to learn various processes for testing soil in-ground. Taught by associate professor Jeramy Ashlock, the class is implementing CCEE Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard Handy’s in-ground soil strength test, known as the Borehole Shear Test, after digging a small hole, known as a borehole, for testing. Read More

  • Khushi Kapoor
    Sky high: Khushi Kapoor innovates tomorrow’s aviation technologies

    For Khushi Kapoor, senior in aerospace engineering, innovating at Iowa State means reaching for new heights in aviation. Read More

  • Photo of three ABE students discussing the dashboard project
    Helping policymakers make informed decisions about agriculture, $1.9 million grant for broad-scope framework

    In the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, researchers received a $1.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to provide a broad-scope framework presenting how FEW systems work together. Including elements like crop and animal production and ethanol generation among other things, the team is designing a series of maps that describe the food, energy and water data elements within the state of Iowa, and housing the maps in one user-friendly webpage. Read More

  • Student observing ice accretion in Department of Aerospace Engineering Icing Research Tunnel.
    Hui Hu icing research study receives AIAA best paper honors

    A paper published by Department of Aerospace Engineering Martin C. Jischke Professor Hui Hu and three of his students has been selected to receive national recognition by the American Institute of Aeronautics and  Astronautics’ (AIAA) Gas Turbine Engines Technical Committee. Read More

  • ECIC team checking their construction plans in the computer lab
    ECIC club wins first place in national construction management competition

    Iowa State University Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering’s (CCEE) National Electrical Contractor’s Association (NECA) club took home a $4,000, first-place award this fall at the annual Electrical Contracting Innovation Challenge held during the NECA National Convention in Austin, Texas. The team placed first in the overall presentation portion of the challenge, an award determined by combining the scores of a written proposal and the oral presentation. Read More

  • MRC fosters cutting-edge research and provides state-of-the-art equipment

    Liang Dong, Vikram Dalal Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering was named the director of the Microelectronics Research Center (MRC) in 2022. The MRC is a multi-disciplinary center focusing on the study of semiconductor materials, devices, and applications. The research conducted at the MRC includes microelectronics, photonics, compound semiconductors, nanomaterials, sensors, and microelectromechanical systems. The Center is utilized by research groups across the campus, industry specialists, and students. “The Center provides our students with ampler opportunities for fabricating micro- and nanodevices. Our researchers have full access to a range of tools. The fabrication and characterization capacity we have is the foundation that our academic and industry communities need to innovate and scale in the micro- and nano-world,” Dong said, “The Center also provides an environment that fosters innovation and collaboration between researchers. We are working towards integrating expertise and strengths to initiate and develop new research activities and to succeed.” One of Dong’s core research areas is in sensors. He has developed a suite of agricultural sensors to detect plant diseases, monitor their health status, and quantify water and fertilizer use efficiencies of crops. These devices are just some examples of research that utilizes the MRC, which houses a lot of state-of-the-art equipment to use. This includes a 3D-nano-printer. This printer, worth more than half a million dollars, can print fine structures of less than one hundredth the size of human hair. This piece of equipment has a wide array of applications in low-cost sensors, micro-optics, and smart nanomaterials and devices. Read More

  • Members of AIChE student chapter pose for group photo at 2022 AIChE Annual Student Conference in Phoenix, AZ
    Help uphold AIChE student chapter’s tradition of excellence! FundISU page is now available

    Twenty Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering undergraduates have made the trip to Phoenix for the AIChE Annual Student Conference. While the experience is definitely worth the trip, it is costly. Prior to departing, the chapter’s faculty advisor Dr. Stephanie Loveland estimated more than $10,000 had been spent on air and hotel reservations and conference registration fees alone. The chapter has established a FundISU page through the Iowa State University Foundation to allow contributions that will help defray some of these costs. Contributions can be made through December 9. Read More

  • Headshot of Abigail Schulte
    Powering the future with biogas: Abigail Schulte places first in annual Three Minute Thesis Competition

    One of eight finalists in Iowa State University’s annual three minute thesis competition, Abigail Schulte is a concurrent student in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering versed in advocating for the environment through clear research and communication. Read More

  • Dhananjay Dileep conducting research in the lab.
    Grad student Dhananjay Dileep is working to make the chemical recycling of plastics more commercially viable

    Born into a family of doctors in India, Dhananjay Dileep, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, grew up wanting to help fix the world. Today, Dileep is working toward this goal by making the chemical recycling of plastics more commercially viable. Read More

  • CBE chair Andy Hillier presents the Hall of Fame plaque to Mark Lashier
    Phillips 66 CEO, alumnus Mark Lashier to CBE Hall of Fame

    Mark Lashier earned a B.S. in chemical engineering at Iowa State University in 1985 and a Ph.D. in 1989. In the years since he has earned respect and recognition as an engineer, business professional and industry leader. The President and Chief Executive Officer of Phillips Petroleum Co. joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) Honors and Awards Banquet where he was inducted into the department’s alumni Hall of Fame. Read More

  • Daria Dilparic is a student operator the Ames Water Treatment plan
    Water work: Daria Dilparic provides vital water treatment service to the Ames community

    Daria Dilparic is combining her love of chemistry, water quality and public health as a graduate student in environmental engineering – and in a position as a student operator at Ames Water and Pollution Control Department. Daria’s commitment to protecting the environment and her community inspires her to use analytical chemistry methods to solve drinking water contamination problems. Read More

  • Helping law enforcement hunt evil

    Guan serves as the Cyber Forensic Coordinator for the Center for Statistic and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE). It was through CSAFE that Guan and his team developed EviHunter. This software can analyze a smart phone’s apps for evidence relating to a crime, and it is automatic and can speed up the investigation process by shortening the time to only 20-30 minutes per device. Read More

  • Earthquake generic graphic
    “Groundbreaking” research in earthquake mechanisms sees publication in Nature Communications for AerE’s Levitas

    Hypotheses and theory regarding what occurs during deep-focus earthquakes have been taken on by Department of Aerospace Engineering Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and Vance Coffman Faculty Chair Valery Levitas, in his first work on geophysical problems. Read More