This fall Iowa State University’s civil engineering program attracts two exceptional graduate students as Dwight David Eisenhower Graduate Fellows, a national graduate student award that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsors. Ellen Nightingale and Patricia Thompson, both master’s students in civil engineering, bring a wealth of experience to Iowa State’s transportation engineering research program. Each …Continue reading “FHWA awards top graduate fellowship to Iowa State students”
Eric Cochran led the way, counterclockwise, from one 500-gallon industrial tank to another and then another. By the time he got to the 1,300-gallon holding tank at the end he had explained how Iowa State University engineers are producing bio-polymers from soybean oil.
Ukraine. Armenia. Moldova. Bosnia-Herzegovina. Jim Alleman, Cerwick Faculty Professor of Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University, provides his environmental engineering expertise to these countries as a way of implementing, in part, key U.S.-eastern Europe policy. Alleman is one of 13 U.S. university professors to complete a 2014-2015 Jefferson Science Fellowship. The Jefferson Science Fellow Program …Continue reading “Iowa State’s Alleman completes US Department of State, USAID fellowship”
Imagine pulling up to a bridge that you previously used but now is closed to you because of weight restrictions. What will you have to do to get to your destination? How far out of your way do you think you’ll go to complete a delivery or make it home? Well, that is exactly the kind of scenario that happened to me just last year. It was after harvest, and I was taking a shipment of soybeans to the local elevator. I arrived at a small, rural bridge that recently had been given a weight limit that I couldn’t clear. When that happens, it can be a lot more than just an inconvenience.
Cannon Moss Brygger Architects (CMBA) announced that Mat Higgins has joined its staff.
Higgins is joining CMBA’s Sioux City team as a structural engineer-in-training. He received his Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Iowa State University in Ames.
The Schemmer Associates Inc. (Schemmer), a national full-service architecture, engineering and planning firm, is pleased to announce Matt Shimerdla, P.E., has joined the firm as manager of transportation for the Lincoln, Nebraska office.
Iowa State is ranked 70th in the world among universities granted U.S. utility patents in 2014, according to a report released this week by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO). Iowa State researchers earned 31 U.S. patents in 2014, including patents for wind turbine tower systems, computer encryption logic, bioasphalt, use of mesoporous silicates for delivering biomolecules into plant cells and improved treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
The tiny tube circled an ant’s thorax, gently trapping the insect and demonstrating the utility of a microrobotic tentacle developed by Iowa State University engineers. “Most robots use two fingers and to pick things up they have to squeeze,” said Jaeyoun (Jay) Kim, an Iowa State University associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. “But these tentacles wrap around very gently.”
John McDonald was selected as assistant district engineering, state aid for the Minnesota Department of Transportation District 1 in Duluth. McDonald has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Iowa State University in Ames and a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Forty-eight sixth-graders from Jordan Creek Elementary School of West Des Moines, Iowa, experienced cement concrete engineering April 30 at the Iowa State University Portland Cement Concrete and Materials Research Laboratory (PCC Laboratory). Students mixed water, cement, and sand in 4-gallon plastic tubs to form concrete mortar. Later, all were clad in laboratory safety gear as they …Continue reading “Jordan Creek sixth-graders learn Iowa State concrete engineering”
The industrial-scale pilot biopolymers plant being built at the BioCentury Research Farm for use in several different industries nears its completion. The plant, which is a collaboration between the Department of Civil Construction and Environmental Engineering (CCEE), the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE), and industry partners (most prominently Argo Genesis Chemical, a subsidiary …Continue reading “Biopolymers plant nears opening”