College of Engineering News • Iowa State University

IE graduate student takes 2nd place at national poster competition

Industrial engineering (IE) graduate student Saba Moeinizade did not know what to expect when the student poster competition for the INFORMS annual meeting was made virtual. She certainly was not expecting a podium finish, so she was pleasantly surprised when the judges awarded second place to her entry. Her presentation – “A Simulation-based Optimization Approach …Continue reading “IE graduate student takes 2nd place at national poster competition”

MSE’s Jiang receives EAGER award to study using CRISPR to improve crop plants

Shan Jiang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, recently received an Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER), funded by a partnership between the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. Jiang and his team will investigate methods of using CRISPR-Cas9, a sequence of DNA that is able to cut DNA strands to make edits, to create varieties in crops.

IE and agronomy team up for $2 million NSF research project

A team of industrial engineering and agronomy researchers have been awarded a $2 million grant by the National Science Foundation to study ways that Operations Research and Analytics techniques can be applied to improve plant breeding. Lizhi Wang, an associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering (IMSE), is the project’s Principal Investigator (PI). He …Continue reading “IE and agronomy team up for $2 million NSF research project”

ME researcher named Plant Science Institute Faculty Scholar

Funding from Iowa State’s Plant Science Institute will allow a mechanical engineering researcher to study ways to assist farmers in Iowa and across the globe in growing food. Soumik Sarkar, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering, will receive $75,000 in funding per year over the next three years for his research project. This project combines …Continue reading “ME researcher named Plant Science Institute Faculty Scholar”

Iowa State University researchers turn to robotics to improve understanding of plant growth

Iowa State University faculty members are developing a new facility that will utilize a specially designed robot to gather unprecedented amounts of data on the growth of plants under different environmental conditions. The project was funded recently by a $929,773 grant from the National Science Foundation. ISU personnel plan to have a prototype of the …Continue reading “Iowa State University researchers turn to robotics to improve understanding of plant growth”

Iowa State engineers turn LEGO bricks into a scientific tool to study plant growth

Ludovico Cademartiri had what seemed like an impossibly demanding list of requirements for his lab equipment. The Iowa State University assistant professor of materials science and engineering wants to understand environmental effects on plant growth, specifically how variations in climate and soil characteristics affect root growth. That requires highly controlled environments that expose whole plants to environmental …Continue reading “Iowa State engineers turn LEGO bricks into a scientific tool to study plant growth”

Presidential initiative creates team of engineers, plant scientists to develop smart plants

Iowa State University engineers and plant scientists are joining forces to design better crops that tolerate climate change, produce bigger yields and feed more people. The collaborative effort to develop computationally engineered plants could have the same kind of impact on agriculture as biomedical engineering has had on medicine, said Daniel Attinger, the leader of …Continue reading “Presidential initiative creates team of engineers, plant scientists to develop smart plants”

Four from ECpE earn NSF CAREER Awards

Four researchers in the Iowa State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering were awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award in 2012. Santosh Pandey, Aditya Ramamoorthy, Umesh Vaidya and Joseph Zambreno each earned awards and pushed the department’s total number of NSF CAREER Awards to 16. The four awards represent …Continue reading “Four from ECpE earn NSF CAREER Awards”

Lyons makes gardening “oh so simple”

When he graduated in 2009, Iowa State University electrical engineering alumnus Austin Lyons didn’t imagine that just three years later he would be on the verge of starting his own company with four of his closest friends. The group, which consists of Lyons, Eduardo Torrealba, Trevor Hutchins, Brad Sanders, and Michael Clemenson, met at a …Continue reading “Lyons makes gardening “oh so simple””

USDA awards Iowa State grant to develop biorenewable plant containers

Iowa State University has been awarded a grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop biorenewable and biodegradable containers for the specialty crop industry. The $1.9 million grant will be used to develop bioplastic containers as an alternative to petroleum-based pots. Bill Graves, professor of horticulture, will lead the research team that includes David …Continue reading “USDA awards Iowa State grant to develop biorenewable plant containers”

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