Miller

Miller Named Distinguished Engineering Student

Sean Miller, a senior mechanical engineering major, has been named the recipient of the McAuley Distinguished Engineering Student Award for 2013. This award, provided by members of the Whitacre College of Engineering Dean's Council, is named in memory of James A. McAuley, an active member of the Dean's Council, and a Texas Tech Distinguished Engineer.

Miller competed for this honor and was selected because of his outstanding academic achievements, honors, activities, interests, and aspirations. He will graduate in December 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and he currently has a 3.91 GPA.

20-million-year-old Dominican fossil amber

Fossil Amber Shatters Theories of Glass as a Liquid

Through research supported by the National Science Foundation under a grant from the Division of Materials Research, Polymers Program, and recently published in Nature Communications, new light has been shed on the behavior of glasses.

Dr. Greg McKenna, Horn Professor of chemical engineering; Dr. Sindee Simon, Whitacre Department Chair and Horn Professor of chemical engineering; and Jing Zhao, a doctoral student in chemical engineering; examined 20-million-year-old Dominican amber and performed calorimetric and stress relaxation experiments on the samples.

“What we found is that the amber relaxation times did not diverge,” McKenna said. “This result challenges all the classic theories of glass transition behavior.”

Semaphore Man

ECE Students Win MEMS Design Competition

Texas Tech electrical and computer engineering students won the "Educational Design" Category at the 2013 Sandia National Laboratories MEMS University Alliance Design Competition. Led by lead designer Bryan Kahler, team members Courtney Pinnell, Steve Mani, and Philip Henry designed the Semaphore Man, an interactive educational tool that teaches STEM concepts. The group was advised by Dr. Tim Dallas, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Semaphore Man is a micro-scale base 25, 1 bit discrete time-variant analog signaling device developed using the SUMMiT V fabrication process. The device can be used to teach number systems, variable bit rates, and the transmission of unique signals via multiple signaling schemas. The Semaphore Man is 687 µm tall and has a wingspan of 903 µm. The entire device is only 1.7 mm wide and 1.8 mm tall.

Texas Tech students have won the contest in seven of the last nine years. Nine other schools participated in the Educational Design Category of the competition this year.

Hong-Chao Zhang

Zhang Named Interim Chair of Industrial Engineering

Dr. Hong-Chao Zhang, a professor of industrial engineering, has been named the interim chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering.

He earned a Ph.D. in manufacturing engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 1989, a master of science in mechanical engineering from the University of Aalborg-Denmark in 1986, and a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the Tianjin University of Science and Technology in 1976. He has received approximately $5 million in research funding from NSF, Texas ATP, NIST, SME and other government and industry agencies.

Explore Engineering Field Trip

Texas Tech, Halliburton Host Explore Engineering Field Trip

The Whitacre College of Engineering hosted 300 “straight A” ninth grade students from towns across West Texas on the Texas Tech campus for a one-day “Explore Engineering” field trip on April 26, 2013. The event was funded by the Halliburton Education Foundation and aimed to encourage young students to explore the field of engineering in college.

The trip was an effort to reward the academic performance of students and to attract groups that are typically underrepresented in engineering. The students explored engineering through laboratory tours and exciting hands-on activities and challenges, all offered by faculty members, staff members, and professional engineering student organizations.

Rivera	Wanki

Rivera and Wanki Receive President's Excellence in Diversity and Equity Awards

Alex Rivera and Godlove Wanki, mechanical engineering majors, have been named recipients of the President's Excellence in Diversity and Equity Student Award for 2013.

The President's Excellence in Diversity and Equity Student Award recognizes students who have demonstrated leadership in:

• Engaging in academic activities and projects that contribute to a better understanding of diversity and equity issues.
• Supporting activities and programs that promote tolerance and an appreciation of diverse cultures/groups.
• Participating in off campus activities that foster a greater understanding of diversity.
• Contributing to on and off campus activities that promote and celebrate diverse cultures/groups.

Recipients of the President's Excellence in Diversity and Equity Student Award will receive a $500 scholarship in September 2013.

Sheng

Sheng Receives Fulbright Grant, SPE Regional Technical Award

Dr. James Sheng, an associate professor of petroleum engineering, received a Fulbright U.S. Specialist Grant. He will travel to Vietnam to help PetroVietnam University establish a petroleum program.

He also received a 2013 SPE Regional Technical Award for Formation Evaluation in the Southwestern U.S. region. The SPE Regional Technical Awards acknowledge exceptional contributions to the Society of Petroleum Engineers at the section or regional level and recognize singular devotion of time and effort to the programs and development of technical expertise in eight disciplines.

Cleveland

Cleveland Named Fellow of ASCE EWRI

Dr. Theodore G. Cleveland, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI). Created in 1999, EWRI is a civil engineering specialty institute of the ASCE, the country's oldest national engineering society. EWRI has approximately 26,000 members.

Hanson

Hanson Named Student Section Advisor of the Year

Dr. Jeff Hanson, an instructor of mechanical engineering, was named a recipient of the Student Section Advisor of the Year at the Great International, Southwest, & Rocky Mountain District E ASME Student Professional Development Conference (SPDC) in April 2013. The district includes schools and universities in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, and Mexico. The outstanding Student Section Advisor Award recognizes the leadership and service qualities of a Student Section Advisor who has completed at least 3 academic years as a Student Section Advisor prior to nomination for the award.

Womack

Kyle Womack Named to Texas Board of Professional Engineers

Kyle Womack, a 1975 graduate with a bachelor of science in civil engineering, has been named to the Texas Board of Professional Engineers. He is appointed for a term that will expire in Sept. 2017.

A resident of Horseshoe Bay, Womack is a licensed professional engineer and vice president of business expansion at Parkhill, Smith and Cooper Inc. He is a member and former director of the National Society of Professional Engineers, member and past president of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, and a member and past board member of the Texas Council of Engineering Companies. He is also a member of the Texas Tech Civil Engineering Academy.

Xu

Xu Named Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno

Dr. Hao Xu, a 2011 graduate with a Doctor of Philosophy in civil engineering, has accepted an assistant professor position at the University of Nevada, Reno in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research includes advanced GIS and GPS map-matching algorithms, traffic evacuations, and traffic operation and control.

Chemical Engineering

• Dr. Ronald C. Hedden was awarded $15,512 by Mytex Polymers. The title of the proposal was "Scratch Resistance Studies for Automotive Applications."

Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Drs. Stephen M. Morse, Douglas A. Smith, and Delong Zuo were awarded $70,069 by an Anonymous Sponsor - Industrial. The title of the proposal was "(NWI) Investigating Wind-Induced Vibration of a Tubular Steel Arm on a Transmission Tower."
• Dr. Hoyoung Seo was awarded $15,000 by the GS Engineering and Construction Research Institute. The title of the proposal was "Design and Construction of Pipelines in Cold Regions."

Computer Science

• Dr. Yong Chen was awarded $95,522 by DOE/Argonne National Lab. The title of the proposal was "Active Object Storage for Big Data Applications in High Performance Computing."

Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation

• Drs. Alon Kvashny, Hongchao Liu, Cynthia B. McKenney, Moon-Cheol Won, and Richard E. Zartman were awarded $31,997 by the TX Dept of Transportation. The title of the proposal was "Lubbock TxDOT IAC 05-1XXIA001." Liu is the PI.

Center for Pulsed Power and Power Electronics

• Dr. James C. Dickens, Shad L. Holt, Dr. John J. Mankowski, and Dr. Andreas A. Neuber were awarded $50,347 by the Office of Naval Research. The title of the proposal was "Enabling Technology for Compact Directed Energy Systems Addressing Asymmetric Explosive Threats." Dickens is the PI.

Mechanical Engineering

• Dr. Michelle L. Pantoya was awarded $5,939 by the U.S. Army Research Office. The title of the proposal was "SUPPLEMENT: High School and Undergraduate Research Experiences: Multiphase Combustion of Metalized Nanocomposite Energetic Materials."

Smart Grid Energy Center

• Dr. Vittal S. Rao was awarded $39,462 by the Northrop Grumman Corporation. The title of the proposal was "Cyber Security SCADA Protocol Unique Digital Signature Tool (SPUDS-T) 2013."

Water Resources Center

• Drs. Audra N. Morse and Tony Vercellino were awarded $178,280 by NSF/Selenium Ltd. The title of the proposal was "Selenium Bio-polymer Feed Spacers to Prevent Biofouling of Reverse Osmosis Membranes."

See a full listing of the college's events on the Engineering Master Calendar.

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