Fall/Winter 2011
Volume 20
Issue 2
engineering
The Gulf Oil Spill: Engineering the
Aftermath
p. 22
Growing Pains p.12
Samuel Ginn College of Engineering
Robot best Auburn Engineering students Stephen Haddock, left, and Michael Carroll help to unveil this year’s BEST Robotics competition in the Auburn Student Center ballroom. On Oct. 30, teams from 25 area middle and high schools competed in War Eagle BEST’s “Total Recall,” a competition to design and build robots capable of performing manufacturing operations on two independent production lines. The winning team earned points by collecting, packing and sealing their gadgets and gizmos throughout a simulated factory and automated production floor. Winners advance to the regional South’s BEST competition on Nov. 20. w w w. e n g . a u b u r n . e d u / b e s t
Dog gone it William Lyles, a graduate student in computer science and software engineering, takes a break from filming with Major, a canine “researcher” at Auburn’s Canine Detection Research Center. Earlier this year, they were chosen for the university’s 2010 NCAA commercial, televised during Auburn football games and played for fans at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The pair was featured in “Man’s Best Friend Goes it Alone,” (Fall/ Winter 2010 issue) an article about how Auburn Engineers are helping sensor-guided dogs to detect hazardous substances. Lyles and Major make their television debut at www.ocm.auburn.edu/ broadcastservices/behindscenes/videos
Auburn Engineering Fall /Winter 2011 Volume 20, Issue 2
Contents
Office of the Dean Larry Benefield, dean Bob Karcher, assistant dean of student services Oliver Kingsley, associate dean for special projects Nels Madsen, associate dean for assessment Joe Morgan, associate dean for academics Ralph Zee, associate dean for research
From the Dean
2
happenings
4
Office of Engineering Communications and Marketing Jim Killian, director
It’s my job
Sally Credille, editor Contributors Cheryl Cobb Beth Smith Katie Mullinax Photography Auburn University Photographic Services, Jim Killian, Sara Weeks
10
G r o w i n g P ai n s
12
Oil, Oil Everywhere
22
Rolling Out the New Recyclable
26
Te n i n Te n
28
Head to Head
32
Development Update
36
Into the Lab
38
Five minutes with . . .
42
Fro m th e De sk o f . . .
44
Katherine Haon, graphic designer Office of Engineering Development Veronica Chesnut, interim director Dan Bush, associate director Heather Crozier, assistant director Ron Evans, associate director Dara Hosey, associate director Historic images provided courtesy of Auburn University Ralph B. Draughon Library Department of Archives and Special Collections — special thanks to Dwayne Cox and his dedicated staff of archivists Experience Auburn Engineering magazine online at www.eng.auburn.edu/magazine Auburn Engineering is published twice yearly by the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. Please send news items, suggestions and comments to: Engineering Communications and Marketing c/o Editor 1320 Shelby Center Auburn, AL 36849 334.844.2308 editor@eng.auburn.edu eng.auburn.edu
©2010 Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, Auburn University
From the Dea n Almost everyone had left the pregame tailgate in the Jordan Courtyard of the Shelby Center when I noticed a solitary figure seated on one of the back benches, arms stretched out on the rails . . . just looking. I wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but then again I was. I asked him if he was an engineering grad, and he said yes, class of ’87. In the few seconds it took to take in the arc of his view, he said, “This is so amazing . . . none of this was here when I was here. Thinking back, engineering here seemed so very different, and nothing like this.” In a way, this is true. The first phase of Shelby Center is the culmination of a new presence for Auburn Engineering. It has redefined the northern perimeter of campus. The construction of Phase II is on schedule, with the new advanced research building and Wiggins Mechanical Engineering Hall set for completion about this time next year. What a difference all of this has made. I told someone recently that it made me think back to my own undergraduate days in the ’60s as a civil engineering student in Ramsay Hall. It then had high ceilings and transom windows over plank and batten doors, and you had to position your paper and hold your hand just right to keep the sweat from dripping down on your class work. We look back to those days and wonder how we did it. As you will read in this issue’s installment of the college’s history, we faced other difficulties as well, including a lapse in accreditation in the late ’50s that resulted in large part from a lack of proper facilities. While it truly represents the flip side of the coin from the renaissance in engineering we are now experiencing, our graduates have always pushed hard and excelled, no matter what. For example, T.K. Mattingly — an aerospace graduate and astronaut whose work in NASA’s Houston-based flight simulator led to the spectacular rescue of the Apollo XIII capsule and the crew’s safe return to Earth — was right in the middle of his undergraduate years. The same could be said for Sam Ginn, an industrial engineering graduate and telecommunications pioneer who is now the namesake for the college. Finally, there is Dwight Wiggins, a mechanical engineering graduate who remembers sweating in the not-quite-code attic of Ross Hall, the only place he could find to run his experiments as a graduate student. When mechanical engineering’s new home is finished, the Wiggins name will be on the building as a tribute to his father, who instilled in him the values that made his education, and his dreams, a reality. The dreams of an Auburn man — like those he followed, and who follow him now.
2 Auburn Engineering
Auburn Engineering 3
happenings
From left, center director Rodney Robertson, Drew Hamilton of computer science and software engineering, Bruce Tatarchuk of chemical engineering and Auburn University President Jay Gogue.
Huntsville office open for business Opened July 1, Auburn’s new Huntsville Research Center is working
h love it w , ia v li o From B
closely with area industry and federal agencies to develop cyber security technologies designed to protect U.S. soldiers and military information systems. The center is headed by Rodney Robertson, former director of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s technical center, and will concentrate on projects in defense, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, biotechnology, information technology and other federal and state
In August, 14 Auburn Engineering students involved with Engineers Without Borders spent a week in Quesimpuco, Bolivia, meeting mayors and community members in three Quechuan villages to assess technology projects that will improve the health of the people and the economies of the region. The trip initiated a multi-year partnership between Auburn and communities in the Andean region. During the visit, students conducted basic surveys of croplands, existing
government priorities. “Bringing the best minds and ideas together enables us to tackle the nation’s most difficult problems,” said Robertson. “Auburn researchers are passionate about discovery and innovation. We’re eager to bring our capabilities and resources to the table with our Huntsville colleagues to deliver the best results for Alabama and the nation.”
water sources and aqueducts, cooking practices, fuel sources and sanitation practices. Students are meeting in Auburn this fall to identify projects for a return trip in summer 2011.
Find it on Facebook If you haven’t “liked” the college’s Facebook page, you should. Catch up on everything from news updates, event photos and student highlights. We recently asked alums to tell us about their favorite engineering professor. See what they had to say at www.eng.auburn.edu/facebook
4 Auburn Engineering
One person’s waste is another’s fuel Researchers in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering have partnered with Masada Resource Group to develop a series of technologies that utilize waste streams from pulp and paper mills. If all U.S. pulp mills converted to this process, an additional two billion gallons of ethanol could be produced from waste streams each year. Faculty members Harry Cullinan, Gopal Krishnagopalan, Y.Y. Lee and senior research fellow Sung-Hoon Yoon developed methods to extract fermentable elements of current waste streams for conversion into ethanol.
From a distance
Engineer turned author
Hundreds of students have signed on to earn graduate
Billy Lovelady puts to rest the old stereotype that engineers
degrees via the college’s distance learning program,
can’t write. Lovelady ’86 recently authored a children’s book,
aptly called Electronically Delivered Graduate
The Adventures of Johnny Saturday: The Helper, which has
Education or EDGE. Auburn has been in the distance
been published nationally by Authorhouse and is available
learning business for 20 years and has a respected
in online bookstores. The book is set to be a series. Holding
program offering master’s degrees, as well as a wide
bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering,
variety of continuing education courses. In 2009, the
Lovelady is 24 years into his engineering career and is a
program delivered 145 courses to more than 600
senior engineering manager for Raytheon Technical Services.
students from 47 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
English may not seem to be the highest priority for engineers,
Islands, and produced 69 graduates. Last year, the
but Lovelady says he read a lot as a child and developed an
college ramped up delivery options, offering students
appreciation for writing as he neared the end of his studies at
access to classes by streaming audio and video, as well
Auburn. To learn more, visit www.johnnysaturday.com
as podcasts and CDs. To learn more about EDGE, visit www.eng.auburn.edu/edge
Source: al.com
Auburn Engineering 5
happenings
Sweet home for Apple exec Tim Cook, Robertsdale, Ala., native and ‘82 industrial and systems engineering alumnus, delivered the keynote address at Auburn’s spring commencement ceremonies. As COO of Apple Inc., Cook is responsible for the corporation’s sales and operations, including worldwide management of supply chain, sales, service and product support, as well as Apple’s Macintosh division. Cook has served as chair of the ISE Alumni Council and as a member of the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council. He established an endowed fund for excellence, the Cook Leadership Scholarship and a departmental professorship.
In case of emergency
What’s eating you? Auburn engineers have teamed up with scientists at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, and researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and Middle East Technical University in
After Hurricane Katrina, cleanup costs were in the hundreds of millions and most resulted from damage to infrastructure elements, such as city buildings, bridges, fire hydrants, gas meters and sewer lines. Auburn Engineering is leading a student-run, geospatial mapping project of coastal Alabama’s infrastructure elements to locate these facilities in the event of future hurricanes or other disasters. These maps will offer first responders usable tools to expedite recovery and reduce costs by an estimated 40 percent. Students have already collected geospatial data from 67 miles of Alabama’s coastline and mapped the geographic information systems locations of more than 9,500 infrastructure elements.
6 Auburn Engineering
Ankara, Turkey, to develop edible and compostable electronics. Edible circuits are imprinted on biodegradable films and sensors made from organic materials, such as beta-carotene, indigo, caffeine, glucose, coloring materials and DNA, to identify the ripeness of fruit or detect vibrations of hyper-sensitive materials during transportation. Materials faculty member Jeff Fergus says that a consumer simply puts the sensor in with organic waste or eats it. With some development, edible electronics could also be used for building toys that keep children safe if swallowed.
Drawing the line On a map, the border between Alabama and Florida appears as a bold, black line. Although the official Alabama-Florida line differs from the original, called the mound line, most land surveys are still based on the original, which was lost for many years. Now, Milton Denney, a surveyor who works part time with Auburn, has helped rediscover it using a map from 1854, Google Earth, global information systems and global positioning systems. “The line was probably the least defined line between the states because nobody knew where the mounds were,” said Denney. There were 120 original mounds, but Denny expects to eventually document 35 to 40. Whatever the outcome, discovery of the original line doesn’t change the official state line. Alabama and Florida have settled on 31 degrees latitude as the border, which can be easily located by GPS. Source: TuscaloosaNews.com
The next generation of apps Auburn students and alumni have been hard
Meagan Black, graduate student in electrical
at work developing the latest applications
and computer engineering, developed an audio
for Apple products. Check them out:
streaming app that broadcasts live radio from WEGL 91.1FM, Auburn’s campus radio station. She is
Harley Harp, senior in computer science
sending the app to Apple for approval so it can be
and software engineering, created an
available for free from iTunes. Once approved, it will
Auburn University football roster app that
be available on the iPod Touch, iPhone and, possibly,
is available for the iPhone, iPod and iPad.
the iPad and Droid.
Users can find information and biographies
Students aren’t the only ones creating cool apps
about the players and coaches, assign each player a personal rating and create a roster of favorite players. The app also contains Auburn’s football schedule and an option to
Ben Rigas, software engineering ’04, has developed
subscribe to news feeds.
an app for the iPad called Sketch Journal, a drawing application that organizes drawings in books,
Prateek Hejmady, graduate student in
allowing users to flip through pages of drawings.
computer science and software engineering,
They can be shared via e-mail or saved to the image
developed an app called Parking Rummage,
library. He also co-developed an augmented reality
an on-campus parking solution that works on
iPhone app called AR Ghost, which overlays images
the iPhone and iPod Touch. Users can locate
of ghosts onto the camera preview screen. By combining
the closest parking lot, and receive a reminder of where their
the iPhone compass and accelerometer, the position of the
car is parked on campus. He is working to make it available in
ghost appears to stay in the same location within a room. Sound
Apple’s app store and integrate it with Auburn University
effects enhance the sense that ghosts are nearby. Rigas is a senior
Parking Services.
research and development engineer at Interop Technologies in Fort Myers, Fla. Tell us about your apps at socialmedia@eng.auburn.edu
Auburn Engineering 7
happenings
Is there a doctor in the house?
Scholarships galore
The Alabama Commission on Higher Education has
Auburn Engineering continues to offer
given a thumbs up to Auburn Engineering’s doctorate
scholarships to the best and brightest. Sanjeev
in polymer and fiber engineering. It is the first of
Baskiyar, associate professor in computer
its kind in the state, offering graduate students
science and software engineering, recently
courses and research opportunities in biopolymers,
received $600,000 from the National Science
nanomaterials, polymer physics and smart fibers. The
Foundation to award more than 55 scholarships
department will begin accepting students this fall.
for the next four years to outstanding
Polymer and Fiber Engineering was established as the
undergraduate students studying computer
Department of Textile Engineering in 1929. Its name
science and software engineering and graduate
and curriculum were changed in 2005, and a master’s
students studying computer systems and
of science in polymer and fiber engineering was
embedded computing.
approved in 2006.
Sometimes, the grass is actually greener on your side. Auburn’s autonomous lawnmower team placed third at the seventh annual ION Robotic Lawn Mower Competition in June, earning a $4,000 prize. Engineering students designed and operated a robotic unmanned lawnmower, using navigation to rapidly and accurately mow a field of grass. Teams were judged on technical presentations, inspection, qualifications and a real-world competition where they mowed a field of grass for the best cut. Judged by a panel of landscape professionals, the winning team mowed its field to 75 percent and offered the most aesthetically pleasing final product. The mowing competition served as 80 percent of a team’s total score, while 20 percent was based on the team’s presentation and report.
8 Auburn Engineering
bragging rights
Mining on the moon Engineering undergrads recently competed in NASA’s Lunabotics Mining Competition at Kennedy Space Center. The team dug as much simulated lunar soil as possible in 15 minutes using a telerobotic excavator of their own design and construction. Twenty-nine university teams entered the competition, with 23 competing in the digging event. Auburn’s team dug the second largest amount, winning $2,500. In addition, they won the systems engineering paper competition, earning another award of $500. The team included mechanical engineering students Jameson Colbert, Dionel Sylvester, Mark Keske, electrical engineering students Michael Payne and Eddie Thomas and computer science student William Woodall.
Movin’ on up
Closing the gender gap
Auburn University was recently ranked 38th
In September, the Washington
among public universities nationwide, up from
Post reported that more
39th last year, according to an annual survey
women than men received
released this fall by U.S. News & World Report.
doctoral degrees last year. Of
The ranking marks the 18th consecutive year
the doctoral degrees awarded
the magazine has ranked Auburn among the
in the 2008–2009 academic
nation’s top 50 public universities. Auburn
year, 28,962 went to women
Engineering’s undergraduate program ranked
and 28,469 to men, according
56th nationally overall—up from 64th last
to an annual enrollment report
year—and 32nd among public universities
from the Council of Graduate
that offer doctoral programs in engineering.
Schools, based in Washington,
The college also saw an increase in average
D.C. Men retained the lead
ACT scores for incoming freshmen, up to 28.4
in doctoral degrees until 2008, largely through their dominance
from 27.8 last year. Undergraduate female
in engineering, mathematics and the physical sciences. They still
enrollment, as well as minority enrollment,
earn nearly 80 percent of engineering doctorates. At Auburn,
increased by a percentage point, each up from
14 engineering doctorates were awarded to women during the
16 percent last year.
2008–2009 school year, 28 percent of the degrees awarded. Source: WashingtonPost.com
Auburn Engineering 9
10 Auburn Engineering
It’s my job
Are YOU smarter than a freshman?
Interviewed by Sally Credille
Darrell Krueger ‘05, ‘07, Mechanical Engineering Mechanical Engineer TUV - Rail Sciences Atlanta, Ga. Typical day . . . problem solving for railroads: everything
from track geometry issues, fuel conservation and train handling to rail car engineering and derailment investigation
Engineering challenge . . . finding the root cause of a
derailment for concerned customers and helping them fix their problem; answering questions like, “What were the key influences?” and “Was it train operation? A bad track? Worn out rail cars?”
Try your hand at this freshman engineering problem and find out for yourself.
My Auburn Engineering . . . helped me get a handle on practical, real-world problems and solutions, not just the theoretical ones. Society of Automotive Engineers teams taught me about effective communication and project management
Question:
Suppose you have two identical lengths of fuse that are 50 feet and would take exactly one hour to burn from end to end. The fuses are
Geek moment . . . every time I’m stopped by a train at
peculiar in that each one has a section
a railroad crossing, I look at each rail car for possible problems
of unknown length that burns at one rate, while the rest of the fuse burns
Early on . . . my mom and aunt got me hooked on Legos. I
at another rate. These rates and
also watched my dad fix clocks - he taught me how to take mechanical stuff apart and put it back together
lengths are unknown. One possibility is that the first 10 feet of fuse take 50
Turning point . . . after a difficult sophomore year at
minutes to burn and the remaining
Auburn, someone told me, "Maybe you're not cut out to be an engineer." That wasn’t easy to hear, but I used that energy to my advantage and earned two degrees
40 feet take 10 minutes to burn. How
Sense of pride . . . being a part of the greatest railroad
minutes is up?
can you use the two pieces of fuse and a lighter to determine when 45
system anywhere in the world; having a railroad take your work and apply it system wide to be safer and more efficient
Light any three of the four ends of the two fuses. The fuse that has two ends burning will burn out twice as fast, that is, in 30 minutes. As soon as that happens, light the remaining end of the fuse. Since a half hour has passed, the fuse originally lit on only one end is “half burned,” and would take another 30 minutes to burn completely. But, since we are lighting the other end, it, too, will burn twice as fast, that is, in 15 minutes. The total time to burn the fuses in this fashion is the required 45 minutes.
Solution:
Photography courtesy of Chip Stranahan
Auburn Engineering 11
A Centennial of Auburn Engineering: Growing Pains 12 Auburn Engineering
Editor’s note: The previous fall edition of Auburn Engineering chronicled the history of the College of Engineering from its founding as a formal college in the early 1900s to the Sputnik era of the late 1950s. It was a period of incredible growth for the country, encompassing two world wars, and a society that went from horse and buggy to chrome and tailfins. Two more technical revolutions were beginning as air travel was, for the most part, replacing ships and trains, and telecommunications was turning a corner. Long distance calls began to replace letter writing, and data transmission through teletype and fax became baby steps in the digital revolution that would blossom a generation later. Against this technological backdrop, the ’50s also proved to be a time of crisis. As a new generation of post-war students came to school on the GI Bill between 1951 and 1956, and enrollment grew by 76 percent, the administration was unable to hire qualified faculty and fund equipment and supplies needed to meet rapid growth. Then, in 1957, three things happened: the Tigers won a national football championship, the Soviets orbited Sputnik and Auburn lost accreditation in electrical and mechanical engineering. Gridiron success aside, it was the worst of times for Auburn — it was astonishing that nobody saw the Russians coming or accreditation going.
T
he Auburn of the 1950s is remembered fondly by returning graduates as a place not much different than today. Although there has been significant construction and the size of the student body has grown, they always recognize the presence of that indefinable thing known as the Auburn spirit, just as present then as it is now. Even so, there were some negative undercurrents that were to impact the School of Engineering harshly in the ’50s. In 1957, the ECPD (forerunner of ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) withdrew academic accreditation of the electrical and mechanical engineering curricula, precipitating a genuine crisis for Auburn and its engineering faculty. Despite the loss — or perhaps because of it — API graduates from all disciplines voiced support for the engineering school. At the same time, university president Ralph Draughon informed the trustees that the institution was “faced with the necessity of moving as rapidly as possible to correct the difficulties.”
by Art Slotkin and Jim Killian
Some state legislators thought they could free up $250,000 for Auburn, but the president knew he needed about twice that amount each year for engineering. And while Draughon thought he could use that kind of support to regain accreditation, he was not willing to depend on the vagaries of the legislative process during an election year. As a result, he began working with the alumni association to create an engineering emergency fund drive, and planning began for what turned out to be Auburn’s first major alumni fundraising campaign since the Greater Auburn Campaign in the 1920s. Auburn Engineering 13
Unit operations lab in Wilmore
14 Auburn Engineering
D
raughon moved quickly to appoint a board of consultants to develop a five-year plan for engineering. They suggested increasing funds for equipment and faculty salaries and adding faculty in all departments. Calling the existing facilities “barely adequate,” they said the School of Engineering needed additional floor space for classrooms, laboratories and offices. They said that the curricula needed to be upgraded and teaching loads reduced, with increased time devoted to research, consulting and professional development. They also noted that API’s engineering faculty salaries “were at 50 to 65 percent of normal levels,” and that the institution had been losing its best professors. The final set of recommendations dealt with the correction or elimination of courses, practices and programs the consultants considered undesirable. They advocated a decrease in emphasis on “applications and skills” or technological courses and greater emphasis on the basic sciences. Draughon announced a three-phased plan to return electrical and mechanical engineering to “good standing,” reshape the school in a comprehensive manner and seek financial support. Planning for the first alumni fundraising campaign since before the Great Depression, the alumni association’s directors agreed to raise a $250,000 “API Emergency Fund.”
Chase
Hannum
By the end of March, the campaign had $125,000 pledged, and the administration refined its goal to include hiring 12 new faculty members. At the end of the campaign in February 1959, donors pledged nearly $400,000, making it a resounding success; Draughon, in turn, presented a proposal recommended by his consultants to fund a new engineering building. The first new construction since Wilmore Laboratories opened in 1949 was to be a 10,000-square foot, three-story building that would later be named Dunstan Hall in honor of Arthur St. Charles Dunstan, who served the school for five decades. s the fall term began in September 1958, 16 new members joined the engineering faculty. At the same time, engineering enrollment — still the largest component of API’s student body — dropped by almost 500 students from the previous year, a result no doubt of the wide press coverage brought on by accreditation woes.
A
Alarmed by these numbers, Dean Fred Pumphrey, recruited that year from the University of Florida to “lead the School out of the wilderness,” wrote of the rapid progress being made in correcting the criticisms of the accreditation agency. In fact, he said in early 1959, “most of these criticisms have been met, with the temporary financial assistance coming from the . . . Emergency Fund Drive.”
Draughon
Pumphrey
Era of transition: President Ralph Draughon is pictured with Arthur Chase, professor of civil engineering; Dean Joshua Hannum; special consultant Fred Pumphrey, who would succeed him as dean of engineering; and two unidentified gentlemen — if you can name them, please contact us at editor@eng.auburn.edu. Auburn Engineering 15
In my o pi nio n: Acc re d it a tio n As it would today, the loss of accreditation for two of Auburn’s engineering programs in 1957 was top-of-mind for faculty, staff, students and parents. During these pivotal years of transition, students like Dwight Wiggins, Howard Palmes and Keith King arrived in Auburn, prepared to make the most of their education on the Plains. Looking back, they recall what it was like to hear that accreditation had been suspended in electrical and mechanical engineering . . .
Keith King ’58 civil engineering “I was concerned . . . civil engineers depend on graduation from an accredited engineering program so they can get licensure. At the time I was somewhat worried that civil engineering would somehow be affected, even though it was not one of the programs that had lost accreditation. And, of course, that never happened. But I thought about it.”
Howard Palmes ’60 electrical engineering “I was aware of the situation, of course. But I was also involved in the co-op program with Southern Bell, and I had made enough of an impression on my supervisors that they asked me to come back when I graduated . . . so it wasn’t about the job. But as I recall, my classmates did all right as well.”
Dwight Wiggins ’62 and ‘67 mechanical engineering “I was so involved with my classes that I didn’t have time to think or worry about anything that wasn’t on that punch list of required courses they gave you when you declared. I can’t remember that it made a difference to me at the time.”
16 Auburn Engineering
Through the winter of 1960, faculty adjusted the engineering curricula in preparation for the next accreditation review. They eliminated overlapping, duplicate and unnecessary courses and added new ones. For example, they consolidated three fluid dynamics courses previously taught by the aeronautical, civil and mechanical engineering departments and combined the gas turbines courses taught in aeronautical and mechanical engineering.
I
n a routine fairly similar to today’s schedule, the accreditation teams arrived in April, conducted their reviews and left, although they would not communicate any findings until they met again in October. Until then, Auburn’s engineering school continued under the shadow of non-accreditation. However, fundraising progressed and in 1960, a new university-wide campaign had begun, with contributions and pledges topping $1.5 million by June. Gifts and pledges to the Auburn development fund slowed during the hot Alabama summer of 1960; although, by early August, contributions and pledges reached $1.7 million. Members of the administration, faculty and staff helped in fundraising, and even head football coach Shug Jordan came to the aid of the academic program, visiting alumni clubs to raise money. The Auburn football team remained on NCAA probation for rules violations in 1960, but coach Jordan told one group of alumni, “loss of accreditation in electrical and mechanical engineering has hurt Auburn football recruiting worse than being on NCAA probation.” It was a breath of fresh air then, when Auburn dedicated Dunstan Hall, the first completely air-conditioned building on campus, on Oct. Dunstan Hall 14, 1960. Arthur, the son of the late professor, and members of the Dunstan family attended the dedication. Draughon received the long-awaited letter from the accreditation agency in October 1960, which granted three-year accreditations to five of Auburn’s engineering curricula, including the two lifted in 1957. They called Auburn’s progress “of substantial significance,” and said it represented “a very promising trend for the future.” Not much later, Pumphrey spoke to one of the implicit criticisms of the accreditation committees, remarking that a “staff which does not have time to do research is a staff that will soon become obsolete.” He reduced
teaching loads to an average of 12 hours, recognizing that research represents one of the main functions of a university. His comments seemed to have energized the faculty, resulting in a renewed thrust in research efforts. In 1957, the School of Engineering conducted approximately $30,000 of sponsored research; in 1962 that number grew to $500,000.
Saturn V defined the era
With the growth of contract research came funds to support graduate students, about 40 during the 1961 academic year; in fact, the number of graduate students had increased each year from the dean’s arrival in 1958. However, in concert with national trends, undergraduate engineering enrollment at Auburn seesawed over the next few years. It declined from 1958 through 1960 and increased in 1961. It dropped in 1962 with the introduction of more stringent screening procedures, but in 1963 moved up again. During roughly the same period, the engineering faculty grew from 90 in 1957 to 113 in 1961, and the number holding doctorates increased to 12. By 1963, one third of the faculty held doctorates. he events that were being played out in the engineering school were certainly critical to Auburn’s future, but actions on the larger stage were crucial as well. The institution integrated without incident on Jan. 4, 1964, when Harold Franklin became the first black student to attend Auburn in its 107-year history. During registration, state troopers patrolled the campus as the Franklin administration set up press headquarters at the University Motor Lodge. Edwin M. Crawford, Auburn’s press director, escorted reporters to the library when Franklin registered amid the harsh glare of television lights. It was the beginning of a new era. As the 1966 academic year began, Harry M. Philpott became president upon Draughon’s retirement, and Dean Pumphrey neared the mandatory retirement age of 70. Despite the war in Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson kept the national economy growing with a policy of “butter and guns.” With the Gemini space program ending and Apollo just beginning, research and development money flowed freely from NASA and Auburn got a share.
T
At the same time, the ’60s and ’70s were known as a time of crisis in the United States. The assassination of Auburn Engineering 17
Martin Luther King Jr. precipitated riots and chaos in the cities, Vietnam and the subsequent draft lottery — that no one wanted to win — caused college students to protest and disrupt campuses across the country. Recession and stagflation followed.
for half of the engineering undergraduates, the largest percentage since the mid ‘60s. A record number of women enrolled, although they still remained a small fraction of overall engineering enrollment.
A
Engineering facilities remained a problem, and in January 1978, President Philpott told the faculty that it needed to be addressed. Stating that the university hadn’t built any new engineering facilities since Dunstan Hall in 1960, he said, “in the past few years engineering technology has made such tremendous changes, and we have to have the facilities to keep up with what has transpired.” The president asked the legislature for $10.5 million for construction that year, and allocated $6 million for a new electrical engineering building. With rampant inflation a problem at that time, he also asked for a 47 percent increase in the operations and maintenance budget. When Gov. Fob James signed the budget, Auburn received less than 15 percent for the main campus, and that in the face of 15 percent inflation over the previous two years. Enrollment increased by about 9 percent during the same period, meaning that revenue per student declined in absolute terms.
uburn’s financial situation deteriorated by the early ’70s, resulting in the mundane — less air conditioning; to the inconvenient — shorter library hours; to the difficult — unfilled faculty positions. With the decline in enrollment, engineering became the only school at Auburn to lay off faculty, and J. Grady Cox, appointed as dean in 1969, wrote “we have had a heavier freezing of our funds than other areas.” Indeed, during Cox’s first tenure as dean through 1971, engineering enrollment fell by about 13 percent, with the largest declines in pre-engineering. Overall, Auburn numbers remained flat, but when university enrollment did grow again, engineering as a percent of the student body hit an all-time low. Some said the reason for the drop in engineering enrollment was the result of an anti-technology mood in the nation. The dean Dean Cox — who remained convinced that the students would return — said engineers must adapt to changing times nonetheless. Indeed, adverse publicity about employment was causing all engineering schools to have difficulty attracting students, particularly in aerospace. Cox called the decline in engineering enrollment “a national phenomenon” and said, “Auburn is no exception.” Though well regarded by both faculty and administration alike, Cox stepped down as dean in 1972 to return to teaching full time, and President Philpott selected Vincent S. Haneman Jr. as Auburn’s new dean of engineering. An Air Force reserve general who came with aspirations to make Auburn the best engineering school in the South, Haneman pushed hard to obtain additional resources. hen queried about his management style, he insisted his methods simply reflected the way public universities operated: they never have enough resources and you have to ask for what you want, often more than once. It was a belief that rang true with many administrators of the time. In the fall of 1974, engineering enrollment finally began to recover, if only slightly, and pre-engineering accounted
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18 Auburn Engineering
Department heads were exasperated. Rex Rainer, head of civil engineering, spoke out about the lack of space and equipment. “Engineering facilities are the kind you cannot expand or retract from quarter to quarter. You either have labs or you don’t,” adding that he had an “excellent faculty – just not enough of them.” Dean Haneman resigned in 1979, as budget woes Dean Haneman continued. Auburn faced another revenue shortfall, belt tightening returned and reduced funds led to unfilled vacancies, limited equipment expenditures and curtailed travel, which particularly affected engineering faculty at the time. “We have had Auburn people work extremely hard to move up and to hold . . . leadership positions, and now we have to say we can’t send more than one person to a professional meeting,” Cox said, as he again assumed the deanship following Haneman’s retirement. “We’ve asked faculty to join these organizations, and they’ve been working for a long time to get to be officers. Now they’re in a bind.” Because of the condition of the engineering facilities, Cox asked Philpott to allow him to brief the board of trustees,
Students in the Ross Hall auditorium in the early ‘60s: assigned seats were the rule
Auburn Engineering 19
A n Ag e of B ric k a nd Mo r t a r
Engineering Building I, later renamed Broun Hall
Proposed Engineering II building, which was never constructed
The early ’80s plan for construction was in five steps over an undefined time span: Step I: Construction of Engineering Building I for electrical engineering
Harbert Center
Step II: Construction of Engineering Building II, a polydiscipline building for chemical engineering, aerospace engineering, civil engineering and mechanical engineering Step III: Site preparation for Engineering Building III Step IV: Construction of Engineering Building III for mechanical engineering Step V: Remodeling of Ramsay, Ross, Textile, the L Building and the “old Wilmore building” As it turned out, the actions that Auburn followed througout the next 30 years were similar to the engineering construction plan laid out in 1981, although the details — and the real estate involved — varied considerably. Engineering Building I, now called Broun Hall, became home to electrical and computer engineering; Engineering Building II, which amounted only to an artist’s rendering, provided real estate for Harbert Center, home to civil engineering, and Davis Hall, home to aerospace engineering. Engineering Building III, originally planned for the parking lot between Harbert, Davis, Ross and Wilmore, was in essence replaced by the construction of the Shelby Center.
20 Auburn Engineering
Aerospace, now called Davis Hall
A report by Dober & Associates, national experts in planning and development, concluded that engineering needed up to 228,000 additional square feet, and that Auburn should expect to spend around $27 million for it. Cox proposed a new development campaign aimed at collecting $21 million to augment $6 million already appropriated for engineering construction.
Cox had been promoted to executive vice president under Funderburk, and to fill his position, Chester C. Carroll was named as interim dean of engineering. As Cox assumed his new position, he stated that the School of Engineering’s first new building would be for the Department of Electrical Engineering. Groundbreaking soon followed, with ceremonies set for April 1982.
In a follow-up study, Dober said construction of three new buildings, recycling of existing space and demolition of several obsolete structures were essential if Auburn’s School of Engineering “is to survive, hold its faculty, educate its students and maintain its historic excellence.”
A second, Dean Carroll “polydiscipline” engineering building was planned with a comprehen-sive structures laboratory for civil engineering, research laboratories for chemical engineering and mechanical engineering and a new subsonic wind tunnel for aerospace engineering.
the only time as dean that he asked to speak with them. He asked for improved space, noting that between 1963 and 1978 the engineering school received 2.4 percent of the funding available for major construction projects, while averaging 19 percent of total enrollment.
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he report recommended a fivestep plan costing upward of $38 million, and noted the success of other states, saying that “Auburn has an excellent faculty, well-qualified students and a deservedly earned historic reputation as an engineering school. Properly sheltered and equipped, these assets can be used to bring national and regional research activities into the state — thus providing an enlarged economic base immediately and, in the long run, create the potential for growth in basic industries, modern-day manufacturing process, energy and high technology.” Others had prospered by taking action along these lines, Dober said, asking “Should Alabama do less?” In February 1981, Hanley Funderburk, who had succeeded Philpott as president upon his retirement, met with the engineering faculty to make it clear that a new engineering building was his top priority, and he then officially announced the $61.7 Auburn Generations Fund (AGF), calling it “the biggest fundraising effort ever undertaken by a public university in the South.”
Fundraising for the first phase of the building began in January 1982, and John M. Harbert III of Birmingham stepped up to the plate, committing $5 million. With the bond issue for the electrical engineering building and Harbert’s gift in hand, the president said they could “begin to significantly upgrade facilities.”
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eanwhile, on March 12, 1982, President Funderburk offered Lynn E. Weaver of Georgia Tech the position as dean of engineering; he arrived on campus in June, after classes had ended for the term. He would remain until 1987, when he left for the presidency of Florida Institute of Technology. During his tenure, the College of Engineering nearly doubled its graduate enrollment, setting the stage for increased research funding for Auburn.
to assume the position of provost, and ultimately president of Auburn, Larry D. Benefield, who now serves as dean, began the process that has brought Auburn Engineering to its current role in the university. It’s a story for another day, when Auburn Engineering concludes its series on a small “mechanics” program that began in 1873, as the South began to play a role in the technological revolution that was sweeping the nation. As we look ahead to the next decade a nd the next century, t he question may well be where the College of Engineering will move from here. One thing is certain — engineering alumni will play a large part. This article has been adapted from chapters of a manuscript detailing the history of Auburn Engineering, from its founding in 1869 to its establishment as a college in 1909 and into the modern age of engineering that we know today.
Auburn alum Art Slotkin is a 1968 aerospace engineering graduate with a master’s in civil engineering and flight structures from Columbia University. After a diverse career, he retired from the computer services industry in 2003. He then attended Georgia Tech to obtain a master’s in sociology and history of technology and science. Slotkin has conducted much of the research for his book and this article in the Auburn University Library, Archives and Special Collections Department, with help from the university’s professional team of archivists.
The assistant dean and director of the Engineering Experiment Station, M. Dayne Aldridge, became interim dean, and a committee began the search for a new dean — ultimately selecting William F. Walker, who served for most of the ’90s. When Walker left in 1998
Auburn Engineering 21
O il, oil everywhere by Cheryl Cobb
22 Auburn Engineering
As part of Auburn University’s immediate and multidisciplinary response to the oil spill along Alabama’s Gulf Coast, Auburn Engineering was on the frontline and remains committed to providing positive engineering solutions, from food safety to engineering systems. Much of the oil released into the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon explosion is thought to be hiding below the surface. It’s hard to imagine, but as BP and residents of the region know, the costs are real and considerable. “It is time to take what we’ve learned from the spill and put it to use,” said Ralph Zee, associate dean for research in the college. “It’s what engineers are trained to do. Shortly after the spill occurred, we convened faculty to discuss how to most effectively utilize our expertise.” The college outlined a two-pronged strategy in response. The first addresses immediate needs related to the current spill. The second looks forward, to prevent and better deal with future spills, should they occur.
Photography courtesy of BP via Flickr
Auburn Engineering 23
Protecting Dauphin Island Shortly after the spill, crews on Dauphin Island assembled a four-mile wall to protect beaches and wetlands from oil. The wall was designed to utilize CIAgent, a mixture of copolymers that solidifies and detoxifies hydrocarbons, such as crude oil or gasoline. Chemical engineering professor Tom Hanley has worked with CIAgent Solutions, the company that developed CIAgent, to understand and improve its capabilities, including use with oil spill cleanup. “When water passed through the wall and onto the beach, CIAgent would trap the oil by turning it into a solid that could easily be disposed of,” says Hanley.
What’s Happening Now In our opinion Auburn civil engineering faculty member Prabhakar Clement, as well as Mike Kensler and Michelle Worosz, faculty members in the College of Agriculture, penned an editorial this summer for the Mobile Press-Register, calling on the recently formed National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling to expand its mission. They suggested adding a long-term, holistic framework for decision-making that ensures the development of technologies that provide the greatest benefit ecologically, economically, socially and culturally to the greatest number of people throughout many generations. Read the editorial at www.eng.auburn.edu/ oilspill-oped
The impact of oil In August, BP granted $5 million to the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium to study the impact of the Deepwater Horizon spill on Alabama’s Coastal Resources. Faculty from the college have joined others from around the state, participating in workshops to effectively utilize this funding in four key areas related to the oil, chemical dispersants used to break up the oil and dispersed oil that remains in the Gulf. This includes: • direct and indirect impact of these substances on coastal ecosystems • how ocean currents and tropical storms affect oil distribution, dispersion and dilution, as well as chemical evolution and biological degradation
• oil interaction with marine and coastal ecosystems
• how coastal systems recover from spills
Beach and seafood safety Four Auburn Engineering faculty members were recently awarded a National Science Foundation rapid response grant to create a laboratory facility where environmental engineering researchers Prabhakar Clement, Clifford Lange, Ah Jeong Son and Dongye Zhao can characterize dispersant-mixed crude oil contaminants in various soil-water environments. “The primary focus of our effort is to understand the long-term fate and transport of the dispersant-mixed crude oil in sediment-water systems under various marine environments,” Clement said. “Additionally, we will develop analytical methods to test oil-contaminated marine species, which will include seafood samples.”
24 Auburn Engineering
On May 24, BP announced a commitment of up to $500 million to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to study the impact of the Deepwater Horizon incident, and its associated response on the environment and public health in the Gulf of Mexico.
Looking Forward A numbers game One of the problems associated with the Deepwater Horizon disaster has been the lack of data about ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico prior to the spill. Existing data are scattered and of varying quality and completeness. Several faculty members have proposed to identify key physical, chemical and biological indicators of ecosystem change related to the Gulf disaster and use it to construct a unified background ecosystem dataset that can be accessed online. As it becomes available, data from future research and monitoring projects in the region will be made available to government, research and private entities in an easyto-use format.
What lies beneath A good deal of the oil lurking beneath the Gulf surface is mixed with dispersants used to minimize the amount of oil washing up on beaches and coastal wetlands. Unfortunately, not much is known about the fate and transport of oil and dispersants in bodies of water such as the Gulf. Auburn faculty plan to use laboratory-scale tank experiments to study the environmental fate dynamics of dispersant-mixed crude oil, with emphasis on the impact of sediment and turbulence on the oil-water mixture, simulating what happens during rough seas and storms. The goal is to develop scientific models for predicting movements of dispersed oil and dispersants in the saline water column, sea beds and along the shore.
Planning ahead The Gulf of Mexico oil spill highlights the need for a systems approach to developing procedures that eliminate or minimize the impact of oil spills in an ocean environment. An Auburn engineering team working with regulatory agencies and the oil industry will establish a comprehensive database for off-shore oil wells and their operating conditions, including depth, pressure, temperature, ocean current and weather. They determine possible scenarios for malfunction and compare them with actual occurrences. Next, they will develop standard operating procedures and identify infrastructure needed to implement these responses. Although this will not mitigate the immediate problem of the BP spill, it will help prevent future events and reduce their impact.
THE GULF OIL SPILL BY THE NUMBERS What a beach Once crude oil hits the beach, there is no known technology to remove it because water-in-oil emulsions are stabilized by sand particles. Auburn researchers are proposing a predictive mechanistic model for demulsifying crude oil — the first step towards developing a practical and environmentally clean method to remove oil on coastal beaches and obtain a clean oil product that can be recycled.
Tons of crude
585,000
Barrels
4,300,000
Mighty microbes When it comes to degrading spilled oil, members of the genus Pseudomonas are the experts. These tiny workhorses can degrade crude oil, as well as alkanes and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Current methods of detecting a number of these critters in the soil require two to six days, but Auburn researchers suggest real-time polymerase chain reaction technologies to help quantify the ability of these bacteria to degrade spilled oil and oil-dispersant mixtures.
U.S. gallons
180,000,000
Auburn Engineering 25
Rolling Out the New Recyclable by Cheryl Cobb
26 Auburn Engineering
G
reat house. Great location. A bit ‘70s on the inside . . . but that’s easy enough to change. A mountain of orange shag nylon carpet now sits along the curb, waiting for transport to the local landfill, where it will join more than 3 billion pounds of carpet disposed of each year in the U.S.
recycling solutions using clean technology for efficient processing of used carpets. No existing solution can convert waste carpet into such pure forms of nylon.
Bulky and hard to handle and transport, waste carpet is a growing problem for municipalities and landfills. It is also a problem for the carpet industry, which is increasingly viewed as non-sustainable by a new generation of environmentally conscious consumers.
Timing is Everything
But if a fledgling firm, Modular Carpet Recycling (MCR), has its way, that carpet may soon be headed to a facility designed to recycle its nylon. The technology at the heart of that firm had its beginning in an Auburn Engineering lab run by Chris Roberts, Uthlaut professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering. “My graduate student, Aron Griffith and I completed the work on this project in 1998 and were granted a patent in 1999,” says Roberts. “Aron found the intellectual property and patent process fascinating, and interestingly enough is now a patent attorney in Houston. Auburn’s technology transfer group added it to their list of available technologies and began to market it to interested parties.” MCR became aware of this patent after a group of students in Auburn’s Business-Engineering-Technology program developed a business plan for the technology and entered a state competition designed to showcase it. Four weeks later, the firm licensed Roberts’ and Griffith’s technology, recognizing its potential to outperform current mechanical separation methods. “We are talking about a major step forward for carpet recycling,” explains Ron Simonetti, CEO and founder of MCR, which recently opened its first commercial facility in New Castle, Del. According to Simonetti, 21-year veteran of the plastics and flooring industry, MCR is poised to become a leader in carpet
After pilot experience with the chemistry behind this patent, MCR developed new technology and pending patents to expand and extend its capabilities.
As any good comedian knows, timing counts. The same is true for the adoption of new technologies. Although recycling has been a buzz word since the 60s, it’s only recently that carpet waste has become a hot issue. To its credit, in 2002, the carpet manufacturing industry recognized the value of moving towards a more sustainable model and partnered with the federal government to form an organization, Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), to outline an aggressive plan to keep waste carpet out of landfills. While the amount of carpet recycled is still small — only 6 percent — the initiative has helped build an infrastructure better able to handle waste carpet and has increased the awareness among municipalities, dealers and installers on the importance of repurposing and recycling carpet. “These factors all set the stage for our decision to license the patent,” explains
Simonetti. “Of course, the increase in the price of oil and natural gas and the subsequent increase in the cost of virgin nylon also played a factor. Nylon recycling recaptures the oil that was used to make the virgin nylon, saving up to 5 pounds of oil for every pound of nylon renewed by the MCR process.” With a solid business plan in hand, Simonetti and his partners faced the formidable task of raising $5 million to construct a pilot plant to scale up and test the technology. “Waste nylon carpet is 40-50 percent nylon by weight. The rest — plastics, other chemicals, fillers, soils and colorants — must be separated,” says Simonetti. “Our process can also handle other sources of waste nylon, including fish nets, industrial nylon waste and air bags, as well as nylon stockings and panty hose.” The strength of the technology is that the waste nylon goes into a chemical solution, allowing for the removal of dirt and other inorganic impurities. MCR’s “waste carpet refinery” delivers nylon resin pellets, called Renewlon — a product that is more than 99 percent pure, as compared to the 90-98 percent achieved via mechanical methods without any thermal polymer degradation. The easy-to-handle pellets, which command a premium price, thanks to their purity, can be blended with virgin nylon to create new fibers for carpets in today’s latest colors and styles.
Happy Feet Soft and warm underfoot, carpet is the nation’s favorite floor cover — accounting for more than 50 percent of all sales — with shipments in 2007 totaling 1.6 billion square yards. Most of the fluff is woven from petroleum-based synthetic fibers, with nylon leading the pack. Tufted carpet is generally a four-component system, with nylon as the face fiber and polypropylene as the backing, as well as fillers and latex adhesives. Auburn Engineering 27
Ten
in
Ten
Auburn’s Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering finds success in offering a diverse environment
by Katie Mullinax
Photos courtesy of Win Britt
28 Auburn Engineering
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he Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering has graduated 10 doctoral students in 10 years, a major accomplishment and a first in the field, proving that Auburn Engineering produces leaders who will make a significant impact on our nation. According to the annual Taulbee Survey, conducted by the Computing Research Association, an organization that collects data on all computer doctorate-granting departments in the U.S., Auburn’s CSSE department awarded 10 doctorates to African-Americans from 2000 to 2009. Those 10 students represent 8 percent of all CSSE doctorates earned by AfricanAmericans in the U.S. during that time. The survey also reports that Auburn was the only computer science doctoral-degree granting department in the nation to have three African-American faculty members in the same department at one time: Gerry Dozier, Juan Gilbert and Cheryl Seals.
A first for the department Loretta Moore has no trouble remembering what it felt like to become Auburn’s first AfricanAmerican CSSE faculty member in 1991. Loretta Moore “At that time, I was unaware that I would be the first African-American faculty member in the department,” said Moore. “I was introduced to a young AfricanAmerican student my first summer, and I did not realize the significance of the meeting, but was later told that he was the first African-American man to receive a graduate degree in computer science at Auburn.” For some of Moore’s students, it was their first time in the classroom with an AfricanAmerican teacher.
“Students seemed to be mesmerized by my lessons, and after several classes, a group of students came by my office to visit,” said Moore. “After we talked for a while, they told me that I was the first black teacher that they ever had. I said, ‘Ever?’ They said, ‘Ever.’ I asked, ‘English? History? Mathematics? Middle school? Elementary? Kindergarten?’ They answered ‘no’ to each of the questions, so I unpacked and settled in for what was a very challenging but rewarding experience.” Nineteen years later, Moore is chair of the Department of Computer Science at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. She still feels a sense of pride when remembering contributions she made to Auburn’s program during the seven years she was a faculty member, in great part through the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship grant, for which she served as principal investigator. “I am proud of the role I played in increasing the number of African-American faculty and the diversity of graduate students,” said Moore. “And, that we were able to achieve it through mentoring, serving as role models and providing funding to minority students.”
Faculty making a difference Former faculty member Juan Gilbert also played a major role in the department’s 10 in 10 diversity achievement. Gilbert, professor and chair of the Human-Centered Computing Division in the School of Computing at Clemson University, developed an advanced electronic voting Juan Gilbert system called Prime III as an Auburn CSSE faculty member during the 2000s. His system enables people with a variety of disabilities to cast their ballot with ease and privacy.
Demethria Ramseur
Graduate success One of 10 African-American computer science and software engineering doctoral students to graduate in the past 10 years, Demethria Ramseur ’01 is one of the department’s proud alumni stories. Ramseur, a senior certified project manager at IBM in Smyrna, Ga., plans and organizes project, such as data migration and application and tool deployments. She feels her success began with the foundations she learned in Auburn CSSE. “Auburn’s CSSE program provided me with many skills that I have used in my career, teaching me how to do research, challenge ideas, think independently and solve problems,” said Ramseur. “I use these skills plus my technical background to analyze existing technologies, identify areas that need improvement and submit my ideas as patent applications.” Ramseur was recently awarded two patents for her projects, “Electronic Calendar Auto Event Resolution System and Method” and “Vehicle Help System and Method.” She was initially attracted to Auburn’s CSSE program because of the number of African-Americans enrolled in the graduate programs and because there were multiple minority faculty members, including an AfricanAmerican female faculty member — Loretta Moore.
Auburn Engineering 29
“By providing voting methods to members of society who can’t read, can’t hear or can’t see, we have broadened the voting community,” said Gilbert. At Auburn, Gilbert also served as the major professor for more than 10 minority graduate students, encouraging diversity through recruitment and retention of minority students in the department. Dozier, now a professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, N.C., researches computational Gerry Dozier and artificial intelligence and genetic and evolutionary computing. While at Auburn, he received the 2002 junior faculty College of Engineering research excellence award and the 1999–2000 minority engineering program excellence award. “I was always proud to be a member of the CSSE department and a faculty member at Auburn University,” said Dozier. “And, I am still proud to be associated with Auburn — I received opportunities there that I would not have received elsewhere.”
Seals continues her work at Auburn as an associate professor in the department, researching enduser programming in user-interface design, humancomputer interaction, usability Cheryl Seals evaluation and educational gaming technologies. In addition to teaching and research, she also works with outreach initiatives to improve computer science education and encourage student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. She is also director of Auburn’s Knowledge and Excellence in Mathematics, Equilibrium and Technology (KEMET) Academy, an academic and social outreach program for economically and educationally underserved youth. Her other service projects include Gaming Concepts and Technology, which creates educational outlets for video games; SimBuilder Science Project, an initiative to help fourth- and fifth-grade science students create educational simulations with direct manipulation and visual programming techniques; and the Global Bridges Possible partnership with Global Bridges Project, an educational software program sponsored by the Department of
Education that teaches English to prekindergarten children in Beijing. Dozier, Gilbert, Seals and Moore were all tenured at Auburn, more than any other computer science department in the nation, an accomplishment worth noting for any program, as states have seen fewer African-American computer science faculty and doctoral students. Gilbert believes the NSF played an instrumental role in the department’s 10 in 10 accomplishments because each doctoral student was supported by an NSF grant during their time at Auburn. Moore and faculty member Richard Chapman were awarded NSF funds to help bring the first group of minority graduate students to Auburn, while Gilbert, Seals and Dozier received NSF Broadening Participation in Computing grants, which supported efforts to recruit minority students in later years.
Recruiting for the future Kai Chang, Alumni professor and current chair of the department, says faculty worked hard and collaboratively to reach their goal. He also adds that with the relatively low-enrollment figures of minority students in computing, the department had the vision to attract and recruit outstanding students. “There are many minority-serving institutions within driving distance from Auburn’s campus,” said Chang. “We have
s id e note KEMET stands for commitment CSSE faculty member Cheryl Seals is director of Auburn’s Knowledge and Excellence in Mathematics, Equilibrium and Technology (KEMET) Academy, an academic and social outreach program that helps youth from economically and educationally underserved communities in Lee, Lowndes, Macon and Tallapoosa counties learn more about computer science.
From left, Auburn doctoral graduate Ravikant Agarwal, doctoral student Martin Lindsey, Auburn doctoral graduate Ken Rouse, doctoral candidate Christin Hamilton, doctoral student Yuan Tin, Auburn doctoral graduate Cheryl Swanier, doctoral student Wanda Moses, Cheryl Seals and doctoral student Derrick Mendez.
30 Auburn Engineering
The program began five years ago when a team of professors from Auburn committed to support and mentor 70 sixth and seventh grade students from rural Alabama schools.
made an effort to get to know faculty at these schools through campus visits and joint research projects, and, in turn, they recommend Auburn to their students.” Like Gilbert, Chang is also quick to mention that NSF grants have helped increase minority undergraduate participation in CSSE. For the past eight years, the department has hosted the NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) summer program that invites students from across the nation to Auburn’s campus for an 8-10 week research project. Many of the participants are from minority-serving institutions. According to Chang, Auburn minority students have also participated in NSF REU programs at other institutions, and many of those students, after graduating from Auburn, go on to become faculty members at these colleges and universities. Chang also said that students who spend time at Auburn and are Auburn graduates are strong advocates for the department, promoting it to their peers and students. “Thanks to the support and commitment of the CSSE department, many minority doctoral students and faculty members who got their start at Auburn are now tenured department chairs, tenured professors and managers at major corporations,” said Chang. “They are an example to current students and will be for many more in the future as well.
The Ten Where Auburn’s CSSE doctoral grads are now . . .
Jacqueline Jackson, ’00, is an assistant professor at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., where she researches virtual humans in multimedia learning environments, cyber crime and online learning
Demethria J. Ramseur, ’01, is a senior certified project manager at IBM in Smyrna, Ga., and was recently awarded two patents
Sherri Frizell, ’03, is an associate professor at Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University in Prairie View, Texas, and researches human-computer interaction and engineering education
Robert Owor, ’03, is an associate professor at Albany State University in Albany, Ga., and serves as principal investigator for the NSF-supported Information Assurance Project
Mave Houston, ’05, is the director of user experience at Pricewaterhouse Coopers Center for Advanced Research in San Jose, Calif., specializing in usability testing methods, usability studies, ethnography and focus group testing
Dale-Marie Wilson, ’06, is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, researching affective computing, speech interfaces and virtual agents Idongesit Mkpong-Ruffin, ’08, is department chair and associate professor at Faulkner University in Montgomery
E. Vincent Cross II, ’09, is a senior research scientist at the
Participating faculty come from computer science, English, math, geography, geographical information systems, science, social studies and engineering fields. The program is sponsored by Auburn CSSE, Auburn’s Office of the Vice President for Outreach, state Sen. Hank Sanders, Lowndes County Board of Education, Sisters of the Academy — an educational network of black women in higher education — and Auburn UniversityMontgomery’s Department of Sociology.
Lockheed Martin advanced technology lab in Cherry Hill, N.J., specializing in human-centered computing, human-robot interaction and human-computer interaction
Philicity K. Williams, ’10, is a software engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense, working out of Columbia, Md. Yolanda McMillian, ’10, is an assistant professor at Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City, N.C.
Auburn Engineering 31
Head to Head How well would you sleep at night knowing a missile with a nuclear warhead could be headed your way? What if you knew that technology to detect that missile and simulate its trajectory could determine the precise point at which to shoot it down? Rest easy then, because one o f A u b u r n E n g i n e e r i n g ’s own has spent his career pioneering this technology and playing a p i v o t a l r o l e i n o u r n a t i o n ’s ballistic missile defense. 32 Auburn Engineering
Growing up on a small cotton farm in Blountsville, Ala., Wendell Mead was the first in his family to graduate from high school and the first to attend college. He credits a few high school teachers, and in particular, principal J.B. Pennington, for getting him there. “It was common in those days for boys to take a day off school to work on the farm,” said Mead. “I was plowing the field one day and looked up to see a man dressed in a uniform coming across the field. He was a Navy recruiter Pennington sent to see me.” Mead decided to enlist, until he learned that the recently established National Defense Education Act of 1958 would provide money for him to attend college in certain disciplines. Pennington arranged for Mead to take the tests that would determine his eligibility, and his math teacher suggested he study engineering. Mead replied with the age-old question, “What do engineers do?”
by Beth Smith
With an interest in airplanes — but never dreaming he would go on to spend his career with rockets and missiles — Mead enrolled in the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API) in 1959 in aeronautical engineering. A year later, API would become Auburn University and with the advent of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), his major would change its name to aerospace engineering. When not in class or working his job at a local gas station, Mead was conducting research and learning from the likes of professors Fred Martin and Bill Sherling, both icons of Auburn’s aerospace program. Mead graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1963 and went to work for NASA during the early days of space exploration at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Due to the demand for engineers with advanced degrees, NASA sent him back to Auburn on scholarship to obtain a master’s degree in aerospace engineering, which he completed in 1966.
Mead would go on to work for Lockheed in Huntsville, and later for the U.S. Army when it initiated the Safeguard Missile Defense Program. The Army nominated him for the prestigious Sloan Fellows Program and he completed a master’s of management from Stanford University in 1978. After leading the Huntsville office of California-based SRS Technologies, Mead ventured out on his own and in 1990 started AGRI, Inc. – a company he continues to oversee. Today, AGRI does business under the name Serendipity Sciences, namely because Mead’s experiences have taught him that many of the things we know, we discovered while we were looking for something else.
A Genesis In 1977, the Army placed Mead in charge of a feasibility study to determine if it was possible to accurately guide a missile in order to intercept another missile. The study indicated that it was indeed possible; and thus began Mead’s relentless pursuit of a simulation model that could assimilate data in order to create a wide variety of end-to-end ballistic missile defense scenarios and strategies. Known today as BMD TRADES, easier to articulate than its more formal name, Ballistic Missile Defense Technical Requirements Assessment & Design Evaluation Simulation, the model is used as extensively by the Missile Defense Agency as it was by its Department of
Defense predecessors. It is widely accepted as a highly reliable simulation that enables war fighters, systems engineers and policy makers to quickly and accurately run and analyze complex missile defense scenarios. BMD TRADES has been tested in the Pacific Missile Range, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands and Kodiak Island in Alaska.
A Standard Missile-3 is launched from the USS Hopper during a Missile Defense Agency test in order to intercept a short-range ballistic missile target launched a few minutes earlier from the Pacific Missile Range facility at Barking Sands in Kauai, Hawaii.
Mead’s proprietary simulation takes into account engineering and physics equations, as well as information such as the type of missile, its trajectory and data from radar, sensors and satellites to determine the best collision point at which to intercept a missile. Translated, that means when a missile is first detected, this model can adeptly assess its trajectory and determine precise interception points. “By designing and testing scenarios, we can create battle maps,” said Mead. “We look at potential threat locations and run scenarios with similar parameters. We have developed a database of more than 39,000 potential attack scenarios that are highly representative of real-world possibilities.” As he told a general officer during a briefing in 2002, “If you can think it, we can simulate it. There is not much you can do with a threatening missile that we can’t imitate.” A quiet, unassuming man, Mead understands the gravity of his work. “Missile-to-missile defense is so important to our safety,” he notes. “While it is not without risks, it can destroy a missile with less collateral damage.”
Wendell Mead
Mead’s extensive experience, along with the model’s success, has earned him a fair measure of recognition. He currently serves on a 16-member committee of the prestigious National Academy of Science commissioned to study ballistic missile defense in order to make recommendations to Congress on all elements of the nation’s BMD program. The committee is utilizing Mead’s model as a cornerstone of the study.
A New Iteration In March of this year, Mead took another step in the evolution of BMD TRADES by donating the simulation software, as well as its crucial source code, to Auburn’s Department of Aerospace Engineering – a gift with a commercial value of $5 million. “I see this as an opportunity to collaborate with faculty and give Auburn students a hands-on training tool,” said Mead. “We can take this technology and continue to make improvements with the help of faculty and graduate students. Auburn can keep the simulation at the forefront of modern technology, while also gaining valuable research experience.” While the source code will be closely monitored, Auburn Engineering has unlimited rights on the model’s use. “This simulation software will provide extremely valuable experience to our students,” said John Cochran, department head of aerospace engineering. “Many government agencies and contractors are interested in hiring aerospace engineering graduates with knowledge in this specialized area. We are grateful to Wendell for sharing the simulation with us, and for the confidence he has in our faculty and students to continue to develop and refine it.” “The model has the potential to benefit Auburn in terms of research opportunities and dollars,” said Mead. “And from a selfish point of view, as I have spent the better part of my career focused on this project, I would like to see it remain viable and useful to the defense of our nation for a long time.” Auburn Engineering 33
34 Auburn Engineering
100 Women Strong The college’s newly formed 100 Women Strong group held its inaugural freshman engineering luncheon on Aug. 15, welcoming female engineering students and their families. Nicole Faulk, pictured below, ‘96 and ‘99 chemical engineering graduate and nuclear regulatory affairs manager for Georgia Power Company, and Kate Champion, senior in chemical engineering and executive chair of the Cupola Engineering Ambassadors, discussed increasing the college’s female enrollment. The college’s 100 Women Strong consists of Auburn Engineering alumnae and friends who are committed to recruiting and retaining women in engineering at Auburn. For more information on joining 100 Women Strong, contact Dara Hosey at klossdp@auburn.edu
Auburn Engineering 35
Development Update
New name, new partner Now in its 14th year, Auburn Engineering’s Minority Engineering Program is getting a new name – and a new partner. The program is now known as the Alabama Power/Southern Company Academic Excellence Program, thanks to a
Standing ovation for faculty
commitment of $250,000 annually from Southern Company Services. Launched in 1996 with a mission to recruit and retain underrepresented engineering students, the program works in partnership with business, industry and engineering professionals to ensure that students are successful in their undergraduate studies and are well prepared to enter graduate school or the work force. Its collaborative learning groups, mentors and interactive learning laboratory provide academic and social resources that enable the college to attract and retain a diverse student body.
As part of a strategic initiative to recognize the exceptional merit of its faculty, Auburn University developed a targeted one-year campaign to fund 81 new professorships. This goal was exceeded by more than 17 percent, with a total of 95 professorships being funded. Thirteen of them are in engineering. Funding for the named professorships, one of the highest honors that a university bestows on its faculty members, was provided through private support from alumni and friends. From left, Auburn Engineering faculty who were recognized at a campuswide ceremony in August include:
“An investment in education is an investment in the future,” said Charles McCrary, Alabama Power president and CEO. “We are proud to be part of developing the engineers of tomorrow.”
Mario Eden, Joe T. and Billie Carole McMillan Endowed Professorship Y. Y. Lee, Uthlaut Family Endowed Professorship in the Department of Chemical Engineering Bruce Tatarchuk, Charles E. Gavin III Endowed Professorship Mark Byrne, Daniel F. and Josephine Breeden Endowed Professorship
It begins with … a few
Kevin Gue, Tim Cook Endowed Professorship in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Auburn Engineering students demonstrated their support
Roy Hartfield, Walt and Virginia Woltosz Endowed Professorship in the Department of Aerospace Engineering
for the university by contributing more money than any other school or college during the university’s inaugural “It Begins with One” student fundraising campaign. Nearly 150 engineering students participated, donating approximately $2,700 during the campaign, which will be conducted annually and is designed to encourage students to understand the importance of private funding to the university’s departments and programs. The college’s Formula SAE and Baja SAE teams saw 100 percent participation. In addition, the Formula team came in second place for the number of gifts given, earning team members a $2,500 donor match designated for their team. 36 Auburn Engineering
Brian Thurow, W. Allen and Martha Reed Endowed Professorship Bryan Chin, McWane Endowed Professorship in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Thomas Denney, Ed and Peggy Reynolds Family Endowed Professorship in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Hareesh Tippur, McWane Endowed Professorship in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (Not pictured:) David Bevly, Albert Smith Jr. Endowed Professorship in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Ram Gupta, Walt and Virginia Woltosz Endowed Professorship in the Department of Chemical Engineering Chan Park, Daniel F. and Josephine Breeden Endowed Professorship
Jay Morris
Hoover, Alabama Spirit of Auburn Founders Scholar Major: Junior, chemical engineering Goal: Attend medical school Activities: President, Honors Congress Cupola Engineering Ambassadors Research:
Working with chemical engineering faculty member Elizabeth Lipke on an optical mapping system to observe electrical stimulation of heart tissue
Jay is just one student who stands to benefit from the new Auburn Scholarship Campaign, designed to raise $15 million by December 2011 to strengthen merit scholarships for exceptional undergraduates. The campaign offers alumni and friends an opportunity to enhance the scholarships we have available to recruit the nation’s top students. Consequently, students receive a more attractive and competitive financial package, increasing the likelihood that they will choose Auburn for their college education.
“My Spirit of Auburn scholarship
has helped me tremendously because I can do research and participate in extracurricular activities. I would not be able to do these things if I had to get a job in addition to school. It has
”
made a big difference for me.
How it works • The endowed scholarship minimum is $25,000, with an annual payout of approximately 4 percent or $500 for every $12,500 given • Donors can designate their scholarship to the university, to a college or school, or to a specific academic program • Gifts are paired with current Spirit of Auburn or Academic Scholarships, which range from $2,500 to more than full tuition annually, and the total amount is awarded in the donor’s name • The scholarship is available to the recipient for four years if the continuation requirements are met www.auburn.edu/scholarshipcampaign
Auburn Scholarship Campaign
Contact the Office of Engineering Development at 334.844.2736
Auburn Engineering 37
In d u s t ria l a n d Sy s te m s Woojin Park, faculty member in industrial and systems engineering, recently received a grant in excess of $110,000 from Hyundai American Technical Center, Inc. for the project, “Defining Optimal Driving Postures of U.S. Drivers by Body Type.” In many cars, drivers with certain body types have difficulty finding comfortable interior settings, such as seat position, steering wheel position and gearshift location. Park says this is due to body dimensions and preferred driving postures not considered during the design process, resulting in musculoskeletal symptoms, decreased driving performance and reduction in sales for the manufacturer. Park’s project will explore car interior design models that accommodate individuals of different body sizes, including large drivers. It will also help evaluate vehicles in terms of drivers who sit in their preferred postures and their interior settings, as well as identify a “size-friendly” design and “size-neutral” vehicle interiors.
Into the Lab 38 Auburn Engineering
Into the Lab Ae ro s pa ce Vortices are produced by all airplanes and missiles during lift, which is necessary for flight. These vortices can cause problems with vehicle control, such as guided missiles used during extreme maneuvers, which results in unstable air flow over a missile. In addition, unsteady aerodynamic loads can create unstable missile behavior and cause a missile to miss its target. Aerospace engineering graduate student Hayden Moore and faculty member Anwar Ahmed are using the department’s low-speed, closed-return wind and water tunnels to investigate the complex flow fields of slender missile models that incorporate this flow control mechanism. A new concept is being tested on slender missile models provided by the U.S. Army’s Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) to reduce vortex-induced flow instability. The concept involves using a mechanism that allows free rotation of a missile’s nosecone. It also involves the missile’s fins, which would be deployed to neutralize the effects of unsteady forces on vortices in spatially fixed locations, improving the stability and trajectory of the missile.
Moore
Bio s y s te m s
Corley Building
The Department of Biosystems Engineering recently received a $4.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to upgrade laboratories in the Tom Corley Building Annex, constructed in 1948. The renovated 23,000-square-foot facility will allow Auburn to increase its research into bioenergy and bioproducts engineering, ecological engineering, food safety engineering, biosystems automation and best management technologies. The labs will also enable Auburn to expand its new graduate degree programs in the department. The grant is funded through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. An additional $1.4 million is being provided by the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, bringing the total renovation cost to $6 million. Completion is expected in late 2012.
Auburn Engineering 39
Into the Lab Civil The increase in terrorist attacks throughout the past decade, along with nightly news images from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, have greatly heightened awareness of the need for technologies that better protect us at home and abroad. James Davidson, associate professor in civil engineering, received more than $100,000 from the National Science Foundation in August for the project, “Development of a Blast and Ballistic Resistant Precast Concrete Armored Wall System,” to develop walls capable of providing anti-terrorism protection and energy efficiency, while maintaining cost
effectiveness. The research will combine techniques used in the precast concrete sandwich wall industry with recent developments in construction materials and reinforcement strategies. It will create protection systems that can be readily incorporated into domestic and international building construction applications, and will expand ongoing studies on cement-based, insulated wall systems conducted by engineering organizations and government laboratories. Davidson’s work was recently featured in the Birmingham Science News Examiner.
C he m ic a l Many of the solvents, lubricants, heat transfer fluids and coatings used by manufacturing industries are likely to be replaced within the next 10 years due to strict environmental policies that demand the development of new chemical products with minimal to no environmental impact. Mario Eden, Joe T. and Billie Carole McMillian professor in chemical engineering, is leading a research group to develop computer-aided tools and algorithms that facilitate the design of chemical structures with certain physical properties. Many specialty chemicals, biochemicals, pharmaceutical products and plastics may be produced only in small quantities and have a limited shelf life, making it critical to reduce the development time of new quality products. Eden’s work will make it possible to evaluate the effects of altered molecular configurations or atomic arrangements in seconds, instead of having to experimentally synthesize a new compound and test its performance. The project will enable the rapid generation of molecules to be investigated experimentally, limiting time- and cost-intensive experiments.
C o m p u te r Sc ie nce a n d Sof t wa re Hari Narayanan and Dean Hendrix, faculty members in computer science and software engineering, recently received an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to lead a consortium of three universities working to implement a studio-based learning (SBL) approach to teach computing to undergraduates across the nation. The approach encourages students to learn collaboratively while solving complex design problems. During the next two years, the research team, which includes Auburn graduate students Prateek Hejmady and Sundeep Myneni, as well as computing and education faculty from Washington State University and the University of Hawaii, will oversee the implementation and evaluation of SBL at 16 institutions in eight states.
40 Auburn Engineering
Into the Lab E le c t ric a l a n d C o m p u te r Shiwen Mao, faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was recently honored with a $400,000 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for the project, “Towards Rich Multimedia Experience in Emerging Cognitive Radio Networks.” The award will be instrumental in developing and enhancing an integrated research and education program in the area of cognitive radio networks at Auburn. Mao’s project will serve a critical need by enabling
video communications in emerging cognitive radio networks for commercial and mission-critical applications. Open source software, a cognitive radio video test bed and experimental data will be distributed in the wireless community. Research outcomes will include integration with course development and textbook writing, involvement of graduate and undergraduate students in cutting-edge research and the promotion of diversity and outreach to K–12 students.
Me c h a nic a l Auburn’s materials engineering program recently donated an X-ray diffraction system to the physics department at the Alabama School of Math and Science (ASMS), located in Mobile. Representatives from ASMS, including Don Wheeler and Garvin Wattuhewa, visited Auburn’s campus to accept the gift. Researchers in materials engineering received a new system through a National Science Foundation grant led by
faculty member Z.Y. Cheng, principal investigator for the project. The department’s new system is developed by Bruker AXS, a German company that designs and manufactures analytical X-ray systems for elemental analysis, materials research and structural investigations. The machine will expand the department’s research capabilities, as well as benefit students and researchers at Auburn’s Detection and Food Safety Center.
Po l y m e r a n d Fi b e r Xinyu Zhang, faculty member in polymer and fiber engineering, recently received a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for the project, “Collaborative Research: Geopolymeric Nanocomposite, A Next Generation Material for Infrastructure Sustainability.” Zhang and his team will study carbon nanotube growth on various surfaces to develop inexpensive and high-performing nanocomposites that can be used in construction materials, inorganic adhesives and resins, as well as sensing elements in intelligent structures for the aerospace and automotive industries.
Auburn Engineering 41
Five minutes with Zeb Whitehead
Interviewed by Jim Killian
Auburn engineering faculty are heavily involved in research, which often relies on the development of hardware, software and installations that make them usable in real-world situations. Of course, being an engineer does not necessarily mean being a good technician, or having an up-to-date knowledge of materials needed to create a cost-effective and reliable set-up for experimentation or validation. That’s where Zeb Whitehead comes in — as a staff member of the College of Engineering’s Network Services group, he is called on to complete an incredibly diverse set of work projects, often under deadline pressure.
JK: We see you all over the engineering precinct, even on rooftops . . . so what exactly do you do for the college? ZW: If you saw me on a rooftop, it was probably because I was checking, adjusting or doing something similar to a wireless access point, or I was checking on one our web cams. In fact, I had responsibility for the construction web cam that tracked the progress of the first phase of the Shelby Center, and we have another web cam tracking the second phase of construction.
JK: And if you were checking on a wireless access point? ZW: Not as likely . . . but engineering was the first unit on campus to install outdoor WiFi, so I was involved in installing access points. To get this done, we selected access points on some of the rooftops in the engineering quad that gave us good, seamless coverage. Since then, there has been an overall effort to make wireless coverage a priority around campus, from building to building. Now you can use a laptop on campus just about anywhere you are. A lot of faculty and students have also begun to use cell phones for access to data, e-mail, social networks, digital calendars and notebooks, so it’s really a mix now.
42 Auburn Engineering
JK: You were also involved in placing a wireless mesh network at the test track in Opelika for research conducted by the National Center for Asphalt Technology. ZW: Yes, there were a couple of projects out there. One was to surround the 1.7-mile track with data acquisition boxes that relayed data from track sensors that could detect various inputs, such as pavement deflection, to a centralized location in the track offices. At the same time, we put in an outdoor research area for wireless networks for use by engineering faculty and students for various experiments. We have since moved from an open-source, research-based platform to a more commercially purposed 802.11n network that allows the NCAT researchers to have an exceptionally reliable system that more closely meets their needs. The other project we had at the track was to provide real-time data connectivity for the scoring officials at the first Baja SAE race that was staged in the wooded area adjacent to the track. We also set up remote cameras for that event . . . but I think that the real take-home for that project was morphing it into a system that the NCAT researchers could use on their projects.
Whitehead with the lunar sample on display in the dean’s office
JK: What’s the hardest thing you have done? ZW: In a way, that’s difficult to tell. We always to try to give the professors here as much of a turnkey process as possible, and their needs are so varied. It almost feels like you’re starting your job from a blank page every day. Recently, we created a security system for a scanning microscope that involved creating a log file and calendar to make sure that this delicate, complicated and expensive piece of equipment was well monitored, and that we knew who used it and when. The installation of our moon rock was also a challenge. I had to place a lot of sensors into what is a relatively small area, and provide the kind of redundancy needed to protect this one-of-a-kind display.
JK: How do you protect the lunar sample that was presented to the university by Auburn alum and astronaut T.K. Mattingly? ZW: Well, I can’t reveal all. Some of it is fairly obvious — we have video cameras that were placed in certain locations, following a security audit by police professionals. At the same time we have a number of sensors and alarm systems that are an integral part of the display area. I can tell you that one of the sensors I used in the installation is more commonly used to detect seismic vibrations in building installations in earthquake prone areas on the West Coast. That’s a part of my job that is seemingly always there — cruising the parts catalogs for something that will get the job done. It may not be something that part was designed for — but ultimately, it can get the job done.
JK: The landscape of the digital world seems to change so rapidly . . . what do you see down the road, say in five years? ZW: The first thing I would have to say is that it is really so unpredictable. If you look back five years, you’re looking at bigger, slower computers than the ones we are running today, particularly in the area of research. I think if you look five years ahead to what’s going to be on your personal desktop, of course, it’s going to be smaller and faster. There will also be a much bigger wireless presence. Everything on your desktop will be able to talk to everything else wirelessly. And in addition to more and more wireless data transfer, you’re going to see more and more wireless power in everyday computer devices.
JK: Is your entire world defined by electronics and data management, or is there another side to you? ZW: That would be no — I have one computer in the entire house, and I generally use it to Google stuff up. When I get home, it’s almost like I flip back to the 1900s. I play with metalwork, and with the horses I have in pasture. I also ‘play at’ being a farrier, that is to say, I trim and shape their hooves . . . all of our horses have natural feet, which means that that they’re not shoed. When I got home yesterday, I unloaded round bales onto pallets, fed all nine horses, and then . . . broke my tractor. So I called it a day.
Auburn Engineering 43
From the desk of... J. Brian Anderson, associate professor in civil engineering, is evaluating the behavior of unsaturated soils to better understand the behavior of excavations over time, allowing engineers to make advanced soil models and lower-cost retaining structures in residual soils. With the assistance from the state Department of Transportation, his group has begun testing at the National Geotechnical Experimentation site in Opelika.
Robert Barnes, James J. Mallett associate professor in civil engineering, was recently chosen as an institute fellow for the American Concrete Institute (ACI). Barnes was selected for contributions to the ACI’s work and the concrete industry. He was recognized at the ACI opening session and awards program in Chicago.
Mark Barnett, Malcolm Pirnie professor in civil engineering, recently received more than $970,000 from the Department of Energy (DOE) for the project, “Understanding the Subsurface Reactive Transport of Transuranic Contaminants at DOE Sites.” Barnett’s team includes researchers from Auburn, Yale University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of Notre Dame investigating radioactive transuranic waste behavior in soils to secure dangerous contaminants.
Mark Byrne, Daniel F. and Josephine Breeden associate professor in chemical engineering, helped to organize the 2010 National Academy of Engineering’s U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. The two-and-a-half-day event held in September examined cutting-edge research that includes cloud computing, engineering and music, autonomous aerospace systems and engineering inspired by biology.
Prabhakar Clement, Arthur H. Feagin professor in civil engineering, recently received a National Science Foundation award totaling more than $220,000 for the project, “Development of Biopores in the Subsurface by Burrowing Organisms and their Impacts on Infiltration, Runoff and Contaminant Transport Characteristics.”
44 Auburn Engineering
The three-year project is the first multidisciplinary effort to study biopore development by mole crickets and their effects on storage, transport, infiltration and runoff processes.
Virginia Davis, assistant professor in chemical engineering and chair of Auburn’s Women in Science and Engineering Institute, recently helped coordinate a freshman workshop to encourage and promote retention and success of women in science, technology, engineering and math. The workshop included seminars on resume building, academic success strategies and campus involvement, as well as a keynote speaker from Georgia Power.
Mario Eden, Joe T. and Billie Carole McMillan professor in chemical engineering, has been selected as a participant in the National Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium, to be held in December at the Beckman Center in Irvine, Calif. The symposium includes 49 earlycareer engineering educators who will share ideas and discuss a charter to bring improvement in their home institutions.
Kevin Gue, Tim Cook professor in industrial and systems engineering, has been recognized with the 2010 best application paper award for “Aisle Configurations for Unit-Load Warehouses,” by IIE Transactions, the flagship journal of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Experts reviewed published papers for a year and recognized articles as the best in their field.
Ram Gupta, Walt and Virginia Woltosz professor and graduate program chair in chemical engineering, has published a new book, Gasoline, Diesel and Ethanol Biofuels from Grasses and Plants. The book is co-authored by Ahyan Demirbas, professor at Sila Science and Energy Company, and introduces readers to second-generation biofuels from non-food biomass, such as forest and agricultural residue, switch grass, corn stover, waste wood and municipal solid wastes.
faculty highlights Robert Jackson, associate professor in mechanical engineering, and colleagues received the Erle Shobert prize paper award at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 55th annual Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts. The group’s work focuses on a new theoretical technique to model electrical contacts with applications for automobiles, cell phones and computers.
Dong-Joo (Daniel) Kim, associate professor in materials engineering, was recently awarded more than $1.2 million from the horticulture industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture through its Specialty Crops Research Initiative. Kim will design and fabricate a smart trap system via MEMS technology to combat invasive Asian ambrosia beetles in commercial nurseries. Pradeep Lall, Thomas Walter professor and director of Auburn’s NSF Center for Advanced Vehicle and Extreme Environment Electronics has been appointed to the National Academies Committee on Electronic Vehicle Controls and Unintended Acceleration. Lall, an expert in automotive electronics, will examine efforts to ensure safety of electronic throttle control, as well as causes and remedies for unintended acceleration. Andrew Shelton, assistant professor in aerospace engineering, recently received a grant for more than $600,000 from the Office of Naval Research to conduct research with Georgia Tech and Continuum Dynamics Inc., on helicopter rotor vortices near unsteady air wake on naval vessels. The project will improve cost and efficiency, accelerating the Navy’s ability to predict and understand ship and aircraft aerodynamics, train pilots in realistic flight simulators and mitigate unsafe flows. Puneet Srivastava, associate professor in biosystems engineering, has provisionally patented a poultry litter decision support system, an easy-to-use online program designed to help poultry producers develop comprehensive nutrient
faculty highlights management plans for poultry litter storage and use of nutrient-rich waste material to fertilize their pastures and farmland. His web-based software program could lead to cleaner water in Alabama’s top poultry-producing region and greener pastures in the Black Belt.
Steve Taylor, professor and chair of biosystems engineering and director of Auburn’s Center of Bioenergy and Bioproducts, testified on energy alternatives at a congressional field hearing at the Pike County Cattleman’s Association in May. He updated members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Agriculture Committee on the next Farm Bill and Auburn research to convert biomass into fuel, as well as bioenergy policies to help implement a new bioeconomy in the South.
Brian Thurow, W. Allen and Martha Reed professor in aerospace engineering, recently received a $300,000 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program grant from the Department of Defense. The award is part of a $38 million plan that funds 96 academic institutions nationwide for purchasing research instruments that support projects, such as underpinning advances in surface chemistry and physics, scientific computing and networks, electronics and electrooptics, neuroscience, fluid dynamics and propulsion, as well as ocean science and engineering. David Umphress, associate professor in computer science and software engineering, recently received a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a two-course sequence that teaches students to program computer systems that protect against cyberspace attacks. Umphress’ team, which includes Alice Smith, chair of industrial and systems engineering, and Drew Hamilton, faculty member in computer science and software engineering, has begun teaching the first course, an overview of systems engineering. During the second course, students will build prototype solutions and attempt to infiltrate other teams’ systems.
Stuart Wentworth, associate professor in electrical and computer engineering, recently received the Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award from the Auburn Alumni Association. The award recognizes educators who are exceptional in their quality of teaching, knowledgeable in their subject, have an interest in and are available to students and have an influence within the university. Wentworth was recognized at a luncheon and universitywide faculty awards ceremony held in September.
Dongye Zhao, Huff associate professor in civil engineering, has developed iron nanoparticles that remove toxic chlorinated hydrocarbons from soil and groundwater, which will save taxpayer money and keep drinking water clean. Auburn has filed for U.S. and international patent protection and has begun negotiations to license the technology. Zhao is testing the technology on three priority cleanup sites in Alabama, including one at the state capitol.
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Back on campus Engineering students socialize on the steps of Ross Hall between classes. Auburn’s fall semester began on Aug. 18. Following the winter holiday, spring semester classes will start on Jan. 10.
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A u bur n En gine e ring G iv i n g h e al t h a h e ad s t a r t Using portable wireless devices and automated data gathering, Auburn engineers are helping nursing students identify medically at-risk students through a statewide program called Kid Check, connecting student engineers developing software with those who will actually use it.
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