Happenings

TAYLOR NAMED INTERIM DEAN OF COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Steve Taylor has been named interim dean of Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, effective at the beginning of April.

He succeeded Chris Roberts, who was named as Auburn University’s 21st president in February and took office in May.

Taylor previously served as the College of Engineering’s associate dean for research, where he was responsible for coordination and promotion of the college’s research across all academic departments and research centers.

He also provided support and leadership through creative partnerships involving academia, industry and government collaborators. Prior to his role as associate dean, he served as a professor and head of the Department of Biosystems Engineering, while also directing the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts.

“In addition to his many years of service to Auburn, Steve Taylor’s understanding of the college’s research, teaching and outreach mission, combined with his outstanding leadership, ensures he is well prepared to lead the college through this transition,” said Vini Nathan, Auburn University interim provost. “I am confident he will carry the college forward during this important time and ensure it is well-positioned for the next dean.”

Taylor holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural engineering from the University of Florida and a doctorate in the same discipline from Texas A&M.

He began teaching at Auburn in 1989, served as the biosystems engineering department head from 2003-16 and as associate dean for research from 2016-22.

As associate dean for research, Taylor led the college’s research enterprise through an unprecedented period of growth where research contracts and grants grew from $26 million in FY17 to more than $74 million each of the past two years. He played a leading role in efforts to fund and construct the college’s Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory; to acquire property in Huntsville to create the Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus; and he oversaw the creation of the Auburn University Transportation Research Institute, the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence and the Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Manufacturing Systems.

As the biosystems engineering department head, he led the department through a transformative phase in which he was able to hire new faculty, develop new undergraduate and graduate degree programs that spurred substantial growth in student enrollment, construct new laboratory facilities and significantly expand their research and extension programs. As director of the university’s Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts, he led the construction of unique bioenergy laboratories; assisted efforts to obtain more than $35 million in extramural funding for bioenergy research; and helped develop outreach and extension programs that brought renewable energy solutions to farms and local communities. His personal research focused on engineering for the forest products industry and improved utilization of forest biomass for energy feedstocks, as well as for structural products.

“Having known Dr. Taylor for my entire career at Auburn, while also working shoulder-to-shoulder with him during these past few years, I am confident that the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering will continue on its amazing upward trajectory that he helped propel,” said Chris Roberts, Auburn University President. “Dr. Taylor is one of the greatest minds and most effective leaders I’ve ever worked with, and I want to thank him for stepping up and volunteering to take on this vital role.”

Steve Taylor

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Smith confirmed to Auburn University Board of Trustees

The Alabama Senate has unanimously confirmed two new Auburn University trustees known for their strong business, leadership and governance experience as well as long-standing dedication to the university.

Zeke Smith assumes the at-large seat previously held by Charles D. McCrary, and Caroline Aderholt was recently confirmed to the Auburn University Board of Trustees’ District 7 seat that was vacated by Sarah B. Newton.

Smith and Aderholt will serve for a term of seven years, which began Feb. 16, 2022.

“Zeke and Caroline represent the best that Auburn has to offer,” said Bob Dumas, president pro tempore of the Auburn University Board of Trustees. “They were nominated by the Trustee Selection Committee for their impressive credentials and ongoing dedication to Auburn University and its students.” Smith serves as Alabama Power’s executive vice president of external affairs and is responsible for governmental relations, corporate affairs, regulatory affairs, environmental affairs, public relations and charitable giving. He also serves as chairman of the Alabama Power Foundation’s Board of Directors.

He has served across multiple business units of the company, including marketing, corporate planning, financial planning and external affairs. Prior to his current position, he worked as vice president of financial and regulatory planning, vice president of regulatory services and director of regulatory and pricing. He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Auburn and his master’s degree in business administration from Samford University.

Smith is a member of the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council, a member of the McCrary Institute Advisory Council, the benefactor of the Zeke and Darlene Smith Endowed Scholarship for Engineering, the benefactor of the Zeke and Darlene Smith Ever Auburn Scholarship, a member of the Keystone Society, a member of the Katherine Cooper Cater Circle of the Foy Society, the recipient of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Outstanding Alumni Award and the recipient of the Distinguished Auburn Engineer Award.

He also has been recognized with Yellowhammer News’ Most Influential Alabamian Award and was a 2019 inductee into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. He served as chairman of the Alabama Workforce Council and president of the Commission Advisory Council of Innovate Alabama. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Samford University and the Board of Directors of the Business Council of Alabama.

$2 million investment will create artificial intelligence initiative at Auburn

As the state leader in artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, research and education, Auburn University is bolstering its position in the area through an investment of $2 million from the Office of the Provost with support from the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering to create AI@AU: Auburn University Artificial Intelligence Initiative.

The project will: 1) assemble a universitywide multi-disciplinary faculty team to expand AI research and education; 2) build a computational infrastructure for AI research and education at Auburn University; 3) develop Auburn’s faculty infrastructure for AI research and education; 4) explore university-wide educational innovations in AI; and 5) become the university’s focal point for participation in statewide, regional and national initiatives such as the SEC AI Consortium.

The federal government identified AI as a priority with plans to inject billions of dollars into the AI enterprise through civilian and defense agencies, according to the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act pending in the Senate and National Science Foundation for the Future Act pending in the House.

“This initiative puts Auburn in a leadership position in the field of artificial intelligence, and that leadership can benefit the university and the state in multiple ways,” said Hari Narayanan, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering chair and administrative lead for the initiative. “It positions Auburn to compete successfully for all sorts of research opportunities, funding and collaborations with industry. This will also allow us to hire more faculty with experience and expertise in AI.”

Zeke Smith

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Chemical engineering professor becomes Auburn’s first senior member of National Academy of Inventors

Jin Wang is the first faculty member at Auburn University to be named a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

The Walt and Virginia Woltosz Professor in Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is also Auburn’s first female faculty member to be named a senior member or a fellow of NAI. Since starting its fellows program in 2013, NAI has named seven Auburn faculty members to its esteemed fellows list; all seven are male.

“It’s wonderful to be recognized as an inventor and, in particular, a female inventor,” said Wang, who has been a part of the Department of Chemical Engineering since 2006. “I hope this will encourage female students to pursue technology innovation.”

Wang joins 82 other academic inventors from 41 research universities as part of the 2022 senior membership class. They are named inventors on more than 1,093 issued U.S. patents. Wang is also one of 40 female and/or minority inventors in the class.

Throughout her academic career, Wang’s expertise in biogas conversion and sustainable food production have earned her national and international recognition, and her technological innovations have resulted in numerous patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

“I hope and believe that our research will open new doors to greatly improve the sustainability of U.S. food production and help promote the transition of the current linear food production model (take-make-dispose) into a sustainable, circular and bio-based economy that minimizes, or even eliminates, waste generation,” she said.

Jin Wang

Wireless communications innovator named fellow of National Academy of Inventors

Fa Foster Dai, the Godbold Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Dai, known for his research innovations in the fields of wireless and satellite communications and optical networks, was recognized along with 163 other academic inventors as part of this year’s fellows class.

“Dr. Dai’s scholarly research and inventions — including 14 patents — and their translation into commercial practice, serve as examples of his impact in the broader arena of innovation,” said Chris Roberts, Auburn University president and former dean of engineering.

“Impressively, he has also instilled this spirit of innovation into other faculty and students that he has worked with throughout his career,” he added.

Dai is renowned as an expert in radiofrequency-integrated-circuit designs, and several of his patented inventions have been commercially licensed.

Fa Foster Dai

Anh Nguyen

CSSE assistant professor earns prestigious NSF CAREER Award

Anh Nguyen is dedicated to improving artificial intelligence (AI) functionality for the betterment of mankind. Even more, he’s determined to create the first K-6 artificial intelligence club in Alabama, explore creative ways to implement AI research into a new course at Auburn University, collaborate with industry partners and educate external audiences by publishing reproducible code, public-oriented videos.

The assistant professor in computer science and software engineering was presented with a Faculty Early Development CAREER Award by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The CAREER Award is the NSF’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacherscholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

Nguyen’s five-year project, “Harnessing external knowledge to improve computer vision robustness, explainability, and user accuracy,” was awarded $460,736.

“I am very excited to win the NSF CAREER Award as it enables greater research opportunities in building artificial intelligence systems that are more intelligent and able to explain their decisions,” Nguyen said. “In addition to the research component, I am very excited about the funded educational activity where we will have the chance to create the first K-6 club for children to learn more about artificial intelligence.”

Two mechanical engineering professors named ASME Fellows

Mechanical engineering professors Robert Jackson and Jay Khodadadi were recently named fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), a prestigious title awarded to an ASME member with 10 or more years of active practice and corporate membership who has demonstrated outstanding engineering achievements.

Jackson, the Albert Smith Jr. Professor and a nationally recognized tribology researcher, attributes the recognition to the research environment Auburn University has provided.

“Being named a fellow of a major engineering society like ASME is an honor to me as it recognizes the research done by myself and mentored students and my teaching that has made a contribution to the field of mechanical engineering,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s research focuses on wear, surface fatigue, surface engineering and friction.

In 2018, Jackson was named a fellow of the prestigious Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers, a designation reserved only for engineers who have made significant impact on the field of tribology and lubrication. In 2021, he was awarded the Ralph Beard Memorial Academic Award by the National Lubricating Grease Institute, which is given to candidates who have contributed “valuable work in the technical development of greases, grease tests or the promotion of grease usage.”

Khodadadi, Alumni Professor, has maintained an active research portfolio at Auburn University since 1987. An expert in fluid and thermal sciences, his research interests include phase change, solidification, mathematical modeling, porous media and experimental fluid dynamics.

“I am very honored to be named an ASME Fellow as it is an affirmation that my colleagues value my contributions,” Khodadadi said. “I look forward to continuing my research endeavors and collaboration efforts at Auburn University.”

ISE assistant professor leads NSF grant to transform the distributed additive manufacturing industry

Jia (Peter) Liu, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering, is the principal investigator of a multi-disciplinary team of scientists that was awarded a $498,762 grant by the National Science Foundation for their project, “FMSG: Cyber: Federated Deep Learning for Future Ubiquitous Distributed Additive Manufacturing.” Co-principal investigators are Nima Shamsaei, Philpott-WestPoint Stevens Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering and director of the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence, and Yue Cheng, assistant professor in computer science at George Mason University.

As a global shift to distributed manufacturing embodies a forwardthinking prospect of localized on-demand production, a flexible supply chain and high energy efficiency and sustainability, the adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) in a distributed manufacturing paradigm maximizes the potential of freeform production and supply chain participation.

This Future Manufacturing Seed Grant (FMSG) project introduces developing a unified algorithmic and training framework, Federated Modular Deep Learning (FedMDL), for future distributed AM.

Aiming to address the challenges of inconsistent product quality and data sparsity due to the innate technological complexity of AM and social barriers of privacy concerns, it will ensure reliable production, consistent qualification and privacy-preserving information sharing at two levels: algorithmic and cyberinfrastructural. According to Liu, the potential benefits of distributed AM in the supply chain are driving research efforts in the U.S. and across the globe.

“For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 3D printing COVID-19 rapid response initiative in the U.S. provided nearly 1 million pieces of safe personal protective equipment for local medical providers,” Liu said.

“But the unexpected debut of nationwide AM production revealed outstanding challenges FedMDL is targeting to fix,” he added.

Robert Jackson and Jay Khodadadi

Listen to our podcasts with Anh Nguyen and Rob Jackson at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

Jia (Peter) Liu

Aerospace professor earns Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award

Umberto Saetti believes modeling and simulating rotor downwash can develop safer helicopter landings at sea. The Office of Naval Research believes in Umberto Saetti.

Saetti, assistant professor in aerospace engineering, was recently granted a $510,000 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR YIP) for his upcoming study, “Linearized High-Fidelity Aeromechanics for Extended Reality Simulation and Control of Shipboard Interactions.”

Two Virtual Reality (VR) motion-base flight simulators — which replicate multiple forms of rotorcraft and fixed-wing aircraft — were recently installed within Auburn’s Extended Reality Flight Simulation and Control Lab and will be used in the study. The simulators allow for immersive simulations that make use of extended reality to study human-machine interaction, advanced flight control laws and innovative pilot cueing methods.

The purpose of the project: find solutions that will preserve human life and prevent millions of dollars in aircraft from being destroyed. Take two recent U.S. Naval accidents, for example. In 2017, off the coast of Queensland, Australia, an MV-22B Osprey crashed into the ship-deck of the USS Green Bay, killing three and injuring many more. A near-miss occurred in 2015 when an Osprey landed short of the flight deck of an amphibious transport ship and hung off the rear of the boat. There were no injuries, this time.

The problem: heavy rotor downwash which, when interacting with the ship deck, hull or water surface, recirculate into the rotor, causing increased power demands and adverse handling effects.

“Modeling of the rotor downwash and its interactions with the sea surface, ship deck and ship superstructures is key in understanding the adverse effect on the flight dynamics and performance of rotorcraft in shipboard operations,” Saetti said. “Moreover, the ability to replicate these interactions in real-time flight simulations could help supplement the creation of Launch and Recovery Envelopes (LREs) aboard naval vessels. This virtual approach to LRE certification could be used to replace potentially unsafe live simulations during a dynamic interface (DI) period.”

Professor’s research on helicopter acoustics earns grant from U.S. Army

Noise produced by helicopter and commercial air taxi rotors is problematic in the skies above highly populated metropolitan cities. Umberto Saetti, assistant professor of aerospace engineering, is exploring solutions.

Working with colleagues from the Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence (VLRCOE) at Penn State University, Saetti will lead a multi-task project that explores helicopter-related research initiatives. His task, “State-Variable Implementation and Linearization of Simulations with Multi-Disciplinary Aerodynamics,” will use high-fidelity rotorcraft simulations to make predictions of the acoustics of rotorcraft, which are expected to provide pilots with a better understanding of flight patterns that might generate less noise.

For his task in the VLRCOE research project, which is funded by the U.S. Army, Saetti was awarded a five-year, $571,000 contract. “I am particularly proud of being awarded this contract because it builds upon my master’s and doctoral work, which were also funded by the Army through the VLRCOE program,” said Saetti, who recently completed post-doctorate work at Georgia Tech and joined the Auburn faculty in summer 2021.

“The fact that the Army decided to fund this research is, in part, a recognition of the work done in the past years in this area, along with my now colleagues, and former advisors, Drs. Joe Horn and Ken Brentner at Penn State. Additionally, a contract of this magnitude gives me the opportunity to affirm myself as a thought leader in the rotorcraft research community, while still having the chance to collaborate with my alma mater, Penn State, and continue learning from leading figures such as Drs. Horn and Brentner,” he added.

Umberto Saetti

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Umberto Saetti

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NSF ranks Auburn University among top U.S. research institutions

Auburn University is ranked in the top 11% of U.S. research institutions, coming in at No. 100 among 915 universities, according to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) recent Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey. Among public universities, Auburn is ranked No. 67 out of 415 institutions.

“Auburn’s ranking among the nation’s top 100 research institutions is a significant accomplishment,” said James Weyhenmeyer, Auburn vice president for Research and Economic Development. “Our innovative researchers have remained committed to engaging in impactful research even during the challenges of a global pandemic. Their dedication and ingenuity are reflected in Auburn’s rise in the rankings.”

The annual survey, compiled from fiscal year 2020 research expenditures, saw Auburn climb five spots from the previous year.

In addition to the high ranking in the NSF HERD Survey, Auburn is recognized by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a top-level, or R1, university with “very high research activity.”

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Larry Rilett

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Researchers earn NASA grant to reinvent electronics manufacturing in space

Manufacturing electronics and sensors in space are becoming an inevitable part of future space exploration and activities. But even today’s state-of-the-art liquid-based printing machines present challenges within microgravity or antigravity environments. That’s a problem. A team of Auburn multi-disciplinary researchers, however, have a proposed solution. Masoud Mahjouri-Samani, assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering, Nima Shamsaei, Philpott-WestPoint Stevens distinguished professor of mechanical engineering and director of the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME), and Stephen Mills, director of business development for the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, are investigating means to manufacture functional devices in space via dry printing technology. Their project, “In Space Additive Nanomanufacturing and Dry Printing of Multi-materials Electronics,” was recently awarded by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “The cooperative agreement’s goal is to establish a technological foundation that enables the in-space manufacturing and printing of electronics and sensors,” said the project principal investigator, Mahjouri-Samani. The team’s research demonstrates a transformative, laser-based dry additive nanomanufacturing approach that enables the printing of electronics in space. The primary advantage of the system is generating a jet of dry nanoparticles on-demand that can readily function in microgravity environments. When these nanoparticles are directed toward a substrate placed on an x-y stage, they can be sintered in real-time, forming desired electronic circuits.

Masoud Mahjouri-Samani and Nima Shamsaei

Auburn hosts 65th annual Alabama Transportation Conference

Nearly 1,000 private and public transportation experts from across the state and the Southeast attended the annual Alabama Transportation Conference in Montgomery in February to exchange innovations in transportation planning, design, construction and operations. The conference has been hosted by Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, in partnership with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT), since 1958.

“The conference is a must-attend event for Alabama’s best and brightest minds in the transportation, highway, construction, design and associated industries, and has been for 65 years now,” said Rod Turochy, the James Madison Hunnicutt Professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Alabama Transportation Assistance Program (ATAP), who presided over the conference’s opening general session and also presented. “I’m definitely proud of how Auburn assists transportation professionals in delivering the safest, most efficient transportation system possible for Alabamians.”

Auburn University Transportation Research Institute Director Larry Rilett

College recognizes scholarship, leadership at annual spring awards ceremony

The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering hosted its annual spring awards ceremony in April to honor outstanding students, faculty, staff and alumni. The event, hosted by Interim Dean of Engineering Steve Taylor, recognizes scholarship, leadership and a demonstrated commitment to the college.

“The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering attracts many of the top students and faculty in the state, region, nation and from all around the world,” Taylor said. “We are very proud of their success and are delighted to showcase their achievements.”

Below are the 2022 award recipients:

Frank Vandegrift Co-op Award

• Justin Tran

Computer Engineering

Birdsong Study Abroad Scholarship

• Charley Golden

Biosystems Engineering • Garrison Haigh

Aerospace Engineering • Levi Hoey

Mechanical Engineering • Greg McCallum

Aerospace Engineering • Joseph Perrella

Aerospace Engineering

100+ Women Strong Leadership Award

• Liana Grace Wood

Industrial and Systems Engineering • Yukun Song

Civil and Environmental Engineering

100+ Women Strong Study Abroad Award

• Jessica Brouillette

Chemical Engineering • Melanie Comoglio

Biosystems Engineering • Emery Keen

Mechanical Engineering • Caroline Kinney

Mechanical Engineering

100+ Women Strong Graduate Fellowship

• Layla Araiinejad

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Samuel Ginn Outstanding Student Award

• Liana Grace Wood

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Alley Family Graduate Student Leadership Fellowship

• Avinash Baskaran

Mechanical Engineering • Mohammadjafar Hashemi

Chemical Engineering

Auburn Alumni Engineering Council Most Outstanding Student Organizations

• Auburn Biomedical Engineering Society • Engineers Without Borders

Outstanding Student Awards

• Justin Brouillette

Aerospace Engineering • Dylan Bowen

Biosystems Engineering • Danika Louw

Chemical Engineering • Brie Palmer

Civil and Environmental Engineering • Sanchit Sethi

Computer Engineering • Brianna Kristen Brown

Computer Science • Tyler Daniel Bottomlee

Electrical Engineering • Liana Grace Wood

Industrial and Systems Engineering • John Snitzer

Materials Engineering • Tanner Middleton

Mechanical Engineering • Matthew Levoy Bankston

Software Engineering • Chad Beibide

Wireless Engineering

Jeff and Linda Stone Leadership Award

• Camille DiCarlo

Industrial and Systems Engineering • Tyler Kynard

Electrical Engineering • Ben Porter

Chemical Engineering

Mark A. Spencer Creative Mentorship Award

• Neil Hudson

Industrial and Systems Engineering • Richard Sesek

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Outstanding Faculty Members

• Eldon Triggs II

Aerospace Engineering • Sushil Adhikari

Biosystems Engineering • W. Jeffrey Horne

Chemical Engineering • Jeffrey LaMondia

Civil and Environmental Engineering • Dean Hendrix

Computer Science and Software

Engineering • Jason Clark

Electrical and Computer Engineering • Gregory Purdy

Industrial and Systems Engineering • Edward Davis

Materials Engineering • Mark Hoffman

Mechanical Engineering

Fred H. Pumphrey Teaching Award

• Sushil Adhikari

Biosystems Engineering

William F. Walker Teaching Awards Merit

• Richard Sesek

Industrial and Systems Engineering • Russell Mailen

Aerospace Engineering

Superior

• Jeffrey LaMondia

Civil and Environmental Engineering

100+ Women Strong Leadership in Diversity Faculty/Staff Award

• Jessica Bowers

Office of Career Development and

Corporate Relations

Computer science and software alumnus part of winning Tiger Cage team

The eSports industry accrued more than $1 billion in revenue last year with major sponsors accounting for a hefty slice of the pie. But there’s a problem. Most sponsorships are event or partnership-related and do not utilize the benefits of live-streaming.

Emmett Deen, a 2019 graduate in computer science and software engineering, and Jacob Cordero, a student in business administration, have the answer. The team co-founded IGNTE, a web-based platform that streamlines the process for live-streamers to display graphics, create engaging sponsorships, and increase affiliate links. Thus, increase revenue. A panel of 11 industry professional judges believed in their idea so much, IGNTE walked away with first place at the 2022 Tiger Cage Business Idea Competition – Auburn University’s largest entrepreneurship event. The pair was awarded $25,000 in early-stage startup capital and another $5,000 legal services in-kind bonus from the law firm Burr & Forman, LLP.

“These awards give us the runway to do more of what we know is working, which should hopefully generate recurring monthly revenue,” said Deen, a mobile app and web developer at Black Airplane, a digital product design and development firm in the Atlanta area. “We’re going to use this to get more people on our platform and we’ve already started optimizing our marketing strategies.

“Working at a software agency, I’ve had the opportunity to build many types of software and its applications, so you learn with every new project that you build. But I still learned a lot throughout the Tiger Cage process with IGNTE. This wasn’t our first iteration, and it won’t be our last. One thing I’ve learned in engineering is we’re constantly improving and trying to hunt down the best product market fit every day.”

Engineering showcase brings hundreds to U.S. Space and Rocket Center

The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering successfully completed its mission recently at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.

More than 150 graduate students and faculty from all departments traveled to the Rocket City in March for the Graduate Engineering Research Showcase, presenting their posters in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration to members of the Huntsville community and Auburn Engineering alumni.

“This was a fantastic day for the College of Engineering,” said Maria Auad, associate dean for graduate studies and faculty development. “We had more than 275 Auburn University alumni and Huntsville industry representatives visit the showcase to see our students’ exciting research and build relationships with Auburn and each other.”

Auburn Alumni Engineering Council Research Awards for Excellence Junior Award

• Bryan Beckingham

Chemical Engineering • Masatoshi Hirabayashi

Aerospace Engineering

Senior Award

• Lorenzo Cremaschi

Mechanical Engineering • Xinyu Zhang

Chemical Engineering

Outstanding Alumni Awards

• John Junkins

Aerospace Engineering • John Bolte

Biosystems Engineering

Emmett Deen and Jacob Cordero • Keith Jones

Chemical Engineering • Angela Fannéy

Civil Engineering • Sean Cook

Computer Science and Software

Engineering • Gizman Abbas

Electrical and Computer Engineering • Margaret Haack

Industrial and Systems Engineering • Carolyn Russell

Materials Engineering • Veronica Sherard

Mechanical Engineering • Rochelle Cook

Polymer and Fiber Engineering

Army invests $4.3 million in Auburn University additive manufacturing research

The U.S. Army has asked Auburn University to help build the future of American combat readiness.

Through a recent $4.3 million Army grant, the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) at Auburn University will soon initiate a twoyear project focused on materials, parts and process qualification, all of which are necessary for furthering the adoption and implementation of additive manufacturing in Army operations.

“Material variation is what I call the ‘Achilles heel’ of additive manufacturing,” said Nima Shamsaei, NCAME director and project principal investigator who also holds the title of Philpott-WestPoint Stevens Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering. “It can make the qualification and certification of additively manufactured materials and parts challenging.”

Even more challenging, Shamsaei said, is ensuring the consistency and transferability of process output among different additive manufacturing machines, a project goal that NCAME researchers hope to achieve not only with exhaustive mechanical testing but with AI — machine learning, specifically.

Co-principal investigators include Elham Mirkoohi, assistant mechanical engineering professor; Shuai Shao, associate professor of mechanical engineering; and Masoud Mahjouri-Samani, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. Aaron LaLonde, who as technical specialist for the U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center, helped facilitate the Army grant, believes the project will be crucial for further integrating AM into the Army’s modernization and sustainment efforts.

“NCAME,” LaLonde said, “has become one of the main key players in additive research along these lines.”

NCAME awarded $4 million for additive manufacturing high-temperature material characterization

Thanks to multiple recent contracts from Lockheed Martin and NASA totaling more than $4 million, the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) is expanding the scope of its world-renowned additive manufacturing (AM) material characterization research to include developing AM process parameters as well as high-temperature thermal and mechanical characterizations on materials necessary for next-generation harsh environment applications. Three specialized furnaces have been added to mechanical load frames within the center’s state-of-the-art facilities inside the Gavin Research Laboratory. “Materials obviously behave differently at different temperatures, so whether you’re operating under very hot or cold conditions, you need to understand their behavior and functionality precisely,” said Nima Shamsaei, NCAME director and Philpott-WestPoint Stevens Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering. “We want to make sure these materials can endure their intended service during the harsh operational environments.”

From left: Masoud Mahjouri-Samani, Shuai Shao, Nima Shamsaei and Elham Mirkoohi

Listen to our podcast with Nima Shamsaei at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

NCAME researchers monitor one of the center’s three EOS M290 printers.

NCAME boosts AM qualification capacity with state-of-the-art in-process monitoring system

Auburn University’s National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) will soon install state-of-the-art in-process quality assurance software on one of its three EOS M290 printers. The step is part of an academic and industrial collaboration between the center and Sigma Labs in support of several funded projects fostering the use of additively manufactured (AM) components in commercial air and space travel.

Created by Sigma Labs, PrintRite3D provides real-time detection and classification during the manufacturing process, enabling significant cost-savings and production efficiencies. NCAME will use the software to detect anomalies during fabrication and relate them to the variations in mechanical performance of 3D-printed parts. Funded by several grants from the Federal Aviation Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and ASTM International, the projects aim to address issues related to the variability in additive manufacturing machines and products, as well as generate an understanding on how microscopic anomalies in the 3D-printed metals affect overall fatigue and fracture properties.

“Such variations make the qualification and certification of AM materials and parts challenging. We intend to use PrintRite3D to detect anomalies during fabrication and relate them to the variations in mechanical performance of 3D-printed parts,” said Nima Shamsaei, NCAME director and Philpott-WestPoint Stevens Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering.

Auburn leads statewide NASA project on simulation-based qualification for additive manufacturing

Auburn’s reputation for additive manufacturing (AM) research has again preceded itself.

A team of faculty from the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and the Harbert College of Business, composed mostly of leadership and affiliated faculty within the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME), received $750,000 in funding for their winning NASA EPSCoR — Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research — project proposal to investigate the structural integrity of additively manufactured (AM) metallic materials. The team also includes researchers from the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama-Huntsville. Titled “Synergistic Effects of Defects and Microstructure on Mechanical Behavior of LB-LBF Metallic Materials,” the three-year project aims to combine state-of-the-art numerical modeling and experimentation to address part and material qualification, the main hindrance of adopting additively manufactured materials in flight critical applications.

“There is a lack of quantitative knowledge regarding the harmful effects of AM anomalies on structural integrity,” said project scientific lead Shuai Shao, associate professor of mechanical engineering. “In essence, this project integrates experiments and simulations to understand how defects — AM processes are prone to induce them — affect AM metal parts’ mechanical properties.

“It lays a foundation for simulation-based qualification for additively manufactured materials and components,” he added.

In addition to Shao, Auburn Engineering investigators on the project are NCAME director Nima Shamsaei, the PhilpottWestPoint Stevens Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering; Jeff Suhling, the Quina Professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering; and Hareesh Tippur, the McWane Endowed Chair Professor of mechanical engineering.

LaKami Baker, associate professor in Auburn’s Harbert College of Business, will lead entrepreneurship and outreach activities.

Researchers collaborate to address affordable housing through 3D printing

An interdisciplinary project connecting several Auburn University faculty and fellow scientists will address the hard-hitting reality that affordable housing is out of reach for many Americans living in rural areas.

But the path of this research may lead to viable solutions that would have seemed futuristic mere years ago: planning advanced manufacturing that helps utilize waste biomaterials, which can then be produced through additive manufacturing— more commonly known as 3D printing—to create housing or building components.

The interdisciplinary study, which spans the disciplines of engineering, chemistry, forest resources and architecture, includes faculty experts from Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, College of Agriculture and College of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, in collaboration with the University of Idaho. The Auburn-led portion of this interdisciplinary project will focus on bioresin development as a feedstock for 3D printing, which will be done at Idaho.

This process will include conversion of biomass into chemicals and nanomaterials to help improve the sustainability of the resin.

The proposed interdisciplinary project, “Developing a Circular Bio-Based Framework For Architecture, Engineering and Construction Through Additive Manufacturing,” targets what is called the Advanced Manufacturing Industry of the Future. “The thematic basis of our proposal is to develop innovative materials that will be environment-friendly, less dependent on depleting petroleum resources and will use natural sources or waste products with the realization of the impact on the environment that the current generation of composite materials have at the end of their life,” said Maria Auad, the W. Allen and Martha Reed Professor in Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and director of the Center Polymer and Advance Composites at Auburn.

From left: Nima Shamsaei, Hareesh Tippur, LaKami Baker, Shuai Shao and Jeff Suhling

From left, Maria Auad and Sushil Adhikari of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, and Brian Via and Maria Soledad Peresin of the College of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences

Listen to our podcast with Maria Auad at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

Auburn joins NASA’s Artemis rover mission to explore volatiles near the lunar South Pole

How much water is on the moon and where is it distributed? Masatoshi Hirabayashi will soon have answers.

Hirabayashi, assistant professor in aerospace engineering, is one of newly selected eight co-investigators involved in NASA’s 100-day Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission.

As part of NASA’s Artemis series of missions, including a historic mission that will send the first person of color and first woman to the Moon, VIPER will explore volatiles and soils in highland regions west of Nobile Crater near the lunar South Pole and create the first resource map of this region. This roughly 1,000-pound, robotic four-wheeled rover will be 8 feet tall and 5 feet across, and delivered to the Moon by Astrobotic’s Griffin lander via NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative in late 2023.

In the Earth’s atmosphere, water is a liquid at room temperature but frozen when the temperature is less than 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 Celsius). However, on the Moon, because of its deficient atmosphere, water can stay still on the surface as ice only when the temperature is less than minus 160 degrees Celsius (minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit); however, water molecules start moving away as the temperature increases. VIPER will explore shadowed regions that satisfy such low temperatures to see whether ice and other volatiles exists.

Hirabayashi said the mission, a prelude to future missions to Mars, has a two-fold objective. “The scientific question remains … where did the water and other volatiles on the Moon come from? This is directly related to the origin of our lives,” he said The second is In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU): can we harvest the Moon’s resources for future space exploration? When spaceships go far and stay long in space, it is impossible to bring all necessary items from the Earth. Using onsite resources, for example, as fuel, may be one way to solve this issue.

Hirabayashi’s investigation is titled, “Statistical and Thermal Approaches to Constrain the Impact Induced Right Regolith Volatile Distribution Mechanisms.” More simply, he’s going to explore the distribution of water beneath the lunar surface.

Assistant professor collaborates on NASA’s first planetary defense system

Will crashing a spacecraft into the heart of a celestial object change its trajectory?

That’s what Masatoshi Hirabayashi, assistant professor in aerospace engineering, and a team of NASA scientists, aim to find out.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission’s launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in November.

It uses a 1,345-pound spacecraft to eventually impact Dimorphos, the moon of the asteroid Didymos.

Impact is expected in the fall of 2022 and occur 6.8 million miles from the Earth.

Why?

In the name of planetary defense, though Hirabayashi stressed that Didymos, Dimorphos, nor any other asteroid pose a known threat to Earth.

“This is a pure technology demonstration and test,” said Hirabayashi. “In terms of planetary defense, when we consider the possibility of an asteroid striking the earth, that possibility is astronomically low. But should that ever happen, damage would be catastrophic. For this mission, we want to establish our technologies to be prepared for that type of situation.”

Chemical engineering professor collaborates on $6 million NSF biosensor project

Biomanufacturing, or the production of biomaterials, is an emerging economic sector with significant growth potential in states like Alabama, Maine, New Hampshire and Wyoming. Research underway in Auburn University’s Department of Chemical Engineering is poised to help these states realize that potential.

As part of a recently awarded National Science Foundation EPSCoR grant, assistant chemical engineering professor Robert Pantazes will participate on an interdisciplinary research team to develop sensors to promote quality control in the biomanufacturing sector. The four-year, nearly $6 million project – approximately $550,000 of which is designated to Auburn – combines Pantazes’s efforts with those of researchers from the University of New Hampshire, the University of New England, the University of Wyoming and the University of Maine to develop the biosensors and integrate a workforce development program to train a new biotechnology workforce in these jurisdictions.

“There is a widespread belief that the fourth Industrial Revolution is happening right now and it’s related to continuous monitoring of processes,” Pantazes said. “It’s knowing exactly what’s happening throughout your entire manufacturing process so that whenever an issue comes up, you can adapt to it in real time and keep the manufacturing process going as smoothly as possible as opposed to potentially shutting down an entire manufacturing line when there’s an issue at one station.”

The research will be divided into four parts across the participating universities. At Auburn, Pantazes will lead the development and validation of computational methods to design protein recognition elements with targeted hotspot interactions. Simultaneously, researchers at the other universities will be developing separate sensor elements. The project’s lead researcher at the University of New Hampshire will combine the results of the four projects into a single sensor device capable of measuring changes in protein levels continuously and in real time for industrial applications.

Graduate student in aerospace engineering wins research poster competition

Abbishek Gururaj, a doctoral student in aerospace engineering, was recognized as one of the premier student researchers in fluid dynamics. Gururaj won first place in the student poster competition at the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics annual conference in November 2021.

Gururaj’s project, a novel methodology known as rotating three-dimensional velocimetry (R3DV), revealed the methodology’s feasibility by comparing and corroborating results from past studies. The project was co-authored by Vrishank Raghav, assistant professor in aerospace engineering; Brian Thurow, the W. Allen and Martha Reed Professor and aerospace engineering department chair; Mahyar Moaven, aerospace doctoral student; and Sarah Morris, postdoctoral fellow in aerospace engineering.

Robert Pantazes

Abbishek Gururaj, center Nicholas Rush

Student 1 of 8 nationally to earn Sigma Gamma Tau Outstanding Senior Award

Nicholas Rush, a senior double-majoring in electrical engineering and aerospace engineering, is one of eight students nationally to receive the 2021 Sigma Gamma Tau National Aerospace Honor Society’s Outstanding Senior Award. Fiftyfour chapters from universities nationwide entered undergrads for the award.

The award recognizes Rush, who represents the organization’s SouthCentral region, as one of the top seniors in the U.S. based on academic, service and extracurricular accomplishments.

Rush, a native Texan who came to Auburn from Hillsdale, Michigan, began working with the Auburn Nanosystems Group in 2019, the summer following his freshman year. There, he has been deeply involved in a variety of projects ranging from process development for thin film oxides used as superconductor passivation layers to microcircuit fabrication to digital signal processing for high frame rate cameras used in supersonic wind tunnels.

To sum: he’s experienced much in his time at Auburn.

“I chose to work with this group for the wide scope of knowledge I could capture,” he said. “My passion is focused towards designing digital hardware for aerospace applications. However, this position has opened my eyes to the niche of superconductors, as well as RF design and circuit manufacturing processes, and more. Knowing many facets of circuit design will aid in my own future designs when I begin my career.”

Cremaschi named Auburn University’s director of undergraduate research

Lorenzo Cremaschi, professor of mechanical engineering, has been named the university’s director of undergraduate research. He started the new role Jan. 1.

In this role, Cremaschi oversees the Office of Undergraduate Research, which promotes research and creative scholarship among undergraduate students across all disciplines.

As director, he also provides guidance for the Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program and the Auburn University Journal of Undergraduate Studies, in addition to providing leadership for the annual Auburn Research: Student Symposium.

“Dr. Cremaschi brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role of director of undergraduate research,” said James Weyhenmeyer, vice president for research and economic development. “We are delighted to have him on board to provide leadership for our undergraduate research programs, which are a vital part of the university’s success as a top-tier research institution.” Cremaschi has mentored 22 undergraduate students in their research and scholarly activities and eight international visiting exchange scholars. He also serves as the faculty advisor of Auburn’s student branch of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

“The research and creative activities carried out by our students bring much visibility to Auburn across the state and the nation,” he said. “We are home to high-caliber students, faculty, staff, alumni and supporters and have a track record of fantastic innovation and meaningful impact through undergraduate research. I am excited to work with and learn from all of them and help grow our impact and create more opportunities for undergraduate research to impact the world. I am looking forward to building a shared strategic vision to help accomplish this goal.”

Software engineering alumnus co-narrates National Geographic special on Africatown

Viewers learned more about the resiliency of survivors from various tribes in Africa, who established Africatown, a Mobile community, and their journey aboard the ship Clotilda on National Geographic’s documentary, “Clotilda: The Last American Slave Ship,” which aired Feb. 7.

Jeremy Ellis, who earned a degree in software engineering from Auburn Engineering in 2003, is a sixth-generation descendant of two Clotilda survivors, Pollee and Rose Allen. He co-narrated the documentary with other descendants, archaeologists and historians. “My hope is viewers learned what the survivors endured and then accomplished in the years after the Civil War,” said Ellis, a change management professional at Accenture in Atlanta. “For them to establish the community, Africatown, with a governing body, build schools and churches—and become U.S. citizens is very inspirational. It’s a story we need to continue to tell because it is part of American history.”

Lorenzo Cremaschi

Jeremy Ellis

Auburn University hosts inaugural ASCE Gulf Coast Student Symposium, places first overall

For the first time in more than a decade, the Auburn University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering hosted the annual three-day Student Symposium for the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The event took place from March 31-April 2.

Thirteen schools and more than 300 students from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi participated in the inaugural Gulf Coast Student Symposium in the newly realigned conference.

The symposium’s theme was “Back on Track,” a nod to the National Center for Asphalt Technology’s world-renowned 1.7-mile asphalt test track, as well as a statement of purpose — reviving inperson professional development and extracurricular opportunities after two years of unprecedented challenges.

Students across the region formed multidisciplinary teams to compete in 19 civil and environmental engineeringthemed competitions, including the well-known steel bridge competition and concrete canoe race.

Auburn’s team ultimately placed in 16 different competitions, enough to place first overall and advance to national level competitions for Innovation, Construction, and Timber-Strong Design Build competitions.

College takes home nine Educational Advertising Awards

The Auburn University Samuel Ginn College of Engineering Office of Communications and Marketing has won nine awards for marketing excellence in the 37th annual Educational Advertising Awards competition. In total, the office won four gold awards, two silver awards and three bronze awards. The following projects won awards in the competition:

Gold award, Outdoor category

Concourse Banners

Gold award, Website category

eng.auburn.edu

Gold award, Catalog category

Global Programs Brochure

Auburn Alumni Engineering Council inducts Class of 2027

The Auburn Alumni Engineering Council inducted seven new members to the group during its annual spring meeting.

Each council class is active for five years, and those inducted into the Class of 2027 were:

• Mike Forte, ’82 aviation management,

B777 international captain and check airman at American Airlines

• Stephen Hamilton, ’84 chemical engineering, ophthalmologist at Eye

Associates of Atlanta

• Keith Jones, ’84 chemical engineering and ’86 electrical engineering, founder, president and CEO of Prism Systems

• Katie Kirkpatrick, ’95 civil engineering, president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta

Chamber

• JD McFarlan, ’84 mechanical engineering, vice president of ADP

Engineering and Technology at Lockheed

Martin Aeronautics • Mike Spoor, ’89 industrial engineering, vice president of Florida Power & Light (FPL)

• Jamie Welch, ’94 mechanical engineering, president and CEO of

Dubolyu Logistics

“This highly accomplished group represents the best of the best of what Auburn engineers bring to the American workforce,” said Brad Christopher, ’91 and ’93 civil engineering who serves as chair of the council and president of LBYD Engineers. “This group brings a breadth of knowledge and experience to the table, and we look forward to working together to help Interim Dean Steve Taylor carry on the college’s vision of being the best student-centered engineering experience in America.”

During the meeting, the council received an update from Taylor and addressed other matters to provide leadership and participation in areas such as academics, development, diversity and inclusion, governmental affairs and public relations. The group also approved its slate of award winners, which will be presented during the fall banquet. Christopher was installed as the new chair of the council, succeeding Kenneth Kelly, who served from 2020-22.

Gold award, Equality and Diversity

Promotion category

Engineer Together

Silver award, Podcasts category

#GINNing podcast

Silver award, Outdoor category

Digital Billboards

Bronze award, Annual Report category

2020-21 Dean’s Report

Bronze award, Student Viewbook category

Student Viewbook

Bronze award, Publication/External category

Auburn Engineer magazine

“These awards are a testament to the hard work that goes into showcasing the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and its many accomplishments,” said Austin Phillips, director of engineering communications and marketing. “Without the exceptional students, faculty, staff and alumni who make the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering one of the best engineering colleges in the nation, these awards wouldn’t be possible. We are excited to continue to promote the remarkable things happening in and around the college.”

The Auburn Alumni Engineering Council was established in 1965 and is a group of Auburn Engineering alumni who work together to support the vision and goals of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. The council meets twice annually to assist and advise the college, and its members serve on a variety of committees geared to the mission and operation of the college. Council members demonstrate a continuing commitment to move the college to new levels of excellence and take its place among the nation’s premier engineering institutions. The council provides leadership and participation in areas such as academics, development, diversity and inclusion, governmental affairs and public relations.

Mousumi Akter

Student in CSSE earns invite to Grace Hopper Conference, Google mentorship program

Mousumi Akter, a third-year doctoral student in computer science and software engineering, was awarded a student scholarship to attend the Virtual Grace Hopper Celebration Conference in the fall, and was selected for the Google CS Research Mentorship Program.

“This was such a tremendous honor, earning this prestigious scholarship and having the opportunity to represent Auburn University in the world’s largest gathering of women in computing,” said Akter, who works as a research assistant in the Big Data Intelligence Lab at Auburn.

Akter had the opportunity to network and learn from prominent female computer scientists across the world during the annual Grace Hopper Celebration, which provides scholarships to excellent computer scientists based on merit and purpose.

“I came to Auburn from Bangladesh, where women face several obstacles and limitations,” she said. “The conference provided me with the opportunity to hear from female leaders who had gone through similar experiences and encountered comparable barriers. But they’re glowing now, which gives me even more motivation to keep going.”

According to Google Research, the CS Research Mentorship Program (CSRMP) encourages students to pursue computing research by providing professional mentorship, peer-to-peer networking, and raising knowledge about different paths within the discipline.

Aerospace engineering study encourages face mask redesign in the future

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about the use of face masks as a means of reducing the airborne transmission of diseases to the center of attention of people around the world. Auburn aerospace engineering researchers are leading a study that will help improve our understanding of the science that can be expected to guide the design and use of masks in different situations and environments moving forward.

Their research has found that while basic surgical masks offer a first line of defense to both the wearer and the people around them, they are not foolproof as flow leakage occurs around the mask and their effectiveness under realistic coughing conditions is not known. Assistant Professor Vrishank Raghav, Sarah Morris, a postdoctoral research fellow, and William McAtee, a graduate research assistant, found that repetitive ‘pulsatile’ coughs allow expiratory particles to escape through a surgical mask’s sides and above the nose in their co-authored paper, “Influence of expiratory flow pulsatility on the effectiveness of a surgical mask.”

The study is part of a $464,846 National Science Foundation grant in collaboration with the University of Michigan funded in 2021.

Auburn biosystems engineering project receives $700K in ADECA funding

Five universities across the state of Alabama were awarded a portion of a $4.8 million award given by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs out of the Alabama Research and Development Enhancement Fund.

Out of this amount, the college was awarded $1.6 million for various projects.

Sushil Adhikari, professor of biosystems engineering and director of the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts, was awarded more than $700,000 for the project “Advanced Liquid Transportation Fuels from Co-Liquefaction of Forest Biomass and Waste Plastics”.

“Our project is focused on converting forest biomass and plastic waste into transportation fuels,” Adhikari said. “Alabama is rich in forest resources, whereas most of the plastics we discard end up in landfills, which is an environmental nuisance.” Most of the money will be used to recruit graduate students and postdocs who will be working on this project, according to Adhikari. Some money will be used to purchase major pieces of research equipment for biomass and plastic pyrolysis.

“The research will be focused on developing a process that would require lower capital and operating cost for biomass liquefaction, catalysts for the production of jet and diesel fuels, and a pathway for recycling waste plastics for the production of liquid fuels along with woody biomass,” Adhikari said.

The project team will leverage existing infrastructure and expertise at the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts at Auburn.

From left, William McAtee, Vrishank Raghav and Sarah Morris

Sushil Adhikari

Sanjana Ruhani Tammin

Student passionate about inspiring women to pursue education in computer science

Sanjana Ruhani Tammim received her first computer when she was just five years old and instantly fell in love.

“I was very engaged with this computer from the day I received it,” she said. “My family wanted me to become a doctor as they believed that would be a suitable profession for me as a female. But I loved computers and I wanted to be an engineer. With computers, you can choose your own path.”

Not only did Tammim, a first-year doctoral student in computer science and software engineering, choose her own path – she’s passionate about helping young women pursue their computer education dreams and open pathways of their own.

Tammim works as a graduate research and teaching assistant in the college’s Laboratory for Education and Assistive Technology directed by Daniela Marghitu. She was invited to develop her skills as a computer scientist and collaborate with experienced professionals at the prestigious 2022 Computing Research Association Grad Cohort for Women April 21-23 in New Orleans.

Grad Cohort for Women attendees spent two days interacting with 20 senior female computing-related researchers and professionals, who will share pertinent information on graduate school survival skills, as well as more personal information and insights about their experiences. The workshop included a mix of grad cohort presentations and informal discussions and social events.

Auburn Engineering becomes key player in two Air Force Research Laboratory programs

Auburn University is among 10 universities chosen to participate in the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) University Nanosatellite Program, a two-year partnership to design, fabricate and test small satellites.

In addition, Auburn was also selected to participate in the AFRL’s prestigious Information Institute, an education partnership where it joins dozens of other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) — related institutions for collaborative research opportunities.

“An important part of our mission as a land grant university is to conduct research that advances our knowledge of science and engineering and ultimately leads to the development of new technology and technology solutions,” said Steve Taylor, interim dean of engineering. “We understand that Auburn engineering has an opportunity to play a key role in this relationship with the Air Force Research Laboratory, whether it’s helping to create new technology for small satellites or collaborating with peer scholars nationwide to produce research that makes an impact on American industry.”

Established in 1999 and managed through the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate, the University Nanosatellite Program’s objective is to promote and sustain university research and education focused on small satellite and related technologies.

Auburn Engineering is among institutions exploring advanced technologies within what AFRL deems “satellite form factor.” This includes novel experiments in communications/networking, formation flying and space domain awareness.

Junior in aerospace recipient of German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship

Maggie Nelson of Birmingham is Auburn University’s newest recipient of the German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship.

Nelson, a junior majoring in aerospace engineering and minoring in sustainability studies and philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts, will attend Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering in Leipzig, Germany.

The scholarship is through the DAAD Rise program, an acronym for Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, or German Academic Exchange Service, Research Internships in Science and Engineering.

It is Germany’s premier scholarship program, and it awards competitive merit-based grants for use toward study and/or research in Germany at any of the accredited German institutions of higher education. DAAD Rise annually offers approximately 300 grants to undergraduate students from North America, Great Britain and Ireland.

Nelson will research anti-biofouling properties of new hybrid membrane systems. According to Nelson, porous polymer membranes are commonly used for filtration of drinking water, wastewater treatment, medicine, food and more.

Maggie Nelson

THE AUBURN PRESIDENT

Former Dean Chris Roberts was selected as Auburn University’s 21st president in February, and he assumed the role in May

Under Roberts’ leadership, student enrollment grew by nearly 2,000 students.

Growing up in tiny Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River, Chris Roberts’ future was destined for the music industry. His father owned a music store and Roberts spent hundreds of hours and many summers in the shop. But that all changed in a chemistry class during Roberts’ freshman year of college.

“My professor pulled me aside one day and frankly asked me, ‘What are you doing?’ and I said ‘What do you mean? I’m trying to survive your class,’” Roberts said.

The professor and Roberts then went back to the professor’s office where he outlined Roberts’ skillset and how he could affect positive change as a chemical engineer.

“He recognized that I had potential that I didn’t see in myself,” Roberts said.

Since that moment, Roberts has dedicated his life to creating those same life-changing moments for students who are like him.

“I’ve spent my whole life trying to emulate him,” Roberts said. “That was very motivating for me to know that you could recognize in a young person something and to motivate them to achieve beyond even what they thought was their potential.”

From Touchdown Jesus to Touchdown Auburn

After earning his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Missouri, the born-and-raised Catholic made the move to the University of Notre Dame to pursue his master’s and doctoral degrees.

During his time as a doctoral student, his Notre Dame professors also saw his academic potential and highly encouraged him to pursue a career in academics. When the time came, Roberts began interviewing at numerous institutions, but it was at the advice of his brother, Steve, to interview at a special place called Auburn University.

“I knew of Auburn through athletics, but I really didn’t know much about it as an academic institution,” Roberts said. “I don’t know exactly why my brother knew so much about Auburn, but he did. When I came to campus, I fell in love with the place. I instantly felt connected to Auburn.”

During his interview on The Plains, someone handed Roberts a copy of the Auburn Creed. That night, while in his hotel room, he pulled out the copy and began to read it.

During his tenure, the college became a Top 25 producer of African American engineering graduates.

“This is an institution that has a stated set of values and doesn’t shy away from it,” Roberts said. “Frankly, coming out of the University of Notre Dame, I had a deep appreciation for an institution who knew who it was. It’s a differentiator for Auburn, and the Auburn people own it.”

Roberts quickly knew Auburn is where he wanted to be. Even though he had not been offered the job yet, he called home and told his father this was the place for him.

Years later, Roberts was invited to Notre Dame to deliver a speech to graduating doctoral students. During the event, he read the Auburn Creed to the graduates.

“I hoped even they would identify it with parts of their lives that connect with their own set of values. Auburn has done that for me,” Roberts said. “I hope to help continue to make Auburn an institution where our students and alumni identify with the university through these ideals.”

A Vision Fulfilled

Roberts joined Auburn University’s Department of Chemical Engineering as an assistant professor in 1994. Within a decade, he was named as the department’s chair in 2003, as well as the Uthlaut Professor. Similarly, less than a decade later, he was named dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering in 2012. As he looks back at each of those tenures, he still sees himself as that professor making an impact in students’ lives. It’s at his core.

“That’s where my heart is. I loved interfacing with students at the frontier of technical challenges, innovation and their discovery and learning. It was a such a pleasure,” Roberts said.

During his time as department chair, he began to experience a new joy, a joy similar to that of seeing his students excel.

“I learned to live vicariously through the successes of my colleagues, and was perhaps personally experiencing more joy watching my colleagues develop into master educators and master researchers,” Roberts said. “That gave me confidence that we could have that effect across the college.”

As dean, Roberts led the College of Engineering through exponential growth in undergraduate and graduate enrollment; underrepresented student enrollment and graduation; faculty recruitment; alumni gifts and involvement; new research awards and grants; and facility additions and enhancements.

Visit our magazine online at eng.auburn.edu/magazine for a video of this story.

Roberts led the college’s efforts to construct the $44 million, 142,000-square-foot Brown-Kopel Engineering Student Achievement Center, the renovation of the old Textile Building into the Gavin Engineering Research Laboratory and the construction of the Carol Ann Gavin Garden.

During his tenure, Roberts led and oversaw: • Growth in total enrollment of nearly 2,000 students • Growth of new external research contracts by $55 million • Growth in faculty by approximately 100 members • Becoming a Top 25 producer of African American engineering graduates • Growth of female enrollment to more than 22% • Launching the 100+ Women Strong program • Launching the Young Alumni Council • Fundraising a record $65 million in donor funds in 2015-16 • Construction of the $44 million, 142,000-square-foot Brown-Kopel Center • Renovation of the Textile Building into the Gavin Research Laboratory • Construction of the Gavin Garden • Renovation of Broun Hall to include the Davidson Pavilion • Construction of the $22 million Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory • Acquisition of the Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus in Huntsville

“My time as dean has illustrated to me, and I hope others, that we can do really ambitious things at Auburn while staying true to who we are,” Roberts said. “What I’m most proud of is that we did this together. It took a lot of people — a lot of people — to come together with a shared vision and a desire to make an impact.”

In February 2022, after a national search, Roberts was named as Auburn University’s 21st president. He assumed the role in May, succeeding Jay Gogue. “I didn’t wake up one day and just decide I want to pursue the presidency at Auburn, but rather over the course of the past 28 years that I’ve been here I think I’ve developed a deep appreciation and understanding of the institution and a desire to see it reach its full potential,” Roberts said. “I’m convinced that, in this new role, we’ll be able to take on ambitious things and really further propel Auburn as a preeminent land grant university, while at the same time doing it in a uniquely Auburn way. I think that’s what I’ve been able to hone over these years as a professor, department chair and dean here on this campus. Auburn is an amazing university with tremendous potential for greatness, and I hope to help us reach that full potential.”

And while the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering will always be thankful of the role Roberts played in making the college the best student-centered engineering experience in America where everyone is made to feel welcomed, valued, respected and engaged, those in the college are comforted and confident that the entire university will soon experience the same upward trajectory felt on the engineering campus. Or, as you could say, it’s music to their ears.

“I’m really honored to have this opportunity. It’s the honor of a lifetime to serve Auburn in this truly unique way. There’s nowhere else I would like to do this than right here,” Roberts said. “And I can rest easy knowing the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is a great college with strong leadership across the board with amazing, world-class faculty members and a high-achieving student body. Knowing what I know about this next generation of faculty and students across this college, watch out! Auburn is on the rise.”

Walt Woltosz, Ginger Woltosz, Tracy Roberts and Chris Roberts

SURPRISE!

Walt and Ginger Woltosz are among the university’s most ardent and dedicated supporters, so it was no surprise to everyone when they gave $5 million to the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering to support the construction and programming of the Brown-Kopel Student Achievement Center.

Well, almost everyone.

On April 8, the Woltoszes surprised former Dean and now President Chris Roberts by naming the grand atrium in the Brown-Kopel Center in his honor. The area, which serves as the front door to the college, is now known as the Christopher B. Roberts Grand Atrium.

The space was initially named by the college in honor of the Woltoszes, but Walt wanted to name the space after the person who had the vision to make the facility a reality.

During the Brown-Kopel Center’s dedication ceremony in 2019, President Jay Gogue mentioned during his remarks that the facility was Roberts’ vision, and that spurred the Woltoszes to make the generous gesture. Although COVID postponed the Woltoszes being able to formally recognize the name change, they were finally able to unveil it in front of a packed house of Auburn alumni, administration, faculty, staff and students. Interim Dean Steve Taylor presided over the event, which featured speakers Gogue, Board of Trustee member Mike DeMaioribus, Interim Provost Vini Nathan, Engineering Assistant Dean and Director of Student Services Janet Moore and the Woltoszes.

“Chris had this vision for a student achievement center, and I wish we had known that before it was too late and all the names were put up,” said Walt, who earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn in 1969 and 1977, respectively, and an honorary doctorate from the university in 2021. “Well, Chris, it’s not too late.”

A visibly stunned Roberts gasped as the drapes were pulled back, revealing the formal name change.

“This was an entire college project. This was probably the best project I’ve ever worked on, by a really significant margin,” Roberts said. “But now, to know that you have done this, Walt and Ginger, I just can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

Visit our magazine online at eng.auburn.edu/magazine for a video and photo gallery of this story.

25 25

Members of Auburn Engineering’s Weatherby Society, named in honor of Dennis Weatherby, the program’s founding director.

Years

OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

After a record fundraising year, the Auburn Engineering Academic Excellence Program enters a new era as the Auburn University Center for Inclusive Engineering Excellence

Cordelia Brown, the fourth director of the program now known as the Center for Inclusive Engineering Excellence, shared that the program exceeded its fundraising goal of $2.5 million, raising more than $3.4 million over the anniversary year.

“When students come and do well academically and go out and talk about their success at Auburn, that is the best student recruiting tool you can have.” – Dennis W. Weatherby

It’s a simple philosophy — one that has remained true for more than a quarter-century when it comes to recruiting and retaining underrepresented students in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. It’s reminiscent of the famous phrase, “if you build it, they will come.” In this case, however, the “it” represents community and a vital student support network. Those are what the late Dennis W. Weatherby spent his time as the founding director of the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) building. And his hard work has continued to pay off.

In April, Auburn Engineering wrapped up its year-long 25th anniversary campaign celebration of the Engineering Academic Excellence Program (AEP) — formerly known as MEP — with a gala reception and dinner held at the Hotel at Auburn University. In front of more than 150 guests, the program recognized the impact of Weatherby and the three other program directors — Shirley Scott-Harris, Cheryl Seals and the current director, Cordelia Brown — as well as the donors and friends without whose support, the program would not be the success story it is today.

“This program, which started as the Minority Introduction to Engineering Program (MITE), grew into the Minority Engineering

1978 Minority Introduction to Engineering (MITE) Program first held at Auburn, welcoming prospective students to a two-week summer introduction to the basics of engineering and life on the Auburn campus with a focus on student recruitment. 1996 Minority Engineering Program (MEP) established at Auburn, initially intended to augment the existing MITE program with a primary focus on student retention. Dennis W. Weatherby was hired as the program’s first director. 2000 BellSouth Corp. committed $150,000 per year for seven years to support MEP. As a result, the college renamed MEP the BellSouth Minority Engineering Program (BMEP).

K-Rob Thomas, ’01 civil engineering, reflected on his time in the Minority Engineering Program and the impact that the program’s founding director, Dennis Weatherby, had on his life. “Dr. Weatherby changed the trajectory of my life,” he said.

Program in 1996 and has evolved into the Academic Excellence Program, is poised to reach new heights and touch even more underrepresented engineering students through your generosity and commitment to its success,” said Steve Taylor, interim dean of engineering.

New heights, indeed.

At the outset of the anniversary year, a new giving society — the Weatherby Society — was established to provide programmatic and scholarship support to AEP. A fundraising goal of $2.5 million was set and the plan for the funding, according to AEP Director Brown, was to expand staffing and student support to serve even more students “as we strive to reach our recruitment, retention, impact and graduation goals.” Over the course of the year, the program outpaced the original fundraising goal for a total of more than $3.4 million.

“Thank you all for believing in our mission, for recognizing the results we have achieved over the last quarter century and for joining our vision for the future of this meaningful program,” Brown said to the audience of supporters.

More than 250 individual donors gave to AEP over the 202122 academic year and of that total, 57 were inducted into the Weatherby Society. But throughout the program’s history, corporate sponsors have played an important role, especially Alabama Power Company, which has been the program’s title sponsor for the past 12 years. Auburn Engineering alumni Zeke Smith, ’82 industrial engineering, Auburn University trustee and

2002 Weatherby was promoted to assistant dean of engineering for minority affairs and continued as BMEP director. 2005 After completing his 10th year as MEP director, Weatherby left Auburn to pursue new opportunities. He was succeeded as program director by Shirley Harris, who had previously served as an academic advisor in the Office of Engineering Student Services. 2006 When AT&T acquired BellSouth Corp., BMEP became known as the AT&T Minority Engineering Program.

Alabama Power executives and Auburn Engineering alumni Zeke Smith (left), ’82 industrial engineering, and Jim Heilbron, ’94 and ’96 civil engineering, announced a new significant gift to the program and unveiled the program’s new name - the Center for Inclusive Engineering Excellence.

executive vice president of external affairs at Alabama Power, and Jim Heilbron, ’94 and ’96 civil engineering and senior vice president and senior production officer also at Alabama Power, paid tribute to the past and current corporate philanthropic supporters to the program over the years starting with the program’s original sponsors, BellSouth Corporation and AT&T; AMERICAN Cast Iron Pipe Company; Brasfield and Gorrie; Hoar Program Management; Georgia Power Foundation; Chevron; CGI Group Inc.; Lockheed Martin; Intradiem; Westrock; Trane; Volkert; Amazon Web Services and Robins & Morton. But they didn’t stop there.

“It’s really a part of our DNA at Alabama Power — that diversity matters and providing opportunities for all is just imperative,” Smith said. “We believe in AEP. We believe in our students and we celebrate them tonight. We know that when they leave the program, they are prepared to go out into the world to solve problems and make a difference.

“Just like we’ve enjoyed witnessing the success of AEP over the past 25 years, we are excited to announce tonight that we’re making a new significant gift on behalf of Alabama Power Company to continue our legacy of giving to this program for the next 25 years,” he added.

Heilbron underscored the announcement of Alabama Power’s impactful gift by unveiling Auburn’s Center for Inclusive Engineering Excellence — the program’s name going forward.

“We feel that this new name truly speaks to the important focus of this program, which is ultimately giving opportunities to diverse

2010 When BellSouth/AT&T’s commitment to support the program ended, Alabama Power stepped in to fund the program at $250,000 annually and renamed it the Alabama Power Academic Excellence Program (AEP). 2014 Harris retired and was succeeded by Cheryl D. Seals as acting director of AEP. Seals served in the role for one year before returning to her full-time faculty position in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. 2015 Cordelia Brown was hired as the new AEP director and a senior lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Christy “Stacey” Ogletree, ’88 industrial engineering, and Shirley Boulware, ’91 chemical engineering, were among those present who were welcomed into the Weatherby Society with a special pinning ceremony.

and underrepresented students coming to this school to pursue an engineering degree. We believe the Center for Inclusive Engineering Excellence is more representative of the broader support and expanded mission and will bring a new level of prominence to the program we all know and love,” Heilbron said.

Weatherby, and the impact he left on the Auburn Engineering campus, loomed large throughout the evening. Beverly Banister, ’83 chemical engineering and retired EPA Region 4 deputy regional administrator, lauded his professional achievements at Procter & Gamble, where he created a lemon-scented dishwashing detergent, and then his choice to leave the chemical industry and pursue a new career path in academics, eventually joining Auburn University as the MEP director in 1996 as the program was just getting off the ground. “Though he passed away in 2007, his role in establishing the Minority Engineering Program continues to have a profound impact on generations of Auburn graduates,” Banister said.

K-Rob Thomas, ’01 civil engineering and vice president of origination and acquisitions at Alabama Power, served as the cochair of the AEP anniversary planning committee. Thomas reflected on his time as one of Weatherby’s earliest students at Auburn, sharing that Weatherby himself invited Thomas to his first Sunday evening study session, a hallmark of the AEP student experience.

“There are few times in life where people or experiences transform the trajectory of your life. Dr. Weatherby changed the trajectory of my life. When I walked in to that first Sunday night study session,” Thomas said, “I looked around at a room full of people who looked

2021 AEP kicks off a year-long campaign to celebrate the program’s 25th anniversary.

2022

Alabama Power recommits to its sponsorship of AEP. The program was renamed THE CENTER FOR INCLUSIVE ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE.

Visit our magazine online at eng.auburn.edu/magazine for video and photo gallery of this story.

DENNIS W. WEATHERBY

Dennis W. Weatherby was an inventor, scientist, university administrator and proponent of minority college students’ success. Weatherby attended Central State University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1982. From there, he moved to the University of Dayton and completed a master’s degree in chemical engineering in 1984.

Soon after finishing his studies, Weatherby began working for Procter & Gamble Corp. in Cincinnati, Ohio, as a process engineer. At the age of just 27 he was given a chance to lead a team to create a new consumer product, and the result of that effort was a lemon-scented, liquid dishwashing detergent that became a long-term success. As a chemist, Weatherby will forever be associated with one of the United States’ most well-known household cleaning products, the automatic dishwasher detergent known as Cascade.

In 1989, he began working for his alma mater, Central State University, as an academic adviser and recruiter. According to the school, which historically catered to minority students, under Weatherby‘s leadership, the program experienced a more than 400% growth in student enrollment with a better than 80% retention rate. In 1994, he became an assistant professor of water quality at CSU.

In 1996, Weatherby moved on to the institution where he had completed his doctoral studies, Auburn University, to become director of the new Minority Engineering Program. There he served as a role model and adviser for underrepresented students. As the founding director of Auburn University’s Minority Engineering Program, he made Auburn one of the top universities for graduating African Americans in the field of engineering.

After leaving Auburn in 2004, Weatherby became associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Notre Dame, and in 2006 Weatherby became the associate provost for Student Success at Northern Kentucky University, where he served until his premature death in September 2007.

*Adapted from Central State University’s Hall of Fame like me. I had no idea there were so many African American engineers at Auburn.”

Members of Weatherby’s family joined in the anniversary celebration, reflecting on the legacy he left at Auburn University. Helping others succeed was Weatherby’s passion and he aimed to inspire others with his leadership, according to Lissa Weatherby, Weatherby’s sister. And his daughter, Elaine Weatherby, shared how it felt seeing her father make an impact in the lives of his students.

“I realized that my dad not only meant a lot to me, he meant a lot to everyone else, too. And it shows in the legacy and the people he touched along the way,” she said. “Dr. Dennis Weatherby was not a boastful man, but I know that he would be absolutely honored to see how far the Academic Excellence Program has come and the fruits of those efforts. On behalf of the Weatherby family, we want to thank you so much for continuing those efforts and celebrating his legacy.”

Top: Members of the late Dennis Weatherby’s family joined the celebration to honor his contribution to the program that has supported underrepresented students in engineering at Auburn for more than 25 years. Below: Auburn Engineering students gather to celebrate their program’s milestone anniversary.

Weatherby Society

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Engineering Academic Excellence Program (AEP), a giving society was established in memory of the late Dr. Dennis W. Weatherby. The Weatherby Society recognizes those who have made gifts of $25,000 or more in support of scholarship or programmatic support of AEP during the 25th year of the program. Our generous Weatherby Sponsors include:

» Alabama Power Company » Amazon Web Services » AMERICAN » Auburn Engineering Alumni Council » Mr. Diaco Aviki ’95 and Mrs. Angela Aviki » Mr. James Bailey ’97 and Mrs. Maggie Bailey » Mr. Willie Ballard and Mrs. Cynthia Ballard » Ms. Beverly Houston Banister ’83 » Mr. Morgan Lawton Berry ’01 and Mrs. Laura Paulk Berry ’01 » Mr. Udarius Lamon Blair ’12 » Mrs. Shirley Frazier Boulware ’91 » Brasfield & Gorrie » Mr. Dan H. Broughton ’63 and Mrs. Sheila Broughton » Mr. Devante C. Brown ’15 and Mrs. Jasmyne K. Brown ’17 » Mr. Pedro Piercie Cherry ’93 and Mrs. Tomeka Crowe Cherry ’97 » Ms. Rodmesia La’Triece Clarke ’08 » Mr. Christopher Keith Clayton ’12 » Mr. Shawn Edward Cleary ’82 and Mrs. Anne M. Cleary ’82 » Ms. Lynn Sinopole Craft ’05 » Mr. Oliver Wendell Dallas Jr. ’90 and Mrs. Ruth Chambers Dallas ’88 » Mr. Dwight Daniel Jr. ‘06 » Mr. James Dixon ‘97 and Mrs. Kidada Dixon ‘99 » Mr. Joseph Evans Downey Jr. P.E. ’85 and Mrs. Susan Noland Downey » Mr. Patrick Erby Duke ’99 and Mrs. Rachel Duke » Mrs. Louise SaDattras Duncan-Dixon ’01 and Mr. Cornelius Dixon » Dr. Mario Richard Eden and Mrs. Leeja Lavania Eden » Mrs. Sharlene Reed Evans ’86 » Mrs. Elan Pardue Feagin ’86 and Mr. Mark Douglas Feagin ’85 » Mr. Thomas Bryan Garrett ’85 and Mrs. Anne Turnbull Garrett » Mr. Joe Wallace Forehand Jr. ’71 and Mrs. Gayle Parks Forehand ’70 » Ms. Muriel J. Foster ’00 » Ms. Mellany Jatone George ’05 » Mrs. Melody George-Jones ’05 » Mr. Gary Ross Godfrey ’86 and Mrs. Carol J. Godfrey ’86 » Mr. James Everett Goosby ’00 and Mrs. Erica Goosby » Mrs. Antoria Arnold Guerrier ’00 » Mr. Jim Palmer Heilbron ’94 and Mrs. Markell A. Heilbron ’96 » Mr. Duriel Ramon Holley ’03 and Mrs. Olivea Holley » Mr. John Jones ’59 and Mrs. Jo Jones » Mr. Keith Allen Jones ’84/Prism Systems » Mr. Kenneth Kelly ’90 and Mrs. Kimberly Kelly » Lockheed Martin » Mr. Bill McNair ’68 and Mrs. Lana McNair » Ms. Christy ‘Stacey’ Ogletree ’88 » Robins & Morton » Ms. Regenia Rena Sanders ’95 » Mr. Allen Taylor Sasser ’12 » Mr. Anthony Antonio Smoke ’84 and Mrs. Jacqueline Smoke » Mr. Jeffrey Ira Stone ’79 and Dr. Linda Johnson Stone ’79 » Mrs. Susan Nolen Story ’81 » Mr. K-Rob Thomas ’01 and Mrs. Marcia Leatha Thomas ’01 » TRANE Technologies » Mrs. Casey Robinson Troutman ’00 » Volkert » Mr. Lawrence Whatley ’85 and Mrs. Ywonna H. Whatley ’85 » Mr. Walter Stanley Woltosz ’69 and Mrs. Virginia Woltosz » Mr. Jeremy Brian Woods ’16 » Mr. Brandon Devaghn Young ’10

*This list is complete as of April 28, 2022

BIG THINGS

IN HUNTSVILLE

With the new Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus, Auburn Engineering is taking its relationship with the Rocket City to the next level

A framed photo of Mike Ogles bearing the inscription “Do big things for God, family, and Auburn” hangs on the second floor the Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus’ main building.

Listen to our podcast honoring Mike Ogles at eng.auburn.edu/ginning Steve Taylor, interim dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, has a sign above the door to his office that reads “Be like Mike — Do big things for Auburn.” It’s a tribute to his colleague and friend, Mike Ogles, inspired by the words of the Microsoft Outlook calendar reminder Ogles woke up to every day before losing a six-month battle with cancer in October 2021.

A 1989 Auburn University mechanical engineering graduate who served the college for several years as director of NASA programs, assistant director of the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) and as the driving force behind the Auburn Makes initiative, Ogles was an invaluable resource for Auburn University. Working largely behind the scenes, his connections with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville helped secure several major research contracts and partnerships for Auburn Engineering, including an $11.6 million NASA contract for work on the Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology project that helped establish NCAME as an

The new 40,000-square-foot Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus is situated on a 9-acre lot located at 345 Voyager Way NW just outside Redstone Arsenal’s Gate 9 entrance. LogiCore — a technology services company providing life cycle logistics, systems and software engineering, cybersecurity, information technology, programmatics and training services — operated the facility from 2015-22.

international leader in additive manufacturing characterization and qualification research.

So, it came as no surprise that when talk of expanding Auburn’s Huntsville footprint and updating its long-term Rocket City research strategy reached Taylor’s ears in early 2021, many of the words belonged to Mike Ogles.

The timing just seemed right. Huntsville continued to top lists ranking the fastest growing tech hubs in the nation. The U.S. Space Command had just announced plans to relocate to Redstone Arsenal. In that first meeting, Taylor sat down with Ogles and Melanie Baker, director of Auburn Engineering’s Army and Missile Defense Programs, with a vision: Do something big for Auburn in Huntsville.

Purchasing two buildings with more than 40,000 square feet of space situated on a 9-acre parcel of land is pretty big.

“I think Mike would be proud of the Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus,” Taylor said. Located at 345 Voyager Way NW within minutes of Redstone Arsenal’s Gate 9 entrance and near many of Auburn University’s research partners in defense, aerospace, law enforcement and biotech sectors, the Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus (AURIC) lays a permanent foundation from which Auburn can leverage its regional reputation and thriving public-private partnerships into unprecedented national prestige and influence.

Jim Weyhenmeyer, university vice president for research and economic development, called the decision to move forward on the project “a defining moment for Auburn University and the Huntsville community.”

“This facility,” Weyhenmeyer said of AURIC, “will fast-track connections that change the world through our valued research partnerships.”

LogiCore — a technology services company providing life cycle logistics, systems and software engineering, cybersecurity, information technology, programmatics and training services — operated the facility from 2015-22.

The main building of the Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus features an event center large enough to host 300 people plus a 100-seat auditorium. The entirety of the second floor is dedicated to engineering research space.

I think Mike would be proud of the Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus.

Visit our magazine online at

eng.auburn.edu/magazine

for video and photo gallery of this story. “It was just obvious to Mike and Melanie that we needed a greater physical presence in Huntsville,” Taylor said. “We’ve obviously done very well and expanded our research efforts in Huntsville since Auburn opened an office there in 2010, but if we were going to truly grow our research portfolio, they knew we had to have a home — a physical headquarters that belonged to us.”

Ogles and Baker, Taylor said, envisioned the campus as a collaboration engine that focused Auburn’s expertise and nextgeneration resources on the defense, aerospace and law enforcement agencies that call Redstone Arsenal home.

When it officially opens its doors later this year, that, Taylor said, is exactly what it will be.

“When you look at the Redstone Arsenal, most people think of NASA and Marshall Space Flight Center,” Taylor said.

“But there are so many other agencies and groups. There’s United States Army Materiel Command, the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Missile Defense Agency, the Missile and Space Intelligence Center, Redstone Test Center — you can go on and on, and we already have working relationships with many of those groups,” he added.

The Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus’ second building is reserved mostly for laboratory space that in coming years will allow industry partners and government agencies to harness Auburn University resources and expertise.

Taylor also expects AURIC to help facilitate Auburn Engineering’s growing work with the FBI.

“The FBI now has a significant presence inside the fence at Redstone, and we significantly collaborate on cybersecurity with the FBI, as well as the Army,” Taylor said.

“There’s also, of course, a lot of interest in Auburn’s additive manufacturing research through NCAME within the Army, as well as from our long-term additive partners at NASA.”

The U.S. Army recently awarded Auburn’s NCAME a $4.3 million contract on a two-year project focused on materials, parts and process qualification, all of which are necessary for furthering the adoption and implementation of additive manufacturing in Army operations.

“We are excited about the opportunities to expand our research capability in Huntsville, which is home to many members of the Auburn Family and our valued research partners,” said former Auburn University President Jay Gogue. “We hope this facility will quickly become the primary connection for the Huntsville community to Auburn University and will be the go-to destination for government and industry entities around Redstone looking to meet in an unbiased, trusted location for technical interfacing.” Taylor agrees.

“The space we’re creating at AURIC will allow Auburn to serve as a trusted partner where we can convene different agencies and different companies in an impartial territory and work through big problems with complex multidisciplinary solutions,” he said.

The campus’ main building features an event center large enough to host 300 people plus a 100-seat auditorium. The entirety of the second floor is dedicated to engineering research space. The second building is reserved for even more laboratory space that will be built out in the coming years.

“In terms of long-term goals, we want to significantly grow our research funding that comes from agencies in Huntsville,” he said. “We’re conducting millions of dollars of research with Huntsville partners, but I think we can easily triple our current numbers.”

If the generated buzz is any indication, he’s right.

“It’s already generated interest among our peer universities and of our existing partners,” he said. “I’ve had several conversations already. People keep asking, ‘What will be happening here?’”

Big things, Taylor tells them — big things.

Diagnosed with ALS in 2019, Gary Godfrey, ‘86 industrial engineering, was able to participate in the 2022 Bo Bikes Bama charity bike ride thanks to a custom bicycle designed and built by an Auburn Engineering senior design team.

On Saturday, April 23, 1,061 people from 44 states, led by two-sport legend Bo Jackson, participated in the annual Bo Bikes Bama charity ride benefiting the Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund.

One of them was former Auburn basketball player and engineering alumnus Gary Godfrey.

Apparently, he didn’t get the memo.

Visit our magazine online at

eng.auburn.edu/magazine

for video and photo gallery of this story. Godfrey, a 1986 industrial engineering graduate who played alongside Charles Barkley as the Tigers reached the Elite 8 before embarking on a highly successful 30-year career in logistics and brand management consulting, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS degrades nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It causes loss of muscle control, paralysis. He can’t move. He can’t talk. He’s not supposed to be able to do things like complete a 20-mile bike ride.

But he did, thanks to 13 students in Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering who said “yes” to the challenge.

A week earlier, a senior design team comprised of eight mechanical engineering seniors, an industrial master’s student volunteer, three mechanical engineering graduate teaching assistants and an undergraduate teaching assistant completed a custom studentdesigned adaptive bike that could accommodate Godfrey, and the vehicle’s operator, Chuck Smith, an experienced cyclist who has known Godfrey for years. The team was supervised by assistant mechanical engineering professor Kyle Schulze and mechanical engineering lecturer Jordan Roberts, who also serves as the director of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering’s Design and Manufacturing Lab.

The bike is a modified cargo ebike with a custom-built frame that includes a hot-swappable battery for continuous operation. Godfrey sat securely in the front of the bike between two 20-inch tires pushed by the powered rear wheel and was monitored by three primary sensors — two GoPro cameras and a “twitch switch” — that allowed his support team to monitor his vital signs during the race. The switch was attached to Godfrey’s cheek and connected to a light and siren system allowing him to signal the team via the slight facial mobility he

Thirteen mechanical engineering seniors worked nearly non-stop for four months in order to complete Godfrey’s custom bicycle in time for the Bo Bikes Bama charity ride April 23.

maintains had he been in distress. He was secured to a racing seat with a five-point harness and his head was supported with a HANS device typical of motorsports safety.

“Building the bike for Gary was a great experience because it was an example of a real-world design and build process — we were working on a tight schedule with a big group,” said mechanical engineering senior Joshua McCreight, the project’s team lead, one of several team members who rode alongside Godfrey. “I’m really pleased we got it done in time

Gary Godfrey poses with Auburn students during a basketball game at Neville Arena in 2019. Godfrey played for the Tigers under head coach Sonny Smith in the 1980s.

for Gary to participate in Bo Bikes Bama. We were committed to finishing it, not only because it was our senior design project, but because it’s such a great way to share the positive impact of Gary’s story.”

Gary’s story — at least this chapter — started in late 2018. One day, he was just weaker. He was shooting hoops. Then he wasn’t. He couldn’t get the ball to the rim. For a 6-foot-8 former college basketball player, that was strange. He went to a doctor. He got weaker. He went to another doctor.

On Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019, he got the diagnosis.

It was almost a relief. He knew what he was working with. He knew what he would be living with — emphasis on the living.

“I had a choice,” Godfrey said through the text-to-speech app on the computer he controls with his eyes. “I could spend my energy on fighting ALS, or I could focus on living with ALS. I chose the latter. That’s when all of my Auburn basketball experiences kicked in. What did I have to do to stay on the court — which probably is not the best metaphor since I wasn’t on the court that much during my career at Auburn — or in this case, what do I have to do to live a full life with ALS?” Cycling was on the full-life list. He’d been an avid bike rider before ALS. He’d done Bo Bikes Bama twice before ALS. No reason to stop now.

“After I retired, I wanted to get back in shape,” Godfrey said. “I took up cycling. It became my passion. I was riding three to four times per week, riding between 200 to 250 miles. I lost over 80 pounds. I became a MAMIL — a Middle Aged Man in Lycra.”

Godfrey and his wife, Carol, a fellow 1986 Auburn industrial engineering graduate who led a distinguished career in marketing and product development for Southwire Company, first approached the college about the project late last year.

“I had ridden in Bo Bikes Bama a few times before my ALS diagnosis,” Godfrey said. “I read about a man from Colorado, named Mike Cimbura. Mike was an avid cyclist before he was diagnosed with ALS. He didn’t let ALS prevent him from riding. Mike teamed with Zach Yendra who built him a bike that could accommodate his needs and still go up to 60 miles per hour through the Colorado mountains. That inspired me to do the same thing for Bo Bikes Bama.”

Gary showed a picture of Cimbura’s bike to Carol. He typed out “I

Auburn University President Chris Roberts, former dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, powered Godfrey on a pre-ride demonstration of the bike’s functionality.

want to ask Auburn Engineering students to build me something like this.”

“I was like, ‘I don’t know about going 60 miles per hour, Gary,’ we might need to slow that down,’” Carol said. “But still, he always talks about living with ALS. Folks often ask me why we’re doing things like returning to bike riding or pushing to be at Auburn basketball and football games or at a meeting of the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council. I guess their rationale is that Gary has ALS, can’t move or talk or breathe on his own, or this, or that. And yet, what I’d tell you is that Gary’s mind is sharper than ever, allowing him to dream up ideas like riding a bike again, and some amazingly bright young Auburn engineers were along on this ride with us.”

Amazingly bright, said Schulze, doesn’t even begin to describe it.

“Senior design projects typically take two semesters, but, with the way this worked out, the students had barely four months to finish,” he said. “To be honest, what typically happens in situations like this is that the advisors end up having to finish the job because the students just don’t have the technical know-how to meet the deadline. Any senior design professor out there would look at that bike and assume that’s what happened here.”

But it didn’t.

“Jordan and I looked at each other just before the ride started and said ‘they don’t need us,’” Schulze said. “That’s the biggest compliment I can give them. I couldn’t be prouder.” Neither could Auburn University President Chris Roberts, former dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

“This project and this day represents the full circle of the Auburn mission of education, research and outreach,” Roberts said after powering Godfrey on a short demonstration of the bike’s capabilities before the ride. “The bike ran incredibly well. I’m so proud of these students and so happy for Gary. This is what the Auburn Family is all about.”

Godfrey couldn’t be more grateful that it is.

The smile is subtle. But it’s still there. It’s the one physical form of expression the disease hasn’t taken from him.

It was there at the starting line. Twenty miles and two hours later, it was there at the finish line.

“Thanks to these Auburn Engineering students,” Godfrey said. “I got to feel the wind in my face again.”

Listen to our podcast with Gary and Carol Godfrey at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

M . TWI TER

Assistant civil and environmental engineering professor David Roueche is using AI to save lives one crowd-sourced tornado video at a time

Shown here with a 3D laser scanner, David Roueche, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, researches the performance of low-rise buildings under extreme wind loads, including hurricanes and tornadoes.

“Twister” came out in 1996. David Roueche may be the only assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering specializing in extreme wind loads on low-rise buildings, post-tornado disaster field investigations, performance-based wind engineering and wind resistance of light wood-frame structures in the world who still hasn’t seen it.

He tries to keep quiet about it.

The movie is a kind of a cult classic among his colleagues, inspiring a generation of meteorologists and storm chasers and weather nerds and such. So, when it comes up he’ll just smile and nod along. When it comes on TBS and the scientists and engineers he interacts with on Twitter have their impromptu online watch parties and start sharing memes with the cow flying through the air, he’ll click the heart button. Whenever they share little clips, he’ll sometimes hit play. It’s been plenty enough for him to get the gist over the years — enough for him to start nodding before you even finish asking if the real science in the script parallels the research he’ll begin late this summer, at least in terms of an ultimate goal.

“Yes, basically,” he said. “With both, you’re trying to understand the behavior of tornadoes. You’re trying to accurately determine a tornado’s wind speed rather than just estimate it from the damage it’s caused.”

Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt did it with a big bucket of spherical sensors — Dorothy, they called it. If you got Dorothy in just the right spot, the idea was that a tornado would suck the sensors into its funnel and transmit in 30 seconds more statistical insight into what makes twisters tick than weather scientists had acquired in 30 years. It was based on an actual instrument that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Severe Storms Laboratory researchers developed in the 1980s, the TOtable Tornado Observatory (TOTO).

TOTO didn’t work.

Roueche thinks his new approach just might.

Digitizing Debris

He’s already an expert in analyzing the aftermath; where there’s rubble, there’s Roueche — taking photos, taking measurements, taking stock. What could have kept that wall from crumbling? What could have kept that manufactured home on the ground? Why was this 10-year-old site-built home torn apart while the 20-year-old home next to it only lost a few shingles? Which building codes were violated? Which foundations did what they were supposed to do? Combined with an active social media presence, his rapid, bootson-the-ground approach to research — mounting a 360-degree

camera system to his car and immediately deploying to disaster areas — has turned the field work aficionado into a go-to source for outlets like the Washington Post and NPR looking to shine a spotlight on headline-making southern storms. He was tapped to be associate director of data resources for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance Network for a reason.

In 2020, he received a $573,297 NSF Early Career award to develop better methodologies for utilizing post-windstorm reconnaissance in enhancing resilience.

But, apparently, the aftermath — the “post” part of “postwindstorm” — can only tell us so much.

As it turns out, in terms of wind speed, those Fujita scale ratings you hear about — EF3 and EF4 — are, technically, just guess work, Roueche said, based mostly on damage assessment that also leaves plenty of other crucial questions unanswered. Were the winds straight line? Were they horizontal? Were there vertical components? Were there updrafts?

“A lot of people don’t realize that we really don’t know a lot of what characterizes wind speeds in tornadoes, at least near-surface where our buildings are,” Roueche said. “We have instrumentation on towers, we have anemometers set up at airports and in different locations, but tornadoes rarely pass directly over them, and when they do they typically damage the instrumentation. So, we don’t have a way of reliably measuring wind speeds in tornadoes.”

Yet.

It’s kind of a simple idea, one that Roueche thinks should be able to happen easily enough in 2022. The technology is there. Social media is there. Now the funding is there.

In October 2021, the NSF awarded Roueche and research partners Franklin T. Lombardo, a structural engineering professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Mani Golparvar, an associate civil engineering professor specializing in computer science and technology entrepreneurship also at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, nearly $400,000 toward the 4D Wind Field Reconstruction of Near Surface Wind Environment and Other Convective Storms project.

That should be enough to pay for the time in Florida International University’s Wall of Wind, to pay for all the Ring doorbells and GoPros and iPhones and security cameras they’ll set up to record what happens to the nails and 2x4s and windows and rocks and dishes and staplers and Teddy bears and photo albums (and any

A still from a cell phone video of a 2019 tornado in Toronto, Canada, shows an early version of the debris tracking technology Roueche and research partner Frank Lombardo will employ for their NSF-funded project “4-D Wind Field Reconstruction of Near Surface Wind Environment and Other Convective Storms.”

other real-world debris they can find) when they turn the knobs of the largest and most powerful university wind research facility of its kind up to 100 and 130 and 150 miles per hour.

The goal? AI for tornado research; instead of facial recognition, wind-speed recognition.

Build an algorithm. Train it with gigabytes of video recorded under known conditions. Develop a debris pattern database that computer vision can compare to crowd-sourced footage of tornadoes. Mix in the latest, state-of-the-art debris-flight models. Save lives.

“Our buildings are not as strong as they should be and they’re failing much sooner than they should,” Roueche said, “and one reason is that there’s just a dearth of actual measurements of what happens inside a tornado.”

What there isn’t, though, is a dearth of footage of what happens in and around tornadoes.

“There’s now a wealth of sources that capture tornadoes,” Roueche said. “There are cameras everywhere. So, the basic idea of the project is to use the footage we record to build a way to parse all of the tornado video we can source in order to extract useful information from it that can help us design safer buildings.”

Life-Changing

David Roueche did not grow up in a safe building, structurally speaking. His family lived in a manufactured home in Jacksonville, Florida. They had to stay on their toes come hurricane season. Do they drive to Grandmama’s brick house further inland? Shelter in a church? Stay put? But extreme wind events actually have a habit of skipping Jacksonville. Hurricanes typically bounce off Florida’s northeast coast. Tornadoes are few and far between.

“I was first exposed to what tornadoes can really do when I went to Tuscaloosa,” Roueche said.

It was 2011, the day after he received his civil engineering degree from the University of Florida. His professor, David Prevatt, a wellknown researcher in structural resilience, encouraged him to join his team on a trip. Days earlier, on April 27, an EF4 tornado — that at one point was 1.5 miles wide — leveled portions of Tuscaloosa. Prevatt’s team planned to drive the 15 hours to assess the damage. Roueche said yes.

It changed his life.

“I still vividly remember those images,” Roueche said. “That’s what really ignited my passion to pursue this avenue of structural engineering, which, of course, Auburn has been perfect for, not only in the terms of the resources we have here, especially now with the new Advanced Structural Engineering Lab, but, geographically, we’re strategically positioned kind of in the heart of what they call Dixie’s tornado alley.”

Alabama is a tied with Oklahoma, which has 17,480 more square miles, for the state with the most confirmed EF5 tornadoes. It frequently leads the nation in annual tornado fatalities.

In 2019, it wasn’t close.

Close to Home

It was the morning of March 3, 2019. It was easy for Roueche to be one of the first engineers on the scene, along with associate professor Robbie Barnes, his colleague in Auburn’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Beauregard was just 10 minutes from his home in Opelika. Roueche had been hunkering down with family like the rest of Lee County, watching the news, watching Twitter, tracking the storm on his phone with a specialized app.

“When I saw a debris field with debris 20,000 feet in the air, I knew, yeah, this was bad,” Roueche said.

The development of the debris field is when the comparisons started. Josh Johnson, chief meteorologist for WSFA, was as emphatic as he could be without shouting.

As the associate director of data resources for the NSF’s StEER (Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance) Network, David Roueche’s rapid deployment, boots-on-the-ground approach to research has made him a go-to expert for national media covering the aftermath of severe southern storms.

David Roueche poses with Jordan Nakayama (right), one of his doctoral students, during a reconnaissance research trip to Princeton, Kentucky, following the QuadState tornado in December 2021. On the left is Mohammad Alam, a fellow researcher with the NSF’s StEER (Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance) Network.

“I haven’t seen a debris signature like this since April 27, 2011,” Johnson said, his voice shaking. “If you are in Beauregard, take cover now.”

Roueche can still see the trees. Some had furniture in the branches that were still in place. Some were snapped in half. Some had mobile homes wrapped around them.

The mile-wide, EF-4 tornado was on the ground for more than half an hour. It took the lives of 20 adults and three children.

Roueche is convinced it shouldn’t have.

“We’ll see catastrophic damage from a tornado and everyone will assume, well, it’s an EF-4, it’s an EF-5, it’s a super-strong act of God, nothing could have been done,” he said. “But we eliminate the fact that we could be building better. When you start applying engineering principles to it, and start forensically looking at it, it comes down to understanding that the goal isn’t to prevent all damage. That’s not practical. That’s not going to happen, especially in areas that need affordable housing. But what we can do is anchor structures in the ground better than what we’re doing now. I’ve investigated where fatalities occurred and I’ve talked with numerous survivors, and a lot of injuries and fatalities come from when the entire home gets lofted. That’s when things go bad very quickly. That’s what we have to prevent. That’s why we need a better, more accurate characterization of wind behavior to know what loads we need to be resisting.”

So… lights, camera, reconstruction. “For this new project, we’ll be simulating the debris motion in a controlled environment. We’ll know what the wind speed is, we’ll know what the turbulence is, we’ll know the vertical components of the wind, exactly what debris is flying through the air. We know all those characteristics that we need to ask... ‘how did the debris actually travel?’ and ‘what do our debris flight trajectory models, our numerical models say should happen?’” Roueche said. “That way we can better calibrate the models to a laboratory environment and then put all those pieces together. So, if we see some sort of unclassified flying debris in the field, we can extract type of debris and the trajectories of the debris motion using AI and then use these better, more validated models to infer wind speeds from the trajectory of the debris.”

Would a flying cow count as unstructured debris?

He smiles.

“OK,” he said. “Maybe I should finally just sit down and watch it so I don’t have to turn in my tornado researcher card.”

Listen to our podcast with David Roueche at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

IT’S MY JOB

BY JOE MCADORY

CHRIS SCOTT ’16

Industrial and Systems Engineering AT&T

How long have you been at AT&T network operations and what is your role?

I’ve been at AT&T going on six years, where I manage projects at five international data centers in Latin America. It’s my job to ensure network performance is adequate for our customers. I work closely with our customers supporting their network connections, our vendors, implementation managers, and design engineers on equipment deployment projects. I also manage process improvement projects within the data centers. At AT&T, our focus is customer satisfaction. Of course, without a dependable network, our customers wouldn’t be able to run their businesses efficiently. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that we can provide what is needed from a networking standpoint.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Problem-solving and managing large projects. My passion is to find inefficiencies and work through processes and solutions to fix those inefficiencies.

What’s your key to solving problems?

First, you must identify the problem. Once that is addressed, you must create a plan and implement that plan with the stakeholders involved to create a resolution. When working with several different teams, it’s incredibly important to effectively communicate the problems I see. We work with multiple vendors to help solve hands-on issues. I develop the best solution and inform them on how to solve the problem.

What is the biggest career lesson learned along the way?

It would probably have to be a time I failed and missed a deadline on a project. I was in charge of two high impact projects at the same time. The first project I had been working on for a few months but during this same time, a hurricane hit at one of our sites and impacted several of our network locations. As an organization we were in scramble mode to get enough resources and people in the right place to solve this crisis. My boss taped me to be in charge of the supply chain of getting materials to the site. During this time, I prioritized the hurricane restoration project over the first project I was working on. This caused me to miss a few deadlines in my initial project. Looking back, I wish I would have leaned on my peers more for assistance. This taught me the valuable lesson of communication and delegation.

How has your Auburn industrial and systems engineering degree helped you thrive?

My Auburn education taught me the discipline to figure things out and apply them to real-life scenarios. Industrial and systems degrees are the most diverse engineering degrees anyone can obtain. This is one of the main reasons the main reasons I decided to pursue this degree – it’s a perfect mix of technical and business. Having these skill sets has been very beneficial. I have the skills to understand technical aspects of problems and communicate them in a business manner that non-technical people can understand. This is probably one of the most important skills to have when, for example, I’m communicating with leadership. Because many times leadership is very busy, and they don’t have time to hear the deep, technical background of an issue. They are more focused on what the impact would be to the business and being able to effectively communicate that in a way they can understand is an essential skill to possess.

What lasting impact did Auburn leave on your life?

Coming to Auburn is probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, solely because I met so many amazing people. I made lifelong friends at Auburn. Experiences and connections made from joining a fraternity like the Theta Delta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi has been beneficial in both my personal and professional life. Also, I grew up a lot as a person.

Probably the most important piece of advice I could give any college student would be to network and cultivate as many relationships as possible while in school because these are the people that you will be growing with, personally and professionally. You will be their support system, and they will be your support system, in tough times. They can also be a career resource with business opportunities.