Harvey Mudd College Magazine, spring 2012

B UL L E T IN

BRAINED

RIGHT

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Spring 2012

ENGINEER HMC MAGAZINE

CLAREMONT CALIFORNIA

SPRING 2012

WHAT THE B BEST ST ENGIN ENGINEERS E R HAVE, AVE E WHAT A FUTURE F T E ENG ENGINEERS N E SN NEED E

INSIDE

P PAGE G 1 16

16 A Rewarding Path: Penny Barrett ’67

18 Can Creativity Be Taught?

22 What Design Taught Me About Engineering

25 Future-Focused Engineering Education

IMPRESSIONS Having a Ball Camille Marvin ’12, Allie McDonnell ’12, Matt Tambara ’14 and Neftali Dominguez ’15 signed custom-made recycled orbs at an event on March 27 to celebrate the installation of BubbleDeck in the teaching and learning building. These BubbleDeck balls will be placed in one of the building’s final slabs. Read more about how this “green” technology puts HMC in a class of its own (page 8).

No QR code reader?

Go to www.bit.ly/get-on-the-ball

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Incubating Excellence

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arvey Mudd College received one of the nation’s most prestigious awards for engineering this winter. The Bernard M. Gordon Prize, considered by many in the engineering field to be equivalent in renown to the Nobel, has been given only nine times and never before to an undergraduate liberal arts college. The remarkable innovations of our faculty members, Mack Gilkeson, Rich Phillips, Clive Dym and others in our Department of Engineering, have made an impact far beyond the HMC campus (more on page 4).

This spirit of innovation and pursuit of excellence, as demonstrated by the College’s founders, are still prevalent at Harvey Mudd College. The College is frequently recognized for the achievements of its outstanding faculty and for its STEM education initiatives. The Gordon Prize saluted HMC “for creating and disseminating innovations in undergraduate engineering design education to develop engineering leaders.”

Among these innovations are HMC’s development and successful implementation of the Clinic Program and incorporation of design into the curriculum and in extracurricular activities (Design Workshops).

Excellence in education also extends to the highly regarded Department of Mathematics, which received the inaugural Exemplary Program Award from the American Mathematical Society (2006) and whose faculty have won three Alder Prizes for distinguished teaching, including another this year by Susan Martonosi (see page 11). The Computer Science Department implemented innovative practices to attract more women to the discipline, and HMC more than tripled its percentage of CS majors who are women (now between 35 to 42 percent), resulting in a gender ratio that is triple the national average.

The new Writing 1 course, an innovation designed to strengthen writing instruction within the Core, consists of small classes taught by 40 percent of the faculty—from all disci-

plines—who are teaching with great enthusiasm and, as a result, raising the bar for writing quality across campus. Faculty in biology and computer science are developing an introductory course exploring the links between the two fields that is funded

by Howard Hughes Medical Institute and will support the new computational biology major. New choice labs and electives allow students to design experiments in green synthesis, mechanics and circuits, and develop robotic vehicles, the latter in their first year.

Fellow institutions seek solutions to similar challenges: how to attract more diverse students to STEM; how to teach writing effectively in an intensive science and math core; how to incorporate cross-disciplinary learning. Yet, there are few places that have the laboratory for innovation that exists at HMC. Utilizing our advantages—our small size, top-caliber students who desire to better their world, dedicated and creative faculty and our community’s commitment to undergraduate STEM education—we can focus on innovating to solve societal challenges.

Our innovations enhance student learning, attract and energize our faculty and raise our visibility, all of which benefit our learning environment. But our mission calls us to do more.

The world needs stronger STEM education and responsible leaders in the STEM fields. With your enduring support and commitment, we will continue to be an incubator of innovation and excellence, thereby impacting STEM education far beyond our small campus.

Maria Klawe President, Harvey Mudd College

Spring 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURES

The Right-Brained Engineer

18 Can Creativity Be Taught?

16 A Rewarding Path: Penny Barrett ’67

22 What Design Taught Me About Engineering

25 What the World Needs Now: Future-Focused Engineering Education

Future-Focused Engineering Education

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18 20

DEPARTMENTS

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4 Campus Current Bernard M. Gordon Prizewinners; D. Kenneth Baker, Second HMC President, Mourned; New Board Chair Malcolm Lewis ’67; Building with Bubbles; Richard Olson ’62 Retires Fac ulty Ne ws

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Student News

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Student Resear ch

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30 Mudderings News and events; Alumni Weekend; Family Weekend recap; Outstanding Alumni awardees 32 Class Notes Alumni Profiles: Seema Patel ’02, CEO of Interbots and Popchilla inventor Amy Jarvis ’07, New Faces of Engineering Award recipient

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This magazine was printed in the USA by an FSC-certified printer that emits 0% VOC emissions, using 30% post-consumer recycled paper and soy based inks. By sustainably printing in this method, we have saved…

6,087 Lbs. of wood, which is equivalent to 20 trees that supply enough oxygen for 10 people annually.

8889 Gallons of water, which is enough water for 516 eight-minute showers.

6 million BTUs of energy, which is enough energy to power the average household for 25 days.

14 1,846 Lbs. of emissions, which is the amount of carbon consumed by 21 tree seedlings grown for 10 years.

540 Lbs. of solid waste, which would fill 117 garbage cans.

Find the Bulletin online at www.hmc.edu/hmcmagazine

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College News

They Dreamed What Others Could Not Imagine BERNARD M. GORDON PRIZE RECOGNIZES ENGINEERING INNOVATIONS “Mack, Rich and Clive have had an enormous impact on engineering education at Harvey Mudd, and the programs and curriculum advances they have led have found their way around the world,” said Professor Ziyad Durón ’81, chair of the Department of Engineering.

“Their work, and that of other members of the Department of Engineering, is what has made HMC’s engineering program one of the best in the nation for undergraduates,” said President Maria Klawe.

Gilkeson and the late Jack Alford were early advocates of a broad, flexible curriculum that Celebrating the Bernard M. Gordon Prize at festivities in Washington, D.C., Feb. 21 were Pat Little, Robert De Pietro ’69, Richard Phillips, Clive Dym, Liz Orwin ’95, Mack Gilkeson, Zee Durón ’81 and President Maria emphasized experiential learning and commuKlawe (not shown). The awardees—Gilkeson, Dym and Phillips—were recognized for creating and disseminication skills and that led to the innovation nating innovations in undergraduate engineering design education to develop engineering leaders. of the Engineering Clinic Program, begun in One of the engineering profession’s highest honors went to three 1963. Phillips cemented and distributed professional practice professors for their contributions to HMC’s engineering pro- throughout the Clinic Program, which grew both in numbers gram. Clive L. Dym, M. Mack Gilkeson and J. Richard Phillips and in recognition and became a model for undergraduate received the $500,000 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation engineering education. Dym formalized the instruction of a subject matter—design—previously thought off-limits to firstin Engineering and Technology Education.

Secrets to HMC Engineering’s Success “[Students] are not going to learn everything they need [at HMC]...So they have to learn it on their own. They get into that habit...And I think that’s one of the big unsung outcomes of our curriculum.”

—Clive Dym “If the students hadn’t made the Engineering Clinic Program their own, it wouldn’t have succeeded the way it has.”

—Richard Phillips “Two things materialized in Clinic: How important peer teaching can be in a program, and how productive and imaginative a group of undergraduate students can be when they’re working together.”

—Mack Gilkeson “Senior capstone experiences at a lot of places are projects that the faculty have made up. It makes such a huge difference that [HMC Clinic projects] are real projects. It’s not all tied up with a bow and handed to them...it’s a real-world experience.”

—Liz Orwin ’95

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“One of the very strongest validations of the Clinic Program is the number of [alumni] who...get their companies...to sponsor Clinic projects. They’re willing to risk their own credibility...to do one of these projects because they think of the strong benefits to the sponsor, to the students, to the College.”

—Clive Dym “It was a very big benefit of the program that the industry around us was reflected in the Clinic Program.”

—Richard Phillips “Engineering is what you do, not what you learn.”

—Mack Gilkeson “You’ve got this really dynamic and exciting young faculty...our tradition...the love of Clinic...the commitment to teaching as well as research. And, some financial resources. We’re in the process of putting together the ability to allow people to do exactly what they want to do to make engineering education successful.”

—Pat Little

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VIDEO

year students, a notion that he effectively laid to rest. By doing so, Dym introduced new opportunities and pedagogies for engineering design education. “[The prizewinners’] contributions allow our program to stay focused on fundamentals, while tracking the everchanging practice of our profession and teaching our students how to think, frame and solve problems,” said Durón. “The Gordon Prize recognizes the great contribution these three educational pioneers have made in creating a program with design education at its core, within the context of practice—one that ultimately is highly effective at educating the next generation of engineering leaders.”

The Gordon Prize, named after Bernard M. Gordon, the father of analog to digital conversion, was established in 2001 and recognizes new modalities and experiments in education that develop effective engineering leaders.

The prize not only brings recognition to HMC but also supports the continued development, refinement and dissemination of the College’s innovations. A major portion of the $500,000 cash award will go to HMC engineering programs, thanks to Dym, Gilkeson and Phillips, who generously redirected a portion of their half of the prize ($250,000) to the College.

“We won the Gordon Prize because we stayed true to ourselves, to professional practice and to our mission,” said Durón.

“We won the Gordon Prize because these three innovators stood up when others sat, they moved forward when others stood still, and they dreamed what others could not imagine.”

Gordon Prize: http://youtu.be/GUM_s-xtRLM

College News

Gordon Prizewinners Up Close Clive Dym created the engineering program’s formal design instruction and contributed to a hands-on studio component for the first-year projects class. He also advocated the integration of the design and making of tools and prototypes, which helped students learn about manufacturing Clive Dym and design and how to communicate about their work. Dym is the driving force behind the Mudd Design Workshops, which bring together a wide range of institutions to discuss engineering education and their shared experiences. He is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design and director of the Center for Design Education.

Mack Gilkeson is the co-inventor and cofounder of the Clinic Program, a hands-on approach to teaching engineering in which industry partners give small teams of students real-life design problems to solve.

The program was controversial at its outset because this approach defied conventional Mack Gilkeson wisdom and went very much counter to the then-prevailing thinking about engineering curricula. Thus, while the Clinic Program initially faced concerns, even some internally, Gilkeson and his colleagues proved it could work, and it became a model for many other institutions. Gilkeson is Professor of Engineering Emeritus.

Richard Phillips was the Engineering Clinic director for 17 years and transitioned Clinic into a sustainable program that is now integral to the overall engineering curriculum. He also was directly involved in the establishment of Clinic programs in other colleges and universities. The program has Richard Phillips now extended to other departments within HMC, influencing fields outside of engineering. Phillips also was instrumental in the development of the Experimental Engineering Lab to give students a deeper and more intuitive grasp of concepts they learn in their theory classes. Phillips is Professor of Engineering Emeritus.

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College News

College Mourns Loss of D. Kenneth Baker, Second President BAKER’S LEGACY: INCREASED ENROLLMENT, LARGER ENDOWMENT, NEW AND UPDATED FACILITIES D. Kenneth Baker, Harvey Mudd College’s second president, passed away on Sunday, Jan. 29, at his home in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 88.

Baker became the second president of HMC in 1976 following Founding President Joseph B. Platt, who served for two decades. During his 12 years at the helm, Baker was instrumental in increasing the College’s enrollment, facilities and prestige, and guiding the College as technical innovations and social changes occurred. He oversaw the acquisition of land and property to meet major campus needs, which included upgraded laboratories and con- Kenneth Baker on campus and during a “M*A*S*H”-themed campus event. struction of additional housing (Atwood and Case residence halls), allowing all students to be housed on Kerry Karukstis, the first female tenure track faculty member in campus (there were more than 150 living off campus when he a technical field (chemistry) and now chair of the faculty, recalls arrived). the Bakers being very supportive of her as a new faculty mem“Ken arrived at a very new and not well-known college and ber. “I soon discovered that Ken was interested in the classes introduced us to a different management style and personality,” that I taught, my proposed research program and even that I said Clifford Miller, an HMC trustee since 1974, former board had grown up in a small community outside Buffalo, N.Y. I chair and longtime friend of the Bakers. “With Ken, the faculty, am most grateful for all of President Baker’s contributions to staff, trustees and students had fresh eyes, a fresh approach and Harvey Mudd College during a time of significant progress on fresh ideas, which Joe Platt felt the College needed. Ken was very campus.” personable and approachable, and Vivian, a superb addition to the team, worked tirelessly to make the new union work.

I THINK KEN’S GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE “I think Ken’s greatest contribution to the College was introCOLLEGE WAS INTRODUCING THE IDEA AND POSSIducing the idea and possibility of adding two new majors: biology and computer science. Ken ran into some opposition, but BILITY OF ADDING TWO NEW MAJORS: BIOLOGY AND he kept pursuing concepts and ideas, and we all went to work on COMPUTER SCIENCE. —Clifford Miller it. He advanced those initiatives with patience and resoluteness and ultimately succeeded.”

In addition to academic, fiscal and physical plant achieveAdditional accomplishments that occurred during Baker’s ments, Baker’s tenure included several notable pranks, such as tenure included the infamous Caltech Cannon heist in 1986, which Baker re• the computer “wiring” of the HMC campus (the first ferred to in his book “Harvey Mudd College: The Third Decade college campus in California to be completely wired) Plus” as “the most audacious and clever prank known to me in • the naming of the Department of Chemistry as best my time in higher education.” Baker and his wife, Vivian, both undergraduate chemistry program in the nation by the HMC Honorary Alumni, lived all 12 years on campus in the Higher Education Research Institute Garrett House, where they hosted many campus community • the addition of two endowed chairs in the Humanities events. and Social Sciences department Baker is survived by his wife of 64 years, Vivian; a son, Rick • the growth of the endowment from $5 million to Baker and daughter-in-law, Kathy; two grandsons, Jacob Baker $50 million and Nathan Baker; and, a brother, Gordon (Lou) Baker.

• the graduation of the College’s 2,000th graduate

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College News

From ASHMC Leader to HMC Board Chair LEED PIONEER MALCOLM LEWIS ’67 IS FIRST ALUMNUS TO LEAD BOARD Malcolm Lewis ’67, a former ASHMC treasurer and engineering graduate, joined the green building movement shortly after earning his doctorate in engineering from Dartmouth. He became a leader in the development and evolution of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system and was named a 2011 LEED Fellow in the inaugural class of Malcolm Lewis ’67 fellows. An internationally recognized expert in the design of energy-efficient buildings, Lewis has overseen more than 150 LEED-certified projects and was the driving force behind the LEED certification of HMC’s Sontag Residence Hall and Hoch-Shanahan Dining Commons. He is founder of Constructive Technologies Group, Inc., now merged with The Cadmus Group, Inc., where he is senior vice president.

As chair of the HMC Board of Trustees, effective Jan. 28, the distinctions continue: He is the first alumnus in the College’s history to serve as board chair (and was the first alumnus to join) and is the longest-serving board member, with 39 years to his credit.

Lewis, a 2009 HMC Alumni Association Lifetime Recognition Award recipient, shares his thoughts on leading the 36-member board, which directs the policies and funds of the College.

Why have you stayed on the HMC board for so many years?

It’s a labor of love, as I have such high regard for the College and its mission, the quality of the students and faculty and the disproportionate impact it is having on STEM education. I truly enjoy being part of a committed academic community that is so passionate about what the College does. Many faculty and staff are friends, and it is a genuine pleasure and honor to work with them. It gives me a great opportunity to meet and know a continuous crop of new students, each of whom seems even sharper than the last batch!

How does your prior history at HMC inform your work as board chair?

of the founding trustees, I feel like I carry a bit of their founding spirit. Their commitment to taking risks to improve STEM education is one that I believe we want to always nurture—not settling for what is working, but challenging ourselves to evolve with the times to become even better at what we do. Being an alumnus gives me a perspective on the student experience that I believe is valuable for a trustee to have, and I am thrilled that we have such strong alumni representation on the board now.

On what goals will the board be focused?

There is a lot to be done! We have to complete the implementation of the current strategic vision, and that, in turn, requires a successful fundraising campaign. Higher education is facing huge challenges of financial affordability, and this is hardest on small private institutions like HMC. We are in a process of dynamic change in the way the board of trustees functions, and, as we continue to implement term limits for board members, it challenges us to find a stream of talented, new trustees. That process is going well, and I am very excited at the degree of engagement and energy on the board. We are working hard to make the board more oriented to being partners with the administration and faculty to achieve mutual objectives.

Thank You, Bill Mingst A community gathering in January recognized the service of outgoing board chair William Mingst, who joined the board in 1998 and was chair from 2007 to 2012. He helped select HMC’s fifth president, Maria Klawe, supported strategic vision efforts, and, through fiscal responsibility and advisement, helped maintain a stable endowment. Dean of Faculty Bob Cave said, “Bill was a tremendous supporter of the faculty. He was instrumental in the development of the new faculty housing program, which has allowed us to attract and retain extraordinary faculty, and the implementation of the new curriculum. Also, Bill was committed to rewarding faculty and staff through generous salary increases even during the economic downturn. We are all grateful for Bill’s leadership and support.”

Well, there is certainly a sense of history of the evolution of the College that helps give me a long view of the board’s role. Having had the opportunity to know and serve on the board with many

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College News

Building with Bubbles ENGINEERING BREAKTHROUGH IS GREEN, REDUCES WEIGHT, MAINTAINS STRENGTH, STABILITY Being the first to build with an innovative, new technology takes courage—and sometimes a bunch of plastic balls. Ninety thousand to be exact.

HMC’s academic building will be the first in the nation to use BubbleDeck, a renewable floor slab system.

That’s the number of giant spheres included in the BubbleDeck floor slab system used in HMC’s new teaching and learning building, the first academic building in the nation and the first of any structure in California to use the technology.

“It’s always risky to be the first in anything, and it takes vision to really understand and be willing to take that risk and appreciate innovation the way I think this school does,” said Leslie Cliffe, associate principal for Boora Architects, which designed the new building.

AT ITS ROOT, THE BUBBLEDECK SYSTEM “ISULTIMATELY, DESIGNED AROUND THE REALLY SIMPLE ENGINEERING CONCEPT OF TAKING OUT THIS DEAD WEIGHT THAT YOU DON’T NEED.

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Already tested and applied successfully in Europe and Canada, the system has been lauded for its advantages over traditional concrete slabs. Unlike traditional slabs, BubbleDeck uses 35 percent less concrete, allows for flexible design and saves time—all while maintaining the same strength and stability.

“Most of the depth of a slab is there to keep the bottom rebar as far below the top of the slab as possible. So, a lot of the weight in the middle is really just for maintaining that distance,” said Boora architect Joshua Brandt. “Ultimately, at its root, the BubbleDeck system is designed around the really simple engineering concept of taking out this dead weight that you don’t need.”

The slabs arrive onsite partially assembled, consisting of a 2.5-inch concrete base embedded with a reinforcing steel cage that houses hollow, plastic spheres, that are precisely spaced and locked in position. Each slab is tagged for its specific location in the floor. The slabs are connected with steel bars and topped with a wire mesh for added strength. Poured concrete fills around and over the spheres, creating the final, smooth slab.

“The beauty with BubbleDeck is the structure that carries the load is actually in the slab itself. It’s not transferring it to beams and then to girders,” said David Dower, HMC assistant vice president of planning and construction. “In the end, the entire structural system of the building—because it’s all concrete—will be locked together.”

HMC chose the system because it fit the building project’s design constraints, sustainability goals and construction timetable. Strict building height requirements combined with a need to accommodate its varied planned uses demanded an innovative solution. A traditional concrete structure with its extra concrete load would have required support beams and layers that would have increased the structure’s height and more closely spaced columns that would have limited the available interior space. The lighter BubbleDeck system requires no support beams and allows for longer spans between columns.

“It allowed us to have a generous feel to the space, but, at the same time, kept the height of the building low to respect zoning regulations and get everything into the building that the College wanted,” Cliffe said.

The system also boasts several green factors that supMade from recycled materials, 90,000 hollow, plastic spheres will be used in the building.

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Mathematics is Focus of Two Grants

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BubbleDeck uses about 35 percent less concrete, allows for flexible design and saves time—all while maintaining strength and stability.

port HMC’s commitment to sustainable design. It uses less concrete, which translates to lower CO2 emissions that otherwise would have resulted from any additional concrete’s manufacture and transport. The spheres are made from recycled materials.

Plus, the slabs’ steel and plastic contents can be recycled should the building ever be renovated or demolished in the future.

The spheres’ hollow structure even offers some thermal insulation. Wherever exposed slabs present the potential for heat transfer, an injection of foam insulation into the spheres will offer added protection. As for speed, the system can reduce construction time by up to 40 percent.

Faculty News

“The entire floor is placed in two days, and you can walk on it within seven,” Dower said. “That’s important for us because we’re on a pretty tight schedule.” The building is scheduled to open by fall 2013.

Framing and pouring concrete slabs the conventional way would have also proven difficult within the construction site’s tight parameters, he said. Instead the BubbleDeck system will be installed using a 161-foot crane. Flatbed trucks stacked with the prefabbed slabs—which will look like concrete rectangles topped by giant Ping-Pong balls—will arrive at the Liquidambar Mall. The crane will then hoist the slabs onto the site and into their precise positions.

“You’ll notice when you see the panels laid out that there’ll be balls and then suddenly in a zone there won’t be any balls.

The reason is that’s where a column will be,” Cliffe said. “The engineers have figured out exactly where they need that concrete and where they don’t.”

Once the structure is complete, it will stand as the first of its kind in California. A place with less structure and more space. A sustainable, eco-friendly edifice.

A building with bubbles.

—Koren Wetmore

A View From the Top The campus is abuzz about the man in the crane. Who is he? What does he do all day? And, is there a bathroom up there?

On a sunny spring day in February, the crane man, Jeff Briest, took a moment, descended 161 feet and met with the HMC Bulletin editor.

Bees were the first thing on his mind.

“There are thousands of them up there,” Briest tells his supervisor, Darrell Web, who quickly finds someone on campus to deal with them.

Bees, it turns out, are just one of the hazards of being a crane operator. Briest, who spent 22 years as an iron worker and the last 11 operating cranes, is used to them. They usually crawl inside the tower legs and build a hive. “They like the color yellow for some reason,” he says. “I deal with them on every job.”

Trained and certified in Whittier, Calif., Briest has worked on jobs on cranes up to 480 feet tall. HMC’s crane is short (161 feet) in com-

parison. The teaching and learning building site is very small, such that Briest sometimes has to lean out of his front window and signal by hand to the workers below in addition to using his walkie talkie.

The crane is the hub of the job, and Briest works from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. At this stage (late February), he is setting forms for the concrete and placing rebar. He climbs down once or twice a day to use the restroom—now you know—and spends his lunch break up there sometimes lifting weights. It’s hot, cramped (4' x 4') and he can’t work if it’s windy (over 30 mph), but he loves it. Even the danger, he said.

“It’s really stressful. I have to pay attention to everything that’s going on to make sure nobody’s diving under the load at the last second.”

There are times when the HMC crane is idle and Briest has a moment to survey his surroundings, including downtown Los Angeles (on clear days). No, he can’t see his house from the crane (he lives in Hesperia).

It’s not long before Briest must head back up to his post (the bees are gone for now). The climb—five minutes up, three minutes down, —is routine, and there is much more work to do.

—Stephanie L. Graham

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Faculty News

Physicist, Historian, Philosopher, Mudder BUSY RETIREMENT AHEAD FOR RICHARD OLSON ’62

Professor and alumnus Dick Olson ’62 accepts one of several retirement gifts from Dean of Faculty Bob Cave.

Despite the apocalyptic buzz surrounding 2012, Dick Olson ’62 intends to make it a productive year at HMC, just like the 46 that preceded it.

Last fall, after a 46-year teaching career, Olson became the first alumnus faculty member to retire from HMC. Yet, he returned during spring semester as the 2012 Hixon-Riggs Visiting Professor in Science, Technology and Society. Along with the 15-week professorship, Olson will celebrate his 50th class reunion and draft the fourth volume in his “Science Deified and Science Defied” series, focusing this time on “scientism and technocracy” in the 20th century.

“Back in the 1970s, a number of social theorists predicted that because more and more political decisions had technical elements that engineers would play an ever-larger role in the governance of society,” Olson says. “In the industrialized West, the authority of technical expertise has been on the downturn, but in the developing world, quite the opposite is true. So, we have this interesting bifurcation in which in the advanced, industrialized world, engineers and scientists seem to be losing authority whereas in the most dynamic economies, engineers really are taking over.”

Olson’s book, teaching and the Hixon Forum all focus on this concept of “technocracy,” and the likely consequences of the spread of science and engineering values into society and politics.

His ambitions are a far cry from Olson’s original life plan, which included thoughts of becoming a cabinetmaker and, later, an engineer. He credits courses such as “Science and Man’s Goals” taught by HMC physics Professor Graydon Bell for igniting his interest in the interaction between science and society.

Additional studies at Harvard—including classes about the history of quantum mechanics and astronomy—prompted

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Olson to change his major from physics to history of science, eventually earning his doctorate in the discipline.

He went on to teach a year at Tufts Universityy and 10 years at UC Santaa Cruz and then returned to H Harvey M Mudd dd C College ll iin 1976 ffor what he thought would be a temporary teaching position while on leave from UCSC. Instead, Olson opted to become a permanent HMC faculty member.

“I liked [HMC] a lot,” he says. “Not only are the students really good and they keep you on your toes, but the whole culture of the place encourages a decent life as well as intellectual growth.”

At HMC Olson developed and taught history of science courses and served in many leadership roles, including HSA department chair, director of the Freshmen Division, chair of the Hixon Forum Steering Committee, and director of the Claremont Colleges Program on Science, Technology and Society.

Kathy and Dick Olson

Olson is a prolific writer with more than 60 published works, including articles, invited book chapters and books. He’s also been a voice for diversity and a cheerleader for students.

“I’ve always felt the most important function of a teacher is to encourage students,” he says. “I hope I can model the joy, not the drudgery that comes with learning.”

—Koren Wetmore

Mathematics is Focus of Two Grants

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Faculty News

Faculty Updates HMC Celebrates Third Alder Award After meeting with Transportation Security Administration officials in 2004, mathematics professor Susan Martonosi developed a mathematical model to reduce the wait times in airport security lines. An expert in applying operations research methodology and applied probability to Susan Martonosi homeland security issues, Martonosi shares this expertise with students who learn about game theory, social networks analysis and graph theory.

Her ability to encourage the national operations research community to embrace undergraduate research is one of the reasons she was chosen to receive the 2012 Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning Faculty Member given by the Mathematical Association of America. The award will be presented Aug. 3 at the MAA’s MathFest in Madison, Wis. Martonosi is the third faculty member to receive the award since its inception in 2003, and HMC is the only college with multiple recipients. The award honors faculty whose teaching is effective and extraordinary and extends its influence beyond the classroom. Recipients receive $1,000 and a certificate of recognition.

Martonosi has supervised more than 30 students in research projects and more than half have pursued graduate programs.

Five of her research students have received National Science Foundation grants. As director of the Mathematics Clinic, Martonosi recruited industrial projects and added a professional development component that teaches students how to thrive in a corporate environment.

Love for Math Shared Art Benjamin was featured on National Public Radio Jan. 9.

At the Mathematical Association of America joint meetings, he co-taught a mini-course on “Mathematics and Backgammon,” which caught the interest of NPR reporter Ariel Shapiro.

Hear the interview at www.npr.org/2012/01/10/144984603/aunique-expression-of-love-for-math.

Board Membership Supports Diverse Scientists Talithia Williams, assistant professor of mathematics, has been elected to serve on the board of directors for the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the suc-

cess of Hispanic/Chicano and Native American scientists—from college students to professionals—to attain advanced degrees, careers and positions of leadership. Williams will provide leadership and contribute to the organization’s fundraising efforts.

Shape-Shifting Cells Lead to Flower Diversity Amazingly, nature has designed flower spurs (those tantalizing tubular extensions) to match the length of pollinators’ tongues.

One such specimen, the Columbine flower, which boasts over 70 different species, is being studied to determine how such a transformation occurs.

An interdisciplinary paper co-authored by Sharon Gerbode, assistant professor of physics, explains how variation in spur length can be attributed to changes in cell shape. “Evolution of spur-length diversity in Aquilegia petals is achieved solely through cell-shape anisotropy,” appeared Nov. 15 in the online issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a prominent British biological research journal.

While a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Gerbode and her team discovered that the rapid radiation of about 70 Columbine species—each with spurs specifically suited for its pollinator—could be traced to a single change during development: the extent of cell elongation. By counting the number of cells along the spurs and measuring the degree of elongation of each cell, they determined that 99 percent of the variation in flower spur length could be attributed to cell shape changes—from round to elongated.

“Often compared with Darwin’s finches, [Columbine] petal spurs are long, tubular pockets that are Aquilegia longissima matched to the size and shape of specialized pollinator tongues or beaks,” Gerbode said.

“For the past six decades, it has been assumed that these elongated petals form via continued cell divisions localized at the tip of the spur. Our paper dispels this widely accepted myth and uncovers the true mechanism for the dramatic diversity in petal spur shape.”

The research findings are expected to direct future genetic investigations of floral organs in association with pollinators, she said.

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CAMPUS CURRENT

Student News

Student Activities Engineering Majors Named Robert Day Scholars Jaclyn Olmos-Silverman ’13 and Grant Ukropina ’13 have been named 2012–2013 Robert Day Scholars for the economics and finance program at Claremont McKenna College that prepares students for leadership roles in business, finance, government and nonprofit organizations.

Jaclyn Olmos-Silverman ’13 • HMC President’s Scholar • Treasurer of HMC’s student chapter, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers • Conducted fuel cell research in the engineering department’s Energy and Nanomaterials Lab • Last summer, worked as a research intern at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. • Plans to pursue a career in engineering, business and finance, or a combination of those fields She hopes the Scholars program will help to hone her leadership ability, while merging her interests in engineering and technology with those in economics and business. “Both are needed for any innovation. I also want to grow through interactions with alumni, industry professionals, and the students, faculty and staff from the other Claremont Colleges.”

Grant Ukropina ’13 • Member of the new HMC club, EntrepreMudders • Wants to launch his own manufacturing business • Shop proctor in the student machine shop • Building an automated Nerf turret just for fun • Plans to work in the manufacturing industry before creating his own enterprise “I want to start my own business some day, and the Robert Day Scholars program will help me to network and learn from successful business leaders and entrepreneurs.”

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A Mudder’s Life Engineering major Martha ha Cuenca ’12 is one of the first facess new students see. She is not only an Orientation sponsor and co-president esident of the campus chapter of the Society ciety of Women Engineers, but also a talented musician sician (piano and guitar) who is interested in teaching aching abroad. Her usual Thursday: 9:00 a.m. Time to wake ke up!

9:35 a.m. Go to Big Stems (engineering) Noon Society ety of Women Engineers eers (SWE) advisor lunch meeting ng 1:00 p.m. Nap time!

2:45 p.m. Go to Introduction to Macroeconomics mics 4:00 p.m. Run to boxing PE class at CMC 55:45 p.m. Lead weekly SWE dinner meeting 66:30 p.m. Hang out and prepare for tutoring 8:00 p.m. Tutor Engineering Mathematics 9:30 p.m. Hang out with friends and do homework, research or Clinic 1:00 a.m. Good (night!)

★★ ★

★

★

Mathematics is Focus of Two Grants

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Student News

Student Activities Exponential Impact Jennifer Iglesias’ passion for mathematics led to her selection as runner-up for the Alice T. Schafer Prize for Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Woman given by the Association for Women in Mathematics. The senior math major and President’s Scholar has worked with MathPath, a mathematics enrichment camp, Jennifer Iglesias ’12 as a coach for the China Girls Math Olympiad team and as a volunteer for the Mathematics Olympiad Summer Program. She also received the mathematics department’s highest honor, the Giovanni Borrelli Mathematics Prize. Her work on two mathematical Research Experience for Undergraduates projects led to the development of four manuscripts, and she has presented her research at national conferences.

Wise Words Win “The best computer scientists are those who rely more on the processing power of the mind than that of a computer,” wrote President’s Scholar Obosa Obazuaye ’14, in his prize-winning essay. “They let the computer do all the hard computing work, but they use their brains to figure out the most elegant solutions to a given problem.” Obosa Obazuaye ’14 Obazuaye received the $1,000 firstplace 2011 BrainTrack Computer Science Scholarship, awarded to students pursuing a computer science degree.

Programming Playoffs

VIDEO

HMC students’ programming skills were pitted against those of top teams at more than a dozen universities during an international code war competition Jan. 28.

“Although we didn’t win this year, HMC was the only school with two teams good enough to reach the final round of eight,” said Christopher Stone, associate professor of computer science.

“And, the students clearly had fun.”

HMC teams placed fourth and sixth. The Windward International Intercollegiate Programming Championship tasked teams with designing an Artificial Intelligence player for a computer game.

Course description: Students work in small teams applying techniques for solving design problems that are normally posed by not-for-profit clients. The project work is enhanced with lectures and reading on design theory and methods, and introduction to manufacturing techniques, project management techniques and engineering ethics.

Texts: Engineering Design–A Project-Based Introduction, by Clive Dym, Patrick Little, Elizabeth Orwin and Erik Spjut Assignments/Activities: Teams of students work on three design projects, plus individual drawing and machining exercises. Project 1: an exercise to help students through the design process and familiarize them with design terminologies. Project 2: a reverse engineering, modeling exercise; Project 3: solving a real-world engineering problem.

Faculty says: “During the past few years, we’ve taken the design process and integrated concepts from manufacturing. The design projects give context for learning these new skills. Students are taught how to use the tools in the machine shop to build their designs as well as how to communicate their ideas through drawings. It’s been a really great integration of design and manufacturing concepts and a highlight of our continued focus on hands-on engineering skills.” –Liz Orwin ’95, associate professor of engineering Student says: “E4 is helping me have an engineering mindset for design processes and does so in a fun and effective way. I have learned the importance of thoroughly planning a design before diving right into the construction.” –Matt Cook ’15 Only at Mudd: “E4 is a projects-based course, it’s very much active learning. Everything students do depends on how they work with teammates. They build two or three versions of a prototype, and they gain enormous confidence as engineers.” –Pat Little, J. Stanley and Mary Wig Johnson Associate Professor of Engineering Management

Windward Code Wars: http://bit.ly/code-wars

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Student Research

CAMPUS CURRENT

Research Reputation Well-Regarded STUDENTS PRESENT AT MAJOR CONFERENCES AND WIN AWARDS

Co-Evolution and Multi-core Processors Topics of CS Research

Biology students study the movement of living creatures.

Walk This Way The movement of living creatures is being closely studied in the biology department, where, under the direction of Anna Ahn, associate professor of biology, students learn about the neural control and mechanics of animal locomotion. Research projects of several biology students were presented in January at the annual meeting of The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, the largest and most prestigious professional association of its kind.

Christian Stevens ’14 presented a poster on “Effect of Variable Neural Recruitment on Biomechanics of Walking,” coauthored

by Chris Jerry (CMC), Parker Martin ’13, Teri Cinco ’13 and Ahn. Frances Su ’14 presented a poster on “The effect of temperature on running in the tarantula, Aphonopelma hentzi,” co-authored by Nick Booster (PIT ’11), Steve Adolph and Ahn. Rebecca Salzman (CMC ’12) presented a talk on “The Effect of Passive Joint Elements on the Movement Output of the Frog Ankle,” co-authored by Jonathan Schwartz ’13 and Ahn. The HMC group also included recent alumni who presented posters: Marc Badger ’10 (UC Berkeley), “Falling faster: Size and folding behavior decrease descent time in a brittle star (Ophiocoma aethiops)” and Kelly Markello ’08 (San Francisco State), “Small wonders: The phylogenetics of highly modified micro-echinoids in the genus Echinocyamus.”

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Two seniors received honorable mentions in the Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards 2012 competition. The contest recognized undergraduates who demonstrate exceptional potential in the computer science field.

Kevin Black ’12 was honored for his work in further developing a software program that helps biologists determine how two species may have co-evolved. The program, “Jane 3,” applies computational techniques to analyze and reconcile the evolutionary histories of ecologically linked species—such as bees and flowers—to determine if and how they may have impacted each other’s development.

“Kevin worked on a particularly challenging biological event called ‘failure to diverge’ that is known to occur in evolution but has not been captured in existing software tools,” said Ran Libeskind-Hadas, computer science professor and Black’s project advisor. “He developed a very clever and elegant new algorithm and implemented it in Jane.”

Stuart Pernsteiner ’12 received an Honorable Mention for his work helping to create a programming model that makes it easier to develop software that fully utilizes multi-core processors. The project, “Observationally Cooperative Multithreading,” provides a simpler approach to parallel programming, where the computer handles many of the subtle details.

He created two implementations of the OCM programming model and a variety of benchmarking tools to measure their performance.

“OCM requires a lot of software support to handle all the concurrency details and Stuart worked on several different approaches to implementing the OCM model,” said Christopher Stone, associate professor of computer science, who, with Melissa O’Neill, associate professor of computer science, served as Pernsteiner’s co-advisor. “He wrote thousands of lines of Haskell code and also served as a mentor for the other research students.”

Pernsteiner worked two summers on the project, which is funded by a three-year National Science Foundation grant.

Mathematics is Focus of Two Grants Student Research

CAMPUS CURRENT

Sweet Success Follows HMC Sojourn HMC/ESIEE PARTICIPANT RECEIVES FRANCE’S TOP ENGINEER AWARD Shrinking numbers of honeybee colonies spell growing trouble for agriculture, which relies on the buzzing insects to pollinate corn and other crops. Enter RoboBees—miniaturized, remotecontrolled air vehicles that aim to mimic the flight behaviors of real bees, even to the point of depositing pollen over acres of farmland or groves.

Agriculture isn’t the only RoboBees application. Among a handful of others, there’s also search and rescue, says Harvey M Mudd College-trained enginee gineer Jean-Vincent Hong.

“If a building collapsed and peop people were still in the rubble, a sw swarm of RoboBees could craw crawl inside, communicate wit with each other, discover the exa exact location of the trapped pe people and report that info formation to rescuers so the re rescuers could take fewer ri risks saving those people,” h he said.

RoboBees are still some yyears from viability, but, when that day arrives, food producers and othExchange program participant Jean-Vincent ers will owe at least a Hong has achieved notoriety in France as an engineer and software developer. stinger-sized measure of thanks for Hong’s contributions to the development of the winged micro-machines.

Hong attended HMC for one academic year beginning in fall 2010, as a participant in the ESIEE/HMC student exchange program (short for École Supérieure d’Ingénieurs en Électronique et Électrotechnique). Since 1962, with the admission of Paul Vitta ’66 (Tanzania, Africa), the College has admitted each year about 50 international students, including those from ESIEE. The HMC/ESIEE program began in the late 1970s after a meeting between then Engineering Clinic Director Rich Phillips and Celia Russo of ESIEE, who noted the similarities between their institutions’ rigorous academic programs and industrially sponsored student team projects. Since then, two or three ESIEE students have attended HMC for up to a full year before returning to their home campus. Several HMC engineering students have spent their study abroad semester at ESIEE.

Now a graduate of ESIEE (M.Sc. degree in software engineering, embedded systems, and certificate in information systems and intercultural management), Hong contends that the robotics and computer-vision course taught by Zachary Dodds was instrumental in preparing him for his activities at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, one of two principal hives of RoboBees development activity. It is also where Hong spent two months as a research assistant helping devise a Microsoft Kinect-based system that simultaneously tracks the movements of multiple radio-controlled hobby helicopters in flight.

Hong’s skill applying his knowledge earned him the Prix Spécial du Jury award that recognized him as one of France’s top nine engineers. Additionally, a magazine widely read by techies in France featured Hong on its cover to celebrate him as a rising star in the software arena.

Hong insists he would have been accorded no such honors but for the excellent instruction and encouragement he received from his HMC professors and staff, all with whom he’s remained in contact.

Keeping in touch should be easier for the multilingual Hong (in addition to French and English, he also speaks Vietnamese) now that he has returned to Southern California to find work.

Hong hopes to parlay two web-developer internships he completed at a pair of Paris companies into a full-time position here as a software engineer.

—Rich Smith

Road Trip

The first Mudd on the Road event, which provided students opportunities for networking and site visits, was organized this spring by the Office of Career Services.

Students visited the Northern California offices of Google, Stellartech, Intuit, SRI, Tesla Motors, LinkedIn and Intel. At each site, students were able to speak with employees, many of them alumni, and view the facilities. The event, which led to job interviews for several students, was sponsored by the HMC Board of Trustees.

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A

RIGHT

BRAINED

THE THE

ENGINEER

REWARDING

PATH Written by DOUG MCINNIS

A

S ONE OF THE FIRST WOMEN TO GRADUATE FROM HMC WITH AN ENGINEERING DEGREE, PENNY BARRETT ’67 PUT HER TRAINING TO

GOOD USE—BUT NOT ALWAYS AS AN ENGINEER.

Over the years, she has worked with more than 20 organizations as an unpaid volunteer. She has, for example, worked to prevent teen suicides, to support students in public schools, and to win passage of an initiative to allow Palo Alto to recycle organic waste into compost and green energy. And, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, she was on HMC’s Alumni Board of Governors, serving as secretary, newsletter editor and board president. She

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made the change, she had encouragement from her husband, Pat Barrett ’66. “He told me, ‘Do what makes you happy and fulfilled. Contributions to society come in more ways than designing the next great widget.’”

She also received encouragement from her classmate Malcolm Lewis ’67. “He reminded me that our real charter wasn’t power or prestige, but to use our education to make our world a better place.”

Barrett entered HMC when few women went into engineering. As one of two women in her class to earn an engineering degree (the other was Shirley Sandoz ’67), she faced two challenges: to graduate “I LEARNED SKILLS I COULD and to break ground for the women who would follow. SupAPPLY IN ALMOST ANY port from male classmates and DEPARTMENT OF LIFE. WE from the faculty made both GOT A DEGREE IN PROBLEM easier. The school was so small, she recalls, that it seemed like SOLVING.” an extended family.

“The guys didn’t think that we got in the way of their advancement; they wanted us to succeed.” Often, her male classmates went out of their way to help. For instance, though it was commonplace for the men to work late into the night in the College’s labs, they would arrange their schedules when “We got a degree in problem solving. Harvey Mudd they worked on collaborative lab projects with women was about looking at the problem and breaking it down students. “They knew we had to be in our dorms by 11 into digestible pieces, then asking ourselves, ‘If we go p.m. to meet the curfew,” says Barrett.

Now she looks back on the experience as a paththis direction, what will the impact be on the bigger community? Will this solution do the most good for the way, albeit indirect, to the nearly two dozen volunteer greatest number, or have the least negative impact?’ activities she has worked on since. “It seems to me that That thought process has been transferrable to life, and one’s chosen undergraduate major isn’t necessarily an indicator of one’s ultimate career,” she says. “Rather, to the volunteer work I do.”

By her own account, Harvey Mudd was a struggle. we study areas that are of interest to our 18–to 22-yearShe arrived as a second-semester freshman trans- old minds because that makes the process of critical fer student from the University of Michigan and didn’t thinking and problem solving more interesting. And make the dean’s list until her senior year. “I was not an if you view the courses we took as simply vehicles to outstanding student,” she recalls. “I was a hard-work- sharpen our problem-solving skills, the impact on me has been great.” ing student.”

After graduation, she worked briefly as an engineer, then made the transition to volunteer work. As she says one of her most satisfying contributions is serving as a volunteer chaplain and program coordinator in Stanford Hospital’s spiritual care program.

She credits her ability to handle her many diverse challenges to the rigors of HMC’s engineering program.

“I learned skills I could apply in almost any department of life.

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CAN

CREATIVITY BE TAUGHT? Written by RICHARD CHAPMAN

L

IFT YOUR EYES FOR A MOMENT AND LOOK AROUND. HOW MUCH OF WHAT YOU SEE

WAS ENGINEERED? MOST OF IT? LOOK CLOSER. BEHIND THOSE ITEMS IS THE

FACT THAT FOR NEARLY EVERYTHING ENGINEERED IN THE BUILT-WORLD THERE WERE TWO, THREE MAYBE A HUNDRED IDEAS OR DESIGNS THAT DIDN’T WORK AS WELL. OR WORK AT ALL. IDEAS THAT WEREN’T EFFICIENT OR VIABLE OR CREATIVE. IDEAS DISCARDED IN PART BECAUSE DECISIONS AND DESIGNS IN THE BUILT-WORLD REFLECT NOT ONLY WHAT WORKS, BUT WHAT WORKS BEST.

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“Poetry is creative because of how you harness language in a unique, natural way. Art draws out your sense of experience. An engineering solution is akin to that.

People look at it and say, ‘Yeah, I get it,’ ” says Patrick Little, J. Stanley and Mary Wig Johnson Associate Professor of Engineering Management. To Little, engineering produces things that are “clever, effective, purposeful and beautiful” and, in so doing, is as creative as music or writing.

At HMC classes from E4 to E80 and projectbased experiences such as Engineering Clinic coax the creativity out of students through rigor and open-ended challenges. Students learn how to understand a problem, design a solution, and then build a prototype and see if it works. The effort is interdisciplinary, strenuous, rooted in fundamentals and creative. But if you ask faculty just how they taught their students ENGINEERING PRODUCES THINGS to be creative, their responses can get a little squishy—a blush THAT ARE CLEVER, EFFECTIVE, of uncertainty coated with the PURPOSEFUL AND BEAUTIFUL AND, notion that however it happened, it wasn’t easy.

IN SO DOING, IS AS CREATIVE AS “We have really talented kids MUSIC OR WRITING. —Pat Little here,” Little says. “We start with great raw material. But they’re still 18 years old. They have to learn to distinguish creativity, intuition and judgment.”

That takes an aggressive blend of academic rigor, stimulating learning experiences and a supportive environment. Then away they go, energetic teams of students teaching themselves while professors nudge them down the right paths.

“We’re a set of coaches who get them fired up about learning what they set their minds to,” says David Money Harris, Harvey S. Mudd Professor of Engineering Design and associate director of Engineering Clinic. “They’re creative already.”

In part, that’s because admission officers look for students with a decidedly creative bent. “There aren’t neon lights surrounding applicants,” says Peter Osgood, continued on page 20

Intuition Intuitio

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CAN CREATIVITY BE TAUGHT? (continued) continued from page 19

COLLA ABORATION

SYSTEMS

Design

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director of admission. “But we’re quick to pick up (creative) tendencies.”

One student, he says, converted a Sucrets box into a cell phone. Another took a pile of gears and built a lamp.

A third put together a cardboard guitar to play before she got an actual guitar. And a fourth hooked a GPS to another student’s collar microphone, then rigged spotlights to follow the girl wherever she moved on stage. “He did it because it was fun.”

But there’s more to tendencies, Osgood says, than just gadgets and gears. “Some comes through in writing.

How they use words. When we see really, really good writing, we swoon.”

Of course, pre-selection is only one step. Just as important is a learning environment that encourages teamwork, develops presentation skills, and fosters the safety to express ideas without suffering ridicule or fearing failure. It’s an important transition from high school.

“Students sometimes say ‘tell me what I need to do’ when they should be figuring out for themselves what they need to do,” says Eric Spjut, professor of engineering, Union Oil Company Engineering Design Fellow and Engineering Clinic director. The faculty’s challenge is to re-orient a student from an environment where the goal is to please the teacher to one where a student’s own thinking and reasoning are most important. “We re-educate students to show them they are creative and that their ideas are worth looking at,” Spjut says.

Engineering Clinic helps. The specialized, projectbased program with roots back to 1963 gives students the chance to solve real-world problems for real-world sponsors. In Clinic, companies get creative insights from “a set of very smart young people” who are motivated by the mission and the prospect of notching patents, papers, products and job offers from the experience.

Teresa Pineda ’06 is one of these. In 2006, she and her Clinic team developed an anti-microbial contact lens to prevent infections in the eye. The sponsor, Oregon Biomedical Engineering Institute, ended up with a patent; Pineda ended up with a job.

“It was a valuable experience,” “ENGINEERING IS says Pineda, now senior develAN AWFULLY FUN opment engineer at the institute.

“It definitely got my feet wet and DISCIPLINE.” —David Harris sparked my interest to pursue the biomedical industry. Six years later I’m still in it.”

Her success is not uncommon. But the groundwork that created it is. Clinic demands bright, well-prepared students, involved faculty to keep solutions on paths that work, freedom to express ideas no matter how unconventional, dialed back competitiveness so fear of failure doesn’t deter, emphasis on clear communication, a willingness to publicly prune ideas, and prototypes that turn concepts into “what works.”

“Design is the purpose of engineering, the ultimate expression,” Little says. “You become an engineer so you can design and build stuff.”

And have a blast.

“Engineering is an awfully fun discipline,” Harris admits. “It’s why so many of us are in it.” And it’s one of the reasons he and his colleagues get students to build robots that chase one another around a square or play “robot soccer.” It doesn’t always take a lot to get natural-born tinkerers fired up. Just good coaching and a heady quotient of fun to complement their quotient of intelligence.

As to creativity, you can’t teach it, Pineda says. If there’s a lot of it at Harvey Mudd, it’s because there’s so much interaction. “Brainstorming,” she says with conviction, “is where creativity starts.”

Leadership

idea

C R E AT I V I T Y

INNOVATION

impact

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WHATDESIGN TAUGHT ME ABOUT

ENGINEERING Compiled by STEPHANIE L. GRAHAM

D

ESIGN AND PROFESSIONAL PRAC-

TICE ARE CORE VALUES OF THE HMC

ENGINEERING CURRICULUM THAT SET THE

PROGRAM APART FROM ALL OTHERS. IT IS THIS DESIGN-INTENSIVE PROGRAM, WHICH BEGINS IN STUDENTS’ FIRST YEAR, THAT DEVELOPS BOTH TECHNICAL EXPERTISE AND THE SKILLS NEEDED FOR SOUND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE. THROUGH THESE EXPERIENCES, STUDENTS LEARN TO DO DESIGN. HERE FACULTY, ALUMNI AND STUDENTS SHARE THEIR UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES ABOUT THE ALL-IMPORTANT DESIGN ASPECT OF ENGINEERING.

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Engineering Professor Clive Dym believes students can use their own creativity and problem-solving skills to design the best solution.

The Answers Will Come Clive Dym, Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design; director, Center for Design Education; Gordon Prize recipient After we started E4 at HMC, I began giving lectures at other schools about teaching design to first-year students, and the standard complaint was, ‘They can’t do design. They don’t know enough.’ And, it’s true. If I really wanted someone to design a particular microchip or a particular bridge connection or a particular process plant, a student wouldn’t have all the physics, the chemistry and the engineering background to do that in their first year. But if you pose questions like, What type of device do I need? Why does it need a microchip? or, If I need to get from one side of a river to the other, what are my options? What kind of bridge? What kind of flotation device? There’s a whole level of engineering thinking and problem-solving that takes place long before you get to the fine details. And this is the part where, in fact, students can use what they already know and, also, where they can teach themselves things. But they can use their own creativity and their own problem-solving skills to design the best solution.

Be Creative Rich Phillips, former Clinic director, Gordon Prize recipient Engineering has a lot of conservatism built into it. When

you design something, you’re always designing against failure. The design must be safe from failure. Contrast this with students who are young, ambitious, carefree, and creative. Yet these students are majoring in a discipline that, by its very nature, is very conservative. Design, the essence of engineering, has taught me that you can be creative in the practice of engineering while guarding against failure. So, the message we try to convey at HMC is: Be yourself. Be technically competent. Be relevant. And be creative! Understand the culture you’re working in and the nature of professional practice. Make an impact and meet the needs that must be met. We are not educating conformists. We want our graduates to listen, learn, adapt and then innovate and change things for the better. That’s what we mean by creative engineering design and proper engineering practice.

It’s About the User Surya Jayaweera, entrepreneur (WolfeTech and GXB Interactive) and President of Tech Coast Angels, Inland Empire Network It’s always obvious in hindsight, but it took me awhile to learn how critical it is that design be the priority of any product. If your audience solely consists of highly technical persons, they might prefer having a lot of features and buttons to push. But, the vast majority of people, as Apple has proven, want something simple. When creating a new product, it’s helpful to think that instead of continued on page 24

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More Than Equations As part of the De Pietro Fellowship in Civil Engineering, engineering majors Nick Hill ’12 and Katherine Lownsberry ’12 designed and built a cold gas thruster that they tested—successfully—on a suspension cable bridge (Fort Steuben Bridge, Ohio).

De Pietro Fellows found a creative solution to their civil engineering project.

continued from page 23

“form following function,” it’s that function follows form.

If you first focus on creating an elegant user experience, the design features will guide you toward the functions you can successfully incorporate and which you need to cut. Instead of fretting over how to cram so many features into a product, our focus can be on providing the best experience, something simple and intuitive. The companies that we invest in that do well seem to be the ones that realize that it’s about the user experience—not feature checklists.

Build It Janet Hansen, founder, Enlighted Designs There are limits on how well you can evaluate a design when it only exists “on paper” as a sketch or schematic.

Sometimes you need to build a physical sample to see what actually works. For example, in lighted clothing design, it’s important to think about what the garment will look like in a dark room. Will the person’s head disappear? Will you create strange/unflattering body shapes?

How does the appearance of the lighting change as the body moves, or is viewed from different angles? Is the light reflected or absorbed by the textiles on other parts of the garment? While we can simulate and predict many of these effects, we can learn even more by building it, and seeing how it behaves in real life. I’ve had similar experiences with engineering problems. Physical testing will often reveal unexpected issues, especially when you’re pushing the limits of the intended uses of the materials.

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Nick: It was really awesome to see this project taken from conception to physical reality in two and a half months. There’s something about designing and building something with your own hands, then testing it. A lot of us in school think that engineering is just math and science. You do equations and make the drawings, you design it and update it; this was only about one-sixth of the project. There were so many factors that I realized go into the engineering process.

Katherine: Our project helped me appreciate how much work and thought goes into an elegant and seemingly uncomplicated system. Part of the project involved going through 104 pages of poorly labeled and unordered drawings of a suspension cable bridge built in 1929. From the drawings, we reconstructed the bridge in a finite element modeling software. That process made me appreciate what previous engineers did with considerably more limited technology than what we have now. I later was able to visit the bridge and stand in the middle with the Ohio River flowing beneath me. It was so neat to be standing on a design that, though deteriorated, still functioned as the designer intended. I also learned the importance of thinking about both the big and the small picture. I helped design a device to test the bridge. Every single nut, bolt, connector piece and part had to be specifically chosen. But I couldn’t choose a part unless I understood its purpose within the larger picture. I found that the challenging process of “design, build and test,” so central to engineering, was completely worthwhile when we assembled the design and used it for its intended purpose—to test the bridge.

WHAT THE

WORLD

NEEDS NOW: FUTURE-FOCUSED ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Written by ELAINE REGUS

F

UTURE-FOCUSED EDUCATION IS THE

HALLMARK OF HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE’S ENGINEERING PROGRAM, WHICH TRAINS ENGINEERS TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE, WORK WITH OTHERS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS AND RECOGNIZE THE IMPACT OF THEIR WORK ON SOCIETY.

“The direction we’re going is the direction that says there’s a professionalism to engineering that is best demonstrated through the solution of real-world problems,” says Ziyad Durón ’81, Engineering Department chair and Jude and Eileen Laspa Professor of Engineering. “That means you have two objectives: You have to develop an educational program that is technically competent, and it also needs to be relevant. The product you deliver—in our case the student—needs to be relevant right away. In science and math, there may not be an immediate requirement to hit the street the day after graduation and solve a problem. An engineer is more likely to be in that situation on the Monday after the Sunday they graduate.” continued on page 26

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“If you’re able to orient the mind and thinking so it can actually teach itself, you have unlocked and unleashed an unbounded potential.”

—Zee Durón ’81

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continued from page 25

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) recently honored three HMC faculty, Clive Dym, Mack Gilkeson and Richard Phillips with the Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education, in recognition of the impact they have had on HMC’s ability to produce engineers who can hit the ground running.

“The Harvey Mudd Engineering program doesn’t just teach students about engineering, but creates self-confident engineers with the skills—not only technical, but in areas such as communication, teamwork and leadership—needed to take on real-world problems and provide sound solutions,” says NAE President Charles Vest. “The Gordon Prize winners built an educational program that is not only effective but, as evidenced in the way it has been duplicated in many other institutions, is also able to be implemented on a broad scale.”

Vest says that in a survey of students going through the HMC Engineering program, 90 percent reported that they feel a professional responsibility to engage in the ethical solution of complex and real-world problems. The large majority of students in the program also rate highly in academic and technical skills.

“If we are to tackle the grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century, we need such motivated and capable engineers. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of preparing students to lead and work with others to tackle the social and technological hurdles the world faces,” Vest says.

Since the Gordon Prize was announced in January, Eric Spjut, professor of engineering, Union Oil Company Engineering Design Fellow and Engineering Clinic director, says the College has been flooded with requests from engineering educators, who want to visit and talk about the engineering curriculum.

Most engineering colleges and universities are looking to add more experiential learning aspects to their curriculum and Clinic is in many ways the prototype for that.

“They’re looking at how to do something similar to Clinic, and we’re looking at what we can do to make Clinic better,” Spjut says.

The Engineering Department is considering adding a manufacturing component to the curriculum and is in the

All Mudders, including Clinic Program participants, learn the importance of communicating ideas, an essential skill for future success.

process of upgrading the fabrication facilities where students make prototypes or models of their designs.

Spjut says the department recently began adding tutorials on specific engineering skills and will be adding and revising those as needed.

The department will continue to conduct joint Clinics with other departments like mathematics, physics and computer science to prepare students for future work experiences when they will have to work with people from different disciplines.

“Physicists and engineers work on similar problems but they tend to think about them quite differently,” Spjut says. “It’s good to get a group together and look at things from different aspects. It helps open the students’ eyes that there is more than one way to approach a problem.”

Liz Orwin ’95, associate professor of engineering and associate dean for research and experiential learning, says HMC places great emphasis on professional practice to prepare students for the future.

“We teach them how to go out and make professional presentations, how to interact professionally with companies through Clinic and how to present themselves and present their work,” Orwin says. “Those skills are really important. They know how to communicate; it solidifies their technical skills; they also learn about leadership and new technologies out there.”

HMC’s broad-based curriculum also produces graduates, who can see the big picture. Engineering students take physics, chemistry, math, computer science and biology, plus a third of the curriculum is in the humanities, social sciences and the arts.

“To be a leader in engineering, you have to have good communication skills and good hands-on ability as well as a solid theoretical background,” Orwin says.

“I think our broad-based engineering education is why our students are so successful. They have that bigpicture view and are able to work in interdisciplinary environments.”

Eric Johnson ’84, is a member of the Engineering Visiting Committee, an advisory group of distinguished engineers and educators that assesses and makes recommendations regarding the HMC engineering program. Currently, he’s involved with the Tech Coast Angels, an investment group, and is executive vice president of a startup—one of several he’s helped develop.

When he was recruiting for entry-level positions, Johnson looked for someone who knew basic principles, had a strong work ethic and was a good problem solver.

“The big difference between school work and a real job is there are no answers in the back of the book,” Johnson says. “There may not be an answer or there might be several answers. Sometimes, you don’t even know what the question is, but you have to solve the problem.”

Department Chair Durón says plans for the future at HMC include restructuring the first two years of the academic experience to give students more time and space to learn the fundamentals.

“There’s a belief that we continue to hold dear in engineering: the better a student’s grasp of fundamentals, the more capable that student is at solving complex problems,” Duron says. “We’re trying to keep students focused on problem solving and critical thinking, and really changing the way their minds think and learn. If you’re able to orient the mind and thinking so it can actually teach itself, you have unlocked and unleashed an unbounded potential. That really is what Harvey Mudd seeks to do.”

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MUDDERINGS

Dinner and a Prank A documentary and discussion about the infamous Caltech Cannon Heist.

Saturday, April 28 Gonzo Unicycle Trip – Celebrate 40 years of the Foster’s Run. Engineers for a Sustainable World/ Mudders Organizing for Sustainable Solutions Alumni/Student Debate Women in Science Panel – Challenges and Changes in Science Alumnae panelists include: Sandra Phillips Guldman ’62, Kathy French ’97, Hannah Groshong ’13, Kristal Pollack ’03, and Liz Orwin ’95 (moderator).

Alumni Presentations and Awards Ceremony Honoring the 2012 Outstanding Alumni Award recipients and other honorees.

Sunday, April 29 5-Class Competition Alumni vs. the undergrads in this annual contest, sponsored by Yelp.

1997

1992

Harvey Mudd College Friday, April 27–Sunday, April 29

2007

Specialty Receptions HMC Entrepreneurial Networking Reception with Professor Gary Evans Bates Reception with Iris, Critch and the Barnstormers Medical Mudders Reception with Professor Karl Haushalter

2002

Friday, April 27 Faculty Lectures, including, Steve Adolph: Mudder Biology after 20 Years: What Students and Faculty Do in the Classroom, Lab and Field Ran Libeskind-Hadas: A Glimpse into Computer Science at Harvey Mudd and Beyond Dick Olson ’62 (Emeriti Lecture): Reflections on Over Half a Century Connection to HMC

Harvey Mudd College SPRING 2012

Alumni Weekend 2012

1987

Alumni Weekend is jam-packed with activities for alumni of every decade. Visit hmc.edu/alumni-weekend to find a complete schedule for the weekend and a listing of those who have signed up to attend.

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19 72

77 19

1982

Stay Connected Alumni Weekend, April 27–29, 2012

1967

1962

Alumni and Family News and Events

Coming Soon: Summer Send-Offs Our annual Summer Send-Off gatherings give incoming students and their parents a chance to meet other HMC families and alumni who live in the same area. It’s a wonderful way to welcome these new families into the HMC community. SendOffs are held throughout the summer, from late June into early August; watch your mail and email for more information. If you are interested in hosting one of these gatherings, please contact the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations at parents@hmc.edu.

Upcoming Events The latest information is available at hmc.edu/alumni or hmc. edu/parents.

Alumni Weekend April 27–29, HMC campus Parents’ Breakfast at Projects Day May 1, HMC campus Parent Appreciation Dinner May 11, HMC campus Annular Solar Eclipse May 20, Redding, California Transit of Venus June 5, HMC campus HMC/Scripps College at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival August 15–18, Ashland, Oregon Australian Eclipse Trip November 6–15, Sydney/Cairns, Australia Weekend with the Presidents of The Claremont Colleges November 16–18, Hong Kong

MUDDERINGS

A Weekend for Family, Pie, Bottle Rockets

VIDEO

Sure, families returned to visit their students, but they also came for the pie.

The Mudd pi Hunt was just one of the many activities that a record number of Family Weekend participants embraced with enthusiasm Feb. 10–11. Parents and family members raced from one campus location to another, scanning QR codes with their cell phones and deciphering the clues that led to a feast of pies on the third floor of Sprague Center. Winners of the Hunt were Stephen Schubauer P15 and Jackie Weber-Schubauer P15 and their Mudder, Allison Schubauer ’15.

The 350 guests this year (a 20 percent increase over last year) included Claudio Aspesi P15, who traveled from Switzerland and earned the “furthest-traveled” honor. One parent participant was also an alumnus: David L. Swafford ’75 P15 (Alexander ’15).

Other alumni who returned for the event were Arran McNabb ’06, Stephanie Bohnert ’06 and Jed Levin ’06, who shared with families what it was like when they were students and their lives since.

Guests also learned how proctors and mentors contribute to the supportive living and learning environment.

Other events included a session on helping Mudders plan their research, internships and jobs; Cirque de Claremont, which featured jugglers, unicyclers and student performers on aerial silks; a hard-hat tour of the teaching and learning building construction site; and, a students vs. parents bottle rocket competition. In addition to the fun and informative activities, families also spent quality time with their students, perhaps the best activity of all.

For more Family Weekend images, visit hmc.edu/parents and select the pink Flickr icon.

Holly Bundschu P13

The Medinas: Aide P14 and Angela ’14

The Haraguchis: Yumi P12, Kirby ’12, Wayne P12

Parent Weekend video: http://youtu.be/qBb0k_Wwg2k The Nugents: Ann Maria P15, Eoin ’15, Tricia

Cirque de Claremont

Sophia Williams ’15, Karen Miller P15, Colin Williams P15

Mark Sanz P15, Joshua Sanz ’15, Elizabeth Colantuono P15

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MUDDERINGS Outstanding Alumni Honorees 2012

An engineer, mathematician and physicist were chosen to receive this year’s Outstanding Alumni Awards given by the Alumni Association Board of Governors. Recognized for their far-reaching contributions are George “Pinky” D. Nelson ’72, Robert “Bob” M. Bell ’72 and Edwin “Ned” E. Freed ’82.

Robert M. Bell ’72 STATISTICS RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, AT&T LABS-RESEARCH

B

Bob Bell is best known for being a member of the team that won the $1-million Netflix Prize in 2009.

The goal was to exceed the accuracy of Netflix’s movie recommendation system by at least 10 percent.

Beginning in 2006, over 2,000 teams began submitting potential solutions to the competition. Bell said, “The three of us [original team members Bell, Chris Volinsky and Yehuda Koren] worked on the Netflix problem because we thought it was a cool application, something that could help us learn about techniques we didn’t know a lot about but that could be valuable to us in our own work.” Bell worked at the RAND Corporation performing public policy analysis and taught statistics at the RAND Graduate School of Public Policy. Since 1998, he has been a member of the Statistics Research Department at AT&T Labs-Research, where he does data analysis and model building for a variety of AT&T projects and theoretical research for academia. His research interests include machine learning methods and survey research methods. Bell is a recognized expert on the use of statistical methods in the decennial census, having served on four National Research Council panels advising the U.S. Census Bureau. He earned his B.S. in mathematics from HMC, a master’s in statistics from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford University.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOSE A. CAMARENA

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MUDDERINGS

Pinky D. Nelson ’72 NASA ASTRONAUT, STEM EDUCATION ADVOCATE

P

Pinky Nelson was the first HMC graduate to become an astronaut. During his first flight in 1984 (STS-41C Challenger), the crew captured and repaired a satellite, and Nelson flight tested the Manned Maneuvering Unit. His subsequent flights were in 1986 (STS-61C Columbia) and 1988 (STS-26 Discovery), the shuttle missions immediately preceding and following the loss of the Challenger. Nelson, who logged more than 411 hours in space, was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2009. He has been a key advocate of STEM education reform. He is the former director of Project 2061, an initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to advance literacy in science, mathematics and technology. At Western Washington University, he directs the Science, Mathematics and Technology Education (SMATE) program, a national model of the highest quality preparation of future elementary and secondary science teachers. Nelson, an HMC Bates Aeronautics Program graduate, earned his B.S. in physics from HMC and a master’s and Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Washington.

Edwin E. Freed ’82 CO-FOUNDER, INNOSOFT INTERNATIONAL, INTERNET PIONEER

N

In 1987, Ned Freed co-founded Innosoft International, a leading developer of Internet standards-based messaging and directory solutions. In 2000, during its acquisition by Sun Microsystems, Innosoft had approximately 50 employees and its products were installed at more than 2,000 sites in 50 countries. Freed transitioned with Sun and worked on the Sun Java System Messaging Server then continued his work (now called the Oracle Communications Messaging Exchange Server) after Sun was acquired by Oracle.

In addition to his work with Sun and Oracle, Freed has contributed to several Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments, mostly centering on email and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions standards.

He also has a patent for preventing unnecessary message duplication in electronic mail. Freed earned his B.S. in engineering from Harvey Mudd College.

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CLASS NOTES

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The reunion is over, but the events that bring elements of the Founding Class of ’61 together continue. At the 50th reunion, Mike Harvey shared that his daughter, Ellen Harvey, had a lead role in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” Ellen has extensive credits and is a wonderful actress. In addition to “How to Succeed” she has been in “The Music Man,” “Mary Poppins,” “Mamma Mia” and many others. John Murray, Ken Pope, Jim Barden and Gael Squibb agreed to plan to go to New York to see Ellen perform. John’s wife, Margi SCR ’61, was instrumental in setting up the date and getting everyone together.

The result was that all four, plus their wives, flew to New York and saw the play on Sept. 18 at the Sunday matinee.

The play was fanJim and Pat Barden, John and Margi Murray, Ellen tastic, and Ellen was Harvey, Amal and Ken Pope, Gael and Lee Squibb terrific.

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University of Nevada, Reno, alumnus (master’s in physics) and entrepreneur Rick Sontag has started the Sontag Entrepreneurship Award Competition with a $1-million gift. The student winners can use the $50,000 prize to start a business or expand existing businesses. “The earlier you give it a shot, the more time you have to do it and the more likelihood it will work,” Rick said of giving young people with innovative ideas an early start (The Nevada Sagebrush). The winner will be announced May 11.

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The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission appointed Stephen P. Schultz to its Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, which provides technical recommendations regarding health and safety issues at both existing and proposed nuclear energy facilities. A nuclear engineering consultant, Schultz joins 13 other experts with knowledge in fields such as materials science, chemistry, risk assessment and reactor safety. An engineering graduate, he is a former engineer with nuclear utility Duke Energy Corporation in Charlotte, N.C., where he spent 33 years leading technical engineering service teams. He has served as a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency and as a committee member for the Nuclear Energy Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute. Schultz earned a master’s in nuclear science and engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a master’s in business administration at Northeastern University and his doctorate in nuclear engineering from MIT.

19 7 3

Rolfe Holle is happy to report he’s simultaneously exercising Porsche engineering muscle and spreading the Harvey Mudd College brand (below) in Missoula, Mont. In addition to 30 years experience as an ICU/pulmonary specialist, he’s directed a large sleep program in Everett, Wash., now in Missoula. By employing both technology and good people skills, his program has developed a treatment success rate of 95 percent at one month, and 89 percent at one year, over twice the national average.

As a physician who loves his job, he totally appreciates what HMC did for him: taught him how to think.

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Rolfe Holle promotes HMC.

Dan Kalman received the Beckenbach Book Prize from the Mathematical Association of America Jan. 5 at the 2012 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Boston, Mass. The prize is awarded to an author of a distinguished, innovative book published by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). Dan’s book, Uncommon Mathematical Excursions: Polynomia and Related Realms, delves deeply into high school through introductory college-level algebra, geometry and calculus. It extends the breadth of the subjects, offering math teachers and others “new aspects of an old, familiar terrain,” Dan writes in the book’s preface. Dan is a professor of mathematics at American University in Washington, D.C. He received the MAA George Pólya Award in 1994 for his article, “Six Ways to Sum a Series” and again in 2003 for “An Undetermined Linear System for GPS,” both published in The College Mathematics Journal.

Fred Pickel was nominated in January as the city of Los Angeles’ first ratepayer advocate and serves as executive director of the new Office of Public Accountability, a position created by voters in a charter amendment. Fred will review and scrutinize proposed rate hikes by the city’s Department of Water and Power. He has more than 30 years experience in the gas and electric industries in the U.S. and abroad and co-authored the first academic paper on electricity real-time pricing and its implications for electricity deregulation. His background includes evaluating energy supply portfolios—including cost and risk management options— for commercial, industrial and governmental electricity and gas users. He currently serves as president of the Los Angeles-based Wilshire Energy Consulting Group, Inc.

19 8 3

Michael Sailor has published Porous Silicon in Practice: Preparation, Characterization and Applications (John Wiley and Sons Ltd), which provides step-by-step instructions to prepare and characterize the major types of porous silicon. He is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, where his research focuses on the chemistry, electrochemistry and photophysics continued on page 34

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ALUMNI PROFILE

Seema Patel’s company, Interbots, designs and build s interactive

character s like Po pchilla

.

FROM PIRATES TO POPCHILLA Written by KOREN WETMORE

T

o understand the life path of Seema Patel ’02, you have to reverse engineer it. Only then will you grasp why a woman who majored in physics, psychology, computer science and entertainment technology would eventually help design a robot that serves as a therapy tool for autistic children.

“To some people, especially my parents, it probably looked like I was trying to figure out what I was interested in,” Patel said. “But now it all makes sense.”

She’s referring to her company, Interbots, which designs and builds interactive characters and control software. The same company that last fall won first place in RoboBowl, a robotics venture competition, for its latest character, Popchilla.

Fuzzy blue with large eyes, Popchilla is a toy robot that helps children with autism practice social referencing skills, such as identifying emotions. Motors operate its eyelids, mouth, ears and paws, to emulate expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, confusion and even surprise.

Therapists can use a remote control to speak through Popchilla. It also works with an iPad, and was designed so that a variety of apps can be developed without changing its internal hardware.

A 10-week study at the Autism Center of Pittsburgh in 2010 confirmed the robot’s therapeutic potential. “I was amazed by how the children reacted to Popchilla. A few who are less interactive with humans went straight to it and began to interact,” said Cindy Waeltermann, the Center’s founder and director.

Children with autism struggle with social skills, including maintaining eye contact and recognizing emotions in themselves and others.

Yet Popchilla’s animated face draws them in and holds their attention, Waeltermann said.

It’s a profound feat for a robot whose original plan was to be a toy version of Interbot’s high-end characters, which cost $50,000+ and serve in science museums and theme parks.

The shift from toy to therapy tool was spurred by a call from an autism researcher and reinforced by a child’s experience with Quasi, Interbot’s first expressive character. “We were at Kidpalooza in Pittsburgh and these parents came up to us and said, ‘Our son has autism and he never talks to strangers, rarely talks to us and he’s been talking to your robot for 15 minutes,’” Patel said.

Building a bot that captures an audience’s attention was a natural progression for Patel and her five-member team, which formed during her studies in entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University.

In fact, Quasi evolved from a CMU project.

But he wasn’t her first robotic venture. At Harvey Mudd College, she joined the robotics design team while majoring in physics and psychology. At HMC, she also developed the technical writing, presentation and problem-solving skills she uses to this day.

Those problem-solving skills launched her on the path to solve the mystery that first fascinated her as a child after seeing the animatronics in Disney World’s Pirates of the Caribbean: How do you create something with expressions and behaviors that emulate a person?

Patel’s childhood passion, nurtured through education, has led to a discovery that is more than a toy or entertainment, but a robot with a truly magnetic personality.

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CLASS NOTES continued from page 32

of porous silicon, emphasizing applications in medical therapeutics and diagnostics, high-throughput screening, and low power sensing of chemical toxins and pollutants. He was featured, along with other Mudder chemists, in the fall/winter 2011 HMC Bulletin.

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Brian P. Evans recently won the Aldea Award in San Diego for Best Actor for his portrayal of Dr. Frank N. Furter in the OnStage Playhouse production of The Rocky Horror Show. He also completed his first half marathon with a time of 2:00:04 in the America’s Finest City Half Marathon and hopes to race the San Diego Triple Crown in 2012.

Creighton Rosental is author of Lessons from Aquinas: A Resolution of the Problem of Faith and Reason (Mercer University Press). Creighton argues that Thomas Aquinas’s account of faith is not simply an account of justified belief, at least as it is typically considered in contemporary philosophy. Instead, Creighton explains, faith has its own basis for epistemic “reasonableness”—a reasonableness that does not derive from ordinary evidence or proof. Creighton examines three contemporary accounts of what qualifies as an epistemically “responsible” belief (namely, justified belief, practical rationality, and warrant) and argues that under Aquinas’s account, faith should be counted as rational, and in an important, though modified sense, as justified.

Creighton earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and now teaches in the philosophy department at Mercer University.

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REUNION YEAR

After 5.5 years in the London area, David Ruiz and his family have moved back to the United States. They are now in Southern California where David is working as the GAAP Valuation Actuary for the Retirement Solutions Division of Pacific Life. He is looking forward to attending some alumni events!

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Russell Hamilton and his wife Susie finally got around to having their first baby, Jackson, in June 2011. Jack is on track to be as tall as his dad, as he is off the percentile charts for height so far. Russell is still in business development at Visa in San Francisco, working on mobile payments and other new ways to send money.

1 999

Melony Angel married Jay Angel on Nov. 1, 2010. Baby Angel, Jackson Wray Angel, was born on Apr. 7, 2011.

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2000

As a member of the board of The Newport Beach Junior Lifeguard Foundation, former Newport Beach Junior Lifeguard Instructor Chris Seib is helping to preserve, complement and enhance the city’s Junior Lifeguard program. The Foundation’s first project is to organize and complete a capital campaign to build a quality Junior Lifeguard Training Facility then continue making significant contributions to ensure the quality and tradition of the Junior Lifeguard Beach Safety Program.

The Newport Beach Junior Guards program launched in 1984 and has taught ocean safety to thousands of 9- to 16-year-olds.

2001

In a scene not unlike the movie “Alien,” Elizabeth Johansen said she birthed Malcolm Bruce Estabrooks-Johansen on Aug. 21, 2010.

2002

REUNION YEAR

Colin Little has recently moved from San Francisco to Phoenix to start school at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

If all goes according to plan, Colin will graduate in 2015.

Malcolm Bruce Estabrooks-Johansen and parents at his first party.

2003

David Uminsky and his wife, Lindsay, welcomed their daughter, Nayeli Magda, on Sept. 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, Calif. David and Lindsay are both currently postdoctoral research fellows at UCLA. An additional comment from David: “West is Best!”

2004

Steven Hickman married Anya Gambino on Heron Island, off the coast of Australia during August 2011. Mudders in attendance at the October reception in Boston were Brian Putnam, Aja Hammerly, Tommy Leung ’05, Sarah Adelman ’06 and Marguerite Leeds ’06. The couple met while graduate students at Cornell University.

2008

Eric Burkhart and Danielle M. LeFevre SCR ’07 were married at the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Nov. 20, 2011. They first met at North Dorm in 2004. The bride earned a B.A. in sociology from Scripps College and an MFA in creative writing from Chapman University. The groom earned a B.S. in engineering from HMC. The bride is a published author and the groom is the co-founder and COO of Day[9]TV. They honeymooned in Aruba and Florida and now live in Campbell, Calif. continued on page 36

MARGOT HARTFORD PHOTOGRAPHY

CLASS NOTES

TRA INED TO SUSTAIN Written by RICH SMITH

O

ccupant safety and comfort top the list of priorities among engineers who plan heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting systems for healthcare facilities. But also important to them is the need to structure such systems in ways that minimize utility costs, for, according to industry sources, hospitals require at least $20 in revenue to pay for $1 worth of energy use.

Harmonizing these requirements can pave the way to sustainability, but doing so demands abundant outside-thebox thinking. Amy Jarvis ’07, is known for exactly that—she’s a mechanical engineer focused on sustainability and is employed

by Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch, a mechanical, electrical, plumbing and technology engineering consulting and design firm serving the healthcare, mission critical, laboratory and higher education sectors.

“At Mazzetti, we believe it’s possible to implement environmental sustainability within our clients’ businesses. We spend a lot of time researching ways to push the envelope of engineering and avoid accepting the status quo,” says Amy, who works at the firm’s Portland, Ore., office.

Emblematic of this is a sustainable facility project on which Amy currently is working. “‘Green’ buildings don’t often perform as well as intended, so we take a much more holistic view,” she says. “Exceeding code requirements is only a part. For example, we specify waste heat from the building cooling system and use the heat within the building where warmth is needed. This system will pay for itself in two to five years. We also have designed it to permit easier troubleshooting in operation. And, to ensure energy savings are realized, we will monitor performance on a regular basis.”

Amy’s penchant for innovativeness earned her the notice of ASHRAE—the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers—which in February conferred upon her its “New Faces of Engineering” award. The reasons Amy won were several. One was that she helped Mazzetti clients secure more than $1 million in grants and other offsets to pay for sustainability improvements. Another was that she coauthored an article slated to be published later this year by the World Health Organization.

Amy Jar

vis ‘07,

one of t

he “Ne w

Fa c e s

of En ginee r

ing,” ha

s be nefit ed fr om h

a v in Amy landed her job at Mazzetti somewhat g lea r n ed unexpectedly. After graduation with high distinction from how to le arn HMC, she was unsure about her future direction, so she traveled to .

Europe and then visited family on the East Coast while mulling her options.

Back in her hometown of Portland, Amy sought career guidance from a principal of Mazzetti’s office there. “I was hoping to learn about general opportunities for young engineers interested in sustainability,” she says.

However, Amy made such a strong impression that she was offered a job— thanks, in part, she believes, to Harvey Mudd College.

“One of the things I really appreciated about Mudd is its extremely rigorous engineering program,” she says. “But you also get a foundation in different subjects. By the time you leave Mudd, you’ve learned not only how to learn, but also how to make it clear to others that you know how to continue learning.”

Current HMC students, she says, will almost certainly find it profitable to hone their skills at writing and editing before venturing into the job market.

“Effective communication to both technical and non-technical people is essential for engineers,” she asserts. “The engineer who can communicate well is a unique commodity. That engineer is going to stand out, whether in a job interview or on a project team.”

Or, as Amy exemplifies, the engineer who effectively imparts understanding of outside-the-box thinking stands the best chance of establishing a career sustainable well into the future.

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CLASS NOTES continued from page 34

Sean Plott was listed in Forbes “30 under 30” list for entertainment: www.forbes.com/special-report/2011/30-under30-12/30under-30-12_entertainment.html.

Meredith Rawls married Michael Bigelow ’06 on May 14, 2011 at St. Paul’s Cathedral (Episcopal) in San Diego and enjoyed a reception at Marina Village. Their honeymoon was in three parts, beginning with a road trip north, staying at a few B&Bs on the West Coast. They then embarked on a week-long cruise to Alaska and ended by spending Memorial Day weekend with both their families in northern Vancouver Island, BC. The rest of the summer they spent traveling, for reasons entirely unrelated to the wedding. They flew to Bangalore, India, in early June and spent nearly eight weeks there while Meredith participated in a summer research program for astronomy graduate students. Mike was able to join Meredith and work remotely part-time. India was quite the experience for both and they were thrilled to be able to travel there together!

They had a brief stopover in Paris on their way back to the states and ended their three-month travel extravaganza by spending a week as volunteer counselors at Camp Cross in northern Idaho, a camp that Meredith has been attending since she was a child.

The summer ended with both being reunited with their two cats at home in Las Cruces, N.M., where Meredith is pursuing her Ph.D. in astronomy.

2009

Nancy Eisenmenger and Hendrik Orem were married in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 13, 2011. Mudders who attended were Richard Mehlinger, Michael Braly, David Lapayowker, Marty Field, Bob Chen ’10, Richard Strong Bowen ’10 and Marc Davidson ’10.

Bob Chen ’10, Richard Mehlinger ’09, Richard Strong Bowen ’10, Hendrik Orem ’09, Nancy Eisenmenger ’09, Ariana Friedman (Pitzer ’10), Marc Davidson ’10, Michael Braly ’09, Lizzie McInnis (UC Davis), David Lapayowker ’09, Marty Field ’09

Harvey Mudd College Legacy Society Remember Harvey Mudd College in your will, estate plan or beneficiary arrangement and join with others in the HMC Legacy Society. For more information, contact Alanna Boyd, 909.607.9139.

HMC encourages you to seek the advice of your tax advisor, attorney and/or financial planner before considering any estate gift.

Your personal circumstances will determine the best way for you to support Harvey Mudd College.

Wedding party of Meredith Rawls ’08 and Michael Bigelow ’06.

PLANNED GIVING Creating extraordinary opportunities Preserving HMC’s future Establishing your legacy Visit us online at www.hmc.edu/giving/waystogive/plannedgiving

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FEEDBACK

MIND1 MUDDLER

Letter to the Editor

9

2

The Washington monument (completed in 1884) is capped by 2.84 kg of a precious metal.

Which metal is it?

Dear Editor, I enjoyed the Mind Muddler from the fall/winter 2011 edition of the Bulletin. However, I disagree with question 8 and its answer. Helium certainly does solidify at about 1.5 K and 25 bar. In fact, the exotic “supersolid” state has been a hot topic of research over the last seven years or so (1). Perhaps the question should have been “What is the only element that will not form a solid at ambient pressure?” Most chemistry is performed at ambient pressure, so Professor Van Ryswyk may have implicitly assumed this condition.

SPRING 2012 Volume 11, No. 2

What element is a potential nuclear fuel and almost as plentiful as lead?

Which is the only letter in the alphabet not to appear in the Periodic Table?

3

The Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, is sheathed in 33,000 square meters of what pure element?

The HMC Bulletin is produced three times per year by the Office of Communications

IN CELEBRATION of the International Year of Chemistry, Hal Van Ryswyk, chair of the Department of Chemistry, invites you to test your knowledge of the elements and elemental chemistry.

Answers can be found on page 36.

4

8

What is the rarest naturallyoccurring element in the earth’s crust?

What is the only element that will not form a solid? coins

BONUS QUESTION

Vice President for College Advancement Dan Macaluso

During what months is the ozone hole over Antarctica largest and why?

5

7

How does a vending machine distinguish between American and Canadian coins (in either country)

molecule

6

The first synthesis of an organic molecule from inorganic material marked the beginning of the modern era of organic chemistry.

Name the chemist, the product, the starting material and the year.

When archaeologists want to determine if a campsite may have been used by the Lewis and Clark expedition, for what element do they test in the soil?

Dinesh Martien ’97

Senior Director of Advancement, Communications Judy Augsburger Director of Communications, Senior Editor Stephanie L. Graham Associate Director of Publications, Graphic Designer Janice Gilson Contributing Writers Richard Chapman, Rich Smith, Elaine Regus, Kevin Walsh, Koren Wetmore Contributing Photographers Josh Gilson, Jeanine Hill, Kevin Mapp, Steve Schenck, Will Vasta The Harvey Mudd College Magazine (SSN 0276-0797) is published by Harvey Mudd College, Office of Communications, 301 Platt Boulevard, Claremont, CA 91711 www.hmc.edu Nonprofit Organization Postage Paid at Claremont, CA 91711 Postmaster: Send address changes to Micki Brose, Harvey Mudd College, Advancement Services, 301 Platt Boulevard, Claremont, CA 91711

Join the Reunion Giving Challenge Two alumni, who feel strongly about their HMC student experience, are CHALLENGING all reunion classes to give back to the College. And, to make things more interesting and competitive, there will be TWO winning classes. The class with the highest donors over goal and the class with the highest dollars raised over goal each get $25,000 to direct toward their choice of student initiatives.

JOIN THE CHALLENGE TODAY! Your class can help students shape their HMC adventure.

ALL GIFTS made to Harvey Mudd College count toward your class goal.

Consider giving to 1. Annual Mudd Fundd—provides campus-wide support to students and faculty 2. Teaching and learning building—will help shape the future of academics and research at HMC 3. Your department, your class scholarship or your favorite summer research program Make your gift today at hmc.edu/invest

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Students and parents formed teams to devise clever two-liter bottle rocket launchers at Family Weekend in February. Holly and Anton Bundschu P13 and teammates emerged victorious. For more on the weekend’s activities, see page 29.

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