Syracuse Engineer Winter 2012 by Syracuse University's College of Engineering & Computer Science

vol. 10

L.C. SMITH COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

NEW PEOPLE, NEW PERSPECTIVES.

winter 2012

ON THE COVER New People, New Perspectives. With spring just around the corner, it’s time to anticipate new and fresh beginnings. This issue of Syracuse Engineer celebrates exciting new developments throughout L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science: • New faculty hires

• New collaborations

• New curriculum

• New research grants

• New internships

• New business ideas

syracuse

engineer Dean Laura J. Steinberg, Ph.D.

Assistant Dean for College Advancement Steve Savage

Design Pinckney Hugo Group

Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Can Isik, Ph.D.

Assistant Dean for External Relations Ariel DuChene

Photography Steve Sartori Chuck Wainwright

Associate Dean for Research and Doctoral Programs Mark Glauser, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Student Affairs Andria Costello Staniec, Ph.D.

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Executive Editor Ellen Robb Contributors Kathleen Haley Denise Hendee Kathleen Joyce Chris Powers Kelly Homan Rodoski

Web Site www.lcs.syr.edu Contact engineer@syr.edu

www.lcs.syr.edu

from thE dean Surely one of the most satisfying aspects of being Dean of the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science is watching the Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s momentum grow. Each new semester brings new ideas, ventures, and accomplishments from our faculty and students.

This semester, we have accelerated our activities with the addition of nine new faculty members. This class of brilliant new faculty members is contributing to research and teaching in all four of our departments. Each new faculty member brings an extraordinary set of skills and research expertise to the College, and each is looking forward to sharing his or her knowledge and enthusiasm with LCS students. We are excited to share the profiles of our new faculty members in this issue. They undoubtedly will be highlighted in many future issues of ENGINEER magazine as they add momentum to the Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research activities, and as they inspire future engineers and computer scientists through excellence in teaching. We are proud to present the list of our new faculty and their primary research interests below. Please read through this issue of ENGINEER to learn more about them.

Laura J. Steinberg, Ph.D. Dean

1 Amit Agrawal: Nanotechnology applications in optics design

Melissa Green: Bio-inspired propulsion and vortex dynamics

Shalabh C. Maroo: Thin-film evaporation and water desalination

Jesse Bond: Conversion of abundant, nonfood biomass into chemical and energy products

Mustafa Cenk Gursoy: Wireless communications and wireless networks

Quinru Qiu: Green computing and high-performance computing for bioinformatics and cognitive applications

Katie Cadwell: Undergraduate teaching incorporating group learning and peer teaching

Lashun King Thomas: Groundwater contamination and hydrology

Senem Velipasalar: Wireless embedded smart cameras

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new people,

contents

new perspectives 9 New Faculty Hires

MUSTAFA CENK GURSOY

AMIT AGRAWAL

Quinru Qiu

Senem Velipasalar

Jesse Bond

Katie Cadwell

Shalabh C. Maroo

Melissa Green

lashun king thomas ••••••••••••••••••••••••

14 lcs college research highlights

New Funding Totals $6.5 Million

16 Tamargo Siblings Engineer Unique Family Environment Environmental Engineering Runs in the Family

startup weekend LCS Students Start Up Business Plans

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20 networking in haiti

SU Team Travels to Haiti to Install Wireless Internet ••••••••••••••••••••••••

faculty excellence alan levy

UAE internship offers pipeline to the middle east Six LCS Students Study Water Challenges

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student profile:

natascha trellinger ••••••••••••••••••••••••

living abroad is a gas for LCS alum Mike Venutolo Runs Multinational Pipeline Company ••••••••••••••••••••••••

faculty excellence Steve Chapin

alumni notes

in memoriam

Driscoll synthesizes Great Lakes Mercury Research ••••••••••••••••••••••••

Nuclear Energy grant

development message

donor report

alumni join Board of Trustees

Grant to Enable Efficient Nuclear Cleanup

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spotlight Allison Johnston Wins ASME Competition

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new faculty

hires

L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science added nine new faculty members for the 201112 academic year. Students and colleagues in all departments will benefit from their expertise in a broad range of subjects, from wireless cameras to catalytic chemistry to fluid dynamics to groundwater remediation. We appreciate their new perspectives and look forward to continued student engagement and groundbreaking research from a group that includes multiple recipients of the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation. The following pages feature short profiles of each new faculty member and their research interests. Join us in welcoming them to L.C. Smith.

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faculty

mustafa highlight cenk gursoy Mustafa Cenk Gursoy’s research is focused in four main areas of wireless communications and wireless networks. They are: Green Radio – In most wireless systems, energy efficiency is an important consideration. Especially in mobile applications, energy resources are scarce and have to be conserved. Gursoy is exploring the minimum energy levels required for reliable communication and investigating energy-efficient wireless transmission schemes. Quality of Service Provisioning in Wireless Networks – Fueled by the fourth generation (4G) wireless standards, smartphones and tablets, social networking tools and videosharing sites, wireless transmission of multimedia content has significantly increased in volume and is expected to be the dominant traffic in data communications. Such wireless multimedia traffic requires certain quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees so that acceptable performance and quality levels can be met for end-users. Gursoy is analyzing the performance of wireless systems operating under such QoS requirements, and studying optimal resource allocation strategies. Cognitive Radio Systems – In this relatively new area of research, Gursoy is studying cognitive wireless devices that are able to sense their environment before initiating a transmission. More specifically, Gursoy is working on the performance of

cognitive radio transmissions under delay and interference constraints, the interplay between channel sensing and channel estimation, and multiple-antenna cognitive radio channels. Physical Layer Wireless Security – Because of their broadcast nature, wireless transmissions are susceptible to eavesdropping, which can easily compromise confidentiality. Gursoy is studying wireless security at the physical layer. In particular, he is investigating secure broadcasting under delay constraints, optimal power control policies, and energy-secrecy tradeoffs. Since much of Gursoy’s work involves looking into different aspects of wireless communications, he sees many opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration with other L.C. Smith faculty, particularly on wireless technologies and cybersecurity. In 2006, Gursoy received the highly competitive Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation to conduct research on energy-efficient wireless communications.

Associate Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Science B.S., Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bogazici University (Turkey) Ph.D., Princeton University

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amit highlight agrawal John E. and Patricia Breyer Professor in Electrical Engineering Electrical Engineering and Computer Science B.E., Electronics and Telecommunications, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Utah Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Utah Postdoc, Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

His work involves extensive numerical modeling, nanofabrication and optical characterization of novel nanophotonic devices and systems to study their fundamental electromagnetic properties, while simultaneously exploring their applications in information, sensing, and energy. He is primarily interested in studying the interaction of light with matter at both the micro- and nano-scale, and such an understanding could help inform the building of novel micro- and nano-scale optical devices with unique functionalities. His research requires coordination with researchers across various disciplines, such as physicists, chemists, and material scientists, and he has already identified faculty throughout Syracuse University with whom he hopes to collaborate on research projects. He is currently setting up an Ultrafast Nanophotonics Lab at SU and plans to take advantage of Cornell University’s Nanofacility to further his research efforts. Agrawal has also introduced a new course in nanophotonics. Agrawal comes to L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science as the inaugural John E. and Patricia Breyer Professor in Electrical Engineering. The endowed professorship was made possible by the generosity of SU Trustee and LCS Dean’s Leadership Council member John E. Breyer and his wife, Patricia A. Breyer, of Alpharetta, Ga., with a gift to The Campaign for Syracuse University.

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Amit Agrawal’s research work lies at the intersection between optics and nanotechnology, and the interdisciplinary nature of his work requires a significant amount of collaboration with researchers from both the applied and theoretical sciences. Agrawal was previously a CNST/UMD postdoctoral researcher in the Nanofabrication Research Group at CNST in NIST, where he currently holds a CNST visiting fellow appointment. His current research interests are in the areas of nanophotonics, plasmonics, metamaterials, nanofabrication, terahertz, ultrafast and nonlinear optics.

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Quinru highlight Qiu

Associate Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Science B.S., electrical engineering, Zhejiang University M.S., computer engineering, University of Southern California Ph.D., electrical engineering, University of Southern California

Quinru Qiu’s research area is system level power and performance management of computing systems, design optimization of energy harvesting real-time embedded systems, and high-performance computing for bioinformatics and cognitive applications. She is focused on taking her research in two major directions. Green Computing – Qiu’s work on low-power computing could lead to smaller computers that function more efficiently and use less power. She is focused on reducing the power demands of multiprocessor system-on-chip designs. She is focused in the area of adaptive control methods and intelligent systems. She plans to collaborate with faculty doing similar work at L.C. Smith and leverage SU’s green data center to facilitate her work.

Neuromorphic Computing – Qiu is also looking to use computers to mimic how the human brain works both neurologically and psychologically. This emerging area of research requires coordination among researchers in the areas of biology, physics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering to design artificial neural systems that can perform activities like image recognition. In 2009 Qiu received the highly competitive Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation to conduct research in low-power computing, and she is currently working on a project in neuromorphic computing with the Air Force Research Lab in Rome, N.Y.

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Senem highlight Velipasalar Assistant Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Science B.S., Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bogazici University (Turkey) M.S., Electrical Sciences and Computer Engineering, Brown University M.A., Electrical Engineering, Princeton University Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Princeton University

Wireless embedded smart cameras present numerous research challenges. One of Velipasalarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grants on activity analysis in wireless smart-camera networks (Wi-SCaNs) involves designing resource-efficient algorithms that are suitable for embedded platforms. She is also looking at resource allocation strategies and efficient communication schemes between smart-camera nodes. The final step of this research will be to develop communication protocols incorporating the wireless channel conditions, and determining when and how to best transmit a captured image or other extracted data. She also works on

algorithms to detect, track, and communicate events of interest such as detecting objects entering a prohibited region or a person entering through an exit-only door. Just before joining L.C. Smith, Velipasalar was awarded the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build a battery-powered wireless embedded smart camera system for the detection of semantically high-level events and maximize the usable life of the camera nodes. Currently, the average battery life of a camera node is six to seven hours, and Velipasalar hopes to find ways to stretch that life to one or two days. Velipasalar is looking forward to the collaborative opportunities available with other wireless communications faculty at L.C. Smith. As NSF currently funds all of her research, she would like to leverage L.C. Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship with the Department of Defense to propose research that would support strategic defense initiatives.

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Senem Velipasalarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary area of research is wireless embedded smart cameras. These stand-alone, batteryoperated units contain a camera, microprocessor, and wireless radio, and thus combine sensing, processing, and communication in a single embedded platform. They provide increased mobility, scalability, and flexibility. Velipasalar and her students have been working on target detection and tracking, and detection of events of interest on embedded smart cameras that are 2 inches by 2 inches. Potential uses include military surveillance, public transportation, health care and elder care, traffic systems, industrial and retail applications, and monitoring wildlife habitats.

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faculty highlight

jesse bond Assistant Professor Biomedical and Chemical Engineering B.S., Chemical Engineering, Louisiana State University Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison Postdoc, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Jesse Bond’s research focuses on the design and application of catalytic materials for improving sustainability in the production of both transportation fuels and chemical products.

Bond leverages catalytic chemistry to enable efficient use of abundant resources. Catalysts are widely used in industrial chemistry to facilitate otherwise unfavorable reactions by allowing an increased reaction rate without being consumed as a raw material. Typically, catalysts allow reduced processing times and favor selectivity toward desirable products. In particular, Bond is looking at ways to convert abundant, nonfood biomass into chemical products (such as plastics) and energy products (such as jet fuel). Many different kinds of resources can provide inputs to such processes. However, lignocellulosic biomass is generally preferred for its abundance and potential for sustainable management. Examples of relevant feedstocks include:

• agricultural residues like sugarcane bagasse, which is the fibrous material that remains after sugarcane is processed; • dedicated energy crops like switchgrass; • woody residues like sawmill and paper mill discards and; • municipal paper waste. On a molecular level, the chemical composition of lignocellulosic materials is very different from currently employed petroleum-based fuels, though selective catalytic conversion strategies can transform these raw materials into energy-dense liquid fuels, which are compatible with the current transportation infrastructure. The major challenge in lignocellulosic fuels lies in streamlining conversion strategies to yield cost-effective products that are competitive with petroleum derivatives. Bond believes that catalysis will play an integral role in ensuring energy security and reducing our dependence on petroleum. He looks forward to collaborating with faculty within the college and also with faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences and at the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

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katie highlight cadwell Assistant Professor Biomedical and Chemical Engineering B.S., Chemical Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Cadwell believes strongly in fostering an environment that encourages group work and peer teaching. Through cooperative assignments, the students have the opportunity to work through problems together and to address some of the real-world challenges they will face upon completion of their education at L.C. Smith. As a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center on Nanostructured Interfaces, Cadwell was involved in a number of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) outreach initiatives to help develop enthusiasm among younger students for topics in engineering. She hopes to soon be involved in similar initiatives at Syracuse University. bmce

Katie Cadwell joins the faculty to help support the Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal of providing excellence in undergraduate education. Cadwell is passionate about helping students understand the key concepts they will need to be successful as engineers. She just completed teaching the Mass and Energy Balances course, which is considered the first chemical engineering course for students pursuing a degree in that discipline, as well as the senior Chemical Engineering Lab 2. Both can be very challenging courses, and Cadwellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal is to ultimately incorporate more exercises that expose students to the types of problems they are likely to encounter when they begin working in industry or research.

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faculty

shalabh C. highlight maroo

Assistant Professor Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida Postdoc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit)

M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida Shalabh C. Maroo’s research on energy and water desalination is highly multidisciplinary, spanning multiscale transport phenomena, thermal management, and bio-mechanical systems. His research group, the Multiscale Research & Engineering Laboratory, focuses on three research areas:

Energy & Thermal Management – This research is a continuation of Maroo’s doctoral work at the University of Florida and postdoctoral study at MIT. He is using molecular simulations and experiments to work toward the concept and application of nano-thin film evaporation, which holds promise of significantly higher cooling rates over present state-of-the-art cooling techniques. This can potentially meet increasing cooling demands and enable major advancements in various energy systems, such as concentrated photovoltaic cells. Water Desalination – Water is an essential resource for human survival, but projections say that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in regions with absolute water scarcity. Desalination is the highly energy-intensive process of removing salt and other minerals from seawater to create drinking water. Maroo is studying the transport of water molecules in sub-nanometer zeolite pores as a more energy-efficient method of desalination. Zeolites, which are porous aluminosilicate minerals and have a pore diameter of about 0.56 nm, allow water molecules to

transport across while preventing the salt molecules from doing so. (For perspective, 1 nm is about 100,000 times smaller than a human hair.) Bio-Mechanical Systems – Among the goals of Maroo’s research group is understanding and mimicking biological processes found in nature to create efficient mechanical systems. For example, Maroo is currently involved in understanding the fundamental interactions associated with lipid molecules when they are arranged in monolayer and bilayer membranes. Bilayer membranes are found in all living cells and can potentially be used to create a filtration membrane. He is also pursuing collaborative research related to the tobacco mosaic virus and water transport in trees. Maroo is passionate about finding ways for engineering faculty to bridge the gap between the pure sciences, such as biology and physics, and the applied sciences of engineering to address industry-related problems. In addition, Maroo is interested in renewable-energy engineering and is teaching the course Design of Solar Energy Systems in spring 2012.

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melissa highlight green Assistant Professor Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering B.S., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Notre Dame Ph.D., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University Postdoc, NAS/NRC at Naval Research Laboratory

Bio-inspired propulsion: Green is analyzing the forces that are produced as fish propel themselves through the water. She looks to extract insights that can be applied to unmanned-vehicle design, for both swimming and flying. Vortex dynamics: Greenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research investigates the interactions among vortices of different size, shape, mass, and momentum. She sees opportunities to apply this research to the fields of turbulence and combustion, and to some of the wind turbine research already taking place at L.C. Smith. Computational modeling of human circulatory system: Fluid flow through the human circulatory system is so complex that it is unrealistic to simulate it accurately down to small-scale capillaries. Using a macro-scale modeling approach, Green will explore aspects of the full circulatory system, such as overall material transport, which has implications in the fields of medicine and pharmacology.

mae

Stemming from a childhood interest in marine biology and her fascination with the beauty of fluid mechanics during her graduate studies in aerospace engineering, Melissa Greenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research is focused on bio-inspired propulsion and vortex dynamics. There are a number of projects she is working on in this area:

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lashun king highlight thomas Lashun King Thomas is the first person to be appointed as the Chancellor’s faculty fellow, a position created as an institutional commitment of the NSF-ADVANCE award received in October 2010. The primary goal of this fellowship is to promote the career advancement of woman faculty members in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) while serving the university-wide vision of Scholarship in Action. Thomas’ current research area is focused on groundwater and soil remediation. During her Ph.D. studies, she worked collaboratively with the U.S. Geological Survey to address remedial strategies for investigating subsurface contamination at chlorinated solvent sites. These chlorinated solvents had often been used for industrial purposes, such as degreasing machine parts, before it was determined that these solvents could be carcinogenic and cause health and safety issues. The long-term use of these solvents has resulted in them seeping into soil and groundwater, which poses potential health risks. There are challenges with addressing chlorinated solvent contamination:

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• The solvents tend to be resistant to biological degradation, which may limit the use of existing remediation strategies.

• The site characteristics and geochemistry of the soil and groundwater could make a quantitative difference in the ability to clean the site.

Thomas is eager to collaborate with faculty at L.C. Smith working in the areas of geomaterials and water resources to further develop her research area of focus.

Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow Civil and Environmental Engineering B.S., Tennessee State University M.e., Tennessee State University Ph.D., Virginia polyTechnic institute

www.lcs.syr.edu

With an SIS degree, computing means business. Introducing the Systems and Information Science (SIS) Undergraduate Program. The SIS program, a new interdisciplinary course of study between L.C. Smith College of Engineering and the School of Information Studies, provides students with the computing skills and knowledge needed to design and build software and information systems. Instilling an understanding of how to apply these technical abilities in a real-world business setting, the program gives SIS students a unique advantage in the workforce of the future.

To learn more, please visit sis.syr.edu

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L.C. Smith College Research

highlights Du Uncovers Android Application

Security Issues

Wenliang Du, professor of computer science, had his paper accepted to be presented at the 27th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference. The paper describes potential issues with mobile applications written for the Android operating system using the WebView platform. WebView enables developers to embed browsers in their apps, allowing a more customized, interactive user experience. However, Du discovered that WebView opens users and developers to potential security risks that include selecting malicious browsers and unprotected personal information. Du submitted a proposal to Google to explore whether there are ways to preserve the nice features while keeping the platform secure. He next plans to research whether this issue affects other smartphone and tablet platforms.

Interdisciplinary Team Wins $2M EFRI Grant An interdisciplinary team headed by Assistant Professor Dacheng Ren and comprising faculty from the Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Biology and Chemistry departments was awarded $2 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct research on bacterial multicellular systems and bacteria-host interactions. This grant, from the NSFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office of Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI), was awarded to only 14 teams nationally this year. The team will perform experiments in material design, functional genomics, bioinformatics, molecular simulation, and nanotechnology, with the main goals of understanding persister formation in biofilm development and synthesizing functional nanoparticles for controlled release of signaling modulators to eliminate persister cells and biofilms. Persister cells are believed to play important roles in some chronic infections and are tolerant to almost all antibiotics.

Ren Studies Persister Cells Dacheng Ren, assistant professor of biomedical and chemical engineering at LCS and a member of the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, published a research paper in the July issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology about how antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) may be able to help address the challenge posed by bacterial persister cells. Currently, there are no clinically proven treatments for killing persister cells. However, Ren and his team were able to demonstrate that some AMPs are very effective at attacking persister cells, both the freeswimming ones and those attached to surfaces (in biofilms). The team also found a synergy between the use of antibiotics and AMPs to effectively eliminate dormant persister cells. Ren found that the use of AMPs reduced persister cellsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; tolerance to antibiotic treatment.

www.lcs.syr.edu

$3M IGERT Grant to Fund Soft Interfaces Program The NSF awarded Syracuse University $3 million over the next five years to develop an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program (IGERT) in soft interfaces. The collaborative program between LCS and the College of Arts and Sciences will leverage the lab resources of the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute to apply research to real-world situations and communicate the results to the public and policymakers. Soft interfaces melds physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering to study how complex soft and biological materials interact with each other and with hard matter. These interactions play a fundamental role in the development of new materials and technologies used in pharmaceuticals, biomedicine, energy, and communications.

Industrial Assessment Center Receives $1.5M The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $1.5 million over five years to the Syracuse UniversityIndustrial Assessment Center (SU-IAC) to train engineering students in manufacturing efficiency. The grant is led by Suresh Santanam, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering at LCS, deputy executive director of the Syracuse Center of Excellence, and director of the SU-IAC. The SU-IAC will conduct 20 to 25 energy assessments each fiscal year via data collection and analysis, on-site visits, and inspections. SU-IAC staff, consisting of engineering faculty, graduate assistants, and undergraduate interns, will perform analytical work to support the energy-efficiency ideas generated and report results to clients. The SU-IAC will be staffed by 12 to 18 students and will train and graduate 10 to 15 students from the program annually at various degree levels. Students will remain with the program from one to three years.

Syracuse University has been awarded a patent for the development of a “Method and System of Controlling Airfoil Actuators,” research that will lead to greater maneuverability options for wing design on airplanes and has possible applications for wind turbines. Mark Glauser, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE) and associate dean for research and doctoral programs at L.C. Smith, co-led this project with Hiroshi Higuchi, MAE professor. This patent in closed-loop flow control has potential to inform numerous applications that require enhanced lift or are impacted by fatigue because of unsteady flow. Glauser and Higuchi tested an intelligent airfoil design that would be able to sense changes in airflow over an airfoil’s surface, make inferences about airflow conditions and adjust the airfoil through the use of actuators.

research highlights

MAE Professors Awarded Patent

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Siblings (l-r): Jeremy, Katelyn, and Jonathan Tamargo are all enrolled in the civil and environmental engineering program at L.C. Smith.

Tamargo Siblings

Engineer Unique

Family Environment When it comes to keeping things in the family, it’s tough to match the Tamargos of Massapequa Park, N.Y., who have three siblings in the civil and environmental engineering department.

Senior Jonathan Tamargo started the family trend when he enrolled at Syracuse in 2008. A good math and science student in high school, he decided to try engineering after sitting in on some of his older brother’s courses at the University of Notre Dame. “I liked the classes I attended when I visited,” Jonathan says. “Being particularly interested in environmental issues, one of the things that drew me to L.C. Smith was a separate path for environmental engineering.” Jonathan’s brother, Jeremy, graduated from Notre Dame with a civil engineering degree in 2010 and decided to attend L.C. Smith to continue his studies as a master’s student. Last fall, the brothers were joined on campus by their younger sister, freshman Katelyn Tamargo. Katelyn is a resident of the Engineering Learning Community in Shaw Hall and is looking

forward to catching up to her brothers on the environmental engineering path. “The classes in engineering are really tough, but I know I can always count on them for help if I need it,” says Katelyn, who, in fact, could also turn to a fourth sibling, Colleen, an aerospace engineering major at the University of Virginia. So how do the children of a police officer and a stay-at-home mom—a self-proclaimed “domestic engineer”—end up solving the world’s engineering problems? They credit the work ethic and support of their parents. “Our parents encouraged us to do something that would make a positive impact on the world,” Jeremy says. “We were brought up to be well-rounded with a lot of interests. Engineering is about serving society and developing the total person.”

“We really value how special it is for us to be here together.” jeremy tamargo

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Class is where some of the friendly family competition shows up. For example, Jonathan and Jeremy both took Introduction to Sustainable Engineering in the fall semester. “Every day, I tried to do something better than he did, but there were very few victories,” Jonathan admits.

Katelyn is glad her brothers are there to help her but does feel some pressure to measure up to the standards they set. “All the professors know my brothers, and I have to live up to their legacy. Luckily, they’re really good, so it’s all friendly competition,” she says. The competition will likely continue for a few more years. Upon finishing his master’s work on soil acidification with Professor Chris Johnson this spring, Jeremy is transitioning into doctoral work with Thomas and Colleen Wilmot Professor Cliff Davidson. Jonathan is eyeing graduate school as well, and Katelyn has three years of undergraduate studies remaining. In other words, the Tamargo family isn’t looking to break up their unique situation anytime soon. “Family is important to us. Having the opportunity to study together is not something that everyone gets to enjoy,” Jeremy says. “We really value how special it is for us to be here together.”

In addition to the Tamargos, some other student siblings also spend their days in the halls of L.C. Smith.

all in the family

Syracuse and L.C. Smith are good at providing opportunities to serve the community and for personal growth, Jonathan says. “There is a broad range of different tracks you can go into within engineering itself. Plus, with internships and research assistantships, there are lots of things you can do to apply what you learn in class,” he adds.

“Being particularly interested in environmental issues, one of the things that drew me to L.C. Smith was a separate path for environmental engineering.”

jonathan tamargo

Kevin and Jonathan Aziz First-year computer science major Kevin Aziz originally wanted no part of following his brother, junior aerospace engineering major Jonathan Aziz, to L.C. Smith. “I wanted my own college experience. But L.C. Smith is a good school and I ended up coming here anyway,” Kevin says. As it turns out, there are advantages to having an older brother around, including getting advice about classes and professors and having an easier transition to living away from home. Of course, there are perks to having a younger brother around too, according to Jonathan. “Getting the occasional guest swipe into the dining hall is definitely a plus. He also has a color printer that I have been making use of for lab reports,” he says. The main benefit, though, is that the brothers from Guilderland, N.Y., get to spend time with another really good friend. Following their undergraduate work, Jonathan is considering graduate school while Kevin wants to start his own software company. Allison and Anna Froman Identical twins Allison and Anna Froman ’12 love living and going to school together— except for one thing. “We are hard to tell apart, and it can get frustrating if people call us by the wrong names,” Allison says. Besides that, the Fairfield, Maine, natives are glad they’ve had the chance to experience college together. They are both pursuing degrees in bioengineering and have plans to eventually enroll in medical school. Both agree that Allison is better at math and Anna is better at memorization, and they use those complementary skills to help each other succeed with classwork. “Grades are never a competition between us. We want both of us to equally succeed,” Anna says. While it’s nice to have a study buddy in the same program, sharing the same South Campus apartment also has its perks. “The best part of going to school together is when Allison would make me breakfast on days I had 8 a.m. classes,” Anna says.

Larisa and Vladimir Pechenyy “I have always enjoyed electronics, and now is my chance to learn how to make that work as a career,” says Vladimir Pechenyy, a sophomore in electrical engineering. He and his sister, Larisa, a sophomore in civil engineering, are living up to a vision laid out by their parents, who came to the United States from Ukraine. “Our parents moved to America to make sure we would receive a better education. They want us to make the most of this opportunity,” says Larisa. (Their brother, Vasiliy, a first-year student, recently left L.C. Smith to study premed at another college at SU.) Larisa says Vladimir is an electronics wiz on whom she relies for tech support, while Vladimir says Larisa helps him stay organized and on task. The siblings from Syracuse enjoy studying together and helping each other, though their coursework will begin to diverge as they pursue their respective degrees.

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L.C. Smith Students Start Up Business Plans

A new interdisciplinary course offered in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science helped students learn about the nuances of starting a business. The course, Startup Business Plan Development, met for six Tuesday evenings during the fall semester, culminating in business pitches at Startup Weekend, held November 4-6, 2011, at the Syracuse Technology Garden.

Assistant Professor Andrew Darling, who has prior experience in the business world, instructed the course. “The purpose of the course was to cover things that we don’t normally cover in the engineering curriculum and give students exposure to the business of engineering,” Darling explains. Students learned how to structure a business plan, analyze market trends, perform financial planning, pitch their ideas, and conduct other tasks related to starting a business. Darling relied on assistance from local engineering firm O’Brien & Gere. Chris Robyn, manager of product delivery at O’Brien & Gere, attended several classes and gave students advice on their ideas and how to present them. “It is tough to find innovative voices, and Syracuse University has a talented pool of people with potentially great ideas. We wanted to be a part of that,” he says.

O’Brien & Gere design engineer Terry Marshall ’11 also served as a helper for students making pitches. “I heard a lot of great ideas. Collaborating with the University on this course has been a great way for O’Brien & Gere to identify top local talent and help develop those ideas,” Marshall says. Some classes were held at O’Brien & Gere’s office in downtown Syracuse, and some engineers were active participants in the weekend events. For some students, the opportunity to engage in professional networking outside a university setting was the highlight of the weekend. “O’Brien & Gere has a long history of supporting and encouraging intellectual property,” said Jim Fox, CEO of O’Brien & Gere. “This program provides a number of opportunities to energize employees with a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation.”

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“it

was the most rewarding course i took all semester. i hope there can be more courses like ecs 490 to give students valuable practical experience and start up their dreams.”

shuting guo

Startup Weekend is a worldwide nonprofit initiative funded by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation. Events have been held in multiple cities around the world, but the Syracuse event was the first one ever held in upstate New York.

More than 140 aspiring entrepreneurs participated in the Syracuse Startup Weekend. They were treated to more than three dozen pitches, of which 19 ideas made it to the next round. Among the approved ideas were a temperaturemonitoring device for infants, a website that matches landlords and potential renters, a personal health information tracking app, a digital music stand, and a phone app for race spectators. The winning team created a product called StatusQ, a smartphone app that alerts diners when their table is ready. A team led by biomedical engineering graduate student Luis Romo was believed to be the only team that actually created a working prototype of its product, a new medical device for spinal taps.

The first-ever Startup Weekend in upstate New York was held in Syracuse in November.

Sarita Ram, a senior biomedical and chemical engineering major, participated in the course and worked on the infant temperature monitor team at Startup Weekend. Ram greatly enjoyed the experience. “I eventually want to get into the business of engineering, and learning about cash flow and other business skills is valuable,” Ram says. She, like many students, also used the weekend as a way to build a network of people outside the university setting. Among the participating students, there was a general feeling that the skills gained from this experience will be extremely valuable in the future. “As engineers, we have a certain way of thinking that is different than most people,” says Jordan Keebaugh, a senior bioengineering major. “The weekend enabled me to expand my way of thinking by forcing me to do something I have never done before and to think about the business side of things.” A similar sentiment came from Shuting Guo, a graduate student who took the course. Guo says, “It was the most rewarding course I took all semester. I hope there can be more courses like ECS 490 to give students valuable practical experience and start up their dreams.” Guo will get her wish, as there are plans to offer the course again next year.

A team of students works on its business idea during Startup Weekend at the Syracuse Technology Garden.

startup weekend

Startup Weekend begins on Friday evening, when participants pitch their business ideas in a 60-second presentation that offers a quick description of the idea and the resources necessary to develop the product or service. After all of the ideas are presented, attendees vote on those they want to pursue. Ideas that receive enough support will then be worked on for the remainder of the weekend until a more developed plan is presented to a panel of judges on Sunday evening. The winning team receives $2,500 to start its business.

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

networking in

HAITI

A massive earthquake followed by multiple tropical storms in 2010 devastated the already impoverished nation of Haiti. In response, a group of Syracuse University faculty approached Chancellor Nancy Cantor with an outreach plan that would help the country recover.

According to Achille Messac, Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, “The idea was to take Haitian master’s-level students and train them at SU in areas that would be useful to Haiti’s development.” Six students from the Universite d’Etat d’Haiti (UEH), with majors ranging from computer engineering to accounting, earned graduate scholarships to SU, reflecting the University’s vision of Scholarship in Action. All six enrolled at SU during the fall 2011 semester.

“The students were unbelievable. They were involved in every aspect of the project, and it turned out to be a great

experience for everyone.”

achille messac

The UEH has 11 colleges with separate campuses, and the SU team planned to build wireless computer networks for three colleges: the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Law, and INAGHEI. When the group arrived at the three campuses, they found a university atmosphere that was in stark contrast to their own. Each campus featured few buildings, and the classrooms were essentially structures with no walls. The university’s Internet capabilities were very limited; the group estimated that a typical U.S. home had more access than each campus did for its population of hundreds of students and staff. One campus had only a handful of computers that could not even access the Internet. In her blog about the trip, sophomore industrial and interaction design major Nina Morrissey said, “It made me realize how much I take for granted our immense network at Syracuse and the ease [with which] we do things like Google a question, check Facebook, send emails or watch a video on YouTube.”

Part of the collaboration also involved hands-on rebuilding work. In July, a group including Messac, three L.C. Smith undergraduates, and seven other students and staff members journeyed to Haiti for a week to build computer infrastructure at UEH using donated and recycled computer equipment. Hardware provider Bluesocket donated some equipment, and the rest of the equipment was funded by or recycled from SU. The wireless access points, for example, were removed from SU’s network when the school upgraded its network in 2010. Eleven SU students, staff, and faculty, including LCS Professor Achille Messac (far left), visited a Haitian university last summer to install a wireless computer network.

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“Meeting and exceeding our goal was rewarding. However, the positive reactions of the Haitian students to our work will be my lasting joy and memory of time well spent.” nina morrissey

The group began its work by taking measurements and sketching out maps. Then, each map was input into Visio and a professional map was created. This step was necessary to help develop a framework for the computer network. Knowing the distances from point to point helped plan where equipment should go and give reference for future improvements. Setting out to complete this task in one week was a daunting goal to begin with, and the timeline became even more compressed with the arrival of Tropical Storm Emily in the middle of the week. For safety reasons, the students remained behind in the hotel while some of the staff braved the elements and went to the colleges. To pass time in the hotel, the students prepped the equipment and planned where everything should go on the maps.

Professor Messac (left) consults with two SU students, SU staff, and a UEH official to examine available plans in preparation for wireless Internet installation.

There are still improvements to be made, as the bandwidth in Haiti remains quite low, but the Haitian students were overjoyed with the SU team’s efforts. “There were shouts of astonishment as they logged onto Google or Facebook and were able to reach the home pages in a matter of seconds,” Morrissey wrote. “Meeting and exceeding our goal was rewarding. However, the positive reactions of the Haitian students to our work will be my lasting joy and memory of time well spent.”

Luckily, the Port-au-Prince area was mostly spared further damage, and the team was able to return to the site on Friday. However, the time lost in the storm meant a lot of work still needed to be done to meet the deadline. The team left the hotel at 6:30 a.m. and began an arduous day. Students got experience in every aspect of computer networking, from programming to laying cables. Some knew what they were doing; others were learning as they went along.

It was also an emotional trip for Messac, a native of Haiti who was returning for the first time since his teenage years. “It was an exciting time and I greatly enjoyed the experience,” says Messac, who even met Haitian President Michel Martelly. The students had a brush with celebrity of their own, as they got the chance to meet hip-hop artist Won-G, who recently was named Crown Prince of Haiti.

As Morrissey notes in her blog, “The funny thing about a wireless network is that it has a lot of wires.” But thanks to the planning done ahead of time, the team was able to get everything set up quickly. By 8:30 that night, the task was complete.

The tropical storm added an extra wrinkle to the project, but part of being an engineer is overcoming unexpected obstacles. “The students were unbelievable,” Messac says. “They were involved in every aspect of the project, and it turned out to be a great experience for everyone.”

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

Novel Approach Earns Alan Levy Faculty Excellence Award “students in the latter half of their second year are uninformed about the nature of engineering practice and can profit significantly from an understanding of what engineers actually do in the workplace.” alan levy

Professor Alan Levy

Each year, the L.C. Smith Award for Faculty Excellence is given to professors who exhibit a strong student-focused idea for professional development, such as new course creation or skills improvement. The first award, given to Utpal Roy in 2008, was used to build a collaborative student design studio and to update the curriculum for a first-year graphics and design course. This year, one of the two awards was granted to Alan Levy, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, for proposing a way to expose students early on to the world of engineering as a profession. “Students in the latter half of their second year are uninformed about the nature of engineering practice and can profit significantly from an understanding of what engineers actually do in the workplace,” Levy says. “Engineering faculty may not always be equipped to deliver this kind of perspective because many of us have limited or no industrial background.”

Consequences of that lack of understanding, Levy says, include poor student performance, decreased student satisfaction, low student motivation, and lack of understanding of what engineers do. “A significant number of engineering graduates are therefore unprepared to function in a work environment which demands the ability to think critically and creatively,” Levy says. It also can result in decreased student retention and graduation rates for the institution. Levy’s proposal includes reforming ECS 325, Mechanics of Solids, a required second-year, second-semester course that typically has very high attrition and failure rates. By integrating lectures from prominent practicing engineers into the curriculum, Levy believes that more students will be apt to successfully complete the course. For its first iteration, in spring 2012, the newly revised course features lectures from five prominent practicing engineers: John R. Chawner, president of Pointwise; Noah Montena, principal engineer at PPC; Pepe Palafox, thermal research engineer of GE Global Research; Caeresa Scott, outside sales engineer at Eaton Corporation; and Mayue Xie, senior reliability engineer of Intel. With these lectures in place, Levy anticipates more engaged students and better retention rates. “An effective, sustainable and transportable course curriculum that has the ability to motivate, excite and mentor those at risk will benefit all students, faculty, and, ultimately, the academic leadership whose responsibility it is to elevate the quality of academic programs in their charge.”

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Chapin Proposes

Provably Secure OS and earns Faculty Excellence Award The sheer size and overwhelming complexity of modern computer operating systems mean that there are, at a minimum, dozens of unpatched security bugs in commercial operating systems. “Only a small portion of those are critical security flaws, but an attacker needs to find only one to achieve his goals,” says Associate Professor Stephen Chapin of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Chapin proposes incorporating Fo’c’sle into both undergraduate and graduate operating system courses, most notably in the newly formed Cyber Engineering Semester, a cluster of courses to be taken simultaneously and focused on computing system reliability. Offered for the first time in fall 2011, the Cyber Engineering Semester includes coursework in Secure Operating Systems and Secure Architecture. Two of the Cyber Engineering students were hired by Chapin to work on the project. Their work will be funded by the Excellence Award. Fo’c’sle will also help simplify the lab component of the Principles of Operating Systems course. “Using typical operating systems, a substantial portion of the instructor’s

Professor Stephen Chapin

and students’ time is spent pushing aside code that is extraneous to the lessons taught,” Chapin says. Use of Fo’c’sle in courses will reduce that wasted effort. Chapin says that creation of a secure operating system like Fo’c’sle will put Syracuse University, and L.C. Smith in particular, at the forefront of education in secure computer systems. “This will help to attract the best and brightest students,” he says. “As other schools adopt our pioneering educational tools, the reputation of the University will rise.”

“as other schools adopt our pioneering educational tools, the reputation of the university will rise.” stephen chapin

faculty excellence

Operating systems are fundamental software building blocks that provide the platform on which web browsers, e-mail, games, and other applications are built. If operating systems are unreliable and insecure, then other applications will be at risk as well. With that thought in mind, Chapin is setting out to design a secure operating system called Fo’c’sle (pronounced “foxhole”) for research and educational use. For his efforts, Chapin has earned a Faculty Excellence Award.

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

Driscoll synthesizes Great Lakes Mercury

Research

To many people, the Great Lakes are simply a place to boat, swim, fish, sightsee, and relax. But for Charles T. Driscoll, University Professor of Environmental Systems Engineering at L.C. Smith, the Great Lakes are unfortunately known for something else: mercury pollution. Mercury contamination, primarily air pollution from coal-fired power plants, industrial facilities, and other sources, has been threatening ecosystems in the Great Lakes region for several decades. In response, some emissions controls have been implemented at the state and federal levels, and further controls are being considered. Also, all eight Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) and the Canadian province of Ontario have issued fish consumption advisories of varying degrees. [Note: Eating fish exposes humans to mercury.] However, a recent report co-written by Driscoll suggests that the scope and intensity of mercury pollution in the Great Lakes region is even greater than initially anticipated.

great lakes mercury connections 24

Driscoll served as the co-principal investigator on a recent compilation and synthesis of scientific studies as part of a collaboration with the Biodiversity Research Institute in Maine, the Great Lakes Commission, based in Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The program is sponsored through the Great Lakes Air Deposition Program and funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The resulting report, titled “Great Lakes Mercury Connections: The Extent and Effects of Mercury Pollution in the Great Lakes Region,” summarizes 35 new scientific papers representing the work of more than 170 scientists,

researchers, and resource managers who used more than 300,000 mercury measurements to document the impact of mercury pollution on the Great Lakes region. “Great Lakes Mercury Connections” was officially released at the Great Lakes Commission’s 2011 Annual Meeting in October, which coincided with the first-ever Great Lakes Week event. Great Lakes Week brought together U.S. and Canadian government officials along with public and private groups to find solutions for environmental challenges facing the region.

For more information, read the report and associated materials online at: www.briloon.org/mercuryconnections/GreatLakes.

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the findings

the next steps

Despite general declines in mercury levels in the region over the past four decades, mercury concentrations still exceed human and ecological risk limits, particularly in inland rivers and lakes. The northern part of the Great Lakes region is particularly sensitive to mercury pollution, where fish mercury concentrations generally remain higher than the human consumption safety threshold. The health of fish and wildlife in the entire Great Lakes region is being impacted by atmospheric inputs of mercury.

“Great Lakes Mercury Connections” emphasizes the success of mercury pollution controls implemented at the state and federal levels over the past several years. “Efforts to advance recovery from mercury pollution in the Great Lakes region in recent years have yielded significant progress, but they have yet to address the full scope of the problem,” the report reads.

large decreases in mercury emissions within the next few years from electric utilities in the united states.” charles driscoll

Not all the findings are negative, however. The report indicates that controls placed on mercury emissions from incinerators in the 1990s to decrease mercury pollution appear to be working. “We documented a 20 percent decline in sediment mercury deposition from peak values around 1985,” Driscoll notes. “This decline was concurrent with a 48 percent decline in mercury emissions from sources in the Great Lakes region, and despite a 17 percent increase in global emissions.” Driscoll believes that additional air emission controls would likely result in further declines in mercury pollution levels and yield multiple benefits to fish, wildlife, and people throughout the Great Lakes Basin.

Students learn how to measure mercury released from soil at the Huntington Wildlife Forest in the Adirondacks.

The EPA decided to implement the Utility Air Toxics Rule in December 2011. “Under this rule, we expect large decreases in mercury emissions within the next few years from electric utilities in the United States,” Driscoll says. These controls will improve our stewardship of the ecosystem but will not end the problem. Much of the mercury in the Great Lakes region is believed to have come from Asia and other areas with limited emission control regulations. While the future of mercury pollution throughout the region is unclear, the commitment of Driscoll and his co-authors is quite the opposite. Great Lakes region residents and visitors can count on diligent research into the issue continuing for years to come.

cie

“under this rule, we expect

To that end, Driscoll co-wrote an op-ed piece that appeared in Buffalo and Syracuse newspapers and urged federal legislators to adopt the proposed Utility Air Toxics Rule proposed by the EPA. Driscoll’s letter reads, in part, “All 50 states still have fish consumption advisories due to mercury, and an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 children born each year in the United States are exposed to mercury levels in utero that are high enough to impair neurological function. The science on the impacts of mercury pollution is clear. The costs of uncontrolled emissions from power plants are too high to be ignored.”

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

Thermo-Mechanical Energy Nuclear Energy Renewable Energy Electrical Power

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re giving you the power to advance your engineering degree.

Choose from one of four exciting tracks with the new Minor in Energy Systems. Students enrolled in an engineering program within L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science may now add a Minor in Energy Systems, which offers four different but related tracks of study â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thermo-Mechanical Energy, Nuclear Energy, Renewable Energy, or Electrical Power.

To learn more, please visit lcs.syr.edu/energy

www.lcs.syr.edu

Grant to Over the past several decades, more than 100 nuclear power plants have been in use throughout the United States. These plants each leave behind about 2,100 metric tons of heavy metals and radioactive nuclear waste every year. In total, the United States has more than 70,000 metric tons of untreated nuclear waste in storage.

long and 1 cm in diameter filled with pellets of uranium that are themselves about 2-3 cm long and 1 cm in diameter. The rods are also filled with radioactive gases such as carbon dioxide, tritium, krypton, and others. Tavlarides’ team is looking to develop a way to capture, sequester, and store those radioactive gases, a process known as off-gas treatment.

Lawrence Tavlarides, professor of chemical engineering at L.C. Smith, is among a group of several professors from multiple universities that is seeking a new method for treatment and long-term storage of that spent nuclear fuel. Tavlarides and his colleagues were awarded a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP) division to conduct research on ways to develop options that lessen creation of waste and enable more efficient waste management.

Off-gas treatment has been identified as one of five challenge areas for Safeguards and Separations (SafeSeps) procedures laid out by the Department of Energy. One method that the grant will allow Tavlarides and the team to analyze is capturing the gases in a powderlike absorbent substance that can then be reprocessed or stored in a secure repository.

“We are confident that we can move forward and safely generate nuclear power in this country,” lawrence tavlarides

Tavlarides is working with LCS alumni Sotira Yiacoumi G’87, Ph.D.’92 and Costas Tsouris G’88, Ph.D.’92, both of whom are now professors at the Georgia Institute of Technology, along with Jorge Gabitto of Prairie View A&M University and David DePaoli of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The grant will support research on one aspect of the nuclear waste cleanup process. Cleanup typically involves cutting up the nuclear fuel rods, which are metal tubes about 12 feet

“We are confident that we can move forward and safely generate nuclear power in this country,” Tavlarides says. Safe and efficient handling of spent nuclear waste is a critical component of that process, and this grant puts Tavlarides and L.C. Smith at the forefront of the cleanup effort.

bmce

Enable Efficient Nuclear Cleanup

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

Many students intern over the summer, learning the skills of their profession in a real-world environment. But not too many of them get to do it in the middle of the desert in one of the most interesting countries in the world. Six L.C. Smith civil and environmental engineering students, however, got to do just that. They traveled to the United Arab Emirates for two weeks during the summer of 2011, thanks to a first-time internship sponsored by Mr. Abdelmohsen Al-Omran, parent of a current L.C. Smith undergraduate student, and L.C. Smith alumnus Mike Venutolo ’77, managing director at Raymond International, a leading global engineering and construction company focused on pipeline installation and maintenance.

A couple of years ago, Venutolo met with SU representatives James O’Connor, principal gifts development officer in the Office of Global Development, and Steve Savage, L.C. Smith assistant dean for college advancement. Venutolo, who has lived in the Middle East since shortly after graduating, was looking for a way to give back to the school. At their meeting, the seeds were sown for a new internship experience. “Fortunately, I am in a position to share 30-plus years of hands-on engineering and construction experience with others. I wanted to share that with my SU family,” Venutolo says. Raymond International’s headquarters is in Bahrain, and the internship was originally designed to take place in that country, according to the professor who developed the program and oversees it, Sam Salem, Yabroudi Chair of Sustainable Civil Infrastructures and professor of construction engineering and management. However, civil unrest in Bahrain necessitated moving the internship to the United Arab Emirates. The six students were selected from a pool of roughly two dozen candidates, based on grade point average, recommendation letters, and written statements. The chosen students, all rising

seniors, were Maggie Befort, Ekaterina Makarova, Sean O’Malley, Brad Shalek, Matthew Streeter and Jonathan Tamargo. Along with Professor Salem, the students flew to Dubai on June 8 to begin two weeks that they would never forget.

Last summer, six LCS students joined Professor Sam Salem (third from left) for an internship in the United Arab Emirates.

the trip The group traveled to different parts of the country, seeing the sights, touring job sites and learning up close about clean water production and related engineering projects. “We learned about different manufacturing and installation processes, why they use the pipes they use, the different lining methods and the different coatings that are used in different situations,” recalls Makarova. “You can learn all the technical things in school, but you’re never going to understand the full process until you see it firsthand.”

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But both sides quickly found those concerns baseless. “After the first-day jitters, the desired effect of transmitting learning by seeing the pipe being made in the factory, touching the concrete freshly produced from the batching plant, wearing the hard hat and safety boots full of sweat—all was a success,” says Venutolo. “We all felt so good that we were able to touch the minds and hearts of those six young individuals. Special thanks to my wife, Kim. The internship was a success in large part to her planning and supervision.”

Streeter said safety was the biggest takeaway for him. “To ensure that you don’t have safety issues, you need to pay attention to the smallest details or it could cost you a job. It’s very important in construction and construction management to minimize any sort of safety hazard.” Even a more seasoned engineer like Professor Salem found value in the exposure to the business side of engineering and the rare opportunity to learn from a high-level executive. “It was a continuous learning experience,” he says. “The amount of time that Mr. Venutolo and his team spent with us is really commendable. It’s reflective on each one of us in terms of how we should act going forward.” While the students spent much of their time on the job, the group took full advantage of their time between assignments to visit Dubai and Abu Dhabi to see some of the UAE’s most breathtaking sights. They included the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper at 2,716 feet; a Formula One racetrack; the Burj al Arab, the world’s only seven-star hotel; and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world. The group also was invited to a dinner with some members of the University’s Board of Trustees. “It was nice to meet the people who make experiences like this possible,” Streeter says. “They were extremely down-to-earth, and it was an added bonus for the trip.” It wasn’t only the students who learned valuable lessons from the experience. For example, cultural differences were initially a concern for both sides. As Venutolo says, “At first, some people in my company were intimidated. They wondered what we could possibly teach smart American engineering students.” The students had similar concerns. “In U.S. internships, you have an idea of how people are going to act, so you go straight to the technical aspects of how to do the job. In UAE, we had to take time to learn the culture, adjust to the process, and figure out how to work together,” Shalek says.

Makarova also took away a big-picture perspective. “Doing projects here in class, it is easy to get stuck in a rut of ‘this is the way it has always been done’ instead of stepping back to look for a different way to complete a project. This experience really opened up my eyes to being a global citizen and seeing what other cultures outside the United States are doing.” Shalek summed up the experience by saying, “I’d strongly recommend other students take advantage of this once-ina-lifetime experience to go over there and see how different cultures operate in the industry.” The UAE internship program will be offered to six more lucky students in the summer of 2012. As it turns out, the desert can be a pretty nice place to spend a summer.

“This experience really opened up my eyes to being a global citizen and seeing what other cultures outside the United States are doing.” ekaterina makarova

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Geraint Hughes, Raymond International UAE area manager, shows the LCS interns a model of a pipe coating machine.

The cultural experience in itself turned out to be more than worth the trip, Streeter says. “One term we heard over and over was how this experience turned us into global citizens. Even though we’re learning about engineering in the United States, the profession is very different in other countries. It was a real eye-opener.”

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

Sunny Skies – Bright Future:

Natascha Trellinger For most college students, summer is a time of year to earn money for school, to catch up with friends, and to relax and enjoy time away from classes, all while making the most of warm temperatures and sunshine. Working as an intern for United Launch Alliance (ULA), an industry leader focused on space operations, Natascha Trellinger spent many hours last summer in the bright sunshine, enjoying the company of fellow interns from across the United States while teaming up with them to build sports rockets for fun, after work. A joint endeavor between ULA and Ball Aerospace, the afternoon extracurricular activity was purposefully designed to help the interns in their understanding of rocketry.

For Natascha, a young woman whose enthusiasm for space was inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s vision for space exploration and the Apollo missions, the experience was the highlight of her summer. Working with fun payload items, like an inflatable moose, Natascha and her friends built rockets – 25 feet tall with a 12-inch diameter – capable of launching 8,600 feet into the atmosphere.

“There were 80 of us, interns from across the United States. We’d get together after work to build rockets together. It was a great way to meet each other,” says Natascha, a junior aerospace engineering/math student from Boulder, Colo. “It was a really cool experience to see the entire rocket-making process. I’ve never been a part of anything like this.” Building rockets after work was just one aspect of an exhilarating summer experience for Natascha, one that included spending an afternoon with NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. A member of ULA’s Payload Fairing Design Group, Natascha worked alongside career engineers who helped her realize the special niche that she has found in L.C. Smith. “I met female career engineers who told me how their college professors would ask, ‘Are you sure you are in the right class?’ on the first day of class, doubting their abilities and rightful place in the classroom. I’m glad to be at Syracuse, in an environment where an attitude like that is unheard of,” she says. “I’m very comfortable in my classes. I am very happy where I am.” A 2009 graduate of Fairview High School in Boulder, Natascha arrived at Syracuse with enough college credit to bypass first-year math and science classes, leading her advisor, John Dannenhoffer, a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, to encourage her to take Statics, a sophomore course. “Dr. Dannenhoffer saw something in me, and believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. I didn’t see myself as someone who would give papers or be a top student. Dr. Dannenoffer did.”

www.lcs.syr.edu

Natascha recalls the camaraderie she experienced in her first year at SU, meeting other new engineering students who, today, are among her closest friends at SU. “I found my groove,” she says. “I met some of my best friends and made connections that helped me find my niche in engineering.” Those connections included faculty members like Professor Dannenhoffer, who invited Natascha to work on the development of Archimedes, a teaching tool for Statics. Natascha presented that research at the 2011 AIAA Regional Student Conference in Nashua, N.H., an event dominated by seniors, graduate students, and faculty. “Natascha did great,” says Dannenhoffer. “She showed the poise and maturity you’d expect from a graduate student.”

Natascha Trellinger adds payload to a rocket before launch.

In 2011, Natascha received the Record Scholarship from Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, placing her among the top engineering students in the United States. A student in the Renée Crown Honors Program at SU, Natascha is also a member of the Sigma Gamma Tau aerospace engineering honor society and the Society of Women Engineers, and serves as vice president of the SU chapter of AIAA. Among her activities, Natascha says her favorite is serving as an Academic Excellence Workshop Facilitator through which she guides undergraduates in their mastery of

key engineering courses. “I love that ‘a-ha’ moment when you’re working with a student and they make a discovery that helps them to understand the material.” Excelerators, the college’s student ambassador organization, is a close second in Natascha’s list of favorite SU activities. “Excelerators allows me to step back from schoolwork and tell prospective students and families how much I love SU and the L.C. Smith College. Being involved allows me to give back.”

“Natascha did great. She showed the poise and maturity you’d expect from a graduate student.” John Dannenhoffer

Natascha credits the support that she has received from nurturing faculty members at Syracuse with helping to shape her goals for the future. Her professors also serve as role models for Natascha, allowing her to see up close the passion they bring to their work. “I admire my professors,” she says. “They love their students and they are passionate about what they do. I love that they are here for us and are committed to our success.” Feeling at home in academia, Natascha aspires to a doctoral program with dreams of becoming a college professor. She is considering graduate study in biomechanics or biomnemonics, fields she has discovered through her thesis research. “I love to learn,” she says. “The Honors Thesis gives me the chance to explore fields beyond my major and to learn about different areas of engineering.” Beginning in second grade and all through high school, Natascha was highly involved in Irish dancing, a talent that brought her across the United States, Canada, and Ireland for championships. On route to a competition in Canada, Natascha and her family had a layover in Syracuse. Natascha took to the area immediately and kept it in the back of her mind when it came to her college search. Stepping onto campus for the first time, Natascha fell in love with Syracuse University, a feeling that continues to this day. “I look back on everything with a smile,” she says. “Engineering is a perfect fit and Syracuse is an ideal environment for me.”

“Natascha is a special student, the kind of young person that inspires faculty. From the moment we first met, I knew she had the motivation and ability to realize her great talent and potential.” John Dannenhoffer

student profile

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science winter 2012

Living Abroad Is A Gas For LCS Alum On August 2, 1990, Michael Venutolo ’77 was driving north on a Saudi Arabian road near the Kuwaiti border when he saw hundreds of cars with Kuwaiti license plates speeding in the opposite direction. Earlier that day, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi troops had occupied Kuwait. “I was sharing the road with the Kuwaitis who were lucky enough to escape, except I was traveling in the wrong direction,” Venutolo recalls. A few months earlier, Venutolo’s company, Raymond International, had won a major gas project in Saudi Arabia. But the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait turned the project area into a mobilization site for United Nations coalition forces. “The requirement to supply fuel for jets, tanks, heavy equipment, and vehicles became a top priority,” says Venutolo, whose team was asked to help restart long-abandoned sections of a gas plant located about 40 miles south of Khafji, a Kuwaiti city occupied by Iraqi troops. “About 120 of our employees went to work at that gas plant, which was a target for Iraqi missiles. Thankfully, their aim was not that accurate,” Venutolo says. Under high-pressure circumstances, the team got the plant up and running by January 1991, just before U.S.-led forces entered the war. After the war ended, much of the world focused on rebuilding Kuwait. However, Venutolo and Raymond International decided to help Saudi Arabia increase its oil and gas production capabilities. “Saudi Arabia was the only country with sufficient oil reserves and funds to make up for the shortfalls from nonproducing Kuwait and nonselling Iraq,” he recalls.

Raymond International flourished, and branch companies opened in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. The company now employs more than 1,000 skilled professionals in the Arabian Gulf region. “Populations in the Gulf countries are rapidly increasing. Temperatures consistently exceed 110 degrees in the summer. Groundwater aquifers have been depleted. The Gulf countries are world leaders in the development and utilization of desalination technology and power plant generation efficiency. Without potable water and power, people and governments cannot survive,” Venutolo says. As managing director for Raymond International, he has successfully focused the company on water transmission and distribution and power plant construction.

Mike Venutolo (right) trains LCS interns Maggie Befort and Ekaterina Makarova working in the field.

Venutolo’s career has taken him a long way from his hometown of Spotswood, New Jersey. His father operated his own plumbing and heating company there, and the time young Michael spent installing water and heating systems in housing and industrial projects steered him toward L.C. Smith during his sophomore year at Syracuse University. “I initially majored in physics, but I couldn’t see the electrons floating around the lecture hall as clearly as my classmates could,” he jokes. He thought back to his experiences welding and soldering pipes, reading blueprints, and estimating material costs with his father and decided to give civil engineering a chance. It turned out to be a wise decision, and Venutolo looks back fondly on his time at L.C. Smith. “I was taught and tutored by a compassionate group of human beings, including professors Mandel, Rand, and Li—whose textbook, Principles of Fluid Mechanics, I still have on my bookshelf and refer to often. I

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“It was great. I was using what I had learned at L.C. Smith and I was traveling, meeting new people and learning how to engineer and build projects in new places. The learning curve was steep but enjoyable.” mike venutolo

After graduating in 1977, Venutolo was hired by a small consulting firm, but the junior engineer duties—drawings, drafting, checking calculations, and the like—didn’t excite him. He responded to a classified ad that read, “Sales Engineer for Major Engineering and Construction Company—extensive travel involved,” and within a few weeks was hired as a sales engineer in the Centriline division of Raymond International Builders.

for every 120 days worked. Venutolo took advantage, traveling to England, Scotland, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Thailand, and other countries. “It was magical. I did not know it at the time, but I was becoming an expat for life,” he says. Indeed, save for a short stint back in New Jersey in the 1980s, Venutolo has lived in either England or the Gulf region ever since. Now based in Bahrain, he spends his spare time with his wife, Kim, and three adult children, David, Christopher, and Danielle. Mike and Kim recently purchased a retirement home in New Jersey—but they’re not ready to use it just yet. “We are happy here taking on new and challenging projects and teaching younger colleagues and L.C. Smith students about our business,” he says.

The Centriline division specialized in municipal water pipeline rehabilitation and corrosion protection of new pipes all over the world using state-of-the-art coating and lining methods. Venutolo’s first assignments included projects in Venezuela, the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom. “It was great. I was using what I had learned at L.C. Smith and I was traveling, meeting new people and learning how to engineer and build projects in new places. The learning curve was steep but enjoyable,” he recalls. In 1979, Venutolo accepted a two-year contract to be part of a team that would design and build the largest water-transmission pipeline in the world at that time. The project involved constructing 600 miles of 60-inch-diameter high-pressure steel pipelines to bring desalinated water from a plant on the Arabian Gulf inland to the capital city of Riyadh. Venutolo arrived to massive culture shock. “We worked 70-hour weeks in extreme heat, lived in cabin barrack camps along the route of the pipeline running through harsh desert, and ate in canteens with thousands of other workers,” he says. There was no television or telephone, and no Google to search when a question arose, but Venutolo found value in working side by side with seasoned engineers of seemingly every nationality, using ingenuity to solve problems. The employment package included 14 days of vacation and a free airline ticket

Raymond International staff with LCS students and faculty during a tour of a power plant in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates.

He advises up-and-comers about how to get ahead in the engineering business. “Whether you are on a small project in Anytown, U.S.A., or a billion-dollar project abroad, investigate all parts of the project,” Venutolo advises. “Ask plenty of questions to find out as much as possible about the initial concept, purpose, feasibility, design, engineering, procurement, finance, and construction. Then, focus on the bits you find most interesting and fun.”

alumni news

was not a Dean’s List student, and they went the extra mile to answer my queries and make sure I learned what I was supposed to. I’ve never forgotten that, and that is a large reason why we are giving back via our internship program,” Venutolo says. In 2011, Venutolo sponsored an internship that hosted six students in the UAE for two weeks. (See page 28.)

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

alumni notes 1940s Yale Richmond ’47 (Electrical) of Washington, D.C., is spending his retirement years writing books to help Americans better understand people of other cultures. Richmond served as a U.S. Governor in Bavaria and after WWII spent 30 years as a Foreign Service Officer in Germany, Laos, Poland, Austria, and the Soviet Union.

1960s Jon Drosendahl ’61 (Civil) was named a Fellow member of the National Society of Professional Engineers in honor of his exemplary service to the society, to his profession, and to his community. He resides in Glenshaw, Pa., with his wife, Aileen Davies Drosendahl ’63 (HD).

1970s Robert Seidman G’71, Ph.D ’80 (Computer Science) wrote Saving Higher Education: The Integrated, Competency-Based Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree Program (Wiley/2011), which presents a clear path to saving costs without jeopardizing academic quality.

alumni notes

1980s

Joseph Celentano ’85 (Civil), living in Commack, N.Y., is president of Gibbons, Esposito & Boyce Engineers, PC and founder of HiRise Engineering, PC. He has been named 2011 Principal of the Year by the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York and was previously awarded the 2009 Engineer of the Year Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers, Long Island Branch. Stanton Weinstein G’87 (Electrical) of Fort Washington, Pa., was president of the Philadelphia Intellectual Property Law Association for 2010-11. He serves as intellectual property counsel for Lockheed Martin Corporation Maritime Systems and Sensors. Xiangchao “Chuck” Yuan G’83, Ph.D.’87 (Electrical) is an engineering director at Rambus Inc., in charge of a team designing next generation memory interfaces. He recently published a book, High Speed Signaling: Jitter Modeling, Analysis, and Budgeting, (Prentice Hall/2011), which is about signal integrity.

1990s

George R. McGuire ’91 (Aerospace), G’96 (LAW), an attorney with Bond, Schoeneck & King law firm in Syracuse, was named to The Best Lawyers in America 2011 in intellectual property law listings. Ben Robertson ’92 (Engineering Physics) is a private pilot. He and his wife, Heather Sorrentino Robertson ’93 (A&S), live with their sons, Ryan and Samuel, in Port Jefferson, N.Y. Troy Tomlinson ’97 (Computer Engineering) and Michelle HenryTomlinson ’97 (Bioengineering), G’98 (Engineering Management) of Phillipsburg, N.J., celebrated 11 years of marriage last summer. Troy is a senior product development engineer at ITR Co. and Michelle is an executive director in Treasuries and Securities Services at JPMorgan Chase. The Tomlinson and Henry families include two more LCS alumni: Troy’s brother, Astley Tomlinson ’96 (Chemical) of Westbury, N.Y., and Michelle’s brother, Richard Henry ’00 (Chemical) of Newburgh, N.Y. Mark C. Wilkins ’90 (Electrical) is director of global production planning for Edmund Optics in Barrington, N.J. Edmund Optics is the worldwide leader in the manufacture and distribution of optical components. Mark and his wife, Storm, live in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

2000s Eric Brosnahan ’00 (Computer Engineering) and his wife, Emily, announce the birth of their daughter, Cecilia Evelyn, on October 9, 2011. Eric is an electrical engineer at Raytheon Company in Tewksbury, Mass. Jared Green ’01 (Civil) and his wife, Camille, announce the birth of their daughter, Cassandra Hope, born on October 17, 2011. Cassandra joins brothers Lukewinston and Jonathan. Jared is senior project manager at Langan Engineering and Environmental Services in New York. Marco Iacono ’02 (Computer Science), of San Francisco, is a member of the iOS applications and frameworks team at Apple Inc. in Cupertino, Calif.

Justin Blount ’93 (Chemical) is director of marketing for Kohler Engines in Kohler, Wis. He is responsible for the short- and long-term marketing plans of the company’s industrial and consumer product lines and for the development of those markets.

Thomas Ragonese ’00, G’02 (Bioengineering) and his wife, Sarah, announce the birth of their twin son and daughter, Luke Thomas and Sophia Marie. Tom is a senior process engineer at Boston Scientific in Spencer, Ind.

Eric Finer ’97 (Chemical) and his wife, Joanna Chambers Finer ’97 (SWK), of Oak Ridge, N.C., announce the birth of their daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, who joins sister Brooke.

Let us know about your accomplishments! Please send your alumni news and notes to engineer@syr.edu.

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in memoriAM “John was extremely dedicated to the College. He worked closely with the formula car and ATV teams. His value to the College cannot be overstated.”

mark glauser

More than 100 friends, family, and faculty gathered at a memorial service held December 9, 2011, in Hendricks Chapel, where stories of John’s life and work were shared. As Vice Chancellor and Provost and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Eric Spina recalled, John was a humble, loyal and selfless man who was a friend to all and a wonderful teacher to many faculty and thousands of students.

John Kotlarz L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science lost a special friend and co-worker on October 8, 2011, when John Kotlarz, senior experimental machinist, died suddenly at the age of 62. John had been employed by the College for more than 30 years and was a key contributor to many student and research projects. Mark Glauser, associate dean for research and doctoral programs in LCS and professor in the College’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, says that Kotlarz and the machine shop were one and the same for many years. “John was extremely dedicated to the College. He worked closely with the formula car and ATV teams. His value to the College cannot be overstated.” Kotlarz was very excited about his current project: developing the new student shop. “As many of you know, this was something that John really wanted to see happen,” says Glauser. “We will miss him very much, especially on this exciting new project.”

“John was deeply loved and appreciated at L.C. Smith. He has left a lasting legacy that will extend for generations through the many faculty and student lives that he touched directly and indirectly. He has made SU a better place,” Vice Chancellor Spina said. John is survived by his wife, Donna; son and daughter-in-law, Brian and Brandi Kotlarz; daughter and son-in-law, Ellen and Adam Duke; daughter-in-law, Amy Kotlarz; grandson, Samuel Kotlarz; and a large extended family. He was predeceased by his son, Adam, a 2000 graduate of LCS, in 2009.

in memoriam

John Kotlarz

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

( your name here )

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Gi ve the one g if t that won’t be retur ne d, g i ve an L C S e duc ation.

For more information and other ways to give, please visit www.lcs.syr.edu/giving

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The Impact of our New Faculty

As I was formulating just how I was going to do this, my good friend and colleague, Kathleen Joyce, assistant dean for college recruitment, stopped by. Once I told her what I was trying to do, she instantly shared something that provided me with the direction I needed. Kathleen has been very grateful over the past year that Dean Steinberg has committed funds from the L.C. Smith Dean’s Fund to provide research opportunities to some of our most outstanding current and prospective undergraduates. This has been possible not only because of the generous support of our alumni, parents, and friends, but also because of the increased number of faculty doing cutting-edge research. Just think about how working in a lab addressing problems in the world of green computing, biofuels, or plasmonic metamaterials would have impacted your undergraduate experience.

These students only add to the energy surrounding the newest members of our team and the faculty as a whole. As you can imagine, this has proved to be very appealing to prospective students. Many colleges of engineering don’t offer these opportunities, and this gives us a point of difference to recruit highquality students. Prospective students realize these opportunities give them valuable practical experience and an advantage when they are entering the working world or graduate school. It is truly gratifying when a student or alumnus talks about an experience they have encountered that is unique to L.C. Smith. These experiences would not be possible without a vibrant faculty and the resources that support their work. Thus, we are thankful for your support of our efforts and our mission. quiant.

Steve Savage Assistant Dean for College Advancement

advancement

In each issue of ENGINEER, my goal is to convey just how much of an impact the generosity of our donors has on the College. The recruitment and addition of new faculty to our College would not have been possible without donations to the L.C. Smith Dean’s Fund. The new faculty members joining us bring an enthusiasm for teaching and for providing research opportunities for students. This inspired me to highlight another one of the ways our students have benefited from your support.

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

DONOR REPORT GIFTS TO SUPPORT L.C. SMITH COLLEGE

PLEASE NOTE: OUR FISCAL YEAR ENDS JUNE 30. THIS LIST REFLECTS ALL GIFTS OF $500 OR MORE RECEIVED FROM JULY 1, 2010 TO JULY 1, 2011.

BENEFACTOR ($1,000 OR MORE) Andreas Acrivos Charles Alaimo Paulette Altmaier Elinor M. Antoni Manuel Ares William K. Arnold Kent N. Backus Rajeev Badrinath William F. Ballard and Susan F. Ballard Brian L. Beals and Emily B. Beals Neal F. Bergman and Nomi Bergman Thomas E. Blumer and Barbara Hall Blumer Lee A. Brathwaite John E. Breyer John N. Brogard Harold R. Brown III Robert J. Bugiada Gar Wood N. Burwell Herbert L. Byrd Jr. James A. Capolongo and Barbara Capolongo Richard H. Chazen Shiu-Kai Chin and Linda M. Milosky Said Cohen Harold R. Cramer Douglas D. Danforth Mark Ian Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Aprile Eugene C. Delsener Nicholas M. Donofrio and Anita M. Donofrio Philippe Dorante and Lisa M. Perard Richard Dulude and Jean Dulude Robert H. Ebersole and Nancy W. Ebersole David G. Edelstein and Jennie E. Berkson Ahmad M. El-Hindi and Elizabeth El-Hindi Garvin F. Forrester

John T. Fox II and Carol Fox William Ted Frantz Glenn S. Froese and Mary Lee Froese John H. Gaura Gina Lee-Glauser and Dr. Mark Glauser Louis J. Goodman Jr. and Kathleen T. Goodman Myron S. Gorel and Phyllis Gorel Jonathan S. Greenfield and Georgette D. Greenfield Andrew Gula William M. Halpin Jr. Jerrold A. Heller N. Carl Hellman Robert W. Hinkley Paul K. Houpt Wu-Teh Hsiang and Marjory J. Baruch Can Isik Susan C. Kaymon H. Ezzat Khalifa and Shadia Khalifa Yogeshkumar Durgprasad Khatri Robert H. Killius Louis M. LaClair Michael J. Lazar Rolf Leininger Irene Leverett Tse Wen Lin Frank A. Loguidice and Hilda R. Loguidice Friends of Dr. James A. Luker George R. Marks Jane Maselli Michael L. Mattson and Marilouise Mattson Thomas N. McCausland and Linda P. McCausland Keith S. McIntosh Robert A. McKie Donald McKinnon Raj K. Mehta Alvin S. Meltzer George H. Millman

Joel S. Mooney and Jeanne R. Mooney Isaac A. Morris Jr. John A. Murphy Joseph M. Murphy Mary E. Murphy Sheila E. Murphy Thomas A. Murphy John F. Olson David P. Owen and Dianne J. Owen Edward D. Paradise Glen E. Phillips David R. Poole Alfred O. Quinn Brian A. Rakvica and Abigail J. Rakvica Latisha F. Rourke Mark Z. Salvador Stephen A. Savage Philip E. Schefter and Carolyn D. Schefter Kendra K. Schroeder and Patricia A. Murphy Dineshchandra S. Shah William J. Sheeran and Deborah L. Pearce Frank A. Slazer Wayne T. Smith and Maureen J. Lally Robert A. Sperling Jr. A. Douglas Steinberg Jr. Patricia A. Strandell John G. Stratakos J. Robert Tomlinson Philip L. Varghese Michael R. Venutolo Mark J. Verone and Rachelle D. Hardy John C. Watson Raymond A. Wedlake and Nancy Joy Wedlake James Michael Whitaker Jerry R. Whitaker H. Frederick Whitney Jr. Priscilla T. Williams

Thomas C. Wilmot and M. Colleen Wilmot James L. Withiam and Beverly W. Withiam Abdallah H. Yabroudi ASSOCIATE ($500 - $999) Michael Alfano Harold A. Anderson Jr. Donald H. Andres Rajesh Anumukonda Douglas R. Beard Justin M. Blount Jeffrey E. Brockett Andre T. Cardoso and Kelly K. Cardoso Edward J. Cettina and Erin G. Cettina Arun D. Chawan John R. Chawner Eric P. Chenoweth Chia-Lun Chou Yi-Chyun Dai Kathleen F. Dalton Colin A. Danville and Dr. Jenice L. View Craig S. Dean Anthony J. DiMaso and Joanne M. DiMaso Jon W. Drosendahl and Aileen M. Drosendahl Lisa B. Feltrin Victor A. Fischer Richard S. Fleisher Garth H. Foster and Mary-Helen Foster Robert A. Gibson Henry M. Hall* Robert T. Hammond Jack N. Helmer and Carolyn M. Helmer Philip Helmes and Kathleen A. Helmes Verne A. Hobbs Jr. Alexander E. Holstein Jr. and Charlotte G. Holstein

Allen F. Horn III and Susan P. Horn John Proctor Howe Frederick L. Hunter Jr. Dharmarajan R. Iyer Donald M. Josephson Robert R. Kaiser Deepak M. Kamath Harry J. Kit Daniel P. Kowalski Harry Le Vine Jr. Joseph A. LeBlanc Gregory P. Levine John W. Lewis Matthew J. Lewis and Rosemary E. Lewis James A. Lindley Yi Lu and Julia H. Lu Kathleen A. Luvisi Hugh D. Lynch Matthew C. Mace William J. McLaughlin Robert A. McMillen Dikran S. Meliksetian and Marie Meliksetian Michael J. Oehler and Hope Mao Oehler Michael C. Orlovsky Paul J. Ossenbruggen Raymond E. Peart Benjamin Perelman Michael J. Querino Ronald F. Reed James L. Rine James P. Roney Joseph T. Rossi John G. Santoni David K. Schramm Ehtisham U. A. Siddiqui George R. Smith and Lois M. Smith Young H. Sohn James A. Spearot John M. Stengrevics and Susan S. Stengrevics James P. Stewart

David C. Stolp Bradley J. Strait and Nancy Strait Francis J. Straub Cynthia A. Thomas Robert M. Thompson and Debra D. Thompson Kevin C. Trott Ralph T. Urich Jr. Philip J. Vecere Sr. Guy A. Wadsworth Mark Donald Weber Denis E. Wickham * deceased CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS A.I. Solutions Adobe Systems Inc. American Electric Power Company Inc. American Express Company American International Group Inc. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & A-C Engineers The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Inc. BAE Systems North America Bank of America Foundation Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, The BASF Corporation Blue Highway LLC Boeing Company, The C&S Companies Calmar Research Corporation Carrier Corporation Caterpillar Foundation Central New York Community Foundation Inc. Chevron Corporation The Community Foundation of Louisville Depository Inc.

Computer Sciences Corporation Corning Incorporated Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Douglas & Janet Danforth Family Foundation DAVIS Mechanical Service Inc. DuPont Fabros Technology Inc. Eaton Corporation Evanston Community Foundation ExxonMobil Foundation Ferguson Drywall Innovations Inc. Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund GE Fund Google Inc. Gorel Realty Company Haley & Aldrich Inc. Harris Foundation The Heller Family Foundation Helmes & Company LLC Honeywell International Inc. IBM Corporation ING Financial Services Corporation Intel Corporation J.P. Morgan Chase & Company The Jewish Community Foundation of Central New York Inc. Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies JustGive KeyCorp KT Foundation Lilly & Company, Eli Lockheed Martin Corporation Macy’s Foundation MCGI Tec Inc. MEH Foundation MOJA Inc. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Global Impact Funding Trust Inc. Motorola Foundation National Semiconductor Corporation I & B Neuman Foundation Inc.

Northrop Grumman Foundation, The O’Brien & Gere Ltd. Oracle Matching Gifts Program Pfizer Foundation PJM Interconnection LLC Pointwise Inc. QUALCOMM Inc. Raymond International W.L.L. Raytheon Company The Gary Rosenau Foundation S.U. L.C. Smith College Alumni Assoc. Sanofi-Aventis Schneider Electric SA Schwab Charitable Fund Siemens Corporation SRC Inc. SunTrust Mid-Atlantic Matching Gifts Program Textron Charitable Trust Tsinghua University Turner Construction Company Foundation Tyco International Ltd. Union Pacific Corporation United Technologies Corporation United Way of Silicon Valley Verizon Foundation Welch Allyn Inc. Matching Gifts Program Whirlpool Foundation For the full list of donors, visit www.lcs.syr.edu/donors.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science

winter 2012

alumni join

Board of Trustees

On May 14, 2011, Syracuse University inducted new members to its Board of Trustees, including two L.C. Smith alumni. David G. Edelstein ’78 David G. Edelstein recently retired from his role as vice president of supply chain management and project management at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. Edelstein joined Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics in 2007 and was responsible for leading the development of advanced information and e-business systems to support the company’s worldwide organization.

Nicholas M. Donofrio G’71 During a 44-year career with IBM in various technical and management roles, Nicholas M. Donofrio received numerous companywide and national innovation and leadership awards. A holder of seven technology patents, Donofrio serves as an IBM fellow emeritus, the company’s highest technical honor.

He is recognized in the global engineering community as a fellow in multiple engineering academies, a member of the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board, a member of the Republic of China’s Advisory Board of Science and Technology, and a member of the boards of directors of several multinational corporations. An advocate for advancing education and career opportunities for minorities and women, Donofrio served as chairman of the board of directors for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering from 1997 to 2002 and received the 2003 Society of Women Engineers’ Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award. In 2005, he was appointed by the U.S. Department of Education to serve on the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. At Syracuse University, Donofrio has served as a guest lecturer and key corporate liaison to IBM. He received the George Arents Pioneer Medal for Technology Innovation in 2005. He serves on the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee.

Previously, he was senior vice president of regulatory affairs, quality systems, health, safety, and environment, and CIO for Dade Behring. Prior to joining Dade Behring, Edelstein was vice president of information management and productivity, responsible for financial and supply chain systems at Bristol-Myers Squibb. He also held various positions in information technology at IBM. For Syracuse University, Edelstein serves on the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee. He was a member of the Dean’s Council and Campaign Leadership Council for L.C. Smith. He has also served as an affiliate professor at L.C. Smith, where he guest lectures on complex integration projects and health care information technology.

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spotlight

Johnston Wins ASME

Competition Allison Johnston, a first-year graduate student in mechanical engineering, won the 2011 National ASME Old Guard Oral Presentation Competition held at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Denver in November. First-year LCS graduate student Allison Johnston holds Shane Shockley, a 3-year-old who learned to crawl using the Cerebral Palsy Crawler designed and built by Johnston and a team of University of Tulsa undergraduates.

The team built a Cerebral Palsy Crawler for Shane Shockley, a 3-year-old boy, to enable him to learn to crawl, based on a concept brought to them by Shane’s parents. “They had read a book that recommended patterning as a treatment for cerebral palsy,” Johnston says. For conventional patterning, which mimics the crawling motion, one adult controls the left arm and leg of the child, one adult controls the right arm and leg, and one adult controls the head. “The Cerebral Palsy Crawler that we designed and built is able to reproduce this patterning motion electromechanically with the help of only a single adult,” Johnston says. “It uses actuators to move Shane’s limbs while the adult moves his head.” Johnston and her team qualified for the national competition by winning first place at the District E Old Guard competition during the Student Professional Development Conference

(SPDC) competition in Fayetteville, Ark., in April. Winners from each of the regional competitions move on to the national competition. This was Johnston’s third year participating in the regional competition. She placed second in each of the two previous years. “The University of Tulsa has begun the process of applying for a patent for the machine, which has never been built before,” Johnston says. At L.C. Smith, Johnston is working toward a Ph.D. (expected in 2016) in mechanical engineering under the guidance of Barry Davidson, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. She is currently researching the Mode III delamination toughness of composite materials, or how much force it takes to separate two layers of a material-like carbon fiber in a tearing motion. “I think the biggest impact this award has on my studies is the practice I put in to earn it,” Johnston says. “It was a speaking competition on a technical subject, which is exactly what a Ph.D. defense is. I think I am better prepared for my work down the road because of the effort I put in now.”

spotlight

Johnston led team members Taylor Carpenter, Fadil Al-Ahmed, Kendra Kyler, and Loc Lam in presenting their undergraduate senior design project, which was created in the mechanical engineering department at the University of Tulsa.

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