CECS Newsletter_Spring 2024

From Dr. Ahad Nasab

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the first edition of our reimagined quarterly newsletter, with an emphasis on keeping our alumni and community partners informed on the innovations and accomplishments of the College of Engineering and Computer Science faculty and student body. In this edition, we shine a spotlight on our Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering, which has opened two new labs on the fourth floor of Engineering and Computer Science building in addition to dedicating an existing first floor lab to civil engineering environmental focus.

The culmination of the 2023-24 academic year is within sight as semester and year-end events claim our time and energy. The past months have been a period of research and engagement. From announcing our second NSF Career Award winner to hosting the most successful Marble Rollercoaster Engineering Design Competition, I am confident that the impactful successes of and accolades received by our students, faculty, and staff members will impress you as much as they did me. I am eager to hear from you, CECS alumni, about your recent accomplishments so we can share them with our close-knit community. I look forward to our on-going communications as we evolve into the foremost engineering and computer science college in the region.

Go Mocs!

Dr. Ahad Nasab Interim Dean College of Engineering and Computer Sciences

Departmental News

Civil Engineering

HOT TOPICS AND TRENDS

Smart Cities and Infrastructure: integration of technology for efficient management of urban infrastructure, including smart transportation systems, water systems, waste management and energy grids.

Resilient Structures: designing structures and systems that can withstand and recover from natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes.

Sustainable Design and Construction: emphasis on environmentally friendly and energy-efficient construction practices.

Innovative Advanced Materials: exploration of new construction materials with enhanced durability, sustainability and performance characteristics.

Virtual Simulations: for review of designs, project planning and project visualization.

CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRY

The changes that have occurred in civil engineering reflect the advances in digital technology resulting in updated in design philosophies, development of infrastructure that leverage sensors and data analytics to enhance efficiency and safety and innovations in construction techniques, all while considering climate and regulatory changes.

NEW COURSES

We definitely recommend that alumni of ENCE/ENCH should check out our new sophmore-level data analytics course. The need to handle and analyze large datasets has become common across all civil engineering sub-disciplines.

DEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH

Water: addressing emerging water contaminants like microplastics and engineered nanoparticles within surface water environments.

Transportation: research on quantifying and integrating green infrastructure benefits in transportation projects and their use in aiding decision making by designers, practitioners and policy makers. Application of new data mining techniques in improving traffic flow modeling to reduce congestion and improve air quality.

Structures: exploring how cutting-edge AI and data analytics technologies can transform structural engineering analysis, design and education.

Geotech: characterization of coal combustion residuals to improve harvesting potential and beneficial use supply.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering secured nearly $4 million in grant funding in the past five years, demonstrating its excellence in research and innovation, including research grants and funding to advance the establishment of a state-of-the-art Geomaterials Testing and Research Laboratory.

Chris Frishcosy, an outstanding faculty member, was honored as the 2023 General Robert Neyland Young Engineer of the Year for his outstanding achievements and contributions to the engineering profession.

Nineteen civil engineering students participated in research presentations within the last academic year, upholding the university’s commitment to fostering a culture of inquiry and discovery.

We recently established a new Civil Engineering Environmental Lab which will offer cutting-edge courses and facilities

starting in fall 2024, and we are in the process of upgrading and renovating our other civil engineering labs enchance our learning and research environment for our students and faculty.

We’re launching a new transportation concentration which will provide students with specialized knowledge and skills in the field of transportation engineering.

Finally, the civil engineering program is thrilled to announce an all-new Computational Laboratory. The lab will serve as a launchpad for student success by providing access to industry-standard design and simulation software. These powerful tools will help students enhance their understanding of coursework concepts and supercharge their project completion skills. As they dive into realworld simulations and design challenges, students will develop skillsets that directly apply to their future careers.

Alumni Submissions

Share your news! We want to feature alumni accomplishments in future newsletters. Send us your updates and achievements.

Departmental News Chemical Engineering

HOT TOPICS AND TRENDS

Renewable Routes to Chemicals and Fuels: rather than rely on fossil fuels, the chemical industry is shifting toward the use of renewable resources such as plant and animal oils and fats, proteins, sugars and starches.

Catalysis and Reaction Engineering: producing chemicals that speed up chemical reactions using a catalyst (catalysis) or optimize reactor design to achieve desired reaction rates (reaction) sustainably and efficiently while minimizing environmental impact.

Innovative Advanced Materials: to reduce carbon footprint, adopting sustainable materials, aiming to decrease the planet’s waste burden. Sustainable materials not only support circular systems but also facilitate the implementation of a circular economy.

Sustainable Process Design: focusing on countering major environmental problems through the integration of environmental, social and economic aspects into the design and management of processes.

CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRY

The changes that have occurred in chemical engineering reflect a growing awareness of major environmental problems, including climate change, loss of biodiversity and land degradation. We play a key role in developing solutions to these problems through green engineering and sustainable process design.

ALUMNI COURSE RECS

Check out the sophomore-level chemical engineering computations course that will soon be introduced into the curriculum.

NEW COURSES

We’re excited to offer a course in Fundamentals and Innovations of Renewable Energy. The purpose of this course is to provide a survey of the most important renewable energy resources and the related technologies for harnessing them, from simple methods to state-of the-art advanced energy systems. Subject areas include a review of thermal sciences, fundamentals and applications of solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, biomass energy, hydrogen and fuel cells, economics of renewable energy and innovations in renewable energy.

DEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH

Renewable Routes to Chemicals and Fuels: producing biodiesel from renewable feedstocks like waste cooking oil and algae-derived lipids, and generating organic sweeteners from yeast as a healthy alternative to artificial sweeteners.

Catalysis and Reaction Engineering: solar energy conversion and storage, alternative fuel production, photochemical and electrochemical processes, oil and gas reforming, wastewater treatment, air pollution control and turning solid waste to energy.

Innovative Advanced Materials: students are working on highly transparent thermal insulator using aerogel targeting energy-efficient window and solar-thermal energy conversion applications.

Sustainable Process Design: using both two-dimensional (2D) and threedimensional (3D) graphene structure to reduce carbon emissions. CO2 in the ambient air can be used as carbon source to synthesize 2D graphene. A 3D graphene can enhance catalytic conversion of methanol from CO2.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering secured nearly $4 million in grant funding in the past five years, demonstrating its excellence in research and innovation.

Our faculty are dedicated to outreach projects that improve matriculation, retention and graduation outcomes for our students. We implemented a National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program, in which faculty from regional feeder colleges spend 7 weeks at UTC and receive research and educational training. We also partner with Brainerd High School to offer a hands-on learning opportunity where students build and test their own chemical battery and energy dissipation device designs.

The UTC AlChE’s annual Chem-E-Car Competition® team placed second in the regional competition held in March and will advance to the national competition in the fall.

Dr. Rahul Bhosale received a $738,086 external grant to fund his research project, “Renewable Fuel Production via Integration of Solar-Driven Biomass Conversion and Thermochemical Water Splitting Technologies.”

Dr. Sungwoo Yang, the principle investor for the UTC Solar Decathlon team, received a $100,000 external grant for his research project, “Zero-Energy Modular House,” targeting 2025 Gateway Solar Decathlon competition.

In 2023, we established two stateof-the-art laboratories—the Advanced Materials Lab and the Bioengineering Lab. We’re also in the process of upgrading and renovating our other chemical engineering labs in order to provide the best learning and researching environments for our students and faculty.

We are seeking to fill two positions, a tenured-track assistant professor in chemical engineering and a lab manager, by the end of the spring semester.

Departmental News Mechanical Engineering

NEWS AND UPDATES

Dr. Hamdy Ibrahim won a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award of $556,776 for research into “innovative hybrid coatings” for implanted devices in biomedical applications that will allow the implants to naturally degrade after serving their purpose. NSF describes this award as one of the “most prestigious awards in support of earlycareer faculty.” Only 20% of applicants are selected each year.

David Brown, an undergraduate research assistant working with Dr. Reetesh Ranjan, received a URaCE National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) Presenter Award to attend the conference in Long Beach, California in April. This is his second invitation to attend NCUR.

Engineering Management and Technology

NEWS AND UPDATES

Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu and Jason McDowell (graduate research assistant in biomechatronics and the Assistive Technology Lab) received a Harris Chair MOCSInnovate! Mini-Grant award. This award offers up to $5,000 to UTC faculty and staff whose innovative ideas have the potential for commercialization or entrepreneurial endeavors. Kaplanoglu and McDowell designed an affordable, easy-to-use, wearable device that allows stroke patients to engage in successful hand treatment through robotic mirror therapy. They plan to use the award funds to market the device and eventually make it available to patients.

Dr. Hamby Ibrahim

Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu

Departmental News

Electrical Engineering

NEWS AND UPDATES

Lukas West, an undergraduate student in the department, received the IEEE Power & Energy Society Scholarship Plus Initiative. The initiative recognizes undergraduate students who have declared a major in electrical and computer engineering, are high achievers with strong GPAs and distinctive extracurricular commitments and are commited to exploring the power and energy field. One hundred and twentyfour students were selected from 54 U.S. and Canadian universities for the 202324 academic year.

Computer Science

NEWS AND UPDATES

Dr. Shahnewaz Sakib joined the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department as a tenure-track assistant professor in January 2024. Dr. Sakib received his Ph.D. in computer engineering from Iowa State University. His research focuses on secure and reliable computing, privacy-preserving machine learning.

Student Success

NEWS AND UPDATES

Three interdisciplinary research projects led by CSE faculty members were selected for funding by the Center of Excellence in Applied Computational Science and Engineering. Those projects are as follows: “Enhancing the Capacity of Quantum Key Distribution Research and Education through an Integrated Approach”, by Dr. Mengjun Xie (computer science and engineering) and Dr. Tian Li (chemistry and physics); “Intelligent Reconfigurable Battery System for Enhanced and Robust Electric Mobility”, by Dr. Dalei Wu (computer science and engineering), Dr. Keenan Dungey (chemistry and physics), Dr. Yu Liang and Dr. Yukun Yuan (computer science and engineering); and “Power and Transportation System Co-optimization with Renewable Energy and Electric Vehicles via Dynamic Pricing and Charging Rate Control”, Dr. Yukun Yuan (computer science and engineering), Dr. Feng Guo (psychology), Dr. Yu Liang and Dr. Dalei Wu (computer science and engineering).

Join us in welcoming Clarence Shields to the CECS Center for Student Success as our new career development coordinator. Shields writes, “As a proud alumnus of UTC, I am elated to embark on this new chapter, contributing my expertise to UTC in the realm of education. Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee, I hold a degree in public administration with a focus on nonprofit management from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. My professional trajectory has seen me excel in sales management, navigate the intricacies of business operations and find my true passion in education.

“With over five years dedicated to college and career development programs, I am committed to leaving a lasting impact and building a brighter future for the next generation. Beyond my career, I find fulfillment in my roles as a devoted husband to Jasmyne Shields and a proud father to Clarence Shields IV, carrying on a legacy of integrity and purpose.”

We are excited to work with Clarence because of his passion for student success and the joy he clearly has in serving the community.

From our Outreach and Student Recruitment Coordinators

Interviewees: Alex Coker (A), undergraduate outreach coordinator, and Mackenzie Clark (M), graduate recruitment coordinator

Q: What schools have you recently visited to promote our programs?

A: We’ve visited several Hamilton County and Knox County schools.

M: Most recently we’ve visited Milligan University, Southern Adventist and MTSU.

Q: What schools do you plan to visit?

A: We’re planning on visiting CSAS, Bradley County High, Cumberland High, Soddy Daisy High, Lookout Valley High, Brainerd High, Howard High, Ivy Academy, East Ridge High, CGLA, East Hamilton, Tyner Middle/High, CSLA, Ooltewah Middle and High, Hixson High, Silverdale Baptist, Westview Elementary and more.

M: Next up for us is Chattanooga State, Belmont, Tennessee State University and University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Q: What are some activities/events that you will be offering for potential students?

A: We’re currently working on two CommunityShare projects with Brainerd High, where the ChemE department is working with Brainerd students to design battery enclosures that help prevent thermal runaway. The electrical engineering department is working with with Westview Elementary to build an Augmented Reality Sandbox.

M: This semester we have the CECS Career Fair and Get On Board Day.

Q: What have you noticed with potential applicants/new students?

A: Reading and math scores have suffered extensively in the past five years, mostly due to COVID. However, we’re currently building a system-wide summer program

aimed at helping HS students improve their math scores to college-ready levels.

M: I see more and more students coming from a variety of professional backgrounds, not just engineering or computer science related (such as psychology majors, music majors, biology, chemistry, etc.).

Q: What sort of questions do you get asked often?

A: Believe it or not, I get a lot of questions about what engineering is and what it really entails. We also host several on-campus events with interactive lab sessions that really help the students become exposed to the field itself. Additionally, students often ask about salary and wor kexperience. Usually, I present some statistics from UTC as well as the Bureau of Labor Statistics to give them a baseline idea of salary and working life. It would be fantastic if we had some alumni to share their experiences on these fronts.

M: I typically get asked about funding/ scholarships. We offer various graduate assistantship opportunities that are competitive, so I always recommend researching and applying early. UTC also has a wonderful resource on campus known as the Mocs One Center, where you can learn about any financial aid for which you may qualify.

Q: Are there any trends you’ve noticed?

A: I do notice a ramping-up of student recruitment for engineering—not only with UTC, but other area colleges/ universities. Chattanooga is very quickly becoming an engineering/computer science city and businesses are moving here in droves. I really want to capitalize on this trend in the coming years and help to make UTC the engineering/computer destination for our area students.

M: I’ve noticed that student engagement and involvement are growing and have

been for some time. I reflect back to when campus had to operate in a virtual modality during COVID, and now I’ve noticed students are becoming more comfortable and embracing the in-person events again. It’s enjoyable to watch students fall in love with this campus the way I have.

Q: How can our alumni help?

A: Spread the word. Having real anecdotes to talk about to our students is also immensely helpful, especially in our underserved communities. Additionally, coming in on occasion to work with our students would be huge.

M: Stay connected and get involved. Just because you’re an alum doesn’t mean you’ve left the UTC community. Our Advancement office puts together events for alumni frequently, and I couldn’t recommend them more. They can also provide you with a variety of resources as you navigate your professional journey.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our alumni and community?

A: The outreach team is diving headfirst into Hamilton County Schools’ new platform called CommunityShare. I highly recommend that any alumni in the area sign up for this service, as it connects school personnel to businesses/nonprofits/academic institutions for help with supplemental education, funding opportunities and more. Feel free to connect with me on CommunityShare, so we can help support and expand the STEM opportunities for our students.

M: I could not recommend more for alumni to get connected with our Advancement office. It’s the best way to stay connected and involved with your alma mater.

Visit utc.edu/cecs for more information.

Outreach Events

On Leap Day 2024, local middle and high school students built 30 roller coasters at the UTC.

Made from paper, tape and foam, the meter-tall coasters weren’t the kind you would find in an amusement park. Teams of more than 150 students constructed the coasters as part of the third annual Marble Roller Coaster competition.

Hosted by the College of Engineering and Computer Science in the University Center Tennessee Room, the competition encouraged students to be creative through the engineering design process, focusing on problem-solving, prototyping, testing and evaluation, said CECS Chief of Staff Sara Jackson.

The judges scored on innovation, aesthetics, the structural ability of the coaster, how fast a marble could travel through it and how many times the marble reached the end. The paper coasters had to be over three feet tall and include a loop and a jump.

Each team had 20 minutes to brainstorm and 90 minutes to complete the challenge.

“This competition was created by our college’s students to fill a void of interactive events that was a pandemic legacy,” CECS Interim Dean Ahad Nasab said. “The first two events were focused on welcoming middle and high school students to campus to stimulate interest in both college and STEM. We are now seeing middle and high school teachers building this event into their curriculum, preparing students by reviewing the design process.”

Jackson said that teams from different schools bring their own advantages and disadvantages to the competition. While some high school students take engineering, design or STEM survey classes, some middle school students are exposed to STEM while taking other courses but have not yet concentrated on the design process.

“Fortunately, the engineering design is an iterative process in which students

learn by attempting to solve a problem, and this can be applied to all subjects,” she said.

UTC student organizers of the Marble Roller Coaster competition included junior engineering management and technology major Nathaniel Andrews and Jeremiah Taylor, a civil engineering senior and president of the UTC chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.

“We’ve never had this many students register,” said Andrews, a graduate of Stewart County High School in Dover, Tennessee. “The big thing that we’re seeing from last year that’s rolling over is schools, students and groups are understanding what the competition is. They’re coming in with plans premade and ideas in their head ready to go.”

Jackson said having college students organize this event makes it unique.

“It is very important to us that our students become well-rounded individuals to better meet the various demands of the Tennessee Valley workforce,” she said. “We are not just educating future engineers and computer scientists. We are creating leaders.”

Support for the event was provided by Dr. Gretchen Potts in Biology, Geology and Environmental Science, Dr. Chris Cox in Mathematics, Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu in Engineering Management and Technology, UTC Undergraduate Admissions, the CECS Student Ambassadors, the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineering, TVA and Burns & McDonnell.

From a Student Organization

Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

This past year, SWE hosted speakers from the industry to present to the group, visited industry-relevant companies and volunteered at local STEM events. Furthermore, we hosted 25 high school girls from Atlanta and taught the group how to make electric circuits with bugs. We also had fun together making tie dye shirts and hosting various get-togethers for our student members.

Engaging with the Community

CECS Visits Brainerd High School as told by Dr. Bradley Harris, director of chemical engineering

A group of CECS representatives went to Brainerd High School (BHS) to attend a regular class session where students were discussing battery technology. The students had spent the semester learning about electric vehicle battery technology and the possibility of thermal runaway. They were brainstorming ideas for how to build a device to absorb energy and prevent thermal runaway in case an EV battery were to overhead.

Dr. Sungwoo Yang gave a presentation on aerogels and how this material can be used to absorb energy and prevent thermal runaway in EV batteries. Then, Dr. Yang, Dr. Bradley Harris and three senior undergraduate ChemE students went table to table to answer the BHS students’ questions about battery technology and chemical engineering.

The BHS students subsequently visited UTC and worked with Dr. Harris and several ChemE students to learn how to build a simple battery and test whether or not it could light a small LED light. Then, we built a larger battery

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Faculty members and other from the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Sciences spent the day at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The group met with ORNL researchers and UT-ORII leadership to explore potential areas of collaboration, in areas such as modeling, computational science and biomedical and health data sciences.

along with a group of BHS students and showed everyone how it could power a small bubble making device. The students loved the experience. We then gave them a tour of the Engineering and Computer Science building, the rest of campus and culminated their trip with lunch in the University Center.

Brainerd High School students returned to the UTC campus in March to present their own battery designs and receive feedback from CECS faculty and students.

A group of SWE members meet with Erica McCallie (pictured bottom left), senior T&I product manager at TVA.