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Michigan E-News - August 2001

Welcome to Michigan E-News, a periodic update of happenings at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. It is published by the Office of College Relations, Media and Marketing.

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In this issue:

1. Solar Car Team Wins Despite a practice-run crash that nearly destroyed its car, and following a heroic rebuilding effort, the U-M solar car team won the 2001 American Solar Challenge. The 2300-mile race began July 15 in Chicago and ended July 25 in Claremont, California. Thirty teams started the race, including MIT and Stanford. U-M defeated second-place University of Missouri-Rolla by 1 hour 20 minutes.

2. Graduation The College recognized the Class of 2001 during spring commencement on April 28. Carol Bartz, President, CEO, and Chairman of Autodesk Inc., one of the world's leading design software and digital content companies, gave the keynote address. Her remarks addressed the role of technology in our past and our future. Michael Miller, class president, presented the senior class gift, a wolverine sculpture, which will be placed on the hillside adjacent to the '47E Pool Plaza.

3. Michigan Engineering Alumni Weekend The annual Michigan Engineering Alumni Weekend will be held October 11-13. See old friends and enjoy a great time. Find the schedule of activities and registration form at http://www.engin.umich.edu/alumni.

4. Alumni Society Board Meeting Recap In May, the Alumni Society Board of Governors held its spring weekend retreat in northern Michigan at Michigania, the Alumni Association education center and camp. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Linda Katehi presented an update on College activities and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Wayne Jones reported on student enrollment.

The Board discussed plans for two of its key projects: student/alumni networking and recruiting. The fall Networking Dinner will be designed to promote more movement and mixing, and the Board will work to involve more recent graduates in recruiting.

Two new Board committees met for the first time. The Fundraising Committee will help build the Michigan Engineering Fund. The GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) Committee will focus on involving more recent alumni in College activities. One of its first initiatives will be to prepare criteria for a Distinguished Young Alum Award.

Saturday evening, local alumni joined the Board for dinner and stayed to hear Kamal Sarabandi, Assoc. Professor in EECS, speak about "Remote radar sensing of vegetation as a tool for monitoring global warming." The Board also held a focus group on alumni communications, with an emphasis on an expanded web site and this e-mail newsletter.

5. Seven CoE Faculty Receive NSF CAREER Awards Seven College faculty members have received National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards. This program emphasizes the importance NSF places on the early development of academic careers dedicated to stimulating the discovery process. Recipients have combined the excitement of research with inspired teaching to promote enthusiastic learning. The program encourages awardees to develop collaborative research and education partnerships between industry and academe. The 2001 awardees and their projects are: * 1)Todd Austin, EECS, "New directions in speculative execution" * 2)Brent Gillespie, ME, "The haptic probe: mechanized haptic exploration and automated modeling" * 3)Katsuo Kurabayashi, ME, "High-temperature thermal transport in LPCVD polysilicon for MEMS" * 4)Jonathan Luntz, ME, "Multi-task-domain distributed manipulation and mechatronics education" * 5)Joanna Mirecki Millunchick, MSE, "The materials science of metamorphic buffer layers for high performance device applications" * 6)Steven Skerlos, ME, "Optimization and control of metalworking fluids in environmentally benign manufacturing systems" * 7)Michael Solomon, ChE, "Direct visualization of the structure and dynamics of complex fluids during flow by confocal and epifluorescence microscopy"

6. Levi Thompson Appointed Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Professor Levi Thompson has accepted the position of Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, subject to Regental approval, effective September 1, 2001.

Wayne Jones is completing his term as Associate Dean and will be returning to the faculty in Materials Science and Engineering. He has done an outstanding job in this position for the last five years. Among other things, under his leadership, the College implemented Curriculum 2000 and had all of its programs accredited. In addition, the Curriculum Committee structure was transformed and many of the processes employed in the Associate Dean's Office have been dramatically improved. Levi received his B.S. degree from the University of Delaware in 1981. He earned his M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan in 1982 and 1986, respectively, in Chemical Engineering, as well as an M.S.E. in Nuclear Engineering from U-M in 1986.

He joined the College of Engineering as an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering in 1988. Levi has made very important contributions to the College's mission of teaching undergraduates, including developing novel teaching materials for a variety of core courses. At the graduate level, he has taught several courses including specialty courses in his research field of catalysis, advanced materials, and reaction engineering. Through his research, Levi has distinguished himself as a leader in the development of novel catalytic materials including those used in fuel cells and fuel processors.

Levi has provided substantial service to the Department, College, University, and his profession. Of special note is his enormous contribution and commitment to minority issues. Levi has attained a highly respected stature as an educator and researcher. Under his leadership in undergraduate education, the College will continue to enhance its curricula and achieve improvements in its student service operations.

7. Rich Brown Appointed Interim Chair of EECS Professor Rich Brown has accepted the appointment of Interim Chair of EECS, effective July 1, 2001. Pramod Khargonekar, current EECS chair, is leaving the University of Michigan to become Dean of Engineering at the University of Florida, his alma mater.

After receiving his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University in 1976, Rich became Vice President of Engineering at Holman Industries and then Manager of Computer Development at Cardinal Industries. Rich earned a Ph.D. in EE at the University of Utah in 1985 and then joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He has served as Associate Chair for the department's EE Division.

Rich carries out research in the areas of solid-state sensors, high-temperature CMOS, SOI, mixed-signal circuits, and high-performance and radiation-tolerant computing systems based on VLSI digital GaAs. He has authored more than 100 papers, holds five patents, and has served as guest editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. He is also active nationally, having served on NSF, ASME, and DARPA advisory committees for emerging technologies and VLSI education, and continues to serve on the MOSIS Advanced Technology Advisory Committee, and as the chair of the MOSIS Advisory Council for Education.

8. Thomas Johengen Appointed Director of CILER Dr. Thomas H. Johengen has accepted the position of Director of the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research (CILER), a NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research joint institute administered by the College of Engineering. Tom has been serving as Interim Director since September, 2000. He received a B.Sc. degree in biology from Michigan State University in 1981. He then received a M.Sc. degree in oceanography from Florida State University where he studied microbial ecology and the application of a constructed wetland to mitigate urban storm water runoff. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan in 1991, where his research focused on nonpoint source pollution and the design of effective water quality monitoring approaches at the watershed scale.

Between 1991 and 1994, Tom served as a postdoctoral research fellow at CILER where he participated in various studies on nutrient and trophic dynamics within the Great Lakes. Since 1995, Tom has been a research scientist with CILER, where he has studied the impact of the zebra mussel invasion on water quality and trophic dynamics in the Great Lakes. Most recently, he has participated in the development of a new research program on the risks and management of aquatic invasive species introductions associated with ballast water and transoceanic shipping activities.

9. Redesigned Web Site The CoE web site has been upgraded again. If you haven't visited the site since early this month, go to http://www.engin.umich.edu. Get the latest news about the College, review a listing of current events around campus or take a look at the schedule for Michigan Engineering Alumni Weekend. We welcome your thoughts about the site. Send comments to coe-webmaster@umich.edu.

10. Gift from Dell Computer Upgrades Engineering Labs in Pierpont Commons Paul Killey, James Holloway, and Daryl Weinert, working with a team from Dell Computer, including EECS alum and key executive Cathy Arledge, have secured a gift of 80 Dell workstations and peripherals, valued at approximately $95,000, for the refurbishment of the Engineering 101 laboratories in Pierpont Commons. Engineering 101 is a course in basic algorithm design and programming required of nearly all students at the College.

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