• Federico Capasso Delivers the 2002-2003 Goff Smith Lecture
• College Cleaning Frenzy
• Carl A. Gerstacker Building Dedicated
• FIPS -- on Its Way to Mars
• College of Engineering Virtual Football Trainer Receives Computerworld Honors
• GM Gives $10 Million to U-M and College of Engineering
  

Federico Capasso Delivers the 2002-2003 Goff Smith Lecture

Federico Capasso, the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at Harvard University, received the 2002-2003 Goff Smith Prize from the College of Engineering and delivered the Goff Smith Lecture March 13 in Chesebrough Auditorium. Capasso is an internationally renowned researcher who is most well known for his technical contributions in the areas of solid-state electronics and optoelectronics through semiconductor "bandgap engineering."

 

 

College Cleaning Frenzy

A contender for the oldest item found -- slides from WWII

There's little time to clean one's office during the working year. So on May 30, CoE folks put on rubber gloves, got out the brooms and applied a little elbow grease
during the First Annual College Clean-Up Day.

Was it a success? We:

• Recycled a total of 90,084 pounds of materials, including 65,740 pounds of paper and 16,120 pounds of scrap metal.
• Sent 78,160 pounds of material to landfills, including 15,960 pounds of trash and 62,200 pounds of concrete waste.
• Shredded 25,000 pounds of paper.
• Sent 18 truck loads (20,160 cubic feet) of various items to Property Disposition.

Our first foray into office archeology also turned up a number of surprises, including an anti-aircraft shell from World War II, and a bulletin from academic year 1910-1911.

You'll find some photos of CoE people digging out from under at www.engin.umich.edu/admin/cleanupday.

Carl A. Gerstacker Building Dedicated

(left to right) Alan Ott, Gail Lanphear, President Coleman, Dean Stephen W. Director, Esther Gerstacker, Bill Schuette, Lisa Gerstacker, Ned Brandt.

Family and friends of the late Carl A. Gerstacker gathered April 11 to dedicate the new College of Engineering building that bears his name. The Midland, Michigan-based Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation partially funded the addition with a $5 million gift. The new 31,000-square-foot addition is one of two buildings that will help anchor a biomedical engineering complex on North Campus to accommodate the rapid growth of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) department and to foster interaction and interdisciplinary work between BME and Materials Science and Engineering (another Gerstacker tenant) and the nearby Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, which also has space in the building.

Esther Schuette Gerstacker passed away August 2, 2003, in Midland, Michigan. She was the widow of Carl A. Gerstacker, former Chairman of the Board of The Dow Chemical Company. Mrs. Gerstacker is survived by her children: Sandra Schuette Joys, Dr. Gretchen Schuette, Michigan State Senator William D. Schuette, Bette Gerstacker and Lisa Gerstacker Walsh.

FIPS -- on Its Way to Mercury

(left to right) U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg ; Thomas Zurbuchen,  associate professor, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences; Dr. Richard Fisher, NASA.

On February 14, the College unveiled the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS), an instrument the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences department designed for NASA's Messenger mission to Mercury. The project will demonstrate how the use of high-performance, low-weight instruments to explore the solar system can eliminate risk to human life. U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Bloomfield Township) told the audience, composed largely of high-school and Michigan Engineering students, that NASA needs a new generation to join its ranks because longtime employees are beginning to retire. Richard Fisher, director of NASA's Sun-Earth Connection Division, added his praise for the FIPS project.

 

College of Engineering Virtual Football Trainer Receives Computerworld Honors

Michigan Engineering received Computerworld honors for the development of the Virtual Football Trainer, a virtual reality simulator that trains football players to quickly recognize critical play situations and to react instantly to an opponent's moves. The Computerworld program recognizes organizations whose use of information technology has been especially noteworthy for the originality of its conception, the breadth of its vision, and the significance of its benefit to society. The trainer inspired a spin-off company that will market the technology to professional teams.

GM Gives $10 Million to U-M and College of Engineering

General Motors Corporation announced it would give the University of Michigan more than $10 million in grants for joint research and development programs, and educational enhancement. GM is funding two Collaborative Research Laboratories (CRLs) at the College, providing $9 million over the next five years. These labs will focus on advanced vehicle manufacturing and engine systems research. GM also will provide $1.2 million over three years to fund a variety of College of Engineering and Business School initiatives, including their joint Tauber Manufacturing Institute, diversity programs, scholarships, high-school outreach, and classroom instruction delivered simultaneously in multiple countries.