March 2010

The week of a lifetime . . .

The first week of March, was the week of a lifetime, and one that I will never forget!

And you, our alumni and friends, made it so, and for that I am eternally grateful to each of you.

During that week, on Friday, March 5, we held the spectacular groundbreaking for our new 250,000 square foot, $100 million engineering facility we call the Discovery Learning Complex.  The groundbreaking was attended by approximately 550 alumni and friends.  With the cash we currently have, we are constructing about one half of the complex now and will complete the second half as the final $50 million is raised. Watch a video of the groundbreaking celebration.

Speakers at COE groundbreaking cerebration
Left to right: Rev. Frederick P. Zagone, S.J., Assistant to the Vice president of University Advancement (blessing of building site and construction); Stan Jaskolski, OPUS Dean of Engineering (welcome and opening remarks); Cara Brigman, sophomore in biomedical engineering (student perspective); Steven Lynch, junior in electrical engineering (ceremonial groundbreaking - excavator operator); Kathy E. Scherbarth, Eng '78, Vice President of Milwaukee Operations for STRATTEC Security Corporation ( alumni perspective); and Rev. Robert A Wild, S.J., President of Marquette University (general remarks)

And, on Saturday March 6, our College of Engineering Alumni Association held its annual silent auction and brunch, attended by over 500 alumni and friends.  Leading the attendees were the Alumni Association leaders, as well as alumni from both Triangle and Sigma Phi Delta and members of the college's National Advisory Council.  These three groups announced that over the past few months, they have raised more than $462,000 to help build our new Discovery Learning Complex and that figure continues to grow.  This fundraising was done to recognize my pending retirement, and I am truly honored.  Furthermore, these three groups have raised more than $5.8 million to support the new facility.

Fundraising total announced at silent auction and brunch

See why I call this the week of a lifetime?

Words can never express my gratitude to each and every one of you for your gracious, constant and growing support of our transformation of your college of engineering.  My work as Dean has been blessed with your presence, your counsel and your support, without which none of this would or could happen.  For me, this has not been a job, but rather, it has been a labor of love.  And, through this labor of love my wife Cindy and I have been truly blessed to meet you, to build life-long friendships and to have the opportunity to together build a premier college of engineering here at Marquette University.

We started with a spark of an idea.  It was turned into a fire with several key donations and now, with help from all of you, we are building a bonfire.

As we do this together, we work to exceed all of our expectations!

Thank you for all that you have done, do and will do for your college of engineering here at Marquette University.

STAN V. JASKOLSKI
OPUS Dean
College of Engineering
Marquette University

Local coverage of the groundbreaking:
Milwaukee TV news coverage from March 5, 2010

Banner photo: Guests gather to celebrate the Discovery Learning Complex groundbreaking

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Marquette and UWM receive NSF grant for freshwater research

Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have received a $675,000 five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to form an Industry & University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) in Milwaukee focused on advancing freshwater research and spurring economic growth.

The I/UCRC combines the individual areas of expertise at the two universities and links those resources with six area water-related industries, with the goal of developing industry-chosen projects involving water equipment, policy and technology.

Michael Switzenbaum, executive associate dean of the Marquette College of Engineering, and Erik Christensen, an engineering professor at UWM, are the principal investigators for the grant and directors of the center. The new Milwaukee I/UCRC is one of about 55 NSF centers in the country and one of only two that focus on freshwater issues.

“Marquette is delighted to collaborate with UWM and our local industry partners on the development of new water technologies.  As part of our mission and as good citizens of Milwaukee we see such endeavors as critical for the economic development of our region,” Switzenbaum said. “Our expertise in sensors, nanotechnology and anaerobic biotechnology can be advantageous in the creation of new products and processes.”

Five Marquette engineering faculty members are also involved in the  I/UCRC – Tony Bowman, Fabien Josse, Chung Hoon Lee, Charles (Steve) Melching, and Daniel Zitomer. Read the full details on the grant.

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Senator Kaufman of Delaware highlights MU engineering STEM outreach

Senator Ted Kaufman highlighted the College of Engineering’s STEM outreach activities in a recent presentation at the American Society of Engineering Education’s 2010 Public Policy Colloquium.  Senator Kaufman is the only engineer currently serving in the U.S. Senate. 

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Dr. Susan Schneider receives award

Dr. Susan Schneider, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is one of the recipients of the 2010 Way Klingler Teaching Enhancement award.

Dr. Susan Schneider, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies for electrical and computer engineering, thinks repackaging five department labs will increase student satisfaction. Boosting student satisfaction promotes deeper learning. Deeper learning leads to better-educated engineers.

Her proposal, “Development of online lecture and preparation resources for five electrical engineering and computer engineering laboratory courses,” received a $10,000 2010 Way Klingler Teaching Enhancement Award. Dr. Stanley Jaskolski, OPUS dean of engineering, pledged an additional $5,000 for the project.

Schneider and her team — Dr. James Richie, associate professor and electrical engineering curriculum coordinator, and Frank Jacoby, adjunct assistant professor and director of undergraduate electrical engineering laboratories — said the hybrid format is groundbreaking. Lecture materials, which are used to review theory for engineering experiments, will be moved to D2L. Students will take quizzes and exercises online, freeing up lecture time to delve deeper into concepts. Electrical engineering undergraduate students will shoot how-to videos for online versions of the courses to illustrate hands-on laboratory techniques, test equipment ­operation and software use.

“The online materials for the laboratory courses will be an easily ­accessible repository of all the information students needs to successfully do their work,” Schneider said.
       By Becky Dubin Jenkins for Marquette Matters

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Design competition finalists

A Marquette engineering senior design team will exhibit their project, a human-powered nebulizer, at the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance’s (NCIIA) annual March Madness for the Mind showcase Saturday, March 27, in San Francisco.

The Marquette team is one of 16 to be recognized as a top Excellence and Entrepreneurship Team by the NCIIA, which works with many of the nation’s leading universities and colleges to help students grow their innovative technologies from concept to commercialization. 

Working under the direction of Lars Olson, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, the student team of Alex Loy, Marissa Naslund, Alex Palutsis, Charlie Shen and Mike Siebert, refined the human-powered nebulizer, which has been developed by Marquette senior design teams since 2005.

A nebulizer is a device that turns liquid medicine into a vapor that can be inhaled deep into the lungs. Commercial nebulizers use electric compressors or batteries to maintain a constant rate of flow. Marquette’s design replaces the electric compressor and uses bicycle pedals and a 20 oz. soda bottle to produce and regulate the air flow. This would allow the Marquette nebulizer to be used in developing countries where chronic respiratory diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality – and where many people do not have electrical power. Learn more about the design competition.

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2010 Green Energy Summit Expo

The GasDay Lab and the Office of Enrollment Management are coordinating the College of Engineering’s activities in the exhibit booth area of this year’s Green Energy Summit March 24 to 26, 2010 at the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee.  The full spectrum of the college’s work in energy will be represented with posters and hands-on displays in our booth.  A large number of local companies and educational institutions are also participating.

Look for more information on the summit in the April issue of AHOYA.

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Orthopaedic & Rehabilitation Engineering Center (OREC) holds symposia

OREC recently conducted a symposium on “Nanoindentation and Biomaterials Research in Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) Research” with visiting professor, Dr. Zaifeng Fan.  Dr. Fan worked with Dr. Gerald Harris, director of OREC, as a post-doctoral fellow in Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training.   Several Marquette University graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are working on projects related to OI (Brittle Bone Disease).  Read more about the work Marquette researchers are doing on Brittle Bone Disease.

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Rube Goldberg Machine Contest

The Milwaukee Regional Rube Goldberg Machine Contest took place in February at Discovery World Museum.  This annual contest challenges teams of high school students to build a machine to do a very simple task in a complicated way.  Students of all ages are participating in engineering, transforming everyday materials into their own wacky and innovative machines.  The winning team advances to the National Rube Goldberg High School Machine Contest at Purdue University.

Fifteen teams participated in the 2010 contest challenge to “dispense an appropriate amount of hand sanitizer into a hand”.  The team from Pius XI High School in Milwaukee won the Marquette College of Engineering Best Design award and also took second place in the competition.

In addition to providing the prize for best design the college serves on the planning and hosting committee, contributes financial support for the contest and MU engineering alumni serve as judges. All part of the college's continuing commitment to STEM education.

The team from Pius XI High School

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Attention women engineering grads

Drs. Nadya Fouad and Romila Singh, researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, are launching a national study of women engineering graduates from over 30 universities in the country and invite you to participate. The study, Project on Women Engineers’ Retention (POWER) funded by the National Science Foundation, will explore the career experiences of women engineering graduates.

Women make up more than 20% of engineering school graduates, but only 11% of practicing engineers and engineering mangers are women. POWER hopes to find out why engineering remains one of the few stubbornly male-dominated professions. As a woman with an engineering degree, you are the only one who can help answer this critical question. Won’t you please help by sharing your career experiences?

Even if you’re not presently working in the engineering field, your response to the study is very important. Your experiences will help to understand and advance the careers of women engineers.

Please visit www.nsfpower.org  to learn more about the study and lend your voice to this important, ground breaking research. Your help can make a difference!

Please contact Drs. Fouad and Singh if you have any questions:  Nsf-power@uwm.edu

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Record-breaking open house and scholarship competition

The college’s annual open house and scholarship competition at the end of February broke all previous attendance and participation records.   All students accepted to the college for fall of 2010 and their parents were invited to campus for a series of informational and social events.  The main event of the weekend is the college’s scholarship competition.  475 potential members of the class of 2014 participated in the scholarship competition.  The traditional Wisconsin fish fry; casino night;  lab and college tours; and information sessions with faculty and current students drew more than 1,300 participants.

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Women & Science Day

Maria Bengtson, doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering, and Jack Samuelson, Coordinator of Engineering Outreach, presented two workshops for middle school girls at the recent  "Women & Science Day" in Stevens Point.

Women & Science Day is an annual event intended for young women to explore and learn about careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).  More than 500 7th and 8th grade girls participated in this year’s event.  The "Get Over It! an introduction to Bridge Building" workshop is a civil engineering challenge to build bridges with K'Nex constructions toys that would support as many cans of tomatoes as possible.  Ms. Bengtson also provided information on career opportunities in engineering.

Maria Bengston (far right) and students work on K'Nex bridge challenge

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Alumni National Awards Weekend, April 22 to 24

Fifty-five alumni and friends will be honored at 13 events throughout this special weekend on Marquette’s campus.  These outstanding recipients have distinguished themselves in such a way that their peers have suggested them for the honor of an Alumni National Award.  As members of the Marquette community, we all take pride in their accomplishments. 
 
The 2010 College of Engineering Award recipients are as follows:
Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award:  Bruno A. Henke, Eng ’60

Professional Achievement Award:   Lisa A. Cvengros, Eng ’87

Entrepreneurial Award:  James K. Michels, Eng ’62

Service to Marquette Award:  Michael H. O’Connor, Eng ’75

Young Alumni of the Year Award:   Stacy Wollner Gauthier, Eng ’93, Grad ’95 and Michael T. Gauthier, Eng ’93

Dean’s Award:   Roger G. Klement, Eng ’68

In addition, Kelly Glasow McShane, Art ’68 and Jim A. McShane, Eng ’68 will receive the All University Service to Marquette Award. To view all 2010 Alumni National Award recipients, register for the events, make a scholarship aid gift in honor of a recipient or nominate an alumnus/a for consideration for a future Alumni National Award, visit the Alumni National Awards Web site.

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The Jump-Around Guy

By day he runs an engineering firm, by game day he’s Marquette’s biggest fan . . . see engineering’s very own Rick Smith as The Jump-Around Guy.

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