November 2009 issue:
Be the difference . . .
That’s the Marquette motto that engineering alumnus Rhaoul Guillaume, Sr. took to heart when his company GOTECH, Inc. became a key player in restoring New Orleans in the aftermath of several devastating hurricanes. A 1971 Marquette graduate and founder and president of the engineering and consulting firm, Guillaume recounted his personal and professional experiences following the hurricanes at a special presentation sponsored by the College of Engineering last month.
Rhaoul Guillaume Sr.
First there were hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 followed three years later by Gustav and Ike, all hitting his home state of Louisiana. Since Katrina, GOTECH has undertaken many projects to clean up and rebuild the state’s infrastructure, public schools, airports, levee systems and numerous other sites. Guillaume and his company have been on the front lines from the very beginning – sharing their technical expertise and themselves.
One of the projects in which GOTECH is currently involved is the $800 million I-10 Twin Span Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, replacing the existing bridge which sustained considerable damage during Katrina.
After completing a three-year pre-engineering program at Xavier University of Louisiana, Guillaume decided to pursue an engineering degree at Marquette. In 1968, he pledged to become a member of the Sigma Phi Delta engineering fraternity, where he was part of the group described as the “magnificent seven” – his life-long friends. After receiving his B.S. degree in civil engineering, Rhaoul worked as a resident engineer at the Louisiana Superdome and went on to found GOTECH in 1981.
Members of Sigma Phi Delta attending Guillaume's presentation
Guillaume is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi and is a Fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Celebration of women engineers
“Marquette Celebrates Women in Engineering” was a huge hit last month when over 100 young women, parents and educators attended the event on campus. Six schools participated in the daytime activities, one from as far away as Weston, Wis. located in the western part of the state.
Students, along with their school administrators, engaged in workshops with the college’s engineering departments. Electrical Engineering presented two workshops: “Doing the Roomba; not the dance but the Robot Vacuum Cleaner,” and “The Audacity: Audio Signal Processing and MP3 Encoding.” Biomedical Engineering women faculty presented “Monitoring Your Health,” while Mechanical Engineering challenged the participants with “Sketching: The Lost Art of Drawing.” Last but certainly not least, Civil Engineering offered “A Smashing Experience.”
Professor Frank Jacobi and current engineering students present workshop
Participants were also given time to network with women engineering students, faculty and alumnae. Keynote speaker Celeste Baine, Director of the Engineering Education Service Center and author, did a terrific job connecting with the students and expanding their knowledge of engineering career opportunities. When asked about the presentation, one young lady said “Ms. Baine made anything seem possible.”
The evening program “Bring Your Daughter to Engineering Night,” began with Celeste Baine again delivering her “Girls Rule” presentation to participants and parents. The highlight of the evening was the guest panel discussion with our alumnae telling “their story.” The young women then enjoyed a hands-on engineering activity while Dr. Jon Jensen had a conversation with the adults about preparing for college.
Students enjoy hands-on engineering activities
All of the day’s activities ended on a high note with requests for this event to be offered again next year. A huge “thank you” to the faculty, staff and alumnae who took time from their busy schedules to make the entire day a success!
Promoting STEM
The 6th Annual sySTEM Now! conference theme “Transitions” really hit the target! The conference transitioned into a new location, expanded to a two day event and featured both local and national speakers. The College of Engineering was one of the sponsors of the conference and Dr. Jon Jensen and Lori Stempski, in the Office of Enrollment Management and Engineering Outreach, were on the planning committee.
FIRST Robotics Competition student display
Day one got underway with STEM tours of Discovery World, the Milwaukee Area Technical College, a “Robotics Cell” at Bradley Tech High School and “Project Lead the Way in Action” at Brown Deer High School. While tours were in progress STEM summit group meetings were held.
The evening activities at the Bradley Center included a social hour, dinner and keynote speaker John Abele, Founder and Chairman of Boston Scientific and Chair of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). Mr. Abele gave a passionate and compelling presentation.
The second day began with a panel discussion on STEM efforts outside of our state. Dr. Joan Prince, Vice Chancellor at UW-Milwaukee, moderated the general session of an informative discussion on the collaboration between business, secondary, and post-secondary education efforts in STEM. During lunch the keynote speaker was Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle.
Gov. Jim Doyle greets lunch guests
As in previous years the day was filled with breakout sessions, networking, STEM demonstrations, and exhibits from colleges, technical schools, local high schools and industry.
Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
student display
Changing to a two day event, a larger venue and continuing to bring powerful, professional speakers will make the 7th Annual sySTEM Now! conference a destination for not only local industry and educators but guests from surrounding states.
Funding awarded to advance STEM awareness
The College of Engineering will receive $333,000 to develop, test and disseminate six science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curricular modules. Working in conjunction with Marquette’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and the nonprofit Council for Opportunity in Education, these modules will be used in Saturday, afterschool and summer school programs nationwide that are focused on low-income youth in grades 6 through 12 who are potential first-generation college students.
This project addresses the lack of STEM skills among today’s students and will assist in creating a pipeline of students prepared to enter academic disciplines and to work in careers of vital interest to our country. The project is intended to serve as a model that can be adopted by other programs across the nation.
The modules developed with this funding will engage young people in TRIO and TRIO-type programs. The federal TRIO Programs are outreach and student services programs designed to assist low-income individuals, first-generation college students and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school into college. More than 1,450 federally funded TRIO programs and approximately 700 state and privately funded programs work with 600,000 young people from these targeted groups. However, few of these programs have the financial or curricular resources to offer exciting, hands-on programs that stress basic STEM skills.
“This program will offer hands-on, project-based activities where students need to work in teams to solve problems,” explains Dr. Jon Jensen, the program director and Associate Dean for Enrollment Management. “These skills are vital for everyone, but particularly for first-generation and low-income students to succeed both in college and in future careers.”
Send your birthday wishes to Dr. Art Moeller
Dr. Art Moeller, Eng ’51 will celebrate his 90th birthday on December 14, 2009.
Dr. Art Moeller
Dr. Moeller has been part of the Marquette community since he began as a mathematics instructor in 1944. He joined the engineering faculty in 1951 and has filled many roles – Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering , Dean of the College of Engineering, and Academic Vice President of the university, to name a few.
With more than 60 years of service to Marquette, Dr. Moeller has touched the lives of many students, alumni, and colleagues. If you are one of these people, please consider sending a card, note, photo or any other token of remembrance to him. Use the address given below and be sure your item arrives by Dec. 10, 2009. We will make sure he receives your greetings on his 90th birthday!
Dr. Art Moeller
C/O Sue Michaelson, College of Engineering
Marquette University
P.O. Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
eLIMO update
Work continues on the Marquette eLIMO; a project undertaken by a team in the Senior Design class. The internal combustion engine in one of the Department of Public Safety’s LIMOs was completely replaced by an electric motor. This is the third year of the project and the current team is making strong headway toward its completion.
At the moment the eLIMO is drivable with its electric motor, but only when it is connected by a cord to a power source. It is the goal of the current team to make the eLIMO move freely on battery power and to make it fully road worthy again. The team hopes to promote environmental conservation as well as save the university money on gasoline and engine maintenance.
For more information, please visit the team’s You Tube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/MUeLIMO or contact them at elimomu@gmail.com
Faculty activities
Mechanical engineering faculty members are actively pursuing their professional interests.
Dr. G.E.O. Widera, Professor, was recently appointed to membership on the Board of Pressure Technology Codes and Standards of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The board oversees the activities of 18 ASME committees which manage all codes, standards, guidelines and accreditation programs directly applicable to nonnuclear pressure containing equipment.
Dr. Bill Brower, Professor Emeritus, presented “Formation of intracellular ice upon warming in cryosurgery – some hypotheses from crypreservation studies of blood cells” at the International Congress of Cryosurgery last month in St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. Brower shares that although his presentation was in English, he made his introductory remarks in the Russian language. He also chaired a session on cryobiology fundamentals.
Mark your calendar
The College of Engineering Alumni Association (COEAA) invites you to the Marquette vs. Notre Dame game on Saturday, March 6, 2010, for its annual Silent Auction and Basketball Game event.
Join us for an opportunity to meet, greet, and outbid fellow alumni and afterwards, cheer on the Golden Eagles as they take on the Fighting Irish. Tickets are limited and will be available for purchase in late-November. For now, please ‘Save the Date’ for this exciting opportunity to show Notre Dame that “We Are Marquette!” and stay tuned for complete details later this month.
College of Engineering hosts regional conference
Last month, the College of Engineering hosted the 2009 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) North Midwest Section Conference. The conference was attended by representatives from many universities in the upper Midwest region and also by the President-elect of ASEE, Renata Engel from Penn State University.
The theme for the conference was "Transforming Engineering Education," focusing on the many challenges students face as they move from the world of academia to the world of practicing engineer. A number of representatives from our college participated.
Dr. Mike Switzenbaum, Executive Associate Dean, welcomed the participants and provided a brief overview of the college’s vision for transforming engineering education. This was followed by a keynote presentation by Dr. Jon Jensen and Jack Samuelson about the various programs that are offered by our Office of Enrollment Management and Outreach. Dr. Phil Voglewede, assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering, gave an energetic presentation on "Transformational Engineering Education at Marquette University" during the lunch meeting.
Dr. Joseph Domblesky, associate professor in Mechanical Engineering, presented his paper titled "Project Assisted Learning in Engineering - A Manufacturing Example." Two papers were presented by Dr. Mark Polczynski, Engineering Management program director: "The Impact of Technology and Globalization on the Engineering Profession and Education" and "Development Process for a Virtual Learning and Teaming Environment." Anamika Sharma, graduate student in Civil Engineering presented a paper titled “An Interactive Visual Approach to Construction Scheduling Education” which she co-authored with Dr. Saeed Karshenas.
More information on the conference can be found online at www.eng.mu.edu/asee.Help us Spread the News!
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