Volume 5, Number 7, April 2009

Welcome to Ahoya! Engineers - Marquette University's College of Engineering e-Newsletter for alumnae, alumni, students and their families, faculty, staff, and MU friends. We want you to know what’s happening in your College of Engineering. This newsletter will be published periodically to share our accomplishments, milestones and activities.

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Taking Flight. A team of six mechanical engineering seniors has been hard at work on their senior design project, a R/C (remote control) airplane which will be entered in the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Aero Design competition in Alpharetta, GA this month.  The competition requires that each team design and construct an airplane to carry a maximum payload while meeting certain design constraints.   This is the first year that Marquette University is competing in the competition, which consists of 65 teams from around the world.  The airplane is a completely original design and all parts were manufactured by the team.  Two successful test flights were completed.  Click here to view video of the test flights. More to come in our next issue!

Lead Picture: Aero Design Team members (from left to right)
John Fitzpatrick, Bill Meindl, Kyle Reiser, Matt Lane, Jeff Shafer, and Dan Wojno    

Promotions Announced! Your College of Engineering proudly announces the promotion of three faculty members from the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering -- Drs. Christopher Foley, Charles Melching and Daniel Zitomer – to the rank of professor.

Dr. Christopher Foley
Dr. Christopher M.  Foley, P.E., joined the faculty of the college in 1996 as an assistant professor and in 2002 was promoted to associate professor with tenure.  He received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from Marquette. Dr. Foley's research activity primarily focuses on the design and analysis of structural systems composed of steel and the performance of civil-infrastructure systems.  His early research efforts in the area of optimal structural design using evolutionary computation (think theory of evolution applied to buildings) were supported by the National Science Foundation and these efforts continue today. Foley also conducts research to understand how structural steel building systems respond to damage resulting from accident, construction error or terrorist attack and this research has been supported by the American Institute of Steel Construction.  Dr. Foley is currently conducting a three-phase research effort sponsored by the Wisconsin Highway Research Program that seeks to develop reliable predictive tools to establish inspection cycles and quantify the risk of fatigue-induced fracture in existing steel sign and signal support structures found throughout the transportation network.  Dr. Foley and Dr. Baolin Wan of the CEEN department have been monitoring and field load testing two bridges in Wisconsin to evaluate their performance over time.    This five-year research effort is supported by the Wisconsin Highway Research Program.

Foley sits on the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Specification Task Committee on Connections.  This committee writes the design specifications related to connections in steel buildings that are used for design in the United States.  He also sits on the AISC Committee on Research.  He is chair of the Technical Committee on Optimal Structural Design for the American Society of Civil Engineers, Structural Engineering Institute.  Dr. Foley spent his 2004-05 sabbatical year at the University of Wisconsin in Madison as Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering.

Dr. Foley received the College’s Outstanding Teacher Award three times and was named the 2002 Young Engineer of the Year by the Engineers & Scientists of Milwaukee.  Dr. Foley would like to thank all of the graduate students (current and former) who helped to make this promotion possible: Jordan Komp, Matthew Hellenthal, Junshan Liu, Christopher Raebel, Kristine Barnes (MS), Carl Schneeman (MS), John Schaad (MS), Christopher Erwin (MS),  Robert Merkel (MS),  Anthony Wolanski (MS), Scott J. Ginal (MS), Benjamin Shock (MS), John L. Peronto (MS), Margaret Sullivan (MS), Daniel Schinler (MS), Adetoye Adeniyi (MS), Tara Loomis (MS), Jodi Lynch (MS), Kelly Gillis (MS) and the late Evan Buckhouse (MS).  He would also like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all his colleagues in the College of Engineering.

Dr. Chris Foley

Dr. Charles (Steve) Melching
Prior to coming to Marquette in 1999 as an associate professor, Dr. Charles (Steve) Melching, P.E., taught at Rutgers University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; worked as a hydraulic engineer for the U.S. Geological Survey; and was a visiting scholar at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels), Belgium.  He received his B.S. degree from Arizona State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the U of I at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Melching’s research focuses on water-quality modeling in streams, storm water management, and application of uncertainty analysis in water resources and environmental engineering.  His main research project has been the simulation of dissolved oxygen and fecal contamination in the rivers and canals draining the Chicago metropolitan area, and the development of pollution remediation strategies for these rivers and canals (funded by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago).  He has recently been involved in stream restoration (funded by the Wisconsin Foundation of Independent Colleges) and flood management research projects. 

Dr. Melching spent his sabbatical from 2005 to 2006 as a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.  He received the 2001 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the college’s Outstanding Researcher Award in 2008.  He is director of the Institute for Urban Environmental Risk Management.

Dr. Steve Melching

Dr. Dan Zitomer
Dr. Dan Zitomer, P.E., received his B.S. degree in civil engineering from Drexel University, his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from Vanderbilt University and joined the faculty of the college as an assistant professor in 1995.  In 2001 he was promoted to associate professor with tenure.  Prior to coming to Marquette, he was a teaching assistant and research assistant at Vanderbilt and was an environmental scientist and designer for an engineering firm.

Dr. Zitomer's research concentrates on the use of microorganisms to break down wastes to relatively harmless products, such as water, carbon dioxide and salts. Also, specific microbes are used in the absence of oxygen to convert wastes to biogas containing methane. The methane can be used as a source of renewable energy. His research group works with industries and municipalities to improve their biological treatment processes.

He has also been instrumental in promoting and introducing international development and service-learning opportunities to students. Dr. Zitomer is director of the Water Quality Center and in 2005 received the Young Engineer Award from the Engineers & Scientists of Milwaukee.

Dr. Dan Zitomer

Congratulations to all three faculty members on their well deserved promotions! 

Alumni to be Honored. Awards will be presented to six engineering alumni at the annual Engineering Honors Convocation.  The public is invited to the ceremony on Friday, April 24 at 8 p.m. in the Weasler Auditorium on the Marquette campus:

In addition, two engineering alumni will be honored at the Marquette Alumni National Awards Dinner on Saturday evening, April 25, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Alumni Memorial Union:

Click here for additional information about the alumni award recipients.  

Outstanding Faculty. Two faculty members will be recognized at the Engineering Honors Convocation for their excellence in teaching and research.

Dr. Philip Voglewede, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, will receive the 2009 Outstanding Teacher Award. Dr Voglewede was chosen for the passion he brings to the classroom which in turn motivates his students to learn. He joined the College of Engineering faculty in January 2008.

Dr. Daniel Zitomer, associate professor of Civil, Construction and Environmental engineering, will receive the 2009 Outstanding Researcher Award. Dr Zitomer was chosen for his work in anaerobic biotechnology, addressing novel ways of applying and optimizing anaerobic processes.  He has established himself as one of the leading experts in anaerobic biotechnology. (Photo of Dr. Zitomer appears in the "Promotions Announced" article above.)

Congratulations to both award winners.

Dr. Phil Voglewede

Scheidt Receives University Award. Dr. Robert Scheidt, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been awarded the Way-Klingler Science Fellowship, one of the university’s highest awards intended to advance research and scholarship of faculty.

The experimental goals of Dr. Scheidt’s Way-Klingler project are to identify the neural systems controlling limb posture and movement and to determine how they are impacted by two common forms of sensorimotor impairment. The question of whether the brain uses the same or different neural circuits to control limb posture and movement is important because the answer will determine how therapeutic interventions should be designed to normalize coordination of these fundamental motor functions following neural injury and in cases of developmental sensorimotor deficits.

Dr. Scheidt and his team will answer this question using functional brain imaging techniques and a novel robotic tool to identify the neural structures processing sensory information about limb positioning errors during wrist stabilization and movement tasks. They will also identify how posture and movement control adapt to sensory processing deficits in autistic children and those occurring after a single unilateral ischemic stroke impacting primary sensorimotor pathways.

Given to full time faculty members of senior rank with significant scholarship and higher potential, Dr. Scheidt is the second biomedical engineering faculty member to receive this award. Dr. Brian Schmit, associate professor, received this award last year.

Dr. Bob Scheidt

Students Embrace Training in the DLC. Students in the Manufacturing Engineering 143 course taught by Dr. Joseph Domblesky, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, are once again involved in lab work in the Discovery Learning Center (DLC) shop.  Their projects involve tool wear, shop processes, welding, and metrology.  In what has become something of a rite of passage, this course is known as the class in which they “get to build” an air motor.  This year’s model is dubbed the “Big D.”  Video clips of the running motors can be seen on You Tube by searching for Ahoya1.

Another project is the design and build of a laser cut acrylic plastic object using the shop's 40- watt laser.   The skills gained from this course will be used again next year when most of these students will be involved in their senior design projects.

Tom Silman, DLC engineer, states “During the last couple of years we have seen a noticeable improvement in the design/build of senior design projects, to the point that some of the prototypes exceed the quality of final products in past years.  This is due to the training and practical experience your students have received in the Discovery Learning Center.”

Students display their finished projects
Left to right:  Jim Jennings, Mooyoung Lee, Peter Shutt, Marcease Warren,
Matt Gerhard, Kimberly Dover, Peter Conrardy, Andy Keegan.
Left Inset:  close-up of motor; Right inset: several laser projects.

Research Society Honors Borg. The Marquette University Chapter of Sigma Xi selected Dr. John Borg, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, as the recipient of the Rising Star Award.  The award recognizes research in sciences, engineering, mathematics and technology performed by a faculty member who has not yet achieved the rank of full professor and whose research has a significant impact on the academic discipline in which it was conducted.

Dr. Borg's research involves understanding the dynamic behavior of materials under rapid loading conditions, i.e. shock loading.  The majority of his research has been focused on understanding the constitutive behavior of granular and/or liquid/granular systems.  Specifically, he is developing computational techniques, supported by experimental observation, which bridge the gap between bulk and micro-level material behavior.  The near term goal of this research is to better understand and decouple grain level dynamics (such as grain contact, fracture, void collapse, friction, heating, etc.) when predicting the bulk material behavior when subjected to high-pressure, high-strain rate events.  The ultimate goal is to connect continuum mechanics from the molecular to the bulk scale.

Sigma Xi was founded in 1886 to honor excellence in scientific investigation and encourage a sense of companionship and cooperation among researchers in all fields of science and engineering. Today, it is an international, multidisciplinary research society whose programs and activities promote the health of the scientific enterprise and honor scientific achievement.  The Marquette Chapter, founded in 1962, currently counts about 120 members, including three lifetime members. About half of the membership is from each of the scientific and engineering departments at Marquette with the other half from the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, the Zablocki VA Medical Center, and many local firms.

Dr. Jim Richie (left) presents Sigma Xi Rising Star awad to Dr. Borg (right)

Alumni Invited to Join in Hunger Clean-Up. In 1989 Hunger Clean-Up began as a modest effort on the behalf of proactive students to combat hunger and homelessness in Milwaukee.

20 YEARS LATER... Hunger Clean-Up has grown to be Marquette's largest one-day service project. Forging relationships with over 150 agencies around and in the city, Hunger Clean-Up has made as big an impact on Milwaukee as it has on Marquette students. Students are made aware of the issues of hunger and homelessness in Milwaukee through education and advocacy efforts. Through fundraising efforts and corporate partnerships the Hunger Clean-Up supplies local agencies with the resources they need to combat the ever-prevalent problems of hunger and homelessness.
 
Join Marquette students Saturday, April 18 and participate in the university’s 20th Year of inspired service.

Participants will meet on campus at 8 a.m. at Westowne Mall for opening ceremonies, and then depart to the work sites promptly at 9 a.m.  We need your help.  The goal is to recruit alumni to serve at one location in Milwaukee sorting food.
Click here to register.  IMPORTANT: You must select the "MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION" assignment on this registration form.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Theresa Nemetz by e-mail or by phone at (414) 288-4768.         

Mechatronics Conference. Dr. Kevin Craig, the Robert C. Greenheck Chair in Engineering Design and professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering has been traveling internationally to share his expertise in mechatronics.  Last month, he was one of three world-renowned keynote speakers at the Sixth International Symposium on Mechatronics and its Applications (ISMA ’09) at the American University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. Mechatronics is the synergistic integration of physical systems, electronics, controls, and computers through the design process, from the very start of the design process, thus enabling complex decision making. It is an evolutionary design development that demands horizontal integration among the various engineering disciplines as well as vertical integration between design and manufacturing. Click here for additional information about this conference.

Think Baseball, Alumni! Gather at Miller Park with fellow Marquette engineering alumni when the Milwaukee Brewers take on the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, June 23.  Get a player’s view of the action from the AirTran Airways Landing Zone, located between the right field foul pole and the visiting team’s bullpen, on the field of play just beyond the right field fence.

$85 per ticket.  Price includes a pre-game buffet beginning when Miller Park gates open and ending one hour after the first pitch.  The buffet menu features brats, BBQ chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, baked beans, soft drinks, and two beers per adult.

A limited number of tickets are available.   Please register by Wednesday, June 17.

To purchase, please call 414/288-8440 or purchase online.  (NOTE: when you get to this site, you will need to log in to MU Connect).

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