Volume 5, Number 11
August, 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 monthly newsletter shares our accomplishments, milestones and activities.
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Engineers Celebrate 45th Reunion. Dr. Robert Agnew, Eng. ’64 and his wife Marge hosted a reception for engineering alumni prior to their 45th Reunion Weekend Friday night kick-off party. Welcoming the engineers who traveled to campus from near and far were OPUS Dean Stan Jaskolski and his wife Cindy. Stan shared his vision for the College of Engineering and provided an update on what the college is doing to be the difference in the world of engineering.
As co-chair of his 45th reunion, Bob Agnew encouraged his classmates to consider making a reunion gift to support the engineering building fund and/or engineering scholarships. We thank Bob and the Class of ’64 for their support and advocacy. Please visit the Marquette Engineering on a Mission Web site to learn more about the college’s vision and how you can make a gift to support this bold plan.
Reunion weekend events also included an engineering open house on Saturday, with approximately 60 alumni and guests in attendance.
Congratulations to the class of 1964 engineers and all engineering alumni who celebrated their reunions last month!
Banner Picture: OPUS Dean Stan Jaskolski and Bob Agnew
Engineering on a Mission. Get an exciting behind-the-scenes look at your College of Engineering; featuring brief video story episodes, the college’s proposed new facility and links to recent media coverage. Click here to share in the excitement.
Improving Quality of Life. Mechanical engineering faculty Drs. Phil Voglewede and Joseph Schimmels, Principal Investigator (PI) and co-PI respectively, have been awarded a two year National Institutes of Health grant of $397,000 for their proposal “Bionic Trans-Tibial Prostheses." Their research will develop a bionic prosthetic ankle which will allow lower limb amputees to lead more active and productive lives.
Current below-the-knee (trans-tibial) prostheses use passive springs to store and release energy during walking; while functional, they do not put energy into the ankle, causing amputees to walk abnormally and to tire quickly. The funded research will investigate a new approach to the design of these lower limb prostheses. A prototype prosthetic bionic ankle will be developed using a system of springs and linkages in conjunction with an electric motor to more accurately reproduce ankle motion while simultaneously keeping energy consumption low. The prosthetic ankle design will be based on existing theoretical research and on a mock-up experimental prototype which will show if the approach is feasible.
The prototype will first be tested on a modified test stand at the Milwaukee School of Engineering to verify the performance of the prosthesis and ensure amputee safety. It will then be fitted onto three test subjects who will first walk with a standard passive prosthesis and then the powered prosthesis at the Medical College of Wisconsin. During this testing, the research team will perform motion and force analyses to gain invaluable understanding of both the dynamic performance of the prosthesis and the users’ acceptance.
Prototype of bionic prosthetic ankle designed by Drs. Voglewede and Schimmels
Widera Receives Award. Dr. G. E. Otto Widera, professor of mechanical engineering, received the 2009 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Dedicated Service Award for its Pressure Vessels and Piping (PVP) Division at the recent division conference in Prague, Czech Republic.
In 1983, the ASME Board of Governors established this award to honor “unusual dedicated voluntary service to the Society marked by outstanding performance, demonstrated effective leadership, prolonged and committed service, devotion, enthusiasm and faithfulness.”
Dr. Widera is a former ASME vice president and has served on the Council on Engineering and the Board on Pressure Technology Codes and Standards. He was the recipient of the 1995 PVP medal for lifetime achievement and currently serves as editor of the Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology.
Congratulations, Dr. Widera, on this recognition of your outstanding work for ASME and your profession.
Sam Zamrick (left), 2007-2008 ASME president, congratulates Dr. G. E. Otto Widera (center)
as he receives the 2009 ASME Dedicated Service Award from ASME president Amos Holt (right)
Globalizing Education. Dr. Mark Polczynski, engineering director of Marquette’s Engineering Management Program, traveled to Poland in May to teach a course to students in the MS – Global Production Engineering Management Program at Warsaw University of Technology. This was the first semester of the new all-English program in Warsaw, which included instructors from Norway, Italy and Australia.
Dr. Polczynski taught “Strategic Technology Management” to 100 students over a 10-day period. Thoroughly enjoying this opportunity, he indicated that his biggest challenge was teaching 4½ hours per day, followed by grading daily workshop assignments for 20 teams. The best workshop team project: Food content analyzer for people with allergies.
Student Works on Award-Winning Project. Part-time mechanical engineering undergraduate student Robert Oshgan played a significant role in the development of an innovative product for his employer, Hospira, a global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company based in Lake Forest, Ill. The company needed a new way to package drugs for a hospital setting that would be tamper resistant and compact, yet easy for medical staff to use, while still meeting a strict manufacturing budget.
The traditional way of making and assembling the syringe package was not working when senior tooling engineer Oshgan suggested the company try something new: multishot molding and in-mold assembly. The final product, the iSecure™ Syringe, represents a breakthrough for Hospira, using an innovative molding process to create a final part with four different pieces and three materials utilizing a single injection mold. For the company, it has become a perfect blending of design, function, engineering and teamwork with key molding and mold making partners. Beyond the design and manufacturing breakthroughs, the syringe arrives at the hospital as a completely sealed, single dose ready-to-use disposable syringe, eliminating work for the medical staff and waste in the hospital.
The iSecure™ Syringe won the 11th Annual Industrial Designers Society of America/Plastics News Design Award. It also won the medical category award. Click here to learn more about this product, including Oshgan's role.
On the Road Again. For the second year in a row, Dr. George Corliss, professor in electrical and computer engineering, and Kate Nava, university advancement regional development officer, co-hosted a luncheon for alumni and parents in Albuquerque, N.M. This year the gathering took place near the University of New Mexico.
Alumni of all ages enjoyed hearing about the various educational initiatives and multidisciplinary programs underway in the college. The co-hosts hope to return to the Land of Enchantment on an annual basis to re-connect with alumni from across the state.
Bioengineering Competition Results. Tim Gundert, a student in the biomedical engineering 5 Year B.S./M.S. program , received the third place award in the Bachelor's Student Paper Competition of the 2009 ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference for his poster titled Visualization of Computational Fluid Dynamics Results in a Virtual Reality Environment. The poster was presented in the Biotransport, Tissue Engineering, and Cellular Biomechanics category at the conference in Lake Tahoe, Calif., June 17-21. Co-authors of the poster included Paul Hayden of Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin; Ray Migrino M.D., assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Dr. John LaDisa, assistant professor in biomedical engineering.
Fall Semester Here Soon. The dog days of summer will soon be over, at least for Marquette’s students and faculty. Fall semester begins on Monday, August 31 and it’ll be time to hit the books again. However, since the long Labor Day weekend follows the first week of classes, it’ll give everyone an opportunity to “ease” back into school. In the meantime, enjoy the remainder of your summer break and we look forward to seeing you back on campus soon.
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