I am pleased to report that the College of Engineering has moved into Phase I of the Shelby Center - a massive undertaking that involved the Departments of Computer Science and Software Engineering and Industrial and Systems Engineering as well as many of our administrative units. And I can say with certainly, that the space is as functional as it is beautiful.

Site preparation on Phase II of the complex will soon be under way. When complete, the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering will have the facilities needed to ensure that the students that pass through our halls are prepared for the challenges that will face them in today's global workplace, and that the state of Alabama has the workforce it needs to advance its economy.  

Thank you for your support. While the college has exceeded its $105 million goal for the "It Begins at Auburn" campaign, we still have a way to go if we are to meet our $153.5 million Vision goal - one that includes providing support for professorships and fellowships. 

As I look back on the progress we have made over the past few years, I have no doubt that we will succeed in positioning Auburn to join the ranks of this nation's elite engineering institutions.

Larry Benefield

Feature Story

A Better Design for Warehouse Aisles

Kevin Gue

Kevin Gue, faculty member in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Russell Meller of the University of Arkansas have been an integral part of Generac Power Systems' newly designed warehouse. "To our knowledge, this is the first implementation of non-traditional diagonal aisles anywhere. We are very excited," said Meller.

In a traditional warehouse layout, storage is laid out to create parallel picking aisles and perhaps one or more cross aisles in the middle, similar to the layout found in many grocery stores. In a paper to appear in IIE Transactions, Gue and Meller proposed two new designs, both with cross aisles that cut diagonally into the picking space. The layout at Generac is almost a direct implementation of one of those designs.

Brian Randleman, Logistics Manager at Generac, was lead on the project. "We had a clean-slate opportunity for our warehouse in Whitewater [Wisconsin], and I had just learned of their work in Modern Materials Handling magazine. I contacted our Director of Operations, and he was positive on the idea. His team ran some numbers to prove the benefit, and three months later we had drawings in our hands."

Gue and Meller went public with their designs a little over a year ago, and have been working with potential adopters since then. "For most managers in the logistics industry implementing this kind of design is a little scary," says Gue. Everyone wants someone else to be the first adopter."

The warehouse in Whitewater, Wis., stores finished electrical generators and transfer switches before they are shipped to customers all over the country. Randleman said the decision to implement diagonal aisles was part of a broader strategy to make some bold changes in logistics at Generac. "My approach was to say, `Let's break some things, and put them back together in a better way.' The layout was one piece of that.

"For what we do, the layout really works well. We have racking in the middle section, between the diagonal aisles, and floor storage below the diagonals. That gives us the flexibility to adjust to changing operating conditions in the future."

Workers have responded positively to the new design. Meller said, "When we first proposed these designs, we met with numerous objections from practitioners. Some of those involved `the way we've always done it,' but some were related to safety, which is obviously an important consideration. Generac installed safety mirrors at key intersection points to help workers navigate the layout safely, and the combination of their product and racking allows excellent visibility."

In addition to improved material flow and reduced travel distances, Generac has realized some unexpected benefits. For example, workers no longer turn 90 degrees to enter the picking aisles. The 45-degree turns are easier to make. According to one worker, "I'm able to make the 45-degree turns at full throttle. I feel like I'm moving more quickly in the warehouse." Another worker summed it up this way, "It's great to be part of something cool like this."

Gue and Meller say that announcements of other implementations and new research results are on the way. Says Gue, "The research continues at full pace, while we try to interest companies in implementing the designs we have released. The implementation at Generac is a real boon for us. Now we can point to them and say, `See, this really can be done!'"

Headquartered in Waukesha, Wis., Generac Power Systems is a leading manufacturer of diesel and gaseous-fueled engine-driven power generation equipment, modular paralleling systems, automatic transfer switches, and small engines for recreational, residential, commercial, communication, and industrial applications. Generac's backup power systems range in output from 7 to 9,000 kilowatts.

Academic Stories

Wireless Technology Jobs: Opportunities Expanding in Emerging Markets

Search for "wireless jobs" online or in the newspaper, and the reviews are mixed. Most results will be job postings for cell phone service providers and sales.

But those who know the most about wireless technology know that today's hand-held devices are only the tip of the industry iceberg. The "wireless" field, which includes not only cell phones and global positioning units but industrial sensors and security devices, is growing so fast that even industry insiders don't know where it will go next. Read full story >>

More academic stories

Student Stories

NASA Names Rocketeering Teams for Student Launch Initiative

NASA has tapped 11 college and university teams in eight states to "go for launch" in the 2007-2008 University Student Launch Initiative rocketeering challenge.

The annual challenge is designed to inspire young people to pursue careers in science, engineering, math and technology -- fields vital to NASA's ongoing mission in space and to the continued economic prosperity of the nation. Read full story >>

More student stories

Faculty Stories

Thurow Receives Air Force's Young Investigator Award

Brian Thurow, assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, has been awarded a $300,000 grant through the U.S. Air Force's Young Investigator Research Program to work on the development and application of a high-speed, three-dimensional density measurement technique for aero-optic applications. Read full story >>

More faculty stories

Outreach Stories

South's BEST Robotics Rocks Auburn Campus

In early December, with AU students hunkered down for finals, the AU campus was uncharacteristically quiet -- with the exception of Beard Eaves Memorial Coliseum which was rocking with the energy of the 2000 middle and high school students in town for the 2007 South's BEST Regional Robotics Championship.

Briarwood Christian from Birmingham and W.P. Davidson High School from Mobile took top awards. Read full story >>

More outreach stories

Research Stories

NASA Announces Alabama Aeronautics Research Award

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, Aviation Safety Program, has awarded approximately $133,000 to Auburn University to work described in its NASA research announcement proposal entitled, "Development of Early-indicators for Failure-prognosis of Power Semiconductor Devices." Read full story

Rep. Mike Rogers visits Materials Engineering Lab

Brian Chin (L), director of the materials engineering program, shares with U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL)(R) some of the research Auburn University conducts with the military on vehicle maintenance. The technology displayed by Chin will allow soldiers on the battlefield to have real-time information concerning the operating condition and maintenance needs of their vehicles. Rogers is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

More research stories >>

Alumni Stories

In a February ceremony held at the Marriott Legends at Capitol Hill in Prattville, Ala. five Auburn engineers were inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. Please join us in congratulating these talented and hardworking alumni:

• Melissa B. Herkt
• Walter F. Johnsey
• George E. Uthlaut
• John H. Watson
• Walter S. Woltosz

Tarr receives outstanding service award

Sheila Tarr, executive assistant to Jeff Stone, former chair of the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council, was presented with a plaque for her outstanding service to the council. Read full story >>

Development Stories

ADTRAN Donates Equipment to ECE

ADTRAN, a leading global provider of networking and communications equipment, donated more than $16,000 in network equipment and long term tech support to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Read full story >>

Seminars

Chemical Engineering Colloquium on Future Energy Sources, the Environment, and the Economics

Energy production and the associated environmental and economic impacts thereof are of great importance as they impact virtually every aspect of industrialized society including national security issues and the potential for global climate change. The Department of Chemical Engineering, along with their regular seminars is offering a special colloquium to examine various aspects of these three topics and in particular their close inter-relationships and highly interactive nature. Read full story >>

Department Seminar Series

This spring's seminar lineup got off to a strong start with speakers addressing a wide variety of topics ranging from general interest to the highly technical. Some early semester highlights included:

John J. Calvert, administrator for the Inventor Assistance Program at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, led seminars on the basics of intellectual property protection ? from concept to the marketplace. Read full story >>