Samuel Ginn College of Engineering
Welcome to Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's E-Newsletter
Calendar of Events
- May 17: Summer Classes Start
- July 9-14: TIGERs Camp
- Dec 8-9: South's BEST
Walking across the campus to my office after the recent graduation ceremonies,
I had time to reflect on the past year.
This spring, 270 graduates received engineering diplomas including 16 in wireless engineering. Our wireless program -- the only one in the nation -- has exceeded all expectations, with enrollment increasing to 192 in less than three years.
However, overall enrollment in engineering is declining. Statistics show that the US graduates approximately 70,000 engineers per year while China and India's annual production of engineers approach 600,000 and 350,000, respectively.
This trend is one that should concern every American. Our nation's prosperity rests firmly on a foundation of our technological leadership. If we fail to maintain this edge, productivity and our standard of living will decline.
In response to this challenge, the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering has ramped up its recruiting efforts. We have hired a new recruiter, Bonnie Wilson, who is working hard to ensure that middle and high school students know about the abundance of career opportunities the discipline offers. Outreach activities such as BEST Robotics and our fledgling Engineering Academy Initiative are designed to provide students with real-world, hands-on engineering experiences. If you are the parent of a rising 7 th or 8 th grader, I encourage you to consider our one-week residential TIGERs summer camp.
Larry Benefield
Dean, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering
AU Hosts 2006 Mini Baja East
Tennessee Tech University took top honors at this year's Society of Automotive Engineers Mini Baja East competition held at Auburn University April 13-15. Clarkson University in New York and Universit? de Sherbrooke from Quebec placed second and third,
respectively. Queen's University in Ontario and Auburn University rounded out the top five. Read full story
Engineering Moves Up in U.S.News graduate school rankings
The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering once again moved up in U.S. News and World Report's 2006 Graduate School Rankings. Auburn ranks 46 among overall graduate engineering programs at public universities, a jump from 48 last year. The College of Business and the College of Education also saw improvement. Read full story
Engineering Faculty Garner Coveted NSF Awards
Two faculty members in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering have received CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation. Mario Eden, assistant professor of chemical engineering, and Willie Harper, assistant professor of civil engineering, are both recipients of the prestigious award which includes significant funding. Read full story
Aerospace Engineering Alum Leonard Receives 2006 Tony Jannus Award
AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc., recently made an announcement at the Tampa International Airport that the company's chairman and CEO, Joe Leonard, was honored as the 2006 Tony Jannus Award recipient by the Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society. Read full story
Industrial and Systems Engineering Students Receive Honors
McKenzie Mayo, a senior in industrial and systems engineering from Shreveport, La., has been selected for a prestigious Award of Excellence by Alpha Pi Mu national industrial engineering honor society. Mayo is one of only seven students from five universities to receive the award. Read full story
Civil Engineering Student Wins Honor Society Scholarship
Trent Turner, a senior in civil engineering from Empire, Ala., was named the winner of the 2005-06 Chi Epsilon Southern District Scholarship. Turner is now one of 12 students from across the country competing for one of Chi Epsilon's national scholarships. This is the fourth consecutive year that a member of the Auburn University chapter has received this award for the southern district, which stretches from South Carolina to Louisiana. Read full story
Students, College Make Impressive Showing at AIChE Conference
Auburn's Department of Chemical Engineering came back with two top awards from this year's Southeast Regional American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) conference. Auburn was one of 22 schools at the competition
held March 10-12. Read full story
Civil Engineering Students Garner Numerous Awards
Lucida Xu, a doctoral student in civil engineering from Tai'an, China has received prestigious awards from two professional groups: the 2006 Alabama Water Environment Association's Outstanding Graduate Student Scholarship Award and the 2006 Alabama-Mississippi Section of the American Water Works Association's Outstanding Graduate Sudent Scholarship Award. In addition, she has been recognized as Auburn University's outstanding international graduate student for 2006. Read full story
Chemical Engineering Student Receives President's Award
Carolyn Alenci, from Melbourne, Fla., has received the 2006 President's Award for the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. She is a senior in chemical engineering. Read full story
Industrial and Systems Engineering Graduate Student Wins Beno Memorial Scholarship
Rani Muhdi, a graduate student in industrial and systems engineering at Auburn University, has won the 2006 Dr. John Beno Memorial Scholarship, awarded by the Public Risk Management Association (PRIMA). The scholarship includes a $2,000 award and a travel stipend to the 2006 PRIMA annual conference, held June 11-14 in Las Vegas. During the conference Muhdi will be matched with a mentor who will introduce him to the business of public risk management. Read full story
Auburn Redesignated as NSA Center for Academic Excellence
The National Security Agency has once again designated Auburn University as a Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) as a result of its outstanding programs in information security and assurance. The designation from NSA allows Auburn to apply for scholarships and grants from federal information assurance scholarship programs. Drew Hamilton, faculty member in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, is principal investigator
for Auburn's CAE. Read full story
PITT NAE Professor Speaks on Creativity and Decision Making
The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering recently hosted Thomas Saaty, who holds the chair of university professor in the Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional distinctions awarded to an engineer. During his visit Saaty visited with engineering faculty and students and presented two seminars to the Auburn community. Read full story
Auburn Faculty Receive Awards from Department of Defense
Two faculty members in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering have been awarded grants through the Department of Defense's Defense University Research Instrumentation Program. Read full story
Faculty Article Selected for Publication in Virtual Journal
An article by ZhongYang Cheng, an assistant professor in materials engineering, was recently selected for publication in the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology. Titled "Biosensor Based on a Magnetostrictive Microcantilever," the article was originally published in Applied Physics Letters and discusses a new type of sensor platform that acts as a powerful tool for detecting biological threat agents, such as viruses and pathogenic bacteria and spores. Read full story
Bevly Selected for Navy's Young Investigator Program
David Bevly, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been selected to receive a grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program. Read full story
Chemical Engineering Professor Publishes Nanomedical Text
Ram Gupta, Auburn University alumni professor in chemical engineering, is the editor of "Nanoparticle Technology for Drug Delivery," a text designed to present practical issues concerning the manufacture and biological application of nanoparticles. Published in January, it is Gupta's first text. Read full story
Schindler Awarded Medal for Concrete Materials Research
Anton Schindler, Gottlieb assistant professor of civil engineering at Auburn, has received the American Concrete Institute's Wason Medal for Concrete Materials Research. Schindler received the award during the institute's meeting in Charlotte. Read full story
AU Receives Donation of Nearly $200,000 from ExxonMobil
Auburn University received nearly $200,000 to benefit academic programs from ExxonMobil's 2005 Educational Matching Gift Program to which ExxonMobil employees, retirees and spouses contribute. Read full story
Chemical Engineering Recognizes Graduate Students for Teaching Excellence
Asa Vaughan from Hurtsboro, Ala. and Siddarth Venkatesh, from Chennai, India have been awarded the McLeod Outstanding Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Teaching award for summer 2005 and fall 2005, respectively. Read full story
Colonel Presents Seminar on Joint Army and Marine Combat Robotics Project
Col. Terry Griffin, project manager for the Army and Marine Corps Robotic Systems Joint Project Office at Redstone Arsenal, recently presented an engineering seminar on the use of robotic systems in Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat situations. Read full story
Wireless Board Member Makes Instrumentation Gift
Engineering Dean Larry Benefield, right, met with Wireless Engineering Advisory Board member Jerry Gladstone, who presented Auburn with an equipment gift on behalf of California-based Agilent Technologies, where he served as vice president before his recent retirement. Read full story
Ford Product Development Engineer Discusses Emission Control Strategies
Auburn Engineering alumnus Gilbert Fournelle, product development engineer for Ford Motor Company Powertrain Control Systems, recently presented a seminar on the Auburn Campus that covered legal requirements for emissions certification; three-way catalysts and after-treatment systems; and emissions-optimizing control systems and performance trade-offs. Read full story
Engineering E-News is a service of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. This newsletter is distributed to alumni and friends throughout the year. To read archived copies visit:
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/admin/marketing/engineering.html
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