Dean’s Messageto race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy or marital disability or...
21
Transcript of Dean’s Messageto race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy or marital disability or...
The mission of the University of Tennessee College of Engineering is:
To provide high quality education in the major engineering disciplines from the undergraduate through doctoral levels through a creative balance of academic, professional and extracurricular programs;
To foster and maintain mutually beneficial partnerships with our alumni, friends, industry and local, state and federal governments through public services assistance and collaborative research; and
To be a major contributor to our nation’s technology base through scholarship and research.
Mission Statement ContentsUniversity of Tennessee College of Engineering Annual Report 2011
Dean’s Message College Profile Outstanding Undergraduate Student: Emmabeth Parrish Outstanding Graduate Student: Steven Coley Aeron Glover, HowsTheLiving.com Student Body Diversity Update: TLSAMP Banquet/ Fisk Joint Degree Program CIRE Program Facilities Research Feature: CURENT Research Feature: EPSCoR/ONR Grants CAREER Awards Research Fellows Teaching Fellows Faculty Feature: Condra Chair Dr. Matthew Mench Faculty Feature: COE Faculty Textbook Authors Outreach Update Dougherty Award Winner: Dr. Terry Douglass Engineering Development Outstanding Alumnus: Mr. Ralph Heath Financial Information
2
4 6 8
10
11
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
25
26
28
30
31
32
34
36
College of Engineering Annual Report 2011Writer and Editor Kim Cowart Communications Director
Design Mitchell Williamson Graphic Designer
Writer Julie Stansberry Communications Specialist III
Photography Jack Parker Jack Parker Photography
Nick Myers UT Video and Photography
Special thanks to the following for their assistance: University of Tennessee Hodges Library staff and administrators
The information in this report reflects the time period from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011
The University of Tennessee is an EE)/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA institution in the provision of its education and employment programs and services. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy or marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability or covered veteran status.
PAN: E01-1301-013-013-12 DOP: 10/11
2
8
14
20
26
31
6
10
18
22
28
34
We present our 2011 fiscal year annual report with enthusiasm and excitement about the great year that we have just had, and yet, we are reluctant to breathe a sigh of relief. It has been a tumultuous three years since the economy began to shrink, and we are just now entering a new semester (Fall 2011) where the real impacts of 30% and 10% reductions in base budgets occur, respectively, for the university and college. We also recognize that the economic recovery may not occur as quickly in the future as we had hoped. But we must also celebrate our successes!
Fiscal year 2011 saw many exciting changes in the college. The college’s FY11 enrollment grew on both ends of the spectrum with a notable 30% increase in the size of the freshman class and a 25% increase in the total number of Ph.D. students. This was marked by a simultaneous increase in quality with incoming engineering
freshmen having an average high school GPA of 4.0 and a math ACT of 30.0, and increases in both our freshman retention and four-and six-year graduation rates. The state has provided an opportunity for the university and college to provide raises for staff and faculty for the first time in three years, and we were able to make substantial progress in that area for the coming year.
The college’s research funding, as measured by external research expenditures, increased by about 23% this year compared to FY10, and the college leads the university in the number and value of research awards—which have allowed us to increase our graduate student enrollment. The increase in our student enrollment has presented and will continue to present challenges.
Space issues will be eased to some extent as the new Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building comes on line in late October 2011, and with the initiation of construction of the new John Tickle Engineering Building in August 2011 (estimated completion in approximately 20 months from that date–the Tickle building site is seen through the window in this photo).
We recognize the need for growth in engineering graduates who will enter the profession and help our country’s economic and technological progress, and we thank our faculty, staff, students, alumni and other friends of the college who have and will continue to help us as we grow in enrollment and graduates, and as we continue to increase the quality of our programs.
Dean’s Message
2 3
22:8
College ProfileDepartmentsLeadership TeamBoard of Advisors for Fiscal Year 2011 (July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011)
Biosystems Engineering and Soil ScienceDr. Eric C. DrummDepartment Head
Chemical and Biomolecular EngineeringDr. Bamin KhomamiDepartment Head
Civil and Environmental EngineeringDr. Dayakar PenumaduDepartment Head
Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceDr. Kevin TomsovicDepartment Head
Industrial and Information EngineeringDr. Rupy SawhneyDepartment Head
Materials Science and EngineeringDr. George PharrDepartment Head
Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical EngineeringDr. William R. HamelDepartment Head
Nuclear EngineeringDr. H. Lee DoddsDepartment Head
University of Tennessee Space InstituteDr. Robert MooreExecutive Director
Dr. Wayne T. DavisDean of Engineering
Dr. William M. DunneAssociate Dean for Research and Technology
Dr. Masood ParangAssociate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs
Dr. Richard BennettDirector of the Engineering Fundamentals Division
Dorothy Barkley Bryson Senior Director of Development
Kim CowartDirector of Engineering Communications
Travis GriffinDirector of Engineering Diversity Programs
Judy MooreDirector of Finance and Administrative Affairs
Dr. J. Roger ParsonsDirector of Engineering Outreach
Dr. Chris PionkeDirector of Engineering Honors Program
Todd ReevesDirector of Engineering Professional Practice
Margie RussellDirector of Engineering Advising Services
Dr. Anthony R. Buhl (BS/NE ’63, MS/NE ’64, PhD/NE ’67) President/CEO, EngerX LLC Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Mr. Michael K. Carroll (BS/ME ’80) CEO, MK Technologies Corporation Knoxville, Tenn. Mr. Howard E. Chambers (BS/ME ’64) Vice-President of Program Management Commercial Airplanes The Boeing Company Seattle, Wash.
Dr. Dana C. Christensen Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Engineering Sciences Directorate Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Mrs. Nancy C. Cole (BS/MetE ‘63, MS/MetE ‘88) Engineering Consultant Fernandina Beach, Fla.
Dr. Wayne Coleman (BS/NE ’63, MS/NE ’65, PhD/NE ’69) Corporate Vice President (Retired) Science Applications International Corporation McLean, Va.
Mr. Joe C. Cook, Jr. (BS/IE ’65) Founder and Principal Mountain Group Capital, LLC Nashville, Tenn.
Mr. L. Michael Cuddy (BS/ME ’67, MBA/Finance ’72) President and CEO, Technology 2020 Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Dr. Mark E. Dean (BS/EE ’79, MS/EE’ 82 (Florida Atlantic University), PhD ‘92 (Stanford)) IBM Fellow and Vice President, Technical Strategy and World Wide Operations IBM T.J. Watson Research Center Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
Research Expenditures (Gifts, Grants and Contracts by Fiscal Year)
Mr. Mark Deathridge (BS/ES ’82) President/CEO East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors Knoxville, Tenn.
Mr. Dennis A. Denihan (BS/ChE ‘72) Consultant, RaceTrac Petroleum, Inc. Atlanta, Ga.
Mr. Jim Downing (MS/CE ’69, MS/EE ’74) CEO Barge, Waggoner, Sumner & Cannon, Inc. Nashville, Tenn.
Mr. Robert E. Dunn (BS/CE ’73, MBA ‘75 (Harvard Business School)) Senior Vice President Prism Gas Systems I, LP Bedford, Texas
Dr. William L. Eversole (BS/EE ’73, PhD/EE (Southern Methodist University)) CEO and President, Bandspeed, Inc. Austin, Texas
Mr. Ron Green (BS/EPh ’70, MS/EA ’78) Chairman, ADVATECH, LLC (Retired) Charlotte, N.C.
Ms. Kimberly Scheibe Greene (BS/ES ’88, MS/BioM ‘90 (University of Alabama-Birmingham), MBA ‘96 (Samford University)) Group President of Strategy and External Relations Tennessee Valley Authority Knoxville, Tenn.
Ms. Sharon Sirang Habibi (BS/Arch ’75, MS/CE ’77, EMBA ’89) CEO/President, Syscom Technologies, Inc. Marietta, Ga.
Mr. John Howanitz BS/Psychology/Criminal Justice (Dual Major) ‘81 (King’s College, Wilkes-Barre) Senior Vice President, B&W Y-12 Transformation and Projects Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Dr. Michael W. Howard (BS/EE ’80, MS/BE ‘83 (University of Pittsburgh), PhD/ES ’96) President/Chief Executive Officer Electric Power Research Institute Charlotte, N.C.
Mr. Edwin A. McDougle (BS/CEE ’69, MS/CEE ’75) Principal, Ross Bryan Associates, Inc. Nashville, Tenn.
Mr. James B. Porter, Jr. (BS/ChE ’65) Vice President of Engineering & Operations DuPont Corporation (Retired) Wilmington, Del.
Mr. J. Parker Smith (BS/ME (North Carolina State University) Vice President and General Manager Worldwide Manufacturing Support Eastman Chemical Company Kingsport, Tenn.
Mr. Eric L. Zeanah (BS/IE ’84) President/Owner American Accessories International Knoxville, Tenn.
Academic Support Programs and Diversity Initiatives
Student/Faculty Ratio
AccreditationEach of the university’s engineering academic programs is accredited by the ABET Engineering Accreditation Program.Distance Education Degrees and
Certificates in EngineeringThe Jerry E. Stoneking Engage Freshman Engineering ProgramEngineering Advising ServicesEngineering Diversity ProgramsEngineering Honors ProgramEngineering Outreach OfficeEngineering Professional PracticeTennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation
4
20
10
0
40
Mill
ions
of D
olla
rs
30
60
50
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
$26.1 $27.9 $29.7 $32.6$37.2 $36.9
2010
$43.8
2011
$54.5
Bachelor of ScienceAerospaceBiomedical**BiosystemsChemicalCivilComputer EngineeringComputer ScienceElectricalIndustrial
**Note: Degrees in Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science are offered in conjunction with the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
Materials ScienceMechanicalNuclear
Master of ScienceAerospaceBiomedical**BiosystemsChemicalCivil
Computer EngineeringComputer ScienceElectricalEngineering ScienceEnvironmentalIndustrialMaterials ScienceMechanicalMS-MBA programNuclear
PolymerReliability and Maintainability
Doctor of PhilosophyAerospaceBiomedical**BiosystemsChemicalCivilComputer Engineering
Computer ScienceElectricalEngineering ScienceIndustrialMaterials ScienceMechanicalNuclearPolymer
Degrees Offered
Enrollment Figures
The origins of the College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee date back to 1838. It is the fourth oldest engineering college in the nation.
Total Enrollment Full-Time Programs Academic Year 2010
Undergraduate: 2,381Graduate: 892Total: 3,273
Degrees Granted Academic Year 2010
Bachelor of Science: 377Master of Science: 168Doctor of Philosophy: 40Total: 585
Faculty – Fiscal Year 2011
Professors: 58Associate Professors: 45Assistant Professors: 38Total: 141
The college has one National Academy of Engineering Member
Dr. Jack Dongarra, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Two Distinguished Scientists
Dr. Takeshi Egami, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Dr. David Joy, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
One University Distinguished ProfessorDr. Jack Dongarra, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
One UT-Battelle Distinguished Professor Dr. Thomas Zacharia, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Six UT/ORNL Governor’s Chairs
Dr. Howard Hall, Governor’s Chair in Global Nuclear Security
Dr. Yilu Liu, Governor’s Chair in Power Electronics
Dr. Frank Loeffler, Governor’s Chair in Environmental Biotechnology
Dr. William Weber, Governor’s Chair in Radiation Effects on Materials
Dr. Brian Wirth, Governor’s Chair in Computational Nuclear Engineering
Dr. Thomas Zawodzinski, Governor’s Chair in Electrical Energy Storage
Four Chairs of Excellence
The Ivan Racheff Chair in Materials Science and Engineering
Dr. Peter Liaw, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Robert M. Condra Chair of Excellence in Computer Integrated Engineering & Manufacturing
Dr. Matthew Mench, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering Robert M. Condra Chair of Excellence in Power Electronics Applications
Dr. Fred Wang, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Henry Goodrich Chair of Excellence in Civil & Environmental Engineering
Vacant
Two Endowed Chairs
CTI Professor/Chair
Dr. Kevin Tomsovic, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Ericsson - Harlan D. Mills Chair of Software Engineering
Dr. Jesse Poore, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Endowed Professorships
Fred N. Peebles Professors
Dr. Edwin Burdette, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Dr. Dayakar Penumadu, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Magnavox Professor
Dr. Ken Kihm, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering
Armour T. Granger/Alvin and Sally Beaman Professor
Dr. Bamin Khomami, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Leonard G. Penland Professorship
Dr. Philip Rack, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Fred Mason Roddy Professor
Dr. Rick Komistek, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering John Fisher Professor
Dr. Peter Liaw, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Jack and Dorothy McKamey Professor
Dr. George Pharr, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Min H. Kao Professor
Dr. Leon Tolbert, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Robert M. Condra Professor
Dr. Lawrence Townsend, Department of Nuclear Engineering Weston Fulton Professor
Dr. Rapinder Sawhney, Department of Industrial and Information Engineering
Charles P. Postelle Distinguished Professor in Nuclear Engineering
Dr. J. Wesley Hines, Department of Nuclear Engineering
James McConnell Professors
Dr. Aly Fathy, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Dr. S. Kamrul Islam, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Two COE Career Development Professorships
Dr. Eric Boder, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Dr. Mohamed Mahfouz, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering
Newly Endowed Professorships/Chairs (not yet awarded)
Blalock, Kennedy, Pierce Analog Electronics Professor
Dr. John Prados Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor
Two Chancellor’s Professors
Dr. George Pharr, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Dr. Lawrence Townsend, Department of Nuclear Engineering
5
Emmabeth Parrish, a senior in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), grew up in Knoxville, where she said the environment heavily shaped her educational pursuits.
“Education was always a high priority with both my parents and siblings,” Parrish said. “My father is an electrical engineer and my mother is a high school biology teacher.”
But it wasn’t until she played with diapers, silly putty and shopping bags during “Polymer Week” in high school chemistry class that she decided to pursue polymer engineering. Parrish said this path was one where she could best use her talents and interests.
A few months before coming to the University of Tennessee, Parrish applied for an internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and received the opportunity to work in a tensile testing and fatigue facility. One of the main aspects of her job was to obtain and analyze stress strain curves for metals at high strain rates. Parrish said the enjoyment she received from this work is what solidified her decision to pursue a degree in materials science and engineering.
Pursuing Work Worthy of Effort
Her decision to come to UT stemmed from a tour of the MSE department.
“Three current students were there for me to ask questions,” Parrish said. “I was impressed with how much these students loved their major and how dedicated the faculty was both to research and, most importantly, the students.”
And now Parrish is one of those students who loves her major, and specifically, her concentration in biomaterials.
“Biomaterials research actually helps people,” Parrish said. “I want to put effort into things that I feel deserve effort. When I see how something could actually help burn victims, or grandparents’ hips, or even improve understanding of how our bodies work, then I feel like it is something that deserves effort. This is the type of work I want to do–work worthy of effort. And a lot of biomaterials are polymers!”
In 2010, Parrish was a research assistant for Dr. Wei He, a joint assistant professor in the MSE department and the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering (MABE). She was working on a
project that used chitosan and agarose gel for cell regeneration. The overall goal was to produce a hydrogel that could be placed in voids of trauma victims’ brains. Parrish counted fluoresced cells, mixed solutions and obtained brain cells from chicken eggs.
“Overall, the experience was very rewarding and enjoyable,” Parrish said.
Parrish is the fundraising chair for Tau Beta Pi and a member of the Society of Women Engineers. She also is involved in Engineers Day, the college’s nearly 100-year tradition that allows university students and faculty to spend time interacting with hundreds of potential engineering students from high schools across the region. She has aided in both the egg drop competition and the quiz bowl.
“The day is really effective in promoting engineering as a whole and showing different areas for students to pursue,” Parrish said.
Parrish is the recipient of the Raymond A. Buchanan Outstanding Junior Award, the Materials Science and Engineering Departmental Scholarship and has made the
dean’s list since her first semester at UT. In fact, she has maintained a 4.0 GPA.
“I have not missed a class since my freshman year,” Parrish said. “I do every homework assignment. I try to study in advance for each test. So overall, my work ethic has been most helpful. I know my goals and what I am capable of.”
Looking ahead to the not-so-distant future, Parrish will graduate in May 2012 and plans to attend graduate school for both her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. After that, she would like to work in the industry until an opportunity arises for her to teach.
“I believe spurring on the next generation of engineers is an extremely important task,” Parrish said. “Teaching and doing research at a university or teaching upper level mathematics and science classes at a high school are jobs I can see myself doing.”
Outstanding Undergraduate Student Emmabeth Parrish
6 7
Steven Coley has always had an interest in math and science, so engineering was an easy choice for him when he was making a decision about his college education. After he graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 2010, he became increasingly interested in not only the science and design behind engineering problems, but also in determining good solutions to problems and helping to make an impact in the real world.
His current position is an ideal fit. Coley, a graduate student pursuing a dual M.S./M.B.A. degree in mechanical engineering, is the lead graduate student and project engineer for an interdisciplinary project called Living Light. During Coley’s junior year as an undergraduate at UT, he found out the university was pursuing entry into the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon, a competition that challenges 20 collegiate teams to design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive.
Around this same time, Coley learned that UT offered a dual graduate degree in mechanical engineering and business administration. The dual degree program, the Solar Decathlon
Making A Real-World Impact
entry and the close proximity to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where Coley had been offered an internship, made his decision to further his education an easy one.
Coley’s involvement with Living Light, UT’s house for the Solar Decathlon competition (shown in the photo), includes leading and coordinating its engineering design. In the 2010-2011 academic year, he led a team of 20 undergraduate seniors through their capstone design class that involved designing and analyzing the technical systems of the house. He was in charge of coordinating project deadlines and deliverables between mechanical and electrical engineering students and the other disciplines involved, including architecture, business, graphic design and interior design.
Coley said his experience with Living Light has been unique.
“This is the most rewarding and fulfilling experience I have had in my entire education,” Coley said. “Having a lead role in an interdisciplinary project of this scale has been an invaluable experience in learning how to communicate between disciplines and work
through not only engineering problems, but problems on which each discipline has a different perspective.”
After Coley graduates in December 2012, he would like to find a job in the building industry within a wide range of areas–research, energy modeling, financing of energy-related projects, HVAC design or commercialization and product development of energy-related technologies. His graduate coursework has put him on the right path to fulfilling his goals.
“My coursework in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering (MABE) has been an extremely useful resource to me in pursuing my career interests in engineering and business,” Coley said. “I have learned about sustainable energy production technologies, pros and cons of each technology and the difficulties associated with getting a product to market. The courses have also increased my technical understanding of thermal systems and have helped me understand the complexities of the science behind whole building energy modeling.”
Coley interned with ORNL in its Building Technology and Integration Center, where he
developed EnergyPlus models for two of the Zero Energy Building Research Alliance homes and helped define important modeling parameters and data acquisition techniques to achieve research goals. He also analyzed field data in comparison to EnergyPlus simulation results.
Coley is also a teaching assistant for ME 345, Instrumentation and Measurements.
“Teaching ME 345 has been a great experience,” Coley said. “I enjoy helping students learn the importance of instrumentation and measurement in engineering application.”
Before Coley graduates, he hopes to gain a better understanding of interdisciplinary design and the fundamentals behind building sciences so he can apply this knowledge in practice and do his part to help solve problems related to the world’s energy concerns.
Outstanding Graduate Student Steven Coley
8 9
Aeron Glover, a senior in the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering (IIE), can now add “entrepreneur” to his résumé. While he’s at it, he can add quite a few awards, too.
It all started when Glover studied abroad in Spain in the summer of 2009.
“I lived with a host family for nearly two months, and afterward, I realized that there was no way of getting in-depth, student generated feedback on this family before moving in with them,” Glover said. “I had to rely on broad information provided by a company who paired me with the family.”
In January 2010, six months after arriving in the U.S., he and Kaliv’ Parker, a junior in the College of Business, started writing the business plan for HowsTheLiving.com, a website that allows students, parents and housing administrators to collaborate on student housing. It also allows users to post residence hall events and comes with a mobile app and a suite of other features. The website is free for all users.
Glover and Parker entered their business plan into the Vol Court Pitch Competition, a joint effort among the UT Research Foundation (UTRF), the College of Business Administration’s Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) and Technology 2020’s Center for Entrepreneurial Growth (CEG). As the first place winner, HowsTheLiving.com received $1,000 from the CEI, space in the UTRF Technology Business Center for one year, one year mentoring from Technology 2020’s CEG, 12 hours of accounting advice from Parker Business Consulting and Accounting and seven hours of legal advice from Miller & Martin LLC. The total package was valued at $23,000.
Glover and Parker were then featured on four episodes of mtvU’s Movers & Changers and had the opportunity to attend the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Movers & Changers Forum, ring the bell at the NYSE and present their
plans to a panel of industry executives. The final episode of Movers & Changers, which aired on Dec. 15, 2010, revealed that Parker and Glover won the grand prize of $25,000 to further develop their company. They defeated two other finalists.
But it didn’t stop there for these two entrepreneurs. Tennessee Technology Development Corporation (TTDC) awarded a $10,000 business development grant to Glover and Parker at the Venture Showcase competition during the Tennessee NEXT 2011 Conference held in Nashville, Tenn., on May 5 and 6, 2011.
They used their winnings to put together a new and improved website in May 2011. A more robust version will be released in a few months.
Glover credits his engineering background for much of his success.
“One of the cornerstones of an engineering education is a solid critical thinking and analytical foundation,” Glover said. “My ability to plan, create and grow HowsTheLiving.com depends largely on my ability to foresee future obstacles and to think through complex strategies. My industrial engineering education has helped me with this and has also given me glimpses of both the technical and business sides, which is always helpful in creating and growing an Internet start-up company.”
The College of Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Program played a large role in Glover’s success. In the spring of 2010, Glover enrolled in Engineering Fundamentals 130: Survey of Technology Entrepreneurship. In this class, he was exposed to many of the area’s top entrepreneurs, and he got the chance to hear about their experiences first-hand. Dr. Lee Martin, research assistant professor in the IIE department, taught the course. Glover cited Martin as a valuable resource and mentor throughout the process.
Glover’s most recent venture includes interning at Google in the summer of 2011. He worked in the Media and Platform Solutions department and within the display advertising arm where the company helps implement rich media advertising campaigns for clients.
The internship had some perks, too, according to Glover, which included taking slides to travel from floor to floor.
“But despite those perks, Google’s culture places a huge emphasis on maximum performance,” Glover said. “The people at Google build products and services that change millions of lives and that change the world. But they do it while having fun.”
Google sponsored an opportunity for Glover to attend the Harvard Business School Summer Venture in Management Program in June. This program aids participants in developing a broader understanding of the challenges business leaders face, the many dimensions of the business world and the impact they can have on their community and the world through business leadership.
“While the classroom experience was indeed unbelievable, the most rewarding part of the program for me was connecting with and learning from the nearly 80 students also involved in the program,” Glover said. “These students were from all over the world and had various backgrounds from neuroscience to psychology to electrical engineering to international studies–you name it. Some were interning at Google, as I was, while others were working with investment banks and doing medical research. It was great seeing so many perspectives. It was yet another life-changing experience for me.”
For more information on Glover or his business, please visit www.HowsTheLiving.com.
IIE Student Gains National AttentionHowsTheLiving.com
10
Student Body 2010-2011Degrees Granted 2010-2011
Engineering Enrollment Trends by Academic Year
11
2400
2300
2200
2100
2000
1900
1800
1700
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
500
450
400
350
300
250
2002005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
1,805
1,882 1,877
2,140
2,217
2,381559
314
494
349
515
324
458
379
504
339
421
471
Undergraduates Masters Doctorate
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
2011-2012 College of Engineering Student Ambassadors: 1st row, left to right: John Scobey, Emily Morin, Rachel Kidd, Dave Seeman, Michael Hutton, Sarah Fervan, Bailey Primm, Tyler Kiste, Emily Leturno. 2nd row, left to right: Bradford Taylor, Caroline Hunter, Matt Price, Lauren Bryant, Catherine Julson, Stephen Fly. Not pictured: Joshua Clark, Tyler Rowe and Scott Strickler
Doctorate(Ph.D.)
40
Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
377
Master of Science(M.S.)
168
The year 2011 was a busy one for diversity activities at the UTK College of Engineering (COE) as the university celebrated 50 years of African-American achievement.
On April 18, 2011, the university hosted its first Tennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (TLSAMP) Awards Banquet at the UT Visitors Center. Travis Griffin, director of the Engineering Diversity Office, and his staff coordinated the event.
TLSAMP’s goal is to increase the enrollment and graduation rate of underrepresented ethnic minority students (Hispanic, African-American, American-Indian, Alaskan Native and Pacific Islander) in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by at least 100 percent at the end of a five-year period.
Dr. Wayne Davis, Dean of the College of Engineering (COE), and Charles and Annazette Houston, representatives from the UT 50th Anniversary for African-American Achievement celebration, welcomed guests and participants. Students, faculty, administrators and guests were recognized for their exceptional involvement in the TLSAMP program.
Dr. Howard G. Adams, former Executive Director for the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (GEM), was the evening’s guest speaker. Adams is the Founder and President of H.G. Adams & Associates, Inc., a Norfolk, Va., based consulting company that provides human development services and products to educational, governmental and industrial organizations.
The program included recognition of faculty and students receiving special honors from
COE Diversity UpdateTLSAMP Awards Banquet, Dual-degree Program are Year ’s Highlights
TLSAMP, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). A slideshow was also featured during dinner of TLSAMP, SHPE and NSBE activities that took place throughout the school year. Dr. Lonnie Sharpe, Executive Director for the TLSAMP program, made the closing remarks.
The COE and Fisk University, a historically black educational institution in Nashville, Tenn., formalized a dual-degree program agreement on May 23, 2011. Dean Wayne Davis and former U.S. Secretary of Energy and Fisk President Hazel O’Leary signed the agreement, which offers students a bachelor of science degree from Fisk and a bachelor of science from UTK. Participants will spend 3-4 years at Fisk and will then complete the requirements for an engineering degree at UTK. Both the engineering college and Fisk will assign liaison officers to supervise the program. The agreement will be evaluated after a five-year period to determine if any changes are necessary.
The COE’s outreach efforts to underrepresented students began with the Minority Engineering Scholarship Program (MESP), which was initiated in 1973, under the direction of Mr. Fred Brown. Since that time, the diversity program has expanded and has graduated more than 900 students, due in large part to the college’s success in recruiting, retaining and graduating underrepresented engineering students.
Fisk University President Hazel O’Leary and UT COE Dean Wayne Davis sign the dual engineering degree program agreement.
Dr. Howard G. Adams (left), former Executive Director for the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (GEM), accepts a plaque commemorating his role as keynote speaker for the TLSAMP Awards Banquet from Mona King (center) and Dr. Lonnie Sharpe (right), Executive Director for the TLSAMP program.
12 13
Fisk University and UT officials at the signing of the dual engineering degree program agreement (left to right): Fisk alumnus and member of the Fisk Board of Directors Eddie D. Hamilton; COE Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Masood Parang; COE Dean Wayne Davis; President of Fisk and former U.S. Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary; Fisk Vice President for Academic Affairs Arnold Burger; Professor of Physics Steve Morgan; and Fisk Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Pricilla Evans Morris.
In January of 2010, the Tennessee State Legislature authorized the university to establish an academic unit of UT Knoxville (UTK) for interdisciplinary research and graduate education in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education (CIRE) was established with $6.2 million in start-up funding, provided through a one-time commitment of then-Governor Philip Bredesen to the university.
CIRE combines the educational resources of the state’s largest flagship institution with the research capabilities of the Department of Energy’s leading science and energy laboratory, providing expanded opportunities for graduate students in energy-related sciences and engineering.
The center aims to add 20 to 40 high caliber graduate students each year, moving the university closer to its goal of becoming a Top 25 research institution.
Dr. Lee Riedinger, a professor in the Department of Physics and ORNL’s former deputy director for science and technology and associate laboratory director for university partnerships, was named director of CIRE in August 2010.
“The overarching goal of CIRE is to try to engage these extremely talented young people to attack some of the crucial energy problems around the country. That’s a long-term goal. But it’s clear we need to invest in the brightest to work on these energy challenges. That’s one goal for the good of the country,” Riedinger said. “For the university and the national laboratory, the goal is to bring the best talent to our student body and to our departments because a university
is measured by the quality of its students. I think UTK has been doing well in the quality of its undergraduates because of the lottery scholarship and such, but this new program is one way to do better recruiting the best graduate students.”
CIRE is home to one of the first interdisciplinary doctoral programs in energy science and engineering (ESE). Students will be able to specialize in nuclear energy, bioenergy and biofuels, renewable energy, energy conversion and storage, distributed energy and grid management and environmental and climate sciences related to energy.
The newly created UTK-ORNL Distinguished Graduate Fellowship Program, in which students may pursue existing doctoral programs with concentrations in computational science and engineering, materials science and engineering and nuclear science and engineering, is also a component of CIRE.
Both the ESE degree program and the UTK-ORNL Distinguished Graduate Fellowship program include an emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation, including opportunities for interested students to develop and implement business plans with the UTK College of Business Administration. CIRE students will join interdisciplinary research teams at ORNL and UT Knoxville that will expose them to large-scale, problem-oriented research and development. Students are encouraged to develop their research in the context of potential solutions to important national problems and are provided with the tools and support to follow an entrepreneurial path consistent with their interests.
“What drew me to this program is the work that we’d be doing out at the lab, the large
computational resources that are available at Oak Ridge,” said Kemper Talley, a graduate student in CIRE and an NSF grant award winner. “The research faculty is amazing. I’m working with Dr. Nazarewicz (CIRE joint faculty member), who is internationally recognized as a nuclear theorist. It’s been an exciting time to cross two fields.”
CIRE participant Ryan Hutchins saw the program as a way to initiate work on his doctoral degree.
“I had actually been interested in the problem of materials by design, so I was calling different research groups around the country at different locations. As it turned out, I wasn’t planning on going for my Ph.D. until next year, but once I found out about the CIRE program, I started talking to the right people, and things sort of went from there,” Hutchins said. “There’s a lot of great research going on at Oak Ridge, so that’s really what drew me in. One of the really cool aspects of this program is that it has an entrepreneurial focus, so you have the option of pursuing research at a national laboratory, which is really great, but then there’s also the possibility of your research resulting in some sort of a breakthrough technology which you can then form a startup company around.”
CIRE students also see the program as major support for their future career goals.
“What I plan on doing with my career is I’d like to get my Ph.D. and then spend some time working at a national lab, preferably ORNL, and eventually I’d like to come back and teach undergrad and graduate studies,” said CIRE participant Steven Jones. “I’m really interested in passing on the knowledge that I’ll obtain over my career and bolstering up future generations.”
“My research interest is climate science, and that by its very nature is interdisciplinary because it’s not just the atmosphere, it’s not just the land, it’s not just energy putting things into the atmosphere. It’s all of that combined,” commented CIRE student Melissa Allen. “So to really take a good look at climate, you have to take an interdisciplinary approach, and that’s what this program helps me to do.”
Riedinger is delighted with the energy created by the multidisciplinary program.
“Yesterday, I saw magic happening. It was the most wonderful afternoon to see it for the first time,” Riedinger commented. “We had our first class of the course. I was impressed to see a scenario where people from physics backgrounds, engineering backgrounds and biology backgrounds were talking to each other and getting to know each other. That’s the power of this interdisciplinary program that we want to happen. That was just inspiring to me. The response has been excellent.”
Riedinger adds that he is amazed at how well the program is already working.
“All the students have been engaged in choosing courses, talking to faculty and talking to each other. I am encouraged by the beginning of this. We’re bringing together the best people,” Riedinger said.
The Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education (CIRE)
14 15
The College of Engineering (COE) continued to move forward with design and construction on two new buildings and a related research facility in 2010-2011.
The Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building is expected to be substantially complete and will be commissioned by the middle of October 2011.
Progress Continues on BuildingsAt that point, the contractor will return the building to the university, so that the faculty, students and staff from the department will begin to move into the facility. By January 2, 2012, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science’s (EECS) research programs, academic functions and administration will have moved into the building from the six buildings that they
Facilities
16
currently occupy. A dedication ceremony for the building will take place in the spring of 2012.
Plans were finalized, project bids and the construction work was awarded for the John D. Tickle Engineering Building by July 2011. On July 28, the construction site was occupied, and site preparation began. Please view progress
at http://www.engr.utk.edu/tickle/webcam.html and learn more about the project at http://www.engr.utk.edu/tickle/index.html. The facility, which will house the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Industrial and Information Engineering (IIE), is scheduled to be substantially complete in 24 months by August 2013.
The Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building The John D. Tickle Engineering Building Construction Site
17
Progress continues on the design stage for the Joint Institute for Advanced Materials (JIAM) building, which will be constructed on the university’s Cherokee Campus. The design plan is currently undergoing review by the state fire marshal’s office and if the approval phase goes smoothly, construction should start in early 2012.
Plans for updated labs in the Dougherty Engineering Building, which received a $1.8 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant in late 2010 for the renovations, are going forward, and completion of the project is currently scheduled for early 2013. The majority of the labs will be designed to focus on research related to energy storage, with
seven COE faculty members involved in the planning stages.
The college will also benefit from added space in Senter Hall, the former White Avenue Biology Annex, which will provide six research labs for faculty members who need temporary lab space while their permanent labs are being prepared. The building primarily acts as
limited-duration surge space for new hires and research programs and provides surge space for both the COE and the College of Arts and Sciences. A key exception is about 20% of the space that provides a permanent location for the world-class ion-beam/radiation defects facility of Dr. William Weber, Governor’s Chair in Materials Science, and his colleges at both UTK and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
The JIAM Building Senter Hall
Dougherty Engineering Building
18
The UT College of Engineering (COE) has received a five-year, $18 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to establish an NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) focused on research, education and technology for sustainable energy systems with an emphasis on power transmission systems.
This is the first time the university has been designated to lead an ERC and the first time an ERC will address power transmission systems. The NSF ERC is historically the most prestigious award given to a university industry team.
The new center, called CURENT (Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks), involves a consortium of academia, industry and national laboratories. CURENT will play a central role in President Barack Obama’s goal to overhaul the nation’s power grid. The president outlined a framework to take America’s early-twentieth-century power system into the twenty-first century through cutting-edge research. The NSF and DOE have partnered to address the nation’s critical need to develop a smart grid, and CURENT will play a leading role in this initiative.
CURENT
Dr. Kevin Tomsovic, head of UT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will direct CURENT, and Yilu Liu, Governor’s Chair for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will serve as co-director. The country’s electrical grid has chronically been overstretched, manifesting itself in costly and inconvenient blackouts. Since 1982, an increase in peak demand for electricity has exceeded transmission growth by almost 25 percent, according to the DOE. As the nation’s population grows, this overload is expected to worsen. CURENT seeks to solve this problem by focusing its technologies and methods to operate the power grid efficiently and reliably over long distances.
“Using wide-area synchronized measurements, large-scale computer simulations, and hardware testbeds that represent the major US power grids, we will seek fundamental breakthroughs and investigate the enabling technologies needed to achieve a resilient transmission network on a continental scale,” Tomsovic said.
Liu has been monitoring power grid operations with frequency disturbance recorders installed in various parts of the nation’s grids.
“Before you take any action, you need to see what is going on,” Liu said. “Monitoring is an essential first step, then this will lead to better information, knowledge and eventually control.” CURENT engineers’ contributions will have a positive environmental impact. The center’s innovations will enable a global shift away from fossil fuels by facilitating higher levels of renewable energy resources within electric grids. To consumers, it means green, sustainable and reliable power. CURENT is also focusing on the future workforce by educating a new generation of energy leaders from diverse backgrounds with a global perspective. The educational mission concentrates on developing a broad interdisciplinary program that benefits graduate, undergraduate and pre-college students.
CURENT will be housed in the COE’s new Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building.
Over forty companies support CURENT, including electric power utilities, manufacturers, consulting firms and national laboratories, such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Partner academic institutions include Northeastern University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Tuskegee University, Tsinghua (China) University, the University of Waterloo (Canada) and the National Technical University of Athens (Greece).
CURENT has the potential for continued NSF–DOE funding of $4-5 million dollars per year over the next 10 years.
“The confidence placed in us by NSF and DOE puts UT at the center for everyone who is doing research in this area, “Tomsovic said. “This immediately opens up even greater opportunities for the center. We’re already being contacted by industry and research institutions that want to be associated with CURENT.”
For more information about CURENT, visit http://curent.utk.edu/
Research
19
Left to right: Dr. Leon Tolbert, Dr. Kevin Tomsovic, Dr. Fred Wang, Dr. Yilu Liu and Dr. Fangxing Li
UTK College of Engineering researchers are playing a key role in a recently awarded five year, $20 million dollar program devoted to increasing Tennessee’s research base in renewable energy technologies.
The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program was established in the 1970s. The mission of EPSCoR is to assist the National Science Foundation (NSF) in its efforts to strengthen research and education in science and engineering throughout the United States. EPSCoR’s goals are to provide strategic programs and opportunities for EPSCoR participants that stimulate sustainable improvements in their research and development capacity and competitiveness and to advance science and engineering capabilities in EPSCoR jurisdictions for discovery, innovation and overall knowledge-based prosperity.
EPSCoR/ONR Grants
EPSCoR districts are defined as states that receive less than 7.5% of federal research funding. Tennessee was designated as one of five EPSCoR districts four years ago. This designation means that both public and private universities within the district can compete for federal grants. However, the educational institutions must compete as a statewide block for the funding.
In October of 2010, the Tennessee State EPSCoR partnership officially received a grant for a proposal submitted by the University of Tennessee System, the Tennessee Board of Regents System, Vanderbilt University and the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association. The overall goal of the proposal is to improve the competitive standing of Tennessee Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) researchers by creating and enhancing a culture of collaboration within Tennessee’s research base.
Titled “Tennessee Solar Conversion and Storage using Outreach, Research and Education (TN-SCORE),” the proposal focused on outreach and education. The total of the grant awarded through EPSCoR was $20 million, $10 million of which was designated for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. A total of 14 entities applied for the grant and seven received the funding, which will be spread out over a time period of five years. The State Economic Development Office oversees distribution of the EPSCoR funds, while Dr. David Millhorn, UTK Executive Vice President and Vice President for Research and Economic Development and the Principal Investigator of the project, supervises overall coordination of the program.
The overall theme of the TN-SCORE was alternative energy technologies, which complement several recent statewide research and demonstration initiatives and industry recruitment successes. The proposal was separated into three main scientific thrust teams:
Thrust 1: Advanced Solar Conversion and Innovation, featuring the development of highly effective, hybrid active layers to improve the efficiency and sustainability of solar cells.
Thrust 2: Components and Devices for Energy Storage and Conversion, focusing mainly on the development of primary technologies, electrochemical energy storage (batteries, supercapacitors) and conversion (fuel cells) devices, to address critical areas of national interest and need.
Thrust 3: Nanostructures for Enhancing Energy Efficiency, encompassing the development and use of nanostructures to synthesize, fabricate, characterize and implement nanostructures with the aim of enhancing energy efficiency in solid state lighting and solar energy conversion.
Dr. Tom Zawodzinski, the UT Governor’s Chair in Electrical Energy Storage, was the co-leader for Thrust 2. Dr. Cindy Rice-York, a professor at Tennessee Technology University, was the other co-thrust leader.
Zawodzinki’s original thrust team includes UT professors and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering colleagues Dr. R.M. “Pete” Counce and Dr. Stephen Paddison as well as Dr. Jimmy Mays, a UT Distinguished Scientist based in the Department of Chemistry. Professor Shane Foister in the chemistry department has also joined the team.
Dr. Xiaorui “Ray” Wang
Research
20
Researchers from Vanderbilt and Memphis round out the group.
What makes EPSCoR unique is that the program’s goal is to increase statewide resources, using the primary educational resources for outreach with an emphasis on STEM.
When a previous effort to attain EPSCoR funding was unsuccessful, Zawodzinski led efforts to augment the research focus with a battery and fuel thrust.
Leaders of Thrust 1 were Dr. Barry Bruce from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology and Dr. Kane Jennings from Vanderbilt. UT participants in the solar conversion and innovation team included Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering professors Dr. Ramki Kalyanaraman, Dr. Paul Frymier, Dr. Eric Boder, Dr. Stephen Paddison and department head Dr. Bamin Khomami; Dr. Gerd Duscher, Dr. Bin Hu and Dr. Philip Rack from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; and many collaborators from other state and private universities and colleges.
University of Tennessee participants in Thrust 3 included Dr. Aly Fathy from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. A faculty contingent from Vanderbilt, as well as other academic institutions in the state, was also involved. Dr. Sandy Rosenthal of Vanderbilt leads this Thrust.
Each thrust team will contribute to the technology innovation base being developed in Tennessee to add value to the research enterprise in the state. Also, each thrust includes an aggressive outreach and workforce development approach designed to enhance research capacity while creating a culture of collaboration across the state, educating the next generation of scientists in the classroom and providing opportunities for students and faculty that might otherwise not be available.
Workforce development programs under the EPSCoR grant include both summer and year-round undergraduate research programs; college faculty summer research programs; a Council for Undergraduate Research Workshop; a secondary school science teacher summer program; and industry summer internships.
The main goal of the program is to build relationships across the state to improve Tennessee’s research infrastructure. The UT-ORNL connection also plays an important role.
One of the primary directives of research for all thrusts will be developing new materials, and early collaborations have already been initiated.
By creating a collaborative network of faculty, students and researchers, EPSCoR makes the research environment in the state even stronger. The program also has high potential for creating spin-off companies.
In other important grant news, on March 30, 2011, the Department of the Navy announced the awarding of $10.8 million to scientists and engineers at 18 academic institutions as part of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) 2011 Young Investigator Program (YIP).
Included in a list of professors from Yale, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Princeton and Carnegie Mellon Universities were two faculty members from the University of Tennessee College of Engineering: Dr. Xiaorui “Ray” Wang, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Dr. Mingjun Zhang, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering (MABE).
“The Young Investigator Program is an important part of the Department of the Navy’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach programs,” said Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. “To our benefit, it attracts outstanding new faculty
Dr. Mingjun Zhang
21
Dr. Thomas Zawodzinski
researchers to naval-relevant research. The program also plays a major role in the Navy’s outreach efforts by supporting diverse faculty at a critical point in their careers.”
The YIP award identifies and supports academic scientists and engineers who have obtained their doctorate degrees and tenure-track positions within the past five years. Winners maintain the commitment of their institution to enhance and grow their professional development.
Wang’s proposal, “End-to-End Delay Guarantees in Mission-critical Wireless Sensor Networks,” focuses on mission-critical wireless sensor network (WSN) applications, because those applications often face various stringent design constraints, such as end-to-end communication delay and energy consumption. For example, a WSN-based disaster warning system must report detected events to authorities through a multi-hop wireless network within a specified real-time deadline. In the meantime, the energy consumption of the battery-powered wireless nodes must be minimized for a longer system lifetime. Wang’s research seeks to utilize the abundant radio channel resources, such as multiple overlapping channels, available in today’s sensor node devices for improved real-time performance and optimized energy-efficiency.
The goal of Zhang’s proposal, “Energy Efficient Swimming Mechanism: An Inspiration from Micro-scale Biological Systems,” is to learn nature’s design principles of energy-efficient swimming and robust attachment mechanisms from several micro-organisms, and to employ the principles learned from biology for innovation in propelling system design for underwater unmanned vehicles and robots. Through focusing on basic science,
his research will pursue prototype bio-inspired device design so that the principles learned from biology can be transformative for engineering applications.
The Navy selected 21 proposals from more than 270 applications received last year.
Recipients will receive approximately $170,000 in annual research grants for three years.
The YIP award program was established by the ONR in 1985, initially providing grants of $50,000 each to promising researchers. The naval command has since expanded the program.
The CAREER program is a foundation-wide activity that offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. These activities are recognized as essential components to build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. The College of Engineering is pleased to announce that two young faculty members recently received NSF CAREER Awards.
Dr. Wei He, a joint assistant professor in the University of Tennessee’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, is the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for her project “Immunologically Responsive Therapeutic Biomaterials to Modulate Wound Healing in the Nervous Systems: An Integrated Research and Education Plan.” The award is effective from August 1, 2011, through July 31, 2016.
He’s research focuses on the interface of biomaterials and biological systems, particularly the nervous system where implantable materials are reconnecting the damaged neural network to improve patients’ quality
CAREER Awards
of life. She is also developing new bioactive materials for orthopedic applications.
He received her B.S. degree in chemistry from Tianjin University in China. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, and her thesis research sparked her interest in the biomedical engineering field. She held a post-doctoral position at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she advanced her research in the field of neural engineering, particularly on brain-machine interface and nerve regeneration. In 2006, she accepted a senior fellow position at the University of Washington in Seattle to develop new materials for tissue engineering. Shortly afterwards, He joined the UT College of Engineering faculty.
“The CAREER Award will allow me to further advance the design and development of therapeutic biomaterials, understand their interactions with cells responsible for the immune defense against indwelling biomedical implants and explore their potentials in managing the wound healing response around medical implants such as neural electrodes,” He said.
He also sees the funding as a way to support outreach.
“Funding of this CAREER Award will be used toward both research and outreach activities. Specifically, the funding will be used to
recruit and support outstanding graduate researchers to improve our understanding of the interactions underlying the implantable biomaterials with host tissues, and to develop strategies that can modulate such interactions,” He commented. “In addition, efforts will be made to increase the participation of undergraduate students in research, particularly women and minority students. Outreach activities of the project will include hosting high school students and science teachers by developing a new summer biomaterials program, and engaging participants of the annual Materials Camp at UTK with a hands-on biomaterial lab module.”
Dr. Christopher R. Cherry, an assistant professor in the University of Tennessee’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), is the recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award for his project “Sustainability Implications of Transportation Choice in China.” The award is effective beginning April 1, 2011, through March 31, 2016.
Cherry has been exploring behavioral and environmental issues related to electric bikes, scooters and larger electric vehicles in his research. In an article published in 2010, “Electric Two-Wheelers in China: Promise, Progress and Potential,” he discussed the growth of electrical two-wheelers that has increased substantially in the last decade.
“The CAREER will assist in my research by providing the opportunity for myself and my students to conduct field work in China, collecting and modeling data on travel behavior and environmental impacts in the transportation sector,” Cherry said. “This award will also cement long-term collaborations with colleagues at Tsinghua University and Kunming University of Science and Technology.”
Cherry received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from the University of Arizona and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the UT College of Engineering as a faculty member in 2007.
Cherry received a 2009 Faculty Environmental Leadership Award from the university for his demonstration of strong and continuing commitment to environmental stewardship on campus. Cherry plans to use the CAREER funding to support his ongoing efforts towards educating others about sustainability.
“I plan to use the award to support graduate students, travel and data collection. I also intend to use the funding to develop educational materials to increase the amount of sustainability related topics I teach at UT and at K-12 opportunities,” Cherry added.
Research
22 23Dr. Chris Cherry
Dr. Wei He
The College of Engineering Research Fellow Awards are presented to faculty members with an exceptional record of research activity, whose efforts clearly contribute to the overall mission of the college. The awards were established to recognize and reward superior research.
Dr. Mongi Abidi, Professor, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Abidi’s research areas include image processing, robotics, artificial intelligence, multi-sensor integration and data fusion
Dr. Hahn Choo, Associate Professor, Materials Science & Engineering Choo’s research areas include mechanical behavior of materials, neutron diffraction, amorphous and alloys
The 2011 College of Engineering Research Fellows are recognized at the college’s annual Faculty and Staff Awards Dinner. Left to right: Dr. Gerd Duscher; Dr. Hahn Choo; Dr. Mongi Abidi; Dr. Aly Fathy; Dr. Jason Hayward; Dr. Ramki Kalyanaraman; Dr. Mohamed Mafouz; Dr. Stephen Paddison; Dr. Mingjun Zhang; and awards presenter COE Associate Dean for Research and Technology, Dr. Bill Dunne.
Dr. Gerd Duscher, Associate Professor, Materials Science & Engineering Duscher’s research interests include interface science and analytical transmission electron microscopy
Dr. Aly Fathy, Professor, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Fathy’s research areas involve electromagnetics, antennas, microwaves, wireless and Usable Bandwidth
Dr. Jason Hayward, Assistant Professor, Nuclear Engineering Hayward’s research areas include radiation detection and measurement, nuclear non- proliferation and medical and health physics
Dr. Ramki Kalyanaraman, Associate Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering Kalyanaraman’s research areas involve phase transformation and self-organization; energetic beam processing; thin film growth and characterization; and functional nanostructures and nanocomposites
Dr. Mohamed Mahfouz, Associate Professor, Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering Mahfouz’s research areas include musculoskeletal mechanics analysis; assisted orthopaedic surgery; and medical imaging registration
Dr. Stephen Paddison, Associate Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Paddison’s research interests include computational materials science as applied to fuel cell electrolytes and electrocatalysts and sustainable energy
Dr. Mingjun Zhang, Associate Professor, Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering Zhang’s research areas include nanobiosystems; nanoparticles for drug delivery; cell motility and inspired robotics
College of Engineering Fellows 2011
24
The COE Teaching Fellow Awards are presented to faculty members who possess an exceptional record of graduate and undergraduate teaching and a strong performance in teaching-related service activities and whose efforts clearly contribute to the overall mission of the college. The awards were established to reward superior teaching.
Dr. John Landes (left) and Dr. Ben Blalock (right) receive their Teaching Fellow Awards at the 2011
COE Faculty & Staff Awards Dinner.
Dr. Ben Blalock, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Dr. John Landes, Professor, Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering
College of Engineering Teaching Fellows 2011
25
26
Dr. Matthew Mench, the College of Engineering’s (COE) new R.M. Condra Chair of Excellence in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering (MABE) has big plans for UTK’s future.
Mench, who was born and raised in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, got hooked on mechanical engineering early in his college career. He became interested in getting an advanced degree after working as an undergraduate student in a large combustion laboratory. He received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. After teaching a fluid mechanics class as a graduate assistant, Mench knew that he wanted a career as an engineering faculty member, combining both research and education. He eventually received his Ph.D. from Penn State as well. Mench joined the COE faculty in 2010.
Mench received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development Award (CAREER) in 2007. The award runs through this year, and it has had a very positive effect on his research.
“The work for this grant has really evolved over the years to include many things. I am very grateful that my program manager at NSF has allowed me the freedom to morph the program to cover important new areas as they have emerged,” Mench said. “We started
Pushing the Envelope on Energy Research
by using a unique method of transient data processing to develop an electrochemical sensor for extremely low levels of poisons that reduce performance of fuel cells. This research has since grown to include sensors that can detect multiple poisons at once, with potential applications including detection of poison gas that a terrorist might deploy. We have also used the support to advance various diagnostic techniques such as neutron imaging, which has enabled us to learn much more about the physics of multi-phase heat and mass transfer. Using the knowledge we have gained, we have developed computational models involving phenomena such as freeze degradation in fuel cells, and helped to guide development of advanced materials with improved performance and durability. Recently, we have used the remaining funds to advance the state-of-the-art in redox flow battery systems. The new results are very exciting.”
One of the factors that drew Mench to UTK was the opportunity to work with Dr. Tom Zawodzinski, the Governor’s Chair in Electrical Energy Storage.
“Working with Tom is the most exciting part of the job these days–I don’t need coffee to stay energized! We are developing a joint lab called the BRANE lab, which is short for Basic Research Applied to Novel Electrochemical Systems Laboratory. The mission of this joint lab is to push the envelope on design and materials
of electrochemical storage and conversion systems like fuel cells and flow batteries. The facility will combine research and education, and include equipment to fundamentally investigate and build from the nano to the system level. The facility will expand the imaginations of our students and other researchers, and put unique manufacturing and testing equipment directly in their hands so they can explore and innovate. No other place I am aware of has this kind of capability, and I am excited to see it grow and develop. The first product of the BRANE lab collaboration between Tom and myself is joint work where our team has demonstrated a nearly 500% improvement in power density of a vanadium flow battery compared to other published systems. This will help bring down total system costs and size.”
Mench is also one of the faculty members who will be designing a newly renovated laboratory in Dougherty Engineering Building. The work is funded by a $1.8 million grant from the NSF.
“Designing my own lab space was another great benefit of coming to UT. The new facility will be a state-of-the-art lab which is designed to be flexible enough to enable us to continue our research on various electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices, including polymer electrolyte fuel cells, microbial fuel cells and flow batteries,” Mench commented.
“It will also feature open access through large windows from the hallway into the lab. I have always felt that this is important for a university lab, since our goal is to teach and openly disseminate. It may seem trivial to some, but I believe having open access to a lab builds a positive connection between the research activities inside and undergraduates and other visitors who walk by, and opens minds to the possibilities of doing research. Most undergraduate students have an idea about what an industrial job would be like, but have almost no idea how a research lab works.”
Mench says the resources of the Condra Chair have provided flexibility in his research and the opportunity to be more creative and take on projects that will make a big impact.
Mench is also excited about working with the facilities and researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where he also holds a joint appointment.
“When I visited campus, my impression was that UTK had been a sleeping giant that was waking up,” Mench added. “I think this university has the basic ingredients to become a top 25 research university. In the future, I want to look back at the engineering program and at UTK as a whole and know that I helped the university to reach its goals.”
COE Faculty: Condra Chair Matthew Mench
27
As if College of Engineering (COE) faculty members did not have enough to do–including teaching classes, working on research projects and composing journal articles–several ambitious professors have also taken on another task and have written and published textbooks.
Engineering professors who have authored textbooks include:
Dr. Hal Aikens, professor in the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering (IIE), Quality Inspired Management: The Key to Sustainability and Quality: A Corporate Force–Managing for Excellence, published by Prentice-Hall.
Dr. Paul Crilly, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), the 4th and 5th editions of Communications Systems, published by McGraw-Hill.
Dr. Jack Dongarra, professor in the EECS department, LAPACK95 Users’ Guide, with V. A. Barker, L. S. Blackford, J. Du Croz, S. Hammarling, M. Marinova, J. Wasniewski, and P. Yalamov; and High Performance Heterogeneous Computing with Alexey L. Lastovetsky, published by Wiley Publishing.
Dr. Takeshi Egami, professor in the Department of Materials Science (MSE), Underneath the Bragg Peaks: Structural Analysis of Complex
Writing the Book on Publishing
Materials, with S.J.L. Billinge, published by Pergamon Press.
Dr. Alberto Garcia, professor in the IIE department, Facilities Planning and Design with J.M. Smith, published by Prentice-Hall.
Dr. J. Wesley Hines, professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering (NE), MATLAB Supplement to Fuzzy and Neural Approaches to Engineering, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Dr. David Icove, research professor in the EECS department, the 7th edition of Kirk’s Fire Investigation.
Dr. Hairong Qi, associate professor in the EECS department, Machine Vision with W.E. Snyder, published by Cambridge University Press.
Dr. Mike Roberts, professor in the EECS department, Signals and Systems, published by McGraw-Hill.
Dr. Michael Vose, associate professor in the EECS department, The Simple Genetic Algorithm: Foundations and Theory, published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Why take the time and effort to author a textbook?
“I needed a text book for my class that reflected the learning objectives,” Crilly said.
Icove wanted to highlight the university’s expertise in a specific area.
“I have published three textbooks and have three more in preparation–all listing UT on the cover page. I wanted to gain greater acceptance of applied research at UT in a format that will demonstrate our leadership role in the area of forensic fire and explosion investigation.”
Icove’s textbook, Kirk’s Fire Investigation, is the leading and most widely read engineering publication in the field of fire and explosion analysis.
Vose wanted to focus on an area that had previously been neglected.
“My book filled a void; there was no text which provided a mathematically rigorous account of the Holland-style Genetic Algorithm,” Vose commented.
“I developed a new technique of studying the atomic structure in disordered crystals, and needed a book to explain details of this technique and demonstrate its power so it will be widely used,” Egami said. “My book is not a textbook on a general topic, but is more focused on one subject.”
Roberts wanted to author a book that was an improvement on current textbooks in his field of research.
“I wrote a textbook because I had accumulated a large collection of course notes in teaching Signals and Systems, and I thought my organization of the material would be superior to the books I had read,” Roberts commented. “I also wrote the book because I enjoyed the process of organizing the theory and
found it very satisfying. There is no better way to learn a subject than to write a book on it.”
“My textbook goals turned out to be too ambitious for a single textbook, so I authored a two book series,” Aikens said, “The first book Quality: A Corporate Force-Managing for Excellence is intended to provide a guide to top management on how use quality principles to build and implement corporate strategy. The second, and most recent, in the series, Quality Inspired Management: The Key to Sustainability, gets more into engineering and design details to enable corporate leaders to develop and operate competitive sustainable organizations that can readily adapt to change.”
All of the faculty authors agree that finding time to work on the project and going through the editorial process were the most difficult factors in writing a textbook.
“I am actively involved in research, so finding time was the most difficult problem,” Egami said. “The book was co-authored by one of my former students who is now a professor, and at the time he was even busier than I was, so it was a real challenge for him to finish his part. He finally took a sabbatical and went to Rome to finish up his work.”
“The editorial review process is the greatest hurdle, and can frustrate even the most experienced author,” Icove commented.
Roberts also found getting input from other faculty was often difficult.
“One difficulty in writing a textbook is dealing with the reviews from peer faculty members in other universities,” Roberts said. “Sometimes the reviewers make sharp criticisms, and that can lead the author to improve his book. But other times, the reviewers will disagree with each other on major points and the author must decide to please one reviewer while displeasing another. Sometimes the author must decide to write the book the way he thinks is best in spite of reviewer criticism. No one can write a book that all potential adopters will like. All he can do is try to maximize his market.”
“This project took several years to complete,” Aikens said. “As my goal was to write a book with a new and realistic approach, most of the work was based on original research. The major difficulty I encountered was obtaining permissions to use materials from research articles and other sources. This proved to be both time-consuming and costly.”
Despite the problems, most of the faculty authors agreed that they want to author other textbooks in the future.
“Although I am not working on a book right now, I expect to do so eventually,” Vose said. “One thing that is difficult is finishing–there is always more to say, and better ways to say it than you already have, so eventually you have to make that final decision.”
COE Faculty: Textbook Authors
28
Dr. Mike Roberts
Dr. J. Wesley Hines
Dr. Takeshi Egami
Dr. Hairong QiDr. Michael Vose
Dr. Hal Aikens
Dr. Alberto Garcia
29
The mission of the Office of Engineering Outreach is to work with organizations across campus, throughout the community and around the world to develop powerful learning opportunities for students. The College of Engineering (COE) has worked to develop three new outreach opportunities that align seamlessly with this mission, and that can be pursued during the current academic year:
Faculty-led Study Abroad
The first of these new developments is COE faculty-led study abroad trips to London and Austria in the summer of 2012. Students will have the chance to take part in a computer science course, Theory of Computation: A Celebration of the Life of Alan Turing, which will be taught in London and Cambridge by Dr. Michael Berry, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). The course will feature trips to symposia and exhibits that mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Turing, a highly influential developer of computer science. The second trip allows students to take part in a mechanical engineering course, Thermodynamics, and an electrical engineering course, Electromechanical Components. These courses will be taught in London by Dr. Roger Parsons, the director of Engineering Outreach, and Dr. Paul Crilly, associate professor in the EECS department. These courses allow access to early Industrial Revolution sites that will provide context and enrichment opportunities. There will also be a COE faculty-led trip to Innsbruck, Austria in the summer of 2012. Students will have the chance to study climate, climate change and water resources while focusing on regions in the European Alps. The course will be taught by Dr. Glenn Tootle, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE).
Providing New Learning Opportunities
For more information about the university’s study abroad programs, visit http://studyabroad.utk.edu.
Grand Challenge Scholars Program
The Grand Challenge Scholars Program is an initiative of the National Academy of Engineers, a follow-up to the articulation of the 14 Grand Challenges for Engineers in the 21st century. The challenges are made up of broad, complex and life-changing problems, and the University of Tennessee is one of only 11 universities that have an approved Grand Challenge Scholars Program to educate engineers to meet these challenges. For more information, visit www.engr.utk.edu/outreach/thegrandchallenge.html.
VolsTeach
The COE has joined the VolsTeach program, which was established in the College of Arts and Sciences to serve students who are interested in using their academic talents and accomplishments to educate the nation’s high school students in science and math. For the first time, engineering students can work toward a secondary education teaching certificate along with their engineering degree. More information can be found at http://volsteach.utk.edu.
Outreach
30
Dr. Terry Douglass, president of Provision Healthcare, LLC (http://www.pvhealthcare.com/) and Provision Trust, Inc. and Chairman of the Board of Provision Foundation, Inc. (http://provisionfoundation.org/) was named the 2011 Nathan W. Dougherty award recipient by the UT Knoxville College of Engineering at the college’s Faculty and Staff Awards Dinner on April 7.
Douglass, an alumnus who received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical engineering, from the University of Tennessee, is the former Chairman of the Board of CTI Molecular Imaging, Inc. (CTI), a public company that specialized in the development, production and distribution of products and services for the medical diagnostic imaging market from 1983 to 2005, when it was acquired by Siemens. Douglass also served as president and CEO of CTI from its formation in 1983 until 2003. Douglass was employed by EG&G Ortec from 1968 to 1983, and he served as president of the company during his last years of service.
During his years at CTI, Douglass played an integral role in the development and commercialization of positron emission tomography (PET) technology, and was instrumental in the development of Medicare reimbursement for PET services.
The Provision primary initiative in healthcare is the development of a world-class cancer care
COE Alumnus Dr. Terry Douglass
capability, named Provision Health Alliance at Dowell Springs, that will include proton therapy capability and most all other diagnostic and treatment modalities for cancer care. Currently, there are only 9 proton therapy centers across the country.
The company focuses on the development of new, innovative, comprehensive healthcare product and service solutions that will make major improvements in patient care, outcomes and value; establishing a healthcare provider model in which the patient is better served through physician and hospital system cooperation and partnership; and offering an emphasis on personal wellness, choice and accountability through preventative, personalized, predictive and participative healthcare.
Douglass and the CTI and Provision entities have supported and partnered with both UTK and the University Health Systems in many ways including research grants, faculty consulting agreements and student co-op programs. CTI established a $1 million endowment to initiate the CTI Biomedical Research Center at the UT Medical Center.
In 2006, Douglass and the other CTI partners gave an additional gift of $1 million to the university to establish a new CTI Chair in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). All four CTI partners were reunited at the college’s Honors Banquet
for the announcement of the gift. Dr. Kevin Tomsovic, head and professor in the EECS department, is the current CTI Chair.
Douglass has served or is serving on the following boards: YMCA, Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, Hope Resource Center, Young Life, the UT College of Engineering Board of Advisors, the UT Chancellor’s Associates and the CTI Biomedical Research Center at the UT Medical Center.
Douglass said he was “honored and humbled” to receive the Dougherty Award, and added that he was ”blessed by and thankful for all the many contributions made by the university and its staff to his education and career.”
Douglass was joined at the event by his family, including his wife, Rosann Bobbitt Douglass, and their three grown children and their spouses.
Dougherty Award Winner
31
COE Dean Wayne Davis (left) presents the Nathan W. Dougherty Award to Dr. Terry Douglass (right) at the College of Engineering’s 2011 Faculty and Staff Awards Dinner.
The very word invest conveys a sense of confidence in the future. It is forward-thinking and active. Investors put money on things that will have a positive return. The donors who invest in engineering education propel our vision to be recognized in the Top 25 public colleges of engineering in the country. The donors who invest with us understand that UTK engineering is preparing graduates to be leaders. They invest to accelerate our national reputation. They invest because they know it matters.
This investment giving can take many forms. Current gifts provide immediate capital. Endowments afford long-term security and strategic planning opportunities. Bequests provide future resources. In fiscal year 2011, the College of Engineering realized significant funds from bequests designated years ago that will resonate far into the future.
Development Report
Rinehart Bright (BS/ME ‘36, who retired from Chrysler Corporation as Vice President) left a $500,000 bequest that will help equip labs for Mechanical Engineering. A significant lab will be named in his honor.
Dr. Richard Finner (cousin of Glenn Finner who taught engineering drawing at UT in the 1940s) provided over $250,000 for a scholarship endowment created by the Finner family in 1987 and a general excellence fund for the college.
John (BS/BA ‘38), former President & CEO of Ball Corporation) and Janice Fisher created faculty endowments for engineering during their lifetimes. Their joint estates gave $1,000,000 more in FY2011.
This year over $3 million has been documented in future bequests. Sixteen individuals (or couples), some with gifts large, some with gifts
smaller but no less important, have provided for UT in their wills and documented those very simply with us. In years to come, their advance planning will provide for professorships, departmental endowments, scholarships and general funds. These are forward-thinking engineering graduates and friends of the college who realize that they can give more through their estates than they could during their lifetimes.
During FY2011, annual giving to the College Fund and parallel engineering department funds grew by 25% from the previous fiscal year. While dollar figures have grown, the number of donors has remained constant for about five years with only 5% of engineering graduates making gifts to the college. This is puzzling when we know the correlation of an engineering education to career success. One of our fundraising challenges is to increase the number of alumni who give to engineering. We
32
know you are problem-solvers by nature and education, so we welcome solutions from our engineering graduates and readers!
The Engineering Development Office goal is to motivate each donor to feel excited about continuously giving. Every gift is an investment in engineering education, and investment giving makes a difference.
For information about giving to the College of Engineering or to offer suggestions about how to motivate more engineers to give, contact:
Dorothy Barkley Bryson Senior Director 120 Perkins Hall Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 865-974-2779 [email protected]
33
Mill
ions
of D
olla
rs
0
15
30
45
60
75
$52,008,340
69.3% of Goal
$59,349,559
79.1% of Goal
$75,000,000
Investment Giving
Ralph D. Heath (BS/EE ‘70, MBA ‘75), Executive Vice President of the Aeronautics Business Area for Lockheed Martin Corporation (LM), may have come to the field of engineering by chance, but his career choice turned out to be one of the best decisions he’s ever made.
Heath, the son of a military family, was born at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. Although the Heaths moved around quite a bit, they eventually settled in Bluff City, Tenn., where Heath graduated from the former Blountville High School (now part of Sullivan Central). He has called himself a native Tennessean ever since.
Heath entered the University of Tennessee (UT) with the idea of pursuing a science major. As he began to think about career options, however, he happened to have a conversation with the head of the electrical engineering department, Dr. Pearce, who convinced him to join the program.
“It actually took a few days for everyone in the department to figure out exactly what courses
Destined to be an Engineer
I needed to take,” Heath said. “I am probably one of the few engineers who took a foreign language and anthropology for elective courses!”
Heath enjoyed his years at UTK, although during the late 1960s many college campuses, including UT, were experiencing turbulent times with anti-war protests and other disturbances.
“The university provided a place of stability and a sense of direction,” Heath commented. “Andy Holt was president at the time, and he helped to maintain an overall positive image and a sense of pride in UT.”
After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in engineering, Heath, who had been a member of the campus ROTC, was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and served four years as an airborne ranger combat engineer. Along the way, he also earned a commercial pilot’s license, acquiring a love for airplanes and flight that would be a prime motivator for the rest of his career.
Heath returned to the university for his MBA degree and shortly afterward accepted a position with General Dynamics (GD) during the beginning of the F-16 aircraft development. Heath was a design engineer, working on avionic systems including radars and computers. The GD aeronautics division eventually became part of LM.
In subsequent years, Heath entered the management track and was involved with a wide range of projects, including flight test of the F-16 at Edwards Air Force Base, development of the F-22 stealth fighter and assignments in operations, business development, manufacturing and logistics. He was ultimately appointed as a corporate officer and Executive
Outstanding Alumnus Ralph Heath
34
Vice President of the Aeronautics Business Area for Lockheed Martin in 2005. He has been with the company for more than 35 years.
“Even today, I draw upon the basics I learned way back in engineering school at UT,” Heath said. “There are nearly 10,000 engineers in my organization–we are a high-tech company–so the technical background gives me the ability to engage at all levels. I love interacting with our newest engineers who know how to use
design tools that weren’t even invented when I was in school. I guess I’m still an engineer at heart! Happily, the fundamentals never change; it is just how we apply them that does.”
Heath’s company has responsibility for all of the aircraft that LM builds and is a $14 billion business with approximately 28,000 employees at nine locations and operations around the world. Key aircraft produced by LM include the F-22, F-16, C-130, C-5 and the newest addition,
the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The organization’s world-renowned Skunk Works® operation in Palmdale, Calif., has been the pre-eminent seat of aerospace innovation for more than 50 years.
At this point in time, Heath likes his work and has no specific plans to retire. “I love this business, and even after this job, I will continue to be engaged in this industry that I enjoy so much,” Heath commented.
Heath and his wife, Janet, who is a registered dietitian and UTK grad (“and a die-hard Vol like me,” Heath added) have been married for 35 years and have two adult daughters.
“I won’t say it has been easy balancing a demanding career with the needs of my family, but if it weren’t for Janet and the girls, none of the rest would matter,” Heath said. “I’m very lucky.”
35
Financial InformationFiscal Year 2011
Total Expenditures & Carryover$92.9 Million
36
Externally Funded Gifts, Grants & Contracts $54,537,489
Recurring & Nonrecurring State Funds $38,364,730
The College of Engineering is resolved to become one of the country’s top 25 public engineering educational institutions. To bring this vision to reality, our college is committed to these five charges:
Attaining national and international recognition among peer institutions for excellence in both research and teaching;
Assembling a dynamic body of faculty who exemplify excellence and innovation in the pursuit and delivery of knowledge and will perpetuate the highest standards of engineering education for future generations;
Graduating students who are well educated in technical knowledge, with solid communication and teamwork skills, who can compete successfully in the global business world and contribute significantly to the national base of engineering education and technology;
Investing strategically in the college’s most important resources — students, faculty and programs — through the vigorous acquisition of private gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations;
Partnering with academic, industrial and government entities that share and enhance the mission of the College of Engineering so that our educational and collaborative efforts result in the maximum, positive, economic impact locally, regionally, nationally and globally.
Vision Statement
Resources: Recurring & Nonrecurring State Funds$38.3 Million
Salaries & Benefits $26,624,210
Miscellaneous Operating Expenses $9,602,270
Equipment $2,138,250
Gifts, Grants & Contracts by Department/Center $54.5 Million
Research Centers $11,277,410 Electrical Engineering & Computer Science $8,319,573Civil & Environmental Engineering $7,987,343 Materials Science & Engineering $7,909,616 Nuclear Engineering $7,253,362 Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering $5,142,083Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering $3,993,457 Industrial & Information Engineering $800,099 Engineering Fundamentals Division $54,281Administration $1,800,264
37
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage
PAID Permit No. 481 Knoxville, TN
College of Engineering 2011 Annual Report The University of Tennessee College of Engineering • 124 Perkins Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996-2000
Web: http://www.engr.utk.edu • Facebook: facebook.com/coe.utk
