Engineering_Annual report 2006

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING 2006 ANNUAL REPORT A

2006 ANNUAL REPORT

U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H

B UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

A Message from our DeanPittsburgh... is a place that will forever be recognized as the city that helped build America. The geography of this place made it a natural center for commerce as the nation was born, and the blessings of abundant natural resources soon made the Western Pennsylvania region the leading center for all the things needed by a growing country, including steel, aluminum and other specialty metals, glass, coal, oil, and chemicals. Just as important as these resources were the people here whose hardworking spirit and pride in their trade helped make “Made in Pittsburgh” a symbol of quality and craftsmanship.

While economic shifts and downturns have impacted Pittsburgh, this is a city that perseveres and overcomes obstacles. The School of Engineering embodies this Pittsburgh spirit as we continue to grow and advance the frontiers of engineering education. We embrace our heritage as a leader in traditional engineering fields like basic metals and advanced manufacturing, while also expanding our prominence in growing fields like bioengineering, nanoscience, and sustainability. Our student enrollment is at record levels, as we continue to serve Pennsylvanians while also drawing larger numbers of students from around the country and overseas. Our faculty research activity, measured by research expenditures, is the highest it has ever been, and greater private support from our alumni and friends is allowing us to plan for the future with great ambition.

The 2005–06 academic year was a great one for the School of Engineering, and I invite you to learn more about our programs and accomplishments in this annual report.

Gerald D. HolderU.S. Steel Dean of Engineering

Centers, Institutes, and InitiativesA Research Model Fostering CollaborationResearch at the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering focuses on four clusters: nanoscience and engineering, bioengineering, manufacturing and product innovation, and sustainability. The multidisciplinary nature of these foci requires teamwork across all departments within the school and with other members of the University community and the region, including in the corporate and technology sectors, and federal research laboratories.

As a result, School of Engineering research institutes and centers incorporate the efforts of many disciplines—including engineering; the natural, environmental, and health sciences; and biomedicine—as well as the cooperation and involvement of people throughout the University, the Western Pennsylvania region, and beyond.

Major Research Institutes and InitiativesBasic Metals Processing Research Institute (BAMPRI)Human Movement and Balance Laboratory

(a partnership of the schools of the health sciences and the Department of Bioengineering)

Musculoskeletal Research CenterNational Science Foundation Center for e-Design and Realization

of Engineered Products and SystemsGertrude E. and John M. Petersen Institute of NanoScience and

Engineering (a partnership with the School of Arts and Sciences)John A. Swanson Institute for Technical Excellence (comprising the following): John A. Swanson Center for Product Innovation John A. Swanson Center for Micro and Nano Systems RFID Center of ExcellenceMascaro Sustainability InitiativeMcGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine

(through the School of Medicine)

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING 2006 ANNUAL REPORT 1

Top: Bacteriophages being studied as a nanomachine Inset: A nanoworkbench developed for nanomaterials characterization (Both photos are courtesy of faculty members from the Gertrude E. and John M. Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering.)

Want to learn more? Visit www.engr.pitt.edu/research for details about the school’s research institutes and a comprehensive list of labs.

A Message from our Dean

www.engr.pitt.edu/annualreportwww.engr.pitt.edu/annualreport

BAMPRI Forges the Future of Steelmaking

Staying ahead of the curve in a global industry that is synonymous with your hometown is difficult. Doing it for three decades seems nearly impossible—but that’s exactly what the Basic Metals Processing Research Institute has accomplished.Founded in the mid-1970s as a world-class steel research group, the institute, commonly known as BAMPRI, has grown to include 20 people ranging from undergraduates to visiting scholars and full-time staff members. Though other engineering research areas grab headlines and accolades from time to time, BAMPRI has been making advances in the field for more than 30 years with little fanfare.

Yet ironically, the institute is one of few centers of its kind in the world. Some of its ideas are so innovative, they don’t see the commercial light of day for several years. Initially, the center was supposed to replace some of the in-house research that steelmakers were abandoning during the industry’s decline. And while it’s true that fewer steel researchers are working today, much of BAMPRI’s work is so progressive, it takes the industry time to catch up.

“Our work is more fundamental and more long-range. It’s still applied and useful, but maybe not the next quarter—maybe six months down the road, or two years down the road,” says Anthony DeArdo, the institute’s director and William Kepler Whiteford Professor. “We keep our fingers on the pulse of the fabricators and the end users—the auto companies … or the pipeline producers. And we try to design steel and practices that will lead to products that somebody wants to buy, and pay for at a pretty high margin.”

Or, as associate director C. Isaac Garcia puts it, “A lot of our work is outside the box, getting ready for the next market demands.

“In order to survive,” he adds, “the steel industry has developed tremendous technological improvements—new products, new processes.”

The biggest growth area has been in zinc-coated steel sheets used in automobiles and appliances. Protected against corrosion, the steel is produced on continuous galvanizing lines, and companies are under pressure to improve the metal’s internal structure to create the final properties prized

by automakers. Toward that end, BAMPRI is studying how future lines should be designed, as well as potential “recipes” for better steel.

“BAMPRI is like [chef and television personality] Emeril [Lagasse], except we are reformulating the steels and the cooking cycles,” DeArdo says. “It’s not like we’re inventing anything that’s radically new. It’s sort of in the way we put things together.”

Among the more impressive accomplishments in BAMPRI’s portfolio is the invention of green steel, an environmentally friendly formula that replaces lead with tin. The new version is more machinable, making it easier to use in manufacturing. To date, green steel—first patented about five years ago—has seen about 200 production heats melted.

“It’s starting to accelerate now,” says DeArdo. “There are no losers in this. It’s cheaper because you don’t have to pay for all the lead abatement. Anybody can do it.”

Such innovation is characteristic of the institute, as well as the industry it serves.

“Our breakthroughs are usually a decade ahead of the curve,” DeArdo says.

“Our breakthroughs are usually a decade ahead of the curve.” Anthony DeArdo

2 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING 2006 ANNUAL REPORT 3

BAMPRI graduate student with the atom probe field ion microscope

The Basic Metals Processing Research Institute (BAMPRI) is one of the few centers of its kind in the world. Among its accomplishments is the invention of green steel. Pictured here is the institute director, Anthony DeArdo, with the MTS Hot Deformation Simulator.

Essentially Nano: Nanotechnology Gets Boost through New Center, CollaborationWhen a research topic catches fire and everyone jumps on the academic bandwagon, universities face a unique dilemma. To compete with their peers, they must jump on board; but to distinguish themselves from the competition, they must find an innovative way to approach the topic.

Such was the case in 2002, when the University of Pittsburgh established its research interests in nanotechnology. Though many institutions offer quality programs, Pitt is setting itself apart by zeroing in on the core nano level.

“We are aiming at about 10 or 20 nanometers or less,” says Hong Koo Kim, codirector of the new Gertrude E. and John M. Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering along with Hrvoje Petek of the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences. “At that kind of size range, down to the molecular and atomic level, things are totally different, and many things are completely unknown.”

While nanotechnology is defined as 100 nm or less, Pitt’s specialization will be much, much smaller—a true point of differentiation from other programs, Kim says. Some have called the Pitt approach “essentially nano,” and it is rooted in the faculty’s expertise in broad science and core nano research. And it’s this approach that recently earned Pitt the number two ranking in the nation for micro- and nanotechnology research*.

To bolster that effort, the University received a $5 million gift from alumnus John M. Petersen and his wife, Gertrude, to create an endowment supporting nanoscale science and technology research. The new 4,000-square-foot NanoScale Fabrication and Characterization Facility (NFCF) in Benedum Hall houses the best available technology in a cleanroom environment, allowing researchers the ability to work with materials at atomic levels.

NFCF was designed to support fabrication and characterization of nanoscale materials and structures as well as integration of devices at all length scales. The facility houses advanced equipment with core nano level (20 nm or below) capability for fabrication and characterization, including the electron-beam lithography system, the dual-beam system, transmission electron microscope, the multifunctional scanning probe station, and the modular X-ray diffraction system.

Part of the exponential growth in nano research is market driven. Heavy-hitter companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Intel are likely to seek graduates with a background in the newer technologies, Kim says.

Within the past three years, three start-up companies and one major corporation have licensed Pitt-developed nanotechnology. The National Science Foundation predicts that by 2015, the market for nano products and services will reach $1 trillion.

Paving the way for research into essential nanotechnology is Pitt’s ability to erase boundary lines across many departments. That allows the faculty to collaborate and approach issues from many different angles. For example, a team working on a carbon nanotube must understand its chemical, electronic, and mechanical properties.

“One discipline cannot cover all of this,” Kim notes. But an interdisciplinary approach among faculty from the Schools of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and the health sciences yields a more complete picture of how one property affects another, and how the team can best design using those properties.

“Interdisciplinary culture at Pitt is a unique strength, especially through engineering and Arts and Sciences,” Kim says. “Not many places are like this.”

*Small Times magazine May/June 2006 rankings

Hong Koo Kim, codirector of the new Gertrude E. and John M. Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING 2006 ANNUAL REPORT 54 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

When the Gertude E. and John M. Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering opens the NanoScale Fabrication and Characterization Facility (NFCF) in fall 2006, it will have state-of-the-art equipment, including an electron-beam lithography system, a transmission electron microscope, a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system, and more. Here, a nano researcher in Hong Koo Kim’s current laboratory uses an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching system.


Initially funded through a gift from alumnus Jack Mascaro (BSCE ’66, MSCE ’80), and by the Heinz Endowments, the initiative emphasizes crossdisciplinary collaboration. Using preliminary results from early seed grants, the initiative won National Science Foundation funding in the form of a highly competitive, $3.2 million Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) Program award last year.

The initiative plans to use the funding, which will last five years, to train PhD students in sustainable engineering. Through a partnership with the University at Campinas, students will conduct eight-month research rotations in São Paulo, Brazil, that will help them gain the intercultural skills they’ll need to address the global issues of sustainability.

Thanks to the recent spike in energy costs, Beckman believes sustainable design is enjoying renewed attention.

“One of its pillars is to do what you need to do and reduce your energy footprint, to move from nonrenewables to renewables,” he says. And some companies are looking at sustainability as a core value so they can avoid built-in hazards.

“Sustainability is more than just a buzzword,” says Gena Kovalcik, the initiative’s codirector for administration and external relations. “Engineers are the key to ensuring that future generations will have a quality of life that is not compromised

Sustainability Initiatives Train Engineers to Think AheadIn the not-so-distant past, Pittsburgh’s image as a smoky industrial city hewed closely to the everyday reality of life in the Rust Belt. Today, Pittsburgh is home to some of the most innovative thinking in environmentally friendly design. The David L. Lawrence Convention Center, completed in September 2003, is the world’s largest certified “green” building and holds a gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

In keeping with the concept that engineering can be both functional and environmentally sound, the School of Engineering created the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative (MSI) in 2003, to nurture education and research in green construction and sustainable water use. Its motto reflects that mission: “Innovations today that preserve tomorrow.”

“A unique attribute of MSI has been its multidisciplinary and multi-institutional teams,” says Eric Beckman, George M. and Eva M. Bevier Chair and codirector of MSI. “These teams facilitate research, education, and outreach programs that offer people around the world the potential for a better quality of life.”


by the decisions we make today. We must find a way to meet the increasing demands for resources, products, and processes while understanding that the world’s resources are limited.”

The demand for energy—at the gas pump, for example—is a critical component of the sustainability challenge. Laura Schaefer, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is working to reduce energy consumption by looking at alternative means of generation.

“In focusing on the field of sustainability, I have had the opportunity to work on exciting, cutting-edge problems in energy generation and utilization that I know will actually be applied in the real world,” Schaefer says.

All seven departments in the School of Engineering are involved in projects with the initiative, and faculty have partnered with colleagues from the Graduate Schools of Public Health and Public and International Affairs, the School of Education, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

“We’re getting people talking to each other who never have before,” Kovalcik says. “It’s really interesting.”

Beckman’s plan is to encourage sustainability as part of the initial design of products and processes, making them both cost-effective and environmentally sound before actual production begins.

“The conventional paradigm is that sustainability is like your nagging aunt, who, when you’re done doing something, wags her finger and says, ‘You didn’t do that very well. Do it again,’ ” he says.

By contrast, when people are able to think outside their conventional disciplinary boundaries and work together to solve a problem, they are challenged creatively, “and get rid of the nagging aunt paradigm,” he says.

Among the projects currently under way are alternatives to PVC piping, mold-repellent surfaces, green children’s hospitals, and coatings that repair themselves.

Historically, the United States has lagged behind Europe in promoting sustainability, Beckman says. In Germany, for example, people don’t have to throw away refrigerators, because the manufacturers are required by law to take them back. That legislation encourages the design of appliances with recyclable parts.

However, Beckman believes the United States could quickly outpace European nations in sustainability if researchers are willing to put forth the effort and shake off the notion that green products are more expensive and less functional.

“We are coming at [sustainability] from a different angle, and I hope that sets us apart,” says Beckman. “If we can teach people how to use sustainability to look forward, then catching up is easy, because the United States is pretty good at innovation. This is just a way of enhancing innovation.”

The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (MIRM) operates out of a gold LEED certified building. MIRM serves as a hub for McGowan Institute scientists and engineers who are focused on developing medical devices and artificial organs, as well as for preclinical studies on regenerative medicine.


Engineering the Body HumanBioengineering Seeks Solutions from the Cellular to Body Function

When people hear the term “engineering,” they likely associate the field with bridge building, construction, chemicals, computers, and electronics. Few would probably think of human tissue cells, ligaments, muscles, or knee and sholder joints.But at its core, engineering is a discipline of problem solving, and the failure of the human body at multiple levels provides a ripe opportunity for solutions. Hence the field of bioengineering was born, and it continues to grow at a rate outpacing many of its more traditional counterparts.

“It’s an exciting application of engineering principles,” says Mark Redfern, a professor in the Department of Bioengineering and vice chair of the undergraduate program.

Thanks to the School of Engineering’s physical and philosophical proximity to Pitt’s renowned School of Medicine, the department is able to tap into resources such as laboratories, patients, and clinicians.

“That’s what really makes us great here,” Redfern says. “We have engineering and medicine, and we’re two blocks away from each other. That just doesn’t happen very many places.”

A prime example is the Musculoskeletal Research Center. Founded in 1990 as part of the medical school, the center moved to the Department of Bioengineering in 2004. To date, it has trained about 600 people ranging from undergraduates to staff engineers, residents, fellows, and junior faculty members.

The center’s interdisciplinary team includes clinicians, biologists, and bioengineers. Its research focuses on functional tissue engineering, mechanobiology, robotics, and computational biomechanics.

“Everyone in the School of Engineering is very collegial; it’s a wonderful place to work,” says Savio L-Y. Woo, the center’s director. “I think we are successful because we feel we are really an educational center that just happens to do research … we want to teach people how to do things right.”

Woo believes the collaboration between biologists and bioengineers is a natural fit, each filling gaps and adding to the other’s knowledge to solve bigger problems, such as finding ways to better heal damaged tissue.

“Bioengineers are interesting,” says Woo. “We cannot replace any biologist, as they have a wonderful way of understanding

a molecule and how it works that an engineer cannot even imagine. We don’t think that way.”

Conversely, engineers think more about how an organ works as part of a body function and how to link the workings of molecules to cells to tissues to organs as part of a body function by measuring the motion and forces affecting the body.

“It’s a very good combination, not one to replace the other,” he notes.

One study, funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, seeks better interventions to prevent slips and falls in older adults by studying issues such as strength and reaction time. By training a person to guard against falls, or teaching strength exercises that focus on a specific joint such as a hip, researchers might be able to reduce the frequency and impact of falls.

“This is really the nature of bioengineering: you have people looking at all levels of the human body, from the cell and molecules to what we do, large-scale human body [research],” says Rakié Cham, assistant professor and principal investigator of the slip-and-fall study.

For now, a computer model simulates human behavior when a person slips. Future collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University might use walking robots for similar purposes.

Redfern believes the explosion of interest and research funding in bioengineering will continue, whether in orthopedics, sensors and biomedical devices such as artificial organs, or body chemistry and cellular mechanics. The possibilities become mind-boggling.

“Bioengineering is going to be strong in the Pittsburgh region for a long time,” Redfern says. “I think we’ve got a solid foundation, and that’s not going away. It’s only going to get stronger and bigger.”

“I think we are successful because we feel we are really an educational center that just happens to do research … we want to teach people how to do things right.” Savio L-Y. Woo


Savio L-Y. Woo, director of MSRC, which has trained approximately 600 people since its inception in 1990.


Swanson Institute for Technical Excellence Takes Ideas from Theory to Reality

The John A. Swanson Institute for Technical Excellence (SITE) is the School of Engineering’s vehicle for making those moments happen. Created in 2000 through a leadership gift by alumnus John A. Swanson (PhD ’66), SITE develops useful intellectual property and technology with an eye toward bringing those innovations to market through its industrial members. SITE’s benefactor knows this process, as he founded ANSYS Inc. and grew the company to become the world’s leading developer of engineering simulation software used to predict how product designs will perform in real-world environments.

Faculty, graduate students, and even undergraduates work on SITE projects, which are funded both by the institute and by external sources. Since spring 2001, SITE has had more than 150 sponsored research projects across its three centers: the John A. Swanson Center for Product Innovation, the John A. Swanson Center for Micro and Nano Systems, and the RFID Center of Excellence. Seven companies and more than 30 patent applications have been developed from SITE research and student projects, and that pace is expected to continue.

“SITE will definitely be a part of the planned growth for the School of Engineering,” says J.T. (Tom) Cain, SITE’s director. “Hopefully we will continue to grow the research volume within the three centers that comprise the institute.”

For a $10,000 membership fee, industry members get exclusive rights to intellectual property resulting from government and institute funded projects as well as voting membership in the committee that recommends to the dean which projects the institute should fund. If a member company sponsors a research project, SITE subsidizes $4,000 of the annual membership fee.

By including industry partners, SITE has a better chance of working on projects that they know businesses want, rather than conducting research in an academic vacuum— and that commercial appeal is one of the institute’s strengths. For their part, companies get a sneak preview of some potentially groundbreaking technology, not to mention a first crack at its commercialization.

To date, eight companies have partnered with the institute, and more are starting to make contact.

“I think there’s a good possibility [for growth] with the stuff we’ve got out there now,” says Cain.

In particular demand is the work at the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Center of Excellence, where RFID technology is developed under the direction of Marlin Mickle, the school’s Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor. Tags using the technology identify items for users ranging from Wal-Mart to the U.S. Department of Defense. The center is working to perfect RFID so the chips carrying the information last longer and are more cost-effective.

Currently, most RFID tags use a silicon chip containing information such as prices, model numbers, and serial numbers for the item to which it is attached. The chip uses an antenna to transmit that information to a receiver.

But the chips are too costly for many medium-sized and smaller businesses to afford. To solve that problem, a Pitt research team led by Mickle is working on a generic RFID chip for ADCUS, a United States-based partner of South Korea’s Advanced Digital Chips (ADChips), a semiconductor design company. Customers could purchase the chips and program them to suit their needs instead of buying them custom-made, thus saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We have a lot of student, a lot of faculty, and a lot of alumni interest,” says Mickle. “And we’re still looking for more.”

For an engineer, one of the most satisfying conclusions to years of research is seeing the finished product on the commercial market.


“SITE will definitely be a part of the planned growth for the School of Engineering. Hopefully we will continue to grow the research volume within the three centers that comprise the institute.” Tom Cain Tom Cain

Actual size of the Product Emitting Numbering Identification (PENI) Tag, which harvests radio frequency energy and converts it to direct current. It was developed and patented at the University of Pittsburgh.


Academic excellence. Scholarship. Achievement. Since its inception in 1998, the University of Pittsburgh Department of Bioengineering has consistently attained high levels of excellence and achievement. Once again ranked among the top 15 graduate bioengineering programs in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report, the Department of Bioengineering boasts a nationally recognized faculty; award-winning students; and competitive, interdisciplinary research programs.

Faculty Excellence The department’s 100 faculty members, located across the School of Engineering and the schools of the health sciences, commanded an impressive list of accomplishments in the past year.

Highlights include:

• Three National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Research Service Institutional Research Training Grants (T32) simultaneously awarded to bioengineering faculty

-- Training in Biomechanics in Regenerative Medicine to Michael Sacks, William Kepler Whiteford Professor and core faculty, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine

-- Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program to Sanjeev Shroff, professor and Gerald McGinnis Chair in Bioengineering; professor of medicine; senior investigator, Magee-Womens Research Institute; and core faculty, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine

-- Cellular Approaches to Tissue Engineering and Regeneration to Alan Russell, director, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine; University Professor of Surgery; and professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering,

and rehabilitation sciences and technology

• 30 fellows currently in the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering

• More than 240 journal articles published in peer-reviewed journals

• More than 150 proceedings from conferences given across the globe

• Research expenditures exceeding $6.5 million

how modern laboratory buildings should promote interaction among scientists, foster more fruitful collaborations, and adapt to ever-changing research demands and priorities. The building embodies the University’s vision that scientific discovery today and in the future requires a more innovative work environment.

Student ScholarshipTwo bioengineering undergraduate students won prestigious national scholarships during the past year.

• Margaret Bennewitz was awarded a highly competitive Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for her research in imaging techniques of computed tomography (CT) and mucociliary clearance. Through her undergraduate research, she was able to determine how clearance rates varied according to lung region and the degree of cystic fibrosis. Bennewitz plans to earn a PhD in biotechnology and artificial organs and become a researcher and professor at a university.

• Adam Iddriss, a double major in bioengineering and chemistry with a minor in Asian studies, was named a Harry S. Truman scholar for his outstanding academic achievement and leadership. Iddriss founded Engineers for a Sustainable World, which creates and helps fund service projects in developing nations, and he spent two months in Tanzania with the Engineering World Health Summer Institute. His was the only award given to a student in a public university in Pennsylvania.

Additionally, several bioengineering graduate students have won prestigious honors, including:

-- finalist, 2005 Young Researchers of Orthopaedics, Biomechanics/Biology, Operative Techniques, and Sports (Y-ROBOTS) Award

-- recognition at the Second International Conference on Pediatric Mechanical Circulatory Support Systems and Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Perfusion

-- seven predoctoral fellowships from NIH (F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards) and two from the American Heart Association

Research AchievementBioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh involves close collaboration with medical research. The department’s proximity to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine fosters highly successful collaboration among faculty members and research initiatives.

This past year, the department expanded into the newly built Biomedical Science Tower 3, a 10-story, $205.5 million structure built by the University to stand as a benchmark for

2005-06 Quick Facts*: Chair: Harvey Borovetz, Professor of Bioengineering

and Robert L. Hardesty Professor of SurgeryFaculty: 100 (15 full-time in bioengineering, 85 with

secondary appointments in bioengineering)Undergraduate students: 134Graduate students: 140www.engr.pitt.edu/bioengineering*fall 2005 data

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Associate Chair and Professor Mark Redfern in the Balance Disorders Laboratory

Professor Michael Sacks and PhD candidate Silvia Wognum examine a biomechanical test apparatus.


Renowned for ResearchNearly a century ago, the University of Pittsburgh became a leader in engineering education and established the first department for petroleum engineering in the world. Since its establishment in 1910, the department has grown to encompass chemical engineering as well. Today the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, renowned for its research across the discipline of chemical engineering, includes five research focus areas for which it has developed national and international reputations:

• biotechnology

• catalysis

• energy and environment

• materials engineering

• multiscale modeling

Faculty ExpertiseThe department is home to more than 30 expert faculty members—many of whom are national award winners— and 20 state-of-the-art laboratories and learning centers.

Recent highlights include the following:

• 54 journal publications, including publication in prestigious journals such as Nature, Physical Review Letters, and Science

• 48 conference proceedings and presentations at national meetings of the American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Materials Research Society, and American Society for Artificial Internal Organs

• Assistant Professors Sachin Velankar and Götz Veser received the department’s sixth and seventh National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards

• Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg appointed Anna Balazs as a Distinguished University Professor for her extraordinary level of achievement within her field

• Steven R. Little, who completed his PhD and postdoctoral work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Di Gao, who completed his PhD at the University of California at Berkeley and his postdoctoral work at the University of California at Riverside, joined the faculty

department ofchemical & petroleumengineering

• the department expanded into the newly built Biomedical Science Tower 3, a 10-story, $205.5 million structure the University built to stand as a national model for how modern laboratory buildings should promote interaction among scientists

• an Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania (ESWP) committee selected Eric J. Beckman, George M. and

Eva M. Bevier Chair, as its 2005 Engineer of the Year for his “outstanding leadership, innovative guidance, and service to the engineering profession and society”

• $5.4 million in research expenditures

The department also appointed as its new chair Robert Enick, James T. MacLeod Fellow, who is challenging faculty and students to

• sustain a level of productivity to become a high-impact department and aggressive innovator,

• use teaching technology to enhance student learning,

• facilitate the placement of students (undergraduate and graduate) in jobs immediately following graduation,

• provide resources to other areas of research concentration that might merit them, and

• improve the visibility and recognition of the department in the geographic region and in the chemical and petroleum engineering industry (academic and corporate).


2005–06 Quick Facts: Chair: Robert M. Enick,

James T. MacLeod Professor Faculty: 17 tenure/tenure stream,

11 adjunct, 3 emeritusUndergraduate students: 130Graduate students: 52www.engr.pitt.edu/chemical

Anna Balazs, who was appointed Distinguished University Professor, is one of many faculty members in the department whose work has been recognized by prestigious scientific journals. Her research findings have appeared in Nature, Science, Nature Materials, and Physical Review Letters.


Committed to SuccessWhen the University of Pittsburgh began its engineering programs more than 150 years ago, civil engineering was one of the first specialized degrees offered. Since then, the department has branched out to include an environmental component and other research foci. Today, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is home to integrative research programs conducted by award-winning faculty members.

The department has grown in other ways. During the past year, the department

• Doubled research expenditures to approximately $1.6 million, with the majority of funding coming from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation;

• Significantly revised the curriculum to provide students with contemporary education as a first step toward a successful career in engineering practice of today and of tomorrow; and

• Saw a surge in undergraduate enrollment as the BSCE became the second-largest degree program in the School of Engineering. Graduate enrollment is at an all-time high, having doubled during the last two years.

Even while growing, the department remained focused on its research and its students.

Commitment to Core Research StrengthsResearch in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is diverse in scope and is best exemplified by the following core research strengths:

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics

• Environmental Engineering and Water Resources

• Geotechnical and Pavements

• Green Construction and Sustainability Collaboration is common within the School of Engineering, the University of Pittsburgh, and beyond. This interconnectivity, coupled with the use of advanced technology, helps faculty and students to reach new heights for innovation and engineering understanding.

Committed to Student SuccessThis past year during the ABET accreditation process, the department developed a vision and mission.

VisionThe Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering will be a national leader in the discovery and creation of new knowledge and its dissemination through scholarly publication and inspired instruction.

MissionThe mission of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is to achieve scholarly excellence through the pursuit of leading-edge research and through the education of civil engineering professionals who are technically proficient problem solvers with a global outlook and a commitment to lifelong learning.

These words formalize the department’s commitment to the future of the civil and environmental engineering profession and to first-class research and education at the University of Pittsburgh. Civil and environmental engineering students are offered courses that include the latest research accomplishments and engaging opportunities for growth outside the classroom through a co-op program, study abroad opportunities, and student leadership positions in many civil engineering student groups.

department ofcivil & environmentalengineering

2005-06 Quick Facts*Interim Chair: Radisav D. Vidic,

professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow

Faculty: 13 full-time, 7 emeritus, and 7 adjunct

Undergraduate students: 263Graduate students: 71www.engr.pitt.edu/civil*fall 2005 data


This past year, Radisav Vidic, interim chair and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow, made two presentations at Carbon 2006 in Aberdeen, Scotland; published eight papers; and secured two new research projects from the U.S. Department of Energy.


Scholarship through CollaborationIn many cases, cutting-edge research in electrical and computer engineering involves collaboration with colleagues from fields such as computer science, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and other engineering disciplines at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Such research collaboration by the University of Pittsburgh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering includes a commitment to the field of nanotechnology with the newly established Gertrude E. and John M. Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering, an integrated, multidisciplinary organization that brings coherence to the University’s research efforts and resources in the fields of nanoscale science and engineering. The institute’s vision is to solve large, complex scientific and engineering challenges in this burgeoning field by facilitating interdisciplinary teams drawn from the faculty of the School of Engineering, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the schools of the health sciences.

Faculty from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer-ing are working on exciting projects, including the following:

• nano-optics, nanowire sensors, quantum computing, and other potential alternative approaches to super-scaled complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics

• research projects in conjunction with the Swanson Institute for Technical Excellence, where students and faculty across the school collaborate with partners in industry on projects such as rapid prototype reconfigurable RFID tags (with ADCUS), energy harvesting (with FireFly Power Technologies), and development of continuous ink-jet printing products (with Matthews International Corp., Marking Products Division), all of which have benefited from state, University, and corporate funding

• participation in research with bioengineering and the health sciences, including a wireless vagal nerve stimulator for drugless treatment of depression, application of neural control strategies for the coordination of multi-articulate structures (e.g., a robotic hand), and time-frequency analysis of signals in the study of balance disorders

• pioneering research in sustainability, including the adaptation of electronic design automation techniques for modeling

the failure and self-healing of surface coatings, and the application of sensors and control theory to investigate implementations of a green nervous system inside green buildings (green structural neurology)

Growth in Collaboration, Research, and ImpactA collaborative approach to research and scholarship has proven successful for the department. During the past year,

• faculty members expended nearly $3 million in research with funding from sources such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and NASA;

• more than 90 percent of faculty members delivered a paper or presentation at a national or international conference and/or published their research in prestigious peer-reviewed journals, including Assistant Professor Kevin Chen and his photonics research, which was featured on the cover of Applied Physics Letters (vol. 87, 234101, 2005); and

• faculty have served in executive leadership roles in organizing such conferences as the Design Automation Conference and the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, among others.

department ofelectrical & computerengineering

2005-06 Quick Facts*Chair: William E. StanchinaFaculty: 22 full-time, 6 part-timeUndergraduate students: 386Graduate students: 95www.engr.pitt.edu/electrical*fall 2005 data


Graduate students use a KrF excimer laser-based fiber Bragg grating writing station to directly fabricate sensors inside optical fibers.

The department is conducting research on the application of neural control strategies for the coordination of multi-articulate structures.


Award-Winning Faculty Team Helps Bright Students Become Leading EngineersThe goal of industrial engineering is to make things better and help people make better decisions. The Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh operates with this in mind, thereby attracting an award-winning faculty team that mentors and coaches bright students and helps them become some of the nation’s leading industrial engineers.

Faculty ExcellenceThe research and management philosophy of the department is to recruit and hire the best faculty to set and drive the research and educational agenda in support of the department’s mission. The success of this past year is proof that this philosophy works, as faculty in the Department of Industrial Engineering • worked together to leverage the department into the top 20 industrial

engineering departments in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report;

• received several competitive and prestigious national awards, including an NSF CAREER award and the Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award from Olympus America and NCIIA;

• commanded more than $2 million in research expenditures; and

• produced more than 30 archival publications, including four books.

Student LeadershipPitt industrial engineering students are known to excel. Here are a few highlights from the past year:

• Upon earning their degrees, more than half of Pitt industrial engineering doctoral students secured faculty positions at prestigious universities such as the University of Arkansas, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the University of British Columbia.

• Students are winning awards: this past year, a team of University of Pittsburgh industrial engineering undergraduates placed second in the Material Handling Student Design Competition, sponsored by the College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE) and Modern Materials Handling magazine.

• All undergraduates again participated in the Sponsor an Industrial Engineering Team (SAINT) program, designed to teach students how to collaborate by placing them in teams that complete a challenging real-life industrial engineering project. Each group is mentored by both a faculty member and an industry partner. Recent industry partners included FedEx Ground, General Electric Co., MEDRAD, and USAirways.

department ofindustrialengineering

Michael R. Lovell (right), associate dean for research and associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, and Andrew Schaefer, assistant professor, Wellington C. Carl Faculty Fellow, and director of the department’s Computational Optimization Laboratory, two of the many award-winning faculty members in industrial engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

Lovell received the 2006 Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award from Olympus America and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), and is a past recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award and the Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award.

Schaefer received an NSF CAREER award this past year for his project titled “Next-Generation Research and Education in Therapeutic Optimization” in which he will construct quantitative decision models of the progression of end-stage liver disease, one of the leading causes of death in the United States.


2005-06 Quick Facts*Chair: Bopaya Bidanda,

Ernest E. Roth ProfessorFaculty: 15 full-time, 3 emeritusUndergraduate students: 157Graduate students: 74www.engr.pitt.edu/industrial*fall 2005 data


Since its founding in 1909 as one of the earliest metallurgical engineering programs in the world, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh has trained generations of metallurgists, materials engineers, and materials scientists at all levels for the region, nation, and world. At the same time, the department’s small group (currently nine members) of highly productive, award-winning faculty have made fundamental contributions to advancing knowledge in an array of critical materials technologies through their funded research programs.

The last 10 years have seen remarkable growth in the funded research programs within the department fueled by committed senior faculty, recruitment of extraordinarily talented junior faculty, and excellent graduate students. During this period every junior faculty member has received a prestigious NSF CAREER award, and all are well on their way to international prominence.

Research themes in the department are constantly evolving, but key areas of current strength include

• fuel cell materials and thermal barrier coatings;• fundamentals of oxidation/corrosion/catalysis;• in situ transmission electron microscopy;• microstructure-magnetic property relationships;• fundamentals of deformation in metals;• physical metallurgy, formability, and machinability

of advanced steels;• laser processing of thin films;• ceramics for biomedical applications; and• magnetorheological fluids.

Departmental highlights during the past year include the following:

• Faculty members delivered 44 invited lectures around the world • Faculty members published 50 technical papers• Total annual research expenditures reached $320,000 per

faculty member• John P. Leonard received an NSF Faculty Early Career

Development (CAREER) award

department ofmaterials science& engineering

• Judith Yang received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award (in 2005)

• Professor Gerald H. Meier, Professor Emeritus Frederick S. Pettit, and the late Neil Birks published the second edition of Introduction to High Temperature Oxidation of Metals (Cambridge University Press)

• Anthony DeArdo delivered keynote addresses at three international steel conferences (in Spain, China, and Brazil)

Undergraduate Programs: Small Numbers, Big ImpactThe department’s undergraduate program has graduated an average of 12 very-high-achieving students in each of the past 10 years. The department is also home to the interdisciplinary engineering physics program, which graduates about five similarly high achieving students per year. Such a small student-to-faculty ratio ensures students receive an unusually high degree of individual attention. Students also benefit from state-of-the-art laboratories and exciting co-op, international, and research internship opportunities.

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is proud that

• all courses are taught by full-time tenured and tenure- stream faculty,

• job placement at graduation is 100 percent, and• increasing numbers of students are choosing to continue their

studies at the most prestigious graduate programs in the country.

The Core of Every Successful Department is a Committed and Productive Faculty


John P. Leonard, assistant professor, in his excimer laser processing lab

2005-06 Quick Facts* Chair: John BarnardFaculty: 9 full-time, 4 emeritus,

and 2 researchUndergraduate students: 38Graduate students: 20www.engr.pitt.edu/materials*fall 2005 data


Involvement in the ProfessionThe achievements of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Mechanical Engineering this past year are diverse in scope and indicate a high level of involvement by faculty members in mechanical engineering as a profession.

• Twenty-five percent of the department’s faculty are editors or associate editors of top international journals, including Minking K. Chyu, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Journal of Heat Transfer; William W. Clark, ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics; Peyman Givi, AIAA Journal; Giovanni P. Galdi, Journal of Mathematical Fluid Mechanics, among others; and Jeffrey Vipperman, ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics.

• During the past year, 14 full-time faculty members produced 46 journal publications and attended and presented at 50 conferences.

• Nearly one-third of Pitt’s mechanical engineering faculty are members or hold chair positions on national technical committees, including: William W. Clark, ASME Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound; Laura Schaefer, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and ASME Heat Pump Technical Committee; Patrick Smolinski, ASME Technical Committee on Computing in Applied Mechanics; and Jeffrey Vipperman, ASME Technical Committee on Active Noise Control.

department ofmechanicalengineering

The University of Pittsburgh Department of Mechanical

Engineering makes diversity a priority. Twenty-five

percent of its faculty members and

38 percent of incoming PhD candidates are

female. Pictured here are (standing left to right)

Sandy Hu, research assistant professor;

Anne M. Robertson, associate professor and

graduate education director; (sitting left

to right) Lisa M. Weiland, assistant professor;

and Laura Schaefer, associate professor.

Scholarly Achievements• Scott X. Mao, William Kepler Whiteford Professor, was awarded

the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award (in 2006).

• Jeffrey Vipperman, associate professor, was the recipient of the 2006 School of Engineering Beitle-Veltri Memorial Teaching Award.

• Peyman Givi, William Kepler Whiteford Professor, received the 2005 NASA Public Service Medal for his development of advanced modeling techniques for designing high-speed and hypersonic propulsion systems for aerospace vehicles. Then NASA Langley Research Center Director Roy D. Bridges Jr. presented Givi with his medal.

• Minking K. Chyu, Leighton E. and Mary N. Orr Chair in Engineering, was named an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) for his “outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.”

2005-06 Quick Facts*Chair: Minking K. Chyu, Leighton E. and Mary N. Orr Chair

in EngineeringFaculty: 16 full-time, 4 adjunct/joint, and 8 emeritusUndergraduate students: 350Graduate students: 80www.engr.pitt.edu/mechanical*fall 2005 data



Promoting Diversity in Engineering The mission of the Engineering Office of Diversity (EOD) is to support the school’s efforts in building a diverse workforce and student body as well as equitable academic support. Thus, EOD promotes and fosters an inclusive environment in which faculty, staff, and students are valued for their unique cultures, experiences, and perspectives.

To achieve this mission, this past year EOD put into place the Diversity Action Plan. The plan aims to

• provide support for the recruitment of a diverse student body that is inclusive of women and student groups traditionally underrepresented in engineering;

• provide support for the recruitment of a diverse workforce (staff and faculty) that is inclusive of women and groups traditionally underrepresented in engineering;

• provide support for the retention and ultimate graduation of increased numbers of women and student groups traditionally underrepresented in engineering;

• increase graduate opportunities through a strong, diverse graduate engineering education program that ensures the recruitment, retention, and production of a significant number of PhDs in engineering from underrepresented student groups;

• provide diversity management education to foster intercultural sensitivity and a positive, nondiscriminatory working, teaching, and learning environment in an inclusive engineering community;

• foster the integration of diversity programs and services into the mainstream of engineering education for a global engineering world; and

• build a Consortium for Corporate Partnership to generate funding for diversifying engineering at Pitt.

Diversity in ActionEOD is home to a number of programs and initiatives, including precollege and college components, that work together to achieve the goals of the Diversity Action Plan. During this past year, EOD programs enjoyed many successes:

• at the precollege level, EOD provided tutoring; summer math, science, and writing classes; college and career counseling; financial aid workshops; and cultural awareness programs to both high school students and their parents.

• one hundred seventy-five students participated in the INVESTING NOW program, created in 1988 to provide tutoring in math and science to students from the eighth through 12th grades. This past year’s reports show that 100 percent of the graduates were attending college; 76 percent graduated from high school with high honors or honors; and 65 percent chose a major in science, engineering, or math.

• the CARE Program’s summer residential session for juniors and seniors in high school boasted four graduates who enrolled in the School of Engineering in fall 2006.

• the quality of incoming students from underrepresented groups is increasing: the average SAT score has increased roughly 20 points; nearly 41 percent of freshmen are earning a 3.0 or higher grade point average in the rigorous, integrated freshman engineering curriculum; and retention rates are rising.

• enrollment of underrepresented students in both the master’s and PhD programs rose by 1 percent this year. In addition, enrollment of women in PhD programs rose 4.6 percent (to more than 29 percent of PhD students) this year.

• an increasing number of Pitt’s engineering students from underrepresented groups are attending graduate school, which is due in part to the individual faculty mentoring EOD provides.

engineering office of diversity

Quick FactsLeadership: Sylvanus N. Wosu,

associate dean for diversity affairs and associate professor of mechanical engineering

Staff members: 10 www.engr.pitt.edu/diversity


Brooke Coley, a bioengineering PhD student, pictured here in the Human Movement Balance Lab. Under the direction of Rakie Cham, Coley is conducting a study on the effects of aging on balance. The findings of this study may provide insights into aging-related deficits in specific aspects of postural control during gait, which may have potential therapeutic and/or preventive implications in attempts to reduce the incidence of falls.


For the past several years, the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering has sought to increase enrollment without compromising student quality. This past year, the school once again did just that. • The freshman class of fall 2005 was again larger than

the previous year, with 428 students entering the School of Engineering.

• More than half (55 percent) of freshmen ranked in the top 10th of their graduating high school class.

• Average SAT scores of the incoming class increased again to 1295.

Student AchievementsIt’s not just what these students bring to the School of Engineering; it’s also what they do while they are here.

During the past decade, many Pitt engineering students have brought recognition to the University for the prestigious national awards and scholarships they have received. Just this past year,

• Daniel Armanios, a mechanical engineering major, was named a 2005 Truman Scholar for his leadership in public service. He founded Session: Middle East, a forum for debating the Arab-Israeli conflict, which is based on his experience with Pitt’s Model United Nations. He also received a 2004

Student Quality Again on the Rise

Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for his innovative engineering research, and he was a second-team member on USA Today’s 2006 All-USA College Academic Team.

• Daliang Leon Li, an electrical engineering major, received a 2005 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, an honor bestowed upon him for his research on computational models that he hopes to use to prevent brain damage during surgery.

It is students of this caliber who are helping to influence the quality of Pitt’s engineering programs.


Ten School of Engineering students joined 30 American and 28 Japanese and Chinese university students as part of the 2006 INNOVATE Symposium. This ten-day study trip in early March 2006 included stops in Shanghai, China and Osaka, Japan. The symposium addressed how technology has driven globalization and business decision-making. Students participated in the symposium as part of a collaborative effort between Pitt and Rice University that used video conferencing to cover such topics as globalization, technology trends, history and politics, economics, and contemporary culture and demographics.

Student Quality Again on the Rise

2006 Quick Facts Leadership: Larry Shuman, professor

and associate dean for academic affairsUndergraduate student enrollment: 1,935Graduate student enrollment: 534www.engr.pitt.edu/students*fall 2005 data

Student Enrollment, 1997–2005

2006 Quick Facts Leadership: Larry Shuman, professor

and associate dean for academic affairsUndergraduate student enrollment: 1,935Graduate student enrollment: 534www.engr.pitt.edu/students*fall 2005 data

U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering Gerald D. Holder and students outside Benedum Hall. Holder continues to make it a priority that the quantity and the quality of engineering students increase hand-in-hand.

2,500

2,400

2,300

2,200

2,100

2,000

1,900

1,8001997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Student Enrollment, 1997–2005


The school finished the 2006 fiscal year with a campaign total of $10,941,363, which includes cash gifts along with documented pledges established this year. This figure pushed the overall campaign total to $97.7 million, nearly reaching our goal an entire year early.

Philanthropic support during this campaign has transformed the school’s ability to support students, faculty, and programs, as these figures illustrate:

The Campaign for Engineering began in 1998 with a goal of raising $50 million by 2003. The early success of the campaign resulted in a new goal of $100 million by June 30, 2007.

Before Campaign Today

Endowed Chairs 1 7

Endowed Professorships 5 11

Undergraduate Scholarships 42 62

Graduate Fellowships 11 15

Other Endowments 19 45

External Relations The 2005–06 academic year marked continued growth in all aspects of outreach activities through the Office of Development and Alumni Relations.

The year was highlighted by the implementation of new corporate programs, many successful campus and regional events, and continued fundraising progress toward the $100 million goal (by 2007) for The Campaign for Engineering. The School of Engineering is grateful to all its dedicated alumni and friends.

Contributions to the School of Engineering*

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

$0 $6 $12 $18 million million million

*Total value of cash gifts received. Excludes pledges and in-kind gifts.


Benedum Hall

Office of Development and Alumni Relations staff (back row, l to r): Donald Shields, Jenn Welton, and Aaron Conley; (front row) Sarah Calugar, Sonia Bembic, Peter-John Leone, and Kristen Bires

32 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Engineering Legacy FundsIn addition to continued endowment growth, this year marked the introduction of a new endowed gift opportunity for the school’s alumni and friends. Donors can now establish and name their own Engineering Legacy Fund. Donors can designate these unrestricted support funds to a specific department or establish one for schoolwide needs. More than 30 Legacy Funds have been established, with about half of these designated to departments and the others left unrestricted to the school. The combined value of these funds exceeds $600,000, and a goal has been set to establish at least 50 funds by June 30, 2007.

2006 Distinguished AlumniSince 1964, the School of Engineering has been honoring its most accomplished graduates through the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards. This year’s honorees returned to campus for the award ceremony on April 19, 2006.

School of Engineering HonoreeJames J. McGrath (BSChE ’71)PresidentAker Kvaerner, Inc., Houston, Texas

Department HonoreesDepartment of Chemical and Petroleum EngineeringDavid W. Wohlfarth (BSPET ’68)General ManagerPublic Service Electric and Gas Co., Newark, N.J.

Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringJoseph A. Massaro Jr. (BSCE ’58)Chair and CEOMassaro Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa.

Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringDennis Wisnosky (MSEE ’68)President and CEOWizdom Systems, Inc., Naperville, Ill.

Department of Industrial EngineeringGlenn M. Foglio (BSIE ’83, MSIE ’90)PresidentGraciano Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa.

Department of Materials Science and EngineeringJack B. Allen (BSMET ’71, MSMET ’80)Senior Vice President, Operational ExcellenceWestinghouse Electric Co., Windsor, Conn.

Department of Mechanical EngineeringAndy J. Benedict (BSME ’71)Executive Director, Global Facilities, Materials, and Services Purchasing (Ret.)Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich.

Distinguished Young Alumni HonoreeVibha Rustagi (BSEE ’87)President and CEOitaas Inc., Duluth, Ga.

Engineering Endowment

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

$0 $20 $40 $60 $80 million million million million

BookValue

MarketValue

32 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

The new IntraFirm program completed its first year with great success.

Participants allow the School of Engineering to host a reception at their company for Pitt engineering alumni working there. Alumni get an update on school activities including relevant research projects of interest to their company and recruiting trends for new graduates. Six companies participated in this first year of the IntraFirm program.

• FedEx Ground—Moon Township, Pa. • Ford Motor Co.—Dearborn, Mich. • H.B. Maynard and Co.—Pittsburgh, Pa. • Mitsubishi Electric Power Products—Warrendale, Pa. • PPG Industries—Pittsburgh, Pa. • Westinghouse Electric Co.—Monroeville, Pa. Regional Events

In addition to major alumni events for homecoming, the annual golf outing, and the distinguished alumni banquet, the school holds numerous regional events around the country to stay connected to its 25,000 alumni. Events this year were held in Cleveland; Detroit; Houston; Washington, D.C.; Naples, Fla.; and Huntsville, Ala.

Corporate Affiliates ProgramMembership in the School of Engineering’s Corporate Affiliates Program grew to 13 this year. Members receive special benefits in the areas of collaborative research, recruiting, and speaking opportunities with student organizations and in classes. For more information, visit www.engr.pitt.edu/industry/cap.html.

CAP Members, 2005–06

Alumni and Corporate OutreachDetroit alumni and their kids learn about the Panther Racing team during the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) annual Formula SAE competition in Pontiac, Mich.

• Westinghouse Electric Co. (Founding Member)

• Aker Kvaerner • Bombardier • Civil & Environmental

Consultants • Consol Energy • Eaton

• Ellwood Group • II-VI Inc. • itaas • H.B. Maynard and Co. • Mitsubishi Electric

Power Products • PPG Industries • U.S. Steel

Dean Gerald D. Holder visiting with alumni at the PPG IntraFirm reception.

Department of Industrial Engineering chair Bopaya Bidanda speaks with alumni at FedEx Ground.


2006 ANNUAL REPORT

U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H

School of Engineering240 Benedum Hall3700 O’Hara StreetPittsburgh, PA 15261

The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution. Published in cooperation with the Department of University Marketing Communications. UMC5518-1006

Engineering_Annual report 2006

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