mechan i ca l and in dus t r i a l

engineering, and it would seem to

be a natural fit. We plan to discuss

this further, as it is possible that we

could do some greater things

together for both Academies if we

work in partnership.

Your Board is energized and

ready to accomplish great things

during the upcoming year. We

would like everyone to stay

engaged, and share with us your

thoughts and input; find

something within AAME

working groups, committees,

and events that inspires you and

get involved. We hope

everyone will share the talents

and experiences they have

acquired during your career to

our students, the Department

and the University of Arkansas.

Our first Board meeting will be

held on June 20th on campus,

followed up by a social event in

the Owner’s Suite to watch the

Arkansas Naturals baseball

game. We encourage everyone

to come to the quarterly Board

Meetings, starting with this one,

and become a part of the

excitement at AAME.

- Bob Harrison

Fellow AAME Members,

We hope that everyone enjoyed

our Annual Banquet and

Meeting this year. As you

know, we changed and

upgraded the venue to the

Fayetteville Town Center and

the accommodations were

excellent. Melynda, Morgan and

the rest of the ME Department

staff did their usual stellar job of

planning and organizing the

event.

I need to express that I feel

highly honored and humbled

that you chose me to serve a

s e con d t e rm a s yo u r

President. We have an

excellent team in place and I see

only great things for us in the

future.

For my 2014 term as President,

I would like to offer the

following goals for AAME. Your

Board is also seeking input from

the membership on what our

goals should be.

Another Academy has implemented

a very successful mentoring program for their students. This

would seem to be natural evolution

as we seek more and more ways to

further connect with the students

and allow our members to “give-

back” on a more personal

level. Also, one of the great things

about this would be with

communication and technology

being what it is today, a mentor

does not have to live in

NWA. That means that all of our

members could participate.

The Student Liaison Committee is a

President’s Corner source of great pride for us, and

we would like to advance its

impact. We are needing

additional committee members

to help expand the Committee’s

reach to include guest lecturers,

design advisor on major projects,

and representing AAME at

events like the Baja event &

other student events. I am sure there are dozens of other things

that Will and Keith have thought

about and are on their short

list. I would like everyone to be

highly supportive of this

Committee.

Other Academies have an

Academy Student Advisory

Council. The purpose of this

group is to establish a direct

connect ion between the

Academy and the Students, as a

conduit for AAME to be more

involved at the student

level. This would seem to be a

natural evolution for our Student

Liaison committee. This will be a

major topic of discussion at the

June Board, as it may prove to

be beneficial in accomplishing the

first two goals.

The meeting at the Caterpillar

was a big success, not only for

AAME and MEEG, but the COE

overall. Although there are no

guarantees that meetings of a

similar nature with other

companies will have the same

result, I do believe it is

worthwhile and that we should

try to do that at least once a

year. We are seeking input and

suggestions for other facilities to

visit for our January, 2015 Board

Meeting.

We have had some preliminary

discussions with the leadership of the Industrial Engineering

Academy about the possibility of

doing some joint events

together. In practice, there are a

number of similarities between

F R O M T H E

E D I T O R :

We would appreciate

your input and

contribution to this

publication to make it

more interesting for

all, so please submit

articles/topics for

inclusion. Authors of

articles will be given

proper accolades.

We also would love

to publicize what our

members are doing

for the profession.

Please e-mail these to

rrasnic@ryan-

engineering.com.

The newsletter is

published quarterly.

- Russ Rasnic

A R K A N S A S A C A D E M Y

O F M E C H A N I C A L

E N G I N E E R I N G

A University of Arkansas Alumni Association

AAME Headlines Promoting & Supporting the Mechanical Engineer

M A Y 2 0 1 4

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

President’s

Update

Quarterly

Board Meeting

Banquet

Photos

Helping Like A

Hog

P A G E 2

Good Food & Great Friends

The 2014 Annual Awards and Induction

Banquet was held on Friday, April 4 at the

Fayetteville Town Center. The event was

attended by over 180 members and guests and

welcomed the Academy’s newest inductees,

Hamid Habibi, Darin Nutter, Larry Roe, and

Tom Weiss.

In addition to welcoming the new inductees,

the Academy recognized Greg Schluterman

(MSE 2002) as the Young Alumni of the Year

and honored 24 scholarship recipients.

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ual

Ban

qu

et

P A G E 3 P R O M O T I N G & S U P P O R T I N G T H E M E C H A N I C A L E N G I N E E R

recruiting, producing senior

capstone design projects, and

joint research opportunities,”

said Jim Leylek. “Part of our

mission is to further economic

development within the state and

we were thrilled to have the

opportunity to meet with such

s u c c e s s f u l a n d i m p a c t f u l

companies!”

Visit ing companies included

Esterline, General Dynamics,

Lockheed Martin, and Spectra

T e c h n o l o g i e s . Co m p a n y

representatives were also joined by

During the month of April, the

Department of Mechanical

Engineering hosted four aerospace

companies for campus visits.

These companies, all with an

Arkansas presence in South

Arkansas, spent the day in the

Department meeting with faculty

and staff, touring undergraduate

labs, and the Virtual Machine Shop

and learning more about CDIO.

“We are confident the visits will

help build partnerships with these

companies that will help foster

Aerospace Industries Visit ME delegates from the Arkansas Economic

Development Commission and staff from

Industry Generating Nanomaterials,

Ideas, & Technology through Education

(“IGNITE”), a University of Arkansas

Program striving to bring together

industry with the University community.

In addition to these companies, the

department also has visits scheduled

with many other companies interested in

the University and how they can form

better partnerships with faculty and

students.

RSVP to:

mrs201@uark.edu

P A G E 4

Co-Opetition

Each year, students in the Department of

Mechanical Engineering complete an upper level

design and build creative project as part of their

curriculum. One of the more visible projects is the

Mini Baja Project, sponsored annually by the

Society of Automotive Engineers. The Baja races

give students the opportunity to participate in

competitions that simulate real-world engineering

design projects and their related challenges.

Engineering students are tasked to design and build

an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe

punishment of rough terrain.

In April, the UA Baja team competed in the SAE

competition in El Paso, Texas, and was ranked in

the top half of all competitors in the overall &

maneuverability sections of the competition.

Participating in competitions is a great way for

undergraduate students to network with other

students and get hands-on experience that could

relate to their future careers in engineering.

“The Mini Baja project is the epitome of our

department’s CDIO initiative,” said Dr. Jim Leylek,

department head. “Students design, build,

implement, and operate the entire vehicle and

work together in a team environment to ensure

success of the project. We are extremely proud

and excited to see our students perform better and

better each competition year.”

The UA Baja team’s next competition will be in

Pittsburg, Kansas. Over 1,000

students from various countries

are registered to attend and, over

the past week, the UA team has

been hosting one of those teams;

the international team from

Federal University of Pernambuco

in Recife, Brazil. Their team,

Mangue Baja, entered two cars in

the Brazilian Baja competition

which won both first and second

place.

In order to compete in the U.S.

race, Mangue Baja shipped their

dissembled car from Brazil to

Fayetteville and used the lab facilities at the

Mechanical Engineering building to reassemble and

get their car ready in time for this weekend’s

competition. In addition, the team had to translate

and prepare their design presentation in a foreign

language. “A group of students who are willing to

go to that much effort just to come and compete in

the U.S., deserves our support and respect,” stated

ME’s faculty advisor, Monty Roberts.

It was Roberts who made it possible for the ME

students and department to host Mangue Baja.

“Since the race is so close to us this year, we were

in a position to host them and provide a place to

do all of this,” said Roberts, “I am unsure of who

first coined the term co-opetition, but this spirit is

one of the hallmarks of the SAE Baja program, and I

can’t think of a better way to remain true to that

spirit.”

Working with students from such diverse

backgrounds has allowed both the ME and Brazilian

students to learn different techniques and

technologies from each other while creating

friendships these students will remember fondly. “I

knew things were going well, when I stopped by

the labs one night at 10:00 PM to check-in and

found both teams having dinner together, sharing

racing videos, and laughing,” said Roberts.

For more information on the Mechanical

Engineering Min Baja project, visit https://

www.facebook.com/UofArkBaja

Min

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aja

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P A G E 5 P R O M O T I N G & S U P P O R T I N G T H E M E C H A N I C A L E N G I N E E R

from 109 to 97; electrical engineering moved up 20 spots, from 122 to 102; and mechanical engineering rose 10 spots to 109.

"I am encouraged by these gains," said John English, dean of the College of Engineering. "And I'm confident that our college and programs will continue to be recognized for the quality of our teaching and research. I look forward to seeing even more improvements in the future."

The University of Arkansas College of Engineering and several engineering departments improved their places in the u.s. News and World Report's 2015 edition of Best Graduate Schools. The college was ranked 66 among public research universities, an improvement of three places from last year.

The department of biological and agricultural engineering moved from 19th place to 17th out of 29 universities. Computer engineering climbed 12 places,

U.S. News & World Reports

Meet the 2014 AAME Inductees

From Left:

Larry Roe

Tom Weiss

Hamid

Habibi

Darin Nutter

Dr. Larry Roe

Associate Professor, Department of

Mechanical Engineering, University

of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Founding member of the Arkansas

Center for Space and Planetary

Sciences (Director 2008-2010), UA

representative to Arkansas Space

Grant Consortium, Associate

Department. Head

Mr. Hamid Habibi

Managing Principal, Senior Partner

with TME, Inc. , Little Rock, AR

Member of: The National

Environmental Balancing Bureau,

ASHRAE, Advisory Council for

Engineering & IT at UALR, &

American Society of Healthcare

Engineers

Dr. Darin Nutter

Professor, Department of

Mechanical Engineering, University

of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Fellow of the American Society of

Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-

Conditioning Engineers, Director

of the Arkansas Industrial Energy

C lear inghouse , Reg is tered

Professional Engineer, Recipient of

9 Teaching and Research Awards

Mr. Tom Weiss

Project Manager, Westinghouse

(Retired), Murrysville, Pennsylvania

Lieutenant Colonel in the US

A r m y R e s e r v e , P r o j e c t

Management with US Department

of Energy, Consultant at Mitsubishi

Heavy Industries. Holder of 3

Patents

204 Mechanical Engineering Building

College of Engineering

University of Arkansas

Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201

Phone: 479.575.4153

Fax: 479.575.6982

E-mail: melhart@uark.edu

Mission of the Arkansas Academy of

Mechanical Engineering

To promote and support the mechanical

engineering profession, to honor the Mechanical

Engineer and to work with the University of

Arkansas Department of Mechanical Engineering

to increase the appeal of Mechanical Engineering

and further the educational development of

future engineers.

2014-2015 Board & Committee Chairs: Bob Harrison, President Russ Rasnic, President-Elect/Publicity Zane Boatright, Past President Cristine Wolf, Secretary

Mike Hays, Treasurer Lamar Pettus, Honorary Advisor Keith Bradshaw Jim Evans Paul Ford Will Myers

Richard Royal Larry Young Bob Norwood, Membership Robert Porbeck, Finance Bill Green, Conduct/Bylaws Chris Weiser, Fundraising

Rick Couvillion, Awards

Arkansas Academy

of Mechanical Engineering

Keep Up With the Latest Mechanical Engineering News!

meeg.uark.edu/ facebook.com/uarkmechengineering twitter.com/uarkmecheng

Please take a few moments to “like” our Facebook page, follow our Twitter feed, and comment on our

blog. To submit your news, please email Melynda at melhart@uark.edu.

www.meeg.uark.edu/aame

Promoting & Supporting the Mechanical Engineer

outbreak that impacted

Mayflower and Vilonia.

While many Arkansas

Alumni Association groups

across the country work to

organize fundraisers and

drives to support to

support organizations that are

lending a hand, we wanted to make

sure you were aware of how YOU

can make a difference.

Many of our alumni across the

region have been asking how they

can join in the efforts to support

those affected in the tornado

Arkansas Strong Donate to the Arkansas Dream Center

Relief Fund: www.ardreamcenter.tb/

give/

Donate to the Arkansas Strong Disaster

Relief Fund through American Red

Cross: on.kthv.com/1iDi6m5

For more information, contact Heath

Bowman at the AR Alumni Association,

479.575.4842 or via email to

habowman@uark.edu.