Category Archives: Engineering
Som Boualaphanh came from a refugee camp in Thailand to build a new life in Minnesota. Now, as the cofounder and partner in a full-service engineering…
When Som Boualaphanhs St. Paul company Victus Engineering landed a contract for a major years-long remodeling and expansion of the NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center in north Minneapolis, it was a big moment.
We went up against a huge firm that is very established in town. Just to be selected for an interview, I thought, Ive made it, recalled Boualaphanh, a mechanical engineer who, with three colleagues, left jobs at established engineering firms to launch Victus in 2018.
For Boualaphanh, the NorthPoint contract was more than a professional milestone signaling the arrival of the fast-growing start-up.
In 1979, after he and his family came to Minnesota as refugees from Laos, via Thailand, they first settled in north Minneapolis. NorthPoint (then known as Pilot City) was the familys clinica destination for check-ups, he said, but also the source of grocery and gift giveaways.
I understood how important that clinic was to the community, he said. And I got gifts there a few times as a kid.
Boualaphanh, 52, traces the origins of his professional journey to a career day at Hopkins High School, which he attended after his family moved to Golden Valley. As a kid, he had a passion for muscle cars. And so he was intrigued when an engineer gave a presentation about automotive design.
After high school, Boualaphanh enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where he got his bachelors degree in mechanical engineering before moving on to the University of St. Thomas for a masters degree in software engineering.
Over the course of his career, Boualaphanh has specialized in the design of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and plumbing systems. He spent nearly two decades in the trenches, working at engineering and architectural firms around town, before he and his three partners decided to take the entrepreneurial leap.
Starting the firm was a huge leap. We had a shoestring budget, and we all had to make sacrifices, like not getting paid for the first six months. We rented a coworking space because there were only four of us. Our chairs were back-to-back.
Victus main clients are government, health care institutions, and commercial and industrial facilities.
Were a full-service firm. We do electrical and mechanical. We started with four people. Now we have a staff of 18, he said. I love this industry. I meet a lot of people, I get to travel, and I constantly learn new things.
In an interview with Sahan Journal, Boualaphanh shared a few of the lessons he has learned along the way.
When you launch a new venture, pay attention to people skills: I would say, Get your technical skills down and make as many connections as you can. Network. Get to know the clients. Ask questions. People skills are huge. Technical skills can be taught, but people skills are tough. It has to come with experience.
Always keep a close eye on the bottom line: Starting the firm was a huge leap. We had a shoestring budget, and we all had to make sacrifices, like not getting paid for the first six months. We rented a coworking space because there were only four of us. Our chairs were back-to-back.
The first year was a struggle. We had to mind the bank very closely. But we were fortunate. We have a lot of friends and advocates in the industry because weve all been doing it a while. It helps to know people, especially architects. People remember you if you do good work.
For some businesses, COVID brought more opportunities than challenges: It was the opposite of what I thought was going to happen. When people hear that youre launching a new company during the pandemic, they say, Isnt that kind of risky? But to my surprise, COVID really helped in our industry, especially with health-care design. We deal with a lot of air change to mitigate COVID. Business is booming right now because everybody wants to upgrade their HVAC system.
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Engineering technology alum built race cars and a storied IndyCar career – Purdue Polytechnic Institute – Purdue Polytechnic Institute
Juan Pablo Montoya, Emerson Fittipaldi and A.J. Foyt are legendary race car drives and Purdue alum Bill Pappas (BS mechanical engineering technology 83) has worked with all of them.
Thanks to his familys relocation from Chicago to Indianapolis, Pappas love of racing began as a child, and his father encouraged his interests. But when he grew to 6 feet, 7 inches tall, he knew a career as a driver wasnt likely.
At a very early age, [my father would] take me and my brothers out to the speedway to watch the cars run, and wed go back out on qualifications weekend, said Pappas. I would have loved to race, but I dont fit in go-karts or race cars very well, he says. I had to go for the next step. And that was either as an engineer or engineering the race car itself.
A neighbor had a machine shop where Pappas would see the mechanical aspects of race cars closely.
When the guys had come to town, he would do repair work on uprights, wishbones and different parts of the race car, Pappas recalled. So, Id watch this gentleman do his magic and was enamored with the mechanical end of racing.
Purdue became Pappas next logical step to realizing the dream of a career in racing, but it took persistence. After graduating, he interviewed for a position in electronics at an Arizona company.
I have a mechanical background, but I sat down with an HR person, and they looked at my resume and saw Purdue University. They basically moved me to the front of the line because of Purdues reputation, he said.
A few years later, Pappas accepted a position with the Patrick Racing team as a support and design engineer, his first full-time job in racing.
We won the Indianapolis 500 and the CART Championship with Emerson Fittipaldi, and it cascaded from there, he said.
Pappas was a part of Fittipaldis Indy 500 win in 1989 and was chief engineer for Montoyas win in 2000. Today, Pappas is vice president of competition and race engineering for the IndyCar series.
See the full article by Joel Meredith at Stories of Purdue The Persistent Pursuit.
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A new drug could solve the problem of cataracts, without surgery – Interesting Engineering
Researchers at the Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in the U.K. have made significant progress in treating cataracts using a drug compound, paving the way for new treatment methods, a university press release said.
A cataract is a medical condition where the eye's lens becomes clouded over some time and affects vision quality. The clouding is caused by the disorganization of the proteins present in the lens. This eventually leads to their clumping, which scatters light away from the retina, thereby reducing vision. According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), the condition affects approximately 65 million people globally, with moderate to severe vision loss seen in about 80 percent of the cases.
Conventionally, surgery has been the only remedy for this condition. Still, a team of researchers led byProfessor Barbara Pierscionek at ARU has carried out advanced tests of an oxysterol compound as an anti-cataract drug. An oxysterol is a derivative of cholesterol that plays a role in many cellular functions, including autophagy - conserved cell degradation to remove unnecessary components.
The compound called VP1-001, when used in laboratory-based trials, showed a marked improvement in the refractive index profile for 61 percent of the cases. In comparison, the press release said that lens opacity was found to have been decreased in 46 percent of the cases. A refractive index profile is a crucial parameter in determining the focusing capacity of the eye. The drug is therefore acting to restore the protein organization inside the lens.
"It is the first research of this kind in the world," said Professor Pierscionek in the press release. "The positive effects of the compound have been proposed as an anti-cataract drug but never before tested on the optics of the lens. It is a significant step forward towards treating this extremely common condition with drugs rather than surgery."
However, the studies also showed improvements in only some types of cataracts and not all. This would mean that the treatment would be an option for only specific cataract types, and distinctions need to be made while developing anti-cataract medications in the future, the researchers said.
The study was published in the journal,Ophthalmology and Visual Science.
Abstract
Purpose:To investigate how cataract-linked mutations affect the gradient refractive index (GRIN) and lens opacification in mouse lenses and whether there is any effect on the optics of the lens from treatment with an oxysterol compound.
Methods:A total of 35 mice including wild-type and knock-in mutants (Cryaa-R49C andCryab-R120G) were used in these experiments: 26 mice were treated with topical VP1-001, an oxysterol, in one eye and vehicle in the other, and nine mice were untreated controls. Slit lamp biomicroscopy was used to analyze the lens in live animals and to provide apparent cataract grades. Refractive index in the lenses of 64 unfixed whole mouse eyes was calculated from measurements with X-ray phase tomography based on X-ray Talbot interferometry with a synchrotron radiation source.
Results:HeterozygousCryaa-R49C lenses had slightly irregularly shaped contours in the center of the GRIN and distinct disturbances of the gradient index at the anterior and posterior poles. Contours near the lens surface were denser in homozygousCryab-R120G lenses. Treatment with topical VP1-001, an oxysterol, showed an improvement in refractive index profiles in 61% of lenses and this was supported by a reduction in apparent lens opacity grade by 1.0 in 46% of live mice.
Conclusions:These results indicate that -crystallin mutations alter the refractive index gradient of mouse lenses in distinct ways and suggest that topical treatment with VP1-001 may improve lens transparency and refractive index contours in some lenses with mutations.
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A new drug could solve the problem of cataracts, without surgery - Interesting Engineering
Engineering education pioneer Elizabeth Taylor on challenging assumptions and bringing more voices to the table – Create – create digital
With experience across a range of fields including civil engineering, engineering education, volunteering and humanitarian aid, her career has been, she admits, fairly eclectic.
Now, as the 2021 recipient of Engineers Australias Peter Nicol Russell Achievement Memorial Medal, Taylor has been recognised for her many professional accomplishments. She shares some of her career highlights with create.
Its challenging to describe Taylors achievements without resorting to basic recitation.
Shes held roles in academia and defence, received the prestigious Ada Lovelace Medal for an Outstanding Woman Engineer in 2019, and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2004.
In addition to serving as Deputy Chair of the Governing Group of the International Engineering Alliance, she is the Foundation Convenor of Engineers Australias National Women in Engineering Committee and Chair of the Cambodian Childrens Trust.
While Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean at Central Queensland University, she engaged in pro bono work for Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief, or RedR, an international humanitarian response agency that selects, trains and deploys technical specialists.
The trajectory of Taylors eventual career was at odds with her plans earlier in life.
I was one of those people at school who had no idea what I wanted to do, she said. I ended up being one of 250 people doing civil engineering, which I knew absolutely nothing about and for most of the time I was the only girl.
After a decade as an engineer for the Maritime Service Board, Taylor made a career shift to academia.
At that point I was in a career that did not support women very well when they started to have children, she said.
You could say I had to respond to both life imperatives and career imperatives. It was certainly not my planned career path; it was the outcome of my situation at the time.
Taylors diverse and eclectic career has led her to excel as a leader, notably in the field of engineering education.
As an academic, I was very strongly involved in curriculum reform to bring out the human element of engineering, she said. When I started out, engineering was very much about being above petty politics and the way society made decisions we were independent of having opinions.
For me, it was important to bring into the curriculum an understanding that this was not the case. We are all human beings, and therefore all have our own opinions and perspectives that impact how we make decisions.
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NSWC Crane STEM Program partners with S2MARTS to host 38th Annual Science and Engineering – Naval Sea Systems Command
CRANE, Ind.
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) held its annual youth Science and Engineering Fair virtually for more than 200 regional students from April 4 8. The NSWC Crane Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Program organized the 38th Annual Science Fair with a partner organization S2MARTS for Junior and Senior High School students.
Tina Closser, the STEM Program Director, says the event was a success.
This year, we partnered with the S2MARTS team, who sponsored the prizes, on the annual STEM Science Fair, says Closser. The STEM team, NSWC Crane scientists and engineers, and S2MARTS personnel participated as judges on the projects. It was great to see the students and how they creatively tackled projects.
Participating students grades six through 12 submitted 120 science and engineering projects covering a wide range of STEM area. Students came from six regional schools, including students who are homeschooled. Closser says hosting a virtual event for the second year was a way to maximize reach of regional students for this year and for future STEM Science Fairs.
The virtual event enabled us to reach many students who might have not been able to get here in person. We do hope to have an in-person event next year.
The NSWC Crane Science and Engineering Fair is one of the events organized by the STEM Program, which is a program that aims to provide STEM-related educational opportunities to regional students from kindergarten to high school seniors. Annually, the program serves approximately four thousand students with engagement opportunities such as field trips, summer camps, and a science equipment lending library.
Jr. Division -
1st place - Cormac Duffy-Paiement and Eullan McLaughlin, 7th grade homeschool students - Project: Can Greenhouses Heat Homes?
2nd place - Greta Dunigan and Bryar Weddle, 7th grade students at Bloomfield Jr. High School - Project: What soap cleans coffee better?
1st place - Engineering Design - Roland Davis and Luke Ingram, 6th grade students at Salem Middle School - Project: Automated Plant Waterier
Sr. Division -
1st place - Reagan Weisheit, 8th grade student at Jasper Middle School - Project: Cover Crops - Conserving Our Future
2nd place - Abigail Burkart9th grade student at Eastern Greene High School - Project: How do different mediums change the speed of light?
About NSWC Crane
NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with mission areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electronic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today's Warfighter.
Join Our Team! NAVSEA employs a diverse, highly trained, educated, and skilled workforce - from students and entry level employees to experienced professionals and individuals with disabilities. We support today's sophisticated Navy and Marine Corps ships, aircraft, weapon systems and computer systems. We are continuously looking for engineers, scientists, and other STEM professionals, as well as talented business, finance, logistics and other support experts to ensure the U.S. Navy can protect and defend America. Please connect with NSWC Crane Recruiting at this site - https://navsea.recsolu.com/external/form/jmR6cUhZKZ_qD5QUqyMk8w or email us at crane_recruiting@navy.mil
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The American Society for Engineering Education Wants to Hear from You! – All Together – Society of Women Engineers
The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), a peer organization, is surveying engineering educators, professionals, and students about factors supporting their professional success.The survey will only take about 6 to 7 minutes and will be open untilMay 25. Your responses will only be reported as part of a group and individual responses will remain anonymous. The first 100 respondents to completethe survey byMay 25will be eligible to receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card.
ASEE seeks to understand how the organization can better serve its various constituents engineering faculty, graduate students, and staff as well as faculty in other disciplines who contribute to the education of future engineers. They also seek to serve employers of engineers and those who seek to otherwise contribute to their attainment of the knowledge skills and abilities required for their optimal professional practice.
ASEE is 129 years old and uniquely spans all engineering disciplines. ASEE is the society for academic engineers and the voice of academic engineering. Though their membership spans pre-college through lifelong learning, their core members are engineering faculty at the college/university level. But their membership is broad and also encompasses all who influence the education of engineers including science, humanities, and liberal arts faculties as well as student affairs professionals, librarians, and academic administrators. In addition to individual members, they have institutional members that include over 80% of the engineering programs in the US as well as a growing number outside the US. Given that breadth, they are concerned with the full spectrum of academic concerns including teaching, engineering education research, engineering technical research, and service.
ASEEs Vision is excellent and broadly accessible education empowering students and engineering professionals to create a better world. That means ASEE exists to help members as engineering educators and stakeholders to cultivate students who have the highest potential, are career-ready, are diverse in identity and outlook, are able to innovate creative solutions to the worlds most challenging problems, are able to anticipate and understand the impact of their solutions on both technical and social systems, and are able to adapt to, and lead within, rapidly evolving technical and social environments.
ASEEs Mission is advancing innovation, excellence, and access, at all levels of education for the engineering profession. They promote excellence in instruction, in research, in public service and in practice. They exercise global leadership in these areas. They provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and sharing of information, and foster the technological education of society as a whole critically important in our increasingly technological world. And, they provide high quality programs, products, and services to their members.
SWE Blog
SWE Blog provides up-to-date information and news about the Society and how our members are making a difference every day. Youll find stories about SWE members, engineering, technology, and other STEM-related topics.
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Engineers use artificial intelligence to capture the complexity of breaking waves – MIT News
Waves break once they swell to a critical height, before cresting and crashing into a spray of droplets and bubbles. These waves can be as large as a surfers point break and as small as a gentle ripple rolling to shore. For decades, the dynamics of how and when a wave breaks have been too complex to predict.
Now, MIT engineers have found a new way to model how waves break. The team used machine learning along with data from wave-tank experiments to tweak equations that have traditionally been used to predict wave behavior. Engineers typically rely on such equations to help them design resilient offshore platforms and structures. But until now, the equations have not been able to capture the complexity of breaking waves.
The updated model made more accurate predictions of how and when waves break, the researchers found. For instance, the model estimated a waves steepness just before breaking, and its energy and frequency after breaking, more accurately than the conventional wave equations.
Their results, published today in the journal Nature Communications, will help scientists understand how a breaking wave affects the water around it. Knowing precisely how these waves interact can help hone the design of offshore structures. It can also improve predictions for how the ocean interacts with the atmosphere. Having better estimates of how waves break can help scientists predict, for instance, how much carbon dioxide and other atmospheric gases the ocean can absorb.
Wave breaking is what puts air into the ocean, says study author Themis Sapsis, an associate professor of mechanical and ocean engineering and an affiliate of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at MIT. It may sound like a detail, but if you multiply its effect over the area of the entire ocean, wave breaking starts becoming fundamentally important to climate prediction.
The studys co-authors include lead author and MIT postdoc Debbie Eeltink, Hubert Branger and Christopher Luneau of Aix-Marseille University, Amin Chabchoub of Kyoto University, Jerome Kasparian of the University of Geneva, and T.S. van den Bremer of Delft University of Technology.
Learning tank
To predict the dynamics of a breaking wave, scientists typically take one of two approaches: They either attempt to precisely simulate the wave at the scale of individual molecules of water and air, or they run experiments to try and characterize waves with actual measurements. The first approach is computationally expensive and difficult to simulate even over a small area; the second requires a huge amount of time to run enough experiments to yield statistically significant results.
The MIT team instead borrowed pieces from both approaches to develop a more efficient and accurate model using machine learning. The researchers started with a set of equations that is considered the standard description of wave behavior. They aimed to improve the model by training the model on data of breaking waves from actual experiments.
We had a simple model that doesnt capture wave breaking, and then we had the truth, meaning experiments that involve wave breaking, Eeltink explains. Then we wanted to use machine learning to learn the difference between the two.
The researchers obtained wave breaking data by running experiments in a 40-meter-long tank. The tank was fitted at one end with a paddle which the team used to initiate each wave. The team set the paddle to produce a breaking wave in the middle of the tank. Gauges along the length of the tank measured the waters height as waves propagated down the tank.
It takes a lot of time to run these experiments, Eeltink says. Between each experiment you have to wait for the water to completely calm down before you launch the next experiment, otherwise they influence each other.
Safe harbor
In all, the team ran about 250 experiments, the data from which they used to train a type of machine-learning algorithm known as a neural network. Specifically, the algorithm is trained to compare the real waves in experiments with the predicted waves in the simple model, and based on any differences between the two, the algorithm tunes the model to fit reality.
After training the algorithm on their experimental data, the team introduced the model to entirely new data in this case, measurements from two independent experiments, each run at separate wave tanks with different dimensions. In these tests, they found the updated model made more accurate predictions than the simple, untrained model, for instance making better estimates of a breaking waves steepness.
The new model also captured an essential property of breaking waves known as the downshift, in which the frequency of a wave is shifted to a lower value. The speed of a wave depends on its frequency. For ocean waves, lower frequencies move faster than higher frequencies. Therefore, after the downshift, the wave will move faster. The new model predicts the change in frequency, before and after each breaking wave, which could be especially relevant in preparing for coastal storms.
When you want to forecast when high waves of a swell would reach a harbor, and you want to leave the harbor before those waves arrive, then if you get the wave frequency wrong, then the speed at which the waves are approaching is wrong, Eeltink says.
The teams updated wave model is in the form of an open-source code that others could potentially use, for instance in climate simulations of the oceans potential to absorb carbon dioxide and other atmospheric gases. The code can also be worked into simulated tests of offshore platforms and coastal structures.
The number one purpose of this model is to predict what a wave will do, Sapsis says. If you dont model wave breaking right, it would have tremendous implications for how structures behave. With this, you could simulate waves to help design structures better, more efficiently, and without huge safety factors.
This research is supported, in part, by the Swiss National Science Foundation, and by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
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Engineers use artificial intelligence to capture the complexity of breaking waves - MIT News
Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of Hold from Analysts – Defense World
Shares of Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR Get Rating) have received an average rating of Hold from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $82.25.
A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ALTR shares. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Altair Engineering from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Altair Engineering from $78.00 to $67.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 7th.
In other Altair Engineering news, CMO Amy Messano sold 396 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.55, for a total value of $25,561.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Gilma Saravia sold 816 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.55, for a total transaction of $52,672.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,176 shares of company stock worth $693,839 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 22.65% of the companys stock.
Shares of ALTR opened at $55.11 on Friday. The businesss 50-day moving average is $61.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.15. The company has a market capitalization of $4.37 billion, a P/E ratio of -423.92 and a beta of 1.52. Altair Engineering has a fifty-two week low of $53.44 and a fifty-two week high of $82.96.
Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 24th. The software reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the Zacks consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.08. Altair Engineering had a positive return on equity of 3.72% and a negative net margin of 1.65%. The firm had revenue of $140.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $126.05 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.09 EPS. The companys quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Altair Engineering will post 0.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Altair Engineering Company Profile (Get Rating)
Altair Engineering Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides software and cloud solutions in the areas of simulation, high-performance computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Software and Client Engineering Services. The Software segment includes solvers and optimization technology products, high-performance computing software applications and hardware products, modeling and visualization tools, data analytics and analysis products, and Internet of Things platform and analytics tools, as well as support and the complementary software products.
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College of Engineering and Computer Science raises record donations total for UCF Day of Giving – NSM.today
Engineering II is one of the buildings connected to the College of Engineering and Computer Science, consisting of classrooms, offices, labs and more. Some of the other buildings include Engineering I and the L3 Harris Corporation Engineering Center.
The College of Engineering and Computer Science exceeded $150,000 in donations for this year's UCF Day of Giving.
CECS raised a total of$150,877.78, a record-breaking amount for the college. UCF Day of Giving is a 24-hour event run by the UCF Foundation in which people in the UCF community can donate to the university through direct donations to specific programs or colleges and compete in donation challenges.
Our nation needs engineering students. We need engineers, said Jacqueline Sullivan, adjunct instructor of CECS. Were not going to have them unless we grow them here.
Sullivan, an alumna herself, received her masters degree in environmental engineering at UCF. After years working in the industry followed by working in STEM camps for younger students, she returned to the university 10 years ago to teach environmental engineering courses.
Being a donor in this year's Day of Giving on April 7, Sullivan said there are two reasons she donates. First, she is grateful for what the college gave her, and second, she has a desire to support young future engineers.
Not only did CECS exceed previous years, the colleges donations for 2022 surpass the money raised in 2018 ($5,512), 2019 ($4,672)and 2021 ($11,748) combined, with a gap year in 2020. Since 2018,CECS has seen a2,637.26% increase in donations.
Carla Cordoba, associate director of UCF Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving, said 2018 was the first year UCF hosted Day of Giving.
Francesca Sagliano, associate director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving, said that among the other donations, there were two large anonymous ones including one at $25,000 and another at $50,000. She said the college found that many previous donors who may have stepped back during the height of the pandemic came back into the fold to support the university.
UCF is a special place that is really starting to grow and become more top of mind for people, Sagliano said. I think we were in some ways kind of a hidden gem for a really long time.
Sagliano said that donors are able to choose an area of impact that they would like their money to go to along with allowing them to donate to even more specific places by adding a comment to their donation.
The main five highlighted donation campaigns included the Deans Excellence Fund; General Scholarship; the Engineering Leadership and Innovation Institute;GEMS and WISE Program Fund focused on women in STEM; and the Minority Engineering Program.
Among these, Sagliano said the two most popular were scholarships and diversity in STEM through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
What are you passionate about? Because I am sure that I can plug you in with someone within this university where you can help make an impact, Sagliano said.
Sagliano said allowing donors to donate in a multitude of ways lets the Day of Giving be more donor centric. She also said this year, the university had a total rebrand for Day of Giving by tapping into the more competitive side of donors with social media challenges to attract a larger audience.
Students work and socialize in the Engineering II atrium. Events throughout the year are hosted here, including many of the events hosted during Engineer's Week in February.
As someone who works with alumni, Sagliano said the college tries to share the importance of giving back, telling them the U.S. News and World Report counts the number of alumni giving back to the university as a metric in rankings. She said this ranking contributes to making a degree from UCF more valuable.
Sullivan said that alumni giving back helps support President AlexanderCartwrights goal for UCF to become a top 50 public research university.
Prior to UCF hosting Day of Giving, there have been various efforts, such as Giving Tuesday, that help raise donations in which the university has reached out to alumni. In 2020, when Day of Giving was not able to happen, $164,000 came into the university through this event.
Our really incredible faculty, our alumni, the research and the programs that were doing here - thats going to be world-changing, Sagliano said. Were really trying to shift the focus on that and amplify that message.
In her time working at UCF, Sagliano saw the creation of the Lockheed Martin Cyber Innovation Lab, the Siemens Digital Grid Lab, and the GE/FP&L Microgrid Control Lab, helping students gain hands-on experience and connect with the industry. She said she also saw new scholarships and growth in student programs.
Sullivan said capital funds is one area that the college could benefit from receiving donations to continue expanding facilities for students to use hands-on learning, similar to the labs Sagliano mentioned. Sullivan said the Texas Instruments Innovation Lab is normally crowded and exemplifies a need for expansion.
Sullivans goal of helping future engineers shines through senior industrial engineering major Mitchell Hunsucker, who said he attributes the beginning of his current success to being Sullivan's student in the introduction to engineering course.
Hunsucker, who also serves as the director of the student team for ELI2, has witnessed the benefits of donations such as those given during Day of Giving.
My saying is 'a little nice goes a long way,'" Hunsucker said.
Hunsucker said that he believes the university is able to see such a significant increase in donations due to the amount of talent coming into UCF along with the opportunities students are provided.
Hunsucker started the First Step program, a group dedicated to helping first year CECS students earn internships and leadership positions. He said that every year since starting the program, the first-year students coming in are more focused, experienced and prepared.
He said some things he would like to see are more storage spaces available for engineering programs and registered student organizations, club project funds and other additions to assist students growth beyond the classroom.
Junior electrical engineering major Julia Lampert had the opportunity of doing research in her first year at UCF, something donation money goes toward. She said research is big especially for engineering and STEM students to understand their major and decide what they want to do after college.
Lampert said her time in research helped her decide that it was not what she wanted to do post-graduation, which she wouldnt have found out otherwise.
Another area Lampert said she thought could use funding is workshops that could be available to all engineering and STEM students, not just those who are in clubs. This funding would alleviate students from feeling pressured to pay club dues to get this extracurricular experience.
Lampert said she would like to see better and more equipment for engineering students to utilize as well.
We always need new equipment, new stuff to play around with and to learn how to use for us to go into the real world and actually know how to use it, Lampert said. The only way that we can get that is through donations.
For those looking to donate, Hunsucker said he encourages them to tour UCF and CECS to see the opportunities offered along with the students who are benefitting from these opportunities. Hunsucker said he plans to donate in the future after graduation and even now tries to at least give $5.
I, as a student, know what these donations do to help from the student perspective, Hunsucker said. If theres a slight difference I can make to improve on the education, the projects and everything UCF has to offer, Ill definitely do it.
Beyond the classroom, Sullivan said that the upward trend in donations could be attributed to the fact that the UCF community is truly becoming Knight Nation. She said the bonds, memories and long-lasting friendships that students make will support UCF in the future.
Youve got to be grateful for what you have and help support that which helped you so much, Sullivan said. Pay it forward.
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Six inducted into Missouri S&T Academy of Electrical and Computer Engineering – Missouri S&T News and Research
Six electrical and computer engineers with ties to Missouri University of Science and Technology were inducted into the Missouri S&T Academy of Electrical and Computer Engineering during the academys induction ceremony, which was held Thursday, April 7, at Comfort Suites Conference Center.
Founded in 1980, the academy is a departmental advisory group composed of alumni and other electrical and computer engineers who have made outstanding contributions to their profession. The new inductees were recognized for their service and leadership in electrical and computer engineering.
New members are listed below:
Cameron K. Coursey of Defiance, Missouri, vice president of platforms at AT&T, earned bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1987 and 1988, respectively. Coursey began his career as a communications system engineer for McDonnell Douglas Corp. in 1989. In 1991, he moved to SBC Technology Resources Inc. as a member of its technical staff and was promoted to senior member in 1996. From 1999 to 2003, Coursey served as director of SBC Technology Resources and Cingular Wireless, and in 2003 became executive director of AT&T. He has served in his current role since 2009. A senior member of IEEE, Coursey holds 13 U.S. patents and authored two technical books. He is a past member of the board of the 5G Automotive Association.
John M. Haake of St. Charles, Missouri, founder and owner of Titanova Inc., earned bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1986 and 1988, respectively. Haake began his career as a principal engineer at McDonnell Douglas Corp. then co-founded Nuvonyx Inc., where he worked until 2007. He then served as product line manager at Coherent for a year before founding Titanova Inc. in 2008. Haake holds 29 U.S. patents and is a member of the Greater St. Charles Chamber of Commerce, NTMA, ASM, ASME and Eta Kappa Nu.
Clay E. Merritt of Bella Vista, Arkansas, earned a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1985 and a masters degree in electrical engineering from University College Dublin in 1987. He began his career as a vending machine control board design engineer for Coin Acceptors in Clayton, Missouri. He then moved to Motorola Semiconductor where he served as a field application engineer and an application engineering manager. In 2008, he was named new product definition manager for Freescale Semiconductor in Austin, Texas, then joined Spansion as microcontroller applications manager in 2013. He served VORAGO Technologies in microcontroller applications and definition from 2015-2019. Merritt published nine application notes, holds two patents and was Motorolas FAE of the Year in 1998. He has managed teams in five different countries and while working in product definition for Motorola visited customers in over 30 countries.
Dale L. Morse of Milford, Michigan, who retired from General Motors in 2014, earned a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1979. He also holds a masters degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Morse began his career as a reliability engineer for General Motors. In 1986 he was named design release engineer, and in 1995 he was named engineering group manager. He also served as university relations team coordinator from 2005-2011. Morse was awarded a patent for Fade Compensated Tone Control Method and Apparatus in 1993. A member of the Order of the Golden Shillelagh at Missouri S&T, Morse served as president of the Motor City Section of the Miner Alumni Association from 2010-2016 and earned the associations Robert V. Wolf Alumni Service Award in 2018.
Russell L. Woirhaye of Stillwell, Kansas, retired design engineer from SEGA Consultants, earned a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1971. Woirhaye began his career as a field engineer in Westinghouse Electric Co.s power generation division. In 1976, he moved to Black & Veatch Consulting Engineers where he served as design engineer and then project manager. After working as a consulting engineer for a year in 2003, Worihaye joined SEGA Consultants in 2004 and retired as its design engineer in 2010. He is a retired professional engineer in Kansas, Missouri and Texas, an IEEE Life Member and a past member of the IEEE and IEEE Communications Society.
Zhiping Yang of Campbell, California, signals team lead for Waymo, earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Missouri S&T in 2000. He also holds bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University at Beijing. Yang began his career as a technical leader for Cisco Systems Inc. and then served as principal signal integrity engineer for Apple, signal integrity engineer and principal engineer for Cisco Systems (formerly Nuova Systems), senior principal power integrity engineer for Apple and senior hardware manager for Google. He joined Waymo in his current position in 2021. A member of Eta Kappa Nu and an IEEE Fellow, Yang holds over 20 U.S. patents and has authored over 70 conference and journal publications. He holds leadership positions in IEEE EMC Society, serves as associate editor of two IEEE journals, chaired the NSF Industry Advisory Board IUCRC CEMC Research Center, was IEEE EMC Society Distinguished Lecturer and received the IEEE EMC Society Technical Achievement Award. Yang was founding chair of the Missouri S&T/UMR EMC Lab Alumni Network and serves as librarian and board member for IBIS open forum. He earned the Best Symposium Paper Award from the IEEE EMC Society Symposium in 2006 and 2011, and earned the 2006 IEEE PES Prize Paper Award.
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