The last time I shared thoughts in this blog I had just started in my position as dean of the College of Engineering. I’d like to thank everyone who made comments and sent emails after my first post. I think open and ongoing communication is essential to good leadership – I plan on sharing information often, and I always appreciate feedback!

A lot has happened in my first 10 weeks, and I wanted to share some highlights of what I’ve been learning and experiencing.

• First and foremost, I have been meeting with people and listening. It’s been wonderful to tour all the college departments and meet faculty, staff and students. I am impressed with the talent, commitment and drive that exists here.
• I’ve also traveled near and far to meet with donors, alumni, friends of the college and corporate partners. My impression is one of strong commitment and support. Their dedication is evident, and I know it has a direct impact on our mission.
• I arrived on campus at an exciting time and have participated in VEISHEA, commencement, a college advisory council meeting and a few special donor events. We hosted engineering graduates from the Class of 1963 (as well as other years) for the 50th anniversary celebration during Alumni Days. I was touched to meet these engineers and hear their Iowa State stories.
• I’m learning the Iowa State culture and all the great traditions that exist – so far I have not stepped on the zodiac symbol in the Memorial Union! I also have Sept. 14 marked on my calendar for the great in-state football rivalry.
• We recently announced a new department chair in chemical and biological engineering (Andrew Hillier) and a new associate dean for research (Arun Somani). They will be great additions to our leadership team – replacing Surya Mallapragada and Balaji Narasimhan, respectively, who are taking a sabbatical leave (and returning later this year). I’d like to publicly thank Surya and Balaji for their great work.
• Renovation plans for Marston Hall – our grand engineering home – have been approved and planning is underway. Improvements will range from enhancing physical components and modernizing technology to creating a student welcome center and becoming LEED Gold certified. The estimated $20 million cost will be funded by private support, university sources and college funds. Construction is tentatively scheduled to start in the summer of 2014 and take about 18 months to complete. (Many more details to come on this exciting project).
• We are preparing for another record enrollment in the college this fall. The Iowa State engineering program is in demand because our students achieve remarkable success and go on to accomplish great things in their careers.
• One recent example of our student success is our Team LunaCY making a great showing at the annual NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition. They brought home three awards, including the first place title, by beating 49 other teams from around the world. Congratulations!

I could not have planned a better start to my career at Iowa State. I’ve had a lot of good advice and input and truly appreciate the warm welcome. I look forward to more great experiences and opportunities in the future. Please stay in touch!  

For some, having a full-time job and a family along with studying for a master’s degree would probably be enough to keep busy. Lee Graham, on the other hand, does all that while working at NASA, mentoring at three local high schools and helping with STEM education efforts in various ways—among other things.

Graham, a 1985 industrial engineering alumnus, had a unique undergraduate experience. He originally intended to graduate in 1979, but he went home to Dunkerton, Iowa, after his junior year in aerospace engineering to help his family.

Returning to Iowa State in 1982, Graham thanks one of the counselors, Jan Putnam, for assisting him in his transition. “She was incredibly helpful to me in reintegrating into the university,” he says.

When he came back, Graham changed his major to industrial engineering because he had an interest in robotics. Deciding it wasn’t the best fit, he says he was fortunate that the head of the department allowed him to essentially create his own curriculum.

As a senior, he was asked to be a teaching assistant for the engineering law class and later for a microcomputer-based control theory class in the mechanical engineering department. Graham gave a lecture and ran a lab every Friday while working on 19 credits of his own.

Taking classes in aerospace, industrial and mechanical engineering—and now finishing his master’s in systems engineering—gave Graham a well-rounded education and skillset. “I realized I like being a generalist,” he says. “I don’t like being a world-class expert in a narrow field—that’s just not for me. I like to be one or two questions deep across all disciplines.”

Graham is still developing his varied background, finishing his master’s now and hoping to obtain a Ph.D. after his kids graduate. He wanted to continue his education after his undergraduate program, but says he couldn’t find the right program for the “broader engineering approach” he wanted.

A friend of his, Dr. Wiley Larson, encouraged Graham to join his master’s program at Stevens Institute of Technology after seeing the range of knowledge he already possessed. The program had the technical content he wanted and allowed him to continue working, so he enrolled.

Graham has worked at NASA for nearly 26 years, in which time he says he’s held about 20 different jobs. He is currently a senior research engineer leading a project on robotic exploration, which includes mission plans for exploring the moon, asteroids and Mars.

He says he has been able to do a wide range of interesting things with NASA, including working at the Naval Research Lab in D.C., giving ‘go’ and ‘no-go’ calls for the first ten launches after Challenger, and meeting Neil Armstrong. He adds that he’s happy to be surrounded by “really great, superb people,” even some pretty high-profile names in the industry. Though some people might call him lucky, Graham simply says, “You know, the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

His job already keeps him busy, putting in long hours and even some weekends, but somehow Graham manages to dedicate time to help high school juniors and seniors design and build different school projects—including 23-foot tall Mach 3 suborbital rockets. “Most of these kids don’t know that they shouldn’t be able to do this complicated stuff,” says Graham. “They don’t understand all the technical details in some cases so you have to explain it, but they do very well.”

As a mentor, Graham can’t give students the answers, which he likes because he says that’s when they really start to learn. If the students have questions, he can guide them in the right direction, but they’re forced to figure it out on their own. “These kids are really pushing it,” he says. “They are really trying, and they’re making a difference.”

With such a full calendar, it’s understandable that sometimes Graham needs a break. He explains that he and his family usually take a couple vacations each year to get away from everything. “We try to give the kids different experiences so they understand the world around them and what’s going on,” he says. With a 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, Graham says most of their free time involves “kid stuff” and their vacations involve going to new and different places.

From rock climbing and hiking to visiting volcanoes and getting certified in scuba diving, there’s always something new to try. One thing Graham hasn’t done much since his kids were born is recreational flying. “I’m a pilot,” he says. “We used to own a couple planes, but we just haven’t had time since the kids came along, so when I get the chance I like to go flying.”

A love for flying was only part of the reason for his aerospace background. Graham says he grew up sitting in the backyard looking at stars, adding, “Space was the only thing I wanted to do.” He was so sure engineering was the right career for him that once he heard about Iowa State’s program, he didn’t bother applying anywhere else.

Now, after working with several other universities around the country, Graham says he still believes Iowa State prepares its students as well as (and in some cases better than) the biggest universities. In a study he worked on for one of his classes, he said Iowa State came out in the top 10 percent of those offering “the best bang for the buck.”

Graham says Iowa State’s project-oriented curriculum and emphasis on teamwork were some of the best opportunities he experienced as a student, and he’s happy to see the college continue this high standard. “Kids get equipped with the right skillset and tools from the beginning, as opposed to learning from someone who may or may not have the right background,” he says. “I think Iowa State really gave me a big boost.”

Even though he’s a mechanical engineer, Brad Matt, a 2002 alumnus, prefers to spend his time working hands-on at a construction site rather than in his office. Lucky for Brad, his jobs have provided him with a steady mix of both environments.

Never living in the same city for more than two consecutive years, he has spent the last 10 years working on international projects, commuting across the country and visiting Iowa and Jack Trice Stadium as much as possible.

During Brad’s first job at Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City, he spent the majority of his time designing, working on aviation fuelling facilities at airports and military bases. Since taking his recent job at Shaw Group—which was acquired by CB&I in February—his job has consisted of more applied work in the field.

Brad estimates about 75 percent of CB&I’s work is international and says he jumps at the chance to leave his office for a while because it mixes things up and keeps the job fresh.

In his three years at CB&I, Brad has worked on projects in Spain, Korea and Guam. Travelling to different countries sometimes every 6-7 weeks—like he’s done this past year while working on a project in Guam—has taken its toll, but Brad says it is also one of the best parts of his job.

“It’s a great experience just being able to see how other people live and work, and learning about their culture,” he says. Brad gets to experience the work environment in other countries, but he often tries to make time for fun, too.

“My coworkers and I call some of them ‘work-ations’ because usually on long trips you can go and see some of the sites. I guess that’s kind of the benefit we get back from sacrificing and being away from home,” he adds.

Growing up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Brad became accustomed to the easily accessed green spaces of the rural Midwest, something he often misses now that he lives in Dallas. Since all of his family lives in Iowa and he still enjoys watching Cyclone football, Brad says he tries to make the two-hour direct flight back to Iowa four or five times a year.

He used to buy season tickets to ISU football, but his job made it harder for him to get back to watch many games. As a different way to stay connected with the university, he started the Harold L. Matt Memorial Scholarship in Engineering, named for his grandfather.

He chose to give the scholarship to an active member of the Greek system because his time in Farmhouse Fraternity and working on the Homecoming committees were some of his favorite experiences in college.

“I like that personal effect and hearing about other people’s success,” Brad adds. “I’m able to meet the scholarship recipients and, with scholarships like this, I know where my money is going.”

Brad says he put the scholarship in his grandfather’s name because he provided some of his inspiration to become an engineer. He enjoyed visiting his grandfather’s farm in northeast Iowa and helping fix farm equipment.

Even though he’s always been a little more interested in the construction and application aspects of engineering, Brad says that looking back he probably wouldn’t change his decision to pursue a career in mechanical engineering, which he chose because of its versatility.

Brad explains that his biggest struggles when he first began in the fueling industry came from starting out on paper, saying that he learns faster doing hands-on work. “If I had to do that part of it again, I would probably start in the field,” he says, “so I would understand the projects sooner.”

Still acknowledging that coursework is extremely important, Brad says it was actually his leadership experience during college that was most beneficial to him. “Getting involved on campus and learning to work with people made the transition to the professional world easier,” he says.

Leadership and constant involvement helped prepare him for life after college, but his biggest lesson—and advice to current students—is to never turn down opportunities.

“If a project opportunity comes up, jump on it,” he says. “Because every opportunity you get is going to help you in the future. It’s going to open your eyes to different things.”

Phil Jasper believes business and leadership skills, combined with a “world class” engineering education at Iowa State University, contributed to his long-term career success.

Jasper, a 1991 aerospace engineering alumnus, was recently named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Government Systems at Rockwell Collins, an Iowa-based communication and aviation electronics company.

Phil Jasper

A Lamont native, Jasper says he grew up fascinated by the space program, and the unmanned Voyager missions in particular. That led him to his aerospace engineering undergraduate studies at Iowa State, his interest in avionics, and a master’s degree that he completed in 1991. While he was at Iowa State, he also gained a foundation in business administration through a minor in his graduate studies.

He joined Rockwell Collins in 1992 because his interests matched nicely with the needs of the company, and he continued to progress to project management and technical leadership roles within the engineering department.

Over the years, Jasper served as the company’s vice president of Business Development for Government Systems. He also served as vice president and general manager of Mobility Rotary Wing Solutions. Additionally, he was technical director and programs manager of Rockwell Collins’ KC-135 program, the U.S. military’s refueling aircraft; director of air mobility, bombers and special mission programs; and senior director of Air Force programs.

He says the technical and business aspects in his education provided a blend of skills that have served him well through his career.

“If you want to be an engineer and focus simply on the engineering problem, you can certainly do that,” Jasper explains. “But what I see in engineering, both generally as a profession and what I’ve found personally, is having a broader background allows engineers to truly understand how their technical skills fit into the broader scope of an organization. Once you understand that, you provide greater value to the company, and there are many more advancement opportunities.”

Jasper adds that leadership skills he developed as a student carried into his career as well.

“I don’t think I would have necessarily viewed myself as a leader when I was a student. But looking back on it, there were some intrinsic attributes revealing themselves. I served as president of my dorm floor one year; I was a member of the aerospace honor society; and I led a team for my senior design project,” he says.

Another important part of that business and leadership acumen, according to Jasper, is the ability to communicate well.

“It’s one thing to have a great engineering idea,” he says, “But if you can’t communicate it in an understandable way, it’s hard to generate support for it inside the organization.”

This way of thinking is especially true for representing work to potential customers, particularly for those like Jasper who might accompany sales people to make presentations.

“Being able to explain complex technologies and solutions to people without technological backgrounds is critical to doing business,” he explains.

Stressing the importance of those skills is why Jasper is a member of Iowa State University’s Aerospace Industrial Advisory Council for the College of Engineering. He’s seen how industry and education have changed for the better.

Particularly, he appreciates how systems engineering is getting more recognition in the academic setting.

“When I was in college, there wasn’t a good feel for how my work interacted with the other aspects of a design in a project,” he says. “In the design of a complex system, there are often many specialties involved, and they all need to be communicating and understanding how they affect each other and the final product. Engineering education really needs to be stressing that, and they are meeting that challenge.”

Jasper says Iowa State University provides an engineering education that is “top tier,” along with the resources for the additional skills needed to find a satisfying engineering career.

“The rewarding thing about being an engineer is being able to see the direct impact of your work in a good way,” Jasper says. “One of my first projects, and those systems are still out there, was used to more efficiently deliver humanitarian relief like food and medical supplies to where they were most needed. I can look at that and know that my engineering had a positive impact on those less fortunate in the world.”

Kaitlin Bratlie, assistant professor of materials science and engineering and chemical and biological engineering at Iowa State University, is the recipient of a grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust of Muscatine, Iowa.

The Carver Trust has awarded $344,451 to Bratlie for her research of materials that can be used to deliver drugs to fight lymphoma while strengthening the immune system’s response to the cancerous cells.

Bratlie currently has several projects dedicated to reprogramming macrophages, or cells that remove bacteria and debris. With the grant from the Carver Trust, she will focus on amplifying the response of macrophages to chemoimmunotherapy, which is a type of chemotherapy that works with the immune cells to remove cancerous cells.

“Using this approach, the drugs used to treat lymphoma will attach to the malignant cell and signal to macrophages and other white blood cells that the cancerous cells should be phagocytosed, or digested,” she explained. “Our plan is to use polymers to deliver the chemoimmunotherapeutic agent and to alter the type of macrophage so that the cancer is more effectively removed.”

The project will support two graduate and two undergraduate students, as well as materials and supplies. The group will conduct a wide range of experiments to determine how macrophages can be exploited to destroy lymphoma cells, including biochemical assays and cell culture techniques.

“This research has the potential to affect many other areas of biomedical engineering. For instance, many tissue engineering and artificial organ applications face the challenge of delivering oxygen and nutrients, while also removing wastes, to an implanted material. Our approach could offer an improved way to integrate these important elements, allowing for better acceptance of the artificial implant,” Bratlie said.

The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust is one of the largest private philanthropic foundations in Iowa with assets of more than $280 million and annual grant distributions of more than $12 million. It was created through the will of Roy J. Carver, a Muscatine industrialist and philanthropist, who died in 1981. Since it began its grant-making activities in 1987, the Carver Trust has distributed more than $300 million in the form of nearly 2,200 individual grants. The Carver Trust focuses its charitable giving on biomedical and scientific research; primary, secondary and higher education; and youth-related needs.

Growing up in Mumbai, India, Sunil Gaitonde had to choose a career by age 18, and without any engineers in his family, his decision to go into electrical engineering was the first risk of many that paid off in the end.

In 1983, he chose to pursue his master’s at Iowa State after talking with a friend who studied here and enjoyed the university. He adds that the engineering program being among the top 50 in the nation at the time also helped his decision.

Personal computers were just coming out when Gaitonde came to campus, and they instantly drew his attention. With an interest in computer programming, he switched his major from electrical to computer engineering and went on to get his PhD at Iowa State, as well.

After college, Gaitonde worked at IBM for 5 years, all the while thinking about building his own company. He moved to the Silicon Valley and started Internet Junction in 1994. Putting endless hours into his new business and working full-time was stressful, especially when the outcome was so uncertain.

“I could have been on the street if my first business didn’t work out,” says Gaitonde. “I didn’t have any family here to back me up if it didn’t work.”

It turned out to be a good gamble for him, as he sold Internet Junction to Cisco in 1995 and worked with the company until 2000, when he co-founded a second business called Sarvega. Intel acquired Sarvega five years later.

Gaitonde currently runs two of the companies he founded: Great Software Laboratory (GS Lab), which is based in India and the US, and kPoint, which was incubated by GS Lab. kPoint is a platform that helps product companies build customer-centric videos using existing collateral and making them searchable on the Internet without any extra effort.

While kPoint is open to anyone, it is mainly geared at business videos—although it would be an ideal resource for college lectures. “If you miss a class or you have to watch the video for the class, you might want to skip over some parts,” Gaitonde explains. “Our videos allow you to search a word and jump right there and listen to that part.”

Since the company is still in its early years as a startup, Gaitonde says he hasn’t been pedaling it to many colleges yet. He is focused on his businesses now and is excited about the potential.

Gaitonde’s high hopes for kPoint are not hindered by its location in the Midwest because he sees many possibilities for cultivating a business in the area.

Living in California for several years gave him insight into the Silicon Valley, and currently living in Chicago, he now has some experience in what has been called the ‘Silicon Prairie.’

The Midwest has become an ideal place for new businesses, with incubators such as Startup City Des Moines or 1871 in Chicago helping to develop them. While Gaitonde admits the Silicon Valley isn’t in any danger of being taken over by the Midwest right now, he does believe there is potential for the area.

“If you look at the people who start companies in the Silicon Valley, many are from the Midwest,” he says. “The education system here is great, much better than the coast—barring a few exceptions.”

Gaitonde mentioned two things holding back the development of new businesses in the Midwest: capital and willingness to take risks.

“Risk-taking is not at the same level,” he says. “ Some people that go to the coast are able to take risks, but they are not as easily taken here.”

But living in the Midwest didn’t prevent Gaitonde from building a full résumé, and it shouldn’t stop future entrepreneurs. His advice for students: “If you feel you’re an entrepreneur, start early. You can take most risks when you’re young.”

By Paul Fattig
Article originally appeared in the Mail Tribune

When Army medic Harold Hayes climbed aboard the Army transport plane on Nov. 7, 1943, in Sicily, he anticipated landing in nearby Italy some two hours later.

Instead, the four-member crew and its 26 passengers of Army nurses and medics would become lost in a massive storm encircling the heel of Italy, be forced to land near a remote lake in Nazi-held Albania, then dodge enemy troops for more than two harrowing months before being rescued.

“It sure wasn’t something any of us expected,” said Hayes, 91, of Medford. “We thought we would be in Italy for a very short time, then return.”

Hayes is the last surviving member of the 30-member group whose story is told in “The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Nazi Lines.”

The book is a page turner that tells of their narrow escape with the help of American and British intelligence officers.

Hailing from Iowa, draftee Hayes, then 21, was assigned to an Army medical evacuation unit based in Sicily late in 1943. The mission of the group, which included 13 female nurses, was to fly to Italy in a C-53 transport plane to evacuate sick and wounded from Bari.

“It was a version of the Douglas DC-3, which was one of the most used airplanes until the 737 came along,” said Hayes, a retired airplane designer.

“For three days, we had gone to the airfield only to be told all flights were canceled because of the heavy rain,” Hayes continued. “On that day it was clear.

“But before we got to the coast — maybe six miles or so — I saw a small cumulus cloud,” he added. “The farther we went the more clouds we ran into.”

When the pilot took the aircraft above the clouds, the wings began icing up. But when they found a break in the weather, a German fighter plane chased the defenseless plane back into the clouds.

After playing cat and mouse with the enemy fighters, the crew became lost. Unbeknownst to them, they had crossed the Adriatic Sea into enemy territory.

With the plane low on fuel, the pilot decided to land on the edge of a small lake.

“The pilot made a skillful landing,” Hayes recalled. “But it came to an abrupt stop when the wheels bogged down in the mud. It turned up on its nose and fell back again.”

The crew chief, who was not wearing a seat belt, was the only one seriously injured but would survive.

Not only were they in enemy territory but the region was also being torn apart by a civil war led by a communist faction.

“We were caught in the middle of all of that,” he said.

They were met by a small group of partisans who offered their help. A man who could speak rudimentary English told them there were German troops about four hours away.

The partisan leader took them to a village two hours farther away from the enemy troops.

The next day the crew, including Hayes, returned to the plane to salvage what gear they could and burned the plane.

Meanwhile, his parents back in Indianola, Iowa received a Nov. 26 telegram from the War Department that no parent ever wants to read during a time of war:

“REGRET TO INFORM YOU REPORT RECEIVED STATES YOUR SON TECHNICIAN THIRD GRADE HAROLD L. HAYES MISSING IN THE NORTH AFRICAN AREA SINCE 8 NOV,” it stated, noting the family would be contacted when more information was available.

Because enemy troops occupied the larger towns and periodically ventured into remote villages, the group stayed away from well-traveled routes, traveling largely by night.

Several times the Nazi troops would arrive in a village shortly after Hayes and his group had left, he said.

“Food was in very short supply at the villages,” he said. “We frequently went a day without food and even then the food we got was a little cube of corn bread.

“It was the gosh-awfulest corn bread you could imagine,” he added. “All it was some course ground corn meal mixed up in a slurry of water and baked with no seasoning.”
But they were thankful to get anything to eat. His Christmas dinner that year was a watery soup of boiled sheep intestines.

An Army intelligence estimate indicated that during their journey they had covered at least 342 miles, Hayes said, although adding steepness of the terrain added many more miles.

“Some days we walked 24 hours without stopping,” he said. “We were on the move for almost 40 (continuous) hours with no sleep at the end.”

They would make their way to the coast, where they met up with a British boat at midnight — 63 days after they had landed in Albania.

“One person told me it was one of those experiences you wouldn’t take a million dollars for but you wouldn’t do it again for another million,” Hayes said, adding that he concurred.

He would later go to officer’s candidate school and complete his hitch in the Army as a second lieutenant.

Following the war, Hayes attended what is now Iowa State University on the GI Bill, earning a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering. He and Betty, his wife of nearly 69 years, have two grown daughters.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at pfattig@mailtribune.com.

Austin Laugen

Guest post by Austin Laugen, graduating senior in computer engineering

My time at Iowa State is coming to a close, and I’ll soon be walking across the stage at graduation and entering the “real world.” There will be no more homework, no more icy walks to class, and no more late night meetings (or at least I hope not). While I’m excited for these few things, I’m going to miss my adventure as an Iowa State engineering student.

Over my four years, I’ve had numerous opportunities to grow. My time in the classroom has prepared me for work, providing the technical skills as well as the knowledge needed for a career in engineering. My experience in student organizations has helped me develop the soft skills I need not just for work, but for starting a family as well. I’m leaving soon, but I feel prepared for whatever the next step may bring.

Iowa State is blessed with a lot of amazing people, and I’m happy to have developed many lifelong friendships. From trying to start a business to volunteering in another country, we all have different adventures. However, we all share our time at Iowa State along with many great stories that will keep us together no matter where we go next.

Even though I’m no longer going to be a student, Iowa State has become part of my life. Becoming an alumnus provides different opportunities to be involved, but it doesn’t mean my time as a Cyclone has to end.

About the author: Laugen is from Davenport, Iowa. He was recently named Wallace E. Barron scholar, one of the most prestigious honors a graduating senior can obtain at Iowa State University. Laugen served on the 2012 Executive Board of the Engineering Student Council and participated in several other student activities while at Iowa State. He will be working for John Deere in the Quad Cities after graduation.

Eric Johnson, junior in mechanical engineering, works on his group’s project for the ME Design Expo in ME 270.

The goal of engineering is to improve lives by solving the world’s problems, and Iowa State’s College of Engineering believes it’s never too early to start thinking globally.

Several courses in the college require students to identify and find solutions to major issues in poverty-stricken countries. Students use the semester to research, plan, design, and even produce prototypes of their products.

Kate Kennedy, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, is part of a group in ME 270 working to prevent soil erosion in Tanzania. Her group—which includes TC Ringgenberg, Emily Whitemarsh, Max Bramer, and Eric Johnson—began talking with people who had visited Tanzania to gain more information on the country.

The group noticed that the majority of Tanzanians are subsistence farmers, so the team chose to target farming for their project. First looking into building a hand planter, the group found several on the market and realized that wasn’t the best direction to take. Erin MacDonald, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, encouraged the students to “dig deeper and find the real problem.”

That problem turned out to be soil erosion. Farmers in the country often clear off roots that hold down the soil, which also washes away the topsoil, taking important nutrients with it.

“In Tanzania, people live off what they grow,” says Kennedy, “so if their soil gets depleted, it’s a huge problem for them.”

Kennedy described her group’s project as a harvester that would be pushed around fields to spread mulch while leaving roots in the ground to compress the topsoil and contain its nutrients. “Ideally, the device would move through fields and cut and harvest the crop as well,” she says.

Due to time, budget, and size constraints, the group is only sampling the mulching part of its machine. And while the students wanted to do more with the project, Kennedy said a restricted budget provided a more realistic experience.

Even with only a few semesters under their belts, these projects help students gain an understanding of working with global customers, focusing on real-world problems, and creating new designs on a budget.

And while this and other courses across engineering aren’t necessarily developed for selling, they are always designed with actual uses in mind. “The different technologies we are developing have the potential to get marketed because there are some good ideas,” says Kennedy.

“It’s important that we are confronted with problems in developing nations at some point in our college career. It’s a good thing for young engineers to consider.”

Greetings from the new dean in the Iowa State College of Engineering! My name is Sarah Rajala, and I officially began my duties on April 1. I am so excited to be here on campus. I consider it an honor to lead such an internationally recognized engineering college, and I plan to build on the tremendous success that has been established here through generations of excellent students, faculty, and staff. Engineering is my passion, and I’ve come to a great place to call home.

From Bulldog Country to Cyclone Nation

I arrived in Ames via Mississippi State University where I was dean at the Bagley College of Engineering, and prior to that, served as head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. My administrative experience also includes time at North Carolina State where I was associate dean of academic affairs and associate dean of research and graduate programs. You may be wondering if I will enjoy living in the Midwest, but this is nothing new for me. I grew up and attended college in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and also did a sabbatical in Indiana, so I am used to all the elements that Mother Nature can bring!

My husband Jim Aanstoos and I have bought a house and are getting settled. Jim is finishing up work in Mississippi, but is looking forward to joining me in Ames in June. We have two grown daughters–Kristen, who lives wherever the US State Department sends her (soon to be Doha, Qatar), and Stephanie, who lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

I am quickly learning the Iowa State culture and am looking forward to Veishea and walking in the parade. I am a big basketball fan and got to experience a little Hilton Magic this season, and I can’t wait for the football season to start. I’m also spending time getting to know Ames and plan to explore all that this community has to offer.

I would like to thank Mufit Akinc for his time as interim dean the past eight months. He did an amazing job of fulfilling duties of this office and has helped so much with my transition. I hope you will thank him for his service if you have the chance.

Vision for the college

My vision for the college is to continue our proud land-grant heritage and build our leadership position in academics, research, and engagement. I want us to be recognized nationally and internationally for creativity and innovation, as well as for educating future leaders. I have a strong passion for fostering a culture of diversity and inclusiveness, and would like to expand these opportunities here. I am also committed to collaborating with all corners of the university, the private sector, and industry. I believe there are many people who have a stake in the success of our college, and I will work to make sure all voices are heard and good ideas rise to the top.

In my first 90 days, I plan to spend time getting to know my Iowa State family; identifying the college’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and issues; setting priorities and identifying metrics to measure success and impact; and by all means, continuing successful ongoing efforts. I will be open and communicate often–and I invite comments, questions, and suggestions.

I am fortunate to be entrusted with such a respected leadership position at an outstanding university like Iowa State. I look forward to being here a long time and getting to know each of you in the process. Go Cyclones!

Carrie Gofron

As one of very few women in her class, Carrie Gofron didn’t feel any barriers as a female in engineering when she was in college. On her way to becoming a leader within a high-tech company, she discovered that while some people do treat her differently for it, mostly she’s found friends and colleagues who recognize all she has to offer.

“Succeeding as a female in the engineering field is tough,” says Gofron, a 2001 Iowa State alumna and vice president of business development at Metova, Inc., a custom mobile application development firm.

Because engineering is a male-dominated industry, Gofron says being a female—and being respected for it—gives her a sense of pride she might not be able to experience in other industries. “I’m proud of making it and showing that it can be done.”

Her success stems from her degree in computer engineering and is reflected in her experiences working with some big names and projects in the industry.

After an internship with Motorola, Gofron continued to work there for six years after graduation. She helped develop the BMW Roadside Assist system and the first Motorola smartphone, the Windows 5.

Gofron had a couple other short-term jobs until 2009 when the recession hit and she took a few months off from job searching. “I didn’t find anything amazing, so I quit looking for a while,” she says. Eight months later, she took a job with Metova as director of professional services.

Metova, Inc., created in 2006, develops custom mobile applications for smartphones and tablets, working with clients such as WebMD, the Associated Press, and Dropbox. The company also provides information technology services to government entities.

Now as vice president of business development, Gofron handles all the sales and consulting aspects of Metova, meeting with clients and traveling to conferences and conventions as the face of the company.

She has occasionally come across clients or coworkers who seem surprised to see her in such a high-level position, but says she sees it less and less.

Despite the occasional challenges of dealing with individuals who would rather work with male leaders, Gofron loves her job and computer engineering. “There’s always some new gadget or an exciting new technology to look into,” she says. “It’s constantly changing and getting better. I love that.”

The fast pace of the industry was one reason Gofron chose a career in engineering. “The innovations developed by engineers will never go away, and there is always a new way to approach a problem or improvements that can be made on existing technology,” she says.

In such a rigorous field, she says you have to work hard, but it pays off in the end. It’s an approach she began as a student at Iowa State.

Becoming close friends with her classmates was one of the best parts of her college experience, she says. “When you’re in the same labs and you’ve got 5-credit courses you’re trying to get through, you become a tight group.”

She adds that she learned how to problem-solve and apply thought processes, not just to her work but to her personal life, as well.

Gofron also appreciated the dedication of her professors. “Professor Black was awesome,” she remembers. “He really took the time to make sure people learned and passed his class.”

The only thing she wishes she had more experience in at the college level was business. Her technical communication classes were helpful, but she says learning about the operation of a business would also be beneficial for students preparing to enter industry.

Gofron adds that she is happy to answer any questions or even mentor current students. “I didn’t think about a mentorship when I was that age,” she says, “but I think if it was offered to me directly I would have taken advantage of it because getting advice like that is so helpful.”

She also says she surrounds herself with smart, more experienced people “because it makes me better.”

If one thing is for sure, Gofron’s leadership experience in college and success in industry prove that a dedication to learning and growing goes far even after graduation.

The importance of internships and fieldwork is heavily stressed at Iowa State. Some students use them as a means of networking to get their name out in the industry while others simply find one to fill a requirement. Matt Ralston, a 2000 construction engineering alumnus, turned his internship into a successful career.

Matt Ralston

A native of the Kansas City, Missouri, area, Ralston had his first internship in 1997 within the Construction/Design-Build division of Burns & McDonnell—one of Kansas City’s “Big 3” engineering consulting firms and a Fortune 100 Best Company to Work For.

After taking a year off to go to Nashville with his band, Ralston came back to Iowa State and received a second internship with Burns & McDonnell, where he received and accepted a full-time position before the start of his senior year.

Starting out in civil engineering, Ralston switched programs his sophomore year. “The opportunity to focus more on the physical applications that the construction side of the business offered piqued my interest and was solidified after I got my first internship,” he says.

In January of this year and only 13 years into his career, Ralston was named vice president at Burns & McDonnell. He is also the director of the company’s procurement group.

The first seven years of his employment were spent working on construction sites for projects like multiple combined cycle power plants in Michigan and Indiana, the F35 Joint Strike Fighter Program for Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Sinclair oil refinery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Ralston was then promoted to assistant manager of construction field operations. He retained this position for six years, during which time he oversaw the company’s site construction staff.

Ralston uses the lessons he learned at Iowa State every day at work. “The engineering program solidified working in a group, working in a team, and seeing the whole construction process all the way through,” he says.

While he misses working directly with projects onsite, Ralston enjoys observing different aspects of the company as the vice president. “There’s a lot to be said for the rewarding fulfillment that you get with the project cycle,” he says, “but it’s also been rewarding to get people in the right places to succeed and to help the company grow.”

Working for Burns & McDonnell has been a satisfying career choice for Ralston, as he has been able to see his own hard work pay off and build relationships with other people in industry.

“The better the company is, the better the people they have across the board,” he says. “So just the opportunity to work for a design and construction firm where we have integrated design and build capabilities has kept it fresh and fun to come to work every day.”

The transition from the engineering to the managerial side of business has taken some getting used to, but Ralston says his education from Iowa State prepared him for both aspects.

The university offered him a diverse set of skills ranging from time management to public speaking, which Ralston believes are very important in his line of work, even though most people think of engineering as a trade with strictly technical skills.

He also believes the reputation and high standard of Iowa State benefitted him. “Without a doubt, I think the curriculum and having top notch professors, challenging work, and a well-rounded program gives you a better skill set,” he says.

To keep up the high standard set by the College of Engineering and to stay involved with Iowa State, Ralston is on the Curriculum Committee of the Construction Engineering Advisory Council that meets twice a year.

With excellent classes, memorable professors, and lasting friendships, Ralston says he wouldn’t trade his time at Iowa State for anything.

His love for the university has even carried over to his two kids, Elizabeth, 8, and Trey, 4. While they may not be thinking of college yet, he makes sure they are loyal fans by giving them enough Iowa State gear that they definitely know who the Cyclones are.

Ralston wouldn’t mind seeing them follow his path to engineering—especially if it led them to Iowa State.

“Engineering is a degree and a career path that will be forever in demand, because the world will always need engineers to solve the technical problems in every industry.”

But no matter what his kids decide to do, he’s excited to see what the future has in store for them, even if it’s not engineering. “Whatever they do I’ll definitely support them.”

Iowa State University’s College of Engineering has established the Greenwood
Department Chair in Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. This prestigious
position will further enhance the college’s reputation as an academic leader in educating
future engineers. This gift was made possible by Donald and Sharon Greenwood who elevated
previous donations to the $2 million level required to fund an endowed department chair.

Endowed leadership positions are used to leverage human and financial resources to intensify
the impact of their unit and programs. The earnings may be used on a variety of projects,
programs and emerging priorities. The inaugural appointment of the Greenwood Department
Chair will occur after fiscal year 2015. This will be the third named endowed department chair
in the College of Engineering.

“We wish to promote the excellence of the civil, construction and environmental engineering
department, and creating this opportunity is a way to call attention and focus to a world-class
program,” said Don Greenwood, president of the construction division of Burns & McDonnell
– an international engineering, architecture and consulting firm based in Kansas City, Mo. “I’ve
had a rewarding career in engineering and construction, and we hope this gift will help others
succeed in the same manner.”

Don Greenwood, a native of Cedar Rapids, is a 1976 civil engineering graduate of Iowa State
and an ISU Foundation governor. In 2003 he received the professional achievement citation
in engineering from the College of Engineering. Sharon Greenwood, also from Cedar Rapids,
graduated in 1975 from Iowa State with a major in family environment. She works in inside
sales at Midtec Associates in Lenexa, Kansas.

“The Greenwood Department Chair provides a great opportunity to recruit and retain future
generations of engineering leadership at Iowa State,” said Mufit Akinc, interim dean and
James and Katherine Melsa Professor in Engineering. “We are very grateful to the Greenwoods
for their long-term commitment to the civil, construction and environmental engineering
department.”

On July 30 of last year, I was named interim dean of the College of Engineering. It was a time of leadership transition, and I was honored to serve in this capacity. Jonathan Wickert left the college in great shape when he became senior vice president and provost of the university. The last eight months have been an experience I will never forget. We were able to build on the many successes that preceded me, and I look forward to helping our new dean – Sarah Rajala – continue moving our college forward.

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my time in the dean’s office and also thank everyone for helping to achieve a smooth transition. It was truly a team effort, and I enjoyed working with so many talented people. Since my arrival at Iowa State as an assistant professor in 1981, I have witnessed first hand the outstanding growth in strength and reputation of the College of Engineering. With Dean Rajala’s arrival on April 1, I believe we have firmly planted our footprint on the world for many more years to come.

In the past 30+ years, I have watched the college grow to a record enrollment of about 7,500 talented students and some 230 dedicated faculty members with outstanding academic and research credentials. Our strength in alumni involvement and generous donors provides a strong foundation to our rich tradition of service to the community – locally and globally – and our dedication to educating tomorrow’s engineers.

Serving as interim dean gave me the opportunity to see things a bit differently. Some of my favorite observations include….

• Witnessing our own solar car team capture second place in a national race, finishing only behind the University of Michigan which had a 10-fold budget and mentoring from the big three auto-makers.
• Reading promotion dossiers and award nomination packages gave me a sense of appreciation for the exceptional dedication and hard work our faculty and staff performs every day.
• The talent, dedication, and collaborative team spirit we have in the college’s administration office. The staff is a truly outstanding group of people that I will eternally be grateful to for their cooperation, assistance, and yes, their guidance. I am very proud and honored to be part of this group.
• Probably the greatest experience in this short-term assignment has been the opportunity to reconnect with good alumni friends and meet new ones around the country. The most astonishing aspect of my interactions was that as successful and prominent as these donors are in their respective professions – they are also humble, down-to-earth, friendly, and most of all, committed to the future of our college and university. I was a bit hesitant calling these very busy people, and I would start my conversation saying, “Is this this a good time to chat?” Nobody turned my down – in fact, one person responded, “When the topic is ISU and the engineering college, it is always a good time.” That was such a nice gesture, and it made me feel so proud to be an alum myself. In another visit, we talked about new faculty hires and start-up packages. The alumus friend started talking like “let us see how we can meet this need, let us figure out a plan,” clearly owning the challenges as a collective responsibility. Through these visits and conversations, I believe I made a few more life-long friends.

Next on my to-do list: I will be helping Dean Rajala move into her new role and assisting as we shift duties. I also look forward to returning to my research and working with my graduate students who deserve more attention than they got last year, teaching, and overseeing the international programs. The ISU College of Engineering is a great place to be – and the future is nothing but bright! Thank you again for all of the support you have given to me.

Mufit 

Through research on drug delivery systems, Kaitlin Bratlie, assistant professor of materials science and engineering and chemical and biological engineering at Iowa State, is working on a way to treat cancers that don’t respond well to current treatments.

Her project has been underway for just a year and is several years away from clinical trials, but she says it’s the potential that keeps her motivated.

“These developments could actually turn around the prognosis of some cancer patients,” she explains.

Bratlie’s project is targeting tumor-associated macrophages, which are cells found in certain cancers and enhance the progression of tumors by creating blood vessels. She is looking to reprogram these macrophages to act instead like pro-inflammatory macrophages that prevent cancerous cells from becoming tumors.

Assisted by a team of four graduate and seven undergraduate students, she is currently developing a delivery vehicle for the drugs used to treat patients. Bratlie says other researchers have explored biodegradable polymers, but her research uses a polymer to encapsulate the medicine.

Through a grant from the National Science Foundation, Bratlie’s team is looking at a variety of chemical characteristic groups to determine their reactions with the polymer that would be used in delivering cancer-fighting medication. They want to uncover a functional group that will alter macrophage secretion profiles into pro-inflammatory macrophages

Once they have the correct functional group, the researchers plan to chemically modify a hydrogel that can encapsulate a drug within the polymer. The drug will be tested in animals, and they will look for apoptosis, or cell death, to ensure the treatment kills the cancerous cells.

Like most new developments in the world of science, Bratlie’s work with drug delivery mechanisms stems from a gap in knowledge. In this case, the gap pertains to cell responses to biomaterials. Her knowledge relating to drug release came from her post-doctoral work, which, in part, involved using biodegradable polymers to do a controlled release of corticosteroids to reduce the foreign body response to transplanted artificial organs.

“I identified a gap in the literature, and then happened to be using the drug delivery devices themselves to reprogram these macrophages,” says Bratlie. “And that’s why we’re going down this road.”

Bratlie says success with this project could offer cancer patients being treated unsuccessfully with current drug therapies a different outcome. “It would change people who have poor prognoses to actually being cured of cancer,” she adds.

For Mike Conzett, promoting engineering licensure is an incredibly important means of guaranteeing a standard of professionalism in the field.

Conzett, an Iowa State University civil engineering alumnus, has been a licensed professional engineer since 1982. “It’s taking your work and standing behind it,” he says.

Mike Conzett

And he’s made it a personal and professional goal to encourage others to become licensed as well.

Recently commissioned as the National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES) Central Zone vice president, Conzett serves on the NCEES board of director’s and is the zone’s administrative officer through 2014.

He hopes it will ultimately lead to a position as president-elect and president of NCEES.

“As I wrap up my career, that would be a nice opportunity, to serve NCEES and promote licensure at the national level,” he says.

Additionally, he is in his eleventh year serving on the Nebraska Board of Engineers and Architects and has served as a former board chair. He has also served on a number of NCEES committees, including chairing the Engineering Education Task Force.

“I’ve been involved to this degree because now more than ever, it’s important to be able to demonstrate the highest degree of professionalism you can,” explains Conzett. “In civil engineering, about 80 percent of engineers become licensed. Because so many civil engineers work on projects that directly affect the public’s welfare and safety, it’s critical to have this measurable standard you can point to. I think that should be true of all engineering disciplines.”

Conzett completed a bachelor’s degree at Iowa State in 1976 in civil engineering, a discipline he was drawn to by way of his interest in the environment.

“When I graduated from high school in 1972, there was a huge environmental awareness nationally, and a lot of federal money being pumped into new programs. The EPA was just starting,” says Conzett. “I loved math and science, and I loved and was concerned about the environment. I looked around at all the social unrest, the tree-huggers, and thought that I could choose to be a part of that, or part of a real solution. It was very clear to me that civil engineering was my path.”

Through the urging of his academic mentor Bob Baumann (distinguished professor emeritus of CCEE), he completed his master’s program in civil engineering at Iowa State in 1978.

His graduate research work was funded in part by Procter & Gamble, and this led to a first job with the personal care and cleaning products giant in Cincinnati, Ohio.

He was with P&G for six years, and then moved to HDR in Omaha in 1984 to remain close to the environmental engineering work he was passionate about. Conzett is now a vice president and senior project manager for the engineering consulting firm, where he has spent a majority of his career studying soil and ground water contamination and designing remediation systems.

With such a positive experience in graduate school and a fulfilling career, Conzett says he wanted to help others reach their potential as well. That’s why he has donated his P&G stock to Iowa State.

“It’s my legacy for the research funding I received in graduate school,” he adds. “With all the capital gains and growth that stock has seen, it’s a way to give back to Iowa State in a way I couldn’t have done otherwise, and I think that’s pretty cool, for it to return full circle like that.”

A Dubuque, Iowa, native, Conzett has remained loyal to Iowa State both as an alumnus and as a parent of three Iowa State graduates (Chris Conzett ’07, Andrew Conzett ’10, and Margaret Conzett ’12.)

“My wife Valerie ‘adopted’ Iowa State, and we sent our kids there. We love being on campus when we can,” he says.

Conzett also gives back to Iowa State through his service as a member of the College of Engineering Industrial Advisory Council, to which he has belonged for five years.

Through his work on the council, he communicates to academia how the engineering field is changing and how Iowa State students can be better prepared.

“The profession has become more and more influenced by public opinion and awareness, and also by public demand. It’s more important than ever before that engineers be educated about the political process, law, and public policy,” Conzett explains. “It’s also important for engineers to have communication, risk analysis, and business skills. We’ve gone from being a profession of analytical worker bees to being people who must be leaders in the public square.”

A project that started out as a side experiment to monitor bridge damages has since evolved into a revolutionary, cost-saving solution in the world of wind energy.

Simon Laflamme, assistant professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering at Iowa State, began developing a damage-detecting polymer “skin” as a student at MIT.

The skin, which is made into about 3-inch square pieces, consists of an inexpensive polymer material sandwiched between a painted polymer mixed with carbon black to make it conductive, which allows it to send signals to computers monitoring for any distortions.

Once the skin is applied to a surface, it acts as a sensor that detects small cracks as it stretches. Its capacitance, or stored electrical charge, is measured as it changes.

Originally planning to use the skin for bridges because of his background in civil engineering, Laflamme traded bridges for wind turbines when he was hired by Iowa State in 2011.

He says this shift was partly due to a lack of long-term data on the potential return on investment from monitoring the solutions when applied to bridges. With wind energy, however, researchers can determine how much money a sensing skin could save over the next 20 years.

And, he adds, the research is promising. “With wind turbines as a good application for our technology, we started some more in-depth research on the skin to find out how it behaves, its applications, and optimization,” he says. “The idea was developed before I joined Iowa State, but now our understanding and research is really taking off with the wind industry.”

Because of the damage that occurs after years of fatigue from the load of the wind, turbine blades could greatly benefit from Laflamme’s sensing skin. The blades are hollow and composed of many sheets of materials glued together that can peel and crack over time—that’s where the sensing skin comes into play.

Like biological skin, the polymer material acts like a nervous system, sensing cracks in specific areas of the turbine blade like nerves would find a cut on a finger. Once damage is detected in real time, engineers can determine whether it needs to be fixed immediately or at all, which costs less than replacing a whole blade when it is beyond repair.

After the skin is applied and damage can be detected as it occurs, a pattern can be made to assess deterioration throughout the lifetime of a turbine. “The hope is to be able to do what we call a condition assessment—to be able to predict the future of the blade,” Laflamme says. “This way, engineers could look at how the blade behaves in the past to be able to predict the probabilities of failure and damage and to optimize maintenance operation on the blade.”

Laflamme identified maintenance as a big cost issue of wind turbines. His goal is to save money in the industry by improving the maintenance schedule, which would extend the life of a typical turbine beyond the average 20 years. He says this would, in effect, reduce the cost of wind energy production.

Applying his research to turbines has allowed Laflamme to span multiple fields of engineering. The skin itself is produced in collaboration with the materials science and engineering department, but it also has ties with electrical and computer engineering for designing cost-effective data acquisition systems, and various efforts have been undertaken with aerospace engineering, the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation, and the Bridge Engineering Center at InTrans.

Laflamme says the fact that this research has a multi-disciplinary approach is a great added benefit. “This is the future of engineering—especially civil engineering—to get all fields together and create solutions for our problems,” he adds.

People around the world, especially Americans in the Midwest, should be familiar with the term ethanol. Record volumes of this biofuel are being produced in the United States, to the sum of 13.9 billion gallons in 2011. As the country continues to diversify its energy portfolio, ethanol bio refineries will play a vital role in supplying this homegrown transportation fuel to consumers.

Technological advancements continue benefit consumers by improving efficiency and creating new products. Learning from the petroleum industry’s illustrious history of crude oil refining, the ethanol industry is making great strides to get more out of its feedstock, corn.

Enter MycoMeal, an ethanol co-product that has the potential of adding substantial value to the ethanol industry. The MycoMeal production process adds value by producing a nutrient-rich animal feed supplement from a low value by-product, thin stillage. The fungal product is high in nutrients including protein, lysine and methionine, making it advantageous for swine and poultry nutrition.

In addition to creating a feed product, the MycoMeal process treats residual water from ethanol fermentation and can reduce energy inputs associated with wastewater treatment to allow ethanol facilities to reuse more water.

As the process continues towards industrialization, new ways to utilize the fungal product are being developed. In particular, research to extract chitin from the fungal product is promising. Chitin can become an additional co-product with a large existing market. Additionally, development of a human food supplement is a goal of researchers.

Research and development of the MycoMeal process is vital to the ethanol industry. It provides a viable co-product that not only creates additional revenue for ethanol producers, it offsets many aspects of the ethanol production process targeted by opponents, turning negatives into positives.

An Iowa State Student since 2006, Chris Koza received a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering and received his master’s degree in December.  As a graduate research assistant, he spent two years working on the MycoMeal project.

Iowa State engineering alumnus Bob Walkup will tell you, more than once, what he thinks about engineering and engineers.

“Engineers can do anything. It’s that simple,” he says. “That was my father’s motto, and it became mine. I truly believe it.”

Walkup’s father, Joseph Walkup, was the general engineering department head at Iowa State University from 1942 to 1973, and the person for whom the Joseph Walkup Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering is named.

“His tenure was my entire childhood; he was a young man when he was appointed, and I remember visiting his office on campus as a small boy,” says Walkup.

The Walkup family’s confidence in engineering at Iowa State continues from Joseph’s example. Walkup himself graduated from the university’s industrial engineering program in 1960. His daughter Holly graduated with a degree in industrial engineering in 1983, and his granddaughter Emily is a freshman in engineering this year.

“Iowa State sold itself. It’s where my granddaughter wanted to go, and we’re so very pleased and proud,” says Walkup. “It’s interesting to me that the number of engineering students now is about the total student population of Iowa State when I attended. That’s an amazing amount of growth.”

Bob Walkup

Walkup credits his father Joseph not only for his confidence that “engineers can do anything,” but also for the discipline and organization it took for him to make it academically.

“When I was in high school, I was a bit of a jock. I was good in football, basketball, and track, and I didn’t think anyone cared about anything else. Boy was I wrong, and my father let me know in no uncertain terms,” says Walkup.

Joseph was so serious about improving his son’s academics that Bob didn’t participate in sports his senior year. It meant giving up basketball the year Ames High School won the state championship (1955).

“It wasn’t as severe as it sounds,” Walkup says. “My family had set these objectives for me, and it was my responsibility to perform. We were all raised that way back then. There was no question that I would follow my parents’ wishes.”

He enrolled in engineering at Iowa State in 1955. Just as in high school, study remained his primary objective.
“I studied. I don’t think I even dated. I never went downtown for a beer. I was either at home or at the library,” he remembers.

He said his father found him “relevant work” when he wasn’t in school, but it was also clear that it was meant to reinforce interest in finishing college.

“I worked one summer as a gandy dancer (track maintenance worker) on the Rock Island Railroad. It was hard, hot, tough work,” Walkup reflects. “I came home at the end of the season and told my father, ‘I don’t think I ever want to do that again,’ and his response was, ‘well then, you had better get to work’.”

He returned to classes with more determination than ever, and it’s something he has never regretted.

“I made only one mistake about engineering, and it was something I said when I was still a student,” Walkup says. “I remember telling someone how anxious and impatient I was about graduating and getting out into the working world because all of the really important inventions had already been discovered.”

As he talks about his 35-year career in the aerospace industry, working as an engineer and as an executive for Rockwell International, Fairchild Republic, and Hughes Aircraft Company, it was obvious he needn’t have worried about a shortage of problems to solve.

He says his career is an example of the resiliency of industrial engineering.

“I had the President of Fairchild Republic ask if I would like to come out and run its factory. He asked ‘do you know you how to build airplanes?’” Walkup remembers.  He didn’t. “But I never said I don’t think I can do that job. I always said, ‘I’m going to have to learn some new things fast.’”

In the early 1970s, Walkup worked as an engineer at the at the U.S. satellite tracking station at Pine Gap in central Australia. “It was historic, really, the work we did there. It was instrumental to our government during the Cold War and the SALT II treaty negotiations,” Walkup says.

Engineering also kept him in the know when he served for three-terms as the mayor of Tuscon, Ariz. With the city’s major economic development programs, including a $200 million project for modern streetcars, his engineering skills gave him the background necessary to make important decisions.

“It really came to bear in the first time the city was involved in the design of a fairly sophisticated transportation project. It’s not something a city of any size gets to do every day,” says Walkup. “But they had a mayor who understood the project from an engineering standpoint. I found myself sitting in the boardroom of Rockwell International, discussing its contract for the propulsion system. A mayor with no engineering background would not have been able to carry that conversation.”

Most recently, the government of South Korea has just appointed Walkup “Korean Honorary Consul” serving the state of Arizona’s Korean population as well as Korean interests in the emerging trade, commerce, energy and cultural opportunities in the state.

“What I found throughout my career is that engineering, all of its disciplines, remains a vibrant, fascinating field. I learned something new and exciting every day.”

Walkup says the field has grown and changed since his father’s time, but his belief in the strength of engineering remains unchanged.

“I believe everyone should be an engineer,” he adds. “It’s an inspirational career, and it allows you to go through life discovering things and solving problems. It applies to almost every discipline, every walk of life. It’s essential to society.”

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) section at Iowa State was recently awarded a grant through the Procter & Gamble Fund Higher Education Grant Program. The grant, in the amount of $10,000, will help the section fund its regular activities as well as a variety of new ideas.

The Procter & Gamble Fund Higher Education Grant Program aims to help better prepare college students for success. Each year a selection committee reviews grant applications and awards grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 based on project scope of each university student organization that applies. The specific intent of these grants is to sponsor organizations that promote diversity, innovation, creativity, and leadership; all things the ISU SWE chapter has consistently emphasized.

SWE is an organization for women in the engineering field, and aims to create a supportive environment in order to increase retention. The ISU section strives to get women in engineering involved early in their college career so that they are able to build strong connections among their peers. The section is primarily composed of women, however a few male engineers are also contributing members.

After learning about the Proctor & Gamble Fund Higher Education Grant Program through the ISU Foundation, SWE officers and advisers quickly got involved in the application process. Amy Carver, section adviser and graduate programs assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, assisted the section with the application process.

“The ISU Foundation brought the grant to our attention and we were able to provide the key components needed to complete it concerning the Society of Women Engineers activities,” Carver explains. “They were great in assisting us every step of the way and we were pleased with the outcome.”

In later November, the ISU section of SWE was notified that their hard work had paid off, as the section had been selected to receive a $10,000 grant through the education fund. The grant check, which will arrive early next semester, will give the section the opportunity to implement new ideas throughout the 2013 school year.

Kelsey Bruning, SWE President and senior in civil engineering, says section officers have big plans for the grant. “We plan to use the grant for a variety of things,” explains Bruning. “It will help us to fund members who will attend the annual SWE conference next fall, aid in creating a career fair planning guide, provide a scholarship to allow one freshman members to attend the annual conference, support the section in hosting a spring officer retreat to help with team building, pay for the cost of sending out a new student welcome packet to incoming students in engineering, and more.”

Section members are especially excited to mail welcome packet to incoming students containing information regarding education, SWE, and Iowa State. While SWE has created the packets for students in the past, the section has not had the funding to mail them.

“Last year we handed out the packets at orientation, which isn’t as effective because students are getting overwhelmed with packets of information at that time,” says Bruning.

Planning is also underway for a spring officer retreat, a necessary tool for growing member relationships and aiding in club communication. The section’s 32 officers will be participating in a high ropes course; something that Bruning feels will challenge members while also creating connections with the organization.

In addition to earning this substantial grant and launching new ideas, 20 section members also attended WE 12, the Annual Conference for Women Engineers Nov. 8 – 11 in Houston, Texas. There, the chapter was recognized as an outstanding collegiate section at the silver level, the second highest level of distinction.

The conference provided members with the chance to participate in valuable professional development sessions, network with professionals, and attend a career fair; all things they are excited to participate in again next fall with help from grant funding.

As a very eventful year comes to a close for the ISU SWE section, members are looking forward to the coming academic year and the opportunities to implement innovative ideas and further promote the success and retention of women in engineering.

This fall, five Iowa State students were awarded research funding through the Iowa Space Grant Consortium program, a fellowship distributed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Students receiving the fellowship include undergraduate students Benjamin Huseman, Christian Setzer, and Rebecca Meerdink, and graduate students J. Eliseo De León and Mitchell Rock.

The NASA Fellowship is designed to support student education and engagement in NASA relevant research at Iowa State, the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, and Drake University. Funding is providing from NASA’s Education Program. Graduate students receive $7,000 toward their proposed area of research, and undergraduates receive the same amount in the form of a scholarship.

Benjamin Huseman, senior in mechanical engineering, will be working with associate professor in food science and human nutrition on two projects. One of the projects is funded through the NASA fellowship and is entitled Developing a Novel Algal Culture as a Live Support System under Microgravity Conditions.

“The project uses photobioreactor research that simulates microgravity conditions,” explains Huseman. “We will then monitor the CO2 inlet and outlet, while adjusting different parameters. Microalgae can actually be more effective than land plants at consuming CO2 and releasing O2. The idea is that hopefully algae can be used as a sustainable life support system for long-term space exploration.”

For Christian Setzer, senior in aerospace engineering, this fellowship is familiar, as he received funding through the same source just last year. This year, Setzer will be working with Bong Wie, professor of aerospace engineering, and aerospace engineering graduate student Brian Kaplinger.

Setzer will conduct research for the Asteroid Deflection Research Center (ADRC) this fall. The research will be in support of the Iowa Space Grant Consortium base research program established there. “The topic I will be researching is high-fidelity 3D modeling of fragmentation and dispersion of near-earth objects, or NEO’s,” says Setzer. “I will be learning from Brian Kaplinger in order to continue his research once he graduates.”

Rebecca Meerdink is a senior in environmental science, and will be working with associate professor of agriculture and biostystems engineering, Amy Kaleita. Meerdink will be assisting a post-doctoral student in Kaleita’s lab on a project developing a method to determine the amount of nitrate in a farmer’s field.

“Ions resonate within the soil and soil water in response to specific electrical frequencies. Through the processing of many samples, we can pinpoint different nutrients in the soil that are important to agriculture,” she says. “Our goal is to find the frequencypoint at which nitrateogen resonates within the soil.”

Because nitrate molecules travel easily through the soil, the nutrient can be readily transported into streams, negatively affecting the water quality. In addition, the overapplication of nitrates fertilizer on fields can be costly to farmers.

“The goal of this project would be to have on-site, real-time, soil moisture and nitrate sensing,” explains Meerdink. “Rather than taking soil samples to be processed in a lab, farmers could theoretically push a probe into the soil and instantly get a nitrate and moisture reading. This would save money and positively impact water quality.”

J. Eliseo De León, a fourth year PhD student in materials science and engineering, will continue to work with Michael Kessler, associate professor of materials science and engineering. The grant will allow De León to further his development of new materials and processing techniques suitable for structural capacitor applications, or load bearing electrical energy storage devices.

“The goal of this research is to identify materials and processing methods that can culminate in developing working structural capacitors that improve energy storage ability of current batteries and capacitors while reducing the overall payload that these impart on the vessel,” says De León.

Mitchel Rock, master’s student in materials science and engineering, will also work for Kessler, who was Rock’s mentor as an undergraduate.

Rock’s current project involves working with composites; a mixture of two materials that will perform better together than they perform separately. The aim of his project is to discover composite systems that can be multi-functional.

“Usually composites are used for one purpose, like supporting weight,” explains Rock. “We are trying to include energy storage properties so they can work as capacitors, not only supporting load, but storing energy and replacing other capacitors in an aircraft.”

If the aim of this project is achieved, it could lead to weight savings on aircrafts. A decrease in weight would lead to a decrease in cost, making operations more efficient.

All of the five students began their research projects this fall and will continue work through the spring semester.

When faculty members from the Aerospace Engineering (AerE) department were in need of small steel bars used to test for failure, faculty from the Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering (ABE) department stepped up to provide just that. Faculty members from the ABE department and the AerE department recently found a way to partner with one another that benefits students from both disciplines.

Joseph Schaefer, senior lecturer in aerospace engineering, gives agricultural and biosystems engineering students a tour.

Students enrolled in Engineering Mechanics 327, Mechanics of Materials Laboratory, learn how to measure the breakage point of specific types of materials.  Students are trained to use a machine that applies a torsion load to a small steel bar called a torsion test specimen. After continually adding stress to the steel or brass rod called a torsion test specimen.  After continually twisting the specimen it eventually breaks, allowing students to determine the behavior of the material under a torsion load.

The machine that previously performed these tests was outdated and difficult to use. Joseph Schaefer, course instructor and senior lecturer in aerospace engineering, was pleased when the department was able to replace it with a state of the art instrument with a computer interface. However, with this new piece of equipment came new challenges, including the additional cost of purchasing torsion test specimens for students to use.

The set of specimens supplied with the new machine are manufactured in Europe and cost approximately $11 each. Reluctant to pay the high price for the over 100 samples his students would need each semester, Schaefer began to brainstorm for alternatives. After meeting with James Benson, a teaching laboratory associate in aerospace engineering, he found a solution.

Benson referred Schaefer to the ABE department, where Associate Professor David Grewell, teaches Technology Systems Management (TSM) 240, and is assisted by Russ Hoffman, Teaching Laboratory Coordinator. TSM 240 educates students about the manufacturing of metals and plastics, and the laboratory allows students to gain hands-on experience. It was obvious to both Grewell and Hoffman that creation of these torsion bar specimens would fit well into the curriculum of the class.

“We had been looking for a manufacturing project for the students that wouldn’t be thrown into a scrap pile once they were finished,” Hoffman explains. “This seemed like the perfect opportunity for the students to create something with a purpose while also fulfilling a need for students and faculty from another department.”

The ABE lab simulates a real-world work environment by splitting students into three groups, with each group working to perfect a different portion of the specimens. Students learn how to operate each machine and determine exactly how settings must be programmed in order to achieve the correct specimen dimensions. They spend time troubleshooting when equipment isn’t working properly and can call upon course team leaders to aid them in determining where production issues originated.

Kelsey Groff, senior in industrial technology, and Gage Fiscus, senior in agricultural systems technology, were team leaders for their section of the ABE course.  As team leaders, the two were involved in the entire production process, playing the role of plant managers while their classmates served as production line workers. Hoffman and Sara Underwood, graduate teaching and research assistant for the course, played the role of the plant supervisors, receiving regular production updates from the team leaders.

“Communication was vital for the success of the production,” says Groff. “It was my role to effectively communicate and be the connection between my classmates and my bosses, Russ and Sara. During the entire process, I wrote down new ideas to improve production time, ways to save on production expenses, and how to cut back on operating costs. The ideas were a combination of my own thoughts and my classmates.”

Groff and Fiscus both felt that the opportunity to serve as team leaders was a rewarding experience, and one that has given them a much deeper appreciation for the organization of a production plant. Furthermore, Schaefer and his students are pleased with the quality of specimens the ABE class was able to provide.

“We’ve been very enthusiastic about this partnership because it’s a good example of one department fulfilling the needs of another while benefitting students at the same time and saving money,” says Schaefer. “It was an ideal opportunity.”

After completing the production process, students from TSM 240 were invited to visit the aerospace lab and learn exactly how their products were to be used. While there, Schaefer showed the ABE students how the torsion test was performed and explained why the cost efficient, on-site creation of the specimens was so important for his class.

Overall, both departments expressed much satisfaction with the partnership. While they plan to continue this project in the future, they also hope that this opportunity will help to cultivate future collaborations.

“These types of collaborations between departments are critical for Iowa State to remain competitive,” says Grewell. “I hope this collaboration will grow exponentially and spark others as well.”

AMES – Sarah Rajala (RYE-ah-lah) will become the next dean of the College of Engineering at Iowa State University on April 1, 2013. Rajala has been dean of engineering at Mississippi State University since 2008.

“Iowa State’s engineering students, faculty and staff, as well as the entire campus community, were excited to hear Dr. Rajala’s vision for the college,” said Jonathan Wickert, ISU senior vice president and provost. “Sarah is an internationally known academic leader who brings a tremendous wealth of experience to the position, and I am confident she will accomplish great things during her tenure.”

During her years of leadership at Mississippi State, Rajala raised more than $30 million in private gifts, revised the College of Engineering’s strategic plan, and established a diversity advisory council to improve the success rates of students of color and women.

“Sarah Rajala has an outstanding record as a faculty member and academic leader,” notes ISU President Steven Leath. “In addition, she has consistently broken new ground for women in engineering throughout her career, so she will be an exceptional role model for young women in the STEM fields. I look forward to having her on our team.”

Previously, Rajala served as department chair of electrical and computer engineering at Mississippi State, and associate dean for research and graduate programs at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. She chairs the Global Engineering Deans Council, and is a former president of the American Society for Engineering Education.

“I am honored to serve as Iowa State’s next engineering dean,” Rajala said. “The college has a great track record of education, discovery and service to Iowans. I look forward to building on that success, and raising the profile of the program to new heights.”

Rajala earned her bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich., and master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Rice University in Houston. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2008), ASEE (2007), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (2001).

Wickert, the former engineering dean, was promoted to his current post in July. Mufit Akinc, former department chair and professor of materials science and engineering, is serving as interim dean.

Growing up on a farm in small town Iowa with an interest in science and farming, alumnus Bill Wilcke, found a home away from home at Iowa State, where he was able to combine his passions in the agricultural engineering program. It would inevitably lead him to the forefront of sustainable agriculture development and take him around the world.

Wilcke was born and raised in Battle Creek, Iowa.  Growing up with his three siblings, Wilcke became entirely immersed in all aspects of farming, learning how to milk a cow and drive a tractor before he was even school aged. While attending Battle Creek high school, he was introduced to the hard sciences by his physics and chemistry teacher, Mr. Gustad, who took his students on a university tour and sparked Wilcke’s interested in agricultural engineering.

Entering into the agricultural engineering program at Iowa State in 1972, Wilcke became involved in the agricultural engineering club. He also enjoyed serving the Iowa State community as a resident assistant in Sesna House in Larch Hall. Additionally, Wilcke was able to give back to the community by tutoring minority students and answering phone calls for a hotline for students who were experiencing problems.

Upon graduating in 1976, Wilcke continued his education at Iowa State, beginning work toward a master’s degree in agricultural engineering. His research focus at the time involved the study of solar grain drying, and was an area of study he continued when he began working toward a doctorate. In 1985, Wilcke completed his doctorate in agricultural engineering as well, adding a minor in energy systems engineering.

After completing his advanced degrees, Wilcke took a position at Virginia Tech, conducting research and extension programs. While there, he recalls learning about more ‘exotic’ agricultural plants, like mushrooms and forages, and taking his knowledge in agricultural engineering to a new level.

“With my mother’s interest in recycling, gardening, and saving energy and my father’s early adoption of soil conservation methods, I had a great appreciation for conservation from an early age,” recalls Wilcke. “It was at Virginia Tech that I became aware of ‘sustainable agriculture,’ a topic that would play a big role later in my career.”

After four years in Virginia, it was clear to Wilcke that if he wanted to see his family, he was going to have to return to the Midwest. While looking for positions closer to home, Wilcke applied for a faculty position at the University of Minnesota. Joining the faculty at the university in 1989 as an associate professor, he was able to attain full professor status just a few years later.

As agriculture concepts and practices appealed greatly to Wilcke, he was pleased when one of his first projects at the university was coordinating the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) project. At the time, many farmers were taking a great deal of land out of a CRP conservation set-aside program to plant crops. Wilcke and his team were able to assess which crops would were best suited for implementation after CRP.

“I also had the opportunity to advise graduate students and post doctoral fellows in the area of crop drying and storage,” recalls Wilcke. “I found great satisfaction in seeing these students learn and develop, and it was rewarding to see many of them become faculty members at other institutions.”

In addition, he served as the state coordinator for the federally-funded Sustainable Research and Education Program (SARE), followed by serving on the Administrative Council for the North Central region. Wilcke ultimately became the Regional SARE coordinator, where he oversaw sustainable research and educational activities across 12 states. He was also able to find time to serve on the board of directors for the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, the Minnesota Organic Advisory Tack Force, and the Board of the University of Minnesota’s Regional Partnership for Northwest Minnesota.

As part of his work at the university, Wilcke is proud of his development of WINFANS, a program that aids farmers in the selection of the correct size of drying fan for a specific size of grain bin. Wilcke also created a computer program that calculates that amount of time certain grains should be stored under various conditions before they are considered to have spoiled. All together, these projects allowed farmers to save energy and money while also improving the quality and safety of human food and animal feed.

Traveling has also been a passion for Wilcke, and overtime he found himself on a variety of international excursions.

“On trips to Russia and the Caribbean, I taught and advised agricultural instructors and researchers about crop storage,” he says. “Then on trips to Morocco, Cyprus, Sicily, Croatia, and other places in Western Europe, I took advantage of the chance to observe the differences in the way farming was practiced in various countries. And when visiting Cuba I studied Cuban sustainable farming practices. International travel and study was something that really excited me.”

As a successful engineer, professor, researcher, and philanthropist, Wilcke has seen it all, and has some important advice for students in engineering today.

“Students in biosystems and agricultural engineering should take advantage of the global research opportunities of the field,” explains Wilcke. “Teaching these research practices to the farmers of the world will have the maximum impact. Sustainability is pivotal to our future.”

When I began doing FIRST LEGO League in 2001, lots of people commented that it must be fun to play with LEGO bricks and cute to watch kids play with toys for a job. There was much to be done to alter perceptions of K-12 STEM programming. (science, technology, engineering and math)

Now, don’t get me wrong, LEGO kits make great toys and it’s highly recommended you pick one up for that favorite kid (age is relative) on your shopping list, but the engineering kids I know are “playing” with toys like astronauts get to “play” in space –designing, creating, programming, and researching. K-12 outreach mixes up a batch of STEM edutainment for kids with crazy smarts and innovative thinking – I’m so ready for the future, these kids are amazing.

It used to feel like screaming from a roof top to anyone who would listen that STEM outreach was super important to our future vitality. My colleagues must have been screaming in unison and loudly, because K-12 STEM outreach is booming in Iowa and elsewhere. You can hardly go anywhere in the education arena without hearing about the importance of STEM. The Lt. Governor, Kim Reynolds, and UNI President, Dr. Ben Allen have been making the Iowa STEM road trip talking about the efforts of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, Executive Order #74, and the Scale Up programs that are bringing opportunities to all parts of the state. I’m proud to be a part of that with FIRST LEGO League and Jr.FIRST LEGO League receiving the nod as one of the 12 Scale Up programs this year. It’s also great to be a part of the North Central STEM Hub Advisory Board where we can put funding into action and make broader impacts across our region and the state.

Spotlights are shining on K-12 STEM outreach, but I’m still struck that so many are in the dark on its importance. It isn’t about playing with toys or being a total LEGO geek (admittedly, I am)- it is about inspiring young people to engage in engineering for their future, enhancing the opportunities for educators, parents and communities, partnering with companies, or explaining what engineering even is. It’s about engaging a group of girls who have received global attention and get to hang out with President Obama and folks from the UN…yeah, they already have scholarships and in their spare time are working on a patent. It’s about seeing a freshman aerospace engineering student on campus and remembering him from engineering kids camp four years ago. It’s about hiring engineering students because they’ve been through our outreach program and are now so invested that they want to give back to the next ‘them’.

We’ve come quite a way, but the spotlight has more shining to do. I hope you will engage in your community, read about what is going on, or simply reach out to a child that needs some innovative ‘toys’ to engage them.

The 2012 Iowa FIRST LEGO League Championship will be held January 19th, 2013 on the Iowa State University College of Engineering campus and is open to the public. If you still think they’re playing games, come see firsthand how much work and thought these teams put into it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Camille Sloan Schroeder oversees Engineering K-12 Community Outreach for Iowa State University College of Engineering. She also serves as director of Iowa FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and affiliate director of Iowa Project Lead the Way (PLTW). She has worked for ISU College of Engineering for over thirteen years building precollege programs, as well as serving in roles related to recruitment of incoming undergraduate and transfer students. She has extensive experience in K-12 STEM program creation and implementation, leadership, and works with K-12 schools, informal education sites, corporations and community organizations to inspire the next generation into STEM careers and fields of study.

Camille volunteers time to community organizations, is a school board member, member of a statewide rural education taskforce, and Governor appointed member of the North Central STEM Hub advisory board.