Engineering - News & Events

Volume 10, Issue 4
September 19, 2007

• Changes announced in the Engineering curriculum
• ASEE launches new electronic journal
• Master your future: Mastering the A&B exams
• Staffing updates
• Fall Break Hours for Mattin's Cafe
• Footprints in the Sands of Science
• Guest speakers and seminars

Changes announced in the Engineering curriculum

At the Engineering Faculty Meeting last February, several changes to the curriculum were agreed on. They are:

1. Chem 211, a survey course that freshmen could take to fulfill a chem requirement, was eliminated in favor of a course that instead covered fewer topics but went into more depth. Discussions with the Chemistry Department led to the introduction of Chem 209, which is meant for engineers and covers the same material as Chem 207.  Now all engineering students will take Chem 209 as the required core chemistry course, instead of some taking 211 and some taking 207.

2. One recitation hour of Math 191 has been changed into a collaborative-style session, where students solve engineering related problems together. The idea is to provide students with an understanding of the applications of the math they are learning, to provide more exposure to engineering concepts during the first year, and to give students a chance to work in groups to solve problems. Prof. Mike Kelley, ECE, has worked with several faculty in Math and Lisa Schneider in Engineering Learning Initiatives to develop this session.

3. The computing requirement was changed from 4 to 5 credits. There will now be two separate CS 100 courses; one that focuses on Jave and one on Matlab.  Students will take one 4 credit CS100 course and then will take a 1-credit, self-paced course in the other language. Students with AP credit will place out of the Java version of CS100 and will have to take the 1-credit Matlab course.

ASEE launches new electronic journal

The inaugural issue of Advances in Engineering Education (AEE) is now online (http://advances.asee.org/). This new publication, published by the American Society for Engineering Education, is under the direction of Editor Larry J. Shuman, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of industrial engineering, University of Pittsburgh. AEE will highlight advances in instruction, pedagogy, technology and assessment in engineering education, including those presented creatively through multimedia.

Information including the guide for authors; associate editors; advisory board; and mission and vision is available online. AEE is actively soliciting articles for upcoming issues. Contact Shuman at shuman@pitt.edu.

Master your future: Mastering the A&B exams

Graduate students preparing to take A or B exams are invited to attend "Master your future: Mastering the A&B exams" on Thursday, Sep 20, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in 155 Olin Hall. Come and hear helpful hints and tips from professors who have administered these exams and from Ph.D. students who have successfully completed the exams.

Staffing updates

Lauren Fielding has joined Engineering Alumni Affairs and Development as assistant director working with the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering. She was previously assistant director of Annual Giving Programs Yale Law School where she was. Prior to that she was director of Alumni Affairs and Media Relations at Yale Hillel. She also has fundraising experience in the political arena and worked on Mayor DeStefano's gubernatorial campaign.

Marc Whitten has also joined the Engineering AAD staff as assistant director, working with the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. After earning a B.A.S. in 2000 at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force. After four years as a Logistic Readiness Officer, he entered Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base to become an AFROTC instructor. After graduating in 2005, he joined Cornell as a training officer.

Fall Break Hours for Mattin's Cafe

Mattin's Cafe in Duffield Hall will be operating on a reduced schedule during Fall Break. Hours are as follows:

Friday, Oct 5, 7 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Monday, Oct 8, 7 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct 9, 7 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Mattin's will resume regular hours on Wednesday, October 10.

Footprints in the Sands of Science

The 2007 Olin Lecture features Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and host of PBS's NOVA Science Now program. He is also the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. His lecture is title "Footprints in the Sands of Science."

Hosted by the Cornell Graduate School, the lecture will be held on Monday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. in G-10 Biotech. Ticket distribution began on Wednesday, September 12, at the following locations.

350 Caldwell Hall, Deans' Office, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Willard Straight Ticket Office, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
The Bookery II (downtown), Monday - Saturday 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. and Sundays 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

These complimentary tickets are distributed on a first come, first served basis with a limit of two tickets per person.

Guest speakers and seminars

Sep 20
Dr. Kevin R. McCormick, medical director, Geriatrics & Medicine Associates, Highland Hospital, University of Rochester: "Balancing the Forces of Aging: Gravity vs. Geriatrics"

Sep 27
Carl Accettura, Kyowa Pharmaceutical Inc., advisor, Production & SCM, Global Pharma Consulting:"TBA"

Oct 10
Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Rochester Medical Center: "In Vivo Imaging of Astrocytes"

Oct 5
Michael Shelley, Applied Math Lab, Courant Institute: "Dynamics and Transport of Complex Fluids"

Oct 12
George Biros, University of Pennsylvania: "Fast algorithms for Stokesian particulate flows"

Sep 24
Prof. Patrick S. Doyle, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "Microfluidics: An Enabling Tool to Study Soft Matter"

Oct 1
Prof. Paul J.A. Kenis, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: "Microscale Approaches to Address Challenges in Energy and Biology"

Sep 20
Jennifer Rexford, Princeton:"VINI: Virtual Network Infrastructure"

Sep 27
Salton Series Lecture
Michael J. Black, Brown University: "Directly Connecting Brains and Machines: The Development of a Human Neural Interface System"

Sep 19
Jack Boehringer '52 BME, president, Boehringer Labs Inc.: "Guerilla Manufacturing: Survival and Growth of a Private Firm Competing Against the Giants in the Bio-Medical Field"

Sep 26
Antonio P. Anselmo '81 EE, M.Eng. '82, Ph.D. '87, president & CEO, Altametric LLC: "Selecting Models of Computation for Business Problems"

Sep 25
Prof. Peter G. Simpkins, Syracuse University: "Connections: Hooke, Rayleigh, & Optical Fibers"

Sep 28
Dr. Michael E. Mann, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Meteorology: "Global Climate Change: Past and Future"

Sep 19
Helen Searle Lecture Series
Jim Hobar, University of Florida:" A Theoretical Comparison of the Data Augmentation, Marginal Augmentation and PX-DA Algorithms"

Sep 25 (Tuesday)
Keisuke Hirano (Joint with Economics)

Sep 26
Yingxing Li, Statistics Graduate Student, Cornell

Sep 19
Tadashi Tokiedo, University of Cambridge: "TBA"

Sep 26
Prof. Paul Steen, Cornell CBE & TAM: "Dynamics of Volume-Scavenging Droplet Systems: Toward Wet Reversible Super-Adhesion"

Submitting announcements to Information Update

Please send your news notes to engr_info_update@cornell.edu. Announcements will be published no more than twice and should be limited to about a hundred words or less. The next issue of Information Update, published biweekly during the academic year and monthly in the summer, will be May 29, 2013. The deadline for submissions to this next issue is Friday, May 24, 2013 at 5 p.m. Information received after the deadline will be published in a future issue if appropriate.