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In This Section:

Volume 13, Issue 19
May 4, 2011


In this issue:


Spring Faculty Meeting

Dear Engineering Faculty,
I invite you to attend the Spring College of Engineering Faculty Meeting on: Monday, May 23 3:30–5:00 p.m. Memorial Room, Willard Straight Hall. A reception will follow the formal meeting. This is a celebration of the end of the academic year and a presentation on the State of the College.

Best regards,
Lance Collins
Dean of Engineering


Bing Cady Symposium

Former Ph.D. students of retiring professor Bing (K. Bingham) Cady will hold a symposium in his honor May 6, in 1120 Snee Hall, titled "Nuclear & Energy Engineering: Future Prospects." Included talks will cover a variety of topics: The Cornell Nuclear Science and Engineering Program from 1968–1995, Radial Diffusion for Multigroup Reactor Calculations, the Fukushima Daiichi accident, and future prospects in engineering education and civilian nuclear energy. The program begins at 9:30 a.m. and the talks are open to the public.


PIAZZZA presentation

Learn how to enhance learning by creating a PIAZZZA discussion forum for your class. Developed and widely used at Stanford, PIAZZZA provides a clean, efficient interface to a free forum for course-related discussions, questions, and answers. Presentation by PIAZZZA founder and CEO Pooja Nath May 9 at 3:30 in Upson B17. Sponsored by the Engineering Teaching Excellence Institute. Open to all.


CCMR Symposium

The 2011 CCMR Symposium, "The Future of Biologically-inspired Materials: Fundamentals to Applications," will be held Tuesday, May 24, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., at the Statler Hotel. A poster session will be held on the 7th floor of Clark Hall, 4:00–6:00 p.m. Professor Joanna Aizenberg, Harvard School of Engineering & Applied Science, will give the keynote address on "New Materials for Prevention of Ice Accumulation." Register.


CCTEC Startup Boot Camp

CCTEC is hosting a one-day event focusing on the issues and challenges involved in starting a technology company June 16 10 a.m.–6 p.m. in room G10 of the Biotechnology Building. Startup Boot Camp will feature panels of experts who will discuss the process of starting a company including what you need to know before you take the leap, Cornell and community resources, organizing the startup, and making the pitch. Startup Boot Camp will also feature a keynote presentation during lunch. Steven Gal, Visiting Associate Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship at the Johnson School, will speak about his experiences as a serial entrepreneur. The event will culminate with a networking cocktail reception held in the atrium of the Biotechnology Building. Register. For more information, contact Amanda Arliss.


SAIT Global Research Outreach call for proposals

The Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) Global Research Outreach Program is SAIT's annual call for proposals, open to world's leading universities. With this call, SAIT invites novel research ideas in SAIT's research fields. Ideas will be reviewed and selected by annually appointed SAIT technology board members for novelty and alignment with SAIT's research direction. Selected proposals will be financially supported for one year, contract based, in a range of $50,000 to $100,000, including any overhead. Based on research outcomes and internal request for research continuance, the contract may be renewed for up to three years. Joint research proposals will be accepted. Proposals are due May 28. Awards will be announced at the end of July.


ISTEC 2011

Integration of Simulation Technology into Engineering Curricula (ISTEC): A University-Industry Workshop will be held July 22–23 at Cornell University. In order to scale up the effective use of advanced simulation in curricula, there needs to be increased collaboration among the major stakeholders: educators, industry practitioners, software vendors, educational researchers, professional societies, and funding agencies. The ISTEC 2011 workshop will bring together these major stakeholders in a sustained conversation. The following areas are of particular interest: finite-element analysis, computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer, multi-body dynamics and control, and general-purpose numerical analysis and programming. Register. For more information contact Rajesh Bhaskaran.


Free MATLAB, ANSYS, and FLUENT training

Rajesh Bhaskaran, Swanson Director of Engineering Simulation in MAE, will offer three free software training sessions.

  • MATLAB for program development, May 18
  • ANSYS Workbench for finite-element analysis, May 20
  • ANSYS FLUENT for computational fluid dynamics, May 23

These hands-on sessions will be held in 471 Rhodes Hall, 12 noon–2 p.m. Examples presented will be drawn from the MAE curriculum. These introductory sessions are primarily intended for faculty who would like to use these tools in courses. Others are also welcome. Please bring a brown bag lunch. Light refreshments will be provided. To reserve a spot, send Patti Wojcik your name, netID, and title (faculty, student etc.).


Awards and honors in the engineering community

Mark Campbell, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been selected as one of just 20 faculty members nationwide to join the 2012–2013 Defense Science Study Group. The DSSG is a two-year program of education and study that introduces outstanding scientists and engineering professors to the challenges facing national security and encourages them to apply their talents to these issues either as government advisors or in their own research.

Richard Rand, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been selected to receive the Zellman Warhaft Commitment to Diversity, Faculty Award this year for his outstanding involvement in and support of diversity initiatives in the College of Engineering. This honor will be awarded during the Diversity Programs in Engineering Awards Banquet, on May 8.

Biological and environmental engineering Ph.D. student Roanna Ruiz has been selected out of more than 2,900 applicants to receive a 2011 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship awarded by the Department of Defense. The scholarship provides tuition and a stipend for three years of study. The fellowships are awarded "to individuals who have demonstrated the ability and special aptitude for advanced training in science and engineering," in fields of interest to national defense.

Science of earth systems student Andrew Schoen '12 has received a 2011 Morris K. Udall Scholarship for U.S. students with excellent academic records and an interest in careers in environmental public policy, health care, and tribal public policy.

Jery Stedinger, professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been selected to receive the 2011 Warren A. Hall Medal by the Universities Council on Water Resources. He is recognized for his distinction in and devotion to the advancement of knowledge in water resources, and strong commitment to the education and welfare of his students.

Éva Tardos, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science, received the Van Wijngaarden Award from the Centrum Wiskunde and Informatica, the national research center for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands, for her "exceptional contribution to mathematics and computer science." The Van Wijngaarden Award is presented every five years to two recipients.


Recent engineering news releases


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.