 |
 |
| PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS CURRENT STUDENTS ALUMNI & FRIENDS COMMUNITY FACULTY & STAFF | |
When a water supply is contaminated, people are usually ordered to boil their H2O. But if Dr. Curt Elmore’s emergency drinking water system proves reliable, people will be able to drink water that has been treated with ultraviolet energy. Elmore discusses the project on this month's TechnoFiles.
Next week marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, the Soviet satellite that shocked America into a cold war battle for space supremacy. Already, the news media are examining the anniversary from all angles. I typed "sputnik" into A Google News' search engine and retrieved 327 articles and blog posts. Expect to read even more about Sputnik 1 (pictured) and the golden anniversary this weekend.
Several of the articles I skimmed look back at the Sputnik launch on Oct. 4, 1957, as a pivotal moment in U.S. history, perhaps as defining a moment for the space race as Pearl Harbor was for U.S. involvement in World War II.
The fact that the Soviets beat us into space was a blow to our collective ego. But it -- as Pearl Harbor 16 years earlier -- was a clarion call for us to get our act together and rally around the cause of beating our cold war adversaries to the moon. It was, as The New York Times puts it, a time When Science Suddenly Mattered, in Space and in Class. Times reporter Cornelia Dean writes:
For many, Sputnik was proof that American education, particularly in science, had fallen behind. Scientists and engineers warned Congress that the cold war was being fought with slide rules, not rifles. In response Congress passed the National Defense Education Act in 1958, providing, among other things, college scholarships and other help for aspiring scientists, engineers and mathematicians. Meanwhile, some of the nation’s eminent scientists were collaborating on new ways to teach high school physics, biology and chemistry.
These days, the cold war is ancient history, the U.S. is not investing in science and technology as it should, and the head of NASA thinks China will be on the moon before we ever return. But if the 50th anniversary of Sputnik 1 teaches us anything, it is that, given the right cause, vision and national leadership, we can pull together and achieve something great.
UMR's own "Moondust Miners" (aka Lunar Miners) got a mention in the September 2007 edition of Wired magazine. Ok, so they only mention the students as being from the University of Missouri, but we know the truth.
The tallest of the bunch, standing about 5 feet high, is a clattering assemblage of aluminum scoops mounted on a red conveyor. It represents a year and a half of work by 11 University of Missouri students, two of whom drove 30 hours to get the thing here. They're still scrambling to apply the finishing touches, slapping masking tape on the cups and adjusting bungee cords to keep it upright.
In the wake of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minnesota, many Missourians are wondering if the same tragedy could strike in their state.
It’s an important question, as a recent study found many of Missouri’s bridges are in desperate need of repair. Of the state’s 24,024 bridges, nearly 20 percent (or 4,595) were deficient, according to a 2006 study by the Federal Highway Administration. Only Iowa, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma have more bridges in poor condition, according to the study.
How do we fix the problems? How do we know when a little crack doesn't spell disaster? These are questions UMR researchers -- like DJ Belarbi, Genda Chen, Nick Marianos, and John Myers, to name a few -- are tackling.
A couple of days ago I mentioned I had the chance to watch UMR researchers use high explosives to demolish a test structure they had built. I promised to share more at later date. Well, the time is now. If you want to read about how their new retrofitting technique can improve the blast resistance of bridges, check this out. But if you just want to see some high-explosive action, watch this (WMV).
Electric motors are cool. Unlike their gas-powered cousins, electric motors have fewer emissions. But sometimes, well, they're just plain noisy. And they vibrate.
Enter Daniel Stutts and his colleagues. They've received a patent for a system can mitigate the torque ripple -- which contributes to noise and vibration -- that is found in many electric motors and generators.
The Associated Press' ASAP news site got wind of our Explosives Camp -- and somehow found a cheesy photo of resident pyromaniac/camp director Paul Worsey -- and decided to write about it. The result -- Blowing up a summer tradition -- is Chicago-based ASAP reporter Caryn Rousseau's summary of the week's events. She chatted with Worsey to get the story, and even quoted fellow Visions blogger Lance Feyh, who plays the role of university spokesman.
Thanks to Ken Davidian, manager of the NASA Centennial Challenges program, for posting the video and also to Ray @ Space Prizes for sharing the links.
By now, you know that no one won the Regolith Excavation Challenge. But you haven't heard what Joel had to say about that competition day, have you? Read on.
NASA's Centennial Challenge finished this weekend with all four teams walking away without the $250,000 purse. Here's what Joel Logue of the UMR Lunar Miners has to say before the competition on Friday:
12:01 AM Cali Time.I forgot what I was going to say last night, but I have better news now!
There are currently only 4 teams that are going to compete tomorrow. Three of the designs are similar in nature to ours, but the fourth is a very impressive design. I’ll take some pictures because it would take way to long to explain here.
Today was oh so crazy. Fumi didn’t get any sleep last night, while I got some excellent sleep on one of those Sleep Number beds (It’s like a little piece of heaven; thou I don’t know what heaven is like, hopefully they have sleep number beds…). He stayed up testing and working out kinks in our hardware. That’s seems to be the problem with a lot of people this year – teams with hardware problems, like the team today.
We got to meet and talk to the organizers of the competition today as well as some big wigs of NASA. We also talked to reporters from the New York Times and Launch Magazine (They feature a lot on rocket engines and model spacecraft - very cool). A lot of people looked at our design and had very nice complements to say about it while others seemed to be a little confused on how it will work. But we will show them in 6.5 hours!
All of the people asked where we were from and what school we went to, you know, the general “stuff”. They asked how the Lunar Miners formed or if it was just for a class project; I told them how it all started and that it’s not for the school but rather for us to learn some new things and explore different concepts. It looks like were getting a lot of media coverage! Yahoo, Space.com, New York Times, NASA, Launch Magazine, and Discovery Canada all know who we are now and what we can do down there in good old Rolla.
Joel Logue and Masafumi "Fumi" Iai made it to Amarillo, Texas, Wednesday. The Lunar Miners also made some online news, via space.com and Yahoo!
Two days, 2,000 miles and two guys can make for an interesting trip. Here is what Joel has to say about yesterday's drive:
2:11pm Hi, It’s me again. Lucky you. Well we just pasted Albuquerque, New Mexico. Alb. is a very beautiful place for the view and how they paint all of their bridges and decorate everything. We have 298 miles until Flagstaff, Arizona. I am so bored with driving.Catch you later.
UMR's Lunar Miners hit the road yesterday, with hopes of checking into a hotel in Amarillo, Texas, the halfway mark of their 2,000-mile journey to NASA's Centennial Challenge in Santa Maria, Calif. Here's what team co-leader Joel Logue has to say about the group's trip so far:
Currently, we are in El Reno, Okla. I officially dislike Oklahoma not for its rolling flat hills, or lustrous views, but for its fascination with toll ways. I knew some states have toll ways when you enter and leave. Not Oklahoma. Here they charge you to get on the turnpike, they charge you while you are on the turnpike, and they charge you to get off of the turnpike.
Continue reading "A pit stop update from the Lunar Miners" »
A team of UMR engineering students will hit the road here in a few minutes to make a nearly 2,000 mile journey to Santa Maria, Calif., to compete in NASA's Centennial Challenge. That's where the team will put its robot up against seven other entries from the United States and Canada to see which robot can excavate the most "moon dirt."
You might be asking yourselves why this group, the Lunar Miners, has decided to make the 28-hour drive and not fly. It's a good question, but one that's easily answered by looking at their robot.
A reusable crash barrier developed by UMR Chancellor John F. Carney has made an impact on highway safety over the years. Now, the chancellor's invention is being cited as an example of university research that helps make the world a better place.
The chancellor's cylindrical crash cushions -- like the ones pictured here, at a St. Louis exit ramp -- are among the 100 university research projects described in The Better World Report, Part Two: Technology Transfer Works: 100 Innovations from Academic Research to Real-World Application.
The report is published by the Better World Project, an undertaking of the non-profit Association of University Technology Managers. Released in April, the report "shows how technology transfer -- the process of licensing and commercializing academic research -- improves people’s lives, contributes to the economy and supports tomorrow's discoveries,” says AUTM President John Fraser.
Carney's work also caught the notice of The Kansas City Star, which reported on the citation over the weekend.
UMR researchers are known for protecting the environment, developing innovative solutions to infrastructure problems and even uncovering eatery slang. But even I didn't realize this:
Researchers in the University of Missouri-Rolla packaging program actually studied the problem of protecting hollow chocolate bunnies from accidental falls. They concluded that the bunny needed a cushioned ride to survive a fall. A highly sophisticated, air suspension package was recommended to prevent breakage -- sort of like air bags for the vulnerable bunny. Unfortunately, despite these recommendations, chocolate bunny safety is callously disregarded since most hollow bunnies are still sold either in plastic wrap or metal foil. They're still susceptible to accidental damage.Via The Capital Times.
A dozen student design teams from UMR spent their weekend at the St. Louis Science Center showing parents and children alike that engineering can be cool. The exhibits were part of the center’s National Engineers Week activities.
A friend of mine, an engineer who lives in Atlanta or New York or someplace like that, read the op-ed piece about Engineers Week, and sent me an email: "Disappointed that you didn’t mention one of your best friends is an engineer who broke his wrist in 5 places while riding his Harley 3 weeks ago." Thank goodness he's OK. At any rate, we have yet another example of engineers doing wild and crazy things. (By the way, Dr. Baird informed me that it's really Dr. Worsey who likes to blow up the frozen chickens.)
When it comes to traffic safety research, John F. Carney III is no crash-test dummy.
An intenational expert on impact attenuation devices, the University of Missouri-Rolla chancellor recently received the 2007 Kenneth A. Stonex National Roadside Safety Award from the Transportation Research Board, a part of the National Academy of Sciences.
Carney, who holds 10 patents in the roadside safety research area, accepted the award from the Roadside Safety Features Committee at the Transportation Research Board’s 86th Annual Meeting in Washington D.C.
Ben Roodman and Rana Basheer, two students at the University of Missouri-Rolla, have a serious case of the entrepreneurial bug.
It shouldn't be a surprise if their names sound familiar. They've created two unique social networking services (ImThere and GuruLib). TechnoFiles sat down with the two students to get the scoop behind their success. Dowload the mp3 or make it simple on yourself and subscribe to the podcast, already.
Blogworld has been buzzing about ImThere, an innovative mobile social networking service. Now the service has caught the attention of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, snagging a spotlight in a recent Random Play feature.
UMR student-entrepreneur Benjamin Roodman is CEO of this new networking service that connects subscribers to information about events -- such as concerts, CD launch parties or indie film festivals -- via text messages over their cell phones.
Here's how it works: Users log on to the website and create profiles based on their musical tastes and other interests. Users can post photos in real time taken with cell phones from concerts, write reviews of events and get a text message with a list of events happening in the area, based on their interests.
It's a handy little service to use when you're in the St. Louis area but I'm looking forward to early April, which is when Ben tells me Ramped Media will launch ImThere nationwide. When that happens, I'm so there.
While the so-called old media has been slow to pick up on our recent news item about student-entrepreneur Benjamin Roodman's cool mobile social networking service (ImThere), the blogosphere is all over it. Which should come as no surprise, since it involves techie gadgety and connects Internet and cell phone technology. That's the sort of thing bloggers jump on. The mainstream media? Not so much, apparently. Or not as quickly. We think they're missing out on a great story. ImThere could be the next YouTube.
Here's a roundup of blog coverage from the past couple of days:
Years ago, those groovy mod rockers the Who sang about "going mobile." These days, UMR student Ben Roodman is putting a new spin on the idea with the launch of ImThere, a social networking service that integrates the Internet with cellular telephone technology.
Roodman, a senior computer engineering major from Chesterfield, Mo., is the the CEO of ImThere, which could become the MySpace of the mobile world. It's a social networking
service that connects subscribers to information about events -- such as concerts, CD launch parties or indie film festivals -- via text messages over their cell phones.
ImThere is the first service launched by Ramped Media, a company Roodman co-founded in 2006. He describes ImThere as "a user-driven site that allows people to find things to do, by using either their cell phone or the website."
"We want to be on the forefront of mobile Internet technology,” Roodman says. “Text messaging is the medium that’s going to allow us to get to that point.”
Roodman and company -- which includes some fellow UMR students and one recent grad -- are piloting ImThere in St. Louis with plans to expand it to other markets later this year. Keep tabs on how things progress for this budding entrepreneur at the Ramped Media blog.
Some members of next fall's freshman class of engineering majors at UMR are getting an early holiday gift from MOHELA, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.
MOHELA recently announced a loan-forgiveness program for engineering students from Missouri. The program is designed to entice more college-bound Missouri high school students to study engineering. That means student balances on common Stafford loans would be reduced by up to $3,500 for college freshmen enrolling in pre-engineering programs for the 2007-2008 school year.
It's a program UMR Chancellor John F. Carney III fully supports. "This innovative program addresses a critical national problem - the shortage of U.S. engineering talent," he says.
Mechanical and aerospace engineering students at UMR showed off their engineering skills Friday to the ABCs of industry -- Anheuser-Busch, Bosch and Caterpillar, to name a few.
The seniors worked in teams to tackle a variety of real-world problems for the participating companies. Some students worked with Bosch to redesign the current blade lock on the company's reciprocating saw. Other teams worked with Caterpillar to redesign an electrical connector.
The presentations were reviewed by company representatives and members of UMR's Academy of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers.
My inbox wants to talk to you.
You see, it's a very dedicated worker. It handles 600+ messages a day, easy. Most of them are SPAM. But many others include tidbits about what's going on at UMR. So, in honor of a self-declared "Clean Out My Inbox Day" here are a few UMR stories that have been in the news.
We have it on good authority that the four UMR students who participated in the MIT Vehicle Design Summit last summer showed up the competition. Any readers with HDTV who subscribes to Discovery HD Theatre can find out for themselves just how the UMR contingent fared at the event. The network is airing MIT Design Summit tonight (10 p.m. Eastern), so if you want to catch some UMR design team students in action, here's your chance.
Four UMR design team members – Navarre Bartz, Jerrod Bouchard, Craig George and Andrew Sourk – were among the 50 engineering students to participate in the summit last summer. The students presented four energy-efficient vehicles they hope will save the world from today’s polluting cars. Earlier this year, Bouchard was profiled in an earlier news story about the event.
If you can’t catch the MIT Design Summit tonight, you'll have other chances tomorrow (Wednesday, Nov. 30) or Dec. 3. Check the schedule for showtimes.
Three-time UMR graduate James Friend has a big idea about a very small surgical device.
As reported today by Australian newspaper The Age, in Melbourne, Friend and his colleagues at Monash University are "developing micro-robots they hope will be able to swim through the human body and perform medical tasks." Friend hopes "to build a tiny machine no wider than two human hairs side by side to do the job."
Friend leads the Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory at Monash. He learned the art of designing minuscule motors at UMR, where he earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from UMR in 1992, then stayed on to earn his master's and Ph.D., both in mechanical engineering, in 1994 and 1998.
UMR graduate Steve Sullivan already has one Academy Award to his credit (for Technical Achievement in 2001). Now the 1989 UMR EE grad could garner a second award for developing the special-effects wizardry used to create Davy Jones and his barnacled crew in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Sullivan is director of research and development for George Lucas' special effects firm Industrial Light & Magic. Featured in a recent Kansas City Star article, Sullivan, a Raytown, Mo., native, has led the ILM effort on developing a "new motion capture technique that allows us to build models, sets and characters from pictures." The process improves upon the "cumbersome and costly" laser scan techniques currently used to create many special effects, Sullivan says.
The technique is eligible for a technical Oscar this year. In 2001, he won his first Academy Award for the out-of-this-world ILM Motion and Structure Recovery System, or MARS. MARS uses mathematical formulas and computer software to allow moviemakers to create ultra-realistic special effects while reducing costs.
UMR civil engineering students really know how to mix it up. Concrete, that is.
Five UMR teams recently swept the regional American Concrete Institute’s concrete cylinder design contest, placing first, second, third, fourth and fifth overall. The contest challenges students to design a cheap and lightweight concrete cylinder that has a predetermined target strength, density and bonding efficiency.
The students will travel to Denver next month to compete in three of ACI’s national design contests: the concrete cylinder, aesthetic cylinder and concrete bowling ball competition.
Five years ago, UMR became the first in Missouri to offer a bachelor of science degree program in architectural engineering.
Now the program -- still the only one in state -- has been accredited by ABET Inc. (formerly known as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). Only a handful of architectural engineering programs in the United States are accredited. The ABET panel that evaluated UMR’s program was particularly impressed by the fact that all the programs in the civil, architectural and environmental engineering department require students to complete a senior capstone project and work with students from different engineering disciplines.
Later this fall, another ABET panel will review the department’s undergraduate environmental engineering program, which became the state’s first when it was established in 2002. It’s one of the few available in the Midwest and had its first graduates in 2005.
It's like mixing ESP with science. Or like having a sixth sense that something is about to break. Well, sort of.
The National Science Foundation recently helped UMR researchers establish a Center Site on Intelligent Maintenance Systems, which will focus on enabling products and systems to achieve and sustain near-zero breakdown performance. Their goal: to transform the traditional maintenance practices of "fail and fix" to a "predict and prevent."
At about the same time the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education released its "Measuring Up" report card noting that the United States is slipping from its status as a world leader in higher education, UMR Chancellor John F. Carney III was addressing the same issue before the board of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.
Speaking before the MOHELA board on Sept. 8, Carney spoke about the challenges globalization presents to higher education, especially in the fields of math, engineering, technology and science. (This topic was also covered in the summer issue of UMR magazine.)
Continue reading "By the numbers: 'measuring up' in engineering and science education" »
For about $29,000, you can buy a wheelchair capable of going up and down stairs. This summer, a UMR student helped design and build a wheelchair that can autonomously traverse stairs (pictured at left) for a lot less money. “A mechanical system allows the wheelchair to safely climb and descend stairs without tipping over,” says Lindsay Waters, a senior in computer engineering.
One year after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, UMR civil engineer Jianmin Wang will present findings from research he conducted in the Big Easy to the American Chemical Society's National Meeting and Exposition Sept. 10-14 in San Francisco.
Wang and colleagues collected 238 soil and sediment samples one month after Katrina hit and analyzed them for pesticides and heavy metals. The pesticide levels were "generally not of great concern," but as many as 50 percent of the samples contained arsenic and 30 percent in their leachaets had lead equal to or above maximum level of those metals allowed in drinking water.
UMR will soon begin offering undergraduate degrees in civil and electrical engineering on the campus of Missouri State University, assuming plans formally announced on Monday come to fruition. UMR will lend -- as the Springfield News-Leader put it -- the "prowess" of its faculty to the partnership. Pictured from left to right at Monday's signing ceremony in Rolla are (front row) University of Missouri President Elson S. Floyd, MSU President Michael T. Nietzel and UMR Chancellor John F. Carney III. Standing are Dr. Charles McClain, interim commissioner of the Missouri Department of Higher Education, and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt.
As UMR's popularity continues to rise, so does our reputation.
U.S.News & World Report announced its college rankings today and the UMR undergraduate engineering program is ranked 48th on the list among schools that offer doctoral degrees. That's up three spots from last year's ranking of 51. If you only count public colleges and universities, UMR ranks 26th.
The annual U.S. News guidebook, America's Best Colleges 2007, hits newsstands next week.
UMR also nabbed the No. 54 spot on the guidebook's listing of the nation's top doctoral-granting public universities. We rank 112, when private institutions are counted.
Earlier this month, a team of students from the UMR chapter of Engineers Without Borders traveled to Bolivia. The students traveled to Bolivia's rain forest region to assess the needs of Rio Colorado Technical Agricultural High School, which -- despite its rain forest setting -- lacks a safe a sustainable water supply (see Water Wanted from last month's blog). The team plans to build a system for the school on a return trip next spring.
While in Bolivia, the group also visited a tiny village deep in the Andes Mountains to check on a latrine project they worked on last year.
Now, they're on their way back from South America. Team member David Longrie of Grover, Mo., a senior in civil engineering, filed this brief report from the nation's capital, La Paz.
Hello from La Paz, Bolivia!
The team has just completed our assessment of Rio Colorado school. After discussing with the parents and faculty of the school, we have decided on drilling a new well and providing an alternative power source to help supply power longer than the 3 hours daily.
We have also just returned from Inka Katurapi where our team in May built a composting latrine. The village has kept up its side of the deal and has begun work on the second latrine.
We wish you all the best from Bolivia.
The Rio Colorado Team