November 2009

Faculty

• Ben T. Yen, professor emeritus of civil engineering, commented on the continued importance of bridge safety in the Philadelphia Inquirer. He insisted bridge inspectors need to consider minor issues that can lead to serious problems for our nation's bridges.
• In an effort to promote optimization in engineering, the 12th Annual Simon Steven Lecture committee invited Tamás Terlaky, professor and chair of Lehigh's department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, to speak in Leuven, Belgium. In his talk, Terlaky emphasized the necessity of interdisciplinary work in order to achieve optimization, and discussed the impact polynomial time algorithms have on efficient and competitive engineering.
• At the 5th New York City Bridge Conference, Al Pense, professor and provost emeritus in materials science and engineering, was acknowledged for his outstanding contributions to bridge safety and repair, the topical focus of the 2009 conference. He was awarded the Bridge Engineering Association's Bridge Engineering Research Award for his efforts to prevent future bridge failures.
• John W. Fisher, professor emeritus in civil engineering, was also honored at the NYC Bridge Conference. The Bridge Engineering Association created a new award recognizing the significance of Fisher's work in fatigued and fractured bridges. It will be given annually to a student pursuing a degree in bridge engineering.
• Under the direction of Himanshu Jain, the Diamond Chair Professor materials science and engineering and principal investigator for the National Science Foundation's International Materials Institute for New Functionalities in Glass (IMI-NFG) at Lehigh, the group received a $3.75 million grant from the NSF to build an international research center. The center's research with glass will allow the world to advance its study in economical solar energy, clean water access and nuclear terror preventative measures.
• Dan Frangopol, chair of structural engineering and architecture, was named an honorary professor at Tongji University in China in recognition of his research and commitment to life-cycle engineering. The award was followed by Frangopol's lecture titled "Integrated Life-Cycle Optimization Framework for Maintenance, Monitoring, and Reliability of Structures and Infrastructures."
• On Nov. 9 in Nashville, Arup K. SenGupta, professor of civil and environmental engineering and of chemical engineering, will receive the 2009 Lawrence K. Cecil Award in environmental chemical engineering, the highest honor bestowed by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Over the past 15 years, SenGupta and his students have worked with India's Bengal Engineering and Science University to install more than 200 arsenic-removal systems in the remote villages of Eastern India near Bangladesh.
• Liang Cheng, associate professor of computer science and engineering, was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to develop smarter, more energy-efficient topographies for wireless sensor networks, a critical application for the military, environmental and medicine fields. A better configuration of networks, Cheng says, will consume less energy as well.

Students

• Ed Stilson, a mechanical engineering and mechanics student, and members of Lehigh's Land Yacht Speed Record club recently purchased a glider are reconfiguring it into a wind-powered, land-sailing vehicle. Powered 100 percent by wind, Stilson hopes to break the land-speed record for gliders – and help to prove that wind-power, not just electricity generated from wind, can help reduce dependence on fossil fuels and keep the world ecologically healthier.
• Materials science and engineering student Heath Brickner proves his weight in the classroom as a standout pupil and motivated learner – and on the football field, as a defensive linebacker for the Mountain Hawks. His commitment to both endeavors has caught the attention of his coaches, professors and peers.
• Edward Kim, computer science and engineering graduate student, won first place for his poster titled "Interactive Segmentation Using Cellular Automata and CUDA" at Lehigh's first-ever high-performance computing workshop. Pingping Xiu, another computer science and engineering graduate student, took third place for his poster "Whole-Book Recognition Using High-Performance Computing."
• Mechanical engineering and mechanics student Marc Palmer used the drive he exhibits in the classroom to plan and oversee Spooktacular, a Halloween-themed program sponsored by Lehigh's Community Service Office. The event provides food, entertainment and games for over 100 local children. A member of Lehigh's chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Palmer plans to pursue his interest in engineering in graduate school.
• Lehigh's Green Builders Club hosted a tour of the STEPS (Science, Technology, Environment, Policy & Society) building construction site last month. Approximately 50 students viewed the interdisciplinary-friendly classrooms and the floor-ceiling glass study lounges. Facilities services is aiming for the building to earn silver certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for STEPS' innovative laboratories and building layout.

Alumni

• Todd Giorgio ‘82, a chemical engineering graduate, is chair of the biomedical engineering department at Vanderbilt University. His research into cell behavior allows him to quantify and analyze cell behavior in a manner that may help optical techniques better solve issues of human cells and systems.
• Terrence Hahn '88 ‘92M, John Schiech ‘80, and Michael Walsh'90 are the most recent additions to the Engineering Advisory Board (EAB) at Lehigh University. Hahn is currently Vice President and General Manager of Honeywell's Fluorine Products unit, Schiech is President of Black & Decker's Industrial Products Group, and Walsh serves as President of LifeGas, a division of Linde Gas North America. They earned degrees in materials science, mechanical engineering, and civil engineering, respectively, from Lehigh.

Programs

• The Fritz Engineering Laboratory Centennial celebrated legendary engineer John Fritz's investment in an up-to-date engineering laboratory at Lehigh 100 years ago. The event included tours of campus landmarks, two half-day symposia, multiple social and networking opportunities, and a gala dinner on Saturday evening. Students, faculty and alumni participated in an afternoon-long charette, attempting to redesign the vacated space in Fritz's Lab. The following speakers discussed the past, present and future of civil and environmental engineering:
  
  
  • Stephen H. Cutcliffe, professor and chairperson for the department of history at Lehigh
  • Mark Sarkisian, director of structural engineering at Skidmore Owings & Merrill
  • Kathy Caldwell, president-elect for the American Society of Civil Engineers
  • Stephen P. Pessiki, professor and chairperson for the department of civil and environmental engineering at Lehigh

• Lehigh's Energy Systems Engineering Institute is hosting an executive roundtable on Nov. 10 to support the connection between firms in this industry and the students of Lehigh's 10-month professional master's degree program in energy systems engineering. The program gives students a rigorous, hands-on look at the evolving world of energy in industry and academia, so they are better equipped to face the infrastructure and operation problems of today.
• The Industrial & Systems Engineering department hosted a two-day Computational Engineering and Science/HPC workshop early in October. The event, which drew more than 175 people, allowed preeminent researchers from all disciplines of science and engineering to explore challenges and opportunities in computational methods for science and engineering research. Speakers included professors at the top of their fields, a Fellow of the Argonne National Laboratory, a chief in the Theoretical Biophysics Section of the National Institutes of Health, and the director for the Office of Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation.
• The Center for Optical Technologies celebrated nine years of interdisciplinary work and international success in developing advance optical devices during its eighth annual open house in October. More than 100 people from universities and industries visited workshops and free tutorials in four areas: plasmonic device technology, coherent communications technology, techniques in bioimaging, and semiconductor-based energy technologies.
• The Center for Value Chain Research (CVCR) will hold its 2009 fall Symposium, titled Ensuring that Your Supply Chain Provides a Competitive Advantage, on November 3 and 4. Registration for the event is now open and includes a networking and recruiting dinner, the full-day symposium, breakfast, lunch, and a reception.
• Resolve, the P.C. College of Engineering and Applied Sciences' bi-annual magazine, released its second issue for 2009. Feature articles delve into Lehigh research using high-performance computing, the collaborative "thought recognition" work between Lehigh and John Hopkins, and the past and current Lehigh students who have participated in the David and Lorraine Freed Undergraduate Research Symposium.

     

P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science
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