Utah State Engineer, Fall 2021 by USU Libraries

2021

Utah State Engineer is the annual alumni magazine of the College of Engineering at Utah State University. For questions or delivery information, please contact eng.marketing@usu.edu ©2021, Utah State University

engineering.usu.edu @usuengineering

On the Cover

A Seismic Shift in Earthquake Engineering Professor Brady Cox stands next to T-Rex, a 64,000-pound shaker truck that simulates seismic waves. Cox brings 20 years of earthquake engineering expertise to USU and plans to develop a new research program that combines geotechnical, structural and earthquake engineering for a safer Utah. Learn more on page 20

Credits Managing Editor: Matt Jensen Editor: Anessa Pennington Contributing Writer: Matilyn Mortensen Art Director: Brooke Nielson Graphic Designer: Mckinsey Watteyne Copy Editor: Maren Aller Webmaster: Levi Sanchez Advancement Support: Shelly Wardell

What Iran’s Lake Urmia Can Teach Us About the Great Salt Lake

The Sound of Engineering Education

ASPIRE Engineering Research Center Turns One

USU Alumnus Named NWS Alaska Region Director

CONT E N TS Senior Design 14 Virtual Night, Real Impact

Bioproducts 24 The Revolution

30 Environmental Engineering in Action

Wheels Up: How an Engineering Alumna Climbed to the Top

Covid College 41 The Experience

Dean’s Message

Q&A with the Dean The 2020–2021 school year was a tough year for higher education and for engineering students. But what were some good things to come out of it? There’s no question that this past year was hard on both students and faculty. Within 72 hours, faculty were asked to switch to online instruction delivery, with little direction or infrastructure to support them. Students also had to navigate a new online learning environment, a task especially difficult for freshmen, who were still getting a handle on university life. That being said, there were some positive things to come from this time.

We have dramatically improved our infrastructure for delivering online courses and have developed curricula that can be used in both remote and face-to-face settings. At the university level, we’re more aware of students’ mental health needs and are seeking to address those. And within the College of Engineering, I have never seen a group of people come together so well to support each other. Our people really rose to the occasion.

What does the future of engineering education look like? We’ve lost some ground in recruiting and retention, so we will be concentrating our efforts there in the near future. But I don’t anticipate a big shift in engineering education. We need labs, we need social interaction and collaboration, we need to be able to tinker with gadgets and materials. However, remote work is gaining momentum, and I could see us using our remote infrastructure for special initiatives or activities. What post-pandemic activity are you looking forward to most?

All of them! My advice to our faculty and students is to re-engage. We lost some momentum not meeting people, not going to conferences and not catching up on new things happening in the world other than what we read. But countries are opening up and we can travel again. So I want people to re-engage, whether that’s your research program, your teaching, getting involved in Senior Design or joining a club. Don’t think too much about the pandemic; just look forward to brighter times.

Jagath Kaluarachchi Ph.D. | PE | D.WRE | F.ASCE | F.EWRI Dean, College of Engineering Utah State University

News & Events

Hunsaker Named Teacher of the Year Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Doug Hunsaker received the Engineering Educator of the Year award. He was nominated by the Utah chapter of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Hunsaker began teaching at USU in 2016 and brings a wealth of industry experience to the classroom. His passion for teaching led him to create AeroAcademy.org, an online community that makes aerospace education more accessible through on-demand courses.

Biological Engineering Senior Presents at Research on Capitol Hill Kelsey Bradshaw was one of nine USU students to present their research to state senators and representatives at Utah’s Research on Capitol Hill event. She developed a computational model to predict the extent and severity of agerelated macular degeneration, which could inform future research on diagnosis and intervention.

Clean, Green Aerospace Machine Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Stephen Whitmore and Space Dynamics Lab engineer Tyson Smith won first place at the 2021 Wasatch Aerospace and Systems Engineering Mini-Conference. They presented a 3D-printed rocket propellant using ABS, the same plastic used to manufacture LEGOs. ABS-based propellant is an attractive alternative to commonly used propellants like hydrazine, which is extremely toxic for people and the environment.

The Future is Fungi

Biological Engineering Professor Jixun Zhan received a $390,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how fungi produce flavonoids, health-promoting substances that were previously thought to be found exclusively in plants. Zhan hopes to manipulate fungi’s flavonoid-producing pathways to create new molecules never before found in nature, which can then be used in drug development.

Engineering Ed Faculty Receive $529,000 NSF Grant

Transportation Engineers Publish Research in Transport Reviews Converting intersections to roundabouts has been shown to dramatically reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities. But Assistant Professor Patrick Singleton and master’s student Niranjan Poudel found that the switch does not benefit cyclists to the same degree. Their finding is part of broader research to analyze cyclists’ preferences for, and comfort with, different design and operational elements of roundabouts.

Rice Named Fulbright Scholar Alumni Ambassador In 2018 and 2019, Civil Engineering Associate Professor John Rice completed his Fulbright in the Netherlands, where he studied levee seepage–related failure issues. This year, he was selected to be an alumni ambassador, one of a handful of alumni chosen from more than 170 applicants. Rice will represent the Fulbright program in campus presentations and at academic conferences, answering questions and offering advice to potential Fulbright applicants.

Associate Professor Oenardi Lawanto and Assistant Professor Angie Minichiello will use the grant to better understand how students self-regulate their thoughts and emotions while solving engineering and math problems, a skill they say is crucial for academic success. They will use the data to develop teaching methods instructors can use to promote student self-regulation.

Grad Students Shine in Transportation Engineering Paper Competition Rafiur Rahman and Sailesh Acharya took first and second place, respectively, in a student paper competition organized by the Utah chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Their research is useful to city planners and public health policymakers looking to improve bicycle safety in adverse weather conditions and to limit cyclists and pedestrians’ exposure to poor air quality.

News & Events

Security Meets Sustainability Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Hongjie Wang is partnering with researchers at Virginia Tech on a $3 million Department of Energy grant to identify emerging cybersecurity threats to electric utility grids. His research will use blockchain technology to fortify community-scale microgrids that operate autonomously when the main grid is down.

Engineering State Returns After Pandemic Hiatus Utah’s engineering summer camp was canceled in 2020. But high school students returned this year for a modified Engineering State experience. The event was restructured into two, single-day camps in June, accommodating 100 students total. Registration for 2022 opens January 1. Register at estate.usu.edu.

McKee Wins Prestigious Water Award The Next Generation of Fertilizers

In their study published in Nature: Scientific Reports, professor David Britt and associate professor Elizabeth Vargis used an innovative tool to analyze the effects on the plant-microbe interaction of a Cache Valley wheat plant and soil bacteria. Developing fertilizers that maximize bacteria’s benefit to a plant could be one solution to the ever-changing agricultural landscape.

Professor Emeritus Mac McKee received the 2021 Warren A. Hall Medal for his exceptional accomplishments in water resources. McKee served as director of the Utah Water Research Lab for 16 years. He launched a drone research initiative called AggieAir and led the construction of a new hydraulics modeling building. McKee’s influence has also been felt beyond USU. He has consulted on water management projects in 30 countries across six continents.

Cool Cameras Electrical Engineering Professor Charles Swenson will collaborate with aerospace company Astra on a $5.4 million grant to test his CubeSat cooling technology in space. Swenson’s project is one of three to receive funding as part of a NASA program to better test small spacecraft (particularly CubeSats) and instrument subsystems that can advance technology to enable relevant Earth science measurements.

Professor William Doucette Retires Doucette retired in January after nearly 35 years with USU. Doucette worked in both the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Utah Water Research Lab. He has secured more than $5.3 million in funding for his research in environmental and aquatic chemistry, hazardous waste handling and safety and phytoremediation. He has also mentored 44 graduate students, including two Ph.D. students and hundreds of undergraduates.

Engineering Ed Student Lands Competitive Smithsonian Internship Theresa Green completed an internship with the Smithsonian Science Education Center, where she worked alongside science and engineering curriculum specialists to develop learning materials for first- and second-graders. The internship was sponsored by an National Science Foundation grant that encourages grad students to pursue careers outside of academia.

How Fire Affects Soil Wildfire turns rich, organic soil into ashy dirt that repels water. When precipitation falls on charred forests, high runoff can result in flash flooding and a surge in downstream sediment. Assistant Professor Belize Lane studies how wildfires affect western watersheds. Understanding how runoff and sediment responses vary for different sites will help us better manage a fire-prone future.

Professor Doran Baker Retires

Launch Your Engineering Career More than 250 people marked the launch of a new academic and career preparation program designed to help engineering students succeed in the classroom and be prepared for a career. Guest speaker, U.S. Air Force Col. Mike Warner, urged students to develop their communication skills.

The electrical engineering professor retired in June after 62 years with USU. Early in his career, Baker helped establish the ElectroDynamics Laboratory, which later became the Space Dynamics Lab. He has received numerous accolades for his research, including the Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology. Baker also served as head of the ECE Department, where he is revered for his commitment to teaching and mentoring.

2021 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools

Top Rankings for USU Engineering Graduate Programs

#113 USU Engineering (Overall) tied with Binghamton University — SUNY and University of Georgia; up from #125 last year

#23 Biological Engineering tied with Oregon State University and University of Tennessee – Knoxville

#51 Aerospace Engineering

tied with Oklahoma State University and University of Central Florida

#65 Civil Engineering

tied with University of Utah, University of Kansas and University of South Florida

#70 Environmental Engineering tied with the University of Missouri and New York University, Tandon

A Year of Student Success

Emilee Madsen

Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University (USU Engineering Alumna) Honorable mention from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Bailey McFarland

Kailey Jorgensen

$138,000 scholarship and stipend from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

$1,000 Eva Nieminski Scholarship from the American Water Works Association.

Ph.D. Student, Biological Engineering

Master’s Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Jason Powell

Shelby Bulkley

Andrew Kjar

Recipient of SmallSat Best Paper Award and $10,000 prize.

$1,000 scholarship from the American Water Works Association.

USU Robins Scholar of the Year.

Master’s Student, Electrical Engineering

Undergraduate Student, Civil Engineering

Undergraduate Student, Biological Engineering

Transportation Engineering

ASPIRE : One Year Later In August 2020, Utah State University launched the National Science Foundation-funded ASPIRE Engineering Research Center dedicated to advancing sustainable, electrified transportation. Under the direction of Professor Regan Zane, this multi-institutional center is surging forward with new funding, new industry and innovation partnerships, new opportunities for students and new innovations that will forever change how people get from point A to point B.

APSIRE Updates (since Aug. 2020) • $30 million in commitments for pilot projects

• 26 industry partners and 24 innovation partners • 30 active engineering projects involving 60 faculty and 150 students

• New 26-member Student Leadership Council

Shared Infrastructure

“ASPIRE will bring transformations in the automotive, transportation and electric grid industries in positive ways that will impact everyone in the nation,” said center Executive Director Tallis Blalack. “These changes will come through improved air quality, reduced transportation costs, job creation and more.” ASPIRE is dedicated to advancing sustainable transportation while creating an inclusive learning environment where students and researchers can thrive. Learn more about the center at aspire.usu.edu.

For All Vehicle Classes

In-motion Charging

Heavy-duty, long-haul trucks are a reality with wireless, in-motion charging.

Wireless charging for seamless power while driving.

A New ASPIRE Headquarters ASPIRE’s Electric Vehicle and Roadway Research Facility and Test Track is a key piece of the center’s research objective. The quarter-mile, electrified track is a testbed for evaluating in-motion charging, grid communication and autonomous vehicle research. USU and the state of Utah will commit $10 million to upgrade the facility to support heavy-duty vehicles, additional lanes around the track and megawatt-level systems testing. The upgraded facility will include new labs, student collaboration spaces, offices and a reception area. Construction is expected to begin in 2022.

Powered Infrastructure With networked grid and traffic management, the grid can safely and reliably handle the load.

Electric Locomotive Power is diverted from smart public charging to a passing train to keep the grid in balance.

Static Charging Wireless parked, overhead bus and plugin charging provides for faster adoption and integration. 13

Vir tual Senior Design Night , Real Impact Throughout their senior year, students spend about 400 hours designing and building capstone projects that address real-world engineering problems. These projects could not be possible without the generous support and mentorship of industry partners who help students bridge the gap between study and experience, between idea and reality and between what is and what could be. Here are two of those projects.

Monitoring Radioactive Leaks

Re-imagining the Reservoir

Radioactive materials used in medicine and research are transported in specially engineered casks. The casks must pass a leak test by checking for pressure changes within the lid sealing surface. A student team worked with Idaho National Lab engineers to design an improved system for detecting leaks. The new system allows INL technicians to make decisions about system safety at ground level rather than monitoring measurements on top of the cask.

Causey Reservoir is a high-use recreation site in the Cache National Forest. Coordinating with the Central Federal Lands Highway Division, civil engineering students were tasked with addressing the reservoir’s deficiencies, including a deteriorating bridge and insufficient parking. Students proposed a new bridge design that incorporates a box culvert embedded in the riverbed that allows for adequate fish passage year-round. The parking lot design increases parking near the dam and adds a pedestrian access trail to the reservoir.

engineering.usu.edu/senior-design

Industry Connections

J-U-B Engineers Sponsors New Study Space for CEE Students The local civil engineering firm sponsored the renovation of a new study space called the J-U-B Engineering Student Study Complex. The new facility opened in September, replacing an older study space on the second floor of the Engineering Laboratory building.

The 1,000-square-foot space includes a large open area with couches and study tables and three conference rooms with large screens for connecting laptops. The addition of storefront windows to replace cinder-block walls, a higher, open-concept ceiling and black-and-white decor gives the space a modern and professional vibe.

Many USU alumni work at J-U-B and recall spending long hours doing homework in the old study room. Zan Murray, area manager of the Logan office and a USU alum, came up with the idea to help renovate the space. “USU has been a tremendous resource for great employees at J-U-B for decades,” said Murray, ’98, ’03. “We felt that renovating the CEE study room would be a great way to say thanks to the college and benefit thousands of students for years to come.”

Industry Advisory B oard Todd Adams

Utah Department of Water Resources

Kathy Allman

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems

Richard Anderson

Hewlett-Packard (Retired)

Jake Barker PacifiCorp

Patrick Cowley

Utah Department of Transportation

Greg Crane Cytiva

Erica Gaddis

Utah Division of Water Quality

Issa Hamud Logan City

Neil Holt

Space Dynamics Laboratory

Larry Jacobsen

Campbell Scientific

Ki Ho Kang Kihomac

Amy Jo Moore Northrop Grumman Space Systems

Jim Nottingham Hewlett-Packard

Scotty Nowlin BAE Systems

Aurora Rojas

L3 Harris Broadband Communications

Steven Rowlan Nucor

Mel Torrie

Autonomous Solutions

Mike Warner

Hill Air Force Base

Brent White

The Logan firm J-U-B Engineers covered the costs for an extensive renovation of a student study space inside the Engineering Lab building.

ARW Engineers

Impact Now & Impact Later: Including Utah State in Your Estate Plans Can Change Lives By David Kunz

Aggie alumni want to make an immediate impact on student scholarships, research and programs. We also hear from Aggie alums who want to make an impact later. We love hearing from both.

Planning for future giving through bequests, annuities, trusts and other planned giving tools is a powerful way to make your estate plans match your passions. We are here to help you accomplish your philanthropic goals and provide gratifying gift and engagement experiences. We’re honored to hear from you and ready to help you create impactful gift experiences that provide a meaningful return on your philanthropic investment. Go, Aggies!

David Kunz

Kade Burnham

Senior Director of Development ’00 Public Relations david.kunz@usu.edu 435-797-8012

Development Officer ’16 Econ & Finance kade.burnham@usu.edu 435-797-0769

It Pays to be a Utah State Engineer In the ’20-’21 Academic Year,

220

scholarships awarded

totaling

$539,568 Planned Giving an “Easy Choice” While serving on the board of the Manufacturers Extension Partnership of Utah, I became acquainted with former engineering dean Bruce Bishop. He and I became friends, and I learned about numerous accomplishments of the college and its students.

It was apparent to me that USU was teaching students to be their best. They did not waste a lot of time on subjects not helpful for preparing students for a successful future. Bruce later asked me to serve on the advisory board for the college.

I accepted and served for two years until I became involved in the sale of our business, DaCo Precision Mfg. My wife, Sharon, and I had owned and operated the company for 27 years and were ready to retire. We decided to set up some charitable remainder trusts at that time, and making USU College of Engineering one of the benefactors was an easy choice to provide funds in the future to continue their good work. Dave & Sharon Carter Riverton, Utah

Engineering Giving

Barry Santana Creates Scholarship to Honor Professor’s Legacy Barry Santana, ’68, ’75, has established a scholarship for engineering graduate students in the name of his professor, Dr. Winfred O. Carter. He hopes the scholarship will honor Carter as a dedicated mentor and as a pioneer in computer-aided structural analysis and design. Santana received his master’s and Ph.D. in civil engineering from Utah State. Carter was his Ph.D. advisor, but even after graduating and moving to Alaska, Santana continued to collaborate with Carter on engineering problems. Barry Santana and his wife, Lona.

While working as a structural field engineer at ARCO Alaska, Santana invited Carter and Dr. Waters, another

USU professor, to consult on a three-phase flow pipe slugging problem on the North Slope. That experience stuck with Santana for his 15 years on the Slope.

An early retirement from ARCO allowed Santana to work as an engineering consultant in the oil industry. As a Ph.D. engineer working as a field engineer, Santana found a fulfilling career not by taking the usual route, but by following the example of his mentor.

“I just evolved into being a consulting structural engineer, which is pretty much what Dr. Carter was. I kind of got that bug from him.”

Day Bassett Establishes Scholarships for Engineering and Education Students Day Bassett, ’48, ’50, ’52, has gifted $30,000 for an ongoing scholarship fund at USU. Each year, the fund will generate a $1,000 scholarship to one engineering student and one education student, the latter in honor of Bassett’s late wife of almost 70 years, Zella Anderson. Zella and Day were the first in their families to graduate from college. Zella earned a bachelor’s in human development in 1947. Day received bachelor’s in agricultural engineering and civil and environmental engineering and a master’s in biological and irrigation engineering. He later received a Ph.D. from the University of Idaho.

Bassett spent most of his career as a professor at Washington State University in Pullman, but his

expertise in agricultural engineering took him and his family all over the world, from Mexico to Portugal to Jordan and Pakistan. Zella was the primary caretaker of their four sons. She was known as a child development advocate in Pullman and trained WSU students in childcare for ten years. In 1988, Snow College, where Zella received her associate, named her one of its 100 Distinguished Alumni. “The benefits of education can indeed enrich a family, a community and the generations that follow,” said Bassett. “The reason for these scholarships is to encourage a few young and promising people in their decisive years to explore those benefits.”

Day Bassett with his wife, Zella, after graduating with his master’s from USU.

Water Resources

Saline Sisters What Iran’s Lake Urmia can Teach us About the Great Salt Lake By Kelsie Holman and Matt Jensen

Lake Urmia is a massive saline lake in Iran’s northwest and a sister to the Great Salt Lake. The large body of water is just a remnant of its former self after losing nearly 95% of its volume over the last two decades. Across the world in the Intermountain West, ecologists and natural resources managers fear the Great Salt Lake will suffer the same fate. Political leaders and conservationists are sounding the alarm, and now water resources engineers at Utah State University and Iran are teaming up to understand what’s happening at these saltwater lakes.

As water levels at Urmia dropped, salinity spiked, threatening the lake’s brine shrimp and the flamingos and other bird species that depend on the shrimp for food. New land bridges are forming that allow mainland predators access to the endangered mammals living in the southern islands. The dry lakebed also creates a growing dust problem for the five million residents who live in the Urmia basin. The area’s ecotourism industry has collapsed, and experts fear an environmental disaster awaits if drastic changes are not made. In a rare exchange, scientists and water resources engineers from Iran and Utah are collaborating on a bold scientific study to inform restoration efforts at Urmia.

“We’re at the tipping point,” said Assistant Professor Somayeh Sima of Tarbiat Modares University in Iran and lead author on a research collaboration between Iran and Utah. “Every single step matters. We have to take action now.”

Sima’s work will be used to update Iran’s $1 billion Lake Urmia Restoration Program. In 2018, she traveled to Utah to collaborate with USU water resources expert and professor of civil engineering David Rosenberg, who studies integrated water management and water conservation. Professors Wayne Wurtsbaugh, Sarah Null and Karin Kettenring from the USU Quinney College of Natural Resources also collaborated in the limnology and ecology parts of this multidisciplinary study.

The team synthesized 40 years of data to outline eight metrics that define the health of Lake Urmia and its many ecosystems. Their findings were published in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies earlier this year. To promote transparency and reproducibility and encourage further collaborations, the team published their article open access on the HydroShare.org repository. A key finding from the study shows that setting a target water level will not solve Lake Urmia’s problems.

Lake Urmia

Great Salt Lake

According to NASA Earth Observatory, the Great Salt Lake reached its lowest water level on record in July 2021. In Iran, Lake Urmia has lost 95% of its volume in the last two decades.

“We can’t say that restoring the lake to some magic number will improve the overall situation,” said Rosenberg. “Instead, we need to consider how the lake’s ecosystem services are interconnected and how a varying lake level will impact those systems over time.” Sima is sending a similar message to Iranian authorities. “We have to embrace lake level variability and focus our restoration efforts where it makes sense,” she said.

Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Here in Utah, water levels at the Great Salt Lake are at their lowest since records began, and similar problems of land bridges, dust, changes in salinity and ecological damage have experts concerned.

Dr. David Rosenberg

“Restoration is not an easy task. It is everyone’s responsibility, and we’ll need public support to make meaningful change.”

“This partnership between United States and Iranian researchers is valuable because we have so much in common on this topic,” said Sima. “Only together can we begin to understand how to solve these problems.”

Dr. Somayeh Sima Tarbiat Modares University

Utah State University

Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering

A Seismic Shift in Earthquake Engineering Meet the Aggie who is Changing the Conversation about the Next Big One By Matt Jensen

More than 1,000 miles from his hometown in Utah’s coal country, Professor Brady Cox takes aim and heaves a massive sledge hammer onto the ground with deafening force. Like his coal miner father before him, Cox swings away at the Earth, not into the red-rock mines of Carbon County but into the spongy turfgrass at an upscale community near Austin, Texas. With his safetyvested colleagues gathered around,

he makes a subtle observation. “I haven’t strayed too far from my coal mining heritage,” he says with a laugh, resting the heavy hammer on his shoulder.

Seeing Beneath the Surface

Cox and his team are in Austin conducting a study for the Texas Department of Transportation. Authorities fear a large void has formed below a busy expressway, and

Cox was brought in to peer beneath the surface without disrupting traffic. Standing a few yards from the roadway, he swings the hammer onto an aluminum block resting on the ground. Each blow sends a shockwave through the Earth, triggering a network of sensors on the surface. After 300 swings at strategic locations, the sensor data begin to

Cover Story Dr. Brady Cox has traveled the globe with T-Rex, a 64,000-pound shaker truck that simulates seismic waves. T-Rex is an invaluable tool for earthquake engineering, but Cox is also pioneering new technologies for understanding how earthquakes impact our built environment.

its string is plucked,” says Cox. “We want to know what note the ground is going to play when an earthquake strikes. Similarly, buildings resonate at a certain frequency when the ground moves; however, we don’t want the ground and building to resonate at the same frequency. That can lead to catastrophic damage.” Cox has performed this subsurface imaging work all over the world. He compares it to an ultrasound.

“When we go to the doctor, we prefer less invasive methods to see inside our bodies rather than surgery. The same is true for earthquake engineering. We can use non-intrusive methods to see beneath the surface — even thousands of feet deep.”

Cox is internationally renowned for his work in non-invasive soil characterization. In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, solidifying his reputation as one of the nation’s top experts in earthquake engineering.

A Growing Need in Utah

Cox was raised in Helper, Utah and attended USU for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He began his teaching career at the University of Arkansas and later taught at The University of Texas at Austin before deciding to return to Utah. While preparing to move his family to Logan, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake rattled Magna and the surrounding Salt

Dr. Brady Cox

Professor Civil & Environmental Engineering

paint a picture of the subsurface. While the goal of this project is to detect an underground void, the same methods can be used to study the effects of earthquakes. By measuring the thickness and strength of each subsurface layer, engineers can predict how a particular parcel of land will behave in an earthquake. “The soil is like a musical instrument that resonates when

Dr. Brady Cox and Ph.D. student Aser Abbas conduct a seismic imaging test. Cox is renowned for his work in non-intrusive soil characterization. 21

Dr. Brady Cox places seismic instruments in the ground at a university test site in Logan.

Lake Valley. It was ironic timing for an earthquake engineer. “Utah is my home. I love this place; but there is significant seismic hazard here.” Cox has traveled the globe in search of clues for building a more earthquake-resistant society. From Haiti to New Zealand to Turkey, he’s witnessed the devastating effects of major tremors.

“When you see the devastation from a big earthquake, it changes your perspective. I don’t want to see what happened in Turkey or Peru to happen in Utah. We can avoid catastrophic loss of life, and it all comes down to a better understanding of earthquake engineering.”

Utah has a strong legacy of seismic monitoring, but Cox says there remains a critical need to develop improved engineering design criteria that better serves Utah’s mixed terrain. To help state leaders plan for the big one, Cox is developing

a new research program that combines geotechnical, structural and earthquake engineering.

“Utah is the most seismically hazardous state in the nation without a dedicated earthquake engineering center. I hope to change that soon by bringing such a center to Utah State.”

The Future is Fiber Optics

To do their job, earthquake engineers need earthquakes. But the real tremors we see on the news are impossible to predict and far and few between. To fill the gaps, Cox uses a 64,000-pound shaker truck nicknamed T-Rex to simulate seismic waves. As part of the National Science Foundation’s Natural Hazards Engineering Research Initiative program, Cox and T-Rex have traveled the world to study the aftermath of major earthquakes. The machine has been invaluable to his research, but times and technology are changing, and now Cox is pioneering new methods for simulating

and understanding large tremors. Instead of whacking the ground with a hammer or shaking the soil with T-Rex, Cox is developing ways to monitor earthquakes using fiber optics.

“We can use existing fiber optic networks to measure seismic activity throughout an entire city 24 hours a day. That’s way more efficient than placing dozens of sensors in the ground to monitor just a few hundred feet of land.”

He tells his students the future of the profession will depend more on supercomputers than on machines like T-Rex. He encourages undergraduates to learn coding languages and have good math skills.

“It’s an exciting time to do this work, and the demand for engineers in this area is rising. Across the country, we’re starting to replace our infrastructure. Earthquake engineers will be a vital part of our future world.”

Understanding Logan Canyon’s Unique

Groundwater Pathways In the Logan River basin, annual snowmelt replenishes a complex network of underground pipes and cave-like reservoirs called karsts. Though invisible, these unique geological structures store significant amounts of water and play a key role in the region’s water resources. “We are highly dependent on the water from the Logan River watershed,” said Bethany Neilson, professor of civil and environmental engineering. “In dry years we divert all the water in the river, and there are periods when sections of the river run dry.”

Neilson and three other researchers — Dennis Newell of USU’s Department of Geosciences, Tianfang Xu at Arizona State University and Jim

McNamara at Boise State — received $700,000 from the National Science Foundation to study the Logan River watershed and its vast, snowmeltfed karst groundwater system. The researchers will develop models that establish connections between snowpack variability and the amount of groundwater and streamflow available for use. These models will help the team anticipate how water availability changes under future climate conditions, including drought. Xu will use AI and deep-learning modeling to connect snowmelt to groundwater storage and eventually to how much water is in the river. Neilson and the others will collect hydrologic and geochemical data to understand how different parts of the

watershed are connected. The project relies on data provided as part of the Logan River Observatory, of which Neilson is the director. “We have dense data sets for the Logan River that span from Franklin Basin, through the canyon, to the Utah Water Research Laboratory,” she added. “We also have weather data at multiple locations in the canyon. These data are going to be critical to the success of this project and our ability to inform future water management.”

Neilson hopes her research will improve understanding of the yearto-year water availability for the Logan region and other watersheds in Utah and around the world.

Dr. Bethany Neilson

Professor Civil & Environmental Engineering

Engineers are studying the Logan River watershed and its snowmelt-fed karst groundwater system.

The new Algae Processing and Products facility will help USU researchers develop innovative solutions to complex wastewater challenges.

The Bioproducts Revolution Bio Engineering Department Opens New Algae Research Facility A new 3,000-square-foot facility in Logan will cement Utah State University’s role as a leader in the bioproducts revolution.

The new Algae Processing and Products Facility (APP) serves as a bridge between laboratory-scale concepts and pilot-scale projects. The facility includes a 1,000square-foot greenhouse and 2,000square-feet of lab and office space. The APP enables robust research in sustainable engineering and bio-based manufacturing with a focus on cultivating algae. Project leader Professor Ron Sims said the new space also makes USU more competitive.

“Not many universities can do this level of scaled-up work.” “This helps us attract future funding from organizations like the Department of Energy,” said Sims.

The APP will also facilitate new industry-sponsored student projects. There are currently five industry partners supporting research at the APP, including Logan City, Utah-based WesTech Engineering, Mississippibased Algix, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility, the largest in Utah.

One important research study taking place at the APP is to determine which species of algae provide the greatest return on investment. Knowing which organisms to cultivate and how best to grow them will require new thinking and collaboration with industry partners.

Dr. Ron Sims

Professor Biological Engineering

H ow Brain s Fold Bio Engineering Faculty Wins Prestigious NIH MIRA Grant to Study Cerebral Shaping A developing human brain grows much faster than the skull around it. The result is an organ that quickly outgrows its space, forcing itself into folds and wrinkles as it expands into the cranium. Cerebral folding is an important area of research for scientists and bioengineers who study the brain; and yet, little is known about the biological processes that form these unique shapes. A team at Utah State University is working to change that. Yu Huang, assistant professor of biological engineering, will receive $1.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to study cerebral morphology. The goal is to better understand how a brain develops under spatial constraint and reveal new insights into how brain cancer spreads.

“For decades, we’ve been using neural tissue models that don’t accurately represent the constrained spaces of the brain.” “We can’t see the whole picture because we’ve never been able to replicate the physical processes that force the tissue to develop the way it does in tight spaces,” said Huang. Huang will use organoids — millimeter-sized models that replicate cerebral functions — to study how spatial constraint affects a growing brain. The miniaturized models will form inside a tiny 3-D printed microchip, which allows the researchers to replicate a spatially constrained environment.

USU Assistant Professor Yu Huang will receive a $1.8 million NIH grant to study brain folding. Cerebral folding is an important topic in brain cancer research.

“With the advent of organoid microchips, we now have tools to study the brain environment and to understand how the whole system works together,” he said. “Our goal is to induce human-like brain folding in the organoid, which would be impossible with conventional models.”

Winning this particular NIH grant is a major accomplishment for Huang, who is an early career faculty. The Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award, or MIRA, is NIH’s largest single grant awarded to university researchers. Huang was the only MIRA recipient in Utah in 2021 and is only the second faculty at USU to receive the award.

He arin g Student St ories Audio-Gathering Project Will Improve Inclusion in Engineering Education

A Utah State University College of Engineering professor is working to help faculty better understand the experiences of diverse students through an audio-gathering project funded by the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Cassandra McCall is an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education. McCall will be collaborating with Dr. Stephen Secules from Florida International University to collect audio interviews from undergraduate students who are part of marginalized groups. Edited transcripts of the interviews will be read by voice actors, and audio recordings will be disseminated among engineering faculty around the nation. The goal is to help educators better serve students from underrepresented groups. “In my own undergraduate experience, I never saw myself as someone who fully belonged,” McCall said.

“I felt like I was different for reasons like, I was told I was too outgoing and talkative to be an engineer. Just being a woman in engineering was something I was always aware of, being different from the majority of my peers.”

McCall hopes the audio narratives will invite faculty into broader conversations about what diversity, equity and inclusion look like in engineering education.

Twenty engineering students from around the United States will be interviewed for this project. Once the interviews have been edited and re-recorded by voice actors, they will be shared with 100 engineering faculty members along with a survey to gain feedback on how the narratives influenced their perception of diversity and inclusion. The final audio products will be available online.

U SU Le a ds i n Nucle ar En gi n e e r i n g Re s e arch Researchers in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department are advancing the future of nuclear power. This fall, two researchers each received an $800,000 grant from the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Program.

Assistant Professor Nadia Kouraytem will lead a study exploring the use of 3-D printed metals to construct components used in nuclear reactors. Using printed materials can reduce production time, cost and waste. Kouraytem’s research will explore which properties of printed materials are better able to withstand creep, or the elevated temperatures

and stress that materials experience in a nuclear reactor. Collaborators include MAE Faculty Professor Ryan Berke.

Assistant Professor Hailei Wang is the lead investigator on a project aimed at more economically integrating nuclear and renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. Wang said because renewables are intermittent, they cannot completely replace coal-fired power plants. In order to replace fossil fuel, a consistent power source, such as nuclear fuel, is critical. Collaborators include MAE’s Dr. Matthew Harris.

Dr. Nadia Kouraytem Assistant Professor Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Dr. Hailei Wang

Assistant Professor Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

M A E Fac u l ty P u b li s hes i n one of Wor l d ’ s Ol d e s t S cientif ic Jo urnals Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Haoran Wang co-authored the report “Nematic Liquid Crystalline Elastomers are Aeolotropic Materials,” which is featured on the cover of the September issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society A. The history of this publication can be traced back to the worlds’ oldest scientific journal. In his report, Wang and co-authors provide a theory that better explains how external stimuli, such as light, heat or electromagnetic fields, activate the large deformation of liquid crystal elastomers. Liquid crystal elastomers have multiple applications, including use in soft robots, deep ocean exploration and medical applications, such as artificial muscles.

Although liquid crystal elastomers have been researched before, this theory captures the direction-dependent behavior of the material, or the anisotropic response. It also provides a stronger theoretical foundation that will be critical as the development of practical uses for the material continues. Most of the research about these materials relates to chemistry and physics while their application for mechanics is less explored. 27

Engineering Alumni

Wheels Up! MAE Alumna Leads One of the Largest Aviation Maintenance Program in the U.S. Air Force By Matt Jensen

When Sandra Fitzgerald started her career as an entrylevel engineer at Hill Air Force Base, the sound of the ringing telephone often made her feel a little nervous. It was 1988. Fitzgerald was a new landing gear systems engineer at one of the largest military installations in the country. In that unfamiliar environment and with a lack of experience typical of any recent college grad, her technical confidence just wasn’t there.

Fast forward a few years and the insecurity is long gone. Thinking back on those early days, she can’t help but laugh at her timid beginnings. Today, Fitzgerald is one of the most recognized and respected leaders at the base. She holds a long list of accomplishments and leadership positions, including her current role as deputy group director of the 309th Aircraft Maintenance Group. She is responsible for more than 2,200 employees, seven squadrons and 46 on-site facilities supporting the A-10, C-130, F-16, F-35, F-22 and T-38 airframes. As head of one of the largest depot maintenance operations in the Air Force, Fitzgerald oversees repair, overhaul and modification programs for hundreds of aircraft each year. Looking after all those planes and the people who work on them is a monumental task.

“The modification and sustainment work we do — to a large degree — is work that no one else in the world does or can do,” she said. “Our professionals are challenged with performing modifications, identifying defects and performing repairs that keep our aircraft fleets viable and ready for the next flight.”

In August, Fitzgerald gave the College of Engineering a behind-the-scenes tour of Hangar 225, Hill’s iconic twin aircraft complex that houses rows of F-16, F-35, A-10 and the behemoth C-130 cargo aircraft. The setting resembles a scene from Star Wars. Aircraft are lined up nose to tail in maintenance bays, each secured on jack stands to allow

Sandra Fitzgerald works with sheet metal tech Dwain Martinson to refurbish an F-16 at Hill Air Force Base.

technicians in tethered safety harnesses to safely walk along the fuselage and wings to perform inspection and repairs.

“We do everything from installing new wiring and avionics to completely removing and replacing the structural components of the aircraft,” she said, lifting a piece of bulkhead that was recently pulled from an F-16 fighter plane. At a nearby station, she checks in on a sheet metal technician who is overhauling a jet that has been stripped down to its bare frame. A whiteboard at each bay helps technicians track their progress. Every hour of labor, every dollar spent is recorded and plotted on a graph pinned to the board. The work never slows down, and even when the pandemic brought much of the economy to a standstill, Fitzgerald’s team delivered 92% of their

Sandra M. Fitzgerald

Deputy Group Director 309th Aircraft Maintenance Group Hill Air Force Base BS ’87 Mechanical Engineering

scheduled workload. “This year we will complete about 1.4 million hours of workload and 198 aircraft. Our goal is to meet both a timeline requirement and produce a quality product for the warfighter.”

We exit through the giant hangar doors and walk onto the tarmac. Fitzgerald quickens her pace to get a better view of the airfield. A squadron of F-35 jets is slowly taxing toward the runway. It’s a rare site to see 12 of the fighter planes lined up in one location. Personnel and visitors gather around to see the aircraft in formation. Fitzgerald wants a better angle, so we jump into her government-issued Ford Escape and drive eastward for an unobstructed view of the runway. She watches the departing jets, eager to point out their signature shock

diamonds that appear in the exhaust plume against a hazy afternoon sky. The unmistakable rumble from the jet’s engine rattles the ground beneath us. It’s a moment of reflection for Fitzgerald on what is otherwise a very normal day.

“What we do matters,” she said. “This is what it’s all about.”

She’s quick to mention that her mechanical engineering degree helped her reach this stage in her career. “My degree allowed me to do real engineering,” she added. “Because of my training at USU, I was able to start my career as a landing gear engineer, acquire the skills and knowledge to lead and be part of this great team. I truly love this job!”

Engineering Alumni

Environmental Engineering

in Action USU’s environmental engineering program is small not because it’s unpopular, but because it attracts a certain crowd: people who are generalists at heart, who like flexibility and who want to get their hands dirty. We spoke with three ’00 alumni to see how they’re putting their degrees to use.

Tech Attorney “One of the things that drew me to environmental engineering as an undergrad is that it hits so many different areas of science.”

Ben Damstedt

Senior Director of Litigation NVIDIA Salt Lake City, Utah

Ben Damstedt said depth has never been his strength. That’s why environmental engineering was a good fit for him: in addition to being multidisciplinary, it was also handson, fun and the classes were small, which meant more one-on-one time with professors. One of the things he enjoyed most as an undergrad was working as a research assistant at the Utah Water Research Lab. He worked on a project testing phytoremediation, a method of environmental cleanup that uses plants to remove toxins from the soil.

After graduating from USU, Damstedt pivoted from engineering 30

and started a new chapter at Yale University. His goal was to become a patent attorney, and his engineering background definitely helped.

“The breadth of science that we learned in environmental engineering helped prepare me for the breadth of the issues that I work on as a patent litigator.”

Damstedt was a partner at a Bay Area law firm for most of his career before relocating to Salt Lake City. He currently manages patent litigation for NVIDIA.

“On a daily basis, I’m able to learn about new technologies, from electronics to biochemistry to artificial intelligence to all sorts of different things. As a lawyer, I get to have the same fun that I had as an engineering student.”

Engineering a Work-Life Balance Jen Thomas came to USU with plans to go to medical school, but those plans quickly changed after taking — and hating — her first biology class. Around that time, she spoke with a family friend and then–USU Engineering Professor Derle Thorpe, who gave her the pitch of a lifetime: if you hate biology, but can still handle math and science, you should consider engineering. Jen Thomas

Environmental Engineer AECOM Houston, Texas

“He was the one that told me that I would be able to do this and still be a mother,” she said. “I believed him, and it worked!” Today, Thomas works as an environmental engineer in groundwater and soil remediation. She has spent most of her career

with AECOM, where one of her main clients is the CEMREC section of Chevron.

Thomas has worked in her current position for more than 18 years, mostly part time or “super part time” as she raised her four children. Thomas knows she is a valued member of her team, even if she only works on a handful of projects a year. She also recognizes that not all employers offer women this kind of flexibility, and that trying to work and raise kids is difficult for a lot of women engineers.

“Trying to have it all is tough, and there is no one right way to do it.” But, she said, “it is possible to be a good mother and a good engineer.”

STEM in the Subarctic Originally from a suburb of Chicago, Aaron Swank wanted to attend college out west, and a scholarship from USU made that happen. Environmental engineering was an easy choice: it allowed him to explore multiple disciplines in science and technology, and it would also occasionally get him out of the office and into the field. After getting a bachelor’s, Swank also earned his master’s from USU. He credits graduate work with preparing him for the practical work as an engineer.

“My major advisor was Dr. Ron Sims, and he required a high level of organization, experimental design and analysis, and technical writing from me, which has proved

invaluable. He really prepared me well for work as a professional engineer.”

Swank has spent most of his career as an environmental engineer with Fairbanks Environmental Services but recently shifted to a project management role with Brice Engineering. He specializes in environmental cleanup and restoration. He collaborates on projects with federal agencies and the local military base to remove old and emerging contaminants from the environment, some of which date back to the Cold War and World War II. Work like this requires out-ofthe box-thinking, creative problemsolving and a multidisciplinary approach. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

Aaron Swank

Project Manager & Environmental Engineer Brice Engineering Fairbanks, Alaska

Engineering Alumni

Weather Man

Dr. Scott Lindsey

NWS Alaska Region Director MS ’85, PhD ’92 Civil and Environmental Engineering

Engineering Alum Named NWS Alaska Region Director Dr. Scott Lindsey has been named director of the National Weather Service Alaska Region. With more than 30 years of experience as a hydrologist in Alaska, Lindsey is ready to take on the climate challenges facing one of the most vulnerable areas of the country.

The flooding forced whole towns to evacuate and damaged or destroyed more than 68,000 homes. Lindsey’s father worked for the Soil Conservation Service and had helped build flood-control reservoirs around their town, which spared it from the devastation hitting other cities.

Lindsey’s interest in weather work dates back to summer 1972 when Hurricane Agnes swept through his home state of Pennsylvania.

Lindsey helped NWS partner with the State of Alaska for the River Watch program. During spring breakup, rapidly melting ice can create flood threats and navigational

The National Weather Service Alaska Region provides weather, water, aviation and climate services to the nation’s largest and most geographically complex area. In addition to numerous weather forecast and service offices, it also oversees the National Tsunami Warning Center, Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center, Alaska Aviation Weather Unit and Anchorage Center Weather Service Unit.

“I was able to travel with my dad when most traffic was closed down and see firsthand the power of floodwaters in places without that protection,” said Lindsey. “When the opportunity to work as a hydrologist for the NWS came up, where the job involved modeling and predicting the behavior of rivers and streams and especially occurrences of flooding, that early experience came full circle.”

hazards. While on a detail as acting deputy director of the Office of Water Prediction in 2016, Lindsey was part of a team that launched the first version of the National Water Model, for which they were awarded a Gold Medal from the Department of Commerce.

“NWS has one of the greatest missions a scientist could want,” said Lindsey, who earned his master’s and Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering in 1984 and 1991 from Utah State. “The climate is changing more rapidly in the polar regions than any other place in the world. Most communities can only be reached by air or water, and impacts from severe weather and water events can be deadly. Understanding weather, water and climate is critical for almost every aspect of life in Alaska, and if we are successful, that translates into lives saved.”

Can it Space? The Life of an Aerospace Test Engineer Fifield is a full-blooded Aggie, the child of two USU alumni. He came to USU to study engineering, and his love for satellites and rockets pulled him toward the aerospace emphasis.

After graduating from Utah State, Fifield worked for Orbital ATK, now part of Northrop Grumman. As a member of the pyro team, he helped design products that would go on the space shuttle and explode on purpose. And yes, he said, it’s as fun as it sounds.

In 2010, Fifield took a job with Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense in California. He continued designing pyrotechnic products like explosive initiators and explosive separation nuts. But it was his manager who helped him find his true craft: not designing new products but testing them.

“I didn’t know there was a test engineering discipline. He helped me apply, I moved into the test engineering unit of the company and just fell in love with the work.”

Matt Fifield

Test Engineer BS ’08 Mechanical Engineering

Earlier this year, the world watched as Perseverance landed on Mars. Events like this speak to many people’s inner space geek, but it was more personal for Matthew Fifield. Honeybee Robotics, where he works as a test manager, built a component for the rover. “We built that,” said Fifield. “It’s really one of the greatest feelings in the world to watch your product get launched into space.”

Being a test engineer is kind of like being Edna from “The Incredibles”— your clients have very precise needs, and your products have to withstand otherworldly circumstances. On any given product, Fifield will run dozens of tests — vibration test to simulate a rocket launch; a vacuum test to mimic the airlessness of space; or a temperature test to see if the product can withstand extreme heat and cold.

Since 2018, Fifield has worked at Honeybee Robotics in Longmont, Colo. Some of Fifield’s major clients include NASA, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX and Amazon. The latter two are among a handful of companies putting together a global network of small satellites that broadcast Internet down to Earth. In other words: Wi-Fi accessible from anywhere, whether you’re in the middle of the Pacific or on an expedition in the Arctic. “That’s aerospace for you. It’s never the same thing. Every day, every week, it’s something new and exciting.”

Career Wins

Award-Winning Faculty Dr. Angela Minichiello National Science Foundation CAREER Grant Minichiello will receive $568,000 over five years as part of her NSF Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER, grant. CAREER awards go to junior faculty who serve as role models in research and education. Her project includes two parts; the first is to better understand the experiences of military-connected students in undergraduate engineering programs. Minichiello will document student perspectives to learn about their obstacles, their unique skills and how they selfidentify as future engineers.

The second part is to advocate for students. Minichiello will collaborate with five other institutions to develop allyship and mentoring programs for military engineering students.

As a military veteran, Minichiello experienced tensions between her Army and academic identities while attending graduate school.

“Later, as I became an ‘academic,’ I chose not to self-identify for a long time, not even to the students in the courses I taught. It’s taken me a long time to make sense of these tensions in my professional life.”

Dr. Angela Minichiello Assistant Professor Engineering Education

Dr. Ryan Dupont USU Cazier Lifetime Achievement Award The award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated more than 20 years of consistent excellence. In his nearly 40 years at Utah State, Dupont has proven his dedication to furthering research in his field, mentoring engineers and promoting public and environmental health.

An early bioremediation expert, Dupont developed courses and workshops that have been used by thousands of engineers. His research in field remediation system performance monitoring led to real improvement in environmental quality at federal facilities such as

Hill Air Force Base. Recently, he helped monitor wastewater for USU on-campus student housing, which has been critical to USU’s COVID-19 stabilization efforts.

Dupont’s focus on solving realworld problems also comes through in his teaching. He has led students in providing a cost-benefit analysis of rural recycling in Cache Valley, evaluating landfill energy recovery alternatives and optimizing nutrient removal processes at the new Logan Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant. Dupont has mentored close to 50 graduate students and more than 180 undergraduate students.

Dr. Ryan Dupont

Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Ron Sims USU D. Wynne Thorne Career Research Award In his 49-year career in industry, government and higher education, Sims has demonstrated meaningful contributions to the field. Most of his work involves developing technology and processes for making biologically derived products. His focus is manufacturing bio-based products including plastics, fuel, fertilizers and livestock feed using nutrients derived from municipal wastewater.

Sims was director of the Utah Water Research Lab from 1996 to 2003. He served as head of the Biological Engineering Department from 2003 to 2014, and today he co-directs the

Sustainable Waste to Bioproducts Engineering Center known as SWBEC.

Before joining USU in 1982, Sims held several leadership roles across the country, including Research Triangle Institute, Bayer AG and the International Program in Environmental Aspects of Industrial Development at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has also collaborated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. State Department and the United Nations to develop curricula and training for sustainable practices.

Dr. Ron Sims

Professor Biological Engineering

Dr. Regan Zane USU Faculty Researcher of the Year Since joining USU in 2012, Zane has developed and served as the director of three new laboratories, including the Power Electronics Lab, the Battery Limits and Survivability Testing Lab and the Electric Vehicle and Roadway research facility and test track. The track is the first of its kind in the country, featuring a 4,800-square-foot high-bay research building and an electrified test track designed to demonstrate in-motion wireless charging for electric vehicles. Last year, Zane received a five-year, $26 million grant, renewable to 10year, $50.6 million, from the National Science Foundation to develop

the ASPIRE Engineering Research Center, an international research organization dedicated to advancing sustainable electrified transportation. Zane’s research programs cover key aspects of electrified transportation charging systems and infrastructure. They include battery, vehicle and charging systems, grid integration, smart charge management, demand response and distributed energy resources. Zane holds 29 patents and has mentored dozens of graduate students who are now leaders in their field.

Dr. Regan Zane

David G. & Diann L. Sant Endowed Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering

Changing Roles & Ranks College of Engineering Faculty Serve in Multiple Capacities

Dr. Thomas Fronk

Dr. Sanghamitra Roy

Promoted to Senior Associate Dean

Promoted to Full Professor

Dr. Marv Halling Named Head of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Dr. Ziqi Song Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

New Faculty

Dr. Nadia Kouraytem

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering 36

Dr. Marissa Tsugawa

Engineering Education

Dr. Sierra Young

Civil & Environmental Engineering

One Last Question: Before saying goodbye to this year’s graduating class, we posed one final question to our engineering faculty:

What advice do you wish you had received as a new graduate? “After years of formal education, the informal process of self-discovery might just be beginning. Keep an open mind, pursue your passions and don’t compromise them.”

“You know more than you’re giving yourself credit for. Be confident and don’t let the ‘imposter syndrome’ take over.” Shelly Halling

Dr. Matt Harris

Lecturer Engineering Education

Assistant Professor Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

“It’s not just what you know that your employer is interested in. It is also your potential and capability to learn and problem solve that sets you apart.” Dr. Wade Goodridge Associate Professor Engineering Education

“Be prepared to keep learning throuhgout your career. Hopefully, your college education prepared you to always be willing to learn.” Dr. Randal Martin

Research Associate Professor Civil & Environmental Engineering

“Get involved with a local chapter of a professional society as soon as you start a new job.”

“Consider graduate school. Unlike law or medical school, you don’t need a giant loan to get an advanced degree in engineering. Most students are paid to study and can earn high salaries after graduation.”

Dr. Michelle Mekker

Assistant Professor Civil & Environmental Engineering

Dr. Ryan Berke

Assistant Professor Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

“Attend a wide range of seminars. They don’t have to be in your research or professional area. Try to expand your horizon.” Dr. Reyhan Baktur

“Start to build your personal learning network (PLN) as soon as possible. Colleagues, experts and friends and family can be part of your PLN.” Dr. Yanqing Su

Assistant Professor Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Associate Professor Electrical & Computer Engineering

“The first job you take will not be your last.” Dr. Charles Miller

Associate Professor Biological Engineering

“Take the same initiative and ownership of your career path that you took throughout your education and initial job search.” Spencer Wendell

Assistant Professor of Practice Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Student Stories

“ I t ’ s a ll Ab ou t t he Pe o p le” Lessons From an Eight-Year Aggie By Anessa Pennington

Darcie Christensen has so many memories of her time at Utah State, and she should, since she’s been here for eight years. She can recount how she’s transformed from the shy, hyper-focused freshman to the more easygoing, confident three-degree engineer she is today. But if you sit with Christensen long enough, she’ll tell you that the biggest lesson she learned as an Aggie is that it —and by it, she means everything — is all about the people.

An Engineering State alum with an interest in the medical field, Christensen came to USU to study biological engineering, and she meant business. As a freshman she landed a research fellowship and spent most of her first two years trekking back and forth between her apartment and classrooms and the lab. After returning from a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission in Indiana, Christensen was invited to join Engineering Council, an experience that changed how she understood her college experience. She got involved with more clubs and spent more time studying in the computer lab, making connections at every turn.

“It took a lot of work, but I found out how much value comes from these experiences and not just doing your

homework. I was still able to succeed academically, but I also had more friends than ever before,” she said.

“Even if you’re shy or awkward or introverted, it’s really important to find your people.”

As she wrapped up her senior year, Christensen was feeling more confident, but she wasn’t sure she could see a future in biological engineering. Her research mentor from the Biology Department could tell.

“She sat me down and said, ‘I can tell you’re not passionate about this research; you’ve got to find something different.’ And I cried in her office. I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, I really love engineering, but I just don’t know where to go with it.’ That’s when I reached out to Engineering Education. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, but I didn’t know how that integrated with engineering.” In the past four years, Christensen successfully obtained a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship; earned a master’s in environmental engineering (which biological engineering served as a good foundation for); completed an internship with the Smithsonian

National Air and Space Museum; and defended her doctoral thesis on improving peer mentorship in engineering with the help of her doctoral advisor Dr. Idalis Villanueva Alarcón. The people she connected with along the way made all the difference.

“People are always more important than assignments or projects because those things will get done. They have to get done; there’s no option. But people aren’t necessarily always going to be there or be in that situation,” she said. “I wouldn’t have stayed for grad school if I didn’t have the connections I did, and I don’t think I would have finished grad school and found my dream job unless I had the mentor I did. You have to find those positive influences and stick with them.”

This fall, Christensen will start her next chapter at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where she will teach engineering courses as part of its award-winning transfer student engineering program. And she knows exactly the kind of professor she wants to be.

Darcie Christensen

BS ’17 Biological Engineering MS ’19 Environmental Engineering Ph.D. ’21 Engineering Education

Student Stories

An All-Wom e n Co ho rt Engineering Professor Establishes Multidisciplinary Research Program Biological engineering professor David Britt received $370,000 from the National Science Foundation to establish a Research Experiences for Undergraduates, or REU, site at USU. The program funds a 10-week intensive research program and includes a stipend and accommodations for participants.

This is the first of a three-year program, which Britt hopes will produce 30 participants from underrepresented groups or those with limited educational opportunities closer to home. This year’s cohort includes 12 students from 10 states and Puerto Rico.

Kendall Ewert is a biotechnology major from Kent State University in Ohio. She worked with Professor Jixun Zhan to make Escherichia coli, or E. coli, produce curcumin, an anti-cancer compound found in certain plants. The pandemic has made it difficult for Ewert to get hands-on experience, but her time at USU helped her see a potential career in research along with some painful truths about it.

Professor David Britt’s REU site brought together 12 STEM majors from across the county to participate in a 10-week intensive research program.

“I’ve learned that the research process takes a lot of tries. We do experiments, and it doesn’t work. And we do it again, and it doesn’t work,” said Ewert. “I asked my mentor if we were doing something wrong, and he said, ‘No, it just takes a lot of tries.’ So I’ve just learned a lot of patience and to not criticize myself every time something goes wrong.”

Erin Nowak is a biology major from Salem College, a small liberal arts college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her initial interest in nanoparticle research drew her to Britt’s program.

“I want to go to grad school to get my doctorate, and I’m leaning toward bioengineering, so this was good experience both in research and learning more about grad school,” said Nowak. “It’s been amazing. It’s given me a lot of opportunities, I met really cool people and I learned more than I would have in any class.”

Cr y stal Unc le ar: Navigating College During a Pandemic By Anessa Pennington

March 2020. Crystal Fowler’s junior year was the stuff of collegiate fantasies: she was taking more major-intensive courses, applying for summer internships, and bonding with her biological engineering peers. But within days, all her classes went online, internships were canceled and any further socializing would take place via Slack.

Fowler’s older sister had studied engineering at Utah State years before. She said to Fowler, “I thought engineering was hard when I was there, but you’re going through a pandemic.”

May 2020. Around the time Fowler finished the semester, her nephews in Portland were shifting to online school. Schools were going online. Fowler’s sister and brother-inlaw worked full time and needed someone to help the kids through the end of the school year. So Fowler stayed with her sister in Oregon for two months, trying to help the kids navigate what she was only beginning to learn herself.

July 2020. Fowler spent the rest of the summer in Apple Valley, her hometown in Southern Utah. Two hours away is the Navajo Reservation where her grandparents and extended family live. Reservations have been hot spots for the virus, and Fowler’s grandparents were considered high risk.

“I’ve been so worried, because I don’t have any contact with them. I could call them, but they don’t even speak English that well. It’s been hard to communicate with them how serious the situation was.” November 2020. Two of Fowler’s roommates tested positive for COVID-19, which meant three weeks in quarantine. A self-proclaimed introvert, Fowler didn’t mind spending time alone, but she started missing face-toface interactions with her friends and classmates. She says it’s hard to talk about the personal toll of the pandemic.

“It just seems like everybody has their own experience and everybody gets it, so I haven’t really vocalized how hard it was.”

There were some bright spots in that semester, though. Fowler was taking one of the hardest classes of her computer science minor, but she got a Canvas message from a student named Becca to join a study group with her and another female student. That study group, along with her bio peers and professors, brought some joy and camaraderie, even if it was all via Zoom.

June 2021. Fowler is finishing up a project funded by an undergraduate research grant and working in the greenhouse on campus. She’ll graduate in December and apply for doctorate programs in agricultural engineering. She hopes to work for the United States Department of Agriculture as a research engineer. To say the last 18 months have been difficult for students would be an understatement. But amid the confusion, frustration and isolation, Fowler has learned that she can adapt, and that’s something that will serve her for the rest of her life.

Non-Profit Org U.S. Postage PAID Utah State University

Office of the Dean 4100 Old Main Hill Logan, Utah 84322-4100

Masked Enthusiasm Cap and gown made a comeback on May 7. More than 400 engineering graduates and their families gathered inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum for an in-person convocation ceremony. The day was met with stormy, springtime weather, but there was not a brighter place on campus. 44

engineering.usu.edu