Harvey Mudd College Magazine summer 2014

SUMMER 2014

Alumnae Driving Discovery Mudders on Mars

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An Engineering first

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CSI: Aircraft

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Incredible Edibles

Impressions

Movers and Shakers Members of the alumni team make like an amoeba and channel their inner pseudopodia to move across Linde Field during the annual Alumni Weekend 5-Class Competition. The group effort requires trust and clear direction for success.

SPRING 2014

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From the

president

Starting Points It’s been a year of firsts at Harvey Mudd College.

Earlier this year, the College launched a major fundraising campaign, its first in nearly 20 years. With The Campaign for Harvey Mudd College, we seek to raise $150 million toward funding the critical initiatives outlined in our strategic vision. We’ve had tremendous success so far, raising more than $108 million in gifts and pledges and funding eight new faculty positions along with several additional initiatives. Learn more about our progress at hmc.edu/campaign.

One new initiative you will hear more about in the coming months is our experiential learning program. While Harvey Mudd ensures each student the opportunity to complete a year of research or Clinic, we hope to expand these opportunities through our campaign by growing summer research, community engagement and other experiential learning programs.

We’re gradually broadening our work in the community by hosting more STEM events; this academic year we welcomed several community organizations to campus. Annual events, such as those produced by Science Bus, Society of Women Engineers and Sacred Sistahs, reap benefits for all involved (page 10).

Furthering our community engagement efforts, we recently received a donation from the Holen family to fund curriculum development for faculty interested in adding community engagement activities to their courses (page 9). Many Harvey Mudd faculty members already integrate community outreach into their coursework, and this donation helps encourage this activity.

As you may have noticed, this year’s Commencement was noted for an incredible “first,” one that’s been 56 years in the making: The Class of 2014 is our first class to have more female engineering majors than male engineering majors. We believe this makes the class unique among all undergraduate engineering programs across the country, and we’re incredibly proud of the work of our engineering department, under the leadership of Zee Duron ’81. Zee steps down this year to pass the reins to another Mudder, Liz Orwin ’95, who becomes chair of the department.

Liz will join Lisette de Pillis (mathematics), Cathy McFadden (biology) and Kerry Karukstis (chemistry) on the College’s Department Chairs Committee.

This will be the first time in the College’s history that a majority of our academic departments are led by women (page 8).

Harvey Mudd was a different place when the first class arrived in 1957, as noted by the first woman to be admitted to the College, Jennie Rhine ’61, who passed away in May (read more about her remarkable life and career on pages 38 and 44). But what hasn’t changed is the academic excellence and strong community for which we continue to be known.

Firsts are often disruptive and usually uncomfortable. They can also be incredibly positive and exciting. There are many more firsts in our future, and we will embrace the ones that help to improve the student experience as well as exemplify why the world needs Harvey Mudd.

Maria Klawe, President, Harvey Mudd College

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Harvey Mudd College

Contents

Features

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A Drive to Discover

32

Incredible Edibles

Curiosity and spirit lead to opportunities for alumnae fascinated by space.

The fascinating quest and delectable advice of mushroomer Michael Beug ’66.

Departments 04

college news

14

Student news

08

faculty news

22

space study

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Collaboration

34

Mudderings

12

My Mudd Life

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Class Notes

Summer 2014 Volume 12, No. 3 The Harvey Mudd College Magazine is produced three times per year by the Office of Communications and Marketing.

Director of Communications, Senior Editor Stephanie L. Graham Art Director Janice Gilson Graphic Designer Robert Vidaure

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Contributing Writers Amy DerBedrosian, Anne Dullaghan, Eric Feezell, Ashley Festa, Mara Watkins

CSI: Aircraft

Proofreaders Eric Feezell, Kelly Lauer

Aviation expert Ken Orloff ’66 reconstructs aircraft accidents.

Heard Online

Conversations on Harvey Mudd social media Facebook, April 8, 2014: In celebration of Math Awareness Month, we asked, How fast can you calculate 96 x 96?

Contributing Photographers Seth Affoumado, Michael Beug ’66, Keenan Gilson, Jeanine Hill, Cheryl Ogden, Jude Schneider Vice President for Advancement Dan Macaluso Find exclusive content and lively conversation. harveymuddcollege harveymuddcollege

“In the time it takes me to put 96 x 96 into my calculator.” —Chase Michael

harveymudd

“Not as fast as Prof Benjamin!” —Kathleen Bliss ’95

Assistant Vice President of Communications and Marketing Timothy L. Hussey, APR The Harvey Mudd College Magazine (SSN 0276-0797) is published by Harvey Mudd College, Office of Communications and Marketing, 301 Platt Boulevard, Claremont, CA 91711

“^both of those answers” —Fabiha Priyana Hannan ’16

Nonprofit Organization Postage Paid at Claremont, CA 91711

“(a-b)^2 = (a^2 - 2ab + b^2). Solve with a=100, b=4 which is doable in your head in just a few Benjamins. Hey, I still remember something from Discrete Math other than ‘don’t gamble against the house.’” —Randall Spangler ’92

Postmaster: Send address changes to Harvey Mudd College, Advancement Services, 301 Platt Boulevard, Claremont, CA 91711.

“I would do 96*96 = (100-4)*96 = 9600-4*(100-4) = 9600-4*100+4*4 = 9600 - 400 + 16 = 9200 - 16 = 9216 (although I must confess I didn’t do it in my head). I’ve seen him live (my son goes to Mudd) and he is amazing.”

—Mark Zellers P16 “My way: (100 x 92) + 4^2 = 9200 + 16 = 9216.” —Arthur Benjamin

Feedback Opinions about the content of Harvey Mudd College Magazine are welcome.

Letters for publication must be signed and may be edited for clarity and brevity.

Hello, I noticed in the spring 2014 Harvey Mudd College Magazine that on page 3 you mention HMC’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, but there is no reference to the alumni group on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=51742

Copyright © 2014—Harvey Mudd College. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in the Harvey Mudd College Magazine are those of the individual authors and subjects and do not necessarily reflect the views of the College administration, faculty or students. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced without the express written consent of the editor.

Find the magazine online at hmc.edu/magazine The Harvey Mudd College Magazine staff welcomes your input: communications@hmc.edu or Harvey Mudd College Magazine Harvey Mudd College 301 Platt Boulevard, Claremont, CA 91711

Yes, I work at LinkedIn. But even if I didn’t, I’d be asking you to add this.

Otherwise, nice job on the magazine, this issue had some great articles.

Regards, Brandon Duncan ’00 SUMMER 2014

Campus Current

College News

An Engineering First Families were proud, the graduates

giddy. The scene on May 18 was much the same as years before but with one big, history-making difference: The majority of engineering graduates were women.

Fifty-six percent of students who graduated this spring in engineering were female.

The Class of 2014 was also the first to enter with more female students than male, and they were the first to navigate a revised Core Curriculum.

“As a landmark class, you are a tangible representation of the achievements resulting from the hard work by our faculty, staff, trustees, alumni and parents, to continually improve the learning environment and outcomes for our students,” says President Maria Klawe.

Engineering graduate Courtney Keeler ’14 says, “There was never a lack of female engineers on campus, and that goes for both the student body and the faculty.

I never felt as though I had to prove myself even more just because I was a woman. I learned how to ‘play with the boys,’ literally, since I always felt as though I was an equal.

When you perform at the level that Mudd prepares you for, it doesn’t matter that you’re a woman; you’re doing good work that is moving the project forward. I think that Mudd making news like this is a step forward in letting young women know that there are no reasons they shouldn’t enter a STEM field.”

“This feat makes me feel more proud of being a female engineer in an industry in which there are so few. Witnessing the success of my [female engineering] peers throughout Mudd is a source of inspiration for me to make an impact on society,” says Diana Mar ’14.

Sarah Lichtman ’14

Engineering Degrees Awarded 1994–2014 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

’94 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 Includes students whose first or second major was engineering Graduation date calculated by calendar year Data from the Office of Institutional Research

MEN

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WOMEN

Present Sense

video: http://bit.ly/TxRWqZ

There is no Wi-Fi in north central Siberia.

A couple of weeks in a tent, on a boat, in the 24-hour sunshine, it’s like a hard reboot for my brain and my body … I encourage you to find that place for yourself where you can disconnect. The experiences that define you will tend to be those that happen in the real and not the virtual world. Look up every now and then and be present in your lives.

Commencement speaker Beth Shapiro, evolutionary biologist, urges graduates to live in the present day and connect with people—in person. (And, no, she is not cloning the passenger pigeon.)

passenger pigeon

Mudd Memories After 36 Years

Having worked at Harvey Mudd College for more than half of its existence and with four of its five presidents, Elizabeth Baughman, senior director of advancement services and research, has earned the deserved reputation of being a “walking encyclopedia of HMC history.” Here, the 2014 Henry T. Mudd Prize recipient recounts some of her favorite memories.

I used to watch Founding President Joe Platt do his 100 laps in the Bell Pool, now the location for the Hoch-Shanahan Dining Hall.

George “Pinky” Nelson ’72, on one of his flights into space, performed a song for Harvey Mudd. It was really exciting to see it broadcast on television.

When I started in 1978, our data memory document writer was an IBM MagCard II processor with a memory card (very limited memory), which was a little larger than our current cell phones.

For many years, the College would receive—around the holidays—boxes and boxes of fresh pears from Henry Mudd, a nice treat for everyone.

At one time or another over the years I’ve resided in most of the offices in Kingston Hall, missing very few.

I remain friends with the woman, who—along with George McKelvey—hired me (Wilma Henderson recently turned 90.).

One day we came to work and found Kingston Hall completely covered in heavy black plastic. This student prank occurred a couple of days after the artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, presented on campus in Galileo Hall. The couple creates environmental works of art wrapped in various materials.

One year, there was a West Dorm student who played a lot of Janis Joplin music. I would head out there at lunchtime so I could enjoy the tunes. Thank you, West.

President Maria Klawe and Elizabeth Baughman

SUMMER 2014

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Campus Current

College News

Infrastructure Improvements Heavy equipment moved in and staff and

faculty members moved out as summer construction began on the Parsons Engineering Building, part of an ongoing effort to renovate space at the College. This summer, workers created shared spaces for the departments of engineering and humanities, social sciences, and the arts (HSA), an HSA language lab, additional faculty offices on the first and second floors and a renovated Clinic space in the basement. The renovation also included re-cabling and upgrading the network throughout Parsons. Elsewhere on campus, the Hoch-Shanahan Dining Commons was outfitted

with a new exhibition station and expanded bakery in order to accommodate increased student demand while allowing the dining commons to maintain its excellent reputation across The Claremont Colleges.

The Sontag Residence Hall will soon have a good-looking neighbor. Student-reviewed and board-approved plans call for a three-story residence hall. Building construction is set to begin in August, and project completion is estimated for August 2015.

More details to come in the fall/winter issue of the Harvey Mudd College Magazine.

Sustainable Shanahan The Shanahan Center received a City of Claremont 2013 Excellence in Design Award in the category of “Sustainable Development.” University Business featured the building in its July 2014 list of campus facilities that “foster collaboration.”

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Photo renderings show new Clinic Program spaces located on the ground floor of the Parsons Building.

The Key to Life: Helping Others

Trustee Update

Deanna Huggins, administrative assistant

in the Facilities and Maintenance Department since 2007, was the recipient of this year’s Mary G. Binder Prize honoring effective and dedicated employees of the College. A fellow staff member and nominator remarked, “She’s one of those people whose positive attitude and spirit of service make the College a great place to work.” Huggins handles housing issues, missing ID cards, keys and more. “We are all here for the same purpose: to make sure that a student’s experience here—for all four years—is safe and all that it should be,” says Huggins. “It really is a shared award.”

The Harvey Mudd College Board of Trustees welcomed new members July 1 Mahesh Kotecha ’70, president and founder of Structured Credit International Corp.

Deanna Huggins

Glen Hastings ’93, strategy and analytics manager for emerging business, Facebook

Mentor Awards In appreciation of the College’s many student advocates, students nominated faculty and staff members who have provided extraordinary support to the College’s developing leaders. Awards for Outstanding Staff Mentor and Outstanding Faculty Mentor were presented April 11 at the Leadership Awards ceremony.

The student body selected Biology Laboratory Manager Elaine Guerra and Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biology Karl Haushalter to receive its first mentor awards.

Guerra oversees purchasing and safety and assists faculty and students in obtaining necessary supplies and equipment for their research and Clinic experiments. In addition, Guerra is in charge of hiring lab assistants to set up the biology, biochemistry and teaching labs.

“I like to give my full attention to teaching the students laboratory techniques and safe lab practices,” says Guerra, stressing that she values each individual student and considers herself invested in their academic success and wellness. Guerra came to the College nearly 15 years ago with a background in microbiology and chemistry.

Haushalter works with first-year students during fall semester, and then continues to work with many of them on their senior thesis or Clinic projects. He and students in his lab are developing a lentivirus delivery vehicle to provide a safe and effective gene therapy strategy for HIV-AIDS patients.

Michael Schubmehl ’02, quantitative trading strategist, Chicago, Illinois

Elaine Guerra

Other board transitions Returning and re-elected members John Benediktsson ’01 Michael Blasgen ’63 Howard Deshong III ’89 Wayne Drinkward ’73 Dylan Hixon Kevin Schofield P13 Andrea Leebron-Clay P99

Karl Haushalter

Advisory trustees David Baylor Walt Foley ’69 Ray Grainger ’88 Emeritus trustee Ed Johnson

SUMMER 2014

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Campus Current

Faculty News

Promotions

Chairs and Change According to National Science Foundation

data, in 2001, just 14 percent of full professors in science and engineering were female. In 2010, that figure had risen slightly to 19 percent.

Harvey Mudd College consistently exceeds the national average. In 1994, women made up 18 percent of the College’s faculty members, and they now account for 35 percent of all tenured faculty and 50 percent of tenure-track faculty.

As of July 2014, women serve as chair in four of the seven academic departments at the College.

Representing biology, chemistry, engineering and mathematics, these four department chairs acknowledge Harvey Mudd as a trailblazer of gender equity in higher education—and recognize that there’s work yet to be done.

Lisette de Pillis, Mathematics “We have to be intentional about our efforts to recruit and keep women students. A lot of it is just making them feel welcome.

One example is the Grace Hopper convention in computer science.

That is an intentional act with money and time behind it, with the whole College on board. There are active things we can do to encourage women in STEM, and we need intentional work to create these shifts. It’s about providing a supportive environment and encouraging women to understand that even if they encounter difficulties, it doesn’t mean they don’t belong.

“I’m looking forward to working with the new chairs. They’re a great group and also cooperative. I think it’s going to be interesting to see what we can do for our departments and for the College.”

Approved for tenure faculty, and President Klawe has focused on bringing in more women students. Putting it at the forefront is one of the key factors. With our attention now focused on increasing diversity at all levels, I’m confident that we will achieve a similar success.

“For me, more open communication is key. One of the factors that I think is helping bring more women onto the Department Chairs Committee is that the College is focusing on building more leadership into the faculty and trying to rotate chair positions.”

Catherine McFadden, Biology “I think it’s going to be interesting to see the new dynamic among the department chairs and how it affects things at all levels. Nationwide, you tend to find more women students in the life sciences at the undergraduate level, and that’s been the case here as well—though maybe not in other disciplines until more recently. At the faculty level, Mudd is ahead of the curve in terms of women faculty in engineering— it has been for a long time—and in computer science.”

Elizabeth Orwin ’95, Engineering

“Right now, in the field of engineering, there’s a lot being done in teams and a lot of focus on leadership and communication. I think that helps with accessibility for women. One of the biggest factors with female students in the past has been confidence. Hands-on, project-based things help them build confidence, help them realize, ‘I can do this.’

That translates into the rest of the curriculum as well.

I think that kind of confidence building has a disproportionate effect on women in engineering.

Kerry Karukstis, Chemistry “One thing that I think has been successful in “With the national picture in mind, attracting women to engineering at Harvey Mudd is that now there are six women in the department, and the gender changes at Harvey we’re all very different, with diverse research backMudd are even more impressive. grounds. There’s not just one way to be a successful Our efforts over time to increase woman engineer.” the presence of both women students and female faculty have been highly successful and have enabled the increase in women faculty in leadership positions. President Jon Strauss really worked on bringing in more women

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Dagan Karp, associate professor of mathematics (hired in 2008). His research focuses on algebraic geometry, quantum geometry and Gromov-Witten theory— the latter of which intersects enumerative geometry, mathematical string theory and the modern theory of moduli. Karp is also active in STEM diversity causes, including SACNAS, and he is a member of the diversity committee of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

Talithia Williams, associate professor of mathematics (2008). Her passion for integrating the educational process with real-world statistical applications drives her research, which emphasizes the spatial and temporal structure of data with environmental applications. Involved with several STEM diversity and outreach programs, including the Association of Women in Mathematics and the Sacred Sistahs, she is the first African-American woman to earn tenure from Harvey Mudd.

Promoted to full professor Jon Jacobsen (2002), professor of mathematics and associate dean for academic affairs. His research interests include differential and integral equations and their applications, particularly in mathematical ecology. He is also involved in Pathways, a mathematics community outreach program featuring faculty members who share their love of mathematics with elementary, junior high and high school students.

Qimin Yang (2002), professor of engineering and associate director of the Engineering Clinic, specializes in fiber optic communications, including highcapacity optical networks and network architecture designs. She is an advisor for the College’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers.

Mighty Mite What’s the hurry, Paratarsotomus macropalpis?

Whatever it is, it must be important. This diminutive mite species, native to Southern California, was recently dubbed the world’s fastest-moving land animal relative to size. The discovery comes thanks to a team of Claremont Colleges biologists and physicists who believe there could be much to learn from the speedy arachnid.

The size of a sesame seed, this diminutive dasher can be viewed with a high-speed camera racing along Claremont sidewalks. With bursts of up to 322 body lengths per second, this mighty mite leaves a former land-speed record-holder, the Australian tiger beetle, totally in the dust. Extrapolating this rate to human size, P. macropalpis could travel the distance from Claremont to Vancouver in an hour.

For an organism that picks up and puts down each of its eight legs 135 times per second, it’s no wonder the itsy bitsy octoped can really move. By comparison, the four-legged

cheetah—the fastest-moving land animal irrespective of body size—can achieve 1CM a relative rate of just 16 body lengths per second. The fastest known human, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, can reach six.

Pomona College Professor of Biology Jonathan Wright took an interest in P. macropalpis for its turning capabilities and soon discovered the insect also runs like the wind. Harvey Mudd Professor of Biology Anna Ahn, who specializes in biomechanics, served as a special advisor to the project. Ahn, who collaborated previously with Wright on mite running research, says, “If we can understand the underlying mechanisms of how animals behave in extreme ways—like superfast running—then we can start to implement them into our engineering. If we can pick and choose ideas from biology to improve our engineered machines, then why wouldn’t we?”

Anna Ahn

Theoretical Physicists, Rejoice!

Swarming to Find Solutions Andrew Bernoff and his collaborators would like to understand how massive destructive locust swarms form and then develop strategies for intervention. A recent grant from the Simons Foundation will supplement this research titled “Discrete & Continuous Models of Non-local Chemical and Biological Systems.” Bernoff, Kenneth and Diana Jonsson Professor of Mathematics, studies mathematical modeling of pattern formation in physical and biological systems. On the biological side, he is particularly interested in how birds, fish and insects form aggregations, usually known as swarms. On the physical side, he is interested in how intermolecular forces can drive the formation of elaborate labyrinthian patterns in magnetic fluids and related systems.

“Our studies are driven in part by a desire to understand how simple interaction rules between individual molecules or organisms can drive pattern formation on much larger scales,” says Bernoff.

“By working with a network of biologists, physicists, mathematicians and a swarm of bright Harvey Mudd undergraduates, we are unraveling the mysteries of the elaborate patterns we see in biological and physical systems.”

His collaborators include undergraduates from Harvey Mudd and Macalester Colleges.

Harvey Mudd is one of the few colleges where students have the opportunity to conduct original research in string theory and to publish their results in leading journals.

“It’s very unusual to have undergraduate research in particle physics and string theory,” says Vatche Sahakian, associate professor of physics. According to Sahakian, there are just a few hundred active string theorists in the world.

Because it is a niche research field, he says, it attracts few students, but those it does attract typically demonstrate extreme dedication and move into top-tier graduate programs.

Gregory Minton ’08, who conducted research with Sahakian on a new approach to understanding inhomogeneities in the cosmic microwave background using string theory, was a finalist for the prestigious LeRoy Apker Award, given annually by the American Physical Society for outstanding achievement in physics by an undergraduate.

Sahakian was recently awarded a continuing three-year, $90,000 grant by the National Science Foundation for his research titled “Quantum Information in Matrix Black Holes and Black Hole Horizons in String Theory.”

His ongoing research explores key ideas in string theory and quantum gravity, including the accounting of information in black holes, the nature of the black hole horizon and the devel-

opment of numerical techniques to address certain fundamental puzzles arising in black hole dynamics.

Undergraduate research is an integral part of the proposal, along with outreach components that aim to bring modern topics in theoretical physics to the general public in an accessible framework. The project includes a course development component for an undergraduate course on modern topics in theoretical physics, providing students with solid foundations for graduate school, and the associated preparation of an undergraduate textbook on classical field theory.

A public lecture series will also be created.

Sahakian’s previous NSF-funded lecture series, a humor-filled exploration of the intersection of theoretical physics and philosophy, was very well received.

SUMMER 2014

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Campus Current

Faculty News

New Community Engagement Courses

The newly established Holen Community Engagement Fund supports Harvey Mudd faculty in the development of courses related to community engagement, a fundraising priority of The Campaign for Harvey Mudd College. This summer, faculty members received a stipend for curriculum development of their proposed courses, which will be offered during the academic year 2015–2016.

Science Fairs/Fair Science Instructor: Debra Mashek, associate professor of psychology and associate dean for faculty development Goal: Provide Harvey Mudd students with both academic lenses and firsthand experiences for thinking critically about the following question: In what ways do race, class and gender play out in the science fair arena to impede vs. enhance interest in and access to STEM?

The Holen Fund supports courses related to community engagement.

Partners: middle school or high school teachers who either encourage or

require student participation in science fairs

Bicycle Revolution: Pedagogy for Social Transformation in the San Gabriel Valley Instructor: Paul Steinberg, professor of political

science and environmental policy and Malcolm Lewis Chair of Sustainability and Society

Goal: Examine the politics and policy of increasing bicycle transit access in the San Gabriel Valley (specifically Pomona, La Verne, Claremont, Upland, Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga). Students will serve as facilitators and catalysts, helping to connect bicycle constituencies throughout the region, promoting the spread of information, and convening decision-makers and stakeholders at a capstone event hosted each semester on campus. Student teams will provide decision-makers with concrete proposals for improving bicycle access, based on local research and familiarity with state of-the-art bicycle transportation practices.

Partners: key activists, experts and officials at the forefront of efforts to

expand bicycling access in the San Gabriel Valley; local advocacy organizations and city and county agencies known to be leaders in this area

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Building Interfaces With Community Instructor: Jim Boerkoel, assistant professor of

computer science

Goal: Reimagine and redesign the web presence of local community-based service providers in the greater Claremont/Pomona area in a way that focuses on improving user experience. Students will learn key principles in art and design, the user-oriented design paradigm, the latest in front-end technologies and common pitfalls that can lead to poor design in practice. A primary focus will be design issues that arise for non-traditional users, including culturally sensitive design, accessibility and protecting the privacy and security of novice users.

Partners: local governments, nonprofits and faith-based organizations

Collaboration

WEST Conference

Finding the Future

Finding tomorrow’s scientists today means investing in community engagement programs aimed at generating interest in STEM studies, especially among underrepresented populations. Three such programs were offered at Harvey Mudd this spring.

Grandmothers, mothers and friends spread

The Future Speaks

the word, and girls ages 12 to 18 from cities as far away as Santa Barbara heeded the call to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics at Harvey Mudd. They came for the fourth annual Sacred Sistahs Math, Science and Technology Conference, co-sponsored by the Office of Community Engagement, Harvey Mudd Department of Mathematics and Sacred Sistahs Inc. Hosted this year by Associate Professor of Mathematics Talithia Williams, the April event showcased a diverse selection of female speakers in the fields of math, science and technology who described the life experiences that inspired their development, work and dreams.

The event included a special parent session, a mixture of expert science talks and a professional panel.

In addition to host/organizer Williams, speakers included Tara Gomez, FDA Regulatory Affairs, the Clorox Company; Melissa Aczon, senior scientist, Arete Associates; Ariel Sweet, vice president of strategic communications and public advocacy, the Aliah Sweet Fragile Hearts Foundation; Nicki Mitchell, counselor, Claremont High School; and Rachel Levy, associate professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd.

Support for the conference is provided by the Department of Mathematics of Harvey Mudd College, the Mathematical Association of America and Transcendence Children and Family Services of Pomona.

What have you learned today that will help you achieve your goals?

One of the largest community events of the year is the annual Women Engineers and Scientists of Tomorrow (WEST) Conference coordinated by the Harvey Mudd chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. The one-day event, attended by about 300 young women, included a discussion panel of current female Mudd students and workshops aimed at attracting young women to STEM fields, with particular focus this year on computational exercises. Anna Patterson, vice president of engineering at Google and a Harvey Mudd College trustee, was the keynote speaker.

Imani Stallworth, 11th grader, Rancho Cucamonga High School “I have learned to ask questions and never give up.”

What would you say to encourage other girls to consider STEM fields?

Aaliyah Hayes, 12th grader, Bloomington High School, Fontana “Don’t choose not to go into a STEM field just because you think it’s hard. You are capable of anything you put your mind to.”

Simoné Murguia, 6th grader, Condit Elementary, Claremont “I would tell them that they could really change someone’s life by studying science, healthcare, arithmetic or technology.”

Science Day Science Bus, a student-run club, hosts a Science Day each spring. Students from four elementary schools are treated to hands-on experimentation and demonstrations presented by club members. This year, fourthand fifth-grade participants tried their hand at civil engineering by competing to build the tallest marshmallow and spaghetti tower, and tested their biology chops attempting to extract fruit and vegetable DNA. Science Bus program volunteers provide practical and positive interactions with science throughout the school year to encourage more young people to pursue higher education and careers in the STEM disciplines.

SUMMER 2014

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My Mudd Life

Lillian Haynes, mathematical and computational biology Gap year, JET English exchange program in Japan

Ready. Aim. Future!

We teach and nurture them. We push and challenge them. We help them understand that the relationships forged among the different disciplines are just as important as those forged among different people. These are all required components to solving today’s greatest challenges.

After four years, our students emerge from this crucible as passionate problem solvers, ready to change the world for the better, in whatever field they choose.

We asked graduates to describe their plans after graduation and received some serious and fun responses.

Luke Mastalli-Kelly, physics Graduate school, University of Houston, studying condensed matter physics

Diana Mar, engineering Systems engineer, Teledyne Controls, El Segundo, California

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Morgan Luckey, chemistry Graduate school, Colorado School of Mines, radiochemistry

Victoria Feudo, engineering Technical sales trainee, Lincoln Electric, Cleveland, Ohio

Alex An, physics Graduate school, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, physics Obosa Obazuaye, computer science Software engineer, ViaSat, Carlsbad, California

SUMMER 2014

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Campus Current

student News

Wherefore art thou, Shakespeare play?

Harvey Mudd students are known for their love of science and math, so it may come as a surprise that one of the most popular courses at the College is Lit 110: Shakespeare, a class that culminates in a live stage production of one of the bard’s works.

The annual Shakespeare play, a hallowed end-ofthe-semester tradition, is held each spring during Alumni Weekend for all members of the College community.

This year’s play, Romeo and Juliet, was the first to be performed in the courtyard of the new R. Michael Shanahan Center for Teaching and Learning. For over 20 years, the event was staged in the outdoor courtyard of Thomas-Garrett Hall, a space chosen by the course’s creator, Professor of Literature Jeffrey Groves, because it reminded him of an Elizabethan amphitheater. With its second-story balconies framing a grassy courtyard on three sides, the space allowed students to imagine Shakespeare’s original playing conditions.

The annual performance became such a beloved tradition at the College that when the R. Michael Shanahan Center was built on the site of

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Thomas-Garrett Hall, the new building’s sunken courtyard was specifically designed with the Shakespeare event in mind. The open-air amphitheater seats more than 200 on the steps, and three levels of tiered walkways overlook the stage.

This year, visiting Assistant Professor of Literature Ambereen Dadabhoy assumed instructional duties for Lit 110 while Groves serves as dean of the faculty.

Despite being new to the Mudd producer’s seat, Dadabhoy wasn’t intimidated by tradition, leading a fresh take on Romeo and Juliet that included 1920s flapper regalia and modern vernacular asides. She credits the production’s success to a strong, cohesive cast, many of whom had no previous theater experience.

“This is where the collaborative culture of Harvey Mudd is so valuable,” says Dadabhoy. “Students are used to working together and helping one another, and that translates perfectly to the work we do in this course.”

Romeo (Alexander Rivera PZ ’14) and Juliet (Elsie Gibson ’15).

“Keep Looking” Nicky Subler ’16 placed first in the third annual repurposed paper art contest of The Claremont Colleges Library. She describes her creation: “What I made is a paper roller coaster, a vaulted pathway, essentially, for beads.

I used paper strips from the book, some double-sided tape and some glue. I’ve seen/helped make them in large scale before, and they’ve always partly entertained and partly awed me with the variety of their construction. I started it for fun and ended up finishing it for this contest—the paper came from a repurposed book called Meta Math! by Gregory Chaitin, which had a lot of thought-provoking or beautiful or strange quotes that I worked into the construction of the coaster.

That’s also why it’s called “Keep Looking”—I just want you to keep searching for all those little details, like the Celtic knot design that appears from above or the questions that follow the beads’ path. I also just want you to play with it— because yes, it actually works. Did you think I’d make one that didn’t?”

[The judges] seemed so surprised that engineering and art could mix, but I don’t think it’s surprising at all.

It’s everywhere.

—Nicky Subler ’16

Show and Tell Chemistry students Sejal Shah ’14 and Anastasia Patterson ’14 earned Best Poster awards at the spring Materials Research Society national meeting in San Francisco. Their poster illustrates fundamental studies on easily manufactured, low-cost alternatives to silicon solar cells. Shah and Patterson were in Symposium B, Organic and Inorganic Materials for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

Their faculty advisor is Hal Van Ryswyk, professor of chemistry and department chair.

“Sejal and Anastasia were clearly the center of attention at the poster session, fielding questions on both their own work and the overall arc of the project,” says Van Ryswyk. Co-authors on the research are Emily Ross ’14, Mo Zhao ’16, Amy Konsza ’12, Samantha Fisher ’12, Laura Collins ’11, Chiara Giammanco ’10, Mark Hendricks ’10, Ha Seong Kim ’11, Daniel O’Neil ’11, Trevor McQueen ’09, Nancy Eisenmenger ’09 and Ryan Pakula ’09.

Van Ryswyk lauds Shah for “a breadth and depth of experience that is uncommon in an undergraduate researcher,” and notes that Patterson, a more recent addition to the project team, has created “beautiful zinc oxide nanotubes that previously required multiple trips to the Stanford Nanofabrication Laboratory to produce.”

“It’s only when they get outside of Harvey Mudd that they see just what they have accomplished,” says Van Ryswyk.

Along with Patterson and Shah, Mudd chemistry students Sara Tweedy ’14, Marie Kirkegaard ’15 and Christian Stevens ’14 have all garnered national awards at scientific conventions during the academic year.

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Campus Current

student News

Award Season Four Harvey Mudd College seniors—Sam Gutekunst, Miranda Parker, Sheena Patel and Jeremy Usatine—are recipients of this year’s National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, which recognize outstanding students pursuing advanced degrees in the STEM disciplines. Six recent Harvey Mudd graduates also received the prestigious fellowships. Gutekunst (mathematics) will pursue operations research or combinatorics, Parker (computer science) will be a PhD candidate at Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing, Patel (physics) will study experimental condensed matter physics at University of California, San Diego, and Usatine (mathematics) will enter Yale’s PhD program in mathematics.

Harvey Mudd senior Matthew McDermott (mathematics) received an honorable mention.

Sam Gutekunst ’14

Miranda Parker ’14

Other awards this spring included: Outstanding Group Student Leadership Award

The Asian Pacific Islander Sponsor Program at Mudd (API-SPAM) was recognized for its dedication to relationship building within the Harvey Mudd community and for sustaining a culturally conscious mentoring program for students who identify as API. API-SPAM head sponsors Ginah Han ’14 and Bruce Yan ’15 accepted the award.

Sheena Patel ’14

Udall Award

Priya Donti ’15, a joint computer science/mathematics major with an emphasis in environmental analysis, received a Udall Foundation Honorable Mention, the first such award for a Harvey Mudd College student. A volunteer with the club Mudders Making a Difference, Donti is a teacher and lesson writer for Science Bus, a program that brings hands-on science lessons to elementary school students, and she is co-president of the student environmental club Engineers for a Sustainable World/Mudders Organizing for Sustainability Solutions (ESW/MOSS). She intends to pursue a PhD in environmental computer science research.

She is most passionate about addressing global warming and the energy crisis.

Spacapan Memorial Scholarship

Established by family and friends in memory of Harvey Mudd Professor of Psychology Shirlynn

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Spacapan, this scholarship recognizes a student who has been highly involved in community service. This year's recipient, Brittany Borg ’15, volunteered at Uncommon Good, a community organization seeking to build healthy families and communities. Borg helped create energy modeling for their Whole Earth Building Project and was active in Science Bus, among other projects.

Diversity, Community and Wellness

The Office of Institutional Diversity honored students Chris Zazueta ’14 (Society of Professional Latinos in STEMs, Uncommon Good) and Morgan Mastrovich ’16 (South Dorm mentor, Privilege Walk) with the Outstanding Commitment to Diversity award for leadership in promoting the understanding of diversity and social justice.

Jeremy Usatine ’14

Look Out, Above!

Written by Mara Watkins

Kyle Siegel ’14 and Eric Kiss ’15 have done a lot of homework this past year, but not all of it was directly related to their engineering degrees. They teamed up—with assistance from Daniel Beer CMC ’15—to launch Bloom Robotics. Siegel says, “UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] are forecasted to have a huge economic impact, about $82.1 billion of growth, between 2015 and 2025.” While Bloom is still in the “concept/research stage,” the team hopes to be poised to take advantage of the burgeoning commercial UAV market.

Kiss and Siegel met early in their college careers when they shared a suite. Like many students, they learned about UAVs (also commonly referred to as drones) from playing with toy versions, such as the popular Parrot AR. They were amazed at how quickly the technology is emerging to produce inexpensive UAVs that fly fully autonomously with an onboard operating system. Siegel says, “Drones have the capability to cover a huge distance in a short amount of time. We think that opens up a lot of new markets because while covering that distance you can collect a lot of information at a really low cost.”

The commercial use of drones is currently illegal based on safety and privacy concerns. However, Congress has mandated that UAVs be incorporated into the U.S. airspace by 2015, and rules governing their commercial use are expected to be forthcoming.

It is anticipated this will create many new business opportunities. Kiss has always been interested in starting his own company and took Professor Gary Evans’ Enterprise and Entrepreneurship class as a sophomore. Both he and Siegel have concentrations in economics, and Kiss credits Evans as a source of inspiration and help as well as a main driver of entrepreneurship at Harvey Mudd.

The students were awarded a $5,000 grant from the Shanahan Student-Directed Project Fund, which they used to purchase two drones, write software and do extensive market research. Finding time to pursue this venture has been a constant challenge due to rigorous academic schedules and sports (Siegel played on the 5-C lacrosse team).

Kiss and Siegel were initially excited about opportunities to utilize UAVs in connection with agriculture, such as using aerial photography and multispectral analysis to assess crop health. After extensive market analysis, their takeaway was that it is still difficult to translate that data into practical farm management decisions. The young company has had to pivot and is now in a soul-searching juncture where it is more focused on the asset-monitoring side of the business (such as using UAVs to monitor gas lines,

Drones have the capability to cover a huge distance in a short amount of time. We think that opens up a lot of new markets because while covering that distance you can collect a lot of information at a really low cost.

—Kyle Siegel ’14

power lines or construction sites). The team feels there is a real need for software that would enable the user to manage a UAV fleet but have not ruled out building hardware as well.

Meanwhile, Kiss and Siegel have their sights on work of a different kind. Siegel, newly graduated, has started a position at SpaceX, and Kiss is spending the summer working for MakerBot, a 3-D printing company. Kiss and Beer still have another year of college to complete. The team plans to develop its platform and to make and maintain contacts, including those made through the HMC Entrepreneurial Network, with whom they’ve shared their vision for Bloom Robotics. They believe their early start, comfort with public speaking and combination of business and technical skills will give them an edge in competing in this new market.

Harvey Mudd students often work with unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the Parrot AR, used by entrepreneurs Kyle Siegel ’14 and Eric Kiss ’15.

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Experiential Learning CLINIC

Engineering for Reliability As humans live longer, neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia demand new forays into medicine. San Diego-based Dart Neuroscience (DNS) is working on new drugs to help maintain cognitive vitality throughout life and is getting there with a little technical help from the Harvey Mudd Engineering Clinic.

Met with setbacks during recent pre-clinical testing of candidate drugs, DNS reached out for ways to improve an animal training apparatus for translational research on memory. Inconsistent results didn’t meet the high standard of precision necessary to justify human trials. The DNS Clinic team—seniors James McConnaughey, Samantha Munoz and Shreyasha Paudel and juniors Jackie Ong, Jirka Hladiš and Katherine Yang—were tasked with troubleshooting the apparatus and determining areas for improvement.

“With drug testing, we want data reliability to be extremely high,” says McConnaughey.

During the fall, the group dissected the training apparatus into subsystems for closer evaluation.

It was determined that inconsistent infrared (IR) touchscreen technology and faulty pellet dispensers had combined to undermine the accuracy of the test results.

The first step was to identify problems with the existing screen.

“The infrared screen is basically a grid of beams that, when broken, determine the location of touch,” says Munoz. Testing 35 locations across the IR screen’s center, they found only 15 locations with 100 percent detection and a disappointing 11 with no detection. After studying several alternatives, the team opted to try an AccuTouch resistive screen due to its highly responsive, versatile interface.

Their research paid off. Testing of the resistive screen found 100 percent responsiveness. The group recommended DNS switch technologies for more consistent performance. It also designed a better-functioning, higher-capacity pellet dispenser prototype using an inventive vibratory feeder-bowl design.

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DNS liaisons Philip Cheung ’96, Ronald Blanford ’75 and John McNeil ’89—representing three decades of Harvey Mudd alumni—knew they could count on the Engineering Clinic for a successful redesign. In fact, says Cheung, the students exceeded expectations.

“They were able to go in there and really take the whole thing apart,” he says, “not just tell us what was wrong, but to offer solutions. That ingenuity really brought out the Harvey Mudd spirit.”

—Eric Feezell

Students worked with faculty and alumni liaisons to improve technologies that will aid the testing of memory-enhancing pharmaceuticals.

research

Pursuit of Happiness Is anybody ever truly happy while driving?

Most commuters suspect not, and a team of Mudd mathematicians has created a model to back them up.

Joel Ornstein ’14, Sarah Scheffler ’15 and Ben Lowenstein ’16 offered a “Happiness Corollary” in their solution paper for this year’s Mathematical Contest in Modeling, an international competition that focuses on ingenuity, collaboration and justification of findings. The trio earned a Meritorious result for a model that uses a “driver happiness” metric to gauge the efficiency of the keep-right-except-to-pass traffic rule. They also got some laughs in the process.

Unlike most other MCM teams, Ornstein, Scheffler and Lowenstein were only able to collaborate for about half of the allotted four-day window, working around other scholastic obligations when time permitted. This limitation required a novel approach.

“We wanted it to be fun more than anything,” says Ornstein.

Even with the time crunch, they managed to finish in the top 15 percent of over 6,700 MCM teams.

Mathematically speaking, the team defines driver happiness as an average of current speeds minus the desired, or target, speeds for all cars, divided by the number of cars on the road. Since the dividend will always be negative or zero at best—cars will never surpass their target speeds—the quotient will typically be negative, and never more than zero.

Meaning?

“Happiness can never be positive,” says Lowenstein with a grin.

The model works fairly simply. Cars approach a certain target speed, accelerating until reaching this speed or being obstructed by slower vehicles. At this point, any given car moves left one lane if there is room, passes, returns right one lane and continues approaching target speed until slowed again by another vehicle. Sound familiar?

“The most you can ask for is to drive the speed you want to,” says Ornstein. “We wanted a metric we could actually have meaningful comparisons between.

This measurement was consistent across both sparse and dense traffic.”

Data from heavy and light traffic amid two- and three-lane simulations supported conclusive, if unsurprising, results: • Greater speed limits improve driver happiness.

• Lower traffic densities improve driver happiness.

• Increasing the number of lanes only improves driver happiness in dense traffic flow.

One major challenge, says Scheffler, was setting

experimental parameters amid a laundry list of potential variables, including car volume and speed, road conditions, lane numbers and presence of on- or off-ramps.

“We immediately thought of a ton of stuff that could affect this,” says Scheffler.

Ideally more variables could have been accounted for, she admits. Given time constraints, the team had to make some less-than-realistic assumptions to move forward. Among them: cars accelerate and stop infinitely quickly; roads are straight; car-following distance is never violated.

“The assumption was really that cars can never crash,” says Scheffler.

Despite this fantasy, says Lowenstein, real-world drivers should take note: Data showed no appreciable evidence that closer car-following distance affected

driver happiness positively or negatively—suggesting tailgating does little, if anything, to enhance the driving experience.

“Those results were not statistically significant,” says Lowenstein. He reflects a moment, then laughs. “Probably.”

—Eric Feezell

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Experiential Learning CLINIC

Designing a Fleeter Fleet In the world of shipping, efficiency rules.

When materials manufacturer MetCel approached the Clinic Program on behalf of a beverage bottler, they wanted to know: Could a semi-truck trailer be redesigned to increase capacity without compromising safety and performance?

Guided by engineering Professor Kash Gokli, the MetCel Clinic team—seniors Madeline Goldkamp, Ginah Han and Lisa Lam, juniors Ryland Miller and Aarthi Sridhar, and Pomona College senior Alex Lammers—answered with a definitive “yes.”

The stretch goal: increase trailer capacity by 5,000 pounds, the weight of two additional beverage pallets.

The design hurdle? “Lightweighting” the trailer to offset increased capacity and keep the whole rig street legal.

But two and a half tons is a lofty goal, and objectives and constraints were at odds. “It had to be safe, lightweight, easy to manufacture,” explains Goldkamp, spring team leader, “but compatible with standard forklifts and docking, meeting federal and state regulations on size and weight.”

The starting point: a standard 15,240-pound trailer, 53 feet long, 102 inches wide and 110 inches tall, which holds 20 pallets. Using reverse engineering to disassemble major components—sidewalls, rear door frame, front wall assembly, chassis and roof— the team extrapolated individual component weights based on material analysis of cross sections. A Pareto analysis, used to narrow down the few most beneficial actions among many, concentrated on three of the four heaviest components: side wall assemblies, floor panels and I-beams.

“We found that when we added two additional pallets, we could accommodate 99 percent of those shipments if the trailer was reduced to between 10,250 and 10,500 pounds,” says Goldkamp.

A 3-D computer-aided design model allowed them to compare potential volume and area alterations to specific components. Then, finite element analysis was done to verify the structural integrity of the trailer. Through a combination of lighter aluminum paneling, novel floor design and minimal reductions in trailer width and height, the team was able to meet its target weight—and thus its two-pallet goal.

For the bottler, this could spell cost savings to the

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tune of 10 percent—equal to added load capacity.

“Their industry spends almost $700 million in shipping costs annually,” says Han—meaning together they could save $70 million by implementing the new design. Project liaisons are so impressed, they will order a trailer with the new specifications for further real-world testing.

The team estimates that if the whole fleet is replaced, the investment could be paid off in about two years given the frequency of bottler’s shipments and expected savings.

And, as an added incentive, it’s greener. Ten percent more loading capacity reduces carbon emissions in kind. One study suggests this saves 10 kilograms of carbon dioxide per U.S. household each year, “equivalent to the amount of CO2 sequestered by tens of thousands of acres of U.S. forest land,” says Lammers.

The team hopes to further reduce the trailer weight, primarily through redesign of the floor assembly. It looks to transfer its models to MetCel, which may further implement custom, lightweight component material for added value.

—Eric Feezell

Top image: The student team stress tested a trailer in static loading conditions using a finite element analysis. Ginah Han ’14 describes the cost benefit of the new design.

research

What Goes Around It’s easy to disregard the slow-growing wild cucumber. But if you want to learn how the Echinocystis lobata uses its tendrils to make its way toward the sun, you should take a closer look.

Alex B. Lee ’14, a mathematical and computational biology major, worked with physics Professor Sharon Gerbode—an expert on the coiling of plant tendrils— and biology professors Stephen Adolph and Anna Ahn to study how the E. lobata finds structures and climbs through circumnutation, a circular motion common in growing plants.

“It is possible that the circumnutation in these cucumber tendrils, this searching behavior, is a motion that is also programmed into the material,”

says Lee. “In something like robotics, it could be useful to program certain behaviors into the material itself so as to reduce energy costs that may come with having a central nervous system having to send signals to manage and control the behavior. Understanding circumnutation could be used in the locomotion of robotics. If we could program circumnutation into the material of the legs, it could automatically search for footholds as it took each step.”

While past studies tracked the tip of the plant in 2-D space during circumnutation, the team sought a new perspective. Gerbode says, “By reconstructing the 3-D position of circumnutating tendrils using three orthogonal cameras, we hope to compare the

shape and motions of real tendrils to those predicted by a simple mechanical model of a rod bending under gravity, driven by a curvature-fixing motor located somewhere along the length of the rod. With this simple model, we hope to learn more about how tendril circumnutation responds to various stimuli and determine what about these tendrils makes their motion so robust and effective.”

—Stephanie L. Graham

A plant tendril latches on to an object. Physical lessons can be learned by studying plant movement.

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SPACE Study

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Taking a Spin Around the Physics Lab Keck Building, B129 In the Harvey Mudd spintronics laboratory, professors Jim Eckert and Patti Sparks and their undergraduate research group explore magnetic multilayer structures, manipulating the spin of particles to achieve novel functionalities and explore new physics. Using over $1 million in state-of-the-art equipment, these “condensed matter physicists” study the fundamental physics associated with controlling the spin transport of the electrons, work essential to developing the next generation of magnetic devices.

“The materials we study have been used in the magnetic recording industry, and are going to be used in the spintronic devices of the future,” says Sparks. The spintronics group is interested in electron movement and orientation and the fundamental interactions that affect electron behavior. “It’s not quite the same as, ‘How do I make a better hard disk?’

But, we’re clearly working with people who are making better hard disks.”

Welcome to the intersection of physics, engineering and materials science.

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One million dollars’ worth of equipment includes two quantum design physical property measurement systems, each equipped with closed-cycle helium refrigerators with 9-tesla superconducting magnets and all the bells and whistles.

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Everything controllable from the lab’s two desktop computer monitors—Yantao Wu ’15 views one of them—can also be controlled remotely. This allows researchers to tend experiments from dorm rooms, faculty offices, off campus and even while traveling to international conferences, rather than requiring them to come to the lab to check on an experiment’s progress. Group members even have an app on their smartphones that allows them to observe and control experiments.

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Eckert speaks with Christie Thompson ’15 as she loads a fresh sample using the sample puck installation/retraction rod (aka the “puck plucker”). The sample’s temperature will be varied over a range of 700 degrees Fahrenheit while its electrical and magnetic properties are measured.

The rear physical property measurement system (PPMS) takes its name from South Park fan favorite Butters, while the other PPMS system, naturally, is named after Butters’ alter ego, evil scientist wannabe Professor Chaos. The theme doesn’t end there. Says Eckert, “We used to have water-cooled compressors that died all the time, so we named them Kenny.”

An oddly placed Mary Poppins homage? Not quite. The seemingly random blue umbrella serves to reduce glare for a video camera that monitors the lab’s helium levels. The umbrella is a souvenir Sparks picked up from a conference in South Korea.

The quantum design systems liquefy helium gas to provide the cooling for the experiments. With a boiling point of 4.2 Kelvin (-452 F), helium is the go-to coolant when it comes to low-temperature experiments. Unfortunately, helium—most often found while drilling for natural gas—is nonrenewable and dwindling, and the small amounts in the Earth’s atmosphere are expensive to collect through separation techniques. “We’re going to run out,” says Eckert. “And this will hamstring scientists seeking to study materials and systems at low temperatures.”

At the entrance to the lab, visitors encounter this sign. The Line of Death is more than just a hyperbolic warning not to touch the equipment; for some people, it’s literal. The stray magnetic fields that exist while the superconducting magnets are charged, while small, have the potential to interfere with pacemakers and neural stimulators. Therefore, persons with such devices are warned not to go in or near areas where they may encounter magnetic fields large enough to be of concern.

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Rising sophomore Gabi Bellino ’17 recognizes the value of the specialized, hands-on undergraduate research that takes place in the lab. “What’s great about professors Eckert and Sparks is that they give me the same responsibility as the older students—I’m not just cleaning the lab, but wiring and mounting samples, writing sequence files and graphing data,” says Bellino. Here, she switches out a sample on the rotator. “They also never hesitate to take us out for ice cream.”

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Curiosity and spirit lead to opportunities for alumnae fascinated by space.

Written by Amy DerBedrosian Photos by Shannon Cottrell

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early 35 years after the first moonwalk, the atmosphere at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) was tense. Two of JPL’s three most recent attempts to send missions to Mars had failed.

This time, Mars exploration and possibly many jobs at JPL were at stake.

Ashley Stroupe ’90, an engineer who’d joined the Pasadena lab a month earlier, watched with interest.

The 1990 Harvey Mudd College physics graduate recalls of that day in January 2004, “When we got the signal back that the rover was on the ground, there was relief and elation. To be that close to something I’d wanted to do my whole life was incredible. It felt like an end point, but it was really a beginning. What would the rover see? Where would it go? What would it find?”

Across the country, 16-year-old Heather Justice ’09 viewed a documentary about the rovers. Inspired, the high school student began thinking about the excitement and challenges of a career in space and robotics.

A decade later, both Stroupe and Justice work on JPL’s Mars Exploration Rover operations team. That’s not all they have in common: Justice also attended Harvey Mudd, earning her bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2009. Both went on to graduate programs in robotics at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Stroupe became the first woman to drive a Mars rover, and Justice is completing her training now.

Both grew up in Maryland.

Neither ever expected to work with the rovers.

Justice, who joined JPL in 2011, explains, “The Mars rover that landed in 2004 was supposed to last 90 days. I just celebrated 1,000 sols—Martian days— working on the mission myself. I never imagined the rover would last long enough.”

This is actually Justice’s second stint at JPL: In summer 2009, she assisted two of her Harvey Mudd computer science professors, Robert Keller and Christopher Stone, with a research project involving simulation and modeling. While an undergraduate participating in the NASA Robotics Academy, she also spent two summers as a research assistant at NASA Ames Research Center and a team leader at NASA Goddard Space Center.

For Stroupe, the path to JPL was less direct.

Enamored of space exploration since age three, she dreamed of becoming an astronaut until she realized even a carousel gave her motion sickness. After completing concentrations in astrophysics and anthropology at Harvey Mudd, she considered graduate study in each of these fields, worked at the Smithsonian Institution and took a variety of engineering classes before settling on robotics.

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“Because of my education at Mudd, I realized there’s not just one way to get to an end point,” Stroupe says. “Ultimately, I ended up where I should be, and I think all the steps I took made me a better engineer.”

Nine months after joining JPL, Stroupe moved to the Mars mission, analyzing data and the performance of robotic systems used to drive and operate the rovers’ arms. When she became a rover driver, Stroupe learned only months later that she was the first woman to do so. She says, “I’d assumed this wasn’t the case. That was the last ‘first’ for women

for MER planning. They’d already been doing all the other jobs, which is even cooler to me.”

Nonetheless, Stroupe considers her first solo drive a career highlight. Directing the rover’s movements on her own, Stroupe recalls, “I could see every place we’d been and every place we’d go. I could see the

tracks that I made—the first woman-made tracks— coming up the hill. When I saw the picture of the spectacular view and those tracks, I felt I was contributing to this mission and exploration.”

Now that Justice is also training as a driver, she’s experiencing similar thrills. Justice says, “It’s exciting to send commands to drive the rover to certain places and the next morning look at the pictures to see where it’s been. I came into the project at a good time.

The rover arrived at Endeavor Crater, where it found clay minerals to support a history of water on Mars that might have supported life. Lately, we’re driving it further south to an area with much stronger signals of clay minerals. I’m excited to see what we find.”

Unlike Stroupe, Justice has worked only with the rover Opportunity, which arrived on Mars three weeks after Spirit. In 2010, Spirit had become stuck on the edge of a crater obliterated from view by dust.

Stroupe, who by then had driven Spirit for more than four years, was integral to the rescue attempt.

In the mission control room for Opportunity, Stroupe and Justice use a planning tool that shows the rover and its Martian surroundings in 3-D (hence the goggles, needed for viewing the 3-D simulation of the rover's setting on Mars).

The simulation incorporates actual images from the rover's stereo cameras.

I could see the tracks that I made—the first woman-made tracks—coming up the hill. When I saw the picture of the spectacular view and those tracks, I felt I was contributing to this mission and exploration.

– Ashley Stroupe ’90

“We had a solution that was working beautifully, but it became a race against time because we were getting closer to winter,” Stroupe recounts. “The rover knew when its power got too low and shut itself down. We hoped it would power up when the sun got high enough again.”

They waited a year but received no further communication from Spirit. Stroupe says, “Though it was sad to say goodbye, we had much to celebrate. We had fundamentally changed our understanding of Mars by finding the equivalent of hot springs or thermal vents. We also got an outpouring from the public that told us how much interest there was in space. They were almost as invested in Spirit as we were.”

Now, Stroupe splits her time between Opportunity and the newer Curiosity rover, while Justice works with Opportunity. The two interact regularly as they send commands, analyze the performance of the rovers and discuss process improvements. Stroupe also

helped to train Justice to use their team’s mobility system and instrument deployment device.

Though the alumnae didn’t know each other before they came to JPL, Stroupe says, “Beyond the Mars rovers, we have a common vocabulary. We’re definitely friends, and I’d like to think I’m a mentor.

I observe in her enthusiasm, extreme capability, a good sense of humor and someone who doesn’t cave to stress at all. I can give her any analysis task and she can figure it out, usually within 10 minutes. It’s largely Heather, but also her Mudd experience coming out. I hope we continue to work together for a long time.”

Rover 2 is driven over staggered ramps to test the suspension's range of motion.

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Aircraft Written by Ashley Festa Photos by Seth Affoumado

Aviation expert Ken Orloff ’66 reconstructs aircraft accidents The first time Ken Orloff ’66 took the stand, he was petrified.

Now, after testifying with his expert opinion on aircraft accidents in nearly 100 trials, he’s more at ease. With 28 years of experience running Orloff Consulting, an aviation accident reconstruction firm, he’s confident that his analyses will withstand the scrutiny of cross-examination.

But Orloff never expected to end up the center of attention in a courtroom when he began his career in aeronautics. He didn’t even expect his interest in building model airplanes at age 10 to become a career. Now with two physics degrees and a mechanical engineering PhD, Orloff has turned his childhood love of aircraft construction into a business.

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Building planes is Orloff's favorite pastime. His handiwork includes a Lancair Model IV-P (left) that he uses for business and an open-cockpit biplane (not shown) that he's been working on since 1978.

The 1941 WWII Ryan Model PT-22 primary trainer (right) is owned and flown by his wife, Lynne.

Taking Off This business wasn’t exactly planned, Orloff says.

“You just kind of end up there.”

His first step in the journey was as an undergraduate studying physics at Harvey Mudd. At the time, he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.

He enjoyed the challenge of physics, but was more interested in surfing and chasing girls than studying.

As a junior, he applied for the Bates Program for Aeronautical Education at the College, a three-semester, co-curricular program intended to teach leadership and responsibility. By the end of the program, Orloff had earned his private pilot’s license. Before he graduated, he had both commercial pilot and flight instructor licenses. During summers, he surfed in Maui, Hawaii, earning a paycheck by teaching flight instruction and later, by flying single-engine charter planes.

Moving on to a master’s in physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Orloff paid his tui-

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tion as a teaching assistant and by providing evening and weekend flight instruction. About the time he began doctoral work in physics at UC Santa Barbara, he had a breakthrough. While conducting experimental work in a lab, Orloff showed some data to his advisor, who was ecstatic about his findings. “His eyes got giant, and he said, ‘That’s it! Photon-phonon coupling!’” Orloff says.

“That was the first revelation that I knew what I wanted to do,” he says. “I couldn’t get that excited about photon-phonon coupling, so I left physics and went over to mechanical engineering, where I was able to take some aeronautics courses. From then on, I had some direction.” He ended up with a mechanical engineering doctorate, specializing in aeronautics.

Orloff took a post-doctoral position with the National Research Council at NASA’s Ames Research Center, soon transitioning to the position of research scientist with NASA. As a visiting professor on-loan from NASA, he briefly taught physics, engineering

and aeronautics at Harvey Mudd. He continued teaching off and on throughout his employment at NASA, and finally found himself teaching upper-division aeronautics courses at San Jose State University’s Department of Aeronautics, where his career took a new direction.

A professor asked Orloff to assist him with a forensic investigation in defense of Cessna, and with permission from NASA, Orloff accepted the challenge.

The professor eventually asked Orloff to work with him full time in forensic consulting. From there, Orloff built a client base and, in 1986, branched out to establish Orloff Consulting in Groveland, California, where he lives in a residential airport community with his wife, Lynne, who’s also a pilot. Even when he’s not on the job, he’s working on aircraft projects.

He built his own high-performance plane for business travel, and he’s nearly finished with a biplane he’s been working on since 1978.

Reconstructing a Crash Starting the aviation accident reconstruction business “put together everything I’d been doing in one package,” Orloff says. When he takes on a case, he combines all his knowledge and credentials in physics, engineering, aerodynamics and mechanical maintenance to analyze the flight data and form his professional opinion about what caused the crash.

Outcomes of hundreds of court cases have been based in part on Orloff’s expertise in accident reconstruction.

To make an assessment, Orloff’s first step is to gather information about the flight, which could come from data recorders, cockpit audio recordings, radar data, aircraft maintenance and modifications records, wreckage and crash site inspections, and more.

“You learn as much as you can about it,” he says.

“Then see where it leads you.”

Orloff then reconstructs the sequence of events along the flight path to determine what likely happened to cause the accident. One of his most technically difficult cases involved a Boeing 737 that crashed while trying to take off. Continental Airlines blamed the Federal Aviation Administration, and Orloff was called in to examine the evidence.

After analyzing flight information, Boeing aerodynamic data, and wind speed and direction, Orloff concluded that the airplane was capable of handling the crosswind. “There was an incredible amount of data,” Orloff says. “We knew what the pilot was doing from the flight data recorder, and I was able to calculate what the plane could do. At one point, the pilot didn’t push the correct rudder pedal at the right time to handle the wind. It was pilot error.” With Orloff’s report backing the FAA, Continental Airlines settled the case out of court.

Even clients and juries with little technical savvy can understand Orloff’s conclusions, thanks to graphics and computer animations his staff creates to provide visual representation of flight data. Sometimes, however, there isn’t much data to present.

“Sometimes the most difficult cases are those that don’t have all the data you want because it doesn’t exist,” Orloff says. “My role is to gather all the info there is, and based on my background, training, experience and education, bridge the gaps between that information and what we don’t know.”

Orloff’s clients include defense and plaintiff attorneys as well as insurance companies. His biggest client is the U.S. Department of Justice, which hires him to defend the FAA against allegations, such as in the Continental Airlines case.

Every year, he opens about two dozen cases, and at any moment he could have 50 active ones. He travels all over the world visiting wreckage sites and testifying. He last went to court in May 2013 in Australia.

He’s also been to British Columbia, Croatia, Guam, Great Britain and Costa Rica.

Commenting on the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, Orloff says there’s no information to gather to make any assessments. No recordings, no radar, no wreck, no plane. “I have absolutely no idea where it would be,” he says. “In an area with no radar coverage like the South Indian Ocean, it’s the ends of the earth down there.”

Graphics and computer animations provide a visual representation of flight data, helping determine what likely happened to cause an accident.

Skytamer.com

The fascinating quest and delectable advice of a mushroomer Written by Eric Feezell Photos by Michael Beug ’66

hen Michael Beug ’66 first tasted panfried mushrooms, he was hooked. So much so that he devoted his life’s work to mycology: the study of fungi.

“My conversion to mycophile was a meal of morels,” says Beug. A prized edible mushroom in the phylum Ascomycota—Beug’s area of expertise—the meaty morel also comes with a disclaimer: Don’t confuse it with the toxic “false morel, ”which, if eaten, can cause nausea, dizziness, vomiting and (rarely) death.

A scientific approach is crucial, he says. In nearly 50 years of foraging and thousands of shared meals, Beug, a chemistry graduate, has never poisoned himself or anybody else.

“If you can tell a cantaloupe from an antelope, you can safely identify many of the choicest mushrooms,” says Beug. It isn’t difficult. Just use your senses: surface texture, smell, taste (just a nibble, and spit it out). This will help you determine what to avoid.

Many species can be easily classified with a little experimental detection, he says. Very few wild mushrooms are actually toxic—only about 1 percent—and fewer of these deadly so. The simple rule is: If you’re unsure, don’t eat it.

And, according to Beug, unless it is a truffle, cook it first.

“You especially don’t want to eat those raw mushrooms in the salad bars,” says Beug. The button variety, a ubiquitous offering in supermarkets and restaurants, is actually somewhat indigestible and mildly toxic uncooked. The temptation of raw buttons is the firm texture and nutty taste, but it is wise to resist, he says.

Beug is a wellspring of fungi scholarship, having lectured and led forays nationwide. He chairs the Toxicology Committee for the North American Mycological Association, which gathers annual data

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Harvey Mudd College

Plectania melastoma

Gyromitra brunnea

Morchella Mel-19

Gyromitra californica

on mushroom poisonings (affecting mostly dogs, children and “careless adults,” he says).

He recommends sampling edible fungi only with an experienced guide. He also recommends studying on your own. One good place to begin: his book. Beug recently co-wrote Ascomycete Fungi of North America: A Mushroom Reference Guide. Lauded for its comprehensiveness, the thick tome provides common and scientific name indexes, an exhaustive glossary and a colorful dichotomous picture key featuring over 600 Ascomycete species, including many kinds of morels and truffles. Beug’s approach ushers in a new standard for designing keys for plants, insects and fungi, one he hopes is widely adopted.

“When two or three species looked very much alike, I lined them up side by side,” says Beug. From the photographic key, readers are directed to the main body of the book for extended descriptions and other nuances useful for identification. With 75,000 known Ascomycetes—the vast majority of them microscopic—this was no small task. Beug and his co-authors sought a manageable range that didn’t sacrifice utility and inclusiveness. They decided to cut it off at one millimeter or larger in diameter—basically most known varieties visible to the naked eye.

“I contacted my network of people throughout Northern America, and I asked them to send me every Ascomycete photo they had,” says Beug. According to Beug, the exhaustive search resulted in the guide containing practically all currently known and photographed North American Ascomycetes over one millimeter.

Beug’s mushrooming mission began while earning an organic chemistry doctorate at University of Wash-

Gyromitra infula

ington, in the fungi-replete Pacific Northwest. After teaching at Harvey Mudd during the 1971–1972 academic year, he returned to Washington to a coveted position at The Evergreen State College. Beug credits the collaborative spirit of Mudd with helping him land that job.

“One of [Evergreen’s] requirements was to submit student recommendations as well as professional recommendations,” says Beug. “So I asked a couple of Harvey Mudd students, and the entire freshman class sent a letter.”

With 1,000 wooded acres of fabulous mushrooming ground, Evergreen was a forager’s paradise. Its experimental approach to science curriculum lent itself well to mycological research and instruction.

Beug struck out into the woods and hasn’t looked back.

While he sees himself primarily as a mycological educator and enabler of discovery—he’s discovered several new species himself—Beug admits that the mushroom’s rich delectability is a fortunate byproduct of his work. Especially when it’s sautéed in avocado oil and butter until lightly browned, and served with salt.

One of Beug’s favorite edible varieties is the

Recipe Recipe

Mushroom Duxelles

Recipe courtesy of Michael Beug ’66

Ingredients

Discovered on a recent foray, this unnamed member of the Sarcomyxa genus is as delicious as it is

• Edible mushroom of your choice • Sweet onions or shallots • Good quality dry white wine (I prefer a dry Riesling) • Salt • Fresh-ground nutmeg (optional)

attractive, says Beug.

Preparation hearty, gargantuan King Bolete, commonly known as a Porcini or Steinpilz (German for “boulder mushroom”). He recalls a foray in the Tetons: “I had 14 people in my class and we found one baby King Bolete. It served a nice plateful to all 14 people. I couldn’t get both hands around the stem, and it was just a baby.”

A recently discovered Basidiomycete of the Sarcomyxa genus has only been found once—by Beug and a colleague—in just one location. Mycophiles came from far and wide requesting to see it—a pilgrimage of sorts. With its beautiful yellow-orange gills and billowing blue caps, this unnamed species of Sarcomyxa is truly a sight to behold. Turns out it was also the best-cooking, tastiest mushroom Beug’s ever had.

“Delicious,” he declares—but only when very young. Some edible mushrooms turn bitter with age.

In addition to fine dining, mycology offers deep explorations of eco-biology, chemistry and medical science, he says. Fungi are the ecosystem’s chief recyclers of organic matter. Mycorrhizal fungi are critical partners in plant growth, interacting with plant roots.

Ascomycete fungi are the natural sources of common drugs like penicillin and fungicides. The mushroom’s edibility and aesthetic beauty are secondary to its chief biological functions.

“It’s the whole panoply of things that I am interested in,” says Beug of his research, “giving people an appreciation for the environment, [finding] avenues for new chemicals that are going to help make life more comfortable for humans—I think there’s a lot that remains to be discovered.”

If you can tell a cantaloupe from an antelope, you can safely identify many of the choicest mushrooms.

Use a soft bristle brush to clean a pile of mushrooms. I like to use one to five pounds of morels, chanterelles or king boletes, but you can also use store-bought button mushrooms. Do not hesitate to use running water to remove all the dirt.

Finely chop the mushrooms (or pulse them quickly in a blender). Finely chop about 1/3 as much sweet onion or shallots.

Fill one or more skillets ¾ full with the mushrooms and onions (or shallots) and cook on medium-high, stirring until all liquid has cooked off and the mushrooms are starting to stick to the skillet.

Add a little olive oil and/or avocado oil and/or butter.

Do not let the mushrooms brown.

Pour in enough white wine (or sake) to cover the cooked mushroom mix. While lubricating the cook and guests liberally with the remaining wine, continue heating until the wine has reduced and the mushrooms are again starting to stick and/or brown.

Season to taste with salt and fresh ground nutmeg (use about 1 teaspoon per skillet).

You now have duxelles ready for use. My first choice is to spoon a thick layer onto crostini (or your favorite toast), cover with slices of extra sharp cheddar cheese and melt the cheese into the duxelles under a broiler. Serve immediately.

Freeze any leftovers in ice cube trays. Later use 1–2 cubes per person in soups, stews, egg dishes, etc. Mushrooms and eggs make an especially great pairing. Try duxelles in quiches, omelettes or scrambled eggs.

– Michael Beug ’66

SUMMER SUMMER2014 2014

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Mudderings

“Significant Contributions…”

Nominated by peers and selected by the Alumni Association Board of Governors Selections Committee, this year’s awardees are a diverse group who have made significant contributions to science, society and Harvey Mudd.

Fred Pickel ’74, Lifetime Recognition Award; Russell Merris ’64, Outstanding Alumnus; Elizabeth Baughman, Honorary Alumna; and Outstanding Alumni Ken Livak ’74, George Zimmerman ’69, Henry Brady ’69 and Tyrel McQueen ’04.

(Not shown: Outstanding Alumni Joseph Costello ’74 and Jonathan Gay ’89.)

Nominations Sought The Selections Committee requests nominations for the 2015 awards.

Contact alumni@hmc.edu.

Outstanding Award For significant contributions to humanity or society.

Order of the Wart For alumni and friends who have made important contributions to the Harvey Mudd community.

Lifetime Recognition Award For alumni and friends who have provided outstanding dedication to the College.

Alumni Association Board of Governors Two new members have been elected to the Alumni Association Board of Governors and will serve three-year terms. AABoG members are volunteers who partner with staff, faculty and students to strengthen ties and increase alumni support of the College.

Matthew Dharm ’98 is the chief technology officer at JumpGen Systems, having previously been with Qualcomm and Mercury Computer Systems.

Dana Mohamed ’06 worked at a management consulting firm doing training and business intelligence. She now has her own private tutoring business in San Diego.

Board members re-elected to three-year terms are Jason Fredrickson ’99, Glen Hastings ’93, Bob Herling ’67, David Sonner ’80 P17 and Dee West ’65 P92/93.

For a full roster of 2014–2015 officers, see http://bit.ly/1kDqBzg

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Harvey Mudd College

Alumni Weekend 2014

1

2

Alumni Weekend 2015 The Five-O will be in the house during Alumni Weekend 2015 (cue Hawaii Five-O theme song)—that is, reunion classes ending in “5” and “0.” Friday, May 1, through Sunday, May 3, we’re planning a mix of mingling (with faculty, classmates and friends) and activities, both informative and fun. Want to help with the planning? Reunion class members interested in joining their reunion committee should email alumni@hmc.edu.

3

1. Maureen Thurman and Iris Hyon, wife and daughter of Matthew In Hyon ’94 2. Paul Orwin ’95, Liz Orwin ’95, Badier Velji ’07, Dave Matsuda ’94, Craig Dandurand ’94 3. Glennis Rayermann ’09, Jack Ma ’14, Danny Lim ’09, Edwin Lei ’09, Annika Eberle ’09, Mark Shin. Seated: Eric Young ’09, Brad Witkowski ’09

SUMMER 2014

35

Washington, D.C.

Mudderings

New York

Harvey Mudd is on a Mission 1

Friends of the College showed up in force at

events around the United States earlier this year for the launch of the $150 million Campaign for Harvey Mudd College. Gatherings featured faculty and students sharing their passions, their stories of collaborative problem solving and their thoughts on why the world needs Harvey Mudd.

2

Los Angeles

Palo Alto

Seattle

5

4 1. Zach ’08 and Sarah Rogstad ’08 2. Alejandro Mendoza ’16, mathematics Professor Talithia Williams and Travis Athougies ’14 3. President Maria Klawe with Dale Stirn ’69 and Gwen Cottingham

3

4. Maggie Thompson ’14, Christian Stevens ’14, Sophie Parks ’14, Peter Megson ’14, Shreyas Kumar ’14, Anthony Corso ’14, Stephen Pinto ’14 5. Ho Nam ’88 and Jeff Byron P07

Fall Calendar Events for Parents and Families Orientation, Aug. 27–28 This fall, Harvey Mudd will welcome 198 students into the Class of 2018. Senior administrators, faculty, staff and students will offer a series of events on Wednesday, Aug. 27, and Thursday, Aug. 28, to help parents and family members of these new students become better acquainted with the College. More information about Parent Orientation can be found at hmc.edu/ parents.

Family Weekend, Feb. 6–7, 2015 Parents, start planning now to join us on campus Friday, Feb. 6 through Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015, for Family Weekend. Participants will have opportunities to speak with faculty and administrators, to learn about new developments at Harvey Mudd and, most important, to reconnect with their students.

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Harvey Mudd College

AUG.

27–28 sep.

2

Parent Orientation, Claremont

Fall semester classes begin

sep.

180th Alumni Association Board of Governors Meeting, Claremont

sep.

Third Annual Alumni/Student Career Forum, Claremont

27 27

sep.

Harvey Mudd Community Mt. Baldy Hike, Claremont

oct.

Brunch with Mathematics Professors Karp and Williams, Los Angeles

28

18

oct.

15–19

Mudd Travel: Highway 395, Part 2

2014 Dr. Bruce J. Nelson ’74 Distinguished Speaker Series

Synthetic Biology: The New Frontier of Engineering and the Life Sciences In recent years, the engineering of life has become significantly more systematic and ambitious, focusing on the addition of new functionalities into biological systems. The emerging field of synthetic biology promises to lead to more environmentally friendly and cost-effective means of producing fuels, medicines and more. The 2014 Nelson Series will explore the prospects for this approach by looking at diverse examples ranging from engineered molecules to whole organisms. Watch social media, email and postal mail for fall dates and details.

Class Notes

Doug Kim ’82 is leading the charge to develop Southern California’s “smart grid,” technology that uses computer-based remote control and automation to bring utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century.

Alumni Profile

Transformer Doug Kim ’82 takes the grid from smart to smarter Written by Anne Dullaghan and Stephanie L. Graham Photo by Jude Schneider

Moving smart grid technologies from engineering concepts to California neighborhoods takes someone who understands transitions. That someone is Doug Kim ’82.

Kim learned English and navigated the complexities of American teenage culture as a 15-year-old Korean immigrant. The universal language of science and mathematics was his refuge, and he became a high achiever who dreamed of being an engineer. Harvey Mudd offered a small, tight-knit community with opportunities for growth. “I gained the ability to persevere in an incredibly stimulating environment,” says Kim. “I learned to tough it out and to push myself to rise to the rigorous demands of the academic curriculum.”

In his current role as director of advanced technology, Kim oversees SCE’s smart grid development, which includes advanced grid technologies, energy storage, electric transportation and integration of energy-smart consumer products like solar panels, PEV charging systems and residential battery storage systems.

These technologies are some of what you’ll find in the Garage of the Future Lab, one of the 11 integrated Advanced Technology Labs that are test beds for a safer, smarter and more reliable energy future. Work in the “garage” centers on residential solar, storage and vehicle-fueling integration. Third-party smart energy devices are being evaluated for compatibility with Edison SmartConnect meters and services in the Grid Edge Solutions Lab, and a digitally networked grid is being refined in the Communications and Computing Lab, where the properties of high-speed, low-latency wireless communications networks are being studied. The labs provide a controlled testing environment and an integrated platform for evaluating smart grid technologies before they are deployed.

“We’re a cutting-edge lab, and there’s a lot that we do that is not happening in any other place,” says Kim. “We’re always trying new things in the lab to After graduating with an engineering degree, Kim improve the grid. There are some 3,000 electric utility companies in the country, and we want to share our worked in aerospace, managing engineering proknowledge to modernize the grid for cleaner energy grams and projects. As the aerospace industry began throughout the United States. To do that, we partner its downturn, Kim found his interests turning to corporate strategy and finance. He returned to school with vendors, national labs, colleges and universities, and policy makers to try to figure out the right techand received an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management in 1996. At the time, the electric util- nologies.

“Our goal is to find new, efficient ways to deliver ities were undergoing a period of deregulation, and a safe and reliable standardized energy from many once sleepy, static industry transformed rapidly. As a corporate strategist for Edison International, Kim and different sources across our 50,000-square-mile coverage area. It’s a big paradigm shift from the way we his group were tasked to design a new direction for used to do things, which was in a very physics-driven, the company’s business operations. Five years later, centrally managed system that offered customers Kim moved into a new role at Southern California few choices. Now what we’re doing at SCE and in Edison, an Edison International subsidiary. the Advanced Technology labs is driven by customer Like many U.S. utilities, SCE was moving from an desires, their behavior, what they expect from pricing old central power plant/transmission-and-distribution energy model to a world of smart meters, plug-in and from service and incentive programs.”

More than 14 million people stand to benefit from electric vehicles (PEVs), photovoltaic power and renewable resources. Kim was ready for the challenge, this transition, perhaps the biggest yet for SCE. serving first as resource planning manager, then case “By enabling the electric grid, we can try to make manager for smart meters, then as director of plug-in everyone’s home green friendly. That’s what really excites me.” electric vehicle readiness, a role that helped ensure SCE’s grid and services were prepared to support the growing number of electric cars and their chargers.

SUMMER 2014

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Class Notes 1962

The Journal of Chemical Education published several of Steven Murov’s articles in the Nov. 2013 issue and used one of the article images for the cover photo. In addition to writing dozens of experiments and publications on general, organic and photochemistry, Steven has presented hundreds of chemistry demonstrations “to turn kids on to science and make people aware of the fun, excitement and importance of science.” Some of the presentations are made by his alter-ego, Dr. Al Chemist (pictured). A professor of chemistry at Modesto Junior College, Steven says his most significant accomplishment is that he now has four grandchildren (Dylan Rosenow, 12, Hope Solus, 12, Carson Rosenow, 9, and Mylee Murov, 4).

individuals and small businesses and also has expertise in divorce taxation.

1981

Great news for LanzaTech and CEO Jennifer Holmgren. The developer of fuels and chemicals from waste gases raised $60 million from key investors in March. LanzaTech then proceeded to collect awards from several organizations in May: The company received a 2014 Platts Global Metals Award for Breakthrough Innovation of the Year for its advancements in biotechnology that help reduce the steel-making industry’s carbon emissions. LanzaTech was awarded the Carbon and Energy Management Innovation Award at the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards, held in London. The prestigious Executives’ Club of Chicago named LanzaTech the 2014 Innovator of the Year for the growth and measurable economic benefit it has brought to the region.

1982

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Ralph A. Wheeler was After 21 years as chair of the Department of Comelected to the 2014 governing puting Sciences at Villanova University, Bob Beck board of directors for the Council stepped away from the position last fall. He’s been for Chemical Research in Mount chair since the department split from mathematics.

Laurel, New Jersey. He is professor On May 20, Bob received the Outstanding Undergrad- and chair of chemistry and biochemistry at Duquesne uate Research Mentoring award from the National University. A native of Tucson, Arizona, Ralph taught Center for Women and Information Technology. physical and general chemistry at the University of Oklahoma for 20 years before he was hired by 1975 Duquesne in 2010. He is a fellow and member of On March 21, Donald Simkins ’74/75 was awarded the American Chemical Society, from which he has the highest honor in the field of National Reconnaisreceived two outstanding service awards. sance: induction into Pioneer Hall at the National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Virginia. Accord1985 ing to the NRO, Don faced and overcame technical Dana Hobson has joined a bitcoin startup called challenges with pioneering innovations that led to Bitnet (www.bitnet.io), a merchant payment processuperior intelligence collection from space. He was sor that enables merchants to sell goods and services lauded for his work in improving signals processing online to consumers who want to pay in bitcoin. “We techniques for satellite geolocation. The National pay the merchant in his local currency (what bitcoinReconnaissance Pioneer Program recognizes and ers call ‘fiat’ currency: USD, EUR, GBP, etc.). I’m the honors individuals who have made contributions that person designing the process to deal with the 24/7 have changed the direction and scope of the discirisk of receiving bitcoin and, while paying fiat to merpline and its practice. Don joins 89 other Pioneers of chants, leveraging my experience in Visa’s FX group as National Reconnaissance. well as my finance experience more broadly.”

1963

1977

Amy M. Wall joined Arizona tax and accounting firm

Roediger Hoff PLC earlier this year as an income tax preparer. A member of the National Association of Tax Professionals and the Southern Arizona Chapter of Enrolled Agents, Amy is certified to represent taxpayers before the IRS, prepares tax returns for

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Harvey Mudd College

In Memoriam

1986

Ray Bouvier and his wife started Vancouver Segway Tours in April 2013. He reports that they had a very successful first year and have started a second season of providing fun historical tours of Vancouver, Washington, via riding Segways. They operate out of the Fort Vancouver National Park. He says it is quite a

Jennie Rhine ’61, the only female student to be admitted in 1957 with the Founding Class of Harvey Mudd College, died on Mother’s Day at 74. She spent two years at Harvey Mudd (read more about her time here on page 44) before moving to the Bay Area and earning a B.A. in English literature from San Francisco State University (1964). She worked as an administrator for the state’s unemployment insurance program and also took part in various civil rights protests and social causes. She earned her J.D. degree (1969) from the University of California’s Hastings College of Law, which named her class valedictorian.

Her progressive, liberal philosophy was shaped by experience. Born in Washington, D.C., she was influenced by her mother and father, union organizers who exposed their children to their work (Jennie’s sister and late brother also became attorneys). Jennie represented poor tenants for the San Mateo County Legal Aid Society and then for the San Francisco Legal Assistance Foundation. In 1972, she struck out on her own. Her practice included criminal, family, personal injury, landlord-tenant and grand jury law.

But her real interest was in the pro bono work she did for Native Americans. In 1977, she became an administrative law judge for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. She also served as a hearing officer for San Francisco’s Office of Citizen Complaints from 1985 to 1988. In 1988, Jennie was elected Berkeley-Albany Municipal Court Judge. She was re-elected in 1994 and elevated to Superior Court of Alameda County in July 1998. She served as supervising judge of the Berkeley courthouse and executive committee member for the superior court (2000–2001), as well as presiding judge of the Municipal Court (1994–1995).

Early in 1997, Jennie established a Domestic Violence Court in Berkeley and participated in the formation of the Family Violence Council of Alameda County.

For their lifelong commitment to social justice and the issue of domestic violence, Jennie and her husband, Tom, were honored many times by organizations ranging from the Family Values Law Center to the San Francisco Chapter of the Bay Area Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Jennie retired from the bench in 2001. She is survived by her husband, a son, Derek Rusch, and sister, Barbara Rhine.

change from working as an actuary, but he loves it.

Susan Parker, Frank Byrum and Trish Priest ’87 are attempting to join the Seven Continents Club by completing a marathon on all seven continents. According to Susan, they have completed four: Europe (Athens Classic Marathon 2010), Africa (Cape Town Marathon 2011), Asia (Osaka Marathon 2013) and North America (San Diego for Trish and Frank, and Honolulu for Susan). “We are going for our fifth one in November with the Auckland Marathon (Oceania). That will leave South America (undetermined location) and Antarctica (icemarathon.com in 2015 or 2016).

1995

Carl Kukkonen III, a member of the intellectual prop-

erty section of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., is shown in the Daily Journal’s 2014 list of Top Intellectual Property Lawyers in California. Carl is one of just 25 portfolio managers/patent prosecutors to be recognized by the Daily Journal.

1996

Elecia (Engelman) White, embedded software consultant, author and podcast host, was featured in an April 25 article on circuitcellar.com. Her company, Logical Elegance, is a small San Jose, California-based consulting firm specializing in embedded systems.

1987 She and her husband, Chris, do system analysis, Steve Haddock gave a research presentation June 7 architecture and software implementation. She says, to alumni and guests who visited his workplace, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, as part of “At [HP BioScience] … I lit a board on fire on my very a Harvey Mudd alumni event that also included whale first day as an embedded software engineer. Soon after, a motor moved because my code told it to. I was watching and a barbecue. Steve studies bioluminescence and jellyfish and holds an adjunct professorship hooked. That edge of software, where the software in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department touches the physical, captured my imagination, and I’ve never looked back.” Read the full article at at the University of California, Santa Cruz. http://bit.ly/1o7998V. Dave Somers has been appointed chair of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston 1997 University and is getting up to speed on graph theoReleased through Kickstarter and produced by Thinkretical approaches to analyzing brain networks. fun, the board game Robot Turtles, invented by Dan Shapiro, was released in June. The Seattle software entrepreneur created the game for his 4-year-old 1991 twins to give them “the superpower anyone could Eric Huggins was recently promoted to professor wish for—an understanding of computer programof management at Fort Lewis College in Durango, ming.” The most-backed board game in Kickstarter Colorado. history sneakily teaches preschoolers the fundamentals of programming, from coding to functions, while 1992 making silly turtle noises. www.thinkfun.com/robotDavid Ruiz is vice president and valuation actuary, turtles/ Retirement Solutions Division at Pacific Life Insurance Company. He joined Pacific Life in 2004 as a senior financial actuary then, in 2011, transferred 2005 into the Retirement Solutions Division as assistant Zajj Daugherty will end her three-year appointvice president of GAAP valuation. In addition to ment as a John Wesley Young Research Instructor heading the department, David is responsible for the at Dartmouth College this August and head to the Retirement Solutions Division’s valuation efforts.

University of Melbourne for three months, followed by a tenure-track assistant professorship in the math department at the City College of New York starting Richard McHugh and his wife, Tracey, welcomed Kian in January.

James McHugh on Feb. 5.

1994

Ben Weiss recently released an iPhone/iPad app called Frax that performs real-time fractal rendering and visualization with animated coloring, lighting and zoom. Mudders who download the app can write to him at support@fract.al for a free upgrade to the Pro feature set.

2006

Joseph Majkut, a 2014–2015

William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow, will spend a year in Washington, D.C., seeking to understand how science and engineering inform public policy.

The fellowship provides geosci-

entists with a unique opportunity to gain firsthand experience in the legislative process and to make practical contributions to the effective and timely use of geoscience information on issues relating to the environment, resources, natural hazards and other federal policies. In pursuit of a PhD in atmospheric and oceanic studies at Princeton University, Joseph is studying the ocean carbon cycle and how CO2 emissions, and the associated warming, affect the ability of the natural carbon sinks to remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere.

2007

Heather Chenette and Nate Chenette have accepted faculty positions

at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in chemical engineering and math, respectively. They also shared an even bigger joy: the birth of their daughter, Sylvia Chenette, last December.

John Parker is engaged to Emma McCullough, and

plans are underway for an October wedding in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An engineering graduate, John received a PhD in electrical and computer engineering (2012) from University of California, Santa Barbara, where Emma is a PhD candidate in musicology. John is a scientist at Freedom Photonics in Santa Barbara.

2009

Nadia Abuelezam was featured in the June 6 online news article “HIV by the numbers” presented by the Harvard School of Public Health, where she recently received a doctor of science in epidemiology. While at Harvey Mudd, Nadia traveled to Uganda to work with The AIDS Support Organization and was one of the first students to take chemistry Professor Karl Haushalter’s HIV/AIDS course. She is now working on a mathematical model, the CEPAC Dynamic Model (CDM), that simulates an entire population’s sexual network—“like a SimCity world,” she says—in order to project how long it would take to eliminate HIV in South Africa.

PBS Newshour Extra’s April 2014 article, “The stories behind 23 STEM superstars,” features chemistry professor David Vosburg and Jonathan Litz, biophysical chemistry graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle. Jonathan divides his time between doing research—both in the laboratory and at the computer—and teaching undergraduates chemistry, biology and physics. Read the full profile at http://bit.ly/1uO0gR4.

SUMMER 2014

39

Alumni Profile

Class Notes

Make Way for Bikes

2010

Written by Stephanie L. Graham

Kaylin Spitz works at Google as a software engineer

and had a fellow Mudder as an intern last summer.

Since leaving Mudd, she has discovered the wonders of rock climbing, the horrors of apartment hunting and the ins and outs of New York’s subway system.

2012

An avian field technician, Stephanie Levins has “straddled the equator, explored the Galapagos Islands, climbed trees in the Amazon (rainforest, not tech company), stood in awe of Machu Picchu, seen a jaguar attack a pair of capybaras, held several dozen species of birds, been to a rodeo and become a proud aunt.” She is now seeking work in wildlife conservation on the West Coast so she can be closer to friends and family.

2013

Katarina Hoeger completed the first year of a two-year master’s program at the College of William and Mary.

She is pursuing a master of computer science degree with a specialization in computational operations research. This summer, she is interning with Intel in its supply chain group. In her free time, she goes dancing.

Nate Pinsky graduated from the Stanford Teacher Education Program and will teach math in the San Francisco Unified School District.

Liz Sarapata got engaged to Peter Fedak ’13 on Feb. 7

at a Mudd-themed puzzle hunt called Wally’s Solvers.

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The well-worn but sturdy Bridgestone 400

road bike was passed down to 12-year-old Herbie Huff ’08 from her dad. After fatherly advice on basic upkeep, road rules and safety, Huff pedaled her way to school to softball practice to sleepovers and to a newfound independence.

“I felt free.”

It’s a feeling Huff believes that more should experience, even those in traffic-congested Los Angeles, where she makes her home and bikes nearly every day. As a research associate at the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the Institute for Transportation Studies at UCLA, she’s hoping to change attitudes about biking so that more people will think of it as a normal mode of transportation. “The first challenge is getting people to think that biking isn’t insane and then getting them to think that the roadway should accommodate it.”

After graduating from Harvey Mudd with a double major in mathematics and English, Huff moved to Los Angeles, where she got to know other bikers and joined the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC), a volunteer-driven nonprofit that advocates for improved bicycling environments. She earned a master’s in urban planning from UCLA then spent two years at Ryan Snyder Associates focusing on bicycle and pedestrian planning.

One of her projects was partnering with the UCLA Complete Streets Initiative to create a bicycle count data clearinghouse for Los Angeles County. Where data has been scarce, there is now information for cities on how to do bike counts and retrieve bike count data. The project recently received the Award of Excellence for a Communications Initiative from the Los Angeles Section of the American Planning Association. Huff has contributed to bicycle and pedestrian plans and other studies of active transportation for over 30 local governments in Southern California.

She finds that transportation planning is a good way to use her technical background while making the world better.

“Everything in urban planning is getting more quantitative really fast, so I feel lucky and privileged to have a quantitative background,” she says. “There’s so much new big data in the world and so many interesting ways to understand cities and regions using those big data that everybody is moving toward that.”

Huff points to cities that have successfully used data to integrate biking into their transportation systems: Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, Portland, Oregon, and New York City.

Sprawling Southern California cities make for longer and often impractical bike trips, but where a two-wheeled commute makes sense, more people are seeing the benefits of biking. Huff reports that the city of Los Angeles has completed more bike lanes in the last fiscal year than in the previous 30. According to the 2013 Bicycle and Pedestrian Count (on which Huff managed the data), L.A. bicycle ridership increased by 7.5 percent. Growth is expected to increase as Angelenos gain access to a connected network of sharrows (shared lane markings), bike lanes and dedicated bike paths.

In downtown L.A., riders now enjoy wide buffer bike lanes. L.A.’s first protected bikeway (planters between bikes and cars) will soon connect the University of Southern California to downtown L.A. And a bike sharing program is being planned for downtown Venice. Huff expects such progress to continue, with marked improvements during the next five years.

“L.A. is a wonderful place to do bike work right now because so much is happening.”

Even her own 40-minute ride on her 1994 Trek 2300 from her home in mid-Wilshire to UCLA is getting better. Huff has noticed that drivers are more courteous, and one of the streets she frequents is slated for a bike lane, an improvement that the 2013 L.A. Bike and Ped Count found resulted in an 86 percent average increase in ridership. Huff looks forward to the company.

Class Reunions Alumni Weekend 2014

1964 | 50th Reunion Back Row: Al Waltz, Jeff Kelly, John Hurst, John Deeter, Daniel Nelson, Irving Hawley, Richard Munro, Dennis Diestler, Bruce Worster, James Hanson Front Row: Don Priest, Glenn Osborne, Patrick Rourke, Ken Clardy, Ray Helmke, Russell Merris, Ken Inouye, William Griffith, Robert Borton

1969 Back Row: Leslie Foster, Henry Brady, John Harrell, John Tiller, George Zimmerman, Lloyd Regier P95, Ron Roth, Robert De Pietro Front Row: Tom Radi, Paul Glassco, Glenn Fisher, Tom Valk, Celso Frazao, Scott Hutchason, Andrew Kaye, Thomas Bleakney, Howard Cohen

1974 Back Row: Scott Olmsted, Denis Drapeau, David Farber, Robert Lewis, Martin Caniff, Tony Noe, Tedd Gibson, Timothy O’Donnell, Robert Rath, George Innis, Bruce DePriester, Francisco Valdes, Thomas Brengle, Donald Simkins Second Row: Ronald Blanc, Peter Taborek, Ross Larkin, William Oakes, Beverly Orth, Bruce Karney, Martin Rudat, John Lavrakas, James Bender, Fred Pickel, Michael Dermody First Row: Brian Rohrback, Edward Yoshida, Terry Flower, Richard Zucker, John Ogren, Martha White, Ken Livak, Brian Wong P09, Mark Mrohs, Rick Levin P12

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1979 Miguel Muñoz-Perou, Sergio Perez Santillan, John Larson, Michael White, Whitney Campbell, Jon Foletta

1984 Back Row: Laura Merritt Michelsen, Brion Richardson, Shelly Mitchell Gragg P11, Brian Gragg P11, Jim Cassi, Paul Breed, Clifford Sedlund, Kent Mesplay Front Row: Gordon Kuist, Karl Flueckiger, Jean Tsao, Elizabeth DeBaan Schulte, Carolyn Wetzel Moeglein, Larry Tong, Greg Roberts, Stephen Caron

1989 Back Row: John McNeil, Brian Butler, Christopher LuVogt, Roger Carlson, Peter Tenenbaum, Eric Kvamme, Kyle Hayes, Kevin Moore ’87, Howard Deshong III First Row: Andrew Costley, Adrian McCarthy, Jung Park, Kaia David, Sandy Price, Kwang Sung, Timothy Wendler, Carolyn Whitney, Angelyn Moore

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1994 Back Row: Mike Munson, Cliff McCarthy, Russell Hamilton, Kirby Lawton, Mark Mathison, Andrew Basile, Andy Kass, Craig Dandurand Second Row: Erik Browne, Daniel Hyman, Kiril Korsunsky, Drake Keller, Christie Yoo, Hanna Ma, Mark Huber, Dave Matsuda First Row: Michael Hicks, John Stimson, Matthew In Hyon, Vivian Li, Tonya Roe, Sarah Sagi, S. Ben Melhuish, Nancy Linford

1999 Back Row: Frank Shaw, Steve Foley, Jeff Mattlin, Christian Andreu-Von Euw, Avi Geiger, Benjamin Teller, John-Glen Swanson ’00, Dan Anderson Second Row: Andrew Bernat, Jason Fredrickson, Itai Seggev, Jamey Minnis, Aaron Barber, Bill Kalahurka, Andre Abramenko, Alan Hatakeyama First Row: Jennifer Bernat, Janet Davis, Carolyn Dharm ’00, Nicole Washington, Edith Harbaugh, Vincent Siniscalchi, Jim Tran

2004 Back Row: Matthew Seetin, Tyrel McQueen, Jeffrey Scherpelz, Aaron Jacobs, Leslie Fletcher, Patrick Hopper ’05, Ethan Bodnaruk, Evan Porter, Tonya Porter, Warren Katzenstein, Heather Bryan, Brian Brenhaug Second Row: Adrian Mettler, Gabriel Neer, Philip Vegdahl, Ben Nahir, Andres Del Campo, Darci Snowden, Andrew Cole, Brian Humphrey, Aja Hammerly, Lai Lao, Esther Lee, Reneé Logan, Brandt Erickson, Lindsay Erickson, Edward Heaney. First Row: Michelle Hortter, Allison Jacobs, Alexis De Larme, Steven Hickman, One Hwang, Michael Vrable, Kevin Pang, Erika Rice Scherpelz, Diana Friedman, Elizabeth Lee-Su, Lisa Wice, Melissa Federowicz, Michelle Brenhaug, Pilun Chen

2009 Back Row: Ben Taborsky, Oliver Johnson, Stephen Rosenthal, Jonathan Litz, Ben Jencks, Rudy Resch, Matthew Garber, Brandon Horn, Joshua Cobb, Tony Evans, Benjamin Bergstedt, Shannon McKenna, Rebecca Burns, Lauryn Baranowski, Scott Smith, Adrian Sampson, Eric Peterson, Harry Dudley ’10, Sam Gordon, Christopher Fox, Brad Witkowski, Eric Young, Edwin Lei. Third Row: Alexandra Simoni LaMotte-Mitchell, Andrew LaMotte-Mitchell, David Su, Kyle Marsh, Brett McLarnon, Greg Farnum, Akash Rakholia, David Lapayowker, Richard Mehlinger, Andy Wong, Steven Ehrlich, Ben Fogelson, Daniel Lim, Devin Smith, Justin White, Sergey Tsalkov, Michael Martin, Christina Snyder, Catherine Bradshaw, Jane Chen, Tyler Wolf, Jonathan Gomes, Eric Doi Second Row: Sarah Fletcher, Trevin Murakami, Hannah Hoersting, Martin Field, Aurora Pribram-Jones, Patrick Foley, Alexandria Taylor, Benjamin Preskill, Autumn Petros-Good, Joshua Peraza, Claire O’Hanlon, Gregory Herschler, Brian Stock, Hector Cuevas, Rachel Cranfill, John Allen, Kerri Thomas, Ginna Kim, Asa Ellett. Front Row: Elizabeth Flannery, Leslie Mallinger, Heather Justice, Michael Braly, Glennis Rayermann, Annika Eberle, Jordan Eboreime, Leah Anderson, Seanna Vine, Rachel Nishimura, Alicyn Henkhaus, Elizabeth Corpuz, Kacy McKibben, Kevin Samrick, Terence Wong, Janet Komatsu, Aaron Abromowitz, Michael Van Antwerp, Vatche Attarian, Maria Pavlovskaia, Whitney Hsiong

back talk

When she entered Harvey Mudd College, Jennie Rhine was the first and the only woman in the Class of 1961. We remember Jennie here as one of the pioneers who paved the way for women at Harvey Mudd. Rhine passed away earlier this year (see page 38), but we think she’d be proud of the College’s progress regarding gender equity, including the percentage of women in the Class of 2018 (47 percent).

The Girl

Written by Jennie Rhine ’61 Claremont Quarterly, Winter 1958

Oh, no! Not the only girl in the whole school—

not the only girl in Harvey Mudd’s first entering class!

This was my first reaction when I learned about my peculiar situation from the Los Angeles Times a week before leaving for college. I had known that the school was planning to have only a few girls, but the thought that there might be only one, me, Jennie Rhine, had scarcely occurred to me. What would I do? By then it was certainly too late to change my plans, and— well, here I am.

Of course, I had a hint of it earlier in the summer in the form of a letter addressed to Mr. Jennie Rhine.

“To the men of Harvey Mudd . . . We would like you to consider joining our ROTC unit.” I was sorely tempted to return it signifying my interest, but common sense prevailed. Later I rather regretted my decision. Think of the confusion! I certainly could not have been part of a platoon with members of the opposite sex. They would have made me my own commanding officer with one buck private below me, myself. Every day I could have called myself to attention, inspected myself, and dismissed myself. Now I can see that I missed a golden opportunity.

Then there was another problem. When my parents brought me up here, we were handed a list of general instructions. Included was, “Minimum standards of attire are clean shirt, trousers, socks, and shoes.” Obviously, everything I had brought with me

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was inappropriate. My mother and I were thrown into a quandary. However, since no administrator has since criticized my apparel, this predicament has dwindled in importance.

Well then, what were all these girls at Scripps going to be like? Would they be snobbish and sneer at me because I was only boarding with them? Or even worse, would they ignore me?

My fears about them turned out to be the least of my worries. Never have I been greeted with such friendliness and good wishes. Everyone was so eager to meet me that I felt like a prize exhibit at the zoo. While the exclamations have since diminished, the friendship has grown. Several of the girls have expressed their relief that I was not—as they had anticipated—a solemn, studious, spectacled book-worm.

But would I be popular with the boys? Most important were the forty-seven from my own school, but those from Claremont Men’s College also had to be considered.

I have encountered none of the animosity and resentment I half expected from my classmates. Their friendly joking, their kindness and consideration have assured me of my acceptance as a friend and mem-

ber of the group. The social whirl of the first week, from which I have yet to recover, convinced me that the apprehensions concerning my social life were unfounded.

Apparently my mountain has dwindled to a molehill. Instead of the tumbles I feared, I find myself in a delightful, perhaps enviable, position. There had better be another girl next year, though!

Thank you from the bottom of our smarts The Annual Mudd Fundd (AMF) goal was reached thanks to higher participation rates from alumni and parents.

Funds received for 2013–2014 AMF– $4.626 million 2013–2014 participation– 30.1% of Alumni

38.6% of Parents Participation in the Annual Mudd Fundd remains an incredibly valuable way to fuel the ongoing work of the College while also adding to the success of the campaign. Because gifts to the AMF go to the bottom line and support every facet of Harvey Mudd, your gift allows the College to remain a leader in educating innovative, socially responsible and passionate problem solvers.

is on a mission

THE CAMPAIGN FOR HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE The world needs Harvey Mudd.

And Harvey Mudd needs you.

To learn more about the Annual Mudd Fundd, please visit hmc.edu/campaign/how-to-give/annual-mudd-fundd/

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Harvey Mudd College 301 Platt Boulevard | Claremont, CA 91711 hmc.edu/magazine

Carolina Reyes ’14 (sign holder) is a member of the history-making group of Harvey Mudd women engineers; they outnumbered the men for the first time. Joining her are Anastasia Patterson (chemistry), Sophie Parks (joint chemistry and biology), Miranda Parker (computer science), Adam Parower (engineering and economics), Tyler Robinson (engineering), Emily Ross (engineering) and Alberto Ruiz (physics). For more insights about the Class of 2014, see pages 4 and 12.

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