Nevada Engineering - Fall 2023 by University of Nevada, Reno

NEW & NOTEWORTHY FROM THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING | FALL 2023

Accessible version available at unr.edu/nv-engineering23

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

Dean’s welcome

Wolf Pack Innovation — new strategic plan to guide the College

Creating a circular lithium economy in Nevada

Searching for the ‘holy grail’ of cancer therapies

New Nevada Center for Water Resiliency

Mass timber building gets put to the test

Harnessing AI to help children with speech and language challenges

Plastic into pavement: new asphalt mix recycles printer cartridge toners

College teams with other academic institutions on NASA project

Preparing the next generation of engineering students: K-12 programs

From Concrete Canoe to undergraduate research: student achievement

Keri Ryan named McKenzie Professor

Tesla partners with students on Innovation Day project

Alumna Catriona Black receives Scrugham Medal

WRITERS: Gianna Long, Chris Moran, Elizabeth Tokarski Mike Wolterbeek. PHOTOGRAPHERS: Rachel Jackson, Eric Marks, Chris Moran.

Latest news + our quarterly newsletter

DEAN’S WELCOME

Through innovation, we can create the future for the Silver State Friends, I am happy to introduce our new strategic plan for the College on Engineering: Wolf Pack Innovation. This plan provides a blueprint for our continued success through 2027. In the following pages, read more about Wolf Pack Innovation and the great work our faculty and students are doing consistent with the strategic plan. Our College has been busy over the past two years. In addition to developing the strategic plan with input from national and regional stakeholders, we have: • increased research awards by more than 40% ($14.8 million to $22 million) as of August 2023; • seen our enrollment continue to grow; and • operationalized our $8 million Clean Room — a research lab that reduces air contaminants from an average of 1 million particles-per-cubic-foot to 100 parts-per-cubic-foot, allowing for research in biosensing and nanotechnology — with additional federal funds of $3 million. We also continue to support our larger University of Nevada, Reno community as it lays plans to develop a regional, circular, lithium-based economy or “lithium loop.” One of our College’s research pillars is Resilient Supply Chains, Lithium and Critical Materials, and we will play a key role in this developing economy. Central to the College’s mission is educating the next generation of engineers. To that end, in fall 2023 we launched the Nevada Engineering Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence (NEATLE) to ensure student success and global

excellence and to build a community of scholars at the College of Engineering. We also have centralized our advising services. Those efforts serve our overall mission to provide students with a rigorous, hands-on education in engineering and computer science that prepares them to solve real-world problems and become leaders in their field. We don’t do this work alone — the College relies on its friends and supporters to make this a competitive academic institution that prepares students for the industries of the future. To that end, we hope to develop the George W. Gillemot Aerospace Engineering Department, thanks to a generous $36 million gift to the University from the George W. Gillemot Foundation. Over the years, faculty have been supported by generous endowments and students have found opportunity and access through the many engineering scholarships offered by friends of the College. You can read more about this and how to support the college on pages 14 and 15. We hope you enjoy reading about our activities this year. We cannot thank you enough for your help in making this College what it is today. Sincerely,

Erick C. Jones Dean, College of Engineering

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WOLF PACK INNOVATION New strategic plan to guide the College for 2023-2027

The College of Engineering has a long history of excellence in education, research and innovation. However, the rapidly changing landscape of the engineering and computer science fields, as well as the evolving needs of students and employers, made it essential to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to guide the college's future growth and success. Innovation — new ideas and new methods — was the driving force behind the development of this plan. “Innovation is at the core of what we do, whether it’s in the area of academics or research,” College of Engineering Dean Erick Jones said. “Our college aspires to provide a cutting-edge education to tomorrow’s engineers as well as produce the research that leads to global breakthroughs.” The plan is built around five operational pillars: student success, student engagement, global excellence, a community of scholars and research. Research divides into five major

focus areas: resilient supply chains, lithium and critical materials; equitable infrastructure; cyber-protected information and communication technology; sustainable, netcircular, green and recyclable world; and unmanned vehicles. Plan development began in November 2022, with Grant Thornton advisory firm convening a select group of external stakeholders, including federal agencies, Association of American Universities (AAU) engineering STRATEGIC deans and National Academies of PLAN Engineering members. A second workshop, conducted by Association Dynamics consulting firm, occurred in March 2023 with a group of in-state stakeholders, including NSHE regents, industry leaders, members of K-12 institutions, community colleges, oncampus faculty, staff, students and alumni.

“Innovation is at the core of what we do, whether it’s in the area of academics or research.” — Erick Jones, Dean, College of Engineering

OPERATIONAL PILLARS STUDENT ACCESS AND SUCCESS

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

GLOBAL, INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE

COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS

RESEARCH PILLARS RESILIENT SUPPLY CHAINS, LITHIUM AND CRITICAL MATERIALS PAGE 4

University of Nevada, Reno

EQUITABLE INFRASTRUCTURE PAGE 6

CYBER-PROTECTED INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY PAGE 8

SUSTAINABLE, NET-CIRCULAR, GREEN AND RECYCLABLE WORLD PAGE 9

The engineering program at the University of Nevada, Reno was established in 1889 as the School of Mechanic Arts and Mining, before becoming the College of Engineering in 1905. Since that time, the College has enjoyed continuous growth in undergraduate and graduate programs as well as steady increases in research and outreach activities.

unr.edu/engineering

DEPARTMENTS

RESEARCH AND CREATIVE WORKS (DIVIDED INTO FIVE RESEARCH PILLARS)

$22M RESEARCH AWARDS | CY22

• Chemical & Materials Engineering • Civil & Environmental Engineering • Computer Science & Engineering • Electrical & Biomedical Engineering • Mechanical Engineering

121

RESEARCH CENTERS

3,000 40+

RANKING

U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools for 2023-24

UNMANNED VEHICLES — THE NEW SPACE FRONTIER PAGE 10

• Center for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research • Cybersecurity Center • Nevada Institute for Sustainability • Nevada Water Innovation Institute • SOLARIS University Transportation Center • Western Regional Superpave Center

STUDENTS | FALL 22

DEGREES AND PROGRAMS

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RESEARCH PILLAR 1

RESILIENT SUPPLY CHAINS, LITHIUM AND CRITICAL MATERIALS

Optimizing a globally sourced, sustainable supply chain and manufactured systems in pharma, active pharma ingredients and biomedical innovations; EV batteries; semiconductors; and critically mined materials.

Engineering, industry embark on projects to establish a

LITHIUM LOOP

Responding to the national need for lithium-based batteries, the College of Engineering is working with industry to develop cleaner ways to extract the element as well as methods to recycle used lithium-ion batteries. This “lithium loop” — encompassing mining, battery production and recycling — is driven by the national goal to establish a domestic supply chain for lithium-based batteries and, of course, the fact that Nevada has vast amounts of lithium locked inside its sedimentary clays. The College is committed: one of its research pillars is resilient supply chains for lithium and critical materials.

Battery recycling, workforce development Several Engineering faculty are working on lithium or battery projects, including Chemical & Materials Engineering Professor Mano Misra, who will be working with American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) on two projects: one to develop a lithium extraction process that has less impact on the environment, the other to recycle materials from spent lithium batteries. The first project, co-led by Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Pradeep Menezes and Professor Pengbo Chu from the College of Science, involves characterization, process engineering and modeling to optimize a lithium extraction process that needs less water and will produce less waste. “You have to develop a process that is environmentally acceptable,” Misra said. His project aims to do just that by supporting ABTC in the development of a proprietary, low-environmental-impact process that would ultimately extract 5,000 tons of lithium

DID YOU KNOW?

The University of Nevada, Reno is one of 31 Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs. These “Tech Hubs,” designated by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, are intended to help U.S regions transform into globally competitive innovation centers. Engineering is involved in the Nevada Lithium Batteries and other EV Material Loop (“Loop Tech Hub.”) University of Nevada, Reno

Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Pradeep Menezes, Mining Professor Pengbo Chu and Materials Engineering Professor Mano Misra (holding lithium clay sample) are working to optimize a lithium extraction process that will produce less waste.

hydroxide annually from a commercial facility in Nevada’s Big Smoky Valley near Tonopah. Misra’s second project with ABTC, also co-led by Menezes, involves recycling graphite from spent lithium batteries. “Graphite is as critical as lithium,” Misra wrote in a brief about the projects. “Today, we use 55% of graphite for battery manufacturing, with most of the graphite coming from foreign sources.” The University is working to meet industry needs by providing a curriculum designed for those future industries. “The College of Engineering will work with the College of Science to train skilled workers,” Misra wrote. “Diversity, equity and inclusion is a critical component of the project. This project will have resources for training and educating students from underrepresented groups, particularly from Indigenous tribes.”

Developing a cancer treatment that eliminates malignant cells without collateral damage Electrical & Biomedical Engineering Professor Bahram Parvin has received a $2.2 million, five-year award from the National Cancer Institute to develop a new cancer therapy. The next generation of cancer therapeutics likely will leverage the “normal interactions” within a glandular structure, leading to therapy with reduced toxicity and probability of tumor recurrence. In a gland structure, such as the mammary gland, cancer develops and spreads by epithelial cells by recruiting the supporting cells that don’t become malignant. One of the supporting cells in the mammary gland is fibroblasts, and in breast cancer, epithelial cells often acquire and hijack the molecular machinery of fibroblasts and transform normal fibroblasts into cancerassociated fibroblasts (CAFs). Parvin’s Lab has shown that by reprogramming the tumor microenvironment with the normal signaling (e.g., cellular conversations) between fibroblasts and epithelial cells, the growth of tumor cells

is suppressed by means of cancer cell death, and CAFs are reverted into their normal state. This normal conversation is elucidated by teasing out biochemical signaling that takes place between normal epithelial and fibroblast cells. “The potential impact of this therapy also is being explored for other glandular cancer types through collaborative efforts with the Pennington Cancer Institute,” Parvin said. The award also will include technology development for refining targeted macromolecule and high throughput imaging of tumor organoids by constructing predictive models. In addition, the project will utilize the University of Nevada, Reno’s core expertise for proteomics and animal facilities led by David Quilici, director of the Nevada Proteomics Center, and Benjamin Weigler, director of Animal Resources & Campus Attending Veterinarian. Other collaborators include Professor Saori Furuta, Jinsong Chen and Ruben Dagda.

Professor Bahram Parvin stands in his lab in the William Pennington Engineering Building.

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RESEARCH PILLAR 2

EQUITABLE INFRASTRUCTURE

Engineering and designing equitable community infrastructure to mitigate cascading local, regional and global hazards, including wildfires, water issues and earthquakes

Engineering receives $4 million Army grant to establish Nevada Center for Water Resiliency The College of Engineering in June received a $4 million grant from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center to establish the Nevada Center for Water Resiliency, with the possibility of additional funds for subsequent research. The new center will research and test new technologies in water treatment, focusing on potable water (drinking water) reuse from a variety of water sources. Led by Chemical & Materials Engineering Associate Professor Sage Hiibel and Civil & Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Eric Marchand, the center is the latest step in a longtime effort by the professors and their colleagues to find solutions for water-scarce communities. And Nevada — located in the heart of the arid American West — is the right place to develop new water reuse technologies, the professors say. “As the driest state in the nation and one of the top 10 fastestgrowing states, water resources in Nevada are stretched thin,” the professors wrote in their grant proposal Water Resiliency and Self Sufficiency: Advanced Technologies and Systems for Water Reuse. “As a result, communities in Nevada are eager to find novel ways to diversify the state’s water portfolio, and are at the forefront of water conservation and reuse strategies.” The new center will organize under the University’s already existing Nevada Water Innovation Institute. Its research projects fall into four areas: advanced water reuse technologies, emerging contaminants, alternative water sources and resource recovery. In addition to Hiibel and Marchand, Engineering faculty Learn involved in the center include about the Keith Dennett, David Hanigan, Nevada Center Rashed Khan, Krishna Pagilla for Water and Victor Vasquez. Resiliency

DID YOU KNOW?

Four of the College of Engineering’s six research centers are associated with the College’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering: • Center for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research (CCEER) • Nevada Water Innovation Institute (NWII) • SOLARIS (Safety and Operations of a Large-Area Rural/ Urban Intermodal Systems) University Transportation Center • Western Regional Superpave Center University of Nevada, Reno

Engineering professors Sage Hiibel, left, and Eric Marchand will lead the Nevada Center for Water Resiliency.

National implications While the primary focus of the new center is to increase water resiliency of municipal water systems, a key secondary benefit has national implications. Because potable reuse of reclaimed water is not regulated at the federal level, there is no federal standard governing water reuse activities, creating challenges for U.S. forces and federal agencies as well as regional governing organizations. Hiibel and Marchand propose that the center will facilitate communication between those stakeholders, including the Department of Defense, which oversees civilian works and military installations; the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates drinking water; and the Department of Energy, which oversees water use for energy purposes. Bridging that communication gap ultimately could lead to new water-reuse technologies and approaches that can be transitioned to real-world applications at a faster pace, according to Hiibel and Marchand. “With this new center, Nevada is positioned to become a regional and national leader in water reuse technologies,” Engineering Dean Erick Jones said. “Congratulations to Dr. Hiibel and Dr. Marchand on this achievement, which will work to address one of the most pressing issues of our time — water scarcity.” The new center aligns with one of the College of Engineering’s research pillars: equitable infrastructure, mitigating natural hazards, including water issues.

WORLD’S LARGEST FULL-SCALE TALL TIMBER BUILDING TEST Civil Engineering Professor Keri Ryan served as a co-principal investigator on the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) TallWood project. This longterm project, which studies the resilience of tall timber buildings, culminated in a spring 2023 shake test on a full-scale, 10-story mass timber building at the NHERI@UCSD — the world’s tallest full-scale building ever tested.

NEW INNOVATION GOES TO MARKET A new quality-control tool for road construction developed by Electrical Engineering Professor Sesh Commuri debuted in spring 2023 at the Con-Expo-Con/Agg trade show in Las Vegas. RTDensity, a device that will enable crews to verify pavement quality as they build asphalt roads, is based on the Retrofit Intelligent Compaction Analyzer (RICA) developed by Professor Commuri.

project, which involves installing temperature, snow and soil sensors in the Tahoe Basin. The sensors will connect to new secure gateways on the existing Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) NevadaNet data network and in partnership with the Nevada Seismological Laboratory’s (NSL) science network and regional ALERTWildfire fire camera system.

Edge-to-Edge Climate Services project: Researcher Scotty Strachan’s reflection is seen in this sensor.

WILDFIRE PREPAREDNESS A new interdisciplinary project headed up by the College of Engineering aims to collaborate with local organizations, and eventually citizen scientists, to study environmental conditions. Data gathered through the project called Elements: Innovating for Edge-to-Edge Climate Services can help communities better handle wildfires and other natural hazards. Computer Science & Engineering Professor Sergiu Dascalu leads the

COLLEGE BUILDS UNIQUE FACILITY TO EVALUATE STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS The College of Engineering debuted a new experimental facility, the Large-Scale Laminar Soil Box System, in fall 2022 to evaluate the complex manner in which structural systems like buildings and bridges interact with the surrounding soil during an earthquake. The Soil Box System is a collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its design and construction were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Present at the Sept. 15, 2022 debut of the Soil Box System: Tom Hiltz, nuclear engineer, Department of Energy; James McConnell, associate principal deputy administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration; David McCallen, project leader and director of the University’s Center for Civil Earthquake Engineering Research; Brian Sandoval, University president; Peter Nico, Director, Energy Geosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab; Erick Jones, dean of the College of Engineering.

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RESEARCH PILLAR 3

CYBER-PROTECTED INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Designing cyber-enabled information and information communications technology (ICT) systems that drive the future

College of Engineering takes a leadership role in national AI project The College of Engineering is taking a leadership role in a $20 million, five-year National Science Foundationfunded project to harness artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help children with speech and language challenges. Computer Science & Engineering Associate Professor David FeilSeifer is a co-principal investigator on the project, designed to address a nationwide shortage of speechlanguage pathologists and provide services to children ages 3 to 10 years old who are at increased risk of falling behind in their academic and socioemotional development. The project, led by the University of Buffalo and announced in early 2023, will establish a national institute — the AI Institute for Exceptional Education — to develop AI systems that identify and assist young children with speech and/or language processing challenges. The Institute will be developing two AI solutions: Computer Science & Engineering Associate Professor David Feil-Seifer will work on AI the AI Screener, to improve early solutions to assist children with speech and/or language disorders. identification of potential speech and/or language impairments and disorders, and the AI Orchestrator, an app that will assist interaction, will be involved in both solutions. He will be speech-language pathologies to provide tailored evidenceleading the “embodiment” portion of the project: basically, based interventions to students. designing a robot that will interact with young children who Feil-Seifer, who works on robotics and human-robot have been identified for speech and language assistance. “When the time goes to give this thing a body, we’re going to be the ones figuring that out,” Feil-Seifer said. This will be a new technology, Feil-Seifer added, requiring DID YOU KNOW? researchers to figure out everything from what sensors will be The Cybersecurity Center, run by Computer Science & on the robot to how it looks. Engineering professors Shamik Sengupta and Nancy “Once we have the physical LaTourette, offers a minor in cybersecurity Learn design picked out, a lot of more about and the National Science Foundation the AI Institute software technology goes in to CyberCorp Scholarship for Service making that design work,” Feilprogram. The center also has an annual Seifer said. “Our group will develop the software enabling the cybersecurity conference. robot to interact with the environment.”

University of Nevada, Reno

RESEARCH PILLAR 4:

SUSTAINABLE, NET-CIRCULAR, GREEN AND RECYCLABLE WORLD

Designing for a green, net-circular world

Recycled-plastic pavement withstands heavy trucks and extreme weather in California Asphalt pavement formulated with recycled plastic successfully survived heavy truck traffic and the rough winter of 2022-23 after a section of Highway 99 in California flooded in January. “It’s a testament to the new technology,” Elie Hajj, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno and associate director of the Western Regional Superpave Center, said. “We are conducting extensive performance and environmental testing to get to this asphalt mixture.” While the research on the use of recycled plastic in the lab is continuing, Granite Construction, which partnered with the University’s Western Regional Superpave Center, approached Caltrans on testing the new mixture of asphalt in the real world. “We did an overlay for a Caltrans project on Highway 99, replacing their conventional mix with 10% plastic by weight of the binder,” Edgard Hitti, national asphalt manager for Granite Construction said. “That was the first successful lowcarbon mix utilized by Caltrans.” Asphalt pavement is traditionally a mixture of aggregates – crushed rocks, gravel and sand – held together by an asphalt binder, usually a sticky black liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum to create a cohesive mixture. This innovative asphalt binder blend used a postconsumer waste plastic that was headed to incineration or landfills in the United States. Many public agencies are requiring the use of recyclable materials in asphalt pavements and this source of plastic meets those requirements. The team was careful in choosing the source of the plastic. “Only 9% of all waste plastic is recycled, so we didn’t want to use materials from existing recycling streams,” Hajj said. “And we wanted post-consumer polymers, a low or net-zero carbon product.” “We wanted to find a source that wasn’t currently recycled so we can improve the total plastic recycled in the U.S. and not carve from an existing stream that is currently being recycled and used in other industries,” Hitti said. “It is also a great tool to improve the Environmental Product Declaration of the asphalt mix, which is referred to as the ‘Nutrition Value’ of the asphalt mix.” The approximate volume of waste plastic from toner cartridges recycled on the short section of Highway 99

Julissa Larios, a doctoral candidate in the College of Engineering, is using state-of-the-art laboratory equipment and techniques to evaluate the full engineering behavior of this innovative pavement binder technology.

in equivalent to 450 large, wheeled residential curbside recycling bins. In addition to its other properties, this plastic has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the liquid asphalt by approximately 5% while also diverting 200 pounds of plastic out of the waste stream for every ton of liquid asphalt produced.

Learn more plastic pavement

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RESEARCH PILLAR 5

UNMANNED VEHICLES — THE NEW SPACE FRONTIER

Understanding unmanned vehicles and the new space frontier, supporting the design vision

Flying cars and safer airspaces to result from University UAS research Flying cars could be in our future, but the work to make it happen safely is ongoing. Researchers from the University’s College of Engineering are part of a team in NASA’s University Leadership Initiative (ULI), a program developed to support NASA’s aeronautical research goals. Petros Voulgaris, chair of the Mechanical Engineering department and Aerospace Program director, and Christos Papachristos, Computer Science and Engineering assistant professor, are working with colleagues from the team’s lead institution, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and additional team members from Georgia Tech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, North Carolina A&T State University as well as industry partners Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and Lockheed Petros Voulgaris, chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department; Computer Science & Engineering Assistant Professor Christos Papachristos; and Hyung Jin Yoon, a research Martin. That team is one of four in the associate working on Voulgaris’ team, in Papachristos’ Robotics Workers Lab. ULI program. The group is working on a three-year project to develop a framework that Papachristos, and his Robotics Workers Lab, which effectively guides autonomous aerial vehicles when they face specializes in autonomous systems and field robotics in uncertainties or abnormal situations to ensure a safe flight. Unmanned Aerial Systems, said the project will deploy and “The big vision, of course, is you want to have flying cars,” validate a number of autonomy and resilience functionalities Voulgaris said. for autonomous aerial vehicles. And of course, you want flying cars to fly safely and SNC will bring further expertise to the project, particularly efficiently. Voulgaris said the team will be developing and by providing the team access to an applicable real-world testing algorithms that govern how an unmanned aerial scenario and simulation model for manned and unmanned vehicle recognizes a less-than-optimal situation and how it airborne systems. reacts, whether that is returning to its original position or Working with industry and other academic institutions on finding and landing in a safe place. In particular, the team this NASA project is an achievement. proposal is to develop a robust and resilient autonomy (RRA) “It is a point of pride for the University of Nevada, Reno framework with principled and verifiable architectures to deal to be part of the University Leadership Initiative and work with uncertainties and off-nominal situations to enable safe toward NASA’s goals to encourage innovation and industry and efficient advanced air mobility. Voulgaris’ team includes collaboration while also developing quality and relevant research associate Hyung Jin Yoon, an expert on artificial experiences for our students,” Brian Sandoval, president of the intelligence for autonomous vehicles. University of Nevada, Reno, said.

University of Nevada, Reno

OUTREACH

Undergraduate research helps students' academic and professional careers The College of Engineering participates in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, which offers undergraduates around the country the opportunity to participate in research projects. Most recently, the Electrical & Biomedical Engineering Department is offering a summer REU program in biosensing — using biosensors to acquire information regarding a physiological change or the presence of various chemical or biological species in biological events. Electrical & Biomedical Associate Professor Xiaoshan “Sean” Zhu acquired the NSF grant to make the competitive program — open to students around the country — available on the University campus. “This is an amazing opportunity for undergraduates to get involved in research projects that could set the trajectory of their academic and professional careers,” College of Engineering Dean Erick Jones said. Led by Zhu, the REU biosensing program includes eight projects — ranging from tissue engineering for biosensing to optical fiber-based biosensors — led by various faculty. “We have a strong team,” Zhu said. “The research of each participating faculty is well supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NSF, Department of Energy (DOE) or other funding agencies, and the REU students in this program should have good opportunities to broaden their visions and gain insights into research.”

K-12 PROGRAMS PUT KIDS ON THE PATH TO COLLEGE The K-12 program at the College of Engineering is designed to spark interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). High-quality STEM education is critical to sustaining and growing the U.S. STEM labor force, according to the National Science Foundation. To that end, the College offers four programs serving area youth. • Mobile engineering education lab (ME2L): Elementary school teachers can have a University student to come to class to teach an hour-long lesson on a range of engineering topics. • Engineering Summer Camps: These week-long camps for students ages 12-17 offer hands-on learning in campus labs. The camps offer students a chance to interact with others who feel the same way about engineering. There are different variations of the camp students can attend based on the type of engineering they would like to focus on. • Engineering Programs Inspiring the Community (EPIC): These hands-on engineering lessons for students in grades 6-12 are offered periodically on the University campus. Lesson topics change every three to six months. • MAKE Nevada: Mentoring for Achievement and Knowledge in Engineering is a college-preparation program that strives to increase college enrollment among minority, low-income and first-generation college students in middle and high schools.

Associate Professor Xiaoshan Zhu, center, and biomedical engineering graduate students Bryan Lee, left, and Ben Sreenan in Professor Zhu’s lab.

For more on the College’s K-12 programs

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STUDENT SUCCESS

Helping every student find their success is key at the College of Engineering NEVADA CYBER CLUB PLACES IN NATIONAL COMPETITION

Concrete Canoe team competes at the ASCE ISWS on April 15.

CONCRETE CANOE TEAM WINS ISWS REGIONAL COMPETITION College of Engineering students won the concrete canoe competition portion of the American Society of Civil Engineers Intermountain Southwest Student Symposium, which took place April 13-15 at the University of Nevada, Reno campus and at Sparks Marina. The win qualified the Concrete Canoe team to compete in the national competition at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. “We are extremely proud of all the work our team has put in to get to this point,” Kelly Keselica, the team’s faculty advisor, said after the April competition. “There is no substitute for an experience like this and we hope this stays with these students long after they graduate from the University of Nevada, Reno.” Work to build the canoe began in August 2022, and continued most weekends until the competition, according to team leaders. The canoe, 21 feet long and 27 inches wide and weighing about 200 pounds, is designed to stabilize and track well in a straight line. The group built a wooden mold around which to shape the canoe, and constructed the canoe out of a lightweight concrete mix.

University of Nevada, Reno

The Nevada Cyber Club locked down seventh place out of a field of 470 teams in the National Cyber League (NCL) Fall 2022 Competition; the team was recognized for their efforts Feb. 3. A representative from Sen. Catherine CortezMasto’s office congratulated the group and handed out certificates to team members and to Professor Bill Doherty, an adjunct faculty in the Cybersecurity Center who shepherds the team through the competitions. “The club wants to win, but they also want to keep the competition fun and use it to help motivate and train all club members,” Doherty said. “This attitude of working together to build their skills is really their biggest accomplishment.” NCL prepares future cybersecurity professionals by providing biannual competitions in which competitors solve real-world cybersecurity challenges. The Nevada Cyber Club, currently boasting a membership of 112, has been involved in the competitions since spring 2017. The team ranked No. 1 in the spring 2019 competition, and consistently appears in the top 10 NCL power rankings.

A representative from Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto’s office recognized the Nevada Cyber Club for its performance at the NCL Fall 2022 Competition.

ENGINEERING UNDERGRAD SPENDS SUMMER STUDYING NUCLEAR POWER POLICY

The University’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers hosts an annual industry networking event.

SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS The University of Nevada, Reno chapter of the Society of Women Engineers had its annual Evening with Industry event Feb. 22. The event’s theme for 2023 was “The Beauty of the Equation,” focusing on how students and new graduates can excel professionally to become engineers with promising careers.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT GETS TWO GRANTS TO STUDY WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER When not studying for classes this fall, electrical engineering senior Jeremy La Porte will be researching wireless power transfer (WPT) to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), thanks to two grants. La Porte received a $4,000 grant through the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study charging towers that might be used to transfer power to drones used in wildfire prevention systems. He also received a $3,000 NASA Nevada Space Grant Scholarship to study WTP as it relates to interplanetary use cases, such as that of the Mars exploration and colonization mission.

Electrical Engineering senior Jeremy La Porte, center, has two grants to study wireless power transfer. He is seen here with mentors Assistant Professor Jihwan Yoon (left) and Associate Professor Jeongwon Park.

Engineering undergrad Abbey Hageman spent her summer in Washington, D.C., learning about nuclear power policy through the Washington Internship for Students of Engineering (WISE) program. She was one of a handful of students from across the nation to participate in this year’s WISE session. To be selected, students must be nominated by one of the engineering societies that sponsor the program: in Hageman’s case, that was the Abbey Hageman American Nuclear Society (ANS). Hageman, who is majoring in materials science with minors in math and mechanical engineering, became interested in nuclear power after taking a class in nuclear materials in 2022. She became involved with the student chapter of ANS and even developed a program from middle school-aged Girl Scouts to help them earn the Get to Know Nuclear badge.

UNIVERSITY’S TOP STUDENT FOR 2022-2023 IS A DUAL ENGINEERING-MATH MAJOR Spring 2023 graduate Jimson Huang — who holds dual bachelor’s degrees in engineering and math — is headed to Purdue University this fall, fresh from winning the Herz Gold Medal. The Herz medal, the University’s most prestigious honor, is awarded to the graduating senior with Jimson Huang, left, and the highest grade-point Associate Professor Paul average on campus. Hurtado. Huang earned a degree in computer science engineering, and also received the Computer Science & Engineering Department’s Scholar Award along with the Westfall Scholars award from the College of Science. “I’m extremely grateful for receiving the award and want to give thanks to all the donors and staff that made this possible,” Huang said.

13 Nevada Engineering 2023

FOUNDATION

Civil engineering professor Keri Ryan named McKenzie Professor Keri Ryan recently was named the E.W. McKenzie Foundation Professor, an honor that will support the civil engineering professor’s groundbreaking research on seismic isolation and advanced seismic protection. “I am honored to be awarded the professorship, especially because I have not had other major recognition of my work,” Ryan said. “I want to be clear, all faculty work extremely hard in a demanding environment that expects so much from us. I have great respect for all my colleagues in the CEE (Civil & Environmental Engineering) Department.” The professorship recognizes Ernest McKenzie, From left, CEE Chair Krishna Pagilla, McKenzie Trustee Gail Cram, Professor Keri Ryan, Trustee Kim Colton, Trustee Patricia Bronson and Dean Erick Jones. who graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1943 with a degree in civil engineering. He founded McKenzie Construction in 1953, to the University after securing a $750,000 grant from the U.S. which built or renovated many of the state’s most iconic Department of Education to establish GAANN Fellowships structures, including the restoration of the Nevada State here. Capitol and the construction of the Fleischmann Planetarium. She also is on the leadership team of the Natural Hazards Before his death in 2002, McKenzie established his foundation Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) TalWood to support charitable causes in the community; among the project, which is investigating the resilience of tall timber foundation’s work was the establishment of the McKenzie buildings. The project, funded by the National Science Professorship in 2019. Foundation, involved an earthquake simulation on a full“Endowed professorships are key to the College of scale, 10-story mass timber building in spring 2023 at the Engineering’s growth,” Dean Erick Jones said. “These donorNHERI@UCSD facility in California. supported positions enable our faculty to conduct the cuttingReceiving the McKenzie professorship is a recognition of edge research that will improve quality of life. Endowed her dedication to the field. professorships also impact the College’s ability to prepare the “I also interpret the professorship as an acknowledgement engineers of the future.” of my balanced contributions to research, teaching and service,” Ryan said. “I have tried to focus on quality in Recognizing excellence everything that I do.” McKenzie had a special interest in earthquake engineering, according to Kim Colton, McKenzie’s daughter and a foundation trustee. SUPPORT THE COLLEGE Visit our “He would be extremely pleased to learn the inaugural donor page n The College of Engineering is training recipient of the endowed professorship granted in his name is the engineers of the future, with help Keri Ryan,” Colton said. from generous donors who support Ryan joined the University in 2010. Her contributions to engineering scholarships. About 250 to the field of seismic research are recorded in the many papers 300 students receive scholarship funds she has published in such journals as the American Society of Civil Engineer’s (ASCE) Journal of Structural Engineering and through the College of Engineering annually; the average Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics. scholarship is about $2,500. If you are interested in offering In 2019, she became the program director for the CEE a scholarship, please contact University Advancement, Department’s Graduate Assistantship in Areas of National (775) 784-1587 or giving@unr.edu. Need (GAANN) program. Ryan brought the federal program

University of Nevada, Reno

INNOVATION DAY

Engineering students team up with Tesla to showcase a mobile power station

It wasn’t their first idea, but it was the one with staying power — up to 240 volts of it. After pitching a few ideas for an electrical engineering senior capstone project to their professor in early 2023, student Abby Dolan and three of her classmates were approved to build a portable electric cart incorporating Tesla Powerwall batteries. The idea was to provide clean and quiet power to active construction sites where electrical power is not available. In conjunction with the electrical engineering students, a team of six from the Mechanical Engineering Department designed the cart that would support the 1,000-plus-pound industrial Electrical and mechanical engineering students worked together to build a power station out of Tesla Powerwall batteries. electrical equipment and batteries. The combined project, Mobile Power Station, was able to output 120 volts and 240 volts — See all the enough to power many different industrial tools and equipment. Innovation Day projects The power station displayed at the College of Engineering’s from 2023 and learn Innovation Day May 5, where it powered a DJ station. how to get involved.

GET INVOLVED WITH INNOVATION DAY The College’s annual Innovation Day showcases senior capstone projects: innovations, plans and developments that solve real-world problems and/ or better our lives. The projects often are done in conjunction with industry partners — in the case of the Mobile Power Station project, Tesla was the partner. Other industry partners include government public works agencies, gaming companies, civil engineering firms and more. “I’m excited to see how we can build on this,” Chris Reilly, Tesla director of Recruiting and Workforce Development, said. “Companies can be doing more fun things like this that are also energizing for students; it brings a textbook to life.” In addition to working with individual teams, the following organizations Employers can connect with some of the brightest talent in Nevada and the Engineering Career Fair. sponsored the event: Mr. and Mrs. William R. Berry lll, Sierra Nevada Corporation/Faith and Eren Ozmen and Southwest Gas Corporation.

TAP INTO ENGINEERING’S TALENT College of Engineering graduates are some of the brightest in Nevada. Nearly one-third of the University’s highestachieving students are enrolled in the College of Engineering, including National Merit and Presidential scholars. Connect with our students at the engineering-only career fair, held every September and February. Employers also are welcome to come to campus to promote their company, and also to conduct interviews. For more information on those opportunities, as well as how to submit job postings, please visit the College of Engineering Career Center web page for employers.

15 Nevada Engineering 2023

SCRUGHAM MEDAL 2023

2023 Scrugham Medal winner reflects on women in engineering and campus changes Catriona “Cat” Black, ’95 Materials Science Engineering, is the 2023 recipient of the Scrugham Medal, awarded to alumni who have demonstrated success in their chosen profession. The medal was conferred at homecoming events this fall. "I have known Cat since she started as an engineering student at the University,” College of Engineering Associate Dean Indira Chatterjee said. “She was always so amazing to work with as she had many creative ideas and carried through with all her commitments. Catriona Black and her daughter, Josie, both are members of the Wolf Pack. Celebrating the honor her interest, and found a mentor in Mackay School of Mines will be one of the newest Dean Dick Bradt. (At that time, materials science still was members of the Wolf Pack: Black’s daughter, Josie, a freshman associated with the Mackay School of Mines; Chemical & at the University of Nevada, Reno, as well as her son Ben, Materials Engineering now is a department within the College a mechanical engineer and graduate of Embry-Riddle of Engineering.) During those years, she met Chatterjee, Aeronautical University. whom Black says was the only female engineering professor at the University. Engineering: In the early 1990s, engineering did not always seem “an amazing choice for women” welcoming of women, Black recalled, but between Chatterjee and Bradt, she was afforded opportunity and support: she coThe first graduate in the then-new Materials Science authored journal- published research papers and got involved program, Black has worked as a product engineer and in the University’s SWE chapter. process engineer in various industries in northern Nevada, After graduating in 1995, she worked at Precision Castparts most recently as the Director of Federal Operations Business and then Tripp Enterprises before moving Process Outsourcing (BPO) at Microsoft. Throughout her academic and professional career, she has supported her Read full story on to Microsoft, her current employer. Often the only woman on leadership teams, Black fellow women engineers, a commitment dating back to her mentored up- and-coming women engineers college years, when she got involved with the student chapter through SWE as well as on the job. And while of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). “I feel passionate engineering remains a male-dominated about engineering as an amazing choice for women,” Black field — only 21% of engineering majors are said. “You get to be creative. You get paid money to be women, according to the American Association of University creative. You’re doing design work based on (scientific) truth. Women report The STEM Gap — Black welcomes the progress It’s like being an artist with a different set of tools.” she has seen since she was an undergrad: “I think we have Originally studying mechanical engineering, Black evolved away from the notion engineering isn’t for women.” switched to materials science after a class in the topic piqued

University of Nevada, Reno

THANK YOU TO OUR CORPORATE PARTNERS FOR THEIR SUPPORT

For more information about becoming a corporate partner, please contact Holly Stanco in University Advancement at (775) 682-6013.

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Gillemot Foundation Gift

Helps College of Engineering’s New Aerospace Program Take Flight We are thrilled to announce a $36 million gift — the most significant in the University of Nevada, Reno’s history — from the Gillemot Foundation to fund the new aerospace engineering program in the College of Engineering. Through this gift, our new program will provide amazing new opportunities for our faculty and students, and put students on a trajectory to land incredible jobs in aerospace fields around the world, from NASA to SpaceX and more.

CO-ENG-1223