Ingenuity 2017 by Russ College of Engineering and Technology

ALUMNI P.14

CULTURE P.18

RESEARCH P. 22

FACULTY P. 28

Putting the pedal to the metal

Hosts with the most

The art of engineering

Communication skills

Ingenuity THE RUSS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY • 2016–2017

GOING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM:

WHAT MAKES A META ENGINEER?

THE ROOKIE CHAMP

13 | RESEARCH PROFILE

Fueled by passion, Russ College alum and NASCAR crew chief Adam Stevens, BSME ’02, took the road less traveled – and it’s paying off.

14 | ALUMNI PROFILE 17 | ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENTS 18 | OUR CULTURE Photo: Joe Gibbs Racing

22 WHAT’S MINE IS OURS

A civil engineering professor teams with a painter to turn toxic waste into art.

Photo: John Sabraw

20 | CREATORS OF GOOD

EDITORIAL CREDITS

22 | FEATURE STORY

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Colleen Carow, BSJ ’93, MA ’97, MBA ’05

28 | FACULTY PROFILE

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Peter Shooner

29 | FACULTY NEWS 30 | CLASS NOTES

WRITERS Colleen Carow Andrea Gibson, BSJ ’94, MPA ’16 Tyler Prich, BSJ ’16 Peter Shooner

32 | INTERNSHIP PROFILE

PHOTOGRAPHER Ashley Stottlemyer

33 | CREATE FOR THE FUTURE

DESIGN Ullman Design Marietta, Ohio

Share your comments, feedback, and memorable Russ College moments by writing us at INGENUITY@OHIO.EDU or INGENUITY MAGAZINE, RUSS COLLEGE, STOCKER CENTER 177, 1 OHIO UNIVERSITY, ATHENS, OH 45701. ON THE COVER: What you get is more than what you see: They’re smart, they’re skilled, and they’re learning what it takes to fully contribute to society. Turn to page 4 to see how Russ College students (L to R) Caleb Amposta, Mia Wilson, Gabby Clarke, Lorne Owens, and others are becoming the meta engineers of tomorrow. www.ohio.edu/engineering

I-SPY WITH MY ERGONOMIC EYE. Industrial and systems engineering sophomore Dylan Albaugh (pointing), collaborates with students from Ohio State and Youngstown State universities at the 2017 Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Great Lakes Regional Conference, hosted by the Russ College in February. Working on small teams that received bonus points for diversity â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the more schools represented, the better â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the students completed brain teasers asking them to apply their geometry, statistics, and calculus knowledge in order to identify workplace safety standards violations. For more on the conference, see page 18.

Unity walks. Unity talks. Building upon a tradition launched last year, Ohio University’s International Student Union (ISU) once again joined members of the OHIO and surrounding communities in February for a unity walk to celebrate the diversity and unity of the Bobcat family. The group – including ISU president Hashim Pashtun (far left), a civil engineering doctoral candidate from Afghanistan – gathered at Wolfe Garden, located between Alden Library and Cutler Hall, for a stroll around OHIO’s historic College Green. They ended at Baker University Center Ballroom for refreshments, giveaways, and the icing on the cake: meaningful, community conversation.

Ingenuity | 2017

FROM THE DEAN’S DESK Welcome to our newest issue of Ingenuity! We listened to your feedback from our survey last summer – you wanted more photos, lighter copy, and more student voices. I hope you’ll enjoy the stories that live inside. Our cover story features six students who personify “meta engineering” – our commitment to going beyond the practical application of engineering and technology in order to educate the whole person, that person who will eventually be a leader in their field and in the broader community. These students’ passions, experiences, goals, and personalities inspire me as both an educator and a professional, and I hope they’ll do the same for you. When I address our students, I tell them this: Engineers are engineers, and engineers are creators. And our reason for being out there in the world, together, is for good. To create for good, as we say. What that really means is: for the lasting good of the public. That’s why we’re moving forward with our new, 120,000-square-foot research facility in the former McBee Building on West Union Street, so we can do more, bigger, better, for the public. A team of more than a dozen colleagues – comprising architects, university planners, Russ College faculty and student representatives, and even our International Space University colleague and friend John Connolly, NASA’s official lead for Mars exploration – is delving into the design planning phase as I write. We perform research as a college first and foremost to benefit our students, graduate and undergraduate. That’s part of our mission. In fact, we’re planning for a significant amount of space in the building for activities that support student creativity and entrepreneurship. The end beneficiary, however, is the global community and economy. In closing, I’d like to offer many thanks to our now Emeritus President Roderick J. McDavis, BSED ’70, for his years of support of the Russ College, especially assisting in the realization of the Academic & Research Center, which daily supports our meta engineering efforts. And, we enthusiastically welcome our new president, M. Duane Nellis. A geographer by training, he brings a reputation as a strong researcher in the area of remote sensing, which happens to be one of the thrusts of our Avionics Engineering Center.

Sincerely,

DENNIS IRWIN, PHD, PE Dean Moss Professor of Engineering Education Thomas Professor of Engineering

STUDENT PROFILE

What makes a

ENGINEER?

By Colleen Carow and Peter Shooner

Critical thinking. Leadership. Communication skills. Teamwork. Outreach. Creativity. The design life cycle. Awareness of the world. What makes the whole engineer or technologist? We believe it takes these eight traits.

Getting down and dirty with design: Members of the Concrete Canoe team apply a layer of concrete to the male mold of their canoe by hand. The steel cable running the length of the canoe provides flexural reinforcement.

We’re not satisfied with educating a technical expert to sit in a cubicle. We’re going beyond practical application – so we ask students to go beyond the classroom. Read on to see how these six students, who themselves see the value in these skills, personify what we call the meta engineer.

Ingenuity | 2017

Caleb Slyh BSCE ’17 | Carroll, Ohio I’m the captain of the design and structural analysis team on the concrete canoe team. We design, build, and race a canoe made entirely from concrete and reinforcement. I expected the project to unfold as bookwork. I was wrong. The concrete canoe helped me learn that bookwork doesn’t directly coincide with the real world – the design process is iterative and full of pitfalls, and adversity becomes a familiar feeling. During preliminary design, the team encountered a massive complication. The simple shapes used in the past to design the canoe – lines, parabolas, and circular curves – were incapable of mathematically describing the complex curves our design required. So, we used Bezier curves in the XY and YZ planes, allowing us the degrees of freedom required to accurately model the canoe mathematically. Without this massive leap forward in design, we never could have produced an accurate analysis of stresses, or an accurate mold from which to construct an ideal canoe. I now pride myself on being able to approach problems from as many

“ I NOW PRIDE MYSELF ON BEING ABLE TO APPROACH PROBLEMS FROM AS MANY DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW AS POSSIBLE.”

different points of view as possible. For example, creating more sustainable design and construction processes is vital to the success of the concrete canoe. Recycling materials from year to year, using recycled materials in the concrete mix, and repurposing scraps from alternate projects allows the concrete canoe team to adhere to sustainable operations. More sustainable construction is a massive component of creating for good. The methods learned and honed throughout these projects will behoove us in the future as we strive toward creating more efficient designs to better tomorrow.

Looking ahead: An M.S. in structural engineering at OHIO, then a career in building/bridge design so he can positively influence his community

Gabby Clarke BSISE ’17 | Columbus, Ohio I’ve been the event coordinator for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and now am an active member helping raise awareness and bridge gaps for female engineers in a maledominated field. SWE has made me more aware of how few female engineers there actually are, and the importance of female retention in STEM fields. I've also learned how important it is to take what makes you different and use it to your advantage – you might be the only woman at the table, but make

your presence known and respected. Communication skills are essential in this way. It might be easy to solve a problem, but it isn't easy to explain it so everyone understands. Effective communication skills can make or break any engineer. I’m taking this knowledge with me as I start my career because I know that making a difference begins with taking a step forward toward change, and that’s impossible when you just stay quiet on the sidelines.

Looking ahead: (Clarke, at right) Working anywhere she can help make a positive difference, whether small or large

Lorne Owens BSME ’17 | Cleveland, Ohio

Looking ahead: Learning lean principles at a Fortune 500 company, then manufacturing instrumentation for students of low socioeconomic status

I currently serve as the finance chair of the National Society of Black Engineers, whose mission is to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community. At first, I wanted to take projects from others if they weren’t meeting the standards I believe they should. I had to realize that I, too, struggled in the beginning. Those experiences made me the successful treasurer I was last year. This year, to find the most cost effective items for our budget, I had to communicate with outside sources, as well as members within the organization to give frequent updates. This increased my transparency as well as communication in the real world, and transferred to my internships and coursework.

Communication skills are important for engineers and technologists because they provide the ability to communicate opinions or thought processes effectively. I’ve also learned networking is key to success. You never know the benefits of networking until it happens, and you may not even realize because it may come naturally to you. It can open doors to so many opportunities.

“ I’VE ALSO LEARNED NETWORKING IS KEY TO SUCCESS. … IT CAN OPEN DOORS TO SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES.”

Cami Jones BSISE ’18 | Beavercreek, Ohio

I served as the 2017 Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Great Lakes Regional Conference coordinator. Working on a team of twelve friends to plan this event was an invaluable lesson in leadership. A great leader realizes that success will come from their team, not themselves alone. This conference wouldn’t have been possible without extensive teamwork among students and faculty members – there was simply

calm and timely manner because of how smoothly our team worked together. It’s up to the leader to understand their team members’ preferences, work habits, and motivators, and set each person up for personal success. When team members all work hard on tasks they’re good at and see themselves succeeding alongside their teammates, the team will stay motivated. I learned that I find even more joy in enabling others to be creative

too much to plan for one person. My favorite memory is from conference day. All of our planning was put to the test. No matter what challenges came up, all were solved in a

than I do strictly pursuing my own ideas. The job of the leader is to enable that teamwork and motivation. Success will follow. Looking ahead: Serving her local and global community by using her systems engineering and leadership skills to relieve human suffering Photo: Michael Foss

Caleb Amposta BSME ’17 | Wadsworth, Ohio My senior design project is to create a human-powered device that cleans debris off the Hock-Hocking Adena Bikeway, which runs from Athens to Nelsonville. I really had to get in the mind of a cyclist and think, “What about the current system annoys me? How can I make it easier to use while retaining effectiveness?” You want the product to be a pleasure for the customer, so you interview cyclists and avid bike path users. You also have environmental and city/county requirements the product needs to meet, so you talk to facilities coordinators, parks and recreation directors, and bike path experts. The product has to be engineered to meet all customer specifications, so you talk to engineers at bike and trailer companies. It also can’t be impossible to manufacture,

so you work with the machine shop coordinators and technicians. We created a schedule to divide and conquer certain areas of the project. When someone was struggling, and there was potential for us to miss a deadline, another person would come in and help until we caught up. Each person had to communicate where they were and trust each other. This experience has been invaluable for me developing as a leader. With a large team of five, I had to learn to develop relationships and inspire confidence in my teammates and within myself, since we’re all in it together. A good leader will take responsibility for what they’ve done whether it’s a success or a failure.

Looking ahead: (Amposta, at right) Following his love of flight into a career in the aerospace industry

Mia Wilson BSEE ’19 | Ironton, Ohio

Looking ahead: Using her computer and engineering background to fight sexual assault against women and children

I’m president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and we organize the annual Student Professional Awareness Conference (SPAC) that provides students with an opportunity to meet individuals who have valuable advice for their careers and lives. To get it all right takes a village. Because I have a great team, we were able to accomplish task after task. I really do believe that surrounding yourself with kind, hardworking people makes all the difference. When I think of creating for good, I think of actions that benefit the human condition, whether that’s a cure for cancer or just positively affecting someone in the smallest way. My goal is to help give opportunities for my fellow students to grow in their lives and careers so that they can go on and do more to create for good.

As an Engineering Ambassador, I’ve learned how to connect with people who I’ve never met before, like prospective students and their parents. This is a really important networking skill. Everyone’s motivated by something, and to connect with someone, you just have to find what that is. It’s really one of the best feelings to see someone’s eyes light up when you do. Those are the kind of moments when I know I’m following the “create for good” motto.

“ TO GET IT ALL RIGHT TAKES A VILLAGE. BECAUSE I HAVE A GREAT TEAM, WE WERE ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH TASK AFTER TASK.”

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

CRAFTING A CAREER BEYOND THE CLASSROOM When computer science junior Stajah Hoeflich landed a competitive scholarship to represent the Russ College at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing this October, she knew it would help focus her course. Held by the Anita Borg Institute and the Association for Computing Machinery, the conference hosted 15,000 other women working and studying in computing and technology. Hoeflich made connections that will guide her future work using software development and user interface design to create applications for good. Currently considering the healthcare industry or education system, she says she has learned there are many ways for a computer scientist – regardless of gender or background – to positively influence the world.

CODING FOR THE WIN Russ College students put their coding skills to the test while racing the clock at JPMorgan Chase’s 24-hour “Code for Good” hackathon, where they created an app for a real-world client, CHOICES Education Group, to inspire kids to finish high school. Competing against 200 college and high school students from across Ohio, electrical engineering sophomore Gabrielle Miller (second from left) and computer science senior Favour Ogundare (third from left) won first place in the nonprofit category and second place overall. Their team’s Android app prototype revamped an existing text-based, choose-your-own-adventure game, which asks players to guide characters through choices that get them to their cap and gown. Photo: JPMorgan Chase

Ingenuity | 2017

REAL-LY SUCCESSFUL SIMULATION CONNECT. GROW. LEAD. Three stand-out Russ College first-year women students were welcomed into this year’s class of Margaret Boyd Scholars, a program dedicated to supporting and empowering women to become engaged and confident leaders. Mechanical engineering freshmen Maggie Allen and Brittany Hesson, and chemical engineering freshman Kayla Pina, joined their eight engineering and technology classmates already in the program, making the Russ College cohort one of the largest. Now in its fourth year, the program connects undergrad women from all disciplines to each another, and to mentorship and professional development resources. Their first order of business? A group retreat to Hocking Hills State Park, where the women bonded with their fellow scholars.

A team of industrial and systems engineering students placed in the top sixteen of 250 teams in Simio’s international student simulation competition. (L to R) Junior Samantha Bishop and seniors Shayne Gillian, Cami Jones, and Anna Frankart solved a realworld logistical problem for a hypothetical shipping company, similar to a dilemma they’ll face in their careers. The team programmed the simulation from scratch, determining the most efficient and profitable method to ship products from Asia to the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

UNDERGRADS HARNESS BIOENGINEERING TO FIGHT CANCER Chemical engineering junior Nathan Arnett and senior Hannah Cherry have their sights set higher than just graduation day – they’ve put themselves on the front line battling cancer and other diseases via their research projects supported by $1,500 grants from the OHIO Provost’s Undergraduate Research Fund. Arnett, guided by molecular biology faculty mentor John Kopchick, the Milton and Lawrence H. Goll Eminent Scholar, is researching the effect of growth hormone action on melanoma cells, while Cherry is working with faculty mentor Professor of Biomedical Engineering Jennifer Hines to research antibacterial resistance. The duo, who both plan to pursue medical school, are among just forty-one undergraduates selected for the fund, which supports research and creative activity of students from all disciplines.

Safety Note: Goggles are not required for this procedure at the Edison Biotechnology Center lab, a Biosafety Level (BS-1) Laboratory.

Get the inside scoop on what students are up to by visiting the Russ College news center at ohio.edu/engineering/news

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT

A CLOUD-ENHANCED CLASSROOM A group of engineering technology and management faculty has embarked on a project to take pneumatic and hydraulics classwork to the cloud. Sponsored by the National Fluid Power Association, Associate Professor Jesus Pagan, working with Associate Professor Yuqui You and Emeritus Professor Bill Reeves, is creating a cloud-based, 3D graphic tool that enables students to practice basic pneumatic and hydraulics circuits anywhere, anytime. The team hopes to integrate the new teaching technology with traditional class content while reducing the need for additional equipment at the Russ College’s Parker Hannifin Motion and Control Laboratory.

CREATING FOR GOOD: IT’S IN OUR DNA More than 500 types of protein kinase can be found in the human genome, and one – Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 (GSK-3) – has been implicated in an array of diseases including diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. Professor of Chemical Engineering Doug Goetz, backed by a $440,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, and with the help of Associate Professor of Specialty Medicine Kelly McCall, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Steve Bergmeier, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering Jennifer Hines, has identified a set of novel small organic compounds that potently inhibit GSK-3 activity. If trials are successful, the inhibitors have the potential to become therapeutics for a host of central nervous system, inflammation, and metabolic disorders and diseases.

PROTECTING OUR PIPELINES Even minor damage to underground pipelines, especially those transporting gas, can have devastating consequences. But utility workers often have no way of knowing about a leak until it’s too late. What if there were a way to learn about the damage in real-time? By combining the existing time domain reflectometry and optical fiber technologies, Russ Professor of Civil Engineering Shad Sargand and Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering Gayle Mitchell of the Ohio Research Institute for Transportation and the Environment recently received a patent for a security mesh that can sense soil movement near pipelines and alert authorities wirelessly. The team is working with Utility Technologies International Corporation – whose CEO is civil engineering alumnus Dick Dickerson, BSCE ’80 – to refine the system and make it more economical.

Ingenuity | 2017

BIOFUEL BONANZA

Biofuels are commonly considered a viable piece of the alternative energy landscape, but the industry continues to face a persistent hurdle: cost. With the help of a $1.5 million research grant from the Department of Energy, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering John Staser, who also works at the Center for Electrochemical Engineering Research, will lead an interdisciplinary team to investigate making biofuels cheaper to manufacture. Staser’s team is developing ways to process lignin – a waste product in the biorefining process – into resins and resin binders that can be used in other industries, therby serving as a secondary source of revenue for biorefineries.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

An open-source radio frequency ID system for animal monitoring ($156,000 in collaboration with the University of Oklahoma Norman; Jay Wilhelm, assistant professor of mechanical engineering)

THE NEXT GENERATION OF NAVIGATION RESEARCH Continuing a partnership that spans decades, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Navigation Programs etched a $7.5 million research agreement with the Russ College’s Avionics Engineering Center this year. The research will support the FA A’s transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) through investigations of ground- and satellite-based navigation and landing systems, approach lighting systems, and other services across the country. Back at OHIO, the agreement will provide significant research opportunities to faculty and staff – and especially students.

A defects-driven reliability modeling and stress burn-in optimization process for nanoelectronics manufacturing ($178,222 in collaboration with Texas A&M’s Engineering Experiment Station; Tao Yuan, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering)

RESEARCH AWARDS

$13.3 in research and sponsored programs during fiscal year 2016

$500,369 from the National Science Foundation To study the initiation, dynamics, and runout of non-Newtonian slurries, including landslides, mudslides and submarine avalanches, to avoid or reduce the impact of natural disasters Mechanical Engineering

SELECTED NEW RESEARCH AWARDS

“CAREER: Suspensions of Noncolloidal Particles in Yield Stress Fluids: Fluid Mechanics, Rheology and Microstructure”

“Ground Based Augmentation System Design Approval”

Ohio Research Institute for Transportation and the Environment

Center for Electrochemical Engineering Research “Biomass Electrochemical Reactor for Upgrading Biorefinery Waste to Industrial Chemicals and Hydrogen”

To design high-bandwidth, low-latency, and power-efficient network-on-chips (NoCs) that are scalable to 1,000-core systems

Spotlight, “Biofuel bonanza,” on page 11.

Avionics Engineering Center

To identify methods for providing subsurface drainage for widening of rural roads in Ohio

$297,466 from the National Science Foundation

To learn more about this project, see Research

To investigate satellite-based navigation technology for aircraft precision approach and landing systems that modernize the National Airspace System (NAS)

$198,707 from the Ohio Department of Transportation

$1.325 million from the U.S. Department of Energy To develop a system to upgrade lignin-rich waste into bio-based phenol substitutes that can be used in resins for a variety of applications

$200,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration

“Evaluation of Roadway Subsurface Drainage on Rural Routes Phase 2”

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science “Collaborative Research: Scaling On-chip Networks to 1000-core Systems Using Heterogeneous Emerging Interconnect Technologies” For more on the research and teaching of Professor of Electrical Engineering Avinash Kodi, see page 28.

$183,944 from the Ohio Department of Transportation $1 million from Petronas To identify the key issues that affect the integrity of mild steel and corrosion resistant alloys in pipelines under certain conditions Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology “Corrosion Prediction and Prevention for Pipelines Operating Under Full-Well Stream Flow at High CO2 and Elevated H2S Content”

$225,750 from the National Institutes of Health To build more accurate, personalized bloodglucose level prediction models for diabetes patients using data from newly-improved wearable physiological sensors Electrical Engineering and Computer Science “Adaptive Prediction of Blood Glucose Levels Using Wearable Physiological Sensors”

To investigate the cause of cracking in structural supports of mounted signs along highways and evaluate their remaining lifespan Civil Engineering “Aluminum Truss Overhead Sign Support Flange Damage Assessment”

RESEARCH PROFILE

Ingenuity | 2017

PREVENTING A FRACTURED FUTURE

“Once the resources are out of the ground, you don’t get them back.” This is the challenge Appalachia must confront in the midst of the shale industry’s hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” boom in the region, according to Loehr Professor of Mechanical Engineering David Bayless. Backed by a $1.3 million award from Ohio University’s Innovation Strategy program – wherein OHIO invests in campus collaborations that address major societal challenges in the 21st century – Bayless and colleagues across the Russ College and OHIO are working with policy experts to keep more jobs and revenue in Appalachia, protect the environment, and prep the workforce and communities for life after the shale boom. OHIO launched the Innovation Strategy program in 2014 for innovative teaching and learning, research and scholarship, creative activity, and operational projects at the University that engage the complex problems of our time. Up to $5 million has been allocated for major awards and planning or seed grants each cycle, with the second cycle underway now.

Russ College researchers remediate fracking’s risks By Andrea Gibson, Peter Shooner, and Colleen Carow

Photo: Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02

Mechanical and chemical engineering professors and other researchers from the Russ College’s Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment, Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology, and Center for Air Quality – as well as OHIO’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs and Department of Economics – have banded together to help solve hydraulic fracturing’s multifaceted issues. That’s just how innovation is born. “Being really familiar with our collaborators’ work allowed us to say, ‘I know they have this capability. What if we did this?’” Bayless said.

HOW THEY’RE DOING IT David Bayless

Srdjan Nesic

Loehr Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Director, Ohio Coal Research Center

Russ Professor of Chemical Engineering; Director, Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology

Creating technology to increase the amount of natural gas that companies can extract from shale, thereby reducing the number of total wells drilled

Toufiq Reza

Jason Trembly Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment Developing processes to separate components of natural gas that can be used for other applications such as in the plastics industry, as well as a technology that can convert fracturing wastewater into clean water on site

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Marc Singer Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering Creating modeling tools the shale industry can use to predict corrosion in gas pipelines, preventing dangerous and costly leaks

Daniel Karney Assistant Professor of Economics

Scott Miller Russ College Associate Dean for Industry Partnerships

Mike Zimmer Kevin Crist Professor of Chemical Engineering; Director, Center for Air Quality Developing remote sensing technology to use aboard small aircraft to monitor the air for methane emissions from hydraulic fracturing operations

Voinovich School Executive–in-Residence Examining the manufacturing climate, public and economic development policy, workforce retraining programs, and related issues that could help Appalachia leverage more benefits from the shale boom and position it for the post-shale economy

ALUMNI PROFILE

By Peter Shooner

DRIVEN Fueled by passion, Russ College alum and NASCAR crew chief Adam Stevens, BSME ’02, took the road less traveled – and it’s paying off.

Photos: Joe Gibbs Racing

Ingenuity | 2017

If you asked a twenty-two-year-old Adam Stevens what he’d be doing fifteen years later, he probably wouldn’t have guessed that he’d be leading a NASCAR team to auto racing’s top prize. But after years of simply following his passion to meet increasingly bigger challenges, he found himself putting together a season-long performance that defied expectations.

Born to race

he Portsmouth, Ohio, native grew up in the stands of southern Ohio’s race tracks, cheering on his father, Greg, who dirt raced late model cars throughout Adam’s childhood. His father also owned a successful construction company where Stevens often worked – but if construction was the family business, racing was the family hobby. Stevens got behind the wheel at a young age and was hooked. When it came time for college, engineering was a natural choice. “There was always an opportunity for me to go back and work with my dad for the family construction company,” Stevens says. “Part of me taking the path of mechanical engineering was that it would be something useful on the construction side, as well as something I could find interest in and apply to my racing.” Stevens wasted no time bringing principles from the classroom to the race track, shuttling back to Portsmouth on weekends to tweak, test, and race. But as his engineering skills increased, so did the competition, and he realized driving professionally wasn’t in his future. Doubling down on engineering, Stevens hit the job fairs, walking away at graduation with multiple offers from some of the country’s largest companies. Still, with a pocketful of options, including a bigger role in the family business, something was missing: Passion. So, Stevens, who had also been trying to find opportunities in professional auto racing, made a difficult choice. “I had to turn down the ‘real world’ job opportunities and continue pursuing the jobs in NASCAR. My heart just wasn’t in anything else at that point in time,” Stevens remembers. “And in the midst of all that, I had to sit down with

THE HARD PART WAS “ FIGURING OUT THIS WAS WHAT I REALLY WANTED TO DO. ONCE YOU DO THAT, YOU CAN FIGURE OUT EVERYTHING THAT COMES AFTER.” – ADAM STEVENS, BSME ’02

my dad and tell him that working for the family business just wasn’t in the cards for me either.” His dad’s reaction? Nothing but support. Stevens spent the summer after graduation driving back and forth to North Carolina, where he would cold-call race teams and crash on friends’ couches. “The first trips down I didn’t have anybody to talk to. I just beat on doors,” Stevens says. If that sounds challenging, it was. But according to Stevens, it was nothing compared to the challenge of choosing the path he felt was right. “To me, this wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was figuring out this was what I really wanted to do,” Stevens explains. “Once you do that, you can figure out everything that comes after.” His persistence paid off, and he got the break he needed. Petty Enterprises hired him as a design engineer, launching the career path he knew to be his calling.

Top: Adam Stevens checks in with his driver, Kyle Busch, in the garage. Above: Following the race victory at HomesteadMiami Speedway, Stevens' team captured the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship in 2015.

DRIVEN

… Continued from Alumni Profile

IT’S VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE CAREER PATH “ YOU CHOOSE AT THE OUTSET – THAT YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT WHERE IT MIGHT TAKE YOU.” – ADAM STEVENS, BSME ’02

Above: Adam Stevens, left, talks shop with his driver, Kyle Busch. Stevens became the first rookie crew chief to win a NASCAR championship since 1982.

Defying expectation

fter six years as a race engineer with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), Stevens won big – a chance to crew chief one of JGR’s Xfinity Series teams, which competes at the sport’s second-highest level,

next to the Sprint Cup Series. “It’d been a little frustrating after a number of years to be so close to the final decision every time and not being the guy who’s making that final decision – that’s always the crew chief’s responsibility,” he says. Once paired with driver Kyle Busch, Stevens’ team scored nineteen wins, forty-six top-five finishes, and forty-seven top-tens in fifty-two total Xfinity starts with Busch in 2013 and 2014. The higher-ups took notice. During the 2014 season, Stevens got the call that in 2015, he’d be moving up to crew chief a Sprint Cup Series team, with Busch behind the wheel. He had a little more than a year to build his staff, all while still managing the Xfinity car. After months of hiring, managing, and designing, Stevens and the rest of the #18 team headed to Daytona International Speedway for the first race of the 2015 season with high hopes. But tragedy struck. During the Saturday Xfinity race at Daytona, Busch, who was competing in both series, hit a wall head-on, seriously fracturing his right leg. He was rushed into surgery, leaving the rookie crew chief without a driver less than twenty-four hours before the start of the season.

The team found an alternate for Daytona, as well as the next ten races, as Busch recovered. It was up to Stevens to hold the team together until Busch’s return, and once he did, the duo found their rhythm again – qualifying for the “Chase” – the Sprint Cup’s playoff – and eventually winning the title in a stunning victory at Homestead, the final race of the season. “It’s mindboggling. If you could lay out a timeline of how that season progressed and everything that we went through as a team, and everything that Kyle went through, and all the narrow misses we had when he came back – squeaking into the Chase and barely making it through the first two rounds and then making it to Homestead and coming away with a big trophy – it’s stuff that books are written about,” says Stevens. He had become the first crew chief since 1982 to win the championship in his rookie year. Now, after a third-place finish in 2016, Stevens and team are poised for more success down the road in 2017.

Lessons from the rearview

eflecting on the challenges he has faced, Stevens maintains that the most difficult step was his first. “It’s very important that the career path you choose at the outset – that you’re excited about where it might take you,” Stevens says. “I think a lot people get that wrong on the front side and a few years down the road are unfulfilled because there’s no room for advancement or they just don’t enjoy the work anymore. No amount of money or benefits is going to make you happy if you’re not 100 percent into the work itself.” Admitting he can’t say what path will make anyone else happy, Stevens does add one piece of advice for engineers preparing for their own careers: Develop your leadership and communication skills to break the mold of the “stereotypical engineer.” “If you have any inclination or ambition to pursue a leadership role, especially if you’ve settled on a field that you’re super excited about, then you have to find a way to hone those skills,” Stevens says. “One of the most important things to set yourself apart from other people is to develop a skill that the rest of the flock doesn’t have. So I think engineers as a whole need to take that aspect of their preparation and their schooling and general personality very seriously. It separates them from the rest.”

ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENTS

Ingenuity | 2017

Another Konneker comes home Eleven patents. Two successful start-ups. One exemplary entrepreneur. Jake Sigal, BSISE ’03, MS ’05, received the 2016 Ohio University Konneker Medal for his demonstrated excellence in innovation, invention, commercialization, and entrepreneurship. Founder of two companies, Livio and Tome Software – both focused on digital audio, consumer electronics, and internet-connected devices – Sigal holds patents including a wireless radio system, a digital portable media player, and various integrated automotive technologies. He has collaborated with NPR and Pandora, and sold Livio to Ford Motor Company in 2013. Sigal launched Tome in 2014 to develop internet-connected products within the growing “Internet of Things” tech industry. He’s the youngest, and the fourth Russ College community member in a row, to receive the medal: Medical firm CEO Joe Jachinowski, BSEE ’79, received the 2015 medal; computer chip pioneer Hua-Thye Chua, BSEE ’59, received the 2014

NEW BONES FOR BMW

medal; and Emeritus Professor William Beale received the 2013 medal

Working on an automotive assembly line can take a real toll on the body, especially for workers who have to lift heavy tools over their shoulders all day. When asked in 2012 to find solutions to this problem at BMW, Frank Pochiro, BSIT ’97, joked to the tool designers that all they really needed was an Iron Man suit. This year, they rolled out the next best thing: Pochiro, inspired by a TED talk, persuaded BMW to become the first auto manufacturer in the world to implement wearable, robotic exoskeletons onto their assembly line. The four-and-a-half-pound vests are worn like a backpack to provide ergonomic upper body support and arm strength and have been shown to reduce injury and fatigue while increasing job satisfaction. Pochiro continues to implement the suits at multiple BMW plants but isn’t stopping there – he’s also helping create robots that will work in sync with human workers on the manufacturing floor.

for developing the Free-Piston Stirling Engine.

SIGAL IS THE FOURTH RUSS COLLEGE COMMUNITY MEMBER IN A ROW TO RECEIVE THE MEDAL.

Photo: Steve Wilson

WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND Matt Cooper, MS ’05, PHD ’08, is making a big impact on engineering education – citing the Russ College’s emphasis on academic integrity as his inspiration. Cooper won the American Society of Engineering Education’s Ray W. Fahien Award, in part for an investigative study of engineering students’ attitudes toward plagiarism and plagiarism screening software at North Carolina State University, where he now teaches as an assistant professor. He found that not only were students willing to put their work through plagiarism software, they welcomed it. Photo: Lisa Bullard

Ingenuity | 2017

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME Russ College student orgs host hundreds of competition and conference attendees

In February, industrial and systems engineering students put on the 2017 Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Great Lakes Regional Conference. Almost 300 fellow students from across the region attended to “Find the ‘IE’ in Relief,” learning how to create for good by applying their specialized process improvement skills to disaster relief efforts, hospital design, food bank warehousing and distribution challenges, and nonprofit needs. Russ College Assistant Professor Felipe Aros-Vera, the opening keynote speaker, is currently working with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to develop remote sensing decision support tools for post-disaster environments.

For more news about upcoming events, visit: www.ohio.edu/engineering/news/events.cfm

Russ College mechanical engineering students hosted hundreds of peers from around the world last May for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2016 Human Powered Vehicle Challenge. Teams came from across the country and as far away as Colombia to pit their unique, humanpowered vehicles against one another. OHIO took third place among thirty-five teams with “El Gato 2.0,” as well as third place in both the women’s drag race and the team endurance race.

OUR CULTURE

Never too young to create for good

When you go beyond the classroom, you discover. That’s why Russ College students and faculty regularly volunteer their time and minds to share the wonders of STEAM with area children. From hands-on activities at Athens’ Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery to Union Furnace Elementary’s annual Land Lab field day, local children of all ages – and even some parents – were fascinated this October by robots and drones, and learned to think critically through brain teasers and math riddles. And last summer, as part of the Pennsylvania State University’s Upward Bound Math and Science program, the Russ College welcomed several dozen urban high school students to campus for a series of hands-on STEM workshops. Learning how to power a small car with chemical reactions, the students saw not only that chemical engineering is fun, but also that hands-on experiments can be the key to solving big problems such as designing alternative energy sources.

Innovation requires collaboration The Hop Runners (right) were just one team including Russ College students that made the grade at Athens’ seventh annual Startup Weekend for their front-door beer delivery business plan. At the three-day event last fall, participants worked from the ground up to craft potential startups, with the best winning benefits to help make the pitches a reality. High-efficiency lights may grace the Convocation Center thanks to an Eco Challenge team of Russ College and business students. Launched by the Robert D. Walter Center for Strategic Leadership and T. Richard and Eleanora K. Robe Leadership Institute, the competition calls for eight weeks of intense research and pitch development to create a more sustainable infrastructure on campus.

In memoriam: William Taylor Beale Another start-up team, comprising faculty and students, took its hot idea to the Ohio Collegiate Venture Showcase, hosted in Columbus by I-Corps@Ohio, a state-funded program that moves university research from the lab to the marketplace. LnR Technologies developed and marketed its special design of heat exchangers for use in high-tech electronics, chemical processing, and HVAC systems all the way to the showcase’s final round.

Professor Emeritus William Taylor Beale, who served on the faculty from 1960-1974, passed away on July 24, 2016. Working a distinguished career in the development and manufacturing of new engine and power generation systems, he created in 1964 a new form of Stirling engine known as the Free-Piston Stirling Engine. Recipient of the 2013 Ohio University Konneker Medal, Beale was a true educator who delighted in the encouragement of the next generation.

OUR CULTURE

Creators of Good $500,000

INTERNATIONAL PRIZE THE RUSS PRIZE

HOW ENGINEERS AND THEIR COLLABORATORS HAVE IMPROVED THE HUMAN CONDITION

Created with a gift to the Russ College by Fritz, BSEE ’42, LDD-ENGR (HON) ’75, and his wife, Dolores, the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize is awarded biennially by the National Academy of Engineering to recognize innovations that increase our quality of life.

By Colleen Carow and Peter Shooner

Russ Prize Recipients Earl E. Bakken and Wilson Greatbatch, electrical engineers

2001

Willem J. Kolff, physician

2003

Leland C. Clark, Jr., biochemist

2005

The Achievements COCHLEAR IMPLANT An externally-worn audio processor that turns sounds into signals to stimulate the auditory nerve

2015

500,000 IMPLANTS TO DATE

Yuan-Cheng “Bert” Fung, bioengineer

2007

Elmer Gaden, chemical engineer

2009

Rangaswamy Srinivasan, chemist Blake S. Wilson, electrical engineer Graeme M. Clark, physician Erwin Hochmair, electrical engineer James G. Fujimoto, electrical engineer Adolf F. Fercher, physicist Christoph K. Hitzenberger, biomedical engineer

Leroy Hood, biologist

2011

James J. Wynne, physicist

2013

Samuel E. Blum, chemist

Ingeborg J. Hochmair-Desoyer, electrical engineer

2015 CLARK OXYGEN ELECTRODE

Michael M. Merzenich, neuroscientist

David Huang, biomedical engineer Eric A. Swanson, electrical engineer, entrepreneur

Illustrations: Ashley Stottlemyer; Graphic: Christina Ullman

It rapidly measures dissolved oxygen levels, making surgery safer, among many other applications

2017

750,000 OPEN-HEART SURGERIES PER YEAR thanks to the Clark Oxygen Electrode

2005

Ingenuity | 2017

2013

OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY An imaging technology used to diagnose millions of patients with eye disease at early stages

LASIK AND PRK EYE SURGERIES Laser ablative photodecomposition, which etches organic tissue without scarring and has enabled eyesight correction surgeries

28 MILLION SURGERIES WORLDWIDE

2017

2001

IMPLANTABLE HEART PACEMAKER Bakken developed first wearable, external, battery-powered, transistorized pacemaker; GreatbatchÂ developed the implantable pacemaker

3 MILLION IMPLANTED WORLDWIDE

2003

ARTIFICIAL ORGANS, STARTING WITH THE KIDNEY In hemodialysis, blood flows a few ounces at a time through a machine that filters out waste and extra fluids

600,000+ AMERICANS DEPEND ON KIDNEY DIALYSIS

2011 AUTOMATED DNA SEQUENCER

2009 LARGE-SCALE MANUFACTURE OF ANTIBIOTICS

2007 ADVANCES IN BIOMECHANICS RESEARCH

Development of the automated DNA sequencer, enabling the mapping of the human genome

The engineering concept of mass transfer used to accelerate yeast growth enabled large-scale antibiotics manufacturing

The fundamentals of force, motion, flow, stress and strength applied to how the body works (helped the development of artificial skin, personal body armor, and seat belts)

1,000 GENOMES MAPPED

200

MILLION LIVES SAVED WITH PENICILLIN

300,000 LIVES SAVED WITH AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY DESIGN ADVANCES

FEATURE STORY

What’s By Colleen Carow

mine is ours en miles northwest of Corning, Ohio, Bat Gate mine releases acid mine drainage (AMD) into the headwaters of Sunday Creek. As the toxic sludge of another Southeast Ohio stream contaminated by the region’s countless abandoned coal mines settles, the water above it – whose pH can sink to that of battery acid – becomes poisoned to the point where sometimes nothing more than microbes can survive. Combining engineering and the arts, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering Guy Riefler and Professor of Art John Sabraw are transforming these toxins for good. Environmental engineer Riefler, on a quest to remediate AMD, developed a process to turn sludge into paint pigments. Sabraw, a painter, uses the pigment to create artist-grade paints, and ultimately, works of art that comment on the human experience within the Earth’s ecosystem. The duo is now working with a commercial partner to mass produce the paint in the hope of sharing their story more broadly – and funding the water remediation itself.

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Ingenuity | 2017

FEATURE STORY

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Down and dirty. Decked out in his personal protective equipment – full-length hip waders and nitrile gloves – Riefler collects sludge from Sunday Creek in September as a crew from CNN’s Weather Channel films. Riefler and Sabraw’s work has been featured by media ranging from The Washington Post to the Discovery Channel to a TED Talk that Sabraw delivered in March.

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Faster is better. At the Russ College’s Environmental Engineering Lab in Stocker Center, first-year civil engineering master’s student John Timmons tests the rate of oxidation of different bacterial cultures for pigment production.

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Each flask is filled with a solution comprising iron and a unique bacterial inoculation that oxidizes the iron, with the goal of finding a bacterial culture that can be used to treat water quickly at an onsite treatment plant. Riefler and team recently discovered a method to make bacteria oxidize iron ten to 100 times faster than previous methods, earning them a provisional patent. Drawn to OHIO by Riefler’s research team, Timmons plans in his own work to isolate, culture, and sequence the DNA of local bacteria with the hope of further accelerating the treatment process.

Ingenuity | 2017

Finely ground. Before delivery, the iron precipitate – which was set into two-by-three-foot plastic totes for drying into a solid form – is tested for quality by drying then grinding into pigment.

[3]

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Hot stuff. Moving one step closer to creating paint, Sabraw and School of Art Ceramic Technician Brian Dieterle lift a tray of cooled pigment from drying racks at the sculpture studio, where it was fired in the kiln at 932 degrees Fahrenheit to remove remaining moisture and change the color to this deep burgundy.

[4]

[3]

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The raw and the cooked. Surprising even the engineer and the artist, the pigment – shown here after firing at 1,000 degrees – deepens in color with its firing temperature. Sabraw responds accordingly, with changes in his paintings.

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Photo: John Sabraw

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Athens block. Sabraw and Riefler prepare a test slice of the pigment in its compacted form, after firing in the kiln.

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FEATURE STORY

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Mixing method. Sabraw adds binder to the pigment with a glass muller to create paint.

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Photo: Louise O’Rourke, MFA ’12

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What dreams are made of. Focusing on natural phenomena, the Earth’s ecosystem as a whole, and our role within it, Sabraw incorporates ever more sustainable practices in his studio work, life, and when possible, public engagements. The collaboration with Riefler has made his goal more attainable. Sabraw’s art is featured in numerous collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu; the Elmhurst Museum, Illinois; Columbus Science Center; Emprise Bank; and Accenture Corp.

[8]

Photo: John Sabraw

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Chroma S1 17 Mixed media on aluminum composite panel. 36 x 36 inches, 2013. © John Sabraw. Sabraw layers dozens of colors, of different viscosities, that are then juxtaposed, superimposed, and mixed with each another – and allowed to interact with environmental forces such as humidity, air movement, and temperature from days to months.

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Photo: John Sabraw \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

From the ground up. This summer, Riefler and Sabraw will send fifty pounds of pigment to Oregon’s Gamblin Artist Colors, which will produce 500 tubes of artist-grade oil paints, represented here with a sample prototype label. It will be the first large-scale batch of the paint created commercially. Sabraw will distribute the tubes to fellow artists in exchange for new works they’ll make available for a curated, traveling, international exhibit that will help tell the AMD pigment story.

[10]

Design: Golden Tangerine Design

To watch the CNN/Weather Channel production, visit bit.ly/2mP0TeJ To learn more about John Sabraw’s work, visit www.johnsabraw.com John Sabraw is represented in Chicago by Thomas McCormick.

FACULTY PROFILE

SOLVING COMPUTING’S ENERGY CRISIS Professor of Electrical Engineering Avinash Kodi is working on the forefront of nanotechnology to solve problems in the computing industry.

By Tyler Prich

As computer technology becomes more powerful, machines require more energy to meet progressively greater demands – creating a big hurdle for computer scientists. For nearly a decade, Professor of Electrical Engineering Avinash Kodi has worked on the forefront of nanotechnology, working to solve what he calls an “energy crisis” in the computing industry. “It looks like network power consumption is going through the roof, and it’s becoming a big problem,” Kodi says. “We’re looking at different emerging technologies to reduce the consumption – such as building reconfigurable networks.” Backed by numerous research grants over the years, including a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER grant, Kodi’s now interested in how machine learning models could potentially further optimize networks. His previous projects have focused on developing a holistic design methodology for the network-on-chips, or NoCs, that connects the chip’s cores and enables them to talk to each other – research he has brought into the classroom to stretch his students’ perspective. “I try to motivate my students to do better, and I think they reciprocate in a certain way,” Kodi said. “They’ll ask better questions, and sometimes I digress into how the topic we’re discussing relates to my photonics research. It’s more challenging, and I think the students appreciate that there are a lot of new things happening outside of the basics they’re learning.”

FACULTY NEWS

Ingenuity | 2017

FELLOW FACULTY

Russ College faculty members have received top professional honors in recognition of their decades-long commitment to engineering education and research. Dean Dennis Irwin (left), recent president of the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers, was named fellow of the National Society of Professional Engineers, and David Young (right) , research professor with the Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology, was named fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

CHART-TOPPING RESEARCH Two Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering faculty members have topped the charts in CORROSION, a leading peerreviewed research journal for corrosion science and engineering. Russ Professor Srdjan Nesic – also director of the Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology (ICMT) – authored two articles that made their way to the “top 20 most cited” list. They describe his foundational research to develop the first and most advanced mathematical models for predicting internal corrosion of mild steel pipelines. Research Assistant Professor Yoon-Seok Choi, ICMT’s associate director of research, authored one of the top-viewed articles in the online publication, which is produced by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers.

EXPERT VOICES LEAD TO GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS More than ever, the news media rely on subject matter experts to validate the stories of the day – and more than ever, reporters are turning to Russ College faculty for their expertise. Neil D. Thomas Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Michael Braasch, an expert in aviation navigation systems, and Robe Professor of Mechanical Engineering and department chair Greg Kremer, founder of the College’s “Designing to Make a Difference” senior design program, were honored as two of OHIO’s top newsmakers, with the third and seventh highest number of media placements at the university, respectively.

RESEARCH GAINS INTERNATIONAL EDGE WHILE FOSTERING LOCAL GROWTH Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Sarah Hormozi, who received a prestigious five-year, $500,000 CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) last year for her research in fluid dynamics, is now collaborating globally thanks to a new joint NSFEuropean Research Council grant exclusively for CAREER awardees. The additional $24,000 award, which required a new proposal, connects her with Professor Luca Brandt from Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology. Hormozi continues her strides not only in the lab, but also in students’ lives: She recently received the OHIO Women’s Center Mentorship Award for coaching an undergraduate woman in the lab toward the confidence to apply for graduate school.

NEW LEADERSHIP FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING Associate Professor Guy Riefler was named chair of the Department of Civil Engineering in January. Succeeding now Associate Dean for Academics Deb McAvoy, he brings seventeen years of Russ College experience – as well as his impressive research repertoire, which includes the “Toxic Art” collaborative environmental remediation project with Professor of Art John Sabraw – to the leadership role. See page 22 for more.

CLASS NOTES

Here’s what Russ College alumni are up to – and how you’re creating for good. ADAM ARNETT, BSME ’16, works at Germanbased engineering firm AMTEC North America’s Athens, Ohio, office. “I work to reduce the pollution of industrial processes.” ALFRED BANHOLZER, BSME ’57, is retired from the Air Force. Still flying, he recently finished a five-year rebuild of a 1942 Boeing Stearman. BENJAMIN COX, BSISE ’92, is president at Continental Disc and Groth Corporation, which produces safety products for chemical, oil and gas, medical, and food manufacturing. FRANK CSAVINA, BSME ’66, MSME ’71, retired in 2005 as technical director for propulsion at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and is now a self-employed consultant for the U.S. Air Force and Navy. “I train younger engineers.”

MICHAEL DUNN, BSIT ’93, is a managing director for HUFCOR’s Airport & Retail Division. I inspire hope in underprivileged youth and adults by volunteering at the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco and the Bay Area Rescue Mission in Richmond, California.

MIKE CRNOBRNJA, BSME ’58, passed away at the age of 86 in May. A NASA aeronautical engineer, he worked the Centaur, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs and was particularly proud of his contribution to the design of the system that kept astronauts safe during their re-entry to Earth. SHAMSUL IWARDI IDRIS DARWIS, BSISE ’84, joined a start-up that produces herbal juice. CONRAD FELICE, BSCE ’79, is the managing principal of geostructural and construction engineering services firm C.W. Felice, LLC. He was elected a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in December. ZACH FETCHU, BSME ’11, MSME ’14, is now a lead engineer 2 at GE Aviation, where he manages the design and repair functions of GP7200 high pressure turbine blades. He also established a property management business. “I help lift people up and bring them home safely.” RYAN FORBES, BS ’06, MSISE ’12, was recently named head of the AEP Conesville power plant. His other roles have included chemist, plant environmental coordinator, environmental and lab supervisor, process supervisor, and maintenance superintendent. JOSHUA FRASH, BSCHE ’15, is a first line supervisor of operations for Chemours Washington Works in the Teflon PFA area. JOSEPH HARRINGTON, BSEE ’85, is a supervisory engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense.

ROBERT HENRY PAGE, BSME ’49, passed away at the age of 88 in October. A member of the Russ College Academy of Distinguished Graduates, he was a member of the Russ College Board of Visitors from 1981-1992. Page served in WWII and later held leadership positions with Esso Research and Engineering Company, as well as the University of Illinois, Stevens Institute of Technology, Rutgers University as mechanical engineering department chair for fifteen years, and Texas A&M University as dean of engineering for four years before becoming the James M. Forsyth Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

JOAN MACE, AA ’73, BGS ’78, was named an honorary alumna of the Russ College and elected to the Russ College Academy of Distinguished Graduates in April.

GREG HARVEY, BSME ’08, is vice president and general manager of Oakland Industries. CAROLINE HILDEBRAND, BSEE ’16, interned in hardware engineering at L-3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications, in Sarasota, Florida. She then spent a few months in Brazil before joining Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix as an engineer. She is competing to join the U.S. triathlon team this August. CHRIS HILL, BSCHE ’92, who has more than twenty years of experience in water treatment, was elected to the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation board of directors. JAY HILL, BSETM ’10, who started his career in manufacturing engineering, has since transitioned to the commercial construction industry with Prater Engineering & Associates. “I have been a part of the design team for more than 100 commercial construction projects in the U.S. and abroad.” GEORGE ALLEN HILT, MSCHE ’74, passed away at the age of 66 in March. He was a retired chemical engineer in Mississippi Chemical Corporation’s R&D department. DAVID HOFFMAN, BSEE ’86, is working at American Electric Power. LT. COL. ERIC HOWLAND, BSIT ’96, was assigned to NATO Joint Forces Command in Naples, Italy, after commanding the heavy airlift squadron in Papa, Hungary. He’s now responsible for military partnerships between NATO and Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. CHAD INGLE, BSCE ’99, is a project engineer for the city of Kettering, Ohio. Last summer, he spent eight days and covered 160 miles kayaking the entire Great Miami River. “I make the City of Kettering a better place to live, work, and play.” JEFF KRAMER, BSIT ’98, started his own company, Four Rooks Consulting, LLC, which focuses on helping small-to-medium sized manufacturing companies grow top-line sales. “By helping businesses thrive in Northeast Ohio, I create an environment that enables everyone to succeed economically and socially.”

Ingenuity | 2017 STEVEN KREBS, BSISE ’92, is chief operating officer at Houston’s Control Company, a small, private, equity-backed company that produces and sells calibrated laboratory measuring and monitoring equipment.

“I take my industry experiences – the successes, the failures, and what's in between – back to Athens to meet with students. It’s the most satisfying thing I do all year.”

DOUG LARSON, BSEE ’91, completed his twentyfifth year with Sargent & Lundy, LLC, where he is the electrical manager at the Phoenix regional office. DAVE LAZOVSKY, BSME ’95, was appointed the executive chairman of the board of directors at POET Technologies, Inc., a developer of opto-electronic fabrication processes for the semiconductor industry. He holds forty-five U.S. patents. CHRISTOPHER MCKNIGHT, BSISE ’90, is a regional sales manager at Elobau Sensor Technology. EVERETT LOUIS OVERSTREET, BSCE ’67, recently authored his fourth book, Black Lives, which analyzes the status of race relations in America in the third millennium. He is a member of the Russ College Academy of Distinguished Graduates. PAUL PENKO, BSME ’67, is an adjunct professor in the physics and astronomy department at Baldwin Wallace University. “I helped create Baldwin Wallace University’s engineering major program, to start fall 2017.” RUSTY PHILPOT, BSA ’05, chief pilot of ImagineAir, has flown more than 4,000 hours in the Cirrus SR-22. He is a former Engineering Ambassador.

“I ensure aircraft software and hardware are usable, accurate, and comply with FAA regulations to keep passengers safe.” –CAROLINE HILDERBRAND, BSEE ’16

–DAN SQUILLER, BSEE ’79, MA ’84

DAN SQUILLER, BSEE ’79, MA ’84, CEO of Verengo Solar, a company that brings solar power to homeowners and commercial customers, was elected to the Russ College Academy of Distinguished Graduates in April.

MATTHEW REISER, BSCE ’07, is a project construction manager, currently working on the Ohio Department of Transportation’s largest earthwork project to date. ROBB ROBY, BSME ’94, will be opening intellectual property law firm Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear’s new office in New York City this summer. “Over the years, I have coached and officiated youth sports teams as a volunteer. When I arrive in NYC, I plan on becoming involved with pro bono activities on behalf of the firm.” ROBERT ROLL, BSCE ’99, is an environmental science specialist at the State of Montana Department of Environmental Quality. He recently completed a 100-mile mountain bike race through the badlands of North Dakota. “I help lead clean-up of contaminated historic sites like sawmills, refineries, and mines.” MATT SCOTT, BSME ’98, chief project engineer at Rolls-Royce Corp., is leading RollsRoyce Indianapolis activities on Trent engine programs for the Boeing 787 and Airbus A330neo aircraft. ALAN SHEIDLER, BSME ’78, retired from John Deere Harvester Works in 2015 after a thirty-seven-year career in which he received forty-nine patents and several awards for internal innovation. JOE SREBERNAK, BSME ’15, who is attending grad school part-time toward an M.B.A, has traveled all over the continent as a technical support engineer for Preformed Line Products. ROBERT TAYLOR, BSCE ‘95, is the Infrastructure Asset Management Engineer at the city of Dublin, Ohio, and recently completed the ASQ Sis Sigma Black Belt exam for his Six Sigma Black Belt certification. JOHN VALDUGA, BSME ’60, passed away at the age of seventy-nine in February. He worked nearly forty years for Owens-Illinois in leadership and engineering positions.

BRAD BUNDY, BSME ’11, is retail production manager at American Pan Co. He’s celebrating three years of marriage with wife LAUREN BARGAMIAN, BA ’11. “I work with Champaign County to improve their ability to respond to the opiate epidemic.”

DAN HALCOMB, BSME ’16, is designing environmental systems for commercial greenhouses at Rough Brothers, Inc. “I’m implementing geothermal energy, photovoltaics, and cogeneration in greenhouses being built all over the country.”

KARL WEST, BSME ’92, is director of medical device development at the Cleveland Clinic and inventor of IOPS technology, which spun off into the start-up Centerline Biomedical.

THE RUSS COLLEGE RUNS IN THE FAMILY! Current student LYDIA SEITER, BSCHE ’19, with her fellow student and cousin LLOYD SEITER (L), BSCHE ’17, and uncle DAN SEITER, BSCHE ’85. ADAM WOOD, BSCE ’03, started Fortis Structural, LLC, in 2014 with two partners. Their fifteen structural engineers develop significant architectural building projects in the Rocky Mountain region and beyond. “I lead sustainable design for new construction, and adaptive re-use and renovation for existing facilities.” TOM ZESIGER, BSEE ’97, analyzes directed energy weapons signatures at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He’s also the leader of the radio frequency weapons team. “I help protect personnel in our armed forces.”

Catch up with more alums at www.ohio.edu/engineering/alumni Get in touch. Let us know what’s new with you at www.ohio.edu/engineering/alumni/update.cfm

INTERNSHIP PROFILE

TOP FLIGHT Aviation student reaches for the sky with Delta internship By Colleen Carow On the northern edge of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Russ College aviation junior Andrew Rockefeller is giving VIPs the ride of their lives – and getting a ticket to his future while he’s at it. An intern over spring semester at Delta’s world headquarters in Atlanta, Rockefeller conducts simulator tours with both pilots and non-pilots, and also helps with charter operations for the NBA and NHL. Along the way, he’s learning all that goes into getting planes and passengers off the ground. “A huge takeaway from this internship will be all the work no one sees that’s required for every airplane to take off and land,” Rockefeller says. “From the planes, to scheduling, to pilots, gate agents, fuel, baggage, weather, planners, maintenance – the list goes on and on,” he explains. A certified flight instructor who’s also vice president of Aviation honorary fraternity Alpha Eta Rho, Rockefeller is inspired by a grandfather who flew in his Navy days. “I've always been fascinated by anything that flies,” he says. The Atlanta resident has his sights set on one day returning to Delta and fulfilling his dream of becoming an airline pilot for what he says, of course, is the best airline in the world. Photo: Aubry Canales

“A huge takeaway from this internship will be all the work no one sees that’s required for every airplane to take off and land.” — ANDREW ROCKEFELLER

CREATE FOR THE FUTURE

Gifts That Keep on Giving Three recent gifts + three students who are already excelling from similar charitable contributions By Colleen Carow and Peter Shooner

Ingenuity | 2017

The Imes Family Student Activities Fund for chemical and biomolecular engineering students Created by John, BSCHE ’69, and Sally Imes, BSED ’68

Andrea Rykalla SENIOR Chemical and biomolecular engineering Team member: WERC environmental design team “In high school, I had an idea to create fresh water in the west: purify ocean water, and use the remaining salts to power cars. I realized my solution would never work, but finding I was wrong encouraged me to come up with new ideas.”

The Robert E. Wilkes Scholarship for military veterans studying electrical engineering Created by the late Robert Wilkes, BSEE ’61

Kevin Farrell JUNIOR Aviation flight, Military veteran, U.S. Marine Corps Scholarship recipient: OHIO Achievement Scholarship “As a Huey door gunner in the Marines, my job was usually destructive, but what I found far more gratifying was providing humanitarian aid in Timor-Leste. I could see myself flying for a NGO like Doctors Without Borders.”

The Calvin H. Baloun Memorial Scholarship in memory of the late chemical engineering professor Created by Mark, BSCHE ’69, MS ’82, and Debora Barger

Samantha Haning SENIOR Engineering technology and management Scholarship recipient: OHIO Distinction Scholarship, Russ Vision Scholarship, Curtis M. Johnson Memorial ENT Scholarship, and others “As a first-generation college student, my scholarships played a large part in my decision to attend OHIO.”

Want to plant a seed for success? Make a charitable gift. For more info., Contact Senior Director of Development Scott Gluck at glucks@ohio.edu or 740.593.2533, or visit www.ohio.edu/engineering/giving. Illustration: Ashley Stottlemyer and Christina Ullman

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