Engineering Quarterly Spring 2020

Engineering Quarterly VOL.II. . . No.3

Welcome to the Engineering Quarterly, a newsletter published four times a year by the University of Mary School of Engineering. We include news from each of the five engineering majors that we currently offer: Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, and Construction Management.

As with almost every other university in the world, our spring semester was disrupted in March by the onset of the global viral pandemic. It caused trauma to hospitals, sporting events, and communities across the globe, along with the closing of campuses across the country, including our Rome campus, our campus at Arizona State University, and our campus here in Bismarck where all of our courses were immediately shifted to an online format. This meant that we were unable to present our design projects to the public as we do every spring and it also meant that many of our laboratory courses and design courses were disrupted. As a result, our professors and students have had to be very creative in developing ways to complete these courses and ensure that the students met all of the necessary educational outcomes.

In this issue of EQ, we profile our graduating class of 2020. We interviewed these students and find out what they thought of their years at the University of Mary and also what they plan to do now that they are finished. Unfortunately, the actual graduation ceremony was canceled due to the virus outbreak and so we decided we would have our graduates pose for a photo in their cap and gown so that they would at least get at chance to wear it.

We profile one of our Junior engineering projects that the students were able to finish even though they were interrupted in the middle of it. They designed a bench top lathe.

Their actual report was over 40 pages long and so we will only give a summary of their main results here.

At the end of this issue we profile one of the projects our freshman class did after the move online. They used the daily COVID-19 virus data collected by Johns Hopkins’ Whitting School of Engineering and wrote a Bash shell script that automatically extracts the data from the region of interest and plots the number of Confirmed cases over time, the number of Deaths, and the number of Recovered. This was and interesting way for them to track the virus in real time and get some real world data analysis experience as well.

Terry Pilling

SPRING 2020

2020 C IVIL E NGINEERING G RADUATES Noah Krebs is graduating with a Civil Engineering degree.

He is from Bismarck and will remain in Bismarck after graduation. Noah has recently accepted a poNoah Krebs sition as Project Engineer for Bartlett & West.

“My years at Mary were exciting. From playing football, being in the first engineering class, to life as a college student. I have made some of my best friends here and Mary has given me a great opportunity moving forward.

Being the first group in the program was difficult but it forced me have to adapt or change because of the classes offered each semester.

It has made me a better engineer because of it.”

“I will miss my classmates because of how close and small we are and also the teachers.

They really do want you to succeed here.”

“My advice for the younger students is this: you are going to have classes in which you struggle at or need help with but the biggest thing is to keep going and not to be discouraged.”

Caleb Weisgarber is graduating with a Civil Engineering degree. He is originally from Hensler, North Dakota and will be living in Bismarck after graduation. Caleb already has a job as a Caleb Weisgarber graduate civil engineer at Apex Engineering Group lined up for after graduation.

“I feel that my time at the University of Mary has helped me to grow, not only through what I have learned in my classes, but also as a person through all my experiences that the

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university has provided. I feel that the new engineering school is full of the right people.

All the professors that I have had genuinely care about the students and how they are impacting them. What I will miss the most about my time at the university is the relationships that I have made with others in the school, more specifically, the engineering department. My advice to younger students is to take advantage of any opportunities that you see in front of you throughout your college career.”

Levi Clagett is graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering. He is from Florence, MT and plans to go “wherever the wind takes me.” At the moment, Levi interns for the City of Bismarck.

Levi Clagett “I would love to pursue a career here and get my master’s degree so I can continue to learn and contribute to the world. The University of Mary is ok, but the engineering department is without a doubt the single reason I stayed. It was awesome learning with the professors and students. The engineering school was fantastic. I learned more than I couldve ever dreamt of. Incredible staff who were able to teach us everything without fancy equipment and what-not. I’ll miss the relationships with the engineering teachers and students, walking into every class was like walking into thanksgiving dinner with the family. Every class I felt like we were laughing and learning the whole time. My advice to the next generation is never get tired of learning. Lastly, a huge thank you to you Terry. You were the heart and soul of this engineering program and without you not only would I not be an engineer, but there’s no way UMary would have a successful engineering program, if one at all. We’ve all seen the work you put in to making this happen and we will all be forever grateful to you. I wish I can return the favor one day, until then it was truly an honor knowing and learning from you.”

Alex Davis is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Originally from Saint Paul, he is currently seeking a job in Civil Engineering which will then deterAlexander Davis mine where he ends up living as he works towards his professional license over the next four years.

“I spent five years here at the University of Mary where I was taught by many great professors and learned more than I would have ever imagined. I will miss learning from these professors and working with fellow classmates on different projects. If there is one piece of advice I can give to new students, it is that school will be over before you know it so enjoy every second you can. Thank you to

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those who made my dream possible.”

Ida Narbuvoll is graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering. She is originally from a small town named Narbuvoll in Norway but she will remain in Bismarck for two years after graduIda Narbuvoll ation. After that she will likely move to a different city in the U.S. and potentially make her way back to Norway in the future.

“I do not have a job yet, as I have a few things to consider before I make my final decision of what to do next year. Unless I decide to continue my education, I will be looking for a job within structural or transportation engineering.”

“The four years I have spent at Mary have been very interesting, challenging, and fun.

The small community of students was something that fit me well and I have truly enjoyed being a part of the engineering program, which I feel have prepared me well for my future. I am excited to be a part of the first graduating class at the University of Mary and I am also excited to see how the program will excel in the future. Most of all, I will miss all my classmates and teammates I have spent time with during the last four years of my life. My advice to the younger students is to work hard to achieve your academic goals and remember that your classes are supposed to challenge you so don’t give up when it gets tough. At the same time, don’t forget to have fun and enjoy your time in college. It goes by so much faster than you think!”

Jackson Penner is graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering. Jackson is originally from The Pas, Manitoba but he will be remaining in Bismarck after graduaJackson Penner tion. He does not yet have a job but is actively looking for one in civil engineering around Bismarck.

“I met a lot of great people and I’m excited to see the Engineering school grow over the next few years. I will miss seeing all of the people (classmates, professors, etc.) and my advice to younger students is to get to know your professors, it will make your time at Mary a much better experience.”

Austin Konschak is graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering. Unfortunately we were unable to get a chance to interview Austin before we were forced off campus by the pandemic.

Robert Spady is graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering. He is originally from Mandan. and plans to live in the Bismarck/Mandan area after graduation. Robert is curRobert Spady rently looking for a job in Bismarck/Mandan to start after graduation with a focus on structural or transportation

Engineering Quarterly SPRING 2020 engineering.

“I spent only my junior and senior year at Mary, but I got to meet many excellent people including colleagues and staff. I really enjoyed my time here and I feel that, with the resources that we have, the Engineering School did very well. I think that in the upcoming years it will be a great engineering school. I will miss the people I met here for sure. The best advice I can give to underclassmen is to actually learn the material, don’t just remember it. When you take the FE and go into the workforce, it will be much easier if you learned it instead of trying to piece it together from memorization.”

Colin Gudereit is graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering. He is originally from Regina, Saskatchewan and is not yet sure where he is going after graduation – either Bismarck Colin Gudereit or Dickinson. Colin had an interview with Civil Science last Tuesday and was then invited out for dinner with them after that, so it is a good sign.

“I had some great years here and I enjoyed playing baseball as well. The new engineering school is a step in the right direction. I really wish I could experience the brand-new building for myself, but I have to get out of here sometime. I will miss my classmates and the friendships I have made with themr.

I will also miss the professors. I never had a bad one in my time at Mary. My advice is to just keep grinding even when it gets hard, it will all be worth it. My funniest memory is prof. Waldenmaier’s legendary ‘Shockwave’ presentation”

2020 M ECHANICAL E NGINEERING G RADUATES

Rebekkah Keller is graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. She is originally from Apple Valley, California and will be living in San Diego upon graduation. She is looking for Rebekkah Keller a career in 3D modeling and designing of some kind. “Perhaps manufacturing engineering of some kind.. I just want to create new things to help people: Make them happy.”

“I personally think that completing my degree at Mary has prepared me for the unpredictabilities of the workforce. I think that labs and hands on experiences could have been organized a bit better but I know that I will be able to apply the concepts to my future occupation. I am excited to see where the program will flourish and how the new students will be taught and sculpted now that there’s some years under the underclassmen classes. I will miss the people and the teachers. My classmates in the Mechanical Engineering program became family to me during our growth

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through the program, from freshmen year to senior year, we went through stress and sleepless nights together. Despite the mental challenges, I will miss those times with them.

My advice to the younger students is don’t be afraid to speak up and ask your classmates questions. You don’t have to struggle through the engineering process alone and chances are they are struggling like you are. There will be things you will be better at and things they will be better at, so work through classes as you and your classmates are a team! Challenge each other with the questions you have because it will make you all better.”

“My funny story is from a project Isaac Saad and I did in thermodynamics that had to do with hydrochloric acid and Dr. Barr, when trying to induce a chemical reaction with aluminum, filled the beaker too high. This resulted in the acid overflowing and burning his hand... Moral of the story: make sure a chemist messes up the experiment when the engineers try and run the show! haha.”

Dylan Larson is graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is from Bismarck and is not sure where he will be going after graduation.

“The University of Dylan Larson Mary made it possible for me to stay close to home and finish my degree faster then I would have been able to elsewhere. The smaller class sizes really help you learn faster since you can ask all the questions you want. The Engineering program is awesome and with the new building set to open I am sure it is only going to get better. I am going to miss my classmates. Since, in the smaller classes, you get to know your classmates pretty well. My advice to the younger students is to try your hardest and don’t wait until the last minute with anything.”

Jarad Zittleman is graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is from Mandan and will be staying in the Bismarck/Mandan area after graduation. Jarad has Jared Zittleman accepted a position as Project Engineer for Bartlett & West in their MEP department.

“My degree was challenging, yet memorable. Studying engineering while playing four years of football is by far the greatest challenge I have ever faced but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I never would have imagined how fast four years could go. It’s unique. Small class sizes allowed for us to engage in a wide range of projects that forced us to think outside our comfort zones. We consistently worked with civil and electrical engineering students along with athletic training, speech pathology, and biomedical students. I was able to build valuable relationships with most of my engineering professors who allowed me to ask questions and get help when needed. I will miss interacting and being around my classmates. With such a small class, I’ve built friendships that will last a lifetime. My advice to students is to

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ask questions and engage with other students.

Engineering is only as hard as you make it.

Seeking help and second opinions allowed me to reach a higher understanding of concepts that I never would have learned at a larger university.”

“One of the funny moments for me was senior year fall semester when I told Bailey Meyer that the hardened steel rod could not be bent in the press break. He didn’t take my advice and a very large window in the machine was shattered a few moments later.”

Bailey Meyer is graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is from Sheboygan, Wisconsin and plans to return there upon graduation where he has acBailey Meyer cepted a position with Aldag/Honold Mechanical as Project Manager/Mechanical Engineer.

“I can say it was the best years of my life here at Mary. I met some lifelong friends, had great memories that will last a lifetime. I love how we are very hands on with projects and are not micro managed. I’m going to miss the people that I was around every day. Everyone cared about me, including the professors. My advice is to stay on top of things and get to know your professors. They will help if you just take the time to go talk to them. They are there for you.”

“A funny story to relate is from first semester of senior year I was bending a piece of metal that ended up breaking. When it broke it shattered a window that was directly behind it. I was the talk of the semester!”

2020 E LECTRICAL E NGINEERING G RADUATES

Evan Anderson is graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He is originally from Kenosha, Wisconsin and plans to move to Phoenix Arizona where he has Evan Anderson accepted a job with Burns and McDonnell design firm at their Phoenix regional office within their network integration and automation (NIA) team.

“During my time at Mary I was greatly challenged in the classroom and exposed to information and ideas that I couldn’t have found anywhere else. I am very lucky to have been able to make my way through this program.

I am very excited for what is to come for UMary Engineering. I know the students will benefit greatly from the new facilities. I will deeply miss the close relationships that I was able to build within my courses. The absolute greatest benefit of going to a small school is the relationships that I have developed with my professors and classmates. For any future students going into the Engineering program, yes, the work is very difficult and you will be challenged however the reward in the end is priceless. The more serious you take the

Engineering Quarterly SPRING 2020 work early on the more you will benefit in the future.”

“I will always remember de-soldering my equalizer board project for about an hour on the day it was due because it hadn’t worked properly the day before, only to realize that I had grabbed the wrong board and I in fact was destroying my classmate, Richard Bendish’s board. It was a good laugh for the class, I am sorry Richard.”

Aaron Bales is graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He is from Bismarck and will be staying in Bismarck in his new job as a Communications Engineer Aaron Bales at Montana-Dakota Utilities.

“The engineering school is awesome and definitely prepared me for the real world I’ll miss seeing the students and faculty that I’ve gotten to know over the years. My advice to the younger students is to remember always that the stress is only a temporary side effect.”

“One of my funniest stories is when, right before a final, professor Kelly went to write on the whiteboard, however it wasn’t a whiteboard, it was a projector screen! Gets me every time.”

Richard Bendish is graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

He is from Mandan and will be remaining in Mandan after graduation.

Richard has accepted a Richard Bendish position as a Transmission Planning Engineer with Montana-Dakota Utilities.

“My years at Mary we’re fun because I was able to play football and study engineering which isn’t a possibility at many schools in the area.”

Phillip Springsteen is graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

He is planning on continuing his studies with a Master’s degree after taking a year off to work with General Electric Phillip Springsteen Medical where he has interned for the past year while finishing his degree. Phillip was one of the top wrestlers on the University of Mary wrestling team and competed very successfully at tournaments around the country during his time here.

Josef Sollmann is graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He is originally from Port Angeles, Washington and he is unsure as to where he will be going after graduation. He hopes Josef Sollmann to go to Colorado or Montana but does not yet have a career position. He has been applying to positions in the aerospace and defense industry as well as in

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machinery and manufacturing.

“I felt like I have grown immensely over the past four years, and have been well prepared to face the successes and challenges that await me after graduation. There were moments that I wished my time here would pass quicker, but now it seems like it’s ending so soon. I think that as the program continues to grow after we have left, it will be one of the top schools in the field. I will be proud to have helped form it in some way as being the first graduation class. I will miss the chance to see my friends and classmates every day, and the camaraderie we have developed in my class over the years of helping and encouraging each other to make it through to the end. I will also miss the sense of community that is so prominent at this University. My advice to the younger students is to not let stress or failed exams overcome your goals. Nothing worth while is ever easy. And to be sure, Engineering is not easy. You will struggle, you will fall, but being able to pick yourself up and go at it again is what will stick with you and see you through to the other side. Also, take breaks and have fun. School is important, but it’s not everything. You’ll do better and have more memories if you can get away every once in a while.”

“A funny story I can share happened in senior year. I was with a group of friends at their house in town having a house party one night. A group of us were outside talking and deciding whether we should light a fire or not, since they had a fire pit, as we waited for more people to show up. As we were standing outside, we saw through the window that some of our friends had arrived and walked into the kitchen. We all called to them and waved to get their attention but they don’t notice us. Then one of my friends walked over to the window to tap on the glass to get their attention and, the next thing we know, he vanished into thin air right in front of our eyes. We were dumbfounded for a minute until we heard his voice swearing up a storm from somewhere by the window. Upon investigation, we found out that he had forgotten there was a window well right underneath the kitchen window and he had fallen in as he reached out to tap on the glass. We were all laughing so hard we almost couldn’t pull him out of there. We fished him out still laughing and proceeded to tell him everyone who was inside exactly what happened. It was a good time.”

2020 C ONSTRUCTION M ANAGEMENT G RADUATES

Jacob Lantz is graduating with a degree in Construction Management with a CIS minor.

He is orginally from Dickinson and will be living in North Dakota after Jacob Lantz graduation depending on the job. He intends to intends to apply to all the major firms in the state.

“During my time at Mary I made friends with

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peers in related majors and this unique situation helped me learn to be able to develop cross disciplinary fluency, which is talking to different people on their level to increase understanding. I have no doubt that this will continue to be useful in my career. The first semester I was in the engineering program was rough, as one might expect from starting a program from essentially scratch. Over the years, I definitely feel that it found it’s stride, with each progressive year having fewer kinks than the one previous. I am confident that the Engineering School will continue to grow and become a cornerstone of the University. We have been moved around several times, from HMC to the old gym (machine shop) and then into town, with our final home still under construction. I feel that this adversity was overcome as a department with both students and professors and has brought us closer together with a feeling of a common level rather than an untouchable professor on a pillar and us hapless students. It was my peers that made my time at the university interesting as well as the colorful instructors that are willing to converse with students and not be aloof.

My advice to the younger students is to Work hard, but not too hard. Almost any problem gets easier to tackle if you have a good sense of humor.”

“I remember in what I think was my mechanics of materials or structural design class. Our final project was to design and build a truss bridge out of 1x2’s and plywood to span a 10 foot gap. As the project went on, Prof. Eric Garcia apparently got nervous about standing on them as one of the tests because he gave us more materials every time we met, from more lumber and thicker plywood to adhesive. When testing day came, all three of the bridges passed their tests. Apparently unsatisfied, Prof. Garcia called Prof. Waldenmier in to walk across them. He had seen us do some assembly them and was clearly nervous as he crossed them in the same way a 80 year old grandmother walks across ice on the way to church on Sunday; one toe at a time. Prof. Waldenmier wasn’t completely through with his ordeal when Dr. Pilling came in and wanted to cross. Instead of caution, he skipped across the bridges; with the decks and structures popping like popcorn and cracking like whips. I can almost guarantee that everyone watching had held their breath until he made it across the third bridge. Nobody fell, all three bridges survived, it was a good day.”

Shenley Allen is graduating with a degree in Construction Management.

He is originally from Kingston, Jamaica and will be living in Bismarck after graduaShenley Allen tion. He currently has a 6 month Co-op opportunity with Braun Intertec Corporation which will continue after graduation.

“My four years at the University of Mary seem to all went by so quickly, but I enjoyed every moment being a student and an athlete of this great school. Created memories that will last forever. The new engineering building will be of great benefit to the current

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and future University of Mary engineering students. With the addition of the new Construction Management workshop, students will be able to get a hands-on teaching experience during their relevant course work.

The engineering school was designed with the idea in mind of creating a program that is amongst the best in the country. Adding this to the already rich culture of the university, the engineering school will be second to none. I will also miss being a member of the track & field team and competing for the University of Mary. GO MARAUDERS!!”

The design considerations included how to select an appropriate motor size, ensure William Karrer is proper alignment of components (such as graduating with a de- of the carriage) and design of critical comgree in Construction ponents against static and fatigue failures.

Management as part of the first group of Construction management graduates since it became part of the William Karrer School of Engineering.

We were unable to interview William before the pandemic hit.

J UNIOR M ECHANICAL E NGINEERING D ESIGN P ROJECT

Failure analyses used analytic, numerical, and FEM-based methods. The design was conducted in a 3D CAD system and detailed drawings were generated for some components in accordance with ASME Y14.5.

Three of our junior Mechanical Engineering students submitted a design project this semester for their EME 323 Design of Machine Components course which consisted of the design, testing, and fabrication of a functional bench top lathe, fabricated for under $300. Here is the first page of their report Unfortunately, the fabrication was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and (which was 41 pages long): so they finished the work on the simulations, drawings, and the project report from home when everything shifted online.

Their analysis included simulations in Autodesk, CAD designs of each of their machine components as well as stress testing. They performed the background research, ideation, and selection and development of components and subsystems based on needed fit, form, and function to meet performance requirements.

The actual fabrication of the bench top lathe will be completed when the students return to campus in the fall where they will get to work in our brand new senior design center with the fully modern machine shop equipment at their disposal.

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M OUNTAIN P LAINS S ENIOR D ESIGN P ROJECT

Engineering Quarterly SPRING 2020 S PRING C AREER AND I NTERNSHIP FAIR Every spring the University of Mary hosts a career and internship fair where companies come to campus and talk to our students about opportunities with their firms. Our students arrive with resumés and prepared to interview with each potential employer. This year we had the following engineering related companies speak to our students.

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the driven, client-focused attitudes of our employees are what make Bartlett & West great. We believe in building a better community for a stronger tomorrow, and believe in building our employees through positive and collaborative work environments, volunteerism, continuing education, and exposure to the latest industry trends. www.bartlettwest.com

Mountain Plains LLC. Bismarck Mountain Plains, LLC, with locations in Watford City and Bismarck, is a company which does business across western North Dakota on projects ranging from surveying to oil and gas pipeline mapping and utility locating. The company named the Univeristy of Mary School of Engineering Fluid Dynamics Laboratory which is now called the Mountain Plains Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

“Mountain Plains, LLC, was incorporated in 2009 and cut our teeth in the distribution power line design industry for electrical cooperatives in western North Dakota. The industry standards migrated, and it led to us needing Professional Land Surveying to be added to our company portfolio. During that same time, we saw a need from current and potential customers for Utility Line Location services which was also added to our company portfolio. In the beginning of 2018 Mountain Plains LLC decided to bring Civil Engineering services to our company out of a desire to offer a wide variety of services locally to Bismarck area and across the state of North Dakota. Engineering has enabled Mountain Plains LLC to further our already strong connection to the University of Mary and gives our company a fantastic opportunity to recruit the exemplary young men and women of the engineering department.” www.mtnplains.com

Ackerman-Estvold, Minot Description: Ackerman-Estvold is a full service architectural and civil engineering consulting firm serving clients on projects ranging from initial planning to closeout and ev- Available Positions: Project Engineer, Enery step in between. Our exceptional team gineer Technician, Survey Technician, Conis composed of highly experienced individ- struction Technician. uals with a comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of architecture and civil engineering. www.ackerman-estvold.com Available Positions: Civil engineering Intern in Minot and Williston.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Bismarck

Apex Engineering Group, Bismarck Description: Apex provides consulting engineering services to public and private clients in the areas of drinking water, wastewater, water resources, and transportation. We are also the municipal engineer for several communities. Our electrical engineers provide consulting engineering services to many industries in the region. www.apexenggroup.com Available Positions: Apex will be looking at both full time and internship positions in civil engineering, and potentially electrical engineering.

Description: As one of the largest power supply cooperatives in the nation, we work hard to produce affordable, reliable power for our 141 member electric cooperative. Together we provide electricity to 3 million memberconsumers in nine states. We’re proud to call North Dakota home, but we also employee people in South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Montana. Our diverse energy portfolio includes natural gas, coal, wind, hydro, oil/diesel/jet fuel, nuclear, along with purchased power. www.basinelectric. com Available Positions: Internships and Full Time Employment opportunities. Please stop by for a full list of current openings.

Barr Engineering Co., Minneapolis, MN The CEO of Mountain Plains, Tony Wood, hosted the Senior level engineering students at his Bismarck location on Tuesday, November 5th and presented them with a problem that his company is working on related to their oil field business. Tony was hoping that some of the students would choose to tackle the problem for their senior design project in the spring semester of 2020 and one of the groups took it on. They built a device, ran tests, wrote computer data collection software, designed computer simulations, and completed the project. I can’t go into further details since that information is proprietary to the company – but it is great! We encourage companies to suggest problems and projects that our students can work on for their design projects. It is more interesting for the students and it also allows them to show the world how creative they are!

Description: Barr is a consulting company BNI Coal, Bismarck that integrates engineering and environmental expertise to help clients develop, manage, Description: BNI Coal is a lignite coal process, and restore natural resources around mine located in Center, North Dakotawww.

North America and around the world. We bnicoal.com have been employee owned since 1966 and trace our origins to the early 1900’s. Today, we have over 800 employees around the U.S. and Canada who work with clients in the mining, power, fuels, public, and manufacturing sectors, as well as attorneys, developers, and others with complex problems. www.barr.com/careers Available Positions: Please visit our website City of Bismarck, Bismarck for a full list of our open positions.

Description: The City of Bismarck employs over 1000 employees, both full and part time.

We offer a wide array of jobs with excellent benefits Bartlett & West, Bismarck Available positions: Engineering, TechnolDescription: Growing communities, to- ogy, and Airport internships will be available. gether. Since the firm was founded in 1951,

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Engineering Quarterly SPRING 2020

Houston Engineering, Bismarck City of Mandan, Engineering Department, Mandan

Description: The City of Mandan, home to 22,519 people at last estimate, is a city on the grow. Over 20% growth since 2010 in fact.

The city of Mandan neighbors Bismarck to the West, though we are next door, the Missouri River that separates us requires us to be independent when it comes to most of our infrastructure. For example, Mandan has a separate water treatment facility and the planning and engineering department plans for and oversees all of the City’s infrastructure capital improvement projects such as new construction of roadways and underground piping, sizable roadway and underground pipe replacement projects, water distribution and wastewater treatment facility upgrades and expansion. We select consulting engineers based on their qualifications on a per project basis and oversee their efforts throughout on any given project. www.cityofmandan.com Available Positions: Summer internship for engineering majors with a preference for a CE.

Description: Despite our name, Houston Engineering, Inc. (HEI), is not based in Houston, TX, but rather named after our founder George Houston. HEI first opened its doors as a civil engineering and surveying firm in 1968, in Fargo. Since that time, we have expanded our capabilities, our staff, and the geographic area we serve. We now provide a full range of civil engineering, environmental, planning, and technological consulting solutions for clients across the United States.

Available Positions: Civil Engineering Intern (Bismarck and Fargo), Civil Engineer (Municipal) Fargo FT, Entry Level Transportation Engineer FT 0-3 yrs, Civil Engineering Technician Grand Forks FT 5+ yrs, Environmental Scientist/Engineer Maple Grove MN FT 15+ yrs, Senior Transportation Engineer Maple Grove MN FT 10+ yrs, Transportation Engineer Maple Grove MN FT 5+ yrs, Water Resources Engineer (experienced) Maple Grove MN FT 10+ yrs, Civil Engineering Intern Minot, Civil Engineering Technician Minot FT 5+ yrs, Civil Engineering Technician Sioux Falls SD FT 5+ yrs, Senior Transportation Engineer Sioux Falls SD FT 8+ yrs, Transportation Engineer Sioux Falls SD FT 4+ yrs. www.houstoneng.com

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Knife River Corporation, Bismarck Description: We are one of the largest construction materials and contracting companies in the United States, a status we have achieved through the hard work of our 5,600 team members and the loyalty of our many customers. As part of our commitment to our employees and our customers, we adhere to our Core Values of People, Safety, Quality and Environment Compliance. www.kniferiver.com

MDU Resources Group Inc., Bismarck Description: We provide value-added natural resource products and related services that are essential to energy and transportation infrastructure. MDU Resources Group Inc. is a multibillion-dollar corporation with most of our businesses headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota, but operations and customers across the country with business in 44 states.

Since 1948, our stock has been traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MDU. Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. generates, transmits and distributes electricity and distributes natural gas in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. These operations also supply related value added services. www.mdu.com

Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing, Dickinson Moore Engineering, Inc., Fargo Doosan Digital Innovation America, Bismarck

Description: Doosan Digital Innovation America, LLC (DDIA) is the primary IT shared service provider for the Doosan affiliates in North America. Their customer portfolio includes Doosan Fuel Cell located in South Windsor, CT and Doosan Bobcat Company located in West Fargo. DDIA is the North American presence of the South Korean based Doosan Digital Innovation entity.

DDIA aspires to provide cost-effective tactical support and business analyst expertise to our customers. The organization is comprised of three teams who are focused on infrastructure support, operations support and applications delivery. Other company employees include business analysts with strong ties to the Doosan business units we support. www. doosandigitalinnovation.com/en Available Positions: Application Developer Co-op, Business System Co-op, Information Technology Co-op, Computer Information/Management Information Systems majors.

Description: Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing is an aerospace electronics contract manufacturing company committed to our employees, communities, country, and the families we employ and serve. We operate out of Killdeer, Dickinson, and Hettinger North Dakota and produce product for commercial and military aerospace applications. Our customers include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon, to name a few. Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing’s founder, Don Hedger, has been dedicated to creating distinguished career opportunities in southwest North Dakota since 1987. Come join our team in this prestigious and unique industry. www.kmmnorthdakota.com Our Mission: Develop a company-wide environment that promotes the development of an attitude of excellence that satisfies supplier, co-worker, and customer needs the first time.

Our Vision: Create and sustain a meaningful, empowering, and safe work environment that encourages individual ownership to continually improve ones work while doing the work.

Available Positions: Engineering-looking for electrical, industrial, mechanical, engineering management, quality engineers.

Description: More Engineering, Inc. is an employee owned Civil Engineering & Land Surveying firm with locations throughout North Dakota and Minnesota. www. moorenegineeringinc.com Available Positions: Interested in Civil engineering students.

NISC, Mandan Description: National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) is an information technology company that develops and supports software and hardware solutions for our Member-Owners who are primarily utility cooperatives and telecommunications companies across the nation. NISC is an industry leader providing advanced, integrated IT solutions for consumer and subscriber billing, accounting, engineering, & operations, as well as many other leading-edge IT solutions.

Today, more than 20 million consumers in

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all 50 states, American Samoa, Palau, and Canada receive utility or telecommunications services from companies utilizing our advanced information technology systems. www.nisc.coop Available Positions: Internships, FTSoftware Development, Project Management, Software Support, Technical Support, Networking, Cybersecurity.

North Dakota Department of Transportation, Bismarck Description: Originally called the State Highway Department, the North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) was established in 1917. The NDDOT strives to build and maintain as efficient transportation system consisting of about 8,518 miles of roadway and 4,858 bridges. It oversees the development of surface transportation including highways, bridges, rail, transit, pedestrian and bicycle paths across the state. www.dot.nd.gov Available Positions: Transportation Engineer Construction Engineering Technician Engineering Technician summer internship.

We are interested in seeing Civil Engineering, Construction Management, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

ND National Guard, Bismarck

Engineering Quarterly SPRING 2020 S TUDYING THE COVID-19 V IRAL PANDEMIC DATA

By TERRY PILLING

CSSE COVID-19 Pandemic Dashboard As we all know, the world was turned upside down this year when a global viral pandemic started in Wuhan, China and then quickly spread around the world over the next few months.

In this article we describe an assignment completed by our freshman engineering students in their ENR 210 course. They studied the rise and fall of the pandemic in real time using computer shell scripts along with data collected by The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering located in their Whitting School of Engineering. The CSSE created a dashboard to track the outbreak around the world along with an associated GitHub repository containing the raw data. The github data can be found here: https://github.com/ CSSEGISandData/COVID-19 and can be cloned or downloaded from the link provided there.

In order to follow along with this article using your own computer you simply need to download the raw world data here in the data folders. The CSV files that we will be using are called: time_series_covid19_confirmed_global.csv time_series_covid19_confirmed_US.csv time_series_covid19_deaths_global.csv time_series_covid19_deaths_US.csv time_series_covid19_recovered_global.csv

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the -1 option means it will print out only 1 line from the top of the file. Now, rather that simply printing the top line of the file to the screen, we would like to turn it into rows of data and put it in a file. So we create a command pipeline and we use a pipe | to direct the output of the above into the program called AWK . If you have never heard of awk you should google it. It is similar to P ERL in that it is used to manipulate data. We tell awk that the datafile separator is a comma with the -F , option and then we run a for loop from 5 to the number of fields in the line, NF printing out the column numbered by the loop variable i. The reason we start at column 5 is because the first four columns are geographic data and not dates. Finally we use the redirection, >, to redirect the output to a file called date.dat which will then contain a row for each date.

Here is the complete Bash command: head -1 time_series_covid19_confirmed_global.csv | awk -F , ’{for (i=5;i<=NF;i++) print $i}’ > date.dat

Note that all of the above should be on a single line and not three lines as shown. That was only done to make it fit in the text here.

Now let’s create a file with just numbers with number 1 being January 20, 2020 and numbering the days. This will help us with further analysis later. seq 1 $(cat date.dat | wc -l) > numbers.dat

Now let’s get the row corresponding to Hunan using cat time_series_covid19_confirmed_global.csv | grep Hunan | awk -F , ’{for (i=5;i<=NF;i++) print $i}’ > confirmed.dat

where we used the regular expression search program GREP to extract the line containing the search term Hunan and we redirected the output to a file called confirmed.dat.

This won’t work for data that contains a comma in the name (such as ”Washington, D.C.” for example) because awk uses commas as the separator between data columns.

You will have to design a better regular expression to send to grep if you want to make the code more versitile and able to handle those cases.

Let’s now do the same thing for the file containing the deaths

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Available Positions: Electronics, communi- If you download the three global files1 , and cat time_series_covid19_confirmed_global.csv Hunan cations, diesel technicians, cyber security, law you have a linux computer running the Bash ||grep awk -F , ’{for (i=5;i<=NF;i++) print $i}’ > deaths.dat enforcement, and engineering shell, then you should be able to repeat everyand the file containing the recovered thing we will be doing in this article.

Let us begin with the confirmed data. If cat time_series_covid19_confirmed_global.csv Hunan you examine the data file with a spreadsheet ||grep awk -F , ’{for (i=5;i<=NF;i++) print $i}’ program or with a text editor like vim or > recovered.dat notepad you will see that the data is given Now we have 5 files and we can paste them in lines of the form: together into a final data file, hunan.dat, as follows: Province/State,Country/Region, Steffes, Dickinson Lat,Long,1/22/20,...

Description: Steffes is a lean-operating original equipment manufacturer headquartered in Dickinson, North Dakota with additional manufacturing facilities in Grand Forks, North Dakota. We specialize in steel fabrication and electrical services for a variety of diverse industries, including oil and gas, contract manufacturing and electric thermal storage. www.steffes.com Available Positions: Manufacturing Engineer-Internship & Full Time, Product Design Engineer-Internship & Full Time, Human Resource Intern-Internship, BuyerInternship & Full Time.

where the dates begin on January 22, 2020 and continue with a column for each subsequent day. The file is updated each day by a new column of data added. We would like to turn the Here is a G NUPLOT script that will plot the rows into columns since we are interested in data in the file we just created: graphing the data. To format a file for graphHunan.gnuplot ing with Gnuplot we would like a column of dates and then columns containing the data for the region or city we are interested in viewing. s e t t e r m x11 We will use the Hunan region of China as our s e t t i t l e ” Hunan COVID−19 Apr example since that was the one of the regions 0 9 , 2020 ” first hit by the virus. It will show more of the s e t x l a b e l ” Date ” progression since they are more than a month set ylabel ” Infected ” further along in the outbreak than the rest of s e t key t o p l e f t the world. Let us start by extracting the top s e t xdata time row of the file which contains all of the dates. s e t t i m e f m t ”%m/%d/%y ” We do this by using the Bash command called s e t format x ”%m/%d ” head which prints out the top lines of a file: head -1 time_series_covid19_confirmed_global.csv

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paste numbers.dat date.dat confirmed.dat deaths.dat recovered.dat > hunan.dat

p l o t ” Hunan . d a t ” u 2 : 3 w l lw 2 t ” Hunan I n f e c t e d ” , \

Click on them and then click on ‘raw’ and then right-click and save as. Or just use git and clone the whole repository

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” Hunan . d a t ” u 2 : 4 w l lw 2 t ” Hunan D e a t h s ” , \ ” Hunan . d a t ” u 2 : 5 w l lw 2 t ” Hunan R e c o v e r e d ”

Notice that we use set xdata time set timefmt "%m/%d/%y" set format x "%m/%d"

to make sure that gnuplot knows that the format of the x data is dates and to put the month and day as the labels on the x-axis.

Here is the resulting plot of the Hunan data:

Engineering Quarterly SPRING 2020 Hunan-logistic.gnuplot

generate-data.sh

s e t t e r m x11 s e t t i t l e ” Hunan COVID−19 Apr 0 9 , 2020 ( L o g i s t i c f i t ) ” s e t x l a b e l ” Days s i n c e J a n 2 0 , 2020 ” set ylabel ” Infected ” s e t key t o p l e f t s e t xrange [ 0 : 8 8 ] r = 0.222082 K = 567220 N = 0.507348 x0 = 3 2 0 . 5 5 5 f ( x ) = x0 ∗K / ( x0 + (K−x0 ) ∗ exp(− r ∗ ( x−N) ) ) f i t f ( x ) ” Hunan . d a t ” u s i n g 1 : 3 v i a r , K, N, x0 p l o t ” Hunan . d a t ” u 1 : 3 w p o i n t s t ” Hunan I n f e c t e d ” , f ( x ) w l t ” logistic fit ”

# ! / bin / bash

and here is the resulting graph

We would like to not only explore the data as it has occurred, we would also like to devise some mathematical models that can be used to predict what it will look like later. There are many sophisticated models that are used in studying viral epidemiology, but we will just look at the simplest possible one which is the Logistic Equation. This equation appears in studies of population growth, bacteria, economics, and viruses. The Logistic Equation is the following differential equation:

x dx = rx 1 − dt K where x is the population as a function of time, r is the growth rate, and K is the carrying capacity. This is a fun equation to simulate with a computer program by simply running a for loop over time and, in each time step, you just let x = x + rx(1 − x/K)dt, and plot the results. We won’t be simulating it here, instead we will just fit our data to the logistic equation using gnuplot curve fitting and see if we can get a fit. Then we can use the fit parameters to predict the number of infected expected in the future. To this end we need x(t) which means we need to integrate the above differential equation. I’m sure you all remember how to do this right? Haha. Well you just separate variables and then use the method of partial fractions (google it!) the result is: x(t) =

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We can perform all of the above in a user friendly way by combining it all into a shell script and then making the script executable with chmod +x scriptname.

We can then have a user supplied command line argument stating which region they would like to study so, for example, the above Hunan result would be generated by typing: ./generate-data.sh Hunan and it would create all the data files, create the G NUPLOT script, and finally plot the graph. For example, if you type ./generate-data.sh Hunan you get the above graphs current as of today.

Here are the results run for the US using ./generate-data.sh US

x0 K x0 + (K − x0 )exp(−r(x − N ))

i f [ $# −ne 1 ] ; t h e n echo ” ” echo ” USAGE : $0 R e g i o n ” echo ” ” echo ” Example : $0 Hubei ” echo ” Example : $0 \ ” Costa Rica \” ” echo ” ” exit fi r e g i o n =$1 d a t e =$ ( d a t e ’+%b %d , %Y’ ) h e a d −1 D a t a / t i m e ∗ c o n f i r m e d g l o b a l . c s v | awk −F , ’{ f o r ( i = 5 ; i <=NF ; i ++) p r i n t $ i } ’ > d a t e . d a t d a y s =$ ( c a t d a t e . d a t | wc − l ) s e q 1 $ d a y s > numbers . d a t cat Data / t i m e ∗ c o n f i r m e d g l o b a l . csv | g r e p ” ˆ , $ r e g i o n , ” | awk −F , ’{ f o r ( i = 5 ; i <=NF ; i ++) p r i n t $i } ’ > confirmed . dat cat Data / t i m e ∗ d e a t h s g l o b a l . csv | grep ” ˆ , $region , ” | awk −F , ’{ f o r ( i = 5 ; i <=NF ; i ++) p r i n t $ i } ’ > d e a t h s . dat cat Data / t i m e ∗ r e c o v e r e d g l o b a l . csv | g r e p ” ˆ , $ r e g i o n , ” | awk −F , ’{ f o r ( i = 5 ; i <=NF ; i ++) p r i n t $i } ’ > recovered . dat p a s t e numbers . d a t d a t e . d a t confirmed . dat deaths . dat recovered . dat > ” $region ” . dat rm numbers . d a t d a t e . d a t confirmed . dat deaths . dat recovered . dat echo ” s e t t i t l e \ ” $ r e g i o n COVID −19 $ d a t e \ ” ” >> ” $ r e g i o n ” . gnuplot echo ” s e t x l a b e l \ ” D a t e \ ” ” >> ” $region ” . gnuplot echo ” s e t y l a b e l \ ” I n f e c t e d \ ” ” >> ” $ r e g i o n ” . g n u p l o t echo ” s e t key t o p l e f t ” >> ” $region ” . gnuplot echo ” s e t x d a t a t i m e ” >> ” $region ” . gnuplot echo ” s e t t i m e f m t \ ”%m/%d/%y \ ” ” >> ” $ r e g i o n ” . g n u p l o t echo ” s e t f o r m a t x \ ”%m/%d \ ” ” >> ” $ r e g i o n ” . g n u p l o t echo ” p l o t \ ” $ r e g i o n . d a t \ ” u 2 : 3 w l lw 2 t \ ” $ r e g i o n I n f e c t e d \ ” , \ \ ” >> ” $ r e g i o n ” . gnuplot echo ” \ ” $ r e g i o n . d a t \ ” u 2 : 4 w l lw 2 t \ ” $ r e g i o n D e a t h s \ ” , \ \ ” >> ” $ r e g i o n ” . g n u p l o t echo ” \ ” $ r e g i o n . d a t \ ” u 2 : 5 w l lw 2 t \ ” $ r e g i o n R e c o v e r e d \ ” ” >> ” $ r e g i o n ” . g n u p l o t g n u p l o t −p ” $ r e g i o n ” . g n u p l o t

where x0 is the initial infected population and N is a constant shift that we will find by fitting to the curve. In gnuplot we can fit the data to a Logistic curve using: f(x)=x0*K/(x0+(K-x0)*exp(-r*(x-N))) fit f(x) Hunan.dat u 1:3 via r,K,N,x0 plot f(x) w l t "logistic fit"

Finally, here is the source code for our Bash The complete G NUPLOT script to generate shell script which automatically does everythe fit is given as follows thing above including creating the Gnuplot scripts and even plotting them. Give it a try!

Contact Information If you would like more information about our engineering program at the University of Mary please send an email to Engineering@umary.edu.

Thank you for your support and for being part of our University of Mary community. Next issue: August, 2020.