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Cultivating Excellence in Teaching
Li Yang, a professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, has been selected to receive a prestigious award from the National Science Foundation. A Guerry professor, she was selected for the 2021 Director’s Award for Superior Accomplishment in National Spectrum Collaboration Group (NSCG). The award recognizes outstanding accomplishment and strategic collaboration in the research and use of radio waves, which are widely used in many technologies, including telecommunications.
“I am honored to work with dedicated colleagues on this important initiative and be selected for the Director’s Award for Superior Accomplishment,” Yang said.
Yang’s research in cybersecurity, computer science, artificial intelligence and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education has attracted more than $4 million funding to UTC from the National Science Foundation, the National Security Agency, the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies over the years.
She contributes to the NSF’s efforts and initiatives to advance the nation’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and development to create new sectors of the economy and revitalize industries. The National Artificial Intelligence Research Institute’s program is a joint effort between various industries and the NSF, the Science and Technology Directorate and the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security and Transportation.
She also manages the NSF Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier program, which supports research to sustain economic competitiveness, promote worker well-being and the pursuit of lifelong learning and quality of life.
In 2019, she was chosen as a Program Director for NSF’s Division of Graduate Education. In the role, she is responsible for programs that manage STEM proposals and awards in areas of cybersecurity artificial intelligence, future of the work, computer science, cyber-infrastructure and education research.
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Forward Motion, a College of Engineering and Computer Science outreach initiative, is aimed toward supporting middle-school females in their engineering and computer science pursuits. In the project introduction, the video states, “UTC’s College of Engineering and Computer Science is committed to supporting females in STEM fields and STEM education! By honoring times those who have failed or faced roadblocks yet have persevered and overcome, we honor the true essence of STEM: Failing Forward (because an object in motion stays in motion).”
“In an effort to motivate young women, we must show them that STEM fields approach problems differently. You don’t have to be right the first time! You just have to alter your approach,” Evonne Hackett, teacher at Lakeview Middle School, explains. In the Girls Preparatory School (GPS) segment of the series, one of the students featured, Mary Stuart, is now a CECS freshman. Mary Stuart describes her STEM capabilities eloquently, “harder projects are more challenging, but also more engaging.”
One very cool impact of the series—the Catoosa County Technology Director used their episode to leverage funds for a Summer STEM Camp. Forward Motion has certainly affected the Chattanooga community in positive and lasting ways.
In March 2020, Trevor Elliott works in his UTC Racing Mocs trailer, using 3D printers to make parts for face shields that were used by health care and emergency workers to protect them from COVID-19.
Trevor Elliott, National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Award Winner by Shawn Ryan
The award from the Faculty Early Career Development Program of NSF is the agency’s most prestigious and is designed “in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”
According to NSF, “Activities pursued by earlycareer faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.”
“I’m particularly proud for the department, the college and the University that this is the first ever Career award to originate within the college and be awarded,” Elliott said.
Entered for consideration in NSF’s Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation category, Elliott’s proposal focuses on 3D printing and developing a deeper understanding of how 3D printing as a manufacturing process works and ways to make it more efficient.
Industries such as aerospace, defense, automotive, chemical, energy and health care use 3D printing and would benefit from further research into it, Elliott explained in his proposal.
He also said data from the research can be incorporated into undergraduate courses at the university level as well as being used in outreach to middle-school students.
While he wants to do more research, Elliott is already familiar with 3D printing.
In early 2020, he and about 30 UTC mechanical engineering students used 3D printers to manufacture pieces of the transparent face shields used by health care workers fighting the coronavirus.
At the same time, he and his students also were finding creative ways to make respirators and ventilators using off-the-shelf products, Elliott said. They also are working on designing a version of filtration devices like the N95 mask to fit smaller faces, he added.
“This award is very meaningful for many reasons, one of which is the fact that our mechanical engineering students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science have done such a great job,” Elliott said.
“They have won the first national title and broken the first world record for the college. The relationship to this award is twofold: It is heavily tied with students and outreach, and it is the first ever ‘homegrown Career’ award for the college. It matches the great work our students have done breaking through in new areas and in big ways!”
This award is not the first national recognition for Elliott’s work. In 2020, he was selected as one of 132 people nationwide to be 2021 Associate Fellows in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
The title of Associate Fellow recognizes individuals “who have accomplished or been in charge of important engineering or scientific work, or who have done original work of outstanding merit, or who have otherwise made outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics,” according to the organization.
AIAA Class of 2021 Associate Fellows Honoree Trevor Elliott
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) recently had the pleasure of announcing its Class of 2021 Associate Fellows. UTC’s own Trevor Sterling Elliott is among the honorees.
The Associate Fellows recognizes individuals who “have done original work of outstanding merit.” To be selected as an Associate Fellow, an individual must be an AIAA Senior Member in good standing; with at least twelve years of professional experience, and be recommended by a minimum of three current Associate Fellows.
Matt Joplin had a job before he even graduated.
The company, BAE Systems, essentially came to him.
“I’d never even heard of BAE Systems,” he said.
In 2018, a few months before Joplin earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, representatives from the company approached Daniel Loveless, UC Foundation associate professor in engineering, asking if he had any students graduating soon. If he did, the company would like to chat with them.
“I get calls every few days asking, ‘Hey, can we get one of your students?’” Loveless said.
The people on the other end of the call are looking for students well-versed in microelectronics, which has exploded in the past few years. Microelectronics are in everything from smartphones to spacecraft, from enormous computer systems to automobiles. There are tons of jobs out there in the field, but not enough people to fill them. “It’s a niche area and, while it’s small, it is absolutely critical and there’s nowhere near the right level of workforce right now,” Loveless said. “We’re seeing people being hired in rapid-fire succession.”
Joplin is a testament to the desperate need, having landed jobs with two different employers— BAE and NASA—in the past two years.
“I think that any student who’s got a microelectronics background is going to be able to find a job in one place or another,” said Joplin, who also earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering at UTC.
When Loveless came to UTC six years ago, one of the areas he wanted to expand was microelectronics. People in the industry now see UTC as one of the prime universities to approach when they need microelectronic engineers.
“It’s hard to actually keep people in school to focus on this stuff,” Loveless said.
One of the major projects UTC students are working on now is the Scalable Asymmetric Life Cycle Engagement Consortium, or SCALE. Funded by a $400,000 grant from the Strategic Radiation Hardened Electronics Council (SRHEC), part of the U.S. Department of Defense, the project is aimed at creating a pipeline of new engineers researching the effects of radiation on microelectronics used in spacecraft.
BAE Systems is a multinational defense, security and aerospace company headquartered in the United Kingdom and operating in the U.S. and worldwide.
A solution for eliminating—or at least lessening—those effects is critical for companies involved in the commercialization of space and programs to improve modern defense systems.
SCALE is beneficial on several levels, said Michael McKenna, a radiation systems engineer at MDA supporting SRHEC and SCALE. Students can pursue research on areas of interest to the agency and, at the same time, get an inside look at microelectronics that might nudge them into choosing it for a career, he explained.
“It allows us to not only work on problems that are important to us and get actual usable solutions,” McKenna said, “but it’s a way that we can actively engage students when they’re still at a point where maybe they’re deciding what they would like their career field to be.”
In doing so, SCALE also may help develop a larger available workforce for industries that use microelectronics, Loveless said.
“In general, the commercial sector of electronics targets very high performance, but reliability is sacrificed,” he said. “People don’t care if their cellphone doesn’t work after two years because they care about the latest feature and they’ll buy a new one.
“Spacecraft and these sorts of missions
by Shawn Ryan
fundamentally depend on the reliability of the components, and that’s all that we focus on,” he continued.
“At the end of the day, students who know how to design within this extra set of constraints— meaning they design systems that can operate hot or very cold, in a vacuum, under extreme pressures and under exposure to radiation—they’re well-equipped to tackle just about any design problem in engineering.”
Along with DoD, UTC graduates can tackle jobs at, among others, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Goddard Space Flight Center, the U.S Army, Air Force and Navy, the British spaceflight company Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“It’s what I try to tell the students,” McKenna said. ”It’s very nice in the sense that there’s a huge demand, and it spans so many different industries, and it’s so global. There are lots of opportunities.”
Joplin stepped directly into that global need. After working at BAE Systems in Virginia for a couple of years, he took a job at Goddard Space Flight Center—also in Virginia. Staying at one job for an entire career is not a typical path in the microelectronic industry, he said.
“What I’ve been seeing is there’s quite a lot of movement in people who are early on in their career,” he said. “They don’t tend to stay in the same job, at least not their first job. They’re constantly looking to find something that is better suited to them and experiment with the work they’re doing. Possibly the shortage is what allows them to do that.”
And there’s another advantage: Money.
“The workers gets to set their own terms and have the advantage in a negotiation. There are jobs out there, for sure.”
AKRAM SAAD
Akram Saad, a graduate of the Master’s of Electrical Engineering program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, has received the General Robert Neyland Young Engineer of the Year Award.
Saad, who graduated from UTC in 2018, is being recognized for making outstanding contributions to engineering, public welfare and the community during the early portion of his career. A native of Sudan, he currently works as a protection and design consultant at Patterson Power Engineers. He also won the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Power and Energy’s Chattanooga Chapter Outstanding Young Engineer award this year.
The Neyland Award is part of Chattanooga Engineers’ Week and is selected by a committee made up of representatives from 16 engineering companies and organizations in the region.
Electrical Engineering Graduate Chosen as Young Engineer of the Year
The engineering award is named after Robert R. Neyland (1892-1962), head coach of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville football team from 1926 to 1934, 1936 to 1940 and 1946 to 1952. Over his tenure, the team had six undefeated seasons, nine undefeated regular seasons, seven conference championships and four national championships. The stadium at University of Tennessee in Knoxville is named for him.
Among them are EPB, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Chattanooga Engineers Club and the Society of Women Engineers.
Saad recently sat down for an interview:
Why did you choose the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UTC?
When I was offered a full assistantship from the Department of Electrical Engineering at UTC, I was already considering a Ph.D. offer from another university in Ohio. The deciding factor was my brother, who graduated from UTC with a master’s in electrical engineering in 2014. He informed me how the program will equip me with the skills necessary for my career as a power systems engineer.
How has the Master of Electrical Engineering program helped you with your career ambition and where you are today?
It has always been a goal of mine that my career should have a tangible impact on my community. As part of my current full-time job, I prepare design packages for power system substations that deliver electric power to thousands of customers. Also, the master’s program has allowed me to build a strong professional network, which has allowed me to have a seat on several of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ subcommittees. My work with those committees has resulted in positive changes to industry standards. Finally, the program effectively prepared me to pass the Fundamental Engineering exam. I now am on the verge of becoming a licensed professional engineer in power systems.
What have you liked about the Master of Electrical Engineering program?
I have benefited from the superior quality of the course catalog, faculty members and adjunct faculty members. Specifically, I enjoyed the program’s Smart Distribution Network course, a partnership between the industry and academia. Every week, a guest speaker is invited to educate the class on his or her area of expertise. This exposure to the industry through the eyes of top-notch engineers, consultants and managers provides students with the opportunity to build their professional network and explore career paths.
What area did you focus on or were there specific projects/goals you had while in the program?
Chattanooga is one of few cities in the world that offers fiber-optics in their distribution system. Many UTC professors are conducting research to utilize this state-of-the-art infrastructure. I was lucky to be involved in one such research opportunity during my master’s studies at UTC. The focus of the research project was to utilize data collected from smart meters deployed all across the city and identify anomalous consumption. The algorithm I designed will be adopted by EPB within the next two years. In my second year, my focus was shifted toward bulk generation and power system stability. During that time, I worked within a research team led by Dr. Abdelrahman Karrar to help TVA nuclear group validate a certain behavior recorded in their system.
What were some of your other accomplishments?
During my time at UTC, I published two papers and was recognized as the outstanding graduate student in electrical engineering for 2018. I was also able to apply to patent my thesis work that presented a more efficient design alternative for power system stabilizers with the help of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation.
Have you had support from College of Engineering and Computer Science faculty/staff? Has there been one or two in particular who have positively influenced your studies?
I am going to break the support I received into three categories: personal, academic and professional. While I received tremendous support from all faculty members, Dr. Ahmed Eltom and Dr. Nurhidajat Sisworahardjo were my go-to [individuals] for personal advice. Dr. Karrar has helped me a lot in all academic endeavors. Finally, Dr. Raga Ahmed and Professor Gary Kobet had my back and gave the best career advice I could have ever received. I am glad to have a platform to express my deep gratitude for these and all UTC electrical engineering faculty members.
What has been the best part of your experience while you were in the Master of Electrical Engineering program?
One of my favorite parts of the experience by far was the opportunity to attend the National Society of Black Engineers Career Fair in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Do you have any advice for future Master of Electrical Engineering graduates?
I would say no matter what your focus is, you will find a faculty member who shares your passion and helps you achieve your personal and professional goals. Be sure you utilize all the resources UTC has to offer. Get to know your faculty and administrative staff. These are good people and will do everything in their power to support you. They work with and for you, not against you. Pursuing graduate school is not an easy choice to make. If you approach the experience with clear goals, the benefits of the program will last forever.
The online construction management program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has been ranked among the Top 20 in the country by a national education website.
Intelligent.com examined 139 schools with such programs and ranked UTC at No. 18 out of the Top 50 for 2021.
“Our top picks for the best construction management degrees are a good value, wellrespected, and flexible,” the website says. Each program was evaluated “on the basis of reputation, course strength, cost, flexibility, and faculty,” it says.
According to the website, more than 46,000 graduates in construction management will be needed in the U.S. by 2028.
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Graduate student Babikir Mohamed Ahmed, left, and Abdelrahman Karrar, interim head of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
Worldwide Expert Asks to Use Research Findings of UTC
Professor and Student by Shawn Ryan
After almost an entire year of writing and editing complex mathematical equations on techniques for testing electrical power networks and nine months of writing and editing a research paper of the techniques, Dr. Abdel Karrar, interim head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and three graduate students, Babikir Mohamed Ahmed, Amira Abdelgadir, and Noman A. Saied published their research in a major scholarly journal. Decoupling, the focus of the many hours of research, is a process that keeps electrical distribution networks working smoothly, but it has limitations. The research suggests ways to get around limitations.
Three weeks post-publication, a worldwide expert on decoupling, Christian Dufour, contacted the research team and requested to test the equations in his own work. “He’s actually one of the most cited sources in the paper,” explains Dr. Karrar. Christian Dufour is a senior simulation specialist in power systems and motor drives at Opal-RT, a Canada-based global developer of power grids and electronics for various industries, including autos, trains, and aircraft. Dufour says the research may make it possible for Opal-RT computer simulators to test large electrical distribution grids at the same speed the grids will use when put into real-world operations. Lab testing power grids of this size is typically a daunting task. Dufour says that “engineers will use the simulator to find issues in the lab before commissioning to avoid the high costs of correcting problems in the field after deployment.”
Ahmed, who came to UTC after studying at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, reflects on the experience, “It feels good. I never thought at the beginning, it can go this far.”
Electrical Engineering Professor Joins Prestigious Industry Publication
Daniel Loveless, UC Foundation associate professor of electrical engineering, has been chosen to serve as an associate editor on the Transactions on Nuclear Science (TNS), a publication from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
“It is my honor to have been selected and to serve as an associate editor for the IEEE TNS journal. The IEEE TNS is one of the top journals that publishes articles on theory and application of nuclear science and engineering, including radiation effects in microelectronics, my particular field of interest.”
At UTC, Loveless established a microelectronics research program, a highly competitive industry in desperate need of employees with knowledge in the field. The program has helped students land jobs in microelectronics months before they graduate. Loveless also created the UTChattSat program focused on undergraduate research and workforce development in space systems engineering and radiation effects, and he leads the Extreme Environments Systems research thrust at the UTC SimCenter. He has published about 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and is a senior member of IEEE.
Student Spotlight: Diego Amaro
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Diego Amaro, a May ’21 graduate in Electrical Engineering, is originally from Venezuela. When he was three years old, his family moved to Nashville, where his family sought a better life and more opportunities for Diego. He is the first person in his family to attend any educational institution in the United States.
As far as UTC goes, Diego describes his experiences as a student as “Great! I’ve met a lot of cool people, and I’ve had so many interesting opportunities!”
One of the most memorable experiences was the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) led by Dr. Daniel Loveless. The REU focused on space systems, and Diego’s team worked specifically on a cube sat that could reorient itself. The project, “An Interactive CubeSat Testbed,” aimed to provide a resource for education, training, and rapid deployment of small satellite spacecraft. One of the many takeaways from the REU was the ability to work with a team to accomplish goals and achieve an end result, whether it be for research or for industry. “I learned to trust people, to put faith in people that they are accomplishing their part of the mission so you can focus on your part,” said Diego, “and working remotely due to the pandemic, you have to place even more faith in people and communicate effectively!”
When asked for words of wisdom for other firstgeneration college students, Diego is quick to point out that asking for help is one of the most important things to do, “Put yourself out there. This may seem scary, but you can do it.”
Professor’s Research Advances Biopharmaceuticals, Biofuels and Environmental Clean-up
The associate dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science has been named among the top 2 percent of research scientists in the world.
Michael Danquah, a UC Foundation professor and director of the department of chemical engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, uses biomolecular engineering principles to develop, emerging biopharmaceuticals, methods for delivering drugs to their specific targets without alerting the body’s defense mechanisms, biofuels and systems that help clean up environmental pollution.
The designation is the result of a study, conducted by Stanford University, listing scientists in the top 100,000 of all fields and the top 2 percent in specific fields. Those various fields include engineering, business, humanities and medicine.
The study ranks scientists based in part on personal citations and writings, presenting both single-year and career-long impacts.
Danquah’s research findings have resulted in about 300 peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly book chapters, conference proceedings and presentations and technical reports. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
“I feel deeply honored to have been recognized in this way, and I wish to celebrate this recognition with the many students and collaborators who have worked with me over the years,” Danquah said. “I am proud to contribute this way in building UTC’s research reputation in the national and global fronts and this already speaks to UTC’s efforts in research rigor and flourishing academic environment.”
One of his goals, he said, is to advance cutting-edge bioengineering research at UTC. Working with others, the research can address the health care challenges of the 21st century, he said.
