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CoE Home | momentum | issues |
August 2002 -- VOLUME I, ISSUE VII
R E S E A R C H @ OSU Engineering OSU AWARDED $6 MILLION TO DEVELOP PORTABLE COOLING
SYSTEM-- S T U D E N T S @ OSU Engineering FLOWING AGAIN: GRAD STUDENT RETURNS
WATER TO DRY RIVERBED-- I N D U S T R Y C O L L A B O R A T I O N @ OSU EngineeringURBAN WATERS: OSU ENGINEERING HELPS CHART GLOBAL COURSE-- B U I L D I N G @ OSU Engineering BUILDING MOMENTUM! THE KELLEY ENGINEERING
CENTER-- Track progress of the new Kelley Engineering Center at http://engr.oregonstate.edu/top25/building/ F A C U L T Y & S T A F F @ OSU Engineering CS PROFESSOR IMPROVES SOFTWARE
USING ETHNOGRAPHY-- I N N O V A T I O N S @ OSU Engineering READY, SET, ACTION? OSU CONSIDERS THE
RESEARCHCHANNEL-- H E A R D O N C A M P U S @ OSU Engineering
--Jeff Peace, Vice President and General Manager, Boeing 747 Program. U P C O M I N G E V E N T S @ OSU EngineeringSeptember 21: Kelley Engineering Center Groundbreaking I M P O R T A N T L I N K S @ OSU Engineering
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OSU Engineering
has received a three-year, $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense
to develop a lightweight, highly portable cooling unit that will bring relief
to soldiers, first responders, and haz-mat workers who toil in airtight suits,
often in sweltering temperatures. In collaboration with the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory, OSU will develop the cooling system within its microtechnology
research program known as MECS (Microtechnology-based Electrical, Chemical,
and Biological Systems), which has just been designated a “research center”
by the university and is gaining international attention.
Bioengineering
PhD candidate Starr Metcalf spent eight years as a river guide
on the river featured in the movie Deliverance--the Chattooga. During that time,
she saw the river’s water quality--and quantity--drop dramatically, inspiring
her to do something to help protect other rivers. A year ago, she arrived at
OSU, passing up offers from Berkeley and other schools, to work with bioengineering
professor John Selker and immerse herself in…water. Her
research is helping bring water back to NE Oregon’s Walla Walla River,
which for a century has been drained bone dry every summer for irrigation and
mined for gravel. Working with OSU Engineering alum Bob Bower,
Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council water resource specialist, Metcalf is also
helping mitigate the mining damage and find a water level that works for farmers,
fish, and the Umatilla Tribes. Water is flowing again, and everyone’s
pleased, Metcalf says. “People are thrilled to have their river back.
Nobody wants a dry river. This is not just science and engineering. It’s
people working together with science and engineering. This is how it should
have happened in the Klamath Basin.”
As
the world’s cities continue to swell, urban drainage is becoming a critical
issue. Wayne Huber, OSU civil engineering professor and former
head of the OSU Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering,
is co-hosting one of the world’s largest and most diverse international
conferences on this subject. The 9th International Conference on Urban Drainage
(ICUD) comes to Portland on September 8th for a weeklong gathering of engineers,
scientists, and managers of urban water resources who will address the global
challenges of flooding, sewer overflows, urban stream protection, and more.
“This is a great example of how OSU Engineering faculty are leaders on
the national and international scene,” says Chris Bell,
Associate Dean of Engineering. “Wayne is definitely world-class in urban
hydrology and storm water management.” For more information go to: 
Plan
to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Kelley Engineering Center
on Saturday September 21 at 10:30 a.m. Live music, refreshments, and a high-tech
animated fly-through of the new building are just part of the festivities. Then
stay on campus for the OSU-Fresno State home football game later that day where
a halftime ceremony will feature OSU Engineering and honor OSU Engineering alum
Martin Kelley whose $20 million gift is making the new building a reality. For
more information contact Gail Mathieson at 
OSU computer
science professor Cherri Pancake once worked in the isolated mountains of Latin
America as a physical and cultural anthropologist where she used ethnographic
research techniques to document the human cultures in that part of the world.
Although Pancake is now one of the world’s leading computer scientists,
she’s tapping the ethnography skills she used in her “previous life”
to develop software programs that are much more human-friendly and intuitive
for the people who actually use them instead of for the programmers who develop
them.
In
order to bring it’s cutting edge research to a worldwide audience--in
full color--OSU is considering joining the 
