Boise State University’s First Undergraduate Service Learning Experience (FUSE): Real-WorldAdaptive Engineering Design course is one of 29 exemplar programs throughout the United Statesto be featured in a new National Academy of Engineering publication, “Infusing Real WorldExperiences into Engineering Education.”

FUSE, a service-learning section of Introduction to Engineering (ENGR 120), was developedand managed by Boise State freshman engineering coordinator Carol Sevier. FUSE is a project-based lab course that pairs first-year engineering students with community members withdisabilities. The teams work together to modify or adapt technology to fit their needs. Studentscreate design options, evaluate their designs and create prototypes of the most viable technologygiven the client’s need, the cost and the project schedule.

FUSE was chosen from a pool of 95 programs nominated by deans, chairs, or faculty, andassessed based on creativity, innovation, attention to diversity, anticipated vs. actual outcomes,

NewsletterNewsletter

After 25 years, the Instructional and Performance Technology (IPT)department in the College of Engineering is changing its name. Beginning inAugust 2013, the name of the department will be Organizational Performanceand Workplace Learning (OPWL). At the same time, the name of thedepartment’s certificate in Human Performance Technology (HPT) is changingto Workplace Performance Improvement (WPI).

These changes follow the recommendation from a 2011 external reviewto create a new department name that “embraces the present and future scopeof the department and that is understandable to a wide audience of scholarsand practitioners.” The new name better represents the department’s emphasison learning in workplace settings and its focus on learning as one alternativefor improving performance in organizations. It also better represents the kindof work that graduates do after completing their degree or certificate.

While the department name will be new, the department curriculum willbe unchanged. Degree and certificate requirements will be the same, course

content and delivery will be the same, and the department’s commitment tohigh-quality online professional education will be the same.

Instructional and Performance Technology Gets New NameBy Kathleen Tuck

Engineering Service-Learning Project Receives National RecognitionBy Sherry Squires

sustainability, assessment of student learning andlevel of real world experience. FUSE stood out asexemplary in these areas, as well as demonstrating anease of replication for other universities interested inimplementing service-learning for engineeringundergraduates.

Students build relationships and work closelywith community partners while meeting theobjectives of the program: to discover the creativity,challenge and rewards in solving an engineeringproblem; to apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills using the engineering design process; toidentify, analyze and solve a problem from thecommunity; to practice the skills necessary to be asuccessful engineer including project managementskills, working on a multidisciplinary team andcommunicating within a project team withinstructors, clients, community partners and industryexperts; to contribute to the community; and tobetter understand themselves, including theirstrengths and weaknesses, by reflection upon theseexperiences.

More information about the FUSE programcan be found on the FUSE website.http://coen.boisestate.edu/fuse/

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From the Dean’s DeskThe latest generation to

enter the workforce has been arecent topic of discussion in thenews. Articles in Forbes and theWashington Post, among others,have described Millennials (thoseborn between 1981 and 2000) interms of both optimism andconcern. Analysts have mulledover how this generation will

reinvent the workplace into one that is more flexibleand less rigidly structured, more about watchingperformance, and less about watching the time clock.Equally intriguing is the sense that Millennials want tostand out, to be special, to make a difference.

According to the Pew Research Center, Millennialswill likely be “the most educated generation inAmerican history” (pewresearch.org/millennials). Whatdoes this mean to us, here at the College ofEngineering? Our enrollment numbers give us a clue.Over the past four years, our undergraduate studentenrollment has grown from 1,450 in Fall 2009, to over2,100 in Fall 2012. The enrollment in Mechanical &Biomedical Engineering alone has nearly doubled, fromjust over 300 in the fall of 2009, to nearly 600 this pastfall. What is drawing this latest generation of studentsto engineering?

Neil Howe and William Strauss, researchers ongenerational change, observed that Millennials believethey can take on world problems that previousgenerations have been unable to solve. (Millennials Goto College, 2003). This observation offers us someinsight into our growing enrollment. Engineeringmajors are magnets for students looking for a careerwhere he or she has a shot at making a tangibledifference in the world. Consider what is includedwithin the somewhat generic-sounding field ofmechanical engineering: robotics, vehicles, aeronautics,space exploration, advanced energy systems,biotechnology, even climate modeling. These are big,bold fields with exciting opportunities and challenges,where individuals and teams have a real chance to makebig changes in a lifetime.

And students and faculty in the College ofEngineering aren’t limiting themselves to what happensin the classroom. Our desire to achieve motivates us tofind innovative ways to apply our knowledge and senseof discovery in extracurricular clubs. Student clubs aredesigning, building and flying remotely piloted aircraft,building and racing “mini Baja” dune buggies, andbuilding the world’s fastest vehicle that runs onvegetable oil.

In engineering, the ability to solve world problemsis not just imagined – it’s within reach. When we thinkabout the characteristics of the Millennial generation,and wonder about our growing enrollment, maybewe’re asking ourselves the wrong question. Instead ofwondering how we grew to 2,100 students, maybe weshould be asking ourselves, why do we only have 2,100students?

Amy Moll

Dean and ProfessorCollege of Engineering

College of Engineering Newsletter | Spring 2013

For many Boise State students, the uncertainty of how to afford college is a barrierthat separates dreams from reality. Today, scholarships and financial aid are critical pieces tothe education puzzle. You can make a difference in making someone’s dream come true bycontributing to theCollege of Engineering (COEN) Scholarship Fund. There is no morepressing need at Boise State University than funding for scholarships.

Scholarships ensure that the best and most deserving students become and remainBroncos, that they have the means to reach their goals and that they succeed to their fullestability.

In short, scholarships change lives.

Financial concerns are the top reason students leave Boise State before earning theirdegree. Others, including local students who identify closely with Boise State and want tobecome Broncos, are lured to other universities by scholarship offers that Boise State cannotmatch at present. And many, who may be unlikely to leave the area for financial or culturalreasons, opt out of college altogether due to their inability to pay.

Many of these students would become and remain Boise State students and, ultimately,Boise State graduates if more scholarship dollars were available. Boise State must competeto recruit and retain the best and most deserving students no matter their background orarea of study.

Private gifts are an irreplaceable element of that effort.

Last year, only one quarter of highly qualified (COEN) students received scholarships,simply because there weren’t enough funds available to make awards. We want to changethat by doubling the amount of scholarships available for future engineering students.Please consider making a contribution to the COEN Scholarship Fund. For moreinformation about establishing a COEN scholarship, or contributing to an existingscholarship, please contact: Mary Rutherford, Director of Development, via emailmaryrutherford@boisestate.edu, or by phone 208-426-2022.

By giving in support of Boise State scholarships, you help students reach for theirdreams. You also demonstrate and teach future Broncos what it means to be part of theBronco family. Boise State strives to be the school of choice for students who need or wanta scholarship, and will compete for the best, most deserving students.

As future Boise State graduates and successful alumni, their loyalty and pride asBroncos reinforces the foundation for our university’s bright future and enrich its traditionsfor generations to come.

Student Success Starts with Financial ConfidenceBy Mary Rutherford

Jelly the Labrador

2

Jelly the Labrador joined the College of Engineering (and Bronco Nation) on Dec. 12.Currently 5 months old, she is a puppy-in-training from Canine Companions forIndependence (CCI), which provides highly trained assistance dogs for children and adultswith disabilities, free of charge. Jelly is being raised by Amy Moll, dean of the College ofEngineering, and Bill Knowlton, professor of materials science and engineering. She is thethird puppy they have raised for CCI. Kamela and Marita, their first two puppies, are bothbreeders for CCI and are Jelly’s mother and grandmother, respectively. Jelly will be attendingBoise State until May 2014, when she will return to CCI for advanced training.

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COEN Faculty in Action

Tony Marker and Rebecca Mirsky

Tony Marker, associate professor in Instructional &Performance Technology, and Rebecca Mirsky,associate professor in Construction Management,presented a session on sustainability for the 8th annualBoise Safety Fest of the Great Northwest, held Jan.22-25. Their session was one of 66 different classesoffered over the four-day conference, and wasincluded by popular request. Participants includedcontractors, construction and general industry

professionals, professional technical educators and others interested in improving the safetyperformance of their business.

After a short intro to “Sustainability 101,” Marker shared a framework and tips forcreating a sustainable business, including several local case studies. Mirsky followed with anoverview of sustainability reporting using the framework designed by the Global ReportingInitiative.

The annual Safety Fest of the Great Northwest was hosted this year by the URSCorporation, the Boise area and Region 10 offices of the Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration (OSHA), the Idaho Associated General Contractors (AGC), the State ofIdaho’s Division of Professional Technical Education, the University of Washington, andIdaho’s OSHA Consultation Program at Boise State.

More information about the Safety Fest is available at http://www.safetyfest-boise.org/.

Linda Huglin

In the current issue of Performance Improvement Quarterly (PIQ),the article, “Content Analysis of the 20 most influential HPT articles,”identifies work by Instructional & Performance Technology assistantprofessor Linda Huglin. Her 2009 article is titled “HPT roots andbranches: Analyzing over 45 years of the field’s own citations: Part 1,”Performance Improvement Quarterly, 21(4), 95-115.

College of Engineering Newsletter | Spring 2013

Amit JainIdaho Technology: Boise Code Camppoised to make an impact in techcommunity

A critical part of building a vibranttechnology community is providingopportunities for professionals to engage,learn and collaborate. Because thecomputer science industry moves soquickly, the entire community benefitswhen knowledge is shared. That's why

Boise Code Camp's free technical training event providesgreat value to software developers in the Treasure Valley.

This year's Boise Code Camp will be hosted by thecomputer science department in the College of Engineeringat Boise State University and is organized by a group of techprofessionals led by Scott Nichols.

Code Camps were created to provide training onsoftware development and industry trends. Each one followsa universal set of guidelines intended to make the eventaccessible, engaging and community-run.

This year's Boise Code Camp will be the seventh annualsuch event in the community. Boise Code Camp offers a fullday of sessions on topics that include agile practices, cloudcomputing, database fundamentals and networking advances.

Workshops are carefully coordinated to guarantee thateach Code Camp will offer quality content to softwaredevelopers of all levels of expertise. Boise Code Camp 2013will feature a special track taught by seniors from MeridianTech School. This track will introduce basic programming tochildren as young as 8 years old, which creates a greatopportunity to engage future computer science professionals.

Boise Code Camp helps to create a stronger Idahoworkforce. In a post-recession economy, it's financiallydifficult for many smaller Idaho companies to send theiremployees to larger, more expensive conferences, so BoiseCode Camp provides a free, high-quality solution.Additionally, the conference offers a supportive venue forindividual consultants and companies to demonstrate theirsubject-matter expertise. With the high costs of out-of-staterecruiting, shining a spotlight on local talent helps Idahocompanies connect with qualified professionals.

3

Darryl Butt Named Distinguished Professor

Darryl Butt,Professor, MaterialsScience andEngineering has beendesignatedDistinguishedProfessor, one of thehighest honors thatcan be accorded to afaculty member. Thetitle recognizes

distinguished achievement in the combined areas of teaching, research andpublic service and is reserved for a small number of faculty who have mademajor contributions to their academic disciplines.

Distinguished professors are expected to make special contributions tothe intellectual advancement of their home departments and colleges, as

well as to Boise State as a whole. In addition to recognition, the Boise StateUniversity Distinguished Professorship includes a stipend to supportscholarly activities.

Darryl Butt is nationally and internationally recognized as one of theleading materials scientists working in the area of materials for extremeenvironments and energy studies. Butt established the Materials Corrosionand Environmental Effects Laboratory at Los Alamos National laboratory.He became the project leader for weapons dismantlement and fissilematerials transparency and oversaw the Russian-U.S. lab-to-lab technicalinteractions in nuclear non-proliferation. He has mentored 34 graduatestudents and maintained an active research program, bringing in $6 millionas PI and $4 million as co-PI. His publication record is outstanding, with180 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and proceedings. He hasserved as chair for the Department of Materials Science and Engineeringand as associate director for the Center for Advanced Energy Studies,among many other noteworthy accomplishments since joining the faculty atBoise State in 2005.

Continued on back page

4 College of Engineering Newsletter | Spring 2013 C

Dan Isla is not what you would call an adrenaline junkie, but he knowswhat it’s like to go from fear to exhilaration in a matter of minutes. OnAugust 5th, Dan was in the surface operations room of NASA’s JetPropulsion Lab (JPL), anxiously watching what would turn out to be thepicture perfect landing of the Mars Curiosity Rover. Three months later, thisBoise State grad described the watershed moment, and the events leading upto it, for a rapt audience at the IEEE Boise Computer Society banquet, heldin the Student Union Barnwell Room. Isla’s talk, titled “From BSU to Mars:An alumnus’s experience working on NASA’s most complex spacecraft eversent to the Red Planet,” attracted the highest attendance in the banquet’shistory. Isla drew the audience into the excitement and tension of the rover’slanding by showing NASA’s video, “Challenges of Getting to Mars:Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror.”

The following day, Isla, a 28-year-old systems engineer with NASA’s JetPropulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California, spoke informally withstudents interested in learning more about his journey from electricalengineering undergraduate to NASA engineer. Isla also met with membersof this year’s Microgravity team to share his experiences as 2009 teamleader. This is the fifth year that a multidisciplinary team of Boise Statestudents have had a project accepted by NASA’s Microgravity Universitywhere they will design, fabricate, fly and evaluate their own reduced gravityexperiment. The Microgravity projects are some of the most unique andchallenging experiences available to undergraduate students at Boise State,and have been wildly successful – Boise State student projects have beenselected to take part in Flight Day activities five years in a row.

Throughout the questions and discussion about his most exciting andchallenging experiences, Dan's message came through loud and clear for allthe budding robot designers and programmers out there: It’s not all rocketsand lasers! To make big projects happen, teams need a lot of expertise in alot of different fields, and team members need to know how to talk andwork together. The best engineers may be experts in their own fields, butthey also know something about the other disciplines they work with. Theyare good listeners and know how to communicate complex ideas to aninterdisciplinary audience.

This point is echoed by electrical engineering graduate studentMatthew Dolan, who was in the audience for Isla’s talk. Dolan was part ofthe 2012 Microgravity team, and is advising this year’s team members.Microgravity projects require a big time commitment; team members spendabout 10 to 15 hours a week outside of regular classwork to assemble the85-page project proposal according to Dolan. “Your proposal is reviewed byphysicists, engineers, biologists – every discipline that may be a part of yourproject. You have to make it clear that you understand how the pieces fittogether.”

Isla had just finished his junior year at Boise State when he had achance to experience first hand just what it was like to work with a diverseteam of engineers and scientists. Even before joining the 2009 Microgravityteam, Isla spent a summer interning with JPL, an opportunity made possibleand funded by the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. At the time, he didn’trealize that he was actually involved in a 10-week interview for what wouldlater become his full time job. At JPL, Isla has been immersed in discovery,working first on building the dictionary of commands for the rover, thenjoining the assembly, test, launch and operation team, and now a member ofthe entry, descent and landing team.

Alfredo Bravo Iniguez is a senior electrical engineering student whoalso interned at JPL. Bravo Iniguez also attended Isla’s talk and spoke about

how the internshipgot him hooked onNASA. “I got tomeet Dan at JPLand talk to himwhile I was there last summer,” he said. “It was exciting to actually be at thelanding party watching mission control when Curiosity touched down. Andwe got to see all the daily updates of the rover before they were madepublic.” Originally interested in physics, Bravo Iniguez thought he’d giveelectrical engineering a try since his dad is an electrical engineer. Hisexperience at JPL is now steering him to specialize in digital imageprocessing, and he is currently exploring a number of graduate programs.

While working as the team leader for Boise State’s first SystemsEngineering Educational Discovery (SEED) Microgravity project, Isla’smentor was astronaut Barbara Morgan, Boise State’s Distinguished Educatorin Residence. As Idaho’s own Teacher in Space, Morgan’s mentorship givesadded strength to the outreach component of every Microgravity proposal.Outreach efforts have included trips to junior high and elementary schools,presentations for in-service teacher education, help in preparing lessonplans, and events at the Discovery Center of Idaho. Isla’s 2009 flight teamparticipated at the Idaho Capital Scholars that aims to recruit top highschool juniors. The flight team used this to help promote engineering atBoise State as well as demonstrate the opportunities that NASA provides tostudents.

Dan Isla’s presentation at the banquet and his follow up Q&A withstudents connects Boise State and our community to the excitingdevelopments in space exploration and the challenges and rewards of realworld research and discovery. As the Curiosity Rover explores the surface ofMars, it’s not just something interesting to watch on television or theInternet. A Boise State grad helped make it happen, and that makes us partof the experience.

Boise State grad inspires ‘Curiosity’ seekersBy Rebecca Mirsky

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5 College of Engineering Newsletter | Spring 2013

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Engineering Students Excel in Global CompetitionBy Rebecca Mirsky

Chances are, whensomeone mentions “extremechallenge,” your first thought isnot computer programming.But that’s exactly what BoiseState College of Engineeringstudents found themselves inthe middle of, along with 1,900teams from around the world,in last Saturday’s IEEEXtreme6.0 programming competition.

IEEEXtreme is a global competition where teams of IEEE studentmembers — supported by an IEEE student branch and advised andproctored by an IEEE member —compete in a 24-hour time race againsteach other and the clock to solve a seriesof programming challenges.

Boise State’s College of Engineeringhad four teams compete this year in theOct. 20 competition, which attractedsome of the world’s top up-and-comingprogrammers. Team Zeal, whosemembers included Ngoc Luong, AlfredoBravo Iniguez and Dominic Wayda,finished in the top 20 percent of this elite group.

The teams used the College of Engineering’s Metageek lab as homebase for the competition. Every hour, teams would receive a new problemwhose solution required writing a new program. Splitting the problems

into parts and calling on their Java programming language and math skills,team members engaged in a marathon coding effort.

What was their biggest challenge? According to senior Luong, it was“staying awake.” Luckily, help was on the way with pizza, sandwiches,snacks and lots of coffee from the IEEE Boise Computer Society to helpthe team get through the grueling 24 hours.

According to the IEEEXtreme Facebook page, this year’s challengeinvolved more than 150,000 submissions for the 20 challenge problems.

“I’m happy to see EE and CS majors working on extracurricularactivities together,” said Elisa H. Barney Smith, IEEE student club facultyadvisor. “To come out in the top 20 percent of a global competition withso many teams and competitors is a huge accomplishment.”

Luong said he would highly recommend thiscompetition and has been promoting it on the IEEEclub’s website at http://www.ieeebsu.org/

Other teams that competed this year from thecollege of engineering include:

Team 256, Daniel Lambert

Team Political Engineering, Aaron Brown, Jun Hwang

Team RoboPotato, Beverly Chan, Jesse Riggs

Student Takes Top Honor atAtmospheric Chemistry ConferenceBy Sherry Squires

Mechanical engineering major and senior Derek Wadereceived an award for Best Student Oral Presentation at the 15thConference on Atmospheric Chemistry at the AmericanMeteorological Society’s 93rd annual meeting in Austin, Texas, Jan.6-10.

Wade, who is also a veteran and pursuing a minor in appliedmathematics, presented a National Science Foundation funded research projecthe has been working on with mechanical and biomedical engineering facultymember Inanc Senocak. The title of Wade’s presentation was “Multi-SourceAtmospheric Dispersion Event Reconstruction Using Bayesian Inference andComposite Model Ranking.

The goal of Wade and Senocak’s research is to develop an algorithm andcomputer model that would use sensor data to reconstruct the dispersion ofhazardous airborne materials into the atmosphere after an accidental orintentional release from multiple sources.

Wade will receive a cash prize and an award certificate from the AmericanMeteorological Society for his achievement.

The full abstract of Wade’s presentation can be viewed athttps://ams.confex.com/ams/93Annual/webprogram/Paper214871.html

Computer Science Student toPresent at Major ConferenceBy Sherry Squires

James Kress, a seniorcomputer science major,presented a paper titled “Anovel graphical user interfacefor high-efficacy modeling ofhuman perceptual similarityopinions” at the prestigiousSPIE Medical ImagingConference on Feb. 10.

The paper is co-authored with Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Georgia Tourassi,director of the Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Center, andSonghua Xu, a Wigner Fellow in the Computational Sciences andEngineering Division.

This work came out of a summer internship Kress did at thelab in the summer of 2012.

in Action

“The IEEE Boise ComputerSociety is proud to havesponsored the students fromBoise State University,”

– Joe Rekiere, IEEE BoiseComputer Society chair

6 College of Engineering Newsletter | Spring 2013

Jenny (Harmon) Bush, CE, 2002Lucas Edward Bush joined me, Ted,and big brother Dylan in November.I also completed my term as ISPESW Chapter President.

Mike Laub, EE, 2002Family: 3 kids (m/f/m, 8/4/2). Employer: Chicago Bridge and IronTitle: Sr. Electrical EngineerProjects: Cove Point LNG NaturalGas Liquefaction Project (Three 84MW Frame 7, natural gas turbines)

Jerry Wilson, CE, 2003Congratulations to Jerry Wilson whohas accepted the District 1 ProjectDevelopment Engineer position atLHTAC

Jerry has worked in the D1 ProjectDevelopment section for ten years

Christian Bramwell, ME, 2004I'm working for Polaris Ind. out ofSpirit Lake Iowa as a QualityEngineer. My current project is thelaunch of Indian Motorcycleproduction.

Gus Drake, ME, 2007I still work at POWER Engineers,Inc. In March I will reach my 5 yearmark. I do the mechanical design forsimple cycle & combined cycle gasturbine plants primarily butoccasionally get to work on biomass,CO2 capture, and geothermal plants.I became licensed as a ProfessionalEngineer in the state of Idaho thispast April. At home we had a newaddition to our family. Julia AnnDrake was born on July 20th. Shemakes 4 now! Carlie (7), Sarah Jane(4), Grady (3), and then Julia (6

months). To accommodate the newaddition to our family we alsoworked to expand our house buildingon an extra bedroom/office. All inall there is never a dull moment atthe Drake household.

Ryan Van Leuven, CE, 2009My wife Charly and I are expectingour first child in June. I am workingas a Geotechnical Engineer atAmerican Geotechnics in Boise.During 2012, I have been working ona variety of projects includinglandslide mitigation, pavementdesign, and bridge foundation design.I am currently performinggeotechnical work for the Broadwayinterchange in Boise.

James Carrillo, ME, 2012Payloads DesignEngineer - BoeingCommercialAirplanes, RentonWA

• Prime design engineer for thethermal acoustic insulation systemon the new 737MAX

• Filed 1 patent on behalf of theBoeing Company

Currently attending the University ofWashington to pursue a Masters inAerospace Engineering

Ellen Rabenberg, MSE, Masters2012, Undergraduate 2010I am working on failure analysis atNASA Marshall Space Flight Centerin Huntsville, AL.

Thank you to our alumni that judgedat the regional Future CityCompetition on January 26th

Harvin Flores (CE 2003)

Doug Kellis (MSE 2011), Brian Jaques(ME, 2006) and son, Brandon Chaffin (ME)

Kevin Kuther (CE 2007), Adrian Mascorro (CE 2005), Harvin Flores (CE 2003)

Pierson Dewit (CE 2002), Mandy Wright (ME 2003)

Great to see alumni and theirfamilies at STEM Exploration on Feb2, 2013!

Cody Ravenscroft, ECE

Darren Simonson, ME

Shannon Heck, CS, and family

Tim (CE) and Julie (EE) Morgan and family

Matt Brown, CM, and family

R U Following Us?

http://twitter.com/BSUEngineering

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Boise State College ofEngineering Alumni

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Boise State College ofEngineering Related Blogs

Alumni NotesWe want to stay in touch.Please send your updates toLeandra Aburusa-Lete atlaburusa@boisestate.edu

Alumni News

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NSF Awards Boise State ResearchTeam $555,384 for Supercomputingand Visualization Infrastructureby Rebecca Mirsky

Boise State researchers are generatingastonishing amounts of data, but often faceobstacles when it comes to effectively accessing andanalyzing that data. That’s about to change, now thata collaborative group of Boise State Universityfaculty from engineering, biological sciences,geosciences and computer science have received agrant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)to build a new high performance computing and

visualization instrument. When the project is completed, researchers acrossmultiple disciplines will have access to vastly improved capabilities fortackling large computational problems.

The $555,384 grant was awarded under NSF’s Major ResearchInstrumentation (MRI) Program. The funding will be used to build a 32-node GPU/CPU cluster with a data storage array and a 5×8 foot tileddisplay that will be located in a visualization theater setting. GPUcomputing uses graphics processing units (GPUs) together withconventional central processing units (CPUs) for faster processing ofcomputational science and engineering problems. The GPU/CPU clusterwill support parallel computing and rendering, data storage, and high-resolution imaging.

“Without supercomputing resources, computational analysis andmassive data stores can become more of a burden than a help,” said InancSenocak, associate professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering,and the principal investigator on the project. “This new computing clusterwill extend our range of exploration in science and engineering projects,and accelerate time-to-results substantially.”

Senocak and co-investigators Peter Müllner (Materials Science andEngineering), Hans-Peter Marshall (Geosciences), Julie Oxford (Biology),and Tim Andersen (Computer Science), have proposed to use thecomputing cluster to support research projects as diverse as wind energyforecasting, modeling for threat reduction in chemical and biologicaldefense, materials characterization and modeling, snow hydrology andremote sensing, and mechanisms of skeleton development in livingsystems.

“The benefits of this grant will be felt far beyond Boise StateUniversity,” said Amy Moll, dean of the College of Engineering. “The planis for the parallel computing and visualization cluster to be housed at afacility open to university researchers as well as local technologycompanies and partners. This advanced cyberinfrastructure resource hasthe potential for a huge impact on our regional economy.”

Senocak says that the researchers involved in the grant also plan tomake this cyberinfrastructure accessible to high-school science, technology,engineering, and math scholars through outreach activities such as hands-on exercises for modeling and simulation, visualization of earth and spacescientific data, and high-resolution imagery.

“If we look beyond the obvious benefits to the researchers, we canonly imagine the profound impact this kind of experience might have onthe next generation of scientists and engineers,” he added.

This project is supported by the National Science Foundation underAward No. OCI-1229709.

Two Electrical Engineering StudentsAwarded National Scholarshipsby Kathleen Tuck

Two electrical andcomputer engineering(ECE) students have justbeen awardedscholarships by theIEEE Power and EnergySociety (PES). CodyBreckenridge,sophomore, and AdamHull, junior, were among

228 students at 100 universities selected to receive the awards.

The IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative provides multi-yearscholarships and career experience opportunities to qualifying U.S.electrical engineering undergraduate students. As long as the scholarcontinues to meet renewal standards, he or she will receive up to threeyears of funding — $2,000 the first year, $2,000 the second year and$3,000 the third year — interspersed with up to two years of valuable,hands-on career experience.

The PES Scholarship Plus Initiative recognizes undergraduatestudents who have declared a major in electrical and computer engineering,are high achievers with strong GPAs, have distinctive extracurricularcommitments, and are committed to exploring the power and energy field.

Both scholarship recipients have managed to achieve outstandingacademic records while balancing other commitments. In addition toexcelling as a full time student, Hull works full time and is raising threechildren. Breckenridge is a member of the Idaho Army National Guardand also volunteers for the Wyakin Warrior Foundation, which provideseducation and professional development services for severely wounded orinjured veterans.

7College of Engineering Newsletter | Spring 2013

Today, scholarships and financial aid are critical pieces to

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Thousands of K-12 students like Aria Graham got to experience science, technology,engineering and math (STEM) fields, and have plenty of fun, during STEM Exploration Day atBoise State. Chemistry student Peter Barnes was one of several students and faculty memberswho helped younger students design bridges, ride Segways, build an edible aquifer, orexperience a wind tunnel. About 5,000 visitors attended STEM Exploration Day on Feb. 2nd.

Wankun Sirichotiyakul photo

STEM Exploration

College of EngineeringDean: AMY MOLL

(208) 426-1153amoll@boisestate.edu

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs: JANET CALLAHAN

(208) 426-1153janetcallahan@boisestate.edu

Assistant Dean for Research &Infrastructure: REX OXFORD

(208) 426-5744roxford@boisestate.edu

Development Director:MARY RUTHERFORD

(208) 426-2022maryrutherford@boisestate.edu

Civil EngineeringChair: MANDAR KHANAL

(208) 426-3743mkhanal@boisestate.edu

Computer ScienceInterim Chair: HAROLD BLACKMAN

(208) 426-2283haroldblackman@boisestate.edu

Construction ManagementChair: TONY SONGER

(208) 426-3716tonysonger@boisestate.edu

Electrical & ComputerEngineering

Chair: SIN MING LOO(208) 426-2283

smloo@boisestate.edu

Instructional &Performance Technology

Chair: DON STEPICH(208) 426-1312

dstepich@boisestate.edu

Materials Science &Engineering

Chair: PETER MÜLLNER(208) 426-5640

petermullner@boisestate.edu

Mechanical & BiomedicalEngineering

Chair: MICHELLE SABICK(208) 426-4078

msabick@boisestate.edu

publication, “Infusing Real WorldE

Energy literacy guide can help foster realdiscussion and changeBy John Gardner

I recently became aware of a new publication from the Department ofEnergy entitled “Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Conceptsfor Energy Education.”

Available as a free download (search on the Internet for “energy literacy”),this document is the result of a broad coalition led by the Department of Energyand the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In all, 13 federal agencies and 23 science and educational organizationscontributed to this comprehensive guide addressing one of the most pivotalissues that affects human society. Regardless of whether you are a student or a

Ph.D. researcher in the energy field, you will find something interesting that’s likely to make you think ofthings in a new light.

One of the most attractive aspects of the document is that its only agenda is to educate. Absent areany alarmist predictions about climate change or horrific economic impacts we might encounter if weabandon fossil fuels.

Just the facts, ma’am; but those are plenty scary enough. Let me explain.

The guide describes seven Essential Principles, each elaborated by a few simple statements of factabout energy with the occasional chart or photograph thrown in.

Upon reading this guide, you will better understand a variety of important issues. For example,Principle 3 will help you understand why some people choose a vegetarian diet based on the argumentthat it’s more energy efficient. Principle 5 gives you a clear snapshot of how energy decisions areinfluenced by economic, political, environmental, and social factors (spoiler alert: government subsidiesfor fossil fuels outpace those for renewables by a factor of 6 to 1).

But three of the statements in the guide really caught my eye. If you can wrap your head aroundthese, you’ll be far along in understanding why the energy debate is so important. The three statementsare: “Earth has limited energy resources,” “Human demand for energy is increasing,” and “Access toenergy resources affects quality of life.”

I was certainly aware of all three of these facts and I’ll go so far as to say that none of them areseriously disputed. But I know that I have not really thought about the implications of all three at once.Limited resources, increasing demand, and the desire to improve our lots in life put people and ourplanet on a collision course of disastrous potential.

Yes, we should celebrate our new-found good fortune of domestic oil and gas production, butknow that it too is finite. The end of oil may be 100 years from now or only a few decades, but when itcomes, we (humanity) best be ready.

As David MacKay, a Cambridge (U.K.) physicist and leader in the energy literacy movement is fondof saying, we need to have adult conversations about energy. And the only way to do that is if we havean adult understanding of the issues. This energy literacy guide is an awfully good start.

John Gardner, professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at Boise State University and director of the CAESEnergy Efficiency Research Institute, writes a bi-monthly column on issues related to energy for the Idaho Statesman. Aversion of this column appeared on Sunday, February 10, 2013.

Realizing the value of Boise Code Camp, numerous companies and organizations have steppedforward to support our efforts to help the software community, including Acquity Group, BoiseState University, Clearwater Analytics, FieldSync, Resource Data Inc., Idaho Technology Council,Armgasys, Bodybuilding.com, Keynetics, Google, Infragistics, Microsoft and Synoptek. Thanks tothe generous support of sponsors, Boise Code Camp can not only provide speakers and facilities,but also free breakfast and lunch to attendees.

If you believe in the vision of Boise Code Camp - to create an environment where knowledgeis easily and freely shared - there are several ways you can show support. Sponsors are welcome andappreciated. We also encourage prospective speakers and volunteers to contact us throughwww.boisecodecamp.com. Finally, please spread the word about Boise Code Camp, encourageattendance and support the growth of Idaho's tech community.

Boise Code Camp presents a great learning opportunity that empowers our local softwaredevelopers. Please demonstrate your support of our technology community by joining us March 16at Boise State University.

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