Two FSU students among elite crop of aerospace-related scholarship winners

Two Florida State University graduate students are among the 35 women chosen from across the globe for Zonta International’s Amelia Earhart Fellowship that supports women pursuing advanced studies in aerospace-related sciences. Puja Upadhyay, a mechanical engineering doctoral student, and Jin Yan, an industrial and manufacturing engineering doctoral student, both won $10,000 offered by Zonta International, a global organization working to advance the status of women and girls. It is the first time two FSU students have received the award.

“It was a bit of a surprise,” says Wendy Grey, president of the Tallahassee chapter of Zonta International.  “But, we’re so excited to see two local women receive this award, and it shows how much women in the sciences are doing at FSU.”

The award winners are from universities across the globe, and the winners represent 20 different countries. Upadhyay is originally from Nepal, and Yan is from China. Yan said she will use the money to help support her research in aerospace-related structural health monitoring systems.

Upadhyay’s research focuses on flow field studies of commercial aircraft, specifically looking at ways to improve noise control mechanisms for aircrafts. The Amelia Earhart Fellowship will help her pay for tuition and fees, books, and other supplies, she says. “The number of women in aerospace-related fields, specially engineering, have always been sparse,” she remarks. “This recognition and financial support from Zonta International is indeed a great encouragement. It has not only inspired me to work harder but has allowed me to focus more on my research with less financial burden.”

Florida A&M University–Florida State University College of Engineering Dean Yaw Yeboah says he was “thrilled” to see Zonta recognizing two of the college’s graduate students. “One special mission of the college is to graduate women in engineering fields of study, and we are glad to see that Zonta is working to assist women in obtaining aerospace and related engineering degrees,” he states.

National Society of Black Engineers selects Karl Reid as executive director

 The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has announced that Karl Reid, Ed.D. has been named its new executive director, effective June 2. Dr. Reid is currently senior vice president of research, innovation and member college engagement at the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).

For more than 15 years, Dr. Reid has been a leading advocate for increasing college access and opportunity for low-income and minority youth. At UNCF, he oversaw new program development, research, and capacity building for the organization’s 37 historically black colleges and universities. Prior to joining UNCF, Dr. Reid was associate dean of undergraduate education and director of the Office of Minority Education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was responsible for the academic performance and leadership development of underrepresented minority students. He also served as assistant to the MIT chancellor for student diversity.

Dr. Reid, 51, previously served as an NSBE chapter leader and national chairperson. “I hope that NSBE becomes more impactful globally during my tenure,” he says. “I want to work with partners to dramatically increase the number of young people who are excited about and prepared for successful careers in engineering and science. This is our mandate, and it is as vital and relevant today as it was when it was envisioned by our founders in 1975.”

Earlier in his career, Dr. Reid served for eight years as executive director of Engineering Outreach Programs for MIT’s School of Engineering where he directed local and national college access programs that aimed to increase the number of students from underserved and underrepresented communities prepared to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). He also lectured on race, identity, and academic achievement and served on MIT’s Committee on Undergraduate Engineering Practice, the Committee on Campus Race Relations, and the Presidential Task Force on Minority Student Achievement.

Born and raised in New York City and Long Island, NY, Dr. Reid earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT and his Doctorate of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research interests include exploring the relationships between racial identity and self-efficacy and their influence on the academic achievement of African American males in higher education.

After graduating from MIT, Dr. Reid worked for 12 years in the computer industry in product management, marketing, sales, and consulting for several companies including IBM. Dr. Reid is a member of the Tau Beta Pi National Engineering Honor Society. Among other activities, he directs Christian education at the Reid Temple AME Church and blogs about academic achievement and success strategies.

With a membership of more than 30,000, NSBE is one of the nation’s largest student-governed organizations. NSBE was founded in 1975 to serve African Americans in engineering and technology. With more than 300 chapters in the United States and abroad, NSBE supports and promotes the aspirations of college and pre-college students and technical professionals. For more information, visit www.nsbe.org.

Kansas teen makes a prosthetic hand for a young friend

In the mechanical engineering world, we hear a lot these days about 3D printing being used for rapid prototyping. A recent article in American Profile magazine demonstrates its possibilities.

Matthew Shields, 9, was born without fingers on one hand. His mother Jennifer Shields couldn't afford a professionally made prosthetic, even with health insurance. However, researching online, she found Robohand, a mechanical hand invented by South African carpenter Richard van As, who lost four fingers in a circular saw accident, and theatrical props maker Ivan Owen in Bellingahm, WA. The pair posted the free digital design last year on thingiverse.com.

Enter Mason Wilde, 17, a straight-A student who aspires to be an engineer and had read about 3D printing technology. "I downloaded all the files and spent about three hours scaling the hand to fit Matthew," Wilde said in the article. Using a 3D printer at the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, KS,  he fed and melted plastic filament to make parts on the 3D printer, a process that took about eight hours. Wilde assembled the 20 pieces with with nylon cord and stainless steel screws. He attached the mechanical hand to a glove-like cuff that he molded from thermoplastic to fit Matthew's hand. The materials cost about $60.

Matthew uses backward and forward movements of his wrist to make the fingers open and close. "It's awesome," he says.

Meanwhile, Wilde has established a nonprofit organization to raise money to buy a 3D printer and make prosthetics of other people. "It's an amazing feeling to be able to give someone a hand, something we often take for granted," he says.

Progressive Engineer has posted a profile of Todd Torrence

To view the profile on our website or to see other articles, visit www.ProgressiveEnginer.com

Todd Torrence

Going the Distance

In getting his Bachelor’s degree online, the mechanical engineer sheds light on a growing trend and a unique program at the University of North Dakota

Torrence moved back home to Illinois to work at Hamilton Sundstrand

By Tom Gibson

About 15 years ago, Todd Torrence worked at Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion in San Jose, California as a technician, performing nondestructive testing techniques such as ultrasound, radiography, liquid penetrant, magnetic particle, and eddy current on solid rocket motors and related components. He worked on such notable programs as the Minuteman missile, Space Shuttle Booster Separation Motors, and Global Missile Defense.

In doing this, Torrence recalls, “I worked with the engineers on failure investigations. I learned what an engineer actually does, and that sounded interesting to me. I liked the technical end, problem solving, and learning how things work.” He decided to pursue his mechanical engineering degree in 2002 and started taking classes in subjects such as statics at local community colleges. But he never got to finish the plan there because the facility closed, throwing himself and many others out of work.

A native of Chicago, the 36-year-old Torrence received an associate degree in nondestructive evaluation from Moraine Valley, a community college in the Chicago area. “Originally, when I left school, I didn’t really know what I was going to do,” he says. After working another job near home, he headed west to work at Pratt & Whitney.

But after they closed, he wanted to get back to the Chicago area, so he inquired at Hamilton Sundstrand, a sister company to Pratt & Whitney owned by United Technologies. The closest facility they had was in Rockford, IL, about 80 miles northwest of Chicago. He applied for a job there as an engineering technician because he had a couple years of engineering school. “It was enough to get in on the bottom engineering rung at Hamitlon Sundstrand,” Torrence says.

Then came a game-changing discovery: Torrence learned that the University of North Dakota (UND) offers an online Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) program, and this would allow him to continue pursuing his bachelor’s degree. He found several local colleges around, traditional four-year schools, but all their classes came during the day, eliminating them as an option because he needed to work. “I went online and Googled ‘online engineering bachelor degrees.’ Really, the University of North Dakota was the only option I found that was an accredited school,” he relates. He started there in 2006.

In doing this, Torrence became part of a trend of engineers increasingly taking courses and completing degree programs online, also known as distance learning.

Indeed, many engineering colleges around the country offer online graduate-level programs, often in specialized areas. But online undergraduate engineering programs are rare, and the University of North Dakota offers the only accredited mechanical engineering program in the country.

The UND online BSME program covers the same material as its on-campus counterpart. Matt Cavalli, assistant dean for outreach and recruiting in the school’s College of Engineering and Mines, states, “That’s part of the accreditation process, assuring that the online degree is equivalent to the face-to-face degree.” He adds, “It’s been very successful. I think this last year, about 15 percent of our graduates in ME were distance students, and that percentage continues to increase.” UND’s Online & Distance Education division also offers bachelor’s degrees in civil, chemical, electrical, and petroleum engineering as well as certificates and courses in a host of subjects.

Labs Difficult from a Distance
So why so few undergraduate online degree programs? The difficulty comes in providing labs. For graduate degree programs, most people are working, and they get the hands-on experience at their companies.

Since getting his degree, Torrence has taken on bigger engineering projects.

Another challenge with undergrad online engineering programs is their sheer size and the time it takes to complete them, as compared with graduate programs. UND’s BSME degree consists of 129 credits. Cavalli explains, “The time to graduation for a distance student is typically much longer than for an on-campus student because they’re taking maybe two classes a semester on average as opposed to five or six classes for an on-campus student. And some of them will take a semester off because of job and family commitments.”

For UND’s online classes that have labs, the students typically come to campus for a week in the summer for each lab. Torrence made the trip to the University of North Dakota, located in Grand Forks, three times and labels the experience as intense and stressful. “You’re essentially doing everything students on campus did over the whole semester in a week,” he says.

As for the classes, Torrence says he watched the same lectures as the students on campus. They have a camera set up in the classroom that records the whole time, and you can hear the questions the students ask and hear the teacher and see what they’re presenting. “I like that because if I didn’t understand something, I could always go back and listen to the lecture online again. We would do the same homework as required on campus. We took the same tests at essentially the same time. It was almost like being there. The only thing you miss is the interaction with the instructor during the class.”

Although taking the undergrad online BSME route had its challenges, Torrence now reflects favorably on it. “It was great because I was able to work fulltime during the day, and I would get home and do all the classwork and homework and take tests.” It took until 2012 to get his BSME. “It was six years, but I probably could’ve done it in four.”

New Breed of Engineering Student
Torrence typifies the breed of online engineering students that has evolved, ones that are older, more motivated, and well versed in time management. Linda Krute, director of distance education programs for the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University, says, “For working professionals that can’t come to a college campus because of work, family responsibilities, or geographic constraints, the online programs are very valuable. For a young person coming out of high school, I still believe they need the on-campus experience of bonding with other students.”

As another factor in the equation, it costs more to get an online engineering degree than it does the on-campus variety. According to Cavalli at UND, “There’s an additional fee associated with the online courses for things like the technology and the additional support staff needed. Many students have support from their employers for the cost of the education. Particularly for students paying out of pocket, costs can be a significant issue.”

However, on the plus side, some people argue that students learn unique skills through online programs that they might not otherwise. Blake Haggerty, director of the technical support center and an instructional designer in engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), says, “It gives the students hands-on experience using the types of tools they’re going to use in the workplace.” His cohort Gale Spak, associate vice president of continuing and distance education at NJIT, explains, “We’re in an emerging, evolving global economy. Engineering firms have global projects, and companies have offices around the world. If you’re going to succeed in the company as an engineer, you work in teams and in different time zones. These are key attributes of online learning.” She adds that employers look for these skills, and students have begun to request that it be noted on their transcript that they did their degree work online.

Meanwhile, Torrence reports, “Since I’ve gotten my degree, the company has pushed me into more design and development of new programs and products.” At Hamilton Sundstrand, he works in the Space Systems enterprise focusing on turbomachinery, actuation, and thrust vector control for missile and space applications. As an engineering technician, he mostly worked on existing products that have already been proven in the field and qualified. Currently, he’s designing a fuel manifold for a torpedo engine and developing an electromechanical actuator for control of a rocket or missile, essentially starting from scratch.

“I would definitely recommend it, especially for someone in my situation, where there’s no other way to work full time and also get a four-year degree,” Torrence says of his experience getting a BSME degree online. “Distance is the only way to do it. You just have to keep up on the lectures, watch the classes, do the homework, and put the work into it.”

Tom Gibson has two articles published in Mechanical Engineering magazine

Tom Gibson, publisher and editor of Progressive Engineer magazine and president of Tom Gibson, P.E. Green Building Engineer, has had two articles published in the April 2014 issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine. One, entitled "Technology for Organic Gardeners," talks about the technical nuances of aerated-static-pile composting systems. This is a relatively new concept in composting that involves using pipes buried under compost windrows and connected to blowers to facilitate the process by supplying oxygen and removing heat and moisture.

In "Engineers in the Distance," Gibson discusses online engineering education programs. It points out that many schools offer graduate distance engineering programs, but only the University of North Dakota offers undergraduate Bachelor's degree programs in the traditional disciplines.

Both articles can be seen in the print version of Mechanical Engineering, and ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) members can view them online.

GAI Consultants extends reach in West Virginia with new Bridgeport office

GAI Consultants has opened its newest office in Bridgeport, West Virginia to better serve its longstanding energy clients in the area and expand the firm’s services to additional markets. This is the firm’s 29th office location and the second in West Virginia, along with Charleston. The office will continue to hire new staff to reinforce the firm’s engineering and environmental availability in the northeast region. GAI is currently working for multiple clients in north central West Virginia, including clients with whom GAI has long standing relationships, as well as a growing group of new clients in the energy industry.

GAI-Bridgeport is led by Randal Rogers, Jr., P.G., a director in the company’s Natural Gas Market Sector of the Energy Business Unit. “As a native West Virginian, I am excited to be a part of a growing and vibrant company and industry. GAI’s Client First approach and multidisciplines team, coupled with the opening of the Bridgeport office, uniquely positions us to provide life-cycle services to our clients in the region,” he says.

GAI is an employee-owned, multidisciplined engineering and environmental consulting firm serving clients worldwide in the energy, transportation, real estate, water, municipal, government, and industrial markets from U.S. offices throughout the Northeast, Midwest, and Southeast. For more information, visit http://www.gaiconsultants.com. 

Mark Yalung named Arizona area manager at Parsons Brinckerhoff

Mark Yalung has been named Arizona area manager at Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global infrastructure strategic consulting, engineering, and program/construction management organization. In his new position, Yalung will manage the operations of the firm's Tempe and Tucson offices, which provide expertise in the development of infrastructure projects including highways and streets, passenger rail and light rail, and multimodal transportation solutions to improve mobility, access, and quality of life. He will be responsible for leading all aspects of the firm’s Arizona operations, including business development and marketing, client relationship management, and project performance.

 Yalung has 27 years of transportation engineering design and project management experience in both the public and private sectors. He has been with Parsons Brinckerhoff for over 15 years, currently serving as an assistant vice president and project manager. He previously served as project manager with the Arizona Department of Transportation. Yalung received a B.S.C.E. from the University of Arizona.

Parsons Brinckerhoff develops and operates infrastructure around the world, with 14,000 employees working in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia-Pacific regions. The firm offers skills and resources in strategic consulting, planning, engineering, program/construction management, and operations for transportation, power, mining, water/wastewater, and community development projects. Parsons Brinckerhoff is the professional services division of Balfour Beatty, an international infrastructure services organization that also provides construction services, support services, and infrastructure investments (www.pbworld.com).