Fall 2012 - College of Engineering - The University of Tennessee ...

Contents
1
The Dean’s Message
Issue No. 2
Tennessee Engineer is published in
the spring and fall by the University
of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of
Engineering
Dean’s Message
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Mission to Mars: The UT Connection
Faculty Updates
Faculty Focus: Dr. Roberto Benson
2012 Faculty and Staff Awards Dinner
Special Feature: Reliability and
Maintainability Center Profile
Special Feature: Jamie Anderson
IIE International Event
Engineers Day 100 th Anniversary
EcoCAR 2 Competition
Alumni Profile:
Major General Mike Holmes
Development Update
Donor List
Box Feature: 175 Years
of Engineering at UT
Events & Awards
Alumni News
Memorials
Special Memorials
Dr. William L. Eversole
Chair, Board of Advisors
Wayne T. Davis
Dean, College of Engineering
Dorothy Barkley Bryson
Senior Director, Engineering Development
Kim Cowart
Director, Engineering Communications
Editor, Tennessee Engineer
Mitchell Williamson
Graphic Designer
Randall Brown
Writer/Proofreader
Nick Myers
University of Tennessee Photo & Video
Photography
Jack Parker
Jack Parker Photography
Photography
Cover image of Mars rover courtesy of
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Address correspondence to the editor:
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
College of Engineering
Engineering Communications Office
207 Perkins Hall
Knoxville, TN 37996-2012
coe@utk.edu
(865) 974-0533
Visit the College of Engineering web site at
www.engr.utk.edu
www.facebook.com/coe.utk
I am often asked to provide statements
about the value of engineering to the
economy and to society. This has been
a subject of much interest as a result of
the economic challenges that have faced
many countries over the last five years.
Such requests often go further to ask if
it is possible to quantify the effect of our
engineering graduates or the impact if we
were to increase the number of graduates.
I thought about this recently as I was
reviewing an Environmental Protection
Agency software package called Unmix—
it’s a multivariate analysis model that
allows one to enter the concentrations of
hundreds of volatile organic compounds
and other pollutants measured in
the environment. Then, knowing the
characteristic signatures of what specific
sources produce or emit, it identifies all of
the contributing sources and the relative
contributions of each source to the
observed air quality data.
What if this package could look at our
world and analyze which professions
contributed to society and its economic
and technological developments and how
much? If you have found a model that
does that, please let me know. What we
do know is that our graduates and the professions
in which they work have contributed in innumerable
ways—but not easily quantified from a monetary
standpoint. How would one assess the value of the
invention of the personal computer; a GPS device;
an airplane (or jet)? How does one measure the
value that is created by the many engineers who
design our highways and infrastructure, or develop
new materials that go into every product that is
currently manufactured? How does one measure
the value when engineering graduates start their
own companies, become senior leaders or CEOs,
surgeons, and/or lawyers, contributing their critical
thinking skills to professions that go well beyond
engineering?
One of our featured articles in this newsletter is
about extremely robust microchips created by one of
our faculty members and his student research team
that are now installed on Curiosity, the rover that just
landed on Mars in August. While the chips provided
functionality that goes well beyond the world in
which we live, these, like many other developments
intended to study things beyond our planet, often
find their way back into applications that are much
closer to home. While we cannot begin to truly
assess the economic value of the contributions of
our graduates, we can all be proud to be a part of
a profession that is constantly making a positive
difference in this world…and beyond!
UT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING 1