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