2005 - College of Engineering - Oregon State University

2 0 0 5 A N N U A L R E P O R T 

College of Engineering 

People. Ideas. Innovation.

It is good to 

have an end 

to journey 

toward; 

but it is the journey 

that matters, in the end. 

— U R S U L A K . L e G U I N

A Message from the Dean 

Here at Oregon State University, 

the College of Engineering 

is in the midst of an 

incredible journey— 

a journey that is leveraging our long tradition 

of excellence and our culture of innovation, 

collaboration, and creativity to build a truly great 

engineering program made up of extraordinary 

people doing astonishing, innovative work. 

O r e g o n S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y College of Engineering 2005 Annual Report 

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Like most journeys, ours takes persistence and 

passion. The path includes high points with 

sweeping vistas, as well as lows where the going 

can be tough. But we welcome the challenges as 

we move toward the next milestones; this balance 

gives us energy for the next stage of the journey 

as we climb steadily toward becoming one of the 

top-25 engineering programs in the nation. 

During the last year, the people here at the College 

have taken a great number of steps, working hard 

LEFT: In front of the new Kelley Engineering 

Center, Dean Ron Adams sits behind the 

wheel of a prototype solar car designed by 

a multidisciplinary team of OSU students 

including Kathy VanWormer, Leif Schneider, 

Hai Yue Han, and Peter Kurahashi. 

RIGHT: The deepest lake in the nation, 

Crater Lake, was formed by the eruption 

of Mount Mazama more than 7,700 

years ago. It is just one of Oregon’s 

many natural treasures.

to pass significant milestones—including one of our greatest: 

the opening of the 153,000-sq.-ft. Kelley Engineering 

Center, the sparkling new home of our School of Electrical 

Engineering and Computer Science. This “green” building, 

constructed using sustainable materials (see photo essay on 

p. 18), is the result of vision and generosity. Martin and 

Judy Kelley’s $20 million lead gift, in combination with 

public funding and additional private support, made the 

Kelley Engineering Center a reality—a home for innovation 

that will impact thousands of lives. 

In the months ahead, we will begin major renovations 

of several other engineering buildings—including historic 

Apperson Hall—so that our students, staff, faculty, and 

industry partners can work and learn in environments 

that foster communication, collaboration, and creativity. 

All the while, we continue to build our educational 

programs and expand our cutting-edge research. In this 

report, you’ll read about our successes: microreactors used 

for producing biodiesel, filtering blood, and generating 

hydrogen for fuel cells (see p. 8); buoys that turn ocean 

wave action into electricity (see p. 4); structural research 

on bridges that is saving the state of Oregon millions 

of dollars (see p. 14); the development of transparent 

transistors—a breakthrough poised to revolutionize the 

electronics industry (see p. 10); and more. 

Our alumni like Jen-Hsun “Jensen” Huang (see p. 20) 

have gone on to launch major companies like NVIDIA, 

providing engineering innovations, economic impact, and 

international leadership. Like Jensen, our current entrepreneurial 

students, including Tyler Morita (see p. 22), are 

starting their own companies here on campus as part of the 

Austin Entrepreneurship Program at Weatherford Hall, the 

largest residential entrepreneurial program in the nation. 

Other students are doing outstanding work, too, from building 

autonomous vehicles to helping clean up toxic waste 

sites to building solar-powered cars. 

I’m proud of each and every one of the people who are on 

this journey—proud of the path we’re blazing, together. This 

is a journey built on our legacy of excellence and inspired 

by great people, bright ideas, and phenomenal innovation. 

Here’s to another good year… and the next milestone. 

Ron Adams, Dean 


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L A R G E - S C A L E E N E R G Y S Y S T E M S 


College of Engineering professors Annette von Jouanne and 

Alan Wallace are committed to involving coastal communities 

in the wave energy project. “It’s the collaboration that will 

make this project successful,” they say.

THE POWER OF 

TEAMWORK 

Creating energy from ocean waves 

Reedsport, a sleepy logging town on the southern Oregon coast, may 

be getting a shot of new energy thanks to a partnership between the 

community, engineers at Oregon State University, state and federal 

agencies, and members of private industry. 

This past summer, Annette von Jouanne and 

Alan Wallace, professors in OSU’s School of 

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, led 

the first of what will be several community meetings 

centered around bringing wave energy to the Oregon 

coast. In front of a standing room only crowd, they 

answered questions about energy potential, new 

jobs, environmental consequences, advanced technology, 

and dependence on foreign energy sources. 

Recognized as national leaders of ocean wave 

energy, von Jouanne and Wallace have developed 

several direct drive ocean buoys capable of converting 

the power in ocean waves to electrical energy. 

The coast near Reedsport has been identified as the 

optimal site in the nation for wave energy development. 

The overall energy potential there is enough to 

power about 20 percent of the state’s total electricity 

needs, according to von Jouanne and Wallace, and 

it is believed that with proper location and planning, 

converting wave energy to electricity may be one of 

the most environmentally benign ways to generate 

electrical power. 

“Ocean waves have tremendous potential as an energy 

source,” von Jouanne says. “The energy density 

in water is much higher than it is in air. We can get 

more power with less space, and we can know within 

a 10-hour window what our energy capabilities are, 

and we can match them to the need.” 

The OSU-developed buoys are designed to be 

anchored 1-2 miles offshore in water depths greater 

than 100 feet. At about 15 feet across by 12 feet 

tall, the buoys will sit neutrally buoyant in the water, 

and will be almost impossible to see from land with 

the naked eye. The research team pictures an array 

of buoys, or wave park, placed within a sectioned 

off area of a yet to be determined size, however, it 

is estimated that 10 square miles could power the 

entire state of Oregon. 

“The key is creating a survivable, reliable, efficient 

system,” von Jouanne says of the buoys. “The ocean 

is very destructive, but we are at a point where we 

believe the buoys can be manufactured to survive 

the harsh environment.” 

O r e g o n S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y College of Engineering 2005 Annual Report

LEFT: Reedsport, Oregon 

already has much of the 

infrastructure needed for a 

wave energy facility intact, 

including this inactive 

paper mill north of town. 

BELOW: A National Science 

Foundation graphic of 

OSU’s direct drive buoy. 

Members of the community 

gather to learn 

more about wave energy 

in Oregon. 


Wallace adds that the development of wave energy is currently 

15-20 years behind wind energy, a technology that is just reaching 

its optimal performance. He says that just like wind energy, 

wave systems will be expensive at first then drop in price as the 

industry becomes competitive. Currently, there are operating 

wave energy systems in Europe, but the technology is different 

than that being developed at OSU. 

“This is groundbreaking research that can be of enormous value 

to society, and it’s amazing all of the people who want to get 

involved,” Wallace says. 

The College of Engineering, the Oregon Department of Energy, 

and the Electric Power Research Institute are hoping to establish 

a wave energy conversion research, development, and 

demonstration center at a disused paper mill located next to 

the electrical substation in Gardiner, just north of Reedsport. 

The mill, which has been inactive for several years, already has 

a number of features that could substantially reduce the cost 

of the project, including available power transmission capability 

and an existing outflow pipe. The pipe could be used to house 

the power cable that would run from the buoys to the Gardiner 

power station where the energy would enter into the grid.

“It could be a whole new 

industry. We could be 

the nation’s wave energy 

headquarters. In a few 

years time on the Oregon 

coast there could be 

wave parks generating 

power back onto the grid 

and providing jobs for 

the people living in the 

region.” 

— ANNETTE VON JOUANNE 

The facility would create a need for 

new local jobs, both in the construction 

phase and in daily operations, promote 

development, and add to the state’s 

goal of energy self-sufficiency. It would 

receive direction and support from OSU 

and its Hatfield Marine Science Center 

in Newport. In addition, the College of 

Engineering is home to the Motor Systems 

Resource Facility, the highest-power energy 

systems laboratory at any university in 

the nation, and the O. H. Hinsdale Wave 

Research Laboratory. Both resources would 

be available and used by researchers 

working at the site. 

“It could be a whole new industry,” says 

von Jouanne. “We could be the nation’s 

wave energy headquarters. In a few years 

time on the Oregon coast there could be 

wave parks generating power back onto 

the grid and providing jobs for the people 

living in the region.” 

The response to the project has been 

tremendous. Stories about the research, 

and the first community meetings, have 

been picked up by national press and run 

in publications ranging from engineering 

trade journals to the Washington Post and 

Popular Mechanics. Von Jouanne says she 

is constantly responding to phone calls 

and e-mails about the project, and the 

possibility for similar wave energy generation 

sites elsewhere. 

“The really great part is sharing the vision 

with others, with our students, and with 

the public,” von Jouanne says. “People are 

very receptive, and our involved students 

are being heavily recruited by industry.” 

For the past two years von Jouanne and 

Wallace have been funding the project 

with a $270,000 grant from the National 

Science Foundation and additional funding 

from the Oregon Sea Grant, the 

Department of Energy, Columbia Power 

Technologies, and regional utilities. The 

next phase of the project will require 

about $5 million. Language has been 

added to state and federal energy bills 

that could funnel money toward the 

project, however von Jouanne and Wallace 

are also actively looking for industry partners 

and private funding. 


O N A M I @ O S U 

Microfluidics 

big things come 

in small packages 


LEFT: Professor Goran Jovanovic says microfluidic systems aimed 

at producing alternatives to fossil fuels may provide a vehicle for 

energy independence in areas of the United States. 

ABOVE: Examples of OSU-developed microchannels and a 

prototype biodiesel microprocessor.

That’s the driving force behind the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, 

a powerful collaboration between Oregon State University, Portland State University, 

University of Oregon, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the state of Oregon, 

and the high technology industry in Oregon and southwest Washington. 

OSU engineering faculty, working on the microfluidics 

side of ONAMI, believe that science on a small scale 

can achieve big results with worldwide appeal. By using 

microchannels developed and built in OSU’s Dept. of 

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering to intensify 

and more tightly control the processes that occur during 

chemical reactions, faculty are achieving unprecedented 

results. 

A few examples: 

• Goran Jovanovic, a professor in the Dept. of 

Chemical Engineering, is producing biodiesel by 

combining oil from seed crops with alcohol in tiny 

microchannels. The microchannels have no moving 

parts, do not require external energy, and can be 

stacked to increase production. Current data suggests 

that a microchannel reactor the size of a suitcase could 

produce one million gallons of biodiesel a year. 

• Jovanovic is also using microchannels to remove 

sulphur from conventional petroleum products like 

gasoline and diesel, for use in fuel cells. When burned, 

or combusted in an engine, sulphur produces sulphur 

dioxide, an environmental pollutant also know as acid 

rain. Removing sulphur from petroleum products may 

increase fuel economy, and help to reduce pollution 

leading to global warming. 

• Greg Rorrer, also a professor in the Dept. of Chemical 

Engineering, is putting sugars and starches through a 

microreactor to produce hydrogen. The process gives 

Rorrer very tight control over the time the substances 

are in the reactor. This technology may help farmers 

make hydrogen for use in fuel cells from the very 

substances they are growing. 

• OSU engineering alumni Kay Altman and David 

Browning (pictured below) are helping produce a 

kidney dialysis unit developed by OSU engineers 

associated with ONAMI. The tiny device is incredibly 

efficient, and will enable dialysis patients to treat 

themselves at home while they sleep. 

• Rich Peterson, a professor in the Dept. of Mechanical 

Engineering, is leading a push along with colleague 

Deborah Pence in the development of a personal heat 

pump. Previous attempts at personal cooling systems 

have required 10-20 lbs. of batteries. The College’s 

system uses waste heat from a fuel cell to drive the 

cooling process. This replaces the heavy battery-based 

power system and results in a lighter, more compact 

portable cooling device. 


O N A M I @ O S U 


10 

ABOVE: Perfectly clear, see An interdisciplinary team of OSU faculty and students hold up samples of transparent 

electronics developed through a collaboration between OSU professor of electrical engineering John Wager 

(second from right), OSU professor of chemistry Doug Keszler (right), and others. Pictured at left are graduate 

student Emma Kettenring and development engineer Chris Tasker. 

OPPOSITE: Glass slides coated with transparent electronics sit in a petri dish, and a sputtering machine built by 

Chris Tasker glows purple during thin film deposition.

See-Through Electronics Will Enable a New Generation of Devices 

When OSU Electrical Engineering 

professor John Wager talks about his 

research, you can hear excitement 

edging his voice. No wonder. He’s in 

the position every researcher dreams 

about: standing on the threshold of a 

breakthrough that could revolutionize 

an entire industry—in this case, 

the electronics industry. 

“I think we’re onto something huge here at 

Oregon State,” Wager says. “And other people 

are beginning to sense that now.” 

The term “huge” doesn’t exactly fit 

Wager’s research, because he and 

his team of graduate students are 

working at the molecular level, and 

the end result is, well—invisible. But 

that’s the ultimate goal: electronics 

that are so crystal clear you can see 

right through them. Which makes 

any transparent surface a potential 

location for electronic devices. And 

that’s indeed huge. 

In 2003, working closely with 

OSU professors Doug Keszler 

(chemistry) and Janet Tate (physics), Wager’s 

group developed the world’s first transparent 

transistor (the transistor is the most fundamental 

electronic component). This year, Wager and his 

multidisciplinary team developed the world’s first 

simple integrated circuit (a ring oscillator) that 

will also be transparent. 

“When we do that, I think people will realize this 

technology is ready for prime time,” Wager says 

with a smile. 

Already Wager’s work is drawing the attention 

of prestigious research journals and major news 

media: Nature, NPR’s Science Friday, CNN, the 

journal Science, Wired Magazine, and others. 

How did Wager, who’s been at OSU for 21 years, 

arrive at this research breakthrough Ever modest, 

Wager is quick to credit his graduate students, 

his OSU collaborators, his development engineer, 

Chris Tasker, and a good dose of luck. 

“You get lucky every once in a while,” he says. 

“We were trying to figure out how to get electrons 

to move through various combinations of 

chemicals to direct electricity in electronic applications 

and were just in the right place at the 

right time asking the right questions. I also have 

great graduate students, and Chris Tasker—he’s 

the brains behind our entire lab.” 


11


Inside John Wager’s lab, 

Celia Hung and fellow graduate 

students are part of a flurry 

of research activity that’s 

gained national attention. 

Wager (opposite page) and 

his students have developed 

the world’s first transparent 

integrated circuit. 

It is within Wager’s sprawling fourth floor 

lab that materials science, chemistry, physics, 

electrical engineering, and perseverance 

converged to help his team discover that 

common and cheap materials, zinc oxide and 

tin oxide, could be used to create transparent 

thin film transistors. They then combined 

these two elements and discovered that a 

new material, Zinc Tin Oxide (ZTO), had even 

greater electrical properties, including much 

higher electron mobility. 

“We just stumbled onto this new material, 

and although zinc tin oxide is an amorphous 

structure, its electrical mobility is quite 

good,” Wager says, ticking off a list of other 

attributes: very robust (scratch resistant), 

high chemical stability (facilitates etching), 

low cost, and a smooth surface. The surface 

smoothness, he says, is “very, very nice from 

a manufacturing point of view.” Traditionally, 

silicon has been used for electronics because 

its crystalline structure facilitates efficient 

electron flow. 

12

But silicon requires high temperatures 

to produce, is too expensive for largearea 

and low-cost applications, is highly 

brittle, and is anything but transparent. 

Wager’s team has discovered that zinc 

tin oxide is not the only material that 

works well for this type of electronics. 

“We’ve found a sweet spot in the 

periodic table,” 

he says. “Which 

points to a new 

class of electronic 

materials.” His 

group is currently 

working with zinc 

indium oxide, 

another member 

of this new materials 

class. 

Unlike silicon, these new materials can 

be produced at very low temperatures 

and are also flexible, making them 

applicable to glass, plastics, and bendable 

materials, such as maps 

and foils. 

Wager’s work could dramatically impact 

organic light emitting devices, leading 

to displays that are brighter, crisper, 

and consume less power. “Our materials 

might be the solution to the electronic 

back-plane driver challenge of this projected 

$10-15 billion market,” he says. 

Solar cell technology would also be 

improved, as well as a myriad of other 

applications ranging from security and 

safety to energy independence. 

For example, the infrared or optical 

transparency of a coating on the 

window of a home or office could be 

electronically controlled, to let in more 

or less heat and light, depending on the 

weather. A warning could flash inside a 

car’s windshield glass if sensors detect 

an object in the street ahead. Invisible 

burglar alarms could be placed on glass. 

Printers and copy machines could have 

electronics applied on the glass, dramatically 

reducing 

their overall size. 

Already Wager’s work is 

drawing the attention of 

prestigious research journals 

and major news media: 

Nature, NPR’s Science Friday, 

CNN, the journal Science, 

Wired Magazine, and others. 

“As soon as you 

start letting your 

mind wander, 

there are a lot of 

potential applications 

out there,” 

Wager says. But 

his job, he says, 

is to develop the 

basic materials and device technology, 

for which he currently has six patents 

pending, and then let private industry 

incorporate this technology into new 

devices and products. 

Wager’s team has just inked an 

exclusive licensing agreement with 

Hewlett-Packard Co. and is working 

with the Oregon Nanoscience and 

Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) to 

help commercialize the OSU research. 

What else could Wager wish for at this 

point in his career He’d like to secure 

funding to hire another faculty member 

with expertise in his research area. 

This would speed development of his 

“invisible” research, which is already 

casting a growing shadow across the 

electronics industry. 


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T H E K I E W I T C E N T E R F O R I N F R A S T R U C T U R E + T R A N S P O R T A T I O N 

Strong Research, 

Stable Structures 


Chris Higgins and his team of 

research students build their 

own concrete girders at the 

Large-Scale Structural Testing 

Laboratory. The College of 

Engineering is working toward 

expanding the lab to include 

a strong wall and other 

testing features. 

14

Keeping Oregon’s Infrastructure Up and Running 

During regular inspections in 2000, Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) personnel 

noticed something disturbing about the vintage concrete bridges all over Oregon. From the 

Powder River in the northeast to the Rogue River in southern Oregon, the bridges were cracked. 

Of the 1,800 concrete girder bridges listed in the state 

database roughly 500 showed visible cracks, many of those 

on Interstate 5 and Interstate 84, the main north-south 

and east-west corridors in the state. 

“From just about anywhere in the state, you can’t 

travel east or west, north or south without crossing 

one of these bridges,” says Chris Higgins, a professor 

in OSU’s Dept. of Civil, Construction, and Environmental 

Engineering. “It has a large scope and is an expensive 

problem.” 

ODOT took immediate action. The agency imposed load 

limitations on several bridges, closed others, and commissioned 

Higgins and his team at the College of Engineering 

to help the state analyze the severity of the cracks, assess 

the remaining capacity, and predict the remaining life of 

these bridges. 

“I was pleased to partner with OSU in development of the 

testing plan, and to be part of the technical advisory committee 

for the research project,” says Ray Mabey, deputy 

director of ODOT’s OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program. 

“Some of the research methods and results of this study 

will be recognized nationally.” 

The majority of the bridges affected were built in the 

1950s. At the time, engineers were employing very lean 

and efficient designs, specifying only that material which 

was necessary. When they began using standardized 

deformed reinforcing bars, a new technology at the time, 

they deviated from their past successful practice when 

detailing the reinforcing within the bridges, Higgins says. 

Prior to cracking, the concrete carries the load on the 

bridge. Once cracked, the load is transferred to the steel 

rebar imbedded in the structure. As trucks became heavier 

and more frequent, the load on the bridges increased and 

large diagonal cracks formed. Because the bridges contain 

less steel than required by current codes, the structures 

were of concern to engineers. 

“We undertook field work and full-scale laboratory 

testing and analysis to determine how the 

bridge members were behaving,” Higgins says. 

“We studied the load effects and found that it 

was a matter of both shear and moment acting 

on the section. The problem was a conspiracy of 

two force effects, and not a lone gunman.” 

Higgins and his research team completed field data collection 

on four Oregon bridges, and built 44 full-size concrete 

girders to 1950s specifications for testing at the Large- 

Scale Structural Testing Laboratory housed in the College 

of Engineering’s O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. 

The laboratory contains a strong-floor that enabled the 

team to carry out full-scale experimental tests on the fourfoot 

thick girders, and the first-ever tests of real-size bridge 

girders failing under moving loads. 

Higgins’ team developed a reliability-based assessment 

methodology for ODOT to use on a bridge-by-bridge basis, 

and provided ODOT tools to determine the 

residual load carrying capacity. 

“Once you make that assessment you can decide what 

needs to be done, if anything, to ensure the safety of the 

structure,” Higgins said. “All this work is about protecting 

the safety of the traveling public, making the best use of 

public transportation investments, and keeping Oregon up 

and running.” 


15

F A C U L T Y 

José Reyes 

Managing Major Growth in Nuclear Engineering 

OSU Nuclear Engineering faculty, 

José Reyes, Brian Woods, Qiao 

Wu, and Todd Palmer enjoy a light 

moment near campus. This faculty 

team, their staff, and a burgeoning 

number of students have helped 

the OSU Nuclear Engineering program 

gain a No. 9 national ranking. 


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After a sabbatical in Vienna, Austria working with the 

United Nations to develop safer passive nuclear reactors, 

José Reyes, the Henry W. and Janice J. Schuette Chair in 

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics, returned 

to OSU last winter to a flurry of good news: 

• U.S. News and World Report ranked OSU’s 

nuclear engineering program No. 9 in the nation 

• student enrollment in the department was way up, 

and climbing 

• national interest in nuclear power was the 

highest in decades 

• and the College selected Reyes as the new 

department head 

To top it off, OSU was selected as one of five universities 

to play a key role in a research collaboration with the 

Idaho National Laboratory (INL), which will bring the 

department approximately $12 million in funding 

over 10 years. 

“That was quite a coup,” says Reyes, who will be 

co-director, along with professor Todd Palmer, of 

the Academic Center of Excellence for Thermal 

Fluids and Reactor Safety — the OSU part of the 

INL project. 

All the growth and good news is stretching the department, 

both physically and personnel wise. So Reyes 

and colleagues are making big plans to meet the 

growing demand for nuclear engineering graduates. 

“The average age of workers at the nation’s 102 nuclear 

power plants is 52,” Reyes says. “There’s a tremendous need 

for new nuclear engineers and for medical physicists, who 

design radiation therapies.” 

Reyes’s department is soliciting funds to construct a new 

wing on the OSU Radiation Center to house a new Medical 

Physics program, a 300-seat auditorium, larger classrooms, 

and faculty offices. The new wing would also free up existing 

space for desperately needed laboratories. 

“We’ve been converting lab space to office space to accommodate 

growth,” he says. “But we can’t keep doing that.” 

The ultimate change The department will be renamed the 

OSU School of Nuclear Science and Engineering to better 

reflect its leadership position as one of the top nuclear 

programs in the world.

F A C U L T Y 

MusicStrands 

Sing Loud, Sing Proud 

Cranking up the volume at the College of Engineering 

I love rock n’ roll 

So put another dime 

in the jukebox, baby 

I love rock n’ roll 

So come an’ take your 

time an’ dance with me 

Joan Jett, the musical bombshell popular 

during the 1980s, sang “I Love Rock n’ 

Roll,” and thousands of rock fans loved 

her for it. She belted out the lyrics in a 

loud unapologetic voice accompanied by 

a fast guitar, heavy base, and memorable 

drumbeat. Her music filled a niche in the 

male dominated world of rock and roll 

punk. Today, Jett’s unique sound is largely 

confined to the classic rock station, and 

the potential fans who just might love her 

music may never even hear her sing. 

MusicStrands, a new music recommendation 

software company, could change that. 

The software, which 

began as an idea at the 

College of Engineering, 

uses artificial intelligence 

to identify an individual’s 

listening patterns and 

generate new musical 

recommendations. 

“It’s all about music discovery,” says 

Jon Herlocker, a professor in the School 

of Electrical Engineering and Computer 

Science, and one of the masterminds 

behind MusicStrands. “We asked, ‘How can 

we help people discover new music’ and 

what we’ve come up with is a way to assist 

in the creation of communities of interest 

around music.” 

Matt McLaughlin, Herlocker’s former 

master’s student and the current vice 

president of product innovations at 

MusicStrands, adds that the company 

is centered around helping individuals 

connect with one another through music. 

MusicStrands has offices in Barcelona, 

Spain, and Corvallis, Ore. It employs 

44 people, several of whom graduated, 

taught, or conducted research at Oregon 

State University’s College of Engineering. 

“OSU is where we all met,” 

says 25-year-old McLaughlin. 

“The College of Engineering is 

very important as a connecting 

point for new ideas.” 

Matt McLaughlin (left) and Jon 

Herlocker describe the combination 

of music and artificial intelligence 

in MusicStrands.com as “fun.” 

The company continues to receive 

national media attention. 


17

Kelley Engineering Center 

A NEW HOME FOR INNOVATION, DESIGNED FOR COLLABORATION AND CREATIVITY. 


18 

Thanks to a $20 million lead gift from Judy and Martin Kelley 

(Civil Engineering, 1950), an additional $20 million in matching 

public funds from the citizens of Oregon, and $5 million 

in private gifts, the 153,000-sq.-ft. Kelley Engineering Center 

provides a dynamic new working and learning 

environment for students, faculty, and staff of 

the OSU School of Electrical Engineering 

and Computer Science.

A L U M N I 

Visualizing the Big Picture 

Jen-Hsun Huang 

CEO, President, and Co-founder 

It was in a circuit design class taught by Oregon State professor 

Donald Amort that Jen-Hsun “Jensen” Huang 

(BS, 1984) first learned how to see and understand the 

big picture before diving into the details. It’s a lesson he 

uses everyday as co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, the world 

leader in graphics processing technologies. 

“We had a hunch 13 years ago when we founded NVIDIA, 

that visualizing information—the visual experience you have 

with your computer, or any digital device—was going to be 

as important, if not more important, than the computational 

experience,” Huang says. “That hunch was right. We’ve 

now entered the post-computer era, the experiential era.” 


“I was a sophomore engineering student, trained to analyze 

things down to three decimal points, and here was professor 

Amort up at the board using such rough numbers that 

it was incredibly 

uncomfortable 

for me,” Huang 

says. “But in a 

way, how he 

taught that 

class really 

set me free.” 

“Oregon State is a wonderful 

school. The professors have 

a balance of practicality and 

theory. They teach the theory, 

but are always trying to help 

you apply it.” 

As leader of a wildly successful semiconductor 

company with more than 2,500 employees and annual 

sales in excess of $2 billion, Huang says he has to focus on 

the big picture, and credits Amort with teaching him how 

to do that. 

“In my job, I have to analyze problems very quickly,” Huang 

says. “If you focus on the most important variables and 

don’t get bogged down by the minutia, it’s amazing what 

you can accomplish.” 

In his 42 years, Huang has accomplished much. The graphics 

processing units his company produces are found in 

products ranging from Microsoft’s Xbox and Motorola’s new 

3G cell phones to NASA workstations that help navigate 

the Mars Rover. 

Huang was raised in Taiwan and Thailand, son of an 

engineering father. At age 10, he came to the U.S., where 

an aunt and uncle in Tacoma, Wash. selected what they 

thought was a prep school in eastern Kentucky for Huang 

to attend. The school turned out to be closer to a reform 

school, where Huang shared a dorm room with a tattooed 

17-year-old who sported scars from knife wounds and 

couldn’t read. It was there that Huang learned about work 

ethic, scrubbing toilets and sweeping the halls every day 

after school. 

But it was at Oregon State, in an electromagnetics class 

taught by professor Phil Magnuson, where Huang met his 

20

Jen-Hsun Huang’s journey from standout Oregon 

State engineering student to leader of a highly 

successful Silicon Valley company is an example 

of what can happen when engineering and 

entrepreneurship come together. 

wife, Lori, when they were paired off as lab partners. “That was the most important, single 

event of OSU, and of my life,” he says. 

Huang believes the College’s emphasis on basic principles, work ethic, collaboration, and 

business acumen are all important assets in the drive toward becoming a top-25 engineering 

program. “Oregon State is a wonderful school. The professors have a balance of practicality 

and theory. They teach the theory, but are always trying to help you apply it.” 

As an engineer and entrepreneur, Huang has obviously done an extraordinary job 

applying what he’s learned. 


21

O U T S T A N D I N G S T U D E N T S 

Engineering 

Entrepreneur 

A student business makes a mark 

in the personal amplifier business 


22 

Originally built in 1928, Weatherford Hall has been through two distinct renovations. 

The picturesque building is the current home of the Austin Entrepreneurship Program, 

a collaboration between the College of Engineering, the College of Business, and 

University Housing and Dining Services.

Most people who want to get a 

better sound out of their stereo 

systems buy a better stereo. Not 

Tyler Morita. He looked into the 

situation, discovered that an 

amplifier could solve the problem, 

then proceeded to build one— 

in an Altoid box—that worked so 

well he launched a new company 

to sell the devices. 

Morita, a junior in the School of Electrical 

Engineering and Computer Science, is 

founder, owner, and sole employee of 

Z-audio, a company that produces 

customized musical amplifiers for personal music devices 

and stereo systems. 

“I wanted something to make the music sound better, richer, 

and more real,” he says of his initial wanderings into the 

world of amplifiers. “But it had to add quality, not just 

volume. After looking at commercial amps and doing a 

bunch of reading, I built my own and loved it. It actually 

ended up working better than the store-bought amp. Soon 

my friends were all asking me to build them one, and I just 

saw the potential in the market.” 

When Morita started Z-audio he was a double major in 

biology and music. The company led him to change his major 

to engineering, and to move into Weatherford Hall, home of 

the Austin Entrepreneurship Program, the largest residential 

entrepreneurship program in the country. 

“I switched to engineering to learn more 

about building amplifiers,” Morita says. 

“I want to have the best product out there.” 

At Weatherford, Morita was given one of 

the incubator suites, a large research and 

development space reserved for highly 

motivated students. Justin Craig, 

assistant professor of entrepreneurship 

in the College of Business, took Morita 

under his wing and began introducing 

him to students enrolled in the business 

program. With students Brad Hubbard 

and Jared Yeck, Morita entered the 

Round Table Competition for business, 

winning second place and $1,000. 

The money went straight into the 

business along with investments made 

by Morita’s grandfather, Hubbard, 

and Yeck. 

“Once the business was really up and running, I bought out 

Brad and Jared’s shares,” Morita says. “Right now, I’m working 

on paying off my initial investors. Each amp that I sell is 

broken into parts cost, payments, and living expenses.” 

Along with a second job at Starbucks to help pay the bills, 

Morita spends about 30-40 hours a week building amps 

and conducting Z-audio business. He prides himself on his 

customer service, and says that when someone makes a purchase 

from him they receive not only a high quality product, 

but also unlimited access to his expertise. His amplifiers have 

a devoted following, especially on the web, where he is known 

as a bit of a maverick. He says his next step is to focus on the 

marketing side of the business. 

“I hope to take this business as far as I can go,” he says. 

“At the very least I’d like to pay back 

my investors and have the business 

financially stable. I’m trying to make 

a name for myself.” 

Visit Z-audio on the web at: 

http://www.z-audio.com/ 


23



Home is Where 

the Heart Is 

This engineering student 

knows just where she’s 

supposed to be 

In her 20 years, Kremena Diatchka has called three countries 

on three different continents home. Diatchka, a senior in 

the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 

was born in Bulgaria, moved to Zimbabwe when she was 

eight, then came to Oregon when she was 17 to study at the 

College of Engineering. 

She speaks English, Bulgarian, and a 

bit of Shona, the local language spoken 

in Harare, Zimbabwe, but claims 

her speech is imperfect in all of them. 

“Whenever I go back to Bulgaria to 

visit my relatives, they always ask me 

why I’m so quiet, or why I’m talking 

so slow,” she says. “Once I’m there a 

while, it’s a lot easier.” 

Diatchka is not the first member of 

her family to pursue engineering. 

Her mother is a professor of civil 

engineering and worked for several 

years at the University of Zimbabwe 

before transferring to the University 

of Botswana, and her older brother 

graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 

computer science from the University 

of Cape Town. He is currently working 

on a doctorate at Portland State 

University. 

“In Bulgaria, your work doesn’t dictate 

who you are,” Diatchka says. 

“Whatever your career is, you can still 

be a fun sociable person. Here there is 

more of an ‘engineering personality.’ 

A stereotype exists about nerdy boys 

being the only ones who are good at 

engineering.” 

Diatchka is proving that stereotype 

false. She is enrolled in OSU’s Honors 

College and is highly successful in 

her engineering coursework, maintaining 

a 4.0 GPA. Last summer, she 

spent several months at University of 

Washington working with professor 

Linda Shapiro on a bioinformatics 

project as part of the Distributed 

Mentor Project. At OSU she is part 

of the Computer Systems option in 

EECS, and she has briefly worked 

with professor Jon Herlocker. 

The flexibility in the computer science 

program appeals to Diatchka, and she 

says two areas she’d like to explore 

are applying computer science to 

biological sciences and computational 

biology. Ultimately, she says she’d like 

to pursue a doctoral degree, before 

moving back to Bulgaria. 

“Living on three different continents 

gives you a unique perspective,” 

Diatchka says. “I’ve gotten to see all 

different cultures, and it’s really made 

me think about the world in a more 

open minded way. I’m really glad I 

came here—it’s been great for me.” 

24


Cleaning Up What’s Left Behind 

A doctoral student from rural Oregon 

works toward helping the planet 

Lots of people end up in jobs that create messes. Stephanie Harrington 

is working toward a career that cleans them up. As a doctoral student 

in the Dept. of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, 

Harrington’s passions, and her studies, revolve around cleaning up 

contaminations associated with radioisotopes, or radioactive materials. 

Harrington, who earned a bachelor’s in chemical engineering 

from Oregon State, first became interested in radiation 

and its associated complications as an OSU master’s student 

in environmental engineering. Her thesis project was on 

uranium transport, specifically how uranium moves through 

different media, like soils and groundwater. 

“I became so interested in my project that I realized this is 

what I wanted to do with my life,” Harrington says. “I love 

research. I like the hands-on, doing stuff in the lab. I like 

working on something that may make a difference. I think 

it’s fascinating. I love it.” 

For her doctoral research, Harrington is working under 

Brian Wood, a professor of environmental engineering, 

studying contaminate transport of non-radioactive materials. 

Harrington says the work is applicable to her interest 

in radioisotopes, and it is easier to conduct the research 

when she doesn’t have to obtain special permissions. 

“Right now, we’re doing lab research, 3-D computer simulations, 

and mathematical modeling to see if we can come up 

with a good estimation of how long it takes a contaminate 

to reach the water system,” she says. “Hopefully we can help 

people better deal with spills in the real world.” 

Harrington grew up on five acres outside King’s Valley, Ore., 

a small rural community west of Corvallis. Although she was 

always interested in science, 

even conducting experiments 

with a child’s science kit, she 

thought she would become a 

teacher. She claims she sort of 

fell into engineering, and now 

spends a lot of time explaining 

to her family and friends what 

she does, and why she does it. 

Stephanie Harrington uses spheres 

made of heated sand to model the 

paths of contaminates through the 

environment. 

“My family is baffled—they have 

no idea what I’m talking about 

most of the time—they’re just 

proud of me,” she says, smiling. 

“My friends all joke with me about how I’m going to grow 

four arms and glow in the dark. It’s great.” 

Harrington estimates that finishing her doctoral degree 

will take about five years, but she’s in no hurry. She knows 

the work she’s doing has the potential to make the world a 

safer, healthier place for everyone. 

“Somebody has to figure out how to clean up all the messes 

we make,” she says. “We need to live in harmony with the 

environment, and growing up in Oregon that’s all I know. 

Being an environmental engineer is sort of like being a 

doctor, only to the planet, not to people.” 


25

Team named semifinalist for $2 million prize in driverless race 


26 

Members of the Oregon WAVE autonomous vehicle team pose with their 

driverless car in front of the OSU Valley Library. The team includes engineering 

students from a range of different disciplines, as well as professional 

engineers.

It’s called “The Grand Challenge” for good reason. The off-road course stretches 175 

grueling miles across the desert between LA and Las Vegas. Race teams don’t know the 

exact coordinates of the course until two hours before the start. And—here’s the kicker— 

each vehicle must be totally autonomous: no driver, no remote control, no human 

intervention of any kind once it leaves the starting line. 

Sound daunting 

It is. But the $2 million prize that DARPA 

(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) 

is offering to the first vehicle to finish the race 

within 10 hours has attracted the best and brightest 

engineering talent from across the nation— 

including an OSU-based team of students, 

faculty, and area engineers. The Oregon WAVE 

(Willamette Autonomous Vehicle Enterprise) is 

one of 43 semifinalists winnowed from a field 

of almost 200 teams. 

“To be a semifinalist in our first year attempting 

this testifies to the creativity, ingenuity, and perseverance 

of the people involved,” says Belinda 

Batten, the team’s faculty advisor and head of 

the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. “It’s an 

incredible accomplishment just to have come this 

far. This is interdisciplinary, hands-on, teamworkdriven 

engineering education at its finest.” 

Without drivers, the vehicles must rely on hightech 

sensors, laser radar, and other sophisticated 

navigation equipment that can detect obstacles 

like barbed wire fences, boulders, trees, and 

livestock—then brake and steer clear. While some 

teams are using Humvees and large trucks packed 

with expensive electronics, the OSU team is 

betting that the small size and maneuverability 

of their vehicle will help it go the distance. 

“I knew this would be very tough because many 

of the other teams have a lot more resources 

than ours,” says Matt MacClary, team member 

and graduate student in the School of Electrical 

Engineering and Computer Science. “Our vehicle is 

one of the lightest and most fuel efficient in the 

running, so we’re hoping that pays off.” 

The vehicle’s chassis is already a proven winner, 

having placed third out of 90 teams at the 2004 

SAE Mini-Baja West Competition, an off-road race 

with human drivers. The Oregon WAVE team has 

spent months retrofitting the vehicle, replacing the 

driver’s seat, steering wheel, etc. with advanced 

electronics. Now the programming and algorithms 

must function flawlessly to successfully negotiate 

the course. 

“Whether we win or lose, this journey has been 

an incredible learning adventure for everyone,” 

Batten says. 


27

College Profile 

Faculty 

Tenured and Tenure Track________________113 

Other Faculty_ ________________________ 19 

Professorships _________________________ 9 

Fellows of Professional Societies _ _________ 25 

Members of National Academy ____________ 1 

Ocatve Levenspiel emeritus, NAE 2000 

Internships 

Approximately three-quarters of our graduates have experienced real-world 

internships working within industry while students. One-quarter of our 

bachelor’s graduates have participated in two 6-month internships through 

the Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program (MECOP) or the Civil 

Engineering Cooperative Program (CECOP), which are supported by 

more than 70 companies and organizations. 


Students (Fall 2004) 

Undergraduate Women ________________ 370 

Undergraduate Men__________________ 2681 

Master’s Women_______________________ 67 

Master’s Men _______________________ 273 

Doctoral Women ______________________ 34 

Doctoral Men________________________ 168 

Total Students_____________3593 

Graduates (Spring 2005) 

Bachelor’s Degrees ___________________ 516 

Master’s Degrees _____________________ 182 

Doctoral Degrees______________________ 25 

Total Degrees_______________ 723 

Alumni 

Number of Alumni _________________ 27,618 

Fundamentals of Engineering Pass Rate ___92% 

(National Average = 77%) 

National Academy of Engineering Members __18 

Rhodes Scholar: Debra Walt Johnson, BS EE 1994 

Financial Summary 

Total Revenue _____________________ $48 M 

Research Expenditures _______________ $24 M 

New Research _____________________ $26 M 

Research Clusters 

• Biological + Environmental Systems 

• Information Usability 

• Kiewit Center for Infrastructure + Transportation 

• Large-Scale Energy Systems 

• Mixed-Signal Integration 

• ONAMI@ OSU (Oregon Nanoscience + Microtechnologies Institute at OSU) 

Research Centers & Institutes 

• Advanced Thermal Hydraulics Research Laboratory 

• Center for Water + Environmental Sustainability 

• Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research 

• Extension Energy Program 

• Microproducts Breakthrough Institute 

• Mobile Technology Solutions Lab 

• Motor Systems Resource Facility 

• National Center for Accessible Transportation 

• Northwest Alliance for Computational Science + Engineering 

• O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Lab/Tsunami Wave Basin 

• Oregon Metals Initiative 

• Oregon Space Grant Program 

• Parallel Tools Consortium 

• Radiation Center 

• Western Region Hazardous Substances Research Center 

28

Statistics 

Long Range Plan 

700 

350 

number of degrees 

600 

500 

400 

300 

200 

100 

0 

516 545 590 

389 

’99 

’05 

GOAL 

Undergraduate Degrees 

number of degrees 

300 

250 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0 

320 

207 215 

164 

’99 

’05 

GOAL 

Graduate Degrees 

millions of dollars 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

24 

20.5 

12 

’99 

’05 

70 

GOAL 

Research Expenditures 

millions of dollars 

200 

180 

160 

140 

120 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

109 

’05 

180 

GOAL 

Top-25 Campaign Fundraising 

Public and private to date 


29


30 

Leadership 

College of Engineering Leadership Team 

Ron Adams 

Dean, College of Engineering 

Belinda Batten 

Head, Mechanical Engineering 

Chris Bell 

Associate Dean 

John Bolte 

Head, Biological + Ecological 

Engineering 

Bella Bose 

Associate Director, 

School of Electrical Engineering 

+ Computer Science 

Terri Fiez 

Director, School of Electrical 

Engineering + Computer Science 

Ken Funk 

Interim Head, Industrial 

+ Manufacturing Engineering 

Jennifer Hall 

Exec. Asst. for Administration 

Jim Lundy 


Top-25 Campaign Cabinet 

Ken Austin, Joan Austin 

A-dec, Inc. 

Jim B. Johnson 

Tripwire, Inc. 

Pete Johnson 

TEKMAX, Inc. 

Connie Kearney 

Lee Kearney 

Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc. (retired) 

Martin Kelley 


Ellen Momsen 

Director, Engineering Women 

+ Minorities Program 

Marnie Noble 

Director of Development, 

OSU Foundation 

Cherri Pancake 

Director of IT 

College of Engineering 

Roy Rathja 

Assistant Dean/Head Adviser 

Engineering Undergraduate Programs 

Gordon Reistad 


José Reyes 

Head, Nuclear Engineering + Radiation 

Health Physics 

Steve Tesch 

Head, Forest Engineering 

Ken Williamson 

Interim Head, Chemical Engineering 

Head, Civil, Construction + 

Environmental Engineering 

Paul Lorenzini 

PacifiCorp (retired) 

Steve Nigro 

Hewlett-Packard Company 

Jim Poirot 

CH2M HILL (retired) 

Judy Street, Jim Street 

Shell Oil Company (retired) 

College Advisory Board 

Kay E. Altman 

CFO, Altman Browning + Company 

JJ Cadiz 

Usability Engineer, Microsoft 

Mark Christensen 

President, 

Global Capital Management, LLC 

Ron Dilbeck 

COO, RadiSys Corporation 

Dwayne Foley 

NW Natural/OSU Alumni Assoc. 

(retired) 

James A. Johnson 

Vice President, 

Intel Communications Group 

Intel Corp. 

James B. Johnson 

(Board Chair) 

President and CEO, Tripwire, Inc. 

Lee Kearney 

Kiewit Construction Group, Inc. 

(retired) 

Martin N. Kelley 


Jim Lake 

Associate Lab Director, 

Idaho National Laboratory 

Mark A. Lasswell 

President, OMI, Inc. 

Sue Laszlo 

Manager, Design Services 

Port of Portland 

Paul Lorenzini 

PacifiCorp (retired) 

Jeff Manchester 

Fort James Corp. (retired) 

Jeff Peace 

Program Manager, 767 Tanker 

The Boeing Company 

Jim Poirot 

CH2M HILL (retired) 

Hal Pritchett 

OSU Construction Engr. Mgt. (retired) 

Rod Quinn 

Director, Process Science + Engineering 

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 

Scott R. Schroeder 

President/CEO, Mega Tech of Oregon 

David Skillern 

NetApp 

Milton R. Smith 

President 

Smith Investments 

Randall Smith 

IDC 

Jim Street 

Shell Oil Company (retired) 

Lester M. Tovey 

MECOP Board Chair– Rotation Term 

Jean Watson 

Chevron (retired) 

Mike West 

VP Technology, Pixelworks 

Robert Wilson 

R.C. Wilson Construction 

Ted Wilson 

HP Fellow + Technology Director 

Imaging + Printing Group 

Hewlett-Packard Company

Located in Oregon’s lush 

Willamette Valley, an 

hour south of Portland, 

the OSU College of 

Engineering emphasizes 

innovative learning and 

teaching to develop 

graduates who are truly 

work-ready. The university’s 

location offers easy 

access to some of the 

nation’s most breathtaking 

scenery, including 

the Pacific Ocean and the 

Cascade mountains. 


31

Mission 

Driven by a passion for knowledge, the people of OSU Engineering 

are fully committed to developing extraordinary engineers, 

creating powerful new ideas from research, and fueling innovation 

that is truly visionary — all to build a better future for Oregon 

and the world. 

People. Ideas. Innovation. 

OSU College of Engineering 


32 

Oregon’s highest peak, Mount Hood, rises to 

11,249 feet (3,429 meters) near Lost Lake..

2005 - College of Engineering - Oregon State University

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