Building the research A Team
Paul Bishop is on a mission: Assemble interdisciplinary teams of faculty and students to solve engineering challenges on campus and beyond. The associate dean of engineering for research started the job in the fall, arriving from the National Science Foundation, where he directed the environmental engineering program in the division of chemical, bioengineering, environmental and transport systems.
In his new role at URI, Bishop aims to establish centers of excellence that bring together faculty from across the University. These centers will devise end-to-end solutions to problems, delivering not just engineering results, but recommendations on how to pay for them and sell them to the public.
Students touch nano-particles, take robots for walks
Senior engineering students will soon hold nano-particles in their hands while freshmen become masters at programming robots. The projects launched this year thanks to a combined $43,520 from the University’s Technology Innovation Review Committee.
The first project provides broader access to the University’s 3-D printer. Engineering and pharmacy students will together model molecular phenomena down to atomic scale. Ultimately, they will produce a library of nano-material models that URI professors will use as teaching tools for hands-on learning. The project brings together engineering Professor Geoffrey Bothun and pharmacy professors Roberta King and Bongsup Cho.
In the second project, engineering professors Robert Tyce, Manbir Singh Sodhi and Frederick Vetter will teach freshmen to program robots during an introductory engineering course. The lessons will prepare students to teach robots to engage in competitions from racing down the hall to stacking bricks. The professors will take those same lessons to a summer course geared toward enticing high school seniors to select engineering as a college major.
IEP earns prestigious award
Calling the program “ground breaking,” the Institute of International Education presented the University’s International Engineering Program its Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education in March. The independent organization said the 25-year-old program “serves as a model for engineering and language educators across the country.” Students in the five-year program earn degrees in an engineering discipline and a foreign language.
IEP graduates profiled by program founder
John Grandin spent 24 years at the helm of the International Engineering Program. His tenure left him in awe of students who merged language skills and overseas educational opportunities to become global engineers.
Grandin, a former German professor, highlights these students in his new book, “Going the Extra Mile: University of Rhode Island Engineers in the Global Workplace” (Rockland Press, 2011). Grandin profiles 14 IEP graduates and one exchange student from Germany. Grandin says he hopes the book shows the importance of international experience in today’s closely connected world.
Craver wins Rudolph Hering Medal
Engineering Professor Vinka Oyandel-Craver’s quest to bring clean water to Guatemala has garnered her the 2012 Rudolph Hering Medal. Bestowed by the Environmental Water Resource Institute, the award recognizes Craver’s paper “Ceramic Filters Impregnated with Silver Nano-particles for Point-of-Use Water Treatment in Rural Guatemala.” Published in the Journal of Environmental Engineering, the paper explores the design of inexpensive ceramic water filters and the benefits of manufacturing the filters where they are needed.