For the week of June 2, 2008

COE Faculty Member Receives ORAU Award

Dr. Qiuhong Zhao, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been selected to receive a 2008 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award Program. Recipients are selected from over 107 applicants, and the peer-review evaluation and selection process is rigorous and involves outstanding scientists from across the nation.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) sponsors the Powe Award Program, and the award enhances early career development. Zhao will receive an award certificate and an unrestricted monetary research grant as part of the Powe recognition.

Zhao's research areas include behavior of steel and composite structures, seismic engineering, blast and impact resistance and performance-based design.

News from the Min Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Dr. Andreas Koschan, EECS Research Associate Professor (pictured right), and Dr. Mongi Abidi, EECS Professor, have published a new book titled "Digital Color Imaging Processing" at Wiley, New Jersey.

It is the first textbook that presents an introduction to color in three-dimensional image processing and the emerging area of multi-spectral image processing. It is contained in 376 pages, 13 chapters, and is fully indexed. It breaks down into four fundamental sections: fundamentals, processing, scene analysis, and case studies.

Additional information is available at Wiley at
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470147083.html

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Dr. David Icove, P.E., represented UT this week at the annual meeting of Underwriters Laboratory (UL) in Chicago, serving as a member of UL's Advisory Committee. UL is the leading international standards-based engineering testing organization. UL unveiled at their annual meeting a new initiative to sponsor and fund more academic engineering research. Icove is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the EECS Department.

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Professor Igor Alexeff will present an invited paper on Plasma Antennas at ICOPS in Karlsruhe, Germany during the week of June 15, 2008. Professor Alexeff started ICOPS (International Conference on Plasma Science) at UTK in May of 1974.

Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility

The Challenge X Team , exhibited the Challenge X vehicle at the Science Center in Baltimore last week. The visit to Baltimore was part of a 300-mile Road Rally, which is the final leg of the four-year Challenge X competition. The team started with a trip to New Jersey and plan to end the rally in Washington, D.C. where team members will meet with congressional representatives to discuss sustainable vehicle design research taking place at UT. For more information, visit www.UTChallengeX.org.

Focus on Female Engineers

Hanya Senno is a senior in Civil Engineering and the newly elected president for UT's chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). She is currently interning at Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) where she is gaining a beneficial hands-on experience working with engineers of multiple disciplines. She is hoping to broaden her experience and education to specializing in water and wastewater systems as well as pursuing a masters degree in Environmental Engineering. Her career goal is to work for organizations such as the United Nations designing utility systems for underprivileged and developing countries.

As an active member of SWE, Hanya is enjoying all it has to offer, such as participating in outreach and volunteering activities. She has volunteered with the Boys & Girls Club and Girl Scouts, teaching elementary school students about engineering and conducting several science experiments. She also attended this year's SWE Regional Conference in Miami, Florida where she took advantage of the several networking and leadership training opportunities provided.

Hanya has found a great group of fellow engineering students within SWE and encourages everyone to get involved with one of the many professional organizations at UT.

Office of Professional Practice Update

The Office of Professional Practice conducts a meeting each semester for students going to work for the first time. This semester, Brian Crawford from Denso spoke with students about the expectations from the company and ways to make a good first impression on the job.

The Co-op Ambassadors were also on hand to offer encouragement and share personal experience. The gathering also helps students meet with their peers who will be working in the same city or area.

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Former COE student and co-op participant Yvonne Fuchs received the 2008 Robert L. Lichten Award from the American Helicopter Society for "Vertical Drop Testing and Analysis of the WASP Helicopter Skid Gear."

Fuchs was a 2002 aerospace graduate, and was recognized her senior year as the Top Aerospace Engineering student in the country. Fuchs gives much credit to MABE professor Dr. Mancil Milligan for her academic success. She was a four-time Co-op engineer with NASA-Langley.

Recently, Fuchs left NASA to take a position in California with Scaled Composites. For more information on the award, visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/lichten-award.html.

University of Tennessee Space Institute News

Dr. Angie Bukley, (pictured left) former Assistant Vice President for Research, replaced Dr. Don Daniel as the new Interim Associate Vice President for UTSI in May.

Sewanee Elementary School’s fifth graders visited The University of Tennessee Space Institute on May 20 and learned all about air pressure as they created “bottle rockets” from 2-liter soda bottles and sent them skyrocketing.

Career Services Announcements

ENGINEERING PLACEMENT DATA NEEDED:
Career Services is currently collecting data from all December 2007 -
August 2008 regarding their employment or graduate school status and/or
plans. The graduates are asked to complete a survey through their
HIRE-A-VOL account and indicate if they are employed, planning on
attending graduate school or currently not seeking employment. If the
graduate is employed, they are asked for their employer's name and
location, their new job title and starting salary. If plans are for
graduate school, then the name and location of the graduate school is
requested. Internship information is also recorded. This data is
compiled to provide an overall look at the placement/graduate school
statistics for all majors at the University of Tennessee.

Currently, about 65% of the engineering graduates who are registered in
the HIRE-A-VOL system have reported their current status. We encourage
all graduates to complete this survey as soon as possible. If your
Department has collected any placement information, please share it with
Leslie Fox, Career Services Consultant for the College of Engineering at
lfox6@utk.edu to be included in the overall report. All engineering
departments will receive a copy of the overall engineering data upon
completion of the report. The more information we can collect, the
stronger the overall data for the College of Engineering will be - Thank
you!

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DON'T CANCEL THAT CLASS!
Faculty - When you have to be away from the university, call on us! With
advance notice, the UT Career Services Center professionals would love
the opportunity to talk about careers for your students, resume and
interview skills, or just about our resources and services. We're also
happy to have you build in a visit from CSC staff to your curriculum or
to speak to student groups you may advise. Student Group Leaders - we
are always happy to present to your student group as well!

With advance notice, workshop and seminar options can be customized to
your needs and may include:

Career Services Overview for Engineers
Resumes That Get You Noticed
Job Fair Do's and Don'ts
Job Search Strategies (including HIRE-A-VOL)
Acing the Interview
Employment Correspondence - Cover Letters, Post-interview Thank You
Letters, etc.
Salary Negotiation
Effective Networking
Succeeding on the Job
Major Specific Career Topics
Other/Specialized Topics

If interested, contact Leslie Fox at lfox6@utk.edu.

Advising Office Update

Advising Reminders:
Transfer Orientation is Friday, June 6.
Freshman Orientation is ongoing through July 11.

The last day to add or drop without a "W" for Full Session Summer
courses is Tuesday, June 10.
Last day to adjust hours for Summer Financial Aid awards is Friday, June
13.

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If you have submissions for @COE, the college's electronic newsletter, please send them to Kim Cowart at kcowart@utk.edu by 12:00 noon on Thursdays. @COE will be published bi-weekly through the summer semester.