2015 Swanson School of Engineering Annual Report

U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H | S W A N S O N S C H O O L O F E N G I N E E R I N G

Making a World of DifferenceA N N U A L R E P O R T

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As part of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation’s 2015 Summer Undergraduate Research Program, students participate in a community service project at Garfield Farm, one of the largest urban farms in the City of Pittsburgh.

1 Greetings from the Dean

2 Student Sustainability Project in the Himalayas

4 Bioengineering

8 Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

12 Civil and Environmental Engineering

16 Electrical and Computer Engineering

20 Industrial Engineering

22 Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

26 Diversity Programs

28 Distinguished Alumni Awards

31 Faculty Awards

32 Student Awards

34 2015 Statistics

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Paul KovachDirector of Marketing and

Communications•

MANAGING EDITOR

Carey Anne ZuccaSenior Executive Director of

Development and Alumni Affairs•

D E S I G N

Leslie Karon-OswaltSenior Graphic Designer

•

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Matthew Cichowicz University Communications(pages 6-7, 14, 20, 29-30)

Anthony Moore University Communications

(page 19)•

PHOTOGRAPHY

John AltdorferRic Evans

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The information printed in this document was accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of printing and is subject to

change at any time at the University’s sole discretion.

The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution. 06/2016

Contents Annual Report • 2015

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post-

consumer waste content

Alexandra Walcott and Michelle Banas in the ECE labs with a DJI Spreading Wings S900 hexacopter modified by the ECE department for the Intel-Cornell Cup Competition.

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH • SWANSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING • 2015 ANNUAL REPORT 1

As I reflect on another successful year for the Swanson School of Engineering, I am reminded

of one of the standards we use when recruiting prospective students: Engineers Make a World of Difference. Rather than serve as a stand-alone empty catchphrase, we couple it with real-life examples of how Pitt students, faculty and alumni are making a world of difference—and making a difference around the world—as transformative engineers. As the need for more globally-experienced engineers increases among both private and public sector employers, it’s important that we instill within these young minds a desire to think and act globally.

In this 2015 annual report you’ll read how the Swanson School is making an impact on the world around us. From groundbreaking research into fuel storage to using bamboo as an urban construction material, and from the neighborhoods of Pittsburgh to the glaciers of India, our students, faculty and alumni are contributing to improving the human condition.

As you can see by our statistical report, our enrollment continues to increase, and the academic excellence of our students should make our alumni proud. At the same time, we are developing new spaces and new paradigms to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship throughout our student body, with our faculty and alumni serving as role models.

Pitt and the Swanson School continue to receive national and international accolades, and I’m proud to report that we were once again ranked in the top 25 engineering programs among public universities by U.S. News and World Report. But as you’ll discover in this report, the Swanson School is more than just numbers and awards—our history and future are reflected in the success of every person who calls her- or himself a Pitt Engineer.

Reflected in that is a recent correspondence I received from

the parents of a prospective student who was considering engineering programs other than the Swanson School. After a year of touring several universities and researching options, the student ultimately chose Pitt. The parents noted that “Pitt takes great pride in innovation, creativity, and being student-focused, and we appreciate all of the hard work that has been invested in making each student feel important and valued.” This exemplifies the dedication by Pitt and the Swanson School to engage students and their families before they even enroll, and to build upon that sense of collegiality during their academic and professional careers.

In closing, I’d like to encourage you to visit us either in person or virtually at engineering.pitt.edu to keep informed of how our Swanson School family makes a difference every day.

Sincerely,

Gerald D. Holder, PhD U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering

Greetings from the Dean

S W A N S O N S C H O O L O F E N G I N E E R I N G

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH • SWANSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING • 2015 ANNUAL REPORT2

Greetings from LehHow an Internet search about artificial glaciers brought two Pitt undergraduate

civil engineering majors to the ancient Himalayan capital city of Leh

Naomi Anderson and Taylor Shippling


In their first year at Pitt, Naomi Anderson and Taylor Shippling decided to poke around Google to find interesting topics for a paper they were writing as part of the first-year engineering conference. They came across an intriguing but sparsely

documented subject: artificial glaciers.

“I expected to find a lot of data, drawings, reports, and papers on the topic, but we found almost none of those things,” says Anderson, “and writing the first-year conference paper was a challenge for this reason. It also showed the need for more study of the topic, especially at a technical level.”

For centuries, farmers in the Himalayas relied on the melting of natural glaciers to water crops in the spring. But the rapid recession of natural glaciers has caused water shortages during the planting season. Engineers began experimenting with giant reservoirs of ice to solve these irrigation problems in the late 1980s. Since then, a dozen man-made glaciers have been built in Ladakh, India on the western edge of the Tibetan Plateau, but water scarcity still poses a serious threat to the future of agriculture in the region.

After Anderson and Shippling uploaded their paper to the School of Engineering Web site, another fortunate Google search

brought it to the attention of Carey Clouse, assistant professor of architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and an expert in climate change and landscape architecture of Northern India. The two students’ work appeared in a journal article, and they were even invited by Dr. Clouse on an expedition to Leh, the capital of the Ladakh region. They spent two months learning about the local agricultural and water needs and seeing artificial glaciers first-hand.

“The original idea for artificial glaciers, according to the lead designer on the projects, came from noticing streams of water freezing in shady areas and continuing to flow in sunnier ones during the winter,” says Shippling. “Ladakh is definitely on the front lines of climate change, and the region’s innovation and adaptability are things that we can all learn from.”

Anderson and Shippling have detailed their findings in a technical paper and presented their work at the Himalayan Studies Conference hosted by the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies in Austin, Tex. Both students hope to continue researching water resources and civil engineering while they complete their degrees.

Pictured left to right are Naomi and Taylor engaging in field work on an artificial glacier site at an altitude of ~14,000 feet, one of six they studied over the summer. The two are measuring part of the structure that dams water and stores large masses of ice for use in the early spring months. They would later use these measurements to create maps and diagrams of all of the functional components of each artificial glacier.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, workplace slips, trips and falls cost

the U.S. economy $180 billion each year and represent the majority of nonfatal injury costs. While injury prevention strategies can save lives

and reduce costs, one factor rarely taken into consideration is footwear. Researchers at the Swanson School of Engineering are exploring new techniques to better predict the wear rate of shoes in order to improve shoe design and replacement policies to reduce slip and fall accidents.

The proposal, “Impact of Worn Shoes on Slipping,” was the recipient of a four-year, $1,519,208 R01 grant from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Principle investigator is Kurt E. Beschorner, research assistant professor of bioengineering. Co-PIs are Joel M. Haight, associate professor of

If the Shoe FitsPitt researchers receive $1.5 million grant to reduce the risk of falls by improving footwear

B I O E N G I N E E R I N G

Dr. Kurt Beschorner

4


industrial engineering and director of Pitt’s Safety Engineering Program; and Mark S. Redfern, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Bioengineering and Pitt’s vice provost for research.

“Our primary mode of transportation is walking, and every time you move your feet you risk a slip or a trip that can lead to a fall,” Dr. Beschorner said. “What we want to address is the preventative side to falling. We have preventative screenings for many health issues such as cancer. Yet relatively few studies have been done to reduce fall prevention by improving the slip resistance of shoes.”

Dr. Beschorner compared the research to advances in tire technology and tread wear. Like the grip between a car’s tires and the road, the friction between the sole of the shoe and a walking surface

maintains a person’s grip to the floor. Shoes that are heavily worn have a reduced coefficient of friction (COF) and are associated with increased risk of slipping. When worn, treads can no longer channel fluids from beneath the shoe. The fluid then becomes pressurized and the COF decreases, thereby increasing the chance of a fall.

The researchers note that knowledge gaps exist regarding the factors that contribute to shoe wear rate and the wear thresholds at which the COF begins to decrease. This gap inhibits design and selection of more effective wear-resistant shoes and preventative programs that replace shoes before they become too worn. To identify the underlying causes of shoe wear and the tread thresholds where shoes become unsafe, new technology developed by the

research team will simulate wear using a robotic slip-tester and measure shoe tread hydroplaning using a fluid pressure measurement system. The research will also develop new computational models that can be used to predict shoe wear for new shoe sole designs.

“What makes this study unique is the systematic way in which shoe tread wear will be studied,” Dr. Beschorner said. “We’ve developed novel technology to test shoe tread drainage to more precisely measure how shoe wear is impacting slipperiness. We will examine shoe wear and determine specific limits to wear, so that people know when to replace worn shoes. Then we will determine the critical factors that impact how quickly shoes wear, which can help manufacturers build a more durable shoe.”

A map of the under-shoe fluid pressures across the shoe surface of a worn athletic shoe design, pictured left, and a worn work shoe, pictured right, during a simulated slip.


At the Carnegie Science Center on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, a group of students passes around an X-ray of a broken bone. During last

night’s baseball game, the star pitcher of the Pittsburgh Pirates injured his throwing arm and was taken off the field. The fans are worried he could be out for the rest of the season, but no one is certain what’s wrong. It’s up to these students to identify the problem and fix it so their patient can get back on the mound as soon as possible.

Of course, the fate of the Pirates doesn’t really rest in the hands of middle and high school students. This mock scenario is part of the bioengineering workshop at the Carnegie Science Center’s SciTech Days. Students assume the roles of radiologists, surgeons, tissue engineers, and other kinds of bioengineers and work together to get experience with real-world applications of these fields. They learn about a variety of topics including cellular and organ engineering, biomechanics, biosignals and imaging, physiology and biophysics, neural engineering, and medical product engineering.

The bioengineering workshop became part of SciTech Days in 2012 as a result of collaboration between the Science Center and graduate students from the University of Pittsburgh’s Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). The BMES students lead participants through the workshop during sessions in the

spring and fall. Feedback has been positive and, popularity appears to be growing. During 2015’s four days of fall workshops, about 450 total students attended, and each of the 16 sessions was at full capacity.

“The SciTech program has really evolved over the past three years,” said J. Adam Gustafson, outreach chair for BMES. “We’ve had a lot of support from the Pitt faculty, and more and more students are getting involved. We are learning a lot about how students learn STEM topics and the kinds of activities that are most likely to get students interested in advanced science.”

As part of the strategy to improve instruction at SciTech Days and pique younger students’ interest in science, Pitt’s Center for Integrating Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) joined BMES during the SciTech Days. The Pitt-CIRTL community consists of PhD students, postdocs, and faculty members, and examines effective methods of teaching and learning in STEM fields.

Julie Breckenridge, a postdoctoral scholar at Pitt and CIRTL coordinator, is currently analyzing information from the bioengineering workshops to evaluate how students respond to different teaching techniques. Breckenridge led the research project that compared two different approaches to student group work. In the traditional setting, small groups worked independently and reported to the entire class at the end of the session. The test group

Pitt bioengineering students build

Strong Relationships in Community

B I O E N G I N E E R I N G

BMES student volunteers helped Produce to People (P2P), the Pittsburgh Food Bank’s large-scale produce distribution program, get the produce off of the food trucks, organize the produce onto the appropriate food pallets, and also helped set up stations for families to pick up the produce.

Pictured from left are Da-Tren Chou, Jingyao Wu, Stephanie Wiltman and Adam Gustafson.


employed a new student-driven, teaching technique know as “jigsaw,” which breaks assignments into pieces, swaps group members based on topics, and ultimately reassembles the original groups so students can share what they learned with each other.

“We still have a lot of data to analyze, but the general impression was the students seemed to enjoy the peer-instruction a lot more,” said Breckenridge. “We are ultimately trying to show them that science isn’t this scary thing, but it’s something they can use in their daily lives, even if they don’t pursue a career in a science field.”

BMES continues to look for other opportunities to enable young students in the region to engage with STEM topics. Current efforts include the Science Center’s High School Innovation Workshop Days program and the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair at Heinz field. The innovation workshops focus on giving high school students a closer look at potential career opportunities in bioengineering and related fields. At the regional science fair, BMES students volunteer to judge projects from the more than 1,100 students across 23 counties in western Pennsylvania and one county in Maryland who compete annually.

In addition to promoting STEM education, BMES has broadened its outreach to efforts to provide some of the community’s most basic needs. A team of volunteers helped staff the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Banks’ annual Blues Festival over the summer. That experience led BMES students to get involved with the Produce to People program, and they helped organize an event in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood. This large-scale produce distribution program was hosted by the Homewood-Brushton YMCA and provided more than 14,000 pounds of fresh food to local families.

“We had several trucks worth of fresh produce and served more than 1,200 households that don’t have many other opportunities to eat fresh food,” said Gustafson. “In bioengineering, you are often working very closely with people to provide healthcare, therapy, and other medical services. You are meant to serve others, and there are a lot of good things that come from outreach.”

Another opportunity came to BMES when a Pitt alumnus invited the bioengineers to assist during Step Forward: Walk for Parkinson, hosted by the Parkinson Foundation of Western Pennsylvania. In addition to participating in the walk and raising money to support sufferers of

Parkinson’s disease, the volunteer bioengineers helped staff a booth for the local start-up company AbiliLife, which developed a light-weight brace worn around the torso to provide support for and improve the posture of people experiencing movement-related difficulties caused by Parkinson’s disease.

The next project for BMES volunteers will take place during this year’s Holiday Market in downtown Pittsburgh. Several BMES members will assist the Food Bank with another collection. In exchange for a food donation or a small cash contribution, Holiday Market attendees can have their pictures taken with Santa. The BMES students will spend the day dressed as elves to help collect the food and entertain the children as they wait in line.

Gustafson said he plans to continue to develop BMES outreach by collaborating with undergraduate groups, spreading awareness of all the opportunities for students to volunteer, and looking for new ways to interact with the community. “The opportunities are out there, he says, it’s just a matter of sharing them with students and helping people understand the impact they can have by reaching out to the community and offering a hand.”

Pitt BMES collaborated with CMU students by joining and

donating to the “Abililife” team, a local startup company

dedicated to improving the quality of life for people

with Parkinson’s, whose co-founder is an alumni of

Pitt Bioengineering.


Surface reaction and electron microscopy researcher Judith Yang earns $1.5 million in

Back-to-Back NSF Grants

C H E M I C A L & P E T R O L E U M

Dr. Judith Chun-Hsu Yang


Judith Chun-Hsu Yang, PhD, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, received two grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research that will challenge classical theories of oxidation. By using

electron microscopy capable of observing changes in real time, Yang will analyze the effects of oxidation on copper and the nano-structure of other metals used in a variety of industries.

Both projects take advantage of a new environmental transmission electron microscope, Hitachi H9500 ETEM that arrived at Pitt in August 2015. Funding for this instrument was provided by a NSF-MRI grant awarded to Yang in 2013.

“DMREF: Collaborative Research: Toolkit to Characterize and Design Bifunctional Nanoparticle Catalysts” will receive $1.2 million over three years with $270,000 coming to Pitt. Yang will serve as co-principal investigator on the collaborative grant with the University of Pittsburgh, University of Texas at Austin, and Yeshiva University in New York. Using both in situ and scanning transmission electron microscopy, the researchers at Pitt will look for optimal, cost-efficient combinations of metals that achieve desired reactions and catalyst formulations for industry.

“Industry tests catalysts empirically—trying many different combinations of metals and seeing what works,” Dr. Yang said. “Ideally, we want to be able to use theory and computational studies to predict new catalyst structures more efficiently.”

The second grant of $300,357 will fund the project “Dynamic Atomic-scale Metal Oxidation to Correlate with Multi-scale Simulations.” Dr. Yang will work with Wissam Saidi, an assistant professor in Pitt’s department of mechanical and material science. The study will analyze the nanoscale stages of oxidation in metal

oxides to reform outdated theories that explain environmental stability in engineered materials. Recent studies of the oxidation of copper at Pitt have revealed flaws in the common assumption that oxide formation is uniform.

“We would like to reach a fundamental understanding of how to design materials that can appropriately react with the environment,” said Dr. Yang. “Structural changes resulting from exposure to gas and heat are well known, but classic oxidation analysis mostly measures the weight change of the material. We can use an environmental transmission electron microscope during dynamic experiments to observe structural changes that occur during oxidation.”

Dr. Yang received her bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, and her master’s degree and PhD from Cornell University. After graduation, she became a post-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Metallforschung in Stuttgart, Germany. She continued her post-doctoral research and became a visiting lecturer when she joined the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign. She joined the University of Pittsburgh faculty in 1999 and has received numerous awards including the 2005 Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award.

C H E M I C A L & P E T R O L E U M

Soaking It In Pitt researchers developing sponge-like material to more efficiently store natural gas

Idealized porous crystal structure (blue spheres) containing adsorbed gas molecules (orange spheres). Gas adsorption into nanoporous crystals (e.g., metal-organic frameworks) reduces the system’s thermal conductance due to phonon scattering in the crystal due to interactions with gas molecules.

Although compressed natural gas represents a cleaner and more efficient fuel for vehicles, its

volatile nature requires a reinforced, heavy tank that stores the gas at high pressure and therefore limits vehicle design. Researchers at the Swanson School are utilizing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to develop a new type of storage system that would adsorb the gas like a sponge and allow for more energy-efficient storage and use.

The research, “Mechanisms of Heat Transfer in Porous Crystals Containing Adsorbed Gases: Applications to Metal-Organic Frameworks,” was published in the journal Physical Review Letters by Christopher E. Wilmer, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, with postdoctoral fellow Hasan Babaei. (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.025902)

Traditional CNG tanks are empty structures that require the gas to be stored at high pressure, which affects design and the weight of the vehicle. Dr. Wilmer and his lab are instead focused on porous crystal/gas systems, specifically MOFs, which possess structures with extremely high surface areas.

“One of the biggest challenges in developing an adsorbed natural gas (ANG) storage system is that the process generates significant heat which limits how quickly the tank can be filled,” Dr. Wilmer said. “Unfortunately, not a lot is known about how to make adsorbents dissipate heat quickly. This study illuminates some of the fundamental mechanisms involved.”

According to Dr. Wilmer, gases have a $500 billion impact on the global economy, but storing, separating, and transporting gas requires energy-intensive compression.

His research into MOFs is an extension of his start-up company, NuMat Technologies, which develops MOF-based solutions for the gas storage industry.

“By gaining a better understanding of heat transfer mechanisms at the atomic scale in porous materials, we could develop a more efficient material that would be thermally conductive rather than thermally insulating,” he explained. “Beyond natural gas, these insights could help us design better hydrogen gas storage systems as well. Any industrial process where a gas interacts with a porous material, where heat is an important factor, could potentially benefit from this research.”

Dr. Christopher Wilmer


Students Natalie Austin (left) and Yahui Yang in the Chemical Engineering lab space.


C I V I L & E N V I R O N M E N T A L

A University of Pittsburgh-led consortium is one of 14 new multilateral university partnerships created in 2015 by

the Global Innovation Initiative, a program funded by the U.S. and UK governments to foster multilateral research collaboration with higher education institutions in Brazil, China, India and Indonesia. The consortium’s winning proposal, “Bamboo in the Urban Environment,” brings together leading experts in bamboo and sustainable design to engage in extensive, cutting-edge analysis and testing of bamboo as a safe construction resource in urban areas.

With partners at Coventry University (UK), the Pitt-led team includes collaborators at Bogor Agricultural University (Indonesia); the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (India); an intergovernmental partner, the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (China); and industry partners in the US and UK. The two-year, $200,000 award will support multiple international student and faculty exchanges and three international workshop/symposia including a flagship symposium held at Pitt in May 2016.

“This collaborative research has both significant technical and social relevance through the potential to reduce the cost and environmental impact of safe housing for a significant proportion of the world’s population,” noted Kent Harries, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and the consortium’s principal investigator. “With continued population growth, especially in developing and lagging countries, the need for a sustainable yet safe and strong construction material is an incredibly pressing need. This work addresses the global grand challenges of urbanization and resilience in the face of natural hazards and climate change through the use of bamboo, one of nature’s most renewable ‘green’ materials.”

The program also allows for undergraduate and graduate students at each institution to participate in the research.

According to Dr. Harries, there is an increasing socio-technical-economic gap developing between scientifically “advanced” countries (e.g. US and UK) and those that are “proficient” (e.g. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa),

“developing” (e.g. Indonesia) and “lagging” (e.g. Nepal). For those proficient, developing or lagging countries, a lack of stable infrastructure is cited as a primary barrier to the adoption of technology, while the increased emphasis by advanced countries on ‘sustainable practices’ is viewed as largely unattainable. “Compounding this, migration of the rural poor into urban centers places even greater pressure on informal urban settlements around the world,” he explained. “It’s estimated that more than one third of the world’s urban population lives in inadequate housing. Exposure to natural hazards and the effects of global climate change further compound the global grand challenge of providing adequate and safe urban housing. Bamboo, one of the world’s oldest construction resources, is now being rediscovered as a viable, sustainable and engineered alternative to present construction practices in many areas of the world.”

International consortium led by Pitt engineer receives $200,000 grant to explore use of

Bamboo as an Urban Construction Material


Dr. Harries’ research interests include the use of non-traditional construction materials such as bamboo, which he describes as “the most rapidly renewable structural material in the world.” Bamboo can grow up to 30 meters in six months and be mature for structural purposes within three years, achieving mechanical properties that surpass those of oak. When used in its untransformed pole-form, bamboo has a smaller environmental impact than other conventional structural materials, including timber. Bamboo’s light weight and relative flexibility make it a particularly attractive alternative for residential construction in seismic regions.

Nonetheless, he said, the majority of knowledge of bamboo construction

is based on cultural tradition, with approximately one billion people worldwide living in non-engineered or vernacular bamboo structures. To enable the better use and acceptance of this strong, economical and sustainable material, Harries explained that the award will help to empower engineers, architects and builders with modern and comprehensive design and construction standards.

“While the use of bamboo in structures dates back thousands of years, the science is in its infancy. Only in the last decade have bamboo construction standards emerged in India and Colombia, as well as being promulgated by the International Standards Organization (ISO),” Dr. Harries said. “By establishing a pathway to standardization we aim to enable greater acceptance of bamboo as a construction material.”

The Global Innovation Initiative is funded by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which also serves as the implementing partner in the UK; and the U.S. Department of State. In the United States, the Institute of International Education is implementing the grant program in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Global Innovation Initiative was created to support multilateral research collaboration to address global challenges, in keeping with the vision of UK Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama’s joint statements on UK and U.S. higher education co-operation in 2011and 2012.

Dr. Kent Harries

Participants at the first Bamboo in the Urban Environment symposium at Pitt.


Sustainability and green design researcher Melissa Bilec

Earns Multi-institutional NSF Grant

C I V I L & E N V I R O N M E N T A L

Melissa Bilec, PhD, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, received a grant from the

National Science Foundation (NSF) for a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary research project about the economic, environmental, social, and technical considerations that affect buildings resilience and sustainability.

Dr. Bilec serves as principal investigator at Pitt on the project, entitled A Sequential Decision Framework to Support Trade Space Exploration of Multi-Hazard Resilient and Sustainable Building Designs. She began the project on March 1, 2015 with the assistance of co-principal investigator Louise Comfort, PhD, professor in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and a team of researchers at Pennsylvania State University.

“What we’re trying to develop is a framework for designers that considers many factors and reconciles different

variables such as resilience, sustainability, and structural design,” Dr. Bilec said.

Because such a large number of factors are involved in building construction, design teams and stakeholders traditionally make tradeoffs between objectives. Dr. Bilec’s research aims to formalize an innovative sequential decision process for multi-hazard resilient and sustainable buildings

by using model-based simulations and visualization algorithms to support trade space exploration.

“Specifically, my team is looking at hazards in the buildings’ environments— for example, earthquakes in San Francisco—and trying to inform decision makers of the best way to design buildings that find the right balance between resilience and sustainability,” Dr. Bilec said.

Dr. Bilec graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and she also received her master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from Pitt. Her research focuses on sustainable healthcare, the built environment, and life cycle assessment.

In addition to her work in the CEE Department, Dr. Bilec serves as the deputy director at Pitt’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation.

Pitt’s student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, from March 26-28, 2015 to compete in the Ohio Valley Student Conference (OVSC) competitions.

The Civil and Environmental Engineering students took home 2nd place overall in the competition—the highest Pitt has ever ranked at OVSC. In addition, their success in one of the most popular categories, the steel bridge,

earned them their first ever invitation to a national engineering competition.

Among the 15 universities, Pitt placed 2nd in the overall ranking for the conference behind Western Kentucky University. Pitt students received 2nd place for their technical paper submission and steel bridge display. They received 3rd place in multiple categories including concrete horseshoes, balsawood bridge, surveying

(leveling), surveying (sewer line delineation), steel bridge (overall), steel bridge (construction speed), and steel bridge (economy).

Winning 3rd place in the steel bridge competition earned the Pitt team a spot at the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) National Steel Bridge Competition, which took place on May 22nd in Kansas City, Mo. The Pitt students ranked 38th in the nation.


This past November 17-18 at the Swanson School’s annual Electric Power Industry Conference (EPIC), two partnerships were announced that will accelerate Pitt’s expertise in electric power research.

E L E C T R I C A L & C O M P U T E R

Two Pitt partnerships seek to advance

Electric Power Research


Redefining the Future of the Energy Landscape in the Region

Duquesne Light and the Swanson School of Engineering first announced their intent to partner to help redefine the future of the energy landscape in the region. This strategic partnership will include projects designed to provide Duquesne Light with critical knowledge to help inform future grid design and potential new product and service offerings, while helping to enable expanded research opportunities for students and faculty in the University’s energy and electric power programs.

The partnership is one of the first steps in Duquesne Light’s long-term strategy to reinforce its leadership in grid infrastructure, sustainability and management, while also furthering its interest in new technologies that will be key to evolving the grid into a dynamic network that enables reliable, seamless two-way flow of power. Details of the partnership include:

Design and installation of an urban microgrid at Duquesne Light’s Woods Run Facility located in Pittsburgh’s North Shore. With support from the Swanson School’s Electric Power Systems Laboratory and its Electric Power Program, the installation will

serve as a real-world laboratory to research microgrid resiliency and the integration of distributed and renewable energy resources into the electric power distribution grid, as well as other key enabling technology areas such as power electronics controllers, direct current (DC) infrastructure, energy storage systems, and smart grid technologies.

Duquesne Light will make a $500,000, multi-year financial contribution to help fund electric power research, energy efficiency, laboratory facilities, and equipment at Pitt, in addition to providing the necessary expertise to interconnect any new electric power laboratory facilities to the existing electric power grid.

“Partnering with one of the most prestigious universities in the region and a leader in electric power research will accelerate the advancement of new technologies and enable the transformation of our grid,” said Rich Riazzi, CEO of Duquesne Light. “Pitt brings unrivaled technical expertise and value to this partnership which, combined with Duquesne Light’s 135 years of transmission and distribution experience, will help us develop the next chapter of electric power in our region.”

Pictured left to right are Gregory Reed, Rich Riazzi and Chancellor Gallagher.


This is the first time that Duquesne Light is partnering with the Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering.

“Pitt and the Swanson School are proud to partner with Duquesne Light to develop solutions that advance electric power distribution grid technology, and we are grateful for their support,” noted Gregory Reed, PhD, Professor and Director of Pitt’s Center for Energy and the Swanson School’s Electric Power Initiative. “This collaboration will greatly benefit our students, who will be able to engage in hands-on research with Duquesne Light. Since the birth of the electric power industry happened in Pittsburgh thanks to innovators like George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla, it’s fitting that the evolution of the grid should establish a foundation here as well.”

Turning the World onto DC Power

In the late 1880s, Pittsburgh native son George Westinghouse (using the work and genius of Nikola Tesla) won the campaign to base the United States’ electric power grid on alternating current (AC). Thomas Edison, a proponent of direct current (DC), tried to paint AC as dangerous, but as things stood at the time, an AC grid was cheaper and more efficient, could carry electricity over longer distances, and was easier to build—so it prevailed.

Over the past year, with the help of a $400,000 grant from the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, Dr. Reed established the DC-AMPS program (Direct Current Architecture for Modern Power Systems) and has been working to bring DC technology to the forefront, as well as bringing local and regional companies, the City of Pittsburgh, and community partners into the fold.

The second Hillman grant, totaling $2.5 million over three years, will build upon the initial success of the DC-AMPS program, to bring a DC power grid even closer to fruition, and to make Pitt and Pittsburgh the epicenter of an emerging DC power industry.

Dr. Reed’s approach specifically addresses DC technology and is focused on finding ways to, in the not-too-distant future, upgrade the longstanding AC power grid to more of a DC grid, which he believes has become a more efficient and logical way of addressing energy-delivery needs, especially in the 21st century and beyond.

“Your laptop runs on a few volts DC; it has to be converted from AC by that box, the converter on the power cord,” he says. The same is the case for our high-definition televisions, most appliances, cell phones, and other consumer devices and office and business equipment, including data centers and new forms of lighting. “Very few items today require three-phase alternating current. The use and development of today’s evolving energy mix, which includes more DC resources such as solar photovoltaics, as well as electric vehicles and battery storage systems, also makes the transition to DC more sensible and viable for future power-delivery needs.”

He and members of his lab are also advancing research into high-voltage DC systems, which present the potential of developing a commercially viable high-voltage DC grid. “Both academia and industry have made great strides in DC technology development, which will be a game changer in modernizing and securing the nation’s grid,” he says, “and this continued support from the Henry L. Hillman Foundation will help in furthering that goal.”


Computer Engineering student Zachary A. Barnes was named one of Pitt’s 2015 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship recipients

recognizing his exceptional research in the areas of embedded computer system technology and high-energy particle physics, respectively. University of Pittsburgh students have now won 45 Goldwater Scholarships in the last 20 years.

The Goldwater Scholarship, established in 1986 by Congress and named for then-Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, supports outstanding students who are pursuing careers in the fields of engineering, mathematics, and the natural sciences. The award—granted in either a student’s sophomore or junior year—assists in covering the costs of books, room and board, and tuition for each student’s remaining period of study. Mr. Barnes, co-recipient at Pitt was Joseph P. Johnston, a junior majoring in mathematics and physics in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.

This is the third consecutive year that all of Pitt’s nominees have received either a Goldwater Scholarship or an Honorable Mention designation.

“The research pursuits of Zachary and Joseph are deserving of the support of this prestigious scholarship,” said University

Honors College Dean Edward M. Stricker. “With the aid of the Goldwater Scholarship, both of these undergraduate students will move forward in their respective fields and continue to exemplify the type of students and professionals who are educated at the University of Pittsburgh.”

A native of San Diego, Calif., Mr. Barnes majored in computer engineering within the Swanson School of Engineering. He has helped to conduct research in the fields of medical technology research, embedded computer systems, and complex robotics within the laboratories of several Pitt faculty members. Most recently, he assisted in the development of safe-control algorithms for surgical

robotics as well as a smart syringe for use in teaching proper drug-administration techniques to students in the medical fields. He also played a key role in the design of an autonomous aerial tracking system for monitoring animals in the wild. Mr. Barnes plans to pursue a PhD in computer engineering and focus his graduate study on complex embedded computer system technology with a specialization in personal robotics and prostheses.

Mr. Barnes is the vice president of the student technological-ideation organization Design Hub and a member of the engineering honors society Tau Beta Pi. He has served as president of Scientists, Engineers, and Mathematicians for Service, a student organization that provides educational outreach activities for K-12 students in Pittsburgh.

The University of Pittsburgh has honored Barnes with its University Honors Scholarship as well as the University Scholarship, which is annually awarded to the top two percent of Pitt juniors, seniors, and most recent graduating class. Barnes’ other awards and distinctions include a 2015 Student Research Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University and a 2014 Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.

E L E C T R I C A L & C O M P U T E R

Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship RecipientZachary A. Barnes


I N D U S T R I A L

M. Ravi Shankar is interested in a very specific type of polymers consisting of molecular segments that distort when irradiated with light. This process provides the framework for converting light

energy directly to mechanical work, but there’s one problem: the movement of the polymers is much too slow for practical use.

“We’ve known for a long time that the rearranging of the molecules in certain polymers can convert light energy into mechanical work, but real world applications were limited because of the speed at which they move,” said Dr. Shankar, associate professor of industrial engineering. “We have recently started developing polymers that respond to light better and engineering structures that turn the reaction into useful work.”

For inspiration, Dr. Shankar looked to the natural world. He drew on the snapping mechanics of the Venus flytrap’s trap and the hummingbird’s beak to build a structure that would speed up the polymers’ movement. The Venus flytrap does not have a nervous system or any muscles and tendons. Yet when activated, the plants convert fluid pressure that runs through the two lobes into fast motion and closes in less than a second to trap its prey.

The hummingbird’s beak moves even faster—less than a hundredth of a second from open to close. Its movement, sometimes described as a “controlled elastic snap,” exceeds the speed and power that could be achieved by jaw muscles alone. The bases of their beaks are solid bone, and stress caused by their lower beaks stores elastic energy, powering the snap. Their swift beaks allow hummingbirds to catch insects and compensate for vital proteins and nutrients lacking from slurping nectar alone.

Dr. Shankar began exploring the possibilities of mimicking these natural structures and applying them to light-response polymers during an eight-week Air Force Office of Scientific Research Summer Faculty Fellowship. Offered to full-time

science, mathematics and engineering faculty at U.S. colleges and universities, the program provides opportunities to perform research at Air Force facilities and collaborate with Air Force researchers.

During the summer fellowship Dr. Shankar began working with Timothy J. White, chemical engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and Matthew Smith, assistant professor of engineering at Hope College in Holland, Mich. The materials and structures they engineered allowed the polymers to move with unprecedented actuation rates and output powers, using only the light from a hand-held laser pointer. The study, titled “Contactless, photoinitiated snap-through in azobenzene-functionalized polymers,” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This new technology could be used for something simple like activating a binary switch by shining a light on it or as part of much more complex mechanism such as a compact, light-driven robotic or morphing structure.

“The real application of this research is the value of using light—a power source that is radiant—to activate a device,” said Shankar. “There is no need for wires or a built-in power source, and it is particularly useful for replacing heavy batteries. These devices can even be controlled by light energy radiated from very far away.”

Shankar specializes in nanomaterials, solid mechanics and manufacturing. He joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2006 after completing his PhD in industrial engineering at Purdue University. His primary research interests include synthesis of nanomaterials and design of active materials that are responsive to heat and light.

Illuminating New Possibilities for polymers that react to light


I N D U S T R I A L

Paul W. Leu, assistant professor of industrial engineering, received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development

(CAREER) award for his work on flexible metals. The CAREER program is the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for junior faculty who exemplify outstanding research, teaching, and their integration.

The five-year, $500,000 award will support research into the manipulation of metals at the micro- and nanoscale to develop thin yet flexible crystalline silicon for high efficiency, low cost solar cells. “Although solar cell technology continues to improve, it still relies upon rigid and bulky silicon that limits its range of use,” Dr. Leu explained. “Our research is focused on designing new hierarchical metal structures that allow for a thinner, more flexible structures that can adapt to different shapes.”

Some of the research will be performed in the Swanson School’s Nanoscale Fabrication and Characterization Facility (NFCF), part of the Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering. The grant will help develop a Google Streetview-like virtual tour of the limited access cleanroom, so web visitors from around the world can see and learn about the

facility. Additionally, the grant will enable the development of a new graduate course in Statistical Design of Materials and undergraduate research opportunities through Pitt’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation.

“As we investigate multiple length scales within materials and develop new structural models, we see the potential for new metals to pave the way toward to lightweight and adaptive transparent conductors and solar cells,” Dr. Leu said. “These structures may also be utilized for flexible sensors, photodetectors, and smart surfaces.”

Additional support is provided by the Swanson School’s Office of Diversity; Jeremy Levy, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Director of the Pittsburgh Quantum Institute at Pitt; the Pitt Mobile Science Lab; and the Penn State Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education.

Dr. Leu joined the Department of Industrial Engineering in August 2010. He received his BS in mechanical engineering at Rice University and his master of science in mechanics of materials and PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the U.C. Berkeley Electrical Engineering Department as a member of the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center and with a joint-appointment in the Materials Division Center of Lawrence Berkeley. Dr. Leu’s primary research interests include first principle simulations of material properties, combining physical simulations with optimization methods, and nanomaterial synthesis and characterization. His areas of expertise include nanomaterials, semiconductor processing, computer aided design, multiscale modeling, and semiconductor devices. For more information about Dr. Leu’s research visit lamp.pitt.edu.

Paul Leu receives prestigious

National Science Foundation Career Award for Flexible Metals


M E C H A N I C A L E N G I N E E R I N G & M A T E R I A L S S C I E N C E

Hybrid Walking Exoskeleton Research at Pitt receives funding from two National Science Foundation grants

Outside of sci-fi, the idea of donning a bionic suit, rocketing into the sky, and saving the world hasn’t quite gotten off the ground; however, two new grants totaling $500,209 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will help researchers at the University of Pittsburgh make great strides in helping paraplegics walk while wearing a mechanical exoskeleton.

Dr. Nitin Sharma and PhD candidate Nicholas Kirsch.

Nitin Sharma, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and material science, will lead the research on walking exoskeletons—mechanical frames placed over parts of the human body. They work in unison with the body, like armored insect shells, to facilitate or enhance tasks like walking and lifting heavy objects. Researchers are beginning to find applications for powered and unpowered exoskeletons in a variety of fields, including rehabilitation science, the military, and general consumer technology.

Dr. Sharma will focus on optimizing the potential of two prevalent technologies used for mechanically assisted walking: functional electrical stimulation (FES), which uses low-level electrical currents to activate leg muscles, and powered exoskeletons, which use electric motors mounted on an external frame to move the wearer’s joints. The resulting hybrid aims to capitalize on the best of both systems.

“We are trying to combine electrical stimulation with robotics to design a control system for a hybrid exoskeleton,” said Dr. Sharma. “It’s like a hybrid car switching between a gas engine and an electric motor depending on circumstance. The algorithms we are developing determine when to use power from FES and when to use the power from the motors on the frame.”

The first grant comes from the General and Age-Related Disabilities Engineering Division of NSF. UNS: Optimal Adaptive Control Methods for a Hybrid Exoskeleton will investigate a new class of control algorithms that adapt to allocate optimized control inputs to FES and electric motors during single joint movements.

The Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation Division of the NSF will fund Coordinating Electrical Stimulation and Motor Assist in a Hybrid Neuroprosthesis Using Control Strategies Inspired by Human Motor Control. In this study, Dr. Sharma will research control algorithms to determine an optimal synergy between FES-induced multi-joint movements and movements aided by a powered exoskeleton.

Both projects will examine the efficiency of exoskeleton technology for manufacturers hoping to develop new hybrid models that take advantage of FES technology, powered frames, and robotics.

“Current exoskeleton research is using devices completely powered by electric motors. They have huge battery packs and can only provide a maximum of about an hour of continuous walking. With FES, you are using a person’s own muscles to make that person walk. FES also has been shown clinically to improve cardio-vascular fitness, increase muscle strength, and prevent atrophy,” said Dr. Sharma.

Dr. Sharma also heads the Neuromuscular Control and Robotics Laboratory (NCRL), where researchers are also developing similar structures for upper limb stimulation. These devices may benefit rehabilitation and therapy services by performing repeated or extended tasks—often consuming several hours—for physical therapists. Researchers may be able to apply an algorithm similar to the one balancing external power and electrical stimulation in walking exoskeletons to devices that help patients recovering from a stroke relearn skills lost to brain damage.

Dr. Sharma received his PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Florida. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science at Pitt as an assistant professor in 2012.

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M E C H A N I C A L E N G I N E E R I N G & M A T E R I A L S S C I E N C E

Recognizing his contributions to furthering international education at the University of Pittsburgh, Minking Chyu, PhD received the

2015 Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement. Dr. Chyu is the Leighton and Mary Orr Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and inaugural Associate Dean for International Initiatives at the Swanson School of Engineering, and the inaugural Dean of the Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute (SCUPI) in China.

Presented by Pitt’s University Center for International Studies, the Sheth International Awards recognize international achievements by a current faculty member and by an alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh. The awards were established in 2012 through the generosity of Madhu and Dr. Jagdish N. Sheth (Business ’62G, ’66G) and the Sheth Family Foundation. Asha Sheth (GSPIA ’07) received the International Young Alumni Achievement Award, which acknowledges a Pitt alumnus for contributions to the international community through professional achievement and societal impact.

Dr. Chyu received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of

Minnesota in 1986. He was a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University for 14 years before joining the University of Pittsburgh in 2000 as the Leighton Orr Chair Professor and Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering. When the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering merged in 2006, Dr. Chyu helped to lead the process and was named chair of the combined MEMS Department. His primary research is in thermo-fluid issues relating to power and propulsion systems, manufacturing and material processing. Major projects conducted to date include convective cooling of gas turbine airfoils,

nanofluid applications in heat transfer and oil/gas exploration, thermoelectric energy conversion and additive manufacturing.

Dr. Chyu was awarded four NASA Certificates of Recognition for his contribution on the U.S. space shuttle program, and has also served as an Air Force Summer Research Fellow, Department of Energy Oak Ridge Research Fellow, and Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced-Turbine-System Faculty Fellow. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aerospace and Aeronautics (AIAA), and a member of the Scientific Council of the International Centre of Heat and Mass Transfer (ICHMT). He was named the Engineer of The Year by the ASME Pittsburgh Chapter in 2002. In 2007, he was appointed as Institute of Advanced Energy Solutions (IAES) Residence Fellow by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). He served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Heat Transfer, ASME; Advisory Board Member for the International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems; and a Foreign Editor for the International Journal of Chinese Institute of Mechanical Engineers. He has published 290 technical papers in archived journals and conference proceedings.

Minking Chyu named

Pitt’s 2015 Sheth Award Winner

Kai Zweiacker, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and materials science, was named a recipient of the 2015 Presidential Scholar Award from the Microscopy Society of America. Mr. Zweiacker’s winning research paper, “Quantitative Phase Analysis of Rapid Solidification Products in Al-Cu Alloys by Automated

Crystal Orientation Mapping in the TEM,” was selected from more than 300 proceedings papers.

National Science Foundation Awards Pitt with $1.58 Million AGEP–KAT Grant

to improve PhD candidate success among underrepresented students

O F F I C E O F D I V E R S I T Y

The National Science Foundation has awarded a nearly $1.6 million grant to the Swanson School of

Engineering to improve the success of underrepresented students in doctoral engineering programs through faculty-student interaction. The five-year program will allow Swanson School faculty to adopt and adapt strategies and practices

employed by the University of Maryland Baltimore County’s (UMBC) Meyerhoff Scholars Program and the NSF-funded PROMISE AGEP Maryland project to create a culture change within the traditional PhD experience.

The Pitt project is supported by the NSF’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program and is a Knowledge

Adoption and Translation (AGEP-KAT) award. The AGEP program funds KAT projects to expand the adoption and/or adaptation of research findings and evidence-based strategies and practices related to the participation and success of underrepresented minorities (URMs) in STEM graduate education, postdoctoral training, and academic STEM careers at all types of institutions of higher education.

26


The grant proposal authors are Sylvanus N. Wosu, PhD, associate dean for diversity affairs and associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science; Steven D. Abramowitch, associate professor of bioengineering; and Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre, associate professor of industrial engineering and director of the Engineering Education Research Center. The grant, totaling $1,584,793, continues through August 31, 2020.

“Although there is a greater emphasis on graduate education in STEM and engineering programs, only ten percent on average of research doctorates are students from underrepresented populations including African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians,” Dr. Wosu said. “This low engagement creates a ripple effect that can impact successful recruitment, retention and graduation of PhD candidates, who are integral to engineering education and research. By utilizing methods developed by UMBC and other evidence-based strategies, we hope to create a mentor/mentee model for engineering schools to help underrepresented doctoral students thrive and succeed.”

According to the Pitt proposal, the research team will focus specifically on improving faculty engagement with students, advancing their awareness of

the barriers and problems the student experience, and developing a shared vision regarding the success of URM graduate students within the school of engineering. Student-focused objectives include adapting and implementing the evidence-based strategies being adopted, enhancing professional and educational skills, and increasing the number of students who are retained and graduated in engineering doctoral programs.

“Graduate school can be an isolating experience for students because it lacks the large class cohort of the undergraduate curriculum,” Dr. Abramowitch explained. “In particular at the PhD level, an engineering student is almost exclusively working with a faculty researcher in a lab or field setting, which separates the student from a more diverse population. So by building a mentor/mentee relationship, we can establish a stronger foundation for success.”

With support and extra funds provided by the Swanson School’s U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering Office, the program will provide U.S. underrepresented students with a stipend and tuition, in addition to support for summer study. “The concepts are critical to our school’s long-term objectives to encourage greater minority representation in our graduate engineering programs,” Dean Gerald D. Holder said. “With the combined strengths of the

leadership team as well as our established recruitment programs, I believe the Swanson School is strongly positioned to successfully execute this program.”

Qualified participants will have graduated from an accredited STEM undergraduate program with a 3.3 GPA and show strong motivation for entering a PhD program. The program will also support new training programs for faculty who rely upon the traditional advisor model.

“Ensuring student success also requires a culture change among faculty, and so we’ll establish specific workshops and training to help them adapt to a mentorship model,” Dr. Besterfield-Sacre said. “This will include retreats for mentors and mentees in the program, as well as the ability for students to shadow mentors at engineering conferences, which are usually out of reach of PhD candidates because of cost. This will enable a greater interaction between student colleagues as well as the ability for students to more richly explore their field of research.”

“Because of the unique challenges that underrepresented students already face in higher education, we need to rethink the traditional model of faculty-student interaction while ensuring a rigorous academic experience,” Dr. Wosu said. “This project could help more minorities succeed and build a more diverse environment for engineers.”

Pictured is Dr. Sylvanus Wosu, assistant dean for diversity, interacting with students in his lab.


D I S T I N G U I S H E D A L U M N I A W A R D S 2 0 1 5

David Dunahay BSIE ’75

John D. Bossler, PhD, BSCE ’59

Michael J. Fetkovich BSPE ’54

Jeffrey M. Platt BSEE ’79

Leonard K. Peters BSChE ’62, MSChE ’68, PhD ’71

Fernando Aguel BSE ’00, MSBioE ’04

Albert J. Neupaver MSME ’79, MBA ’82

U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering Gerald Holder

2015 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

Distinguished Alumni Award

Leonard Peters (BS ’62, MS ’69, PhD ’71)


More than five decades after receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh, Len Peters,

the 2015 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Swanson School of Engineering, still credits the analytical skills he developed as a result of Pitt’s engineering curriculum as the driving force behind making the right choices and finding success throughout his career.

Part of the first generation of his family to attend college, Len knew, well before he graduated high school, that he would follow his two older brothers to the University of Pittsburgh. There were limited options for pursuing higher education in Pittsburgh at the time, and many of his high school classmates opted to avoid the post-secondary school route all together. Living in McKeesport without a car meant Len would have to take the bus or trolley, find a ride from a friend or even hitchhike to get to class each day; however he seized the opportunity to study chemical engineering at Pitt.

“Thank God the University of Pittsburgh was there for so many of us at that time,” he says. “Now there are a lot more students living on campus, but then it was a school that was really a godsend to us living in the western Pennsylvania area who weren’t able leave home for school.”

Although he describes his undergraduate experience as a “pretty typical life as a commuter,” Len certainly faced his

challenges along the way. On many occasions, he spent 12-hour days on campus attending class and studying, and when he had the time, he sacked and stacked groceries to earn extra money. In the middle of his sophomore year, Len’s father passed away, putting even more pressure on him to earn money to help the family and pay for school. Despite these hardships, Len persevered and received his bachelor’s of science degree in 1962.

Len entered the professional world after graduation with a position at Alcoa Research Laboratory in New Kensington, PA. He married his wife, Georgiana, the next year and had his first son in 1964. A daughter soon followed, and although Len really enjoyed his job with Alcoa, he decided to return to Pitt part-time as a graduate student in chemical engineering.

“I had in the back of my mind while I was working at Alcoa that I wanted to get more depth in chemical engineering as a discipline and a science,” he recalls. “I eventually found enough support through combinations of fellowships, assistantships and traineeships over the years to enroll full time. My wife and I recall how that was probably the most financially stressful time in our marriage, but it was also the most rewarding.”

Initially, Len only planned to get his master’s degree, but while doing so, several people influenced him to continue his education in pursuit of a doctorate. A couple of his close friends and classmates

in graduate school were considering entering the PhD program so they could teach. Len liked the idea, but he wasn’t quite sure if he was capable of teaching until he remembered a teaching assistant he had back in his sophomore year as an undergraduate.

“I really, really had to work hard in that class—everybody did,” he says. “But the TA did a magnificent job. He sort of set a model of teaching for us. Several of the other students that graduated about the same time I did went into teaching.”

After receiving his PhD in 1971, Len taught fluid mechanics and transport phenomena in Cleveland for three years before moving with his wife and now three children to Lexington, KY. He accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Kentucky and spent 19 years there, holding positions including full professor, department chair in chemical engineering, vice chancellor for research, and interim vice president for research and graduate studies. During his time in Kentucky, Len already began to transition from teaching to administrative roles. In 1993, he left to join the faculty at Virginia Tech as vice provost for research and dean of its graduate school.

“My interest in the university life and tenure track had always been in chemical engineering, but I was very much involved in administration in the research and graduate education arenas,” he says. “Sometimes there’s just a series of events


in your life, and you’re never sure what’s going to happen next. You just have to be open to those events and see what unfolds.”

After a decade in Virginia, Len moved cross-country to a desert town east of the Cascade mountain range in Richmond, WA, to join Battelle Memorial Institute and become senior vice president and director of the US Department of Energy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He oversaw a team of about 4,400 employees, many of whom were PhD scientists, engineers and mathematicians.

“I was working with some of the brightest scientists the US has,” he says. “They were all very highly educated, very bright and very driven in what they wanted to do and how they wanted to serve the nation. We had major programs going on involving national defense, energy development and even the human genome project. The research was multidisciplinary, but all of the scientists had this desire to make sure what they were doing was serving mankind in the broadest sense.”

Although Len remembers many of the rewarding aspects of directing PNNL, he—and his wife—also remember the stress that came from being on call 24/7 and the menacing sound of a Blackberry buzzing on the nightstand in the middle of the night. After five years, he decided to move back to Kentucky, where his daughter still lived, along with three of Len’s grandchildren. He wanted to take life easy, but unlike all of the successes Len already had throughout his career, a nice and quiet retirement was something he did not accomplish.

Governor Steve Beshear approached Len just a few months after he had moved back to Kentucky and offered Len the position of Secretary of the recently formed Energy and Environment Cabinet. Beginning in 2008, he oversaw Kentucky’s energy, environmental protection and natural resource programs. He retained the office for both of Governor Beshear’s four-year terms.

“It was a position that I really found quite interesting,” Len recalls. “The biggest challenge we had during the eight-year time period was the fact that the electricity industry was undergoing a very dramatic change. It was moving much more toward natural gas, and that’s a challenge in a coal-state like Kentucky. We also had to talk about things like climate change. We met a lot of political resistance, but the conversation was happening.”

Len continues to use his experience in chemical engineering, graduate research and education, energy policy and administration as part of the advisory board for Pitt’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation at the Swanson School of Engineering. After more than 50 years in engineering, academia, government research and politics, he is finally enjoying the opportunity to take life a little easier.

“I still have a lot of very good friends from my university days,” he says. “University life is a special, special thing. My wife and I enjoyed it for more than 30 years. I would like to do some consulting or maybe teach a course once in a while, but in any event, I am officially retired. I failed retirement the first time, and this time, it better stick.”

Dr. Leonard Peters with Dean Holder.


CARNEGIE SCIENCE AWARDSSteven Little (Chemical & Petroleum Engineering) Advanced Materials

Yadong Wang (Bioengineering) Life Sciences

WHO’S WHO IN ENERGY(Pittsburgh Business Times)Andrew BungerBrian GleesonJohn KeithPrashant KumtaGiannis MpourmpakisGregory ReedGötz VeserRadisav VidicChris Wilmer

BIOENGINEERINGSavio L-Y. Woo, Creation of the ASME Savio L-Y. Woo Translational Biomechanics Medal

CHEMICAL AND PETROLEUM ENGINEERINGAnna Balazs, Polymer Physics Prize from the American Physical Society (APS); S. F. Boys-A. Rahman Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) Faraday Division

Eric Beckman, Distinguished Service Professor, University of Pittsburgh

Gerald Holder, Elected Chair of Engineering Deans Council Executive Board of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)

George Klinzing, Doctorate of Engineering honoris causa from the University of Newcastle in Australia; Homenaje (homage), Chemical Engineering School at Central University, Quito, Ecuador

Steven Little, Curtis W. McGraw Research Award recipient by the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE)

Class of 2015 Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES); Pittsburgh Business Times Fast Tracker Award

Joseph McCarthy, Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERINGKyle Bibby, one of 79 educators selected to participate in the National Academies of Engineering Education Symposium

Piervincenzo Rizzo, Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year by the International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring

Julie Vandenbossche, 2015 Marlin J. Knutson Award for Technical Achievement from the American Concrete Pavement Association

Radisav Vidic, Finalist, Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization competition sponsored by the Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERINGSteven Levitan, IEEE Fellow (for contributions to mixed-technology micro-systems education)

John Pittner and Marwan Simaan, Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE Industry Application Society

Greg Reed, 2015 Energy Leadership Award: Educator category, presented by Pittsburgh Business Times

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING Bopaya Bidanda, Duncan Fraser Award from the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS SCIENCEMarkus Chmielus, DAAD Research Ambassador for the 2015/2016 academic year

Minking Chyu, Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement

William Clark, ASME Robert E. Abbott Lifetime Service Award

Giovanni Galdi, Mercator Professorship from DFG, the German Research Foundation

Peyman Givi, Distinguished Professor, University of Pittsburgh

Anne Robertson, Named one of 100 Inspiring Women in STEM Award by INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine

Swanson School of Engineering

Faculty Awards

2 0 1 5 A W A R D S


INTERDISCIPLINARY2015 DAAD RISE (German Academic Exchange Service Research Internships in Science & Engineering

Patrick Asinger (sophomore)Chemical EngineeringD-Raman-Spectroscopy to Investigate the Dynamic Processes of Particle Generation in the SAS-Process, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Natalie Isenberg (junior)Chemical Engineering, Physics, Computer ScienceMOF-Coating on Ceramic Foams for Energy Storage / NEOTHERM Young Researcher Group, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg

Katarina Klett (sophomore)Chemical EngineeringA Bioreactor System to Monitor Stem Cell Cardiac Differentiation using FLIM, Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB

Randall Big Idea Competition

Andrew Glowacki (Chemical Engineering) and four Bioengineering students: Noah Snyder, Kasey Catt, Zhanhong Jeff Du, James Eles

2014 National iGEM Competition, Silver Medal

Kate Campbell (Biological Sciences – Microbiology), Siddhartha Dash (Biological Sciences – Molecular Biology), Daniel Freer (Bioengineering), Belle Huang (Biological Sciences – Molecular Biology), Michael Jacus (Bioengineering), Stephen Kita (Bioengineering), Surya Padinjarekut (Chemistry), Snehal Sawlani (Bioengineering), and Sam Waters (Bioengineering)

Engineering Student Council

Best Overall Small Council, National Association of Engineering Student Councils

National Society of Black Engineers National Conference

Torch Award for Outstanding Community Service

Robert Timmons (Electrical Engineering), Pitt NSBE president, first place in the “Speak Your Fire” oratorical competition

Society of Women Engineers

FY14 Silver Outstanding Collegiate Award

FY14 Outreach Award Parent Educator

Region G Silver Outstanding Collegiate Award

Blue Stars Red Carpet – Women in STEM – Educational Program of the Year

Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers

Runner up for the 2014 SASE Inspire Award for Most Inspirational Chapter

BIOENGINEERING – UNDERGRADUATE Gerald Ferrer, NSF Fellowship

Mu Lao, George Washington Prize Finalist, Engineers’ Society of Western Pa.

Ian McIntyre (dual major in Electrical Engineering), George Washington Prize Semifinalist, Engineers’ Society of Western Pa.

Michael Morris, NSF Fellowship

Dhanalakshmi (Dhanu) Thiyagarajan, Omicron Delta Kappa Senior of the Year

George Washington Prize, Engineers’ Society of Western Pa.

CHEMICAL AND PETROLEUM ENGINEERING – UNDERGRADUATE Joseph Andros, Boren Scholarship for International Study

Andrew Beck, DOE NEUP Scholar

Charles Hansen, DOE NEUP Scholar

Suzanna Hinkle, DOE NEUP Scholar

Michael Nicholas Rutigliano, Hardy Cross Dillard Scholarship, University of Virginia School of Law

Swanson School of Engineering

Student Awards

2 0 1 5 A W A R D S


CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING – UNDERGRADUATENathan Bech, George Washington Prize Semifinalist, Engineers’ Society of Western Pa.

Renee Corbett, NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates – Limpopo Province, South Africa

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING – UNDERGRADUATEZachary Barnes, Goldwater Scholarship

Donald Kline, George Washington Prize Semifinalist, Engineers’ Society of Western Pa.

Herve Nyirinkwaya, 2014 IEEE Power & Energy Society PES Scholarship Plus Award recipient

Kieran Peleaux, 2014 Tau Beta Pi Scholar

Robert Timmons, Blue Stars Red Carpet – Outstanding Student Leader Award

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING – UNDERGRADUATEAshley Anshalt, Operations Research (OR) Division Best Paper Award, Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference (ISERC)

Gian-Gabriel Garcia, ASEE National Intern Student of the Year

Michael Nites, Omicron Delta Kappa Senior of the Year

Mahdis Shayan, STAR Award honorable mention, Society for Biomaterials (SFB) 2015 Annual Meeting (selected as an outstanding contribution to the Society For Biomaterials (SFB) 2015 Annual Meeting) “Improved MC3T3 cellular growth on nano-grained 316L stainless steel obtained by linear-plane machining severe plastic deformation”

The Engineering Cells and Their Microenvironment (ECTM) Poster Award, Society for Biomaterials (SFB) 2015 Annual Meeting“A Novel Metallic Scaffold that Promotes the Rapid Seeding of Endothelial Cells”

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS SCIENCE – UNDERGRADUATERachel Meyer, Fulbright Scholar

Stephanie Lee, George Washington Prize Finalist, Engineers’ Society of Western Pa.

Miriam Rathbun, DOE NEUP Scholar

2015–2016 ANS Charles (Tommy) Thomas Memorial Scholarship Award

The Bevier Library is a popular study and collaboration space for Pitt Engineering students.


S T A T I S T I C S

Graduate Enrollment in the Swanson School

SAT Scores, Incoming First-Years, Swanson School

Undergraduate Enrollment in the Swanson School

Engineering Endowment: Book and Market Value IncreasesGoal: $100 Million

Research Productivity in the Swanson SchoolResearch Expenditures ($ Millions)

Market Value

Book Value

Interdisciplinary

School

Established in 2014-15, the Swanson School’s Design Expo provides an opportunity for student teams, many from the School’s Capstone Design Courses, to showcase their research.

In addition to graduating seniors, the Expo also highlights concepts and prototypes from students in product realization courses.

engineering.pitt.edu

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Swanson School of Engineering 104 Benedum Hall 3700 O’Hara Street Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Documents

2015 Swanson School of Engineering Annual Report