College Notables Summer 2004
College of Engineering
- Tau Beta Pi Association recently congratulated the University of Toledo College of Engineering Chapter for their 50th
anniversary as a recognized chapter. The anniversary was commemorated on April 23, 2004 at the College of Engineering
Honors Convocation where president, Jason Bowling accepted a plaque on behalf of the chapter. Afterwards students were
invited to the reception where a cake with the Tau Beta Pi bent was etched on it. Jacob Lindquist, Bioengineering student
received the $500 scholarship.
- Christine M. Smallman, Director of College Relations and Facilities Management was awarded the 2003-2004 College of
Engineering Outstanding Staff Award.
Department of Bioengineering
- Dr. Brent Cameron, Assistant Professor has recently co-founded a company, Gluconix, in an effort to commercialize a
non-invasive physiologic glucose sensor based off his research. The company is currently in the licensing process with the
University. The business offices will be located in Ann Arbor and the research facilities will be located in Toledo.
- Dr. Ronald Fournier, Professor has been asked to serve on the scientific advisory board of PanCel Corporation, in
La Jolla, California. PanCel is an early stage cellular therapy company that has developed technology to genetically
engineer pancreatic cell lines for the eventual cure of diabetes.
- Amanda Fisher, Junior and Bill King, Junior were recently selected to participate in the National Institute of Health's
Bioengineering Summer Internship Program (BESIP). Only fourteen students were selected into this prestigious program.
This is the first time University of Toledo College of Engineering students were chosen.
- Leonora Felon, Junior, presented her poster, Suppression of Non-Specific Crossover in Annular Magnetic SPLITT
Channels, at the Research ShowCASE program at Case Western Reserve University on April 2, 2004 in Cleveland, Ohio.
- Shelly Smallman, Senior authored and co-authored two publications in the International Spine Journal on her
cooperative education work experience with physicians at Arhaus Hospital in Arhaus, Denmark. Shelly was invited to
present her work at the conference held in Toronto, Canada.
- Jessica Williams, '02 alumni, has recently been awarded an NSF Fellowship. Jessica is working on her master's degree
in biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan. The NSF Fellowship will enable Jessica to continue her research,
which entails investigating the interaction between chondrocytes and Human Gingival Fibroblasts at the interface of a
biphasic scaffold in the Skeletal Engineering Group at UM.
Department of Chemical Engineering
- Dr. Dong-Shik Kim, Assistant Professor was awarded the 2003-2004 College of Engineering Outstanding Undergraduate
Research Mentor Award. The award carries a plaque and a check for $1,500.
Department of Civil Engineering
- James Hoben, Construction Engineering Technology and Civil Engineering graduate, was one of two Senior Scholars named at
the Spring Engineering graduation on May 8, 2004. James received dual degrees and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA.
- Dr. Eddie Y. Chou, Professor of Civil Engineering, recently was awarded $193,638 and $76,223, respectively, for his
studies on pavement forecasting models and on effectiveness of thin hot-mix overlay on pavement ride and condition
performance by the Federal Highway Administration and the Ohio Department of Transportation. Dr. Chou also received
$138,358 from the City of Toledo for Phase III development of a state-of-the-art pavement management information system.
He is also awarded $30,724 by the City of Perrysburg to develop a new roadway management system. Dr. Chou's research group
has developed a comprehensive pavement management information system for the State of Ohio. The system is currently being
used by the Ohio Department of Transportation to monitor the performance of more than 20,000 miles of highways in Ohio.
- Dr. Brian Randolph, Professor of Civil Engineering was recently awarded the American Society of Civil Engineers Toledo
Chapter (ASCE) Engineer of the Year Award. Dr. Randolph will be recognized at the May 27, 2004 chapter meeting at the Ward
Pavilion.
- Mary Robbins, Civil Engineering Undergraduate Student has been offered Undergraduate Summer Internship at the University
of Texas at Austin. Mary will work with faculty researchers and graduate students in the field of transportation.
Mary's internship is sponsored by the Advanced Institute for Transportation Infrastructure Engineering and Management.
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Engineering
- Kaleb Brasee, Computer Science and Engineering graduate, The University of Toledo/Lorain County Community College
Partnership program, was one of two Senior Scholars named at the Spring Engineering graduation on May 8, 2004. Kaleb
graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA and was among the first to graduate from the partnership program.
- Dr. Afzal Upal, Assistant Professor was invited to talk about his work on "designing adaptive automated planning
systems" at the Stanford Symposium on Reasoning and Learning in Cognitive Systems held at Stanford, CA from 3/20-3/21
and sponsored by NSF and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and attended by 40 top researchers in the field of artificial
intelligence including several NSF and DARPA Program Managers.
- Dr. Upal described his work on adding machine learning capabilities to automated planning systems to allow such systems to automatically
learn domain specific heuristics to improve their planning performance. This technology will enable small and medium sized manufacturers to do
customer centric manufacturing by providing them with a suite of computer tools for web-based product design and dynamic generation and update
of the manufacturing process plan.
- Dr. Devindar Kaur, Associate Professor and Y. Wang: published "Computer 2D Simulation of the Collision Free Navigation
of Virtual AGV among Static Obstacles using Fuzzy Inference", International Journal of Computers And Their Applications,
Volume 11, Number 9, pp. 34-40, March 2004.
Engineering Technology Department
- James Hoben, Civil Engineering and Construction Engineering Technology graduate, was one of two Senior Scholars named at
the Spring Engineering graduation on May 8, 2004. James received dual degrees and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA.
- Dr. Ahmad Farhoud, Assistant Professor was awarded the 2003-2004 College of Engineering Outstanding Teacher Award.
The award carries a plaque and a check for $1,500.
- Dr. Mohamed Niamat, Professor is currently serving as a guest associate editor for special issues for the following two
journals:
- Microelectronic Journal, Special Issue on VLSI Design and Test.
- Integration, the VLSI Journal, Special Issue on System -On - Chip.
- Professor Dan Solarek, Professor and Chair and Ms. Myrna Swanberg, Academic Program Coordinator presented a paper at
the TeleLearning 2004 Conference in San Diego, California entitled "Developing Effective Online Student Support Services
for Distance Learning Students," February 21-24, 2004.
Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department
- Dr. Mohamed Samir Hefzy, Professor and Interim Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Engineering was one of
three University of Toledo researchers awarded Outstanding University Researcher this year. Dr. Hefzy was awarded a plaque and
a check for $1500.00. He used the money to establish a scholarship in the memory of his parents.
- Dr. Robert Abella, Associate Professor of MIME was presented with a "Commander's Award for Public Service" by the
Department of the Army. Recognition was given for Dr. Abella's tireless service to the ROTC program at The University of
Toledo.
- Robert Ghrist, MIME alumni was awarded the PECASE award from the National Science Foundation.
- Dr. Theo Keith, Jr., Distinguished University Professor will be in Toronto at the annual STLE meeting. Dr. Keith and
his students are receiving an award for the best paper published in the STLE Tribology Transactions during the past year.
- Dr. Steven N. Kramer, Professor of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Toledo,
was selected as the recipient of the 2004 Faculty Advisor Award for ASME's Region V in the United States. This award is
given annually to the Faculty Advisor of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering in each of the twelve regions in
the country for their contributions to their Student Sections as well as for their lifelong contributions to the profession
of Mechanical Engineering. This year's citation reads: For over 30 years Steven N. Kramer, PhD., P.E. has instilled in his
students professionalism, ethical behavior, the importance of lifelong learning, and the value of continued membership and
active participation in ASME. Dr. Kramer serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Mechanical and Industrial
Engineering and has been ASME Student Section Advisor at the University of Toledo for over 18 years.
- Career: Micro machined Surface Conduction Tunneling Gas Sensors.
- The award was presented at the annual ASME Regional Student Conference in April 2004 in Columbus, Ohio.
Dr. Kramer is now being considered with the eleven other recipients for the national award to be announced in November
in Anaheim.
- Dr. Ioan Marinescu, Professor has recently published a book entitled, "TRIBOLOGY of abrasive machining processesl".
Co-authors are W. Brian Rowe, Boris Dimitrov and Ichiro Inasaki.
- Heather Ritz, Industrial Engineering student was awarded the national IIE Council of Fellows Scholarship for the
2004 - 2005 academic year.
- Dr. Walter Olson was elected and took office as Chair of the Sustainable Development Program Office of SAE
effective March 15, 2004.