Faculty Profile
Helen McNally
 Title: Assistant professor of EET and faculty member of the Birck Nanotechnology Center and Bindley Bioscience Center in Discovery Park.
Time at Purdue: A Purdue faculty member since 2003, she began her appointment in the College of Engineering and School of Veterinary Medicine. Helen joined the College of Technology in fall 2006.
Research focus: Helen's interests are in the applications of scanning probe microscopy for medicine and biology and developing new SPM techniques and improving current ones for fluid applications, specifically for the disease of paralysis.
Why she likes her job: "I have always enjoyed science and how we can apply it to health care issues. Now I get to teach about these ideas and hopefully inspire my students," she says.
When she's not teaching: You can find her hiking, camping, gardening, fixing the house, kayaking, and spending time with her dog.
CoT News Submissions
Report your CoT news through the online reporting form. Feel free to use this form to notify the communications team of your college-related news, events, and achievements. This information will be distributed to the team for potential use in news releases, the dean's e-newsletter, Innovation magazine, and updating information on the college's Web site. The next e-newsletter is scheduled for distribution on Monday, February 9.
Sponsored Search Activity
Visit the applied research section of the CoT Web site for an updated look at the sponsored research projects within the college.
|
|
Career Fair set for Feb. 4
The college will host its eighth annual Career Fair on Wednesday, February 4 in the Purdue Memorial Union ballrooms. Students from all majors may meet with representatives from more than 75 companies to discuss career and internship employment opportunities.
New Appointments
Michael Whitt, assistant professor of MET, has accepted a position at Miami Dade College as engineering chair in Miami, Fla. His last day in the college was Jan. 23.
Lary Troutner, former director of financial affairs for the college, has been appointed business process manager, working initially on the University Classification project.
"Launching Tomorrow's Leaders" White Paper available
The CoT strategic planning steering committee has been working hard on its planning white papers and would like to share them with the college for feedback. The white papers reflect the college’s goals and strategies for the next five years and have been based on a SWOT analysis undertaken by each group.
There are three working groups and three white papers. The working groups are:
1) Launching Tomorrow’s Leaders
2) Discovery with Delivery
3) Meeting Global Challenges
The third whitepaper, "Launching Tomorrow's Leaders," is complete and will be posted on the Intranet site by the end of today (Monday, Jan. 26). Log-in with your career account username and password. In the username dialog box, you must type in the onepurdue domain using the format "onepurdue\username."
The steering committee is asking that you review and comment on the white papers. As you review the white papers, the committee is especially interested in feedback on the goals and strategies, i.e., how will the college be better in one, three, and five years as a result of these goals and strategies? Are there goals and strategies that you feel are missing?
|
In the News
Purdue seeks industry support for program to increase diversity in aviation
The College of Technology at Indianapolis is looking for industry partners for a new program designed to provide incentives for underrepresented students to pursue degrees in aviation management and technology.
Jon Aull, director of the College of Technology at Indianapolis, said the SOAR program is being created to help address the lack of diversity in the aviation industry. It is set to officially launch in fall 2009.
"Aviation has historically been a Caucasian, male-dominated industry," he said. "As a result many women and underrepresented students may never have considered a career in this industry. The goal of SOAR is to reach out to highly qualified students who may not have ever considered a career in aviation and provide them with the academic, social and financial support they might need."
Inside Indiana Business
IT students, faculty attend material handling show in Chicago
Fifteen students in the Department of Industrial Technology attended the ProMat 2009 material handling and logistics show in Chicago on Jan. 12. The students and faculty attended educational sessions during the day, which was termed Material Handling & Logistics Classroom Day.
Also attending were Dean Dennis Depew and Profs. Matthew Stephens and Edie Schmidt. More than 700 exhibits and 100 educational sessions were featured at ProMat 2009. More than 100 students and faculty from local and regional schools and universities attended Classroom Day to learn about manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, logistics, and IT solutions for the supply chain. During the day, faculty and students received a guided tour of the exhibition, consisting of 10 exhibitors representing a broad view of the material handling and logistics industry.
The primary objective of Material Handling & Logistics Classroom Day is to increase the recognition of and appreciation for the material handling and logistics industry among faculty and their students who represent the future users and producers of the industry's products and services. In addition, Classroom Day offers an ideal opportunity for industry professionals and students to establish contact with one another for future employment possibilities.
The sixth annual Classroom Day was sponsored by the Material Handling Industry of America and The College Industry Council on Material Handling Education in collaboration with the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association.
Center dedicated to learning in virtual environments opens Feb. 12
The Purdue Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments will open with a reception from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Feb. 12 at the center in Beering Hall, Room 3288.
The center seeks to encourage collaboration and establish a foundation for research at Purdue on serious games and virtual environments for learning and support innovative instructional practices, said the center's director William Watson. The center will establish a framework for developing and implementing engaging and innovative instruction for both K-12 and higher education classrooms.
The center was established with the support of the Discovery Learning Center, the Office of the Vice President of Research, and the College of Education. The center includes a lab for utilizing, designing, developing and evaluating serious games and virtual environments.
This reception is open to the public, but those interested should RSVP by contacting Watson at brwatson@purdue.edu.
Purdue sponsors Chicago conference on mobile forensics in May
Purdue is inviting experts, investigators, and researchers from around the world to take part in the second Mobile Forensics World Conference to take place in Chicago from May 26 to 30.
The conference will bring together those who specialize in the forensic investigation of small-scale digital devices, such as cell phones and other mobile devices.
Rick Mislan, assistant professor of computer and information technology and organizer of the conference, said nearly all crimes have a digital component to them, which is why it is critical that investigators and researchers stay on top of the latest techniques, trends, and technology.
Purdue's Cyber Forensics Lab, housed in the Department of Computer and Information Technology in the College of Technology, and CERIAS are co-sponsors of the event. He said Mobile Forensics World is the only conference that focuses exclusively on small-scale digital device investigations.
Mislan is seeking experts interested in speaking or presenting information at the conference, related hardware and software vendors, and sponsors.
The conference is open to federal, state and local forensic specialists; corporate and private forensic examiners; industry leaders; and academic researchers.
The conference will include educational sessions and discussions on topics, such as the forensic examination of mobile or portable devices (cell phones, personal digital assistants, SmartPhones and GPS), media card and handset analysis, cell site analysis, call data record analysis, mobile forensics research, and current and future technologies and applications. New this year will be a forum on iPhone forensics and certifications.
Mislan is also seeking academic paper submissions. Papers are due March 1 and will be published in an upcoming issue of Small Scale Digital Device Forensics Journal. Paper submission guidelines can be found at http://www.ssddfj.org/submit.asp
Conference registration before March 1 is $300 and $400 after that date. To register, go to http://MobileForensicsWorld.com/ or http://www.conf.purdue.edu/mwf09. For more information about registration, contact Erica Wilson at Purdue Conferences at (765) 494-7221, ericaw@purdue.edu.
For questions about the conference agenda, e-mail info@MobileForensicsWorld.com or call Mislan at (765) 494-2563.
University News Service
College of Technology sponsors career fair Feb. 4
The College of Technology will offer students an opportunity to explore employment opportunities with a wide variety of companies during its eighth annual career fair on Feb. 4.
The fair will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Purdue Memorial Union north and south ballrooms. Representatives from more than 75 companies are expected to attend and offer information on career and internship employment opportunities. Students from all majors are welcome to attend.
Attendees will include representatives from Allstate Insurance Co., Amazon.com, Limited Brands, Northrop Grumman, Proctor & Gamble, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Companies that would like to take part in the career fair can contact Betty Cottrell in the College of Technology at (765) 494-1088 or bgcottrell@purdue.edu.
Teachers, counselors, students sought for summer program
Purdue is accepting applications from high school teachers, guidance counselors, and students for a summer program that focuses on ways to attract girls to computer-related careers.
Surprising Possibilities Imagined and Realized Through Information Technology, known as SPIRIT, will take place in July on the Purdue campus.
The program for teachers is July 6-17; the program for counselors is July 12-17; and the program for students is July 13 to 17. Applications are available at the SPIRIT Web site at http://www.ITPossibilities.org. The application deadline for all three programs is Feb. 15.
The student program is open to both boys and girls who are currently in grades 8 to 11. The teacher program is open to teachers of students in 9th through 12th grades. Teachers, counselors and students who participated in SPIRIT last year are not eligible to participate this year.
University News Service
Knowing plane safety rules could save lives
Aviation experts at Purdue hope to learn from a plane that landed in the Hudson River and how the passengers prepared.
Not all water landings go as smoothly, but they can go a long way toward making passengers safer. While everyone that has flown has heard the speech to read the safety guide placed in the seat pocket, airlines are now trying to make their safety briefs funny to get our attention.
"Most passengers don't listen to the flight attendants or read the manual before flight," said Purdue flight safety professor Chien-Tsung Lu.
msn.com
Have we set the bar too low for miracles?
The safe Hudson River landing of US Airways Flight 1549 was remarkable enough to push passengers and public officials, headline writers and talking heads straight into the realm of the supernatural. It was a miracle, they declared. "Believe in angels," one passenger said. It was a tragedy narrowly averted, but was it really a miracle?
The pilot, we now know, is highly trained and has years of experience. From a pragmatic standpoint, with an expert at the helm, the result was just what it should have been.
"Pilots have huge egos," said Richard Fanjoy, an aviation professor at Purdue University and a pilot for more than 20 years. "You have to. If you don't have that confidence, you aren't able to do your job. This individual was trained for years for just this situation and he did it exactly as he was supposed to do."
Chicago Tribune
How birds can down a jet airplane
Reports suggest that a bird strike caused a jet plane to crash-land in the Hudson River off Manhattan on Jan. 15, leaving questions about how a little flying animal could down a big airliner.
More than 200 people have been killed worldwide as a result of wildlife strikes with aircraft since 1988, according to Bird Strike Committee USA, and more than 5,000 bird strikes were reported by the U.S. Air Force in 2007.
Dale Oderman, associate professor of aviation technology at Purdue University in Indiana, says birds can be very dangerous to aircraft, particularly in the first several thousand feet after take-off, where the birds are normally found flying.
Fox News
|
