Indiana DWD formally joins PLTW leadership team
Officials from the Indiana departments of Education and Workforce Development and the College of Technology signed an agreement last Monday at the Indiana Statehouse to formalize their collaborative involvement in Project Lead the Way.
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Dean Depew; Suellen Reed, Indiana superintendent of Public Instruction; Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development; and (back row, L to R) Michael O'Hair, associate dean for engagement and co-chairman of Indiana Project Lead the Way; Patty Shutt, director of the office of career and technical education at DOE; and Terri Schulz, leader of program innovation for DWD. (Photo by Michael Douglas, Indiana Department of Education)
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The original Project Lead the Way agreement included Purdue and the Indiana Department of Education (DOE) as the program's sponsors in the state. The new agreement formalizes the partnership that now adds the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) as part of the leadership team.
PLTW leadership team roles include:
Purdue: Purdue is the state's affiliate university for Project Lead the Way. And the College of Technology provides teacher training for the pre-engineering curriculum and offers special programming for Project Lead the Way participants to further enhance their education and interest in pursuing engineering and technology careers. The college's BCM and IT programs also offer college credit for certain PLTW coursework completed in high school. A PLTW scholarship of $1,000 is available to PLTW students who select one of the college's statewide locations for a program of study.
DOE: The Indiana Department of Education's role includes promoting and communicating information about the program to all schools in the state, coordinating meetings with school officials, collecting data from schools and coordinating state funding.
DWD: The Indiana Department of Workforce Development is charged with assisting with the assessment and promotion of the program and coordinating federal funding.
"Indiana now leads the nation in the number of schools with Project Lead the Way curriculum, and much of that growth can be attributed to a strong spirit of collaboration between the state and Purdue," said Michael T. O'Hair, associate dean for engagement and co-chairman of Indiana Project Lead the Way. "The state's backing has enabled us to get the word out to schools, receive more funding and grow the program in new directions."
Project Lead the Way is a national nonprofit program that introduces engineering and technology curriculum to middle and high school students to increase the quantity and quality of engineers and engineering technologists. It is now in 231 schools across the state.
Faculty and Student Endeavors
Mark J. Jackson, associate professor of MET, has been elected a life fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society at the University of Cambridge in England. The society's fellowship is composed of fellows of the Royal Society of London and Nobel laureates who work primarily at the Cavendish Laboratory, where Jackson was a research fellow and demonstrator. In addition to his fellowship, Jackson has been appointed series editor with Oxford University Press and will edit Oxford University's textbook series on nanomanufacturing. Jackson is involved in biomedical engineering and recently collaborated with another Nobel laureate, Professor Sir Harold Kroto, to produce a co-edited book on surface-engineered medical devices and surgical tools. The book was published in October and has chapters dedicated to tissue engineering, cardiovascular devices, artificial bone and carbon nanotubes as a way to change the surface properties of artificial body implants. Other contributors to the book include Purdue mechanical engineering technology professors Rod Handy and Michael Whitt.
Several of OLS professor Cynthia Tomovic's students from this fall's Communicating Global Climate Change course came in second place recently at Purdue's Ecological and Engineering Symposium. The title of their poster and presentation was "Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change by Integrating Quality of Life Issues." Students were responsible for creating and presenting their poster to judges. In this course, students are required to engage in action research where they must create a public event to excite discourse and action on climate change, followed by data collection and publication. The students have designed a Boilermaker Quality of Life survey that they will be conducting in the spring in which questions on campus life and sustainability are addressed. (View PDF of their poster.)
The following students were involved in the project:
Undergraduate OLS students: Matt Hamilton, who also is majoring in forestry; Aaron Tebbe; Michael Stinnette; and Edwin Loubriel.
Master's-level OLS graduate students: Magda Lech and Sabeen Naqvi
Doctoral-level OLS graduate students: Varinia Barreto and Sharri Frillman.
Undergraduate political science student: John Orczyk
Doctoral-level earth and atmospheric science graduate students: Kendra Castillo and Ruben van Hooidonk.
The Computing Research Institute selected a poster created by students and faculty in the Department of Computer Graphics Technology as one of the top three in a poster session held Oct. 25 at the Lawson Computer Science Building. "Visualizing NEXRAD Level II Data on the TeraGrid" involved work by CGT faculty members Bedrich Benes, Lan Zhao, Carol Song and Gary Bertoline, and students Yi Ru and Vinaitheerthan Sundaram, and Carol Song and lan Zhao from the Rosen Center. The project was in part funded by the NSF TeraGrid resource partner award OCI-0503992.
Brian Dillman, assistant professor of AT, received the UAA John Lauber Safety Award for his excellence and service related to aviation safety. The award recognizes achievement that demonstrates clear advancement of aviation safety by an individual or an organization. The award honors John K. Lauber, a pioneer in aviation safety and human factors. Dillman's current research focuses on the development of aircraft databases, safety management systems, risk management, situational judgment and aeronautical decision-making.
John Young, professor of AT, began a year of service as the president of the University Aviation Association, taking over the leadership role at the organization's recent annual meeting in San Jose, Calif.
CoT News Submissions
Report your CoT news through the online reporting form. The next e-newsletter is scheduled for distribution on Monday, December 17.
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Faculty, Student Endeavors (cont.)
Ronald Sterkenburg, assistant professor of AT, received an award of $6,250 from the International Programs Office to assist him and the department in establishing a study abroad program in the United Kingdom.hree aviation technology faculty, assistant professors David Stanley and Denver Lopp, and associate professor Mark Thom, have authored a pre proposal for a Washington project for the federal fiscal year 2009 to establish a national test facility for aerospace fuels and propulsion. It was ranked by the college as No. 1 of four proposals forwarded to Jon Harbor, Purdue associate vice president for research, for further consideration.
Adetayo Adesanya, a sophomore in  EET, recently was honored with two awards for his work on a project with assistant professor Jeffrey Evans. Evans and the team are working on a wireless sensor node network that can be used by farmers to detect moisture and temperature in the ground. The system uses a wireless server network composed of clusters of computers that graduate students helped design. Adesanya's research involved testing the signals being sent by the thermistor in the nodes. He won first place in the undergraduate researcher poster competition at the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Conference poster competition held at Indiana University. He also placed third in the undergraduate student technical research competition at the National Society for Black Engineers Region 4 Conference. He will qualify for the national NSBE convention in Orlando, Fla., in the spring.
Distinguished Guests Visit CoT
Rob Cimino, the senior vice president of member services for Clear, an airport security fast-pass program, toured the Biometrics Lab in Knoy Hall and talked with students of Stephen Elliott, professor of IT and head of the lab, during a visit to Purdue on Nov. 15. Cimino, a 1987 Purdue civil engineering alumnus, talked with students about current biometric technology being used in the travel industry. Clear uses biometric technology, including iris and fingerprint identification, in which passengers are prescreened and receive an identity card that allows them to access designated airport security fast lanes nationwide. Clear cards are accepted at 13 airports throughout the country, including the Indianapolis International Airport. The Biometrics Lab researches iris and fingerprint identification, and Elliott said there may be opportunities for him and his students to work with Clear on future projects.
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Foster received an official BCM hard hat on his tour
of Knoy.
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Christian “Chris” Foster, director of Discovery Park K-12 programs focusing on STEM education and spouse of President France Córdova, was a guest of the college last Thursday.
In addition to presentations on the college and its STEM endeavors, he received talking tours of the construction, biometrics, cyberforensics, and advancement manufacturing laboratories.
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| Prof. Stephen Elliott describes an RFID project being conducted by a Weekend Master's student in the biometrics lab to Chris Foster. |
Sponsored Research Update
Sponsored research activity for 2007 is at a record level. In the first four months of this year, the college surpassed its highest year end performance. For details, visit the Applied Research section of the CoT Web site.
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In the News
Planes, trains or autos: Travelers advised to make holiday plans early
The holiday season is coming soon, and experts recommend travelers prepare for busier-than-normal skies.
That's a good idea, especially this year, say those who track the travel industry.
Dale Oderman, an associate professor of aviation technology at Purdue, said airline ticket prices will cost about 3 percent to 7 percent more this holiday season than last year. That, he said, is because of increased fuel prices and a higher demand for flights.
He said airline load factors — the percentage of available seats that are filled with paying passengers — are at an all-time high. And Oderman says airlines are reluctant to add more flights, fearing that could flood the market with open seats and force airlines to cut fares to fill them.
"Much of this season's price increase has to do with higher fuel prices, but it also has to do with supply and demand," Oderman said. "The reduced number of available seats forces the price up." More Info.
Supercomputer competes in first international competition
Eight Purdue students built a supercomputer that can predict the future of the environment by showing impacts of various elements on the climate. The supercomputer is a high-performance computer that competed Nov. 12 to 15 against six teams from around the world, with two teams from Indiana, at the inaugural Cluster Challenge in Reno, Nev.
The computer, named HP DL 145, is designed to solve various scientific problems."It can really do about anything," said Preston Smith, a graduate student and Purdue's team leader.
A team from the University of Alberta in Canada won the competition. More Info.
Gift helps students learn how to assemble, maintain a high-performance computer
A gift from Argonne National Laboratories in Chicago is enabling Purdue University students to get hands-on experience with high-performance computing. Students in Jeffrey Evans' high-performance computing class in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology are working this semester to assemble the VA Linux cluster computer that was once valued at about $1.25 million. More Info.
Interdisciplinary study eyes uses of genetic profiles
Students of Michael Kane in the Department of Computer and Information Technology are working on a tool to give pharmacists instant access to a patient's genetic profile. The move could quickly guide proper dosage and determine whether the patient can tolerate the drug. More Info.
Purdue gets money for atomic-force microscope
Purdue University is gaining a powerful tool that faculty members believe will help students learn more about nanotechnology. Helen McNally, assistant professor of electrical engineering in the College of Technology, received a $70,000 award that will go toward the purchase of an atomic-force microscope. The money was given by the Office of the Provost. More Info.
Product lifecycle management expert speaks at Purdue
Michael Grieves, an international expert and author on product lifecycle management, spoke Nov. 29 at Purdue University on "Product Lifecycle Management in Support of Globalization and Issues of Sustainability." He is the author of the book "Product Lifecycle Management: Driving the Next Generation of Lean Thinking," published in 2006. More Info.
Day in College event in Anderson on Dec. 7
Area high school students will get a taste of university life during the inaugural "Day in College" event offered Dec. 7 by the College of Technology at Anderson.
High school students from the Anderson area have been recommended by counselors and teachers for the event that will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Anderson University Flagship Center, located at 2705 Enterprise Drive at Interstate 69 and Pendleton Avenue.
The program allows students to see the types of courses and degrees that the College of Technology offers in Anderson. Students and their parents will have the opportunity to attend a customized course in each of the college's degree programs available in Anderson.
Students from high schools including Anderson Highland, Warren Central, New Castle, Pendleton Heights, Mount Vernon, Lapel, Options Charter School in Carmel and Muncie Southside will attend.
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