Dartmouth Winter 2012
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DARTMOUTH WINTER 2012 Engin THE MAGAZINE OF THAYER SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING eer COLD TRUTHS FROM THAYER’S ICE LAB TO THE EARTH’S POLAR REGIONS, THAYER RESEARCHERS UNCOVER WHAT SNOW AND ICE REVEAL ABOUT THE WORLD. COOL COMPANIES BY YOUNG ALUMS A SUSTAINABLE FAMILY PROJECT PERSPECTIVE DARTMOUTH ENGINEER VOLUME 8 / NUMBER 1 INVENTIVENESS ON DISPLAY BY DEAN JOSEPH J. HELBLE INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP HAVE BEEN Editor core components of a Dartmouth engineering educa- Karen Endicott tion for half a century. From the pioneering efforts in the Design late 1950s and early 1960s of Thayer professors James Wendy McMillan Browning, Merle Thorpe, and serial entrepreneur Bob Dean—who’s pushing ahead with his latest entrepreneurial Assistant Editor venture at age 83—we have reached the stage where 25 Kathryn LoConte Lapierre percent of our faculty members have started a company in Alumni News Editor the past decade alone. While our absolute numbers may be Theresa D’Orsi small, on a per capita basis this is one of the highest levels Online Manager of engineering faculty entrepreneurship in the country. Alison Findon This spirit of entrepreneurship, of identifying press- ing, real-world problems and then building solutions, is Contributing Editors pervasive within our student body and alumni community. Anna Fiorentino, Elizabeth Kelsey, It is a natural outgrowth of a liberal arts-based engineer- Catharine Lamm, Lee Michaelides ing education that encourages students to think broadly Editorial Board about all aspects of a problem, yet use their technical Joseph J. Helble (ex officio), Ian Baker, skill to explore solutions deeply. It is a spirit and philoso- Carolyn Fraser ’86, Th’87, Harold Frost, phy that we routinely associate with the Introduction to Elsa Garmire, Karl Griswold, Marcia Craig Engineering course, ENGS 21, that all majors (and another Jacobs, Peter Robbie ’69, Jeanne West 10 percent of Dartmouth students who are non-majors) Office of Communications take every year. It is the core focus of our interdisciplin- Thayer School of Engineering ary Bachelor of Engineering capstone sequence. It is the 14 Engineering Drive reason the Ph.D. Innovation Program was created nearly Hanover, NH 03755 four years ago to develop greater numbers of doctoral-level technology entrepreneurs. Contact Us It is this spirit that also underlies the Wall of Patents [email protected] Tel: 603.646.3521 Fax: 603.646.9133 newly on display on the second floor of Cummings Hall at the Thayer School of Engineering (see page 33). Spanning Dartmouth Engineer Online four decades of innovation, the patents have color-coded dartmouthengineer.com frames to indicate whether they were the product of work Thayer School Website by faculty, staff, students, or collaborative teams. Over the engineering.dartmouth.edu past few years, we have seen tremendous growth in the levels of invention, with the number of patents awarded Report Address Changes in the 2000s more than twice that of the 1990s. And if the engineering.alumni.records@ first 18 months of the 2010s are any indication, another dartmouth.edu doubling is well within reach. As we have told our entering DARTMOUTH ENGINEER is engineering graduate students and freshmen alike, we are published twice a year for the on track to completely fill the current patent display corri- Thayer School community. dor by 2015. It is their challenge to make this happen. © 2012 Trustees of Dartmouth College Printed by Villanti & Sons, Printers Inc. 14 Contents 6 Cold Truths From the microstructure of snow to the massiveness of ice sheets, from fundamental science to 2 practical applications, from Thayer’s ice lab to the earth’s polar regions, Thayer researchers are uncovering what snow and ice reveal about the world. BY ELIZABETH KELSEY, LEE MICHAELIDES, AND 6 KAREN ENDICOTT Good Sports DEPARTMENTS 14 Judy Geer ’75 Th’83 and her family combine national-level athletic 2 The Great Hall 20 training with sustainable living practices. 24 Alumni News BY KRISTEN LAINE 32 Inventions 18 Cool 33 Random Walk Companies COVER Recent grads—including Marc Professor Erland Schulson directs Fenigstein ’01 Th’04 and David Thayer’s ice lab. Drennan Th’09, left to right in Photograph by John Sherman photo at left—bring nerve and verve to their startup ventures. BACK COVER BY ANNA FIORENTINO Thayer’s Yeti robot at the South Pole. Photograph by James Lever THIS PAGE Snow photograph by Si Chen Th’11 18 THE Great Hall>>NEWS FROM AROUND THAYER SCHOOL CHALLENGE organizations have come in and the $300 House project, includ- built houses,” says May, “but ing having them assist workshop nobody wants to live in them” attendees in the CAD lab and Engineering a because they are too close to machine shop. May and Wilson ▲ each other and lack features are covering the $300 House in $300 House that Haitians prefer, such as their course ENGS 2: “Integrated separate cooking structures Design: Engineering, Architec- SHELTER FROM THE STORM THAYER SCHOOL IS OFFERING engineering design and large porches. According ture, and Building Technology.” Thayer professors expertise to the $300 House challenge to develop to May, people welcomed the During spring term, students in and students are new housing solutions for the world’s poorest. prospect of houses built with May’s course ENGS 71: “Struc- helping to create The challenge began with a Harvard Business alternatives to local materials and according tural Analysis” will test house the tents Haitians Review blog post by Tuck School of Business Profes- to community specifications. prototypes. In addition, a group still occupy in the sor Vijay Govindarajan proposing that the world’s “They said, ‘we will build the of Bachelor of Engineering Port-au-Prince area poorest population centers could be rebuilt into safe houses ourselves if you can tell students has devoted its ENGS two years after the earthquake that and dignified communities for only $300 a house. us how,’” she says. 89/90 design course project to decimated the The post went viral, and the resulting Open Design For the rural site, May and developing a composting latrine country. Challenge generated more than 300 entries. Wilson settled on Fond-des- for the Haitian houses—an effort The six winning teams were invited to a design Blancs, a community in the sponsored by the Dartmouth workshop, organized by Thayer Professor Vicki mountains outside Port-au- Class of 1980. May and studio art senior lecturer Jack Wilson, at Prince. GHESKIO, a Haitian Can each house really be Thayer in January to collaborate on prototypes for humanitarian organization, built for just $300? Probably not, the first houses. helped May and Wilson select says May, but the target focuses May and Wilson, who have been consulting with an urban site in Port-au-Prince. effort on the real challenge: Govindarajan, spent a week in earthquake-damaged The goal is to build a prototype developing clean, safe, and ap- Haiti in September searching for rural and urban in each setting in June. pealing houses that Haitians can sites for the first houses—and talking with Haitians May has found several ways afford. to find out what they want in a home. “Other for Thayer students to help with —Annelise Hansen 2 DARTMOUTH ENGINEER WINTER 2012 dartmouthengineer.com “The goal is for people to understand that design is interdisciplinary, it is solving real problems, making real stuff.” ▲ STUDENT GROUPS kudos Design for America >> Professor Lee Lynd Th’83 Th’87 has been named a fellow of the ASK LUCAS YAMAMURA ’14 where he sees Dart- American Association for the mouth’s recently established Design for America Advancement of Science for his con- studio in three years, and his reply is immediate: tributions to research, technology “On the cover of The New York Times.” development, and policy work on It’s a vision he shares with Sean Hammett ’14 renewable cellulosic biofuels. and Alison Polton-Simon ’14. Design for America The Minerals, Metals & Materials (DfA), founded by Elizabeth Gerber ’98, is a nation- >> Society has named Professor Ian al network of student groups focused on making a Baker a fellow for his “pioneering local impact with creative design solutions. After contributions to the characterization attending a DfA workshop at Thayer School last of microstructure and mechanical spring, Yamamura, Hammett, and Polton-Simon properties of metals and materials.” started a DfA chapter at Dartmouth. Jason Stauth, left, and Ulrike Wegst “The goal is for people to understand that design FACULTY >> Professor Eugene Santos has been is interdisciplinary, it is solving real problems, mak- named a fellow of the Institute of ing real stuff,” says Polton-Simon. Electrical and Electronics Engineers Each of the three co-founders is leading a two- Two New Professors for his “contributions to decision term group design project. Polton-Simon’s group is support systems and reason- partnering with the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Join Thayer ing under uncertainty.” He also in White River Junction, Vt., to improve education received the Best Paper Award and employment for veterans reintegrating into ci- >> ASSISTANT PROFESSOR JASON STAUTH TH’00 at the International Defense and vilian life. Yamamura’s group is working to improve joined the faculty in October. He received his Ph.D. Homeland Security Simulation dental health for pregnant women. Hammett’s in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley in 2008 Workshop last fall for “Modeling group is working with students at the Richmond and also holds an M.S. from UC Berkeley, an A.B. and Simulating Dynamic Healthcare Middle School in Hanover to gain insight into in physics from Colby College, and a B.E. from Practices,” a paper he coauthored sources of and solutions for middle-school stress. Thayer School. His research interests include dis- with Ph.D.