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We're big fans of aviation.

The world's most powerful turbofan engine, the GE90-115B, is bocked by some of the boldest technical innovations in aviation history. In fact. the pursuit of innovation drives everything we do.

We're also big fans of engineering students from Virginia Tech. whose technical contributions can help us shape the future of aviation.

• imagination at work A New Age of Science Demands 115i Century Solutions

NEW EQUIPMENT EXPERT SERVICE AND CALIBRATION Editor-in-Chief Divakar Mehta

Managing Editor From The Editor Kari Adkins Dear Reader, Copy Editor Marianne Brigola Welcome to the February issue of the Engineers’ Forum. College life is all about juggling many activi- Layout and Design ties along with education. On a campus as diverse as Naren Sundaravaradan, Michael Miracle, Virginia Tech’s, the plethora of activities available to Julia Alspaugh students sometimes makes it seem as if four years is simply not long enough to explore all of your interests. Distribution Manager You can, however, make better use of your time by Position Open working efficiently.

Business Manager In this issue, one of our staff writers gives you some Robert Ridgell tips about how you can manage your time efficiently and juggle education along with your extracurricular Webmaster/Photographer activities. Additionally, from this issue onwards, I am Mark Everett very happy to introduce you to new columnists who will be covering specific topics for the EF. We have Writers Kari Adkins, Divakar Mehta, Danielle Willgruber, Murphy from the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team, James James Shultz, Tim Jacobs, Liz Crumbley, Lynn Schultz from the Human Powered Submarine Team Nystrom, Karen Gilbert and Tim Jacobs, who will be writing about the ever important environment. Be sure to read all three of Editorial Advising Committee these articles as they are a glimpse of the wide variety Lynn Nystrom of activities on campus. Director of News and External Relations for the College of Engineering We also have very interesting articles about Distance Learning at Virginia Tech and about Pluto getting Engineers’ Forum is Virginia Tech’s student-run engi- plutoed. Finally, check out the center piece of this neering magazine. Engineers’ Forum is published issue to see what some of your peers think about the four times during the academic year. The editorial and “revolutionary” iPhone, introduced by Apple recently. business office is located at: As always, feel free to voice your opinion. I hope you enjoy the issue. 223 Femoyer Hall Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061 Respectfully, Phone: 540-231-7738 Email: [email protected] URL: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/forum

Member of Engineering College Magazine Associated, Mike Dorcey, Chairperson. The opinions expressed in the Engineers’ Forum do not necessarily reflect Divakar Mehta those of the administration, faculty, or student body Editor-in-Chief of Virginia Tech. Copyright 2006 Engineers’ Forum. All right reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Printed in the USA. Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 3 Volume 27 No. 1 Inside

feature - 5 Pluto Gets Plutoed - Divakar Mehta

news - 8

February 2007 UPS fellowships support creative VT engineering research - Liz Crumbley

feature - 9 VT Human Powered Submarine Team - James Schutz

feature - 13 News from The Hybrid Electric Team - Murphy

spotlight - 15 Spotlight On The iPhone

feature - 17 Environmental Engineering: Sustainable Cities - Tim Jacobs

feature - 19 Finishing the Semester on the Right Foot - Kari Adkins

news - 23 Introduction to Distance Learning at VT -Danielle Willgruber

news - 25 VT’s Supercomputer Provides Insights to the Behavior of Structures -Lynn Nystrom

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 4 As kids, many of us looked To see what the professionals the difference between photo- up at the sky and were awed thought of his work, he sent his graphic plates of the same area in by its magnificence. Even as drawings to the Lowell Observa- the sky taken at different times. adults, the brilliant skies nev- tory in Flagstaff, Arizona, but in- er cease to astonish humankind. stead of getting comments on his On February 18th of 1930, Clyde work, V.M. Slipher, Lowell’s di- was using his blink comparator to Every morning the sun rises and as rector at the time, offered Clyde study plates centered on Delta Gemi- the world is filled with light, the sky a position with the observatory. norum when he noticed a tiny speck goes from the color black to this of light shifting from plate to plate. beautiful blue and a few hours lat- Clyde’s mission was to take er, it returns to This was the its magnificent movement of a black color with planet and the twinkling stars speck of light and the moon. is known to all of us by the Like many of name of Pluto. us, Clyde Wil- liam Tombaugh As most of you was awed by must be aware, the skies. His on August 24, inspiration was 2006, the Inter- his uncle, who national Astro- sparked inter- nomical Union est in the skies (IAU) offi- for Clyde. cially stripped Pluto of its Born in Streator, title as a clas- La Salle sical planet and County, Illi- grouped Plu- nois, Clyde moved with his fam- photographs of the sky to to with two similarly sized dwarf ily to Burdett, Kansas where he search for the elusive planet X. planets, Ceres and Eris. This is built his first telescope so that he After a few months of working obviously a very big change. could study the skies in detail. there, he was also assigned to use a blink comparator to compare The whole debate about whether or Armed with his home made tele- different photographs of the sky. not Pluto is a planet began in the scope, Clyde went on to study early 1990’s when the first Kui- the sky and drew his obser- A blink comparator is a de- per Belt Object was discovered. vations of Jupiter and Mars. vice used by astronomers to find The debate intensified into the

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 5 21st century and various museums ing three conditions must be met: One such person is Alan Stern, the and planetariums around the world 1)The object must be principal investigator with NASA’s created controversy by occasion- in orbit around the Sun. New Horizons mission to Pluto, ac- ally leaving Pluto out of the plan- cording to whom, if the new defini- etary models for the solar system. 2)The object must be massive tion were to be followed word to enough to be a sphere by its own word, then planets like Earth, Mars, At the same time, however, gravitational force. More specifical- Jupiter and Neptune would also there were others who were ada- ly, its own gravity should pull it into need to be excluded from the list of mant about making sure that a shape of hydrostatic equilibrium. planets because all of these planets Pluto did not get removed from share their orbits with asteroids. the list of classical planets. 3)It must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. On the other side of the debate are As the debate about whether or not people like Mike Brown, the as- Pluto should be classified as a planet So what disqualifies Pluto? It turns tronomer who discovered Eris (one intensifies, many people are dubbing out, that the only criterion that Pluto of the other dwarf planets) who was this reclassification as the “Great does not meet is the third one. Pluto quoted by the New York Times say- Pluto War”. The IAU did not simply has not cleared the neighborhood ing that “through this whole crazy pull Pluto out of the list, but rather, around its orbit, which is why it can circus-like procedure, somehow the they re-coined the meaning of the no longer be classified as a planet. right answer was stumbled on. It’s word planet so that Pluto did not qual- been a long time coming. Science ify according to the new definition. Some experts around the world is self-correcting eventually, even believe that the new definition is when strong emotions are involved”. The new resolution by the IAU not technically accurate and are says that in order for an object to be against the new classification. Whether or not the new definition considered a “planet”, the follow- of a planet is accurate is beyond

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 6 the scope of the common man. The Great Pluto There has been a lot of talk in the War has also led media about this re-classification to the coining of and many people are passionately the words “plu- taking sides. I personally would toed” and “to plu- like to see science prevail and to”. The American would be unhappy if a decision is Dialect Society based solely on people’s emotions. chose “plutoed” as the 2006 Word The big question, however, is: Will of the Year and all the scientists and astronomers ever defined “to pluto” come to the same conclusion? Prob- as “to demote or ably not. Everybody has a different devalue someone opinion and there will always be dis- or something”. agreement from one side or the other.

In the end, I think it is for every Night Sky photos individual to weigh both sides of courtesy of Paul the argument and using their judg- Marks ment pick one side over the other, especially for topics such as this where people are so greatly divided about whose right and who is not.

Clyde William Tombaugh in 1930

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 7 UPS fellowships support creative Virginia Tech engineering research by Liz Crumbley perfect combination of financial forming headset offers attendant support and research freedom,” advantages in a pilot’s performance A new $40,000 grant marks the 11th said Brian Valimont, a recent UPS in navigation and aircraft control. anniversary of support from the fellow who completed his Ph.D. in “This has implications for aviation United Parcel Service (UPS) Foun- May 2006 under the advisement of safety, particularly in noisy cock- dation for doctoral fellowships in Casali and is now an engineering pits,” said Casali. the Human Factors and Safety En- consultant with Dorris & Associ- gineering Graduate Program in the ates, Inc. in Atlanta, Ga. “The sky’s The College of Engineering at Vir- Grado Department of Industrial and the limit in terms of research topics. ginia Tech is internationally rec- Systems Engineering (ISE) in the The creativity and scientific preci- ognized for its excellence in 14 College of Engineering at Virginia sion of this research opportunity engineering disciplines and com- Tech. gave me the competitive advantage puter science. The college’s 5,500 to secure the great job I have now.” undergraduates benefit from an in- The annual grants from the foun- novative curriculum that provides dation, which is the philanthropic Valimont tackled a challenging top- a “hands-on, minds-on” approach arm of UPS, are used primarily to ic, comparing Active Noise Reduc- to engineering education, comple- support Ph.D. students. “A major tion communications headsets to menting classroom instruction with benefit of the grant is that it enables conventional headsets in an aviation two unique design-and-build facili- our Human Factors and Safety En- flight environment. He collected ties and a strong Cooperative Edu- gineering program to attract and re- data about instrument-rated pilots in cation Program. tain graduate students of the highest an FAA-certified flight simulator in caliber,” said John Casali, the Grado the Auditory Sys- Professor of ISE, who successfully tems Laboratory proposed the first UPS fellowships at Virginia Tech. in 1997 and continues to serve as Valimont has pre- the program’s coordinator. sented the results of his dissertation The current grant will provide tu- to the international ition and a research stipend for conferences of the one year for a student working on Human Factors a dissertation in one of three areas and Ergonomics — workplace ergonomics and safe- Society and the ty, aircraft cockpit ergonomics, or Acoustical Soci- commercial vehicle driving safety. ety of America.

“The UPS doctoral fellowships are Valimont’s re- considered to be the highest aca- search is in de- demic appointment for Ph.D. stu- mand by the avia- dent in Human Factors and Safety tion community Engineering at Virginia Tech,” because it proved Casali said. “Competition for these that communica- positions is based on proposals writ- tions capability ten by doctoral candidates.” and hearing pro- tection enhanced “The UPS fellowship provided the with a better-per-

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 8 Virginia Tech Human Powered Submarine Team by James Shultz

Description of Project

The Human-Powered Submarine (HPS) Team’s mission is to design, build, and race submarines that are propelled solely by human power.

Building a functional boat and com- peting each year requires the team- work of many students who under- stand hydrodynamics, electronics, composite materials, biomechanics, machining, and administration.

Participation on the team gives stu- dents a practical application of engi- neering and allows them to see the design progress from a concept, to This picture is taken at the competition in Escondido, CA. The submarine a plan and to a functional boat. is in prime shape and ready to race.

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 9 The team’s efforts are partially funded through Virginia Tech’s en- gineering departments, but most material and monetary sponsorship comes from private companies.

Faculty Advisor

Wayne Neu, Associate Professor Aerospace and Ocean Engineering

Student Involvement

Virginia Tech HPS is open to stu- dents of all levels and majors. All students are volunteers and typi- cally do not receive credit for their efforts. Above: Spring Break testing in Florida. Frank Eastham (Far left), John While a large number of students Wilde, Bill Schneck, Dr. Neu, Chris Olien, Nate Reimold (head poking), come and go from the team during James Schultz, and Keith Brennan the year, 22 students participated actively and consistently during the 2005-2006 academic year.

Human Powered Subma- rine Contest (HPS 2006)

The most recent competition, HPS 2006, was held in the Offshore Model Basin in Escondido, Califor- nia.

This year 12 teams from around the world entered the competition and 12 subs, from as far away as the Netherlands and Quebec, actually made it to the competition.

The dates of the competition were July 19 to July 23 2006. The event is sponsored by USN Deep Submer- gence Unit, Offshore Model Basin, ASME, and many others.

Virginia Tech’s entry in HPS 2006 was a single pilot fully enclosed fi- Below Left: A full lay-up on the top half of Phantom 5 berglass submarine named Phantom Below Right: Amy Linklater (left) and Adam Maisano applying vacuum 5. The HPS Team won second place tubes to the Phantom 5 mold. Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 10 for best operational team third place composite mate- for innovation and third place for rial. At the same best constructed submarine. time, the control system will see Future Plans in water testing, modifications, and The 06-07 academic year is being optimization. The spent improving and further per- 2007 competition fecting the systems of Phantom 5 will be in Carder- as well as designing, analyzing, and ock, MD. building the newest submarine to hit the water. The greatest costs facing the team The fall semester has seen an entire- will be travel and ly new hull form designed and built hotel expenses. using three dimensional computer aided software. Approximate hull form shape and design was built by upcoming undergraduates in Ocean and Aerospace fields.

The hull was optimized using the latest fluid flow analysis tools. Dur- ing this spring semester, the team will build the hull out of fiberglass

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 11 New freshman hands-on course will teach the creative, beneficial aspects of engineering by Liz Crumbley However, according to national sur- “This close collaboration between veys released by the American As- ECE and EngE faculty will help The National Science Foundation sociation of Engineering Societies build a community of scholars (NSF) is funding a project in the Inc., the number of women complet- through a series of professional de- Virginia Tech College of Engineer- ing bachelor’s degrees in engineer- velopment activities that are part of ing aimed at teaching freshmen that ing in the U.S. has decreased slight- the NSF project,” Bell said. electrical and computer engineering ly from a high of 15,114 in 2003 is a creative discipline that directly to 14,654 in 2006. Meanwhile, the Bell and her colleagues will mea- benefits society. total number of engineering under- sure the success of the project by graduates completing degrees has comparing the retention of the stu- Faculty in Virginia Tech’s Bradley increased nationally by only 100. dents who take the new course with Department of Electrical and Com- the retention of all College of En- puter Engineering (ECE) and De- Bell and her colleagues are designing gineering undergraduates. “We’ll partment of Engineering Education their new course to provide illustra- also track the retention of women (EngE) will use the $160,000 NSF tions of the ways in which electrical and minority students and use sur- grant to develop a first-year course and computer engineering benefits veys to measure student satisfaction that will give freshmen the oppor- society, in the hope of increasing and confidence after taking the new tunity to work on projects based on retention and interest among all Vir- course,” she said. “We hope these solving real-world ECE problems. ginia Tech ECE students, including measurable outcomes will show that women and minorities. this project serves as an exlemplary A major goal of this initiative is to model for engineering education.” increase ECE student retention by Bell will team-teach the course with demonstrating the discipline’s cre- Tom Walker, as- ative and beneficial aspects. The 600 sociate professor students who will take the course of EngE. Walker during the 2007 and 2008 academic is a co-principal years will learn about contemporary investigator on problems that electrical and com- the NSF project puter engineers tackle in their jobs, along with Jenny such as signal and image process- Lo of EngE and ing for biomedical applications and Virgilio Centeno wireless sensor networks for envi- and Leslie Pendel- ronmental monitoring. ton of ECE. Other senior personnel This NSF-sponsored project at Vir- involved in shap- ginia Tech comes at a time when or- ing the project ganizations including the National are Mike Gregg Academy of Engineering (NAE), of EngE and major engineering schools, and en- Masoud Agah, gineering firms throughout the U.S. Luiz DaSilva, Al- are concerned that the nation is len MacKenzie, producing far too few engineering Leyla Nazhandali, graduates. One consensus among Paul Plassmann, experts is that a significant increase Sanjay Raman, in the number of women engineers and Chris Wyatt could alleviate this problem. of ECE.

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 12 News from the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team by Murphy

Hi! Murphy here from the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team (HEVT). You may or may not realize this, but the students of HEVT have been design- ing and building advanced technol- ogy vehicles for competition since 1994. As a founding member of the team, I figured it was time the rest of you learned what we do down in the last Ware Lab bay.

Currently, HEVT is competing in a competition called “Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility”. Sponsored by GM and the Depart- ment of Energy, this four-year com- The Chevy Equinox at the 2006 HEVT competition petition challenges us to re-engi- neer a Chevy Equinox into a more performance, utility, and consumer Our Equinox is a split-parallel hy- fuel-efficient and lower-emission acceptability--not an easy task by brid electric vehicle powered by vehicle while maintaining stock any standard. E85, a mix of 85 percent ethanol

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 13 and15 percent gasoline. We replaced even further by the Equinox engine with a flex-fuel switching to a engine from Saab. The design also more efficient calls for two electric motors: a belt- version of the ed alternator starter to start and load Saab engine, the engine and a rear-traction motor reducing vehi- for regenerative braking and electric cle weight, and assist. Electric energy is stored in a fine tuning our high-voltage nickel metal hydride hybrid control battery pack. strategy, among other changes. Last year, year two of Challenge X, focused on integrating all compo- I n c r e d i b l y , nents into a working hybrid. We ran countless un- all hybrid modes and used 74 per- expected prob- The HEVT swapping the engines on the Chev Equinox cent less petroleum than the stock lems have also vehicle. Although I was not able to arisen. From battery faults and sig- Until next time, attend the competition, aside from nal noise to broken inverters and Murphy a few minor setbacks, the vehicle mismatching transmission parts, we functioned as intended and we won have a lot of issues to address before HEVT meets every Monday night first place overall. the competition in late May. at 7:00 in Randolph 120. Volunteers are always welcome. For more in- This year, the focus is on vehicle re- I should get back to the shop; they formation, visit www.challengex. finement and consumer acceptabili- are probably missing me already. org and www.hevt.me.vt.edu. ty. We hope to cut fuel consumption

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 14 he iPhone is a device that Twas released in January at the MacWorld Expo, present- ed each year by Apple Inc. to showcase their latest and great- est inventions and designs that are planned for release in the next year. The new phone is Spotlight on... set to debut in late June, and has many interesting features. Instead of buttons, the screen is sensitive to touch, thus mak- ing the screen more interactive for the user. The iPhone has Thao Do (Freshman, Me- a 4 GB Ipod built in, enabling chanical Engineering) the user to listen to his or her music while carrying their cell “I think it is a really cool phone as well, thus eliminating technology and I can’t the need to carry two electron- wait to see the new tech- ic devices around. The phone nology out on the mar- has several other features, ket. It’s cool that they and is very attractive. Apple are linking the iPod and has teamed up with Cingular a cell phone together.” Wireless to market the phone. The starting price is over 500 dollars, so our question to our readers is this: What do you think about the Iphone?

Michael Miracle (Freshman, Computer Science Engi- neering)

“I think the iPhone is a good photo from REUTERS/Apple/Handout investment because it will give apple a cornerstone on the cell phone market” The iPhone Matt Pyrak (Freshman, Aerospace and Ocean Engineering)

“The iPhone is really shiny. It might get sto- Spotlight on... len by hawks.”

Cristi Altman (Sopho- more, Industrial and Systems Engineering)

“It looks like good tech- nology and has clean lines, but will probably be overrated and over priced.”

Alek Duerkson (Sopho- more, Mining and Min- erals Engineering)

“I think the iPhone is photo from REUTERS/Apple/Handout a really cool idea and I like it a lot.” The iPhone Environmental Engineering: Sustainable Cities by Tim Jacobs from Professor Richard Rich on the ane gas for energy, and Ford plants topic of “Making our Cities Sustain- sunflowers to avoid needless waste Writing for the Engineers’ Forum able”, I knew that his message was expended by cutting grass. Those as an underclassman engineering on point, and one that needed to be of us who will be at Virginia Tech student has a few challenges. As shared. for the next couple of years will see an engineer, I feel that there are two green roofs sprouting up on our new major challenges that need to be The word “sustainability” is a term buildings. overcome: first, writing itself seems that most engineers are familiar like momentous task and second, with at Virginia Tech. It is the all- A green roof is one which is par- writing a column that is fresh, stim- inclusive, single term that makes or tially or completely covered with ulating, and informative to students breaks a design project in class, or a vegetation such as grass. Being en- of a generation who grew up con- product on your store shelves. vironmentally conscientious makes scious of their impact on their en- us feel good. We use energy ef- vironment is rather difficult. I will A major component of sustainabil- ficient appliances, turn off lights, do my best to overcome these chal- ity, the life cycle and environmental recycle, and even drive a Toyota lenges. impact of a product on its environ- Prius twenty-five miles to and from ment is becoming more important to work every day. That is sustainable, So, will this be another environ- companies across the world. right? Not really. mental column about alternative fuels, global warming and the spot- Beyond being good for the environ- What most people do not think about ted owls? I hope not. Frankly, most ment, it is also good for business. when they assess their environmen- major headlines you see miss the For example, BMW builds a factory tal impact is where they live. Leav- point. After listening to a lecture adjacent to a landfill to use meth- ing the environment out in this big

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 17 decision is the greatest harm peo- So what can we engineers do? We inward and upward instead of out- ple can inflict on the environment. cannot control where people want to ward. Older cities, especially on the Think about it. Everything that you live, at least not directly. But those East Coast are strewn with vacant need, to maintain your current stan- of us who will have any input on lots and abandoned buildings, leav- dard of living has to travel to you, or city planning, zoning, development ing the city ugly and attractive to you travel to it. and construction can look at exam- criminals, which eventually drives ples of sustainable cities for help. people out of the city. Developing Ninety percent of commuters who these areas correctly will revitalize drive their own vehicles drive alone. For example, Portland, Oregon ac- these downtrodden cities, and make With an ever increasing suburban commodated a fifty percent increase them more attractive for people to population, the fuel cost alone is in population while increasing its live in. stifling. Add in the transportation land area by only two percent using costs for all of the goods and ser- density zoning. This is accomplished Of course there are dozens of other vices we consume, on top of the by orienting development around elements necessary for sustainable natural ecosystems we ruin, and you transit, clustering buildings tightly cities which are omitted in this col- can picture a pretty grim future for together to leave some green-space, umn. The point was to expose an America, if we keep sprawling. and in existing cities, by building area that is in desperate need of im- provement, which is often neglected or unnoticed. courtesy of Rick Fischer If anyone has further questions about this topic feel free to email me at [email protected] Attention: Tim Jacobs. If I do not have an answer I will find it or direct you to someone who does.

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 18 Finishing On the Right Foot: Tips to Get through the Semester and Making It to Summer Break by Kari Adkins Obtaining an engineering degree at Moreover, professors will some- Tech, in my opinion, requires hard times think more highly of you at the Winter break has come and gone, work and dedication. While some end of the semester if they have got- and the population of Blacksburg, students are playing on a slip and ten to know you or recognize your Virginia has once again increased slide on the Drillfield on reading day, face from your attendance in class. exponentially as over 25,000 stu- as I saw last spring, you must dedi- Sitting near the front of a class is al- dents have arrived to begin another cate yourself to studying for your fi- ways a good practice. It helps you semester. nals and doing well on those exams. pay attention and stay awake, and it The hard work pays off when your helps you get a good footing with The engineering students of the final grades come out and you have the professor because he or she will Class of 2010 have survived their done well in your classes. start to recognize you in class. first semester at Tech, and have started their trek to earn an engi- Hard work comes in forms other Going to a professor’s office hours neering degree from Virginia Tech. than studying for finals. Students is also a good practice because you should actually go to class, as hard can begin to develop a relationship I hope to offer students, whether as it might be to get up for that 8 with the professor that could be second semester freshmen or fifth AM class when it is 20 degrees out- beneficial later on down the road. year seniors, some tips for getting side and snowing, because profes- Contrary to popular belief, most through the curriculum successfully sors give important hints and clues professors enjoy getting to know and ending the semester on a high about exams in class. their students and will happily help note. them in and out of class.

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 19 Knowing the professor opens an- have found that when I do study for outside of your classes and school- other channel available to you other a final a little each night, I can relax work, however, it can be done if you than asking a classmate if you do right before the final, knowing that plan your time out correctly and do have a problem in a class. I am comfortable with the material not procrastinate too much. Pro- that is to be covered on the test. crastinating a little bit is alright, and Doing your homework is important, in my personal experience, college and understanding it is so much Studying for a final starting a week has been an opportunity for me to more important than just getting it out requires a lot of dedication and learn how much I can actually pro- done. Many professors pull their sounds better in principle than in crastinate before I have to get work test questions from problems as- practice, but in my experience, my done and still get sleep. signed for homework. grades have been better if I start pre- paring for a test by reviewing just a Each person has something differ- Therefore, to me it seems advan- small portion of the material every ent that will work for them. For tageous to do your homework and day rather than trying to cover an me, I do not like waking up early understand it because it will make entire semester’s work in one night. and doing homework, so I get up, studying for your exams so much sometimes go to the gym and go to easier. All-nighters are not good for you class. My most productive hours lie and you are prone to be less pre- between my classes and in the eve- On a similar note, I cannot em- pared because your focus is dimin- ning hours before 11 pm. phasize enough the importance of ished from the lack of sleep you got preparing for an exam in advance. the night before. Last year I became one of the kids Now, I know that I have personally who did homework at 3 in the morn- not taken my own advice as it re- It is a delicate balance to do all of ing, which was really bad and I lost lates to studying in advance for an these things I’ve mentioned in the so much sleep last spring. Doing exam on several occasions, but I previous paragraphs and have a life homework does not have to take up

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 20 all of your time. If you do a little not mean that they will inevitably work every day and do not put ev- work for you, but I learned what erything off until Sunday night, works for me by reading what other which is very appealing, you will people have tried and trying their still have time to go out on Friday tips on myself. and Saturday nights as well as enjoy the sporting events at Virginia Tech Some of these tips worked for me, without having the pressure of doing others did not. But through my work until the wee hours of Monday freshman year here at Tech I think morning before your 8 AM class. that I learned so much about how to do well in school and how much If you can accomplish all of these work you need to do to succeed. goals: attending class and being an active listener in those classes, doing As an engineering student at Virgin- your homework and understanding ia Tech, there will be many tough how it is done, studying for exams classes ahead for you, and hopefully ahead of time and not procrastinat- some of my tips will help you suc- ing, and having a social life outside ceed in your years here in Blacks- of school, you will be ahead in the burg. game of succeeding in college. Good luck with the rest of your College is a learning experience spring semester! where you should try new things and do your own thing. Just be- cause these tricks work for me does

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 21 Bodacious Bars in Blacksburg

O F R M X C Z R K E S D P X N Here are some: N C Q I E S E I S D H N T X V Q L A L V L S U Q U A U T Y T ATTITUDES C B L T N E O R S J R O L Y H BOGENS U A Y F H H R C P F K R U R D CABOFISHTACO R V E U E S H M E C E G M Y H CELLAR U N W I S H I A I T Y R C F I Q E K V E K F F A L S E B P H CHAMPS Y O S P M A H C O X L D O I P HOKIEHOUSE H Y R V X T A I S B V N Y F Y PKS A T T I T U D E S N A U T J L W J K T T N S R K J E C P G W RIVERMILL Z R O H V Y R V P Z O G V K C SHARKEYS T N P B K H K N U I E X O U W UNDERGROUND X S L D X U I H G G O Y E B E

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 22 Introduction to Distance Learning at Virginia Tech by Danielle Willgruber So what, exactly, is distance learn- Most courses, according to the ing? According to IDDL, distance VTOnline FAQs, are what is known Classes have started again here at learning is defined as taking place as asynchronous, meaning that the Virginia Tech (VT) for the spring se- “when student and instructional students and instructor do not need mester, and while most students are source are separated by physical or to be available at the same time, and gearing up for a semester of going temporal distance, and a combina- may never meet face-to-face. to classes in ordinary classrooms to tion of voice, video, data, and/or listen to professors lecture, there are computer technology are used to fa- While some courses, especially non- other students who are taking VT cilitate the instructional process.” credit courses, are self-paced so that courses in a classroom miles away you can work on your own sched- from campus or perhaps never en- Three main types of distance learn- ule, there are some times (usually tering a physical classroom at all. ing courses are offered through Vir- for-credit courses that are offered ginia Tech, which are online-based during the regular school semes- While the idea of distance learning credit courses, interactive video- ters) when instructors will assign has been around for a long time in conferencing-based (IVC) credit deadlines to certain assignments so the form of correspondence courses, courses, and a variety of non-credit that all the material can be learned recent advancements in technology courses and training (which are pro- by the end of the semester. allow for improved interaction and vided completely online). learning between students and fac- The level to which the course mate- ulty who take and teach distance The types of non-credit courses rial is also available online will de- learning courses. range from lectures, mini-courses, pend upon the instructor and course, short courses and certificates. In just as in traditional classes. There are more ways than ever to fact, you can even complete a mas- publish course material, from CD- ter’s degree at Virginia Tech entirely While some courses may have all ROMs to podcasts, and technology online in some disciplines. its material online, even using video such as chat rooms and interactive or audio files, there are other classes videoconferencing continue to help Some online-based courses do in- that will require students to pur- solve the problems of time and loca- volve some form of interaction be- chase textbooks or course packs at tion when it comes to learning. tween students and instructors, with a bookstore. the use of chat sessions, which al- The Institute for Distance and Dis- low a real-time conversation to take There are other new technologies tributed Learning (IDDL) is respon- place online between users, and dis- and software that are helping to sible for providing leadership, coor- cussion boards, which allow users enhance distance learning courses, dination, management, and support to post questions, comments, and including interactive videoconfer- to distance learning efforts (also have discussions with one another. encing courses where students meet known as eLearning) at Virginia Tech, and was created in 1999.

The institute, among other tasks and efforts, helps in maintaining eL- earning at Virginia Tech, which is a comprehensive online catalog of both credit and non-credit courses that are offered in a distance learn- ing format, and VTAlumNET, which provides non-credit courses for pre- vious graduates of the university.

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 23 in a traditional classroom, but the They also conduct research to im- Power Electronics Systems (CPES) lecture that is taking place some- prove distance learning efforts at program in power electronics and the where else is videotaped, and may Tech, such as surveying students School of Biomedical Engineering be broadcasted to many different about their experiences with dis- and Sciences, which is a joint pro- sites so that all the students can at- tance learning courses. gram between Wake Forest Univer- tend and interact. sity and Virginia Tech which offers There are some specific programs M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedi- According to the VTOnline web- with the College of Engineering that cal Engineering, a joint M.D./PhD. site, the students and instructors can are worth mentioning. Currently, 7 program through the WFU School hear and see each other just as if engineering graduate programs are of Medicine, and a joint DVM/PhD. there were in a classroom together, offered via distance learning at Vir- program through the Virginia-Mary- and students can help other students ginia Tech, and include Civil En- land Regional College of Veterinary if they have questions. gineering, Computer Engineering, Medicine. Electrical Engineering, Engineering Application-sharing can also be Administration, Mechanical Engi- There is also the Commonwealth used in distance learning courses. neering, Ocean Engineering, and Graduate Engineering Program This is basically a computer pro- Systems Engineering, according to (CGEP) that is a partnership be- gram that can allow teams of people the College of Engineering’s web- tween five schools in Virginia, to make changes on a document in site. George Mason University (GMU), real-time, collaborating on a report Old Dominion University (ODU), or presentation. Two of the degrees are offered com- University of Virginia (UVA), Vir- pletely online, Master of Science in ginia Commonwealth University Application sharing can also be used Ocean Engineering and the Master’s (VCU),and Virginia Tech (VT) that to teach by allowing the students to of Information Technology. offers distance learning in many view exactly what the instructor is fields of engineering, from well- doing without allowing the students The College of Engineering has also known fields such as Chemical to make any changes. At Virginia partnered with other institutions and Engineering to lesser known areas Tech, the application-sharing pro- organizations to offer graduate stu- such as Engineering Administration gram is called Centra, and it also al- dents as much flexibility in complet- or Modeling and Simulation. lows two-way audio communication ing their classes as possible, allow- as well, according to the VTOnline ing students to take a combination Students can even just take a few website. of completely online courses, or non-credit courses of interest on-site videoconferencing courses through the CGEP to enhance their IDDL does more than just coordi- as needed. knowledge of their specific engi- nate distance learning classes, how- neering discipline or to start learn- ever. They also provide assistance Example include the National Sci- ing about a new one. for faculty interested in teaching ence Foundation’s (NSF) Center for or developing a course for distance learning, including how to develop material and how to go about as- sessing student’s knowledge.

It also maintains the 53 interac- tive videoconferencing rooms that Virginia Tech has, 11 of which are actually at the Blacksburg campus, 8 are in the Northern Virginia cam- pus, and the other rooms are located elsewhere in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 24 While some students and instructors Virginia Tech’s Supercomputer Provides may prefer a more face-to-face, tra- ditional approach to learning, with Insights into the Behavior of Structures advances in technologies such as videoconferencing, distance learn- by Lynn Nystrom a bridge girder will sustain before ing courses can be a very effective failing. On the highway, a driver way to get information across. “I don’t do dirty,” Elisa Sotelino sees the result of this testing by says with her contagious laugh as the display of a road sign that says So next time you are interested in a she describes her engineering work. “Weight limit: 20 tons” just before class but can’t fit it into your sched- the bridge crossing. ule, or maybe just want to learn What she does do is use Virginia something new over the summer Tech’s squeaky clean supercom- “What I do is take the initial infor- break, think about enrolling in a dis- puter, System X, to learn how entire mation that the structural engineer tance-learning course. structures will behave under differ- obtains in the lab and create math- ent circumstances such as a com- ematical models to predict loads for partment fire or an earthquake. similar structures,” Sotelino says.

“I am using the knowledge of the “My models are very large and I Write for the computer scientist and applying it need the advantages of the parallel Engineers’ Forum to structural engineering,” the Bra- computing capabilities of System zilian native explains, thus bridging X to run these models. However, in the two disciplines. order to fully take advantage of this computer’s architecture new algo- [email protected] A simple explanation might be the rithms must be devised.” following. In the laboratory, a struc- tural engineer will evaluate the load

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 25 Oftentimes, when a structure is “I have always been open to new In Brazil, when Sotelino decided built, there is an imprecise “margin possibilities and when Virginia Tech to pursue higher education, she of error so the designer will enact a recruited me, it felt right.” took the national qualifying exam margin of safety. I call this a margin Since arriving at Virginia Tech, So- with all of the other interested high of ignorance,” Sotelino says. telino has initiated research ven- school seniors in 1974. She placed tures with a number of faculty, in- sixth in the country and was accept- With an infinite amount of money or cluding Linbing Wang and others ed to study at the Pontifical Catholic by placing a building underground, in the transportation area, Layne University of Rio de Janeiro, Bra- “we can prevent the catastrophic Watson and others in the Computer zil. When she took the graduate en- structural failure that occurred with Science department, as well as her trance exam, she placed second in the World Trade Center,” but these colleagues in structural engineer- the same university and subsequent- answers are not feasible in the real ing, and she continues to work with ly earned her first master’s degree in world, Sotelino says. researchers at Purdue. structural engineering in 1980.

“We can solve any mathematical Most of the more than $1 million in She moved to the U.S. to obtain a problem, but the bottom line issues research funding that she has gen- master’s degree in applied mechan- are always money and visual ap- erated has come from the U.S. De- ics from Brown University in 1988 peal,” the internationally recognized partment of Energy (DOE), Nation- where she also received her Ph.D. in expert asserts. al Science Foundation (NSF), the solid mechanics in 1990. Federal Highway Administration One of her major contributions in (FHWA), and the Indiana DoT. In addition to being acclaimed in her her field is a family of parallel al- field for her research contributions, gorithms, named Group Implicit al- Since 1996, 12 Ph.D.s have gradu- Sotelino won a teaching award for gorithms, which have had a major ated under her advisorship and an- each year that she taught in Brazil. impact in the nonlinear dynamic other three are currently working analysis of structures. with her.

Sotelino also created an object-ori- ented, concurrent software develop- ment environment for computation- ally intensive structural engineering applications. Called Structural En- gineering Concurrent Software De- velopment Environment (SECSDE), its components facilitate the reuse, rapid prototyping and portability of parallel finite element analysis soft- ware for programming and execu- tion of computationally intensive structural engineering applications.

Part of Virginia Tech’s first cluster hire in the area of computational sci- ence and engineering, Sotelino was attracted to the Blacksburg campus because of System X. For 14 years, she had excelled on the Purdue Uni- versity faculty as a member of its school of civil engineering (CE).

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 26 “If a package stinks, it belongs to me” by Lynn Nystrom vak says. “The cost of biosolid His initial studies indicate that his treatment and hauling is a major theory is correct. The dual treatment The county of Los Angeles may not expenditure for wastewater treat- achieved up to a 65 percent volatile like this distinction, but environ- ment utilities. Pathogens and odor solids reduction, compared to 46 mental engineer John Novak says problems may restrict the biosolid and 52 percent when using one of the sludge from this area of Califor- disposal options and affect hauling the single anaerobic digestion pro- nia has the “worst odor of any I have costs.” cesses. His studies also showed that ever tested.” A walk inside his labo- more than 50 percent of the nitrogen ratory, sealed-off from other testing Biosolids applied to land in the form and 80 percent of the ammonia can facilities on the Virginia Tech cam- of fertilizer can also impact ground be removed from anaerobic effluent pus, produces instant agreement. water quality, primarily through ni- after digesting it aerobically. trogen contamination. “This county can haul its sludge hundreds of miles into the desert, Novak’s approach to reduce the and it still gets complaints,” Novak volatility of waste and to remove smiles. nitrogen from the process differs from some of the previously tried On the East Coast, a $400 million techniques. His work is based in sludge handling system, slated to be part on some successful treatments built along the Potomac River by the of wastewater where a sequential Washington D.C. Water and Sewer anaerobic and aerobic digestion, Authority by 2010, may not be able called a dual-digestion process, is to completely thwart the odor prob- used. lems if it uses current technology. “Recent studies suggest that some Novak, the Nick Prillaman Profes- solids in sludge are degraded only sor of Civil and Environmental En- during the anaerobic digestion and gineering, is working with both lo- some only during the aerobic diges- calities, as well as others, to identify tion treatments,” Novak explains. better processes for the destruction “Therefore, a dual digestion, using of organic solids and the elimina- both anaerobic and aerobic treat- tion of disease causing organisms in ments would be expected to provide biosolids. a reduction in the volatile solids be- yond that achieved when using only Any time a treatment plant works one of the processes.” with water or wastewater, sludge is generated. And twice a week, No- vak’s lab receives two shipments of the processed solids from the sew- age. Novak laughingly admits that if “a package stinks, it belongs to me.”

“Biosolids management is one of the most important aspects of wastewa- ter treatment because of economic and health and safety issues,” No-

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 27 Chris Wilson, a graduate student in the environmental engineering program, works with John Novak, to identify better processes for the destruction of organic solids and the elimination of disease causing organisms in biosolids.

He reported his findings at the 2006 The Water and Environmental Re- “The production of odors from Residuals and Biosolids Manage- search Foundation has supported sludges is a complex biochemi- ment Conference in Cincinnati, Novak’s research on odors from cal process,” Novak says. “Odors, Ohio. sludges since 2000, As he conduct- primarily from organic sulphur ed his studies, the 35-year veteran compounds, can be produced from Novak has also investigated the of water, sludge, solid and hazard- anaerobically digested dewatered role that two specific metals, iron ous waste treatments, has learned sludge cakes, especially when high and aluminum, play in odor coming that some new technologies are par- solids centrifuges are used for de- from sludge treated anaerobically. tially responsible for an increase in watering. Even when digestion is Working with researchers from odors. effective, centrifugation can gener- Carollo Engineers and CH2M-Hill, ate headspace concentrations of to- they used a centrifuge simulation “In recent years, companies started tal volatile organic sulphur that are method developed at Virginia Tech selling sludge dewatering systems quite high and likely to cause odor to anaerobically digest a blend of that consist of new centrifuges that problems.” primary and waste activated sludge reduce the amount of water in the from 12 different wastewater treat- process, thus reducing costs,” Novak If odors remain a problem, the de- ment plants. says. However, the odor increases. watering process may need to be A $600,000 facility in Charlotte, changed, Novak asserts. Their findings indicated that alumi- N.C., with the more recently devel- num reduced the odor potential for oped centrifuge technology is an ex- sludges that were high in iron. ample of a new plant hearing com- plaints about its foul aroma.

Engineers’ Forum • February 2007 • 28 Stephen Edwards Receives PREMIER AWARD for Web-CAT Courseware by Karen Gilbert educators planning to incorporate customizable and extensible, allow- or develop courseware. Additional ing it to support virtually any model award sponsors for 2006 included of program grading, assessment, Autodesk, MathWorks, and Micro- and feedback generation. soft Research. Web-CAT allows a student to sub- “By changing he way we assess mit his/her test cases along with the students, we can better focus their solution and grades on test validity attention on the desired learning and completeness as well as code outcomes,” said Edwards. For com- correctness. It is a useful tool for puter science students, he believes grading students on how well they that software testing activities pro- test their own code. For more infor- mote reflection, a better understand- mation or to obtain a copy of Web- ing of the problem, and a deeper CAT, go to: http://web-cat.cs.vt. Stephen Edwards, an associate pro- understanding of the solution devel- edu/. fessor in computer science at Vir- oped by the student. ginia Tech, received the 2006 PRE- Edwards received his bachelor’s MIER AWARD for Excellence in By grading students on how thor- degree from the California Insti- Engineering Courseware for Web- oughly they test their own code, tute of Technology in 1988, and his CAT, the web-based Center for Au- Web-CAT has helped students write master’s and Ph.D. from The Ohio tomated Testing developed at Vir- code with fewer bugs. “Previously, State University in 1992 and 1995, ginia Tech. even the best students were writing respectively. poorly tested code. The award was recently presented to Edwards at the Frontiers in Edu- With Web-CAT, we have seen im- cation Conference in San Diego, provements across the board, with hosted by the American Society of around 20 percent of the students Engineering Education (ASEE) and producing commercial-quality code, the Institute of Electrical and Elec- in terms of the number of bugs the tronics Engineers (IEEE). code contains,” said Edwards.

The PREMIER AWARD recog- Web-CAT is a flexible, tailorable, nizes high-quality, non-commercial automated grading system designed courseware designed to enhance en- to process computer programming gineering education. Joseph Tront, assignments. Web-CAT runs as a professor in electrical and computer web application on a server and pro- engineering at Virginia Tech, pre- vides all of its capabilities via a web sented the award to Edwards at the interface. conference. All submission activity, feedback, The award was founded by the visualization of testability findings, SYNTHESIS Coalition, NEEDS, enumeration of statistical results, and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. to pro- and grading activities take place on mote successful courseware, as well the user’s web browser. Web-CAT’s as provide models of excellence for plug-in architecture makes it highly

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