NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE THE FLORIDA 349 WEIL HALL PAID P.O. BOX 116550 PERMIT NO. 230 GAINESVILLE, FL 32611-6550 PANAMA CITY, FL EN INEER fall 2009 g volume 96 FREE YOUR MIND Can engineers cross the temporal 200906_edge_sustainablecert_new.pdf 1 6/12/09 10:05 AM divide to meld form with function? BECOME C M EVEN MORE Y CM SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING MY CERTIFICATE Three classes, one year. CY VALUABLE. With complete online delivery from UF EDGE, you can ENV 6932: Green Engineering Design & Sustainability CMY continue your Gator Engineering education without NEW! with Dr. Angela Lindner K disrupting your current career. EES 6318: Principles of Industrial Ecology with Prof. J.J. Delfino EMA 6938: Materials & Sustainability with Dr. Amelia Dempere THE FLORIDA THE GATOR ENGINEER GETS NAMED EN INEER An excerpt from a 1959 article g “In football today, mental fumbles probably cost more games than any other single factor. For this reason today’s football player must be able to think quickly and accurately. We in the College of Engi- neering are justly proud of our contribution to the Florida Gator Football team. At present there are 14 football players (varsity, red shirts, and B team) taking engineering courses. From the Freshman team there are an additional nine football players, CONTENTS bringing the total to 23 from engineering.” FEATURES fall 2009 IF YOU BUILD 18 IT, IDEAS WILL COME The 23-county three-university Florida High Tech Corridor initiative is putting the state on the U.S.’s pedestal of innova- tion. And UF researchers have secured a spot as a crucial part of the enterprise. ON THE COVER: F RAMING 22 I NGENUITY There wasn’t a ritual sacrifice of pocket protectors and TI-89 calculators to the Gods of Engineering for this inspired idea, it was much more simple. Art stu- dents teamed with freshmen engineers on a mission to create aesthetically p.22 pleasing and functional VOC detectors. ENGINEERED ART This anima- 100 YEARS AND tronic canary was one of six projects 30 COUNTING … in this summer’s A century of revolution is not easy to Art and Engineer- ignore. Besides, who would want to? ing Design class Follow your engineering roots team taught by as they wind through 10 decades of faculty from the innovation. More than 50,000 engineers engineering and are a part of the Gator Engineering fine art colleges. Nation, including you. p.08 DEPARTMENTS 05 FROM 300 WEIL HALL Dean Cammy Abernathy moved into 300 Weil Hall in August. Naturally, the column name still fits. KWISE FROM TOP): SHANNON KALAHAR; C LO C 06 ENGAGE Where wickedly cool meets the intentionally brief, albeit delightful morsels of engineering engagement. 38 ENGINEER UPDATE See what your old classmates are up too and submit your own engineer update. p.09 42 DEVELOPMENT Harris Corp. President and CEO Howard Lance shares FUTURE GAME CHANGERS AND SUPER-CHARGED SPEED From Gator his vision for Gator Engineering. graduate students who will change the way our world looks and operates to a juiced-up Gator engineered computer that reigns as the fastest in the world. 44 CLOSING TIME DAN PAGE; SHANNON KALAHAR SHANNON KALAHAR COVER ILLUSTRATION: EDDIE GUY; THIS PAGE ( A few shared thoughts and words from the FE editor. T H E F L O R I D A E N g INEER 1 THE FLORIDA THE GATOR ENGINEER GETS NAMED EN INEER An excerpt from a 1959 article g “In football today, mental fumbles probably cost more games than any other single factor. For this reason today’s football player must be able to think quickly and accurately. We in the College of Engi- neering are justly proud of our contribution to the Florida Gator Football team. At present there are 14 football players (varsity, red shirts, and B team) taking engineering courses. From the Freshman team there are an additional nine football players, CONTENTS bringing the total to 23 from engineering.” FEATURES fall 2009 IF YOU BUILD 18 IT, IDEAS WILL COME The 23-county three-university Florida High Tech Corridor initiative is putting the state on the U.S.’s pedestal of innova- tion. And UF researchers have secured a spot as a crucial part of the enterprise. ON THE COVER: F RAMING 22 I NGENUITY There wasn’t a ritual sacrifice of pocket protectors and TI-89 calculators to the Gods of Engineering for this inspired idea, it was much more simple. Art stu- dents teamed with freshmen engineers on a mission to create aesthetically p.22 pleasing and functional VOC detectors. ENGINEERED ART This anima- 100 YEARS AND tronic canary was one of six projects 30 COUNTING … in this summer’s A century of revolution is not easy to Art and Engineer- ignore. Besides, who would want to? ing Design class Follow your engineering roots team taught by as they wind through 10 decades of faculty from the innovation. More than 50,000 engineers engineering and are a part of the Gator Engineering fine art colleges. Nation, including you. p.08 DEPARTMENTS 05 FROM 300 WEIL HALL Dean Cammy Abernathy moved into 300 Weil Hall in August. Naturally, the column name still fits. KWISE FROM TOP): SHANNON KALAHAR; C LO C 06 ENGAGE Where wickedly cool meets the intentionally brief, albeit delightful morsels of engineering engagement. 38 ENGINEER UPDATE See what your old classmates are up too and submit your own engineer update. p.09 42 DEVELOPMENT Harris Corp. President and CEO Howard Lance shares FUTURE GAME CHANGERS AND SUPER-CHARGED SPEED From Gator his vision for Gator Engineering. graduate students who will change the way our world looks and operates to a juiced-up Gator engineered computer that reigns as the fastest in the world. 44 CLOSING TIME DAN PAGE; SHANNON KALAHAR SHANNON KALAHAR COVER ILLUSTRATION: EDDIE GUY; THIS PAGE ( A few shared thoughts and words from the FE editor. T H E F L O R I D A E N g INEER 1 CONTRIBUTORS LETTERS THE FLORIDA barriers that women face,” said Kath- EN INEER leen S. Matthews, the dean of natural g sciences at Rice, … “There are circles and communities of engagement where women are by and large not included.” P UB L IS HE R Worse yet, the third factor cited Cammy R. Abernathy actually blames the women already Dean in the field as a cause of the plateau. [email protected] “Women who had bad experiences....” discourage their junior counterparts. WRITE US: Speaking openly about existing condi- [email protected] D IR ECTOR O F tions (even if it discourages young CO MM UNIC ATIONS engineers) should not be framed as a Megan E. Gales cause of the problem but as a healthy ALEXANDER GELFAND is a writ- ALISSON CLARK is a UF alum whose [email protected] way to shine light on the problem and er in NYC, a former science teacher & ethnomusi- work appears in FLORIDA, FamilyFun, mental_ bring it into the open where it can cologist who taught astronomy in Massachusetts, floss and People. After working as a feature writer EDITOR be resolved. played jazz piano in Manhattan & drummed for and columnist, she spent five years as a stay-at- Nicole Cisneros McKeen As a woman with a successful 25- animal sacrifice in Ghana, his work appears in The home mom before barging back onto the journal- [email protected] plus year career in engineering, I will New York Times, The Economist, Wired and Tech- ism scene as an editor of Gainesville Magazine. She’s not stop talking about my experiences nology Review. ALEXANDERGELFAND.COM now a freelance writer. ALISSONCLARK.WEBS.COM A RT DIR ECTION as a woman in that field until those EmDash LLC Preventable Maintaince experiences stop limiting my ability emdashonline.com In your article “The Big Fix: Engineering’s Role in Repairing America’s Broken to perform at my potential simply Healthcare System” by Donya Currie, it fails to mention a very big, and prob- because I am a woman. If you are ASSISTA NT D E SI G N E R ably the most important part of the health care system, and that is public health going to publish on the subject, please John Dunne and preventive medicine. Although your section titled “Prevention, the best do not sugar coat the topic but base it [email protected] prescription” it still does not focus on prevention. By the time patients reach on research. Only when the engineer- the hospital, we are most likely talking about improving the most expensive ing community is willing to come to part of health care. To decrease that expense and prevent people from going to terms with the reality of the engineer- ADV ISORY B OA RD the hospital in which a specialist is needed, more effort and money are needed ing environment is the number Mike Foley, in public health. Unfortunately, very few engineers go into public health. I just of women in engineering going to Joseph Hartman, Meg Hendryx, happen to be one of them. grow significantly. Aaron Hoover, Mark Law, Angela Lindner, David Norton, Liesl O’Dell, MICHAEL WASHINGTON LINDA SIGALLA HEDGES, PH.D, Paul Pegher, Mark Poulalion, Erik Sander, B.S ISE ’92, Deputy Director of the Preparedness Modeling Unit at the CDC .M.S.CHE ‘83 Wolfgang Sigmund, Ted Spiker Plugged In BOONSRI DICKINSON was born JOHN CROWLEY when he’s not im- The Florida Engineer is published by the a gator and grew up on campus in Diamond Vil- mersed in technology working as a news producer University of Florida College of Engineering, keeping alumni, Coffee-Table Worthy the article as the cause of the plateau I am writing to commend you on your lage.