Engineering Kudos
Wang on American Institute of Physics panel on reimagining meetings
Lily Wang, associate dean for faculty and inclusion and professor of architectural engineering, was chosen to be part of a panel of experts assembled by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) to reimagine meetings of the future to be "more impactful for and valuable to society stakeholders."
Wang is an internationally renowned expert in acoustics, including the effects of noise and reverberation on human perception and performance. Wang is also a former president of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).
The panel's report – "The Future of Association Convening: Envisioning for The Sciences (FACETS)," offers ideas and suggestions on how scientific conferences can integrate valuable lessons learned from retooling in-person meetings to virtual formats over the past year while also meeting changing demands of their research communities and the conduct of science.
The report looks at conferences and conference planning from design to execution and gives practical insight for navigating innovation while keeping an eye on business requirements and the needs of the scientific society.
Nelson elected Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers
The ASME Committee of Past Presidents confers the Fellow grade of membership on worthy candidates to recognize their outstanding achievements. ASME Fellows are nominated by other ASME Fellows or members and must have 10 or more years of active practice and at least 10 years of active corporate membership in ASME.
Linzell elected chair of Structural Stability Research Council
MME doctoral student Avegnon chosen Fellow in Black Trailblazers in Engineering
The goal of the BTE program is to prepare future engineering faculty who are also committed to increasing the success of Black engineers. BTE Fellows were invited to attend a virtual four-day workshop - Feb. 24-27 – and will receive a $500 scholarship.
Avegnon, who is being advised by Michael Sealy and is a graduate research assistant specializing in additive manufacturing (3D printing) in the NEAT Lab, said his roots as a student and entrepreneur in Africa inspired him to create educational opportunities for rural and underserved communities. Avegnon said he hopes to pay forward his good fortune by becoming an engineering professor and inspiring more Black students to pursue engineering careers.
"My passion is helping raise professional mobility for students with less access to quality education," Avegnon said. "In Ghana, there are many students who are highly motivated but lack access to mentors and resources to truly excel in science and engineering.
"I was lucky to come across the right people who served as my mentors and contributed to my personal and professional growth. I want to do the same for the generations that come behind me."
Doctoral student Karimifard's research debunks long-held assumptions about biofilms
Karimifard's first paper on this topic was published in the Jan. 1, 2021 edition of Water Research, a journal of the International Water Association (IWA). Co-authors of the paper include Yusong Li and Xu Li, each a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Christian Elowsky, assistant professor of practice in agronomy and horticulture.
With funding from the National Science Foundation, Karimifard has worked since 2016 to create a model showing, contrary to long-held assumptions, that biofilms are both porous and permeable. Further, the designs of many things - for instance municipal and agricultural water systems - could be improved by this new understanding of how water flows through and around biofilms.
When bacteria build a "home" in collection and filtration systems – such as Engineered Infiltration Systems (EIS), which are large, porous structures made of soil particles that filter out contaminants – it begins to grow. These "homes" multiply into "neighborhoods" (or small colonies) and then expand into "cities" of bacteria called biofilms. That, Karimifard said, is when bacteria can clog the waterways in different systems.
"Traditionally, when scientists wanted to model biofilms using computers, they assumed that water could not flow through them and simulated the biofilms as rigid, thick, impermeable walls," Karimifard said. "Recently, researchers have found that is not true. Biofilms are highly porous, and water does get through."
This project, which Karmifard began shortly after coming to the College of Engineering in August 2016, took a unique approach in comparison to this field of study. Instead of taking a single slice of a soil column, Karimifard used a microfluidic channel packed with glass beads to create evolving biofilms and took pictures of the bacterial-clogged porous media in three different levels. The results showed how much of a difference this new approach can make at low, intermediate and high levels of biofilm growth.
It is the first of many papers Karimifard will be submitting for publication based on this research.
MME alum Kube receives ASNT Young NDT Professional Award
Kube is an assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics at Pennsylvania State University and is a cofounder of the Penn State Ultrasonics Laboratory (PennSUL), which is dedicated to ultrasound-related research with a core focus on research in nondestructive evaluation.
Prior to joining Penn State in 2018, Kube was a contract researcher at the US Army Research Laboratory, where he specialized in the nondestructive characterization of additively manufactured (AM) parts and structural health monitoring for fatigue awareness in rotorcraft vehicles.
In 2014, Kube received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics from Nebraska, where he studied the influence of residual stress and deformation on the scattering of ultrasound from inhomogeneities.
Kube's research interests include experimental and theoretical modeling of resonant ultrasound, acoustic microscopy, nonlinear ultrasonics, and ultrasonic scattering. Currently, he is leading several active research efforts spanning the use of ultrasound to monitor melt pool dynamics in 3D printing of metals, constitutive modeling of soft and deformed piezoelectric materials, and the combined influences of texture and residual stress on the resonant behavior of AM parts.
77 College of Engineering employees honored at UNL Service Awards
55 YEARS
Bing Chen, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Jerald Varner, Electrical & Computer Engineering
45 YEARS
Dennis Alexander, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Shelly Everett, Computer Science & Engineering
40 YEARS
Larita Lang, Computer Science & Engineering
35 YEARS
Thomas Grady, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Hamid Vakilzadian, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Joyce Young, Engineering Computer Science
30 YEARS
Karen Coen-Brown, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Ronald Faller, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Jim Holloway, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Michael Kocher, Biological Systems Engineering
Gary Krause, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Omaha
Tim Terrell, College of Engineering
25 YEARS
Leonard Akert, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Scott Chaffin, Computer Science & Engineering
Richard Koelsch, Biological Systems Engineering
Ann Koopmann, Computer Science & Engineering
Charles Riedesel, Computer Science & Engineering
20 YEARS
Aemal Khattak, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Lincoln
Karen Moore, Engineering Dean's Office-Omaha
Mark Stroup, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Alex Russell, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Lily Wang, College of Engineering
Clarence Waters, Durham School Architectural Engineering & Construction
15 YEARS
Junke Guo, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Omaha
Jay Harner, Biological Process Development Facility
Haorong Li, Durham School of Architectural Engineering & Construction
Ying Lu, Computer Science & Engineering
Yong Rak Kim, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Lincoln
George Morcous, Durham School of Architectural Engineering & Construction
Barbara Robertson, College of Engineering
Mathias Schubert, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Carl Nelson, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Li Tan, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Ken Townsend Jr., Electrical & Computer Engineering
10 YEARS
Milunka Brajic, College of Engineering
Julia Brunkow, College of Engineering
Carrick Detweiler, Computer Science & Engineering
Lucia Fernandez Ballester, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Jenna Huttenmaier, Computer Science & Engineering
Srivatsan Kidambi, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Ron Kruml, Computer Science & Engineering
Wei Niu, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Lameck Odhiambo, Biological Systems Engineering
Shea Svoboda, Computer Science & Engineering
Erin Swanson, College of Engineering
Steve Sypal, Biological Process Development Facility
Douglas Triplett, Biological Systems Engineering
Tracy Zimmerman, Biological Systems Engineering
5 YEARS
Cameron Adams, College of Engineering
Vitaly Alexandrov, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Justin Bradley, Engineering Computer Science
Phillip Carter, College of Engineering
Micah Chaffee, Engineering Dean's Office-Omaha
Brittany Duncan, Computer Science & Engineering
Garrett Gassman, College of Engineering
Jenna Hefley, Biological Systems Engineering
Jiong Hu, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Omaha
Qing Hui, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Nicole Iverson, Biological Systems Engineering
Emili Jones, Engineering Dean's Office-Omaha
Kasey Juel, College of Engineering
Amanda Lager Gleason, Biological Systems Engineering
Patricia Lena, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Lincoln
Laurie Prettyman, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Jay Puckett, Durham School of Architectural Engineering & Construction
Jennifer Rasmussen, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Daran Rudnick, Biological Systems Engineering
Jared Schreiner, College of Engineering
Michael Sealy, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Chungwook Sim, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Omaha
Chung Song, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Lincoln
Cody Stolle, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Eli Sutter, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Peter Sutter, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Jian Wang, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
ECEC Director Daher receives 2020 ASEE Midwest Section Outstanding Service Award
Tareq Daher, director of the College of Engineering's Engineering and Computing Education Core (ECEC), has been selected to receive the 2020 ASEE Midwest Section Outstanding Service Award.
This award, which includes an honorarium of $750, recognizes an individual whose contributions to engineering and/or technology education relate primarily to teaching support, non-classroom, student-related activities, and/or involvement in ASEE and ASEE Midwest Section activities.
In his support letter for the nomination, Dean Lance C. Pérez stated,"Tareq has developed and led core professional development programs for our faculty and graduate students, helping them to incorporate successful evidence-based instructional strategies into engineering classrooms and laboratories. He has also encouraged and mentored students from our Graduate Student Teaching Fellows program to present at ASEE Midwest conferences."
Wang chosen as plenary speaker for 2020 NOISE-CON
Lily Wang, professor of architectural engineering and associate dean for faculty and inclusion, is one of three plenary speakers at the Institute of Noise Control Engineering's NOISE-CON from Nov. 16-20.
Wang will be presenting her research - "The acoustic experience in restaurants" - that aims at characterizing restaurant acoustics in real-world settings to understand how sound levels in operating restaurants vary with occupancy and the levels of ambient noise sources. The research also includes analysis of how specific architectural and design features, such as seating style and density, may contribute to the acoustic experience.