Engineering Kudos
Laraoui's team publishes pair of papers in esteemed journals
May 11, 2023 - Abdelghani Laraoui, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering, and his graduate students are part of multidisciplinary research teams that have produced a pair of papers that have been published in the same week in separate industry journals. The Nebraska Engineering researchers are part of Laraoui's Quantum Sensing & Defect Discovery and Spectroscopy Lab in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
In the May 9, 2023 edition of ACS Nano, "Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetometry of Individual Fe-Triazole Spin Crossover Nanorods" highlights the potential of nitrogen vacancy (NV) quantum sensors to study the magnetic properties of spin crossover molecules and molecular magnets. Coating iron triazole nanoparticles with a conductive polymer can enable imaging below 20 nanometers and decreasing the size of the nanoparticles leads to a decrease of stray fields. Mechanical engineering graduate students Adam Erickson and Rupak Timalsina are co-authors.
In the May 4, 2023 edition of Advanced Optical Materials, "Plasmon Enhanced Quantum Properties of Single Photon Emitters with Hybrid Hexagonal Boron Nitride Silver Nanocube Systems" demonstrates a 200 percent plasmonic enhancement of single photon emitters' properties through a strong increase in flourescence. This advancement would be desirable for integrated quantum photonic networks. Ufuk Kilic (research assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering), former ECE faculty Christos Argyropoulos, and graduate students Mohammadjavad Dowran (mechanical engineering) and Andrew Butler (electrical engineering) are co-authors.
Alsaleem, grad students have three papers published in prestigious journals
Three research papers - co-authored by Fadi Alsaleem, associate professor in The Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, and graduate students Mohammad Okour, Mohammad Megdadi, and Sulaiman Mohaidat, were published in prestigious journals in April.
The papers outline a novel way to use microscale beams to build new, efficient computers and sensing technologies. One of the papers was chosen as the top headline in Nature Communications Engineering.
Alsaleem's team also had papers published in IEEE SENSORS and Sensors MDPI.
Durham School team, Waters earn awards at AEI International Student Design Competition
April 21, 2023 - A team of architectural engineering students from the Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction earned three awards at the Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) International Student Design Competition, held at the AEI Annual Conference, April 13-15 in Denver, Colorado.
The team earned second place in the Building Integration category and first place in Electrical. Additionally, the Nebraska team also recieved a special award for "Sustainability: Embodied Carbon and Recylability."
Clarence Waters, the team's faculty advisor, was presented a special award for his contributions to AEI.
The Nebraska student team members included: Joey Hagge (team leader, Integration, Mechanical), Ben Weyeneth (Mechanical), Ahmed Khalil (Mechanical), Anthony Butler (Mechanical), Caleb Allerheiligen (Structural), Cailin Gentrup (Electrical), Ryan Ehresman (Structural), Garrett Quinn (Electrical), and Makayla Thompson (Electrical).
Bugenhagen elected engineering representative to UNO Student Government
April 21, 2023 - Benjamin Bugenhagen, a senior majoring in architectural engineering, has been elected the 2023-24 UNL College of Engineering Representative in the UNO Student Government elections that ended April 19.
Nebraska Engineering students who are based on Scott Campus in Omaha, maintain dual enrollment status with both the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Omaha.
Nebraska student chapter earns MCAA top honor; 3 students receive scholarships
April 14, 2023 - The Mechanical Contractors Association of America selected the Nebraska student chapter to receive the 2022-23 MCAA Student Chapter of the Year Award and a $3,000 prize.
It is the Nebraska chapter's third Student Chapter of the Year Award in the past six years. The award is given annually to a student chapter to recognize "continued achievement and overal focus on offering career opportunities in mechanical contracting to their student membership."
The award was presented to chapter members and faculty advisor Vish Reddi at the MCAA annual convention March 26-30 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Also, three students in the Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction earned MCAA scholarships - Brock Schulz was awarded the Reilly Family Memorial Scholarship, which provides $5,000, and Brodee Paul and Marissa Kelly each received the Alan P. O'Shea Memorial Scholarship, which provides $2,500.
Wachs receives ORS 2023 JOR Spine Early Career Award
April 14, 2023 - Rebecca Wachs, assistant professor of biological systems engineering, was selected as one of two recipients of the 2023 JOR Spine Early Career Award, which was awarded at the Orthopaedic Research Society's annual meeting Feb. 10-14 in Dallas, Texas. Wachs also received a prize of $1,000.
The award is given to an assistant professor within 10 years of completion of their terminal degree who is an ORS Spine Section member in good standing and who has published a manuscript in JOR Spine by October of the year in which they are under consideration for the award.
Durham School student team selected as finalist for AEI Student Design Competition
March 23, 2023 - Team Stratus - comprised of Master of Architectural Engineering students from the Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction - has been selected as one of five finalists to compete in the annual Architectural Engineering Institute Student Design Competition to be held at the AEI Conference in Denver, Colorado on April 12-14, 2023. The Durham School team includes Joey Hagge (team leader), Ben Weyeneth, Anthony Butler, Ahmed Khalil, Garrett Quinn, Makayla Thompson, Cailin Gentrup, Caleb Allerheiligen and Ryan Ehresman.
Construction grad student Schleich on Husker team that wins bass fishing tournament
March 20, 2023 - The University of Nebraska-Lincoln duo of Trevor Schleich, a graduate student in construction engineering and management, and Brett Lubeck, a freshman agribusiness major, won the Major League Fishing Abu Garcia College Fishing tournament March 17 at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. The win earned Schleich and Lubeck the $2,000 top prize and qualifies the university's team for the 2024 MLF College Fishing National Championships.
Schleich and Lubeck hauled in the limit of five bass with a combined weight of 20 pounds, 2 ounces, a total that was a pound and a half more than the runner-up team from Auburn University. In total, 230 teams from around the country competed in the event.
Four engineering grad students receive Eisenhower Fellowships
March 10, 2023 - Four Nebraska Engineering graduate students - Weston Kelley, Aaron Lechtenberger, Andrew Loken, and Russell Masterson - have each been selected to receive a Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Loken is a doctoral student in civil engineering, Lechtenberger and Masterson are master's students in civil engineering, and Kelley is a master's student in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics. Loken was also awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year.
The Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program (DDETFP) provides up to a $10,000 award that helps fund a graduate student's research. The program requires recipients to present their research at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
These four awards increased the college's total to 17 Eisenhower Fellowships that have been awarded to 16 College of Engineering students since 2010 and is the most awarded to Nebraska students in a single academic year.
The DDETFP provides fellowships to students pursuing degrees in transportation-related disciplines. This program advances the transportation workforce by helping attract the nation's brightest minds to the field of transportation, encouraging future transportation professionals to seek advanced degrees, and helping retain top talent in the U.S. transportation industry.
From its initial support of graduate research fellowships in 1983 to the current program's inception in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, the DDETFP has awarded over $50 million to graduate students in the transportation industry. From this investment, fellows have pushed for innovative change in multimodal areas from highway infrastructure to aviation to maritime, making the industry more effective and efficient. Fellows pursue careers in academia, private industry, and public service, serving as leaders across the nation.
Applications for the DDETFP 2023-24 Fellowships are due by April 7. More information can be found on the application portal website.
NEBRASKA ENGINEERING RECIPIENTS OF THE DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER TRANSPORTATION FELLOWSHIP
Cody Stolle (2010-2011)
Cale Stolle (2012-2013)
Tiffany Treviño (2017-2018)
Brock Schroder (2018-2019)
Ricardo Jacome (2018-2021)
Ryan Bickhaus (2018-2021)
Michael Sweigard (2019-2020)
Kellon Ronspies (2019-2020)
Nathan Dowler (2020-2021)
Luis Rodriguez (2020-2021)
Andy Loken (2020-2021, 2022-2023)
Riley Ruskamp (2021-2022)
Aaron Lechtenberger (2022-2023)
Russell Masterson (2022-2023)
Weston Kelley (2022-2023)
Three Nebraska Engineering students earn Air Force You Can Fly scholarships
March 1, 2023 - Three College of Engineering students - Luke Landkamer, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, Eddie Morrissette, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering, and Shelby Stevens, a freshman majoring in computer science, and each a member of the Air Force ROTC program - earned Air Force You Can Fly scholarships. The $3,500 awards are designed to help students explore aviation before they decide on which career field to pursue.