|
 The Department
began a campaign in the fall of 2006 to raise monies to recruit and fund new
faculty members. This is a critical need due to four faculty who will be eligible to retire within the next five years: Roger Korus, Dave Drown, Jin Park and Lou Edwards. The goal is to raise $350,000 by
the end of the calendar year. This fund raising campaign is headed by the
Department's Industrial Advisory Board and coordinated through the ChE office.
The Young Faculty Enhancement Fund has been initiated with a $60,000
contribution from a member of the Industrial Advisory Board. Many
companies have matching gift programs and can be used to enhance your
contribution. A list of companies who have matched donations at the
University of Idaho can be accessed at
http://www.uidahofoundation.org/default.aspx?pid-84534. Please direct
any questions to Dr. Korus at
rkorus@uidaho.edu or 208-885-6005. For updated information regarding
the campaign, click here.
 Eleven ChE students
traveled to New Mexico State University to compete in the
16th Annual WERC International Design Competition April 1-5, 2007. Senior Jesse Bazley and juniors Dusty Berggren and Tyler
Vincent
received 1st place for their
Task 1: Silica
Removal from Inland Brackish Water project. The team was instructed to
develop and demonstrate a way to remove silica from brackish water as a part of pre-treatment
prior to desalinization and/or arsenic removal. Their proposed solution
should accommodate a moderate-sized community (200,000 users). According to team
Advisor, Dave Drown, the team won decisively according to conversations with
some of the task judges. Intel expressed interest in having the team
sample waste water from one of their fabrication plants using the team's bench
scale unit to see if the process would work on a very different application. The
win included ..... in prize monies
 Seniors Blake Parkinson, Crystal Piekarski and Sean Mollberg
concentrated on Task
2: Photovoltaic System Performance Indicator. Their problem
statement is to develop and demonstrate a system to determine that a residential
utility-interactive PV system is operating properly and that the ac power output
is following the solar power available to the PV array. The team received
a 2nd place.
 Seniors Jake McCoskey, Rob Hoover, Aaron Cline, Matt Yahvah and
Brady Tucker selected
Task 4:
Conversion of Biomass Resource to Useful Forms of Energy and Other Products
as their research project. Their problem statement was to
develop, evaluate and
demonstrate a system (excluding landfill options) that would convert biomass to biofuel
including biogas or liquids. Twelve other teams selected Task 4 as well and the
UI team failed to place.
Professor Eric Aston
recently received a $527,050 grant from the National Science Foundation's
Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program to purchase an "all-in-one"
microscope and spectroscopy system for physical and chemical analysis of
materials with very high spatial resolutions. This piece of equipment will
provide cutting-edge interdisciplinary science and engineering at the nanoscale
level. This microscope will be the only one of it's kind in the Pacific
Northwest.
Other press releases:
Today@Idaho press
release:
University of
Idaho Register (10/6/06):
College of Engineering press
release:
NSF
Award Announcement:
Here We
Have Idaho (Winter 2007):
 The
University of Minnesota's Law School
recently announced that UI chemical
engineering alum Seth Skiles (BS 2003) won the
34th American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) moot court
competition in Washington, DC, April 18-20, 2007. Seth shares the
honor with fellow law school member Michelle Dawson. Seth graduated in May
and plans on taking the New York bar exam and pursuing a career in patent
litigation with the international law firm Kaye Scholer in their New York
office.
 Professor Aaron
Thomas is featured in
Here We Have
Idaho (Fall 2006) edition (pp. 13-15) in an article entitled, "links that
last." The article talks about Native American student recruitment,
retention and research at the University of Idaho.
 Dieter
Olson was selected Outstanding Chemical Engineering Senior for 2007 by
his peers. He graduated cum laude in May 2007 and is employed by Integrated
Environmental Technology in Richland, Washington.
L-R: Dr.
Roger Korus, Chair and Dieter.
Professor
Aaron Thomas received the College of Engineering's Outstanding Faculty Award
during the May 2007 commencement ceremonies.
 The
first place winning WERC team took top honors in the
2007 Engineering Design
Exposition. The team of Bazley, Berggren and Vincent received Outstanding
Booth Award and Outstanding Technical Session Award for their research on
Silica
Removal by Electrocoagulation From Inland Brackish Water.
L-R: Bazley, Berggren, and Vincent.
|
 ChE
juniors James Russell, Jeff
Miller, Joshua Hunt and Art Richardson visited the Child Development
Lab in the Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences on
April 4, 2007. The "Kindergarten team" demonstrated several simple
experiments to an enthusiastic group of youngsters. The director
of the Child Development Lab, Dr. Suzanne Planck, PhD, was very
impressed by the preparation, attitude and rapport the students enjoyed
with their younger audience. Dr. Planck wrote a strong letter of
support and indicated she would like the team to return next year.
L-R:
Russell, Miller, Hunt and Richardson |
 The
Chem-E Car team traveled to Montana State University to attend the AIChE
Pacific Northwest Regional Conference and compete in the Chem-E Car Competition,
April 13-14, 2007. The team brought home two first place awards - in the
performance competition and poster competition.
L-R: Khara Hildago, Brittany Muntifering, Thor Kooda, Andrew Weakley, Jeff
Brown, Felicia Holmquist, Joshua Hunt and Melissa Piekarski.
The Car.
Picture Legend:
Brenda Eby (BS 06) works a demonstration booth in Boise, Idaho,
Fall 2005.
The first and original Chem-E Car !
President White visits with ChE Professor Eric Aston. |
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