Dean's February 2012 E-Letter

A Newsletter for Alumni and Friends | February 2012

Dean's Message

Welcome to the February issue of Vandal Engineering News!

By the time you read this article I will have just returned from Portland and Seattle where the college hosted two more State of the College gatherings of alumni and other supporters of the College of Engineering. I've been on the road a lot lately: six events down and seven more to go this semester. These events are a great time to share the activities of our students and faculty, answer questions, and listen to your ideas for improving our college. Each event has been inspiring, informative, and I have truly enjoyed meeting so many great people who graduated 10, 20 or 50 years ago and experience their passion for our college. While traveling to each event we also make time for individual visits in these cities. If you would like to visit with me personally, please call my office at (208) 885-6470.

Here are a few reasons our alumni visits are so critical:

It is all about engagement and keeping a connection with you. We are impressed by the stories of your experiences, your pride in your education, and your continued desire to make our college stronger. After all, the quality of our program reflects on you years after your graduation. Your time at the University of Idaho helped shape who you are and has had an impact your entire life. You deserve to know what we are doing to strengthen your alma mater.

Recruitment is a top priority of President Nellis. We are constantly looking for bright, hard-working students to become Vandal engineers who are highly valued by employers. Please let us know about students who you believe will make good engineers, successful citizens, and leaders in our society. After all, it is these students who will define the success of our program which continues to be a reflection on you.

A part of our strategic plan is to grow internships for our undergraduates. Most of our students work as interns at least once before they graduate. Not only does an internship provide our students with a chance to see real world applications of what they are learning, it also gives employers a chance to recognize their potential as future employees. Please work with us to develop new internship opportunities.

We are looking for your suggestions on how to improve the quality of the college. At every event we attend, we learn new ideas and get good comments on what we should be and/or are doing. We value your ideas and are working hard to improve the quality of your alma mater.

Engagement, recruitment, internships, and improving quality are just some of the reasons why you are important to the College of Engineering. Please check the schedule of visits for future State of the College events and I hope to see you in the weeks ahead. As always, I welcome your comments and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Larry Stauffer

Student News

February is National Black History Month

The University of Idaho's chapter of National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) hosted their Fifth Annual Dynamic Lecture Series by bringing Trish Millines Dziko to campus as their keynote speaker on February 21.

Dziko co-founded Technology Access Foundation (TAF) in 1996 after spending 15 years as a developer, designer and manager in the high tech industry.

Last November, five U-Idaho NSBE members attended the NSBE regional meeting at the Renaissance Hotel in Denver, and competed successfully in the Technical Research Exhibition, with local members taking first and second places in the Poster Session and second and third places in the Oral Session Competition.

Read more about the results of the NSBE regional conference.

NSBE's mission is to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community.

Congratulations to the entire organization for the honor you bring to the College of Engineering.

Student chapter of ASME secures Diversity Action Grant for National Engineering Week.

Caitlin Owsley, mechanical engineering senior, was recently notified that the local American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) chapter was awarded $3,000 to host K-12 outreach activities on the U-Idaho campus for National Engineering Week, February 19-25.

"We only had about two weeks to pull this off, but so far we have more than 100 local high school students committed to coming to our campus for a mini-design challenge, tours of the engineering labs, the ever-popular lunch at Bob's Place, and lots of interaction and mentorship with current engineering students."

Although ASME is the sponsoring group this year, nearly all 18 student engineering organizations will participate in this engaging experience. Students from nearby schools will have the chance to travel to campus on Wednesday, February 22 and learn more about why engineering students are so excited about their chosen profession. Many of these high school students will take advantage of university students' expertise to help with their robotics and other design projects.

Congratulations, Caitlin, on your successful grant!

For more information about student activities in the college, contact Maria Pregitzer
mpregitzer@uidaho.edu | (208) 885-9700

Research News

Researchers Analyze Materials for Next Generation Nuclear Reactors

The College of Engineering at the University of Idaho is actively involved in several research projects focused on the development of new systems and materials for the nuclear industry.

In one of these projects, Dr. Gabriel Potirniche (Mechanical Engineering), Dr. Karl Rink (Mechanical Engineering), and Dr. Indrajit Charit (Chemical and Materials Engineering), along with Ph.D. students Triratna Shrestha and Mehdi Basirat, and undergraduate student Zack Wuthrich have been working for the past two years on a project sponsored by the Department of Energy to investigate the behavior of a new generation steel alloy developed for high temperature applications, like reactor pressure vessels.

The project, under the umbrella of the Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP), focuses on the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP), which is expected to address the nation’s growing energy needs by producing electricity, and at the same time mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by co-producing hydrogen from the process heat. The NGNP components, such as a reactor pressure vessel, must operate at higher temperatures and for longer duration (60 years and beyond) compared to current operating power plants. Thus, the prospective materials must have excellent resistance to time-dependent plastic deformations, i.e. good creep properties.

Under the current project, creep tests are being conducted on Grade 91 steel to understand its creep deformation behavior under various conditions. Investigations have revealed two distinct creep deformations mechanism in the low and high stress regimes. The identification of the dominant creep deformation mechanisms will help the team understand the microstructural changes as a result of creep deformation, better predict the service life of power plant components, and lead to the design of superior creep resistant alloys.

At the same time, the research team is working on numerical models implementable in computer codes to describe the behavior of Grade 91. Computer simulations on structural components will allow the prediction of service life for different components of interest. Ongoing simulation results are compared with the experimental data from experiments performed on Grade 91 steel in the temperature range of 600-700 °C and stress range of 80-200 MPa, and excellent agreement between the two methods was obtained.

In the near future, the team plans to extend their research to the properties of welded Grade 91 steels.

For more information about research in the college, contact Fred Barlow
fbarlow@uidaho.edu | (208) 885-7263