Campus News: Student Achievements

New Structural Testing Lab Providing Realistic Civil Eng. Experiences A new structural testing laboratory is engaging civil engineering students in high-impact experiential learning exercises. Students can gain valuable insight into the behavior of large-scale structures and building foundations, and then utilize that knowledge to become better design engineers. The facility’s equipment inside a building on the expanded campus space and former Hulman family property is primarily being used in courses examining the structural design of concrete and steel, geotechnical engineering, construction and foundation engineering, and structural design in prestressed concrete. The lab provides students the opportunity to work with testing capabilities typically only available at larger research universities. Rose-Hulman shared a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program to establish the lab. The facility was organized by professors Kyle Kershaw and Matt Lovell, a 2006 civil engineering alumnus.

Students Excel in SWE PepsiCo Engineering Challenge

Chemical engineering students Rachel Shubella (left in photo) and Christina Gray passed a new version of the Pepsi Challenge this winter, earning second-place honors in the PepsiCo and Society of Women Engineers’ 2019 Student Engineering Challenge. It had female U.S. collegiate student teams developing ideas for the company’s Food for Good initiative. The duo proposed a way to improve the cleaning process of the company’s transport totes, used to deliver millions of beverage products annually across the country. Their idea: using a supercritical carbon dioxide-based cleaning system to replace PepsiCo’s current wipe-down cleaning, an inconsistent process that wastes water and chemicals. The students made a formal presentation before a panel of judges, including PepsiCo officials, at the 2019 SWE Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif. A team from the University of Texas earned first-place honors, while students from the University of Illinois were third.

Online Connecting with Code Camp a Hit with Kids Rose-Hulman’s first free online Connecting with Code computer programming camps was a huge success, thanks to David Fisher, a 2000 mechanical engineering alumnus. The camps introduced more than 5,000 registrants late this spring to computing, robotics and creating their own computer games. Kids in kindergarten through third grade used Scratch programming to create their own games, while the Tinkercad website allowed students in grades 4-8 to learn software development and simple engineering skills. Over the course of five days, instruction and projects covered such basic concepts as 3D modeling, Arduino coding, electrical circuits and coding blocks. “Each day we showcased a new game that we build together in a video and we gave kids an assignment for additional features they could add. It’s a great way to start coding,” says Fisher, professor of computer science, software engineering and mechanical engineering. The online camps were so successful, more online events are being planned in the future. Events will be announced at www.connectingwithcode.org/home.

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Faculty Trio Retiring After Excelling in Classroom, Lab Three veteran professors with 82 years of teaching excellence are retiring at the end of this academic year after careers as high-achieving educators, scholars and colleagues who have helped establish Rose-Hulman’s national reputation in their educational fields. Robert Bunch, professor of physics and optical engineering for 37 years, earned the Board of Trustees Outstanding Scholar Award in 2000 for his broad research background in the development of optics-based products, optical instrument design, and fiber optic components, systems and sensors. Richard Layton, professor of mechanical engineering, worked with faculty colleagues to write The Engineering Communication Manual to help engineers develop their technical communication skills. A member of the faculty since 2000, he is a licensed professional engineer and brought a wealth of industry experience into the classroom.

Bunch Layton Moore

Daniel Moore, professor of electrical and computer engineering, returned to the classroom this year after spending 2018-19 as a senior adviser with the State Department’s Office of Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary. He specialized in teaching engineering design and engineering ethics. He came to Rose-Hulman in 1995.

Students took their project ideas to the world stage.

Mechanical Engineering Students Put Capstone Ideas on World Stage A team of mechanical engineering seniors earned the Excellence Prize at the 2019 Global Capstone Design Fair, at South Korea’s E2Festa engineering education festival, for their scale model prototype of a self-contained aquaponics device. Bo Geyer, Nate Michael and Matthew White have spent this academic year developing components for a self-sustained recirculation system that takes waste produced by farmed fish to provide nutrients for plants. These plants in turn help purify the water for the fish, while producing vegetables and fruits. The fish are harvested once grown to a suitable size and weight. A large-scale version of the device may contribute to the proposed aquaculture program at Ivy Tech College-Wabash Valley. Aquaculture is now considered one of the world’s fastest-growing forms of food production. Two other mechanical engineering projects also were displayed at the international event.

Naidu Leading Communications & Marketing Efforts Success-proven higher education marketing and communications professional Santhana Naidu is the new vice president for communications and marketing. He is providing counsel and support about external and internal communications matters, crisis communications, and best ways to market Rose-Hulman to achieve its strategic initiatives, especially those involving student recruitment, institutional advancement and alumni relations. For the past seven years, Naidu has served as associate vice president and chief marketing officer at Indiana State University and formerly was the university’s director of web services for two years. He helped ISU achieve success in increasing its brand awareness and perception and leveraging the brand to support enrollment and advancement. Naidu’s previous experiences also include being director of online marketing and analytics for Williams Randall Marketing in Indianapolis. Naidu

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