Engineering Department Ranked in Top 10

The College of Engineering's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) recently ranked in the nation's top 10 by the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index. These rankings, a new standard for measuring doctoral programs based on scholarly output, were produced by Academic Analytics with support from State University of New York-Stony Brook.

The new annual index, derived from 2005 data, provides a service that administrators have long been requesting: a scientific ranking that compares peer programs according to objective measures. Unlike U.S. News and World Report , the index examines quantifiable data to determine its rankings, such as faculty publications (including published books, journal articles, and citations of journal articles), federal grant dollars awarded, and honors and awards.

Seven other academic departments at Colorado State University also were ranked in the top 10 in their discipline, outperforming all other Colorado universities in the index rankings. The colleges of Agricultural Sciences and Engineering had multiple departments ranked by the survey.

Additional information about the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index is available on the Chronicle of Higher Education website .

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Share Your CSU Experiences

Throughout the year people often reminisce about CSU and the memories they have of their friends, peers and faculty.

The COE Development Office has collected CSU memories from alumni over the years and shares them on the COE website . It is an opportunity to read what your peers, and possibly forgotten friends, remember most as a student, which may recall some of your own experiences on campus.

If you would like to share a memory about an interesting or meaningful CSU experience, please complete one of the following thoughts:

"When I was a student, I vividly remember ..."
"The professor I remember most is ... because . . ."

and send it to supportengineering@engr.colostate.edu . Alumni Memories are accepted throughout the year, and you are welcome to include a picture of yourself or one that best represents the memory.

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CSU "Shakes Up" Structural Engineering Research

Constructed on top of a laboratory's twin shake tables, a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,800-square foot, wood-frame townhouse underwent a long-awaited earthquake simulation test in January. The townhouse, completely furnished down to the car in the garage, two water heaters and dishes on the dining room table served as the largest wood structure to undergo seismic testing in the world.

John van de Lindt, an associate professor of civil engineering, is working with a team of researchers from Cornell University, State University of New York at Buffalo, Texas A&M and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to test and design larger wood structures that can survive earthquakes and improve earthquake monitoring.

The test took place in the University at Buffalo's structural engineering and earthquake simulation laboratory. The test ended the first year of a four-year, $1.24 million National Science Foundation-funded project called NEESWood, designed to provide engineers with data on how to improve performance of wood-frame structures during earthquakes.

Led by Colorado State University, the NEESWood research is based on the premise that if more were known about how wood structures react to earthquakes, then larger and taller wood structures could be constructed in seismic regions worldwide, providing economic, engineering and societal benefits.

The NEESWood project will culminate with the validation of new seismic design processes early in 2009, when a six-story wood-frame structure, pre-fabricated in the U.S. will be sent to Miki City, Japan and tested on the world's largest shake table.

For the complete story, visit cbs4denver.com .

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CSU Bridges Academic - Business Gap with Superclusters

Colorado State University recently unveiled MicroRx, a first-of-its-kind enterprise to speed the transition of life-saving research on infectious diseases from the academic world into the global marketplace. MicroRx is just the first of the University's "Superclusters," alliances of academic researchers, economists and business experts designed to encourage collaboration and bridge the vastly different worlds of business and academia.

The Superclusters model is part of Colorado State's overall strategy to help transform Colorado with renewed emphasis on the economic benefits provided by higher education. MicroRx, the business arm of the first Supercluster to launch, is a private, non-profit entity focused on infectious disease and biomedical research and development.

Based on a competitive proposal process, Colorado State will select additional Superclusters in research areas including cancer, environmental sciences, alternative energy and agriculture. MicroRx and all future Superclusters will be governed by a new not-for-profit entity called Colorado State University Ventures. This business enterprise is a subsidiary corporation of the existing Colorado State University Research Foundation, or CSURF, a private, non-profit foundation that aids the university in overall research and educational efforts.

Read the complete background on Superclusters on the CSU website .

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