President Penley's Fall Address

College Hires Faculty

Solar Panel Technology

Atmos Students Receive Awards

Engineering Innovations Breakfast Events

More Stories of Interest

Three Weeks Away - Homecoming and Family Weekend!

With autumn here, Homecoming and Family Weekend, October 4 - 7, is upon us. A time when a record number of alumni return to CSU, Homecoming is a great opportunity to reconnect with classmates, roommates, and friends from your college days. It is also an opportunity to visit with students and faculty, tour the research labs and campus, and enjoy the beautiful Fort Collins area.

College of Engineering (COE) events include:

Annual 50th and Prior Reunion Dinner
Thursday, October 4 at the Fort Collins Hilton

All College Reunion Breakfast
Friday, October 5 in the Internet Cafe in the Engineering Building

Academic Village Grand Opening Luncheon
Saturday, October 6 at the Academic Village

Details on these events are available on the COE's events website.

University-wide activities include the Class of 1957 Reunion, the Alumni Association Pancake Breakfast, the homecoming football game (CSU vs. San Diego State), and much more. Visit the CSU Homecoming site for more information.

The COE Office of Development is available at (970) 491-7028 or by email to answer questions about homecoming and traveling to Fort Collins.

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Penley Announces Record Setting Research Numbers

During the annual Fall Address on September 6, President Penley presented an overview of Colorado State's accomplishments of the past year to the campus community, Fort Collins area leaders, and invited guests. Topics included CSU’s many traditions, illustrated in the new "For-Ever-Green" book, and the University’s "green" activities that include cutting-edge research in the area of environmental sustainability.

A highlight of the presentation was Colorado State’s research expenditures for fiscal year 2007, ending in July, which totaled a record $296 million. This is an 11 percent increase over the previous year and an increase of 49 percent over the past five years.

Federal research grants to CSU accounted for 73 percent of the research revenues in fiscal 2007 with state, foundation, commercial and other non-federal revenues accounting for about 12 percent and institutional support funds making up another 15 percent.

"This is a strong testament to the confidence government agencies and private-sector sponsors have in our faculty, staff and students," said President Penley, who has overseen significant growth in research expenditures since he joined the University in August 2003. "Colorado State conducts vital research that is addressing global issues, including viable alternative energy sources, cures for cancer, and vaccines for malaria and drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis."

Average award dollars received by traditionally appointed faculty within Colorado State's eight colleges have grown 20 percent since 2004. Faculty submitted a record 1,797 proposals for external competitive funding in 2007 - up 8 percent over 2006 and 91 percent over the past five years.

Penley also noted that CSU's average rate of increase over the last three years of reported data has surpassed such prominent schools as Texas A&M, Purdue, the University of California-Davis, and all the campuses in the University of Colorado system.

Highlights as well as the full text of the President's Fall Address are available on the CSU website.

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Technology Sheds New Light on Solar Panel Industry

In a new 200-megawatt factory, expected to employ up to 500 people, AVA Solar Inc. will start production by the end of next year on patented technology developed by the Department of Mechanical Engineering Professor W.S. Sampath.

Produced at less than $1 per watt, the panels will dramatically reduce the cost of generating solar electricity with the ability to power homes and businesses around the globe with clean energy for roughly the same cost as traditionally generated electricity.

Sampath has developed a continuous, automated manufacturing process for solar panels using glass coating with a cadmium telluride thin film instead of the standard high-cost crystalline silicon. Because the process produces high efficiency devices (ranging from 11 percent to 13 percent) at a very high rate and yield, it can be done much more cheaply than with existing technologies. The cost to the consumer could be as low as $2 per watt, about half the current cost of solar panels.

Colorado State's Office of Economic Development and the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation have supported the startup, and the Colorado State University Research Foundation holds equity in the company as part of a licensing arrangement.

Sampath - along with two affiliate faculty members and former students of his, Kurt Barth and Al Enzenroth - formed AVA Solar in January to commercialize the technology. Since then, the company has raised substantial funding and was recently awarded a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar America Initiative. The company now employs 28 people.

The technology is yet another example of Colorado State's leadership in cutting-edge research in the area of alternative energy solutions and sustainability; more than 80 faculty members on campus from all eight colleges are involved in clean energy research, including 25 in the College of Engineering.

Further information is available in the press release, Revolutionizing the Solar Panel Industry.

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Atmospheric Science Students Awarded for Research

Awarded the 2007 Herbert Riehl Memorial Scholarship for best technical manuscript, atmospheric science Ph.D. student Amy Butler is studying the affects of carbon dioxide surrounding the Southern Ocean. Located in the lower Hemisphere, the Southern Ocean is thought to act as a sink for human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. Using observations of carbon dioxide from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Monitoring Division based in Boulder, Butler is working to understand how climate variability affects the carbon dioxide levels circulating over the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding ocean.

Butler is undertaking a first-of-its-kind study to demonstrate a relationship between observed variations in the rate of change of carbon dioxide over the peninsula and large-scale climate variability. The study will help scientists to understand what drives fluxes of carbon dioxide from the Southern Ocean from month to month.

Butler's work titled, "Observed Relationships between the Southern Annular Mode and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide," will be featured in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles, and is currently in press. A double major in physics and astrophysics at the University of Colorado in Boulder prior to joining CSU, Butler ideally would like to continue her climate research at NOAA or the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) after earning her Ph.D. under Dr. David Thompson.

Concentrating on another part of the world, Ph.D. student Kirsten Koehler received an award for her work on atmospheric issues affecting California.

According to Koehler, aerosols have been shown to influence cloud formation, one of the largest uncertainties in determining global climate change. By measuring interactions of aerosols with water vapor at differing temperatures and relative humidities, Koehler has shown the potential impact of dust aerosols on visibility, the development of precipitation and the lifetime of clouds. Koehler hopes to accurately measure changes in clouds due to climate and aerosol concentration changes in the region, in order to determine their impact on cloud formation and the climate.

Koehler is the 2007 recipient of the Department of Atmospheric Science Alumni Award for Outstanding Research by a senior Ph.D. After earning her doctorate under Dr. Sonia Kreidenweis, she would like to continue her research at NCAR or join academia as a professor or research scientist.

Both Koehler (left) and Butler were honored this past spring in an annual awards ceremony, where each presented their research. Candidates for both awards were nominated by a Department of Atmospheric Science faculty member and were selected by a faculty committee.

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Engineering Innovations Breakfast Events Underway

Alumni along the Front Range are invited to the college's fall series of Engineering Innovations Breakfasts. Join fellow alumni, friends, and colleagues to hear updates on technological trends and innovative research projects, presented by renowned college faculty.

Join the college at one or all of the following presentations:

October 16 - Dixon’s Restaurant in Denver
Speaker: Dr. Neil S. Grigg
Topic: Colorado’s Water and Economy: The Next Ten Years

November 8 - CSU Lory Student Center
Speaker: Dr. Randy A. Bartels
Topic: Dancing Molecules for Biological Imaging

November 13 - Inverness Hotel in DTC
Speaker: Dr. Kenneth F. Reardon
Topic: Biofuels and CSU's Research Impact

All breakfasts begin at 7:30 and conclude by 9 a.m. These events are open to alumni, friends of the college, and the general public. Guests are encouraged to come.

Cost is $20/person, payable to CSU. Payment accepted at event ($15 for breakfast and a $5 gift to the Dean’s Innovation Fund; cash or check only). For more information or to RSVP, contact the Office of Development at (970) 491-7028.

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Other stories of interest...

A New Online University within the CSU System

CloudSat Making Strides in Research

Colorado State Announces Cancer Supercluster

Free Tutoring Services to Underserved K-12 Students

More College of Engineering stories are available on-line
at Engineering News.

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