Academic Village Gifts

CSU Associated with
Nobel Peace Prize

Arctic Exploration

Nominations for College Awards

Newsletter Highlights Colorado and CSU

Charitable Gift: IRAs

More Stories of Interest

Woodward Gift Enables Systems Engineering Program

Woodward Governor Company announced at a September 28 luncheon that its Charitable Trust pledged $1 million to support a systems engineering endowed professorship at Colorado State University's College of Engineering.

Combined with University funding, the Woodward endowment will allow CSU to develop a strong systems engineering program. "A systems engineering program will benefit the University, the community, and businesses such as Woodward," said Thomas A. Gendron, Woodward president and chief executive officer.

The endowment enabled the University to employ a strong leader to build the new systems engineering program. Ronald M. Sega, former NASA astronaut and undersecretary for the U.S. Air Force, recently accepted the Woodward Professorship in Systems Engineering and will also serve as vice president for Applied Research for the CSU Research Foundation.

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter commented, "I believe that a first-rate education system is one of the cornerstones of building a vibrant economy. The contributions that will be made through this program will serve society by solving problems of global importance."

For more information on corporate giving, please visit the COE website or contact Audra Bricker, director of development, at (970) 491-1312.

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Lockheed Martin and Sun Microsystems Support Academic Village

The grand opening celebration of the Academic Village was held on October 5, during Homecoming and Family weekend. Honored guests, faculty, and staff were present to acknowledge the numerous contributions that made the vision of the Academic Village a reality.

In the past 10 years, Lockheed Martin has donated more than $500,000 to the college in technological enhancements. Most recently Lockheed Martin provided an additional $20,000 to design studios within the Engineering Academic Village.

Sun Microsystems Inc. donated Sun Thin Client computers and servers to the Engineering Academic Village, allowing for a workstation for each student in the building, and provided equipment to enhance the computing environment in the electronic classroom. Sun has supported the college with more than $1 million in gifts in-kind over the last 10 years.

Bringing to life the contributions from Lockheed Martin and Sun Microsystems, Inc. were COE employees Mark Ritschard, director of Engineering Network Services, and Dr. Tom Siller, associate dean of Academic Affairs. Both were recognized for their personal commitment and leadership in the project.

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Microorganism Study Leads to Arctic Exploration

Two Colorado State University scientists, Ken Reardon in the College of Engineering and Matthew Wallenstein in the Warner College of Natural Resources, are working with Josh Schimel from the University of California-Santa Barbara and Michael Weintraub from the University of Toledo on a new field of research known as soil proteomics, the study of proteins in the cells of the soil's microorganisms.

"The distribution of plants in the Arctic is changing because of global warming and that is having an impact on microorganisms," said Reardon, a professor of chemical and biological engineering. "We want to look at how the constant process of freezing and thawing affects the functioning of these microbes and ultimately impacts the whole Arctic ecosystem."

The goal of proteomics is to look at all the proteins in a cell or tissue simultaneously, whereas other approaches only consider one protein at a time. Reardon's group was among the first to apply these techniques to complex communities that contain thousands of bacterial species, such as those found in soils. This study will apply these cutting-edge techniques to address fundamental questions in biology that are especially important to understand the rapidly changing planet.

"We will study tundra systems in the low Arctic of Toolik Lake in northern Alaska, and the high Arctic of western Greenland because between them, they cover the full latitude and climate range within the terrestrial Arctic and, as a result, cover most of the dominant arctic plant communities," said Wallenstein, who is the principal investigator on the Colorado State portion of the research.

To read more about the study, visit the CSU website. Research is being funded by a grant of $904,623 from the National Science Foundation.

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Nominations Being Accepted for College Alumni Awards

Each year the college recognizes former students whose accomplishments in their careers, service to industry and the public, and/or volunteer efforts have brought honor to that individual, the College of Engineering, and to Colorado State University.

Honors are extended to one outstanding alum from each of the five academic departments, as well as one alum who graduated with an engineering science degree and one college-wide honoree. Continuing this year, the college will honor a graduate of the last decade (pictured, 2007 recipient Brittany Albrandt with Dean Sandra Woods).

Alumni and friends of the college are welcome to nominate an individual for a 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award, which will be presented at the annual awards dinner on Saturday, April 19, 2008. Award nominations are being accepted through December 14, 2007. For more information, please contact Shannon Mosness at (970) 491-7028.

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ECE Focuses on Senior Design Projects

During senior year, as many may remember, undergraduate students participate in a capstone senior design project. Senior design projects allow students to develop practical, hands-on skills and teaches them how to succeed in an integrated, interdisciplinary engineering environment.

This year students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) are working on 21 projects, allowing them to collaborate with industry partners. Projects are enabled by private gifts of equipment, hardware and money.

This year, two projects focus on enhancing the quality of life for individuals with disabilities. The projects include redesigning a game controller to develop remote controls for various gaming devices for people with different degrees of disability and designing a device that allows paraplegic individuals to open a door simply by approaching it. Each project demands students integrate sensor technologies, human interaction, programming and electronics.

Since these projects are not connected with any research program, students must raise funds to make the projects a reality. If you are interested in donating equipment or monies to support these students, please contact Olivera Notaros, head of ECE senior design, at olivera@colostate.edu or via telephone at (970) 491-4629.

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Newsletter Highlights Colorado's Economy and CSU's Impact

Colorado opinion leaders, decision-makers, industry stakeholders, and interested citizens are welcome to subscribe to the Competitive Edge newsletter. The Competitive Edge is a free, monthly, online e-business newsletter that provides information on the most current issues, research, and resources that affect Colorado's economy and the quality of life of its residents. The Competitive Edge looks at economic forecasts for Colorado, business startups, innovations, and partnerships that are making a global difference, University student projects that are addressing real-world problems, and research that affects the state, the nation, and the world.

The Competitive Edge is a publication of Colorado State University's Office of the President.

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Opportunity is Knocking: Your IRA is the Key

If you're looking for the most tax-effective gift to make to a charitable organization, your individual retirement account (IRA) may very well be the best choice. The CSU's Office of Planned Giving can assist you with learning about IRAs and other forms of charitable gifts, including estate planning, living wills, and more.

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Other stories of interest...

New Fuels May Hurt Waters, Report States

Extreme Earth Research from the Bottom Up

Equine Orthopaedics Joins Engineering in
Studying Race Track Surfaces

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

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