2007 President's Fall Address and All-University Picnic

What: President Penley's Annual Fall Address and All-University Picnic

When: Sept. 6, 2007 at 11:15 a.m.

Where: Colorado State Oval

An annual event, President Penley's Fall Address and the All-University Picnic, is going green this year. Focused on sustainability, the event will feature everything from biodegradable plates and compostable utensils to campus and student-sponsored booths highlighting different aspects of CSU's dedication to the environment. Featuring displays from several departments within the College, engineering students and faculty will be among those showcasing a commitment to our earth and atmosphere. The following exciting engineering projects will be on display.

Chemical and Biological Engineering

ChemE Students Develop Alternative Fuels of the Future

Students in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering accepted the challenge to design and build a car that is powered by a chemical reaction and will also fit inside a shoebox when disassembled. CSU students competed this year in the ChemE Car competition during the Regional Student AIChE Meeting in Tempe, AZ. The main objectives are for the car to go a certain distance while carrying a certain amount of weight. This is not known until about 30 minutes prior to the competition! So, the approach the ChemE Car team from CSU used included a very light car powered by a reaction between baking soda and hydrochloric acid. CSU's team placed 2nd overall and as a result, they will be competing at the national competition in Salt Lake City, UT this November.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Recycling Tires Leads to Cleaner Environment and Better Roads

A civil engineering group is researching whether some of Colorado's 40 million stockpiled rubber tires - the largest batch in the nation - can be reused to improve residential foundation soils and road bases and mitigate the effects of expansive soils. Antonio Carraro, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is leading a research program that will test mixtures of expansive soils and scrap tire rubber. The research has the potential to mitigate the shrink-swell potential of roadbed and foundation soils and help clean up the environment at the same time. Carraro also recently received a $128,913 grant from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to test his expansive soil-rubber mixtures in residential foundations.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Early Detection of Severe Storms Saves Lives and Property

A Colorado State University professor is leading a test of a sophisticated network of radars in Oklahoma's "tornado alley" to improve early warning systems for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, possibly saving thousands of lives each year. The radar system in the Oklahoma test bed is part of a multidisciplinary collaborative effort funded by the National Science Foundation; the Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere, or CASA, is a partnership between Colorado State and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Puerto Rico. Electrical and computer engineering Professor V. Chandrasekar is the leader of the remote sensing stage of the project and also the deputy director in charge of CASA research programs.

Search-and-Rescue Robotics Project: Mechanical/Electrical

CSU students have earned 2nd place in the U.S. open and 4th in the world championships in the annual NIST/RoboCup Urban Search and Rescue Robot Competitions, competing against the leading robotic research groups from around the world. The goal of the RoboCup contest is to increase awareness of the challenges involved in search and rescue applications and provide a public proving ground for field-able robotic systems that will ultimately be used to save lives. Student teams are required to demonstrate their robots capabilities in mobility, sensory perception, and practical operator interfaces, while locating simulated victims in unstructured environments.

Mechanical Engineering

Providing Better Energy Solutions for Families in Guatemala

In most rural areas of underdeveloped countries, people cook on open fires in the middle of the floor, resulting in severe health problems that primarily affect women and children. Working with a Texas manufacturer who supplies cook stoves to Guatemala's poorest residents, a group of senior mechanical engineering students conducted research at Colorado State labs and tested them in Guatemala to reduce the costs and significantly increase the rate of production of these stoves. The students are working under the tutelage of Professor Bryan Willson in the College of Engineering's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory. They're making modifications partly from their experience as engineers-in-training and partly from visiting with families in Guatemala. The stoves recently attracted national attention in Guatemala when Guatemala's first lady, Wendy Berger, showed them to U.S. first lady Laura Bush. Wendy Berger's programs have led to the installation of several thousand of the stoves in Guatemala.

Solix/EECL Algae-to-Oil

Solix Biofuels is a CSU startup company working to develop biofuels based on microalgae. Solix's patent-pending technology is based on high-productivity, low-cost photobioreactors. The Solix effort is currently based at CSU's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory and involves full-time Solix staff, CSU students (graduate and undergraduate), CSU faculty as well as additional collaborators from around the world.

DemoSat Rover

Mechanical and Electrical Engineering students Jonathon Cox, Matt Wilkson, Matt Ellis and Jared Whelan recently participated in the Colorado Space Grant Consortium DemoSat program, designing and constructing a rover capable of withstanding a parachuted drop from the edge of the atmosphere. Working under the direction of project director and Professor Paul Wilbur and Instructor Steven Schaeffer, students designed a rover equipped with a series of sensors and GPS able to deploy and navigate a preprogrammed path upon landing. Carried to space via a weather balloon, the rover was deployed from 100,000 feet on August 4th from Deer Trail, Colorado.



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