University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Annual Report 2009
IMPACT
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On the Cover: Researchers at Pitt are developing biodegradable metals that could be placed in the body and allowed to degrade when they’re no longer needed. Pictured on the cover is porous scaffolding that is created by converting a magnesium-based alloy into powder. See pages 6–11 for full article.
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Letter from the Dean
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Healthy Metals
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Powering Up
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Green Building Will Grow Collaborations
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Department of Bioengineering
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Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
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Department of Industrial Engineering
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Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
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Office of Diversity
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Students
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Alumni, Development, and External Relations
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Annual Report 2009
The Swanson School: Impacting Our World
Despite the economic hardships our nation has faced over the past year, I am proud to report that the Swanson School of Engineering continues to thrive. This past year, we’ve experienced successes with our research, teaching, scholarship, facilities, educational programming, and student initiatives. We announced during fall 2008 that we’d help lead a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (ERC), which involves dozens of engineers and doctors from universities and industries around the world for a five-year, $18.5 million project. The aim of the ERC, which you can read about on pages 6-11, is to develop implantable devices made from biodegradable metals. The devices will be designed to adapt to physical changes in a patient’s body and dissolve once they have healed, reducing the follow-up surgeries and potential complications of major orthopedic, craniofacial, and cardiovascular procedures, and sparing millions of patients worldwide added pain and medical expenses.
Gerald D. Holder U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering, in the new facility for the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, which will house 18 faculty members and 94 graduate and postdoctoral researchers when opened during Fall 2009.
Visit www.engr.pitt.edu/BenedumTransformation to view renovation photos.
This fall we also named our new associate dean of research, Mark Redfern, who previously served on our bioengineering faculty. Redfern holds a PhD in bioengineering from the University of Michigan. Alongside Rakie Cham, associate professor of bioengineering, his research conducted in the Human Movement Balance Laboratory on preventing slips and falls among the elderly has been featured widely by scientific and popular sources, including recently the NBC Nightly News (visit www.engr.pitt.edu/news/HMBL to view the video). Redfern is associate editor of several
journals, including the Journal of Applied Biomechanics and IEEE Transactions in Rehabilitation Engineering. Phase one of the Benedum Hall renovations has been completed, and we are ready to unveil that portion of the project, which will house the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation and its faculty and student researchers. Six years ago, when Jack Mascaro (BSCE ’66 and MSCE ’80) contributed a generous lead gift enabling the school to become a leader in sustainability research, the Mascaro Center consisted of only a few offices. This fall, we will open a three-story, 42,000-square-feet building containing wet and dry labs for 18 faculty members and 94 graduate and postdoctoral researchers. The remainder of Benedum Hall will undergo a complete transformation of the existing space into more state-of-the-art research, teaching, and study facilities over the next several years. We experienced many other accomplishments this year, including the formal birth of our Power and Energy Initiative, which serves as the umbrella for our new programs in electric power, nuclear, and mining engineering; high employment rates for graduating students; and a surge in the number of students who participated in international travel. We also celebrated the success of our alumni during our annual awards banquet. I encourage you to read about these achievements and more in our 2009 annual report. Gerald D. Holder
U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Annual Report 2009
Healthy Metals Swanson School researchers are helping to lead a project to create novel implantable devices that will dissolve harmlessly in the body, reducing complications from surgery.
In September 2008, the school announced it had received a five-year, $18.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Titled “Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials,� the grant enabled the school to create an Engineering Research Center (ERC).
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Above photo: magnesium-based alloy that can be converted to alloy powders of controlled sizes
William Wagner will serve as deputy director of the $18.5 million Engineering Research Center. Wagner is also deputy director, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and professor of bioengineering, chemical and petroleum engineering, and surgery.
Annual Report 2009
Pitt will be part of the ERC’s central partnership along with lead institution North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCAT) and the University of Cincinnati (UC). The grant will also create the first bioengineering department at a historically black college and university, NCAT. William Wagner, deputy director of Pitt’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and professor of bioengineering, chemical and petroleum engineering, and surgery, will serve as deputy director of the project with UC Professor Mark Schulz, codirector of the UC Nanoworld and Smart Materials and Devices Laboratories. Jagannathan Sankar, NCAT’s Distinguished University Professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures, will direct the project.
“That’s the revolutionary part: You can actually program your biomaterial to know when to disappear, consistent with optimal healing” “The folks at North Carolina A&T, in particular Dr. Sankar, with his great enthusiasm and wonderful personal magnetism, spearheaded the effort that convinced us we should go ahead and try to compete for one of these ERC awards,” says Harvey Borovetz, professor and chair of bioengineering.
“One of the reasons we won this award,” according to Borovetz, “was that Dean Holder, at just the right time, hired Dr. Prashant Kumta, a recognized authority in metals, biometallurgy, and the biocomposition of metals.” Kumta (pictured), Weidlein Chair of the Departments of Bioengineering, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, is working to develop the next generation of degradable metals: new magnesium-based alloys. With Charles Sfeir, associate professor of oral medicine and pathology in Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine, Kumta is using metals from Germany’s Hannover Medical School, which has clinical experience implanting magnesium-based alloys, and characterizing their ability to be put into bone applications. One of the major applications of such materials is pediatric. Today when children are born with a congenital deformity like a cleft palate, they’re fitted with hard metal devices that have to be removed and refitted over time.
Prashant Kumta Weidlein Chair of the Departments of Bioengineering, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, is working to develop the next generation of degradable metals.
The collaboration melds NCAT’s expertise in metallurgy, Pitt’s expertise in regenerative medicine, and UC’s expertise in sensor technology. Research in the ERC will focus on developing biodegradable metals—magnesium-based alloys that could be placed in the body, then degrade when they’re no longer needed. “The goal would be that the metal would do what it needed to do but eventually disappear, so that you would not need to replace it or do a second procedure,” says Borovetz. “That’s the revolutionary part: You can actually program your biomaterial to know when to disappear, consistent with optimal healing.”
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Annual Report 2009
Devices the ERC researchers will engineer— crafted from magnesium alloys and other biodegradable metals—would adapt to the body without refitting. Another research goal is to develop degradable cardiovascular devices, like stents. Magnesium stents and other supports would restore cardiovascular function, then degrade, thus avoiding both removing the device and exposing the patient to the potential complications of leaving it inside the body. “When you get a coronary stent, that stent is with you for the rest of your life,” says Wagner. “Patients may need another stent put in, and wire cages in the arteries can get dangerous. Having it disappear after six months with the artery remaining open would be attractive.”
for metals used in blood pumps, and drugreleasing coatings for stents. Says Borovetz, “The technical challenges are certainly there, but more importantly, so are the patients who need these technologies.” Other partners in the ERC are the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India, and California State University, Los Angeles. In addition, nearly 30 product development and industrial partners in the nanotechnology and biotechnology market will form a consortium with the ERC to provide input on research and to help transfer technology to patients.
systems that monitor and control the safety and effectiveness of biodegradable metals inside the body, telling doctors whether undesirable degradation by-products are reaching toxic levels. “These are ‘smart biomaterials’ in a sense,” says Borovetz. “UC, with its expertise in sensors, can take a piece of metal and program it to function according to a particular clinical need.” Wagner’s group also will work to increase value and functionality of nondegradable metals by modifying their surface. Applications include reducing blood clotting
REVOLUTIONIZING METALLIC BIOMATERIALS
Wagner points out that the United States previously has lagged in biodegradable metals research, with the leaders in this field being mostly in Germany and China. “This was a
“This was a strategic investment for the country to get in at an early stage in this type of research” Finally, the team aims to develop tiny sensing
A
B
strategic investment for the country to get in at an early stage in this type of research,” he says. Borovetz notes that being selected for the highly competitive ERC reflects the continuing improvement and excellence of the Swanson School, and the quality of its people. From 143 submissions at the preproposal stage, the NSF funded just five.
C
“Normally, I’m not interested in applying for grants or other awards where you have less than a 1 in 25 chance,” jokes Borovetz.
Researchers at Pitt are developing biodegradable metals that could be placed in the body and allowed to degrade when they’re no longer needed.
Pictured here is a magnesium-based alloy (A) that can be converted to alloy powders of controlled sizes by high energy mechanical milling. The mechanically milled alloy powders are then converted into biodegradable 3-D porous or non-porous scaffolds using modified and customized thermal and piezoelectric inkjet printers (B). One application of these biodegradable metallics is a jaw implant, where the scaffolding would hold the jaw in place then degrade after human bone regenerates. The 3-D inkjet process can be used to print and process scaffolds comprising a variety of complex shapes and porous architectures (C). Another example is the ball bearing cylinder, a shape that can be created with the alloy metal powders (D).
“The faculty in the Swanson School have the kind of reputation that is required to compete for these awards.” D
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
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Powering Up
Across the five research areas of focus in the Swanson School—bioengineering, energy, manufacturing and product innovation, nanoscience and engineering, and sustainability—a new center and new initiative are providing opportunities for collaboration and innovation.
Center for Simulation and Modeling
Whether studying the spread of a pandemic or predicting economic collapse, computer simulations and modeling are used when experiments are impractical or impossible. Technological advances in computer processing can help researchers run simulations faster, and Karl Johnson wants to help them do it. Johnson, William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, codirects the Center for Simulation and Modeling (SAM), which allows researchers across the University to utilize new computer processing technologies. Most processors today have multiple cores, or virtual CPUs. Commercial programs make the most of these multi-core technologies, but academic-written code usually does not. “A lot of us in the University are developing our own codes or are modifying existing codes,” says Johnson. “The onus is on us to figure out how to take advantage of it.”
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
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Johnson says the increase in processor speeds also is being driven by consumer electronics like the Sony Playstation 3. The highly specialized graphics processing units (GPUs) can run codes up to 100 times faster.
Power and Energy Initiative
“We’re investigating how we can take simulation or modeling codes that have been written for CPUs and port them to a GPU platform,” he says. If Johnson succeeds, a simulation that in the past would have taken 100 days could theoretically be run in just one.
Over the last several decades in the power industries, technological development, investment, and infrastructure expansion have gradually declined. The result has been reduced research and education for power- and energy-related activities, including engineering.
The center is staffed by three consultants who don’t write the codes for the researchers, but help them learn how to do it themselves. “It’s not a shop; it’s more like a tutorial service or a master class service,” says Johnson. “The consultants have hands-on prior experience with developing applications and writing their own codes.”
If Johnson succeeds, a simulation that in the past would have taken 100 days could theoretically be run in just one
One of the purposes of the center is to initiate collaborations across disciplines. SAM offers a twice-monthly seminar series in which affiliated researchers discuss their work, detailing their algorithms and types of modeling. “The idea is to try to spark a transfer of ideas from one field to another, and also to develop collaborations where people might work together to write a proposal or to tackle a problem,” says Johnson.
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Researchers at the Center for Simulation and Modeling, Left to Right: Kim Wong, Karl Johnson (Codirector), Ken Jordan (Codirector), Nicole Johansen, Richard Christie
With a renaissance in new energy technologies now underway, companies need more workers. To meet the increasing needs of employers, the Swanson School has developed new programs in electric power engineering, nuclear engineering, and mining engineering under its Power and Energy Initiative. “Students and faculty had not been populating the power and energy fields over the past couple of decades, and so we don’t have an adequate pipeline today of properly trained engineering professionals to fill the technical workforce requirements that we’re now embarking upon in the rapidly emerging energy economy,” says Gregory Reed, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the initiative. Due to its location, Pitt is well-positioned for the resurgence. The region has historically been a powerhouse for electric, coal, and nuclear engineering. “If you made a topographical map of the United States for nuclear engineering expertise, Southwestern Pennsylvania would have one of the peaks,” says Larry Foulke, adjunct professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and director of nuclear programs. Adds Anthony Iannacchione, director of mining engineering and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, “It’s to everybody’s benefit for Pitt to have this program since the University is right in the middle of this area. There really is a shortage and a demand for mining engineers.”
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The Swanson School is developing new programs in electric power, nuclear, and mining engineering to address industry needs for qualified engineers. Leading Pitt’s programs are:
Larry Foulke
Director, Nuclear Programs Adjunct Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
By collaborating closely with industry partners, government sponsors, and other key constituents, the program aims to educate the next generation of power and energy engineering professionals and contribute to advanced research activities in the power, nuclear, and mining fields. The school now offers undergraduate and graduate concentrations or certificates in electric power, nuclear, and mining (graduate certificate under development). The initiative also focuses on outreach, hosting industry nights, research roundtables, and other networking events. Regional industry partners, including Eaton Corporation (electric power), Westinghouse (nuclear), and CONSOL Energy (mining) provide philanthropic support, collaborative research projects, senior design projects, and scholarships. In addition to industry support, the initiative has received funding from the Heinz Endowments, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Total support for the initiative totals over $4 million. Through a grant from Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the initiative has developed innovative research tracks at the crossroads of electrical, nuclear, and mining engineering, focusing on sustainability and green technology. Research areas are centered around renewable energy integration and storage; advanced power delivery technology, especially in areas like high performance power electronics for the transmission grid; energy efficiency; and advanced materials for harsh energy environments.
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Gregory Reed
Director, Power and Energy Initiative Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Anthony Iannacchione Director, Mining Engineering Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Reed notes that when the initiative was being developed, no one expected the stimulus package. “We developed this in a really timely manner knowing a lot of this need was building up,” he says. “The stimulus has helped to accelerate the things we’ve been talking about for many years now, and provides further opportunity to enhance the value of our corporate partnerships and other collaborations.” By all accounts, the program has been an early success. Enrollment has been steadily increasing in all the introductory courses. Bettis and Westinghouse have told Foulke how pleased they are with the graduates they’ve been getting. In addition, Eaton worked with Reed to develop a new course that was offered this past summer on power distribution engineering and smart grids, which had a strong student enrollment and was co-instructed by an experienced Eaton employee serving as an adjunct. “I keep telling people that the Southwestern Pennsylvania region is in a period analogous to what we did back in the 1940s–60s, leading an industrial revolution with our steel industry,” says Reed. “We are in the exact same position right now in dealing with this more technically advanced emerging energy economy. We’ve changed from a steel town to an advanced-technology town and we have all these industries that are poised for success. We’re well positioned as a University to be a national leader in the power and energy technology resurgence that is beginning in America.”
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Green Building Will Grow Collaborations
From green roofs to green buildings, the $100 million Benedum Hall renovation and expansion project has made substantial progress. Some key facilities will be ready for students and faculty in the fall, including the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) building.
The new environmentally-friendly building, expected to achieve LEED certification, will be full of natural light and use low-volatile organic compound paint and carpeting as well as recycled furniture. It will house 18 faculty and 94 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Research space will include dry and wet labs as well as offices, conference rooms, and seminar rooms. The Mascaro Center was a joint initiative between John “Jack” C. Mascaro (BSCE ’66 and MSCE ’80) and the University to support the Swanson School’s priority of sustainability. Mascaro donated a substantial portion of the cost of the new building. At the same time, the school had a plan to renovate the entire Benedum tower. Although they’re separate projects, renovation of the second floor of Benedum will be used for the Mascaro Center. The MCSI building will bring together engineers from across the Swanson School, an arrangement in which physical proximity is expected to spark research collaborations. For example, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Kent Harries’ involvement with the MCSI led him to collaborate with Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Lisa Mauck Weiland on urban wind harvesting. “It’s a project we probably never would have thought of if we weren’t sitting around the room together brainstorming,” he says.
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Annual Report 2009
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In the new building, he is looking forward to being surrounded by faculty with diverse backgrounds and interests. “I think it’s a great model,” he says. MCSI Codirector Gena Kovalcik expects to see more cross-disciplinary collaboration in the new building—not only with faculty, but with students as well. She notes that the interdisciplinary MCSI Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program has allowed students to learn about each others’ research, giving them a broader perspective on sustainability. “I think they’re going to graduate with a much more thorough understanding of the breadth and depth of sustainability and how they can have an impact.” “The Mascaro Center has come a long way in the past six years,” Kovalcik adds. “To really have a home and such a visible presence on the Pitt campus is exciting.” The third floor of the MCSI building, which will house graduate students, will overlook the roof of the former Benedum auditorium, which has been converted into six classrooms. The 10,000-square-foot roof will be planted with low-maintenance foliage, helping to reduce storm water runoff and heating and cooling costs for the building. The plaza between the two buildings also will be planted with greenery, creating a second green roof over the new ground floor of Benedum. “We will still have that outdoor area where we can have gatherings and events for the Swanson School and the University, “ says U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering Gerald Holder. “It’s a nice venue.”
“It’s a project we probably never would have thought of if we weren’t sitting around the room together brainstorming” Other facilities that will be complete in the fall are a computing lab and library stacks in the new mezzanine level of Benedum, formerly the sub-basement. The new ground floor is scheduled to be finished in late fall term 2009 and will be converted into the main congregating area for students, consisting of classrooms, a café, space for student organizations, and the library. Based on surveys of students and faculty, administrative offices, including the dean’s office and student services, will move to the first-floor level.
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Construction on the whole tower is divided into four phases. The first phase, lasting through late 2010, will include floors one, two, four and five. Architects are now drawing up plans for the second phase (floors 3 and 6–12), which will start shortly after.
“My goal as dean is to have the best possible school: to have the highest scholarship, give the best possible education we can to our undergraduate and graduate students, and be seen as a place of academic excellence” The building will be reconfigured so that its main entrance is on what’s now the basement level. “The basement is not truly a basement because about half of it is above ground,” says Holder. “We’ll design it so that part of the other half is above ground so students can walk right into the basement from O’Hara Street and don’t have to go up to the plaza.” This redesign will route foot traffic more efficiently. Holder describes the inevitably disruptive construction as “wonderful chaos.” “People are excited about what we’re going to get out of this,” he says. “My goal as dean is to have the best possible school: to have the highest scholarship, give the best possible education we can to our undergraduate and graduate students, and be seen as a place of academic excellence,” says Holder. “All of what we’re doing is designed to provide the facilities to our students and faculty so that they may achieve those goals.” “To attract the brightest students and faculty, we want to have state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories,” he adds. “These new classrooms will be really spectacular, and the labs will be the best you can build.” Visit www.engr.pitt.edu/BenedumTransformation to view photos of the Benedum Hall and Mascaro Center construction.
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IMPACT
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
DEPARTMENTS
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Department of
Bioengineering (pictured), John A. Swanson Endowed Chair, received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Van C. Mow Medal “for contributions in advancing biomechanics of native and engineered heart valve tissues; and leadership in the development of the bioengineering profession, service to its community, and inspired guidance of young bioengineers.” Michael Sacks
Savio L-Y. Woo,
University Professor of Bioengineering and director of Pitt’s Musculoskeletal Research Center, received an honorary professorship from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA). Woo also will serve as chair of the International Advisory Committee of the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering at BUAA. The Department of Bioengineering
will lead the Swanson School’s effort in a joint National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCAT) and the University
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of Cincinnati. The $18.5 million project will create orthopedic, craniofacial, and cardiovascular devices that adapt to a patient’s anatomy and dissolve when no longer needed. (Read full story on page 6.) Alan Russell,
professor of bioengineering and chemical engineering, University Professor of Surgery, and director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, was named codirector of the new federally funded institution The Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM). Codirecting with Russell is Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. AFIRM will be dedicated to repairing battlefield injuries through the use of regenerative medicine—science that takes advantage of the body’s natural healing powers to restore or replace damaged tissue and organs. Therapies developed by AFIRM also will benefit people in the civilian population with severe trauma or burns due to illness or injury. Other Swanson School
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Michael Sacks
John A. Swanson Endowed Chair, received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Van C. Mow Medal.
faculty involved include William professor of bioengineering, chemical and petroleum engineering, and surgery, and Prashant Kumta, the Edward R. Weidlein Chair. Russell was recently ranked #32 among the “100 People Who Are Changing America” by Rolling Stone magazine.
Wagner,
Harvey Borovetz,
chair, was designated Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering
in recognition of internationally recognized scholarship, leadership, and contributions to the field of bioengineering. Appointment to distinguished professorship is among the highest honors the University bestows upon a faculty member. Borovetz also holds the Robert L. Hardesty Professorship in the Department of Surgery and is professor, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.
Annual Report www.engr.pitt.edu/bioengineering
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Department of
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering has been named interim chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. He is the leader of a multi-university grant through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to study hydrogen storage in complex metal hydrides and a new National Science Foundation grant to study separation and transport of gases using carbon nanotubebased membranes. He also has been actively involved in promoting simulation and modeling across the University as codirector of the Center for Molecular and Materials Simulation and the new University-wide Center for Simulation and Modeling. Johnson holds a PhD in chemical engineering from Cornell University. He is also a W.K. Whiteford Professor and National Energy Technology Laboratory Faculty Fellow. Karl Johnson
As part of a $36 million commitment by the DOE aimed at furthering the development of new and cost-effective technologies for the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the existing fleet of coal-fired power plants, Eric Beckman, George M. Bevier Professor of Engineering and codirector, Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, Bob Enick, Bayer Professor, and Johnson are assisting General Electric Company in the development of new solvents for the efficient absorption of CO2 from gas mixtures. Progress this past year includes the screening of many different solvents
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for capturing CO2 and atomisticallydetailed modeling on a number of physical and chemical solvents with results that are in close accord with experimental observations.
(pictured), assistant professor and Bicentennial Alumni Faculty Fellow, continues his research on creating particles that would behave as natural cells do to carry out specific tasks. He received a Beckman Young Investigators award last year in support. The Beckman Foundation is named for renowned scientist Arnold Beckman, inventor of the pH meter and pioneer of Silicon Valley, and awards novel work with far-reaching potential. Steven Little
joined the department from Harvard University as assistant professor. Her research interests focus on the area of process systems engineering and optimization and their applications in different chemical and bioengineering problems. Ipsita Bannerjee
Di Gao,
assistant professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow, received a grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) for basic research on technologies that will lead to genome sequencing at a dramatically reduced cost. Gao’s team will lay the groundwork to prove basic principles for a technology where DNA strands are
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Steven Little
assistant professor and Bicentennial Alumni Faculty Fellow, is conducting research funded by The Beckman Foundation.
pulled away from a solid surface when stretched by an electric field. Gao also has been featured by America.gov for his work on developing a low-cost method for removing arsenic from drinking water. In 2009, he and Jason Monnell, research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, led a team of students who won the 2009 Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology P3 Award sponsored by the AIChE Institute for Sustainability and SustainUS at the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Sustainable Design Expo.
William Federspiel,
William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Bioengineering, and Surgery, has been named a member of the Bioengineering, Technology, and Surgical Sciences (BTSS) Study Section of the National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review. The BTSS Study Section reviews grant applications in the interdisciplinary fields of surgery and bioengineering to develop innovative medical instruments, materials, processes, implants, and devices to diagnose and treat disease and injury.
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Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering Xu Liang (pictured), associate professor,
received two grants this past year for environmental research. Her project “Collaborative Research: Investigating Temporal Correlation for Energy Efficient and Lossless Communication in Wireless Sensor Networks” (conducted in conjunction with the Indiana University/Purdue University– Indianapolis), which focuses on developing an innovative framework to significantly improve energy efficiency for large-scale environmental monitoring of wireless sensor networks, received a grant from the National Science Foundation. The second grant, awarded from the U.S. Department of Energy for her project “The Role of Vegetation, Surface, and Subsurface Processes on Mega Drought and Its Implications to Climate Change,” focuses on investigating the role of the land’s surface in the duration and magnitude of droughts induced by climate change. Under the guidance of Associate Professor Willie Harper, Jr., Yinghua Feng, graduate student, received a prestigious three-year National Estuarine Research Reserve System Fellowship from NOAA. Feng’s research project is entitled “Sensing Soluble Organics with Microbial Fuel Cells Deployed in an Estuary.”
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Daniel Budny,
associate professor and academic director, Freshman Programs, was promoted to Fellow Member in the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and received Outstanding Teaching Award from the North Central Section of ASEE. Kent Harries,
William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow, was promoted with tenure to associate professor. During 2008–09, he published 11 journal articles, some in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati, University of South Carolina, Carnegie Mellon University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the Port and Airport Research Institute in Yokosuka, Japan. He also has published 14 conference articles and made presentations in Rio de Janeiro, Zurich, Edinburgh, and Nashville, and was elected to the Council of the International Institute for FRP in Construction in Zurich. This past year, he led student researchers to both India and Brazil, where they investigated the design and construction of bamboo buildings and developed plans for sustainable construction. Both trips were part of the Undergraduate Research in
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Xu Liang
assistant professor, received two grants last year for environmental research.
Sustainable Engineering program in the Swanson School’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI). The fiveyear-old program gives undergraduate students the opportunity to research an engineering problem related to sustainability and to be able to work independently on a project of particular significance to them. The Center for Sustainable (CSTI) continued to maintain its contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) this past year, with 17 projects totaling more Transportation Infrastructure
than $4 million. Researchers across the University collaborated on projects this year, including those from the Swanson School’s Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and the University Center for Social and Urban Research. Outside contractors such as GAI Consultants and TransAssociates were also involved. Projects across CSTI are diverse and include researching the implementation of biodiesel into PennDOT’s existing fleet, repair methods of pre-stress girder bridges, and the benefits of vanpooling.
Annual Report www.engr.pitt.edu/civil
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Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering In addition to its leading-edge programs in computer engineering, signal processing and controls, RFID technologies, and micro-/nano- electronics and photonics, the department is experiencing a reinvigoration of its programs in electric power systems and energy-related technologies. The following highlights some of these new and diverse activities. The department formed a partnership with Eaton Corporation, a diversified industrial manufacturer, to train students in electric power engineering. Supported by a $500,000 sponsorship from Eaton, the collaboration will focus on developing courses across a broad range of electric power engineering and system topics, including the growing field of smart power grids and a digitized, efficient electricitydelivery system. The collaboration also will cultivate new and continuing research related to power systems, power quality, energy efficiency, and alternative energy systems. Gregory Reed (pictured), a renowned electric power engineer who is director of the Swanson School’s Power and Energy Initiative and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, will spearhead the partnership. Although many turbines are driven by natural gas (NG), the exact makeup of
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NG is not usually known and the relative quantities of methane, propane, and ethane in NG vary with time and location. Real-time gas composition analysis is critical for the energy-production industry, both to maximize turbine efficiency and to minimize pollutant output. For the past three years, Kevin Chen, associate professor and Paul E. Lego Faculty Fellow, and Joel Falk, professor, have been funded by the National Energy Technology Laboratory to develop a real-time sensor system to determine the concentrations of these and other gases that are important to renewable energy sources. Another use of the system is to determine the concentration of gases present in solid oxide fuel cells, an important potential source of renewable energy. Their work uses new enhancements to an old technique, Raman scattering. Light incident on a gas molecule is inelastically scattered. The scattered intensity and wavelength indicate the concentration of a particular gas. Chen and Falk’s work examines enhancements to Raman scattering brought about by new types of gas confinement vehicles, hollow-core capillaries, and photonic bandgap fibers. Details of their work have been reported at major conferences (2008 and 2009 Conference on Lasers and Electro-optics) and in major publications (Applied Optics).
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Gregory Reed
director, Power and Energy Initiative, and associate professor, is spearheading a partnership with Eaton Corporation designed to train students in electric power engineering. Guangyong Li,
assistant professor, and chair, published an article that appeared in Applied Physics Letters in June 2009. The article, “Effects of Semiconducting and Metallic Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on William Stanchina,
Performance of Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells,” covers Li’s research on improving the efficiency of energy conversion for organic solar cells from five to 10 percent, the minimum requirement for commercialization.
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Department of
Industrial Engineering Oleg Prokopyev (pictured),
assistant professor, received more than $1.2 million in grants this past year from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The research will be completed with faculty from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and the School of Medicine, as well as from Purdue University. More than 100 faculty, staff, alumni, and friends joined the department to celebrate the dedication of the Albert G. Holzman Learning Center, named in honor of the former professor and department chair who served for more than two decades in this role. Holzman also was the first industrial engineer to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Mary Besterfield-Sacre,
associate professor, and Larry Shuman, senior associate dean, received a new grant from the NSF for “Assessing Technical Entrepreneurship Learning in Engineering Education.” This project will conduct a cross-institutional study of entrepreneurship in U.S. engineering schools and empirically model best practices. They also received a best
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assistant professor, received more than $1.2 million in grants this past year.
paper award from the ASEE Biomedical Engineering Division on the utilization of process maps to produce innovative designs. Jeffrey Kharoufeh,
associate professor, who joined the faculty in fall 2008, received two grants totaling $625,000 from the National Science Foundation to study the performance evaluation of largescale sensor networks and to develop adaptive maintenance policies for complex systems. He was appointed department editor of stochastic modeling and analysis for IIE Transactions on Operations Engineering and associate editor for Naval Research Logistics. Lisa Maillart,
assistant professor, was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to study adaptive maintenance policies for complex systems. Additionally, she was appointed as an associate editor for IIE Transactions on Operations Engineering. Bopaya Bidanda,
chair and Ernest E. Roth Professor, was appointed fellow and visiting professor at the European Union Center for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development at the Instituto Politécnico de Leiria in Portugal.
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Oleg Prokopyev
Ravi Shankar,
assistant professor, established a structural nanomaterials laboratory with facilities for the manufacture and thermomechanical characterization of bulk nanostructured metal alloys. In support of these efforts, Shankar received a single-investigator, three-year research grant from the NSF
for studying “Self-Assembling Ductile and Tough Bulk Nanostructured Alloys of High Thermal-Stability.” He was also the recipient of the John J. McCambridge grant from the Institute of Hazardous Materials Management for exploring environmentally benign manufacturing processes.
Annual Report www.engr.pitt.edu/industrial
2009
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Department of
Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (pictured), William Kepler Whiteford Professor, was elected Fellow by the American Physical Society, “For Pioneering Computational Research on Turbulent Reactive Flows, and Especially for the Development of the Filtered Density Function Methodology.” He also was named Engineer of the Year by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and is serving as the Pitt lead for the National Center for Hypersonic Combined Cycle Propulsion, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Air Force Office of Scientific Research. In this capacity, Givi will take the lead on performing large eddy simulation in high-speed turbulent combustion. This 13-member team consists of researchers from Pitt, University of Virginia, Stanford University, Cornell University, Michigan State University, North Carolina State University, SUNY–Buffalo, The Boeing Company, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Peyman Givi
Jeffery Vipperman,
associate professor, was elected Fellow by the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. Along with Minking Chyu, Peyman Givi, and Buddy Clark, he becomes the fourth fellow in the department.
received a highly competitive research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Science, to conduct a research project entitled “Electron Density Determination, Bonding, and Properties of Tetragonal Ferromagnetic Intermetallics.” This effort combines quantitative experimentation by energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and magnetometry with materials theory to study relationships between the electronic structure and intrinsic properties of the tetragonal ferromagnetic intermetallics FePd and FePt. Mark Kimber,
assistant professor, is the department’s first recipient of a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission faculty development grant. He will perform research in hydrogen production from next generation high temperature nuclear reactors. Sung Kwon Cho,
associate professor, was featured in New Scientist in January 2009 for his research in exploiting surface tension to move a small boat gliding over water like a bug without moving parts. Watch footage of Cho’s boat online: www.pitt.edu/news/cho. Giovanni P. Galdi,
Jörg Wiezorek,
associate professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow,
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William Kepler Whiteford Professor, was named Mercator Chair for the second time in six years. The Mercator
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Peyman Givi
William Kepler Whiteford Professor, was elected Fellow by the American Physical Society.
Chair is a prestigious designation from the Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the German counterpart of the National Science Foundation. In this role, Galdi conducted collaborative research on selfpropulsion of deformable bodies in viscous fluids at the Department of Mathematics at RWTH Aachen University, one of Europe’s leading institutions for science and research. Additionally, he was awarded
one of seven senior visiting professorships from the National Institute of Higher Mathematics, an Italian government agency similar to the Division of Mathematical Sciences of NSF. Galdi completed his professorship at the University of Pisa, where he taught the course Mathematical Topics in Fluid Mechanics, centered around the $1 million Clay Institute Prize for the resolution of the Navier-Stokes problem.
Annual Report www.engr.pitt.edu/mems
2009
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Diversity
Jamie Richardson,
The Swanson School of Engineering Office of Diversity (EOD) is dedicated to attracting and retaining underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students. This past year, the Swanson School increased funding available to underrepresented students. Gabriel Zeno (below left) is completing his master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering and was awarded the K. Leroy Irvis Fellowship, which provides full-time graduate tuition and a stipend. The Swanson School also is proud to be able to attract outstanding student scholars like Brooke Coley (below right), a PhD candidate in bioengineering and Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellow, a five-year predoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institutes of Health.
junior computer engineering major, was selected to serve as the Region 2 Programs chair for the National Society of Black Engineers.
Mentoring programs continued to be successful.
• During summer 2009, the EOD hosted a Pre-PhD Scholar Program, a mentoring and educational program developed by Sylvanus Wosu, associate dean for diversity. The program is open to students from traditionally underrepresented groups in engineering who have earned a 3.5 or higher GPA from any engineering school in the nation and are interested in pursuing graduate studies. Pre-PhD Scholars are assigned to Swanson School of Engineering faculty mentors who lead multidisciplinary teams in advanced research. • Twenty-five mentors and 28 students participated in the 2008–09 Pitt EXCEL peer-mentoring program. In 2007–08, the program’s pilot year, nine mentors and 16 students participated. • The Summer Engineering Academy, a twoweek prefreshman program, was revised to include classes in chemistry, engineering problem solving, math, physics, study skills, and introduction to campus resources to better serve the student population. The program also included a three-hour study session six nights per week. Twenty-two students participated in the 2008 program.
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Participation in national student society conferences remained strong.
• Four students were selected to attend the National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates (NAMEPA) Student Symposium in Los Angeles, Calif. The conference provided them with two days of professional development workshops and exposed them to corporate and graduate school representatives. • Twenty-eight students attended the 2009 National Society of Black Engineers conference in Las Vegas, Nev.; in the previous year 16 students attended this event. • Sixteen students attended the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers National Conference in Phoenix, Ariz.
Student Success Spotlight
Student Success Spotlight
Office of
The number of ethnically underrepresented students with a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher increased by more than 10 percent this past year.
Annual Report www.engr.pitt.edu/diversity
2009
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Students
International travel and real-world co-op experiences make students competitive in a global economy; student quality continues to rise
Countries in which our students participated in an international educational experience:
Spain
England
Germany
Ireland
Under the direction of Minhee Yun, assistant professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michael Nayhouse, Robert Kerestes, David Perella, and Andrew Freeman (not pictured) spent 10 weeks studying and conducting research in South Korea as part of the International Research Experience for Students (IRES) Program, a summer research program funded by the National Science Foundation. Approximately 35 percent of graduating engineering students participated in an international experience.
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
www.engr.pitt.edu/IRES www.engr.pitt.edu/international
Brazil
Chile
Israel
Tanzania
Korea
China
Vietnam
India
Mali
Uruguay
Mongolia
Taiwan
Hong Kong
Australia
Annual Report 2009
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The University of Pittsburgh Office of Career Services recently reported a 100 percent full-time employment placement rate for students who participated in the Swanson School’s Cooperative Education Program, and a 93.12 percent full-time placement rate for all other engineering students.
Alumni, Development, and External Relations
Student RESEARCH Spotlight
This past year’s participating employers included: National Security Agency, Westinghouse, US Airways, Curtiss Wright, BMW, Siemens, Whiting Turner Construction, FedEx Ground, First Energy, General Electric, Eaton Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Armstrong World Industries, Kennametal, Mine Safety Appliances, Medrad, Bayer MaterialScience, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Emerson Process Management, Ansys, Inc., and Toyota. The Employer of the Year for 2008 was FedEx Ground.
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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Micah Toll, a sophomore in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, was featured on The Circuit, an Air Force Web show. Visit www. engr.pitt.edu/news/toll to watch Toll discuss his lightweight, patentpending portable construction beam to be used in Third-World and refugee populations. Visit our alumni event photo galleries online at www.engr.pitt.edu/alumni/gallery Annual Report 2009
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Swanson Alumni: Impacting Our School, Impacting Our World
For more than 40 years, the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering has honored the outstanding professional achievements of its graduates through the Distinguished Alumni Award program. The accomplishments of these outstanding Swanson School graduates have brought recognition to the University and its academic departments, to our profession, and to the entire Swanson School of Engineering alumni community. Distinguished Alumni Awards are distributed during the Distinguished Alumni Banquet, held annually in the spring.
Luke J. Gill
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2009 Distinguished Alumni
Swanson School of Engineering Honoree
(BSME ’71)—Chairman, Westinghouse Electric Company
Department Honorees Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Richard C. Baxendell (BSCHE ’80)—Planning, Bayer MaterialScience Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (BSCE ’78)—Senior Vice President, Material & Supply Chain Management and Senior Vice President, CNX Land Resources, CONSOL Energy James J. McCaffrey
Ronald G. Stovash
Timothy G. Shack
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Stephen R. Tritch
Richard C. Baxendell
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Ronald G. Stovash
(BSEE ’70)—Senior Vice President, CONSOL Energy (Retired) and President & Chief Executive Officer, PinnOak Resources (Retired)
Luke J. Gill
Department of Industrial Engineering
Distinguished Young Alumni Award
(BSIE ’72)—Chairman, PNC Global Investment Servicing and Executive Vice President, the PNC Financial Services Group Timothy G. Shack
Stephen R. Tritch
Gerald D. Holder
(BSME ’65)—Vice President, Joint Strike Fighter Global Sustainment, Lockheed Martin (Retired) and Owner, G Squared Limited
(BSEE ’90)—Director of Software Development, Immedius Ray W. Andrick
James J. McCaffrey
Ray W. Andrick
Annual Report www.engr.pitt.edu/alumni
2009
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University of Pittsburgh
Swanson School of Engineering
www.engr.pitt.edu/annualreport2009
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