Global marathon spreads the word on engineering
Washington, DC - In the ongoing effort to attract more young women to science, technology and engineering, the EWeek organization staged its third annual "Global Marathon for, by and about women in engineering." Twenty-four hours of webcasts, Internet chats and teleconferences took place at the EWeek website, with many of the sessions led by female engineers.
Hosts included Audrey Elleberbee, Duke PhD candidate in biomedical engineering and recipient of the NSBE graduate student of the year award; Dr Amy Ross, VP research and development at Diamics, Inc, who spoke on mentoring for GLBT scientists, engineers and technology students and professionals; Deanne Bell, host of the PBS television show Design Squad, and Thea Sahr from WGBH Boston, who took a look at the intersection of engineering and entertainment; Karla Tankersley, engineer with The Gap, who talked about how the shopping experienced is engineered; and more. There were also sessions for middle- and high-school students and their parents, including "women behind Design Squad."
Role models BSEE Fran O'Sullivan, senior VP of the product group at Lenovo, and former astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space, kicked off the event with a live teleconference.
For more information on EWeek and all its events see www.eweek.com.
Rube Goldberg competition puts the squeeze on
West Lafayette, IN - A joint NSBE/ SHPE team and a team representing SWE participated in the 2007 Rube Goldberg Machine contest at Purdue. The annual contest challenges regional teams of engineering students to design the most complex machine possible to do a specified task; regional winners compete at the national finals.
This year's challenge was to take a whole orange, juice it, and pour the juice from a pitcher into a cup in twenty or more steps. The competition is organized by the Purdue chapter of the Theta Tau fraternity.
"The Rube Goldberg competition is a celebration of imagination and possibilities," says Dennis Depew, dean of Purdue's college of technology.
The team from the Purdue chapter of the Society of Professional Engineers took first place in the regional competition. Its machine used 134 steps to make and pour the juice. The team from the Purdue chapter of the Society of Mechanical Engineers took second place.
In the national competition Ferris State University (Big Rapids, MI) took first place. "We've come to the competition for the past four years. Last year our machine had a malfunction, and we really wanted to come back and win this year," said Tom Sybrandy, senior at Ferris State and captain of the team.
The competition is open to high-school and college teams; see www.rubemachine.com.
UCSC ranked first in nation for research impact in physics
Santa Cruz, CA - In an analysis of research publications from top U.S. universities, the University of California at Santa Cruz ranks first for the impact of its faculty in the field of physics and fifth in the field of space sciences. The rankings are based on the citation impact of research papers published by the top one hundred federally funded universities between 2001 and 2005. Science newsletter Science Watch looked at each university's average-citations-per-paper score for the five-year period compared with the average impact of all papers published in each field.
The department has nineteen faculty members and sixty-five graduate students; one-third of the grad students are women, which is twice the national average.
"We are a small department, but our faculty have good collaborations with researchers in other departments and at other institutions," says David Belanger, professor and chair of physics. Belanger also noted that the physics department's graduate program received the highest rating for overall student satisfaction in a 2001 survey of U.S. graduate students.
CCNY ChE students teach undergrads
New York, NY - This winter four ChE students at City College of New York (CCNY) had an opportunity to hone their knowledge by teaching chemical engineering to students from the High School for Math, Science and Engineering at CCNY (HSMSE).
"The idea was to get our students interested in teaching. Engineers rarely think about education as a career," says Raymond Tu, assistant professor of ChE, who developed the curriculum in partnership with departmental colleague and assistant professor Ilona Kretzschmar. "And we wanted to get HSMSE students interested in City College."
The high school, which has a specialized curriculum and requires entrance examinations, is one of three boutique high schools located on CCNY campuses. Students take courses at CCNY for college credit.
New biofuel process from Purdue scientists
West Lafayette, IN - Purdue University chemical engineers have proposed a new environmentally friendly process for producing liquid fuels from plant matter (biomass).
The proposed technique modifies conventional methods for producing liquid fuels from biomass by adding hydrogen from a carbon-free energy source, such as solar or nuclear power, during gasification. Adding hydrogen during this step suppresses the formation of carbon dioxide and increases the efficiency of the process, making it possible to produce three times the volume of biofuels from the same quantity of biomass, explains Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue's Winthrop E. Stone distinguished professor of ChE. The researchers are calling their approach a hybrid hydrogen-carbon process, or H2CAR.
When conventional methods are used to convert biomass or coal to liquid fuels, 60 to 70 percent of the carbon atoms in the starting materials are lost as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, whereas no carbon atoms are lost during H2CAR, Agrawal says.
Other researchers have estimated that the U.S. has a sustainable supply of about 1.4 billion tons of biomass each year that could be used specifically for the production of liquid fuels. With conventional methods that quantity of biomass would provide 30 percent of the fuel required for the nation's annual transportation needs, but with H2CAR it would provide 100 percent.
Making H2CAR economically competitive with gasoline and diesel fuel would require further research in two areas: the production of cheap hydrogen from carbon-free sources, and the development of a new type of gasifier for the process.
NSF study reports on women in chemistry
Washington, DC - The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a report called "It's Elemental: Enhancing Career Success for Women in the Chemical Industry." The report is based on a three-year study of women's careers in the chemical industry.
"While there have been some surveys of women on academic career tracks, no comprehensive work exists on women and their managers in STEM-intensive industrial settings," says Judith Giordan, program director for NSF's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program. "As industry is the largest employer of these graduates, we wanted to determine and share how women can get ahead and what could hold them back from the career success they want."
The findings reveal that women and their managers have different attitudes and perceptions about career advancement. One finding shows that managers, particularly male managers, rated the ability to relocate higher than women did as a factor for career success. Working on highly visible projects and making accomplishments known were higher priorities for women than they were for managers.
"Women stated they want support and opportunities to get ahead. Both the women and managers we surveyed said that mentoring is hugely important," notes Ruth Fassinger, principal investigator for the project.
The report is available at www.education.umd.edu/EDCP/enhance_site.
Sally Ride science festival for girls returns to CalTech
Los Angeles, CA - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), CalTech and astronaut Sally Ride teamed up to hold a Sally Ride science festival for girls this spring. The series of science events targets middle-school girls and introduces them to successful women techies.
There were talks by Ride and Dr Maria Zuber, a geophysicist and the first woman to head the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at MIT (Cambridge, MA). Female JPL researchers, engineers and scientists showed images of earthquakes and volcanoes from space, demonstrated how robots work, and discussed NASA's search for habitable planets beyond our solar system, incorporating a "build your own alien" hands-on activity.
The festivals are organized by Sally Ride Science, a company founded by Ride to support and expand girls' interest in science, math and technology. Over the last six years more than fifty festivals have been held in cities throughout the country. For more info go to www.SallyRideFestivals.com.
D/C
| 
