IBM welcomes diversity, innovation and RIT/NTID students

Rochester, NY – More than a dozen students, faculty and staff from Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf made a recent visit to IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center and its Industry Solutions lab, just north of New York City. The students had an opportunity to see cutting-edge technology and to meet some of the 100-plus RIT/NTID graduates who now work at IBM.

Gary Behm, an engineer at IBM for nearly thirty years, is now on faculty loan to NTID. He told the students in order to succeed in their careers, they need a combination of hard skills, learned from classes and books, and soft skills, including how to communicate with people.

Nation’s first two-year tech college turns 100

New York, NY – In 2009, Technical Career Institute (TCI) celebrated one hundred years of technical education. The nation’s first two-year technical college, the school was founded by radio pioneer and Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi in 1909 as the Marconi Institute. Today TCI offers degrees in electronics and computer technologies; accounting, office and new media technologies, climate control, and facilities maintenance technologies. The school gives more engineering-related two-year degrees than any other U.S. institution.

The school has more than 3,000 students, 6.8 percent of them Asian, 39 percent African American, 42.8 percent Hispanic; 68 percent male and 32 percent female. For more information, click to www.tcicollege.edu.

Black Engineer of the Year awards recognize high achievers

Baltimore, MD – John D. Harris II, VP of contracts and supply chain for the Raytheon Company, was named 2010 Black Engineer of the Year at the March BEYA conference in Baltimore. Dozens more awards went to technical pros at organizations from Aerospace Corp to Verizon, government agencies and every branch of the military.

The top Emerald Honor, Scientist of the Year, was presented to Henrietta N. Ukwu, MD, VP of global regulatory affairs for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

BEYA awards recognize technical and scientific accomplishments, of course, but also salute people who have shown a strong commitment to diversity and mentoring. Raytheon’s Harris, for example, spent two years as executive diversity champion for the company. Other 2010 awardees ranged from early-career engineers to company officers and decorated military leaders. For more information and a complete list of winners, see www.blackengineeroftheyear.org.

Teens prep for FIRST at U-M Detroit

Detroit, MI – More than a hundred high school students from across the city had a chance to build and test robots in the University of Michigan (U-M) Detroit Center. At the Michigan Engineering Zone students found work space, a metal shop, and engineering mentors to help them as they prepared for the FIRST Robotics 2010 national competition; for 2010 robots must play three-on-three soccer.

Fourteen teams used the space. Mentors from the college, U-M and MIT alumni associations, Ford and SAE International were there to help. The 5,200-sq ft facility includes a practice field where students can test their machines.

See detroitcenter.umich.edu and www.usfirst.org for more information.

JETS names first woman president

Alexandria, VA – Linda Snow-Solum, a senior director with Rockwell Collins, is the new president of the board of directors of the Junior Engineering and Technical Society (JETS), a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting engineering and technology careers. Snow-Solum has worked at Rockwell Collins for thirty years in product development and engineering leadership. She’s responsible for 5,000 engineers in sixteen locations and directs the development of engineering talent.

As the first female president of the organization, Linda will guide JETS through its next phase of providing resources and programs aimed at increasing student interest in engineering.

“Being part of a national organization that impacts students’ lives and helps them see the value of an engineering career is extremely important to me,” says Snow-Solum. “I am honored to serve as president of the JETS board and hope my leadership role will be an example to young women that they, too, can impact the engineering community and society at large.”

Fifty most important African Americans in tech list

London, England – Since 1999, Black Money Worldwide has made a list of the top fifty African Americans in technology. This year’s awardees include Juan E. Gilbert, chairman, Human Centered Computing at Clemson University; Corey Rosemond, global gaming manager for Microsoft; Whirlpool’s Kevin Summers; Sherrie Littlejohn and Martin Davis of Wells Fargo; Mikey Butler of Cisco; Ben-Saba Hasan of Walmart; and Daphne Jones of Hospira. Top executives include Ursula Burns of Xerox, Oracle's Charles E. Philips, Jr and H. James Dallas of Medtronic. For information, see 50mostimportantaatechnology.wordpress.com.

Purdue engineers design, build major component for hydrogen cars

West Lafayette, IN – Purdue researchers have completed work on a heat exchanger, a crucial component for an experimental hydrogen storage system for cars. “Recharging a hydrogen storage vessel generates heat, which hinders the absorption process and prevents the storage vessel from being filled rapidly,” says Issam Mudawar, Purdue ME professor, who is leading the work.

The researchers have designed, built and tested the new heat exchanger, which circulates coolant through tubes to remove heat and speed hydrogen storage.

It is essential that the heat exchanger occupy the least volume possible inside the storage vessel. Using their own theoretical model, the researchers determined how to precisely position the tubing so that no fins are needed to dissipate heat. Whereas an earlier prototype occupied 30 percent of the vessel, leaving 70 percent for the metal hydride, the new design occupies only 7 percent.

“The idea behind this latest design is to provide the coolant as close as possible to the hydride while eliminating the need for bulky heat-spreading components like fins,” Mudawar says. “The main advantages of this design are simplicity and flexibility. It can easily be adapted to different cooling and size requirements.”

The work was conducted in Purdue's Hydrogen Systems Laboratory at the university's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, with help from research assistant professor Timothée Pourpoint and doctoral student Milan Visaria.

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