ECE Faculty and Staff Scholarship fund exceeds goal

Since 2003, the faculty and staff of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department have been quietly donating money to a new scholarship fund at the MSU Foundation. The ECE Faculty & Staff Sponsored Scholarship Endowment had an initial fundraising goal of $15,000, and we are pleased to announce that as of May 1, 2008, the faculty and staff donations now total more than $17,860. The investment proceeds from the endowment will establish a new scholarship in the Department. We look forward to offering the first ECE Faculty & Staff Sponsored Scholarship in 2009!

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department awards more than $125,000 in competitively earned scholarships each year.

ECE students and faculty receive academic achievement awards

Among the many outstanding students and faculty in the ECE undergraduate and graduate programs, several individuals have been singled out for special recognition awards this spring. The awardees include:

• MSU Foundation GRADUATE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Mr. Paul Nugent
• MSU Foundation WILLIAM E. PARKINS ENGINEERING-PHYSICS AWARD:
  Mr. Patrick Kujawa
• Alpha Lambda Delta Individual Award (campus wide) for highest GPA based on
  credits carried at MSU: Mr. Monther Abusultan
• ECE Outstanding Sophomore Award: Ms. Jennifer Hane
• ECE Outstanding Junior Award: Mr. Erwin (Dan) Dunbar
• ECE Outstanding Senior Award: Mr. Monther Abusultan
• 2007-2008 ECE Instructional Lab Assistant Award: Mr. Ryan Cyr

and

• 2007-2008 ECE Teacher of the Year Award: Prof. Todd Kaiser
• 2007-2008 COE Faculty Outreach Award: Prof. Joe Shaw

We congratulate the achievements of all of our students and faculty, while we particularly recognize the exceptional academic accomplishments of these awardees!

Eleven students participate in IEEE Region 6 Northeast Area Meeting

April 26, 2008 (photo provided by Richard Wolff)

Eleven MSU ECE students traveled to Pocatello, Idaho, with faculty members Richard Wolff and Randy Larimer to participate in the spring IEEE regional meeting. Three student teams entered the Micromouse robot autonomous maze challenge and one team entered the student paper competition. MSU's Team Zigbot (Colin Shirley, Josh Smith, Monther Abusultan, and Clint Gramza) won the Micromouse competition!

Prof. Steve Shaw named Associate Director of MSU Energy Research Institute

Steve Shaw

MSU Vice President for Research Tom McCoy has announced that ECE Associate Professor Steve Shaw will be the Associate Director of MSU's new Energy Research Institute. Steve will be active in identifying collaborative research opportunities, organizing and managing research teams, and creating a framework for energy innovation and research at MSU.

The new Energy Research Institute is an umbrella organization for the $15 million in energy-related research that MSU scientists and engineers are already doing in clean coal technology, fuel cells, wind, coal bed methane and biofuels. The Institute will promote cooperation across campus, attract large-scale grants and contracts, and help enhance MSU’s national recognition in the energy field.

Prof. Shaw will continue his research and teaching duties with the ECE Department. We congratulate Prof. Shaw on his new assignment with the MSU Energy Research Institute!

Students and faculty visit Judith Gap Wind Farm

April 12, 2008 (photo provided by Justin Krohn)

Fifteen ECE students and faculty participated in a field trip sponsored by the IEEE student branch to visit the major wind farm located between Harlowton and Judith Gap, Montana. Invenergy’s wind farm currently comprises ninety 1.5 megawatt turbines collectively generating up to 135 megawatts of power. That means that when the wind is blowing with sufficient force, the wind farm produces enough power to supply the electrical needs of 40,000 homes.

The power generator hubs are on towers approximately 250 feet tall. The fiberglass turbine blades are 126 feet long, and each turbine has three blades. The Judith Gap site has excellent characteristics for wind power generation: typical wind speeds 50 meters above the ground range from 15.7 to 17.9 miles per hour.

The wind generation site is located along Northwestern Energy's 270-kilovolt transmission line that runs between Helena and Billings.

Plans are underway to add 35 more 1.5 megawatt turbines, potentially boosting the production capacity by about 40 percent.

Prof. Joseph Shaw honored as a new Fellow of SPIE

Joseph A. Shaw, Associate Professor and Director, Optical Technology Center, Montana State University, has recently been honored as one of 72 new Fellows of the SPIE Society. Prof. Shaw's achievements in optical remote sensing technology and his service to SPIE and the general optics community were noted in his award citation. More than 500 SPIE members have become Fellows since the Society’s inception in 1955. Congratulations, Joe!

SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. SPIE serves the interests of more than 188,000 active members from 138 different countries, and sponsors approximately 26 major conferences and education programs annually in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. For more information, visit SPIE.org.

Joe Shaw

ECE doctoral students receive 2008 NSF Graduate Fellowships

The National Science Foundation has announced that Sarah Lukes and Christopher Colson, ECE PhD candidates, are among the new recipients of NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Ms. Lukes is a microdevice design and fabrication researcher in Prof. David Dickensheets' lab, and Mr. Colson is engaged in electrical power systems & alternative energy research under the direction of Prof. Hashem Nehrir.

Sarah Lukes holds an MSU undergraduate degree (Mechanical Engineering, highest honors) and was the 2005 Gold Medal winner from the Montana Society of Engineers.  She also plays violin in the Bozeman Symphony.  Chris Colson is a 1999 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a former Navy Nuclear Engineer and fast-attack submarine officer. He also previously earned a Master of Engineering Management from Old Dominion University.

Each of the prestigious NSF awards provides a $30,000 per year stipend for three years, plus additional funding covering full tuition and fees.

NSF awards only about 1,100 Graduate Fellowships nationwide each year among all science and engineering fields and just 300 specifically in engineering, so the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department is very proud to have two recipients in a single year. Congratulations, Sarah and Chris!

Our latest nationally-recognized Graduate Fellows are in addition to ECE PhD candidate Andrew Dahlberg, who currently holds a three-year National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. Andrew is conducting research in electrooptical systems and measurements under the direction of Prof. Joseph Shaw.

[see MSU News Service article]

ECE hosts four sessions of Expanding Your Horizons

The ECE Department was once again an eager participant in the annual "Expanding Your Horizons" event, on Saturday, April 12, 2008. EYH exists to encourage young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. The annual event at MSU-Bozeman hosts 180 girls from grades 6, 7, and 8. The ECE volunteers help accommodate nearly 50 girls during four sessions of hands-on fun with the ECEbot robots. The middle school girls must figure out a sequence of path guidance instructions to tell the robot how to navigate an obstacle course.

Thanks to Allison Banfield, Srinitha Nimmakayala, Pearl Nixon, Todd and Dirk Kaiser, David Hoffman, and Rob Maher, who all volunteered to help this year!

Dr. Wataru Nakagawa becomes ECE's latest faculty member

Scholarship sponsor visits ECE

On February 5-6, 2008, the ECE Department hosted a visit by two representatives of Astronics Advanced Electronic Systems of Redmond, Washington. Astronics is a leading provider of power generation, distribution, and control electronics for commercial and military aerospace platforms. Several MSU ECE alumni also work for the company.

Gayle Keenan (left), Senior Manager, Human Relations, and Christine Ellis (right), Senior Manager, Engineering, presented information about the aerospace electronics industry and a variety of career opportunties for our IEEE student group. Ms. Keenan and Ms. Ellis also gave guest lectures in two of our regular classes.

Astronics is a sponsor of a major undergraduate scholarship awarded annually to a student in the EE or CpE programs. The 2007-2008 Astronics Scholar is Patrick Menge. The MSU ECE Department is honored to receive scholarship support from outstanding companies such as Astronics.

Pearl Nixon is new ECE Administrative Assistant

The ECE Department welcomes Ms. Pearl Nixon to our front desk administrative position. Ms. Nixon holds both a B.A. degree in Classics (Latin option) and a minor in Art History from the University of Montana-Missoula. She has excellent credentials in customer service, computer skills, and experience handling day-to-day office matters. Welcome aboard, Pearl!

With the hiring of Ms. Nixon, Ms. Nancy Carrasco has moved to the Accounting Associate position in the ECE main office. Congratulations to Nancy for her new role in our Department.

ECE Emeritus Professor Don Pierre authors historical western novel

Don Pierre
Teller of Tales

(From 06 June 2007 The Institute IEEE print edition)

Part-Time Passions
BY ANNA BOGDANOWICZ

After writing technical articles for much of his career, Don Pierre has taken his writing in a different direction. The 70-year-old Life Fellow published his first historical adventure novel in August, Yesteryears Western Trek.

The self-published book depicts the coming of age of a young man named Joey on his journey across the western United States during the 1860s. Parts of the story are written as a diary of Joey’s wagon-train adventures on the historic Bozeman Trail, which ran from Wyoming to Montana.

“I’ve always been interested in writing a novel. I’m quite an avid reader—especially when it comes to Westerns,” says Pierre, who has a collection of more than 200.

INSPIRATION

After retiring in 2000, Pierre joined a creative writing group for seniors and attended its weekly meetings. For years he’d been reading books on how to become a fiction writer, but the group gave him the motivation and support he needed. His first non-technical book was an autobiography. In 2001, he came across a two-volume set of historical books that inspired him to take his love of Westerns to the next level. Journeys to the Land of Gold [2000, Montana Historical Society] featured excerpts from 33 journals written by people who traveled the Bozeman Trail in the 1860s.

Fascinated by their real-life adventures, Pierre began brainstorming ideas for a novel. He used a lot of what he learned from the journals in his novel, which includes aspects of the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the telegraph replacing the Pony Express.

It wasn’t long before he had the plot figured out. It took him a month to outline what each chapter would cover, and then he spent two years writing. He had trouble finding a suitable publisher, so he published the book himself.

Now that his first novel is on the shelves (it sells for US $10), he doesn’t plan on stopping. “I’ve got a few ideas in mind for more,” he says.

To buy a copy of Yesteryears Western Trek, e-mail Pierre: pierre_don@ieee.org.