2018 issue

Antarctic trip was tip of the iceberg for this alumna

Anonymous — Wed, 02 May 2018 02:52:20 +0000

Antarctic trip was tip of the iceberg for this alumna Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 20:52

Irene Peden (ElEngr'47) looked out across the frozen landscape. She had made it: Antarctica.

Obstacle after obstacle had been placed in front of her, but she had become the first woman to live and conduct scientific research in the Antarctic interior as a principal investigator

“The Navy really didn’t want to take me. They put up a real fight,” said Peden, now 92, from her home in downtown Seattle.

She was well qualified to work on the continent at the bottom of the world, had support from her colleagues, and had financial backing for her research. The only issue was her gender.

The trip in 1970 came one year after a total ban on American women traveling to the icy continent had been lifted, but it didn’t make getting there any easier. At the time, the Navy provided the only transportation, and they weren’t interested in taking her.

Pushback was nothing new to Peden, who throughout her career became a trailblazer for women in engineering. Her drive to succeed was instilled from a young age.

“My mother was my role model. She would say if you want to do something badly enough, you can just do it,” Peden said.

A simple mantra, but an effective one. It brought her to CU �鶹ӰԺ, where she earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 1947. She was one of just a handful of female students. While treated well overall, Peden still faced situations that would be considered jaw-dropping today.

“When I graduated, a professor said to me, ‘Irene, now you have your degree. You will be very valuable as a secretary to an engineer,’” she said. “I really think he saw it as good mentoring advice.”

You will be very valuable as a secretary to an engineer.

Peden would go on to Stanford University to earn a master’s and PhD in electrical engineering. Her graduation came with a major distinction—she was the first woman in Stanford history to earn a PhD in any engineering subject. Surprisingly, the achievement went unnoticed at the time.

“I got a call from a Stanford female engineering student years later. She had questions about some subject, and they gave her my name as a contact. She was the one who told me. I was quite surprised,” Peden said. “I knew there weren’t any other women in my graduating group of PhDs, but I didn’t know there had never been any.”

After graduation, she was hired by the University of Washington in Seattle—its first female engineering professor. At UW, her research focused on antennas and the propagation of radio signals in polar regions, and she developed new ways to measure the electromagnetic properties  of the ice.

It was standard policy at the National Science Foundation (NSF) that principal investigators with Antarctic grants had to do some of their work in person to fully understand how harsh the conditions were and how simple the fieldwork needed to be. When the rule prohibiting women was lifted, NSF wanted Peden to go.

They worked with her until the Navy finally gave its OK—with one condition. Peden would need to have a female companion. She could not be the only woman on the trip.

As the date for her flight loomed closer, NSF found a New Zealand researcher to join her. They both would need to pass a physical but were otherwise cleared. Peden passed. The other woman did not.

The day of departure came and NSF still hadn’t found a replacement—until they discovered  a loophole.

NSF noted that the Navy required a second woman to join Peden but hadn’t said that person needed to be a scientist. Passing the physical was the only rule. NSF employees in Christchurch turned to a local mountain climbing club and found who they were looking for.

“She was in excellent physical condition and could make the last-minute trip. Her husband was also a scientist who had been to Antarctica, so she had some awareness,” Peden said.

The military pushback is perhaps unsurprising, considering the era, but what makes it truly noteworthy is that Peden was not the first woman to go to Antarctica, nor the first to need Navy transportation. Shortly after the ban on women was lifted in 1969, four female scientists from Ohio conducted research on the Antarctic coast. The Navy was disappointed that the results had not been published yet, so Peden was warned they would be watching her with eagle eyes. If they were disappointed again, it would be a “generation” before another woman would follow behind her.

It was an unfair burden for her to carry, but she passed every test, spending a month on the ground, enjoying 24-hour daylight and minus 50 C temperatures. She was able to successfully measure the propagation of very low frequency radio waves through the more than 2-kilometer-thick permafrost and to publish the results of her work in a timely fashion after returning.

Her career would continue to focus on environmental applications, and for her successes, Peden earned the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award, their highest distinction, and was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She would also go on to serve in leadership roles at UW, as an associate dean of their College of Engineering, and to direct the NSF’s Division of Electrical and Communications Systems for several years.

In 1993, she was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an engineer. The academy recognized her “for leadership in engineering education, in antennas and propagation and contributions to radio science in the polar region.”

These days, Peden is fully retired, but she’s not disconnected.

“I do a lot of reading. Most of it’s for pleasure, but I also receive journals and read articles,” she said. “I’m still very interested in the field.”

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#ILookLikeAnEngineer

Anonymous — Wed, 02 May 2018 02:19:54 +0000

#ILookLikeAnEngineer Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 20:19

What does a CU engineer look like? Let us show you!

The College of Engineering and Applied Science, in collaboration with the BOLD Center, has joined the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign to showcase the diverse range of people who pursue engineering.

What does a CU engineer look like? Let us show you!

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NASA engineer’s down-to-earth mission

Anonymous — Wed, 02 May 2018 01:39:37 +0000

NASA engineer’s down-to-earth mission Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 19:39

As Hurricane Harvey tore through south Texas last August, Jim Rice (MAeroEngr’99) knew that people in the heavily flooded areas were going be severely affected by impassable roads, cut off from clean water and necessary services.

So Rice, who has been flying small planes for 25 years, contacted Patient AirLift Services and offered to fly supply missions in his private plane.

Although his house did not flood, it took several days after the rains finally stopped for his neighborhood’s flooded streets to become passable enough for him to reach his plane, a four-seat, single-engine Mooney M20J, kept in a hangar in Pearland, Texas.

After the record-breaking flooding, Rice, who also received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from CU Denver in 1995, flew 21 flights, nine of them loaded with cargo onboard. For every flight with supplies on board, there was a flight to return to base to pick up supplies for three different communities.

Over four days he carried a total of 4,187 pounds of donated supplies bound for communities in the devastated areas of west Houston, Beaumont and Orange. His cargo ranged from bottles of water to baby formula and diapers.

“I knew the Houston area would be flooded so badly that trucks wouldn’t be able to get in and out—people would be cut off from civilization,” he said. “I don’t have the type of aircraft to do rescue missions, like plucking people off rooftops, but I could fly relief supplies.”

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Innovation in engineering education

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 22:38:55 +0000

Innovation in engineering education Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 16:38

CU Engineering isn’t just breaking new ground in our research efforts. We’re also developing new ways to educate students, with two exciting new degrees launched in the past year.

MOOC Master’s

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MS-EE)
Launching Fall 2018

The Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering is launching an on-demand, fully online master’s degree that will be delivered entirely through massive open online courses (MOOCs).

While MOOCs have previously been known for being free and non-credit-bearing, they are beginning to emerge as promising vehicles for credit-bearing degrees.

ECEE’s degree is optimized for the modularity of MOOCs. A three-credit, semester-long on-campus course might become three or four individual month-long MOOCs, each targeting specific content areas. Students will select subjects that best fit their goals as they move through the program. This modular and stackable structure captures the curricular content of the existing on-campus master’s degree but adds an unprecedented level of flexibility.

Learn More

Computer Science Post-Baccalaureate

Applied Computer Science (ACS)

The Department of Computer Science has launched an online, post-baccalaureate degree in applied computer science, a move designed to help meet the changing needs of students as the national computing workforce continues to expand.

The new CU �鶹ӰԺ program was started in part to help those with diverse academic backgrounds enter the computer science field. The degree is tailored to people who already have a bachelor’s degree but do not have the prerequisite coursework for graduate study in computer science.

Learn More

CU Engineering isn’t just breaking new ground in our research efforts. We’re also developing new ways to educate students, with two exciting new degrees launched in the past year.

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Lockheed Martin research pact recognizes ECEE faculty members

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 20:05:44 +0000

Lockheed Martin research pact recognizes ECEE faculty members Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 14:05

Building on a $3 million partnership announced in 2016 to establish new academic programs focused on radio frequency (RF) systems, Lockheed Martin and CU �鶹ӰԺ announced a follow-on Master Research Agreement in August 2017.

The agreement structures future research and academic programs aimed at creating the technologies, industries and workforce of tomorrow while growing the research synergies between the two entities today.

Lockheed Martin’s support extends also to promoting faculty in the form of a Lockheed Martin Corporation Endowed Chair of Radio Frequency Engineering and a Lockheed Martin Junior Faculty Fellowship in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

The first recipients of these prestigious positions are Professors Zoya Popović and Taylor Barton in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. Popović is a distinguished professor, and her teaching and research have been focused on radio-frequency engineering for the past 27 years since she joined CU �鶹ӰԺ. Barton will be the inaugural recipient of the endowment associated with the faculty fellowship for an outstanding junior faculty member whose research is focused on radio frequency engineering.

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Engineers demonstrate ‘germ trap’ for hospitals

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 18:28:50 +0000

Engineers demonstrate ‘germ trap’ for hospitals Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 12:28

When an infectious airborne illness strikes, some hospitals use negative pressure rooms to isolate and treat patients. These rooms use ventilation controls to keep germ-filled air contained rather than letting it circulate throughout the hospital. But in the event of an epidemic, these rooms can quickly fill up.

Now, a team at CU �鶹ӰԺ has found a simple, cost-effective way for medical facilities to expand this technique to better prepare for disease outbreaks. By sealing off a whole hospital wing and adjusting the existing ventilation system, hospitals can dramatically increase their capacity to contain and treat large numbers of patients with airborne illnesses.

The study was published in the American Journal of Infection Control.

“You can apply engineering approaches to reduce exposure to all sorts of air pollution,” said lead author Shelly Miller, a professor of mechanical engineering and lead author of the new research. “I’ve been working quite a bit on how we keep infectious diseases from spreading throughout buildings and communities.”

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ATLAS grad competes in Olympic biathlon

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 16:59:14 +0000

ATLAS grad competes in Olympic biathlon Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 10:59

When the Olympic Games opened in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February, a CU Engineering graduate was among the U.S. athletes, competing against the best of the best.

A month after receiving her graduate degree in Information and Communication Technology for Development from the ATLAS Institute, Joanne Reid was named to the 2018 Olympic team for biathlon, a sport that combines target shooting with Nordic skiing. Reid also holds her bachelor’s degree in applied math from CU �鶹ӰԺ.

Reid isn’t the first winter Olympian in her family. Her mother, Beth (Heiden) Reid, and her uncle, Eric Heiden, both competed in speed skating in Lake Placid in 1980. Beth came away with a bronze, and Eric won five gold medals, which remains the most gold medals won by any winter Olympian at a single edition of the games.

Competing on the CU Buffs ski team 2010–13, Joanne distinguished herself in Nordic skiing as the 2013 NCAA freestyle champion. She didn’t take up biathlon until 2015, inspired when her grandfather passed down his rifle to her.

Coming from such an athletic family, it’s fitting that she focused the culminating project of her graduate work on sport—specifically, on the challenges faced by today’s female athletes who compete and train in an ever-present media and social media spotlight.

“As athletes, we are so dependent on the media to survive. And we’re also affected by it, because we are females in a very male-dominated sport,” Reid said. “This project is very personal to me.”

Reid’s top finishes in the games included 15th in mixed relay and 13th in relay.

When the Olympic Games opened in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February, a CU Engineering graduate was among the U.S. athletes, competing against the best of the best.

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New expertise in cybersecurity

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 16:56:24 +0000

New expertise in cybersecurity Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 10:56

Did you know that your smart refrigerator could be hijacked to carry out a denial-of-service attack on a bank? Or that your car’s emergency alert system could be used to flood the 911 system with calls?

Professor Dan Massey has seen it happen firsthand, and it’s why he is on a mission to expand the cybersecurity curriculum in CU Engineering.

Massey comes to CU �鶹ӰԺ from the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Cyber Security Division. His goal is to expose all engineering students to the basics of cybersecurity, so they can carry that knowledge into their careers.

Everyone who’s creating technology needs some experience with cybersecurity.

“We’re beefing up cybersecurity, but we’re thinking of it more across engineering,” he said. “We don’t want this just to be great for the computer scientists.”

As computing becomes ubiquitous across all industries, everyone who’s creating technology needs some experience with cybersecurity, Massey said.

While computer science has offered an “ethical hacking” class for many years, it was a small, senior-level course. For spring 2018, Massey is pioneering a sophomore-level course that will provide a “basic fluency” in cybersecurity. Eager computer science students quickly filled this semester’s course, but Massey envisions that it will eventually be open to all engineering majors.

He also hopes to create more courses, both for computer science students who want a deeper dive and for an optional cybersecurity minor.

“I want to take advantage of all the resources in the �鶹ӰԺ area—faculty who are already doing research in this area, entrepreneurs with security startups, national labs, everything,” he said.

One of those resources is the MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator, a Department of Defense program that has chosen CU �鶹ӰԺ as its regional hub for the Rocky Mountain region.

Lloyd Thrall, a CU �鶹ӰԺ alumnus who directs the regional program, is working closely with the college to provide new cybersecurity-related experiences for students. They are involved with a new Hacking for Defense course and co-sponsored a cybersecurity track in February’s T9Hacks women’s hackathon.

Thrall said the DoD wants to build stronger ties with academia and startups to address national security challenges in areas where civilian and military needs are overlapping more and more.

“We can’t solve the problem by reading Wired in D.C.” he said. “If you dissect successful outcomes in tech, they come from the human side of the equation.”

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New spaces for CU Engineers

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 16:20:46 +0000

New spaces for CU Engineers Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 10:20

Take a look at the newly remodeled spaces in the Engineering Center.

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Specdrums designer turns attention to business side

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 15:00:24 +0000

Specdrums designer turns attention to business side Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 09:00

While he’s taking some time to hone his business skills, Steven Dourmashkin will remain forever an engineer.

The aerospace engineering PhD student is taking a leave of absence from his studies to further develop musical rings he began working on as an undergraduate at Cornell. Called Specdrums, the rings allow the wearer to drum on any surface, with the color of the surface determining the sound emitted by a phone app. His idea was recently validated on Kickstarter, where he exceeded his fundraising goal by more than $170,000.

But going from idea to working device was not easy.

Dourmashkin began with the development of the hardware within the rings. He needed to design a way for the ring to sense when it was tapped on a surface, which color was tapped, and how to communicate this information to an app through Bluetooth. This required building a circuit board with all the necessary components working in harmony.

“You have the breadboard—a circuit board meant for prototyping—and then you begin to try out the parts to see what works,” Dourmashkin said. “Getting from all the separate components to one combined circuit was one of the most challenging pieces of this project.”

Putting the boards together, implementing each resistor and sensor with tweezers and special glue, required a very steady hand. Even with a careful plan and vigilant execution, there were disappointments.

“There were times I would spend all night putting a circuit board together and then it wouldn’t work,” Dourmashkin said. “Then I’d try to fix it and end up breaking it even more.”

But he slowly began to make progress, working with black and white sensors to establish how signals could be sent via Bluetooth to an app and assigned to a specific sound. As he established proficiency with these signals, he moved to color sensors, implementing them into his trial circuit boards.

“When the custom board finally turned on and detected colors as planned, that was pretty cool,” said Dourmashkin. “Then it broke again pretty quickly.”

Through the process, Dourmashkin patented a color-detection algorithm to sense different shades of colors, partially tapped colors and other aspects of the color sensing to make the device more reliable.

Eventually, he had hardware that sent clear signals, leaving him to design and build an app that would take these signals and turn them into music. He pulled sound files of drums and cymbals from online databases and inserted them into the app so users could choose the sound for each available color. Then he built silicone holders in CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Idea Forge.

In summer 2017, Dourmashkin was invited to participate in CU �鶹ӰԺ’s summer business accelerator, Catalyze CU, which helped him prepare for his overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter campaign. As he released prototypes to customers and prepared for his first massive shipment in January, Dourmashkin said he had mixed emotions.

“It’s like raising a baby,” he said. “I’ve been working on this for so long, and now I’m letting it go into the world to let people use it in their own ways.”

Dourmashkin has already watched Specdrums used in ways he never imagined. In one instance, a guitar player acted as his own accompanist with the ring placed on his toe. In another, Dourmashkin saw the benefits that Specdrums could have for autistic children, providing controlled and soothing sensory input.

These applications were hints of what he hopes Specdrums will become. He is already working on a pro version for musicians and performers, which requires making the Bluetooth signal more reliable in venues where other cell phones could cause interference.

“I hope it becomes a tool for people to have fun with music,” Dourmashkin said. “I want to make music more portable and accessible.”

While he may never return to grinding away on the design with his initial fervor, Dourmashkin plans to keep engineering as a part of his role at the developing company.

“I think the engineering aspect is more interesting,” he said, “but I have to make sure everything with the company is running smoothly. I want to be involved with all the business decisions. But at some point I’d like to get back to doing more engineering.”

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2018 issue

Antarctic trip was tip of the iceberg for this alumna

​ You will be very valuable as a secretary to an engineer.

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#ILookLikeAnEngineer

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NASA engineer’s down-to-earth mission

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Innovation in engineering education

CU Engineering isn’t just breaking new ground in our research efforts. We’re also developing new ways to educate students, with two exciting new degrees launched in the past year.

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Lockheed Martin research pact recognizes ECEE faculty members

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Engineers demonstrate ‘germ trap’ for hospitals

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ATLAS grad competes in Olympic biathlon

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New expertise in cybersecurity

Everyone who’s creating technology needs some experience with cybersecurity.

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New spaces for CU Engineers

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Specdrums designer turns attention to business side

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You will be very valuable as a secretary to an engineer.