EP Winter News 2008
K.T. Ramesh Named Program Chair of Mechanical Engineering Program
This past November, Kaliat T. Ramesh, a professor in WSE's Department of Mechanical Engineering and the director for the Center for Advanced Metallic and Ceramic Systems, was appointed the new program chair of EP's Mechanical Engineering Program. As the new chair, Ramesh, who taught the first online course offered by EP, will oversee course development, course scheduling, faculty development, student admissions review and decisions, student advising, and overall student satisfaction.
"Overall, mechanical engineering is the largest engineering discipline, and it is the one leading the rapid change in engineering, especially with respect to nanotechnology and health care," Ramesh says. "Most of our students in the program come from industry, and some from government agencies. I want to draw in those students who want professional advancement, exposure to the cutting edge in this field and a fresh way of thinking." To help attract such students, Ramesh is considering instituting a seminar program that brings in both scientific and professional leaders.
For more information on K.T. Ramesh
Robots Vie for Best Balance at the Applied Physics Lab
As a final class project for EP's computer science course, Software Development for Real-Time Systems, five student teams constructed LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robots to participate in an annual competition at the Applied Physics Lab in December. The students used Java language to create a balancing program, which they then downloaded into their robots. Competition rules were simple: each team could try five separate times over a period of five minutes to balance their robots on a piece of posterboard. Each team selected a spokesperson who could briefly discuss challenges the team faced and how they set out to overcome those challenges. The winner was the team whose robot stayed balanced the longest..
"These students are already software and electrical engineers," said Jeff Gustin, an instructor in EP's Computer Science Program. "The competition helps them reinforce concepts and basic principles. I selected the MINDSTORMS robots because you can do some sophisticated programming with them"
For more information on the robot competition and the winning team
EP Instructor Tim Foecke Answers the Question: "What Really Sank the Titanic"
For about ten years, EP Materials Science and Engineering Instructor Tim Foecke conducted painstaking analyses of hull construction materials - steel and cast iron - retrieved from the wreck of the RMS Titanic deep in the Atlantic. The findings of this investigation now serve as the basis for a fascinating book for the general public, What Really Sank the Titanic: New Forensic Discoveries (Citadel, February 26, 2008). In the book, Foecke and Jennifer Hooper McCarty - JHU graduate, fellow investigator and co-author - present a comprehensive forensic analysis of the historic disaster. They explain how the design and construction of the Titanic resulted in unsuspected vulnerabilities, including the use of substandard materials, that virtually doomed the great ship.
"Foecke and McCarty lay out a fascinating trail of historical forensics that explains how a grazing blow on a flat-calm night could scuttle a compartmentalized leviathan so very quickly," said James R. Chiles, author of Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology. He recommends the book "not only for buffs of the liner's first and last voyage, but for any reader who wants to learn about the foundation of cold iron on which our technology stands, and sometimes falls."
In addition to his work researching the Titanic, Foecke has been involved in other disaster investigations like the collapse analysis of the World Trade Center towers and in the preservation of historic shipwrecks, including the USS Arizona, the CSS Hunley, and the USS Monitor.
Foecke received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1991, and is a Staff Metallurgist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where he is Director of the NIST Sheet Metal Forming Center.
For more information about What Really Sank the Titanic, visit www.csititanic.com
EP Alumna Pat Mutschler Featured in WSE's Connections Newsletter
EP alumna Pat Mutschler played a major role in designing and implementing EP's new program in Environmental Planning and Management, and that was the primary focus of an article about her in the Fall issue of WSE's alumni newsletter, "Connections." It explains how Mutschler, then an economist with the Army Corps of Engineers, was tasked with helping Hopkins design a program that would meet the needs of Corps personnel involved in advanced environmental planning, and how she then gladly became the "guinea pig" as the first student and ultimately the first graduate of the new EP master's program.
For more information on Mutschler and EP's Environmental Planning and Management Program, visit the online edition of Connections
EP Offers Students a Seminar in Engineering Ethics
Glenn Rahmoeller, an instructor in WSE's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, joined with EP this January to offer a seminar in engineering ethics. Co-hosted by the Society of Engineering Alumni, the seminar focused on professionalism, code of ethics, and the role of the engineer in society. Engineering case studies were used to present problems from various ethical perspectives, including protecting the public, minimizing conflict between obligations to employers and obligations to the public, and enhancing the honor and reputation of the engineering profession.
EP students who would be interested in attending a future engineering ethics seminar should email jhep@jhu.edu.