The first American artist to paint an abstract painting was civil engineer Manierre Dawson (1887-1969). His profession, far from a deterrent to his creativity, was his primary source of inspiration, especially during the formative years of his career. "Manierre Dawson: Engineer/Artist," an exhibit, traces the evolution of his work and shows how elements of his paintings leading up to and including his first abstractions and his conception of abstract art itself are directly related to his civil engineering training. The exhibit is the result of 10 years of research by Penn State Alumnus Randy Ploog and is on display through Jan. 8, in the Diversity Studies Room at 109 Pattee Library. (more)
The Engineering Graduate Student Council (EGSC) is hosting a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4, in Kunkle Lounge. The students' goal is 55 units of donated blood for the American Red Cross.
Volunteers may register online by visiting http://www.psuredcross.org/ or walk in the day of the blood drive. The blood drive is sponsored by the student chapters of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Society of Women Engineers and the EGSC. (more)
Three groups of Penn State students recently won awards at the 2009 Big Beam Competition sponsored by the Precast Concrete Institute. Penn State students placed second, third and fourth in their regional zone. In this nationwide competition students were required to design, fabricate and test a precast pre-stressed concrete beam with support from a local precast concrete producer. Preparation for the competition began in spring 2009 as part of the CE543 prestressed concrete class. Maria Lopez de Murphy, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, was the faculty adviser. (more)
The College of Engineering welcomed eight new faculty members to Penn State this fall.
Swagata Banerjee, assistant professor of civil engineering; George Engelmayr, assistant professor of bioengineering; Enrique Gomez, assistant professor of chemical engineering; Paul Griffin, Peter and Angela Dal Pezzo department head and chair of industrial and manufacturing engineering; Vishal Monga, assistant professor of electrical engineering; Farshad Rajabipour, assistant professor of civil engineering; Stephen Treado, associate professor of architectural engineering; and Donghai Wang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, joined the college this semester. (more)
Penn State will host the inaugural Milking the Rhino: Innovative Solutions Showcase at 7 p.m. on Nov. 18 at Pattee Library's Foster Auditorum. The showcase will be the culmination of two weeks of students' efforts to develop appropriate, innovative and sustainable solutions to empower indigenous communities to leverage wildlife and natural resources for self-determined development in Africa. (more)
The College of Engineering and Smeal College of Business will host the Advanced Invention to Venture (AI2V) workshop Nov. 20 to 23 at the University Park campus. This intense four-day workshop is open to student teams, faculty, nonacademic-affiliated venture teams and corporate technologists who have committed to starting a company and are striving to define and articulate the market value of their technology and the best strategy for commercialization. (more)
Penn State will launch a new interdisciplinary research center focused on the science of communication networks with approximately $35.5 million in funding over 10 years from the Army Research Laboratory. The Communication Networks Research Center, part of the new Network Science Collaborative Technology Alliance, will perform foundational research on network science. The research focuses on the interplay among the social/cognitive, information and communication networks. (more)
Three students will represent Penn State at the regional round of the 34th annual IBM-sponsored Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest, "Battle of the Brains," at Youngstown State University in Ohio on Saturday, Oct. 31. The team will challenge other students from universities in approximately 90 countries. During the competition, the competing teams are expected to use their programming skills to solve complex, real world problems on a single computer under a five-hour deadline. (more)
The Department of Aerospace Engineering will stage its annual Haunted Helicopter Lab this week on the second floor of Engineering Unit C. The haunted lab, which is free and open to the public, will take place noon to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29, and from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30. Visitors may enter the lab through the elevator on the west end of Unit C, next to Foundry Park. The Engineering Units are located between Hammond Building and the Hintz Family Alumni Center. (more)
