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| College of Engineering | Engineering Monthly, February 2022 |
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| From the Dean
Scott A. Ashford, Ph.D., P.E. (California)
In February 2002, we sent out our first engineering monthly newsletter. Among the highlights at the time, our college’s undergraduate enrollment was at a record high 3,100 students and our research awards were around $20 million. The Kelley Engineering Center was in its pre-design phase and set to break ground later that year.
Today, nearly 10,000 students are enrolled in the college, our research awards exceed $64 million, and the Kelley Engineering Center — now home to our nationally recognized computer science program — exemplifies our college’s extraordinary growth since that time. With the 20th anniversary of our monthly newsletter, I want to celebrate our college’s remarkable success over the last two decades. As you will see, we have updated our newsletter with a new look and feel, and we hope this streamlined redesign better presents these stories to our alumni, faculty, staff, and students. This month, highlights include research related to mapping new climate “normals” and robots and artificial intelligence assisting in agricultural challenges. Here’s to the next 20 years of Oregon State engineering excellence.
Go Beavs! |
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Listen now: RAPID reconnaissance |
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| After a major disaster, hidden amid the rubble and debris are precious clues about the extreme forces structures were subjected to, and exactly what caused them to fail. How can researchers collect this perishable data before it’s swept away? Michael Olsen, professor of geomatics and technical director of the NHERI RAPID Facility, talks about a major effort to get crucial technology into the hands of reconnaissance experts quickly, wherever disaster strikes. Listen now ... |
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DARPA robot swarm field tests |
| Julie A. Adams, College of Engineering Dean's Professor, and two doctoral students recently participated in field experiments for DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics program. Experiments included coordinating hundreds of robots for missions in urban areas. Read more ... |
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The new 30-year normal |
| Led by Chris Daly, professor of geospatial climatology, Oregon State’s PRISM Climate Group published new maps of 30-year U.S. climate “normals” showing the area east of the Rockies is getting wetter, the Southwest is getting drier, and temperatures are inching upward. Read more ... |
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Bringing AI to the orchard |
| Oregon State University and Washington State University’s new $20 million AgAIDInstitute brings together over 50 engineers and agriculture scientists to apply artificial intelligence expertise to agriculture challenges. Alan Fern, associate professor of computer science, recently talked to Good Fruit Grower magazine about the project. Read more ... |
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How to prepare for wildfires |
| Erica Fischer, assistant professor of structural engineering, recently spoke with the host of public radio’s “On Point,” Meghna Chakrabarti, B.S. civil engineering and environmental engineering ’98, about the need in suburban and urban residential areas to retrofit homes, update development plans, and strengthen regulations to face the growing danger of wildfires. Read more ... |
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Destined to teach |
| Stephen Redfield earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Oregon State. During his doctoral program, also at Oregon State, he discovered a love for teaching. Redfield now serves as lead instructor for the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science’s online postbaccalaureate program. Read more ... |
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Prevention through design |
| John Gambatese, professor of construction, has been preaching the gospel of “prevention through design” — the effort to identify and abate all possible construction safety hazards — since his days as a graduate student. His message is starting to be heard. Read more ... |
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STUDENTS |
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Eco-friendly energy |
| Although Bridger Cook is just beginning his graduate studies in mechanical engineering after taking courses through Oregon State’s Accelerated Master’s Platform, he started to prepare years ago, as an energy systems engineering undergraduate at OSU-Cascades in Bend. Read more ... |
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Watch now: Giving apple-picking some byte |
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| Alejandro Velasquez Lopez is a doctoral student in robotics. Under the mentorship of Cindy Grimm, professor of robotics, and Joe Davidson, assistant professor of robotics, he developed a “proxy apple” to train an apple-picking robot. |
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Excellence in transportation |
| Helena “Lena” Breuer and Brian Staes, doctoral students in transportation engineering at Oregon State, have been awarded Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Breuer is advised by David Hurwitz, professor of transportation engineering, and Staes is advised by Rob Bertini, head of the School of Civil and Construction Engineering. Staes, along with three collaborators, won a 2021 Young First Author Best Paper Award at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board. He also recently received the PacTrans UTC Outstanding Student of the Year Award. Read more ... |
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Amazon scholarship funds future in cybersecurity |
| Amazon Web Services issued 40 renewable scholarships last year through its InCommunities program. Computer science undergraduate America Pacheo, one recipient featured on the AWS website, describes what that support means to her and discusses her future career plans. Read more ... |
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Remeasuring jobsite safety |
| Matthew Hallowell, Ph.D. civil engineering ’08, professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and executive director of the Construction Safety Research Alliance, credits former mentor John Gambatese, professor of civil engineering, for providing him with the skills to update the definition of what it means for a construction employer to be considered safe. Read more ... |
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Testing the future of climate change |
| The National Science Foundation awarded a team of researchers, including Pedro Lomónaco, director of the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, $12.8 million to design a national full-scale testing facility capable of wind speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, combined with a water basin to simulate storm surge and wave action. Florida International University is leading the project. Read more ... |
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