Virginia Tech College of Engineering, Engineering Now 2013

ENGINEERING NOWNO. 38 • 2013 • VIRGINIA TECH COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Read inside why ourengineering students areOlympians of Technology

Meet our Olympiansof Technology

Our engineering students have discovered the path from creativity to execution.

Materials Science and Engineering Students “Stand Tall”

Activities initiated at Virginia Tech are repli-cated at other schools.

2.12.4.

Portrait of a winning team

Virginia Tech is the only school in the history of the SME international mining competition to have never failed to make the finals.

28.

HFES studentsset trends

After the Hokies won the national award so frequently, the sponsors revamped the competition’s format.

Building is in their blood

Once you start a history of winning, then people get excited.

16.20.

Winning the future

It is the ignition for a career.

8.From soccer goals

to emergency rescue

Possibly the most important robotics project in the history of mankind.

24.Nationally

outstandingMany people have

contributed to Alpha Pi Mu’s dominance in competitions.

ENGINEERING NOW | 2013 | 1

Meet our OlympiansOur hands-on, minds-on philosophy has boded

well for the education of our engineering students at Virginia Tech. As competitors in design team and society rivalries, Hokies consistently rank among the technological leaders in national and international competitions that are designed for university and some-times even professional events.

As an example, a team from Virginia Tech designed an electric motorcycle in 2012 that won a North Ameri-can 3Grand Prix competition in California, beating all the professional teams in their class, qualifying them for the world championship.

The Hokies were on the first American team to bring the Louis Vuitton Humanoid Cup to the U.S. This award was presented for winning the international robotic soccer competition known as RoboCup. Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanism Laboratory (RoMeLa) sponsored the team that dominated this event held in Istanbul, Turkey in 2010. The 2011 team repeated the win in Mexico City the following year. Now the new gen-eration of RoMeLa students is redirecting its talents to a U.S. Navy challenge to develop a firefighting robot.

This issue of Engineering Now focuses on seven unique student groups, associated with our College of Engineering including the RoMeLa team, that maintain a long history of winning their national and sometimes international competitions. I think you will enjoy these articles, focusing on a small segment of our successful Olympiads of Technology.

One of the groups, Alpha Pi Mu, has won the

2 | www.vt.eng | ENGINEERING NOW

Outstanding Chapter award in the nation for the past five years. Our Human Factors and Ergonomics Society won the national competition so often that the officials revamped the challenge. Our materials students won the chapter of excellence award four of the last seven years, and have strong hopesfor the current submission.

Our mining students have dominated theCarlson Software Senior Design Competition,and they have also done exceeding-ly well in the annual Society of Min-ing and Metallurgical ExplorationConference’s internationalcompetition.

Less than a decadeold, the Myers-Lawson School ofConstruction hasalready built an en-viable record ofsuccesses in vari-ous categories ofnational competi-tion.

Doug Nelson’smentoring of ourHybrid Electric Ve-hicle Team hasearned him fourNational Science

Foundation outstanding faculty advisor awards and multiple newspaper write-ups, extolling the accomplishments of his teams over the years.

Virginia Tech’s College of Engineer-ing has a unique formula

for success. Wehave a long historyof students who canboth think intel-ligently and ex-ecute their visions.We have facultywho encourageour students toexceed their ownexpectations. Wehave a long his-tory of internal,peer-sponsoredphilanthropy: us-ing the moneythey generatefrom hosting ourCareer Fair, ourown StudentEngineers’Council pro-vides financialsupport to

design teams and engineering student organizations, thereby enhancing their abilities to compete at the highest levels.

And the external proof of success is the ranking we have among recruiters. In the latest Wall Street Journal survey of where engineering recruiters prefer to solicit their new employees, our Virginia Tech College of Engineering is among the top five universities in the country. That objective opinion cements our reputation as an engineering education leader.

Sincerely,

Richard C. Benson,Dean, College of EngineeringPaul and Dorothea Torgersen

Chair of Engineering

of Technology


winningprogram

lucrativecareer


Lynn Kern

The Philadelphia native has now partici-pated in two of the award winning teams from Virginia Tech selected by the judges of the international competition sponsored by the Society of Mining and Metallurgical Explora-tion (SME) Conference. In the nine years that this U.S. based competition has been held, par-ticipation has expanded to include teams from as far away as India. Despite this growing involvement of teams, Virginia Tech’s overall record remains envious. Hokie teams have finished 1st three times, 2nd four times, and 3rd twice. Furthermore, Virginia Tech is the only school in the history of this competition to have never failed to make the finals.

As a senior, Kern’s work from her unre-lated capstone design project will be submit-ted also to the Carlson Software Senior Design Competition that Virginia Tech mining and minerals engineering students won five years in a row, starting in 2006. In addition to their record-setting consecutive wins, they have also ranked in the top three places 12 out of 15 years.

When the students graduate, they are entering a high-paying field that averages slightly higher than $60,000 for a bachelor’s degree, and one where the profession is facing an increasing need for candidates, in part based on a bull market in commodities for the past decade or more.

Erik Westman, associate professor of mining and minerals engineering, has served as the faculty advisor for both competitions since 2002. Westman’s credentials include a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and a stint with the U.S. Bureau of Mines from 1991 until 1996.

The industrial connection servesthe mining engineering students

When Kern graduates she will start work for Freeport McMoran, a copper and gold company, in its Graduate Development Pro-gram. This program provides an introductory period to the company, allowing her to change localities every six months for the first two years. The possible stints include exotic loca-tions in Africa, Indonesia, and South America. “I will be able to see what I like to do, and the company is also able to decide how I best fit in,” she explained.

While a student Kern was on a Freeport McMoran scholarship, and this recruiter of Virginia Tech students is also among the participants offering the real-world problems for the senior design competition. This long-

term association between Kern and Freeport McMoran throughout her undergraduate career served both of them well. When the company came to campus for the engineer-ing career fair, its representative met with Kern, and their conversations led to her future employment.

Ben Fahrman, currently an MinE doctoral candidate, has also benefited from the depart-ment’s strong relationship with companies in the mining arena, getting experience through-out his academic career by working with Luck Stone, a national crushed stone, sand and gravel company headquartered in Richmond, Va.

Fahrman was a member of the 2009-2010 SME team who helped bring home the blue ribbon that year. “I learned more from doing this project than anything else, since we worked on a real-world problem…and that was the first time I had to help pull all of the pieces together,” he said.

Fahrman admitted that he “felt the pres-sure to keep Virginia Tech’s winning streak going. No one doubted we could win as long as we put in the time, and did it right. As a se-nior in the department (at that time), I knew we were in good shape. We had pressure to perform – all part of the Hokie pride.”

The SME CompetitionThe SME annual competition is divided

into two phases. For a month in the fall each team of six works on a provided mining problem, but the caveat is that each student member can only spend a maximum of 30 hours on the proposed solution. The team compiles their efforts into one summary, and the judges from industry select the top six entries to participate in the final competition. These six finalists fly to Denver for the second phase of the competition the following March. On a Friday afternoon, they are presented with some anomalies to the original project, and they then have until Sunday morning to come up with their new solutions.

As an example of the type of problem, Fahrman’s group was told that a limestone mine was about to be exhausted of its mineral content, but a nearby operating mine was available for purchase. The question to the team was: would they recommend buying it, and if so, at what price? Factors included the nuances of economics as related to mining engineering, processing of ore, equipment selection, reserve estimations, determination

By Lynn Nystrom

Three years ago, Lynn Kern had no idea what a career in mining and minerals engineering (MinE) meant. So the plucky first semester sophomore at Virginia Tech walked over to the office of Greg Adel, the department head, and knocked on his door. He ushered his unexpected guest inside, and proceeded to answer her questions about the department’s curriculum, adding information about the multitude of job opportunities and various sources of scholarship money available to study in this field. She was hooked. And it would later become very good news for the department.


Continued on next page

of waste products, government regulations, and more.

After researching all of these parame-ters, Fahrman and his colleagues suggested the purchase was desirable at a specified range of prices that still allowed the com-pany to make a profit. Their conclusions led them to the final six competition that year, and when they arrived in Denver, the problem was adjusted slightly, including new geological information and potential hazards.

The top-seeded project Kern worked on for the SME competition was slightly different. Her virtual mine was jointly owned by two different entities, each with different guidelines for how they wanted a return on their investment. Her team needed to decide what represented the most economically feasible method to develop the aggregate mine of limestone and dolomite.

Kern’s primary task was to develop the ventilation processes for the three dif-ferent levels of the mine, while her peers worked on areas such as rock mechanics, geological models, processing, and environ-mental demands.

“I was thrown a curve ball,” she said. She had to design intake and exhaust venti-lation systems separately, but then she was told a shaft had to be closed, so she had to reroute her system.

“Health and safety requirements were drilled into our heads, regardless of profit,” Kern added.

The Carlson Softwarenational design competition

In this competition the student teams submit a complete mine feasibility and de-sign report, prepared as part of their senior design project – a capstone course in which students design a mine from exploration to closure. Using their undergraduate experience in the mining curriculum, they put together a report that averages about 16 chapters each year. Topics that must be explored are varied and comprehensive, including: existing geological conditions; available labor force; existing community services such as schools and hospitals; average weather conditions; chemical and mechanical properties of minerals to be ex-tracted; reserve estimates; any contractual agreements such as water or land owner-ship; special taxes that might exist in the community; and mine closure procedures.

Furthermore, the students must also investigate costs of equipment and their upkeep, identify materials handling pro-cedures such as railroads or the trucking industry, and look at surface needs such as bulk storage, power, and service buildings. Environmental impacts, health, and safety considerations are also included in the report that borders on the size of a book.

National Academy of Engineering member Jerry Luttrell, professor of mining and minerals engineering, teaches a course, Engineering Project Management, that Fahrman cites as being “very beneficial” to the students’ knowledge for both the SME and the Carlson competitions.

Another final clueto Virginia Tech’s success storyWestman and Fahrman both recog-

nized Angelo Biviano, director of the writ-ing and communications program housed with the mining and minerals engineering department. “He plays a major role in pre-paring us,” said Fahrman.

“We are the only mining engineering program in the country that has a full-time instructor dedicated to undergraduate communications skills, and I think the results speak for themselves,” Adel avowed.


Continued from previous page


The Kimballton Mine in Giles County, Va., allowed Virginia Tech photographer Jim Stroup access to its facility for his pictures appearing on the publications’s cover, and on pp. 4, 5, 6, and 7.

From soccer goals

to emergency rescue

After dominating RoboCup, the

Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory

is focusing on a DARPA competition

that could save lives and a fire-

fighting robot for the Navy


By Steven Mackay

An early prototype of a hand for the RoMeLa-created robot THOR, a project sponsored by DARPA

A visit to the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory in the basement of Randolph Hall this past May was very typical of post-commencement springtime. Graduate and undergraduate students buzzed about two connected labs, working on CAD drawings, fabricating parts on machines and filing them smooth afterward, and showing still other parts off to the guest of the moment. The team was in full prep-mode.

“This is part of the pelvis,” said Derek Lahr of Jack-son, Miss., and a doctoral student in mechanical engineer-ing. He held forth a metal object that resembles the hip bone of a person. A hole indicates where the spine would pass through.

If one didn’t look closely at the main robotics labora-tory floor, he or she could assume the team was prepping for another RoboCup competition. Except that the always present green carpet soccer field used for countless prac-tices is … missing. A plain gray tile floor now dominated the room. “Oh, it’s over there in the corner,” Lahr said by way of explanation. Indeed, the soccer green was rolled up like a carpet. Off to the side.

RoboCup is, of course, the annual robotics com-petition that brings together 500-plus academic-based robotics teams from around the world, each team pitting robot against robot in soccer – football to most of the world – matches, as well as other competitions including obstacle avoidance.

RoMeLa, that’s the short name for the lab founded by Dennis Hong, now an associate professor of mechani-cal engineering, first arrived on the RoboCup scene in 2007. The debut was less than what Hong or his students wanted.

Hong said the team “did horrible.” Or, rather, the robots – roughly 18-inch tall humanoid robots named DARwIn – never worked as planned. “Things that worked in the lab never worked when taken outside, lighting conditions changed, the robots couldn’t see anything. There were carpet material changes. They couldn’t walk,” Hong said. It showed, he added, “how difficult ‘real-life’ robotics is.”

But a goal – crystal and round – beckoned. At the competition, Hong saw for the first time the RoboCup grand prix Louis Vuitton Humanoid Cup. In his own words, he fell in love. “I promised the students that we shall take the LV cup trophy to the USA one day, and I kept my promise at RoboCup 2011.”

And it happened in Instanbul. There, a new incar-nation of the DARwIn robots – vastly improved, and designed with adorable big eyes that glow, and re-dubbed DARwIn-OP, in conjunction with the Korean robotics company Robotis – dominated its Kid-Sized Humanoid Division. In the Adult-Sized Division, RoMeLa fielded CHARLI 2 – that’s short for Cognitive Humanoid Autono-mous Robot with Learning Intelligence.

An earlier incarnation of CHARLI already made history as the first untethered, autonomous, full-sized,



A 3-Dcomputer graphic renderingof THOR, therobot being built by RoMeLa for the DARPA Robotics Challenge.

walking humanoid robot built inside the United States, and was featured on the cover of Popular Science. The newer CHARLI propelled Hong and his robotics lab to stardom. When CHARLI 2 kicked a winning goal, Hong said the arena echoed with chants of “USA! USA!”

The 2012 competition was held in Mexico City. There, RoMeLa dominated again with a new-and-improved CHARLI and the DARwIn-OPs. The near-rock star status held. International students – RoMeLa’s competitors – lined up for pictures with CHARLI and to get Hong’s autograph.

Despite RoMeLa’s dominance at Mexico City, again in the Kid- and Adult-Sized soccer leagues, a team from Ger-many took the crystal cup, a continuing “share the love” mantra of the RoboCup series. Hong’s love for the trophy re-mains. A replica sits in the main foyer of Randolph Hall.

For now, though, RoMeLa is mov-ing on, as the rolled-up soccer field indicates. During RoboCup 2013, held in The Netherlands, the team sent only one undergraduate to assist the University of Pennsylvania team that has partnered

with Virginia Tech in the past. (CHARLI will sit this year out.) RoMeLa has its eyes on two major robotics projects and nei-ther is a sport. Rather, rougher, dangerous terrain, the kind found in the rubble of war, or devastating earthquakes. As well, active duty Navy ships and fires.

These are two projects, both funded though military agencies. Both worth potentially millions of dollars.

One robot – and the absolute focus of the RoMeLa lab for the next year and change – is THOR, or Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot. He is part of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a multi-year competi-tion sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. (DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and is a subsidiary of the DoD.) The task set for RoMeLa: develop a search-and-rescue robot suited for complicated, even dan-gerous conditions that could harm human rescue personnel. This will be CHARLI super-maxed.

The hustle and bustle of machine cut-ting and parts assembly from a May visit was all for THOR, and a June 13 visit by DARPA officials to check progress on the project. The team’s goal for the visit was to have a prototype leg finished for the

agency. Hong called the visit “vital.” Dur-ing the visit, the remaining funding from DARPA leading to the December 2014 final demo was on the line. The agency is cutting two of seven funded hardware teams, and RoMeLa is in the game for the win. And the team did pass the test, going into round 2.

The task is huge. RoMeLa and its partners -- these include the University of Penn’s own robotics lab; ROBOTIS, the Korean robotics company; both major partners in RoMeLa’s RoboCup success; and Harris Corp., a Florida-based com-munications and information company -- must deliver to DARPA a robot that must carry out Herculean actions. Among them are: mount and drive a vehicle, walk over rubble, clear objects blocking a door, and enter a building. The robot then must locate and shut off a leaking valve, operate a hose, climb an industrial ladder and traverse a walkway. The final and possibly most difficult task will be to use a power tool and break through a wall. This isn’t soccer play, at all.

When the challenge was announced in late 2012, Hong called the effort, “the greatest challenge of my career.” He added, “This is the craziest, boldest, most expensive, most challenging, yet possibly the most important robotics project in the history of mankind. … Whether we suc-ceed or not, if the technology we develop



The team of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory pose after its dominating performance at the RoboCup 2011 competition in Istanbul, Turkey. Associate Professor and RoMeLa founder/director Dennis Hong stands directly behind CHARLI.

through this project can even save a single person’s life in the future, then everything is worth it.”

The second project: SAFFiR, a robot-ics project funded by the Office of Naval Research, that is much further along than THOR – built from the feet up to the upper chest. This humanoid, Shipboard Autonomous Fire-Fighting Robot, is being designed to fight fires aboard naval ships. In May, the robot could walk attached to a gimbal. By June, Hong hoped to have the robot walking without support, but still likely tethered to a computer for opera-tor control. It will be part of the demo for DARPA, as THOR’s technology will feed from the research on SAFFiR. Also true of SAFFiR: Hong is outsourcing for assistance, with fellow Hokie mechanical engineering professor Brian Lattimer and his EXTREME Lab developing the robot’s heat/fire-sensing and suppression tasks, with additional help from UPenn and the Naval Research Lab.

Both projects are benefiting from the first years of determination and back-to-the-drawing-board efforts with Robo-Cup from 2007 onward to back-to-back world championships. As students de-sign, cut, and shape parts for the initial prototype leg that will start the physical building of THOR, work is habit now. Even for lab newcomers.

“Many people have asked us, ‘Why spend so much time, money, and efforton building soccer playing robots? Isn’t there more important things robots should do?’,” Hong said in May.

“We are now using all the technol-ogy we have developed through making

robots able to play soccer to nowsave people’s lives: bipedal locomotion, dynamics and control, kinematics and design, robot vision, autonomous behav-iors, etc., all of these are needed to build a robot for disaster relief and it came from our work for RoboCup.”

Lahr, the doctoral student, said, “The prep work, and atmosphere are very much similar for THOR and Robocup. It was not uncommon before Robocup to have our CNC [computer numerical control] mills running 24/7 to finish parts for the competition. The same is true for THOR, except now we have more mills and a larger robot. The biggest difference is the size and importance of the competi-tion.”

Two newcomers to the lab already instantly see the benefits of working with RoboCup veterans as the team prep

THOR. “So far I’ve been de-burring parts and tapping holes for THOR, and later I will be assisting with assembly and test-ing,” said Meaghan Johnson of Burke, Va., and a senior in mechanical engineering.

Master’s student John Seminatore of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., added: “I’ve never par-ticipated in a Robocup contest, but from my military time I have participated in a satellite launch, and the energy feels much the same. Everyone’s buckling down and focusing on the tasks at hand.”

RoMeLa’s laser-beam focus on THOR and SAFFiR is not permanent. The soccer field will come out of the corner, and find use again. And if THOR can drive a vehicle, traipse over rubble, and bust through walls, imagine what he can do as an athlete.

“When THOR becomes operational, and if we bring it to RoboCup making it play soccer at RoboCup 2014 or 2015, it will blow everyone’s mind,” Hong said.

“This is the craziest, b

oldest, most expensive, most

challenging, yet possibly the most important robotics project

in the history of mankind. … Whether we succeed or not, if the

technology we develop through this project can even

save a single person’s life in the future, then

everything is worth it.” ~ Dennis Hong


The Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory has several versions of its robot, CHARLI, which made headlines in 2010 when it debuted. The original CHARLI, now in a glass case in the atrium of Randolph Hall, was featured on the cover of Popular Science.

Virginia Tech College of Engineering students have access to VT FIRE, formally named the Kroelling Advanced Materials Foundry, a world-class teaching and research facility. Directed by Alan Druschitz of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the foundry emphasizes green engineering and best management practices.


“Basically, we are holding our own and standing tall alongside students from much larger programs with over twice the enrollment of our depart-ment,” said Diane Folz, faculty adviser to Virginia Tech’s Materials Engineering Professional Societies (MEPS), a Mate-rial Advantage Student Chapter, and the umbrella organization linking the University’s four small materials science and engineering (MSE) student groups. “We are in the company of Penn State, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, the University of Florida, and the University of Missouri – Rolla, to name a few,” added Folz, a

Materials science and engineering students“stand tall” nationally

among peers from larger university programs



By Lynn Nystrom

In the materials engineering world, four different stu-dent societies – the American Ceramic Society, the American Institute for Steel Technology, The Materials Society, and the American Society for Metals International – from colleges nationwide compete for one of only five available Material Advantage Chapter of Excellence awards presented at the Materials Science and Technology Annual Conference.

So the odds of one school’s chapter winning four of the last seven years are probably not high. But that is exactly what Virginia Tech’s Material Advantage Chapter has accom-plished, garnering an excellence award in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2010. The students have high expectations for 2013.

senior research associate and instructor in the MSE department.

The criteria for winning is the sub-mission of an annual report. All activities from the year, including service, out-reach, social activities, and community involvement, are part of the report.

“To our credit, we have also made significant impacts on programs at other schools that have initiated activities we designed first here at Virginia Tech,” Folz added. One of these projects is creation of the Journal of Undergraduate Materials Research, conceived of by Department Head David Clark and Folz. Its debut in the fall of 2005 coincided with the first year the Virginia Tech Material Advan-tage Chapter received one of the excel-lence awards.

This technical journal published by the Virginia Tech MSE students pro-vides a venue for the undergraduates to publish their research and to practice their communication skills. Gradu-ate students serve as editorial board members and participate in the selection of the manuscripts written entirely by

undergraduates, making the document peer-reviewed. Also, faculty reviewers currently hail from such esteemed insti-tutions as Johns Hopkins University and the University of Oxford.

The journal’s first issue covered only materials science as it related to Virginia Tech. Since its inception the journal has evolved into its latest publication reflecting communities of learning shared between multiple universities and industries. As an ex-ample, the fourth volume contains one article on collaborative work on polymeric coatings for wood used in the making of guitars. Both Virginia Tech and the University of Hartford engineer-ing students conducted this work, and the featured guitar on the cover was contributed by their industry partner, Taylor Guitars. The table of contents for this latest journal also contains student submissions from such institutions as the Indian Institute of Technology on the dynamics of spheroids and from Georgia

Tech on gamma ray scintillators. The Student Ambassadors program

represents another novelty reported on for the chapter’s entry in the national competition. Started by Patrick Sinko, vice-president of the MEPS chapter for

2012-13, he modeled this outreach program after the college-wide Dean’s Team that provides services to current and perspective engineering students.

Sinko, also a member of the Corps of Cadets, recruited an initial 15 students to the departmental ambas-sadors program, and by year two, increased it to about 25 participants. These students run the Materials Science and

Engineering Open House, demonstrating hands-on projects to general engineering freshmen who are still undecided about a major within the college. The Ambassa-dors also provide similar demonstrations for the Open House for high school stu-dents, hosted by the College each April.

“I wanted to promote the materials engineering program and return it to its

glory days when every MSE studentwas involved,” Sinko, who has been

known to volunteer as much asfive to 10 hours a week to MEPS,

said. “We have made ourrecruiting more of a student-driven activity, taking the

workload off the faculty. Wehosted a group from north

ern Virginia in the fall,showing them activities

such as glass pouringand a space shuttle

tile demonstra-tion. We also tookthem to lunch. We

had a similar daywith studentsfrom the Blacks-

burg High School.”Sinko and

Stephanie Sparks,the 2012-13 chap-ter president, aresubmitting the

Patrick Sinko



At one of the outreach events hosted by the MSE students, a guest pours a molten tin alloy into molds while learning about metals processing.

entry for this year’s chapter of excellence award. Sparks is as devoted to the group as Sinko, and thinks of her colleagues as a “very close-knit community.” Her own interest in materials started as a highschool student in Oakton, Va., where she was inspired by a teacher to learn more about how to make environmentallyfriendly materials. As a sophomore, Sparks was the youngest underclassman from Virginia Tech to attend the annual MEPS conference in the spring in Cocoa Beach, Fl., in 2010. Folz takes only the “12 of the best” to this secure student pages meeting on composite materials and structures run by the government.

After Sparks participated in this meeting, she wanted to make sure the Virginia Tech MEPS chapter remained successful and admitted she “set some very high goals for herself.”

Sparks has enjoyed having Folz as a role model in her endeavors, as Folz served as the president of the American Ceramic Society student chapter when she was at the University of Florida. Afterwards, the National Institute of Ceramic Engineers hired Folz to run the National Student Congress for the ceramic engineering society. Performing her magic, Folz increased the meeting size from about 10 schools to some 25 different groups.

“I have been involved with student groups from a professional level for so long that when I arrived at Virginia Tech, I immediately involved myself in the materials science and engineering student professional program here,” Folz said. She had the strong support of David Clark, professor and head of the MSE department, who brought Folz to the Blacksburg campus in 2001. Previously, Clark knew Folz from his tenure at the University of Florida, serving then as its materials chapter faculty adviser and as a mentor to Folz.

Since joining Virginia Tech, Folz has taught courses such as the Materials Processing Laboratory and the Introduc-tion to Materials for Non-Majors, while also obtaining her master’s degree in 2011. She is currently working part-time on her doctorate. Her master’s thesis was linked to the Journal of Undergraduate Materials Research, as she focused on materials research in the construction of

the guitar. Since then, she has interested a multitude of the materials science and engineering majors in guitar manufactur-ing, and makes it part of a collaborative learning process.

When the Journal published an article on enhancing the undergraduate research experience, the student authors credited Folz with her vision of a guitar-based microwave processing project for facilitating collaborations between universities and industry.

At that time, the article spoke of Folz’ newfound collaboration with the University of Hartford and the Taylor Guitar Company. Two years later, that partnership continues to flourish, ac-cording to Folz’ website. Today, more than 30 students have been involved in various projects to meet a goal with the guitar company of producing a new coating for the musical instrument and to develop some surprising new component designs.

Ongoing, novel educational projects such as this one help Sparks and Sinko as they compile their entry for the 2013 competition.

Folz has also encouraged the students to publicize the impact their materials research could have on society, and not just leave their findings in the technical journals. Each year, the Virginia

Tech students travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress to speak about the importance of materials research. The national Material Advan-tage Program Office helps schedule the visits for the students over a three-day period.

This year, the Hokies met with the offices of Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania, and Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, as well as a per-sonal appointment with Representative Morgan Griffith of Virginia. In prepara-tion for their meetings, the students were trained using role-playing exercises to provide them with ideas of good talk-ing points about the need for continued research funding. This exercise will also go into the report Sinko and Sparks are preparing.

And showing they have a sense of humor, the MEPS students can point to their video on “Ugly Mugly,” their contestant for the Ceramic Education Council Annual Mug Drop Competition. The Hokies’ ceramic mug, laughed at by their competitors for its unattractive appearance, earned the group a trophy for the best designed mug of 2012 in the national competition.

“Pretty darn good, I’d say,” summa-rized Folz of the students’ achievements throughout the past seven years.


The attending high school students learn from a Virginia Tech MSE student about the properties of materials at low temperatures by using a carrot frozen by liquid nitrogen.

From Legoaircraft carriers

to fish hatcheries, building is in their blood


By Lindsey Haugh

Building asolid team

Virginia Tech’s Myers-Lawson School of Construc-tion sent three teams of undergraduate students to the Associated Schools of Construction Region 6 and 7 National Student Com-petition and Construction Management Conference in 2013 in Sparks, Nevada.

Each had a varying degree of success, building upon an enviable history. “Once you start winning, then people get excited,”

smiled Christine “Chris” Fiori, associate director for the Myers-Lawson School of Construction. But more than winning, there are more valu-able rewards to result from the student’s involvement, she explained.

“Three major things I hope the students take from the experience: the obvious, is that they gain new knowledge of the field, they network with potential employers, and have fun while doing it,” said Fiori, faculty advisor to the teams.

The university’s three student teams from both construction engineering

and management and build-ing construction programs competed against 21 well-re-spected construction schools in three categories: Pre-Con-struction Services; Concrete; and Sustainable Building and LEED. The competition in-cluded: Arizona State, Oregon State, Cal Poly, Colorado State, and University of Florida.

Companies such as PCL Construction Services Inc., Sundt Construction, and SKANSKA USA Building Inc., proposed a problem to the teams, typical of services provided to clients in the real world. The sponsor companies

judged the students’ entries, based on their team’s ficti-tious company profile and qualifications, meeting deliv-erables, and presentation.

Over the three-day event, students are chal-lenged to solve problems that simulate real-life esti-mating, bidding, scheduling, and proposal processes for complex construction proj-ects. At the conclusion of the event, the awards ceremony is coupled with a construc-tion industry career fair.

As in most competi-tions, preparation precedes



The 2013 concrete competition team of undergraduate students from the Virginia Tech Myers-Lawson School of Construction, from left to right, are: Sam Houchins, Kyle Lamars, Kevin Bunn, Arthur Genuario, Josh Daniels, and Matt Ondek.

the actual event, and the first item on the to-do list before the annual competition, is to select the students to serve on the three teams. Each of the three teams is limited to six people, plus alternates.

A returning member from one of the previous year’s teams is usually chosen to be a captain. Other perspective members might be encour-aged by the seasoned partici-pant to interview for a spot on the team with Fiori. She ultimately selects and advises the 18 plus team members.

“What can you bring to the competition that is unique? What are your skill sets? Can you get along well with others under intense stress?” questioned Fiori. “These are just are few of the questions I ask potential members before I can consider them.”

Prior to joining the Vir-ginia Tech community in 2007, Fiori was a faculty member in the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University, where she became heavily involved in the construction competitions and was the advisor for several successful teams. She was also an assistant director of Region 6 and worked on the planning

of the competition.Once Fiori has made

selections, the three teams start working together in No-vember, meeting once a week with her.

Constructinga future

It was John Lawson, president and CEO of W.M. Jordan Company and Tech alumnus who encouraged Michele Woodford, an intern with his company for the past three consecutive summers, to explore construction engi-neering. She was attending Bridgewater College at the time and enrolled in a dual program with Virginia Tech – one that should have garnered her with dual degrees in both physics and civil engineer-ing. But in her junior year, when Woodford transferred to Virginia Tech into the civil engineering program, she opted to study construction engineering instead.

Senior Woodford was se-lected for the pre-construction team.

“While in my third sum-mer internship with W.M. Jor-dan I had acquired actual field experience estimating costs associated with construction

jobs. Because of this, I took on the estimator role in the pre-construction team,” said Woodford, the lone female group member. “I have always had a love for numbers and will definitely pursue a career in construction estimation post graduation.”

The problem PCL Con-struction presented to the pre-construction team was the building and establishment of a fish hatchery, located in a cofferdam in Bridgeport, Wash.

“The team had no prior knowledge of cofferdams. Our team collectively had more commercial knowledge, which was not exactly applicable in this situation. Even though our presentation was on point and we rocked the meeting, unfor-tunately we missed some key aspects in the architecture of the structure,” said Woodford.

The Pre-Construction Services team finished fifth out of 12 in their competition. Along with Woodford, the team members included Tim Gross, Nathan Batman, Chris-tian Weiss, Patrick Pennell, and Andrew Adams.

They won first place in 2009, third in 2010, fifth in 2011, and seventh in 2012.

Always alearning

curve when nothing

is concrete“When I was 12, on

Christmas morning I opened a 1,700 piece Lego aircraft

carrier. By that evening I had put together the entire set by trial and error methods,” said Sam Houchins. “My mom had always said I’d either grow up to be a lawyer because I like to argue, or an engineer since I liked figuring out how to solve problems. I chose the later be-cause I can be an engineer and get dirty at the same time.”

Houchins, a member of the concrete team is a senior in construction engineering and management.

“My grades have im-proved since becoming part of the team, said the senior graduating in the fall of 2013. He attributes his academic progress to the impact Fiori has had on him. “Her enthusi-asm for the competition and the construction program is incredibly motivating.”

The concrete team, which was sponsored by Sundt Construction, also included members: Josh Daniels, Kevin Bunn, Kyle Lamars, Matt Ondek, and Arthur Genuario.

Their team acted as a concrete subcontracting firm that was solicited to bid on the construction of a municipal building, housing a court. Their focus was on the concrete foundation pour.

They worked on their project for 16 hours – well into the early morning, sleep-ing only a few hours, and then presented at one of the earli-est time slots.

Despite their efforts, the concrete team finished in the middle third of their com-petition. But, this is only the second time Virginia Tech has competed in the concrete divi-



The 2013 National Sustainable Building and LEED competition winning team members, back row, left to right, are: Alek Leckszas, Tim Reddick, Glenn Sullivan, and faculty adviser Christine Fiori. Front row, left to right, are: Andrew McNulty, Evan Underwood, and Justin Rajadhyaksha; all undergraduates in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction program at Virginia Tech.

sion. In 2012 they placed fifth out of nine teams.

“I am disappointed we didn’t score higher and that I’m a senior and won’t be able to compete and have the chance to win next year’s competition,” said the Virginia native. “I felt like there could have been many ways to approach the problem. Many variables. Nothing was defi-nite. Maybe we should have directed more detailed ques-tions to the panel?”

Houchins plans to participate in the regional competition in the fall before graduating.

“I want to continue to be involved with the competi-tions. I learn something new every time – about the indus-try and about myself,” said the 22 year old.

LEED the wayThe Sustainable Build-

ing and LEED team’s assigned project, sponsored by SKAN-SKA involved a new “green” five-story office-building proj-ect in the Pacific Northwest.

Alek Leckszas, a junior in

the construction engineering and management program, alongside Justin Rajadhyak-sha, Andrew McNulty, Evan Underwood, Glenn Sullivan, and Tim Reddick, led the Sustainable Building and LEED team to a victory in their category, with the highest win-ning score in the history of the competition.

It is apparent Leckszas understands the team’s suc-cess originates from dedication of each individual member. He was the only unseasoned member and had considered himself “the weakest link.”

“All of the guys on the team work incredibly hard. These are the same guys that do well in and outside of the classroom,” said Leckszas, who is the director of philanthropy for the Student Engineers’ Council and Beta Theta Pi’s academic chair.

“During my freshman year I was lucky to have lived in the Galileo community with the best role models. I at-tribute that as the basis for de-veloping effective study skills and practices that I’ve carried throughout my time in college

thus far,” said Leckszas. Galileo is a residential-based learning community for freshman men in engineering.

That’s not the only ben-eficial decision Leckszas has made. When Fiori solicited him to interview for a spot on the LEED team, he jumped at the chance. Fiori had recog-nized his potential in class and had taken notice of his interest in aspects of sustain-ability. Leckszas is now work-ing towards a minor in green engineering.

At the competition, the LEED team was relaxed and confident when they present-ed to SKANSKA.

“On the first day, we had approached the problem incorrectly. Evan, our captain, realized it and quickly steered us in the right direction. From then on we knew we had nailed it and were extremely pleased with the win,” said Leckszas enthusiastically.

The LEED team won best presentation in 2011 and sev-enth overall. The team placed ninth in 2009, fourth in 2010, and fifth in 2012.

“Competing with my

team to win first in the Sus-tainable Building and LEED Competition has been one of my favorite experiences at Virginia Tech. It has also encouraged me to further pur-sue a career in sustainability with renewable energy,” said Leckszas.

Applicable tothe real world

Fiori hopes the teams’ successes will encourage other students to participate in upcoming competitions.

“There is no textbook for the experience they [the students] garner with their participation in this par-ticular competition. They gain confidence knowing that what they are learning in the classroom is actually what they will apply in the field … in the real world,” said Fiori who is currently leading a $90,000 collaborative research project for NSF and the Smithson-ian’s National Museum of the American Indian to study the work of the ancient engineers of the Great Inca road of the Andes.

Chris FioriAlek Leckszas Sam Houchins Michele Woodford


WINNINGTHE FUTUREVirginia Tech’s Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team helps seed the transportation industry with students experienced in work shop competition.

or the Virginia Tech’s Hybrid Electric Vehicle

Team, the EcoCAR competi-tion means much more than trophies and bragging rights for a win. It’s an ignition for a career.

Weeks before Virginia Tech’s Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team left for the Phase 2 por-tion of the EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future competition in Yuma, Ariz., and then San Di-ego, a senior student member of the team excitedly spoke of his future in both the short-term and the long-term.

“When we see that thing

F


By Steven Mackay

The Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team poses with its car in Yuma, Ariz., during the track testing phase of EcoCAR 2. With the group is Keith Van Houten, a Hokie alum-nus and GM mentor for the student team.

press time, Erikson, who grad-uated in May from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering is working for Volvo Trucks in Haggerston, Md. Without his time on EcoCAR, spend-ing 40-hour weeks inside the lab, in addition to a full class load, Erikson said he likely would not have had landed a job so quickly. “That’s one of the greatest benefits of this competition,” he said. “I don’t think half of us would have gotten jobs without this. The

best part is you go into a job interview, and you have an answer for every question, and an example of how hard you work. That’s the biggest take away.”

Doug Nelson has seen this happen year after year to his students. A professor in the Department of Mechani-cal Engineering and winner of several awards for his efforts, both at the university and national levels, Nelson has headed the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team in its many

incarnations since 1994. The team started out as part of the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) Challenge, and then partici-pated in Propane Challenge, the FutureCar Challenge, the FutureTruck Challenge, and Challenge X, before diving into EcoCAR, the current three-year design competition challenging engineering stu-dents from the United States and Canada to fully refurbish a gas-powered vehicle into one that is hybrid electric,

“The best part is you go into a job interview, and you have an answer for every question.”

drive, it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” said Tyler Erikson of Williamsburg, Va. He said this in early May as the team unveiled the car – a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu – to the public, a gathering of former team members, College of Engineering faculty and staff, and parents and other sup-porters. Erikson proudly said taking the donated car, gutting it, and converting it into an electric hybrid vehicle that can drive up to 40 miles on battery power, no gas needed, has been “one of the most rewarding experiences of his life.” The joy of getting his hands dirty inside the Joseph F. Ware Jr. Advanced Engineer-ing Laboratory will stay with him for life, and the rest of his career in engineering.

That is fitting, for as of



Andrew Gregory, now graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engi-neering, works on the car in the Ware Lab on campus.

~ Tyler Erikson, a Hokie alumnusnow working for Volvo Truck

while maintaining perfor-mance, look, safety, and other consumer-oriented demands. Each competition along the way has had corporate and government sponsorships. One major reason is jobs. “This is why the Department of Energy, GM, and all of the sponsors are involved,” Nelson said. “This competition seeds the industry with engineers familiar with the challenges of sustainable transportation. Students who have participated in EcoCAR have a big advantage when it comes to jobs.”

In summer 2011, Virginia Tech took first place in the EcoCAR 1 – dubbed The NeXt Challenge. Among their 14 prizes: Best Vehicle Testing Complete Presentation, Short-est Braking Distance, Lowest Fuel Consumption, and Best Dynamic Consumer Accept-ability. The year before, it took 2nd in the competition during the Phase 2 portion, where student teams show off their working cars at a GM desert

test facility in Yuma, where the car is pushed hard on the track, and then San Diego, where the team presents its design specs and also shows off its community outreach efforts and other steps to dem-onstrate an engineering team that doesn’t just build, but can communicate to the public at large what they are building.

In June 2013, Erikson and his teammates repeated the competition hurdles in Arizona and California. They came in 6th overall with their new car, dubbed MARY, short for Mostly A Redesign Year. (Student engineer teams love

acronyms. This group went as far as naming a roof rack placed atop the car for decora-tion as SHARK, or Stability Hybrid Accessory Roof Kit. SHARK’s job: carry a surf-board, a homage to the name origin of the model car, as in Malibu, Calif.)

The June effort followed a year of physical work on the car and a year of design work before that, with countless revisions and unforeseen challenges along the way. The engine was replaced. Battery packs were installed

in the trunk. All new wiring was installed to connect the batteries to the new motor and engine. Naturally, for a hybrid car, the car received an electrical charging system in the rear, on the opposite side of the manufacturer-installed fuel- supply system. Two fire extinguishers were added to the engine compartment. More so than design, speed, or diminished exhaust from the car, safety is always first and foremost among all efforts.

All of this work made more than two dozen students into one team, an important lesson for any engineer enter-ing the career field. “The chal-lenges of working on this car are numerous. Any time you are taking a vehicle manufac-tured by professionals and try-ing to remove parts and work in additional hybrid compo-nents that aren’t supposed to be there, you are going to run into plenty of issues,” said Eli



“The awards and winning are a nice perk to encourage along the way, but this program is all about the students learning and reaching their goals.”

~ Eli White, Hybrid Electric Vehicle Teamstudent leader

Team leader Eli White, a graduate student within the Virginia Tech Department of Mechanical Engineering, will again head HEVT during the 2013-2014 academic year.

White of Thaxton, Va., and a master’s student in mechani-cal engineering who graduat-ed with a bachelor’s degree in May 2012 from Virginia Tech under the same department. He is expected to graduate in May 2014, just before the final, Phase 3, competition for EcoCAR 2 at GM’s Michigan headquarters and then in Washington, D.C.

“On the physical side, cars these days just do not have extra space in them,” White added. “The vehicle is built to be space efficient and not have anything extra to add mass other than necessary parts. Our job, however, is to find empty space and fill it with our high voltage systems and other hybrid compo-nents. Another huge challenge is the controls aspect of the project. It is all fine and good to integrate all of our parts into the car, but without com-munication between the stock

system and our added hybrid systems, all we have is one massive paper weight. It is vital for everything in the car to work as one system and to transmit not only stock vehicle signals, but also signals gener-ated to make the car work as we want it to.”

Working as one system can describe the car, and the team as well. That can be especially challenging itself when many team members enter the competition with little to no “shop” experience.

“Most of the students starting on the HEVT project have no knowledge or experi-ence with hybrid vehicle technologies, and so they have to learn a lot, and fast,” Nelson said. “So, yes, one of the great pleasures I get from the project is seeing the students pull it all together and make it work.”

Among those that did not have experience with cars before joining the team was

White himself. But he has learned quickly.

“It has been great to gain practical car knowledge I can use in everyday life, as well as knowledge about hybrid technology that is the future of the automotive industry,” he said. “It has been an amaz-ing opportunity to tear down the vehicle to simply a body structure and then getting to put things back together. It is every engineers’ dream to tear things apart to see how they work.”

Work on the car is not a begin-from-scratch effort each year, or even each three-year cycle. As the designated rede-sign cars have evolved during the past few years, with new and more complicated onboard control modules and electric power steering, so have the team and competi-tion rules.

“Each competition has a new unique vehicle, and we have new designs, compo-nents, and challenges,” said Nelson. “We follow a vehicle

design process that is largely prescribed by the competition requirements and rules. We have our own team structure and process that has evolved over time with the competi-tions, but each team has to come up with a plan to imple-ment the designs, and then test and refine the design.”

White will stay on with the team as he prepares for Year Three. His teammates this year, as with Erikson, will enter the workforce, including Kollmorgen, GM, and several other companies that were involved in sponsorships and other support avenues of EcoCAR.

The new team for 2013-2014 was already well in place before Phase 2 ended, having worked in support of the grad-uated team throughout the year. And these new students will quickly learn that their successes in the shop will lead to a career path.

“It is all about the experi-ence and what everyone can take from this on a personal level,” White said. “Yes, the awards and winning are a nice perk to encourage along the way, but this program is all about the students learning and reaching their goals.”


For the annual nation-wide competition, the num-bers are slightly staggering: 69 active chapters of Alpha Pi Mu

across the country with more than 45,000 members.

The reason this data is staggering: for the past five years in a row, the Virginia Tech student chapter of Alpha Pi Mu has won the national

Outstanding Chapter award.The award reflects its

numerous activities andcontributions to the

field of industrialengineering, the

national soci-ety, and the

commu-nity.“This

is

a remarkable and energetic group of students,” said Kim-berly Ellis, associate profes-sor of industrial and systems engineering (ISE) at Virginia Tech and the faculty adviser to the group since 1997. “Origi-nally, I was assigned to advise this group, but I would have chosen them. I enjoy working with the student leaders.”

The report the chapter submits to Alpha Pi Mu’s national office for the award application is comprehensive. On average the document is about 40 pages, citing such activities as: assisting the College of Engineering in the

hosting of an Open House for more than 1000 prospective students from participating high schools; recognizing accomplishments of students and faculty; and serving as mentors to other engineering students as well as Upward Bound youth.

This winning tradition of the Virginia Tech chapter has been cultivated by a number of people, Ellis said.

For example, when the roof of the local Blacksburg High School caved in, the teen-age students were compelled to double up at the area mid-dle school’s classrooms. With

ALPHA PHI MUNationally outstanding, five years running


ByLynn Nystrom

the two different academic levels, sessions had to run late into the evening to accommo-date everyone. Laurel Travis, an adjunct faculty member who worked with Alpha Pi Mu, went into action, along with many other members of the University.

Travis contacted the service learning group for students, emailing them for assistance. The College of Engineering sponsored the effort, and Travis encouraged a number of student groups, including Alpha Pi Mu, to men-tor the high school students at night through the remainder of the difficult year. Alpha Pi Mu went a step further

and solicited Virginia Tech’s Student Engineers’ Council to supply sub sandwiches to participants since the students arrived at 7 p.m., straight from their elongated high school hours to their mentoring ses-sions, leaving no time to go home for dinner.

To enhance the depart-ment’s continued commitment to student successes, Sara Lu championed Alpha Pi Mu’s mentoring program, only this time for the current industrial and systems engineering stu-dents. “This became the first program of this type within

our department,” Ellis said. Lu recruited volunteers to serve as mentors and worked with Eileen Van Aken, professor of industrial and systems engineering, to train them and develop a description of the program.

“While serving as presi-dent of the organization, Lu initiated Alpha Pi Mu’s first class of mentors and men-tees, and the program has flourished since she left. We have approximately 30 men-tors covering all aspects of industrial engineering,” Ellis explained.

When Alex Lyddane was a senior in Alpha Pi Mu, his leadership skills greatly increased the participation in Alpha Pi Mu. Voted the depart-ment’s Outstanding Senior in 2012, he has remained at Vir-ginia Tech for graduate school, and continues to lend a hand to the honor society. In fact, Lyddane was the person, with Ellis’ assistance, who started the organization’s involvement in the Upward Bound mentor-ing program in 2011-12. The Alpha Pi Mu members tutor these high school students from low-income families or from families where neither

parent has a college degree. “These ninth and tenth

grade students would come in from hours away on a Satur-day morning to meet with us to be tutored,” Lyddane of Ash-burn, Va., said. “I love service and personally get a lot out of giving back.”

His actions were well-noted by the national office of Alpha Pi Mu. In 2012, it awarded Lyddane the national Paul E. Givens Diversity Schol-arship. This award is assisting him with the cost of graduate school.

At Virginia Tech, one of Alpha Pi Mu’s goals with Up-ward Bound is to increase the rate at which the participants complete secondary education and subsequently enroll in and graduate from institutions of postsecondary education. Now in its second year, it is still too early to report suc-cess, Ellis said, but Alpha Pi Mu has added the activity as a permanent function of the group’s service.

“My overall goal is to encourage these talented stu-dents to give back to the de-partment through mentoring and tutoring and to give back



AlexLyddane

Pictured are the members of the2013 Alpha Pi Mu honorary society.

to the community through service activities,” Ellis said.

Another example of Alpha Pi Mu’s work with the community is its participation in the Kids Tech University, a group that attempts to spark children’s interests in the science, technology, engineer-ing, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In the past the Alpha Pi Mu members have provided each participating child with $400 in Hokie dollars to purchase materials to build a tower. The challenge was that the available materials were not pieces of metal or wood; instead, their choices were spaghetti noodles, toothpicks, and marshmallows.

The children discovered teamwork was important, and not to spend all of their bud-geted money foolishly. They also realized – either through their own engineering com-mon sense or by seeing the success of their peers – that building with triangles pro-duced a sturdier tower than if they relied on square designs. “They learned valuable inter-personal and technical lessons while enjoying the activity,” Ellis said.

One of Alpha Pi Mu’s most coveted activities with the community is its participa-

tion in the Relay for Life fund-raiser, sponsored nationally by the American Cancer Society. Led by the ISE Ambassadors and supported by Alpha Pi Mu and the student chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the three groups are emotionally charged to participate due to their admi-ration for one of their all-time favorite professors, Paul E. Torgersen, University Presi-dent Emeritus, a throat cancer survivor, who continues to teach each semester using a wireless microphone.

For the Relay for Life event, the students must form a company, and for years they have used the name “Torgy’s ISEs” in honor of Torgersen. Lyddane explained further about the ISE students’ re-spect for Torgersen, saying, “I took Dr. Torgersen’s Theory of Organization class as a sopho-more and it is one of the best engineering classes.” In recog-nition of his commitment to excellence in teaching, Alpha Pi Mu named their outstand-ing faculty award after him.

In the months leading up to the Relay for Life, Torgy’s ISEs organized bake sales, sought contributions from local dining establishments in exchange for increased busi-ness, and ran other activities.

Lyddane organized a pancake breakfast to raise money for the event. When the counting was done, the three groups had raised more than $6000 for its share of Virginia Tech’s record-setting gift to the American Cancer Society.

Ali Reedy, of Harrison-burg, Va., a third generation Hokie, served as the 2012-13 president. She also cited the support of Torgersen for the honorary society, saying he has T-shirts printed each year that he gives to the ISE students.

The group also partici-pates in the University-wide service project called the Big Event. They spend time at a local elementary school, work-ing on its outside grounds, mulching, weeding, trim-ming trees, raking lawns, and general clean-up. Contracting a firm to do this work would probably cost in the thousands of dollars. They also assist individual homeowners who were elderly or single parents.

During this past year, Reedy and her fellow officers required all students to vol-unteer for at least one of the service projects, and she per-sonally felt the mentoring and tutoring programs were the best experiences. “We reached out to the hundreds of ISE stu-

dents to offer mentoring, and tutoring the Upward Bound students was very rewarding as well.” In recognition for her academic and leadership accomplishments, Reedy recently received the Wolter J. Fabrycky Scholarship (one of only five scholarships awarded by the national office).

Reedy’s goals for the past year included an increase in membership, and at the fall and the spring induction ceremonies, the group added 22 and 23 new members, respectively. Criteria for ac-ceptance into Alpha Pi Mu is a ranking within the top fifth of the junior class and/or the top one third of the senior class. The student-run initiation cer-emony at the War Memorial Chapel is attended by about eight to 10 faculty and staff members and Dr. Don Taylor, the ISE department head, who provides strong support to the group.

“The chapter has contin-ued to build on their strengths these past five years,” Ellis concluded, with all of these activities and more going into their submission for the Outstanding Chapter Award. Evidently, as the awards and accolades continue to flow, the judges think they have ramped up also.



The students meet in their campus office to put together another award winning submission of their activities to the national office.


For the Relay for Life event, pictured above, the Alpha Pi Mu students formed a company, called Torgy's ISEs, and raised more than $6000 towards the overall record-setting gift to the American Cancer Society.

Engineering design can be aesthetically pleasing but must be functional and that is where human factors engineering comes into play.


Award-winning HFESstudent group a trend setterfrom the beginning

By Lynn Nystrom

Imagine an award won so frequently by one

particular student group that the national

sponsors stopped the competition and

revamped its format.

The scenario happened with the Human

Factors and Ergonomics Society. The very

successful offender was Virginia Tech’s

chapter in this national group.

“We won the Best Chapter award so frequently that they stopped having the competition altogether,” said Michael Agnew, the current faculty adviser to the group. Instead, the national administra-tion revamped the honors, allowing the top level status to be a formal recogni-tion as a Gold Level Chapter, available to multiple groups. Silver and bronze awards are also available.

“We have received this new honor ev-ery year since its inception except for the 2010-11 cycle,” Agnew cited. During much of this time, Maury Nussbaum, also a faculty member in industrial and systems engineering, served as the faculty adviser.



At the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society meeting, students freely exchange ideas with one another on how to secure employment opportunities.

The emphasis on human factors engi-neering at Virginia Tech has a history that dates back to the arrival of Harry Snyder in 1970, and for more than four decades has remained the top or one of the top schools in this program area. Snyder helped recruit fellow human factors engineers Walter Wierwille in 1971, Dennis Price in 1974, Robert Williges in 1976, Robert Dryden and Paul Kemmerling in 1979, Karl Kro-emer in 1980, and John Casali in 1982.

Today, with the exception of Casali who is still at Virginia Tech and the late Dryden who moved to Portland State University, there has been a huge turnover in this initial faculty pool in human factors engineering due to retirements. But the reputation for this robust discipline that has uses ranging from the design of simple kitchen displays to the creation of the lat-est sophisticated military aircraft remains exemplary at Virginia Tech.

The early students who excelled in this program, Ph.D. graduates such as Jon Kies, who is now the director of product management-user experience at Qual-comm, a company valued at some $43 billion in assets in 2012, and Mick McGee, the CEO and co-founder of EchoUser of San Francisco, a design firm that works with companies such as Apple and Google, returned to campus in the spring of 2013.

Their purpose in making the 3000-mile trek across the country was tospeak at a luncheon pizza meeting toabout 25 members of the Virginia Tech Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, about half of whom are undergrad-uates.

Both alumni felt it was well-worth their travel time and expenses to share their career stories with the fledging hu-man factors engineers from this top-ten program in the country, and maybe find a possible recruit. Kies was a doctoral student of Snyder’s; McGee had worked with Snyder and Williges.

Speaking to the current chapter’s members about how they transitioned from Virginia Tech to their very successful careers, the students found themselves fascinated by the diverse needs Qual-comm has for a human factors engineer. Since Qualcomm is the number one chip making company for cell phones, it cre-ates a lot of enabling technology that must be tested.

Enter Kies with his expertise on augmented reality and ambient aware-ness. “We do not sell the apps for the phones but we provide proof of concept. For example, as a customer walks through a store, the app might offer immediate

coupons based on previous tracking records of the buyer’s earlier purchases,” Kies explained.

The current students in the program are eager to keep up the tradition of their predecessors, and this meeting with the alumni was just one of about ten major functions during the academic year. All of the activities are entered into one final report that is submitted to the national office for review and consideration of the annual national award.

To earn a Gold Award, a chapter must have activities in at least nine categories that include guest speakers like Kies and McGee. The other criteria involve: recruit-ment, field trips, outreach and volun-teerism, collaboration, service to HFES, exploration, social activities, information dissemination, student membership, mentorship, continuous improvement, and creativity.

Chapters are eligible for silver awards if they meet requirements in six of these categories, and a bronze award if they conduct activities in at least three of these areas.

The mix of undergraduates and graduates in the society allows for some excellent exchanges, and Agnew believes the undergraduates, after taking a few courses in human factors, are ”adequately prepared to go head to head with the graduate students.”

A second meeting this past year confirmed Agnew’s predictions as the students shared internship experiences. Ralph Cullen, Ari Goldberg, and Stepha-



Ralph Cullen

nie Alpert, all human factors graduate students, sounded like professors giving advice to the undergraduates on how to secure employment opportunities while still in school. “Go to Career Services …visit the Virginia Tech Writing Center …cast your net wide … be persistent … use monstor.com … network … do email blasts promoting yourself …,” they advised.

This seminar counts towards infor-mation dissemination for the Gold Award entry they will be submitting. And the undergrads heard Cullen say that after his internship, “I am now at a second level. I am a face with a resume. You have to be able to differentiate yourself from all the other good students.”

Alpert echoed Cullen’s comments to the group meeting, saying her internship, obtained through an email blast about herself, led to an offer when she gradu-ates. She was from Boston, wanted to work there permanently, and her experi-ence as an industrial designer gave her the competitive edge over a host of other candidates.

The undergrads, although not as experienced, had some observations of their own to share, and only the time con-straints of having to go to another class meeting brought the informative session to a close.

Cullen is now entering his third year as a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society. When he arrived at Virginia Tech in 2011, the time was immediately after the only cycle when this group did not win a Gold Award.

The society was looking for new people, and not too long after he joined, he was elected president. “Our chapter had a lot of momentum and a lot of connections … I wanted to make sure we added more undergraduates. Now it has some 30-40 active members on its email list serve,” he acknowledged.

“He has injected a lot of energy into our organization, “ Agnew added.

Cullen, secretary of the group during his second year, did his undergradu-ate work in psychology at Georgia Tech, before starting graduate school at Virginia Tech. “My psychology work was really the-oretical. I moved to Virginia Tech because I have an engineering mindset and liked being able to see the practical applications of the research,” Cullen said.

Goldberg now serves as president, and along with Jonathan Flittner as vice president and Marc Christian as treasurer, they have a veteran staff of officers com-peting for the next Gold Award.

Their 2013 entry will also include the hosting of the Bad Design competi-tion, obviously taking on a humorous component. Open to all members of the University, guidelines ask participants to submit an example of a flawed design on the college campus, and what might be done to remedy the problem.

In the past, submissions have in-cluded a difficult-to-find fire alarm button on an elevator in one of the academic buildings. Another one was the brown color of the emergency posts constructed around campus. “The brown color just did not stand out,” Agnew noted.

By hosting this competition, they are able to draw attention to their discipline

from the entire University community, and successfully raise the community aware-ness about human factors engineering. And with everything they offer through-out the year, hopefully winanother Gold Award.


Ari Goldberg

CreditsDean: Richard C. BensonEditor and Writer: Lynn NystromWriters: Steven Mackay and Lindsey HaughDesigner: David SimpkinsCover Photo: Jim Stroup. Also photos on pp. 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 16,

28; Amanda Loman, pp. 8, 22, 26, 29, 30, 31; John McCormick, p. 10; Stephen Mackay, pp. 11, 32, 33; Michael Kiernan, pp. 2, 3, 27; Stephanie Sparks, pp. 14, 15; photos on pp. 20 and 23, courtesy of EcoCar Challenge; Logan Wallace, p. 21; photos on pp. 17 and 18 courtesy of Building Construction; Mark Umansky, pp. 24, 25.

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The Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory’s DARWiN-OP humanoid robots are ready for soccer competition at the 2012 RoboCup in Mexico City. The team won its division at the tournament.

ENGINEERING NOWCollege of EngineeringVirginia Polytechnic Institute

and State UniversityBlacksburg, Virginia 24061

Virginia Tech College of Engineering, Engineering Now 2013

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