January 2009 Virginia Engineers On The Move

January 2009 Virginia Engineers On The Move
 

Ken Anderson, CEO and founder of Anderson & Associates, has been named to the 2008 Transportation Technologies Advisory Committee. The appointment was made by Delegate Joe T. May, chairman of the Virginia Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

Clark Nexsen recently announced that
Jeffrey M. Loinette has earned his Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the US Green Building Council.

Draper Aden Associates is pleased to announce the following:
The addition of Jason Austin as a CAD Designer on the Site Planning and Engineering Team in the Richmond office. Mr. Austin’s past experience includes project manager for site design, land development projects and utility infrastructure design. He has a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of West Georgia.
Christopher L. Davis has joined the firm’s Charlottesville office as a Survey Crew Leader. He has over 12 years of surveying experience in the Charlottesville area from rodman to senior crew chief. Mr. Davis holds a B.S. from Virginia Commonwealth University in Mass Communications and Advertising.
Tekia Lewis and Lydia Howard have joined the firm as Administrative Support in the Richmond office. Tekia Lewis brings over 8 years of administrative experience in accounting, personnel and customer service. Lydia Howard has 12 years of customer service experience and is currently pursuing her engineering degree at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Timothy K. Dean, P.E., L.S.I.T., Michael S. Haggerty, P.E. and Jeffrey S. Nelson, have been named as the firm’s newest associates. Mr. Dean is the Office Manager and Site Planning and Engineering Team Leader in the firm’s Hampton Roads office. He has over 12 years of engineering experience. He earned his Civil Engineering degree from Old Dominion University and holds a B.A. in Math/Economics from St. Olaf College and a M.S. in Technology Management from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Mr. Haggerty is a Senior Project Engineer in the Infrastructure Evaluation and Rehabilitation group in the Richmond office and has over 12 years of engineering experience. Six of which have been with Draper Aden Associates where he has worked as a project engineer and project manager for utility and site designs of various municipal and institutional projects. Mr. Haggerty holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. Mr. Nelson is a Marketing/Business Development Manager in the Richmond office and has been with the firm for seven years. He is responsible for identifying new business opportunities within private sector markets focusing on strategic partnerships, Colleges and Universities, and selected State Agencies. He has a B.A. in Communication from the University of Michigan.

Dunlap & Partners Engineers recently announced that
John Dunlap has earned his High-Performance Building Design Professional certication from the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

The Engineering Groupe, Inc. is pleased to announce that John Matusik, P.E., recently received certification as a LEED AP. Mr. Matusik currently serves as the Vice President and Director of Water Resources Engineering for The Engineering Groupe, Inc. In addition, Mr. Matusik is an Adjunct Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. He is a member of the Virginia Floodplain Managers Association (VFMA), Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO), Virginia Lakes and Watershed Association (VLWA), and the American Water Resources Association (AWRA). He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Engineers and Surveyors Institute (ESI) and was the coordinating editor and co-author for the 1000-page Land Development Handbook, published in 1996 by McGraw Hill.

Hankins and Anderson Inc. recently announced that:
Scott Keblusek is a civil engineer; Mike J. Goodman is senior telecommunications engineer; Angela Lilly is a senior civil enginee; and Rolando Concepcion is a systems administrator.
Hankins and Anderson, Inc., has also announced the following new employees:
Wayne Morrissette, P.E., has joined the Electrical Department as Senior Electrical Engineer. Mr. Morrissette was formerly with EDGES Engineering Inc.; Kristin Kerridge has joined the Mechanical Department as Mechanical Designer. Ms. Kerridge was formerly with Matrix Consulting Engineers; and Gabriel J. Velasquez has joined the Life Safety Department in their Glen Allen Office as Fire Protection Designer. Mr. Velasquez was formerly with Smith Group.

William (Bill) H. Pearce has been named a Project Manager in the Herndon, VA office of Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), a global infrastructure strategic consulting, engineering and program/construction management organization. Mr. Pearce has over 35 years of experience managing complex engineering and construction projects. His immediate prior experience includes responsibility for managing ongoing programs for the National Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) at another major consulting firm. From 1998-2001 he served as a Commander and District Engineer for the USACE, responsible for the New York District, a 700-person, multi-disciplinary organization with a $450 million annual program. prior to that, he was a military staff officer with assignments for NATO in Brussels, Belgium and Heidelberg, Germany. He also Commanded an Engineer Battalion for the U.S. Army in Panama. A graduate of the United States Military Academy with a B.S. degree, Mr. Pearce also holds an M.B.A. from Long Island University and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Society of American Military Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Association of the Unites States Army and the Army Engineer Association.

Charles B. Perry II has been named Chief Executive Officer of Patton, Harris, Rust & Associates (PHR&A), a 285-person Engineering, Planning and Surveying firm serving clients in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He will be responsible for all aspects of the firm’s business operations. Previously, he held executive roles with HNTB, Wilbur Smith Associates, and the Virginia Department of Transportation. He will be located in the firm’s Chantilly, VA office.

Richard J. Davis takes office as President of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) for 2009. Mr. Davis is an Assistant Vice President and Senior Engineering Technical Specialist with FM Global. A member of SFPE since 1982, Mr. Davis has served on the Society’s Board of Directors for nine years and is a member of its engineering licensure committee. In 2000, he was made an SFPE Fellow. SFPE Fellows represent a distinguished group of members who have attained significant stature and accomplishment in engineering. He also served as President of the SFPE New England Chapter and was recognized by that chapter in 1991 with its Richard E. Stevens Award for distinguished service in the interest of fire protection engineering. At FM Global, Mr. Davis writes or revises numerous FM Global data sheets and research reports on property loss prevention including those on safety during construction, combustibility of building materials, fire resistive assemblies and protection of openings within them, exterior fire exposure, designing buildings for deflagrations and heat and smoke venting. Mr. Davis holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Lowell Technological Institute and a Master of Science degree in Civil/Structural w/emphasis in Fire Protection from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He is a professional engineer (P.E.) in the State of Massachusetts and has served as an adjunct professor in fire protection engineering at WPI and Northeastern. Mr. Davis also serves or served on numerous National Fire Protection Association Committees and has revised or written chapters in various handbooks on various aspects of fire safety related to building during construction, including the NFPA Fire Protection Handbook, Inspection Manual and Fire Protection of Storage Facilities.

The White House announced recently that Dr. Maura Borrego, an assistant professor in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering’s Department of Engineering Education received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for the development of methods that will better prepare faculty and graduate students for interdisciplinary research. Dr. Borrego’s award represents the first one given to an engineer in the area of engineering education research. Dr. Borrego was nominated by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which provides grant support for five years through its Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program. To gain an understanding of the complexities of interdisciplinary research, Dr. Borrego is interviewing faculty, graduate students and administrators at four NSF Integrative Graduate Education Research and Training (IGERT) program sites nationwide. Since joining the Virginia Tech faculty spring semester 2005, Dr. Borrego has received the 2008 Best Research Paper Award from Division I of the American Educational Research Association and the Helen Plants Award for best nontraditional session at the 2007 Frontiers in Education Conference. She developed and teaches three graduate courses in engineering education assessment and research methods, and has received a certificate of teaching excellence from Virginia Tech. Dr. Borrego received her master’s degree and Ph.D. from Stanford University and a bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, all in materials science and engineering.
Marie Paretti, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, was recently honored with the university’s 2008 Sporn Award for Teaching Introductory Engineering Subjects. Sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Virginia Tech Academy for Teaching Excellence, the Sporn Award is presented annually to a Virginia Tech faculty member to recognize excellence in teaching introductory-level courses. Nominations are received from students only, and recipients are selected from a committee comprised of student representatives from Omicron Delta Kappa and Golden Key honor society and a faculty advisor who was the previous year’s award winner. Recipients are awarded a $2,000 cash prize and are inducted into the university’s Academy of Teaching Excellence. When Assistant Professor Paretti joined the department in August of 2004, she remained as the director of the engineering communications program, a joint effort between Virginia Tech’s Departments of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Materials Science and Engineering. As director, she works with her staff to teach professional skills, including communication, collaboration, and global competence, to students in both programs. She also helps the materials science and engineering students develop professional portfolios to showcase their work. Her selection for the Sporn Award was through a highly competitive process. The profiles of five finalists were submitted to the Student Engineers’ Council. The council, acting on behalf of the entire engineering student body, then selected Assistant Professor Paretti.
Dr. S. Ted Oyama of Blacksburg, the Fred W. Bull Professor of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, recently received the university’s 2008 Alumni Award for Research Excellence – the highest research award given at the university. Sponsored by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, the Alumni Award for Research Excellence is presented annually to as many as two Virginia Tech faculty members who have made outstanding contributions in the area of research. Alumni, students, faculty, and staff may nominate candidates for the award. Each recipient is awarded a $2,000 cash prize. Dr. Oyama’s research interests are in the areas of catalytic fuel processing, selective oxidation of hydrocarbons, volatile organic compound elimination, steam reforming, and membrane processes. He concentrates on the development of new materials, including novel catalytic materials such as phosphides and advanced inorganic membranes. After working at Catalytica Inc., in 1988 he became associate professor of chemical engineering at Clarkson University, and then in 1993 joined the faculty at Virginia Tech. He is a recent recipient of a fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and serves as editor of the Journal of Catalysis, the highest-ranked chemical engineering journal. He has published 180 refereed papers, six edited books, and one monograph. Dr. Oyama received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Dr. O. Hayden Griffin, professor and head of the Department of Engineering Education in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, recently received the university’s 2008 Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching. Established in 1982 by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, the Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching is presented annually to honor two Virginia Tech faculty members for teaching excellence. Award recipients are selected by the university’s Academy of Teaching Excellence and are chosen from among those faculty members who have received certificates of teaching excellence from their respective colleges during the preceding three years. Each recipient is awarded a $2,000 cash prize and is inducted into the Academy of Teaching Excellence. A member of the Virginia Tech community since 1985, Dr. Griffin has served as department head for the past 11 years. In addition to his many administrative duties, Dr. Griffin continued to teach and advise students in a variety of ways. From 1995 to 2001, Dr. Griffin was the faculty advisor to the Mini Baja Team, helping students use their theoretical knowledge of engineering to create a complex running vehicle that they design, fabricate, evaluate, refine, and conclude by taking the vehicle to a national competition to compete with more than 100 universities. And for many years, Dr. Griffin served as director of the Ware Advance Engineering Laboratory which is the design and fabrication home of many highly acclaimed and success student project teams. Dr. Griffin taught the first graduate course in the Department of Engineering Education in 2004 and since that time, has focused the majority of his teaching at the graduate level. Leading the development of the graduate courses, the Graduate Certificate in Engineering Education and the Ph.D. in Engineering Education, he has significantly expanded the educational opportunities for graduate students who want to be better teachers and expand their understanding of the engineering educational process. Dr. Griffin received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Texas Tech University and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.
Dr. Ranga Pitchumani, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Connecticut, has been named a John R. Jones III Fellow in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech recently by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. The John R. Jones III Faculty Fellowship in Mechanical Engineering was established in 2006 to acknowledge and reward mid-career faculty who have shown exceptional merit in research, teaching, and/or service. Jones, who earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech in 1967, is a retired executive of American Electric Power, having worked 36 years for the electric utility. Dr. Pitchumani will be appointed as a tenured professor of mechanical engineering at the start of the 2009 spring term. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992, and was with the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials prior to joining the University of Connecticut in 1995. Dr. Pitchumani also received a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s degree from Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, India.
Dr. David F. Kibler of Blacksburg, professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, was conferred the “professor emeritus” title by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors during the board’s quarterly meeting on Nov. 3rd. Dr. Kibler was recruited to Virginia Tech from the Pennsylvania State University to serve as the head of the department from 1990 until 1994. During his tenure as the department head, seven faculty were hired, including National Academy of Engineering member James Mitchell. In terms of faculty recognition during his four-year tenure, three received the prestigious National Science Foundation Young Investigator Awards, three were awarded named professorships by the university’s Board of Visitors, and one received the university’s W.E. Wine Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Kibler initiated a Young Faculty Forum to aid in the mentoring process of new faculty, and he invested heavily in renovation projects to improve the teaching and research capabilities of the department at that time. He built the department’s then state-of-the-art instructional computing lab with 20 personal computer stations and 10 work stations, renovated the graduate student area, turned Norris 310 into an environmental laboratory, completed work on a 4,400-square-foot addition to the structures/materials laboratory, began renovation of the hydrosystems instructional laboratories, and renovated the construction engineering area. When Dr. Kibler stepped down, he remained on the faculty as a professor in the hydrosystems area that eventually merged with the environmental group, forming the environmental and water resources engineering program. He taught classes in hydrology, water resources engineering, and hydraulic structure design. His research focused on hydrologic modeling of developing watersheds, flood forecasting and flood control, and urban storm water management. Dr. Kibler served as a faculty adviser to the Virginia Tech section of the American Water Resources Association, a group of interdisciplinary students from biological systems engineering, civil and environmental engineering, and agricultural and applied economics looking at diverse problems of water management. He also served as the faculty adviser to the Virginia Tech chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He received his bachelor’s degree from Antioch College, a master’s degree from the Pennsylvania State University, and a Ph.D. from Colorado State University.
Steven Mackay of Radford, Va., has been named communications coordinator for the Virginia Tech College of Engineering. Mr. Mackay will help spearhead communication projects for the College of Engineering, working closely with colleagues from the department and University Relations to enhance the reputation of and to build support for the college and its programs. He also will edit the college’s annual Engineering News publication. Mr. Mackay previously was managing editor of Tuscaloosa, AL-based Overdrive Magazine, a 100,000-circulation business trade publication targeting owner-operator truck drivers. At the Birmingham (AL) Business Journal, he served as Web editor from 2002 until 2003 before being promoted to special sections editor in 2004. From 2001 to 2002, he worked as managing editor of the Smyth County News & Messenger in Marion, VA, and from 1996 until 2001, he worked as a reporter for the Hickory (NC) Daily Record. He is a member of the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Mr. Mackay received his bachelor’s degree from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, in 1996.
Dr. Thomas M. Murray of Radford, Va., Montague-Betts Professor of Structural Steel Design in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, was conferred the “professor emeritus” title by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors during the board’s quarterly meeting on Nov. 3rd. Dr. Murray joined Virginia Tech in 1987 after 17 years with the University of Oklahoma, the last year of which was spent as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University in 1962, he was employed as an engineer trainee with the Pittsburgh-Des Moines steel company, Des Moines, Iowa. In 1966 he received his master’s degree from Lehigh University, and in 1970 he received a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from the University of Kansas. A specialist in structural steel research and design, Dr. Murray was responsible for the construction of large laboratories at the University of Oklahoma and Virginia Tech. Dr. Murray founded Virginia Tech’s Structures and Materials Laboratory, where he and his graduate students developed alternate methods for connecting beams and columns in buildings in areas that experience high levels of seismic activity. His research and teaching interests include steel connections, pre-engineered building design, and light gage design. At Virginia Tech, the university’s Board of Visitors named Dr. Murray the Montague-Betts Professor of Structural Steel Design. He received a 2006 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia. Dr. Murray was one of 15 college and university faculty selected that year from a statewide pool of nominees to receive the commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty.
Dr. Raymond H. Plaut of Blacksburg, the D.H. Pletta Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering Virginia Tech, was conferred the “professor emeritus” title by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors during the board’s quarterly meeting on Nov. 3rd. Dr. Plaut served Virginia Tech’s civil and environmental engineering department for 33 years. He was hired in 1975 as the university’s youngest full professor at that time. Dr. Plaut taught courses in the analysis, stability, and dynamics of structures. His research topics included the use of inflatable structures for flood control, optimal structural design for stability, detection of cracks in rotating shafts, stability of suitcases with wheels, the potential use of ropes to reduce structural response to earthquakes, analysis and testing of the peeling of adhesive tapes and bandages from human skin, the use of adhesives to prevent roof uplift during hurricanes, the behavior of temporary tent-like hangars supported by inflatable arches, the effectiveness of a new type of vibration absorber, a study of the cause of the collapse of the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the response of tents and building frames to blast loads, the application of geosynthetic layers over columns in soft soil to strengthen embankments, and the design of insulated joints in railroad tracks. He received his bachelor’s degree the California Institute of Technology and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Thomas Walker of Newport, Va., associate professor of engineering education in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, received the university’s 2008 XCaliber Award. Established in 1996 by Office of the Provost, the XCaliber Award (shorthand for exceptional, high caliber work) is presented annually by the Virginia Tech Center for Innovation in Learning to recognize individual faculty members or teams of faculty and staff who have made significant contributions towards integrating technology in teaching and learning experiences. The award celebrates innovative approaches to teaching with technology that illustrate student-centered approaches to learning activities. Recipients receive a cash award and are called upon to demonstrate their award-winning work with their colleagues. The XCaliber Award selection committee noted Professor Walker’s innovative approach to teaching using technology, specifically in using DyKnow software on convertible PCs, creating an effective learning environment appropriate for first-year engineering education courses. DyKnow software, along with laptops and wireless networking in the classroom or broadband access wherever the participants happen to be, allows students to receive “panels” from the instructor and return them for review, correction, and discussion. Students actively participate in the delivery and development of the learning space experience, even in large classrooms, while instructors obtain continuous indication of the level of student understanding. Professor Walker received his bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and a master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Professor Wu Feng of the computer science and electrical and computer engineering departments in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, and Professor Ali Butt, also of the computer science department, were recently named as recipients of IBM Faculty Awards. Prof. Feng was honored for his work in large-scale bioinformatics and computational biology and Prof. Butt for his work on application-tailored distributed computing. According to IBM, these awards are “internationally competitive,” and candidates are required to have an outstanding reputation for contributions in their field. “I am honored to have received an IBM Faculty Award. This award provides a timely opportunity to continue our ongoing relationship with IBM in the large-scale life sciences,” Prof. Feng said. “With genomic sequence databases doubling in size every 12 months, databases are arguably growing at a rate faster than we can compute on them; thus, large-scale search of these sequence databases has become a necessity. In addition, the aforementioned databases only consider sequences that have been traditionally cultivated and only represent at most 1 percent of the microbial diversity,” Prof. Feng added. Prof. Butt noted, “In our work, we are exploring how to design emerging distributed computing systems, oftentimes referred to as cloud computing, for supporting very large and complex enterprise and scientific applications on hundreds and thousands of computing resources. Cloud computing has the potential of changing the information technology industry in profound ways. However, programming such systems requires careful consideration as the current techniques for doing so are not very well understood. Thus, many of the current setups have to be hand-tuned through trial and error, for every application and configuration. This award will enable us to develop a simulation-based planning tool that captures various aspects of a cloud computing setup and makes deployment far easier by automating the design process and customizing it to application requirements,” Prof. Butt concluded.

Sue Hale, M.C.D., CCC-SLP, one of the developers of the national standards for clinical education in audiology and speech-language pathology, began her one-year term as president of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) on January 1, 2009. Ms. Hale succeeds Catherine Gottfred, PhD, who will continue to serve on ASHA’s 2009 Board of Directors. Ms. Hale, Director of Clinical Education and Assistant Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University comes to ASHA’s top elected office after a recent three-year term as ASHA’s Vice President for Quality of Service in Speech-Language Pathology where she monitored the work of the Council for Clinical Certification, the Council for Clinical Specialty Recognition, and the Board of Ethics. Ms. Hale also has served as a member of the Council on Professional Standards and was the chair of ASHA’s Council for Clinical Certification. She assisted in writing the current educational standards and developing a plan for their implementation. Prior to joining the faculty at Vanderbilt in 2000, Ms. Hale was Director of the Speech and Hearing Center and a faculty member at the University of Mississippi for twenty-four years. Ms. Hale also looks forward to celebrating the 40th anniversary of ASHA’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, which addresses cultural and linguistic diversity issues related to professionals and persons with communication disorders and differences. It does this by developing opportunities for students and ASHA members to keep pace with the knowledge, skills and technologies required for multicultural literacy in communication disorders and differences; promoting quality service provision in our increasingly pluralistic American society; ensuring full participation of all professionals and students in Association life; and serving as a catalyst for infusing multicultural issues throughout the operations of the Association.

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