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Department news
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Drs. Sookie and Sangchul Bang just received a $65,000 research contract from Lotte Engineering and Construction of Korea. This is the first year of the three-year, $200,000 contract to develop microbiology-based technique to control the dust storms that have been problematic in Mongolia, China, Korea, and Japan for thousands of years. This project involves the use of microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP), also known as bacterial cement, in combination with soil fibers to strengthen the soil from the surface to several feet below ground to prevent the sand particles from becoming airborne. An added benefit of this approach is the production of ammonia by the bacteria which acts as a fertilizer to aid vegetative growth, further reducing the potential for dust production. Lotte E&C has an memorandum of agreement with the Mongolian government to build an approximately 1,000-mile long rail line across (west to east) Mongolia for transporting their natural resources including coal, minerals, etc, and they are interested in this technique for protecting the rail line from sand storms. Lotte E&C and investigators plan to present their initial research findings from this work at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification conference to be held in October, 2011.
Dr. Sanchul Bang chaired a technical session, "Suction Caissons," at the 30th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering held at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on June 21, 2011. He also presented a technical paper entitled, "Pullout Capacity of Suction Piles in Clay under Eccentric Vertical Loads,' co-authored with Y. S. Kim, Y. Cho, and K. D. Jones.
Dr. Bang also published "Application of Microbiologically Induced Soil Stabilization Technique for Dust Suppression" in the International Journal of Geo-Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, June, 2011, pp. 27-37, with co-authors S.H. Mina and Dr. Sookie Bang.
Cassandra Groen (MSCE11) presented her master's thesis work entitled Meta-Analysis and Development of Faculty Mentoring Programs for South Dakota Public Universities. Cassandra conducted her research under the direction of major professor Dr. Andrea Surovek, with the assistance of Dr. Karlin, Dr. Jennifer Karlin, and Dr. Marc Robinson.
Dr. Robinson and Professor Lois Arneson-Meyer have been constructing cardboard bridges with middle school students this summer as part of the 2011 SD GEAR UP Honors Program that prepares Native American students to be successful in the college setting. GEAR UP is on the School of Mines campus for the 19th consecutive summer.
Dr. James Stone, Aaron Oswald (EnvE11), Chris Lupo (EnvE11) and Drs. Henry Mott and Sharon Clay (SDSU plant science) recently published their paper "Impact of chlortetracycline on sequencing batch reactor performance for swine manure treatment" in the journal Bioresource Technology. Dr. Stone, Chris Dollarhide (BS CBE), and Drs. Jennifer Benning, Gregg Carlson (SDSU animal science) and David Clay (SDSU plant science) also submitted their paper "The life cycle impacts of feed for modern Northern Great Plains US swine production" to Environmental Management for peer review.
Dr. Surovek and her co-authors Lisa Choe, Dr. Varma and Dr. Argawal (all of Purdue) had their paper, "Fundamental behavior of steel beam columns and columns under fire loading" accepted for publication by the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering. The paper was an invited submission to the September 2011 special issue entitled "Commemorating 10 years of Research since 9/11." The paper is based on collaborative research performed by Dr. Surovek and Jennifer Walz (MSCE 11) at SDSM&T and the Purdue University researchers. The research was funded by the NSF grant "Collaborative Research: Structural Mechanics of Steel Columns and Beam-Columns Under Fire Loading." A preview of the paper is available on ASCE's website: http://ascelibrary.org/sto/resource/3/jsenxx.
Dr. Surovek and Dr. Dean Jensen (Industrial Engineering) have been awarded $105,000 through the BOR Mobile Computing program for "The Apollo 13 Project." The project is based on an early example of mobile computing and team-based, real-time engineering which occurred in 1970, when astronauts on the Apollo 13 mission worked simultaneously with mission command engineers to ensure the safe return of the crew. While much of the engineering occurred on earth, implementation and validation of the design occurred 199,995 miles away. The solution required the engineers to exhibit those attributes and skills identified in the NAE report entitled "The Engineer of 2020", including strong analytical skills, practical ingenuity, creativity, good communication, business and management principles, leadership, high ethical standards, and dynamism, agility, resilience, and flexibility.
The "Apollo 13 project" works off of the main attributes of the Apollo 13 success: partners, at a distance, solving real-time engineering problems using mobile computing. This project will include beta-testing of potential curricular activities that will develop skills in mobile computing, as well as the skills of the Engineer of 2010. A student competition will be developed that involves real-time, team-based, distance problem solving. The use of experiential learning has been shown to be highly effective in tapping into the learning styles of engineering students who tend to be active, rather than passive, learners.
Jennifer Walz (MSCE11) presented her master's thesis work entitled Section Characterization of Wide-Flange Steel Sections Subjected to Combined Thermal and Mechanical Loading. Jennifer conducted her research under the direction of major professor Dr. Surovek, with the assistance of Dr. Kyle Riley, Dr. Amit Varma, and Dr. Robinson. |
