By Steve Frandzel

Brian Wood, professor of environmental engineering.
Brian Wood, professor of environmental engineering.

Brian Wood, professor of environmental engineering has been awarded a fellowship by the London Mathematical Society (LMS), the United Kingdom’s leading learned society for mathematics. As part of the fellowship, Wood will reside in Oxford and deliver a series of six lectures at prestigious universities including Oxford University, Cambridge University, Imperial College, and University College.

The fellowship and lectures represent a unique opportunity to bring visibility to Oregon State and help foster potential collaboration. Wood will also conduct collaborative research with Helen Byrne, University Lecturer in Computational Biology at the Mathematical Institute of Oxford. The topic of both the research and the lectures will be upscaling in complex, hierarchical biological systems, such as tissues and organs.

The primary aim of the visit is to establish new partnerships between Wood and members of the Mathematical Institute at Oxford who have common interests in the development and application of tissue homogenization in biology and medicine (creating tissue samples that are equal in composition).

Wood’s primary research interests include the description of mass, momentum, and energy transport in natural and engineered multiscale systems. He also specializes in subsurface hydrology; bioremediation and biochemical processes; water and wastewater treatment; and sustainable design and engineering.

The LMS publishes journals and books, provides grants to support mathematics, and organizes scientific meetings and lectures.

By Karen Kuhlman

Last week, the OSU AIAA Design Build Fly (DBF) team competed for the fourth year at the International Cessna/Raytheon Design Build Fly competition. A team of 12 students went to Wichita, KS from April 15-17 to compete against more than 80 universities from across the world and finished 6th place, the best in the club’s history.

The Design Build Fly competition requires universities to design and construct a radio-controlled aircraft around a set mission profile that changes every year. This year’s profile revolved around the process of distributed manufacturing and required teams to generate two aircraft – a production aircraft (P-plane) optimized to fit inside a larger manufacturing aircraft (M-plane). Planes were designed to complete a set of three missions: The first mission involved the larger plane (M-plane) flying three laps of the flight course within five minutes; the second mission involved the M-plane carrying the P-plane subassemblies and flying a lap for each respective subassembly within ten minutes; and finally, the third mission involved the P-plane flying three laps while carrying an internal payload (a 32 oz Gatorade) within five minutes.

Despite unfavorable wind gusts of up to 30 mph, OSU soared through the missions, successfully completing all on the first attempt as well as passing a bonus mission (assembling the P-plane and installing the Gatorade payload in under 2 minutes). The team’s 6th place finish secured OSU DBF’s reputation as the highest ranking school without an aerospace program for the fourth consecutive year. Congratulations to the team. Keep flying high, Beavers!

The team and planes outside the Cessna Hangar in Wichita.
The team and planes outside the Cessna Hangar in Wichita.
Meet the fleet: The M-plane dubbed “Tilikum” (far right) and the P-plane.
Meet the fleet: The M-plane dubbed “Tilikum” (far right) and the P-plane.

Four students in the College of Engineering received prestigious awards through the National Science Foundation Fellowship Program. This program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited institutions in the United States. Fellows receive a three-year stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees.

The recipients include Elizabeth Holzenthal, Ph.D. candidate in civil engineering; Phylicia Cicilio, M.S. candidate in electrical engineering; Maoya Bassiouni, Ph.D. candidate in water resources engineering; and Mark Surette, Ph.D. candidate in environmental engineering.

Elizabeth Holzenthal, Ph.D. candidate in civil engineering.
Elizabeth Holzenthal, Ph.D. candidate in civil engineering.
Maoya Bassiouni, Ph.D. candidate in water resources engineering.
Maoya Bassiouni, Ph.D. candidate in water resources engineering.
Phylicia CicilioM.S. candidate in electrical engineering.
Phylicia Cicilio, M.S. candidate in electrical engineering.
surette_mark
Mark Surette, Ph.D. candidate in environmental engineering.

Hanna Rolston, a Ph.D. candidate in environmental engineering, received the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship. Awarded by the Department of Defense, these three-year graduate fellowships are offered to individuals who have demonstrated the ability and special aptitude for advanced training in science and engineering.

Hannah Rolston, Ph.D. candidate in environmental engineering.
Hannah Rolston, Ph.D. candidate in environmental engineering.

Iftekhar Ahmed, Ph.D. candidate in computer science, received an IBM Ph.D. Fellowship. This competitive program awards Ph.D. students who have an interest in solving problems that are important to IBM and fundamental to innovation in many academic disciplines and areas of study. Ahmed will receive a $20,000 stipend for the academic year and a $10,000 education allowance.

Iftekhar Ahmed, Ph.D. candidate in computer science.
Iftekhar Ahmed, Ph.D. candidate in computer science.

Alexandra Simpson, M.S. candidate in Civil Engineering, and Dylan Jones, M.S. student in robotics, received Honorable Mentions.