November 2009 - College of Engineering and Computing ...

momentum
the University of soUth carolina
college of engineering and compUting
november 2009
from the
dean’s desk
Harry J. Ploehn seven
As the interim dean, I have inherited a College
that is in outstanding shape. Michael
Amiridis, former dean and now University
provost, deserves our heartfelt thanks
for his vision and leadership. The College
made tremendous progress during the time
he was dean.
Thanks largely to Provost Amiridis’
strong investment in our outreach and
recruiting programs, the College’s enrollment
numbers and the quality of our
students have increased. He set a goal to
increase undergraduate enrollment by 25
percent to 1,600 within four years – and we
achieved that goal in three years. Graduate
student enrollment is up to more than
400. Our success has much to do with the
growth in scholarship funding provided by
our many friends and alumni.
Another goal – to continue to grow our
research capacity in strategic areas including
energy, advanced materials, and biomedical
engineering – also has been met through the
hiring of seven new faculty members this
academic year. We must grow our student
and faculty numbers to serve employers in
the state and nation, as well as increase our
national prominence in research.
The College is at a transition point – not
only in terms of leadership, but also with
regard to our aspirations and goals. We
face some serious challenges beyond the
budget cuts sustained last year. We’re severely
limited in terms of space for teaching
and research. The new faculty we’re hiring
are expected to be research active, and this
requires serious investment in equipment,
graduate students, and space.
Addressing these issues will be among
the goals for the College’s new dean, who
must build consensus to find the right
course to serve our students and the state
in terms of research and teaching missions.
A nationwide search is underway and we
anticipate a new dean being in place by
August 2010. Until then, my job is to keep
things running smoothly. When dean candidates
visit, I believe that they will find a
College that is running well and eager to
build for the future. F
receive
career award
The College of Engineering and Computing is
pleased to announce our newest National Science
Foundation CAREER Award recipients.
The Faculty Early Career Development
Program is the NSF’s most prestigious award
in support of the early career-development
activities of those teacher-scholars who most
effectively integrate research and education.
The College’s 2009 CAREER winners join
the list of more than twenty of our current
faculty members who have won this award.
Our congratulations go to these seven
faculty members:
Jason Bakos, Computer
Science and Engineering:
Dr. Bakos’ research involves
computer architecture at
the circuit-, microarchitectural-,
and system-level.
This includes VLSI design,
computer-aided design automation, highperformance
computing, optoelectronics, and
integrated smart sensor technology. He has a
Ph.D. from the Department of Computer
Science at the University of Pittsburgh.
Juan Caicedo, Civil and Environmental
Engineering:
Dr. Caicedo’s specialization
is in Structural Engineering
with emphasis in Structural
Dynamics. His interests
include numerical and experimental
research in the areas of structural
dynamics, model updating, structural health
monitoring, earthquake engineering, and
structural control. He has a D.Sc. in Civil Engineering
from Washington University.
Jonathan Goodall, Civil
and Environmental Engineering:
Dr. Goodall’s
research group looks at
the development and application
of models and
information systems for
water resources systems. The group is currently
investigating model coupling, spatially-explicit
modeling, and hydrologic data integration.
He has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the
University of Texas.
Jianjun Hu, Computer
Science and Engineering:
Dr. Hu’s interests are
in the area of bioinformatics,
machine learning,
evolutionary computation,
and data mining. His major
focus is to integrate heterogeneous data and
algorithms to understand signals, logic, and
models in gene regulatory networks, protein
localization, and virtual screening. He has a
Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
Goutam Koley, Electrical
Engineering: Dr. Koley’s
interests include fabrication
and characterization
of novel nanoscale devices
and sensors; growth and
characterization of nanostructures;
and nano-characterization using
scanning force microscopy. He has a Ph.D.
in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University
in 2003.
Yong-June Shin, Electrical
Engineering: Dr.
Shin’s focus is power engineering/power
electronics,
with emphasis on power
quality and harmonics. His
fields of interdisciplinary
research extend to network communication
engineering, measurement and instrumentation,
and biomedical engineering. He has a
Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Wenyuan Xu, Computer
Science and Engineering:
Dr. Xu’s interests are in the
areas of wireless networks,
sensor networks, network
security, and privacy. She
has conducted research into
the effect of jamming on commodity wireless
networks. She has a Ph.D. in Computer
Engineering from the Wireless Information
Network Laboratory of Rutgers University. F

c h e m i c a l
engineering
message
from the
chair
Michael A. Matthews
Greetings to all of our readers! This edition
of the newsletter coincides with the
Thanksgiving season, and so from everyone
in the Department of Chemical Engineering,
best wishes for a happy holiday!
Thank you for reading this edition and for
your interest and support of our students
and staff.
We have many things to celebrate
this season. First of all, we enjoyed another
strong incoming class with over 50
new freshman and transfer students,
bringing our undergraduate Chemical Engineering
program to about 165 students.
We also admitted over 20 new graduate
students and are at an all-time high
of 78 graduate students. We continue to
support the Biomedical Engineering program
through both teaching and research,
and so we are also benefitting from the
over 50 new freshman in this program
as well. Despite the difficult economy and
slow hiring season, our graduates have
found employment with companies such
as ExxonMobil, Westinghouse Nuclear,
and Freeport-McMoran. It appears that
the job market will improve for the coming
year.
The faculty continue to grow in size
and reputation as well. In the spring, we
will welcome Associate Professor Xiao-
Dong Zhou, who will join us after several
years at Pacific Northwest Lab in Richland,
Washington. His area of expertise
is materials for solid oxide fuel cells, and
you will be reading more about Dr. Zhou
in a future issue of Momentum. Other
faculty accomplishments are listed in this
newsletter, as well as in our annual report,
which can be seen online at www.che.
sc.edu.
Finally, just a note about Professor
Vince Van Brunt, who has been teacher,
mentor, and coach to so many of our students
since 1974. Vince officially retired
on September 20, 2009. He continues to
teach and direct student projects, and is a
great benefit to all of us. There will be more
to come about Vince in future editions. F
Associate Professor Dr. Ed Gatzke was on
sabbatical at the University of Stuttgart
from May 2008 to July 2009. He worked
with researchers Dr. Frank Allgower, the
leading process control expert in Germany,
and Dr. Ulrich Nieken, whose team investigates
various reaction systems.
In Germany, Dr. Gatzke attended five
European conferences and gave invited
lectures at four universities. He also participated
in conferences, attended seminars,
Associate Professor Dr. Chris Williams was
in China from May to June. It was the first of
three annual month-long visits he will make
to the Dalian University of Technology, a
multi-disciplinary university of science and
technology located in Dalian, a coastal city.
The trips are part of Dr. Williams’
2009-2011 appointment as Seasky Visiting
Professor to the Dalian Department of
Chemical Engineering. The appointment
provides an all-expenses paid opportunity
The twelfth session of the Department’s NSF-funded
Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) will
be held May 24 through July 31, 2010.
Participants will have the opportunity to conduct
research focused on sustainable energy. Topics will
include catalysis, batteries and fuel cells, hydrogen production
and storage, and polymers and nanoscience. At
the conclusion of the ten-week research period – which
will also feature seminars, workshops, and visits to
local industries – students will present their findings at
a symposium in the Swearingen Engineering Center.
For application and other information, visit www.
che.sc.edu/centers/reu. F
sabbatical
in germany
provides wealth
of experience
and met with well-known academics from
around the world.
Dr. Gatzke also visited the Fraunhofer
Institute for Solar Energy in Freiburg, and
developed his own software codes for a variety
of applications.
Support for the sabbatical was provided
by the Alexander Von Humboldt
Foundation, and by an NSF Career Award
supplement from the International Research
and Education in Engineering. F
faculty member’s
travels build strong ties
twelfth session of
reU set for 2010
PAGE 2 • noVEMBEr 2009 • momentum • college of engineering and computing
for collaboration in catalysis
projects.
In addition to furthering
this area of research,
Dr. Williams is able to
foster working relationships with Dalian
faculty and students. These ties benefit
USC by enhancing opportunities for future
joint research projects, graduate student
recruitment, and exchange programs. F
Graduate students Amy Beaird and
Jennifer Patterson with their ‘Engineering
Cake” which was entered in
the Ace of Cakes competition at USC
judged by Duff Goldman of the Food
Network. See
“Photo Gallery”
at www.
cec.
sc.
edu
for
more
photos.

Students benefit from co-ops,
internships, REU programs
Several chemical engineering undergraduates
are benefitting from co-ops, internships,
and Research Experience for Undergraduates
(REU) programs provided by industry
and government.
Kimberly Hamm is doing a
year-long co-op at Duke Energy.
She is spending five months at
the Marshall Steam Station in
Mooresville, N.C. as part of the
Scrubber Chemistry Team. She
will spend the remainder of the
year working in Charlotte for the Environmental,
Health, and Safety group.
Shawn Fink is also employed in a
year-long co-op. He is working with
Celgard. LLC in Charlotte as a part
of the Process Improvement Group
in a laminator drum-fouling project
and in legacy problem trials.
alumni profile: val ray
Valton “Val” ray, who received a BS in
Chemical Engineering in 1976, has served
on the Department’s Industrial Advisory
Board since 1991 and has been a long-time
friend to his alma mater.
Val is plant manager at Shaw Industries
in Columbia. The company – now and in its
previous incarnations as Allied Chemical,
Allied Signal, and Honeywell – has funded
scholarships, endowed chairs, and provided
other expertise and financial assistance to
the College and the department.
Val also serves the community and the
state as a member of the Board of Advisors
of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce,
and as treasurer of the S.C. Manufacturers
Association.
As a member of a military family, Val spent
his childhood in various places. He attended
high school in North Carolina, where he first
Alex Fergusson completed a summer
internship at the Research Triangle Institute
Center of Energy Technology in Raleigh.
He worked on a liquid carbon capture project
with Paige Presler, a USC graduate who
received an MS degree in Chemical Engineering
in 2004.
Colin Eaker spent the summer in
Freiburg, Germany, doing fuel cell research
at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy.
Meghan Clardy and Kristin Smith participated
in the Summer REU program at
the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez.
They were involved in the study of “Post-
Synthesis Modification of Flexible Nanoporous
Adsorbents.”
Caleb Gustafson managed both a summer
internship at Savannah River Site and teaching
marching band to high school students. F
learned about USC from
his math teacher and was
encouraged to apply.
As a student here,
Val found Dr. Joe
Gibbons especially instrumental in helping
him relate fluid mechanics to manufacturing,
and this knowledge served Val well in his first
job at Allied Chemical in Baltimore. He also
recalls that he and other students shared an
ambition to receive a grade greater than 35
on Dr. Gibbons’ exams.
Val is one of many Gamecocks in his
family. His brother, Timothy Ray, is a USC Civil
Engineering graduate, and his wife Sandra,
an elementary school teacher, is a graduate
of the USC School of Law. Continuing the
family tradition, Val’s daughter, Caroline, is a
senior in the Moore School of Business. F
ritter appointed Weisiger professor
Dr. Jim ritter has been named the L.S. Weisiger
Professor of Engineering. This endowed
chair appointment is for a five-year term.
Dr. Ritter, a member of the Smart Medical
Systems and Technology Team, has also
received funding from the National Space
Biomedical Research Institute for a four-year,
$1.8 million project entitled, “Development
of Pressure Swing Adsorption Technology for
Spaceflight Medical Oxygen Concentrators.”
He will partner on the project with Vanderbilt
University, the NASA Marshall Space Flight
Center (MSFC), and SeQual, a
San Diego-based company
that produces medical oxygen
concentrators. Dr. Ritter and his team will study
these concentrators for space applications.
Dr. Ritter has recently been awarded four
other research grants.
The NASA MSFC, which has been funding
his group for the past five years, is funding
“Analysis of Engineered Structured Sorbent
Systems for the Next Generation Atmosphere
Revitalization System.” Another project, “Pres-
c h e m i c a l
engineering
achievements
Dr. Esmaiel Jabbari has been granted
tenure. He also has been appointed to the
Advisory Board of International Conferences
on Materials and Technologies.
Dr. John Monnier, Principal Investigator
(PI), with Co-PI Dr. Chris Williams, has
been awarded a $330,000 grant by NSF for
the project “Collaborative Research: Preparation,
Characterization, and Evaluation
of Biometallic Catalysts Using Electroless
Deposition Methods for the Selective Oxidation
of Biomass-Related Alcohols.”
Dr. Andreas Heyden was granted
$300,000 by NSF for “Multiscale Modeling
of Bifunctional Catalysts for the Water-Gas-
Shift Reaction.”
Ph.D. graduate Venkat Subramanian has
accepted a position as Associate Professor in
the Department of Energy, Environmental,
and Chemical Engineering at Washington
University in St. Louis.
Graduate student Jan omar Mangual was
chosen to participate, with all-expenses
paid, in the Building Engineering and Science
Talent (BEST) Symposium, hosted by
The Dow Chemical Company in Midland,
Michigan in September. The event gives
students an opportunity to explore careers
in the chemical industry and showcase their
abilities by presenting their scientific work.
Dr. John Weidner is the recipient of
a $50,373 grant from the S.C. EPSCOR/
National Center for Research Resources/
NIH for “S.C. EPSCOR/IDEA Postdoctoral
Academic Career Development Program
(PACD) – Dr. John Staser.”
Faraday Technologies/U.S. Air Force has
funded Dr. Branko Popov’s $50,000
project “Development of a Diagnostic
Model for Hydrogen Permeation through
High-Strength Alloys Under Corroding
Conditions.”
Dr. ralph White has received $30,000 from
Quallion LLC/DOD for his study of “STTR –
Lithium Ion Cell and Battery Life Modeling
to Encompass Wider Life Parameters.” F
sure Swing Adsorption Cycle Modeling for
Medical Oxygen Concentrators,” is supported
by DARPA with SeQual Technologies. The
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and
the U.S. Department of Energy are sponsoring
“Development of New Adsorption Cycles
for Xenon Concentration from Air.” And NSF
is funding a three-year effort entitled, “Complex
Hydrides of Lithium, Aluminum and
Boron for Hydrogen Storage.” F

civil and environmental
engineering
message
from the
chair
David Waugh
The fall semester is underway and the
spirit of renewal is among us, except for
my picture still heading this column. The
search for a new chair was not successful
as of this writing; one more candidate is
to interview.
Dean Michael Amiridis being named
Provost of the University is a mark not
only of his remarkable talents but also
recognition of the remarkable success of
the College.
The 2008-2009 year saw the department
achieve a significant increase in external
funding. This issue of Momentum documents
some of the larger awards, but there
were others of significance, and funding
level is not the only measure of merit. If
the number of proposals under preparation
is any indicator, the best is yet to come.
Of special note is the fact that this Department
alone had two NSF CAREER award
winners this year; many large colleges do
not exceed that number for their whole
college. And that adds to the three previous
winners in this department.
New students in the College this Fall
included 104 for our department, second
only to Mechanical Engineering at
108. Due to larger than usual graduating
classes, the total undergraduate enrollment
is up only marginally, but the wave
is coming. Graduate enrollment continues
to escalate.
The previously mentioned strain on
faculty, staff, and facilities continues,
but it is easy to be enthusiastic about the
future of the Department.
I enjoyed seeing several of you at the
big celebration on May 16. Andy Card
(CE Class of 1971), the featured speaker,
was a reminder of the many, and varied,
paths taken by those with a Civil Engineering
education.
Dr. Michael Meadows’ senior design
class has been chosen as the sole university
test bed for SITEOPS, a sophisticated
site development program. Students in
this class continue to be critiqued by
teams of practitioners as they work on real
projects. Evaluation comments are very
CEE CHAIr continued on page 5
Dr. richard ray has returned from his sabbatical
and Fulbright research in Hungary.
He was appointed the first visiting professor
at Szechenyi University in Gyor, a
city located in northwestern Hungary about
halfway between Budapest and Vienna,
Austria. His work at Szechenyi included
field and laboratory testing, as well as computer
modeling.
“There is a real influx of construction
work in Hungary, mainly infrastructure with
highways, bridges, and tunnels,” said Dr.
Ray. “European Union funding has helped
to develop extended regional transportation
systems in Central Europe, linking Western
Europe with Russia, Eastern Europe, and
Western Asia.”
Highway bridge foundation designs were
evaluated for several highways crossing the
Danube and Tissa rivers. Geotechnical conditions
in Hungary are different than much of
Western Europe, so firms are still figuring out
the best designs and construction methods.
During Dr. Ray’s one-year stay at Szechenyi,
more than 30 pile load tests for bridge
construction were conducted by the Geotechnical
Group, headed by Robert Szepeshazy. In
addition, laboratory evaluations of soils from
these sites and others around the country have
been conducted and cataloged. Data from
new assistant professor
gets nsf funding
In what is likely a record within the College of Engineering and Computing,
Dr. navid Saleh succeeded in getting a major proposal funded by the
National Science Foundation within the first six months of his hire.
Dr. Saleh, who joined the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering as an assistant professor earlier this year, submitted his
proposal in a highly competitive group of mostly well-established
researchers. It was hardly the place for a new, young faculty member,
and yet his was among the highest-ranked proposals. The two-year
grant – totaling more than $399,000 – looks at how nanoparticles behave
in the natural environment, including their possible toxicity.
Dr. Saleh received MS and Ph.D. degrees from Carnegie Mellon
University. He credits his post-doctoral training at Yale University for his
funding success.
“Also, an aggressive attitude in going after the funding immediately
and finding the right people to work with is crucial,” he said. “The academic
world today is interdisciplinary, and you cannot succeed alone.” F
PAGE 4 • noVEMBEr 2009 • momentum • college of engineering and computing
geotechnical
engineering,
hungarian style
over 300 consolidation tests and 150 triaxial
tests are now part of the soil performance
database used by the group.
A consortium consisting of the European
Union, the Hungarian Transportation Ministry,
and private design and construction firms
funded the research as part of a four-year
400-million Forint ($2.2 million) study. In addition
to the field testing, extensive laboratory
testing and computer modeling is involved.
Dr. Ray, with the help of three Ph.D. students,
performed finite element studies of
bridge foundations and abutments based on
the field and laboratory data. Results of the
modeling study helped bridge designers to determine
the necessary foundation support for
their alternate designs. Since new foundation
construction methods are being introduced
throughout Europe, baseline analyses become
a vital starting point for the design engineer.
“With a new construction technology,
design engineers do not have much performance
history to rely on,” Dr. Ray said. “They
have to look toward the field testing results
and the extensive modeling we performed.”
Construction will continue on transportation
infrastructure in Hungary for at
least another ten years. Bridge and tunnel
replacements will take up a large portion of
that work. F

Students in the News
Angel Ari Perez, a Ph.D. student in Geotechnical
Engineering who is working with
Dr. Charles Pierce, has received the 2009-
2010 GK-K-12 Fellowship. Ari will spend
two days each week assisting in a sixth-, seventh-,
or eighth-grade science classroom, and
five hours each week outside the classroom
for planning.
Jesé Mangual, Angel Ari Perez, and Luis
Solari are recipients of a South East Alliance
for Graduate Education and the Professoriate
(SEAGEP) Fellowship for 2009-2010. This
fellowship allows the recipient to gain knowledge
in the teaching field by funding travel to
conferences and development seminars. The
goal of the fellowship is to encourage recipients
to become faculty members at colleges
and universities in this country.
The University was well represented this
summer at the 2009 Asia-Pacific Summer
School on Smart Structures Technology
(APSS) by Glen Wieger, a doctoral student in
the structures group who works with Dr. Juan
M. Caicedo. The program consisted of fortyfive
of the top graduate students from around
the globe, from such prestigious international
universities as the University of Tokyo, Tongji
University, KAIST, and the University of
Pavia. The goal of the event was to enhance
students’ understanding of cutting-edge,
cross-disciplinary technology in the smart
structures field and to develop cross-cultural
understanding for future cooperation. Glen
was one of the graduate students selected
from the highly competitive application process.
The three-week APSS course involved
intense lectures by world-renowned researchers
from academia and private industry as
well as student competitions that required
the application of the material learned on the
lectures. The two main competitions consisted
of doing analysis on a full-scale in-service
bridge using wireless sensors and developing
control algorithms to keep a double inverted
pendulum at equilibrium. Glen’s research
team tied for first place in the competition.
A tour of Chicago’s skyscrapers, a visit to the
City Museum in St. Louis, and a dinner with
an Amish family were part of the cultural experiences
of the program. This year’s program
was hosted by the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and will be returning to
the University of Tokyo in 2010. Dr. Caicedo
was invited to the summer school as a lecturer
on modeling and system identification.
Joshua Atria, an undergraduate studying
Civil Engineering, participated in the
University’s Supplemental Instructor Program.
Joshua was chosen to apply for this position
based on his outstanding academic performance.
As a participant in the program, he
is required to attend Statics class, take notes,
and complete class reading and homework assignments
(again). The Statics SI sessions are
offered three times each week and are open to
students, free of charge, who feel they need
additional help with course material.
Walter E. rowe Student Chapter ASCE
Officers for 2009-2010: Stephen Avila,
president; Marshall Walker, vice president;
Greg Moore, treasurer; Megan Easterlin,
secretary; Amy Killoy and Megan Bell, public
relations. For information on sponsorship,
upcoming events and contact information,
please see student organizations at www.cec.
sc.edu. F
alumni profile: chip stehmeyer
Edward Henry “Chip” Stehmeyer Jr.
earned his Bachelor of Science degree in
1974. As an undergraduate, he served as
President for the Walter E. Rowe Student
Chapter of ASCE. He continued his engineering
studies at USC and became Dr. James
radziminski’s first graduate student. Chip
finished the Masters of Engineering degree
in 1975.
During thirty-one years of federal service,
Chip worked with the Naval Facilities Engineering
Command as Chief Engineer and
Director of Capital Improvements, Southern
Division. He served as Director of Project
Development, Design, and Constructions of
approximately $800 million annually for the
Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and other Department
of Defense Shore Facilities. In 2004,
Chip went to work for the Center for Disease
Control as Director of Buildings and Facilities,
where he oversaw planning, design,
and construction of a $1.5 billion recapital-
ization program for CDC’s
laboratories and scientific
research facilities.
Chip has received
much recognition during his career,
including being named the Naval Facilities
Engineering Command’s Engineer of the
Year in 1987. He also was chosen as one
of the top ten engineers in Federal Service
by the National Society of Professional
Engineers. He was decorated with the
Department of the Navy’s Meritorious Civil
Service Award in 1997, the Department of
the Navy’s Superior Civilian Service Award in
2004, and the State of South Carolina’s Order
of the Silver Crescent in 2004.
Today, Chip works as a Marine Structures
Engineer with Collins Engineers Inc., an
ENR Top 500 Design Firm that provides
services in the transportation, marine, and
construction sector. He lives and works in
Charleston, SC. F
civil and environmental
engineering
achievements
Dr. M. Hanif Chaudhry is the recipient of
a $400,000 NSF supplement to the ongoing
$2.5 million PIRE project research on Levee
Breaches. Co-PI is Dr. Jasim Imran.
Dr. Yeomin Yoon has been named Associate
Editor for the journal Water Science and
Technology.
Dr. Sarah Gassman has agreed to serve as
the Graduate Director for the Department.
Welcome
Dr. Walter F. Silva has joined us for one year
as a visiting professor (he will be leaving in
December 2009). He is on sabbatical from
the Department of Engineering Science
and Materials at the University of Puerto
Rico in Mayaguez (UPR-M).
Jianguo Yu has joined us as a Research Assistant
Professor from the Department of
Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering
at Western Michigan University.
seminar series
Civil and Environmental Engineering
proudly presents Fall 2009 Seminar
Series. Open to Alumni, Industry and
Friends of the Department. Fridays, 3:15 to
4:15 pm, 300 Main, Room C213
Call 803.777.9482 to reserve your spot. 14
Lectures. For more information please see
www.ce.sc.edu (announcements). nov/
Dec Topics: Transportation, Nanoelectronics
and Environmental.
CEE CHAIr from page 4
tough, but our students are the beneficiaries
of years of engineering experience.
As always, we love to show off, so stop
by and let us give you a tour of the Department.
F
ce enrollment
Undergrads Grads
Spring 2008 242 49
Fall 2008 302 48
Spring 2009 269 56
Fall 2009 304 64
university of south carolina • columbia, south carolina 29208 • noVEMBEr 2009 • PAGE 5

co m p u ter science
and engineering
message
from the
chair
Michael Huhns
It used to be said that the hallmark of a
great university was a great library, and
rightly so. Scholarship – that is, research
and education – depends on information,
and the library was the place to find it.
Today, however, students get their information
via the Internet, the World
Wide Web, and Google. The libraries of the
world are now online and accessible from
wherever you have a laptop or an iPhone.
Bandwidth, computer access, and a good
search engine have now replaced physical
libraries as the necessity for scholarship.
Scholarship requires not only the ability
to access existing information, but also the
ability to create new information from old.
Computing has become essential for creating
new information. This is true in all disciplines
and across the entire spectrum of
modern science. For example, mapping genomes
and determining the proteins they
produce are more computational problems
than biological problems; creating many
Hollywood movies cannot be done without
computer graphics and animation; decoding
ancient languages from fragments
of text scratched onto stone tablets is more
a problem of information theory than of
linguistics; and discovering new particles
in nuclear physics requires computers to
trace and sort among the nuclear interactions
occurring in a supercollider.
Computing involves more than just
support for other scientific disciplines. At
an engineering level, computers are controlling
the infrastructure of the world,
from the distribution of water and electricity,
to the management of transportation
systems and global commerce. At a
scientific level, computing is an important
area of research in its own right, with efforts
underway to discover the scientific
principles of information, computation,
and knowledge.
Computer science and computer engineering
now are becoming the hallmarks
of a great university. Your Department
CSE CHAIr continued on page 5
summer institute marks a first
For the first time in more than a decade, an
Advanced Placement Computer Science
summer institute was held in South Carolina
to increase the number of high school
teachers with the proper credentials to teach
AP computer science in the state.
Teaching for the institute was done
jointly by Dr. Duncan Buell, Department
of Computer Science and Engineering,
and richard de Paulo, a College-Boardendorsed
consultant from Chesapeake,
Virginia (and the only endorsed consultant
in the southeast region). Fifteen teachers
participated and were registered for graduate
credit for the EDSE 773 course offered by
the USC College of Education. There was
some early work and some late work, but
the primary focus was an intense week on
campus July 13-17.
The fifteen participating teachers came
from different high schools and ten different
South Carolina districts, mostly in the
Midlands and Greenville-Spartanburg, with
one teacher coming all the way from Connecticut.
Normally, funding for AP summer
institutes in South Carolina comes from the
State Department of Education. In these
trying budget times, no state funds were
The Department of Computer Science and
Engineering played a part in two Palmetto
Pillar Awards from the Information Technology
Council and the Midlands Chamber
of Commerce. In the Open Source category,
the award was won by the committee that
organized the Palmetto Open Source Software
Conference (POSSCON), held in
summer 2008 and April 2009, and scheduled
for April 2010. POSSCON had
more than 200 attendees this past April,
and the 2010 conference, being organized
again with departmental involvement on
the committee, will be held in April at the
Columbia Convention Center.
In the Student Achievement category,
Computer Science major
Gary Fredericks won for software
he had written that assists
in reading foreign language
PAGE 6 • noVEMBEr 2009 • momentum • college of engineering and computing
available, but the Consortium for Enterprise
Systems Management stepped in to provide
the funding for the institute. This made it
possible for the teachers to attend, get both
graduate credit and College Board endorsement,
and secure housing in the USC West
Quad, for only a nominal charge.
The department has already been contacted
by the State Department of Education
about repeating the institute in summer
2010 as part of increasing access by South
Carolina students to advanced and rigorous
computer science classes. F
department plays role in
two it awards
documents. His program does an automatic
translation and lookup of words to speed his
reading of foreign texts. Faculty members
who have taught Gary are not surprised at
his winning this award; he is very creative
and dedicated, and he has been involved in
several activities beyond the classroom. F

obert “Chuck” Burris, Computer Science and Engineering undergraduate,
won a Magellan award to study the development of Web-based textmessaging
applications for behavior modification in at-risk pregnant
women. His advisors are Dr. Sara Wilcox from the Department
of Exercise Science and Dr. José Vidal from the Department of
Computer Science and Engineering.
Elizabeth G. Timko, Computer
Science and Engineering
undergraduate senior, was
awarded the first John H. Fain
Scholars Award. Elizabeth is
working toward a bachelor’s
degree in computer science,
with minors in both business
administration and
mathematics. She plans to
obtain a master's degree
in computer science and an
MBA, with the goal of eventually
starting a business in the
computing industry. F
Students in the News
In 2001, three-time
USC graduate Elizabeth
“Betty”
Whitaker
joined the
G e o r g i a
Tech Research
Institute (GTRI) as a research
engineer in the Information Technology
and Telecommunications Laboratory.
GTRI is the research arm of Georgia Tech,
and its research faculty provides support to
the Federal government, state of Georgia,
and commercial research projects. Betty’s
recent research projects have included casebased
reasoning in support of intelligence
analysis, integrated machine learning, and
an artificial intelligence approach to human
cultural and behavioral modeling.
Now at the pinnacle of a successful engineering
career, Betty looks back at the path
she took and the people who helped her
along the way.
Betty received a BS (1973) and MS (1974)
in Mathematics from USC. After several years
working in computer science, she returned to
USC as a graduate student in Electrical and
Computer Engineering. She did her master’s
studies in artificial intelligence under the direction
of Dr. Michael Huhns, and her Ph.D.
under the direction of Professor ronald
Bonnell. In addition to Huhns and Bonnell,
Dr. Larry Stephens served on Betty’s
graduate committees and provided advice and
support for her research. Betty was an instructor
in ECE from 1983 to 1986.
alumni profile:
elizabeth t. Whitaker
Both Huhns and Bonnell were very helpful
in accommodating Betty’s nontraditional
approach to continuing her education. This
included part-time enrollment while working
full-time, a move to Miami, completion
of undergraduate engineering courses at the
University of Miami, a move to Atlanta, and
the birth of two children.
After graduate school, Betty was employed
by the NCR Human Interface
Technology Center and did research in artificial
intelligence in support of NCR business
units and in support of government research
initiatives. Some of her projects included an
intelligent agent approach to support Webbased
continuing education and an artificial
intelligence approach to military and civilian
emergency medical information tools.
Betty and her husband, Paul, have two
daughters, Elizabeth and Caroline. Elizabeth
and her husband, Eric Lynch, are graduate
students at Georgia Tech. Elizabeth is in
the Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ph.D. program, and Eric is in the Aerospace
Engineering Ph.D. program. Caroline, a
Chemical Engineering graduate of Georgia
Tech, is in her second year of graduate school
in the Biomedical Engineering program
at the University of Virginia. Betty has
engineering in her blood – her father, John
Taylor, was professor and chair of USC’s
Department of Electrical Engineering in
the 1960s. Betty and her family are proud
to continue his tradition by raising the next
generation of engineers. F
co m p u ter science
and engineering
achievements
Dr. Homayoun Valafar has been promoted
to the rank of associate professor.
Dr. Jijun Tang has been promoted to the
rank of associate professor.
Congrats to Dr. Srihari nelakuditi on
being awarded $250,001 by the National
Science Foundation for his project entitled,
“NeTS: Small: Collaborative: Transmission
Re-Ordering in Wireless Networks: Protocols
and Practice.”
Congrats to Dr. Stephen Fenner on being
awarded $200k for three years, by NSF
for his project entitled “Computational
complexity from physical constraints.” He is
investigating the difficulty of using a quantum
computer to find the characteristics of
physical systems, such as the ground state
energy of interacting atoms.
Congrats to Dr. Duncan Buell for USC
Research Foundation funding of $232,096
for “Humanities Gaming Institute: Serious
Games for Research and Pedagogy,” a threeweek
institute on the role of immersive,
interactive technologies and games within
the context of the humanities, with a year
of follow-up support for the twenty participants.
Dr. Buell is project director; co-PIs are
Professor Simon Tarr and Dr. Heidi rae
Cooley, USC Department of Media Arts,
and Dr. randall Cream, Department of
English and Center for Digital Humanities.
Congrats to Dr. Jianjun Hu, Dr. Jason
Bakos, and Dr. Wenyuan Xu for each
receiving NSF CAREER awards. CSE had
the most researchers from the College of
Engineering and Computing to receive this
kind of award in 2009; a total of ten NSF
CAREER awards have been granted to CSE
faculty since 1999.
CSE CHAIr from page 6
of Computer Science and Engineering is
working hard to provide the computing and
information foundations for all disciplines on
campus. Its students and faculty are discovering
new principles of commerce, exploring
the new frontiers between informatics and
cognitive neuroscience, making robots more
efficient at exploring their environments, improving
the reasoning and decision-making
ability of information systems, and making
the nation’s computing infrastructure more
secure. With the unprecedented awarding of
eight NSF CAREER awards to the younger
members of its faculty, the CSE Department
is well positioned to continue its crucial role
in ensuring that USC is a great university. F
university of south carolina • columbia, south carolina 29208 • noVEMBEr 2009 • PAGE 7

electrical
engineering
message
from the
chair
T.S. Sudarshan
The Department of Electrical Engineering
is an exciting place to be this fall.
We have added two faculty members in
the new area of Photovoltaics, which
straddles the existing research areas of
Power Electronics and Microelectronics
in Electrical Engineering and Catalysis
in Chemical Engineering. Dr. Krishna
Mandal and Dr. MVS Chandrashekhar
joined us this fall, and we are delighted
to have their knowledge in this dynamic
interdisciplinary area. Their presence will
expand the Department’s impact into
the solar energy field, an area of critical
national and global relevance.
In this issue, we highlight Krista
Marks, a 1989 alumna. I have enjoyed getting
reacquainted with her by telephone
and look forward to having her speak to
our students in the future.
Despite state budget cuts, we are not
cutting back on the quality of our teaching
or on educational equipment for
students. Our emphasis on hands-on
laboratory classes remains firm. Our core
mission is in place, and we have trimmed
our budgets on items not related to the
classroom.
I am always happy to visit with our
alumni, friends, and parents. If you have
an opportunity to stop by and visit, I would
enjoy showing you our program. We have
had a number of people who have donated
to our department scholarship funds, and
I appreciate all of you so much. F
What is it? visit our
department’s web site for the answer to
this question and to see the latest news.
www.ee.sc.edu
hint: elct201
leaving her marks
in creativity software
Twenty years ago, Krista Marks sat in Dr.
Sudarshan’s Electromagnetics class. He knew
that she was bright and motivated, but could
not have anticipated the breadth of her future
accomplishments, which he discovered
after talking to her a few weeks ago.
Krista received a BS in EE from USC
graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1989. Her first
job was secured in part because she had coauthored
a research paper on Thyristors as an
undergraduate with an EE professor at USC.
This developed into an early career in developing
electronics for particle accelerators,
first for treating cancer patients and later for
major physics experiments at CERN and
SLAC. The cancer treatment research her
team did won major awards for its pioneering
work in three-dimensional radiotherapy
– which, Dr. Sudarshan is happy to note, put
electromagnetics to excellent practical use.
After a decade supporting scientific
research, she moved on to engineering
management in the high-speed networking
industry and a job that took her around the
world on business. But the real surprise in
her career came in 2006, when, with three
other colleagues, she co-founded and became
CEO of an internet media company
PAGE 8 • noVEMBEr 2009 • momentum • college of engineering and computing
for kids, called Kerpoof! All of the co-founders
were from engineering backgrounds in
the semiconductor industry (a second, Brent
Milne, also graduated from USC, in Math
& Physics, and later married Krista). They
created the website kerpoof.com which is a
delightful site where kids can express themselves
creatively through art and storytelling.
The site has won numerous awards and was
so successful that The Walt Disney Company
acquired Kerpoof in July of 2008. Krista
is now a Disney executive, heading up the
development of creativity software for the
Disney.com and Kerpoof.com websites.
Krista is passionate about engineering and
wants students and their parents to know that
engineers can really make a difference in the
world. Engineering is about the creative efforts
that result in iPods, airplanes, computer
electronics, MRI machines, and so many of
the other wonderful things that surround us
and make modern life what it is.
We’re glad that Krista has agreed to speak
to our USC students when she’s in our area.
You’ll want to be sure to be on hand when she
does; Krista is wonderful at conveying what a
great career you’ll have as an engineer. F
electric car project
Monitor progress of Dr. roger Dougal’s vehicle conversion
as his students work to convert a 1972 MGB to an all-electric
(plug-in) power system – stripping the original drive train and
installing a new electric power system. Updates and photos are
online at http://www.ee.sc.edu/classes/Fall08/elcteCAr/. F

Student Profile: Matt McCoy
If you’re walking through the Swearingen Center and hear someone shout,
“RadioShack,” you know the person being addressed is Matt McCoy, an
Electrical Engineering undergraduate. Matt worked at RadioShack for two
years before working in the Department of Electrical Engineering. David
Metts, lab manager, and Dr. Tangali Sudarshan, professor, gave him
that nickname because of his familiarity with electrical equipment.
Matt is a native South Carolinian whose interest in both sports
and electronics began at an early age. As his first project, Matt’s dad
gave him an electronic kit to build his own radio. He was one of those kids who always took
things apart and tried to put them back together, but “not always with success,” he said. Matt
is thankful that his parents supplied him with the tools to build a high-speed camera to take
pictures of potatoes coming out of a potato cannon. He said they weren’t too excited about his
homemade rocket fuel, which burned a large hole in their kitchen table.
Working in the Department on various projects – such as the energy audit of the Swearingen
Center and the construction and testing of a solar-powered water purifier – have given Matt a
broader perspective of electrical engineering and a greater interest in research. Matt is a now
a senior and plans to attend graduate school at USC. “I’d ultimately like to be involved in
Research and Development or consulting, because both involve a lot of troubleshooting. That
is one of my favorite parts of electrical engineering.” F
New faculty welcomed
One of Electrical Engineering’s historical
strengths has been its ability to stay on the
cutting edge of research, and our department
continues that record with the hiring of two
new faculty members. Dr. Krishna Mandal
and Dr. MVS Chandrashekhar bring to
the Department a wealth of knowledge in
Photovoltaics, the field of technology and
research related to the application of solar
cells for energy by converting sun energy
(sunlight, including sun ultraviolet radiation)
directly into electricity. In addition to
their expertise in this area, they are excellent
teachers with a proven track record in
research.
Dr. Mandal has a Ph.D. in Materials Science
on Photovoltaic Solar Cells from the
Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT).
Before joining USC, he was the Director of
Solid State Sensors and Detectors Division
of EIC Laboratories, Inc., Massachusetts.
He has more than 16 years of industrial
experience in Research and Development,
and in Production and Manufacturing. As
a Principal Investigator, he worked with
several U.S. Government funding agencies
such as the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), DOE, DOD (Air Force, Navy,
Army, and the MDA), NASA, NIST, and
NIH. His research interests include Photovoltaics,
Nuclear Radiation Detectors,
Medical Imaging, and IR lasers. He is currently
teaching ELCT 566 Semiconductor
Optoelectronics.
Dr. Chandrashekhar received his Ph.D.
in Electrical and Computer Engineering
from Cornell University in 2006, after finishing
a B.S. in EE in 2001 from Worcester
Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA.
He stayed at Cornell for a postdoctoral
stint and also worked as the
Director of Engineering for a semiconductor
company. He has received
government funding from the U.S.
Air Force and NSF. His research
interests center around novel
semiconductor materials
for application in
energy technologies,
particularly in
photovoltaics and
smartgrid concepts.
He is
currently teaching
ELCT 101,
EE’s introductory
course. F
Dr. Chandrashekhar
(L) and Dr. Mandal (R)
electrical
engineering
achievements
After a two-year proposal and planning effort,
the National Science Foundation has
awarded to USC an Industry/University
Cooperative Research Center for Grid Connected
Advanced Power Electronics.
Dr. roger Dougal is the director of the
USC site of this center, which is a cooperative
effort with colleagues at the University
of Arkansas. The mission of this center is to
accelerate the adoption and insertion of
power electronics into the electric grid in
order to improve system stability, flexibility,
robustness, and economy.
The center will focus on the following
main objectives:
u To develop new technologies for advanced
power electronic systems in
the areas supporting grid connected
distributed energy resources, power
steering and routing devices, and intelligent
load-side devices,
u To develop the software and tools
for controlling embedded- and gridconnected
power electronics to
benefit the grid as well as controlled
loads, and
u To educate engineers who under-
stand that power electronic technologies
are important to the member
companies. Approximately a dozen
companies have joined the Center
and more members are being
sought.
Dr. Goutam Koley has recently received
two SBIR grants totaling $60,000. His second
SBIR grant was awarded to his company,
SENS4 LLC, founded in 2008 by Dr. Koley,
Dr. Tom Vogt of the USC Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Mr. Jon
James.
Dr. Yong-June Shin, PI, and Dr. roger
Dougal , Co-PI, received a $170,000 grant
for "Joint Time-Frequency Domain Reflectometry
for Diagnostics/Prognostics of Aging
Electric Cables in Nuclear Power Plants,”
funded by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. They also received $35,000 for
"Development of Evaluation Technologies
for Integrated Ship Power Systems," from
Hyundai Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., with Dr.
Dougal as PI and Dr. Shin as Co-PI .
Dr. T. S. Sudarshan served as Chair of
the Focus Carolina Teaching and Learning
Committee. Over a six month-long effort,
the group developed six major initiatives to
be considered by the administration as part
of the University’s Strategic Plan.
university of south carolina • columbia, south carolina 29208 • noVEMBEr 2009 • PAGE 9

mechanical
engineering
message
from the
chair
Jamil Khan
Alumni and friends of Gamecock
Mechanical Engineering, we have just
started a new academic year with a record
number of graduate and undergraduate
students. Our undergraduate enrollment
stands at 393, and graduate student
enrollment stands at 65 on campus and
51 APOGEE students. More than half
of our on-campus graduate students are
pursuing doctoral degrees.
In August, the departmental faculty
met for a half-day retreat to assess our
strengths and weaknesses, and to plan for
the future. It was obvious that all vectors
for the department are pointing up. The
number and quality of students have gone
up. Two of our students, robert Kallgren,
and Jared rothell, were awarded scholarships
from the National Academy for
Nuclear Training worth $2,500. Robert,
as well as Brian Gottfried, received nationally
competitive DOE Scholarships
of $5,000.
Research funding is increasing. Abdel
Bayoumi received about $1 million in
new funding for his Condition Based
Maintenance (CBM) research from the
SC National Guard, and Mike Sutton
received $750,000 in new funding from
the Air Force Office of Scientific Research
(AFOSR) for performing research on
metallic and composite aero-structures.
Other faculty members receiving research
awards include Sarah Baxter, Fanglin
Chen, Victor Giurgiutiu, Travis Knight,
Chris Li, Jed Lyons, and Tony reynolds.
Recently, Chris Li was appointed as a CEC
Distinguished Professor in Mechanical
Engineering. Arash Kheradvar was selected
by the Council on Cardiovascular
Surgery and Anesthesia as a finalist for
the Vivian Thomas Young Investigator
Award. Yuh Chao co-authored a paper
that received the best Technical Paper
Award in the ASME Pressure Vessels and
Piping Division Conference.
During the last academic year, recruiting
new faculty members was one of the
department’s primary goals. Despite
budget woes, we made a concerted effort
to fulfill this goal, making offers to Xinyu
ME CHAIr continued on page 11
nano and micro
thermo-fluidic
technologies cool rising heat
Thermal management of electronics is posing
significant challenges with advancements
in micro-processors and other high-density
power electronics. The heat flux from the
power devices has risen significantly in the
past few years, approaching 500 W/cm 2 . The
power consumption trend shows that the
relentless increase in heat density will keep
on rising with advancement of technology.
Conventional forced air-cooled designs are
no longer adequate to remove such high heat
fluxes because they are beyond the current limits
of air-cooling technology (approximately
80-100 W/cm 2 ). Novel cooling solutions are
in demand for thermal management.
Many cooling schemes have been examined
in recent years in pursuit of thermal
solutions to meet this demand. Of these advanced
cooling solutions, micro thermo-fluidic
technology, which puts liquid phase-change
properties to work in microscale structures, is
considered one of the most effective solutions
for those devices demanding very high-flux
heat removal.
In the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
a research group led by Dr.
Jamil Khan is working on nano and microscale
technologies-based thermal solutions
for thermal control of power electronics. In
addition to Dr. Khan, the group currently
consists of four graduate students and a
post-doctoral researcher. Ongoing research
programs include enhancement of liquid
micro-channel cooling and investigation of
thermal physical properties of nanofluids.
Enhancement of liquid micro-channel
introducing new faculty: chen li
Dr. Chen Li, a new faculty member in the Department
of Mechanical Engineering, joined
the faculty in August 2009. He received his
Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY,
where he conducted research in micro/nanoscale
two-phase heat transfer under Professor
G.P. “Bud” Peterson, a pioneer in two-phase
PAGE 10 • noVEMBEr 2009 • momentum • college of engineering and computing
cooling, supported by Electric Ship Research
and Development Consortium (ESRDC),
is to develop an innovative cooling technology
for the removal of a large amount of heat
from a small area. It has a dense package with
higher heat transfer coefficient. Depending
on the application, the liquid flow inside the
micro-channels can be single-phase or twophase.
By combining micro-channel flow
with periodic micro-impingement jets, the
micro-channel heat transfer performance is
further enhanced through either introducing
turbulence into single-phase flow, or stabilizing
the flow instability of two-phase flow.
Using nanofluids is another novel
concept for enhancing a coolant’s thermal
characteristics. Nanofluids, consisting
of nanometer-sized solid particles or fibers
dispersed in liquids, have recently been
demonstrated to have great potential for improving
the heat transfer properties of liquids.
Sponsored by USAF, thermal characteristics
of copper-II and zinc-oxide nanofluids have
been investigated for flow over a heated flat
plate. The laboratory experiments at USC investigate
the thermal transport properties of
nanofluids, including thermal conductivity,
viscosity, and convective heat transfer coefficient.
In the near term, the group’s research
focuses on cooling of power electronics and
IC packages. But the research for other high
heat flux removal is also a major consideration
for systems such as laser diodes, fuel cell, and
future nuclear fusion and fission reactors. F
heat transfer on nano-interfaces.
During his doctoral study, Dr. Li achieved
the highest reported capillary evaporation
heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux
(CHF) and successfully demonstrated the
effectiveness of nanostructured interfaces in
significantly promoting nucleate boiling for
the first time.

Student Profile:
Rebecca Bandy
rebecca Bandy, a Mechanical Engineering
senior, spent her summer researching
fluid dynamics as part of a National Science
Foundation Research Education for Undergraduates
experience (NSF REU) at the
Technische Universität Darmstadt.
For two months, Rebecca lived and
worked in Germany, performing research
during the week and traveling to nearby cities
on the weekends. The highlight of her summer
was spending a weekend climbing the
Alps in the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen
on the Austrian border.
Back on campus for her final year, Rebecca
continues to be involved on campus. In addition
to being a top student in the Department
of Mechanical Engineering, she also is a
McNair Scholar and a member of the South
Carolina Honors College. Rebecca is president
of the student chapter of ASME, and
she is working to
make ASME into
a voice for student
concerns
within the department.
She
also serves as the
vice president
of Tau Beta Pi
and coordinates
induction week
activities for that honor society.
After graduation, Rebecca plans to pursue
a MS in Mechanical Engineering, with a
focus on fluid dynamics and vibrations. Her
dream is to complete her graduate work at
the Technische Universität Darmstadt, where
she will gain not only technical knowledge,
but also a broader sense of how engineers fit
into the world. F
Student Profile:
Joel Chrisfield
As a child, Joel Chrisfield and his older brother often spent hours
tinkering with odds and ends. Joel let those early “experiments” lead him
into seeking an education in the field of engineering at USC where he
studies Mechanical Engineering and is an officer in Tau Beta Pi.
Joel and three teammates are refining their design abilities with
their senior design project.
The project is concerned with reducing the exorbitantly high
electrical bills that the owners of manufactured homes are sometimes
unable to pay. Through their research, the team found that much of
the electrical bill went to compensating for inefficiencies in the
HVAC system, namely the crossover duct between the two
main trunk lines of the house. To better detect problems
in the ductwork, the team is developing an internal
duct traveler to seek out holes or tears for later repair.
Through their innovation, the team is anticipating
that they will help lower income families better
afford their monthly electrical bills. F
Dr. Li’s research interests are focused on functionalized structures/films
at micro/nano-scale and with their novel applications in solar energy harvest
and storage, micro/nano-scale thermal energy transport and manipulation,
and thermal management/ thermal energy recovery in high heat flux equipments/systems.
He focuses on innovative and enabling solutions to these
challenging issues in thermal energy and mass transport areas. Currently, he
is dedicated to developing innovative micro/nano structures/films with
state-of-the-art micro/nano-fabrication techniques to promote the
efficiency of the renewable energy harvest, storage, and utilization.
Dr. Li holds several pending patents and has 24 journal and
conference publications in the thermal and fluid area. He is the
chief designer and co-PI of DOD/DARPA “Flexible Thermal
Ground Plane program.” The project, funded for approximately
$4 million from April 2008 to Dec. 2011, has great potential to
revolutionize thermal engineering. F
mechanical
engineering
faculty profile:
djamel Kaoumi
Dr. Djamel Kaoumi is a new faculty member
in Nuclear Engineering. He joined the
Department of Mechanical Engineering
in June 2009. In 2007, he received a Ph.D.
in Nuclear Engineering from Pennsylvania
State University, where he conducted research
in the field of nuclear materials under
Dr. Arthur Motta. His Ph.D. thesis focused on
the stability of nanocrystalline alloys under
irradiation and resulted in a model of the kinetics
of irradiation-induced grain-growth.
Dr. Kaoumi’s research topics are in the
field of nuclear materials, particularly advanced
alloys for structural and cladding
applications in advanced nuclear systems
(Gen-IV fission reactors and the fusion reactor).
Of specific interest to him are nanostructured
oxide-dispersion strengthened steels,
which are serious candidates as a first-wall
structural material for the fusion system and
as fuel cladding material for fast-breeder reactors.
His research interests focus primarily
on the effects of irradiation on the microstructure
of materials and how these affect
their mechanical properties through the
use of different materials characterization
techniques, including in-situ TEM coupled
with charged-particle irradiation, EFTEM,
synchrotron XRD.
Dr. Kaoumi has an MS in
Nuclear Engineering with a
minor in Materials Science
and Engineering from the
University of Florida, where
he studied materials for space
nuclear propulsion. He
has a BS in Physics
from Institut National
Polytechnique
de Grenoble, in
France. F
ME CHAIr from page 10
Huang to join us in the area of Solid Oxide
Fuel Cell research, and to Dale McCants
to join us as an instructor of Mechanical
Engineering. Dale is expected to receive his
Ph.D this fall.
I can assure you that we will weather
this difficult time of budget cuts. We will
not compromise in the quality of our educational
and service missions. As always, we
count on your support and input for further
growth of the department. F
university of south carolina • columbia, south carolina 29208 • noVEMBEr 2009 • PAGE 11

momentum
is published by the Development
and Alumni Office of the College
of Engineering and Computing
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208.
http://www.cec.sc.edu
Harry J. Ploehn, Interim Dean
Debbye Wells, Senior Director
of Development
Kathy Dowell, Guest Editor
Cyndy Buckhaults, Designer
new engineering
science degree offered
This fall, the College of Engineering and
Computing introduced its newest degree
program, a Bachelor of Science in Engineering
with a major in Engineering
Science. The new program complements the
College’s discipline-specific programs with
a curriculum that is flexible and adaptable to
the student’s interest and aspirations.
The program includes basic foundation
courses in mathematics and science; a core
of such traditional engineering courses as
statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, circuit
analysis and design, computer programming,
and chemical process analysis; as well
as important courses on professional development,
ethics, and project management.
The distinguishing feature of the program
is its 30 hours of engineering electives
and 15 hours of focus area electives that can
be in areas outside engineering. The technical
electives consist of five-course sequences
in each of two different disciplines. These
courses encourage the student to develop
a strong interdisciplinary program with
learning outcomes from several areas while
maintaining depth in selected areas.
The focus area electives complement the
student’s technical work and can be tailored
to better prepare the student, or to shorten
the time required to earn a graduate-level
professional degree in an area such as law,
education, business, or medicine by providing
prerequisite, background, and required
courses for those professional programs.
In some cases the student can begin their
graduate studies before completing their
undergraduate degree.
Work on the Engineering Science program
began two years ago, and the College
received final approval to offer the program
in May from the SC Commission on Higher
Education and the Southern Association
of Colleges and Schools. Twelve students
are enrolled; Dr. John Bowles is program
director. F
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Celebrating 100 years of Engineering
at the University of South Carolina
Just back from
a business
trip to China,
Bill Fox
readily described
his
job with
Shaw
Power in
Charlotte,
NC.
He is
overseeing
the engineering, procurement, and
construction of a new nuclear power plant
being built in Jenkinsville, SC, next to the
current operating unit, V.C. Summer.
“I joined Shaw Power’s Nuclear Division
about 18 months ago,” said Fox, the Fortune
500 company’s vice president and project director.
“Shaw is a partner with Westinghouse
in the building of nuclear power plants all
around the world, including those in China.
In the U.S., Shaw has responsibility for engineering
and procurement, and all of the
construction responsibilities. The technology
used in these new plants is called AP1000.
It’s a technology that the industry has been
working on for years to try to bring the next
generation of passive reactor design into the
commercial fleet.
“The job is a real opportunity for me,” he
non-profit
organization
u.s. postage
paid
permit #766
columbia, sc
alumni profile:
William a. “bill” fox, iii, pe
continued. “I’ve worked for a utility and for
an original equipment manufacturer, but I’ve
never been on the inside looking out, like I
am now.”
“It’s very exciting to be a part of the resurgence
of nuclear power, and to be a piece
of the nation’s energy strategy with nuclear
energy playing a key role,” he said.
A 1978 Civil Engineering graduate, Fox
has more than 30 years of experience in the
electric power generation and related industries,
primarily in utility and nuclear related
design engineering, licensing, procurement,
and construction. He has managed major
projects for new plant design/build programs
and handled major EPC modifications. He
also has performed original nuclear plant design
engineering, as well as fossil and nuclear
plant maintenance and modifications.
Citing the influence of such Civil Engineering
faculty members as richard Pool
and Jim radziminski, Fox is thankful for
his Carolina education. He visits the College
of Engineering and Computing as often
as he can to talk with faculty and students,
and to recruit for future employees. After
all, he knows the type of training the new
graduates have.
“I would say that what a lot of people
don’t realize is that the engineering college
curriculum is really training your brain,” he
said. “It is giving you a toolbox and a thought
process to create solutions. F
“It’s critical that we educate students
now to fill the need for
computer scientists and engineers
for tomorrow. It is because of this
that I have established the Storey
Scholars Fund. I have challenged
the college to raise $250,000 over
the next five years that I will match
dollar for dollar.”
Bert Storey, Class of 1951
PAGE 12 • noVEMBEr 2009 • momentum • college of engineering and computing • university of south carolina