This has been an exciting year. Some of the highlights include the completion of the $10 Million Challenge (through which the Engineering Department received several new endowed scholarships), the announcement of a new $20 Million Campaign, and the start of some much needed exterior and HVAC work on the Cathedral, Engineering, and Art buildings.

This newsletter includes more details on these and other happenings on campus and around the world.

There are also two JBU web sites you might want to check out. The JBU Alumni web site, http://www.jbualumni.com, lets you keep up to date with what is going on, keep in touch with other alumni, and access resources in the library. The new academic excellence site, http://www.jbu.edu/academics/excellence/, allows JBU alumni to tell how their academic experience at JBU shaped their lives and careers.

We are sending this newsletter out via e-mail. Please let me know (rnorwood@jbu.edu) if you have a different preferred e-mail address or know of the e-mail address of other alums that we might not have.

In Christ,
Robert B. Norwood, Chair
Division of Engineering and Construction Management
 

There are 17 engineering seniors this year, all hoping to graduate. Their pictures are to the right. Below are the faculty, staff, and graduates at the 2007 Senior Banquet.

Dr. Bland and Dr. Kim were awarded an education innovation grant by the university. This innovation grant will integrate multiple elements of the JBU academic community into an innovative opportunity for our students. This activity is designed to integrate engineering design, undergraduate research, service learning, intercultural study, missions and the Institute for Biblical Community Development (IBCD). The research project question is: “How can a slow-sand water purification system be improved to meet the needs of a small community?” A major issue that persists in underdeveloped areas is both water quality and quantity. Point-of-use water purification systems can provide for particulate removal, bacteria destruction, or both. However, large-scale community systems have remained too expensive for underdeveloped communities. This project has four goals:

This project has support and commitments from Students In Free Enterprise and IBCD as partners. Student research tasks and case studies arising out of this project will be integrated into multiple courses in engineering, business, and intercultural studies. The undergraduate research and creative design activities would be completed within the current engineering capstone senior design classes that cover two semesters.
 

As part of the catalog revisions this year we made a slight change to the concentrations in the engineering program. In order to address changes in the field and to more accurately reflect what we are teaching, we renamed the electrical concentration to the electrical/computer concentration. We kept the mechanical concentration as is.

Other than the name change, there were very few other changes that needed to be made to the concentration. We added a computer architecture course to the electrical/computer concentration courses, but the computer engineering sub-discipline was already adequately covered in the other existing courses.

We also made one other course addition to the engineering program that will affect both concentrations. As part of the global studies requirement of the current university wide core curriculum, we added International Problem Solving to the engineering program requirements. This course will help prepare students to work effectively with people from other cultures who define problems differently than they do.

We are proud of our engineering program and the graduates from it. We have seen the enrollment numbers increase somewhat over the last couple of years and look forward to having a positive impact on more students' lives in the years ahead.
 

This year there were 17 senior design projects sponsored by 14 different organizations. Six of these projects were for four missions organizations, and the other projects were with companies from around the country.

The Engineering Advisory Board sponsored a design competition in conjunction with this year's senior projects with two categories: best technical design and greatest social/global impact. The winners in each category will each receive $100 and have their names put on a plaque in the Engineering Building. The runners up will each receive $50. The results are

Technical Design
Kim Cornett, winner
Bill Hall, runner up

Social/Global Impact
Nathan Cozart, winner
Jose Tijiboy, runner up

The seniors and their projects were:

Diego Castillo, Human Powered DC Power Generation, New Life International

Ricardo Castillo, Mobile Levitated Vision System, American Communication Solutions

Marco Castro, Boat Trailer Redesign, Vohs Racing

Kim Cornett, Low Noise Amplifier for a Miniaturized Piezoresistive Sensor, Axept

Nathan Cozart, Water Filtration Device for Remote Areas, New Life International

Ivonne Escorcia, Ammonia Level Regulator, Cooling & Applied Technology

Bill Hall, PLC Server Integration, Dayspring, Inc.

Christian Lopez, Voltage Drop Software and Testing, Garver Engineering

Darrin Madriz, Pharmacology Mixing Station with a Simple Output, Monterey Medical Solutions

Diogenes Molina, Electro-Magnetic Wrap Inclusion for Pig Detection, Citadel Technologies

Jay Molino, High Efficiency Suction Nozzle, T.D. Williamson

Keith Nazworth, Portable, Self-Contained, UNIX-Based Web Server, MDAT

Ana Ruiz, A Scale Model Process Heater, John Zink Co., LLC

Daniel Ray, Basic Utility Vehicle, Institute for Affordable Technology

Brent Snyder, Basic Utility Vehicle, Institute for Affordable Technology

Jose Tijiboy, Solar Powered Portable Water Filter and Sterilizer, Ensol LLC

Daniela Vega, IV Bag Contents Analyzer, Monterey Medical Solutions
 

This year 18 students received $20,582 in scholarships awarded by the Engineering Department. This amount does not include the Keith & Miriam Feaster Family Endowed Scholarship which has not yet been awarded.

The Engineering Department is very blessed to be able to award these scholarships; many thanks to all those who have made them possible. The Engineering Opportunity Endowed Scholarship and the Barnabas (An Encourager) Endowed Scholarship (Acts 4:36) resulted from the recently completed $10 Million Challenge. These two scholarships will be awarded by the department each year to returning students. The Keith & Miriam Feaster Family Endowed Scholarship was also created as part of this fundraising effort and will be awarded each year by the financial aid office to incoming freshmen. In addition to these endowed scholarships, we are fortunate to be able to award 12 Engineering in Excellence Scholarships to incoming engineering and construction management freshmen.

God has provided another wonderful opportunity that John Brown University president, Dr. Charles Pollard, announced at the annual spring board of trustees meeting on Friday, April 13. The university will launch a new challenge campaign this summer that would add $20 million to the JBU endowment fund for student scholarships and essential programs.

The $20 Million Campaign comes on the heels of the highly successful $10 Million Challenge for endowed scholarships that was completed in January 2007. A donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has pledged up to $10 million in matching funds to initiate a new $20 Million Endowment Challenge for JBU. Funds raised will be matched up to $10 million for all current and deferred gifts designated to new or existing endowed scholarships and for endowing important programs across campus. JBU has five years to raise their $10 million portion in order to receive the full amount of matching funds. Together, JBU’s raised funds and the matching funds will add $20 million to JBU’s endowment. This is another opportunity to support the university and the Engineering Department.
 

As you may have heard, the Cathedral, Engineering (formerly the library), and Art (formerly Science) buildings will be undergoing exterior renovation this summer. Fifty years after construction, the three buildings will receive an exterior limestone cladding to complete the original vision of the buildings. The buildings will also get new roofing. The Engineering Building will have new windows put in and will get a new HVAC system and duct work.

Work will start right after graduation and continue through the summer. The university community is excited to see this very necessary work finally being possible. JBU has raised $5.3 million of the $6.1 million needed for the project. You can find more information at http://www.jbu.edu/giving/cathedralproject/. If you are interested in helping meet the remaining need, contact Jim Krall (jkrall@jbu.edu) in University Advancement at (479) 524-7145.