Another busy year is coming to a close. In addition to all the normal activities, we had our ABET reaccreditation visit in September and a faculty search to replace a retiring faculty member. Details on all of these activities are below.

As always, the faculty and staff in the engineering program would love for you to send us an email and let us know what you are up to.

In Christ,
Robert B. Norwood, Chair
Division of Engineering and Construction Management
rnorwood@jbu.edu
 

There are 14 engineering seniors graduating this year. Their pictures are to the right. Below are the graduates, faculty, and staff at the 2009 senior banquet.

 2009 Seniors


Engineering Faculty and Staff
 

The JBU Engineering Division and the Institute for Biblical Community Development are very pleased to announce that this year’s BUV (Basic Utility Vehicle) won first place in the national competition sponsored by the Institute for Affordable Transportation. The vehicle was designed and built by senior engineering students Mark Delavan and Alan Hill as their senior capstone project, mentored by Dr. Young-Gurl Kim, Fernando Vega, and Clifford Peters. The students competed against eight other university entries in a grueling series of six events which tested the agility, endurance, strength, and overall capabilities of the vehicles.

Competitors came from the University of Purdue, University of Cincinnati (2), University of Missouri—Columbia, Trine University, Northern Illinois University, State University of New York—Alfred, and Hamblen County Schools. The theme of this year’s competitions was a vehicle for leg amputees, all controls to be hand-operated. Each vehicle was loaded with 600 lbs of cargo and had to tow a trailer carrying an additional 300 lbs. Numerous design specifications had to be met including a variety of utility and safety features.

You can check out some YouTube videos of the BUV in action at the following links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHzNcsBVcQ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MoOc0uVDXk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEyhlF7uGTU
 

Every six years the engineering program must undergo reaccreditation by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET (111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore, MD 21202-4012 - telephone: (410) 347-7700).

We spent much of last year working on the self-study which we submitted to ABET last summer. The visit by the program evaluators in September went well, and we are now waiting to hear the final action from the EAC meeting in July.

Here is an excerpt from the ABET web site (http://www.abet.org/the_basics.shtml) to give you some background on accreditation.

ABET accreditation is assurance that a college or university program meets the quality standards established by the profession for which it prepares its students. For example, an accredited engineering program must meet the quality standards set by the engineering profession. An accredited computer science program must meet the quality standards set by the computing profession.

ABET accredits postsecondary degree-granting programs housed within regionally accredited institutions. ABET accredits programs only, not degrees, departments, colleges, or institutions.
 

We are looking forward to having Dr. Will Holmes join the engineering department this summer. Dr. Holmes has been teaching at Taylor University and was instrumental in the accreditation of their engineering programs. He received his bachelor's degree from Southern Nazarene University, and his doctorate from Washington State University.

Will and Carole Holmes and their children: Shadd (7), Reanna (5), and Kaylin (3)
 

There will also be a few other changes taking place over the summer.

Dr. Robert Norwood will become the new Dean of Undergraduate Studies. He will continue to teach two engineering courses each semester, but he will not have any administrative responsibilities in the engineering department.

Dr. Larry Bland will take over as the Chair of the Division of Engineering and Construction Management and as Head of the Department of Engineering.

Dr. Kevin Macfarlan will assume responsibility for overseeing the engineering department's assessment and accreditation activities.

This year there were 14 senior design projects sponsored by 9 different organizations.

We had the third annual design competition in conjunction with the senior projects with two categories: Best Technical Design and Greatest Social/Global Impact. The winners in each category received $100 and had their names put on a plaque in the Engineering Building. The runner-up received $50. The results are:

Technical Design
Adam Luchies, winner
Caleb Gutshall, runner-up

Social/Global Impact
Mark Delavan and Alan Hill, winners (tie)

The seniors and their projects were:

Bryce Burchfield, Annunciated Cargo Container Stop Design, American Airlines
 
Laura Carcamo, Interface Between a Photovoltaic Array and an Electrolytic Capacitor, NCREPT
 
Mark Delavan, Basic Utility Vehicle, Institute for Affordable Transportation
 
Henry Fennell, Transportable Turbine Test Tower (T4), University of Tulsa
 
Caleb Gutshall, Maturity Meter with an Embedded Microsystem, Citadel Technologies
 
Alan Hill, Basic Utility Vehicle, Institute for Affordable Transportation
 
Adam Luchies, Data Acquisition System for the Transportable Turbine Test Tower, University of Tulsa
 
TJ Mitchell, Slow-Sand Filtration Optimization, Institute for Biblical Community Development
 
Jose Pena, Pig Friction and Driving Pressure Analysis, T.D. Williamson, Inc.
 
Carlos Ramirez, Analysis on Reliability Processes, Cargill, Inc.
 
Carlos Salinas, Integral Wrap Heater and Heat Integrator, Citadel Technologies
 
Jamin Schweiger, Water Vapor Pipeline Sensor, T.D. Williamson, Inc.
 
Sam Stewart, FAA Lighting Protection Counterpoise Research and Study, Garver Engineers
 
Preston Young, Point-of-Use Water Filtration, Institute for Biblical Community Development