SCE congratulates Dylan Stanfield who designed the winning 2012 E Week T-Shirt Design which is shown below. The contest is sponsored by the SCE Alumni Association and the winner receives a cash prize of $100.00. Sign up to order a shirt at the SCE Student Council Office, 365 Flarsheim Hall. Check out this year’s E-week schedule here!
Hagos Ermias Andebrhan is our 2012 UMKC School of Computing and Engineering Alumni Achievement Award recipient In the early 1970s, Andebrhan escaped a bloody civil war in his native east African country of Eritrea. He came to the US to pursue a career as a pilot but soon discovered that airline positions were few and far between with a surplus of military pilots returning from the Vietnam War. So, he went to work. He joined Taliaferro & Browne, a local engineering firm, as a draftsman. He next chose civil engineering and attended classes at UMKC (part of a cooperative engineering program between the University of Missouri-Columbia and UMKC). “I entered into a mode of intense self-discipline and utter focus,” he said to Elemonline, an Eritrean lifestyle magazine. “In that period of time, I completed my BSc and master of science degrees as well as doctoral candidacy in civil engineering. At the same time, I also has a wife and young children to support and family in Eritrea to help – so I had to work fulltime.”
At UMKC, he formed a close relationship with fellow student Leonard Graham, who would eventually join him in purchasing Taliaferro & Browne, now in its 44th year. After Will Taliaferro’s death in 1990, the two jumped to the chance to own and operate their own firm . . . Today, the times are much better, as the firm enjoys a strong national reputation, numerous awards and participation in many high-profile construction projects. Recent Kansas City area projects include prime consultant for the Sprint Center, Troost MAX, IRS Service Center and the Power & Light District. For the full story, see UMKC Alumni Association News.
IBM focused its spotlight on UMKC SCE Assistant Professor Praveen Rao’s for embracing the use of cloud technology and incorporating cloud technologies into his courses. An early adopter of cloud technologies, Dr. Rao has ensured his students are learning the skills industry values and obtaining hands on experience with relevant technologies. Dr. Rao was one of 50 faculty worldwide selected for a 2011 IBM Smart Planet Award to develop a new curriculum for health informatics, Towards Smarter Healthcare: New Healthcare IT Curriculum. His advocacy of cloud technologies has resulted in a growing use of cloud technologies at UMKC’s School of Computing and Engineering.
Concrete Construction magazine recently named UMKC School of Computing and Engineering Assistant Professor John Kevern as one of the five Most Influential People in the concrete industry. Kevern, a LEED-accredited professional who was selected for changing the way pervious concrete is specified and tested, appeared in the magazine’s January 2012 issue. Unlike traditional concrete, pervious concrete contains little or no sand and features craters that capture rainwater, allowing it to seep into the ground and reduce stormwater run-off. Building upon this knowledge, Kevern has conducted several nationally-funded research projects and introduced the technology to UMKC. See UMatters and UMKC Press Release for full story.
Gregory King, assistant professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, along with John Kevern conducted a National Science Foundation-funded research project to examine how pervious concrete could prevent ice-related falls. As part of this project, students and professors conducted research in Flarsheim Hall’s Human Motion Laboratory. Read this release for more on the various research projects being conducted in the Human Motion Laboratory.
