Monthly Archives: July 2013

Dr. John Kevern Discovers New Material for Internally Curing Concrete

Dr. John Kevern has received UM Fast Track II Initiative Funds for his project, Application of Drinking Water Treatment Waste As Internal Curing for Concrete. Dr. Kevern discovered that this locally and globally available waste material can be used to internally cure concrete. Since concrete needs moisture to gain strength, internal sponges made from drinking water treatment waste helps to improve important concrete properties including strength and durability. With the help of Ph.D. student Qiwei (Claire) Cao, the project will be completed in 2014. Qiwei (Claire) Cao’s dissertation will examine and evaluate the knowledge gained from this project. The goal is to fully evaluate the material and prove that it is the most effective internal curing agent for concrete.

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SCE Hosts Women in Technology Panel

A panel discussion about women in technology was hosted at SCE on Wednesday, July 17. SCE faculty Brian Hare helped to organize the event and computer science undergraduate Sarah Withee served on the panel. About 20 people attended the panel discussion which was organized by The Nerdery, a Minneapolis-based interactive software company with a presence in Kansas City. The screening of the documentary film, “She++” helped to define the issues and was then followed by an open forum. Continue reading →

63rd Street Bridge Physical Model Being Built by Dr. Jerry Richardson

Being able to accurately predict water flow conditions and their impact on proposed bridge designs is vital to ensuring that a new bridge will be strong and long lasting. It is also vital to assessing the current and future condition of existing bridges. Dr. Jerry Richardson has been contracted by Water Resources Solutions to build a physical model of the water flow experienced by the existing 63rd street bridge over Brush Creek in Mission Hills to assess current flow conditions and to evaluate up to three proposed replacement bridges for this site. If you stop by the Fluid Mechanics lab, you likely find civil engineering senior Amanda Leipard working, under the supervision of Dr. Richardson, to create a rigid bed distorted Froud scale model of the current 63^rd Street bridge. The horizontal scale is 1:73 and the vertical scale and 1:24.

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1st Annual SCE Summer Potluck Lunch Enjoyed by Many

From general discussions on how delicious foods from across the world are, the SCE Summer Potluck lunch was born. Faculty and staff gathered and brought favorite dishes to share. Veggie Pulav from India, Baby Corn Manchurian of Indo-Chinese origin, Aunt Shirley’s Green Beans casserole, Vegetable Dumpling & Kimchi from Korea and baked beans went up for side-by-side taste testing. All the dishes were enjoyed and we found out that everyone loves a little fruit and salad. Look for the 2^nd annual SCE Summer Potluck next late July, early August. Continue reading →

Dr. Masud Chowdhury’s Research Will Examine Keeping Cool While Increasing Performance

Dr. Masud Chowdhury has been awarded University of Missouri Research Board (UMRB) funding to investigate “Technology and Design Hierarchy Independent Modeling and Analysis of Thermal Effects in Nanoscale Integrated Circuits.” When the power is increased in micro and nano-electronic devices, temperature increases. That’s as bad for the integrated circuits and systems making up electronic devices as spilling your favorite beverage on them, maybe worse. To develop newer technologies beyond the capabilities of the current semiconductor industry necessitates innovative, comprehensive tools and techniques to address the critical issues like exponentially increasing power and temperature in micro and nano-electronic devices.

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Quality of Limestone from Mine Located Under Worlds of Fun Being Assessed by Dr. John Kevern

If you like to ride the roller coasters at Worlds of Fun, you can add a new fun fact to tell your friends. Located 1400 feet under Worlds of Fun is a Hunt-Martin Materials mine to extract limestone that took 13 years to build. Limestone has traditionally been used as a building material because it was local and abundant. The deep mine was needed because the good, hard, durable limestone has been used up near the surface.

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Unique Summer Program Draws Students from Saudi Arabia

Fourteen students and their two accompanying professors from Jazan University in Saudi Arabia left for home after a five-week summer program held here at SCE. Designed to be both intellectually and culturally enriching, the program included the students learning about software methods and tools from Professor Yongjie Zheng, mobile apps and cloud computing from Professor Yugi Lee, and about big data from Professor Praveen Rao. They then created their own app for Jazan University with the help of the Kansas City-based RareWire app creation studio. UMKC’s Applied Language Institute provided the students English instruction for two hours each day. In addition, students and faculty ventured beyond campus to visit and tour Cerner, Garmin and Sprint and enjoy local attractions such as the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kansas City Royals and Starlight Theatre. SCE Continuing Education Director Christina Davis, managed the program including preliminary discussions with Jazan University, curriculum, and program logistics. For more details, see the UMKC Today article “Students from Saudi Arabia Study at UMKC School of Computing and Engineering.”

Drs. Lee and Dinakarpandian’s Research Promoting Active Lifestyles for Kids Funded

Dr. Yugi Lee and Dr. Deendayal Dinakarpandian have been awarded University of Missouri Research Board (UMRB) funding for their Active Mobile Interfaces for Promoting Active Lifestyles (AMIPAL) project. The overall goal of the AMIPAL project is to develop middleware that is an alternative to the traditional touchscreen interface for mobile computing devices. Any additional hardware would be minimal and inexpensive. The AMIPAL prototype will enable the creation of active, engaging, educational and age appropriate games on mobile devices for kids. Once developed, a pilot study will be conducted by August 2014 to evaluate the prototype’s effectiveness.

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Baja Buggy Featured in Mid-America Packards “The Data Plate”

Gearheads never forget their early roots, dark garages filled with tools, parts, exhaust fumes and that dream car they just knew they could restore. So it’s no surprise that fellow motor heads from the Mid-America Packards and our SCE Baja Buggy team enjoy getting together to share ideas about how to “tweak” the Baja so it will “blow the competition’s doors off” at SAE buggy races. The article and pictures on page 4 of the Mid-America’s Packards newsletter, The Data Plate, makes it clear that the team appreciates the mentorship, encouragement and support!

Get Into Energy Camp Inspires Students to Pursue Careers in STEM Fields

The pictures are in and say it all. Congratulations to the participating middle school students and the SCE faculty, staff and engineering students that provided instruction and hands-on demonstrations at the June 25-27, 2013 KCP&L Energy Camp held at SCE. The camp was sponsored by KCP&L, SCE and the KC STEM Alliance. For additional information, see the UMKC Today news article “Energy Camp Inspires KC Students to Enter STEM Fields.”