University of Virginia Engineering Magazine, Spring 2006 SEAS Notes

University of Virginia Engineering
Spring 2006, Volume 18, No. 2

SEAS Notes

Eyes Open: SEAS Alum Takes Technology to ‘ER’

Some huge companies compete for the privilege of paying millions of dollars for product placement on hit shows. But for one local company, a hit NBC television show came calling and didn’t ask for a dime. “The people from ‘ER’ called right before Thanksgiving,” says Chris Lankford (EE ’99, SIE ’02), chief technology officer of Eye Response Technologies, a company that manufactures a system that allows people to communicate through eye movements.

The Eye Response technology—a computer and voice synthesizer that can attach to a wheelchair—has found a burgeoning market among individuals suffering from ALS, a degenerative neurological disease that invariably leads to paralysis, loss of speaking ability and death. In addition to helping people communicate through eye movements, the technology is successful in a number of areas including early diagnosis of autism, ADD and areas of psychology.

Professor Emeritus Thomas E. Hutchinson was associate dean in the Engineering School when he invented the technology, and Lankford was his Ph.D. student.

“Much of the success of the invention and the new applications to which it is applied was made possible by more than 200 undergraduates who worked on this, often as part of their senior thesis,” Hutchinson said. “None of the current advances would have been possible without Chris Lankford leading the intellectual charge and the support of Blair Kelly and Greg Olsen who provided both financial investment in the company and, more importantly, a belief that we could succeed in helping so many in most desperate need.”

Hutchinson is now University Professor at the College of Charleston School of Science and Mathematics.

[This story first appeared in The Hook.]

Student Awards and News

Matthew L. Bolton (SIE) was named an ARCS Scholar.
Noah Budiansky, Sami Al-Ghamdi and Hongbo Cong (MSE) won International Poster Awards at NACE CORROSION 2006.
Jason Forman (ME) won an award from the International Society of Biomechanics.
Maura C. Garrity (CE) received an outstanding Naval ROTC-Engineering student award.
Drake Guenther, Nitin Singh (MSE) and Alex Foraste (CE) received SEAS Outstanding Teaching Awards for Graduate Teaching Assistants.
Marta Jakab (MSE) received the A.B. Campbell Award for best paper by an author under age 35 in the March 2006 issue of Corrosion.
Landon Kanner (CE) received a Ballard Fellowship.
Joshua King (MAE) was selected as the Top Senior in the Mid-Atlantic Region by the Aerospace Honor Society, Sigma Gamma Tau.

Joseph D. Langan (Aero) received the outstanding Air Force ROTC-Engineering student award.
Scott Lucas (ME) won an award from the International Society of Biomechanics.
Coire J. Maranzano (SIE) received an Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Sciences and Engineering.
Sonna M. Patel (BME) was a finalist for the Helmut Reul Young Investigator Award at the International Society of Rotary Blood Pumps Conference in Japan. She received third place for her paper, “Predicting VAD Reliability through Systematic Component Modeling.” She received funding from alumni donations to attend the conference.
Trevor Royce (BME) and Kara Downs (Arts & Sciences) won a Harrison Award to study the knowledge of perinatal healthcare and its impact on infant mortality in Costa Rica.
Douglas S. Wood (CE) received the outstanding Army ROTC-Engineering student award.

Making a Difference, Making it Matter

Thirst Relief Through Research and Engineering Applications in Bushbuck Ridge, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

Engineering Relief in South Africa
Kathleen McDowell and Peter Stapor on a water tank that was installed at Shobiyane High School in the rural village of Acornhoek, South Africa

“We found ourselves to be a small piece of a much larger puzzle, attempting to comprehend the complex historical background required to contribute to the ongoing development in the area.”
—Peter Stapor and Kathleen McDowell

With support from alumni donations, two second-year engineering students participated in a two-month Thirst Relief Through Research and Engineering Applications Project in Bushbuck Ridge, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, last summer. There they engaged in a service-learning course with students from South Africa’s University of Witswaterstrand and University of Venda for Science and Technology.

Throughout the project, the students worked in rural communities, assessing water provisions and determining feasible ways to improve situations, among them the construction of rainwater harvesting systems in schools that desperately needed a supplemental water source for drinking and gardening.

The students received a great deal of planning support from the SAVANA consortium, in particular from U.Va. designated liaison Robert Swap. Other support came from SEAS alumni through the University of Virginia Engineering Foundation and from the Center for Global Health, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, the Rodman Scholars Foundation, the International Studies Office, Engineering Students Without Borders, the University Giving Tree and several private donors.

“This trip was truly life-changing on personal and educational levels for both of us,” the students wrote noting their appreciation for the financial support from alumni. “We feel lucky to be part of an E-School community that values unique undergraduate experiences.”

Students Explore the Relationship Between Technology and Citizenship

Lake Pontchartrain lighthouse “As a society, we live embedded in technological systems. It follows then that anyone who is going to play a leadership role needs to understand the way technology is shaped by, and in turn shapes, that larger social environment.” —Professor Kay Neeley (STS)

Twenty-four undergraduates from Arts & Sciences and the schools of engineering and architecture spent J-term (the interlude between semesters) this year studying the history, infrastructure and culture of New Orleans, first in the classroom and then in the center of hurricane devastation.

The students spent the first four days of their course at U.Va. learning about the city of New Orleans before, during and after Hurricane Katrina from the viewpoints of the architect, the engineer, the scientist and the historian. Then they boarded a train for New Orleans and spent a week engaged in relief efforts.

The students were required to keep a journal throughout the course, which is posted online (www.virginia.edu/topnews/releases2006/NewOrleansJournals.html). The final project required them to develop a plan for rebuilding the city. Some of the students have continued their involvement beyond the end of the term. Justin Starr and several other students have started a charity called “Horns for Hurricane Victims” that ships musical instruments to area schools in New Orleans.

The J-term course, which was crosslisted in architecture, engineering and the College, is part of a University-wide initiative to explore the relationship between technology and democracy, with the goal of engaging faculty and students in thinking about how technology can be managed in accordance with democratic principles.

The Brazilian Connection

SEAS and Brazilian students “I saw this as an opportunity to throw myself a curve ball. Challenges in the future will appear much more manageable to me.” —Alex Rixey (’06)

As one of two American partners in the U.S.-Brazil Cognitive Systems Engineering Exchange Program, the Department of Systems and Information Engineering offers U.Va. students a unique opportunity to understand cross-cultural issues while conducting hands-on research.

Students spent six months in Brazil immersing themselves in the language, getting to know their Brazilian counterparts, attending classes and researching issues related to the intersection of people and computers. At the end of six months, the entire group, Brazilians as well as Americans, returned to the United States to complete their projects.

Working side-by-side in Brazil with students from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul and The Ohio State University, U.Va. students took on a number of projects, among them creating an analysis toolkit to help Petrobas, the Brazilian state oil company, pull critical information from its incident-reporting system and identifying specific improvements for a training simulator used by Brazil’s Nuclear Energy Institute.

Stephanie Guerlain is the program’s U.Va. coordinator. The program is supported by a four-year seed grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, a U.S. government initiative.