Architecture Competition Held

On Tuesday, November 16, 2010, the students in AET 355, Engineering Mechanics, presented their projects for the juried Sculpture in Tension (and Compression) competition. This event marks the third annual design competition in this class, which is taught by Dr. Christian Carloni. The students had to design and build an original sculpture in which each member is in tension or compression only. The jurors for this competition were Sharon L. Vasquez, provost of the University of Hartford; Louis Manzione, dean of CETA; Mike Crosbie, chair of the Department of Architecture in CETA; Edward Allen, architect and teacher; and Dr. Carloni.

The competition was won by Anthony Papa and Amberlynn Rodriguez, whose sculpture is shown below. They received a gift certificate to the University Book Store for their efforts. Runners up were Domenick Gagliardi and Jacob Hajjar; Maegan Hall and Shana Italiano; Benjamin Schuetz and Stephen Sorak; and Garret Lord and Martin Chase.

Following the presentations, Edward Allen presented a lecture called “Big Adventures with Small Structures,” in which he discussed various small-scale built projects in which he used vaults, trusses, and enhanced post-and-beam framing. His purpose, he said, “is to convince students that they can do interesting structures even on very small projects; they need not wait for a chance to do a major bridge or roof.”

Allen taught architectural design, building construction, and structural design full time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for thirteen years before leaving to develop his architectural practice and write a series of textbooks. His titles include Stone Shelters; How Buildings Work; Fundamentals of Building Construction; The Architect’s Studio Companion; Shaping Structures: Statics; Fundamentals of Residential Construction;, Architectural Detailing; and Form and Forces: Designing Efficient, Expressive Structures. Nearly every school of architecture in North America and many in foreign countries use one or more of these titles as texts. Most of them have been published in at least one foreign language translation. Mr. Allen is the founder and for many years was the editor and publisher of Connector, a newsletter that has been influential in changing the way technical subjects are taught in schools of architecture. He has lectured and taught on four continents and has conducted architectural research on a fifth. Following an appointment as Pietro Belluschi Distinguished Professor of Architectural Design at the University of Oregon in 1997, he has retained a visiting appointment at that institution, where he was instrumental in founding the world’s only graduate program in technical teaching for teachers of architecture. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 2005 he was awarded jointly by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the American Institute of Architects the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, the highest honor in this field.

CETA congratulates the winners of the Sculpture in Tension (and Compression) competition.

 the winning sculpture (top) and one of the studies done by the students in preparation for building the sculpture.

Below are various other entries in the competition.

Anechoic Chamber Dedicated

On Friday, October 15, CETA celebrated the naming of the Paul S. Veneklasen Research Foundation Anechoic Chamber in the Acoustics Engineering Laboratory, Dana Hall 126. The dedication of the chamber is the newest development between the Veneklasen Foundation and CETA's Acoustical Engineering Programs.

The Foundation, which was established 30 years ago by Veneklasen Associates to support research in acoustics, has for several years provided funding for various projects in the Acoustics program. The projects have resulted in award-winning presentations by CETA faculty, students, and alumni in both the Acoustical Engineering and Music and the B.S. M.E. with Acoustics concentration programs.

Speaking for CETA, Dean Louis Manzione along with Dr. Michelle Vigeant and Dr. Bob Celmer, thanked the Foundation for its continuing support, which enables CETA students to work on state-of-the-art projects in the field of acoustics.

John J. LoVerde, president of the Paul S. Veneklasen Research Foundation, and Walter Harrison, president of the University of Hartford, speak  together  before the unveiling of the plaques.

Dr. Michelle Vigeant explains the plaque acknowledging the many contributions made by the Paul S. Veneklasen Research Foundation to CETA's Acoustics Program.

Dr. Louis Manzione, dean of CETA, discusses the Acoustics Program and thanks the Foundation for its contributions.

Dr. Bob Celmer, program director of the Acoustics programs in CETA, unveils the name plaque on the anechoic chamber in the acoustics laboratory.

The dedication was followed by a dinner and a concert featuring performances by current and former Acoustics students.

More Faculty Achieve Success

Assistant Professor David Shuman, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Instructor Michael Ryan, both teaching in the Audio Engineering Technology Program here in CETA mixed the audio (music, dialog, effects, etc.) for a musical documentary highlighting the rich Jewish culture of Poland. 100 Voices: A Journey Home had a limited opening in the United States, one day only, September 21, 2010.

The story told in the movie comprises the personal reflections and musical performances of Cantors Assembly members and composer Charles Fox. It offers viewers the opportunity to learn about a culture that produced an artistic and educated outpouring in Europe and tells of two peoples sharing intertwined cultures.

On the opening evening a concert of contemporary American cantorial music was offered, and Shuman and Ryan mixed the audio for that event as well.

Hemchandra M. Shertukde, professor of electrical and computer engineering, has published a book, Tracking of Crossing Targets with Passive Sensors: Using Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) Sensors and Track Before Detect (TBD) Methodology. The book, published by VDM Publishing, is a monograph on Dr. Shertukde’s target-tracking research with the U.S. Air Force and Navy performed over the last 27 years. The research Dr. Shertukde has done will also be used for the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) project now being led by Dean Lou Manzione in CETA.

Abby Ilumoka-Nwabuzor, professor of electrical and computer engineering, has received an $83,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support her research into the best practices for recruiting and retaining women and minorities to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) disciplines.

Dr. Ilumoka will use this grant to support a project titled “Development of Pedagogical Insights and Strategies to Overcome Barriers to Women and Minorities in STEM.” The project is an immersion program for high-school students over 12 months with four key components:

     • After-school classroom-based STEM workshops during the school year

     • A STEM summer day camp during summer 2011

     • A year-round industry-based mentoring program to provide on-site shadowing and e-mentoring for  students

     • Parent/guardian workshops to inform and empower adults as they support their children in STEM fields.

CETA congratulates these professors on their achievements.

Recent Papers and Presentations by CETA Faculty

Dr. Ladimer Nagurney, associate professor of electrical, computer, and biomedical engineering, has had his paper “Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design: A Multicriteria Perspective” published in the September 2010 issue of International Journal of Sustainable Engineering. This paper, co-authored with Professor Anna Nagurney of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, was written during Dr. Nagurney’s recent sabbatical.  The paper focuses on the importance of identifying the optimal design of supply chains, which are complex networks consisting of manufacturing plants and various modes of transportation and distribution, along with storage technologies. Supply chains have costs and produce emissions, for instance, carbon, that can affect a business’s profits and reputation. Rigorous tools that determine how to minimize a carbon footprint through sustainable supply chain network design can significantly affect the cost of doing business.

Dr. Abby Ilumoka-Nwabuzor, professor of electrical and computer engineering, hosted a panel discussion and gave an invited talk at the June 2010 conference on Integrating Science and Mathematics Education Research into Teaching at the University of Maine in Orono. Dr. Ilumoka’s talk, “Development of Pedagogical Insights and Strategies to Overcome Barriers to Women in STEM,” featured the results of an after-school STEM program she conducted at Bloomfield and Simsbury, Conn., high schools in 2009 and 2010. Her program was sponsored by a grant from the Women’s Education and Leadership Fund (WELFund) here at the University of Hartford.

Dr. Michelle Vigeant, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, chaired the Concert Hall Research Group (CHRG) Summer Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in July 2010. The summer institute brings together professionals in and students of concert hall acoustics from around the world and featured top professionals in performing arts facility design, concert venue tours, and performances from the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and The Santa Fe Opera. Dr. Vigeant was joined on the organizing committee by Tim Foulkes of Cavanaugh Tocci Associates, Carl Rosenberg of AcenTech, and Bill Dohn of Dohn and Associates.

Dr. Vigeant also presented three papers at two international meetings held in Australia over the summer. At the International Congress on Acoustics (ICA), held in Sydney, August 23 through 27, she presented work on the just noticeable difference (JND), the smallest difference detectable on a room acoustics parameter clarity index (C80). She discussed results from two subjective listening tests comparing two different testing methods. This work, supported by the Paul S. Veneklasen Research Foundation, involved the assistance of four of Dr. Vigeant’s students: Meghan Ahearn, ’09; Matthew Schaeffler, ’09; Clothilde Giacomoni, ’10; and Christopher Jasinski, ’11.

The second conference, the International Symposium on Room Acoustics (ISRA), met in Melbourne, August 29 through 31. Dr. Vigeant was invited to discuss her work on anechoic recordings of orchestral music, work completed during her dissertation studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Vigeant also presented a poster concerning the acoustics subjective parameter of listener envelopment, the sense of being immersed in the sound field, as related to an objective parameter late lateral energy level (GLL). This work, supported by a University of Hartford Greenberg Junior Faculty Grant, was carried out with the assistance of three University students: David Dick, ’10; Madison Ford, ’10; and Carl Vogel, ’10.

Dr. Vigeant’s travel to Australia was funded by the Paul S. Veneklasen Research Foundation, the University of Hartford Greenberg Junior Faculty Grant, an International Symposium on Room Acoustics Young Scientist Grant, and the University of Hartford International Center Faculty Travel Grant.

CETA Welcomes Class of 2014

The class of 2014 has arrived in CETA and is settling into college life. A total of 247 new students join us, 37 of them young women, and 28 of them with AP credits. Our new students come from nine different countries and 18 states in the United States. Of the various majors, Architecture is the biggest in the college (and one of the biggest in the University), while Audio Engineering Technology has the biggest gain in numbers.

On August 30, CETA held a meeting with the new students to bring them together regardless of major and make sure they have the information they need to begin their studies.  Dean Louis Manzione assured them that, though the majors they have chosen are among the most difficult at the University, they have many resources and people willing to help them succeed.  The students met various Student Services staff members and learned about what those people can do for them, and various faculty members were also introduced.

Members of the class of 2014 hear from Dean Lou Manzione.

CETA welcomes the class of 2014 and looks forward to working with them and fostering their careers.

Tai Soo Kim Traveling Fellowship Awarded

On May 11, in Wilde Auditorium, CETA graduate Michael Varesio presented a report on the trip he took as the 2009 Tai Soo Kim Traveling Fellow. Michael examined the architecture of various Mediterranean sites, including Spain, Morocco, and the island of Santorini, and created a slide show of his trip, sharing the various building styles and influences with an audience that included current architecture students and faculty as well as Tai Soo Kim.

Michael Varesio shares photos of his trip.

Mr. Kim is an architect practicing in the Hartford area who has endowed this fellowship to support the independent travel and inquiry of a University of Hartford Master of Architecture graduate each year. The trips are meant to help the recipients grow as architects.

In this, the fourth year of the fellowship, a trio of graduates received the fellowship. Emphasizing the idea that collaboration is now essential to the practice of architecture, Carolina Calle, Brenda Eaton, and Michelle Miller proposed a collaborative trip to various cities and towns across the United states to examine various communities to learn which components of those communities make them successful—and to strengthen their own collaboration and team skills. They plan to visit Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Savannah, Georgia; and Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Michael Crosbie, Brenda Eaton, Michelle Miller, and Carolina Calle

CETA thanks Tai Soo Kim for his generosity to students and congratulates Michael, Carolina, Brenda, and Michelle on their success.

CETA Graduates 175

On May 16, under sunny skies, 175 undergraduate and graduate students in CETA received their diplomas. In addition, various honors were awarded to graduating students.

Among the highlights, Neftali Torres, a Civil Engineering major, received the John G. Lee Medal from the University. This medal is presented to a graduating student from the Greater Hartford region who has excelled academically and demonstrated a deep commitment to the community. You can read about his accomplishments in this post on the CETABlog.
At CETA’s diploma ceremony, the recipients of this year’s Tai Soo Kim Architecture Traveling Fellowship were recognized. Carolina Calle, Brenda Eaton, and Michelle Harrigan Miller received the fellowship, which will allow them to travel in the United States and study the formation of community.  This award supports the independent travel and inquiry of a University of Hartford Master of Architecture graduate each year.  This year, for the first time, a collaborative project has been awarded the fellowship.

Finally, Dr. Chittaranjan Sahay awarded the Dr. Girija Sahay and Ahilya Devi Award for Academic Excellence to Matthew Nilsen, a Mechanical Engineering major who graduated summa cum laude.

In an email to faculty and staff who worked on and participated in the ceremonies yesterday, Dr. Ladimer Nagurney, CETA’s chief marshal said, “On behalf of our graduating students, I would like to thank each and every one of you for making their graduation yesterday special. The weather could not have been better and the ceremony went flawlessly.”

CETA congratulates all the graduating students and hopes that they will share their success stories with us.