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.

CETA Day Celebrated

Friday May 7 is CETA Day, when we celebrate the creativity of our Engineering, Technology, and Architecture students as they present senior capstone projects and Master’s thesis work. Here is a list of many of the presentations made today:

Audio Engineering Technology:

Rob Hoinsky: Acoustic Modification of a Space for Mixing Music

Diana Rosen: Independent Film Project—Videos for Real Art Ways Community Center

Keenan O’Connor: Harmonic Percolator Guitar Effects Unit

Andy Spalla: Commercial Sound System Installation in the University of Hartford’s Gengras Main Hall/Cafeteria

Computer & Electrical Engineering, ECE 483–Design II:

Jeremy Bredickas & Shruti Khare: Fire-fighting Robot

Michael Carbary: Bluetooth FM Transmitter

Sam Dick: Wondrous Wireless Super-Heterodyne Radiola

Klaudio Doko & Brad Deschenes: The Heat Is On

Michael Mancini & Giuliano Messina: Wireless Power Transfer

Scott Shepard: Pump Reliability/Behavioral Prediction Using Sensor Arrays & Neural Nets

Computer & Electronic Engineering Technology:

Ian Cluggish: Envelope Filter Guitar Effect

David Fairbanks: Hall Call Station Tester

George Thomson: Blues Bottle

Papa Asante, Luis Guzman Lazaro, Taylor McCall: Pick-a-Spot Parking Space Finder

Gavin MacDonald: Head Phone Amp

Rafael Rivera: Punch Smart

Civil Engineering:

Justin Howe, Luca Mineo, Neftali Torres: Replacement of the Goold Road Bridge over CSX Railroad; Chatham, New York

Raymond Culver, Daniel Melnik, Andrew Mukon: Design of a Three-Story Steel Frame Office Building; West Hartford, Connecticut

Ryan Bresnahan, Nickolas Corrozza, Elias Noujaim: Replacement of the Rt. 1 Bridge over Wepawaug River; Milford, Connecticut

Eric Benoit, George Bongart: Hebron Ave./House St. Traffic Study and Roundabout Design; Glastonbury, Connecticut

Biomedical Engineering:

Joseph Arascunaga, Erik Carlson, Stephen Charry, Billdicson Dely, Barry Hansen: Underwater Treadmill Lift

Master’s Thesis Presentations:

Erdem Kutuk: Bacterial Flagellar Motor—a Study

Dennis O’Connor: Simulation of the Thermal Performance of a Net Zero Energy Performing Arts Building

Faisal Rahmani: Wind Energy in Western Afghanistan

Chaitanya Sajja: Finite Element Analysis of Laser Machining Process

Srikanth Sanga: A Study of Carbon Nanotubes

R. Dave Staubach: Performance Analysis of 2-Spool vs. 3-Spool Aero Gas Turbine Engine

Girish Velamakanni: Finite Element Analysis of Machining

Rob Wheeler: Topology Optimization with Manufacturing Constraints

Seniors in Architecture presented their senior thesis design work on Wednesday, May 5, as follows:

Shannon Brown: USET Youth Equestrian Athlete Center

Analiza Fuentes: Learning Through Movement (gymnastics center)

Artur Korpiewnicki: Mercedes Formula 1 Museum and Track

Matthew O’Brien: Mars Research Station

Johanna Schumacher: Linking Through Science

Other seniors presented their thesis projects in an open forum as follows:

Sean Bucher: Dune Surfing Resort

David Flannery: Interactive Water Filtration Plant

Brian Kammerer: Sustainable Seaside Residential complex

Chris Kellogg: The Resort at Goshen

Donisia Martin: Clay Arsenal Gateway

Alex McKeton: Old Lyme Country Club

Amanda McLeman: Renovation of the Vern Theatre

Suzan Ozcelik: Earth, People and Heaven Theater

Robert Spencer: Haiti Parliament and Museum Center

Lauren Holzman: Kids in Motion Playhouse Museum

Also presenting this week on May 5 and 6 were students in ME 505, Mechatronics (the synergistic use of precision engineering, control theory, computer science, and sensor-actuator technology to design products and processes), as follows:

Barry Hansen and Erik Carlson: Portable Surface Roughness Analyzer

Amy Waraksa: SC Single Mode Plug and Play Light Test

Ryan Hargreaves and Stephen Sobocinski: Failsafe System for a Generic Electronic Device

Michael Chowaniec and Richard Avery: Low-cost Surface Analyzer and Vibration Detector

Kervin Lochard: Automated Weight Sensing and Positioning System

Jesse Carmichael and Melissa Cassidy: Airfoil Testing System for the Wind Tunnel at the University of Hartford

Pawan Rai and Christopher Diyaolu: A System for Damping a Vibrating Flap

William Rivera, Mark Noujaim, and Dalil Masood: Design and Testing of a fan Response System Using P.I.D. Controller

David Kurtz and Christopher O’Connor: Sequential Control of a Conveyor System

Mohammed Islam, Susheel Veeraboina, and Mark Turner: Solar Tracking System and a Real-Time Illuminator

Anton Banks: Automated Rotor Imbalance Mitigation

John Fleck, Jonathan Scales, and Matthew Nisen: Automated Tempering Oven

Amy Scherma, Ryan Serbel, and Steven Buck: Automatic Charge Amplifier Test System

Jared Stearns: Digital Control of a Refrigerant Metering Valve

CETA congratulates all the students who presented their culminating projects on their hard work and excellent results.

Ian Cluggish presents his Envelope Filter Guitar Effect project to students from the University High School of Science and Engineering.

 

Analiza Fuentes presents her design thesis to the jury.

Jeremy Bredickas and Shruti Khare show their fire-fighting robot.

Students design solar water heaters

ES 242, Engineering by Design, is a course required of all engineering students, and it is a project-based class. That is, students are assigned to work in teams on a project specified by the professor.

For the last three spring semesters, Professor Barry Lubin’s class has been assigned to develop and test a device that uses the sun to heat water to a level acceptable for hygienic use.. The first teams, in 2008, developed preliminary designs based on a fixed design procedure. The second group of teams, in 2009, refined those first designs and built prototypes. This semester, the last in the series for this project, the teams had to evaluate the final design, make changes as needed, and then predict and measure performance.  Overall, the design project is directed at third world countries that have plenty of sun but lack sanitary facilities like hot water.

Here are photos of some of the students and their devices.

Team C's variation of the solar water heater.

Team C gathers data as the sun works.

Team A's device being tested as a student checks data.

The students in this semester's EN 242 project are

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  Team A: Cody Hucke, Eeric Steinberg, Daniel Wright, Martin Bowes, and Anthony Panebianco
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  Team B:  Jeffrey Portal, Harrison Flynn, Michael Thatcher, Vincent Hynes, and Simon Kudernatsch
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  Team C: Jessica Barringer, Sean Murnan, Sharif Al-Raqqad, Emily McMullan, and Brent Thibodeau