Stephen Fonash, Bayard D. Kunkle Professor and Director of the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization (CNEU), notes recent surveys of Google and Yahoo web hit standings on the subject of nanotechnology education, reflect CNEU’s nanotechnology education programs to be ranked first.

Additionally, "the Smalltimes assessment of the work we are doing here at the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization (CNEU) at Penn State in Nanotechnology Education is consistent with our generally perceived  national leadership role". 

In June 2007 Dr. Fonash provided invited testimony on the Pennsylvania Nanofabrication Manufacturing Technology (NMT) Parternship before the US House of Representatives Science and Technology Education Committee on Nanotechnology Education.

Dr. Barbara Bogue, Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Women in Engineering at Pennsylvania State University and Dr. Rose Marra, Associate Professor of Learning Technologies at University of Missouri will share the 2007 WEPAN Betty Vetter Research Award. The award recognizes their significant contributions to women in engineering through the development of research-based instruments and practices that benefit programs across the country, including evaluation tools, a database and a website known as AWEOnline (Assessing Women in Engineering).

Judith A. Todd, P. B. Breneman Department Head Chair, will receive the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Board of Govenors Award for serving as the Pressure Vessels Piping (PVP) Division Chair from July 2006 to July 2007. The formal presentation will be made during the 2007 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference/CREEP8, on Wednesday, July 25, 2007, in San Antonia, Texas.

A. Lakhtakia, Charles G. Binder professor of engineering science and mechanics, delivered an invited paper entitled 'Surface-plasmon wave at the planar interface of a metal film and a chiral sculptured thin film,' at the 5th Symposium on Photonics, Networks and Computing, held in Salt Lake City, UT, July 18-20, 2007.

Dr. Vincent K.S. Hsiao, Postdoctoral Scholar in Engineering Science and Mechanics, has accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Materials and Optoelectronic Engineering at National Chi Nan University, Taiwan.

Stephen Fonash, Bayard D. Kunkle Professor and Director of the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization (CNEU), provided invited testimony before the U.S. Subcommittee on Research and Science Education on "The Role of Community Colleges and Industry in Meeting the Demand for Skilled Production Workers and Technicians in the 21st Century Economy" on June 19, 2007.

The purpose of the hearing was to explore the "current challenges facing industry in meeting its needs for skilled technicians and production workers in advanced manufacturing and technology intensive sectors."

Maton Guers, doctoral candidate in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a paper and a poster at the 2007 QNDE Conference, to be held in Denver, Colorado, July 22 - 27, 2007.

The paper titled "A Noninvasive Pressure Measurement Technique and the Potential for Integrated Temperature Compensation" is co-authored with Christopher J. Fontana (M.S., Engineering Science) and Dr. Bernhard R. Tittmann (Schell Professor).

Mr. Guers will also present a poster titled "Continuous, Noninvasive Level Measurement with a PVDF Strip". Poster co-authors are Daniel R. Ziinskis (Ph.D., Engineering Science and Mechanics) Maton Guers and Dr. Bernhard R. Tittmann.

Jason T. Ryan, (Ph.D., MatSc), will be presenting a paper titled "Electron Spin Resonance Studies of Silicon Nano-Crystal Flash Memory Devices" at the Semiconductor Technology for Ultra Large Scale Integrated Circuits and Thin Film Transistors (IEEE UCSI) Conference, July 28 - August 23, 2007, in Barga, Italy. The paper was co-authored with P.M. Lenahan (Penn State Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics), L. Visnubhotla, S. Straub, M. Ramachandran, R. Rao, and T. Merchant (all of Freescale Semiconductor).

Bernhard R. Tittmann, Schell Professor, will present a paper titled "Some Novel Ultrasonic Sensors for Health Monitoring of Pressure Vessels: A Survey" at the NDE Research and Applications Session of the 2007 ASME Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference and The Eighth International Conference on Creep and Fatigue at Elevated Temperatures Conference to be held in San Antonio, Texas, July 23- 26, 2007. An abstract of the paper follows below.


Pressure vessels are potentially dangerous in that when not properly monitored can lead to catastrophic failure. This report surveys some novel ultrasonic sensor techniques for monitoring the health of pressure vessels. They range for example, from non-invasive acoustic gas pressure measurement, to ultrasonic position indication, to fluid level detection, to guided wave flaw detection. Each technique will be described in terms of its physical principle, simulation calculations and acquired sample data. The techniques will be compared in terms of ease of use, of limitations, such as high temperature, and of environmental noise interference.

Eduard S. Ventsel, professor of engineering science and mechanics, will present an invited talk titled "Nonlinear analysis of corrugated-core sandwich plates" at the 15th International Conference on Composites and Nano Engineering, July 15-21, 2007, in Haikou, China. Dr. Ventsel will also chair the session on Mechanics of Composite Structures at this conference.

Fan Zhang, doctoral student in engineering science and mechanics, will attend the 6th annual How to Engineer Engineering Education Workshop, July 16-18, 2007, at Bucknell University.

This hands on workshop is for engineering and science faculty and graduate students to enhance their skills in course design by: Writing clear instructional objectives: Using active, cooperative, & problem-based learning; Teaching teamwork and problem solving skills; & Assessing learning outcomes.

For more information, email Michael Prince, prince@bucknell.edu.

Dr. Mirna Urquidi-Macdonald has been invited to join Penn State's new School of International Affairs . The school plans to begin admitting students for fall 2008.