Changing of the guard in the CEAS dean’s office set for Aug. 1

On Aug. 1, Dr. Tim Greene, who has served as CEAS dean since April 2005, assumes the position as WMU provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Last week, WMU announced that Dr. Dan Litynski – a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering who has served as CEAS dean, WMU provost, and interim WMU president – will serve as CEAS dean for 11 months while a 15-member WMU team searches for a new CEAS dean.

Litynski was CEAS Dean from 1999-2002, a period of increased CEAS student enrollment, new programs and accreditations, the conception and construction stages of the new 270-acre CEAS Parkview Campus, and the early development of the Business, Technology, and Research Park. He recently spent three years at the National Science Foundation as program director for physics and director of the Division of Undergraduate Education.

A retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, Litynski has spent over 25 years researching and teaching more than 20 courses in electrical engineering, optics, and physics. His research specialties are lasers, photonics, and electro-optics. Before coming to WMU, he was professor in and later head of the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

His education includes Ph.D. and BS degrees in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and a MS in optics from the University of Rochester. He is also a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces of the National Defense University.

Litynski is looking forward to serving as dean, and then he plans to return to the faculty next July. “This is a wonderful opportunity to serve our great college and faculty once again and help during the transition,” he said.

Greene, who was selected as WMU’s provost last spring, credited the CEAS community for his promotion. “I am now the provost because of the excellent contributions of the CEAS faculty, staff, and students,” he said. “One of the reasons I was promoted was because I got credit for the hard work, dedication, and accomplishments of so many here at the college.”

WMU’s CEAS DEAN Search Committee and Schedule:
Chair Joseph Reish, (Dean of the Libraries); Margaret Joyce (PCI), Massood Atashbar (ECE), Ajay Gupta (CS), Betsy Aller (IME), Koorosh Naghshineh (MAE), Jun Oh (CCE), Paul Englemann (IME Chair), Don Nelson (CS Chair), Sue Ketchum (Staff), Pat Resetar (Staff), Carl Roberts (EBOV/alum), Bob Miller (WMU), Sarah Gerbig (MAE undergraduate), and a graduate student to be determined

A tentative schedule…
September 1st – Publish advertisements for CEAS dean
October 15th - Begin screening candidates
December – Conduct airport interviews
December 20th – Announce on-campus candidates
January / February – Conduct on-campus interviews
March 31st – Announce a new CEAS dean
July 1st – Welcome the new CEAS dean

Everyone is encouraged to nominate candidates whose identities will remain confidential until announcement of the final list in December. Interviews will be open and everyone is also encouraged to provide input regarding the final selection. The CEAS Executive Committee is preparing an announcement that will be submitted to several publications and posted on the Web. Detailed information and application procedures are available at www.wmich.edu/hr/careers-at-wmu.htm

Before coming to WMU, Greene was assistant vice president for research and academic affairs at the University of Alabama where he had served as Dean of Engineering from 1999 to 2004. His experience includes heading up the School of Industrial Engineering and Management and being associate dean of research at Oklahoma State University and serving on the faculty at Virginia Tech. He has MS and Ph.D. degrees in industrial engineering and a BS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue.

Greene encouraged the CEAS community to get involved in the process of selecting a new dean.
“I’m challenging them to think of the characteristics they want in the next dean and to seek and encourage good faculty to apply for the position,” he said. “One of the reasons I came here is the strong encouragement I received from the faculty, and I hope they will do the same for the next candidates.”

High school students enjoy hands-on metal-casting workshop

In June at the 2008 Metal-casting Workshop, Dr. Sam Ramrattan, an IME professor, shared the tools of the metal-casting trade with nine high school students. This year’s students came from Mesick, Saginaw, and Saline, Mich.; Brook Park and Defiance, Ohio; Stroudsburg, Penn.; and Trinidad, West Indies.

Ramrattan, a technical advisor to the American Foundrymen's Society and a Key Professor for the Foundry Educational Foundation, held classes and lab work in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Parkview Campus Metal Casting Laboratory.

“Dr. Sam,” as he is known at the college, has hosted a weeklong metal-casting workshop every summer for the last nine years. This year’s hands-on event was similar to the previous ones.

The course is a balance of lecture topics on metal casting history, methods, and trends; networking; and hands-on metal casting. Students examined metal casting from several perspectives: manufacturing (molding, melting, filling, and finishing), engineering, quality, purchasing, marketing, and sales. They also explored the use of computers, math, and science in metal casting.

In addition to their lab and course work, the students learned about WMU programs and requirements from administrators and met with a panel of industrial professionals and the Foundry Educational Foundation. (FEF) to review career opportunities in metal casting.

The workshop included visits to area foundries to see real-world technology. This year’s attendees toured A.C. Foundry, Battle Creek, MI, and Contech’s die casting facilities in Dowagiac, MI. They also enjoyed activities in the Kalamazoo / Portage metro area.

Students who attended the program were selected on the basis of aptitude for math and science and were sponsored by various chapters of the American Foundry Society (AFS) and the North American Die Casting Association (NADCA). There was no cost to the students, who stayed in WMU dorms and enjoyed campus life.

WMU’s metal-casting program is over 100 years old. Its most recent accreditation was when Ramrattan joined the faculty in 1992. Metal casting is presently an option in all IME undergraduate programs. For more information, contact Dr. Sam at sam.ramrattan@wmich.edu

WMU’s Sunseeker races for a place in the sun in 2008 NASC

The WMU 2008 Sunseeker solar car team headed to Texas last week to compete with 23 other teams in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge (NASC). The 14-member team will spend a week qualifying for the biennial, cross-country, international, intercollegiate 2,400-mile race set for July 13-22, 2008, from Texas to Calgary, Canada.

The Sunseeker team designed and built this year’s entry using state-of-the-art technology. Team captain David Ludens, who graduated in April, said this year’s car is lighter, has improved motor controllers, and features a “brand-new generation of batteries.” The car also has improved aerodynamics, and the driver’s seat has been adjusted to allow the driver to sit up to drive.

Unveiled in a ceremony in front of the CEAS Parkview Campus the day before the team left for Texas, the 2008 car is different from past entries. The new Sunseeker is white and has front-wheel drive. Although it still has four wheels, the back ones are about one foot apart so that the car functions as a three-wheeled vehicle. The second rear wheel adds stability and safety.

This year’s team advisors are Abraham Poot, engineering lab coordinator for both Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, and John Kapenga, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science.

The 2008 NASC is sponsored by Toyota and Crowder College. The race has stops and checkpoints in seven US and five Canadian cities: Plano (just north of Dallas), Texas [start of the race]; McAlester, Okla.; Neosho, Mo.; Topeka, Kan,; Omaha, Neb.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Fargo, N.D.; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Brandon, Manitoba; Regina, Saskatchewan; Medicine Hat, Alberta; and Calgary, Alberta [the finish line].

Eight American solar challenges have been held since 1990. In 2005 WMU’s solar car entry finished in sixth place and won the competition’s “Aesthetics” award.

2008 Sunseeker Tech Specs: The 2008 Sunseeker vehicle weighs 240 Kg; it’s five meters long, 1.8 meters wide and 1.2 meters high. Its motors include 2 CSIRO hub motors, 4.5 KW each, and front wheel drive. Its solar cells feature Emcore triple junction gallium arsenide with a peak output of 1500 W. The vehicle’s 29 Kg Battery pack consists of 520 Lithium Polymer cells with 5.3 KWhr capacity. The chassis features a chromemoly roll cage with carbon fiber bottom shell and fiberglass array shell. The car has a dual hydraulic braking system with Hayes four-wheel disks. It has four G.H. Craft carbon fiber wheels with Bridgestone Ecopia 2.5 x 14 tires.