The 31st Annual Engineers’ Week (EW), held last month, served up a glimpse into futuristic travel on the Hydrogen Super Highway at the event’s annual dinner, where five scholarships were awarded to CEAS students. The weeklong EW events included a variety of educational and fun activities offered at the CEAS.
Justin Eric Sutton, founder and managing partner of the Interstate Traveler Company, presented “The Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Super Highway,” an overview of his company’s modular maglev rail system. Its exterior is laminated with solar panels that power the system’s hydrogen fuel cells and produce numerous other benefits, including clean water.
Five CEAS students won scholarships.
Kristen Bellmer, a junior from Mason whose major is chemical engineering in energy management, won a $500 IEEE scholarship. An honors student who is presently working for Bronco Biofuels, she’s a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Lambda, and AIChE, and serves as corresponding secretary of Tau Beta Pi. She also plays intramural soccer.
Brandon Gorton, an engineering management senior from St. Joseph, won a $500 SPE Scholarship. He is active in several honors and professional organizations including Alpha Lambda Delta, Epsilon Eta Mu, Tau Alpha Pi, and ASEM.
Earning one of two $500 Eaton Scholarships was Rochelle Hawes, a junior majoring in chemical engineering in life science from Battle Creek. She is involved in several societies, Phi Kappa Phi, and SWE, and was recently invited to join Tau Beta Pi.
The other $500 Eaton scholarship was awarded to Christa Ickowski, a junior majoring in imaging from Grand Rapids. The honors college member also belongs to Peace Jam Mentors RSO and Alpha Lambda Delta honors society.
Allison Porrett, a civil engineering senior from Port Huron, won the $500 ASMI Scholarship. She is presently president of SWE, vice president of ITE Institute of Transportation Engineers, an active member of the ASCE concrete canoe team, and a Tau Beta Pi member. She was a member of WMU’s marching band and was crowned Miss Kalamazoo County 2008 in the Miss America pageant.
In addition to educational tours and lab programs at the CEAS, this year’s EW event featured a week of fun activities that included dodge ball, tricycle races, a trivia challenge, a quarter-roll war (distance one can be rolled) and quarter wars (collections to determine the best department). Dr. Tony Vizzini, CEAS dean, and Dr. Paul Engelmann, IME chair, volunteered as targets for a pie-throwing event to raise funds for Haiti.
Engineers Week is held annually to celebrate the engineering profession. In addition to WMU, the 2010 EW was sponsored by several South-western Michigan engineering societies: AIAA, AIChE, ASCE, ASHRAE, ASME, AFE, ASPE, IEEE, MSPE, SPE, SAE, SME, and the ASM International. WMU’s CEAS covered the dinner cost for high-school students and for first-year CEAS students.
The EW committee, chaired by Mike Schwartz of Prein & Newhof, included several from CEAS: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, Dr. Bade Shrestha, Scot Conant, Johanna Wells, Nicole Maggio, Jenni Soetaert, and Michael Romkema.
Other EW committee members were Dave Caldwell (DENSO), John Lobo (Eaton), Pradip Sagdeo (AIAA), Tim Mitchell (SME), and David Anderson (VBISD).
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