Mechanical engineering assistant professor Dana Carpenter presented a TEDx Talk at TEDxUCLA last month about space travel and its effects on the human body.
Watch it now!
Category: Faculty
Benninger and Yakacki awarded tenure
The University of Colorado Board of Regents approved tenure appointments for two College of Engineering and Applied Science faculty:
- Richard Benninger, bioengineering
- Christopher Yakacki, mechanical engineering
In addition, the Regents approved the appointment of Martin Dunn as the new college dean (effective January 1, 2018), who will also join the mechanical engineering department.
Congratulations on this acheivement.
Richard Benninger
Christopher Yakacki
Marxhausen awarded NSPE Colorado 2017 College Educator of the Year
Peter Marxhausen, instructor in the Department of Civil Engineering, was awarded the National Society of Professional Engineers – Colorado 2017 College Educator of the Year. In addition to teaching at CU Denver, Marxhausen is a licensed professional engineer with Higgins & Associates Forensic Engineering Consultants and the City and County of Denver Building Department, which enables him to bring a real-world perspective to the classroom.
Congratulations on being recognized for your hard work and contributions to the college and university.
Connors receives faculty mentor award at RaCAS 2017
Dan Connors, associate professor of electrical engineering, received one of three faculty mentor awards at the 2017 Research and Creative Activities Symposium (RaCAS). He was the only faculty from CU Denver to receive an award.
This year marked the first time RaCAS honored faculty from CU Denver and CU Anschutz for outstanding mentoring of student research. From 23 nominations, three recipients were picked based on the extent of their engagement with undergraduate and graduate students, their impact on research and creative activities, and the potential importance of their students’ work.
Congratulations, Dan.
CU Denver hosts international seminar in Santiago, Chile
Planning transmission systems expansion: a review of good practices around the world
In July 2016, the Government of Chile passed a bill that radically modified the planning and operation of the Chilean electric power system. Among the various changes, the now Law 20.936 mandates that the planning of the transmission system expansion shall be performed by Chile’s “Comisión Nacional de Energía” (CNE), the equivalent of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the United States. Centralized planning of the transmission system expansion has been widely recognized around the world as a key enabler for the penetration of renewable energy, and for lowering prices for final users.
With funds from the Inter-American Development Bank, CNE hired CU Denver to conduct a study to identify ad-hoc methodologies and good practices to serve as a “toolbox” for the drafting of technical regulations that properly capture the spirit of Law 20.936.
A key milestone within the project was the hosting of an international seminar in Santiago, Chile to discuss transmission expansion planning processes elsewhere in the world. The event was held on April 10, 2017 at the SOFOFA Center and was attended by more than 150 local people, many of them CEOs of electric companies and high-ranking government officials. The conference brought together experts from Mexico, Brazil, and the United States.
Mr. Andrés Romero, CNE director, opened the seminar, followed by an overview of the project from the project PI, electrical engineering professor Fernando Mancilla-David. The event continued with keynote speeches from international experts, and various roundtable discussions about specific subjects within Law 20.936.
The research team includes project PI electrical engineering professor Dr. Fernando Mancilla-David, Dr. Gabriel Olguín (Director of Power Business Chile), Dr. Alejandro Angulo (electrical engineering professor at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Chile), and a number of project engineers, including CU Denver doctoral student Héctor Robles-Campos.
For more information, contact Dr. Fernando Mancilla-David or visit https://www.cne.cl/seminario-internacional-planificacion-de-la-transmision/.
CEAS kickball 2016-photos and recap
On Friday, October 7, more than 40 students, staff and faculty convened on the CU Denver athletic field to play kickball. The weather was beautiful, and everyone had a great time. The first game between the Hemoglobin Trotters (bioengineering) and the Bit Kickers (computer science) ended with a Hemoglobin Trotters victory. Game two was ASCE/civil engineering versus the Grass Kickers (electrical, mechanical and college staff), and resulted in a ASCE/civil engineering victory.
Check out the pictures below. We can’t wait for next year’s games!
Golkowski discusses the science of sparking veggies with NPR
Mark Golkowski, associate professor of electrical engineering, recently spoke with NPR about why veggies sometimes spark while being cooked in the microwave.
According to Golkowski, “The sparking happens because of a local field enhancement. A very specific kind of geometry leads to this effect, so you could have one set of beans that does it and one that doesn’t.”
In Memoriam: Titsa Papantoni, professor of electrical engineering
by Demetrios Kazakos, ex husband of Titsa (kazakosd@tsu.edu)
The unexpected and untimely passing on July 8, 2016 of our beloved and highly esteemed colleague, Dr. Titsa Panayota Papantoni-Kazakos, is a great loss to our professional global community of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and to her family and friends. It is difficult to describe accurately her contributions to the profession. The reason is that her illustrious career has been an inspiration to all women who aspire to contribute to society and to the Engineering profession, and to everyone to aspire to achieve excellence in science.
Titsa was born in Piraeus, Greece in 1945. She grew up in a society in which Engineering was a highly prestigious profession, possibly the most prestigious one. At the same time, it was highly dominated by males. This was a global, not Greek, tendency and attitude. Titsa was a highly motivated, talented, hard working and focused student. With the strong support of her parents, Thanassis and Helen, she succeeded in being admitted to the highly competitive School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (NTUA). She was one of only two women in a freshman class of about 70. (The number of applicants exceeded 1000 for the 70 prestigious positions).
Upon graduation with a Diploma in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from NTUA in 1968, she started Graduate Studies with a full Graduate Research Assistantship at Princeton University. She received her Master’s Degree in 1970, under the mentorship of Professor John Thomas, a legend in the field of Communication Theory. In 1969, she was married to Demetrios Kazakos, a fellow graduate student at the time. She then continued her Ph.D. studies at the University of Southern California, together with her husband, and under the inspired mentorship of the distinguished Communications researcher, Dr. Lee D. Davisson. Titsa’s daughter, Effie Kazakos, was born in 1971, while Titsa was completing her research for her Ph.D. As a tribute to her professionalism, and to the admirable support of her advisor, Lee Davisson, Titsa continued her studies and she received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1973.
She was immediately offered the position of Assistant Professor at the Electrical Engineering Department of Rice University in July 1973. The distinguished Dr. Henry Bourne was the Chairman who hired her. She was the first female Professor of Engineering at Rice University. She remained in this position until 1977, when she longed to obtain industrial experience, thus she accepted the prestigious position as Member of the Technical Staff of the prestigious Bell Laboratories, where she remained for one year.
During this one year at Bell Laboratories, she developed an algorithm for a distributed monitoring system for the reliable performance of high speed communication networks, using powerful statistical quality control monitoring algorithms. Her algorithm has been widely used by Bell Labs and AT&T in reliably operating data networks. But, after completing one year in industry, academia lured her back.
The freedom to conduct advanced research and the mentoring of students were factors that convinced her to accept the position of Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut, where, again, she was the first female professor of Engineering. She remained in this position as Associate Professor until 1983, then promoted to Professor in 1983. She remained in this position until 1986. While on leave of absence from the University of Connecticut, she was for one year, 1981-1982 a program officer at the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
In 1986 she moved to the position of Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Virginia, and, again, became the first ever female Professor of the Department. She was hired by the Department Chair, Dr. Edward Parrish, who was an inspired leader. He later became Dean of Engineering at Vanderbilt University and President of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She remained in this position until 1993. In 1993 she was appointed to the highly prestigious Canada Industrial Chair for High Speed Networks at the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Ottawa, hired by the highly distinguished Dean of Engineering, Dr. Nicolas Georganas, recently deceased. Again, she was the first ever woman to be appointed to a Canada Industrial Chair position in the whole country. This chair was endowed by $1,000,000 for a five year period. However, being very homesick for her adopted country, the United States, after only one year, in 1994, she was appointed to another Endowed Chair Professorship, at the University of Alabama. It was the named Professorship: E.A. ”Larry” Drummond Chair of Computer Engineering, within the Electrical Engineering Department. Again, she was the first ever woman to hold an endowed Professorship in the Department. She remained in this position until 2000, when she moved to become Professor and Department Chair at the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Colorado at Denver.
Being absorbed by her research, she stepped down from the position of Chair, and remained as Professor until her untimely passing. It was her passion for her field and her fearlessness that drove her to her great achievements. It is evident that she was a pioneer in breaking the GLASS CEILING in ENGINEERING FACULTY POSITIONS FOR WOMEN, an incidental result of her passion for science and her drive for and achievement of excellence. She is an inspiration to us all.
She received several honors:
- Recipient of National Greek Fellowship throughout college (top 5 students get this)
- Recipient of full graduate research fellowship at Princeton University and the University of Southern California throughout her graduate studies.
- Awarded Fulbright Fellowship
- ELECTED FELLOW of the INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS in 1991 for: ”Contributions to Communication Networks and to Detection and Communication Theory”
She mentored many Ph.D. graduates. Some of these are:
- Michael Georgiopoulos, presently Dean of Engineering at the University of Central Florida.
- Sotirios Vassilopoulos, presently Engineer employed in Greece
- Anthony Burrell, presently Associate Professor of Computer Science at Oklahoma State University.
- Haralambos Tsaknakis, presently Engineer employed in Greece
- Leonidas Georgiadis, presently Professor at the University of Thessaloniki, Greece
- Chatschik Bisdikian, Member of the Technical Staff of IBM, presently deceased.
- Ramesh Bansal, presently Professor in India
- George Collins, presently professor in Texas
- Michael Paterakis, Dean of Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Greece
- Ming Liu, presently Professor in China
- Demetrios Pados, presently Professor at SUNY Buffalo
- Karen Halford, whereabouts unknown.
- Steven Halford, whereabouts unknown
- Hakan Delic, presently Professor in Turkey
- Robert Li, last known position was Staff Member at IBM
- Glenn Marcus, whereabouts unknown.
She also mentored numerous M.S. graduates.
Her publication record was highly prolific. Based on her CV that dates up to June 2002, her publication record consists of:
1) Two books
2) 65 refereed journal papers
3) 4 Book Chapters
4)151 Refereed Full Conference Proceedings Papers
She received many grants and contracts by Federal Agencies and Private Industry.
A TRAILBLAZER FOR WOMEN’S EQUALITY IN ENGINEERING AND AN EXCELLENT ROLE MODEL FOR EVERYONE.
She was a very enthusiastic and helpful advisor, working hard to be a role model to women and to all of her students. Hard working, dedicated, a great mother and wife, life and math teacher, best friend and inspiration to her adoring daughter, and a very supporting friend.
TITSA, THE WORLD WILL NOT BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOU!!! REST IN PEACE!!!
YOUR MEMORY WILL BE FOREVER WITH US.
Gibson and CU Researchers win National Science Foundation grant to study brain
CU Anschutz and CU Boulder scientists to use unique microscope for high risk brain research
AURORA, Colo. (August 18, 2016) – Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Colorado Boulder have won a $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to try and reconnect neural communication between parts of the brain where it has been severed.
If successful, this could have major implications for those suffering brain injury, stroke, Parkinson’s disease and other neurological problems.
The team of neuroscientists and engineers will use a special lightweight microscope, which they designed, to peer into and control the living brain of a mouse as they try to reconnect parts of the brain that no longer communicate with each other.
The miniature microscope, using a unique electrowetting lens, is mounted on the head of a mouse and with its high-powered, fiber-optic light can actually view and control neural activity as it happens.
“Adaptive optical devices that are included in a miniature microscope are a game changer,” said grant co-investigators Juliet Gopinath, assistant professor in electrical, computer and energy engineering and Victor Bright, professor of mechanical engineering, both at CU Boulder. “They enable truly miniature 3D imaging devices without mechanically moving parts.”
According to Gopinath and Bright, the electrowetting lens is compact, low power and has good optical quality making it ideal for this kind of research. The liquid lens can change shape when voltage is applied.
The team will use an optic fiber to disrupt the signals between the olfactory bulb of a mouse, which receives information on odors, and the olfactory cortex, the part of the brain that allows it to smell. In essence, they will shut down its ability to smell and then try to restore it by activating the olfactory cortex using the miniature microscope.
The mouse will be awake and behaving normally throughout this while the team views and controls what is happening in the brain with the electrowetting fiber-coupled microscope. They can stimulate the animal’s brain activity using powerful laser light that flows through the microscope’s fiber-optic bundle.
“One major problem with the brain is that with certain diseases or injuries, one part of the brain stops talking to another,” said co-investigator Diego Restrepo, professor of cell and developmental biology and director of the Center for NeuroScience at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “If someone has a stroke they may no longer be able to speak.”
Once connections between brain areas are lost, it is difficult to get them communicating again.
Restrepo said if researchers are successful reestablishing brain connections in a mouse, they may be able do the same in humans with brain injury or disease.
“For example, if there is loss of connection between the retina that detects the image in the eyes and the visual cortex, in the back of the brain the patient has a problem detecting images that in the worst case leads to blindness,” Restrepo said. “That loss of connection between the retina and visual cortex can be due to neural problems such as stroke, neuro-immune disease or traumatic brain injury.”
If this experiment is successful, he said, this microscope could eventually be modified to activate neurons in the visual cortex based on the visual input. In other words, creating a bridge between two parts of the brain where communication has stopped.
“This is an interdisciplinary grant which combines bioengineering with neurological applications,” said Emily Gibson, assistant professor of bioengineering at CU Anschutz. “The idea is to use this device which can image individual neurons and stimulate those individual neurons in that 3D volume.”
She also noted that two of the principal investigators on the grant are women, a rarity in the field of engineering.
“This particular grant is for high risk, high payoff approaches,” she said. “And this is a very high risk project. We are pushing the technology farther and seeing if we can use these optical tools to ultimately make an impact on humans.”
The grant is funded under a program from the National Science Foundation known as the “Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NSF-NCS).”
It is one element of NSF’s broader effort directed at Understanding the Brain, (http://www.nsf.gov/brain/) a multi-year activity that includes NSF’s participation in the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative.
The team also won a second NSF grant of $200,000 to be used in the dissemination and commercialization of its microscope.
Mays recognized as Outstanding ASCE Faculty Advisor
David Mays, associate professor of civil engineering, has been recognized as the outstanding Faculty Advisor for a Student Chapter in Region 7 of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Region 7 comprises the states of Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming, and the cities of Kansas City and St. Louis in Missouri. Mays won this recognition after being nominated by several CU Denver students following the success of the 2016 Rocky Mountain Student Meeting which was co-hosted with Metropolitan State University of Denver in March-April 2016, and will accept his award at the September 2016 monthly meeting of the Colorado Section ASCE.
Congratulations!
