| New PhD in MSE | Mousetrap Car | Undergraduate Research Conference | IT Cables and Pieces Part | Free Printer Toner Cartridges | WITC Luncheons Volunteers | Dissertation/Thesis Boot Camp | NASA Opportunity | EPSCoR Fellowships | DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship | Writing Competition |COEN Updates| Funding Opportunities | On the Lighter Side |
New PhD in Materials Science & Engineering Will Begin in August
Thanks to a $13 million pledge from Micron Technologies Inc. the new doctoral progam in materials science and engineering will begin next August.
The state Board of Education signed off on the plan to introduce Boise State’s seventh doctorate program during a meeting last week. Students in the program will be taught by more than 20 faculty members in the school’s College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences. It will be the second doctoral program in the College of Engineering, following the PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering which also received a donation from Micron. [continue reading...]
Congratulations to the Student Mousetrap Car Winners – What a Run!
The winning mousetrap car in ENGR 120 travelled an amazing distance of 182′. Congratulations to the students who built the car: Dawn Matthis, Nicholas Johnston, and Nicholas Kempf.
9th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference will be 4/16/12
Faculty should remind COEN students that the deadline to apply for the 9th annual Boise State Undergraduate Research & Scholarship Conference will be Feb. 17th. Application forms are available online at: http://academics.boisestate.edu/undergraduate/research/ For more information contact Erin Muggli erinmuggli@boisestate.edu or by calling 426-4062.
IT Cables and Pieces Parts – First Come, First Serve
The COEN IT Group has a variety of computer peripherals available for faculty, staff and students:
- Keyboards
- Adapters
- Mice
- Random, weird-looking stuff
Computers, flatscreen monitors and CRTs not included.
Our own designated IT storage is overflowing with these items. Our offerings, most of which have been heavily used, may need a good cleaning. Feel free to take what you want from the first floor of the MEC building tables labeled “COEN IT Parts Surplus” between December 16th through the 23rd.
Printer Toner Cartridges Need A Home
Volunteers Needed for Spring 2011 WITC Luncheons
There are 10 Women in Technical Careers (WITC) luncheons scheduled in the months of January-March at High Schools in Boise, Meridian, Kuna, Eagle, Nampa & Caldwell. Cathi Ammirati, K-12 Program Coordinator for the Micron Technology Foundation, is trying to find women engineers or engineering students to volunteer for the sessions.
Dates and locations are listed below:
January 10th – Ridgeline High School (Nampa Alternative) – 11-12
January 12th – Initial Point High School (Kuna Alternative) – 11:06-11:36
January 24th – Hillside Junior High School – 12:13-12:48
February 2nd – Eagle High School – 10:59-12:00
February 10th – Fairmont Junior High School – 12:10-12:50
February 13th – Parkview High School (Nampa Alternative) – 11-12
February 22nd – Vision Charter School (Caldwell) – 11:30-12:30
March 6th – Frank Church High School – 11-12
March 8th – Centennial High School – 11-12
March 14th – Boise High School – 12:06-12:53
Each luncheon will have pizza and the ‘WITC bag’ containing all the hand outs we give to the girls and the career counselor regarding technical careers.
Please reply with the dates/schools that work for you. The times are included, but they may change between now and the date of the luncheon. If you know another woman in a technical career that would like to participate, please forward this email on and have them respond directly to Cathi Ammirati at Micron at 208-363-3134.
Dissertation/Thesis Boot Camp Offered in January Before Spring Classes
The Writing Center (with help from the Grad College) is offering a “Dissertation/Thesis Boot Camp” during the two weeks right before spring classes start. It’s a great opportunity for thesis writers to get the work done. Sign up in the Writing Center to save a spot. Classes will be held:
Jan. 3-6 and 9-13
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Multipurpose 203
More info available on the web at: http://writingcenter.boisestate.edu/dissertationthesis-boot-camp
Click here to view poster.
NASA Opportunity for COEN Graduate Students
The NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium (ISGC) is now accepting Research Fellowship Applications. Students pursuing a master or doctoral degree at one of the ISGC member universities are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or have permanent residency, must collaborate with a faculty member or research group conducting NASA related research and have an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher or a graduate GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Deadline for applications is Monday, March 5, 2012 at 5:00PM PST.
Awards are up to $15,000 for the academic year. The fellowships are renewable annually upon completion of program requirements and are granted for a maximum of two academic years.
Please see attached guidelines and use the following link to apply.
http://id.spacegrant.org/index.php?page=fellowships
If you have any questions, please call Angela or Becky at (208) 885-6438.
EPSCoR Fellowships Available for COEN Graduate Students
The NASA Idaho Space Grant is now accepting EPSCoR Fellowship Applications. Students pursuing a master or doctoral degree at Boise State University, Idaho State University or the University of Idaho are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or have permanent residency, must collaborate with a faculty member or research group conducting NASA related research and have an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher or a graduate GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Deadline for applications is Monday, March 5, 2012 at 5:00PM PST.
Awards are up to $17,500 for the academic year. $2,500 of the $17,500 is to be used for travel to a NASA center. The fellowships are granted for one academic year.
Please see attached guidelines and use the following link to apply.
http://id.spacegrant.org/index.php?page=fellowships
If you have any questions, please call Angela or Becky at (208) 885-6438.
Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship
Applications are now open for the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF). Deadline to apply is Jan. 10, 2012.
This is an exciting opportunity for doctoral students to earn up to four years of financial support along with outstanding benefits and opportunities while pursuing degrees in fields of study that utilize high performance computing technology to solve complex problems in science and engineering.
Benefits of the Fellowship:
* $36,000 yearly stipend
* Payment of all tuition and fees
* $5,000 academic allowance in first year
* $1,000 academic allowance each renewed year
* 12-week research practicum at a DOE Laboratory
* Yearly conferences
* Career, professional and leadership development
* Renewable up to four years
Applications for the next class of fellows are due Jan 10 2012. They are available at: https://www.krellinst.org/doecsgf/application/
For more information regarding the fellowship and to access the
online application, visit: http://www.krellinst.org/csgf/
It’s Time to Nominate Student Papers for Writing Competition
Please nominate papers by your juniors and seniors for the Phi Kappa Phi Writing Competition. The deadline is Friday, February 10, 2012.
Last year, the following five students were winners at Boise State University:
Vickie Doty, College of Education; George Fenton, College of Business and Economics; Brett McAllister, College of Health Sciences; Kandra Polatis, College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs; and Stephanie Rael, College of Arts and Sciences.
Each student received a $200 cash prize and recognition at the PKP Initiation Ceremony.
Help deserving juniors and seniors in the College of Engineering this year.
Remember to attach a copy of the accompanying announcement to your top papers when you return them at the end of this semester.
COEN Faculty/Student Updates
Mandar Khanal, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering presented a paper titled, “Sustainable Transport Development for Kathmandu Valley”, at the “International Conference on Sustainable Development of Transport System” held in Kathmandu, Nepal between 19-22 October, 2011.
A journal paper written by Gang-Ryung Uh, professor of computer science, was published in the IEEE Computer Architecture Letters (ISSN: 1556-6056) under RapidPosts.
Funding Opportunities
DARPA Seeking Ground-Breaking Single Investigator Proposals:
Participation is limited to untenured Assistant or Associate Professors within five (5) years of appointment to a tenure-track position at a U.S. institution of higher education.
This RA solicits ground-breaking single investigator proposals for research and development in the areas of Physical Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine, Biology, Information and Social Sciences of interest to DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office (DSO), Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), and Information Innovation Office (I2O). Further detail regarding technical areas of interest can be found in the Technical Areas topics list. Proposed research should focus on innovations that will enable revolutionary advances in the selected topic area. High-risk/high-payoff ideas are strongly encouraged. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.
Topic Areas:
- Quantum Science and Technology
- New Physical Methods for Applied Biology
- Mathematics
- Strongly Correlated Materials
- Predictive Materials Science
- New Engineered Materials
- Advanced Electronics
- MEMS/NEMS
- Photonics and Lasers
- Digital Direct Manufacturing
- Neuroscience
- Computational and Quantitative Social, Decision, and Behavioral Sciences
- Robotics
For more information click here
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Faculty Research Grants
As part of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Boise State, the Institute is pleased to announce the establishment of a $5000 Osher Faculty Research Grant. The Grant was created by member donations as a way to give back to our host Institution. This opportunity is open to all Boise State University tenured and tenure track faculty. Competition is currently underway and closes March 23. Complete information can be accessed via the following link. http://www.boisestate.edu/osher/osher-faculty-grant-program.html
Information can also be accessed via the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute web page at: boisestate@boisestate.edu
NOAA BAA: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a BAA with the following topics:
1. Climate Adaptation and Mitigation and responding to climate and its impacts
2. Weather-Ready Nation
3. Healthy Oceans
4. Resilient Coastal Communities and Economies
Click here for more information.
On the Lighter Side
DOG FOR SALE:
A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: ‘Talking Dog For Sale’ He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.
The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.
The Lab looks up and says, ‘Well, Idiscovered that I could talk when I was pretty young.. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA.In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.”I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running…But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger so
I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security,
wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible
dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.
‘I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired.’
The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.
‘Ten dollars.’ the guy says.
‘Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?’
‘Because he’s a liar. He’s never been out of the yard.’
