Andrews University Agenda

Andrews University Agenda http://www.andrews.edu/agenda/ News and Events at Andrews University en-us Copyright 2024, Andrews University Thu, 4 Jul 2024 18:26:00 +0000 Thu, 4 Jul 2024 18:26:00 +0000 webmaster@andrews.edu webmaster@andrews.edu Stryker Engineering Challenge 2019 http://www.andrews.edu/agenda/52744 Michigan Colleges Alliance (MCA) team from various colleges including Andrews University won the 2019 Stryker Engineering Challenge on Friday March 22 against teams from University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, Western Michigan University, University of Notre Dame, and Purdue University. <div> March 21-22, 2019, the University Recruiting department at Stryker Medical in Kalamazoo held the 9th annual Stryker Engineering Challenge. Teams of four sophomore engineering students compete against each other for an opportunity to get a $1000 scholarship and an interview for a Stryker Internship position for summer 2020. MCA has been invited to send a team to the competition since 2015.</div> <div> The challenge began around 7pm on Thursday and all work ended at 1:45pm on Friday. The competition part of the challenge began at 2:30pm. The teams had to leave the building from 2am to 6am on Friday, but Stryker had motel rooms reserved for all teams at a local Hampton Inn.</div> <div> The main part of the challenge was to design a remotely controlled vehicle from a supplied build kit. This vehicle was used in a 30 minute pick-up Lego people competition where all teams work at the same time, and in an obstacle course race where two-three teams raced at a time to see who could complete the course with the fastest time. Each team has to use three different drivers during the race.</div> <div> In addition to the competition, the teams could collect points on technical challenges before the competition and on homework that was collected around noon on Friday.</div> <div> The MCA team was second overall after the homework and technical challenges, trailing Michigan State by 13 points. During the picking-up Lego people, MCA took the lead and was 24 points ahead of Michigan Tech before the race. Western won the race followed by Michigan Tech and MCA, resulting in MCA winning the challenge overall by a single point over Michigan Tech.</div> <div> The MCA team worked really well together and maximized their performance by working well together and making good design decisions.</div> Thu, 04 Apr 2019 16:19:44 +0000 2018 Stryker Engineering Challenge http://www.andrews.edu/agenda/50287 The 2018 Stryker Engineering Challenge took place March 22-23, 2018.  Student teams of four engineering sophomores competed against each other.  The students worked from Thursday at 7:15 p.m. to Friday at 2 a.m., then on Friday from 6 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.  The vehicle competition began Friday at 2:30 p.m. This year there were six teams: <ul> <li> Michigan Tech</li> <li> Western Michigan University</li> <li> Notre Dame University</li> <li> Purdue University</li> <li> Miami University (Ohio)</li> <li> Michigan College Alliance (MCA)</li> </ul> The MCA team consisted of three Andrews University students and one Calvin College student: Eric Anderson (Andrews), Darrick Horton (Andrews), Levi Vande Kamp (Calvin), and Justin Wiley (Andrews). The event started March 22 around 3 p.m. with a tour of some of the Sryker's facilities followed by a product demo.  At 6 p.m. the teams were served dinner, and while they were eating, a panel of Stryker engineers answered questions the students had submitted during the tour. The engineering challenge started around 7 p.m. when the teams were asked to build a tower from toothpicks and marshmallows.  There were also technical challenge questions and homework that could be submitted for points before the vehicle competition began. The main event was to design and construct a remotely controlled vehicle.  The vehicle had to traverse an obstacle course, find and pick up Lego figures and bring these figures back to their pit area.  Only figures brought back to the pit area counted for points. Stryker employees had constructed models of several downtown Kalamazoo buildings grouped in three areas accessible through an obstacle -type course form each team's assigned pit area.  Spread out in the building areas were small Lego figures with magnets glued to one side.  Some Lego figures were easily accessibe in the open, while some were hidden behind closed doors.  Most doors were opened by shining a light at a light sensor.  The Lego figures were assigned points according to how difficult they were to pick up.  Each team had an opportunity to transport a VIP Lego figure - if the figure was transported within an assigned three-minute window, 20 points were awarded. The vehicle competition had two parts.  Part one involved 20 minutes of picking up Lego figures.  Part two was a time trial obstacle course race where each team had to use three different drivers. Michigan Tech had a clear lead after the technical challenges and the homework and was followed by Miami and Purdue.  MCA shared fourth place with Western. Purdue won the "pick up Lego figures" portion of the challenge and moved from third to first place, followed by Michigan Tech and MCA sharing second place.  The vehicle race was won by Michigan Tech, followed by Western then MCA in third.  This resulted in Michigan Tech winning the challenge overall, MCA finishing in second place and Purdue placing third. Gunnar Lovhoiden, a professor of engineering at Andrews University, supported Andrews students at the competition.  He says, "I think our team worked really well together.  Their design worked well and they represented MCA with honor.  Second place - how about that!" -This article was writting by Gunnar Lovhoiden, professor of Engineering.   Wed, 15 Aug 2018 14:21:38 +0000 Alumnus, Thomas Zirkle receives fellowship http://www.andrews.edu/agenda/47697 Thomas Zirkle, our recent alumni and graduate student at Notre Dame, received the NSF GRFP fellowship grant last year and recently was the recipient of the 2017-2018 STEM Chateaubriand Fellowship. We look forward to hearing about his experiences, when he returns from France.   Thu, 02 Nov 2017 20:57:49 +0000 NSF grant awarded to three professors http://www.andrews.edu/agenda/47574 Hyun Kwon, chair of the Department of Engineering & Computer Science, Padma Tadi Uppala, professor of public health, nutrition and wellness, and Rodney Summerscales, assistant professor of computer science have been awarded a research grant by the National Science Foundation in the amount of $249,198.  “Many mobile devices have built-in sensors—cameras that can serve as detectors for biosensors,” says Kwon, primary investigator on the project. “We are developing an ECL sensor utilizing existing mobile technology, transforming what was traditionally an expensive and bulky biosensor into a portable and affordable one.” ECL sensors work when a small voltage is applied to an ECL chemical and the chemical emits lights in the visible spectrum. The small voltage can be provided by the mobile device itself and the emitted light can be captured by the cameras, the resulting images of which can be analyzed by a mobile app. “Our goal is to make this new sensor platform equivalent not only in performance to that of existing high-end biosensors,” says Kwon, “but also more affordable and for many different biosensor needs.” The ECL biosensor can be used for diagnosis of biomarkers of various diseases, including breast cancer. “These sensors have significantly improved the sensitivity of detecting low molecular weight biomarkers present in early stages of cancer,” explains Uppala. “This is important because of the prevalence and mortality rates of the disease.” Both undergraduate and graduate students will participate by conducting experiments, running simulations, analyzing data, programming mobile apps and designing and prototyping sensor hardware.  “Revolutionizing existing sensors with the latest mobile technology fascinates me,” Kwon says. “It’s the inevitable trend in biosensor instrumentation.” Though there have been attempts to develop ECL sensors with cell phones in the past, they have been limited to demonstrating feasibility of detecting very high concentrations of reactants without having any specific target molecules. “This means no innovation has been made to the level of detecting proteins at clinically relevant levels,” the team says in their proposal.  <style type="text/css"> p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 12.0px; font: 9.0px 'Meta Serif Pro'} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 9.0px; line-height: 12.0px; font: 9.0px 'Meta Serif Pro'} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} </style> “I am very excited to see this research taking a multidisciplinary approach,” Uppala adds. “To improve the health of the public is very fulfilling and I appreciate this avenue to serve the public and make the world a better place.” Tue, 17 Oct 2017 10:17:36 +0000 Google Ignite- CS Awarded Grant http://www.andrews.edu/agenda/45296 Engineering and Computer Science students mentor 7th and 8th graders at RMES in computer programming for an outreach called codeShack. In March 2017, the <a href="http://andrews.edu/ecs">Department of Engineering & Computer Science</a> (ECS) received a grant from <a href="https://ignitecs.withgoogle.com/">Google’s igniteCS program</a> for their outreach program titled “codeShack.” igniteCS offers funding and resources for university students to help them mentor their communities in computer science. codeShack is the ECS outreach program at <a href="http://www.myrmes.org/">Ruth Murdoch Elementary School</a> on the campus of Andrews University, where they provide a coding and creative project class for grades 7–8. “We plan to use the funds from this grant to acquire more robust equipment, software, and other necessary supplies, as well as to enhance and expand our coding program for all grade levels,” writes Evelyn Savory, RMES principal, in an open letter. “Though the demand for coding is high with teachers and students, the lack of equipment and staff prevents these classes from regularly being offered.” codeShack’s website describes how it was designed to offer coding as part of the curriculum for RMES students, as the founders had noticed the lack of computer science courses in the past. “As a result, we designed a hands-on program that lasts an entire quarter for the elementary students and half a semester for the college students,” comments Huang, one of the student leaders involved in the program. She adds that codeShack teaches how to code in the programming language <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_%28programming_language%29">“C”</a> and how to work on team projects using the <a href="https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/arduinoBoardUno">“Arduino UNO,”</a> a simple computer board designed to perform single tasks. “We started this effort last year in partnership with RMES and it has been hugely successful,” says Hyun Kwon, chair of ECS and faculty advisor for the group. “We try to elicit interest in engineering and programming through hands-on activities and coding experiences, and we think the approach is working well.” codeShack is student-led, with ten mentors and six student leaders. The student leaders are Daniel Bronowski, Nathaniel Gutierrez, Darrick Horton, Shannon Huang, Mykhaylo Malakhov and Justin Wiley. The students visit RMES two times per week to work on the coding project. “The aim is to introduce kids to computer science in a fun and meaningful way,” commented Wiley. Additionally, the student leaders are responsible for other aspects of ensuring codeShack’s smooth operation. “I was the one who compiled and edited all of the information for the application at the end of the process as well as assisted in the making of the codeShack website.” Huang explains. Kwon recommended Huang to the team because of her experiences as an English major and a leader of <a href="http://www.awis.org/">Women in STEM</a> at her high school. codeShack specifically provides optional after-school classes where concepts and applications of computer science can be taught. According to the program’s website, codeShack aims “to simultaneously pace and challenge students.” “Many kids do not have the exposure to coding and programming that allows them to develop an interest in this amazing field,” explained Wiley. “The purpose of our program is to provide that experience.” Wiley adds that because students lead out in the project, codeShack divides the RMES students into small groups. Each group of two to four RMES students is mentored by a University student who visits the group twice a week as teacher and mentor. “I’m so proud of all our six student leaders who promoted this program and the ten student mentors who participated in the program this semester,” Kwon comments. “Programs like this are impossible unless students who want to serve the community and become role models put in the necessary time and dedication to make it happen.” The students’ hard work does not go unnoticed. “I greatly appreciate all the Andrews students and their faculty advisor who come to the classroom and interact with our students,” Savory says. “It requires great responsibility on the part of the University students to committing many hours twice a week as volunteers for this service to our young people.” Google’s igniteCS program is one of many initiatives to foster learning in computer science. “Our short-term goals involve using that funding and the addition of professional mentorship to our advantage in the coming year,” Huang comments. Ongoing support is given to these funded programs, which will receive access to discounts, guidance and industry mentors of their own. “I’m so glad that we received Google igniteCS recognition for this effort,” Kwon comments. “The funds will be used to improve, promote and sustain the program.” “We hope to continue applying for igniteCS funding and becoming a part of their ‘legacy’ team,” Huang explains. “If we succeed, the codeShack program at RMES can grow and expand to the other students and fields, and offer new opportunities to University students, too.” For more information about codeShack, visit <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/codeshack">sites.google.com/view/codeshack</a>. To learn more about the Andrews University Department of Engineering & Computer Science, visit <a href="http://andrews.edu/cas/ecs">andrews.edu/cas/ecs</a>, email <a href="mailto:engineering@andrews.edu?subject=codeShack">engineering@andrews.edu</a> or <a href="mailto:computing@andrews.edu?subject=codeShack">computing@andrews.edu</a>, or call 269-471-3420. <div class="byline"> By: Chris McLean-Wheeler</div>   Tue, 28 Mar 2017 16:57:52 +0000 A Rock in the Stream- Dr. Jay Johnson http://www.andrews.edu/agenda/45164 This week, Jay Johnson, professor of engineering at Andrews University, received word that two grant proposals for research on which he is co-investigator have been selected by <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a>. The two grants together total nearly $1.5 million and will fund two separate but related research projects. The first grant is for a research project studying how fast-flow events bring energy stored in the tail of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere">magnetosphere</a> toward earth and how the flow of energy ultimately accelerates electrons and ions near the earth. The principal investigator for this grant is Yu Lin, professor of physics at Auburn University (Alabama). “This project will investigate how the fast flows excite kinetic or small-scale waves that carry energy along the field lines to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionosphere">ionosphere</a>,” says Johnson. “These waves can lead to electron precipitation (responsible for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora">Aurora Borealis/Australis</a>) and ion outflows from the ionosphere.” When the solar wind blows toward the earth, it pushes against the magnetosphere around the planet, stretching it up to 400,000 miles out on the dark side of the earth, creating what is called the magnetotail. Solar wind particles leak into the magnetosphere and are stored in the magnetotail. Dynamical events in the magnetotail, such as reconnection, can release tubes of particles that slingshot towards the earth at high speed. These fast flows bring energy to the inner magnetosphere, where they suddenly slow down and launch waves, which propagate towards the ionosphere. The waves can heat ions leading to a buildup of the ring current. The energetic particles brought from the magnetotail can also energize radiation belt electrons through complex wave-particle interactions. The second grant is for a research project studying leakage of solar wind particles across the magnetospheric boundary into the magnetosphere. This leakage is caused by collisions between particles and small-scale waves. The principal investigator for this grant is Katariina Nykyri, professor of physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, Florida). “The magnetosphere around Earth creates sort of a ‘rock’ in the stream of the solar wind,” Johnson explains. “The magnetosphere is not really moving compared with the solar wind, so you get an instability that develops in the boundary. The boundary starts getting wavy and develops into curls.” We have all experienced this type of instability when we see waves develop when there is wind over water. To demonstrate the principle, Johnson holds a piece of notebook paper between his index finger and thumb, blowing on the edge of the paper. The paper quickly wiggles into waves, and is lifted by the “wind” blowing over it. “The instabilities cascade to small scales on the size of the orbit of the particles,” Johnson continues. “As the ions encounter the magnetic field structures they scatter, and this turbulence allows particles to leak into the magnetosphere from the solar wind.” Johnson is working to understand the nature of this interaction between the solar wind and the boundary of the magnetosphere. This work is important because it determines how energy is transferred from the solar wind to the magnetosphere, driving the latter’s dynamics. Ultimately, the transferred energy affects the radiation belts inside the magnetosphere, which in turn can have an effect on any satellites in the vicinity. “The belts change dramatically,” Johnson says. “People in my field are interested in understanding when the fluxes increase and what causes them to change so dramatically.” And why is NASA interested in this? Because fluctuations in the outer radiation belt can be a danger to satellites. Between Earth and the sun is a satellite run by NOAA, which scientists use to monitor activity on the sun. This allows for a 30-minute warning if anything is coming toward the Earth. Researchers like Johnson are looking to find a way to predict events ahead of those 30 minutes so necessary measures can be taken to mitigate damage to any assets nearby. Johnson recalls that in 2012, <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/23jul_superstorm">a major event took place</a> on the sun that hit a couple of satellites monitoring for such things. “If that event had gone toward Earth instead of in the direction where the satellites happened to be, we would have been in a lot of trouble,” he says. “It could have knocked out major power grids and satellite communications, among other things. The idea is to understand more of what’s happening out there and how it affects our magnetosphere so we can predict the probability of events like that coming this direction.” The two research teams will begin their research with these three-year NASA grants in fall 2017. Johnson will be working with colleagues across the country at institutions such as University of Alaska, Princeton (New Jersey) and University of California-Los Angeles. He also has four Andrews University students working with him on the research; two in physics and two in engineering. “It’s exciting to be able to do this research,” says Johnson, who has a long history of receiving research funds from NASA. He is currently the principal investigator on two other NASA grant research projects and co-investigator on several others. Johnson is the newest member of the engineering faculty, beginning his tenure at Andrews in fall 2016. Prior to accepting the position at Andrews, Johnson worked in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he led the space physics group for the past 11 years—a group he quadrupled in size during his leadership through a successful flow of external funding. In 1987, Johnson graduated with a degree in physics from University of Colorado-Boulder, with distinction. In 1992 he completed a PhD in physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, Massachusetts).   By: Becky St. Clair   Wed, 15 Mar 2017 09:26:34 +0000 Solar Run 5K http://www.andrews.edu/agenda/45078 The Andrews University Engineers Without Borders Chapter is currently pursuing a power installation project in Madagascar for a school and clinic that does not have electricity. We are going into our second year of this project and our first step - the assessment trip - is coming up in 2018 and thus we are seeking funds to make this service project a reality. Therefore, we are putting on this 5k event as a fundraiser, with all proceeds going towards this project’s furtherment. The 5k fun run is being  held on the campus of Andrews University on Sunday April 2 at 9:00 AM. The route is mostly flat, starting out at the campus track, meandering around the campus loop drive, going around the Garland Apartments, and then looping back to the track for the finish. This event features chip timing courtesy of the Andrews University Alumni services. Come get your Solar Run 5k tee shirt and get some great exercise, all the while helping those in need abroad!             All information is available on our event website: <a href="https://andrewsewb.wixsite.com/solarrun5k">https://andrewsewb.wixsite.com/solarrun5k</a>             Questions? Contact: Greg Zdor at one of the following: â—        <a href="mailto:andrewsewb@gmail.com">andrewsewb@gmail.com</a> â—        269 605 9891 â—        269 471 3768 Tue, 07 Mar 2017 12:52:57 +0000 Endowed Fund in Memory of Austin & Chandler http://www.andrews.edu/agenda/44199 The endowed fund is to remember Austin Currie and Chandler Koerting and their outstanding characters.   They were described in short :Student who will go out of their ways to help someone.   We intend that the scholarship is awarded to students who demonstrated outstanding character in helping others, volunteering for church and community, and helping to increase fellowship.  To donate to fund: <a href="http://andrews.edu/go/give/austinchandlermem">andrews.edu/go/give/austinchandlermem</a>   Stories of Andrews:<a href="https://www.andrews.edu/stories/"> Andrews Stories: Austin & Chandler</a> Mon, 28 Nov 2016 17:42:37 +0000