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A ‘GEM’ of an engineering experience

Education

One thing about Matt McFarlane: He’s always known where he’s going.

McFarlane was in elementary school when he decided he wanted to be an engineer. Now the Seattle native is nearing completion of his master’s degree at the University of Kansas School of Engineering, and he’s looking ahead to the day when he can build that career — a vision that includes creating a nonprofit foundation to help qualified kids follow his path.

“There are some smart people out there — smarter than me, who could actually make a really big change in the world, but they just don’t have the same opportunity that I’ve had,” McFarlane said.

That vision and determination are among the reasons McFarlane has been named an associate fellow by the National GEM Consortium, a group that recruits and supports minority students seeking postgraduate degrees. The honor comes with full tuition for McFarlane to pursue his master’s degree.

“For Matt to be a GEM fellow for KU and graduate with his master’s is a great accomplishment,” says Andrew Williams, associate dean for diversity, equity & inclusion in the School of Engineering. “He’s helping lead the way for other students to do the same.”
Early inclinations

If McFarlane knew his direction early, his family was probably part of the reason. His father was a technician at Boeing, and his older sister studied engineering at the University of Florida.

“I love taking things apart. I love building with Legos,” McFarlane said. “I actually thought I wanted to be an architect when I was younger, but I love math so much they just kind of all came together. I remember in elementary school going to school with my mom, saying, ‘I want to be an engineer, how do I get there?'”

That desire was still strong when it came time to pick a college. McFarlane’s criteria: He wanted a strong engineering program, but he also wanted it to be located in a college town with a comfortable, suburban feel. He picked KU, sight unseen.

“So actually the first time I was ever on campus was at my freshman orientation,” he said. “Coming to KU is probably the biggest gamble I’ve ever taken in my life. But it was also the biggest payoff — I’ve had the opportunity to make great friends and really expand myself.”

Indeed, McFarlane threw himself into studies and campus life with fervor. As an undergraduate, he served as president of the KU chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. He is also a member of the KU Engineering Diversity & Women’s Advisory Board, a founding member of the KU chapter of the Structural Engineers Association of Kansas and Missouri and served as an officer or member of several more clubs and fraternities.

McFarlane also served as a student ambassador for the School of Engineering.

“He helps us a great deal with recruiting,” said Arvin Agah, associate dean for research & graduate programs in the School of Engineering. “He’s very good at mentoring our undergraduate students about how to be successful as a student, how to be successful as an underrepresented minority.”

That’s not even the end of his accomplishments. In recent months, he’s been part of the iHAWKE team designing a “tiny home” that could be used to shelter victims of hurricanes and other major disasters during the rebuilding phase.

“That was largely his idea,” Williams said of McFarlane and the iHAWKE project. “He just really walks the walk and talks the talk as far as leadership goes.”

McFarlane credits KU with helping him build his leadership skills.

“When I first came to campus, I was a very introverted person,” he said. “Since being here, the first opportunity I get to get up in front of a group of people and speak about what I’m doing, I jump at those chances. I’ve really had an opportunity to go outside of my comfort zone.”
A real GEM

All of those qualities made McFarlane a natural fit for the GEM program, KU officials say. Agah helped spearhead efforts for KU to re-partner with the consortium in recent years after its membership had lapsed. He said McFarlane deserves the honor.

“He’s been a great ambassador for the school,” Agah said.

Williams — who received GEM support in receiving his doctorate from KU in the late 1990s — agreed. McFarlane “has been a natural leader in bringing the diversity organizations together” in the School of Engineering, he said. KU’s involvement in the GEM consortium, he added, “is a good way for KU to attract quality graduate students.”

McFarlane is finishing up his master’s degree. He has accepted a job with a Lenexa building services firm, but he’s already planning to seek a doctorate in engineering education to begin to make his dream of building a nonprofit come true — to help other students have the opportunities he’s had. It would be like the GEM fellowship, he says, only it would help minority students bridge the gap between high school and college.

“I want to create a nonprofit that not only exposes students to engineering but also helps them find funding to go to college,” he said. “I was very fortunate to have parents and a sister who showed me what engineering could be like. There are lots of people who would be great at engineering and do great things, but just don’t get that opportunity.”

McFarlane has made the most of his opportunities. His next step? To help others do the same.

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. The university’s mission is to lift students and society by educating leaders, building healthy communities and making discoveries that change the world. The KU News Service is the central public relations office for the Lawrence campus.

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kunews@ku.edu | 1450 Jayhawk Blvd., Suite 37, Lawrence, KS 66045

Engineering

With 11 February marking the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, female physicists, engineers and computer scientists from CERN and from Fermilab share their experiences of building a career in science.

Evangelia Gousiou: “Nothing beats the rush you get when something that you designed works for the first time.”

Electronics engineer, Evangelia Gousiou, began her career studying IT and Electronics in Athens, Greece, before beginning an internship at a manufacturing plant in Thailand. She came to CERN for a one-year position, and now, ten years later is still at CERN enjoying a job that is never boring.

“Work is never repetitive, which makes it very rewarding. I usually follow a project through all its stages from conception of the architecture, to the coding and the delivery to the users of a product that I have built to be useful for them. So I see the full picture and that keeps me engaged.” – Evangelia Gousiou

For Evangelia, to be a good electronics engineer means knowing a range of disciplines, from software to mechanics. There is also the human aspect, as she works daily with people from many different cultures.

At school, her favourite subjects were maths and physics, as she enjoyed finding out how things worked, yet Evangelia never dreamt of being an engineer when she grew up. When the time came to choose what to study, she felt that engineering would be something interesting to study and future-proof, and then she got hooked and now can’t imagine doing anything else. “I would recommend engineering professions for their intellectual challenge and the empowerment that they bring,” she beams.

Source: CERN

Where Sailors and innovation meet

Armed Forces

Like any other organization, the Navy is not perfect. Many times Sailors ask why things must be done a certain way. Often, they’re convinced they know a more effective way. Sometimes, they’re right. The Innovation Lab, better known as the iLab, gives Sailors a chance to take those ideas and possibly turn them into reality.

“We believe that [for] many of problems that Sailors are experiencing right now, there are solutions,” said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Keithley, iLab’s military advisor. “Unfortunately, they’re nascent inside of the Sailors’ heads, and getting to the point of actually developing a prototype and testing that idea is rather difficult. What we do here is try to take in these ideas, show it to our staff here at [Submarine Force Pacific], and propose how we can proceed forward with it.”

Established in 2016, the iLab is located at the Naval Submarine Training Center Pacific. Although the room is small in size, it’s jam-packed with the latest virtual and augmented reality technology. The iLab team also offers tours in hopes of inspiring Sailors to come up with and share ideas to improve the fleet.

“We offer tours to Sailors. We’ve had foreign navies come through and tour the iLab. It’s a good chance to take a tour that is more exciting than a typical tour; where you actually get to play with some things that aren’t commercially available and see some of the cutting edge stuff that you may not see in the fleet for a few years.” — Keithley

Featured technology at the iLab include: a virtual map for the undersea environment; a 3D display that allows users to use a special pen to practice maintenance on equipment used on ships; and a system that virtually places users in aircraft, ships, or submarines using holographs.

Sailors who have been through the tour seem to respond well to direction the iLab is setting.

“I love virtual reality aspect of things,” said Sonar Technician Submarine 2nd Class Griffin Reidel, an iLab visitor. “I have my own virtual set at home and it made me interested that the Navy is taking time and investing into virtual reality.”

He has his own ideas as well, such as developing a technology that helps measure how much radiant noise a submarine releases through the water.

“We’ve had about 550 Sailors through the iLab in its first nine months of operations,” said Chris Bretz, iLab’s team lead. “We got about 70 or 80 ideas, [and] the staff has reviewed and picked half a dozen to focus on and build out as prototypes. The mission of the lab is exactly that; capture ideas from the Sailors [to fix] their problems that they see in ship’s operations, training and maintenance, and apply cutting-edge technology to make it better, faster, cheaper and more effective.”

ne prototype that is being tested is an unmanned aerial vehicle can track Sailors who accidently fall into the ocean while out to sea.

The personnel at the iLab have high hopes of implementing the ideas developed into the fleet, and see value in using augmented and virtual reality for training purposes.

“Money, overall, is tight,” said Bretz. “Augmented reality [and] virtual reality offer an alternative, or at least a compliment to brick and mortar training. Building a $5 million dollar building may have been possible in the past but it’s not today. With augmented reality [and] virtual reality solutions for training delivery, you can have 20, 50, [or] 100 Sailors [train] for no more money. Instead of having the Sailors come to the facility to do the training, it can be taken to the Sailors at their locations.”

Sailors can send in their ideas by contacting the iLab staff at cspilab@navy.mil.

Source: US NAVY

Webb’s First Space Targets chosen

Aerospace

Gas giant Jupiter, organic molecules in star-forming clouds and baby galaxies in the distant Universe are among the first targets for which data will be immediately available from the James Webb Space Telescope once it begins casting its powerful gaze on the Universe in 2019.

Thirteen “early release” programmes were chosen from more than 100 proposals after a competitive peer-review selection process within the astronomical community. The programmes have been allocated nearly 500 hours of observing time and will exercise all four of Webb’s state-of-the-art science instruments.

The data will be made publicly available immediately, showcasing the full potential of the observatory and allowing astronomers to best plan follow-up observations.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency. As well as providing the Ariane rocket that will launch the observatory in 2019, Europe is contributing to two of the four scientific instruments.

Four of the first sets of observations announced today are led by scientists from ESA member states.

“We were impressed by the high quality of the proposals received. These programmes will not only generate great science, but will also be a unique resource for demonstrating the investigative capabilities of this extraordinary observatory to the worldwide scientific community,” says Ken Sembach, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland.

“We want the research community to be as scientifically productive as possible, as early as possible, which is why I am so pleased to be able to dedicate nearly 500 hours of director’s discretionary time to these early release science observations.”

“It is exciting to see the engagement of the astronomical community in designing and proposing what will be the first scientific programmes for the James Webb Space Telescope,” says Alvaro Gimenez, ESA Director of Science.

“Webb will revolutionise our understanding of the Universe and the results that will come out from these early observations will mark the beginning of a thrilling new adventure in astronomy.”

During its mission of a minimum of five years Webb will address key topics in modern astronomy, probing the Universe beyond what its precursor, the Hubble Space Telescope, can see.

Its observing goals include detecting the first galaxies in the Universe and following their evolution over cosmic time, including ‘weighing’ supermassive black holes that lurk in their centres. It will build on observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope, examining galaxies whose light has been stretched into infrared wavelengths by the expansion of space – beyond what Hubble can see – giving astronomers new insights into these galaxy cornucopias.

Webb will also witness the birth of new stars and their planetary systems, and study planets in our Solar System and around other stars to better understand the origin of life here on Earth.

The space observatory will be able to analyse the composition of exoplanet atmospheres, which could provide hints of a planet’s potential habitability.

Astronomers will initially train their gaze onto gaseous Jupiter-sized worlds, which will pave the way for studies of smaller super-Earths.

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