Dear Colleagues,
As the end of the year rapidly approaches, we are pleased to celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty, staff and students. Several faculty and staff members received prestigious awards this spring, including the following:
- Diane Cook, WSU Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award, recognized for outstanding research achievements.
- Karl Olsen, WSU President’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Non-Tenure Track Faculty, recognized as a faculty member who epitomizes the highest levels of performance and excellence and who provides a vital role in teaching WSU students.
- Assefaw Gebremedhin, National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipient, to support his research in the development of fast and scalable algorithms for solving problems in data science.
- Kelly Beckman-Nigro, WSU President’s Employee Excellence Award, recognized for her outstanding employee contributions to the University.
- Prashanta Dutta, Fulbright Scholar grant recipient, to allow him to study and develop next-generation tumor cell detection in cancer patients in Germany in 2016-2017.
Our students have also found success in student competitions, including:
- The Construction Management student team, which took second place at the regional Associated School of Construction student competition, the largest construction management competition in the U.S.
- Bioengineering students Emily Willard and Katherine Brandenstein, who won first place and a $10,000 prize in the University of Washington’s Health Innovation Challenge for a prototype they developed to easily sterilize needles for multi-use medicine injection vials.
- Gregory Collinge, chemical engineering graduate student and ARCS Fellow, who just learned that he is receiving a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Entrepreneurship like that of Emily and Katherine is a hallmark of our land grant mission. Faculty and students interested in forming a startup business based on their research should consider participating in WSU’s I-Corps program. This new NSF-sponsored grant, led by Travis Woodland along with Howard Davis, along with their colleagues from the Carson College of Business and the College of Arts and Science, provides training, travel/prototype funding, and hands-on workshops to turn your ideas into a business opportunity. If you are interested in participating, you can apply on the I-Corps website by April 30.
On another subject, please plan to attend a Presidential Welcome, April 1 or April 4, depending upon your location. President-Elect Kirk Schulz, currently President and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Kansas State University (Meet President Schulz), will be in Pullman and Tri-Cities on April 1, and in Vancouver and Everett on April 4. For more information on times, go to: A Presidential Welcome.
So, as the year draws to a close, please take a few minutes to recognize and congratulate your colleagues and students on their successes at the following events:
April 14: VCEA Convocation: A Celebration of Excellence, 4:00 pm, Lewis Alumni Centre, honoring our outstanding students, faculty, and staff.
April 29: VCEA Capstone Expo, 8 am – 12 pm , CUB – M.G. Carey Senior Ballroom, showcasing the senior engineering capstone projects of Voiland College of Engineering & Architecture students.
Whether or not you received an award, I want to let you know that we appreciate the hard work that you do every day here in the Voiland College. That work continues to have a positive impact on the lives of students as well as people around the state and nation.
Thank you so much for your continued efforts, and please do join us at Convocation, the Capstone Expo, and the Presidential Welcome.
And, as always, GO COUGS!
Sincerely,
Candis Claiborn
Professor and Dean
Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture