The Road to Excellence, Impact and Innovation

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The Ohio State College of Engineering has been on the move, aggressively repositioning itself as a major participant in the effort to educate tomorrow’s engineers, to help Ohio and the United States move into prosperity and growth, and to be a school of choice for the world’s best faculty and students.

College Excellence

Ohio State Engineering has moved up four spots in the U.S. News & World Report rankings since 2008.  In the 2011 national Graduate School Rankings, Ohio State moved into the Top 25 engineering programs overall and Top 15 engineering programs at public universities.


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During the 2009-2010 academic year, the College of Engineering hired 15 tenure-track faculty members ranging from assistant through full professors. In addition to its high quality, this group includes seven diversity hires: one African-American, three Hispanic/Latinos and three Asians.In a concerted effort to align and strengthen our academic programs and streamline administrative resources, since 2009, the College of Engineering has consolidated from 12 to 9 departments to better serve the needs of students and faculty members.

Adding to the college's national prestige and emphasizing its expertise in automotive developments and research, Ohio State in May 2010 hosted “Moving Ahead 2010,” a major transportation conference that brought together transportation and energy leaders from industry, research, government, non-profit organizations and education, to discuss the actions needed for our country’s transportation energy future. More than 100 speakers and 750 attendees from 25 states and three countries joined in the discussion of where we need to move to achieve energy independence.

Research and Faculty Achievements

In fiscal year 2009, Ohio State’s College of Engineering received more than $128 million in research award funding, the most in our history.

Strategic partnerships with industry have become a major focus of our efforts to help our economy improve through business development as well as to provide our students with real-world experience before they graduate. Major partnerships developed during 2009 include:

  • the Honda/ OSU Mobility Innovation Exchange, which will design the next generation of mobility vehicles for land, water and air.
  • Ohio State’s Electroscience Laboratory expansion, a dual-use facility designed to place Ohio State faculty and industry researchers in a collaborative environment, with Northrop Grumman as the first major tenant and partner.
  • the Pratt & Whitney University Center of Excellenceat Ohio State, focused on creating world-class engineering research in the field of power transmission and gear technology for aviation engines. Pratt & Whitney researchers will work with the university on fundamental and applied research initiatives that support the design and development of more efficient and environmentally friendly gas turbine engines.

NSF Honors Five Early-Career Faculty Members

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The National Science Foundation has recognized five College of Engineering assistant professors with five-year Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award grants to assist them in conducting research:

  • John Lenhart, civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science, $400,234, “Natural Organic Matter Mediated Processes in the Subsurface: Heavy Metal Adsorption and Nanoparticle Migration”
  • Atilla Eryilmaz, electrical and computer engineering, $462,716, “Theoretical Foundations for Wireless Network Algorithm Design: Satisfying Short-Term and Long-Term Application Requirements”
  • Ronald Reano, electrical and computer engineering, $400,000, “Creating a New Class of Organic-Inorganic Dispersion Engineered RF-Optical Modulators”
  • Feng Qin, computer science and engineering, $80,000, “Building Immunity to Memory Management Bugs during Production Runs.”
  • Yi Zhao, biomedical engineering, $748,711, “Integrated Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System for Cellular Mechanotransduction Studies”

Reano also received a $150,000 Army Research Office Young Faculty Award for “Broadband Electric-Field Sensor Array Technology.”

Engineering Students Excel

High-achieving students are increasingly choosing Ohio State for their engineering education. In Autumn 2009, the College of Engineering welcomed its largest and most diverse class of incoming freshmen in its history.

The Buckeye Bullet 2

In September 2009, Ohio State’s Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2, designed and built by engineering students, exceeded the international speed record it set in 2007. The Bullet’s average speed was 302.877 mph, certified by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile as an official record. The hydrogen fuel cell powered landspeed streamliner racer and its student team set the speed record on the Salt Flats in Utah.

 

EcoCAR

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In 2009, a team of Ohio State College of Engineering students won first place, surpassing 16 other teams from around the world, in the first year of a three-year U.S. Department of Energy competition to improve automotive technology. Ohio State is one of 17 universities participating in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge, in which students must re-engineer a 2009 Saturn Vue to achieve improved fuel economy and reduced emissions while retaining the vehicle’s performance and consumer appeal. The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors as well as Natural Resources Canada and others. The EcoCAR Team placed fifth overall in the 2010 competition and is preparing for the final year of the challenge.


“The Honda 1.8L CNG Civic engine runs on E85 instead of compressed natural gas, rivaling even modern diesels today with a much lighter and quieter engine,” says Eric Schacht, Ohio State EcoCAR team leader and graduate student in electrical and computer engineering. The engine features a high compression ratio, Honda’s i-VTEC "intelligent" valve control system and very low noise and vibration.The OSU EcoCAR Team has developed an Extended Range Electric Vehicle with a twist.  It generates electricity with an engine and generator so the vehicle can continue driving with its electric powertrain after the battery is depleted, but students added an overdrive transmission with clutches to allow the engine to power the wheels directly, which can improve the fuel economy by as much as 20 percent on the highway. This transmission also allows about 30 percent more regenerative braking and 30 percent more acceleration torque in all electric.

Solar Decathlon

In October 2009, Ohio State’s Solar House 1 student team finished its first-ever Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition ranked in 10th place. The contest pits student teams at 20 universities from around the world in an effort to build, design and operate the best solar house. Teams are judged in 10 categories ranging from engineering to design to net metering to communication. The 2009 Solar Decathlon marked the fourth time the bi-annual competition was held, and the Ohio State student team has been selected to compete in the 2011 competition.