m Florida
Engineer.
7..3-YY~
A Gift Close to His Heart
Inventor, surgeon, and entrepreneur
J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. and his family
donate $10 million to
Biomedical Engineering
UNIVERSITY OF
FLORIDA
-C-
L
On the cover:
J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. and his family recently gave $10 million to the
Department of Biomedical Engineering. As a result, the department
will be named in the family's honor. Here, J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. sits with
his children (L-R): Natalie, Crayton Jr., and Helen. The background of
the cover image features several elements of biomedical engineering
research, including cutting-edge computer hardware, a microscopic
view of neurons grown over a multi-electrode array, an anatomy
textbook, and neural imaging. Cover design by Megan Gales.
TheFloridaEngineer
Dean & Publisher
Pramod Khargonekar
Publications Adviser
CammyAbernathy
Managing Editor
Ron Franklin
Editor & Principal Writer
Martha Dobson
Contributing Writers
William Ditto
Megan Gales
Aaron Hoover
Meredith Jean Morton
Reshelle Smith
Joseph Tedesco
Photographers
David Blankenship
Ron Franklin
Linda Corsair
Designer
Christina Loosli
Printing
Boyd Brothers, Inc.
Published each semester by
the College of Engineering
at the University of Florida.
The magazine informs college
alumni and friends about the
accomplishments of its faculty,
alumni, and supporters. For
permission to reprint any part
of this magazine, contact the
Managing Editor:
0
The Florida Engineer
PO Box 116550
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
P: 352.392.0984
E-mail: rfran@eng.ufl.edu
Web site: www.eng.ufl.edu
0
contents I
6 Biomedical Engineering Receives $10 Million Gift
8 J. Crayton Pruitt Sr.: A Gift Close to His Heart
12 Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida
Birth of a Powerhouse
14 RESEARCH
Biomedical Engineering Research:
Re-Imagining Epilepsy Treatment
HuabeiJiang has found ways of
Making Diseases Reveal their Secrets
With gene therapy, there is Hope for the Brain to Heal Itself
22 COLLEGE
Homeland Security Research Is the
Focus for New Civil Engineering Center
Team CIMAR: Engineers with the Instincts of Explorers
27 FACULTY FOOTNOTES
28 STUDENTS
32 DEVELOPMENT REPORT
35 ALUMNI
Gator Engineering 3
Pramod Khargonekar, Dean of
Gator Engineering, and J. Crayton
Pruitt Sr. at the announcement of
the Pruitt family gift to Biomedical
Engineering.
The human body is
perhaps the most
complex system in
existence. It is both highly
adaptable and frighteningly
vulnerable. It can survive loss
of organs and yet succumb
to microscopic viruses. Basic
discoveries in biological and
medical sciences help us
understand how it functions
and enable us to fight diseases
and disabilities. Because a
healthy life is perhaps the
highest priority for most human
beings, the field of biomedical
engineering is aiming squarely
at this goal.
The promise of biomedical
engineering, which brings to
bear engineering knowledge,
methodology, and mind-set
on the key problems of human
health, is truly inspirational.
Past successes such as the
implantable defibrillator,
artificial knee, and various
imaging techniques such as
ultrasound, CT, and MRI
are just the tip of the iceberg.
There appears to be unlimited
potential for applying
the synthetic engineering
methodology to biomedical
problems and creating new
devices, new systems, and new
techniques that can advance
human health. The recognition
that the human body is a
system and encompasses many
subsystems opens the door
to application of engineering
principles. Opportunities for
engineers range far and wide,
from basic biological research to
applied health research.
4 The Florida Engineer
DEAN'S LETTER
Our research discoveries may someday raise the standard of
global health care. For providing the support to realize that
hope, we are most grateful to the Pruitt family.
The University of Florida
is home to an excellent
and comprehensive Health
Sciences Center and a
nationally recognized College
of Engineering. Inspired
by the possibilities offered
by interdisciplinary health
care research, we established
a graduate program in
the emerging discipline of
biomedical engineering in 1997.
In 2002, the program became
a new academic department,
Biomedical Engineering, thanks
in large part to Dr. Crayton
Pruitt.
I met Dr. Pruitt a few months
after I became dean in July
2001. I was deeply impressed
by this amazing man. He is not
only a very successful surgeon,
inventor, and entrepreneur; he
is a great human being. I have
cherished my relationship with
him and his family since that
very first meeting. Indeed, one
of the privileges of being a dean
is the chance to know people
such as Dr. Pruitt. In this issue
of The Florida Engineer, you,
too, will have the chance to
meet this fine man.
Dr. Pruitt and his family have
demonstrated unmatched
generosity to the College of
Engineering with a $10 million
endowment for the Biomedical
Engineering department. In
recognition of their exceptional
commitment to the college,
the department will henceforth
be known as the J. Crayton
Pruitt Family Department of
Biomedical Engineering. We
are deeply grateful and honored
to be able to forever associate
the Pruitt family name with
the Biomedical Engineering
department at the University of
Florida. This endowment will
benefit students and faculty
working to realize the unlimited
potential of biomedical
engineering for the benefit of
humanity.
Multidisciplinary collaborations
are at the heart of biomedical
engineering research at UF. All
of our engineering disciplines
are highly relevant to creating
effective solutions to biomedical
problems. Our approach at
UF is to focus on a problem-
solving paradigm which creates
a seamless integration across
many fields of knowledge.
The health care problems
our biomedical engineering
researchers address are not
just profoundly personal; they
are often life-long afflictions
that affect millions of people
worldwide. Our research
discoveries may someday raise
the standard of global health
care. For providing the support
to realize that hope, we are most
grateful to the Pruitt family.
It is gratifying that multi-
disciplinary research and
education on important societal
problems is taking strong
root all across the College of
Engineering in partnership
with other academic units at
the University of Florida. For
example, we recently received
a major NSF grant under the
Integrative Graduate Education
and Research Traineeship
(IGERT) program. This
project is focused on adaptive
management of environmental
systems. I hope you will enjoy
reading about this and other
noteworthy activities in the
College of Engineering at the
University of Florida in this
edition of The Florida Engineer.
Gator Engineering 5
Biomedical Engineering Receives
$10 Million Gift
A name often associated with a device that has
revolutionized stroke-prevention therapy will soon
lso be associated with the College of Engineering.
UF President Bernie Machen announced on Jan. 17 that St. Petersburg inventor,
surgeon, and entrepreneur J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. has committed $10 million to
UF for its Biomedical Engineering department. As a result of the gift, university
officials will name the department in honor of the Pruitt family, making it the
first-ever named department at UF.
Pruitt's gift is among the largest cash gifts received by UF. It is eligible for
matching funds from the state of Florida Major Gift Trust Fund, which could
result in a $20 million endowment for the newly named J. Crayton Pruitt Family
Department of Biomedical Engineering.
6 The Florida Engineer
Biomedical Engineering Receives
$10 Million Gift
"Dr. Pruitt and his family
are helping to make a major
statement regarding the future
of biomedical engineering in the
state of Florida," Machen said at
the gift's announcement.
"This truly transformational
gift will enable us to take full
advantage of the remarkable
multidisciplinary resources
available on our campus
- including the College of
Engineering, Shands at UF, and
the UF Health Science Center
- and places further focus on
Florida as a center of research
and discovery."
Biomedical engineering plays a
crucial role in modern medicine.
Often described as the fusion
of engineering with medicine,
research initiatives typically
focus on discovering materials
and inventing techniques,
technologies, and devices for
improving health care.
Biomedical Engineering at UF
began with a program formed
in 1997. In 2002, it became the
11th department within the
College of Engineering. William
L. Ditto was chosen that same
year to become the department's
founding chair. The department
currently has nine faculty
members, dozens of researchers,
and more than 75 graduate
students. Research expenditures
last year approached $2 million.
"It is because of Dr. Pruitt's
generosity and vision that we
are able to ensure the future
of the biomedical engineering
department," said Pramod
P. Khargonekar, dean of the
College of Engineering. "This
wonderful commitment will
be critical in helping the
University of Florida create one
of the world's best biomedical
engineering research and
teaching institutions."
Pruitt's gift will support
teaching, translational research,
technology enhancements, and
academic programs for faculty
and students.
"It will allow us to attract the
most outstanding faculty and
students," Khargonekar said.
"Their work will have a great
impact on the quality of life, and
it will create economic activity
by stimulating industry growth."
Pruitt, 74, pioneered the
surgical treatment of carotid
artery arteriosclerosis for the
prevention of stroke. Among
his many inventions is the
Pruitt-Inahara Carotid Shunt.
The device, which Pruitt co-
invented, is frequently used
during a delicate surgical
procedure to clean out the
arteries that carry blood to the
brain. He founded his own
company, Ideas for Medicine,
to manufacture and distribute
the shunt and other surgical
products. Pruitt's interest in
biomedical engineering is not
limited to his professional life,
though. In 1995, he received
a life-saving heart transplant
at Shands at the University of
Florida. A biventricular assist
device kept him alive for 10 days
while he waited for a heart.
"Without that device, I was
gone," Pruitt said. "And the
biomedical engineer operating
it, without him I was gone. No
matter how good my surgeons
were, without him, I wouldn't
have made it."
Pruitt said he chose to make
one large donation instead of
several smaller ones because he
felt it would likely do more good
to focus the money on a single
organization.
"I think that the University
of Florida is doing a fantastic
job," he said. "I have a lot of
confidence in Dr. Khargonekar
and Bill Ditto and what they're
trying to do."
Chris Brazda and Megan Gales
J. Crayton Pruitt Jr. and his family at the gift announcement on Jan. 17.
Gator Engineering 7
I
~IC~
A,
J. Crayton Pruitt Sr.
A Gift Close to His Heart
By Megan Gales
Left to Right: J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. receives his degree from
Emory University School of Medicine in 1956; Pruitt in 2006;
Pruitt in an undated portrait; Pruitt with Dr. Alberto Elizalde
at St. Petersburg General Hospital; J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. with
his son, J. Crayton Pruitt Jr.; Pruitt and his children in an
undated photo: (L-R) Helen, Mark, Natalie, and Crayton Jr.;
Pruitt and his children in 2006: (L-R) Natalie, Crayton Jr., and
Helen. Portraits by David Blankenship; all others courtesy of
the Pruitt Family.
On an ordinary night
in 1995, J. Crayton
Pruitt Sr. went to
bed thinking he was in perfect
health. He awoke the next
morning weak and unable to
stand. He knew immediately
something was wrong. Pruitt is
a cardiothoracic surgeon his
symptoms were all too familiar.
He'd had a silent heart attack
while he slept.
A physician's assistant from his
practice called an ambulance
and helped rush Pruitt to the
hospital. His son, J. Crayton
Pruitt Jr., an open-heart
surgeon, met them there.
Doctors quickly performed
coronary bypass surgery,
but three days later, Pruitt's
heart slipped into ventricular
fibrillation.
Eight times in the next
six hours, Pruitt Jr. placed
defibrillator paddles to his
father's chest and shocked his
heart back into proper rhythm.
"He'd say, 'Hate to do this to
you, Dad,"' Pruitt Sr. said,
imitating his son holding the
paddles. "Then...bzzz!"
8 The Florida Engineer
r -
\
ME
Pruitt Sr. was born in Jackson,
S.C.- the same city where his
grandfather practiced medicine
in the 1880s. Pruitt's mother
fostered her son's interest in
medicine, and when he was just
three years old, he began telling
people he wanted to be a doctor.
In turn, Pruitt Sr. encouraged
his son toward a similar path.
"I'm a big fan of telling a child
if you have something good for
them to do," Pruitt said.
The younger Dr. Pruitt, a
graduate of the UF College
of Medicine, knew his father
needed a heart transplant. Pruitt
Sr. was flown by helicopter to
Shands Hospital at UF, where
transplant surgeon Mark Staples
waited. Staples connected Pruitt
to a biventricular assist device
that would keep him alive while
he waited for a donor heart.
The biventricular assist device
is an example of the vital
role biomedical engineering
research plays in modern
medicine. Fusing engineering
with medicine, biomedical
engineering typically focuses
on the search for new materials,
techniques, technologies, and
devices for improving health
care. In 1995, the apparatus was
the size of a washing machine
and sat at the foot of Pruitt's
bed. Today's assist devices are
small enough to be entirely
implanted into patients.
Pruitt Sr. is himself an
accomplished researcher and
inventor. He chose to attend
Emory University in Atlanta
because of the reputation of its
premedical program. He earned
his bachelor's degree rather
quickly and continued into
Emory's School of Medicine.
He moved to St. Petersburg in
1963 and soon built a thriving
private surgical practice. Pruitt
devoted his career to the
treatment of stroke. His father
suffered a debilitating series of
strokes, which motivated Pruitt
to vigorously research methods
of improving upon the available
technology.
He pioneered the surgical
treatment of carotid artery
arteriosclerosis for the
prevention of stroke he is
thought to have performed more
of these surgeries than any other
surgeon in the world. He's an
inventor, too. Unhappy with the
shunts available to him for these
surgeries, Pruitt co-invented his
own shunt in the late 1970s.
In a hospital 150 miles north
of his home, a different kind
of device kept him alive. Ten
days after Pruitt arrived in
Gainesville, a woman in the
Florida Panhandle suffered
a stroke and died. Her heart
was donated to Pruitt, who
continued on page 20
Gator Engineering 9
Endowments at Work
For more information contact the
Engineering Development Office:
Ann McElwain
Senior Director ofDevelopment
P: 352.392.6795
E-mail: amcel@eng.ufl.edu
The Pruitt Family donation is an historic occasion for Gator Engineering:
It is among the largest cash gifts the university has ever received, and is
the largest the college has received to date. Biomedical Engineering also
has the distinction of becoming UF's first named department. Matching
funds from the state are expected to double the gift's value and create a
$20 million endowment for the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of
Biomedical Engineering (BME).
Matching Gifts:
Get more for your money
Private gifts of all sizes are crucial to the university's success. The
University of Florida Foundation, Inc. (UFF), the 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization that receives, invests, and administers private support for
UF, works to maximize each donation's potential. Major gifts are often
eligible to receive matching funds from the state of Florida.
Gifts of $100,000-$599,999
receive a matching grant
equal to 50 percent.
Gifts of $600,000-
$1 million receive a
matching grant equal to
70 percent.
Gifts of $1,000,001-
$1.5 million receive a
matching grant equal to
75 percent.
Gifts of $1,500,001-
$2 million receive a
matching grant equal to
80 percent.
Gifts of $2,000,001
or more are matched
dollar-for-dollar. AI
10 The Florida Engineer
Endowments at Work
Endowments: Gifts that keep on giving
Gifts of $20,000 or more may be used to create permanent
endowments. UFF invests the gift, including any matching funds,
through the University of Florida Investment Company (UFICO).
About 4 percent of the investment value becomes spendable income
each year, and the remainder is continually reinvested. Some
donors ask that their money be spent in a certain way. Others leave
the details up to the university. The Pruitts requested that their
gift be used to support teaching, translational research, technology
enhancements, and academic programs for faculty and students
in the BME department. For BME, this means hiring the best
professors, attracting the brightest students, and funding the most
cutting-edge research.
Spendable Income from Pruitt Endowment
[in dollars]
U Spendable income
$800,000
$640,000
$480,000
$30,000
$160000
$0
2006
2007 2008 2009
We want to pursue high-risk/high-gain
research. Even ifthere's only a small chance
that an idea will turn into a major discovery,
we want to go after it. That's how we'll
change the world.
-William L. Ditto
Professor & Chair, Biomedical Engineering
Pruitt Endowment Market Value t
[in dollars]
$25,000,000
$20,000,000
$15,000,000
$10,000,000
$5,000,000
$0
m Endotneni Markel Value
2007 2008 2009
More than $100,000 will be immediately available to the J. Crayton Pruitt Family
Department of Biomedical Engineering. The investment will grow over the next
several years, and by 2010, UFF projects the endowment will create for BME
more than $750,000 annually and have a market value of nearly $23 million.
Looking ahead: The future of Gator Engineering
A top priority for the College of Engineering in the next five to
seven years is to raise at least $40,000,000 in new gifts to create
endowments for named professorships, graduate fellowships, and
named chairs, and at least $20,000,000 for new buildings and
unrestricted operating support.
t Market Value based on an assumed 8% annualized rate of return. All figures
based on receipt of state matching funds, to be paid out over four years.
COE Total Endowment Market Value *
[in dollars]
i Endomenl Markel Value
GOal lot
2011-12 .
Propecrior
2005-M6
Endowments provide the financial foundation
necessary for a world-class engineering college
like ours to attract and retain the best qualified
and most talentedfaculty members. This
outstanding group ofpeople in turn educates
the next generation of engineers and produces
research that stimulates the economy and
profoundly impacts society.
-Pramod P. Khargonekar
Dean, College of Engineering
2004-05
2003-04
so o20,oo0.ooo $40o.o 000
1.60o000 o000 000.00
As of June 30, 2005, the UFF total endowment value was $835.7 million,
including the COE's portion represented above. The FY 2004-05 annualized
rate of return was 9.5% on endowed investments.
t Market Value based on an assumed 8% annualized rate of return.
Gator Engineering 11
Biomedical Engineering at the
University of Florida
Birth of a
Powerhouse
Observations by Biomedical Engineering Chair William Ditto
The emergence of a new
academic department
at any university is rare
and exciting. I arrived on July
1, 2002, to take on duties as
founding chair of the University
of Florida's Department of
Biomedical Engineering (BME).
That first day, after meeting the
administrative staff of three who
were awaiting my instructions,
all I could think was, "Now
what?" It was a good thing that
Dean Pramod Khargonekar,
who hired me, couldn't read
minds. Before panicking,
however, I took stock of what
preceded the founding of the
department the Biomedical
Engineering program.
Visit the Biomedical Engineering
Web site to learn about our
research and education projects.
www.bme.ufl.edu
For decades, physicians and
engineering faculty at UF had
worked together on projects,
and for about that long,
students had asked about having
a formal BME program. In
the mid-80s, faculty members
George Piotrowski (mechanical
engineering), Gary Miller
(orthopedics), Bob Hirko
(aeronautical engineering), and
Chris Batich (materials science
and engineering) started a
course of study in BME. It was
a start, but lacked a continuing
presence.
A decade later, Dean Win
Phillips asked Chris Batich
to make a significant effort
to start a formal Biomedical
Engineering program. Chris
organized the Biomedical
Engineering Graduate
Academic Program Committee
(BEGAP), formed by picking
key faculty participants from
several involved departments.
The committee included Rich
Dickinson and Dinesh Shah
(chemical engineering); Roger
Tran-Son-Tay and Ed Walsh
(aeronautical engineering);
Andy Laine (computer and
information science and
engineering); John Harris and
Jos6 Principe (electrical and
computer engineering); Wes
Bolch and David Hintenlang
(nuclear engineering); Bill
Tiederman (mechanical
engineering chair); and Rich
Melker and Hans van Oostrum
(anesthesiology).
Subsequently, after much hard
work, the Whitaker Foundation
provided a $1M grant (with a
$1M match from the state) to
get the program up and running
in anticipation of its becoming
a full-fledged department in the
future. In 1997, a curriculum
was produced and the first class
of 13 students enrolled that fall.
Tony Brennan (materials science
and engineering) became the
first graduate coordinator in
BME, a position he still holds.
Tony's hard work allowed the
program to grow to 75 students.
In 2000, medical doctor J.
Crayton Pruitt Sr. generously
endowed the BME program
with a $2 million gift to get the
department started. In 2001, the
new engineering dean, Pramod
Khargonekar, accepted the
challenge of making the BME
department a reality.
Now, back to my initial panic.
I realized that Chris Batich and
the BME program faculty had
laid a strong foundation for the
department. My challenge was
to build on that foundation a
department UF could be proud
of. My unwavering philosophy
in building the department rests
upon determined adherence
to the concept that there is no
distinction between biology,
engineering, and medicine. I
knew that such determination
12 The Florida Engineer
William Ditto, center, talks with potential BME students at a graduate recruitment breakfast sponsored by the College of Engineering.
would enable us to recruit the
best and brightest faculty in the
world, with the single goal of
bettering the human condition.
Easier said than done! However,
over the last three years BME
has made tremendous progress
toward this goal.
In terms of people, our most
important metric, we have
grown to nine primary faculty
members, more than 40 affiliate
faculty members, 75 graduate
students, and six staff. Everyone
associated with BME is of the
highest quality, and all are
dedicated to our mission. I am
proud to say that we all wake up
every morning burning with the
desire and brimming with the
talent to make us a department
that has no equal in the country
and the world. They know
every day may bring a discovery
that could be the key to easing
human suffering, adding to the
library of human knowledge, or
educating the student who will
make the key breakthrough in
the next generation.
In terms of infrastructure,
we have started building
a $90 million, state-of-
the-art engineering and
medical research facility. The
building will house the BME
department, as well as some of
the best biomedical researchers
from the UF Health Science
Center and its associated
colleges. We expect the building
to be complete in 2008. This
will usher in a new era for the
university in which disciplinary
boundaries do not exist and our
only limits to success are those
of imagination. But we could
not attain our dreams without
the financial infrastructure to
enable us to take the chances in
curriculum, faculty recruiting,
and research.
Such was the situation as I was
sitting in my office in November
2005, again contemplating the
question, "Now what?" Dr.
Pruitt's generous gift in 2000,
the program's foundation, and
the dean's determination to
get us off the ground had led
to a fast-growing, successful
department that needed a
stronger financial infrastructure
to grow to its full potential.
An endowment of $10 to 20
million would allow us to move
forward. I had been told a gift
of that size had never been
bestowed upon a department in
the university's history.
"Now what?" This was the
greatest challenge BME had
ever faced and it seemed
insurmountable. Then once
again Pruitt entered the picture.
I received a call from the
dean's office saying that Pruitt
was visiting campus. David
Woodall, the assistant vice
president for development-major
gifts at the University of Florida
Foundation, arranged for me
and Dean Khargonekar to meet
with him. On that day, the
dean and I laid out for Pruitt
our progress and were candid in
our need for a total endowment
of $10 million (which, with
matching funds from the state,
would likely become the $20
million we needed).
To our surprise, Dr. Pruitt
simply uttered the phrase that
the Dean and I will never
forget: "Yes, I can do that."
He agreed to supplement his
previous gift of $2 million with
an additional $8 million, to
bring it up to the needed $10
million. First with stunned
silence and then an almost
giddy sense of shock, the dean
and I realized that our wildly
ambitious and idealistic goals,
dreams, and aspirations for the
department were attainable.
Pruitt, and subsequently his
family, shared our vision and
made our department a full
reality that day.
Dr. Pruitt is a true co-founder
of our department, and for this
reason it will now be known as
the J. Crayton Pruitt Family
Department of Biomedical
Engineering.
If you come to the UF campus
today, you can feel the
heightened level of enthusiasm,
purpose, and excitement in
the department. Biomedical
Engineering no longer has any
insurmountable barriers to our
goals of bettering the human
condition and educating the
next generation to do the same.
UF makes daily progress to take
its rightful place among the
top 10 universities in the world
and Biomedical Engineering is
right alongside to take its place
amongst the top 10 biomedical
engineering departments as
well.
Gator Engineering 13
RESEARCH
Biomedical Engineering Research
Re-Imagining
Epilepsy Treatment
By Martha Dobson
We have all the team that we need here at
Florida. We are going to look at a problem from
every angle that is important. And we are going to
try to integrate and understand each aspect and
try to work toward a greater understanding by
combining the results.
Paul Carney
Paul Carney is a
multidisciplinary team
by himself. A physician
and an engineer, he is currently
the chief of pediatric neurology
and director of the pediatric
epilepsy program at the
University of Florida. He has
academic appointments in
UF's Pediatrics, N, ur. .1J.._,,,
Neuroscience, and Biomedical
Engineering departments.
Carney has been collaborating
with the Biomedical
Engineering faculty for the
past four years to find a new
understanding of how epilepsy
develops, with the goal of
developing a technology and
a therapy that would better
control seizures.
Epilepsy is fairly common:
One to 5 percent of the
population in Florida, that's
about 300,000 people have
epilepsy. It's also one of the most
Paul Carney is an associate professor in the departments of Pediatrics,
Neurology, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Engineering. He holds the
B.J. and Eve Wilder Epilepsy Research Professor Endowed Chair, is chief
of the Division of Pediatric Neurology, and is medical director of the
University of Florida Health Science Center Pediatric Epilepsy Program.
costly neurological disorders
because it can be lifelong.
Most people with epilepsy
have their first seizures in early
childhood. Then they may go
several years, even one or two
decades, without a seizure. At
that point, they often develop
chronic epilepsy. Most of these
patients, 70 to 80 percent, can
be treated with anticonvulsant
medications, which are not
effective for the remaining 20 to
30 percent.
About 5 to 10 percent of the
patients who do not respond to
medication are candidates for
epilepsy surgery. If the area of
the brain where the seizures are
coming from can be identified
and surgically removed, the
seizures can stop. The remaining
patients generally have non-focal
seizures that involve multiple
areas of the brain, for which
there is currently no treatment
available.
Finding better treatments
to control or even prevent
seizures requires a fundamental
understanding of how the
disease begins and develops.
This is still an open question,
but Carney and his research
partners believe the answer may
be that the brain functions as
a kind of closed-loop feedback
network.
"The brain has electrical signals
that most of the time behave
normally," Carney says. "There
14 The Florida Engineer
are signals that correspond to
wakefulness, to emotion, to
sleep, and so forth. Sometimes,
for reasons that are unclear,
these signals go awry. They
can behave just like a cardiac
arrhythmia, and the patient
begins to convulse, or seize."
Carney believes the lessons
learned in controlling abnormal
heart rhythms could be
applied to controlling brain
arrhythmias. Traditionally,
cardiac arrhythmias were
treated with medicines. Today,
many are treated with automatic
defibrillators, devices surgically
placed in patients' chests. The
devices monitor heart rhythms,
and when the rhythms become
abnormal, give a very small jolt
of electricity to put the heart
back into its normal rhythm.
"We believe that epilepsy may
respond to a similar kind of
closed-loop feedback warning
system," Carney says. The team
is interested in developing a
device that would record the
brain activity of an epilepsy
patient continuously. The device
would predict the onset of a
seizure and would prevent the
seizure before it occurs.
critical moments are occurring
that really lead to the epileptic
state. We believe that if we
can understand that period of
time, we can begin to develop
technologies, particularly
feedback systems, which can
begin to control those seizures
before they occur."
In his laboratory at UF's Brain
Institute, Carney and his
collaborators have begun study
on this aspect of epilepsy using
laboratory rats to model human
temporal lobe epilepsy, which
takes place in the limbic system.
This part of the brain is used
for memory and language, and
is the part most commonly
involved with seizures. The
studies are funded by grants
from the National Institutes
of Health, which has placed a
national priority on epilepsy
research.
Huabei
Jiang has
found ways
of Making
Diseases
Reveal their
Secrets
By Martha Dobson
professor Huabei Jiang is
doing pioneering work
in alternative medical
imaging techniques. Some of
the methods being tested use
familiar tools, such as lasers
and ultrasound, in ways never
tried before. They are revealing
information about diseases at
the molecular and functional
level that may lead to better
treatments and possible cures.
One technique is futuristic: The
use ofbioluminescence cloned
from fireflies to track and locate
genes delivered for gene therapy.
"Genes that go to the wrong
spot could trigger some
unwanted disease," Jiang
says. "Right now there is no
material that can image the
pathway of the genes in this way.
Combining the bioluminescent
material with the genes gives a
way to image and monitor the
gene therapy."
Bioluminescence occurs when
an enzyme called luciferase
oxidizes, or mixes with oxygen.
In the laboratory, Jiang and his
collaborators are using luciferase
to tag tumor cells, which are
then implanted in laboratory
rats. The cells show up clearly
with three-dimensional
tomographic imaging of
the tissue. Tomography is a
technique that shows details
of a solid object in planar cross
sections, or "slices."
Also, with researchers in
pharmaceutics, Jiang is doing
gene therapy studies to deliver
genes to brain tumors and track
them using bioluminescence
tomography. "I think we are
the first to demonstrate this
capability," Jiang says.
Much of Jiang's research has
involved optical tomography,
an imaging technique that uses
lasers instead of X-rays. "We use
lasers a lot," he says, a notable
understatement.
Jiang and his collaborators are
using near infrared lasers in
several projects. They shine the
near infrared light which refers
to the wavelength, or color, of
the laser on tissue at different
angles, and then collect the
scattered light to create the
image.
Huabei Jiang is a professor in
the Biomedical Engineering
department and was previously
a professor of physics at Clemson
University. He is a pioneer in
the field of near-infrared diffuse
optical tomography, and for
his contributions was named a
Fellow of the Optical Society of
America in 2006.
"We have used the light to detect
skin cancer," Jiang says. "We
shine the light along the skin
and measure the reflected light
to determine the cellular sizes
and densities, because cancer
cells are a different size than the
normal cells."
Jiang also uses lasers in
photoacoustic tomographic
imaging. The researchers shine
a pulsed laser light on tissue
to generate local heat that
expands the tissue. The tissue
expands when the light is on and
contracts when the light is off.
The expansion and contraction
of the tissue creates vibrations
that can be detected acoustically
using ultrasound techniques.
This use of photoacoustic
tomography to image epilepsy is
the focus of a groundbreaking
study Jiang initiated with UF
pediatric neurologists soon after
arriving at UF in January 2005.
"One of the main driving forces
for me to come to UF was to
work with the strong program
here in neurology," Jiang says.
16 The Florida Engineer
Imaging epileptic brain activity
is difficult, especially in very
young children, the age when
epilepsy usually has its onset
and when treatment needs to
begin for best results. Neither
CT scans nor MRI are useful for
imaging children, particularly
babies, because they do not stay
motionless as the test requires,
and binding them on papoose
boards to hold them still is
traumatic. Plus, even though
CT and MRI scans can be done
relatively quickly, they still take
several minutes to complete.
"Our photoacoustic method can
do this imaging in a second, or
less," Jiang says. "Nobody else in
the world is pursuing this."
A better method of imaging
breast cancer is also a major
research focus for Jiang. He
and his team are working with
optical tomography as well as
contrast-based fluorescence
tomography, a technique that is
showing promise for increasing
diagnostic accuracy.
The fluorescence technique
is to inject a fluorescent
chemical contrast agent into the
bloodstream, as is done with CT
and MRI scans. The fluorescent
material locates and binds to the
tumor tissue, and shines when
the laser light touches it. The
optical tomography itself is non-
invasive.
"You can detect breast cancer
earlier using optical tomography,
and can distinguish better
between benign and malignant
tumors," Jiang says. "This
will be especially helpful in
younger women and those with
fibrocystic tissue disease, whose
dense breast tissue is difficult to
scan with conventional X-rays.
The contrast between normal
and abnormal tissue is just too
small."
Jiang's research on breast cancer
detection began before he came
to UF and has reached the stage
of clinical trials on patients
whose cases are managed by
UF physicians at the College of
Medicine.
"The women like participating
in the study because it
is less unpleasant than
mammography," Jiang says.
Jiang is also doing research on
applying optical imaging to
detecting osteoarthritis. Right
now, X-ray technology is the
only imaging method used for
that purpose, but X-rays cannot
image soft tissue or cartilage.
The advantage of optical
imaging is the ability to detect
early changes in joint cartilage
and inflammation in the
synovium, the non-cartilage
tissue that lines the joint space.
Physicians can treat the disease
by trying different medicines,
but must wait for observable
results before they can tell if the
medications are effective. This
can take months. With optical
imaging, physicians can monitor
the condition of the joints
and determine quickly if the
medicine is working.
"We are working with human
subjects on the osteoarthritis
study, primarily middle-aged
women with healthy joints to
establish baseline data," Jiang
says. "We are the only research
group in the world doing this."
Jiang, who is a biomedical
engineer and a physicist, feels a
strong commitment to put all
his knowledge to work studying
these problems. "It would be
ideal if I could help create an
imaging research center at UF,"
he says.
"With the imaging techniques
we are studying, you can not
only image the structure of
the body, you can also obtain
information on the tissue
functions," Jiang says. "This is
very important information for
physicians to tell how diseases
arise and progress. That's the
beauty of this work."
Gator Engineering 17
RESEARCH
With gene therapy, there is
Hope for the Brain to Heal Itself
By Martha Dobson
Steroid molecule on a background
of neurons.
assistant Professor
William Ogle is one
e mber of the new
team of dedicated researchers
who have joined the Biomedical
Engineering faculty, attracted by
UF's work in multidisciplinary
gene research. Since his arrival
in fall 2005, he has been busy
setting up his laboratory in UF's
Brain Institute, where he will do
research on the application of
gene regulation to problems of
memory loss caused by disease
and by aging.
"I want to develop real life
therapeutics that will apply and
actually help people," he says.
Ogle is specifically interested
in what happens when neurons
in the hippocampus, the part
of the brain that acts like a
switchboard for acquiring
and retrieving memories, are
damaged by age, disease, or
injury.
"Aging is my primary interest.
I am interested in any disease
which involves a decline in
memory," Ogle says. "I would
like to come up with strategies
and therapies that can help
prevent age-related memory
decline. The idea is to protect
your hippocampus as you get
older and retain your ability to
create and retrieve memories
up until extreme old age, to
maintain cognitive function, so
you can live an active mental
life until the end."
Diseases that cause damage
to the hippocampus include
Alzheimer's, Huntington's
chorea, and Parkinson's.
Nothing can prevent these
diseases, or cure them, although
Parkinson's can be treated and
Alzheimer's can be slowed.
Ogle explains that cells
experience gradual systemic
failure as they age. Small errors
occur in the regulatory events
that maintain the cells, and the
errors accumulate. Eventually,
the cell can no longer repair
itself and malfunctions. This is
what happens when memory
declines. The neurons can't
respond to stimuli or maintain
the internal cellular memory
component.
Ogle believes a solution would
be to reinforce the brain's
neurons with gene therapy
so that they can resist the
incremental damage that builds
up with age, enabling people
to have cognitive function for a
longer period of time.
One potential aspect of
restoring neural function is to
get neural precursor cells to
differentiate to fit into specific
locations and restore function.
Apparently, Ogle says, part of
the way memory works is that
these precursor cells build new
connections and integrate into
the hippocampus.
Memory loss caused by injury
or stroke is caused by a different
mechanism than that seen in
aging. With stroke or seizure
or heart attack, there is a major
energy deficit due to oxygen
depletion resulting from
compromised blood flow to the
brain.
"Then you have a cascade
of events where the neurons
experience a calcium influx,
Ogle says. "That is followed
by a glutamate release which
causes overstimulation that uses
up the energy reserves in the
cell. The cells go into necrotic
death basically because they are
exhausted."
Ogle thinks it may be possible
to identify a key point within
cells where genes can be inserted
that would correct the function
of injured cells. Accordingly, he
wants to design and implement
artificial multi-gene networks to
modulate neuron function. The
networks would take advantage
18 The Florida Engineer
of the sequence of chemical
events that occur when the
neurons are damaged by age or
injury.
A buildup of stress hormones, or
glucocorticoids, is one chemical
change that aging and injured
cells experience. Ogle believes
the glucocorticoids can be put
to work to help protect the
brain against a second stroke.
After the first stroke, surgeons
could insert into the damaged
brain tissue a network of neural
protector genes. A second
stroke event would cause the
glucocorticoids to trigger the
neural protective genes. The
protective genes would prevent
the energy cascade that causes
neuronal death and maintain
the surviving nerve cells so that
they would not be degraded
even more.
Over time, as the patient
gets older and stress events
accumulate, the neural
protective genes would be fully
activated by the stress hormones
to prevent cognitive decline.
Ogle believes another possibility
is a feed-forward system in
which the neural protecting
genes are triggered by event-
response genes. With an injury
event like a stroke or heart
attack, the lack of oxygen, or
hypoxia, would turn on the gene
to provide neural protection.
After the injury event, the gene
expression turns off.
"It would be an on and off event
in case of an injury as compared
to the glucocorticoid model,
where it is constantly on," Ogle
says. "It will be necessary to
work on very tight control of
gene expression in the cells,
because you will want to be able
to shut off the genes if they start
causing problems."
Controlling gene expression
with a drug is a possibility Ogle
has considered. However, he
has misgivings about current
research at some companies
which are looking at creating
genes that are activated by a
drug, need the drug continually
to remain active, or that once
activated by the drug, cannot be
shut off.
"I don't like the idea of people
having to rely on a drug for
the rest of their lives with a
company controlling the price
of that drug," Ogle says. "My
idea is the opposite. The gene is
turned on by natural chemical
changes after an injury event.
If, after a number of years,
this gene is causing problems,
you can take a drug to shut it
down. Then, if there is another
injury event, the gene will be
automatically turned back on by
the injured cells," he says.
This type of gene therapy could
also be applied when signs
indicate an Alzheimer's decline.
In other research, Ogle will
also look at how similar cells
function differently in the
hippocampus and the amygdala,
another brain area involved in
memory. Under high stress,
the amygdala reinforces
memory; in the hippocampus,
stress causes memory loss.
William Ogle is an assistant
professor in the Biomedical
Engineering department. His
academic background is in
biochemistry and molecular
biology. He has done gene
research at the University of
Chicago and Stanford University.
The difference is that the
amygdale turns on genes that
result in synaptic formation
and memory consolidation. In
the hippocampus, the stress
glucocorticoids turn the genes
off.
"I will be looking at specific
genes and trying to come
up with correlations and
identify pathways that can
be manipulated," Ogle says.
"It comes back to the injury
and the age system, where
if you understand how the
basic regulation for memory
consolidation in the cell and the
neuron occurs, then you can
control it.
"I am not a big believer in
magic pills, but I may be able
to identify sites for therapeutic
drug intervention," Ogle says.
Gator Engineering 19
J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. A Gift Close to His Heart continued from page 9
underwent open-heart
surgery for the third
time to receive the
transplant.
The experience
left Pruitt with a
deep appreciation
for biomedical
engineering and for
UF.
k In 2000, Pruitt
expressed his
appreciation
through his first
donation to the biomedical
engineering graduate program
at UF's College of Engineering.
Largely because of Pruitt's $2
million gift, in 2002 Biomedical
Engineering became the college's
llth department. In Dec.
2005, he and his family added
to the first gift, bringing their
total investment in Biomedical
Engineering to $10 million.
The Pruitt Family Foundation
funded a large portion of
the gift. Pruitt's son and two
daughters, Helen and Natalie,
comprise the foundation.
Pruitt's second son, Mark an
alumnus of the UF College of
Law is now deceased. Pruitt
and his family decided to make
one large donation to UF
instead of several smaller ones
to various entities because they
felt it would do more good to
focus the money on a single
organization, especially one
eligible to receive matching
funds.
Besides, UF is close to his
heart. Pruitt said he began
feeling better the day after the
transplant.
"It's been over 10 years now, and
I consider that a miracle," Pruitt
said. "When you look at it like
that, this is a small gift."
Biomedical Engineering Research
Re-Imagining Epilepsy Treatment continued from page 15
in the brain. Carney and his
co-researchers are using very
sophisticated MRI tools to
actually look at the fibers of the
brain and how they structurally
change as the epileptic network
evolves from a state of normalcy.
They are also culturing brain
tissue onto a multi-electrode
array to look at the activity and
behavior of the brain over an
extended period of time. They
believe this novel technique will
give insight into how the brain,
particularly the hippocampus, is
behaving.
Carney says that it is the change
in its structures that makes
the brain prone to going into
arrhythmias. "We believe that
the initial insult, an injury
or first seizure, changes the
rhythmicity of the brain," he
says.
Structural change in a fully
developed brain is rare. At that
point, a brain doesn't develop
new cells or new neurons, except
when injured. It also typically
does not form new structural
connections, a process called
sprouting, except after injury.
"It is believed, and we have
seen some of this in our own
work, that after an injury like
a prolonged seizure, the brain
goes through a recapitulation
of something that would
have occurred during brain
development. New neurons are
born, new axons are formed
or sprouted, and that leads
to a network that behaves
abnormally," Carney says.
They have also found that
following an injury, the brain's
electrical activity shows certain
features that were not seen
before the injury.
"We have discovered features
that we describe as high-
frequency oscillations," Carney
says. "They are very fast bursts
that appear in a very specific
pattern and in a very specific
sequence in the brain that is
becoming epileptic. Those
features also appear when the
animal or human is learning
something. These very, very
fast oscillations in the brain
appear to set down the network
and strengthen it such that the
network takes on a behavior,
whether it be learning, memory,
or as in the case of seizures,
epilepsy."
The researchers also believe that
it is very difficult for the brain
to have a significant electrical
event like a seizure without the
rest of the brain participating at
some level in that seizure, and
remembering it at a later date.
"We know that many epilepsy
surgery patients, after surgeons
have removed the seizure focus
area, go on to have seizures
five or six years later. The brain
somehow retains the memory
of the disease. There is no other
theory right now that has been
tested or has been shown to
20 The Florida Engineer
J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. poses with a sculpture created by artists Arturo Sinclair,
UF Digital Worlds Institute, and Bradley Smith, UF College of Fine Arts.
Digital Worlds director James Oliverio, Digital Worlds student Anthony
Maligno, and Biomedical Engineering PhD student Cecile Perrault also
contributed. The base is made from cocobolo, an exotic Central American
wood.Two pieces of alabaster surround three knee replacement implants,
which are a classic example of biomedical engineering technology. The
implants, donated by BME affiliate faculty member B.J. Fregly of the
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering department, are made from a cobalt
chrome alloy and manufactured by Smith & Nephew.
The Pruitt-lnahara Carotid Shunt
In the late 1970s, Pruitt became increasingly dissatisfied with the shunts
he used during surgery to keep blood flowing through the carotid artery.
Metal clamps held them in place, and he worried that the clamps might
damage artery walls. He noticed also that they sometimes scraped into
the bloodstream the very particles he was trying to remove. Potentially,
these particles could cause a patient to have a stroke during the stroke-
prevention surgery.
To solve the problem Pruitt helped create the Pruitt-lnahara Carotid
Shunt. The shunt, pictured here, uses balloons to stay correctly positioned
and includes a special side arm to divert stray particles away from the
bloodstream. The device is now considered one of the most widely used
shunts for this type of procedure. Pruitt formed the company Ideas for
Medicine to manufacture and distribute his invention. He later sold the
company, and the shunt is now produced by LeMaitre Vascular, Inc.
explain how the brain becomes
epileptic and why seizures occur
when they occur," Carney says.
"The brain is a complete entity.
It is richly connected. Parts are
constantly talking to each other,
even though they seem remote.
If one tries to approach this
problem by just looking at some
very specific regions, you are
really missing the big picture,"
Carney says.
"We believe that if you look
at the whole brain as a fully
embodied entity, you are more
likely to begin to tease out some
of the fundamental features that
lead to the epileptic condition.
We believe that it will probably
lead to a more effective therapy
versus trying to cure the
disorder by looking at some very
small parts of the whole."
Gator Engineering 21
COLLEGE
Homeland Security Research
Is the Focus for New Civil
Engineering Center
Joseph W. Tedesco, Chair
Civil & Coastal Engineering
www.ce.ufl.edu
The Department of Civil
& Coastal Engineering
is pleased to announce
the establishment of the Center
for Infrastructure Protection
and Physical Security (CIPPS)
with an initial contract from
the U.S. Army Research and
Development Center (ERDC).
CIPPS researchers will perform
collaborative R&D with
government and industry to
develop innovative technologies
for the protection of critical
infrastructure systems, and will
transfer the knowledge through
various engineering education
and training programs.
The end of the Cold War in
1989 was a watershed event
for the world. Nations across
the globe began reducing their
armed forces in response to
the perceived increase in world
stability. Unfortunately, the
euphoria was short lived as
international terrorism became
a major concern. Prior to
1993, the United States had
been relatively unaffected by
terrorism within its borders.
However, in February 1993,
externally supported terrorists
attacked the World Trade
Center in New York City.
In April 1995, the U.S. was
shocked by the devastating
domestic terrorist attack against
the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City.
More emphatically, the events
of Sept. 11, 2001, demonstrated
the ability of terrorists to cause
civilian deaths and property
damage at levels not seen since
the waning days of World
War II. These horrific terrorist
attacks changed forever the
way American federal, state,
and local government agencies,
and many other organizations
around the world, would look at
national security and the need
for protection from terrorism.
The need to protect military
facilities, civilian populations,
and infrastructure systems
from terrorist attacks and
social/subversive unrest has
increased in many parts of
the world. It dramatically
underscores the need to develop
protective technologies over
and above those related to
military-sponsored work on
fortifications.
The Center for Infrastructure Protection and Physical Security (CIPPS)will be
located in this office building on UF's Waldo Road Campus in East Gainesville.
22 The Florida Engineer
The new 10,500 square ft. Powell Laboratory, co-located on the East Gainesville Campus, will further
enhance the CIPPS' capability.
It was for this reason that
CIPPS was created: To
develop innovative theoretical,
numerical, and experimental
approaches to protect society
from terrorism and weapons of
mass destruction in a well-
coordinated collaboration
between governments, academic
institutions, and private
organizations. Such technologies
are vital for insuring the
safety of the people and the
preservation of valuable national
assets.
Current CIPPS research
includes the progressive collapse
of multi-story buildings,
software development for
structural response analysis,
explosive load definition,
material response to high rate
loading, and improved vehicular
armor design. Other current
and future programs in the
College of Engineering on
related topics funded by various
sponsors in the U.S. and abroad
will also take place at CIPPS.
CIPPS research reflects the
reality that warfare has changed.
Unlike the politically and
ideologically motivated global
conflicts of the past, dominated
by well-organized military
forces, most of the armed
conflicts in the last two decades
have been local or regional, and
dominated by social, religious,
economic, and/or ethnic causes.
Attacks are carried out by a
few individuals or small groups
against selected strategic targets
and are intended to inflict
considerable economic damage
and loss of life.
The causes for this terrorism
are related to a broad range of
important areas (e.g., culture,
history, sociology, politics,
economics, religion, life sciences
and medicine, psychology, etc.).
In addition to the serious need
for innovative developments
in these areas, society must
invest in developing effective
capabilities in intelligence, law
enforcement, and preparedness.
Therefore, the scope of the
research conducted by CIPPS
will likely extend beyond
engineering to include the
physical sciences, health
sciences, agriculture, law, and
the social sciences.
Defense against this form
of rapidly evolving warfare
will remain a challenge.
Any successful response
will require a well-planned,
multilayered approach that
strikes a fine balance between
assuring a nation's security and
maintaining the freedoms that a
modern society enjoys.
Gator Engineering 23
COLLEGE
Team CIMAR:
Engineers with the
Instincts of Explorers
By Aaron Hoover
t is Oct. 7, 2005, in Primm,
Nev. Twenty-three teams
from universities and private
companies have converged on
this tiny town on the California-
Nevada border. They're here
to pit custom-designed robot
cars against each other in a race
across the Mojave Desert for
a $2 million prize. The race's
sponsor, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency,
says its goal is to accelerate the
development of robotic vehicles
for military purposes.
It's the second DARPA Grand
Challenge in as many years.
No one came close to finishing
the first. That's because crafting
a robotic car, one that drives
with zero assistance from people
across unknown and hazardous
terrain, is a new frontier. The
machine must not only sense
landscape, it must also avoid
collisions, all while proceeding
rapidly toward its destination.
Ground zero for the race this
year is the parking lot behind
Buffalo Bill's Casino and
Resort, an enormous hotel
dolled up as a faux red barn
surrounded by a yellow roller
coaster. The day before the
main event, the lot looks like
a cross between a technology
convention, a used car sale, and
a carnival. Trailers, buses, and
vans surround the robot cars,
which range from TerraMax,
a 16-ton Oshkosh military
truck used by the Marines, to
CajunBot, a small six-wheeled
affair that resembles a moon
lander.
The University of Florida team
is busy on last-minute touchups
to their car, NaviGATOR. With
a frame of blue tubular steel
and an array of electronics, it
looks like a juiced-up, off-road
go-cart.
Team CIMAR, named for
UF's Center for Intelligent
Machines and Robotics, has
been working on NaviGATOR
for 18 months. Its performance
has already vastly exceeded last
year's version, which traveled
just six-tenths of a mile in the
first Grand Challenge before
becoming ensnared in barbed
wire and stalling. But the 12-
hour days, breakdowns, and
assorted tribulations have made
the team familiar with the
extraordinary difficulty ahead.
"There's perception, decision
making, and control, and if
you screw up any one of those
you're going to get stuck or fall
off a cliff," says Bob Touchton,
a UF mechanical engineering
doctoral student. "I think it's
possible for us to finish the race,
but it will surprise me if we have
that much break our way."
They love the challenge
For Touchton and other senior
members of Team CIMAR,
the project began when the
first Grand Challenge was
announced. At the helm were
team leader Carl Crane, a
UF mechanical engineering
professor, and David
Armstrong, project manager
and UF engineer.
Crane is the head of CIMAR
and UF's chief robot researcher.
Armstrong is a mechanical
expert who has defined his
life with ever-more outsized
projects, including building
his family's 5,000-square-foot
home. "I like a challenge. That's
the way I am," Armstrong says,
speaking a mantra repeated
almost verbatim by other team
members.
UF's first NaviGATOR car, a
modified Isuzu Trooper that
looked like a cross between a
Hummer and a tank, placed
eighth at the 2004 Grand
Challenge. That year's top
robot, raced by Carnegie
Melon University, traveled just
seven and a half miles. The
results were almost laughable,
considering that the course was
142 miles, and the race was
widely lampooned by pundits.
24 The Florida Engineer
MN -
Crane and Armstrong put
their heads together with their
students and team members
Mike Griffis, of Eigenpoint, a
Florida robotics company, and
staff members of the Utah-based
robotics company Autonomous
Solutions to plan their next
entry. Their decision: To rebuild
NaviGATOR from the ground
up. They hired All Terrain
Monsters, a Georgia company,
to build the frame and install
the powerplant. In Dec. 2004,
the company delivered the first
bare-bones version of the new
NaviGATOR.
That winter and spring, the
engineers outfitted it with 10
mainframe computers, three
cameras, three laser range
scanners, one radar, two GPS
units, and five emergency kill
switches. They also installed
a North Finding Module/
GPS system that provides
NaviGATOR's computers with
constant, real-time location and
orientation. The module was
donated by Smiths Aerospace, a
Grand Rapids, Michigan-based
engineering firm that was the
team's chief sponsor.
More than 200 teams applied
to enter the 2005 Grand
Challenge. The agency selected
the best 118, then sent staff to
assess each entry. In June, UF
made the cut of 40 semifinalists.
Three months later, at the
Grand Challenge's National
Qualification Event in Fontana,
California, NaviGATOR's
performance was good enough
to snare one of 23 spots in the
main event.
Sleek and carefully engineered,
NaviGATOR looks far more
professional than some of its
competitors. That was managed
despite Team CIMAR's
relatively small budget totaling
$250,000 in cash and donated
equipment, a fraction of
the sums spent by Stanford,
Carnegie Melon University, and
others. But on race day, Crane
feels NaviGATOR still needs
more testing and development.
"The biggest problem we have is
we don't have any fault tolerance
built in," he says. "If a computer
goes down or a sensor starts
giving us bad data, we're going
to be in trouble."
'It's not meant to be easy'
At 5:23 a.m. on Oct. 8, race
day, it is still dark outside
the modest white truck
trailer that doubles as Team
CIMAR's mission control
and NaviGATOR's garage.
Armstrong, doctoral student
Danny Kent, and technician
Sarah Gray huddle over
laptops checking out their
route description data file
(RDDF)-an electronic map of
the course handed to the team a
few minutes earlier. Armstrong
programs NaviGATOR's speed
for each leg of the 131.6-mile
course, which travels through a
mountain pass, dry lakes, and
tunnels.
The job is tough. If its speeds are
too low, NaviGATOR has no
hope of winning in the allotted
10 hours. If the speeds are too
high, the chances of hitting
something or running off the
road go up. Armstrong has the
time down to eight hours, 18
minutes, with NaviGATOR
reaching 24 miles per hour
on some stretches very high
numbers for the car.
NaviGator on the race course.
"I feel pretty good, but the path
is a lot harder than we expected,
in terms of the geometry of the
path itself," he says.
The opening ceremony starts
at 6:20 a.m. under a red dawn.
The announcer reminds the
crowd that the military wants
30 percent of its vehicles under
robotic or "autonomous" control
by 2015.
The race is a way to galvanize
the engineering that will achieve
that goal. In light of that, "It's
not meant to be easy," the
announcer says.
The event is a race against the
clock, so the robots' departures
are staggered, with those that
performed best at qualification
earning the top positions.
Carnegie Mellon's Highlander,
a modified red Hummer with
a Star-Trek-like dish on top, is
first out of the gate at 6:40 a.m.
The driverless car turns by the
grandstand and heads out into
the desert with almost eerie
confidence.
Highlander is followed by
Stanford University's Stanley, a
sleek modified VW Toureg, and
Sandstorm, Carnegie Mellon's
other entry. DARPA officials in
Ford F-250 trucks follow each
robot at a distance, their hands
on kill switches designed to stop
the robots in their tracks if they
get off course or threaten other
vehicles.
Other cars follow at 10- to 20-
minute intervals. At 8:09 a.m.
the first robot to wash out is
Cornell's Spider. By 8:50 a.m.,
three more are "dead bots."
At this point, NaviGATOR is
nearing the launch gate. Shortly
after 9 a.m., Kent leads everyone
in a rousing version of the Gator
fight song, and NaviGATOR
leaves the gate.
Gator Engineering 25
r t "!.; i.
"' ;" i
..... IlU
"We did everything we could,"
says Steve Velat, one of the
team's two undergraduate
students. "She's as good as she's
going to get."
'Like being on the cutting
edge of computers'
That may not be good enough-
for UF and many of the other
teams. Any toddler can find
his or her way around chairs,
couches, and a dining room
table en route to the kitchen and
the cookie jar. But the same task
is nothing if not challenging for
robots. Elongate the distance
and the number and variety
of obstacles, and getting there
proves downright daunting.
The problem lies partly in
perception. As Galuzzo notes,
scientists still do not really
understand how people make
sense of their surroundings. "It's
unclear how we do it. It's all
subconscious," he says.
With no biological model,
engineers have to be inventive.
The lasers, radar, and camera
sensors used on most of the
robot vehicles are pretty good
at sensing obstacles, such as
boulders. They have more
trouble with "negative" obstacles
such as holes things that aren't
so much presence as absences.
"You have to sense nothing,"
explains doctoral student Sanjay
Solanki. "Not many people have
come up with good ideas on
this problem, but everybody is
facing it."
Even if the perception is perfect,
the machine's computers have
to make judgments on the best
way to respond and then these
judgments have to be translated
rapidly and accurately into
mechanical motion.
It adds up to a challenge so
huge that the most remarkable
thing about this year's Grand
Challenge is the progress made
by all the competitors.
Last year's NaviGATOR never
traveled more than a mile. The
current vehicle made 40 miles.
Team members are particularly
high on a September practice
in the desert around Stoddard
Valley, Calif. Team CIMAR
downloaded a route map
through desert mountains
from Team TerraMax. They
didn't look at the map and had
no idea where it might lead
NaviGATOR.
"We are looking at cliffs on
one side and hills on the other
with some serious washouts
running across the road. We
are not ready for this level of
difficulty! The NaviGATOR
drives on fearlessly as it weaves
near the edge of the cliff...,"
recounts a race blog maintained
by Armstrong in the months
leading up to the race.
At qualifying events in Fontana,
UF completed three out of five
runs and wound up 18th. Other
competitors did even better.
Stanford's top-ranked Stanley
completed all qualifying runs
without a hitch. The rapid
progress is exciting to all the
people involved. The vehicles
are far from perfect. Some still
look more like college science
projects than future military
hardware. But there's a sense
that the technology is on the
verge of taking off.
As Galuzzo says, "It's kind of
like being on the cutting edge of
computers 30 years ago before
they exploded."
An impressive start
Judging from the first moments
of the race, robot cars may not
be far from the showroom floor.
After leaving the starting gate,
all the robots head off, then
circle around and make another
pass by the crowd before driving
into the desert. It's impressive,
in part because the cars are
moving quickly and seemingly
effortlessly. At 10:15 a.m.,
NaviGATOR roars past at top
speed to the cheers of the UF
team.
But after following the road
for awhile, NaviGATOR stops
and does a couple of loops in
the dirt-not part of the plan.
"Come on, get back on the road
again!" Kent urges, cheering
when NaviGATOR regains
the road and heads in the right
direction.
NaviGATOR next flawlessly
traverses a bridge over a railroad
track and disappears into the
brown desert haze. But the
optimism left behind by that
image doesn't last long. Shortly
before 11 a.m., the chase truck
following NaviGATOR reports
that the car has inexplicably
run off the road and stopped.
NaviGATOR appears reluctant
to move forward into and out
of low brush in front of it,
although its off-road capabilities
would easily carry it through.
The team is incredulous. "He
says it's just brush and we
should be able to go," Griffis
says after talking to the chase
truck driver.
After several attempts to pause
and restart NaviGATOR, the
driver calls back to say the
car is moving, but slowly and
off the road. NaviGATOR
drives slowly over brush, then
regains the road and takes off
again at high speed, following
it perfectly. But after about
another mile, the car again gets
off the road and stops in front
of a bush. This time, DARPA
quickly declares NaviGATOR
dead.
The time is shortly before
noon. NaviGATOR has
traveled 23 miles. "I thought
we had a pretty good system. I
knew speed was going to be a
problem, but I thought we could
get farther," Crane said.
Later, the team determined the
cause was probably a failure of
the GPS system, which reported
a position almost 10 feet
off-prompting NaviGATOR to
drive off the road. Armstrong
said the car might still have
recovered, but its last position
was a high-traffic area, and
DARPA officials may not have
wanted to give the car more
time to think its way back onto
the road because other robots
could hit it.
NaviGATOR placed 18th
among the 23 finalists. Five
teams completed the entire
course. Stanford's Stanley took
the $2 million prize for the
shortest time of six hours, 53
minutes and 58 seconds.
The team's disappointment is
obvious. But everyone feels they
benefited from the experience.
Like several of the other
doctoral students, Touchton will
base his thesis on the work he
did on the car.
"Where do you find a lab like
this?" he asks. "This is like night
and day with what we could
have contrived in a laboratory."
http://cimar.mae.ufl.edu/CIMAR/
26 The Florida Engineer
Ray Bucklfn pr,'k ..r ha,
received the Gamma Sigma
Delta Senior Faculty Award
of Merit from the Florida
chapter of Gamma Sigma
Delta, the national honor
society of agriculture. Bucklin's
research focuses on agricultural
structures and aquaculture.
Biomedical Engineering
Huabei Jiang, professor, is
now a Fellow of the Optical
Society of America. Jiang
is known for his research
on breast cancer imaging
techniques and was cited for his
pioneering contributions to the
understanding and advancement
of near-infrared diffuse optical
tomography.
Chemical Engineering
Tim Anderson, professor and
associate dean for research
and graduate programs,
College of Engineering, has
been named a Fellow of the
American Institute of Chemical
Engineers. Anderson was cited
for pioneering the application
of chemical engineering to
the processing of advanced
electronic and photonic
materials.
Civil & Coastal Engineering
John Davidson, professor, is the
College of Engineering's 2005-
2006 Teacher of the Year and
will be in consideration for the
University of Florida Teacher
of the Year award. Davidson
is also the associate chair for
undergraduate programs for the
department.
Research Council ...n iii.rr, F
on New Orleans Regional
Hurricane Protection Projects.
The committee will review
data on the design capacity
of the original hurricane
protection system, the forces
exerted against the system
and the system's response,
and the factors that resulted
in overtopping, breaching, or
failure of levees and floodwalls.
Electrical & Computer
Engineering
Jos4 Principe, BellSouth
professor and director
of the Computational
NeuroEngineering Laboratory,
is now a member of the College
Industrial & Systems
Engineering
Don Hearn, professor and chair,
is now a Fellow of the Institute
for Operations Research
and Management Science
(INFORMS). Hearn is also the
co-director for the Center for
Applied Optimization.
Panos Pardalos, professor
and co-director of the Center
for Applied Optimization,
is now a Fellow of the
American Association for
the Advancement of Science
(AAAS); he also received the
degree of Honorary Doctor
from the Nizhni Novgorod State
University in Russia.
The University of Florida and the Universidad Privada
del Norte (UPN), Trujillo, Peru, have formally agreed to
a research and education collaboration between their
colleges of engineering.
The agreement was signed by UF engineering dean
Pramod Khargonekar, UF International Center dean
Dennis Jett on behalf of UF president Bernard Machen,
and Jaime Zarate Aguilar, UPN academic vice president.
Jennifer Hortorv pr. .'' i-,
assistant, was named the
College of Engineering 2005-
2006 Adviser of the Year. She
will be in consideration for the
University of Florida Adviser of
the Year award.
Nuclear & Radiological
Engineering
Robert E. Uhrig, distinguished
professor emeritus, received the
ASME Medal for eminently
distinguished engineering
achievement at the International
Mechanical Engineering
Congress and Exposition
held by the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers in
Orlando during November
2005. This is the most
distinguished award given by
the ASME.
The UF and UPN engineering colleges will work
together in the areas of research, student and faculty
exchanges, graduate programs, distance learning
graduate education, and energy management.
Initial proposals include an energy management
program and the establishment of an Industrial
Assessment Center, similar to that in UF's Industrial &
Systems Engineering department, at UPN's campus in
Cajamarca, Peru.
Gator Engineering 27
STUDENTS
Tulane Students Found a Warm
Welcome at UF after Katrina
By Reshelle Smith
Roger Matthews -i
Hurricane Katrina left
a city in ruins and
brought New Orleans
students a semester no one
expected.
In fall 2005, UF's College of
Engineering took in 11 students
displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
They made UF their temporary
home during one of the most
tumultuous semesters of their
lives.
Amy Stein, a senior in civil
engineering from Palm Harbor,
was working in California when
she first heard of an impending
hurricane. She followed through
with her plans to come home for
a few days and then visit friends
in Gainesville before leaving for
the beginning of class at Tulane
University. She ended up staying
in Gainesville a little longer
than expected.
She was in classes at UF by the
Thursday after the hurricane.
"I might have been the first one
here," she said.
After convincing three other
civil engineering friends from
Tulane to come to UF, they
rented an apartment together for
the semester. She said one of the
best things to come out of this
experience was the opportunity
to connect with old friends she
hadn't seen since high school.
And although UF's engineering
program is much larger than
Tulane's, she still enjoyed a sense
of community with those in her
classes and found that professors
still knew and cared about their
students.
That doesn't mean the semester
was easy. She began classes
about two weeks after everyone
else. "It was hard jumping
into these classes two weeks
late and completely thrown
off," she said. "I didn't have a
schedule down. It was hard."
She had a lot of catching up
to do, but the professors were
very understanding and helpful,
allowing her extra time to catch
up.
Stein returned to Tulane for
the spring semester. As vice-
president of the American
Society of Civil Engineers
at Tulane, she wants to help
rebuild the city. She was
planning to help out with a
paint rally for the schools in
New Orleans, Habitat for
Humanity, and a new program
to help employees of Tulane
with the rebuilding process.
Roger Matthews, a senior in
mechanical engineering at
Tulane, feels similarly. He wants
to give back to the city that
has given him so many great
memories.
He was on a beach trip with
friends when the he got news
of an impending storm. He
rode out the storm in a motel
in Panama City, and then
ended up waiting for news
about school closures at home
in Bluffton, S.C., with just the
clothes in his bag. A high school
friend in Gainesville with an
available room prompted his
journey to UF.
"If you have a plan set up for
six months, and then all of a
sudden, one day it just doesn't
work, you're aimless," he said.
"I had to go somewhere, and
Florida was the obvious choice."
Once he arrived, about three
weeks after classes began, the
UF administration did its best
to get him exactly what he
needed. "My experience with
the administration couldn't
have been better," he said.
"I had gotten to UF and 45
minutes later I was sitting in
class, and by the end of the day
I was a complete, registered,
legal student. They were very
understanding."
Without even a transcript, it was
hard to figure out exactly which
classes he needed and which
ones were equivalent to those
at Tulane. "The teachers were
as helpful as they could be," he
said, "but there's really not a lot
they can do for you when you
are three weeks behind."
The football season at UF
was one experience Matthews
never expected. Football isn't
a popular sport at Tulane, so
seeing a campus full of tailgaters
was very unusual for him.
"People wake up early to start
partying here when there's a
football game, and you'd be
hard pressed to find someone
that knew there was a football
game that day on Tulane's
campus," he said.
He returned to New Orleans
during the fall semester to
survey the damage. The
floodwaters severely damaged
the house he had planned to live
in, leaving almost everything
in the first floor and all the
cars in the street pretty much
destroyed.
"It doesn't really occur to you
that it's your backyard until
you're standing in it," he said.
He was not sure whether repairs
to his house would be done
when he went back for the
spring semester or not, but it
didn't matter to him.
"I'll do whatever I have to," he
said at the time. "I'll live in a
hotel if I have to. I'll live in a
trailer."
He felt he had a duty to return
to Tulane for his graduation and
to help rebuild the city. "I feel
like I owe the city to hammer
a few nails and clean out a few
driveways, things like that," he
said.
After the rebuilding effort, he is
contemplating graduate school
at UF, mostly as a result of his
experience during his semester's
exile.
28 The Florida Engineer
STUDENTS
Environmental Graduate
Program Receives
$3.1 Million Grant
By Meredith Jean Morton
tarting in summer 2006,
the University of Florida
will take an innovative
approach to graduate student
education through a program
that will give students a wider
range of knowledge and
experience through fellowships
that take an interdisciplinary
approach to research.
The National Science
Foundation awarded $3.1
million to UF's Center for
Environmental Policy to
conduct the Integrative
Graduate Education and
Research Traineeship, or
IGERT, program over five years.
"This is a (National Science
Foundation) program meant to
change the culture of graduate
education," said Mark T. Brown,
director of the UF Center for
Environmental Policy. "In
typical PhD work, the student
finds a discipline, becomes
steeped in it and develops little
or no knowledge in other areas."
The UF IGERT program will
be one of 125 nationwide, each
providing a special opportunity
for students interested in
pursuing a doctorate in the
natural and social sciences,
mathematics, engineering, or
technology.
"The problems of the world
are not narrow and limited,"
said Brown, a wetlands and
systems ecologist. "They are
complex and integrated, and
it's important to shift the PhD
programs from narrow to
integrated."
UF's IGERT program will
provide fellowships for 25 to 30
doctoral students in different
disciplines to conduct research
around an integrated theme that
focuses on wise use of water,
wetlands, and watersheds. The
program's key feature is adaptive
management, a systematic
process for continually
improving management policies
and practices by learning from
the outcomes of operational
programs.
"This is a training and
educational grant, not a research
grant," Brown said. "Almost all
of the money goes toward the
graduate students."
UF's IGERT program is unique
in that it forms partnerships
among UF's Institute of Food
and Agricultural Sciences,
College of Engineering, Fredric
G. Levin College of Law, and
College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences. Fifteen departments
within the four colleges will
participate in the program. It
has research partners locally
in the Florida Everglades and
internationally in Africa, South
America, Australia, and Central
America. Each summer, the
IGERT fellows will work and
study abroad in these locations
to gain hands-on experience,
but they'll start with a two-
week intensive study of the
Everglades.
"Our fellowship begins with a
summer visit to the Everglades
because it gives the students an
opportunity to see a system that
is costing $8 billion to put back
together," Brown said. "Then we
go to one of the other continents
because the ecosystems there are
very similar to the Everglades,
with all kinds of competing
factors trying to maintain a
viable ecology."
Brown stressed that students
in any discipline are welcome
to join the IGERT program,
and even doctoral candidates
focusing on exercise science,
fine arts, or tourism could be
tapped.
The educational component of
the IGERT program emphasizes
basic science in each student's
discipline, coupled with training
in systems, law, policy, ethics,
and communication.
"We are gearing up to bring the
first group of students into the
program in June 2006," Brown
said. "I believe in experiential
learning, and that immersion
in the international ecology
will give the students a greater
potential for an integrative
education. The senses come alive
when studying and traveling in
unusual places."
The idea for the program
originated in Brown's own
experiences in graduate school at
UF, where he forged numerous
professional relationships with
fellow graduate students.
"As a result of the experiences
in graduate school, you develop
a camaraderie that lasts a
lifetime," he said. "We're trying
to foster that camaraderie for
lasting professional relationships
between our students."
www.ees.ufl.edu
Gator Engineering 29
STUDENTS
Engineering students learn
New Tools for Better Communications
By Reshelle Smith
This year, some of
UF's Mechanical &
Aerospace Engineering
(MAE) graduate students are
trading thermodynamics for
tone, statics for simile, and
physics for parallelism.
Following the lead of other top
engineering programs such as
the University of Michigan,
which holds an annual fiction
and poetry writing contest for
its engineers, UF has brought
creative writing to the MAE
department.
This year, students meet once
a week in a graduate seminar
course to discuss writing and
how to improve their writing
skills. The course includes
creative writing, a talent
engineers are generally not
known for.
The students are tackling
writing assignments like poetry
and how to describe something
fritten thefrtll w of c
willth u s "ing.reader know
Ca he trc th redeSS t tin
hi poe mas soehn moreS ?
ugly as something beautiful
with enthusiasm, said instructor
Christine Schmitz.
Christine and her co-instructor
and husband, MAE assistant
professor Tony Schmitz, believe
that the class emphasizes needed
skills that sometimes don't get
enough attention.
Being able to write intelligently
is a huge benefit to anyone who
wants to advance in any field,
Tony said.
"As graduate students, you
are being prepared to assume
leadership positions in
engineering when you leave
here," he said. "I don't know
of any leadership role in
engineering where you do not
need strong communication
skills. We're just trying to add
to the students' toolbox, so they
can just be that much more
successful."
He first began thinking
about a writing class
for engineers while
working at the National
Institute of Standards
and Technology in
Gaithersburg, Md.
S "By and large, it was
the people that were the
better communicators
that did a better job
attracting funding and
identifying interesting
things to work on," he
said. "I think that's what
planted the seed."
He discussed the idea with his
wife, Christine, who has taught
English, creative writing, and
technical writing to a wide
variety of students.
"Engineers as a group, to
stereotype them, are not very
good writers," she said. "There's
no stress on writing, but yet you
can't be a research scientist and
not have to write. You can do
all the research you want, but if
you can't communicate it when
you're done, no one is even
going to know about it."
The idea came to fruition when
they ran into one of Christine's
former creative writing
professors at UF, Debora
Greger, an award-winning
writer. They discussed their idea
with her, and her enthusiasm
was obvious. Together, they
wrote a proposal to modify the
lecture content of the graduate
seminar course, which Tony
is co-organizing with MAE
professor Jacob Chung this year,
in a new direction.
After receiving approval from
engineering dean Khargonekar
and interim MAE chair Gene
Hemp, they began teaching the
class in fall 2005. Greger taught
the poetry section, Christine
taught creative writing, and
Tony taught oral presentations
and proposal writing. Greger
is in England for spring 2006,
so Christine has taken over the
poetry section this term.
This is more than a technical
writing class. The instructors'
focus is less on the mechanics
of writing and more on the
students' expression and
creativity.
English is not the first language
for five of the seven students
enrolled this semester, making
writing an even bigger
challenge. While they may be
more comfortable speaking
Korean, Hindi, German, or
Spanish, they are doing a great
job writing creatively in English,
Christine said.
"There's no limit to what I can
put at them," she said. "I'm
giving them assignments that
I wouldn't give until the last
week of the semester in a regular
creative writing class."
While the long-term effects
of the class are yet to be seen,
Christine and Tony both believe
this is something the students
both need and enjoy.
"The engineer is the scientific
equivalent of a poet," said
Christine. "They are taking
all of these things, all of
these expected things, such
as the equations they know,
the formulas they know, the
outcomes that they know, and
they are having to use them in
creative ways to come up with
new ideas and new inventions."
Christine and Greger have
submitted a proposal to
continue the class as a three-
credit course in the fall. They
would like to continue working
on innovative ways to educate
engineers.
30 The Florida Engineer
STUDENTS
EES Programs Help Environmental Protection and Water
Resources Management Professionals Stay Current
By Warren Viessman Jr.
Professor Emeritus
Environmental Engineering Sciences
Rachel Carson's 1962
book Silent Spring and
he inaugural Earth Day
in 1970 catalyzed a firestorm
of environmental activism that
has been sustained for more
than 40 years. An outgrowth
of this has been the passage of
a host of federal and state laws
and rules devised to protect the
environment, ensure clean air
and water, protect endangered
species, and encourage the
restoration of ecosystems.
Development and
implementation of these laws,
rules, and policies requires input
from a spectrum of specialists
and concerned stakeholders.
Engineers, scientists, sociologists,
economists, ecologists and others
are involved in policy making
and analysis, and in planning
and management related to
environmental protection and
water management.
These specialists all need a
broad understanding of the
full dimensions of the issues
they face. Recognizing this, the
Environmental Engineering
Sciences (EES) department
developed two online graduate
level programs to help those
seeking to strengthen their
ability to function as team
players in the water/environment
field or to obtain better
credentials for employment in
that area.
The certificate program in
Environmental Policy and
Management began in 1998.
It consists of five courses
covering environmental policy,
environmental planning
and design, environmental
law, global environmental
policies and institutions, and
environmental economics. To
date, 27 certificates have been
awarded and 117 students
from various disciplines and
affiliations are enrolled in the
program.
The second program, launched
in 2003, is an online master's
degree with specialization in
Water Resources Planning and
Management. Students may
earn a Master of Engineering
or a Master of Science
degree, depending upon their
background. Thirty credit hours
(10 courses) are required to
complete the program.
The online master's degree
began as a cooperative program
with the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers (USACE). Five
universities participate in
this venture: The University
of Arizona, Southern Illinois
University, Harvard University,
Johns Hopkins University, and
the University of Florida. The
UF program is not limited to
USACE students, but is open
to all students who qualify for
admission.
Students are admitted to the
master's program through
the EES department. The
curriculum is broad and
designed to provide planning
and management professionals
with a strong academic base
in the fundamentals of water
resources planning and
management. The program
includes formal courses on
water resources planning and
institutions, decision support
systems, environmental policy,
ecology, water resources
infrastructure, economics,
hydrology, hydraulics, and
quantitative methods. An
advanced planning practicum is
the capstone for the program.
Currently, 33 students are
pursuing this program.
Seventeen are USACE civil
works students and 16 are from
water management districts,
state agencies, consulting firms,
industry, water utilities, and the
military (Army, Navy, Air Force,
and Coast Guard). The students
are from Florida, Washington,
New Mexico, Alabama, Georgia,
and Mississippi.
The online master's program
attracts a broad range of
professionals, ranging from a
trial lawyer to an Air Force pilot.
During the fall semester of 2005,
one student was Lt. Melissa R.
Smith, a graduate of the U.S. Air
Force Academy with a degree in
environmental engineering and a
2005 recipient of her wings (see
photo). Her comments exemplify
the interest of professionals in
continuing their education in
the environment/water field.
"As a military officer I feel it is
my responsibility to know what
consequences my actions and the
actions of those around me are
having on any given situation,"
Smith says. "Often I think we
overlook the environmental
impact of situations and
I hope that studying the
environment keeps that impact
on the forefront of my mind.
continued on page 33
Gator Engineering 31
DEVELOPMENT REPORT
Spring 2006
Ann McElwain
Senior Director ofDevelopment
E-mail: amcel@eng.ufl.edu
Edward M. Kominowski
Director ofDevelopment
E-mail: ekominowski@eng.ufl.edu
C. Ellis Pope
Director ofDevelopment
E-mail: epope@eng.ufl.edu
P: 352.392.6795
F: 352.846.0138
Ann McElwain is New
Senior Development
Officer
Ann McElwain joined the
College of Engineering as senior
director of development in
October 2005.
McElwain is a 1990 University
of Florida alumna in
Economics. She also has an
MBA from Nova Southeastern
University in Fort Lauderdale.
Before coming to UF, she was
the managing director for
fundraising at Jack and Jill's
Children's Center in Broward
County. She was named the
Outstanding Fundraising
Executive for Broward County
in 2004 by the Association of
Fundraising Professionals.
Silver Society Welcomes
25th Anniversary
Graduates
A new Gator tradition, the
Silver Society, has been created
for UF alumni who graduated
25 years ago, or more.
The first reunion of the Silver
Society will be held Saturday,
April 22, 2006, at 7 p.m. in
the Emerson Alumni Hall. The
event is part of Spring Weekend,
which will also feature a concert
and pep rally on Friday, as well
as a pre-game barbecue prior
to the Orange-Blue game on
Saturday.
For more information, visit the
Alumni Association Web site at
www.ufalumni.ufl.edu.
Gator Engineering
Honors Donors with New Recognition Wall
Last fall we announced plans
to create a donor recognition
wall, which will be installed
at the entrance of the Dean's
suite in Weil Hall. The wall
is designed to be a prominent
interior feature of the college
and will recognize the generous
support you and your families
have given to the educational
and research mission of Gator
Engineering.
The first installation will
recognize individuals and
Honor Roll of Donors Goes
"Live"
For the first time, the College
of Engineering is posting our
Honor Roll of Donors online.
The Honor Roll recognizes
donors by giving levels and by
class year for the fiscal year
2004-05. The list is available on
the college's Web site.
www.eng.ufl.edu/honorroll
To report any inaccuracies, or
if you do not wish to have your
name posted electronically,
please contact us at:
Engineering Development Office
UF College of Engineering
P.O. Box 116575
Gainesville, FL 32611-6575
P: 352.392.6795
E-mail: mmcel@eng.ufl.edu
corporations whose lifetime
donations totaled more than
$10,000 as of Dec. 31, 2005.
Each year, we will add to the
wall the names of donors who
achieve the $10,000 mark by the
end of the previous December.
Plans are underway to hold a
dedication and reception for
the donor wall in fall 2006.
If you have any questions, or
would like to participate, please
contact the Development Office
at 352.392.6795.
Florida Fund for Alumni
Support
UF Outpacing Peers in Young
Donor Competition
The Florida Fund is UF's
annual fund. Many of you
who give back to the College
of Engineering do it through
the Florida Fund, responding
to phone calls and letters from
students with gifts to your
college or departments.
To add a new dimension,
Florida Fund has established the
SEC GOLD (Graduates of the
Last Decade) Challenge with
participating SEC universities
to see who has the most loyal
alumni. Check out the Web site
at www.sec-challenge.org, a
one-stop source for information
about alumni giving, to see how
the participating universities are
stacking up compared to each
other.
32 The Florida Engineer
DEVELOPMENT REPORT
As you would expect from our
loyal alumni, UF is well ahead
of its peers. We sincerely thank
all of you who have participated.
We greatly appreciate your
loyalty and gifts to make the
College of Engineering the best
in the SEC. Go Gators!
Progress Energy gives
$205,000 Annual Gift
Progress Energy, a longtime
corporate partner of the
College of Engineering, made
a significant contribution
of $205,000 to support
the college's programs and
departments. Specifically, the
gift will provide:
* $100,000 to establish and
name the Progress Energy
Advanced Radiation
Detection Laboratory
(ARAD) in the department
of Nuclear & Radiological
Engineering. Funds will
be used to purchase and
install equipment for the
development and testing of
new materials for the design
of advanced detectors.
* $50,000 to renovate a
lab in the Mechanical &
Aerospace Engineering
department, providing space
and equipment for student
projects. Renovations will
allow students to compare
analytical solutions with
measured data by applying
conservation principles to a
moving boundary control
volume, conduct data
acquisition measurements
on a transient system, and
reinforce fluid dynamics and
thermodynamic principles
taught in lecture class.
* $20,000 to support
Industrial & Systems
Engineering's innovative
Integrated Product and
Process Design program
(IPPD), in which businesses
contract with student teams
to tackle a design challenge
for their company.
Eight undergraduate
scholarships in the
departments of Civil &
Coastal Engineering,
Mechanical & Aerospace
Engineering, Nuclear &
Radiological Engineering,
and Environmental
Engineering Sciences to
support junior and senior
level students.
This extraordinary annual
gift was presented by Progress
Energy representative Rose
Fagler on December 20,
2005. The college is proud of
its association with Progress
Energy and is grateful for this
gift, by far the largest made to
the college by Progress Energy.
EES Programs Help
Environmental Protection and
Water Resources Management
Professionals Stay Current
continued from page 31
I also believe that we need to
constantly be learning and
continuing to educate ourselves
and for me the environment is
a great and important thing to
study since so much of what we
are doing now will affect future
generations."
The certificate and master's
programs are offered by
streaming video through the
college's UF EDGE Program,
and are accessible to students
anywhere in the world who
have appropriate Internet
connections. The programs
Lt. Melissa R. Smith (center, blue
uniform) received herwings from
Commodore Little, commander
of Training Wing 6. Also pictured
(L R) are her father Karl, mother
Robynne, and brothers Karl and
Rowland.
afford excellent continuing
education and life-long learning
opportunities for students
engaged in water resources
planning and management and
in environmental policy and
management. As the half-life of
engineering, science, and other
educational programs decreases,
the need for opportunities
such as these special online
programs accelerates. The EES
department is committed to
providing online opportunities
for professionals engaged in
protecting and managing the
nation's environmental and
water resources systems.
www.ees.ufl.edu
Gator Engineering 33
DEVELOPMENT REPORT
Spring 2006
Harbert Scott Gregory
BS EE 1938
Inspired the UF Sales Engineering Program
College of Engineering
alumnus and friend
Harbert Scott Gregory
of Covington, La., died at age
91 on Feb. 13, 2006. Gregory
is survived by his wife, Jane;
five children, Anne, Kathleen,
Mary Lee, Scott, and Margaret;
and 14 grandchildren. Gregory
resided in New Orleans for
60 years, and retired to the
Covington area.
Gregory was always an
outstanding and motivated
student. A native of Tallahassee,
he started working at age 8
as a newspaper boy to help
his widowed mother support
her family of six during the
1920s and the early years of
the Great Depression. At Leon
High School in Tallahassee,
he was president of the student
body and graduated with top
honors in 1932. He went on to
UF, receiving a BS degree in
electrical engineering in 1938.
At UF, he was president of the
Benton Engineering Council,
clerk of the UF honor court,
and vice president of the student
body. He was elected to Florida
Blue Key and was inducted into
the UF Hall of Fame.
After graduation, Gregory
joined General Electric in
1939, then served in the Navy
in World War II. During his
last year in the Navy, he was
stationed on Okinawa as the
electrical officer, degaussing
officer, and supply officer under
the command of Captain
Hyman Rickover, who later
led the creation of the Navy's
nuclear submarine force.
After leaving the Navy, in
1946 he founded an electrical
engineering sales agency in New
Orleans to buy and sell war
surplus goods. The company
became Gregory, Salisbury &
Company, Inc., and is still in
business today.
Gregory's experience with this
business made him realize that
engineers also need business
skills. He believed that creating
technology and selling it were
equally important, and that
trained engineers make the
best salesmen because they
have the best understanding of
the technology and how it can
benefit the customer. Business
skills also prepare engineers to
start their own companies.
To encourage engineering
students to consider careers
in the sales, entrepreneurial,
and business aspects of
engineering, he established
the Harbert S. and Jane R.
Gregory Distinguished Lecture
Series in 1986 with a $200,000
endowment. The lecture is given
once each year.
The lecture series was
followed three years later
with a new interdisciplinary
Sales Engineering Certificate
Program. At the time, there was
only one other sales engineering
program in the nation. In 1998,
the Harbert S. Gregory Sales
Engineering Scholarships were
established for undergraduate
students enrolled in the
program.
The University of Florida
honored Gregory in 1996 with
its Distinguished Alumnus
Award. At that event, then-UF
president John Lombardi said,
"He is an example of what we
all expect of our graduates:
Commitment, quality, energy,
vision, and statesmanship."
34 The Florida Engineer
ALUMNI
1982
Marty E. Sanders, BSCE, PE.,
is the executive director of growth
management, land acquisition and inter-
governmental relations for the St. Lucie
County school board. Last year Sanders
received the Engineer of the Year Award
from the Treasure Coast chapter of the
Florida Engineering Society for his work
in leading the school district's $116+
million recovery from hurricanes Frances
and Jeanne.
As the executive director of growth
management, he is responsible for
long-range planning and implementation
of school concurrency for the school
district. Previously, Sanders was the
school district's director of facilities for
three years. His community activities
include serving as president of the St.
Lucie County Chamber of Commerce
and serving on the boards of the
Treasure Coast Gator Club, St. Lucie
County Economic Development Council,
Leadership St. Lucie, St. Lucie County
Education Foundation. He was also
co-chair of the 2002-03 United Way
campaign for St. Lucie County.
Sanders is married to Gator grad Sue-Ellen
Apte Sanders (ADV '81), and they have
two children, Jake, 12, and Chloe, 11.
They reside in Fort Pierce.
1997
Celia D.A. Earle, BS ENV, MS ENV, has
been honored as an Exceptional Woman
of 2005 by Planned Parenthood of South
Palm Beach and Broward Counties.
Earle holds four degrees from UF: a
bachelor of science in environmental
engineering sciences and in microbiology
and cell sciences, a master of science in
environmental engineering sciences, and
a PhD in environmental chemistry. She is
an associate with Malcolm Pirnie, Inc.,
a national environmental engineering
consulting firm, where she is responsible
for business development in southeast
Florida. Born in Jamaica, she was the first
female president of the UF Caribbean
Student Association and is a past
vice-president of the Caribbean Heart
Menders Association, which provides life-
saving heart surgeries for children unable
to afford it.
She is a member of Kiwanis, and currently
serves on the Kiwanis Florida District
Foundation Trustee Board, on the board
of directors of the coalition to End
Homelessness, and as chair of Kiwanis
Division 23's Annual Christmas in July
Project for Homeless Children in Broward
County. This project was originated by
Earle four years ago, and has provided
essential clothing, school supplies, and
toys to over 2,300 homeless children in
Broward County.
She is the daughter of Jonathan F.K. Earle,
associate dean for student affairs of the
UF College of Engineering.
2001
Sara Beresheim, BS CE, has passed
the Professional Engineering examination
with the State of Florida. Beresheim is a
project engineer in the traffic engineering
department in the HNTB Corporation
Tampa office. She has more than five
years of experience in traffic engineering
including traffic studies, signalization
design, traffic signal retiming and
signing and pavement marking design
projects. HNTB is a national, employee-
owned infrastructure firm that offers
comprehensive design, engineering and
planning services to federal, state and
local public and private clients.
Grand Guard 2005
The Grand Guard met for its annual
reunion weekend at the University of Florida
on Nov. 4. This year several new members
joined the Guard, which is exclusively for
alumni who graduated 50 years ago or more.
Guard members retain a lively interest in the
college's activities and progress. They were
particularly impressed when Dean Pramod
Khargonekar told them that the entering
freshmen in fall 2005 had, as a group, an
average SAT score of 1340. Many speculated
that they wouldn't be admitted to the
college if thev had to do it todav.
They were being modest. In fact, their
accomplishments are impressive. This
group of Gator Engineers includes pioneers
in lasers, space engineering, miniature
electronics, and the electrical engineering
that gives theme parks their flash.
As the graduates shared memories of their
careers, they all made the point that their
UF education had made their careers
possible. The dean said he hoped the
students now enrolled would someday be
able to say the same about their education.
Attendees included:
William E.Adams, BS IE 1949
Hillard H.Allen, BS ME 1955
George W. Campbell, BS ME 1936
Roger L. Cox, BS EE 1955
Ronald M. Finch, Jr., BS IE 1954
Roland L. "Tad" Fraser, BS EE 1950
L. Freeman Good, Jr., BS ME 1955
James A. Henderson, Jr., BS IE 1951
Harold L. Hess, BS EE 1955
Sid Hodge, BS EAE 1955
Jefferson R. Kirkpatrick, BS CE 1952
EugeneA. Lichtman, BS ME 1955
Henry H. Nichols, BS ME 1954
Vincent B. Pickett, BS CE 1952
Lee H. Scott, BS EE 1949
C.Vernon Shaffer, BS EE 1944, MSE 1960
Howard W. Sims, BS EE 1955
Curtis H. Stanton, BS ME 1940
Andrew E. Stevenson, BS AGE 1955
Edward J.Telander, BS EE 1952
Roy L. Turknett, Jr., BS ME 1955
Gator Engineering 35
ALUMNI
the
FUTURE
1910-2010
Engineering studies began at the University of Florida in 1906,
before the College of Engineering was officially founded in
1910. As our centennial approaches, we will explore our history
and growth and share the story with our friends and alumni.
This year, we honor the first Gator Engineers. Three young
men came to Gainesville to enroll as engineering students in
1906. They were accomplished scholars, leaders and athletes.
Above all, they were a bright beginning to the college's
brilliant future. As pictured (L-R): Ossian W. Drane, B.S.
Electrical Engineering, Lakeland; Ralph D. Rader, B.S.
Civil Engineering, Miami; Harry L. Thompson, B.S. Civil
Engineering, Pensacola.
Dr. John R. Benton (1876-1930), professor
of electrical engineering and physics, was
the college's founding dean. He served from
1910 until his death in 1930. Known for his
scientific understanding, steadfast character
and innovative ideas, Benton established
a strong foundation for future Gator
Engineers to build upon. Benton Hall, also
pictured on the front, was the first College
of Engineering building at the University of Florida. It was
completed in 1911 and named in honor of the Dean.
LETTERS
Sometimes our Gator engineers send us mail that can't be easily encapsulated in the
Alumni Notes column. We are happy to print your letters when space permits.
Dear Florida Engineer,
I have the greatest job in the world and I owe it all to
the University of Florida. I graduated from UF with a
bachelor's degree in computer engineering and a minor
in mathematics. While at UF, I attended every football
game as a member of the Pride of the Sunshine Gator
marching band. The combination of engineering and
Gator game day experiences gave me all the tools I
needed to do what I do everyday.
I am a software engineer for Electronic Arts Sports
in Maitland, Fla. I specialize in making/designing
NCAA Football and Madden video games. During
my three years at EA sports, I've put out a total of 12
football titles spread across the Xbox, Playstation 2, and
GameCube.
The thing I love most about my job is the ability
to pour all of my passion for the University of Florida
into the game. I always do my best to make sure the
University of Florida is represented well. With the
upcoming release of NCAA Football 06, I hope that
Gators everywhere will be happy with all the personal
touches and polish I put on every aspect of the Florida
Gators.
I thank the College of Engineering and the
University of Florida for giving me the tools, talent, and
passion to do what I do today. I look forward to seeing
you in the fall!
Felix Rivero, '99
Lake Mary, Fla.
36 The Florida Engineer
LETTERS
Dear Ms. Dobson,
I enjoy each issue of The Florida
Engineer.
I would like to give you a belated
thank you for the piece you
published a few years back about
Wood and Wiggins, student editors
of the first issue of the magazine.
Since that time, we haven't had
any more '52 engineers mentioned,
except in the obits. In order
to remedy that situation, I am
enclosing a copy of a book written
by a fellow mechanical engineering
graduate from the June '52 class,
Melvin Eisenstadt.
[The book is Noah's Millennium,
a science fiction novel about the
effects of global warming.]
The university had lost track of him,
but in searching for '52 engineering
grads to attend the 50th Grand
Guard Reunion in Sept. 2002,
we managed to locate him. He
apparently has had an interesting
career. I thought that someday you
might find the space and time to do
a short piece about him.
Anyway, thanks again for a great
magazine and keep up the good
work.
Bill Der Garry
BS ME'52
Sarasota, Fla
You had a good idea, Bill, so we
contacted Melvin Eisenstadt.
Mel Eisenstadt writes:
Many thanks to Bill Der Garry.
I received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering
from UF in 1952. After a short stint in the aerospace
industry, my ROTC caught up with me and the Air
Force had me for two years, one of which was in
Korea. After a couple more years in aerospace, I got my
master's from UF in 1959, specializing in solar energy.
Then it was back to the aerospace industry, this time
at the Martin Co. plant in Orlando. Tiring of that, I
went back to school and received a PhD in mechanical
engineering from the University of Arizona. I joined
the faculty of the University of California at Santa
Barbara and then the University of Puerto Rico at
Mayaguez. Finally, I left there and obtained a JD (law)
degree at the University of New Mexico.
During all this time, I did research in the energy area.
I also did research into the legal problems of solar
energy, ran a solar company in Albuquerque for a year,
and practiced law. I was elected municipal judge of
Corrales, N.M., our small town on the outskirts of
Albuquerque. That was a two-night-a-week thing, and
I practiced law for my real job.
After about 15 years, I concluded that the study of law
was more interesting than the practice. I had always
wanted to write in 1971 I had written a materials
science textbook entitled Introduction to Mechanical
Properties ofMaterials and about 15 years ago I quit
and began writing fiction and making silver jewelry.
My first novel NavajoAfterglow was published in
2000. It was a story of two Navajo uranium miners
who contracted lung cancer because of what the feds
didn't do, and they took some (good) revenge.
I suppose you're right about my being a bit of an
activist [in response to a question from The Florida
Engineer]. NavajoAfterglow is an objection to the
government's behavior with respect to the uranium
miners when all the government wanted was uranium
ore, even when it killed the miners who were helping
them get it. A few simple things, like ventilation in the
mines, would have helped greatly.
In 2005, Noah's Millennium came out. One point I
was trying to make is that we have to start cleaning up
the atmosphere early if we want to prevent the global
warming disaster since it will take two or three decades
after we begin the clean up to bring the atmosphere
back to where it used to be.
Next year, a novel entitled The Dynamite Campaign
will come out. In a nutshell, it is about a man who
blows up a building and is then elected to Congress...
all very logically, of course. I've got some experience in
this, having run for judge twice and helping my wife,
Pauline, with her elections to the New Mexico House
and Senate. (After eight years in the House and four in
the Senate, she got smarter and quit.)
After that, I've got one more novel done, Water
War, about the Navajos trying to convert Colorado
River water into hydrogen for use as a clean fuel.
Solar electricity powers the conversion. If you do
the calculations, draining the Colorado River and
breaking down all the water will fuel the country. All
of the water in the Colorado has been spoken for, but a
quirk in water law called the Winters Doctrine (this is
real) may provide the Navajos with a legal way to steal
the water. In the book, a water war erupts between the
Navajos and Nevada gamblers, who want the water for
golf courses, swimming pools, etc.
The jewelry making has been a method of getting my
mind off writing occasionally. Making jewelry keeps
your entire head busy and away from what you're
writing. I learned how to silver solder very well in grad
school, making ultra-high vacuum systems. My wife
is also an artist, and paints in oils and does a little real
estate investing.
Anyone who is interested in my books can contact me
at P.O. Box 658, Corrales, New Mexico, 87048. They
can also get them online at Amazon.com or Barnes &
Noble.com, or from their local bookstore. If they order
from me, it's complete with a free autograph.
Gator Engineering 37
Lee Scott addresses
the Grand Guard.
A Conversation with Lee Scott
Lee Scott (BS EE '49)
took a few moments
during the Grand Guard
celebration to share some
memories with The Florida
Engineer.
Scott has had an interesting life
since his graduation from UF.
He spent his entire career with
the Florida Power Corporation,
steadily rising through the ranks
of a company that has often
changed its name. He eventually
became president and chief
executive officer of the FPC
and served as director when it
became the Florida Progress
Corporation (now Progress
Energy). But originally he was a
high school boy in Tallahassee
during World War II, who
enlisted in the Army Air Corps
right after graduation.
After he was discharged, he
registered at the University of
Florida. "The university wrote
back and asked if I would be
willing to go for a couple of
quarters to TBUF Tallahassee
Branch of the University of
Florida."
The TBUF was created in 1946
at the Florida State College
for Women because UF didn't
have enough space to serve the
flood of veterans wanting to go
to college on the new G.I. Bill.
In 1947, the state legislature
made the women's college
coeducational and renamed it
Florida State University.
"Some of my friends in the same
situation went there. There were
3,000 women and only 50 of us
boys. Most of them didn't want
to leave there, but they had to
come back to UF to get a degree
to make a living with. I wanted
to continue in engineering.
Most of what they had at FSU
was home economics," Scott
says.
"So I can say I went to both
FSU and UF, and when they
say, why did you go to both,
I say I went to FSU until I
could get into the University of
Florida." And he laughs.
Scott said all the reminiscences
at the Grand Guard reunion
reminded him of many things
that happened, as he says, "way
back when." But he thinks
that graduating and looking
for a job turned out to be the
best thing that happened for
him personally, because he was
employed by the Florida Power
Corporation, and that meant he
could stay in Florida.
"In those days, some years you
had many job offers and other
years, you didn't have so many,"
Scott explains. "In my year, we
didn't have so many. It had to
do with the economic situation.
GE and Westinghouse, who
normally recruited heavily,
weren't recruiting much that
year. But it happened that
Florida was expanding rapidly,
so the power companies were
hiring a lot of people."
Scott is proud of being an
engineer, but he is most proud
of becoming a complete
person. As he explains it, "I
was interested in many things
and never really wanted to go
into pure design. I guess that's
why I did many other things
besides engineering. And this is
probably why I progressed in my
company," he says.
Scott has been very active in
local causes in St. Petersburg,
like the United Way and Red
Cross, and was a member
of Suncoasters, a local civic
group that puts on activities
around St. Pete. For his work,
he was named "Mr. Sun," St.
Petersburg's leading civic honor.
Scott was president of the
Florida Chamber of Commerce
in 1988 and chaired the College
of Engineering's first capital
campaign at about the same
time.
"I did a lot of things. It's kind
of unusual for engineers to be
doing that," Scott says.
Martha Dobson
38 The Florida Engineer
FRIENDS WE WILL MISS
1934 James L. McCall, Jr., BS CHE, of Vicksburg, Miss., died December 13, 1998. Editor, The Florida Engineer
University of Florida
1937 John P. Lenkerd, BS EE, of Altoona, Fla., died June 10, 2005. PO Box 116550
Kenneth D. Lister, BS 0, of Dothan, Ala., died November 1, 1986. Gainesville, FL 32611-6550
William A. Ostner, BS CHE, of Jacksonville, Fla., died March 16, 2005.
1938 Charles E. Blanton, BS EE, of Perry, Fla., died December 1, 1980. www.eng.ufl.edu/pubs
William L. Duncan, Jr., BS EE, of Jacksonville, Fla., died September 28, 2005. pubsmail@eng.ufl.edu
Alfred R. Major, BS ME, of St. Petersburg, Fla., died March 11, 1979.
1939 Albert J. Jackson, BS, of Altamonte Springs, Fla., died April 6, 2003.
1940 Vernon G.Adamek, BS ME, of New Port Richey, Fla., died September 20, 2001. Have new e-mail?
George J.Vila, BS ME, of Lake Worth, Fla., died September 23, 2003. ve e em
Let the Alumni Association know! N
1942 John W. Bennett, BS CE, of Colorado Springs, Colo., died April 8, 2004. ufalum@uff.ufl.edu
Claude W. Coffee, Jr., BS ME, MS IE '47, of Newport News, Va., died
September 7,2005.
William G. Morgan, BS CHE, MS CHE '48, of Beaumont, Texas, died
December 1,1986.
1944 Harold L. Sherron, BS ME, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., died November 11, 2005.
1946 Arthur H. Smith, Jr., BS EE, of Gainesville, Fla., died March 15, 2005. i
1947 Glen L. Taylor, BS EE, of Orlando, Fla., died July 15, 2005.
1949 Charles R. Ford, BS CE, of Gainesville, Fla., died September 13, 2005.
Thomas E. Keeter, Jr., BS IE, of Greensboro, N.C., died September 29, 2004.
Edwin H. Stewart, BS IE, of Fort Pierce, Fla., died August 14, 1988.
1950 George T Lohmeyer, BS CE, MSE '57, of Jacksonville, Fla., died June 1, 1986.
1951 JamesT. Henderson, Jr., BS ME, of Springfield, Ohio, died December 5, 2004.
Ralph Maxwell, Jr., BS IE, of Carriere, Miss., died January 16, 2003.
John W. Meyer, BS EE, of Annapolis, Md., died July 29, 2005.
1952 Charles A.Anderson, BS CE, MS CE '53, of Young Harris, Ga., died August 10, 2005.
LarryW. Hudson, BS ME, of Mesa,Ariz., died December 14, 2001.
FrancisW. Mohme, BS CE, of Fountain Valley, Calif., died January 24, 2002.
1953 James H. Robbins, BS EE, of Phoenix, Ariz., died October 8, 2005.
1955 William D. Givens, BS CE, MS CE '56, of Miami, Fla., died January 24, 2002.
Waylon A. Lacey, BS ME, of Jakin, Ga., died May 6, 2005.
Roy L. Phillips, BS ME, of Jacksonville, Fla., died December 30, 2004.
William H. Riley, Jr., MS, of Crawfordsville, Ind., died June 17, 2004.
1956 Alfredo Arias, BS CE, of Panama City, Panama, died January 1, 1979.
Herbert J. Crenshaw, of Coleman, Fla., died February 6, 2005.
Abraham Levine, BS EE, of St. Petersburg., Fla., died September 1, 1976.
Mason D. Wade, Jr., BS CE, of Anchorage, Alaska, died December 29, 2003.
1958 J. PingAlberdi, BS ME, of Crystal River, Fla., died September 25, 2005.
John E. Fennimore III, BS ME, BS IE, of Orlando, Fla., died June 25, 2005.
John 0. Lanier, Jr., BS EE, of Fort Myers, Fla., died March 31, 2005.
James M. Locklair, Jr., BS EE, of DeLeon Springs, Fla., died January 14, 2005.
Thomas M.Wheeley, Jr., BS IE, of Haines City, Fla., died August 22, 2001.
1959 Robert J. Levesque, BS EE, of Jacksonville, Fla., died July 15, 2004.
John H. Mathis, BS EE, of Grenada, Miss., died December 7, 1995.
John F McFarlin, BS IE, of Hawthorne, Fla., died May 3, 2005.
Emmett L. Miller, BS EE, MS EE '61, of Los Angeles, Calif., died September 19, 2005.
Eduardo H.Villaseca, MS EE, died October 16, 2001.
1960 John D. Charles, BS EE, of St. Petersburg., Fla., died July 16, 1999.
Charles W. Goodman, BS CE, of Tallahassee, Fla., died April 21, 2005.
Allen A. Jenkins, BS IE, of Jacksonville, Fla., August 9, 1996.
Wilbur G. Moore, BS EE, of Mayo, Fla., died February 26, 2005.
Robert D.Waterbury, BS IE, of St. Petersburg, Fla., died October 15, 1990.
Charles F.Wishart, BS IE, of Tampa, Fla., died February 8, 2003.
1962 James L. Grove, BS ME, of La Porte,Texas, died July 19, 2005.
Harry H. Watters, BS ME, of Huntsville, Ala., died July 14, 2000.
1963 Captain William J. Barnes, BS ME, of Hobbs, N.M., died April 1, 1994.
1964 ThomasT.Wilson, BS CE, of Chipley, Fla., died August 14, 1997.
1965 William C. Petersen, BS IE, died November 15, 2003.
1966 JamesA. Chupka, BSAE, of Miami, Fla., died November 16, 1993.
William Linkovich, BS CE, of Daytona Beach, Fla., died March 14, 2000.
Howard R. Lyttle, BS EE, of Melbourne, Fla., died June 7, 2000.
Robert W. Marshall, BS EE, of Alexandria, Va., died October 1, 1983.
Willet D. Steih, BS IE, of Woodstock, Ga., died July 12, 2005.
1967 Joseph P. Hartigan, ME ISE, of Ormond Beach, Fla., died June 22, 2005.
Larry L. Lester, BS EE, of Fayetteville, Ark., died October 4, 2000.
1968 Thomas C.Watts, BS CHE, of Kerrville, Texas, died October 1, 1995.
1970 Yee-Tak Fung, ME, PHD ENM, of Bethesda, Md., died June 20, 2004.
Benton S. Murphy, BS CE, of Pensacola, Fla., died August 15, 2005.
1973 William L. Settlemyre, MS ISE, of Richland,Wash., died December 8, 2003.
1975 Coy L. Mitchell, BS CE, of Abbeville, Ala., died February 18, 2002.
1978 Michael E. Maxfield, BS ENE, of Green Cove Springs, Fla., died February 16, 2005.
William J. Schonfeld, BS EE, of San Jose, Calif., died October 25, 2000.
Leroy C. Stables, MS EE, of Pensacola, Fla., died October 29, 2005.
1979 Melva J. Charles, MS ENE, of Davis, Calif., died October 4, 2004.
1983 Davis C. Holden, MS ME, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., died July 16, 2005.
1986 Fadi I. Serhan, BS EE, of College Station, Texas, died March 6, 2005.
1992 Veretta J. Sabb, PHD CE, of Greeleyville, S.C., died November 25, 2004.
1995 Joseph E.Whalen, BS CE, of Spring Hill, Fla., died January 1, 1999.
1998 Anson L. Holley III, BS EE, of Pensacola, Fla., died July 9, 2005.
Information is provided by the University of Florida Foundation, Inc.
Academic major or hometown data may not be available.
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