Hands-on Experience for Future Petroleum Engineers

The College of Engineering's reinstated Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering program is well underway. On November 11, sixteen students from M.P. Sharma's drilling class visited a British Petroleum (BP) drilling rig south of Wamsutter, Wyoming. Drilling for deep, tight-gas reservoirs is a major industry effort in western Wyoming. Efficient and environmentally sound drilling of oil and gas wells is one of the key focus areas in petroleum engineering.

Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Announces 2006 Engineering Design Awards (Big Beam Contest)

UW civil engineering students were awarded honorable mention in the recent 2006 PCI Engineering Design Awards Big Beam Contest. Two teams from UW entered the competition along with the University of Nebraska, University of Illinois, Oregon State University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the University of Idaho, and the University of Texas. Students competing from UW were Chris Askin, Austin Fleak, Derek Stonebraker, Nick Landen, Sarah Kemper, Matt Jensen, Clint Cummings, Chris Patterson, and Eric Jaap, under faculty advisor Dr. Charles Dolan.

Professor Retires after 37 Years at UW

Atmospheric Science Professor Gabor Vali retired last fall after 37 years of service to the university. His career was distinguished by broad accomplishment and recognition by the atmospheric science community at both the national and international levels. He brought great distinction and visibility to the university over an extended period of time.

Argyle, Tootle, and Polson Receive Top Prof Awards

Dr. Morris Argyle of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and Glenn Tootle and Don Polson of the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering were recognized by the senior honor society Mortar Board as a “Top Prof” at their annual ceremony in November, 2006. The program honor those who offer "exceptional contributions to the University of Wyoming and inspiration of students."

Selection as a member of Mortar Board is one of the highest honors that a UW senior can achieve. Mortar Board recognizes students who have excelled in and out of the classroom, based on scholarship, leadership and service. Mortar Board members participate in many projects and activities throughout the year, both on campus and in the Laramie community.

Petroleum Engineering Graduate Lectures at UW

David R. Emery, B.S. Petroleum Engineering, 1985, and current Chairman, President, and CEO of Black Hills Corporation recently returned to UW as a speaker for the College of Business executive-in-residence series. His discussion focused on “Developing an Effective Board of Directors.” Among the topics he discussed were key roles of a board, including the importance of focusing on long-range strategy and vision; ensuring board effectiveness by optimizing people, diversity, governance and execution; and ethical issues, challenges and benefits of an effective board.

Wyoming Engineering Society Recognizes Outstanding Students

At their recent annual convention, the Wyoming Engineering Society (WES) recognized the student engineer of the year, department honorees, and scholarship students. Ashley Spear, an architectural engineering major, received the Student Engineer of the Year award and will receive an unrestricted grant of $2,500 for her continuing education. Each of the four honorees will receive a $1,000 grant. Five programs in the UW College of Engineering (architectural, civil, chemical, electrical/computer, and mechanical) each nominated their top graduating senior for the WES Student Engineer of the Year award.

Coal-Bed Methane Seminar Held at UW

The University of Wyoming held a research development Webinar on February 27, 2007, entitled Sustained Biogenic Production of Coal-Bed Methane. The program included an introduction from UW School of Energy Resources Director, Dr. Carol Frost, overview of research examining biogenic production of coal-bed methane from Dr. David Bagley of the UW Civil and Architectural Engineering Department, and research information from Dr. Mike Urynowicz, and other Webinar participants.

UW Event Marks 100 Years of Engineering Licensure

In 1907, 56-year-old Charles Bellamy of Laramie obtained the nation's first professional engineering license. The University of Wyoming College of Engineering celebrates the 100th anniversary of that event this year. The College of Engineering held a reception on February 20 commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first professional engineering license, issued in 1907 to Charles Bellamy of Laramie. His great-grandson Bill Bellamy, a UW graduate and great-great grandson John Bellamy, a UW senior in architectural engineering, attended the event.

UW Engineering Department Head Lectures at 47th Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences

Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mark Balas presented a plenary lecture at the 47th Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences. The conference was held in February in Tel Aviv and Haifa. Balas is a world renowned control systems expert who has made theoretical contributions in linear and nonlinear systems, especially in the control of distributed and large-scale systems. His results have been important to practical controller design and operation for many engineering system applications.

New Undergraduate Degree - Earth System Science (ESS) with Concentration in Atmospheric Science

ESS is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program crossing the boundaries between departments and colleges, consolidating faculty strengths into a strong and unique curriculum. It is one of the few such degree programs offered in the country. ESS requires rigor in math and science preparation and depth of study in the chosen concentration, preparing students for employment as environmental scientists, consultants, specialists or planners, project administrators, project managers, field instructors or meteorologists in the public, private and education sector.

Spears Research Focuses on Theory of Complex Adaptive Systems

Imagine it is the year 2061 and your shipboard nanobots attempt to repair some meteor damage. Do you trust them to do the job right? It is increasingly apparent that collections of distributed adaptive agents (such as nanobots, robots, androids, etc.) will be increasingly important for the accomplishment of various real-world tasks. Professor William Spears of the Computer Science Department researches distributed agents that provide increased capacity for fault tolerance, self-repair, and self-assembly. Fault tolerance is the continued ability of distributed agents to perform a task after damage, albeit at a slightly lower efficiency level. Self-repair is the ability to restore optimal efficiency. Self-assembly is the ability of the initial system to construct itself, thus achieving great cost efficiency. These capacities would hold regardless of scale (i.e., ranging from nanobots and "smart matter" to space platforms). However, the complexity of having collections of distributed adaptive agents raises important concerns as to the trustworthiness of the agents. The goal, then, is to ensure that collections of agents are subject to rigorous constraints on their behavior.