With the start of a new year, it’s a good time to catch up on some the things that have happened on campus over the summer.
Here’s a quick roundup of a few news items that have happened in the last few months to get you up to speed. For all the latest news, visit Full Circle.
Fulton Schools to lead new NSF Engineering Research Center
ASU will lead a new National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center to pioneer advances in geotechnical engineering that promise solutions to some of the world’s biggest environmental and infrastructure development challenges. Regents’ Professor Edward Kavazanjian, of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, will lead the new Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (CBBG). ASU is one of only two universities to be currently leading two of these NSF centers.
ASU to partner in Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Systems (NEWT) center
ASU will also partner in another National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, the Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Systems center, or NEWT to be led by and based at Rice University. ASU will be a partner in the center along with Rice, the University of Texas at El Paso and Yale University. Paul Westerhoff, ASU vice provost for academic research and professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, will serve as Deputy Director and lead ASU’s involvement in the effort.
ASU engineers demonstrate the world’s first white lasers
For the first time, researchers have been able to create a laser that beams white light. The researchers were Cun-Zheng Ning, professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, and his doctoral students Fan Fan, Sunay Turkdogan, Zhicheng Liu and David Shelhammer.
Countering social influence and persuasion of extremist groups
Social media has become a vital channel for terrorist groups to share news and seduce new members. Social media is equally important for groups that are sharing and communicating information to counter extremist discourse. Associate Professor Hasan Davulcu of the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, has received a Minerva Grant to help better analyze social media in an effort to limit extremist groups.
Arizona’s first open device lab for website testing and usability research
A new Device Usability Learning Lab that includes everything needed for website testing and usability research has opened at the Polytechnic School. The lab features more than a dozen devices, including smart phones, tablets, laptops, computers, a smart TV and wearable technology from Apple, Android Kindle and Windows.
NSF awards faculty $2 million to redesign undergraduate engineering and computer science education
ASU is launching a project to revolutionize engineering education by creating a learning environment that values risk-taking, making, innovation and creativity among its students and faculty. Faculty of the Polytechnic School will lead the project. The school, under the leadership of director Ann McKenna, has been selected to receive one of only six $2 million grants awarded recently by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
ASU joins more than 100 engineering schools committed to diversifying the profession
The Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering is among more than 100 engineering schools whose deans have committed to an action plan to increase the number of women and people from underrepresented demographic groups in the engineering professions.
