Weekly News for CHE STUDENTS / STAFF / FACULTY

Advising for Fall term registration is here! Please check the advising page to be sure you know who your advisor is. Then please sign up for your advising appointment by going to the advising calendar: http://che.oregonstate.edu/advising

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Any student that has Dr. Skip Rochefort as their advisor may see Kristin Rorrer for advising this term. Due to a heavy schedule Dr. Rochefort may not have enough openings on his calendar and we want everyone to see an advisor by the time they are scheduled to register.

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You may only register for 16 credits in “Phase 1” registration. Following June 4^th, you may register for up to 19 credits (Phase 2 registration). Check for your particular registration time by going to the “Check Registration Status” page in the Registration menu through Student Online Services.

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NEWS

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The 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering fair finished on 29 May, 2007. Over 1200 students from around the world participated at this event in Albuquerque, NM this last week (May 13-19).

Here are the results for the 5 students we had selected from CWOSE (The Central Western Oregon Science Expo), which we direct in Monmouth, Oregon.

All five students did a fantastic job, and all were recognized as in the top 10% of projects at the International Science and Engineering Fair. In addition, one of the members of the CWOSE (and hence Oregon) team took top honors at the fair! Let’s just say that the team from Oregon (which includes another 37 students from other regions) far exceeded the norm at International Science and Engineering Fair based on the number of individual awards and honors received by the participants. Ms. Stephanie Jones, State Fair director will likely offer a more complete description of the totals, I’ll focus on just CWOSE.

Team of Raymond Ehlers, Sean Skyllingstad, Curtis Peterson from Crescent Valley High School: “Reformation of Landfill Gas for Power Production with a Fuel Cell Using Activated Charcoal”

Award: 3^rd place in Teams – This Energy and Transportation Project was achieved by our team from Crescent Valley High School for their work on the development of a system for the absorption of Sulfur compounds from landfill gasses utilizing a carbon system. This means that their team project is considered in the top 10 % of all high school science team projects at the international fair. They received a cash award, considerable recognition and are excited about continuing their project as they are to be juniors at CVHS next year. They tell me that a great deal of thanks in making this all possible go to their Teacher, Adam Kirsch of Crescent Valley HS.

Eric Stipe from West Salem High School:

“ A Social Network Analysis: The Personal Interactions Between Teaching and Administrative Staff in a Secondary School Environment”

Award: 3^rd place in Behavioral Sciences for his work studying the networking systems and communication of all the teachers at the West Salem High School. His work is directly applicable to interactive networking for many other such operations. This means that his project was considered in the top 10% or better in the behavioral category of the international science fair. Eric received a cash award and had people visiting him non-stop at his display at ISEF on the Thursday “public visitation” day as well. He is graduating from West Salem this year, received a scholarship to and plans to attend University of Oregon this next fall. Thanks to Graham Dey for his encouragement to Eric to participate and the work as his teacher at West Salem HS!

Dmitry Vaintrob from South Eugene High School:

“The String Topology BV Algebra, Hochschild Cohomology and the Goldman Bracket on Surfaces”

Dmitry took the top honors at the fair.

1: The Intel Foundation Young Scientist award (A $50,000 Scholarship to any school, new laptop, etc.),

2: The Seaborg SIYSS Award (all expense paid trip to the Sockholm International Youth Science Seminar during the Nobel Prize Ceremonies this December),

3: “Best of Category” for Math, and naturally, 1^st place in Math.

4: Office of Naval Research Award

5: American Mathematical Society Award of excellence

6: Ashtavadhani Vidwan Ambati Subbaraya Chetty (AVASC) Foundation (creativity award)

7: United Technologies Corporation Award

His work on the string topology is toward establishing a connection between mathematics quantum mechanical string theory and mirror symmetry. He’s planning to attend Harvard this fall majoring in Mathematics. Access to his paper if available should you wish to read more. We also wish to thank Dmitry’s parents as they have been instrumental in his participation in the ISEF events, and also his teachers at South Eugene HS, University of Oregon, and MIT.

For more information on the awards: http://www.sciserv.org/isef/index.asp

Thanks to all of you that helped make the attendance at the fair possible for these outstanding young Scientists and Engineers. I hope we can find the funds necessary to allow 2008 folks to attend and similarly be recognized for outstanding work.

Dr. David Hackleman

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WERC/ECOST information meeting

Thursday 5/24 @ 6:00 in Gleeson 100.

There will be PIZZA!.

To see last years projects check out www.werc.net and click on the University Tasks Link.

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EXPO FAIR SENIOR PROJECT AWARDS!

The Engineering Expo was a wonderful event and we had 17 participating teams! The projects were interesting and varied with awards to the 1^stand 2^nd place winners in 3 categories.

We had a brief award ceremony here in Gleeson Hall at about 5:30 with everyone present.

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone!!!!

Beth Knight, Tesia Dobrydnia, Todd Prichard, Myriane LaCasse

BIODIESEL FACILITY / 2^nd Place Quality of Project Implementation

Brad Hamlin, Paul Pirogovsky, Vinh Nguyen, Matthew Crews -

MIRCOREACTOR FABRICATION / Best Quality of Project Implementation

**Each will receive an etched Beaker

Lane Edwards, Bill Brooks

MICROWAVE EXTRACTION OF PEPPERMINT OIL / 2^nd Place Quality of Project Presentation

Colette Griffith, Leah Kimura, Kyle Sander

ALGAE OIL / Best Qulity of Project Presentation

***Each of these folks received an autographed copy of

“Rambling Through Science and Technology” by our own Dr. Octave Levenspiel

Kelly Perry, Nick Boehm, Audrey Turpening

ALTERNATIVE SOLVENTS FOR POLYETHYLENE PIPES / 2^nd Place CHE Project

Heather Paris, Alana Warner-Tuhy, Partick O’Connor, Christen Glarborg

CONDENSATION POLYMER / Best CHE Project

***Each of our winners received a big, wonderful OSU lunch pail.

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Events on Campus:

Doug Keszler, distinguished professor of chemistry, will discuss his latest research as well as new directions in his field in a Tuesday, May 22, lecture entitled "New Materials for Energy and Process Efficiency." The talk is at 3 p.m. in the MU Journey room.

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The Corvallis Symphony Orchestra presents "From Russia with Love," featuring pianists Nikita Fitenko, Katerina Zaitseva and Alexander Tutunov at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, at the LaSells Stewart Center. Tickets, at $12-30, are available at http://symphony.peak.org or Gracewinds Music, Beard's Frame Shop and Sid Stevens Jewelers.

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An informational meeting on establishing a vanpool from Salem to the OSU campus will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, in Gilkey Hall Room 109. OSU employees who are interested in joining a vanpool are welcome to come to this meeting. Info or to RSVP: angela.yeager@oregonstate.edu or 541-737-0784.

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GRADUATION INFORMATION AND UPDATES

Graduation will be here before we know it!

Deadline – May 31, 2007

Pictures – If you have not had your picture taken, please contact BALL Studios @ 753-5721.

They will schedule a sitting for you.

Department Graduation –

IF YOU ARE GRADUATING and HAVE NOT NOTIFIED ME OF THE NUMBER OF FAMILY YOU WILL BE HAVING AS GUESTS– PLEASE CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY! Karen/737-2491 or karen.kelly@oregonstate.edu or stop by the office.

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The general program runs as follows:

The ceremonies are held outside of Gleeson Hall. There are bleachers and chairs so there will be plenty of room for family and friends.

The program begins between 8:30 and 8:45 depending on how quickly everyone can get seated. Coffee and other goodies are provided both before and after the ceremonies in the main lobby.

There will be speeches by the chair, the dean, faculty and students. Awards will be given and each of you will be acknowledged before your guests.

There will then be a time for the taking of the group graduation picture and time for photos with family and friends. During and after this time there is a reception with refreshments in Gleeson 100.

The whole affair should be completed by 11:45 leaving plenty of time for you and your family to attend the OSU graduation beginning at 2:00.

If you need more information, please stop by the office.

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Please email Jennifer (if you have not already done so) if you are interested in planning/helping with the student portion of the graduation celebration.

Jennifer Kanaan @ kanaanje@onid.orst.edu - let her know you are interested in helping plan something. An email went out to all of the graduating seniors last Tuesday with ideas and suggestions. This is your graduation celebration – make it fun and full of memories!!

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OSU General Information for All Students

Guest Tickets

Graduating seniors' family members do not need tickets to attend this year's commencement ceremony.
Seating is on a first come, first served basis. Not all sections of Reser will be available due to restricted visibility of the stage.

You may obtain your graduation items from the OSU Bookstore after April 26.

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SEMINARS

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Master of Science Defense

Kevin E. Harris

May 24, 2007

3:00 PM / Gleeson Hall 306

Polyethylene Natural Gas Distribution Pipe Repair Methods

Refreshments 2:30 PM / Gleeson Hall 306

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STUDENT CHAPTERS

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It is time for student nominations for 2007-08 CBE officer positions.

Basically, the Executive Committee will comprise a President, Vice President, and class representatives (First Year, So, Jr, Sr) for each organization (AIChE, SBE, EESO) and then a single secretary and treasurer.

There are a number of other positions (tutor coordinator, Business Managers, Social Chairs, etc.) that are open nominations (any discipline).

I would like to strongly encourage the Junior Class of CBE students to participate in this organization.

You can run for an office by sending a self-nomination (you may nominate another person, BUT only if you are sure they want the position...joke nominations are not helpful!) to:

Kari Varin (varink@onid.orst.edu).

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Environmental Engineering BBQ Planning Meeting:

Fri 5/25, 3pm Merryfield Lounge (food, maybe . . . )