Thursday, April 26, 2018

ELECTRCIAL ENGINEERING GRADUATE STUDENTS WIN BEST PRODUCT AWARD AT 2018 CONNECTICUT NEW VENTURE COMPETITION

Three electrical engineering graduate students secured the “Best Consumer Product Award” at this year’s Connecticut New Venture Competition held on April 20 in New Haven, Conn.  The Connecticut Entrepreneurship Foundation sponsored the annual collegiate event, with 2018 marking its twenty-first year of supporting new student ventures in the state. Their proposal takes any Internal Combustion (IC) engine in an automobile and cost-effectively transforms it into a pure electric vehicle suitable for a maintenance fleet.

Kevin, CanizaresVillegas ’19, Dylan Hammerman ’19, and Hamid Dirami ’19, presented a business plan for Evolt Inc., a company whose technology can take any IC engine vehicle and transform it into an electric vehicle at a quarter of what it would cost to buy a new electric vehicle. The proposal was supervised by Dr. Hemchandra Shertukde, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in CETA.  The team received $500 in funding. This award will go towards the formation of Evolt Inc. in the State of CT.

“There are more cars than there are people, and electric vehicles allow for a cheaper transportation alternative,” says Dylan.  “Our technology is innovative because it also includes wireless charging, making actively charging your vehicle a thing of the past.” The team envisions a redesigned street and highway system that could include a traffic lane for recharging your vehicle while you drive.
 
Participating in the event allowed the students to dive into the business venture process as they “pitched” their idea and received candid feedback from a business financing expert. “We gained a better appreciation for the business aspect of the industry, “ says Hamid.

The team submitted their proposal under the direction of Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Hemchandra Shertukde. The three graduate students are presently taking his course on Digital Controls - ECE 543 this semester.  Click here to learn more about the competition.

University of Hartford Team Participates in Modeling Contest



On Saturday April 21st, two University of Hartford teams participated in the Student Competition Using Differential Equations Modeling (SCUDEM) held at Springfield College.  The student team of David Norris, Eric Sims (both Electrical Engineering Juniors), and Ben Stec (Mathematics Junior) analyzed a hypothetical recycling system using crosswind fans to separate paper from cardboard.  Their work earned an Outstanding Distinction (top category). 

The student team of Kayla Depara (Mathematics Senior), Alek Marczuk (Mathematics/BME Junior), and Yoni Shavit (Mathematics Senior) analyzed an evolutionary decision system through which simple organisms decide whether to flee potential predators or stay put and preserve energy.  Their work earned a Meritorious Distinction (second category). 

The coaches were Hwayeon Ryu (coordinator), Aslihan Demirkaya, David Miller, and Mark Turpin, all of the A&S Mathematics Department. 



UNOTEs 4/26/18

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

CETA Scholarship and Recognition Event - a success!



CETA Scholarship and Recognition Event at Konover, on April 17, 2018, was again a huge success this year!
CETA hosted the annual awards luncheon to distribute scholarships and recognize students for their academic success on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. The event kicked off with a presentation by Dean Lou Manzione to recognize the donors that make CETA scholarships possible, and to congratulate students on their success in the demanding academic programs within the College.
The CETA students, faculty, staff and a small group of generous CETA donors shared a lunch catered by Aramark. The lunch was followed by short speeches given by two students from each department thanking the CETA donors for their gifts to the University of Hartford / CETA. The students were asked to share what being a scholarship recipient means to them.
Almost eighty CETA students received scholarship awards and twenty-two students were selected by the faculty in their departments to be recognized for high academic achievement and accomplishments in the CETA community.
CETA was proud to award just over $158,700.00 to students.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this event possible!

Monday, April 23, 2018

Architecture Grad Students Visit Construction Project at CCSU





Architecture grad students (MArch Year 1) visit construction project at CCSU, New Britain on Friday, April 13, 2018. TSKP Studio designed the project. According to TSKP Studio, 
Willard & DiLoreto Halls is a “major renovation and expansion project that includes a new commons filled with natural light that provides the CCSU campus with a One-Stop Student Services center. The design adds 35,000 sq. ft. between two existing buildings totaling 105,000 sq. ft. Extensive space programming was required to plan the renovations and reallocation of the existing space for academic departments and instructional space” (Learn More at: https://bit.ly/2qVt4Mr)

The site visit was organized and led by Assistant Professor Timothy Adekunle as part of the support for grad students taking ARC 523 in Spring 2018. Architecture undergrad students also attended the site visit and contributed to the success of the trip. The site tour was supervised by Mehmet S. (the Project Manager) and Stephen P. (the structural engineer) who took time to explain various structural ideas and materials explored for the construction of the project. Assistant Professor Timothy Adekunle has integrated site visits as part of the requirements for architecture undergrad and grad students taking various courses such as ARC 523, AET 364 and other related classes.

Monday, April 16, 2018

CETA Design Expo to Showcase Student Work on May 4




The College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA) students are doing amazing things in and out of the classroom and studios and now will have the opportunity to show off their talents to the greater community. The CETA Design Expo showcases student projects and achievements in Engineering, Technology, and Architecture.
Friday, May 4, 2018
9 - 11am Sophomores: Final Projects
               Project Showcase
1 - 3:30pm Seniors: Capstone Designs
               Capstone Poster Session
Sports Center, Intramural Gym
Please join us and see the happenings and accomplishments of the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture students. We look forward to seeing you there.
Any questions, please contact: cetainfo@hartford.edu

Architectural Faculty’s Research Selected for UK Conference





Architectural Faculty’s Research Selected for UK Conference

Assistant Professor Timothy Adekunle's research paper was peer-reviewed and selected as one of the papers for presentation at the just concluded 2018 Windsor Conference on "Rethinking Comfort" at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, UK.


The paper focused on occupants' comfort and heat stress in cross-laminated timber (CLT) school buildings during the occupied and unoccupied periods in summer. The peer-reviewed paper was also published in the proceedings of the 2018 Windsor Conference (http://windsorconference.com/proceedings/).

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Architectural Faculty Leads Design Effort


 
 
 
 
Professor Daniel Davis, AIA, Department of Architecture, College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture recently led the design effort for Quisenberry Acari Malik (QA+M) with their proposal for the St. John Towers renovations in Stamford, CT.  After presentations from several firms, QA+M and Davis’ proposed design was selected for the project which includes the complete rehabilitation of two separate 17-story residential towers with 120 units each.  The buildings were built in 1969 and are currently occupied.  All exterior and interior finishes will be replaced, along with building infrastructure, including mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems.  QA+M, of Farmington, CT was awarded the project through the St. John Urban Development Corporation.  The project will be funded through state and local financing, including State of Connecticut Department of Housing and Connecticut Housing Finance Authority.  The design team also included Philippe LeQuellec, a 2017 graduate of the University’s Architectural Engineering Technology Program.

Architecture Students Visit Great Country Timber Frames Company in Ellington, Connecticut


Architecture students taking AET 364 in Spring 2018 visited Great Country Timber Frames in Ellington, Connecticut on March 29, 2018, to learn about design and fabrication of structural timber structures. The visit was organized and supervised by Assistant Professor Timothy Adekunle in conjunction with Associate Professor Ted Sawruk. The facility tour to the company was led by the owner Everett Skinner IV and included a tour of the design and manufacturing facility, including their CNC machine.  This technology is so innovative that it can produce the pieces for a heavy timber frame that would have taken traditional artisans three weeks, in three days. 

The firm's goal is to reintroduced timber construction into local building projects.

Unotes - 4/11/18

Associate Professor Theodore Sawruk and Graduate MArch student Timothy Applebee present




 
Prior to springbreak, Associate Professor Theodore Sawruk and Graduate MArch student Timothy Applebee presented peer-reviewed papers at the 106th American Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting in Denver Colorado.  The conference theme engaged “The Ethical Imperative” in architecture and these two papers address issues related to diversity in architectural education and the imposition of orthogonal mapping systems as a means of colonial oppression of indigenous peoples.  Professor Sawruk presented “An Assessment of the Academic Supports Provided to African American Female Students in Undergraduate, Pre-professional Architecture Programs,” while Applebee & Sawruk presented “Colonial and Anti-Colonial Design Methodologies: The Instrumentalization of Grids in the Public Interest.  While in Denver, they visited various landmark buildings including the Denver Public Library designed by Michael Graves, and the Denver Museum of Art, design by Daniel Libeskind. 

Conference Overview:

In its material, cultural, and economic effects, architecture poses essential and unavoidable ethical quandaries and challenges. In its performative capacity to express ideology, architecture is inexorably entangled in questions of power and legitimation. As part of an interconnected global economic infrastructure that consumes natural resources at an alarming rate, architecture raises new and pressing questions with which educators, practitioners, and students must engage.  Given that there is an infinitely ethical dimension to every aspect of architecture, the 106th ACSA Annual Meeting will seek to solicit wide reflection on the ethical challenges of architecture in a world in flux.  Architecture as practice and as discipline and pedagogy struggles to solve problems and to advance culture. Within this struggle, the discipline faces an ambiguity of values and agenda. The relationship between these two purposes, problem solving and cultural advancement, often exists as a rift, a great chasm filled with nuanced dilemmas related to ethics and power.

 

  
 
 


 
Abstracts:

An Assessment of the Academic Supports Provided to African American Female Students in Undergraduate, Pre-professional Architecture Programs

by Theodore Sawruk


Even with the increased number of minority graduates from architecture programs, African American females still make up less than 0.4 % of all licensed architects in the United States.  While, increasing diversity within the field of architecture continues to be a priority for both the academy and the profession, one can ask whether current architecture programs are doing enough to help women of color successfully engage and complete undergraduate, pre-professional curriculums. This qualitative, single-case study explored how, if at all, three African American female students were able to engage their undergraduate, pre-professional architecture curriculum. It represents scholarly discourse related to the professoriate and the scholarship of teaching and learning. This investigation examined the characteristics of undergraduate architectural programs, from the perspective of their academic curriculum, faculty teaching methodologies, and the design studio (classroom) environment. The intention of this pilot study is to shed light on the educational practices that currently exist within architecture programs and determine how, if at all, they mitigate or extend the barriers that traditionally limit the success of women of color in architectural education.

Colonial and Counter-Colonial Design Methodologies: The Instrumentalization of Grids in the Public Interest

by Timothy Applebee and Theodore Sawruk

In 2016 the Canadian landscape architect, Pierre Bélanger, unveiled “Extraction,” a site-specific in­tervention at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Bélanger’s installation drew attention to the grid as it was used by the British Empire to assert sover­eignty over the full expanse of British North Amer­ica (Canada) by implementing the Dominion Land Survey (1871-1930). For Bélanger’s “Extraction,” this sovereign act, specifically the act of placing a surveyor’s monument to demarcate dominion, be­came a means to highlight 800 years of geological and human exploitation by the Crown. When used as a means of spatial organization, the grid sup­ported the imposition of political and economic agendas by Colonial Europeans on the indigenous landscape and its inhabitants. Theories of archi­tectural and spatial design methodology (per Man­fredo Tafuri and Rosalind Krauss) contextualize the instrumentality of grids in our review of recent ur­ban, architectural, and geo-spatial works by Pierre Bélanger, Alessandro Rosanelli, Jennifer Bauer and Kelly Rose. The paper concludes with an appraisal of the advance of geo-spatial grid mapping and its countervalent potential for design professionals.