Michal is getting a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and plans to return to Chicago to begin his job search. He would like to get a job as a software engineer or in computer security or IT. He plans to stay in the Chicago area close to his family.
Michal began working for the Engineering Library the first semester of his junior year. His favorite memory from work is the huge rush during finals week and “I had to make about a hundred mugs of coffee.”
He enjoyed working with Robert “Bo” Smith IV – they were roommates and have been friends for “a super long time.” He added, “Carol was also my favorite because she was always so fun to talk to.”
Michal says that working in the library has helped to work in an office setting for the first time and that it taught him to manage his time very well. James Cox, Michal’s supervisor, said that he was “a terrific employee who has always been eager to jump in to help library guests and other staff members as needed.”
“I’m going to miss everyone so much,” Michal added. We’re going to miss him, too!
The Engineering Library staff wants to all our student employees, without them it would be difficult to keep the library open and impossible to provide as many services as we have during this unusual school year! This class of graduating seniors was hired before the Pandemic started, navigated the University closing in March 2020, and returned to work for the 2020/2021 school year with vastly different responsibilities from when they were hired.
Samin is receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. He just accepted a position as Product Order Engineer for Emerson and will be in Marshalltown. Congratulations!
Samin began working for the Engineering Library at the beginning of his junior year, the Fall 2019 semester. James Cox, Samin’s supervisor, says, Samin “has been a kind and dependable person at the Service Desk. He has helped a countless number of people – from finding resources online to helping students find textbooks for classes.” He has been an asset to the library.
During his years here at UI Samin has developed some very good friends and one of the things he won’t forget is hanging out with them in the commons. He said he “has liked working in the library and getting to know the permanent staff members.” He also mentioned how much he enjoyed talking with Kari Kozak, Head, Lichtenberger Engineering Library, and learning about all the trips Kari has taken to places all around the world.
Samin said that working in the library, “… has helped me further develop time management skills which will definitely aid me in the future. Working at the engineering library was probably one the best decisions I have made during my time at the university of Iowa.”
The staff at the Engineering Library want to say thank you to all our student employees, without them it would be difficult to keep the library open and impossible to provide as many services as we have during this unusual school year! This class of graduating seniors was hired before the Pandemic started, navigated the University closing in March 2020, and returned to work for the 2020/2021 school year with vastly different responsibilities from when they were hired.
Gina is receiving her Bachelors of Art in Communication with a minor in Human Relations and an Entrepreneurial Management Certificate. She has accepted a job as an Account Representative at CDW in Chicago. She is planning to live with her parents briefly and then is very excited about plans to move into Chicago!
She began working at the Engineering Library at the beginning of her sophomore year. Gina noted, “My brother was an engineering student here at Iowa before me and had a job here as well. He passed it on to me and it’s been the best job!” James Cox, Gina’s supervisor said, “Gina, our longest serving employee, began with the Fall 2018 semester. She has been an asset to the Library with her flexibility in the job expectations as we have navigated the massive changes that occurred during her employment.” We are grateful Chad passed his job to Gina!
Gina says her position at the library has given her the opportunity to build amazing relationships – and get some studying done without distractions. She says the “faculty in the library are so kind and understanding. I’ve enjoyed getting to know everyone.” Her advisor, Andrea Krekel, was important in Gina’s time at UI. She started seeing her advisor halfway through her Freshman year. “She paid attention to my needs, guided me, was honest, sweet, and very caring. I always enjoyed meeting with her and have missed our in-person interactions over the past year,” said Gina.
Gina’s favorite memories are about the friendships she’s made while here. She said, “The friends I’ve made here at the University of Iowa are unmatched. I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone.”
The staff at the Engineering Library want to say thank you to all our student employees, without whom it would be difficult to keep the library open and impossible to provide as many services as we have during this unusual school year! This class of graduating seniors was hired before the Pandemic started, navigated the University closing in March 2020, and returned to work for the 2020/2021 school year with vastly different responsibilities from when they were hired.
Robert “Bo” L. Smith IV majored in Biomedical Engineering and will be attending Northwestern to achieve his Masters in Prosthetics and Orthotics. While here at UI he made the Dean’s List. He worked at the Engineering Library for 21/2 years and believes his job has helped him with time management and how to juggle schoolwork and work at the same time. James Cox, Bo’s supervisor, said, “Bo has worked in the library since the Spring 2019 semester and since that time his friendly outgoing personality has welcomed all who have entered the space.”
When asked if he had a favorite faculty or staff member he responded, ” James is my favorite, Mike is a close second.” (Should we tell him that it is too late to be flattering James?)
Bo says he is “…very appreciative of my job. It has been a great experience. It has been great to meet so many nice people who have helped me through my college career.”
The staff at the Engineering Library want to say thank you to all our student employees, without whom it would be difficult to keep the library open and impossible to provide as many services as we have during this unusual school year! This class of graduating seniors was hired before the Pandemic started, navigated the University closing in March 2020, and returned to work for the 2020/2021 school year with vastly different responsibilities from when they were hired.
Mitchell Lillie has been working in the Engineering Library since for the February of 2020. His supervisor, James Cox, says, “Despite being hired in February 2020, right before the University closed in March, Mitchell has worked hard to become knowledgeable about the services the Library offers to assist patrons with a wide variety of needs.”
He majored in Mechanical Engineering with a Design Focus and has accepted a position as an Engineering Project Manager for Newell Machinery Co., in Hiawatha, IA. He’s fortunate enough that he can move back home with his parents in Toddville while he gets started on his career. Mitchell has distinguished himself on Campus by being one of the 16 finalists for the University of Iowa Student Employee of the Year Award due to his work ethic.
“Due to the pandemic, the engineering library has become a “one-stop-shop” for all items that engineering students/faculty need. I have enjoyed being able to help answer questions and/or provide resources to fellow classmates/members of the CoE. It allows for more positive conversation with humans in a time where social distancing and covered faces are mandated. I wish to continue to spread positive attitude/vibes to those around me as I enter the workforce,” says Mitchell. He states his academic advisor, Phil Deierling, “has been the best professor and academic advisor I could ask for! Very personable, cheerful, and reliable, as well as my #1 resource for anything engineering related.”
Some of his favorite memories from his time here at the University of Iowa have been the Hawkeye home football games. Go Hawks!!
The staff at the Engineering Library want to say thank you to all our student employees, without whom it would be difficult to keep the library open and impossible to provide as many services as we have during this unusual school year! This class of graduating seniors was hired before the Pandemic started, navigated the University closing in March 2020, and returned to work for the 2020/2021 school year with vastly different responsibilities from when they were hired.
How much do you know about our Mother Earth – the species, the resources and the threats? The Earth Day webpage has a series of quizzes you can take to gauge your level of knowledge. I know I’m not an expert – by any means – but I did think I had a fair amount of knowledge. The quizzes showed me that I definitely don’t know as much as I thought I did!
Are you a coffee drinker? What do you know about sustainable coffee? Handbook of Coffee Processing By-Products: Sustainable Applications looks at key topics specific to sustainable management in the coffee industry. We also have Fair Food: Stories from a Movement Changing the World which is a “new story” of food production – how farming in Australia is dramatically changing at the grassroots level. Read the stories of innovation, from local food hubs to open-source software code, community-shared and urban agriculture and more!
How much do you know about how deforestation affects us as humans? Sustainable Healthcare discusses how climate change threatens human health, how healthcare organizations can deal better with all their waste, and how death and dying can become more sustainable. Every think about the oceans can also suffer from deforestation? Let Them Eat Shrimp : the Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea talks about mangroves and their importance to coastal dwellers and what effects shrimp farming has on mangroves and their destruction.
Exploring green energy? A Bright Future : How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Followoffers “a proven, fast, inexpensive, and practical way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent catastrophic climate change.” It explores how clean energy replaced fossil fuels in places such as Sweden, France, South Korea, and Ontario.
Most of us have heard about carbon footprints. You’ve probably even taken a quiz at least once. But did you know there are ways to calculate your FoodPrint? Did you even know there was such a thing? A FoodPrint is the result of everything it takes to get your food from the farm to your plate. Most of those processes are behind the scenes, and usually the consumer is unaware of them. Earth Day has several FoodPrint calculators on their webpage. There is a easy quiz to help you understand how you are doing so far, and then other calculators to help you figure out ways to “Eat Lower Carbon,” “The Meat Calculator,” and “How Does Your Diet Contribute to Climate Change?
Take the Earth Day quizzes, check your carbon FootPrint and FoodPrint and then check our library for the resources to help you learn more!
Resources:
Charis M. Galanakis, editor. 2017 Handbook of coffee processing by-products : sustainable applications. London, United Kingdom : Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier. Engineering Library TP645 .H36 2017
Nick Rose, editor. 2015. Fair food : stories from a movement changing the world. Queensland, Australia : University of Queensland Press. Engineering Library S478.A1 F35 2015
Schroeder, Knut (and others). 2013. Sustainable healthcare. Chichester, West Sussex : John Wiley & Sons. Engineering Library RA418 .S87 2013
Warne, K.P. 2011. Let them eat shrimp : the tragic disappearance of the rainforests of the sea. Washington, DC : Island Press/Shearwater Books. Engineering Library QK938.M27 L47 2011
Goldstein, Joshua S.; Staffan A. Qvist, authors. 2019. A bright future : how some countries have solved climate change and the rest can follow. New York : Public Affairs First Edition. Engineering Library TD171.75 .G65 2019
FoodPrints for the Future. FoodPrints Caculators.EarthDay.org Date accessed: April 22, 2021
Other Resources:
Megh Raj Goyal, editor. 2016. Water and fertigation management in micro irrigation. Oakville, ON, Canada ; Waretown, NJ : Apple Academic Press 2016. Engineering Library S619.T74 W38 2016
Andrew D. Maynard editor ; Jack Stilgoe editor. 2017. The ethics of nanotechnology, geoengineering and clean energy. London ; New York : Routledge. Engineering Library T173.7 .E847 2017
We always rely on our students. They are the first faces seen when anyone comes into the library. Have a question? Ask them – if they don’t know the answer they know to find it or who to ask. They shelve books so when you are looking for a particular book it will be where it is supposed to be. They keep paper in the printers and know how to un-jam them. The student employee is our “first line of defense!”
They have been even more essential and indispensable during the past year. Students have helped keep track of items from the Electronics Shop, including kits for classes and workshops. They make sure items are sanitized when they are returned. The library has been used in so many ways that are different from the “normal” daily operations, and our students have stepped up and helped the library run smoothly. Have you asked a question on our Live Chat function after 6:00 pm? The students are the ones who answer your questions and help you find the resources needed!
They have worked both virtually and in-person. And, even if you couldn’t see under their masks – they helped you with smiles on their faces.
Please join us in saying THANK YOU to our amazing students!
Michal Kaluzny
Gina Mirabelli
Robert “Bo” Smith
Teagan Hamontree
Samin Khan
Daniel Henkle
Kelsey Lyons
Mitchell Lillie
Reagan Mady
Your efforts and help over the past year are appreciated!!
I bet you don’t think much about the pencil when you think about picking it up and getting to work. Probably when it needs to be sharpened or when the mechanical pencil needs more lead, but most of us don’t think of the pencil often. It just is there. It just “is.”
The pencil, as we know it, has a fascinating history, dating back to the early 16th century! So why would March 30th be National Pencil Day? March 30, 1858 was the date when Hymen Lipman received the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil!
Back in the 16th century a storm in Cumberland uprooted a large tree exposing a black, gooey substance in Borrowdale near Kewsick. The substance was actually graphite and the nearby farmers used it to mark their sheep. That soon developed into sticks of graphite being wrapped in string so the fingers wouldn’t get so dirty. That developed into a casing that would hold the graphite – a predecessor to what we know of as the mechanical pencil. Sometime in the 16th century the pencil, much as we know it, was born. Graphite wasn’t exported so that area became the world-wide center of pencil manufacturing. The graphite in that area was the only known source of high-quality graphite so it was highly guarded and sold for large sums at auctions.
I won’t go into long detail, but when France declared war on Great Britain in 1793, they needed to come up with an alternative to the pencils made in Great Britain. So Nicolas-Jacques Conté was tasked with developing a pencil which did not require imported materials. He came up with mixing graphite powder with clay to produce fine rods which were fired in a kiln. It was patented by Conté in 1795 and is still the process by which pencils are made today.
After many iterations the Dixon Ticonderoga Company claimed to make “the world’s best pencil.” The Ticonderoga #2 pencil is the familiar yellow pencil with the yellow and green ferrule (the metal sleeve holding the eraser in place). Chances you have one on your desk.
Little known fact: “[…] the pencil does have a dark side – George Lucas apparently used a Dixon Ticonderoga when he working on the first draft of the screenplay for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and so the pencil is, at least in part, responsible for Jar Jar Binks.” At least that is what James Ward, author of The Perfection of the Paper Clip: Curious Tales of Invention, Accidental Genius, and Stationery Obsession, claims on page 96.
Stationery Fever: From Paper Clips to Pencils and Everything in Betweenauthor John Z. Komurki claims the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 is the “[…most gorgeous pencil the world has every seen […]”. It is a hexagonal pencil made with the unique mixture of wax, graphite and clay used in the lead. Because of that special mixture it claimed ‘half the pressure, twice the speed.’ The Blackwing was reportedly used by John Steinbeck, Truman Capote, Chuck Jones, Stephen Sondheim, and Eugene O’Neill, to name a few!
The history of pencils is fascinating and includes a book, How to Sharpen Pencils.Stationery Fever has a chapter devoted to pencil sharpening!
Here are interesting facts about “notable pencil users” from the National Day Calendar.
Thomas Edison had pencils specially made by Eagle Pencil. His pencils were three inches long, thicker than standard pencils, and had softer graphite than typically available.
Vladimir Nabokov rewrote everything he ever published, usually several times, by pencil.
John Steinbeck was an obsessive pencil user and is said to have used as many as 60 a day. His novel East of Eden took more than 300 pencils to write.
Vincent van Gogh used only Faber pencils as they were “superior to Carpenters pencils, a capital black and most agreeable.”
Johnny Carson regularly played with pencils at his Tonight Show desk. These pencils were specially made with erasers at both ends to avoid on-set accidents.
Roald Dahl used only pencils with yellow casings to write his books. He began each day with six sharpened pencils and only when all six became unusable did he resharpen the
Here are 20 things about pencils that you probably don’t know! (Including are they poisonous? Can they be used as a weapon?)
1. There is no risk of lead poisoning if you stab yourself (or someone else) with a pencil because it contains no lead — just a mixture of clay and graphite. Still, pencil wounds carry a risk of infection for the stabees, lawsuits for stabbers.
2. And bad juju for anyone linked to Watergate: In his autobiography, G. Gordon Liddy describes finding John Dean (whom he despised for “disloyalty”) alone in a room. Spotting sharpened pencils on a desk, Liddy fleetingly considered driving one into Dean’s throat.
3. Graphite, a crystallized form of carbon, was discovered near Keswick, England, in the mid-16th century. An 18th-century German chemist, A. G. Werner, named it, sensibly enough, from the Greek graphein, “to write.”
4. The word “pencil” derives from the Latin penicillus, meaning — not so sensibly — “little tail.”
5. Pencil marks are made when tiny graphite flecks, often just thousandths of an inch wide, stick to the fibers that make up paper.
6. Got time to kill? The average pencil holds enough graphite to draw a line about 35 miles long or to write roughly 45,000 words. History does not record anyone testing this statistic.
7. The Greek poet Philip of Thessaloníki wrote of leaden writing instruments in the first century B.C., but the modern pencil, as described by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner, dates only to 1565.
8. French pencil boosters include Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who patented a clay-and-graphite manufacturing process in 1795; Bernard Lassimone, who patented the first pencil sharpener in 1828; and Therry des Estwaux, who invented an improved mechanical sharpener in 1847.
9. French researchers also hit on the idea of using caoutchouc, a vegetable gum now known as rubber, to erase pencil marks. Until then, writers removed mistakes with bread crumbs. 10. Most pencils sold in America today have eraser tips, while those sold in Europe usually have none. Are Europeans more confident scribblers?11 Henry David Thoreau — American, but a confident scribbler all the same — used pencils to write Walden. And he probably got them free. His father owned a pencil-making business near Boston, where Henry allegedly designed his own pencils before becoming a semi-recluse.12. In 1861, Eberhard Faber built the first American mass-production pencil factory in New York City.13. Pencils were among the basic equipment issued to Union soldiers during the Civil War.
14. The mechanical pencil was patented in 1822. The company founded by its British developers prospered until 1941, when the factory was bombed, presumably by pencil-hating Nazis.
15. Je suis un crayon rouge. After the 1917 Soviet revolution, American entrepreneur Armand Hammer was awarded a monopoly for pencil manufacturing in the USSR.
16. More than half of all pencils come from China. In 2004, factories there turned out 10 billion pencils, enough to circle the earth more than 40 times.
17. Pencils can write in zero gravity and so were used on early American and Russian space missions — even though NASA engineers worried about the flammability of wood pencils in a pure-oxygen atmosphere, not to mention the menace of floating bits of graphite.
18. Those concerns inspired Paul Fisher to develop the pressurized Fisher Space Pen in 1965. After the Apollo 1 fire, NASA banned pencils in favor of his pen on manned spaceflights.
19. The world’s largest pencil is a Castell 9000, on display at the manufacturer’s plant near Kuala Lumpur. Made of Malaysian wood and polymer, it stands 65 feet high.
20. At the other extreme, engineers at the University of California at Santa Barbara have used an atomic force microscope as a kind of pencil to draw lines 50 nanometers (two millionths of an inch) wide. Just because they could.
I hope you next time you pick up a pencil you’ll think of some of the history behind the development of today’s pencil!
Resources:
Ward, James. 2015. The perfection of the paper clip: curious tales of invention, accidental genius, and stationery obsession. New York : Touchstone Engineering Library TS171 .W37 2015
Komurki, John Z. 2016. Stationery fever : from paper clips to pencils and everything in between. Munich ; New York : Prestel. Engineering Library TS1233 .K66 2016
Research Scholars Virtual Workshop!
How to Get Your Research Published and Noticed!
March 31, 2021
3:30 PM
You’ve put so much time and effort into getting your research ready to publish. What’s the next step? In this competitive market, how do you get your paper noticed?
Come to our FREE virtual workshop! David, Parsons, Senior Customer Marketing Manager for Elsevier, will be presenting and discussing how to find the right journal for your paper, talking about the peer review process. It will include the best way to structure your paper, how to get it noticed, and also, publishing ethics. An amazing opportunity to talk and ask questions of someone in the publishing world!
David Parsons is the New York City-based Senior Customer Marketing Manager for Elsevier. He has previously been the publisher of Data in Brief. He has been working in academic and educational publishing since 2007, covering a variety of topics including physical sciences, life sciences, and medicine. He recently completed his MS in Data Science from Syracuse University.
Come and learn ways to reduce some of the research paper stress!
For information about this and other Research Scholar Workshops, please go to our webpage!
A Week of Parties, Pranks, and Memories to Honor St. Patrick
From 1910 until the late 1980s, MECCA Week was an annual celebration of the College of Engineering to honor St. Patrick. The celebration was marked by official events, awards, parties, scavenger hunt for the Blarney Stone, competitions, and pranks against the law students.
The newest exhibit in the Engineering Library display contains artifacts and photos from the MECCA Week Celebration.
The tale of St. Patrick as an engineer began at the University of Missouri in 1903. Engineering students were lamenting the fact it was such a long period between holidays and professors were giving them a heavy workload. They decided that St. Patrick was an engineer because he removed the snakes from Ireland, therefore, St. Patrick’s Day should be an engineering holiday. Their celebration included a march of the engineering students to the chapel where they found (a person costumed as) St. Patrick, a knighting ceremony, a Blarney Stone, a parade, and St. Pat’s Ball.[1]
The first celebration of St. Patrick at the University of Iowa was on March 17, 1910 and was called the “Engineer’s Celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day”.[2] In 1967, Frederic Goodson Higbee wrote that this event “gave students an opportunity to ‘blow off steam,’ to exploit the work of the College, and to mix a worthwhile demonstration of student effort with an appropriate amount of fun and relaxation from the demands of engineering study.”[3] Another explanation comes from the Daily Iowan in 1965, which claims that “most class cuts occurred on St. Patrick’s Day. The main reason was that St. Patrick is the patron saint of the engineering profession. Class cutting proved highly unpopular with the faculty. It was thus decided that an officially approved celebration would replace class-cutting.”[4]
The 1910-1912 “Engineer’s Celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day” at the University of Iowa had a parade, Blarney Stone, Knights of Saint Patrick, and a show. The Daily Iowan describes the events planned for the first celebration as a parade that demonstrates “engineering ability and artistic taste”, the Blarney Stone scavenger hunt, and “a three-act minstrel show will be staged by the enterprising builders of bridges.”[5]
Members of the Iowa City St. Patrick’s Parish argued the association with their Patron Saint with the “antics and buffoonery of the Engineers” was inappropriate. [6] Thus, in 1913, it was announced that the name and of the celebration must be changed. Students decided on the MECCA Celebration. MECCA stands for the engineering departments of Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Chemical, and Architectural. It was also at this point that an open house and a MECCA Dance were added.[7] The Knights of Saint Patrick would change their name to the Knights of Meccasacius. Its letters are from the 5 departments which spelled MECCA, then the State University of Iowa, (SUI), and the College of Applied Science, (CAS).[8] Then the last 6 letters, SUICAS, were written in reverse order, SACIUS, and combined with MECCA to make MECCASACIUS.
The Daily Iowa, March 17, 1944. The Daily Iowan | dailyiowan.lib.uiowa.edu
The MECCA Ball replaced the parade and the MECCA Dance and a night of short skits replaced the formal play in 1926.[9] The MECCA Ball was a formal dinner, dance, and a beauty pageant was later added. The series of short skits would evolve into the MECCA Smoker.[10] Following World War II, returning veterans wanted to “grow beards and dye them green for the smoker and the MECCA Ball.”[11]
The Daily Iowan, March 19, 1932University of Iowa Hawkeye Yearbook 1968. University of Iowa | digital.lib.uiowa.edu/yearbooks
The only event which began in 1910 and continued relatively unchanged was the hunt for the Blarney Stone. The seniors or graduate students hid the stone for the next year’s class to find. The clues were engineering math and word problems with the answer pointing the way to the next clue.
the Daily Iowan, March 15, 1963. The Daily Iowa | dailyiowan.lib.uiowa.edu
Both law students and engineering students claimed St. Patrick as one of their own which started a rivalry of pranks. Some prank highlights include letting green mice loose in the Law Library, the placement of a manure spreader in the Law Building’s Practice Courtroom, and leading a horse into 3rd floor the Law Building. [12] In 1963, a one-ton concrete shamrock was placed on the Law Building’s Lawn. [13] During the 70’s and 80’s the rivalry turned from pranks to more competitions – such as a bar marathon.
Declining participation and numerous revivals make it difficult to pin down the end of MECCA Week as a celebration. But, the late 1980’s appears to be the end of the annual MECCA. The greatest changes to MECCA Week were not in the event schedule, but were changes in the Engineering College as the school grew from 218 students in 1910 to 1,283 in 1987. MECCA Week was traditionally held the week before St. Patrick’s Day. However, during the middle 1970’s, Spring Break began to be scheduled either before, or beginning on, St. Patrick’s Day which impacted participation and enthusiasm.[14] In 1970, the law students had grown tired of pranks, and received a court injunction against the engineering students to limit their pranks. [15]
MECCA Week began as the College of Applied Science skipping class to have an engineer’s holiday to honor St. Patrick and evolved into a week of events and pranks. The central focus was having fun and relaxing in the middle of a rigorous school year as an engineer. MECCA Week was a week of parties, pranks, and memories that many Iowa Engineering Alumni will always remember.
Please stop in and see the new exhibit!
Resources:
[1] Lindon J. Murphy, “Saint Patrick Patron of Engineers,” in The Iowa Transit (State University of Iowa College of Engineering: March 1965)
