Category: Events

Apr 06 2018

Join us for Library Events During Engineering Research Week!

Posted on by Carol Johnk

The University of Iowa College of Engineering has expanded its traditional Annual Research Open House event into a Research Week, celebrated this year from April 9-13.  The week now features numerous activities that showcase how Engineering impacts the university’s stratetic direction in conducting leading-edge research.

We are excited to be participating in Research Week!!

 

On Thursday, April 12, the 10 Kick-Start Award winners will be presenting posters and talking about their award-winning projects! Check here for information on the students and their fascinating and diverse projects! They will be presenting their posters between 2:00 and 4:00. Stop in!

 

 

Also on Thursday, April 12 is a free Learn & Create Xpress Class! It will be  held in the Engineering Library Creative  space beginning at 2:00 pm. Brian Westra from the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, will be presenting a class on OpenRefine. OpenRefine is a free tool for reviewing and cleaning up spreadsheet or tabular data! Save yourself a lot of time by using OpenRefine to identify and fix problems in your tabular data. Automated functions easily and quickly handle common problems, such as splitting cells that contain multiple data values, detecting duplicates and typos, standardizing date formats, and trimming extra spaces from cells. OpenRefine also keeps track of all your steps, so you can easily reuse them or undo them if necessary. Feel free to download the free software (here) and bring your own laptop to class. Class size is limited, so be sure to register today!

On Friday, April 13, 2:00 t0 4:00.  Living Books will be available to check-out in the library! Join us as books come alive! Researchers stand in for books, you are able to “check them out” for  15 minutes and take that time to talk one-on-one with Engineers about their inspiring research! Researchers from the Dept of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering will be available! Come and learn more about research being done in your area of study or explore an entirely new area! Stop in and check out a living book! Refreshments will be provided!

Here is a comprehensive list of all the activities and opportunities going on throughout the week! All events are open to the public!

Monday, April 9

Mars Rover Prototype Demonstration
University of Iowa Robotics Club
The University of Iowa Robotics Club designed, built and programmed a prototype Mars rover to compete in The University Rover Challenge (URC). The URC is hosted annually by the Mars Society at their Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) near Hanksville, Utah. Teams competing in the University Rover Challenge build a rover to compete and perform varied tasks deep in the Utah desert simulating realistic Mars rover operation and procedures. Come see the Rover in action!
2:00 – 3:00, 2040 Seamans Center

Tuesday, April 10

Introduction to Systematic Reviews
Qianjin (Marina) Zhang, Engineering & Informatics Librarian
Systematic Reviews is a research method that is commonly used in medical and public health but increasingly adopted by researchers in education, social sciences and, even, engineering. This workshop will introduce concepts about systematic reviews and narrative reviews, which is also called literature reviews, and differences between the two types of reviews. We will also discuss when and how to conduct a systematic review as well as the library services that support your systematic review project
11:30 – 12:30, Creative Space, 2001 Seamans Center

Wednesday, April 11

20 Years of Saving Lives – Making Vehicles Safer
National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) staff
Drive the NADS simulators and discuss how they could be used in your research, education, and outreach activities. Student-led research projects may be able to use the simulators at low or no cost!
11:30 a.m. -12:00 Noon – presentation, 12:00 Noon – 1:00 p.m. – simulator demonstrations, 4602 Seamans Center

Thursday, April 12

Going to Graduate School Workshop
Allan Guymon, DEO Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
This seminar is targeted to undergraduate student who are considering graduate school.
• The application process for graduate school
• Information about how to get financial support through fellowships & stipends
• Information on BS/MS program
• Future job opportunities
There will be a significant amount of times devoted to questions. Undergraduate students from all disciplines are invited to attend, Refreshments provided.
11:30 am – 12:30 pm, 3111 Seamans Center

Research Open House Poster Fair
More than 110 posters will showcase the research activities and accomplishments of the College of Engineering’s graduate and undergraduate students.
2nd Floor Lobby, Seamans Center
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
5:00-6:00 p.m., W10 Pappajohn Business Building.

Paul D. Scholz Symposium on Technology and its Role in Society
“Engineering and Natural Disasters.”
5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
W10 Pappajohn Business Building
A panel of three speakers will each give a 5-10 minute presentation followed by a moderated discussion and questions from the audience. The speakers are Daniel Miller from Stanley Consultants, Ron Knoche from Iowa City Public Works, and Professor Gabriele Villarini from the IIHR–Hydroscience & Engineering. The free, public symposium was named in 1993 to honor the late Paul Scholz, 20-year Tau Beta Pi advisor and associate dean of the UI College of Engineering (1979-1992). Scholz was inducted as a member of the Legacy of Iowa Engineering in 2006.
Co-sponsors are the UI Tau Beta Pi chapter, Tau Beta Pi alumni, and the College of Engineering.

Friday, April 13

Student Recognition Luncheon
Hotel Vetro
11:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m.
All faculty, staff and student poster presenters and judges are invited to attend, please RSVP to kristina-venzke@uiowa.edu.

Engineering Living Library
A living library has researchers stand in for books.  Instead of checking out print books, library users can read a person’s bio and if they choose that “book” then there is a 10-15 minute check out time where the library user can ask the living book questions about their research. This is a fun and inviting event for all participants.  Snacks and refreshments will be provided.
2:00 -4:00 p.m., 2001 Seamans Center

The university community and public are invited to attend any of the public scheduled events throughout the week.

Take advantage of this exciting opportunity to see all the innovation coming from the UI College of Engineering!

Apr 06 2018

Check Out a Living Book!

Posted on by Carol Johnk
ENGINEERING LIVING LIBRARY EVENT!!
Friday, April 13, 2018 
2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Lichtenberger Engineering Library 
Friday the 13th could turn out to be your lucky day!! Why? Because that’s the day we’re having a Living Book event! As part of National Library Week and the University of Iowa College of Engineering Research Week, we are providing the chance for you to check out Living Books!

From 2:00 to 4:00 pm on April 13th, researchers will become “living books,” giving you the chance to check them out for a 10-15 minute period and talk one-on-one about their research! A perfect opportunity to visit with a researcher in your area of study – or explore and entirely different aspect of engineering!

Researchers from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, will be in the Engineering Library eager to share their research experiences!

Amina Grant, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Researching Lead and Copper in Iowa Drinking Water.  She will be available to talk about her research on small or very small water systems in Iowa. Talk with her about her research and her overarching goal of providing a publicly accessible database.

Benjamin King, Dept. of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, will be sharing Researching the Development of Aerosols for Targeted Drug Delivery in the Lungs. His research allowed him to design and synthesize polymer-coated gold nanoparticles functionalized for targeted delivery in the lungs.  Check this Living Book out for 15 minutes and learn about his research dealing with inhaled therapies!

Researching Human Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants like PCBs, Pesticides, and Siloxanes is Rachel F. Marek’s research focus! Her research involves analysis of PCBs, their breakdown particles and other environmental contaminants. Her study involves monitoring pesticides at farm houses, lab experiments with siloxanes, and novel instrument applications for monitoring environmental contaminants to ascertain whether people – especially children – are exposed to harmful chemicals. Don’t miss the chance to explore Rachel’s research with her!

Michael Rendleman, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering, will be available to discuss his research: Researching Cancer Outcome Prediction with Machine Learning and Genomics. Tumor characterization is an integral part of personalized oncological medicine. In his research, he applies ” machine learning algorithms and techniques to publicly-available clinical data to infer missing values and to predict positive patient outcomes.” Come visit and learn about how this will provide a new path for clinical decision support!

Researching Artificial Intelligence and Virtual and Augmented Reality to Facilitate Environmental Research is the fascinating topic on which Yusuf Sermet, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is working. A recent project with which he has been involved is “Flood Expert.” Flood Expert is “. . . an intelligent system designed to improve societal preparedness for flooding by providing a knowledge engine that uses voice recognition, AI (artificial intelligence), and NLP (natural language processing) . . . The interaction and delivery channels include voice and text input via web-based systems, agent-based chat bots (e.g., MS Skype, Facebook Messenger), smartphone and augmented reality applications (e.g., Google Now, MS Cortana, MS HoloLens), automated web workflows (e.g., IFTTT), and smart home devices (e.g., Google Home, Amazon Echo). . .

Don’t miss this opportunity to ask questions and visit one-on-one with researchers! Mark your calendars now!

Friday, April 13, 2018 
2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Lichtenberger Engineering Library 

 

Mar 05 2018

Early Pi(π) Day Celebration on FRIDAY!!!

Posted on by Carol Johnk

3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286….

We’ll be celebrating Pi Day THIS Friday, March 9th – before spring break!!!

We’ll be celebrating in the Engineering Library and will serve apple pie bites from 1:00 to 3:14 p.m. (when else?!) or while supplies last! We will also have free coffee – did I mention the pie bites, coffee, and lemonade are free? Come early – these tasty bites go fast!

 

Is your mouth watering yet?

 

We’ll see you in the Engineering Library on March 9th,

1:00 to 3:14 p.m.

Be there or be square –

after all, you’d be irrational to not celebrate with us!