Richard J. Resch School of Engineering students Rick Todd Kaske Jr. and Brady Connaher, both Electrical Engineering Technology majors, jointly with Associate Prof. Mohammad Upal Mahfuz, recently authored a scholarly article entitled, “Smart Greenhouse Project: A Sustainability-focused Learning Experience for Undergraduates,” at the second EAI International Conference on Sustainable Energy for Smart Cities (EAI SESC 2020), Dec. 3, 2020. Details on the article and its abstract can be found at this website (check for session 1.2, 11:00 – 12:30).
Congratulations to UW-Green Bay’s Resch School of Engineering student, Denny Christoff (Mechanical Engineering). Christoff landed the #2 Draft Pick spot and received the $500 scholarship at Internship Draft Day 2020, hosted from Lambeau Field, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020. Christoff competed against 43 students—21 who completed 70 interviews with employers. In all, 33 employers—including KI, PCMC, WEC Energy Group, Werner Electric—participated. Students could earn points based on GPA, college club participation, relevant work experience, and 15-minute interviews at the event. To learn more about the Draft Day win, visit Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance’s Facebook page.
Since its 2015 inception, Internship Draft Day has been organized by the Northeast Wisconsin Educational Resource Alliance (NEW ERA) and the NEW Manufacturing Alliance (NEWMA). Together, these entities recognized a unique way to work collaboratively on a unified cause: to expand manufacturing career pathways, in addition to building a talent pipeline through internships. Hundreds of college students from Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan participate in the annual Internship Draft Day at Lambeau Field in Green Bay every year. Students showcase talent, curiosity, hustle, and career interest, vying for scholarships, paid internships, and network connectio
The Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin (FWC) awarded $122,000 to Assistant Professor Michael Holly (Environmental Science, Water Science) to lead a working group to investigate the environmental transport of PFAS. Research completed by the Sustainable Use of Biosolids (SUBS) working group (including PIs at UW-Platteville, Madison, and Stevens Point) will provide training and laboratory experience for undergraduate students at each campus. Completed work will help predict future PFAS groundwater contamination from soils receiving biosolids, facilitate generation of future land application guidelines to protect groundwater wells from PFAS, identify Wisconsin groundwater sources at risk, and evaluate a low-cost treatment to further minimize PFAS leaching.
Assistant Prof. Michael Holly (Water Science, Resch School of Engineering) announced a number of publications and grants. Publications: Holly, M. A., Gunn, K. M., Rotz, C. A., & Kleinman, P. J. A. (2019). Management characteristics of Pennsylvania dairy farms *. Applied Animal Science, 35(3), 325–338. Kleinman, P. J. A., Spiegal, S., Liu, J., Holly, M., Church, C., & Ramirez-Avila, J. (2019). Managing Animal Manure to Minimize Phosphorus Losses from Land to Water. In H. M. Waldrip, P. H. Pagliari, & Z. He (Eds.), Animal Manure: Production, Characteristics, Environmental Concerns and Management (pp. 201–228). Rotz, C. A., Stout, R. C., Holly, M. A., & Kleinman, P. J. A. (2020). Regional environmental assessment of dairy farms. Journal of Dairy Science, 103(4).
Funded grants: Lead PI, Evaluation of Filter Media for Phosphorus Removal in Agricultural Runoff Treatment Systems. Submitted March 2020 to the UW System Undergraduate Water Research Fellowship Program, total amount requested $10,000. Status: Successfully funded, project initiated in August 2020 Lead PI, Hybrid and Online Program Development Proposal: Development of a Hybrid Environmental Engineering Technology Program. Submitted May 2020 to the UWGB Online or Hybrid Development Grant, total amount requested $30,000. Lead PI, Active Learning of Sustainability Assessment through a FYS Group Project. Submitted January 2020 to the UWGB Sustainability Teaching Development Grant, total amount requested $1,000. Status: Successfully funded.
He is a determined leader and a UW-Green Bay alumnus who continues to inspire.
Dean of UW-Green Bay’s College of Science, Engineering and Technology, John Katers, was recognized by two major organizations this fall for his dedication to science, engineering, and sustainability.
Katers persistence and leadership in the drive for engineering degrees and the long-awaited Resch School of Engineering at UW-Green Bay, and his unwavering commitment toward the establishment of the Brown County STEM Innovation Center on the Green Bay Campus, has no doubt added to his legacy.
In late August, Katers received word that the Central States Water Environment Association (CSWEA), named him the three-state organization’s 2020 William C. Boyle Educator of the Year Award. The award recognizes accomplishments in the education and development of future water environment professionals by educators at all levels, from primary grades through graduate students. Katers believes his long history with NEW Water, a government utility that reclaims waters and promote pollution prevention and water conservation, may have led to the nomination. Many of his former students work at the organization.
John Katers
Under normal circumstances, the award would have been presented at the 93rd Annual Meeting in August. His award will also be announced in the next publication of Central States Water, and Katers will be recognized at CSWEA’s 2021 Annual Meeting.
“A big congratulations to you on your well-deserved award and for all your essential work in keeping our waters clean and sustainable for generations to come,” said Jane Carlson, second president of CSWEA. “Your ongoing commitment to the protection of our water environment is greatly appreciated.”
And just last week (Friday, Sept. 18), Katers was presented the 2020 Wisconsin Section American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Engineer in Education Individual Merit Award. The list of award winners through the years included Dr. Al Zanoni (1998) and Dr. Tom Wenzel (1996), two of Katers’ former faculty members and mentors at Marquette University where he completed his Ph.D.
“Dr. Zanoni was my major professor at Marquette and I believe I am the only Ph. D. student of his that finished, while Dr. Wenzel was the Chair of Engineering,” Katers said. “I am not sure that I am entirely deserving of the award, as we have a great team of people at UWGB and in CSET that do remarkable work with our students each and every day, but I am very proud to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Zanoni who I greatly respected as an educatorbecause of his passion and dedication to training the next generation of engineers.”
The Engineer in Education Individual Merit Award is given to those who contribute to civil engineering through actions that serve to advance the art, science or technology of civil engineering.
Katers currently chairs the Brown County Solid Waste Board and has done extensive research on solid waste management and recycling, agricultural waste management and treatment, and pollution control and waste minimization.
In the featured photo, Katers welcomes the Green Bay Packers to the Tiny Earth kick-off (a search for antibiotics) press conference at the STEM Innovation Center in Sept. 2019.
Resch School of Engineering Associate Prof. Maruf Hossain has co-authored a paper entitled “Teager Energy Operator for Fast Estimation of Three-Phase Grid Frequency,” which has been accepted for publication in the reputed Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions on Instrumentation & Measurement Journal. This is an international collaborative work led by Hossain with other two professors from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and Macquarie University, Australia.
Associate Prof. Mohammad Upal Mahfuz of the Richard J. Resch School of Engineering successfully chaired the special session on “Advances in the Smart Cities Technologies” at the 17th International Conference on Electrical Engineering/Electronics, Computer, Telecommunications and Information Technology (ECTI-CON 2020), June 24-27, 2020, held virtually in Phuket, Thailand.
The special session presented a number of papers from around the world with the latest results in the field of the smart cities and their future. Many thanks to the local hosts in Phuket, Thailand, for all their support to make the special session successful. See details of the conference program including the list of papers presented in this special session.
Associate Prof. Mohammad Upal Mahfuz of the Richard J. Resch School of Engineering successfully chaired the special session on “Recent Advances in Wireless Body Area Networks” at the IEEE Region 10 Symposium (IEEE TENSYMP 2020), June 5-7, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The special session presented a number of papers from around the world with the latest results in the related fields of wireless body area networks.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation, the conference was virtual. However, the level of engagement among the participants was great. Many thanks to the local hosts in Dhaka, Bangladesh, for their outstanding level of support that made the special session successful.
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Resch School of Engineering, Mohammad Upal Mahfuz, has recently co-authored a scholarly article entitled, “Spatial Nanomechanical Communications Based on State Transitions,” in the renowned IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience journal published by the IEEE, Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/TNB.2020.2986299, Print ISSN: 1536-1241, 12 pages. The article presents a novel framework of a nanomechanical communication system. Details on the article and its abstract can be found at this website link.
