Like most engineers and Scientists, I’ve always been curious. To the dismay of the adults in my life, I often liked to take things apart when I was a child and see how they worked. And sometimes, I was even able to get all the parts back together again.
During my time studying engineering at the University of Minnesota, I quickly learned how to tackle tough problems in my classes and in the research lab. These problem-solving skills served me well in adulthood as I began my professional career working as a research officer in the Mining Research Laboratory of the Chamber of Mines in South Africa. A few years later, working as a consultant to several mining companies, I developed computer software that helped engineers devise ways to mine deep underground ore deposits more safely and economically.
In more recent years as department head, associate dean, and now as dean, I use many of the same skills to solve problems every day regarding budgets, personnel, and administrative issues.
Solving open-ended problems is arguably the cornerstone of engineering and science. We recognize the problem, and quickly begin the research to find a possible solution.
Institute of Technology faculty, alumni, and students are working to solve some of society’s greatest problems. This issue of Inventing Tomorrow highlights some of their potential solutions.
In our cover story “Alternative Energy,” we highlight faculty and students who are researching various forms of renewable energy including solar energy, wind energy, biofuels, and hydrogen. Many of our faculty are recognized as national and international leaders in cutting-edge renewable energy research. As Minnesota works to comply with a new state law that requires 25 percent of Minnesota’s energy come from renewable resources by 2025, the University of Minnesota and the Institute of Technology are poised to be at the forefront to lead the way for the state and the nation.
The “Breakthrough Ideas” story features Institute of Technology alumni who have won the first two years of the statewide Minnesota Cup competition, which seeks the state’s brightest new business ideas. These two groups of alumni have invented a switch that could transform the fiber optics industry and environment-friendly brick pavers made from recycled materials.
In this issue’s “Mini Marvel” story, a team of about 25 Institute of Technology undergraduate students from a variety of academic majors are getting their feet wet early on “real-world” research to find new ways to build a less-expensive, working mini-satellite. Faculty involved in the project note how truly amazing it is to see undergraduate students quickly grow to look, talk, and walk like engineers.
Other stories in this issue show the depth and breadth of the problem solving within the Institute of Technology. Not only are faculty and student researchers designing instruments to study the sun millions of miles away, they are working on research to solve traffic gridlock right here in our own city. They are finding innovative ways to study the human brain while others are researching new navigation and guidance systems that could potentially replace humans on board aircraft. Our faculty and students are conducting research on the nanometer scale trying to find new applications of nanotechnology while others are tracking stars that are 30 to 40 times larger than our sun.
I am proud to be a part of a college here at the University that includes so many faculty, students, and alumni who are truly driven to discover. Our state and our nation will have a stronger future because of the problems they solve every day.
