Author: College of Engineering

Donald Stocker at the celebration of the 25th
anniversary of the Division of Engineering
Technology in 1998 – Photo by David Reich

The College of Engineering community laments the loss of Donald Vernon Stocker, former director of the Wayne State University Division of Engineering Technology from 1981 to 1987 and professor emeritus.

Stocker, passed away Wednesday, May 19, at his home in Onsted in Michigan’s Irish Hills. He was 83.

The family has planned a funeral service for 3 p.m. Saturday at the Anderson Funeral Home, 265 W. Beecher Rd. in Adrian. Visitation is from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Friday. Visitation will also be Saturday from 2 p.m. until the service begins.

Stocker was the third director of the Engineering Technology Division, which was created in 1972. In a 1998 interview with EXEMPLAR magazine on a return visit to the division for its 25th anniversary celebration, Stocker recalled the years of his leadership as quite lean. “Those were the tough years. The original promise – to hire teachers, augmented by part-time faculty, with no need for labs – was wrong. You still have to have laboratories. This is hands-on experience.”

He was quite pleased at the time with ET’s growth. In 1987, it had only three faculty members. By 1998 it had seven and many adjunct faculty members as it does today.

Stocker retired to the Irish Hills in 1989.

He was born January, 1927 in Detroit to Alfred Otto and Elsie (Breitenbach) Stocker, and served in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1946.

Stocker is survived by his wife, Clara, of 59 years, two daughters, Jan (Ron) Heverly of Frankfort, Mich., and Laura (Chuck) Dorais of Canton; one sister, Jeannette Stocker of Redford, and four grandchildren, Linda Reno, Richie Reno, Brett Wysocki, and Eric Dorais.

Cremation will follow the service. Memorial contributions may be made to the USO or Lenawee County Humane Society.

Former colleagues, students and friends of Donald Stocker are encouraged to share their memories, which will be posted, by emailing David Reich, WSU College of Engineering homepage editor, at: [email protected]

“Wayne State University needed more short-term parking on Anthony Wayne Drive and came to me for a traffic study. I knew that we could do this study and also could acquire funds from MDOT, through the City of Detroit, to create more parking as well as a pedestrian-friendly street.” MDOT approved 80% of the construction costs and the other 20% of the costs will be provided by WSU.

While the added parking will surely be a benefit to campus, Datta says the main impetus for the WSU-TRG to work on this project was pedestrian safety. ‘In the past few years there have been 10 or 11 pedestrian involved crashes around campus, which is very significant,” says Datta. “We hope we can bring that number down.”

The improvements to promote pedestrian safety will include: narrowing the street from four lanes to two in each direction and creating an additional lane of parking on either side of the median, which will boost the number of additional short-term parking spaces up to 150. A bike lane will be installed in each direction and the entrance to Parking Structure Two will be closed off so that drivers will have to enter from the Lodge Freeway service drive. A HAWk (High-intensity Activated crossWalk) signal will be installed at the crosswalk between the General Lectures Building and the Engineering Building.

HAWk signals — which can already be found at a pedestrian crossing on Cass Avenue near the Business School and Detroit Public Library– allow drivers to proceed as usual when there are no pedestrians present, as well as make pedestrians more aware when crossing the street. In addition, wrought iron railing will be placed in the median, to deter pedestrians from crossing anywhere but at designated crosswalks.

Additionally, the project calls for streetscape: flower pots and benches as well as lantern-type street lighting to make the environment along Anthony Wayne Drive more enjoyable and aesthetically-pleasing. “The objective of this project is to create a pedestrian-friendly environment,” says Datta. “Not only will pedestrians be safer, but it will enhance the environment for commercial development on the east and maybe west side of Anthony Wayne Drive.”

Datta and the members of the WSU-TRG have spent countless hours since March 2009 on the project and hope it will pay off for the WSU community. Construction will begin in July and Datta says the goal is to have the opening ceremony for Anthony Wayne Drive coincide with the TRG’s annual Drive Safely to Wayne State campaign in the fall. A combined event would draw a great deal of positive attention, says Datta.

Regardless of whether or not the project is recognized outside of the university, “It’s worth to Wayne State is invaluable” says Datta. "The difficult thing now will be changing pedestrian behavior.”

Engineering Student and Faculty Board (ESFB) officials receive distinguished service awards at the annual Honors Convocation.

The 2010 Honors Convocation was more than an awards ceremony this year. There were tears and touching moments, cheers and excitement as students and professors were acknowledged for their excellence.

Wayne State med student LaMyra Dorsey fought tears as she approached the stage at the award ceremony held April 16 at General Lectures to accept the Humanitarian Award established only this year by the college specifically to acknowledge Dorsey’s actions taken on the morning of Dec. 7, 2009.

Gerald Thompkins, associate dean of students, described what happened that morning to students, faculty, staff, family and friends in the audience. Dorsey was driving south on the John C. Lodge Freeway (M-10) on her way to Wayne State when she noticed the car in front of her slow down, veer into the median and continue to hit against it before coming to a stop. Despite risk to herself and her unborn child — she was eight months pregnant — Dorsey, a former military emergency medical technician, pulled over to help the stranger. The man turned out to be Ralph H. Kummler, the former dean of the college, who had suffered a fatal heart-attack.

Vanda Ametlli, Engineering Student Faculty Board (ESFB) president, presided over the event.  Ametlli herself took home the EAA Outstanding Senior Award and was one of four students recognized for the Robert G. Wingerter Award, both sponsored by the Engineering Alumni Association for academic achievement and service.

The other Wingerter award recipients were Lovepreet Kaur (electrical and computer engineering), Bradley Martens (electrical engineering) and Jonathan Szokola (mechanical engineering).

Devin Partrich (civil and environmental engineering) came away like a “rookie of the year.” After cleaning up four awards (the EAA Freshman Award, Tau Beta Pi’s Outstanding Freshman Scholarship, the ESFB Community Service Award and the Marvin I. Danto Annual Scholarship) — not to mention making the Dean’s Honors List 2009 — the freshman felt so overwhelmed that it brought tears to her eyes.

“It’s a feeling of satisfaction to know that that many people recognize what I do,” says Partrich. “I do it for myself to push myself. Because my whole goal my entire life was to get an education…To know that this many people have faith and hope in me, I know I have so many people counting on me. And I don’t want to let them down or let myself down.”

Of the major undergraduate engineering fields (chemical, industrial, civil, mechanical, electrical and computer), five juniors and five seniors were recognized for Highest Scholastic Averages. Nicholas Triglia, a third-year mechanical engineering student, held a straight 4.0 GPA.

Assistant Professor Caisheng Wang received the Engineering Technology Excellence in Teaching Award, as did part-time faculty member Tommy White (industrial engineering).

Kristian Brown (biomedical engineering) received the Ralph H. Kummler Award for Distinguished Achievement in Graduate Student Research. The award  was established this year to honor Kummler.

The Outstanding Faculty Service Award winners were: Weiping Ren (biomedical engineering), Robert Erlandson (electrical engineering), Gina Shreve (chemical engineering), Alper Murat (industrial engineering), Thomas Heidtke (civil engineering) and Sean Wu (mechanical engineering).

Biomedical engineering graduate research assistants Aditya Belwadi and Rachel Kast were selected to receive Albert I. King Endowed Scholarships.

Finally, the students bestowed Thompkins with the Distinguished Faculty Service Award.

Paul Sgriccia, MSCEE’97, set the tone for the ceremony as the “dean for a day” when he delivered the keynote speech. “It’s a great time to be an engineer,” Sgriccia  said. He noted that different engineering disciplines will lead the future because many industries, including manufacturing and automotive, will need the skills and technologies provided by engineers.

Sgriccia shared 10 “pearls” of advice. He asked students to continue to learn, have a 5 or 10-year plan and be prepared for change, among his suggested rules to live by.

For a full list of award recipients, click here.

by Derrick Bean
COE Public Affairs Writer

The engi-NERDS 3.0, a team of more than 30 engineering students, finished second overall at the 2010 Warrior Games, the best ranking of their young career.

Gabriela Diaz, mechanical engineering senior, is the engi-NERDS creator and team manager. She is more than happy with her team’s efforts. “I’m really proud of our team this year,” says Diaz. “We chose events that didn’t necessarily favor us, and we still pulled out second place, which is impressive. This year the competition was a little more competitive then we had anticipated or would have liked.”

More than 25 teams competed in the Warrior Games, a week-long student competition aimed at improving campus life. The 2009 reigning champions, team Japanthers, returned to their number one spot with 1,940 points, receiving just 195 points more than the engi-NERDS.

In their first event, the engi-NERDS stood firmly atop the two-on-two table tennis charts after conquering the Japanthers, making it known that they would indeed be a contender.

The engi-NERDS also placed first in both volleyball and window painting, events that the Japanthers entered as well. Engineering students painted their window based on the Willy Wonka “Nerds” candy. In the painting, several “Nerds,” or creatures shaped like the popular candy, can be seen holding a table tennis paddle, a volleyball, or some other piece of equipment representing one of the many Warrior Games events.

The engi-NERDS placed second in ultimate frisbee and third in the mandatory essay event. Their essay, written by John Herbon (ME) and Alisha John (CHE), answered the question: “How can WSU students become more involved in campus activities, intramural sports and student events?” Herbon and John took an “engineer’s approach” to the essay by using a problem-solving process. They wrote about emphasizing the importance of campus involvement early in a student’s career. The entire essay can be read here.

Diaz says they attracted more students this year thanks to team captain Vanda Ametlli who created a Facebook group page to get the word out. “That is exactly what we wanted to happen,” says Diaz. “We all made a lot of friends this year, and had a good time.”

It also helped to have the support of engineering students at each event, earning the team 90 volunteer points, just 10 fewer than the Japanthers. “It really did make a difference to have a larger team and to have people cheering on the sidelines,” says Diaz..

Diaz is thankful for everyone who participated in the Warrior Games. She says support is important for the college and the campus. “I would encourage faculty, those who were not involved and those who are learning for the first time about Warrior Games to become more involved next year,” she says. “Ultimately, we’re representing the College of Engineering and having good support puts out a good message.”

Honorable Mention:

Alisha John has many goals as your 2010-11 Engineering Student Faculty Board (ESFB) president. John’s overall objective is to increase recruitment and retention rates at the college. To do so, she wants to help create new events, and get more people to volunteer at each event. But John says she can’t do it alone.

“I feel that as students of the College of Engineering it is our duty to help ensure that it is as successful as possible now and in the future,” says John. “I believe that collaboration between students and student organizations helps to enrich the college experience of all those involved and leads to better results.”

John says she ran for ESFB president because she is passionate about what the board aims to accomplish. “I believe that effective lines of communication between students, student organizations, faculty and staff are essential if a university is to provide the best possible education for its students,” she says. “I want to do my part to ensure that the College of Engineering provides not only an excellent academic experience to its students, but a great life experience as well.”

The ESFB president-elect presided over her first board meeting — the last of the semester — Wednesday, April 14, one week after being elected.

John, a soon-to-be chemical engineering senior, seemed comfortable in her new position. She says she gained leadership skills as president of Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, this past school year. “I am able to run more effective and efficient meetings, delegate tasks and promote success within a group,” she says. “In addition, I gained new contacts through interaction with administration, faculty, staff and my fellow students. I believe that these contacts will help my term as ESFB president be a successful one.”

John isn’t new to creating programs. “One specific program I would like to continue and improve upon is the Freshman Outreach Program that I started last fall which aimed to aide incoming Freshman with their transition into the university setting,” she says.

John has been involved in many campus activities in the past year. She started the fall 2009 semester off with a bang by volunteering as a victim in the dunk tank event during the Welcome Back Picnic. John took part in an on-campus a cappella choir called SYNCS (Singing Young New-age College Students). She also points to her drive, tact and “excellent communication skills” as further qualifications.

Vanda Ametlli, former ESFB president, says a good ESFB president needs to be a “good leader,” noting that her “communication with student organizations’ leaders is a major factor in ESFB’s success this past year.” She adds that assigning tasks to other board members will allow her to accomplish more goals. But Ametlli’s “most important” piece of advice is to “assure that student needs are addressed,” she says.

John says she is grateful to be given the opportunity to give back to the College of Engineering. “I am looking forward to this coming year and hope that ESFB will continue to be successful under my lead,” she says.