Props to UT

Some interesting facts about UT Knoxville from their website:

UT A Top National Public University

"From ever-increasing research dollars to affordability and value, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is recognized by many for its high-quality programs and initiatives that prepare students to thrive in a global economy.
As the state's flagship, research-intensive university, UT is the state's leader in promoting education, research and public service and continues to strengthen its impact on the citizens of Tennessee.
U.S. News and World Report ranked UT Knoxville as No. 52 among all public universities and No. 106 among all national universities for 2010. The national universities group includes 262 American universities that offer the comprehensive bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.
Academic Reputation
U.S. News and World Report ranks UT graduate programs among the best in the nation for 2010. The supply chain management and logistics program is ranked ninth among all national universities. The College of Law's clinical training program is 15th nationally, and the College of Engineering's graduate program in nuclear engineering is ranked 12th nationally.
The magazine ranked UT's College of Business Administration undergraduate business program 28th in the nation among public institutions and 48th among all national universities. The magazine also gives high rankings to the college's undergraduate program in supply chain management/logistics, which ranked seventh nationally and fifth among public universities. The College of Engineering undergraduate program ranked 32nd among public institutions and 64th nationwide.
In 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked the School of Art's MFA in printmaking program fourth nationally, and the College of Social Work's graduate program ranked 15th among public universities and 26th overall.
Forbes Magazine lists UT in its 2010 edition of "America's Best Colleges" based on quality of education and how much graduates achieve after receiving their degree. Forbes also cited UT Knoxville's College of Business Administration as 42nd out of 75 for its MBA program, on a list that contains both public and private institutions.
The Princeton Review lists UT in its 2010 edition of "The Best 371 Colleges," making the grade with just 15 percent of America's 2,500 four-year colleges chosen. UT also was cited for the second year in a row for its environmental friendliness, scoring an 85 on the publication's "green rating." The magazine also named the full-time MBA program one of the nation's "Best 301 Business Schools," and the College of Law one of the "Best 172 Law Schools" in its 2010 editions of those publications.
The Princeton Review also named UT a "Best Southeastern College" for its high standards and outstanding reputation among higher education institutions in the Southeast. The magazine in 2009 also ranked UT Knoxville among the 100 "Best Value Colleges" based on undergraduate academics, affordability and financial aid.
National Jurist Magazine ranked the College of Law as the nation’s 14th Best Value Law School.
Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine ranked UT as one of the top 100 universities in the nation in 2009 for "best value," a measure of the quality of academic programs compared to costs and financial aid.
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education this year ranked UT as a "Top 100 Doctorate Degree Producer" institution for African Americans.
The Sustainable Endowments Institute gave UT high remarks in its 2009 College Sustainability Report Card for making strides in green initiatives, rating it the greenest university in the state, and among the top four among Southeastern Conference member institutions. UT Knoxville was also the first university in the state to institute a student fee for the purchase of green power.
Make Orange Green, the campus environmental effort, has been honored across the state and nation as one of the top campus environmental programs. UT Knoxville campus environmental programs have been recognized in BusinessWeek and Newsweek magazines.
UT Knoxville also was named a "Military Friendly School" by G.I. Jobs magazine. This ranking places the institution in the top 15 percent of all colleges, universities and trade schools nationwide.

Top Students

UT's student body is another sign of the university's strides in academic quality. The new 2009 class of 3,723 entering freshmen had an average core GPA of 3.79 and a 26.5 average ACT score—the highest ever for an entering class.
Forty percent of the incoming freshmen had GPAs of 4.0 or higher. There are 40 National Merit scholarship winners in the incoming freshman class.
The HOPE Scholarship began in 2004, and UT Knoxville officials say the scholarship has impacted the flagship university more than any institution in the state by increasing applicants, bolstering incoming students' academic preparedness and allowing the university to increase access by creating need-based scholarship programs. About 99 percent of in-state freshmen qualified for the HOPE Scholarship.
Fifteen of the nation's top students recently accepted the invitation to attend UT Knoxville as the inaugural class of Haslam Scholars—a premier program that offers special opportunities for undergraduate research projects and study abroad.
Graduate students from UT Knoxville recently were awarded prestigious Fulbright and DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) external scholarship grants to study and research in Europe. A new Office of External Scholarships focuses on helping students compete for these and other top awards like the Rhodes, Marshall and Truman scholarships.

Research and Economic Impact

UT Knoxville is committed to the support and advancement of research as a way to enhance the lives of people across Tennessee, the nation and the world. The campus hires faculty with a commitment to world-class research and provides the support necessary for them to bring research dollars to Tennessee. From 2004 to 2009, sponsored research awards at UT Knoxville increased 155 percent, from $113 million to $179 million.
The University of Tennessee is classified as a research university with very high research activity (RU/VH) by the Carnegie Commission. The Center for Measuring University Performance, formerly Lombardi, an organization that ranks the top 200 research universities, ranked UT 31st nationally, up from 47th.
UT is a key economic driver in the state and its partnership with Battelle Memorial Institute to manage Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) supplies the fuel for continued growth and diversification. This partnership formalizes the university's longstanding collaborative relationship with one of the nation's premier research facilities and the U.S. Department of Energy's largest national laboratory.
UT Knoxville's Center for Business and Economic Impact recently estimated the economic impact of the campus on the state of Tennessee at more than $800 million, which accounts not only for direct expenditures by the university, but also the multiplied impact of things like spending by employees, jobs created by research funding and more.
Funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to UT Knoxville is at an all-time high. New awards from NSF for 2009 totaled more than $24 million, and four major NSF awards since 2007 have vaulted UT Knoxville into the national spotlight with funding for world-leading science and research endeavors.
UT Knoxville is now home to the one of the world's most powerful academic computers. Called Kraken, the computer is funded by a $65 million NSF award—the largest in the history of the UT system. The computer will allow researchers from UT Knoxville and around the world to find answers to humankind's most pressing questions from climate change to drug design. Kraken is the world's sixth fastest computer.
Joining Kraken will be Nautilus, a $10 million supercomputer whose purpose will be to take the staggering amount of data created by computers like Kraken and interpret it in ways that are meaningful. Not only is UT Knoxville leading the way in big computing, but it is leading they way to ensure that computing research has a broader impact on the world.
NSF also recently awarded UT Knoxville $16 million to begin the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), a first-of-its-kind center dedicated to finding creative solutions to major ecological and biological problems from animal disease to wildfire control. NIMBioS brings hundreds of scientists to UT Knoxville and puts millions of dollars into the local economy.
The NSF also has awarded $3 million Integrative Graduate Education Research and Training, or IGERT, awards to two UT Knoxville research groups studying sustainable technology and scalable computing. The centers will bring the nation's top graduate students to UT Knoxville.
UT's managing partnership with ORNL is enhancing the state's role as a growing hub for research in topics that will affect the lives of all people in the coming years, including alternative energy, national security and the creation of new materials. ORNL's crown jewel is the Spallation Neutron Source, which allows researchers from the United States and all over the world to use neutrons to understand the most fundamental structures and processes of matter, transforming it for uses that were unimaginable even a few short years ago.
UT and ORNL have created joint institutes in areas such as biological sciences, computational sciences, heavy ion research, nanophase materials sciences and neutron sciences. These joint institutes take advantage of the instructional and research strengths offered by the university and the national lab, and have already served as magnets for top researchers and major funding for centers housing resources like Kraken.
UT Knoxville is now home to five UT-ORNL Governor's Chairs. These faculty members, who hold a joint appointment with ORNL, are among the nation's best and brightest, and were recruited to UT Knoxville as part of the ambitious program that is supported by funding from the state of Tennessee. By providing resources for these faculty to conduct cutting-edge research in relevant topics, UT is establishing itself as a powerful hub for top scientists.
UT Knoxville's Center for Business and Economic Research measures the dollars the institution generates. Conservatively, UT Knoxville's impact approaches one billion dollars -- that's 24,000 jobs and $80 million in tax revenue.
UT Knoxville contributes to every aspect of life, from theater and music, science and technology, to law and athletics. The institution is moving forward in its mission to be the preeminent public research and teaching university linking the people of Tennessee to the nation and the world."

Source:
http://utk.edu/features/rankings.shtml

Cyber-Venting

Be careful what you complain about online. As NBA stars have found out, social networking can get you in some hot water if you're famous enough, but who would think a college kid's complaints about a towing company would get him sued?

You can look at the Facebook group that Justin Kurtz started here.  Kurtz started a legitimate group complaining about a towing company with poor service, and did not attempt to maliciously defame the company, but rather warn others about them, and allow others to chime in.  From the looks of the FB page, not many people in Kalamazoo are a big fan of T&J towing, and from the NY Times article, it appears that the suit is going to get thrown out, but this use of legal bullying by companies should be stopped.

Most suits like this end when the person who posted the complaint online removes his comment or page, and things never go to court.  Of course, the defendant may win if he took the time and effort to fight it, but probably doesn't want the trouble involved in a legal battle.  This kind of frivolous lawsuit by the company being defamed is basically an intimidation technique.  It bothers me that companies think they can just push their own unsatisfied customers around rather than working with them to fix the problem.

I had a similar situation crop up not long ago on Twitter.  I posted a complaint about Comcast, and their poor service in our apartment, and received a direct message from a Comcast account on Twitter, offering help.  This is the way that these problems should be handled, and it made me feel like Comcast was listening to me rather than fighting me.

What your email address says...

The Oatmeal always makes me laugh.  Here's another classic:

Women in Engineering

I found an interesting study while cruising the internet today, and although it was written in 1995, I think it still holds true today for the most part:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/long3.pdf

In case you don't have half an hour to read through this, I'll summarize.  The study compares men and women in Chemical Engineering at NC State.  The goal was to shed light on the low numbers of women who become interested in engineering both in college and at the professional level.  It has been suggested that this is due to natural abilities that men possess over women in the past, but this study does a pretty good job eliminating that factor.  The conclusion that the author reaches is that women tend to shy away from engineering for a variety of reasons, but most are tied to their confidence.  Women in engineering (as compared to men) tend to have lower confidence in both their natural ability and academic preparedness.  The study also made a good point in that women tend to be ignored or interrupted more in group settings (a focus of this study).  Another interesting statistic that this study brought to my attention is that around 20% of engineering students (men and women) believe it is too demanding to combine with family responsibilities.

I tend to agree with a lot of what this study concluded.  First, I don't think that women avoid education or careers in math and engineering because they are not as qualified as men or because they are naturally less intelligent.  I believe the reason is for more societal.  Women are not brought up the same way as men in our culture.  We tend to raise boys to compete and build things and be in charge, and girls to be dainty and pretty.

The problem with this tendency is that it repeats itself generationally.  Daughters usually identify with their mother, and usually emulate them at some level.  The study also showed that women beginning the engineering program were much more likely to have two parents who finished college than the men were.  To compound the problem, there are very few women who teach engineering on the college level, and this can leave a real lack of suitable role models for college-aged women.

As the article suggests, there are some proposed solutions for the disparity of women in the industry, but I won't get into much detail there.  I would like to say though, that men in engineering have a duty to respect and encourage our female counterparts (just like they would respect and encourage fellow males).  I have seen how prevalent sexism can be among small groups of male engineers, and while some jokes may be appropriate, sexist jokes or real sexist discrimination is not appropriate or professional.

Personal Branding - Part 1

Creating a name for yourself in business, politics, or the arts has long been a goal of professionals, but the idea of personal branding has changed incredibly quickly in the past 10 years.

As the internet has grown, and evolved, social networking has come to rise, and is likely here to stay.  Beginning with the personal website, spreading to weblogs (blogs), and now moving into social networking, the ability to reach any other person in the world's information and thoughts has drastically changed the way those of us who are connected live.  I can now simultaneously send a message to 100 of my friends in the time it would have taken to address a single letter 20 years ago.  Furthermore, I can post a blog entry or make a tweet in a few seconds that is instantly visible to any of the millions of internet users worldwide.  People who would otherwise have no connection whatsoever can now find others with common interests or needs, and unite via the internet.  People with little access to communication with the world outside their country can tweet via text message the state of their home's political unrest first hand.  This vast array of information has its advantages and disadvantages, but today I'm going to focus on the personal advantages that the internet and social networking offers.

The concept of using the internet to create a name for yourself has been labeled "personal branding," and it basically covers any information that the internet offers about you.  Do a quick google search for yourself.  Try including your middle name or excluding it or just using your middle initial.  If you have a facebook or twitter account, you're likely to see one of your profiles in the top results.  If you have created a google account, you will also see that profile, and it's likely that any other variety of websites that you may have visited or commented on will appear.

It's a little scary to think that you are so easily accessed, but you have to think about the positive uses for this mass availability.  The first obvious benefit is employment.  If an employer gets your application, thinks about hiring you, and can quickly find more information on the internet about you, they may decide to call you for an interview or not based on this information.  This is where information control becomes important.  Trying to get your name higher on the list of google search results can increase your visibility, and make sure that potential employers can find you more quickly - assuming they find the information you want them to.

Another benefit is meeting people.  As I said, social networks can connect two or more people who would otherwise have never met in real life, so it's good to use this to your advantage.  Find companies that you may want to work for on twitter or facebook and follow them.  Comment on their posts occasionally, just to make them aware of you, and ask them questions about their company.  Imagine going into a job interview and telling them you saw their post this morning on twitter.

Rather than make this entry longer than it needs to be, I'll include some further reading.  My personal recommendation for getting started is to create a LinkedIn account (basically like facebook for professional connections), start using twitter to follow employers and coworkers, and think about buying your domain name.  It's a cheap investment, and you never know when it will pay off.


My Favorite Personal Branding Blog
LinkedIn
Twitter dos and don'ts

Stop all the Asian Crap...I mean Carp!

This may be a little-known issue here in Tennessee, but it's gotten $78.5 million in  tax-payer funding, and the attention of the White House to boot:


Asian Carp are invading the Great Lakes!

Rather than get into the specifics of this singular situation, I'll leave you the above link to check it out for yourself, and I'll address the more global issue of the spread of invasive species:

I grew up in Memphis, where Kudzu has become a dominant force in the ecosystem.  While Kudzu is not native to the Americas, it has found a thriving environment with little natural competition here in the southern US.  It swallows telephone poles, trees, fences, and sometimes houses, and while it may be cool to look at, this sort of invasive plant is clearly harmful to the natural ecosystem that it invades, and of course, this is just one example.

Since people began traveling, they have spread countless non-native plants and animals.  It's impossible to tell how many natural ecosystems have been altered or destroyed by humans in the course of history, but it is now becoming something that we can do more quickly and unintentionally than ever before.

We have the ability to cross any continent, any ocean, and even go beyond our terraform in very reasonable lengths of time, and as we are beings in need of other supporting life-forms, we tend to bring some of our favorite animals and plants along whenever we travel or migrate.  Global trade has only increased our ability to inadvertently ruin a foreign ecosystem by bringing in invasive species, and now that we have recognized this problem, action needs to be taken.

We are realizing more and more as humans that we are coming to the point in history where our actions could physically end the world.  I'm not just talking about a nuclear holocaust, although that is a valid possibility, but also our continued disregard for maintaining stable ecosystems on the earth.  Species variation is a key aspect of balance in the world as we know it, and while understanding the way the world works could lead us to the ability to recreate or restore ecosystems, we are destroying life on this planet faster than we are learning about it.  The focus of science and engineering since the industrial revolution has been relatively micro in scale, and by that I mean that we try to invent new ways to improve our individual lives at that very moment.  We tend to shrug off researching and understanding the long-term effects of what we may think are revolutionary, beneficial inventions.

I hold out hope for humanity though, and I think the more we can learn about this world, the more we can do to ensure its continued ecological health.  In the mean time, we need to continue to move our public policies in a direction that is in favor of environmental improvement, including, the prevention of the spread of non-native invasive species.

Hey! You got oil in my Gulf!

Since one of my first posts was pertaining to the coal-mining disaster in West Virginia, I find it fitting to say a little something about the recent oil leak that BP and the US Government are working on stopping in the Gulf of Mexico.

This is a horrible environmental disaster, and while it is not likely that humans will die as a direct consequence of the spill, it is extremely likely that people in the area, and possibly along the whole East Coast will feel the consequences of this disaster.  I wish I were more experienced in the exact way that a deep-water oil rig works, but from my basic understanding, a leak has developed in the pipeline that brings oil from under the sea floor, and to the top of the rig, where it is transported to refineries, etc.  This leak has been directly channeling oil from underground and into the sea for the past few days, and because of its depth (about a mile down), it has been very difficult to fix.

So, now the problem is two-fold:  fixing the leak before it gets worse and simultaneously cleaning up the oil that has already escaped.  Here are a couple interesting news stories related to the topic, if you feel like knowing a little more:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6430AR20100504
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-05-03-how-risky-is-the-dispersant-strategy-for-addressing-the-gulf-spi

Okay, so this is a big deal, but what does it mean for the oil industry in America, or even abroad?  I think nothing.  They will have to be careful to guard against this kind of failure in a deep-water rig again, but it's unlikely that our government will be able to (or even want to) cut back our domestic oil supplies.  Personally, I don't think we should stop drilling anywhere just because of this accident, but it may make it a little scarier for some people who don't want off-shore drilling a few hundred feet from their back-yards.

Of course, oil drilling has brought us an amazing age of new technologies and transportation, so for that, it is assuredly an advancement, but it's never that simple.  No engineer can design a perfect machine that will never fail, never break down, and never have an unforeseen problem.  James Carville had a good point the other day on CNN.  He said that no matter what kind of fuel we are using - coal, oil, nuclear, hydroelectric - we have a chance of disaster, and the more we use that kind of fuel, the greater our chances are for something to go wrong.  There is no known perfectly safe, perfectly clean, perfectly unobtrusive way to produce energy on this earth.  We can only keep improving our processes and looking for new advancements, but I feel confident that we will.