School of Engineering

SpaceShipOne engineer, KU alumnus to deliver Expo speech

Doug Shane, director of flight operations for SpaceShipOne, will be the keynote speaker at the 2005 Engineering Expo, Feb. 25, at the University of Kansas.

SpaceShipOne made headlines around the world in October 2004, when it became the first privately funded, manned spacecraft to break the barrier into space. Shane, a 1982 aerospace engineering alumnus, also was one of four test pilots for the project led by aircraft designer Burt Rutan.

Shane’s presentation at 9:30 a.m. in the Lied Center of Kansas will kick off the first day of Engineering Expo, an annual open house at the KU School of Engineering that lets students from throughout the region experience the fun of engineering. Expo, coordinated by KU Engineering Student Council, will continue on Saturday, Feb. 26. Both days will feature hands-on exhibits, demonstrations and contests for visitors. This year, KU engineering students have adopted a Hollywood theme, “Engineering Studios: Behind the Scenes.”

Learn more about Expo at www.engr.ku.edu/media/newsdetail.php?newsID=132 or

www.engr.ku.edu/kuesc

Research identifies new road hazard —us

You've heard about “road rage.” Now get used to the “platoon merge,” a driving phenomenon recently identified by a KU graduate student that has many drivers taking evasive actions on urban freeways.

Hanwen Yi, doctoral student in civil engineering from Wuhan, Hubei province in China, developed a new video image processing and data analysis software system to identify merging behavior of drivers at key Interstate 35 on-ramps in the Kansas City metropolitan area. What he found was that several closely spaced vehicles using freeway on-ramps often force themselves into the first lane, causing other drivers to yield their right of way.

The merging vehicles—called a platoon merge—contribute to more congested traffic on these already high-volume, high-speed roadways.

Yi’s rfindings suggest changes are in order for how freeway on-ramps are designed. Using data collected in his study, Yi, who completed his doctorate in December, developed formulas that will help engineers and designers take into account traffic patterns, such as vehicle speed, high freeway volume and on-ramp arrival patterns, when developing roadways.

Learn more about Yi’s findings at

www.engr.ku.edu/media/newsdetail.php?newsID=130

Student wins second place in Women Engineers competition

A KU engineering student won second place in a national engineering paper contest.

Theresa LaFollette, a senior in chemical engineering from Olathe, won second place in the Technical Presentation Competition at the 2004 Society of Women Engineers National Conference in Milwaukee, Wis.

To compete, LaFollette first had to win the SWE Region I paper competition, which focused on a student’s original research. Her submission was “Modeling and Monitoring in Vivo Dissolution of Naproxen in Rats.” Her work studied how the poorly water-soluble drug Naproxen, the key ingredient in Aleve painkiller, reacted in a low pH medium. With guidance from Marylee Southard, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, and Malonne Davies, assistant professor of chemistry and science education at Emporia State University, LaFollette devised a mathematical model to predict how the drug reacts in the stomach.

The second place award provides LaFollette a $1,000 prize. She plans to use to the money to pay for applications to graduate schools. Her goal is to earn a doctorate and ultimately focus on bioprocessing or pharmacokinetics.

Learn more about LaFollette’s efforts at

www.engr.ku.edu/media/newsdetail.php?newsID=127