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05/18/2017 ECE students work on solar eclipse live web streaming project
04/23/2017 Carol Baumbauer earns NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
05/08/2016 Graduation Day: Moms make it in engineering
04/10/2016 Expanding horizons: MSU event introduces girls to STEM fields
12/07/2015 MSU team wins regional Montana Mathematical Modeling Challenge
04/13/2015 Students send balloon up 87000 feet to prepare for 2017 solar eclipse
02/19/2015 Balloon carries two MSU experiments to edge of space
01/26/2015 Two more MSU satellites launch into space
09/22/2014 MSU computer reaches space aboard research rocket
05/20/2014 Teams compete in National Student Solar Spectrograph Competition at MSU
04/24/2014 Capstone projects take spotlight at MSU's Engineering Design Fair
12/05/2013 MSU engineering students put autonomous car technology to test
07/30/2013 Public invited to follow high-altitude balloon launch, flight on July 31
07/30/2013 MSU team competes in 2013 RoboSub event
06/11/2013 Seven MSU grads receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
06/10/2013 MSU students honored for innovation at national lunabotics competition
05/18/2013 Winners announced in national spectrograph contest held at MSU
03/29/2013 ECE student is among four from MSU who receive national Goldwater Scholarships
03/01/2013 More MSU satellites selected for launch under NASA program
10/29/2012 MSU's student-built satellite celebrates first birthday in orbit
08/01/2012 MSU RoboSub team competes in national competition
07/23/2012 ECE graduate students attract NASA attention for computer system
05/30/2012 MSU lunabotics robot garners medals and kudos at Kennedy Space Center
05/1/2012 Students win awards at Montana Space Grant Consortium symposium
04/30/2012 MSU students, robot return to Kennedy Space Center for national championship
04/23/2012 Visiting engineering students from Brazil do well at MSU
05/21/2012 MSU teams among winners at National Student Spectrograph Competition
10/28/2011 MSU student-built satellite launched into earth orbit!
07/21/2011 MSU students learn from high-altitude balloon projects
03/14/2011 ECE grad student Amin Nehrir flies into hurricane
02/11/2011 Danica Patrick, EE, receives 2011 Award for Excellence
05/28/2010 MSU student team wins national NASA lunabotics contest!
05/26/2010 MSU develops new antenna to aid rural emergency workers
05/21/2010 MSU robot to dig "moon dirt" in national contest at Kennedy Space Center
04/27/2010 Spring 2010 Design Fair
02/17/2010 EE student Nicole Lerner among forty MSU students for 2010 Awards for Excellence
04/17/2009 ECE grad's work helps diagnose skin cancer without a biopsy
02/16/2009 Dunbar (CpE) and Moog (EE) receive 2009 Awards for Excellence
02/11/2009 Students use new traffic simulator to help prevent car-bike crashes
01/23/2009 Robotics tournament brings hundreds of Montana students to MSU
12/11/2008 Ingenuity on display at fall Engineering Design Fair
10/02/2008 MSU satellite recommended for flight with NASA
08/15/2008 Amin Nehrir receives ILRC poster award
06/13/2008 David Hoffman and Amin Nehrir receive NASA Graduate Fellowships
05/05/2008 Sarah Lukes and Christopher Colson earn NSF Graduate Fellowships
03/26/2008 Advanced Electronic Designs and ECE alumni make a splash in Times Square
02/20/2008 ECE's Patrick Kujawa and Nina Smith honored at Awards for Excellence banquet
01/22/2008 COE hosts FIRST Tech Challenge and Lego League robot competitions
08/30/2007 EE grad Nels Peterson engineers a new way to see dinosaurs
06/29/2007 REU program helps bridge the digital divide
06/29/2007 2007-2008 ECE Scholarship recipients
04/02/2007 Cameras and auto racing fuel ECE student
01/12/2007 From mazes to motorcycles: MSU engineer navigates them all
12/13/2006 Engineering student lights up Christmas
07/24/2006 Photo Feature: Monday workout
06/14/2006 Inspired by professor, graduate students explore new territory for electronic chips
06/14/2006 Montana students awarded MSU College of Engineering scholarships
05/11/2006 Billings student wins engineering award
09/30/2005 People in Education: Sherwin wins engineering scholarship
08/26/2005 Students from a dozen Montana communities do summer research at MSU
05/03/2005 Dusty Dunkle and Dad graduate from MSU
02/24/2005 Track athlete and CpE student mentors youngsters
10/18/2004 Robots invade the MSU campus
07/09/2004 Two CpE students receive $4,000 scholarships from RightNow Technologies

ECE Presidential Scholars

The Presidential Scholarships are Montana State University's most prestigious freshman awards, recognizing superior academic achievement and impeccable personal qualities. The awards provide a generous annual stipend and tuition waiver. Scholars who maintain the required academic standards can renew their awards for four years. Up to twenty new Presidential Scholarships are awarded across campus each year. The annual Presidential Scholarship application deadline is typically in mid-January.

The ECE Department is pleased to recognize our group of recent Presidential Scholarship holders:

Carol Baumbauer Ryan Cyr ('08 grad) Erwin Dunbar ('09 grad)
Patrick Kujawa ('09 grad) Nickolas Lapp Nicole Lerner ('10 grad)
Patrick Menge ('09 grad) Eric Moog ('09 grad) Danica Patrick ('11 grad)
Brian Redman ('15 grad) Andrew Shull ('11 grad)  

MSU Team wins national NASA Lunabotics competition in Florida

Montana MULE robot ready for competition.
The "Montana MULE" ready for competition in the simulated lunar soil at the Kennedy Space Center

A student team from the Montana State University College of Engineering created a remote-control robot designed to dig and transport simulated lunar soil. The MSU team won the national competition held at the Kennedy Space Center in May, 2010, by digging the most simulated moon dirt in 15 minutes.

ECE students and faculty were key contributors to the design, construction, and operation of the winning robot. ECE seniors Jennifer Hane of Fort Shaw and Ben Hogenson of Billings designed and built the electrical subsystems, and Prof. Brock LaMeres served as principal faculty advisor for the team.

Besides Hane and Hogenson, the student team members included Christopher Ching of Belgrade, Phillip Karls from Billings, Steve Pemble of Colstrip, Craig Harne of Cutbank, Paul Dallapiazza from Florence, and John Ritter of Idaho Falls, Idaho. Besides Lameres, the faculty advisers included Hunter Lloyd from the Department of Computer Science, and Robb Larson, Mike Edens, and Ahsan Mian from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.

The robot, nicknamed the "Montana MULE," beat out many other university teams, including larger universities such as Carnegie-Mellon, Virginia Tech, Iowa State University and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

The team received $5,000 for winning the competition, and also VIP tickets to return to the Kennedy Space Center for a future NASA shuttle or rocket launch.

Read more about the Lunabotics competition:
MSU News Service Article
.

2011 campus Awards for Excellence recipients include ECE's Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick and Wataru Nakagawa
Danica Patrick and Prof. Wataru Nakagawa display their Awards for Excellence certificates [photo by Joe Shaw]

EE senior Danica Patrick was among the forty top students from across campus seleted for the 2011 Awards for Excellence, sponsored by the MSU Alumni Association and the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce. The honored students were nominated by faculty in their college or department, and were qualified by excellent academic performance and demonstrated campus leadership and community service.

Each of the awarded students was asked to select a mentor who had provided important guidance and encouragement. Danica Patrick selected Prof. Wataru Nakagawa as her faculty mentor. Congratulations to Danica and to Prof. Nakagawa for this well-deserved recognition.

Students & Alumni in the News

Stasha Patrick

ECE graduate student Stasha Patrick models her "recycled" gown.

 

2nd Annual Recycled Fashion Show staged by Engineers Without Borders

ECE graduate student Stasha Patrick (right) was among the designers and models participating in the Montana State University Engineers Without Borders (EWB) second annual "Recycled Fashion" Show held November 14, 2009, at the Emerson Cultural Center in Bozeman. Featuring locally designed outfits composed of reused and recycled materials, the show involved 30 designers, 50 models, and 400 guests.

Stasha Patrick's entry was created from:

  • garbage bags - dress base
  • old magazine pages - blue & black colored parts, and black "feathers"
  • Rice Chex boxes - train shape and stomach shape
  • aluminum foil - glitter

and, of course,

  • duct tape - white top 

All proceeds from the event will support EWB’s efforts to provide potable water to 58 primary schools and communities in the Khwisero region of Western Kenya. EWB has installed six wells, three latrines, and a biogas composting latrine in the area in addition to working with the community to ensure that the projects are maintained.

 

FIRST Robotics Competitions

Robotics

Twenty six ECE students, staff, and faculty participated as volunteer judges and technical crew for the annual Montana FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics State Championships on January 23-24, 2009. 150 high school students and 330 middle school students from across the statecompeted in this year's event on the MSU campus.

We particularly appreciate the 11 ECE students who joined the Montana IEEE Section PACE Project, "Technical Outreach to Middle School Students 2008."   The ECE students advised three teams from Monforton School and Chief Joseph Middle School since last fall. All three teams successfully participated in the FIRST Lego League Tournament on January 24!

Student Satellite Project Nears Launch Into Space

Pat Lokken

Pat Lokken, a May 2008 MSU BSEE graduate, works in the MSU Space Science and Engineering Laboratory (MSU Photo by Kelly Gorham)

 

Students working for the MSU Space Science and Engineering Lab (SSEL) were recently notified that their satellite design has been recommended for launch into space aboard a NASA rocket in 2009. The satellite design is the product of many years of student work, including numerous team members from the ECE Department. Way to go, team!

The miniature (4"x4"x4") MSU satellite, Explorer–1 Prime, will hitch a ride in a specially design external mounting fixture attached to the outside of a large rocket delivering a commercial satellite into orbit. The launch is likely to be in mid-June from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Read more about the mission:
MSU News Service Article
.

EE Alumnus Receives IEEE Spectrum Award

Montana State University EE alumnus Keith Bayern (BSEE 1981) was named the winner of IEEE Spectrum magazine's recent contest for making the best possible clock with generally available components that cost no more than US $100 (IEEE SpectrumJuly 2008 issue, p. 23). Keith (below left) is a senior principal digital and analog engineer with SAIC, and the uncle of BSCpE 2008 and current MSU graduate student Ray Weber (below right). Ray is pictured with the clock he built using his uncle's prototype kit--all 194 discrete transistors and 2700 solder joints! For more information about the clock kit, see Keith's web site: www.transistorclock.com. Congratulations, Keith.

Keith Bayern (photo by Brian Smale)
Keith Bayern (MSU BSEE 1981)
photo credit: Brian Smale, IEEE Spectrum
Ray Weber and digital clock
Ray Weber (MSU BSCpE 2008)

Spring 2008: IEEE Picnic and ECE Blowout Party

picnic
picnic
blowout

Spring 2008: Design Fair, May 1, 2008

Robots
judges

The Spring 2008 Engineering Design Fair held in SUB Ballroom A featured 38 student projects from ECE, ME, IE, MET, and the multidisciplinary design course, ENGR 310. The open house culminates many, many hours of work by the student teams.

Zigbot Team

ECE Team Zigbot (Colin Shirley, Josh Smith, Clint Gramza, and Monther Abusultan)

ECE Alumnus Mark D. Myers, 1960-2008

Mark Myers

The ECE Department was saddened to learn of the passing of 2007 BSEE graduate Mark Myers. He was being treated for metastatic renal cell cancer at the time of his death. Our heartfelt condolences to Mark's family and friends.

The obituary from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle 20080620.

We miss you, Mark.