SPSU student named state’s Engineering Technology Student of the Year
SPSU student David Peters has been selected as the 2013 Engineering Technology Student of the Year by the Georgia Engineering Alliance (GEA). Peters will be honored during GEA’s Georgia Engineers Week Awards Gala this weekend in Atlanta.

Peters is a senior in civil engineering technology and a traffic engineer intern for Transcore Inc. He is also a member of the SPSU chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and the American Concrete Institute (ACI). During the 2011-12 academic year, Peters served as the president of ASCE and vice president of ITE, and he is currently president of ITE. He has also served as a mentor to the Technology Student Association, helping middle- and high-school students design and build trebuchets and balsawood race cars.

The Georgia Engineer of the Year competition, including the Engineering Technology Student of the Year Award, recognizes deserving and dedicated engineers who have made valuable contributions to their profession and who have impacted Georgia’s engineering community. The competition is open to all Georgia professional engineers and to students enrolled in an ABET-accredited engineering or engineering-technology school in Georgia.

GEA selects the Engineering Technology Student of the Year based on educational achievements, humanitarian and civic contributions, engineering organization participation and work, and recommendations from current professional engineers.

Various events planned for National Engineers Week
National Engineers Week, also known as E-Week, will be celebrated Feb. 17-23 with a number of campus events and activities in observance of this cooperative effort of the state’s professional engineering organizations. E-Week promotes the engineering disciplines to students, helps expand public recognition of the engineering profession and celebrates engineering accomplishments.

On Tues., Feb. 19, Georgia Power’s Technical Women in Georgia (TWIG) will host a presentation in Q-107 from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The topic is “Get to know Georgia Power women and men in leadership and engineering.” Attendees are asked to submit questions and concerns before the event to Vickie Moody, advisor for the SPSU Society of Women Engineers.

On Wed., Feb. 20, Lockheed Martin will present a case study on its aircraft. The presentation, “Aircraft fuel burn trade study,” will take place 12:30-3 p.m. in Q-202.

Dr. John Hunter of the Novelis Global Research & Technology Center in Atlanta, who has 31 years of experience in applied materials research with Novelis and Alcan, will be the featured speaker at an E-Week program at 5 p.m. on Thurs., Feb. 21, in the Student Center Theater. His presentation is titled “Growth opportunities for aluminum in automotive, cans and bottles: A Novelis perspective.” Additionally, David Peters, the 2013 Engineering Technology Student of the Year, will be recognized, along with student engineering teams, scholarship recipients, award-winning engineering firms and various friends and supporters of the university.

The entire campus is invited to attend the Feb. 21 program, but a reception that precedes it in the Ballroom is by invitation only.

For more information on E-Week activities, contact Ann Lay, secretary to the dean of the School of Engineering Technology and Management at ext. 7234 or alay@spsu.edu.

SPSU prof, students and grad put a cap on milk ‘crusties’
Do you hate the bits of dried milk that form on the lip of plastic milk bottles? Do you hate it when this yucky stuff falls into your cereal or coffee when you pour the milk? Did you know that they are called milk “crusties” and that millions of people hate them?

Tommy Tornroos, a young graduate of SPSU, decided he’d had enough of this “gross” problem, so he enlisted the help of SPSU Prof. Randy Emert, who then challenged his mechanical engineering technology students to develop a solution to this annoying problem. The result is a product called the MilkCapper™ – an innovative milk cap that can be used over and over.

“We think this is a great invention – our design gets rid of milk crusties and pours milk and other beverages better than anything else on the market. We have reinvented the milk cap,” said Tornroos, a 27-year-old inventor who graduated from SPSU in 2009 with a business degree and has since started two companies, one of which develops game and music applications for iPhones and iPads.

Tornroos took his determination to redesign the caps of plastic jugs to Prof. Emert, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology at SPSU, who realized that this would be a great challenge for students in his new, senior-level Rapid Design and Manufacture class. He divided the 24 students into teams that used computer-aided design software and 3-D printing to come up with different designs.

Tornroos and Prof. Emert selected the MilkCapper™, developed by students Anthony Roberts and William Cortez-Vega, as the best design. “It works with all milk, tea and water jugs, half gallons and gallons; it’s made of dishwasher safe, FDA food-grade plastic; and the spout allows for a great flow,” said Tornroos.

The MilkCapper™ is now patent-pending, and since Tornroos does not have the funding to pay for all the plastics and metal molds needed, “We have started a fixed-funding campaign through Indiegogo (www.indiegogo.com/milkcapper) to crowd-fund and raise $5,000 by Feb. 24,” he said.

“It’d be great if this turns out to be a million-dollar idea. We’ll see,” Tornroos said. “But at least I can say I got rid of milk crusties for hundreds of people.”

To view an interview with Tornroos and Prof. Emert by WXIA-TV (11Alive) that aired on Jan. 22, click on 11Alive interview.

WSB bases news coverage of statewide tornado drills at SPSU
WSB-TV reporter Ross Cavitt was on hand for SPSU’s planned tornado drill on Wed., Feb. 6. The campus’ response as well as the Hornet Alert system became the centerpiece for his report on the statewide drills that highlighted Severe Weather Awareness Week in Georgia.

To view the newsclip, click on WSB-TV Weather Drill.

FUBU Founder and ‘Shark Tank’ star coming to SPSU
On Feb. 20, Daymond John, founder and CEO of FUBU, will give a presentation on campus as part of SPSU’s Cross-Cultural Communications Series.

John is a world-renowned entrepreneur, investor, author and motivational speaker. He is also one of the “sharks” on ABC’s “Shark Tank.” FUBU took the stage in 1992, growing into an internationally acclaimed brand with peak revenues of $350M in 1998. The company has received several honors for entrepreneurial achievement. In 2010, FUBU underwent a re-branding campaign and is now known in the United States as FB Legacy.

The SPSU Cross-Cultural Communications Committee’s goal is to provide a robust schedule of events on campus to reflect the rich diversity of the university community. Some events put on by the committee are meant to be thought provoking, some to celebrate diverse heritages and some to just be fun.

John’s presentation will begin at 6 p.m. in the Student Center Theater, with a reception and book-signing to follow in the Ballroom.

Chefs’ hats off to Chili Cook-Off winners
Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Louten, assistant professor of biology, for taking first place in the 17th annual Tony Tilmans Chili Cook-Off with her Maine Moose Chili last week! With this win, she has achieved a Cook-off Grand Slam, having dished up the top prize in both the campus soup and chili cook-offs in the same year.

Named by the Social and Community Building Committee for the late Dr. Tony Tilmans, who launched this SPSU tradition and chaired the event in the past, the Chili Cook-Off drew great cooks and a hungry crowd as always. There were 17 competitors, each of who submitted their own creatively-named crock-pot of chili for the competition.

In addition to Dr. Louten’s first place finish, the committee handed out the following awards: 2nd Place: George Soublis, an alumnus, for Slap Yo Mama Chili; 3rd Place: Dr. Joel Fowler, associate professor of mathematics, for Complete Chili Gastronomous; 4th Place: Julie Sharpe, coordinator of international students, for Screamin’ Vegan Chili; 5th Place: Betty Wooten, secretary for Student Recruitment, for Poetic Justice Chili; and Honorable Mention: SPSU Dining Service for its unnamed chili.

Have news to share?
If your department has an upcoming event or other news to share with the campus community, please send an e-mail with all the pertinent information to Diane Payne (dpayne@spsu.edu). To be considered for use in a specific issue of the SPSU Hornet’s Nest, a news item must be submitted no less than four weeks before the date of the issue.

Volume 6, Issue 6
Feb. 13, 2013