College Award Gives Nod
to Five EHP Students

Five of the six engineering seniors selected as the 2009 recipients of the Rev. Thomas A. Steiner, C.S.C., Award are EHP students. They are Angela Comana, electrical engineering; Christopher Fallin, computer science and engineering; Sarah Lane, aerospace engineering; Timothy Politano, chemical and biomolecular engineering; and Claire VerHulst, mechanical engineering. Jessica Winschel, civil engineering and geological sciences, was the sixth 2009 Steiner recipient.

An 1899 civil engineering graduate of Notre Dame, Fr. Steiner, C.S.C., was dean of the College of Engineering from 1928 to 1938. He made a great impact on the course of the College of Engineering, but he made an even greater impact on the lives of his students. In 1948 former students of "Pops" Steiner established the Reverend Thomas A. Steiner Prize in his memory. Each year engineering seniors are nominated by their departments and selected on the basis of their cumulative grade-point averages and activities in honor societies, councils, academic teams, clubs, and ministries.

NSF Graduate Fellowships
Go to EHP Students

Two of the three graduating seniors in the College of Engineering who have been awarded 2009 National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellowships are EHP participants. They are: Christopher Fallin, computer science and engineering, and Claire VerHulst, mechanical engineering. Another engineering undergraduate, Rachel Paietta, aerospace engineering, also received a fellowship.

The NSF Graduate Fellowship Program supports outstanding graduate students in engineering, mathematics, science, and technology, who are pursuing research based master's and doctoral degrees.

Fallin's NSF proposal outlined a vertical approach to multicore systems and discussed the interaction between hardware and software - from compilers and systems software down to microarchitecture. In it he addressed the reliability and performance problems that will most likely attack future parallel and multicore systems. This fall he will be studying electrical and computer engineering as part of the Computer Architecture Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. A native of Beaverton, Ore., his project adviser was Patrick Flynn, professor of computer science and engineering.

Verhulst will be pursuing a doctorate in mechanical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University. She has been working in Notre Dame's new Transonic Axial Turbine Facility with Scott Morris, associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, and completed an internship with GE Aviation this past summer. Her research proposal for the NSF fellowship discussed pros and cons of a return to old propeller-driven designs as a way to counter rising fuel costs. Engines with propellers provide better fuel economy but are substantially louder, which is why a significant effort has been mounted over the last decade to reduce propeller noise. Verhulst is a native of Brighton, Mich.