Undergrad Student Spotlights

Engineering Peer Mentors

Peer mentors are among the best resources available to engineering students. Representing different departments in the College of Engineering, this group of dedicated juniors and seniors offers a valuable perspective: They have been where the first- and second-year students are. Many of them are peer mentors today because of their own experiences with peer mentors as a first-year student.

In addition to sharing important information, including study and exam tips, peer mentors are key in helping incoming high school students transition into the engineering program and second-year students adjust to the core program. They are vital in developing communities within engineering.

Peer mentors plan and coordinate social activities (ice skating, whiffle ball, and game nights); study sessions; career events (like “Résumé and Research,” “Engineering & Business,” and “Majors” nights); and service opportunities like blanket-making for local cancer patients, the Center for the Homeless toiletry drive, the Christmas giving tree, and Habitat for Humanity efforts.

The 2010-11 peer mentors are seniors Tim Florencki  (electrical engineering), Maureen Mathias (civil engineering and geological sciences), and  Zach Nussman, Angela Puente, and Michelle Roemer (aerospace and mechanical engineering) and juniors Eileen Bingle and Michelle Fuhrman (from chemical and biomolecular engineering) and Kevin Klima (aerospace and mechanical engineering).

For more information about peer mentors, visit http://www.nd.edu/~pmentor.

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Service Abroad: ND SEED

In February 2008, six students in the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences seeking to make a difference in the world combined their academic interests with their desire to serve their fellow man. They formed Notre Dame Students Empowering through Engineering Development (ND SEED), a registered and approved 501(c)3 corporation.

The students solicited sponsors and teamed with Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), a not-for-profit organization that fuels positive change by helping impoverished rural communities around the world construct reliable footbridges, which provide access to schools, clinics, jobs, and markets. After identifying a Honduran community that needed help (the village of Pena Blanca), the team began additional fund raising and explored design options.

Pena Blanca was chosen because the existing bridge was very old and, as the students put it, very scary. The supporting cable, which was tied to a tree on one bank, was barbed wire. One bank was also much steeper than the other. This meant that the team needed to build more massive piers than originally thought to ensure structural integrity and safety. The 2008-09 team — juniors Rafael Deheza and Patrick McHugh and seniors Anna Lacey, Sean McNichols, Katie Sushinsky, and Jessica Winschel — designed and constructed the bridge alongside Pena Blanca residents.

The 2009-10 ND SEED TEAM (seniors Katie Boris, Maria Cowan, Angela Medlock, Andrew Seelaus, and Christopher Vetter; junior Stephen Santay; and sophomore Enrique Descamps) focused on building a suspended footbridge in Palquí, Guatemala. Because of the topography of the area, the streams and tributaries flowing through the area can flood quickly and without warning. Another factor was that the village is divided into two parts, most of the children have to cross the river to get to school. The existing bridge was a rickety plank at the bottom of a steep gully. When the river is impassable, students have to walk an hour out of the way to attend school. Typically, attendance drops by half during the rainy season.

Working again with B2P, the Notre Dame students conducted a site survey and designed the bridge. They are building the bridge (the anchors, cable placement, approaches, and decking) during summer 2010.

For more information about ND SEED, visit http://www.nd.edu/~ndseed

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Introduction to Engineering Summer Program (IEP)

Since its inception, the interactive Introduction to Engineering summer program has been a hit with high school students across the country. For three weeks every summer rising juniors get a taste of college life.

They learn what it means to be an engineer, tour state-of-the-art facilities on campus and at nearby industries and manufacturing facilities, meet professional engineers, and are introduced to the different engineering disciplines offered at Notre Dame. There are “classes,” but a majority of the work is hands-on, requiring students to design and test their projects.

For information about IEP, click here.

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Sink or “Swim” …

Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences
Concrete Canoe Competition

Sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers, this annual competition challenges civil engineering students’ knowledge and creativity, not to mention their stamina as they design and build a concrete canoe. Winners of 18 regional competitions proceed to national finals, where students put to practical application what they have learned in the classroom.

During the 2009 regional competition, hosted by Notre Dame, the College of Engineering team placed fifth in the competition.The theme of the 2010 regional competition, held at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, in April 2010 was Proud Mary. Sixteen Notre Dame students prepared a canoe for the event, which requires the team to give an oral presentation, write a design paper, create a final product (following the competition’s aesthetics, durability, and design constraints), and participate in racing events such as men’s sprint, women’s sprint, women’s endurance, men’s endurance, and overall.

This year’s team members were Jon Barry, Olga Beltsar, Michael Chieffo, MikeHartman, Jenny Hellyer, Karly Kingery, McKena Kovar, Ben Mall, Maureen Mathias, Bethany Noble, Brian O’Connor, Shelley Ostrowski, Ellen Quigley, Ted Reinhold, Steve Santay, and Jenna Stagliano. Their adviser was Elizabeth Kerr, director of undergraduate studies.

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Strong Bodies Fight …

The 2010 Bengal Bouts

Service projects at Notre Dame take many forms. Since 1931 the Bengal Bouts, the University’s annual charity boxing tournament, has donated funds made during the Bouts to Holy Cross Missions in Bangladesh. The College of Engineering has long supported this sport-service event, in the spirit of the former director and coach of the Bouts Dominic “Nappy” Napolitano, who described the purpose of the Bouts as “Strong bodies fight, that weak bodies may be nourished.”

This year’s Bouts were held February 13-27, 2010. College of Engineering students who participated were: Ryan Alberdi, Christopher Bennett, Matthew Bernstein, Patrick Burns, Joseph Caparros, Kevin Dacey, Kevin Eller, Tom Enzweiler, Rich Estes, John Flores, Dominic Golab, Christopher Gorham, Patrick Handy, Brian Heath, Eric Herbert, Matt Hopke, Brian Kachmark, Robert Lahr, Enrique Lazaro-Aranguren, Matthew Lemanski, Kuijun Liang, Alex Macomber, Mick Madden, Andrew Moore, Andy Nester, Chris Newman, Jeff O’Neill, William Paape, Sean Pennino, Brian Pimentel, Bobby Powers, Nicholas Raic, Robert Ray, Brian Robillard, Nicholas Rowek, Brian Salat, Matt Tansey, Alex Toombs, Charles Torbert, Brad Towne, Brian Van Metre, John Walsh, George Warner, Nolan Welsh, Drew Wroblewski, Kary Yergler, and Andy Ziccarelli.

The 2010 Bengal Bouts donated $100,000 to the Holy Cross Missions, where the money funds a variety of educational and outreach initiatives. This is almost twice as much as the 2009 Bouts netted.

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