 In my first months as dean I have
tremendously enjoyed meeting the many alumni and friends who have come to our academic and
social events to offer support. At those events, my constant theme has been the positive
impact all engineers, and especially Clark School engineers, should make in the world.
We have much to report on that front.
Impact: Students Reduce
Anacostia River Pollution and Flooding
 Engineers Without Borders is a national organization that helps students
build basic water, waste water, and energy infrastructure projects in Asia, Africa, and South
America. EWB does not support domestic projects, but many of the students in our
EWB chapter wanted to do something
locally--this spring they focused on the badly polluted
Anacostia River near College Park. With the help of Clark School lecturer Kevin Calabro, they
designed and built a bioretention facility to filter storm run-off and to buffer floodwater in the town
of Edmonston, Md., through which the Anacostia
passes on its way to the Chesapeake Bay. Not only did our students lead as engineers and laborers on the
project, they brought together all the requisite government and civic groups, learning to handle the
challenges of working in the real world.
Impact: Nano Researchers
Help Make Alternative Energy Feasible
 A key challenge in achieving the benefits of alternative energy is the creation of
electrical storage systems that deliver high energy density, high power, and fast recharge for intermittent
sources such as solar arrays and wind power. Clark School professor and Maryland NanoCenter Director
Gary Rubloff and Professor Sang Bok Lee of the College of Chemical and Life Sciences have developed new
systems for storing electrical energy derived from alternative sources that are, in some cases, 10 times more efficient than what is commercially available.
They create millions of identical nanostructures with shapes tailored to transport energy
(as electrons) rapidly to and from very large surface areas where it is stored. The results
of their research are available in Nature Nanotechnology. The U.S. Department of Energy will
award the University of Maryland an Energy Frontier Research Center based on this research.
Impact: Start-Up Company Develops
Clotting/Drug Delivery Material
 Trauma Solutions, a company founded by Clark School Professor Peter Kofinas (Fischell Department of Bioengineering) and research assistants Brendan Casey and Adam Behrens,
has created the first and only synthetic, haemostatic material capable of simultaneously inducing
blood clotting and delivering therapeutics. It does so as effectively as biologically-based products--at
a fraction of the cost--and fulfills the needs of next generation haemostatics and battlefield
applications. The company has recently been named a finalist in the $250K Draper Fisher
Jurvetson/Cisco Systems Global Business Plan Competition.
Earlier, Trauma Solutions took first place in the life sciences division of the Mtech $75K Business
Plan Competition, demonstrating the high quality of our entrepreneurial programs and the faculty and
student innovation thriving in College Park today.
Impact: Donors Fund Scholarships,
Programs, Facilities
 Donors to the Clark School, through the $1 billion Great Expectations campaign, have contributed $148.5 million as of June 1, 2009.
This represents 80% of our goal. We must bring in $36.5 million by 2011 to accomplish what we set out
to do—lead the university in contributions, and in the process obtain funds to keep our engineering
education, research, entrepreneurship and service programs among the best in the world. Recent gifts
include those from Board of Visitors member Steven Walker; from almost 100 donors to the Jimmy Lin
Innovation Fund in memory of Innovation Hall of Famer Dr. Hung C. Lin; and from BAE Systems, the S.D.
Bechtel Jr. Foundation, Cadence Design Systems, Danfoss Sanhua, Hughes Network Systems, Lockheed Martin,
Modine Manufacturing and Northrop Grumman. If you have not yet given to the campaign, please do so now.
Every gift makes a positive impact on our school and our students. Please contact Leslie Borak,
assistant dean for external relations, for assistance.
Darryll Pines
Dean and Nariman Farvardin Professor
|
