Engineering Lab Building

The remarkable life of Tony England

lblouin — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 19:12:37 +0000

The remarkable life of Tony England lblouin Tue, 04/16/2024 - 15:12

Did you know Tony was an astronaut? It's no doubt the piece of surprising trivia people most often share about former CECS Dean Tony England — and for good reason. England did two stints at NASA, which included spending eight days on Space Shuttle Challenger and serving on the support team that safely brought home the Apollo 13 astronauts. The funny thing about the whole astronaut thing is that it often made England feel sort of awkward: “People often really don’t know what to ask, and I felt like I never knew what they wanted to hear and didn’t want to bore them,” England shared in a 2019 interview. Except for kids. “Kids are honest — they always want to know how you go to the bathroom in space,” he says.

It's also possible that people’s fascination with England’s NASA experience led to many lost opportunities to chat with him about all the other remarkable things he’s done during his life. In the 1970s, he personally piloted aerial missions for the U.S. Geological Survey on temperamental single engine airplanes. He traversed both the Arctic and Antarctic glaciers by snowmobile in the days before GPS. And, like so many in the ��-Dearborn community, he was the first person in his family to earn a college degree. Below, we’ve recapped just some of the highlights of England's extraordinary life, ahead of Friday’s formal ceremony to rename the Engineering Lab Building in his honor.

Early life

Tony England embodies the University of Michigan-Dearborn ethos that a great life can spring from humble beginnings. England was born in 1942 in Indianapolis and, at age 12, moved with his family to West Fargo, North Dakota, a small town where the high school graduating classes rarely topped 60 students. A self-described “troublemaker” in his early years, England didn’t get serious about school until the 7th grade, when he discovered his love of math and science. He graduated from high school a year early and set his sights on becoming the first person in his family to earn a college degree. When a friend bet him that no kid from West Fargo who’d skipped a year of school could get into an elite university, he applied to Harvard and MIT, with North Dakota State as his backup. He got into all three and accepted the full scholarship to MIT. “That first year, I figured I took one evening off every six weeks to go to a movie, because I was playing catch-up with my fellow students, who had mostly attended elite high schools,” England remembers. But his determination paid off. England earned his undergraduate degree in earth sciences from MIT and ended up staying for a master’s and Ph.D. in geology and geophysics, where his dissertation focused on remote techniques for exploring the interior of the moon.

The NASA years

England’s area of study proved to be a fortuitous choice in the 1960s: His expertise in planetary geology and geophysics was just the kind of scientific background NASA was looking for as the agency planned an ambitious series of exploratory missions of the moon. He joined the Apollo program as a scientist-astronaut in 1967, and was, at age 25, the youngest astronaut selected by NASA at that time. England served as a mission scientist on multiple Apollo missions, but he earned his place in history while serving on the support team for Apollo 13. The mission was supposed to be the third lunar landing attempt, but on its third day, an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks compromised the crew’s supply of electricity, light, water and breathable air. Back on the ground in Houston, England was in the Mission Control Center when commander Jim Lovell’s now famous words came over the radio: “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” England and the other engineers scrambled to find a way to get the crippled spacecraft back home, and he was instrumental in designing an ad hoc CO2 scrubber, which would shore up the astronauts’ oxygen supply. England personally talked the astronauts through the process of building the device in space. All three astronauts survived, and England and the rest of the team received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1970.

NASA staff gather in the Mission Control Center in Houston on April 14, 1970, the day of the Apollo 13 explosion. England is pictured on the far right of the main group. Credit: NASA

England was scheduled to get his own space flight on Apollo 19, a mission in which he would pilot the lunar lander. But fears of another disaster, the public’s waning interest in moon exploration and NASA’s interest in developing the new shuttle program led to the cancellation of Apollo 18 and subsequent missions. England left NASA shortly thereafter and took a post at the U.S. Geological Survey, assuming he’d missed his chance to go to space. But in 1979, NASA lured him back with the second chance to get his flight. Initially, England served as a senior scientist-astronaut at the Johnson Space Center and eventually led the operation mission development group for the astronaut program, which oversaw scientific experiments performed on the shuttle missions. Then in the summer of 1985, England boarded the Space Shuttle Challenger for a mission focused on solar astronomy and plasma physics. After 126 orbits of the Earth and 188 hours in space, England returned, as many astronauts do, with a new perspective on the universe and our place in it. Of his time in space, England said:

“For human space flight, specifically, I think why we’re doing it is rooted in the question of whether humans have a future beyond the Earth. We are natural explorers, and if it’s possible and it’s interesting, we’ll want to try it. One of the things I felt after my eight days up there is that I was very comfortable. I was even sorry to have to come back down. For the first time, I had the feeling that this might be made to work. That is, I went up thinking of going to space more like it was going to the bottom of the ocean: We could arrange it, but I was acutely aware of all the things that needed to be managed for survival, and you certainly wouldn’t want to build a town down there. Still, the experience of being there was so surprisingly comfortable that I began to feel that, although I didn’t know how we would do it, we would ultimately find a solution. I came away believing that human space flight was really most profoundly an experiment on the human body.”

England aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1985. Credit: NASA

Adventures at USGS

Though England enjoyed his time at NASA, the complicated politics of the agency often interfered with his desire to “just do the science.” Between his two tenures at NASA, he found a home at the U.S. Geological Survey, where he returned to his roots in geology and geophysics. Though the USGS lacked NASA’s flashy reputation, England’s missions were no less adventurous. One of the skills he had picked up during his astronaut training was, of course, flying planes, and he quickly put that training to use at USGS. In the early 1970s, he flew missions all over the United States focused on remote sensing of soil moisture from the air. At that time, scientists were beginning to understand that soil moisture had a surprisingly profound impact on the weather, and England’s instruments and field work fueled more accurate weather forecasting and helped lay the groundwork for the satellite-based technology used today. The planes issued to the USGS, which he personally flew, weren’t the top-of-the-line military aircraft of his NASA days. He remembers their de Havilland Otter, in particular, burned so much oil its range was “limited more by oil than by fuel.” “I used to hold a mirror out the cockpit window and see how much oil was splattered on the side of the plane and that would tell me when it was time to land,” England remembers. During his subsequent USGS missions to Antarctica, the agency didn’t issue England a plane. Instead, he had to make his way across the mountains and glaciers by snowmobile and snowshoes, navigating in those pre-GPS days using the sun, much like 18th-century sailors. There, England again put his expertise in geophysics to good use, mapping rare mineral deposits that were located beneath a kilometer of ice using ground-penetrating radar. One of the mountains in the region where he worked now bears the name England Peak.

England on a USGS mission in Antarctica in the 1970s. Credit: USGS

A “perfect fit” in academia

In addition to space exploration, NASA’s astronaut-scientists had public relations duties, and during one of England’s many talks around the country as an ambassador for the agency, he found himself at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After the talk, he chatted with one of the professors in the College of Engineering, who had taken notice of the geophysics work England had done at USGS. Soon after, the college offered England a job. Academia proved to be a perfect fit, as it at last gave England an opportunity to be part of a community of scientists and engineers who were focused on exploration and knowledge, unencumbered by politics. As a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at ��-Ann Arbor, England picked up on his USGS work with new research focused in Alaska — a polar environment that was changing rapidly due to the emerging threat of climate change. As a scientist-engineer, he developed new instruments for remote sensing of the ice and soil, which foreshadowed the satellite-based instruments used today to make weather and climate models. Later, England served as associate dean for the Rackham School of Graduate Studies and associate dean for academic affairs for the College of Engineering.

In 2012, England was planning to step back from his administrative role so he could return to his research when he got a call from then-U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, who politely urged him to consider a two-year interim dean post at the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. At ��-Dearborn, England quickly recognized “the seeds of something special” — namely, a campus that was transforming the lives of students from modest backgrounds, much like his own college experience had done for him. But he also saw how the college needed to evolve if it was going to live up to its potential. England ultimately stayed on for another six years as permanent dean. During his eight-year tenure, he led efforts to hire more women faculty, recruit a more diverse pool of students and modernize the college’s facilities. In particular, he saw that the aging engineering lab facility was holding the college back. England put forth an ambitious vision to build a facility that would mimic the modern engineering workplace, so students could experience industry-level technology and a collaborative, hands-on work environment. The result was the totally overhauled Engineering Lab Building, which opened in 2021 — the year of England’s retirement — and which now bears his name. It’s just the most visible part of England’s transformative legacy on the ��-Dearborn campus.

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You can view artifacts associated with these stories, along with other tributes to England, at the Tony England Engineering Lab Building Naming Celebration on Friday, April 19, 2:30-4 p.m. England will be in attendance. Text by Lou Blouin

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An adventurer to the core, Tony England’s uncommon achievements extend far beyond his time in space. We take a look at the life and legacy of the former dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, to whom the Engineering Lab Building is being formally dedicated on Friday.

Credit: Levi Hutmacher/Michigan Engineering

Ronald and Eileen Weiser donate $1.25M for ��-Dearborn’s new $90M Engineering Lab Building project

rudmehta — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 16:14:59 +0000

Ronald and Eileen Weiser donate $1.25M for ��-Dearborn’s new $90M Engineering Lab Building project rudmehta Sat, 01/07/2023 - 11:14

University of Michigan-Dearborn announced a $1.25 million donation from University of Michigan Regent Ronald N. Weiser (BBA ’66) and Eileen L. Weiser (MMus ’75) in support of the new $90 million Engineering Lab Building (ELB) project. This gift, the largest to the project to date, represents a major investment in the facility—a signature building on campus that will transform engineering education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the university.

With its expected opening in fall 2020, the new ELB will include cutting-edge teaching labs designed to facilitate entrepreneurial problem solving, encourage multidisciplinary cooperation in the context of 21st-century engineering instruction and provide students with new collaboration and project spaces.

“We are grateful to the Weisers for their leadership gift and the vision and commitment it demonstrates to the future of engineering education at ��-Dearborn,” said Daniel Little, chancellor, University of Michigan-Dearborn. “This project will advance our academic programs and research capabilities, while placing our campus on a trajectory to sustained growth and excellence for generations to come.”

“This new facility will attract even more talented and dedicated people to the college to work on ground-breaking research and high-level, industry-relevant academic programs,” said Ron Weiser. “Because ��-Dearborn produces engineers who stay in Michigan, the university is a catalyst for the continued development of R&D capabilities in our region. The new ELB will be a source of pride not only for this campus but for the entire University of Michigan.”

In recognition of the donation, ��-Dearborn will name the Weiser Family Atrium, a space for student and faculty collaboration, project work, presentations and industry showcases.

Above: A rendering of the new ELB with an outside view of the atrium.

“This new facility advances the mission of the University of Michigan. It represents our commitment to outstanding engineering research and education for the benefit of our students, communities and industries throughout the region,” said Mark Schlissel, president, University of Michigan. “We are grateful to Ron and Eileen Weiser for their leadership commitment to this important project and their longstanding support of the university.”

In addition to student education, the ELB will provide opportunities for advanced pioneering research partnerships with industry. Leading-edge laboratories include power engineering, cybersecurity, human factors and robotics, and bioengineering. And it will allow for expanded K-12 and community outreach efforts, with a focus on women and minorities.

Designed by SmithGroupJJR Detroit, the $90 million project was initially approved in June 2016. One third of project funding will come through the state of Michigan’s capital outlay budget, one third from bond financing, with the remainder coming from individual, corporate and university support.

Construction is expected to begin in spring 2018. Once completed, the new ELB will include 123,000 square feet of space—57,000 square feet of renovation and 66,000 of new building construction.

About Ron and Eileen Weiser

Ron and Eileen Weiser are long-time donors to the University of Michigan, currently serving as vice chairs of the Victors for Michigan campaign. They support a range of range of programs and initiatives, including the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies, the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia, and the Health System's Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center. In addition to serving as a U-M Regent, Ron is a member of the advisory board of the university's Food Allergy Center. Eileen has served on the University Musical Society Board of Directors and is a member of the ��S Senate.

Professionally, Ron is the founder of McKinley Inc., a national real estate investment company in Ann Arbor. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic from 2001-04. Eileen is a past executive director of the McKinley Foundation and served eight years on the National Assessment Governing Board. She is in her second, eight-year term on Michigan's State Board of Education and has served on numerous other civic boards.

About ��-Dearborn

Founded in 1959 with a gift of just over 200 acres of land and $6.5 million from the Ford Motor Company, University of Michigan-Dearborn is a metropolitan university serving southeastern Michigan, committed to excellence rooted in strong academics, innovative research and programming and civic engagement. The university has over 9,300 students pursuing more than 100 bachelor's, master’s, doctoral and professional degrees in liberal arts and sciences, engineering, business, education and health. A top-ranked university with a faculty devoted to teaching, and students committed to achievement, ��-Dearborn has been shaped by its history of partnering with local leaders and communities, and is committed to finding solutions for the challenges that face the region.

The Weiser gift supports the ELB as part of the Victors for ��-Dearborn campaign, which is raising funds for student support, educational initiatives, learning environments and faculty support. To date, campaign has raised $36 million, with more than $20M dedicated to student assistance including 100 new scholarships. For more information about the campaign, or to make a gift to the ELB, visit the Giving website or call 313-593-5130.

Contacts:

Ann Marie Aliotta, 313-593-3648 (aaliotta@umich.edu)
Kate Malicke, 313-593-5644 (kmalicke@umich.edu)

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New facility will advance engineering education

U-M President Mark Schlissel, Regent Ronald Weiser, CECS Dean Tony England and Chancellor Daniel Little announce the Weisers' gift in support of the new Engineering Lab Building.

��-Dearborn officially cuts the ribbon on the Omron Robotics and Human Factors Lab

lblouin — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 19:19:01 +0000

��-Dearborn officially cuts the ribbon on the Omron Robotics and Human Factors Lab lblouin Wed, 11/30/2022 - 14:19

The Engineering Lab Building’s flashy new robotics and human factors lab has been up and running for more than a year, but it got one important finishing touch last month. On Nov. 18, the university officially dedicated the lab in a formal naming ceremony, recognizing the $1 million gift from the Omron Foundation that made it possible. The new Omron Robotics and Human Factors Lab features a small fleet of some of the Japanese robotics company’s newest technology, including multiple robotic arms and mobile robots. For some style points, one of the mobile robots delivered a pair of scissors for a ribbon cutting to Robb Black, president, CEO and COO of Omron Automation Americas.

“The students who come through this lab will be learning on the most advanced automation and robotics equipment in the industry today,” Black said. “The application of human factors principles creates systems and devices that are safer, more intuitive and more effective for accomplishing their given tasks by the people who are meant to use them. Simply put, the human factors lab strives to make technology work better with humans.”

A mobile robot delivers scissors to Omron's Robb Black for a ceremonial ribbon cutting in the new lab.

The lab features a special class of robots called “cobots.” Typically, industrial robots are contained in fenced-in areas to protect their human operators. However, cobots are equipped with special safety features so humans can work barrier-free, right alongside them. ��-Dearborn Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Alireza Mohammadi says this provides him and his students with a host of new learning opportunities in the areas of robotic perception, motion control, path planning and human-robot collaboration.

In addition to the $1 million gift to support the lab, the company donated $250,000 to establish a new undergraduate scholarship. The Omron Endowed Undergraduate Student Scholarship supports ��-Dearborn students enrolled in the College of Engineering and Computer Science who express an interest in electrification, autonomy, manufacturing or artificial intelligence. The $250,000 endowed scholarship investment is also eligible for a 50% match from the University of Michigan. In total, this allows for a scholarship award capacity of approximately $16,875 a year.

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Story by Lou Blouin

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The teaching and research lab features a special class of robots called “cobots,” which will help students explore the frontiers of human-robot collaboration.

Omron Management Center of America's Tim Hill (left) checks out one of the new robotic arms with Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Jaerock Kwon and CECS Dean Ghassan Kridli (right).

Your ELB construction update for the start of 2019

rudmehta — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 19:53:43 +0000

Your ELB construction update for the start of 2019 rudmehta Thu, 09/29/2022 - 15:53

This article was originally published on January 14, 2019.

Eric Kirk, the director of facilities and lab safety for CECS, told us he’s not sure if faculty are fully prepared for just how cool the new Engineering Lab Building is going to be.

“They’ve really made it work in the old building; they’ve done amazing research. But when you switch from a building that was built in 1959, and all of a sudden you have a ‘wow’ factor, there is going to be an impact on your mindset.” He’s thinking new enthusiasm, new opportunities for collaboration and even the ELB becoming a hangout space for students from all over campus.

After chatting recently with Kirk and ELB Project Manager Emily Hamilton, we definitely see where he’s coming from. Here’s what Kirk and Hamilton had to say about the construction progress and the big bells and whistles you can look forward to.

Construction is about 30 percent done.

So the obvious question first: How far along are we? Hamilton said construction has hit the 30 percent milestone, and some big boxes were checked just before the end of 2018. Nearly all of the massive steel beams and columns that form the skeleton of the new part of the building are now in place — including for the three-story tower, the architectural highlight of the new ELB. And if you’re wondering why parts of the structure are wrapped in plastic, that’s because the team has already started quite a few interior projects — including pouring concrete floors, which requires protection from the elements.

Expect a lot of open, adaptable spaces.

Even without all the exterior walls in place, Hamilton said she’s already starting to get a feel for the ELB’s creative interior layout. When the ELB opens, one of the things you’ll notice is that interior walls aren’t always fixed — and many function more like windows. Several spaces are designed with sliding doors and moveable partitions, allowing rooms to expand, contract and be reconfigured for lots of different uses. The labs will also be equipped with “port holes” that give faculty, students and passersby live look-ins on actual research. Hamilton said that unique design also means extra care has to be given to the furniture, which her team is selecting now. “One of the philosophies behind this building is ‘active learning,’ so you really need furniture that’s easy to move and reconfigure.” There will also be 20 informal learning areas scattered throughout the building where people can study or gather for small group meetings. That’s a major upgrade from the old ELB, which Kirk said had exactly zero hangout spaces.

Blending old and new.

Since it didn’t involve a full-scale demolition of the old building, the ELB construction project is technically more of a renovation with a really cool three-story addition. Given that, the team saw an opportunity to feature elements of the original building in the final design. Things like old concrete beams and columns, which have been exposed during the demo, will be left visible to contrast with newer design elements, like terrazzo floors. “I would say it will have sort of an industrial distressed look in some places,” Hamilton said. “We could have torn more of it out than we did, but this is one way to make it a really unique space — and acknowledge the history of the old building.”

Going (mostly) paperless.

Coordinating teams of multiple subcontractors is essential on a big construction project, especially when it comes to on-the-fly design changes. But some new tech is helping the ELB team stay on the same page. The contractor on the project is using an app called PlanGrid, which gives any subcontractor in-the-field access to the most up-to-date architectural and design documents via an iPad. Team leaders can even use the app to submit questions for Hamilton or the architects as issues emerge. Hamilton still keeps an old-school paper copy of the master design doc on her desk (which is now several inches thick and more than 2,000 pages long). But at least now she doesn't have to lug it around the job site.

What's next?

Throughout the winter semester, Hamilton said to expect more of the building’s exterior to take shape. That will include glass, concrete and finally — when the weather warms up — brick. A cool fact about the latter: Brick for a project this size isn't simply bought off the shelf. It actually has to be manufactured to order and produced in a single production run, which ensures all the brick is exactly the same color. Hamilton said they’ll also be holding tight until this summer to order the multimedia equipment for classrooms and the main public atrium. That includes a 29-foot TV and many smaller displays that can be used for things like trade shows or design competitions. “Technology changes so fast, so you don’t want to buy it too soon and then have it become obsolete,” Hamilton said. “When we open in 2020, we want to make sure our students and faculty are getting the best we can give them.”

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��-Dearborn’s new Engineering Lab Building won’t open until 2020. But if you’re curious about where things stand, here’s a quick list to get you up to date.

As 2020 kicks off, the ELB is showing off its final form

rudmehta — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 17:46:20 +0000

As 2020 kicks off, the ELB is showing off its final form rudmehta Wed, 08/10/2022 - 13:46

This article was originally published on January 7, 2020.

With most of its exterior now in place, ��-Dearborn’s new Engineering Lab Building is officially a head turner. On campus, rubbernecking to check out the ELB is a common occurrence — as are questions about what’s happening on the inside of the building to get it ready for the start of the Fall 2020 term. We recently chatted with project manager Emily Hamilton to get you caught up on construction status (with photos of the interior!) and the team’s to-do list for the final eight months of the project.

The exterior is basically done, and the interior is taking shape.

Except for the main doors and one area on the northeast side of the building, the ELB’s exterior is in place in time for heavy winter weather. Crews are now shifting to interior work, and they’ve already made a good dent in it. Wall framing is basically done in the building’s tower section, and drywall and paint are even going up in certain areas. This recent headway is revealing key features of the ELB’s open interior layout, including the giant, light-filled atrium that’s the heart of the building. Here are a couple recent shots of the interior:

With dozens of oversized windows, the main atrium will be flooded with light. A partially open second floor makes the whole space feel even bigger, and gives you an overlook of Chancellor’s Pond.

The atrium’s 29-foot multimedia display will be one of the last things to be installed. But the framing on the far wall shows you just how huge it’s going to be.

In this shot, you can see the first floor labs taking shape. The glass isn’t in yet, but you can visualize the large windows that will give visitors a live look-in on research as it’s happening.

The ELB is going to be one of the best hangout spaces on campus.

With more than 20 informal hangout and study spaces scattered throughout the building, we expect the ELB might quickly become a destination for more than just engineering students. The furniture for these areas has now been ordered and includes everything from traditional tables and chairs to modern looking sofas and lounge furniture. Some small group areas will be equipped with LED monitors that students can easily plug-in to and share their work. Nine clover leaf-shaped tables made from a tree that had to be removed during construction will add a rustic accent to the mostly modern decor. Hamilton says furniture will be one of the last things the team moves in — after the dust has fully settled.

So what happens next?

For the next several months, Hamilton says the crew will focus mainly on base interior finishes like wall framing, drywall and painting. Luckily, a lot of that work is pretty straightforward. But there are a couple things she’s giving some extra attention. First: Finalizing the design for certain mechanical connections is a huge deal because many lab instruments require special power connections or hookups for things like compressed air. “The last thing you want is to go to plug in a new million-dollar piece of equipment and not have the right outlet for it,” Hamilton says. Second: She’s already thinking ahead to moving day. Each room, each lab really has to have an individualized strategy. Moving microscopes, for example, requires contacting the equipment vendor, because they’re best equipped to safely handle and recalibrate them. In contrast, the bioengineering labs are full of live cultures and tissue samples, and they’re best moved by the research teams themselves. (Messing that up could spoil years of research.) Moreover, the whole moving process is a carefully choreographed ballet that has to be completed in the final six weeks of the summer. But Hamilton is pretty calm about getting everything done on time. “It seems like a lot to do in just eight months. But if you look back to where we were eight months ago, you realize how far we’ve come. It feels like we’re right on track.”

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With an opening scheduled for late summer, the finish line is now within sight for the new Engineering Lab Building. Here’s a quick update on where things stand and what to expect during the home stretch.

Construction on the new ELB is nearing the finish line

rudmehta — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:51:06 +0000

Construction on the new ELB is nearing the finish line rudmehta Tue, 07/19/2022 - 11:51

This article was originally published on September 30, 2020.

Before you get too excited, when ELB project manager Emily Hamilton says the Engineering Lab Building will be “substantially complete” in about a month, that doesn’t mean it will be open. “Substantially complete is actually a construction term that basically means we can get building occupancy approval from state fire marshals so we’re allowed to start moving into the building,” Hamilton explains.

Even so, it’s a huge accomplishment for the ELB team, which has faced numerous challenges due to the pandemic. In the spring, they had to completely halt construction, and when they were able to get back to work, new health and safety measures limited the number of people on the job site. Like the rest of us, they also had to contend with delays in getting critical supplies that were easy to get before the pandemic.

Now, Hamilton says the team is focusing on installing the last phase of finishes, including ceiling tiles, flooring, door hardware, ceramic tile and bathroom fixtures. Once that’s complete, they’ll do a rough cleaning before moving faculty labs and furnishing the shared spaces with all new furniture and technology.

The final look of the completed "tower" section of the ELB

The pandemic has caused a few big changes to the move-in schedule. Back in January, the plan was to pack-up and move everyone into the new building over the summer. Now, with changes to the academic calendar and social distancing requirements in place, the move will be spread out over a longer period of time. Research labs will be the first to make the move, and some will be up and running by January. Instructional labs will get their turn next to support on-campus classes, which are scheduled to begin in March. Finally, advising staff and faculty will begin to move in February. Hamilton says the entire process should be completed by March 1.

The pandemic has also caused the project team to rethink how they’ll initially deploy furniture in the building. Hamilton says the design strategy for furniture was all about flexibility: moveable tables, chairs and partitions that made classrooms easy to reconfigure for small group work. Ironically, that now gives them an advantage reconfiguring classrooms for social distancing. In addition, the team is deciding what to do with the furniture in the 20 or so small-group collaboration spaces around the building. “I’m definitely not looking forward to putting ‘Do Not Sit Here’ signs on our brand new furniture,” Hamilton says. “But if we have to do that, we know it won’t be forever.”

These temporary complications aside, Hamilton says excitement is building for the ELB’s opening. She’s getting more requests for tours all the time, and she’s thankful that she “basically get[s] to say ‘no’” to these for now, given strict policies around letting people in the building before “substantial completion.” Right now, she needs every minute to focus on all the little things that still need to be done before the building’s official opening. “Although the building won’t have the ‘grand’ opening we had originally planned upon its completion, we are excited that by the spring, our campus community will be using the building, and we look forward to celebrating that in some fashion.”

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Despite challenges posed by the pandemic, ��-Dearborn’s new Engineering Lab Building is set to be “substantially complete” by the end of October.

Crews put the finishing touches on the new Engineering Lab Building's exterior back in August.

Faculty and students react to their first weeks in the new ELB

rudmehta — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 15:50:54 +0000

Faculty and students react to their first weeks in the new ELB rudmehta Sun, 06/26/2022 - 11:50

This article was originally published on September 15, 2021.

Because of the pandemic, ��-Dearborn’s flashy new Engineering Lab Building didn’t get the traditional ceremonial grand opening. But most of the new spaces in the ELB are indeed open, and students and faculty are quickly realizing what a difference the modern labs and plentiful collaboration spaces are going to make.

The light-filled atrium is the public hub of the new ELB, and with the exception of the Fieldhouse, it's ��-Dearborn's larges public gathering space. It features moveable walls, exterior doors big enough to drive a car through, and a 29-foot digital display. Credit: Jason Robinson Photography

Assistant Professor Alireza Mohammedi and his graduate students, Amal Kacem and Khalil Zbiss, have been setting up the robotics lab for a few weeks now. And in addition to more space, they’ll be working with a much cooler generation of teaching robots, including mobile robots and industrial robotic arms, courtesy of a donation from Omron Corporation. Industrial robots are usually contained in fenced-in areas to protect their human operators. But Mohammedi says many of the ELB’s robots are a special class of robots called “cobots,” meaning they’re equipped with special safety features so humans can work barrier-free, right alongside them. The new robotics lab features several different types of mobile robots, which Mohammadi says will allow a bunch of new teaching opportunities in areas like robotic perception, motion control, path planning and human-robot collaboration.

The new ELB features 45 faculty labs for core and emerging engineering disciplines, including bioengineering, cybersecurity, gaming, computer engineering, and human factors. Credit: Jason Robinson Photography

Beyond their lab, all three say they also love the modern vibe of the new ELB. Both Kacem and Zbiss picked the “tower” section of the building as their favorite. The enormous windows allow for some really sweeping views of campus and the space itself is equipped with lots of cozy furniture and study areas. Mohammadi says other features, like interior, hallway-side windows in the labs, plentiful informal gathering spaces, and having everything and everyone under one roof, lay the groundwork for a lot more collaboration among researchers and students.

The old ELB didn't have a single informal gathering space for study groups or project teams to work or hang out. The new building is packed with moveable furniture and LED displays so teams can set-up, plug-in, and quickly share ideas. Credit: Jason Robinson Photography

Industrial and systems engineering graduate student Mustapha Makki, who’s been running experiments in the biology lab for a few weeks now and taught his first IMSE lab yesterday, says it’s really no comparison to their old space. “Previously, we were tucked into the machine shop, and it was so small, we could only teach like 15 students at a time,” Makki says. “We still have some organizing to do, and some equipment to get, but you can already tell how amazing it’s going to be.”

Another student gathering space in the new ELB. Credit: Jason Robinson Photography

That moving-in process is something Makki’s faculty advisor, Assistant Professor Georges Ayoub, is looking forward to as well. Ayoub, who is also director of the Human-Centered Engineering Design program, had a very human-centered analogy to describe his experience in the ELB so far. “When you buy a house, at first you think, what am I going to do with all this space? And then you gradually get it the way you want it and it starts to feel like yours. That’s exactly what will happen in the ELB. Just like a house, the faculty and students will fill it full of our stuff and it will get busy and a little messy, and this is how we want it to be. We want it to be a living space, because fundamentally, it’s a space for humans.”

Ayoub says it’s also an incredible billboard for the university. “Our work is very modern and not at all stuck in the 20th century. And now we have a building that reflects that.”

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By the way, a ceremonial ribbon cutting for the ELB will take place the week of October 4. Stay tuned for details, which will be announced closer to the date.

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��-Dearborn’s new Engineering Lab Building is open and it’s definitely meeting expectations.

It's easy to see why the architecture of the new Engineering Lab Building is making an impression on campus. Credit: Jason Robinson Photography

��-Dearborn celebrates ribbon cutting at its new Engineering Lab Building

rudmehta — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 19:27:05 +0000

��-Dearborn celebrates ribbon cutting at its new Engineering Lab Building rudmehta Thu, 06/23/2022 - 15:27

For health and safety reasons, campus leaders decided to forgo a traditional grand opening for its new Engineering Lab Building when it opened to a small number of faculty and students in January. But, with activity in the building in full swing this fall, it was the right time for members of the campus community to officially celebrate the ELB’s opening at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday.

With student-operated robots greeting the small crowd, excitement for the new building was apparent as U-M leadership, industry partners, the campus community and others listened as Chancellor Domenico Grasso shared his remarks. He reflected on what the new facility means for ��-Dearborn, the region and beyond.

“We will be designing the health, happiness and prosperity of the future. What a magnificent facility for us to do that in,” said Grasso, who is an environmental engineer. “I’ve worked in and I’ve been in many engineering facilities throughout my career. This building is among the top facilities in the United States. You will not go to any campus and find a facility better than this.”

The ELB is a fitting home for ��-Dearborn’s engineering and computer science programs, which have seen explosive growth in the past decade. The new ELB features 45 instructional and research labs in core disciplines like mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as emerging subjects like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, bioengineering and game design.

Architecturally, it’s also a real showpiece. Huge windows flood the building with natural light. And glass interior walls let you see directly into many labs, as the work is happening. The huge 2,400-square-foot atrium is the largest campus gathering space outside of the Fieldhouse and features a 29-foot digital display that was used during the event to premiere a video about the project.

Inside the new ELB

The building is also packed with informal gathering spaces for students, something which was lacking in the old ELB. Moveable furniture and LED displays in these spaces allow teams to quickly set-up, plug-in and share ideas. Classrooms are also easily reconfigurable for either lecture or small-group formats and are wired with video capture technology, so faculty can easily record material for hybrid and online courses.

CECS Dean Ghassan Kridli said the ELB was designed for the delivery of modern engineering and computer science education that integrates theory with practice, in laboratories and classrooms equipped with advanced tools that mimic those used in industry.

“The ELB promotes the development of applied knowledge. We want to take what happens here — both the learning and research — and develop solutions that impact society by improving lives, growing our economy, and contributing to building a better future,” he said.

Standing in front of the attendees, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Assistant Professor DeLean Tolbert Smith shared her memories of ��-Dearborn engineering — from her childhood as an alumna’s daughter to her undergraduate years as a campus engineering student, through today as an educator.

She said faculty support and knowledge shared on campus was always exceptional. And now there’s a building that resembles the engineering expertise inside of it.

“I look forward to students being proud of not only the culture they experience here and the camaraderie with their peers and professors, but also proud of the resources available to them...Go Blue!”

The $90 million project was supported by a $30 million capital outlay from the state of Michigan, bond financing, and individual, corporate and university support. The new ELB was designed by SmithGroupJJR Detroit.

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The new facility solidifies the campus as a regional leader in engineering, with 45 labs dedicated to core and emerging disciplines.

This energy efficiency project will turn the new ELB into a building-sized laboratory

lblouin — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 13:23:02 +0000

This energy efficiency project will turn the new ELB into a building-sized laboratory lblouin Mon, 10/18/2021 - 09:23

Students lounge inside one of the informal gathering spaces in the new Engineering Lab Building.

��-Dearborn students, faculty and staff are coming off a win in 2020’s E-Challenge, the annual statewide college energy efficiency pilot program sponsored by DTE Energy. That first-place project was noteworthy primarily for its scope: The 53-member team put together an exhaustive, 500-page, building-by-building energy reduction plan that could save the university $200,000 a year. This year, we’d say the proposed E-Challenge project is apt to score more points for innovation. The main idea: Use the brand new ELB as a building-sized laboratory to design creative, low-cost ways to reduce energy consumption.

Trying to shrink the energy footprint of what’s already our most energy efficient building might initially seem counterintuitive. But Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Wencong Su, one of the faculty heading up the E-Challenge team, says that’s part of what makes the ELB an ideal research site. For one, the building’s modern control systems for lighting, ventilation and thermostats give them the opportunity to explore things like AI-based solutions for fine tuning those systems. (That would be way more difficult and expensive in a building with old systems). Plus, there’s already plenty of good research on how to retrofit older buildings for better performance. How to squeeze more savings out of an already high-performing building — that’s way more of an unsolved problem. It’s also an increasingly important question now that many institutions and companies are burning through the list of low-hanging-fruit efficiency measures, like LED lighting, in a quest to get to zero carbon emissions.

The ��-Dearborn team is proposing to tackle this challenge by combining two distinct approaches. One looks to smart sensors and artificial intelligence, the other to some insights from behavioral economics. But both approaches depend on solving an initial data problem. Su says even in new buildings, you typically won’t have granular data that reveals how much energy a particular plug, light fixture, lab instrument, individual lab or classroom is using. Yet such information is crucial for creating AI-based control systems, or for coming up with non-AI solutions for that matter. So as a first step, the E-Challenge team will have to figure out how to capture this more detailed energy profile of the building — and do it cheaply and in ways that preserve privacy. For example, Su says part of their system will likely involve deploying occupancy sensors to measure the density of use in particular areas of the ELB. Camera-based sensors can be great for that, but because they also capture identifiable faces, they can feel a little Big Brother. Conversely, infrared sensors can be great for protecting identities, but they also have to be able to distinguish between the heat profile of a human being and that of a computer or lab instrument. So getting the tech right — at the right price — will provide an key initial challenge for the team.

Another big challenge: How to deploy a network of sensors that doesn’t compromise the cybersecurity of the building. “In older buildings, everything tends to be hardwired, but with modern self-powered sensors, your connectivity is usually a wireless communications network,” explains Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Junho Hong. “That potentially introduces new vulnerabilities, and you wouldn’t want someone hacking into your HVAC system and shutting down the air conditioning in the summer.” Hong says issues like this are actually a really hot topic in the cybersecurity industry right now, so it’s a great opportunity for students to get experience with an emerging real-world problem.

If they can successfully navigate those challenges, the result will be a ton of useful room-level data that could be the basis for all kinds of solutions. AI-powered tweaks to building management systems or class scheduling that optimizes building energy use are a couple ideas the team will be investigating. But Assistant Professor of Economics Antonios Koumpias says they also plan to use that data to try to inspire behavior changes. For example, research indicates that simply knowing how much energy you’re consuming can have an effect on your usage. This is the idea behind those postcards you sometimes get that tell you how your neighbors’ energy bills compare to your own; or the notifications you get from your smart thermostat app showing how your energy use ranks for your zip code. And the team could even leverage that data to create a more formal department- or lab-level competition to see which units can have the smallest per capita footprint. For example, Koumpias says publishing that data in a public place, like the ELB’s new 29-foot big screen, could have the effect of rewarding good behavior and nudging bigger energy consumers into adopting different habits. Both positive behavior rewards and forms of public “shaming,” he says, have been shown to be powerful motivators in other domains. (For example, Koumpias says some states use these methods to discourage tax delinquency.) So he’s curious to study how nudges, competitions and shaming could work for collective energy conservation.

In terms of project design, however, Koumpias says one of the biggest challenges will be getting buy-in from people using the ELB. “Nudging individuals is a little more straightforward, but nudging groups of individuals tends to be more difficult,” he explains. “For example, for a group of students in a lab to shift their behavior, they need to feel like there is a community between them, so it’s worth it for them to do it together. If the groups are not socially cohesive, it’s unlikely that you’ll change the behavior.” In other words, if they don’t feel like a team, they likely won’t care much about competing as a team and beating out the other teams.

Though this year’s E-Challenge project will focus specifically on reducing the energy footprint of the ELB, the team hopes their work could lead to low-cost and no-cost solutions that could be deployed in other modern buildings. They’ll spend the next two months refining their proposal, and then, pending approval, they’ll have until April 2023 to run their building-level experiment.

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Story by Lou Blouin. This year’s E-Challenge team is being led by ��-Dearborn faculty Wencong Su, Antonios Koumpias, Natalie Sampson, Yi-Su Chen, Mengqi Wang and Junho Hong.

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Mon, 10/18/2021 - 13:22

For this year’s DTE E-Challenge, an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students will leverage everything from artificial intelligence to “shaming” to reduce our energy footprint.

How Tony England transformed engineering at ��-Dearborn

lblouin — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 17:07:52 +0000

How Tony England transformed engineering at ��-Dearborn lblouin Mon, 08/31/2020 - 13:07

A collage graphic featuring CECS Dean Tony England, surrounded by college icons like the new Engineering Lab Building.

Needless to say, this is not how Tony England’s final year at ��-Dearborn was supposed to go. Without a global pandemic, the retiring dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science would have been celebrating the grand opening of a new flagship Engineering Lab Building — a fitting capstone to his transformative eight-year tenure here. Instead, he’s spent much of the past six months in a continuous stream of Zoom calls, figuring out ways to keep his students and faculty safe, while keeping the quality of one of the most hands-on educational experiences at ��-Dearborn as high as possible. When we talked with him a few weeks ago, he admitted he’s not at all unhappy to be handing off videoconferencing duties to new CECS Interim Dean Ghassan Kridli this week. Nor does he have any doubts that Kridli and the team of young and veteran faculty surrounding him have everything they need to keep the momentum going. England has definitely given them a solid foundation, one of many things we asked the dean to reflect on in his “exit interview” with us below.

We definitely want to talk with you about all the transformative work you did here, but first, how have you been doing these past few months? I know this probably isn’t how you expected to be spending them.

Well, you’d think you would have this feeling of “gaining time” from not having a commute, which for me was about 40 minutes each way. But I realize now it was a relaxed 40 minutes. I would skip the expressway and go down Hines Drive— when it wasn’t flooded — and it gave me time to think about anything I wanted to. Now, my day consists of almost back-to-back BlueJeans or Zoom or Google meetings. I don’t know what it is, but you get to the end of the day and you’re just wrung out. The job has to be more than just meetings. There has to be a creative element, and that only occurs if you have time to think about things, or if you’re working with other people on a creative idea. This COVID thing has been all consuming, so I don’t envy folks that have to continue managing it because it’s a very difficult time.

I think we do have a viable plan for the fall. It is particularly challenging for us because the very persona of our college is very hands-on. We’ve spent a lot of effort investing in how we can teach online in a quality way, and studies have shown that if done right, teaching online can be just as effective. But that can’t replace the experiential part. So we really felt like this fall, we had to find a safe way to open our teaching labs. With Senior Design, for example, you have to have the experience of building a prototype, and having it not work the first time, and then figuring out how to make it work. That’s just part of the process. So we’re hoping by keeping densities low, we can still have these critical undergraduate courses that allow the students to go out into the world with the skills we’ve promised.

I get the sense there was a lot of excitement when you came to ��-Dearborn because you had this adventure-packed resume. You had been an astronaut with NASA. You’d worked in Antarctica with the U.S. Geological Survey. And, of course, you had a long career at U-M. So there was this sense you were a guy who could really shake things up. I’m curious, though, how did you view the job when you decided to come here?

Well at the time, I had recently stepped down as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the College of Engineering on the Ann Arbor campus. The provost from Dearborn came by and asked me if I’d consider serving two years as interim dean, but I wasn’t too hot on the idea because I really wanted to go back to research and teaching. Then I got a call from U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, and she said she thought I ought to do it. You get a call like that and it’s pretty hard to say ‘no.’

That’s the reason I came here. But the reason I stayed — we say this all the time, and I actually believe it deeply — is that we are transforming the lives of the students who come through here. When I got here, it was obvious that the seeds of something special were always here. For example, never in my time in Ann Arbor did I see undergraduate students, as I did here, return to celebrate a faculty retirement. You might see that with graduate students, but not with undergraduates. And in my 24 years in Ann Arbor, I wrote plenty of letters of recommendation and got back some thank you notes. But here, I actually had a student write me once and thank me for “giving them a future.” Something that emotional and earnest sticks with you.

When I arrived here, though, I thought of it a little like that fable of the frog and the hot water: Over the years, we had slowly dropped behind the current state of engineering education — both in facilities and the way we were teaching. I remember the old Engineering Lab Building, and our senior design and competitive teams working in these dirty spaces in the back of the building. It looked like a 1950s garage with stuff just stacked all over the place. You couldn’t get by operating that way in an industrial research facility or a modern factory. So we were showing students the wrong thing. And it was about slowly building up an understanding here on campus of what was missing, and what our potential was.

And to you, what was that? What was your vision for how to reinvent the college?

I never really wanted to just make Dearborn into Ann Arbor. My feeling was that we needed a differentiator, and the vision I had was more like the German universities that work very closely with industry. Paying attention to what industry’s biggest needs were, and things like internships and co-ops — those were the things that I thought could really put our students ahead. Today, about 70 percent of our research is sponsored by industry, so we’ve made great progress on that front. The other thing I felt was important is that we needed to break down the silos that separate disciplines, so that the students had a holistic vision of what engineering is. Engineering is not just designing a widget, it’s understanding how that widget solves a problem, and that requires the social sciences, philosophy, the natural sciences, business and education. In fact, before we built the new Engineering Lab Building, we were offered the donation of a modern building a few miles away, and there was some thought that we should move the engineering college over there. But had we done that, it would likely have killed the possibility of a more holistic engineering program. Instead, we built the ELB — and we designed it so it would not only serve our students, but artists and designers and students from other disciplines who might, say, want to use our maker space. That’s the kind of mixing of people and ideas that ultimately makes the best engineers.

I know one of the other big priorities you had as dean was tackling the diversity issues within the college. Can you talk about that and evaluate where we’re at today?

We’ve made some progress with faculty. When I started, we had two women faculty, and we have 12 now. But that’s out of 80, so it’s not where we ought to be. We also started out at 12 percent women undergraduate students, and now we’re at 22 percent. So that's better, but Ann Arbor is in the high twenties. And MIT and Harvey Mudd are at 50 percent, so we haven’t reached our potential quite yet. But it’s interesting to me how many women are leading our competitive teams. The MASA team — the rocket team — is led by a woman. And the team that won so many things in Formula SAE Combustion back in 2016 was led by a woman business major. So I think the women who do come here are having meaningful experiences and finding a realistic path to graduation.

Where we haven’t done well is with African American students. When I got here, representation in the program was 5 percent, and we’re still at 5 percent. Now we’ve doubled enrollment, so the numbers have doubled. But if our demographics reflected our draw area, and say our draw area encompasses a 15-mile radius, we would have 27 percent African American students in our college. In fact, in my last annual report, I did a SWOT [Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats] analysis, and one our weaknesses is that we’re not representing our region. I think we absolutely have to find a way to do better.

And do you have thoughts about why we’ve struggled and what it would take to build a more representative student body in the college?

I’ve been pressing for a program modeled after the Meyerhoff program that was created by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which other institutions like Penn State have now started to emulate. This was a program that was founded in the late 1980s to help foster success in STEM fields among minorities, particularly African Americans. And the approach is basically that the students come in as a cohort, and your responsibility as a student is to be successful as a cohort. This idea of pulling together as a collective, rather than intensely competing with your colleagues, seems to be much more effective among groups who have been historically marginalized or oppressed. You see a very similar approach with many programs at HBCUs. I mean, we have students in the Detroit area whose families are paying full tuition at out-of-state institutions, and why are they paying for that? It’s because their success rates at the HBCUs are so high. So imagine now we had a program that focused on serving disadvantaged students that, like these programs, had a 90 percent success rate. If we had such a thing at Dearborn, I think it would be like a beacon for the communities we are supposed to be serving. So I think we have to be much bolder, and focus on ideas with a history of success.

Your excitement about new ways of doing things seems to be something that’s guided your career. As you know, there’s a lot of talk about engineering education itself being at a crossroads. Where do you feel like the college is headed?

If I were to describe Ann Arbor’s ideal undergraduate, it would probably be someone who goes to graduate school and becomes a professor someplace, preferably at Harvard or MIT. And through those universities, those people could influence national and international policies. At Dearborn, our desired outcome is somebody who goes into industry, maybe picks up a Doctor of Engineering along the way, and becomes the head of some big organization or company that has a great influence on the direction of the country. As I mentioned before, the vision is to develop this closeness to industry, so that the college can enable significant industries to grow alongside them. Stanford is a great example; there would be no Silicon Valley without Stanford. I’m not saying we’re going to be a Stanford any time soon, but we can play a significant role in the industrial successes of Michigan.

Recognizing this potential starts guiding how you teach and what you teach. If you're trying to develop leaders, you can’t just be training people to design widgets. That will always be very important, and we want to make sure we always have a place for students who just love to design and build things. But we also want to make sure we have programs for what Chancellor Grasso refers to as the “holistic engineer.” What he means by that is somebody who is comfortable working across boundaries. It’s a person who understands that an engineering problem is a human problem, not just a technical problem — and you must know how to talk to the social scientists, and the artists, the business people, the environmentalists. That’s what we’re trying to do now, and our new human-centered design focused programs are essentially prototypes for how we think we can get there. Incidentally, that’s not an idea we’re pursuing just because we want to start some trendy new program. It actually came out of us listening to one of our partners in industry, who was struggling with a shortage of design engineers. When we looked into it, there really wasn’t anyone in the state offering this kind of human-centered design approach. So I think that’s a great example of what I think our trademark can be. It’s about giving our students an experience that resembles as closely as possible the world of engineering as it exists today and how it will be practiced in the future.

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Mon, 08/31/2020 - 17:05

The College of Engineering and Computer Science’s retiring dean talks candidly about his push to reinvent the engineering culture at ��-Dearborn — and the work that still lies ahead.

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The remarkable life of Tony England

Early life

The NASA years

Adventures at USGS

A “perfect fit” in academia

Ronald and Eileen Weiser donate $1.25M for ������-Dearborn’s new $90M Engineering Lab Building project

About Ron and Eileen Weiser

About ������-Dearborn

Contacts:

������-Dearborn officially cuts the ribbon on the Omron Robotics and Human Factors Lab

Your ELB construction update for the start of 2019

Construction is about 30 percent done.

Expect a lot of open, adaptable spaces.

Blending old and new.

Going (mostly) paperless.

What's next?

As 2020 kicks off, the ELB is showing off its final form

The exterior is basically done, and the interior is taking shape.

The ELB is going to be one of the best hangout spaces on campus.

So what happens next?

Construction on the new ELB is nearing the finish line

Faculty and students react to their first weeks in the new ELB

������-Dearborn celebrates ribbon cutting at its new Engineering Lab Building

This energy efficiency project will turn the new ELB into a building-sized laboratory

How Tony England transformed engineering at ������-Dearborn

Ronald and Eileen Weiser donate $1.25M for ��-Dearborn’s new $90M Engineering Lab Building project

About ��-Dearborn

��-Dearborn officially cuts the ribbon on the Omron Robotics and Human Factors Lab

��-Dearborn celebrates ribbon cutting at its new Engineering Lab Building

How Tony England transformed engineering at ��-Dearborn