What’s New in Engineering

While most of Messiah College, and the world for that matter, went about their normal daily routines, they had no idea that Wednesday October 21, 2009 would be different. It was a beautiful sunny fall day with temperatures in the low 70’s, a slight breeze and brilliant foliage abounding. Then at precisely high noon in the Frey Building the unthinkable occurred! Was it possible this was actually happening within the Engineering Department at Messiah College? What would be the long term consequences of something like this occurring in Frey 349, which is located on the third floor of the building? Had this type of thing ever occurred before? What would be the reactions and long term effects on the students, professors and possibly Chairman of the department in the vicinity of Frey 349. Certainly there will be many questions that will need to be answered in the days and months that follow. Here’s what we were able to learn at the preliminary juncture, shortly after “The Occurrence”:

1. Dr. Barbara Ressler was teaching an Engineering Statics Class at the time of “The Occurrence”
2. The Statics Class, consisting primarily of sophomores, was involved in “The Occurrence”
3. Dr. Timothy Van Dyke had brought his Mechanics of Materials Class to Frey 349 just prior to “The Occurrence”
4. The Mechanics of Materials Class, consisting primarily of Juniors, was involved in “The Occurrence”
5. Dr. Randall Fish, Chairman for the Department of Engineering was also present at the time of “The Occurrence”
6. Fortunately the freshman class, who have been here less than 2 months, did not witness “The Occurrence”
7. The visual impact of “The Occurrence” will be remembered for a long time

Now, a week after “The Occurrence”, more details are beginning to emerge. Apparently two years ago, at about this same time, the Engineering Statics class surprised their professor, Dr. Barbara Ressler, on her birthday with a birthday cake. Then last year Dr. Ressler decided to preempt any surprise birthday events, by founding and hosting the 1st annual Geeky T-Shirt contest. The contest was complete with food and prizes being awarded for the best and the runner-up contestants in their Geeky T-Shirts. It was a huge success with a lot of engineering type creativity and frivolity and hence a Statics Class tradition began. On Wednesday October 21, 2009 “The Occurrence” it seems was simply the 2nd Annual Geeky T-Shirt Event again hosted by Dr. Ressler with food and prizes. In fact she was indeed wearing a Geeky T-Shirt as you can see in the associated picture. It is now known that her Statics Class students were made aware of this on Friday October 16th and that a number of
them were appropriately attired in Geeky T-Shirts. It also now known that Dr. Timothy Van Dyke made his students aware of the event on Monday October 19th. He too along with a number of students was attired in a Geeky T-Shirt as you can see in the picture. There are eye witness accounts that Dr. Van Dyke’s wife, Dr. Arlene Van Dyke was also involved with the Geeky T-Shirt event, however there is no known photographic evidence and therefore cannot be substantiated. One might think this whole wacky Geeky T-Shirt event would be limited to two very excellent and dedicated Engineering Faculty members with a great sense of humor, but nooooooooooooooooo that was not the case. We now have photographic proof that implicates Dr. Randall Fish, the Engineering Department Chair. All indications are that he too as an excellent and dedicated member of the Engineering Group has a great sense of humor.

Congratulations to Matthew Halburd as the Winner of the 2nd annual prestigious Geeky T-Shirt Award. Matthew won by wearing a shirt which would light up when it detected a wi-fi hot spot.
Congratulations also to Judah Fickett and Phillip Martinez as runner-ups to the Geeky T-Shirt Award.
From all indications the visual impact of this event, along with the associated rip-roarious laughter will be an event that will be remembered for students in the Statics and Mechanics of Materials classes for a long time to come.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security - U.S. State Department - is seeking engineering interns for Summer 2010. The application deadline is November 1, 2009. Applications must be submitted online at www.careers.state.gov (click on Student Programs). When applying, you must select “Bureau of Diplomatic Security” as your first choice.

Positions available:

Computer Engineering / Computer Engineering Technology
Electrical Engineering / Electrical Engineering Technology
Electronics Engineering / Electronics Engineering Technology
Electromechanical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering / Mechanical Engineering Technology
Physics / Engineering Physics

According to Dr. Underwood, the Engineering Internship / Externship Coordinator here at Messiah, the DOE internship program is accepting applications for next summer. If you are looking for an internship during next summer, please see the link below to apply. If you have any interest in research in commercial buildings, please contact Dr. Underwood.

http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/SciEd/ERULF/about.html

Engineering students and recent alumni may be interested in two job and internship fairs that are occurring in the next several weeks:

The first is Experience Harrisburg 2009, an annual regional job fair which takes prospective employees on a tour of Harrisburg as they search for jobs. This event is scheduled for Thursday, October 22, from 5:30-9:30 PM. This year there are over 40 companies participating at 10 locations. For more information, visit the Experience Harrisburg 2009 website.

The second is our very own annual 2009 Career & Graduate School Expo here at Messiah. This is the biggest event the Career Center sponors each year and will included prizes and raffles items, which will be given away. It is designed for all students from Freshman to Seniors. This year’s expo will occur on Monday, November 2, from 11:00 AM-2:30 PM in Brubaker Auditorium. For more information, visit the Career Center website.

The Department of Engineering welcomes Paul Myers, who is our new Electrical/Computer Engineering Technician. Paul takes over for Steve Frank beginning Monday, July 20, 2009. Steve and his wife are moving to Golden, Colorado so that Steve can purse a graduate degree in Systems Engineering at Colorado School of Mines. Please join us in wishing Steve farewell and in welcoming Paul, who lives in Carlisle with his family.

We have received several requests from individuals who wished to view the Engineering IPC Presentations after the webcast had finished. While we don’t have an archive of the webcast available to view, we did record the presentations and plan to compile a DVD later this summer. If you are interested in obtaining a DVD copy of the Engineering IPC Presentations, please contact us at Engineering@messiah.edu for more information.

The 2009 Engineering IPC Webcast has ended. Thank you for watching. We hope to see you again next year!

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