Engineering: Hires, Research, & Trends

Arizona State University has announced that Werner Dahm, Ph.D. (AL D ’78), “has joined the engineering faculty and will help establish an institute dedicated to finding solutions to national and global challenges.” Read the press release

Dahm was most recently the chief scientist for the U.S. Air Force and is set to receive the Exceptional Service Award, the highest recognition for civilian service bestowed by the Air Force.

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With the end of Major League Baseball upon us, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on research being done by scientists to help protect MLB players from shattering bats.

A team of engineers, scientists, and even statisticians was assembled to determine rules changes to protect players from shattered bats. One of the experts on the team is David E. Kretschmann (WI A ’84), a research engineer with the federal government’s Forest Products Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Read the full article for more including the difference between ash and maple bats.

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Last week Bloomberg covered the appearance of several prominent U.S. company CEOs on CNN. The panel included chief executive officers from Google Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Alcoa Inc., and the former head of IBM.

The discussion focused on a consensus that “the U.S. should increase spending on research and development in government, private industry, and academia.”

Click here for the full article, to read more about the suggestions and trends discussed.

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