Making News, March 2013

The Tribune-Star (IN) is reporting that James C. Conwell, Ph.D. (TN A ’83), has been selected as the next president of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology beginning in May. Currently, Conwell is vice president of Jacobs Engineering Group. Previously, he has taught engineering to undergraduates at Vanderbilt University, Louisiana State University, and Grove City College.

Conwell has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the University of Tennessee, and a doctorate from Vanderbilt University. Click here to read the article and for more information

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The Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico is completing work on “the world’s largest fiber-optic local network” according to Popular Science. The $15 million switchover includes replacing copper wires with a fiber-optic network. “Lab officials estimate $20 million in savings over five years, from energy savings and not having to (frequently) replace copper wires.”

Steven A. Gossage, KS A ’74, is a senior engineer in networks at Sandia and is checking up on the new network. He estimates that the new network works at “10 gigabit-type rates.” The average U.S. connection is just under seven megabits per second.

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Earlier this month, “a pioneer in what is commonly known as forensic structural engineering” passed away. W. Gene Corley was 77. Read the obituary from the Chicago Tribune

Corley, IL A ’58, was senior vice president at CTLGroup (IL) and had no plans to retire. He led several high profile structural investigations including, “the federal investigation of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11; the 1993 destruction of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas; and the 1995 bombing and collapse of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.”

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