New President, ASCE Fellows, & Smart Bandage Patent (March 2017)

Wright State University has publicly introduced Cheryl B. Schrader, Ph.D. (IN D ’84), as the next president of the university. Currently, Dr. Schrader is chancellor of Missouri University of Science & Technology. She will begin her new position on July 1, 2017, and will become the first woman to lead the school in its 50-year history.

According to the announcement, Dr. Schrader emerged from 61 candidates over a nine-month national search. Previously, she was dean of the College of Engineering at Boise State University (ID). Her bachelor’s degree is in electrical engineering from Valparaiso University (IN).

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The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has announced four members that have been elevated to ASCE Fellows. All are also Tau Beta Pi members, they are:

Robert L. Bertini, Ph.D., P.E. (CA M ’88) – director of the Center for Urban Transportation Research and professor of engineering at the University of South Florida.
Richard A. Reid, Ph.D., P.E. (SD A ’81) – associate dean of academics at South Dakota State University and chief advisor to the SD Beta Chapter of Tau Beta Pi.
Terry W. Sturm, Ph.D., P.E. (IL A ’69) – professor of engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Ahmet Zeytinci, Ph.D., P.E. (DC A ’74) – professor and former chair of the department of engineering at the University of the District of Columbia.

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Science Mag profiled a a patent for a smart bandage that was a direct result of a senior design project at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). It took five years but the smart bandage that “allows more efficient healing of wounds and delivery of multiple drugs on their own time schedules to the wound” has received a patent titled “Controlled Release Nanoparticulate Matter Delivery System.”

The student team was led by Letia M. Blanco, TX H ’11, who is now a mechanical engineer at Raytheon. The patent was secured thanks to support from Raytheon and UTA. One of the faculty advisors on the project was Pranesh B. Aswath, Ph.D. (TX H ’82). The plan is to take steps towards commercializing the product in the future. Click here to read the article for more information.

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