New Faces
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Chimay Anumba has accepted t
he position of Head of the Department of Architectural Engineering.
Dr. Anumba comes to us from the Loughborough University in the United Kingdom with an outstanding record of teaching, research and service related to construction in the building industry. He is a chartered Professional Engineer in the UK and is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Structural Engineers, the Chartered Institute of Building, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has received numerous honors for his work,. He holds a Doctor of Science degree from the Loughborough University (2006) and an Honorary Doctorate from Delft University of Technology (2007). Please join us in welcoming Dr. Anumba to the Penn State family!
Dr. Kevin W. Houser joined the AE faculty as an associate professor in January 2008. Prior to joining Penn State, Dr. 
Houser was an associate professor of Architectural Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Omaha, NE. He has been the manager of Lighting Education for Philips Lighting Company and has also worked for Public Works and Government Services Canada, Elliptipar Corporation in Connecticut, and Edwards and Zuck in New York City. He is also the owner of Loucetios LLC, a lighting consulting firm based in Omaha, NE. Dr. Houser received his Ph.D. degree from Penn State in 1997.
Welcome back to Penn State!
Shaking Things Up
Dr. Ali Memari, associate professor of architectural engineering, was featured in a video clip produced for a program called Discoveries and Breakthroughs Inside Science (DBIS) for Ivanhoe Broadcast News. The video showcases Dr. Memari’s research into how non-structural components of buildings react during an earthquake. You can view the video at:
http://www.aip.org/dbis/stories/2007/17124.html.
National Academies Committee
Dr. William Bahnfleth, professor of architectural engineering and 
director of the Indoor Environment Center, was named to a National Academies committee charged with reviewing efforts to protect occupants of Department of Defense buildings from chemical and biological weapons attacks.
The group will provide advice to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency as the Pentagon plans, designs, constructs and operates future chemical- and biological-resistant facilities.
Part of the committee's job will be to analyze existing military and civilian studies on preventing and mitigating the effects of a chemical or biological release. The information will then be used in formulating new protection schemes.
CONVR 2007
The 7th International Conference on Construction Applications of Virtual Reality was held at the Penn State on October 22-23rd at the Nittany Lion Inn. CONVR 2007 brought together researchers and practitioners in all areas of the AEC Industry and promoted exchanging and implementing innovative ideas for applying Virtual and Augmented Reality. These technologies allow visualization and interaction with a building or infrastructure design and construction process before it is constructed. The approximate number of registrants was close to 50 members of academia and industry. More than 40 abstracts were received, and around 25 peer reviewed papers were presented. The sessions were on Virtual Reality in Design, Virtual Reality and Education, Interactive Workspaces, Augmented Reality, and Visualization and Modeling. International participants came from Germany, Australia, 
Malaysia, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Turkey, Finland, and Switzerland. The Computer Integrated Construction Research Program at Penn State , and Dr. John I. Messner, Chair of the Organizing Committee, were proud to host this conference. Interactive tours of our visualization labs, ICon (Immersive Construction Lab) and IEL (Immersive Environments Lab), were provided to the conference participants, along with a tour of the new Stuckman Family Building, a LEED Gold building constructed for the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the conference, and also Autodesk for sponsoring the event. For more information on the CONVR 2007 and link to the published papers, please visit: http://www.engr.psu.edu/convr/proceedings.htm. We hope that you will review and enjoy the conference papers, and be able to join us at future CONVR events.
Two Longtime Faculty Members Recognized
Congratulations to Associate Professors Moses Ling and Kevin Parfitt, who were honored in recognition of their 25 years of service at Penn State. To commemorate this milestone, Ling and Parfitt were presented with the 25 Year Length of Service Chair from Penn State University. Thank you!
Hankin Distinguished Lecture Series
The Hankin Distinguished Lecture Series was established in 2006 in honor of the late Bernard Hankin. World-class speakers are invited to The Pennsylvania State University to address students and faculty. This year's Hankin Distinguished Lecturer was Dr. David Seiders, Chief Economist and Senior Staff Vice President of the National Association of Home Builders. The title of his presentation was, “Causes and Consequences of the Boom-Bust Housing Cycle in the U.S.”
Dr. Seiders writes several regular columns on housing and the economy, and he appears regularly in the print and broadcast media. He is a member of a variety of economic forecasting panels, including Blue Chip and Consensus Economics, as well as the exclusive Conference of Business Economists. He has testified before Congress and federal regulatory agencies on monetary and fiscal policy, banking and housing policy issues. Prior to joining NAHB in 1984, Dr. Seiders was a Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. In 1981-82, he was the Chief Policy Analyst for Housing Finance with President Reagan’s Commission on Housing. Mr. Seiders received a BA degree in Economics, with highest honors, from LaSalle College in Philadelphia, and he holds a Ph.D. in Economics from The Pennsylvania State University. He has taught undergraduate economics and housing policy at the graduate level.
AE Jobs!
Are you an AE alumni who is looking for a job—-or an employer looking to hire an AE graduate with a few year’s experience? Please check out our AE alumni job website at:
http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/job_placement/jobs_alum.asp
Job postings are free and provided as a courtesy to the alumni of the Architectural Engineering Department.
In Memorium
We are deeply saddened to report that Sharron E. Williams, 
beloved AE staff assistant, lost her battle with cancer, and passed away on December 8, 2007. Born June 15, 1943, in Philipsburg, she was a daughter of Alice Mae Butterworth Williams of Clearfield and the late C. Max Williams. She had one brother, the late Douglas M. Williams, of Silver Spring, MD. She is survived by her mother and a sister, Loretta R. Williams and brother-in-law, Louis T. Rodier, of Weymouth, MA.
Sharron was the student records staff assistant for nearly 34 years in the Penn State Architectural Engineering program. She had a very personal commitment to our program and the students she served. She was affectionately known as “the Answer Lady” and faculty, co-workers and students relied heavily on her expertise related to student records and academic procedures. Sharron had a very kind and self-effacing nature. She was devoted to the AE students and made them her number one priority. Time and again, students have expressed their gratitude for the special attention she gave to their individual needs and problems. Alumni who visited the Department always made a point of stopping by to say hello to Sharron.
In 2004, members of the AE class of 1999 pooled their resources to establish the Sharron E. Williams Scholarship “in honor of a beloved staff assistant and dedicated employee of the Department of Architectural Engineering.” The scholarship was a high tribute which is typically only done to honor a senior or emeritus faculty member. When the first scholarship was awarded at our Senior Banquet that year, it was noted that Sharron had tirelessly answered questions, advised and resolved problems for most of the more than 200 people present in the room that evening—including a lot of the Jury members and even a few faculty members! The announcement of the scholarship was greeted with thunderous applause and a standing ovation, which lasted for several minutes. It was a moving experience that clearly demonstrated the sincere and genuine regard that the AE students and alumni felt for Sharron.
Throughout her long career in AE, Sharron E. Williams has been an outstanding staff member and a respected colleague. She will be greatly missed.
A memorial service for Sharron was held on Saturday, Dec. 15 at St. Paul's
United Methodist Church at College Ave. & McAlister Street in State College.
In lieu of flowers, her family requested that donations be made to the Sharron
Williams Scholarship fund in the AE Department.
The goal is to create this as an endowed scholarship in the AE Department
so the each year, the interest income from this fund would produce an annual
scholarship in perpetuity (approximately $1,000) to be given to deserving
AE undergraduate students in Sharron's memory. After nearly 34 years of dedicated
service to the faculty and students in the AE Department, we think this is
a wonderful way to honor her legacy!
If you would like to donate to the Sharron Williams Memorial Scholarship Fund, checks can be made payable to “Penn State” and noted on the comment area as the Sharron Williams Memorial Scholarship. Checks can be sent to the attention of Nancy Smith in the AE Main office at 104 Engineering Unit A, University Park, PA 16802. Thank you.
Faculty Honors
Jelena Srebric, Ph.D., received a Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-
Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) at its 2007 Annual Meeting.
The Distinguished Service Award salutes members of any grade for giving freely of their time and talent on behalf of the Society. The honor recognizes participation in chapter, regional and Society activities.
Dr. Behr Appointed Director of the Smart Spaces Center
On January 17, 2008, Dr. Eva Pell, Penn State’s Senior Vice President for Research, announced that former AE Department Head Richard A. Behr, now the Charles and Elinor Matts 
Professor of Architectural Engineering, will be appointed the founding Director of the Smart Spaces Center. The center is an interdisciplinary Penn State initiative to conduct research that will enable our elderly citizens to age more successfully in place – thereby delaying as long as possible the need to move elderly persons to assisted living facilities. The Smart Spaces directorship is effective July 1, 2008, with some activities commencing immediately based on early access to FY 2009 Penn State funding for the Center. The Office of the Senior Vice President for Research, the colleges of Engineering, Arts and Architecture, Health and Human Development, and Information Sciences and Technology, and the Social Sciences Research Institute have committed to providing an initial three years of baseline funding for the Smart Spaces Center.
Smart Spaces for our aging population can be conceptualized as a set of at least four “spaces” surrounding the core individual: (1) Smart Personal Space; (2) Smart Living Space; (3) Smart Information Space; and (4) Smart Societal Space. Here, “smart” means that each space is embodied with research-derived enhancements that will better enable our senior citizens to age more successfully in place. The goal of the Living Better Longer in Smart Spaces initiative is to create interdisciplinary teams of Penn State faculty and strategic partners to perform research that advances what we know about aging, home design, technology, community planning, and public policy to create innovative and practical solutions to enable elderly persons to remain at home as long as possible, while maintaining a high quality of life.
The Smart Spaces Center will partner with business and industry, insurance companies, health care systems, foundations, local communities, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the federal government, and national organizations to ensure that the Penn State produces innovative research that translates into better quality of life for our aging population.
AE Practitioner Instructor (PI) Update
Due to the generous sponsors of theAE Practitioner Instructor (PI) program our pledges/investments received as of January 2008 total $753,500. THANK YOU! Further details on the PI program can be found online at:
http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/pi/index.asp.
Commencement
Commencement for the College of Engineering was held on Dec. 22, 2007. Architectural engineering conferred 5 B.A.E., 25 M.A.E., 2 M. Eng. degrees and 1 Ph.D.
Congratulations to our most recent graduates!