AE Newsletter - Spring/Summer 2002
The 2002 Senior Awards and Recognition Banquet was held on April 26 at the Nittany Lion Inn. We were very pleased to present nearly $100,000 in scholarships and awards to deserving AE undergraduate students. We are extremely grateful for the phenomenal generosity of our alumni and friends who support the AE Scholarship and Awards Program each year.
A panel of 47 industry professionals (see link below) met during the afternoon to judge the top eight fifth-year thesis presentations.
TOP EIGHT SENIOR THESES
The following seniors garnered top honors in their class when they presented
their senior projects to a jury of industry professionals at the Nittany Lion
Inn on April 26, 2002.
James Shipe chose to investigate the feasibility of blast-hardening a
commercial office building for his senior thesis project. Washingtonian
North is a steel structure that is to be built in Gaithersburg, MD sometime
this year. His redesign incorporated three main concepts to resist the
effects of a car bomb explosion along the building's front facade. It
was found that a Vierendeel truss, closer column spacings, and
concrete-encased steel columns could prevent progressive collapse of the
building. Upon graduating with a B.A.E./M.A.E. degree, James plans on
working for URS Corporation in downtown Washington, DC.
Brian Garthwaite's thesis focused on Santiago Calatrava's addition to the
Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, WI. With architecture and structure
designed as sculpture, and a brise soleil, which is a mechanical sunshade
capable of opening and closing like a bird's wings, the building demanded a
lighting design, that could reinforce its unique character. Brian's
design focused on using light to enhance the impact of the museum's public
spaces, creating a museum, which was art itself. Future plans include
completing his M.A.E. degree in the fall and hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Shawn Bell's construction management thesis focused on the Wise Library
addition and renovation project in Morgantown, WV. He analyzed the
initial conditions of the project to identify ways to increase the value for
the owner, West Virginia University. His first analysis was the existing
support of the excavation system on the project, for which he reduced costs
and schedule time. He also investigated the procurement of the Division
5 metals on the project, in addition to the lateral connections that make up
the structure. Shawn's research included developing a working 4D model
of the structural steel erection for the project. Future plans include
working for Turner Construction Company as a field engineer on the Information
Sciences and Technology Project here at Penn State. Shawn will graduate
this summer with his M.A.E. degree.
Brandon Harwick focused his AE senior thesis project on Seismic
Replacement Building #1 at the University of California, Los Angeles.
His mechanical study focused on the feasibility of
Christian Todd chose the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts as his thesis project. The Kimmel Center is located in the Arts District of Philadelphia. It houses two theaters, Verizon, and Perelman, under a very noticeable glass and steel barrel vault atrium. Rafael Vinoly is the architect on this project and the end result is an architectural marvel located right on Broad Street in Philadelphia. Christian redesigned the lighting systems for Perelman Theater, as well as the large public lobby housed under the glass atrium. The public lobby lighting design was energy savings driven and dictated a full electrical redesign, along with mechanical and acoustical studies of the space. Also redesigned was the emergency power system.
Bonnie Lee's senior thesis project focused on the Carmel Valley Marriott Hotel in San Diego, CA. It is an 11 story building containing 284 guestrooms and 14,500 feet of banquet and meeting facilities. Her thesis contained two system redesigns and a construction management research topic. She shifted beams for a more constructible system and performed a structural analysis on how it would impact the moments in the beams and columns. The original mechanical system had water source heat pumps in the guestrooms areas, and Bonnie proposed to use a 4-pipe fan coil unit system in place of them, to increase energy efficiency in this energy-conscious region. Bonnie also explored the impact of using design-build specialty contractors with MEP coordination. She has accepted a position with Southland Industries in their San Francisco division.
Nicholas Piteo chose to study 125 East 44th Street in New York City for his senior thesis project. The topic of study for this project was the effects that a street level explosion would have on the building, and ways of improving the building's overall performance in the face of a terrorist attack. After graduating with a B.A.E./M.A.E degree in structural engineering, future plans include working for Simpson, Gumpertz and Heger in their Rockville, MD, office.
Brad Palmisiano's mechanical option thesis looked at Pittsburgh's new David L. Lawrence Convention Center, and two strategies to limit the electrical demand imposed by the building's central chiller plant. Absorption refrigeration and thermal energy storage were studied to determine the feasibility of each, as well as their impacts on the building's electrical and structural systems. Brad determined through energy analysis that the installation of a partial ice storage system would translate into significant electrical demand and energy cost savings for the convention center. Following graduation, Brad will begin working for LLI Technologies, Inc., in Pittsburgh, PA.
