UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Tim Doughty

Engineering Alumnus Establishes VanGrunsven Professorship

DickVanGDick VanGrunsven, a 1961 engineering graduate of the University of Portland, has pledged $30,000 to establish a new term professorship in the Shiley School of Engineering. Over the three-year term of the project, mechanical engineering professor Timothy Doughty will have the title “The Richard and Diane VanGrunsven Professor of Engineering.” With the VanGrunsven gift, Doughty will work to improve the quality and increase the number of co-curricular, hands-on, student/faculty projects conducted during summers in the Shiley School of Engineering.

VanGrunsven founded Van’s Aircraft, Inc., in 1972, primarily to sell plans and parts for the RV-3, a homebuilt aircraft he designed (the “RV” in each model number match his initials). He manufactured the company’s products himself in a small shop behind his house in Reedville, Oregon. As business grew and Van’s Aircraft began producing full aircraft kits and new designs, the company moved to larger quarters in North Plains, Oregon. In 2000 the company moved to a new 60,000-square-foot facility near the small town of Aurora, Oregon. The employee-owned company currently employs over 50 people and produces several hundred complete aircraft kits per year.

For more information contact the Shiley School at x7292 or go to http://engineering.up.edu.

$250,000 Keck Foundation Grant

engineering grantThe University of Portland has received a $250,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to enhance the laboratory experiences of undergraduate students in the Shiley School of Engineering. The grant will allow the Shiley School of Engineering to develop 10 new laboratory modules that support developmental and technical learning objectives.

Engineering professor Heather Dillon is one of several who will be involved in the program. She will focus on the development of the laboratory modules in the area of thermodynamics and heat transfer. In 2007 she received the U.S. Department of Energy of Science Outstanding Mentor Award for her work with undergraduate students.

Engineering professor Tim Doughty will support development of the laboratory modules in the area of systems and dynamics. Doughty has a strong history of undergraduate research and is a co-principal investigator for a current National Science Foundation NOYCE Grant.

Karen Eifler, who specializes in educational assessment and works closely with experts in STEM education, will lead the efforts of education faculty who will work with mechanical engineering faculty. She is the recipient of several teaching awards, including the 2006 Carnegie Foundation’s Oregon Professor the Year award.

Ken Lulay, engineering, will provide department leadership to the project and support the development of laboratory modules in the mechanics area. In the last two years he led the mechanical engineering faculty in development of a “Design Spine” to incorporate elements of engineering design in all four years of the curriculum.

The W. M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 in Los Angeles by William Myron Keck, founder of The Superior Oil Company. In the area of education, the foundation supports undergraduate programs that promote inventive approaches to instruction and effective involvement of students in research.

For more information contact the Shiley School of Engineering at 7314 or spir@up.edu.