News From Clarkson - The E-Newsletter for Clarkson Alumni

August 2007

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CLARKSON UNIVERSITY PLACES IN TIMBER BRIDGE COMPETITION
Clarkson University's Timber Bridge Team scored third place for "Most Innovative Design" in the 2007 National Timber Bridge Design Competition at Brookhaven, Miss. Each team is required to design, build and test wood bridges on their home campus, then submit documentation of their activities and results to a panel of judges for review. The wood used in this project must be commercially available. The competition is conducted online via the Internet. The team members were seniors Baseem Almuti of Ogdensburg, N.Y.; Samuel Hawkins of Belport, N.Y.; Stephen Patt of Fairport, N.Y.; and Joshua Woodbury of Spencer, N.Y.; juniors Peter Christiano of Gloversville, N.Y.; James Farese of Marlborough, Mass. and Brent VanHatten of Barneveld, N.Y.; sophomores Jarrod Persun of Erie, Pa., and freshman Daniel Harvey of Sunbury, Pa. Their advisor was Jubum Kim, assistant professor of civil engineering. The National Timber Bridge Design Competition is open to student chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Forest Products Society (FPS) in the United States and Canada. The competition's objectives are to promote interest in the use of wood as a competitive bridge construction material, to generate innovative and cost-effective timber bridge design techniques and to develop an appreciation of the engineering capabilities of wood among future transportation and forest products engineers. Following the competition, most of the bridges were placed into use as trail bridges.

ENDEAVOR SPACE SHUTTLE FLIGHT DIRECTOR IS CLARKSON ALUMNUS
Clarkson University alumnus Michael L. Sarafin is flight director for the Endeavor space shuttle mission, which launched from Kennedy Space Center. Sarafin graduated from Clarkson in 1994 with a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering. Leading a team of flight controllers, support personnel and engineering experts, a flight director has the overall responsibility to manage and carry out space shuttle flights and International Space Station expeditions. A flight director also leads and orchestrates planning and integration activities with flight controllers, payload customers, International Space Station partners and others. While a student at Clarkson, Sarafin took a six-month co-op job at NASA's Johnson Space Center. This led to a position, upon graduation, as a space shuttle software engineer, developing cockpit display and global positioning system navigation requirements. He became a guidance, navigation and control officer in 1995, supporting 30 shuttle flights in Mission Control, and was named a flight director in 2005. In a 2000 interview with Clarkson magazine, Sarafin said that he appreciated both the co-op and classroom experiences, which he had as a Clarkson undergraduate. "The opportunity to work at NASA as part of the co-op program and the engineering knowledge I accumulated at Clarkson provided the foundation for my career at NASA," he said. "All those hours spent studying engineering and poring over physics and structural dynamics at Clarkson really paid off." Coincidentally, Sarafin's brother, Jim, trains astronauts at NASA. The Sarafin brothers are Herkimer, N.Y., natives and graduates of Richfield Springs Central School.

CLARKSON PROFESOR DEVELOPS SYSTEM TO REMOTELY MONITOR BRIDGES
A Clarkson University professor, operating under a state-funded research grant, has developed a system that allows for remote monitoring of bridges using a dense network of wireless sensors. The work is part of an effort to increase the way state and county departments of transportation in New York State keep track of its bridge inventory. Kerop Janoyan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been working with the New York State Department of Transportation and the St. Lawrence County Highway Department to monitor bridges across the county and state. Janoyan, working with a nearly $500,000 research grant from the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA), has developed and deployed a wireless sensor network to measure bridge vibration and strain utilizing low-cost microprocessors and transceivers. The data is sent to a base station where it can be retrieved and monitored from anywhere. This work began long before the recent collapse of a major bridge in Minneapolis. Janoyan says traditional wired instrumentation of a bridge is often not feasible due to time and cost constraints. Now, the bridge can be instrumented using a low-cost and automatic system for structural health monitoring and condition assessment. A bridge on Wright Road just off Route 11 between Canton and Potsdam, N. Y. was recently instrumented with 40 channels of sensors and data was retrieved in real-time at a base station. This large-scale deployment is one of the largest of its kind currently in the U.S. and demonstrates the use of wireless sensor networks for structural health monitoring as a feasible low-cost, universal approach.

PAUL JULIN APPOINTED ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT OF PHILANTHROPY
It is with great pleasure that Clarkson announces the appointment of Paul Julin to the position of Associate Vice President of Philanthropy. Paul joins Clarkson from the University of Washington in Seattle where he spent seven years as a senior Development Officer. Most recently Paul was lead development officer for the UW’s College of Engineering. Paul was actively involved in UW’s aggressive philanthropy campaign since 2000 where he fundraised for many major initiatives including the funding of new facilities, renovations of existing facilities and endowments supporting faculty, staff, and students. During his tenure within the College of Engineering, Paul was very successful in communicating institutional priorities which resulted in donor support going to new academic and research initiatives, as well as existing equipment, project, and program priorities. Earlier he cut his teeth on political and human services fundraising. Paul also worked at The Boeing Company in a variety of positions, including manager of engineer communications. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a graduate degree from Yale University. Some of his hobbies include racquet sports and cross-country skiing. He and his wife Julie and two sons Anders and Carl live in Stockholm, N.Y.

DAY AT THE RACES IN SARATOGA WINS AGAIN
Thanks to all of our guests at the 4th annual Day at the Races at Saratoga! Though it was a very hot day, everyone enjoyed the day along the rail with Clarkson friends and family! Mark your calendars now for the 5th annual which will be August 1, 2008. Photos from this year’s event are available for viewing here.

THANK YOU BALTIMORE, CLEVELAND AND DENVER FOR GREAT EVENINGS OF BASEBALL AND CLARKSON
Summer time is baseball time and our alumni enjoyed a number of opportunities to gather at the some of the finest ballparks in the country to enjoy our national pastime and to catch up with Clarkson friends. Photos from Baltimore and Cleveland can be found here. Thanks, everyone!

IN WOOD’S WORDS
This month’s piece is entitled “Help Wanted” and it is another excellent essay by our alumni-trustee, Jim Wood ’64! To view all of Jim’s previous works, please visit http://clarksonalumni.com/stay_connected/woods_words.html

CALLING ALL ALUMNI GAME DEVELOPERS!
We are creating a new Clarkson Web site to showcase the talents and ingenuity of current students who have developed computer games to play online or in downloadable execution files. To add to this site, we welcome submissions and links from alumni who have interesting and exciting examples of their own games to share, too. If you have copyrighted material from gaming work you have done for your company and can not publicly share it on our Web site, we are also interested in short narrative profiles of alumni involved in the game development industry. To sign up today or get more information, contact Janessa Scott ’06, Web Designer, jscott@clarkson.edu or 315-268-6719.

TAYLOR BRINGS EXPERIENCE AND LEADERSHIP TO THE STARS
The Dallas Stars named former Kings general manager and NHL great, and former Clarkson Hockey all-star, Dave Taylor ‘77 as the team’s new director of player personnel. Click here to read more.

CLARKSON THIRD AMONG COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN NEW YORK STATE ON GENDER EQUITY IN ATHLETICS
Clarkson University was third among 21 colleges and universities in New York State who were given the highest rating by the Women's Sports Foundation for gender equity in athletics. Clarkson and the other schools were given an "A" to indicate that they provide equal opportunities in their sports programs for men and women. The report measured the number of women undergraduates and the percentage of women athletes compared with male athletes at the institution. In Clarkson's case, 23 percent of its undergraduates are women and 36 percent of the total number of athletes involved at Clarkson is women (123 women versus 213 men). The proportionality gap is actually minus 13 percent - there are more women, percentage wise, involved in Clarkson athletics that are represented in the overall undergraduate enrollment. Clarkson's proportionality gap was third best among all the colleges and universities in New York State. This earned Clarkson an "A" in the rating.

NEW ON-LINE ALUMNI DIRECTORY
Have you tried it yet? Perhaps you’ve loaded a recent photo or updated your contact information…many have! Our new on-line alumni directory located at http://directory.clarksonalumni.com/ is live and ready for you to use. Your user id is located in the upper right hand corner of this newsletter and your password is your birth date. Please let me know if you have problems logging in by sending an e-mail to steve@clarksonalumni.com and we will be happy to assist you!

KNIGHTS OF NOTE
Abel Travis ‘04 created his own company called deliverthat.com. DeliverThat is a new website that allows its members to get hold of products available only in certain countries from anywhere in the world. Specifically targeted at expats, students studying abroad and travelers, www.deliverthat.com facilitates requests and home deliveries for products all over the world. The website combines the functions of a social shopping network with an e-commerce facility. DeliverThat allows its users to interact, post ads for requested items, discuss product deliveries, and send payments securely to other members through an internal escrow system. Users can place free advertisements for items they want from another country and name the price they would be willing to pay to receive them. Other members who have the capability to deliver the products can then contact the ad placer through www.deliverthat.com for shipping details.

Mark Langley ’88 was recently promoted to Lt. Col in the US Air Force. He will soon have 20 years of distinguished service in the military. He has been instrumental on several large-scale projects from procurement, overseeing the testing operations of new military equipment such as the revamped Air Force One, assisted in SouthCom drug and rescue operations in Miami (overseeing the entire South and Central American operations), and most recently management of the Atlas rocket launch and operational programs.