Dear Carroll College Engineering Alumni and Supporters:
Welcome to the inaugural newsletter for the Engineering Programs at Carroll College!
We felt it was time for us to convey all the activities and events that continue to make these programs an integral part of the college and the local engineering community. You deserve to know what we have been up to and what is ahead for us on campus. Thank you for your support and your role in making our programs great pathways for students to venture into the profession of engineering.
I will be retiring in May 2023. It has been a wonderful 17 years since I nervously walked into this institution in the fall of 2006 as a rookie assistant professor, making a sharp detour from full-time engineering. While I already had 25 years engineering experience before stepping foot on campus (which gave at least a little credence to what I was trying to teach), I was woefully inexperienced in full-time teaching. I have to thank my mentors (notably John Scharf, Mary Keeffe, and Terry Mullen) and all of the students for hanging with me and helping me every year to gain a little more confidence in being an educator. I could not have predicted the special relationships I gained with my peers and, more unexpectedly, the students. It has been a special gift to me and, even though I may forget some names, I will not forget the respect I felt for and from you, and how much I learned from you. I will continue to serve the Carroll engineering students by becoming a member of the Engineering Advisory Board, a group that meets twice a year to discuss the program, evaluate graduates, and continue to support students.
The engineering programs are entering a new and challenging era where four full-time faculty members will have retired in the past five years (Terry Mullen, Willis Weight, John Scharf, and myself). But we have a new and energized crop of faculty ready and willing to take the program to the next level. In addition to veteran Drs. Mary Keeffe and Tony Szpilka, we have hired Dr. Recep Birgul, P.E. (structures and materials), Dr. Shaye Bodine, E.I. (water resources and environmental), and we are hopeful a new faculty member will be on board soon. See below for introductions to Drs. Birgul and Bodine. We also have the challenge of maintaining and occasionally replenishing our all-too-important and amazingly talented and dedicated group of adjunct faculty. As you will read below, we owe much to our adjuncts and we thank them all. We would not have the success of our programs without them.
We are small (currently hovering around 50 engineering students), but as you will see in this newsletter, we have a lot going on. Our faculty and students are busy! Our hope is that our student population will grow and our vibrancy will continue to climb.
As many of you can attest, Carroll is a great place to gain a valuable education, and in engineering, you all make a real difference in the world!
~ Gary Fischer, P.E., Associate Professor and Director of the Civil Engineering Program
Introducing Our New Faculty
We welcomed Dr. Birgul and Dr. Bodine to the Engineering faculty team this year. They have been wonderful additions to our program. Read a bit more about their backgrounds and their first year at Carroll.
Recep Birgul, Ph.D.
Before joining Carroll College, Dr. Birgul was a full-time and tenured faculty at Mugla Sıtkı Kocman University in Turkey. Since 2006, he has been primarily teaching structural engineering courses at MSKU. He also served as a visiting professor at the University of Central Florida for two separate time periods. Nondestructive evaluation of materials and structures has been the primary focus of his research for a number of years. Results of his research have been published in peer-reviewed journals.
- Ph.D. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wayne State University
- M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wayne State University
- B.S. Construction Education, Gazi University
“I feel the warm welcome by my colleagues and I appreciate it very much. The Carroll community as a whole provided enormous help for me and my family in our transition; I am in debt for that. The participation level and enthusiasm shown by the engineering students in lectures makes teaching very enjoyable at Carroll.”
~ Recep Birgul, Ph.D.
Shaye Bodine, Ph.D.
Dr. Shaye Bodine received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she studied community relocation and reconstruction following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Her work was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRFP) and a United States Agency for International Development Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) Humanitarian Shelter and Settlements Fellowship.
Dr. Bodine is an officer in the Montana Air National Guard as a civil engineer with a RED HORSE heavy construction unit. Born and raised in Great Falls, Dr. Bodine is thrilled to be back in her home state and teaching in a community she loves. Outside of class, she’s often running or biking through the Helena trails.
- Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
- M.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
- B.S. in Environmental Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
“My first year at Carroll has been a whirlwind, and I love it. The Carroll community has been warm and challenging (in the best way) since day one. I'm grateful for the students along for my first-year journey, and looking forward to many more years teaching.”
~ Shaye Bodine, Ph.D.
Amazing Adjuncts
Because of our small size, the college is not able to provide full-time faculty for all of the various engineering courses we offer. Therefore, we rely heavily on adjuncts to teach classes where specific expertise is required. Teaching as an adjunct is a labor of love. Pay is low; preparation can be extensive; and they have to show up at specific times to teach their classes. For adjuncts who actively work as engineers, they need to have forgiving and flexible supervisors who support them. All adjuncts have understanding and forgiving significant others. For all of this, we appreciate our adjuncts tremendously and we don’t tell them thanks often enough.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to our current long-term adjuncts – Kent Barnes (structures and project management/economics), Mike Oelrich (geotech, hydrology, part-time lab manager), and Ivan Ulberg and Ryan Hammon (transportation II). Mike is retiring after this semester, leaving a huge gap in several areas of the program that we will need to fill. Thank you, Mike, for your service and passion in teaching. There has been a long line of adjuncts who have given their time and expertise to our students, and for all of you, we thank you very much!
If you are interested in becoming an adjunct professor for Carroll College, please reach out to Mary Keeffe at mkeeffe@carroll.edu.
Engineers Without Borders: Uganda Trip in May
A group of ten will travel to the small village of Kawango, Uganda this May! After many delays due to the pandemic and an Ebola outbreak, the Uganda team is excited to be headed to the village of Kawango at the end of May 2023.
When the group last traveled in January of 2020, an elevated storage tank with a solar powered submersible pump was installed at Holy Trinity Senior Secondary School to provide hand washing stations and a spigot in the school's kitchen. With the completion of this project and other water rehabilitation efforts, Carroll’s EWB team is now working towards sanitation improvements at the school. Currently, the pit latrines being used pose a threat to student and faculty health and do not meet the needs of the growing school population. The current sanitation methods also restrict land use for the expanding school, provide potential for groundwater contamination, and are not meeting Ugandan regulations on the number of latrines per student.
The goal of our upcoming trip is to assess our previous projects as well as the current conditions and meet with the community of Kawango to discuss the sanitation alternatives and determine feasibility of implementation.
Partner organizations working with Carroll EWB at Holy Trinity School include The Julius Foundation, who have brought electricity to the village and the school, the Emirates Foundation, who bought plane tickets from Seattle to Uganda, and the Rotary Club of Helena, who are working to provide a fully equipped computer lab. We owe huge gratitude to these organizations and all those who support Carroll’s EWB program in every way!
Our student leads have done an amazing job leading EWB for the upcoming trip and during the pandemic when travel was restricted. Here’s what they have to say:
After several years of work, I’m so happy that our team is finally able to make it to the community of Kawango. I was fortunate to meet Father Julius, our connection to this community, in August. He made it clear how crucial our work in this community has been. I know that this sanitation project will not only keep this community safe, but will also give Father Julius and his faculty at the school the ability to provide a quality education to even more students. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact our team has made in the past and the present firsthand. I know it will be an extremely rewarding experience that will completely alter my perspective and lead to so much growth as an individual.
Kate Picanco (Uganda Project Lead)
I have had an amazing experience being a part of both our Guatemala and Uganda chapters since I was a freshman at Carroll and I am extremely grateful to have the experience of traveling with both project teams. I traveled to Guatemala my freshman year of school and I will hold onto what I learned in the short time that I was in-country for the rest of my life. On our trips we get to work directly with professional engineering mentors and build close relationships with our team and the community. I am greatly looking forward to meeting the community in Kawango and working with them to meet their sanitation needs. We have been fundraising and completing engineering reports and meetings for several semesters so it is very exciting to finally have the experience to implement our work in Uganda. And I most love that I can be a part of improving someone else's quality of living through my experiences with EWB.
Maya Linn (Guatemala Project Lead)
Carroll ASCE: Co-Hosts of the Annual Pacific Northwest Student Symposium
“In the Hydrogeology course, students went to a private well near Canyon Ferry Reservoir and conducted a pumping test to determine the properties of the aquifer. Pump down rate was approximately five gallons per minute. The test ran for about 60 minutes. Then students measured the recovery rate in the well. From the information of the field test, the aquifer’s transmissivity and storativity were determined. The students learned about pumping tests, and the ability to stay warm on a windy late October day!”