Fall 2006 -- Vol. 59, No. 4

Rise in U.S. News ranking

U.S.News & World Report this year ranked Clemson as a top-30 public institution among the nation’s public doctoral-granting universities. This is a move up from 34th last year. Clemson is again ranked as South Carolina’s top public university.

The latest report shows improvements in key educational areas, such as class size, graduation rate and quality of students. This year, Clemson reported that 39 percent of classes had fewer than 20 students and just 10 percent of classes had 50 or more. Clemson’s graduation rate rose from 72 percent to 75 percent. This year, 45 percent of Clemson’s freshmen graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class, which is up from 38 percent.

In addition, Clemson is recognized as having an “outstanding example of an academic program believed to lead to student success” in its Writing Across the Curriculum program.

Bernanke at Leadership SC

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, a native of Dillon, returned to South Carolina in August for a homecoming celebration hosted by Leadership South Carolina, a Clemson public service.

Bernanke spoke to a gathering of business executives, community leaders and government officials on the U.S. economic outlook at the Palmetto Expo Center in Greenville.

Leadership South Carolina, now in its 27th year, is the state’s oldest and most recognized leadership development program. It provides gifted and highly motivated South Carolinians an opportunity to advance their leadership qualities while broadening their understanding of issues facing the state. Each year, approximately 55 individuals are selected through a competitive process for participation.

For more on Leadership South Carolina, go to www.leadershipsouthcarolina.org.

Top-20 civil engineering

According to the latest U.S.News ranking, Clemson’s civil engineering department is 14th among the nation’s public doctoral-granting engineering schools. The department is ranked 24th in a list that includes private and public schools.

National competitions and firsthand experience are a large part of Clemson civil engineering students’ success. Clemson student teams have won championship titles in the National Concrete Canoe Competition and the National Student Steel Bridge Competition, and the Institute of Transportation Engineers recognized Clemson with the 2006 Outstanding Student Chapter Award.

The Clemson Wind Tunnel, a facility for studying the effects of high winds on low-rise buildings, serves an internationally recognized program whose experts testify before Congressional subcommittees researching hurricane preparedness. The department is also home to the Asphalt Rubber Technology Service, which promotes, designs and tests the use of recycled scrap tires in rubberized asphalt and other civil infrastructure applications.

Developing the economy

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce has selected Clemson for its S.C. EDA University Center. Clemson will receive $488,000 over three years to carry out economic development projects throughout the state.

The center will be administered by the Regional Economic Development Research Laboratory in the University’s applied economics and statistics department and the Clemson Institute for Economic and Community Development.

Research and technical assistance efforts will concentrate on the development of industry clusters in the state, the leveraging of the University’s technical expertise to promote entrepreneurship and business development, and the assistance of work force development organizations in preparing workers for the knowledge-based economy.

One-of-a-kind packaging

A $2.5 million gift from global packaging leader Sonoco Products Co. has launched the proposed Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics at Clemson.

The gift forges a powerful learning and economic development resource for South Carolina, creating the opportunity to plan an institute that will be the only one of its kind in the nation.

The institute will provide resources for students in packaging, printing and allied fields. It will promote consumer and environmentally superior packaging design development, printing-imaging technologies and printing-packaging systems.
The funds will help pay for construction of a facility to house the institute. Commitments of gifts-in-kind will help provide technology support. Program leaders foresee the need for three endowed chairs to teach and guide the institute, which will be self-sustaining.

Pictured at the presentation are, from left, packaging science major Meredith Isbell, Clemson President Jim Barker, graphic communications major Amy Etheridge and Sonoco Products Co. President Harris E. DeLoach Jr.

CU-ICAR’s first class

The Clemson University Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) has begun “producing” its most important product — a highly skilled work force. The first class of students in Clemson’s new graduate program in automotive research is under way.

Students are studying on the main campus while construction on the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center is completed on the CU-ICAR campus in Greenville.

Program director Thomas Kurfess, BMW Endowed Chair in Manufacturing Integration, says that at full production the program will graduate approximately 30 students with master’s degrees and five to 10 with doctoral degrees each year.
For more on CU-ICAR and Clemson’s automotive engineering graduate program, go to www.cu-icar.com.

Gift for good health

The Duke Endowment, one of the nation’s largest private foundations, has announced a three-year $21 million grant to Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC).

HSSC is a statewide collaborative of Clemson, the Medical University and the University of South Carolina with the Greenville Hospital System, Palmetto Health and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System working to improve citizens’ health and quality of life.

The grant, the largest the foundation has ever made, will support the establishment of the Center of Healthcare Quality and Clinical Effectiveness and will enable HSSC to develop and implement Centers of Economic Excellence Endowed Chairs programs.

Simply the best

Smart freshmen!
Clemson’s chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta (ALD) has earned the national honor society’s highest award, the Order of the Torch, one of only five chapters in the country to do so. ALD is for students who maintain a 3.4 or higher GPA and are in the top 20 percent of their class during their first year in higher education. For more on Clemson’s chapter, go to people.clemson.edu/~ald.

Exzellent
History and German major Samuel Scurry has won a Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst scholarship to study in Germany for a full academic year. He’s one of only 62 undergraduates from 50 universities in the United States and Canada to receive the award.

Centered on success
Clemson’s Academic Success Center was named the Outstanding Supplemental Instruction Program during the International Conference on Supplemental Instruction in Sweden. Clemson honor graduate Anne “Katie” Abole was named Supplemental Instruction Leader of the Year for her work in the center. The center serves students as one of the first lines of defense against withdrawals and failures, especially in the areas of math and sciences. It provides tutoring, additional instruction and a variety of academic skills workshops. For more information, go to www.clemson.edu/asc.

SME fellow
Mechanical engineering professor Thomas Kurfess, BMW Endowed Chair in Manufacturing Integration and director of the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center at CU-ICAR, has been named a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the world’s leading professional society serving the manufacturing industry. One of only four 2006 SME Fellows, Kurfess is globally recognized for his work in precision manufacturing systems, advanced process control, metrology and his service to the manufacturing community.

Venice exhibit
Architecture professors Doug Hecker and Martha Skinner were selected to exhibit this fall in the 2006 Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy, one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world. Their chosen proposal — Dry-In House: an Affordable Mass Customized House for the Reconstruction of New Orleans — allows families to participate in the design of their customized homes to get them back to their home sites as quickly as possible and into a “dried-in” shell that can be finished and further customized over time. The process uses an interactive Web site connected to CNC-controlled fabrication.
 
Great advice
Clemson Extension consumer horticulturist and state Master Gardener coordinator Bob Polomski has received national recognition for helping gardeners with their problems on the radio. Polomski received the 2006 Garden Writers Association Silver Award of Achievement for his work with the “Your Day” radio program’s call-in gardening show. “Your Day,” produced by Clemson University Radio Productions for S.C. Educational Radio, reaches listeners across a tri-state area.

pARTy time!

Lee Gallery visitors surround Henry Bauer as he shares stories about how he collected various works of art in the exhibition “The Henry Bauer Collection: Ceramics and Bronze from Alfred NY and Beyond.” His ceramic collection is considered one of the most important in the United States.

The Friends of Lee Gallery, volunteers dedicated to the advancement of the visual arts at the University, hosted a “pARTy” during the Bauer exhibit to welcome new faculty to Clemson. For more on the Lee Gallery, call (864) 656-3883 or visit the Web at www.clemson.edu/caah/leegallery.

Winning formula

Clemson’s Formula SAE team shows sponsors what their work is all about during Sponsor Day.

The team takes part in the Society of Automotive Engineers annual international collegiate competition each year, in which students design, build and race a miniature open-wheel Indy race car. They also make a business presentation, marketing the car to the average weekend racer, and they submit a professional cost report of the entire manufacturing process.

Clemson Formula SAE has a record of outstanding performances in the competition with three top-10 finishes. Students raise funding for the team by seeking corporate sponsors and getting individual donations. For more on Clemson’s Formula SAE, visit the Web at www.ces.clemson.edu/~fsae.

‘Paws to the claws’

While in Boston for the Clemson-Boston College football game in September, 240 Tiger fans put their “paws to the claws” at a lobster bake sponsored by the Clemson Alumni Association. From left are Nancy and David Morrow, Beth and Witt Langstaff, and Rhonda Collins.

Clemson fans also made an impression with their flood of $2 bills stamped with Tiger Paws. The Boston Herald ran a story the week after the game, “Flood of Clemson orange has BC thinking green” (Sept. 13), on how Clemson showed its economic impact during the visit.

Playing for Habitat

Members of the Clemson University Marching Band (Tiger Band) put down their flutes, drums, trumpets and sheet music and picked up saws, drills and hammers to “make music” by working on a Habitat for Humanity project.

The band also performed selections from the hit Broadway musical and movie RENT— the story of people living in poverty — during the Clemson vs. UNC football game in an effort to bring awareness to the problem of homelessness and poverty in our community. For more on the University’s Habitat chapter, go to www.clemson.edu/~habitat/index.php.