Membership Committee did a
solid job of vetting potential nominees, and presenting
them to the Board for approval. In addition, fruitful
discussions about Fund Raising, Constitution, and By-
Laws have been conducted.
In summation, I am quite pleased with the energy and
increased involvement I am seeing from the AAME
membership. All you have to do is walk around the building to see the impact we are
having, and the response and comments I get from students
and faculty are all positive.
These are fun and exciting
times at the U of A and I encourage all members to stay
involved and be a part of the
department’s evolution.
- Bob Harrison
Fellow AAME Members,
One of the tasks of the
President of AAME is to monitor and report to the
membership on the condition of the
Organization. It is my pleasure to report that the status of the Arkansas
Academy of Mechanical Engineering is good, and
that we have returned to a more normal financial
position. This was due in a large part to the efforts of
Zane Boatright at end of his Presidential term. In
addition, the energy level appears to be growing and
the influence of AAME within the department is
expanding.
Since the last newsletter release, we have established the Student Liaison
Committee within AAME. This group is being
organized and led by Will Myers and Keith Bradshaw.
They will work closely with Rick Couvillion, offering
assistance and support activities for the students
and faculty. These activities could include items such as:
conducting mock interviews and critiquing of resumes;
judging competitions; guest speakers / lecturers; review
and consulting on designs
President’s Corner for creative projects. From
my discussions with several of the faculty members, I am
convinced that the work borne out of this committee
will be highly beneficial to the students as well as the
faculty. Lastly, I have been impressed with the initial work that Will and Keith
have done organizing this group, and I am convinced
that this committee could become one of our hallmark
efforts in support of our
mission at the U of A.
The development of the
CDIO rooms at the department continues to
progress. The layout of the Collaborative Space and the
Virtual Machine Shop are quite impressive, with
furnishings and equipment that make the rooms very flexible. In addition, the
renovation of the atrium with new furnishings is
progressing, and will be a welcome improvement for
students and faculty, as well as enhancing the first
impression visitors get when
they walk into the building.
Other areas of progress
include Mac Hogan and his team developing our social
media platforms and blogs (see back panel for more
information). Zane Boatright presented an initial draft of the AAME
procedures manual. The
F R O M T H E
E D I T O R :
We would appreciate
your input and
contribution to this
publication to make it
more interesting for
all, so please submit
articles/topics for
inclusion. Authors of
articles will be given
proper accolades.
We also would love
to publicize what our
members are doing
for the profession.
Please e-mail these to
rrasnic@ryan-
engineering.com.
The newsletter is
published quarterly.
- Russ Rasnic
A R K A N S A S A C A D E M Y
O F M E C H A N I C A L
E N G I N E E R I N G
A University of Arkansas Alumni Association
AAME Headlines Promoting & Supporting the Mechanical Engineer
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3
S P E C I A L
P O I N T S O F
I N T E R E S T :
President’s
Update
Board Member
Spotlight—
Frank Porbeck
January
Meeting Details
Faculty
Spotlight—
Paul Millett
Outstanding
Student
Banquet
Photos
P A G E 2
Board Member Spotlight Inducted into the Academy in 1995, Frank Porbeck
serves on the Board of Directors as the Chair of
the Finance Committee. We asked Frank to tell us
a little more about himself and here’s what he had
to say:
ME: What’s your current profession?
FP: I am the president and owner of Porbeck
Engineering Corporation. Founded in 1986, the
company has 14 employees, including my wife and 7
engineers, and provides mechanical and electrical
consulting engineering services to primarily
industrial and manufacturing companies.
ME: Tell us about your background.
FP: I was born in Little Rock, attended Little Rock
Catholic High School and the UA, receiving a BSME
in 1974. My parents owned Porbeck Printing
Company, a commercial printing business started
by my grandfather. My 2 brothers and I worked at
the family business from the time we were children
until we graduated from college. Upon graduation
from UA, I went to work for International Paper
Company in the Camden, AR. A paper mill is an
excellent place to further a ME education. Within
one plant I found a power plant with steam-turbine
generators, high-speed rotating equipment, large
electric and turbine drives, sophisticated controls,
a chemical plant, tank farms, steam and condensate
piping systems, pumps and piping everywhere,
material handling conveyors and drag chains, and
process water and waste treatment. Here I
developed my interests in industrial/process
engineering work which is now the main business
of Porbeck Engineering.
ME: How did you meet
your spouse?
FP: We were in high
school and after a back-to-
school dance, I noticed,
with my keen eye, a car full
of girls leaving the parking
lot. I convinced them to
tell me where they were
going and met them at the
pizza parlor. I picked Paula out as the best looking
of the group and
impressed her
enough that she
introduced me to
her friend.
Disappointed, I
persisted and
won her away
from Larry, who I
presume is still
pining. It still
excites me to say
that I married a teenager…41 years ago.
ME: If you could invite anyone in the world (living
or dead) to dinner, who would it be and why?
FP: Among my relatives, I would invite my
grandfather who, as a teenager, immigrated from
Czechoslovakia and years later, during the
depression, bought and operated a rice farm in
Hazen, Arkansas. He died when I was a young
teenager with no real understanding of his
achievements. Among public figures, there are a
few things I would like to say to Barack Obama.
ME: What do you find yourself doing that you said
you would “never” do?
FP: OMG, Texting…LOL.
ME: What’s been your biggest challenge as an
engineer?
FP: Money. This form of scorekeeping is
overrated. Whether it is client budgets,
employee’s salaries, running a small business, or
earning enough, the money tries and often manages
to take priority over more important things. Think
how much more productively our time would be
spent working on designs rather than counting the
dollars.
ME: What do you consider your greatest
accomplishment?
FP: At the risk of sounding too corny, my greatest
accomplishment is being a part of raising a
wonderful family. My two daughters and their
families live in Little Rock and we enjoy daily
contact with them. They are good girls who chose
good husbands and are raising great kids.
Fra
nk
Porb
eck
, B
SM
E 1
97
4
Frank and wife, Paula
Frank and Grandsons
its first year on campus, so we kind of tagged
along with UA Chi Alpha. They had made a
10 year commitment to start campus
ministries in Bolivia, and this was their 8th
year. Anyway Jordan, his best friend, and I
ended up going to the same city when our
group split up. The three of us got to know
each other and when we came back to the
states, Jordan and I just hit it off! We got
married May 4, 2013, and I can’t imagine life
being any other way!
ME: What’s one thing that would surprise
others about you?
MS: I’m kind of a geek at heart. I love all
things Dr. Who and Star Wars, and I love
learning about Greek mythology and history.
ME: What do you do in your spare time?
MS: We have a golden retriever, Zeus,
which we take to the dog park as often as
we can. I love to spend time with either of
our families. I think my favorite pastime
would be watching a show with my husband,
though!
- Melynda Hart, ME
years before marrying Jordan Smith in
May 2013. I’m the middle child of
three girls and I have two beautiful
nieces. I’ve never lived quite so far
from my family and I must say it’s
difficult not being able to go see them
for a day without driving six hours
roundtrip.
ME: What did you tell your parents
you were going to be when you grew
up?
MS: I actually wanted to be a
Forensic Scientist when I was in Jr
high, I always told my parents that’s
what I was going to be. I watched the
shows (NCIS, CSI, etc.) so that was
what sparked my interest. When I
started college, I realized it was not
for me, though!
ME: How did you meet your spouse?
MS: My favorite! I met my husband
Jordan in May 2012 on a mission trip
with Chi Alpha Campus Ministry to
Bolivia. The Chi Alpha at ASU was in
ME Welcomes New Staff P A G E 3 P R O M O T I N G & S U P P O R T I N G T H E M E C H A N I C A L E N G I N E E R
In September, ME welcomed a new staff member, Morgan Smith, to
our team. Morgan will primarily assist with ABET and AAME
related activities, but we’re certain we can find plenty to keep her
busy!
We asked Morgan to tell us a little about herself and here’s what we
discovered.
ME: Tell us about your background.
MS: I was born and raised in Searcy,
AR; I went to college at ASU
Jonesboro for about two and a half
The winter board meeting will be
held in Little Rock, Arkansas on Friday, January 17, 2014. The
meeting will begin between 1-1:30
PM; details regarding location and time will be distributed closer to the
meeting date.
Prior to the meeting, Bob has coordinated a 2-hour guided tour of
the Caterpillar facility in North Little Rock. This facility is the world
-wide provider of multiple Caterpillar models, including the
January Board Meeting Announcement 14M and 16M models. The tour
will begin at 10:00 AM, so please
arrive at the facility no later than 9:45 AM. After the tour, lunch will
provided by Corky’s BBQ. Please wear safety shoes or full, leather
shoes that cover the entire foot. Additionally, no handbags, brief
cases, cameras, jewelry, etc. are allowed on the production floor.
Dean English plans to join AAME for this wonderful opportunity and we
hope you will make plans to do the same!
Prior to the meeting, the agenda and other relevant information will be
distributed to the entire membership for review and
consideration. If you have any questions on these items, contact
one of your board members and they can address any items you may have. For those wishing to attend
via teleconference, please dial
888.330.1716 and enter access code
1429139.
If you need additional information
about the Caterpillar tour or board meeting, please contact Bob
Harrison at [email protected].
Morgan and husband, Jordan.
P A G E 4
Dr. Paul Millett joined the ME
faculty in the fall of 2013. As a
College of Engineering alum and
son of a Distinguished Professor in
Chemistry, Paul has been part of
the UA family for most of his life
and the department is thrilled to
welcome him home.
ME: Tell us about your
background.
PM: I was born and raised in
Fayetteville, AR, although most of
my adult life I’ve lived outside of
the state of Arkansas, primarily in
Tennessee and Idaho. In terms of
my professional background, my
undergraduate and graduate
degrees are in Civil Engineering,
however this is rather misleading
because my research and
professional activities during the
last decade fall under the category
of Materials Science.
ME: Before coming to the UA,
what were you doing?
PM: Before starting my academic
career at the UA, I was a research
scientist at the Idaho National
Laboratory (INL), located in Idaho
Falls, Idaho. The INL is a US Dept.
o f E n e r g y r e s e a r ch a n d
development lab with a particular
mission of advancing nuclear energy
and nuclear energy-related
technologies. My research there
focused on understanding how the
properties of materials and nuclear
fuels inside reactor cores change
over time due to the sustained high
temperatures and radiation fields.
Such environments can dramatically
change material properties in
complex ways.
ME: Where do you consider
“home?”
Northwest Arkansas has
always felt like home to me,
and my wife and I are delighted
to be back in this area close to
our families. That being said,
we do miss many things about
our lives in Idaho, mostly the
wonderful friends we made
there. There’s always a
transition when moving to a
new place, even if that place is
where you grew up!
ME: What did you tell your
parents you were going to be
when you grew up?
PM: It’s funny, but I don’t have
strong memories during my
childhood of aspiring to enter
one particular career or
another. I had a very happy
childhood, and I think I was in
no rush to think about the
future back then.
ME: How did you meet your
spouse?
My wife and I met in a bar on
Dickson Street in Fayetteville,
although we may edit that
story as our daughter gets old
enough to ask such questions!
ME: What’s been the biggest
challenge transitioning to an
academic environment ?
PM: The biggest challenge for
me has been learning how to
most effectively and efficiently
prepare myself for class
lectures. I’ve forced myself to
take a trial-and-error approach
in terms of how to present
material to students, which at
times was nerve-racking, but I
Faculty Spotlight think that
p r o c e s s
has really
helped me
understand
my overall
t e a c h i n g
strategy in
terms of
w h a t
s t u d e n t s
respond to
best. It’s clear to me that
improving teaching skills can be a
lifetime endeavor, which to me is
exciting.
ME: What do you do in your
spare time?
PM: My spare time has somehow
dramatically decreased in the last
year. I think it has something to
do with becoming a tenure-track
professor and the birth of our first
child. In those rare periods when
I do have spare time, I enjoy doing
physical activities including
running, swimming, woodworking,
golf, and camping. Also, spending
time with my extended family is
now really easy since we’ve moved
back to Arkansas.
ME: If you could invite anyone in
the world (living or dead) to
dinner, who would it be and why?
PM: I think I would like to invite
two people, both of my
grandfathers. They were both
great people, but I didn’t know
them when I was an adult (both
passed away), and I think it would
be really fun to be able to show
them what I’m doing with my life,
and learn more about their lives
when they were my age.
A A M E H E A D L I N E S
Dr.
Pau
l M
ille
tt
P A G E 5 P R O M O T I N G & S U P P O R T I N G T H E M E C H A N I C A L E N G I N E E R
ME News The CDIO Committee has finalized its
recommendations on equipment for
the new Virtual Machine Shop, the
equipment and furnishings are on
order, and the installation should take
place right before the start of Spring
classes in January. We can’t wait to
have AAME visit and see the new
space!
A project 30 years in the making, the
new layout and design for the student
atrium is finally a reality! The furniture
will be ready for the students when
they arrive back from the holidays; we
are all incredibly excited!
As many of you know, the 2014 North
American Regional Conference of
CDIO will be held on the University
of Arkansas campus from March 10-11.
This will be a great opportunity for us
to gain insights from other
universities regarding their “best
practices” and “lessons learned”
while implementing the new style of
curriculum. We are very honored
to be selected to host this meeting,
as the newest member of the CDIO
organization.
The department hosted its 2nd
annual Outstanding Student Banquet
on November 13 and were very
fortunate to have several AAME
members there to help celebrate
with us and our wonderful students.
75 juniors and seniors were selected
as honorees and they are all
incredible students with very bright
futures.
Special thanks to Bob Harrison,
Russ Rasnic, Will Myers, Keith
Bradshaw, and Mike & Susan Hays
for joining us for the event.
This was a great opportunity for the
newly implemented Student Liaison
Committee to interact with our
students. Keith Bradshaw, committee
member, commented, “My impression
of the students I spoke with was that they
reminded me of what I was like at that
age—just a little uncomfortable talking
with older guys out in industry. They're
around the professors on a daily basis and
seem quite comfortable with them, but
just aren't sure how to act or what they're
supposed to say around the rest of us. No
doubt they open up and speak more
freely after some interaction, which only
confirms to me that our mission of just
being around them more will influence
them in positive ways.”
It’s an exciting time here in ME and
we’re looking forward to so many
wonderful things in the spring
semester!
- Melynda Hart, ME
Scenes from the 2013 Outstanding Student Banquet
Left: Some ME
Outstanding
Students
Right: Keith
Bradshaw, Rick
Couvillion, Uche
Wejinya, Mike &
Susan Hays,
David Jensen
Left: Bob
Harrison Shares
Words of
Wisdom
Right:
Excited Seniors!
P A G E 6
With the departure of Electrical
Engineering Professor, Scott
Smith, Mechanical Engineering
Assistant Professor Dr. Uche
Wejinya has taken over as
faculty advisor for the NASA
Robotics Mining Team. The
Space Hawgs are delighted to
be led by Wejinya for the 2013-
2014 competition period and
beyond. Dr. Wejinya brings his
extensive experience in
Robotics and Controls to this
project and his leadership will
be tremendous in keeping this
program in ME department.
The department is also
delighted to have this national
visibility program housed in the
Department of Mechanical
Engineering.
This year’s multi-disciplinary
team features 16 graduate and
undergraduate students from
the departments of Mechanical,
Electrical, and Computer
Science Computer Engineering
at the University of Arkansas.
The team’s primary objective
for the 2013 – 2014
competition year is to replace
the current frontend loader
system with a variation of the
common bucket dredge for the
excavation of NASA’s basaltic
regolith simulant, Black-Point 1.
This new system will be able to
provide signal feedback to a
Field Programmable Gate Array
(FPGA), controlling motor
speed and linear actuation. In
addition, the Space Hawgs have
high hopes of replacing the
current tele-robotic operating
system with one of autonomous
capabilities, using image
processing and computer vision.
For those unfamiliar with the
annual NASA Robotics Mining
Competition, it is a university-
based, national level
competition in which 50
interdisciplinary US teams,
comprised of graduate and
undergraduate students, are
challenged to design and
implement a robotic solution to
a celestial body excavation. Each
team is graded on their robot’s
mass, power consumption,
average
bandwidth, and
the mass of
collected regolith.
The competition is
held, annually at
the Kennedy
A Change in Management
Space Center in Florida
from May 19th to 23rd.
The 2014 Space Hawgs
thank the department and
AAME for their moral and
financial support.
For more information on
this team and project,
contact [email protected].
A A M E H E A D L I N E S
Cre
ati
ve
Pro
ject
Sp
otl
igh
t: N
AS
A R
ob
oti
cs M
inin
g T
eam
P A G E 7
Mike Hays & Frank Porbeck
presented AAME’s financial
report at October’s
meet in g & member
contribut ions a lready
slightly exceeded the
budgeted amount of
$30,000.
The Board recommended
to transfer $14,500 for ME
Special Projects and
$15,000 for scholarships to
be awarded in 2014.
If you have any questions
regarding contributions,
please contact Mike Hays at
479.521.9749.
Farewell, Mother Hen After eight years of dedicated service, Debbie Haynes has decided to
leave the department and begin a new adventure. Effective December 9, Debbie will move to Shreveport to be a full-time grandmother to
beautiful granddaughter, Lily.
During her eight years, Debbie has had many responsibilities, but none
are more dearly remembered than her role of “Mother Hen” to generations of young engineers, faculty and staff, alike. ME students talk
about Debbie and remember her fondly for years after graduation and often one of the first things an alum will ask is, “How is Miss Haynes
doing?”
The department wishes Debbie and her family the absolute best of luck
with this new chapter in her life. We will miss her incredibly, but
understand we have to share her with her “real” family!
Financial Report
P R O M O T I N G & S U P P O R T I N G T H E M E C H A N I C A L E N G I N E E R
204 Mechanical Engineering Building
College of Engineering
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201
Phone: 479.575.4153
Fax: 479.575.6982
E-mail: [email protected]
Mission of the Arkansas Academy of
Mechanical Engineering
To promote and support the mechanical
engineering profession, to honor the Mechanical
Engineer and to work with the University of
Arkansas Department of Mechanical Engineering
to increase the appeal of Mechanical Engineering
and further the educational development of
future engineers.
2013-2014 Board & Committee Chairs: Bob Harrison, President Russ Rasnic, President-Elect/Publicity Zane Boatright, Past President Cristine Wolf, Secretary
Mike Hays, Treasurer Lamar Pettus, Honorary Advisor Keith Bradshaw Paul Ford Mac Hogan Jack Murders
Helmut Wolf Larry Young Bob Norwood, Membership Frank Porbeck, Finance Bill Green, Conduct/Bylaws Chris Weiser, Fundraising
Rick Couvillion, Awards
Arkansas Academy
of Mechanical Engineering
Social Media Thanks to the efforts of Mac Hogan & Paul Ford, we are thrilled to announce our
new presence in the social media world!
The Department of Mechanical Engineering has launched a blog, Facebook page, and Twitter stream, and we would
love for you to participate in the conversation! And because we truly want it to be an ongoing conversation, we
encourage you to share your news. How have you used your mechanical engineering degree?
Please keep us updated on your accomplishments, including career developments, research projects, and honors
received. In addition to these social media outlets, we are stepping up our media relations efforts – reaching out to
academic journals and general news publications alike so that those outside the Department may gain a better
understanding of all the exciting ways Mechanical Engineers contribute to our world.
You may follow along and keep up with the latest news here:
meeg.uark.edu/
facebook.com/uarkmechengineering
twitter.com/uarkmecheng
Please take a few moments to “like” our Facebook page, follow our Twitter feed, and comment on our blog. To
submit your news, please email Melynda at [email protected].
www.meeg.uark.edu/aame
Promoting & Supporting the Mechanical Engineer