College of Engineering to Display 11 Scientific Projects at Festival Following Homecoming Parade

The College of Engineering will showcase a host of scientific exhibits as part of the Colorado State University Homecoming Festival on Oct. 10.

Faculty, staff and students from the college will display 11 projects from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Homecoming Festival on the West Lawn of the Lory Student Center.

Scheduled exhibits:

-Hydraulic hybrid car, developed by mechanical engineering students, which uses a motor pump instead of an electric motor generator. The car operates similarly to gasoline-electric hybrids and is more efficient than a Prius.

-New generation fermenters for biofuel production, displayed by Prafulla Shede a post-doctoral fellow working with Professor Ken Reardon. The students will feature an immobilized cell bioreactor system that mimics a continuous stirred tank process for biofuel production.

-Wind anemometer to be displayed by Mike Kostrzewa, director of the Colorado Anemometer Loan Program. Since September 2007, Colorado State has managed the program on behalf of the Governor’s Energy Office. The 5-year-old program targets rural property owners throughout Colorado interested in using renewable energy to help power their farms, ranches, and homes, and potentially provide additional revenue. Wind anemometers allow residents to test the amount and velocity of wind on their properties to determine whether the geographical location could support full-scale wind turbines.

-Lithium-ion batteries for laptops and other applications, to be displayed by Professor V. "Mani" Manivannan and his graduate students. They’re developing new lithium-ion battery technologies for hybrid electric vehicles and other applications. This includes both new processing and material development leading to higher capacity, lower cost and safer batteries.

-Solar panels, developed by W.S. Sampath, a mechanical engineering professor who spent 16 years perfecting his solar-cell technology. He developed a continuous, automated manufacturing process for solar panels using glass coating with cadmium telluride thin film, instead of the standard high-cost crystalline silicon.

-Air pollution and measurement, displayed by Kip Carrico, research scientist in atmospheric chemistry. The informational booth will include several air quality analyzers in operation.

-Expansive soils using recycled rubber tires, developed by Antonio Carraro, assistant professor. Carraro and his students have researched whether some of Colorado’s 40 million stockpiled rubber tires can be reused to bolster residential foundations and road bases to mitigate the effects of expansive soils.

-Graywater recycling program, developed by Sybil Sharvelle and Larry Roesner, professors in the Urban Water Center. They’ll demonstrate a graywater irrigation system including a pump and filter unit that would be used on such a system.

-Hydraulics laboratory/water exhibit on scaled physical modeling of artificial substrate for white sturgeon in the Kootenai River, developed by Chris Thornton, assistant professor in civil engineering, and Amanda Cox, research associate. The white sturgeon has been listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act since 1994 and lack of appropriate spawning substrate is thought to be a primary factor responsible for the white sturgeon population recruitment failure.

-Formula Hybrid Car with a hybrid propulsion system, developed by mechanical engineering students. Formula Hybrid is a design and engineering challenge for university students with a focus on encouraging and promoting the development of high-efficiency automotive drive trains.

-Human Powered Vehicles, developed by mechanical engineering students. These aerodynamic, highly engineered "super bikes" that can be used on land, in the water or in the air. Some of the land-based vehicles have reached speeds of more than 60 mph.