August 2008

War Eagle and welcome to
eCommons, the
electronic version of
Auburn Commons.

Here's a look at what is happening this month:

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks and Professor David Bransby recently announced the Coast to Coast and Back Renewable Energy Tour.

Bransby will join Wayne Keith in his Bio-Truck, which is powered by biomass materials such as wood, switchgrass, crop residues and chicken litter. Keith, a partner in Renewable Energy Systems in Springville, Ala., has mounted a gasifier on a V8 pickup truck that travels about one mile per pound of wood and can reach 80 miles per hour.

Read the rest of this story

Auburn University awarded approximately 1,195 academic degrees at its summer commencement ceremony at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9, in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

Of the degrees Auburn awarded, 840 are bachelor's degrees, 265 are master's degrees, 86 are doctorates, two are specialist degrees and two are professional degrees (one each from the College of Veterinary Medicine and the James I. Harrison School of Pharmacy).

Read the rest of this story

With more than 10,000 athletes and 22,000-plus international journalists in Beijing, China, for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, an Auburn University biosystems engineering assistant professor has played a pivotal role in helping ensure that the foods they are served are safe.

Auburn's Yifen Wang is one of 15 food safety authorities on the Beijing Olympic Food Safety Expert Committee. This international group has been working since 2005 in establishing safety standards and setting up systems for food testing and monitoring, including a mobile laboratory.

Read the rest of this story

AU researcher wins NASA grant to study climate changes of monsoon Asia

NASA has awarded an Auburn University School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences researcher a grant of $1 million to study the monsoon climate changes of 20 countries in the portion of Asia that includes the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and China.

"This area is controlled by monsoon climate which is of crucial importance to Asia mainly because it brings the water that supports human life, plants and animals," said Hanqin Tian, an AU ecology professor and the project's principal investigator. "Land cover and land use changes are expected to have significant impact on the variability and intensity of the Asian monsoon."

Read the rest of this story

Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is now offering a curriculum in automotive engineering and manufacturing, the first of its kind in the Southeast.

To better prepare engineers for jobs in the region's growing automotive manufacturing industry, the 15 credit-hour minor will focus on vehicle quality, logistics, design and planning. This program will provide Alabama's automotive factories with much-needed employees for mid- and upper-management roles, developing the state's economy by allowing the plants to become more efficient.

Read the rest of this story

A team of researchers in Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering has produced new antimicrobial coatings with potential to prevent diseases from spreading on contaminated surfaces - possibly solving a growing problem not only in hospitals but also in schools, offices, airplanes and elsewhere.

Led by Virginia Davis, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Aleksandr Simonian, professor of materials engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Auburn researchers mixed solutions of lysozyme, a natural product with antimicrobial properties found in egg whites and human tears, with single-walled carbon nanotubes, or SWNTs, which are strong, microscopic pieces of carbon. SWNTs, at one nanometer in diameter, are a perfect cylinder of carbon and keep the lysozyme intact in the coating.

Read the rest of this story

Bicyclists will find a more welcoming environment at Auburn University over the next few years as the university implements the third stage of its transition from the traffic-clogged campus of a decade ago to a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly environment.

The rapid rise in gasoline prices is making bicycles a more attractive alternative to the automobile for short trips at Auburn and nationally. However, even before fuel costs escalated in 2008, campus planners and a university committee were developing a network of bike paths and taking other actions to make the campus more conducive to bicycle traffic.

Read the rest of this story

Members of the local community have an opportunity to help welcome students who are new not only to the Auburn University campus but also to the United States through Auburn Family Friend, a program of AU's Office of International Student Life.

Auburn Family Friend matches new international students with volunteers from the community who will help smooth the student's transition to life in America.

Read the rest of this story

Sign up for Wire Eagle -- this free news wire will keep you informed about what's happening at Auburn each week, including news and announcements our Wire Eagle subscribers are the first to hear. Visit wireeagle.auburn.edu.