Calvin College

News & Events

Studies in the Netherlands – a new off-campus semester

Calvin College hopes to offer a new off-campus semester program in the Netherlands starting in the spring semester of 2010. This program is specifically designed to accommodate the special needs of many science and engineering students. Final approval of this program is expected at the May Faculty Senate meeting.

The program will be offered at the Free University of Amsterdam. Students will take a new Calvin taught course called Toward Environmental Sustainability in the Netherlands: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Practices. Students will also take science and humanities courses taught in English at the Free University. For engineering students, the program is designed to be taken in the second year.

For more information, see the program's website.

If you have any questions, see Professor Hoeksema.

Engineering Seminars

There are several upcoming seminars that are being sponsored by the Engineering Department. Engineering students can apply their attendance to Engineering 294/394. The rest of the Calvin community and the general public is always welcome to attend.

Fall 2008 seminar schedule

Cardboard Canoe Contest

The annual Cardboard Canoe Contest has been moved to 2:00 p.m on Saturday, Oct. 27. Get a team together and build that boat!! See one of the ASCE Officers for details on how to enter. Nathan Verseput, Becca Sheler, Kyle Engbers or Justin Boldt.
See story on last years race.

First-year Engineering Student Ice Cream Social

There will be an Ice Cream Social on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 9:00 p.m. in the Engineering Building for all first-year Engineering students. If you are a freshman, transfer student or just changed your major to Engineering this is for you. Come and learn first-hand about all the opportunities the Engineering program has. Everything from Internships to international opportunties will be discussed. Meet the faculty involved in each program and get to know your fellow engineering students over some ice cream.

Faculty Honors

The Engineering faculty at Calvin are a very distinguished group. Throughout their years in industry, they have gained a large number of patents and national recognition. They have also been given research grants and have received awards. Read more about the most recent faculty news.

Calvin's seniors put projects on display

Throughout the year, the Calvin Engineering senior students have been hard at work creating their senior design projects. May 3, 2008 was 24th Annual Senior Design Night where the seniors got to put their diligent work on display. "It was a chance to explain to other people what we have been up to all year,” said civil and environmental engineering student Jon Cooper, “and express the pride we have taken in our projects.” Read more about the Senior Design Night.

NASA Administrator Visits Calvin

Picture taken by January Series photographer, David Dornbos.

Dr. Michael Griffin, the NASA Administrator, visited Calvin on January 17, 2008 as part of the January Series. During the morning he took some time to visit with a room full of Engineering and science students in SB010 for a question and answer session. Dr. Griffin noted that one of the things he enjoys most about his job is to meet young people pursuing math, engineering and the sciences.

Later in the day, Dr. Griffin gave a talk at the January Series entitled "American Competitiveness: NASA's Role and Everyone's Responsibility". Professor Randy Brouwer had the honor of introducing Administrator Griffin. The two of them first met while Dr. Brouwer served as an IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow in Washington D.C. in 2005.

It was a unique and wonderful opportunity to have the NASA Administrator visit Calvin College. The large crowd appreciated his comments and insights.

Engineering Students Earn Prestigious Fellowships

Two Calvin College engineering students are among 15 students around the nation to win prestigious research fellowships from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Senior Corinne Kluge and junior Val Horstman, both engineering majors with a civil and environmental concentration, each received two-year undergraduate fellowships from the EPA’s Greater Research Opportunities (GRO) program.

Horstman and Kluge are working with Professor Wunder researching how antibiotics interact with biologically active filtration systems used for drinking water treatment in numerous regions worldwide. Common antibiotics, Horstman explained, which are used to treat cattle as well as humans, don’t entirely break down when they enter wastewater and then the environment.

"I was pleasantly surprised, but at the same time I knew they were both the kind of student that this program was looking for,” says Professor Wunder. “They both are gifted and highly focused students who are passionate and professionally focused on caring for creation in their work as engineers. Frankly,” he added, “I couldn’t do what I’m doing without both of them.”

For full story, Click Here.

Interim Class Collaborates on Several Green Projects

Professor Paulo Ribeiro, fresh from his sabbatical leave, has once again motivated students to apply what they are learning to the real world. The course, Electrical Power and Energy Systems Management Systems, introduced students to real world problems. Besides learning the analytical basis of power and energy systems and the consequent environmental impact, and using professional stat-of-the-art computational tools, the students worked on several real life projects in the Grand Rapids area.

Among the projects, prearranged by the instructor to give the students a real world experience, were:

A Feasibility Study for Wind Power Generation at Belknap Lookout. This project is being developed with the support of the Newberry Co-Housing Community,

A Feasibility Study for the Recovery of a Small Hydro Power Station at the City of Plainwell, Michigan. This project is being developed with the support of the City of Plainwell. To read more about this project go to http://www.allegannews.com/articles/2008/02/14/ue_news/4.txt

Other projects include Learning about Grid Operations with the support of Consumers Energy, analytical studies regarding Distributed Generation and Micro-Grids, and Nuclear Power Assessment.

Students visited the sites, talked to managers and engineers and collected the data necessary to produce the analyses. Since the studies may take longer than the class period the projects will be extended to the end of the summer. The reality however is that the students will be exposed and attempt to solve real world power and energy engineering problems.

Look for this poster in the hall outside Prof. Ribeiro's Office for a summary of what took place.

Contest Turns Students into Entrepreneurs

For the three teams of students that made it to the final round of Calvin’s first bizPlan competition, presenting a full business plan before a panel of six judges was a valuable exercise in what works and what doesn't in the business world. full story

Aspiring Engineer Assists in Fight vs Measles

Plastic and thin cardboard were among the few materials junior engineering major Sarah Evans had to work with at her summer 2007 internship. Yet the product she worked on has the potential to save thousands of children who might otherwise die of measles.

For full story, Click here.

Engineering Students find success in Calvin Athletics

A wide range of college experiences contribute to a student's success and three Engineering students have been featured in "KIGHTFILE" over the past year for their talents and athletic successes.

A graduate of Wheaton Warrenville South High School in Wheaton, Ill., Keith Conrad came to Calvin through the tip of a neighbor. “I had a neighbor who graduated from Calvin and highly recommended that I come here,” Conrad said. “I was also looking for a Christian school with an engineering program and a Division III swim team. Calvin was one of the few places that met all three of those requirements.” At Calvin, Conrad has thrived, majoring in engineering while serving as a key contributor on the Calvin men’s swim team. As a student, Conrad has already designed an audio amplifier and would like to build and design audio electronic equipment in his postgraduate career. More of this article can be found through this Knightfile link.
When she joined the Calvin College women's cross country team, Christina Overbeck did not know what to expect. She came to Calvin having never run cross country competitively. Soccer was her sport during the fall athletic seasons at Bellevue Christian, outside of Seattle, Wash. — but it was then that she began to get a taste for running distances. “My soccer coach told me I had to run track,” Overbeck said. “He said if we wanted to be starters on the soccer team that we had to run track in the spring, so I did. I never thought about it much; I just did what he told me to do.” More of this article can be found through this Knightfile link.
Spending four years playing basketball for Calvin, along with competing on the track team, Eric DeVries states, "Sports give you the chance to develop skills that other people might not have the opportunity to develop. Time management and teamwork are skills that employers look for and are skills that sports give you the opportunity to learn." More of this article can be found through this Knightfile link.
As a four-year member of the men's swimming team, Peter Tuuk can now sit back and reflect on his time spent at Calvin. "I've built great relationships, and Calvin has offered a great balance between swimming and academics," claims Tuuk. To read more about Peter's experience at Calvin, follow this Knightfile link.

Making A Difference Through Engineering

Complete information and more details »

Prof. Hoeksema Recieves ASCE Award

A Calvin College professor of engineering has been honored by the American Society of Civil Engineers as the 2008 recipient of the ASCE Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award.

Robert Hoeksema was selected for the award for his book Designed for Dry Feet: Flood Protection and Land Reclamation in the Netherlands which the ASCE said "enriched the heritage of engineers everywhere by linking one of the world's great civil engineering achievements to the history of The Netherlands."

Hoeksema's book was on the landscape of the Netherlands and how that country used and developed technologies over many centuries to create and maintain usable dry land in a very inhospitable environment.
For full story, Click Here.

Prof. Brouwer receives KEEN Grant

The Engineering Dept. is pleased to announce that the diligent work of Randy Brouwer has procured a $50K KEEN grant (Kern Entrepreneurship Education Initiative) supported by the Kern Family Foundation and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). This grant will help to foster increased entrepreneurship and thus is also an excellent complement to Calvin's new Enterprise Center

Calvin Engineering Professor wins NSF Grant

Congratulation to Professor Paulo Ribeiro! He has just been awarded an NSF grant totaling $450,000. He is the co-principal investigator on a proposal titled "A Holistic Approach to Customer-Driven Microgrids." The grant comes from the NSF Power, Controls and Adaptive Networks: Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), Directorate for Engineering. He will be doing this research as part of his externship at the Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS), Florida State University.

Other News

Engineers Design Prize Winning Vehicle

Alternative Energy Project Gets the Attention of Michigan Governor, Jennifer Granholm

Engineering