College of Engineering & Mines

Backed with millions of dollars in funding, impactful research initiatives at the College of Engineering & Mines take center stage in this issue of UND ENGINEERING, along with the announcement of the highly-anticipated National Security Corridor, coming soon to the first floor of Harrington Hall.

And you thought the crusty ice in your freezer was old. A UND geologist has ice in his freezer that’s potentially up to 5 million years old — which likely makes it some of the oldest ice ever discovered on the planet. Jaakko Putkonen, associate professor of geology at UND’s Harold Hamm School of Geology & Geological Engineering, doesn’t actually store that ancient ice in his home freezer. Rather, it’s safe and sound in a commercial freezer at the Energy & Environmental Research Center on the east side of campus. It comes out only occasionally if he needs to thaw out a chunk to get at the sand and dirt particles inside, in which case, he temporarily stores it in a small, office freezer.

Once upon a time, automotive security involved locking the door and taking the keys. But these days, there’s a reason why that statement sounds like the first line of a fairy tale.

A team from the University of North Dakota College of Engineering & Mines visited New Town, N.D., in early November to introduce a geothermal energy project to the community. The event in the Northern Lights Community Building was meant to raise awareness about geothermal district energy generation, as well as provide a forum for discussion among local leaders to consider renewable energy sources.

Over a period of five years until 2021, Jaakko Putkonen, associate professor of geology at UND’s Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering, spent months at a time doing field work in the tundra in Spitsbergen, in northern Norway. His goal: studying the effects of the warming climate on permafrost and reindeer.

16th Annual UAS Summit & Expo draws nation’s best and brightest in UAS, space technology.

On October 8th, the 2022 North Dakota Biomedical Engineering Symposium was held at UND Center for Innovation. This symposium started five years ago to promote the joint Biomedical Engineering programs at UND and NDSU, strengthening the collaborations among faculty, students, and industries. Providing new opportunities to broaden relationships, the event cultivates the development of BME collaborative research projects and proposals that require interdisciplinary participation, especially from industry.

The College of Engineering & Mines celebrated the achievements of three alums during the annual Alumni Academy Induction Ceremony. Hosted in the Memorial Union, family, friends, and colleagues gathered to celebrate the induction into the Academy, the highest honor bestowed by the College of Engineering & Mines to alums. This year’s group of inductees include Scott Boe (Electrical Engineering, ’83), Kristine H. Brindle (Chemical Engineering, ’78) and Leslie R. Honeyman (Geology, ’69, ’78, posthumously).

Sattar Dorafshan, assistant professor of civil engineering at UND, has been awarded multiple research grants in recent months from the North Dakota Department of Transportation, as well as an award from the Federal Railroad Administration.

Research may benefit not only clean energy production and carbon storage, but also agriculture.