Undergraduate Research

College Research Mission          EURP

Below are our Fall 2009 undergraduate researchers. The students featured on this page are just a few out of the 100 students currently doing undergraduate research at Utah State.  


Devin StokerDevin Stoker
Major:  Civil Engineering
Mentor:  Steven L. Barfuss, CEE   
Devin is looking at the possibilities  has been helping the Utah Department of Transportation develop a prioritized database of all culverts through which fish passage is desired since July 2008.  He has worked with several agencies including the Division of Wildlife Resources as well as several National Forest groups.  read more...


Ashleigh RestadAshleigh Restad
Major:  Environmental Engineering
Mentor:  Dr. R. Ryan Dupont, CEE  
Ashleigh is in charge of a project investigating the effectiveness of deep installation septic systems.  She is collecting field data for a two-year project to determine if septic systems in Utah homes are treating wastewater  effectively.  She is a founding member of the USU chapter of Engineers Without Borders in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.  Ashleigh was name the 2009 Undergraduate Researcher of the Year for the College of Engineering.


Travis HollingsheadTravis Hollingshead
Major: 
Civil Engineering
Mentor:  Dr. Blake Tullis, CEE
Travis is doing research for the Utah Department of Transportation at the UWRL.  He is looking at the different technologies available for repairing or rehabilitating deteriorated culverts.  more...


Gregory RichardsGregory L. Richards
Major: 
Civil Engineering
Mentor:  Dr. Michael Johnson, CEE
Gregory is looking at the possibilities of metering secondary irrigation water using filtration and innovative meter designs.  He has already published one paper on his undergraduate research.  research images...1    4


Martilyn NeilsenMartilyn A. Neilsen
Major: 
Civil Engineering
Mentor:  Dr. Steven L. Barfuss, CEE
Martilyn works at the UWRL on a project dealing with the accuracy of residential water meters.  She says, "With new types of meters being created, there is need for this study, which will compare the new metering methods with the older methods."  Pulled meters from various water utilities around the U.S. were tested against meters right off the shelf.  Martilyn estimates they have tested over 500 meters so far, and she has started to write a journal paper on her research.


Jamie WilsonJamie Wilson
Major: 
Mechanical Engineering
Mentor:  Dr. David Geller, MAE
Jamie is currently working with Dr. Geller on animating a few space-related projects using a software package called Satellite Toolkit (STK).  Jamie is assisting graduate student, Dan Christensen, with his Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.  ALHAT will be used on Altair, the next manned mission to the moon.  In order to see how Altair will look as it begins landing on the lunar surface, Jamie made a movie of Altair's descent using Dan's data.  He says, "Using this movie, we can then begin to determine the best way to communicate with Altair, either by using ground beacons or an orbiting satellite."  Altair movie...


For more information, contact one of the following:

  • BIE: Dr. Anhong Zhou, email

  • CEE: Dr. Laurie McNeill email

  • ECE: Dr. Scott Budge email

  • ETE: Dr. Oenardi Lawanto email

  • MAE: Dr. Barton Smith email     

       

    Related Links

    Utah State University Research Office

    Undergraduate Research Fellows Program website