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University of Tennessee TranSCEnD: Transfer Success Co-Design in Engineering Disciplines |
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Summer Transition Research Experience About TranSCEnD: A team of faculty and staff from the University of Tennessee and Pellissippi State Community College have developed a program intended to support academically, socially and financially students in the Tickle College of Engineering who have transferred from one of the community colleges in the state of Tennessee. The goal of TranSCEnD is to raise the graduation rates of engineering transfer students at UT to rates comparable to (or better than) students who enter the program as freshmen. TranSCEnD is funded through a grant from the S-STEM program awarded by the National Science Foundation. Interested community college students, planning to transfer to engineering at UTK can find out more about the TranSCEnD application process at http://www.engr.utk.edu/transcend/. Summer Transition Research Experience: An important part of the TranSCEnD program is building a cohort between transfer students prior to the formal start of their classes at UTK. The photos on this page document the summer transition research experience for the 2019 TranSCEnD cohort.
 The College of Engineering volunteered the use of its makerspace for the 2019 build.  Dr. Chris Wetteland was one of the team leaders who designed the research project, building a solar-powered hot water system for outdoor sinks.  Rob Frick of UT facility services lended his expertise through-out the three days.   Satyam and Dakota work on the sinks. Dr. Retherford made sure they were compliant with the American with Disabilities Act.  Forrest Davenport (UT Mechanical Engineering) was one of several members of the 2018 TranSCEnD cohort who came to help with the project.  Tan and Matt study the instruction manual for the thermal control system.  There was a lot of opportunity to solder copper pipes.   For many this was their first opportunity to "sweat pipes".  Calibrating the industrial-strength blow dryer.     Over a pizza lunch, Bernadette Cladek, a doctoral candidate in the Materials Science & Engineering Department talked about her experiences performing research on carbon-neutral natural gas system using both the Spallation Neutron Source and the High Performance Computing Facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  The team tested the system for leaks. Disappointing, they discovered a manufacturing defect in one of the two water heaters. Fortunately, they had built redundancy into the system and the second tank functioned normally.   Tori Villella (UT Civil Engineering, left), Abhi Mistry (UT Aerospace Engineering, right), Serena Beauchamp (Materials Science & Engineering, not pictured) & Michael Thompson (Materials Science & Engineering, not pictured) are members of the 2018 TranSCEnD cohort, who joined Prof. McCord & Forrest for the experience.  They rolled the system outside to make test it.  We had a final gathering to discuss lessons learned.  Dr. Wetteland waxes eloquent over the makeshift lectern.  We look forward to the opportunity to put this solar-powered hot water system into use. Look for it at the TCE Professional Practice Cookout on August 30, 2019...  The solar-powered hot water system was first deployed at the Tickle College of Engineering Professional Practice Cookout in the Engineering Quad on Friday, August 30, 2019. The line of people waiting for BBQ conveniently led past the hand-washing station.  Dr. Chris Wetteland (UTK MSE) called folks over to test it out.  One student declared this to be the greatest hand-washing experience of his life!  Here students are joined by several staff and faculty members of the TranSCEnD team, including (from left to right):
Send additional queries regarding TranSCEnD to David Keffer. More photos on the Keffer research group site.
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