Montana State University ECE Alumni

Start of summer...means some snow in the Bozeman forecast. We hope the weather is fine wherever you may be!

MSU groundskeepers take care of the plantings in the courtyard on the west side of Cobleigh Hall. For the past few years they have maintained an area with strawberry plants! The first berries of the season are starting to ripen up!

Greetings MSU ECE Alumni--
We hope all of you are well and healthy as we begin the month of June.

Campus is quiet this summer, although construction continues on the new American Indian Hall, renovation of Romney Hall, the new facilities at the football stadium, the new residence hall at 11th & College, roof work on Hamilton Hall and Hannon Hall, and many other improvement projects.

MSU recently announced a revised academic calendar for the Fall 2020 semester. Regular live-taught classes will resume two weeks early, on Monday, August 17, so that the semester can end by Thanksgiving. The calendar is one week shorter than a normal fall semester (no separate finals week), and this way our students will not have to travel home at Thanksgiving and then return to campus again. Spring 2021 classes will start on January 11, 2021.

Be well, Bobcats!

Hello MSU ECE Alumni--
As you probably know, our spring semester instruction has gone fully online. Most students are back at their home place with their families and learning via remote means on the internet.

Our biggest challenge is what to do about our labs? Lab hands-on instruction is one of the key features of our undergraduate programs, so it has been essential to figure out what to do. For many of our circuits and electronics courses, we are sending each student a USB interface "Analog Discovery 2" device that provides breadboard power, two signal generator channels, two oscilloscope channels, and some logic analyzer features. For our power lab courses, however, a lot of the "lab" instruction will have to be virtual experience for the rest of the semester.

How are you faring under the quarantine procedures of your workplace? We hope you are well and keeping up your positive attitude. We will soon be looking back on this whole episode!

MSU held the first statewide FIRST Lego League tournament in April 2006. Are any of you ECE alumni active with FLL?

MSU student gives back to youth robotics program that led her to engineering Haley Ketteler, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, arrived at studying engineering by way of participating in FIRST, an international program that organizes robotics competitions like the one MSU hosts each year.

Faculty from the ECE Department are often selected for the annual MSU campus awards, and this year THREE faculty are among the recipients! Congratulations to Prof. Brock LaMeres, Prof. Rob Maher, and Prof. Joseph Shaw.

MSU honors top faculty and staff at annual Spring Convocation ceremony Twenty-two MSU faculty and staff members will receive awards Jan. 9. The celebration will also include a lecture by professor Cathy Whitlock and a library open house.

MSU had a scary incident last night when the roof of the South Gym at the Fitness Center collapsed! Thankfully, no one was reported injured. The entire Fitness Center is currently closed while a safety investigation continues.

Great work by Prof. Kevin Repasky and his students!

MSU research could help weather forecasters improve severe storm warnings A team that includes Kevin Repasky, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has won an award for developing a low-cost tool for monitoring the atmosphere's water v***r.