Alternative Energy

MAESC 2007 Proceedings

Abstract

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE


               Kai-Fong Lee

On behalf of the Organizing Committee and the School of Engineering of The University of Mississippi, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2007 Mid-South Area Engineering and Science Conference. To our friends outside Oxford, I extend a special welcome. Oxford is the cultural center of Northern Mississippi and home-town of novelists William Faulkner and John Grisham.

For eight years, MAESC was hosted by Christian Brothers University in Memphis. The intent of this conference is to bring together engineers and scientists to share their knowledge and to discuss the current issues in science, technology, and engineering. The scope is broad, and for this reason is somewhat unique among present day conferences, which tend to be focused on special areas.

While keeping the theme of the Conference, this year’s MAESC departs from previous ones in several ways. First, the letter “M†stands for Mid-South rather than Memphis. Second, it is a two-day rather than a one-day event. Third, we offer prizes for the best three student papers selected by a Committee.

The Technical Program Committee, under the leadership of Professors Atef Elsherbeni and Alexander Cheng, has assembled an interesting and informative program of some 200 papers, covering a wide range of topics, making this the largest MAESC ever. It is hoped that the Conference will stimulate interdisciplinary collaborations in research.

The success of this Conference relies on the dedication and efforts of numerous people. In particular, Professor Elsherbeni and his assistants, Matthew Inman and Mohamed Al Sharkawy, have devoted countless hours to every aspect of the Conference. Their contributions are too numerous to delineate here. I would simply say that, without them, this Conference would have not been possible.

We would like to express our thanks to the session organizers, student paper competition committee members, session chairs, and to our sponsors: The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs of The University of Mississippi, FedEx, Diversified Technology Inc., Raytheon, FMC Technologies, ETS Lindgren, and the Geotechnical and Structural Laboratory of the Engineering Research and Development Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Oxford.

Kai-Fong Lee, Ph.D.
General Chairman MAESC 2007