Read Full Article

Taking Spanish.

“I like to learn a foreign language and then visit one of the countries where it’s spoken,” says Smart. “I’m taking Spanish because we’re going to Spain this summer. Four years ago I learned how to speak Chinese and my wife and I went to China for three weeks. I’ve found that it makes all the difference in the world if you speak a little of the language. People warm up to you and share their culture with you.”

Smart’s inquisitive nature has helped him forge a non-linear career path lined with unique opportunities and interesting detours. After graduating from Texas A&M with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1974, Smart took positions with Ashland Oil and Great Lakes Chemical before spending the next 16 years with IBM.

“At IBM, I had the chance to work on the technical side as well as in management. I was in charge of chemical distribution at IBM—overseeing the hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemicals used to make printed circuit cards. I was also head of an emergency response team with 50 trained employees under me. Whenever there was a chemical spill, leaking valve or gas release, we cleaned it up,” he recalls.

Although Smart’s IBM career was on the rise, he was in a rut.

“I felt my brain was turning to mush,” he grins. “I liked the challenge of higher education so I thought I would get my Ph.D.”

Smart went back to school and earned his Ph.D. from The University at Texas in Austin in 1997. Upon graduating, he took a teaching role there while he planned his next move. One year later, he heard about a new engineering program about to be launched at a University of Kentucky campus in Paducah. Smart was intrigued.

“When I heard about the proposal for UK Paducah, I wanted to get in on the ground floor,” he says. “I thought it was very exciting. As it turned out, I was the first professor they hired.”

Now in his 15^th year with the program, Smart appreciates the opportunities to connect with students made possible by the small class sizes.

“Every class we offer has an experimental component. Students taking my fluid mechanics class will do fluid mechanics experiments during the semester—not two years later when they’ve forgotten most of the material. It enhances learning and we wouldn’t be able to do that in classes of 40 or 50 students,” he affirms.

Smart also values the flexibility UK Paducah professors have in their research areas. While his primary field of research is the use of membranes for water purification, Smart’s curiosity has taken him off the beaten path at times, most recently leading him to investigate estimating time of death using body temperature.

“I was going to high schools for outreach visits and I wanted to show the students interesting engineering applications. At the time, the television show C.S.I. was taking off, so I thought perhaps forensics would be one way to connect engineering to the students’ interests. They were fascinated. After that, I started making contact with physicians and learning about estimating time of death using temperature taken from the eyeball rather than the torso,” he explains.

While Smart has written academic papers on his findings, he has no plans to become a coroner or medical examiner.

“The project was fun, but it’s time to wrap it up and continue developing membranes that can purify groundwater contaminated by spilled chemicals,” he confirms.

Looking ahead, Smart is as enthusiastic as ever about the direction of the program.

“Paducah is a wonderful place to live and study,” he says. “We have an incredible performing arts center, as well as our own symphony, and downtown Paducah has a rich art district. That provides the context for this program where a student can obtain an engineering degree from the University of Kentucky for a total of $30,000. It’s a great deal any way you look at it.”

(PADUCAH, KY) June 11, 2012 – While Americans may complain about fuel prices, the availability and access to transportation fuel is something that most can take for granted. Several local University of Kentucky College of Engineering Paducah students recently learned that is not necessarily so in other areas of the world.

Dr. Jeffrey Seay, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the UK Paducah campus lead seven UK Paducah chemical and mechanical engineering students in a design project to develop low-cost, environmentally friendly technologies to produce biodiesel for rural villagers in Cameroon, Africa. Dr. Seay and the students worked with the African Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (ACREST) to design the process using resources and materials readily available in Cameroon. A 10-day trip to Bangang, Cameroon to work with the local villagers in implementing and refining the design was the culmination of the year-long project.

“To say the trip was eventful is an understatement,” Seay said. “After over 18 hours of flying, our bus ride to the village of Bangang was the students’ introduction to transportation difficulties in the developing world. The bus could not go up the muddy hillside road, so at about 10 p.m. we had to carry everything we brought—our supplies for the project, our personal belongings and supplies we brought for local school children—about 3 miles up the hillside in the pouring down rain. It took us over 2 hours to walk to the village.”

According to Seay and the students, the trip got better. Working with ACREST technicians, the group implemented their reactor design. The principle behind the design, Seay said, was to construct the biodiesel processor for less than $100 U.S. dollars and to use construction and processing methods easily explained to people with little or no formal education. In addition, the students were charged ensuring the materials used were readily available to locals. With old oil drums, car parts and scrap metal the students constructed a processor that used wood or charcoal as heat.

Chris Sterrie, a senior mechanical engineering student from Paducah, worked on the processor. “The first thing we discovered is that the truth about engineering is being able to think outside the box. It isn’t that our basic design changed, it’s more that we learned how to change the design to adapt to what we had.” Sterrie said.

Sterrie and Bradley Butler, another senior mechanical engineering student from Paducah, were able to change their design to fit what was available and make the processor work.

“That first batch of biodiesel—and it was less than a gallon—was like looking at gold,” Butler said. “A few days after we got home I was at a gas station and a big truck pulled in and filled up with diesel. I don’t think I’ll ever look at things like that the same.”

Seay said that was an important lesson for the students. “Normally engineers would look to new technologies for a design project. What our students had to learn was how to use older technologies due to the lack of modern infrastructure.”  Seay noted that while Bangang has approximately 200 homes, ACREST is able to provide low-cost electricity to only 15 of those.   Seay explained that in pre-industrial times ethanol, a key ingredient to produce biodiesel was recovered from wood during the process of making charcoal. This method is still widely practiced in the developing world Seay said. In addition to methanol and vegetable oil the other chemicals required can be extracted from wood ash, which is still used in developing countries to produce soap. Utilizing these methods the students were able to create an innovative, low-cost biodiesel processor for the village.

Christina Willett, a chemical engineering junior from Gilbertsville, said she did not realize the impact her career choice could make. “Seeing first-hand what engineering has done—and can do—for our world made a huge impression on me,” Willett said.

Mitchell Peeler, a chemical engineering junior from Eddyville; Max Croft and William Croft, chemical engineering sophomores from Paducah and Zac Watson, a mechanical engineering junior from Symsonia, found getting to know the villagers and their culture an important lesson as well. The students brought school supplies for the village school. But Peeler brought something he thought the local children would enjoy even more—a couple of futbols, or soccer balls.

“The local kids were so cool,” Peeler said. “They would hang out with us and they loved to play futbol. So we would go out there and play with them and they taught us some games as well. I think one of the things that really stood out to me was how they are just not time-oriented like we are here. They say ‘no worries’ and really mean it.”

The Crofts said they were impressed with the villagers’ hospitality. “Every evening they put food on the table for us. It was like whatever they had they offered to us,” Max Croft said. His brother, William, agreed, “It was a lesson, that’s for sure. I think I learned that we have so much and that we all have a choice to make a difference. It’s shown us a whole world of engineering opportunities that we hadn’t thought of before.”

Watson said he hopes to make the trip again. “I think it would be cool to be able to go again and see the results of what we started. To be able to keep making improvements to what we’ve done would be great.”

Seay said in light of the project’s success and his recently awarded funding from the EPA’s People, Prosperity and the Planet Program, he plans to continue developing the processor.

The UK College of Engineering in Paducah offers area students the opportunity to achieve a University of Kentucky 4-year Bachelor of Science degree in chemical or mechanical engineering. Working in partnership with WKCTC and Murray State, UK-Paducah students take all classes on the UK Paducah Campus. The program has graduated more than 140 engineers since its beginning in 1997.