Iowa State's Sri Sritharan and Grant Schmitz have designed and tested a concept for building concrete towers to replace the steel towers used for wind turbines. Concrete towers could be a practical way to raise turbine towers from today's 80 meters to the better winds at 100 meters and higher. Even under extreme loads up to 170,000 pounds, the engineers' test segments performed well in structural tests.

A team of students at Iowa State University is putting the finishing touches on a built-from-scratch 1/4-scale tractor to enter in a nationwide engineering competition at the end of May.

The student-engineers of Iowa State's Baja SAE Team have been busy designing and building what they hope is a reliable off-road racer. Their first real test is later this week at an international competition in Bellingham, Wash. Team members are hoping the car can survive the contest's big event, a four-hour endurance race.

An Iowa State University student has received the Department of the Army's highest medal for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Cadet Nicole Donato, a kinesiology and health major, was awarded the ROTC Medal for Heroism for administering medical assistance and CPR after a car accident on I-35 last October. 

Martino Harmon, executive director of student success and retention at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Ohio, will become the next associate vice president for student affairs at Iowa State.

David Spalding, senior vice president and senior adviser to Dartmouth College's interim president Carol Folt, has been appointed the next Raisbeck Endowed Dean of the College of Business. He will begin his new position Aug. 1.