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September 23, 1999 Nebraska Corn Could Be Tortillas of Tomorrow Adrenaline Junkie Yuill Takes on Academic Challenges First-year Enrollment Up 7.1 Percent

Adrenaline Junkie Yuill Takes on Academic Challenges By Constance Walter, College of Engineering and Technology He's jumped from airplanes and glided them to earth, led hunters into the wilds of northern Canada in search of moose, bungee jumped head first-and backward-from a bridge in British Columbia and squirmed his way into caves. And last year, Gren Yuill decided to take on one more challenge: building an Architectural Engineering program from the ground up. Not only did the former Penn State professor have to design a curriculum, he had to teach classes, hire faculty and recruit students. But with the first year behind him, the director of the University of Nebraska College of Engineering and Technology program said he isn't disappointed. "The first year has been highly successful, both in the sense that we've got good enrollment and good faculty." Yuill faced his new challenge the way he has everything else: head on. A few years ago, he was invited to go spelunking with one of his students. Despite being claustrophobic, Yuill accepted the offer. "I always feel if you have a phobia, you should conquer it," he said. Yuill said he was "petrified" during the entirety of his first cave experience. "But I got used to it," he said smiling. It has since become his favorite hobby. The Robin Williams look-alike (he's just a little grayer) also has been a glider pilot for more than 40 years. In fact, it was at a glider meet that he became interested in skydiving. "I saw these people skydiving and thought, 'well, I've got to that.'" And he did. Eventually, he formed a partnership with another enthusiast and began training others in the sport. In 1992, he decided to try bungee jumping. But he did that just three times. "It gets a little tedious-even a sack of potatoes could bungee jump," he said. Before beginning his career in education, the native of Canada operated his own consulting and manufacturing firms in Manitoba for more than 15 years. He also started Lyte Flyte, the skydiving company, and, with his brother, operated Wild River Outfitters, a commercial moose-hunting business. An avid hunter, Yuill guided small moose-hunting parties into Northern Canada, near Hudson's Bay. The party drove 500 miles from Winnepeg north to Thompson. From there they drove another 200 miles to Gillam, (which Yuill describes as "the last stop on the road") then flew 40 miles into the bush and landed on a river. There, the hunters set up camp. "We had tents flown in and used canoes hidden in the bush." The trips lasted from one to two weeks-one week for the client, one for himself-and hunters braved temperatures that fell well below freezing at night. Although Yuill no longer is a guide-he can't get a license in Canada because he hasn't lived there for more than 10 years-he still hunts every year. And he'll squeeze in a trip this fall, along with administering the architectural engineering program. One of just 14 programs in the country, the program, funded by the University of Nebraska and private investors of the Peter Kiewit Institute of Information Science, Technology and Engineering, was designed to meet the needs of industry. "Implementing this program fits well with our philosophy of having programs that support economic development in Nebraska," said James Hendrix, dean of the College of Engineering and Technology. Architectural engineering differs from architecture in that it focuses on the technical aspects of buildings (structural systems; heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems; and lighting and electrical systems) and the integration and coordination of building systems, which makes it very appealing to architectural engineering firms. There are several architectural engineering firms in Nebraska, and the Omaha-based program has received strong industry support. "This program is perfect for our type of firm," said John Whisler, CEO of Leo A. Daly. "It combines the two professions into a perfect blend for our line of work." Denny Austin, Managing Principal for the Omaha office of HDR Architecture Inc., said the close working relationship with industry will make NU's program one of the top in the country. "This program will eventually rival the best schools in the country and will give us a chance to keep people here in our state," he said. Both companies have so much faith in the quality of the program, they have created several internships for students, some of whom will stay throughout their college careers. "They get the experience and we get the opportunity to look at them as future employees," Whisler said. The Daly company has has enrolled several of its employees in the electrical lighting class. "As course offerings expand, we will continue to support the program," Whisler said. Yuill accepted the challenge to direct the new NU program after nine years at Penn State. Whle he's modeled Nebraska's program in part on Penn State's, UNL's will offer much more. "Some programs are not what you would call full-service AE programs," he said. "Many concentrate on structural engineering, don't cover the building environment. We offered a well-rounded program." This past year, Yuill didn't have a lot of classes to teach-in the first two years of the program, students take math, physics, chemistry and engineering science courses, but very few architectural engineering courses. But he did have to design a curriculum, hire faculty and recruit students. A draft curriculum is in place ("as a new curriculum, it will take some correction and improvement," Yuill said), five faculty members are hired and student enrollment is climbing. Now, Yuill said he can concentrate on running the program and beefing up recruitment efforts. With everything going so smoothly, Yuill is optimistic about the future. "I'm getting really strong support from the university and the community," he said. "In 10 years, this will be the premier program in the country." Hiring Decisions Lead to Five New Profs One of the first things Gren Yuill had to do as director of the College of Engineering and Techonology's Architectural Engineering program was hire faculty members-and he's happy with his five choices. "I have some of the best people-absolutely the top-I could have possibly gotten," he said. "They are all fairly new to teaching ... but all have industry experience." Kevin Houser, formerly of Phillips Lighting, and Dale Tiller, of the Canadian National Research Council, will specialize in building illumination. Mingsheng Liu, formerly with Texas A&M; Gregor Henze, formerly of Johnson Controls; and Amy Musser, formerly with the National Institute for Standards and Technology, will specialize in mechanical systems. Musser will begin in the fall of 2000. IT'S IN THE MIX: Food Scientist David Jackson mixes white corn to make tortillas in the Food Processing Center. Photo/Brett Hampton.   Nebraska Corn Could Be Tortillas of Tomorrow By Monica Norby, for IANR Tortilla chips have become staples for Americans with the munchies. High quality Nebraska corn soon may play an increasing role in chip and tortilla manufacturing. A University of Nebraska researcher is testing the quality of tortillas made from Nebraska corn using an ancient Aztec process for producing tortillas. "Many scholars think that all of the successful ancient cultures in Latin America developed a process like this for corn," said David Jackson, food scientist in NU's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Research indicates that the process, called alkaline processing, increases the availability of B vitamins and proteins in corn and decreases some toxins. Large U.S. processing plants use the alkaline method for corn and tortilla chip production but research requires a smaller-scale operation. A grant from the Mexican government helped Jackson set up a small-scale alkaline processing plant in his laboratory, complete with the lava grindstones required to turn corn into masa. Masa is the dough used to make tortillas, tortilla chips, corn chips and taco shells. It's the last step in the alkaline cooking process. In the alkaline process, whole kernel corn is soaked in near-boiling water containing 1 percent food grade lime (the alkaline part of the process) for 20 to 45 minutes. This mixture steeps overnight before water is drained off and the resulting soft corn, called nejayote, is washed to remove the outer covering of the kernels. This washed product, called nixtamal, is ground between two lava stones to produce masa. It all begins with corn, an abundant Nebraska commodity. Matching Nebraska corn to Latin America's huge appetite for tortillas and chips would open a major market for the state's farmers. Specialty white corn types with harder kernels make the best tortillas, Jackson said. Nebraska produces more white corn than any other state, almost 17 million bushels in 1998 or 20 percent of the U.S. crop. But yellow corn is still king. Nebraska produced 1.1 billion bushels in 1998. Latin American countries buy yellow corn, but it's too soft for their tastes. "What happens now is that Latin American countries usually import U.S. No. 2 corn, not Nebraska specialty corn. It doesn't cook right, it's too yellow and it makes poorer quality tortillas," Jackson said. Most U.S.-produced specialty corn goes into the American chip and tortilla market. Jackson is studying the best way to make good tortillas out of Nebraska yellow corn. His first project in the new processing plant involved gathering yield information for the Mexican government. He cooked Mexican corn samples to determine how many kilograms of tortillas can be produced with 1 kilogram of corn. Jackson varied the method, using different cooking times and amounts of lime and water. Using statistical analyses, he created three-dimensional graphs depicting various combinations and indicating which gives the best and most tortillas. He used these same techniques in a recently completed project focusing on Nebraska corn. In this Nebraska Corn Board funded project, Jackson tested the cooking quality of hard-kerneled white corn and food-grade Nebraska yellow corn. "We have data that will prove to tortilla and chip manufacturers that we have specialty corn that will make the products they want. We also want to be able to give them processing information to help them make the best possible products from Nebraska corn. Our high corn quality deserves a premium price in both domestic and international markets," Jackson said. This research is conducted in cooperation with IANR's Agricultural Research Division. First-year Enrollment Up 7.1 Percent Enrollment of first-time freshmen for the fall semester at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is up 7.1 percent compared to the fall of 1998, continuing a trend that started the year after the university introduced higher admissions standards in the fall of 1997. In the last year of the old admissions standards (1996), UNL enrolled 3,715 first-time freshmen, but experienced a drop of 459 students (12.4 percent) to 3,256 the following fall, a decrease largely attributed to the new admissions standards. However, first-time freshman enrollment increased in each of the two following years, by 160 (4.9 percent) to 3,416 in 1998 and by 242 to 3,658 this fall. "This is exactly what we predicted and expected when the new admissions standards were approved," said James Griesen, vice chancellor for student affairs. "We expected a big drop-off the first year, but we were confident that within three years we would be back to the 1996 enrollment level. We dropped by 459 freshmen in the fall of 1997, but we have now recovered 402 of those students and raised the quality of the class. "We fully expect by next year to be back where we were before 1997-and with a class that has a much stronger academic profile." Something not reflected in the enrollment numbers, Griesen said, is that first-time freshman enrollment is up 7.1 percent despite the fact that UNL deferred admission for 102 more students than it did a year ago. Despite the increase in freshman numbers, UNL's overall enrollment dropped by 1.19 percent, decreasing from 22,408 students in the fall of 1998 to 22,142. Griesen said there are two main explanations for the decrease. One is a decrease of 86 graduate students, probably due largely to the strength of the job market. The other is that some of the larger classes enrolled prior to 1997 have graduated and been replaced by the smaller freshman classes of the last two years.

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