Press Release

Stove Research Wins ASME Award

 

AMES, IA—Nathan G. Johnson, an Iowa State University PhD student in mechanical engineering, recently placed second in a student safety engineering design contest at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition held in Chicago.

Students submitted papers that demonstrated their understanding of a safety problem and provided a solution from an engineer’s perspective.

Johnson received a $500 honorarium for his paper on improving the safety of wood stoves, the standard cooking device used in developing countries. Johnson’s paper, based on his MS thesis, addressed cookstove stability, fuel containment, surface temperature, and chimney shielding. He included 10 standardized safety procedures that he developed to decrease the risk of burns, scalds, cuts, and loss of property.

Johnson, who conducted safety testing in Honduras as part of his MS research and worked with manufacturers there, plans to use his honorarium toward additional work in developing countries.

The contest was sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis Division and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

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