- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Celebrates National Engineers Week

John Hill — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:14:58 +0000

In celebration of National Engineers Week, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is highlighting some of the university’s most promising engineers and engineering students.

David Luneau, Professor in the Engineering Technology Department

Tell us a little bit about yourself. I have taught at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for 31 years. Prior to that, I was an engineer at AT&T in Little Rock at their computer manufacturing facility for five years. I spent my first five years after college working at the Johnson Space Center in the Space Shuttle program as a flight controller in the Mission Control Center. I grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and have electrical engineering degrees from Rice University and Georgia Tech. I grew up playing baseball and played as an adult as well. At age 35, I took up tennis and still enjoy playing regularly. I enjoy birding, and I have been involved in the documentation of the continued existence of the once presumed-extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker. For 28 years, I have been involved in SOLAR SPLASH, an international, intercollegiate solar/electric boat competition. I am currently president of the non-profit corporation that organizes the event annually. I have been married for 41 years. My wife, Terri, and I live in North Little Rock and attend Lakewood United Methodist Church. Why do you think ��Vlog��ý Little Rock would be a good fit for future engineering students? The engineering technology department has been part of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for almost 50 years. Our graduates have contributed to the economy of Arkansas in a big way. Graduates from our programs find good-paying jobs both here in Arkansas as well as all around the U.S. What do you like most about the field? I enjoy solving problems, which is the crux of the engineering experience. What made you want to pursue a career in engineering?

Professor David Luneau

I have to confess that the summer before my senior year in high school I did not know what engineering was. My father, who worked most of his career for Arkansas Power and Light (now Entergy), asked me if I had considered majoring in engineering. I knew that I liked math and science, but I had not thought much about a career. I looked into engineering, and it seemed like a good fit. I started college wanting to be a chemical engineer, but quickly discovered that I liked the electrical parts of physics class much more than I liked chemistry, so I switched majors. What is your most memorable experience from the engineering field? One memorable experience during the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was when a biologist asked me if I could design him a wireless camera system to use for inspecting woodpecker cavities. He had dropped his very expensive camera in 10’ of water and was in dire need of an affordable replacement. I took up the challenge, and modified a baby monitor system that met his needs. The camera system evolved over the next few years. For the past 10 years, I have been making and selling wireless camera systems to field biologists, mostly for woodpecker research. Do you have any advice for prospective students who want to major in the field? If you enjoy problem-solving on a regular basis and aren’t afraid of a little math, you just might be a good fit for a career in engineering technology.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Researcher Recalls Search for Once Extinct Ivory-Billed Woodpecker That is Now Back Up for Extinction

John Hill — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 16:40:19 +0000

In 2004, a kayaker named Gene Sparling spotted a rare Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a bird thought to be extinct, and the encounter sparked a firestorm of scientific and public interest.�� , an associate professor of electronics in the Department of Engineering Technology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is one of the researchers who took part in the somewhat secret investigation that brought a defunct species metaphorically back to life in 2005.�� Now the rare bird that was only rediscovered some 16 years ago is one of 23 species the federal government has marked to declare for extinction on Dec. 29. The issue is open for public comment, and Luneau, who doesn’t think the bird is extinct, plans to make a public comment.�� “I don’t know why Fish and Wildlife changed their mind in such a relatively short time,” he said. “It was only 2005 when people were writing papers about how they had got it wrong about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker being extinct. It’s not official yet, so we’ll see what happens after the public comment period. I think the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is still out there. I don’t think there has been any kind of large population of this bird for the last 100 years. For us to have seen the last one in 2004 and 2005 seems very unlikely.” Luneau has been in search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker long before the famous Arkansas sighting of 2004. “There was a sighting of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Louisiana in 1999, and the news broke in 2000,” Luneau said. “I was always interested in that bird because it was extremely rare. My brother and I went to Louisiana several times. In 2002, I was one of six people on a formal search in that area with ZEISS, a high-end optical company. In 2003, I did some search in the White Water Refuge in Arkansas.”�� Luneau’s previous research led to his involvement in the Arkansas research team who spotted the bird multiple times in 2004 and 2005. “Gene Sparling saw the bird on Feb. 11, 2004,” Luneau said. “He wrote an obscure reference about the bird on the Arkansas Canoe Club website. A fellow canoe club member saw that post and knew what he was talking about and talked him into contacting Cornell University. Two searchers came down two weeks later, and they saw the bird too. They came back to me because I’d been looking for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker for a few years at that point. On March 1, 2004, we started to search unofficially under the radar. We kept it very quiet because the last thing you want is a horde of people in a place where there is an endangered species, but it’s hard to hide 20 researchers in the Big Woods in Arkansas. In April 2005, we made the announcement. The story broke just before we got a paper in the journal ‘Science’ detailing the rediscovery of the species.” Luneau monitored remote cameras to help with the search for one of the rarest birds in North America. “What I did back in 2004 to 2008 was put out game cameras,” he said. “We would find trees with large cavities where the Ivory-billed Woodpecker might nest. I aimed game cameras at the cavities, and we did time-lapse pictures trying to catch the bird coming and going. I ran cameras out in the swamps for five years. I currently make and sell cavity cameras for researchers monitoring the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, another endangered species.” Luneau managed to capture a short video of the elusive bird in 2004 with a camera he borrowed from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock while out on Bayou De View, approximately five miles from Brinkley, with his brother-in-law. Though blurry, still images of the video found their way into the 2005 “Science” article, “,” that depicted the research team’s search for evidence on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Luneau’s wife, Terri Roberts Luneau, even wrote a children’s book, “,” about the event in 2005. “As soon as I first heard about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the first thing I asked was did they get a picture of it,” Luneau said. “Early on in my search, I figured that no one wanted to hear that I saw the bird. They wanted hard evidence. I took a video camera out with me and left it running all the time. It was a nice digital video camera that I borrowed from ��Vlog��ýLR, and it had a one-hour digital tape. I caught the video by virtue of having the camera running. My footage in 2004 was the only photo evidence we had at the time we wrote the paper for ‘Science.’ Of the 17 sightings we had, all were naked eye or binocular sightings – no additional hard evidence. But, even with hard evidence, you still can’t convince some people.” Since 2005, scientific searches for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker have continued in , but no evidence of a recoverable population has been found. While Luneau doesn’t actively hunt for the bird any longer, he always keeps his eyes and ears open for a sighting of the elusive bird. “My research has tapered off over time. I don’t have easy access to a canoe nowadays, and I have devoted my time to other projects,” Luneau said. “I go out occasionally, and I keep in touch with other researchers. In the heyday, I was getting up at 4 a.m. to be there at sunrise and going out three or four times a week to look for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. It was a pretty intense and tiring time. I always have my eyes and ears open. When I drive through Eastern Arkansas, I am always open to the extremely rare possibility that one might fly over the interstate.” In the upper right photo, David Luneau searches for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Big Woods of Arkansas in 2004 as a part of a research team that published a 2005 article in “Science” that talked about the sightings of the rare bird in Arkansas.��

David Luneau is a professor to watch in engineering technology

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 13:15:22 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor has been recognized as one of the best professors in the country in the field of engineering technology. Online Engineering Programs, an online resource for prospective students interested in engineering, named David Luneau, associate professor of engineering technology, to its list of The list is comprised of some of the most outstanding professors and universities in engineering technology. The professors were selected based on teaching experience, published articles, grants received, professional experience, and diversity. “The 20 professors of engineering technology below exemplify today’s leaders in the technological revolution and illustrate the quality of educators across varied academic institutions,” the article stated. At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Luneau is the program coordinator of the Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology Program, which has about 100 students. Luneau joined ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 1991. Prior to that, he worked as a senior engineer at McDonnell-Douglas Corporation at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and as an engineer and database administrator at AT&T Information Systems in Little Rock. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Rice University and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech University. His research areas include, specifically related to the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which was once thought to be extinct, alternative energy,, and information technology.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Celebrates National Engineers Week

David Luneau, Professor in the Engineering Technology Department

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Researcher Recalls Search for Once Extinct Ivory-Billed Woodpecker That is Now Back Up for Extinction

David Luneau is a professor to watch in engineering technology

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Celebrates National Engineers Week

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Researcher Recalls Search for Once Extinct Ivory-Billed Woodpecker That is Now Back Up for Extinction