Category: News

As in past years, the summer of 2020 saw significant renovations to the Delta Chapter House in Madison, WI. This fall, a completely rebuilt third floor bathroom was unveiled, featuring floor to ceiling tile, a redesigned ventilation system with a large blower fan in the attic, brand new lights and fixtures, and a large shower to replace the aging tub/shower combination. This project was a significant undertaking, and we thank all of our active members and house residents from the summer and fall semesters for their help and cooperation getting this completed.

Significant improvements were also made in the attic, including new storage dividers for each member to store personal items that do not fit in their room, new flooring to reduce trip hazards, and significantly brighter lighting. New electrical cable was also pulled through the attic to add new feeder circuits from the upstairs electrical panel for the redone rooms, bathroom, and some common area lighting.

Additional Photos

On Saturday, September 16th, 2020, a combined DAA and DHC Membership Meeting was held. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was held online using the Zoom video conference platform. The following people were in attendance:

Top Row: Scott Woods, Sam Hurley, Andy Koch, Ed Sykes
Second Row: Joe Muehlenkamp, Jeffery Nilles, Bryce Belgarde, Kiara Mutschler
Third Row: Ed Westell, Roy Rasmussen, Jerry Peplinski (not pictured), Sathwik Pattem (not pictured)
Bottom Row: John “Mack” Zern (not pictured)

On Saturday, February 15th, 2020, a combined DAA and DHC Membership Meeting was held in the basement of the Delta Chapter house at 114 N Orchard St., Madison, WI. In attendance were the following (as pictured, left to right):

Back: Andy Koch, Sam Hurley, Scott Woods, Roy Rasmussen
Front: Joe Muehlenkamp, Jerry Peplinski, Ethan Amundson, and John “Mack” Zern

On Saturday, August 24th, 2019, the DAA held a Membership Meeting in the basement of the Delta Chapter house at 114 N Orchard St., Madison, WI. In attendance were the following (as pictured, left to right):

Back: Mark Van Susteren, Jerry Peplinski, Gary Choncholas
Middle: Roy Rasmussen, Sam Hurley, Andy Koch
Front: Joe Muehlenkamp, Scott Woods, Mike Stemper, Clive Frazier

To All, as announced in our December 2017 Newsletter, you are invited to attend the following:

Memorial for Steve Paugh – Saturday, April 14^th, 2018, 4 to 7 pm

We are having a gathering at the Fraternity House (114 N. Orchard Street) to celebrate the life of Steve Paugh, and his contributions to the fraternity. The gathering will be from 4 to 7 pm, and all are welcome to attend. The Delta Alumni Association will be providing food and drinks.

Fraternally,
Jerry Peplinski
President of the Delta Alumni Association of Kappa Eta Kappa

On Saturday, February 17, 2018, the DAA held a Special Membership Meeting at Union South, Governance Room, University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. In attendance were the following (as pictured, left to right):

Back: Anton Beattie, Dale Saari, Samuel Hurley, Joe Muehlenkamp, Mike Stemper, Sarah Vasher
Front: Andy Koch, Scott Woods, Steven Ritter, Jerry Peplinski

From the archives: KHK featured in a magazine advertisement for RCA televisions.

December 10, 1973 “Newsweek”

On Saturday, 13 July 2013, the front porches at our house, 114 N Orchard Street, were stained. In an event organized by chapter president Andrew Linson and alumnus Joe Green, several active members got together to clean, sand, and stain the front porches.

The porches were constructed several years ago, and required a waiting period before staining due to the treated wood used in construction. The staining has enhanced the aesthetic quality of the wood, and will waterproof and protect our investment for many years.

We thank our active members for contributing their time and all of the alumni, whose financial contributions made this construction project possible!

Photos & Captions:

1) KHK members (left to right): Andrew Linson, Chao Li, Grant Langlois, Ian Powell, and Joe Green.

2) Porches, pre-staining

3) Porches, post-staining

Chapter president Andrew Linson (Left) and DAA President Jerry Peplinski (right) stand next to our newly printed vinyl banner! Credit to Joe Daily (Delta Active & Pledge Trainer) for the design of the banner.

This fall semester, Kappa Eta Kappa fraternity participated in the 2013 Engineering Expo (http://engineeringexpo.wisc.edu/). This three day event is held every two years at the College of Engineering campus, and gives engineering organizations as well as individual UW students an opportunity to build, test, and display an engineering project to the general public.

Elementary, middle, and high school students are invited to explore the exhibits and interact with the hands-on displays. The event is also well-attended by members of the local community of all ages. This was an excellent community outreach event for the fraternity.

This year, the KHK project was called the “Megatactilus.” This device is a multi-touch computer table, similar to a large iPad or Microsoft Surface. Instead of a capacitive glass touchscreen, commonly found in tablets and cellular phones, it uses a pair of commodity webcams and an array of infrared light emitting diodes (LEDs) to read out the presence of a finger or other object blocking the path of the light. The camera is designed to filter out visible light, so only IR can get through, while a separate LCD projector (with an IR filter) was employed to simultaneously project an image on to the screen.

Combined with software processing and calibration, the device enables a user to interact with a commodity Windows 7 PC, using multiple fingers to click, drag, and swipe input to the screen. As a demonstration of the technology, we had a web browser open to the popular game Angry Birds (photo shows active member Dale Saari teaching a middle school student how to play).
Credit goes to Andrew Linson for building the chassis, Dale Saari and Matt From for designing the LED and camera system, Dan Boehm for additional help, as well as other active members for their contributions. We would also like to acknowledge the generous funding support from the Delta Alumni Association for materials.

Photos & Captions:

1) Photo of the device, showing the inside of the chassis with commodity webcam, stereo speakers, and mirror for LCD projection.

2) KHK Active Dale Saari demonstrating Angry Birds to a middle school student.

3) KHK Active Dale Saari attending the table at the Expo.

4) A tri-fold display was prepared, outlining the design and theory behind an optical multi-touch surface.