Joe Hynek stands in his socks surrounded by 150 pigs, but he’s not worried about getting dirty. He doesn’t have to worry.

Hynek is actually on the floor of the new C6 lab inside the Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) in Howe Hall. He grins as he casually raises his foot and watches it pass through one of the holographic pigs.

Hynek, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, is a modern-day Renaissance man. His recent endeavors include two projects at the VRAC, development of an online media company, a recent tour in a country music band and production of the band’s debut CD.

Hynek is one of three students selected nationally to receive a Rothermel Graduate Scholarship awarded by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Auxiliary for outstanding scholastic achievement and excellent character.

The $2,000 grant will allow Hynek to further his graduate study research in computational fluid dynamics, which involves using the C6 lab to model the two-phase flow of large particles. John Deere plans to use the technology in a new model of cotton picker.

As part of a research assistantship, Hynek also uses the C6 lab to model airflow through buildings that house swine. The project is intended to improve building design in order to reduce the amounts of methane and ammonia swine inside the structures are exposed to.

“I just want to give them a better life,” Hynek said.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Hynek toured in a country music band called Pumptown with his sisters over the summer. The band was formed as a result of Hynek’s first-place award in the Pappajohn Center competition for new entrepreneurs last fall.

Hynek’s winning business plan was for an online entertainment company. After winning the competition, he used the award money to buy recording equipment and to set up a Web site, www.pumptown.com, and an online store to market the band.

“The band thing is sort of my diversification,” Hynek said. “I have fun in grad school, but the band is my creative outlet.”

Andrew Holtz, junior in mechanical engineering and Hynek’s longtime friend, said he often wonders how Hynek is able to accomplish so much.

“I don’t know how he does it,” Holtz said. “Joe is crazy, and he makes every moment fun.”

In addition to a recent tour of Iowa fairs with Pumptown, including the Iowa State Fair, Hynek has traveled to Europe, South America and Antarctica with Iowa State’s study abroad program. Hynek tries to buy an indigenous musical instrument from each place he travels. He is most proud of his Argentinian torongo, a stringed instrument made from an armadillo shell.

Hynek, who plays guitar and sings for Pumptown, also finds time to write the songs for the band, which friends describe as having “an original Iowa sound.” He has also nearly finished writing “Farmer Song,” a semi-autobiographical epoch musical about his family’s experience with the 1980s farm crisis, which he hopes Pumptown will perform.

Unless Pumptown makes it big, Hynek said he plans to finish his master’s program and go on to receive a doctorate degree.