Department of Mechanical Engineering News Archive
2011
CU Boulder research leads to discovery of new graphene properties
Graphene, considered the most exciting new material under study in the world of nanotechnology, just got even more interesting, according to a new study by a group of researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder lead by Mechanical Engineering faculty member Scott Bunch.
The new findings -- that graphene has surprisingly powerful adhesion qualities -- are expected to help guide the development of graphene manufacturing and of graphene-based mechanical devices such as resonators and gas separation membranes, according to the CU-Boulder team. The experiments showed that the extreme flexibility of graphene allows it to conform to the topography of even the smoothest substrates.
Read the full CU News press release here: CU News
ME Senior Design Shell Eco Marathon Team Goes over 1000 mpg!
The CU Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Eco team was one of only 7 teams to break the 1000 mile per gallon barrier this year with a run of 1008 miles per gallon. The team placed 7th out of 61 teams competing in this year's Shell Eco Marathon of the Americas held this last weekend in Houston TX. Team members included students: Chris Doudna, Travis Ochsner, Wayne Russell, Brittany Fedderson; graduate volunteer: Kane Chinnel; and two adivisors: Marcelo Bergquist, Greg Potts. Read more.
Professors Virginia Ferguson and Scott Bunch win NSF CAREER Awards
Professors Virginia Ferguson and Scott Bunch are both recipients of 2011 NSF CAREER Awards, a prestigious research grant for young faculty members. Prof. Ferguson's project is entitled Reverse-Engineering the Bone-Cartilage Interface for Successful Joint Repair - Coupled with a New Program to Promote Diversity in Rehabilitative Bioengineering. This proposed research will enable advancements in engineering solutions for common, debilitating orthopedic problems, such as osteoarthritis and spinal disc degeneration, and an improved understanding of how nature anchors soft and hard materials to facilitate load transmission.
Prof. Bunch's award is entitled Atomic Scale Defect Engineering in Graphene Membranes. The objective of this award is to understand a variety of fundamental defect engineering issues from an experimental and collaborative modeling perspective, including the measurement of gas transport across single atomic vacancies in suspended graphene membranes and the demonstration of gas separation based on size exclusion by atomically engineered vacancies in graphene membranes. To realize the extraordinary potential of graphene as a material for membrane separations, a number of previously unexplored scientific issues need to be addressed, the most important being a means to introduce atomic scale pores in graphene which can separate gases based on size exclusion. The knowledge gained from a fundamental understanding of defect engineering in graphene membranes will open up new avenues to explore the energy efficient separation capabilities of atomically thin membranes.
April 22, 2011: Spring IAC Meeting and Senior Design Expo
The Spring 2011 Senior Design Expo will present 25 undergraduate senior design projects and 4 graduate senior design projects. Design project topics will include bio-medical, energy, manufacturing, research, and product development. The annual Project Expo is held in conjunction with the Spring ME Industrial Advisory Council Meeting. Members of the IAC judge the project displays and interact with the team members. The top teams chosen by the IAC judges will also receive special awards. This event is open to the general public with free admission.
This event is organized by the Industry/University Cooperative Project Center -- a new concept in engineering education, fostering innovative, technical collaborations with business, industry, and government agencies. The I/UCPC brings real industry projects to the senior design course sequence in mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where integrated teams of 4 to 6 students, a professor, and an industry mentor develop workable solutions. Student teams, which also may include a graduate student or a student from another engineering discipline, work on assigned projects for two consecutive semesters and deliver tested, functional hardware and documentation to the industry sponsor at the completion of the project. More than 125 engineering projects have been completed in the I/UCPC since 1999.
2010
Prof. Stoldt and co-workers published in Nano Letters
Prof. Stoldt, with co-workers from the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), have published a paper in Nano Letters entitled "Galvanic Porous Silicon Composites for High-Velocity Nanoenergetics". The research work utilizes an electrochemical nanostructuring process developed at the University of Colorado to fabricate highly reactive porous silicon composites that exhibit the fastest combustion propagation velocity of any nanoenergetic material system measured to date. On-chip measurements at ARL were obtained using microfabricated diagnostic devices in conjunction with high-speed optical imaging up to 930,000 frames per second. Combustion velocities averaging 3050 m/s were observed for porous silicon films with porosities of 65-67%. (Published online on December 23, 2010)
Sara Campbell receives a NIST NRC Postdoctoral Research Associateship
Sara Campbell (formerly Sara Olesiak) has been selected to receive a NIST National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Research Associateship. This competitive award provides advanced training to a highly select group of scientists and engineers who give special promise of becoming creative leaders in research. Her proposal, titled "Nanoscale Mapping of Viscoelastic Properties across the Biomaterials Interface", will enable her to work with Donna Hurley, Ph.D. at NIST in Boulder to utilize atomic force acoustic microscopy and related techniques for studying the interface between stiff and compliant materials that possess viscoelastic behavior.
Our PhD program ranked 6th out of 127 (5th percentile) of ME programs in the nation
Our PhD program was very highly rated in a report released September 28th, 2010, by the National Research Council, or NRC. Our best overall ranking was 6th out of 127 programs reviewed in the nation. This places our department in the top 5th percentile.
These long-awaited findings from the NRCs national study of doctoral programs are based on a more comprehensive assessment of doctoral programs than popular ranking systems currently available can offer and are widely viewed as useful indicators of excellence. The NRC functions under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, and carries out most of the studies done in their names. The last NRC assessment of doctoral programs was released in September 1995, at which time our departments ranking was > 50th, hence the department has seen tremendous growth and improvement in the last decade.
Additional information about this report, as well as rankings for other CU departments, are provided here: CU News
Faculty to develop living wall
A multidisciplinary team of University of Colorado faculty recently was awarded $1.97 million by the National Science Foundation to develop a "living wall" system based on biomimicry, or the imitation of nature, to slash energy use in buildings.
The research team will be led by CU-Boulder Associate Professor John Zhai of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, who specializes in sustainable building design and the study of indoor environmental quality. CU-Boulder faculty members Jerry Qi and Yifu Ding of mechanical engineering, and Kurt Maute of aerospace engineering sciences, will be involved as co-investigators along with architect Fred Andreas of the University of Colorado Denver.
Read more here.
Daven Henze selected to receive NASA New Investigator Program award
Prof. Daven Henze in being selected to receive NASA New Investigator Program award. His proposal is entitled "Linking radiative forcing of fine-mode aerosols and tropospheric ozone to precursor emissions". The project links NASA remote sensing with modeling tools and has an educational/outreach component involving educating science teachers about climate and mentoring minority students through the NCAR SOARS program. The New Investigator Program (NIP) in Earth Science was established in 1996 to encourage the integration of Earth system science research and education by scientists and engineers at the early stage of their professional careers. The Earth Science Enterprise places particular emphasis on the investigators ability to promote and increase the use of Earth remote sensing through the proposed research and education projects.
Ronggui Yang, recipient of the ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer.
Ronggui Yang receives the ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer For developing modeling and experimental tools to understand micro/nanoscale thermal transport and for innovative applications of micro/nano-structure in macroscale forms for energy conversion and thermal management. Further information about the award can be found at the ASME web site.
Ginger Ferguson has been selected to receive a Chancellors Award for Excellence in STEM Education.
Ginger Ferguson has been selected to receive a Chancellors Award for Excellence in STEM Education. Her work is part of the Integrating STEM (iSTEM) Education program at CU. The program is designed to link graduates with 1st and 2nd year undergraduates through Engineering research projects and to support undergraduate STEM education. This program is in collaboration with Dr. Beverly Louie and the CU Broadening Opportunity through Leadership and Diversity (BOLD) Center with the aims of: improving retention of diverse groups in Engineering from the start of their college careers, encouraging vertical integration of learning, and providing a hands-on training opportunity for graduate students to gain mentoring skills.
Levin Sliker receives NSF graduate research fellowship
Levin Sliker has been awarded an NSF graduate research fellowship. Levin will be receiving his bachelors degree from the Mechanical Engineer department at the Unversity of Colorado at Boulder in May 2010 and is the outstanding graduate for the department for the year. He plans to continue his education with the department and get his PHD. He will be working with Professor Mark Rentschler on building small robots used inside the human body for medical diagnoses and treatment. He is very involved with helping others as he mentors high school students, tutors college students and serves as a student EMT.
2009
Sehee Lee and Kamran Mohseni elected Fellows of the new Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute.
The Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute have recently announced that its inaugural group of RASEI Fellow includes two faculty members at the Department of Mechanical Engineering -- Sehee Lee and Kamran Mohseni (joint with Aerospace Engineering). RASEI is a new joint institute between CU-Boulder and the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden. Its focus includes forming one of the worlds leading university and federal laboratory partnerships in the development and commercialization of renewable energy technologies. This fellowship will be three-year appointments, officially beginning Nov. 1, 2009. The RASEI Council of Fellows will will be considering important issues such as beginning a search for a permanent director, a strategic hiring plan for new faculty, detailed governance plans, and research thrust areas for the institute.
Patrick Wiedman considers the shape of the Eiffel Tower
Professor Patrick Wiedman has published another paper on the Eiffel Tower. In this paper he presents solutions for what the tower would look like if Eiffel had designed it for a realistic turbulent wind profile over Paris. The work appeared in June (Modified shape of the Eiffel Tower determined for an atmospheric boundary-layer wind profile, Physics of Fluids, 21, 067102 (2009) and has been acknowledged by both the Physics of Fluids journal and by the American Institute of Physics. See the article on InsideScience.org
The department is now offering a new Graduate Design Track
The department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder is now offering a new Graduate Design Track. This new program teaches graduate courses in the art of product design. These courses aim to expose students to a broad range of design topics so that they can turn their ideas from dreams into reality. For more information see the Design Track page or the flyer.
New Building Opened for MSC-CU ME Partnership Program
A newly-renovated building was opened on August 19 for the Mesa State College-CU Mechanical Engineering Partnership Program on August 19 at Mesa State. The building will house the Mechanical Engineering program as well as a new Construction Management program at Mesa State. See news items at KREX TV News Channel 5 and NBC 11 News.
Rishi Raj, Teledyne Team, Win NASA/Air Force National Hypersonic Science Center for Hypersonic Materials and Structures
Professor Rishi Raj is part of a team that was awarded one of three National Hypersonic Science Centers through a joint NASA/Air Force competition. Raj's team is led by Teledyne LLC, Thousand Oaks, CA (Dr. David Marshall, PI) and in addition to CU, includes participants from the University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Miami, Florida, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Arlington. The National Hypersonic Science Center for Hypersonic Materials and Structures aims to revolutionize the design of hypersonic vehicles by creating a new class of hybrid, hierarchical materials that achieve substantial breakthroughs in oxidation resistance, maximum useable temperature, and maximum supportable heat flux. The research will develop basic science needed to guide materials design, and engineering science needed to enable designers to use the new materials with efficiency and confidence.
Harold Park Receives Gallagher Young Investigator Award from US Association for Computational Mechanics
Harold Park received the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics Gallagher Young Investigator Award for 2009 for his “groundbreaking work on computational nano mechanics and materials.” The award is made every two years and recognizes outstanding accomplishments, particularly outstanding published papers, by researchers of 40 years or younger. It was presented to Professor Park at the Congress Banquet during the 10th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics, being held July 16-19, 2009, in Columbus, Ohio.
Se-Hee Lee, NREL Team, Win 2009 R&D 100 Award for Thin-Film Solid State Battery
Professor Se-Hee Lee and his team of collaborators at NREL were awarded a 2009 R&D 100 Award for their invention for the PowerPlane UX Microbattery - a solid-state thin-film battery. This award recognizes the 100 most technologically significant products introduced the past year. The winning of an R&D 100 Award provides a mark of excellence known to industry, government, and academia as proof that the product is one of the most innovative ideas of the year. R&D 100 Award winners are selected by an independent judging panel and the editors of R&D Magazine. The publication and its online portal serve research scientists, engineers, and other technical staff members at high tech industrial companies and public and private laboratories around the world. Professor Lee and his team will be recognized at the R&D 100 Awards Banquet on Nov. 12, 2009, in Orlando.
Ronggui Yang Selected to Participate in National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium
Ronggui Yang was among eighty-eight of the nation''s brightest young engineers to be selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering''s 15th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. The annual symposium brings together engineers ages 30 to 45 who are performing exceptional engineering research and technical work in a variety of disciplines to discuss cutting-edge issues in engineering and innovative ways to address them and significantly impact the U.S. economy. Professor Yang joins Se-Hee Lee as the second ME faculty to be selected for participation in this prestigious event in as many years.
Subhendu Datta Publishes New Book on Wave Propagation
Professor Subhendu Datta has published a book on wave propagation in composite materials: Wave Propagation in Composite Media and Structures: with Applications to Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation *. The book presents effective analytical and numerical techniques to study the characteristic features of elastic guided waves in fiber reinforced laminated media. The book closely examines the salient features of dispersive guided modes and how they are modified by defects, inhomogeneities, and boundaries. An accompanying CD-ROM contains executable computer programs, which can be used to simulate different scenarios for designing and interpreting ultrasonic experiments.
* - The above link to a non-university site does not represent endorsement by the University of Colorado at Boulder or its affiliates.
Reamon receives Boulder Faculty Assembly Teaching Award
Derek Reamon has been chosen by the Boulder Faculty Assembly to receive the BFA's annual awards for faculty excellence in teaching.
Daria Kotys-Schwartz Receives Marinus Smith Award
At a ceremony held on April 4, 2009 Daria Kotys-Schwartz received a Marinus Smith Award. The purpose of this award is to identify and recognize CU-Boulder teachers, advisors, and staff who have made a significant impact on the lives of CU undergraduate students. The Parents Association solicited nominations by asking parents to consult with their students in order to identify deserving nominees. This award is a small token of the Parent Association's appreciation for hard work and dedication to our students.
This award is named for Colorado pioneer, Marinus Smith, who made a significant financial contribution, as well as a substantial donation of land, to the University of Colorado so it could be located in Boulder.
Shell Eco-Marathon Design Team Designs 1000 mile/gal Car
The Shell Eco-Marathon design team has been featured in the news, including the Daily Camera, Channel 7 News, and Channel 2 News.
Chuck Kutscher Wins Governor's Renewable Energy Award
Chuck Kutscher has been selected to receive the Governor's Excellence in Renewable Energy Award for 2008 for his outstanding contributions to protect Colorado's environment and provide clean power through renewable energy. Read the: CU News Press Release.
2008
Oleg Vasilyev receives Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award
Oleg Vasilyev has been named the recipient of a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation. This award is granted to exceptionally promising researchers in recognition of lifetime achievements in research and teaching. The Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award is given to scientists and scholars, internationally renowned in their field, who completed their doctorates less than twelve years ago and who in the future are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements, which will have a seminal influence on their discipline beyond their immediate field of work. Award winners are invited to spend a period of up to one year cooperating on a long-term research project with specialist colleagues at a research institution inGermany.
Ronggui Yang Receives NSF CAREER Award
Professor Ronggui Yang has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award. His 5-year CAREER project seeks to advance research and education programs in nanoscale thermal transport: to develop an integrative experimental and simulation program including developing a novel high spatiotemporal resolution photo-thermal microscope to study thermal transport processes in innovative materials and devices that are critical to microelectronics and energy technologies and to educate the public about what nanotechnology can do and cannot do in various thermal and energy applications. CAREER award is NSF's most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research.
Derek Reamon and Daria Kotys-Schwartz land new NSF-sponsored program One Day's Pay: Educating K-16 Engineers to Create Affordable Innovations
One Day's Pay provides innovative and reasonably-priced design services for local, low-income customers aimed at creating significant impact on lives while being extremely affordable - costing less than a single day's pay. The project integrates rigorous research and assessment with the design services to determine important outcomes and impacts of altruistic engineering projects.
See-Hee Lee Delivers Invited Lecture at the 2008 NAE Frontiers of Engineering Symposium
Se-Hee Lee delivered an invited lecture entitled “Electrical Energy Storage and its Importance to Sustainable Renewable Energy” at the 2008 Japan-America Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in Kobe, Japan. Since 1995, the NAE has held an annual Frontiers of Engineering symposium that brings together 100 outstanding engineers (ages 30-45) from U.S. companies, universities, and government labs to discuss leading-edge research and technical work across a range of engineering fields. The Frontiers program has expanded internationally with the addition of three bilateral meetings with Germany (1998), Japan (2000), and India (2006). During the 2008 symposium, 60 outstanding engineers participated in sessions focused on four topics-Sensors, Advances in Automation and Instrumentation for Biotechnology and Health Care, Speech and Language Processing, and Alternative Energy.
Jana Milford has been apointed to the Committee on U.S.-Chinese Cooperation on Electricity from Renewable Resources
Jana Milford has been appointed to the Committee on U.S.-Chinese Cooperation on Electricity from Renewable Resources, which is a collaborative effort of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academies of Science and Engineering. The Committee will study resource and market potential for electricity generation from renewable resources in the US and China and recommend priorities for enhanced collaboration in research and development efforts.
President Bush Nominates G.P. Bud Peterson to serve on the National Science Board
CU-Boulder Chancellor and Professor of Mechanical Engineering G.P. "Bud" Peterson has been nominated by President George W. Bush to serve on the National Science Board. The nomination has been sent to the United States Senate for confirmation. Peterson is one of seven distinguished scientists to have been nominated by the president. The National Science Board is an independent body of advisors to both the President and Congress on broad national policy issues related to science and engineering research and education. It also serves as an oversight body for the National Science Foundation.
Read more about Chancellor Peterson and all the nominees on the National Science Foundation Web site.
Chen Li and Bud Peterson Develop Method to Enable Faster Boiling
Along with their colleagues Professors Chen Li and Bud Peterson have grown copper nanorods on copper surfaces directly. This nanostructured surface enhanced boiling performance up to a magnitude when compared with plain copper surfaces. It is believed that the interaction between the micro- and nano- causes the improved boiling. Billions of tiny cavities can trap air/vapor in nanobubbles and feed them into the slightly larger microcavities presented as cracks on top of the nanostructured surface. The nanopores constantly feed the microcavities, preventing them from being flooded by water and becoming inactive, which results in 40 times more bubbles and consequently faster boiling. This synergistic coupling between two entirely different length scales is very fascinating and could have broad impact to energy efficiency, thermal management and microfluidics.
Read the full paper at Wiley InterScience
Also read the story at Nature News
Ronggui Yang named one of the World's Top 35 Young Innovators
Ronggui Yang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been named one of the world's top 35 young innovators in the September/October issue of Technology Review, a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Known as the TR35, the honored group consists of 35 scientists and technologists under the age of 35 whose work is said to be changing the world in the fields of medicine, computing, communications, electronics, nanotechnology and energy.
Yang, 34, works in the areas of micro- and nanotechnology for energy conversion, thermal management in electronic devices, and nanostructured materials.
"Professor Ronggui Yang is a shining example of the type of outstanding young faculty we have been able to attract here at CU-Boulder," said Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson. "His fundamental work in thermal processes, coupled with his work in energy conversion play an important role in the CU Energy Initiative and will help us define a path forward as we move into the 'new energy' age."
Read the full CU Press release here: CU News.
See the full TR35 list here: TR35.
Ronggui Yang's TR35 Profile
Scott Bunch Creates the World's Smallest Balloon
Professor Scott Bunch has created the world's smallest balloon. The graphene membrane is impermeable to even the smallest gas molecules and promises to impact applications, including filters and sensors. Click here and here for more information.
ME Faculty Lead Nanotechnology Charge
Mechanical Engineering faculty are leading a research thrust in nanotechnology that is making a major impact in Colorado and across the country.
ME Faculty Win $1.5 Million Contract from DARPA To Aid In Cooling Of Electronic Devices
Three CU faculty members who joined the university in 2006 established the core concept for the novel thermal ground plane: Ronggui Yang, who brought expertise in nanostructured materials and heat transfer; Professor and Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson, a world expert in heat pipes; and Research Assistant Professor Chen Li, who contributed to the heat transfer modeling and design.
Read the full story at CU News
Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Team Wins CU Business Plan Contest
Their invention, called the Dynamic Stability Tray, incorporates a stabilizing device consisting of four polypropylene rails along with some ball bearings and additional components. The device allows the tray to remain level while the user goes up and down ramps or tilts from side to side, and it sustains low-speed impacts. A series of field tests resulted in no spills as compared with the standard tray available as an accessory to rolling walkers.
Read the full story at CU News
Yang, Tan, Park, and Bunch receive DARPA Young Faculty Awards
Professors Ronggui Yang, Wei Tan, Harold Park, and Scott Bunch have been chosen by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to receive DARPA 2008 Young Faculty Awards. The awards consist of grants of $150,000 each to advance "innovative, speculative and high-risk research ideas." The four are among 39 “rising stars” that DARPA has identified “from the best and brightest young faculty in the US.” The research topics being pursued with these awards include Surface-Plasmon Enabled High Efficiency Thermoelectric Devices (Yang), Highly Selective, Stable and Manufacturable Nano-Bio-Sensors (Tan), Novel Multiscale CAE Tools for Surface-Dominated NEMS (Park), and Graphene Membranes (Bunch).
See CU News for the full story.
Greenberg, Carlson, and Bright receive Boulder Faculty Assembly Awards
Professors Alan Greenberg, Larry Carlson, and Victor Bright have been chosen by the Boulder Faculty Assembly to receive the BFA's annaul awards for faculty excellence. The ME faculty were selected in the categories of Service (Greenberg), Teaching (Carlson), and Research, Scholarly, and Creative Work (Bright).
Larry Carlson Wins the National Academy of Engineering's top educational honor, the 2008 Bernard M. Gordon Prize
Larry Carlson and Jackie Sullivan will receive the National Academy of Engineering's Gordon Prize, the nation's top honor for innovation in engineering education, for their work with the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program.The $500,000 award honors them as founders of the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program at CU-Boulder, which infuses hands-on learning throughout K-16 engineering education to motivate and prepare tomorrow's engineering leaders. The prize will be presented Feb. 19 at a gala dinner in Washington, D.C.
ME Shell Eco-Marthon Team Featured on Channel 7 News
On April 11th, 2008, the University of Colorado Eco-Marathon team will travel to the California Speedway to compete in the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas competition. This spring will mark the first competition year for the Department of Mechanical Engineering team. The Shell Eco-marathon challenges engineering students worldwide to design and build a vehicle that is capable of driving as far as possible, while using the least amount of energy. (click the heading link to download/view the video that aired on 7 News)
Mesa State College And CU-Boulder Announce Mechanical Engineering Partnership
Mesa State College and the University of Colorado at Boulder announced a new partnership that will allow students to earn a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from CU-Boulder by taking classes delivered at Mesa State.
2007
Y.C. Lee Recieves ASME Electronics Packaging Award
ASME Electronic & Photonic Packaging Division (EPPD) 2007 Mechanics Award is for Professor Y. C. Lee's outstanding contributions to the applications of engineering mechanics in the field of electronic and/or photonic packaging, including stress analysis, reliability study, experimental methods and computational modeling.
Jerry Qi Recieves NSF CAREER Award
Professor Jerry Qi has been awarded an NSF CAREER award. His program, Integrative Research and Education on Multiphysical Behavior of Soft Functional Materials, aims to advance the understanding of the multiphysical behavior of soft functional materialsa and to develop corresponding modeling tools that can be used in design to realize novel applications of these materials. CAREER is NSF's most prestigious award in support of the early career-development activities of faculty who ntegrate research and education.
Harold Park Receives NSF CAREER Award
Professor Harold Park has been awarded an NSF CAREER award. His research and educational program, Multiscale Design of the Coupled Optomechanical Properties of Silicon Nanowires, aims to gain fundamental knowledge on how the light emission characteristics of silicon nanowires can be predictably tailored by controlling the state of strain due to surface stresses and applied deformation. CAREER is NSF's most prestigious award in support of the early career-development activities of faculty who ntegrate research and education.
Air Quality Research in ME Department Investigates the Ties between Airborne Coarse Particles and Human Health
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the Department of Mechanical Engineering a STAR (Science to Achieve Results) grant to investigate associations between coarse particle air pollution and several health outcomes in a pair of urban and rural communities: Denver and Greeley, CO, and to characterize and compare the particle composition and origin in both communities. The project is led by principal investigator Mike Hannigan and co-investigators Jana Milford and Shelly Miller in ME, in collaboration with faculty at Colorado State University and the Colorado School of Mines. This 4-year, $1.25 million study will provide guidance to the EPA as it considers how to best protect communities from air pollution health effects.
ME Launches Dual PhD Program with Materials Engineering at the University of Trento in Italy
Professor Rishi Raj has led the development of a new Dual PhD program that provides a novel opportunity for students to study jointly in Mechanical Engineering at CU and Materials Engineering at the University of Trento.
2006
ME Develops New Global Engineering Course
Mechanical Engineering has developed a new hands-on course called Global Engineering that is focused on the growing trend of outsourcing engineering.
ME iMINT Center Launches Nanomaterials Characterization Facility
The DARPA Focus Center on Nanoscale Science and Technology for Integrated Micro/Nano-Electromechanical Transducers (iMINT) launched the grand opening of a new Nanomaterials Characterization Facility. The NCF is a centralized laboratory offering access to researchers throughout Colorado for imaging and analysis of new nano-scale structures and materials.
Bioengineering Research in the ME Department Targets Pulmonary Hypertension in Children
ME Professor Robin Shandas is leading a new, multimillion-dollar effort supported by the National Institutes of Health to study of pulmonary hypertension in children based on three-dimensional imaging combined with computational modeling of the blood flow and mechanics of the pulmonary vascular systems in infants and children.
ME Receives a new MURI on Multifunctional Materials for Energy Harvesting, Storage, and Structural Performance
The Department of Mechanical Engineering was recently awarded a new Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) project by the Air Force of Scientific Research. The five-year, multimillion-dollar project, "Design of Energy Harvesting and Storage Material Systems for Aerovehicles" is a joint collaboration with the University of Washington, Virginia Tech, and UCLA. The CU team, Professors Martin Dunn and Ronggui Yang in ME and Kurt Maute in Aerospace Engineering and Sciences, are focused on developing design tools and practices for novel multifunctional materials.
Nanotechnology Research Center Established in the ME Department
A new research center, the DARPA Focus Center on Nanoscale Science and Technology for Integrated Micro/Nano-Electromechanical Transducers (iMINT) has been established in Mechanical Engineering with a multimillion-dollar grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. iMINT research will focus on the controlled synthesis of nanostructures and their reliable integration into micro- and nano-electromechanical systems.
ME Buffalo Racing Team in the Top 20 in Formula SAE Competition
Mechanical Engineering's Buffalo Racing team finished 20th in a field of 140 entries at the 2006 Formula SAE engineering competition, its best finish in six years of consecutive entries.