Department of Mechanical Engineering

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.
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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.
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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).
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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.

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.