MechE News - April 2019

Alumni, Industry Partners & Friends:

The Department of Mechanical Engineering has been hard at work this semester. Our capstone students will be presenting at the 2019 CU Engineering Projects Expo on April 26, mechanical engineering students won first, second and third places in the 2019 New Venture Challenge and our faculty have received national and international recognition for their leadership in air quality, combustion and robotics research.

Sincerely,

Mike Hannigan
Department Chair

Top talent to be showcased at the 2019 Engineering Projects Expo

Roughly 145 engineering capstone design teams will be presenting at the 2019 Engineering Projects Expo on April 26. Check out a few of our featured mechanical engineering design projects.

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Alumni Spotlight

Seven life lessons from alumnus Mike Maloney, founder of KOTA Longboards

CU Boulder mechanical engineering alumnus Mike Maloney chooses to take risks, try new things, serve others and get things done all while having fun! He began his career as a pilot in the United States Navy and has since founded KOTA Longboards.

ME alumna inspires the next generation of NREL researchers

Alicen Kandt is reaching back, volunteering to do her part to influence NREL's next generation of experts who one day may even become her colleagues. In October, she was invited present at the Careers in Mechanical Engineering Symposium.

Jon Goldsmith selected for the college's Recent Alumni Award

The Recent Alumni Award recognizes one outstanding alumnus(a) each year for professional achievements, continued service to the college or university and admirable personal characteristics within 10 years of graduation from the college. Jon Goldsmith was selected as the 2019 recipient.

Research Spotlight

Your home is a hidden source of air pollution

Air Quality

Assistant Professor Nina Vance and her collaborators have found cooking, cleaning and other routine household activities to generate significant levels of volatile and particulate chemicals inside the average home, leading to indoor air quality levels on par with a polluted major city.

Biodegradable sensors aim to make farming more efficient

Materials

By developing sensors to optimize inputs for greater crop yields, Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Gregory Whiting aims to mitigate environmental losses, decrease energy use and improve farm profitability for food, feed and fuel crops, a project funded by ARPA-E.

CU researchers working to reduce cost of studying magnetic field

Micro/Nanoscale

ME Associate Research Professor Svenja Knappe collaborates with Bob Marshall to bring down the cost of small satellites called CubeSats and tiny sensors previously used to collect measurements of the brain.

knee joint imaging technique measures strain to detect osteoarthritis

Functional imaging technique could diagnose early osteoarthritis, NIH awards $2.7M

Biomedical

Associate Professor Corey Neu of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder is working with colleagues at CU Anschutz to detect early osteoarthritis, allowing younger patients to seek treatment earlier and possibly ward off the most severe measures including joint replacement.

$1 million imaging system opens world of research at college, across campus

Biomedical

A new high-resolution X-ray microtomography imaging system designed by Wil Srubar, Virginia Ferguson, Mija Hubler, Robert McLeod and Stephanie Bryant will enhance research, not only in engineering, but in the fields of archaeology, geology and medicine across campus and the Rocky Mountain region.

Study reveals health risks in low-income homes

Air Quality

A team of investigators from the Colorado School of Public Health at CU Anschutz Medical Campus and University of Colorado Boulder has identified that people living in homes with high ventilation are more likely to suffer from respiratory health issues such as asthma.

US National Combustion Meeting CU Boulder Mechanical Engineering

CU Boulder mechanical engineers ‘on fire’ at the 11th U.S. National Combustion Meeting

Thermo Fluid Sciences

Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty and students had great showing at the 11th U.S. National Combustion Meeting. Faculty members were honored with awards, gave two of the three flagship plenary lectures, took on new board memberships and led three critical combustion events.

Peter Hamlington receives prestigious NSF CAREER award

Thermo Fluid Sciences

Assistant Professor Peter Hamlington received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation this month for his work exploring the characteristics and behavior of highly turbulent premixed flames in engines using advanced computational simulations. He will receive $500K over five years.

Student Spotlight

NVC champions cu boulder mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering teams win first, second and third place at the 2019 New Venture Challenge

The top three New Venture Challenge champions, Stride Tech, Button Huggie and Tissue Form originated in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Teams started as ‘Entrepreneurship for Social Innovation’ senior design projects, graduate design projects and as research in mechanical engineering labs.

cu boulder mechanical engineering student Kelly Winn at Lockheed Martin Ethics competition

CU students place 4th in Lockheed Martin ethics competition

Engineering students Kelly Winn (MechEngr) and Caleb Inglis (AeroEngr) represented CU Boulder earlier this month at the Lockheed Martin Ethics in Engineering Case Competition. They secured 4th place in a competition drawing 14 teams from top universities.

Student entrepreneur Kevin Emory founds Respect Your Mother Recycling

Mechanical engineering student entrepreneur Kevin Emory shares his story founding Respect Your Mother Recycling. His company strives for zero waste through a university-based recycling model. Emory shares his experience launching his idea.

Education & Outreach Spotlight

Air Quality Inquiry teaches K-12 students to ask and answer their own questions with science and engineering

When high school students from rural Colorado research air quality as it relates to the things that interest them most, the result is enthusiastic students and one-of-a-kind projects. CU Boulder’s Air Quality Inquiry project, supported by a CU Boulder Outreach Award, pairs students with undergraduate mentors.

TEDxMileHigh talk by Christoph Keplinger receives feature on TED.com

Assistant Professor Christoph Keplinger’s TEDxMileHigh talk was selected for international coverage on TED.com. He is designing a new generation of soft, agile robots inspired by a masterpiece of evolution: biological muscle.

The engineering class teaching students to make art

For Assistant Professor Jean Hertzberg, flickering campfire flames, milk swirling in coffee and shape-shifting clouds are stunning visual manifestations of the physical forces governing our world. Since 2003, she has been teaching students to make art of mingling gases and liquids.

In the News

The New Yorker features Assistant Professor Nina Vance's work on hidden air pollution in homes
ESPN features high-tech seats used by Bucks designed by CU Boulder capstone engineering students
Science Magazine identifies top ten robotics technologies of the year including Assistant Professor Christoph Keplinger's soft robotics
Ford invests in ‘breakthrough’ solid-state battery startup founded by Professors Seehee Lee and Conrad Stoldt, already backed by BMW and Hyundai
This e-skin designed by Assistant Professor Jianliang Xiao can heal when damaged and be recycled when not needed anymore
CPR interviews Professor Sean Humbert about drones his lab is creating to go subterranean to save lives after earthquakes and cave-ins
Colorado chemist, Assistant Professor Carson Bruns updates tattoo chemistry with an eye toward medical diagnostics
Mechanical engineering alumnus Chong Hunter retires after 31 years of military service
Mechanical engineering alumnus and current Instructor Jacob Segil brings touch to prosthetic devices