MechE News - January 2021

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, killing 5.7 million people each year. However, with diagnostic technologies being developed by Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, engineers and clinicians are hopeful some strokes will soon be prevented.

Nicole Labbe views her work as a much-needed bridge between high-end theoretical chemistry and its actual application. It’s a space she said she loves to occupy, as too often theorists and fundamental researchers do not spend enough time talking to engineers and developers.

Professors Corey Neu, Debanjan Mukherjee and Robert MacCurdy are among the recipients of new grants from the AB Nexus program, designed to integrate expertise from the CU Anschutz and CU Boulder campuses.

Researchers at CU Boulder are collaborating to develop a new kind of biocompatible actuator that contracts and relaxes in only one dimension, like muscles. Their research may one day enable soft machines to fully integrate with our bodies to deliver drugs, target tumors, or repair aging or dysfunctional tissue.

A research team led by Jianliang Xiao and Wei Zhang is developing a wearable electronic device that’s “really wearable”—a stretchy and fully-recyclable circuit board that’s inspired by, and sticks onto, human skin.

Noah Gilsdorf is a double-degree student at the University of Colorado Boulder working toward a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering and a bachelor of music in jazz studies. After a lot of research and several failures, Noah succeeded in building a bass from scratch.

Student Emily Zuetell has been a member of CU’s student chapter of Engineers Without Borders for over three years and now serves as its president. She discusses how she was drawn to the organization and the impact students are making today.

Graduation is always a monumental event for our department, an important rite of passage for our students that they look forward to each year. This year the department recognized almost 50 graduates, including Outstanding Dissertation Award winner Shankar Lalitha Sridhar (left).

This year, an interdisciplinary team of Senior Design students is the first at CU Boulder to enter the Collegiate Wind Competition as a learn-along team. They are working hard to secure a spot for CU Boulder in the competition next year and are making impressive strides in wind energy innovation and education. 

Student Chad Ronish describes his experience building a working robot in the program, in which practicing engineers and recent graduates guided students through the development of personal design projects.

When the Boy Scouts of America opened membership to girls in February 2019, CU Boulder engineering undergraduate Emerson Domke jumped at the opportunity to join. Nineteen months later she became the first woman in California’s Bay Area to complete the Eagle Scout program, earning her a place in the nation’s inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts.

Former Mechanical Engineering faculty member Jenifer Blacklock has returned to the College of Engineering and Applied Science as the director of the Rady Program at Western Colorado University.

As a team of generous philanthropic leaders, Paul and Katy Rady have made investments in the University of Colorado Boulder that will pay dividends for decades to come.

During his two-year commitment with the Combustion and Fire Systems Program, Daily will solicit proposals for research, arrange for a peer review process and make final decisions for combustion and fire systems funding. In addition, he said he will do outreach, so researchers across the country are aware of the NSF's many programs and will mentor young faculty with special attention to diversity.