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ME-EM
Alumni NewsBrief
December 2007
ME - EM NewsBrief, Vol. 3, No. 4, Dec 2007
Holiday Greetings from William (Bill) W. Predebon, Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. For the latest news and information about our faculty, students, and staff please visit our web site.
Upcoming Events
The Michigan Tech Nordic Training Center will again host the US Cross Country Championship Jan. 1-6, 2008. 400 skiers are expected to compete. Michigan Tech earned the bid for the US championships based on a challenging trail.
The 8th Annual ME-EM Alumni Winter Carnival Hockey Social will be held on Saturday, February 9, 2008 during the MTU versus Wisconsin (Winter Carnival) game in the MacInnes Skybox of the Student Development Complex (SDC). The game has a 5:07 PM start time. RSVPs are requested to Kathy at kagoulet@mtu.edu or 906-487-2911. Space is very limited, please RSVP early.
Michigan Tech's 2008 Winter Baja Competition will be held on Saturday February 17, 2008 in Lake Linden, Michigan. See video from 2007
The MEEM Department along with the Keweenaw Research Center will again be hosting the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge on March 10-15, 2008. See 2007 Video and photos For more information on sponsorship of this event, please contact the department at 906-487-2551 or email wwpredeb@mtu.edu
The MEEM Annual Alumni/SAE Reception will be held at the 2008 SAE World Congress in Detroit, MI the week of April 13th, 2008 at Cobo Hall on either Monday, April 14th or Wednesday, April 16th at 5:00 p.m. For more information please call Kathy at (906) 487-2551 or email at kagoulet@mtu.edu.
Past Events
Almost 20,000 students from Lower Michigan attended the YES Expo at Ford Field in Detroit Thursday, Nov. 8th. Fifty-seven companies and organizations had exhibits at the expo, and 24 colleges and universities attended, including all 15 Michigan public institutions. Michigan Tech students staffed 15 booths. The YES Expo was highlighted in the Great Lakes IT Report - at www.glitr.com/Article.asp?id=505010&spid= , the Detroit News - www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071109/METRO/711090375, and Crain's Detroit - http://www.crainsdetroit.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071109/SUB/311090015
The ME-EM Department hosted a reception for ME-EM alumni at the ASME World Congress in Seattle, WA on Monday, November 12, 2007 at the at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel in the Issaquah Room.
MEEM Department Chair Travel
When on travel for the Department, Dr. Predebon visits with alumni to get their feedback on our programs and their career and to give an update on the department and university. Please let the Department know if you would be available for a visit when he is in your area. Call (906) 487-2911 or email kagoulet@mtu.edu.
Dr. Predebon will be traveling to the following cities this coming winter:
January 6-13, Phoenix & Tucson, AZ, University White Paper Event
January 14, San Jose, CA, University White Paper Event
January 28-30, St. Paul, MN
April 13-19, Detroit, MI, SAE International Congress
Alumni and Friends Accomplishments & Awards
John L. Drake (BSME '64 & MBA '69) has pledged $1 million to endow the John and Cathi Drake Endowed Professorship in Mechanical Engineering, including financing to provide immediate funding of the professorship. John received what he calls "a tremendous education at Michigan Tech, both in mechanical engineering and in business administration." He is the founder and chairman of Drake Manufacturing Services. Impressed with "the current management and mission of Michigan Tech and the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics," he hopes his gift will help other MTU students have the same success he has. The Department is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gordon G. Parker (Professor and Director of Research - MEEM) as the first John and Cathi Drake Professor. Please see the article in Faculty/Staff Awards/Accomplishments section.
Kimberly L. Turner (BSME '94) received the Michigan Tech Outstanding Young Alumni Award at the Midyear Commencement on Friday, Dec. 15, 2007. Turner went on to earn a PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University in 1999 and is now an associate professor and co-vice chair of the mechanical engineering department at the University of California at Santa Barbara, heading up the undergraduate program. She studies microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and was honored by the National Science Foundation with a CAREER award in 2001. She also earned a distinguished teaching award at UCSB in 2005. She is vice chair of the MEMS division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; she chairs the technical program for the 2008 Americas Workshop on Solid State Sensors and Actuators; and she is an associate editor of the IEEE Journal on Control Systems Technology.
Area News
GE Aviation has announced an expansion in Houghton that will eventually lead to 50 new jobs in the western Upper Peninsula. "Through our collaboration with Michigan Technological University and community and state officials, this center creates a strong pool of emerging engineers to provide design and development services for our aerospace programs," said Stuart Mullan, president of the digital systems business of GE Aviation. GE Aviation will renovate the 14,000-square-foot Powerhouse building at 101 W. Lakeshore Drive in Houghton and start moving in staff. The building will be renamed the GE Aviation University Development Center.
University News/Awards
A total of 283 companies and agencies were at Michigan Tech on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007 for the University's annual Career Day. That's an increase of nearly 50 over last year's attendance. In addition to recruiting graduates, companies were looking for students to fill internships and co-op positions.
Michigan Tech's Learning Communities got a mention in the USA Today article, "What Schools Across the Nation Are Doing to Engage Students". Read the article at: www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-11-04-nsse-good-things_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip.
The MTU Board of Control approved the new Military Family Education Award at its Dec. 14, 2007 meeting. The Award offers in-state tuition to out-of-state students who are the offspring or spouse of a person on active US military duty and starts with the first summer term of 2008.
Governor Jennifer Granholm has reappointed President Glenn Mroz to the Strategic Economic Investment and Commercialization Board for a term expiring Dec. 31, 2010. The board is responsible for allocating state funds for capital investments, commercial lending and commercialization development. It invests in four competitive-edge technologies: advanced automotive, manufacturing and materials; alternative energy; homeland security and defense; and life sciences.
Susann Nordrum (Chem Eng. '86) shares the Nobel Prize. Nordrum served as lead author on a chapter of the 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that examined "fugitive emissions"-the emissions produced by oil production and refining to make petroleum products. She was a contributing author on another chapter that looks at the capture and containment of carbon dioxide, which is the focus of her current work at Chevron. The 2006 guidelines were part of the IPCC's work that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. The award recognized their efforts to compile and disseminate information about man-made climate change, to lay the groundwork for rational policy-making. Nordrum hopes that her work with the IPCC will help convince the world to take climate change and greenhouse gases seriously and to work together to solve the problem.
Department Accomplishments
The Department of Mechanical Engineering - Engineering Mechanics has moved up in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) rankings according to their recently released report. NSF has ranked our Department 21st (up from 23rd in FY2005) in research expenditures for FY2006 at $10.238 million. This was a 15% increase over FY2005 at $8.9 million. The University also increased in ranking, the report lists Michigan Tech 125th among public institutions, up from 127th, and 75th among institutions without medical schools, up from 79th.
The MEEM safety program was recently highlighted in Michigan Tech's Tech Today stating "Graduates of the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics are entering industry as well-versed in safety as they are in computer-aided design." The safety program was developed under the leadership of Department Chair, William Predebon, who asked members of the Department's Industrial Advisory Board (now the External Advisory Board) to visit the department's labs. Safety experts from General Motors were also asked to review the labs and procedures and to make recommendations. The department then developed, staffed and began implementing a full-fledged, industry-standard safety program that extends from professors with million-dollar labs to every undergraduate who turns on a lathe or picks up a set of welding torches. All MEEM faculty, graduate students and staff are required to watch a 45-minute general safety video available from the department website. In addition to completing (and documenting) the general training, faculty and staff responsible for any of the department's 30-plus labs are required to develop a safety manual and train anyone using the facility. Undergraduate seniors who work in the labs as a part of the Senior Design program must also complete the training. Dr. Craig R. Friedrich (Professor and Associate Chair and Director of Graduate Studies - MEEM) is directing the safety program while Dr. Tammy Haut Donahue (Associate Professor - MEEM) is on sabbatical.
Last summer as a part of the Department's safety efforts a SawStop (a brand of table saw on the cutting edge of safety technology) was purchased. The uniqueness of this saw is that if the operator's skin comes in contact with the blade a mechanism causes the whole blade component to retract in 0.005 of a second. The result is a superficial cut. A demonstration of the saw with a hot dog can be seen at www.sawstop.com.
Faculty/Staff Awards/Accomplishments
Dr. Jason Blough (Assistant Professor - MEEM) and Dr. Gordon Parker (John and Cathi Drake Professor-MEEM) were highlighted in the article "Teaching the Teachers" in the Winter 2007-08 issue of Michigan Tech Magazine. The article about mentoring at MTU describes three mentor/mentee relationships. The Parker/Blough relationship is more than a technical relationship according to Parker, "it's also about personality and outlook." The entire article will be posted soon at http://www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/magazine/ .
Dr. Jason R. Blough (Assistant Professor - MEEM) has received the BlueRibbon Coalition Inc. 2006 Scientist of the Year Award "in appreciation of his successful efforts to promote and protect responsible recreational use of public lands." The BlueRibbon Coalition champions responsible use of public lands for the benefit of all recreationists and includes individual, organizational and company membership. Dr. Blough was named the recipient of this award because of his work with the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association on the measurement of snowmobile noise, assisting with the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge for the past five years, and advising the Michigan Tech SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge Enterprise Team for the past two years.
The Michigan Tech Multi-Scale Technologies Institute (MuSTI) hosted a dinner on Nov. 27, 2007 at the Materials Research Society Annual Meeting held in Boston for the organizers, invited speakers, and session chairs of Symposium II: Nanotubes and Related Nanostructures. The guests were 34 world leaders in nanomaterials research and development and included Sumio Iijima, the discoverer of carbon nanotubes. Dr. Craig Friedrich (Professor and Director of Graduate Studies - MEEM) is the MuSTI director. Dr. Friedrich also co-chaired the session on NEMS and Related Structures on Nov. 28, 2007.
Dr. L. Brad King (Associate Professor, MEEM) was featured in the 09/29/07 Great Lakes IT Report, under a headline announcing that "Michigan Tech's Terrific." see the whole article at: www.glitr.com/Article.asp?id=485187&spid=.
Dr. Spandan Maiti (Assistant Prof. - MEEM), Chandrashekar Shankar, Philippi H. Geubelle, and John Kieffer had their paper titled "Continuum and Molecular-Level Modeling of Fatigue Crack Retardation in Self-Healing Polymers" selected as the best fatigue and fracture paper published in the Journal of Engineering Material and Technology (JEMT) within the 12 month period July 2006 through June 2007. They were honored at a reception of the Materials Division of ASME and the ASME IMECE in Seattle on November 13, 2007 and received a certificate.
Dr. Spandan Maiti (Assistant Professor - MEEM), Dr. Ghatu Subhash (Adjunct Professor - MEEM), and Dipankar Ghosh co-authored the paper titled "Static and Dynamic Indentation Response of Fine Grained Boron Carbide" that will receive the Best Paper Award - Second Prize of the Engineering Ceramics Division of the American Ceramic Society at the 31st International Conference on Advanced Ceramics & Composites. The award ceremony will be held at the plenary session of the 32nd International Cocoa Beach Conference on Advanced Ceramics & Composites on January 28,
Dr. Jeffrey D. Naber (Associate Professor - MEEM) has been selected to receive a 2008 SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award. The Awards Committee stated "The credentials and standards of excellence in education of this year's candidates were extremely high and brought about some very keen competition. Your outstanding contributions have distinguished you as one of the top engineering educators." He will receive the award during the SAE 2008 World Congress & Expositions which begins April 14, 2008 in Detroit, MI.
Dr. Jeffry D. Naber (Associate Professor - MEEM) has been named to the State of Michigan's Renewable Fuels Working Group. The Group which consists of eight faculty members, four each from Michigan Tech and Michigan State, was set up to support the developing renewable-fuels industry in Michigan and to create new collaborative research, outreach and economic development programs centered on fuels and energy made from forest biomass.
Dr. Gordon G. Parker (Professor and Director of Research - MEEM) has been named the first recipient of the Drake Endowed Professorship. Gordon is an internationally recognized leader in control systems, particularly their application to naval technology. He has been recognized for his teaching as well as for his research. Before coming to Michigan Tech, Parker worked as an aerospace engineer and a senior member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratory. He earned the Michigan Tech Distinguished Teaching Award in 2001 and the SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award in 2003. Parker has received more than $4 million in research funding from government and industry.
Dr. William R. Shapton (Professor Emeritus and Visiting Professor-MEEM) has been selected to receive the 2008 SAE excellence in Engineering Education Award. He was selected because of his long-standing participation and support of SAE's engineering education initiatives and his outstanding contributions made to activities related to the Board. The purpose of the award is to recognize individuals, who have promoted SAE student activities at the international, national or local levels, contributed to the advances of engineering education, supported the SAE Collegiate Design Competitions and/or promoted educational activities at any level. He will receive the award during the Awards Ceremony scheduled for Tuesday, April 15, 2008 in conjunction with the SAE 2008 World Congress in Detroit, Michigan.
Dr. Henry Sodano (Adjunct Assistant Professor - MEEM) and MEEM graduate students Jonathan Granstrom and Joel Feenstra have designed straps for backpacks made of a piezoelectric material that that will capture the energy generated by the up-and-down movement of a hiker's pack and turn it into enough voltage to power small electrical devices. Someone shouldering a heavy pack could generate 45.6 milliwatts walking two or three miles per hour, enough wattage to power small electronics or it could be accumulated for later use. The research was funded by the Office of Naval Research, which is investigating power sources for Marines in the field. The researchers hope to receive additional support to develop a prototype and then to commercialize their innovation.
Books Authored by Faculty
The Trafford (England) Times listed the book "Entrepreneurship from Creativity to Innovation" by Dr. Edward Lumsdaine (Professor - MEEM) and Martin Binks on it Best Sellers of 3rd Quarter 2007 list.
Current Contracts and Grants
Dr. Gopal Jayaraman (Professor - ME-EM), PI, was awarded $4,500 a Century II Campaign Endowed Equipment Fund (C2E2) grant for an instrumented drop tester for low-velocity impact. The ME-EM department, Pioneer Surgical Technology, and Portage Health System will provide additional funding.
Jeremy Worm (Research Engineer/Grant Writer - MEEM), PI, was awarded a 4Q 2007 PACE/HP Hardware Grant for one new HP engineering workstation for the PACE Student Collaboration Room.
Dr. Mohan Rao, (Professor - MEEM), PI, "Dynamic and Acoustic Modeling of a Solid Ink Printer Mechanism", Sponsor: Xerox Corporation. Total award amount: $16,921.
Faculty and Student Invention Disclosures
Dr. John H. Johnson (Research Professor - MEEM), Dr. Gordon G. Parker (John and Cathi Drake Professor and Director of Research - MEEM), and Maruthi Devarakonda (PhD Student - MEEM) have filed a provisional patent application for "Exhaust aftertreatment system", ID #0720.00 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Student Competitions and Team Awards
NASA has selected the Aerospace Enterprise team's proposal to fly an experiment on NASA's 0-g plane for the third year in a row. This year they are planning to test the ability to freeze liquid-metal nanotips. This effort is related to a patent that Michigan Tech holds on this technology. The advisor for the Aerospace Enterprise is Dr. L. Brad King (Associate Professor - MEEM).
Michigan Tech's Challenge X Hybrid Vehicle team participated in a week long "Ride and Drive" event in Los Angeles, CA. Sixteen different schools participated in the event which is a prelude to the spring competition. Students participating in the event for MTU were William Bland (Jr. ME), Todd Cimermancic (Sr. TMET), Adam Kantor (Jr. ME), Charisse Lievens (Sr. ME), Chris Lucier (Soph. ME), Doug Sarsen (Sr. ME), and Melissa Saxton (Soph. ME). The team is advised by Dr. John E. Beard (Associate Professor, MEEM). Ron Savela (Student Project Specialist) accompanied the team on the trip.
Computer Science majors Mikola Lysenko, Ryan Richards and Nick Smolinske made it to the world finals in the ACM ICPC programming contest and were narrowly edged out of first place by a team from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. These students are working in Dr. Roshan D'Souza (Assistant Professor - MEEM) research lab on Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), which is a technique to simulate dynamic systems from the bottom up. The unique contribution of Dr. D'Souza's research by these students is using the enormous computational power of Grahpics Processing Units (GPU's), which is a new application of these GPU's and presents new and unique research challenges.
The MEEM senior design project, "Automatically Indexing Insert Toolholder", sponsored by Endres Machining Innovations, Houghton, MI earned First Place at the 2007 ASME International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference, Student Manufacturing Design Competition, in Atlanta, Georgia on October 10, 2007. The team consisted of Jeremy Rickli (PhD student - MEEM), Jonathan Granstrom (MS student - MEEM), John Armstead (Sr. - MEEM), Andy Fenderbosch (Sr. - MEEM), and Casey Coolich (Sr. - MEEM). The team was advised by Dr. Jaime Camelio (Assistant Professor - MEEM). This project also placed second at the Senior Design Competition at Michigan Tech this past spring. Dr. Jaime Camelio (Assistant Professor-MEEM) is Jeremy Rickli's advisor and Dr. Henry Sodano (Adjunct Assistant Professor-MEEM) is Jonathan Granstrom's advisor.
Student Accomplishments/Awards
Libao An (PhD student - MEEM) presented his work, "Real-Time Characterization of Dielectrophoeritc Assembly of Metallic Carbon Nanotubes" during the session on Device Integration on Nov. 29, 2007 at the Materials Research Society Annual Meeting held in Boston. Libao was joined by speakers from Columbia, Lehigh, and Seoul National Universities, Fujitsu and DuPont. Dr. Craig R. Friedrich (Professor and Associate Chair and Director of Graduate Studies) is Libao's advisor.
Margot Hutchins (PhD student - MEEM), Dr. Christa Walck (Professor & Dean - SBE), Daniel Sterk (MS student - BME) and Dr. Gary Campbell (Professor - SBE) published a paper, "Corporate Social Responsibility: A Unifying Discourse for the Mining Industry?" in Greener Management International: The Journal of Corporate Environmental Strategy & Practice, Issue 52, October 2007. Dr. John W. Sutherland (Henes Chair Professor - MEEM) is Margot's advisor.
MEEM 3000 students launched rockets on December 11, 2007. See pictures at http://www.me.mtu.edu/news/2007/dec2007_rocket.html. Dr. L. Brad King is the MEEM 3000 instructor.
Diego Villegas-Bermudez (Ph.D. student - MEEM) received a 2007 Biotechnology Research Center Travel Grants toward his presentation "A Study of Collagen Orientation in the Bovine Anterior and Posterior Medial Meniscal Horn Attachments" at the 2007 Summer Bioengineering Conference held in Colorado, June 2007. Dr. Tammy Haut Donahue (Associate Professor - MEEM) is Diego's advisor.
Keith White (Jr.-MEEM), an MTU football husky wide receiver, gained All-GLIAC Honorable Mention.
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William W. Predebon, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, MI 49931-1295
Phone No.: 906-487-2551
Fax No.: 906-487-2822
E-mail: wwpredeb@mtu.edu
For more news and information about our faculty, students,and staff - please visit our web site news pages:: Department News -- Research News -- Alumni News -- Student News |
