ME-EM
Alumni NewsBrief
July
2006
ME-EM NewsBrief Vol. 2, No 2
Greetings from William (Bill) W. Predebon, Chair, Department
of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. For
the latest news and information about our faculty, students,
staff, and alumni please visit our web site at http://www.me.mtu.edu/.
Upcoming Events, all alumni are welcome to
participate.
Alumni Reunion, August 3-5th, 2006. MEEM will again
host a MEEM Alumni Boat Cruise down the Portage Canal
on Thursday, August 3rd from 1-4 p.m. This COMPLIMENTARY
cruise includes cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and is
for alumni and their families. As this event is usually
very popular, we ask that you sign up early by calling
Kathy at (906) 487-2911 or via email: kagoulet@mtu.edu.
We promise to have you back in time for the Pasty Picnic.
See
last years slide show
Michigan Tech is again preparing to host the Michigan
Youth Engineering and Science (YES!) Expo, set for Nov.
2 at Detroit's Ford Field. This event attracts thousands
of middle- and high-school students. Dozens of colleges,
universities, corporations and agencies will be on hand
to inspire students to consider careers in engineering,
science and other technology-related fields. Last fall,
YES! Expo attracted
more than 40 companies, 25 colleges and universities
and about two dozen organizations ranging from NASA
to the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum, along with more than
12,500 secondary school students.
The MEEM Department along with the Keweenaw Research
Center will again be hosting the SAE Clean Snowmobile
Challenge March 19-24, 2007. Last year's MTU team results
included Best Design - 1st, Objective Handling/Driveability
- 2nd, Acceleration - 3rd, Emissions - 4th, and overall
- 6th. For more information on sponsorship of this event,
please contact the department at 906-487-2551 or email
me at wwpredeb@mtu.edu.
See 2006
Movies and photos
Michigan Tech will host the 2007 U.S. Cross-Country
Ski Championships Jan. 3rd-7th, 2007 and again in 2008.
The event should bring in over 400 skiers from 30 colleges.
Dr. Predebon will be traveling to
the following cities this coming summer and fall:
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.
(906) 487-2911.
Week of 7/24/06 - Boston MA for a seminar.
Week of 11/6/06 - Chicago, IL for the ASME conference
Alumni Accomplishments/Awards
Erik Alburg (BSME, 1997) promotion
to Director of Quality for Material Sciences Corporation
(MSC) in charge of Six Sigma and
Lean Manufacturing implementation.
Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos (MSME,
1987), founder and head of the Aerosols and Particles
Laboratory, Thessaloniki, Greece has been named as an
SAE Fellow.
Pete Koepfgen (BSME, 2002) is working
as an engineer at a solar heating, ventilation, hot-water
startup company in Toronto Canada. He is finding the
experience exciting as he gets to experience so many
facets of manufacturing, development, and design.
Area News
Michigan's Upper Peninsula has made ShermansTravel's
Top 10 Summer Destinations list. The U.P. was ranked
10th in the world.
University News/Awards
Michigan Tech's ExSEL Program (an
academic support program that targets at-risk students,
currently a partnership between Educational Opportunity,
the College of Engineering and the State of Michigan's
King-Chavez-Parks Initiative) has been selected to receive
a 2006 Lee Noel-Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Award,
which is given to two institutions in North America
annually. It will be presented at the 2006 National
Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing and Retention
in Denver, to be held July 19-21, 2006.
Jay Meldrum, director of the Keweenaw
Research Center, has been elected to the Society of
Automotive Engineers Engineering Education Board, which
develops, promotes, supervises and coordinates SAE programs
related to formal educational institutions, for a three-year
term, effective May 1, 2006. Jay plays a key role in
organizing the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, which
has been co-hosted by KRC and the ME-EM Department the
last four years.
Michigan Tech was named on a short list of schools
that offer a mix of high-quality academic and dirty-hands
experience in the March 2006 edition of Sound and Vibration
magazine. Mentioned in the article by Strether Smith
were Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Cal Poly, Michigan State,
Michigan Tech, Texas Christian, U. of Massachusetts
Lowell, and U. of Missouri Rolla.
Department Accomplishments
The second ME-EM Annual Report has been published and
will be in the mail soon.
Senator Carl Levin was at the Advanced
Technology Development Center on the Tech campus on
July 3rd to hear presentations about the efforts at
Michigan Tech to develop alternative fuels and power
systems. Dr. Carl Anderson (ME-EM)
and Dr. David R. Shonnard (Chem Eng) spoke on the Wood-to-Wheels
(W2W) program, which involves the development of fuels,
such as ethanol, made from biomass for automobile transportation.
The research includes changes to automobile engines
and other system components. W2W will develop, demonstrate
and assess technologies for the utilization of bio-based
fuels. The W2W is a part of the Sustainable
Futures Institute at MTU which is co-directed
by Dr. John Sutherland.
New Faculty
Dr. VC Rao Komaravolu, Lecturer, PhD-IIT
Madras India, 34 years experience as a lecturer and
visiting professor and for the past several years as
a technical consultant for VGS-PLM Solutions for all
of India.
Dr. Abhijit Mukerjee, Assistant Professor,
PhD-UCLA, 2 years experience as a Visiting Research
Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. Research
interests: Two phase flow, heat and mass transfer with
application to fuel cells.
New Staff
Peter Bingham, Training Design Specialist,
from Calumet Machine. Primary area of responsibility
is Senior Design project support.
Gina Carver, Office Assistant, from
CC Chamber of Commerce. Primary area of responsibility
is support for Senior Design and the Undergraduate Program.
Henry King, User Support Specialist
- West Engineering Computer Network, from a temporary
position in MEEM. Primary area of responsibility is
faculty, staff, and computer lab computer support and
maintenance.
Renee Ozanich, Office Assistant, from
Keweenaw Memorial Hospital. Primary area of responsibility
is administrative support.
Alexis Snell, Administrative Aide,
from Daniel Heights. Primary area of responsibility
is the Graduate Program.
Martin Toth, Master Machinist, from
the College of Engineering.
Faculty/Staff Accomplishments/Awards
Dr. John K. Gershenson has been named
Associate Editor of the Journal Mechanical Design.
Dr. Mahesh Gupta is co-author of the
ANTEC 2005 paper 'Experimental and Numerical Investigation
of Elongational Viscosity Effects in a Coat Hanger Die',
which has been selected as one of the 'Best of ANTEC
2005' papers. Dr. Gupta was asked to give an online
presentation of the paper.
Dr. Tammy Haut Donahue has been promoted
from assistant professor without tenure to associate
professor with tenure.
Dr. John H. Johnson was cited in the
Blade, based in Toledo, Ohio. Jon Chavez's story, 'Gearing
Up for Better Mileage: Toledo Jeeps to Gain Efficiency
by New Rules,' addresses the auto industry's response
to new fuel standards. Johnson said that he believed
the standards are achievable, in part because automakers
are not objecting to the new rules.
Dr. L. Brad King has been chosen by
SAE International to receive the Ralph R. Teetor Educational
Award. The award will be presented at the 2007 AeroTech
Congress and Exhibition.
Drs. King and Sutherland have been nominated for the
Graduate Faculty Mentoring Award. This is important
recognition for our faculty in one of the very important
educational responsibilities we have as faculty.
Dr. Donna J. Michalek has been selected
to participate in the Institute for Scholarship for
Engineering Education (ISEE). This year's theme is diversity
where the focus is on addressing the engineering education
needs of the 21st century.
Drs. Michele H. Miller, Gordon G. Parker, Henry
A. Sodano, and Bernhard P. Bettig, et al have
filed a provisional patent application 'MEMS Sensor'
Dr. Abhijit Mukerjee has been selected
as the recipient of the ASME 2006 Best Paper Award.
Formal presentation of the award will be at the ASME
International Congress and Exposition in Chicago this
coming November.
Dr. Jeffrey D. Naber has accepted
the chair position for the new 'Lubricants & Powertrain
Systems Committee' in SAE.
Drs. Amatabh Narain and Gordon G. Parker have
been promoted from associate professor with tenure to
professor with tenure.
Dr. Gordon G. Parker has accepted
the position of Director of Research, which is a new
position in the ME-EM Department.
Dr. Henry A. Sodano has an invention
disclosure 'Piezoelectric materials for power harvesting'.
Dr. Henry A. Sodano received a 2006 Research Excellence
Fund Award for 'Multifunctional Piezoelectric Carbon
Fibers'.
Dr. Ghatu Subhash has received notification
that the modeling paper on BMG he has co-authored is
to be published in Phil Mag Letters.
Dr. John W. Sutherland has been named
by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers to its College
of Fellows. Among eight new SME Fellows chosen worldwide
for their outstanding contributions to manufacturing,
he is recognized as a key contributor to the social,
technical and educational progress of manufacturing.
The university honored faculty and staff members who
had attained 25, 30 and 35 years of service to the university.
Honored from the ME-EM Department were Carl
L. Anderson - 25 years and Thomas Grimm, Paul Kilpela,
Sudhakar M. Pandit and William W. Predebon for 30 years.
Student Competitions and Team Awards
Six teams totaling 21 MTU engineering students competed
in the PACE competition on the MTU campus. The competition
was integrated into their Engineering Modeling and Design
course (ENG1102). The competition was to engage students
to think like engineers and designers and provide the
use of digital data and tools used in the product development
process. The teams were judged on design concept, creativity,
safety, physical model fit and function, budget, Matlab
simulation, and collaborative teamwork. ME students
competing were Quincy Schultz, Christopher Miller,
Amanda Scott (1st place team), Andrew
Rames, Timothy Wilkins, Colin Fay, Travis Jansen, and
Bradley Konik. Rob Greenhoe competed as an
ME staff member.
SAE Mini Baja national competition was held May 24th
- 27th in Elkhorn, WI. Results for the MTU team were
Design - 4th, Acceleration and Mud Bog - 14th, Maneuverability
- 19th, Cost Report - 20th, Overall - 22nd out of the
168 teams that competed.
Michigan Tech's SAE Formula Car competed in the national
competition in Detroit March 16th - 20th, 2006, placing
89th. See the car at http://www.mtufsae.com/
Student Accomplishments/Awards
Heather Aho, Jana Bloom, Vanessa Ortis, and
Tara Swanson have been awarded the prestigious
Clare Boothe Luce undergraduate scholarship.
Graduate students Abigail Clarke, Xiaoxia Lai,
and Xiaoli Ye each earned a 2006 NSF Design,
Service, and Manufacturing Grantees and Research Conference
Student Travel Grant. These funds are used for travel
to the conference where all NSF grantees in the areas
of design, service, and manufacturing present their
research and they too will present their research. These
students are part of the Life-Cycle Engineering Lab
in Product and Process Modularity and Product Family
Design. Their advisor is Dr. John K. Gershenson.
Aaron Ditty, an ME senior, was selected
as the MTU Nordic Ski team's Male Most Valuable Skier
for the third year in a row.
Mark Griep, a ME-EM PhD student working
on protein-based nanosensors, was awarded an NSF Graduate
Research Fellowship. This is a very prestigious award
which provides stipend, tuition, and some travel for
up to three years. His advisor is Dr. Craig R. Friedrich.
Tumul Gupta, a ME-EM PhD student, has
received a 2006 Graduate Student Travel Grant for his
poster presentation at the 2006 Biomedical Engineering
Conference in Florida in June. His advisor is Dr. Tammy
Haut Donahue.
Tara Hansen, a 4th year biological
sciences undergraduate researcher, earned 3rd place
at the ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference B.S. Student
Paper Competition at Amelia Island Plantation, FL. The
title of her presentation was 'The Histological Makeup
of Bovine Medial Meniscal Attachments'. Dr. Haut Donahue
is her advisor.
Margo Hutchins, a ME-EM PhD student,
has received a DeVlieg Fellowship. Her advisor is Dr.
John W. Sutherland.
Kristina Owen, an ME senior, was selected
as the MTU Nordic Ski team's Female Most Valuable Skier.
She is the first MTU Nordic skier to secure All-American
honors in back-to-back seasons.
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
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