The American writer William Arthur Ward (1921-1994) once said, "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."

John Bender, a Penn State alumnus and Colorado physician, feels fortunate enough to have had a great teacher. Bender met Andrew Pytel, professor emeritus of engineering mechanics, in a statics class when he entered graduate school at Penn State in the fall of 1974. Bender also served as a teaching assistant under Pytel. "He was the best teacher I ever knew," Bender said.

Dr. Cliff Lissenden, Associate Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics and Director of the Ben Franklin Center of Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) announces the annual fall meeting on November 3-4, 2008.

Keynoting for the meeting, the Center welcomes John Johns from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. To read more about Mr. Johns, click the “read more” link at the end of this entry.

For additional information about the SHM fall meeting, visit their website.

Dr. Cliff Lissenden, Associate Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a paper titled “Integrated Structural Health Monitoring with Guided Waves from Piezoelectric Fibers.” The paper will be presented at the ASME Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems in Ellicott City, Maryland on October 28 - 30, 2008. To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Ambuj Sharma, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, under the advising of Dr. Charles E. Bakis, is to present a paper at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE), October 31 - November 6, 2008 in Boston, MA. To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Penn State will receive $5 million over four years from the National Science Foundation to establish a National Center for Nanotechnology Applications and Career Knowledge (NACK).

Penn State has been a national leader in nanotechnology education and workforce development since 1998. From 2001 to 2008, Penn State was home to the NSF Regional Center for Nanofabrication Manufacturing Education. The new NSF grant establishes the National Center for Nanotechnology Applications and Career Knowledge (NACK) as successor to the Regional Center.

According to Stephen Fonash, the Kunkle Chair Professor of Engineering Science, who will direct the new NACK Center, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development was extremely farsighted when it created the Nanofabrication Manufacturing Technology (NMT) Partnership in 1998 to meet Pennsylvania industry needs for skilled micro- and nanofabrication workers.

"The NMT Partnership prepares students to work in any industry using micro- and nanotechnology," said Fonash. "In addition to Penn State, the NMT Partnership includes the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, the Pennsylvania College of Technology, other post-secondary and secondary schools, private industry and others."

The nation's first associate degrees in nanofabrication were awarded in Pennsylvania through this partnership. The NMT Partnership also offers enormously popular summer Nanotech Academies for high school students, as well as professional development workshops for educators and industry personnel.

The goal of the NACK Center is to provide national coordination of micro- and nanofabrication workforce development programs and activities on behalf of NSF.

Source: Penn State Department of Public Information

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas will induct Sam Zamrik, Penn State professor emeritus of engineering science and mechanics, into its Mechanical Engineering Hall of Fame on Oct. 24 in Austin, Texas.

Zamrik, an alumnus of both Penn State and the University of Texas, was chosen as a recipient for the award based on his contributions to the profession of engineering, his interest in developing programs in the department, and his activities as a role model for current and prospective mechanical engineering students. The University of Texas developed the Mechanical Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni in order to publicly recognize alumni, champion the profession, create a sense of community within the department and facilitate interaction with its student body and alumni.

The department's other award categories include Outstanding Young Mechanical Engineer and Mechanical Engineering Honorary Engineering Award. All awardees become members of the department's Mechanical Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni.

Credit: Penn State Live

Dr. Samia Suliman, Assistant Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a paper titled ”Schottky contact on SiC: The effect of barrier inhomogeneity on current- voltage characteristics”, in the Topics in Electrical Circuits and Systems session , of the 5th Congress of Scientific Research Outlook in the Arab World :Scientific Innovation and Sustained Development. The conference will be held in Fez- Morocco, from October 25-30, 2008.

The conference is organized by the Arab Science and Technology Foundation in collaboration with the Morocco Ministry of National and Higher Education Professional Training and Scientific Research, and in partnership and support of Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology as part of the 1200 anniversary of establishment of Morocco and Fez.

To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Engineering Science and Mechanics has teamed up with the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (our fellow building occupants) to bring state-of-the-art research to the public through visually attractive posters in the lobbies and halls of the Earth-Engineering Sciences Building (EES).

The posters are representative of just some of the extant research activities being conducted by ESM teams of faculty and students.

Several posters are already in place while others will be installed over the next few weeks.

Angela Karali (ESMCH, 1994) is employed by the International Relations and European Affairs Department of the Hellenic Association of Engineers in Greece. Dr. Karali notes that she "is very pleased with her employment: both the work is interesting and the people she works with. I am becoming becoming a bit of an expert in the Far East through my employment relationship with China--something I enjoy tremendously. The other part of my work involves EU funded projects (i.e. proposals, funding, project management etc.)". ESM congratulates Dr. Karali on her many accomplishments. She is shown here with Professor Emeritus Sabih Hayek and Mrs. Guler Hayek when they visited with Angela last month in Greece.

Dr. Abuzar Abid Siddiqui, a lecturer with the University College of Engineering and Technology, B. Z. University, Multan, Pakistan, has concluded a ten-month post-doctoral research visit with Akhlesh Lakhtakia.

Dr. Siddiqui, conducted research on steady and unsteady flows of micropolar fluids (such as blood) though microchannels. His trip was sponsored by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.

Engineering Science seniors recently announced their Senior Research Design Capstone Projects for the 2008-09 academic year. The names of the students, their research titles, and their supervising faculty members follow below. The Senior Research Design Capstone Project is a graduation requirement for students enrolled in the Engineering Science major.

Selina Roman-White, a 7th grade student at the Indian Valley Middle School in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, along with her teammates, competed in the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) held on the Michigan State University campus summer 2008. Selina's team placed 2nd out of 68 teams internationally in the written booklet portion of the program and 4th in the skit portion of the program.

During a break in the competion, the students participated in a momento exchange including ESM memorabilia and Penn State Paterno masks, shown here.

Dr. Cliff Lissenden, Associate Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, along with Dr. Joseph Rose, Paul Morrow Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, are presenting a poster “Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Laminates through Ultrasonic Guided Wave Beam Forming” at the NATO Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT-157) Symposium on Ensured Military Platform Availability. The conference scheduled for October 13 - 16, 2008 is located in Montreal, Canada. To learn more about the meeting, please visit their website.

Tony Huang's article entitled "Light-Driven Plasmonic Switches Based on Au Nanodisk Arrays and Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals" was recently reviewed by ACS Nanotation as a Nano Picks Article Review. Earlier this year, the article received the coveted spot of cover article on Advanced Materials.

Congratulations to Jing Mu (ESMCH, August 2008; and Fei Yan ESMCH , May 2009) upon the arrival of infant daughter Sophie Yan. Sophie was born Wednesday, September 17th at 4:40 a.m. Jing tells us that Sophie is quickly growing beyond her birth statistics of 7 lbs., 11 oz; 20 inches long.

Please send your congratulations to Jing and Fei at jxm1006@psu.edu or fzy101@psu.edu.

Dr. Judith A. Todd, Engineering Science and Mechanics Department Head, is pleased to announce that fifty-one Engineering Science students achieved Dean's List status for fall semester 2006. Congratulations to the following students:

David Klodowski, Kathryn Barber, Miranda Hitchcock, Hitesh Basantani, Brennan DeCesar, Rukan Shao, Minna Ranjeva, Adam Ostrich, Abdalla Nassar, Keith Stern, Paul Sauter, Arwen Kandt, Nghia Nguyen, Benjamin Russo, Scott Kozlowski, Sean Stokes, Justin Hammond, Michael Anderson, Stephen Koytek, Kevin Howorth, Matt Lanagan, Windsor Bisbee, Zackary Stratton, Matthew Verlinich, Scott Jacobs, Shane Lani, Timothy Byrne, Brendan Purcell, Jillian Woolridge, Benjamin Koch, Aimee Tu, Tristan Helms, Christopher Winter, Brian Bontempo, Michael Ulizio, Kevin Graves, Marc McNeill, Jessica Bogniak, Stanton Sollenberger, Nicholas Bugos, and Ravendra Nohar.

The ESM Department is very pleased to have you honor our department with your outstanding academic achievement.

Dr. Robert McGrath, BS E SC ’72, MA E SC ’75, PhD from the University of Michigan, has decided to depart from Ohio State University and join the Battelle Memorial Institute as a member of their Global Laboratory operations leadership team. In his new role, he will assist with the management of the U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories and associated energy R&D programs.

At Ohio State University, Dr. McGrath served as Senior Vice President for Research at where he was responsible for the University’s strategic research planning and for operation of the University’s half-billion dollar research program. He also holds appointments as Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, as well as the Department of Physics.

ESM congratulates Dr. Robert McGrath for his accomplishments and wishes him well in his new endeavors.

Dr. Lawrence Friedman, Assistant Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, attends the Material Science and Technology (MS&T) conference 2008 from October 5 - 7, 2008 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the conference, Lawrence will be serving as the Nanomechanics Committee Vice Chair and hearing student paper presentations. To learn more about the conference, please visit this website.

Ghanium Ullah, Post-doctoral Scholar in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will attend and present research results at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Society of Neuroscience on November 15-19, 2008 in Washington, D.C. Ghanium’s research highlights include the lack of understanding of cellular interaction during epileptic seizures is a primary reason for the ineffectiveness of the treatment methods in one-third of the patients. The Neural Engineering group at ESM has developed a detailed model for the neuronal networks to investigate the cellular interaction during seizures. The model exposes several mechanisms playing an important role in seizures generation and propagation and points towards possible therapeutic treatments. To read more about the conference, please visit this website.

Sridhar Sunderam, Research Associate at the Center for Neural Engineering, in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will attend the 2008 Annual International Meeting of the Society of Neuroscience in Washington, D.C. on November 15 - 19, 2008. While at the conference Sridhar is delivering a presentation entitled: Seizure Modulation with Low Frequency Polarizing Stimulation.” The talk will be expanding on his ability to utilize weak electric fields to entrain neural activity during epileptic seizures in a chronic rodent model of temporal lobe epilepsy. To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, is to present a keynote-invited lecture at the annual Symposium of the American Vacuum Society on October 22 - 23 in Boston, Massachusetts. To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Dr. S. Ashok, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, attended the 40th International conference on Solid State Devices and Materials in Toukuba, Japan on September 23-26, 2008. While in Japan, Dr. Ashok visited the University of Tokyo and Shiboura Institution of Technology to present a seminar. To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a poster at the meeting of Center for Optical Technologies on October 13, 2008 in Bethlehem, PA. The Center for Optical Technologies is a multi-institutional initiative based at Lehigh University with a charter to advance research and applications of optical and optoelectronic technologies. Currently the three primary research focus areas are Optoelectronics, All-Optical Functionalities, and Biophotonics. To learn more about the meeting, please visit their website.

Daniel Ahmed, Graduate student in Engineering Science and Mechanics, with advisory, Dr. Tony Huang, James Henderson Assistant Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanic, will be presenting a research paper on “Ultrafast Mixing” at the 2008 MicroTAS conference in San Diego, California on October 12 - 16, 2008. To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Dr. Lawrence Friedman, Assistant Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will be attending the Society of Engineering Science (SES) 2008 meeting in Urbana, Illinois on October 12 - 15, 2008. While at the conference, Lawrence will present a paper on “Practical Finite Continuum Modeling with Applications to Film Evolution.” To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Professor Bernhard Tittmann, Schell Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, presented a paper on “Shear Wave Imaging of Tissue,” and chaired a session on acoustic microscopy at the International Conference on Medical Transducers on September 21 - 29 in Santa Barbara, California. To learn more about the conference, please visit this website.

Dr. Cliff Lissenden, Associate Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics and Director of the Ben Franklin Center of Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) announces the annual fall meeting on November 3-4, 2008.

Keynoting for the meeting, the Center welcomes John Johns from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. To read more about Mr. Johns, click the “read more” link at the end of this entry.

For additional information about the SHM fall meeting, visit their website.