Dr. Cliff Lissenden, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, is to receive $1,000,000 from the Nuclear Energy University Programs for his proposal Monitoring Microstructural Evolution of Alloy 617 with Nonlinear Acoustics for Remaining Useful Life Prediction; Multiaxial Creep-Fatigue and Creep-Ratcheting.

Eric Liauw, graduate student in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will be presenting a poster on an accepted abstract titled, “Subject decoupled maximal SSVEP bit rate” at the 4th International Brain-Computer Interface Conference.” The BCI conference is scheduled from May 30 – June 4 in Pacific Grove, California. Eric is a group member in the Center for Neural Engineering. For more information on BCI, please visit their website.

Andrew Geronimo, graduate student in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will attend the 4th International Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) meeting from May 30 – June 4 and present a poster on an accepted abstract, “Cue variation in a motor-imagery task.” The conference will be held in Pacific Grove, California. Andrew is a group member of ESM's Center for Neural Engineering. To learn more about BCI, please visit their website.

Shane Lani and Jillian Woolridge won the Kerns/McNitt Award
Casey Howsare and Sean Stokes won the Frank Fenlon Award
Bala Krishna Juluri won the Paul A. Lester Award
Myo Min Thein won the Joseph Conway Award
Max Wetherington won the P.B. Breneman Best Portfolio
Jacqueline Van Pelt won the P.B. Breneman Best Design in Research

Congratulations to all for attaining these honors.

Changjin Huang and Wentao Liang, graduate students in engineering science and mechanics and under the advising of Dr. Sulin Zhang, attended the short course, Mechanics of Soft Materials. The short course was held on May 9 – 12 in Evanston, IL. This course is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the International Union of Theoretical & Applied Mechanics, and the US National Committee of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. For more information, please visit their website.

Dr. Charles E. Bakis, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, is presenting a Keynote Lecture on "Micromechanical Model of Filament Wound Composites Considering Fiber Undulation" at the XVI International Conference on Mechanics of Composite Materials to be held in Riga, Latvia on May 24-28, 2010. Prof. Bakis obtained NSF funding for eight delegates from the United States to attend the conference. He also serves on the Scientific Program Committee of the conference. For more information about the conference, please visit their website.

Arthur Anderson, BS E SC ’06, has been accepted to the Mechanical Engineering Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since graduation in ’06, Arthur has been working for the Navy and is currently on temporary duty at Ship’s Repair Faculity in Yokosuka, Japan. He plans to arrive in Boston this month for his dual masters program, in Naval Construction and Engineering and Systems Design Management.

Dr. Eduard Ventsel, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, was recognized by journal Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, that his paper entitled “Approximate method for evaluating hypersingluar integrals,” was among the Top 25 Hottest Articles in Mathematics.

Dr. Bernhard Tittmann, Schell Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, has accepted an invitation to become a member of the editorial committee of the Internet Journal of Nanotechnology. This publication is a new international journal created by Dr.Olivier Wenker, Professor of Anesthesiology, Director of Technology Discovery Office of Translational Research, Division of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, along with Dr. Robert Shaler, Director of the Forensic Science program and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are researching the use of fingerprints as key pieces of evidence with an experimental thermal evaporator at the Materials Research Institute. This new technology will change the way crime scenes are investigated by using a vacuum and composite film to capture a better physical development of the fingerprint to have chemical evidence still left. To learn more, click here for a short video from WJACTV.

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will be presenting five seminars at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The topics he will be presenting are Multiplasmonics, Nanoengineered Metamaterials: Sculptured Thin Films, Coping with and celebrating nanotechnology, Negatively Refracting Chiral Metamaterials, and Copycat technology.

Mala Sharma, M.S. ’95 Engineering Mechanics, Ph.D. ’00 Engineering Science and Mechanics, has recently been promoted and tenured at Bucknell University. Mala is now one of four women to be tenured in the college of engineering at her University. Congratulations Mala!

Engineering Science graduating seniors, Casey Howsare and Sean Stokes, are the recipients of the Frank Fenlon Award. The Frank Fenlon Award, established in 1982 by Mrs. Francis Fenlon, is given annually to recognize the outstanding Engineering Science senior thesis. The award is named in honor of the late Dr. Fenlon, a dedicated teacher and exceptional researcher in the ESM department.

Casey’s senior capstone and design research was done under the supervision of Professor Osama Awadelkarim. His thesis is titled “Parametric Studies of Graphene Synthesis by Chemical Vapor Deposition on Copper Substrates.”

Sean Stokes’ thesis is titled “Self-Folding PDMS Polymer Films in Response to Capillary Forces,” was his research capstone design project was under the supervision of Professor Melik Demirel.

Al Segall, Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, has been names fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the ASME enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world.

Fan Zhang, Ph.D. ’08 in Engineering Science and Mechanics, has accepted a position at the CREE Santa Barbara Technology Center. Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and setting the stage to obsolete the incandescent light bulb through the use of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor solutions for wireless and power applications.

The annual ESM Graduation Celebration was held on Friday, May 14th at the Earth and Engineering Sciences Building.

Congratulations to the Class of 2010.

Photos from the event will be posted here.

Dr. Al Segall, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, is scheduled to attend and chair a session, Tribotesting (II), of the Society of Tribologist and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) meeting in Las Vegas, NV from May 16 – 20, 2010.