Andrew Geronimo, graduate student in Engineering Science and Mechanics and member of the Center for Neural Engineering, received the National Science Foundation IEEE EMBS Excellence in Neural Engineering Travel Award. With this award, Andrew plans to attend the 5th International IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference in August 2011. To learn more about the conference, please visit their web site. Congratulations Andrew!

Dr. Tony Huang, Associate Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will give an invited talk at the OSA, The Optical Society conference on Acoustic Tweezers: Patterning, Focusing, and Separating Cells and Microparticles using Standing Surface Acoustic Waves (SSAW). The meeting will be held in Monterey California from April 4 – 11. To learn more about the conference, please visit their web site.

John R. Hellmann
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, PSU

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
3:35pm - 4:25pm
114 EES Building

Dr. Joseph Rose, Paul Marrow Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, received the Graduate Faculty Teaching Award. This award is awarded to a graduate faculty whose teaching and mentoring are deemed outstanding. Dr. Rose will be recognized March 2011 at a special awards ceremony at the Nittany Lion Inn. Congratulations Dr. Rose!

MANDATORY ETHICS SEMINAR:

Akhlesh Lakhtakia
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics

Wednesday, March 23, 2011
3:35pm - 4:25pm
114 EES Building

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder professor of engineering science and mechanics,
co-chaired a conference entitled Bioinspiration, Biomimetics, and Bioreplication during the
SPIE Smart Structures Symposium convened at San Diego, CA, between March 7 and 10, 2011.

At this conference, Drew P. Pulsifer, Ph.D. student, presented a paper entitled
"Engineered biomimicry: polymeric replication of surface features found on insects". His co-authors were Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Raúl J. Martín-Palma (Autonomous University of Madrid) and Carlo G. Pantano (Penn State).

Dr. Lakhtakia also co-authored the paper entitled "Prismatic bioinspired compound lenses for solar cells". This paper was presented by Francesco Chiadini (University of Salerno), and was also co-authored by
Vincenzo Fiumara (University of Basilicata) and Antonio Scaglione (University of Salerno).

Barbara A. Shaw
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
3:35pm - 4:25pm
114 EES Building

Dr. Osama Awadelkarim, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, visited and gave a lecture at Taibah University on March 5-17. While at the University, he initiated a research project in metamaterials. To learn more about Taibah University, please visit their web site.

Dr. Cliff Lissenden, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, traveled to San Diego, California in early March to present his research on Structural Health Monitoring at the 2011 SPIE Conference. To learn more about SPIE, please visit their web site.

ESM invites alumni to the departments third Blue-White tailgate; Saturday, April 16! More details on the event will be forthcoming. The Nittany Lion football team will culminate spring practice with one of the highlights of the Penn State sports calendar, Blue-White Weekend presented by AAA, set for April 15-17. Kickoff for the Blue-White Game presented by AAA is tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 16 in Beaver Stadium. The contest will air on the Penn State Sports Network and this website. As in previous years, there will be no admission or parking fee for the Blue-White game.

The Society of Engineering Sciences students placed second in the Rube Goldberg Competition, Saturday February 26. The machine was based on the robot Wall-E and its function was to water a plant in twenty or more steps.

The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest brings the ideas of Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Rube Goldberg's "invention" cartoons to life. This Olympics of Complexity is designed to pull students away from conventional problem-solving and push them into the endless chaos of imagination and intuitive thought. To be specific, groups are given an elementary challenge: something as simple as peeling an apple, sharpening a pencil, or putting toothpaste on a toothbrush. But instead of just "solving" the problem, students have to make the solution as complicated and as convoluted as possible. In fact, the more steps the better the Rube Goldberg Machine. An assemblage of ordinary objects, mechanical gadgets, and the oddest odds and ends are linked together and somehow get to the desired goal.