Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, traveled to Whistler, British Columbia in mid-June to present an invited talk at the Optical Society of America’s 2013 Optical Interface Coatings conference. He will be presenting on “Bountiful Surface Waves with Sculptured Thin Films.”

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, recently published a book with John Polo and Tom Mackay entitled “Electromagnetic Surface Waves: A Modern Perspective.” The book focuses on surface multiplasmonics, Tamm waves, Dyakonov waves and Dyakonov-Tamm waves, using a 4x4 matrix approach.

Dr. Tony Huang, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, was selected to receive an American Asthma Foundation Scholar Award. This award is targeted at investigators at nonprofit institutions in the United States who are within 10 years of their first independent faculty appointment. Each year, less than 10 researchers are selected across the USA to receive this award. Each awardee will also receive a $450,000 research fund for three years.

Dr. Albert E. Segall , Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, received the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Fellow award at the 2013 Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Detroit, MI. He was also a session chair of the Tribotesting I session and presented a paper on “Wear and Reparability Evaluations of a New Class of Super Self-Lubricating hBN-Ni Coatings”.

The College of Engineering and Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (PSEAS) would like to express congratulations to this year's PSEAS Award winners including three from the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department.

The 2013 PSU College of Engineering Faculty/Staff, Engineering Science and Mechanics Award Recipients are:

Corina Drapaca has been awarded the PSEAS Outstanding Teaching Award

Melik Demirel has been awarded the PSEAS Outstanding Research Award

Al Segall has been awarded the PSEAS Outstanding Advising Award

ESM Congratulates our winners!

Infant infections take more lives in Africa than malaria or tuberculosis. In Uganda, over 4,000 new cases of infant hydrocephalus are reported each year. With only four neurosurgeons in the country and limited medical facilities, most of these children do not receive medical attention, leading to severe disabilities and even death.

A recent study links 60 percent of hydrocephalus cases in Uganda to environmental conditions, the first time that a major neurological disorder is associated with climate changes.

Recalling their data on climate patterns, hospital records and microbiological research, Dr. Steve Schiff, Director of the Center for Neural Engineering at Penn State University told UNEARTH News, “There turned out to be nothing subtle here. You could see the relationship between case numbers and rainfall in the raw data.”

US Deputy Chief of Mission Virginia Blaser visits CURE Children’s Hospital of Uganda in Mbale. Photo credit: US Mission, Uganda

Hydrocephalus is a common neurological disorder among children. In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 375,000 infants develop hydrocephalus every year.

The brain naturally produces cerebrospinal fluid that circulates nutrients and cushions the brain. Hydrocephalus occurs when the brain fails to absorb the fluid, causing internal build up that enlarges the child’s head and puts pressure on the brain. Left untreated, this impairs cognitive and physical abilities, leaving the child scarred for life.

Dr. Osama Awadelkarim, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, traveled to Saudi Arabia in mid-April to discuss progress with research collaborations with Taibah University in Almadinah. He was also invited to attend a higher education exhibition and conference in Riyadh.

Dr. Barbara Shaw, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will travel to Houston, Texas in early April to attend the ATI Oil and Gas Workshop. While in attendance, Dr. Shaw was invited to give a presentation on internal coatings to address corrosion of oil and gas pipelines.

A twist on thin-film technology may provide a way to optically detect and analyze multiple substances simultaneously, leading to quicker diagnostics in such industries as health care and homeland security, according to Penn State researchers.

One current optical-sensing technology can launch and guide a single light wave, called a surface-plasmon-polariton wave -- SPP wave -- that travels along the flat interface of the sample to be analyzed and a metal film. The SPP wave is launched by sending a light beam through a prism to the other face of the metal film. A photon detector eventually collects the beam that was reflected back into the prism. Any change in the optical properties of the sample critically alters the reflected beam.

The detector records this alteration, which analysts can then use as an optical fingerprint to help them identify the changes in the chemical composition of the sample, according to Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics.

However, because the technology allows for only one SPP wave of a certain frequency to be guided through the device, the properties of only one substance can be analyzed for each sensor, said Lakhtakia, who worked with Stephen Swiontek and Drew Pulsifer, both doctoral students in engineering science and mechanics.

Dr. Michael Lanagan, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, was recently highlighted in a recent issue of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) magazine on his work with Reconfigurable Antennas. Reconfigurable antennas change polarization, operating frequency, or far-field pattern in order to cope with changing system parameters. This paper reviews some of the past and current technology applicable to reconfigurable antennas with several examples of implementations. Mechanically movable parts and arrays are discused, as well as more recent semiconductor-component and turnable-material technologies applicable to reconfigurable antennas.