What's New at ESM?

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

The 2008 PSU College of Engineering Faculty/Staff, Engineering Science and Mechanics Award Recipients are:

Mike Erdman, Chair of the ESM Alumni Advisory Board, has been awarded the PSES Distinguished Service Award

Akhlesh Lakhtakia has been awarded the PSES Premier Research Award

Mike Lanagan has been awarded the PSES Outstanding Research Award, and

Mark Horn has been awarded the PSES Outstanding Teaching Award.

The PSES Award recipients will be honored at the Engineering Awards Ceremony at the Kunkle Activities Center in Hammond Building on Friday, April 11, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Thanks go to Chuck Bakis who led our ESM PSES Awards Committee and to all the committee members. For more information about PSES Awards, please visit this website.

Under the coordination of Dr. Cliff Lissenden, the Ben Franklin Center of Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring will be hosting their third meeting at Penn State on April 16-17, 2008 at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. The meeting will highlight guest keynote speakers, Ignacio Perez from the Office of Naval Research and Mark Derriso from the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Conference participants and presenters from industry, government, and academia will be present. A preliminary agenda includes both, keynote and technical presentations, project reports, poster displays, lab tours and breakout groups. Lunches will be provided and a reception followed by dinner on Wednesday evening.

Hotel reservations at the Penn Stater can be made by calling (800) 233-7505. We have reserved a room block ($105/night) with the reservation identification code BEN0415.

We look forward to seeing you in Happy Valley!

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles G. Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, delivered an invited lecture entitled "Sculptured Thin Films Exemplify Nanoengineered Metamaterials" at the First Annual Vikram Memorial Lectures, organized by the Huntsville Electro-Optical Society, Huntsville, AL, on February 28, 2008.

ESM Today 2008 will be held on February 9th. ESM Today started three years ago with the intention to provide a common platform for the students of our department to share/show-case their research work to their fellow graduate students. With the kind co-operation of faculty members, ESM Today has been a tremendous success over the past few years.

Following tradition, Dr. Russell Messier, retired Professor Emeritus Engineering Science and Mechanics, has accepted the invitation of Chief Guest.

Prof. Melik Demirel, Pearce Assistant Professor, and Mr. Eric So, PhD student in Engineering Science and Mechanics, are presenting their recent work entitled “Producing Testable Nanotopographies” at the 3rd Joint ONR / AMBIO Antifouling Workshop December 10 - 12, 2007. This work is supported by the Young Investigator Program of the ONR.

Penn State will receive three new scholarship endowments for engineering students, thanks to a $150,000 gift from University alumnus and State College native John D. Bender. Bender, who earned a master's degree in engineering mechanics from Penn State in 1976, chose to honor Andrew Pytel, professor emeritus of engineering mechanics, in addition to his own his parents and brother in creating and naming the endowments.

For additional information about this story, visit Penn State Live.

Dr. Sulin Zhang, Assistant Professor, and Mr. Pratyush Tewari, graduate degree candidate, are attending the fall 2007 meeting of the Materials Research Society on November 26 - 30, 2007.

The 2007 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting will feature 42 technical symposia in seven topical clusters, an international exhibit highlighting products and services of interest to the materials community, and much more.

More specifically, Dr. Zhang will be presenting a paper, “Size-dependent Endocytosis of Nanoparticles,” a collaborative effort with Professor Ju Li at the University of Pennsylvania and Professor Subra Suresh at MIT.

Pratyush Tewari is going to give two presentations, one on “Interfacial effects in organic- inorganic laminar composite dielectric structures,” and the other “Interfaces in Organic and Molecular Electronics III.” His goal is to present the role of making high energy density composite dielectrics.

On Wednesday, November 7 and Thursday, November 8, the Ben Franklin Center of Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring held a conference at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel on the University Park Campus.

The two day meeting highlighted fifteen speaker presentations, two poster display and exhibit sessions, group discussions, and a tour of the PTI laboratory. Over forty participants, coming from all over the United States, came to Happy Valley to attend the informational and eye opening event.

For more information, contact Director, Cliff Lissenden (lissenden@psu.edu) or Associate Director, Edward Smith (ecs5@psu.edu) or visit www.esm.psu.edu/shm.

Drs. Cliff Lissenden and Edward Smith will be hosting the Fall 2007 Ben Franklin Center for Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring conference on November 7 and 8, 2007 at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.

The Center is advancing structural health monitoring to improve public safety, readiness, reduce maintenance costs, and foster a paradigm shift in design, by leveraging and fostering collaborative research and development efforts among academia, industry, and government entities. Our initial focus emphasizes energy, aerospace, automotive, medical and civil infrastructures, and the transfer of technologies to member companies, agencies, and institutions.

The agenda for the event includes two key note speakers, introduction of new Center members, showcasing ongoing projects at Penn State, and give the opportunity for attendees to learn what’s new with Structural Health Monitoring.

For additional information regarding the Center or becoming a member, feel free to contact Dr. Cliff Lissenden (lissenden@psu.edu) or Dr. Edward Smith (ecs5@engr.psu.edu).

The ESM Alumni Advisory Board's (AAB) first annual Homecoming Tailgate was held on October 13th outside Beaver Stadium.

The Nittany Lions beat the nationally ranked Wisconsin badgers 38-7 in front of nearly 110,000 fans. Photos of the event are posted in the ESM gallery.