News Archive
ASU Places at AIAA Student Conference
The ASU student chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) recently hosted the 2008 AIAA Region VI Student Conference April 17 – 19 at the Tempe Mission Palms. During the conference, the AIAA National Organization sponsored three separate technical competitions: an Undergraduate individual competition, a Graduate individual competition, and a Design Team competition. Participants completed an abstract, paper, and presented their work to AIAA and industry professionals. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places winners were awarded cash prizes, and an all expense paid trip was awarded to 1st place winners for them to present at the AIAA National Student Conference.
MAE is proud to congratulate three of their graduate students for their awards: James Villarreal (1st place), Chinmoy Nath (2nd place) and Javier Avalos (3rd place).
James Villarreal is an Aerospace Engineering graduate student working with Prof. Pavlos Mikellides. He received the best paper award in the Graduate category for his paper titled: “Numerical Modeling of a High Efficiency Low Energy Pulsed Inductive Thruster for Space Applications.” James received his BSE degree in Aerospace Engineering at ASU in May 2006 and he plans to graduate with his MS degree this summer. He intends to continue his graduate work as a PhD student in the fall researching launch vehicle technologies. James says his long term goals are to own his own company, focusing in orbital launch vehicle technologies, and says: “like most other aerospace engineers I would also like to become an astronaut, but unlike them I am just silly enough to build my own rocket to get the job done.”
James will compete against the Graduate winners from each of the seven regions at the International Student Conference, which will be held in conjunction with the 47th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibition in Orlando on January 5, 2009. At the conference, James will be joined by the Daedalus Astronautics team, the student rocket group on campus, which placed 1st in the Design Team competition for their paper “Development of a Staging Sounding Rocket and Experimental Solid Rocket Motors.” James is the Project Director of Daedalus Astronautics; team presenters Jacob Dennis, Steven Shark, and AJ Colangelo were responsible for the winning presentation.
Chinmoy Nath placed 2nd in the Graduate competition for his paper “Ship Wakes in a Temperature Stratified Fluid”. Chinmoy is currently working on his Master’s degree in MAE under the direction of Dr. H.J.S. Fernando in the Center for Environmental Fluid Dynamics. Chinmoy is completing his second semester at ASU; he is also very interested in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and hopes he can implement CFD in the Environmental Fluid Dynamics field and extend his career in the same direction. Javier Avalos placed 3rd in the Graduate competition for his paper “On Damping Entire Bladed Disk through Dampers on Only a Few Blades.” Javier is pursuing his doctoral degree working with Dr. Marc Mignolet.
Backpack straps to power electronics
MAE faculty member Henry Sodano's work on "energy harvesting" continues to gain scientific and popular media interest, including a recent features in physorg.com and Phoenix Business Journal. The articles covers one interesting application: an energy harvesting backpack that uses piezoelectric straps to generate electrical energy. Prof. Sodano along with co-workers at Michigan Technological University and NanoSonic, Inc. have published their results in a recent issue of Smart Materials and Structures. The focus around the research was to enable a tool that supplies the backpack with enough energy for carrying heavy batteries to power portable electronics. Other news organizations featuring his work include the Christian Science Monitor, ABC News, and CBS News.
Two Top MAE Students Excel in the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Competition
The Department is pleased to announce that two of our top students have excelled in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) competition. Jeff Moran has been awarded an NSF GRF; Nathan Marine recieved an Honorable Mention. The NSF GRF is one of the most prestigious awards for students seeking advanced degrees in science and engineering and provides the recipients with three years of funding for graduate studies. Jeff's award is one of approximately 900 graduate fellowships that were offered in this year’s competition; Nathan was one of about 1600 students recognized with Honorable Mention.
Both Jeff and Nathan are relatively new to the MAE graduate program. Jeff is currently in the combined Bachelor of Science in Engineering/Master of Science (BSE-MS) program, which enables students to earn a bachelor's and a master's degree in five years. Nathan has recently been admitted directly to the PhD program.
Jeff and Nathan work under the direction of Prof. Jonathan Posner in the ASU Micro/Nanofluidics Laboratory; each in research areas that cut across disciplinary boundaries in engineering, chemistry, optics, and materials. Jeff’s thesis research will impact development of alternative sources of energy, e.g., hydrogen fuel cells and hybrid photovoltaic cells. Advances in these and related areas are limited by various inefficiencies. Jeff’s work was developed in collaboration with Prof. Bryan Vogt (ASU Chemical Engineering), and is addressing novel materials that can be used to improve the efficiency and marketability of these sustainable energy technologies. Jeff is specifically focusing on the development of a microfluidic platform for high throughput combinatorial synthesis of mesoporous thin films. Such films are used to provide thin coatings in hybrid photovoltaics and in fuel cells. Jeff’s research will alleviate the need for trial-and-error approaches and should lead to methods for generating thin films that can provide improve their performance.
Nathan’s research addresses the fate and transport of nanoparticles in the environment and the human body. These particles are a billionth of a meter in size, can be highly reactive, and have distinct characteristics from their bulk form. Many of their underlying properties are not well understood, including how nanoparticles enter, transport, accumulate, and cause toxicity in the human body. One approach to understanding the fate of nanoparticles is measurements of partition coefficients since these provide a barometer for whether or not a compound will enter into human cells as well as their fate and transport in the environment. Currently there are a variety of different tests to determine the partition coefficients of standard compounds. The critical difficulty in using bulk partitioning methods is that the physicochemical properties of nanoparticles may change over short times. Nathan is developing microfluidic devices that enable these difficult measurements by reducing the length scales and increase octanol-water interfacial surface area that will provide short partitioning equilibrium times.
Both Jeff and Nathan are examples of how mechanical engineers provide enabling ingenuity and analysis that address emerging scientific questions and technologies in sustainable energy applications and human health.
Jonathan Posner Wins 2008 NSF Career Award
Assistant Professor Jonathan D. Posner has received a 2008 NSF Career award for his proposal on colloidal crystal films. CAREER funding represents NSF's most prestigious award in support of the early career-development activities of teacher-scholars who "most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization." Dr. Posner’s CAREER award addresses the deposition of colloidal crystal films that are important to a diverse range of applications, including development for use as photonic crystals for integrated optical circuits, as super hydrophobic surfaces, and as solid-state sieving matrices for biochemical separations.
Colloidal crystal films are comprised of 20 or more layers of nanospheres (20-500 nm) and typically deposited by a fluid self-assembly process of a non-dilute colloidal suspension of nanoscale spheres. Current CCFs are plagued with unwanted defects in the range of 20-1000 sphere diameters that limit device applications. These limitations arise in large part because of a lack of fundamental understanding of the governing fluid physics. The ability to control colloidal crystal film structure and reduce film defects is limited by the complex role of the fluid transport on the deposition process. These flows include the coupling of free surfaces and electric fields with high volume fraction suspensions and locally varying viscosity, density, surface tension, conductivity, and permittivity. These flows are time-dependent, three-dimensional and exhibit a wide range of time and length scales that make them difficult to model and observe. Dr. Posner’s research addresses the transport physics of colloidal crystal film deposition where high volume fraction colloidal suspensions flow with free surfaces and electric fields.
Prof. Posner’s program will also integrate research with mentoring, education and outreach impacting students from middle school through graduate school. The study includes the development of a middle school outreach program “got flow?” for underrepresented middle school students in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The “got flow?” program has three phases: outreach modules directly inspiring 1000 8th graders to study math, science, or engineering; RET to provide research experience and state mandated professional training for middle school teachers; and educational transfer modules (ETM) that convey the modules to individual middle schools for years beyond the CAREER program. Dr. Posner will expand undergraduate research opportunities for Hispanic and Native Americans who have relatively high enrollment at ASU, but low representation in engineering nationwide.
A new theory on buckling for compliant substrates
A paper authored by MAE faculty member Hanqing Jiang appears in the October 2, 2007 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America "Finite Deformation Mechanics in Buckled Thin Films on Compliant Supports" addresses the nonlinear buckling of thin, high-modulus plates on compliant substrates. Funded by the National Science Foundation, Jiang and his collaborators at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University and Argonne National Lab, are conducting research to provide a theoretical foundation to basic science and guidelines for applications as diverse as stretchable electronics, micro and nanoelectro-mechanical systems, tunable phase optics, force spectroscopy in cells, biocompatible topographic matrices for cell alignment, high-precision micro and nano-metrology methods, and pattern formation for micro and nano-fabrication.
MAE student Brian Rosner takes third place in the Student Design Competition finals.
Welcome New MAE Faculty and Staff
The Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department welcomes new faculty members Marcus Herrmann, Henry Sodano, Praveen Shankar and staff member, Sara Jarvie.Marcus Herrmann joins MAE as an Assistant Professor; he received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Technology Aachen, Germany on the topic of premixed turbulent combustion. Dr. Herrmann’s research interests are in numerical simulation and modeling of turbulent multiphase flows. He was a visiting scientist at the University of Technology Eindhoven, The Netherlands in 2001 before joining the Center for Turbulence Research at Stanford as a postdoctoral fellow in 2002. Prior to joining ASU, he was a Research Associate both at CTR and the Center for Integrated Turbulence Simulations.Henry Sodano joins MAE as an Assistant Professor; he received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2005 and was an Assistant Professor at Michigan Technological University from 2005-2007. His research interests are in the areas of power harvesting, structural health monitoring, multifunctional materials, and adaptive structures. He has published 5 book chapters, 24 refereed journal papers and 29 conference papers since 2002. Praveen Shankar joins MAE as a Lecturer. He received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University in August 2007. Dr. Shankar’s research interests include nonlinear dynamics of flight vehicles, adaptive flight control, and aircraft engine diagnostics and health management. As a doctoral student, he received the 2007 Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for his contributions to research in aerospace engineering.
Sara Jarvie joins MAE as a Academic Specialist Coordinator. She worked at The George Washington University before joining us at Arizona State University. She received her Masters at George Washington University and Bachelors at Brigham Young University.
Pavlos Mikellides Receives Best Teacher Award
The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering takes great pleasure in congratulating Prof. Pavlos Mikellides for being recognized with the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering’s annual Best Teacher Award. Dr. Mikellides was recognized for his outstanding instruction, evidenced by the many student testimonials and positive classroom interactions. The MAE Department is proud of his high standards and excellent scholarship.
Ron Adrian Receives AIAA Awards
The Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department congratulates Professor Ronald J. Adrian on being elected as a Fellow of AIAA and receiving the AIAA 2007 Fluid Dynamics Award given by The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The merit of "Fellow" is presented by AIAA and its board of directors to members who have made prominent and significant contributions to aeronautics or astronautics. There are thirty Fellows presented with the honor for 2007. The AIAA Fluid Dynamics Award is presented for outstanding contributions to the understanding of the behavior of liquids and gases in motion as related to needs in aeronautics and astronautics. The award recognizes Prof. Adrian’s landmark contributions in the development of laser Doppler velocimetry, particle image velocimetry and stochastic estimation techniques, and for sustained leadership in fluid dynamics. Ron is one of the leaders in research on turbulence, experimental fluid mechanics, laser diagnostics and micro detonation. Many of the measurement techniques that he has pioneered are widely used in laboratories around the world.
Faculty Achievement Award 2007
The MAE department takes pride in announcing that Professor Ronald Adrian has been named one of the inaugural recipients of the Faculty Achievement Award, Adrian’s award being in the area of Best Professional Application. The award recognizes Prof. Adrian’s achievements in the development and use of advanced diagnostics in measuring and studying the structure of turbulent flows.
The Faculty Achievement Awards celebrate the highest intellectual contributions by a faculty member at ASU. Faculty are honored for achievements in four general areas: Excellence in Teaching and instruction; Excellence in Service; Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities; and Excellence in Design
Professor Adrian is one of the pioneers in the development of the Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) technique for the measurement of point-wise velocities in fluid flows. His contributions to LDV include three patents and an edited collection of selected research papers on LDV for the Milestone Series of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. He is one of the founders of the field of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), a now widely used method for measuring instantaneous vector fields in two and three-dimensions. Professor Adrian broke new ground with the super-resolution method for high spatial resolution and a number of basic theoretical investigations that explain the full relationship of the measurements to the fluid field.
Part of the impact of Professor Adrian's research can be observed in laboratories around the world, which employ the measurement technologies he has helped to develop. He is also recognized by Thomson Scientific (ishighlycited.com) as among the 250 most cited researchers between 1981/1999.
First Place in ASME Student Design Competition
Congratulations to four Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering students, Brian Rosner, Nicholas Hansen, Andrea Keck, and Kasun Perera, for earning first place in the 2007 ASME Student Design Competition. Lead by Professor Joseph K. Davidson, the students designed a Human-Powered Potable Water Still. The competition was held on April 12-14th, 2007, hosted by University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, TX. The International Southwest & Rocky Mountain region competition drew students from Universities in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wyoming and the Country of Mexico.
In this design problem students were challenged with the task to design and build a device which in turn heats water to reach boiling temperatures, and then condenses the steam that it produces to extract drinkable water. The project required the students to work together months before the competition, as part of their senior design project. Please stop by the MAE Department office to view the trophy.
Here And Now: Air Quality Issues
February 7, 2007, Dr. Jim Anderson, senior research scientist in the MAE Department appeared on KJZZ’s (91.5 FM) “Here and Now” discussing Air Quality Issues. Jim is an Atmospheric Chemist and has been conducting research in air quality and climate change for over two decades.
The discussion topics consisted of ways to reduce air pollution in and around the Valley. Jim also spoke of the current effects of Governor Napolitano’s signed agreement regarding plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. You can select the link below which will allow you to read more about Jim’s views and listen to the discussion with Bob Kard, director of the Maricopa County Air Quality Department.