ME welcomed three new faculty during the past year: Associate Professor Albert Shih, Assistant Professor Kevin Pipe, and Professor Tim Gordon.
For Assistant Professor Kevin Pipe, joining the ME faculty in January 2004 was a homecoming of sorts. A native of Coldwater, Michigan, he's pleased to be back in the mitten state and even more pleased to be at the University of Michigan.
Pipe said that the position fits his background and interests really well and also has the benefit of enabling him to return to his home state; many of his family and friends went to school at Michigan.
"I knew that the University has excellent science and engineering departments," said Pipe, "and that there would be the possibility of developing good collaborations with other faculty members here. Michigan has a really strong reputation throughout academia, and I knew that the students are quite good."
Pipe's research focuses on micro and nanoscale thermal physics and measurement, thermal engineering and design, electronic and optoelectronic devices (particularly semiconductor lasers), and thermoelectric/thermionic effects.
"I work on studying energy exchange at small size scales," Pipe said. "My degrees were in EE, and I tend to be more interested in electronics-related heating. Thermal management is especially important for such devices because large-area coolers are not very efficient at managing heat sources as small as individual transistors. I'm building measurement systems that will be able to image temperature down to the micron and submicron scales, and I also have interests in thermoelectric effects for microscale cooling."
Pipe is currently teaching ME235, an intro-level engineering thermodynamics class. This fall he will teach ME631, a grad-level statistical thermodynamics course that hasn't been offered by the department in quite a few years. He plans to revise the course outline to highlight semiconductor theory and microsystems.
Pipe, who earned SB EECS ('99), MEng EECS ('99), and Ph.D. EE ('03) degrees from MIT, credits his early interest and exposure to the field to study at the Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center (KAMSC) and the Academically Talented Youth Program (ATYP). "These are two outstanding programs that gave me the initial training and inspiration to be successful in later research," said Pipe. "They have had an immense impact on me and others I know who have gone on to pursue work in science and engineering. I was lucky to have programs such as these available to me when I was in grade school."
Only one thing would make this job a better fit: football tickets.
"Unfortunately, faculty members don't get any preference in the football season ticket waitlist!" he said.
Professor Tim Gordon has joined the ME faculty as of January 2004. He received a 25 percent appointment in ME as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in conjunction with a 75 percent appointment as a Research Professor and Head of the Engineering Research Division of the U-M Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). His initial ME appointment is for three years. He has just completed teaching ME542, Vehicle Dynamic, and will be teaching ME461, Automatic Control, in Fall 2004.
Professor Gordon received his PhD in Relativistic Field Theory (1978) from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, and his BA in Applied Mathematics (1974) from Gonville and Caius College Cambridge. His research includes wide aspects of dynamics and control, with special emphasis on inductive and nonlinear methods, and their applications areas within Automotive Engineering. His research at UMTRI is in the development of new driver-vehicle modeling schemes, as well as in the broader aspects of vehicle control and driver assistance systems.
Prior to joining ME, Gordon held the rank of Professor of Automotive Engineering at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, England, where he had joined the faculty in 1984. In 1997, he was appointed as the Ford Motor Company Professor of Automotive Engineering and Head of the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering in 1999.
In addition to his academic responsibilities, Gordon was Co-Chair of the 2001 IMA conference on Advanced Simulation and Control For Automotive Applications and a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College. He has held a variety of External Examiner roles in England: Automotive Engineering degree programs at the Universities of Hertfordshire and Cranfield. and PhD Examiner at the Universities of Cambridge, Liverpool, Cranfield and Imperial College London. He has moved to Ann Arbor with his wife Anne, and daughters Jenny and Alice, while his son, Matthew, is at university in England.
Associate Professor Albert J. Shih joined the ME faculty in winter 2003. He joined ME from a faculty position at North Carolina State University.
Before beginning his term at NCSU in 1998, Shih was a manufacturing process development engineer for seven years at Indiana-based Cummins Inc. Among his accomplishments was the development of grinding process for ceramic plungers in diesel fuel systems to meet EPA standards for diesel exhaust emissions.
After joining the NCSU faculty in 1998, he expanded his research to electrical discharge machining, elastomer machining, and scrap tire recycling. His research focus also included the infrared temperature measurement for grinding and diesel exhaust aftertreatment filters, the manufacturing and characterization of permanent magnets, diamond wire saw cutting of semiconductor wafers, and fuel cell manufacture.
For Shih, the decision to come to ME was an easy one. "The University of Michigan has a long tradition of excellence in manufacturing research," Shih said. "The University provides an excellent facility and infrastructure for research, and it's close to major manufacturing enterprises. "I worked for many years as a manufacturing engineer before coming back to teaching, and my research interests will continue to be in design and manufacturing. For me, the most attractive part of being at ME is the opportunity to work with so many accomplished faculty, students, and research teams with whom I can collaborate."
Shih has taught ME 450 Design and Manufacturing III, in winter 2003. "It is a senior capstone project design course that I truly enjoyed teaching when I was at North Carolina State University. I will also be teaching ME 350, Design and Manufacturing II, in fall 2003."
Shih attended National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, where he received a BS in 1984 and an MS in 1986. He received his doctorate in 1991 from Purdue University. He currently holds four patents and has published forty journal papers and twenty-six conference papers. Shih is also a recipient of a 2000 NSF CAREER Award.