Research

Design

Design is an act of creating products and systems to fulfill specific needs of humankind under physical and social constraints. In the global marketplace where commoditized products are imported from the countries with lowest production cost, design innovation is a key for industrialized nations to stay competitive. Mechanical Engineers research tools, methods and processes to create and optimize innovative products and systems in a wide variety of domains and complexity: micro/nano structures and devices, surgical and medical devices, smart materials and structures, mechatronic devices and systems, mass-produced assemblies, automotive and aerospace products, manufacturing enterprise, global supply chains, product lifecycle, and technology-policy systems. (View Affiliated Researchers)

Research Highlights

CVD synthesis of carbon nanotube structures
John Hart's research deals with manufacturing and applications of nanostructured materials. His group seeks to expand the science of synthesizing these materials and engineering their fundamental properties; to create new technology to control the related chemical, mechanical, and thermal assembly processes; and to pioneer applications which harness the unique properties of nanostructures at small and large scales.

Embedded actuation and biomimetic compliant systems
While all compliant mechanisms are biologically-inspired in their dependence on elastic deformation, Sridhar Kota is working to take biomimetic design several steps further, beyond singly-actuated, planar isolated mechanisms. The goal is to include actuators, sensors, structures, and other material needs all in one optimization problem. Thus, the research effort is to move from compliant mechanisms to compliant systems.

Molecular docking simulation for flexible protein
In drug discovery researches, it is necessary to screen of millions of compounds for a particular receptor such as protein and DNA. In order to enhance such screens, novel molecular docking tools which can predict accurately the bound conformation and interaction energy between small organic molecules (the ligand) and biomacromolecules (the receptor) are essential. The goal of Kazu Saitou's research is to build a molecular model able to represent both receptor's and ligand's dynamics and to develop an optimization method to explore conformational space effectively.

Surgical thermal management system
Albert Shih's research involves using the surgical thermal management system (STMS) with a cooling channel to minimize the thermal spread for collateral nerve damage in surgery.

Albert Shih's research involves using the surgical thermal management system (STMS) with a cooling channel to minimize the thermal spread for collateral nerve damage in surgery.

Design Researchers

Shorya Awtar	Micro and nano precision systems
Diann Brei	Smart structures and materials
John Hart	Nano-scale systems
Sridhar Kota	Compliant mechanisms
Panos Papalambros	Multidisciplinary design optimization
Kazu Saitou	Assembly, disassembly and supply chains
Albert Shih	Medical device design
Kathleen Sienko	Global health design
Steve Skerlos	Sustainable products and policies