Associate Professors Ellen Arruda ( https://me-web2.engin.umich.edu/zope/pubdir/bio?uniqname=arruda ) and Karl Grosh ( https://me-web2.engin.umich.edu/zope/pubdir/bio?uniqname=grosh ) are the recipients of the 2004 ME Awards for Outstanding Faculty Achievement.
Professor Arruda’s work on rubber elasticity and polymer plasticity is well-known around the world and is very widely used and cited. Every researcher in non-linear elasticity recognizes the so-called ‘eight-chain model’ of Arruda and Boyce, which is a standard material model in several commercial finite element codes. Her more recent research concerns the exciting new field of soft tissue mechanics, including constitutive modeling, characterization and engineering of tendon and muscle. This work enables experimental research on tissue systems to be conducted on custom engineered systems rather than relying on samples taken from living beings. This effort also permits comparisons between theoretical and experimental behavior to be conducted under much more controlled conditions than is possible with traditional tissue specimens.
Professor Grosh is recognized for his pioneering efforts in the interdisciplinary development of one of only a handful of existing courses in the U-M Life Sciences curriculum. “Introduction to Sensory Systems: Sound, Hearing and Deafness” ties together developmental, cognitive and engineering aspects of a sensory system. In parallel, his research group has developed the first physiologically based mathematical description of the full electrical-mechanical-acoustical coupled model of the cochlear function. Their efforts have produced the first life-sized cochlear MEMS device that separates acoustic signals in a manner that mimics the frequency to space filtering in the cochlea. His research sheds a better understanding of the function of the cochlea, a critical step in the development of a physically based artificial cochlea.
Both faculty will be recognized along with the College of Engineering Award recipients during the upcoming Faculty Honors and Awards Dinner Dance to be held at the Michigan League on Saturday, March 27 at 6:30 pm.
Congratulations to Professors Arruda and Grosh for their outstanding contributions to the ME Department, and special thanks the members of the ME Honors & Awards and Advisory Committees for their recommendations.