A few months ago, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to change in ways we never have thought possible, and that included the shut down of our research labs. Research labs are the heart of our mechanical engineering work, they are where major breakthroughs happen, and where solutions to big world problems begin.
Designing from the ground up, two U-M mechanical engineering (ME) PhD students develop a breakthrough calorimeter tool that increases resolution ten-fold and offers real-time monitoring of heat output.
This award, endowed by engineering alumnus Larry Miller, is set up to recognize junior faculty members. Larry has a particular interest in supporting junior faculty whose research intersects with medicine and human health.
This year Shanna Daly and Neil Dasgupta have been selected as Miller Faculty Scholars, for three-year terms.
Mohsen Taheri is a U-M ME PhD student and has been selected as a recipient of the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship.
Lightening the weight of the machines that move people by land, sea, and air is beneficial for many reasons, including improved fuel efficiency and the ability to carry higher payloads or added safety systems. A 10% reduction in the weight of a passenger car, for instance, leads to about a 6% improvement in fuel economy.
PhD students Mohsen Taheri and Callan Luetkemeyer are recipients of the 2020 Ivor K. McIvor Award from the College of Engineering.
ANN ARBOR—Thermal switches that can effectively control the flow of heat are key to enabling a number of applications ranging from the thermal management of nanoscale devices, refrigeration, data storage, thermal computing all the way to the thermal management of buildings. However, in comparison to the vast array of devices, e.g. transistors and diodes, available to control the flow of electricity there exists currently very few proposals for controlling the flow of heat, especially at the nanoscale.
Assistant Professor, Yue Fan is the recipient of the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program Award. The CAREER Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards.
For decades now density functional theory (DFT) has been used to break down complicated higher-dimensional many-electron wavefunctions into just single-electron orbitals. The root of the simplification lies in the exchange-correlation (XC) potential, which encapsulates the quantum many-electron interactions, aka how they talk to one another. However, in practice, DFT has remained far from exact due to the unavailability of exact XC potentials, thereby, necessitating the use of approximations.
Miki Banu is a ME Research Associate Professor with a focus on lightweight materials and an emphasis on developing micro- and nanocellulose composites, natural fiber composites and associated manufacturing processes for automotive and aerospace.
