research – Mechanical Engineering

Dolphin splashing in water as it takes off from swimming dock

New activity trackers for dolphin conservation
12/22/2022

Experiments with custom-made biologging devices offer new insight into dolphin swimming and energy requirements.

Nadab Wubshet, 5th year ME PhD student in professor Allen Liu’s Lab, holding up a microfluidic chip that will be sent to the International Space Station.

Gravity’s impact on bone cells— experiments heading to the International Space Station
11/07/2022

Mechanical engineers at the University of Michigan are tackling mysteries of bone density loss in space and on Earth.

New approach reduces EV battery testing time by 75%
06/28/2022

System developed at the University of Michigan saves time and money in the race to create better batteries for the electric vehicle revolution.

Keck Foundation awards grant to cancer cell research
02/18/2022

Collaborative research team converges on cancer cell behavior that will lead to more effective therapies.

Scrap to sustainable sheet metal: A $2M effort to overhaul automotive recycling
04/20/2021

The global move to advanced materials and electric powertrains requires a re-evaluation of how we recycle vehicles.

Nature Communications Publishes Research on Nanoscale Mechanics at vdW Heterointerfaces
04/07/2021

U-M ME Professor Wei Lu and his student Hossein Rokni have released a paper in Nature Communications entitled “Direct measurements of interfacial adhesion in 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures in ambient air.

Nature Communications Publishes Paper: Low-temperature paddlewheel effect in glassy solid electrolytes
03/25/2020

U-M ME PhD Student, Jeffrey Smith, and Professor Don Siegel have a paper titled, “Low-temperature paddlewheel effect in glassy solid electrolytes,” published in Nature Communications.

Exploring a Novel, Nanoscale Thermal Switch
02/12/2020

ME Professors Edgar Meyhofer and Pramod Reddy have shown for the first time how a nanoscale thermal switch can be built by employing nanoscale effects that arise when heat is transferred between a hot and cold nanoscale-thick membrane via thermal radiation.

Solar-powered wastewater treatment coupled with energy and nutrient recovery
01/28/2020

“Our goal is to identify solar-powered wastewater nitrate treatment pathways that facilitate the recovery of energy by producing value-added chemicals from these nutrients,” said Bala Chandran. The work is funded by Bala Chandran’s startup funds and MCubed, a University initiative to encourage innovative, interdisciplinary research. The project marries fundamental materials-scale catalysis, physics-based modeling, and experimental investigations.

Toward Smart Dental Implants
01/23/2020

Activity trackers, smart watches, glucose monitors, and other wearable biosensor technology are a growing part of our lives. Now, ME Research Associate Professor Mihaela Banu is putting her research where our mouths are, with a collaborative initiative to develop a new smart, cyber-physical dental implant system.