Announcements:
Department Newsletters:
News:
News Items:
NSF Fellowships:
Mechanical engineering graduate students Caleb Rucker
and Mark Hofacker were awarded honorable mention in the
2008 NSF Graduate Research Fellowhip competition.
According to the NSF, "This is considered a significant
academic achievement nationwide and provides access to
cyberinfrastructure resources through the TeraGrid for a
period of one year". Rucker's advisor, Assistant
Professor Robert Webster elaborates, "Caleb and Mark
earned this award by writing compelling essays about
their future research plans. NSF judged these essays to
demonstrate outstanding intellectual merit, together
with broader impacts that benefit society and also merge
education of younger students with research. The
department is very proud of Mark and Caleb, and we look
forward to supporting them as they work toward
accomplishing their ambitious plans."
Anilkumar Wins
Teaching Award:
A.V. Anilkumar, professor of the practice of mechanical
engineering, was presented the School of Engineering
Award for Excellence in Teaching by Dean Kenneth
Galloway in May. “Anil is an outstanding teacher,
combining curricular innovations with a passionate and
personable style that students resonate with,” said
Galloway.
Cruse Elected
Fellow of AAAS:
Thomas A. Cruse, the H. Fort Flowers Professor of
Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus, was elected a fellow
of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS). Cruse is a noted pioneer in the
development of a computer simulation method called
boundary element methods that has significantly improved
predictions of fatigue cracking in gas turbine engines
and other aerospace applications. He also contributed to
the development of new methods to assess the strength of
the advanced composite materials that are gradually
replacing metal in aircraft structures. Cruse was
inducted into the AAAS at the Annual Meeting in Boston
on Feb. 16.
Walker Wins
DARPA Young Faculty Award:
Greg Walker, assistant professor of mechanical and
electrical engineering, was named a spring recipient of
a Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA), the primary research and
development agency for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Li Wins NSF
CAREER Award:
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Deyu Li
has been named a winner of the prestigious National
Science Foundation CAREER Award for his research in
nanochannels used in drug discovery and drug-detection
devices. Li is developing minuscule devices that can
analyze tiny samples of prospective new drugs so that
development of new pharmaceuticals can be done more
quickly and cheaply. An expert in nanofluidics, Li is
studying the dynamics of how fluids flow and can be
controlled at the nanoscale level (one billionth of a
meter). This virtually uncharted territory is considered
the frontier for pharmaceutical development. “We will be
using molecular simulations to predict nanoscale
behavior of various fluids,” Li said. “We will take
experimental measurements to test our predictions and
will develop fluid-flow control strategies using thermal
and electrical control strategies.”
Luo Joins ME
Faculty:
Haoxiang Luo joined the School of Engineering faculty in
the Fall Semester of 2007 as an assistant professor in
the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Professor Luo
earned his undergraduate and masters degrees in
Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University in
Beijing and his Ph.D from the University of California,
San Diego. Luo’s research focuses on theoretical and
computational fluid dynamics, fluid mechanics;
computational bio-mechanics and flow/structure
interaction; micro-fluidics and thermal science;
numerical partial differential equations;
immersed-boundary, boundary element, and finite/spectral
element methods; applied mathematics; scientific
computing; control and optimization. Prior to coming to
Vanderbilt, Professor Luo conducted research at George
Washington University on laryngeal aerodynamics and
vocal fold modeling. He has published in the Journal of
Computational Physics, the Journal of Engineering
Mathematics, and the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and is
a member of APS/DFD, ASME, and Sigma Xi.
Webster Joins ME
Faculty:
Robert J. Webster III joined the School of Engineering
faculty in the Spring Semester of 2008 as an assistant
professor in the department of mechanical engineering
and has established the Medical and Electromechanical
Design Laboratory. He is interested in engineering
design, robotics, mechatronics, computer-integrated
surgery, kinematics and dynamics, and his work with the
MED Lab will include research in advancing the basic
science of electromechanical systems through design,
kinematic and dynamic modeling, control, and
human-machine interaction research. Webster earned his
undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from
Clemson University and received his masters and Ph.D. in
mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins. He is
co-holder of patents on an active cannula for
bio-sensing and surgical intervention and a distal
bevel-tip needle control device and algorithm. Webster
has published in journals such as the International
Journal of Robotics Research, The Journal of
Computer-Aided Surgery, IEEE Robotics and Automation
Magazine, and ACM Transactions on Applied Perception.
