Tag: MEEM

Stories about Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.

Dean’s Teaching Showcase: Gordon Parker

image57865-persby Mike Meyer, director, William G. Jackson CTL

The Dean’s Teaching Showcase nominee for this week comes from the College of Engineering. Dean Wayne Pennington has chosen to recognize Gordon Parker, the John and Cathi Drake Professor in the Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Department. Both Pennington and MEEM chair Bill Predebon praised Parker as “a great success story of the flipped classroom approach.” Gordon has effectively implemented the flipped classroom model in both a senior level and graduate level controls course, and now has more than 30 video clips that are being used world-wide.

Michigan Tech students join in international PACE contest

PAMDMichigan Tech students participated with other university students in an multi-year international competition to design a Portable Assisted Mobility Device (PAMD) through the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) program. There were 7 international teams and 45 universities from around the world involved, showing the “collaborative engineering” purpose of the PACE program. At the 2014 PACE Global Annual Forum in Turin (Italy) the projects were evaluated by an international team of judges including GM/Opel, Siemens, PLM Software, Autodesk, Oracle, and HP.  

Space Solar Power Workshop a Success

Michigan Technological University, in collaboration with professionals from NASA, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the Space Solar Power Institute, hosted a Space Solar Power (SSP) workshop to clarify the challenges facing SSP implementation. The workshop was held in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments at Baltimore, MD, November 7 – 9, 2013. Researchers from Industry and Academia of many countries including India, Japan, UK and USA participated in this event.

Research Experience for Undergraduates Summer 2013

Students in the Research Experience for Undergraduates REU summer 2013 programpresented posters on research projects they have worked on over the summer. The project topics include: measurement of diesel emission particulate matter, experimental hybrid vehicle fuel system, lithium ion battery characterization and SOC measurement, hybrid vehicle dynamometer test stand development, heavy duty truck driving simulation, and measuring temperature variations in combustion vessels.

Research Experience for Teachers in Engineering and Forestry

The Sustainable Futures Institute is again hosting seven middle and high school teachers from Michigan and Wisconsin in a six-week research experience for teachers (RET) program funded by the National Science Foundation. The teachers are conducting state-of-the-art biofuels research projects in engineering and forestry in the labs of Shehkar Joshi (SFRES/Bio Sci), David Shonnard (Chem Engg), and Jeffrey Naber (MEEM).

Salt Power: Watt’s Next in Rechargeable Batteries?

By Marcia Goodrich
October 5, 2012—

Reza Shahbazian-Yassar thinks sodium might be the next big thing in rechargeable batteries.

Now, the gold standard in the industry is the lithium ion battery, which can be recharged hundreds of times and works really well. Its only problem is that it is made with lithium, which is not cheap. It could get even more expensive if more electric vehicles powered with lithium ion batteries hit the road and drive up demand.

Students Named to National, Regional SWE Posts

Tech Today Article by Travis Gendron, student writer

Two members of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) section at Michigan Tech, Kaitlyn Bunker and Alicia Walby, have been elected to regional and national positions within the organization.

Bunker, an electrical engineering PhD student, is the new collegiate director of SWE and sits on its national board of directors. The collegiate director is the only student who sits on the board, and Bunker is responsible for giving the collegiate members a voice. “I’ll be the first graduate student in the position in quite a while. I also come from a smaller, but really active section, so I can bring a new perspective,” she said.

Women in STEM: Ada Lovelace Celebration

Michigan Tech held its inaugural celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, an annual event held to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of women to the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to encourage young women to pursue careers in STEM fields.

Tech’s celebration involved a two-day series of events beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 16, in Fisher 139 as Professor Martha Sloan (ECE) and guest speakers Mary Long and Michelle Eggart discuss their experiences as women working in STEM fields.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, from 8 to 10 p.m., in Fisher 135 there was  a film screening of “The Gender Chip Project” followed by a panel discussion featuring female faculty and graduate students from departments across campus, including Sarah Green, Nina Mahmoudian, Laura Brown, Patty Sotirin and Kaitlyn Bunker, who  discussed their experiences as women in STEM disciplines of academia.

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