Category: News

From the Special Faculty Edition of Tech Today:

Meet Michigan Tech’s new faculty and existing faculty who have now accepted tenure-track and lecturer positions.

Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics

Andrew Barnard, PhD
Andrew Barnard joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics as an assistant professor. Barnard comes to Michigan Tech from Penn State University. He is a Michigan Tech alumnus, holding a master’s in mechanical engineering.

Barnard earned a PhD in Acoustics from Penn State. He is a member of the Acoustical Society of America and a board-certified member of the Institute for Noise Control Engineering. He has also been a reviewer for the Journal of Sound and Vibration, the Journal of Building and Environment, Noise Control Engineering Journal and the ASME Noise Control and Acoustics Division.

Jaclyn Johnson, PhD
Jaclyn Johnson joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics as a lecturer. Previously, she was an instructor and research staff member at Michigan Tech.

Johnson is a Tech alumna, where she received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics and her master’s in mechanical engineering.

Johnson’s teaching interests are energy thermofluids and solid mechanics. Her research interests are in combustion, diesel spray characteristics and structure and fundamental spark ignition studies of gaseous fuels.

Aneet Narendranath, PhD
Aneet Narendranath joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics as a lecturer. He previously was a visiting assistant professor.

Narendranath received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics from Michigan Tech.

He held numerous leadership roles at Michigan Tech while a graduate student, including secretary of the Daniell Heights Apartment Council and president of the Indian Students Association. He belongs to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Physical Society.

Ye (Sarah) Sun, PhD
Ye (Sarah) Sun joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics. Sun travels to Michigan Tech from Case Western Reserve University.

She received a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a bachelor’s in precise instrumentation of measurement and control from Tianjin University.

Sun has worked on two National Science Foundation projects. She is a member of the IEEE, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the International Society of Optical Engineering.

Radheshyam Tewari, PhD
Radheshyam Tewari joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics as a lecturer. Previously, Tewari was an instructor at Michigan Tech.

Tewari received two degrees from Michigan Tech, an MS and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology in India.

Tewari has three years of industry experience in machining processes, production planning, quality engineering and total productive maintenance. Tewari also has research experience using semiconductor fabrication and metrology tools for micro/nano-manufacturing.

Tech Today by Marcia Goodrich, senior content specialist

Greg Odegard has been named the new associate chair and director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, William Predebon has announced.

“I am extremely pleased that Greg has agreed to serve in this position,” said Predebon, chair of the department. “He has been recognized by his students as an excellent teacher and graduate student mentor, as well as an internationally recognized research scholar in his field, all of which are very important as the associate chair and director of undergraduate studies.

John ’64 ’69 and Cathi Drake have expanded their support for the endowed professorship that bears their name. With an additional $1 million commitment, they have increased funding for the position to $2 million, creating the latest endowed chair in Michigan Technological University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics.

Gordon Parker, who was appointed to the Drakes’ professorship when it was established in 2007, will continue to hold the new John and Cathi Drake Endowed Chair in Mechanical Engineering.

The Drakes’ annual gifts have already allowed Parker to support students and explore new avenues of research that otherwise might not receive funding from industry or government agencies.

“John and Cathi have been very pleased with Gordon’s productivity and effectiveness under their sponsorship, and as a result they decided to increase their commitment,” said William Predebon, chair of the department. “The funds are seed money; they let him engage in high-risk research that Gordon can eventually leverage into larger funding opportunities.”

John Drake earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering at Michigan Tech in 1964 followed by an MS in Business Administration in 1969. He and Cathi founded Drake Manufacturing Services in 1972. John, who retired as its president in 2007, continues to receive licensing revenues from one of his innovations. “It’s something I dreamed up and made work: a ball nut used in power steering in pickup trucks and SUVs,” he explains. “It’s now being used in cars in Europe and even to make power brakes.”

This success helped to drive their latest donation. “We had not made such a big gift before we established the professorship, and we’ve been feeling our way through, making sure the investment is well spent. And it has been,” said Drake. “Gordon is just wonderful. He’s grown immensely during these past seven years, and we’ve done well in our own right. So we thought we’d step up and make him a full chair holder.”

In addition, the Drakes view their gift as a vote of confidence in Michigan Tech. “We’ve become convinced not only of Tech’s applying our money to the purpose intended, but also of its fundraising efficiency. We, like many donors, come from business, and we hate to waste money. Academia is not usually known for efficiency, but we have been very impressed with Tech in this area.”

For his part, Parker can’t say enough about the value of the Drakes’ support.

“It’s been incredible,” he says. “Unless you are immersed in academia, you probably don’t know how much a faculty member’s career can revolve around the search for money. The funds from the professorship have allowed me to support student research assistants and do some really interesting exploratory work.”

The additional support that will come from the endowed chair can only expand those benefits. “I’d like to express my deep thanks to the Drakes, not only John and Cathi but the whole family. It’s a humbling and profound experience to have their name next to my door.”

The Drakes have also made two recent gifts to honor their daughters.

“Through a generous gift in honor of their noted scientist daughter, John and Cathi took a leadership role in supporting the Great Lakes Research Center by naming the Invasive Species Lab in honor of Dr. Lisa Drake,” said center director Guy Meadows, who holds the Robbins Chair in Sustainable Marine Engineering. “Their support has been key to our efforts to track and halt invasive species in the Great Lakes.”

The Karen S. Richardson Endowed Scholarship, established in July, will support students entering the School of Business and Economics. The first scholarship is to be awarded this fall to an entering freshman, preferably from the Upper Peninsula. “We’re very appreciative of the Drakes’ generosity and their support of our students,” said Dean Eugene Klippel. “We’re particularly pleased that they chose to honor their daughter in this way, and we will make every effort to be excellent stewards of their gift.”

Dr. Gordon G. Parker_has been elected Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Dr. Parker will be honored during the SAE 2014 World Congress and Exhibition in Detroit, MI, the week of April 6, 2015. Dr. Parker is being honored as a recognized international leader in control system design research in a variety of mobility-related applications form diesel engine exhaust aftertreatment to satellite formation flying.