Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering News

Patrick McCabe applies his ME-EM education as entrepreneur

Published June 29, 2015

News

Michigan Technological University is renowned for their prestigious engineering program as they prepare students to enter a disorganized world with the tools and capabilities to make a constructive difference. Today, green technologies bring innovation and change into our daily lives; and, Michigan Tech alumnus Patrick McCabe continues to utilize his strong engineering background, along with his brilliant entrepreneurial skills to redefine the solar industry.

Patrick is COO and co-founder of GreenLancer, a Detroit-based startup company that utilizes an e-commerce platform to produce high-quality solar design documents. Creating solar designs may seem simple on the surface, but the innovative combination of engineering and virtual manufacturing allows GreenLancer to actively compete with the traditional brick and mortar design firms.

Upon graduating with his BSME degree, Patrick moved to Salt Lake City, then to San Diego to pursue a job in the solar industry. He began to work from home as a freelancer, but that wasn’t enough. Alas, GreenLancer emerged, originally named Stellar PV. Pat, along with a few friends, traveled across the country doing web-based design work for solar electricity companies. After several years on the road, Pat decided to bring the work back to Detroit in hopes of redefining manufacturing and the working class, both of which have plagued the city’s reputation in the past.

The idea of cultivating a remote workforce, managing workflow, and streamlining processes via technology began to attract attention from the city’s evolving tech start-up scene. Through family and friends, Patrick was able to raise $50,000 to bring the company to Bizdom, a start-up incubator on the heart of Detroit. There, generous investors gave an initial investment of $1 million to continue the advancement GreenLancer. In April of 2015, the company finished raising a Series B funding of $5 million from new and existing investors. The trajectory of GreenLancer and its concept is moving upward from solar to potentially all green technologies.

Patrick applauds Michigan Technological University for challenging him during his academic career. “I’m grateful for the education I received at Michigan Tech as it has helped to propel my achievements,” Patrick stated. Similarly, “It is exciting to see fellow alumni contributing to solving problems across the world.” Pat is looking forward to watching the continued success of the engineering program at Michigan Tech.

Article about GreenLancer

“GreenLancer raises Series B funding round of $5 million, expands in Detroit” Article from Crain’s Detroit

“Patrick McCabe, 29: CEO and co-founder, GreenLancer Energy Inc., Detroit” (Article from Crain's Detroit)

For more information about GreenLancer, please visit GreenLancer.com.

Michigan Tech 1 of 5 Universities Chosen to Help Improve Diversity in Mechanical Engineering Education

Published June 25, 2015

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News

Michigan Technological University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics is one of five mechanical engineering departments nationwide selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to participate in a new diversity training program. The others are Purdue, Oregon State, Texas Tech and the University of Oklahoma.
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Nina Mahmoudian Receives a Young Investigator Program Award from Office of Naval Research

Published June 15, 2015

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News

Only 36 faculty across the US were invited to join the Young Investigator Program (YIP) from the Office of Naval Research this year; additionally, only a small percent of faculty receive the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Nina Mahmoudian, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics at Michigan Technological University, is one of a select few to receive both in the same year.

ME-EM Hosts High Voltage/Temperature Materials and Structures (HVT) Meeting

Published May 21, 2015

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News

The week of May 18th ME-EM hosted the semi-annual NSF I/UCRC Industrial Advisory Board meeting for the Center for Novel High Voltage/Temperature Materials and Structures (HVT). The meeting was organized by Site Director Greg Odegard (ME-EM) and Co-Directors Julie King (ChE) and Paul Sanders (MSE).

The meeting was attended by 46 faculty, graduate students and Industrial Advisory Board members from Michigan Tech’s Departments of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Engineering; University of Denver, University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne and Boeing, Bonneville Power Administration, BP, CTC Global, General Cable, John Crane Inc. Global, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Southwire Company and Western Area Power Administration.

The mission of the HVT Center is to develop and evaluate new materials and structures for a range of HVT technological applications, particularly for the power transmission and aerospace industries.

The HVT Center has entered its second year of operation; the meeting was focused on the review of the current projects, proposals for future research and discussions on directions for Center growth. The Center is jointly funded by NSF and the Industrial Advisory Board member companies.

Bioprinting in 3D: Looks Like Candy, Could Regenerate Nerve Cells

Published May 11, 2015

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News

The printer looks like a toaster oven with the front and sides removed. Its metal frame is built up around a stainless steel circle lit by an ultraviolet light. Stainless steel hydraulics and thin black tubes line the back edge, which lead to an inner, topside box made of red plastic. In front, the metal is etched with the red Bio Bot logo. All together, the gray metal frame is small enough to fit on top of an old-fashioned school desk, but nothing about this 3D printer is old school. In fact, the tissue-printing machine is more like a sci-fi future in the flesh—and it has very real medical applications.
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Engineering Students Win Air Force Research Lab University Design Challenge

Published May 1, 2015

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News

A Senior Design team won top prize at the Air Force Research Lab University Design Challenge with its design for a wearable cooling device for soldiers in the field.

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Winning Senior Design team, from the left: Jessica Buck, Sean Mackey, Sophia Rizzo, Nicholas Sill (in the back), John Schuman, Joshua Kizer (wearing the suit), Jaclyn Johnson, Mikhail Alexander, Kevin Johnson, Bill Endres.

Listening Under the Ice

Published April 28, 2015

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News

There are two ways to measure sounds: actively and passively. “Passive acoustics is just listening to whatever is out there,” says Andrew Barnard, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering studying acoustics at Michigan Tech. He helped install a passive hydrophone system off the dock at the Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC), which is a unique set-up under the ice.

PACE Engineering Design Competition ME-EM April 2015

Published April 23, 2015

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News

The Michigan Tech Mechanical Engineering version of the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education PACE Engineering Design Competition was held on April 23, 2015.

Photo Gallery is on 2015 ME-EM PACE Contest at Flickr

Project Description: The design project is mainly involving CAD modeling of a real world example but designed by the students specially for the competition. The students apply the skill they learned on Modeling, Assemblies, and drafting. Some of them may include analysis and animations. The students are required to select a project on their own and it should be original. They as a team will create the parts and assemblies and present at the competition. CAD modeling/assembly with analysis, of any equipment used in the project.

Judges for April 2015 PACE were KVC Rao, Michigan Tech ME-EM; John Baker, Siemens; Radheshyam Tewari, Michigan Tech ME-EM; Christopher Morgan, General Motors; Laura McCausland, General Motors; Andrew Rohr, General Motors; Chris Eaton, General Motors.

Judging Criteria
Form — Design Concept, Creativity, Perceived Value, Safety
Fit — Physical Model (realism, aesthetics, detail, supporting design)
Function — Design Parameters and Performance (math models, simulations, spreadsheets, etc.)
Presentation — Effective, Professional, Credible
Teamwork and Collaboration

1st Place Modular Human Figure John Ford, Michael Kita, Cathy Nguyen, Scott Potrykus

See all the rest of the photos at Photo Gallery is on 2015 ME-EM PACE Contest at Flickr

ME-EM Graduate Seminar: Development of a Low Dimensional Two-Phase Thermal Model for Subsea Pipelines

Published April 21, 2015

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Seminars

The ME-EM Graduate Seminar speaker on Thursday, April 23 at 4:00 in 103 EERC will be Dr. Reza Tafreshi from Texas A&M University at Qatar.

The title of his presentation will be ‘Development of a Low Dimensional Two-Phase Thermal Model for Subsea Pipelines’.

Rising global energy demand has led to new operational challenges in unfamiliar environments, with higher temperature gradients. The challenges directly address safety, environmental and economic issues. Due to the low subsea temperatures and relatively higher petroleum fluid temperature in deep water pipelines, convectional heat losses occur from the petroleum fluids to the surroundings. This heat transfer is necessary to be considered, to ensure the proper flow of petroleum fluids. While conventional equivalent heat transfer models are easier to compute, they are not accurate enough to reflect the changes that would occur within a fluid due to different multiphase flow regimes and proportions. The objective is to develop a low dimensional and low computational equivalent thermal model of subsea fluids, which can predict two-phase fluid temperatures along insulated subsea pipelines. The developed heat transfer model combines the application of two-phase heat transfer coefficient model with fluid properties obtained from a low dimensional fluid model developed by our group. The presented model identifies the effect of heat transfer in subsea pipelines for two-phase fluids for normal operating and shut-down conditions. This model, when compared with industry standard software, showed that results were obtained with similar accuracy with approximately 1000 times less computational time.
Some other current research activities will be also discussed.

Reza Tafreshi received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1991 and 1995, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC, Canada, in 2005. He was a site engineer and then a project manager at PoloDej Company, Tehran, from 1995 to 1999. From 1999 to 2000, he was a Research Engineer with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, UBC. Dr. Tafreshi was a recipient of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Award, Canada, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC, from 2005 to 2006. He was a Visiting Assistant Professor with Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, in 2006. In 2007, he joined Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar, where he is currently an Assistant Professor. His research fields include dynamic systems and controls, machine fault diagnosis, condition monitoring, and biomedical engineering.

ME-EM Senior Recognition Banquet April 14th

Published April 21, 2015

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News

The ME-EM Senior Recognition Banquet and Order of the Engineer Program was held on Tuesday, April 14, at 6 p.m. in Rozsa Center Lobby.

The keynote speaker was Jeff Zawisza, Fellow at Dow Chemical and a 1983 ME-EM alumnus.

ME-EM Outstanding Enterprise Student Award: William Gielda, Clean Snowmobile Enterprise team

ME-EM Teacher of the Year: Charles Van Karsen

According to the Order of the Engineer manual: The Order of the Engineer is a solemn obligation to oneself to uphold devotion to the standards and the dignity of the engineering profession. It is an obligation to turn to practical use the principles of science and the means of technology…to serve humanity by making the best use of earth’s precious wealth.

The Obligation is a creed similar to the oath attributed to Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) that is generally taken by medical graduates and which sets forth an ethical code. The Obligation likewise, contains parts of the Canon of Ethics of major engineering societies. Initiates, as they accept it voluntarily, pledge to uphold the standards and dignity of the engineering profession and to serve humanity by making the best use of Earth’s precious wealth.

Photos of the ME-EM Senior Recognition Banquet included in the ME-EM Photo Gallery