Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics News

ME-EM Graduate Seminar: Applications of Electron Microscopy to Materials for Energy

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sep18The ME-EM Graduate Seminar speaker on Thursday, September 18 at 4:00 in 103 EERC will be Dr. Dean Miller from Argonne National Laboratory.

The title of his presentation will be ‘Applications of Electron Microscopy to Materials for Energy’.

Electron microscopy has long been an important tool in understanding the structure and function of materials. Electron microscopy provides powerful capabilities for characterization of microstructure at the nanoscale. Likewise, focused ion beam instruments provide unique capability for preparation and interrogation of materials. In this presentation, several examples of the application of these approaches to energy related materials will presented. In fuel cell materials, quantitative three-dimensional reconstruction of microstructure through focused ion beam – scanning electron microscopy
has provided new insight into cathode performance. For Li-battery materials, we have developed a new way to follow structural evolution in single oxide cathode particles by in situ microscopy during electrochemical cycling that has shed new light on mechanisms for performance degradation. In high temperature superconductors, electron microscopy has revealed how subtle changes in chemistry during processing can have a profound influence on their ultimate performance. These examples illustrate some of the ways electron microscopy can provide unique and practical insight into the behavior of materials.

Dean Miller is a Senior Materials Scientist and Director of the Electron Microscopy Center at Argonne National Laboratory. He received his B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering and Ph.D. in Materials Science, both from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. His research at Argonne focuses
on the characterization of complex electronic oxides including high-temperature superconductors, magnetic oxides, and advanced battery materials with a particular emphasis on characterization by electron beam methods.

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Michigan Tech Receives NSF Grant for Transmission Electron Microscope

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Michigan Technological University is well on its way to getting a $1.7 million, state-of-the-science transmission electron microscope (TEM), thanks to the National Science Foundation and a team of dedicated researchers led by Reza Shahbazian-Yassar.
“This will bring us to the forefront of electron microscopy,” said Shahbazian-Yassar, the principal investigator on the project. The new TEM will not only give researchers the ability to study atomic structure, it will also identify chemical composition with sensitivity close to a single atom.
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Meet the new ME-EM Faculty

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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.

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Michigan Tech Mobile Lab at Battery Show

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2The Michigan Technological University Mobile Lab was a featured exhibitor at the 2014 Battery Show – “The Expo for Advanced Batteries” – and the Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo September 16-18 at Novi, Michigan, USA.

The lab was set up indoors at the Battery Show in Novi, where Professor Steve Hackney (MSE), instructor Trever Hassell (ECE), Mobile Lab operations manager Chris Davis, and Mobile Lab director Jeremy Worm provided hands-on seminars to conference and show attendees.

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ME-EM Graduate Seminar: In situ Nanoscale Testing to Validate and Elucidate Mechanism for Predictive Modeling

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sep11The ME-EM Graduate Seminar speaker on Thursday, September 11 at 4:00 in 103 EERC will be Dr. Kahlid Hattar from Sandia National Laboratory. The title of his presentation will be ‘In situ Nanoscale Testing to Validate and Elucidate Mechanism for Predictive Modeling’.

Topic: In situ Nanoscale Testing to Validate and Elucidate Mechanism for Predictive Modeling

Predicting performance margins of complex systems requires the development of multiscale physics based models that incorporate potential processing, microstructure, and property variations. To create the necessary set of models, a fundamental understanding of the physics governing the associated materials interplay and response in the expected environments of operation is essential. In situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments validated by welldesigned bulk tests provide an excellent tool to elucidate the underlying mechanisms that govern the properties of materials exposed to various environmental conditions of interest.
This presentation will demonstrate the breadth of in situ TEM research capabilities that are now available to the materials science community. These capabilities will be highlighted through a set of three experimental examples. In the first set, both the detrimental and beneficial effects of ion irradiation in face-centered cubic metal will be demonstrated.
The detrimental effect will be shown through a detailed comparison of displacement damage on the microstructure and mechanical properties of high purity Cu whereas the beneficial effect will be presented for Au electrical contacts. Recent advancements in in situ TEM stages permit studies in gas and liquid environments. To demonstrate the potential of these stages, recent work done at Sandia to understand the uptake and release of hydrogen in nanoporous Pd nanoparticles and the nanoscale mechanisms of corrosion in high purity Fe will be shown. Finally, the presentation will highlight the ability of in situ ion irradiation studies to investigate the structural evolution of advanced nanoscale detectors under controlled radiation environments.
This research was partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Khalid Hattar is a Senior Member of the Technical Staff of Sandia National Laboratories. He
received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2003, and a
Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2009.
He joined the Radiation-Solids Interaction group at Sandia in December 2008. He specializes in
determining the property-microstructure relationship
for a variety of structural, electrical, and optical
materials through in situ TEM in various extreme
environments.

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Greg Odegard Named MEEM Associate Chair, Director of Undergrad Studies

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Odegard2Tech 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.

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ME-EM Graduate Seminar: From carbon nanotubes to crowd noise: An overview of interesting topics in acoustics

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barnardThe ME-EM Graduate Seminar speaker on Thursday, September 4 at 4:00 in 103 EERC will be Dr. Andrew Barnard, Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University.

The title of his presentation will be ‘From carbon nanotubes to crowd noise: An overview of interesting topics in acoustics’.

Carbon nanotube (CNT) thin-films are ultra-lightweight, semi-transparent, flexible, and stretchable, films that can create sound through thermoacoustics. CNT thermophones have the potential to replace moving coil transducers and expand the applications of modern loudspeakers through “singing” fabrics. The fundamentals of CNT thermophone operation and key research challenges will be presented.
Underwater acoustics encompasses many disciplines and applications from Navy ships to oil exploration to climate change. Michigan Tech is located in an ideal location, on the shores of Lake Superior, to perform experimental underwater acoustics research through the Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC). Several topics in underwater acoustics will be discussed.
Transducer arrays and wavenumber domain signal processing provide a powerful way to visualize acoustic fields. An overview of techniques including supersonic intensity in reverberant environments (SIRE), and wavenumber processing of panel-to-panel transmission loss will be discussed. Current panel transmission loss (TL) measurement standards are woefully inadequate. Several test facilities can test the same specimen and the results can vary by more than 6 dB. Although panel TL theory is well developed, understanding of the fundamental measurement error is not. Insight into the field diffusivity in the source room will be discussed as well as paths towards an improved measurement standard. Smart controls systems are leading the way towards the realization of cyber-physical systems. An overview of the utility of FPGA-based control systems will be presented. These systems are particularly well suited for safety-critical control applications. Crowd noise is a much discussed topic in the mainstream media. Unfortunately most of the ad-hoc measurements that have been promoted are lacking in scientific rigor. Sound level measurements from Penn State football games will be presented to demonstrate how we can better measure this interesting phenomenon.

Dr. Andrew Barnard is a new assistant professor in the ME-EM department at Michigan Tech. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from MTU and a Ph.D. in Acoustics from Penn State. Dr. Barnard is Board Certified by the Institute for Noise Control Engineering and is a Certified LabVIEW Developer.
He spent the last 8 years working as a research faculty member at the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State, specializing in structural acoustics. Dr. Barnard has general interests in mechanical vibration, noise control, and acoustics.
His specialties include dynamic test and measurement, underwater acoustic intensity, experimental modal analysis, room acoustics, acoustic material characterization, outdoor sound propagation, theoretical acoustics, signal processing, and real-time control systems. Other interests include loudspeaker design and fabrication, architectural acoustics, and engineering education.

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Michigan Tech in Global Trajectory Optimization Competition

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The Michigan Tech Space Trajectory Optimization Team was ranked 20 in the 7th Global Trajectory Optimization Competition. This Competition is an event that takes place every one-two years over roughly one month during which the best aerospace engineers and mathematicians worldwide challenge themselves to solve a “nearly-impossible” problem of interplanetary trajectory design.

The 7th edition of the competition was organized by Politecnico di Torino – Università di Roma “Sapienza”, Italy. There were 38 participating teams worldwide. The first place in the 7th edition of the competition is the Outer Planets Mission Analysis Group of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA.

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Active Learning Center is Up and Running

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IMG_0073qInformation Technology invites you to attend the Active Learning Center’s open house on Friday, Aug. 22, from 1 to 4 p.m. in ME-EM 120. The Active Learning Center (ALC), formerly known as the ME-EM “Fishbowl.” has been completely transformed into a technology-rich collaborative learning space, featuring 72 student computer stations, three instructor stations and 29 collaboration LCD monitors hung from the ceiling. Staff will be on hand to provide tours and demonstrations.

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John and Cathi Drake Create Endowed Chair in Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics by Marcia Goodrich, senior content specialist

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image57865-persJohn ’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.

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