Newsletter Archives; Fall 1996

Professor Martin Berg received a $106,000 grant from The Boeing Company to investigate how end-effector position sensors can be used in the feedback control of manufacturing robots.

Professor Dale Calkins received a $45,000 contract from Ford Motor Co. to develop an automobile dynamics modeler; equipment donations from the Henrob Corp., including a $50,000 "self-piercing riveter" for use in the Learning Factory; and a $5000 color printer from Tektronix.

Professor Ashley Emery was selected by the Board of Editors of the Journal of Heat Transfer as an Outstanding Reviewer for 1996. Professor Emery and co-author Dr. Tushar Fadale's paper, "Transient Effects of Uncertainties on the Sensitivities of Temperatures and Heat Fluxes Using Stochastic Finite Elements," was named 1996 Best Paper by the Heat Transfer Division, ASME, at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exhibition in Atlanta on November 17-22.

Professors Brian Fabien and Steve Shen were promoted to Associate Professor on September 16, 1996.

Professor Fred Forster developed (with Electrical Engineering Professor Martin Afromowitz) a breakthrough design for micropumps with no moving parts using an idea patented around the turn of the century by inventor Nikola Tesla.

Professor Barry Hyman was appointed to a three-year term as Associate Editor of Energy, the international journal devoted to interdisciplinary studies of energy resources, conversion, and utilization; and was elected to a three-year term as Vice-President for Government Relations for the ASME.

Professor John Kramlich received $197,000 from the Department of Energy to identify mechanisms for toxic metal vapor collection in flames; $84,000 from Weyerhaeuser to study ash aerosol chemistry from wood dust and particle board dust combustion; $200,000 from the Office of Naval Research to support the development of acoustically-enhanced incineration technology for shipboard applications; and won the EPA Science Advisory Board outstanding review paper award for "Nitrous Oxide Behavior in the Atmosphere, and in Combustions and Industrial Systems", which was published in Progress in Energy and Combustion Science.

Professor Vipin Kumar received $130,258 from CertainTeed to study the feasibility of microcellular vinyl building products.

Professor Michael Jenkins received the ASTM C28 Advanced Ceramics award for extraordinary leadership in standards development in the area of monolithic and composite advanced ceramics; was chosen as convener of Working Group 9, Tensile Testing Ceramic Composites, of the International Standards Organization Technical Committee 206; was approved as an inaugural member of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Task Group on Graphite and Ceramic Pressure Equipment; and was named co-chair of the Testing Task Group of the new Mil-Handbook-17 effort on Ceramic Matrix Composites.

Professors Michael Jenkins and Mamidala Ramulu received a $66,000 equipment donation from Flow International for abrasive water jet cutting of advanced materials such as polymer and ceramic matrix composites; and a $25,000 equipment donation from MTS Systems to upgrade an existing servohydraulic test system for characterizing the mechanical behavior of materials.

Professors George Kosály, John Kramlich, and James Riley obtained $351,481 from the Gas Research Institute for a three-year study on the investigation and application of closure models of turbulent combustion. Professors Kosály and Riley obtained a three-year Air Force Office of Scientific Research contract for $226,043 to evaluate closure models for turbulent diffusion flames.

Professor Norman McCormick was appointed Adjunct Professor of Oceanography.

Professor William Murray received a $115,000 grant from WTC and Hewlett-Packard to determine the limits to performance on flexible feeding of discrete parts; and was appointed to a three-year term as Chair of the Instrumentation and Components Panel of the Dynamic Systems and Control Division of ASME.

Professor Mamidala Ramulu was named a Fellow of the ASME in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of mechanical engineering; is serving as technical editor of Machining Science and Technology Journal; received a $600,000 in-kind donation of advanced composite material from McDonnell Douglas; and was honored with a service award from the Manufacturing Engineering Division of ASME for his contributions to "Machining and Finishing Processes of Advanced Materials: Current and Future," at the 1996 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exhibition in Atlanta on November 17-22.

Professor James Riley became chair of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society after serving as chair-elect for the past year.

Professor Steve Shen received $20,000 from the University Royalty Research Fund to study applications of self-sensing active constrained layer damping treatments; and $149,830 from NSF to conduct nontraditional vibration analysis of rotating disks/spindle systems and its application to computer head disk drives.

Professor Minoru Taya received $120,000 from WTC and Johnson Matthey Electronics for the design of high performance conductive adhesives for die attach; $50,000 (with Professor Albert Kobayashi) from Sumitomo Metals for a three-year study of the thermomechanical behavior of Al composite; a $292,660 contract (with Materials Science and Engineering Professor Fumio Ohuchi) from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for a three-year study of the thermomechani-cal behavior of functionally graded materials; and is co-PI on an $83,206 NSF equipment grant for Electronic Packaging and Materials.