Newsletter Archives; Winter 2000
Faculty 2000: Research Grants and Contracts
Research Assistant Professor William D. Armstrong has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the State University of New York, Binghamton, New York.
Associate Professor Martin C. Berg received a grant from The Boeing Company to study robot end-effector position control strategies for manufacturing. This research was featured in an article in the Autumn 1999 issue of Northwest Science & Technology magazine.
Assistant Joyce S. Cooper will manage a grant from the Ford Motor Company for Knowledge-Based Engineering and the CADTECH Research Lab.
Acting Assistant Professor William M. Dougherty received a grant subcontract from SUNY Binghamton to study fatigue mechanisms in magnetostrictive composites.
Professor Ashley F. Emery received a grant from the Washington Technology Center (WTC) for measuring the thermal resistance of the Easy Floor assembly.
Associate Professor Brian C. Fabien received a grant from WTC and Hovair Systems to study cycle-reduction time for the Hovair Lift & Carry mast assembly.
Professor Fred K. Forster has been granted two patents: U.S. Patent No. 5,974,867, "Method for Determining Concentration of a Laminar Sample Stream," with Paul C. Galambos, Bernhard Weigl and Mark Holl, issued November 2, 1999, and No. 5,876,867, "Micropumps with Fixed Valves," with R.L. Bardell, A.P. Blanchard, M.A. Afromowitz and N.R. Sharma, dated March 2, 1999.
Associate Professor Mark A. Ganter received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study maskless solid freeform fabrication of dense metal micro- and meso-scale structures.
Professor Joseph L. Garbini received a supplement for research experience for undergraduates(REU) to an existing grant from NSF to investigate instrumentation for the study of atomic-scale biological structure by magnetic resonance force microscopy.
Associate Professor Michael G. Jenkins has been elected as Vice Chair of Committee C28 on advanced ceramics, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). His responsibilities in this position include leading strategic planning efforts, chairing the awards committee and serving on the executive subcommittee.
Professor Jens E. Jorgensen received a supplement for research experience for undergraduates to and existing NSF grant to study an electronic forum for design and manufacturing education.
Professor Emeritus Albert S. Kobayashi received a grant from the Department of Energy to study 3-D experimental fracture analysis at high temperature.
Professor John C. Kramlich received a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the development of a chemical kinetic model for the oxidation of mercury by chlorine species.
Associate Professor Vipin Kumar received a grant from WTC and Mikron Industries to study extrusion of microcellular foams and foam composites, and a grant from UWEB and Integra Life Sciences Corporation to study porous polymers for biomedical applications. He has also been appointed technical editor of the journal Cellular Polymers.
Professor Philip C. Malte received a grant from Ansaldo Ricerche to develop chemical kinetic mechanisms for computational fluid dynamic calculations of advanced gas turbine combustors. Additionally, he received a gift from Parker-Hannifin to be used to support graduate students studying in the field of low-emission gas turbine combustion.
Professor Norman J. McCormick received a grant from the Office of Naval Research to study beam spread analysis.
Assistant Professor Ann M. Mescher received a grant from WTC to design and build a micro-heat exchanger for a high power diode laser and an REU supplement to an existing NSF grant to characterize the optical properties of a naturally occuring fiber optic from an Arctic sponge and to design a solar pumped fiber laser.
Assistant Professor William H. Murray has accepted a position as Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California. He was also honored as Outstanding Faculty of the Year at the June 1999 Department of Mechanical Engineering graduation ceremony.
Professor Mamidala Ramulu was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Metals. He and Dr. Z. Guo, Boston Scientific Corporation, were presented with the Best Research Paper Award at the 10th American Waterjet Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. Their paper was entitled "Simulation of Displacement Fields Associated with Abrasive Waterjet Drilled Hole". He also received a Professional Achievement Award from The Boeing Company. For contributions to the development of the Business Knowledge Bank.
Associate Professor Per G. Reinhall received a grant from MathSoft, Inc., to investigate wavelet based methods and software for analysis of multi-scale fractal processes, and a grant from the Department of Transportation and National Research Council to investigate the application of a heavy vehicle brake condition monitoring system.
Professor James J. Riley was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Turbulence. Published by the (British) Institute of Physics, this new journal is one of the first fully electronic journals.
Research Associate Professor Colin J. Sandwith received an award from SPAWAR to conduct research and analyses of design, corrosion and failure mechanisms and issues in Navy fiberoptic underwater cable systems and platforms.
Associate Professor I-Yeu (Steve) Shen received a grant from NSF to study acoustic measurements of high-speed rotating disk/spindle systems; a grant from NSF to investigate taming vibration of rotating disk/spindle systems; a grant from Western Digital Corp. to study high-RPM, high-TPI spindle motors for disk drives.
Associate Professor Duane W. Storti received a grant from NSF to study maskless solid freeform fabrication of dense metal micro- and meso-scale structures, and a supplement for research experience for undergraduates to an existing NSF grant to investigate distributed solid freeform fabrication.
Professor Minoru Taya received a grant from National Science Foundation to investigate development of a new mechano-thermo-magnetic testing system for smart materials.
Professor Mark E. Tuttle was invited to give a short course on "Introduction to Polymeric Composite Materials" at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan. The class, held in July 1999, was attended by 25 faculty and graduate students.
