Mechanical Engineering @ Iowa State

InCyde Mechanical Engineering

February 27, 2009

ME graduate students make it to next round in business competition
Mechanical engineering graduate students Jared Brown, Cody Ellens, Randy Kasparbauer, and Anthony Pollard will compete in the statewide contest of the 2009 Pappajohn New Venture Business Plan Competition.

Working under their major professor, Robert Brown, who is Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering, the team developed Avello Bioenergy, Inc. Avello Bioenergy will commercialize and scale up proprietary technology for recovering fractionated bio-oil from biomass fast pyrolysis. This technology was developed at Iowa State through the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies and will be licensed through ISURF. The advantage of fractionated bio-oil recovery over other methods is the ability to collect higher quality products that can be marketed to multiple end uses including renewable electricity, fuels, materials, and chemicals.

Each business group received $100 for being named a finalist and has the opportunity to compete for one of three $5,000 prizes at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Iowa Conference March 6 at the University of Northern Iowa.

ME department invests in Team PrISUm
To assist with the design and construction of Team PrISUm’s tenth project, the Department of Mechanical Engineering recently donated $500 to the student organization. This donation places the department at the Solar Sustainer sponsorship level. Students on the solar car team get hands-on engineering experience, as well as an understanding of several engineering disciplines and business functions. For more information about the team, visit www.prisum.iastate.edu.

Team PrISUm 2009Members of Team PrISUm present to an elementary class as part of the organization’s outreach program.

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Staff to present about recruitment and diversity
On April 2, 2009, Janelle Miranda and Amy Carver will host a display before presenting at the P&S Council Retention and Recruitment Committee forum. The forum will be held in the Multicultural Center in the Memorial Union, and Miranda and Carver will present how they approach recruitment and diversity.

New graduate fellow named
Lying Guo has been named a Seward, Ratcliffe, and Galloway Foundation Mechanical Engineering Fellow for the spring 2009 semester. Guo joins four students who currently hold this position—Jing Ren, Victor Roa-Baerga, Sai Samudrala, and Melissa Wickham. This named assistantship is awarded to selected on-campus graduate students who are enrolled full time in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and is made possible through the Roderick Seward, Flossie Ratcliffe, and Helen M. Galloway Foundation, Inc.

Faculty candidate schedule

  • Bumsoo Han, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, will be on campus on Friday, February 27, 2009. Han will present “Thermally Induced Multiscale Biotransport Phenomena” from 11:00 a.m. to noon in 2004 Black and will give a guest lecture to undergraduate students from 2:15 to 2:45 in 2004 Black.
  • Daneesh Simien, postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, will be on campus on Monday, March 2, 2009. Simien will present “Influencing the Optical, Conductivity, and Rheological Properties in Single Wall Carbon Nanotube Thin Films and Nanocomposites Via Percolation Thresholds” from 2:10 to 3:00 p.m. in 2004 Black and will give a guest lecture to undergraduate students from 4:10 to 5:00 in 2004 Black
  • Chris Yua, PhD candidate from the University of California, Berkeley, will be on campus March 4–5, 2009. Yua will present “Reducing the Environmental Impact of Manufacturing: Theoretical Basis and Practical Applications” from 4:10 to 5:00 p.m. on March 4 in 1227 Hoover. He will give a teaching seminar at 10:00 a.m. on March 5 in 2004 Black.
  • Arezoo Ardekani, PhD candidate at the University of California, Irvine, will be on campus on Wednesday, March 11, 2009. Ardekani will present a research seminar on a topic to be determined from 11:00 a.m. to noon in 2004 Black and will give a guest lecture to undergraduate students from 2:15 to 2:45 in 2004 Black.
  • Jacinta Conrad, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will be on campus on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Conrad will present a research seminar on a topic to be determined from 11:00 a.m. to noon in 2004 Black and will give a guest lecture to undergraduate students from 2:15 to 2:45 in 2004 Black.

Events

  • On Friday, February 27, 2009, the Women in Mechanical Engineering program will be hosting a bowling night at the Memorial Union beginning at 3:30 p.m. All faculty and staff are encouraged to come.
  • Xianfan Xu, professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, will present “Ultrafast Energy Transfer in Energy Conversion Materials” on Tuesday, March 3, 2009, from 11:00 a.m. to noon in 2004 Black Engineering.
  • Valery Levitas, Schafer 2050 Challenge Professor, will present “Mechanics of Various Phase Transformations in Various Materials” on Tuesday, March 3, 2009, from 4:10 to 5:00 p.m. in 1235 Howe Hall. This presentation is part of the Computational Fluid Dynamics Center Seminar Series.