News
Archive:
12/30/2022
Research led by Bo Cheng, Kenneth K. and Olivia J. Kuo Early Career Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State, in aerial drone design was recently featured in an article by Popular Science.
12/22/2022
The Penn State College of Engineering fundraised $46,291 from 254 gifts on GivingTuesday, which took place on Dec. 8. The funds will benefit students largely through scholarships, as well as supplement resources for materials and experiences.
12/21/2022
Electric vehicle battery research conducted by Chao-Yang Wang, the William E. Diefenderfer Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, was named one of the top ten most significant scientific developments of the year by The Guardian.
12/16/2022
Jacqueline O’Connor, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, recently collaborated with colleagues to edit a book titled Renewable Fuels: Sources, Conversion, and Utilization. The editors aim to increase energy literacy and bridge the disconnect between those who make fuels and those who use them.
12/13/2022
Penn State’s Convergence Center for Living Multifunctional Material Systems received a $300,000 International Research Experiences for Students grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a research exchange program with the University of Freiburg in Germany.
12/9/2022
Hummingbirds have extreme aerial agility and flight forms, which is why many aerial vehicles are designed to mimic hummingbird movement. Using a novel modeling method, researchers gained new insights into how hummingbirds produce wing movement, which could lead to design improvements in flying robots.
12/7/2022
Jacqueline O’Connor, director of the Center for Gas Turbine Research, Education, and Outreach and associate professor of mechanical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, served on the editorial team for a recently published book, Renewable Fuels: Sources, Conversion, and Utilization.
12/7/2022
Xiaogang Hu, associate professor of mechanical engineering and Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Neurorehabilitation, will lead Penn State’s efforts in the newly funded Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center in Assisting Stroke Survivors with Engineering Technology.
12/2/2022
Applications are now being accepted for a summer 2023 undergraduate research experience in the Penn State College of Engineering. Students from across the country can conduct next-generation propulsion and power research and work closely with leading academic experts through the new program.
11/30/2022
Jing Du, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering, was selected for the Young Leaders Professional Development Award by the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS).
11/30/2022
Penn State student Jeff Jackman earned his associate degree in air and space operations technology through the G.I. Bill. He continued his education at Penn State Berks and on Dec. 15 will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
11/21/2022
Seven Penn State materials researchers have received the 2022 Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award, including five in the College of Engineering.
11/18/2022
Fruit flies can quickly compensate for catastrophic wing injuries, researchers found, maintaining the same stability after losing up to 40% of a wing. This finding could inform the design of versatile robots, which face the similar challenge of having to quickly adapt to mishaps in the field.
11/18/2022
Mechanical engineering doctoral student Xiaoyue Zhao was selected to participate in the Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering workshop, held Oct. 6-7 at Stanford University.
11/10/2022
Michael Barringer, associate research professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, was named to the most recent class of fellows for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
11/8/2022
A Penn State-designed window screen system that automatically changes its shape based on indoor and outdoor environmental conditions is part of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal through Dec. 5.
11/2/2022
Penn State will hold its annual First-Generation Celebration on Nov. 8, celebrating Penn Staters, promoting campus resources and bringing awareness to the first-generation community at Penn State. Recent Penn State first-generation mechanical engineering graduate Mahima Kania reflects on her college experience.
10/28/2022
On Sept. 22, University of Freiburg Rector Kerstin Krieglstein presented the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg’s University Medal to Martin Trethewey, Penn State professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, for his efforts in forging a global collaboration between the two universities.
10/26/2022
Tim Simpson, Paul Morrow Professor in Engineering Design and Manufacturing in the Penn State College of Engineering, has received the Design Theory and Methodology Award from the Design Engineering Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
10/12/2022
A breakthrough in electric vehicle battery design has enabled a 10-minute charge time for a typical EV battery. The record-breaking combination of a shorter charge time and more energy acquired for longer travel range was announced today (Oct. 12) in the journal Nature.
10/6/2022
Twenty-eight new faculty members have joined the Penn State College of Engineering since the end of the spring semester. The 17 tenured or tenure-line members and 11 non-tenure-line members represent 12 units and departments and include two new department heads.
10/6/2022
Amrita Basak, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, has received a two-year, $498,235 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award for her work predicting and preventing thermal deformation in multi-laser additive manufacturing.
10/6/2022
Penn State Scranton dedicated its new Engineering Building on Thursday, Oct. 6, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that featured Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi as a keynote speaker and approximately 100 guests, including University and community leaders, donors, faculty, staff and students.
10/1/2022
Matthew Parkinson, professor of engineering design, mechanical engineering and industrial and manufacturing engineering, was quoted in a Washington Post article about the debate surrounding standard airplane seat sizing.
9/26/2022
Four Penn State College of Engineering faculty members were selected as part of the 2022-23 cohort of Drexel University’s Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES) program. The one-year, part-time leadership program provides training and development for women faculty and administrators.
9/23/2022
The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund awarded Tamy Guimarães, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, a yearlong $34,000 grant to optimize amphibious aircraft for operations in the Amazon Rainforest. The project, in partnership with Brazilian institutes Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and Centro Universitário SENAI CIMATEC, received roughly $125,000 in total funding.
9/19/2022
Penn State was named a collaborating institution in a $66 million U.S. Department of Energy Urban Integrated Field Program designed to study the impacts of climate change on American cities. Bruce Logan, Evan Pugh University Professor and Kappe Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is one of 21 Penn State faculty members working on the grant.
9/16/2022
A project led by Ryan Harne, James F. Will Career Development Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was recently featured by multiple media outlets, including The Independent, Interesting Engineering and New Scientist.
9/13/2022
Working together across disciplines, researchers from Penn State and the University of Freiburg are applying materials that adapt, respond to the environment, self-power and regenerate to meet the challenges of adaptive architecture.
9/12/2022
Penn State ranked 22 out of 212 schools in "Best Engineering Programs" at schools whose highest degree is a doctorate. The University also ranked well in a number of engineering specialties.
8/29/2022
Students taking a leadership course in Penn State’s School of Engineering Design Technology, and Professional Programs placed in the Airport Cooperative Research Program, a national engineering competition that aims to solve problems and inconveniences common to airports.
8/24/2022
Penn State researchers have developed a novel nanoengineered granular hydrogel bioink that could be used to to develop biomaterials that can be three-dimensionally (3D) printed as complex organ shapes, capable of hosting cells and forming tissues.
8/24/2022
A Penn State-led research team has created the first example of a soft, polymer material that acts like a brain, simultaneously sensing, thinking and acting upon mechanical stress without requiring additional circuits to process these signals.
8/22/2022
Kathryn Jablokow, professor of engineering design and mechanical engineering, recently received a National Science Foundation Director’s Award as part of the team that created the Engineering Research Initiation program.
8/9/2022
Benjamin Burlovic, a fourth-year Penn State Schreyer Scholar majoring in mechanical engineering and economics, completed an internship with consulting firm Deloitte this summer using Chapel Executive Internship funding.
7/28/2022
Penn State ranks in the top 50 in 16 subject area rankings — two of which are from the College of Engineering — and in the top 100 in the world in an additional 14 subjects — including three related to the College of Engineering — according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
7/25/2022
Amrita Basak, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, earned a five-year, $625,000 Department of Energy (DOE) 2022 Distinguished Early Career Program award. She will use the grant to develop advanced manufacturing processes for metal additive manufacturing (AM) and enable more rapid implementation of AM techniques.
7/22/2022
The Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team finished the first leg of the four-year AutoDrive Challenge II, taking home seven top-three recognitions for their preliminary design and simulation demonstration of an autonomous vehicle. The competition took place June 6-10 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
7/11/2022
Thermally regenerative ammonia batteries can produce electricity on demand from low-grade waste heat. A new process for creating these batteries improves their stability and affordability and may help address the country’s growing grid-scale energy storage problem, according to Penn State researchers.
6/30/2022
Five College of Engineering graduate students have received 2022 NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant awards and been named graduate fellows.
6/30/2022
Penn State announced academic promotions for non-tenure-line faculty members at the University. The promotions will take effect on July 1. The below lists are for non-tenure-line faculty promotions in engineering.
6/28/2022
Penn State students in the online Master of Engineering Additive Manufacturing and Design program at World Campus visited University Park from May 16-20, as a component of the three-credit core course, ME 566: Metal Additive Manufacturing Lab.
6/10/2022
The first international conference on Advanced Instrument, Diagnostics and Controls for Applications in Turbomachinery, held May 22-24 at Penn State, has announced its student winners for technical oral and poster presentations.
6/7/2022
Zoubeida Ounaies, professor of mechanical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, was chosen as associate and acting director of Penn State's Materials Research Institute.
6/7/2022
Karen A. Thole, distinguished professor of mechanical engineering, was selected to receive the 2022 American Society of Mechanical Engineers Heat Transfer Memorial Award.
6/3/2022
The Penn State College of Engineering will recognize 11 early career alumni for their achievements and demonstrated commitment to their professions, communities and Penn State at a ceremony on June 17 at University Park.
6/2/2022
Margaret Byron, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was featured on a recent episode of IEE's Growing Impact podcast to discuss her research on how biofilms may impact the transport of microplastics through water.
6/1/2022
Bryan Habas, first-year doctoral student in mechanical engineering at Penn State, has been selected for the National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship Award.
5/31/2022
Melissa Brindise, Penn State assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received a three-year, $231,000 career development award from the American Heart Association to study factors that may increase the risk of an aneurysm rupture.
5/27/2022
Penn State undergraduate engineering students in the technical elective course, ME 427: Aerodynamics for Mechanical Engineers, recently took a field trip to the Penn State Aviation Center to explore the aircrafts and converse with pilots, crew members and staff. Tom Gorman, manager of aircraft maintenance at the center, taught the students about the practical side of aircraft maintenance and shared some of the center’s recent aerodynamics.
5/19/2022
Penn State announced academic promotions for tenured and tenure-line faculty members at the University, including 33 in engineering. The promotions will take effect on July 1.
5/11/2022
Upcycling plastic waste into graphite, used in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage, could positively contribute to the global economy, preserving resources, saving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, according to Penn State researchers. Under a seed grant from the Materials Research Institute, the researchers will explore ways to take single-use plastic waste and turn it into high-quality graphite.
5/10/2022
Fruit flies synchronize the movements of their heads and bodies to stabilize their vision and fly effectively, according to Penn State researchers who subjected flies to virtual-reality flight simulators. The finding appears to hold true in primates and other animals, the researchers say, indicating that animals evolved to move their eyes and bodies independently to conserve energy and improve performance.
5/9/2022
Guha Manogharan, Emmert H. Bashore Faculty Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was selected to join the 2022-23 Early Career Leadership Intern Program to Serve Engineering (ECLIPSE). Administered by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, this year’s international ECLIPSE class includes six early career engineers.
5/3/2022
Penn State undergraduate engineering students in the technical elective course, ME 427: Aerodynamics for Mechanical Engineers, recently took a field trip to the Penn State Aviation Center to explore the aircrafts and converse with pilots, crew members and staff.
5/2/2022
The National Science Foundation has selected five current Penn State College of Engineering students as 2022 awardees for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program and one College of Engineering student for an honorable mention.
4/21/2022
Penn State recently honored five Penn State engineering undergraduate students in recognition of their academic excellence, outstanding leadership and meritorious service. The University’s 2022 student award recipients exemplify best practices and achievements among students, reflecting the University's mission of teaching, research and service.
4/20/2022
The Penn State Materials Research Institute has announced the 2022 recipients of seed grants that will enable University faculty to establish new collaborations with partners outside their own units for the exploration of transformative ideas for high-impact materials science and engineering.
4/20/2022
Three engineering graduate students received awards for their research and scholarship in the 37th annual Penn State Graduate Exhibition.
4/18/2022
Samantha Link was named the 2022 spring student marshal for mechanical engineering.
4/8/2022
Ken Brentner, professor of aerospace engineering at Penn State, received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aeroacoustics Award, while Karen Thole, Penn State Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, received the AIAA Thermophysics Award.
3/30/2022
The Penn State College of Engineering has added 15 faculty members this semester, with 11 tenured or tenure-line members and four non-tenure-line members.
3/30/2022
Eleven Penn State engineering graduates will be honored on April 4 at the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Engineering Alumni Awards ceremony at Hyatt Place State College. Charlie Blenko, an undergraduate student majoring in civil engineering, will serve as the event’s emcee.
3/30/2022
Researchers at Penn State are at the leading edge of the field now known as additive manufacturing, working to advance the capabilities of 3D printing with a goal of addressing pressing problems in human health, housing and transportation, among other areas.
3/30/2022
In the 2023 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Engineering Programs rankings released today (March 29), engineering at Penn State University Park ranked No. 32 overall, advancing one place from last year’s report, and No. 18 among public institutions. Seven engineering specialty disciplines offered by the College of Engineering also climbed in the rankings, and eight are now ranked in the top 20 nationally.
3/25/2022
Michele Beisler, deputy program manager for the NASA Rocket Propulsion Test program office, has been named one of 11 recipients of the 2022 Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award by the Penn State College of Engineering.
3/25/2022
Ilya Kovalenko joined Penn State as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and industrial and manufacturing engineering on Jan. 1. He heads the Control and Automation for Intelligent Systems Lab at Penn State.
3/17/2022
Penn State mechanical engineering alumnus Bob Phillips is honoring Frank Schmidt, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, and his late wife, Mary, while also creating financial support opportunities for mechanical engineering students by establishing the Professor Frank and Mary Schmidt Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering.
3/17/2022
Mary Frecker, head of the Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering, Riess Chair of Engineering and director of the Penn State Center for Biodevices, was quoted in an article on WebMD, "How Scientists Adapted an Ancient Art Form to Create Nanoscopic Medical Tools."
2/28/2022
Jing Du, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, earned a five-year, $552,606 NSF CAREER Award for a project titled “Structures and Properties of Bone at Multiple Length Scales.”
2/28/2022
Margaret Byron, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, earned a five-year, $815,671 NSF CAREER Award for a project titled “Liminal locomotion: Life at the air-water-land interface.”
2/28/2022
Matthew Rau, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, earned a five year, $567,307 NSF CAREER Award for a project titled “The impact of extracellular polymeric substances on particle transport in aquatic environments.”
2/28/2022
Nine faculty members in Penn State’s College of Engineering earned National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards. Each project funded ranges in duration from three and a half to five years, with grants from roughly $500,000 to more than $800,000.
2/25/2022
Kathryn Jablokow, professor of engineering design and mechanical engineering, will present one of three keynote talks at NASA’s upcoming imaginAviation virtual event, set for March 1-3.
2/24/2022
The Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering recently celebrated its graduate students and their visually engaging research during the 2022 Vizzies.
2/24/2022
Penn State engineering researchers created an easier, more exact method to stimulate cells through ultrasound waves by creating a transparent, biocompatible ultrasound transducer chip upon which cells can be cultured and stimulated.
2/23/2022
Six Penn State student startup teams have been selected as finalists in the Invent Penn State Inc.U Competition and are set to compete for $30,000 in funding on “The Investment,” a WPSU Shark Tank-like television production that will be livestreamed during Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC.
2/22/2022
The College of Engineering Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory showcases for the fall 2021 semester took place virtually from Dec. 10 – 17 and in-person on Dec. 7. Students in the senior capstone design courses presented the culmination of their semester-long projects at the events.
2/17/2022
Jacqueline O’Connor, associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Center for Gas Turbine Research, Education, and Outreach at Penn State, was featured in the latest episode of Additive Manufacturing's "The Cool Parts Show" on February 17.
2/15/2022
Chao-Yang Wang, professor and Diefenderfer Chair in the Penn State Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, was quoted in an article published by Wired on Feb. 9. Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/can-super-fast-battery-charging-fix-the-electric-car/
1/31/2022
The Penn State College of Engineering ranks fourth in the country for total research expenditures, according to the most recent National Science Foundation rankings of Higher Education Research and Development research expenditures, released in January 2022.
1/31/2022
As part of the course work for ME 340: Mechanical Engineering Design Methodology, undergraduate students from the Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering created children’s science exhibits for the Discovery Space Science Museum in State College.
1/31/2022
Penn State-affiliated startup spotLESS Materials, which sells its super slippery coating technology as an assistive cleaning product, has raised more than $1.3 million of total venture capital funding to date, including $900,000 in a seed round that closed on Dec. 23, 2021.
1/26/2022
U.S. News and World Report ranked Penn State World Campus among its "Best Online Programs" for 2022, with the University’s online graduate engineering programs tied for No. 3 overall and for veterans.
1/24/2022
Penn State mechanical engineering researchers, including undergraduate student Dungan Adams, recently published results of their investigation into 3D printing a biopolymer.
1/5/2022
Advancements in additive manufacturing, commonly referred to as 3D printing, have the potential to significantly improve health care, allowing for surgical implants to be custom designed for each patient.