materials & manufacturing

R E N S S E L A E R E N G I N E E R I N G

2012

MATERIALS & MAnufAcTuRIng

Dan Kruse working on vision-guided, multi-arm robotic manipulation in the Center for Automation Technologies and Systems (CATS). The project is part of a bigger initia-tive where robotic vision will be used to follow a target, determining the best grasping strategy.

Since 1988, CATS has worked with partner companies to leverage the knowledge and expertise of Rensselaer faculty and students toward solving real-world advanced manufacturing challenges. CATS is a New York State designated Center for Advanced Technology and receives annual funding of nearly $1 million from the Empire State Development (ESD) Division for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR). Over the past five years, CATS has leveraged this investment to help its industrial partners deliver upward of $259 million in non-job economic impact, create 293 new jobs, and retain 449 jobs in New York. More than 80 percent of CATS industrial partners are small or start-up companies.

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School of EngineeringRensselaer Polytechnic Institute110 8th StreetTroy, NY 12180-3590 USA(518) 276-6203eng.rpi.edu

Opinions expressed in these pages do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or the policies of the Institute.

Design and Production:Jill Evans, MS ‘06

Contributors:Michael Mullaney, MBA ‘11Kirk Smith

Photo Credits:Scott BarrowRichard BerryAndrew W. ChungDavid HackettDrew KinumKris Qua

c o n t e n t s

©2012 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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RENSSELAER ENG INEER ING

2012

“The engineering programs at Rensselaer are held in very high esteem among the academic and scientific

communities. We have long been recognized for the quality of our academic programs, the unique experiences

we afford our students, and the ability of our graduates to make significant contributions early in their careers.

This latest ranking provides clear evidence of the value placed on our world-class engineering programs by the

companies that hire our graduates.”

— David V. Rosowsky, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, Dean of Engineering

4 | Rensselaer engineering

3000 undergraduate students

700 graduate students

30% of first-year students were female

15% of first-year students were underrepresented minorities (Fall 2012)

70% of incoming first-year Engineering students were in the top 10% of their graduating class

7 academic departments

22 degree programs (11 UG and 11 G)

Throughout this issue, you’ll see donor impact highlights, illustrating the ways many of our 55,000 living alumni are enhancing our programs and the experiences of our students. now, more than ever, the generous support of our alumni is vital to the continued success of the School of Engineering. You can give directly to departments and programs, targeting your contribution. give now at: eng.rpi.edu/giving

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Greetings from Rensselaer and your School of Engineering. I am pleased to share this latest issue of Engineering News and hope you enjoy learning more about what has been happening in the School Engineering. From initiatives that complement and enhance our world-class educational programs, to the latest research being done by our faculty and students on some of the world’s most pressing problems and exciting opportunities, we are in one of the most exciting periods in our School’s nearly 200 year history.

In this issue, you’ll find a feature article on “Transformational Materials and Manufacturing,” one of two focal areas for the School of Engineering. (A future issue of the magazine will highlight the other focal area, “Human Health and Livability.”) The two focal areas serve as both a lens to focus collaborative efforts on important problems and a beacon that shines light on future directions and initiatives for the School. Rensselaer has a long history of conducting ground-breaking work in the area of materials science, from metallurgy to nanomaterials. And we are embarking on exciting new initiatives in the area of advanced manufacturing, building on our long history and many contributions in this important field as well.

Throughout this issue you’ll also find “donor impact” highlights. These highlight boxes show you how our generous donors make it possible for us to deliver a world-class engineering education to our students and deliver on the promise of research and discovery – or what Stephen van Rensselaer called “the application of science to the common purposes of life.”

I am very excited to be starting my fourth year as Dean of the School of Engineering, and I am looking forward to working closely with our alumni to help build the School and push into new directions. Your support will enable us to recruit and retain the best faculty, update our teaching facilities to include the latest technological platforms, support our many student organizations and teams, and expand both our international and service learning opportunities for our students. And of course your support makes it possible for the best and brightest to come to Rensselaer to pursue their engineering education. Please visit http://eng.rpi.edu/giving to learn about our partnership priorities and see how easy it is to make a gift to the School of Engineering or any of our seven departments.

Finally, I’d like to introduce Mr. Richard Graw, Senior Advancement Officer for the School of Engineering. Richard can also discuss giving opportunities and how you can make a gift to support the School or its departments. He can be reached at 518-276-4868 or [email protected]. If you are on campus, please stop by and say hello. Like me, he is eager to meet as many of our alumni as possible.

With warm regards,

David V. Rosowsky, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE Dean of Engineering

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165 faculty members

21 endowed chairs or professorships

37 Early Career Awards among current faculty (NSF CAREER and other Young Investigator Awards)

11 NSF CAREER Awards in the last three years (2010-2012)

$50M+ in annual research expenditures

12 research centers

2 NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERC’s)

Throughout this issue, you’ll see donor impact highlights, illustrating the ways many of our 55,000 living alumni are enhancing our programs and the experiences of our students. now, more than ever, the generous support of our alumni is vital to the continued success of the School of Engineering. You can give directly to departments and programs, targeting your contribution. give now at: eng.rpi.edu/giving

/ / F A c U Lt Y / / R e s e A R c h

/ / s c h o o L o F e n g I n e e R I n g h I g h L I g h t s

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Led by Robert Hull, Henry Burlage Jr. Professor of Engineering and Department Head of Materials Science and Engineering, researchers in the new Materials Characterization Core observe materials transformations in-situ and in real time.

MATERIALS & MAnufAcTuRIng

RensselaeR engineeRs aRe Changing

the WoRld With advanCed MateRials ReseaRCh.

innovations in MateRials, and Related

ManufaCtuRing Methods, aRe

tRansfoRMing the Way We live.


Zooming In and Scaling Up

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Over the past two decades, researchers have been increas-ingly successful in scrutinizing and manipulating matter at the atomic and molecular level. They’ve found that many basic principles of chemistry and physics, which are normally taken for granted, may not hold true at the nanoscale. It is also common for materials to behave in unique and unexpected ways at these small sizes. Nano-technology—the blanket term often used to describe this field of study—has yielded amazing advances and innova-tions in materials science and engineering.

Many researchers at Rensselaer work in the problem space of nanocomposites. Nanoparticles are small but have a huge surface area, and when paired with other materials or used as an additive can dramatically enhance or alter spe-

cific material properties, says Richard W. Siegel, the Robert W. Hunt Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. These nanocomposites can be mixed with plastics, ceram-ics, or metals to create new materials with a wide range of novel, highly specific properties.

Nanomaterials expert Linda Schadler, the Russell Sage Professor and Associate Dean for academic affairs in the School of Engineering, is a world leader in nanocom-posites research. In one project, she and her team are investigating how nanocomposites filled with graphine oxide can be used to create a new advanced material for coating electrical components and allowing the transmis-sion of higher voltages across national power infrastruc-tures. The new material is less expensive to make, more

We live in an age of increasingly rapid discovery of advanced materials with exciting, often unprecedented properties. In most cases, it takes decades or longer for these mate-rial discoveries to make their way from the laboratory into products in the marketplace. In rare instances, however, this transition is rapid—a decade or less—and prompts swift transformational changes in technology and in society. For example, materials breakthroughs enabled the development of the transistor and optical fiber, which quickly gave rise to new eras in electronics and telecommunications. On the other hand, this transition can be decompressed and last for centuries, like the slow, iterative development of steel from ancient times to the industrial revolution.

This challenge—to radically shorten the time from materials discovery to technological implementation—is the focus of both a major new federal program, the Materials Genome Initiative, and of significant research programs in the Schools of Engineering, Science, and Architecture at Rensselaer.

At the heart of this challenge are three major engineering barriers. First, the nanotechnology revolution continues to yield myriad new materials and emergent properties, but the scaling of such materials to industrial quantities remains a largely unmet challenge. Second, the field of materials processing, even 200 years after the industrial revolution,

remains a surprisingly qualitative science—many of the needs for predictive understanding and control in this arena remain unmet. This will require new methods for combin-ing simulation, modeling, experiments, and data science to provide quantitative control of the complex kinetic processes inherent to materials processing and manufacturing.

Third, whatever our engineers create must ultimately be “packaged” into systems from which information—in the broadest sense—can be injected or extracted. This requires the ability to fuse the chemical, mechanical, biological, and elec-tronic properties of materials to create new types of material systems that have new functionalities as well as the full spec-trum of necessary communications with the outside world.

“The School of Engineering at Rensselaer is providing global leadership in the areas that will define advanced materials re-search in the future. The research they are conducting today and the discoveries they will make tomorrow will be critical to addressing some of the most pressing challenges we face as a nation, a society, and a planet,” said David Rosowsky, Dean of the School of Engineering. “Whether innovating entirely new methods of engineering and manufacturing solar cells and wind turbines, or rearranging single atoms to instill advanced materials with unprecedented new properties, Rensselaer students and faculty are truly changing the world.”

Engineering Barrier 1: The nanotechnology revolution continues to

yield myriad new materials and emergent properties, but the scaling of

such materials to industrial quantities remains a largely unmet challenge.

Everything is made from materials. In fact, much of the blueprint of human history is based upon the incorporation of new materials into emerging technologies.

The challenge: radically shorten

the time from materials discovery

to technological implementation.

At the heart of this challenge are

three major engineering barriers

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durable, and exhibits other more beneficial properties than the materials currently used in industry for this purpose.

As innovative and skilled as we’ve become in creating novel nanocomposites, it can still prove challenging to incorporate these nanoengineered materials into finished products. Working with and manipulating a single or small group of nanoparticles re-quires sophisticated equipment and is often a prohibitively costly endeavor for companies. Additionally, while researchers have become adept at creating or synthesizing small quan-tities of nanocomposites, these processes gen-erally do not scale up efficiently or effectively enough to create the massive bulk quantities that would be required by industry. Schadler, Siegel, and others at Rensselaer are working on this problem.

For example, an interdisciplinary team led by engineering faculty members Ganpati Ramanath in the Department of Materi-als Science and Engineering (MSE), The-odorian Borca-Tasciuc in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE), and Siegel developed a new method of creating bulk quantities

of thermoelectric nanomaterials that could lead to a new generation of highly efficient refrigerators and cooling systems requir-ing no refrigerants and no moving parts. Integral to their innovation is a new process for intentionally contaminating, or doping, nanostructured thermoelectric materials with barely-there amounts of sulfur and “cooking” the mixture in a store-bought microwave. The resulting powder is formed into pea-sized pellets by applying heat and pressure in a way that preserves the proper-ties endowed by the nanostructuring and the doping. These pellets are easy to work with, and exhibit properties better than the hard-to-make thermoelectric materials currently available in the marketplace. This process scales up well, and larger quantities of pel-lets can be produced using industrial-sized microwaves ovens.

Similarly, a team led by Nikhil Koratkar, the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Professor of Engineering, recently discovered how graphene foam can outperform leading commercial gas sensors in detecting poten-tially dangerous and explosive chemicals. With partners from the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science at the Chi-

nese Academy of Sciences, Koratkar’s team grew sheets of the nanomaterial graphene—the thinnest material known to science, only one atom tall—into a foam structure about the size of a postage stamp. The foam structure has all of the same attractive prop-erties as a single sheet of graphene, but its large, macroscale size makes it considerably easier and less expensive to work with than nanoscale graphene.

It is important to note that this kind of research is inherently interdisciplinary, and often conducted in partnership and collabo-ration with faculty colleagues and students from the Rensselaer School of Science. Rensselaer is investing in facilities, expanded resources, and new human capital to grow existing research programs and launch new endeavors in this critical area. World-class laboratories, such as those in the Center for Integrated Electronics Micro- and Nano-Fabrication Clean Room, along with the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplin-ary Studies (CBIS) and the new Materials Characterization Core, enable and expedite advanced materials research of all types.

Nanomaterials expert Professor Linda Schadler, is a world leader in nanocomposites research. In one project, she and her team (including 2012 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize finalist, Zepu Wang, see page 19) are investigat-ing how nanocomposites filled with graphine oxide, shown here, can be used to create a new advanced material for coating electrical compo-nents and allowing the transmission of higher voltages across national power infrastructures.


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Along with engineering new methods for creating bulk quantities of nanostructured materials, there is a distinct need for better un-derstanding how to predict the properties and behaviors of advanced materials—particularly heterogeneous materials. Researchers at Rens-selaer are developing methods for generating more accurate, predictive, and quantitative un-derstanding and control of advanced materials.

Modeling and simulation have been a com-ponent of engineering and design for decades. As advanced materials, products, and systems grow smaller, modeling and simulation are imperative and have become a critical, strategic part of the discovery and development pro-cesses. MANE Professor Antoinette Maniatty, for example, employs these techniques to

research and better understand how nano- and microscale cracks impact the resilience and integrity of metallic aircraft parts. She devel-ops mathematical models of crystalline grain microstructures, and solves the resulting equa-tions with high-performance computing. This research reveals unprecedented insight into the wear, tear, and fatigue of aircraft parts during normal operation, and helps to boost safety, re-duce costs and risks, and creates best practices for airline part replacement schedules.

MSE Professor Daniel Lewis is also interested in how nanoscale features of materials impact the overall macroscale structure. Last year he won a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further

his research on creating new and novel ways to model polycrystalline grain growth in metal-lic and ceramic materials. He is investigating how environmental factors, such as exposure to high temperatures, can affect the grain size over time and, in turn, change the properties of the overall bulk material. In some cases, this change in grain size can lead to extensive damage or failure in metals or ceramics. For this project, Lewis harnesses the power of the Rensselaer supercomputing center, the Compu-tational Center for Nanotechnology Innova-tions (CCNI), to perform simulations.

“The history of materials is intrinsically linkedto the history of manufacturing, as the attrac-tive properties of new materials are oftenonly as beneficial as our ability to incorporate

Engineering Barrier 2: The field of materials process-

ing, even 200 years after the industrial revolution, remains

a surprisingly qualitative science—many of the needs for

predictive understanding and control in this arena re-

main unmet. This will require new methods for combin-

ing simulation, modeling, experiments, and data science

to provide quantitative control of the complex kinetic pro-

cesses inherent to materials processing and manufacturing.Modeling and Simulation (and Manufacturing)

Skin tissue created by 3-D cell printing technology (image courtesy of Guohao Dai). (A) Schematic of layer-by-layer printing of the multi-layered skin model using keratinocytes, fibroblasts and collagen; (B) confocal image showing the presence of tight junction protein E-cadherin in keratinocyte layer at day 7; (C) keratin-containing keratinocyte layer; (D) ß-tublin-containing kerotinocyte and fibroblast layer. The interlayer distance is approxi-mately 75μm; (E & F) confocal images showing the organization of keratinocytes and fibroblasts in 3D layers.

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them into new devices and products,” Schadler said. Thanks to a confluence of faculty expertise, student interest, powerful platforms including CCNI, and strategic planning, Rensselaer is positioned to become a leader and significant force at the interdisciplinary intersection of advanced materials and advanced manufacturing. According to Schadler, the “Holy Grail” of linking advanced materials and advanced manufacturing is a set of models that can predict the properties of a product ideally for a new material. “This will lead to faster insertion of new materials into products,” she said. “It requires significant fundamental understand-ing as well as teams of experimentalists and computational faculty working together in exciting new directions. The new materials informatics initiative is aimed at creating that level of prediction. Through both heuristic (empirical) and rigorous models that take into account not only the atomic, nanoscale, and micro scale structure of a material, but also the processing method, we can perhaps get closer to this ‘Holy Grail.’” An example could be a model that zooms in to show a material at the atomistic level, taking into account quantum mechanics, but which allows you to see how alterations and modifications at this small scale will affect the

properties of the overall macroscale structure, whether it’s an aircraft part, a fuel cell com-ponent, or anything else. This ideal model would show how barely perceptible nanoscale and atomistic changes in the material, possibly caused by the manufacturing process, impactthe part’s elasticity, stiffness, transparency, damping, or other properties. There’s also theongoing and challenging task of vigilantly calibrating the models and simulations with experimental data to minimize error and char-acterize uncertainty.

These endeavors require significant compu-tational horsepower, of the caliber available at CCNI. Researchers across the School of Engineering partner with CATS, CCNI, the Scientific Computation Research Center (SCOREC), the Materials Characterization Core under the direction of MSE Department Head and the Henry Burlage Jr. Professor of Engineering Robert Hull, and other facilities, centers, faculty, and students across campus. Together, their work is evolving the “informed art” of advanced materials modeling into a comprehensive, quantitative science that is on a trajectory to dramatically transform the world of manufacturing.

Innovations in this area also breach the domain of global health and resiliency. Rensselaer researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), are also using materials to transform our ability to harness data from, interact with, and ultimately heal the human body. BME Assistant Professor Guohao Dai is an expert in cardiovascular system modeling who is working to develop 3-D cell print-ing technology (see figure to left) for vascular tissue engineering goals such as encourag-ing blood vessel regeneration. Another BME faculty member, David Corr, is a leader in the modeling of skeletal muscle, skin, ligament, and other biological soft tissues as they heal following injury.

Their colleagues, Steven Cramer, the William Weightman Walker Professor in the Depart-ment of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE), and the Elaine S. and Jack S. Parker Professor and CBE Department Head Shek-har Garde, have garnered renown for model-ing and increasing the understanding of how multimodal ligands bind to proteins. Down the road, this work could help inform new techniques and technologies for separating proteins from other proteins that are extremely similar but not identical—a hugely important concern for pharmaceutical companies because of its implications in the process of refining and purifying biopharmaceutical drugs.

The Rensselaer supercomputing center, the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI), is used to perform modeling and simulations. CCNI is a partnership between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, IBM, and New York State. Together, the three partners have created one of the world’s most powerful university-based supercomputers.


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Once we have all of these interesting advanced materials, biomaterials, and nanoparticles, and we can understand and predict how they’re going to behave, what do we do with them? A contingent of engineers and other researchers at Rensselaer are investigating this interesting question of “packaging.”

Broadly, this implies manipulating new materi-als so information can be introduced into or extrapolated from them. Thinking of bioma-terials, BME professors Deanna Thompson, Ryan Gilbert, James Cooper, and others are investigating how to integrate biological and inert materials. In their research programs, they are seeking new means in which engi-neered stem cells and glial cells can interface with the human body to better characterize and understand biological microenvironments, encourage and prompt cellular regeneration, and ultimately enable the development of new therapeutic treatments for humans.

Within CBIS, center Director and Howard Isermann Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Jonathan Dordick, along with P. K. Lashmet Professor of Chemical and Biologi-cal Engineering Ravi Kane, have developed a way to attach the naturally occurring enzyme lysostaphic onto carbon nanotubes. The result-ing functionalized “package” is a thin film which can be used as a nanoscale coating for eradicating methicillin resistant Staphylococ-cus aureus (MRSA), the bacteria responsible for antibiotic resistant infections. The coating, which is safe to handle and doesn’t leach into the environment, could one day coat surgical equipment, hospital walls, and other surfaces to reduce the spread of MRSA.

Packaging is also an important field of study at the intersection of advanced materials and semiconductors—a rich, complex relationship that underpins countless modern technolo-gies and industries. ECSE Professor James Lu is a pioneer and global leader in the area of 3-D computer chip integration, who has been working for years to design and enhance the processes, architecture, and packaging that could one day be the platform for 3-D chips. Flat, conventional computer chips used today can only shrink so much smaller, as their flat surface must have enough room to accom-modate scores of different components. But the semiconductor industry and academia are looking at ways to layer chip components into a vertical, 3-D stack, which could dramatically shrink the size of the overall chip and take ad-vantage of high data bandwidth, performance efficiency, and functionality increase of the 3-D integration.

The NSF-funded Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (ERC), under the leadership of Professor Bob Karlicek, is working toward highly specialized nano- and other materials to develop next-generation technology and ap-plications for light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. Packaging LEDs is an integral step toward the realization of the ERC’s vision of smart lighting systems. Such a system would opti-cally sense the environment to provide energy efficient, comfortable illumination when and where it is needed—to both improve human health and increase human productivity and comfort. At the same time, the smart lighting system would sense and communicate with its environment, delivering significant energy

savings while simultaneously providing high speed data access and scanning for biological and biochemical hazards.

The field of biocomposites is also an interesting example of “packaging” advanced materials. MANE professor Daniel Walczyk is leading an effort to refine and perfect a new manufactur-ing process for creating composite sandwich structures entirely from plant-based natural fibers as reinforcement (e.g., hemp, jute, and sisal) combined with agricultural waste as a core material. This technology is novel because along with a natural biomaterial reinforcement or base and core, the resin or matrix that holds the biocomposite together is fungus-based, spe-cifically mycelium from mushrooms. Walczyk is working on this project for local company Ecovative Design, LLC, which is based in Green Island, N.Y. Ecovative was founded and is led by Rensselaer MANE and Product, Design, and Innovation (PDI) graduates Eben Bayer ’07 (2007 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize Finalist) and Gavin McIntyre ’07. The company is on a sharp upward trajectory and is known for making environmentally-friendly organic insulation from waste agricul-tural materials, water, and mushrooms.

“It’s an entirely different manufacturing paradigm—we grow composites instead of making them with conventional manufactur-ing processes,” Walczyk said. “The biocom-posite materials we’re making are sustainable, relatively low cost, and if we can get them to be strong enough, they will provide the same functionality as other non-bio composites.”

Engineering Barrier 3: Whatever our engineers create must

ultimately be “packaged” into systems from which informa-

tion—in the broadest sense—can be injected or extracted. This

requires the ability to fuse the chemical, mechanical, biologi-

cal, and electronic properties of materials to create new types

of material systems that have new functionalities as well as

the full spectrum of necessary communications with the out-

side world inherent to materials processing and manufacturing.

Packaging Application

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Looking Forward

Materials shape our world, and Rensselaer faculty and students are experts in innovating new ways to create, characterize, and exploit materials with interesting, unique combina-tions of different properties. More than 50 faculty members in the School of Engineering are working on advanced materials, spread out over several of the school’s seven departments. They’re making unique nanomaterials, and creating systems to simulate and predict the behavior of materials and combinations of ma-terials. They’re recognizing interesting oppor-tunities to package advanced materials into end applications that advance the state-of-the-art in industry and benefit society. Through these efforts, the School of Engineering is transform-ing the way we live.

“Technological advances are often limited by the availability of suitable materials. Every-thing from electric automobiles to the high-ways they drive on, to next-generation space-craft for a mission to Mars, to smart lighting systems for our homes and workplaces, to treatments for disease and injury, to low-energy water desalination systems—the solutions to our most pressing challenges are inexorably linked to advanced materials,” said Rosowsky. “At Rensselaer, faculty and students from across virtually every engineering discipline apply their intellect and passion to creating these new materials and to engineering a better, brighter world.”

Rensselaer faculty and students are experts in innovating new ways to create, characterize, and exploit materials with interesting, unique combinations of different properties. The Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center uses its adaptive lighting testbed (above left) to demonstrate the capabilities and implementation of integrated engineered systems for smart lighting applications based on new and novel light-emitting diode (LED) technology. ECSE Assistant Professor Shayla Sawyer and her students (above right) discuss their research using ultraviolet LEDs for the detection of harmful biological agents.

Below, MANE Professor Daniel Walczyk works with graduate student Jaron Kuppers to refine the design and properties of biocomposites made from natural fibers.


LAb ANd RELAtEd UNdERGRAdUAtE CoURSES ARE FoCUSEd oN

EdUCAtING thE NExt GENERAtIoN oF MANUFACtURING INNovAtoRS

“The evolution from AML to MILL reflects changes in the field and in the marketplace. Industry is looking for future leaders who are versed in time-tested manufacturing techniques, yet experienced and fluent in micro, nano, bio, and other leading-edge manufacturing technologies,” said David Rosowsky, dean of the Rensselaer School of Engineering. “Advanced manufacturing is essential to reinvigorating American innovation and to creating high-paying jobs across all technology sectors. The MILL positions Rensselaer and its graduates to make bigger, bolder contributions toward these important national goals.”

Located in the George M. Low Center for Industrial Innovation, MILL is a forward-looking manufacturing learning environment. Leveraging the instructor expertise and industry-grade equipment in MILL, sophomores and seniors taking Introduction to Engineering Design, the new Manufacturing Processes and Systems I and II, and senior capstone design courses can practice and master manufacturing processes. In these classes, students undergo the same design, process engineering, technical documentation, and rapid prototyping used in industrial research and development teams.

Looking forward, MILL will be an important foundation for infusing micromanufacturing, nanomanufactuing, and other advanced manufacturing technologies into the Rensselaer undergraduate engineering curriculum and graduate student experience. Additionally, MILL will enable new course work and advanced study on robotics systems development, manufacturing systems simulation, and emerging machining technologies. The Rensselaer School of Engineering expects to establish new undergraduate and graduate courses focused on these areas.

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Rensselaer is making bold advances in manufacturing engineering education. Building on the success of its predecessor, the award-winning Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory (AML), the new Manufacturing Innovation Learning Lab (MILL) will focus on educating the next generation of manufacturing leaders.

“thE LAboRAtoRy, whERE StUdENtS woULd LEARN Not oNLy how

to dESIGN pRodUCtS bUt how to dESIGN thE SyStEMS to

MANUFACtURE thEM AS EFFICIENtLy AS poSSIbLE whILE ENSURING

hIGh qUALIty ANd MINIMAL wAStE, IS UNIqUE IN thE CoUNtRy”— pRoFESSoR dANIEL wALCzyk

MILL is sponsored by several industrial partners, including Applied Robotics; Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense Company; Emerson; Energizer; Haas Automation; LoDolce Machine; RBC Bearings; and SABIC.

“Not just anyone can get a job at a leading high-tech manufacturing company. To succeed, thrive, and become a leader at these companies, you need to know the ins and outs of how to make stuff quickly, smartly, and competitively. This is precisely what Rensselaer teaches undergraduate students in the MILL,” said Sam Chiappone, manager of fabrication and prototyping in the Rensselaer School of Engineering.

MILL’s predecessor, the AML, was established in 1980. For the past few years, several student teams using the AML and taking the related course, Advanced Manufacturing Lab, have placed among the top teams in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Student Design and Manufacturing Competition held at the ASME annual

conference. In fact, Rensselaer students won top prize at the competition in 2011, 2010, and 2009.

This year, graduating seniors who studied in the AML over the past two semesters have already secured manufacturing-related jobs at Apple, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, RBC Bearings, and many other top-tier employers. The evolution of AML into MILL stands to make Rensselaer students even more prepared and more attractive to leading international manufacturing and technology companies.

MILL is an important cornerstone of the overall advanced manufacturing enterprise at Rensselaer.

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two MILL tEAMS tAkE FIRSt pLACE IN StUdENt MANUFACtURING CoMpEtItIoNS

bIkE hEAdLIGht tEAM wINS thE 2012 SoCIEty oF MANUFACtURING ENGINEERS CoMpEtItIoN

MAUNChER tEAM wINS thE 2012 AMERICAN SoCIEty oF MEChANICAL ENGINEERS MANUFACtURING CoMpEtItIoN.

Designing the launcher involved working with metals and plastics, figuring out what to make and what parts to purchase, and automating the assembly process.

A detachable bicycle light that can be used as a flashlight has a magnet to hold it in place on the handlebar. Prototypes were made from corn-starch and liquid plastic before full production began.

Mauncher Team and Faculty (l to r) Nelson Lim, Eric Lanoue, Larry Ruff, Ryan Quinn, Brooke Cosko, and Sam Chiappone

eng.rpi.edu | 17

“After completing my intership at Burton

Snowboards, I asked my manager for advice

on what courses I should consider for my

senior year—his answer was quick and

direct—‘take as many manufacturing courses

as possible.’ I immediately enrolled in the

two-semester Advanced Manufacturing

Laboratory (AML) where I re-designed a

product so it could be manufactured, including

the design and machining of plastic injection

molds. Today as a design engineer, primarly

working with plastic parts, nothing is more

valuable than having an intimate knowledge

of the manufacturing process.”

Rachel gitajn ‘06Bs Mechanical engineering and Product design design engineer – BindingsBurton snowboards

alumniPROFILE


project videos and complete bios online

http://eng.rpi.edu/lemelson/

A student in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Yavari has developed a sensor that opens the door to a new generation of gas detectors for use by bomb squads and defense and law enforcement officials, as well as in industrial settings. For this innovation, Yavari has been named the winner of the 2012 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. He is among the three national 2012 Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prize winners announced March 7.

Yavari is the sixth recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. First given in 2007, the prize is awarded annually to a Rensselaer senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system, or demonstrated remarkable inventiveness in other ways.

With his project, titled “High Sensitivity Detection of Hazardous Gases Using a Graphene Foam Network,” Yavari overcomes the shortcomings that have prevented nanostructure-based gas detectors from reaching the marketplace.

Detecting trace amounts of hazardous gases present within air is a critical safety and health consideration in many different situations, from industrial manufacturing and chemical processing to bomb detection and environmental monitoring. Conventional gas sensors are either too bulky and expensive, which limits their use in many applications, or they are not sensitive enough to detect trace amounts of gases. Also, many commercial sensors require very high temperatures in order to adequately detect gases, and in turn require large amounts of power.

Yavari has overcome these hurdles and created a device that combines the high sensitivity of a nanostructured material with the durability, low price, and ease of use of a macroscopic device. His new graphene foam sensor, about the size of a postage stamp and as thick as felt, works at room temperature, is considerably less expensive to make, and still very sensitive to tiny amounts of gases. The sensor works by reading the changes in the graphene foam’s electrical conductivity as it encounters gas particles and they stick to the foam’s surface. Another benefit of the Yavari’s

device is its ability to quickly and easily remove these stuck chemicals by applying a small electric current.

The new graphene foam sensor has been engineered to detect the gases ammonia and nitrogen dioxide, but can be configured to work with other gases as well. Ammonia detection is important as the gas is commonly used in industrial processes, and ammonia is a byproduct of several explosives. Nitrogen dioxide is also a byproduct of several explosives, as well as a closely monitored pollutant found in combustion exhaust and auto emissions. Yavari’s sensor can detect both gases in quantities as small as 0.5 parts-per-million at room temperature.

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FAzEL yAvARI NAMEd 2012 LEMELSoN-MIt RENSSELAER StUdENt pRIzE wINNER

Fazel Yavari has developed a new sensor to detect extremely small quantities of hazardous gases. The doctoral student harnessed the power of the world’s thinnest material, graphene, to create a device that is durable, inexpensive to make, and incredibly sensitive.

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The 2012 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize was awarded during a live multi-university broadcast. Above on screen, Dorothy Lemelson, President and Board Chair of the Lemelson Foundation recognizes the outstanding work submitted by all the student finalists and winners.

Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Finalists Chris Rivet (top) for his project: “A Hydrogel and Electrospun Fiber Composite Material” and Zepu Wang (bottom) for his project: “Nanocomposite Filled with Graphene Oxide—A Revolutionary Field Grading Material for High-Voltage Power Systems”

Christopher Rivet has successfully married two powerful bioengineering technologies to develop a new method for delivering drugs directly to an injury site and jumpstarting the process of tissue regeneration. His project, “A Hydrogel and Electrospun Fiber Composite Material”, could be an important new tool in preventing paralysis resulting from spinal cord trauma, cancer, diabetes, or a host of other diseases.

Sadly, there is no shortage of situations that lead to a loss of functioning tissue and, in turn, paralysis. These circumstances can range from the surgical removal of a tumor, to untreated bedsores, to a spinal cord injury stemming from a gunshot wound or traffic accident. All of these situations require action first to stop the progression of the injury, and secondly to restore function to the damaged tissue. However, there is currently no treatment, short of receiving a transplant from a donor, to simultaneously pursue both goals and more effectively mitigate the onset of paralysis.

Rivet’s patent-pending invention pairs electrospun fibers with hydrogels to help solve this important societal need. He has developed

a new way to disperse nanoscopic electrospun fibers, which can prompt and guide tissue regeneration, within injectable, drug-infused hydrogels. The result is an advanced biomaterial that can mimic and serve as a temporary replacement for living tissue.

Zepu Wang has developed a new advanced material to coat electrical components and allow the transmission of higher voltages across national power infrastructures. Wang’s project is titled “Nanocomposite Filled with Graphene Oxide—A Revolutionary Field Grading Material for High-Voltage Power Systems”. This new nanocomposite material holds the promise of enabling smarter, more reliable, and greener power systems. The technology could also significantly reduce the frequency of power outages.

Global energy demand is on the rise, as populations continue to grow and industrialization progresses. At the same time, there is a growing awareness and concern about repercussions of increasing rates of carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere. This is prompting sustained attention and investment in sustainable energy sources including wind, solar, and hydro.

One key practical challenge, however, is how the best geographic areas for generating green power are often far removed from the highly populated and industrial areas where the power is most needed. This means transporting renewable power is just as important as how it is generated.

High-voltage direct current (HVDC) power systems can efficiently transmit large amounts of power over land and sea. Using HVDC technology, larger and larger voltages are required the further the power is transported. Today’s HVDC systems generally transmit at below 800-kilovolts, but higher-voltage—and thus longer-distance—systems are in development around the world. A critical part of these next-generation systems are new insulation materials capable of handling large voltages.

Overall, Wang’s innovation could lead to entirely new designs for systems that carry more sustainably generated power over longer distances with minimal energy loss. He has been working with Swiss firm ABB to further test and develop his technology.

Lemelson-MIt Student prize Finalists: Chris Rivet and zepu wang


StUdENtS dESIGN ANd bUILd A SUStAINAbLE bEdRooM FoR oRphANS IN hAItI

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ESW members and other students at Rensselaer spent the past semester designing and building the sustainable bedroom, which will provide secure living quarters, shelter from the weather, and reliable electricity for 11 orphans and their caretakers. Several Rensselaer seniors worked on this project for their capstone design class in the O. T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory.

The sustainable bedroom was sent to Haiti in May. A team of Rensselaer students travelled to Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, in August to install the bedroom at the Orphanage of Good Will and train the caretakers on upkeep and maintenance. This will be ESW’s third trip to Haiti since 2010.

“For this project, we’re using the engineering smarts we’ve learned at Rensselaer to develop a sustainable solution for a very real, pressing need at the Orphanage of Good Will,” said senior Andrew Chung, president of ESW at Rensselaer, who is dual majoring in mechanical engineering and design, innovation, and society. “Additionally, by exploring the conversion of used steel shipping containers into housing structures, we hope to spread awareness of recycling these abandoned containers for use in developing countries and disaster-prone regions of the world,” Chung said.

The ESW team designed the sustainable bedroom to leverage the cooling ability of reflective paint, shading, and natural and active ventilation to ensure a comfortable environment for those living in the sustainable bedroom. The electrical system uses roof-mounted solar panels donated by General Electric to power the bedroom’s ventilation system, lights, and wall outlets.

The final bedroom will feature windows and a new door. To maintain the seaworthiness of the shipping container, however, the windows cannot be constructed until the bedroom is on-site in Haiti, Chung said.

“This is an outstanding example of engineering students taking what they learn in the classroom, and applying it to the creation of solid, globally minded solutions that will have a tremendously positive impact on the lives of 30 orphans in Haiti,” said Michael Jensen, ESW faculty advisor and professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE). “It’s been a pleasure to work with these great Rensselaer students. Their enthusiasm and hard work on this altruistic project have been wonderful.”

The project is a partnership between Rensselaer ESW, the Design Lab at Rensselaer, and the Ballston Spa-based nonprofit organization To Love a Child. The Orphanage of Good Will is primarily supported by To Love a

Child. Additional support for the project was provided by the Office of the President, the School of Engineering, Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Professor Jensen, an anonymous donor, and others at Rensselaer. To Love a Child and the Empire Haiti Coalition have collected many supplies, which will be packed into the container before it is shipped to Haiti.

The Rensselaer ESW team and To Love a Child started this project in the fall of 2011. The devastating earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, at Port-au-Prince rendered the original Orphanage of Good Will facilities unsafe and uninhabitable. More than 30 orphans were forced to relocate out of Port-au-Prince to Croix-des-Bouquets, where they have been living ever since.

Rensselaer ESW and To Love a Child have partnered on other projects over the past few years, including the design and installation of a solar panel installation to power computers and lights at a Haitian school, and the design and installation of a hydroponic garden at the school.

For more information on ESW at Rensselaer, visit esw.union.rpi.edu or www.facebook.com/ESWRPI.

Article courtesy of The Rensselaer Polytechnic http://poly.rpi.edu/

Members of the student group Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) have been hard at work transforming a used 20-foot steel shipping container into a safe, comfortable, and transportable bedroom for orphaned children in Haiti.

<< MEMBERS OF THE CAPSTONE DESIGN TEAM from left to right: Kyle Gleken ’12, Casey McEvoy ’12, David Hackett ’12, Andrew Chung ’13, Nelson Lim ’12, ESW member Alex Worcester ’12, Elliot Kim ’12, Dylan Martinez ’12, and professor Michael Jensen.


Exceptional undergraduates embark as Engineering Ambassadors—giving middle and high school students a hands-on introduction to Better World Engineering.

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A year in the making: building the Engineering Ambassador (EA) programNow entering its second year, the EA program started in the Spring 2011 semester with the selection of 26 students from a highly competitive applicant pool. EAs include 23% under-represented minorities, 38% women, and students from Aerospace, Electrical, Chemical, Mechanical and Materials engineering.

In the Fall 2011 semester, EAs participated in a rigorous three-day communications training program with Rensselaer’s partner universities, Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and the University of Connecticut (UConn). During the training, EAs identified engineering challenges, created engaging presentations and studied the techniques behind delivering a strong and impassioned message on Better World Engineering. With their presentation in place, each EA team of 2 to 3 students worked with a faculty advisor, who helped them develop and verify all aspects of their technical content—an essential step for ensuring a high quality technical presentation.

Armed with their approved presentations, each EA team moved onto the next phase of the program, a complimentary hands-on activity for their younger audience to experience. The Archer Center for Student Leadership Development at Rensselaer provided key

leadership skills training through a variety of interactive learning experiences, such as team development and effective communication.

After much practice, EAs were ready to go into regional middle and high schools spending the day making presentations and engaging students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classes.

Taking it on the road—putting on an EA program at local middle and high schools Being an EA is both an honor and a commitment. Often on the day of a program, EAs meet their teammates by 6:00 am, making sure they have enough time to arrive and set up at the school before the middle or high school students even arrive.

Students arrive and EAs, dressed in their red EA shirts, are ready to dive-in and share their expertise. Typically, five to six EA teams present in multiple classrooms throughout the day, so by the end of their visit over 300 students are exposed to EA messages. Then, as a culminating activity, EAs facilitate a panel discussion with the students—articulating how exciting and important engineering is during these innovative and challenging times. Of course, they also provide invaluable first-hand knowledge about the college application process and how to get the most out of college life.

But it doesn’t stop there. Rensselaer EAs support many campus-wide educational outreach diversity programs, including Black Family Technology Day, Exploring Engineering Day and Design Your Future Day (see page 25).

In the 2011–12 school year, over 2300 students were exposed to EA presentations centered around Better World Engineering at Rensselaer, and the National Academy of Engineering: Change the Conversation topics, illustrating how engineering is essential to our health, happiness, and safety.

Fully prepared—EAs field tough questionsThe benefits of being an EA go well beyond the classroom. By the time EAs complete the year-long program, they have honed their communication and leadership skills to a very fine point. Successfully engaging with a younger audience and communicating difficult engineering concepts, demands EAs know their material inside and out, ready to answer the myriad of questions younger students ask, and are prepared to handle the unique scenarios bound to occur during classroom visits. These types of “think on your feet” experiences are invaluable for EAs.

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Bryan Licata Mechanical Engineering

“I wanted to be an Engineering Ambassador because when I was in high school, engineering seemed to be a very daunting life path. I had heard from several people that engineering was a very hard major and that a lot of students dropped it. Nobody ever told me that if you were dedicated and motivated, that everything would be alright.”

Adriana Rojas Chemical Engineering

“Originally an arts major, I switched to chemical engineering as a result of my readings about the energy crisis. I wanted to take an active role in implementing clean energy for our world. Now through the EA program I get to share all the exciting opportu-nities in engineering relating to clean energy.”

MacKenzie Ott Aeronautical Engineering

“I want to help introduce more young people to the world of en-gineering and show how fun it is. Many people think engineers are boring people who sit around and do math all day. That needs to change. Engineering is one of the most interesting and fun fields out there.”

Their motto is “find your passion and engineer it!”, and for the undergraduate engineering students selected as engineering ambassadors, they are turning that motto into a reality.


EA SupportThe program’s premier sponsor is United Technology Corporation (UTC). EA also benefits from university funding which creates strategic partnerships with faculty. In fact, many faculty throughout the School of Engineering open laboratories to EA students and provide Undergraduate Research Program (URP)opportunities, enabling EAs to include their research experience in their EA presentations.

The NSF-funded Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (ERC) at Rensselaer works

closely with EA students. Each semester, the ERC sponsors up to four EA students who develop programs related to digital lighting technology. These programs are then deployed at regional middle and high schools, giving pre-college students interesting, real world engineering applications of Smart Lighting. This enables the ERC to reach pre-college students in a meaningful way.

Looking forward,the Engineering Ambassador program will grow in two ways. First, the EA program will include representation from

all Rensselear engineering disciplines, thus expanding the engaging library of presentations on how engineers are meeting the challenges of today’s world. Second, school visits will increase by a staggering 75%, introducing Engineering Ambassadors to over 4,000 students in the 2012-13 school year.

These ambitious plans are all dependent upon increased support from the friends of Rensselaer School of Engineering and Educational Outreach Programs.

EA’s premier sponsor is United Technology Corporation (UTC)

“The Engineering Ambassador program has proven to be a win-win experience for both Rensselaer engineering undergraduates, and middle and high school students. Ambassadors develop confidence with presenting complex engi-neering concepts in an engaging way—middle and high school students see what engineering is all about first-hand.”

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Engineering Ambassador presentations

Craig Hoffstein, Alec Rudd “Drag Force: Shape Matters”

August Coretto, Mackenzie Ott “Engineering Design Process: Steps Behind a Bicycle”

Whitney McKenzie, Jeffrey Morton “The Future of Light”

Nico Rappoli, Michelle Cruz “Biomedical Engineering: Changing the Way We Heal”

Adriana Rojas, Michelle Decepida “Thermoelectric Devices: Solving the Energy Crisis”

Chelsea Ehlert, James Kern “Fuel Cells: Energy of the Future”

Maranda Wong, Bryan Licata “Manufacturing Polymers”

Chris Kraemer, Jason Griffith “Multi-Body Spacecraft”

Aimee Konet, Chris Waitkus, “Snowboards: It’s all about the Ride” Lauren Brumbaugh

Dan Bingel, Brendan Lenz “Semiconductor Devices”

Joshua Klimaszewski, “Sustainable Energy Sources: Solar” Christian Biederman ,Sam Germano

George Moraru, Anda Lupse, “Sustainability by Design: Implementing Matt Klompas Wind Turbine Technology”

Elizabeth HerkenhamK-13 Education Outreach DirectorSchool of Engineering

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EA’s premier sponsor is United Technology Corporation (UTC)

DYFD receives support from BAE Systems and the Gene Haas Foundation.

More than 200 10th and 11th grade girls from new York state, and across new england participated in the 15th annual “Design Your Future Day (DYFD)” program at Rensselaer in April. the event is designed to engage students in activities to inform and excite them about degree programs and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (steM) disciplines.

“According to the U.s. Bureau of Labor and statistics, in 2010 wom-en comprised 47 percent of the

civilian labor force that is 20 years old or older,” said Barbara Ruel, director of Diversity and Women in engineering programs at Rens-selaer, and program director of the day’s events. “Yet the most current data from the national science Foundation indicates that in 2006, women made up 14 percent of the science work-force and 12 percent of the engi-neering labor force.

“Rensselaer is working to change that,” Ruel added. “Design Your Future Day gives young women

the opportunity to explore intel-lectually stimulating and exciting careers in math, science, technol-ogy, and engineering.”

this year’s keynote speaker was Rachel gitajn, class of 2006, who was a double major in mechanical engineering and product design. gitajn is a project engineer for Burton snowboards (see page 17).

since its inception, over 3,000 students have participated in Design Your Future Day.


Ryan Gilbert

Ryan gilbert, assistant Professor, department of Biomedical engineering will use the award to develop new bioma-terials for the treatment of spinal cord injuries. With his CaReeR project, titled “study of astrocyte Migration and Reactivity using novel Biomaterial Platforms,” gilbert seeks to develop a solution to astrocyte reactivity, a condition in individuals with spinal cord injuries that causes them to lose body function below the injury site, potentially caus-ing lifelong paralysis.

Xavier intes, assistant Professor in the department of Biomedical engineering, will apply the award to further his research into non-invasive biomedical imaging technique to help identify and treat cancerous tumors. With his CaReeR project, titled “Whole-Body fRet tomography,” intes will adapt forster Resonance energy transfer (fRet) to observe protein interactions in live animals. fRet is an easy, non-invasive, harmless means to detect whether the drug successfully located and interacted with the tumor.

Jie lian, assistant Professor in the department of Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering will use the award to further his research into the design of nanomaterials for use in nuclear energy systems. With his CaReeR project, titled “Radiation interaction with nanostructured Ceramics—integrating Materials solutions into nuclear education,” lian will study the behavior of certain nanostructured ceramics when they are exposed to environments with extreme levels of radiation.

bEvILACqUA RECEIvES thE AIR FoRCE oFFICE oF SCIENtIFIC RESEARCh yoUNG INvEStIGAtoR RESEARCh pRoGRAM (yIp)

NAtIoNAL SCIENCE FoUNdAtIoN (NSF) FACULty EARLy CAREER dEvELopMENt AwARd (CAREER) RECIpIENtS

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xavier Intes Jie Lian

Riccardo bevilacqua

Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering

» farhan gandhi, Rosalind and John J. Redfern Jr. ’33 Chair in engineering

» Jason hicken, assistant Professor

» Zahra sotoudeh, assistant Professor

» onkar sahni, assistant Professor

biomedical Engineering » Juergen hahn, Professor » Mariah hahn,

associate Professor » leo Wan, assistant Professor

Materials Science and Engineering » ying Chen, assistant Professor

Chemical and biological Engineering » vidhya Chakrapani,

assistant Professor

NEwS & hIGhLIGhtS

Riccardo Bevilacqua, assistant Professor in the department of Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering received a grant from the air force office of scientific Research (afosR) young investigator Research Program, for his project, titled “Propellant-free spacecraft Relative Maneuvering via atmospheric differential drag”. this new research program at Rensselaer Polytechnic institute seeks to define the next-generation of low-orbit satellites that are more maneuverable, cheaper to launch, easier to hide, and longer lived.

Jason hicken zahra Sotoudeh onkar Sahni

Mariah hahn Leo wan ying Chen vidhya Chakrapani

Juergen hahn

NEw FACULty

Farhan Gandhi

eng.rpi.edu | 27

» Prabhat hajela, Mechanical, aerospace and nuclear engineering was appointed Provost at Rensselaer

» suvranu de was appointed Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering department head and director of the Center for Modeling, simulation, and imaging in Medicine (CeMsiM)

» Miki amitay, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, was named director of the Center for flow Physics and Control (CefPaC)

» Joe Chow, electrical, Computer, and systems engineering, is leading a Rensselaer team of investigators, partnering with lead institution - the university of tennessee, for a new national science foundation engineering Research Center – the Center for ultra-wide-area Resilient electric energy transmission networks

» yaron danon, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering appointed director of gaerttner linaC Center at Rensselaer

» george Xu, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering appointed as head of the nuclear engineering program in the Mechanical, aerospace and nuclear engineering department

» georges Belfort, Chemical and Biological engineering, named to scientific advisory Board of Max Planck institute and elected Member of institute of Bologna academy of sciences

» lester gerhardt, electrical, Computer, and systems engineering, received the Benjamin garver lamme award and Medal from the american society for engineering education (asee)

» Catalin Picu, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering named fellow of the american society of Mechanical engineers (asMe)

» steven Cramer, Chemical and Biological engineering, named fellow of the american institute of Chemical engineers (aiChe) and of the american Chemical society (aCs)

» deepak vashishth, Biomedical engineering, named fellow of american institute for Medical and Biological engineering (aiMBe)

» Michael shur, electrical, Computer, and systems engineering, named fellow of the optical society of america and the society of Photographic instrumentation engineers (sPie)

» Michael o’Rourke, Civil and environmental engineering, received the american society of Civil engineers’ 2011 Walter P. Moore award

» Mark s. shephard, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering received the John von neumann Medal from the united states association for Computational Mechanics (usaCM)

» Prabhat hajela, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering received the american society of Mechanical engineers (asMe) dedicated service award

» Michael amitay, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering received the Boeing Performance excellence award (BPea) silver level and Rensselaer received the Boeing technology supplier of year award

SChooL oF ENGINEERING oUtStANdING pRoFESSoR AwARd

» William a. Wallace, yamada Corporation Professor, industrial and systems engineering (pictured, right with school of engineering dean Rosowsky, left)

SChooL oF ENGINEERING EdUCAtIoN ExCELLENCE AwARdS

Education Innovation

» Marc-olivier Coppens, Professor, Chemical and Biological engineering

Classroom Excellence

» Pankaj Karande, assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological engineering

» Bimal Malaviya, Professor, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering

SChooL oF ENGINEERING RESEARCh ExCELLENCE AwARdS

» fuming Zhang, Research Professor, Chemical and Biological engineering

» emily liu, assistant Professor, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear

» Peter tessier, assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological engineering

» Michael amitay, Professor, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering

» ganpati Ramanath, Professor of Materials science and engineering

SChooL oF ENGINEERING oUtStANdING tEAM AwARd

» “shared Core virtual human technology”, X. george Xu, Professor, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, suvranu de, Professor, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, Peter Caracappa, lecturer, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering

2011-2012 RENSSELAER AwARdS

tRUStEES’ oUtStANdING tEAChER AwARd

» tarek abdoun, Judith and thomas iovino ‘73 Career development Professor, Civil engineering and associate dean

JAMES M. tIEN ’66 EARLy CAREER AwARd FoR FACULty

» Peter tessier, assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological engineering

JERoME FIShbACh ’38 FACULty tRAvEL AwARd

» John tichy, Professor, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering

CLASS oF 1951 oUtStANdING tEAChING dEvELopMENt GRANt

» thomas sharkey, assistant Professor, industrial and systems engineering

RENSSELAER ALUMNI ASSoCIAtIoN tEAChING AwARd

» thomas Willemain, Professor, industrial and systems engineering

dAvId M. dARRIN ’40 CoUNSELING AwARd

» Burt swersey, lecturer, Mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering

linda schadler (Mse) was named the Russell sage Professor of engineering

Miki amitay (Mane) was named the James l. decker ’45 endowed Chair in aerospace engineering

nikhil Koratkar (Mane) was named the John a. Clark and edward t. Crossan Professor of engineering

Linda Schadler Miki Amitay Nikhil koratkar

ChAIREd pRoFESSoRShIpS

FACULty hIGhLIGhtS

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

pAIdRensselaer

Polytechnic Institute

School of EngineeringRensselaer polytechnic Institute110 8th Streettroy, Ny USA 12180

Please forward to the appropriate person. We apologize, but we can not accept returns.

In January, Associate Professor Eric Ledet from the Department of Biomedical Engineering led a select group of biomedical engineering students to South Africa, giving them a first-hand look at the chal-lenges of healthcare systems in developing nations. Students visited nearly 30 different health clinics, from rural to a provincial hospital, identifying about 50 different “opportunities” where engineering might be able to solve healthcare challenges.

Since returning to campus, the group is now collaborating with other programs, addressing the most pressing issues they discovered in South Africa.

Top: Rensselaer students Mark Guirguis, Amanda Johansen, Alexandra McGregor, Nabeel Ali, Mat-thew Dion, and Josh Peterson spend a morning with children at the National Institute of the Deaf near Worchester, South Africa. Bottom: Rensselaer students Amanda Johansen, Mark Guirguis, Matthew Dion, Alexandra McGregor, Nabeel Ali, and Josh Peterson meet with a group from the Overstrand Care Center in Hawston, South Africa to discuss the challenges of the disabled.

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