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Technologies passed down three generations

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John Krenicki, Jr. (B.S. Mechanical Engineering, ’84; Hon.D.Sc. ‘07) was appointed to the board of directors of CHC Group Ltd. (HELI) and will serve as chairman. Initially, he will also serve on the company’s newly created Chairman Search Committee. Krenicki joined CD&R in 2013 after a 29-year career at General Electric. He currently serves as chairman of Wilsonart International, chairman of The ServiceMaster Company and lead director of Brand Energy & Infrastructure Services, Inc.  He holds an M.S. in Management from Purdue University. Moore Engineering, founded by Wade Moore, a recent graduate of UConn, was recently named “Murphy’s Monday Manufacturer” by U.S. Senator Chris Murphy. Moore, 23, who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, founded the company in 2010 after being inspired by his great-grandfather, Richard Moore, who established the well-known Moore Special Tool Company. Today, Moore Engineering is based in Milford and operates out of an 800-square-foot facility and is run by Wade with the part-time help of his three brothers. The company uses measuring and machining technologies that have been passed down three generations from Richard Moore. Manuel A. Santos (B.S. Mechanical Engineering, ‘99) was elected mayor of the City of Meriden, Connecticut in December  2013. When elected, Santos was a senior mechanical design engineer at Ultra Electronics, Measurement Systems Inc. in Wallingford, CT. Prior to that position, he was a design engineer with Ripley Tools, formerly a division of Capewell Components Co. LLC, designing innovative hand tools for the fiber optic industry.

Lee Langston In Sweden

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Professor Emeritus Lee Langston Serving As Short-Term Professor In Sweden

Lee Langston, Professor Emeritus, Mechanical Engineering, is currently serving as a short-term professor at KTH, Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The appointment takes place from Sept. 10 to Oct. 2, 2014.  He will give seminars on gas turbine technology and participate as a member of the grading committee for the disputation of a Ph.D candidate.

Program Wins Grant from  the Harvey Hubbell Foundation

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A program designed to improve learning outcomes for students in Engineering and eventually other STEM fields has been awarded a $178,384 grant from the Hubbell Foundation in Shelton, CT. The proposal, “Improving Educational Outcomes for Undergraduate Students in Engineering: The UConn Lifelong Learning Project”  is a collaboration of the School of Engineering and the School of Nursing, with the support of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning to improve the success of undergraduate students, particularly underrepresented students. The PIs for the program are Daniel Burkey, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Diversity for Engineering, Kevin McLaughlin, Program Director for the Engineering Diversity Program and Thomas Van Hoof, Associate Professor of UConn’s Schools of Nursing and Medicine.

Meet the New Faculty For UConn Mechanical Engineering

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Meet the New Faculty For UConn Mechanical Engineering

Xu Chen joins the Mechanical Engineering department. Dr. Chen’s research interests are theory and applications of dynamic systems and controls to advance the technology development in advanced manufacturing, mechatronics, robotics, precision engineering, system and optimization, and human-machine interactions. He has worked closely with the precision control and information storage industries, and helped Western Digital Corporation develop multiple new servo designs for industrial mass production. Dr. Chen is a recipient of the Young Investigator Award in 2014 ISCIE / ASME International Symposium on Flexible Automation and the 2012 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students. He received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2010 and 2013, respectively.

Julian Norato  joins the Mechanical Engineering department. His current research interests lie in incorporating localized failure mode criteria (such as stress and fatigue), as well as manufacturing, cost and geometric constraints in topology and shape optimization for the design exploration of structures and materials, with the aim of exploring efficient structures tailored to a specific manufacturing process. Prior to joining our department, he was responsible for the Product Optimization group at Caterpillar, where he and his team researched numerical methods and developed computational tools for structural and multidisciplinary optimization. He earned his Ph.D from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2005.

Savas Tasoglu joins the Mechanical Engineering department. His current research interests are complex fluid dynamics, micro-assembly approaches, magnetics, microfluidics, cell and tissue mechanics, regenerative medicine, cryopreservation, and cell-based diagnostics for point-of-care. Dr. Tasoglu’s achievements in research and teaching have been recognized by fellowships and awards including Chang-Lin Tien Fellowship in Mechanical Engineering, Allen D. Wilson Memorial Scholarship, and UC Berkeley Institute Fellowship for Preparing Future Faculty. His work has been featured as the cover of Advanced Materials, Small, Trends in Biotechnology, and Physics of Fluids and highlighted in Nature Medicine, Boston Globe, Reuters Health, and Boston Magazine. He received his Ph.D. in 2011 from UC Berkeley.

Xinyu Zhao joins the Mechanical Engineering department. Her research interests are in the area of computational fluid dynamics with a focus on high-fidelity simulations of complex reacting flows as well as heat and mass transfer in turbulent, particle laden flows. She received her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 2014.

UConn Formula SAE places in the top group in the International Competition

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UConn Formula SAE places in the top group in the International Competition

Although still new to the competition, UConn’s Formula SAE team placed in the top group of competitors at the Formula SAE Competition at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.

The four-day competition brings together teams of university undergraduate and graduate students from around the world to conceive, design, fabricate and compete with a small, formula style, competition vehicle. To give teams the maximum design flexibility and the freedom to express their creativity and imagination, there are very few restrictions on the overall vehicle design. Teams typically spend eight to twelve months designing, building and preparing their vehicles before a competition.

The cars are judged in a series of static and dynamic events including technical inspection, cost, presentation, and engineering design, solo performance trials, and high performance track endurance. These events are scored to determine how well the car performs.

The UConn team began competing at the Michigan event seven years ago, making it a relative newcomer compared to many of the other teams. Under advisor Dr. Thomas Mealy, the team nonetheless placed 20th overall out of the 120 teams in attendance at one of the most competitive events of the year. With the continuing support of sponsors and the department of Mechanical Engineering, UConn Formula SAE is working toward even greater success with the refined design and manufacture of the 2014-2015 vehicle already underway.

– Timothy Thomas, B.S., ME 2014, UConn SAE Team Leader