MechSE Magazine, Summer 2024
Engineering Design for People, With a Purpose (special feature)
MechSE's focus on teaching our students the importance of human-centered engineering design can be seen in a project called CAPSLocksTM, an improved scalp-cooling innovation brought to life by several teams of students for their Senior Capstone Design project (ME 470). Film developed and produced by Rachel Berry.
WATCH:
Undergraduate student Kevin Liu talks about the work his team did for the Spinal Vision project, which sought to develop a device that would improve the accuracy and reliability of lumbar procedures. Video footage from Rachel Berry.
Does your company have a mechanical engineering problem to address?
Consider sponsoring a Senior Capstone Design team to help you develop a human-centered design solution.
Learn more about our Senior Capstone Design Program OR Industry Allies Program
Learn more about Taher Saif's election to the NAE
READ:
Professor Taher Saif reflects on his career journey. See the full story >>
WATCH:
Saif was teaching a class when he learned from Dean
Rashid Bashir that he had been elected to the NAE.
Film developed and produced by Rachel Berry.
"I immediately felt and knew that [this honor] is not because of me but because of my students over the long, long years. My job is to guide them, to inspire them, but it's their work and their results."
"Grasp" kinetic sculpture photo gallery
(click images to enlarge)
Read the full story >>
Undergraduate Programs
Eco Illini Supermileage photo gallery
(click images to enlarge)
Read the full story >>
Graduate Programs
WATCH:
Research-in-action video from postdoctoral researcher Sheng Cheng, with grad student Minkyung Kim, on their DiffTune research. The series of works with other participating students has been accepted in several recent conference publications as well as in IEEE Transactions on Robotics.
LEARN MORE:
Get to know the research behind doctoral candidate Saddam Hossain Joy's winning "Image of Research"
READ:
For close to a decade, Bashar Emon, a postdoctoral researcher who also earned his PhD from MechSE, has worked beside Professor Taher Saif on a range of studies surrounding the mechanics of cancerous cells and their tissue microenvironments. His work has been vital within the research being done at the Cancer Center at Illinois, the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Read more about Bashar and how his work continues to evolve here, here and here.
Faculty Research
WATCH:
Inspired by the aerodynamics of wind-dispersed seeds, Leonardo Chamorro and colleagues' microfliers are a breakthrough in the development of distributed monitoring technology. Video from Northwestern University.
READ:
Learn more about how Kyle Smith uses the unique chemical properties of the Prussian blue pigment to achieve more effective saltwater desalination.
WATCH:
Nenad Miljkovic and his group's heat exchanger prototype testing rig in Mechanical Engineering Laboratory
READ:
The researchers now hope to demonstrate the readiness of their new steam condenser coating for real-life applications. Their prototype is reading for testing in the university's Abbott Power Plant. Read the brief update >>
WATCH:
See Sameh Tawfick's insect-scale, long-jumping robots in action!
WATCH:
In 2017, then Professor Emerita Judith Liebman talked about her experiences as a young engineering professor and as the first woman to earn tenure in Industrial Engineering (then part of MechSE, formerly called Mechanical and Industrial Engineering - M&IE). Video produced by the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering.