MechE Student News - October 2021
Department Highlights
ME Alumni Connect Day returns with an engaging in-person experience
ME Alumni Connect Day 2021 was a success thanks to the nearly 40 alumni who attended and up to 500 students they engaged with. Students connected with alumni over lunch, during class panels and while participating in mock interviews.
Meet the department's three new faculty members
They are researchers, educators and entrepreneurs who are bringing the Department of Mechanical Engineering new industry and research opportunities.
Graduate students join forces to improve underrepresented student experiences
The Committee for Equity in Mechanical Engineering wants to expand its outreach in the 2021-22 academic year and needs help to do it. The only qualification to join the team of graduate students is a willingness to be open.
Engineers win $500,000 in international underground robotics competition
A Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder team has taken home third place and $500,000 in prize money in an international competition that sends teams of robots deep underground to conduct search-and-rescue operations.
Student Spotlight
Undergraduate gains valuable skills as a COSINC student lab assistant
The COSINC facility has given Jared Lewis, a junior in mechanical engineering, opportunities that he might not have ever experienced as an undergraduate.
A new design workflow for an integral piece of soft robotic systems
Three mechanical engineering students and Professor Robert MacCurdy developed the novel workflow and published it in a paper that won the IEEE-CASE Best Application Paper Award at the 2021 CASE Conference in France.
Four mechanical engineering students receive SWE scholarships
The Society of Women Engineers has awarded 289 scholarships in all, totaling more than $1,200,000, to undergraduate and graduate students for the 2021-22 academic year.
ME graduate student wins a prestigious college teaching award
PhD candidate Jeff Glusman, who was working as a Graduate Part-time Instructor at the time, is the first graduate student to receive the John and Mercedes Peebles Innovation in Education Award.
Students combine science and policy in summer fellowship program
Mechanical Engineering student Carolyn Goodwin was one of six students who got a peek at the policymaking process.
Research Spotlight
Department surpasses annual research funding record
Researchers in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering received 118 research awards in 2020, totaling more than $19.5 million.
Simple safety measures reduce musical COVID-19 transmission
ME professor Shelly Miller, a co-author of the study, finds masking instruments, social distancing and implementing time limits significantly reduce the risk of emitting COVID-19 airborne particles.
Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder spinoff company develops technology that could treat COVID-19 complications
After a year when the nation experienced a shortage of mechanical ventilators to help treat patients with severe COVID-19 complications, Professor Mark Borden's company Respirogen presents another treatment option: oxygen microbubbles.
Amid Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ and a pandemic, here’s how to keep your indoor air clean
Professor Marina Vance shares easy and effective ways to keep our indoor air clean from ozone, wildfire smoke and COVID-19.
Video: Membrane-Powered Prosthetics
Mechanical Engineering professors teamed up with the Department of Veterans Affairs to use glucose from our body to power small medical devices.
Video: Kaushik Jayaram on Bio-Inspired Engineering
Inspired by the natural world, Kaushik Jayaram heads up the Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Laboratory (AIM-RL) at Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder. The group aims to develop robotic devices that benefit and enhance human capabilities in the areas of search and rescue, inspection and maintenance, personal assistance, and environmental monitoring.
Education and Outreach
Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ celebrates Western partnership program's new engineering building
Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Engineering leaders attended the grand opening of Western Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ University's Paul M. Rady Building on Oct. 8, praising the facility as a valuable addition to the Western-Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder Partnership Program.
Scholarship program prepares undergraduate for the business world
Will Edgar, the first recipient of the Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Mechanical Engineering Student/Tuck Bridge Scholarship, has always had a knack for mechanical engineering. It is now complemented by a solid understanding of business thanks to the generosity of a fellow Buff.