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You don’t get much more Atlanta than Kentez Craig.

“I grew up just five minutes south of the airport,” said Craig. “My parents were always driving to the local hospital or fire station for work.”

They’re not just outstanding students; they’re Georgia Tech tradition-keepers. Armando Gonzalez and Aaron Burtz are two of just a handful of students who have ever donned black tights, a fuzzy head, and antennae to embody Georgia Tech’s mascot, Buzz.

“It’s hot,” Burtz joked when asked about his memories as mascot. “Really, though, I’ll remember pre-game and seeing the faces of the youngest fans light up when they see Buzz.”

Why did the gecko climb the skyscraper? Because it could; its toes stick to about anything. Engineers can already emulate the secrets of gecko stickiness to make strips of rubbery materials that can pick up and release objects, but simple mass production for everyday use has been out of reach until now.

An oft-repeated phrase you hear on campus tours or during first-year orientation at Georgia Tech is that if you can’t find a student club to match your interest, start one and people will join it.

That’s more or less how the Georgia Tech Juggling Club came into existence.

Three Georgia Tech interdisciplinary engineering student teams, each of which included at least one Woodruff School student, were among the four declared winners in their category at the MIT COVID-19 Challenge event held April 3-5. The online, virtual hackathon event attracted 1,500 people, creating 240 teams, which competed for monetary prizes, computing resources, organizational support, and direct access to key partners to further develop, validate and implement solutions developed.

Kemper Lewis, who earned his MS ('94) and PhD ('96) at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering was recently named dean of the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Via University at Buffalo:

Baltimore – On March 14, the ABET Board of Delegates elected 2020-2021 officers during the Spring Governance Meetings. The newly elected officers are William Wepfer as 2020-2021 ABET President-Elect and Charles Menke as At-Large Director. Gillian Bond was re-elected as ABET Secretary and David Whitman as ABET Treasurer. They will be inaugurated during the fall 2020 ABET Board of Directors Meeting.

Two Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Grants of $30,000 each have been awarded to attendees of the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 2019 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering (FOE) Symposium.

Story by Tamir Gonen Cohen

On February 18 2020, 50 Georgia Tech Mechanical Engineering students had the opportunity to see a live demonstration of a Chevy Bolt electric engine.

Manganese oxides are a group of the most common and important minerals in nature. Their oxidation-reduction, or redox, cycles can impact many natural processes related to contaminants and nutrients in our environment.

By Georgia Parmelee, College of Engineering

By Tamir Gonen Cohen

After months of preparation, practice, and pitching, the field of teams competing for the 2020 InVenture Prize at Georgia Tech is down to the final six.

Yuhang Hu, Assistant Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, has been named a recipient of the 2019 Extreme Mechanics Letters (EML) Young Investigator Award for a paper entitled, “Indentation adhesion of hydrogels over a wide range of length and ti

President Ángel Cabrera has named Baratunde Cola, professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering, as the next faculty athletics representative (FAR) to the Georgia Tech Athletic Association.

Mechanical engineering majors Olivia Plumb and Kinjal Ruecker have been selected to receive a 2020 Brooke Owens Fellowship.

On Friday, January 17, 2020, alumni, donors, faculty, staff, and students gathered outside of the Flowers Invention Studio to honor Dr. Bill Wepfer for his years of service and celebrate the completion of the Wepfer Design Commons. Construction of the Wepfer Design Commons, which includes the Montgomery Machining Mall, Flowers Invention Studio, IDEA Lab, and Electronics Lab, began during Dr. Wepfer's tenure as Chair of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and was completed in 2019.

Prof.

Teams led by assistant professor Aaron Young and assistant professor W. Hong Yeo from the George W.

It all started out as a bit of a challenge — linked to the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine $2000 Challenge.

“We’ve always taken a couch with us to racing competitions. It just gives us somewhere to sit comfortably,” explained Thomas Barone, mechanicale engineering major and press secretary of Wreck Racing.

Company founded on innovation developed at Georgia Tech forms partnership with leading compression garment manufacturer

A small company built around technology developed by researchers in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech is realizing some big dreams with

The Woodruff School is home to 2,000 undergraduates and more than 800 graduate students, and they all have a story to tell. Find out why Noa chose Georgia Tech, what he enjoys about mechanical engineering, and why he chose to pursue undergraduate research.

Thanks to a generous donation by Keysight Technologies, the Flowers Invention Studio now has a completely revamped electronics capability with the addition of two brand-new electronics workbenches.

Associate professor Tianye Niu joined the Woodruff School this fall and is still getting settled in as he adjusts to life on campus in the heart of Atlanta. In this Q&A he talks about his path to Atlanta, the motivations behind his research, and what drew him to Georgia Tech.
 

Where are you from and how did you end up at Georgia Tech?

Getting cancer drugs to their target can be difficult under the best of circumstances, but in the case of brain cancer the challenge is compounded by the blood-brain barrier- a semipermeable barrier that has evolved to keep the brain “safe” from toxins in the blood. The effectiveness of that barrier also prevents many cancer-fighting drugs and therapies from reaching their intended targets.

Via the American Institute of Physics (AIP):

High-entropy alloys, which are made from nearly equal parts of several primary metals, could hold great potential for creating materials with superior mechanical properties.

Test subject who has flexible wireless electronics conformed to the back of the neck, with dry hair electrodes under a fabric headband and a membrane electrode on the mastoid, connected with thin-film cables. (Courtesy of Woon-Hong Yeo)

Woodruff School alum Mohamed Nasr discusses working for Tesla, his involvement with the new Full Self-Driving computer and his time at Tech.

Assistant Professor Ellen Yi Chen Mazumdar discusses teaching, research and her path to Tech

A wireless, wearable monitor built with stretchable electronics could allow comfortable, long-term health monitoring of adults, babies and small children without concern for skin injury or allergic reactions caused by conventional adhesive sensors with conductive gels.

Woodruff School graduate student Brian Fuchs was awarded first place prize in the student poster competition at the 46th annual 46th Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation (QNDE) for his research on “Analytical modeling of the evolution of the nonlinearity parameter of sensitized stainless steel."

Mechanical engineering student Mason Hodge discusses his summer internship with NASA.

Associate Professor Jun Ueda and graduate student DeaGyu Kim are members of a Georgia Tech team that has developed micro bristle bots which are two millimeters in length, 1.8 millimeters wide and 0.8 millimeters thick.

Story by John Toon
Georgia Tech Research Horizons

Undergraduate Research Spring Symposium & Awards, Sponsored by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

2019 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award

By Péralte Paul, Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute

Assistant professor Aaron Young has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research Young Investigator Award for his project titled "Improving Community Ambulation for Stroke Survivors Using Powered Hip Exoskeletons with Adaptive Environmental Controllers." The two-year award comes with approximately $300,000 in funding over a two-year period and supports ongoing research in Young's Intelligent Prosthetic & Exoskeleton Controls (EPIC) Lab.

Lake Lanier Association maintains a network of solar lights on hazard buoys, but knowing when they go out is a big challenge. They're hoping these capstone students can come up with a solution.

Capstone season is upon us and there are over 50 Mechanical Engineering teams showcasing their projects at the Expo on April 23rd at the McCamish Pavilion. The Capstone Design course is generously supported by numerous corporate partners and alumni. This weekly article series will highlight a few select sponsors, their projects, and the student teams working on their projects.

Automation technology developed in lab of Georgia Tech researcher Craig Forest being commercialized

Woodruff School graduate Wei Chen has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Watch as Dean McLaughlin learns about the roasting practices of TopTime Coffee

A passion for helping others led to first-year mechanical engineering student Brooke Waller being awarded the 2018 Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy Award from the St. Louis Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. In this Q&A she talks about her volunteer work, why she chose Georgia Tech, what drew her to mechanical engineering, and what she loves about being here.
 

Associate Professor Dr. Devesh Ranjan has accepted the position of Associate Chair for Research in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (effective January 1).

George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering assistant professor Jon Rogers was invited to appear on Dean Steve McLaughlin's podcast, The Uncommon Engineer, to discuss his research with drones. Listen as he talks about their applications in agriculture, rescue missions, and much more, as well as the challenges drones present when it comes to privacy, personal protection, and surveillance.

#TGW: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Capstone Season is upon us and there are over 50 Mechanical Engineering teams showcasing their projects at the Expo on December 4th at the McCamish Pavilion! The Capstone Design course is generously supported by numerous corporate partners and alumni. This weekly article series will highlight a few select sponsors, their projects and the student teams working on their projects.
   

Five individuals with ties to the Woodruff School were recognized at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition on November 15 in Pittsburgh, PA. These individuals include Bob Nerem, Tim Lieuwen, Todd Allen, Sean Wu, and Asegun Henry. 

Capstone season is upon us and there are over 50 Mechanical Engineering teams showcasing their projects at the Expo on December 4th at the McCamish Pavilion! The Capstone Design course is generously supported by numerous corporate partners and alumni. This week’s spotlight sponsor is first-time Capstone Design sponsor, Sonnen. Sonnen is an energy storage company headquartered in Germany that designs and manufactures batteries for residential and small business use. Sonnen’s vision is for “everyone… to cover their energy needs with [a] decentralized and clean energy source”.

Assistant Professor Dr. Katherine Fu has received the Faculty Institute Diversity Champion Award for her leadership and commitment to building an inclusive campus community and advancing a culture of inclusive excellence.

Associate Professor Dr. Tequila Harris recently received the L.E. Scriven Young Investigator Award.

U.S. News & World Report now ranks the Georgia Tech ME undergraduate program #2 in the nation

35 ME graduate students have been awarded prestigious fellowships for this academic year.

Woodruff School alumna Stacey Dixon (MSME '95, Ph.D. 2000) has been chosen to fill the role as director for the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). For over 15 years, Dr. Dixon has served in key science and technology positions within the intelligence community, tackling some of its hardest technical challenges.

Meet Bianca Tenney, Academic Assistant in ME's Office of Student Services! 

Meet Nichelle Compton, Event Coordinator for the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

Hometown?

Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Peter Loutzenhiser has been awarded the 2018 Yellott Award by the Solar Energy Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Dr.

ME undergraduate student Emily Kamienski has been selected as a recipient for the Astronaut Scholarship for the 2018-2019 academic year. This year the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) has awarded 50 scholarships to students from 36 different universities across the nation.

Engineer and entrepreneur Baratunde Cola believes that big changes in human achievement are underpinned by revolutions in materials, from the stone age to the iron age to oil to silicon.

Five Woodruff School graduate students received accolades at the ITherm-2018 Conference.