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Ten College of Engineering students from the summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) will be participating in a joint poster session with the Institute for Cellular Engineering and the Collaborative Undergraduate Research in Engineering REU programs on Friday, July 27. The sophisticated research being carried out by our REU students ranges from preventing carcinogens in drinking water, to studying fluid dynamics in space, to creating a sturdy rotating base for CASA’s revolutionary phased array radar. The poster session, which is free and open to the public, takes place in the Campus Center, room 1009, from 10 a.m. until noon. Come see this fascinating research!

Former Hluchyj Fellow Kavita Radhakrishnan Joins Faculty at Texas

Former School of Nursing graduate student Kavita Radhakrishnan, whose research at UMass Amherst was supported by a visionary fellowship established by Dr. Michael Hluchyj (B.S. ’76, Electrical Engineering) and Mrs. Theresa Hluchyj (B.S., School of Nursing), has accepted a faculty appointment at the University of Texas School of Nursing in Austin. She has a background as both a telecommunications engineer and a registered nurse, a combination which inspired her to do research in telehealth technology, meaning the delivery of health-related services and information through telecommunications devices. This past year, after getting her doctorate at UMass Amherst, Radhakrishnan pursued post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania.

UMass Amherst Receives In-kind Software Grant from Siemens PLM with a Commercial Value of Nearly $2.3 Million

The University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for e-Design in the College of Engineering announced that it has received an in-kind software grant from Siemens PLM Software, a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, with a commercial value of nearly $2.3 million. The grant was provided by Siemens PLM Software’s Global Opportunities in PLM (GO PLM™ initiative), a program that delivers PLM technology to more than one million students yearly at more than 11,000 global institutions, where it is used at every academic level – from grade schools to graduate engineering research programs.

Ramanujam Becomes 500th Member of MIE LinkedIn Page

The Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department is celebrating doctoral candidate Lakshmi Ramanujam, whose faculty advisor is Yahya Modarres-Sadeghi, as the 500^th person to sign up for MIE’s LinkedIn page. Ramanujam earned his Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from SASTRA University in Thanjavur, India. He is doing his graduate research on wind-induced oscillations of open-grown excurrent evergreen trees. In addition to his heavy workload as a doctoral student, he also follows several blogs on science and research. Ramanujam has been awarded the Basant Nanda Fellowship for 2011-12 and a University of Massachusetts Amherst merit scholarship for 2010-11.

Peters Gift to Benefit Career Services and DPO

UMass Amherst alumni Charles and Karen Peters of Weston, Massachusetts have pledged $100,000 over four years, to be divided evenly between the university’s College of Engineering and the Isenberg School of Management. The gift is officially named the “Charles and Karen Peters ’87 Engineering and Management Student Support Fund.” In the College of Engineering, this gift will support the Career Planning and Student Development Center and the Diversity Programs Office, enabling both programs to provide workshops, networking, and experiential learning for undergraduate engineering students. The fund will also support the Isenberg School of Management and provide stipends toward experiential learning opportunities through internship scholarships.

Team Zoom Mass Inflates MPG with Incredible Shrinking Car

On June 7 and 8, the streamlined, three-wheel car built by the UMass Amherst Supermileage Vehicle (SMV) Team, which calls itself Zoom Mass, rolled smoothly through the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Supermileage® competition in Marshall, Michigan with a car shell made of shrink wrap and an emergency engine getting a tightfisted 843 mpg and running mainly on true grit, improvisation, and elbow grease. “As usual, we ran into a number of technical difficulties, which included killing an engine, two batteries, and a starter motor,” says SMV faculty advisor Jonathan Rothstein of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, “but we persevered!”

MIE Alum Working as Incubator for Renewable Energy

Patrick Quinlan, a 1982 graduate of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department and a former associate director for the UMass Wind Energy Center, now makes his living establishing sustainable start-up energy companies in Massachusetts. He is the founder of Celadon Innovation, providing consulting services and renewable energy technology development that directly improves the lives of individuals, families, farms, and communities. Quinlan explains that “Celadon’s vision is the widespread utilization of sustainable practices and technologies that provide lasting energy independence for homes, farms, and communities. A strong part of that vision for me is accessibility to the benefits of sustainable technologies for everyone.”

Alum’s Company Cited by Boston Globe

Altra Industrial Motion, whose CEO Carl Christenson is an alumnus and avid supporter of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department, was recently named as the Boston Globe’s number 3 company in its “Top 100” list and its number one industrial company. “From elevators to wind turbines, lawn mowers to warships,” as the Globe article (boston.com/globe-100) noted, “Altra’s 20 companies make products that propel and harness the movement that powers industry.” Christenson has been a major contributor to the MIE department’s new Innovation Shop and Class-E “Exploratorium” student space and has been a leader on the College of Engineering Advisory Board.

SMV Team Comes in Fifth with 843 MPG

The UMass Amherst Supermileage (SMV) Team finished in fifth place at the Society of Automotive Engineers Supermileage® competition, held on June 7 and 8 at the Eaton Corporation Proving Grounds in Marshall, Michigan. The UMass team’s streamlined, three-wheel car finished the course with a whopping 843 miles per gallon! “As usual, we ran into a number of technical difficulties, which included killing an engine, two batteries, and a starter motor, but we persevered,” says SMV faculty advisor Jonathan Rothstein of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department. There were nearly 30 collegiate teams entered in this year's competition representing schools from Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, and the United States.

Laramee Establishes Scholarship to Honor the Late Al Russell

Thomas J. Laramee, who received his B.S. (1994) in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics and his M.S. (1997) in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from UMass Amherst, has created the Al Russell Memorial Scholarship Fund in memory of Dr. George Albert (Al) Russell, who passed away in April after a brief illness. Dr. Russell taught in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department for 34 years after earning his doctorate in 1968. Mr. Laramee currently serves as Principal Engineer of Zulily, Inc., a successful Internet startup in Seattle. Mr. Laramee pledged a cash gift of $32,000, $2,000 of which will fund the first Russell Scholar for the 2012 – 2013 academic year, while the $30,000 endowment is being invested.

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