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Welcome to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UC Riverside. Our department is home to 15 full-time faculty members, about 400 undergraduate and 60 graduate students. We offer excellent educational opportunities to students seeking a challenging environment to pursue research More
News and Spotlights
Professor Rao Awarded Prestigious Grant from the National Institute of Health
February 23, 2010
We are very pleased to announce that Masa Rao is the PI for a new grant titled “Ultrahigh throughput cellular manipulation via massively parallel microinjection,” funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The project includes his collaborator Christopher Ballas, Indiana School of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology as PI as well. The total award is for $545,569 for a period of 3 years. The focus of the research is on the development of advanced instrumentation for ultrahigh throughput microinjection-based manipulation with applications in drug discovery, transgenics, and cell-based therapeutics. The innovative aspect of their research is that it represents the first attempt to address microinjection’s limitations through not only automation, but also massive parallelization and monolithic integration of all functionality into a single MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) device.
Congratulations Masa!
Professor Garay Awarded an NSF Career Award
February 8, 2010
The department of Mechanical Engineering is pleased to announce that Javier Garay is a recipient of an NSF CAREER award for his proposal titled “Optoelectronic Nanocomposites: Controlling the properties of bulk ceramic heterostructures using external electric fields.” The ability to bend (refract) light using transparent materials is familiar and useful in many devices such as cameras and telescopes. Light refraction properties of a special class of materials called electrooptic materials can be controlled using electric fields. Since electric fields are relatively easy to generate and change, electrooptic materials allow light paths to be changed "on the fly." Electrooptic materials could find a host of new applications if the electrooptic response could be attained using smaller fields. The aim of this CAREER project is to extend the applicability of electrooptic ceramics by using a composite approach.
Typically ceramic composites are opaque, but by carefully controlling their structure large ceramic materials whose light transmittance properties can be controlled by applying electric fields will be produced. These materials should be useful in a wide array of consumer electronics such as digital cameras and advanced applications especially in the laser field.
Mahalingam Elected Fellow of ASME
February 4, 2010
Shankar Mahalingam, Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been elevated to the grade of Fellow in the national professional organization American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). ASME is the premier organization for promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences to our diverse communities throughout the world. The Fellow grade recognizes significant engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession. Candidates for the honor are nominated by their peers and selected by the Fellow Review Committee with final approval of the Committee of Past Presidents. ASME has 2,956 Fellows out of 93,537 members.
Mahalingam’s expertise is in the area of turbulent combustion, characterized by unsteady three-dimensional motion that can promote the mixing of fuel and air and lead to more vigorous combustion. He was among the earliest group of researchers to develop direct and large eddy simulation methodology to study the dynamics of coflowing jet diffusion flames. Over the last ten years, he has extended large eddy simulation to study fire behavior in shrub fuels. He is one of the leading experts in the area of modeling transition behavior in fires including marginal burning, and transition of surface fires to crown fires, utilizing both simulations and laboratory scale experimentation.
Mahalingam has coauthored over 100 papers including refereed journal papers, refereed conference proceedings, and other non-refereed conference papers. He has served as an Invited Professor at the Labaratoire EM2C, Ecole Centrale Paris, and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He would like to extend his appreciation to his former and current graduate students and departmental colleagues at the University of Colorado, Boulder and at UC Riverside. He is especially thankful to the USDA Forest Service for its continued support of his fire behavior research
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Colloquia
Material Characterization and Qualification of Ceramic Matrix Composites, and Nano Composite
Dr. Frank Abdi
Chief Scientist
Alpha STAR Corporation
Long Beach, California
Friday, March 12th, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Bourns Hall A265
Heterogeneous Laminate Magnetoelectrics: Analysis, Fabrication, and Testing
Dr. Gregory Paul Carman
Professor
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
University of California, Los Angeles
Friday, March 5th, 11:10 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Bourns Hall A265
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Defense Announcements
Speaker Classification based on Multiple Criteria
Miaogeng Zhang, M.S. Candidate
Advisor: Professor V. Sundararajan
Wednesday March 17th, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. EBU II 202
This thesis presents techniques to classify speech signals produced by unfamiliar speakers into categories based on criteria such as gender and age. Such classification is useful to augment the efficiency of conventional video surveillance systems. Existing systems classify speakers along only one dimension. This thesis develops methods to classify speakers based on multiple categories. Age group (children and adults) and gender group (male and female) are used as examples to clarify these issues. Experimental evaluation indicates that 1) Speaker groups are dependent 2) The use of single classifier to sort speakers into multi-criteria groups yields sub-optimal results. Thus, a sequential approach is necessary 3) The sequence of classification affects the performance of the system.
Thermo-Fluid Dynamics of Flash Atomizing Sprays and Single Droplet Impacts
Henry Vu, Ph.D. Candidate
Advisor: Professor Guillermo Aguilar
Friday March 12th, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. EBU II 443
Spray atomization and droplet dynamics are research topics that have existed for many decades. Their prevalence in manufacturing, energy generation and other practical applications is undeniable, though researchers have often overlooked the importance of understanding the physics of atomization or droplet impact characteristics in the ongoing effort to improve efficiency. In this talk, I will address the atomization of thermodynamically unstable “flashing” sprays and the splashing mechanisms of single droplets impinging on flat, smooth surfaces. The related heat transfer phenomena for cooling applications are also addressed. These topics are motivated by efforts to improve the thermal protection provided by cryogenic spray cooling in laser dermatological procedures, increasing the throughput of the spray production of nano and micro-scale particulates used as dyes and catalysts, and in modeling of the release and dispersion of flammable or hazardous chemicals through large-scale collisions with storage containers......More
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Other Events
Bourns College of Engineering Graduate Open House
Thursday, December 3, 2009
1pm – 3pm
EBU II Room 205/206
• Associate Dean welcome
• Engineering departmental presentations
• Department lab tours
• Admissions and funding information
• Networking with faculty, peers & Bourns graduate students
ME GSA Welcome BBQ for Graduate Students and Faculty
October 23, 2009
Time: 4:00pm
Location: Patio of Bourns Hall B Wing
ME Department Faculty Retreat
September 17, 2009 – EBU II, Rooms 205-206
8:45 – 3:15 p.m. (Go to Faculty Intranet for Agenda)
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