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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
Mechanical Engineering Faculty Receive over $2.0 Million Dollars in New Grants to Support Research Commencing in FY 2009-2010
September 16, 2009
The department is very pleased to announce that a large number of our faculty are recipients of new grants from federal, state, and industrial sources for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The cumulative value of these new grants exceeds $2 million. In addition, several of our faculty members have received increments on existing contracts and agreements. A list of the PI's including a brief description of their funded projects is given here
Princevac receives the 2009 award for Boundary Layer Meteorology Research
October 5, 2009
The Department is very pleased to announce that Marko Princevac received the 2009 award for Boundary Layer Meteorology Research. This award was presented by Kipp and Zonen, a leading company that manufactures instruments for measuring solar and atmospheric properties. The award was presented at the recently concluded Annual Meeting of the European Meteorological Society in Toulouse, France, where Marko presented his paper titled “Field, Laboratory and Numerical Study of Turbulent Dispersion in Built Environments.”
Congratulations Marko!
Professor Dames Awarded $150,000 DARPA Young Faculty Award
September 30, 2009
We are very pleased to announce that Chris Dames is a recipient of the DARPA Young Faculty Award for his project titled “Ballistic-Elastic Thermal Rectification in Asymmetric Nanostructures.” The official start date is September 17, 2009 and the award includes an initial funding of $150,000 for one year, with a strong chance for a second year funding at the same level. More importantly, it brings significant recognition to Chris’ research and visibility to our department.
Congratulations Chris!
Ph.D. Student Anh Nguyen Awarded Prestegious UCTC Fellowship
September 28, 2009
Congratulations to Anh Nguyen, a first year Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering who was awarded a $22,000 UCTC fellowhsip to conduct transportation related research. She is one of four UCR students awarded for the 2009-2010 academic year. Anh will conduct her research under Professor Heejung Jung. Professor Jung encourages all eligible ME undergraduates to contact him if interested in pursing this fellowship along with graduate study at UCR on transportation, engines and emissions.
Details on UCTC (UC Transportation Center) are at http://www.uctc.net/.
Details on eligibility for the fellowship are at Professor Jung's homepage at http://www.engr.ucr.edu/~heejung/opportunity/.
More News and Spotlights
Colloquia
Mechanical response of nanolayered composites: Strength, ductility, and fracture at the nanoscale
Dr. Nathan Mara
Materials Science and Technology Division &
Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Friday, November 13th, 11:10 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Bourns Hall A265
Innovative Thin Film Manufacturing of Silicon-Based Photovoltaics
Distinguished Speaker
Dr. Tadahiro Ohmi
Professor
The New Industry Hatchery Center
Tohoku University, Sendai City Japan
Friday, November 6th, 11:10 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Bourns Hall A265
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Defense Announcements
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense-Characteristics of Graphitic Films for Carbon based Magnetism & Electronics
Jeongmin Hong, Ph.D. Candidate
Advisors: Sakhrat Khizroev & Qing Jiang
Tuesday, October 20th 11:00 a.m. EBU II Room 215
This dissertation concentrates on the characteristics of the graphene: single layer of graphite which is defined as two-dimensional material for carbon based magnetism and electronics. Carbon materials, which are demonstrated by diamond and graphite, have always been of great interest for their unique properties. Moreover, in the last two decades, there have been three revolutionary milestones in the development of carbon materials, which were related to the discovery of fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, respectively. Such research evolution led to the realization of the feasibility to tailor magnetic and electronic properties of graphiticsheets....More
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense Health Monitoring of Drive Connected Three-Phase Induction Motors from Wired Towards Wireless Sensor Networks
Xin Xue, Ph.D. Candidate
Advisor: Professor V. Sundararajan
Thursday, August 27, 2009, 11:00 a.m. Bourns Hall A171
Wireless sensor network (WSN), one of the featured technologies that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has identified to help improve the overall energy efficiency of US industry, provides a potentially low-cost approach for the health monitoring and fault diagnosis of induction motors. The reduction of machine failures increases plant efficiency and productivity. Low-cost wireless sensor systems can help the health monitoring of manufacturing equipments by eliminating the cost of installation and increasing the flexibility of system diagnosis.
This research focuses on developing a nonintrusive, condition based health monitory system for drive connected induction motors using the wireless sensor network method. A hierarchical classification system is designed for motor fault diagnosis. To simulate and analyze a wide range of fault conditions that may arise in induction motors, an experimental test bed is also developed. Three major branches of induction motor faults are studied, either individually or in combination. Wired sensors are first used to find optimal features for motor fault classification. After performing feasibility studies of wireless sensors in electric machinery, two wireless sensor nodes are developed and implemented in the motor health monitoring and fault diagnosis system. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and generalizability of the wireless sensor system for motor health monitoring and fault classification.
More Defense Announcements
Other Events
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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