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VOLUME
3,
NO. 3 |
June
2006 |
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Department Website: http://www.mem.drexel.edu
View / Download the 2005 MEM Department Annual Report
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Dear Colleagues and Friends:
 Welcome
to the most recent installment of our
e-newsletter.
With each issue, we plan to bring you the latest
in news from the department. We hope you enjoy
reading about our achievements and events. We
welcome feedback and suggestions, so please do
not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards,
Mun Choi
Department Head and Professor
choi@drexel.edu |
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NEWS |
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RESEARCH AND SPECIAL
AWARDS |
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Dr. Howard
Pearlman, MEM Associate Professor, was
awarded a new NSF CCLI Exploratory Grant to
integrate sports into the engineering
undergraduate curriculum. The grant process was
extremely competitive; 844 proposals were
submitted of which only 8% were awarded! This is
a collaborative effort between Drexel, Rowan and
Gloucester County College. The award amount is
$175,000 for three years. |
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Young Cho (PI), Alex Fridman, and
Alex Gutsol, MEM, were recently awarded a
Dept. of Energy grant entitled “Application of
Electrical Field and Plasma for Advanced Cooling
and Water Recovery”. The application of
electrical fields and plasmas can enhance the
efficiency of heat exchangers through the
reduction of scale buildup. This technology can
also be used as an effective and inexpensive
means to provide clean drinking water in
developing countries. The budget for this 3-year
project is $450K. |
| Jaydev P.
Desai (PI) and Alan Lau of the MEM
Department were recently awarded an NIH grant
entitled “Data-Driven Real Time Surgical
Simulation from Reality-Based Soft Tissue
Models”. This project, which is funded through
the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and
BioEngineering, holds tremendous promise for
advancing medical robotics. The budget for this
4-year project is $1,225,602. |
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The MEM Department
received a new site program from the Dept. of
Education for the Graduate Assistantships in the
Area of National Need (GAANN) entitled: “GAANN
Fellowships in Biomedical Applications in
Engineering” (Mun Choi, PI). Co-PIs:
Yury Gogotsi, Michele Marcolongo, Jaydev Desai,
Kimberly Cook, Franco Capaldi, Tiffany Miller,
Moses Noh, Bradley Layton, Freddie Reisman
(Goodwin) were awarded $400,000 to provide
fellowship support for Ph.D. students for
stipend and tuition. |
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Mun Choi (MEM
Department Head), Yury Gogotsi (MSE),
Bradley Layton (MEM), Athina Petropulu
(ECE), and Fredricka Reisman
(Goodwin) were recently awarded an NSF grant
entitled “Research Experiences for Teachers in
Emerging Technologies.” The grant is a 3-year
project with a budget of $450K, in which 20
teachers per year from the Philadelphia region
will be trained in experiential learning through
laboratory discovery. It is representative of
the College of Engineering and MEM Department’s
initiatives in working with the School District
of Philadelphia for teacher professional
development and improvements in
K-12 STEM
education. Joanne Ferroni (Director of
Outreach, MEM) provided valuable contributions
in the writing of the proposal and in
implementing the program during the past three
years that made this competitive renewal
proposal possible. |
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PRESENTATIONS & ANNOUNCEMENTS |
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Dr. Paul Oh,
MEM Assistant Professor, was invited to speak on
several occasions:
Invited Speaker NSF Office of International
Science and Engineering, entitled “Korea -
Impact of International Studies and Research” on
March 27, 2006; Invited Seminar Speaker NJIT on
March 8, 2006; Invited Seminar Speaker
University of Delaware on March 20, 2006;
Invited Seminar Speaker Virginia Tech on March
27, 2006. |
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F. Mert Sasoglu,
an MEM graduate student of Dr. Brad Layton, will
be presenting a poster entitled "Design and
Microfabrication of an Actuated PDMS
High-Aspect-Ratio Microbeam Array for Piconewton
Force Transduction" at the MEMS and Nanotech
Special Topics Symposium 2006 on April 4th,
2006. The symposium will be held at Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore. |
| Dr. Brad
Layton, Dan Tamayne, Matt Dolin, Mike
Gallagher (MEM) “An Integrated Atomic Force
Microscopy Nanomanipulation Stage for
Biological Samples,” Seeing at the Nanoscale
IV, July 17-20, 2006, Philadelphia, PA. |
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Dr. Paul Oh,
MEM Associate Professor, presented at a
Special Session on UAVs (Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles) and Medical Logistics at the
American Telemedicine Association, in San
Diego on May 9, 2006. |
| Dr.
Brad Layton (MEM),
Ben Legum, Dr. Yuri Gogotsi (MSE),
Ravi Patel (Biosci), “Parameterization of a
Piezoelectric Nanomanipulation Device,”
Proceedings of ESDA2006 8th Biennial ASME
Conference on Engineering Systems Design and
Analysis, July 4-7, 2006, Torino, Italy. |
MEM Associate Professor Dr. Paul Oh
served as a Panel Speaker for the NSF Future
of Robotics Research, May 14, 2006; IEEE
Workshop: UAVs Missions and Payloads
Co-Chair, May 15, 2006; IEEE International
Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Program Committee: Video Proceedings
Co-Chair,
May 16-18, 2006 and IEEE Tutorial:
Hands-on UAV Construction, May 19, 2006. |
| Dr. Wei
Sun,
Associate Professor of Mechanical
Engineering and Mechanics (MEM), was invited
for a seminar presentation on
“Computer-Aided Tissue Engineering” at the
Harold and Inge Marcus Department of
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,
Pennsylvania State University at University
Park, March 2, 2006. |
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Lauren Shor, Mechanical Engineering
and Mechanics (MEM) doctoral student, won
the best oral presentation at the 2006 IEEE
Northeast Bioengineering Conference, Easton,
PA, April 1-2, 2006, for her topic on
“Precision Extruding Deposition of
Polycaprolactone and Composite
Polycaprolactone/Hydroxyapatite Scaffolds
for Tissue Engineering", co-authored with J.
Gordon and Y. An from the Medical University
of South Carolina, and advisor Dr. S.
Guceri, and Dr. W. Sun from
Drexel MEM. |
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Dr. Wei Sun,
Associate Professor of Mechanical
Engineering and Mechanics (MEM), was invited
for a workshop speaker on “Computer-Aided
Tissue Engineering” at the IndoUS
International Workshop on Rapid Prototyping,
Bangalore, India, April 17, 2006. |
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Kalyani
Nair, Mechanical Engineering and
Mechanics (MEM) doctoral student, won
the best poster presentation at the 2006
IEEE Northeast Bioengineering
Conference, Easton, PA, April 1-2, 2006,
for her topic on “Numerical Model for
Predicting Mechanical Properties of Cell
Encapsulated Hydrogel Scaffolds”,
co-authored with advisor Dr. Wei Sun,
Associate Professor of MEM. |
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Connie Gomez, Mechanical Engineering
and Mechanics (MEM) doctoral student,
presented her topic on “Multi-Parameter
Optimization for Two-Phase Unit-Cell
based Tissue Scaffolds” at the 2006 IEEE
Northeast Bioengineering Conference,
Easton, PA, April 1-2, 2006, co-authored
with advisors Dr. Wei Sun (MEM)
and Dr. Ali Shokoufandeh
(Computer Sciences). |
Kalyani
Nair, Mechanical Engineering and
Mechanics (MEM) doctoral student,
presented on “Characterization and
Numerical Modeling of Alginate based
Cell Encapsulated Matrices” at the World
Congress on Tissue Engineering and
Regenerative Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA,
USA, April 24-27, 2006,
co-authored with
advisor Dr. Wei Sun, Associate
Professor of MEM. |
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Peter
Evans, graduate student at the
School of Biomedical Engineering,
Sciences and Health Systems, presented
on “Novel Design on an Intervertebral
Disc Replacement Utilizing Finite
Element Methods” at the 14th Annual
Symposium on Computational Methods in
Orthopaedic Biomechanics, Chicago, IL,
March 18, 2006, co-authored with advisor
Dr. Wei Sun, Associate Professor of MEM.
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MEM graduate
student Matt Kurman presented his
research entitled "Oxidation of
Fischer-Tropsch JP-8 in the Low and
Intermediate Temperature Regimes" at the
2006 Technical Meeting, Central States
Section- The Combustion Institute in
Cleveland, Ohio May 21-23 2006. |
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