Dear colleagues,

I hope you enjoy this edition of our School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering (MME) newsletter. As another busy semester gets underway, our students and faculty continue to find inventive ways of circumventing the difficulties associated with the global pandemic. During the past year, we have launched major revisions of both the ME and MSE undergraduate curricula, started a number of new undergraduate and graduate courses, obtained even greater external research funding than the previous year, and accelerated our research activities in several areas, including manufacturing, robotics and energy systems. I’m very proud of the ingenuity and hard work of our faculty and students in finding solutions to the many engineering challenges of our times.

Professors Amit Bandyopadhyay and Susmita Bose received a large contract from the US Army to conduct research in metals additive manufacturing and high throughput materials discovery. Professor John McCloy received a substantial contract from the Department of Energy for glass research. Professor Kaiyan Qiu and colleagues are using advanced manufacturing techniques to develop super light, porous foams and 3D printed functional materials for multifarious applications. Professor Néstor O. Pérez-Arancibia, who joined the school last year, is developing aerial robots and micro-robots inspired by nature, including the world’s smallest beetle-like robot. Professors Yuehe Lin and Annie Du have once gain been named among the most highly cited researchers in the world, and Professor Konstantin Matveev was named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Supported by their faculty mentors, our students are also learning the hands-on, real-world skills that they will need for their future workplaces. Our WSU student team received the Artemis Award in NASA’s BIG Idea Challenge for their simple and elegant solution for removing lunar dust from spacesuits.

As 2022 gets underway, I’m prouder than ever of our resilient Cougar spirit. We’re excited that we are back to a face-to-face educational and research experience for our students, faculty, and staff, and look forward to a great year ahead.

 

Thank you and Go Cougs!

Indranath Dutta, Director
School of MME