THE GEORGE W. WOODRUFF SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (ME) is the oldest and largest school at Georgia Tech and is ranked #2 in the Best Undergraduate Engineering Schools (2012) and #6 in the Best Engineering Graduate Schools (2011) by the US News and World Report. ME provides an excellent education for today's technological world. As such, mechanical engineers are the generalists of the engineering profession. Our Nuclear & Radiological Engineering (NRE) program provides engineers for the nuclear power industry as well as radiological security and protection. Recently, SmartMoney.com placed Georgia Tech as number 1 when ranking 50 colleges based on the salary of graduates compared to what they paid in tuition (or the “payback score�). USA TODAY College placed mechanical engineering in the 8 highest-earning majors.
DEGREES AWARDED 2010 - 2011
In Fall of 2010, enrollment in the Woodruff School included 1,660 ME undergraduate students and 197 NRE undergraduate students. Of those undergraduates there were 230 women and 107 international students. The graduate program enrolled 312 Ph.D. students and 513 Masters students, including 213 in distance-learning programs. There were 114 women and 212 international graduate students.
BSME 43 / 365 (408)
BSNRE 8 / 31 (39)
MSME 20 / 161 (181)
MSME-Bio 2 / 2 (4)
MSNRE 1 / 7 (8)
MSMP 5 / 11 (16)
PhDME 3 / 23 (26)
PhDME-Bio 1 / 4 (5)
PhDNRE 0 / 4 (4)
PhD-Other 1 / 3 (4)
Undergrad 51 / 396 (447)
MS 29 / 185 (214)
PhD 5 / 34 (39)
Total 85 / 615 (700)
MSME-UD 1 / 4 (5)
ANNUAL REPORT
2010/2011
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR I am delighted to present our 2010-11 Annual Report highlighting the accomplishments of our student body, staff, and faculty. Undergraduate mechanical engineering enrollment in the Woodruff School continues to grow, reflecting the 43% ten-year growth in ME enrollments in the US. Our ME program is the largest undergraduate program at Georgia Tech and continues to stress innovation and creativity while providing a rich practice-based experience for our students. Our undergraduate NRE program also continues to flourish and to supply critically-needed talent to the nuclear power industry. Our graduate programs attract the best and brightest from leading US and international peer institutions. The Woodruff School faculty had a fabulous year as reflected in their publications, patents, awards, and sponsored research programs. The challenges we face are both financial (money) and infrastructure (space). Your continued financial support has been critical to our success as we strive to provide scholarship and fellowship support to off-set the impact on our students of rising tuition. Your support also provides our faculty with the investment funding required to define, frame, and address the grand challenge opportunities. We continue our campaign to advocate “Let’s Build Burdell” to create a new facility that will insure Georgia’s role in the “High-Innovation” economy while, at the same time, providing our students with a competitive career advantage. Today our students spend far more time on their handheld web-enabled devices than they do in the library, and so our communication methods need to change. I hope you enjoy the new look of the Annual Report, as it is the beginning of a transformation we are making in communicating Woodruff School news. Before the end of this year, we will have an updated and user-friendly web site, where you can find detailed information on the Woodruff School programs, curriculum, faculty, research, student groups, and alumni news. Furthermore, we will begin sending an e-newsletter via subscription, which will also be accessible from our web site. I’d be remiss not to speak of our social media efforts. We now have a LinkedIn group, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a YouTube channel. We hope you’ll follow us and engage us in a conversation. We look forward to hearing from you. We hope these new communication channels will help you learn more about us and help us stay connected to you. Best Regards,
Advisory Board Members don’t fit Bill Wepfer Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and Professor
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Mr. Thomas G. Arlotto BME 1982 Maestro Strategies LLC
Mr. Blake Moret BME 1985 Rockwell Automation
Dr. Dennis Assanis University of Michigan
Dr. Johne' M. Parker, Chair BME 1985, MSME 1992, Ph.D. 1997 University of Kentucky
Mr. Michael J. Bly BME 1990 General Motors Mr. Lou Cerone General Electric Energy Systems Mr. Thomas A. Coleman BSPhys 1971, MSNE 1973 Framatome-ANP Mr. Joseph P. DeRoy Entergy Mr. Jeffrey Gasser BME 1983 Southern Nuclear Operating Company Mr. Manuel Junco, Jr. BME 1975 WorleyParsons Hydrocarbons Mr. John Kluber BME 1984 Kluber Skahan & Associates Mr. Bryan LaBrecque BME 1981 Clayton State University Dr. William R. McCollum, Jr. BEE 1973, MSNE 1974 Tennessee Valley Authority Dr. Matthew P. Miller MSME 1990, Ph.D. ME 1993 Cornell University Mr. Mark D. Morelli BME 1987 Energy Conversion Devices
Ms. Lisa A. Schott BME 1990 Quietly Making Noise, LLC Dr. Randy Sheffield BME 1988, MSME 1990, Ph.D. ME 1994 Schlumberger Dr. Joseph L. Smith, Jr. BME 1952, MSME 1953 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
STAY CONNECTED www.me.gatech.edu www.nre.gatech.edu www.mp.gatech.edu
Ms. Stella M. Sudderth BME 1980 MRU, Inc.
facebook.com/MEGeorgiaTech twitter.com/MEGeorgiaTech linkdin.com/MEGeorgiaTech youtube.com/MEGeorgiaTech
Dr. Lindsey Thornhill BME 1984, MSME 1986, Ph.D. ME 1996 Science Applications International Corporation
Georgia Institute of Technology George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering 801 Ferst Drive Atlanta, GA 30332-0405
Mr. Michael Tinskey MSEE 1991 Ford Motor Company
P: 404-894-3200 F: 404-894-1658 E: information@me.gatech.edu
Mr. Henry B. Ward III BME 1993 Moore & Van Allen PLLC Dr. Lawrence J. Ybarrondo Ph.D. ME 1964 Dr. John F. Zino MSHP 1994, Ph.D. NE 1999 GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Editor: Melissa Zbeeb Contributors: Mark Ellington Abby Robinson, John Toon Bill Wepfer, Melinda Wilson Photography: Gary Meek Design: Piszko Design Printing: The Flint Group
AWARD WINNERS
FINANCES The primary sources of Woodruff School funding are the state, sponsored research projects and GT Foundation funds. As over 90% of state funds pay for faculty and staff salaries, the School is increasingly dependent on the other sources of revenue to support operations and sustainment activities in a manner conducive to maintaining an engineering education leadership role. Fiscal Year 2011 Expenditures and Sources Sponsored Research Grants & Contracts
GA Tech Foundation $4,218,331
$21,877,674
GA Tech Research Corp $268,441
State Funds $19,002,397
The Woodruff School sponsored research awarded Grants & Contracts grew to over $27 million in FY11, a 35% revenue growth in just the past three years. 30
Sponsored Dollars (New Awards)
25 20 15
FACULTY AND ACADEMIC PROFESSIONALS Wayne Book Nyquist Lecture, 2010 Dynamic Systems and Control Conference of ASME Baratunde Cola 2011 NSF CAREER Award Jonathan Colton, Community Service Award from Amigo for Christ Suman Das, promoted to Professor Nico Declercq elected permanent board member of the International Congress on Ultrasonics ICU John Doane promoted to Senior Research Engineer Andrei Fedorov 2010 NASA Invention and Contribution Board Patent Award, 2010 ASME / Pi Tau Sigma Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award Jerry Ginsberg 2010 Rossing Prize for Acoustics Education from the Acoustical Society of America Rudy Gleason promoted to Associate Professor with tenure Mardi Hastings Bruel Gold Medal for Noise Control and Acoustics Yogendra Joshi 2011 ASME InterPack Achievement Award Yogendra Joshi 2011 Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Distinguished Alumnus Award Tim Lieuwen 2010 ASME George Westinghouse Silver Medal J. Rhett Mayor promoted to Associate Professor with tenure Paul Neitzel 2011 Zeigler Outstanding Educator Award Olivier Pierron 2011 Sigma Xi Best M.S. Thesis Advisor Award (Student, Bhaskar Pant) Karim Sabra 2011 R. Bruce Lindsay Award from the Acoustical Society of America Dirk Schaefer, 2010 American Society for Engineering Education PIC V Best Paper Award Dirk Schaefer 2010 International Engineering Educator Award from the International Society for Engineering Education Mike Stewart Distinguished Service Award from ASEE Engineering Design Graphics Division Todd Sulchek 2011 CAREER Award Charles Ume 2010 ASME Electronic and Photonic Packaging Division, Excellence in Mechanics Award Christine Valle named Director of the Women in Engineering Program in the College of Engineering Wayne Whiteman 2011 CETL Undergraduate Educator Award
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STAFF
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ENDOWMENTS The collective School of Mechanical Engineering FY11 endowments generated $3.7 million available to the School.
THE WOODRUFF ENDOWMENT Funds from the George W. Woodruff Trust continue to provide for the enhancement of the School of Mechanical Engineering. George Woodruff (class of 1917) served as a trustee and trustee emeritus of the Georgia Tech Foundation from 1941 until his death at the age of 91 in 1987. He received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1963. In addition to providing a significant endowment for the School of Mechanical Engineering, his contributions to Georgia Tech provide National Merit Scholarships and scholarships to student athletes in nonrevenue producing sports and are an ongoing source of unrestricted support for the Institute. With state funding lagging behind the School’s growth, the FY11 Woodruff Endowment was critical to our ability to support undergraduate, graduate, and doctorial students with sufficient support. The Woodruff Endowment generated $2,571,738 for use in FY11, a decline from the FY10 income of $2,687,745. The School used 61% of the FY11 endowment income to augment operational activities, and 39% for investment activities. While the School would prefer to use a higher percentage of endowment yield for investment activities, current economic times dictate otherwise.
Dana Foster Classified Staff Outstanding Achievement Award, Fall 2010 Angela Hicks 2011 Georgia Tech Outstanding Staff Performance Award Christian Layton promoted to Financial Administrator III Joi Outlaw Classified Staff Outstanding Achievement Award, Spring 2011 Melissa Raine Classified Staff Outstanding Achievement Award, Year 2010 Millie Wan Classified Staff Outstanding Achievement Award, Summer 2011
STUDENTS Ashley Bernal Graduate Teaching Fellowship from ASME Christina Biggs Pi Tau Sigma Outstanding Senior Award Christopher Blackburn Alvin M. Ferst Leadership and Entrepreneur Scholarship Award Christopher Broughton Joe T. LaBoon Outstanding Graduating Senior Co-op Award Douglass Coppage Samuel P. Eschenbach Memorial Award Shaheen Dewji 2011 Nuclear Scholars Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Ryan Honn Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award, Nuclear and Radiological Engineering Program Robert Ingersoll Henry Ford II Scholar Award Brantley Mills Outstanding Student Paper Award from ANS Daniel Murphy and Patrick Smith Richard K. Whitehead Jr. Memorial Award Bhaskar Pant Georgia Institute of Technology Chapter of Sigma Xi 2011 Best Master's Thesis Alexander Rattner DOE Computational Sciences Graduate Fellowship Matthew Redmond Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Scholar Award Christopher Simpson GT Internship Program Students of the Year Award Lisa Worthington School Chair's Award, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
RESEARCH The research activities at the Woodruff School are defined by our people. Our research and academic faculty, along with our graduate and undergraduate students, as well as our support staff, comprise a stellar research team. The faculty self-select into one or more research area groups, as well as participate in interdisciplinary centers across campus, some of which are run by the Woodruff School faculty members. The size and quality of our research program, along with our ability to partner and collaborate with teams of fellow Georgia Tech colleagues, as well as external companies and organizations, allows us to offer our students with remarkable experiences and opportunities beyond the classroom. The following are short reports on select professors, their research, and the collaborative and inclusive efforts on behalf of the Woodruff School.
ACOUSTICS / DYNAMICS
Dr. Mardi Hastings, was elected as President of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), an international organization with over 7,000 members that is dedicated to acoustics and its practical applications. The ASA’s interdisciplinary nature of the science of sound encompasses the arts, life sciences, and earth sciences in addition to engineering and physics. The ASA publishes the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and manages national (ANSI) and international (ISO/IEC) acoustical standards. One of Dr. Hasting’s goals as President is increasing the participation of undergraduates and young professionals in the Society.
BIOENGINEERING
Awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach and conduct research at Addis Ababa University, one of the oldest and largest universities in Africa, in the School of Medicine, Dr. Rudy Gleason’s sabbatical research is to study cardiovascular disease in HIV patients. He uses ultrasound, applanation tonometry, and blood sampling to measure pre-clinical markers of atherosclerosis from subjects on different antiretroviral (ARV) regimens, as well as HIV-negative and HIV-positive subjects that are not taking ARV medication. While working in Ethiopia, Dr. Gleason and his wife, Katie, spend their spare time serving orphans and vulnerable children through the nonprofit organization they founded two years ago, Because of Kennedy, Inc.
AUTOMATION / MECHATRONICS
Along with a team of interdisciplinary researchers at Georgia Tech, Dr. Jun Ueda developed a glove with a special fingertip designed to improve the wearer's sense of touch. Applying a small vibration to the side of the fingertip improves tactile sensitivity & motor performance, according to their research. The prototype is believed to be the first wearable stochastic resonance device, attaching to the fingertip to improve the sense of touch. "This device may one day be used to assist individuals whose jobs require high-precision manual dexterity or those with medical conditions that reduce their sense of touch," said Ueda.
CAE and DESIGN
Dr. Bert Bras conducts research on sustainable design and manufacturing. His work includes a wide range of interdisciplinary projects focused on innovative technologies and approaches to reduce environmental impact while increasing economic competitiveness. Together with colleagues in the School of City & Regional Planning from the College of Architecture, he is working on new and innovative approaches and technologies to recover, reuse, recycle, and/or remanufacture products and associated materials within urban environments. With colleagues in the School of Biology from the College of Sciences, he is working on National Science Foundation (NSF) funded projects on biologically inspired design and applying principles from ecology to the design of new manufacturing and supply networks.
FLUID MECHANICS
HEAT TRANSFER, COMBUSTION and ENERGY SYSTEMS
In the future, tiny air vehicles may be able to fly through cracks in concrete to search for earthquake victims, explore a contaminated building, or conduct surveillance missions for the military. While designing such a machine has its challenges, Dr. Alexander Alexeev and ME graduate student, Hassan Masoud, presented details on why flexible wings that employ a resonance flapping motion are best suited for micro-scale air vehicles at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics. "We found that the simple up and down wavelike stroke of wings at the resonance frequency is easier to implement and generates lift comparable to winged insects that employ a significantly more complex stroke," said Alexeev.
Drs. Baratunde Cola and Samuel Graham made up 2 of 7 members of a DARPA team whose paper entitled Characterization of Metallically Bonded Carbon Nanotube-Based Thermal Interface Materials Using a High Accuracy 1D Steady State Technique won the Thermal Management Outstanding Paper Award at the 11th ASME/Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of Electronic and Photonic Systems, MEMS, and NEMS (InterPACK). New thermal interface materials (TIMs) were developed for cooling high-power electronic devices that are based on forests of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The best CNT TIMs produced thermal resistances that were significantly better than all commercial materials tested by the team. Other team members were from Raytheon and Purdue.
MANUFACTURING
MECHANICS OF MATERIALS
The projects of the Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory are focused on research involving the creation of three-dimensional structures spanning in size from macro to nano, directly from digital data, in polymers, metals, and ceramics with applications in aerospace propulsion, biotechnology, energy, and optoelectronics. The mission is to conduct cutting edge research at the intersection of advanced design, manufacturing, and materials science.
NEW FACULTY HIRES
Dr. Suman Das, Director of the Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory, aims to invent groundbreaking world class technologies that will have positive societal and economic impacts across a broad range of industry sectors.
The World Class University (WCU) program, funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea, named Dr. Min Zhou a WCU Professor at Seoul National University (SNU). One of the most important components of the WCU program is inviting renowned international scholars and researchers to develop world-class academic programs in Korean universities and to establish long-term collaborations in research and education between Korean universities and leading universities in the world. As such, a Laboratory for Multiscale Materials Simulation has been established at SNU for Dr. Zhou to complement his Computational Materials Science Facility in Atlanta. Further, SNU students spend 6-12 months each at the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering conducting joint research.
We welcome the following new faculty members to the Woodruff School. We are also excited for the faculty members committed to joining the Woodruff School in the coming years. Anna Erickson, to begin August 2012 Asegun Henry, to begin April 2012 Peter Loutzenhiser, to begin May 2012 Susan Thomas, to begin November 2011 Levi Wood, to begin August 2013 Glenn Sjoden began Nov 2010
Caroline Genzale began Dec 2010
Alper Erturk began May 2011
Shuman Xia began Aug 2011
MEMS
Using a technique known as thermochemical nanolithography, Dr. Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb and a team of researchers developed a new way to fabricate nanometer-scale ferroelectric structures directly on flexible plastic substrates that would be unable to withstand the processing temperatures normally required to create such nanostructures. The technique, which uses a heated atomic force microscope (AFM) tip to produce patterns, could facilitate high-density, low-cost production of complex ferroelectric structures for energy harvesting arrays, sensors and actuators in nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. In addition to the Georgia Tech researchers, the work also involved scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
TRIBOLOGY
One of the most critical components in a nuclear reactor is the reactor coolant pump (RCP) seal system. Excessive leakage from the seals, called leakoff, can lead to loss of coolant, necessitating a shutdown of the nuclear plant. Georgia Tech research conducted by Dr. Richard Salant and graduate student, Will Payne, and sponsored by the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) explains reactor coolant pump seal leakoff anomalies, so that utilities can effectively implement leakoff mitigation strategies. Further, the feasibility of utilizing intelligent seals to control leakoff and prevent excessive leakage is being investigated.
Nuclear and radiological engineering & medical physics programs are an integral part of the Woodruff School Of Mechanical Engineering.
NUCLEAR AND RADIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
MEDICAL PHYSICS
In the 20th Century, there were few radiation detection materials in use. Since 9/11, greater emphasis on detecting nuclear and radiological contraband has led to research programs directed at producing new detector materials.
X-rays are routinely used for non-invasive diagnosis, as well as radiotherapy, which is considered the most effective treatment method for many cancers. With research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Lei Zhu has developed many novel techniques for accurate x-ray imaging and high-performance radiotherapy. His current research is devoted to the development of next-generation x-ray imaging systems, which maximize the acquired patient information with limited radiation dose. Furthermore, new radiotherapy modalities which automatically deliver radiation to a tumor for cell killing based on its biological activities would optimize the performance of radiotherapy by reducing the dose errors due to the presence of tumor motion and hypoxia. Dr. Zhu’s work on this topic may revolutionize current cancer treatments.
An interdisciplinary effort between Dr. Nolan Hertel and faculty members in Materials Science Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering was initiated to create better detector materials and enhance performance of existing detector material. The research uses nanotechnology concepts for detecting the radiation and creates detection systems of sufficient area to be of value in the detection of low radiation signals.