News & Events

03-23-15

Undergraduate mechanical engineering student Aaron Krupp has been awarded a Thomas B. Watson Fellowship to conduct a one-year purposeful, independent study outside the United States. Aaron’s project is entitled “the foundation of well-being: technology design to secure safety and necessity.” It will take him to India, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma/Myanmar. He plans to investigate how technologies designed for function and accessibility can help break the cycle of poverty. [Learn more about the Fellows]

Tags: honors MCE Aaron Krupp

03-13-15

In celebration of Women’s History Month, influential women leaders from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech gathered at the JPL von Karman auditorium. Present at the event, entitled Women Making History, were the 2015 honorees for Women@JPL as well as Caltech faculty and staff. It was an opportunity for women at different stages of their career to meet and network. EAS faculty were represented by Professors Bordoni, Greer, and Hunt.  The JPL Advisory Council for Women was the lead organizer of the event.

Tags: APhMS honors MedE MCE ESE Julia Greer Simona Bordoni Melany Hunt JPL

03-12-15

Students in Professor Hillary Mushkin’s media arts seminar (E/H/Art 89 New Media Arts in the 20th and 21st Centuries) have once again put on a unique exhibition highlighting art and engineering. The course provides a platform for an expanded understanding of engineering and an active, project-based engagement with art history.

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Tags: EE research highlights MCE CMS Hillary Mushkin

03-10-15

Amphibious robots took to Caltech’s Millikan Pond on Tuesday, March 10, each one hoping to come away with the title "Aquamania champion." At the event, teams of students tested their robotic athletes in the 30th annual Mechanical Engineering 72 (ME72) competition. Eight teams competed for this year's title, and team KATS—named for teammates and Caltech juniors Kristin Eliason, Auggie Nanz, Tammer Eweis-Labolle, and Sheila Lo—walked away with the trophy. [Caltech story]

Tags: MCE ME 72

03-06-15

Richard M. Murray, Thomas E. and Doris Everhart Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and Bioengineering, has been honored by Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program for making an outstanding contribution to the program, students, and the Institute. Since 1992, Professor Murray has mentored 158 SURF and Minority Undergraduate Research Fellowships (MURF) students. He is known for being a hands-on mentor, as well as a strong advocate for undergraduate research. Each year the “SURF year” is dedicated to someone who has made an outstanding contribution and SURF 2015 was dedicated to Professor Murray.

Tags: honors MCE CMS Richard Murray

02-18-15

Professor Julia Greer’s work on nanolattices is part of the 2015 MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies List. The list identifies the ten milestones from the past year that solve difficult problems or create powerful new ways of using technology. Professor Greer was selected for her work on nanomaterials and specifically “materials whose structures can be precisely tailored so they are strong yet flexible and extremely light.” [Learn more]

Tags: APhMS honors MCE Julia Greer

02-05-15

Professors Harry Atwater, Morteza Gharib, Guruswami Ravichandran, and Robert Grubbs have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Professor Atwater was elected for contributions to plasmonics. Professor Gharib was elected for contributions to fluid flow diagnostics and imagery, and engineering of bioinspired devices and phenomena. Professor Ravichandran was elected for contributions to mechanics of dynamic deformation, damage, and failure of engineering materials. Professor Grubbs was elected for developments in catalysts that have enabled commercial products.

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Tags: APhMS honors GALCIT MedE MCE Harry Atwater Guruswami Ravichandran Morteza Gharib National Academy of Engineering Robert Grubbs Dan Goebel Graeme Stephens Vigor Yang

01-28-15

Michael Ortiz, Frank and Ora Lee Marble Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, has been selected to receive the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Timoshenko Medal “for seminal, groundbreaking and creative contributions, particularly in the creation of the quasi continuum method, the formulation of an incremental variational principle to predict dislocation structures, the development of modeling fragmentation with cohesive models, and the formulation of integrators for elastoplastic materials and variational time integrators." [Caltech story]

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Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Michael Ortiz

01-28-15

Kaushik Bhattacharya, Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professor of Mechanics and Professor of Materials Science as well as Executive Officer for Mechanical and Civil Engineering, has been selected to receive the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Warner T. Koiter Medal. He is receiving the medal, “for the development of novel, rigorous, and predictive methods for the multiscale behavior of modern engineering materials at scales ranging from the sub-atomic to the polycrystal, with special focus on multi-functional materials”. [Caltech story]

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Tags: APhMS honors MCE Kaushik Bhattacharya

12-16-14

Fredric Raichlen, Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus, passed away on December 13, 2014 at age 82. He was an expert on the mechanics of tsunamis, the waves created by underwater earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other geologic events. He was also one of the founding faculty members of Caltech's doctoral program in environmental engineering science. [Caltech Obituary] [ENGenious profile of Prof. Raichlen’s student]

Tags: MCE EAS history ESE Fredric Raichlen