Professor Rosakis Elected Laureate of the Aurel Stodola Lecture
02-05-20
Ares J. Rosakis, Theodore von Karman Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering has been elected as the Laureate of the Aurel Stodola Lecture and presented with the Aurel Stodola Medal. The Aurel Stodola Lecture Series commemorates the contributions of Professor Aurel Stodola in the early 20th century whose work on applied thermodynamics has guided many engineers and engineering developments worldwide. "Ares Rosakis possesses this unique ability to develop new experimental methods to make extremely fast mechanical processes (such as those occurring during earthquakes) tangible and observable in the laboratory," says Bradley Nelson, Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems and Head of D-MAVT. [Past Awardees]
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Ares Rosakis
Bionic Jellyfish Swim Faster and More Efficiently
01-30-20
John Dabiri, Centennial Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, has developed a tiny prosthetic that enables jellyfish to swim faster and more efficiently than they normally do, without stressing the animals. Dabiri is envisioning a future in which jellyfish equipped with sensors could be directed to explore and record information about the ocean. "Only five to 10 percent of the volume of the ocean has been explored, so we want to take advantage of the fact that jellyfish are everywhere already to make a leap from ship-based measurements, which are limited in number due to their high cost," Dabiri says. "If we can find a way to direct these jellyfish and also equip them with sensors to track things like ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen levels, and so on, we could create a truly global ocean network where each of the jellyfish robots costs a few dollars to instrument and feeds themselves energy from prey already in the ocean." [Caltech story]
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John Dabiri
Professor Ortiz Receives John von Neumann Medal
08-09-19
Michael Ortiz, Frank and Ora Lee Marble Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, is the recipient of the 2019 U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) John von Neumann Medal "for pioneering and sustained contributions in developing computational methods to elucidate material behavior across length and time scales (atomistic to continuum), development of the quasi-continuum method, and authorship of highly cited articles." This is highest award given by USACM. It honors individuals who have made outstanding, sustained contributions in the field of computational mechanics generally over periods representing substantial portions of their professional careers. [List of award recipients]
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Michael Ortiz
Professor Ortiz Receives Doctorate Honoris Causa from Polytechnic University of Madrid
07-19-19
Michael Ortiz, Frank and Ora Lee Marble Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, has received the highest academic distinction from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) in a ceremony chaired by its Rector, Guillermo Cisneros, accompanied by José Manuel Torralba, general director of Universities and Superior Artistic Teachings of the Community of Madrid. Professor Ortiz was recognized as one of the leaders in theoretical and computational solid mechanics. Rector Cisneros stated that the curriculum and life path of Professor Ortiz is "an example of what a true Master - teacher with capital letters - should achieve or at least maintain as a goal. " [elEconomista Coverage]
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Michael Ortiz
Richard B. Chapman Memorial Awards
07-03-18
Morgane Anne Marie Grivel advised by Professor Morteza Gharib, Kazuki Maeda advised by Professor Tim Colonius, and Jason Schlup advised by Professor Guillaume Blanquart are recipients of the 2018 Richard B. Chapman Memorial Award. Morgane's research focuses on using hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions to modify hydrodynamic flows. Jason's research utilized computational fluid dynamics to investigate the highly unstable combustion of hydrogen-air mixtures with a focus on accurate, cost-effective modeling techniques. Kazuki does research in multi-phase flow, computational fluid dynamics, and biomedical engineering. The Richard B. Chapman Memorial Award is given to an EAS graduate student in hydrodynamics who has distinguished himself or herself in research.
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Richard B. Chapman Memorial Award