News & Events

10-28-08

Popular Mechanics honored a group of Caltech alumni at its annual Breakthrough Awards ceremony on October 15. Rudy Roy ('07), Ben Sexson ('07), and Daniel Oliver ('07), along with Art Center alum Charles Pyott, received the magazine's Next Generation Award for establishing the nonprofit organization Intelligent Mobility International (IMI). IMI's mission is to empower people with disabilities in developing countries by designing and producing safe, affordable wheelchairs made for the rugged terrain of rural communities. The project originated in 2006, in a Caltech class called Product Design for the Developing World, which is taught each fall by Visiting Professor of Mechanical Engineering Ken Pickar.

Tags: honors MedE health MCE Popular Mechanics alumni Ken Pickar

09-09-08

The European Association of Structural Dynamics (EASD) has awarded the 2008 EASD Senior Research Prize in the area of computational structural mechanics to James Beck, Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, for his outstanding novel contributions to computational procedures in assessing uncertainty propagation and reliability of large structural systems under dynamic excitation.

Tags: honors MCE James Beck

08-19-08

Julia Greer, Assistant Professor of Materials Science, has been recognized by Technology Review magazine as one of the world's top innovators underthe age of 35 for her work with materials on a nanoscale level. Selected from more than 300 nominees by a panel of expert judges and the editorial staff of Technology Review, the TR35 is an elite group of accomplished young innovators who exemplify the spirit of innovation. [Caltech Press Release]

Tags: APhMS honors MCE Julia Greer

03-17-08

Mechanical engineering graduate student Nathalie Vriend has been selected to receive an Outstanding Student Paper Award for her presentation at the 2007 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Her presentation, A Mystery Unraveled: Booming Sand Dunes was recognized as among the best of a strong group of student presenters.

Tags: honors MCE

03-04-08

Christopher Brennen, the Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering, delivered the plenary opening lecture at the Twelfth International Symposium on Transport Phenomena and Dynamics of Rotating Machinery in February. After, he was awarded the organization's ISROMAC Award in recognition of "his outstanding research contributions in the area of cavitation and hydrodynamics in rotating machinery."

Tags: honors MCE Christopher Brennen

01-03-08

Michael Ortiz, Dotty and Dick Hayman Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, has won the first Rodney Hill Prize in Solid Mechanics! [Press Release]

Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Michael Ortiz

06-01-07

Ares Rosakis has received the 2007 D. R. Harting Award, from the Society of Experimental Mechanics (SEM) for the "Best Paper" published in Experimental Techniques. The title of the paper is "Supershear and Sub-Rayleigh to Supershear Transition Observed in Laboratory Earthquake Experiments". Rosakis and his co-authors, Dr. Kaiwan Xia and Professor Hiroo Kanamori received this award in June 2007 at the SEM Annual Conference, Springfield, MA.

Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Ares Rosakis D. R. Harting Award