News & Events

05-22-23

Guruswami (Ravi) Ravichandran, John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, receives the 2023 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Timoshenko Medal "for pioneering contributions to the mechanics of engineering materials and biological systems, especially in extreme mechanical environments." Established in 1957, the Timoshenko Medal recognizes distinguished contributions to the field of applied mechanics. 

Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Guruswami Ravichandran

05-12-23

Kaila Coimbra, a fourth-year undergraduate in mechanical engineering with a minor in aerospace engineering, has been awarded the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship for graduate studies at Stanford University. The scholarship, which funds students for up to three years of study in any of Stanford's graduate programs, is awarded to applicants who embody visionary leadership and dedication to social good within their fields. [Caltech story]

Tags: honors MCE Kaila Coimbra

05-03-23

On Wednesday, May 10, at 7:30 p.m. PDT in Beckman Auditorium on the Caltech campus, Chiara Daraio, the G. Bradford Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, will continue the 100th anniversary season of the Earnest C. Watson Lecture Series with "Making Wearable Materials Smarter."

Advances in materials science, manufacturing, and computer science have enabled transformative innovations in wearable materials, with designs that can monitor metabolic activity, change stiffness on command, and even interpret our mood. These new materials will allow garments and fashion to bring together the physical and digital worlds. In this lecture, Daraio will show examples of how these materials will help us stay healthy, how they will revolutionize the way we communicate, and how they will adaptively support our everyday needs. [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS Chiara Daraio MCE watson lecture

04-25-23

Inspired by the mechanics of a phase of matter called liquid crystals, researchers have developed the first three-dimensional model of a layer of cells and the extrusion behavior that emerges from their physical interactions. From this new model, the team discovered that the more a cell is squeezed by its neighbors in a particular symmetric way, the more likely it is to get extruded from the group. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights GALCIT MCE Jose Andrade Guruswami Ravichandran

04-11-23

Launching its first project since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Caltech's chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is now designing an improved water supply system for Tandacato, a rural village of about 2,100 people located near Cotopaxi, an active volcano in Ecuador. [Caltech story]

Tags: Sravani Boggaram Riya Shrivastava

03-22-23

EAS faculty from multiple departments are on project teams that have received an award from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Multidisciplinary University Initiative (MURI) Program. 

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Tags: APhMS honors GALCIT MCE CMS ESE Tapio Schneider Tim Colonius Kaushik Bhattacharya Andrew Stuart Aaron Ames Animashree Anandkumar H. Jane Bae

03-16-23

As with many of Caltech's time-honored traditions, the annual ME72 Engineering Design Competition pushes students to the limits of possibility. Unlike other Caltech traditions, ME72 involves ball-launching, self-driving, all-terrain robots—which occasionally burst into flames. [Caltech story]

Tags: MCE ME72 Michael Mello

01-30-23

Izzy Ragheb, an undergraduate studying Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has been selected for the prestigious Brooke Owens Fellowship. The Brooke Owens Fellowship is a nationally-acclaimed nonprofit program recognizing exceptional undergraduate women and gender minorities with space and aviation internships, senior mentorship, and a lifelong professional network. As part of her fellowship, Ragheb will intern with Amazon Prime Air this summer. 

Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Izzy Ragheb

01-03-23

In January 2023, the Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) is poised to launch into orbit a prototype, dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD), which will test several key components of an ambitious plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth. [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS EE GALCIT Harry Atwater Ali Hajimiri Sergio Pellegrino SSPP

12-12-22

Caltech’s annual Distinguished Alumni Awards recognize “a particular achievement of noteworthy value, a series of such achievements, or a career of noteworthy accomplishment.” The 2022 luminaries include Sudhir Jain (MS ’80, PhD ’83, Civil Engineering), India’s preeminent earthquake engineer, who helped improve his country’s seismic codes; and Kam-Yin Lau (BS ’78, MS ’78, PhD ’81, Electrical Engineering), an electrical engineer whose work ushered in the era of broadband cable and wireless internet. [Caltech Magazine Story]

Tags: EE honors MCE alumni kam-yin lau sudhir jain distinguished alumni