Fall/Winter 2013 Vol. 4, No. 2 Published twice a year Massachusetts Institute of Technology In This Issue: Professor Emeritus Professor Gareth Course 2.678 MechEConnects Woodie Flowers McKinley co-leads teaches students breathed new life into research on fog how to build and News from the MIT the MechE way of harvesting for clean integrate electronics Department of Mechanical Engineering learning by doing... water... into their designs... | > p. 10 | | > p. 14 | | > p. 13 |

Innovation in Education: MechE Goes Online Web-based learning technologies enable students to spend classroom time on the type of hands-on >education p. 4 that is so fundamental to the MechE curriculum. MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 2

Dear Friends,

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT has been at the forefront of several educational revolutions over the decades, bringing our hallmark creativity and forward thinking to our classrooms in innovative ways. While we are most renowned for our top-notch research and interest in solving the grand challenges facing our society, our top priority has always been preparing MechE students to go forth and become inventors, innovators, and engineering leaders.

We strive to provide our students with as many meaningful hands-on learning experiences as possible, because we believe that making and doing add a crucial element to the process of learning, putting the science and math behind mechanical engineering into context and engaging students on a level that sparks true creativity and education. That is why we offer so many project-based classes (such as 2.007, 2.008, 2.009, 2.00b, 2.75, 2.78, 2.739) and why we continue to add more of them to the curriculum, such as debut classes 2.S999: Global Engineering and 2.S997: Biomimetics, Biomechanics, and Bio- Inspired Robots. It is also why we were one of the first departments at MIT to introduce online courses into our curriculum via the edX platform, starting with 2.01x: Elements of Mechanics and 2.03x: Dynamics.

Digital learning offers our students several benefits, including instant feedback and online forums, but perhaps even more importantly, it enhances the residential educational programs we offer to our on-campus students by changing the focus of class time from lectures to more meaningful hands-on education.

In this issue of MechE Connects, you will read about the innovative educational initiatives the Department has kick-started over the years, from the hands-on robotics competitions of 2.007 that Educational swept the globe to the digitization of residential courses like that of i2.002, the first concurrently run Innovation online and on-campus course at MIT. Our faculty members are award-winning educators and mentors, as well as leading researchers, and have had a big hand in these advancements as they follow their passion for superior education. Professor Sanjay Sarma is leading the online education revolution at the Institute level as the director of the Office of Digital Learning; Professor David Gossard is the first full-time professor to transform a MechE course into an MITx course; and Professor Sang-Gook Kim is teaching a course that incorporates a low-cost 3D printer developed by Associate Professor Nicholas Fang – a great example of our commitment to integrating research into the classroom.

I hope you enjoy reading about our great educational initiatives, and, as always, I thank you for your continued support of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.

Sincerely,

Gang Chen, Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering and Department Head Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Fall/Winter 2013 Vol. 4, No. 2 Published twice a year

News from the MIT MechEConnects Department of Mechanical Engineering

> mecheconnects.mit.edu

About MechE Table of Contents

4-9 Innovation in Education: MechE Goes Online to Enhance Residential Learning

Mechanical engineering was one of the 10 Alumni Spotlight: Professor Woodie Flowers (SM ‘68, MEng ‘71, PhD ‘73) original courses of study offered when classes began at the Massachusetts Institute of 11-12 Alumni Spotlight: Professor David Hu (SB ‘01, PhD ‘06) Technology in 1865. Today, the Department of 13 Course 2.678: Electronics for Mechanical Systems Mechanical Engineering (MechE) comprises 14-15 Faculty Research: Gareth McKinley seven principal research areas: 16-19 MechE Undergraduate Curriculum: Infographic • Mechanics: modeling, experimentation, 20-21 Faculty Research: Kripa Varanasi and computation 22-23 Faculty Research: Tonio Buonassisi

• Design, manufacturing, and product 24 Student Spotlight: Guangtao (Taotao) Zhang (SB ‘14) development 25-26 Student Spotlight: Spencer Wilson (SB ‘15)

• Controls, instrumentation, 27 New Faculty and robotics 28-30 Faculty Promotions

• Energy science and engineering 30-32 Department News

33 Talking Shop with Professor David Gossard • Ocean science and engineering

• Bioengineering Contact MechE Newsletter Staff

• Nano/micro science and technology Department of Mechanical Engineering Alissa Mallinson Massachusetts Institute of Technology Managing Editor 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-174 Each of these disciplines encompasses Cambridge, MA 02139 Sucharita Berger Ghosh several laboratories and academic programs Administrative Officer E-mail: [email protected] that foster modeling, analysis, computation, B. Harris Crist and experimentation. MechE educational Webmaster programs remain at the leading edge by Wing Ngan providing in-depth instruction in engineering Social Media: /mitmeche Designer principles and unparalleled opportunities for John Freidah, Candler Hobbs, students to apply their knowledge. Tony Pulsone, Bryce Vickmark, Dr. Mark Winkler, Wikipedia Photography Credit MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 4

Innovation in Education MechE Goes Online to Enhance Residential Learning by Alissa Mallinson

The online learning natural leader of the innovative mens et programs everywhere were emulating revolution isn’t the first manus way. The passion of our faculty his hands-on approach (see page 10). time that the Department of and students, both then and now, for Let’s fast forward to a more Mechanical Engineering – pushing boundaries and developing contemporary example of MechE’s nor the Institute as a whole creative solutions to the world’s problems tendency toward innovative for that matter – has been at has led to a remarkable number of educational initiatives: the the forefront of educational discoveries along the way, from the incorporation of breaking research breakthroughs. wind tunnel built by MechE student Albert Wells that launched the field into the classroom. It’s not a new From the very beginning, MIT was the of aeronautics to the artificial skin practice to bring ideas that were natural outgrowth of a different state developed by Professor Ioannis Yannas, first discovered in the lab into the of mind, one that is inextricably linked to Professor Dick Yue’s idea for the classroom after the years-long process to making, building, and doing. The OpenCourseWare program of offering of review, approval, and codification. MIT motto mens et manus (“mind and free MIT course materials online, and All important phases, of course, but hand”) was as distinctive a principle many in between. Several of our faculty there’s just one problem: Once it’s in 1865 as it is now on which to build have also been the authors of seminal complete, the discovery is no longer a new kind of higher education. At textbooks that codified the framework of cutting edge. that time, rote memorization was fundamental mechanical engineering In MechE, there are several professors considered the standard method – and principles, such as Professor Lionel swiftly incorporating cutting-edge indeed a perfectly respectable one – by Marks’ Marks’ Standard Handbook for research from their labs into the which to learn at any level. Mechanical Engineers and Professor classrooms. Professor Sang-Gook Stephen Crandall’s An Introduction to the MIT’s founder William Barton Rogers Kim’s Course 2.674: Micro/Nano Mechanics of Solids (see page 30). had a different idea. He founded MIT Engineering Lab integrates Professor to think and to do – to teach craftsmen By the time Professor Emeritus Woodie Nick Fang’s low-cost, optics-based and farmers, as well as engineers and Flowers had transformed Course 2.70 3D printer; Professor Amos Winter’s academics, to “democratize science” as (now 2.007) into the project-based, get- Course 2.S999: Global Engineering Sanjay Sarma, professor of mechanical your-hands-dirty, robotics-competition- builds upon his own inventions for engineering and director of the recently focused experience in the 1970s, emerging markets; and the foundation formed Office of Digital Learning, puts MechE’s reputation for innovation was for Professor Sangbae Kim’s Course it. And from that moment on, it’s been already solidified. Nevertheless, the 2.S997: Biomimetics, Biomechanics, in our destiny to up-end traditional magnitude of the educational revolution and Bio-Inspired Robots is his own ways of teaching and to democratize he helped to evolve was profound. By bio-inspired robotic cheetah. science and technology for the giving an identifiable context to the As the idea of online learning started betterment of all. more academic ideas behind the course gaining momentum, it was no – adding a tangible element of fun and The Department of Mechanical surprise that MIT was leading the community – he triggered a domino Engineering, the second course of charge – and, within the Institute, effect across the country and then the study to be offered at MIT, was a that MechE was an early adopter and world, and eventually engineering pioneer in bringing online learning > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 5

Innovation in Education MechE Goes Online to Enhance Residential Learning technologies to its classrooms. Online Learning: A Residential the capability for students to do their While massive open online courses Revolution homework online and receive instant (MOOC) receive a lot of press – and According to Sarma, there have been feedback on whether or not they with good reason, as they truly are two converging trends in MIT education. answered correctly, and if not, get an democratizing education by making The first is this idea of “flipping the idea of where they went wrong. learning more open and accessible classroom” – which means that instead Think about the current, standard of focusing way. “Let’s say you’re in a lecture on on reading, Monday,” explains Sarma. “As the listening, and professor, I hand out the assignment discussing on Friday, you turn it in the following during class Friday. I grade it and return it the time – what Friday after that – that’s three weeks Flowers later. That means that the time that defines as passes between your doubt and its “training” resolution is three weeks. Within – students the first day, you’ve forgotten your focus on doing doubt and it gets baked into your during class concrete understanding of the idea. time – what It’s like a crack in the foundation. And Flowers you’re building three weeks’ worth of calls “true Professor Sanjay Sarma, director of the Office of Digital Learning at MIT material on it.” education.” – it is the application of some of Outside the classroom, students read If you bring the two trends together, these technologies to residential the textbook; watch video lectures, says Sarma, it enables a powerful new learning (on campus) that is the real recitations, and virtual office hours; and twist in residential learning. revolution in higher education. The engage in online forums. They come to “The moment you have all this, you online component frees up time in class ready to cut, weld, solder, design, can legitimately flip the classroom,” class to focus on the type of hands-on build, make, touch, smell, do. For MIT he continues. “Students have to prove education that is so fundamental to mechanical engineers, who have a they understood the material and the MechE curriculum. tendency to happily get their hands dirty, get instant feedback. If they didn’t this flip works perfectly. “There’s nothing more satisfying for understand something, the professor a professor than to achieve his or her The other trend according to Sarma is knows what they didn’t understand. ultimate goal,” says Sarma, “which the technical advancement of automatic And lecture time can now focus on is to transfer information to students tutors at MIT. Automatic tutors are like those few unclear ideas, and the efficiently, in a stress-free, fun way and simple video games in which you can remaining time can be focused on equip them to go become rock stars. answer questions digitally and know hands-on activities.” And as it turns out, it’s also a lot of fun immediately if you got them right. Collecting data about what and for the professors too.” MIT pioneered both the idea and the how the students understand and technology, refining it over the past learn empowers educators to make 20 years to the point where it has now informed teaching decisions and evolved into a sophisticated tool. It offers assess what topics need additional MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 6

attention and which topics are being the form of MOOCs, allowing anyone in Professor Gossard, along with two belabored, and ultimately use teaching the world with an Internet connection graduate students and five UROPs, time much more efficiently. All of to take a high-quality course. With the spent the summer of 2013 encoding which is to say that the students have nonprofit organization edX leading the all of 2.03’s non-lecture materials, learned better. charge, thousands of people from all such as problem sets, solutions, and over the world can take the same course exams, on the edX platform. The from a long list of excellent universities, online problem set materials were also “There’s nothing colleges, and institutes that partner with used by residential students during more satisfying edX. the regular fall offering of 2.03, so they benefitted from the instant feedback MechE was one of the first departments for a professor as well. than transferring at MIT to offer an “x” course via MITx, the internal organization that develops Another benefit of MOOCs is the ability information in a actual MIT courses for the edX platform to scale, a direct result of the edX fun and efficient (a technology platform that hosts an platform, which enables indexed video advanced system of MOOCs, developed lectures, e-textbooks, automatic and way.” by an MIT professor of computer instantaneous homework submission science, Anant Agarwal). Course 2.01x: and feedback, video recitations, and -Professor Sanjay Sarma Elements of Structure was offered virtual office hours. Since each of this past in spring 2013, taught by those features is web-based, they only Senior Lecturer and Principal Socrate. It is an online version of 2.01, have to be produced once before Research Scientist Simona Socrate, the introductory-level solid mechanics they are able to accommodate almost who this past spring taught the first class in the department’s flexible 2-A an infinite number of students and MechE course to be offered on the program. achieve an unprecedented global edX platform, says, “Because the reach. Both 2.01x and 2.03x had online students were so diverse and approximately 10,000 registrants, outspoken, it helped us understand a and in the case of 2.01x, about 10% lot of things about the ways we teach of them finished the entire course (at the course to residential students. the time of this writing, results from When you have so many students, 2.03x weren’t available). About 140 there is a statistical value to what students achieved a perfect score; confuses people, and it helps you approximately 250 of them received figure out how to present things better a 95% or better; and more than 850 Professor Dave Gossard records weekly for everybody.” virtual office hours. earned a certificate of completion, which requires the student to earn a Democratizing Higher Education This past fall, MechE offered its second 52% or better overall. with MOOCs MITx course on the edX platform At the same time that residential – 2.03x: Dynamics. The 6-unit, half- “It was amazing,” says Socrate. “For learning is being turned upside down semester course is an online version online students, this is totally based by the unfolding of these enabling of Course 2.03, the introductory-level on their own motivation. A lot of the technologies, those same technologies dynamics class taught by Professor students could barely wait for the new rebundled allow the indiscriminate, David Gossard as part of the 2-A lectures to post and were really excited global spread of higher education in mechanical engineering curriculum. to do the problem sets – and many > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 7

of them are doing other things at the received a grant and hired a video editor, same time like working and raising Brandon Muramatsu, from the Office of children. The level of enthusiasm, Educational Innovation and Technology); commitment, and love for this class finding a way for students to turn in from all walks of life was totally problem sets (they gave them portable unexpected.” scanners), take exams (they proctored them using video conferencing Online and On-Campus Blend: software), and ask questions (they offered i2.002 office hours via Skype and developed Before MITx and edX were even an online student forum); and making announced, previous Department sure the students were still learning all Head Mary Boyce and Associate Head the material at a level equivalent to those Gareth McKinley asked Professors Ken A model of MIT’s dome built by students in 2.674 using sitting in the classroom (they found that Kamrin and Pedro Reis to conduct Professor Fang’s low-cost 3D printer. the distance students in year 1 performed an educational experiment in online the tree all the way back to the most consistently with their respective teaching. They asked them to take basic concepts and see how it built previous performance and slightly better the Department of Mechanical up that way. In addition to searching than those students taking the course Engineering’s fundamental Course by topic alone, you can also just click simultaneously on-campus.) 2.002 on mechanics and transform through the tree.” it into something that residential But along the way they also asked how Lab-to-Board Learning students could take online and on they could build upon their solution, Just as MechE has been at the campus simultaneously. It became the a question that led them to develop a forefront of online training and first concurrently run online course at portal for their video lectures, allowing hands-on education, the Department MIT. students to search by topic as well as has also been leading the pack in their relationship to other topics. In “We were tasked with devising a “lab-to-board” learning. It is one essence, an indexed video textbook. way for MIT students who are off- of the first mechanical engineering campus, whether for a study abroad or programs to swiftly incorporate its otherwise, to take an MIT course, and research discoveries and innovations we had to come up with a solution,” into the classroom. says Professor Reis. “We went about Professor Nick Fang’s simple this very much like we would go about and low-cost 3D printer is a doing research. We had an unknown great example. As a professor of and were trying to solve a new mechanical engineering at the problem. And when you do that, there University of Illinois at Urbana are often solutions available that you Champaign teaching manufacturing, weren’t expecting. We realized halfway Fang realized that the 3D printer through the first offering that it would his research group was working on be a very useful tool for residential A screen shot of Reis and Kamrin’s indexed video would be a great way to illustrate students as well.” textbook. some of the fabrication concepts It’s now two years later and the he was teaching his students. It is “The class follows a tree-like structure,” experiment has gone well beyond the now a major element of Professor says Professor Kamrin, “where ideas original scope. Professors Reis and Sang-Gook Kim’s Course 2.674, for grow off other ideas, which grow other Kamrin did solve the problem, of which he’s converted what Fang’s ideas, and so on. So we devised a way course, figuring out how to videotape group built in the lab – a desktop that students could follow along through and edit the lecture very quickly (they micro fabrication system – into an MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 8

educational module that the students engineering: product design for The design requirements are not use as an in-class fabrication platform. developing markets, taught by Professor laid out clearly so just the process of Amos Winter, whose own research in the ascertaining them is tricky.” The system is quite simple, consisting area is the cornerstone of the class; and only of a digital projector, digital Throughout the course of a semester, bio-inspired robotics, taught by Professor slides, a micro elevator, a magnifying students work together with Sangbae Kim, itself inspired by his own glass, a beaker, and some chemicals. teammates and companies to identify robotic cheetah. In both cases, the new Compared to a commercial 3D printer, what Winter calls “the technological courses are the first of their kind in which requires about $20,000 to keystone” of a product – the crux engineering education. maintain manually, Fang’s printer of a successful emerging market costs about $300 annually for Winter, principal inventor of the design. They move on to the design replacement lamps. It works by Leveraged Freedom Chair and prototyping phases, presenting digitally projecting images of cross- (http://www.gogrit.org/lfc.html), their final product at the end of the section layers of an object via slides, is teaching Course 2.S999: Global semester. One example from this one at a time, through a magnifying Engineering, a design course that past semester was a team that worked glass and into a beaker of polymer. partners graduate students with with Mahindra Tractors to redesign During the darkness between each organizations that are developing new an engine platform that reduced slide, the elevator moves the beaker or updated products specifically for sound vibration. down at a preset distance to begin emerging markets. fabricating the next layer until the “One of the graded elements of the object is complete. The students spend course is how the student teams time programming the elevator and demonstrate their ability to collaborate experimenting with different polymers with partner companies and exchange and colors. The class attracts students information,” says Winter. “Each team has interested in robotics, optics, and to meet with their partner organization chemistry. on a regular basis, which often involves

According to the course’s technical Skype calls to India. These companies Students of 2.S999 work on their drip irrigation instructor, Dr. Benita Comeau, already have a lot of insight on the pumping prototype. stakeholders and can help teach the “The addition of a 3D printer from students about that aspect of their “Most product design texts and Professor Fang’s research group to the design.” classes are focused on Western 2.674 lab class was a great example markets because that’s where of how we update the course to keep Global Engineering builds on the industry has focused their efforts it exciting and relevant. The students abundance of machine design and throughout the past 50 years. But are very interested to work with a product design courses in the MechE that’s changing because there is an stereolithographic 3D printer. They curriculum, focusing on the convergence enormous number of middle-class not only have fun building the tiny between them. It combines engineering customers in developing markets models, they also gain a much better rigor and theory with the contextual that weren’t there previously, and understanding of patterning materials understanding of market dynamics, they’re buying things. By and large, with light, which is fundamental to end user dynamics, and the design companies in this country don’t sell engineering at the micro/nano scale.” requirements of emerging markets. to them, and that’s a failure.” This past fall, MechE also debuted “I’m putting a very different spin on Unlike engineering for developing two new project-based courses on it,” says Winter. “Students have to think markets, biomechanics is not a new emerging topics in mechanical about how to design for a consumer focus for mechanical engineers, but who’s completely different from them. Assistant Professor Sangbae Kim’s > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 9

research takes a unique approach by hour lab gives them time to test their and enthusiasm. As we watch combining it with robotic engineering. hypothesis using an inexpensive robotics this maker movement gather kit provided by Kim, whose own current momentum and mass, we think “We’re not looking to copy anything research on a robotic cheetah (http:// about how many of its roots took in the animal,” he says. “There’s a biomimetics.mit.edu:8100/wordpress) hold in MechE classrooms and how very interesting inspiration exchange lays the groundwork for the portable kit: strong those roots still are today. For between biology and robotics a miniature cheetah that the students can MIT mechanical engineers, it’s just engineering…We look at an animal in build and program in less than a month. another day of doing what they love. the world and see what it can do in a robot, and then we test those ideas with “Looking at an animal,” says Kim, “only robots in ways we could not test on an an abstract principle can be taken and animal. Biology gives us new ideas for applied to a robotic system. So how do engineering, and engineering fuels we learn from that?” new questions for biologists. In the end, MechE’s early adoption and “That’s what I want my students to development of disruptive educational be able to experience: to learn from innovations ultimately serves to animals and test ideas using robotics strengthen its dedication to our students that biologists are unable to test.” and the ability to offer them meaningful hands-on experiences. We often refer The students he’s referring to are to our most popular hands-on courses upper-level undergraduates and first- – such as Professor David Wallace’s year graduates in the new Course renowned capstone Course 2.009: 2.S997: Biomimetics, Biomechanics, Product Engineering Processes and the and Bio-Inspired Robots. The goal of ever-influential Course 2.007: Design the course is to present basic principles and Manufacturing I, which just this of biomimetics and robotics, and to year was passed from Professor Dan Meet the MechE Maker Czar: develop students’ abilities to combine Frey’s hands to those of Winter and Kim. Professor Martin L. the two into a creative design. But there is also a long list of hands-on Culpepper classes that often go unsung, such as Professor Culpepper received his PhD Professor Warren Seering and Sloan in mechanical engineering from MIT, School of Management Professor Steven then became a professor here in 2001. Eppinger’s graduate Course 2.739: He has received several awards since Product Design and Development, which then, including the R&D 100 Award teams mechanical engineering students for his HexFlex—a structure used for up with designers from the Rhode Island very fine positioning— the Ruth and School of Design and business students Joel Spira Award for Distinguished from the Sloan School of Management to Teaching, and the TR100 award for produce market-ready prototypes. top young innovators. He is a fellow of ASME, and a member of the American At the same time, there has been a A 2.S997 student showcases his bio-inspired Society for Precision Engineering and robotic ocelet at a final presentation. renewed interest in building and making the European Society for Precision that’s sweeping across the globe and Through a major hands-on robot- Engineering and Nanotechnology. transforming mechanical engineering building project, students explore Most recently, he was named Maker into an activity that people everywhere the ways that animals can inspire a Czar of MechE, overseeing builder are tuning into with incredible spirit higher-performance robot. The three- space for the department. MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 10

Alumni Spotlight: Professor Woodie Flowers SM ‘68, MEng ‘71, PhD ‘73 by Alissa Mallinson

For Professor Emeritus “But that is partially why I think about Flowers developed one of the first Woodie Flowers (SM education in a particular way. I just didn’t hands-on courses with 2.007, turning ’68, MEng ’71, PhD ’73), know any better than to work really hard, it into a project-based experience engineering is all about and I was too stubborn to accept that for undergraduate students that having fun. But it wasn’t the sub-optimal learning methods I saw culminated in an end-of-semester always that way. couldn’t be fixed, and so I followed my robotics competition. It placed robots own convictions about that.” – each built by a singular student As a high school student from a poor using a universal kit of tools and His convictions led him to become a family, Flowers unexpectedly received a components – head to head during major force in the transformation of scholarship to college. an event that quickly became one mechanical engineering education. of the most highly attended at the “I was planning to get a job in the oil Having been advised by MechE Institute. He also helped to evolve field and buy a Corvette. But then I professor Robert Mann, who had similar a spin-off robotics competition for found out in the last part of my senior beliefs in a hands-on, modern pedagogy, high school students with Segway year that I could go to college. I was Flowers breathed new life into the MIT inventor Dean Kamen called The not prepared for that, so I knew I had way of learning engineering by doing, a FIRST Robotics Competition. It is one to work hard. And I worked hard, reinvigoration at the right place and the of many competitions that imitated and it turned out well. And for my right time that ultimately had a butterfly Flowers’ original idea. whole professional career I’ve felt effect on the popularity of STEM appropriately insecure about being (science, technology, engineering, and His father, Abe, who Flowers surrounded by people who were more math) around the world. describes as “a terrible businessman capable than me. (continued on page 12) > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 11

Alumni Spotlight: Professor David Hu SB ‘01, PhD ‘06 by Alissa Mallinson

Have you ever wondered how of its speed. But when it hits something to teach kids about science and flying insects survive in the as lightweight as a mosquito, the engineering. rain? raindrop actually moves with the mosquito so that it loses only about 5% Professor Larson is the co-founder With a weight about 50 times that of its original speed and applies very and principal investigator of the of a mosquito, a raindrop has a little force on the mosquito. MIT BLOSSOMS Initiative (our own considerable force in comparison, Professor Dan Frey is a co-principal similar in ratio to a Volkswagen Beetle “There’s a lot of interest in this because investigator). BLOSSOMS is a series falling on a human being. So why there are a lot of people who can of free interactive video modules don’t insects get crushed by rain? build really small devices now,” says taught by “guest teachers” meant to supplement This is a question that David Hu a high school (SB ’01, PhD ‘06), a professor teacher’s of mechanical engineering and standard biology at Georgia Institute of curriculum. Technology, asked himself a few Each video is summers ago as he sat on his designed for porch watching a rainstorm. viewing in brief segments, It wasn’t an unusual question allowing the for Professor Hu to be asking. A in-class teacher 2-A student as an undergrad in to engage the MechE, he got hooked on fluid students in an mechanics after taking a course active, goal- with Professor Gareth McKinley. oriented exercise “I always wanted ways to teach between people fluid mechanics – and I segments. (To think there is no better way to see an MIT learn fluid mechanics than to mix it Professor Hu. “Studying how insects BLOSSOMS video in action, watch with some biology. Zoos, zoo animals, work in these dangerous environments teacher John Bookston’s statistics zoology – they have no problems is becoming more important because class at Arlington High School attracting crowds from all sorts of ages we can actually build things to emulate in Arlington, Mass: http://bit. and disciplines. It’s just fun.” what insects do.” ly/1ajDsk6) He discovered that the force of When Richard Larson – the Mitsui Professor Larson invited Professor raindrops on insects is greatly Professor of Engineering Systems and Hu to record himself teaching his influenced by their respective mass, Director of the Center for Engineering mosquito-in-the-rain research for based on the concept of conservation Systems Fundamentals at MIT – read high school students. He thought it of momentum. When a raindrop hits a Professor Hu’s article in the New York would be a great way of achieving the dragonfly, the dragonfly is so massive Times about how mosquitos fly through multi-state Next Generation Science that there is a high impact force that raindrops, he recognized its potential causes the raindrop to lose about 98% (continued on next page ) MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 12

(Hu, continued from previous page) (Flowers, continued from page 10) Standards (NGSS), which requires but a very interesting and creative guy,” an interdisciplinary approach to high was also a huge influence on Flowers’ school education. vision for engineering education. He was a welder, repairman, and self-made “It’s not easy to boil down university inventor who taught Flowers not only research to a high-school level,” says how to be creative and productive with Professor Hu, “but the question of his hands but also that through the how mosquitos fly in the rain is a success of building something you great problem because it makes people didn’t think possible, you can transform think about mechanics and surfaces. yourself. It also teaches kids to think about the importance of scale. It combines some “I learned from my father that doing experience. Knowledge is of course biology with some math, and some things in a different way was often essential, Flowers says, because engineering with a bit of robotics. If a fruitful, and the underpinnings of all my uninformed imagination can be mosquito gets hit by a raindrop, it really educational efforts is to allow people a quite dangerous, but at the same is a very different thing than if you or path to change their self-image. Students time, “nobody is getting hired to a car gets hit by a raindrop. As we have might have struggled with equations solve the multiple-choice problems shown in the video, raindrops don’t and other rigorous elements of an MIT at the end of the chapter.” break when they hit mosquitoes. The education, but in 2.007 they could be “I think you have to just jump in two just fall together. All of these things superstars.” and do it […],” he continues. “For combine, and I think it’s just great for The creativity that both MechE and example, I hated math all my life [high school] students.” Flowers are known for is proportionate until I took Calculus in conjunction BLOSSOMS isn’t the first time to their dedication to hands-on with some engineering courses. Professor Hu has worked on a project education. The ability to devise creative Then all of a sudden, I got it. It meant geared toward students. In fact, as a solutions and think outside the box something to me because I had matter of course he does one every as you’re making and building shows spent a lot of time bending metal couple of years. Two years prior to students that good engineers need to with a hammer, so the math had his mosquito video, he did a video on be creative too and then gives them that context. the frequencies dog shake at to dry. “If you experience an idea and then He filmed 35 different animals and “Nobody is getting go back and learn the abstraction, discovered what he and his grad student the abstraction makes sense. But if coined “the wet-dog shake rule” – the hired to solve you do the opposite, it doesn’t work frequency at which animals need to the multiple- so well because there’s no context shake to dry. It was such an interesting yet.” question that their findings were choice problems featured on “Good Morning America.” at the end of the Watch Professor Hu’s MIT BLOSSOMS chapter.” video: http://bit.ly/KEnB5Q. -Professor Emeritus Woodie Flowers > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 13

Course 2.678: Electronics for Mechanical Systems Hands-On Electronics for Mechanical Engineers by Alissa Mallinson

If you had to pick one word “The field of mechatronics – the use microcontrollers, and interface to describe the Department integration of electronics into mechanical Arduino with mechanical systems. of Mechanical Engineering engineering – has been a creeping “I don’t think you can teach curriculum, you’d be hard- idea for many, many years now,” says electronics out of a book,” says pressed to choose anything Professor Rowell. “It has broadened Professor Rowell. “It’s important to other than “hands-on.” significantly and is necessary for burn your fingers when you burn out mechanical engineers to understand The department boasts numerous resistors, to learn to solder, and to in order to integrate all these new well-known project-based classes such learn what physical components look technologies into mechanical design.” as 2.007, 2.008, and feel like.” 2.009, 2.00b, The course, 2.72, 2.75, 2.737, which is now and 2.739. required for the Most of them department’s are focused on customizable product design Course 2-A and development, program as you would and may be expect, but there required for are others that are all mechanical focusing on the engineering interface between students in mechanical 2.678 students gather around an obstacle course where they release the autonomous robotic cars the future, is a they’ve built as part of their final project. engineering and other 6-unit course engineering fields. offered each In typical MechE fashion, 2.678 semester to about 80 students. One of them is Professor Derek Rowell’s emphasizes learning by doing, with It comes at a very useful time in 2.678: Electronics for Mechanical weekly labs that are the cornerstone the undergraduate curriculum, Systems, which focuses on giving of the course. Each lab is structured helping to prepare students for undergraduates experience and around a particular project that utilizes Course 2.671: Measurement and familiarity with integrating electronics the concepts presented during the Instrumentation and Course 2.007: into their designs of systems and week’s lecture; for example, students Design and Manufacturing I, which products. The course was created build a digital scale to learn how to use utilize control systems and micro three years ago in response to an operational amplifiers for electronic controllers, respectively. The ability to Undergraduate Office student survey processing and an audio amplifier prepare students for these courses in that reported a significant interest in to learn about how transistors work. advance could mean that they study learning electronics as mechanical They also learn how to drive a motor at more advanced material during the engineers. different speeds going both forward and semester. backward, how to do power conversions, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 14

Faculty Research: Gareth McKinley How to Get Fresh Water Out of Thin Air

By David Chandler, MIT News Office

In some of this planet’s driest regions, where rainfall is rare or even nonexistent, a few specialized plants and insects have devised ingenious strategies to provide themselves with the water necessary for life: They pull it right out of the air, from fog that drifts in from warm oceans nearby.

Now researchers at MIT, working in collaboration with colleagues in Chile, are seeking to mimic that trick on a much larger scale, potentially supplying significant quantities of clean, potable water in places where there are few alternatives.

Fog harvesting, as the technique is known, is not a new idea: Systems to make use of this airborne potable water already exist in at least 17 nations.

But the new research shows that their Fog-harvesting systems generally tend to have filaments and holes that efficiency in a mild fog condition consist of a vertical mesh, sort of are much too large. As a result, they can be improved by at least fivefold, like an oversized tennis net. Key may extract only about 2 percent of the making them far more feasible and to efficient harvesting of the tiny water available in a mild fog condition, practical than existing versions. airborne droplets of fog are three whereas the new research shows that basic parameters, the researchers a finer mesh could extract 10 percent The new findings have just been found: the size of the filaments in or more, Park says. Multiple nets published online by the journal those nets, the size of the holes deployed one behind another could Langmuir, a publication of the between those filaments, and the then extract even more, if so desired. American Chemical Society, in a coating applied to the filaments. paper by MIT postdoc Kyoo-Chul Park While some of the organisms that (PhD ’13), MIT alumnus Shreerang Most existing systems turn out harvest fog do so using solid surfaces Chhatre (PhD ’13), graduate student to be far from optimal, Park says. – such as the carapace of the Namib Siddarth Srinivasan, chemical Made of woven polyolefin mesh beetle, native to the Namib desert of engineering professor Robert – a kind of plastic that is easily southern Africa – permeable mesh Cohen, and mechanical engineering available and inexpensive – they structures are much more effective professor Gareth McKinley. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 21

Similarly, the veins of nasturtium leaves, unlike those of most leaves, are on top, where they serve to break up droplets that land there. The MIT researchers found that drops bounced off both butterfly wings and nasturtium leaves faster than they bounced off lotus leaves, which are often considered the “gold standard” of nonwetting surfaces.

Varanasi points out that creating the needed surface textures is actually very simple: The ridges can be produced by ordinary milling tools, such as on the surface of an aluminum plate, making the process scalable to industrial levels. Such textures could also be created on fabric surfaces, he says, as a potential ideas might be applied in the replacement for existing waterproof future.” coatings whose safety has been called droplets, especially if they are into question by the Environmental In addition to waterproofing and acidic or contain contaminants, Protection Agency. prevention of surface icing, the contribute to degradation. technique could have applications Howard Stone, a professor in other areas, Varanasi says. For The research received support of mechanical and aerospace example, the turbine blades in from the Defense Advanced engineering at Princeton University electric power plants become less Research Projects Agency, who was not involved in this work, efficient if water builds up on their the MIT Energy Initiative, the says, “This paper provides new ideas surfaces. “If you can make the National Science Foundation, and and new insights for how a surface blades stay dry longer, you get a the MIT-Deshpande Center for texture can reduce the contact time bump up in efficiency,” he says. Technological Innovation. of a bouncing drop. … It will be The new technique could also interesting to see possible ways these reduce corrosion on surfaces where

Find out more > Read the full MIT News article: http://bit.ly/1aMscs3 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 22

Faculty Research: Tonio Buonassisi Making Silicon Devices Responsive to Infrared Light

By David Chandler, MIT News Office

Researchers have tried a variety of such methods have significant The approach works by implanting methods to develop detectors that negative effects on silicon’s gold into the top hundred are responsive to a broad range of electrical performance; only nanometers of silicon and then infrared light – which could form work at very low temperatures; using a laser to melt the surface imaging arrays for security systems, or only make silicon responsive for a few nanoseconds. The silicon or solar cells that harness a broader to a very narrow band of infrared atoms recrystallize into a near-perfect range of sunlight’s energy – but these wavelengths. lattice, and the gold atoms don’t have methods have all faced limitations. time to escape before getting trapped Now, a new system developed by in the lattice. researchers at five institutions, including MIT, could eliminate many In fact, the material contains about of those limitations. 1 percent gold, an amount more than 100 times greater than silicon’s The new approach is described in a solubility limit: Normally, this is paper published in the journal Nature as if one put more sugar into a Communications by MIT graduate cup of coffee than the liquid could student Jonathan Mailoa, associate absorb, leading to accumulation of professor of mechanical engineering sugar at the bottom of the cup. But Tonio Buonassisi, and 11 others. under certain conditions, materials can exceed their normal solubility Silicon, which forms the basis of limits, creating what’s called a most semiconductor and solar-cell supersaturated solution. In this case, technology, normally lets most the new processing method produces

infrared light pass right through. Professor Tonio Buonassisi a layer of silicon supersaturated with This is because the material’s gold atoms. bandgap – a fundamental electronic The new system works at room property – requires an energy level temperature and provides a broad “It’s still a silicon crystal, but it has greater than that carried by photons infrared response, Buonassisi an enormous amount of gold near of infrared light. “Silicon usually has says. It incorporates atoms of gold the surface,” Buonassisi says. While very little interaction with infrared into the surface of silicon’s crystal others have tried similar methods light,” Buonassisi says. structure in a way that maintains with materials other than gold, the the material’s original structure. MIT team’s work is the first clear Various treatments of silicon can Additionally, it has the advantage demonstration that the technique can mitigate this behavior, usually by of using silicon, a common work with gold as the added material, creating a waveguide with structural semiconductor that is relatively he says. defects or doping it with certain other low-cost, easy to process, and elements. The problem is that most abundant. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 23

A laser beam is used in the lab to test the gold-hyperdoped sample of silicon to confirm its infrared-sensitive properties.

“It’s a big milestone, it shows you prohibited. “It’s one of the most The research was funded by the can do this,” Mailoa says. “This is dangerous impurities in silicon,” U.S. Army Research Office, the especially attractive because we can he says. National Science Foundation, show broadband infrared response the U.S. Department of Energy, in silicon at room temperature.” But at the very high concentrations and the MIT-KFUPM Center for While this is early-stage work, for achieved by laser doping, Clean Water and Energy, a joint some specialized purposes – such Buonassisi says, gold can have a project of MIT and the King as a system for adjusting infrared net positive optoelectronic impact Fahd University of Petroleum laser alignment – it might be useful when infrared light shines on the and Mining. relatively quickly. device.

This use of gold was a surprise: While this approach might lead Usually gold is incompatible to infrared imaging systems, with anything involving silicon, Buonassisi says, its efficiency is Buonassisi says. Even the tiniest probably too low for use in silicon particle of it can destroy the solar cells. However, this laser usefulness of a silicon microchip processing method might be – so much so that in many chip- applicable to different materials manufacturing facilities, the that would be useful for making wearing of gold jewelry is strictly solar cells, he says.

Find out more > Read the full MIT News article: http://bit.ly/L5gX8W MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 24

Student Spotlight Guangtao (Taotao) Zhang (Candidate SB ’14) by Alissa Mallinson

Six years ago, Guangtao (Taotao) Zhang had just moved to the US from China during her junior year of high school, and she didn’t speak a word of English.

Now, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering at MIT, she is preparing to graduate and begin a new job at Apple as an iPad product design engineer.

The path she took to get from A to B wasn’t the most direct one, nor did it all go as planned, but it was undoubtedly a series of challenges overcome. For someone with such distaste for uncertainty, Zhang started considering something else. My MIT Media Lab (watch a video at embraced change and opportunity with thought process has always been that if http://tangible.media.mit.edu/ grace and excitement every step of the you don’t try to reach higher, then you project/inform), and on the running way. will never reach anything higher.” dynamics of Professor Sangbae Kim’s robotic cheetah. Professor Douglas Her first major obstacle was learning a She decided to apply to MIT as a transfer Hart asked her to lead this semester’s new language. It hindered her college student, instead of graduating almost Course 2.013: Engineering System application process, but she took it with two years early. She was accepted and Design, and Apple offered her a stride. She started her college career started MIT as a sophomore, starting over coveted internship – and eventually at Clarkson University with two years for the third time in almost as many years. a full-time job – to work on product of college credit already under her belt design. as a result of the AP classes she took in With several new and intimidating high school. But three semesters in, she challenges in front of her, Taotao did “Most of my experience has been in felt unengaged with her schoolwork what many people would not: She individual-based courses or in small and confused about what do to next. flourished. Not only did she keep her groups. But leading Course 2.013 is She took a semester off to figure things head above water, but she also earned forcing me to learn how to live with out, working at GE Transportation in the excellent grades; reignited the ASME some uncertainties and be able to meantime. student chapter at MIT – which now has delegate. It’s been uncomfortable for almost 200 members; and conducted me, but I think it will be a valuable “I felt like I wasn’t being challenged high-level research, working on the lesson.” and wasn’t growing or improving mechanical aspects of a pin matrix myself,” explains Taotao. “That’s why I apparatus for rigid 3D surfaces at the Although Taotao is still interested in attending graduate school to > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 25

Student Spotlight Spencer Wilson (Candidate SB ’15)

by Alissa Mallinson earn a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, she couldn’t pass up spending a few years at Apple first. “I wasn’t planning on spending this past summer doing an internship,” says Taotao. “I thought I would spend my junior summer conducting research, but I serendipitously ended up at an Apple info session last year, and before I knew it, they were setting me up for technical interviews and offering me an internship. All of my coursework has focused on control and robots, but my internship was focused on product design. It ended up completely diverging my path, but it worked out.” It is not unusual for some engineer’s goldmine. His house In the little free time she has after all her undergraduate students to start was in a constant state of flux and other obligations are fulfilled, Taotao the famously hands-on Course renovation, and his father taught him relaxes with Chinese dance as part of 2 program in mechanical how to use several tools that were the MIT Asian Dance Team, picking up engineering at MIT with little none-so-unfamiliar by the time he saw where she left off almost 10 years ago as machine experience. them in lab as an undergraduate in a young girl in China. Well, at least some MechE. things haven’t changed. But not Spencer Wilson (candidate SB ’15). When he arrived at the steps of 77 “I’m taking a manufacturing class VIDEO: http://bit.ly/1ayHPo6 Massachusetts Avenue in September right now, and the topics in the book of 2011, he already had well formed are things my grandfather taught me calluses on his hands. in simple terms when I was a kid,” “Leading Course says Wilson. “It’s interesting to see it Growing up in rural South Georgia, now from a scientific point of view….I 2.013 is forcing Wilson lived with his mother and feel like a lot of people discredit me to live with father on a plot of land that was the learning those ideas formally, but some uncertainty aggregate of three separate properties, MIT does a really good job of taking one of which had previously housed something that’s typically informal and be able to a fully functioning air conditioning and imparting it through formal delegate.” factory. Wilson’s father is an architect training, taking something that’s often and woodworker, his mother is a small learned through apprenticeship and business owner, and his backyard – turning it into a class. Courses 2.007 -Taotao Zhang which contained copious amounts of and 2.008 (Design and Manufacturing scrap metal and various piles of other I and II) are both great examples.” scraps and parts – was a budding (continued on next page) MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 26

(Wilson, continued from previous page)

Although he has little free time “There was always something to do,” Wilson says, “I would love to do these days, dedicating most of it says Wilson, “I was always occupied. a project along the lines of what to his studies, as a high school I was focused on school and doing Professor Amos Winter did with student Wilson spent a lot of his projects on the side. If I thought his Leveraged Freedom Chair (see time building science fair projects, of something I wanted to do, my page 8). I love the idea of building helping his father renovate the parents said, ‘OK, we have some huge something that’s perfect in the US house, and restoring a Volkswagen aluminum triangles in the backyard but that I know is going to break bus. One of his science projects that you can use as the frame.’ And I when I get it in the context of a was building a refrigerator that is would just build it.” developing community, and to be cooled with heat; another was the able to deal with that and fix it. That’s These days, Wilson is still building on development of an inflatable chair pure mechanical engineering.” those projects. For his senior thesis, insert to help seniors or pregnant he’s working at MIT’s Center for Bits women rise out of their seat. and Atoms, focusing on machine design and fabrication projects.

Student Snapshots > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 27

New Faculty

John Hart, Associate Professor During his six years at the University of Michigan, Associate Professor John Hart established a leading research group focused on creating new manufacturing technologies Mathias Kolle, Assistant Professor Themis Sapsis, American Bureau for micro- and nanostructured Assistant Professor Mathias Kolle of Shipping Career Development materials and devices, and for their earned his PhD in physics at the Assistant Professor assemblage and integration at larger Cavendish Laboratories at Cambridge Assistant Professor Themis Sapsis scales. Most notably, his research University in 2010, followed by graduated from the National group made signature innovations work as a postdoctoral researcher at Technical University of Athens where toward the scalable manufacturing Harvard University in the School of he earned his diploma in naval of materials incorporating aligned Engineering and Applied Sciences. architecture and marine engineering carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Their His past research was focused on in 2005. He began his graduate groundbreaking understanding of the manufacture of novel photonic studies at MIT in 2006, earning how CNTs can be manipulated into structures, optical instrumentation his PhD in mechanical engineering 3D shapes by capillary forces led to the and modeling, biological light in 2010 under the supervision of invention of the “capillary forming” manipulation strategies, and material Professors Pierre Lermusiaux and process, which enables robust and science. In his current research he George Haller. Professor Sapsis’s repeatable assembly of CNTs for use explores biological photonic systems research is in the areas of stochastic in electronics and micromechanical and the engineering and application dynamics with applications to the devices and as a platform for the of bio-inspired dynamic photonic general area of ocean engineering, engineering of robust textured surfaces materials. His scientific background and including uncertainty quantification and high-performance interfaces. interests include bioimaging, optical of engineering flows, probabilistic Working with both graduate and sensing technologies, nanophotonics, prediction of extreme events in undergraduate students, Professor photovoltaics, x-ray nanotomography, nonlinear waves, passive protection Hart also led the realization of several and plasmonic materials. Professor configurations for mechanical systems, new award-winning machines and Kolle’s dissertation was published in and energy harvesting from ambient instruments. His work has been the Springer series “Springer Theses: vibrations. As an MIT student, he was recognized by two R&D 100 Awards; Recognizing Outstanding PhD named the George and Marie Vergottis a CAREER Award from the NSF; research.” He has also received the MIT Presidential Fellow. Professor and Young Investigator Awards from dissertation prize from the German Sapsis has also received the European DARPA, the Air Force, and the Navy. Physical Society for the best PhD in the Union’s Marie Curie Fellowship twice, field of condensed matter (2010) and and he received the Best Paper Award the Salje Medal of Clare Hall College, for Young Scientists at the Chaotic Cambridge, for the best PhD in the Modeling and Simulation Conference sciences. in 2009. MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 28

Faculty Promotions

Martin Culpepper, Full Professor principles and truly embody the Insti- systems for locomotion, and their Professor tute’s mens et manus motto. Further- application to the emergent field of Martin Culpep- more, he has brought this approach to “soft robotics.” A unique mixture per is a widely industry through a series of profes- of experimental work, numerical respected lead- sional education courses directly simulation, and theoretical ing authority impacting the practice of precision analysis characterizes her work, in the field of machine design. Professor Culpep- and it combines elements of both precision en- per has a long history of service to his engineering design and mathematical gineering. His profession and to MIT. He has played optimization. Her work is widely research focuses on the design, fabrica- an active leadership role in shaping known and internationally respected tion, and testing of high-performance the Laboratory for Manufacturing by physicists, biologists, roboticists, machine systems that make, manipu- and Productivity, and currently serves and applied mathematicians, as well late, or measure parts and features at as Graduate Admissions Officer in as engineers, and is used to guide length-scales and/or precision levels Mechanical Engineering. Profes- the engineering design of robotic not previously possible or practical. sor Culpepper has been recognized swimmers, crawlers, burrowers, Research from his group has produced with several awards, including the and other mechanisms. She is landmark achievements in precision prestigious NSF PECASE award and also an exceptional and innovative machine systems while also laying a R&D 100 Awards. Most recently, he teacher, an inspiring mentor, and foundation for both academicians and was named a Fellow of the American an outstanding communicator of practicing designers, providing new Society of Mechanical Engineers, as science in general. Her pedagogical tools to enable design of next-generation well as Maker Czar overseeing builder contributions have spanned several precision systems. Professor Culpep- space for the department. core disciplines in our undergraduate per’s HexFlex Nanopositioner is widely program as well as our graduate considered a signature achievement in Anette Hosoi, Full Professor program. She has been awarded both the design and fabrication of small-scale, Professor the Junior Bose and Bose Award for multi-degree-of-freedom positioning Anette “Peko” her teaching excellence in the School systems. His research group developed Hosoi’s of Engineering; she was elected a a foundational framework, considered research MacVicar Fellow; and most recently by many to be a breakthrough in the contributions she won our Department’s coveted field, for the design of multi-degree-of- lie at the Den Hartog Award for Teaching freedom systems: the FACT (Freedom juncture Excellence. She is extremely active and Constraint Topology) framework of nonlinear hydrodynamics, in service to the Department as rigorously accounts for the freedom microfluidics, and bio-inspired Undergraduate Officer and Associate and constraint space of the desired design. She is a world leader in Head of Education, to the Institute motion and provides families of design the study of the hydrodynamics through the Lincoln Labs Campus topologies that will achieve the required of thin fluid films and in the Interaction Committee, and to the degrees of motion. Professor Culpepper nonlinear physical interaction of professional community at large as is also widely respected for his com- viscous fluids and deformable an elected member of the American mitment to education and mentoring interfaces. A common theme in Physical Society (APS) Division of of students. His courses at MIT chal- her work is the fundamental study Fluid Dynamics (DFD) executive lenge students in the rigorous design of of shape, kinematic and rheological committee and more recently as chair machine elements based on engineering optimization of biological fluid of the APS DFD Media & Science > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 29

relations committee. Professor Hosoi mechanistic-based insights to construct is a member of the Defense Science design principles and discover new Maria Yang, Associate Professor Study Group and was recently elected to oxides with catalytic performance one Associate Fellowship in APS. order of magnitude greater than the Professor current state-of-the-art. This discovery Maria Yang is Yang Shao-Horn, Full Professor is considered both profound and an emerging Professor Yang practical – profound for its grounding leader in early Shao-Horn is in deep mechanistic understanding stage design. widely recognized that can guide the field, and practical In the field as a world-leading for its potential to replace precious of engineering design, early stage authority in metal catalysts with more cost-efficient conceptual design plays a dominant electrochemical oxides. Professor Shao-Horn is also role in determining the functional energy storage recognized for her excellence in the performance as well as the and conversion. mentoring of students and postdocs. manufacturing cost of the final product. Her research addresses a grand Her ability to motivate, inspire, and It is during early stage design that the challenge in electrochemical energy – nurture emerging researchers early vision of a product is born. Historically, the identification and design of catalysts on in their careers is much admired. design process research has led to with enhanced activity levels that will She is now utilizing these talents to the development of numerous tools, yield high-energy and efficient energy spearhead professional development from CAD to robust design methods, storage and conversion to enable cost- activities for our graduate students. providing the ability to optimize final effective renewable energy. Professor Her multidisciplinary course on designs. However, understanding the Shao-Horn and her group probe and electrochemistry has attracted students factors and developing methods to guide unravel the underlying molecular-level from across the School and the Institute and enhance the more ambiguous, yet mechanisms of electrocatalytic reactions as well as from other universities. highly impactful, human-centric aspects and the impact of these mechanisms Professor Shao-Horn has published of early stage design are just beginning on device performance. Her group over 130 archival journal papers with to be addressed from a fundamental is recognized for deep, fundamental more than 5,000 citations at MIT. perspective. Professor Yang’s research contributions across a range of major She is also a leader in her profession, focuses on how informal design challenges in electrochemical energy, serving on the advisory board of representations (sketches, physical including breakthroughs in lithium-ion leading journals in energy science and prototypes, models, discussions) drive batteries, lithium-air batteries, PEM fuel physical chemistry, and initiating new early stage design and influence the way cells, and solid oxide fuel cells. Professor conference symposia on this rapidly a design team engages in the process of Shao-Horn is admired for the creativity, expanding field. She is a highly sought- design. These informal representations innovation, vision, and leadership that out speaker and has been recognized are inherently part of the “language she brings to the field and is also widely by her professional community with of design” with which engineers respected for her scholarly depth and the Charles Tobias Young Investigator generate ideas, communicate early precision. Most recently, her research Award from the Electrochemical Society, concepts, and select designs for final has resulted in landmark achievements the Tajima Prize from the International optimization. Professor Yang’s research in understanding the fundamental Society of Electrochemistry and, most has identified the important aspects of atomic-level mechanisms governing recently, the 2013 Research Award by sketching (timing, quantity, frequency, the catalytic activity of transition the International Battery Materials engineering detail, quality) that govern metal oxides. She has utilized these Association. successful design outcomes as well as

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Department News (continued from previous page) the level and form of sketch refinement Remembering Professor elected to the American Academy needed for effective customer feedback, Emeritus Stephen Crandall of Arts and Sciences, the National in contrast to that needed for idea Academy of Sciences, the National Stephen H. Academy of Engineering, and the generation. Her work has also identified Crandall, the Russian Academy of Engineering. key attributes of physical prototyping Ford Professor The Acoustical Society of America that result in successful design of Engineering awarded him the Trent-Crede Medal outcomes, where simplified prototypes Emeritus at in 1978, and the American Society that build on one another early on MIT, a pioneer of Civil Engineers awarded him both correlate with better design outcomes, in random the Theodore von Karman Medal, in but premature detailed prototyping is vibrations and 1984, and the Freudenthal Medal, rotordynamics, not as effective. Success in this field in 1996. ASME awarded Crandall and a leader in transforming has the potential to be transformative the Worcester Reed Warner Medal mechanics into an engineering and to yield more effective and efficient in 1971; the Timoshenko Medal in science, passed away Oct. 29, in design processes for greater innovation 1990; the Den Hartog Award in Needham, Mass. He was 92 years old. in product development. Professor 1991; and the Thomas K. Caughey Yang is recognized for her abilities to Dynamics Award in 2009. He was After earning his PhD in mathematics educate and inspire the next generation inducted as an honorary ASME from MIT in 1946, Crandall member in 1988. of design engineers, educators, and transferred to the Department of researchers through her work in the Mechanical Engineering. There, he A memorial service will be held at the classroom and through numerous was appointed to assistant professor MIT Chapel on Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, project-based design workshops. She of mechanical engineering in 1947, at 3 p.m., followed by a reception at has been recognized with an NSF associate professor in 1951, then to the Hart Nautical Gallery. If you are CAREER Award, the MIT Murman professor in 1958. He was named unable to attend, but would like to Award for Undergraduate Advising, Ford Professor of Engineering in send a story or photograph to share 1975, and an emeritus professor in and a best paper award at the 2013 at the service, please email MechE 1991. While at MIT, Crandall led ASME Design Theory and Methodology Faculty Affairs Administrator Marion the transformation of mechanics Conference. She was recently named a Gross ([email protected]). into an engineering science, acting fellow of the ASME. as editor of three groundbreaking In lieu of flowers, gifts in memory of texts: “Random Vibrations” (1958), Stephen H. Crandall may be made to “An Introduction to the Mechanics MIT to support the Crandall Language of Solids” (1959), and “Dynamics of Fund, which purchases instructional Mechanical and Electromechanical material for students, or the Crandall Systems” (1968). He was a pioneer of Fund for Study in Mechanics, which random vibrations research, offering supports graduate students in the first academic course on the mechanical engineering. subject in 1958, and subsequently directing MIT’s Acoustics and Please make checks payable to MIT Vibration Laboratory for 33 years. He and note the account: Language published a total of eight books and Fund (2162200) or Fund for Study in 160 technical papers. Mechanics (2175900). Checks may be mailed to: Bonny Kellermann, Director Crandall’s professional contributions of Memorial Gifts, Massachusetts have been widely recognized. He was > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 31

Institute of Technology, 600 Memorial campus. It offers students flexible reacts with water,” says Nicholas Drive, W98-500, Cambridge, MA space, with an abundance of tools for Pulsone, a senior staff member 02139. Gifts may also be made by building and prototyping, including of Lincoln Laboratory (LL) and LL credit card. Please indicate that standard wood/machine shop tools, advisor to Hart’s 2.013/4. your gift is in memory of Stephen H. 3D printers, laser cutters, and heavy Crandall. machine tools, as well as modular “The Beaver Works Center is the work benches that can wheel in and perfect environment for bringing Beaver Works Center for out of rooms as needed. together students and faculty from Hands-On Education MIT along with engineers from Several Beaver Works projects – Lincoln Laboratory and Woods Hole The Lincoln Lab Beaver Works many of which are major elements Oceanographic Institution to work Center – a newly renovated, 5,000 of capstone courses – have already on this type of exciting project.” square-foot facility comprised of been completed, such as self- multiple research areas, classrooms, deployed RC aircrafts designed and From Grabbing Water to and a prototyping lab – opened this built by students in Course 2.007 Cleansing Palates – fall to support project-based research and unmanned underwater vehicle and education in the School of Professor Pedro Reis (UUV) propulsion systems, designed Engineering. The facility is ideally and prototyped in Professor Doug suited for students in MechE taking Hart’s year-long 2.013/4 sequence. hands-on courses, pursuing UROP research, or performing graduate “About three years ago we challenged activities that overlap MIT Lincoln Professor Doug Hart and students Laboratory, a joint partner in the in MechE to develop an energy venture with broad interests in source for underwater systems that advanced systems and technology. increases endurance by tenfold. The The center is located at 300 result is a novel method that exploits Technology Square in Kendall Professor Pedro Reis’s team has the energy released when aluminum Square, on the edge of the MIT developed a floral pipette based on the behavior of certain water lilies, which float at the surface of ponds or lakes while anchored to the floor. As water rises, hydrostatic forces act to close a lily’s petals, preventing water from flooding in. Taking the water lily as inspiration, Professor Reis designed an upside- down flower that does the opposite, grabbing water as it’s pulled up, thereby reversing the role of gravity.

Reis and John Bush, professor of applied mathematics at MIT, calculated the optimal petal size for capturing a small sip of liquid, such as a palate cleanser, then used MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering 32

a 3D printer to form molds of the clinicians and therapists better or temperature front, utilizing flower, each of which is about 35 understand the physical limitations similar communication and millimeters wide – about the size of caused by strokes and other motor control techniques and additionally a small dandelion. “By pulling this disorders. leveraging ocean model forecasts. out of liquid, you get something that -Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office seals shut and looks like a cherry. Good and Bad Bacteria – Touch it to your lips, and it releases Mission TULip – Professor Professor Cullen Buie its fluid,” Bush says. The pipette Franz Hover is now being used by renowned Professor Franz Hover and Spanish chef Jose Andres. graduate student Brooks Reed -Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office have demonstrated a multi-vehicle marine robotic system to track and Anklebot – Professor Neville pursue agile underwater targets Hogan such as sharks. The vehicles measure range to the target and The ankle – the crucial juncture collaborate to jointly estimate the between the leg and the foot – is an target’s position and drive to stay in anatomical jumble, and its role in formation relative to it. For wireless There are good bacteria and there maintaining stability and motion underwater communication, are bad bacteria – and sometimes has not been well characterized. acoustics are the only technology both coexist within the same species. Professor Neville Hogan and suitable for distances more than However, determining whether his colleagues in the Newman 100 meters, but they suffer a bacterium is harmful typically Laboratory for Biomechanics from extremely low bit rates and requires growing cultures from and Human Rehabilitation have frequent packet loss. Despite samples of saliva or blood – a time- developed a way to measure the these severe communication intensive laboratory procedure. stiffness of the ankle in various Professor Cullen Buie and his directions using a robot called the research group have developed a new “Anklebot.” The robot is mounted microfluidic device that could speed to a knee brace and connected the monitoring of bacterial infections to a custom-designed shoe. As a associated with cystic fibrosis and person moves his ankle, the robot other diseases. The new microfluidic moves the foot along a programmed chip is etched with tiny channels, trajectory, in different directions each resembling an elongated within the ankle’s normal range hourglass with a pinched midsection. of motion. Electrodes record the Researchers injected bacteria angular displacement and torque at constraints, Hover and Reed’s through one end of each channel, the joint, which researchers use to experimental results demonstrate and observed how cells travel from calculate the ankle’s stiffness. From that aggressive dynamic tracking one end to the other. From their their experiments with healthy and pursuit is possible underwater, experiments, the researchers found volunteers, the researchers found and they quantify some of the that their device is able to distinguish that the ankle is strongest when tradeoffs involved in designing benign cells from those that are moving up and down, as if pressing such a system. They also hope to better able to form biofilms. on a gas pedal. The joint is weaker extend these methods to include -Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office when tilting from side to side, and the tracking of dynamic ocean weakest when turning inward. The features like a flowing oil spill findings, Hogan notes, may help > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Fall/Winter 2013 33

Talking Shop with David Gossard

Professor Gossard has always had a But my MITx class has more than strong interest in education, and that 9,000 registered students. tendency has directed a lot of his The second is instant feedback. When attention throughout the decades you turn in a problem set, TAs and as a MechE professor. He was one faculty members do their best to give of the first MechE faculty members MIT students some feedback, but of to teach an MITx course on the edX necessity it’s delayed by at least a week platform (last spring, senior lecturer in time. This platform gives them and principal research scientist instant feedback. Not only does it tell Simona Socrates taught 2.01x). His them when they’re wrong, but it also fundamental dynamics course, 2.03x, gives them hints as to why. And that debuted on edX this past October. feedback is infinitely scalable. Professor David Gossard (PhD What inspired you to be one of the first ’75) has been a faculty member How does the element of scale affect the professors to teach an MITx course on the of the Department of Mechanical quality? edX platform? Engineering since he earned You can ask questions online in a his PhD here in 1975, having A very large fraction of my discussion forum, and these forums previously earned his bachelor’s professional life has been focused are monitored by TAs, but there is an and master’s degrees in mechanical on education. I care a lot about aggregating process. You can’t respond engineering from Purdue teaching and how kids learn, and to 1,000 or 10,000 emails. But you University. He began his tenure the edX platform is a computer- can have TAs read dozens of emails in the design and manufacturing based technology that appeals to my and extract common questions. One group and has remained there ever nature. I’m intrinsically interested of the things we did was experiment since, but he has also been very in education in general and online with virtual office hours where interested in computer science and education in particular. It is the wave those questions get extracted and its intersection with mechanical of the future, and I would rather be a aggregated. Then a single professor engineering. His research activities part of it than watch it go by from the creates a video response to the most included solid modeling and sidelines. popular questions, and that response computational geometry, and when Looking at this through the eyes of a does scale. Is it the same as you sitting the computer-aided design (CAD) dedicated educator of almost 40 years, across the table from me? No. But industry was in its infancy, his why are MITx courses so beneficial to to me the questions is: “How do you former students John Hirschtick students? use technology that is at your disposal and Bob Zuffante founded to address questions of scale in SolidWorks, whose software for There are several things. One is that education?” To me, that is what this is desktop 3D solid modeling became there is a powerful element of scale to all about. It’s a big work in progress. an industry leader. this. The MIT classes I teach are about 100 to 150 students each, and to date everything has been done on paper. Non-Profit Org. Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S. Postage Department of Mechanical Engineering PAID 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-173 Brockton, MA Cambridge, MA 02139 Permit No. 301

Coming in the > Ocean Engineering next issue:

Professor Sanjay Sarma, director of the Office of Digital Learning (left), stands next to Professor Gareth McKinley and Assistant Professor Amos Winter (right) in front of Ferrari’s pits at the Formula 1 US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, this past November.