DIMENSIONSVolume No. 28 | Issue No. 1 Fall 2020 Letter From the Chair Publication Credits Dear alumni and friends, Published by the Department of While we may be doing this differently this year, I Mechanical Engineering, College of am pleased to tell you that all of our education and Engineering, 2043 Black Engineering research programs are still marching forward. Building, 2529 Union Drive, Iowa State Some highlights in this issue include: University, Ames, IA 50011-2030 Website: www.me.iastate.edu An overview of the efforts the department is taking to ensure the safety Email: [email protected] and wellbeing of our students while also maintaining the high-quality of Phone: 515.294.1423 engineering education for which Iowa State University is known, Iowa State University does not ME student Katie Lyon interned with Tesla over the summer, discriminate on the basis of race, and she hopes to use this experience to engineer cars of the color, age, ethnicity, religion, national future when she completes her studies at Iowa State, origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, ME student Kathryn Hining has been named the ME Outstanding Senior for Fall gender identity, genetic information, 2020. Not only is she accomplished in the classroom but she also participates sex, marital status, disability, or in intramural sports and enjoys listening to the Beatles in her free time, status as a U.S. veteran. Inquiries ME student Sebastien Mueller, with the help of folks in the Boyd Lab, can be directed to the Office of Equal has designed a unique bicycle that he has dubbed “the Dahu,” Opportunity and Compliance, 3280 Beardshear Hall, (515) 294-7612. ME professor Shankar Subramaniam is involved with a research project that uses computer simulations to improve clean energy generation, On the cover ME associate professor Travis Sippel has teamed up with Soheila Shabaniverki, a Ph.D. candidate researchers at the University of Iowa on a Department of Defense- in mechanical engineering, examines a funded project which examines energetic materials, ferrofluid-infused polydimethylsiloxane A pair of Cyclone brothers, one of whom is an ME alum, have launched (PDMS) actuator. The ferrofluid their own company: Jensen Applied Sciences. The duo, who also actuator was developed as part of happen to be movie buffs, were inspired by Batman’s ingenuity, a joint research project between Jaime J. Juárez, assistant professor ME alum Sarah Walter’s career has taken her everywhere of mechanical engineering, and Juan from Canada to Germany after she left Ames, Ren, William and Virginia Binger ME alum Tina Akinyi wants to make college more accessible Assistant Professor in Mechanical for students from disenfranchised backgrounds. Engineering. Their research looked at This semester has been a challenge because of COVID-19, but we have applied using 3D printing to create channels our problem solving skills to create a safe environment in our classrooms and filled with ferrofluid inside PDMS. laboratories. I hope you will enjoy reading about some of the efforts of our department This allows the PDMS structure to and alums, to combat this deadly outbreak. I am extremely proud of the hard work serve as a magnetically sensitive of our students, faculty and staff as they have transitioned to learning, teaching actuator. Their findings were recently and working in new ways, including in-person, virtual or a mix of the two. accepted for publication in 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing. Our alumni are vital to the growth and success of mechanical engineering and industry in the U.S. and abroad. I enjoy hearing about your accomplishments and encourage you to reach out and share your story. I can be contacted at [email protected]. Front cover photo by Nick Fetty Regards, Back cover photo by Caroline Hayes Caroline Hayes Mechanical Engineering Department Chair 2 ME | 2020 Lynn Gleason Professor of Interdisciplinary Engineering Department Honors Students Faculty and Staff Lusi A, Graduate Student Mark Bryden, Professor Research Excellence Award, Presented by ISU Graduate College ISU Alumni Association Faculty-Staff Inspiration Award Jessica Brown, Graduate Student Jim Heise, Professor of Practice 1st place in the graduate research poster Advanced to Professor of Practice competition at the TCS 2020 conference Ming-Chen Hsu, Associate Professor Ava Depping, Undergraduate Student Early Achievement in Research Award, Spring 2021 undergraduate merit scholarship, Awarded by ISU College of Engineering presented by Iowa Space Grant Consortium Aliza MacKenzie, Academic Adviser Parinaz Hafezisefat, Graduate Student Early Achievement in Advising Award, Teaching Excellence Award, Presented by ISU Graduate College Awarded by ISU College of Engineering Kathryn Hining, Undergraduate Student Reza Montazami, Associate Professor Fall 2020 Outstanding Senior, Presented Named Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry; Award by ISU College of Engineering of Excellence from the ISU Student Government (for Sai Katamreddy, Graduate Student development and use of Online Educational Resources-OER) Teaching Excellence Award, Presented by ISU Graduate College Cary Pint, Charles Schafer (Battelle) Chair in Engineering Lionel Ouedraogo, Graduate Student Global Top 100 Visionary in Education from Global Forum 2020 Educational Foundation Scholarship Award, for Education and Learning; R&D 100 Award in the Presented by the International Society of Automation Materials/Mechanical category by R&D World Magazine (for SkyNano LLC); Named Charles Schafer (Battelle) Kshama Parate, Graduate Student Chair in Engineering by ISU College of Engineering Research Excellence Award, Presented by ISU Graduate College Soumik Sarkar, Associate Professor Roy Pillers, Graduate Student Named Walter W. Wilson Faculty Fellow in Named the 2020 FED Prof. Kirti Ghia Scholar Engineering by ISU College of Engineering ME graduate student earns 2020 Educational Foundation Scholarship Award Lionel Ouedraogo, mechanical potential to contribute to the automation, a mother and engineering graduate student, instrumentation and systems field. her fetus in earned the 2020 Educational The scholarship helps fund Ouedraogo’s the placenta Foundation Scholarship Award. tuition and related expenses for research and how the “It is with great honor and joy that I and other initiatives. Additionally, students cells react to received this award. It showed me that are granted a one-year complimentary these changes all the effort and time I put in the work student membership to ISA. and I am also I do pays. Receiving this award meant working on Currently, Ouedraogo is working automating the that between all the candidates that as a graduate student in the Nicole applied to this award my contributions data collection Hashemi lab to improve an organ-on- system that we to the automation, instrumentation, a-chip system developed in their lab. and systems field stood out and made have in place Hashemi is an associate professor for the chip.” a great impact,” Ouedraogo said. of mechanical engineering. Contributed by Martha Haas/ The scholarship is awarded by the Ouedraogo said, “I am developing a new Engineering College Relations International Society of Automation sensor that will help quantify and qualify (ISA) for a student’s outstanding the exchanges that take place between 3 Driven by a passion to engineer vehicles of the future From fuel-efficient snowmobile engines Lyon said she has taken concepts and to the electric motors in the Tesla principles from the ME curriculum and Model Y, mechanical engineering applied it to her work at Tesla. Specifically, student Katie Lyon has a passion for she has used statics, physics and materials environmentally friendly vehicles. engineering to ensure a design would Lyon grew up in Burnsville, Minnesota and as be able to withstand the forces to which a child loved playing with Legos, Lincoln Logs it would be subjected. Additionally, she and other toys that allowed her to combine said her knowledge of 3D modeling using her creativity with her analytic skills. She SolidWorks, which she learned in her further developed her interest in STEM in freshman engineering design course, high school and said she was intrigued by was helpful during her internship. the possibility of using science and math Paola Pittoni, an ME associate professor principles to solve complex problems. of teaching who taught Lyon’s freshmen For college, Lyon knew she wanted to engineering design course, has been attend a large university that would one of Lyon’s strongest mentors during provide many opportunities both her time at Iowa State, and also one inside and outside of engineering. of the first female engineering faculty members she has studied under. “I wanted to meet people from all Lyon different majors and backgrounds while also being able to “She has always been extremely helpful and supportive tailor my engineering experience to my passions,” she said. throughout my time here and inspires me to be as passionate and deliberate of a person and engineer as her,” Lyon said. She chose mechanical engineering (ME) as her major because at the time she was not sure what industry she would pursue, so she In her free time, Lyon enjoys spending time outdoors, felt ME provided her some career flexibility while also allowing particularly going on walks and hikes. She also enjoys her to pursue her passion of working on “things that move.” cooking and baking, and is currently obsessed with French When she got to Iowa State, she continued to pursue this