Mechanical Engineering MomentumMomentumSpring 2018 Women in engineering A Women's History Month salute On the cover: Professor Corina Sandu at 6 years old, ready for her first day of school ever in her school uniform and with a leather briefcase. Connect on social News notes 6 M.E. athletes winning big 10 Undergrads take ethics competition 11 HEVT alumna Sara Lepley 39 About Alumni - Alicia Williams 41 DONATE Contents Vol 3.1 Spring 2018 12 15 Alumnus creates ME Chair A life of service Alumnus Nicholas Des Champs ('62 Ever since entering their wedding and '67) and his wife, Rebecca, have reception to the strains of "Enter endowed the Nicholas and Rebecca Sandman" Damien and Krystal Mc- Des Champs Chair in Mechanical Cants have kept in touch and in- Engineering. volved with Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech does not discriminate against employees, students, or applicants on the basis of age, color, disabil- ity, gender, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. Anyone having questions concerning discrimination or accessibility should contact the Office of Equity and Acess. Professor Azim Eskandarian - ME Department Head RosaireMOME BusheyNTUM - CommunicationsSPRING 2018 PAGE Manager 2 Contact us: 540-231-2965 email [email protected] 16 Cover Story Tamara Guimaraes Bucalo, a graduate student from Brazil, will receive her PhD in Spring 2018 and take a post-doctoral position in Germany. "Engineering is already hard," Tamara says, without the additional difficulties of people who say women can't do things, or aren't smart, or good enough. Finding the right role models, she said, was essential for her suc- cess. Women are leading the way in the department with '62 alumna Mary "Prim" Jones (left, a retired executive director of engineering at Aerojet) and '00 and '03 Hokie Angela Scribben (right, a research engineer with the USAF Research Lab- oratory at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio) taking an active role in the department's Ad- visory Board, and by being mentors and role models to MOaspiringMENTUM femaleSPRING engineers.2018 PAGE 3 From the Dept Head Azim Eskandarian Alum drives success forward with departmental chair We can never say enough thanks to our about their experiences in being a suc- supportive Alumni. I am very pleased cessful woman in mechanical engineering. and honored to report a new $2 million They share their stories of engineering endowed professorship entitled, the education and life in industry and aca- Nicholas and Rebecca Des Champs Chair demia. While the good news is we are in Mechanical Engineering. In 1962 doing better in inclusivity, there is so much Nicholas Des Champs earned a bachelor's work yet to be done, and our department is degree in mechanical engineering from taking every step to create an all inclusive Virginia Tech. In 1967 he was one of two and collegial environment for all. members of the first class of PhD students Finally, there is some very sad news I in ME. This year he and his wife, Rebecca have to report. In January we received the have continued their legacy of support to news no one wants to hear. George Munn, the university by endowing the department who recently joined our ME Advisory with this chair position. Board, passed away Jan. 21, 2018. In his To Nick and Becky and all the members time with the board, George became a of the Des Champs family, I want to vocal member and advocate for the depart- express my immense appreciation. Their ment and its students. In addition to his gift will ensure future generations of career in engineering, George served 11 students continue to have access to the years in the U.S. Army Reserves as a Civil highest quality training and education and Affairs Specialist. He most recently worked create new and exciting opportunities for as vice president for the Georgia-Pacific research and discovery. Corporation's Dixie Manufacturing Oper- ations. I hope you will join me in sending In this issue we also talk to some of our your thoughts and prayers to the Munn female faculty and students to learn more family. MOMENTUM SPRING 2018 PAGE 4 briefly Six Assistant Professor Zhiting Tian has recently received both the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, and an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award. Her NSF project deals with thermal modeling of hierarchical structures spanning the nano-, meso-, and macro-scales. Her ONR research will help enable the design of ultralow thermal interface resistance for efficient cooling of electronics. Read more at VTNews. Assistant Professor Xiaoyu “Rayne” Zheng, has been awarded an early-career award Assistant Professor Diana Bairaktarova of from the U.S. Air Force Office engineering education (PI) and Associate Pro- of Scientific Research for his fessor Scott Huxtable of mechanical engineer- work developing ultralight, ing (co-PI) were recently awarded $338,798 to super-elastic and flexible inor- examine the impact of mechanical objects in ganic metamaterials for future students' learning of thermodynamics-related flight structures. engineering problems. Read more at VTNews. George R. Goodson Profes- Performance in Power Plants, sor Ranga Pitchumani has been will enhance heat transfer awarded more than $900,000 and could lead to new, indus- by the Department of Energy trially scalable and low-cost and other sources to improve fabrication. thermoelectric power plant Major gains in system ef- performance through novel ficiency, plant performance, surface designs. energy savings, and reduced The proposed work, emissions could result from Novel PatternedMOMENTUM SurfacesSPRING 2018 the durable PAGE 5 super-hydrophobic for Improved Condenser surfaces proposed in the plan. In Memoriam: George Munn Jr. George Munn Jr., a member of the Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board, died Jan. 21. George received his BSME from Virginia Tech. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves for 11 years, and was the vice president of Georgia-Pacific Corpora- tion Dixie Manufacturing Operations. George was a supporter of the United Way of Greater Atlanta, and the National Society of Black Engineers, as well as an avid traveler. George's full obituary can be found here. in mechanical engineering, spent two weeks in India as a Fulbright Specialist to Amrita University. news Batra receives grants, publications Romesh Batra received two grants recently, totaling more than $900,000. notes "Modeling Impact Performance of Compos- Behkam, Nain in Pennsylvania, Toronto ite Laminates with Ceramic Back Plates" is a Associate Professor Bahareh US Army grant worth more than $781,000; Behkam gave invited seminars and "Material Models for Fiber-Reinforced to the mechanical engineering Structures" is a private company grant of department of Carnegie Mellon $134,000. University in December, and she provided the Mechanical and Behkam Batra was listed as an author on the follow- Industrial Engineering Distin- ing publications in 2018: guished Seminar at the University of Toronto "An immersed boundary formulation for in January. simulating high-speed compressible viscous flows with moving solids" Journal of Compu- Batra in India tational Physics 354 (2018). Romesh Batra, the Clifton C. "Analytical solution for cylindrical bending Garvin Professor of two-layered corrugated and webcore in Biomedical sandwich panels" Thin-Walled Structures 123 Engineering and (2018). Mechanics and an "Characterizing fracture performance and affiliate professor the interaction of propagating cracks with MOMENTUM SPRING 2018 PAGE 6 locally weakened interfaces in adhesive joints" Tian in Nano Letters International Journal of Adhesion and Adhe- Assistant Professor Zhiting Tian sives 82 (2018). was published in Nano Letters in December. "Significantly High Ben-Tzvi talks, service Thermal Rectification in an Associate Professor Pinhas Asymmetric Polymer Molecule Tian Ben-Tzvi will give a research Driven by Diffusive versus Ballis- presentation at the Jet Propulsion tic Transport" is available by clicking the link. Laboratory at the California Insti- tute of Technology in March. His Ben-Tzvi Williams webinar, publications talk will be on "Novel Field Robots Associate Professor Chris Wil- and Robotic Exoskeletons: Design, Integration liams, John R. Jones III Faculty and Applications." Fellow, hosted a TA Instruments Ben-Tzvi also provided the keynote lecture webinar with Tim Long, director at the 2018 International Conference on of the Virginia Tech Macromole- Williams Mechatronics Systems and Control Engineer- cules Interfaces Institute, "Design- ing in February. His address was on "Recent ing New Materials for Additive Trends on Modeling and Integration of Novel Manufacturing: Vat Photopolymerization." Field Robots and Robotic Exoskeletons and Williams was also an author on: "Insights Their Applications." into the mechanical properties of several triply Ben-Tzvi was recently selected as Associate periodic minimal surface lattice structures Editor of the IEEE Robotics and Automation made by polymer additive manufacturing" Magazine; and associate editor for the IEEE Polymer; and "Model analysis of feedstock be- Robotics and Automation Society's conference havior in fused filament fabrication: Enabling editorial board for the 2018 International rapid materials screening" Polymer. Conference on Robotics and Automation. Acar in Florida and AIAA Journal Along with doctoral students Anil Kumar, Assistant Professor Pinar Acar Wael Saab, and Hailin Ren, Ben-Tzvi pre- has two journal