Engineering Science and Mechanics News

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College of Engineering welcomed 25 faculty members last year

3/27/2025

The Penn State College of Engineering has added 25 faculty members since February 2024. The four tenure-line faculty and 21 professional track faculty represent 10 units and departments.

Faculty workshop on leveraging intellectual property to be held April 2

3/24/2025

The Penn State College of Engineering’s Office of Corporate and Industry Engagement invites engineering faculty to I-CONNECT: Intellectual Property and Innovation. The event will take place virtually and on campus at 504 Engineering Collaborative Research and Education Building (ECoRE) from 12:30 – 2 p.m. ET on April 2.

Media mention: ‘Researchers take a new look at passive ways to cool buildings’

3/3/2025

Penn State engineering science and mechanics research was featured in an article recently published to Yahoo Finance. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Evan Pugh University Professor and Charles G. Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, discusses the development of a porous plastic sheet that can be used as a wall and roof liner to passively reduce indoor room temperature.

Penn State professors explore partnership opportunities in Kazakhstan

2/26/2025

In November of 2024, two professors from the Penn State College of Engineering — Igor Aronson, Huck Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Mathematics, and Slava V. Rotkin, Frontier Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and professor of physics and of biomedical engineering — visited four leading research universities in Kazakhstan to deepen and expand strategic collaborations.

New smart sensor takes the pain out of wound monitoring

2/5/2025

A major challenge in self-powered wearable sensors for health care monitoring is distinguishing different signals when they occur at the same time. Researchers from Penn State and China’s Hebei University of Technology addressed this issue by uncovering a new property of a sensor material, enabling the team to develop a new type of flexible sensor that can accurately measure both temperature and physical strain simultaneously but separately to more precisely pinpoint various signals.

Porous plastic sheets can cool buildings by radiating light to space

2/5/2025

An international team of researchers co-led by Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Penn State Evan Pugh University Professor and Charles G. Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, developed porous plastic sheets that can lower room temperatures through radiative cooling.

NSF CAREER Award: Pursuing ‘soft’ solutions for spinal cord injuries

1/23/2025

Tao Zhou, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics and of biomedical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, earned a five-year, $660,000 U.S. National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award to develop injectable and stretchable hydrogel electrodes to treat spinal cord injuries.

Predicting lab earthquakes with physics-informed artificial intelligence

1/23/2025

Led by Parisa Shokouhi, Penn State professor of engineering science and of acoustics, a team of researchers developed a machine learning model for labquake prediction that can also automatically retrieve specific parameters — known as rate and state friction parameters — from the ultrasonic monitoring of stick-slip experiments. The rate and state friction parameters define the mechanics of the labquakes; they determine the strength of the fault, signaling how close it is to failure.

Getting over the hump to improve fuel cell manufacturing

1/21/2025

The production of fuel cells requires the use of a rapid laser welding process; however, welding at too high a speed results in humping, marked by surface irregularities on the weld seam. A team led by researchers at Penn State has combined observation and analytical modeling to identify the conditions that produce humping at high laser welding speeds and to adjust the process parameters to increase weld speed without causing surface irregularities.

Engineering receives $19M gift for facilities, research, scholarships and more

1/13/2025

The Penn State College of Engineering has received a $19 million gift from the estate of E. Michael Ackley, placing Ackley among the top five individual donors in college history. The funds will support a variety of critical priorities including student scholarships to aid access and affordability, the college’s campus facilities modernization and faculty research.

Huanyu “Larry” Cheng’s research featured via artwork selection in journal

12/13/2024

Art developed for a Penn State Materials Science and Engineering research project was chosen as the inside back cover for an upcoming issue of Advanced Functional Materials, a popular science journal.

Old wisdom meets new tech: Traditional Chinese medicine inspires pulse sensors

12/13/2024

A team led by Penn State researchers used principles of pulse monitoring in traditional Chinese medicine to design a pressure-sensing platform to identify the optimal pulse signal, which they combined with a machine learning model to also predict blood pressure.

Huanyu “Larry” Cheng recognized on 2024 Highly Cited Researchers list

12/4/2024

Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, James L. Henderson, Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, was featured on the Web of Science Group’s 2024 Highly Cited Researchers List. Cheng is joined by another college of engineering faculty member, Long-Qing Chen, Donald W. Hamer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

New bioprinting technique creates functional tissue 10x faster

12/3/2024

Three-dimensional (3D) printing isn’t just a way to produce material products quickly. It also offers researchers a way to develop replicas of human tissue that could be used to improve human health, such as building organs for transplantation, studying disease progression and screening new drugs.

Three College of Engineering researchers named 2024 Roy Award winners

12/3/2024

Six Penn State materials researchers, including three affiliated with the College of Engineering, have received the 2024 Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award, recognizing a wide range of research with societal impact.

MEDIA MENTION: Advanced Science: Top Cited Research, Multimodal Sensors with Decoupled Sensing Mechanisms

11/20/2024

Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle career development professor, associate professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, discusses his experience and rationale behind choosing to publish his research, “Multimodal sensors with Decoupled Sensing Mechanisms,” through Advanced Science’s open access library in a video interview.

Engineering Learning Factory to host fall cornerstone, capstone project showcase

11/18/2024

The Penn State Learning Factory will host its end-of-semester showcase at the Bryce Jordan Center on Dec. 10 and its virtual showcase Wednesday, Dec. 11 through Friday, Dec. 20. Both versions of the event are free and open to the public.

College of Engineering to raise support for student success on GivingTuesday

11/15/2024

The Penn State College of Engineering invites alumni and friends to support engineering student success through a GivingTuesday gift on Dec. 3 as Penn State celebrates its tenth GivingTuesday.

The search to replace a critical semiconductor

11/15/2024

China recently limited the export of gallium nitride, a type of wide bandgap semiconductor used to manufacture a variety of consumer power electronics, such as cell phones and computers, as well as medical devices, cars, wind turbines, solar farms, LED lightbulbs and more. Patrick Lenahan, distinguished professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State, will investigate the possibility of replacing gallium nitride-based devices with boron nitride.

Penn State alum helps others find new careers through nanotechnology

11/12/2024

As the managing director for Penn State's Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization (CNEU), Zachary Gray spends a lot of his summer in the classroom. He works to teach veterans and students how to work at microscopic scales as part of a 12-week course — the same one that shifted his career path almost two decades ago.

Uncharted territory: A Q&A with Nanyin Zhang on mapping brain activity

11/8/2024

A team of researchers led by Nanyin Zhang, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Brain Imaging and professor of biomedical engineering at Penn State, recently published their findings about how blood flow changes to different brain regions relate to what is happening with the brain's neurons.

Eight Penn State engineering students awarded Diefenderfer Graduate Fellowships

11/1/2024

Eight Penn State College of Engineering graduate students have received the Diefenderfer Graduate Fellowship in Entrepreneurship for the 2024-2025 academic year. The Diefenderfer Graduate Fellowship encourages and provides financial support to innovative and entrepreneurial graduate engineering students.

Russ Messier, pioneer in thin films research, remembered

11/1/2024

— Faculty, staff and students from across Penn State and especially in the College of Engineering and Materials Research Institute (MRI) are mourning the loss of Russ Messier, graduate alumnus and professor emeritus of engineering science and mechanics, who died on Oct. 11 at age 80 in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Media Mention: 'Q&A: Saptarshi Das draws inspiration from biology to enhance artificial intelligence'

10/29/2024

Saptarshi Das, the Ackley Professor of Engineering Science and professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State, was featured in a Q&A from Penn Stater Magazine.

Q&A: Can electricity treat high blood pressure?

10/11/2024

Several medications are available to treat high blood pressure, but more than 10 million Americans do not respond to the treatments. Tao Zhou, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics and of biomedical engineering at Penn State, received a five-year, $1.83 million grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health to develop a soft and stretchable tissue-like electronic device for the treatment of resistant high blood pressure.

Media mention: “Soda to milk: Electronic AI tongue detects liquid samples with 80% accuracy”

10/10/2024

Andrew Pannone, research co-author and doctoral student in engineering science and mechanics and Saptarshi Das, Ackley Professor of Engineering and professor of engineering science and mechanics are quoted on Interesting Engineering in reference to their research surrounding an AI powered electronic tongue that can discern between different types of liquid with a high level of accuracy.

A matter of taste: Electronic tongue reveals AI inner thoughts

10/9/2024

A recently developed electronic tongue is capable of identifying differences in similar liquids, such as milk with varying water content; diverse products, including soda types and coffee blends; signs of spoilage in fruit juices; and instances of food safety concerns. The team, led by researchers at Penn State, also found that results were even more accurate when artificial intelligence (AI) used its own assessment parameters to interpret the data generated by the electronic tongue.

Media mention: ‘Butterfly-Inspired AI Technology’

10/7/2024

Saptarshi Das, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics and of electrical engineering at Penn State, was featured in a Q&A article by Tech Briefs. The article discussed the research of Das and his team that focused on Heliconius butterflies and how they process two sensory inputs — pheromones and vision — at once to find a mate.

Penn State College of Engineering faculty receive Fulbright Scholar, Fulbright Specialist Awards for 2024-25 year

10/4/2024

Twelve Penn State faculty members, including two from the College of Engineering, received Fulbright Scholar Awards for the 2024-25 academic year, according to the?Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.?An additional four faculty members, including two from the College of Engineering, have been named Fulbright Specialist Award recipients.??

Bubbling up: Uncovering melt pool dynamics in metal manufacturing

9/25/2024

Using high-speed X-ray imaging, a team of researchers led by Christopher Kube, associate professor of engineering science and of acoustics, captured footage of a cross-section of liquid metal as it cooled. Their results confirmed longstanding hypotheses in the field that through local pressure changes, ultrasonic vibrations encourage air bubbles to increase in number, enlarge, migrate to the surface of a melt pool and pop — increasing the quality of the finished product.

Q&A: Ethical decision-making around neurotechnology treatments

9/17/2024

A novel neurotechnology treatment known as deep brain stimulation can benefit patients with neurological disorders, but it involves surgical procedures with potential risks. Assessing the risk-benefit tradeoffs and the ethics in making decisions about whether to begin such treatments and when can be tricky for both patients and clinicians.

Penn State, Indian Institute of Science award joint research seed grants

9/12/2024

Penn State and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have announced the awardees for the 2024-25 cycle of their collaboration program. These awardees comprise four joint projects that connect Penn State and IISc researchers.

Training veterans for America’s semiconductor workforce

9/12/2024

Penn State is a global leader in nanomanufacturing workforce development and materials science research, positioning it to support the CHIPS and Science Act’s goals of boosting U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. The Penn State Center for Nanotechnology, Education and Utilization program trains military veterans for careers in a growing microelectronics and semiconductor industry essential for national security.

NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant announces fellowship, scholarship winners for 2024

9/3/2024

Seventeen graduate students from Penn State have been awarded research fellowships and six undergraduate students from the commonwealth have been awarded scholarships for 2024 from the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium (PSGC).

Jacqueline O’Connor, Parisa Shokouhi named fellows of STEM leadership program

8/8/2024

Two Penn State College of Engineering faculty members — Jacqueline O'Connor, professor of mechanical engineering, and Parisa Shokouhi, professor of engineering science and mechanics — were selected as part of the 2024-25 cohort of Drexel University’s Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science program.

Atoms in advanced alloys find preferred neighbors when solidifying

8/5/2024

A discovery that uncovered the surprising way atoms arrange themselves and find their preferred neighbors in multi-principal element alloys could enable engineers to “tune” these unique and useful materials for enhanced performance in specific applications ranging from advanced power plants to aerospace technologies, according to the researchers who made the finding.

NASA selects Penn State engineering team to develop technology for spacecraft

7/1/2024

A Penn State research team was one of eight chosen to receive funding from NASA as part of the agency’s University SmallSat Technology Partnerships (USTP) initiative within NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology (SST) program.

Biodegradable electronics may advance with ability to control dissolve rate

6/27/2024

Engineering science and mechanics researchers developed the ability to control the dissolve rate of biodegradable electronics by experimenting with dissolvable elements, like inorganic fillers and polymers, that encapsulate the device.

Paper co-authored by Larry Cheng selected as inside cover of Small journal

6/26/2024

A paper by a team of researchers led by Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, the James L. Henderson, Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State, was selected to appear on the inside cover of the May 29 issue of the journal Small.

Self-assembling, highly conductive sensors could improve wearable devices

6/26/2024

To advance soft robotics, skin-integrated electronics and biomedical devices, researchers at Penn State have developed a 3D-printed novel material for use in sensors that is soft and stretchable — important traits for matching the properties of tissues and organs —and that self-assembles. Their approach employs a process that eliminates many of the drawbacks of previous fabrication methods, such as less conductivity or device failure.

Women in Engineering Program fosters community, opportunities that beget success

6/21/2024

Earlier this year, Penn State's Women in Engineering Program was honored with the Women in Engineering Program Award by the Women in Engineering ProActive Network, in which it was recognized as “an outstanding women in engineering program that serves as a model for other institutions.”

Ontario Tech University and Penn State sign MOU on engineering studies, research

6/12/2024

Researchers in Penn State's College of Engineering and Ontario Tech University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science have signed a memorandum of understanding that taps into the engineering and applied sciences strengths of both institutions.

Researchers engineer new approach for controlling thermal emission

6/7/2024

If a material absorbs light, it will heat up. That heat must go somewhere, and the ability to control where and how much heat is emitted can protect or even hide such devices as satellites. An international team of researchers, including those from Penn State, has developed a novel method for controlling this thermal emission, with what they called promising implications for thermal management and thermal camouflage technologies.

Video: 3D-printed skin closes wounds and contains hair follicle precursors

6/6/2024

Penn State's bioprinting research is pushing the boundaries of medical technology toward solutions for skin replacement — including hair follicles, which were previously unexpected from this technology, bone and even internal organs.

Rewritable, recyclable ‘smart skin’ monitors biological signals on demand

5/30/2024

Skin can send certain health-related signals, such as dry skin feeling tighter to indicate the need for moisture. But what if skin could be smarter, capable of monitoring and sharing specific health information, such as the concentration of glucose in sweat or heart rate? That was the question driving a team led by Penn State researchers that recently developed an adhesive sensing device that seamlessly attaches to human skin to detect and monitor the wearer’s health.

College of Engineering names student marshals for spring 2024 commencement

4/25/2024

The Penn State College of Engineering has named its student marshals for the spring 2024 commencement ceremony.

Patrick Drew named AIMBE fellow

4/25/2024

Patrick Drew, professor of engineering science and mechanics and an associate director of the Huck Institutes, was inducted into the 2024 class of fellows for the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Winners announced for 16th annual Materials Visualization Competition

4/23/2024

Six members of the College of Engineering are among the winners of the 16th annual Materials Visualization Competition (MVC), a scientific visual and artistic competition sponsored by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) and the Materials Research Institute (MRI) at Penn State.

Engineering science major pilots new undergraduate concentrations

4/18/2024

Students in the engineering science undergraduate major now have the opportunity to select from eight discipline options when completing their bachelor’s degree in engineering science, from neural engineering or acoustics to experimental mechanics and materials.

Q&A: New technology may help identify neuromotor disease symptoms in infants

4/17/2024

A team of researchers tested the use of wearable sensors paired with a “tiny” machine learning algorithm to automatically monitor and evaluate general movements in infants.

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