School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering · mechanical engineering facilities there will take up most of the first floor of the building. We have developed new electives in

School of Mechanical and

Materials Engineering2016

I N S I D E» Helping Washington’s

space industry grow with work-ready students

Greg Bogen ’93 BS ME Columbia Energy & Environmental Services Richland, Washington

Scott Brandenburg Thales Aerospace - US Bellevue, Washington

Jarrod Carter ’93 BS ME Origin Forensics LLC Liberty Lake, Washington

Jeff Castleberry ’89 BS ME Insitu Bingen, Washington

William Chambers PACCAR Technical Center Mount Vernon, Washington

Sandy K. Fryer ’96 BS ME Fryer Industries, Inc. Orinda, California

Rocky Gutierrez III ’69 BS ME The Boeing Company Seattle, Washington

Gene Jones ’80 BS ME Hewlett-Packard Vancouver, Washington

Matthew J. Lyons ’89 BS ME Nucor Steel Seattle, Inc. Seattle, Washington

D. Bruce Masson ’54 BS WSU Emeritus Professor Pullman, Washington

George McEachen ’85 BS ChemE The Boeing Company Seattle, Washington

Jacob Montero ’05 BS ME Kenworth Kirkland, Washington

Randal J. Morrison ’06 BS ME Hewlett-Packard Vancouver, Washington

David Rohrig ’04 MEM Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Richland, Washington

Eddie Schweitzer ’03 BS ME Schweitzer Engineering Labs Pullman, Washington

Eric Sorenson ’85 BS MSE Blue Origin Kent, Washington

Elaine Thomas ’76 BS MSE Bradken-Atlas Tacoma, Washington

Jason Tripard ’94 BS ME Microsoft Corporation Bellevue, Washington

Christy L. Turner ’01 BS ME, ’02 MSE Sandia National Laboratories Livermore, California

John P. Whitlock ’81 BS Inspired Light LLC Corvallis, Oregon

A Message from the Director

I hope you enjoy this edition of our School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

newsletter.

These are truly exciting times in the history of our school as we continue to see

unprecedented growth. I’m proud of the transformative educational experience that we

provide. We are educating and preparing our students for professional careers and leadership,

and our researchers are conducting important fundamental and applied research that is

leading to new knowledge, technology, and design. We are engaging with people, industry,

and our communities to improve the quality of life and enhance economic development. We

strive to positively impact our society.

This year our undergraduate enrollment exceeded 1,000 students for the first time ever.

We graduate more mechanical engineering students than any other program in the Pacific

Northwest. Our graduate student enrollment is 70 percent higher than a decade ago, and we

awarded a record number of doctorate degrees last year. To keep up with the rapid growth,

we have hired many new faculty and staff, including six new tenured or tenure track faculty

in Pullman, and four new clinical faculty and instructors (see p. 11) just this year.

We’re pleased that we can bring our programs to more people than ever by expanding

around the state. The University broke ground for the construction of the new Everett

University Center building earlier this year. With a targeted move-in of July 2017, the

mechanical engineering facilities there will take up most of the first floor of the building. We

have developed new electives in applied rocketry and marine engineering, among others,

for our students. Some of the students from the rocketry class recently competed in an

international rocket competition (see p. 6).

Meanwhile, our researchers are working harder than ever. They received more than

five million dollars in grants in 2015 from an ever-increasingly competitive pool of federal

research dollars. Our researchers continue to make important advances to address our

nation’s grand challenges, leading advances in fields ranging from biomaterials to energy

storage.

Of course, your support continues to play an integral role in our success. Your funding

of our student activities, research, and academic programs makes a key difference in helping

us thrive. I always welcome hearing from you about your thoughts for the school’s future. As

always, please feel free to share your news with us or come by if you are in Pullman.

Sincerely,

Michael Kessler

Berry Family Director and Professor

MME Advisory Board

Want to Go Green and Help Us Save Our Green?The MME newsletter and other MME publications are also available in electronic format. If you would like to receive e-publications from MME, please send a note to Tina Hilding at [email protected].

CONTENTS

The School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering newsletter is published for the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, PO Box 642920, Pullman, Washington, 99164-2920 by WashingtonState University, PO Box 645910, Pullman, Washington, 99164-5910. Distribution is free to mechanical and materials engineering alumni, friends, personnel, and students. Volume 5, Issue 1, 2016. 6/16 153072

Communications Coordinator:Tina Hilding, [email protected]

On the Web: mme.wsu.edu

From the Director

Research Key improvement to solar cells

Improving cancer drug delivery

WSU part of $2.2M grant to advance liquid hydrogen power

Murdock commercialization grant boosts innovation

Researchers create stretchable metal conductors for electronics

Using plant oils for novel bio-based plastics

Student News The student club advantage

Students build Mars rover and place second in international competition

And design a Martian home

Efficient walls made from trash

Students win national award to promote entrepreneurship

WSU Tri-Cities student receives NSF fellowship

Grad student earns top national award for work on rocket fuel

Around the School Fulbright scholar will study next-generation cancer detection

Faculty awards

Growth in the School of MME: A look at the numbers

Welcome new faculty

Alumni and Friends Helping Washington’s space industry grow with work-ready students

Air quality, health policy researcher receives WSU alumni award

Hamrick named WSU Tri-Cities distinguished alumnus

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Inside Front Cover

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Research

Key improvement made in solar cell voltage technology A critical milestone in solar cell fabrication

will help pave the way for solar energy to

directly compete with electricity generated by

conventional energy sources.

Researchers improved the maximum voltage

available from a cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar

cell, overcoming a practical limit that has been

pursued for six decades and is key to improving

efficiency. The work was published in the journal,

Nature Energy.

The effort was led by the U.S. Department of

Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory

(NREL) in collaboration with Washington State

University and the University of Tennessee.

Silicon solar cells represent 90 percent of

the solar cell market, but it will be difficult to

significantly reduce their manufacturing costs.

CdTe solar cells offer a low-cost alternative.

They have the lowest carbon footprint in solar

technology and perform better than silicon in real-

world conditions, including in hot, humid weather

and under low light. However, until recently, CdTe

cells haven’t been as efficient as silicon cells.

One key area where CdTe has underperformed

is the maximum voltage available from the solar

cell, called open circuit voltage. Limited by the

quality of CdTe materials, researchers for the

past 60 years were not able to get more than

900 millivolts out of the material, which was

considered its practical limit.

The research team improved cell voltage by

shifting from a standard processing step using

cadmium chloride. Instead, they placed a small

number of phosphorus atoms on tellurium lattice

sites and then carefully formed ideal interfaces

between materials with different atomic spacing to

complete the solar cell.

This approach improved both the CdTe

conductivity and carrier lifetime by orders of

magnitude, enabling fabrication of CdTe solar

cells with an open circuit voltage breaking the

one-volt barrier for the first time. The innovation

establishes new research paths for solar cells to

become more efficient and provide electricity at a

lower cost than fossil fuels.

“It’s a significant milestone. It’s been below

900 millivolts for decades,” said Kelvin Lynn,

Regents professor in WSU’s School of Mechanical

and Materials Engineering and Department of

Physics, who led WSU’s effort.

Natural protein cage would improve cancer drug delivery Washington State University researchers have developed

a unique, tiny protein cage to deliver chemotherapy chemicals

directly to cancer cells. Direct delivery could improve treatment

and lessen what can be horrendous side effects from toxic drugs.

In their study, published in Biomaterials Science, the researchers

built a drug delivery system using apoferritin, the same ball

of natural proteins that carries iron around in blood without

letting the iron leak out. Apoferritin is made of 24 pieces that can

conveniently open and close, depending on surrounding acidity.

While some research has been done on using apoferritin for

drug delivery, this is the first time it was used to target lung cancer

cells.

Kills more than 70 percent of lung cancer cells Led by Yuehe Lin, professor in the WSU Voiland College’s

School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, the researchers

inserted the anticancer drug daunomycin into the cage. They

modified the cage’s exterior with a ligand, a signal-triggering

molecule, making the cage particularly attractive to a common

cancer cell receptor.

With the addition of a small amount of acid, adjusting the pH

to below neutral, the protein cage slightly opened and let the drug

jump inside, where it stayed until it came to the cancer cell. When

the ball of drugs entered the acidic environment of the cancer cell,

the cage opened and delivered the drug directly to its foe.

Testing the system with lung cancer cells, the researchers

showed that the ligand-guided protein cages selectively penetrated

and killed more than 70 percent of the cancer cells.

Normal cells remain healthy Unlike with the typical methods for drug delivery used in

chemotherapy, the system did not attack healthy lung cells.

The system was shown to work nearly as well as—or in some

cases better than—when the drug was freely moving, the type of

scenario that causes the commonly experienced cancer treatment

side effects.

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Professor Kelvin Lynn

Research

“Our efficiency in killing the cancer cell was very high with

no toxicity to normal cells,” said Lin. “At the cell level, we were

able to demonstrate it was very effective.”

Lin emphasized that the work is still preliminary and has a

long way to go before it can be used on people. The researchers

were studying the drug delivery system at the cellular level and

hope to continue the research with future animal studies.

Washington State University researchers are part of a team

receiving $2.2 million to develop an efficient and inexpensive

hydrogen liquefaction system that could pave the way for

mainstream availability of hydrogen fuels and hydrogen-powered

vehicles.

The U.S. Department of Energy grant is led by National

Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the nation’s top hydrogen

testing lab. WSU researchers are also collaborating with Praxair, a

leading provider of liquid hydrogen.

WSU holds a patent on a vortex tube model that could

potentially liquefy hydrogen efficiently. The vortex tube, a

mechanical device that separates a compressed gas into hot and

cold streams, was designed in the 1930s and is inexpensive and

easy to make, but the WSU team was the first to connect it to

hydrogen liquefaction.

WSU’s vortex tube channels very hot and cold air to liquefy

hydrogen at extremely cold temperatures of 20 degrees Kelvin, or

-423.67 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Hydrogen is very difficult to liquefy,” said Jacob Leachman,

assistant professor in WSU’s Voiland College School of Mechanical

and Materials Engineering. “But the benefits are huge.”

WSU researchers will redesign their vortex tube model to

enhance the cold stream and will examine possible refrigerants for

their system, including neon, helium, and hydrogen. They will also

design a larger system which could be scaled up for real-world use.

NREL will build a working prototype of WSU’s vortex tube

and contribute time on a supercomputer for modeling. The NREL

researchers will also perform an economic study to find potential

sites for hydrogen liquefaction stations.

Leachman hopes this project will increase the availability

of hydrogen as a fuel and promote hydrogen power across the

country.

“There are systems that can convert wind energy to hydrogen,

but it’s still difficult to increase the hydrogen density for transport

and storage,” he said. “This technology will help us do that

cheaply.”

The liquefaction technology could also allow hydrogen

generated from agriculture waste in wheat production to be

inexpensively gathered and stored, he said.

WSU part of $2.2M grant to advance liquid hydrogen power

Murdock commercialization grant boosts innovationBy Alyssa Patrick, WSU Economic Development

WSU innovator Jacob Leachman, Ph.D. has received support for his work from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. Along with a team

of graduate students, Leachman recently launched a company, Protium Innovations, LLC., based on a technology and process for hydrogen storage developed in his lab. Still in the very early stages, the innovators need every penny they can find to get the technology to a testable scale, run validity tests, make prototypes, and complete other steps that will prepare it for private investment. “The Murdock Trust funding was an important tool for leveraging discussions and additional capital towards commercializing our concept,” Leachman said. As potential partners see other trusted organizations and companies investing in a new idea, they become more willing to invest as well. Adding support that can kick-start that kind of investment just builds on the Murdock Trust’s long history of supporting the advancement of science and education in Washington, making it an even stronger partner in the effort to develop solutions for today’s biggest challenges. The Murdock gift was made in honor of the late WSU President Elson S. Floyd.


Research

Washington State University

researchers have discovered how to stretch

metal films used in flexible electronics to

twice their size without breaking.

The discovery could lead to dramatic

improvements and addresses one of the

biggest challenges in flexible electronics,

an industry still in its infancy with

applications such as bendable batteries,

robotic skins, wearable monitoring devices and sensors, and connected fabrics.

The work was led by Rahul Panat and Indranath Dutta, researchers

in Voiland College’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and

graduate student Yeasir Arafat. They have filed for a patent and published

their findings in Applied Physics Letters.

Researchers have struggled for years with designing and manufacturing

the tiny metal connections that go into flexible electronics. The metal has

to undergo severe stretching and bending while continuing to conduct

electricity. Manufacturers have so far used tiny metal springs that can stretch

and still maintain connectivity, but the springs take up space and make it

difficult to design complicated, high-density circuitry. Furthermore, electricity

has to travel farther in coiled springs, requiring more power and bigger

batteries.

“The circuitry ends up requiring a ton of real estate and bulky batteries,”

said Panat.

Researchers have experimented with gold, which works better than other

materials, but is prohibitively expensive, and copper, which severely cracks

when it stretches more than 30 percent or so.

The WSU researchers found that when they made a metal film out of

indium, a fairly inexpensive metal compared to gold, and periodically bonded

it to a plastic layer commonly used in electronics, they were able to stretch

the metal film to twice its original length. When the pieces broke, it was

actually the plastic layer that failed, not the metal.

“This is a quantum improvement in stretchable electronics and wearable

devices,” said Panat.

While Panat is excited about the work and hopes it will be

commercialized, the researchers also want to better understand the metal’s

behavior.

“A metal film doubling its size and not failing is very unusual,” he said.

“We have proposed a model for the stretchy metal but much work is needed

to validate it. It’s a good situation to be in.”

Researchers create stretchable metal conductors for electronics

Researchers have

developed a new way to

use plant oils like olive

and linseed oil to create

polyurethane, a plastic

material used in everything

from foam insulation panels

to tires, hoses, and sealants.

The researchers, led by Michael Kessler, Berry

Family director and professor in Washington State

University’s School of Mechanical and Materials

Engineering, published a paper on the work in the

journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Polyurethane is extremely tough and corrosion-

and wear-resistant, but researchers would like a

more environmentally friendly alternative to the

petroleum-based product. About 14 million tons of

polyurethane was produced in 2010, and production

is expected to increase by almost 30 percent in 2016.

While there are already some polyurethanes made

from plant materials, Kessler’s research group

developed a new method that uses vegetable oils

to create materials with a wide variety of flexibility,

stiffness, and shapes. Plant oils are inexpensive,

readily available, renewable, and can be genetically

engineered.

In the study, the researchers made polyurethane

using olive, canola, grape seed, linseed, and

castor oils. While other researchers have struggled

with using petroleum-based solvents, the WSU

researchers, working with colleagues from Iowa

State and Cairo universities, didn’t use solvents or a

catalyst in their production.

Kessler, who is director of the Center for

Bioplastics and Biocomposites, hopes that the

method is appealing to the plastics industry.

Founded in 2014, the center, supported by the

National Science Foundation, is a collaboration

between WSU and Iowa State University and is the

first industry and university cooperative research

center devoted to the development of biologically

based plastics. About 30 companies are members of

the center.

Using plant oils for novel bio-based plastics


Student News

What made you decide to major in materials science?

Ally: I switched my focus a few times before I found materials science. It wasn’t until I took

MSE 201 with Professor Amit Bandyopadhyay that I realized materials science was for me.

Hailey: I was drawn to materials science at WSU because I’m interested in learning why

things are the way that they are and the materials used to make them.

Are you involved with any student clubs on campus?

Ally: I’m in several clubs and organizations around campus, like Material Advantage Club,

Society of Women Engineering, TMS, WSU 3D Printing Club, and I’m vice president of the Delta

Xi Phi Sorority. I’m also a Future City Competition mentor at Moscow Middle School.

Being a part of these clubs has given me the skills of learning how to balance my time,

leadership opportunities, and willingness to step up in many of my other groups.

Hailey: I’m active in Material Advantage Club. We take part in a lot of community activities

like highway cleanups and the Society of Women Engineers’ Kid’s Science Day.

Being a part of the Material Advantage Club has helped give me a lot of exposure to outside

connections.

What has your experience as a materials science major taught you?

Ally: The coolest part of materials science is learning why something broke or finding out

about how materials are used in certain parts of objects at a microscopic level. I’ve also learned a

lot about social networking. It’s hard to get through classes without making friends.

What do you plan on doing after graduation?

Hailey: I graduate in May, and I’ve already applied to the University of Washington to

pursue my master’s degree. I want to either work with aerospace composites or in a biomaterials

lab. Either would be nice.

Ally: After I graduate in December, I’m planning on attending graduate school in the field

of medicine, where I hope to study polymers or medicinal prosthetics.

Materials science engineering is the study of polymers, metals, ceramics, and nano-materials,

and how these materials help construct the products that are used in our everyday lives.

Washington State University materials science majors Hailey Warren and Ally Osmanson

recently shared their experiences with this exciting field and their involvement with Voiland

College’s thriving student club scene.

The student club advantage By Marissa Mararac, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture

Left to right: Material Advantage Club members Wesley Bollinger, Delany Ferrell, Ian Davis, Joanna Mader, and Patrick Olcott at Kid’s Science and Engineering Day.


Ally Osmanson

Hailey Warren

Student News

Students from Washington

State University North Puget

Sound at Everett placed second

out of 30 teams from seven

countries in the Mars Society’s

University Rover Challenge this

summer in Utah.

The 20-member Everett

student club is only in its second year of existence. The

team spent countless hours designing, testing, and building

a vehicle meant to be able to work alongside human

explorers on the surface of Mars.

“Being able to apply what we have learned to a real-

life project and see our designs come to reality gives us

experience that few engineering students obtain through

their education,” said Blaine Liukko, a mechanical

engineering senior from Lynnwood who led the student

team.

The students received support from the industry,

including companies such as Boeing, Janicki Industries,

Everett Steel, Metal Supermarkets, Protocase, Pacific

Power Batteries, and Dassault Systems, as well as from

the WSU Foundation, Voiland College of Engineering

and Architecture, and the Bruce and Barbara Wollstein

Endowment in Engineering.

WSU Mars rover team places 2nd in international competition By Randy Bolerjack, WSU North Puget Sound at Everett

WSU a finalist in NASA mission to Mars competition A student team from Washington State

University was one of thirty national finalists

in NASA’s $2.5 million 3D Printed Habitat

Challenge to design an environment for Mars

exploration using robotics and 3D printers.

The event was part of the 2015 World

Maker Faire.

Since it takes 2.5 years to travel to Mars, NASA wants to send

robotic manufacturing units to the Red Planet to create a livable

habitat before sending humans to explore or colonize.

In 2010, NASA reached out to WSU professor Amit

Bandyopadhyay and his research team about printing 3D objects

from moon rocks. He was approached because of past work,

with WSU professor Susmita Bose, on 3D printing of orthopedic

implants using simulated bones.

Their moon rock 3D printing project was successful, and

the WSU challenge entry proposed using similar techniques with

Martian soil.

Team members included Thomas Gualtieri, Bonnie Hollon,

Bandyopadhyay, Bose, Sam Robertson, a doctoral student in

mechanical engineering, and Neva Hubbert, an undergraduate in

architecture.

WSU’s entry used simulated raw regolith (rocks and surface

material) on Mars and a 3D printer to build the WAZZU DOME

(Domed Outpost for Mars Exploration). The WSU team’s concept

used a microwave generator inside the 3D printer to melt the rocks

and soil available on Mars and then use that medium in the printer

to build up the dome structure piece by piece.


Student club news…

The WSU Formula SAE club took a formula-style race car to

Society of Automotive Engineers Formula SAE competition in

Brooklyn, Michigan, this spring. Every year the club creates a model

formula race car to compete against 120 schools from around the

world. Students in the Formula SAE club gain real-world experience

in the manufacturing process.

The WSU Aerospace

Club created a 12-foot

tall rocket—almost

double the height of

last year’s model—

for the international

Intercollegiate Rocket

Engineering Competition

(IREC) held in June in

Green River, Utah. The

competition requires

students to launch rockets

with a 10-pound payload

to 10,000 feet and then

safely recover them.

Aerospace club member Katlyn Struxness (5’3”) stands next to the bottom section of the WSU’s rocket.

A group of WSU students displayed their energy-saving

walls made from trash at the National Sustainable Design

Expo and National Science Festival in Washington, D.C.

earlier this year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the

students $15,000 to improve their inexpensive wall designs,

which the team hopes to market as a consumer product. The

students also hope to provide plans for people to build the

walls themselves.

TrashWall is a collaborative effort between WSU

engineering and architecture students. Guided by Taiji

Miyasaka, associate professor of architecture in the School

of Design and Construction, and Bob Richards, professor in

the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, the

students used trash to create walls that sustain heat and

improve energy efficiency.

Current methods for improving energy efficiency cater

to the rich, said Richards. But low-income people—who

might spend half of a paycheck paying for the winter energy

bill—need the improvements most. At 10 cents per square

foot, TrashWall could be an efficient, affordable alternative.

The best materials for the walls are paper products like

cardboard, egg cartons, and magazines, but bottles and soda

cans are also used. In constructing the prototypes, students

dug through trash to find usable items, taking excess out of

the waste stream in addition to making efficient building

materials.

The students have incorporated fire-resistant materials,

including Papercrete tile facing; Papercrete is a combination

of paper and concrete. In fire tests, the prototype walls have

proved quite fire-resistant.

The walls are crafted creatively, making them works of

art that happen to be made from trash.

“When we think about trash, we think about things

in the garbage bin,” Miyasaka said. “But paper, when it is

sitting on a table, is just paper. When it is thrown into a bin

it becomes trash.”

Student News

Efficient walls made from trash By Michelle Fredrickson, Voiland College of Engineering & Architecture intern

Jonathan Moore and

S.M. Golam Mortuza were named

outstanding students at the annual Voiland

College of Engineering and Architecture

convocation. Moore, a materials science

and engineering student from Milton,

was named outstanding sophomore, and

Mortuza, a doctoral candidate from Dhaka,

Bangladesh, was named outstanding

teaching assistant.

Student Awards

Left to right: Victor Charoonsophonsak, Mitchell Scott, and Ryan Pitzer.

Students win national award to promote entrepreneurship

Three Washington State University students were awarded

a University Innovation Fellowship, which is supporting them

in a yearlong project to encourage student entrepreneurship on

campus. Mechanical engineering students Mitchell Scott, Ryan

Pitzer, and Victor Charoonsophonsak are among 291 students across

the United States to receive the honor. As part of the fellowship,

they participated in a six-week online training course and a trip to

Stanford University to network with other fellows.

The students are planning a WSU innovation and

entrepreneurship night for the fall. A keynote speaker, dinner, and

workshops will encourage other entrepreneurial-minded students

with their business plans and help them join groups where they can

apply their skills. “Our goal is to increase innovation on campus,”

Charoonsophonsak said. “Students don’t know all the resources that

are available to them here.”


Cameron Hohimer, a Washington State University Tri-

Cities mechanical engineering doctoral student, will explore

the possibilities of soft robotics through 3D printing as part of a

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Hohimer was awarded a $34,000 three-year annual stipend

and an additional $12,000 for three years education allowance,

which will fund the cost of his education.

Hohimer had a small part in working on the apple picking

robot that WSU researchers Manoj Karkee and Changki Mo are

constructing with the help of graduate researchers. He said that

robot, for example, has rigid links that allow it to grab the apples

at certain pressure points for certain sizes and shapes. But with soft

robotics, they could attempt to create more compliant actuators,

which are responsible for moving or controlling a system, using

more malleable materials, he said.

“Soft robotics is a relatively new area of study in which we are

trying to create nonrigid actuators and components for robotics

systems,” he said. “The nice thing is if you were to use something

like this for apple harvesting, as you move into objects, it is

compliant. It would bend out of the way. It can more easily form to

what it is you are trying to do.”

Hohimer said current methods for creating many of these

types of soft robotics materials are done through injection molding

and silicon casting, but his hope is that he can use fused deposition

modeling, a type of 3D printing, to make the fabrication process

faster and easier, as well as utilize it to create parts and products

that are more complex in design.

“You see a lot of applications of soft robotics in creating

humanoid robots,” he said.

“Obviously our hands are very dexterous. You can pick up a

wide range of objects with varying geometries and sizes. Most rigid

grabbers, or end effectors, are not good at picking up cylindrical

objects and then trying to pick up something that is a different

shape. With soft robotics, you can design manipulators that are

more robust that can grasp items with a wide variety of shapes and

sizes.”

With his research, Hohimer will also investigate the ability

to 3D print piezoelectric polymers, which could be used to sense

strain and vibration and be embedded into soft robotic actuators.

Hohimer earned his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering

from WSU Tri-Cities in 2014. He is two years into his doctoral

program in mechanical engineering at WSU Tri-Cities.

Student News

Grad student earns top national award for work on rocket fuel Ian Richardson has won the top award in the United States for students

studying cryogenics, or materials at very low temperatures. The Klaus and

Jean Timmerhaus scholarship is given to one student in the United States

every other year at the Cryogenic Engineering Conference.

“Ian stands out among many top students due to his aptitudes for

teamwork, mentoring, and recollection,” said his Washington State University

mentor Jake Leachman. “Few student researchers in cryogenics have had such

a remarkable level of achievement. He is clearly deserving of this award.”

Originally from Port Orchard, Richardson is a graduate student in

the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. He works with

Leachman to develop instruments to test super cold fuel mixtures. Richardson

earned a bachelor’s degree from WSU in mechanical engineering. He has had

a longtime interest in space and space exploration technologies and hopes to

have a future career in aerospace.

WSU Tri-Cities student receives NSF fellowship to study soft robotics through 3D printing


Around the School

Professor Prashanta Dutta has received a

Fulbright Scholar grant for 2016-17 to study and

develop next-generation tumor cell detection

in cancer patients. He will collaborate with

colleagues at the Center for Smart Interfaces

at the Technical University of Darmstadt,

Germany, to develop advanced theoretical and

computational models to separate and detect

circulating tumor cells.

These cells spread cancer to other organs

from an initial tumor—the primary cause of

death in cancer patients. Dutta’s technology will

aid in early detection of these cells, which is key

to successful treatment and recovery. Dutta’s

system uses an electric field generated through

a chemistry technique called isotachophoresis

to separate cancer cells from healthy cells. He

hopes the process will be a streamlined, simple,

and reliable alternative to the meticulous,

difficult electrode method now used.

The Fulbright program was founded by

U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946 to

increase mutual understanding among scholars

around the world.

Fulbright scholar will study next-generation cancer detection

Xiaopeng Bi, clinical associate

professor, School of Mechanical and

Materials Engineering, WSU North Puget

Sound at Everett, received the Voiland

College’s Reid Miller Excellence in Teaching

Award.

Bi was one of two founding faculty

members of the new WSU mechanical

engineering program in Everett in 2012.

Students speak highly of him as a passionate

instructor, mentor, and program coordinator, and he has been

instrumental in the development of the ME program at Everett. He

advised a group of students who took second place in the American

Society for Engineering Education Design and Manufacturing

Competition last year and was instrumental in helping to launch a

chapter of the Society of Women Engineers in Everett. He founded

and serves as the advisor for the WSU Everett Engineering Club, which

competed in the University Rover Challenge in Utah in June.

Faculty Awards and Honors

Professors John McCloy and

Kelvin Lynn were named senior

members of SPIE, the international society

for optics and photonics. Senior members

are members of distinction in the society,

honored for their professional experience,

active involvement with the optics

community, or their accomplishments.


Around the School

School of MME: A growing program

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C E R T I F I E D U N D E R G R A D U AT E S

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2006 20152008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

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S C H O L A R S H I P S AWA R D E D

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$60,000

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Did you know?

• WSU has the largest mechanical engineering program in the Northwest.

• The school exceeded 1,000 enrolled undergraduate students for the first time in 2015.


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71

2007

Congratulations to mechanical engineering graduates at WSU North Puget Sound at Everett’s inaugural commencement event held in May.

Around the School

New faculty join School of MMEThe School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering recently hired the following new faculty members:


Kuen-Ren (Roland) Chen, assistant

professor: Research interests include biomedical

manufacturing, additive manufacturing,

surgical thermal management, and design of

medical devices. Chen is dedicated to applying

manufacturing technology to improve the quality

of health care. He has received funding support from the National

Science Foundation and National Institute of Health. He holds a

Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Dustin McLarty, assistant professor: Research

interests are high temperature fuel cells,

distributed generation systems, and energy

storage dynamics and integration with renewable

sources. In 2014, McLarty received a Fulbright

Scholar Award to study in Genoa, Italy to perform

research on dynamics and controls of advanced micro-grids. He

holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine.

Scott Beckman, associate professor: Research in theoretical

materials science, thermal properties of

materials, multifunctional materials, and

materials for energy applications. Beckman

uses theoretical and computational methods

to understand the impact of the dynamical

atomic nature of materials on their macroscopic

physical properties. In particular, he is studying thermal and

multifunctional properties which have direct implications for

energy applications, such as energy harvesting devices and

batteries. Before coming to Washington State University, Beckman

was an associate professor at Iowa State University. He holds a

Ph.D. in materials science and engineering, from University of

California, Berkeley.

Kshitij Jerath, assistant professor: Research in

complex systems; intelligent, self-driving vehicles;

self-organized dynamics; multiagent systems;

system reliability and prognostics; and robotic

ensembles. Jerath’s work has been recognized

with the Best Presentation Award in Session at the

American Control Conference in 2012 and 2014. He is currently

studying the effects that intelligent algorithms in connected

vehicles have on the formation of traffic jams. He holds a Ph.D. in

mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

John Swensen, assistant professor: His medical

research focuses on finding methods for steering

needles to turn in tight corners inside of tissue.

He is also studying techniques of using smart

materials and geometry to create robots and

mechanisms that can change between being soft

for human interaction and rigid when they need to be. Prior to

joining Washington State University, Swensen was a postdoctoral

associate and an associate research scientist at Yale University. He

holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from The Johns Hopkins

University.

Amir Ameli, assistant professor: Some

of his research interests include advanced

manufacturing; processing and characterization

of polymer composites; nano- and micro-

structured materials for fuel cells, batteries, and

supercapacitors; smart materials and devices

for sensors and actuators; and green composites for biomedical

applications and environmental sustainability. Prior to joining

WSU, Ameli was a postdoctoral fellow and received a Ph.D. in

mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto.

Zhiquan (Andy) Shu, clinical assistant professor, WSU Puget

Sound at Everett, Ph.D., University of Washington

Dave Torick, instructor, M.S. in civil engineering,

University of Pittsburgh; M.Ed. in secondary science education,

The Ohio State University

Yongqing (Sofia) Guo, clinical assistant professor, Ph.D. in

engineering education, Utah State University

Alumni and Friends

Not many people can say they helped make history in their

first job, but Ron Bliesner (’11 B.S., ’13 M.S.) is one of those few.

When the New Shepard vertically landed back on Earth

after a trip to space, the first rocket to successfully do so, Bliesner

was cheering with his Blue Origin colleagues at a watch party.

Bliesner is part of the fluid systems group at Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’

company that is working on technologies that will one day enable

people to live and work in space. In November, the company had

its first successful landing of New Shepard, an early test of a rocket

that will take you and I to space for four-minutes of weightlessness.

The rocket made history again in January, when it safely

landed after a second trip to space, making it the first proven

reusable rocket, which is an important milestone toward opening

space to more people. “It’s surreal and humbling,” Bliesner says of

working for Blue Origin. “I remember watching the vehicle emerge

from the giant cloud of dust and thinking that this was the dawn

of a new era not only for space flight, but for the human race as a

whole.”

A new era has indeed arrived—and seems to be thriving in

Washington State. In between the two Blue Origin missions, Elon

Musk’s company SpaceX, which recently opened an office in

Redmond, also had a successful launch and landing of its main

rocket, the Falcon 9.

Washington is also home to other space companies, including

the asteroid-mining Planetary Resources and rocket engine

manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne. The Washington Department of

Commerce recently established a Washington State Space Coalition

to help the industry continue to grow and thrive in the state.

Part of what any healthy industry needs is access to a talented

workforce, something Planetary Resources’ COO Chris Vorhees

highlighted at a conference last year. WSU and the state’s other

universities help fill that need by preparing students with the

education and hands-on experience they need to be strong job

candidates.

Bliesner is one of a dozen WSU graduates working at Blue

Origin. After receiving his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, he

stayed on at WSU as a master’s student in Jake Leachman’s lab.

Leachman is a common thread between many of the Cougar

alumni currently working at Blue Origin, due to his focus on giving

students real-world experiences.

“ What makes WSU unique—and I hear this from

other graduates too—is that you get a lot of hands-on

experience,” Bliesner said. “I started working in Jake’s

lab my senior year and got my hands dirty right

away, which gave me a feel for what I wanted to do

as a grad student and beyond.”

One of the first things Bliesner did when starting in

Leachman’s lab was to retrofit old equipment into a usable vacuum

chamber and cryogenic testing facility. Bliesner had never built

anything like that before, and it took a lot of turning wrenches,

swapping out fittings, and trial and error to finish.

“Having the experience of learning on the go at WSU prepared

me for the work I am doing at Blue Origin,” Bliesner said. “There

are no manuals for the valves and other parts we are building, so I

have to be able to problem solve.”

Bliesner’s next plans? To launch more rockets. So when

you take your first trip beyond the atmosphere, remember to

thank Bliesner and all of the curious people nurtured by quality

education.

Helping Washington’s space industry grow with work-ready students

By Alyssa Patrick, WSU Economic Development


Alumni and Friends

Armistead (Ted) G. Russell, an engineering researcher and professor

at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was recently honored with the

Washington State University Alumni Association (WSUAA) Alumni

Achievement Award for his work in air quality science tied to health,

public policy, and sustainable development.

His research has increased understanding of trace contaminants in

the air, computational modeling, air quality engineering, and health.

His particular contributions are based on his ability to integrate these

areas and provide information that is used in managing air quality and

developing national public policy.

Russell earned his bachelor of science degree from WSU in 1979 and

was named an outstanding senior in mechanical engineering. He rowed

lightweight crew, was active in the student mechanical engineers chapter,

and was a member of the engineering honor society.

He regularly networks with WSU faculty and students interested in

air quality and has returned to the University to present seminars. He and

his wife regularly provide financial support to the WSU Voiland College of

Engineering and Architecture.

Russell’s work modeling air pollution particulates, nitrogen oxides,

and ozone, and the impacts of alternative fuel use on the atmosphere

has had significant societal impact. His analyses of air contaminants and

health is a foundation for a modeling system recently adopted by the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The WSUAA Alumni Achievement Award was created in 1970 by

the WSUAA Board of Directors to recognize alumni who have given

outstanding service to WSU and made contributions to their professions

and communities. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the

Alumni Association. Of an estimated 250,000 students who have attended

WSU, Russell is the 522nd Alumni Achievement Award recipient.

Doug Hamrick,

retired chemical disposal

project manager, received

Washington State University

Tri-Cities’ Distinguished

Alumnus of the Year Award

in recognition of his service,

career achievements, and

dedication to the promotion of

educational excellence.

Hamrick graduated from WSU Tri-Cities in 1990

with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

He has 40 years of experience working in nuclear

operations and chemical weapons demilitarization.

He served in leadership positions at high hazard

facilities at the Hanford site; Rocky Flats, Colorado;

and Anniston, Alabama. He was project general

manager of the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal

Facility from 2002 to 2009 while the facility completed

construction, performed startup testing, and completed

the destruction of weapons containing the nerve

agents sarin and VX.

Since returning to the Tri-Cities in 2012, he has

devoted his retirement to community service. He serves

on the Tri-County Partners Habitat for Humanity board

of directors as treasurer and volunteers two days a week

to help build houses for deserving families.

Hamrick and his wife, Julia, are the sponsors of

two WSU scholarships: the Bud and Joan Simmons

Scholarship for Chemistry and the Hamrick Family

Scholarship for Mechanical Engineers. Hamrick also

serves on the REACH Museum Foundation board of

directors as development committee chairman.

“Doug continues to give of his time and

expertise to ensure students of all types have access

to opportunities for bettering their educational

experience, whether that be through the construction

of the Coug House or through scholarships,” said WSU

Tri-Cities Chancellor Keith Moo-Young. “He’s a prime

example of how students can use their educational

experience to pursue opportunities beyond their career

paths. He has used his education to give back to the

community.”

Doug Hamrick named WSU Tri-Cities distinguished alumnus By Maegan Murray, WSU Tri-Cities

Air quality, health policy researcher receives WSU alumni award

Ted Russell, right, receives award with Candis Claiborn, dean of the WSU Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, and nominator Roger McClellan (Photo by Dean Hare, WSU Photo Services).


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excellence.mme.wsu.edu

Washington State University scientist Susmita Bose and

her team are revolutionizing the field of bone replacement

materials. And that’s great news for everyone from millennials

to senior citizens.

The researchers are combining minerals, biomolecules,

and drugs and using 3D printers to create longer lasting and

more biocompatible bone-like materials. That means improved

joint replacements and stronger bone implants. Medical device

manufacturers are excited about the technology.

A bold approach? Definitely. But, after all, you’ve counted on us for

creative solutions to the state’s needs since 1890. And you always can.

Documents

School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering · mechanical engineering facilities there will take up most of the first floor of the building. We have developed new electives in