H A P P E N I NG S
Engineering Science and Mechanics
Image Courtesy of Dr. Douglas P. Holmes
NO TE WORTHY NEWS
LETTER FROM
THE DEPARTMENT HEAD
Since I am completing my ninth year as ESM department head, this is a good time for me to reflect upon
our collective accomplishments.
Our department was founded in 1908 and has a distinguished history of producing engaged interdisciplinary scholars and alumni. We have built a dynamic
new momentum for it through enrollment growth,
new faculty hires, an expanded infrastructure, and by
leveraging resources, fundraising and creating global
partnerships.
Together, we have promoted a useful hands-on and
minds-on learning process for undergraduate and
graduate students, recruited and retained a world
class faculty, established research initiatives that have
interdisciplinary outcomes, and greatly improved the
metrics associated with quality ratings such as citations to scholarly work and the numbers, quality and
placements of our graduates.
Our undergraduate program has been ranked fifth in
the nation by US News & World Report in the engineering science/engineering physics category. Our twenty-six faculty members graduate on average about
fifteen doctoral students each year. More than half
of our undergraduate students have research experiences, and we have established a journal of undergraduate research.
The innovative evolution in ESM is due mainly as a result of hiring and retaining the best individuals for faculty and staff positions. Indeed, we have collectively facilitated a superior culture of excellence.
Our university is a large enterprise that speaks to
many constituencies. We are effective because we are
able to align our hopes with the vision of our college
and institution to achieve a successful synergy.
ESM has very many good years ahead of it. Here’s to
the next one hundred and five!
Yours sincerely,
Ishwar K. Puri
N. Waldo Harrison Professor
and Department Head
MASTHEAD IMAGE
Courtesy of Dr. Douglas P. Holmes
Nature’s Phenomena Might Teach Virginia Tech Engineers New Tricks
adapted from an article by Lynn Nystrom
Lizards and frogs are about to take up residence in the laboratories of Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering.
The engineers and scientists want to learn more about the water-running lizard’s ability to dart across a water
surface. In engineering terms, that means how it increases its locomotion efficiency by producing more force on
its power stroke and less drag on its recovery stroke.
And these engineers are surprised at how some frog species can jump out of the water, starting from a submerged position, using only one power stroke, to catch a flying insect that may be some 40 centimeters – or three
times its body length – above the surface. As problem-solvers, they want to understand how this small reptile
achieves such high propulsion.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has a Physics of Living program that funds research projects at the
interface of biology, mathematical modeling, physics, and engineering. NSF has awarded Dr. Sunghwan Jung
along with Dr. Jake Socha, both assistant professors of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and Dr. Pavlos
Vlachos, a little over a half a million dollars to investigate the water entry and exit problems that are apparent in
engineering mechanics based on a better understanding of biology.
“Since there are no engineered systems that operate under conditions similar to these reptiles and amphibians,
we have an opportunity to learn how nature effectively uses the interaction of these forces. From our findings
we hope to be able to develop bio-inspired systems such as faster dipping and coating processes for materials
engineering, or even water-walking robots,” Dr. Jung said.
The three will also look at the drinking in carnivorous animals, specifically cats and dogs, and incorporate
fluid dynamics in their studies.
For engineers, this finding that
a cat can exploit fluid inertia to
defeat gravity and pull liquid into
its mouth has significant implications for the development of
novel microfluidic devices.
By contrast, the domestic dog
appears to scoop water into its
mouth, using its highly curled
tongue that penetrates into the
water. The amount of fluid ingested depends on the lapping
frequency and the size of the
air cavity created by the canine’s
tongue.
Dog Drinking
Drs. Socha and Vlachos have collaborated previously on a number of projects, and their work with Jung represents another effort among a larger group of researchers at Virginia Tech interested in bio-inspired engineering.
Socha leads a large interdisciplinary team that includes engineers and biologists on the study of how insects
move fluids through their bodies, including air, blood, and food. His goal is to derive new engineering principles
for fluidic applications.Vlachos, is also a co-principal investigator on an NSF Integrative Graduate Education
and Research Traineeship program on multi-scale transport in environmental and physiological systems. Socha
also participates in this grant. v
F ACULTY NEWS
Roger Chang Named Virginia Tech Teacher of the Week
adapted from an article by Peter Doolittle
The Center for Instructional Development and Educational Research (CIDER) recognized Tsu-Sheng
Chang, instructor of Engineering Sciences and Mechanics, for his outstanding dedication to the students
in his classes, and to his former students whom he continually welcomes when help is needed.
Dr. Tsu-Sheng Chang, or “Roger” as he asks his
students to refer to him, is often described by his students as the best-known instructor in the College of
Engineering. Not because of impossibly hard tests or
because his class is an easy “A” or even because he
has the “coolest” robots or planes, but because he is
a great teacher.
Wrinkling Polymer Film
This image illustrates wrinkling and folding
of an ultrathin polymer film as it is lifted off
the surface of water.
News Highlights, Spring 2013
Why has Roger Chang incurred this level of respect?
The short answer is that he cares. His highest priority in a class is making sure students understand the
material. His examples are always very well developed,
office hours are famous for their abnormal scope and
that students can go to them even when not taking his
courses, and his teaching methods are interactive and
engaging. Students in his courses confirm an understanding that with Roger Chang at the head of the
class, they know the material will be covered at a reasonable pace, they will be given many opportunities
to learn the material well, and that his tests are well-
written with high but reasonable and attainable expectations
conducive to a positive and effective learning environment.
For these reasons and others,
engineering students campuswide desperately watch the timetable for openings in his classes.
A student commented that
Roger Chang
he’s “seldom known of a teacher
that rivals his desire for student success, but Dr.
Chang seems to see it as his life’s purpose. Pretty
amazing.”
Dr. Chang has earned the following awards for both
excellence in teaching and research: the Dr. Manuel
Stein Endowed Scholarship of ESM Department in
1997 and 1998 for excellent teaching and research;
the University Sporn Award during the 1998-1999 and
2008-2009 academic years for excellence in teaching of
engineering courses; and the Faculty Appreciation Day
Students’ Choice Award, Faculty Member of the Year
in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. In addition, Roger is Vice President of the Chinese Student
Association and Editor of Newsletter for the Chinese
Student Association. v
Suvojit Ghosh, ESM Graduate Student, is
Awarded the Liviu Librescu
Memorial Scholarship
Mr. Suvojit Ghosh, ESM graduate student, has been
awarded the prestigious Liviu Librescu Memorial Scholarship in 2013. This scholarship was established to honor Dr.
Liviu Librescu, former ESM professor, who perished on
April 16, 2007 in service of his students. The recipients of
this scholarship must be outstanding students conducting
research in solid mechanics, fluid mechanics and dynamics.
Since joining ESM
in 2009, Suvojit
has been conducting research in
the Multiphysics
Research Group
(MuRG) under the
guidance of Dr.
Ishwar K. Puri, N.
From left: Suvojit Ghosh,
Dr. Muhammad Hajj
Waldo Harrison Professor and Department Head of ESM. The topic of Suvojit’s dissertation
is “Self-Assembly of Magnetic Nanoparticles: A tool
for building at the Nanoscale.”
ESM is very proud of Suvojit’s accomplishments. v
ESM Student, Scinju Gadamsetty,
Embodies Ut Prosim
In the fall of 2012, Scinju Gadamsetty of Fairfax, Va.,
a senior in the Department of Engineering Science and
Mechanics and a member of the Corps of Cadets, decided
that his friend Justin Graves, a master’s student in the
Department of Educational Leadership &
Policy Studies, needed
to see the Cascade Falls
– a hike that is a Hokie
tradition. However, the
hike seemed impossible
to Graves, a paraplegic
who has been reliant on
a wheelchair since age 3.
ALUMNI NEWS
Mehran Tehrani and Masoud Safdari
receive NSF Sponsored Travel Award for
the 2012 ASME International Mechanical
Engineering Conference and Exposition
Mehran Tehrani and Masoud Safdari, both former
PhD students in ESM, were awarded two National Science
Foundation (NSF) Travel Grants to attend the ASME –
IMECE 2012, Houston, TX. The annual ASME-IMECE
is the premier global conference for mechanical engineers.
In 2012, 40 students out of 342 applicants were selected
for the travel awards. The award recognizes skilled engineering workforce and provides financial support for the
grantee to attend the ASME annual conference.
Masoud Safdari
Mehran Tehrani
Masoud Safdari and Mehran Tehrani were both working
under supervision of ESM Professor Marwan Al-Haik.
Masoud completed his Ph.D research on the theoretical
and experimental investigations of the transport properties of hybrid polymeric nanocomposite based on carbon
nanotubes and graphite nanoplatelets. He also received
one of the The American Society for Composites (ASC)
scholarships in 2012. Mehran Tehrani who passed his final
PhD defense and is working on next generation multifunctional composites for impact, vibration and electromagnetic radiation hazards mitigation.
Both students presented their research at the NSF Sponsored Student Poster Symposium on November 14, at the
ASME-IMECE 2012. v
ESM Alumnus Ganesh Balasubramanian
Joins Iowa State University
MuRG alumnus Ganesh Balasubramanian has joined Iowa State University as assistant professor of mechanical engineering.
At Virgnia Tech, his research involved
molecular simulations of nanoscale
Ganesh
Gadamsetty thought From left: Scinju Gadamsetty, ransport that have lead to a better Balasubramanian
Justin Graves
that the ultimate Hokie
understanding of themochemical energy storage systems,
needed to see the wathermoelectric behavior, elastomeric proteins, and the role
terfall at the Cascades in nearby Giles County, Va. So in of interfacial thermal resistance during heat transfer across
the spirit of Virginia Tech’s motto Ut Prosim (That I May dissimilar materials.
Serve), Gadamsetty rounded up a group of Hokies to take
Graves to the falls.
After completing his doctorate in 2011, Dr. Balasubramanian was a postdoctoral researcher at Technische UnversiMore than a dozen Hokies joined in the quest taking turns tat Darmstadt in Germany. At Iowa State, he is establishcarrying Graves by either a makeshift stretcher that Graves ing a research program centered on multiscale effects on
could sit upon, or by back. To ensure that Graves captured the mechanical properties of materials and related energy
the full extent of the hike, the student group opted to take related applications. v
him along a more difficult, steep climb.
What Do ESM Graduates Do?
“The hike went great,” Graves would write the next day
on his personal blog. “I was so proud, as I got to enjoy
the beautiful scenery of this 2 mile (one-way) hike, that
I had friends that were willing to not only take a TON
of time out of their day … but to give me their bodies
and energy to get me to the top of a mountain. How
much more Ut Prosim can you get then carrying a man
to the top of a mountain? ”v
Professor Mary C. Boyce (ESM BS ‘81)
is the Ford Professor of Engineering and
Department Head of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
Mary Boyce
Dr. Boyce earned her B.S. degree in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech; and her S.M.
ALUMNI NEWS ( C O N TI N UE D )
and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined the
M.I.T. faculty in 1987.
Dr. Boyce teaches in the areas of mechanics and materials. Her research areas focus primarily on the mechanics
of elastomers, polymers, polymeric-based micro- and
nano-composite materials, lattice- structured materials, natural materials, and biological macromolecular
networks, with emphasis on identifying connections
among microstructure, deformation mechanisms, and
mechanical properties.
Dr. Boyce has been the recipient of several awards and
honors recognizing her research and teaching efforts,
including the MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellow, the Department of Mechanical Engineering Keenan Award
for Teaching, the Spira Award for Teaching, the NSF
Presidential Young Investigator Award, the ASME Applied Mechanics Young Investigator Award, Memberat-Large of the USNCTAM, Chair of the ASME Applied Mechanics Division, Fellow of the American
Academy of Mechanics, Fellow of the ASME, Fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and
Member of the National Academy of Engineering.
As an ESM graduate, you also can be an internationally recognized professor and scientist, and become the
head of a leading department some day.v
ESM Alumnus Maurizio Porfiri Wins
Gary Anderson Award
Maurizio Porfiri (Ph.D., 2006) has been selected as the
winner of the 2012 Gary Anderson Early Achievement
Award for his contributions to the field of smart structures and materials.
The prize is awarded to
a young researcher in his
or her ascendancy whose
work has already had an
impact in his/her field
within Adaptive Structures
and Material Systems.
You may recall that MaruMaurizio Porfiri
zio was named VT CoE’s Distinguished Young Alumnus, and Popular Science named him as
one of the 10 Brilliant Scientists in 2010. v
E D I T O RI A L BO A RD
Ishwar K. Puri, Publisher
Anne-Marie Bracken, Editor
Christine B. Burgoyne, Layout Design
We want to hear from you! Please forward your comments, suggestions, and story ideas to:
Anne-Marie Bracken
ESM Department
221 Norris Hall, Virginia Tech
Mail code: 0219
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Phone: 540-231-3243
Email: brackena@vt.edu
Virginia Tech does not discriminate against employees,
students, or applicants on the basis of race, sex, handicap, age, veteran status, national origin, religion, or political affiliation. Anyone having questions concerning
discrimination should contact the Equal Opportunity/
Affirmative Action Office.
Dr. Ishwar K. Puri
N. Waldo Harrison Professor
and Department Head
Engineering Science and Mechanics
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
http://www.esm.vt.edu
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