MechE News - October 2020 | Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering

MechE News - October 2020

Alumni, Industry Partners & Friends:听

We are now more than halfway through the fall semester, and while听these times are not without constraint, we continue to be encouraged by the way our听students, faculty and staff听have been both flexible and creative. With our top-tier researchers executing studies that will help us stay safe听during听the pandemic, faculty and staff continuing听to provide hands-on learning,听and alumni joining over 600听others听on our new听, the future looks bright.

Sincerely,

Mike Hannigan
Department Chair

Air Quality Inquiry project extends from rural Colorado into Mongolia

For three years, Air Quality Inquiry has been reaching K-12 students across rural Colorado. This year, despite COVID-19, the program is reaching across听the globe and has partnered with听Public Lab Mongolia, a nonprofit whose mission is to make data available to the Mongolian public.

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Alumni Spotlight

Honoring Duane Chesley as students receive gift of education

Duane Chesley (MechEngr鈥�58) valued education because of how it impacted his life, taking him from humble beginnings听to full colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. After his passing, we honor his support of mechanical engineering students.听

Alumna Carlye Lauff shares that she envisions a future where everyone considers themself听part 鈥渄esigner鈥� and where听they have access to design tools听to听improve the world around them.听

Duane Chesley at the 2012 Engineering Scholarship Dinner with his scholarship recipient

Honoring Duane Chesley as students receive gift of education

Education

Duane Chesley (MechEngr鈥�58) valued education because of how it impacted his life, taking him from humble beginnings on a farm in Nebraska to full colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. At CU 麻豆影院, he endowed a scholarship and established an earn-learn apprenticeship to support mechanical engineering students.

Research Spotlight

Aerosol research instrumental in getting musicians back to playing safely

A CU-麻豆影院 research team of scientists and musicians seek to find out how musical ensembles around the world can continue to safely perform music together during the pandemic.

New technology diagnoses sickle cell disease in record time

Diseases of the blood have traditionally taken a full day, tedious lab work and expensive equipment to diagnose, but researchers have developed a way to diagnose these conditions with greater precision in only one minute.听

Dynamic tattoos promise to warn wearers of health threats

Researchers are developing tattoo inks that do more than make pretty colors. Some can sense chemicals, temperature and UV radiation, setting the stage for tattoos that diagnose health problems.

Singing unmasked, indoors spreads COVID-19 through aerosols, new study confirms

A peer-reviewed study of a March choir rehearsal which became one of the nation's first superspreading events confirms that singing indoors, unmasked can swiftly spread COVID-19 via microscopic airborne particles known as aerosols.听

Scientists win grant to unravel mystery of how animals track scent

Seeking to understand how animals follow听scent, a team of scientists听won a grant to peer deeply inside the brain using a powerful microscope as the听process takes place.

New engineering research center aims to electrify transportation, expand education

CU 麻豆影院 will play a major role in ASPIRE, a new center focused on developing infrastructure and systems that facilitate the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.听

Spinout Aspero Medical receives NSF SBIR funding for endoscopic balloon with more grip

Spinout company Aspero Medical was recently awarded $225,000 through the National Science Foundation鈥檚 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. This award will allow the company to further technologies in the field of gastroenterology.听

Student Spotlight

An inside look: Interning with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Before his internship with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kyle McDonnell didn't know cost engineering was a听career path. He said his internship gave him a taste of what working at the Corps and the construction field would be like.听

Undergraduate Student of the Month - Wesley Schumacher

When Wesley Schumacher听thinks of engineering, he thinks of people鈥檚 lives and believes it鈥檚 essential to recognize that our advancement in technology is not simply for our own benefit but largely for the people around us and society鈥檚 improvement.

A new challenge: Stories of resilience in the COVID-19 era

Ahmed Ferjani was gearing up for an in-person internship at L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York. When the pandemic had other plans, he took it as an opportunity to prove to future employers that he's nimble and up for anything.听

Education & Outreach Spotlight

CU mechanical engineering commits to active learning

Though the pandemic has made the semester more challenging, faculty and staff have been daily innovating to make their courses as hands-on as possible.听

Undergraduate researchers learn valuable lessons from remote research

Undergraduate researchers share their experiences as participants in听ME SPUR, a program that听enabled undergraduate students to work with mechanical engineering faculty on research that could be conducted remotely.听