Dr. Gargi Ghosh joined the mechanical engineering department as an assistant professor effective Fall 2011. She is the first faculty member to join the department for the newly launched undergraduate program in bioengineering. Dr. Gosh earned her doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. Her areas of interest include biomaterials, tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biosensors.

The University of Michigan-Dearborn is one of the seven recipients of GATE awards from the Department of Energy. This project will establish a GATE Center for Electric Drive Transportation at UM-Dearborn. The center will build upon UM-Dearborn's existing Ph.D. and Master's (MSE) degree programs in automotive systems engineering (ASE), as well as faculty expertise and research achievements in the area of electric drive vehicles, including battery electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Under this award, UM-Dearborn will receive $1 million over the next five years to support graduate education in automotive systems engineering, with a focus on electric vehicles. The center consists of Professor Chris Mi (ECE) as the PI, Professors Yi Zhang (ME) and Dohoy Jung (ME) as co-PIs, and faculty participants Taehyung Kim (ECE), John Cherng (ME), Ben Q. Li (ME), Yi Lu Murphey (ECE), Eric Ratts (ME), and Zhiming Xi (IMSE).

 The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) surveyed high-level human resource professionals at 105 companies in the automotive, aerospace, and commercial vehicle industries on "Engineer Employment Study for Mobility Industries, 2011-2016".

 

Highlights of the study include: 

• 100% of all respondents in the automotive, aerospace, and commercial vehicle industries plan to hire engineers and related positions during the study's timeframe.
• The majority of automotive and aerospace employers intend to add positions during the next 1-2 years, and the majority of commercial vehicle employers intend to add positions during the next 1-3 years.
  
• Mechanical engineers are expected to be in the highest demand across all industries, followed by industrial, electrical/electronic, and manufacturing engineers.
  
• OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) represent the largest segment of responding companies for the automotive industry, and the average automotive OEM intends to hire between 500-1,000 engineers.
  

 

Dr. Oleg Zikanov is promoted to the rank of full professor, effective September 1, 2011. Dr. Zikanov received his doctoral degree in 1993 from Moscow State University and Institute. He joined UM-Dearborn as an Assistant Professor in September of 2001. His areas of research include computational fluid dynamics, turbulence, magnetohydrodynamics of liquid metals, phase transition in turbulent flows, population dynamics of phytoplankton, hydrodynamic instability and transition to turbulence in shear flows, hydrodynamics of aluminum reduction cells, and multi-phase filtration in porous media.

Professor Mohanty's start-up company, whose technology could lead to cheaper lithium-ion batteries, won the top prize of $50,000 in the 2011 Clean Energy Prize business plan competition. The Clean Energy Prize, established by DTE Energy and U-M in 2008, is designed to encourage entrepreneurship in Michigan and the development of clean-energy technologies. This year's contest was organized by the U-M College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship and DTE.

 

The winning company, CSquared Innovations, is a start-up project based on technology developed in the lab of Pravansu Mohanty, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UM-Dearborn. CSquared Innovations has developed a faster, cheaper, laser-based method of making nano-structured materials and coatings for lithium-ion battery electrodes, solar cells, and industrial coatings. The company should launch shortly from U-M Tech Transfer's Venture Center.

The University of Michigan - Dearborn introduces the new Bachelor of Science in Engineering program in Bioengineering. The program provides a comprehensive engineering education with orientation toward biomedical applications.  Graduates of the program will become technically skilled and socially responsible engineers prepared for immediate professional employment in various areas of biomedical technology as well as for pursuing advanced degrees in engineering, medicine, or science.

 

First year students were admitted for the Winter 2011 semester.

 

The new program is multi-disciplinary and implemented by the faculty of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters. The program is administered by the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

 

The curriculum of the new program requires completion of 128 credit hours of coursework culminating in a capstone design experience. As an option, the typical requirements of medical school admission can be satisfied within the 128 credit hour limit.

 

For admission into the program, please apply to the College of Engineering and Computer Science. The admission requirements are the same as the other engineering programs. Currently, the high school adjusted GPA of 3.0 or higher and cumulative ACT of 22 or higher is required.

A new 400-level undergraduate course, ME 493-Advanced Vehicle Energy Systems, will be offered during the Fall 2010 semester on Monday and Wednesday from 9:20-11:10 a.m. This course will introduce energy conversion systems in automotive vehicles, including advanced internal combustion engines and bio-fuels; hybrid, electric, and fuel cell vehicles; and exhaust energy recovery systems. The course is worth 3 credit hours and will be taught by ME Prof. Dohoy Jung.

Dr. Pravansu Mohanty was promoted to the rank of Professor, with tenure, effective September 1, 2010.  Dr. Mohanty received his doctoral degree in 1994 from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.  He joined UM-Dearborn as an Assistant Professor in 1999.  He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004.  His areas of research include Additive Manufacturing, Thermal Spraying, Laser Materials Processing, Biomaterials, Nanostructured Materials, Functionally Designed Materials, Battery Materials, and Solar Cells.

Dr. German Reyes was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, with tenure, effective September 1, 2010.  Dr. Reyes received his doctoral degree in 2002 from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.  He joined UM-Dearborn as an Assistant Professor in September of 2003.  His areas of research include Fiber-reinforced Composites, Bi-material Interface, and Fracture Mechanisms.

Associate Professor Taehyun Shim received the Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award from the Society of Automotive Engineering in March, 2008 for his outstanding achievements in teaching and research in the area of automotive engineering. Dr. Shim has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis. He joined the ME department at UM-Dearborn in 2001. His research and teaching interests center on vehicle control and dynamic systems modeling.

 

Professor T. Shim's Website  

Dr. Hong Tae Kang was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure effective September, 2009. Dr. Kang received his doctoral degree from the University of Alabama in 1999 and joined the department as an Assistant Professor in September, 2003. His areas of research include Materials Fatigue, Fatigue of Welded Joints and Structures, Design of Lightweight Vehicle Structures, Battery Package Design, and Advanced High Strength Steels.

Dr. Pravansu Mohanty, in collaboration with Dr. Armen Zakarian of the IMSE department, received a $2.9 million award from the U.S. Department of the Navy. This award will enable him to continue to design and develop new manufacturing techniques for fabricating medical implants and prostheses.

Professor Oleg Zikanov received a grant in the Oak Ridge Associated Universities/Oak Ridge National Laboratory High Performance Computing Grant competition. His proposal, "Effect of Liquid-Phase Turbulence of Microstructure Growth in Solidification," was chosen as one of the four winners out of 39 proposals received. The grant has a potential $75,000 monetary award over a three-year period.

Professor Oleg Zikanov received the 2009 Distinguished Research Award. Formally presented at the Twenty-seventh Annual Honor Scholars and Faculty Awards Dinner, the award included a plaque and a check for $3,000.