2019-20 Annual Report - Iowa State University · 2019. 11. 27. · Adarsh Krishnamurthy and...

2019-20 Annual Report

Department of Mechanical Engineering

AnnuAl RepoRt | 2019-2020 | pAge 2

ISU ME Annual Report2019-2020

Department Chair Carolines Hayes

Associate Chair of Graduate EducationPranav Shrotriya

Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education Cris Schwartz

Associate Chair for Research Baskar Ganapathysubramanian

Director of Diversity Margaret Mathison

The 2019-20 ISU ME Annual Report is provided by the Iowa State University Department of Mechanical Engineering. The department accepts story ideas, photos, alumni stories, comments and other inquiriesEmail [email protected]

For the latest ISU ME news, visit our website at www.me.iastate.edu

The Student Innovation Center is set to open in Janu-ary 2020. The 140,000 square feet, five floor facility will provide hands-on, experiential learning opportunities for students. The building will serve as a home and workspace for various engineering student clubs including Iowa State SAE International, Cyclone Space Mining, ISU Robotics,

Coming Spring 2020: Student Innovation CenterGaffers Guild, PrISUm Solar Car, and ISU Entrepreneur Club. The Student Innovation Center will be a destination that inspires students to innovate through experimentation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and free exchange of ideas in an inclusive environment. ME university professor Jim Oliver will serve as the director for the center.

ContentsFACts And FiguRes

AwARds And HonoRs

ReseARCH FeAtuRe

student FeAtuRe

student FeAtuRe

senioR CApstone

industRy AdvisoRy CounCil

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From the ChairIt’s been another busy year in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University. This report will provide data about our department’s reserach, finances, enrollment, and graduation numbers. Also read about a research project involing ME’s Ming-Chen Hsu and Adarsh Krishnamurthy using computer simulations to improve prosthetics in the biomedical field, un-dergraduate student Courtney Beringer and her solar-powered backpack, Jocelyn Jackson, an alumnus of our department’s undergraduate program who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in

engineering education research at the University of Michigan while also serving as national chair for the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and ME alum Tom Duncan and his road to the 2018 Winter Olympics. We hope you enjoy reading these stories to see the great impact our department is having in Iowa and beyond. Go Cyclones!!


FACts And FiguRes FinAnCiAl

Top Research Sponsors Ordered alphabetically

Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc.American Institute of Chemical EngineersBoeing CompanyCornell UniversityDepartment of Defense - Air Force Office of Scientific ResearchDepartment of Defense - Army Research LaboratoryDepartment of Defense - Army Research OfficeDepartment of Defense - Defense Advanced Research Projects AgencyDepartment of Defense - Office of Naval ResearchEast Penn Manufacturing CompanyFluor Marine Propulsion LLC-Knolls Atomic Power LaboratoryIowa Economic Development AuthorityNational Science Foundation (NSF)Texas Research Institute Austin, Inc.University of Colorado BoulderUniversity of FloridaUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstUniversity of Texas at AustinU.S. Department of Agriculture - National Institute of Food & Agriculture Van Wall Equipment

Department Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) DataCalendar Year 2019

Position Classification FTE

Faculty 49.70

Merit 2.00

Professional & Scientific (P&S) 25.00

Faculty Appointment (FTE) DataCalendar Year 2019


Professor (Tenured) 11.00

Associate Professor (Tenured) 12.65

Assitant Professor (Tenure-Eligable) 11.00


Professor (Non-Tenured) 4.33

Associate Professor (Non-Tenured) 7.39

Assitant Professor (Non-Eligable) 2.33

Lecturer (Non-Tenured) 1.00


Graduate Assistant 55.25

Pre/Post Doc 5.00


FACts And FiguRes

enRollment dAtA

Undergraduate Enrollment

Fall 10-Day Number2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

2500

2000

1500

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500

0

Graduate Enrollment

Fall 10-Day Number

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

300

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100

50

0

Undergraduate Female Enrollment

Fall 10-Day Number

250

200

150

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50

02010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Graduate Female Enrollment

Fall 10-Day Number

60

50

40

30

20

10

02010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

0

500

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1500

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2500

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ugrad enrollment

Series1

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grad enrollment

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Ugrad Female Enrollment

Series1

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Chart Title

Series1


FACts And FiguRes

gRAduAtion dAtA

Bachelor’s Degrees Awarded

Academic Year

02010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

100

200

300

400

500

Master’s Degrees Awarded (M.S. + M.Eng)

Academic Year

02010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Doctoral Degrees Awarded

Academic Year

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

02010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Total Degrees Awarded

Academic Year

02010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

100

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0

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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2,017 2018 2019Fiscal Year

Bachelor's Degrees Awarded

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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2,017 2018 2019

Master's Degrees Awarded

M.Eng/M.S.

0

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30

35

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2,017 2018 2019


Ph.D.

0

100

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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2,017 2018 2019


Ph.D.


FACulty AwARds And HonoRsXianglan Bai, Associate ProfessorU.S. Patent 10,190,053

Robert C. Brown, Distinguished Professor / Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering35-Year Service Award

Abhijit Chandra, ProfessorASME EPPD Excellence in Mechanics Award

Jonathan Claussen, Associate ProfessorEarly Career Engineering Faculty Research Award

Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, Professor / Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Professor in EngineeringPomerantz Award

Theodore Heindel, University Professor / Bergles Professor in Thermal ScienceRegents Award for Faculty Excellence

Jim Heise, Associate Teaching ProfessorOutstanding Engineering Faculty of the Year

Ming-Chen Hsu, Associate ProfessorU.S. Association for Computational Mechanics Gallagher Young Investi-gator Award

Chao Hu, Assistant ProfessorASME Design Automation Young Investigator Award

Owen Kolstad, Professor of PracticeStudent Organization Adviser of the Year

Valery Levitas, Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering / Vance Coffman Faculty ChairKhan International Award

Margaret Mathison, Associate Teaching ProfessorAward for Excellence in Foundational Course Teaching

Greg Maxwell, Associate Professor EmeritusHonors Parks Award

Reza Montazami, Associate ProfessorUniversity Honors Committee Award for Excellence in Honors Mentoring

Paola Pittoni, Assistant Teaching ProfessorSuperior Engineering Teaching Award

Soumik Sarkar, Associate ProfessorNSF CAREER AwardEarly Achievement in ResearchPlant Science Institute Faculty Scholar

Xinwei Wang, ProfessorAward for Outstanding Achievement in Research

innovAtive ReseARCH

in A HeARtbeAt: mACHine leARning speeds up HeARt-vAlve simulAtions


Adarsh Krishnamurthy and Ming-Chen Hsu got to talking about their research interests – Krishnamur-thy works in simulating cardiac mechanics and Hsu in simulating valve dynamics – when they had an idea.

“He has the heart without the valve, and I have the valve without the heart,” Hsu said. “We thought ‘why don’t we just put them together?’”

Modeling heart-valve replacements

Modeling heart valves and the mechanics of the fluid moving through the heart chambers can be used to predict deformations and diseases that affect the valves. Simulations can also add in a virtual prosthet-ic replacement valve to examine its effectiveness.

Replacing valves can be a very risky procedure for patients with valvular heart disease, so knowing ahead of time as much as possible about how a pros-thetic valve will help a specific patient with specific circumstances will save money and lives.

But, one simulation of heart-valve movement (dynamic closure and opening) takes about four and half hours to complete, and one simula-tion of fluid movement (with fluid-structure interaction) through a valve takes about

one week. In addition, development of a coupled fluid-structure interaction model with accurate movement of the ventricles is complicated, and this can take years.

From years to minutes

So Krishnamurthy, assistant professor of mechanical engineering (ME), and Hsu, associate professor of ME, knew who they needed to add to their team: Soumik Sarkar, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and an expert in machine learning. They also enlisted the help of Aditya Balu, graduate research assistant in mechanical engineering.

The team now hopes to teach a machine to predict heart valve simulations, and eventually fluid-struc-ture interaction simulations of heart valves by provid-ing enough data and simulations to learn from. Their initial tests of the machine learning have produced predictions that are 95% accurate according to the actual physics simulations that are run.

The potential with machine learning is simulations that normally take hours or days could be predicted by a machine within a matter of seconds. The long-term goal is to design cus-tom-created heart valves unique to patients’ anatomy and health problems.

Combining expertise, solving problems

This combined research project falls under the umbrella of the Center for Multiphase Flow Re-search and Education (CoMFRE).

“CoMFRE is about the fluids,” Krishnamurthy said. “But with our expertise, we can also look at how the fluids interact with other physics. So, we are really working closely with the Multiphysics part of CoMFRE in this project.”

The team’s work is different from what people typi-cally think of as mechanical engineering, but they are able to do this work because Iowa State encourages creative new lines of research that apply engineering across traditional discipline lines.

“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, you guys are doing biol-ogy.’” Hsu said. “No, it’s a very mechanical problem. At its core, a heart is a pump and it has four valves. They should open, and they should close – and that’s what we are doing here!”

Hsu

Krishnamurthy


A dying cell phone or laptop battery can be a source of anxiety for an already busy college student, but a project by a former mechanical engineering student aims to alleviate that.

Courtney Beringer, a graduate of ME with a minor in energy systems, spent three years working with Eulanda Sanders, Donna R. Danielson Professor in Textiles and Clothing and Chair of the Department of Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management (AESHM), developing and prototyping a solar pan-el-equipped backpack.

The idea for the backpack came about because of Beringer’s participation in the first-year mentor program offered by Iowa State’s Honors Program. Sanders was interested in overseeing an interdisci-plinary project that would bring engineering students together to design a wearable product incorporating solar panels. Beringer jumped at the opportunity since it allowed her to combine her two passions: engineering and environmental sustainability. She started on the project in January of 2016 and worked with Sam Vande Loo, a fellow undergraduate in ME.

“I conducted a focus group interview to collect qualitative data and then made an online survey that received over 700 usable responses with qualitative and quantitative data,” said Beringer. “From this

data, we decided to design a solar pow-ered book bag that uses solar energy to create electrical energy that can charge various devices.”

She then conducted industry-approved tests on the textile materials to determine what was best for a book bag with elec-trical integration including color fastness, abrasion and water resistance. By incor-porating design and drafting skills she learned in the ME curriculum, she was able to determine the correct electrical components and proper solar panel size. She also incorporated design features suggested by her survey respondents such as laptop and water bottle pockets, a removable panel, battery storage and the ability to charge a laptop. Much of the research took place in the textile experiment labs and product development facilities inside LeBaron Hall. Beringer also collaboarted with Ames-based PowerFilm Solar on this project.

“Like assembling any part in engineering, when sew-ing the order and method of assembly is extremely important in creating a shelf ready product. With the help of graduate students, I learned to sew and com-pleted two prototypes and a final product,” Beringer said, adding that she was grateful for the help from now-AESHM Ph.D. graduate Chanmi Hwang and current AESHM doctoral student Bingyue Wei.

After developing a near-final prototype she submitted an abstract and a 30-page paper about her project to the International Textile and Apparel Association Best Student Paper competition in April. She was

notified the following month that her project had received first place.

“I was so surprised and thankful. This research has taken a lot of time and effort and it was wonderful to hear that scholars appreciated the work,” she said, adding that she completed the final product in October of 2018 then had the opportunity to present her research at the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Conference in Cleveland, Ohio in November 2018.

Beringer grew up in Dubuque, Iowa and excelled in math and science classes. She developed an interest in the environment through her involvement in the Sierra Club as well as her middle school’s compost-ing program.

“As I went through school with these two interests, I started to learn how I could combine my passion for the environment and my skills in math and science through engineering,” she said.

continued on page 9

student suCCessme student designs solAR-poweRed bACkpACk


FoCus on diveRsity

Focus.Focus on what you want and go for it.

These are the first two lines of Jocelyn Jack-son’s personal mission statement. And as the new national chair for the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) as of May 1, 2019, focus is Jackson’s top priority.

When it comes to NSBE, Jackson treats focus as an acronym of values: family, opportunity, commitment, unity, and servant leadership.

According to Jackson, a grad student in engineering education research at the University of Michigan who attended Iowa State for her undergraduate studies in ME, NSBE was founded on servant leadership, which she defines as leading with empathy.

The six NSBE founders and their advisor at Purdue University noticed that while they had found their success, many others had not. Even today, the grad-uation rate for black engineering students within six years is 36%.

Jackson nearly stopped believing in herself before she found the NSBE chapter at Iowa State, along with the means to succeed.

“I wouldn’t be an engineer if it weren’t for this or-ganization because I was ready to give up, so I want to give back to the organization and pay it forward,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s goal as national chair is to promote and make strides to accomplish the current strategic

plan of NSBE: 10K by 2025. In other words, to have 10,000 black engineers graduating annually by 2025.

Currently, about 4,500 black engineers are graduating annu-ally nationwide, which is a 28% increase from the start of the strategic plan. Progress has been made, but it is not yet enough.

“It’s a complex issue,” Jackson said. “It’s hard because I don’t want to fail. If I fail, I don’t lose, but others would, and they are counting on us. I would rather lose than see others lose. I believe engineering is a way of life and a lot of our members are first-generation students or first-gen-eration engineers who need NSBE’s support. We change lives!”

That’s why Jackson plans to lead with purpose and to unite the organization.

“Really, I’m the visionary. I put the vision together, work with the team, get feedback and stakeholder engagement, and from there we apply focus and just go for it,” Jackson said.

Attending Iowa State was an easy choice for her, given the university’s strong reputation for engineer-ing coupled with all of the opportunities that a large academic institution offers.

“I knew I wanted to go to a large school to broaden my perspectives and have opportunities to interact with people outside of my major and identities,” she said. “I chose mechanical engineering because I wanted to tailor my education around energy har-vesting and power generation.”

Beringer has presented at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Oklahoma, Research at the Capitol in Des Moines, and the Iowa State Conference on Undergraduate Research in Ames. Additionally she has worked in the Experimental Multiphase Flow Lab, overseen by Ted Heindel, Ber-gles Professor of Thermal Science and a university professor in mechanical engineering.

“In Dr. Heindel’s lab I help run X-ray experiments and do much of the designing and construction for the experiments. I often use Boyd Lab to fabricate parts as well as the water jet in Sukup Hall,” said Beringer. “I also complete research by writing programs, ana-lyzing data from X-ray experiments, and presenting my findings.”

Beringer completed her degree in May 2019 and now works in Des Moines, designing and consulting green energy systems for new buildings. Down the road, she plans to attend graduate school to pursue a doctorate in the renewable energy field.

Jackson

stRengtH in numbeRs: new nAtionAl CHAiRleAding nsbe witH puRpose

continued from page 8


Alumni exCellenCe

Leading a global multimillion-dollar advertising campaign during the 2018 Winter Olympics required more than a creative marketing strategy. It required problem solving.

After nearly two decades at P&G, that’s precisely a skill Tom Duncan (’01 mech eng) possessed. And he credits the groundwork of his development to Iowa State and the engineering program.

“I had a really nontraditional path to a career in con-sumer marketing,” said Duncan. “But my engineering degree taught me that any big problem is just a handful of small problems.”

Duncan said he never planned to stay at one com-pany for so long, but this August he will celebrate 17 years at P&G. Duncan said that the global scale and diversity of opportunities at P&G keep his career challenging and exciting. In just the last three years, Duncan’s work has taken him to South Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, the UK, France, Switzerland, Brazil and Panama.

While at P&G, Duncan has worked across a number of brands, including Crest, Oral-B, and Head & Shoul-ders. Some of his accomplishments consist of the 2018 Olympics campaign “Love Over Bias,” creating two new marketing campaigns for Head & Shoulders that returned the brand to growth, as well as devel-

oping award-win-ning advertising with Major League Baseball and the National Football League.

“In school I fixed engineering problems. Now I fix different kinds of problems,” said Duncan.

After he graduated in 2001, Duncan started as a manu-facturing process engineer at P&G in Iowa City, Iowa, where he designed and installed new equipment and created new training methods that reduced inventory build and lowered expenses. The results were so impressive, Duncan’s efforts were globally reapplied by P&G.

Duncan quickly moved into an operations manager role and by 2006 moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, tran-sitioning to brand management, first working on both the Crest and Oral-B oral care brands. Duncan then relocated to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he led customer marketing efforts for P&G as a brand manager for Walmart. Now the associate brand director for the global P&G brand, Duncan leads digital marketing and content partnerships across P&G globally, as well as the P&G global Olympics program. Duncan has worked with both professional

athletes, including Lindsay Vonn and Troy Polamalu, and world-recognized journalists, like Katie Couric and Arianna Huffington.

“Building marketing programs requires extensive teamwork and partnership, both inside P&G and with outside business partners,” said Duncan. “I do nothing by myself. I credit the engineering program at Iowa State for demanding teamwork early in my academic career, which is a critical professional skill regardless of where your career takes you.”

For Duncan, curiosity produces success.

“You spend a lot of your waking hours at work. It’s important to be intellectually challenged when you’re there,” said Duncan. “You don’t stop learning after you graduate. Graduation is just the beginning.”

FRom meCHAniCAl engineeRingto tHe olympiC stAge


industRy AdvisoRy CounCil

Members of the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) pose with ME department chair Caroline Hayes after touring the Student Innovation Center during their spring 2019 meeting.

Robin O’Callaghan, Chair - Kiewit Power, Inc. Cynthia Lord - Alliant Energy

Kyle Wehring, Vice Chair - Rockwell Collins Dave O’Brien - LyondellBasell

Brett L. Anderson, PE - The Boeing Company Jason Olberding - Emerson Process Management

Kristi Christensen - John Deere Paton Nancy Stewart - 3M

Diane Fischer - Black & Veatch Corporation Joe Wright - Danfoss

Mike Jensen - Caterpillar, Inc. For more info, visit: www.me.iastate.edu/industry-advisory-council/

A shot of a mechanical engineering workshop, around the turn of the centry.

Notice the sewer cover in the lower right corner. Several of these covers can still be

spotted around campus today, including just south of Black Engineering Building.

Photo courtesy of Iowa State University Special Collections and University Archives

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