Mechanical Engineering Fall 2020 Newsletter

FALL

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2020

Dominique Badajoz- New ME Graphic Design Student Assistant Dominique Badajoz began working at the Mechanical Engineering Department during mid March of 2020. In addition to working for ME, she is also a Center Programming Assistant at the Latino Native American Cultural Center and has been an Iowa Edge Peer Leader since January 2019.

Dominique is from Southern California in her third year doubling in Informatics and Studio Art with her interest in Graphic Design. Outside of work, she has an interest in fashion, interior design, and social justice.

Dominique is very involved in and out of the University with being the president for the Native American Student Association, a member of HerCampus at Iowa, the Association of Latinos Moving Ahead, and a regular user of the Center for Diversity and Enrichment.

Mollie Phalen- New ME Graphic Design Student Assistant Mollie began working for Mechanical Engineering this year and is excited to be contributing to her first newsletter. She previously was a Resident Assistant in Catlett Hall and served as the Creative Director for Dance Marathon 26. Currently, she is serving as the Design Editor for Fools Magazine Mollie is a Graphic Design BFA student working toward a psychology minor. She hopes to find a career as a graphic designer post-graduation, working with branding and marketing, and eventually would like to pursue an MFA in Graphic Design. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, baking, playing ukulele, and painting.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 Choi: Making an Impact on Iowa Engineering 9 An Engineer and Something More: Combining

Football and Engineering

10 College of Engineering Holds First-Ever Virtual

Commencement

12 New faculty highlight: Rachel Vitali 15 Meet ME Lecturer Austin Krebill 20 UI researchers use simulations to observe how

viruses dry on solid surfaces

23 Congratulations to the 2020 Student

Leadership Award Winners!

Donate to University of Iowa Mechanical Engineering!

Funds support important programs and experiences for our students, and provide opportunities for our faculty, such as:

· The U2G Undergraduate to Graduate Program · Travel expenses for Virtual International Project Teams (VIPT) · Future years of the Design Internship Program · Junior faculty endowment · Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives

Head to me.engineering.uiowa.edu for more information.

Or, scan the QR Code to donate now!

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Contact us at ME-dept@uiowa.edu

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DEO Message The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic not only poses a serious global health threat, but also has implications for economies, companies and academic institutions seeking to understand the long-term effect on their employees in the post-COVID era. In particular, working from home creates an environment that could potentially shift the pedagogical paradigm by lowering the geographical barriers both domestically and internationally through virtual collaboration with peer institutions and industries.

Since March 2020, we have assessed and implemented various instructional modes of delivery along with cost analyses and campus-reopening safety plans. For example, ENGR:2510 Fluid Mechanics uses fluid lab videos as a substitute for in-person labs. Students in ME:3351 Engineering Instrumentation can check out individual take-home lab kits from the engineering library or receive by mail as an alternative. The takehome lab approach also resolves the space issue where both ME:3351 and ME:4080 Experimental Engineering use the Ralph & Barbara Stephens Experimental Engineering lab. The change from in-person to takehome labs is like the transformation from using a punched-card computer in a computer room to using a mobile laptop everywhere.

Due in part to the financial uncertainties, we are not able to fill our academic service coordinator vacancy.

In addition, the new facilities and administrative (F&A) cost revenue model announced by the College of Engineering is expected to have profound impacts on every unit of the college. Regardless, I would like to share with you several wonderful stories in this newsletter issue. Professor Kyung (KK) Choi is in his second and last year of phased retirement. He reflects on his over 40-year services and contributions to the

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department, the college, the university and beyond. The stories of our new assistant professor Rachel Vitali and lecturer Austin Krebill provide the prospects of the strengths that they would bring to the department.

We also feature the stories of two former undergraduate students Allison Rowe, the student speaker of the first-ever virtual spring commencement, and Michael Ojemudia, an engineer and something more – a football player. The article on the NSF’s Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant awarded to Professors Hongtao Ding and Udaykumar is one of the examples on how engineers could help understand the COVID transmission.

During this tumultuous time, we look forward to your continued support and virtual reconnection. Hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy!

Ching-Long Lin, DEO Edward M. Mielnik and Samuel R. Harding Professor

Zoom meetings have become the new normal for 2020.

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Choi: Making an Impact on Iowa Engineering 6

During his four decades at the University of Iowa (UI), you might have seen Professor Kyung (KK) Choi taking a walk across campus every now and then to clear his head. He was likely thinking about his work and his students, or some fascinating problem he hoped to solve. Choi has served the Department of Mechanical Engineering since 1973, when he first started master’s studies at the university, until his retirement this year.

Choi has indeed made an enduring impact on everyone he has been in contact with at Iowa.

Choi has played many roles during his time at the UI College of Engineering, from master’s student to the Roy J. Carver Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Choi calls his three years as a postdoc and a research assistant his “prime time,” which provided a foundation on which to build the next 40 years of research, teaching, and scholarship.

Choi has served the Department of Mechanical Engineering since 1973, when he first started master’s studies at the university, until his retirement this year. Choi has indeed made an enduring impact on everyone he has been in contact with at Iowa.

During his time as a UI student and assistant, Choi learned a great deal from his mentor, Edward Haug, who helped nurture Choi’s incredible bond with the university. When Choi was apprehensive about staying with the College of Engineering because of concerns that he might compete with his friend and mentor for research funding, Haug was adamant that Choi stay at the college.

Choi enjoyed a speedy and successful transition from associate professor to full professor. The average time required for this career path is 12 years but Choi completed it in 6.5 years. Choi served as Associate Director (1990-1993), Deputy Director (1993-1995), Acting Director (1995-1996), and Director of Center for Computer-Aided Design (CCAD, now known as Iowa Technology Institute) (1996-2003). Choi is Elected Fellow

7 Professor Kyung (KK) Choi and his wife, Ho-Youn Yang

of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Choi started his research area in theory and numerical methods of design sensitivity analysis and then changed in his mid-career to reliability analysis and reliability-based design optimization. It was a significant change and something many faculty researchers would not consider. For Choi, however, the change allowed him to continue working with students and create a platform for them to succeed under his wing. When none of his graduate students volunteered to carry out with him the new research, Choi chose a second-year PhD student to work with him. When the student asked, “Why me?” Choi pointed out future potentiality and the student’s capability. Choi is proud to have shepherded the student to a successful career in this research area.

In 2013, Choi established the start-up company RAMDO Solutions to commercialize the Iowa Reliability-Based Design Optimization (I-RBDO) software developed by his research team. The commercialized product is called RAMDO (Reliability Analysis & Multidisciplinary Design Optimization). Due to the success of the company, Choi received the University of Iowa Startup of the Year Award in 2017.

When asked about his most rewarding moments at the university, Choi responded, “I am most proud of mentoring my former 39 PhD students who are successfully pursuing their careers in the academy, industry, and government organizations. They are the ones who made us carry out exciting and successful research. It was very rewarding when they became better researchers in their specific area than I am.”

Choi says he has always loved the process of thinking through a problem and finding the solution. He would sometimes walk to Iowa Book and Supply to think and discuss with himself the problems he was given and their possible solutions. Usually, Choi didn’t even make it to the store before turning around and hustling back

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to his office to write down the ideas that had flowed through his mind while he was walking.

Choi has made an indelible impact on the College of Engineering, from teaching first-year students just beginning to learn about their major to seniors finishing their degrees to pursue a fantastic future in the field. Choi says his students and colleagues at the University of Iowa will never be far from his thoughts.

He says his connections and the powerful bond he feels to this university have been an important part of his life.

Choi has been a wonderful addition to the university.

He will be missed!

Choi says his students and colleagues at the University of Iowa will never be far from his thoughts. He says his connections and the powerful bond he feels to this university have been an important part of his life.

An Engineer and Something More: Combining Football and Engineering Michael Ojemudia is a recent graduate of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Iowa. During his time at Iowa, Ojemudia played cornerback for the Hawkeye football team and was recently drafted by the Denver Broncos. At Iowa, Ojemudia successfully balanced the heavy demands of being a student athlete with his academics. When asked about the workload, he said that it took a lot of time management and the prioritization of schoolwork and athletics over social life. Ojemudia’s dedication to his academics and his passion for football were constants during his time at Iowa.

Originally from Michigan, Ojemudia came from a family of immigrants from Nigeria. As he was growing up, he watched his father work as an engineer for Ford Motor Company. This piqued his interest in engineering and led him to pursue a career in the field. Also during this time, Ojemudia fell in love with football. He played throughout high school and accepted a football scholarship to the University of Iowa, where he excelled on the field and in the classroom.

It was not always easy, though. Ojemudia said that there were moments when he considered switching to an easier major or even transferring but he had inspiring and dedicated professors who helped him stay motivated and engaged in his coursework. He would like to give a huge thank you to faculty members Hongtao Ding, Justin Garvin, and Ruben Beltran Del Rio for continuing to push and inspire him and not allowing him to give up on his dreams.

When asked if he had any advice for current undergraduate engineering students, he said that they should get to know their professors and go to office hours. He added, though, that the key is to not procrastinate on their work.

In the future, Michael Ojemudia would like to continue to play football for as long as he can. After his football career, he hopes to combine engineering with football, working on technology to improve players’ practices as well as their safety on the field.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering would like to congratulate Michael Ojemudia on his graduation. We look forward to seeing his bright future!

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College of Engineering Holds FirstEver Virtual Commencement On Sunday, May 17, the College of Engineering held its spring commencement ceremony virtually for the first time ever because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was a new experience for everyone and a time to remember for years to come.

The commencement ceremony started with a prerecorded speech by University of Iowa (UI) President Bruce Harreld, who told the graduates, “As always, we stand together as Hawkeyes today, with strength, purpose, and pride.”

The graduates also heard from UI Provost Monserrat Fuentes, Iowa Board of Regents President Mike Richards, College of Engineering Dean Alec Scranton, alumni speaker Kristi Bauerly, and mechanical engineering graduate Allison Rowe.

Following the speeches, the audience enjoyed a commencement slide show featuring photos submitted by the graduates. The Department of Mechanical Engineering graduated 83 BSE students, and we are proud of each of them! They showed remarkable dedication to achieving their dream of completing a degree, including a virtual final semester, during unprecedented times.

Allison Rowe did a wonderful job with her speech and gave her permission to reprint it here: “I could think of no place more fitting to deliver this virtual speech than the Pentacrest, the place where we met nearly four years ago for convocation, brimming with possibilities and excitement.

“And now we’re here. Or there, or wherever you’re watching from. We formed friendships, made plenty of mistakes, learned like crazy, and snatched up all the opportunities we could. And as I reflected on the passage of time between that August afternoon and today, I was reminded of an essay by Marina Keegan,

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written for a commencement edition of the Yale Daily News. She says, ‘The notion that it is too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating from college. We’re so young.’

“And she’s right. It’s never too late to try something for the first time, whether that be rock climbing or painting or even a master’s program. We’ve already tackled one of the steepest learning curves there is, and that’s getting an engineering degree. So embrace new learning curves. Try and fail and achieve and start over – we have time.

“Keegan also writes, ‘We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility, because in the end, it’s all we have.’

“And frankly, I disagree with her. Yes, that sense of possibility is vital, but the fact that we made it to graduation today proves that we have so much more: creativity, dedication, ingenuity, passion, innovation.

“In the face of uncertainty, especially now, we’re ready.

To my fellow engineers in the University of Iowa class of 2020, I wish you all the possibility in the world.”

Rowe and 82 others received BSE degrees in mechanical engineering at the spring 2020 Commencement ceremony. Allison started her career at Design Engineers MEPFT in Madison, Wis., over the summer. Congratulations to all the new ME graduates!

Campus is extra quiet as students are welcomed back for fall semester under strict social distancing guidelines. Students are taking a mix of online and small in person classes to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

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New faculty highlight: Rachel Vitali

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Rachel Vitali earned a BSE in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan and continued on in the department, obtaining both MSE and PhD degrees. Building upon an already impressive record of research, she is now continuing her career as an assistant professor at the University of Iowa

One of the newest faculty members in the Department of Mechanical Engineering brings a fresh perspective and innovative research in instrumentation and robotics.

Rachel Vitali earned a BSE in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan and continued on in the department, obtaining both MSE and PhD degrees. Building upon an already impressive record of research, she is now continuing her career as an assistant professor at the University of Iowa. She intends to continue her research focused on human instrumentation and, eventually, study the interactions between humans and robots.

Vitali’s work uses wearable sensors to quantify how an individual’s performance or behavior changes —in military personnel, for example. She was a Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) Postdoctoral Fellow, during which time she studied how wearable sensors can inform NASA’s future decisions regarding how to maximize astronauts’ success in conducting scientific experiments on the Moon and Mars. With the outbreak of COVID-19, she has been unable to conduct her human subject research as originally intended, but she is currently utilizing other data sources to continue her work.

Human capabilities in system identification, perceptionbased pattern recognition, and adaptation often exceed what robots can do, at least for now.

But by using data collected from wearable sensors, she can evaluate and improve technology such as robotic exoskeletons in order to augment and/or supplement human abilities.

Vitali finds human movement and interactions with robots to be fascinating, particularly with respect to how robots and people can collaborate with one another. Human capabilities in system identification, perception-based pattern recognition, and adaptation often exceed what robots can do, at least for now. But

Vitali works with wearable sensors in her research of Human-Robot Interaction. Find more information visit her website: https://www.rachelvitali.com/hirlab.html by using data collected from wearable sensors, she can evaluate and improve technology such as robotic exoskeletons in order to augment and/or supplement human abilities. One of the envisioned futures for this type of technology is improving the quality of life for individuals with mobility limitations.

Vitali says being a woman in engineering often puts her in the position of “playing the counting game”— looking at her peers and noticing that she is one of only a few women in the room. For instance, after her first year of undergraduate studies, she was one of only three women at a summer job in industry.

This dramatic imbalance unfortunately created an environment that perpetuated harassment, something that many women face at some point in their careers.

Shortly after, Vitali met a faculty member who inspired her pursue research, which led to her current path in academia. Though still outnumbered, she says she has developed a support system of other likeminded individuals dedicated to enacting change in engineering culture. During her time as a graduate student, a female faculty member spoke openly with women graduate students about her experiences, and this “womentoring” encouraged Vitali to pay that mentorship forward to future generations of students

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who may not feel like they fit in with engineering. She says that diversity of all kinds is important, but a hard quota is not the answer to change the current standard practices. Instead, it will require a long, deliberate process of curriculum and institutional changes that begin with the individual.

Vitali’s experiences at Michigan encouraged her to stay in the academic system and to work to better it in her own way. As a professor, she envisions leading a student-centered classroom, which may be harder to create and more time intensive upfront, but she believes the best way to learn is through active student engagement. In the spring semester, she will be teaching a graduate-level course that she is designing.

Vitali plans to work with students to help them translate

As a professor, she envisions leading a student-centered classroom, which may be harder to create and more time intensive upfront, but she believes the best way to learn is through active student engagement. sensor data into interpretable and usable information about mechanical systems for real-world applications.

She envisions students using sensors to design their own experiments to enable them to have agency over their own educational experiences.

Vitali encourages current engineering students to try as many things as possible and think hard about what they want from their careers. She believes, in general, the way people feel about their profession falls on a spectrum. On one end, their job is a paycheck that allows them to live the life they want, and on the other end, their job is their passion. She encourages students to be honest about how they feel about their careers and be prepared to pursue employment where the reality matches their expectations.

The University of Iowa Department of Mechanical Engineering is excited to welcome Rachel Vitali as a new member of the faculty!

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Meet ME Lecturer Austin Krebill

Krebill is not a new face to the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department since he received his BSE degree from our program earlier in his career. He enjoyed his classes and research so much that he decided to stay in ME and obtained his PhD degree in the summer of 2020. He worked with Professor James Buchholz, ME faculty and IIHR affiliate on his research and dissertation.

The Engineering College and ME faculty performed an external search for the new lecturer position and Krebill was the best fit. He has a lot of experience with being a teaching assistant for a diverse array of courses and he seems to be a natural lecturer. He comes to the department with a lot of experience and we are eager to see the direction he takes his courses.

Krebill’s first semester as a lecturer has been a challenge with COVID-19 where classes are being taught in a hybrid fashion of online and in person. He is blazing the way for designing online labs and lectures for ME:3351 Instrumentation and ME:4080 Experimental Engineering. We wanted to get to know Krebill better, so we asked him a few questions and will share his answers.

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Q. How did the University of Iowa Engineering set you apart and prepare you for what was next?

Krebill: By allowing access to resources such as state-of-the-art equipment, lab space, and faculty/ researchers.

Q. What is the best piece of advice for students (or someone interested in this field/specific job)?

Krebill: The world is a very competitive, never quit learning and pushing yourself, otherwise your competition will gain the upper hand.

Q. Can you give us a brief job description and why you decided to obtain your Ph.D.?

Krebill: As an undergraduate student, I became a teaching assistant for Design for Manufacturing

I discovered my desire to teach by getting great satisfaction from teaching students and watching their skillsets evolve to a level where they could design and construct a remote-control car for the final project.

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class to hone my machining skills and to gain work experience. In doing so, I discovered my desire to teach by getting great satisfaction from teaching students

and watching their skillsets evolve to a level where they could design and construct a remote-control car for the final project. Next, I developed a passion for being an experimentalist while a graduate teaching assistant for four different classes. In which, lab settings were my favorite, in particular, Experimental Naval Hydrodynamics class, where I developed experiments over the summer and instructed students during lab for the following fall semester. I thought a lot about the experiment through the design phase and was able to keep students engaged by being able to answer any questions they had while also being able to ask the students good experimental design questions. In this setting I was able to gauge my performance from student feedback on how well I utilized my communication skills, machining experience, and engineering skills to develop and teach experiments to students. Answering questions like; did they find the content interesting? Was I clear in explaining the material? Were the fundamental principles understood by everyone? Is the experiment robust and repeatable?

In a short summary, my interest lies with teaching and developing engineering lab-based courses where I can leverage my manufacturing/design skills, research skills to accelerate students in learning.

Q. What courses are you teaching for the fall 2020 semester?

Krebill: I have been revamping ME3351 and ME4080 to provide better continuity between the two classes, while keeping the appropriated overlap.

-ME3351: Engineering Instrumentation: Experiments were redesigned to be conducted off-site by students using a take-home lab kit where they interface the instructor/TA’s virtually during the allocated lab time.

Within the lab kit is an Arduino UNO, microcontroller board used for data acquisition, where each student uses LabVIEW to design/build their own data acquisition system. One example is a temperature measurement system that the students design/ construct. First, they build an electrical amplifying circuit to amplify the temperature dependent thermocouple voltage, then write a program using LabVIEW to acquire voltage. Next, they use ice water “known temperature” to tare the system. Finally, they log temperature measurements and report the associated uncertainty of those measurements.

-ME4080: Experimental Engineering: Experiments were refurbished/updated, new experiments are on the horizon.

Q. Can you tell us what will students be doing/learning in the courses?

Krebill: In ME:4080 students will: -Familiarization and utilization of mechanical measurement instrumentation used in research and industry.

-Design, develop, and conduct their own experiment.

-Quantifying the uncertainty of the measurements, “how good is the measurement” In ME:3351 students will: -Construct and use basic measurement circuit elements -Calibrate and estimate measurement uncertainty Good luck to Krebill in his new position and we wish him much success!

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The year 2020 has been one of many changes in life and routine which have deeply impacted the University of Iowa’s campus. There have been many calls for systemic reform and political action. These are the steps of the Old Capitol building, following weeks of Black Lives Matter protests in Iowa City.

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UI researchers use simulations to observe how viruses dry on solid surfaces Kelsey Harrell, News Reporter for the Daily Iowan April 29, 2020 Two researchers in the University of Iowa College of Engineering received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study how virus droplets that are expelled when someone coughs or sneezes dry on solid surfaces and contribute to the spread of infectious diseases.

it applies to every single virus and bacteria as well,” Udaykumar said.

A broad range of data exists on the survival of viruses on solid surfaces, said UI mechanical-engineering Associate Professor Hongtao Ding, co-researcher on the project. The researchers are trying to develop their own experimental methods to control all of the variables such as surface condition, he said.

Ding’s primary aspect of the research focuses on experimental science, he said, and will evolve with different surfaces. The researchers will use a laser to change surface treatment and adjust the surface roughness and wetness, Ding said.

The researchers will also control the size of the droplets on each surface, he said. They will monitor the drying process of the droplet to accurately measure the size change. They will also look at the chemical composition of the droplets and will control the concentration of salt, he added, which dissolves the droplets.

“We are in mechanical engineering where we’re not going to put the actual viruses in these droplets, but I think we are interested in seeing how [during] this thermal process the droplets change,” Ding said.

University of Iowa researchers recently began a new study to observe through simulations how droplets containing viruses that are ejected when a person coughs or sneezes dry on solid surfaces.

Udaykumar approached UI microbiology and immunology Professor Steven Varga to look at the survivability of the viruses and help measure them on the surfaces.

A one-year RAPID grant from the National Science Foundation totaling $200,000 will fund the research.

The work will look at multiple viruses such as influenza and different strains of coronavirus.

Because the researchers will alter temperature and surface condition in their experiments, Varga said he will sample the surface and try to quantify how much infectious virus is roaming it.

When a person coughs or sneezes, droplets from their respiratory tract are expelled that could contain viruses, said UI mechanical-engineering Professor H.S. Udaykumar, the principal investigator of the research. The droplets can vary in size and some are small enough they dry in the air, he said, but the larger droplets deposit on surfaces.

Understanding how viruses survive on different surfaces is important when it comes to how transmittable they are, Varga said. A common way for respiratory illnesses to spread is through contact with surfaces contaminated when someone sneezes or coughs into their hand and then touches something, he added.

Viruses can survive for a varying amount of time on different surfaces, Udaykumar said. On materials such as metal and copper, viruses can die after a couple of hours, he added.

“When somebody sneezes and touches a doorknob or any other surface, the droplet will dry over time,” Varga said. “Then the question is how long does the virus survive and remain infectious.”

The researchers are trying to discover what determines whether a virus survives or perishes on a surface, Udaykumar said. They will be looking at how seasonal conditions, such as humidity and other temperature changes, affect the viruses.

“This particular aspect of survivability as it relates to drying or droplets is not just particular to COVID-19,

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Martell Bell conducts surface processing experiments at Ding’s Laser Materials Processing Lab (LMPL).

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Congratulations to the 2020 Student Leadership Award Winners!

The ME Department was well represented with the student leadership awards.

Outstanding Mentor - a student/staff/faculty/alum in the College of Engineering who acts as a positive role model and provides guidance and encouragement while supporting students.

Winner: Calvin Kielas-Jensen, Mechanical Engineering

Outstanding Student Program for Service, Outreach, or Diversity - a student organization that has made meaningful contributions to students, the university, and the surrounding communities through service projects, K-12 outreach, or diversity initiatives.

Winner: Society of Women Engineers

Most Improved Student Organization - a student organization that has demonstrated significant improvement in membership recruitment, improved the focus of the organization’s mission or operation, or improved or implemented new programs.

Winner: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Outstanding Student Organization - a student organization that demonstrates significant initiative, creativity, perseverance, and integrity in its members throughout all areas of the organization.

Winner: Iowa Formula Racing

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Outstanding College of Engineering Student Employee – a student employee in the college who has shown extraordinary work ethic and has made an impact in the workplace.

Winner: Katie Sailer, Mechanical Engineering

Student Awards and Accomplishments

Ahmed El Tuhami, MS candidate received a Graduate Diversity Fellowship from the Graduate College for the fall 2020 semester. His research activities focus on modeling, computation, data analysis, and dissertation/paper writing. He plans to present his research in a top-tier conference. El Tuhami’s research advisor is Professor Shaoping Xiao.

Mingyu Cai, PhD candidate received a Post-Comprehensive Research Fellowship for the fall 2020 semester from the Graduate College. Cai has developed optimization algorithms and control software for robotic motion planning under uncertainties applying formal method and reinforcement learning. His research advisors are Professors Zhen Kan and Shaoping Xiao.

The Graduate College awarded both of these outstanding students a stipend and tuition for the fall 2020 semester.

Mechanical Engineering graduate student scholarships Rajyalakshmi and Shankay Planjery scholarship awarded to Rachit Singhvi, PhD Candidate, who works with Professor Venanzio Cichella.

Sharada Devi Planjery scholarship awarded to Xuehuan He, PhD Candidate, who works with Professor Jia Lu. Venkatachalam Planjery scholarship awarded to Martell Bell, PhD Candidate, who works with Professor Hongtao Ding.

Richard Stewart scholarship awarded to Martell Bell, PhD Candidate, who works with Professor Hongtao Ding.

Sweigert scholarship awarded to Juliana Danesi Ruiz, PhD Candidate, who works with Professor Phillip Deierling.

The ME Department appreciates all of the scholarship donors. The scholarships make a big impact on our students’ research and education. If you are interested in starting a scholarship in your name, please contact Matt Kuster, email matt.kuster@foriowa.org

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Mechanical Engineering The University of Iowa 103 South Capitol Street 3131 Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences Iowa City, IA 52242

Students gather in a lab prior to the new COVID-19 guidelines.