News from Around the Department

RESEARCH

Saving Energy with ‘Personal HVAC Systems’
Researchers receive over $5 million to explore personal technologies for keeping individuals comfortably cool or warm, while shrinking the energy needs of the buildings they occupy.

Das Publishes Work on Microfluidic Bacterial Biofilm Streamer Formation
in Scientific Reports
Assistant Professor Siddhartha Das has teamed with Dr. Aloke Kumar of University of Alberta, Canada to explain why biofilms degenerate into filamentous structures called streamers in low Reynolds number microfluidic transport. Their research article, 'Formation and post-formation dynamics of bacterial biofilm streamers as highly viscous liquid jets,' appeared in the journal Scientific Reports of Nature Publishing Group.

UMD Researchers Use Artificially Engineered Materials to Create Breakthrough for Sound Sensors
A research team led by Associate Professor Miao Yu developed breakthrough technology to improve sound sensor capabilities through the use of artificially engineered materials.

RECOGNITIONS

Visiting Professor Jerry W. Forbes Receives APS 2015 George E. Duvall Shock Compression Science Award

Professor Abhijit Dasgupta Awarded the Jeong H. Kim Professorship

Professor Mohammad Modarres Awarded the Nicole Y. Kim Eminent Professorship

NEW FACULTY & STAFF

Mechanical Engineering Welcomes New External Relations, Development & Communications Staff

The department is excited to announce several new staff who are serving donor, development and communications roles across the department.

Natalie Grandison joined Mechanical Engineering in October 2014 as Mechanical Engineering's new Director of External Relations, Rebecca Kier began in December 2014 as the New Associate Director of Development working jointly with Aerospace Engineering, and Jennifer Figgins Rooks is the department's Communications Coordinator.

Mark Fuge Joins Mechanical Engineering
as New Assistant Professor
Fuge comes to UMD from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a member of the Berkeley Expert System Technologies Lab and the Berkeley Institute of Design. His research lies at the intersection of mechanical engineering, machine learning and design—an area he refers to as "Design Informatics."

Droguett Returns to UMD as Associate Professor
Mechanical Engineering welcomes alumni Enrique López Droguett back to the University of Maryland (UMD) as a new associate professor in the department. Droguett received both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Reliability Engineering from UMD, and he will be working with Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Monifa Vaughn-Cooke in the Hybrid-System Integration and Simulation (HSIS) Lab.