News & Events

Headlines

Professor Ravichandran Receives SEM Murray Lecture and Medal

06-05-14

Guruswami (Ravi) Ravichandran, John E. Goode, Jr. Professor of Aerospace and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Director of GALCIT, has been awarded the Society of Experimental Mechanics (SEM) William M. Murray Lecture and Medal. He delivered the 2014 Murray Lecture entitled, Three-Dimensional Quantitative Visualization: Application to Studying Cell-Matrix Interactions, on June 3, 2014 during the SEM Annual Conference and Exposition on Experimental and Applied Mechanics. The award was made in recognition of his pioneering contributions in experimental mechanics of deformation, damage and failure of materials under multiaxial dynamic loading. The Murray Lecture is the highest distinction awarded by SEM and is the prestige lecture of its annual conference.  The Murray Lecture was established in 1952 in honor of the first President of SEM, William MacGregor Murray who was a Professor and Executive Officer of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.

More »

Tags: honors research highlights GALCIT MCE Guruswami Ravichandran Ares Rosakis Wolfgang Knauss

Professor Greer Named One of Most Creative People in 2014

05-13-14

Julia R. Greer, Professor of Materials Science and Mechanics, has been named one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in 2014. "What if you could fabricate nanotrusses--materials made up of tiny, intricate geometric structures linked together--in a way that might resemble, say, the webwork of the Eiffel Tower?" describes Professor Greer. [Fast Company release] [research highlight]

Tags: APhMS honors research highlights Julia Greer

Professors Brady Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

04-28-14

John F. Brady, Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, has been elected to the 2014 American Academy of Arts and Sciences class of fellows. Professor Brady’s research focuses on the area of complex fluids and active matter which includes microstructural elements such as suspensions, colloidal dispersions, and self-propelling particles. Understanding these materials led him to develop a novel computational method called Stokesian dynamics. He has won the 2012 Fluid Dynamics Prize from the American Physical Society and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1999. [Caltech Release]

Tags: honors MCE AAAS John Brady

Engineering and Art

04-25-14

Students in Professor Hillary Mushkin’s new media arts seminar (E/H/Art 89 New Media Arts in the 20th and 21st Centuries) have put on a unique exhibition highlighting art and engineering. The course provides a platform for an expanded understanding of engineering and an active, project-based engagement with art history. [List of all projects]

More »

Tags: EE research highlights MCE CMS Hillary Mushkin

Professor Andrade Featured on “You’re the Expert”

04-21-14

José E. Andrade, Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, and his research on earthquake-induced liquefaction and granular materials was featured on You're the Expert, a new live show and public radio program. The show uses comedy to make academic research more accessible and exciting. During the live taping at Caltech three comedians tried to guess what Professor Andrade studies. Then they interviewed him about his work, why it's important, and what's new and exciting in his field. [Audio podcast - Granular Materials]

Tags: research highlights MCE Jose Andrade

Transforming the Thomas Laboratory

04-04-14

The renovation of the Franklin Thomas Laboratory of Engineering began with a wall breaking ceremony on April 4, 2014. The donors who made this renovation possible are: the Gate Frontiers Fund and Diane Gates Wallach who made the gift in honor of her father, Charles C. Gates Jr. a former life-trustee of Caltech; alumnus Jim Hall (BS ’57) and his wife Sandy; and the Fred L. Hartley Family Foundation.

More »

Tags: GALCIT MCE Ares Rosakis Caltech infrastructure Kaushik Bhattacharya Diane Wallach Jim Hall Edward Stolper

Raiders of the Lost Can

03-12-14

The students in this year's Mechanical Engineering 72 (ME72) class, a two-term engineering design lab for mechanical engineering majors, not only rolled, they crawled and flew their robotic inventions to deliver their team's soup can to the top of a wooden pyramid outfitted with steel ramps, while simultaneously deploying other robotic vehicles to conduct defensive maneuvers, preventing the opposing team from beating them to the top with their own color-coded soup can. [Caltech Release]

Tags: MCE ME 72

MCE Alumni Baker and Miller Receive Caltech 2014 Distinguished Alumni Awards

03-06-14

Mary Baker (PhD ’72 in Applied Mechanics) and Richard Miller (PhD ’76 in Applied Mechanics) have been recognized by Caltech with the Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor regularly bestowed by the Institute. Dr. Baker, who is President of ATA Engineering Inc., was recognized for pioneering entrepreneurship and leadership in aerospace. Dr. Miller, who is President of Olin College of Engineering, was recognized for visionary leadership and commitment to innovation in engineering education for the benefit of society. [Caltech Release]

Tags: honors MCE alumni Mary Baker Richard Miller

ENGenious Wins Silver!

02-19-14

The 2013 issue of ENGenious has won a silver award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District VII in the Awards of Excellence category of Annual Magazines. The award is given by the CASE District VII Board of Directors and the Awards of Excellence Committee to "superior magazines published once a year." First published in 2001, ENGenious is a publication for alumni and friends of the Caltech Division of Engineering and Applied Science (EAS). The goal of the publication is to highlight the contributions of the EAS faculty, students, and alumni in research, education, and industry. [ENGenious]

Tags: honors alumni CASE Trity Pourbahrami

Professor Rosakis Elected to Indian National Academy of Engineering

11-05-13

Professor Ares J. Rosakis has been elected as a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Academy confers Fellowship on Indian and Foreign nationals who have demonstrated their eminence and achieved outstanding accomplishments in engineering and technology.

Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Ares Rosakis