Awards & Grants

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Awards

Prof. Nathan Sniadecki has been awarded the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for studying the mechanics of vascular smooth muscle cells.
Prof. Jiangyu Li will be awarded the first Sia Nemat-Nasser Early Career Medal from the ASME Materials Divisions.
Prof. Mark Tuttle will receive the 2009 Tatnall Award from the Society for Experimental Mechanics at SEM’s Annual Conference in June 2009.
Prof. Eric Seibel and PhD student Woon Jong Yoon received an award from UW TechTransfer to build a working prototype of a unique remote-controlled cytoscope for scanning the interior surface of the bladder for cancerous tumors.
Profs. Per Reinhall and Peter Dahl won a Washington State Department of Transportation award to make pile driving in water less noisy and to prevent fish kills.
Prof. Nate Sniadecki received a Royalty Research Award for "Endothelium Mechanics: A microfluidic device and model for studying traction forces, remodeling, and permeability in vascular tissue."
Savio Woo (PhD '71) received the 2008 UW College of Engineering Distinguished Achievement Award.
ME masters/PhD student Francesca Paltera won second prize in the 2008 Society for Experimental Mechanics Student Paper Competition.
ME senior Kristina Olson was selected as a 2008 UW College of Engineering Dean's Medal Winner. She was honored at both the Community of Innovators Awards Ceremony on June 4 and during the UW Commencement Ceremonies on June 14.
Prof Alberto Aliseda won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, NSF’s highest honor for junior faculty. This $45,000 award, announced February 15, 2008, will support microbubble research in diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease.
Prof. Mamidala Ramulu received the U.S. Waterjet Technology Association "Technology Award" at an August 2007 ceremony in Houston. He will be the third U.S. faculty member to receive this award in its 26 years of existence.
Prof. Albert Kobayashi received the Daniel C. Drucker Medal, which was conferred on June 5, 2007 in Austin, Texas at McMAT 2007, a meeting jointly sponsored by the ASME Applied Mechanics and Material Division. Established in 1997, the medal is bestowed in recognition of sustained, outstanding contributions to applied mechanics and mechanical engineering through research, teaching and/or service to the community. The citation for the 2007 Medal reads, "for seminal contributions to the fields of experimental and fracture mechanics." Also on June 7, a half-day symposium was held in Kobayashi’s honor. Receipt of the medal also will be announced at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress (IMECE), November 11–15, 2007 in Seattle.
Prof. Martin Berg was selected as a 2007 Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellow. During summer 2007, he will be working with many Boeing engineers and other Welliver Faculty Fellows at Boeing facilities across the country.
Prof. Mamidala Ramulu has been elected as a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, one of only nine named in 2007. Election as an SME Fellow is limited to a select group of individuals each year, making it one of the most prestigious honors presented by the Society. The 2007 Fellows installation ceremony is tentatively scheduled for November 12, 2007 in Chicago, Illinois.
Prof. Ann Mescher has been selected as the Puget Sound Engineering Council's 2007 Academic Engineer of the Year. She was awarded this honor at the PSEC Formal Annual Awards Banquet on February 24, 2007.
Bill Kuykendall was named ME Staff of the Year for his superior maintenance of the laboratory equipment for ME classes, his patience in teaching young engineers to operate testing equipment and for his positive “can do” attitude.
Wei-Chih Wang was named College of Engineering Faculty of the Year in recognition of his innovative research and teaching excellence.
Mamidala Ramulu was named ME Faculty of the Year for 2005–06. His students cited him for his energy, his enthusiasm for teaching, and his genuine caring for students as an advisor and mentor.

Grants

The Mechanical Engineering department faculty currently has 115 active research grants and projects, with annual research expenditures totaling $6.4M during fiscal year 2006–07. Below are a few selected grants. View complete list HERE.

John Kramlich received a grant from the Washington Technology Center to work with Greenwood Technologies. This collaboration was funded to help the company achieve current emission regulations for their latest wood-burning hot water furnace.
Chunye Xu and Minoru Taya have received a Technology Gap Innovation Fund (TGIF) award to develop prototypes of sunglasses and goggles employing electro-chromic polymers. The lenses they have developed change from light to dark in less than a second, and can be produced in different colors.
Randal Ching and two UW colleagues have received a TGIF award to test patient-specific models. These plastic models will allow surgeons to see and feel the part of the body on which they will be working prior to entering the operating room.
Vipin Kumar and Wei (Wayne) Li have received an NSF award to pursue work on sub-critical microcellular extrusion of environmentally benign plastics.
The Electric Power Research Institute has established a doctoral-level graduate fellowship in Phil Malte’s Energy and Environmental Combustion Laboratory for study in the field of ocean tidal renewable energy.