MechE News

2.00b Toy Product Design Lab PLAYsentations Tonight! - May 15, 2012

Course 2.00b, more popularly known as the Toy Product Design Lab, is one of those classes that students really get excited to take. Named one of "30 Awesome College Labs" by Popular Science magazine, Toy Lab is yet another shining example of MechE's commitment to hands-on learning. The undergraduate course was started in 2004 by Professor Barry Kudrowitz, Professor David Wallace, and Bill Fienup, with research funding by Hasbro.

Congratulations to Professor John Lienhard and Professor Nicolas Hadjiconstantinou for receiving prestigious recognitions from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers this week.

The famous 2.007 Robot Competition, hosted by Professor Daniel Frey, took place this year on Thursday, May 10, at 6:30pm, at the Johnson Ice Rink. The theme was "Tech County Fair."

With an impressive array of some of the best gadget and product developments Mechanical Engineering students have to offer, this year’s de Florez Competition made good on its namesake as always.

Professors Derek Rowell, Sanjay Sarma, and Maria Yang have all been recognized for their exceptional achievements.

Congratulations to Professor Evelyn Wang, who recently received the 2012 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research for her development of advanced thin film evaporation and condensation surfaces for high-performance thermal management devices. She was one of only 26 awardees this year, selected from a pool of more than 350 candidates.

Diane Green’s (SM ’78) recent lecture in Kirsch Auditorium as part of the School of Engineering’s Distinguished Lecture Series was an inspiring story of her journey from childhood skipper to seasoned co-founder and CEO of a major software company, VMware.

This past March at the South by Southwest Festival’s Accelerator-Innovative Web Track competition, two MIT students – Tom Milnes, MechE PhD candidate working with Professor Douglas Hart, and Sloan School alum Ash Martin – won first place for one of their company’s products, Hypr3D.

MechE Professors Ahmed F. Ghoniem, John H. Lienhard, and Kripa Varanasi are all presenting this month at the 2012 MIT Europe Energy Conference, held by the MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP).

Senior Katy Olesnavage Wins 2012 Horn Award - Feb 15, 2012

Katy Olesnavage, a senior in the department of Mechanical Engineering, was recently awarded the 2012 Dean A. Horn Award for Undergraduate Study in Marine Research for her thesis titled “The Design and Testing of a Procedure to Locate Fresh Submarine Groundwater Discharge in Cyprus.”