Jun. 4, 2025 - ME Faculty & Staff Newsletter
Department Highlights
New discovery shows how molecules can mute heat like music
Assistant Professor Longji Cui and his team in the Cui Research Group have developed a new technique that allows them to measure phonon interference inside of a tiny molecule. They believe one day, this discovery can revolutionize how heat dissipation is managed in future electronics and materials.
Tiny robot team could be a gamechanger for safety inspections
Assistant Professor Kaushik Jayaram, in collaboration with Laura Blumenschein, has received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a tiny robot super team capable of navigating a complex maze of machinery and squeeze through the tightest of spaces—like the guts of a jet engine—to potentially perform non-destructive evaluation faster, cheaper and better than ever before.
New study shows road emission policies could save 1.9M lives by 2040
A new global study featuring Professor Daven Henze reveals that implementing smart policies that address road transport emissions can improve health outcomes across more than 180 countries and 13,000 urban areas.
Vance turns her house into lab to study health risks of cleaning products
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, global spending on household cleaning products have increased by nearly $50 billion. Associate Professor Marina Vance is turning her home into a research laboratory to study and explore the possible implications of the increased product usage on human health.
We can turn bugs into flying, crawling RoboCops. Does that mean we should?
Scientists and engineers are modifying animals with mechanical parts to create next-generation biohybrid cyborg animals that can perform difficult and unappealing tasks for humans. But do humans have the right to overlook animal consciousness for personal gain? In this article by Salon, Assistant Professor Nicole Xu blazes this new terrain and explores the ethical considerations behind these biohybrid creatures using her jellyfish case study as an example.