News

Sun, 12/25/2016 | The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times explains how UW engineering students are finalizing their pod for the Space X sponsored Hyperloop competition. UW Hyperloop is one of thirty finalist teams, selected from 1,200 initial entries. They will send their prototype pod down the mile-long Hyperloop test track in January

Fri, 12/16/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

The 2016 Holiday Toy Hack brought together UW students, faculty and community members to adapt toys for children with disabilities. The event was led by the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology from the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Bioengineering Outreach, Mechanical Engineering’s Ability & Innovation Lab, and AccessEngineering.

Tue, 12/13/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

ME senior Bradley Wachter has been working in the ME Ability & Innovation Lab to design body-powered orthoses to enrich the lives of those who depend on them. He was featured in “Helping the body heal, feel and move again,” a multimedia story about 10-year-old Jayna Doll. Here, Bradley speaks about his UW experiences and why he’s studying ME.

Tue, 12/06/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

For over 15 years, ME has partnered with the Seattle VA’s Center for Limb Loss Prevention & Prosthetic Engineering. This collaboration has resulted in hands-on research opportunities for more than 50 ME students and has helped propel UW biomechanics research in new directions.

Mon, 11/28/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

ME students have developed a generator that converts heat energy from fires into electricity to charge phones. The team won the Environmental Innovation Challenge in 2015, the Business Plan Competition in 2016, and now they aim to take their product, the JikoPower Spark, to market.

Wed, 11/23/2016 | Cambridge University Press

Congrats to ME professor Minoru Taya on the publication of his latest book, Bionspired Actuators and Sensors, out this fall from Cambridge University Press! Co-written with researchers in the biological sciences, including UW Biology professor Elizabeth Van Volkenburgh, this is the first book to integrate sensor and actuator technology with bioinspired design. It explores how researchers apply principles of natural actuation and sensing mechanisms to the synthetic design of smart materials and devices.

Fri, 11/04/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

Nabtesco Endowed Professor Minoru Taya's team will explore nanorobotics design based on magnetically-active helices for cancer diagnosis and treatment through a new $1.5 million Nano Robotics Initiative grant from the National Science Foundation.

Wed, 11/02/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

An alumnus who aligned his passions for diving and oceanography with mechanical engineering, Glenn Piper, '80, spoke with ME about the value of hands-on learning.

Fri, 10/28/2016 | The Daily

The Daily profiled ME’s Formula Motorsports team, describing the passion that motivates these students to create race cars from scratch every year. This year, Formula will be crafting both an electric and a combustion race car to bring to the US and international competitions in summer.

Tue, 10/25/2016 | GeekWire

JikoPower, a UW startup that includes current and former ME students, developed the Spark to provide a reliable source of power to areas that lack electricity. The Spark is a thermoelectric generator that captures and converts excess heat from campfires or stoves into electricity, which can then be used to charge mobile phones or power lights. After received the $25,000 grand prize at the Buerk Business Plan Competition, JikoPower is now on its way to raising another $50,000 via Kickstarter to mass produce the Spark.

Fri, 10/21/2016 | Clean Energy Institute

Two ME projects were among the six projects to receive grants from the Clean Energy Institute as part of the Student Training & Exploration Grant Program. This program was developed to encourage high-risk/high-reward research by Ph.D students and postdoctoral researchers. The awardees are Professor Jiangyu Li’s project, “Correlating microstructural evolution with device performance of perovskite solar cells via in-operando scanning probing microscopy” and Associate Professor Devin MacKenzie’s project, “Scalable tandem photovoltaics enabled by a novel top-contactless hybrid perovskite cell architecture achievable with self-aligned lithography-free processing.”

Sun, 10/16/2016

From the Ability & Innovation Lab to the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, the College of Engineering is innovating novel devices to help people of all abilities live out their dreams.

Thu, 10/13/2016 | American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Assistant Professor Kat Steele’s work on the Walk-DMC motor assessment tool was featured by ASME. This tool helps determine whether children with cerebral palsy are more or less likely to benefit from surgery.

Thu, 10/06/2016 | UW Medicine

Jonathan Posner, Per Reinhall and Sam Bowd have been honored with UW Medicine’s 2016 Inventor of the Year Award for their collaborative work developing a football helmet designed to mitigate the forces thought to contribute to concussions. They will be recognized in a ceremony on Nov. 15, which also features a panel discussion with Fred Silverstein, Tom Clement and Nate Sniadecki. This event is open to all; register here.

Thu, 10/06/2016 | American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Congrats to ME professor Steve Shen for receiving the 2017 N. O. Myklestad Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for his contributions to vibration engineering. The award will be presented to him at the 2017 International Design Engineering Technical Conference next summer, at which he will also deliver the 2017 Myklestad Award Keynote Lecture.

Mon, 09/26/2016 | Materials Research Society Bulletin

Professor Jiangyu Li’s research on nanoscale particles has been highlighted in the Materials Research Society Bulletin. Li and his team investigated how thermo-ionic imaging can be used to trace the movement of ions. The method used, scanning thermo-ionic microscopy or STIM, could lead to better understanding of the electrochemical materials used in batteries and fuel cells.

Mon, 09/19/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

Congrats to PlayGait, a team of students, engineers and clinicians that has been awarded a grant to continue development of a pediatric exoskeleton for children with cerebral palsy.

Wed, 09/14/2016 | PBS Newshour

Marine Construction Technologies, a UW startup launched from ME, helps mitigate marine noise pollution. It was recently featured on the PBS NewsHour.

Wed, 09/07/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

ME professor Eric Seibel’s research team will develop and test easy-to-use optical dental diagnostic and therapy monitoring instruments for trained non-dentists through a three-year, $1 million Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity award from the National Science Foundation.

Thu, 09/01/2016 | Puget Sound Business Journal

Read the Puget Sound Business Journal’s recent profile about ME assistant professor Kat Steele.

Thu, 09/01/2016 | Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader

Through a collaboration between the UW team and Port Hadlock's Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, a wooden sub is slated to make its racing debut next summer at the International Human Powered Submarine Races.

Wed, 08/24/2016 | College of Engineering

The UWashington Hyperloop team is taking part in Elon Musk's competition to design a pod that can travel at transonic speed within a vacuum tube. After winning the Safety Subsystem Technical Excellence Award this January, the team will advance to the next leg of the competition, set to take place in January 2017 at SpaceX.

Wed, 08/17/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

ME assistant professor Nicholas Boechler is a part of the team that will explore non-reciprocal elastic wave propagation in solid-state media through a new four-year, $2 million Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation grant from the National Science Foundation.

Fri, 07/22/2016 | Department of Mechanical Engineering

The Human Powered Submarine team traveled to Gosport, England, for the European International Submarine Races, where they also placed first for top speed by a female pilot.

Fri, 07/15/2016 | The Seattle Times

The Washington Husky Football team will be among the first to use the new helmet made by UW-startup VICIS.