Mechanical Engineering Professor Nicola Ferrier and researcher Jeremiah Neubert were quoted in a February 15 column by Ron Seely in the Wisconsin State Journal. Ferrier and Neubert discussed the difficulties behind designing robots to perform human tasks, including the robots dispatched to Mars to explore that planet.

Xiaochun Li — along with Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering Shiyu Zhou and Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Hongrui Jiang — has received a National Science Foundation grant of $590,038 for the project "Sensors: Design, Fabrication, and Application of Distributed Micro Sensors Embedded in Metal Tooling." The project will develop a sensing methodology that enables highly reliable and accurate monitoring and diagnosis for manufacturing processes. It will use a systems approach to study the design, fabrication, optimization, assessment, and applications of distributed micro thin-film sensors embedded in metal tooling that is fabricated by Rapid Tooling manufacturing processes. This multidisciplinary research will advance fundamental knowledge in thin-film sensor technologies, including micro- thin-film sensor design and fabrication for high-temperature strain and temperature measurements, the embedding of micro-sensors into metal manufacturing tooling, and the interpretation and use of sensor data in decision-making for monitoring and controlling manufacturing processes.

Lih-Sheng (Tom) Turng has received a $280,000 grant from the National Science Foundation Design, Manufacturing, and Industrial Innovation Division for research on injection molding of micro-cellular nanocomposites. The project aims to advance the processing technology and knowledge of mass production of lightweight, high-performance nanocomposite parts. The research will be performed under the auspices of the college's Polymer Engineering Center. Center research scientist Shaoqin (Sarah) Gong is a co-principal investigator for the project.

Vadim Shapiro has been awarded a $367,941 research grant from the National Science Foundation to study interactive design with engineering analysis. The research aims to develop new computer-assisted design (CAD) software for rapid engineering design and analysis of materials and objects without the time-consuming process known as meshing. Assistant scientist Igor Tsukanov will serve as co-principal investigator. In addition, Shapiro and graduate student Vasu Ramaswamy won the Best Paper Award at the 15th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology, part of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Design Technical Conference held this year in Chicago. The paper is titled "Combinatorial Laws for Physically Meaningful Design." Shapiro has also been appointed associate editor for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers/Association for Computing Machinery Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering.

Robert Rowlands and Yuri Shkel have jointly received a three-year, $315,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study and develop functionally graded materials micro-tailored to design objectives. Shkel will serve as the principal investigator for the project, with Rowlands as the co-principal investigator. The two faculty members share research interests in micro-electrical mechanical systems.

Lih-Sheng (Tom) Turng and Yuri Shkel have received $15,000 in grants from the 3M Company to augment their research. 3M provides the unrestricted grants to non-tenured professors who conduct research of interest to the company. The grants are renewable for up to three years.