2007–2008 highlights
With $1.5 million from the National Science Foundation, Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Katherine McMahon is among a multidisciplinary group of UW-Madison and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers that is studying the composition of bacterial communities in humic lakes and how these microorganisms respond to changes in their environment. This fundamental “systems” knowledge may help researchers develop more accurate ecosystem-level models, which enable them to predict carbon or nutrient flow through the system. It also may give high carbon-dioxide-emitting humic lakes greater weight in climate-change models. (large image) |
- Message from the dean
- Research funding and invention disclosures
- Research advances
- Faculty honors
- Student innovation
- Student honors and educational advances
Research funding
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UW-Madison engineers are collaborating with researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Texas-Arlington on a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant of nearly $5.9 million from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Led by Bascom Professor of Surface Science and Erwin W. Mueller Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Max Lagally, the team is studying photonic and electronic applications for silicon nanomembranes, flexible single-crystal sheets of silicon. The team also includes Lynn H. Matthias Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering Robert Blick, Materials Science and Engineering Engineering and Physics Associate Professor Mark Eriksson, Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professor Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma and Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Kevin T. Turner.
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In a $14 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, UW-Madison engineers are collaborating with industrial and government partners to implement a microgrid power backup system at the nation’s fifth-largest incarceration facility—the Santa Rita Jail. Grainger Professor of Power Electronics and Electrical Machines Thomas Jahns and Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Emeritus Robert Lasseter are providing technical input for implementing Lasseter’s microgrid concept at the jail.
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A multidisciplinary team led by Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Darryl Thelen and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Assistant Professor Silvia Blemker of the University of Virginia received a four-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Combining dynamic magnetic resonance imaging, finite element modeling and motion analysis techniques, the researchers are investigating the influence of muscle injury on in vivo muscle mechanics and function. Biomedical Engineering and Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Assistant Professor Bryan Heiderscheit and Biomedical Engineering and Radiology Assistant Professor Scott Reeder are among the UW-Madison collaborators.
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Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Katherine (Trina) McMahon and Soil Sciences and Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Joel Pedersen are among a group of UW-Madison researchers who received nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to prepare a more diverse population of students to obtain graduate education in emerging, interdisciplinary areas of biological sciences research. The group is building a multiyear graduate-prep program that matches students with trained faculty mentors and prepares them to perform interdisciplinary research in the biological sciences.
Invention disclosures
DURING THE 2007 FISCAL YEAR, College of Engineering faculty, staff and students made 150 invention disclosures through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, with 88 U.S. patent applications filed and 31 patents issued. For the eighth consecutive year, the college has reported more than 100 patent disclosures.