David Blersch, associate professor of biosystems engineering, was elected in June as president of the American Ecological Engineering Society, the premier professional society for advancing ecological engineering as a profession of practice.
Selen Cremaschi, B. Redd & Susan W. Redd Eminent Scholar Chair Professor, has been elected 2nd Vice-Chair of the AIChE Computing and Systems Technology (CAST) Division. She will serve in this role in 2023, advance to the role of 1st Vice-Chair in 2024, and then Division Chair in 2025. Cremaschi will then serve one year as Past Chair in 2026. Additionally, Cremaschi’s longstanding collaboration with Chevron has been extended with a new 3-year $291,000 grant titled “Uncertainty Quantification and Reduction in Sand Transport Probability Predictions.”
Sean Gallagher, the Hal N. and Peggy S. Pennington Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has coauthored a book titled “Musculoskeletal Disorders: The Fatigue Failure Mechanism,” an incisive discussion of how MSDs develop and progress, as well as how they can be prevented and controlled.
Pradeep Lall, the John and Anne MacFarlane Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering, and his team of researchers were awarded two grants of $900,000 each from the NextFlex National Manufacturing Institute, which is supported by the Department of Defense. One focuses on developing additively printed electronics manufacturing methods for enabling processes with environmentally friendly water-based inks. The second focuses on additive methods for in-mold electronics to eliminate wire harnesses and develop next-generation human-machine interfaces. Lall was also awarded a grant of $285,000 from the Semiconductor Research Corporation to focus on electronics design for sustained high-temperature operation in automotive underhood applications.
Elizabeth Lipke, the Mary and John H. Sanders Professor of chemical engineering, received a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for the project “Automated Platform for Production and Distribution of Engineered Tissue VivoSpheres.” Along with her collaborators, Lipke was also issued a patent for her work titled “Encapsulation and Cardiac Differentiation of hiPSCs in 3D PEG-Fibrinogen Hydrogels.”
Shiwen Mao, professor, Earle C. Williams Eminent Scholar Chair and director of the Wireless Engineering Research and Education Center (WEREC), gave a keynote speech at MobiMedia 2022 and presented the IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering Distinguished Seminar, both in July.
Jack Montgomery, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, was appointed an editorial board member to Soils and Foundations, one of the leading journals in the field of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering. Soils and Foundations is the official journal of the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS) and Montgomery is the only editorial board member serving from the United States.
Chad Rose, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and graduate student Avinash Baskaran won the 2022 Best Paper Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Dynamic Systems and Control Division’s Robotics Technical Committee for “Assessment of Neuromuscular Fatigue from Muscle Synergies in Hand Poses” presented at the 2022 Modeling, Estimation, and Control Conference (MECC).
Anton Schindler, Mountain Spirit Professor of structural engineering and director of the Highway Research Center, has been selected to serve as the Chair of the American Concrete Institute’s Foundation Scholarship Council. The ACI Foundation Scholarship Council administers fellowships and scholarships for students studying topics related to the concrete industry.
Alice Smith, the Joe W. Forehand/Accenture Distinguished Professor of industrial and systems engineering, is the editor of a new book which showcases the many diverse research breakthroughs achieved by women-led investigative teams in computational intelligence titled “Women in Computational Intelligence: Key Advances and Perspectives on Emerging Topics.” She also delivered keynote addresses at six international conferences.
Jin Wang, the Walt and Virginia Woltosz Professor of chemical engineering, was named a 2022 recipient of Auburn University’s Creative Research and Scholarship Award. Presented annually by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, the award recognizes faculty who have distinguished themselves through research, scholarly works and/or creative contributions to their fields.
Civil and environmental engineering faculty members Benjamin Bowers, assistant professor; Brian Anderson, associate professor; Jose Vasconcelos, associate professor; and Frances O’Donnell, assistant professor, have received a Federal Highway Administration 2022 Environmental Excellence Award in conjunction with NOAA and the research team from the University of New Hampshire for their research project entitled “Surface Transportation, Sea Level Rise, and Coastal Storms: A Sustainable Path to Increased Resilience.”
Industrial and systems engineering faculty in the Occupational Safety, Ergonomics, and Injury Prevention Center — including Mark Schall, Daniel F. & Josephine Breeden Associate Professor; Richard Sesek, the Tim Cook Associate Professor; Sean Gallagher, the Hal N. and Peggy S. Pennington Professor; and Yadrianna Acosta-Sojo, assistant professor — had two education and research training programs renewed for five years by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The programs are part of the Deep South Center for Occupational Health and Safety, a collaboration with UAB. The grants supporting the programs bring approximately $2 million to Auburn.
