4. ME welcomes new faculty 7. ERL back in business 14. ME sophomore wins Diana Award
Mechanical AT MINES
WINTER 2021-2022
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
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An interview with Carl:
A Newsletter for Friends and Supporters of the Colorado School of Mines Department of Mechanical Engineering Colorado School of Mines President: Dr. Paul Johnson Department Head: Dr. Carl Frick cfrick@mines.edu Mailing/Delivery Address: 1500 Illinois Street Golden, CO 80401 Main Office: Brown Hall W350 1610 Illinois St. Golden, CO 80401 303.273.3650 Technical and Operations Manager: Traci Case tcase@mines.edu Visit us online at mechanical.mines.edu
In November of 2021, Dr. Carl Frick joined Mines as the Mechanical Engineering Department Head. He originally hails from Colorado Springs, CO. He received his B.S. (1999) and Ph.D. (2005) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Frick then went on to a Visiting Scientist position at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research (Stuttgart, Germany). From 2008 to 2021, Dr. Frick was a faculty member at the University of Wyoming, becoming Department Head in 2015. His research activities involve integrating materials science and mechanical engineering to develop and characterize new materials for use in emerging technologies. He is a co-founder of Impressio Tech, a Denver-based start-up formed in 2017 that is focused on developing liquid crystalline elastomers as an energy-absorbing material for multiple applications from helmet liners to orthopedic devices.
CONTENTS
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3 | New Department Head Welcome 4 | Faculty Spotlight 5 | Faculty Awards 6 | Department News 8 | Research News 14 | Student News 20 | Department Events 22 | Graduation Lists
Cover photo: PhD candidate Isabella Mendoza working in Dr. Leslie Lamberson's X-STRM Laboratory (Extreme Structures & Materials Laboratory)
Mines ME welcomes Dr. Carl Frick, new department head
Why ME? I was attracted to the versatility of the degree. ME’s can work in aerospace, automotive, biomedical, construction, energy, manufacturing, and much more. Virtually any business that hires a significant amount of engineers will hire MEs. Like most 18-year-olds deciding on their major, I had no idea what I wanted to do for a career. I just knew that I was good at math & science, and I enjoyed figuring out how things work, so engineering seemed like a really good fit. I chose ME to make sure I had the most choices upon graduation. Why a PhD? After graduating with my BS, I went to work of a telecom company located in Golden for 18 months. While there were many things about this job that were great -- including the people -- my daily tasks quickly became mundane. I was one of only four engineers that truly knew how our hardware worked. I often joke that it took me about a week and a half to learn my job, which I then repeated for about a year and a half. Also, at the time the tech bubble burst, the company laid off over 70% of the company. I finally decided to go back to graduate school in order to get a degree that would position me better for a higher-paying job that was more challenging. Why academia? After graduating with my PhD, I briefly worked for a biomedical device company. I found this job extremely interesting. My main role was to derive new alloys to be used for cardiovascular devices to improve efficacy and MR imaging. However, I found myself missing the interactions I had with students. While pursuing my degree I was a Teaching Assistant for two courses. Activities involved guest lectures, holding office hours, and guiding student group projects. There was something very satisfying about helping students through the learning process. This type of mentorship was not easily available working in industry, so I quickly made a switch to become a Professor. What excites you most about Mines ME? Having grown up in Colorado, I feel that I have an intrinsic understanding of Mines -- both its history and its relationship with the state. I feel that Mines is a unique institution, in that it offers an overall small-school experience, while still providing all the benefits of large ME department consistent in size with major state schools. I am particularly impressed by the faculty’s passion for education. The design track in the ME curriculum at Mines (e.g., Cornerstone to Capstone) is unique relative to other institutions, and I believe it distinguishes our graduates. In addition, Mines is growing substantially, in line with the Mines@150 strategic plan. For example, Mines is hiring at least 30 new faculty positions over the next 3 years, several of which will be in ME. What challenges lie ahead for Mines ME? The biggest challenge is enrollment growth. Students have come to recognize the versatility and opportunities associated with an ME degree. Nationally, 24% of engineering BS degrees were MEs (next closest is Computer Science at 15%). At Mines, MEs represent closer to one in three students, with BS graduates hired at a rate of 94%. A challenge has been for the faculty and the institution to keep up with this growing demand. I have been particularly impressed by the ingenuity and sincere interest of our faculty to meet this challenge. - continued on page 6 - -contin
WINTER 2021-2022 VOL. 5 · ISSUE 1
Faculty spotlight
Ciobanu elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Dr. Cristian Ciobanu was elected to serve as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in November 2020 for his sustained contributions to modeling the structure and properties of surfaces and nanomaterials. Founded in 1841, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is the largest organization in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences. The title of Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry is granted to members of the RSC who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of chemical sciences. The names of newly elected Fellows are published each year in The Times (London).
POLINA BRODSKY Polina Brodsky comes to Mines from The Ohio State University where she received all three of her degrees in Mechanical Engineering. Her research is in modeling and characterizing the behavior of Li-ion batteries due to fast charging conditions for automotive applications. During her undergraduate and graduate school careers, she was the team leader and technical expert on the Buckeye Current Electric Motorcycle Race Team at OSU's Center for Automotive Research and was able to compete in motorcycle racing events all over the world.
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JOY GOCKEL Joy Gockel joins Mines from Wright State University where she was an assistant professor in Mechanical and Materials Engineering. She earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and her research spans several aspects of additive manufacturing. Prior to her faculty position, she was a Lead Engineer at GE Aviation's Additive Technology Center. She was awarded the 2020 ASTM International Additive Manufacturing Young Professional Award and the 2021 TMS Young Leader Professional Development Award.
Dr. Joy Gockel was awarded the 2021 International Outstanding Young Researcher in Freeform and Additive Manufacturing Award (FAME) at the 32nd Annual Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium that was held virtually in August 2021. Dr. Gockel is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. The FAME award is given one young researcher each year to recognize the awardee’s: significant research accomplishments in the field of freeform fabrication and additive manufacturing potential for a successful career in the field of freeform fabrication and additive manufacturing service to beyond the additive community and serving as a positive role model Dr. Gockel joined Mines in the summer of 2021 from Wright State University where she was an assistant professor in Mechanical and Materials Engineering. Prior to her faculty position, she was a Lead Engineer at GE Aviation’s Additive Technology Center. Dr. Gockel’s research focus is on the fundamental processing-structure-properties-performance (PSPP) relationship to support qualification and certification in additive manufacturing. Her work utilizes strategic processing experiments, process modeling, in-situ monitoring, innovative mechanical testing methods and advanced characterization to connect the PSPP relationship in additive manufacturing to different classes of structural and functional materials.
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FACULTY Awards
New faculty in Mechanical Engineering
FEA Professional is a 12-credit graduate certificate program that teaches transferable skills for finite element analysis (FEA), which is the leading computer simulation technology used in design, product development, and applied research across a broad range of industries. The start of 2022 brings two new opportunities for students enrolled in the FEA Pro certificate program: Partnering with Denver Health for Research in Trauma Surgery Technologies: In partnership with a leading orthopedic trauma surgeon, Dr. Cyril Mauffrey of Denver Health, FEA Pro students will have the opportunity to apply FEA for structural analysis of treatment options for bone fractures due to traumatic events, such as motor vehicle collisions. The first project slated for study in 2022 is hip socket fracture caused by a car crash impact. FEA Pro Now a Member of NAFEMS: The FEA Professional Certificate program is the newest corporate member of NAFEMS, the global leader in standards, training, and certification for FEA and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation skills. Students who are fully enrolled in the FEA Pro Certificate program will enjoy all the benefits of NAFEMS membership, which include access to numerous technical publications, supplementary training programs, and globally recognized professional certifications. To learn more, follow the QR code to the link!
Gockel honored for freeform fabrication and additive manufacturing research
DANIEL BLOOD Daniel Blood joins the faculty at Mines after teaching for 7 years in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Valparaiso University. His teaching interests are primarily in the areas of design and manufacturing. Daniel brings 18 years of experience working on humanitarian projects in developing countries and is excited to work with Mines students on a variety of ongoing projects in Central America. He is also the co-founder of TripleTech3D LLC, a company that focuses on assistive technologies for developing countries.
New opportunities for FEA Pro in 2022
DEPARTMENT NEWS
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Now for the fun stuff. What do you do for fun? Mostly spend time with family & friends. I also like to hike, mountain bike and snowboard. If you were to join a club at Mines, which would it be? Browsing through the SAIL webpage, I noticed the Nordic Ski club. This is something I’d be interested to learn. My kids picked up cross-country skiing recently through a program at school, and I’m feeling left out! Which teams will you follow at Mines? I have always been a football and basketball fan, but truthfully I’m easy entertained watching most sports. The start-up I co-founded, Impressio Tech, has been funded by the NFL to develop safer helmet liners for football. My hope is that we will be able to launch our product sometime next year, which I’m very excited about! Dogs or cats? Dogs. Any pet that doesn’t come when I call is not for me. Skiing or snowboarding? Snowboarding… although I’ve been thinking about learning to ski recently. I’m the only one in my family that prefers snowboarding, and everyone complains that they have to wait for me at the top of the lift to strap in before we can go down the mountain. Favorite place you’ve ever traveled? So hard to pick a favorite. The most adventurous trip was to Namibia, Africa, which is where my mother hails from. I flew into Cape Town, then drove 13 hours north to a small ranch an hour outside of Wyndhoek where I spent the better part of a week. Once we crossed into Namibia, it was possible to drive on a major highway for over an hour without seeing another car. During my stay I took several day trips to wildlife reserves and saw everything from elephants to kudu antelope in their natural habitats. My most vivid memory was a surfing lesson; we took a pickup truck across 30 miles of iron-rich sand dunes before we reached the ocean. The views were striking --- I can’t imagine the surface of mars looking much different. Where will you travel next? Like everyone, COVID has grounded my leisure travel for the past several years. I had to scrap a trip to the University of Saarland (Saarbruecken, Germany) to perform spatial elemental analysis on our 3D printed ceramics. I’m hoping to reschedule for late spring.
An interview with Dr. Frick, continued:
Mines ME Alumni Advisory Board
If you are interested in what the ERL team members are up to, please visit erl.mines.edu or reach out to Dr. Eliasson directly (eliasson@mines.edu).
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The Mines Explosive Research Laboratory (ERL) is back in business!
A group photo taken at the outdoor site of the Mines Explosives Research Laboratory located at Edgar Mine in Idaho Springs from a recent visit with researchers from Picatinny Arsenal.
The Mines Explosives Research Laboratory has taken tremendous steps forward in 2021. The research team -- led by ME Associate Professor Dr. Veronica Eliasson -- inventoried both the outdoor blast site and the indoor blast laboratory, cleaned up and repaired equipment, and written numerous research proposals that are now pending review. The ERL research team hired a handful of talented undergraduate and graduate students and one postdoctoral scholar that are now working with on a variety of research projects. One project that is housed in the Brown Building on campus focuses on advanced manufacturing through direct ink writing of composite high explosives. The research team is printing with inert materials but will soon transition to energetic materials. The researchers are learning how to design their own printer, control its capabilities and set up on-site monitoring of the print using smart solutions and off-the-shelf components to match the capabilities of national laboratory collaborators’ printers. In another project the team is studying the interaction of multiple shock waves with other shocks or structures. For this experiment, the research team is using a high-voltage exploding wire setup that can investigate shock-shock interactions without needing to use explosives.
Dr. Veronica Eliasson Director, Mines ERL
Connecting and engaging with ME alumni has always been a primary goal of the ME Department. With over 3,600 active ME alumni around the world, forming an ME Alumni Advisory Board seemed like the best way to make this connection happen in a meaningful way. In 2021, Mines ME seated the Department’s first ME Alumni Advisory Board. Led by Chair Matt Miller of Cornell, the Board consists of alumni from representative industries such as manufacturing, aerospace, robotics, biomechanics, and research (national laboratories). The Board held its first meeting in November 2021, where the Board reviewed and amended the By-Laws and provided feedback on topics covering ways for alumni to actively engage with the Department, plans for the ME Online program, and the Department’s Program Educational Outcomes. Board members: Claire Teklitz '20 (United Launch Alliance), Will Fehringer '12 (Lockheed Martin), Amy Hegarty '13, MS '15, PhD '18 (University of Colorado), Caleb Schelle '18 (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Doug Collins '96 (AVID Product Development), Sam Osterhout '18 (Bastien Solutions), Ryan Zamora '19 (Milwaukee Tool), Ian MacGregor '12 (Skratch Labs), Matt Miller '88 (Cornell University), and Mitch Kruse '85 (Fluke Accelix).
Dr. Xiaoli Zhang
Teleoperation setup using motion capture as control variables where an operator is indirectly interacting with an object in the robotic environment.
Research advances understanding of shape memory functional oxides
New research will accelerate telerobotics technology by developing in-hand robotic telemanipulation
RESEARCH NEWS
For more information on Dr. Asle-Zaeem's research, visit (zaeemlab.com). him(xlzhang@mines.edu).
Dr. Mohsen Asle Zaeem received over $470,000 in renewed funding from the Department of Energy Office of Science Basic Energy Science's program to study multi-scale defect formation and domain switching behavior in shape memory functional oxides. Shape memory functional oxides (SMFOs) with ferroelastic properties have outstanding mechanical and corrosion-resistant characteristics at high temperatures. They are ideal for thermal barrier coatings and surface erosion protections at extreme temperatures. Dr. Asle Zaeem's research will combine atomistic simulations and atomistic-informed phase-field modeling to conduct an in-depth study of ferroelastic domain nucleation and ferrelastic domain switching at nano- and mircroscale. The research will focus specifically on tetragonal-prime yttria stabilized zirconia (t'-YSZ).
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Dr. Mohsen Asle-Zaeem
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For more information on the Intelligent Robotics and Systems Lab, please visit xzhanglab.mines.edu or contact Dr. Zhang directly (xlzhang@mines.edu).
Dr. Xiaoli Zhang received an award from the National Science Foundation's Mind, Machine, and Moror Nexus (M3X) program to develop seamless, in-hand robotic telmanipulation. Telemanipulation allows a user to immerse, interact, and complete tasks in a remote environment by controlling a robot. It is used in scenarios such as telesurgery, robotic healthcare assistance, and remote search and rescue operations. In many of these real-world applications, in-hand object manipulation is needed to complete complex tasks. For example, when picking up a power adapter to plug it into a wall, the user must often manipulate the adapter in their hand to orient it correctly before it can be inserted into the outlet. While this is a simple task that a human would not have to think about, it can be a complex operation for a robot. Current telemanipulation capability is limited to relatively simple manipulation, where the operator maintains an initial grasp throughout the task and changes only wrist orientation. For more complex tasks such as the power adapter example, the operator must go through multiple iterations of grasp, release, and regrasp actions for the robot to properly orient the object. Most telemanipulation research to date has focused on the human’s sense of the remote environment; much less attention has been given to improving the robot’s manipulation intelligence and ability to manage dynamic object interaction based on indirect inputs from a remote operator. That’s where Zhang’s research comes in. “For telerobotics technology to truly take off,” Zhang explains, “the robot must know how to follow the operator’s dynamic hand motion and be able to actively assist the operator by keeping an object stable in its hand.” This means that the robot needs intelligence to behave as an “optimizer” of imperfect human motion inputs and a “stabilizer” for successful dynamic state transition of the object. To accomplish this vision, Zhang’s project has three specific objectives: integrate physics-informed metrics to guide the robot learning framework to generate stabilized configurations; combine human inputs and the physics-informed metrics in a hierarchical learning structure to enable the robot to semi-autonomously optimize human motion inputs while ensuring a stabilized grasp; teach the robot to adapt its behaviors to unique operator preferences by actively learning from the operator’s corrective adjustments. “The combination of these objectives,” Zhang said, “will bridge research gaps in both robotic manipulation and human-robot cooperation in telemanipulation to form a novel semi-autonomous framework to support complex object manipulation for telerobotics.” Working in Zhang’s Intelligent Robotics and Systems Lab, the research team will use a commercially available robotic hand system (pictured left) and human subjects to evaluate the proposed semi-autonomous framework. Subjects will remotely manipulate the robot to perform three case studies in two scenarios. In the first scenario, the robot must grasp an object as it manipulates rotational properties (for example, opening a jar). The second scenario is more complex—the robot must change the position and orientation of a tool in its hand. “The potential impact of our proposed system for in-hand telemanipulation is really exciting,” said Zhang. “It will accelerate the implementation of telerobotics technology in both traditional and new applications. With the ability for humans to remotely feed complex manipulation commands to robots, robots could replace humans in dangerous tasks or inaccessible environments.”
Asle Zaeem awarded over $390,000 by NSF's MOMS program
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The projects funded within ARPA-E’s Reliable Electricity Based on Electrochemical Systems (REBELS) program are meant to produce fuel cell devices that will be cost-efficient and create new functionality for grid stability and integration of renewables such as wind and solar. One particular REBELS project, developed by the Mines Colorado Fuel Cell Center (CFCC) and led by Dr. Neal Sullivan, focused on protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) for distributed power generation applications that could increase the stability of the grid, provide significant cost savings, and result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared with centralized power plants while avoiding transmission losses throughout the grid. During their REBELS project, the CFCC developed a PCFC with a mixed proton and oxygen ion conducting electrolyte that allows the fuel cell to operate at lower temperatures (~500-650°C). PCFCs are different from traditional solid oxide fuel cells, which utilize oxygen-conducting electrolytes and often require higher temperatures (700-800+ °C) to operate optimally. The composition of the PCFC was optimized throughout the project and a gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC) interlayer was added, ultimately resulting in a fuel flexible, durable, scalable cell. A key feature of this fuel cell is its ability to avoid coking – formation of carbon deposits that clog active sites and can cause catastrophic failure – when operating on a variety of carbonaceous fuels. The PCFC shows an especially high-power density when operating directly on hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol fuel at 600 °C, though it can successfully operate on many other fuels. The CFCC partnered with FuelCell Energy to tackle both the development of larger-format PCFCs and a low-cost manufacturing process. FuelCell Energy successfully employed their ceramic manufacturing expertise to scale-up the PCFC from a button cell (~1 cm2) to an 81 cm2 cell while still maintaining its power density. Over 100 PCFC cells were manufacturing during this project. FuelCell Energy also brought their decades of manufacturing know-how to bear in designing a manufacturing process that maximized yield and minimized cost and complexity, bringing this technology closer to becoming a commercially viable option for DG applications. The CFCC has received follow-on small business technology transfer (STTR) funding from the Army Research Office to develop propane-powered tubular PCFCs, and to develop and test a bundle of these cells. The Army STTR program encourages high-tech small businesses in the U.S. to partner with research institutions to yield innovative solutions.Thus far, this project has yielded 2 patents, 1 provisional patent, and additional invention disclosures in process, as well as 30+ publications, and 50+ conference papers and presentations. Since it was awarded in 2014, this project also spurred the growth of interest and funding for PCFC research and development.
Dr. Mohsen Asle Zaeem was awarded over $390,000 by the Mechanics of Materials and Structures (MOMS) program of the National Science Foundation for a three-year project to study the multi-scale mechanisms of fatigue and fracture in shape memory ceramics. Shape memory ceramics are known for stability and corrosion resistance at extreme temperatures and would be ideal materials for actuators, jet engine components, or applications in energy conversion and storage systems. Their development for these uses is limited, however, because they fracture in these types of high-cycle fatigue scenarios. Asle Zaeem explains that the team’s first objective is to understand the mechanisms of nanoscale fracture along interfaces and grain boundaries. To this end, they will perform nanoscale simulations of dynamic fracture during phase transformation. “Starting with single crystals, we will insert nanovoids and observe how they mitigate interface fracture that results from grain expansion during phase transformation,” said Asle Zaeem. “Then we’ll move on to more complex simulations on bicrystal models, and finally we’ll perform petascale molecular dynamics simulations to help us understand fatigue behavior of polycrystalline Z-SMCs with nanoscale voids.” The next objective is to study the high-cycle fatigue behavior of Z-SMCs with engineered defects at microscale. To do this, the team will develop an atomistic-informed microscale modeling framework to predict and study the high-cycle fatigue behavior of Z-SMCs. Ultimately, the team will use these nanoscale and microscale simulations to propose new fatigue lifetime prediction functions that account for the volume fraction and size of defects and other nano- and microstructural features. Asle Zaeem is excited about the implications of this research. “If we’re successful, this approach could significantly enhance the structural integrity of shape memory ceramics in high-cycle fatigue.” After this project, the team’s next steps would be to secure follow-on funding to computationally simulate and optimize the processing steps to achieve the desired nanostructures and microstructures. “With these models, we would be able to guide the experiments in producing SMCs with engineered defects and actually test them in high fatigue cycles.”
The REBELS of distributed power
Cutaway view of Protonic Ceramic Fuel Cell
Atomistic informed phaser-field modeling of deformation of a shape memory ceramic; (a) a snapshot during deformation of a nanopillar by atomistic simulations, and (b) stress-strain curve of a deformed polycrystalline shape memory ceramic by phase-field simulations.
Lamberson to build visualization facility to study armor ceramics
Osborne, Deinert awarded NEUP funding for improved nuclear storage inspection techniques
Dr. Leslie Lamberson, ME Associate Professor and recent Academic Management Institute graduate, was awarded an Office of Naval Research (ONR) grant to build a visualization facility that will enable researchers to characterize deformation and identify failure mechanisms of next- generation structural and armor materials. This ONR-funded facility will extend Lamberson’s current laboratory capabilities that examine high-rate loading under impact. The new equipment will allow researchers to capture high-speed impact scenarios into quantified visual outcomes at the sub-microsecond time scale. This new experimental facility will be comprised of unique light gas accelerators, an ultra-high-speed camera, and a high-performance data acquisition system. The capabilities of this new set-up will allow for new insights on light-weight armor and terminal ballistics. The facility will be used to directly visualize and quantify dynamic deformation, fracture and fragmentation mechanisms in order to develop improved physics-based microstructural models of armor materials. The facility will also provide collaborative research opportunities between undergraduates, graduates, and postdocs in high-strain-rate materials research.
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Photo of trans-granular failure after ceramic armor is subjected to dynamic compression.
ME Department collaborators Dr. Andrew Osborne and Dr. Mark Deinert were awarded a Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) grant to study a specialized tomography method for inspection of dry cask storage tanks using detectors that are both mobile and external to the cask. Dry cask storage allows spent nuclear fuel that has already been cooled in the spent fuel pool for at least one year to be surrounded by inert gas inside a container called a cask. The casks are typically steel cylinders that are either welded or bolted closed. The steel cylinder provides a leak-tight confinement of the spent fuel. Each cylinder is surrounded by additional steel, concrete, or other material to provide radiation shielding to workers and members of the public. Casks are typically used for both storage and transportation. The team -- comprised of researchers from Mines, Los Alamos, and Idaho National Lab -- will develop a cosmic ray muon imaging system along with the algorithms for inspection tomography that use muons, neutrons and gamma rays. The final product will allow operators to inspect dry casks using this non-invasive method to detect fuel movement and the presence of fission gases inside sealed dry storage casks.
Dr. Andrew Petruska and Mining Engineering Professor Jamal Rostami were awarded a 3-year project by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to improve mine safety and miner health by advancing the state of the art of roof bolting automation. In underground mines, roof bolting is essential to support excavated areas and prevent cave-ins. Roof bolting machines are commonly used to drill boreholes and insert anchor bolts—tasks that used to lead to musculoskeletal injuries in miners. While miners no longer have to do these high-risk activities, they are still needed in the operation to position the machines and change out parts, which exposes them to harmful airborne dust known as respirable crystalline silica (RCS). “Ironically,” noted Petruska, “the very airborne dust that puts miners’ health at risk is the reason they are required to be near the bolting operation in the first place.” Dust in underground mines causes spectral reflections and high-dynamic-range lighting conditions that prevent the use of traditional camera imaging and machine perception. Only a human can see well enough in this environment to operate the machines. This is where Petruska and Rostami’s project comes in. Teaming with mining industry leader JOY Global (Komatsu), Petruska and Rostami aim to solve the perception problem and get closer to full roof bolting automation. They will couple newly developed event-based active imaging technologies with dust-penetrating millimeter radar imaging to enable robust 3D perception for the mining environment. The hardware solution will be enhanced with machine learning techniques to create a representation of the roof with the support strap/mesh segmented from the native rock. While the research team works on the perception problem, undergraduate Capstone Design teams will explore solutions to automate tasks like changing the bit and drilling rod and placing and securing the bolt. These combined solutions would greatly reduce the health and safety risks to miners. No longer required for perception and tool changeouts, miners could control the roof bolting equipment remotely, reducing their exposure to hazardous RCS and lowering their risk of being injured by roof falls at the working face.
Mines research will advance automation & improve safety in underground mines
Research news
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Diagram courtesy of NCR.
Mines' Edgar Experimental Mine provides a proving ground for these research activities. Active excavation areas will be used as testing areas to assess perception capabilities in a representative environment.
Fall 2021 Gene Haas Foundation Scholars receiving their award in December 2021. From left to right: Tristan Barney, Cruz Strom, Erik Skansberg, William Hobbs, Russell McKenna, Squire Ross, and Justin Rozendaal.
Story adapted from the Mines Newsroom www.minesnewsroom.com
Stephanie Prochaska placed 1st in the Student Presentation Competition at the ASTM International Conference on Additive Manufacturing (ICAM) for her presentation titled “Corrosion Response of Additively Manufactured 316L Stainless Steel.” The Student Competition invited graduate and undergraduate students to present a technical talk on their research focus to a live audience and panel of judges during the conference which was held in November 2021 in Anaheim, California. Over 120 abstracts were submitted for this year’s competition. The student presentations were reviewed by a select panel of judges from the ICAM 2021 Scientific Organizing Committee and the top 3 presenting students received awards and monetary prizes.
Student news
Jeeva Senthilnathan Photo sourced from The Global Indian.
Student awards
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ME sophomore receives Diana Award
Fall 2021 Gene Haas Foundation Scholars
ME sophomore Jeeva Senthilnathan is one of this year’s recipients of the Diana Award. Senthilnathan was recognized for founding Privando, a youth-led, all-female organization that aims to use technology to help keep women safe. Created in memory of Princess Diana, the Diana Award was established in 1999 by the British government to recognize young people who go above and beyond the expected in their local communities. Now an independent charity, the award has been given to thousands around the world for their social action and humanitarian work. Senthilnathan, 19, got involved in politics while still in high school, working on campaigns and political action committees, and even ran for town council in her hometown of Parker last year. She was sponsored for the Diana Award by Simone Aiken, who Senthilnathan met when Aiken was running for state representative and happened to knock on Senthilnathan’s door. Aiken, a 2001 Mines alumna, is now Senthilnathan’s mentor and wrote her a letter of recommendation when she was applying to Mines. “I met Jeeva while I was campaigning for the Colorado State House,” Aiken said. “She jumped right into the middle of my campaign and became my most energetic and hardworking volunteer. She organized some amazing youth outreach.” The idea for Privando began when Senthilnathan was a junior in high school. The goal was to mimic the technology used for emergency blue light boxes found on college campuses – but on wearable devices that could help women back in her parents’ home country of India. Senthilnathan’s family immigrated to the U.S. in 1998, before she was born. “A few years back, India became a really dangerous country for women because of high incidents of sexual harassment and rape,” she said. “If women want to pursue things like sports, or education, they should be empowered to do what they want to do, and safely.” Privando’s tech team is based in Chennai, India. Senthilnathan found her team in India through Anwita Siddavatam, a teenager from Texas who at 16 started an organization of her own that works on improving reproductive healthcare information and access. They met through social media, connecting over their shared advocacy interests. Privando’s device works with the push of a button, letting women alert those in their safety network that they’re in need of assistance. Senthilnathan said winning this award definitely helped elevate Privando’s profile and allowed the organization to expand the team. In the future, she hopes to make Privando’s devices available outside of India, wherever they’re most needed. Senthilnathan said she is discussing the possibility of expanding to Africa with a friend from Malawi. Here in the U.S., Senthilnathan and her team want to adapt the gadgets so those in the Black community can use them instead of relying on law enforcement for safety issues.
ME grad student places 1st in ICAM competition
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Colorado School of Mines’ Mechanical Engineering Department was awarded a $14,000 grant from the Gene Haas Foundation (GHF) for student scholarships in 2021 for student workers in the ME Instructional Machine Shop. According to Kathy Looman, Foundation administrator, “The purpose of the Gene Haas Foundation is to build skills in the machining industry by providing scholarships for CNC Machine Technology students.” Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation, Inc. started the Gene Haas Foundation in 1999 to support efforts to introduce students to careers in machining and related technologies. That goal is primarily accomplished by funding student scholarships for graduating high school students, displaced workers and military veterans. Based in Oxford, California, Haas Automation is America’s leading machine tool builder.
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Student Derby Car Races
section name
The Lunar Ice Digging System, or LIDS, would include an excavator, regolith hauler and water hauler, along with a communications and navigation system.
Student NEWS
In the last week of class every semester, the first-floor hallway outside of the ME Instructional Machine Shop gets rowdy. It’s time for the MEGN 201 Derby Car races! It’s a rite of passage for every MEGN 201 student, as they are placed in teams that are then required to design and build a derby car that is raced against other teams in their class. Cars that go the farthest and fastest gain bonus points for the team’s grade on the assignment. Each team designs a pocket on top of the car where a 3D printed plastic “rider” sits. Bonus points for any team whose driver survives the race (i.e., stays on top of the car through the finish line). The derby car is the capstone project for the class – showcasing student skills on the manual mill and lathe, as well as with SolidWorks design drawings. It also requires students to properly dimension their design drawings with engineering tolerances.
How can NASA effectively excavate and transport the frozen water ice on the Moon’s poles for use during upcoming long-duration lunar missions? That’s the question the space agency posed in its latest Centennial Challenge, Break the Ice, and design solutions developed by students, faculty and alumni of the Colorado School of Mines nearly swept the awards podium. Coming in second place – and winning $75,000 – was a team of Mines graduate students and recent alumni led by Professor of Practice George Sowers. Winning third place and $50,000 was Austere Engineering of Littleton, Colorado, a technology startup led by students in the Space Resources Program, for its Grading and Rotating for Water Located in Excavated Regolith (GROWLER) system. “For Mines to win the medal count really cements our position in this industry,” said Sowers, one of the core instructors in the Space Resources Program and former chief scientist at United Launch Alliance. “The team that won the overall prize was a pretty large aerospace corporation – we had graduate students that went toe to toe with a professional company.” To tackle the challenge of in-situ water excavation and utilization on the Moon, the Mines team proposed a system made up of three rovers. The Lunar Ice Digging System, or LIDS, would include an excavator, regolith hauler and water hauler, along with a communications and navigation system. Both haulers would have robotic arms for assembly, maintenance and repairs. All three would be remotely operated from a nearby lunar surface base or gateway. “There are a lot of different concepts out there. Ours was heavily based on the traditional way you’d mine on Earth – using special purpose vehicles. At a strip mine, you have vehicles that each do different jobs,” Sowers said. “We also looked to minimize the mass and power consumption of these vehicles.” The haulers’ robotic arms were in direct response to the history of space flight and, as Sowers described, “how rovers die.” One Mars rover, for example, had to end its mission because it got stuck in deep sand and couldn’t free itself, something the hooks and winches on the two haulers would help prevent. “We also included the ability to change wheels and other hardware parts, because experience at real mines sites on Earth is that things break all the time. It’s a dirty, harsh environment and it’s hard to keep machines running,” Sowers said. A total of 12 Space Resources graduate students and recent alumni volunteered: PhD students Timofey Broslav, Hunter Danque, Elizabeth Engeldrum, Michael Forlife and David Purcell; M.S. students Joseph Kenrick, Eric Luken, Matthew Rehberg and Maxwell Sissman; and recent graduates Adam Hugo MS ‘20, Ben Pemble ‘19 MS ‘20, and Deep Joshi, PhD ‘21 Petroleum Engineering. Also advising the team were Christopher Dreyer, assistant research professor in space resources, and Kevin Cannon, from geology and geological engineering.
Space Resources students place in NASA Break the Ice Challenge
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Check out the Fall 2021 races on YouTube!
The system's regolith hauler and water hauler would have robotic arms for assembly, maintenance and repairs.
Adam Schwartz, a junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering, gives a presentation as part of his work as a University Innovation Fellow.
Fall 2021 ME Student Award Winners Announced
Mines ME announced the Fall 2021 student award winners at the Student Awards Luncheon on December 16th. These student awardees were honored not only for their academic and technical achievements, but because of their service to their fellow students and campus community and because of their character and commitment to excellence.
University Innovation Fellow focuses on sustainability and renewable energy
The award winners are: John Steele Service Award: Antonio “Tony” Marquez Emeritus Faculty Exemplary Undergraduate Student: Jorgen Heilbron Emeritus Faculty Exemplary Graduate Student: Rachel Godard Outstanding Graduating Senior: Sean Gilpatrick Outstanding Dissertation: Sen Liu ME Outstanding Student Athlete: Heather Keniry
STUDENT NEWS
Read about our student award winners at mechanical.mines.edu/me-student-awards or scan the QR code!
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Adam Schwartz, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, was walking around campus earlier this year when a flyer caught his eye “It said something like, ‘Do you want to make a difference?’ And I said,‘Yes, I do,” Schwartz said. The flyer was for University Innovation Fellows (UIF), a program that empowers students to become agents of change at their schools. A program of Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, UIF was created as part of the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation, sustained by a five-year National Science Foundation grant. UIF trains students to follow their passion for innovation and learn how to work with their peers, faculty members and university administrators to create new learning opportunities at their schools. Schwartz, who has long been interested in the topics of sustainability and renewable energy, applied for the program. “You start out with online training and learning about design thinking and project planning,” he said. “As you progress, the training gets more specific to your university and your goals.” Schwartz was tasked with getting out into the Mines community and talking to a lot of different people – students, to find out what they thought about the issue of renewable energy, for starters. Then he met with key Mines faculty and staff to figure out what might be possible. What he found was that while several clubs and activities give students the opportunity to engage in sustainable practices or learn more about renewable energy – Schwartz himself has participated in Solar Decathlon, Green Team, Hike for Help and Socially Responsible Scientists and Engineers – there wasn’t a structured, straight-forward program where students could get targeted academic experience that leads to a career specifically in the renewable energy sector. Schwartz’s proposed idea includes creating an interdisciplinary department or program that focuses on preparing students for renewable energy jobs. The first step is to create a distinction for graduating students, and then work toward building and funding a distinct program. After conducting focus groups and surveys among his fellow undergraduates, he found that many students are on board with the idea. After going through six weeks of training, gathering data and meeting with stakeholders on campus, Schwartz’s proposal was sent to UIF at Stanford. After review, UIF accepted him as a fellow. Next steps? Schwartz will continue working with the different departments involved in his proposal and deliver a presentation to Mines executive leadership on why Mines needs a distinct program and the benefits it would provide. He is hopeful Mines administration will be on board with his ideas. “I think it’s a no brainer,” Schwartz said. “Mines is in a great position to do this. NREL is in our backyard. We have a wealth of technical and practical expertise among the faculty. We have great industry connections and alumni in the field. It just makes sense to have an institutional program that’s designed for this.”
Pictured from left to right: Tony Marquez, Jorgen Heilbron, Sean Gilpatrick, and Rachel Godard. Not pictured: Sen Liu and Heather Keniry.
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE Chad Allie The MathWorks
DR. TIM BARCKHOLTZ ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, Annandale, NJ “CO2 Capture Using Carbonate Fuel Cells”
Mines Formula Team race car, Summer 2021
Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Seminar Series: Fall 2021
After a pandemic-induced hiatus for the fall semester, the Mechanical Mondays series is coming back in virtual mode for the spring of 2021. The spring schedule includes:
Interested in speaking at either the Mechanical Mondays or the Distinguished Guest Seminar Series? Please contact Traci Case at tcase@mines.edu.
DR. PETER JOHNSON Emeritus Professor, Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences University of Washington “Making a Health, Safety and Business Case for Higher-Performing Commercial Vehicle Operator Seats: Including a New Passively Active Seat Suspension Design”
DR. HIMANSHU SAHASRABUDHE Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Michigan State University “Exploring Multi-material Structures and Novel Materials using Laser Directed Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing”
Mechanical Mondays returned to in-person this semester. We appreciate our fantastic lineup of alumni and industry speakers who shared their time, experience and wisdom with Mechanical Engineering undergraduates! The Fall 2021 series featured the following guest speakers:
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Will Fehringer '12 Juno Mission Operations Lockheed Martin Claire Teklitz '20 United Launch Alliance Ryan Zamora '19 Milwaukee Tool Matt Miller '88 Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source
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ME students learn basic machining skills in the ME Instructional Machine Shop in the Brown Building.
department events
Dr. ERIC R. HOMER Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Brigham Young University “Using Machine Learning, Math, and Genomic Analysis to Discover the Physics Controlling Metallic Interfaces”
DR. KRISTINE FISCHENICH Post Doc Fellow, Biomedical Engineering University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus “Towards Better Understanding Growth Plate Injuries and Recent Efforts to Engineer Treatments”
Fall 2021 Mechanical Mondays
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Recent Graduates
Loren Kezer Eric Luken Colleen Olson Lisa Robibero Aaron Russell Joshua Schertz John Schmit Michael Seibert Maxwell Sissman
Master of Science, Advanced Energy Systems
Collin Barraugh Colin Dubnik Jesse Geiger Melodie Glasser Evan Murphy David Nash Tony Penoyer Donald Price Brian Vockel
Gandhali Kogekar Advisor: Robert J. Kee “Computationally Efficient and Robust Models of Non-Ideal Thermodynamics, Gas-Phase Kinetics and Heterogeneous Catalysis in Chemical Reactors” Sen Liu Advisor: Xiaoli Zhang “Acceleration of Alloy Design and Manufacturing via Machine Learning and Automated Optimization” Hamed Nobarani Advisor: Mohsen Asle Zaeem “Atomistic Simulations of Polarization Switching in Ferroelectric Materials” Kasra Taghikhani Advisors: John R. Berger, Robert J. Kee “Modeling and Simulation of Chemo-mechanical Behavior in Electrochemical Cells” Alireza Toghraee Advisor: Mohsen Asle Zaeem “Phase-field Study of Diffusion Controlled Phenomena: Reorientation of Zirconium Hydrides and Oxidation of Metals” Sajith Wijesuriya Advisor: Paulo Cesar Tabares Velasco “Experimental Analysis and Validation of a Numerical Phase Change Material (PCM) Model for Building Energy Programs”
Congratulations to our newest alumni!
Lois Kamga-Ngameni Advisor: Alexandra M. Newman “Reduction of Non-productive Time in Oil Field Operations”
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Master of Science, Advanced Manufacturing
Alexander Arnold William Broughton Phillip Buelow Ian Chang Alan Clemens Anna Corman Jake Czajkowski Cameron Eanes Robin Evans Kayleigh Gavin Rachel Godard Casey Langenbahn Everard Marks Benjamin McEntire Charles O’Brien Robert Pagano, II Noah Pelsmaeker Anna Perez Michelle Rugh Eric Smoorenburg Nicholas Thompson Ben Thrift Naya Ziegler
Matthew Bruckner Kelly Pickering Steven Sullivan
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, Mechanical ENGINEERING
MASTER OF SCIENCE, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Master of Science, Operations Research with Engineering
Erik Allder Samuel Barnes Ireland Barton Garret Beck Hadley Bell Taden Blaise Ryan Brisnehan Joshua Callaghan Kenneth Carlson Giorgio Cassata* Anna Christiansen Scott Crowner Nicholas Dennehy Rylan Eller Colin Endsley Ryan Espinoza Samuel Finger Christian Gaither Sean Gilpatrick Jack Girard Michael Glen Joseph Golter Andrea Gonzalez Quin Guy Nayef Haidar Jorgen Heilbron Tate Holmes Torin Hopkins-arnold Ryan Hunter Isaak Johnson Heather Keniry Kramer Kilroy Jackson Klein Dillon Kolstad Samuel Larsen Nicole Lasater Camden Lawhead Landon Le Jacob Lopez Antonio Marquez Nathaniel McKernan Jaylynn Medina Tristan Medina Ryan Middle Cameron Miller Brant Moore-Farrell MaryCatherine Morgan Daniel Morrison Israel Olivas Jesse Orris Colton Pasternak Ryan Perkins Tyler Quinn Matthew Rathmann Ethan Reed Andrew Reese Jonah Rich Michael Rickert Ty Ridings Daniel Riley Jacob Romo Max Rosiere Grace Seymour Flint Sheffield Paul Slade Michael Smith Robert Smith Galen Stevenson Tucker Vana Lindsey Welch Jake White Nathaniel White Anand Zorig * Dual degree recipient: B.S., Computer Science
INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMS
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
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Master of Science, Space Resources
Doctor of Philosophy, Operations Research with Engineering
John Cox Jason Matisheck Braxton Morehead Megan Muniz
Zachary Brunson Advisors: Craig A. Brice, Aaron P. Stebner “The Development of Novel Six-Dimensional Anisotropic and Asymmetric Yield Approaches Applied to the Study of Dwell Fatigue Using Various X-ray Techniques” Mohammadhasan Fathollahzadeh Advisor: Paulo Cesar Tabares Velasco “Integrated Framework for Modeling and Optimization of District Cooling Systems in Commercial Districts” Karl Heine Advisor: Paulo Cesar Tabares Velasco “Optimal Design and Control of Cool Thermal Energy Storage as a Distributed Energy Resource” Noopur Jamnikar Advisor: Xiaoli Zhang “Comprehensive Modeling of Process-Molten Pool Condition-Property Correlations for Wire-Feed Laser Additive Manufacturing”
SUPPORT MECHANICAL
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 1500 ILLINOIS ST. GOLDEN, CO 80401-1887
A gift to the Department of Mechanical Engineering is an investment in the future. Gifts can support scholarships, fellowships, professorships, academic programs, faculty research and other initiatives that are not typically supported through state appropriations. Private philanthropy empowers the department to achieve greater excellence in research and education. To learn more about supporting the department, contact the Mines Foundation at weare.mines.edu/mewinter or call 303.273.3275.