MME 10-Year Merge Anniversary (2011-2021)
Read MME 10-Year Magazine (PDF)
Laraoui's team publishes pair of papers in esteemed journals
May 11, 2023 - Abdelghani Laraoui, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering, and his graduate students are part of multidisciplinary research teams that have produced a pair of papers that have been published in the same week in separate industry journals. The Nebraska Engineering researchers are part of Laraoui's Quantum Sensing & Defect Discovery and Spectroscopy Lab in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
In the May 9, 2023 edition of ACS Nano, "Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetometry of Individual Fe-Triazole Spin Crossover Nanorods" highlights the potential of nitrogen vacancy (NV) quantum sensors to study the magnetic properties of spin crossover molecules and molecular magnets. Coating iron triazole nanoparticles with a conductive polymer can enable imaging below 20 nanometers and decreasing the size of the nanoparticles leads to a decrease of stray fields. Mechanical engineering graduate students Adam Erickson and Rupak Timalsina are co-authors.
In the May 4, 2023 edition of Advanced Optical Materials, "Plasmon Enhanced Quantum Properties of Single Photon Emitters with Hybrid Hexagonal Boron Nitride Silver Nanocube Systems" demonstrates a 200 percent plasmonic enhancement of single photon emitters' properties through a strong increase in flourescence. This advancement would be desirable for integrated quantum photonic networks. Ufuk Kilic (research assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering), former ECE faculty Christos Argyropoulos, and graduate students Mohammadjavad Dowran (mechanical engineering) and Andrew Butler (electrical engineering) are co-authors.
Four engineering grad students receive Eisenhower Fellowships
March 10, 2023 - Four Nebraska Engineering graduate students - Weston Kelley, Aaron Lechtenberger, Andrew Loken, and Russell Masterson - have each been selected to receive a Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Loken is a doctoral student in civil engineering, Lechtenberger and Masterson are master's students in civil engineering, and Kelley is a master's student in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics. Loken was also awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year.
The Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program (DDETFP) provides up to a $10,000 award that helps fund a graduate student's research. The program requires recipients to present their research at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
These four awards increased the college's total to 17 Eisenhower Fellowships that have been awarded to 16 College of Engineering students since 2010 and is the most awarded to Nebraska students in a single academic year.
The DDETFP provides fellowships to students pursuing degrees in transportation-related disciplines. This program advances the transportation workforce by helping attract the nation's brightest minds to the field of transportation, encouraging future transportation professionals to seek advanced degrees, and helping retain top talent in the U.S. transportation industry.
From its initial support of graduate research fellowships in 1983 to the current program's inception in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, the DDETFP has awarded over $50 million to graduate students in the transportation industry. From this investment, fellows have pushed for innovative change in multimodal areas from highway infrastructure to aviation to maritime, making the industry more effective and efficient. Fellows pursue careers in academia, private industry, and public service, serving as leaders across the nation.
Applications for the DDETFP 2023-24 Fellowships are due by April 7. More information can be found on the application portal website.
NEBRASKA ENGINEERING RECIPIENTS OF THE DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER TRANSPORTATION FELLOWSHIP
Cody Stolle (2010-2011)
Cale Stolle (2012-2013)
Tiffany Treviño (2017-2018)
Brock Schroder (2018-2019)
Ricardo Jacome (2018-2021)
Ryan Bickhaus (2018-2021)
Michael Sweigard (2019-2020)
Kellon Ronspies (2019-2020)
Nathan Dowler (2020-2021)
Luis Rodriguez (2020-2021)
Andy Loken (2020-2021, 2022-2023)
Riley Ruskamp (2021-2022)
Aaron Lechtenberger (2022-2023)
Russell Masterson (2022-2023)
Weston Kelley (2022-2023)
Three Nebraska Engineering students earn Air Force You Can Fly scholarships

March 1, 2023 - Three College of Engineering students - Luke Landkamer, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, Eddie Morrissette, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering, and Shelby Stevens, a freshman majoring in computer science, and each a member of the Air Force ROTC program - earned Air Force You Can Fly scholarships. The $3,500 awards are designed to help students explore aviation before they decide on which career field to pursue.
Jiashi Yang publishes book on three-dimensional theory for functional materials
March 1, 2023 - "Mechanics of Functional Materials," authored by Jiashi Yang, professor of mechanical and materials engineering, and recetly published by World Scientific, outlines new methods of approaching studies of elastic, thermal, electric, and magnetic interactions in solids.
Many books on the mechanics of materials treat elastic deformations of solids through one-dimensional models for the extension of rods, torsion of shafts and bending of beams. In functional materials, mechanical, thermal, electric and magnetic fields interact among themselves, and therefore, need a more comprehensive model. Yang's book presents a systematic treatment of the three-dimensional theories for these coupled phenomena and the corresponding one-dimensional models for extension, torsion and bending.
Yang's book adopts a mixed approach by devoting the first half of the book to the development of the three-dimensional theories of elastic, thermal, electric and magnetic fields as well as their interactions in dielectrics, conductors and semiconductors. The remainder of the book presents the one-dimensional models for extension, torsion and bending systematically.
Six Nebraska Engineering faculty chosen to UNL's Research Development Fellows Program 2022-23 cohort
Oct. 20, 2022 - Six College of Engineering faculty are among the 11 University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty members selected to participate in the 15th cohort of the Office of Research and Economic Development's Research Development Fellows Program (RDFP).
RDFP is an eight-month program designed to provide full-time Nebraska faculty at the assistant-level rank the information and resources necessary to position themselves for success in securing external funding for their research, scholarship and creative activity. Fellows graduate from the program with an intentional plan for pursuing external funding and strategies that prepare them to write winning proposals.
The fellows, selected through a competitive application process, represent eight departments spanning three colleges and the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The College of Engineering faculty chosen for the 2022-23 cohort are:
- Jessica Deters, mechanical and materials engineering
- Mohammad Hasan, electrical and computer engineering
- Xiaoqi Liu, Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction
- Logan Perry, civil and environmental engineering
- Milad Roohi, Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction
- Jamilla Teixeira, civil and environmental engineering
Four alums chosen to university's Young Alumni Academy
Oct. 27, 2022 - Four College of Engineering alumni are among the 39 University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduates selected to the 2022 class of the Young Alumni Academy. The Nebraska Engineering alums in the 2022-23 cohort are (with hometowns, year of graduation and major):
Satya Deshpande, Lincoln, 2022 mechanical engineering and applied mechanics
Mustafa Ridha, Lincoln, 2018 computer engineering
Tyler Sondag, Omaha, 2018 civil engineering and 2020 architectural engineering
Austin Wendt, Omaha, 2017 computer science
Research by nine Nebraska Engineering faculty supported by 2022-23 Layman Seed Program awards
July 12, 2022 - Nine faculty from the College of Engineering are leading research projects that are among the 24 being supported by the. University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Office of Research and Economic Development in 2022-23 through its Layman Awards program, which funds work that enhances a researcher's ability to obtain external funding to support prominent scholarship.
The program offers two tracks — the Layman Seed Program, which funds new projects by early-career faculty who are nontenured at the time of submission; and the New Directions Program, which funds tenured faculty who are branching into new research directions or need funding to support pilot or developmental work toward the next step in a funded research program. Awards of up to $10,000 per application for each program are made possible by support from the University of Nebraska Foundation.
The College of Engineering faculty being supported by Layman Seed Program awards in 2022-23 are:
2022 LAYMAN SEED PROGRAM AWARDS
- Mona Bavarian, chemical and biomolecular engineering; "Continuous manufacturing of microelectronics polymers via combination of data science and macroscopic modeling."
- Jason Hawkins, civil and environmental engineering, "Environmental-economic systems as dynamic networks-of-networks."
- Qiang Liu, School of Computing, "Automated offline simulator augmentation with real-to-sim learning in mobile networks."
- Nitesh Nama, mechanical and materials engineering, "Bubble based acoustic microswimmers."
- Arman Roohi, School of Computing, "Enabling robust quantized neural network acceleration in federated edge computing."
2022 LAYMAN NEW DIRECTIONS GRANTS
- Moe Alahmad, Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, "Analysis and statistical prediction of variability in time-series data."
- Srivatsan Kidambi, chemical and biomolecular engineering, "Synthetic biomimetic environment (BEASTS) to investigate the role of stiffness in altered redox signaling and inflammation in placenta during HDP."
- Daniel Linzell, civil and environmental engineering, "Individual-level factors that and their impact on retention of women in the construction industry."
- Hongfeng Yu, School of Computing, "Hierarchical knowledge-driven visual analytics for oncologic diagnosis."
Thirty Nebraska Engineering students earn Milton E. Mohr fellowships, scholarships
Thirty students from the College of Engineering were selected to receive awards from the Milton E. Mohr Scholarship and Fellowship Awards Program for the 2022-23 academic year.
Each scholarship and fellowship provides $1,000 per year to the student and is renewable.
The Milton E. Mohr Scholarship and Fellowship Awards Program was established in 1989 for students in the College of Engineering or Biotechnology degree programs. The scholarships and fellowships are made possible through an endowment to the University Foundation.
To be eligible for the 2022-23 academic year, students must be a full-time junior, senior or graduate student or have full-time graduate status enrolled in as a primary major in engineering or biotechnology programs, maintain a minimum 3.5 grade-point average, and have a graduation date of no earlier than May 2023.
The 2022-23 recipients from the College of Engineering:
Graduate Fellowships (12)
Ivon Acosta Ramirez, Ph.D., Biological Engineering
Justin Brooks, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
Niaz Chowdhury, Ph.D., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Ryan Haggerty, Ph.D., Civil Engineering
Fei San Lee, Ph.D., Biological Engineering
Jazmin Ley, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
Sussan Moussavi, Ph.D., Civil Engineering
Kshitij Nikhal, Ph.D., Electrical Engineering
Hafiz Oyediran, Ph.D., Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management
Sahand Serajian, Ph.D., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Megan Stokey, Ph.D., Electrical Engineering
Nathan Taylor, Masters, Architectural Engineering
Undergraduate Scholarships (18)
Nicholas Abbott, Architectural Engineering
Caitlyn Allen, Biological Systems Engineering
Sarah Altman, Biological Systems Engineering
Benjamin Bashtovoi, Mechanical Engineering
Elena Butler, Biological Systems Engineering
Sophia Frappier, Biological Systems Engineering
Luke Freyhof, Biological Systems Engineering
Miah Hoppens, Chemical Engineering
Isabelle Koehler, Chemical Engineering
Josiah Kolar, Mechanical Engineering
Kimberly Law, Chemical Engineering
Ryan Orth, Software Engineering
Ryan Otte, Civil Engineering
Chase Pettit, Mechanical Engineering
Ken Pham, Computer Engineering
Keifer Smith, Civil Engineering
Rylie Steffen, Biological Systems Engineering
Simon Thengvall, Mechanical Engineering
Thirteen Nebraska Engineering faculty named NSRI Fellows
Thirteen faculty from the College of Engineering were among the 49 researchers from across the University of Nebraska system who were selected to the 2022 National Strategic Research Institute (NSRI) Fellows cohort. They join the more than 70 NSRI fellows who were chosen to the inaugural cohort in May 2021.
The 2022 Fellows from the College of Engineering are:
- Christos Argyropoulos, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Sina Balkir, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Mehmet Can Vuran, School of Computing
- George Gogos, Mechanical and Materials Engineering
- Andrew Harms, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Michael Hempel, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Qing Hui, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Xu Li, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Eric Markvicka, Mechanical and Materials Engineering
- Carl Nelson, Mechanical and Materials Engineering
- Angela Pannier, Biological Systems Engineering
- Yi Qian, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Byrav Ramamurthy, School of Computing
Alexis Horton earns Patti Grace Smith Fellowship in aerospace
Alexis Horton, a first-year student in mechanical and materials engineering, is one of 39 undergraduate students from colleges and universities across the United States who have been selected as recipients of the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship.
The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship is an award-winning program that connects the nation's leading aerospace companies with talented Black students. Each member of the program's Class of 2022 has earned a challenging summer internship in the aerospace field, in addition to receiving a scholarship worth thousands of dollars, a pair of personalized mentors, and more.
Horton, who is from Omaha, Nebraska, has earned a summer internship with Northrop Grumman.