MME Achievements

MME 10-Year Merge Anniversary (2011-2021)

We're celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the successful merge of the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. Enjoy some of the highlights as we emerged into Mechanical & Materials Engineering.


Read MME 10-Year Magazine (PDF)
Cover of MME 10 Year Magazine


77 College of Engineering employees honored at UNL Service Awards

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln honored nearly 1,000 faculty and staff at the 2020 Service Awards, held virturally on Oct. 19. Among those recognized were 77 from the College of Engineering:

55 YEARS
Bing Chen, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Jerald Varner, Electrical & Computer Engineering

45 YEARS
Dennis Alexander, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Shelly Everett, Computer Science & Engineering

40 YEARS
Larita Lang, Computer Science & Engineering

35 YEARS
Thomas Grady, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Hamid Vakilzadian, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Joyce Young, Engineering Computer Science

30 YEARS
Karen Coen-Brown, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Ronald Faller, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Jim Holloway, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Michael Kocher, Biological Systems Engineering
Gary Krause, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Omaha
Tim Terrell, College of Engineering

25 YEARS
Leonard Akert, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Scott Chaffin, Computer Science & Engineering
Richard Koelsch, Biological Systems Engineering
Ann Koopmann, Computer Science & Engineering
Charles Riedesel, Computer Science & Engineering

20 YEARS
Aemal Khattak, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Lincoln
Karen Moore, Engineering Dean's Office-Omaha
Mark Stroup, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Alex Russell, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Lily Wang, College of Engineering
Clarence Waters, Durham School Architectural Engineering & Construction

15 YEARS
Junke Guo, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Omaha
Jay Harner, Biological Process Development Facility
Haorong Li, Durham School of Architectural Engineering & Construction
Ying Lu, Computer Science & Engineering
Yong Rak Kim, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Lincoln
George Morcous, Durham School of Architectural Engineering & Construction
Barbara Robertson, College of Engineering
Mathias Schubert, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Carl Nelson, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Li Tan, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Ken Townsend Jr., Electrical & Computer Engineering

10 YEARS
Milunka Brajic, College of Engineering
Julia Brunkow, College of Engineering
Carrick Detweiler, Computer Science & Engineering
Lucia Fernandez Ballester, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Jenna Huttenmaier, Computer Science & Engineering
Srivatsan Kidambi, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Ron Kruml, Computer Science & Engineering
Wei Niu, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Lameck Odhiambo, Biological Systems Engineering
Shea Svoboda, Computer Science & Engineering
Erin Swanson, College of Engineering
Steve Sypal, Biological Process Development Facility
Douglas Triplett, Biological Systems Engineering
Tracy Zimmerman, Biological Systems Engineering

5 YEARS
Cameron Adams, College of Engineering
Vitaly Alexandrov, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Justin Bradley, Engineering Computer Science
Phillip Carter, College of Engineering
Micah Chaffee, Engineering Dean's Office-Omaha
Brittany Duncan, Computer Science & Engineering
Garrett Gassman, College of Engineering
Jenna Hefley, Biological Systems Engineering
Jiong Hu, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Omaha
Qing Hui, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Nicole Iverson, Biological Systems Engineering
Emili Jones, Engineering Dean's Office-Omaha
Kasey Juel, College of Engineering
Amanda Lager Gleason, Biological Systems Engineering
Patricia Lena, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Lincoln
Laurie Prettyman, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Jay Puckett, Durham School of Architectural Engineering & Construction
Jennifer Rasmussen, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Daran Rudnick, Biological Systems Engineering
Jared Schreiner, College of Engineering
Michael Sealy, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Chungwook Sim, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Omaha
Chung Song, Civil & Environmental Engineering-Lincoln
Cody Stolle, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
Eli Sutter, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Peter Sutter, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Jian Wang, Mechanical & Materials Engineering


Keiser chosen to SWE Leadership Development Program

Courtney Keiser, doctoral student in mechanical and materials engineering.
Courtney Keiser, a Ph.D. student in mechanical and materials engineering, has been chosen to participate in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Leadership Development Program (LDP) on the Beginners Track. Keiser, who is advised by Alexey Kamenskiy, has a research focus on developing femoropopliteal bypass grafts and aortic stent grafts with optimized mechanical properties for cardiovascular surgery.

The LDP is an intensive program designed to help SWE collegiate members expand their leadership potential and overall SWE knowledge. Over the course of a year, selected participants engage in monthly meetings, develop relationships with collegiate and professional SWE members, and further expand their leadership abilities through implementation of their learnings. In addition, LDP participants join other collegians at the Collegiate Leadership Institute (CLI) at Society conference for professional development workshops and networking opportunities.

Keiser has served as the SWE Graduate Member Coordinator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's collegiate section since 2019 and is the Learning Content Coordinator for the GradSWE Leadership Team.


Doctoral student Sotelo receives SHPE 2020 STAR Award

Luz Sotelo, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics, is one of four engineering students in the U.S. who have been chosen to receive a 2020 Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) STAR Award for being Student Role Models. Sotelo is the only graduate student among the four recipients. The Technical Achievement and Recognition (STAR) Award recipients will be recognized during the virtual SHPE 2020 National Convention, Oct. 28-29. 

The prestigious awards honor outstanding professionals for their dedication, commitment, and selfless efforts to advance Hispanics in STEM careers.


Sotelo chosen as LATinE 2020 fellow

Luz Sotelo, a doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, was among the 17 students from across the U.S. chosen as a LATinE 2020 Fellow for the Latinx Trailblazers in Engineering conference that was held July 29-31 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Sotelo was also one of three poster competition winners at the workshop.

LATinE is a new initiative intended to increase the number and success of Latinx/Hispanic engineering faculty in the U.S., who in turn, will blaze new trails with new discoveries, innovations and social impact and serve as role models for the next generation of engineers.


Study of ceramics manufacturing using lasers featured by national lab

An article on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory website shows how Nebraska Engineering researchers are studying how to manufacture and functionalize a wide range of advanced ceramic products using new technology, such as laser additive manufacturing (LAM). The team, which includes Bai Cui, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering, and Xiang Zhang, graduate research assistant in mechanical and materials engineering, used lasers in the Laser-Assisted Nano Engineering Lab and high-end 3D printers in the Nebraska Engineering Additive Technology Lab, to melt and print samples of advanced ceramics and study how those processes induced changes and defects in the materials.


Paper by Cui, Lu among most-cited in Journal of American Ceramic Society

A paper co-authored by Bai Cui, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering, and Yongfeng Lu, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is among the most-cited papers published in Journal of the American Ceramic Society. The paper is titled “(Hf0.2Zr0.2Ta0.2Nb0.2Ti0.2)C high-entropy ceramics with low thermal conductivity,” and was one of the first reports of high-entropy ceramics, a new ceramic material that has become an attractive material due to their high structural stability, unique physical properties, and potential applications in ultra-high temperature environments in aerospace and nuclear applications. For 102 years, the Journal of the American Ceramic Society has been a leading source for top-quality basic science research and modeling spanning the diverse field of ceramic and glass materials science.

Jafarzadeh, Bobaru receive NACE society's 2020 Best Paper Award

A paper, “Peridynamic Modeling of Repassivation in Pitting Corrosion of Stainless Steel,” by a team that includes Nebraska mechanical and materials engineering researchers was chosen to receive the 2020 Best Paper Award by the journal CORROSION, the leading journal of the NACE society). The team includes Siavash Jafarzadeh, doctoral student, and Florin Bobaru, professor of mechanical and materials engineering.


Image from Dzenis' team on cover of journal

An image of a UHMWPE fiber from a paper by Yuris Dzenis' group was chosen for the cover of the May 29 edition of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
An image, based on another image of a UHMWPE fiber, that was studied in a paper by a group of researchers – including Yuris Dzenis, professor of mechanical and materials engineering, has been chosen to be featured on the cover of May 29 edition of the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. The fiber is one of two studied in the group’s paper, “Hierarchical Mechanisms of Lateral Interactions in High-Performance Fibers,” and is the strongest high-performance polymer fiber with numerous applications in a broad variety of fields. The Nebraska researchers – including Taylor Stockdale, who received his doctorate in engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May 2019, and Dimitry Papkov, a postdoctoral research assistant in mechanical and materials engineering – worked on the project with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.


Nelson chosen as special editor for ASME

Carl Nelson, professor of mechanical and materials engineering, has been selected a special issue editor for ASME Journal of Medical Devices. https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/society-news/asme-news/asme-journal-accepting-papers-for-special-journal-issue-on-medical-robotics-and-human-interfaces


Sutters' research highlighted on Office of Science website

The Department of Energy Office of Science recently published a highlight – “Wrapped, Layered Semiconductors Catch the Light” – about the research of Eli Sutter, professor of mechanical and materials engineering, and Peter Sutter, professor of electrical and computer engineering. The researchers used a simple and efficient new method to spontaneously form high-quality semiconductor layers with a core-shell structure. The simple process means these new heterostructures could be relatively easy to produce. The structures absorb light using their core, shell, and the interfaces between the components. This translates into enhanced light harvesting. The heterostructures are promising for applications using the sun to accelerate chemical reactions. For example, they could have a role in electricity and fuel production.