Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 1 No. 2 | Page 6

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speakers

(cont.)
Day in Blacksburg April
11.

Corina Sandu
Delivered a keynote
lecture at the
Fourth Joint
International
Conference
on Multibody
System
Dynamics - IMSD 2016 in
Montreal, Canada May
29-June 2. The talk was
titled, "Efficient Treatment of Uncertainties in
Multibody Dynamic Systems." The conference is
a biannual series serving
as a meeting point for
the community.

Zhou Ye
A doctoral student of
the Behkam lab, presented the papers “An
Experimentally Validated
Biophysical Model for
Candida albicans Interactions with Nanofiber-textured Surfaces” and
“Biophysical Model of
Candida albicans Adhesion to Nanofiber-Textured Surfaces” to the
ASME NanoEngineering
for Medicine and Biology
Conference in Houston,
Texas, and the Adhesion
Society’s Annual Meeting
in San Antonio, Texas,
respectively.

Javid Bayandor
Presented a talk to the
Federal Aviation Administration as part of the
Micro Unmanned Aircraft

Systems
Aviation
Rulemaking
Committee.
The presentation
provided analysis to the
rulemaking committee
who develop recommendations to the FAA
regarding the classification and operation of
Micro UAS.

member who has
demonstrated exceptional leadership, dedication,
and success in working
with undergraduate
research students.

Google Award

Rolf Müller has received the 2016 Virginia
Tech Alumni
Award for
Excellence in
International
Research.
The award is
presented to a faculty or
staff member who has
had a significant impact
on international research
and is based on contributions to the internationalization of Virginia Tech.
Read the entire story at
VTNews.

Alan Asbeck, assistant
professor,
recently
received
a Google
Faculty
Research
Award of more than
$58,000. The award is
part of the company’s
vision to identify and
support world-class
faculty pursuing cutting-edge research in
areas of mutual interest.
Asbeck’s proposal for
“A whole-body soft
wearable force-feedback
system” uses a lightweight suit to apply
small joint torques to its
wearer. The initial application will be in virtual
reality environments,
so wearers can interact
more meaningfully with
simulated objects.

COE award

Favorite Faculty

awards
2016 Alumni Award

Zhiting Tian, assistant
professor of
Mechanical
Engineering,
has been
selected as
this year’s recipient of the College of
Engineering Undergraduate Research Advisor
Award.
The award is given
annually to a faculty

Amrinder Nain,
associate
professor,
was honored
April 5 as
a Favorite
Faculty. The
award allows students to
recognize faculty members who have hand
a positive impact on
them and is sponsored
through Housing and

Residence Life within
the Division of Student
Affairs.

Dean's awards
Professor Francine
Battaglia,
and Kevin
Kochersberger, associate
professor,
each took
home a
College of
Engineering
Dean's
Award at a
ceremony May 3.
Battaglia earned the
Excellence in Teaching
Award while Kochersberger left with the W.S.
'Pete' White Award in
Engineering Education.

Inventors recognized
Javid Bayandor, associate professor, and
graduate student Scott
Perino, were
recognized
by the Office
of the Vice
President for
Research and
Innovation as Inventors
of the Month for May.
Their invention, An Advanced Omnidirectional
Impact Absorber, uses
principles of a bicycle
wheel and applies them
to a vehicle designed to
return rock samples from
Mars in a more efficient
way.
Read the whole story
from VT Research and
Innovation.