MEMS News

  • February 12, 2008

    Physics Theory Explains Why University Rankings Resist Change

    DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke University researcher says that his physics theory, which has been applied to everything from global climate to traffic patterns, can also explain another trend: why university rankings tend not to change very much from year to year. Like branching river channels across the earth's surface, universities are part of a relatively rigid network that is predictable based on "constructal theory," which describes the shapes of flows in nature, argues Adrian ...
  • January 28, 2008

    Focus on Engineering – Problems engineers solved

    For the second year in a row, Professor Ana Barros led a freshman year experience Focus course cluster called Engineering Frontiers. Open to both engineering and arts and sciences students, this year’s cluster examines the planet earth as the life support system that sustains us. Taught by engineering professor David Needham, one course in the cluster, Engineering 32F is Mapping Engineering onto Biology. Focus students had the opportunity to join into Needham’s ME/BME 265, Introduction to ...
  • January 28, 2008

    Skee-ball and Pizza – the best way to end a semester

    Engineering students in Professor Linda Franzoni’s Fall 2007 ME 141 Mechanical Design course indulged in pizza and a no-holds-barred demonstration of their engineering design skills in an end-of-semester skee-ball contest. The players, however, were robotic ball launchers designed by student teams during the course. For this skee ball competition, players had to launch small plastic balls into a nested series of rings set at an incline. (Normally, skee ball is a bit like bowling—where a ball ...
  • December 17, 2007

    Undergrads Enter 'Innovate or Die' Pedal-Powered Machine Contest

    Watch the video featuring a pedal-powered dirty water distiller designed and built by undergraduate engineers. A team of four undergraduate mechanical engineers have entered an "Innovate or Die" Pedal-Powered Machine contest on YouTube. Their video features a pedal-driven dirty water distillation device originally designed and built in the course ME150: Heat and Mass Transfer. The design project was inspired by the need for devices able to purify water in the case of a natural disaster, such ...
  • November 9, 2007

    Duke to Establish New Center for Engineering, Energy and the Environment

    A gift of $7.85 million by a Duke alumnus and his wife will create a center to educate students to meet the world’s energy needs while also improving its environment, university President Richard H. Brodhead announced Nov. 9. The Gendell Center for Engineering, Energy and the Environment is being established by Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering in collaboration with the university’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. The center is being named for Jeffrey and ...
  • November 6, 2007

    Bejan and Lorente Win First Hartnett Award for 'Smart' Materials Inspired by Constructal Theory

    Adrian Bejan, J.A. Jones professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, and Sylvie Lorente, professor of civil engineering at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse, France, will receive the James P. Hartnett Award at the ASME International Congress of Mechanical Engineering and Exposition in Seattle on Nov. 13. The Hartnett Award is conferred by the International Center of Heat and Mass Transfer (ICHMT) to the best paper presented at a ...
  • November 5, 2007

    Why Engineers Make Good Business People

    Note: The following represents a speech presented by Sy Sternberg, chairman and CEO of New York Life Insurance Co., at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering on Saturday, Nov. 3, during Parents Weekend. Sternberg is an engineer by education, with bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering. Download his power point slides. It’s great to be here this week with so many other Duke parents. My son, Matthew, has just entered his senior year at ...
  • October 30, 2007

    New Magnetic Separation Technique Might Detect Multiple Pathogens at Once

    Watch a video of 3-micron beads as they are magnetically separated from 1-micron beads using a new technique developed by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering and Purdue University. A magnetic separation technique developed by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering and Purdue University makes it relatively simple to sort through beads hundreds of times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. The method could lead ...
  • October 3, 2007

    Ashutosh Chilkoti Named Director of Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems

    Professor Ashutosh Chilkoti has been appointed director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Materials Systems (CBIMMS), Pratt Dean Robert Clark announced on Oct. 2. CBIMMS is an interdisciplinary Duke center focused on bio-nano-manufacturing, biointerface science and nanomechanics, using designs found in nature as inspiration for engineering advances. In his capacity as center director, Chilkoti will also lead Pratt’s strategic research initiative in materials. "As associate director of CBIMMS, Chilkoti provided extensive leadership on multi-investigator proposals ...
  • October 3, 2007

    Why Women Succeed

    Note: The following article, written by Sally Hicks, first appeared in the Fall '07 issue of Gist from the Mill, a publication of the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University. When Nan Jokerst studied engineering in the 1980s, being a woman meant being surrounded by men. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, says Jokerst, the J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke. “I had more dates than anybody. If you want ...
  • October 1, 2007

    Annual Fitzpatrick Meeting to Highlight 'Science and Technology for a Purpose'

    Fitzpatrick Institute Director Tuan Vo-Dinh The seventh annual meeting of Duke's Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, which will be held at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering on Oct. 11 and 12, will highlight "Photonics in the Translational Era: Science and Technology for a Purpose." Photonics is the science and technology of light and its interaction with materials. "The main purpose of the symposium is to bring together scientists, engineers and practitioners from multiple disciplines and provide a forum ...
  • October 1, 2007

    Duke’s Smart Home – Finally A Reality

    An illustration of the Home Depot Smart Home. After almost five years of plans, the dorm has finally become a reality. After almost five years of plans, dreams, fundraising and ultimately construction, Duke’s new smart home will be finished in November. Ten Pratt engineers and Trinity students anticipate moving into the Home Depot Smart Home in January—prepared to become Duke’s newest ambassadors of E-Living. Their goal is to seamlessly integrate technology into the home and champion ...
  • September 27, 2007

    Using Catalysts to Stamp Nanopatterns without Ink

    Using enzymes from E. coli bacteria, Duke University chemists and engineers have introduced a hundred-fold improvement in the precision of features imprinted to create microdevices such as labs-on-a-chip. Their inkless microcontact printing technique can imprint details measuring close to 1 nanometer, or billionths of a meter, the Duke team reported in the Sept. 24, 2007 issue of the Journal of Organic Chemistry. "This has a lot of potential, because we don't have the resolution issue," said ...
  • September 19, 2007

    A Summer of Engagement

    Student members of the Duke Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter took part in three projects over the past summer—all designed to improve the quality of life for people living in Uganda and Peru. Meanwhile, Engineering World Health (EWH), an organization founded by the Pratt School of Engineering's Robert Malkin, took more than 40 students to Tanzania and Central America to install or repair medical equipment in local clinics and hospitals. "It gives me great pride that ...
  • September 1, 2007

    Back to School and Time to Think about Next Summer

    Kirsten Shaw In the midst of settling back into campus life and a new course schedule, it's already time to start thinking about next summer's internship or full-time job, says Kirsten Shaw, assistant director of Corporate and Industry Relations at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The good news is that there are plenty of resources available on campus to get undergraduates prepared. The first stop should be an appointment with the Career Center, where students can get ...
  • August 23, 2007

    NSF Supports New Engineering After-School Program

    A new program called TechXcite, led by Professor Gary Ybarra of the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering, will create an engineering after-school curriculum for 4-H supported middle schools across the nation. Middle school participants in the program will also receive virtual mentoring from engineers in the electronics industry. The new partnership between the Pratt School, National 4-H Afterschool, North Carolina 4-H and the National Science & Technology Education Partnership has been made possible with more ...
  • August 21, 2007

    Winner of Two Early Career Awards Devises Recipes for Tomorrow's Materials

    Stefano Curtarolo, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, is developing computational tools designed to predict the recipes for tomorrow's advanced materials. He aims to identify the best new materials for just about any high-tech job, from the automotive, aerospace or marine industries to nanotechnology and future sources of energy. For his efforts, Curtarolo has won a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from The National Science ...
  • August 15, 2007

    Molecular "Fishing"

    Technologies that permit fast chemical measurement have myriad applications in medicine, the environment and food safety monitoring. However, methods that rely on heat or changes in optical properties often require long sampling times and equipment not suitable for use in the field. Additionally, optical methods can only be used when the testing solution is clear, precluding their use on blood and any other opaque solution. Did you know? To detect the interactions between individual molecules, atomic ...
  • August 15, 2007

    Warm Targets

    Anti-cancer drugs are hazardous to cancers, but they are only slightly less so to healthy tissue. For example, the drug doxorubicin may efficiently jam the genetic machinery of rapidly dividing cancer cells, but it is also highly toxic to heart tissue. Such cardiac toxicity limits how much of the drug can be administered to patients. Benefit "The unprecedented rapid release of such large amounts of drug directly into the cancers' blood vessels--triggered only by mild focused heating--seems ...
  • August 15, 2007

    Damage Control

    Nearly half of all people with cancer are treated with radiation therapy, either alone or in combination with other treatments. The goal of radiation therapy is to damage as many cancer cells as possible while limiting harm to nearby healthy tissue. Although radiation damages both cancer cells and normal cells, most normal cells can recover from the effects of radiation. Did you know? Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the U.S. In ...
  • August 15, 2007

    Designing for Sound

    Whether the goal is to hear a pin drop in a concert hall, to reduce the drone of airplane engines, or to improve sound clarity in lecture halls, designing physical spaces with superior sound quality is a computational challenge. Duke engineers are developing new engineering tools to improve our acoustic environment. Did you know? The quality and volume of sound in a room can bring pleasure or fatigue to the listener. Careful consideration of sound quality in ...
  • August 15, 2007

    Precise Reading

    Noise and vibration can generate inaccurate readings in precision systems such as planetarium astronomy equipment, parabolic antennas and laser based guidance systems that rely on precise pointing to receive or transmit signals. The sources of this problem, commonly called jitter, can range from motors used to position the pointing system to ambient acoustic sources such as simple heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems or in some cases, noise due to automobiles and aircraft. Did you know? The Hubble ...
  • August 15, 2007

    Tumor Therapy

    Lithotripsy, the shock wave therapy currently used to pulverize kidney stones, is stimulating new thinking about how to non-invasively combat tumors. What’s more, sound waves may also lessen the likelihood that tumor cells will metastasize--spreading to other parts of the body. Did you know? High Intensity Focused Ultrasound is currently being used in clinical trials in the United States for FDA approval of cancer therapy. Mechanical engineering Associate Professor Pei Zhong, a world leader in lithotripsy, is working ...
  • August 7, 2007

    Marszalek Wins NSF Grant to Unravel DNA, Sugars

    Piotr Marszalek, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, has received a grant award from the National Science Foundation for his work in characterizing the fundamental mechanics of sugars and nucleic acids--the building blocks of complex carbohydrates, DNA and RNA--at the molecular level. The grant will provide $510,000 over the next three years. Collaborators on the research will include co-principal investigator Weitao Yang, in Duke's chemistry department, and Rob Clark, a professor of mechanical ...
  • August 6, 2007

    High-Intensity Ultrasound May Launch an Attack on Cancer, Wherever it Lurks

    An intense form of ultrasound that shakes a tumor until its cells start to leak can trigger an “alarm” that enlists immune defenses against the cancerous invasion, according to a study led by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. The new findings from animal experiments suggest that once activated by the ultrasound, the immune system might even seek and destroy cancer cells, including those that have spread through the bloodstream to lurk in other ...
  • August 1, 2007

    Automated Technique Paves Way for Nanotechnology's Industrial Revolution

    In an assist in the quest for ever smaller electronic devices, Duke University engineers have adapted a decades-old computer aided design and manufacturing process to reproduce nanosize structures with features on the order of single molecules. The new automated technique for nanomanufacturing suggests that the emerging nanotechnology industry might capitalize on skills already mastered by today's engineering workforce, according to the researchers. "These tools allow you to go from basic, one-off scientific demonstrations of what can ...
  • July 27, 2007

    Underwater Robot Competition Proved a 'Rollercoaster Ride' for Duke Robotics Club

    The 10th annual International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition held in San Diego, Calif., from July 11-15 proved a "rollercoaster ride" for student members of the Duke Robotics Club. While early indications suggested that their newly designed robot, named Scylla, had a shot at landing in the top three, a series of operational failures ultimately forced the team to forfeit the competition before their second qualifying run. "In the end, this competition served as a reminder that ...
  • July 12, 2007

    Unraveling the Physics of DNA's Double Helix

    Researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have uncovered a missing link in scientists' understanding of the physical forces that give DNA its famous double helix shape. "The stability of DNA is so fundamental to life that it's important to understand all factors," said Piotr Marszalek, a professor of mechanical engineering and materials sciences at Duke. "If you want to create accurate models of DNA to study its interaction with proteins or drugs, for example, ...
  • July 12, 2007

    Sensing Light with 'Liquid Lego'

    Note: The following article was adapted from a news release issued by the University of Oxford. Scientists at Oxford University and Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have used tiny water droplets to build a unique microscopic light sensor. Their approach turns water droplets into protocells: empty artificial cells that can be filled with different cellular components. In theory, networks of protocells could be used to simulate biological systems – such as heart muscle or brain ...
  • June 11, 2007

    Theory of Physics Applies to Human Migration, Air Traffic Control and Corporate Sustainability

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Why does a railway network look like a river? Why do the streets of old Rome look like a leaf? Because whether their shape is determined by the interactions of molecules or the choices made by individual humans, all of these systems of flow are governed by a relatively simple new principle of thermodynamics. "Society, with all its layers and features of organization, is a flow system," say co-editors Adrian Bejan and ...
  • June 1, 2007

    Duke and Pratt Award Degrees to 382 Undergraduate and Graduate Students

    A webcast of Pratt's graduation is available for download here. Duke University and its Pratt School of Engineering awarded degrees to 382 undergraduate and graduate students May 13 and Dean Kristina M. Johnson told Pratt’s Class of 2007 and their families and friends at a Chapel celebration that “It’s a perfect time to be an engineer.” Johnson awarded Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees to 212 students, including eight who completed their work in December and six ...
  • June 1, 2007

    Commencement Speech: Benjamin Schaefer Abram

    Sunday, May 13, 2007 Inspired by Hurricane Katrina, Ben Abram looked for lessons in historical records related to past floods as a Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow. For the last four years, every graduate in this room has been solving engineering problems. None of us here escaped circuit diagramming—whether in physics alone, for us Civils and Environmentals, or in Dr. (Rhett) George’s EE 148 for Mechanicals, or by way of the Hotchkin-Hucksley for the Biomedicals, or twice a ...
  • June 1, 2007

    Duke Motorsports Team Breaks School Record Again

    The Duke Motorsports Team this year included 16 members, including 13 from the Pratt School of Engineering. The Duke Motorsports team has outdone itself yet again. The formula-style racecar the student team designed and built over the last two school years came in 23rd out of the 130 teams entered in the 2007 Formula SAE competition, beating previous winners Cornell University and the University of Texas, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgia ...
  • May 29, 2007

    Making 'Smarter' Use of 'Smart' Gels

    Once considered something of a laboratory novelty, ‘smart’ gels—synthesized from polymers that can undergo dramatic transformations in response to changes in their surroundings—are now poised to become integral mechanical components and sensors in the increasingly tiny devices of the future. Through a combination of computational and experimental efforts, a team of researchers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering aims to make the process of smart gel engineering even smarter. “These materials exhibit dramatic volume changes in ...
  • May 8, 2007

    'Shock' Engineers for Better Medical Treatment

    Pei Zhong’s tireless efforts to technologically fine-tune the shock wave therapy used to pulverize kidney stones are not only leading to better treatment for that painful condition but also opening up surprising new avenues for medical advances, such as by manipulating genes and unleashing genetic assaults against tumors. These are all different applications of therapeutic ultrasound, an emerging field at the interface of engineering, biology and clinical medicine, said Zhong, who is an associate professor of ...
  • April 1, 2007

    From Aquifers to Goo, Event Encourages Girls’ Interest in Science and Engineering

    Students build a model aquifer in an activity led by Pratt Professor Helen Hsu-Kim and Nicholas Professor Heather Stapleton. At the end of February, 160 local fourth through sixth grade girls spent their Saturdays at Duke exploring science with a creative twist, including topics ranging from the pollution of groundwater in underground aquifers to the chemistry of goo. The event marked the second annual Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering and Science (FEMMES) organized by Duke junior ...
  • April 1, 2007

    Duke's First Engineers Week Draws a Crowd

    Duke's first campus-wide Engineers Week celebration, offering a week-long series of events for both Pratt and Trinity students, proved a big success. The week's grand finale, an E-social loaded with contests and competitions that pitted "Team Pratt" against "Team Trinity," drew more than 500 students to the engineering campus. Watch the video on YouTube. The festivities were kicked off with a week-long clothing drive competition between departments for the Durham Rescue Mission. Tuesday featured guest speaker ...
  • April 1, 2007

    Pratt Dean: The U.S. Needs More Women and Minorities in Engineering

    Dean Kristina M. Johnson of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering told an International Women’s Day audience March 8 that the nation needs more women and minorities in engineering so they will be able to help solve some of the increasingly complex challenges she said the world will face in years ahead. “Simply put, unless we bring more women and minorities into science and engineering fields, we will not have the intellectual capital to address the global ...
  • March 27, 2007

    Off-Road Wheelchair Pioneer and Designer to Speak April 2

    John Davis, off-road wheelchair racing champion and pioneer, and John Castelano, his wheelchair designer, will speak at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering on Monday, April 2. The talk begins at 4:00 p.m. in the Nello L. Teer Building, room 203, and is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the parking garage next to the Bryan Center. Davis is expected to discuss his experience as an outdoors enthusiast—an avid surfer and mountain biker—who ...
  • March 27, 2007

    Off-Road Wheelchair Pioneer and Designer to Speak April 2

    John Davis, off-road wheelchair racing champion and pioneer, and John Castelano, his wheelchair designer, will speak at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering on Monday, April 2. The talk begins at 4:00 p.m. in the Nello L. Teer Building, room 203, and is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the parking garage next to the Bryan Center. Davis is expected to discuss his experience as an outdoors enthusiast—an avid surfer and mountain biker—who ...
  • March 1, 2007

    Civic Engagement to Become Integral to a Duke Undergraduate Education

    A destroyed house in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans remained virtually untouched months after Katrina's devastation. A DukeEngage pilot program will send 20 students to the New Orleans area this summer to help in the ongoing rebuilding effort (see sidebar). In one of the most ambitious efforts of its kind in U.S. higher education, Duke University will make civic engagement an integral part of its undergraduate experience beginning in 2008, university president Richard H. Brodhead ...
  • February 13, 2007

    Molecular 'Fishing' Technique Paves Way for Advanced Hand-Held Sensing Devices

    A new molecular "fishing" technique developed by researchers at Duke University and Duke's Pratt School of Engineering lays the groundwork for future advances in hand-held sensing devices. Hand-held devices used for medical testing or environmental and food-safety monitoring could quickly and precisely measure concentrations of virtually any chemical substance, including blood proteins, toxic pollutants and dangerous biological agents, in a test solution, according to the researchers. The researchers describe the chemical methodology that would enable such devices ...
  • February 12, 2007

    Lubricant's Role in Keeping Joints Limber Comes into Sharper Focus

    Using a method that allows precise measurement of the biomechanical properties of the hip joints in mice, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have found new evidence that an ingredient of joint fluid called lubricin plays a significant role in keeping joints limber. The researchers say the finding offers the strongest evidence yet that treatments designed to increase levels of lubricin in humans may help stall the deterioration of arthritic joints. The team found that ...
  • January 2, 2007

    Harnessing Fat to Attack Cancer

    Scientists at Duke University Medical Center and Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have harnessed the much maligned fat particle to serve a higher purpose: battling human cancers. The researchers have engineered microscopic fat bubbles into "smart bombs" by packing them with anticancer drugs and dispatching them on a mission to seek and destroy cancerous tumors. Heating the tumor from the outside with microwave energy attracts the anticancer bombs to the tumor, the scientists said. Within 20 seconds ...
  • January 1, 2007

    ME Students Designed Apple Processing Machines for 'Mrs. Smith'

    Joe Goo, Tiffany Hui, Mark Loughry and Edison Zhang demonstrate their apple slicer. Just how much force does it take to slice a Granny Smith? How about a Fuji? These are questions fall semester students in ME 141: Mechanical Design found themselves asking and answering in order to successfully complete their final projects: to develop a machine that would core and slice apples and place them in a container “for further processing.” Their machines, commissioned by “Mrs. ...
  • January 1, 2007

    Internship at GE Launched Aviation Career for Wendy Young

    Pratt senior Wendy Young Mechanical engineering and materials science major Wendy Young started her senior year with a job in hand. After graduation, she will start on a career in aircraft design and testing as an Edison Scholar at GE Aviation in Cincinnati, Ohio. “It was nice to walk in to my senior year with a job,” Young said. The Edison Engineering Development Program will offer her the opportunity to work as an engineer in four different ...
  • December 1, 2006

    Industry Internship Survey Results

    More than 330 Duke engineering students took part in a survey on summer internships earlier this fall. According to the survey results, more than 61% of students who completed an internship reported their experience as 'excellent' or 'good' and 82% received compensation for their time. At right are charts that provide detailed information on student majors, gender and types of internships. Internships give students a chance to network with role models and potential employers and see ...
  • December 1, 2006

    Pratt Connection Led Two Undergrads to Internship in Sweden

    Mengju Wu and Ryan Pitera in front of a cathedral in Helsinki, Finland. Two Pratt sophomores were the first to benefit from a budding collaboration between Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering and The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Also known as KTH (short for Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan), the institute is one of the largest engineering schools in Europe. Ryan Pitera, a mechanical engineering major from the Cape Cod area, and Mengju Wu, a biomedical engineering ...
  • December 1, 2006

    Upper-Class E-Team Members Advise Freshmen Engineers on Course Loads

    First-year engineering students get advice about course registration from senior E-Teamer Toby Kraus. First-year engineering majors got some valuable advice on their spring semester course loads from upper-class members of the student mentoring group known as E-Team on Nov. 7. Freshmen gathered over slices of pizza to hash out their schedules with student representatives of each of the four engineering departments in the Fitzpatrick Center atrium. “Biomedical engineering is a difficult major,” said senior Toby Kraus, a ...
  • December 1, 2006

    Reassurance, Advice and Laughs at 2006 Engineering Parents’ Weekend

    Brook Byers Brook Byers, a venture capitalist and Pratt parent, kicked off the 2006 Parents' Weekend seminar and barbeque by soothing parents’ fears that their child wouldn't get a good job. He described five hot technology areas, and gave seniors advice on how to choose their first position. His presentation to the crowd of 600 parents and students Oct. 27 was followed by an interactive panel of four Duke engineering seniors who provided their own take on ...
  • November 1, 2006

    Pratt In Focus - Recruitment Event

    More than 185 prospective high school students and family members hailing from Durham to California gathered on Saturday, Oct. 21, at the first "Pratt in Focus" to meet engineering professors and undergraduates and learn more about engineering at Duke. More than 60 Pratt students volunteered their time at the day-long engineering recruiting event by leading tours, staffing tables at the student activities fair, explaining their Pratt Fellows research projects and talking one on one with prospective ...
  • November 1, 2006

    Pratt Alums Took Fast Track to NASCAR

    Ben Atkins advises a driver at the Watkins Glen race track. College put Pratt mechanical engineering alumni Ben Atkins (’02) and Andy Hogg (’03) on the fast track to an engineering career with NASCAR. They are now two of seven engineers working for MB2 Motorsports, a NASCAR team based outside of Charlotte. Atkins, from Abington, Va., and Hogg, from York, Pa., first met through Duke University Motorsports, a student group that designs and builds open wheel, single ...
  • November 1, 2006

    The Home Depot Sponsors Duke Smart Home

    Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. The university and The Home Depot are partnering to create “The Home Depot smarthome,” a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in areas such as security and ...
  • October 24, 2006

    Duke Announces Construction of “The Home Depot Smart Home,” A Live-in Laboratory Where Students Test Residential Technology

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering.The university and The Home Depot are partnering to create “The Home Depot Smart Home,” a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in ...
  • September 25, 2006

    Six Pratt Faculty To Be Honored At Founder's Day Convocation

    Duke University will honor outstanding students, faculty, employees and alumni at its annual Founders’ Day Convocation in Duke Chapel at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28. Among the winners are six members of the Pratt School of Engineering faculty. Honorees at the service, which is open to the public, include philanthropists Russell Robinson II and his wife, Sally Dalton Robinson; Ruby Leila Wilson, dean emerita of Duke School of Nursing; and longtime university photographer William “Jimmy” Wallace ...
  • September 1, 2006

    Faculty Honors

    Engineer, Two Other Duke University Faculty Members Win White House Award Assistant professor of mechanical engineering Silvia Ferrari and two other Duke University faculty members have won Presidential Early Career Awards, the highest honor that the U.S. government bestows on young scientists and engineers. Read more here. Bejan Receives Luikov Medal for International Impact on Thermal Sciences Adrian Bejan, J. A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, has received the Luikov Medal ...
  • August 17, 2006

    Bejan Receives Luikov Medal for International Impact on Thermal Sciences

    Adrian Bejan, J. A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, has received the Luikov Medal for his contributions to the field of thermal sciences, including his development of the constructal law of design in nature. The awards ceremony was held at the International Heat Transfer Conference in Sydney on Aug. 14. “I’m truly honored to have received this award, one of the rarest in the thermal sciences worldwide,” Bejan said. ...
  • August 7, 2006

    Duke Robotics Club Takes 2nd Place in Underwater Competition

    Persistence paid off for Duke student members of the Robotics Club at the 9th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition held in San Diego, Calif., from Aug. 2-6. Their enhanced version of the robot “Charybdis” took second place and $5,000. Twenty undergraduate teams and one high school team participated in the event, which is sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Office of Naval Research. The challenge involved four tasks: pass through an ...
  • August 7, 2006

    Duke Robotics Club Takes 2nd Place in Underwater Competition

    Persistence paid off for Duke student members of the Robotics Club at the 9th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition held in San Diego, Calif., from Aug. 2-6. Their enhanced version of the robot “Charybdis” took second place and $5,000. Twenty undergraduate teams and one high school team participated in the event, which is sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Office of Naval Research. The challenge involved four tasks: pass through an ...
  • July 27, 2006

    Engineer, Two Other Duke University Faculty Members Win White House Award

    WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An engineer and two other Duke University faculty members have won the highest honor that the U.S. government bestows on young scientists and engineers. Silvia Ferrari, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Pratt School of Engineering; Jonathan Mattingly, an associate professor of mathematics; and Tannishtha Reya, an assistant professor of pharmacology and cancer biology in the medical school, received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at a ceremony Wednesday, ...
  • July 25, 2006

    EPA to Support Pratt Students in Design of Sustainable Technologies following Natural Disasters

    Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has received two “People, Prosperity, and the Planet” (P3) grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aimed at sustainable technologies for use in regions crippled by natural disaster. One of the $10,000 awards will support students in the identification and development of technologies relevant to the construction of sustainable homes in a part of Louisiana that was devastated by floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina. The second will focus on development of ...
  • June 29, 2006

    Phillip Jones, Duke Engineering Professor, Dies at Age 56

    Phillip L. Jones, Duke University associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, died Saturday, June 24, at Duke Hospital in Durham after a brief battle with cancer. He was 56. "Phil had a natural talent and passion for teaching. His students and colleagues loved him and he loved them," said Kristina Johnson, dean of the Pratt School of Engineering. Jones earned a bachelor of science from the Materials Department of Engineering and Applied Science at the ...
  • June 1, 2006

    'Metal Sandwich' May Break Superconductor Record

    Aleksey Kolmogorov and Stefano Curtarolo After an exhaustive data search for new compounds, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have discovered a theoretical "metal sandwich" that is expected to be a good superconductor. Superconductive materials have no resistance to the flow of electric current. The new lithium monoboride (LiB) compound is a "binary alloy" consisting of two layers of boron -- the "bread" of the atomic sandwich -- with lithium metal "filling" in between, the ...
  • June 1, 2006

    Pratt School Celebrates Graduation of Class of 2006

    Ian Kazi Shakil receives the Pratt School of Engineering Student Service Award from Associate Dean Linda Franzoni Duke University awarded degrees to 346 undergraduate and graduate engineering students on May 14 in ceremonies beginning with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and ending with a Pratt School of Engineering ceremony in Duke Chapel. Pratt Dean Kristina M. Johnson presented Bachelor of Science in Engineering diplomas to 244 students, including 12 who completed their work in ...
  • June 1, 2006

    Presenting Energy Tech to Nicholas Students

    A new course taught by three mechanical engineers from Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering offers graduate students at the Nicholas School of the Environment the chance to bone up on the realities of energy technologies and their environmental implications. The ENVIRON 298.23 course, Energy Technology: Impact on the Environment, covers topics ranging from thermodynamics to the fundamentals of nuclear reactors, solar energy, and hybrid cars. “We are aiming to inform our students—people who are likely to ...
  • June 1, 2006

    Robert Clark on Benefits, Challenges of Interdisciplinary Research Teaming

    Senior Associate Dean Robert Clark Duke mechanical engineer Robert Clark presented a keynote talk on the challenges and benefits of establishing a vibrant interdisciplinary research program at the International Symposium for Biologically-inspired Design and Engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Clark, senior associate dean at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke, is the director of Duke’s Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems (CBIMMS) (http://cbimms.duke.edu). CBIMMS, established in 2001, encompasses a broadly multidisciplinary research effort ...
  • May 11, 2006

    Duke’s Robert Clark to Speak on Challenges and Benefits of Interdisciplinary Research Teaming - Keynote at International Symposium for Biologically-inspired Design and Engineering

    ATLANTA – Duke mechanical engineer Robert Clark will present a keynote talk on the challenges and benefits of establishing a vibrant interdisciplinary research program on Friday, May 12, at the International Symposium for Biologically-inspired Design and Engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Clark, senior associate dean at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke, is the director of Duke’s Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems (CBIMMS) (http://cbimms.duke.edu). CBIMMS, established in 2001, encompasses a broadly ...
  • May 8, 2006

    New 'Metal Sandwich' May Break Superconductor Record, Theory Suggests

    DURHAM, N.C. -- After an exhaustive data search for new compounds, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have discovered a theoretical "metal sandwich" that is expected to be a good superconductor. Superconductive materials have no resistance to the flow of electric current. The new lithium monoboride (LiB) compound is a "binary alloy" consisting of two layers of boron -- the "bread" of the atomic sandwich -- with lithium metal "filling" in between, the researchers ...
  • May 1, 2006

    Distinguished Alums and Faculty Honored at Awards Ceremony

    Three distinguished alumni and six faculty members were honored for their career accomplishments, service to Pratt and excellence in teaching, mentoring and research at the 2006 annual Engineering Alumni Council Banquet held at the Searle Center on April 28. William A. Hawkins III E'76, was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award. James G. Whayne E'90, was awarded the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. And Pratt Senior Associate Dean of Development and Alumni Affairss Judge Carr was awarded the ...
  • May 1, 2006

    Strong Showing for Pratt at American Chemical Society Meeting

    Stefan Zauscher Representatives of the Pratt School of Engineering made an impressive showing at the 2006 American Chemical Society (ACS) meetings held in Atlanta from March 26-30. Topics presented by the Pratt group ranged from plasmonic nanoparticles to the effect of glycoproteins on joint friction. The majority of those in attendance from the Pratt School participated in a symposium centered on the emerging and interdisciplinary field of “bionanostructures and interfaces,” organized by Pratt professor Stefan Zauscher and ...
  • May 1, 2006

    Duke Group Tackles 'Nanoethics' Education

    An interdisciplinary group of Duke experts has set out to advance ethics education for researchers working on problems at the nano-scale—on the order of billionths of a meter, or 80,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Scientific breakthroughs in nanotechnology are expected to increase the speed and efficiency of computers, advance medicine through tissue engineering and lead to the emergence of materials with entirely new physical and chemical properties. However, such advances may ...
  • April 11, 2006

    Constructal Theory of Design in Nature Hits the Classroom

    A novel design course offers undergraduates and graduate students at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering an opportunity to apply “constructal theory” -- a fundamental principle describing natural patterns of flow -- to their own designs and to their understanding of design in nature. Taught by the theory’s developer Adrian Bejan, a mechanical engineer at the Pratt School, and his collaborator Sylvie Lorente, a civil engineer from the Institut National des Sciences Appliques in France, the course ...
  • April 1, 2006

    Strong Defense Seals Victory in Robotic Basketball Competition

    John Cornwell and Hardy Shen operate the winning robot "Johnny V" After a series of heated three-minute basketball contests, top prize in the sixth annual March Mayhem competition March 7 went to "Johnny V," a ping pong ball-dunking robot with a ball collection mechanism constructed of tightly strung rubber bands. The robot toppled the evening’s best shooter "J.J." in the final match by relying on a strategy of quick shots followed by strong defense. “That must have ...
  • March 30, 2006

    Magnetism Shepherds Microlenses to Excavate 'Nanocavities'

    ATLANTA -- A Duke University engineer is “herding” tiny lenses with magnetic ferrofluids, precisely aligning them so that they focus bursts of light to excavate patterns of cavities on surfaces. Such photolithographically produced “nanocavities” -– each only billionths of a meter across – might serve as repositories for molecules engineered as chemical detectors, said Benjamin Yellen, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. Alternatively, he said, ringlike structures ...
  • March 29, 2006

    New Insight into Joint Lubrication that Keeps Osteoarthritis at Bay

    ATLANTA -- New evidence to explain how the body’s natural joint lubricant prevents the wear and tear that can lead to osteoarthritis has been uncovered by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering The findings may lead to new methods for treating arthritis, the researchers said. The team found in realistic models of joints that, rather than simply reducing friction, a component of joint fluid called lubricin forms a very thin barrier that repels joint ...
  • March 29, 2006

    Duke Engineers Building 'Erasible' Detectors, 'Nanobrushes' and DNA 'Highrises'

    ATLANTA -- A Duke University engineering group is doing pioneering work at very diminutive dimensions. Their basic studies could lead to genetically engineered proteins that can form erasable chemical detectors; self-grown forests of molecular "bottlebrushes" that keep themselves contamination-free; and auto-assembled DNA "towers" that could become anchors for the tiniest of devices. Professor of biomedical engineering Ashutosh Chilkoti of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering will describe such advances in designing bio-detectors and structures scaled in the ...
  • February 9, 2006

    Constructal Theory Predicts Global Climate Patterns In Simple Way

    A unifying physics principle that describes design in nature predicts, in surprisingly straightforward fashion, the basic features of global circulation and climate, according to researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and the University of Evora in Portugal. They said the new approach to climate may have important implications for forecasting environmental change. The researchers found that the “constructal theory” can predict the global circulation that determines the boundaries between desert and tropical forests as ...
  • January 16, 2006

    Protein “Nanosprings” Most Resilient in Nature

    A component of many proteins has been found to constitute one of the most powerful and resilient molecular “springs” in nature, researchers have discovered. The engineers and biologists from Duke University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute say their discovery could lead to a new understanding of mechanical processes within the living cell. The discovery also could provide potent nanoscale “shock absorbers” or “gate-opening springs” in tiny nanomachines. The team’s findings were published in an advanced ...
  • January 1, 2006

    Class Teaches the Engineering of Biology and Different Way to Learn

    Professor David Needham The students in the Pratt School of Engineering course, "Introduction to Biologically Inspired Materials and Materials Systems," seemed more like seasoned professionals than the undergraduates most of them were as they presented the results of their semester's exposure to the engineering of biology. Theirs was a sophisticated show-and-tell, spoken without the aid of notes, on topics as diverse as how the mineralization process creates bones but can also clog arteries, why DNA's structure gives ...
  • December 31, 2005

    Unified Physics Theory Explains Animals' Running, Flying, Swimming

    A single unifying physics theory can essentially describe how animals of every ilk, from flying insects to fish, get around, researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and Pennsylvania State University have found. The team reports that all animals bear the same stamp of physics in their design. The researchers show that the so-called "constructal theory" can explain basic characteristics of locomotion for every creature -- how fast they get from one place to another ...
  • October 13, 2005

    Engineers Build DNA "Nanotowers" with Enzyme Tools

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke engineers have added a new construction tool to their bio-nanofabrication toolbox. Using an enzyme called TdTase, engineers can vertically extend short DNA chains attached to nanometer-sized gold plates. This advance adds new capability to the field of bio-nanomanufacturing. "The process works like stacking Legos to make a tower and is an important step toward creating functional nanostructures out of biological materials," said Ashutosh Chilkoti, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt ...
  • October 10, 2005

    Robot Truck Carrying Duke Radar Finishes 2nd in Desert Race

    PRIMM, Nev. – A modified, driverless Humvee using a radar system developed by Duke students finished second by 11 minutes Oct. 8 in a demanding seven-hour, 131.6-mile desert race sponsored by the Defense Department to pave the way for autonomous military vehicles for future warfare. The 1986 robot truck called Sandstorm beat its stable mate, a 1999 Hummer named H1ghlander, by nine minutes. Both vehicles were developed by the “Red Team” put together by Carnegie Mellon ...
  • September 24, 2005

    Duke Engineers Win International Wall-Crawling Competition Again

    DURHAM, N.C. -- A 2.5-pound robot named "Wallter" designed by Duke University Pratt School of engineering students has won for the second year in a row an international wall-crawling robotics competition held in London. Wallter, now a two-year-old, competed against university teams from the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy this year to win a $900 prize at the 8th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots Sept. 12-15. Each team's robot was required to move from ...
  • September 16, 2005

    ‘Quasicrystal’ Metal Computer Model Could Aid Ultra-Low-Friction Machine Parts

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University materials scientists have developed a computer model of how a "quasicrystal" metallic alloy interacts with a gas at various temperatures and pressures. Their advance could contribute to wider applications of quasicrystals for extremely low-friction machine parts, such as ball bearings and sliding parts. Quasicrystals, like normal crystals, consist of atoms that combine to form structures -- triangles, rectangles, pentagons, etc. -- that repeat in a pattern. However, unlike normal periodic crystals, ...
  • September 1, 2005

    Charybdis Battles Again

    Peter (Andy) Smith, Brian Hilgeford, and Gareth Guvanasen This summer, the Duke Robotics Club won 4th place and a $2,000 prize at the International 2005 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition in San Diego, Calif. They won an additional $1,000 for being the “Most Dockable” vehicle at the event, as they were the only team that successfully made contact with a submerged docking station. “This year’s competition had a very practical slant. The ‘mission’ was more like what a ...
  • August 11, 2005

    Self-Protecting Aerospace Structures One Step Closer to Reality

    Durham, NC - The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) awarded a five year, five million dollar grant to further research on microvascular autonomic composites to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UCLA, Duke University and Harvard Medical School. More commonly known as “self-healing plastic,” this is an emerging field of science that incorporates automatic responses, like those found in biological entities, into material that are later used in the manufacturing of everything ...
  • July 6, 2005

    Duke Radar May Give Red Team Competitive Edge in DARPA Grand Challenge Race

    Duke University engineering students have designed an onboard radar system to give Red Team vehicles a competitive edge in the upcoming DARPA Grand Challenge race. In that contest, vehicles must run across a desert entirely self-guided without human intervention. The Red Team is an alliance of students, corporations and volunteers led by the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The team is developing two modified Hummers to run in the competition this fall sponsored ...
  • June 21, 2005

    New Magnetic Herding Technique Proposed to Manipulate the Very Small

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Engineers have introduced a new magnetic shepherding approach for deftly moving or positioning the kinds of tiny floating objects found within organisms, in order to advance potential applications in fields ranging from medicine to nanotechnology. The authors of a new research article said their method avoids pitfalls of using tiny light beams, electric currents or even a competing magnetic approach to micromanipulate so-called "colloidal" objects. "Biology is composed primarily of colloidal materials, things larger ...
  • June 1, 2005

    Duke Awards 300 Engineering Degrees

    Duke University and its Pratt School of Engineering awarded degrees to 300 undergraduate and graduate engineering students May 15 in a series of ceremonies starting with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and winding up with an inspiring ceremony in Duke Chapel. Dean Kristina Johnson Pratt Dean Kristina M. Johnson presented Bachelor of Science in Engineering diplomas to 237 students, including eight who completed their work in December and six last September, before a standing-room-only ...
  • June 1, 2005

    Great Finish for FSAE Race Car Team

    Back row: Dr. Rob Clark, Hardy Shen, Nick Goddard, Will Senner, Jeff McCormick, Will Cooper, John Goodfellow, Tony Knight, Mike Bauer, and Julien Finlay. Front row: Danny Lacher, Chris Morecroft, Jesse Sloss Silverman, Tzuo Hann Law, Joe Goo, Mike Klug and Kristen Hill. Dr. Rhett George is in the car. Duke's Formula SAE Race Car team placed 31st in a field of 140 teams at the May 18-22 competition in Detroit, MI. This is the strongest ...
  • May 10, 2005

    Duke Hosts Biointerface Science Conference in New Bern

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering is hosting the first International Symposium on Biointerface Science in New Bern May 12-14. The conference, which is open to the public, will focus on the challenges that researchers face in the silicon electronics industry when pairing soft, wet biological substances with hard, dry materials to create nanoscale "biohybrids." Biointerface science explores the interaction between biological and artificial materials at a molecular level. Such research crosses the traditional ...
  • May 1, 2005

    Alumni, Faculty Honored at Engineering Banquet

    Duke’s Engineering Alumni Association Saturday night honored 1974 graduate Capers McDonald of Potomac, Md., with its Distinguished Alumnus Award and 1990 graduate Edward L. Trimble of Atlanta with the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. Professor F. Hadley Cocks of the Pratt School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), received the Distinguished Service Award for 33 years of service to the School of Engineering, joining the school in 1972 as assistant professor after six ...
  • May 1, 2005

    Duke Motorsports Team Wins in Autocross

    The Duke University Motorsports team, consisting primarily of engineering students, posted four of the top five times and won its class April 23 in their open-wheel, single-seat Formula SAE racecar at an autocross in Greenville, N.C. The racing was sponsored by the Tar Heel Sports Car Club, a local chapter of the Sports Car Club of America. About 120 cars of all types competed in the event, which was a tune-up for the Duke team’s main ...
  • April 24, 2005

    Engineering Alumni and Faculty Members Honored

    Duke’s Engineering Alumni Association April 23 honored 1974 graduate Capers McDonald of Potomac, Md., with its Distinguished Alumnus Award and 1990 graduate Edward L. Trimble of Atlanta with the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. Professor F. Hadley Cocks of the Pratt School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), received the Distinguished Service Award for 33 years of service to the School of Engineering, joining the school in 1972 as assistant professor after six ...
  • April 1, 2005

    Duke Students Teaming Up with Carnegie Mellon to Win $2 million Robot Prize

    Students from Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering are partnering with Carnegie Mellon University's "Red Team" in an effort to win a $2 million prize from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). All they have to do is complete the toughest ground course ever devised for a self-guided robotic vehicle. The contest, called the DARPA Grand Challenge, is a race between fully self-guided ground vehicles to be conducted in the Southwestern United States on Oct. ...
  • April 1, 2005

    Bakhtian Receives Churchill Scholarship

    Noël Bakhtian DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke student Noël Bakhtian has been selected as a 2005 recipient of the Winston Churchill Scholarship to conduct graduate study for a year at Cambridge University in England. Bakhtian, a senior from Fort Myers, Fla., is completing a double major in mechanical engineering and physics and will graduate in May 2005. The Churchill Scholarship Program, established in 1959, enables outstanding American students to conduct graduate studies in engineering, mathematics, and the natural ...
  • March 30, 2005

    Robot Competition to Highlight Student Engineer Conference at Duke

    Note to editors: News media are invited to attend without charge. An agenda is available at: http://asme.pratt.duke.edu/conference/agenda.php DURHAM, N.C. -- Engineering students from universities throughout the Southeast will compete April 1-3 in a robot stair-climbing contest and other competitions at an American Society of Mechanical Engineers regional conference held at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. The conference website is http://asme.pratt.duke.edu. More than 150 students, as well as middle school teachers and others, are expected to participate ...
  • March 25, 2005

    Duke Engineering Student Noël Bakhtian Receives Churchill Scholarship

    Note to editors: A photograph of Bakhtian is available online at http://www.dukephoto.duke.edu/pages/Duke_News_Service/Bakh018905042.jpg. DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University student Noël Bakhtian has been selected as a 2005 recipient of the Winston Churchill Scholarship to conduct graduate study for a year at Cambridge University in England. Bakhtian, a senior from Fort Myers, Fla., is completing a double major in mechanical engineering and physics and will graduate in May 2005. The Churchill Scholarship Program, established in 1959, enables outstanding American ...
  • March 8, 2005

    Duke University Engineers Join "Red Team" Robotic Vehicle Team

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Students from Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering are partnering with Carnegie Mellon University's "Red Team" in an effort to win a $2 million prize from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). All they have to do is complete the toughest ground course ever devised for a self-guided robotic vehicle. The contest, called the DARPA Grand Challenge, is a race between fully self-guided ground vehicles to be conducted in the Southwestern United ...
  • February 1, 2005

    ‘Spud Webb’ Clinches Convincing Turkey Shoot Win

    Matt Burney and Katie Bulgrin's robot 'Spud Webb' takes the winning shot. ‘Spud Webb’, a ping pong ball-dunking robot built by senior Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS) majors Matt Burney and Katie Bulgrin, secured a convincing win in a basketball contest dubbed the Turkey Shoot Nov. 16. The annual event pitted 21 mechanical engineering students and their 11 robots against one another in a heated test of design and strategy. Student clubs gathered prior to ...
  • February 1, 2005

    Grad Students Take on Nature in Reality TV Series

    Chasing Nature contestants Matt Johannes and Sophia Santillan in Sydney, Australia. Four Pratt graduate students got a reality check this fall, in more ways than one. The mechanical engineers competed in three episodes of Animal Planet’s new reality TV series Chasing Nature, which is set to premier on Dec. 4. Each week, the program challenges a team of four students to design and build a mechanical device that mimics what an animal can do naturally. Selected from ...
  • February 1, 2005

    Pratt Senior Offers Crash Course in Racecars

    Chris Morecroft In the garage behind Hudson Hall on Friday afternoon, Nov. 4, Pratt senior Chris Morecroft offered a dozen students from Githens Middle School a crash course in racecars and a different perspective on college life. “I always wanted to be a racecar driver,” Morecroft told the group. “At Duke, I’ve had the opportunity to take classroom learning and put it into practice.” Morecroft, Pratt undergraduate and president of the Duke Formula SAE Racecar Team, is a ...
  • January 1, 2005

    Robot Car with Duke Radar Races Across Desert

    Left, Jason Ziglar, right, Josh Johnston A modified, driverless Humvee using a radar system developed by Duke students finished second by 11 minutes Oct. 8 in a demanding seven-hour, 131.6-mile Nevada desert race sponsored by the Defense Department to pave the way for autonomous military vehicles for future warfare. The 1986 robot truck called Sandstorm beat its stable mate, a 1999 Hummer named H1ghlander, by nine minutes. Both vehicles were developed by the “Red Team” put together ...
  • January 1, 2005

    New Tool for Bio-Nanofabrication

    Duke engineers have added a new construction tool to their bio-nanofabrication toolbox. Using an enzyme called TdTase, engineers can vertically extend short DNA chains attached to nanometer-sized gold plates. This advance adds new capability to the field of bio-nanomanufacturing. "The process works like stacking Legos to make a tower and is an important step toward creating functional nanostructures out of biological materials," said Ashutosh Chilkoti, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The ...
  • December 1, 2004

    Two Robot Vehicles Set for $2 Million Desert Race

    Two robotic vehicles using radar systems provided by students at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering performed well in initial qualifying runs and appeared likely to be selected to compete in the $2 million Grand Challenge race sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on Oct. 8. The two sensor-laden, driverless vehicles were developed by a team led by the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. Called the Red Team, the group is an alliance ...
  • December 1, 2004

    Robot Designed by Pratt Students Wins Wall Climb

    A 2.5-pound robot named "Wallter" designed by Pratt School of Engineering students at Duke has won for the second year in a row an international wall-crawling robotics competition held in London. Wallter, now a two-year-old, competed against university teams from the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy this year to win a $900 prize at the 8th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots Sept. 12-15. Each team's robot was required to move from the floor to ...
  • November 5, 2004

    Duke robot climbs to victory in Madrid

    Note to editors: A high-resolution, downloadable photo of the Duke robot is available at http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/images/robot1104.jpg. The students pictured are: top left, Andrew Meyerson; top right, Julien Finlay; bottom center, Kevin Parker. DURHAM, N.C. -- A wall-climbing, book-sized autonomous vehicle made by a Duke University team drove up a challenging vertical course to win first prize in an international competition Sept. 22-24 in Madrid. The student competition was part of the seventh annual International Conference on Climbing and ...
  • September 1, 2004

    Nine New Faculty Join Pratt

    The Pratt School of Engineering has hired nine new professors, bringing the total number of tenure track faculty for this academic year to 91. The new professors bring expertise in a wide range of fields, including neural prosthesis and neuroengineering, cancer imaging, materials, nanoscience, photonics, sensing, microbial engineering, environmental science and power and propulsion system development. The Department of Biomedical Engineering has three new tenure track faculty starting the semester. Jean-Marc Fellous Jean-Marc Fellous, previously a post-doctoral fellow ...
  • September 1, 2004

    Duke Students Win Praise For Innovative Design In International Robotics Competition

    A translucent blue flying-saucer-shaped underwater robot created by Duke students whirled and skimmed its way to a prize for the most innovative design at a recent competition. Dubbed Charybdis -- after a mythical Greek sea monster that gulped and spewed seawater to create deadly whirlpools -- the robot won the $1,000 prize for innovation in the international 2004 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition. The competition, sponsored by the Association for Underwater Vehicles Systems International and the Office ...
  • August 21, 2004

    Duke Robot Named Most Innovative in Recent Underwater Competition

    A translucent, blue flying-saucer-shaped underwater robot created by Duke students whirled and skimmed its way to a prize for the most innovative design at a recent competition. Dubbed Charybdis -- after a mythical Greek sea monster that gulped and spewed seawater to create deadly whirlpools -- the robot won the $1,000 prize for innovation in the international 2004 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition. The competition, sponsored by the Association for Underwater Vehicles Systems International and the Office ...
  • August 10, 2004

    Duke Engineer Picked for National Academy of Engineering Symposia

    The National Academy of Engineering has announced that Duke engineering professor Robert Clark is among 86 of the "nation's brightest young engineers," who have been selected to participate in the NAE's tenth annual Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. Clark was also selected to participate in the Fourth Japan-America Frontiers Symposium. Clark is the Thomas Lord Professor and senior associate dean of research at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering. Clark will take part in the Tenth Annual ...
  • July 1, 2004

    Duke Professor Wins Navy Young Investigator Award

    DURHAM, N.C. -– Silvia Ferrari, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and material systems at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, has been named an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator. She is one of 26 young faculty members across the nation to receive the award. Ferrari, who directs the Laboratory for Intelligent Systems and Controls at Pratt, will receive $274,000 for three years to conduct research on sensor networks for surveillance systems tracking multiple targets. Ferrari ...
  • June 20, 2004

    New Thermodynamic Theory Will Help Engineers ‘Go With The Flow’

    DURHAM, N.C. – A scientific paper that provides tools based on a new principle of thermodynamics, called "Constructal Law," may enable the designers of automobiles, jet planes, air conditioners and other devices to take a more scientific approach to a development process now based on trial and error. Basically, Constructal Law provides such designers a method to minimize the resistance of flow throughout a system -- whether ocean currents or an air conditioner -- in an ...
  • June 1, 2004

    Mimicking Humpback Whale Flippers May Improve Airplane Wing Design

    Wind tunnel tests of scale-model humpback whale flippers have revealed that the scalloped, bumpy flipper is a more efficient wing design than is currently used by the aeronautics industry on airplanes. The tests show that bump-ridged flippers do not stall as quickly and produce more lift and less drag than comparably sized sleek flippers. View the online video news release: [high bandwidth] [low bandwidth]. The tests were reported by biomechanicist Frank Fish of West Chester University, Pa., ...
  • May 11, 2004

    Mimicking Humpback Whale Flippers May Improve Airplane Wing Design

    Mechanical engineer Laurens Howle with scale model of humpback whale flipper used in wind tunnel. [high res download] Humpback whale breaching the surface. Note bumpy tubercules on leading edge of flipper. Photo credit: William W. Rossiter, Cetacean Society International. [high res download] streaming video (high bandwidth) streaming video (low bandwidth) Humpback whale footage courtesy of Nan Hauser, Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation DURHAM, N.C. -- Wind tunnel tests of scale-model humpback whale flippers have revealed that the scalloped, ...
  • May 1, 2004

    2004 Alumni Banquet

    On April 24, the Pratt School of Engineering honored three exceptional individuals at the annual Engineering Alumni Banquet, held at the Washington Duke Inn. Alan L. Kaganov BSME'60, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award; Gregory R. Maletic BSE'90, received the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award; and William H. Younger Jr. received the Distinguished Service Award. Kaganov was awarded the 2004 Distinguished Alumnus by the Engineering Alumni Association for his achievement in the health care and medical device industries, ...
  • April 21, 2004

    Enzyme 'Ink' Shows Potential for Nanomanufacturing

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University engineers have demonstrated that enzymes can be used to create nanoscale patterns on gold. Since many enzymes are already commercially available and well characterized, the potential for writing with enzyme ‘ink’ represents an important advance in nanomanufacturing. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation through a Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (NIRT) grant. Enzymes are nature's catalysts -- proteins that stimulate chemical reactions in the body and are used in a ...
  • April 3, 2004

    Bejan to Receive 14th Honorary Doctorate in Bulgaria

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Adrian Bejan, the J.A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, will receive an honorary doctorate, his 14th such degree, from the Technical University of Gabrovo in Bulgaria on April 5. Bejan has come a long way from his teenage years as a professional basketball player in Romania. He won a full academic scholarship to MIT, defected from his then-communist home country to complete his Ph.D., ...
  • April 1, 2004

    New MEMS Web site

    The Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Department launched an updated Web site in March. "The streamlined design allows us to better highlight students and faculty accomplishments," said Webmaster Becky Tench. "We hope this will help attract students to the department, particularly undergrads."
  • April 1, 2004

    Pratt Engineers Fabricate 'Smart Nanostructures'

    ANAHEIM, CALIF. –- Engineers from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have described progress building so-called "smart nanostructures," including billionths-of-a-meter-scale "nanobrushes" that can selectively and reversibly sprout from surfaces in response to changes in temperature or solvent chemistry. In talks delivered during the March 28-April 1 American Chemical Society annual meeting in Anaheim, researchers also told how they are using an atomic force microscope to create reprogrammable "nanopatterns" of large biologically-based molecules that could potentially serve to ...
  • March 31, 2004

    Duke Engineers Fabricating Polymer 'Nanobrushes' and Other 'Smart' Molecule-Sized Structures

    ANAHEIM, CALIF. -- Engineers from Duke University have described progress building so-called "smart nanostructures," including billionths-of-a-meter-scale "nanobrushes" that can selectively and reversibly sprout from surfaces in response to changes in temperature or solvent chemistry. In talks delivered during the March 28-April 1 at the American Chemical Society annual meeting in Anaheim, researchers from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering also told how they are using an atomic force microscope to create reprogrammable "nanopatterns" of large biologically-based molecules ...
  • March 2, 2004

    Pratt Junior Josh Johnston Wins March Mayhem

    Nearly 100 people watched the 3rd Annual Mechanical Engineering "March Mayhem" robot competition March 1. Each team’s goal was to sink as many ping pong balls into the plexiglass baskets as possible in a 2-minute round, but the crowd was just as pleased with an unsuccessful scoring attempt if there was innovative design behind it. First place and a $500 purse went to Pratt junior Josh Johnston and his robot, “Dr. J.” Pratt sophomore John Cornwell ...
  • March 1, 2004

    Astronaut Visits Pratt and Plugs Human Spaceflight

    Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, an engineer and veteran of four space shuttle flights, visited Duke as guest of the Pratt School of Engineering Feb. 27 and responded to critics of NASA’s human spaceflight program by saying robots have their role as explorers but cannot match the intelligence and ingenuity of humans in space. “Obviously we think human spaceflight is very important,” Ochoa told a large audience of students, faculty and children in the Levine Science Research Center’s ...
  • March 1, 2004

    Josh Johnston Wins MEMS March Mayhem

    Nearly 100 people watched the 3rd Annual Mechanical Engineering March Mayhem robotics competition March 1. Each team’s goal was to sink as many ping pong balls into the plexiglass baskets as possible in a 2-minute round, but the crowd was just as pleased with an unsuccessful scoring attempt if there was innovative design behind it. First place and a $500 purse went to Pratt junior Josh Johnston and his robot, “Dr. J.” Pratt sophomore John Cornwell ...
  • February 26, 2004

    Mechanized Basketball Theme of March Mayhem Robotics Competition

    DURHAM, N.C. -– Thirty-one robots will battle it out in a mechanized-basketball competition March 1 at Duke University. Tip off starts at 6:30 p.m. The mechanical engineering competition, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Love Auditorium in the Levine Science Research Center on Duke’s West Campus. Parking is available in the parking garage adjacent to the Bryan Center. Each team’s goal is to score with as many Ping-Pong balls as ...
  • February 1, 2004

    Robo Rice Rumble Sets the Bar High

    Seventeen engineering students from the 7 teams that competed. Twenty-one determined engineering undergrads competed in the fourth annual mechanical engineering design contest, held Nov. 16. Dubbed “Robo Rice Rumble,” this competition was the most technically difficult yet. The challenge: build a robot that can transport shifting loads of rice and dump it into a box. The catch? The robot first has to climb three stairs with slightly different heights and then down a step to get in position ...
  • January 13, 2004

    Duke, GM to Jointly Explore Fuel-Cell Technology Issues

    Duke University and the General Motors Corp. (GM) have reached an agreement on a multi-year, interdisciplinary teaching and research project aimed at furthering worldwide efforts to develop hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles by 2010, the university and company announced Jan. 13. Duke’s Fuqua School of Business is spearheading the project, with significant participation from the Pratt School of Engineering and the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. The project formally begins Wednesday, Jan. 14, with the launch of a ...
  • January 1, 2004

    Duke, GM to Jointly Explore Fuel Cell Technology Growth Dynamics

    Duke University and the General Motors Corp. have reached agreement on a multi-year, interdisciplinary teaching and research project aimed at furthering worldwide efforts to develop hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2010, the university and company announced Jan. 13. Duke’s Fuqua School of Business is spearheading the project with significant participation in the teaching from the Pratt School of Engineering and the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. The project formally began with the launch of a graduate-level ...
  • November 18, 2003

    MIT and Duke team mines for new materials with a computer

    A computational technique used to predict everything from books that a given customer might like to the function of an unknown protein is now being applied by MIT engineers and a colleague at Duke University to the search for new materials. The team’s ultimate goal: a public online database that could aid the design of materials for almost any application, from nanostructure computer components to ultralight, high-strength alloys for airplanes. The technique, known as data mining, uses ...
  • September 1, 2003

    Special Drug Delivery

    By Dennis Meredith, for DukeMed Magazine A cloud of gelatinous capsules swirls into the bloodstream from the tip of a comparatively colossal hypodermic needle. At a thousandth of the diameter of a human hair, the capsules spreading through the circulation are nearly a hundred times smaller than the blood cells that stream alongside them. Yet tiny as they are, these submicroscopic capsules bear the stamp of human design—their surfaces are a waxy patchwork not found in ...
  • September 1, 2003

    Franzoni New Associate Dean for Student Affairs

    Linda P. Franzoni, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, has been appointed associate dean for student affairs at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, Dean Kristina Johnson announced Aug. 22. “Student-oriented academic services represent the bedrock of Pratt’s ability to provide a bold, personal engineering education, and Linda has a wonderful combination of teaching, practical and research experience to lead us in this important area,” Johnson said. “During this first year of her leadership, ...
  • August 23, 2003

    Linda Franzoni Named Associate Dean for Student Affairs at Pratt

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Linda P. Franzoni, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, has been appointed associate dean for student affairs at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, Dean Kristina Johnson announced Friday. “Student-oriented academic services represent the bedrock of Pratt’s ability to provide a bold, personal engineering education, and Linda has a wonderful combination of teaching, practical and research experience to lead us in this important area,” Johnson said. “During this first year of ...
  • August 16, 2003

    Jones Plans to Return to Full-time Teaching and Research

    Professor Phillip L. Jones is leaving his position as senior associate dean of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering Sept. 1 and will return to full-time teaching and research, Dean Kristina Johnson announced Friday. “Phil is a terrific colleague,” Johnson said. “In his four years as senior associate dean for education, he oversaw the important curriculum review, guided the school through a successful ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) review this past year, established faculty awards ...
  • June 16, 2003

    Special Delivery

    (From DukeMed Magazine) By Dennis Meredith A cloud of gelatinous capsules swirls into the bloodstream from the tip of a comparatively colossal hypodermic needle. At a thousandth of the diameter of a human hair, the capsules spreading through the circulation are nearly a hundred times smaller than the blood cells that stream alongside them. Yet tiny as they are, these submicroscopic capsules bear the stamp of human design—their surfaces are a waxy patchwork not found in nature, ...
  • June 1, 2003

    Engineers Converting Atomic Force Microscopes into Molecular 'Milling Machines'

    Pratt School of Engineering researchers are at the vanguard of efforts to remake the "atomic force microscope" (AFM), an instrument typically used to obtain molecular scale images, into a tool to build precisely aligned structures at those tiny dimensions. "I think this will be a very good tool for research in the laboratory because we should have very good control and get results relatively easily," said Stefan Zauscher, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science who brought his expertise in ...
  • May 19, 2003

    Duke Engineers Converting Atomic Force Microscopes into Molecular 'Milling Machines'

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Pratt School of Engineering researchers are at the vanguard of efforts to remake the "atomic force microscope" (AFM), an instrument typically used to obtain molecular scale images, into a tool to build precisely aligned structures at those tiny dimensions. "I think this will be a very good tool for research in the laboratory because we should have very good control and get results relatively easily," said Stefan Zauscher, an assistant professor of mechanical ...
  • May 1, 2003

    Pratt Honors Faculty and Alumni

    Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering recognized two alumni for their achievements and two faculty members for excellence in teaching and research at the annual alumni banquet April 26 that concluded the spring meeting of the school’s Board of Visitors. Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences Professor Charles Harman received the distinguished faculty teaching award, consisting of a plaque and $2,000. The award, selected by a faculty committee with student input, recognizes “superior dedication to undergraduate teaching.” Harman joined the faculty in 1961 and ...
  • April 1, 2003

    Human Testing Starts of Engineered Anti-Cancer Drug Carrier

    The first phase of clinical testing has begun of a heat-triggered, sub-microscopic drug carrier invented by Professor David Needham of the Pratt Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and developed in collaboration with Dr. Mark Dewhirst in the Department of Radiation Oncology. The drug carriers are liposomes that are engineered to release the agents they carry at the cancer site when tumor temperatures are raised to 41 degrees Celsius. The clinical trial just getting underway is using the special liposomes to carry ...
  • April 1, 2003

    MEMS Hosts 2nd Annual Design Contest

    Pratt seniors Robert Schneider of Dallas and Max Cohen of Baltimore won top honors and $2,000 March 5 in the second annual "March Madness" robot design contest hosted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. Their remote controlled device was judged best at taking Ping-Pong balls from the corner of an 8-foot-square court on the stage at Love Auditorium and dropping it in a basketball hoop, in this case a Plexiglas tube 18 inches above the playing surface. Nearly 50 students ...
  • March 1, 2003

    Pratt Panel Looks at Post-Columbia Future of Spaceflight

    Three Duke observers of America’s space program looked into the future following the shuttle Columbia tragedy and came up with different views Feb. 20 at a special panel discussion at the Pratt School of Engineering. Alex Roland, professor of history and a former NASA historian, said the International Space Station currently in orbit with three men aboard should be mothballed and NASA should focus on building a much safer, less expensive rocket ship than the space shuttle. Earl Dowell, J.A. Jones Professor ...
  • March 1, 2003

    March Madness Comes to Pratt

    Two North Carolina sports traditions will meet engineering know-how in the Pratt School of Engineering's second annual design contest March 5 in Duke's Love Auditorium. Students will combine motorsports and basketball in an effort to win cash prizes of up to $2,000. This year's design contest requires students to create remote-controlled machines that can take a ping-pong ball from the corner of a 8-foot-square court and place it in a basketball hoop -- a Plexiglas tube 18 inches above the playing surface. ...
  • February 28, 2003

    March Madness Hits Pratt School of Engineering

    Two North Carolinian sports traditions will meet engineering know-how in the second annual design contest of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Wednesday, March 5, in Love Auditorium. Students will combine motorsports and basketball in an effort to win cash prizes of up to $2,000. This year's design contest requires students to create remote-controlled machines that can take a Ping-Pong ball from the corner of an 8-foot-square court and place it in a "basketball ...
  • February 18, 2003

    Duke Panel to Examine Implications of Space Shuttle Accident

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Should the nation’s space shuttle program be scrapped as a result of the shuttle Columbia tragedy or should the remaining three winged spaceships continue to fly well into the next decade? What about the International Space Station or proposals to travel to Mars? These are some of the issues that will be discussed by a three-man panel at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering Thursday, Feb. 20, from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. in ...
  • February 7, 2003

    One-Question Interview: The Shuttle After Columbia

    Earl Dowell is J.A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering and dean emeritus of the Pratt School of Engineering. Q: NASA has now lost two space shuttles. Challenger was replaced. Should NASA replace Columbia too, and if so, with what? Or should NASA steer more in another direction, like more unmanned space flights? Despite the growing budget deficit, President Bush seems committed to humans in space. A: The history of NASA broadly is the following: President Kennedy decided ...
  • February 1, 2003

    MIT and Duke Team Mines for New Materials With a Computer

    A computational technique used to predict everything from books that a given customer might like to the function of an unknown protein is now being applied by MIT engineers and a colleague at Duke University to the search for new materials. The team’s ultimate goal: a public online database that could aid the design of materials for almost any application, from nanostructure computer components to ultralight, high-strength alloys for airplanes. The technique, known as data mining, uses ...
  • February 1, 2003

    Pratt Center Receives $2.9 Million NSF Grant

    A center at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering has received a $2.9 million National Science Foundation grant to start a two-year graduate research education curriculum that will teach students how to use engineering principles to explore natural materials and processes. Such research could lead to biologically-based products of societal benefit or to basic laboratory discoveries about living structures and systems. The interdisciplinary Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems (CBIMMS) will develop the Graduate Training in ...
  • January 16, 2003

    Grant to Pratt to Support New Approach to Understanding Biology Through Engineering

    DURHAM, N.C. -- A center at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering has received a $2.9 million National Science Foundation grant to start a two-year graduate research education curriculum that will teach students how to use engineering principles to explore natural materials and processes. Such research could lead to biologically-based products of societal benefit or to basic laboratory discoveries about living structures and systems. The interdisciplinary Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems (CBIMMS) will develop the ...
  • December 1, 2002

    Pratt's Underwater Turtle-Bot Takes 3rd Place

    The Duke Robotics Club placed third in a field of 12 in the 6th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition in August in San Diego. In taking third, the club scored a noteworthy victory over the team from MIT, which placed fourth. The Pratt club’s robot, Gamera, is a 30-inch wide autonomous assembly of electrical motors, computers and batteries named after a giant flying turtle that starred in a Japanese monster movie. The Pratt robot’s most turtle-like ...
  • September 16, 2002

    One-Upping Nature in a Quest for New Materials

    By Monte Basgall, Office of News and Communications Taking their inspiration from the “soft and wet” natural world, engineers and scientists are designing new tools and devices that aim at practical applications. The goal is to “reverse engineer” scores of millions of years of natural evolution. Over this span, molecules have assembled themselves into cells and cells have organized into plants, animals and the complex biomechanisms necessary to support life. Now, in a promising new initiative, interdisciplinary ...
  • February 1, 2002

    Engineering Professor Draws More Honors

    Engineering professor draws more honors Adrian Bejan, the J.A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering who prides himself on advancing thermodynamics theory using pencil and paper rather than a fancy lab, has added another plaudit to his long list. Bejan, who received his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1975, has won the American Society of Mechanical Engineers International's (ASME) Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award, a career-spanning honor recognizing ...
  • October 31, 2001

    Ford Motor Co. Fund Donates $3.26 million to Duke University

    DURHAM, N.C. - Ford Motor Company Fund will contribute $3.26 million to Duke University to support university initiatives that include undergraduate and graduate scholarships, community outreach programs, academic programming, minority recruiting, facilities and services, Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane announced Wednesday. Duke is one of 31 institutions in Ford's College Relations Sponsor Program (CRSP), which intends to develop long-term relationships between Ford Motor Company Fund and major educational institutions. "This latest grant is especially important because it ...
  • March 1, 2000

    Heat-Triggered Liposomes Carry Drugs to Eradicate Tumors in Mice

    DURHAM, N.C. - Human tumors implanted into mice regressed completely within about 12 days when treated with heat-triggered, sub-microscopic drug carriers called "liposomes," and most of those tumors didn't regrow during 60-day trials at Duke University and Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers reported Tuesday. The finding raises the possibility of treating cancers by injecting such liposomes into cancer patients and applying heat only at the region of a tumor to selectively release cancer-killing drugs. The studies, published ...

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