The Michigan Engineer News Center

Congratulations to new Climate & Space PhD!

October 18, 2019
Dr. Benjamin Alterman is our newest PhD. | Short Read
EnlargeCLASP-PhD-Dr-Ben-Alterman
IMAGE:  Dr. Ben Alterman

We’re very pleased to report that another Climate & Space student has successful defended his doctoral dissertation!

Dr. Benjamin Alterman

Defense Date: 10/11/2019

Dissertation Title: The Significance of Proton Beams in the Multiscale Solar Wind

Faculty Advisor: Prof. Justin C. Kasper

Dr. Alterman will continue to work with Prof. Kasper on Wind Faraday Cup data, as well as data from the Parker Solar Probe mission here at U-M. His long-term plans include joining the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, TX to work with CLASP Research Prof. Stefano Livi and SwRI faculty member Dr. Mihir Desai on a variety of heliospheric missions. 

CLASP-PhD-Dr-Ben-Alterman
Portrait of EJ Olsen

Contact

EJ Olsen
Marketing Communications Specialist

Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering

(734) 548-3204

2239 SRB

Jay Guo holds a sheet of flexible transparent conductor on the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering North Campus. The material sandwiches a thin layer of silver between two “dielectric” materials, aluminum oxide and zinc oxide, producing a conductive anti-reflection coating on the sheet of plastic.

Making plastic more transparent while also adding electrical conductivity

Michigan Engineers change the game by making a conductive coating that’s also anti-reflective. | Medium Read
Chad Jenkins, CSE Associate Professor, poses with his research group's two robots, Odd Job and Cookie, in the Beyster Building on October 27, 2016

Technology that serves all: a single step could pave the way

A Q&A with Chad Jenkins. | Medium Read
White blood cells called neutrophils, tagged with fluorescent red dye, eat spheres or rods that have been tagged with green dye. Because neutrophils are more willing to eat rods than are other immune cells, an injection of rod-shaped particles could be used to target neutrophils specifically. Earlier work in mice from the Eniola-Adefeso group suggests that injections of spheres can reduce excessive inflammation in the lungs. Credit: Hanieh Safari, Eniola-Adefeso Lab, University of Michigan.

How rod-shaped particles might distract an out-of-control immune response

When white blood cells don’t know when to stop, an injection of rod-shaped particles may draw them away from a site of excessive inflammation. | Medium Read

Battery-free IoT steam trap sensors powered by heat

Reopening Michigan with COVID-19 symptom checklist web app and online dashboard

Negative pressure helmet system to help fight COVID-19 spread

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Research News
New Michigan Medicine research uncovers how pancreatic cancer cells (right) reprogram cancer-associated fibroblasts (left), setting in motion a process that converts available nutrients into a form more easily used by the cancer cells: branched-chain alpha-ketoacids (BCKAs). The researchers believe new therapies could potentially short-circuit this process.

Study suggests method to starve pancreatic cancer cells

Rather than attacking cancer cells directly, new cell-model research probes weaknesses in pancreatic cancer’s interactions with other cells to obtain nutrients needed for tumor growth. | Medium Read

Wireless sensors for N95 masks could enable easier, more accurate decontamination | Medium Read

Hunger and COVID: Fighting pandemic-related food insecurity in Detroit | Medium Read

Tracking COVID-19 spread faster, and more accurately | Medium Read
Campus & Community
North Campus in the spring. Photo: Joseph Xu

Making a socially distant campus ‘feel more like home’: Students offer ideas

As campuses across the nation move towards the challenges of fall semester, there’s well-spring of innovation and creativity coming from students. | Medium Read

Emergency fund fills in gaps for students during pandemic | Medium Read

Engineering course challenges students to create tech solutions for COVID-19 | Long Read

‘It is past time to address systemic racism’ | Medium Read
Faculty Perspectives
Artist rendering of COVID-19

COVID-19 is laying waste to many US recycling programs

'The trends we see in the making and consuming of single-use goods, particularly plastic, could have lasting negative effects on the circular economy.' | Short Read

Trump’s restrictions on Chinese students stifle American companies, universities and innovation | Short Read

Help eradicate the virus of racism | Medium Read

How much coronavirus testing is enough? States could learn from retailers as they ramp up | Short Read
In the News
Wired June 22, 2020
What is a side channel attack?
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Daniel Genkin explains how the pursuit of performance over security can lead to more side channel exploits.
Planet Detroit June 25, 2020
DTE Gas announces plan to go ‘net zero’ by 2050; activists skeptical
Todd Allen, the Glenn F and Gladys H Knoll Department Chair of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, is quoted in Planet Detroit.
Popular Mechanics June 17, 2020
The HVAC system of the future swaps thermostats for thermal cameras
Michigan Engineers' HVAC system accounts for comfort while using less energy, reports Popular Mechanics.
The Hill June 5, 2020
Trump’s restrictions on Chinese students stifle American companies, universities and innovation
In an op-ed, Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering Professor Chair Brian Denton shares his perspective on the damages done by placing restrcitions on Chinese students in the U.S.
history

Five year plan: The North Campus story

Ed Lesher: Aircraft Hall of Famer

LASIK: The Bladeless Scalpel

Q&A with Samuel Ting