Research and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
By Alex Stewart A seal races after a herring twisting and darting through the water in the dead of night. The seal cannot see the fish it is chasing, but instead relies on its sensitive whiskers to detect displacements in the water to track down its prey. These remarkable whiskers, which are sensitive enough to …
By Fan Lou Imagine a robot that is made with no rigid parts. That is what Marc Kilpack, an assistant professor from Brigham Young University, demonstrated in his presentation on soft robotics. His seminar, titled “Controlling and Modeling Large Scale Soft Pneumatic Robots,” was held March 13, 2020, in the Mechanics Seminar at University of …
By Samuel Moss As the world continually seeks alternatives to large carbon footprint energy sources, the demand for efficient renewable energy continues to increase. In the United States, 7% of current energy comes from wind power, and Dr. Paul Veers, a chief engineer at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), believes that wind power can …
By Charlie Chermak Have you ever been curious how asthma medication travels throughout your body or how blood flow is affected by plaque buildup in your arteries? New research in the field of fluid mechanics is bringing fresh insights to these not-so-simple phenomena that occur within our bodies. On November 15, 2019 at the University …
By Hayley Raj It may be hard to imagine that the microscopic cells in our blood follow specific patterns of flow, and that this may have important physiological consequences, but Professor Mike Graham is focusing his research on this very concept. Graham, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University …
By Stephan Blanz The future is here, but if you don’t look closely, you might miss it. Dr. Igor Bargatin, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania is creating metamaterials – materials so thin they can elude the eye. Their unique properties allow them to levitate on their own, harness …
On March 9-10, 2019, Professors Notbohm, Thevamaran and Christian Franck co-hosted the 2019 Midwest SEM Student Symposium at the UW–Madison College of Engineering with Dr. John Considine from the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison. The symposium drew students from eight universities across the Midwest. Through 23 student presentations and two faculty keynote presentations, it …
By Madeleine Girard Would you be surprised to learn that some of the floors you have walked on may contain several large plastic “air bubbles” made from recycled materials? Would you be more surprised to learn this type of floor system is the best on the market? In his talk on March 1, 2019, Professor …
By Anna Boggs Imagine being able to fly from New York to California in less time than it takes you to go to the grocery store. While it may seem like a dream, hypersonic flight could make it a reality. To make this dream come true, new lightweight structures that are strong enough to withstand …
By Daniel Reasa LEGO cylinders on a plate form a simplified model of a forest, and Prof. Stefano Gonella has experimentally shown that physical waves (analogous to earthquakes) can be guided along complex paths created with these LEGO structures. Gonella, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering at the University of Minnesota, …