Using network science—part of a larger mathematical field called graph theory—professor of mechanical engineering William Oates, former graduate student Peter Woerner, Ph.D. and associate professor Kunihiko “Sam” Taira mapped long-range atomic forces onto an incredibly complex graph to simulate macroscopic material behavior.

If you’ve ever had a magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI), you have benefited from the research done at the Applied Superconductivity Center (ASC), which has been part of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering since 2006. In the 1980s, while at UW-Madison, David Larbalestier, an engineering professor, and Peter Lee, Ph.D., an ASC scientist, developed the technology industry still uses today to produce the Nb-Ti superconducting wire that creates the magnetic field in MRI systems.

The six-member team validated their prototype design at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which supports the 2022 Psyche Mission—a quest to send a spacecraft to the eponymous asteroid to collect data. The team created a prototype of the Xenon Flow Controller, designed to provide efficient flow rates of xenon gas to the Hall-effect thruster, an ion thruster that will propel the spacecraft.

In May 2019, Shiran Bao, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher at the cryogenics lab at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, was selected as the winner of the prestigious Peter Kapitza Award from the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR).

A $2.2 million Department of Defense grant will fund an FSU investigation into the dynamics of smoke from prescribed burns, giving land managers a better understanding of when and how to best use the technique.

Diandra Reyes is a fourth-year mechanical engineering student from Miami. When she was a little girl her curiosity often got the best of her. 

“I like to take things apart. My mom would catch me unscrewing the backside of the TV sometimes,” says Reyes. “After she screamed at me, I would always say, ‘Mommy, it’s an experiment, I just want to see what’s inside.’”

Affectionately called a “Sneakerhead” by his peers, Robert Blount, Jr. has an enviable collection of sneakers that he loves.

“If I had to choose, the coolest sneaker would be an off-white Jordan 1,” he says. “I love the design and artwork of a sneaker. Sneakers are like the stock market, you can buy and depending on their value, sit on them a while, then maybe sell them for a lot more. I love collecting them.”

Two FAMU-FSU Engineering faculty members have received the National Science Foundation’s prestigious CAREER award this year for researchers in the early stages of their careers.

In the effort to mitigate destructive wildfires, wildland managers often fight those uncontrolled fires with prescribed fire — carefully controlled burns to safely eliminate the vegetation that piles up on forest floors and adds to potential fuel.

 

Prescribed fires are an important tool for managing fire-prone landscapes, but they come with a cost. Fire makes smoke, which carries tiny, unburnt particles through the air, lowering air quality and making breathing more difficult.