News: MAE

Grace Genszler, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering at Cornell, has been selected for a 2023 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship. Genszler is one of 30 women across the world to receive one of the $10,000 awards in 2023 and will be presented with a set of wings from the Zonta International Foundation in the fall. At Cornell, Genszler works with Professor Dmitry Savransky in the Space Imaging and Optical Systems Laboratory. Her research is focused on mission design for direct imaging exoplanet missions with space-based telescope starshade observatories. In 2022... Read more

An interdisciplinary team led by Cornell has received a five-year grant to launch a new center for engineering, testing and commercializing point-of-care diagnostic devices that will have international reach. Read more

The 2023 Cornell Engineering Teaching and Advising Awards were presented at the Fall Faculty Reception on Sept. 12. Read more

Zhiting Tian, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to receive a 2023 Young Faculty Award (YFA). DARPA will be funding Tian’s research proposal titled “Transient, nanoscale temperature mapping of active RF devices.” DARPA’s stated goal for the YFA program is “to identify and engage rising stars in junior research positions in academia and equivalent positions at non-profit research institutions…to expose them to Department of Defense needs and DARPA’s mission to create and prevent technological... Read more

The award was announced in early September and is part of NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants Program. Through the ECF award program NASA supports early career faculty in their efforts to examine the theoretical feasibility of ideas and approaches that are critical to making science, space travel, and exploration more effective, affordable, and sustainable. Sobhani’s proposal aims to use machine learning and novel ionic liquids to develop thermally stable, low viscosity, high-performance heat transfer fluids. Spacecraft encounter extreme thermal environments once they are beyond Earth’s... Read more

From exploring the mechanics of early-stage bone metastasis to analyzing price formation policies in wholesale electricity markets, Cornell Engineering’s Sprout Awards are funding unique research projects with the potential to grow partnerships across Cornell. Read more

Savransky, who joined the faculty of Cornell’s Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2014, is one of 89 new Senior Members from 17 countries. Savransky’s research at Cornell has included varied topics that share a common focus on detecting and characterizing extrasolar planets. The topics have included investigations of advanced control and estimation for active wavefront control systems; computer vision and machine learning applications for automated optical system alignment and astronomical image post-processing; optimal scheduling for autonomous space observatories and... Read more

As concerns about climate change intensify, researchers are exploring the potential for large-scale human intervention in the Earth’s climate system, a strategy sometimes referred to as geoengineering. Two leading researchers in the area discuss how their research in sunlight reflection methods fits into the bigger picture of potential climate solutions. Read more

With artificial intelligence poised to assist in profound scientific discoveries that will change the world, Cornell is leading a new $11.3 million center focused on human-AI collaboration that uses mathematics as a common language. Read more

Varda’s goal is to create a fleet of satellites that will be used to carry out pharmaceutical research in the microgravity of Earth’s orbit. In the recent test, Varda’s 200-pound satellite successfully separated from the rocket. Eventually, Varda will have a fleet of research and production capsules that will grow specific protein crystals while in space. These capsules will then de-orbit and parachute back to Earth, where the pharmaceutical materials inside will be used to make prescription drugs. Past studies have shown that growing some protein crystals in space leads to more perfect... Read more