For mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE) assistant professor Iman Soltani, automation is vital to the present and a key to the future. With experience automating everything from microscopes to assembly lines and vehicles and a desire to collaborate across campus, Soltani plans to help make UC Davis a leader in the field as the world becomes more automated.

Though automation is important, Soltani feels the field is largely misunderstood.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering and computer science professor Raissa D’Souza will bring her expertise in network science to one of the world’s most prominent peer-reviewed journals as a new member of Science magazine’s Board of Reviewing Editors.

Professor Steve Robinson has been named one of the inaugural recipients of the UC Davis Graduate Advising and Mentoring Award for his outstanding work in the mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE) graduate program.

These new awards, administered by UC Davis Graduate Studies, honor outstanding excellence in advising and mentoring of graduate students. Winners are nominated by their graduate program to highlight a faculty member’s positive impact on both graduate students and colleagues.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE) professors Ralph Aldredge and Vinod Narayanan are two of the newest American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Fellows. Fellowship recognizes ASME members with over 10 years of experience and with significant achievements in engineering teaching, research and service in mechanical engineering or a related field.

As he approaches his 35th year on campus, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Mohamed Hafez continues to leave an indelible mark on the department and his students. He has taught and mentored undergraduate, graduate and high school students and postdoctoral scholars alike while introducing several courses and being a driving force behind aerospace engineering at UC Davis.

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is excited to welcome Kelly Kissock, Shima Nazari and Iman Soltani to its faculty for the 2020-21 academic year. Together, they bring expertise in energy efficiency, control and automation to UC Davis and strengthen and diversify the department’s teaching and research. Kissock and Soltani start July 1 and Nazari starts November 1.

The culmination of over 20 years of teaching and research, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor emeritus Wolfgang Kollmann’s new book lays out different mathematical approaches to analyzing and solving the problem of turbulent flows for graduate students in engineering and applied science. The book, Navier-Stokes Turbulence: Theory and Analysis, was published this December by Springer International Publishing.

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) mourns the loss of professor emeritus Hector Baldis, who passed away on January 1. He is known for his distinguished research career in plasma physics, high-energy density science and inertial confinement fusion and his enthusiastic mentorship as a faculty member at UC Davis.

The 2020 Symposium on Integrated Computing and STEM Education is taking place on February 24, 2020 at the University of Redlands in Southern California. The C-STEM Conference is run each year by the UC Davis Center for Integrated Computing and STEM Education (C-STEM), a campus center led by mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Harry Cheng.

By Jocelyn Anderson, originally posted by UC Davis Magazine.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor and chair Cristina Davis was named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Being named a fellow recognizes academic inventors with a “highly prolific spirit of innovation” who have created or facilitating inventions that have had a major impact on society, says the NAI website.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor and chair Cristina Davis was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She was cited for, “distinguished contributions to non-invasive chemical and biological sensing tools, algorithms, and applications for human and agriculture diagnostics and monitoring.”

AAAS fellows are recognized for outstanding achievements in advancing science through research, teaching, service, administration and/or science communication.

Professor Mohamed Hafez’s latest book, Introduction to Computer Simulations for Integrated STEM College Education, was published by World Scientific Publishing Co. in October 2019.

The book, aimed at high school senior students and first-year undergraduate students, gives a background in basic physics and basic mathematics—including differential equations and numerical methods, among other areas—while showing the students how to use computers to solve problems in STEM fields.

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering professor Francis Assadian is a co-PI on a $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to study cooperative automated vehicles (CAVs) in rural and multimodal environments. Led by at Texas A&M University, the four-year project titled, “AVA: Automated Vehicles for All” involves collaborators at George Washington University, General Motors, NVIDIA and National Instruments.

Distinguished Professor Bahram Ravani and Professor Stephen Robinson received Outstanding Faculty Awards from the UC Davis College of Engineering for their outstanding work during the 2018-19 academic year. Ravani received the Outstanding Senior Faculty Research Award and Robinson received the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award. These awards are the college's highest honors given to faculty.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Niels Grønbech-Jensen was re-appointed as faculty executive director for the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) program for another five-year term. Grønbech-Jensen is the first person to serve in the role, which was created in 2014.

Humans and machines communicate using different languages, and like any language barrier, it can be reduced through mutual understanding and translation. New mechanical and aerospace engineering assistant professor Dr. Jonathon Schofield aims to break down this barrier by improving communication between humans and robotic rehabilitation technologies. 

By Brady Oppenheim

When Dr. Ralph Aldredge begins his new position as the UC Davis College of Engineering’s Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies in summer 2019, he will bring a long history of student advocacy to his latest role.

Professor Cristina Davis has been named chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, effective July 1, 2019. Davis has been at UC Davis since November 2005 and has served as vice chair for the past two years.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering and computer science professor Raissa D’Souza has been named lead editor of the American Physical Society’s new open access journal, Physical Review Research.

MAE and CS professor Raissa D’Souza was honored twice by the Network Science Society, being named a Fellow of the society and receiving the inaugural Euler Award for an outstanding research contribution that changed paradigms or assumptions in the field.

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Lecturer Jason Moore is a co-awardee for an inaugural $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to further the LibreTexts project.