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"Portable Hug" Is Subject of TechCast UMass Amherst’s podcast series about breakthrough discoveries of campus researchers focuses this month on the development of a "portable hug" vest developed in our Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department. This invention promises to help people suffering from a wide range of problems become calmer, more focused, and more grounded.
The “TechCast at UMass Amherst” episode includes interviews with Sundar Krishnamurty, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, and his graduate student, prize-winning inventor Brian Mullen. Episodes are posted at www.umasstechcast.org, where they can be downloaded to a computer or portable audio player. Visitors to the site also can subscribe to automatically receive new episodes of the podcast. Read more
Sudbury Student Drives Homewrecker" UMass Amherst mechanical engineering student Stacia Marcelynas, from Sudbury, Massachusetts, has done something only a few students anywhere have ever experienced. She drove the UMass Amherst entry in both the 2007 and 2008 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Supermileage Competition at the Eaton Corporation proving grounds in Marshall, Michigan. This June, her vehicle named “Homewrecker” finished eighth in the national competition by getting 683 miles per gallon, despite tornado warnings and torrential rain that at one point forced her car off the track and into the high grass. Read more
Upgrading the Safety and Performance of Rocket Fuel Two researchers in the College of Engineering have received a prestigious $1-million Department of Defense (DoD) grant to boost the safety and performance of fuel used in thousands of satellites, space vehicles, rockets, and missiles. Their task will be to study the spray and combustion of gelled hypergolic propellants. A hypergolic propellant system is formed from a fuel and an oxidizer that ignite spontaneously when mixed so there is no need of an ignition mechanism in order to bring about combustion. David Schmidt of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department and Phillip R. Westmoreland of the Chemical Engineering Department will focus on fluid flow and chemistry, respectively. Read more
Undergrad Helps Companies Save Energy and Money Mechanical engineering senior Jonathan Labaki of Hyde Park was one member of the UMass Amherst Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) team who worked on an energy audit that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick singled out for special attention this month as a paragon of his clean-energy strategy. The governor made the remarks on May 1 to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in relation to Crane & Co., a venerable Commonwealth paper manufacturer. “The Industrial Assessment Center at UMass Amherst conducted a full energy audit,” said Governor Patrick. “Crane Paper has decided to implement all but one of the efficiency measures recommended. Here’s the punch line: That implementation will save them $600,000 a year. $600,000 a year.”
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