Mechanical Science and Engineering at Illinois

05/29/2026

A research team led by Professor Nenad Miljkovic in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has published a breakthrough study in Nature Physics. The work reports the first experimental discovery of a previously unknown frost propagation mechanism—a “suspended ice bridge”—offering new pathways for anti-frosting surface design.

Frost formation plays a critical role in many engineering systems, including air-source heat pumps, refrigeration systems and aerospace applications. At the microscopic level, frost mainly spreads through the formation of “ice bridges” that connect neighboring supercooled liquid droplets, enabling freezing to propagate rapidly across a surface. For decades, these ice bridges were widely assumed to grow along the solid surface.

This assumption, largely based on conventional top-view imaging, has shaped existing theoretical models and anti-frosting strategies. However, the Illinois team’s study reveals that this long-held view is incomplete.

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New research from the lab of Prof. Nenad Miljkovic establishes a clear link between microscopic ice bridge behavior and macroscopic system performance, providing a new framework for anti-frosting design in energy systems. Their work challenges a long-held view that

05/27/2026

MechSE alum Joe Tanner (BSME 1973) was inducted into NASA's Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 16, 2026, alongside fellow astronaut Tom Akers.

“It was a surreal weekend for us,” Tanner said of the ceremony (which included fellow astronaut Tom Akers). “We had to pinch ourselves often to make sure it was really happening. I am very honored to have joined that elite group of my friends.”

Learn more about Tanner and his journey from Illinois undergrad to celebrated astronaut: https://mechse.illinois.edu/news/stories/81306

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The Grainger College of Engineering
NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

05/21/2026

An international research team has been developing a low-cost, wearable wireless system design to monitor the human knee during rehabilitation.

The ongoing collaboration includes The Grainger College of Engineering professor Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler (mechanical science and engineering) and associate professor Girish Krishnan (industrial and enterprise systems engineering), Dr. Phuong Cao from Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications - NCSA, and assistant professor Mai Thanh Thai from the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Vietnam’s VinUniversity (VinUni). Other coauthors include associate professor Thanh Nho Do and postdoctoral fellow Phuoc Thien Phan from the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at UNSW Sydney in Australia. The team recently published their findings in Nature’s Scientific Reports. Graduate students Nhu An Phan and Sy Trung Ngo at VinUni are first authors on the publication.

Slated for funding through 2032, the project is supported by the VinUni-Illinois Smart Health Center, a collaboration between VinUni and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The purpose of the project is to conduct research on novel sensing and informatics with the goal of providing widely accessible health monitoring worldwide.

The team’s device, KNEESENSE, uses a custom-designed wearable hydraulic filament sensor (WHFS) to monitor the angle of the knee joint during real-time rehabilitation work. The foundation for the WHFS design originated with Thai’s PhD dissertation research.

“The key innovation of our work lies in the hydraulic filament sensing mechanism, which enables accurate knee angle monitoring while remaining soft, lightweight, and comfortable for users,” Thai explained. “By combining a silicone tube with a spring-based structure, we can translate pressure changes into precise motion data without restricting natural movement.”

Read more: https://mechse.illinois.edu/news/83040

VinUniversity

Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at Illinois

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

An international team that includes MechSE Prof. Liz Hsiao-Wecksler has developed KNEESENSE, a device that uses a custom-designed wearable hydraulic filament sensor (WHFS) to monitor the angle of the knee joint during real-time rehabilitation work. The project is supported by the VinUni-Illinois Sma...

05/19/2026

Theoretical and applied mechanics alum Kendra Sharp (PhD TAM 2001) was named one of this year’s recipients of MechSE’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Sharp is currently the Dean of the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University.

“I really appreciate the mission of Santa Clara,” she said. “And I was really excited to develop stronger connections and partnerships between industry and academia. Santa Clara is in such a great location to do that.”

As Dean, Sharp has focused on building SCU’s graduate programs, research activity, and industry partnerships. She worked closely with SCU’s leadership to conceptualize the new Cunningham Shoquist Center for Applied AI and Human Potential.

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Kendra Sharp (PhD TAM 2001), currently the Dean of the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University, was recognized as one of the 2026 MechSE Distinguished Alumni.

05/18/2026

We aren't ready to say goodbye. 💔

05/18/2026

W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor Naira Hovakimyan was named a recipient of the 2026 Dean’s Award for Early Innovation for Professor.

This award recognizes exceptional individuals who are working at the early stages of the innovation life cycle to turn their research into products that benefit the world. Candidates are selected from the pool of faculty who made invention disclosures to the Office of Technology Management during the previous academic year.

Hovakimyan’s impact through translational research can be seen, in part, in her numerous patents in the field of adaptive control and machine learning. The significance of her patents is in the capabilities of the groundbreaking adaptive control technology that was not previously available for use in mission-critical and control system applications. Her patents have been commercialized by numerous companies.

Hovakimyan was formally recognized at the Engineering Awards Convocation April 27.

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MechSE Prof. Naira Hovakimyan was selected for a Dean's Award for Early Innovation for Professor for her work at the early stages of the innovation life cycle to turn research into products that benefit the world.

05/15/2026

Mechanical engineering alum Frank Sanders (BSME 1990), who was named one of this year’s recipients of the MechSE Distinguished Alumni Award, found a wide-reaching channel for his problem-solving expertise: Intel Corporation’s global supply chain.

Serving as Corporate Vice President & General Manager of Global Supply Chain Operations, Sanders finds opportunity to interact and collaborate with business peers and technology leaders around the world.

“I have the chance to engage with people in aspects that go well beyond our core business,” he said. “There’s a lot of knowledge and insight that I gain from those interactions that can then serve our core needs.”

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Frank Sanders (BSME 1990), the Corporate Vice President & General Manager of Global Supply Chain Operations for Intel, was named one of the 2026 MechSE Distinguished Alumni.

05/13/2026

This year, students on the ASME Competitions Committee competed in the IAM3D event held through the ASME EFx Student Competition held at University of Central Florida in Orlando (April 25th- 26th). They constructed a 3D-printed, first-person view extraterrestrial mining robot to excavate materials in a simulated lunar environment. A track system enabled efficient movement and a bucket with a belt and pulleys allowed the robot to quickly extract materials during the five-minute competition period. The team thoroughly documented their ideas in a design report, helping them to win third place at the national competition.

Congratulations to the ASME Competition Committee!

05/13/2026

MechSE researchers have designed a more effective and energy-efficient technology for cooling computer chips. Published today in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports Physical Science, the researchers used a mathematical algorithm and advanced 3D printing method to produce pure copper cold plates that outperformed conventional cold plates and required less energy to run. If used to cool an entire data center, the technology would contribute only around 1.1% of the data center’s total energy usage compared to more than 30% for conventional air-cooling methods, the researchers estimate.

“Cooling is the bottleneck in computer-chip design,” said first author Behnood Bazmi, mechanical engineering graduate student. “By bridging the gap between computational design and manufacturing capability, our approach provides a pathway for more energy-efficient liquid cooling of chips and other electronics.”

Computer chips are becoming increasingly high powered, which means they produce more heat. This, combined with the increase in data centers, is putting a strain on the energy grid—by 2028, it’s predicted that data centers will consume up to 12% of the national grid load in the United States. For the past 40–50 years, computer chips have been cooled by circulating air, but air is insufficient for dissipating the heat produced by modern chips. Liquid direct-to-chip cooling could offer a more effective solution, say the researchers.

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Computer chips are becoming increasingly high powered, which means they produce more heat. This, combined with the increase in data centers, is putting a strain on the energy grid. For the past 40–50 years, computer chips have been cooled by circulating air, but air is insufficient for dissipating...

05/12/2026

The AVIATE Center (https://aviate.illinois.edu/) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently hosted the NASA ULI Annual Review 2026, marking the conclusion of the NASA University Leadership Initiative project on Robust and Resilient Autonomy for Advanced Air Mobility.

The two-day review brought together faculty, researchers, students, postdocs, industry partners, NASA stakeholders, advisory board members, and outreach leaders to reflect on the project’s technical progress and broader impact.

The program highlighted advances in safe autonomy, adaptive control, robust perception, fault diagnosis, reachability analysis, airspace management, simulation, verification, and outreach for future advanced air mobility systems.

A major strength of the project was its deeply collaborative and diverse team, anchored at Illinois and strengthened by partners from leading universities, industry, and government.

This breadth of expertise helped connect foundational research with translational pathways toward safer, more resilient, and more scalable autonomous air mobility.

The final review also underscored the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration across controls, autonomy, aerospace systems, robotics, AI, verification, and human-centered operations.

As the AVIATE center moves into its next phase, the outcomes of this NASA ULI effort provide a strong foundation for continued research, demonstration, and real-world impact.

The event served not only as a closeout review but also as a celebration of the people, partnerships, and shared vision that made the project possible.

Learn more and view the event details here:
https://aviate.illinois.edu/nasa-uli-annual-review-2026/

05/12/2026

Higher levels of the structural proteins collagen and fibrin around a tumor counterintuitively make the tissue softer — the opposite of conventional thinking, a new study shows. MechSE researchers found that the interplay of these proteins can make a vast difference in tumor structure and growth as well as how drugs pass through the tissue, key considerations for developing lab-grown tumors for drug development and personalized medicine.

“Collagen and fibrin have been used in tissue engineering for a long time as two separate proteins. But in our bodies, they are continuously interacting with each other,” said MechSE professor Bumsoo Han, the leader of the study published in the journal Acta Biomaterialia. “Because most engineered tumor models overlook this interaction, they may misrepresent how real tumors behave.”

In the new study, Han’s group carefully analyzed the structure, properties and interactions of collagen and fibrin in cancer tissue and compared them with the hydrogels used as the tumor environment in engineered models.

Read more: https://news.illinois.edu/more-structural-protein-can-make-tumors-softer-the-inverse-of-how-lab-tumors-are-made-study-finds/?utm_source=newsbureau&utm_medium=email