URI charges ahead with battery research
Chemists and engineers at the University of Rhode Island and Brown University are on the road to building a better battery. The team recently won a $6 million, three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study improving the efficiency and lifetime of batteries. The technology promises to help cellphones last longer, electric vehicles travel farther and much more.
At URI, engineering Professor Arijit Bose is teaming up with chemistry professors William Euler and Brett Lucht to optimize the reaction between the electrolytes inside batteries and the positive and negative terminals. The researchers and their students will explore the effectiveness of both the composition of the electrolytes inside the battery and the electrode materials.
Greenfield’s road to success
Chemical engineering Professor Michael Greenfield has won an International Road Federation Global Road Achievement Award recognizing “excellence and innovation in road development worldwide.” The federation honored Greenfield for simulating how molecules in asphalt move and respond on the nanoscale. His work promises to provide insight into the science behind the way asphalt works and ultimately lead to better roadways.
A desk for the history books
The desk that belonged to a Society of Women Engineers co-founder will serve aspiring female engineers at the University of Rhode Island. Society co-founder Elsie Eaves kept the desk at her Port Washington, N.Y., home for years until her passing in 1983.
In the fall, her nephew, Steve Eaves, offered the desk to the College of Engineering. The Charlestown, R.I. resident said he wanted the desk in a place that would honor his aunt’s legacy. That legacy included being the first woman to graduate from the University of Colorado at Boulder civil engineering program, the first woman member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the first woman to obtain a professional engineer’s license in New York.
In 1950, Eaves and a group of other women started the Society of Women Engineers. She would go on to work for 37 years at the Engineering News-Record, where she managed the Business News department and specialized in developing models to estimate construction costs.
The desk will be placed in the office of the SWE collegiate section at URI with a plaque to honor Elsie Eaves.
Engineers green the planet
Matching URI researchers with companies seeking a greener footprint defined the College of Engineering’s inaugural Sustainability Conference on Nov. 18. About 35 people from industry and academia discussed the challenges that corporations face as they seek to reduce their impact on the environment while improving their bottom lines.
Speakers included the vice presidents for sustainability at networking company Cisco and toy company Hasbro, as well as the president of electronics recycler Metech Recycling and University of Rhode Island faculty from departments including engineering, business and resource economics.
Conference organizer and engineering professor Manbir Sodhi said the corporate executives, faculty and students discovered opportunities for the University to help solve corporate challenges. He is planning follow-up discussions and another conference as early as June.
Jouaneh publishes textbooks
Mechanical, industrial and systems engineering Professor Musa Jouaneh has published two complementary textbooks. The Fundamentals of Mechatronics and Laboratory Exercises in Mechatronics (Cengage Learning) will both reach bookshelves in January.
The fundamentals book covers both hardware and software aspects of mechatronics systems in a single text, while the exercise book contains 14 laboratory exercises designed to reinforce the textbook’s topics.
Engineering welcomes largest class
The College of Engineering welcomed its largest class in recent memory last semester. Freshmen entering the college totaled 365 students. Mechanical engineering once again took the top spot as the college’s most popular program, enrolling 81 students. Women comprised 17 percent of the class, and 13 percent of the class comprised underrepresented students of color.
A breakfast for scholars
This October, the College of Engineering honored 155 students who received more than $325,000 in scholarships this year. Established by alumni, corporations and college supporters, the awards add to the more than $1.6 million in engineering scholarships provided during the last five years alone.
The college celebrated the awards during the 8th annual Scholarship Breakfast, which attracted more than 80 people, including alumni and scholarship sponsors. Among the sponsors were former Engineering Dean Thomas Kim, executives from Toray Plastics (America) and relatives of the Tucker family, whose endowment has provided more than 160 scholarships.