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Welcome to the MechSE Department
It is my great pleasure to bring you warm greetings from the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering (MechSE). I am deeply thankful for this opportunity to connect with you and to reflect on the progress the department has made since the new department was formed.
These are exciting times for mechanical engineering and mechanics. Combining the former Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering into one powerful department has given us the critical mass and flexibility we need to build on our traditional strengths, while evolving in new directions including energy, bio and nanosciences. We maintain our commitment to students—not only by offering them degrees in both mechanics and mechanical engineering, but also by continuously striving to preserve the strong mentor/adviser programs and close camaraderie between faculty, staff and students. This is a significant achievement in a department with more than 900 undergraduates, but we are constantly finding new ways to give those students opportunities to get to know our faculty both inside and outside the classroom through special events (lecture series; specialized seminar series in bio, fluids, materials, and applied math; scholarship/fellowship banquets) and gatherings (informal BBQs for incoming freshmen and graduate students; student society meetings).
Our commitment to teaching basic principles remains steadfast and will be even more critical in the future as engineering continues to transform from an empirical discipline that was historically focused on making things work to a truly scientific one that uses a combination of theory and sophisticated experimentation to discover "how" and "why" they work. This new emphasis on understanding fundamental mechanisms across multiple length and time scales is helping to break down the boundaries that previously defined classical subjects and separated basic sciences from engineering, and is paving the way for far-reaching advances in medicine, defense, security, energy and the environment.
Nowhere is this more evident than at the two National Science Foundation-funded centers located within our own department. At the Center for Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water, researchers from nine universities, six partners and a dozen industrial affiliates are working together to develop technologies for desalination, decontamination and disinfection that will help people throughout the world meet unprecedented challenges to their water supply. Similarly, interdisciplinary teams of scientists at the Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems are working to make nanomanufacturing a practical reality with platforms to sense chemical species, to create sheets of stretchable silicon and to control nano-fluidic transport.
The borderless atmosphere we are creating combined with a growing emphasis on societal needs has not only ignited a sense of energy and passion within our own faculty and students, but it is also helping us recruit students as well as top faculty in key areas. These new full professors, associate professors, assistant professors and research faculty bring eminent qualifications to our research and education mission.
By hiring at all ranks we have built a deeper portfolio in areas of importance to our department. Five faculty have joined us during the last year alone, bringing the total number of our faculty to an all-time high of 54. Our faculty are demonstrating significant passion outside the department in many different ways—from organizing summer camps, internships and other outreach programs for middle and high school students, teachers and underrepresented groups to leading public policy in important areas, such as energy. Our faculty have proposed and supported the establishment of a campus-wide Center for Energy and Sustainability. They are working together with colleagues in the School of Chemical Sciences to develop a new center for fuel cells. They have addressed high-level government officials charged with developing a national energy strategy, and they have been working together with members of our Alumni Board to develop strategies for energy sustainability.
In August 2007, Professor Charles Tucker completed his four-year term as Associate Head for Undergraduate Programs. Professor James Phillips took his place, and Professor Petros Sofronis was named Associate Head for Mechanics Programs. Professor Quinn Brewster is the Associate Head for Graduate Programs. Our programs and students are in excellent hands with this group of Associate Heads. We have two strategic committees, one examining "collaboration," chaired by Professor Jonathan Dantzig, and the other on "mechanics," headed by Prof. P. Sofronis. Our strategic committees continue to engender excitement and discussion among our faculty to chart new directions for the Department.
Meanwhile, our students are doing the same. The totally solar-powered house they designed and built with other University of Illinois students exemplifies the passion, creativity and resourcefulness they bring to their work on a daily basis. Their house, which was pitted against top entries from around the world, won first place for marketability and comfort in the U.S. Department of Energy's 2007 Solar Decathlon competition, and was prominently featured on "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer." Similarly, the formula-style racing car our students designed and built with other student members of the Society of Automotive Engineers won eighth place in a competition that included 59 entries. Students in our department are developing novel and economical ways to remove salt from water. They are using small-scale combustion to develop small and efficient power sources, developing ultra-sensitive micro gas chromatographs that may one day detect the presence of explosives, and using nanotechnology to develop water-repellent surfaces. To learn more about these and other efforts, I encourage you to explore our Web site.
Sincerely,
Huseyin Sehitoglu
Department Head and C. J. Gauthier Professor