Students do hands-on research
When Adam Morris and Omar Alquaddoomi, then juniors majoring in mechanical engineering, first learned of an international competition to build, design and operate a small robotic submarine, their enthusiasm meter went well into the red.
   Louis Whitcomb, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, remembers when the two students approached him a little over a year ago to tell him how excited they were about entering the competition, which would be held in August in Panama City, Fla.
   "They asked, 'Well, can we build one?'"
   "I said, "Sure, it sounds like a great idea,' " Whitcomb recalls.
   Then he had to bring them down to earth. "I told them first they need to get some money."
   Whitcomb advised the two to consider the option of applying for Provost's Undergraduate Research Awards. Full story...

Powerful microscope is installed
To build a better jet engine, Kevin Hemker believes you have to start small. Very small.
   Hemker, an associate professor of mechanical engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering, is starting with a powerful new microscope that allows him to see how rows of atoms are arranged in metal alloys. Knowing how these atoms arrange themselves, he says, can help predict how well these materials will be able to withstand the high temperatures, centrifugal forces and corrosive gases that exist inside a jet engine. By looking at defects in the geometric patterns formed by atoms, Hemker and his students are collecting information that may someday help scientists use a computer to devise durable new aerospace materials. Full story...

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