News Archives - September 2007

Pirouz Kavehpour receives the prestigious Young Investigator Award from the US Army
September 26, 2007

Professor Pirouz Kavehpour

H. Pirouz Kavehpour, assistant professor in the MAE department, has received the prestigious Young Investigator Award from the US Army. His research proposal, “Interfacial Tension & Contact Angle of Ionic Liquids: a Parametric Study” was selected after a peer review process. The objective of the Young Investigator Program is to attract outstanding young university faculty members to Army research, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers.

Ionic liquids are viewed as a new class of solvents and type of materials with unique and adjustable physical properties that can be used in many applications. Having a very low vapor pressure, tunable chemical composition, and suitable electrochemical properties, ionic liquids are favorable in applications such as “green solvents” and electrochemistry. The surface tension and wettability of ionic liquids have been studied in a very limited capacity. It is also very important to investigate the variation of these parameters as a function of temperature and applied electric current. The importance of these properties is more significant when liquid/liquid and liquid/solid interactions are part of the process such as electrochemical applications and batteries. Thus, it is necessary to fully understand the surface chemistry between these liquids.

Prof. Kavehpour has also recently received a three year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study nano-structures at the vicinity of the moving contact line of polymeric liquids.

Juliett Davitian receives 2007 AIAA Outstanding Aerospace Engineering M.S. Student Award
September 19, 2007

Juliett Davitian being congratulated on her award by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Bob Dickman, the AIAA Executive Director.

Juliett Davitian received one of the 2007 Outstanding Aerospace Engineering M.S. Student Awards from the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), at the Space 2007 conference in Long Beach. Dr. Bill Ballhaus, Jr., President and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation, was the keynote speaker at the luncheon where Juliett was recognized.

Juliett received the UCLA Outstanding M.S. Student in Aerospace Engineering award in June, 2007.  She is continuing her studies toward her Ph.D. degree under the guidance of Prof. Ann Karagozian. Juliett is experimentally exploring the nature of transverse jet shear layer instabilities and their control.  Click here for a link to the webpage that describes her work.

Daniel Yang's paper receives "Honorable Mention Award" in the M&R Conference's Best Paper category
September 12, 2007

Professor Daniel Yang

Daniel Yang's paper "On the generation of analytical noncircular multi-lobe internal pitch-pair" received an "Honorable Mention Award" at the M&R (Mechanism and Robotics) Conference's Best Paper category. He and his co-authors were recognized at the ASME M&R Conference dinner. The 31st ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference was held September 4-7, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada.