News & Events

07-17-18

Professor Mory Gharib and postdoctoral researcher Chris Roh (MS '13, PhD '17) have studied the design and control of the jets that dragonfly larvae use to propel themselves to re-design health values. "The current heart valve design is a one-size-fits-all, where no patient-specific design is considered, and this causes many post-transplant complications," Dr. Roh says. "We believe that an intentionally off-centered opening of the heart valve to more closely match the patient's original blood flow will be an important design parameter that can be adjusted based on each patient's heart morphology." [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights GALCIT MedE Morteza Gharib Chris Roh postdocs

07-10-18

The student winners of the 2018 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at the end of this academic year. Claire Bedbrook, advised by Professors Frances H. Arnold and Viviana Gradinaru received the prize in Biotechnology. Her research is in engineering proteins capable of controlling and reading out neural activity to advance neuroscience research. Nicholas Dou, advised by Professor Austin Minnich received the prize in Nanotechnology. Nicholas focuses on developing and characterizing novel nano-architected materials that are exceptionally lightweight, mechanically resilient, and thermally insulating. Xiaoqi Ren, advised by Professor Adam Wierman received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources. Xiaoqi’s research is focused on optimization of today's large-scale data centers, including online scheduling, energy usage and sustainability, and new market mechanisms for electricity markets and data clouds. Daniel C. Bowden, advised by Professors Joann M. Stock and Victor Tsai has received the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection. Daniel has worked on a range of projects relating to the propagation of seismic waves in the Earth's crust. Colin Cook, advised by Professor Yu-Chong Tai has receive the prize in Entrepreneurship. Colin is working on a phototherapeutic contact lens to treat diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness.

Tags: MedE CMS Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes Xiaoqi Ren Colin Cook Claire Bedbrook Daniel Bowden Nicholas Dou

07-03-18

Morgane Anne Marie Grivel advised by Professor Morteza Gharib, Kazuki Maeda advised Professor Tim Colonius, and Jason Schlup advised by Professor Guillaume Blanquart are recipients of the 2018 Richard B. Chapman Memorial Award. Morgane's research focuses on using hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions to modify hydrodynamic flows. Jason's research utilized computational fluid dynamics to investigate the highly unstable combustion of hydrogen-air mixtures with a focus on accurate, cost-effective modeling techniques. Kazuki does research in multi-phase flow, computational fluid dynamics, and biomedical engineering. The Richard B. Chapman Memorial Award is given to an EAS graduate student in hydrodynamics who has distinguished himself or herself in research.

Tags: GALCIT MCE Richard B. Chapman Memorial Award

06-29-18

Mechanical engineering student Hyung Ju (Terry) Suh, advised by Professor Joel Burdick, is a recipient of the 2018 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. He has broad interests in robotics including manipulation, perception, navigation, localization, and intelligence. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to engineering students with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.

Tags: honors MCE Henry Ford II Scholar Award Joel Burdick Hyung Ju (Terry) Suh

06-28-18

Azita Emami, Andrew and Peggy Cherng Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering and Executive Officer for Electrical Engineering, Yu-Chong Tai, Anna L. Rosen Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering; Andrew and Peggy Cherng Medical Engineering Leadership Chair; Executive Officer for Medical Engineering, and colleagues have developed a new pressure-sensing implant for the eye that could help prevent one of the leading causes of blindness. The implant could help glaucoma patients monitor their condition by wirelessly sending data about the eye to the patient or medical professionals. Patients at risk for glaucoma are required to make regular visits to an ophthalmologist to have their intraocular pressure (eye pressure) checked. The disadvantage is that patients are only able to measure pressure while visiting their doctor. With a wireless implant, a patient has access to their eye pressure data at any time, and continuous monitoring will allow intervention sooner if needed. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights MedE Yu-Chong Tai Azita Emami

06-22-18

Applied physics student Sunash Sharma, advised by Professor Stevan Nadj-Perge, is a recipient of the 2018 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. He has wide-ranging interests from biophysics to fluid mechanics to quantum computation. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to engineering students with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.

Tags: APhMS honors Henry Ford II Scholar Award Stevan Nadj-Perge Sunash Sharma

06-20-18

Early in his freshman year CMS and BEM alumnus Ramsathwick “Sathwick” Pathireddy (BS ’17) realized just how challenging a Caltech workload could be and turned to his housemates and friends for help. “When I had questions about time management, what classes to take, or what internships to go for, I always had someone to talk to,” Sathwick says. [Breakthrough story]

Tags: CMS alumni Ramsathwick Pathireddy

06-20-18

Marco Bernardi, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, has teamed up with physics colleague Professor David Hsieh, to offers new insight into a promising solar cell material called perovskites. "Despite being a relatively new technology, perovskite solar cells are now almost as efficient as solar cell materials that have been around for decades. But we still don't know why perovskite solar cells work so well," says Professor Bernardi, [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS research highlights Marco Bernardi David Hsieh

06-20-18

Caltech’s 124th commencement ceremony was held on Friday June 15, 2018. This year's speaker was John Lewis, U.S. congressman and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement who said Dr. King inspired him to "get into good trouble and necessary trouble." He instructed students to "study the way of peace, love, and non violence." Caltech celebrated the accomplishments of 579 graduates: 227 bachelor's degrees, 161 master's degrees, and 191 doctoral degrees.

Tags: Commencement

06-18-18

A laser-sonic scanner, which uses photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) developed by Lihong Wang, Bren Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, can find tumors in as little as 15 seconds by shining pulses of light into the breast. The laser-sonic scanner provides a safer way for finding breast cancer compared to mammogram technology. Mammograms expose patients to X-ray radiation and requires their breasts to be painfully pressed between plates. Many women avoid having their mammograms taken as often as they should because of the discomfort involved. PACT can provide a clear view of structures as small as a quarter of a millimeter at a depth of 4 centimeters. Mammograms cannot provide soft-tissue contrast with the level of detail in PACT images. The PACT scan is quick, and a clearer image can be developed. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights MedE Lihong Wang