ME

FALL / WINTER 2010-11

Mechanical Engineering Department
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

A newsletter for alumni, students and friends of the ME department

A
trio of mechanical engineering professors has launched a new
high-performance computing center. With a broad range of
industrial and research partnerships, the center will leverage the
capabilities of a unique computer cluster and more generally expand access
to and applications for supercomputing resources.
The Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Center will combine the expertise
of Bernard A. and Frances M. Weideman Professor Vadim Shapiro,
Associate Professor Krishnan Suresh and Assistant Professor Dan Negrut.
Modeling essentially means reducing a problem, such as the mobility of
a vehicle or robot, to a series
of equations. Simulation is the Computers and people work in parallel at new center
process of using a computer to
solve these equations, which are too complex to do by hand. Visualization Negrut (center) with students Andrew Seidl (left) and Hammad Mazhar.
is turning the solution data into usable information via animations or graphs.
The heart of the center is a computer cluster composed of 5,760 scalar processors split across If the team can establish a protocol to allow
24 graphics processing units (GPUs). Negrut, who is the current center director, compares the all 24 GPUs to work in tandem, the result
GPUs to a group of jugglers. “This is like 5,760 jugglers split into 24 groups of 240,” he explains. will be tremendous computational power.
“For them to work together, you have to have some type of protocol and understand who’s passing The cluster handles very complex problems,
the sticks—or data—to whom, how often and how many,” he says. such as determining (Continued on back page)

Friction stir welding fuses engineering research and Wisconsin industry

A
merican naval ships usually conjure
images of aircraft carriers or other
large vessels far out to sea. The USS
Freedom (LCS 1), however, is able to enter water
as shallow as 14 feet, giving sailors unprecedented
access to regions where the U.S. military is
present, such as the Persian Gulf.
In addition to its extreme shallow-water
abilities, the Freedom, which was built by the
Wisconsin shipyard Marinette Marine, is
unique in another way: It’s the first naval vessel
to substantially include friction stir-welded
components. The components, which directly
contribute to the Freedom’s stealth and speed
capabilities, came from Brookfield, Wisconsin-
based Friction Stir Link Inc. (FSL), which has
close ties to the College of Engineering.
Those ties include a research partnership
with a team of mechanical engineering faculty
and students that is yielding insight into the
friction stir-welding process. Those insights
have broad applications for transportation and
manufacturing companies, both in Wisconsin
and beyond.
The connection between UW-Madison
and FSL started in the 1970s, when FSL
vice president of technology John Hinrichs
(who earned a master’s degree in metallurgical
engineering from UW-Madison in 1964)
worked at A.O. Smith Corporation, which had
partnered with college faculty on robotics-
related research. Hinrichs collaborated closely
with then-student Neil Duffie, who went on to
become an ME professor. In the mid-1990s, one
of Duffie’s students, Chris Smith, worked on
advanced robotics with Hinrichs and eventually
joined A.O. Smith after graduating with a
master’s in mechanical engineering in 1995.
Smith is now the FSL vice president of
engineering and operations. Shortly after
starting at A.O. Smith, he and Hinrichs
developed techniques for robots to perform
friction stir welding. In 2001, the pair founded
FSL, which is the only company in the world
that uses standard industrial robots for friction
stir welding.
(Continued on page 4)

www.engr.wisc.edu/me
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1
Chair’s Message
CHAIR’S MESSAGE www.engr.wisc.edu/me
Michael D. Graham

3065 Mechanical Engineering Bldg. Phone: 608/262-5745

1513 University Ave. Fax: 608/265-2316
Madison, WI 53706 engelsta@engr.wisc.edu donors. A listing of the individual scholarships
Roxann Engelstad and recipients can be found on p. 7, and a slide
show of the awards ceremony can be found at
www.engr.wisc.edu/me/. On behalf of the entire

E
very fall semester, the department
hosts and participates in two
relatively large events, Engineers’
Day and Scholarship Night. On Engineers’
Day, we honor former students that have
excelled in their careers, recognizing their
contributions to the engineering profession,
the college and society as a whole. This year,
ME alumni Chad Sorenson and Show-Chung
Ho were presented with the Early Career
Award and the Distinguished Achievement
Award, respectively, at the Engineers’ Day
banquet held in October. As you read about the
highlights of their careers on p. 3, please join
me in congratulating these outstanding alumni.
Alternatively, we honor our current ME
students on Scholarship Night. This year
the department awarded $324,000 to 139
undergraduates, which is roughly 27 percent
of our enrollment. More than 200 students,
family, friends and donors attended the awards
ceremony in September. This was followed by
a reception where many award recipients had
the opportunity to meet with their respective
faculty, I want to sincerely thank our alumni,
family of alumni, and friends of the department
for their generosity in supporting our under-
graduate students through this program.
Finally, I would like to encourage our alumni
to attend the upcoming events in the spring
semester, specifically our 3rd Annual Under-
graduate Research and Design Symposium,
which will be held in April. Please watch the
ME website for details on the date and location.
Thank you for your continued support of the
Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Engineers team up with Trek for cycling research people. It’s

something a

D
uring a long bike ride, it’s not unusual for cyclists to experience hand or finger lot of people can
numbness, a very common condition known as cyclist’s palsy. The condition ranges do and could use
from mild tingling to, sometimes, long-term nerve damage and hand muscle atrophy to improve their
over time. health,” she says.
A team of UW-Madison engineers has scientifically measured hand pressure during cycling Cycling also is a relatively
and studied potential solutions to reduce that pressure, which can cause problems like cyclist’s simple model for biomechanical analysis.
palsy, a condition that Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle Corporation estimates affects as much as “Cycling is repetitive and predictable, so there
70 percent of cyclists. Trek has incorporated the UW-Madison findings into the design of a new are some basic questions you can ask about
Bontrager cycling glove that it will release this winter. human motion and neuromuscular control
Associate Professors Heidi-Lynn Ploeg and Darryl Thelen led the of motion by using cycling as a model,”
UW-Madison team, which studied the effects of seven glove (or no Ploeg says.
glove) types and three hand positions on the hands of 36 experienced For Trek, the benefits of gaining a scientific
cyclists. Ploeg and Thelen found that much of the pressure on cyclists’ understanding of hand pressure outweighed
hands is concentrated over the ulnar nerve and gloves with proper pad- the risk that the study could have determined
Ploeg Thelen
ding density, thickness and placement are able to reduce pressure over cycling gloves don’t actually make a difference.
this region of the hand. Also, the team found certain hand positions can alleviate pressure, such “We approached it from a point of truly trying
as holding the part of the brake attached to the handlebars, a position known as “hoods.” to learn what happens at the intersection of the
The glove project, which began in fall 2008, is the second time Ploeg and Trek have partnered to hand and the bike,” says Trek designer Ryan
understand how cyclists’ bodies interact with bikes. Prior to the glove study, Ploeg and Trek studied Gallagher.
how bike saddle design affects pressure. That project determined saddle design should be based on Bontrager brand manager Tom Kuefler says
a rider’s size and sex, and Trek introduced new ergonomic products based on the research. the study evokes Trek’s Midwest roots. “We’re
When Trek decided to update its glove line, it quickly decided to again approach UW-Madison. a Wisconsin company, and one of our core
“There are a lot of claims out there about cycling gloves. We wanted to see what was real,” says company values is to have unyielding integrity
Trek’s Bontrager product manager Jennifer Retzlaff. “Based on the success Trek had with UW and honesty in everything we do. Having a
during the saddle project, we decided to go ahead with a similar process so we would have hard scientific understanding of how glove design
scientific evidence that we were doing the right thing for cyclists.” affects pressure on a cyclist’s hands allows us
The UW-Madison team worked with a German-based company, novel gmbh, to find a pressure to create better products,” he says.
mat that was the right size and could be worn under a glove while a subject rode a bike. The In addition to Ploeg and Thelen, the
team also performed laser scanning to relate the measurements from the mat’s more than UW-Madison team included School of
200 sensors to the subject’s hand anatomy. This determined that pressure concentrations were Medicine and Public Health Clinical Assistant
located over the three muscles below the pinky finger that make up the hypothenar region of Professor Mark Timmerman, ME PhD student
the hand, which is the source of cyclist’s palsy. Josh Slane, undergraduate students Caitlyn
Ploeg, a biomechanics expert and an avid cyclist, says partnering with Trek was a unique Collins and Yvonne Schumacher, and Madison
opportunity to look at the potential of cycling research. “Cycling is a really accessible activity for Memorial High School student Jane Lee.

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ME alums honored
At Engineers’ Day, held Oct. 14, eight
UW-Madison engineering alumni were
recognized for their significant career
achievements. Two ME alumni were
among them. Chad M. Sorenson
received the Early-Career Achievement
Award and Show-Chung Ho received
a Distinguished Achievement Award.
ME hosted a special reception for the pair on Oct. 7.
C
had Sorenson, a passionate innovator and entrepreneur
who converts smart ideas into real products, has received
numerous innovation and business planning awards, holds
two U.S. patents, and has an active passion for teaching college
students about new product development and entrepreneurship.
Born in Blaine, Minnesota, Sorenson now resides in Oregon,
Wisconsin. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical
engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from
UW-Madison. By 2002, he had begun his first of three businesses.
Sorenson founded Fluent Systems, an agricultural technology
company based on his invention, a wireless fluid level monitoring
system for fertilizer application. He managed all stages of company
development from formation through
product development, manufacturing
scale-up, and market introduction.
Fluent Systems’ founding invention,
the TankMate, placed first in both the
UW-Madison Schoofs Prize for Creativity
and the Tong Prototype Prize and second in
the G. Steven Burrill Technology Business
Plan competitions. Sorenson sold Fluent
after 18 months for $1.5 million to Raven
Chad M. Industries, a public corporation involved in
S orenson
agricultural flow control technologies.
In 2004, Sorenson started Mendota
BSME ’99, MSME ’01
Research, a new-product consulting firm.
Early-Career Achievement With Bose Corporation as an anchor client,
Award Recipient
the company focused its market research
and technology assessments on active
suspension systems for the trucking and agriculture industries and
developed business plans and strategies for other new ventures.
In 2005, Sorenson and his business partners created Sologear LLC,
after inventing the FlameDisk, an eco-friendly, non-charcoal grilling fuel
that emits 92 to 99 percent fewer known air pollutants than charcoal.
He is growing his latest business with a new product, which has been
released recently.
Sorenson also is active in the education community at UW-Madison.
He has served as a judge for the UW-Madison Innovation Days
competitions and now teaches a seminar series on creativity, innovation
and entrepreneurship.
I
n 1969, Show-Chung Ho enrolled as a PhD candidate at
the Appleton Institute of Paper Chemistry; however, shortly
thereafter, he instead decided to enter the paper industry
as an entry-level engineer to help his family business, Yuen Foong Yu
Paper Manufacturing (YFY), in Taiwan.
He became chairman and chief executive officer of YFY in 1972.
Under Ho’s administration, YFY has become the leading paper
company in Taiwan and has gained a high-quality reputation in the
greater China region. In 1992, YFY established Prime View International,
the first thin-film transistor company in Taiwan. Ho’s interest in e-paper
technology developments led YFY to be one of the few pulp and paper
factories that can manufacture no-carbon-
required paper and capsule ink. In 2009,
with its joint venture with the Amazon
Kindle, YFY embarked on its transition from
paper-maker to e-paper-maker.
Ho also inherited Taiwan’s first private
bank from his father, Chuan Ho, in 1986.
After 63 years of development, the business,
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co., has
become the third largest financial holdings
organization in Taiwan. As chairman, Ho Show-Chung
has expanded its scale to 34 subsidiaries, H o
including banking, securities, venture
MSME ’69
capital, and leasing, to name a few.
Distinguished Achievement
Ho received a bachelor’s degree in
Award Recipient
mechanical engineering from National
Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan,
in 1968, and a master’s in mechanical engineering at UW-Madison in
1969. He has been affiliated with many organizations: From 1985 to
1991, he was director of the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of
Taiwan. In 1987, Ho became the first president of National Cheng-Kung
University Alumni Association of Taipei. He received the Eisenhower
Fellowship in 1990 and that year was also one of the founding members
of the Epoch Foundation, an organization established to introduce the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to Asia. From 2006-2009, Ho
was director of the Taiwan Biotech Association, which unites members
in industry and academia to build connections worldwide.
In 1974, Ho married Sing-Ju Chang, and the couple founded Hsin-Yi
Organization three years later to research and promote preschool
education. Today the organization benefits more than 80,000 families by
distributing gifts and reading materials. Hsin-Yi Organization is also a
major donor to the UW-Madison mechanical engineering building project.
Ho has two children, Felix and Stephanie, and four grandchildren.
Ho (right) with ME chair Roxann Engelstad, Dean Paul Peercy and
Daisy Wu, wife of the late Professor Sam Wu, who was honored in
April with a lecture hall dedicated in his name. Ho was a significant
supporter of the lecture hall.
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Friction stir welding (Continued from front page) we came to Friction Stir
Link was the limited
The connection to UW-Madison resurfaced in 2003 when Duffie distortion, which was
introduced Smith and Hinrichs to Associate Professor Frank Pfefferkorn, critical for radar signature
who now leads a team including Duffie, Professor Nicola Ferrier and and weight,” he says.
Assistant Professor Michael Zinn in studying the fundamental science The smoothness of
behind friction stir welding and the robotics used in the process. The friction stir welds means
team collaborates with FSL to better understand the production realities the aluminum deckhouse
of developing and implementing friction stir-welding technologies. “It of the almost 400-foot
really is a team effort,” Hinrichs says. “It’s exciting to be involved in this.” long Freedom is very flat,
Friction stir welding is an alternative to traditional fusion-welding which, combined with an
techniques, where metals are heated to their melting point and fuse together as angular design, makes it
they cool and re-harden. Instead, friction stir welding is a solid-state A custom friction stir-weld machine difficult for radar systems
welding technique, where thousands of pounds of pressure are applied via a at Friction Stir Link. to spot. (Radar waves
robotic tool to “stir” metals close to, but below, their melting point. The pressure can pick up flat surfaces only
and heat create atomic-level contact between the metals, and they form new bonds, within a very narrow range of degrees close to
or weld, without melting. “This isn’t new—people have done this since the first ironsmiths 90 degrees.) This stealth capability is crucial
folded metal over and over again and hammered it together to make swords,” says Pfefferkorn. for the Freedom as it navigates a variety of
“The idea is to apply temperature and pressure to bond the metal together.” water environments.
As traditional fusion-welded parts cool, the metals around the weld area contract at different Additionally, weight is critical for littoral
rates, which can cause significant structural distortions. Those distortions have to be straight- (shallow-water) combat ships, and the
ened, and in addition to the time and cost associated with straightening, fusion-welded parts especially thin structure of the Freedom means
often have weld beads protruding from the surface that must be ground down. traditional fusion welding would distort it
The lower temperatures in friction stir welding mean smaller temperature differences and terribly, says Halverson. “Friction stir welding
thermal stresses occurring as the metals cool. Usually, the result is limited distortions in the was a huge advancement in technology that
surrounding metal, eliminating the need for costly straightening. Additionally, friction stir welds was critical for us to be able to build the littoral
are smooth, meaning no weld beads form. combat ship structure.”
The lack of distortion makes friction stir welding a valuable cost- and time-saving process     The Freedom completed its maiden
for large-structure construction, such as ships, railroad cars and semi-trailer truck beds. deployment in April 2010, which, among other
Currently, friction stir welding is commercially viable for low melting point metals, such as missions, involved capturing drug-runner
aluminum and magnesium, and research is ongoing to develop processes to friction stir weld boats carrying several tons of cocaine across
steel and other ferrous alloys. the Gulf of Mexico. The Freedom can also be
The UW-Madison team has demonstrated promising new methods to monitor and control used to quickly deliver humanitarian aid to
friction stir-weld temperature. ME PhD student Axel Fehrenbacher has developed a wireless areas in crisis around the world.
data acquisition system to measure the temperature exactly where the stir-weld tool touches The U.S. Navy is planning to commission 10
the joining materials. Those measurements can be monitored to develop predictive models to additional littoral combat ships from Marinette
control the process temperature. Marine, which will yield a significant number
The UW-Madison team is also working on weld quality. Fehrenbacher and PhD students of jobs in Wisconsin over the next couple of
Edward Cole and Ted Shultz have developed experiments and process models for a weld- decades. “It’s why I do what I do,” says
process control interface for people and computers. The team is studying how to allow FSL Pfefferkorn of working on research with real-
to weld together parts that may not be exactly the same size (or fit-up), which could prevent world applications. “Next to seeing students
scrapping many expensive, large components that don’t perfectly match. graduate and be successful, the best thing is to
Additionally, the team is studying methods to allow robots to perform friction stir welding see technology you work on applied in industry.
on site. Right now, large panels have to be friction stir-welded together by custom-engineered It’s even better if it’s in a Wisconsin company.
machines at FSL. The panels then are shipped for assembly at, for example, Marinette Marine. “Innovation is what’s going to create
“By working so closely with Friction Stir Link, we’ve learned what the biggest challenges are jobs and foster industry, and if we can get
while using friction stir welding in actual production,” says Pfefferkorn. companies in Wisconsin to implement these
Friction stir-welded components are an integral part of the USS Freedom design. Madison technologies, they’ll have an advantage and be
native Bruce Halverson is a quality assurance manager at Marinette Marine. “The biggest reason able to do something others can’t,” he says.

Duffie Ferrier Pfefferkorn Zinn

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FACULTY NEWS
Grainger Professor of Sustainable
Energy Jaal Ghandhi has been
named an SAE fellow for his
achievements and contributions
in applying optical diagnostics to study
combustion and mixing phenomena in
engines. Ghandhi will be honored at the SAE
2011 World Congress and Exhibition, which
will be held April 2011 in Detroit, Michigan.
Ouweneel-Bascom Professor
Sanford Klein has been awarded
the 2010 Achievement Award
from the International Building
Programs Simulation Association. The award
is presented annually to those individuals
who have made outstanding contributions to
building energy simulation.
A series of UW-Madison summer
camps, “Exploration by Design”
is aimed at helping high school
students with disabilities and their
parents understand the transition to college.
The camps are organized by the Midwest
Alliance, headed by Professor Jay Martin, and
emphasize possibilities for these students in
science, technology, engineering and math.
Read more at www.news.wisc.edu/18292.
Bernard A. and Frances M.
Weideman Professor Vadim
Shapiro has received a year-long,
approximately $70,000 Early-
Concept Grant for Exploratory Research from
the National Science Foundation (NSF) to
significantly extend the field of computational
design to new application areas. Shapiro will
investigate dramatic technological advances
for, initially, conserving and safely installing
sculptures, with broader applications to
analyze a variety of natural and man-made
structures. Shapiro has also received a three-
year, $40,000 NSF grant to extend geometric
and solid modeling to configuration space
modeling, which could lead to advances in
computational design and a new generation
of computational tools.
Assistant Professor Kevin Turner will
receive a 2011 outstanding young manufacturing engineer award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. The award
recognizes manufacturing engineers under age 35 who have made exceptional contributions to manufacturing engineering
and industry. He is one of 12 recipients of the 2011 awards.
With an extensive international network,
Lorenz is Wisconsin Idea ‘ambassador’
Lorenz (center) with faculty at Stefan cel Mare.
H
earing a UW-Madison faculty member talk to a crowd about the
Wisconsin Idea may not be unusual. However, Bob Lorenz had the
opportunity to be among the first to do so in northern Romania.
In late May, the Universitatea Stefan cel Mare Suceava (Steven the Great
University-Suceava) presented Lorenz, the Mead Witter Foundation/Consolidated
Papers Professor of Controls Engineering in mechanical engineering, with an
honorary doctorate and faculty appointment. The degree symbolizes a long-term
relationship between Lorenz and his Romanian academic colleagues, including
Professor Adrian Graur, the university rector (the title equivalent to chancellor).
“By honoring such a man, Stefan cel Mare University honors itself,” Graur said
in Romanian at the ceremony.
Founded in the early 1960s, Stefan cel Mare has grown into a quality research
institution with innovative science and engineering programs and more than
14,000 students. The university’s success is related in no small part to Graur’s
tireless efforts, according to Lorenz, who has enjoyed brainstorming with the
rector about courses, programs, facilities and research areas for the faculty to
explore. “We have a wonderful rapport,” he says.
While the honorary degree is a notable honor, it’s only the latest example of
Lorenz’s extensive network of international relationships. As co-director of the
Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC) and
officer of IEEE and other professional societies, Lorenz frequently travels, and his
experiences benefit both his local and global colleagues.
“The idea of building global connections is something WEMPEC has done a
good job of, and it’s the way we should work. These connections are a powerful
way to open the eyes of our students,” he says. “There are some very good ideas
out there that they need to know about, and we have some very good ideas here
that we need to share.”
Read more about Lorenz’s international connections at www.engr.wisc.edu/
news/archive/2010/Jun15.html.
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STUDENT NEWS

Undergraduate student Aaron Olson is part
of an interdisciplinary UW-Madison team
that will participate in the first NASA and
National Space Grant Foundation inflatable loft
competition, called the eXploration Habitat
Academic Innovation Challenge. During a
course led by Engineering Physics and
ME Adjunct Professor Fred Elder, the team
will design and build an inflatable habitat that
will integrate with an existing NASA prototype.
Read more at www.engr.wisc.edu/news/
headlines/2010/Sep10.html.
A team including students Nathan Armstrong,
Matt Carlson, Nathan Ip, Sunho Baik, Kenneth
Roggow, Fred Tsai and Jared Van Dam was
selected as a finalist in the Rehabilitation
Engineering Society of North America (RESNA)
Student Design Competition. The students
created an advanced powered wheelchair
system as part of a class taught by Professor
Jay Martin. The team was recognized at the
RESNA annual conference in Las Vegas
June 27-29. For more about the UW-Madison
team’s project: http://bit.ly/fqpoBL.
Undergraduate student John Kenney
represented UW-Madison as one of 30
students worldwide invited to attend the
G8 University Summit in Alberta, Canada,
held May 20-22, 2010. The theme of the
summit meeting was “Universities and
Communities: Transition to a Sustainable
Future,” with a focus on sustainable health,
energy and higher education. A video
about the summit is available to view at:
tinyurl.com/298bpnm.

Vehicle teams reach out

to Madison community

T
hrough the summer and fall, the five UW-Madison hybrid
vehicle teams have hosted multiple outreach events.
In August, the EcoCAR, hybrid snowmobile and hybrid
Formula racecar projects were on display at the state Capitol at
an event co-hosted with the American Le Mans Series. The event
emphasized the parallels between technologies and alternative fuels
being researched at UW-Madison and other universities and those
being developed by Le Mans Series manufacturers and teams.
In September, the
hybrid vehicle team
checked and inflated
tires, pit-stop-style,
for patrons of a
parking ramp located
adjacent to the ME
building. The event
was part of an effort
to raise awareness of
ways to increase vehi-
cle fuel efficiency, and
students distributed
tire pressure gauges,
Above: A student gives out tire-shaped
information packets
cookies to raise awareness about fuel
and tire-shaped
efficiency. At right: The EcoCAR on
cookies at the event.
display at the Wisconsin state Capitol.
The events were
concurrent with an initiative to raise funds to endow the vehicle
teams. Learn more about the teams and the Undergraduate Student
Automotive Excellence Fund at www.vehicles.wisc.edu/.

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 The 2010–2011 Mechanical Engineering Scholarship Recipients
Alliant Energy Scholarship
Gabriel Lawless
ASHRAE Scholarship
Michael Baack, David Bierman, William Biloon,
Jason Muth, Daniel Winters
Berbee and Walsh Engineering Diversity
Scholarship
Joseph Zwak
Victor W. Bergenthal Scholarship
Andrew Borzych, Robert Buchanan
Gary and Marlene Borman Scholarship
Christopher McCallum
BP America Scholarship
Jacob Salm
Rodney R. Brotz Memorial Scholarship
Eric Tervo
Lewis Raymond Brown Scholarship
Wayne Bontrager
Gilbert and Genevieve Buske Scholarship
Spencer O’Rourke
DAO Scholars Award
Gabriel Lawless
Ronald L. Daggett Memorial Scholarship
Tyler Spriggs
Dean’s Engineering Undergraduate Scholarship
Peter Carroll, Cameron Gilanshah, Rehman Ur Rauf
DeNoyer Scholarship
Kyle Halverson
John Adams Dickie Scholarship
Michael Kujak
Ben G. Elliott Scholarship
Jacob Backhaus, Zachary Bingen, Dustin Dehnke,
Diana Haidar, Scott Johanek, Brian McCarthy,
Matthew Roake
Donald J. Esser Scholarship
Dominic Pitera, Theo Schultz, Lea Zeise
Rexford H. Fluno Scholarship
Shawn Spannbauer
Donald A. Furstenberg Engineering Scholarship
Jeremiah Osborn
Charles A. Gilpin Memorial Scholarship
Andrew Schirmer
Carl and Henry Grotophorst Scholarship
Lea Zeise
Donald L. & Emily J. Henderson Scholarship
Ryan Bayliss, Chansung Park, Sarah Siverling
John H. Johnson Scholarship
Derek Kilian
John Kayser Undergraduate Scholarship
Tyler Graf
Kimberly-Clark Scholarship
Jeffrey Kemp
W.G. Kirchoffer Memorial Scholarship
Hilary Feyereisen, Jean Villagomez, Lea Zeise
Dallas R. Lamont Scholarship
Bryan Dow
William J. Landman Scholarship
Thomas Huncosky
Joseph D. & Donald F. Livermore Scholarship
Samantha Ebertowski, Thomas Moran
Bob Mehn Scholarship
James (Jack) Craig, Kim-Hoang Ruiz
Robert J. Mensel Scholarship
Jay Flores, Victor Torres
Theodore Miller Scholarship
Andrew Baum
John W. and Roberta J. Mink Scholarship
Jacob Thorson
Neitzel-Steinmetz Scholarship
Zachary Anderson, David Engeldinger, Matthew
Philippi, Adriana Scheiner
John S. Nelson Scholarship
Daniel Winters
Edward F. Obert Scholarship
Michael Behling, Benjamin Pfeilstifter, Kyle Rule
Paul and Cynthia Papke Scholarship
Erinn Kunik
Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation Scholarship
Mitchell Martinez, Sheehuayah Moua
Faustin Prinz Scholarship
Bradley Abramowski, Michael Baack, Cathryn
Banach, Andrew Baum, Alex Bethke, Mathew
Beyer, Andy Beyerl, David Bierman, Gregory
Blaser, Benjamin Branson, Michael Braun, Robert
Buchanan, Matthew Burns, Ryan Carlson, Matthew
Carson, Mark Cole, Aaron Conger, James (Jack)
Craig, Dustin Dehnke, Daniel Dresser, Samantha
Ebertowski, John Edlebeck, Nicholas Edwards,
Graham Fischer, Thomas Gerold, Jason Goetz,
Sam Graner, Matthew Gschwind, John Hageman,
Diana Haidar, Kyle Halverson, Ryan Hill, Brian
Kenadjian, William Kewer, Derek Kilian, David Klos,
Jeff Kohler, Michael Kujak, Erinn Kunik, Bradley
Larson, Nathaniel Larson, Karl Lind, Allison Mahvi,
Gianluca Mantovano, Brian McCarthy, Shawn Miller,
Thomas Moran, Jordan Moshe, Jason Muth,
Michael Ney, William O’Connor, Jeremiah Osborn,
Juan Peraza, Niels Peterson, Dominic Pitera,
Tom Pocrnich, Joe Powell, Matthew Quock,
Matthew Roake, Kim-Hoang Ruiz, Holly Satori,
Theo Schultz, Caleb Secrest, Michael Shannon,
Shawn Spannbauer, Michael Szewczyk, James
Trauba, Michael Van Dyke, Samuel Vanden Hogen,
Mark White, Eric Wiegmann, Shawn Willette,
Nathan Williams, Eric Wills, Travis Zehren
Faustin Prinz Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Sean Kalafut, Nathaniel Vliestra
Gustav A. Rehm Scholarship
Aaron Conger
Rockwell Scholarship
Jay Flores
Richard E. Rogers Memorial Scholarship
Michael Braun
Carl B. and Carolyn S. Rowe Scholarship
Nicholas Edwards
Thomas A. and Justine A. Rowley Scholarship
Benjamin Pfeilstifter
Robert J. Sandberg Scholarship
Jacob Kilbane
David C. Spraker Scholarship
Imaduddin Ahmed, Joshua Carlson, Joel Derby,
Cory Haven, Brenna Lamers, Nicholas Rolling,
Paul Schmidt, Jeff Van Handel, Laura Young,
Rachel Ziegler
University League-Mildred and Lorentz Adolfson
Endowed Scholarship
Courtney Thompson
Uyehara-Myers Scholarship
Bradley Moore, Joshua Otremba, Travis Zehren
David Matthew Ver Hagen Memorial Scholarship
John Kenney, Jarrett Wiesolek
Paul R. and Virginia M. Weber Scholarship
Chatchakorn Pruksananont
Bernard A. & Frances M. Weideman Scholarship
Alex Bethke, Sam Graner, Mark VanderKooy,
Alexander Waskawic, Mark White
Benjamin Wu Memorial Scholarship
Matthew Quock
WV Distinguished Scholarship
Matthew Schmidt
Richard A. and Barbara A. Zevnik Memorial
Scholarship
William O’Connor
ME
7
ME NEWS is published twice a year for alumni and friends of the UW-Madison Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Editor: Sandra Knisely / Design: Phil Biebl, Engineering External Relations Paid for with private funds.

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Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Center

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which of one million bodies (such as grains of sand) collide with

each other. The cluster calculated this dynamics problem, with 15
million total unknown variables, in around three minutes. The cluster
has also solved a collision detection problem with six billion contacts,
approximately the number of contacts in 35 cubic feet of sand.
As the team continues to increase the number of GPUs that
can be used in parallel (four is the current maximum), Negrut
expects that similar complex problems will be solved an order
of magnitude faster than can be done with current technologies.
Similar clusters exist at financial institutions, and GPU
computing is common in the oil industry and elsewhere, but the Inside one of the cluster’s 5,760 scalar processors.
UW-Madison center is unique in its breadth of applications. Several
industrial and federal research partners already are interested; National Science Foundation The center’s outreach extends beyond
research grants support Shapiro, Suresh and Negrut, and NVIDIA donated half of the cluster industry and other universities. Since 2008,
hardware. Microsoft has funded educational initiatives and provided the underlying operating Negrut has organized a weeklong summer
system for the cluster. The U.S. Army; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; FunctionBay, a camp called Promoting the Computational
simulation company in South Korea; Mihai Anitescu of Argonne National Lab; and Professor Science Initiative, or ProCSI, for under-
Alessandro Tasora from the University of Parma, Italy, are also involved. represented high school students interested
This broad range of partnerships expands on the interdisciplinary nature of the three founding in computational science, engineering and
professors. Shapiro studies computer-aided design and computational geometry. Suresh college in general. Additionally, high school
focuses on nonlinear finite element analysis, and Negrut researches computational multibody students from a Madison high school have
dynamics—a range of complementary topics that each rely on high-performance computing. attended lectures at UW-Madison by center
“We’re leveraging this hardware asset and trying to team up and combine our knowledge partners, and two students worked at the
to answer challenging problems that people in industry might have,” Negrut says. center for a month during the summer of 2010.