George Kruk Philbrick (B.S. Mechanical Engineering, minor Mathematics, ‘10) is an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. Prior to entering Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI, he was employed as an engineer with Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford. He is stationed at Naval Air Station Pensacola where he is training as a Naval Flight Officer.
Author: Orlando E
Alumni, Dr. Baki Cetegen
Dr. Baki Cetegen, Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, has been elected a Councilor to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE). He will serve a five-year term commencing July 1, 2014. Dr. Cetegen joins colleague and fellow Council member Dr. Harris Marcus on the prestigious 11-member Council; professor emeritus Dr. Lee Langston serves as Chair of the CASE Energy Committee. The CASE Council comprises members from industry and academia and is responsible for a variety of activities and decisions, including setting the procedures governing election of new members, overseeing staff, confirming presidential appointments to committees, establishing the annual budget and dues, recommending changes to the CASE bylaws, hosting symposia and approval of CASE studies and the distribution of study reports.
Dr. Robert Gao Receives I&M Society’s 2013 Technical Award
Pratt & Whitney Endowed Chair Professor in Mechanical Engineering Dr. Robert X. Gao has been selected to receive the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society (I&M) 2013 Technical Award, one of just four awards presented yearly by the society. The society is dedicated to the advancement of measurement science by developing methods and electrical/electronic instruments to measure, monitor and/or record physical phenomena.
Dr. Gao was selected “For significantly advancing the state-of-the-art in electrical capacitance tomography instrument design.” Upon news of the honor, he said, “I am honored and at the same time, humbled by this award, which recognizes not only of my own work, but also that of my former and present students whose diligence and dedication helped turn ideas into reality. To them, especially to Dr. Zhaoyan Fan who has been instrumental in this research, I dedicate this award.”
Dr. Reza Zoughi, the Schlumberger Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T) and President of the I&M Society, has known Dr. Gao for many years, initially through their collaborations as the Editor-in-Chief (Dr. Zoughi) and an Associate Editor (Dr. Gao) on the society’s Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. “Our society has the greatest bandwidth of all societies, since I&M covers the spectrum of all technologies for which measurements and instrumentation are factors.”
“One of the things that stands out about Robert is that he is a mechanical rather than electrical engineer, yet he has a strong presence in our society. He is a Fellow of both the ASME and IEEE, which distinguishes him as a researcher of enormous scientific breadth, quality and impact,” says Dr. Zoughi. “The I&M Technical Award honors individuals or groups who have demonstrated ‘outstanding contribution or leadership in advancing instrumentation design or measurement technique,’ but in Robert’s case, it is ‘outstanding contribution and leadership.’ Robert has shown enormous leadership and contributed significantly to the advancement of measurement science and instrumentation. He embodies the essence of quality that I discuss in my President’s message.”
Dr. Gao’s research spans the areas of physics-based sensing methodology, design, modeling, and characterization of low power/self-powered instrument systems, multi-resolution analysis for time series and image processing, and energy-efficient sensor networks for in-situ monitoring of dynamical phenomena, from human physical activities to cyber physical systems and manufacturing.
He will officially receive the award during the society’s International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC) 2014 meeting in May. The selection criteria for the nominee are based on substantive documentation and tangible evidence of achievement submitted by the nominators. The award entails a certificate and $2,000 honorarium, in addition to travel expenses to attend the award ceremony.
Dr. Lee Langston article
Professor Emeritus Dr. Lee Langston (Mechanical 
Engineering) authored an article appearing in the December 2013 issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine, entitled “Powering Out of Trouble,” which discussed Pratt & Whitney’s challenges in developing the J58 turbojet engine that powered Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird supersonic reconnaissance aircraft. Read the article here.
Alumni, Scott W. Tyler
Scott W. Tyler (B.S. Mechanical Engineering ’78), Ph.D., a Foundation Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, will receive the John Hem Award 
for Excellence in Science and Engineering at the 2013 NGWA Groundwater Expo in Nashville in December. The award recognizes individuals who make significant contributions of service, research and innovation to the industry. He was recognized with a collaborator, Dr. John Selker (Oregon State Univ.), for their development and application of fiber-optic temperature sensing for hydrology and development of the first community user facility in hydrology for instrumentation. The researchers have used innovative fiber-optic/laser technology to capture temperatures around the globe, in a variety of hydrological, climatological and geological settings such as glaciers, caves, creeks, mines, avalanche areas, volcanoes and farmlands. Dr. Tyler has even studied the water temperature at Devils Hole in Death Valley to help protect the endangered pupfish and drilled through 200 meters of Antarctic ice to take the temperature of the McMurdo Ice Shelf and the 800 meters of ocean underneath it. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1990. Read more about Dr. Tyler’s award here.
Alumni, Lake H. Barrett
Lake H. Barrett (B.S. Mechanical Engineering, M.S. Mechanical/Nuclear Engineering ’67, ’71), an independent consultant in the energy field with more than 40 years’ experience in nuclear energy and nuclear materials management, is a special advisor to the president of Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), the company that operates the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was breached during a March 2011 magnitude 9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Mr. Barrett retired in 2002 from federal service after serving as the former head of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Nuclear Waste management. He oversaw the removal of nuclear waste from a Three Mile Island reactor in 1979 and led the Yucca Mountain Geologic Repository program through site selection and confirmation by Congress.
In Memoriam
In Memoriam
The School of Engineering community mourns the loss of professor emeritus Eli Dabora, who passed away November 8, 2013. Dr. Dabora joined UConn in 1968 as a professor of Aerospace Engineering and, later
, Mechanical Engineering. With expertise in high speed combustion for propulsion, Dr. Dabora brought considerable knowhow in the combustion characteristics of fuels. He was particularly interested in understanding the science of detonation, how to initiate or suppress it, and its possible application to propulsion. During his years at UConn, he was admired and loved by his colleagues. Dr. Dabora earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees at MIT, and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, where he taught for five years before coming to UConn. Please read more about Eli’s career here and view his obituary here. Those who wish to share memories of Eli on his guest book may visit www.potterfuneralhome.com. A memorial service will be held in late December; the family requests that donations be made in lieu of flowers, to Windham Community Memorial Hospital, Willimantic, CT 06226.
Alumni, William J. Foley
William J. Foley (B.S. Mechanical Engineering ’72), Ph.D. is a lecturer in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. William teaches courses in engineering economy, production and operations management, design of work systems, operations research, computer simulation, probability and statistics, product design and innovation, invention, and engineering design. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research & Statistics from RPI in 1983.
Faculty Notes
Faculty Notes
Dr. Robert Gao, the Pratt & Whitney Chair Professor in 
Mechanical Engineering, was interviewed by a journal that also highlighted research excerpts of his work, in International Innovation, owned by a UK-based media company that compiles and disseminates science, research and technological innovations globally. The research excerpts focused on the development of sensing methods to quantify multiple parameters for quality control, and the importance of collaboration in polymer processing. They appeared on pp. 27- 29 of the September 2013 North America issue, entitled Era of Discovery.