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.
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 
, 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 
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.
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Dr. Wei Sun, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering. In recent years, four graduate students working in Dr. Sun’s laboratory received prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, Department of Education Graduate Assistantships in Areas of National Need (GAANN) fellowships, American Heart Association fellowships, and Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Awards. Dr. Sun’s students have garnered numerous Best Paper awards and other honors.
Professor in Sustainable Energy (Mechanical Engineering) has been invited to serve on the Editorial Board for physics topics, for the journal 
Dr. Robert X. Gao, the Pratt & Whitney Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and colleagues have received a three-year National Science Foundation GOALI (Grant Opportunities For Academic Liaison With Industry) grant to support collaborative research aimed at improving spare parts inventory management in the aircraft industry. UConn shares this three-year, $450,000 award with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Pratt & Whitney is the industry partner on the project. NSF developed the GOALI program as a means to catalyze industry-university partnerships and thus help to ensure that “intellectual capital and emerging technologies are brought together in ways that promote economic growth and an improved quality of life.” Dr. Gao explains that the goal of the project is to develop the basic science and practical tools to transform sensor measurements collected from a large number of distributed machines (such as jet engines) in the field into forecasting methodologies – along with inventory policies – for the spare parts required to maintain the equipment. To achieve this goal, the researchers, aided by their colleagues at Pratt & Whitney, will conduct research along four pathways:
health status of specific engine parts before they require replacement (versus the prevailing techniques that indicate the overall health of an engine only);