- University News Archive - 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/tag/american-society-of-mechanical-engineers/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Wed, 13 Feb 2019 17:10:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock graduate dean accepts new post /news-archive/2019/02/13/bhattacharyya/ Wed, 13 Feb 2019 17:10:21 +0000 /news/?p=73390 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock graduate dean accepts new post]]> Dr. Abhijit Bhattacharyya will be leaving his position as interim vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate School at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock to become the inaugural dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Arkansas State University. His new position becomes effective July 1, 2019. 鈥淒r. Bhattacharyya has served our campus community with distinction and grace,鈥 said Christina S. Drale, interim executive vice chancellor and provost. 鈥淗e has been a highly valued leader, always ready to collaborate and problem-solve, and always ready to help others in need. I will miss his good counsel as a member of the provost’s leadership team, but I know that this new deanship is an exceptional opportunity for him. I am confident that he will embrace the challenge and thrive.鈥 Bhattacharyya has worked at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock for the past 17 years. He joined the university in 2002 as an associate professor in the Department of Applied Science. He has since served in several administrative roles including graduate coordinator of the Applied Science Graduate Program (2006-2010), associate dean of the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (2011-2014 and 2015-2016), interim dean of the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (2015), and interim vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate School (2016-2019). He has also managed the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, the Office of Research Compliance, the TechLaunch Office, and the Machine and Electronics Shop of 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. 聽The Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences and the Emerging Analytics Center are under his purview as well. During his time at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, Bhattacharyya played an important role in the administration of a joint graduate program between 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in bioinformatics and served as 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 representative to the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority鈥檚 Science Advisory Committee. Currently, he serves as 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 representative on the Science Advisory Committee of the Science and Technology Division of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. 鈥淚 consider it a very humbling moment and an incredible privilege to begin my service at A-State as the inaugural dean of the newly minted College of Engineering and Computer Science,鈥 Bhattacharyya said. 鈥淲e will take full advantage of the birth of the new college at a time when manufacturing and industrial activity in the upper Delta region are on a growth streak … Above all, I am truly indebted to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where I spent a wonderful 18 years and my new institution, Arkansas State University, for allowing me to be part of the beautiful Natural State鈥檚 journey into the future.鈥 Bhattacharyya鈥檚 research specialties include the emerging fields of smart materials and thin films, with numerous journal articles and peer-reviewed conference papers in the field. His research also includes work in composite materials, shape memory alloys, piezoelectric materials, thin films, microfluidics and hydrogen storage. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers named him an ASME Fellow in November 2014. Prior to Little Rock, Bhattacharyya served as a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. He earned a master鈥檚 degree in mechanics and materials science and a doctorate in mechanical and aerospace engineering, both from Rutgers University. He earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree came from Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in his native India. ]]> 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students compete in university鈥檚 first human powered vehicle challenge /news-archive/2018/05/25/human-powered-vehicle-challenge/ Fri, 25 May 2018 13:03:25 +0000 /news/?p=70653 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students compete in university鈥檚 first human powered vehicle challenge]]> A team of systems engineering students at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has gone where no 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students have gone before by participating in the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge.聽 For their senior design and capstone project, Team Captain Hugh Benfer, Nathanael Menhinick, Cameron Palmer, Jason Reed, and Shelby Wingate designed and built the university鈥檚 first human powered vehicle. Dr. Jin Lee, professor of systems engineering, and Dr. Samer Yahya, visiting scholar of systems engineering, served as the team鈥檚 faculty advisors. Human-powered transport is often the only type of transportation available in underdeveloped parts of the world and is an increasingly viable form of sustainable transportation that is becoming more popular in urban areas. The challenge provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate sound engineering design principles in the development of sustainable transportation alternatives. 鈥淎 human-powered vehicle is generally for commuting in a metropolitan area,鈥 said Benfer. 鈥淵ou find a way to have a more ecologically, environmentally, and economically way to commute in cities, which are filled with cars that pollute the air and take up much needed space. Human powered vehicles solve an old problem of metropolitan cities that have too many cars, crowded traffic, and little parking. As biking becomes more popular, human-powered vehicles will become more popular as people branch out and customize their experiences.鈥 The team worked on the human-powered vehicle, which they dubbed the 鈥淭rojan Horsepower,鈥 during the 2017-18 academic year. Riders sit in the three-wheeled vehicle in a recumbent-bike position. 鈥淥ur human-powered vehicle is pure engineering might, steel, and zip ties. It has an extremely robust steel roll bar, so that in the event of a crash, the roll bar protects the rider and the rider will not touch the ground,鈥 Benfer said. 鈥淲e also used aerodynamic fairing, which is something that will block the wind and allows the air to move more smoothly around your body. It makes the vehicle easier to pedal. You can cut through the wind like a knife.鈥 The students had the opportunity to test their vehicle in the at Pennsylvania State University April 13-15.聽
Hugh Benfer drives Trojan Horsepower as teammates Jason Reed and Shelby Wingate watch. Photo by Ben Krain.

Hugh Benfer drives Trojan Horsepower as teammates Jason Reed and Shelby Wingate watch. Photo by Ben Krain.

The Department of Systems Engineering even recognized the contributions of the students鈥 parents. Darin Reed, father of Jason Reed, received a special award, 鈥淥utstanding Father of the Year,鈥 at the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology鈥檚 2018 awards ceremony for driving the team the 16-hour trek from Little Rock to Pennsylvania and back so they could participate in the competition. The event consisted of safety tests to ensure the vehicle鈥檚 sound design, a drag race, and an endurance race in which teams competed to complete the most laps possible during a 2.5 hour race. Wingate placed 13th in the women鈥檚 drag race, while Benfer placed 18th in the men鈥檚 drag race. In the endurance race, Benfer, Palmer, Reed, and Wingate placed 13th after completing 26 total laps. 鈥淭here are obstacles like stop signs, speed bumps, and tight turns,鈥 Benfer said. 鈥淚t puts your vehicle to the test. The rumble strip is going to destroy your vehicle if anything is loose. That is what happened to us. We had to go to the pit to keep our vehicle together. It鈥檚 basically the ultimate stress test for the vehicles, and some vehicles were destroyed because the design was not robust enough. The disk brake snapped in the middle, so we had to do an emergency repair and come up with an engineering solution, which was to take the brake off and race with one brake for most of the race. Our legs were like jelly afterwards.鈥 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock placed 16th out of 47 teams for the overall competition, and a new team of students will take up the challenge of building a human-powered vehicle next year, only this time they will not be starting from scratch. The systems engineering department may eventually start a student organization dedicated to building human-powered vehicles. 鈥淚t was really cool to apply our degree to a tangible product that we made,鈥 Benfer said. 鈥淚t was cool to use what we have learned from the mechanical engineering department and use it and stress test it and watch it fall apart and fix it. We were able to use the skills we learned here at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in a real-world setting.鈥 ]]>