Materials Science Professor Wins International Award

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) professor Marc A. Meyers won the 2009 Rinehart Award, given at the 9th Congress of the DYMAT Association on the Dynamic Mechanical and Physical Behavior of Materials Subjected to Dynamic Loading, held in Brussels, Belgium, from September 7 to 11.

The 2009 award was given to professor Meyers (UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Materials Science and Engineering) and to Prof. Field (U. Cambridge, UK). Meyers is affiliated with UC San Diego's Materials Science and Engineering program, which is concerned with the structure, properties and applications of materials. This university-wide program aims to provide fundamental knowledge for understanding of materials with the objective of predicting, modifying, and tailoring the properties of materials to yield enhanced material performance.

Meyers was one of the Jacobs School professors recently profiled in an NSF video. Watch the video here. Read the transcript and learn more here.

Three hundred researchers from 29 countries attended the DYMAT congress, which was held at the Royal Military Academy. DYMAT is a European based global association coordinating activities in the domain of dynamic behavior of materials.

The citation in the plaque received by Prof. Meyers reads: For outstanding achievements to the understanding and modeling of the structure/ property and damage behavior of materials subjected to high-strain-rate and shock-wave loading. The award was given at the inaugural session of the meeting, after keynote lectures by Profs. Field and Meyers , by General Major Harry Vindervogel, commander of the Royal Military Academy, and by Dr. Richard Dormeval (CEA-France), president of DYMAT. The DYMAT award, established in 1990, is a global recognition, and past recipients are from the USA (4), Russia (1), Japan (1), Germany (1), and China (1).

Undergrad Research Portal Launched

UC San Diego just launched an undergraduate research portal which will serve as the entry point for all students in all disciplines who wish to explore the rewards and challenges of participating in undergraduate research. Check out the quick reference guide below, and get started!

From Concrete Canoe to Capitol Intern: Mark Galvan Makes Waves

Mark Galvan (center) stands with Congresswoman Susan Davis
(CA-53) and the Capitol’s chief administrative officer, Dan Beard

Jacobs School undergraduate Mark Galvan builds concrete canoes, instals solar panels, ensures LEED certification for UCSD campus buildings...and now he is the first "green intern" at the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.

UC San Diego senior Mark Galvan recently began working three days a week in the Office of the Architect of the Capitol and “Green the Capitol” offices, and two days a week in the office of Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA-53).

Read the full story here, at the UC San Diego news site.

Retaining Wall Earthquake Shake Test Oct 2 at UC San Diego

Structural engineering researchers expect severe damage to a retaining wall they will shake on October 2 at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

Media interested in attending the shake test (10 a.m.-2 p.m.) or obtaining footage from the shake test should contact Andrea Siedsma at asiedsma@soe.ucsd.edu or 858-822-0899

WHERE: UCSD Englekirk Structural Engineering Center at Camp Elliot

The public may view the live tests via the Englekirk Center web cams at http://nees.ucsd.edu/facilities/video.shtml

Southwest view: http://137.110.165.19/appletvid.html

Northwest view: http://137.110.165.21/appletvid.html

The researcher leading this test is Dawn Cheng, Civil Engineering Professor, UC Davis. Cheng earned her PhD in structural engineering at UC San Diego in 2005.

The media advisory is pasted below:


WHAT: Witness a series of dramatic simulated earthquakes that will shake a retaining wall at the UC San Diego Englekirk Structural Engineering Center, which has the largest outdoor shake table in the United States. Hundreds of miles of retaining wall systems exist in the western United States. Their routine design for static applications has been practiced by many public and private sectors. However, the seismic design of these retaining walls has not been extensively developed and there are no accurate and reliable guidelines in the existing design codes and specifications.

This will be a second in a series of simulated shake tests on retaining wall systems by researchers at the Englekirk Center. During the first set of tests, performed in early September, researchers investigated the seismic response of a semi-gravity reinforced concrete cantilever wall. Researchers will now test the seismic response of a semi-gravity reinforced concrete cantilever wall with a sound barrier. The walls will be backfilled with typical Caltrans soil and supported on flexible foundation in a soil box. The outcome of this research, funded by Caltrans, will ensure that future retaining wall systems are designed to a higher performance standard and existing systems are upgraded and retrofit to offer satisfactory performance to provide a safe and mobile transportation system in California.

*During the tests, researchers will simulate ground motions based on the 1994 Northridge earthquake (6.7 magnitude); 1999 Kocaeli, Turkey quake (7.4 magnitude); and the 1995 Takatori, Japan quake (6.9 magnitude). Engineers will increase the ground motions for each test until the wall suffers major damage.

Retaining Wall Shake Test on Friday

Bioengineering Undergrad Wins Library Award

Sara Richardson, a bioengineering undergraduate at the Jacobs School of Engineering is one of four undergraduate students at UC San Diego to received a 2009 Undergraduate Library Research Prize for their exemplary research skills.

Sara Richardson won first place in the life and physical sciences category, an award which comes with a $1000 cash award.

Richardson received first prize for her work on “Simulation of EVA Suite Effects During Lunar and Martian Analog Exercise.” Richardson’s research explored the effects of lower body negative pressure versus lower body positive pressure as a way to simulate human exercise on the moon. She was nominated by her faculty advisor Alan Hargens, a professor of orthopedic surgery at the UCSD School of Medicine. She completed her research at the Clinical Orthopedic Lab at the UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest.

"The research resources available from the UC San Diego Libraries have been extremely valuable in my project," said Richardson. “I have made extensive use of the UCSD Library resources listed in Sage and the E-journal subscriptions, which were necessary to view the results of my searches on PubMed and have been essential to my ability to access relevant papers. The research strategies I have picked up in this project have carried over into other aspects of my academic life—both for class and research."

Richardson is extremely involved at UC San Diego outside the library as well. She is the past president of the Jacobs School of Engineering's Triton Engineering Student Council (TESC).

Watch Richardson on YouTube (below) giving a tour of E-Games 2008.

Cybersecurity researcher / computer science professor profiled in Voice of San Diego

Computer science professor Stefan Savage is profiled today in the Voice of San Diego. The story by David Washburn highlights the systems security research lead by Savage and fellow Jacobs School computer science professor Geoff Voelker.

From the Voice of San Diego story:

Long considered a top cyber-security expert, Savage leads a team at the Collaborative Center for Internet Epidemiology and Defenses that last year infiltrated the infamous Storm botnet, which victimized millions of people through internet spam scams. And last month the center, which is a joint UCSD and UC-Berkeley effort, was awarded a five-year, $7 million grant from the U.S. Navy's research arm to study botnets and the threats they pose to national security.