Ge He, biomedical engineering expert, joins college

Ge He joined the college this summer as a visiting assistant professor, biomedical engineering. Most recently, he was an associate professor in the School of Mechanics and Engineering Science at Shanghai University.

He is an expert in computational mechanics application for modeling and development of medical devices. His current research activities include computational modeling and experimental study of brain tissues, and computational fluid dynamics of physiological systems.  

“Professor He brings new skills and expertise to our growing program,” says Dev Misra, professor and chair, biomedical engineering and professor, electrical engineering. “Our students will benefit immensely from his recruitment, and I am happy to welcome him to our department.”

The National Institutes of Health and the Mississippi Space Grant Consortium have funded He’s research. He has published more than 30 journal articles and holds four patents. He earned his PhD in Engineering, with a concentration in Mechanical Engineering, from Mississippi State University (2019) and conducted post-doctoral research in biomechanical modeling at the University of Maryland School of Medicine before joining the Shanghai University in July 2021.

He’s temporary office is Room S592.

Armstrong, Qu, Y. Wang, Ma awarded Catalyst Grants, a recognition of potential commercialization of their research

Advancements in electric vehicle battery packs and lithium extraction methods are among the projects funded through the UWM Research Foundation’s Catalyst Grant program this year. 

The program, supported by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and Clarios, funds promising research and development in areas where UWM has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization activities.

Congratulations to the four grant recipients in UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science:

Brian Armstrong (above, left) professor, mechanical engineering and computer science, and Deyang Qu (above, right), Johnson Controls endowed professor in energy storage, who are developing a technology to reduce fire risk in electric vehicles and other applications that use lithium-ion batteries. More.

Yin Wang (above, left), Lawrence E. Sivak ’71 associate professor, civil & environmental engineering, and Xiaoli Ma (above, right), assistant professor, materials science & engineering, whose project has the potential to make the U.S. a bigger player in providing lithium to meet the exploding global demand for lithium-ion batteries. They are working with Shangping Xu, associate professor, geosciences. More.

7 engineering, computer science students awarded UWM Graduate School fellowships

Congratulations to the following graduate students in UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science, who were offered Graduate School fellowships for the 2023-24 academic year.

Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship
Rawan Aqel, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Advisor: Rani ElHajjar

Advanced Opportunity Program Fellowship
Grace Fasipe, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Advisor: Jacob Rammer

Distinguished Graduate Students Fellowship
Md Mahbubur Rahman, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Mohammad (Habib) Rahman

Md Tanzil Shahria, Department of Computer Science
Advisor: Mohammad (Habib) Rahman

Graduate School Excellence Fellowship
Saif Al Hamad, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Ryo Amano

Dantong Qiu, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Deyang Qu

Benyamin Sadeghi, Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering
Advisor: Hamid Seifoddini

“These are fairly competitive fellowships,” says Prasenjit Guptasarma, professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering & Applied Science. “Recipients often become accomplished researchers, professors, or industry-based engineers.”

Named professorships, fellowships help drive key areas of research at UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science

Congratulations to the following 11 faculty members at UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science, each of whom was honored with a named professorship or named fellowship.

The named professorships and fellowships support the growth of some of the college’s key research areas and honor recipients’ research, teaching and scholarship. They all provide flexible funds; named professorships provide a salary supplement.

“The generosity of recent donors has made these possible,” said Dean Brett Peters. “I’m very grateful to those who chose to support our faculty and our mission in this way.”

Named professorships

Rob Cuzner was awarded a Richard and Joanne Grigg Professorship. He is an expert in electric grid compatibility and extreme power conversion. Cuzner directs UWM’s Center for Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems and is the UWM site director for GRAPES (GRid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems), a National Science Foundation/Industry-University Cooperative Research Center that is developing some of the methodologies all power electronic industries will use as they develop new technologies for the transition to a new electric grid.

Roshan D’Souza was awarded a Richard and Joanne Grigg Professorship. His research is advancing hemodynamics (blood flow) analysis of cardiovascular diseases through advanced processing of blood flow images from scans such as 4D Flow MRI using flow physics informed deep learning. Last year, the National Science Foundation supported his research in hemodynamics. He was previously awarded an Alan D. Kulwicki ’77 Faculty Fellowship.

Junjie Niu was awarded a Richard and Joanne Grigg Professorship for the second consecutive year. Niu is designing next-generation batteries for electronic devices and electronic vehicles that provide high-energy density and last longer; in other research he is addressing drinking water and groundwater decontamination.

Xiao Qin was awarded a Lawrence E. Sivak ’71 Professorship for the second consecutive year. Qin, a nationally renowned expert in transportation data analytics and highway safety, is training an interdisciplinary lens on solving both local and national transportation issues.

M. Habib Rahman was awarded a Richard and Joanne Grigg Professorship for a second consecutive year. Rahman is an expert in bio-robotics, including human-assist robots, service robots, mobile robots, medical robots, rehabilitation robotics, and exoskeleton robots for rehabilitation and activities of daily living (ADL) assistance.

Brooke Slavens was awarded a Richard and Joanne Grigg Professorship. She is an expert in rehabilitation engineering, orthopaedic biomechanics, and musculoskeletal imaging. Her work focuses on prevention of musculoskeletal disease and pathology of the upper extremity in children and adults with functional impairments.

Yin Wang was awarded a Lawrence E. Sivak ’71 Professorship for the second consecutive year. Wang is developing advanced and sustainable materials and technologies for water purification applications that aim to rid water of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pharmaceuticals, pesticides, heavy metals (e.g., lead) and metalloids (e.g., arsenic), and problematic oxyanions (e.g., nitrate, bromate).

Named fellowships

Ryo Amano was awarded a Richard and Joanne Grigg Faculty Fellowship for the second consecutive year. Amano is contributing to research in energy and power areas, including wind, hydro, biomass pyrolysis/gasification, gas turbines and combustion. He directs Wisconsin’s only U.S. Department of Energy Industrial Assessment Center, which provides strategies to Wisconsin manufacturers and utilities to help them improve energy systems, reduce energy consumption, and enhance their plants’ decarbonization, cybersecurity and more. 

Nathan Salowitz was awarded a Richard and Joanne Grigg Faculty Fellowship. Salowitz researches self-healing materials and embedded damage-sensing technologies. His work has applications to aerospace, mechanical and civic structures, with the goal of creating the ability to sense and repair damage while the structure is in service. Currently he’s designing sensors to reduce and simplify the copious amounts of data produced by systems that monitor for structural damage. 

Konstantin Sobolev was awarded a Lawrence E. Sivak ’71 Faculty Fellowship for the second consecutive year. Sobolev’s research includes developing spray coatings that would both repel and sterilize virus-laden droplets, superhydrophobic and ice-phobic coatings for porous materials including concrete, and cost-saving, environmentally friendly ways to make concrete stronger and longer-lasting.

Hani Titi was awarded a Lawrence E. Sivak ’71 Faculty Fellowship. Titi’s research in pavement engineering is helping to extend the life of Wisconsin’s roadways. His research for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation—which included developing specifications and design input parameters for pavement and pavement materials– contributed to a better performing transportation infrastructure. Other research for WisDOT led to the implementation of an oversize-overweight vehicle-history analysis portal that visualizes routing trends, identifies heavily traveled highway segments and intersections, evaluates routing efficiency and more.

The names behind the college’s professorships and fellowships

Richard and Joanne Grigg

Engineering alumnus Richard (Dick) Grigg (’04, ’75, ’70) devoted his career to advancing new energy technologies. After earning his BS and MS degrees in engineering from UWM, Dick went on to become the president and CEO of We Generation, the electric generation arm of We Energies. In 2004, he joined FirstEnergy Corp., an Akron, Ohio-based power company, where he retired as executive vice president and president of FirstEnergy Utilities in 2010. Dick and his wife, Joanne Grigg, died in 2018 and 2016, respectively.

Lawrence E. Sivak

Larry Sivak earned his BS in civil engineering from UWM in 1971. He has held many key positions in civil engineering during his 40-year career and experienced many unique projects, including harbor maintenance and flood control with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and participating in the Milwaukee Water Pollution Abatement Program.

Two U.S. senators get first-hand look at UWM’s research in renewable energy and energy storage

People in group photo

Two U.S. senators recently received an up-close look at the federally funded, collaborative research being done between UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science and Badger Technology Group.  

Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona toured Badger Technology in Port Washington in early August for an update on federal investments, made to Wisconsin, in renewable energy and avionics systems.

UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science is partnering with Badger Technology on research for the U.S. Air Force Research Lab to produce, integrate and test a hybrid energy storage system at the Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. The project, called HESS (Hybrid Energy Storage System) supports the Department of Defense’s focus on energy resilience through the increased use of renewable energy. 

After the tour, Baldwin’s office posted on Facebook: “Got to see how our skilled engineers at Badger Technology Group and UWM College of Engineering are using federal investments to lead the way in aerospace innovation, keep our country safe, and move Wisconsin’s renewable energy economy forward!”

UWM engineering faculty members and students will test the prototype

During the senators’ tour, Mike Andrew, director of corporate relations for the College of Engineering & Applied Science, highlighted the capabilities and talents of UWM’s Center for Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems (CSEES), which supports Badger Technology on the HESS project.

Researchers at CSEES are developing methods to make electric power systems more sustainable, cost effective and secure through research on energy storage, microgrid systems and renewable energy sources.

The center is led by Rob Cuzner, Richard and Joanne Grigg Associate Professor, electrical engineering and computer science.

Rob Cuzner, professor of electrical engineering, stands next to microgrids which are part of his research into energy and integrated power systems.
Rob Cuzner is developing some of the methodologies all power electronic industries will use as they develop technologies for a new electric grid.

Cuzner is the principal investigator of the HESS project, leading the UWM researchers who will  conduct microgrid tests of the system developed by Badger Technology.

He is supported by the following team, which includes three students:

  • Joseph Lentz (MS student), project Lead and CSEES lab manager
  • Bill Weber, outreach program manager
  • Allen Jacob (MS student), research assistant
  • Soheil Malekshah (PhD student), research assistant
  • Jacob Zuehl, engineering consultant.

This research will foster commercial applications as the US and the world work to modernize the electrical grid.

News coverage of this event:

CBS 58

Ozaukee County News Graphic

Office of Naval Research awards Park $762K to prevent partial discharge in wide bandgap power semiconductors

In July, Chanyeop Park, assistant professor, electrical engineering, received a five-year, $762,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research.

Park will research a solution to partial discharge in advanced power semiconductors, events that can harm insulating materials and lead to failure. 

“Power semiconductors are at the heart of the global energy transition, including electric vehicles, electric ships, electric planes, solar, and wind energy,” Park said. “However, advanced WBG [wide bandgap] power semiconductors aggravate partial discharge, which erodes electrical insulators at a higher pace than conventional power technologies.”

Park will develop inorganic thin film electrets to prevent partial discharge caused by WBG power semiconductors. The electret films will be designed to survive in the harsh electrical and thermal operating conditions of WBG power semiconductors.

Future power technologies will rely on dielectric integrity

The U.S. Navy is electrifying its fleet and Park’s research will help achieve this goal by securing its dielectric integrity.

“Dielectric integrity refers to a material’s ability to maintain its insulating properties and prevent electricity from flowing through it,” Park says. “It’s crucial to cables, capacitors, printed circuit boards and other electronics.

“It’s also key to safely electrifying transportation systems and modernizing the grid.”

When a material’s dielectric integrity is compromised, he explains, it can lead to electrical leakages, short circuits, and other undesirable effects that can disrupt the normal functioning of electronic devices.”

Park’s recent research includes conducting ONR-funded research that aims to find a way to mitigate partial discharge in power electronics in shipboard power systems at ambient temperatures.

Students turn lot into neighborhood attraction, with help from UWM and others

Residents of Sherman Park have a new place to meet and enjoy being outdoors, thanks to students from nine Milwaukee Public Schools who helped design and build a new community gathering spot at 55th and Center streets. They’re calling it Postage Stamp Park, a nod to the post office next door to the formerly vacant lot.

Students worked under the guidance of teachers and mentors from around the city taking part in the NAF Future Ready Scholars program led by UWM faculty members and staff from the School of Architecture & Urban Planning and College of Engineering & Applied Sciences. More.

Dussault interviewed by CBS58 on light-bulb ban that promotes energy efficiency

William Dussault, a teaching faculty member in electrical engineering and computer science, spoke with CBS58 for their Aug. 1 story “US bans incandescent light bulbs.”

“Incandescent bulbs are only about five percent efficient, so 95 percent of the power that you pump into the bulb goes off as radiant heat,” Dussault said.

Starting Aug. 1, the Department of Energy banned the manufacture and sale of most bulbs that emit less than 45 lumens per watt. This effectively outlaws incandescent bulbs, which provide just 15 lumens per watt. (LEDs provide about 75 lumens per watt.)

Read or watch

Teen girls get a taste of the engineering profession at UWM’s EnQuest camps

Each summer, girls ages 13-17 from the Milwaukee area come to the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for weeklong summer camps, called EnQuest, and explore the diverse opportunities within the engineering profession.

This summer, 23 girls attended the EnQuest camps. All campers worked with women engineers, visited engineering labs, experienced life on a college campus, formed supportive friendships and carried out a real-world project.

UWM faculty and staff members who worked with the students included: Chris Beimborn, UWM STEM outreach specialist and EnQuest coordinator; Priya Premnath, assistant professor, biomedical engineering; Brooke Slavens, associate professor, mechanical and biomedical engineering; Alyssa Schnorenburg, associate director of the Mobility Lab and scientist in the Mechanical Engineering Department.

“Engineering becomes a meaningful pursuit when the campers work on a project that has a direct, positive impact in people’s lives,” says Beimborn.

What campers are saying about EnQuest

This year, the day campers customized a solar power station for an off-grid community in Guatemala that UWM’s Engineers Without Borders student chapter will deliver. The project built off past EnQuest projects for other Guatemalan locations.

“I really enjoyed it because everything we did had a purpose,” one day camper said. “We were all working towards the common goal of making a solar power suitcase that would impact a community in Guatemala.

“I learned a lot of different skills and found it very fun to sit in the Makerspace and wire up the solar panel and experiment with things and work with the people around me.”

The overnight campers explored biomedical engineering, making and analyzing a biomaterial, and using motion capture to evaluate ways of propelling wheelchairs.

Through specific activities—including making casts in the campus’s foundry and coding with UWM Girls Who Code—both groups explored multiple disciplines within engineering and computer science,

One overnight camper listed her three favorite things about EnQuest: learning about biomedical engineering, meeting female engineers, and doing lab work.

“I enjoyed my time at camp and I feel like I have a good idea of what I want to do and what I’ll be good at doing,” she stated.

Thank you to our community for supporting the campers!

EnQuest is offered through UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science with generous support from the Diane K. Schlitz ’59 and Harold L. Schlitz ’59 Memorial Fund, American Family Insurance, Creation Technologies, Generac, Eaton, the Fund for Diversity in Tech Education at UWM (created by UWM alumni Satya Nadella, ’90 MS Computer Science and his wife Anu Nadella) and multiple anonymous donors.

Learn more about the two EnQuest camps.

NASA awards Cheng $175K to evaluate breast cancer risk associated with space travel

The National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) awarded $175,000 in July to Qingsu Cheng, assistant professor, biomedical engineering, for a one-year research project to evaluate the risk of breast cancer during long-term space travel.

The findings could help medical experts develop better prevention and treatment strategies for primary and secondary breast cancer.

Cheng will evaluate the breast cancer risks for female astronauts who travel to Mars, a journey that would last at least 27 months. Mammographic density (MD), he explains, is an important risk factor for all types of breast cancer and he will evaluate changes to these astronauts’ MDs.

According to NASA, living in space for six months exposes a person to roughly the same amount of radiation as 1,000 chest X-rays. (The Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protect a person from the types of radiation found in space.) This level of exposure can damage DNA and lead to health problems including cancer, central nervous damage, bone loss and cardiovascular disease.


From battling breast cancer to identifying bacteria

Cheng’s cutting-edge, translational research in the areas of cancer and biomaterials has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and NASA, which funded his previous study on astronaut health on the moon and Mars. He has published 25 peer-reviewed journal papers, which received more than 400 citations. 

“UWM is giving me the opportunity to contribute to broadening our knowledge about the interaction between microenvironmental factors and a variety of diseases,” Cheng says.

Cheng’s cancer research is in the areas of early detection, risk assessment, and development of non-invasive treatments, which manipulate the tumor microenvironment in a way that combats breast cancer.

In addition, he is investigating the biomechanical properties of breast tissue—knowledge that aids in detecting the disease and planning surgical procedures—and fibroblasts, a non-cancerous cell type that is found in most solid tumors and associated with disease’s progression.