TIME magazine named Microsoft to its list of the 100 most influential companies of 2023, highlighting its heavy investments in OpenAI.
Microsoft’s CEO is Satya Nadella, who earned a master’s degree in computer science from UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science in 1990. More.
Congratulations to Ilya Avdeev, who was selected by the university to receive the 2023 UWM Faculty Distinguished Public Service Award. Avdeev is director of innovation at the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and affiliated faculty member at the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Kern Institute.
The award recognizes outstanding service in Milwaukee and the entire state of Wisconsin. Service includes all professional activities that contribute to the public good, enhance UWM’s reputation, and carry out the university’s mission.
Avdeev will be honored at UWNs Annual Fall Awards Ceremony in October.
In June, the National Science Foundation awarded $50,000 to Priyatha Premnath, assistant professor, biomedical engineering, for a one-year I-Corps project to determine the commercialization pathway for the repurposing of an anti-cancer drug for bone healing.
The drug, UC2288, is an anti-cancer agent. In studies on mice, UC2288 has been found to enhance bone healing by increasing osteogenic capacity of stem cells and bone volume after fracture, Premnath says.
Premnath investigates bone regeneration and healing after fracture in aged and diseased populations and has researched biological and biomaterial-based means to enhance the healing process of fractured bone.
In the U.S. alone, doctors treat 6.8 million fractures annually, making fractures among the most common orthopedic problems. Up to 10 percent of patients experience delayed or incomplete healing.
“Most fractures and bone injuries heal well,” Premnath says. “But in some cases—such as osteoporosis, diabetes, and advanced age—the bone healing mechanism is hampered leading to compromised bone healing and potential complications that affect the person’s quality of life.”
Premnath’s proposed technology will target mesenchymal stem cells. The drug will, in effect, commission stem cells to become eager osteogenic cells, ready for work in bone regeneration.
Congratulations to the 25 students from our college who were among the 159 UWM student athletes on the 2023 Horizon League Spring Academic Honor Roll. Each has earned at least a 3.2 GPA in engineering or computer science while participating in at least one collegiate-level sport during the most recent season. Our students represented nine different sports last semester.
It takes a special kind of student to make this happen. These high-achieving students know how to balance the demands of the classroom and team sports and we are proud of their commitment to hard work, time management, athleticism, and academics. Congratulations!
Baseball
Nick Gilhaus, MKE, Jr., Mechanical Engineering
Johnny Kelliher, MKE, R-So., Civil Engineering
Josh Kosky, MKE, R-So., Civil Engineering
Curtis Sheahan, MKE, Grad., Engineering MS
Women’s Basketball
Anna Lutz, MKE, R-Fr., Mechanical Engineering
Men’s Soccer
Raul Medina, MKE, So., Industrial Engineering
Women’s Soccer
Clara Broecker, MKE, So., Mechanical Engineering
Caitlynn Owens, MKE, R-So., Biomedical Engineering
Kat Van Booven, MKE, So., Industrial Engineering
Men’s Swim & Dive
Sam Hauke, MKE, Jr., Biomedical Engineering
Ben Huynh, MKE, Sr., Computer Engineering
Andrew Innerebner, MKE, Jr., Civil Engineering
Mason Schoof, MKE, Sr., Civil Engineering
Women’s Swim & Dive
Grace Mayes, MKE, Jr., Civil Engineering
Riley Melendy, MKE, Sr., Mechanical Engineering
Jenna Van Hoogstraten, MKE, Jr., Mechanical Engineering
Men’s Track & Field
Evan Bartelsen, MKE, So., Electrical Engineering
Nate Griepentrog, MKE, Jr., Biomedical Engineering
EJ Kruse, MKE, Jr., Computer Engineering
Trevor Wenzel, MKE, Sr., Engineering MS
Women’s Track & Field
Lauren Lietzke, MKE, Grad., Engineering MS
Volleyball
Kaley Blake, MKE, Jr., Biomedical Engineering
Tatum Catalano, MKE, So., Environmental Engineering
Bri Geurts, MKE, So., Biomedical Engineering
Lakyn Graves, MKE, So., Biomedical Engineering
In June, Chanyeop Park, assistant professor, electrical engineering, was awarded an additional $125K for his research in a sub-contract from Mississippi State University. Park is researching a solution to mitigate partial discharge in power electronics in shipboard power systems for the Office of Naval Research and has been serving as PI on a $510K grant. His initial funding for this project was $148K.
Eaton Corporation awarded Rob Cuzner, associate professor, electrical engineering and computer science, $50,000 in July for a one-year project on extreme power conversion.
The purpose of the project is to apply model-based methods to the design of variable frequency motor drives to ensure electromagnetic compatibility with the electrical distribution systems. This work is especially important given the influence of inverter-based loads and sources on increasing levels of supraharmonic noise in unregulated frequency ranges and impending changes to electric grid compatibility standards.
Cuzner is an expert in electric grid compatibility. He is the director of UWM’s Center for Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems and site director for GRAPES (GRid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems), a National Science Foundation-supported industry/university cooperative research center. His research on extreme power conversion has been supported by Eaton, Leonardo DRS and LEM International through M-WERC.
WTMJ featured the research of Robert Schneider and Xiao Qin in their June 23 story “UW-Milwaukee researchers receive $1.6M from US-DOT to study pedestrian, bicyclist safety.”
Urban Milwaukee also featured the team’s research in their June 24 story “State’s Pedestrian Deaths Rise By 50%.”
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, pedestrian and bike fatalities make up nearly 20% of all traffic deaths in the nation and that number is on the rise. Qin and Schneider are looking for ways to reverse this alarming trend.
Schneider is a professor of urban planning in UWM’s School of Architecture & Urban Planning. Qin is a Lawrence E. Sivak ’71 professor of civil & environmental engineering in CEAS.
Michael Nosonovsky was promoted to full professor in June. He is a faculty member in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science.
Nosonovsky is a pioneer in the new area of triboinformatics, which combines the studies of friction and surface engineering with the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
The far-reaching applications of this research to society include:
Reducing energy consumption: Discovering environmentally friendly ways to reduce friction and wear between materials can bring about surprising energy savings. “An estimated 10 to 20 percent of energy in developed countries is spent on overcoming friction, such as car-engine friction,” Nosonovsky says. “We might save millions of dollars with a more careful application of tribology—the science of friction, wear and lubrication.”
Improving water-repellent surfaces: High-quality water-repellant surfaces are extremely useful to many industries, including construction, fresh-water, biomedical and healthcare. Recently, Nosonovsky was part of a UWM research team that developed a spray-on coating that repels and deactivates airborne pathogens—including COVID—that land on surfaces. The coating could improve our nation’s preparedness for future waves of COVID and other airborne pathogens. The team was backed by a National Science Foundation COVID-19 RAPID grant.
“With his scholarship, Professor Nosonovsky has put himself in the group of the most productive scientists and engineers in the world,” says Mechanical Engineering Department Chair Deyang Qu, a distinguished professor and the Johnson Controls Endowed Professor in Energy Storage in UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science. “It’s a well-deserved promotion and our department is very pleased.”
Nosonovsky’s research has been published in prestigious journals such as Nature and the world’s oldest scientific research journal—Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society—which published work by Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin and Stephen Hawkin. In all, he has authored or co-authored more than 150 papers and three books and been cited more than 11,900 times, an outstanding citation rate for an associate professor.
Congratulations to Telemachos Agoudemos, a mechanical engineering graduate student, who was one of 10 graduate students campuswide selected in June to receive a 2023 UWM Teaching Fellow Award. He is the first person in the College of Engineering & Applied Science to receive this honor.
Agoudemos stood out for his exceptional dedication to student success and teaching excellence.
“Machos really cares about his students,” says Deyang Qu, a UWM distinguished professor, Johnson Controls Endowed Professor in Energy Storage Research, and chair of UWM’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “He is an excellent researcher and a very dedicated TA.” Agoudemos in in Qu’s research group.
As part of the college’s unwavering commitment to improving the educational experience of its students, Agoudemos was appointed as the first head teaching assistant in the Mechanical Engineering Department, where he provides mentorship and guidance for 23 other TAs and supports the success of students from diverse backgrounds and experiences. He is a first-generation student, a U.S. Army veteran, and the son of Greek immigrants.
Congratulations to Roshan D’Souza, who received a 2023 Office of Research/ UWM Foundation Research Award in June. These awards recognize assistant and associate professors who have demonstrated the potential to achieve distinction in their academic disciplines through scholarship, creative activity, and the dissemination of knowledge.
D’Souza is an Alan D. Kulwicki ’77 faculty fellow and associate professor of mechanical engineering in UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science.
His research centers on 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.
The National Science Foundation awarded him $1.1 million in September to research the hemodynamics from subtraction computed tomography angiography (sCTA), a complex, non-invasive diagnostic imaging technique to access cerebral artery stenosis, or arteries in the brain that are fully or partially blocked. The condition can lead to strokes.
In 2021, the NSF awarded him $298,500 for research to advance the newest generation of MRI technology: 4D-Flow magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The technology adds a time dimension to this traditionally 3D technology, making it possible to image and analyze biological processes, such hemodynamics, over time and track variations.
In March 2022, the College of Engineering & Applied Science recognized D’Souza with a named fellowship.
But it is the path D’Souza chose to get to this point that most impresses his UWM colleagues.
Change in research focus; $2.6 M in federal funding
D’Souza started at UWM in 2009, pursuing research in the field of manufacturing. Seven years later, he redirected his focus to medical image processing.
“Changing one’s research focus is challenging and frustrating, but he was unwavering in his commitment,” says Deyang Qu, a UWM distinguished professor, Johnson Controls Endowed Professor in Energy Storage Research, and chair of UWM’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.
“My colleagues and I are most impressed by his resilience and persistence. Roshan is a role model to senior faculty members who want to restart or redirect their research into a new area.”
As principal investigator, D’Souza procured $2.6 million in federal funding.
For this award, he will receive $1,500 and be honored at the UWM Awards Ceremony in the fall.