College of Engineering News • Iowa State University

Apply now for Spaceflight Operations Workshop™! Do you have what it takes?

If “What I Did This Summer” essays were still a thing in school, the Department of Aerospace Engineering Spaceflight Operations Workshop would offer some great inspiration.

And while those selected for this year’s edition may or may not be writing essays about it later, it will give them something even more valuable: a new way of looking at the world and handling challenges – from an “operational” standpoint.

The application period for the two-week experience, set for August 2-14, 2022, is now open. As always, it will depart from the typical college classroom experience, to engage students in hands-on activities to learn planning, execution, and teamwork while transforming their thought processes to be more operationally centered.

Change Agent: Martin Thuo, materials science and engineering

Martin Thuo and his research group have developed heat-free solder. They’ve printed electronics on rose petals. They’ve made “chameleon metals” that change surfaces in response to heat. With a bit of “metal whispering,” they’ve found a better way to recover precious metals from electronic waste.

And now, after two and a half years of work, they’ve invented a new seed lubricant.

What’s the source of that creativity?

Cyclone engineers take to the sky for advanced manufacturing research

A team of Iowa State University College of Engineering researchers recently experienced something that few ever will: a zero-gravity environment.

REFORM plays to the tune of sustainability

When most of us think “recycling,” we don’t also immediately think “music.” But innovative students at Iowa State are collaborating across disciplines to find the perfect harmony between materials science, reducing waste, and creating new musical instruments.

In the Recyclables Evolved from Offscouring Remade to Music (REFORM) project, students from areas in engineering, particularly materials science and engineering, are working together with student in music and theatre to reduce plastic waste at Iowa State by gathering plastic materials and transforming them into durable plastic musical instruments.

Ames Tribune: Nobel Prize Laureate and MSE Distinguished Professor Dan Shechtman visiting Ames

Dan “Danny” Shechtman won the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work discovering what are known as quasicrystals. He’s a distinguished professor in Iowa State’s materials science and engineering department and he’s worked with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. Shechtman is visiting Ames for three weeks this fall.

MSE’s Trivedi is PI of project carried on NASA Space X23 rocket to ISS

Dr. Rohit Trivedi, a senior scientist at Ames Laboratory and a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, is the Principal Investigator of a physical science investigation known as DEvice for the study of Critical Liquids and Crystallization – Directional Solidification Insert-Reflight (DSI-R), being carried on the Space X23 rocket to resupply the International Space Station.

Honoring excellence: 2021 College of Engineering faculty and staff award winners, named faculty positions, and new patents

Recognizing College of Engineering faculty and staff award winners, new named faculty positions, and patents received.

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