Mechanical & Materials Engineering Research

From zero-gravity experiments in space to developing nano-materials for biomedical application, faculty within the Mechanical & Materials Engineering Department engage in a variety of innovative research areas.  At Portland State University, students can work in tandem with faculty who are locally and internationally recognized as academics on the forefront of their endeavors.

Department Research can be categorized into three specialty areas:  Design & Manufacturing, Materials Science, and Thermal & Fluid Science. 

Research Area: Design & Manufacturing

Agile & Adaptive Robotics

The Agile and Adaptive Robotics lab is interested in uncovering mechanisms of how animals achieve agile and adaptive control and applying these discoveries across a variety of fields.

By studying and developing models and controllers that mimic the structure and function of animal abilities, we work to discover how the wide range of adaptability that is seen in animal locomotion and movement is achieved.

These models and controllers have potentially significant impacts in a variety of fields including physical therapy and rehabilitation, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and robotic and artificially controlled systems.

Controls Research

The controls research lab does research in the areas of feedback control, high speed dynamics, and mechatronics. Projects range from industrial automation to modeling and optimizing sports equipment to autonomous navigation. Current research projects include modeling and validation of high strain rate nonlinear collisions, and autonomous indoor navigation for industrial automation.

Nano Electronic Packaging Research

The microelectronics industry is one of the most important industries and electronic packaging and assembly technology is one of the key  technologies to make such industry feasible. Nao-electronic packaging research lab is focused on the development of critical technologies used in the designing, testing, and fabrication for electronic devices and  systems.

Research Area: Materials Science

Biomaterial Testing

The bioengineering lab aims to integrate nanomaterials into biomedical applications. Currently, structural variations of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes coated with alumina are being studied for efficiency of antigen delivery to dendritic cells (immune cells) as a therapeutic vaccine against cancer.

In collaboration with ATI specialty alloys, coloration defects in zirconium sponge are being investigated. Advanced techniques for computationally refining images gathered with in situ observation of metal oxide phase transformations using the transmission electron microscope are also being enhanced.

Nanoparticulate adjuvants and delivery systems towards new generation vaccines are being investigated, in collaboration with OHSU. In addition, photocatalytic materials and reactorsare being developed for the  optimization of semiconductor quantum yield.

Nanodevice Fabrication

Dr. Jun Jiao’s nanofabrication lab is focused on the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials including carbon nanotubes (CNTS), graphene, ceramic coatings, and supported bimetallic nanoparticles. These materials are then used in the design and  fabrication of devices for engineering applications. 

Computational 3D Materials

Dr. Xia's area of research is focused on development and implementation of first-principles-based methods and machine learning approaches to simulate dynamics of phonons and electrons, and application of such to solve materials problems. Research topics include heat/charge transport phenomena, anharmonic lattice dynamics, electron-phonon interactions, and structural phase transition in thermal management, energy storage and converting materials, covering high-entropy alloys, thermoelectrics, and lithium-ion batteries.

Research Area: Thermal & Fluid Science

Healthy Buildings Research

The Healthy Buildings Research Laboratory (HBRL) conducts research to improve the sustainability of built environments. Core areas focus on human-building interactions, including the intersection of indoor and urban environmental quality, human exposure to air pollution, of building energy use.

The HBRL houses extensive facilities for both fundamental research and applied measurements. This includes equipment for both laboratory and field use under these five fundamental categories:

-    Indoor environmental quality measurement and data logging capabilities;
-    Computational resources for building energy, internal/external CFD and urban climate modeling;
-    Energy performance measurements & logging for equipment and buildings; and
-    Fundamental thermal property (conductivity, emissivity, reflectivity, and transmissivity) characterization of building materials.
-    Infrared instruments for envelope thermal performance and moisture assessments

Microscale Fluidics

Research in the Microscale Laboratory focuses on fundamental fluid  mechanics at the microscale, novel materials for microfluidic devices, optical and fluid manipulation of cells, and non-Newtonian fluid mechanics.
Research projects have included velocity measurements at the moving contact line with unprecedented resolution, the development of microfluidic channels with porous silk structures, the study of single cells optically trapped in microfluidic flows, the passive separation of fluids and particles from the increased effects of surface forces at the microscale, and rheological studies of polymer solutions.

Wind Energy & Turbulence

At Portland State University, the Wind Energy and Turbulence Lab targets to answer questions dealing with fluids in the turbulent regime. A large portion of the efforts has been placed in understanding flows pertaining to wind energy, volcanic eruptions and forests to name a few. 

Elucidating mechanisms in the interactions between the flow and these systems allows for the possibility of answering relevant questions as well as understanding these systems as a whole. Flow are scaled and studied in a wind tunnel setting via the use of laser-based techniques. 

Sustainable Systems

Dr. Celik's research interests are developing sustainability concepts for infrastructure systems and consist of computational and experimental works. More recently, she has focused on developing sustainable energy storage systems integrated with emerging redox battery systems and assessing their sustainability trade-offs. Also, Celik has been generating ideas on incorporating transparent PV technologies with urban agricultural systems to promote nature-inspired solar panels to decentralize city energy production and food supply. 

Urban Environment Lab

Dr. Zhu is deeply engrossed in the field of turbulence, leveraging Computational Fluid Dynamics as his main investigative tool. His research direction encompass: heat transfer and air pollutant dispersion in urban environments,  bio-inspired strategies for turbulent drag reduction, and the dynamics of large wind farms.