University of Wyoming College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Assistant Professor Xiang Zhang has received nearly $600,000 from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) CAREER Program to help fund his team’s research activities for the next five years.

“I almost jumped out of my chair when the program manager contacted me about this award,” Zhang says. “I am so excited that all the efforts I put into this development are recognized. I’m extremely grateful for the support and help I’ve received from my colleagues, collaborators, students, families and friends along the way.”

The award, titled “CAREER: Multiscale Reduced Order Modeling and Design to Elucidate the Microstructure-Property-Performance Relationship of Hybrid Composite Materials,” will allow Zhang’s team at the Computations for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Laboratory to leverage their multiscale modeling and design expertise to study the fundamental microstructure-property-performance relationship of advanced composite materials and push their limits in engineering applications.

Keep reading to learn more here.

Professor Emeritus Carol Frost, of the University of Wyoming’s Department of Geology and Geophysics, will co-chair a consensus study led by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine titled “Optimizing the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Mineral Resources Program Science Portfolio.”

“National Academies studies are an important source of independent, objective and nonpartisan advice, with high standards of scientific and technical quality,” Frost says. “As division director at the National Science Foundation (NSF), I commissioned one of these studies to identify future research directions and important areas for NSF funding. It is an honor now to be leading a study that will provide advice to the USGS.”

The study will examine the USGS Mineral Resources Program science portfolio to address the question of how it needs to evolve to meet current and future U.S. mineral resources data and science needs.

Discover more here.

Saman Aryana, professor and Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Technologies, as well as head of the University of Wyoming’s Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Australia. He will engage with the University of New South Wales, studying and exchanging ideas on topics related to energy transition.

“I feel privileged to have been afforded such an incredible opportunity to expand my work globally by developing strong ties and fostering collaborative relationships with Australian colleagues who have deep, complementary expertise,” Aryana says. “Australia and the U.S., especially the state of Wyoming, share significant similarities in the economic significance of their subsurface resources and agriculture sectors. Given its energy policy and the prominence of its mining and agriculture sectors, Australia presents an ideal location for building intentional collaborations focused on engineering the subsurface.”

Find out more here.

In the last decade or so, the Arctic ice sheet has been shrinking more every summer than in the historical record. And a particular type of cloud regime may be amplifying this warming rate.

For a period of a little more than six weeks, several faculty members in the University of Wyoming Department of Atmospheric Science and a cadre of scientists from around the world are studying whether clouds during marine cold air outbreaks over open water in the Arctic are contributing to the acceleration of ice melting in that region of the world.

The UW contingent is led by Bart Geerts, professor of atmospheric science; Jeff French, associate professor and department head of atmospheric science; and professor emeritus Jefferson Snider.

“The warming rate in the Arctic in the past few decades has been three to four times faster than the rate of global warming,” Geerts says. “And this, in turn, causes the seasonal ice sheet to melt faster such that, starting in the decade or two, the Arctic Sea is expected to be almost all ice-free every summer.

Discover more about the team's research here.

The March APS 2024 annual meeting was in Minneapolis, Minnesota this year.

Rudi Michalak and the following students attended: Ethan Cotter; Xander Larsen; Amelia Myers; Rachel Wood; Kaycee Conder; Tera Swaby; Kayley Galbraith; Piumi Samarawickrama

and Sabin Gautam.

Speakers included recipients of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry;

Jonathan A. Bagger, CEO of American Physical Society; and Young-Kee Kim, President of the American Physical Society, gave the opening remarks.

Speakers also included Pierre Agostini, Anne L’Huillier and Moungi G. Bawendi.

The 2023 Nobel Prize was awarded to both Agostini and L’Huillier for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics. The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Bawendi for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots. 

Department of Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Xiang Zhang has recently been selected as the recipient of the 2024 ASME Materials Division Orr Early Career Award.

This award is given by the Orr Family, through the Materials Division of ASME, to recognize early career research excellence in the areas of experimental, computational, or theoretical fatigue, fracture or creep annually. 

The award includes a $3,000 honorarium and a certificate, which will be formally presented to Zhang during the 2024 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE) scheduled to be held in November in Portland, OR. It will also cover his conference registration up to $750.

Vladimir Alvarado, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering recently visited laboratories at the Research Center of the Ravenna Technopole, accompanied by Professor Marco Pellegrini, of the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna in Italy.

Led by Professor Andrea Contin, director of FIP-WE@UNIBO, they visited two laboratories of the Center -- the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Waste Valorisation and Future Energy Supply, dedicated to the valorization of industrial waste; and EnerCube, for the up-scale production and recycling processes of components and cells of electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems (batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells) through sustainable approaches, and on the electrochemical and chemical-physical characterization of materials, components and devices, directed by Professor Francesca Soavi.

The visit was an important step to support a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions, currently in progress, aiming at student and researcher exchanges, as well as for developing joint educational and research programs.

The School of Computing recently collaborated with several campus STEM outreach groups including, Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium, the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences K-14 STEM Education Outreach Office, the Laramie Robotics Club and students of Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering Suresh Muknahallipatna to provide hands-on computing activities for students who attended the Wyoming State Science Fair.

Along with a team of volunteer students, Raya Hegeman-Davis and Judy Yates got involved with younger students in sharing the exciting world of computing.

The School of Computing participated in the UW President’s Office Computing and AI Luncheon for State of Wyoming Legislators at the Capitol in March.

Events like these help build positive relationships with Wyoming legislators.

Topics and presenters included GIS and Decision Making with Jeff Hamerlinck, Nicholas Case, Sage Wright, presenting on an interactive touch table. AI and the Environment with Ben Koger and Matthew Butrim.

The School of Computing’s Nicholas Case, WyGISC Developer, recently spoke with Cathedral Home students about coding and software development careers.

Cathedral Home hosts a community guest speaker series through the High Altitude Pathways grant in the College of Education and students wanted to hear from someone who does coding and software development as their day job.

“The questions were great and many of them mentioned getting started next year at UW," says Case. "I plugged SoC saying how it could augment their plans or be a total gear shift and they'd be welcome no matter their current skill level was as far as coding went. They seemed to be interested and loved the stickers.”

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Ellen Aikens, a School of Computing faculty member with a joint appointment in the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, on her paper, “Learning shapes the development of migratory behavior (pnas.org),” being published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). PNAS is a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Learn more about the research here.

As part of UW's Discovery Days, students and parents saw how pictures taken by satellites help us track both natural- and man-made changes on Earth surface.

GIST Program Director Ramesh Sivanpillai conducted a mock lecture to describe how cameras on Landsat and other satellites take pictures in the visible and invisible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and how these pictures provide insights about crop growth, vegetation health in rangelands and forests, urban growth, water bodies etc. Photos taken since early 1970s showed how the city of Cheyenne, WY, grow, annual changes in water surface area of the Keyhole Reservoir, and shirking Salt Lake (UT).