Using an advanced, new microscopy technique that can visualize chemical reactions occurring in liquid environments, researchers have discovered a new reason lithium-oxygen batteries — which promise up to five times more energy than the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles and cell phones — tend to slow down and die after just a few charge/discharge cycles. They report their findings in the journal Nano Energy. “What we were able to see for the first time is that lithium peroxide develops in the liquid electrolyte of lithium-oxygen batteries, and is a contributor to the slow down and ultimate death of these batteries,” said Reza Shahbazian-Yassar, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering in the University of Illinois at Chicago College of…

The UIC chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) recently won first place in the “30K Solid Rocket-Student Research and Developed Components” category during the second annual Spaceport America CUP at the Las Cruces Convention Center in New Mexico. The team competed with its first student built motor as they successfully flew it and recovered it. This is the first time UIC has won first place at IREC. The team also captured a third-place win with its commercial rocket. Both rockets were flown to approximately 30,000 feet as they topped schools like Purdue, Stanford, and the University of Minnesota. The Spaceport America Cup is a partnership between the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) and the New Mexico…

Professor Yarin Developing New Blood Spatter Models to Better Reconstruct Crime ScenesBlood spatter can provide a lot of information to an investigator at a crime scene. Unfortunately, current methods do not tell the whole story. UIC Distinguished Professor Alexander Yarin and his colleagues have shown that investigators can gather more accurate information. Their blood spatter research has the potential to change crime scene investigations in the same way DNA changed other police investigations.Yarin and his associates made a splash in the science and law enforcement communities with their research on blood spatter with their papers, Prediction of Blood Backspatter from a Gunshot in Bloodstain Pattern Analysis, which was published in the journal Physical Review Fluids in 2016, High-Speed Video Analysis…

MIE Assistant Professor Sushant Anand and his research associates have had multiple breakthroughs with their work on oil-water mixtures or “emulsions.” Now, the researchers have taken their research to a new level by creating ultra-small (100-400 nm in sizes) nanoemulsions formed by self-assembly of nanoparticles around droplets.The traditional way to make nanoemulsions has multiple steps, but Anand and his team have developed a single-step technique for creating nanoemulsions that is faster, more energy efficient, and smaller. The results of the research were recently published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces journal under the title Synthesizing Pickering Nanoemulsions by Vapor Condensation.“Nanotechnology has a huge role to play in dealing with many problems in today’s time. Take oil-water emulsions as an example.…

https://youtu.be/BDdKfT2Vd4M?t=24m11s UIC was honored to host Industrial Engineering alumnus Jim D’Angelo (BS ’07), chief operating officer of Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, who gave the commencement address during the 51st annual commencement ceremony on May 13 at the UIC Pavilion. D’Angelo shared his educational and life experiences with the graduating class and their families in the audience. The full commencement can be viewed at commencement ceremony.

MIE students showed their innovation and creativity during the 29th Annual UIC Engineering Senior Design Expo on Friday, April 27, at the UIC Forum. MIE students were among more than 528 seniors from the College of Engineering (COE) presenting within 27 project categories. They produced 15 Best in Category winning teams in the 12 categories — some categories had two winners — in which they participated.The Best in Category In the Building Services Engineering category, the team of Alex Bashqawi, Michael C. Gonzalez, Erik I Pyshnov, Skyler Wilkinson, and Jingwei Wu won for their project ASHRAE 2018 Student Design Competition: HVAC System Design. The students were sponsored by UIC ASHARE.Two MIE teams were named winners in the Consumer Product Development category. The…