News

In 2014:

  • The PFTL is a part of a team that wins an ‘America Makes’ (formerly NAMII) grant to study additive manufacturing

  • Randyka Pudjoprawoto successfully defends his PhD thesis in powder and transfer film lubrication

  • Profs. Higgs (along with Drs. LeDuc and Mpagazehe) were awarded the NSF I-Corps award for university start-up activity related to bio-energy/biofuels

In 2013:

  • Martin Marinack and Jeremiah Mpagazehe successfully defend their PhD theses in granular flow tribology and slurry/multiphase flows & tribology, respectively.
  • The PFTL is awarded grants from three global companies (Timken , Sanitarium, and Westinghouse House Electric Companies).
  • The PFTL is awarded research translation grants from Innovation Works and CTTEC to study algae bio-energy.
  • Jeremiah Mpagazehe wins the STLE Young Tribologist award.

In 2012:

  • Prof. Higgs and wife welcomes future tribologist prospect Cecil Fred Higgs, IV into the world.
  • Prof. Higgs is co-awarded the 2012 Benjamin Richard Teare Teaching Award (for faculty member within the Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering in recognition of excellence in engineering education.)
  • Patrick Dougherty wins the STLE Young Tribologist award
  • Prof. Higgs became a Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton (UK) in the national Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS)
  • Gagan Srivastava is awarded a Dowd Fellowship to conduct research on Smart Artificial Hip Surface modeling
  • The PFTL is awarded a RAMP project for 3D Printing and shakes hands with the governor

Spring 2011

  • Dr. John Shelton joins the PFTL as a DOE EERE Postdoctoral Research Fellow .
  • Martin Marinack wins the STLE Young Tribologist award.
  • Patrick Dougherty is awarded an NSF Fellowship as a graduating senior and elects to become a PFTL PhD student.
  • Jon Sierra is awarded a Sloan Fellowship.
  • Prof. Higgs gives the Plenary talk at the 38th Leeds-Lyon Symposium on Tribology: Energy & Health, in Lyon, France.

Spring 2010

  • PFTL PhD student Jeremiah Mpagazehe was awarded the Carnegie Mellon mechanical engineering department's "Best TA" award for the Fall 2009 & Spring 2010 semesters
  • PFTL welcomes a new PhD student Gagan Srivastava to the lab with a focus on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), multiphase CFD, and with extensive consulting experience involving some use of ANSYS FEM.
  • Nine PFTL undergraduate researchers will graduate on May 15.
  • Prof. C. Fred Higgs III has been selected to receive the 2010 ASME Burt L. Newkirk Award, which is for an individual under the age of 40 "who made a notable contribution to the field of tribology in research or development as evidenced by important tribology publications."
  • Sean Coleman , a PFTL undergraduate researcher, was a finalist in the “Meeting of the Minds” which is a school-wide research fair for Carnegie Mellon undergraduates. He won for his work entitled “Analysis and Modeling of Granular Particle Flows – A GPU-Based Approach“, which is a parallel approach to digital particle tracking velocimetry.
  • Ryan Comes, a PFTL undergraduate alumnus, the first students to publish a first author journal article based on his PFTL undergraduate research, has won the NDSEG Fellowship.
  • Martin Marinack Jr., a PFTL PhD student, was awarded the NSF Graduate Student Research Fellowship.
  • Prof. C. Fred Higgs III was named The Clarence H. Adamson Career Faculty Fellow in Mechanical Engineering.

Fall 2009

  • Prof. C. Fred Higgs III and his wife welcome their 1st child Taylor and future tribologists prospect into the world.

Spring 2009

  • Jeremiah Mpagazehe, a PFTL PhD student, was awarded the NASA GSRP Fellowship with the NASA Glenn Research Center.
  • The professor and students from the PFTL win the 2009 Carnegie Mellon Intramural Football Championship Team

Fall 2008

  • Former PFTL PhD student, Emmanuel Wornyoh, starts his new faculty position at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in the mechanical engineering department.
  • Former PFTL PhD student, Elon Terrell, starts his new faculty position at Columbia University in the mechanical engineering department