McKelvey School of Engineering

Two Washington University in St. Louis faculty were among the 79 biomedical engineers and leaders elected this year to the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows.They are Shelly E. Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Younan Xia, PhD, the James M. McKelvey Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

Collaborating with researchers in NASA, Daren Chen, PhD, has used the miniature particle size that he had developed as a part of a special smoke detector that was tested by the National Institute of Standards and Testing on more than 200 different kinds of fires and found to be 100 percent accurate. “I’m very interested in making this better sensor cheap enough to eventually allow networks in large buildings and ultimately save human lives,” Chen says.

The inaugural class has been selected for the Professional Leadership Academy & Network (PLAN), a yearlong professional development program intended to cultivate future leaders at Washington University in St. Louis. And according to PLAN committee members, it was no easy task to choose the class of 26 from the “talented staff pool” of applicants.

Washington University engineering students Nalin Katta and Matthew MacEwan, who also is a School of Medicine student, won the Olin Cup business plan competition Feb. 3 and $50,000 in seed investment for an invention that can replace the protective covering of the brain. With 49 entrants, this year’s competition was the largest group of ventures yet.

Undergraduate tuition at Washington University in St. Louis will be $40,950 for the 2011-12 academic year — a $1,550 (3.9 percent) increase over the 2010-11 current academic tuition of $39,400. The required student activity fee will total $410, and the student health fee will be no more than $632. Barbara A. Feiner, vice chancellor for finance, made the announcement. 

Mechanical engineering students maneuver BattleBots during a Battle Royale held Tuesday, Dec. 14. The battle was the final assignment in a freshman mechanical engineering class taught by Pat Harkins, a technical lab technician in the School of Engineering & Applied Science.

Washington University is starting a Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) program. The NUE program, which will take applicants in the fall of 2011, has two components. The first is a new minor in nanotechnology open to any undergraduate pursuing a major in engineering, biology, physics or chemistry. The second is a summer fellowship open to undergraduates to develop nanotechnology teaching modules for K-12 students.

The following are among the new faculty members at Washington University: Mark Anastasio, PhD; John Fortner, PhD; Paul Ramírez, PhD; Matthew Kerr, PhD; and Brent Williams, PhD.

Competing against 130 teams from across the world, a team of six undergraduates from the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis took silver in the foundational advance category of the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition this year. The  WUSTL team built a genetic sequence that once inserted in a yeast cell would signal whether the cell was growing with or without the sugar galactose by fluorescing either yellow or cyan.

Should weather conditions create potentially hazardous travel conditions, Washington University will evaluate the situation and take into consideration the safety of the faculty, staff and students as well as the services that must be provided despite the inclement weather.