2026
2025
December
McComb on AI tools
Professional Engineering Magazine
MechE’s Chris McComb reminds new engineers to learn AI tools while still building deep expertise in core engineering principles in Professional Engineering Magazine.
Halilaj collaborates with AI at Meta
AI at Meta
MechE’s Eni Halilaj worked with AI at Meta to capture and analyze human movement in clinical settings, opening the doors to personalized, data-driven insights in the recovery process.
Four Engineering alumni among Alumni Award winners
Carnegie Mellon University
Four College of Engineering alumni were selected to join this year’s cohort of Carnegie Mellon University Alumni Awards honorees: Samantha Allen (INI 2015), Recent Alumni Service Award; Halil Kulluck (ENG 1985), Alumni Service Award; Joanna M. Livengood (ENG 1980, 1991), Alumni Achievement Award; and Tyelisa Shields (INI 2010), Alumni Service Award.
September
Michalek comments on electric vehicle adoption as tax credits expire
Automotive News
EPP/MechE’s Jeremy Michalek spoke with Automotive News about what the future may hold for electric vehicles, as incentivizing tax credits expire. Michalek noted that the outlook for EVs is as negative as it may first appear, despite the loss of the incentives. “Upfront price, longer range, faster ability to recharge ... those things continue to get better,” he said. “There’s still a reason why we might expect a future with higher electric vehicle adoption, even if it’s not happening as fast as we might have initially thought.”
Jayan named one of 20 People to Know in Engineering
Pittsburgh Business Times
MechE’s Reeja Jayan was named by the Pittsburgh Business Times as one of the 20 People to Know in Engineering. 20 People to Know works to connect the Pittsburgh community with influential individuals in their fields. In addition to her appointment at CMU, Jayan is the CEO of SeaLion Energy, which works to maximize usable battery capacity without reducing battery life.
Michalek discusses impact of slowing EV adoption
The Conversation
EPP/MechE’s Jeremy Michalek writes in a new article for The Conversation about how the elimination of most incentives for EV adoption has led to the collapse of U.S. investment in EV-related production. However, Michalek’s research suggests that “turning away from electric vehicles does more than miss a chance to curb transportation emissions—it also misses an opportunity to make the nation’s electricity supply cleaner,” Michalek writes.
Michalek quoted on how EVs could reduce power sector emissions
E&E News
EPP/MechE’s Jeremy Michalek was quoted by E&E News about how EV adoption could lead to increased investment in wind, solar, storage, and new natural gas for power generation. “Those are cheaper to operate, so once you build them, they’re the first ones that get dispatched,” Michalek said. “So that means they’re going to displace fossil fuels even at times when EVs are not charging.”
July
Presto joins Africa Clean Air Network Advisory Council
Africa Clean Air Network
MechE’s Albert Presto has joined the Africa Clean Air Network’s Advisory Council to provide strategic guidance for the network. The Africa Clean Air Network is building cross-border, cross-sector, multi-skilled partnerships to deliver scalable, evidence-driven, and open-access clean air solutions for African cities.
Zhang received Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture Award
SIAM
MechE’s Jessica Zhang was honored with the AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture Award and delivered the lecture, titled “From Neurological Disorders to Additive Manufacturing: Integrating Isogeometric Analysis with Deep Learning and Digital Twins,” during the SIAM Annual Meeting on July 28 - August 1.
Weber discusses new wristband that controls computers
The New York Times
MechE’s Douglas Weber spoke with The New York Times about Meta’s new wristband that can control computers with hand movements. Researchers at CMU are putting the wristband to the test with people who have spinal cord injuries and lack full use of the arms or hands. The wristband works by reading the electrical signals in muscles when performing a movement, but with practice, the wristband wearer can control their smartphone by just thinking about moving. “We can see their intention type,” said Weber of people with spinal cord injuries who could benefit from this technology.
Michalek discusses the Big Beautiful Bill’s impact on clean energy
Marketplace
As a guest on a Marketplace podcast, EPP/MechE’s Jeremy Michalek shared his thoughts on what Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” could mean for clean energy incentives. The law could drain domestic battery production for electric vehicles, suggesting that the U.S. may become more reliant on China for these materials. “We can’t run the energy economy on oil, gas, and coal forever—that will all run out,” Michalek said. “What’s really changed over the last decade is that battery technology has gotten so good and so cheap. That means that the transition [to clean energy] is going to happen. It’s happening globally, and it’s not like the United States can stop the global transition. All we can do is decide what part we want to play.”
Cagan named co-editor-in-chief of Design Science
Design Science
MechE Head Jonathan Cagan has been named co-editor-in-chief of Design Science, along with Anja Maier of the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Design Science is an international, multidisciplinary journal focused on science-based design knowledge.
June
Zhang receives ASME Van C. Mow Medal
ASME
MechE’s Jessica Zhang delivered an invited keynote lecture and received the 2025 ASME Van C. Mow Medal, during the ASME Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference in Santa Ana Pueblo, NM on June 22-25, 2025.
Michalek quoted on hybrid cars outselling electric vehicles
E&E News
EPP/MechE’s Jeremy Michalek was quoted in E&E News and EnergyWire about the upward trend in hybrid vehicle sales and the fall in electric vehicle sales. Consumers are drawn to hybrids since they don’t have to worry about relying solely on an electric battery, and hybrids still have better fuel economy than internal-combustion cars. “It is a way to get meaningful environmental impact without much compromise,” says Michalek.
Michalek discusses federal changes to electric vehicle incentives
Government Technology
EPP/MechE’s Jeremy Michalek spoke with Government Technology about the potential federal changes to electric vehicle (EV) incentives. If passed by the U.S. Senate, these changes under the federal budget proposal would eliminate the $7,500 tax credit for EV purchasers and charge owners with an additional $250 fee to be paid to the Highway Trust Fund. However, Michalek said these actions are not significant enough to stop an eventual transition to EVs. “A decade ago it might have been true that policy changes abandoning [electric vehicles] EVs could have choked off the transition, but at this point technology advances have brought down battery costs so much that EVs already have competitive lifetime cost and range,” Michalek said.
Michalek quoted on California’s EV standards
Fast Company
EPP/MechE’s Jeremy Michalek was quoted by Fast Company about California’s use of a waiver under the Clean Air Act to promote the sale of electric vehicles (EVs) with the goal of ceasing sales of gas-powered vehicles by 2035. This month, Trump signed a joint resolution from Congress to overturn this waiver and stop California’s efforts to push the adoption of EVs. “California has probably been the largest factor in accelerating EV adoption over the past decade,” said Michalek. “Meanwhile, the rest of the world is already ahead of us.”
Zhao quoted on machine learning
Medium
MechE’s Ding Zhao was quoted in Medium about using machine learning to sort data for autonomous vehicle research. “My team is developing methods to efficiently deploy autonomous vehicles by synthesizing tests from public road usage that can be applied to proving grounds using machine learning,” said Zhao.
May
World’s smallest bipedal robot featured in Electronics360 and Heise Online
Electronics360
Zippy, the world’s smallest bipedal robot created by a research team led by MechE’s Sarah Bergbreiter and Aaron Johnson, was spotlighted in Electronics360 and Heise Online. The 1.5-inch robot can walk at over 10 leg lengths per second. “Zippy could be a resource for emergency search and rescue, industrial inspection, and even deployment to geologically interesting areas for scientific research,” says Steven Man, a Robotics Institute Ph.D. student.
April
CMU alum Thai-Tang featured in AARP
AARP
MechE alum Hau Thai-Tang’s life and career were covered in AARP. Thai-Tang discusses his experience as a Vietnamese immigrant, his passion for cars, and his time as a designer for Ford. “We had a lot of people who helped us,” Thai-Tang says. “Teachers, parents, coworkers, people who were sympathetic, recognizing that we came with nothing and were trying to build a future for ourselves.
March
Zhang receives awards from the SIAM International Meshing Roundtable conference
SIAM International Meshing Roundtable conference
MechE’s Jessica Zhang and her group received two awards from the SIAM International Meshing Roundtable conference held on March 3-6, 2025 in Fort Worth, Texas. Zhang was awarded the International Meshing Roundtable Fellow, and the paper coauthored with her Ph.D. student Hua Tong, entitled “Fast and Robust Hexahedral Mesh Optimization via Augmented Lagrangian, L-BFGS and Line Search,” received the Best Student Paper award.
Zhang selected as 2025 AWM-SIAM Kovalevsky Lecturer
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
MechE’s Jessica Zhang has been selected as the 2025 AWM-SIAM Kovalevsky Lecturer from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in recognition of her work in computational geometry and finite element methods. Zhang has advanced meshing techniques that enable precise simulations in complex domains that appear in medical imaging and biological modeling.
February
Zhao demonstrates autonomous vehicle research
CMU
MechE’s Ding Zhao demonstrated a new project used to evaluate the safety of autonomous vehicles for vulnerable road users when U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited Mill 19. In 2021, a self-driving car failed to recognize a visually impaired athlete at the Paralympic Games. “Now we are working with University of Southern California, Stanford and University of California San Diego to try to prepare for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics,” explained Zhao. “So this will be used to assess all self-driving cars used in the Olympics in the U.S.”
Michalek discusses federal EV charger freeze
WIRED
MechE/EPP’s Jeremy Michalek was quoted in WIRED on the recent federal government freeze on infrastructure for electric vehicles. “The freeze does really have an impact on how much infrastructure gets to roll out,” says Michalek. “It puts some players in a bad spot where they’ve already invested.”
CMU faculty to present at SXSW
MechE’s Jon Cagan and Chris McComb, BME’s Keith Cook and Rosalyn Abbott, and BME/MSE’s Adam Feinberg are leading sessions at SXSW 2025. Cagan and McComb’s sessopm, called “Empowering learners to collaborate with AI,” will prepare students to use forthcoming AI technology in the classroom. Cook, Abbott, and Feinberg’s session, called “Bioengineering Approaches to Solve the US Organ Shortage,” will highlight an ongoing partnership between CMU and Mayo Clinic that researches ways to repair dysfunctional organs or create new ones from scratch. The offerings are on March 6th and 7th.
Michalek discusses Trump’s counter to Biden’s electric vehicle policy
Politifact
MechE/EPP’s Jeremy Michalek was quoted in Politifact about an executive order set to overturn the Biden administration’s federal electric vehicle sales goals. “Weakening the rules may have some effect on the speed of the electric vehicle transition, but it takes about five years to design and build a new vehicle—longer than a presidential term,” said Michalek.
January
Whitefoot quoted on electric vehicle adoption in the U.S.
Electric Apparatus
EPP/MechE’s Kate Whitefoot was quoted in Electrical Apparatus about the increased use of electric vehicles in the U.S. by 2030. “We conducted a study that showed that about 50% of new car and SUV buyers in the U.S. would purchase a fully electric vehicle by 2030 if they had a 300-mile range, were as widely available as conventional gasoline vehicles, and prices fall as expected by 2030,” said Whitefoot.
Whitefoot discusses digital twin technology
IBM
EPP/MechE’s Kate Whitefoot was featured in IBM’s Think newsletter, where she discussed how digital twin technology can help reduce climate change. “I am watching developments in digital twins to support sustainable and resilient manufacturing, materials innovations for electric vehicle batteries that improve range and battery life, electrified automated vehicles and an expanding EV charging infrastructure,” said Whitefoot. “There have been large investments in these areas, and we are likely to see exciting new roll-outs of these innovations.”
2024
December
Zhao quoted on robot dogs
bullitin
MechE’s Ding Zhao was quoted in bullitin about how robot dogs are more likely to be used than humanoid robots because of their versatility and affordability. “For many applications, they represent the most practical and scalable robotic form,” said Zhao.