Lab News of 2009

You can either click here to read the summarized lab news with photos or read individual pieces of news below.

Sept. 25           Prof. Huang was honored as one of the first Michigan Green Chemistry Governor's Awardees last evening at a special ceremony held at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  The program, based on Governor Granholm's Executive Directive 2006-6, was designed to celebrate innovations in green chemistry in Michigan. 

Sept. 10         Jie Xiao's new journal paper, "Computational Design of Thermoset Nanocomposite Coatings: Methodological Study on Coating Development and Testing," has been accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Science.  This is Jie's 12th journal papers, including five papers with AIChE J.  One of the AIChE J. papers, "Ant Colony System Based Dynamic Optimization for Curing of Polymeric Coating," (52(4), 1410-1422, 2006), was awarded as the Best Student Paper by AIChE Process Development Division in 2006.

Sept. 1            Korkut Uygun, our former lab member (Ph.D., 2004; Postdoc, 2004-06), has been Research Associate in Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Scientific Staff of Shriners Hospitals for Children in Boston, MA.  Korkut has been very successful in developing his research program there.  Recently, Korkut was awarded by the National Science Foundation for a very challenging research project, "Liver Reengineering".   This is another major grant Korkut has secured as the PI, after his NIH K99/R00 grant, "Computer-Aided Development of a Liver Organ Culture System", in 2008.  Congratulations!

Aug. 27           Jie Xiao and Rohan Uttarwar attended the 8th World Congress on Chemical Engineering which was held in Montreal, Canada, Aug. 23-27, 2009.  During the conference, Jie presented his paper, "Multiscale Characterization of Integrated Product and Process Systems," to the Symposium on Multiscale Structures, for which Prof. Huang is Co-Chair of the Symposium.

Aug. 20           Halit Akgun, a new Ph.D. student from Turkey, arrived in Wayne State University on Aug. 18.  Welcome, Halit!  Halit just graduated from Bogazici University (B.S. ChE, 2009).  In addition to his excellent academic record, Halit also loves sailing.  Click here to see a photo.  The one wearing a black hat on the boat is him (guess what he was going to do?!), when they were in a race in Turkey just before coming to the U.S. 

Aug. 16           Zheng Liu announced very proudly to us that he had become a father.  His daughter, Melissa, was born yesterday in Detroit.  Congratulations to Zheng's family.

Aug. 12          Zheng Liu's poster paper, titled "A Fuzzy-Logic-Based Triple-A Template for Industrial Sustainability Enhancement," was selected by the judges for the Best Student Poster Paper Award of the 1st International Congress on Sustainability Science and Engineering, Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 9-12, 2009.  Congratulations!

July 2                 Zheng Liu received an National Science Foundation Graduate Student Travel Award for presenting his research work at the 1st International Congress on Sustainability Science and Engineering, Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 9-12, 2009.  Congratulations!

June 16          Jie Xiao's paper, "Towards Nanomaterial Design Automation: Hierarchical Computational Architecture Development," was presented at the 19th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering, which was held in Cracow, Poland, June 14-17, 2009.  The Proceedings are published by Elsevier (eds: J. Jeslwski and J. Thullie). 

June 10            We are pleased to announce that Mr. Halit Akgun from Turkey is going to join our group as a Ph.D. student, starting in this fall.  Mr. Akgun is earning his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Bogazici University.  Welcome, Halit!

June 8              Dr. Cristina Piluso, our former lab member (Ph.D., 2008) and now Sustainability Specialist of BASF, has decided to relocate from BASF Headquarters in Florham Park, NJ, to BASF Chemicals in Wyandotte, Michigan.  Cristina was the recipient of the AIChE Sustainable Engineering Forum's Student Best Paper Award in 2008.  

May 10           Rohan Ganesh Uttarwar has successfully passed the written part of the Ph.D. qualifying exams.  Congratulations!

April 30           Prof. Helen Lou, our former lab member, was honored as the Lamar University Scholar recently.  Congratulations!  You may want to click this link to see the details: http://www.lamar.edu/newsevents/news/207_7538.htm

April 4             Zheng Liu received an National Science Foundation Graduate Student Travel Award for presenting his research work at the 7th International Conference on Foundations of Computer-Aided Process Design, which is to be held in Colorado in early June.  Congratulations!

Feb. 15            Zheng Liu's paper, "Proactive Product Quality Control: An Integrated Product and Process Control Approach to MIMO Systems," was published by Chemical Engineering Journal, 149, 435-446, 2009.  PDF

Jan. 15             Jie Xiao's fifth AIChE Journal paper, "Microstructure-Property-Quality-Correlated Paint Design: A Lattice Monte Carlo Based Approach," was published recently (AIChE J., 55(1), 132-149, 2009).  PDF  

Lab News of 2008

Dec. 16            We are pleased to announce that Mr. Rohan Ganesh Uttarwar becomes a new member of our lab.  Rohan graduated with B. Tech. degree from the Division of Surface Coatings Technology at Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai (UICT) in summer 2008.  He joined Wayne State University this fall as a Ph.D. student.  Welcome, Rohan!

Dec. 1              Zhen (James) Wu, a Visiting Ph.D. Student from South University of China (SCUT), returned to his home university  China yesterday.  James' visit in the past year was sponsored by the China Scholarship Council.  During his visit, James concentrated his study on integrated product and process control using multiscale theory.  James has demonstrated his strong research ability and is a productive student.  Dr. Huang will continuously co-advise James for his Ph.D. study with his major advisor, Prof. Yu Qian at SCUT.

Nov. 25            Xuanwen Luo, a Computer Science Ph.D. student also worked in our lab, defended successfully his Ph.D. thesis, "Distributed Fault-Tolerant Event Detection Faulty Sensor Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks," yesterday.   Xuanwen is co-advised by Prof. Ming Dong of Computer Science and Prof. Yinlun Huang of Chemical Engineering.  Congratulations, Xuanwen!  Xuanwen is currently working at Ford Motor Company's Research and Innovation Laboratory.

Nov. 22           Jie Xiao, Zheng Liu, Zhen (James) Wu and Cristina Piluso attended the 2008 AIChE Annual National Meeting in Philadelphia last week, where they presented 9 technical papers.  Jie and Cristina also chaired two sessions.  Cristina and Zheng also attended the AIChE Sustainable Engineering Forum's leadership meeting on Nov. 19 (see photos 1 and 2).

Nov. 19           Cristina Piluso, a former lab member and now Sustainability Specialist at BASF, received the AIChE Sustainable Engineering Forum's Student Best Paper Award during the SEF Luncheon in Philadelphia, PA, on Nov. 19.  The award information was published in the AIChE 2008 Annual National Meeting Program Book.  Congratulations!  (see a photo with two other awardess, the SEF award committee chair, Prof. Thomas Marrero, and SEF Chair, Prof. Yinlun Huang, during the award ceremony).

Oct. 15            Cristina Piluso successfully defended her dissertation, Industrial Sustainability Analysis and Decision-Making under Uncertainty: A System Approach, on Sept. 29.  Starting this week, Cristina, or Dr. Piluso, becomes Sustainability Specialist at BASF, Florham Park, New Jersey.  Congratulations, Cristina!

Sept. 5            We are very pleased to learn from AIChE Sustainable Engineering Forum's Award Committee that Cristina Piluso has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 AIChE SEF Best Student Paper Award.  The paper, "Ecological Input-Output Analysis-Based Sustainability Analysis of Industrial Systems," was published in Ind. & Eng. Chem. Research (47(6), 1955-1966, 2008).  Helen Lou and Dr. Huang are the co-authors.  An award ceremony will be held during the AIChE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia in mid Nov. this year.  Congratulations, Cristina.  This is a prestigious award!  

July 23            In last May, Cristina Piluso, Jie Xiao, Zheng Liu, and Zhen Wu, submitted a total of nine abstracts for presentation at the AIChE Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Nov. 16-21, 2008.  All the papers have been accepted for presentation in nine sessions; they will all attend the meeting at that time.  Congratulations to all!

July 22            Cristina Piluso was invited to attend the ACS Summer School on Sustainability and Green Chemistry that was held in Golden, Colorado, July 9-17, 2008.  The summer school provided great opportunities for the graduate students to learn green chemistry and engineering, renewable resources, and energy sources.  The students took advantage of the unique opportunity to engage in a number of activities designed to provide a solid foundation in sustainability and green chemistry.

July 2               Prof. Huang and Cristina Piluso were invited by BASF Chemicals in Wyandotte, Michigan to attend the company's Sustainability Initiative Meeting, in Flighting Island, Canada, today.  During the meeting, Cristina introduced her Ph.D. study on industrial sustainability.  Seven BASF engineers from different divisions/departments also introduced their work on sustainable development.  The BASF group was very much interested in integrating WSU's methodology into their eco-efficiency analysis project.

June 10            We are pleased to announce that Ms. Jennifer Huang, a senior student at University of Michigan, has joined us as an NSF REU student to conduct research in the summer.  Jennifer's main effort will be on integrating social sustainability elements into the assessment of the sustainability of the sustainable automotive coating industry.  She will work with the two Ph.D. candidates, Cristina Piluso and Jie Xiao, during her study.

June 4              During the first American Coatings Conference that was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, between June 2 and 4, Prof. Huang and Jie Xiao gave an oral presentation, "Computational Nanopaint Design: Methodology and Case Studies," which drew a great attention in the conference.  

                        According to Dr. Mike Morgan, Director of Science and Technology of NPCA and Chair of the Conference, "72 high-level technical papers were selected from 170 submissions for oral presentations, based on the potential of the contributions to add value to the industry."  Our paper was the only one selected in the computational material design area.  Jie Xiao also presented a poster paper, "Sustainable Manufacturing of Automotive Coating: A Computer-aided Multiscale Approach," which as co-authored by Zheng Liu, Cristina Piluso, Zhen Wu, and Prof. Huang  This poster was sponsored by Cytec Industries, Inc.  

                        During the conference, Jie was interviewed by the conference organizing committee; the interview was published in the American Coatings Show Daily next day.

May 30            We are very pleased to announce that Cristina Piluso has decided to accept a job offer from BASF.  About a month ago, Cristina was introduced by Prof. Huang to the BASF Chemical's R&D director, who was very much impressed by  Cristina's work on industrial sustainability and knowledge in process systems engineering.  BASF then quickly interviewed her and made a decision for recruitment in the next working day.  Cristina plans to start her job in late August, after finishing her Ph.D. dissertation.  Congratulations to Cristina!  

April 28            Korkut Uygun, a former lab member, sent us great news: he was awarded an NIH K99/R00 - Pathway to Independence Award: "Computer-Aided Development of a Liver Organ Culture System". The total amount is $927,000.  Korkut was recently promoted to Instructor in Surgery (Bioengineering) at Harvard Medical School.  He works at the Center for Engineering in Medicine of the Massachusetts General Hospital, under Dr. Martin Yarmush, and with Dr. Francois Berthiaume.  He is currently the leader of the Organ Engineering Group, which consists of two PhD candidates, one postdoc, and one technician. Their research objective is to recondition discarded donor organs in order increase the supply of of transplantable organs, and utilize the unrecoverable organs as cell sources for cell transplantation or in bioartificial organ substitutes (such as bioartificial livers).

                        Korkut finished his Ph.D. thesis, Dynamic Modeling, Analysis and Optimization of Complex Chemical and Metabolic Systems, in our lab in 2004.  He then spent two years in our lab as a post-doctor.  During that time, he generated two high quality papers in the biomedical engineering area.  One is titled “Investigation of Metabolic Objectives in Cultured Hepatocytes,” Biotech. & Bioeng., 97(3), 622-637, 2007, and the other is titled "DFBA-LQR: An Optimal Control Approach to Flux Balance Analysis," Ind. & Eng. Chem. Research, 45(25), 8554-8564, 2006.

                         Congratulations!

April 18            Cristina Piluso was invited to give a speech to the Green Technology Symposium held at Wayne State University today.  Cristina's speech title is "Industrial Sustainability: from Green Engineering to Sustainable Engineering."  Many industrial leaders, including those from BASF Chemical and DTE, attend the symposium.  Industrial sustainability and sustainable energy are the main topics of the symposium. 

Jan. 20             Jie Xiao was recently honored for the 2007-08 Andrzej Olbrot Travel Award, College of engineering, Wayne State University.  This award is specifically for recognizing outstanding student's research work that is to be presented at national conferences.  Congratulations!  

Lab News of 2007

Nov. 10            Cristina Piluso and Jie Xiao attended the AIChE Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, between Nov. 4 and Nov. 9, 2008.  During the meeting, they gave six excellent technical presentations.  One of the paper was contributed by Zheng Liu.  Cristina also co-chaired one technical session.  Our former lab member, Dr. Jia Li, also attended the meeting there.  

Oct. 19            Zheng Liu successfully defended his M.S. thesis, Methodological Study on Integrated Product and Process Control, today.  Congratulations!  Zheng will continue for his Ph.D. in our lab.

Oct. 12            Cristina Piluso developed the second issue of the AIChE SEF Newsletter, which was distributed among the membership.  Jie Xiao has uploaded it to the AIChE SEF Webpage.

Oct. 11            We are pleased to learn that Mr. James Wu, a Ph.D. student at South China University of Technology, will join our lab as a visiting Ph.D. student for one year.  James is planning to arrive in the end of this month.  He is an outstanding student, his study will be fully supported through a grant from the Chinese Scholarship Council.  James' research will focus on integrated process and product control with applications to crystallization. 

Oct. 5               Prof. Huang co-chaired the First International Symposium on Sustainable Chemical Product and Process Engineering in Guangzhou, China, between Sept. 25 and Sept. 28, 2007.  More than 400 people from China, US, Germany, Denmark, UK, Netherlands, Norway, Japan, Hong Kong, Taipei, etc., attended the symposium, which was first of this kind in Asia. Prof. Ignacio Grossman of Carnegie Mellon, Prof. James Wei of Priinceton, Prof. Edward Cussler of Minnesota, Dr. Jeffery Siirola of Eastman Chemical, Dr. Maria Burka of NSF, and Dr. Subhas Sikdar of EPA NRMRL were among the distinguished plenary or keynote speakers.  Prof. Charles Manke, Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Cristina Piluso attended the symposium as well.  This symposium was reported in Vol. 1, No. 2 of the AIChE SEF Newsletter (pp. 4-7).

Sept. 10           The Lab is pleased to announce that Ms. Abita Antony and Mr. Tamer Girgis have joined the lab for M.S. and Ph.D. study, respectively.  Abita holds a B.S. degree in Polymer Engineering in India.  Before joining Wayne State University, she was a process engineer working on paint application with Samsung in Korea.  She is interested in studying nanopaint in her M.S. study.  Tamer holds his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering at Wayne State University.  He is currently a process engineer at Reilly Plating Company.  His Ph.D. research will focus on electrodeposition, possibly considering nanocoating process development.  Welcome, Abita and Tamer.

Sept. 1             We are pleased to announce that Xuanwen Luo has joined General Motors as a process engineer, working in the GM Tech. Center's Paint Group.  Xuanwen's main duty is to study how to use Computational Fluid Dynamics techniques to model and simulate paint spray.  Xuanwen works under the supervision of Dr. Harry Kuo, Technical Fellow of GM, who is Prof. Huang's collaborator on an NSF research project.  Congratulations, Xuanwen.  

Aug. 22           Prof. Huang chaired the Technology Workshop on Chemical-Metal Zero-Discharge Technology for Profitable Pollution Prevention in Electroplating Processes in K.C. Jones Plating Company, Hazel Park, Michigan, Aug. 17.  This Workshop was co-sponsored by Michigan Department of Environmental Technology, K.C. Jones Plating, and Wayne State University.  According to the e-mail of Aug. 22 from Mr. Robert Jackson and Mr. David Herb, Program Managers of MDEQ, "the pollution prevention technology showcase demonstration" was "very well done, and about the best the MDEQ can hope for from these events."  They further indicated that "The feedback from the evaluation surveys clearly indicate the workshop was well done and very useful to the attendees.  The best indication on the success of the project and workshop was that 90% of the surveys indicated they would further pursue the technology with up to 80% likely to implement in some form."  During the project period between 2005 and 2007, Jie Xiao, Jigar Patel, Cristina Piluso and Zheng Liu worked with the KC Jone's team to implement two technologies.  The technology has given rise to tremendous source waste reduction, significant chemical and water savings, and product quality improvement.  The ratio of the profit generated from this project to the total annualized costs reached 17.2:1.  This means that for every dollar spent for using this project, it will generate $17.2 each year.

Aug. 15           Jie Xiao, Cristina Piluso, and Zheng Liu attended the 2007 International Conference on Surface Finishing in Cleveland, Ohio, between Aug. 12 and 15.  During the conference, Jie and Cristina presented their papers.  Their presentations attracted many industrial experts.

April 30           Cristina Piluso was appointed by the Executive Committee of the AIChE Sustainable Engineering Forum as the founding Editor of the AIChE SEF Newsletter.  Cristina worked extremely hard to develop the first issue of the Newsletter in the past month, with the support from the entire SEF Executive Committee.  Now the inaugural issue is published on the SEF Website, and distributed to the entire membership.  

Feb. 28            Cristina Piluso flew to Auckland, New Zealand on Feb. 19, where she attended the International Conference on Sustainability Engineering and Science between Feb. 20 and Feb. 23.  Cristina presented the paper, Decision Analysis Framework for the Industrial Sustainability Analysis of the Surface Finishing Industry.  Her participation of the conference was sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation.  Prof. Helen Lou of Lamar University, a former member of the Huang Lab, attended the conference there as well.

Feb. 1             Jia Li successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis, Integrated Product and Process Study: A System Approach to Multiscale Complex Systems, on Jan. 25.  In late December, Jie accepted a job offer as a senior process engineer from Clear Water Bay Technology, which is located in Los Angelos, California.  Jia starts his job there today.  Congratulations, Jia.  You have our best wishes for your career.

Lab News of 2006

Oct. 20            We are very pleased to learn from AIChE Process Development Division's Award Committee that Jie Xiao has been selected as the recipient of the 2006 AIChE Process Development Division's Best Student Paper Award.  An award ceremony will be held in San Francisco on Nov. 14, 2006, during the AIChE Annual National Meeting.  This is a prestigious award!  The paper, "Ant-Colony-System-Based Dynamic Optimization for Curing of Polymeric Coating," was published by AIChE Journal early this year (52(4), 1410-1422, 2006; see the paper under "Publications" section of this web site).  Jie is the first author, and Jia Li, Helen Lou, Qiang Xu, and Dr. Huang are the co-authors.  Congratulations to all!

Sept. 28           Our former lab member, Dr. Helen Lou, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Lamar University, was recently awarded by National Science Foundation for leading a U.S. delegation to attend the International Conference on Sustainable Science and Engineering in New Zealand in Feb. 2007.  Congratulations! 

Sept. 12           Mr. Jie Xiao has been elected as Chair of the 6th Graduate Research Symposium of Chemical Engineering and Material Science at Wayne State University.  The Symposium will be held on Nov. 9, 2006.

Aug. 1             Our former lab member, Dr. Helen Lou, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Lamar University, recently becomes a Professional Engineering (PE) in Texas. Congratulations to Dr. Lou for her great achievement! 

July 7               Dr. Korkut Uygun has accepted an offer as Research Associate in Massachusetts General Hospital and is going to move to Boston shortly.  Congratulations to Korkut!  Korkut is finishing his post-doctoral research in the lab.  During his study, Korkut published several important papers in the area of process security, integration of process design and control, and more recently biosystems engineering.  The lab had a wonderful farewell party with Korkut today (see the picture here)!  

June 1              Our former lab members, Dr. Helen Lou, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Lamar University, will be Chair of the Topical on Sustainable Engineering during the AIChE Annual National Meeting in San Francisco between Nov. 12 and Nov. 17, 2006.  Congratulations!

May 1              Our former lab members, Dr. Qiang Xu, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Lamar University, will be Chair of the two sessions during the AIChE Annual National Meeting in San Francisco between Nov. 12 and Nov. 17, 2006.  Congratulations!

April 18            We are very pleased to announce that Mr. Jigar Patel has accepted a job offer from Zestron America in Virginia.  He will be a process engineer there.  Since his graduation with M.S. degree here last September, Jigar has been a research assistant in the group, working on a technology demonstration project.  Jigar was an outstanding student and we trust that he will be a very capable engineer with this new challenge.  Congratulations on Jigar!

April 5             Mr. Jia Li won the 2006 University Dissertation Fellowship Award.  Congratulations to Jia!

March 27         We are very pleased to learn that Ms. Cristina Piluso, was informed by Air & Waste Management Association for the 2006-2007 Scholarship.  Congratulations on this national award to Cristina!

March 15         The Lab's recent publication, "An Improved g-Analysis Method for Process Security Analysis," authored by Uygun, Huang, and Lou, was published in  Trans. IChemE. (Part B), 84(2), 92-100, 2006.  Prof. Huang was informed by Institution of Chemical Engineers, UK, recently that this article had been selected as a featured article that is to be highlighted in The Chemical Engineer, a key magazine of the Institution, in 2006.  

March 10         We are pleased to learn that Ms. Bo-Yeon Kim, our former lab member who graduated with M.S. in our program in 2005, joined SamSung Electronics, Inc., in Korea in January 2006.  Congratulations, Bo-Yeon!.  Bo-Yeon works in the Department of Environment and Safety of the company there.

Jan. 27             Dr. Robert C. Armstrong, Chevron Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT, gave the the seminar, Frontiers in Chemical Engineering Education, at WSU.  Dr. Armstrong is a national leader in chemical engineering curriculum reform and an internationally well known scholar in polymer molecular theory, polymer fluid mechanics, rheology, multiscale process modeling, transport phenomena, and applied mathematics.  During his visit, Dr. Armstrong joined our Lab. meeting and provided valuable research guidance to the groups.  See our picture with Dr. Armstrong.

Jan. 10             The most recent issue of AESF Society Journal, Plating and Surface Finishing, 92(11), 2005, p. 9, published an article about our former lab member, Prof. Helen Lou, titled "Dr. Helen Lou is Giving Back to the Surface Finishing Industry."  Dr. Lou was also recently elected into the Editorial Board of Journal of Applied Surface Finishing.

Lab News of 2005

Dec. 1              Mr. Jie Xiao was recently honored for the 2005 Andrzej Olbrot Travel Award, College of engineering, Wayne State University.  This award is specifically for recognizing outstanding student's research work that is to be presented at national conferences.  Congratulations!  

Nov. 28          The Lab has a new member now.  Mr. Zheng Liu joined us today.  Zheng is a new Ph.D. student in our graduate program, starting in Fall 2005.  Zheng holds BS in Automation from Beijing University of Science and Technology, China, (2002), and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University, China (2005).  Welcome, Zheng!

Nov. 11           Dr. Subhas Sikdar, Acting Associate Director of U.S. EPA National Risk Assessment Research Laboratory visited the department for the seminar, Green Chemistry in EPA's Sustainability Research.  Dr. Sikdar is an internationally well known scholar and leader in industrial sustainability.  During his visit, Dr. Sikdar attended our Lab. meeting and provided research guidance to the group members.  See our picture with Dr. Sikdar.

Oc. 29             The AIChE Annual National Meeting is to be held in Cincinnati, OH, in the week of Oct. 29.  Four group members of our lab, Jia Li, Cristina Piluso, Korkut Uygun, and Jie Xia, and our former member and now assistant professor, Qiang Xu, attend the meeting, where they will present 10 excellent papers.  

Oct. 12            The 5th Graduate Research Symposium of Chemical Engineering and Material Sciences at Wayne State University was held successfully today.  Mr. Jia Li's post paper, "A Multi-Layer, Multi-Dimensional Framework for Modeling Tumor Growth," was selected as the Best Poster Paper.  Congratulations, Jia!

Sept. 7             Mr. Jigar Patel successfully defended his M.S. thesis today.  His thesis title is Integration of Process Design and Control through Optimal Control. Due to his outstanding contribution in the field.  This thesis was recommended for the 2004-2005 M.S. Thesis Competition at Wayne State University.

Aug. 4              The Lab held a farewell party for Dr. Qiang Xu who is getting ready for leaving for Beaumont, Texas to start his academic career.  This party was initiated by Prof. Huang's appreciation to Qiang's significant contributions to the lab development.  Qiang then gave a very enjoyable seminar that summarized his search work on several projects over the past two years.  The lab members chatted with good wish to Qiang for his success in the future.  All attended members had a picture with Qiang.

Jul. 18              Dr. Qiang Xu has received an official offer from Lamar University as a tenure-track assistant professor of chemical engineering.  We congratulate Qiang and wish him all the best in his career development at Lamar University.  Qiang graduated with B.S. ChE (1995), B.S. Environ. Eng. (1995), MS. ChE (1998), and Ph.D. ChE (2003) from Tsinghua University.  Qiang joined our lab as a post-doctoral fellow in March 2003.  Qiang will leave for Texas, the petrochemical capital, in mid August.  We will miss you, Qiang! 

Jun. 17             We learned happily  that Mr. Jie Xiao was awarded as a 2005 Bruno Leonelli Memorial Scholarship by American Electroplaters and Surface Finishers (AESF) Society.  To win this award with an associated scholarship is very competitive at the national level.  This award is a recognition of Jie's work on coating quality control using an ant-colony-system-based optimization method.  Congratulations!

                        Jie is the third one at Wayne State University to win this type of prestigious award from AESF.  Two former members, Dr. Helen Lou and Dr. Qiong Zhou, won the same award in 1999 and 2000, respectively.  Dr. Lou is Associate Professor at Lamar University, and Dr. Zhou is a senior engineering with GE currently.

Jun. 15             Dr. Arnesh Telukdarie, a former lab member, attended the SUR/FIN International in St. Louis recently, where he presented a paper.  During the meeting, Arnesh met Dr. Huang and discussed issues for continuous research collaboration.  Arnesh is Senior Lecturer at Duban Institute of Technology.  He finished his Ph.D. Thesis Defense at Natal University, South Africa, in Dec. 2004. 

May 24            Ms. Cristina Piluso returned to Marathon Ashland Petrochemical – Michigan Refining Division for summer internship this year again.  Her research focus is on refinery security enhancement.

May 22            Ms. Cristina Piluso won the 2005 Air & Waste Management Association’s Paul R. Shutt Memorial Award.  An award ceremony was held by Air & Waste Management Associate – East Michigan Chapter in Detroit, MI, on May 18.  Congratulations to Cristina!

May 1              This year, the Lab has six post-doctors and students submitted 11 abstracts for presentation at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Cincinnati, OH, between October 30 and November 4, 2005.

Lab News of 2004

December 6     Mr. Jia Li won the Best Paper Award from the 4th Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Graduate Symposium at Wayne State University.  Congratulations!

December 3     Dr. David R. Bauer, Senior Staff Member of Materials Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford Motor Company was invited to visit the Lab.  Dr. Bauer is an internationally renowned scholar and researcher in the field of surface engineering.  He gave a departmental seminar, "Paint Application and Cure:  Using Principles of Chemical Engineering and Physical Chemistry," and the Lab organized a meeting to share our research experience and to discuss with Dr. Bauer about our research collaboration opportunities between WSU and Ford.

December 1     Mr. Jia Li was recently honored for the 2005 Andrzej Olbrot Travel Award, College of Engineering , Wayne State University .  Congratulations!

November 5    Dr. Rafiqul Gani, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark visited the lab.  Dr. Gani is an internationally renowned scholar and educator.  As a guest speaker, Dr. Gani gave a departmental seminar, "A Reverse Approach for Sustainable Product - Process Design."  The lab has extensive discussions with him in many areas of process systems engineering. 

October 31      Dr. Quanzhong Yan, our former lab member, recently joined General Motors -- Tech. Center -- as a senior enginneering.  Quangzhong was with DaimlerChrysler -- Tech. Center -- for almost four years before joining GM.  Quangzhong finished his Ph.D. degree in the lab in Dec. 2000.

August 31        Dr. Korkut Uygun has been appointed as a post-doctor in the lab.  Korkut's research will be focused on dynamic    modeling and optimization of complex chemical and metabolic systems.  Welcome, Korkut.

August 25        Mr. Isik Kuntay, a former lab member, has found a job with Nu United Motors, Inc., a subsidiary of Toyota, in San    Francisco, CA.  Isik's main duty is to conduct studies on coating defect analysis.  His work on CFD based paint spray simulation will help him further his study on automotive coating.  Congratulations to Isik.

August 18        A group of six Ford engineers and scientists from Ford AMTD, Science Lab, and Vehicle Operations visited the lab.    Wayne State's work on CFD-based modeling, simulation, and optimization for coating quality improvement and energy reduction impressed Ford greatly.  Comprehensive collaboration opportunities were discussed.

July 26             Dr. Qiong Zhou, a former lab member, and now with GE as a senior control engineer, visited the lab and gave a talk on fuel cell design and control.  His talk attracted us greatly.

August 10        Mr. Arnesh Telukdarie, Senior Lecturer at Duban Institute of Technology and Ph.D. Candidate at Natal University, South Africa, successfully finished his summer research in the Lab and returned with his family to South Africa.  During his visit, Arnesh attended the International Conference on Surface Finishing in late June, where he presented a paper with great success.  He also submitted a manuscript with Dr. Huang for publication in J. of Plating and Surface Finishing.  In addition, he initiated the work on modeling and simulation of nickel plating.

June 24            Mr. Korkut Uygun successfully finished his Ph.D. thesis defense today.  Congratulations to Dr. Uygun!

June 10            Mr. Arnesh Telukdarie, Senior Lecturer at Duban Institute of Technology and Ph.D. Candidate at Natal University, South Africa, arrived, with his family, at Wayne State University.  Arnesh will conduct research in the Lab this summer, as he did last summer, as a Visiting Research Student.  Welcome, Arnesh and your family for your return!

June 8              The Lab has eight abstracts accepted for presentation at the AIChE Annual National Meeting in Austin, TX, November 7 – 12, 2004.  Dr. Qiang Xu, Mr. Uygun Korkut, Mr. Jia Li, and Ms. Cristina Piluso each submitted abstracts.

June 4              Dr. Qiang Xu was recommended as Vice Chair for the session on Risk Assessment and Analysis at the AIChE Spring National Meeting in Atlanta, GA, in April 2005.  Congratulations to Qiang!

June 2              Prof. Helen Lou, a former Lab member, was informed by Lamar University Board of Regents that she had been promoted to Associate Professor, effective September 2004.  This is really exiting news.  Helen obtained her Ph.D. in the Lab in August 2001, and joined Lamar University as an Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering immediately after.  Congratulations to Helen!

May 31            Mr. Kortut Uygun won the Wayne State University 2004 Dissertation Fellowship Award.  Congratulations to Korkut!

May 24            Ms. Cristina Piluso began her summer research internship at Marathon Ashland Petrochemical – Michigan Refining Division.  Her research focus is on refinery security enhancement.

May 24            Dr. Qiong Zhou of GE visited the Lab.  Qiong graduated with a Ph.D. from our Lab in August 2002.  He then immediately joined Ford Motor Company to conduct research on vehicle emission modeling and simulation.  In May 2003, Qiong was offered a job by GE to conduct very challenging research on fuel cell modeling and control in Los Angeles, CA.  He has been greatly enjoying the new job.  Needless to say, the beautiful weather there has made him even happier.

May 17            Ms. Cristina Piluso won the 2004 Air & Waste Management Association’s Paul R. Shutt Memorial Award.  An award ceremony was held by Air & Waste Management Associate – East Michigan Chapter in Detroit, MI, on May 17.  Congratulations to Cristina!

May 10            Ms. Jean Nei successfully finished her project on large-scale dynamic simulation, as an Undergraduate Research Assistant, in the Lab.  Jean recently graduated with B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Wayne State University.  She planned to start her Ph.D. study at Wayne State University in the coming Fall.

May 5              Dr. Qiang Xu was appointed by the AIChE Sustainable Engineering Forum as Webmaster for the Forum’s web page development.  Thanks for Qiang’s contribution.

April 28            Mr. Korkut Uygun successfully co-chaired the session, Engineering Solutions to Facility Security Challenges, during the AIChE Spring National Meeting in New Orleans, LA, April 25-29, 2004.  Congratulations to Korkut!

April 15           Mr. Jie Xiao, as a new Ph.D. student, joined the Lab.  Jie obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Process Control from Zhejiang University, China, in 2000 and 2003, respectively.  Welcome, Jie!

March 15         Mr. Xuanwen Luo joined the Lab.  Xuanwen is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science, co-supervised by Prof. Ming Dong and Prof. Yinlun Huang.  Xuanwen graduated with a B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University, China, in 1987.  He received his M.S. degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science in 2000 and 2002, respectively, all from Southern Illinois University.  Welcome, Xuanwen!