Mentions

2025

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.

Grover and Weber awarded research funding to study female pain
Pitt CTSI

ECE’s Pulkit Grover and MechE’s Doug Weber won $50,000 for research from a contest by Pitt CTSI, Magee Women’s Research Institute, and the Magee-Womens Summit. The Women’s Pain research challenge offers three $50,000 awards to be used for researching pain primarily experienced by women.

Zhang receives 2025 ASME Van C. Mow Medal
ASME

MechE’s Jessica Zhang was recently selected to receive the 2025 ASME Van C. Mow Medal, which is bestowed upon an individual who has demonstrated meritorious contributions to the field of bioengineering through research, education, professional development, leadership in the development of the profession, mentorship to young bioengineers, and with service to the bioengineering community. Zhang was selected “for pioneering contributions to developing novel algorithms of image-based geometric modeling, isogeometric analysis, multiphysics and data-driven modeling to simulate neuron material transport, traffic regulation and growth, cardiovascular systems, as well as leadership in the computational bioengineering profession.”

Zhang awarded AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture Prize
AWM and SIAM

MechE’s Jessica Zhang was recently awarded the prestigious 2025 AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture Prize, which is awarded annually by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and SIAM to highlight significant contributions of women to applied or computational mathematics. The lecture is normally given at the SIAM Annual Meeting. The citation from the award selection committee notes, “Dr. Yongjie Jessica Zhang is a distinguished scholar renowned for her pioneering work in computational geometry and finite element methods, with profound impacts across biomedical and engineering applications. As a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, she has advanced meshing techniques that enable precise simulations in complex domains that appear in medical imaging and biological modeling. Dr. Zhang’s innovative research on isogeometric analysis has set new standards in numerical accuracy and computational efficiency. Her numerous publications, leadership roles, and accolades, including her status as a fellow of several scientific societies, underscore her dedication to advancing the field and inspiring the next generation of computational scientists.”

November

Whitefoot quoted on EV metrics
Fast Company

EPP/MechE’s Kate Whitefoot was quoted in Fast Company about why EV manufacturers emphasize certain metrics like range in their advertising. “If you can advertise that EVs do have longer range, like up to 300 miles, then consumers are much more willing to purchase EVs and value them equally to gasoline vehicles,” said Whitefoot.

Michalek quoted on rideshare economics
Marketplace

EPP/MechE’s Jeremy Michalek spoke on Marketplace about how commuters are increasingly using rideshare instead of owning a car. “Because people work hybrid, work from home some of the days of the week, that changes the economics,” said Michalek.

Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student receives $49k grant award
National Institutes of Health

BME’s Dhruv Bhattaram, a second-year Ph.D. student, received $49k from the National Institutes of Health to advance his research, which centers around the development and application of lung epithelial organoids called apical-out airway organoids (AoAOs). Bhattaram has been part of BME’s Charlie Ren’s Engineered Morphogenesis Group since spring 2023. As principal investigator on the NIH project, he will partner with ChemE’s Coty Jen, MechE’s Amir Barati Farimani, and University of Pittsburgh’s Kong Chen to present AoAOs as a next-generation theragnostic platform targeted towards airway health and cilia pathophysiology.

October

Michalek discusses ride-hailing discrimination
Associated Press

EPP/MechE’s Jeremy Michalek spoke with the Associated Press about racial discrimination in ride-hailing technology. “The technology is mitigating a social issue, which is pretty rare,” Michalek explains. “Discrimination is having little effect on average wait times, at least in part because these apps are able to quickly rematch when somebody cancels. Whereas with taxis, it was a very hard problem to solve.”

Jayan discusses solid-state batteries
MSN

MechE’s Reeja Jayan spoke with MSN about the potential of solid-state batteries being used in electric vehicles. “Cons currently include higher manufacturing costs associated with the way the solid electrolyte is made and pressurized into the cells,” Jayan explains.