A research laboratory at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Valparaiso, Chile, will now bear the name of Dr. Yaakov Bar-Shalom.  Dr. Bar-Shalom, who is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and the Marianne E. Klewin Endowed Professor in Engineering, received a request from Dr. Fernando Auat Cheein, in the Department of Electronics Engineering, to name his laboratory the Prof. Bar-Shalom Laboratory of Robotics.  In explaining his request, Dr. Auat Cheein noted that “it is a tradition in my Department that all laboratories have names of well-known researchers…your books had (and have) a huge influence on my research…”  Dr. Bar-Shalom was deeply touched by the request and readily agreed.

***

Dr. Norman Garrick, associate professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and a recognized expert in the arena of sustainable transportation planning and design, was one of eight resource team member at the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, held in New Orleans.  Mayors from New Orleans, Spokane, Baltimore, Madison (WI), Anaheim, Hampton (VA), Burlington (VT) and Surprise (AZ) attended the event.  The Mayors’ Institute on City Design is a National Endowment for the Arts leadership initiative in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The 55^th National Session was sponsored in part by United Technologies Corporation. 

The spring 2013 issue of the Connecticut Green Guide, published by the Hartford Business Journal, featured a cover story profiling research underway within the Center for Transportation and Livable Systems. The five-page spread highlighted studies conducted by Drs. Norman Garrick, Nick Lownes and Joe Bushey (Civil & Environmental Engineering), Peng Zhang (Electrical & Computer Engineering) and Peter Miniutti (Landscape Architecture), including work focusing on parking and the economy, revitalizing Fairfield County Transit, car-sized power plants, slime mold transportation, reducing stormwater runoff and reconnecting New London.

***

Research conducted by Dr. William Mustain, assistant professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, and Ph.D. candidate Ying Liu (lead author) was profiled on the Green Car Congress website.  The research findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and describe the superior performance of a new catalyst material for proton exchange membrane fuel cells that employs tin-doped indium oxide nanoparticles as a high stability non-carbon support for platinum. The novel material exhibits excellent stability and activity for the oxygen reduction reaction.