UT Professor Zhili Zhang’s Need for Speed

Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it – unless you’re Zhili Zhang, Associate Professor of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering.

The University of Tennessee professor built a career around laser diagnostics and optical imaging, research that enables the visualization and study of ultrafast processes.

Stephanie TerMaath, the Jessie Rogers Zeanah Faculty Fellow in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering.

A team of researchers led by Stephanie TerMaath, UT’s Jessie Rogers Zeanah Faculty Fellow, is making promising strides in the treatment of hydrocephalus, a debilitating and sometimes fatal condition caused by an excess of cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord, by engineering an alternative to a device currently used to relieve symptoms.

“There’s no cure for hydrocephalus right now, only treatment of the effects through a surgically implanted device called a shunt,” said TerMaath, of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering. “Unfortunately shunts have a high rate of failure, requiring more surgeries for revision. We’re developing a new ventricular catheter that will be more resistant to obstruction, a common cause of shunt failure.”

A $9.8 million US Air Force Research Laboratory contract will team the University of Tennessee System; Purdue University; and the University of Dayton Research Institute on research and development of materials and structures for reusable hypersonic vehicles to travel at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound.

The University of Dayton Research Institute is the lead institution on the project.

At sea level, a speed five times the speed of sound translates to approximately 3,800 miles per hour— such extreme velocity that intense heat is generated by the vehicle. Understanding how that heat is transferred to the vehicle by the aerodynamic environment is critical to the vehicle design, according to H.H. Arnold Chair John Schmisseur, professor of mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering at the UT Space Institute.

“Understanding the origin and transmission of the intense thermal loads generated on a hypersonic vehicle requires identification of regions of significant local heating that are often the greatest source of risk to the vehicle surface,” Schmisseur said. “Fortunately, within the UT System, we have outstanding capabilities for just such a complex analysis.”

It’s a cold, frosty morning, and your thoughts turn to snuggling under the covers with a cup of coffee while the house warms up. Suddenly, your coffee machine kicks into gear just as the heat begins to rise in your home. No, it’s not your imagination. By merely thinking about it, your home is now cozier, your hot cup of java awaits in the kitchen, and you didn’t have to lift a finger.

The reality of controlling electronic devices using only your brain is closer than you think, thanks to the research of Associate Professor Xiaopeng Zhao.

A drone is the first device Zhao, graduate students Reza Abiri and Soheil Borhani, and undergraduate Justin Kilmarx, have demonstrated the ability to pilot using brainwaves, and they are amazing spectators who have the opportunity to see them make the drone fly without a normal hand-held controller.