Page 12 - ME Newsletter Fall

AMAZING ALUMNI
ROHINI BALA CHANDRAN
Congratulations to Rohini Bala Chandran on winning the 2023 ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer “for outstanding early-career contributions
to the application of radiative heat transfer science to solar thermal and thermochemical technologies.”
Rohini earned her MSME in 2010 and her PhD in 2015, and is now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan.
BRAD GUERTIN
Berd — a portmanteau of “bike” and “nerd” — has reinvented the wheel. Or, rather, the spoke. Berd,
a company co-founded by alum Brad Guertin
(‘10, MS ‘14), created a new technology that
makes it possible to connect bicycle spokes from lightweight flexible fibers to replace steel spokes without compromising strength. Specifically, they devised a connection that they compare to a Chinese finger trap, becoming tighter as it is pulled. Despite facing disbelief, it worked — and resulted in less vibration from road to rider, too.
Berd advertises its PolyLight spoke as “the lightest in the world.” In 2016, they won the Minnesota Cup, and in 2018 they were awarded a grant from the NSF. The spokes are available at local stores including Erik’s Bike Shop.
RACHEL ANDERSON
Each year, CSE departments hold Major Exploration Information Sessions to introduce first-year CSE students to each major. Rachel Anderson joined faculty member Natasha Wright and current student Benjamin Curoe at this year’s session
to talk to prospective students about being a mechanical engineering major.
Rachel completed the integrated BME/MSME program, finishing her undergraduate degree in 2019 and her master’s in 2020, and is a founding
member of student group She is ME. She works at Laplace Interventional as a senior research and development engineer working on transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement.
12 ME News Fall 2023