2025
February
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.
2024
November
Tang quoted on how AI can improve flight schedules
Fast Company
CEE’s Pingbo Tang was quoted in Fast Company about Odysee, a new AI tool used to optimize efficiency and revenue when creating flight schedules. “This is a very reasonable solution for Alaska Airlines,” said Tang.
July
McComb investigates potential application of Large Language Models in material selection
Autodesk
MechE’s Christopher McComb recently investigated the potential application of Large Language Models (LLMs) in material selection. His paper analyzes the responses obtained by prompting several LLMs to rate the appropriateness of various materials in certain design scenarios. McComb’s team found that, compared to ratings by human experts, the LLMs tended to overestimate the appropriateness of most materials, with less variance across different scenarios. The paper underscores current challenges in the direct application of LLMs for highly nuanced tasks, while highlighting specific areas of improvement and demonstrating the potential ability of LLMs to provide accurate assistance in material selection.
March
Three new professorships in Mechanical Engineering
Three new professorships were announced in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Burak Kara has been named a George Tallman and Florence Barrett Ladd Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Carmel Majidi has been named the Clarence H. Adamson Professor of Mechanical Engineering; and Jon Malen has been named the Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering.