The University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering has chosen two mechanical engineering students as Outstanding Senior and Junior for the 2012-2013 academic year. Senior John Alred and junior Ryan Hannemann were selected for superlative academic performance, representing a group of high-achieving students from each of the college’s undergraduate programs.

The University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering put up a perfect record in the highly competitive 2012 CAREER Award competition, getting six winners on six applications. Now, the college is off to a strong start for 2013, notching a win thanks to assistant professor of mechanical engineering Haleh Ardebili.

Pradeep Sharma, chairman of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

With engine emissions requirements as strict as ever and federally mandated fuel economy standards set to rise, the National Science Foundation has awarded professors at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering $200,000 to further their research on computational models and algorithms to optimize engine performance in both areas.

Computing power’s decades-long rise has been both steady and astounding, but for this rise to continue researchers must grapple with some fundamental challenges.

Among these is heat. As devices become more compact and powerful, they generate more heat trapped to a smaller area. Today’s cooling technologies are simply not up to the job of removing heat that will be generated by tomorrow’s devices.

It sounds like the setup to a bad joke: How many engineers does it take to boil water? Actually, to do so as efficiently as possible, it takes two (plus their research teams).

They are called the Oscars of the science world, and a professor with the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering has just won his second in three years.

The University of Houston has awarded Gangbing Song, professor of mechanical engineering in the Cullen College of Engineering, a 2012 Excellence in Research and Scholarship Award.

From finding directions to making phone calls, working on laptops to driving hybrid and electric cars, much of life is lived through battery-powered devices. It’s no surprise, then, that developing better batteries is a major thrust of science and engineering research.