Michelle Lee, (McCormick ME ’13) and Several Classmates Publish a Book Working with Prof. Wang.
Michelle Lee, Editor
Springer (ISBN 978-3-319-03124-8)
This book explores a collection of natural surfaces, their scientific characteristics, and their unique engineering potential – demonstrating that engineering applications can be found in unexpected places. The surfaces range from botanical ones like rice and lotus leaves, to insect surfaces, like butterfly and dragonfly wings. The variety of surfaces and numerous engineering potentials described show how biomimicry can be utilized to solve countless real-world problems.
The book began in Professor Wang's Introduction to Tribology class during Fall quarter of 2012. As an end-of-the-quarter project, many of the students in the class wrote 'journal articles' analyzing a distinct natural surface, ranging anywhere from a certain leaf to shark skin to insect wings. Students wrote about the specific characteristics that made their natural surface unique, the engineering concepts behind these characteristics, and finally any potential and existing engineering applications. During the quarter, Professor Wang mentioned that it would be great if these articles were published as a popular science book. Students thought chances were slim, however, thanks to Professor Wang's encouragement and mentorship, Michelle Lee (McCormick BSME ’13) and a classmate proposed the book to Springer, and to their amazement Springer stated they would like to publish the book!
Since the time Springer chose to publish the book, Michelle Lee became the editor for this project and wrote some of the chapters for the book. The classmates who also helped were: Mindie Chu (BS/MS BME ’14); Ignacio Estrada (BSME ’14); Shiqi Luohong (MSME ’14); and Yunho Yang (MSME ’13). As editor, Michelle spent the winter quarter for making the book proposal and the entire summer to work on the content of the book, which was tremendous effort beyond the class. Further, Michelle also approached the area high school science and engineering instructors who are planning to refer the book to the students interested in STEM topics.
To conclude, Remarkable Natural Material Surfaces and Their Engineering Potential is a compilation of 13 different kinds of natural surfaces--many of which can be easily found near homes--and their respective science and engineering values. The surfaces covered range from insect surfaces, like dragonfly and butterfly wings, to botanical ones, like rice and lotus leaves. Other surfaces include shark skin and gecko pads, among many more. The chapters in this book were written by seniors and graduate students in Professor Q. Jane Wang's Introduction to Tribology class (Fall '12). All passionate about nature, the contributing student authors have strived to share their understanding with the communities around them. According to the editor Michelle Lee, “It was such a great opportunity to learn countless things from the experience. Invaluable experience, most definitely!"