Brickyard weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is probably the most hectic 48 hours in motorsports. The top three American racing series all compete back-to-back – which means that pit lane has three times more people than usual. Fans everywhere are taking selfies and hounding their favorite drivers for autographs. Crew members are trying to weave tire carts through the huge crowds. Course marshals are blowing their safety whistles. Celebrities are giving interviews in front of camera crews, while surrounded by fans, sponsors, and general hangers-on. One supporter literally fist-bumps a stack of tires belonging to his favorite driver.

Into this chaos steps Jonathan Hassler (BSME ’07), crew chief for NASCAR's #12 Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney.

His entrance goes unnoticed, without even a single autograph request. And that’s the way he prefers it. While most fans will be paying attention to the person behind the wheel, it’s actually the 3-ring binder in Hassler’s right hand which may be the difference between his team finishing mid-pack, or taking the checkered flag.

The ocean isn’t a uniform body of water, but stratified layers of different density, temperature, and salinity. As the climate changes, these density changes are becoming more extreme – affecting the movements of microorganisms in the water, and in turn affecting the production of oxygen and removal of carbon dioxide on a global scale.

Summer is the perfect time to learn about air-conditioning and refrigeration, and as the largest academic HVAC lab in the world, Purdue's Herrick Labs is the perfect place. Since 2016, Herrick Labs has hosted a unique cross-cultural learning collaboration, which includes graduate students from Purdue University, Oklahoma State University, Technical University of Dresden, and Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA).

Women of Purdue Mechanical Engineering will have a unique opportunity to meet other women students and faculty, attend seminars and chats specific to them, and network with successful alumnae. It's the 2nd annual Women in ME Symposium, on Monday, October 30.

Cancer researchers often require live tumors to test their new treatments. But harvesting live tumors is painful and dangerous, and creating new tumors in a lab can be time-consuming and difficult. Purdue University researchers have developed a novel solution: inkjet-printed tumors. By printing biomaterial in a unique two-dimensional pattern, these specimens naturally fold in on themselves to become lifelike three-dimensional tumoroids, in a process called morphogenesis.

Mechanical engineering seniors Kayla King and Jennifer Short have been selected as Purdue Engineering Fellows, recognizing the accomplishments, contributions and potential of outstanding seniors. Both will receive $20,000 upon graduation.

Monique McClain, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been recognized as part of the 2023 MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35. McClain studies additive manufacturing of energetic materials.

The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship is one of the most prestigious fellowships for graduate students working in national defense. One of this year’s recipients is Ph.D. candidate Rebekah Travis, who is researching energetic materials at Purdue University.

At just 50 microns in diameter, the world's smallest drum is 184 trillion times smaller than that Purdue icon, the World's Largest Drum. It was 3D printed by David Cappelleri, who uses this amazing technology at Birck Nanotechnology Center to build the latest generation of micro-robots.

56-year-old Ramin Ansari had a long and successful career before deciding to enroll for a Ph.D. at Purdue University. He was surprised to learn that graduate students are eligible to participate in the Purdue Grand Prix, the prestigious annual go-kart race. So he assembled a team from Herrick Labs to make it happen.