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Evelyn Hanna Laffey is the Assistant Dean for Engineering Education with the Office of Student Development at the Rutgers University School of Engineering. She has a bachelor's in mathematics and doctorate in mathematics education from Rutgers University. She has over ten years experience working with K-12 students and teachers. Her research interests are in engineering education at the K-16 level and understanding how to provide an excellent and equitable education to all students.

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Kimberly Cook-Chennault is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Rutgers University and Associate Director for the Center for Advanced Energy Systems (CAES). She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and Stanford University, respectively, and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan. Prior to receiving her doctorate, Cook-Chennault worked at Ford Motor Company, Cummins Engine, Visteon, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories as a summer intern and Project Engineer. As a product engineer with Ford and Visteon, she designed seat and washer bottle assemblies, and established design criterion for impending product platforms. While at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, she created dynamic structural finite element numerical models of containers used to store and transport explosive materials. She also designed experiments to validate the predictions of these models. As a graduate student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Cook-Chennault developed the first algorithm for the design hybrid power supplies for portable MEMS. This work culminated with the creation of a user-friendly MatLab code, POWER (Power Optimization for Wireless Energy Requirements). This work introduced a new area of research, Hybrid Power Supply Design, which was the base line for the patents Vehicle Hybrid Energy System, United States Patent Application 20080245587, and University of Michigan File 3668 - Hybrid Battery Supply for EV, HEV or PHEV. As an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, Cook-Chennault’s research focuses on two areas: design of hybrid power systems and design of energetic piezoelectric materials for application to smart acoustic dampening, sensors/actuators, and energy harvesting. Design of hybrid power systems is the development of algorithms, techniques, and technology aimed at the rational design of power systems that incorporate more than one energy generating or harvesting device, with an emphasis on alternative energy systems. Cook-Chennault is currently collaborating with Sunlight Photonics, the Maine Maritime Academy, the NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Atlantis Resources Corporation on a Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project to develop a Marine and Hydrokinetic Prototype. For this work, Cook-Chennault will use her expertise in system integration and mechanical engineering to fabricate and analyze the prototype. The prototype will be assembled and tested by the Cook-Chennault group at Rutgers. All modeling work will be supplemented with experiments to validate models. Design of energetic piezoelectric materials focuses on exploring the electrical, mechanical and electromechanical properties of novel composite materials that can be applied to acoustic dampening, dampening, sensors/actuators, and energy harvesting. Cook-Chennault is currently funded through NASA to explore the electromechanical capabilities of three phase piezoelectric materials comprised of a matrix, piezoelectric and conductive material. The envisioned application of these materials is for acoustic liners that are used for attenuating combustion and turbine noise radiated from jet engines. Similarly, Cook-Chennault has been funded through NSF to explore these types of materials for application to sensors and actuators for self powering wireless sensor networks and energy harvesting for portable microelectronics. Inspired by advances in energy storage, generation,l and harvesting technologies, Cook-Chennault co-authored a NSF grant focusing on green technology, which aims to infuse engineering principals pertaining to green energy into pre-college curricula.

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