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Rising to the pressure

MIME seniors Christopher Houck, Michael Klopfenstein, and Ruiqing Li.

Tricia Salcido had a problem.

As CEO of Philomath, Oregon-based Softstar Shoes – which makes “minimal” shoes, designed to allow natural, “barefoot-like” movement – she holds the quality of her company’s product paramount. When she identified an inconsistency in the manufacturing process that could lead to soles detaching over time, she needed a solution.

Luckily, answers lay just a few miles down the road, at Oregon State University.

The fight to protect infrastructure

Below the ground, unseen, the backbone of modern civilization is starting to crumble.

From small towns to megacities worldwide, bacteria in wastewater are destroying sewers, pipelines, and treatment plants. The phenomenon, known as microbial-induced corrosion, impacts any community that produces wastewater.

Although there is no standard test method to assess the extent of this corrosion, Oregon State engineers are designing a safer, quicker, more accurate test of products used to prevent it.

Running in the real world

Houssam Abbas (right) works with students on building a one-tenth scale autonomous race car in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. Photo by Hannah O'Leary.

As the world becomes more dependent on the safe operation of autonomous vehicles and medical devices, the research in testing such systems becomes more critical. The challenge of developing control and verification algorithms for such safety-critical systems is what excites Houssam Abbas about his work.

And although his research begins with theory, it is more than that.

Global Formula Racing says auf wiedersehen to combustion car, and willkommen to driverless

For the first (and last) time, Global Formula Racing brought three cars to competition.

Global Formula Racing — the partnership between Oregon State University and German university DHBW Ravensburg— has a storied and stellar track record. Since 2010, the team has racked up multiple top-10 finishes in race cars designed and built from the ground up.

A new dimension for 3D printing

Jim Stasiak and Professor Pallavi Dhagat meet in the Applied Magnetics Lab at Oregon State to discuss the progress of their project to print electric and magnetic devices. Photo by Hannah O'Leary.

“I have a vison of printing an entire robot that would walk off the printer,” said Pallavi Dhagat, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Oregon State University and president of the IEEE Magnetics Society.