MADISON, Wis.—Dr. Andrea Strzelec, program director of the Master of Engineering in Engine Systems, Polymer Engineering and Power Engineering programs at UW-Madison Engineering Professional Development (an office of the College of Engineering) has been selected to be among 60 of “the most promising engineers under the age of 45”—from the United States and Germany—to participate in the 2021 German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium March 18-20, 2021, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The Frontiers of Engineering (FOE) program was established by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) to introduce young (age 30-45) engineers to each other “and through this interaction facilitate collaboration in engineering, the transfer of new techniques and approaches across fields, and establishment of contacts among the next generation of engineering leaders.” The FOE invites participants from the United States, Germany, Japan, India, China, and the European Union to separate symposia throughout the year.
Started in 1998, participants in the German-American Frontiers of Engineering (GAFOE) program symposium—approximately 30 from the United States and 30 from Germany—must be nominated and are then chosen in a competitive selection process before receiving an FOE invite. More information about the nomination and selection process is here.
Dr. Strzelec performed her graduate work in the UW-Madison Engine Research Center (ERC), working with Professors Dave Foster and Chris Rutland from the UW-Madison Department of Mechanical Engineering. During her post-doctoral fellowship in the Fuels, Engines and Emissions Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), she expanded her research focus to neutron radiography, leveraging the High Flux Isotope Reactor and Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL.”
Since returning to the UW-Madison in 2019, Dr. Strzelec has been working closely with Robert Agasie, director of the University of Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor (UWNR) on developing neutron radiography capabilities. Dr. Strzelec teaches graduate courses in thermodynamics, internal combustion engines, exhaust aftertreatment, combustion science, automotive engineering, and heat transfer. Previously, she taught undergraduate courses in automotive engineering, internal combustion engines, thermodynamics, heat transfer, thermal fluids analysis and design, and senior Capstone design. She is the recipient of the 2015 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award and the Texas A&M Mechanical Engineering 2015 Brittan Undergraduate Teaching Award and is the chair of the SAE Exhaust Aftertreatment and Emissions Committee and Vice-Chair of the SAE Powertrain Fuels and Lubricants Committee.
She recently co-authored Automotive Emissions Regulations and Exhaust Aftertreatment Systems, an SAE Core Title, with fellow Badger Dr. John Kasab of AVL.
Throughout the symposium, GAFOE participants will attend talks (virtually if COVID-19 preventative restrictions continue) about areas where engineers are needed to do work and participants will assemble organically around those topics to work out solutions, based on the individual participant’s background and area of research. Topics of discussion will include: Quantum Computing; Carbon Capture and Utilization, Biologization (aka cell biophysics or mechanobiology), and Manufacturing 4.0.
GAFOE is carried out in cooperation with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and supported by The Grainger Foundation. The National Academy of Sciences established the NAE in 1964.