Mechanical Engineering Makes Debut at Richardson Parade
Each December, the City of Richardson, Texas, hosts its annual parade to officially start the holiday season. This year, the city celebrated the parade’s 50th anniversary with the theme of A Storybook Christmas, and families across the city attended for the festivities. Bands and dance teams from area schools provided music and entertainment, as community organizations drove through with decorated vehicles, passing out treats and highlighting their program offerings from scouts to social services. For the first time, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas joined the fun as an official parade participant.
Faculty and leaders from the Department of Mechanical Engineering included (from top left) PhD student Abhishek Singh; Dr. Joshua Summers, professor and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering; Dr. William Anderson, associate professor of mechanical engineering; (from lower left) Dr. Yonas Tadesse, professor of mechanical engineering and Dr. Dong Qian, professor of mechanical engineering. The group walked alongside Dr. Justin Ruths (sixth from top left) and his lab members, who wore blue shirts labeled with a Nova logo. The robot (lower center) was ready to roll, and the Nova vehicle (back) was decorated for the holidays.
The group arrived in style with the Nova, an electric test vehicle built and operated in the lab of Dr. Justin Ruths, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and systems engineering. Five faculty members in the Jonsson School earned early career awards in 2022, including Ruths, who earned a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation that includes a provision for undergraduate research support.
The Nova vehicle (formerly known as the Voltron) was designed and constructed by the undergraduate students in Ruths’ lab. Students from his team had the opportunity to showcase their work and decorated the vehicle to the delight of Richardson community members lining the streets of the parade route along Plano Road.
Abhishek Singh, a PhD student in mechanical engineering who works in Dr. Yonas Tadesse’s Humanoid, Biorobotics and Smart Systems lab, also brought an interactive robot, that is designed to communicate with facial expressions and hand movements enabled by ischemic grippers. The robot, also a prototype built by students, included a sensor that can detect obstacles and turn around.
The parade which benefited Network of Community Ministries reminded participants that while the Jonsson School attracts students and faculty from across the globe, it is also an essential part of the local community of Richardson. Mechanical engineering students and faculty waved like celebrities to children who watched in awe at the robot and the vehicle moving along the parade route.
“Maybe we can show up here, and we can find a few new students along the way,” said Dr. Dong Qian, associate department head and professor of mechanical engineering. “We just need to show them what we’re doing.”