Mechanical & Materials Engineering

Professor and department head of materials and mechanical engineering, Robert Hyers, speaks with NBC Boston about 5 ways drivers can increase fuel efficiency as they hit the road this summer. 

Boston 25 News reported on a senior Major Qualifying Project conducted by students in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering seeking to develop a quieter ball for the sport of pickleball without sacrificing performance. The students explored potential geometric and materials changes in the design of balls and tested their prototypes for the decibel level produced and mechanical properties.

In a BBC article exploring myths and realities about how to properly handle charging cables, Robert Hyers, the George I. Alden Chair of Engineering and head of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, helps explain why parts of charging cables are more susceptible to breaking than others and how one particular consumer behavior puts cables at heightened risk of damage.

Robert Hyers, head of the mechanical and materials engineering department, offers a technical explanation to a problem most of us have encountered-- a broken charging cable. "On a microscopic level, bending beyond the elastic range makes the bonds between the atoms break and reform as they shift positions. You get this accumulation of defects called dislocations where the atoms don't line up, like wrinkles in a rug."