Department: Mechanical Engineering/Engineering Technology
Mohammad Valipour
Stan Trout
With forty years’ experience in the permanent magnet and rare earth industries, Stan has a wealth of problem-solving abilities, gained from a wide variety of technical and commercial roles, that he is eager to share. He has been very fortunate to confer, study, meet and collaborate with many international luminaries along the way. He is particularly proud to have trained many of today’s active industry professionals. Stan has a B.S. in Physics from Lafayette College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Metallurgy and Materials Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a registered Professional Engineer in both Colorado and Pennsylvania.
Devi Kalla
Devi K. Kalla, Ph.D., is currently employed at Metropolitan State University of Denver on a full time basis as a Tenure Track Faculty member with a position title of Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology in the Department of Engineering Technology. Kalla has made substantial contributions to the hybrid and modern field of sustainable manufacturing science and engineering technology. His work has focused specifically in the areas of developing multiple regression analysis (MR) and committee neural network approximation (CN) models for predicting straight and oblique geometric cutting forces in milling operations using carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites in the production process, establishing life-cycle databases to advance sustainable manufacturing practices in wind energy systems, and developing a framework to construct energy profiles and characterize the energy consumption involved in modern machining processes to support low carbon manufacturing.
Moreover, Kalla has a documented record of authorship in the field of endeavor. As evidence of his research success, Kalla’s work has resulted in at least 2 first-authored book chapters, 13 presentations, and 28 peer-reviewed scholarly publications, 16 of which are first-authored articles, appearing in leading international journals and international conference proceedings – an extremely productive and exemplary record compared to that of his peers in the mutual field of research.
Mingli He
Mingli He, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include mechanical engineering, thermal, fluids, HVAC and energies. He currently teaches Introduction to Engineering Technology, Machine Design, Thermodynamics I, Machine Elements and Mechanical Systems, and Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer and oversees senior projects.
Prior to joining MSU Denver, He worked at Aeroengine Research Institute in Shenyang, China, the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers, the AT&T Microelectronics Plant and the Gulf Coast Regional Maritime Technology Center and taught courses at the University of Central Florida. He currently serves as the coordinator of the Mechanical Engineering Technology Program at MSU Denver. He served in the role as chair of the Engineering and Engineering Technology Department from 2013-2019 and has served in various MSU Denver faculty positions since August 1998.
He is a member of or has been associated with various organizations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, SAE International, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, among others. He has worked on various projects such as the DEMOSAT Project – NASA and the Colorado Space Grant Consortium to develop interest in STEM programs in education. He is currently working with the Colorado Community College System, on the CHAMP program and on the Denver Public Schools Career Connect program.
He received his doctorate in Philosophy and master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. He received his bachelor’s degree from Nanjing Aeronautical Institute in Nanjing, China. He holds a certification as a Professional Engineer from the National Society of Professional Engineers.
Aaron Brown
Aaron Brown, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering/Engineering Technology at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include humanitarian engineering and international education. Brown currently teaches Materials of Engineering, Materials Science, Life Cycles, and System Engineering and oversees internships.
Prior to joining MSU Denver, he worked in the aerospace industry. Brown was a mechanical engineer for Starsys Research and Ball Aerospace. During his time at Starsys Research, Brown contributed design work on the landing mechanism for the Mars Science Laboratory Rover Mission, a.k.a. Curiosity. He has also worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology designing test equipment to measure stress-strain relationships to superconductor performance. Brown has been awarded the College of Professional Studies Outstanding Service Award and the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Leadership Award from MSU Denver. A recent project of his aims to build resilience in a local community through the installation of solar furnaces he and his students designed. This project helps low-income families reduce their energy bills and is a collaborative effort with an established nongovernmental organization focused on improving the lives and health of people in a west Denver neighborhood.
Brown co-authored “Quantitative Assessment of Appropriate Technology,” which was published in Procedia Engineering. His current research interests include electric-vehicle optimization and design, robotics, and harvesting solar energy, green energy, and humanitarian engineering.
Brown received his doctorate in Civil Systems Engineering and a master’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2015 and 2004, respectively, and a bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from California State University-Chico in 2001.