Harry Cheng Receives ASME MESA Achievement Award

Harry H. Cheng, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, received the 2013 Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications (MESA) Achievement Award, presented by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Cheng attended the ceremony, which took place Aug. 6 in Portland, Ore., at ASME’s 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conference. The award includes a cash prize of $1,500.

Cheng will donate the award to the UC Davis Center for Integrated Computing and STEM Education (C-STEM), to help create an annual Leadership Award intended for an exemplary middle school student who attends the UC Davis C-STEM Girl’s Leadership Camp for Computing and Robotics, and to help start computing and robotics clubs at the participating schools.

Cheng joined the UC Davis College of Engineering in 1992, as a robotics and computing researcher, after earning his PhD at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He directs both the UC Davis Integration Engineering Laboratory, and the Center for Integrated Computing and STEM Education (C-STEM Center). He’s also active in the graduate groups for Education, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Cheng’s broad research interests include information technology and its applications in engineering, computer-aided engineering, intelligent mechatronic and embedded systems, robotics, design and manufacturing, and mobile agent-based computing. He also has devoted considerable time and energy to enhancing existing grade-school curricula, specifically by employing computing and robotics as a means to better engage at-risk students in K-12 schools.

ASME’s MESA Achievement Award was founded in 2009. The MESA Committee presents this annual award to an individual whose work and career have made a cumulative contribution to the field of Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications. The award consists of a certificate laminated in wood, along with an honorarium. Cheng joins previous recipients Fei-Yue Wang, at the University of Arizona; Bernard Roth, at Stanford; and Masayoshi Tomizuka and David M. Auslander, both at UC Berkeley.