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Job Description

Multiple openings are available for fully funded Ph.D. students at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas (KU) for the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. Candidates with strong interests in leveraging artificial intelligence and scientific machine learning to advance data-driven design and computational mechanics for the innovation of material-structure systems are encouraged to apply. Candidates with experience in topology optimization, reduced-order models, finite element analysis, continuum mechanics, fracture mechanics, dynamics analysis, microstructure reconstruction, uncertainty quantification, and scientific machine learning are especially desirable for the positions.

Qualifications

B.S. degree in mechanical engineering, engineering mechanics, civil engineering, aerospace engineering, or related fields (M.S. degree is preferred). Experience in using CAE software, e.g., Abaqus, Ansys, Nastran, and/or Altair. Experience in developing computational mechanics and/or machine learning codes. Proficiency in programming languages: MATLAB, Python, JAX, and/or C++. Publication record in international journals

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In-brief analysis

March 31, 2025

In 2024, U.S. natural gas consumption averaged a record 90.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) and set new winter and summer monthly records in January and July, according to data in our Natural Gas Monthly. Overall, U.S. consumption last year increased 1% (0.9 Bcf/d) from 2023. In January, natural gas consumption was up 12% (12.5 Bcf/d) compared with January 2023 consumption, and in July, consumption increased by 3% (2.5 Bcf/d) compared with July 2023.

Weather has a significant effect on natural gas consumption patterns. Natural gas consumption peaks in the United States in both the winter and summer. In winter, the most natural gas is consumed in January or February, when demand for space heating in the residential and commercial sectors peaks. In the summer, electricity generation increases in July and

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With multiple grants and research infrastructure provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, researchers have shown that a newly developed material, niobium phosphide, can conduct electricity better than copper in films that are only a few atoms thick. These films can also be created and deposited at sufficiently low temperatures for compatibility with modern computer chip fabrication — and may help make future electronics more powerful and energy efficient.

So far, the best conductor candidates to outperform copper in nanoelectronics have had only exact crystalline structures, meaning they require very high temperatures to be formed. These new niobium phosphide films are the first examples of noncrystalline materials that become better conductors as they get thinner. The research is led by Standford University and results were published in Science.

“We are breaking a fundamental bottleneck of traditional materials like copper,” says Asir Intisar Khan, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and an author on the research paper. “Our niobium phosphide conductors show that it’s possible to send faster, more efficient signals through ultrathin wires. This could improve the energy efficiency of future chips, and even small gains add up when many chips are used, such as in the massive data centers that store and process information today.”

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Implementation Update: Promoting Maximal Transparency Under the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid Molecules

Institutional Biosafety Committees (IBCs) serve as a critical linchpin in ensuring the safe and responsible conduct of research. Since the issuance of the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid Molecules (NIH Guidelines) in 1976, IBCs have expanded in number to the thousands and have voluntarily expanded their roles to encompass new research approaches as they arise.

IBCs continue to serve as a pillar of biosafety oversight and are essential in building trust on behalf of the biomedical research enterprise. Under the NIH Guidelines, this expectation is a mandate and as such, NIH is reinforcing its commitment to working with IBCs to ensure transparency in biosafety oversight by updating its implementation expectations to protect the safety of all

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