Mechanical engineering's Mench receives $400,000 NSF grant

Matthew Mench, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has received a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Career Development Program for his proposal, "Sensors for Quantification of Degradation in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells."

The five-year grant will fund Mench's work in developing a new class of advanced degradation sensors for polymer electrolyte fuel cells. Many complex systems, including fuel cells, suffer graduate degradation that can result in catastrophic failure. Because the time scale of degradation is relatively slow, these types of anomalous faults are nearly impossible to detect at an early stage with conventional sensing technology. A novel approach will be used to enable early detection and quantification of potentially catastrophic evolving faults in polymer electrolyte fuel cells.

A member of the Penn State faculty since 2000, Mench also serves as the director of the Fuel Cell Dynamics and Diagnostics Laboratory. He received his bachelor of science, master of science and doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from Penn State.

According to the NSF, the Career Awards are highly selective grants to new faculty members believed to be the next generation of academic leaders. Awardees are selected on the basis of creative career development plans that effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their institution and build the foundation for a lifetime of contributions to their discipline.