Randall Erb

Professor,  Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Affiliated Faculty,  Chemical Engineering

Contact

Office

  • 306 DA
  • 617.373.4649

Lab

  • 227 EC
  • 617.373.6582

Research Focus

Structure/property relationships in composites and ceramics, magnetic manipulation, colloidal physics

Education

  • PhD, Duke University, 2009

Honors & Awards

  • 2017 Outstanding Translational Research Award

Research Overview

Structure/property relationships in composites and ceramics, magnetic manipulation, colloidal physics

Directed Assembly of Particles & Suspensions (DAPS)

Our research focuses on multiscale synthesis and characterization of functional composite materials to impact diverse fields from structural composites to energy storage to biomedical implants. To us, multiscale synthesis involves exploiting chemical physics to assemble material at the nanoscale, exploiting colloidal physics to assemble material at the microscale, and exploiting manufacturing technology to assemble material at the macroscale.

Directed Assembly of Particles & Suspensions (DAPS)

Selected Research Projects

Selected Publications

  • Bice, Jason E., St. Germain, Echo, Wohlever, Samuel J., Goddard, Grace, Erb, Randall M. (2022). Thermoformable Boron Nitride Based All‐Ceramics. Advanced Materials, 34(42). 10.1002/ADMA.202203939
  • Zando, Robert B., Mesgarnejad, Ataollah, Pan, Chunzhou, Shefelbine, Sandra J., Karma, Alain, Erb, Randall M. (2021). Enhanced toughness in ceramic-reinforced polymer composites with herringbone architectures. Composites Science and Technology, 204,108513. 10.1016/J.COMPSCITECH.2020.108513
  • A. Gurijala, R.B. Zando, J.L. Faust, J.R. Barber, L. Zhang, R.M. Erb, Castable and Printable Dielectric Composites Exhibiting High Thermal Conductivity via Percolation-Enabled Phonon Transport, Matter, 2(4), 2020, 1015-1024
  • J.L. Faust, G.A. Winter, M.L. Minus, R.M. Erb Polypropylene Crystallization at an Alumina Interface Using Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 543, 2019, 9-16
  • L. Li, R.M. Erb, J. Wang, J. Wang, Y.M. Chiang Fabrication of Low‐Tortuosity Ultrahigh‐Area‐Capacity Battery Electrodes Through Magnetic Alignment of Emulsion‐Based Slurries, Advanced Energy Materials, 9(2), 2019, 1802472
  • R.M. Erb, J.J. Martin, R. Soheilian, C. Pan, J.R. Barber Actuating Soft Matter with Magnetic Torque, Advanced Functional Materials, 26(22), 2016, 3859-3880
  • J.S. Sander, R.M. Erb, L. Li, A. Gurijala, Y.-M. Chiang High-Performance Battery Electrodes via Magnetic Templating, Nature Energy, 1, 2016, 16099
  • J.J. Martin, B.E. Fiore, R.M. Erb, Designing Bioinspired Composite Reinforcement Architectures Via 3D Magnetic Printing, Nature Communications, 6, 2015, 8641
  • R.M. Erb, R.L. Libanori, N. Rothfuchs, A.R. Studart Composites Reinforced in Three Dimensions by Using Low Magnetic Fields, Science, 335, 2012, 199-204

Graduate

Jul 24, 2024

PhD Spotlight: Daniel Braconnier, PhD’23, Mechanical Engineering

Daniel Braconnier, PhD’23, mechanical engineering, led a project developing long-lasting superhydrophobic coatings, resulting in a paper published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. He also developed patent-pending thermally conductive polymer composites.

Faculty

Feb 02, 2024

Revolutionizing Thermoformable Ceramics

MIE Associate Professor Randall Erb and Jason Hoffman-Bice, PhD’22, mechanical engineering, are working on commercializing thermoformable ceramic matrix composites through their spinout, Fourier. Their work has the potential to transform heat dissipation in electronics. They received a Spark Fund award from the Center for Research Innovation at Northeastern for this work.

In the Media

Jan 03, 2024

Northeastern Students Develop Robotic Boat To Attack Invasive Plants

A capstone project supervised by ECE Associate Professor Charles DiMarzio and MIE Associate Professor Randall Erb that developed an autonomous robotic boat to map the invasive hydrilla plant has been […]

Students

Dec 15, 2023

Capstone Students Design Robotic Boat To Combat Invasive Plant

Engineering capstone students built an autonomous robotic boat equipped with a hyperspectral camera to map the invasive hydrilla plant and help scientists control its spread in Connecticut waters. The project is a collaboration among the ECE and MIE departments, the Robotics and Intelligent Vehicles Research Lab, and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

Faculty

Oct 04, 2023

Using Iron Powder as a Renewable Energy Source

MIE Professors Yiannis Levendis, Hameed Metghalchi, and Associate Professor Randall Erb were awarded a $600,000 NSF grant, titled “A Study on Burning Iron Particles as Carbon-Free Circular Fuels With Co-Generation of Value-Added Nanomaterials,” to improve the process of burning iron to produce carbon-free renewable energy. 

Faculty

Sep 08, 2023

Spinout Company Fourier LLC To Revolutionize Thermal Management

After pioneering thermoforming technical ceramic matrix composites (CMC’s) last year, MIE Associate Professor Randall Erb and Jason Hoffman-Bice, PhD’22, mechanical engineering, created spinout company Fourier LLC to commercialize their groundbreaking innovation in thermal management.

Faculty

Jul 24, 2023

Burning Iron Particles To Generate Clean Energy

MIE Professors Yiannis Levendis, Hameed Metghalchi, and Associate Professor Randall Erb were awarded a $600,000 NSF grant for “A Study on Burning Iron Particles as Carbon-Free Circular Fuels With Co-Generation of Value-Added Nanomaterials.”

Faculty

Jul 20, 2023

Spring 2023 Spark Fund Awardees

MIE Associate Professor Randal Erb, ChE/BioE Associate Professor Eno Ebong, ChE Professor Rebecca Carrier, and MIE Associate Professor Yi Zheng are recipients of the Spring 2023 Spark Fund Awards from Northeastern’s Center for Research Innovation.

Faculty

Oct 07, 2022

A Lab Accident Might Lead to New Frontier in Electronics Design

A mistake made by MIE Associate Professor Randall Erb and Jason Bice, PhD’22, mechanical engineering, in the lab might lead to an entirely new class of ceramic materials.

Faculty

Sep 20, 2022

Northeastern in Top 100 Universities With U.S. Utility Patents

For the seventh consecutive year, Northeastern University has appeared in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) list of Top 100 Universities that were granted U.S. utility patents in 2021, cementing it as a world leader in academia and research.

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