Kokjohn receives SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award

SAE International has selected Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Sage Kokjohn to receive the Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, which recognizes and honors younger educators who are successfully preparing engineers to meet the challenges that face society.

As one of the original developers of the reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion strategy, Kokjohn has already made a major impact on the field of internal combustion engines. RCCI, which has inherently low pollutant emissions and high thermal efficiency, solved one of the major limitations that had prevented the widespread application of previous low-temperature combustion strategies—control.

In addition to his outstanding research accomplishments, the award recognizes Kokjohn’s important contributions to educate and train students to meet the challenges that face the mobility fields, and society overall. Kokjohn teaches a number of courses that help prepare students for successful careers and provide them with valuable skills for optical engine research. In these courses, students gain skills in engine cycle analysis, engine design effects on air pollution, use of non-linear simultaneous equation solution tools, and fundamental background in combustion processes and numerical solution of combustion problems using chemical equilibrium/kinetics in state-of-the-art techniques.

In Kokjohn’s graduate combustion course, students write computer routines to solve complex combustion problems by building on the previous problem solutions, so that by the end of the semester, the students have written a stand-alone code for solving combustion problems. The combination of self-developed and externally developed tools enables the students to gain a detailed understanding of the physics controlling combustion processes in a broad array of devices, including internal combustion engines.

The SAE Teetor program aims to provide an engineering atmosphere in which younger engineering educators can meet and exchange views with practicing engineers in industry and government. The program accomplishes this by underwriting the costs of annually bringing engineering educators to the SAE World Congress and Exposition in Detroit, Michigan, or the SAE AeroTech meeting held every other year. These events attract more than 45,000 engineers who share common interests in research, design, development, production, and utilization of land, sea, air, and space vehicles. SAE International presented Kokjohn with the award at WCX18: SAE World Congress Experience in Detroit, Michigan, in April 2018.