bently center
From left: Dean Peter Lee, Professor James Meagher, Don Bently and Provost Paul Zingg.
The Donald E. Bently Center for Engineering Innovation was established in spring 2003 through a substantial donation by Donald E. Bently. The Center is contained within the Mechanical Engineering Department. The purpose of the endowment is to promote innovation within the discipline, support applied research, expand the curriculum and bring vision and breadth to engineering instruction. The mission of the Center is advancement of research, education, and the practice of mechanical engineering with innovation as a guiding principle. Rotor dynamics is the primary focus of the center; however, the center supports a broad range of secondary focus areas.
Every year the Center issues a request for proposals to the Cal Poly M.E. faculty to sponsor faculty release time. The proposals are reviewed by a committee consisting of the Bently Center Director, ME Department Chair, and a third reviewer, typically the CENG Associate/Assistant Dean of Research. Awards are made based on criteria that includes meeting the mission of the Center, leveraging the award, deliverables, past performance, need and the proposal quality. The Bently Director is awarded 24 WTUs per year and expected to further the mission of the Center and administer the endowment, RFP process and documentation. Awardees that are granted 12 – 18 WTUs are given the title of “Bently Professors”. In addition to the Bently Professor awards, smaller awards are granted as well.
The Donald E. Bently Center for Engineering Innovation was established in Spring 2003 through a substantial donation by Donald E. Bently. The Center is contained within the Mechanical Engineering Department. The mission of the Center is the advancement of research, education, and the practice of mechanical engineering with innovation as a guiding principle. Rotor dynamics is the primary focus of the center; however, the center supports a broad range of secondary focus areas.
Donald E. Bently was born on October 18, 1924 in Muscatine, Iowa. Mr. Bently served in the armed forces during World War II and later attended the University of Iowa, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1949, followed by a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering in 1950.
Mr. Bently was perhaps best known as the founder of Bently Nevada Corporation, the world’s leading supplier of condition monitoring instrumentation and services, a $250 million business that he sold to GE Power Systems in January 2002. Mr. Bently served as Chairman and CEO until that time. He also founded Bently Rotor Dynamics Research Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bently Nevada, where the basic ideas for his bearing technology were pioneered along with numerous other contributions to the body of knowledge surrounding the behavior of rotating machinery and rotor dynamics.
Mr. Bently pioneered the first commercially successful eddy current proximity transducer and introduced its use to measure vibration and other critical parameters in rotating machinery. His visionary work in this area gave rise to an entire industry surrounding the use of vibration instrumentation to protect and diagnose machinery. The company he built, Bently Nevada Corporation, enjoys recognition as the world leader in its field. Also, he actively pioneered fully lubricated, pressurized bearing technology.
Mr. Bently was a globally recognized authority on rotor dynamics as well as vibration monitoring and diagnostics. He authored or co-authored more than 140 papers and a book on these subjects and was the holder of two patents. His active research in rotor dynamics, his prodigious capacity for invention and imagination, and his business acumen allowed him to make significant theoretical and practical contributions in this field.
Mr. Bently helped create one of the first industry-sponsored laboratories at Cal Poly, the Mechanical Engineering Vibrations and Rotor Dynamics Laboratory. This laboratory became a showcase model for industry-school partnership. Mr. Bently, then CEO of Bently Nevada Corporation, and David Esbeck, Vice President of Engineering of Solar Turbines, partnered with the Mechanical Engineering Department to completely redesign and refurbish the laboratory. Mr. Bently donated significant state-of-the-art equipment to modernize the facility. In addition, he provided training and educational materials that helped the department launch a new technical elective.
Within a year of the establishment of the Solar Turbines/Bently Nevada Vibrations and Rotor Dynamics Laboratory, Mr. Bently provided the financial resources for state-of-the-art, high-end computers for a Mechanical Engineering Computational Laboratory. Mr. Bently generously continued to provide support for upgrading the computers in the Bently Computational Laboratory.
Mr. Bently passed away on October 1, 2012 in Carson Valley, NV at the age of 87.
As part of the formation of the Bently Center, a dedicated space was created in Building 13. This space is used as a center for innovative activities supported by the Bently Center and other synergistic activities such as temporary office space for visiting scholars, graduate students and undergraduate students. The space is managed by the Bently Center Director.
2022-2023 Bently Professors
John Chen, Bently Center Director 2021-2024
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Chen’s research focuse on (i) grit and how it is affected through students’ learning experiences, (ii) the collection of non-cognitive (NCA) factors related to student success, and (iii) metacognition, or awareness and control of one’s learning. Professor Chen regularly teaches statics, introductory and advanced thermodynamics, and heat transfer. He enjoys the varied mix of students from different majors across the College of Engineering in the introductory courses, as well as working with students that are learning deeper disciplinary content within.
Jacques Belanger, Bently Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Belanger’s main research interests are renewable energy and sustainability. Prior to joining Cal Poly in 2017, he worked in the solar industry for over ten years. His research focuses on utility scale solar field power optimization, solar field power generation forecasting and micro-grid design and management. Dr. Belanger teaches courses in nuclear energy in cooperation with the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and courses in thermal sciences.
Rick Emberley, Bently Professor
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Emberley is jointly appointed in the Fire Protection Engineering Program within the College of Engineering. His teaching focuses on the areas of thermal-fluids and fire protection engineering. His research encompasses a broad range of topics included but not limited to, self-extinction of timber, compartment fire dynamics of exposed and protection timber structures, debonding of engineered timber, debonding of steel and fiber-reinforced plastics, visibility in smoke filled environments, and novel fire testing methodologies.
2021-2022
John Chen, Bently Center Director 2021-2024
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Chen’s research focuse on (i) grit and how it is affected through students’ learning experiences, (ii) the collection of non-cognitive (NCA) factors related to student success, and (iii) metacognition, or awareness and control of one’s learning. Professor Chen regularly teaches statics, introductory and advanced thermodynamics, and heat transfer. He enjoys the varied mix of students from different majors across the College of Engineering in the introductory courses, as well as working with students that are learning deeper disciplinary content within.
Jacques Belanger, Bently Professor
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Belanger’s main research interests are renewable energy and sustainability. Prior to joining Cal Poly in 2017, he worked in the solar industry for over ten years. His research focuses on utility scale solar field power optimization, solar field power generation forecasting and micro-grid design and management. Dr. Belanger teaches courses in nuclear energy in cooperation with the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and courses in thermal sciences.
Russ Westphal, Bently Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Professor Westphal’s research focused on development of an alternative, modular version of the Cal Poly Boundary Layer Data System (BLDS), that employs the BLDS-M strategy, closely aligned with the latest “internet of things” (IoT) concepts. Professor Westphal teaches lecture and lab courses in Fluid Dynamics, Heat Transfer, Measurement, and Thermodynamics at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
2020-2021
Charlene Birdsong (she/her/hers), Bently Center Director
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Charlene Birdsong was the Bently Center Director for 2018-2021. Her research is focused on automotive safety, advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving. This includes dynamic system modeling, sensor integration, signal processing and feedback control. She is also interested in engineering education research. Dr. Birdsong teaches dynamics, vibrations and controls and senior project.
Jacques Belanger, Bently Professor
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Belanger’s main research interests are renewable energy and sustainability. Prior to joining Cal Poly in 2017, he worked in the solar industry for over ten years. His research focuses on utility scale solar field power optimization, solar field power generation forecasting and micro-grid design and management. Dr. Belanger teaches courses in nuclear energy in cooperation with the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and courses in thermal sciences.
2019-2020
Charlene Birdsong (she/her/hers), Bently Center Director
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Charlene Birdsong was the Bently Center Director for 2018-2021. Her research is focused on automotive safety, advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving. This includes dynamic system modeling, sensor integration, signal processing and feedback control. She is also interested in engineering education research. Dr. Birdsong teaches dynamics, vibrations and controls and senior project.
John Chen, Bently Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Chen’s research focused on (i) grit and how it is affected through students’ learning experiences, (ii) the collection of non-cognitive (NCA) factors related to student success, and (iii) metacognition, or awareness and control of one’s learning. Professor Chen regularly teaches statics, introductory and advanced thermodynamics, and heat transfer. He enjoys the varied mix of students from different majors across the College of Engineering in the introductory courses, as well as working with students that are learning deeper disciplinary content within Mechanical Engineering.
Steve Klisch, Bently Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Klisch served as the Bently Center Director from 2014-2017. His research is focused on developing experimental and analysis protocols and conducting motion analysis studies of gait, cycling, elliptical training, and baseball pitching for our funded research projects. Dr. Klisch teaches courses in solid mechanics and biomechanics.
2018-2019
Charlene Birdsong (she/her/hers), Bently Center Director
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Charlene Birdsong was the Bently Center Director for 2018-2021. Her research is focused on automotive safety, advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving. This includes dynamic system modeling, sensor integration, signal processing and feedback control. She is also interested in engineering education research. Dr. Birdsong teaches dynamics, vibrations and controls and senior project.
John Chen, Bently Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Chen’s research focused on (i) grit and how it is affected through students’ learning experiences, (ii) the collection of non-cognitive (NCA) factors related to student success, and (iii) metacognition, or awareness and control of one’s learning. Professor Chen regularly teaches statics, introductory and advanced thermodynamics, and heat transfer. He enjoys the varied mix of students from different majors across the College of Engineering in the introductory courses, as well as working with students that are learning deeper disciplinary content within Mechanical Engineering.
Patrick Lemieux, Bently Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Lemieux’s research interests focus on internal combustion engines and alternative energy. He is currently primarily involved in the development of alternative thermodynamic cycles for the gas turbine and reciprocating internal combustion engine, as well as their mechanical design analysis near their failure points. Along with faculty colleagues, he has also founded the Cal Poly Wind Power Research Center on a remote ranch outside of the main campus, where the design and operation issues most relevant to the wind industry are investigated in a controlled way. Dozens of students have been involved in its various projects; the Center is most recently involved in the development of prognostic health monitoring systems for the distributed wind industry. Dr Lemieux has also been involved in the study of hybrid rocket motors and sits of the Hybrid Rockets Technical Committee of the AIAA. Professor Lemieux teaches courses in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, control systems, internal combustion engines, refrigeration, wind energy and compressible flow gas dynamics.
2017-2018
Steve Klisch, Bently Center Director
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Klisch served as the Bently Center Director from 2014-2017. His research is focused on developing experimental and analysis protocols and conducting motion analysis studies of gait, cycling, elliptical training, and baseball pitching for our funded research projects. Dr. Klisch teaches courses in solid mechanics and biomechanics.
Russ Westphal, Bently Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Professor Westphal’s research focused on development of an alternative, modular version of the Cal Poly Boundary Layer Data System (BLDS), that employs the BLDS-M strategy, closely aligned with the latest “internet of things” (IoT) concepts. Professor Westphal teaches lecture and lab courses in Fluid Dynamics, Heat Transfer, Measurement, and Thermodynamics at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
John Chen, Bently Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Chen’s research focused on (i) grit and how it is affected through students’ learning experiences, (ii) the collection of non-cognitive (NCA) factors related to student success, and (iii) metacognition, or awareness and control of one’s learning. Professor Chen regularly teaches statics, introductory and advanced thermodynamics, and heat transfer. He enjoys the varied mix of students from different majors across the College of Engineering in the introductory courses, as well as working with students that are learning deeper disciplinary content within Mechanical Engineering.
Patrick Lemieux, Bently Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Lemieux’s research interests focus on internal combustion engines and alternative energy. He is currently primarily involved in the development of alternative thermodynamic cycles for the gas turbine and reciprocating internal combustion engine, as well as their mechanical design analysis near their failure points. Along with faculty colleagues, he has also founded the Cal Poly Wind Power Research Center on a remote ranch outside of the main campus, where the design and operation issues most relevant to the wind industry are investigated in a controlled way. Dozens of students have been involved in its various projects; the Center is most recently involved in the development of prognostic health monitoring systems for the distributed wind industry. Dr Lemieux has also been involved in the study of hybrid rocket motors and sits of the Hybrid Rockets Technical Committee of the AIAA. Professor Lemieux teaches courses in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, control systems, internal combustion engines, refrigeration, wind energy and compressible flow gas dynamics.