James Van de Ven

James Van de Ven is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 2001 and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2006. Prior to his current position, he served as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he received the Mechanical Engineering Teacher of the Year award as the Russel M. Searle Professor in May 2011. Van de Ven's expertise spans machine design, kinematics, dynamics, and model-driven design of fluid power systems. His research interests include efficient energy conversion, energy storage, and renewable energy systems. He investigates hydraulic and pneumatic energy storage to ease the integration of wind and other renewables into the power grid and to enable hydraulic hybrid vehicles. His work on hydraulic energy conversion supports switch-mode systems that rapidly alternate between efficient on and off states, impacting fluid power transmission, which accounts for 3% of U.S. energy use.

Van de Ven has authored influential publications such as "Liquid Piston Gas Compression" in Applied Energy (2009), "Constant Pressure Hydraulic Energy Storage through a Variable Area Piston Hydraulic Accumulator" in Applied Energy (2013), "Fluid Power System Dynamics" (2009), "Experimental Study of Heat Transfer Enhancement in a Liquid Piston Compressor/Expander Using Porous Media Inserts" in Applied Energy (2015), and "Design, Modeling, and Validation of a High-Speed Rotary Pulse-Width-Modulation On/Off Hydraulic Valve" in the Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control (2012). These works have amassed over 3,000 citations, underscoring his contributions to the field. In teaching, he has reshaped the Mechanical Engineering graduate program by revising the curriculum, implementing a more inclusive Ph.D. Qualifying Exam format, leading diverse graduate recruiting efforts, and cultivating a supportive community through flipped classrooms and advising. His educational impact is evidenced by the 2024 University of Minnesota Graduate and Professional Teaching Award and the 2014 McKnight Land-Grant Professorship.

Professional Email: vandeven@umn.edu