About CUR
Become a Member
Renew Membership
Register for Upcoming Events
Meetings
Programs
Publications
Divisions & Governance
Government Issues
Donate Online
FAQS
Members Only
Home / Undergraduate Research Highlights / Engineering
 
Engineering Highlights
Total Listing: 33    (Listed by the order of record adding time, Descending)
( 1 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title An implementation of robot formations using local interactions
Journal P 22nd Natl Conf Artif Int, 2007;1989-90, Mead R, Weinberg J, Croxell J
Description Coordinating a group of robots to work in formation has been suggested for a number of tasks, such as urban search-and-rescue, traffic control, and harvesting solar energy. Algorithms for controlling robot formations have been inspired by biological and organizational systems. In our approach to robot formation control, each robot is treated like a cell in a cellular automaton, where local interactions between robots result in a global organization. The algorithm has been demonstrated in simulation; this paper presents a physical implementation
Faculty Jerry Weinberg was Ross' mentor during both Undergraduate Research Academy projects. He is an associate professor and chair of the University's Department of Computer Science
Student Ross Mead will graduate in December 2007 with a bachelor's degree in computer science. He was a member of the University's Undergraduate Research Academy on two different occasions
Fund Their research was supported from funding through SIUE's Undergraduate Research Academy program
 
( 2 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title Impromptu teams of heterogeneous mobile robots
Journal P 22nd Nat Conf Artif Int, 2007;1890-91, Mead R, Weinberg J
Description As robots become more involved in assisting us in large and hazardous operations, such as search and rescue, we can anticipate that diverse robots will come together with the need to coordinate their efforts. These robots will come from different organizations, creating a heterogeneous team, varying in shape, size, and functionality. How can diverse robots forming such an impromptu team collaborate to accomplish a joint objective? If they are to organize and work together, methods must be developed that allow them to share knowledge in a meaningful way. We propose an ontology-based symbolic communication protocol to provide a shared understanding of physical concepts between units. Coordination is then accomplished through a negotiation of tasks to complete individual and joint goals
Faculty Jerry Weinberg was Ross' mentor during both Undergraduate Research Academy projects. He is an associate professor and chair of the University's Department of Computer Science
Student Ross Mead will graduate in December 2007 with a bachelor's degree in computer science. He was a member of the University's Undergraduate Research Academy on two different occasions
Fund Their research was supported from funding through SIUE's Undergraduate Research Academy program
 
( 3 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title Thermodynamic investigation of Staphylococcus epidermidis interactions with protein-coated substrata
Journal Langmuir, 2007;23(13):7134-7142, Liu Y, Strauss J, Camesano TA
Description The effectiveness of biomaterials at reducing bacterial colonization depends on the interaction between bacteria, serum proteins, and the material itself. The attachment of bacteria to self-assembled monolayers coated with proteins was characterized through experiments and modeled using a thermodynamic framework. The Gibbs free energy of adhesion was correlated with attachment of a Gram-positive bacterium to the biomaterials when the protein bovine serum albumin was present. However, when the protein fibronectin was present, the model could not explain the experimental results due to specific binding between bacterial ligands and protein receptor molecules. This work is useful for helping to understand how antimicrobial coatings can be made more effective in an in vivo situation
Faculty Terri Camesano is an associate professor of chemical engineering
Student . Joshua Strauss began this work the summer after his sophomore year, and continued for two years, eventually forming his senior thesis in chemical engineering. He is currently pursuing an MS in chemical engineering at WPI. Yatao Liu is a PhD student in chemical engineering at WPI
Fund This work was supported by the NSF through grant BES 0238627
 
( 4 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title Effects of heat treatments on steels for bearing applications
Journal J Mater Eng Perform, 2007;16:592-596, Es-Said OS, Clemons K, Lorraine C, Salgado G, Taylor A
Description AISI 52 100, 440C, REX20, and Crucible CRU80 steel samples were exposed to 16 different heat treatments to vary the levels of retained austenite. Rockwell C hardness measurements, optical microscopy, and compression testing were used to compare the properties of the different steels
Faculty Omar S. Es-Said is professor of mechanical engineering
Student All co-authors are former students now employed in industry
Fund The research was supported through an NSF-REU site
 
( 5 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title 2099 aluminum-lithium with key-locked inserts for aerospace applications
Journal J Mater Eng Perform, 2007;16:584-591, Es-Said OS, Prietto M, Ordonez-Chu A, Haberl H, Kabisch J
Description The purpose of this study was to determine the acceptability of nonpenetrating, key-locked inserts in 2099 aluminum-lithium. The tests conducted to make this assessment were: (1) microscopic examination for thread damage and delaminations after key installation, (2) pull-out load at 21 °C (70° F) and -179 °C (-290 °F). The test results indicated that for the three sizes evaluated, key-locked inserts in 2099-T6 and 2099-T8 were acceptable and although delaminations did occur on some T6 temper specimens, it was only as a failure mode at ultimate load and such behavior was judged to be acceptable
Faculty Omar S. Es-Said is professor of mechanical engineering.
Student Co-authors are students who are now employed in industry
Fund The research was supported through an NSF-REU site.
 
( 6 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title Effect of cold work on the tensile properties of 6061, 2024, and 7075 Al alloys
Journal Eng Fail Anal, 2007;14:515-520, Es-Said OS, Ortiz D, Abdelshehid M, Dalton R, Soltero J
Description Aluminum alloys 6061, 2024, and 7075 were heat treated to various tempers and then subjected to a range of plastic strain (stretching) in order to determine their strain limits. Tensile properties, conductivity, hardness, and grain size measurements were evaluated. The effects of plastic strain on these properties are discussed and strain limits are suggested
Faculty Omar S. Es-Said is professor of mechanical engineering
Student Co-authors are students who are employed in industry except for D. Ortiz who is in graduate school
Fund The research was supported through an NSF-REU site
 
( 7 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title The effect of thermal exposure on the electrical conductivity and static mechanical behavior of several age hardenable aluminum alloys
Journal Eng Fail Anal, 2007;14:1538-1549, Es-Said OS, Oppenheim T, Robinson K, Aridkahari B, Neylan N, Gebreyesus D, Richardson M, Arzate M, Bove C, Iskandar M, Sanchez C, Toss E, Martinez I
Description Aluminum alloys 2014-T6, 2024-T3, 6061-T6, 7050-T7451, and 7075-T6 were thermally exposed at different times (1 min to 20 days) and temperatures 177-482 °C (350-900 F). This study was conducted to stimulate the effect of heat damage on aluminum alloys and to determine the correlations existing between the static mechanical and electrical conductivity properties. Results indicate that at the temperatures below 260° C (500 F) all five alloys shower clear correlations between the mechanical and physical properties
Faculty Omar S. Es-Said is professor of mechanical engineering
Student Co-authors Oppenheim and Robinson are in graduate school; all other co-authors are former students employed in industry
Fund The research was supported through an NSF-REU site.
 
( 8 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title Quenching methods of Ti-325 alloy
Journal Eng Fail Anal, 2007;14:1401-1405, Es-Said OS, Sarrail B, Schrupp C, Babakhanyan S, Muscare K
Description The purpose of this research is to determine the effects of two different cooling procedures on the room temperature mechanical properties of AMS 4943 Ti-325 alloy. The samples were annealed at 1170° F (632° C), 1200° F (649° C) and 1230° F (666° C), half of the samples were water quenched and the other half were furnace cooled to room temperature. The yield strength, ultimate strength and percent elongation as a function of quenching media were determined
Faculty Omar S. Es-Said is professor of mechanical engineering
Student Co-authors are former students now employed in industry
Fund The research was supported through an NSF-REU site
 
( 9 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title Annealing and anomalous (bimodal) grain growth of ZR-702
Journal Eng Fail Anal, 2007;14:652-655, Es-Said OS, Sarrail B, Schrupp C, Babakhanyan S, Muscare K
Description Zirconium’s superior corrosion resistance capabilities have lead to its increasing use in the fabrication of chemical processing equipment and nuclear reactors. The purpose of this study was to find a critical temperature, above which bimodal grain growth takes place, in cold worked sheets after annealing was applied. The critical temperature above which there is abnormal grain growth was 1275° F (691° C). Additionally, the abnormal grain growth occurs only after bending and not rolling
Faculty Omar S. Es-Said is professor of mechanical engineering
Student Co-authors are former students now employed in industry
Fund The research was supported through an NSF-REU site
 
( 10 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title On the correlation between fracture toughness and precipitation hardening heat treatments in 15-5PH stainless steel
Journal Eng Fail Anal, 2007;14:626-631, Es-Said OS, Abdelshehid M, Mahmodieh K, Mori K, Chen L
Description In this study, the fracture toughness, Kq, and the yield strength of precipitation heat-treated Stainless Steel 15-5 PH were determined. Thirty six cylindrical tensile bars and eighteen compact tension C(T) specimens were tested. It was found that the high tolerance for solution heat treatment decreases the Kq value significantly, while the yield strength remains virtually unaltered
Faculty Omar S. Es-Said is professor of mechanical engineering
Student Co-authors are students now employed in industry
Fund The research was supported through an NSF-REU site
 
( 11 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title Warpage behavior of 7075 aluminum alloy extrusions
Journal J Mater Eng Perform, 2007;16:242-247, Es-Said OS, Ruperto TM, Vasquez SL, Yue AY, Manriquez DJ, Harris SH, Hannan S
Description Extruded I sections of 7075-T6 aluminum were machined into four different sections shapes: L, short depth T. The furnace was preheated to 416° C (780° F) and the samples were placed inside. The temperature was raised to 471° C (88° F) and then the samples were quenched in either a 30% polyalkylene glycol solution or water, both at 15 C. Points on the distorted samples were recorded before and after the solution treatment; the difference between the measurements indicated the extent of warpage
Faculty Os Es-Said is a professor of mechanical engineering
Student All other co-authors are students currently employed in industry
Fund The research was supported through an NSF-REU site.
 
( 12 )   Recorded at: 2/14/2008      
Title On the correlation of mechanical and physical properties of 6061-T6 and 7249-T6 aluminum alloys
Journal Eng Fail Anal, 2007;14:218-225, Es-Said OS, OppenheimT, Tewfik S, Scheck T, Klee V, Lomeli S, Youngren P, Aizpuru N
Description Al 6061-T6 was exposed to 75 heat treatments and Al 7249-76 was exposed to 90 heat treatments. The solution treatments, cooling rates and age hardening treatments were varied to simulate pitfalls that heat treaters may encounter. The physical and mechanical properties of thermally treated alloys were correlated and discussed
Faculty Professor Omar S. Es-Said is in mechanical engineering. Oppenheim is doing his PhD in nanomaterials at Cambridge University
Student Tewfik, Klee, Lomeli, Youngren and Aizpuru are employed in industry.T. Scheck is completing his undergraduate studies in bioengineering
Fund The research was supported through an NSF-REU site.
 
( 13 )   Recorded at: 11/6/2007      
Title Nanocrystalline TiO2 photocatalytic membranes with a hierarchical mesoporous multilayer: synthesis, characterization, and multifunction
Journal Adv Funct Mater, 2006;16:1067-1074, Choi H, Sofranko AC, Dionysiou DD
Description We addressed the preparation of photocatalytic TiO2 membranes with a hierarchical mesoporous multilayer using a sol-gel method modified with surfactant as a pore template. Controlling materials at the nano-level made it possible to develop new types of catalytic membrane products with tailor-designed properties exhibiting a gradual change in the diameter and porosity of the mesopore from the top to the bottom of TiO2 skin layer. The hierarchical multilayer process improved water permeability significantly, without sacrificing organic retention and photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 membranes. This work will be an important contribution to the scientific literature dealing with the fabrication of highly efficient photocatalytic TiO2 membrane reactors in real applications for the treatment of water and wastewater.
Faculty Dionysiou is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering
Student Anna C. Sofranko, an undergraduate student of chemical engineering at University of Virginia, was a summer research fellow supported by 2005 National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) Site Program in Membrane Applied Science and Technology. Choi is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher working with Dionysiou. They mentored and supervised Sofranko during the summer of 2005
 
( 14 )   Recorded at: 11/6/2007      
Title An ensemble-based incremental learning approach to data fusion
Journal IEEE T Syst Man Cy B, 2007; 37: 437-450, Parikh D., Polikar R
Description An new algorithm, called Learn++, based on ensemble of classifiers is introduced for automated learning of complementary information provided by new data that later becomes available. Learn++ based data fusion consistently outperforms a classifier trained on any of the individual data sources across several applications. Furthermore, even if the classifiers trained on individual data sources are fine tuned for the given problem, Learn++ can still achieve a statistically significant improvement by combining them, if the additional data sets carry complementary information. Finally, it was shown that the algorithm can consecutively learn both the supplementary novel information coming from additional data of the same source, and the complementary information coming from new data sources without requiring access to any of the previously seen data
Faculty Robi Polikar is currently an associate professor in electrical and computer engineering
Student Devi Parikh started on this work as a junior, and worked on it during a summer independent project, as well as during her senior year as part of her engineering clinic project work. She is currently a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University
Fund This work was supported by NSF's Electrical and Communications Systems division through the Career program
 
( 15 )   Recorded at: 10/31/2007      
Title Syntactic identifier conciseness and consistency
Journal SCAM, 2006;1:57-66, Lawrie D, Feild H, Binkley D
Description It is important for program identifiers to communicate clearly the concepts that they are meant to represent. A syntactic approach to determining if identifiers concisely and consistently do so is presented. Unlike its predecessors, the approach does not require an a priori mapping from identifiers to concepts. Using a pool of 48 million lines of code, experiments with the resulting syntactic rules for concise and consistent naming illustrate that violations of the syntactic pattern exist. Two case studies show that three quarters of the violations uncovered are real; that is, they would have been identified by an approach that had access to a domain concept mapping
Faculty Dawn Lawrie is an assistant professor of computer science. Dave Binkley is a professor of computer science
Student Henry Feild participated in this research during his junior and senior years at Loyola College and will be attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a first-year graduate student next year
Fund The research was supported through a NSF-RUI grant
 
( 16 )   Recorded at: 10/31/2007      
Title Leveraged quality assessment using information retrieval techniques
Journal ICPC, 2006;1:149-158, Lawrie D, Feild H, Binkley D
Description A description of the QALP tool, its output from analyzing just under two million lines of code, and an experiment aimed at evaluating the tool's use in leveraged quality assessment are presented. The QALP tool applies language processing techniques to leverage the assessment capabilities of a software engineer to situations where obtaining a direct assessment of source code is impractical due to the volume of information that must be considered. Statistically significant results from this experiment validate the use of the QALP tool in human-leveraged quality assessment
Faculty Dawn Lawrie is an assistant professor of computer science. Dave Binkley is a professor of computer science
Student Henry Field participated in this research thru an REU grant and will be attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a first-year graduate student next year
Fund This research was supported through a NSF-REU grant
 
( 17 )   Recorded at: 10/31/2007      
Title An empirical comparison of techniques for extracting concept abbreviations from identifiers
Journal IASTED SEA, 2006;1;365-370, Feild H, Binkley D, Lawrie D
Description The first step in the automatic extraction of domain level information from program identifiers, a key part of program comprehension, is the separation of identifiers into their constituent parts. A study of three separation techniques is presented. These include a random algorithm (used as a strawman), a greedy algorithm, and a neural network. The greedy algorithm recursively looks for the longest natural language prefix or suffix in the (remaining part of the) identifier. Empirically its correctness ranges from 75 to 81 percent. The neural network learns from human-spilt examples. It splits 71 to 95 percent of the identifiers correctly. Statistical comparison of two techniques favors the greedy algorithm; thus is will be used in future research
Faculty Dave Binkley is a professor of computer science. Dawn Lawrie is an assistant professor of computer science
Student Henry Feild participated in this research during his sophomore and junior years and will be attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a first-year graduate student next year
Fund The research was supported through a NSF-RUI grant
 
( 18 )   Recorded at: 2/22/2007      
Title A parallel feature selection algorithm from random subsets
Journal P Int Workshop on Parallel Data Mining, 2006;64-75, Garcia D, Hall L, Goldgof D, Kramer K
Description In this research a new method of feature selection called Random Sets was developed to classify plankton images in real time. Plankton classification is widely used by marine biologists to identify the location of plankton populations and determine the density of such populations, an important matter, considering the importance on plankton on the marine ecosystem. The method was evaluated on five different sets of plankton images with 1000 images in each set. On these sets the classification accuracy was comparable with the Wrappers method, which is a well known feature selection method, while being approximately 10 times faster. In addition to this, the Random Subsets approach can be run an all available processors in parallel, further speeding up the process
Faculty Lawrence Hall and Dmitry Goldgof are both professors of computer science and engineering
Student Daniel Garcia is a senior student in the department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). He conducted this research through a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program during the spring and summer of his senior year. Kurt Kramer is a graduate student in the CSE department
Fund This research was partially supported by the United States Navy, Office of Naval Research, under grant number N00014-02-1-0266, the National Science Foundation under grants EIA-0130768 and 0453463, and by the Department of Energy through the Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Visual Interactive Environment for Weapons Simulation (VIEWS) Data Discovery Program Contract number: DEAC04-76DO00789
 
( 19 )   Recorded at: 2/22/2007      
Title Effects of annular size, transmitral pressure, and mitral flow rate on the edge-to-edge repair: an in vitro study
Journal Ann Thorac Surg, 2006;82:1362-1368, Jimenez JH, Forbess J, Croft LR, Small L, He Z, Yoganathan AP
Description Fifteen porcine mitral valves were tested in a left heart simulator to investigate the effects of transmitral pressure, mitral flow rate, and annular dilation on the efficacy and durability of the Alfieri repair, a new stitch technique to correct mitral regurgitation. Transmitral pressure and mitral flow rate were the major determinants of stitch force during systole and diastole, respectively. This study proposes that in the clinical setting the Alfieri repair must be accompanied with concomitant annuloplasty in order to improve repair mechanics
Faculty Zhaoming He is an associate professor at Texas Tech University. Ajit Yoganathan is the associate chair for research and regents’ professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the Georgia Institute of Technology
Student Jorge Jimenez is a PhD student at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Joseph Forbess is a pediatric cardiac surgeon at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Laura Croft and Lisa Small participated in this research their sophomore year and junior year, respectively, as undergraduate laboratory assistants. Both students are still attending e Georgia Institute of Technology
Fund This research was supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL52009)
 
( 20 )   Recorded at: 2/21/2007      
Title Indentation micromechanics of three-dimensional fibrin/collagen biomaterial scaffolds
Journal J Mater Res, 2006;8:2023-2034, Mooney RG, Costales CA, Freeman EG, Curtin JM, Corrin AA, Lee JT, Reynolds S, Tawil B, Shaw MC
Description The underlying relationships between the microstructure and time-dependent mechanical properties of hydrated fibrin, collagen and fibrin/collagen composite materials have been explored using an adaptation of the classical rigid, cylindrical, flat punch loaded normally to a planar specimen surface. A suite of quasi-static elastic and viscoelastic indentation experiments have been conducted with uniformly mixed fibrin, collagen and fibrin/collagen composites, in addition to macrolayered collagen materials. Coupled with insights obtained from optical and confocal fluorescence microscopy, a simple micromechanics model has been developed for the effect of local microstructural variables on the macroscopic mechanical stiffness. These results demonstrate the efficacy of this technique to efficiently and reproducibly probe hydrated engineered tissue replacement materials for local variations in viscoelastic material behavior without the need for extensive specimen preparation or grips, as well as being suitable for performing directly comparable measurements with explants of human skin
Faculty Michael Shaw and Bill Tawil are professors of bioengineering
Student Rachael Mooney, Cesar Costales, Erica Freeman, Jennifer Curtin, Joshua Lee and Sarah Reynolds are undergraduate students who performed this work as part of their summer research (2004, 2005) as well as an undergraduate class project (2005)
Fund This work was partially funded by Baxter Healthcare and by the CLU Bioengineering program
 
( 21 )   Recorded at: 2/21/2007      
Title Designing, building, and testing an advanced industrial-grade three-phase digital power meter
Journal Proceedings of the 2006 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition. June 17-21, Chicago, Illinois, , Meredith B, Sbenaty S, Thurmond J
Description The design, construction, and testing of an advanced digital three-phase power meter for industrial applications is described. The meter initial requirements include the measurements of AC voltages in the range from 0 to 55 VRMS and currents in the range from 0 to10 A per phase. In addition, the meter should be capable of measuring power (real, reactive, and apparent) and energy consumption per phase and total. The project is the result of a close collaboration between the author, a senior computer engineering technology major, her faculty advisor at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), and the design engineers at the Power Logic Group of Square-D, a Division of Schneider Electric
Faculty Saleh Sbenaty is a professor of engineering technology at MTSU
Student Bobbie Meredith is currently pursuing her MS degree in engineering technology at MTSU. The meter was part of Bobbie 's senior thesis project, which was conducted during the fall of 2005
Fund The project was mainly funded by Square-D, the student current employer
 
( 22 )   Recorded at: 2/21/2007      
Title Designing, building, and testing a closed compartment stage incubator, CCSI
Journal Proceedings of the 2006 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition. June 17-21, Chicago, Illinois, , Hoehn R, Sbenaty S, Day W
Description The design, construction, and testing of a Closed Compartment Stage Incubator, CCSI is described. The CCSI was created in order to enable scientists in the Horse Science Laboratory at Middle Tennessee State University, MTSU, to monitor the growth of living cells under a microscope for extended periods. These experiments must be performed under very specific and well-regulated conditions, which include controlled temperature, humidity, and ambient gases. The temperature of the CCSI must be maintained to a set value within ±0.1ºC degree over a period of as much as 10 hours or more. In addition, the gas mixture and humidity inside the CCSI must be concurrently controlled to enable the study and viewing of living cells under a microscope
Faculty Saleh Sbenaty is a professor of engineering technology at MTSU
Student Richard Hoehn is currently pursuing his MS degree in engineering technology at MTSU. The system was part of Richard's senior thesis project, which was conducted during the summer of 2005.
Fund The project was jointly funded by the Horse Science Lab and the student current employer
 
( 23 )   Recorded at: 2/20/2007      
Title Identity synchronization in diode lasers with unidirectional feedback and injection of rotated optical fields
Journal Phys Rev A, 2006(74), 023812:1-8, Sukow DW, Gavrielides A, McLachlan T, Burner G, Amonette J, Miller J
Description Two different synchronization solutions were found experimentally and theoretically when light from a chaotic diode laser was injected into a second laser. Theoretical work showed that one solution, known as identity synchronization, only exists when the laser parameters are almost identical, but mismatch in one parameter can be offset by another. Optical chaos synchronization is a strong candidate for encrypted communication technology
Faculty David Sukow is an associate professor of physics and engineering at Washington and Lee University. Athanasios Gavrielides is the Technical Advisor of the Solid State Lasers Branch at the Air Force Research Laboratory
Student Taylor McLachlan, Guinevere Burner, Jake Amonette and John Miller participated in this research in the summer of 2005. McLachlan, Burner, and Miller are juniors at W&L. Amonette is a freshman at Columbia University
Fund This research was supported by the National Science Foundation CAREER grant #0239413
 
( 24 )   Recorded at: 2/20/2007      
Title Square-wave self-modulation in diode lasers with polarization-rotated optical feedback
Journal Opt Lett, 2006(31):2006-2008, Gavrielides A, Erneux T, Sukow DW, Burner G, McLachlan T, Miller J, Amonette J
Description Experiments show that edge-emitting diode lasers can produce regular pulse trains in two orthogonal polarization modes, when subjected to rotated optical feedback. Studies of the laser model indicate that the minimum feedback strength at which square-waves appear depends on the losses of the normally unsupported mode. Optical pulses have potential applications in high-speed communications, logic, and precision clocks. Athanasios Gavrielides is the Technical Advisor of the Solid State Lasers Branch at the Air Force Research Laboratory
Faculty Thomas Erneux is a professor with the theoretical nonlinear optics group at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. David Sukow is an associate professor of physics and engineering at Washington and Lee University
Student Guinevere Burner, Taylor McLachlan, John Miller, and Jake Amonette participated in this research in the summer of 2005. Burner has continued with the project until the present, including dissemination at NCUR and OSA conferences. Burner, McLachlan, and Miller are now juniors at W&L. Amonette is a freshman at Columbia University
Fund This research was supported by the National Science Foundation CAREER grant #0239413
 
( 25 )   Recorded at: 2/20/2007      
Title SphinxCAM Pro|E: Computer-aided modeling and manufacturing of spherical mechanisms via the web
Journal Proceedings of the 2006 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 10 - 13, 2006. Paper # MECH-99103. ASME Press, Schule, J, Ketchel J, Larochelle P
Description A web-based software utility has been developed to facilitate the analysis, dynamic simulation, and manufacture of spherical mechanisms. Spherical four-bar mechanisms produce motion that is constrained to the surface of a sphere while still having only one degree of freedom. A novel approach was created to automatically generate 3-D models from user specified dimensions
Faculty Pierre Larochelle is a professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department
Student Jason Schuler began this research while working as an undergraduate research assistant the summer following his sophomore year and is currently enrolled as a senior. He anticipates beginning his graduate studies next fall
Fund The research was supported through a NSF REU Supplement grant
 
( 26 )   Recorded at: 7/21/2006      
Title Acoustics of the human middle-ear air space
Journal J Acous Soc Am, 2005;118:861-871, Stepp CE, Voss SE
Description The impedance of the middle-ear air space was measured on human cadaver ears with complete mastoid air-cell systems. Below 500 Hz, the impedance is approximately compliance-like, and at higher frequencies the impedance magnitude has several extrema. Mechanisms for these extrema are identified and described through circuit models of the middle-ear air space. The work demonstrates that normal variations in middle-ear air space impedance can account for substantial inter-ear variations in both impedance measurements and otoacoustic emissions, which both form bases for noninvasive monitoring of the auditory system
Faculty Susan Voss is an assistant professor in the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College
Student This research was the undergraduate senior thesis project of Cara Stepp (’04) at Smith College. Cara is currently in a Ph.D. graduate program.
Fund This work was funded by Smith College
 
( 27 )   Recorded at: 7/20/2006      
Title The aerodynamics of symmetric spinnakers
Journal Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 2005(93):311-337, Lasher WC, Sonnenmeier JR, Forsman DR, Tomcho J
Description Twelve parametric sailing yacht spinnaker models were built and tested in a wind tunnel. In these models, five sail shape parameters were varied. Lift and drag forces were measured for a range of angles of attack, and the results were analyzed for three points of sail. The optimum sail shape for each point of sail was determined, and the implications for sail trim are discussed
Faculty William Lasher, James Sonnenmeier and David Forsman are faculty members in the School of Engineering at Penn State Behrend
Student Jason Tomcho participated in this research during the summer of 2003 and is currently with the U.S. Air Force.
Fund The research was supported by a Penn State Behrend Undergraduate Student Summer Research Fellowship
 
( 28 )   Recorded at: 7/19/2006      
Title Dual-tone decoder
Journal Circuit Cellar, 2006(187):12-15, Coulston C, Nypaver B, Rimko J
Description Audio information from a telephone receiver was decoded in order to determine which key was pressed by the sender. An efficient circuit and algorithm were created around a simple and inexpensive microcontroller. The results show that optimal recognition is achieved when coefficients in the algorithm are perturbed from their theoretical values. The algorithm was based on a variant of the Fast Fourier Transformation
Faculty Chris Coulston is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Student Brian Nypaver and Jeffery Rimko participated in this research in their senior year after completing the core of the work in their junior year embedded systems class. Both are completing their last semester of study towards their B.S. in computer engineering
Fund The students conducted this research on their own time; this project was not funded
 
( 29 )   Recorded at: 9/29/2005      
Title Adhesion of Aureobasidium pullulans is Controlled by Uronic Acid-based Polymers and Pullulan
Journal Biomacromolecules, 2005, 6, 1122-1131, Jill M. Pouliot, Ian Walton, Matthew Nolen-Parkhouse, Laila Abu-Lail, Terri A. Camesano (Worcester Polytechnic Institute).
Description The surface polymers produced by a pathogenic microfungus were characterized at the single-molecule level, using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The AFM technique allowed for the distinguishing of multiple types of polymers on the fungal surface. The expression of a particular polymer was related to the time of culture of the fungal cells. Uronic-acid based polymers were found to be critical in mediating the adhesion behavior of the fungus to soil
Faculty Terri A. Camesano is an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering at WPI
Student Jill M. Pouliot began learning the techniques for this research in her junior year. She was joined by Ian Walton and Matthew Nolen-Parkhouse in the senior year, in which the three students worked on this project as part of their senior thesis project at WPI. Jill pursued an M.S. in Environmental Engineering at Penn State University. Currently, All three are employed in industry or consulting. Laila Abu-Lail was a beginning graduate student who assisted in completing the study, and she is currently completing her MS degree in Environmental Engineering.
Fund This work was funded by an NSF CAREER Award, a PRF Type G grant, and Jill Pouliot received additional funding from the Penn State Women in Engineering Program through the GE Faculty for the Future Program.
 
( 30 )   Recorded at: 1/5/2005      
Title A Study of Fracture and Defects in Single Crystal YAG
Journal Journal of Crystal Growth, 2004, 267, 502-509, D.E. Eakins, M. Held, M.G. Norton, D.F. Bahr (Washington State University)
Description Single crystals of Nd doped yttrium aluminum garnet that had fractured during growth were examined using electron microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that in some cases the cause of failure was microscopic voids acting as stress concentrators. Transmission electron microscopy suggested that spherical particles rich in Nd may act as sources of stress in these YAG crystals.
Faculty M.G. Norton and D.F. Bahr are professors of mechanical and materials engineering.
Student D.E. Eakins was a graduate student at Washington State. Martin Held performed the scanning electron microscopy during the summer between his junior and senior year as part of an REU program. He is currently a graduate student at Oregon State University in Electrical Engineering.
 
( 31 )   Recorded at: 11/1/2004      
Title Estimating Scale-Up Cost Factors for Commercial Jet Airplanes
Journal Cost Engineering, 2004, 46, 4, 28-31, Christopher P. Holcomb, Donald S. Remer
Description A parametric scale-up cost factor study for commercial jets is presented. Three independent variables were used to correlate costs to the customer: maximum take-off weight, number of seats, and length of the plane. Scale-up cost factors for each of these variables are presented, based on data collected on 34 planes from the three largest manufacturers of commercial jet aircraft: Airbus, Boeing, an Embraer. The scale-up factors developed in this research are now being used in industry to estimate the costs for commercial jet planes and to calibrate commercial parametric cost estimation models.
Faculty Donald Remer is a professor of engineering economics and engineering management.
Student Christopher Holcomb participated in this research project during his senior year as an independent study and is currently employed as a cost analyst engineer.
 
( 32 )   Recorded at: 12/16/2003      
Title Surface Preparation of Aluminum Nitride for Metallization
Journal Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 2003, 18, 877-890, R. Campman, D. Mandich, A. Meier, R. Fagan (Alfred University)
Description Long-term exposure tests were performed for aluminum nitride (AlN) substrates in common solvents in order to evaluate the reactions occuring during the AlN cleaning steps prior to metallization. The solvents included organics, acids, and bases. The surface corrosion was evaluated based on surface roughness measurements and visual examination of the surface via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Three types of behavior were observed: no reaction, slight corrosion without spalling, or severe corrosion with spalling.
Faculty Alan Meier is an assistant professor of metallurgy and materials engineering in the School of Engineering.
Student Rob Campman was a junior in ceramic engineering and was funded through an IMAPS (International Microelectronics and Packaging Society) 2003 Undergraduate Summer Fellowship and then completed this project as a two-semester senior thesis project. Dawn Mandich was a sophomore in ceramic engineering and was funded through a CEER Undergraduate Summer Fellowship. Additional funding was provided through Alfred University and the AlN substrates were donated by St. Gobain Microelectronics. Rob is currently a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University. Dawn is a senior in ceramic engineering at Alfred University.
 
( 33 )   Recorded at: 10/1/2002      
Title Enforcing Structural Connectivity to Update Damped Systems Using Frequency Response
Journal American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2002, 40, 1197-1203, Philip D. Cha, Joshua P. Switkes (Harvey Mudd College)
Description To benefit computational model validation, improve active vibration control algorithms and aid damage detection for aging structural systems, new approaches are developed to update the analytical system matrices of a damped structure using frequency response. Taking the difference between the measured frequency response data and the analytical predictions, and manipulating the resulting matrix equations, the mass, stiffness and damping correction matrices can be isolated. The required solution techniques to perform the model update are introduced, and the numerical issues associated with solving overdetermined and underdetermined least squares problems are investigated.
Faculty