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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

High-Throughput Nanoliter Dispensing Device For Biological Applications, Cole Reynolds, Euiwon Bae Dr., J Paul Robinson Dr. Aug 2018

High-Throughput Nanoliter Dispensing Device For Biological Applications, Cole Reynolds, Euiwon Bae Dr., J Paul Robinson Dr.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Pathogen identification is a field that can contribute largely to the prevention of the spreading of illness and disease. In the past, pathogen identification has been a long and arduous process due to the time-consuming processes and steps that requires technician’s time and effort. With new technologies emerging however, screening of bacteria colonies can be done in a quick and high-throughput way. The problem is that using the current methods, bacteria cannot be transferred to petri dishes fast enough to keep up with the new screening methods. The current study focuses on exploring different methods to create an ergonomic device …


Thermophotovoltaic Devices: Combustion Chamber Optimization And Modelling To Maximize Fuel Efficiency, Arnold Chris Toppo, Ernesto Marinero, Zhaxylyk Kudyshev Aug 2018

Thermophotovoltaic Devices: Combustion Chamber Optimization And Modelling To Maximize Fuel Efficiency, Arnold Chris Toppo, Ernesto Marinero, Zhaxylyk Kudyshev

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Currently, 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas (primarily methane), a potent greenhouse gas, are flared off for environmental and safety reasons. This process results in enough fuel to provide the combined natural gas consumption of Germany and France. The research team developed a thermophotovoltaic device to convert thermal energy to electricity at a high efficiency using proprietary emitters and combustion system. With the current focus being fuel efficiency and the combustion process, the assembly was simulated using ANSYS Fluent modelling software and the following parameters were optimized: air/fuel ratios, flow rates, and inlet sizes. Simultaneously the heat transfer across …


Bacteria Movement Near Surfaces, Shulin Wang, Adib Ahmadzadegan, Arezoo Ardekani Aug 2018

Bacteria Movement Near Surfaces, Shulin Wang, Adib Ahmadzadegan, Arezoo Ardekani

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Understanding the behaviors of bacteria near surfaces is crucial in many biological and ecological applications. This knowledge can be used to hinder undesired biofilm formation on medical instruments and wounds. On top of that, it could also provide further insights in biodegradation of dispersed oil. In this work, the behavior of Escherichia Coli near a surface was experimentally studied. We utilized an inverted microscope in the phase filed illumination mode and processed acquired images to track the motions of bacteria near surfaces with high accuracy and repeatability. Distribution of the cells when they reached a steady state shows that the …


Purdue Air Sense: A Methodology For Improving The Accuracy Of Ambient Aerosol Mass Concentration And Size Distribution Measurement With Low-Cost Optical Sensing Techniques, Rishabh Ramsisaria, Satya Sundar Patra, Brandon Emil Boor Aug 2018

Purdue Air Sense: A Methodology For Improving The Accuracy Of Ambient Aerosol Mass Concentration And Size Distribution Measurement With Low-Cost Optical Sensing Techniques, Rishabh Ramsisaria, Satya Sundar Patra, Brandon Emil Boor

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

There is a global lack of a means for monitoring air pollutant levels at a local level due to expensive and bulky instrument requirements. It is important to monitor toxic gas levels, as well as particulate matter levels, in the atmosphere to study their effects on human health and to further develop city- and community-level air pollution solutions. In this study, with the means of a Raspberry Pi, low-cost Alphasense Optical Particle Counter and gas sensors, and methodical calibration techniques, we built a portable 3-D printed module powered by clean electricity generated by an on-board Voltaic solar cell that measures …


Reliability Of Lead-Free Solder Joints Under Combined Shear And Compressive Loads, Ian Bernander, Travis Dale, Yuvraj Singh, Ganesh Subbarayan Aug 2018

Reliability Of Lead-Free Solder Joints Under Combined Shear And Compressive Loads, Ian Bernander, Travis Dale, Yuvraj Singh, Ganesh Subbarayan

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In electronic assemblies, solder joints are used to create electrical connections, remove heat, and mechanically support the components. When an electronic device is powered on, the solder joints and the board they are attached to heat up, expanding at different rates. Due to the difference in expansion, shear stress is imposed on the solder joints. As the device is powered on and off, this shear stress can eventually fracture the solder joint, causing the device to fail. Therefore, to increase the lifespan of electronics, it is important to investigate the mechanical properties of solder alloys. The present study investigates how …


Universality In Viscous Fluid Spreading And Leveling, Zoë S. Penko, Ivan C. Christov, Daihui Lu Aug 2018

Universality In Viscous Fluid Spreading And Leveling, Zoë S. Penko, Ivan C. Christov, Daihui Lu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Multiphase fluid flows, or flows where the dynamics of an interface between unlike fluids can be observed, require study to further understand the fundamental relationships of the fluids’ properties and their dynamics in multiple applications. The scope of this research project pertains to low Reynolds number flow, a dense fluid spreading through a less dense ambient fluid, with the spreading fluid movement being driven by gravitational buoyancy forces and density differences. The primary investigation involves studying the spreading and leveling of such fluids in shaped geometries, such as subsurface fractures. The objective is to determine the effect of a wide …


Waste Heat Recovery From A Vented Electric Clothes Dryer Utilizing A Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger, Abdul Raheem A. Shaik, Stephen L. Caskey, Eckhard A. Groll Aug 2018

Waste Heat Recovery From A Vented Electric Clothes Dryer Utilizing A Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger, Abdul Raheem A. Shaik, Stephen L. Caskey, Eckhard A. Groll

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Conventional residential clothes dryers continuously vent moist, hot air during the drying process. The vented air leaves the home but still has useful temperature and humidity that could be recovered to offset other heating demands in the home. A study is carried out to quantify the amount of heat extracted from the waste heat stream of a conventional, vented clothes dryer. To extract the heat, a water cooled, fin-and-tube heat exchanger is located within the exhaust duct. A steady state thermodynamic dry coil and wet coil model was built in Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The model accounts for the heat …


Developing An Electromechanical Carbon Dioxide Sensor For Occupancy Monitoring, Joshua L. Jenkins, Allison K. Murray, Jeffrey F. Rhoads Aug 2018

Developing An Electromechanical Carbon Dioxide Sensor For Occupancy Monitoring, Joshua L. Jenkins, Allison K. Murray, Jeffrey F. Rhoads

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The Energy Information Administration reported in 2012 that heating and cooling processes consume nearly 35% of the total energy used by commercial buildings. In an effort to limit the amount of energy wasted in conditioning empty buildings and rooms, various occupancy detection techniques have been developed that can be paired with a smart heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) control system. This work focused on the development of a novel carbon dioxide detector that is sensitive enough to accurately determine if, and when, a room is occupied. To test the new sensor design, a customized chamber with gas inlets was …


Study Of The Effective Thermal Conductivity Of Polymer Composites With Varying Filler Arrangements, Debraliz Isaac Aragones, Rajath Kantharaj, Aaditya Candadai, Amy Marconnet Aug 2018

Study Of The Effective Thermal Conductivity Of Polymer Composites With Varying Filler Arrangements, Debraliz Isaac Aragones, Rajath Kantharaj, Aaditya Candadai, Amy Marconnet

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Alternative thermal management solutions for electronic devices are being widely explored due to the increasing heat concentration that results from shrinking sizes and increasing power of modern electronics. Clearly, there is a need to spread the heat effectively in these systems, and polymer composites can potentially provide high thermal conductivity at low filler fraction while maintaining desirable mechanical properties for electronic packaging. The present study aims to investigate the effective thermal conductivity of various copper filler arrangements in a polymer matrix. The polymer composites are fabricated using laser cut acrylic templates to embed aligned copper rods in epoxy and create …


Micro-Manipulation Using Learned Model, Matthew A. Lyng, Benjamin V. Johnson, David J. Cappelleri Aug 2018

Micro-Manipulation Using Learned Model, Matthew A. Lyng, Benjamin V. Johnson, David J. Cappelleri

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Microscale devices can be found in applications ranging from sensors to structural components. The dominance of surface forces at the microscale hinders the assembly processes through nonlinear interactions that are difficult to model for automation, limiting designs of microsystems to primarily monolithic structures. Methods for modeling surface forces must be presented for viable manufacturing of devices consisting of multiple microparts. This paper proposes the implementation of supervised machine learning models to aid in automated micromanipulation tasks for advanced manufacturing applications. The developed models use sets of training data to implicitly model surface interactions and predict end-effector placement and paths that …


Validation Of Lateral Gap Leakage Objective Function For Use In Multi-Objective Optimization Of Gerotor Pumps, Kevin Cohen, Andrew Robison, Andrea Vacca Aug 2018

Validation Of Lateral Gap Leakage Objective Function For Use In Multi-Objective Optimization Of Gerotor Pumps, Kevin Cohen, Andrew Robison, Andrea Vacca

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Gerotor pumps are a common pump choice used in the automotive, agricultural, and construction fields for their low cost and durability. Recently, demanding applications have called for significant design improvements in gear geometry. To address these design challenges, multi-objective optimization has been applied to gear geometry. The goal of this work is to introduce minimizing of lateral-gap leakage to the multi-objective optimization. An objective function for evaluating lateral-gap leakage based on 1D, pressure driven flow is proposed. This simplified approach is compared to CFD simulation solving of Reynolds equation with two pressure boundaries. Comparison of the simplified relation and the …


Experimental Validation Of A Numerical Phase Change Model For Microchannel Slug Flow Boiling, Christian J. Retter, Todd A. Kingston, Justin A. Weibel, Suresh V. Garimella Aug 2018

Experimental Validation Of A Numerical Phase Change Model For Microchannel Slug Flow Boiling, Christian J. Retter, Todd A. Kingston, Justin A. Weibel, Suresh V. Garimella

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Thermal management of high-power electronic devices continues to be a critical challenge. Flow boiling in microchannel heat sinks has been demonstrated to be an effective method for removing high heat fluxes from these devices owing to utilization of the latent heat of the fluid and the large surface area enhancement for heat exchange. However, microchannel flow boiling technologies have yet to be broadly implemented due to a lack of experimentally validated prediction and design tools. The goal of this study is to use high-fidelity experimental data to validate a previously developed numerical phase change model, to help enable physics-based prediction …


Predict The Failure Of Hydraulic Pumps By Different Machine Learning Algorithms, Yifei Zhou, Monika Ivantysynova, Nathan Keller Aug 2018

Predict The Failure Of Hydraulic Pumps By Different Machine Learning Algorithms, Yifei Zhou, Monika Ivantysynova, Nathan Keller

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Pump failure is a general concerned problem in the hydraulic field. Once happening, it will cause a huge property loss and even the life loss. The common methods to prevent the occurrence of pump failure is by preventative maintenance and breakdown maintenance, however, both of them have significant drawbacks. This research focuses on the axial piston pump and provides a new solution by the prognostic of pump failure using the classification of machine learning. Different kinds of sensors (temperature, acceleration and etc.) were installed into a good condition pump and three different kinds of damaged pumps to measure 10 of …


Development Of Closures For Collisions Between Realistic Particles, Cary Faulkner, Aaron Morris Aug 2018

Development Of Closures For Collisions Between Realistic Particles, Cary Faulkner, Aaron Morris

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Systems consisting of solid particles can exhibit fluid-like motion and are common in industrial applications such as pharmaceutical or food processing. Such granular flows are often studied using simulation methods. One common simulation method is the discrete element method (DEM), which solves for the motion of individual particles based on Newton’s laws. However, large-scale particulate systems are difficult to study using DEM due to excessively long simulation times. The goal of this study is to reduce the computational load of these large-scale simulations. Instead of resolving particle trajectories throughout each collision, a scattering function is developed that directly relates the …


Design Of Selectively Compliant Morphing Wind Turbine Blade Section Using Bistable Laminate For Passive Load Alleviation, Abhishek Chopra, Dr. Andres Arrieta, Janav Udani, Jose Rivas Padilla Aug 2018

Design Of Selectively Compliant Morphing Wind Turbine Blade Section Using Bistable Laminate For Passive Load Alleviation, Abhishek Chopra, Dr. Andres Arrieta, Janav Udani, Jose Rivas Padilla

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The design of passively controlled compliant morphing structures for large scale wind turbine blades has been of interest due to the inherent advantages of lower mass and reduced complexity over their active counterparts. Previous studies have indicated that embedding a locally bi-stable element within the turbine blade section successfully allows for achieving passive load alleviation. The embedded bi-stable member switches from one stable state to another at a critical aerodynamic load. This local structural change results in a global shift in the aeroelastic response of the blade section. Building on these preliminary results, this research investigates a two- dimensional wind …


Parallel Computation Using Mems Oscillator-Based Computing System, Xinrui Wang, Ilias Bilionis, Salar Safarkhani Aug 2017

Parallel Computation Using Mems Oscillator-Based Computing System, Xinrui Wang, Ilias Bilionis, Salar Safarkhani

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In recent years, parallel computing systems such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been of great interest. In these systems which emulate the behavior of human brains, the processing is carried out simultaneously. However, it is still a challenging engineering problem to design highly efficient hardware for parallel computing systems. We will study the properties of networks of Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) oscillators to explore their capabilities as parallel computing infrastructure. Furthermore, we simulate the time-variant states of MEMS oscillators network under various initial conditions and performance of certain tasks. Recent theoretical results show that networks of MEMS oscillators have some …


Comparative Analysis Of Impact Attenuation Properties From Soccer Headgear, Kevin G. Mciver, Goutham N. Sankaran, Justin J. Markel, Tom M. Talavage, Larry J. Leverenz, Eric A. Nauman Aug 2017

Comparative Analysis Of Impact Attenuation Properties From Soccer Headgear, Kevin G. Mciver, Goutham N. Sankaran, Justin J. Markel, Tom M. Talavage, Larry J. Leverenz, Eric A. Nauman

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Athletes suffering from long-term neurocognitive deficiency due to subconcussive impacts is a major concern for football and soccer players today. Football players wear helmets that can help reduce injury risks like skull fractures, and these helmets must meet standard criteria that determinines how well a functional helmet should reduce accelerations of the player’s head. Currently no standard exists for testing soccer headgear despite studies demonstrating soccer players experience similar magnitudes of impacts. In this study, a modal impact hammer was used in conjunction with a Hybrid III 50th percentile test dummy head to simulate impacts experienced by soccer players to …


Two-Color Polarization Spectroscopy Measurement Of Nitric Oxide, Ziqiao Chang, Aman Satija, Robert P. Lucht Aug 2017

Two-Color Polarization Spectroscopy Measurement Of Nitric Oxide, Ziqiao Chang, Aman Satija, Robert P. Lucht

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Nitric Oxide (NO) is a greenhouse gas that contributes to smog and acid rain. Commercial combustion engines and turbines are significant sources of NO emission. Two-color Polarization Spectroscopy (PS) will be used to measure the collision-induced resonances of NO in gas mixtures. The effect of collision partners, such as He and Ar, on the line-shape of NO molecule will be studied. This experiment requires the use of two dye laser systems to generate 226nm beam from frequency mixing of 355nm and 622nm. This enhanced the scan range and improved the ease of operation. One dye laser will be used to …


Analytical Solution Of Microbes Interacting With Surfaces, Junyuan Li, Arezoo M. Ardekani Aug 2017

Analytical Solution Of Microbes Interacting With Surfaces, Junyuan Li, Arezoo M. Ardekani

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Nowadays, there is a rising interest in studying the behavior of microbes and their interactions with flow and surfaces. In order to explore the velocity field, pressure and forces around the microbes, the solution of Stokes equations, which is called a Stokeslet, is used. This solution represents a singular velocity field due to a concentrated external force acting on fluid at a single point. This singularity could cause the expression of velocity not integrable. We use the Regularized Stokeslet Method and Method of Images to deal with this problem. The expression of force is replaced by a radially symmetric function, …


Additive Manufacturing Of High Solids Loading Hybrid Rocket Fuel Grains, Stephen P. Johnson, Michael Baier, Ibrahim E. Gunduz, Steven F. Son Aug 2017

Additive Manufacturing Of High Solids Loading Hybrid Rocket Fuel Grains, Stephen P. Johnson, Michael Baier, Ibrahim E. Gunduz, Steven F. Son

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Hybrid rocket motors offer many of the benefits of both liquid and solid rocket systems. Like liquid engines, hybrid rocket motors are able to be throttled, can be stopped and restarted, and are safer than solid rocket motors since the fuel and oxidizer are in different physical states. Hybrid rocket motors are similar to solid motors in that they are relatively simple and have a high density-specific impulse. One of the major drawbacks of hybrid rocket motors is a slower burning rate than solid rocket motors. Complex port geometries provide greater burning surface area to compensate for lower burning rates …


Development Of Portable Hyperspectral Imaging Device, Chenxi Li, Youngkee Jung, Iyll-Joon Doh, Euiwon Bae Aug 2017

Development Of Portable Hyperspectral Imaging Device, Chenxi Li, Youngkee Jung, Iyll-Joon Doh, Euiwon Bae

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Most of the conventional hyperspectral imaging devices require sophisticated optical components, occupy a large footprint, and requires an initial capital investment for laboratories which mostly suits for laboratories benchtop system. The requirement of shipping the sample and waiting an extended period of time to get the results are the main downsides of this traditional approach. Capitalize in many specific field applications and diagnosis, portable devices provide both convenience and on-site results which are desirable for government agencies and food safety inspectors. This project was aimed to develop a low-cost, portable hyperspectral device for food safety applications. A smartphone was used …


Burning Surface Temperature Measurements Of Propellants And Explosives Using Phosphor Thermography, Ethan A. Whitaker, Alex D. Casey, Steven F. Son Aug 2017

Burning Surface Temperature Measurements Of Propellants And Explosives Using Phosphor Thermography, Ethan A. Whitaker, Alex D. Casey, Steven F. Son

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Temperature measurements of propellants and explosives are necessary to create accurate models which lead to better understanding of energetic characteristics such as burning rate. Previous attempts at measuring surface temperatures of burning propellants and explosives using thermocouples have suffered from large uncertainty. Thermographic phosphor thermography employs ceramic powders called phosphors whose spectroscopic properties can be used to remotely and nearly non-intrusively measure temperature. Improved methods were developed for application of this technique to energetic materials to yield more accurate, two-dimensional temperature measurements. In this study, zinc oxide doped with gallium, a thermographic phosphor, was mixed into HMX and RDX powder, …


Generation Of Inhomogeneous Acoustic Waves Using An Array Of Loudspeakers, Samuel E. Wonfor, Trevor A. Kyle, J. Stuart Bolton, Jeffrey F. Rhoads Aug 2017

Generation Of Inhomogeneous Acoustic Waves Using An Array Of Loudspeakers, Samuel E. Wonfor, Trevor A. Kyle, J. Stuart Bolton, Jeffrey F. Rhoads

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In previous studies it has been shown that pressure fields created by inhomogeneous sound waves (waves which decay in a direction perpendicular to their propagation direction) are able to transmit energy into objects more effectively than ones created by conventional sound waves. This behavior may be useful in the detection of hidden explosive threats. To explore this, a device capable of constructing inhomogeneous waves is being developed. The proposed device is an acoustic array consisting of several high-frequency speakers. The speakers are independently driven to construct a desired inhomogeneous pressure field on a target surface. Inhomogeneous pressure fields were reconstructed …


Spectral Phonon Relaxation Time Calculation Tool Based On Molecular Dynamics, Divya Chalise, Tianli Feng, Xiulin Ruan Aug 2017

Spectral Phonon Relaxation Time Calculation Tool Based On Molecular Dynamics, Divya Chalise, Tianli Feng, Xiulin Ruan

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Thermal conductivity is an important material property which affects the performance of a wide range of devices from thermoelectrics to nanoelectronics. Information about phonon vibration modes and phonon relaxation time gives significant insight into understanding and engineering material’s thermal conductivity. Although different theoretical models have been developed for studying phonon modes and relaxation time, extensive knowledge of lattice dynamics and molecular dynamics is required to compute phonon modal frequencies and relaxation times. Therefore, a computational tool which can take simple inputs to calculate phonon mode frequencies and relaxation time will be beneficial. Through this research work, such computational tool has …


Numerical Simulations Of Transcritical Natural Convection, Ruiwen Wei, Carlo Scalo, Mario Tindaro Migliorino, Kukjin Kim, Jean-Pierre Hickey Aug 2017

Numerical Simulations Of Transcritical Natural Convection, Ruiwen Wei, Carlo Scalo, Mario Tindaro Migliorino, Kukjin Kim, Jean-Pierre Hickey

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In modern engineering applications, system overheating is a key issue that needs to be solved with efficient and reliable cooling technologies. Among the possible mechanisms that these are based on, natural convection cooling is one of the most frequently employed, with applications ranging from cooling of computer micro-components to large nuclear reactors. While many studies have been performed on natural convection employing supercritical or subcritical fluids, little attention has been given to fluids in their transcritical regime. The latter has the potential to yield high performances while avoiding detrimental effects of two-phase systems (e.g. cavitation). In the present study, 2D …


Examination Of Ordering Effects In Sound Evaluations, Yiyun Zhang, Patricia Davies, Daniel Carr Aug 2017

Examination Of Ordering Effects In Sound Evaluations, Yiyun Zhang, Patricia Davies, Daniel Carr

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

It is difficult to predict sound annoyance responses because annoyance is an inherently subjective concept and the evaluation standard could be different from each person. Usually, annoyance models are functions of strengths of sound characteristics only, and these models can help engineers to improve sounds that machines make and minimize annoyance levels, but other factors can also influence annoyance ratings of products. The main goal of this research was to investigate ordering effects in sound evaluations when people are hearing a set of sounds in sequence. Of particular interest is how the response to a sound influences the response to …


Stability Analysis Of A Flexible Vehicle Model Controlled By Human Pilot Models, Abhishek Ajmani, Anil Bajaj Aug 2017

Stability Analysis Of A Flexible Vehicle Model Controlled By Human Pilot Models, Abhishek Ajmani, Anil Bajaj

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

There is a constant race among automobile manufactures to design safer vehicles while minimizing weight to reduce power consumption. Additionally, organizations like NASA and SpaceX are persistently working toward creating reliable, lightweight rovers to be used on the surface of Mars. However, the lightweight requirement often increases vehicle flexibility, which further develops a tendency toward instability in the lateral (sideways) direction. This investigation develops a mathematical model that represents the dynamics of a flexible vehicle in forward motion, and a heuristic human pilot model is proposed which controls the vehicle. Following such formulation, the combined vehicle and pilot model is …


Purdue Airsense: An Affordable Way To Measure And Study Air Pollution, Stephane Junior Nouafo Wanko, Shadi Tariq Azouz, Ruihang Du, Brandon Boor, Greg Michalski Aug 2017

Purdue Airsense: An Affordable Way To Measure And Study Air Pollution, Stephane Junior Nouafo Wanko, Shadi Tariq Azouz, Ruihang Du, Brandon Boor, Greg Michalski

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Air pollution is a major health hazard worldwide, accounting for one-eighth of all deaths in 2012 (World Health Organization). Globally, there is a severe lack of ground-based spatiotemporal monitoring of gaseous and particulate air pollutants, particularly in Africa, South and Central America, and the Middle East. This is in great part due to the high costs of air quality instrumentation that meet accuracy and reliability criteria set by monitoring agencies. The air quality data that is available is often not presented to the public in a user-friendly manner. Taking advantage of recent developments in low-cost sensing technologies, an integrated sensor …


Optimization And Control Of Production Of Graphene, Atharva Hans, Nimish M. Awalgaonkar, Majed Alrefae, Ilias Bilionis, Timothy S. Fisher Aug 2017

Optimization And Control Of Production Of Graphene, Atharva Hans, Nimish M. Awalgaonkar, Majed Alrefae, Ilias Bilionis, Timothy S. Fisher

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Graphene is a 2-dimensional element of high practical importance. Despite its exceptional properties, graphene’s real applications in industrial or commercial products have been limited. There are many methods to produce graphene, but none has been successful in commercializing its production. Roll-to-roll plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is used to manufacture graphene at large scale. In this research, we present a Bayesian linear regression model to predict the roll-to-roll plasma system’s electrode voltage and current; given a particular set of inputs. The inputs of the plasma system are power, pressure and concentration of gases; hydrogen, methane, oxygen, nitrogen and argon. This …


3d-Printed Microswimmers With Nanostructures For Color Tracking, Cara Koepele, Maria Guix, David Cappelleri Aug 2017

3d-Printed Microswimmers With Nanostructures For Color Tracking, Cara Koepele, Maria Guix, David Cappelleri

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Two-Photon Polymerization (TPP) is a fabrication technique based on the localized linking of photosensitive materials resulting from femtosecond – a quadrillionth of a second – exposure to a laser. Such materials are based on building blocks named monomers that combine under certain stimuli (i.e. light) to form chains or complex networks. Utilization of TPP as a method for micro-3D printing has expanded the field of microrobotics, which presents medical solutions for minimizing procedure invasiveness as well as increasing treatment and diagnosis accuracy. One of the challenges in achieving desired accuracies is designing trackable features onto a microrobot. With the capabilities …