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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Pursuing Excitonic Energy Transfer With Programmable Dna-Based Optical Breadboards, Divita Mathur, Sebastián A. Díaz, Niko Hildebrandt, Ryan D. Pensack, Bernard Yurke, Austin Biaggne, Lan Li, Joseph S. Melinger, Mario G. Ancona, William B. Knowlton, Igor L. Medintz Nov 2023

Pursuing Excitonic Energy Transfer With Programmable Dna-Based Optical Breadboards, Divita Mathur, Sebastián A. Díaz, Niko Hildebrandt, Ryan D. Pensack, Bernard Yurke, Austin Biaggne, Lan Li, Joseph S. Melinger, Mario G. Ancona, William B. Knowlton, Igor L. Medintz

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

DNA nanotechnology has now enabled the self-assembly of almost any prescribed 3-dimensional nanoscale structure in large numbers and with high fidelity. These structures are also amenable to site-specific modification with a variety of small molecules ranging from drugs to reporter dyes. Beyond obvious application in biotechnology, such DNA structures are being pursued as programmable nanoscale optical breadboards where multiple different/identical fluorophores can be positioned with sub-nanometer resolution in a manner designed to allow them to engage in multistep excitonic energy-transfer (ET) via Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) or other related processes. Not only is the ability to create such complex …


Exciton Delocalization In A Fully Synthetic Dna-Templated Bacteriochlorin Dimer, Olga A. Mass, Devan R. Watt, Lance K. Patten, Ryan D. Pensack, Jeunghoon Lee, Daniel B. Turner, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton Nov 2023

Exciton Delocalization In A Fully Synthetic Dna-Templated Bacteriochlorin Dimer, Olga A. Mass, Devan R. Watt, Lance K. Patten, Ryan D. Pensack, Jeunghoon Lee, Daniel B. Turner, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A bacteriochlorophyll a (Bchla) dimer is a basic functional unit in the LH1 and LH2 photosynthetic pigment–protein antenna complexes of purple bacteria, where an ordered, close arrangement of Bchla pigments—secured by noncovalent bonding to a protein template—enables exciton delocalization at room temperature. Stable and tunable synthetic analogs of this key photosynthetic subunit could lead to facile engineering of exciton-based systems such as in artificial photosynthesis, organic optoelectronics, and molecular quantum computing. Here, using a combination of synthesis and theory, we demonstrate that exciton delocalization can be achieved in a dimer of a synthetic bacteriochlorin (BC …


High-Sensitivity Electronic Stark Spectrometer Featuring A Laser-Driven Light Source, J. S. Huff, K. M. Duncan, C. J. Van Galen, M. S. Barclay, W. B. Knowlton, B. Yurke, P. H. Davis, D. B. Turner, R. J. Stanley, R. D. Pensack Sep 2023

High-Sensitivity Electronic Stark Spectrometer Featuring A Laser-Driven Light Source, J. S. Huff, K. M. Duncan, C. J. Van Galen, M. S. Barclay, W. B. Knowlton, B. Yurke, P. H. Davis, D. B. Turner, R. J. Stanley, R. D. Pensack

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report developmental details of a high-sensitivity Stark absorption spectrometer featuring a laser-driven light source. The light source exhibits intensity fluctuations of ∼0.3% over timescales ranging from 1 min to 12 h, minimal drift (≤ 0.1%/h), and very little 1/f noise at frequencies greater than 200 Hz, which are comparable to or better than an arc-driven light source. Additional features of the spectrometer include balanced detection with multiplex sampling, which yielded lower noise in A, and constant wavelength or wavenumber (energy) spectral bandpass modes. We achieve noise amplitudes of ∼7 × 10−4 and ∼6 × 10−6 …


Decoding The Hydrodynamic Properties Of Microscale Helical Propellers From Brownian Fluctuations, Bernard Yurke May 2023

Decoding The Hydrodynamic Properties Of Microscale Helical Propellers From Brownian Fluctuations, Bernard Yurke

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The complex motility of bacteria, ranging from single-swimmer behaviors such as chemotaxis to collective dynamics, including biofilm formation and active matter phenomena, is driven by their microscale propellers. Despite extensive study of swimming flagellated bacteria, the hydrodynamic properties of their helical-shaped propellers have never been directly measured. The primary challenges to directly studying microscale propellers are 1) their small size and fast, correlated motion, 2) the necessity of controlling fluid flow at the microscale, and 3) isolating the influence of a single propeller from a propeller bundle. To solve the outstanding problem of characterizing the hydrodynamic properties of these propellers, …


Control And Design Of A Passive Solar Lumber Drying Kiln, Peter Chardavoyne May 2023

Control And Design Of A Passive Solar Lumber Drying Kiln, Peter Chardavoyne

Honors Scholar Theses

The passive solar lumber drying kiln design, developed by EE Senior Design Team 2317 is presented, tested, and discussed. The design incorporates solar power and a custom control system to dry 12’ lumber boards inside a shipping container much faster than air-drying methods, which can take up to a year for thorough drying, though this can be extended due to the unpredictability of weather events and conditions. This work presents the design as in the final report provided by the team, but provides a more detailed explanation and analysis of the microcontroller system, testing methods and outcomes, alternate solutions and …


Effect Of Substituent Location On The Relationship Between The Transition Dipole Moments, Difference Static Dipole, And Hydrophobicity In Squaraine Dyes For Quantum Information Devices, Maia Ketteridge, Austin Biaggne, Ryan Rau, German Barcenas, Olga A. Mass, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li Mar 2023

Effect Of Substituent Location On The Relationship Between The Transition Dipole Moments, Difference Static Dipole, And Hydrophobicity In Squaraine Dyes For Quantum Information Devices, Maia Ketteridge, Austin Biaggne, Ryan Rau, German Barcenas, Olga A. Mass, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Aggregates of organic dyes that exhibit excitonic coupling have a wide array of applications, including medical imaging, organic photovoltaics, and quantum information devices. The optical properties of a dye monomer, as a basis of dye aggregate, can be modified to strengthen excitonic coupling. Squaraine (SQ) dyes are attractive for those applications due to their strong absorbance peak in the visible range. While the effects of substituent types on the optical properties of SQ dyes have been previously examined, the effects of various substituent locations have not yet been investigated. In this study, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional …


Drone Detection Using Yolov5, Burchan Aydin, Subroto Singha Feb 2023

Drone Detection Using Yolov5, Burchan Aydin, Subroto Singha

Faculty Publications

The rapidly increasing number of drones in the national airspace, including those for recreational and commercial applications, has raised concerns regarding misuse. Autonomous drone detection systems offer a probable solution to overcoming the issue of potential drone misuse, such as drug smuggling, violating people’s privacy, etc. Detecting drones can be difficult, due to similar objects in the sky, such as airplanes and birds. In addition, automated drone detection systems need to be trained with ample amounts of data to provide high accuracy. Real-time detection is also necessary, but this requires highly configured devices such as a graphical processing unit (GPU). …


Molecular Dynamic Studies Of Dye–Dye And Dye–Dna Interactions Governing Excitonic Coupling In Squaraine Aggregates Templated By Dna Holliday Junctions, German Barcenas, Austin Biaggne, Olga A. Mass, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li Feb 2023

Molecular Dynamic Studies Of Dye–Dye And Dye–Dna Interactions Governing Excitonic Coupling In Squaraine Aggregates Templated By Dna Holliday Junctions, German Barcenas, Austin Biaggne, Olga A. Mass, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dye molecules, arranged in an aggregate, can display excitonic delocalization. The use of DNA scaffolding to control aggregate configurations and delocalization is of research interest. Here, we applied Molecular Dynamics (MD) to gain an insight on how dye–DNA interactions affect excitonic coupling between two squaraine (SQ) dyes covalently attached to a DNA Holliday junction (HJ). We studied two types of dimer configurations, i.e., adjacent and transverse, which differed in points of dye covalent attachments to DNA. Three structurally different SQ dyes with similar hydrophobicity were chosen to investigate the sensitivity of excitonic coupling to dye placement. Each dimer configuration was …


Probing Dna Structural Heterogeneity By Identifying Conformational Subensembles Of A Bicovalently Bound Cyanine Dye, Matthew S. Barclay, Azhad U. Chowdhury, Austin Biaggne, Jonathan S. Huff, Nicholas D. Wright, Paul H. Davis, Lan Li, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Ryan D. Pensack, Daniel B. Turner Jan 2023

Probing Dna Structural Heterogeneity By Identifying Conformational Subensembles Of A Bicovalently Bound Cyanine Dye, Matthew S. Barclay, Azhad U. Chowdhury, Austin Biaggne, Jonathan S. Huff, Nicholas D. Wright, Paul H. Davis, Lan Li, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Ryan D. Pensack, Daniel B. Turner

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

DNA is a re-configurable, biological information-storage unit, and much remains to be learned about its heterogeneous structural dynamics. For example, while it is known that molecular dyes templated onto DNA exhibit increased photostability, the mechanism by which the structural dynamics of DNA affect the dye photophysics remains unknown. Here, we use femtosecond, two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy measurements of a cyanine dye, Cy5, to probe local conformations in samples of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA–Cy5), double-stranded DNA (dsDNA–Cy5), and Holliday junction DNA (HJ–DNA–Cy5). A line shape analysis of the 2D spectra reveals a strong excitation–emission correlation present in only the dsDNA–Cy5 complex, which is …


Integrating Sociotechnical Issues In The Introduction To Circuits Course, Cynthia Finelli, Susan Lord Jan 2023

Integrating Sociotechnical Issues In The Introduction To Circuits Course, Cynthia Finelli, Susan Lord

Practice Papers

Engineers frequently encounter sociotechnical issues in their work, so it is critical that they are prepared to address complex, real-world issues that require both technical and social expertise. Engineering accreditation criteria further underscore the importance of understanding sociotechnical issues by expecting engineering undergraduate programs to address ethical, global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic considerations in student outcomes. However, most engineering instructors were educated with a deep technical focus, have little experience outside of engineering, and feel ill-equipped to integrate non-technical topics. As a result, engineering is often taught in the undergraduate curricula from a purely technical perspective, with an emphasis …


Tunable Electronic Structure Via Dna-Templated Heteroaggregates Of Two Distinct Cyanine Dyes, Jonathan S. Huff, Matthew S. Barclay, Azhad U. Chowdhury, Lance K. Patten, Simon K. Roy, Aaron Sup, Austin Biaggne, Lan Li, Jeunghoon Lee, Paul H. Davis, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton, Daniel B. Turner, Ryan D. Pensack Oct 2022

Tunable Electronic Structure Via Dna-Templated Heteroaggregates Of Two Distinct Cyanine Dyes, Jonathan S. Huff, Matthew S. Barclay, Azhad U. Chowdhury, Lance K. Patten, Simon K. Roy, Aaron Sup, Austin Biaggne, Lan Li, Jeunghoon Lee, Paul H. Davis, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton, Daniel B. Turner, Ryan D. Pensack

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Molecular excitons are useful for applications in light harvesting, organic optoelectronics, and nanoscale computing. Electronic energy transfer (EET) is a process central to the function of devices based on molecular excitons. Achieving EET with a high quantum efficiency is a common obstacle to excitonic devices, often owing to the lack of donor and acceptor molecules that exhibit favorable spectral overlap. EET quantum efficiencies may be substantially improved through the use of heteroaggregates─aggregates of chemically distinct dyes─rather than individual dyes as energy relay units. However, controlling the assembly of heteroaggregates remains a significant challenge. Here, we use DNA Holliday junctions to …


Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Cyanine Dimers Attached To Dna Holliday Junctions, Austin Biaggne, Young C. Kim, Joseph S. Melinger, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li Oct 2022

Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Cyanine Dimers Attached To Dna Holliday Junctions, Austin Biaggne, Young C. Kim, Joseph S. Melinger, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dye aggregates and their excitonic properties are of interest for their applications to organic photovoltaics, non-linear optics, and quantum information systems. DNA scaffolding has been shown to be effective at promoting the aggregation of dyes in a controllable manner. Specifically, isolated DNA Holliday junctions have been used to achieve strongly coupled cyanine dye dimers. However, the structural properties of the dimers and the DNA, as well as the role of Holliday junction isomerization are not fully understood. To study the dynamics of cyanine dimers in DNA, molecular dynamics simulations were carried out for adjacent and transverse dimers attached to Holliday …


Oblique Packing And Tunable Excitonic Coupling In Dna-Templated Squaraine Rotaxane Dimer Aggregates, Matthew S. Barclay, Christopher K. Wilson, Simon K. Roy, Olga A. Mass, Azhad U. Chowdhury, Jonathan S. Huff, Daniel B. Turner, Paul H. Davis, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton, Jeunghoon Lee, Ryan D. Pensack Jul 2022

Oblique Packing And Tunable Excitonic Coupling In Dna-Templated Squaraine Rotaxane Dimer Aggregates, Matthew S. Barclay, Christopher K. Wilson, Simon K. Roy, Olga A. Mass, Azhad U. Chowdhury, Jonathan S. Huff, Daniel B. Turner, Paul H. Davis, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton, Jeunghoon Lee, Ryan D. Pensack

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

When molecules are aggregated such that their excited states form delocalized excitons, their spatial arrangement, or packing, can be coarsely controlled by templating and finely controlled by chemical substitution; however, challenges remain in controlling their packing on intermediate length scales. Here, we use an approach based on mechanically interlocked molecules to promote an elusive oblique packing arrangement in a series of three squaraine rotaxane dimers. We template the squaraine rotaxane dimers using DNA and observe two excitonically split bands of near-equal intensity in their absorption spectra – a distinct signature of oblique packing, validated by theoretical modeling of the experimental …


Characterizing Mode Anharmonicity And Huang–Rhys Factors Using Models Of Femtosecond Coherence Spectra, Matthew S. Barclay, Jonathan S. Huff, Ryan D. Pensack, Paul H. Davis, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Jacob C. Dean, Paul C. Arpin, Daniel B. Turner Jun 2022

Characterizing Mode Anharmonicity And Huang–Rhys Factors Using Models Of Femtosecond Coherence Spectra, Matthew S. Barclay, Jonathan S. Huff, Ryan D. Pensack, Paul H. Davis, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Jacob C. Dean, Paul C. Arpin, Daniel B. Turner

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Femtosecond laser pulses readily produce coherent quantum beats in transient–absorption spectra. These oscillatory signals often arise from molecular vibrations and therefore may contain information about the excited-state potential energy surface near the Franck–Condon region. Here, by fitting the measured spectra of two laser dyes to microscopic models of femtosecond coherence spectra (FCS) arising from molecular vibrations, we classify coherent quantum-beat signals as fundamentals or overtones and quantify their Huang–Rhys factors and anharmonicity values. We discuss the extracted Huang–Rhys factors in the context of quantum-chemical computations. This work solidifies the use of FCS for analysis of coherent quantum beats arising from …


Data-Driven And Multiscale Modeling Of Dna-Templated Dye Aggregates, Austin Biaggne, Lawrence Spear, German Barcenas, Maia Ketteridge, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li Jun 2022

Data-Driven And Multiscale Modeling Of Dna-Templated Dye Aggregates, Austin Biaggne, Lawrence Spear, German Barcenas, Maia Ketteridge, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dye aggregates are of interest for excitonic applications, including biomedical imaging, organic photovoltaics, and quantum information systems. Dyes with large transition dipole moments (μ) are necessary to optimize coupling within dye aggregates. Extinction coefficients (ε) can be used to determine the μ of dyes, and so dyes with a large ε (>150,000 M−1) should be engineered or identified. However, dye properties leading to a large ε are not fully understood, and low-throughput methods of dye screening, such as experimental measurements or density functional theory (DFT) calculations, can be time-consuming. In order to screen large datasets of molecules …


Real Time Audio Processing Using A Low-Power Digital Signal Processor, Aaron Norlinger May 2022

Real Time Audio Processing Using A Low-Power Digital Signal Processor, Aaron Norlinger

Honors Theses

This project focused on the creation of a series of audio processing functions that could run in real time on the ezDSP5502 processor. The Digital Signal Processor (DSP) being used for this project is an industry standard for lowpower signal processing applications. The overall goal was to have a code base that could sample audio in real time from any source, filter it in a variety of ways, run a Fast Fourier Transform on the audio, display the resulting frequency data to an LCD screen, and then output the filtered audio to an external speaker. This general process is used …


Tuning Between Quenching And Energy Transfer In Dna-Templated Heterodimer Aggregates, Azhad U. Chowdhury, Jonathan S. Huff, Matthew S. Barclay, Lance K. Patten, Aaron Sup, Natalya Hallstrom, Jeunghoon Lee, Paul H. Davis, Daniel B. Turner, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton, Ryan D. Pensack Mar 2022

Tuning Between Quenching And Energy Transfer In Dna-Templated Heterodimer Aggregates, Azhad U. Chowdhury, Jonathan S. Huff, Matthew S. Barclay, Lance K. Patten, Aaron Sup, Natalya Hallstrom, Jeunghoon Lee, Paul H. Davis, Daniel B. Turner, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton, Ryan D. Pensack

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Molecular excitons, which propagate spatially via electronic energy transfer, are central to numerous applications including light harvesting, organic optoelectronics, and nanoscale computing; they may also benefit applications such as photothermal therapy and photoacoustic imaging through the local generation of heat via rapid excited-state quenching. Here we show how to tune between energy transfer and quenching for heterodimers of the same pair of cyanine dyes by altering their spatial configuration on a DNA template. We assemble “transverse” and “adjacent” heterodimers of Cy5 and Cy5.5 using DNA Holliday junctions. We find that the transverse heterodimers exhibit optical properties consistent with excitonically interacting …


Exciton Delocalization In A Dna-Templated Organic Semiconductor Dimer Assembly, Xiao Wang, Ruojie Sha, William B. Knowlton, Nadrian C. Seeman, James W. Canary, Bernard Yurke Jan 2022

Exciton Delocalization In A Dna-Templated Organic Semiconductor Dimer Assembly, Xiao Wang, Ruojie Sha, William B. Knowlton, Nadrian C. Seeman, James W. Canary, Bernard Yurke

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A chiral dimer of an organic semiconductor was assembled from octaniline (octamer of polyaniline) conjugated to DNA. Facile reconfiguration between the monomer and dimer of octaniline–DNA was achieved. The geometry of the dimer and the exciton coupling between octaniline molecules in the assembly was studied both experimentally and theoretically. The octaniline dimer was readily switched between different electronic states by protonic doping and exhibited a Davydov splitting comparable to those previously reported for DNA–dye systems employing dyes with strong transition dipoles. This approach provides a possible platform for studying the fundamental properties of organic semiconductors with DNA-templated assemblies, which serve …


Effects Of Air-Injection Pressure On Airflow Pattern Of Air Sparging, Arvin Farid, Atena Najafi, Jim Browning, Elisa Barney Smith Oct 2021

Effects Of Air-Injection Pressure On Airflow Pattern Of Air Sparging, Arvin Farid, Atena Najafi, Jim Browning, Elisa Barney Smith

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Air sparging is a remediation technology for treating soil/groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOC removal during air sparging is rendered less effective because of the random formation of air channels, creating preferential paths for airflow, thus limiting remediation to these channels, referred to as a zone of influence (ZOI). Pulsation is a popular method used to improve the effectiveness of air sparging through cyclic operation, with the hope that air channels would form elsewhere. Pulsation makes air sparging more time-consuming. This paper studies the effects of one cycle of pulsation and air pressure on the airflow pattern and …


Excited-State Lifetimes Of Dna-Templated Cyanine Dimer, Trimer, And Tetramer Aggregates: The Role Of Exciton Delocalization, Dye Separation, And Dna Heterogeneity, Jonathan S. Huff, Daniel B. Turner, Olga A. Mass, Lance K. Patten, Christopher K. Wilson, Simon K. Roy, Matthew S. Barclay, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton, Paul H. Davis, Ryan D. Pensack Sep 2021

Excited-State Lifetimes Of Dna-Templated Cyanine Dimer, Trimer, And Tetramer Aggregates: The Role Of Exciton Delocalization, Dye Separation, And Dna Heterogeneity, Jonathan S. Huff, Daniel B. Turner, Olga A. Mass, Lance K. Patten, Christopher K. Wilson, Simon K. Roy, Matthew S. Barclay, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton, Paul H. Davis, Ryan D. Pensack

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

DNA-templated molecular (dye) aggregates are a novel class of materials that have garnered attention in a broad range of areas including light harvesting, sensing, and computing. Using DNA to template dye aggregation is attractive due to the relative ease with which DNA nanostructures can be assembled in solution, the diverse array of nanostructures that can be assembled, and the ability to precisely position dyes to within a few Angstroms of one another. These factors, combined with the programmability of DNA, raise the prospect of designer materials custom tailored for specific applications. Although considerable progress has been made in characterizing the …


First-Principles Studies Of Substituent Effects On Squaraine Dyes, German Barcenas, Austin Biaggne, Olga A. Mass, Christopher K. Wilson, Ryan D. Pensack, Jeunghoon Lee, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li May 2021

First-Principles Studies Of Substituent Effects On Squaraine Dyes, German Barcenas, Austin Biaggne, Olga A. Mass, Christopher K. Wilson, Ryan D. Pensack, Jeunghoon Lee, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Lan Li

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dye molecules that absorb light in the visible region are key components in many applications, including organic photovoltaics, biological fluorescent labeling, super-resolution microscopy, and energy transport. One family of dyes, known as squaraines, has received considerable attention recently due to their favorable electronic and photophysical properties. In addition, these dyes have a strong propensity for aggregation, which results in emergent materials properties, such as exciton delocalization. This will be of benefit in charge separation and energy transport along with fundamental studies in quantum information. Given the high structural tunability of squaraine dyes, it is possible that exciton delocalization could be …


An Alternative Approach To Nucleic Acid Memory, George D. Dickinson, Golam Md Mortuza, William Clay, Luca Piantanida, Christopher M. Green, Chad Watson, Eric J. Hayden, Tim Andersen, Wan Kuang, Elton Graugnard, Reza Zadegan, William L. Hughes Apr 2021

An Alternative Approach To Nucleic Acid Memory, George D. Dickinson, Golam Md Mortuza, William Clay, Luca Piantanida, Christopher M. Green, Chad Watson, Eric J. Hayden, Tim Andersen, Wan Kuang, Elton Graugnard, Reza Zadegan, William L. Hughes

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

DNA is a compelling alternative to non-volatile information storage technologies due to its information density, stability, and energy efficiency. Previous studies have used artificially synthesized DNA to store data and automated next-generation sequencing to read it back. Here, we report digital Nucleic Acid Memory (dNAM) for applications that require a limited amount of data to have high information density, redundancy, and copy number. In dNAM, data is encoded by selecting combinations of single-stranded DNA with (1) or without (0) docking-site domains. When self-assembled with scaffold DNA, staple strands form DNA origami breadboards. Information encoded into the breadboards is read by …


Substituent Effects On The Solubility And Electronic Properties Of The Cyanine Dye Cy5: Density Functional And Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory Calculations, Austin Biaggne, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Jeunghoon Lee, Lan Li Feb 2021

Substituent Effects On The Solubility And Electronic Properties Of The Cyanine Dye Cy5: Density Functional And Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory Calculations, Austin Biaggne, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Jeunghoon Lee, Lan Li

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The aggregation ability and exciton dynamics of dyes are largely affected by properties of the dye monomers. To facilitate aggregation and improve excitonic function, dyes can be engineered with substituents to exhibit optimal key properties, such as hydrophobicity, static dipole moment differences, and transition dipole moments. To determine how electron donating (D) and electron withdrawing (W) substituents impact the solvation, static dipole moments, and transition dipole moments of the pentamethine indocyanine dye Cy5, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent (TD-) DFT calculations were performed. The inclusion of substituents had large effects on the solvation energy of Cy5, with pairs of …


Aerosol Jet Printed Capacitive Strain Gauge For Soft Structural Materials, Kiyo T. Fujimoto, Jennifer K. Watkins, Timothy Phero, Takoda Bingham, Kshama Lakshmi Ranganatha, Benjamin C. Johnson, Zhangxian Deng, Brian Jaques, David Estrada Nov 2020

Aerosol Jet Printed Capacitive Strain Gauge For Soft Structural Materials, Kiyo T. Fujimoto, Jennifer K. Watkins, Timothy Phero, Takoda Bingham, Kshama Lakshmi Ranganatha, Benjamin C. Johnson, Zhangxian Deng, Brian Jaques, David Estrada

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Soft structural textiles, or softgoods, are used within the space industry for inflatable habitats, parachutes and decelerator systems. Evaluating the safety and structural integrity of these systems occurs through structural health monitoring systems (SHM), which integrate non-invasive/non-destructive testing methods to detect, diagnose, and locate damage. Strain/load monitoring of these systems is limited while utilizing traditional strain gauges as these gauges are typically stiff, operate at low temperatures, and fail when subjected to high strain that is a result of high loading classifying them as unsuitable for SHM of soft structural textiles. For this work, a capacitance based strain gauge (CSG) …


High-Performance Flexible Bismuth Telluride Thin Film From Solution Processed Colloidal Nanoplates, Madhusudan Kongara, Tony Varghese, Karthik Chinnathambi, Jesse Schimpf, Josh Eixenberger, Paul H. Davis, Yaqiao Wu, David Estrada Nov 2020

High-Performance Flexible Bismuth Telluride Thin Film From Solution Processed Colloidal Nanoplates, Madhusudan Kongara, Tony Varghese, Karthik Chinnathambi, Jesse Schimpf, Josh Eixenberger, Paul H. Davis, Yaqiao Wu, David Estrada

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Thermoelectric generators are an environmentally friendly and reliable solid‐state energy conversion technology. Flexible and low‐cost thermoelectric generators are especially suited to power flexible electronics and sensors using body heat or other ambient heat sources. Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) based thermoelectric materials exhibit their best performance near room temperature making them an ideal candidate to power wearable electronics and sensors using body heat. In this report, Bi2Te3 thin films are deposited on a flexible polyimide substrate using low‐cost and scalable manufacturing methods. The synthesized Bi2Te3 nanocrystals have a thickness of 35 ± …


Fully Inkjet-Printed Multilayered Graphene-Based Flexible Electrodes For Repeatable Electrochemical Response, Twinkle Pandhi, Kiyo Fujimoto, Pete Barnes, Jasmine Cox, Hui Xiong, Paul H. Davis, Harish Subbaraman, David Estrada Oct 2020

Fully Inkjet-Printed Multilayered Graphene-Based Flexible Electrodes For Repeatable Electrochemical Response, Twinkle Pandhi, Kiyo Fujimoto, Pete Barnes, Jasmine Cox, Hui Xiong, Paul H. Davis, Harish Subbaraman, David Estrada

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Graphene has proven to be useful in biosensing applications. However, one of the main hurdles with printed graphene-based electrodes is achieving repeatable electrochemical performance from one printed electrode to another. We have developed a consistent fabrication process to control the sheet resistance of inkjet-printed graphene electrodes, thereby accomplishing repeatable electrochemical performance. Herein, we investigated the electrochemical properties of multilayered graphene (MLG) electrodes fully inkjet-printed (IJP) on flexible Kapton substrates. The electrodes were fabricated by inkjet printing three materials – (1) a conductive silver ink for electrical contact, (2) an insulating dielectric ink, and (3) MLG ink as the sensing material. …


A Review Of Inkjet Printed Graphene And Carbon Nanotubes Based Gas Sensors, Twinkle Pandhi, Ashita Chandnani, Harish Subbaraman, David Estrada Oct 2020

A Review Of Inkjet Printed Graphene And Carbon Nanotubes Based Gas Sensors, Twinkle Pandhi, Ashita Chandnani, Harish Subbaraman, David Estrada

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Graphene and carbon nanotube (CNT)-based gas/vapor sensors have gained much traction for numerous applications over the last decade due to their excellent sensing performance at ambient conditions. Inkjet printing various forms of graphene (reduced graphene oxide or modified graphene) and CNT (single-wall nanotubes (SWNTs) or multiwall nanotubes (MWNTs)) nanomaterials allows fabrication onto flexible substrates which enable gas sensing applications in flexible electronics. This review focuses on their recent developments and provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in inkjet printing of graphene and CNT based sensors targeting gases, such as NO2, Cl2, CO2, NH3 …


Faculty Perspectives On The Impact Of Virtual Office Hours In Engineering Courses, Brooke-Lynn Caprice Andrade, Krishna Pakala, Diana Bairaktarova, Douglas Hagemeier, Harish Subbaraman Jun 2020

Faculty Perspectives On The Impact Of Virtual Office Hours In Engineering Courses, Brooke-Lynn Caprice Andrade, Krishna Pakala, Diana Bairaktarova, Douglas Hagemeier, Harish Subbaraman

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Instructor-student interaction is an important element of a course design, but office hours can be challenging to attend based on students’ commitments. They have time and space limitations that prevent students from getting the help they need and often garner poor attendance. Virtual office hours can address issues related to low attendance and provide a low stakes environment where unhindered learning can happen. Virtual office hours are flexible, yield productive interactions, and all enrolled students can participate. This study reports on three engineering instructors’ perspectives on the efficacy of virtual office hours compared to the traditional face-to-face interactions with the …


Voices Of Our Students: Using Evidence-Based Methods To Inform A Multidisciplinary Engineering Program Design, Vicki Stieha, Noah Salzman, Amy J. Moll Jun 2019

Voices Of Our Students: Using Evidence-Based Methods To Inform A Multidisciplinary Engineering Program Design, Vicki Stieha, Noah Salzman, Amy J. Moll

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Listening carefully to our students and integrating the variables that matter to them is a step that we can take to increase the number of women and underrepresented minority graduates in engineering. This paper shares an evaluative case study as we report findings from data gathering tools guiding our continuous improvement process. The findings illuminate students’ perceptions of their engineering design course and curriculum. We conclude by discussing the pedagogical decisions the teaching team is making as a result of listening to our students’ voices.


Using Augmented Reality To Enhance Learning Experiences About Electrical Circuits, Juan Estrella Oct 2018

Using Augmented Reality To Enhance Learning Experiences About Electrical Circuits, Juan Estrella

Publications and Research

The term Augmented Reality (AR) refers to the technologies that superimpose digital content generated by computers over the user’s view of the real world. AR technologies enhance the version of the physical environment with computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, or graphics overlaid on top of the real-world view. In recent years, AR has moved beyond expensive military applications and has now entered a wide variety of domains. In engineering education, AR technologies can serve as a learning aid as well as a basis for innovation. The technology provides 3-D visualizations that allow to: (i) observe flaws in designs …