TechTalks are rapid-paced samplings of work from a number of faculty via a "two slides in two minutes" format. TechTalks showcase both published and unpublished work and several sessions are held each year.
Explore our collection of TechTalks below. For information on recent and upcoming TechTalks, visit the Michigan Tech Research Forum website here.
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New concepts in evolutionary algorithms for systems architecture optimization
Ossama Abdelkhalik
This talk will present recent developments in evolutionary algorithms that focus on the systems architecture optimization. One challenge in systems optimization is the variable number of design variables. Three new concepts will be presented in this talk that enable evolutionary algorithms to handle this type of problems more efficiently. The first is the biologically inspired concept of Hidden Genes that implements tags to cover/uncover genes in the variables' code, which enable handling variable number of variables in evolutionary algorithms. The second concept is a structured chromosome approach that transcripts the variables in a multi-layer code as opposed to the standard single-layer coding. Finally, a dynamic population size concept is presented. Application of these methods in aerospace engineering will be presented.
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Incorporating student reflection into engineering courses
Nancy Barr
Critical reflection as students move through their disciplinary curriculum is one way to cultivate capacity for critical thinking. By embedding opportunities for critical reflection in disciplinary courses, educators can combine aspects of writing theory, metacognitive learning, and critical pedagogy to help students begin to frame how they will apply their skills and talents to problems effecting diverse populations. The new undergraduate ME curriculum combines applied learning and project-based learning methods in a series of four ME Practice courses. Technical communication instruction is also embedded in these courses, and the “capstone” of each course is a reflective essay. By responding to a series of questions, students have the opportunity to reflect on their progress and voice their thoughts about the courses and the teaching methods employed. The responses also provide insight into whether the new curriculum is meeting some of the department’s program educational objectives.
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Engineering decision making under uncertainties
Snehamoy Chatterjee
Uncertainty is an inherent component of any engineering problem. Uncertainty comes at different stages of an engineering project with different level of complexities. Decision making by neglecting uncertainty may leads to an incorrect solution for a project. Our research focuses on identification and quantification of different sources of uncertainness, and bringing uncertainties within the decision making framework. We are developing algorithms for uncertainty evaluation of spatial and temporal data by integrating multiple source and multiple scale data types, and stochastic optimization models to take into account multiple objectives and constraints. We are applying our research on mining, geology, and geo-hydrology area. In this presentation, I will discuss some results from our current research.
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Deniable encryption storage for mobile devices
Bo Chen
I will introduce the progress of our work in building deniable storage systems for mobile devices. Generally, we rely on encryption to protect confidentiality of sensitive data. This conventional approach, however, is vulnerable to a coercive attack, in which the attacker may capture the device’s owner and coerce the owner to disclose the decryption key. We mitigate such a coercive attack by leveraging deniable encryption, to deny the existence of sensitive data even though the decryption key is compromised. This is extremely useful when a professional journalist or human rights worker collects criminal evidence using his/her mobile device in a region of oppression or conflict, and can rely on the deniable encryption storage to protect the sensitive data even when he/she is caught by the terrorist. Our results for deniable storage for mobile devices have appeared in prestigious security conferences including ACM CCS ’17, ACSAC ’15 and ISC ’14
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Remotely piloted aircraft: Forest and ecology applications
Curtis Edson
In the summer of 2017 three new research projects were started using remotely piloted aircraft (drone) to collect forest and ecological data. In Michigan Technological University's research forest (Ford Forest) we began a forest biomass study by collecting imagery, including visible spectrum from a drone, as well as hyperspectral and LiDAR imagery from a human pilot aircraft; in the Hiawatha National Forest we collected visible and near-infrared (NIR) imagery for invasive species remediation and coastal wetlands mapping; and in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta Canada we collected visible and NIR imagery in support of an ongoing ecological study observing interactions between grassland, aspen (Populus tremuloides), fire, elk (Cervus canadensis), and bison (Bison bison).
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Eureka! Discovering a new mineral: Meralaniite
John A. Jaszczak
A series of serendipitous events and four years of collaborative research has led to the discovery and description of a new mineral- merelaniite. It is a natural nanocomposite composed primarily of MoS2 and PbS layers from the famous tanzanite gem mines in northern Tanzania. It's crystal structure and chemistry is unusual and complex, and forms unusual silvery, scroll-like whiskers. It was selected by the International Mineralogical Association as the 2016 Mineral of the Year.
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Drivers of patient satisfaction in medical clinics
Dana M. Johnson
Prior research was extended to model patient perceptions of behavioral dimensions of service quality and its impact on patient satisfaction in a rural health care organization. SEM was applied for three years of data and each individual year. Results suggest improved patient satisfaction and statistically significant differences existed between years.
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Designing biomaterials using mussel adhesive chemistry
Bruce P. Lee
Marine mussels secrete adhesive proteins that enable them to anchor to surfaces under water. We are exploiting chemistry utilized by mussels to design bioadhesives for tissue repair and wound healing, smart biomaterials for on-demand antipathogenic applications, and smart adhesives that can be turned on and off with externally applied stimuli.
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Vaccines against infectious agents
Ebenezer Tumban
Peptide or subunit vaccines (antigens) are safer than attenuated vaccines. However, peptide vaccines are less immunogenic and require large multiple doses of peptides plus exogenous adjuvants to elicit an immune response. The immunogenicity of peptide antigens can be enhanced if the peptides are immunized in the context of an antigen complex that mimics a virus in terms of size, morphology, and adjuvanticity. Virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from bacteriophages (PP7, MS2, and Qβ) possess these features and as such, they are excellent platforms for peptide vaccine designs. In this seminar, I will discuss how we have exploited these platforms to enhance the immunogenicity of less immunogenic but critical protective epitopes derived from viruses associated with pathogenic human infections such as human papillomaviruses, Zika virus, etc.
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Space mining is almost here!
Paul van Susant
When going to the Moon and Mars for extended stays with humans it is required to minimize mass by "living off the land" as soon as possible. Mining local resources and using them to produce consumables and construct simple structures can leverage launch mass to the surface of those bodies. In addition, asteroid mining will be able to provide rocket fuel to further spur economic development in CIS-Lunar space and further open up solar system activities. I am working on mining on Mars and the Moon as well as construction using local rocks.
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Numerical methods of miscible displacements in porous media
Yang Yang
For miscible displacements in porous media, the volume fraction of the concentration is between 0 and 1. The main idea of my current work is to numerically preserve the two bound and keep the high-order accuracy. Then the numerical scheme is stable. The idea can be applied to other similar areas such as seawater intrusion, and contaminant transportation, etc.
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Biodegradable zinc vascular implant materials
Jeremy Goldman
Bioabsorbable metal stents are being developed to mitigate the long-term side effects associated with corrosion-resistant stents. A decade-long research with iron (Fe)- and magnesium (Mg)-based stent materials has concluded with little success. Fe produces a voluminous, retained oxide product in the arterial wall, whereas Mg and its alloys corrode too rapidly. A breakthrough in the field of biodegradable metallic stents was made in 2013 in our research team (Drs. Goldman – Biomedical Engineering and Drelich – Materials Science and Engineering) with the introduction of zinc (Zn) and its alloys, which are free of the flaws observed for Fe- and Mg-based alloys. Zinc metal can be alloyed to improve mechanical properties. A benign neointima layer forms around zinc implants in the rat artery with suppression of harmful cell populations, out to ~1 year. Based on encouraging results, we are proceeding to manufacture and testing of zinc cardiovascular stents in pigs.
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Climate mitigation through Food-Energy-Water (FEW) conservation
Kathleen E. Halvorsen
Climate change is our biggest challenge to date. Moving toward mitigating or reducing the likelihood of catastrophic climate change is therefore critical. We need to engage all the "wedges" or strategies we can to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and achieve this, including increased energy conservation, consumption of low carbon renewable energy sources, and carbon sequestration. Research integrating social, natural, and engineering sciences that includes non-academic organizations is key to reducing emissions across the energy production and consumption supply chain. This presentation describes such research studying greenhouse gas emissions reductions through household scale food-energy-water consumption in the USA and Netherlands.
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Biomechanics and imaging
Jingfeng Jiang
From the perspective of biomechanics, my research is multidisciplinary, bridging the gap between physiology/biology and quantitative sciences. Currently, the applications are on cancer detection and differentiation, therapeutic monitoring, staging liver fibrosis, risk assessment of aneurysm rupture, and more.
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Mapping small(holder) farms using big data
Jessica McCarty-Kern
More than 80% of the world’s farms are defined as smallholder, with field sizes < 2 hectares. This project produced a wall-to-wall cropland area map for the rain-fed residential cropland mosaic of Tigray Region, Ethiopia, which is comprised entirely of smallholder farms. Sub-meter WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 segmentation results were combined with median phenology amplitude from Landsat 8 data to map crop area. The WorldView constellation, operated by DigitalGlobe, images over 1.2 billion km2 annually at < 2 m spatial resolution, producing petabytes of data per year. Due to computation, data cost, and methodological concerns, very high resolution (VHR) satellite data has mainly been used to produce needed geospatial information for site-specific phenomena. Over 2,700 VHR WorldView-1, -2 data were obtained from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) via the NextView license agreement and were processed from raw imagery to produce a smallholder crop map in ~1 week using a semi-automated method and large computing capacity of NASA’s Advanced Data Analytics Platform. This methodology is extensible to other regions with similar vegetation and can easily be expanded to country-scale.
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Model-driven design of materials
Gregory M. Odegard
Thomas Edison once said “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” The Edisonian approach to materials development has been the gold standard for most of human history. However, advances in computational speeds and modeling techniques over the last couple of decades have enabled new model-driven approaches to materials development, as manifested in the Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) and Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) efforts. By designing and simulating new materials in a computational environment, we can dramatically cut down on the cost and time associated with the Edisonian approach to material development. At Michigan Tech, we have employed this technique to develop new materials for high-voltage power transmission lines and aerospace structures.
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Implantable sensors for regenerative medicine
Keat Ghee Ong
In vivo, real-time measurement of local environmental parameters such as strain, pressure, temperature, pH, oxygen tension and specific biomarkers can be valuable for regenerative medicine research and therapies. Wireless implantable sensors are an attractive approach for certain regenerative medicine applications due to its relative simplicity and low cost. Presented here are such two implantable sensors. The first sensor is based on a miniature wireless sensor network that can digitize physical and chemical parameters and continuously stream measurements to a nearby receiver via a 2-way communication protocol. With the incorporation of a strain gauge, this sensor platform was applied to record mechanical loading at an internal fixation plate across a segmental femoral critical-size defect of a rat. The second sensor is based on a wireless, passive (battery-less) capacitive-inductive (LC) sensor. This sensor is being developed for detection of bone infection associated with orthopedic implants by monitoring local temperature variations.
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3D printing for mathematics education
Cecile M. Piret
3D printing is particularly well-suited for teaching concepts of mathematics. We (Drs. Piret and Ellis) have started using 3D printers in a calculus 3 classroom. Our goals are to analyze the impact of the printers on students' understanding and motivation towards calculus, and to further incorporate this new technology in our teaching of mathematics. In this talk, we will show a few examples of projects that were presented to the students in our classes, and we will try to motivate you to also use the printers in your classrooms.
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Designing proteins for biomechanical and molecular biological studies
Momoko Tajiri
Proteins are large biomolecules consisting one or more long chain of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a wide variety of functions within organisms including catalyzing metabolic activities, signal transduction, and transportation of molecules. They function differently from one another as their sequences of amino acids and also due to a variation of modification placed on residues. Change in modification patterns will impact protein interaction with other molecules, thus influence normal cell activities and may lead to disease development. In order to study the consequences of modification, we have a method to prepare proteins with desired modification patterns. Using the technique, how residue modification affects proteins’ interaction with others can be investigated at a molecular level.
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Understanding the role of protein misfolding in neurodegenerative diseases
Ashutosh Tiwari
Protein aggregates are hallmark of several age related disorders including neurodegenerative diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. However, the underlying mechanisms by which these aggregated proteins impair cellular functions and cause toxicity is not clear. I will discuss efforts from my laboratory to characterize these misfolded and aggregated protein structures and their associated toxicity.
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Aging, cognition, and motor behavior: A lab-to-life approach to improving quality of life in later adulthood
Kevin Trewartha
An important challenge facing our health care system is to maintain and improve functional independence, and thus overall quality of life, in older adults. It is estimated that by 2030 nearly 20% of the US population will be over the age of 65, and that proportion will continue to rise over the coming decades. Advancing age comes with significant declines in cognitive and physical function that contribute to diminished functional independence. In the Aging, Cognition, and Action Lab we use computerized cognitive assessments, and a state-of-the-art robotic device for studying upper limb movement to identify age-related changes in the cognitive mechanisms underlying deficits in adaptive motor behavior. By leveraging our understanding of how these basic mechanisms change with aging, we can design carefully targeted interventions aimed at improving functional independence in older populations. In this TechTalk I will highlight some of our current and future work in this area.
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Designing interactive systems that embrace uncertainty
Keith Vertanen
Traditionally, computer interfaces have relied on deterministic input (e.g. keyboard and mouse) and plentiful feedback (e.g. visual displays and audio). Today, computer interaction is often off-desktop, performed in diverse environments with diverse devices. This often requires interaction via uncertain input methods such as speech recognition, touchscreen gestures, mid-air gestures, or eye-tracking. Interaction becomes even more challenging when a user's input or output capabilities are limited by situation or disability. In this talk, I outline our efforts to create interfaces that are efficient, pleasant, and accessible despite uncertain input and/or limited output.
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Food-Energy-Water Nexus approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation
David Watkins
The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus is defined by the complex interactions and interdependencies of basic resource provisioning systems that tend to be managed and regulated independently of one another. Coupled with maintaining ecosystem services, enhancing food, energy, and water security for the planet’s growing population represents a grand research challenge. With a focus on ecosystem services affected by climate change, two interdisciplinary FEW Nexus projects are briefly presented -- one informing decision making at the household level and the other informing water resources planning and stakeholder consensus at the regional level. At the household level, environmental impact models help to identify “hot spots” in consumption behavior. At the regional level, a water resource system model of South Florida evaluates the trade-off space for the multiple objectives of mitigating climate change and enhancing food, energy, and water services.
