Faculty Research
Research Component - Research Descriptions for Summer
2008
Faculty-participant interaction is a vital element of the
proposed research component. E3 participants will be paired
with faculty researchers from Aerospace Engineering, Chemical
Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Industrial and Systems Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
The faculty researcher will mentor and help the participant
understand the current status of emerging technologies and
current research findings as well as provide informal instruction
in research methodology and science theory appropriate to
the research problem. The E3 participants will be provided
the opportunity to examine the outcomes of research performed
in a variety of engineering disciplines. Please rank and select
three areas you are most interested in participating from
the examples.
| 1. |
Multifunctional Material
Systems and Structures
Dimitris C. Lagoudas, Aerospace Engineering
Birds have long been the inspiration for aircraft, but
modern, man-made aerospace vehicles seem primitive compared
to Mother Nature's flying creatures. To be more like birds,
the next generation of aerospace vehicles requires ultralight,
ultrastrong composite materials that are multifunctional,
with features such as computing and sensing capabilities
engineered directly into them. The Shape Memory Alloy
Research Team (SMART) consists of faculty, research staff
and students, whose main interest is in developing experimentally
verifiable constitutive models for Shape Memory Alloys
(SMAs) together with design capabilities of active or
"smart" structures that utilize the shape memory
effect for shape and actuation control applications. Participants
will help in the developing actual demonstration experiments
of materials with shape memory that take the shape of
reconfigurable wings or recoiling springs or moving insects
or whatever the imagination of the teacher could create.
Or participants could work on projects relevant to the
behavior of multifunctional structures. |
| 2. |
Mirofluidic Bio-encapsulations
Zhengdong Cheng, Chemical Engineering
The goal of our bio-encapsulation project is to advance
the engineering of bio-capsules using an approach that
combines layer-by-layer polyelectrolyte coating and microfluidics,
to overcome the limitations of size uniformity and mechanical
stability. Bioencapsulation has provided a wide range
of promising therapeutic treatments for different kinds
of diseases, such as diabetes, hemophilia, cancer and
renal failure. However, a major challenge is to find a
biocompatible, as well as mechanically and chemically
stable material with a suitable permeability cut-off
value that provides immune protection to the implant.
Another challenge is the production of uniform capsules
with excellent reproducibility in terms of shape, size
and morphology. This project will contribute to meet both
tasks. |
| 3. |
Rapid Synthesis of Nanostructured
Materials, Composites, and Films Under Microwaves
Hae-Kwon Jeong, Chemical Engineering
The objective of this project is to explore an unconventional,
readily available microwave heating as a means to rapidly
synthesize nanostructured materials and their composites
and films in a facile manner. Materials in nanoscale features
have recently attracted a great deal of attentions due
to their potentials for technological revolutions. While
much of attention has been given to the chemistry and
physics of these materials, there is a critical need to
develop novel methods to prepare the materials in a rapid
and facile manner. Along these lines, microwave-assisted
synthesis can give us new opportunities to meet the engineering
challenge. The participant is expected to study the effects
of precursor concentrations, temperature, and solid surface
properties on the synthesis of the nanostructured materials.
The nanostructured materials include nanoporous metal
organic framework materials, zeolites, and carbon nanotubes.
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| 4. |
Homeland Security and Operational Efficiency
Research for Water Utilities
Kelly Brumbelow,
Civil Engineering
How to continue the supply of safe, clean, and readily
available water even in the face of natural hazards, malicious
threats, and systematic water shortages is a challenge
for all water utilities. In this research we will work
to understand and improve the response time to water contamination
events, reduce exposure of water users to contaminants,
and ensure rapid medical attention. Assessing sources
of vulnerability and designing mitigation for multiple
infrastructure failures is the next step to ensure a safe
water supply. Modeling of “virtual cities”
can provide insight on how real cities may be vulnerable
to multiple infrastructure failures and how these vulnerabilities
can be reduced. Water auditing can improve the operational
and financial efficiency of water utilities. Water auditing
is a process of intensively analyzing a utility’s
operations and data to find where these losses are occurring
and their financial impact. As participants you will become
a part of the research team to address these challenges. |
| 5. |
Biological Degradation of Emerging Contaminants
Bella (KungHui) Chu, Civil Engineering
Our laboratory is interested in applying molecular tools
to study biodegradation of contaminants, and identification
of active contaminant-degrading cultures in engineered
biological systems and the environment. Our on-going research
project is to study the biodegradation of estrogen in
wastewater. Teachers can learn concepts of biological
treatment processes, involving field sampling activities
and/or sample analyses for estrogens concentrations and
for quantification of estrogen degraders. |
| 6. |
RF / Microwave Integrated Circuits on Silicon
Kamran Entesari, Electrical Engineering
K. Entesari's research group works extensively on design
and implementation of novel F/Microwave integrated circuits
on silicon. Recent advances in silicon technology allows
engineers to implement new generation of inexpensive nd
compact radio frequency and microwave integrated circuits
for a variety of commercial applications including cellular
phones, wireless/optical communication high data-rate
links, short range - long range automotive radars, millimeter-wave
cameras and imaging systems for security purposes and
many other applications. This summer RET participants
will help Dr. Entesari's group to characterize couple
of fabricated silicon building blocks of different wireless
transceivers such as tunable low noise amplifiers, distributed
amplifies and dual-band front-ends for microwave radio
applications. They first learn what are the important
parameters to characterize aforementioned building blocks,
how to use high -frequency measurement instruments such
as spectrum and network analyzers, and how to perform
on-wafer measurement technique for high-frequency circuits,
and then help to characterize the fabricated blocks. |
| 7. |
Computer-Aided Design on Multi-Core Parallel
Computing Platforms
Peng Li, Electrical
and Computer Engineering, (email: pli@tamu.edu)
Design of modern digital & analog very large scale
integrated (VLSI) electronic circuits and systems presents
significant challenges due to the system complexity. Computer-aided
design (CAD) tools are essential to address these changes
by providing indispensable analysis, modeling and optimization
functionalities. In a broader sense, VLSI CAD tools may
provide a valuable means to simulate and understand electrical
and even mechanical behaviors of a wide range of integrated
systems. In this project, participants will be exposed
to the circuit theory, algorithms and software implementation
behind modern integrated circuit simulation tools. Parallel
simulation algorithms and developments on emerging multi-core
processor platforms will be also examined. |
| 8. |
The Art of Laying Apples—Thin Film Epitaxy
Haiyan Wang, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Thin film is a thin layer of coating which is applied
on a surface in order to meet certain property requirements.
Thin film coatings can be seen everywhere in our daily
life, such as colorful car paint, reflective coating on
the back of CDs, anti-reflective coating on car mirrors,
integrated circuits in computers, etc.. In the past several
decades, thin film science and technology have gone through
a thorough development which results in numerous new devices
(e.g., Light Emitting Diodes (LED), fuel cells, high temperature
superconductor-coated conductors and solar cells) and
new materials with fundamentally new properties. However,
the foundation of thin film science and technology is
thin film epitaxy. In this summer research program,
a model called “The Art of Laying Apples”
will be introduced to explain this important concept.
It will be used to illustrate that how the thin films
are grown and how the properties of thin films can be
varied by tuning the growth parameters. In another words,
we will learn how the “apples” (atoms) are
laid based on various controlling factors. Many exciting
new applications of thin films will be introduced during
the course of the summer research program. Teachers involved
in this research program will have hands-on experience
in thin film growth using pulsed laser deposition technique
which is available in the PI’s lab. The ultimate
goal of this summer program will be to further develop
the model which could fit in the high school classroom
and to introduce materials science of thin film growth
to high school students. |
| 9. |
Microelectronics and Microelectromechanical
Systems
Jun Zou, Electrical and Computer
Engineering
Integrated microelectronic circuits are "brains"
and microelectromechanical sensors are "eyes, ears,
and noses" of intelligent microsystems, which have
found wide applications in industry, agriculture, automobile,
health care and defense. The RET participants will be
exposed to the following tasks: 1) Learn working principle
of fundamental microelectronic components and microelectromechanical
sensors; 2) Build experimental setup for device testing;
3) Experimentally characterize microelectronic and microelectromechanical
devices; 4) Know about the microfabrication processes
and facilities. |
| 10. |
Supply Chain Revenue Management: Theory and
Practice
Eylem Tekin, Industrial and
Systems Engineering
This project is related to supply chain revenue management
(SCRM) applications for companies that operate multiple
facilities in the global business environment. SCRM can
be defined as a scientific approach that uses mathematical
models and algorithms for optimal pricing and production/service
capacity allocation decisions. This project will address
questions such as: How leading companies in electronics,
retail, and airlines segment customers based on their
buying behavior and willingness to pay? How do they set
and adjust prices of their products? How do they effectively
use their production/service capacities in order to meet
demands from their customers? |
| 11. |
Biodiesel Combustion and Its Influence on NOx
Emissions
Timothy Jacobs, Advanced Engine
Research Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering
Biodiesel fuel has gained public appeal for its promise
to contribute toward a sustainable energy system and reduce
the emission of carbon into the atmosphere. A potential
challenge for biodiesel fuel, particularly in the transportation
sector, is the so-called “biodiesel NOx
penalty”. NOx, or nitric
oxides, are harmful, toxic, combustion-generated pollution
that lead to tropospheric ozone, smog, and acid raid.
Several researchers have observed increases in NOx with
the use of biodiesel fuel, compared to petroleum diesel.
This research project’s objective is to evaluate
the physical mechanisms that cause differences in NOx
emissions with biodiesel (relative to petroleum diesel
fuel). The research is conducted both experimentally and
analytically using a 4.5L medium-duty diesel engine as
the test apparatus. |
| 12. |
Load Capacity and Drag Measurement of Hybrid
Air Foil Bearing
Daejong Kim, Mechanical
Engineering
Air foil bearings have been used extensively for many
oil-free micro- turbomachinery applications, such as turbo
chargers, compressors, air management systems in the aircrafts,
and micro gas turbines for distributed power generation.
Hybrid air foil bearing was designed and constructed to
increase load capacity and reduce friction drag. Load
capacity and drag estimations require sophisticated instrumentation
and experimental skills. Participant will run the hybrid
air foil bearing with a graduate student and extract important
design parameters and performance characteristics. |
| 13. |
Time-stress-temperature-moisture Behaviors of
Multi-layered FRP Composites
Anastasia
Muliana, Mechanical Engineering
Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) multi-layered composites
are widely used in current engineering applications including
aircraft and marine structural components, civil infrastructures
(bridges, tunnels, fluid conveying pipes), and retrofitting
materials for damaged concrete and metallic structures.
However, the responses of the multi-layered FRP systems
evolve with time due to the existence of soft polymeric
matrix and low fiber volume fraction; and elevated temperatures
and moisture content intensify the deformation and deterioration
of their internal microstructures. The E3 participants
will be exposed to the following tasks: 1) prepare composite
specimens for testing: attach strain gages to measure
deformation in the specimens; 2) calibrate instrument
to record testing data; 3) perform time-dependent tests
for a set of composite specimens under various combination
of stresses, temperatures (0-150oF), and moistures (dry-80%
humidity); and 4) fit the recorded responses from experimental
tests with certain mathematical functions. |
| 14. |
Nanomaterials and Thin Films
Xinghang
Zhang, Mechanical Engineering
X. Zhang's group works extensively on the synthesis of
nanostructured thin films, multilayers and coatings by
using physical vapor deposition (PVD). PVD is a versatile
technique for thin film growth used widely in industry.
Applications of thin films including CD for data storage,
magnetic reading head, chips for semiconductor industry,
hard and corrosion resistant coating. This summers RET
participants will help Dr. Zhang's group characterize
nanomaterials using such techniques as scanning electron
microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Nanomechanics
and mechanical behavior of thin films will be studied
using hardness testing techniques; thermal properties
(such as melting point, crystallization, heat capacity)
of materials will use differential scanning calorimetry.
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