The 2014 ISE Newsletter maybe viewed here . Highlights: Tom Sharkey's research on supply chain and infrastructure restoration, David Mendonca's work on teamwork in large scale disaster response, Jennifer Ryan's work on semiconductor manufacturing scheduling and inventory management in aircraft engines maintenance, Martha Grabowski's National Academy report on Arctic oil spill response, and Mark Embrechts' course and research related to Big Data.
ISE News and Events
ISE Associate Professor David Mendonça, in collaboration with Martha Grabowski of ISE, was recently awarded a three-year $337k grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate teamwork in organizations following large-scale disasters. Using data from debris clearance operations following a series of calamitous tornado storms in Alabama in 2011, this work will investigate how team-level processes contribute to overall performance of the debris removal mission.
David Mendonça Ph.D., '01, Associate Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering gave an ENGtalk entitled " Network Improvisation in Emergency Response: An Application to Debris Removal Operations ." ( ENGtalk : Little lectures on big ideas from Rensselaer engineers: selected faculty present brief lectures on some of the hottest topics in engineering.)
ISE Faculty Mark Embrechts is awarded US Patent # 8,744,557 on June 3, 2014 for his co-invention "Use of Machine Learning for Magetocariograms." This patent resulted from a collaboration between Prof. Embrechts and CardioMag Imaging in Latham, NY. ISE Faculty John Wen is awarded US Patent # 8.746,310 on June 10, 2014 for his co-invention "System and method for probe-based high precision spatial orientation control and assembly of parts for microassembly using computer vision." This patent resulted from a collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Mathworks highlights the user story of ISE Head, John Wen: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Speeds the Development of Robotic Control Systems . Rethink Robotics produced a video of a Robot Assistant Jamster prototyped by John Wen and colleagues.
Institute News
Aquaporins are proteins that serve as water channels to regulate the flow of water across biological cell membranes. They also remove excess salt and impurities in the body, and it is this aspect that has led to much interest in recent years in how to mimic the biochemical processes of aquaporins potentially for water desalination systems.
An international team of researchers co-led by Georges Belfort has discovered water, in the form of “water wires,” contained in another molecule—the imidazole—a nitrogen-based organic compound that could be used as a potential building block for artificial aquaporins. The findings were recently published in Science Advances by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Belfort is Institute Professor and professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Jennifer Pazour, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been named an inaugural recipient of the Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D (WiSTEM2D) Scholars Award.
Nanomaterials expert Ganpati Ramanath, the John Tod Horton ’52 Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been named a fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS) “for developing creative approaches to realize new nanomaterials via chemically directed nanostructure synthesis and assembly and for tailoring interfaces in electronics and energy applications using molecular nanolayers.”
Michael “Miki” Amitay, the James L. Decker ’45 Endowed Chair in Aerospace Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has received a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to study the phenomenon of flow separation on aircraft wings, which could lead to improved aerodynamic performance in future-generation air vehicles.
Carolina Motter Catarino, a graduate student in chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been awarded £10,000 from the Lush Prize, which is a collaboration between cosmetics company Lush and research organization Ethical Consumer. As the largest prize fund for the complete replacement of animal experiments, it funds projects working to end animal research in toxicology (chemical testing).