As drones — or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — become more prevalent in daily life, a need is arising to safely and efficiently manage fleets of these devices. In 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration began to develop standards for integrating UAVs into the airspace, including solutions for operations beyond visual line-of-sight (VLOS) and of multiple small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

A Wayne State University research project recently funded by the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Innovation Hub for Advanced Transportation at the University of Michigan aims to address the knowledge gap on how to manage multiple UAVs in complex operational, environmental and traffic conditions.

“The goal of this project is to create an optimal mission-planning and asset-management system for UAS fleet operations,” said Yanchao Liu, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at Wayne State and principal investigator on the project. Zhenyu Zhou, a Ph.D. student in Liu’s lab, also plays a key role on the research team.

At present, most outdoor applications of UAS are based on a single vehicle, flown by an individual remote pilot within VLOS operations. However, there is currently a lack of knowledge and resources for safely and efficiently managing a fleet of UAVs in sophisticated urban environments.

“Without such a system, the benefit of drone delivery will not be sufficiently materialized,” said Liu.

Liu’s project is multifaceted and includes real-time remote control over the internet, a simulation platform to facilitate algorithm development in advance of physical system implementation, and solutions to account for such factors as network errors or flight formation variants. Each aerial unit is equipped with an onboard computer module with corresponding Cloud-based ground control software.

“In a plug-and-play fashion, the system will turn a collection of heterogeneous multicopter drones into an organized and intelligent UAS fleet,” said Liu.

As commercial drones become more pervasive — Amazon expects to roll out its drone distribution service in the coming months — Liu sees an opportunity to disrupt the on-demand meal delivery space, an $11 billion market in the U.S.

The ABET Board of Delegates and its four area delegations — applied and natural sciences, computing, engineering and engineering technology — are responsible for approving accreditation policies and procedures, general criteria and the organization of its accreditation commissions.

 “I am excited to be a part of this group of colleagues and continue my work on criteria changes along with other ABET accreditation policies and procedures,” said Yaprak.

Yaprak has been involved with ABET accreditation in various capacities since 2002. She has been a program evaluator, assessing electrical and computer engineering technology programs in the U.S. and internationally. From 2006-12 she served on the IEEE Committee on Engineering Technology Accreditation Activities as chair (2010-12), vice chair (2008-10) and committee member (2006-08 and 2017-present). Yaprak is a former ABET IEEE/ETAC commissioner, occupying that role from 2012-17.

Yaprak was also the director of assessment and accreditation for the WSU College of Engineering in 2014.

A dual alumna of Wayne State University, Yaprak earned her M.S. in computer engineering in 1984 and her Ph.D. in computer engineering in 1989.

“Securing ABET accreditation on our first attempt demonstrates the commitment of our faculty to a high-quality education for our students,” said Department Chair Loren Schwiebert. “We are excited to have accomplished this important goal, as attending an ABET accredited program offers students external validation of the quality of the education they will receive.”

The College of Engineering offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs in computer science. Last fall, a total of 897 students were enrolled in computer science courses, and during the 2018-19 academic year 121 students earned their degrees. There are 23 tenured and tenure-track faculty members as well as five lecturers in the department, which collects between $2 and $3 million in research and development expenditures annually.

The company was co-founded by Zhiqiang Cao, associate professor of chemical engineering at Wayne State University, and Edward Kim, an entrepreneur and investor who also serves as an advisor for the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute.

The highly competitive grants awarded reflect a commitment from both Repela and NSF to bring a disruptive innovation to replace toxic anti-fouling coatings — those that are applied to the outer hull of a vessel to slow the growth or facilitate detachment of plants, animals and other organisms — that are currently being delivered to and utilized by the industry.

Unlike fundamental research grants, the NSF STTR program supports startups and small businesses in pushing inventive products or services out of the lab and into the marketplace. Through I-Corps, grantees benefit from a network of established entrepreneurs who understand best practices of customer discovery and how to identify valuable product opportunities.

“We are pleased to partner with NSF to develop and commercialize our anti-fouling coating technology,” said Kim. “The goal of the Phase 1 award is to advance our translational research, foster strategic relationships and accelerate the commercialization efforts.”

Current marine coating products leach biocides into the water, indiscriminately killing marine life around the vessel. These chemicals, which have been subject to increasing global regulations, can remain active in river and lake beds for many years. Repela is introducing a non-biocide material with equivalent anti-fouling performance as well as other benefits.

“It can deliver a disruptive coating solution that can improve vessel maneuverability, increase fuel efficiency, and address environmental concerns by replacing current toxic coating products,” said Cao.

Commonly used anti-corrosion and anti-fouling products contain hydrophobic substances. Hydrophilic materials, known for their high capacity in resisting biofouling, tend to dissolve in water.

“The key innovative feature of this technology is that it improves the poor stability and durability challenge of super-hydrophilic polymer coatings when applied in the water environment,” said Cao. “This coating material is effective against biofouling while achieving durability and robustness required in aqueous environments.”

Repela has received extensive support from the Wayne State University Technology Commercialization office, which provided incubation funding and mentorship, and the Mike Ilitch School of Business, which delivered business model guidance through its Entrepreneurship and Innovation program.

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Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://www.research.wayne.edu.

About Repela Tech: Repela Tech is an advanced materials technology company that produces its unique, patent-pending anti-fouling technology to produce environmentally friendly coating applications for the marine industry. Founded in 2019, Repela is located in Detroit, Michigan. Please direct all inquiries to info@repela.co. 

About the National Science Foundation's Small Business Programs: America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $1.5 million in non-dilutive funds to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $8.1 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. To learn more about America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, visit: https://seedfund.nsf.gov/.

“This will be a leading global center for the future of mobility,” said Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the Wayne State College of Engineering and computer science professor. “The Center for Advanced Mobility will be the epicenter for academic and startup activity in the mobility sector for students, researchers, and global corporate partners in Detroit.”

The Center for Advanced Mobility will further leverage Wayne State University’s recently acquired Industry Innovation Center, a 45,000 square foot facility in the TechTown neighborhood at the heart of the Detroit Urban Solutions Innovation District, for laboratory and demonstration space, and for a planned speaker series to kick off this fall.

“By placing students and industry professionals at the center of this curriculum design, we know that these programs will meet their needs as they begin or transition into mobility careers,” added Jessica Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Mobility Institute. “We conducted hours of additional interviews with startups and established industry professionals to map career paths and learning gaps. Employers are eager for mobility engineers who are comfortable with new approaches to problem solving and have hands on experience with the latest technology.”

“This announcement represents something of immense consequence: the creation of a world leading center for mobility in the heart of Detroit by institutions and leaders who call Detroit home,” said Chris Thomas, president and co-founder of the Detroit Mobility Lab. “Graduates who hail from communities around the State of Michigan and around the world will begin their journey here in Detroit in this world-leading center of mobility excellence.”

Each speaker will visit Wayne State’s Midtown Detroit campus to stimulate idea-focused conversations about emerging growth areas such as membrane technology, chemical process and control, polymers and rheology, performance materials and connected plants, and catalysis.

Norman Li, M.S. ’57, founder and president of NL Chemical Technology, Inc., will open the series at his alma mater on September 10. Subsequent speakers include Tom Edgar, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and director of the UT Austin Energy Institute; Chris Macosko, professor emeritus of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota; Gavin Towler, vice president and chief technology officer at Honeywell; and Enrique Iglesia, professor of chemical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.

“Our relationships with BASF and these brilliant scientists not only give Wayne State University more global visibility, but they also provide extraordinary resources for our students, faculty and alumni,” said Guangzhao Mao, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. “Having leaders of industry and academia come to our campus is an opportunity for us to absorb a wealth of knowledge and experience, and to demonstrate to the scientific community how research and innovation at Wayne State is changing the world.”

All seminars are free of charge and will start at 2:30 p.m. on their respective dates in the Danto Engineering Development Center.

This partnership between Wayne State and BASF — the largest chemical producer in the world, with a footprint in more than 80 countries — was initiated to create another channel that connects students with professional leaders and enhances interaction among industry experts.

“The quality of science education at Wayne State is outstanding and BASF is proud of our partnership with the College of Engineering," said Michael Pcolinski, BASF’s vice president of advanced materials research. “Bringing world class scientists to visit and interact with faculty and students enhances the students’ educational experience and helps further expand their understanding of pathways to success.”

Norman Li, Ph.D. – Sept. 10, 2019

Li is an internationally renowned scientist who has more than 40 years’ experience in American chemical and petroleum industries. He was a senior scientist with Exxon Research and Engineering Co. and the director of research at UOP Co. and Honeywell. He also served as a consultant for the U.S. Apollo Moon Landing Project. In 1995, he founded NL Chemical Technology, Inc., a company focused on the development of membrane technologies for water treatment. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. Li is an award-winning researcher with 45 U.S. patents and more than 100 technical papers, and has edited 20 books, all in the field of separation science and technology. He was inducted into the Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame in 1989.

Tom Edgar, Ph.D. – Sept. 17, 2019

Edgar is a chemical engineer who has been on the University of Texas at Austin faculty for more than 40 years. He serves as the director of the UT Austin Energy Institute and holds the George T. and Gladys H. Abell Chair in Chemical Engineering. For the past four decades, Edgar has concentrated his academic work in process modeling, control, and optimization. He has published over 450 articles and book chapters, and co-authored three textbooks. Edgar supervised the thesis research of over 45 M.S. and 80 Ph.D. students. He served as president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1997, and today is board secretary of Pecan Street, Inc. in Austin, Texas, which deals with renewable energy and smart grids. Edgar’s current research interests cover renewable energy, combined heat and power, energy storage and improved oil recovery.

Chris Macosko, Ph.D. – Oct. 15, 2019

Macosko is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. He is internationally known for his work in polymer science and engineering, particularly in the areas of rheology and polymer processing. Macosko is an author of two textbooks and more than 500 academic papers, and holds dozens of patents. He has served as director of the Industrial Partnership for Research in Interfacial and Materials Engineering (IPRIME), a university-industry consortium at the University of Minnesota, since 1999. He was awarded the Charles M. A. Stine Award (now called the Braskem Award) in Materials Engineering and Sciences from American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1988, and the Bingham Medal from the Society of Rheology in 2004. 

Gavin Towler, Ph.D. – Oct. 29, 2019 (TBD 2020)

Towler is vice president and CTO of Honeywell Performance Materials Technologies (PMT), a global leader in high-performance specialty materials, process technologies and materials for petroleum refining, petrochemical production, and natural gas processing as well as products, services and solutions for industrial process automation. Towler previously worked at UOP for 18 years in a variety of roles, including vice president and CTO. He has 25 years of experience in the oil, gas and chemicals industry and holds 68 U.S. patents.  He is co-author of the textbook Chemical Engineering Design and is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University and the National University of Singapore. Towler is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Enrique Iglesia, Ph.D. – March 31, 2020

Iglesia is an expert in heterogeneous catalysis and chemical reaction engineering. He joined the University of California at Berkeley as a professor of chemical engineering after 12 years of research and management experience at the Exxon Corporate Research Laboratories. He currently serves as the Theodore Vermeulen Chair in Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley and a faculty senior scientist in the E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  He is a past editor-in-chief of the Journal of Catalysis (1997-2010) and president of the North American Catalysis Society (2009-17), and is presently the vice president and president-elect of the International Association of Catalysis Societies. Iglesia is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors, and a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
 

Abusayeed Saifullah, assistant professor of computer science at Wayne State University, is working on a unique solution. His research was recently backed by a $550,000, five-year National Science Foundation CAREER award, the most prestigious honor bestowed by the organization to rising researchers.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, nearly 40 percent of the rural U.S. lacks access to advanced broadband. Connected Nation Michigan says that there are 381,000 households in the state that lack access to fixed broadband internet, 97% of which are in rural areas. To support IoT applications in smart farming, oil field management and other rural area-based industries, a new category of wireless communication has emerged in the last few years known as low-power, wide-area networks (LPWANs).

LPWANs are popular due to their energy efficiency, low cost and long range operability, but have limitations when it comes to transferring data frequently or in large volumes. They rely on a wired infrastructure, which presents logistical challenges for wide-area applications, and are not designed to support real-time communication due to low bandwidth.

Saifullah’s project will further the development of a technology proposed by his research team called SNOW, an acronym for sensor network over white spaces, a term used to define unused television broadcasting frequencies.

“SNOW is the first highly-scalable LPWAN over TV white spaces that enables asynchronous, bidirectional and massively concurrent communication between numerous sensors and a base station,” said Saifullah.

White spaces offer a greater number of less crowded channels compared to conventional ISM radio bands. Their lower frequencies — as low as 54 MHz in the U.S. — present better characteristics for long-distance broadcasting and for transmitting through obstacles.

“This project will design and implement an LPWAN architecture and complete protocol stack based on SNOW to support scalable integration, coexistence, mobility and real-time communication,” said Saifullah. “The protocols will be evaluated through experiments in two different radio environments: an urban test-bed and an agricultural field piloting smart farming.”

There are approximately 47,000 farms in Michigan, and the agriculture industry accounts for more than $104 billion of the state’s economy. Harnessing this technology could be a critical step to unlocking the full potential of agricultural IoT, including advanced data analytics, process control and cost management.

Saifullah came to Wayne State in 2017 after a two-year assignment as an assistant professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology. He has authored more than 50 published papers and is actively researching such domains as cyber-physical systems, embedded and real-time systems, wireless sensor networks, and distributed and parallel computing. He holds a Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis.

The grant number for this NSF CAREER award is 1846126.

An estimated eight out of every 10 students in the Wayne State University College of Engineering completes at least one internship prior to graduating. These students learn to work in interdisciplinary teams in rapidly evolving industries, applying academic lessons in real-time environments.

Interns develop both hard and soft skills, both of which are valuable to employers. Computer science student Cory Simms said his co-op at DTE Energy in Detroit “provided me with meaningful programming experience.” Through his internship at KUKA Robotics in Shelby Township, Michigan, mechanical engineering student Thomas Zacharski learned “how to work within a corporate structure, organize goals and tasks to accomplish projects with a wide scope, and work with other professionals and communicate ideas effectively.”

Rodrigo Hernandez, an intern at Great Lakes Engineering Group in Bingham Farms, Michigan, received a firsthand look at the range of steps taken to arrive at the construction stage of a project through his involvement with the I-75 rebuilding project this summer, and was given opportunities to make decisions as an inspector.

“I have learned that calculations, when it comes to the design of a structure, are critical,” said Hernandez, a civil engineering student. “They go through many revisions and checks involving multiple engineering tiers to ensure the safety of the proposed structure.”

Hernandez and hundreds of other aspiring professionals work in a variety of settings, from smaller independent firms to some of the most globally known corporations, many located just a few miles from Wayne State’s campus in Midtown Detroit.

Rebecca John is an intern with the technology commercialization team at General Motors. “The work we do is license GM's technologies and patents to third parties to establish new products and services,” said John. “I am learning so much about market analysis and business models.”

Other students ventured farther away from home. Computer science students Nasr Almansoob, Anu Anne John and Ibrahim Hakim spent six weeks in Mexico as software engineering interns for ITexico.

“This internship abroad gave me the experience to learn how companies work globally,” said John. “Also, I had the experience of working in a different country full of rich culture which helped me gain a new perspective on work culture and the software industry in general.”

According to annual surveys taken one month prior to graduation, nearly 40% of Wayne State engineering graduates over the last three years who had already landed a job did so via an internship or co-op.

“I started as an engineering intern back in February, and in June they promoted me to an assistant engineer even though I didn't graduate yet,” said Mohamad Ataya, an electrical engineering student working at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Plymouth, Michigan.

The number of internships Wayne State engineering students complete varies. Renee Cole is doing her first internship at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. She noted the value of networking and establishing a baseline of experience for future opportunities.

Computer science student Mahjabin Haque has done two internships with NASA, electrical engineering major Shaharun Sama is at HELLA Electronics for the second summer in a row and industrial engineering student Michelle Wesner has completed four internships for three different companies.

“Each job I do teaches more and more about what options I have with my degree,” said Wesner, who has worked for such corporations as Ford and Disney. “I have learned skills and have experiences in so many different industries that I can apply the things I've learned in unconventional ways anywhere I end up.”

The genesis of many employer-to-student relationships can be sourced from the college’s Engineering Career Resource Center, which helps students with their professional and career development goals. The ECRC hosts numerous workshops and events, including two career fairs annually, to better prepare students for their career pathways.

“I discovered Hemlock Semiconductor through a Wayne State career fair,” said Grace Sexton, a mechanical engineering intern. “In October of last year I gave them my resume; that same evening, I received a call from the recruiting team to set up an interview for the next day, and a week later they offered me an internship — and accepting it has been one of the best decisions I've ever made.”

Ultimately, the goal for faculty, academic staff and employers is the same: nurture talented and industry-ready graduates who have a much clearer vision of their professional goals.

“Never give up looking for your dream job,” said Wesner. “You never know where you will find what you're meant to do.”

The Wayne State University College of Engineering is proud to celebrate National Intern Day. Visit the photo gallery on Flickr to learn more about where WSU engineering students are working this summer.

If "two heads are better than one," then sharing mobility data with stakeholders and even the public at large has the potential to catalyze important innovations in mobility technology. That's the premise behind a number of projects in metro Detroit that are collecting and sharing information about traffic infrastructure and the movements of cars, bikes, scooters, and other forms of transportation to improve efficiency, safety, and equity.

Steve Remias describes southeast Michigan as a "global leader" in collaborating on mobility solutions, but says data sharing in particular is just beginning to catch on. Remias is an assistant professor at Wayne State University's (WSU) College of Engineering and a member of WSU's CAR Lab, which focuses on developing technology to enable connected and autonomous driving. 

Remias says CAR Lab and others at WSU are already collecting and sharing mobility data through a number of projects. He notes that companies everywhere in all fields, not just mobility, are collecting "terabytes on terabytes of data," but aren't using it to the fullest.

"For a really long time, we've been data-rich, but information-poor," he says. "That's where having shared data sets can tease out more of those information messages, as opposed to having billions and trillions of rows of data. We have all of this data, but to make it more valuable, we need to convert it into something agencies and academics can (use to create) some action items and provide value to the public."

Remias praises the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) for rethinking the data silo approach.

"SEMCOG has a very nice traffic data-sharing platform, using GIS, crash data, census data and other kinds of data on their website," he says. "It's a really nice platform for city planners and academics to use."

"There are still data silos in this mobility space where people collect their data and keep it close to the vest," he says. "However, in my 10 years of working in this area, individuals, academics, agencies, and industry have all started to realize that data sharing and getting the most out of the data is absolutely critical."

Click here for the full article.

This growth in traffic, coupled with the fact that more than half of all crashes resulting in injury or death occur at or near an intersection, precipitates the need for alternatives such as diverging diamond interchanges (DDIs), a design that eliminates the conflict between left turns and opposing traffic, thereby maintaining traffic flow.

Amir M. Molan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wyoming who earned his Ph.D. from Wayne State University in 2017, is committed to analyzing intersection safety and serviceability while developing new designs to improve transportation infrastructure.

One of Molan’s doctoral research papers — written in collaboration with Joseph E. Hummer, a former professor of civil and environmental engineering at Wayne State currently serving as an administrator for the North Carolina Department of Transportation — was selected as the best paper of 2018 by the ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering. Molan received the award on June 11, 2019, during the ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development in Virginia.

For this project, Molan and Hummer evaluated the traffic performance of two new service interchanges to determine if they were appropriate substitutes for four existing designs. They ran simulations on a synchronized design, a variation of the superstreet intersection which itself is a variation of the “Michigan left,” and an adaptation of a recently constructed interchange in Milwaukee — dubbed the “Milwaukee B” in this study — that bears similarity to a parclo B design, a popular freeway-to-arterial layout.

Over 1,000 simulation scenarios modeled the traffic operation of the interchanges in different traffic conditions. Real travel times were collected using probe vehicle data that compared well to simulation outputs.

“Based on the results, the Milwaukee B showed the best traffic operation among all the interchanges,” said Molan. “The synchronized interchange looks promising as a substitute for a diamond interchange with dominant through traffic. The synchronized and diverging diamond interchanges showed almost the same results while handling moderate levels of turning volume.”

Superstreets and DDIs are not yet common in the U.S., but nearly 100 DDIs have spread to at least 29 states since 2009. However, Molan envisions a solution that addresses certain limitations of DDIs.

“While the DDI does well in efficiently moving large left-turn demands, it is not the best design for through traffic or pedestrians,” said Molan.

Molan recently invented a new design called a super DDI (super diverging diamond interchange), which combines features of both superstreets and DDIs but results in lower traffic volumes at conflict points and removes the DDIs’ free-flowing pedestrian crossings. The results were published in another paper by Molan and Hummer.

In simulation testing, the Super DDI reduced the number of conflicting interactions by up to 63% compared to a traditional DDI design. Pedestrians were also projected to experience a shorter waiting time at traffic signals.

“To date, Dr. Hummer and I have received much positive feedback from transportation professionals about the Super DDI,” said Molan. “We hope that the design will save lives and prevent injuries one day soon.”

Molan came to the U.S. from Tehran, Iran, in the fall of 2014 to pursue his doctorate from Wayne State. He left Detroit in 2017, but looks back fondly at his time in the city not only as a prime locale for transportation research, but also as a multicultural community, and considers Detroit to be a second home after Tehran.

“I am glad that I studied at Wayne State University with high-level faculty members like Professor Hummer, a leader in alternative design for intersections and interchanges who looks creatively and differently at his field,” said Molan. “I learned a lot and had many great experiences.”

The team recently competed in the annual Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Michigan and took 55th place out of 120 teams. The competition was held at the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) in Brooklyn, Michigan, and lasted four days.

“The road to FSAE Michigan 2019 started a year ago,” said Warrior Racing President Andrew Cucchiara. “Back in May 2018, Warrior Racing was headed to competition with a well-known and very reliable car, Road Warrior (RW) 11. ‘Rose,’ as it was known, was built with the intention of it being used in official competitions from June 2017 to May 2018, so that the new generation of Warrior Racing would have a solid car to learn with and fully understand what it takes to compete. Soon after FSAEM 2018, the team sat down to start making design decisions and relentlessly test RW11. We got to work on the design of RW12 in the late summer with the main goal of carrying forward many of the successful designs from RW11.”

Starting from scratch meant there was more room for mistakes, but it also meant more room for opportunity. Instead of playing it safe, the team decided to give aerodynamics a try by strategically adding wings to the front and back of the car, producing down-force and increasing speed.

“It pushes the car closer to the ground and will ideally lower the CG, making us go faster. There were a lot of calculations and 34-hour simulations running on the school virtual lab software,” said Noah Beattie, team exhaust captain. “So that was the big thing for this year, along with making the car lighter.”

When it comes to building an entirely new car, equipment can get expensive, but Warrior Racing is not without resources. In 2015, Warrior Racing Legacy was founded as a team sponsor, and consists solely of Warrior Racing alumni who wish to continue their support of the team. Not only do alumni provide financial help, but it’s also common for them to stop by the shop to lend design expertise or a hand in construction. While producing a racecar can be a grueling process, it’s clear the benefits outweigh the costs.

“I think it’s just about the friendship you gain with everyone around the car,” said Beattie. “Everyone rallied around one project, one goal.”

This month’s competition was RW12’s first official race, and while the team is happy with its performance overall, there is always room for improvement. A week after the competition ended, the team received word they had officially been moved off of the waitlist for Formula SAE Lincoln. Next month, Warrior Racing will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska, to compete with RW12 once again.

“We are in the process of regrouping and preparing to attend Formula SAE Lincoln, with some more time on RW12, and perhaps a first for a Road Warrior,” said Cucchiara. “Stay tuned!”

To follow the team’s journey or learn more about Warrior Racing, visit their website or contact President Andrew Cucchiara at Andrew.cucchiara@wayne.edu.

The Austin, Texas-based company, which has substantial technology operations in Mexico including two Innovation Centers in Guadalajara and Aguascalientes, will host a group of computer science undergraduate students for an intensive, hands-on summer internship where they will get a sense of life as a software developer.

Working alongside their professional counterparts, they will enjoy the entire “iTexican” experience which includes days spent at the Guadalajara Innovation Center, working on real cases and client projects including UI/UX and AI deployments. In the evenings and on the weekends, they will have an immersive Mexico experience in and around the city of Guadalajara and other parts of the country.

The internships in Mexico — the first of their kind for iTexico and Wayne State University — represent a unique cross-border collaboration that is a win-win for students, the university and iTexico.

“Providing a global experience is one of five high-impact practices that the College of Engineering implements to improve student success,” said Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering at Wayne State University. “We are excited to partner with iTexico to execute this internship at its location in Mexico. Opportunities such as this will help us close the gap between academia and industry.”

“We are excited to meet and host Wayne State University students, and know that they will gain amazing real-world insights that will help them better understand the rigors and excitement of today’s high-tech working environment,” said Anurag Kumar, CEO and co-founder of iTexico and an alumnus of Wayne State University, graduating with a master’s in computer engineering in 1987. “With the demand for young, college-educated engineers constantly on the rise, we are especially pleased to engage in this partnership with Wayne State University, and hope that it can help train a new breed of talented software developers.”

About iTexico

 iTexico provides software development and digital transformation services for Mobile, Cloud, AI and Intelligent Automation solutions to clients in North America. The company provides these end-to-end design, development, testing, and support services by leveraging our award-winning Nearshore+ model. With its headquarters in Austin, Texas, as well as wholly-owned innovation centers in Guadalajara and Aguascalientes, Mexico, iTexico has experienced significant growth every year for the last eight years and maintains strong development partnerships with many leading technology companies, including Amazon, Carbon Black, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft, and many others. For more information visit itexico.com.

About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering nearly 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 27,000 students.

The Wayne State University College of Engineering is a leading engineering college known for improving quality of life through education, innovation and entrepreneurship. Located in Midtown Detroit, the college offers more than 50 degree programs through eight academic departments to over 3,700 students. Its 150 dedicated faculty and staff support student success by providing opportunities for experiential learning, global perspective, hands-on experience, research and community service. For more information visit engineering.wayne.edu.

The Michigan Mobility Institute announced Wayne State University’s College of Engineering as its inaugural education partner to develop the world’s first advanced mobility educational curriculum. Over the coming months, the organizations will begin development of programming that will power new mobility careers in Detroit and around the globe.

“We’ve always envisioned that partnerships would be the best way to deliver on the Institute’s mission,” said Jessica Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Mobility Institute. “In bringing industry and academia together, we can accelerate workforce development, upskilling programs, and post-secondary degrees. From our first meeting, it was immediately clear that Dean Fotouhi thought differently about how to meet students’ needs for technology-based careers. We’ve been thrilled to get to know some of his professors and students and see strong alignment with our vision of a multi-disciplinary approach.”

In January, the Boston Consulting Group and the Detroit Mobility Lab, the Institute’s sister organization, found that the national demand for engineering graduates with required skills for mobility careers could be up to six times greater than expected supply. Autonomous driving, connectivity, and electrification will help create more than 100,000 industry jobs in the next decade, including up to 30,000 jobs for engineers with degrees based in computer-related subjects.

“I could not be more excited to partner with the Michigan Mobility Institute,” said Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the Wayne State College of Engineering and professor of computer science. “Together we are poised to create something very special as we embark on a shared mission to create the premiere institution focused on educating the mobility engineer of the future.” The College of Engineering today offers a graduate certificate in cyber-physical systems, a program in electric-drive vehicle engineering, and a newly developed M.S. in data science and business analytics.

“The College of Engineering is one of Wayne State University’s many outstanding schools and colleges. The Michigan Mobility Institute represents an ideal partner for the outstanding faculty and students in the college to contribute to the future of mobility for the city, the state, and the nation,” added Keith Whitfield, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

Collaboration with Wayne State represents the chance to bring mobility education to a diverse learning and business community and build a world-leading institute in the city of Detroit. Wayne State’s Midtown campus is directly accessible by transit from Detroit neighborhoods and has quick access to numerous employer sites throughout southeast Michigan. It is one of only six public universities in the U.S. to have received the highest Carnegie Foundation ratings for both research intensiveness and community engagement.

“For the past 100 years, Detroit has been a home for mobility innovation. This partnership holds tremendous promise to extend our region’s dominance on this front into the 21st century and beyond,” said Kim Trent, chair of the Wayne State Board of Governors. “I couldn’t be more thrilled that the futurists behind the Detroit Mobility Lab and the Michigan Mobility Institute have chosen Wayne State as their partner. This Institute will make our university a world leading center for cutting-edge thinking and leadership for this critically important emerging sector.”

Commenting on the development of the Michigan Mobility Institute, Chris Thomas, president and co-founder of the Detroit Mobility Lab, added, “We’ve come so far in less than a year since the initial announcement of our effort to understand mobility talent needs in Detroit and around the globe. The interest and engagement we’re seeing from employers and educators domestically and internationally strongly validates there is a shared understanding of the urgency of coming together. Now is the time for leadership, and we feel privileged to be at the forefront of equipping the mobility engineer of the future with the tools to build and win.”
 

This year, Wayne State took fourth place in the 2019 regional competition, putting the university in the top half of teams. Although WSU won’t be heading to nationals this year, this was a vast improvement from last year’s seventh place. The rankings, from first to last, were as follows: Michigan Technological University, University of Michigan, Western Michigan University, Wayne State University, Ohio Northern University, Lawrence Technological University, University of Detroit Mercy and University of Toledo.

The three-day competition was held at University of Michigan’s campus and consisted of four portions: a technical paper presentation that incorporates the ASCE Code of Ethics, a final product display based on design aesthetics, a final presentation that details the construction process and the race to test overall functionality.

“We had an amazing team. We all worked really, really well together. That, and the person/hours breakdown that goes into the canoe is massive: We counted 2,200 hours, but it was probably even more than that,” said second-year member Shellie Zamponi. “A lot of people think we’re just going to put a canoe in the water and race it, but there’s a lot more behind it.”

Due to weather conditions, the race portion of the competition — set to take place just north of Ann Arbor on Independence Lake — has been canceled for the last four years. Proper racing conditions require the air and water temperature to equal a combined 85 degrees, and unfortunately for all the schools in the competition’s north central region, the weather seldom cooperates. The race portion excluded, WSU scored fourth in every category: final product, presentation and design report.

“We figure a lot of our members are going to be doing this again, and they already know a lot of the rules, so that should help us improve in the ranking for next season,” said Aladeen Alghazeer, second-year member and secretary of WSU’s ASCE chapter.

The 2019 competition rules and regulations book consisted of 94 pages. Before any planning can commence, the book must be read in full, and even the slightest error can eliminate a team in the technical categories. As a result, when a team finds a method that works, they tend to stick with it and make only minor adjustments; in other words, a step outside of the box is a slippery slope, which is why construction methods across teams are often identical.

The most commonly used construction method involves first building a mold to form the base of the canoe. Once the base is shaped, team members work together to strategically layer concrete by hand, smoothing out the surface as they go. When the 2019 WSU team realized they would have fewer members than usual, they decided to get creative; Instead of just one mold, they decided to build a second.

“It was a big innovation to use two molds. Most schools were confused, like, ‘How did you do that?’” said first-year member Hank Fournier. “Other schools have huge teams, and they are able to actually layer on the concrete. With the second mold, less hands are needed.”

Wayne State University is set to host the regional Concrete Canoe Competition in 2021. Weather permitting, the race portion will take place on Belle Isle. Since the majority of the current team will have graduated by then, this is an ideal time for freshmen and sophomores to get involved.

“We have really good momentum for this next team because they will have a ton of carryover membership, carryover funding, contacts for donations, and all of the things we’ve built this year that they can use again,” said second-year member Alex Bacon.

Interested in joining the team to help win the gold next year? Warriors from all departments and colleges are welcome! For more information about the 2020 Concrete Canoe Competition, contact WSU ASCE at asce.wsudetroit@gmail.com.

“This year’s Design Day was the most successful such event so far,” said Sorin Draghici, professor of computer science and director of the Anderson Institute. “It truly showcased both the knowledge and the capabilities of our students.”

Design Day projects cover a wide range of applications and engineering disciplines, and demonstrate students’ solutions to engineering challenges as well as commercial and social needs. The event offers up to $1,000 in cash prizes to the best projects, and reflects the mission of the Anderson Institute to foster entrepreneurism through investment in marketable technologies.

“Project topics ranged from methods to improve upon industrial processes, to an autonomous vehicle that can track and catch falling objects, to a foldable wheelchair that can adjust its height electronically, to a device for towing aircraft,” said Draghici. “Many of these new ideas will be pursued by their teams on a commercialization path with the help of the Anderson Institute.”

Two teams tied for first-place honors. Biomedical engineering student Jean-Yves Azar presented a new biomaterial filler for nerve gaps that could lead to functional recovery of nerves severed due to injury.

“Two years ago, I heard about ongoing research in biomaterials from my professor (Harini Sundararaghavan), and I soon after joined her research project. As a chemical engineering student starting in a biomedical engineering lab, I brought a unique perspective and a diverse skillset,” said Azar. “I discovered that participating in undergraduate research helped to cultivate my engineering skills using principals of design and experimentation.”

The other top project was submitted by chemical engineering student Laura Paz Herrera, who proposed a study on new design methods for producing 3-D catalytic environments to minimize use of non-renewable precious metals while increasing atomic activity and improving nanoparticle stability.

Second place was awarded to Gui Chen and Marcella Gatti, who presented titanium nitride nanotube electrodes intended to provide improved biocompatibility and reduced tissue damage when implanted as a neural probe. The team of Ahmad Allan, Hanady Bazzi and Omar Alali received third place for their autonomous robotic car capable of recognizing lanes, stop signs and traffic lights. Both teams represented the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

These and other promising projects were selected for a pitch competition during the Design Day event. Students were invited to give an oral presentation for a panel of judges comprised of successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, senior managers from various companies, and Wayne State faculty including Draghici and Gary Witus, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering and associate director for student programs. Presenters were graded on technical quality, commercialization potential, and overall presentation quality.

“Design Day was an amazing opportunity to showcase my undergraduate research to my peers and mentors,” said Azar. “I am proud of our accomplishments and I am thankful to the Anderson Institute for their sponsorship of Design Day and promoting innovation among Wayne State student engineers.”

Summary of top projects:

First place (tie): Characterization of Electroactive Nanofibers for Nerve Regeneration

Development of a nerve gap conduit to promote functional recovery of severed nerves.

Student: Jean-Yves Azar

Advisor: Harini Sundararaghavan

First place (tie): Design of 3-dimensional Active Sites for Selective Catalysis

Modification of the 3-D environment of catalytic surfaces to maximize atom efficiency and stability while minimizing use of precious metals

Student: Laura Paz Herrera

Advisor: Eranda Nikolla

Second place: Titanium Nitride Nanotube Electrode

A corrosion-resistant implantable nanotube electrode that works as a neural probe and offers improved biocompatibility, reduced tissue damage, reduced cost and increased usability.

Students: Marcella Gatti, Gui Chen

Advisor: Mark Cheng

Third place: Autonomous RC Vehicle — a Machine Vision Demonstration

A robotic car with hardwire control, lane detection and path planning capabilities

Students: Ahmad Allan, Hanady Bazzi, Omar Alali

Advisor: Yang Zhao

These consequences can be reduced, however, by maintaining high standards of safety in the workplace. A research team led by Emrah Kazan and Mumtaz Usmen in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Wayne State University has been focused for several years on occupational safety and health investigations and training, mainly for the construction industry.

In addition to conducting numerous studies involving statistical analysis and modeling of workplace injuries and illnesses, the team has developed and implemented various training modules to more than 2,500 construction industry employees and employers at no cost to them. These intervention strategies have been largely supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), specifically by the Susan Harwood Training Grant, which they have received continually for the last five years.

For the past two years, the OSHA grants have been augmented by support from the Michigan OSHA Consultation Education and Training program to reach out to additional trainees via an online training portal, which has a distinct advantage in being able to avail training to people in remote areas.

“Our training grants also have an evaluation component that allows us to investigate different tools and methods — including in-class and online delivery — to reach out to targeted audiences, including underserved, low-literacy and low English proficiency personnel,” said Kazan. “After the grant period, the developed training materials are published by the federal agency to be utilized nationwide and globally.”

The objective of the most recent Harwood grant — a $142,000 award from USDOL received by Kazan and Usmen — is to increase awareness of the health hazards associated with exposure to crystalline silica, a natural compound often present in construction materials such as sand, concrete and mortar.

“When workers cut, grind, drill, blast, jackhammer or crush these materials, dust particles that are very small in size can become airborne,” said Kazan. “Unless they observe safe work practices, workers may inhale sufficient amounts of silica dust particles to cause silicosis, an incurable and sometimes deadly lung disease.”

Respirable crystalline silica has also been linked to lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and kidney disease. In most cases, these diseases are diagnosed after many years of exposure. A new standard issued by OSHA is expected to reduce silica risks by as much as five times, and the supporting training tools developed at Wayne State will include identification of silica hazards, safe work practices, engineering controls and personal protective equipment.

The research team works closely with an advisory committee composed of safety and health experts and organizational leaders from the International Union of Operating Engineers, Associate General Contractors of Michigan, Masonry Institute of Michigan, Michigan Laborers’ Training and Apprenticeship Institute, and private firms from the Michigan construction industry.

“This group of key stakeholders has a keen interest in training their constituencies to protect them, while also promoting and achieving compliance with the new standard,” said Kazan. “The training program we offer is directly aligned with both goals.”

The SMDC has been in development since late 2017 through a partnership with Cisco Systems’ State Digital Acceleration (SDA) initiative. Michigan is the first state to join the program, which was developed to advance the digital agenda, bolster financial growth, attract new investment and increase innovation potential.

The 25,000-square-feet high bay area of the college’s Manufacturing Engineering Building at 4815 Fourth Street is being converted into the SMDC, a hub focused on developing the next generation of digital manufacturing professionals and leaders in automation and robotics. It will house a variety of equipment and software, connected with Cisco’s secured systems infrastructure, that will enable research and education in such domains as collaborative robots, additive manufacturing, computed tomography (CT) scanning, automated laser scanning, and resistance spot welding. The lab will also allow researchers to explore aspects of the Internet of Things (IoT), including data management, storage, infrastructure and security.

“As Michigan emerges as a leader in the high-tech global marketplace, faculty and students in the Wayne State University College of Engineering are working tirelessly to deliver advanced manufacturing solutions that ensure convenience, safety and efficiency,” said Dean Farshad Fotouhi. “The SMDC presents us with an opportunity to harness the power of Industry 4.0 and enhance our understanding of how cyber-physical systems and IoT make smart manufacturing a reality.”

The SMDC is outfitted with the Cisco Kinetic IoT platform, infrastructure, wireless data acquisition systems, and data servers to store data collected from various industry-supported processes, including resistance spot welding provided by Ford Motor Company and computed tomography scanning courtesy of Wenzel America. A real-time optimization framework with ESTECO’s modeFrontier will enhance data processability, and real-time location platforms supported by HERE Technologies will enhance tracking and automation.

“These partnerships align perfectly with our innovative and proactive approach to challenges facing traditional manufacturers,” said Fotouhi.

The SMDC will be fully operational in the fall.

This year's competition was held March 23 at the Judson Center, a mental health and social services provider based in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Students were instructed to achieve a net zero facility — meaning the total amount of energy used annually by the building is approximately equal to the level of renewable energy created on site — by incorporating energy saving measures and distributed energy resources based on the unique needs of the building and its climate. The competitors were expected to provide detailed technical solutions in the proposal by examining the past years’ utility expenses, planning the renovation design, estimating new system costs, and demonstrating energy efficiency improvements.

In addition, students were required to seek funding sources, such as state grants and tax benefits, and to perform a minimum of 200 hours of community service at the Judson Center.

“The environmental impact and the continuous increase in energy costs are driving the construction industry to pursue new design and technology alternatives. A thorough understanding of the science of building performances and effective design is required to achieve maximum energy efficiency and best cost-performance ratio,” said Vaglica. “Therefore, a paradigm shift is needed in a university’s curriculum by adding new materials and endeavors to train the future ranks of engineers who will face the challenges of ‘green energy’ construction.” 

Students upgraded the landscaping on the campus grounds and installed a new security system which will allow Judson Center staff members to see guests before they enter the building and remotely allow guests to enter via an intercom and camera system. Other projects included caulking windows, changing lights, painting and assisting with housekeeping needs.

The Judson Center is a non-profit human service agency that provides comprehensive services to children and families throughout southeast Michigan that have been impacted by abuse and neglect, autism, developmental disabilities and mental health challenges. The organization has provided care to more than 10,000 children, adults and families each year since it first opened in 1924.

“I’ve always known I wanted to move to the states,” said Monwe. “In terms of STEM, it’s big in Canada, but not as big as it is over here.”

Nnamdi Monwe is an international computer science student at the Wayne State University College of Engineering. As the son of two parents in STEM careers, deciding to attend an engineering college was a no-brainer.

“I was always tinkering: I would take apart my toys and my siblings’ toys, get the guts, and try to make something new out of them,” said Monwe. “As I got older, I started picking up new skills. I learned how to weld. I learned how to code and do electrical work. I started to look into physics. The older I got, the more in depth I would try to get with these skills.”

Monwe was born in Nigeria and moved to the Toronto suburbs with his parents when he was 11. After graduating from high school, he decided to get an apartment in downtown Toronto near the George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology. Two years and one associate degree in electromechanical engineering later, Monwe was left wondering what was next.

“Initially I wanted to go to university straight away to get a four-year degree, but I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do,” he said. “So getting the associate degree was like a buffer period to take time out, figure out myself and get more acquainted with the career path I might go down in the future. It was kind of spontaneous.”

Once Monwe began to peruse universities, his aunt — a Detroit resident — suggested Wayne State. He promptly set up a visit and began browsing through the different programs, but it wasn’t mechanical engineering that sparked his interest.

“It had gotten to a point where I had reached my saturation in hardware. I was like, what’s going to be the next frontier for me? So, I looked out there, and I found the wonderful world of programming,” said Monwe. “I started out learning Java, which is a fairly difficult language. I was making mobile applications for Android phones and all sorts of devices, just on my own in my spare time. I didn’t have much of a social bearing, I would say. I was always either in front of a screen, or with some sort of tool in my hand. Pretty much all my friends are STEM.”

After visiting the WSU campus, everything began to fall into place. Monwe decided he would attend Wayne State as an international student and major in computer science to continue his engineering education; however, he still felt like something was missing. In his academic courses, Monwe was surrounded by motivated and eager engineers, much like himself. He wanted a way they could all interact, collaborate and build something together.

“That was the thing that stuck out to me when I visited. There’s a lot of talent here. There’s a lot of people who are willing to do stuff here. It’s not like a lot of places I’ve been where people are very reserved,” he said. “People are very proactive here in Detroit, so I wanted to take that proactive spirit and combine it with technology.”

While perusing the college’s list of existing student organizations, something caught Monwe’s eye: The university’s robotics team, known as Wayne Robotics, had ceased to exist after 2010. To Monwe, this was an exciting opportunity. Within a week, he was recruiting members, drafting club objectives and meeting with the dean of the college. By the end of the semester, the Wayne Robotics Club (WRC) was officially recognized as a student organization once again.

“I got a small group of individuals together and discussed the idea with them. There’s some other really hands-on student organizations here on campus, and I met up with their presidents to see if anyone would be interested in making the club. We had students of all disciplines come to the information session we were holding, and I was honestly expecting two people to show up. We had booked this little room in the Student Center, but 50 people came out,” said Monwe. “People wanted it.”

Since the club was established, the 28 active members were split into three divisions: electrical, mechanical and software. Students are able to choose whichever division of the building process interests them most, even if it’s opposite their major.

“On the mechanical engineering team, we have some electrical engineers. On the electrical team, we have biomedical engineers. For the software team, we have both undergraduate and graduate students of different disciplines as well,” said Monwe. “That was one of my objectives for the club — we wanted to get people from different sectors coming together.”

Forming the WRC as a freshman means that Monwe has years of robotics ahead of him. He has extensive plans for the club that include the involvement of corporate sponsors. He also plans to integrate community outreach, and ensures that all of the club’s research and methodology will be made public for others to utilize.

In June, the 27th Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition will be held at Oakland University. WRC last participated in 2010, and nearly a decade later, Monwe is determined to get Wayne State back in the competition.

“People can get pretty mind-blown by how powerful their learnings are when they actually apply them,” he said.

For more information regarding WRC, contact President Nnamdi Monwe at NnamdiMonwe@wayne.edu.

The Office of International Programs is always interested in hearing from international students. If you are an international student, we want to know your story! Email Carol Baldwin, communications coordinator for OIP, at carol.baldwin@wayne.edu and tell her about your experience.

This year, Wayne State Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Eranda Nikolla, Ph.D., was named a recipient of the 2019 WCC Rising Star Award. Nikolla received a stipend for travel expenses to the 257th National Meeting of the ACS in Orlando, Florida, where she accepted the award and presented her innovative research in the field of electrocatalysis. For Nikolla, minimizing emissions and our reliance on fossil fuel is the ultimate goal.

“Fossil fuels are a dwindling resource, and substantial release of CO2 from their processing has become a contemporary challenge. This presents a significant problem as world population increases, consequently leading to an increased demand for fuel,” said Nikolla. “The research in my lab in the Wayne State University Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science is guided by the aim of addressing this challenge through designing cost-effective catalysts for efficient and environmentally friendly energy and chemical conversion.”

The WWC Rising Star Awards were established in 2011 to promote the retention of women in science. Along with offering their scientific work, winners are encouraged to prepare an additional lecture detailing their scientific path to success. Nikolla believes her educational path was fundamental in establishing her independent academic career, and is motivated by her passion to educate and inspire the future generations of scientists and engineers.

“Lessons learned during my academic path have been key in solidifying my dedication toward education and diversity as key components in advancing science and engineering,” said Nikolla. “Involvement with educational and outreach programs in chemical sciences and engineering has been a source of inspiration for following an academic career.”

This award is only the latest on an extensive list of Nikolla’s professional distinctions. She has also received the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award and the Department of Energy’s CAREER Award, the 2016 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Young Scientist Award from the International Congress on Catalysis, and was named an Influential Researcher by the editors of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, a weekly journal published by the ACS.

Nanda Kumar, B.S. ’84, M.S. ’91, and Joseph Ziomek, B.S. '59, compose the Hall of Fame class of 2019 and will bring membership to 146 honorees since the Hall of Fame’s inception in 1983.

The College of Engineering will also recognize distinguished engineers or computer scientists from each of its eight departments. The event will be preceded by the Tapan Datta Boulevard dedication and the college’s annual Student Innovation and Design Day, presented by the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute.

Kumar has risen through the ranks at Eaton, a diversified power management company that provides energy-efficient solutions to customers in more than 175 countries. He began his Eaton career in 1990 and held positions of increasing responsibility in plant management and business systems. Kumar’s leadership has been instrumental in streamlining operations in manufacturing, supply chain, environmental, and health and safety. In September 2015 he assumed his current role as president of Eaton's Aerospace Group, a world leader in the design, manufacturing and integration of innovations in hydraulics, fuel systems, motion control, and engine solutions. Kumar holds a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Bangalore University in India, a master's in mechanical engineering from Wayne State University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Ziomek has been in the automotive electronics business for more than 55 years. The Cass Tech alumnus enrolled at Wayne State in 1954 at age 16. Ziomek worked for Ford Motor Company from 1963 to 1979 in advanced electronics research and composites vehicle design. He joined TRW in 1979 and formed the Transportation Electrical and Electronics Operation, which pioneered electronics applications for passenger cars, light trucks, heavy duty trucks and buses, and agricultural and off-road vehicles. In 1987, he was named TRW’s director of advanced safety restraint systems, later joining Takata in 1989 in a similar role. Ziomek, who has served as a consultant and expert witness since his retirement, co-founded the Convergence Education Foundation (now called Square One), a STEM pipeline for more than 20,000 high school students.

The distinguished engineers and computer scientists include:

• Biomedical Engineering
  Ernest Chiodo, M.D. '83, J.D. '86, M.S. '07, M.S. '09
  Physician and attorney
• Chemical Engineering and Material Science
  Luis Spitz, B.S. ‘60
  Soap industry consultant
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Russell Gronevelt, M.S. ‘82
  President (retired), Orchard, Hiltz, McCliment, Inc.
• Computer Science
  Uma Raghavan, M.S. ‘94
  Founder and Advisor, Integris
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
  Maninder Chhabra, M.S. '90
  Founder and CEO, Cloudwick
• Engineering Technology
  Mark Reinhard, B.S. '82
  Founder and President, Forward View Displays
• Industrial and Systems Engineering
  Nabil Raad, Ph.D. '18
  Director of Product Development Analytics, Ford Motor Company
• Mechanical Engineering
  Mousa Mohsen, Ph.D. '91
  Professor and Dean, School of Engineering at the American University of Ras Al Khaimah

The honorees will have the opportunity to attend Design Day from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Student Center Building and peruse a showcase of Wayne State students’ capstone projects and startup companies, all of which present solutions to engineering challenges and commercial or social needs in the spirit of entrepreneurship. All are also invited to the Tapan Datta Boulevard dedication at 10 a.m.

Dean Farshad Fotouhi and the Engineering Alumni Association will welcome the honorees and their families — as well as colleagues, alumni and industry leaders — to the awards dinner, which begins at 6 p.m. The cost to attend the event is $50 per person, with proceeds benefiting scholarships and student programs. Reservations can be made online.

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The Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame was founded in 1983 to recognize and honor distinguished alumni who, through their leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation, have made significant industrial, educational and societal contributions to the engineering and computer science professions. The Hall of Fame celebrates the rich history of the College of Engineering and provides exceptional standards by which Wayne State University engineering students can measure success.

The Summer Academy introduces pre-college students to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) resources. It is comprised of one-week, age-appropriate sessions geared toward students’ varied interests and strengths. Common threads between all of the camps include opportunities for students to build confidence and work outside of their comfort zones, get ideas for potential careers, and maintain a level of productivity that curbs summer learning loss.

“STEM is one of the fastest-growing areas of the U.S. economy, and engineering and computer science have emerged as top majors for high school seniors,” said Jasmine Roberson, director of community engagement and outreach program specialist for the College of Engineering. “Wayne State University plays a key role in keeping up with the demand for — and shortage of — new skills and technologies, as well as closing industry gaps for females and other underrepresented groups.”

Students aged 7 to 9 will gain basic proficiency in STEM through classes in such domains as coding, game design and movie making, while participants aged 10 to 12 will be introduced to areas that include web design, photography and robotics. The Summer Academy is particularly valuable for students in the latter age group that want to improve performance in STEM subjects or get a head start on preparing to transition to high school.

An abundance of options for students aged 13 to 17 — who will undoubtedly benefit from a glimpse of life on a college campus — include cyber security, construction technology and biomedical engineering.

“Besides having an abundance of career options, young people proficient in STEM understand the world around them in a logical way guided by the principals of scientific thought,” said Roberson. “The Summer Academy has proved an invaluable pathway for heightening interest in engineering and computer science among young people, who often return to Wayne State or other institutions to pursue degrees.”

Partnerships with such industry leaders as DTE, Ford Motor Company, Google, General Motors and Microsoft bolster the program’s offerings. The success of the Summer Academy is also aided by collaboration with the educational community including K-12 schools, universities, nonprofit organizations, government entities and other campus programs.

College of Engineering students, alumni, faculty and staff, along with industry professionals, lead groups as large as 20 to 25 learners through the various modules and provide valuable mentorship. These leaders are often volunteers motivated by a passion for learning and discovery as well as a desire to energize future Warriors and young people in Detroit and surrounding communities.

“The Summer Academy immerses students in the campus community,” said Roberson. “Students will take classes in college environments, eat in the residence hall, and walk the campus daily.”

Roberson also noted the opportunities to interact with people from unique backgrounds while improving cognitive skills, problem solving and teamwork.

“Students will ultimately be better prepared to succeed in an emerging workforce that is more diverse and dynamic,” said Roberson.

Registration for the 2019 Summer Academy is ongoing. Each session is $350 and students may be registered for multiple sessions. Campers receive a t-shirt, backpack, lanyard, and water bottle, and will have lunch provided daily. A demonstration day that includes presentations and a certificate ceremony is held at the conclusion of each program.

Two secondary street signs on the northern corners of Anthony Wayne Drive and Warren Avenue will bear the name “Tapan Datta Boulevard.” The stretch between Warren Avenue and Palmer Street will honor Datta’s numerous contributions to the advancement of transportation safety worldwide and for his invaluable service to Wayne State.

“Tapan‘s value to the university not only spans the 40-plus years he has superbly served our department as a distinguished educator, mentor and researcher, but will continue into the future as we observe his impact on our many graduates’ careers and in our community,” said Mumtaz Usmen, professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering at Wayne State.

Datta founded Wayne State’s Transportation Research Group, composed of undergraduate and graduate students who complete research grant projects in such areas as pedestrian safety, highway risk management, seat belts, booster seats and child restraints, and bicycle safety. He also initiated the award-winning "Drive Safely to Wayne State" campaign to enhance driving safety awareness among  students, staff and faculty.

His work specifically on Anthony Wayne Drive is notable, as he envisioned transforming it from three lanes moving in each direction to two lanes and two rows of parallel parking in each direction. The new design improved pedestrian safety — mitigating vehicle/pedestrian incidents that were previously a major issue — and provided improved aesthetics and traffic flow. It also added new sources of parking revenue for the city and more short-term parking options for students and visitors.

Datta moved from his native India to Detroit in 1965. He received his master’s in civil engineering in 1968 from Wayne State and his Ph.D. in civil engineering transportation in 1973 from Michigan State University. He was subsequently hired as a full-time faculty member at Wayne State, and six years later was promoted to professor and department chair.

In 2009, Datta was appointed to the Michigan Construction Safety Standards Commission by Governor Jennifer Granholm; the same year, he was inducted into the College of Engineering Hall of Fame. He retired from Wayne State in 2018.

RSVP for the April 18 dedication at events.wayne.edu.

“It was our third straight year of having a sold-out event. We had more than 500 participants from over 130 companies,” said Ratna Babu Chinnam, Ph.D., professor and co-director of the Big Data and Analytics Group at Wayne State University. “The predominant feedback from industry leaders is that our event is quickly becoming one of the best in the country, making Wayne State truly a leader in the fields of big data, AI and analytics.”

The two-day conference agenda was built around 30 case studies of top practitioners in areas ranging from manufacturing, finance, retail and health care to privacy and security. Attendees also enjoyed the various tutorials, networking opportunities and panel discussions, as well as a keynote address from Paul Ballew, vice president and global chief data and analytics officer at Ford Motor Company.

“The spectrum of participants ranged from organizations well on their way to data-driven cultures and those who were just starting out on the path. People were talking, sharing and commiserating on data analytics — what a wonderful sight. Even Ford and GM were sharing with each other,” said Nick Curcuru, vice president of global big data practice at MasterCard and one of the summit’s speakers. “Wayne State has created a data community that wants to truly help the members by freely and candidly sharing their experiences, good or bad, so they can learn from each other.

“The atmosphere is ‘together we can innovate and succeed,’” continued Curcuru. “My three takeaways: 1) data engineering and master data management are coming to the forefront, 2) organizations must tie advanced analytics to the business objectives, and 3) data scientists need to communicate in plain language.”

The Wayne State community was also highly engaged in the conference with over a dozen faculty members, 30 staff members and 50 students attending. A poster session featuring 14 students’ innovative research projects across multiple disciplines was well received by the participants.

“I brought a colleague with me this year, and he commented that he took away more from the Wayne State event than many much larger events he has attended in the past,” said Jeff Sutter, global director, innovation and continuous improvement methodologies and warranty analysis at Nexteer Automotive. “I think the mix of high-level tool projects and use cases is perfect. I learn as much from hearing about ‘here’s what worked for us’ examples as I do about ‘here’s what tripped us up.’”

Provost Keith Whitfield gave opening remarks highlighting the work being done across the university in the big data sphere, while CIO Daren Hubbard announced new industry-focused collaborative opportunities. Chinnam gave updates and promoted the master’s program in data science and business analytics, a collaboration between the College of Engineering and the Mike Ilitch School of Business.

The next annual Big Data, AI and Analytics Summit is scheduled for March 19-20, 2020. For full program details, visit bigdataevents.wayne.edu.

“Performing biopsies can result in pain, anxiety, scarring and disfigurement for patients, as well as a considerable cost to the health care system,” said Mohammad Avanaki, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and director of the OPIRA Laboratory at Wayne State University. “However, imaging devices suffer from various drawbacks that result in limited specificity or sensitivity, and are therefore of reduced benefit to the clinician.”

Avanaki is leading an international research team — including clinicians and engineers from Wayne State University, Karmanos Cancer Institute, Sharif University of Technology in Iran, AC Camargo Cancer Center in Brazil and Technical University of Denmark — to develop a novel non-invasive method for accurate detection of melanoma using optical coherence tomography (OCT). The findings from this study, partially funded by the American Cancer Society, were recently published in the Cancer Research Journal.

Using this method, the suspect skin region and its nearby healthy skin are imaged and analyzed using a sophisticated algorithm based on a well-defined model that describes the interaction of light with skin.

“The analysis takes only a fraction of a second,” said Avanaki.

The algorithm uses machine learning to develop unique optical radiomic signatures pertinent to melanoma and benign nevi, and based on the obtained knowledge can identify melanoma.

Data from lab evaluations that included testing on 69 human subjects showed significant differentiation between benign skin blemishes and malignant melanoma with 97 percent sensitivity and 98 percent specificity.

“This technology will not only reduce the number of biopsies and improve patient experience, but will also allow for earlier detection of melanoma and reduce health care costs,” said Avanaki.

Amy Xiao Zhou is an international Ph.D. student of civil and transportation engineering at the Wayne State University College of Engineering. She recently competed in the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) Student Design Summit, for which she and 10 other WSU students ventured to redesign the area surrounding the museum. When the competition winners were announced in January, Zhou and her teammates were elated to discover they had won first place in both the jury and the people’s choice awards, especially since they took a big risk with their design.

“Our DIA plaza project included the repurposing of a low-traffic street for principally pedestrian use,” said Zhou. “All other teams only designed the site; no one else redesigned the streets to make extensive connections.”

This bold decision made them stand out against the competition, but it also called for more work. The video showcasing their final design is still available for viewing, although Zhou articulates it was their extensive research, tedious data collecting and attention to detail that fueled their success.

“I had to draw every single line manually — the buildings, the street curbs — first from 2-D, then built up the 3-D model, and then still had to go to Google Maps and measure all of the buildings’ heights. All those buildings are historical, and their heights are not standard, so I had to measure all of those things manually. All the design features in the model had to be built to scale. I also did an analysis of traffic and neighborhood safety. They were important steps to making sure our proposed redesign locations would work with the surroundings and not cause any traffic or crime problems,” said Zhou. “It involved a significant amount of time.”

Repurposing the street into a more pedestrian-friendly version while also replacing the current DIA parking lot with a green space meant a new parking area had to be created. After much deliberation, a parking structure was concluded as the best solution. Zhou spent hours manually counting all of the cars parked in the area in order to calculate the number of spots she would need to incorporate into the new building design. When reimagining any space, Zhou often finds the trick is balance.

“If you’re trying to redevelop agricultural land and you build a hard concrete surface, you have to redesign other places to absorb water so that you can balance all the things,” said Zhou. “Otherwise, if it rains, it’s going to flood.”

While Zhou worked on designs for the DIA competition, she also collaborated with another team of WSU students for a completely separate competition. The 2018 Campus RainWorks Challenge is a national design competition funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, in which university students re-imagine a portion of their own campus. This challenge emphasizes sustainability, and requires each team to incorporate a green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) into their design.

With the Helen L. DeRoy Apartments slated for demolition this summer and a proposed green space fixed to take its place, this area of campus provided the perfect blank canvas to spark inspiration. The final design submitted by Zhou’s team, titled “From Gray to Green & Gold,” includes a green space equipped with more accessible pedestrian paths, multiple water features and rain shelters that function as a self-irrigation system. If implemented, their Rainworks Masterplan could save the university millions in drainage costs.

Though participating in two competitions simultaneously was a challenge — final submissions were due on the same day — Zhou was eager to put her transportation and economic development studies to use. As part of her graduate research, Zhou is studying the “‘complete street,” which is designed to be safe and accessible for people using all modes of transportation. Under the instruction of Steven Lavrenz, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Mark Cheng, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Zhou is developing a methodology to record everyday street traffic throughout a city using GPS sensors. This technology will allow urban planners to easily collect data regarding street uses.

“With this technology, I am able to know the exact routes people are taking. If one street only has bicycles and not too much pedestrian traffic, then we only need to add in some elements, which doesn’t require as much money. You have to know the core thing that caused the city problems,” said Zhou. “There are a lot of things you have to consider.”

Zhou received a master’s in urban studies and planning from Wayne State University in 2015, but her urban planning studies began in China. After receiving an undergraduate degree in urban planning from Beihang University in 2012, she spent two years working at one of Beijing’s top architecture companies, David International Partnership Architects.

“I was able to see the different kinds of problems that arise in real projects, and fortunate to observe how CEO Tao Wang and the excellent designers on the team would approach them. It strengthened my recognition that problem-solving is the soul of designing a whole project,” said Zhou. “Not beautification.”

Winners for the 2018 Campus RainWorks Challenge will be announced this spring.

These six-week programs are tailored to engineers seeking the latest innovations and applications of this technology, or professionals in other fields — law, health care, accounting or business — who can benefit from a greater understanding of technology trends.

"The Wayne State University College of Engineering is very excited to be partnering with Amesite to deliver online continuing educational programs in areas such as AI and Blockchain,” said Dean Farshad Fotouhi. “These training modules are being developed to address the gap that exists between academia and industry. Our expert instructors, in conjunction with Amesite staff members, will deliver the six-week courses and be available to answer any questions the participants may have. Please stay tuned for future courses in cutting-edge areas."

Blockchain: Cutting Edge Data Management is a program that guides students through the fundamentals of data storage, including security and privacy issues, regulatory questions and ways to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

The World of Artificial Intelligence program introduces students to applications, markets and key players in AI, as well as concepts such as data collection, machine learning and natural language processing.

Both programs will emphasize how these technologies impact jobs and everyday life, and give learners a platform to engage with expert instructors as well as peers to grow their professional networks. Amesite’s cloud-based digital platform includes customized user messaging and tracking as well as integration of current events into traditional course materials.

"During my visit, I saw firsthand how Amesite utilizes AI to expand higher education opportunities,” said Senator Gary Peters. “This new partnership will engage more Michiganders in a specialized learning environment and prepare them for in-demand positions that will also help close the skills gap."

"We are delighted to partner with Wayne State University's College of Engineering. They have a crucial role in engineering education in Michigan, and a strong ability to reach one of the largest populations of engineers in the nation, here in Metro Detroit,” added Amesite CEO Ann Marie Sastry. “AI and Blockchain are technologies that are transforming the way we work and live, and we are pleased to help WSU deliver offerings that bring professionals learning opportunities in each field."

Participants can expect to commit approximately 30 to 60 hours total for each program. A $1,600 fee includes all course materials and suggested reading. Enrollment will remain open for each program until April 15, 2019.

Visit engineering.wayne.edu/programs/online-learning.php to learn more.

Daniel Jomaa is a junior computer science student at Wayne State University, however ‘student’ isn’t his only title. He is the president of the WSU chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society. He is a lab coordinator for WSU C++ programming courses and the leader of a weekly computer science workshop. He also happens to be a co-founder of a start-up company.

In May 2018, Jomaa was asked to take part in the creation of a natural language system tailored to the restaurant take-out industry. The finalized product allows customers the ease of placing take-out orders via SMS text, and is already being utilized by pizza restaurant chains such as Jet’s, Marco’s and Sammy’s in roughly 20 locations.

“Technically speaking, I had to know Python, Java Script, CSS, HTML and Google Cloud. I knew none of that going in. None. And by the end, I knew all of it,” said Jomaa. “You can tackle any project you want to as long as you are willing to learn new skills.”

For Jomaa, this fight-or-flight experience confirmed the importance of self-guided, hands-on learning within the field of computer science, prompting him to envision a space where students could collaborate on ideas, share perspectives and learn new skills together. So when his first semester as ACM president commenced last semester, he immediately set out to make his vision a reality. Thanks to Jomaa, ACM now has a weekly workshop open to anyone interested in computer science. Plus, it’s totally free to join.

“The beautiful thing about computer science is that you don’t need materials. Everything is online or provided by the college, so I’m able to make it 100 percent free without any reliance on money,” said Jomaa. “That’s something that we’ve kind of unshackled ourselves from.”

Jomaa hopes the collaborative environment of his ACM workshops will be beneficial in preparing computer science majors for their senior projects, which involve working in teams to solve real-world problems for clients. He also believes the programming languages they’ve been concentrating on in the workshop, such as Python, will be extremely useful down the line regardless of what industry they end up in. 

“Python is a very cool language because it’s super simple, and it has a lot of applications for the solo person,” said Jomaa. “It’s essentially the beginner’s language that can open up everything else, and it has a finger in everything from web development to machine learning to data science and more.”

Jomaa believes one of the best parts of teaching is “seeing the lightbulb” when students have successfully worked through a problem on their own. When it comes to studying computer science, Jomaa insists that aside from a computer, determination and an open mind are all you need.

 “If you want to learn something, go learn it. It’s there. It’s available. It’s just waiting for you to go do it. And that’s it. That’s all it takes to become a computer scientist: ‘I want to learn this, therefore I will.’”

For more information on ACM and weekly workshops, contact Daniel Jomaa at daniel.jomaa@wayne.edu.

The research of Zichun Zhong, assistant professor of computer science at Wayne State University, aims to facilitate more efficient creation of such objects, addressing the lack of parallel computational framework that would allow for more intricate design and a less tedious process.

For his work in this domain, Zhong was recently awarded a five-year, $500,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation.

One of the most overt applications for Zhong’s method is in the realm of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing.

"It can model multi-shape of mesh element in a unified framework so as to effectively generate high-quality honeycomb, tetrahedral, and hexahedral/grid patterns," said Zhong.

This project proposes that anisotropic 3D printing will surpass traditional methods because the process will require less materials but be stronger in quality. The parallel computing aspect of the project will streamline fabrication and allow for multiple steps to be carried out at once.

“This will significantly impact the next generation of mechanical component design, as 3D objects will come at a lower cost and a lighter weight,” said Zhong.

NSF CAREER awards, the most prestigious honor bestowed by the organization to rising researchers, emphasize the integration of research and education. Zhong plans to develop an interactive 3D education program to enhance the classroom experience for WSU engineering students and to engage K-12 students during outreach events such as STEM Day.

Zhong joined the Wayne State faculty in 2015 after serving as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from The University of Texas at Dallas, and is actively researching such domains as computer graphics and visualization, geometric modeling, medical image processing, and GPU algorithms.

The grant number for this NSF CAREEER award is 1845962.

“Since newcomers often have to wait two to six times longer than a long-term contributor to get reviews for their changes, they often become frustrated and abandon their onboarding efforts,” said Amiangshu Bosu, assistant professor of computer science at Wayne State University.

Bosu is developing an automated model called RevRanker to address the issue. He recently received a nearly $175,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to support the project.

RevRanker aims to remove barriers in free/libre open source software (FLOSS) projects which stem from a newcomer’s struggle to identify experienced and capable reviewers. Using a mixed research method, Bosu will build a theoretical understanding of useful code reviews, which will be utilized to train and evaluate RevEval, an automated model to predict the usefulness of reviews.

“Using the RevEval model as well as leveraging multiple historical dimensions of the files under review, RevRanker will be developed and evaluated,” said Bosu.

FLOSS projects are community-driven enterprises that some in the tech profession believe will surpass proprietary software in popularity. Bosu is hopeful that RevRanker will be a tool to maintain, sustain and grow the community.

“RevRanker will also save time of experienced FLOSS contributors, as even long-term contributors sometimes encounter difficulties to identify appropriate reviewers,” said Bosu.

Outside the realm of FLOSS, RevRanker has the potential to make a significant industrial impact by improving the effectiveness of code review, a process that today is mandatory in such well-known software companies as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and VMWare. A recent study reported more than 50,000 Microsoft developers were spending 10 to 15 percent of their time on average in code reviews.

“Assuming that Microsoft pays on average $40 per hour to its developers, the company is spending $12 million per week on code reviews,” said Bosu. “Therefore, even a 5 percent improvement of the code review effectiveness can save Microsoft more than $30 million per year.”

The NSF award number for this project is 1850475.

“It doesn’t make sense that people are dying at exponential rates from something that’s completely preventable. That is the whole point of being an engineer: We make lives better," said Omishope. "If we can’t do that for people who are in the most need, then there’s no point of getting the degree and putting on the little ring.”

Omishope got the idea to create her product line, It Comes Naturally, after being bitten on the cheek by a mosquito in her mother’s garden. Her mother advised Omishope to use something from the garden to treat the bite, so she rubbed spearmint on it. When the swelling and redness reduced immediately and her sensitive skin was not agitated, she knew she needed to commercialize a natural remedy for those who need it most. 

“For me, the insect bite was a nuisance, but there are people who suffer on a daily basis from horrible diseases such as malaria and Lyme disease,” said Omishope. “Our mission is to save lives; we want to reduce the amount of insect-related death worldwide.”

Omishope will accomplish this by donating her products to countries and individuals with a high risk of contracting insect-borne illnesses.

She is also committed to environmental sustainability, creating a program that will incentivize customers to return used product containers to the company, where they will be recycled.

Omishope has received support from a variety of sources, including the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute, the Innovation Warrior Fund, OptimizeWayne, TechTown Detroit’s DTX Launch Program, and a full team of advisors and mentors. After initially pitching her idea, Omishope received $5,000 from the Anderson Institute to continue her research and product development. She said it was the Institute’s willingness to believe in her idea that gave her the motivation to grow it into the success it is today.

“Someone seeing something and saying, ‘well, maybe this can work,’ is how every great company gets started,” Omishope said. “I think that’s what the Anderson Institute is doing. They’re taking on these little ideas and they’re not discouraging people from shooting for the stars.”

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2018 edition of Exemplar.

Last semester, Wayne State University welcomed two international Fulbright scholars to campus, Ilham Azali Assoumani and Idir Mahrouche, who will spend the next two years completing graduate programs in the College of Engineering. Although their areas of study are different, the two scholars share a common motivation: humanitarianism.

Azali is completing a master’s at WSU in alternative energy technology. As an undergraduate student, she attended North China Electric Power University in Beijing, where learning both Mandarin and English was vital to her academic success. She graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 2016, shortly after her home country of Comoros began facing a serious energy crisis.

“In 2016 I could say we had a big problem in terms of energy because 90 percent of the country did not have electricity,” said Azali. “We had a new president coming in, and his main goal was to restore the energy back home, so he built a new power plant.”

After completing a yearlong internship, Azali was hired to work in the new power plant. A few months later she was promoted to head of unit, and continued working there for two years. Inspired by her newfound interest in alternative energy and determined to help her country, she applied to become a Fulbright scholar.

“It was really interesting to see how much power we are delivering daily and how much we can save by using alternative energy in the future,” said Azali. “Comoros is an island, and we have so many possibilities in terms of alternative energy, but we don’t have engineers in that field.”

Mahrouche attended the University of Boumerdes in Algeria, his home country, and received a master’s in control engineering in 2017. He is now working towards a second master’s in electrical engineering with a primary focus in robotics, and he is especially concerned with the application of robotics in the medical world. Robot-assisted, or computer-assisted, surgery is proving to have many advantages when utilized for minimal procedures. For Mahrouche, contributing to human progress is his greatest initiative.

“It not only involves engineering but it also involves health care, so it feels like more of a human discipline,” said Mahrouche. “It’s not just research for the sake of research, but research for the sake of others; for saving lives. It’s directly impacting the human being.”

According to Mahrouche, performing research is the best part of his studies, so deciding which university to attend revolved around research opportunities and lab facilities. The prospect of collaborating with the Detroit Medical Center was big factor in choosing Wayne State.

Both students are looking forward to the rest of their time at WSU. On top of her studies, Azali plans to join the Chinese club so that she can perfect the language, while Mahrouche is enjoying a smooth transition to Warrior life.

“I fit in. It’s easy. Maybe because I’ve had other experiences of living abroad, but it’s very diverse on campus,” said Mahrouche. “There are people from all over the world.”

Born into a family of world travelers, Azali is similarly accustomed to new experiences in unfamiliar places. All three of her brothers, one of whom was also a Fulbright scholar, pursued education abroad. Her mother was a traveling businesswoman.

“My mom went to Japan for six months in 1986. At that time, for a woman, it was kind of incredible. And she had just had a baby, my brother, three months before. In the mid-90s, she was one of the rare women in Africa to be president of a bank,” said Azali. “So she showed me that you can have it all. You just have to have standards, know what you want and go for it.”

For Azali, finding a solution to the Comoros energy crisis isn’t the only positive impact she hopes to leave on her country. In the entire two years Azali spent working at the power plant back home, she was the only female employee.

“I was proud to be a woman engineer back home, working at the power plant,” said Azali. “I want to show girls that it’s not because you love makeup, or because you are this feminine woman, that you cannot do anything you want. I wish more African girls, engineering girls, Muslim girls, will have the opportunity to succeed in their field, doing what they love, in the future.”

Faculty who want to learn more about Fulbright can contact Jaclyn Assarian at 313-577-9319 or jassarian@wayne.edu. For questions related to the Fulbright Student Program, contact Kelli Dixon, director of Study Abroad and Global Programs and the Office of International Students and Scholars, at ab6179@wayne.edu.

The Office of International Programs is always interested in hearing from faculty and student Fulbright alumni. If you have received a Fulbright award, we want to know about it! Email Carol Baldwin, communications coordinator for OIP, at carol.baldwin@wayne.edu and tell her about your experience.

A research team guided by Amiangshu Bosu, assistant professor of computer science at WSU, examined a specific segment of the software engineering (SE) industry to uncover evidence of discriminatory or discouraging attitudes from male developers to their female counterparts. The study intended to identify differences in expressions of sentiments between genders within peer code reviews, a common practice done to identify possible defects before merging code into a project.

“We believed such an investigation could possibly determine another factor behind the low participation of female developers in the contemporary software industry,” said Bosu, whose collaborators included Rajshakhar Paul, a graduate research assistant at Wayne State, and Kazi Zakia Sultana, an assistant professor at Montclair State University.

Tech jobs are among the fastest growing in the U.S., but a significant gender gap — one that began to form as early as the 1960s — in computing and SE professions remains. This phenomenon can be attributed to a number of issues ranging from wage discrepancies to unpromising career advancement potential to hiring biases.

However, it’s likely that incivility in the workplace also contributes to a trend that sees 56 percent of women exiting the tech space by mid-career — twice the attrition rate for men — and will leave women holding just 20 percent of computing jobs by 2025, despite the industry’s growth rate of three times the national average.

“As most software development organizations are male-dominated, many female developers encounter negative workplace experiences and report feeling like they ‘do not belong,’” said Bosu. “Exposure to discriminatory expletives or negative critiques from their male colleagues may further exacerbate those feelings.”

The research team sifted through code reviews contributed by more than 3,500 developers over six different open source projects. Using the state-of-the-art sentiment analysis tool SentiSE, each communication was classified as negative, positive or neutral. They also tracked the usage of sentiment words, emoticons and expletives.

“Despite traditional beliefs in the Western culture portraying women as ‘the emotional sex,’ the results found the opposite in the SE industry,” said Bosu.

Females were far less likely to express sentiments than males. Although females were more neutral to their male colleagues than to other females, male developers in half the projects analyzed were not only writing more frequent negative comments but also withholding positive feedback from female peers, suggesting possible misogynistic attitudes. Women were also found to be less prone to using emoticons or expletives.

“Even when female used expletives, they avoided certain highly offensive ones that males often used,” said Bosu, who added that such behavior is consistent with a “toxic culture” that has been brought to light.

One question raised by the study is why female developers do not feel free to fully express themselves in the SE context as they often do in other professions or on social media. Factors to consider are that other communities are more gender inclusive, and there is often a lack of female mentors or top-level executives in SE. Women who are uncomfortable in their work environments may be more reserved.

“The study suggests that, besides eliminating technical discriminations, project administrators should take steps to eradicate discriminatory behaviors and censor misogynistic tones to build more inclusive organizations,” said Bosu.

Despite a half-century of gender imbalance, the outlook for women in tech is not all doom and gloom. A recent HackerRank study shows that women today are 33 percent more likely to study computer science than those born prior to 1983. At Wayne State, the numbers are even more encouraging — a 173 percent increase in female enrollment in computer science over the last seven years. A quarter of all computer science students at WSU are female, well above the current national average. A flood of new female talent in SE and computing may present opportunities to cultivate more constructive work environments.

Loren Schwiebert, professor and chair of computer science, noted that WSU is also seeing an upward trend in the participation of women in computing. “For instance, our student chapter of ACM-W (Association for Computing Machinery’s Council on Women in Computing) is very active,” said Schwiebert. “This organization is helping female students feel more connected to computing, engaged with the department and aware of opportunities for women in computer science.”

Bosu and his colleagues recently had a paper summarizing this study accepted to the 26th IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) which will be held February 24-27 at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.

“Analyzing sequences of assigned behavior codes allows clinicians to better understand the patient’s thought process during the course of the interviews, without having to wade through entire transcripts over and over again,” said Alex Kotov, assistant professor of computer science at Wayne State University. “Such understanding, in turn, leads to further specification of the mechanisms of effect for behavioral intervention models, which can then be used to refine theory and guide clinical practice.”

As manual analysis is both time consuming and labor-intensive, researchers have begun investigating machine learning techniques to find an efficient alternative.

Kotov teamed up with Gwen Alexander, from Henry Ford Health System, and April Carcone, an assistant professor in the WSU School of Medicine, in a collaborative effort to automate behavioral coding to advance MI’s effect on patients. This work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The team developed a system to automate segmentation of exchanges in e-coaching sessions, or behavioral counseling using e-mail or other electronic platforms, into communication behaviors and assignment of behavior codes to identified segments. It also proposed an algorithm to identify sequences and patterns in successful and unsuccessful sessions, leading to a greater understanding of effective MI strategies.

One specific type of e-coaching on which the team focused was with adolescent patients with unhealthy eating habits that lead to obesity or other health issues. However, Kotov notes that this technology can be applied much more broadly to other types of MI.

“We are aiming to help patients with a wide spectrum of behavioral disorders,” said Kotov. “The goal is to determine which strategies work best and automate the entire MI process.”

The experimental results were comparable to those obtained with human coders, demonstrating the promise of ML methods for more efficient behavioral coding and analysis. Kotov’s plan for the future is to develop a system for fully-automated analysis and real-time monitoring of MI sessions.

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2018 edition of Exemplar.

Ismail, chair of electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University, is a founding director of the Khalifa Semiconductor Research Center in the United Arab Emirates. His achievements include the development of the world first self-powered wearable device that can predict the onset of a heart attack ahead of time, as well as one of the first combo CMOS RF WLAN radios compliant with IEEE 802.11a/b/g standards. He is well known internationally as one of the pioneers in the field of analog, RF and mixed signal integrated circuit design in digital CMOS processes, which has led to the successful integration of many of today’s complete CMOS systems-on-chip in mobile phones, notebooks, biochips and other IoT devices.

“I was delighted and very humbled to hear the news of my nomination and selection by UNESCO to receive this great honor,” said Ismail. “I would like to dedicate this recognition to all my colleagues and students over the years at Ohio State, KTH, Sweden, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi and Wayne State.”

Ismail joined the Wayne State University faculty in 2016. He has spent over 30 years in academia and industry, having worked in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Egypt, and UAE. He co-directed the Mubadala-SRC Center of Excellence for Energy Efficient Electronics Systems, also known as ACE4S. He is currently launching the Wayne Center for Integrated Circuits and Systems (WINCAS) at WSU.

“They impact electronics and computing, medicine, materials and manufacturing, energy and transportation,” said Miguel Clusener-Godt, director of UNESCO’s Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences, of the 2018 award recipients. “Nanoscience and nanotechnology have the potential to foster new developments in science, technology and innovation via the dissemination of new knowledge and applications.”

The UNESCO Medal for nanoscience and nanotechnologies was established in 2010, and since then 46 medals have been awarded to renowned scientists, institutions and public figures. Among the past recipients are Zhores Alferov and Isamu Akasaki, winners of the 2000 and 2014 Nobel Prizes, respectively, in physics; Chunli Bai, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Through partnerships with local businesses such as Avalon Bakery, Eastern Market and Whole Foods, the Detroit Feedback Loop has recovered over 18,000 pounds of food, benefiting both the community and the environment. To find out more about the Detroit Feedback Loop or learn how to get involved, visit detroitfeedbackloop.com or check out their Instagram to follow the organization’s daily strides.

Nazir Jairazbhoy on WDTK AM 1400 (11/29/18):

In further support of this philosophy, the College of Engineering’s Office of Academic and Student Affairs recently hosted a leadership workshop for all student organization leaders. With final exams nearing, engineering students from all departments demonstrated their commitment to leadership by taking a break from their academic studies and gathering on a Saturday morning to learn how they can improve their organizations.

The goal of the workshop was to provide leadership training that isn't covered in regular engineering coursework so that student organizations can continue to grow and operate effectively, generating greater overall student engagement. The interactive structure of the workshop, led by Professor Heinz Plaumann of the Department of Chemical Engineering, provided an atmosphere for students from varied backgrounds and departments to network, opening the door for more collaborative workshops, projects and research in the future.

Diontay Marshall, vice president of the Wayne State chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), highlighted how his involvement in NSBE has taught him the value of collaboration and having one’s perspective challenged.

“Organizations bring like-minded people together, but they might not think or coordinate the exact same way,” said Marshall. “Each person brings the different, necessary skills to the plate that are needed to innovatively think through a situation.”

Aladeen Alghazeer, secretary of the Wayne State chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), explained how having a sense of leadership goes beyond just personal growth when it comes to student organizations.

“It isn’t just about me developing my leadership skills. It’s about learning how to pass them on to all of the other members in the organization, and leading by example is a way for me to do that,” said Alghazeer. “We’ve done a lot of cool new things with my organization in the last few years, and we’d like to keep that going.”

The only effective treatment of hydrocephalus is surgery and usually involves placement of a shunt system. Carolyn Harris, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at Wayne State, is a renowned expert on neurological disorders such as hydrocephalus, and has sought to evaluate and improve shunt designs.

Shunts reduce intracranial pressure by generating a pathway to drain excess CSF from the brain, but complications often occur—an estimated 50 percent of shunts in pediatric patients fail within two years. Harris notes that shunts can disconnect, become infected, develop blockages due to infiltrating cells or tissues, or create other reactions due to it being a foreign body with no physiological properties.

“How these responses occur and what we can do to reduce the incidence of shunt blockage are keys to improving patient care,” said Harris.

These phenomena are not well understood because of variances in cell type and activity across patient subpopulations. Astrocytes and microglia are predominant in response to shunt systems because they bind directly to the catheter and create an environment for other cells to adhere. Harris’s lab fabricated 3-D hydrogel scaffolds to model shunt failure due to cell and tissue obstruction, with the data indicating that cell migration may begin around the shunt inlet holes.

“When we know the mechanisms that drive cell attachment and activity on the shunt, we will be able to define strategies for biology-driven engineering improvements,” said Harris, who noted that in more than 60 years since the inception of the shunt, fewer than 40 substantial modifications have been implemented to inhibit blockage, and none have produced significant improvements in treatment.

With so many variables to consider, materials design and manufacturing is critical. New research by Helen Durand, assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science at Wayne State University, aims to spur advances in this domain. Her lab is developing computationally tractable optimization-based design and control strategies for materials development and manufacturing, with a focus on advanced materials and control of material behavior during their use.

Durand recently received funding from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to support this project. She was one of 31 scientists and engineers across the country to receive grants through the Air Force's Young Investigator Research Program.

“Materials are key to effectively accomplishing things as mundane as dish-washing to things as complex as flight,” said Durand. “However, despite improvements in computational modeling, current methods of designing new materials that respect desired properties remain largely driven by experiment.”

Without molecular-level analysis, modeling relies on measured experimental data, which can be costly to obtain and requires a high degree of trial and error that slows progress. Additionally, as comprehension of chemistry and physics escalates, new materials that exploit molecular forces are challenging to take from the conceptual stages to large-scale manufacturing.

“One of the exciting parts of computational work is that it allows us to investigate possibilities systematically,” said Durand. “There are many types of materials and material behavior that would be expected to have a significant impact on the Air Force’s capabilities if they could be developed and manufactured. We hope to create a framework that provides a systematic means for creating these materials using mathematics, optimization, and control theory.”

Durand’s research includes development of a reduced-order modeling framework and output feedback control designs for manufacturing. Her team will investigate techniques suitable for reducing the computation time required to simulate dynamic behavior, permitting more accurate predictions of material properties under different external influences.

The Air Force’s investment in Durand and other researchers ensures that materials that comprise protective gear, machinery and weaponry meet specific needs while maximizing capability and functionality.

Steven Lavrenz, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, has committed Wayne State’s Transportation Research Group to join the coalition as its objectives align with the university’s ongoing efforts to develop and evaluate transportation safety innovations and integrate its research into policies and programs involving engineering, education and enforcement.

“The Road to Zero Coalition is about promoting the concept of safe mobility for all people. Whether driving, walking, biking or using public transportation, there should be a universal expectation of safety and comfort on Michigan roadways,” said Lavrenz, who was involved with Road to Zero while working for the Institute of Transportation Engineers in Washington, D.C., prior to his arrival to Wayne State in fall 2018.

“Through programs like Drive Safely to Wayne, the Transportation Research Group has a well-established record of promoting traffic safety in Detroit,” Lavrenz continued. “As part of this renewed commitment to help achieve zero roadway fatalities, we are exploring many exciting areas of research, including bike share and electric scooters, as well as traditional concepts of street design and signal timing. We are also looking at practices and lessons learned in other fields, such as medicine; there is a strong connection between safety and public health, and we often find that providing healthier modes of travel goes hand-in-hand with safer travel as well.”

Road to Zero was founded by a group of public and private entities, including federal government, state government, nonprofit and private sector entities to end all fatalities on U.S. roadways in the next 30 years. Since October 2016, more than 450 organizations, individuals and companies have joined the coalition. A growing number of universities are joining, but there are still fewer than 40 across the U.S., and only two — Wayne State University and the University of Michigan — in the state.

According to the National Safety Council, which manages the Road to Zero initiative, the number of people killed in motor vehicle collisions jumped from approximately 35,000 to more than 40,000 from 2014 to 2016 — a 14 percent increase and the largest two-year percentage increase in over half a century. The death toll leveled off in 2017, and is likely to remain at or near that level this year based on preliminary figures released in August. The state of Michigan has not been immune from this trend; crash fatalities increased by more than 21 percent between 2014 and 2016, with approximately the same number of people killed (1,028) in 2017.

“The aim of Road to Zero is to get to zero deaths by 2050,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. “It’s not impossible — it just hasn’t been done yet. Working together, we will find new solutions to old problems and eliminate these preventable deaths.”

“I’ve wanted to work for NASA ever since I was a kid. I remember hearing stories about NASA sending people to the moon, and I wanted to be a part of that mission,” said Haque. “My mom played a huge role in turning me into the person I am today. She has always motivated me to go after my dreams fearlessly.”

Haque first traveled to Houston last January, and interned until May as a data analyst in the Project Management and Integration Office at JSC.

“I conducted data analysis of the Engineering Directorate's IT infrastructure and associated processes,” said Haque. “Based on the data gathered, I then recommended process improvements that would optimize the performance of IT systems across JSC’s largest directorate.”

In her four months of work, she was featured as NASA’s JSC Intern of the Week, joined the intern student council and was elected video committee chair. As chair, it was her duty to organize and produce a video encapsulating the NASA internship experience. This project allowed Haque to take a closer look at the people behind NASA, and she found herself inspired by their diverse backgrounds and expertise.

“I was surrounded by some of the brightest people in the country, working on some of the most unique projects in the world. I met people whose backgrounds range from aerospace engineering to physics to communications,” said Haque. “At NASA, you get a bit of everything.”

This time, Haque will work as a software engineer in the Mission Control Center (MCC), where only employees with high-profile badges are admitted without an escort. Her work will directly support the International Space Station, and she will be responsible for software design, implementation, testing, maintenance and user support.

“MCC is where history was made when they sent the first man to the moon. I feel honored to be working there,” said Haque. “NASA has not only given me countless new interests, but also the confidence to take on new challenges — even if they intimidate me at first.”

Click below to watch the video Haque created during her first internship with NASA. 

As these pollutants enter water supplies and marine environments, they create more profound problems for ecological and human health. Reducing microplastic pollution is one of the top priorities of leading environmental organizations, including the Great Lakes Protection Fund, which recently awarded Wayne State University researchers with a three-year, $929,000 grant to develop technology that will not only help zero in on microplastic sources but will also accelerate a targeted outreach and mitigation campaign.

The project is led by Yongli Zhang, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering; Mark Cheng, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering; Weisong Shi, professor of computer science; Carol Miller, professor of civil and environmental engineering; and Donna Kashian, associate professor of biological sciences.

“The issue of plastic pollution — and more specifically microplastic pollution — is beginning to get more attention,” said Zhang. “However, this is still a relatively new issue for most people, and a great deal of outreach is still needed to make positive changes to public awareness and engagement.”

Microplastics are often remnants from larger plastic items such as water bottles, one of which can break up into over 10,000 pieces. They also come from products that contain microbeads, such as soap or toothpaste, and from textile fibers in laundry wastewater. Microplastics present a significant health threat for several reasons. Because of their tiny size — smaller than five millimeters — they easily enter food systems, often without detection. They act as toxic sponges, absorbing large amounts of persistent organic pollutants, which can lead to serious illnesses, and interact with microbiota such as bacteria and fungi, which play key roles in our ecosystem.

The pathway to promote positive social changes is an innovative Internet of Things (IoT) technology developed by Zhang’s team that incorporates optical sensors, machine learning and edge computing to allow for more cost-efficient and timely monitoring and sourcing of microplastic pollution. The belief is that this knowledge will benefit public understanding of the problem and lead to behavioral changes.

“The advantages of our IoT sensors include high-throughput, low-cost and automatic measurement of chemical composition of microplastics,” said Cheng.

“By integrating the IoT technology with machine learning tools, the sensors will provide abundant critical information for microplastic monitoring, including the quantity, size, chemical composition and age, as well as the correlation to the location and weather conditions,” said Shi.

The research team will deploy its sensors at testing sites in Pontiac, a city situated about 25 miles from Wayne State’s campus, and Williamston, located just outside of Lansing. They will monitor microplastic inputs from multiple sources including wasterwater discharge, urban runoff and agricultural zones.

“The team will leverage this data to promote mitigation initiatives such as microplastic-filtering laundry bags, street side garbage bins and green water infrastructures,” said Miller.

“This project can be scaled up to engage with greater numbers of community members, civic leaders and students both at the university and K-12 levels,” said Kashian. “This will further public awareness and pollutant reduction efforts.”

In addition to the WSU research team, two community partners — Ingham Conservation District and ReRoot Pontiac — will collaborate on the project.

Insulin injections are the most common treatment methods, while alternative approaches such as transplantation or immune therapies are being studied. However, another promising treatment to consider is “smart” insulin, or glucose-responsive insulin, which could supplant more invasive traditional procedures and ensure ideal glucose control for patients every day.

Zhiqiang Cao, associate professor of chemical engineering, leads a research team that has been awarded nearly $3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Cao’s group is developing an implantable technology with glucose-responsive insulin release and long-term therapeutic capabilities. It adjusts the dose of working insulin as needed, similar to a healthy pancreas. Compared with even the most state-of-the-art methods, this technology shows a superior capability to achieve insulin independence for T1D patients.

“The formulation is expected to function for weeks-long after administration, or even longer depending on the dose, and is retrievable and replaceable to extend the therapeutics for an even longer period of time,” said Cao.

Cao believes this technology is the next milestone for smart insulin development, significantly improving the life of T1D patients by offering long-term blood glucose control.

Christopher Roberts, a chemical engineering major at Wayne State University, recently concluded a four-month Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India (IITM). According to Roberts, this life-changing experience would not have transpired without his involvement in the College of Engineering’s Industry Mentorship Program.

In 2017, Roberts was selected to take part in the newly established program, where he was paired with alumnus Donald Smolenski, MSChE '79, PhDChE '90, who emphasized the importance of versatility and global perspective in the field of engineering. This insight motivated him to pursue international REU programs for a chance to work with students who might provide new view points on familiar topics.

“I need to be able to take a step back and think, ‘How are they looking at the problem? How am I looking at the problem, and how do we come together?’” said Roberts.

Once selected, Roberts chose a research area best-suited to his interests. Deciding upon microfluidics, he worked under Institute Chair Professor Subramaniam Pushpavanam of the IITM Department of Chemical Engineering to conduct research focused on the creation of water-in-diesel emulsion (WiDE), an alternative fuel for diesel engines.

“WiDE has shown the ability to reduce the level of toxic gas emissions and improve combustion efficiency,” said Roberts. “These toxic emissions create a large problem in countries like India and China, where the smog can be extremely dangerous.”

While at IITM, Roberts worked alongside students from the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Spain, France, Canada, China and Japan.

“We all cover the same subjects, but our outlook is totally different,” said Roberts. “That was really exciting to see.”

As a student who was once unsure of his path, Roberts expressed that his summer at IITM not only ignited his passion for research, but also illuminated how much perspective is gained from stepping out of one’s comfort zone.

“If you’re interested in something, take a chance,” said Roberts. “Something as simple as writing a two-minute email could change the next 30 years of your life.”

Since returning from India, Roberts attended the annual AIChE meeting in Pittsburgh, where he was awarded third place in "Fuels, Petrochemicals and Energy II" for his ongoing WiDE research.

Ismail, formerly of Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, and Ibrahim Elfadel, professor of microsystems engineering at Khalifa, co-direct the ATIC-SRC Center of Excellence for Energy Efficient Electronics Systems, also known as ACE4S.

The center was established to accelerate multi-university technology research in self-powered wireless sensing and monitoring systems. It connects scholars and institutions investigating such domains as energy-efficient wireless chipsets and sensors, wearable devices, miniaturized mechanical and electro-mechanical systems, energy harvesting, power management, and scalable nanometer systems-on-chip.

In the last five years, ACE4S graduated Abu Dhabi’s first Ph.D. students in the semiconductor field, became the region’s first multi-university research center, had award-winning papers published in multiple notable publications, and facilitated the creation of intellectual property that led to seven issued patents and 18 others pending.

Research and support from ACE4S has even led to the pursuit of a start-up company focused on monitoring technology for early detection of heart attacks, a project representative of the research’s feasibility and potential societal impact.

Ismail, who joined the Wayne State University faculty in 2016, has spent over 30 years in academia and industry, having worked in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Egypt, and UAE.

Precision medicine, or personalized medicine, combines data science tools with medical knowledge to enable physicians to more accurately predict disease susceptibility or prognosis, and develop a tailor-made treatment or prevention plan. In other words, the goal is to provide the right treatment to the right patient at the right time.

Data science research using electronic medical records has accelerated progress in the field of precision medicine. Kai Yang, professor of industrial and systems engineering, and Ph.D. student Milad Zafar Nezhad lead an interdisciplinary team of Wayne State researchers developing two novel predictive and feature learning approaches to precision medicine.

A deep learning method termed SAFS (Stacked Auto-encoders Feature Selection) presents a fresh approach to disease risk factor selection and prediction.

“Feature selection means ‘important variable selection’ or important factor selection.’ It allows us to select the most critical factors—such as BMI, weight, blood sugar—for certain diseases,’” said Yang.

SAFS employs a powerful, unintuitive, and indirect methodology based on neural networks for feature representation, or converting raw data to features, because many raw data are not directly meaningful factors. One study focused on African-Americans at high risk for hypertension and other cardiovascular complications. The SAFS model was applied to find risk factors that affected left ventricular mass indexed to body surface area (LVMI), a major indicator of cardiovascular disease. Analysis of data obtained from more than 700 patients at Detroit Receiving Hospital showed that SAFS outperformed other popular methods in term of predicting LVMI and discovering critical risk factors of the disease.

The team also proposed a survival analysis framework using deep learning and active learning called Deep Active Survival Analysis (DASA). The motivation for this study comes from either literature gaps or application needs in several healthcare domains where the labeled data is scarce and high-dimensional.

“Survival analysis is a kind of statistical modeling where the main goal is to analyze and model time until the occurrence of an event of interest, such as patient death,” said Nezhad. “DASA is able to improve the survival analysis performance significantly for risk prediction and survival time estimation, and provide treatment recommendations.”

In this study, researchers used SEER-Medicare prostate cancer data to evaluate the performance of their approach and provide specific racial therapy insights based on different treatment plans among African-American and white patients.

SAFS and DASA each offer unique characteristics to further precision medicine and the customization of health care. Among Yang and Nezhad’s collaborators for these studies were Dongxiao Zhu, associate professor of computer science; Jennifer Beebe-Dimmer, associate professor in the WSU School of Medicine and the Karmanos Cancer Institute; Julie Ruterbusch, a research assistant at Karmanos and the School of Medicine; and Phillip Levy, M.D., M.P.H., the Edward S. Thomas Endowed Professor of Emergency Medicine and assistant vice president of Translational Science and Clinical Research Innovation for WSU.

Detroit is on the rise, and the city’s growing influence in the high-tech marketplace is one of the hallmarks of this resurgence. With this growth comes an opportunity to break barriers in diversity and inclusion. Although 88 percent of Detroit’s population is Latino/Hispanic or African American, these groups still remain largely underrepresented in the tech space on a national level.

Last spring, Wayne State University announced a partnership with SMASH, the signature education program of the Kapor Center in California, to level the playing field and close the gap for minorities and women. SMASH was established 15 years ago at the University of California-Berkley and launched its first Midwest location in Detroit. The three-year STEM accelerator is free of charge, and has a proven model, as 100 percent of its scholars graduate high school and more than 90 percent obtain a college degree.

With the first summer program concluded, SMASH has proven to be a hit with Detroit’s youth and stands to make a significant impact for years to come. A total of 37 high school freshmen completed the rigorous five-week schedule and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, according to Site Director John Ray. Pre- and post-impact surveys and assessments indicated educational growth as well as greater ambitions to pursue careers in STEM fields.

The partnership between the university and the academy allowed SMASH to reach its goals while giving participants a glimpse into student life at Wayne State. Scholars took classes at the College of Engineering as well as in Old Main, Manoogian Hall and Science Hall. They stayed at Thompson Home and ate meals at Towers Café.

“It was important to expose the scholars to the different resources that Wayne State has to offer so they knew what would be available to them when they get to college,” said Ray.

Even the application process was akin to the college admissions process. A pool of 70 hopefuls had to supply essays and letters of recommendation before advancing to online and in-person interviews, the latter of which honed in on non-academic characteristics such as teamwork and problem-solving.

In addition to college-level STEM classes, SMASH incorporates courses in writing, entrepreneurship and African-American studies to constitute a well-balanced curriculum. There are also networking events, workshops and guest speakers.

“We make sure they have the necessary tools to tap into their potential,” said Ray.

Another critical aspect of the program is developing coping strategies and self-care to combat not only a lack of diversity but also a high turnover rate for traditionally underrepresented population groups.

“Although we encourage our students to go into engineering, tech or computer science, we also realize there are not a lot of women or people of color in these industries,” said Ray. “So we teach them strategies to deal with being one of the few, or the only, in those spaces and to feel like part of the community.”

Students were able to see real-world applications of their education with field trips that included the U.S. patent office, Quicken Loans headquarters in Campus Martius, and startups StockX and DPop. These visits, combined with other adventures more recreational in nature, provided an immersive experience in Detroit.

“They are welcome to all these spaces, and it shows them that you don’t have to leave the city or state to find a better opportunity,” said Ray. “Those opportunities exist here.”

Ray is a Detroit native and spent part of his career as an educator in the city and in Houston before moving into management consulting for school districts and non-profits in Baltimore. He said making learning engaging and relevant is what drives him and as SMASH was looking to expand, he was excited to take this role.

“I wanted to get back to my hometown and help kids from similar schools and backgrounds as me to make sure they have every opportunity to be successful,” he said.

Ray worked closely with Jasmine Roberson, director of community engagement for the WSU College of Engineering, to leverage her expertise on outreach programs and determine what spaces in engineering were well suited for SMASH. He envisions more engineering classes to be added to the curriculum in subsequent years of the program.

Now that their first of three summers in the academy is over, SMASH students will stay engaged with college readiness workshops and panel sessions on Saturdays during the school year. Meanwhile, incoming cohorts of students will bring nearly 120 participants to Wayne State over the next three years.

For more information about the program, visit smash.org. For partnership opportunities and questions, contact Site Director John Ray at john@smashprogram.org.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a global dilemma. According to a 2016 report of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, over 17 million deaths worldwide can be attributed to CVD. While Detroit has some of the highest rates of CVD in the U.S. and sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death across North America and Europe, the death rate in India is nearly four times higher than that of developed countries.

To tackle this issue, Wayne State University alumni Ashish Gawade and Aniruddha Atre co-founded Jeevtronics, a company that creates affordable medical devices for under-developed and rural areas. They have innovated a dual-powered defibrillator that works on electricity but can also be hand-cranked when electricity is not available, a common scenario in small villages and remote regions of India.

The device is designed to be portable as well as extremely durable. It can be used by anyone from first responders to everyday citizens. Most importantly, it has the potential to save countless lives.

A crash course in social entrepreneurship

Gawade and Atre are lifelong friends — they met in fifth grade and actually share the same birthday. They came from India to the United States together in 1999, working at Ford Motor Company by day and taking classes in the mechanical engineering graduate program at WSU in the evening.

“Wayne State was a natural choice,” said Atre, who noted that he and Gawade were particularly drawn to the pioneering research of Professors King-Hay Yang and Albert King in finite element analysis as it related to vehicle crash safety.

They each earned a master’s in 2001, but a desire to develop their business acumen led them to the M.B.A. program at the University of Michigan, where they met C.K. Prahalad, a renowned professor and author of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. The book used case studies to demonstrate how companies were concurrently profitable and bring positive social changes to impoverished communities.

“We were inspired, and wanted to develop a product that would be useful in the bottom of the pyramid,” said Gawade.

In 2006, about 400 million people in India did not have access to electricity. At the time, solar power was too expensive and wind energy had geographical limitations. So, they went another direction.

“We thought, ‘Why don’t we invent something that would better allow people to generate power on demand?’” said Gawade.

This idea materialized into a power-generating stationary bike. Gawade left Ford and returned to India to bring this idea to life, and Atre later joined him.

“It was a risk,” said Atre. “But we really wanted to take this journey.”

Navigating some bumps in the road as they developed industry connections and learned the ins and outs of social entrepreneurship, the product eventually reached 500 households. However, the company was unable to scale up as solar energy became more affordable and accessible.

“We figured if you can’t beat them, join them,” said Gawade, so he and Atre started making their own solar lamps and founded the appropriately-titled company Bottom of Pyramid Energy and Environmental Innovations. Using high-quality materials including circuits and lithium ion batteries, they gained a reputation as having the longest-lasting solar lamps in the world.

“Our Wayne State education and experience at Ford Motor Company came in particularly handy for durability testing,” said Gawade. “Toughness became part of our DNA.”

Exploring other social issues with ties to energy, Gawade and Atre later discovered the need for defibrillators in rural India, Africa, Asia and South America. With research funding from the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum and the Government of India, they collaborated to develop a prototype, and Jeevtronics was born.

A sense of purpose

The business value of Jeevtronics can be measured using a “triple bottom line,” which extends the focus on financial success to also include social and environmental responsibilities. The company’s defibrillator, which has been in development over the last four years, fits this framework to a tee.

In India, external defibrillators can be cost-prohibitive. Hospitals may only have one per floor, serving 50 to 100 patients (compared to one per three ICU beds in the United Kingdom). The Jeevtronics device can be produced for a quarter of the cost of leading defibrillators.

The odds of survival of a patient in cardiac arrest decline by 7 to 10 percent per minute of delay in defibrillation. This device can be charged and ready to use in five to nine seconds.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, nearly one-quarter of all automatic external defibrillators (AED) failures occur because of battery power problems, a problem that is rendered moot with a device capable of being human-powered. This quality also makes its ecological footprint practically nonexistent, as does the sustainability of the device itself. Defibrillator charge/discharge cycle standards require a device to last 2,500 shocks. Though rigorous testing, already a hallmark of Gawade and Atre’s business strategy, the Jeevtronics device has surpassed 16,000 shocks.

Jeevtronics is preparing to bring this defibrillator to the market in India, but Gawade and Atre are learning that a need exists for this technology in the U.S. and other countries. Its applications can range from EMT and ambulance units to athletics and recreation, and to rural and farming communities.

The company’s prosperity and global impact will be a direct reflection of the passion of its founders, who have dedicated themselves to making the quality of life for those in the “bottom of the pyramid” a little better.

“The sense of purpose we have to be able to do something to help people, is the most fulfilling part,” said Gawade.

Professors Ignacio Grossmann, Sossina M. Haile, Paula Hammond and Samir Mitragotri, as well as the National Science Foundation’s Robert McCabe, will visit Wayne State’s Midtown Detroit campus to stimulate idea-focused conversations about emerging growth areas such as alternative energy, biomaterials, nanotechnology, polymer engineering and sustainability.

“Partnerships with top global chemical companies such as BASF provide remarkable resources to Wayne State students, faculty and alumni, and this series is an outstanding example,” said Guangzhao Mao, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. “Chemical engineering has been a thrust area for the College of Engineering since its inception 85 years ago, and we are inspired by the opportunity to interact with these leaders of industry and academia, who undoubtedly will impart a wealth of knowledge and, at the same time, learn more about how Wayne State has made its mark on the world.”

Two sessions will be held in the fall, with three more to follow in the spring. All seminars are free of charge and will start at 2:30 p.m. on their respective dates in the Danto Engineering Development Center.

This partnership between Wayne State and BASF — the largest chemical producer in the world, with a footprint in more than 80 countries — is intended to create another pathway to connect students with professional leaders and to enhance interaction among industry experts.

“BASF is committed to developing solutions to global challenges such as resource efficiency, energy and climate protection, and responsible production,” said Michael Pcolinski, BASF’s vice president of advanced materials research. “We believe partnering with Wayne State is a great opportunity to demonstrate the power of connecting academia and industry to inspire innovation that will help us all move closer to a sustainable future.”

Haile and Hammond’s seminars are co-sponsored by the Wayne State chapter of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE). Hammond is a Detroit native and alumna of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield.

Robert McCabe, Ph.D. – Oct. 16, 2018

Robert W. McCabe is a program director at the National Science Foundation whose portfolio spans a broad range of catalysis research directed primarily at global issues facing the environment, energy efficiency and sustainability, and resource utilization. He holds a B.S. from the University of Houston and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, all in chemical engineering.  Prior to joining NSF in 2014, he spent his entire career in industry including 36 years in automotive catalysis research split between General Motors and Ford. He retired from Ford with more than 115 journal publications, 30 U.S. Patents and multiple awards. McCabe is the editor of Applied Catalysis B: Environmental and is currently an officer of the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division of AIChE.

Ignacio Grossmann, Ph.D. – Nov. 27, 2018

Grossmann is the R. R. Dean University Professor of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Imperial College. He was department head of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon from 1994 to 2002, and is currently director of the Center for Advanced Process Decision-making. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and was named “One of the Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era” by AIChE. The author of over 400 publications, Grossmann’s research focuses on developing novel mathematical programming models and techniques for a variety of problems in process systems engineering, such as process synthesis, energy integration or enterprise-wide optimization.

Sossina M. Haile, Ph.D. – Feb. 19, 2019

Haile is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley. Haile is an award-winning chemist, known for developing the first solid acid fuel cells, whose research focuses on ionic conduction in solids as well as the investigation of structure-property relations in thermoelectric materials. She is a recipient of the International Ceramics Prize and the AIC Chemical Pioneer Award, and was named one of 12 “People to Watch” in 2008 by Newsweek.

Paula Hammond, Ph.D. – March 26, 2019

Hammond is the David H. Koch Chair Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and head of the Department of Chemical Engineering. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT and her M.S. from Georgia Tech. Hammond is widely recognized for her research in hemostatic technology, macromolecular design and synthesis, targeted drug delivery for cancer, nano-scale assembly of synthetic biomaterials, and electrostatic and directed materials assembly. She is a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and is an associate editor of ACS Nano. Hammond is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine, and was named among the top 100 materials scientists by Thomson-Reuters in 2011.

Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D. – April 9, 2019

Mitragotri is the Hiller Professor of Bioengineering and Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. He received his B.S. from the Institute of Chemical Technology and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in chemical engineering. Mitragotri has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of biological barriers and drug delivery. His research has led to the development of new materials and technologies for diagnosis and treatment of various ailments including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, skin conditions and infections, among others. Mitragotri has published over 230 research publications, is an inventor on over 160 patents and applications, and has co-founded several companies. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine and National Academy of Inventors.

ASME cites Wu for “significant contributions to applications of acoustical theory to noise control and development of computational models to predict sound radiation from finite flexible structures.” Wu  has written over 60 refereed journal articles, holds 13 U.S. and international patents, and published the textbook The Helmholtz Equation Least Squares Method for Acoustic Radiation and Reconstruction.

A renowned educator and entrepreneur, Wu has been a faculty member at Wayne State since 1988, and over the past two decades has mentored more than 40 Ph.D. and master’s students. He was voted unanimously as the Charles DeVlieg Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 2002 to 2005, and has been re-appointed by the Wayne State Board of Governors to the rank of University Distinguished Professor every year since 2005. He is a fellow in the Acoustical Society of America and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Wu developed technology that led to the creation of the startup SenSound, which offers software, systems and services for noise source identification and noise-related quality control testing in a large number of products used in daily life, such as automobiles, consumer appliances and industrial machinery. By creating a 3D image of sound in space and time, the source of noise in these products can be pinpointed with a high degree of resolution and accuracy.

His latest business venture is Signal-Wise LLC, which provides software packages for engineers in the manufacturing industry to diagnose noise sources, analyze source characteristics, and evaluate the effectiveness of noise and vibration mitigation strategies through design modifications.

Wayne State University engineering and business student Kyle Brown was chosen as a Scholar-Finalist for the prestigious, Cornell-funded Data Incubator Program. The Data Incubator is an eight-week intensive program that helps top data science master’s and Ph.D. students advance their skills and transition from academia to industry. Brown competed against students from MIT and Harvard in a rigorous application process that included a project proposal, high-level applied statistics and data-mining exercises. Only one in four applicants were chosen as Scholar-Finalists.  

“I am extremely appreciative to be selected as a scholar-finalist,” Brown said.  “It is an elite honor to be chosen among top Ph.D. candidates.”    

Brown has a diverse educational background. He received his first undergraduate degree in finance to prepare for his goal of one day running a tech giant such as Apple or Microsoft.  However, throughout his childhood, Brown had a vested interest in chemistry, mathematics and technology. This passion led him to pursue a second undergraduate degree in electrical/electronic engineering technology and a master’s in data science and business analytics, which he will start this fall. The latter degree is a joint effort launched by the College of Engineering and the Mike Ilitch School of Business. The innovative degree allows students to develop the interdisciplinary skills necessary to thrive in the fast-growing field of data science and analytics.  

“Data science is impacting all industries,” Brown said. “Not only is it used by investment bankers to predict stocks, but it is also applicable in a multitude of other industries. One of the most interesting to me is its application in drug discovery. Big data is used to develop pharmaceuticals more efficiently. It takes something that is high-risk, low-reward and makes it economical by cutting down on the testing and analysis phase and streamlining the entire process.”  

In addition to completing these degrees simultaneously, Brown is the CEO and founder of WorldCapital Integrated Solutions, a financial analytics company where he provides financial services and product design and development to friends and colleagues. Brown is also an active member in student organizations. He serves as the co-captain and CFO of WSU’s Motorsports Formula Electric SAE and the president of the Engineering Technology Student Organization.   

Herrera’s research focused on synthesizing single atoms to improve dispersion and catalytic activity in precious metals such as palladium and platinum. If maximum efficiency is achieved from these atoms, fewer precious metals are needed, which bolsters economic and environmental viability. These metals have a wide variety of applications, including petroleum refining and chemical processing.  

Prior to the Young Scholars Program, Herrera already had extensive research experience. She worked in Professor Eranda Nikolla’s research lab for two years, where she focused on biomass conversion and improving cell activity.   

As an international student from Honduras, Herrera credits the welcoming culture and abundant opportunities at Wayne State for her success.  

“I like to say that Wayne State is my home away from home,” said Herrera. “My family still lives in Honduras, so the community I have here is very important to me. I love that the faculty is so approachable, especially Dr. Nikolla. When I first started working with her, I was very shy and lacked confidence. But she helped me build it up. I say that I go to Wayne State with such pride because of all the opportunities I have been given here.”  

Herrera serves as the vice president for the Society of Hispanic Engineers, is heavily involved with the Wayne State chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and participated in the College of Engineering’s industry mentor program. This fall, she will enter her final year of undergraduate studies. After graduating, Herrera plans to pursue a Ph.D.  

“After working with Dr. Nikolla, I know I want to continue in research,” she said. “Every day, there is something different and interesting to work on.”  

The Class of 2018 joins 144 other BMES Fellows who have been recognized for their outstanding work and leadership. They will be celebrated in October during the BMES Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

“I am honored to be recognized by my peers in biomedical engineering in this way.  I have been a member of BMES since I was an undergraduate student and I appreciate the opportunities that the organization provides for professional development for engineers at all levels—from student member to fellow,” said Grimm, who earlier this year was also elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows.

A faculty member at Wayne State since 1994 after earning her Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Grimm is an expert in the biomechanics of neonatal injury as well as tissue characterization using ultrasound.

Grimm’s contributions to Wayne State University include serving as associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering from 2003 through 2010, establishing an ABET accredited undergraduate program in biomedical engineering and working with the Office of the Provost to launch the Transfer Student Success Center in 2013. She has also been a faculty advisor for various student organizations, including the WSU Formula SAE team.

Grimm was named to the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission in 2015, and accepted a two-year appointment as program director for biomedical engineering in the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems division of the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. in 2016.

The viability of medical devices, like most products and services, can be analyzed using the Customer Services Life Cycle (CSLC) framework, which presents four stages — requirements, acquisition, ownership and retirement. However, most current design analytics systems in the medical device space do not consider the costs associated with the latter two stages, and processes of auditing these devices to ensure regulatory compliance as well as patient safety are often unstructured and laborious.

Kyoung-Yun Kim, professor of industrial and systems engineering at Wayne State University, is developing a platform called MEEDA — Medical Equipment Evaluation and Decision Analysis — that aims to centralize equipment maintenance processes and provide physicians or hospital administrators a clearer picture of device life cycles.

“Many hospitals struggle with legacy systems, and information is not often digitized or integrated properly,” said Kim, who is also a site director for the National Science Foundation Center for e-Design, a consortium of seven universities that work with businesses and government entities to research and develop digital design and manufacturing methods.

Kim works with e-Design researchers to create learning algorithms to improve cost forecasting by identifying the relationship between design and process characteristics. This technology can analyze a complex set of repair history data; detect outliers and abnormal cases; and produce an index to determine reliability of a device, potential for reprocessing, and risk of device use.

Using datasets from nonprofit hospitals such as the VA Medical Center in Detroit, Kim’s team conducted pilot studies to validate its research and present outcomes to organizations ranging from medical and hospice facilities to manufacturing and reprocessing companies. The MEEDA system provides a curated knowledge base, analytical tools, and pathways for improved collaboration between customers and product or service providers.

“This information will be useful for medical device tactical and strategic planning,” said Kim, who noted that while this research can have a significant economic impact, “safety is far more important than other factors.”

Claudia Miller, a biomedical engineering major entering her sophomore year this fall, received one of five available DREAM Fellowships from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). The program, which is usually only offered to students entering their junior or senior year, aims to provide mentorship and outreach to minorities in medical physics.  Miller was matched with Dr. Carri Glide-Hurst, an adjunct professor in the School of Medicine at Wayne State and the director of translational research in radiation oncology at Henry Ford Hospital.    

“I chose biomedical engineering because I want to help improve the quality of patient care and the quality of life for people suffering with cancer and other diseases,” Miller said. “Working with Dr. Glide-Hurst has been great. I’ve learned so much, and it has only made me want to go deeper into biomedical engineering and medical physics.”  

During the 10-week program, Miller conducted research focused on how CT scan image reconstruction affects radiotherapy treatment planning tasks. The model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) she used is an advanced algorithm that can help improve the image quality of CT scans and reduce patients’ exposure to radiation. Miller tested and compared nine different levels of the MBIR with filtered black projection, which is known as the “gold standard” of reconstruction algorithms.   

Miller presented this research at the 2018 AAPM annual meeting, where she received feedback on her work from industry professionals.  Currently, Miller and Glide-Hurst are working to publish a paper on the topic.    

“It has been great, as a sophomore in my undergrad, to talk to individuals with doctorates and master’s degrees in my field,” said Miller. “It is amazing to get their feedback and see how I can apply it to my future research.”  

Miller hopes to participate in the College of Engineering’s AGRADE program and pursue a Ph.D. AGRADE is an accelerated plan of coursework that allows students to receive credit towards their bachelor’s and master’s degrees simultaneously.   

Researchers in the Wayne State University College of Engineering are developing the world’s smallest high-temperature lithium-ion rechargeable battery, capable of powering miniaturized autonomous and electronic devices at wide operating temperature ranges varying from room temperature to 125ºC.

Many robotic and sophisticated miniature applications require nimble movements in confined spaces, coupled with daunting power requirements. Additionally, the currently available commercial batteries are unsafe beyond 85ºC — this limit dips further for rechargeable systems. A team from the lab of Leela Arava, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical engineering at Wayne State, is fine-tuning a design and assembly process to fabricate a rechargeable battery measuring as small as just two millimeters.

The findings, published in the Journal of Power Sources, offer a favorable outlook for various rugged applications including but not limited to medical devices, renewable energy, and the oil and gas industry.

“The achievable power and energy densities in microbatteries are significantly diminished due to size and mass domination from their internal hardware and packaging material,” said Arava, principal investigator of the project. “We have minimized several traditional packaging components through design optimization in order to enhance the overall cell level capacity.”

The technology is ideal for scenarios that require untethered, independent power sources that are not limited by conventional temperature restrictions and spatial limitations, such as extraterrestrial exploration, agile medical surgical procedures and directional drilling.

“Lithium-ion batteries are promising for high-temperature autonomous applications,” said Nirul Masurkar, a graduate student in Arava’s lab. “However, selection and design of electrode/electrolyte materials and packing them in miniatured battery format was challenging.”

The team used additive manufacturing (i.e. 3D printing) techniques to construct battery casings and a solar cell unit to charge the battery. Challenges included optimizing battery chemistry and encapsulating the batteries without leaving behind an oversized footprint. The team came up with innovative solutions at each step while ensuring that the gains made in previous steps weren’t lost or invalidated.

“In the present scenario, this miniaturized battery is better than any commercially-available batteries in terms of rechargeability, size, and power with a wide temperature working window,” said Babu Ganguli, Ph.D., a former postdoc in Arava’s group.

Untethered yet rechargeable compact power sources render crucial support to many autonomous systems without hindering their prime functionality. Arava says that they are preparing to take steps toward increased production of this technology for commercialization.

This research was supported by the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC) member companies, including BHP, ExxonMobil, U.S. Department of Energy, Repsol, Sandia National Labs and Total.

David Roland Finley, Ph.D., began his career as an environmental consultant. But it was in academia where he found his calling, not long after he earned his doctorate in chemical engineering from Wayne State University in 1996.

“I’ve always had a passion to lead,” said Finley, who after leaving his mark at Trine University and Lake Superior State University began his tenure as president of North Central Michigan College (NCMC) on July 1.

While Finley believes that “there’s no better job than teaching,” he admits that pulling people and resources together to bring ideas to life is what makes him tick. Just as Wayne State continues to expand and find new ways to impact its students and community, so have Finley’s prior institutions under his leadership. He’d like that trend to persist at NCMC.

“My heart is in higher education, providing opportunities and enabling folks to improve their lives,” said Finley.

Finding his way

Finley likes to joke that everyone has a sordid past, and that his was studying meteorology as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan. He always loved storms and weather phenomena, so he was interested in learning more about climatology and oceanic science.

“The challenge was that there weren’t a lot of open jobs at the finish line at that time,” said Finley.

He moved on to graduate work in atmospheric science, gaining a greater understanding of air pollution and its environmental effects and applying that knowledge to air pollution control equipment design. After earning his master’s, he joined Applied Science and Technology Inc., the pathway through which he met Ralph Kummler, then dean of the WSU College of Engineering.

Finley’s projects dealt with environmental assessments such as groundwater sampling and air emission inventories. His company was also involved in the Air and Waste Management Association, a group for which Kummler played a key role. Finley and Kummler crossed paths a few times and eventually worked together on a landfill odor modeling project. This interaction sparked a kinship as well as Finley’s interest to pursue a doctorate.

Finley hadn’t previously studied chemical engineering and failed his qualifying exam the first time around. His outlook would drastically improve after taking a transport phenomena class with adjunct faculty member Steven Boicourt.

“He was the one who explained the fundamentals of that discipline to me,” said Finley. “And a lightbulb went on.”

Finley was able to step back into more advanced-level classes. He took the qualifying exam again and scored among the highest of any student that year.

“The education that I received from Wayne State was superb,” said Finley.

Along the way, Finley received scholarship and grant money, which gave him flexibility to take time off work, not only to study but to write his dissertation. Kummler was his Ph.D. advisor and offered Finley a level of support that still resonates with him.

“I owe my career to Ralph,” said Finley.

The Garage-atory

A critical step in Finley’s Ph.D. pursuit was a project centered on the development of a mechanistic landfill gas generation model to predict how much methane would be generated as a landfill decomposes over time.

Lab space both on campus and at ASTI was limited at the time. In need of a 220-volt outlet to set up his workspace, an electrician friend helped him set one up in his garage. Finley would then be able to measure moisture content and char refuse to determine carbon levels in what he and his wife, Heidi, affectionately referred to as “The Garage-atory.”

Finley obtained the data he needed to construct a model, and came to campus to defend his dissertation when Heidi was nearing the end of her pregnancy with their first child.

“I took her with me so that everybody on the committee knew that time was of the essence,” joked Finley.

He made some corrections over a two-week period and then delivered them to Kummler, who told him that he had better hurry home. Finley’s daughter Anna was born seven hours later.

Enabling dreams

In the summer of 1996, after completing his doctorate work, Kummler requested that Finley teach an introduction to hazardous waste incineration class on WSU’s campus. Finley knew from there that he belonged in higher education and soon was an assistant professor at Trine University in Indiana, just 30 minutes from where Finley grew up in Quincy, Michigan, a small town just outside of Coldwater.

Over 15 years, Finley rose through the ranks to vice president of academic affairs. During his tenure, he led initiatives to increase the number of graduate programs, recruit more international students, and even start a marching band, all of which grew enrollment.

He arrived at Lake Superior State University — where both of his children currently attend school — in 2012, and four years later was named interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. Finley would oversee the reaccreditation of the engineering programs and assist in fundraising efforts for the renovation of South Hall, which now houses the business school.

As one who enjoys nature and being outdoors, Finley grew to love northern Michigan. So when the opportunity to take the reins at North Central Michigan College came to be, he gladly made the 90-mile trek across the Upper Peninsula and over the Mackinac Bridge to lead a small college in a small community — perfect for a self-described small-town boy.

“This is a wonderful community —so many good folks both on campus and in the Little Traverse Bay region,” said Finley, who will step right in to oversee the fundraising and construction of the main academic building on campus. He will also focus his attention on growing enrollment and providing talent to the many manufacturing, health care and business entities in the “Tip of the Mitt.”

According to Finley, being an engineer — particularly learning problem-solving and how to work as part of a team — has helped him develop into an effective leader. His engineering background will also come in handy as NCMC works with SludgeHammer, a wastewater treatment technology company, to install a pilot project for testing and evaluation by students.

“The skills that I developed by studying engineering really gave me tremendously solid critical thinking skills to apply in whatever manner possible,” he said.

Finley sees the promise at North Central Michigan College. He is passionate about creating new opportunities to educate students, connecting them with their community, and preparing them for a career or a chance to continue their studies at a university such as Wayne State.

“For me, it’s all about enabling dreams.”

A research team led by Mohammad Mehrmohammadi, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Wayne State University, and Loay Kabbani, M.D., a vascular surgery specialist with Henry Ford Health System, is developing a technique to enhance endovenous laser ablation (EVLA) by incorporating photoacoustic imaging technology.

EVLA is a procedure used to reduce symptoms of venous reflux disease, an underlying cause of varicose veins, blood clots and other health issues. Laser energy is delivered to the target area through a catheter, creating an intense, localized heat that closes off the problem vein.

Mehrmohammadi and Kabbani’s revised method combines the ablation procedure with photoacoustic imaging in order to track the catheter inside the body and monitor the temperature at the tip of the catheter. Doing so will optimize the accuracy of the procedure and allow for real-time temperature monitoring, which will reduce complications such as heat-induced thrombosis.

“We believe that the developed technology is very practical and easy to adopt since it can be easily integrated into current procedures with no need for a major change in existing EVLA equipment,” said Mehrmohammadi. “With very minimal change, we can significantly enhance the quality of the EVLA procedure.”

This technology, sponsored by the Henry Ford Innovation Center, received an Mi-Kickstart Award, which offers early-stage funding to biomedical researchers in the state of Michigan. The award is part of the MTRAC for Life Sciences Innovation Hub, a program aimed to enhance the commercial potential of research projects for Michigan-based institutions and nonprofits.

Interns gain real-world experience that enhances employability and, likewise, employers looking for competitive advantages leverage internships as recruiting tools and talent development programs. Exit surveys over the last two years indicate that nearly 40 percent of the graduating Wayne State engineering and computer science students who had already landed a job did so via a past internship or co-op. 

Every day, more Wayne State students are taking the technical and personal skills they develop in the classroom and creating positive career outcomes. 

Fostering discovery through entrepreneurship 

Mechanical engineering major John Pierick is helping the Wayne State University Innovation Hub achieve its goal of enhancing the entrepreneurial spirit of Detroit. The initiative, launched in 2017, aims to foster student innovation and provide connections to Detroit industries such as TechTown. 

Pierick has worked with the Innovation Hub since June as a studio assistant, where he is primarily responsible for "student discovery." This requires Pierick to interact with the Wayne State student body, asses their creative spirit and help them develop their entrepreneurial ideas.  

 "The Innovation Hub hopes to serve as a dot connecter for students," said Pierick. "We will help connect them to the experts that pertain to their entrepreneurial goals. This includes Waye State professors who they may not have access to otherwise or Detroit professionals, such as those in TechTown."  

Although Pierick is not directly using his mechanical engineering knowledge at the Innovation Hub, the problem-solving skills and creativity he has gained from his major have been invaluable assets during his time there. 

"The best way to describe how I use my engineering skillset is to say I use a systems engineering approach," he said.  "We are treating the hub itself as a startup right now. We have many ambitious goals, so we must navigate problems to support each student's entrepreneurial endeavors.  I also feel confident that my degree in mechanical engineering will be valuable if students have tech-related business ideas."  

Pierick has been involved in several ambitious projects and organizations during his time at Wayne State University, including The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Alternative Spring Break Detroit and the Lear Open Innovation Challenge.  After graduating in December, Pierick hopes to apply what he has learned at the Innovation Hub and continue to promote entrepreneurship in Detroit.  

Creating cleaner cars 

Chemical engineering major Annabelle Chidiac has had a variety of engineering internships and co-ops during her time at Wayne State University. Currently, she is completing a second environmental engineering internship with General Motors. This summer, her work focuses on wildlife preservation and the management of waste, air and water.  This means she contributes to environmental outreach programs and works closely with the company's environmental engineers to ensure all Enviromental Protection Agency regulations are followed.  

"This is especially important for General Motors because they have recently gained many wildlife habitat certifications from the Wildlife Habitat Council," said Chidiac.  "This means extra expectations are placed on General Motors to maintain and preserve these habitats. Additionally, the EPA began regulating even more ozone depleting substances, causing General Motors to modify its protocols for next year to meet these standards."  

Although Chidiac has not used her chemical engineering knowledge while at General Motors, she is grateful for the opportunity to broaden experience with environmental engineering.   

"I want to take advantage of any opportunity that comes to me. Even if an internship or co-op is not specifically focused on chemical engineering, I am still able to learn a lot and grow from the experience."  

Chidiac also completed a gas control engineering co-op at DTE Energy, where she maintained databases and completed data analyses to minimize company mistakes and locate inefficient practices. In the fall, she will begin a chemical process engineering internship with Marathon Petroleum.   

Reprogramming the utility industry 

As Anu Anne John approached representatives from Consumers Energy last fall at the Engineering Career Fair, she remembered many of the lessons learned by attending the resume workshops and elevator pitch seminars sponsored by the Engineering Career Resource Center. 

“Make sure you give a good introduction, a nice resume and are confident,” said John, a senior studying computer science. She made a strong enough impression to earn a summer position as an IT security intern in the company’s compliance department. 

“Most of the projects I work on are to automate many of their daily tasks that they would otherwise be doing manually,” said John, who has now gained practical experience with each of Michigan’s two largest utilities. She previously completed a co-op with DTE Energy. 

John has been pleased with the comprehensive nature of Consumers’ internship program, particularly job shadowing opportunities and plant tours. She also appreciates the flexibility that has allowed her to take classes this summer, keeping her on track to graduate in December. 

“They are very engaged with and focused on the growth of all of their interns, and provide a lot of learning opportunities and make sure we’re not just doing busy work,” said John. 

She has learned more about the process of how energy, both electric and gas, is generated. She is also encouraged by the company’s efforts to develop advanced technology in wind and solar energy as well as hydropower. 

“It’s great to see the transformation to more environmentally sustainable resources,” she said. 

The College of Engineering’s curriculum has given John — who has also been active in the Society of Women Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery and Formula SAE — a good foundation of several programming languages, which she says allows her to take on more complex tasks at Consumers and prepares her for a career as a software developer. 

Chemical engineering Ph.D. candidate Juliana Carneiro received the Best Poster Award at the 2018 Gordon Research Conference on catalysis, held in New Hampshire.  Attending this prestigious forum and presenting a poster is a coveted experience for chemical engineering graduate students. The conference invites only 150 students and faculty, and only one graduate student receives the biennial award.    

"Graduate students like myself have the unique opportunity to learn from and interact with the frontrunners of catalysis science, who are only accessible otherwise through literature and scientific papers," Carneiro said.    

Carneiro's research focuses on optimizing oxygen electrocatalysis to create more efficient batteries, fuel cells and electrolyzers. Her work was analyzed alongside students from top universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  

Carneiro is a member of Professor Eranda Nikolla's research group, which also focuses on catalysis and electrocatalysis for energy conversion and storage systems, such as batteries.  

"Juliana's success shows me that it doesn't matter what university you come from. If you do solid science, the scientific community will recognize your hard work," said Nikolla. "The conference is a close-knit community, where only the top scientists are in attendance. For Juliana to end up among them is very rewarding."   

Nikolla has asserted herself as a leader in the catalysis field through her work at Wayne State University. She spoke on the "design of complex metal/metal-oxide heterogeneous catalysts for energy and chemical conversion" at the conference and also won the Best Poster Award when she was a graduate student at the University of Michigan.    

"I had a great sense of belonging at the conference, and I think this is because of Eranda's past and current work," Carneiro said.  "She is really making a name for Wayne State in the catalysis field."   

Carneiro received her undergraduate degree in environmental engineering from the Universidad Tiradentes in Brazil.  

"I have always wanted to study environmental engineering, but I learned very quickly that it focuses heavily on management instead of actually designing environmentally friendly technology," she said. "I realized that if I pair my knowledge in environmental and chemical engineering, I can help design catalysts and develop processes that make a difference."   

Carneiro has received many other awards for her research including the Ralph H. Kummler Award for Distinguished Achievement in Graduate Student Research, the Summer Dissertation Award for Advanced Ph.D. Students and the Olbrot Travel Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Research. The latter covered Carneiro's travel expenses to New Hampshire.   

Nanopaint is being tested for its application on vehicles where it will improve scratch resistance, self-healing and self-cleaning capabilities.  However, there is concern that these nanoparticles will have a residual effect on the environment and human health.   

"If we actually want to address sustainability, we must consider what potential problems — be them environmental or health — may arise. Let's not just solve the problem during the manufacturing process but design the nanopaint at the molecular level to address these issues before they even happen," Huang said. 

This is the methodology that drives the students in his research group. Aida Amini-Rankouhi, a chemical engineering Ph.D. student, has been selected to receive the 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Sustainable Engineering Forum's Best Student Paper award.  

Amini-Rankouhi's research focuses on recovering mechanical energy in chemical and petrochemical industries through work exchanger networks. Instead of concentrating on a single system in a petrochemical plant, she aims to analyze the deficiencies of every process and modify them for maximum efficiency. 

"We are losing a significant amount of energy through the pumps, pressurized systems and compressors used in chemical and petrochemical industries," she said. "The goal is to recover as much energy as possible and be as efficient as possible."  

Amini-Rankouhi said that working with Huang has changed her outlook on sustainability. 

"Sustainability is something every chemical engineer should care about. Dr. Huang's lab helped me see that I can make a difference in real industries. As a chemical engineer, I can give back to the earth," she said. 

Amini-Rankouhi has accepted a research and development position on Honeywell UOP's process modeling team. The company is a pioneer in petrochemical technology development.  

Amini-Rankouhi is not the only member of Huang's research team to receive prestigious recognition this year. Seyedparham Pourmirjafari-Firouzabadi, who is currently completing his master's in chemical engineering, is being awarded the 2018 student scholarship from the National Association for Surface Finishing and the American Electroplaters and Surface Finishers Foundation.   

His research focuses on the sustainability of metal plating on plastic parts. This process, called electroplating, is useful because it allows lightweight plastic to be used in cars, aircrafts and electronics. For electroplating to occur, however, the plastic's surface must first go through a treatment process. 

"This pre-treatment consumes a lot of energy and uses a lot of toxic chemicals, such as chromium, which is very dangerous for the human body and the environment,"  Pourmirjafari-Firouzabadi said.  

One way to remedy this is to ensure that electroplating plants have a low rejection rate. If parts must be re-plated several times due to rejection, more energy is consumed and more toxic chemicals are released. 

As he enters his career,  Pourmirjafari-Firouzabadi hopes to educate industry professionals on more sustainable ways to manufacture.   

"Many people in these industries lack knowledge about the scientific side of these processes," he said.  "I have a chance to inform them about how we can make electroplating more sustainable while also increasing profitability." 

Rhet de Guzman, who graduated from Wayne State University with a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering, was awarded a patent from the U.S. Department of Energy for his work on a composite anode for lithium ion batteries. Many current lithium ion batteries utilize anodes composed of graphite. However, by replacing graphite with composite anodes composed of silicon nanoparticles and graphene, de Guzman has increased the battery's capacity significantly.  

"If this design is formulated properly we will see a minimum improvement of twice the energy capacity in comparison to standard lithium ion batteries," de Guzman said. "We are still in the early steps of this process, and have a long was to go to fully optimize this invention. The biggest challenge will be making sure the invention is economically viable and can be applied to current technology."  

Lithium ion batteries are crucial to the development of electric vehicles, electronics and wearable technology. As this technology continues to advance, the demand for higher-capacity batteries increases. They can aid in environmental preservation because of the role battery capacity plays in electric vehicle development. Additionally, as the lifespan of batteries increases so does the lifespan of electronic devices, leading to less waste.  

De Guzman became interested in lithium ion battery development for this very reason. At a young age, de Guzman's father, who works as an environment and natural recourses officer, instilled in him the importance of sustainability and taking care of the earth. 

"I know that, with further optimization and development, this will be a valuable technology for individuals, and it will contribute to creating a greener earth," de Guzman said. 

After receiving his bachelor's in material science from the University of the Philippines, de Guzman began working on his Ph.D. at Wayne State in 2007. As a graduate research assistant, he developed silicon nitride-based composite anodes for lithium ion batteries, which also aimed to improve energy capacity. Currently, de Guzman works for Black Diamond Structures in Austin, Texas as a battery testing group leader. 

Simon Ng, the associate dean for research and graduate studies at the College of Engineering, and Steven O. Salley, a professor of chemical engineering, were co-inventors on the project. De Guzman served as the primary researcher. 

The patent number for this invention is 9,911,974. 

The Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD) bestowed numerous awards at its annual dinner, held June 20 at Ford Field.  Among the Wayne State alumni recognized was Jim Anderson, BSCE ’67, MSCE ’70, who received the Horace H. Rackham Humanitarian Award, ESD’s highest honor.

Anderson, founder and CEO of Urban Science, was acknowledged for his contributions to both industry and community through product development, entrepreneurial support, fundraising and donations. His impact on aspiring business leaders as well as Detroit’s economic rebirth is evident through many initiatives, ranging from the Urban Entrepreneur Showcase at Crain’s Detroit Homecoming to the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute, for which he contributed $25 million to Wayne State in 2014.

Raymond Tessier, MSCE ’75, an independent environmental and energy consultant and retired global director of environmental services for General Motors, received the Distinguished Service Award for exemplary contributions to the ESD.

Outstanding Leadership Awards, which recognize ESD members and volunteers for their commitment and support of the organization’s programs, committees and events, were presented to Mark Murray, BSIE ’86, MBA ’92, and Nassif Rayess, BSME ’93, Ph.D. ’01. Murray is a sales director at Durr Systems Inc., and Rayess is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Linda Gerhardt, B.S. ’84, Ph.D. ’96, the global lead for paint quality at General Motors, was welcomed into the ESD College of Fellows. Industrial and systems engineering student Riana Manabat, one of three individuals to receive the Outstanding College Student of the Year Award, received a $1,000 scholarship and a complimentary one-year ESD membership.

The Wayne State University College of Engineering would like to thank Frenae Smith, BSChE ’05, MSChE ’10, for sponsoring a table of WSU students at the ESD awards dinner.

Lisa Schalm, who recently graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in chemical engineering, was awarded the 2017-18 Distinguished Undergraduate Student Award by the American Chemical Society (ACS). Schalm was nominated by the WSU Department of Chemical Engineering in recognition of her undergraduate achievements. Since graduating, she has toured multiple engineering facilities and is considering a career in either polymer, pharmaceutical or petrochemical engineering.  

Schalm gained industry experience in her final year at WSU as a thermochemical engineering intern at Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, a company that develops and tests lightweight manufacturing technology.   

“I was tasked with the job of setting up their capabilities as a metal-testing facility. I worked with their servo presses, ran tests of various metal samples and communicated with customers to work together and perform these tests,” Schalm said. 

Schalm credits her undergraduate success and abundant job opportunities to her networking abilities.  

“The whole community at Wayne State University has been super supportive, both the students and the professors,” she said.  "I love taking the time to meet with my professors individually after class. I didn’t hesitate to develop relationships with them. They know me not just as a student, but as a person.” 

Schalm found a mentor in Dr. Helen Durand, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering who teaches product and process design.   

 “Lisa was a very diligent and prepared student and demonstrated a great depth of understanding of chemical process design,” said Durand.  “She has a very bright future.”  

Schalm realized she had a passion for process engineering and wanted to pursue it professionally after taking Durand's class.  

"Durand ran the class so well, introduced so many interesting topics and was always so enthusiastic about teaching,” she said. “I want to be a process engineer because of her.” 

Entry-level positions in process engineering are scarce, so Schalm plans to work in adjacent fields and attain a process engineering position later in her career, she said. 

Schalm was also nominated for the prestigious Wayne State University College of Engineering Robert G. Wingerter Award and worked as a peer mentor for the college’s EOS program.   

Riana Manabat, an industrial engineering student at Wayne State University, is one of three individuals receiving the Outstanding College Student of the Year Award from the Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD). Manabat will receive a $1,000 scholarship and a complimentary one-year student membership to ESD.  She will be honored at the annual ESD Award Dinner on June 20.   

Since January, Manabat has held a co-op position in Harman International’s program management division. She works within the company’s lifestyle audio department, which designs audio systems for cars. After she graduates in May 2019, she hopes to work in program management for a tech giant such as Amazon.  

Manabat has held leadership positions in a diverse set of student organizations.  Throughout her first three years at WSU, she served as the president, vice president and treasurer for the Engineering Student Senate (ESS). During her time with ESS, she worked on a plethora of student outreach and engagement events, including the annual Engineering Honors Convocation.   

During her sophomore year, she served as the vice president of external affairs for the Filipino Student Society. Though this position, she networked with Filipino societies at other universities and served as a WSU representative at their events.   

The Wayne State University chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery-Women received a $7,000 grant from Ford Community Corps to teach young girls about computer science and programming through LEGO WeDo 2.0 kits. Over 15 girls from Fisher Magnet Lower Academy in Detroit participated in the program. Each team was tasked with designing and programming a LEGO model to solve a water usage problem.   

This WSU and Ford Community Corps collaboration is a subset of the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan First program. GSSEM First aims to engage young girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields by allowing them to develop innovative solutions to real-world problems.   

Each team was led by a WSU student volunteer from the College of Engineering. The volunteers worked with their teams for over two months to prepare for the program's expo, which was held on June 1 at the Ford Resource and Engagement Center in Detroit. Each team presented a poster and explained how they used their programmable LEGO kits to tackle water conservation issues.   

“There is a lack of women in computer science right now. Computer science needs diversity, and not just gender diversity, but all types,” said ACM-W president and WSU computer science graduate student Diana Diaz Herrera. “By exposing young girls to women who are studying computer science, we hope they will start identifying themselves with it. Hopefully they’ll grow up and think ‘I can do that.’” 

Over 30 Wayne State University students attended the third annual UT-WSU Chemical Engineering Graduate Research Symposium on May 25. This collaborative effort between Wayne State and the University of Toledo allows chemical engineering graduate students to present their ongoing research to peers, professors and industry professionals. Awards were given to the top three oral presentations and posters. 

The symposium included keynote speeches from Javed Mapkar, the technology manager for the polymer and nanocomposites group at Eaton Corporate Research and Technology Centre, and Tony Frank, the global technology manager for the Lubrizol’s Fuel group in Wickliffe, Ohio.  

Over 20 Wayne State students competed at the symposium. Wayne State student Bingwen Wang won first place for his oral presentation. Sachith Vidanapathirana and Amin V. Shahvari won first and third place, respectively, for their posters.  

LaNita Stewart, a secretary in the computer science department, was named Building Coordinator of the Year at a recent ceremony. The award recognizes employees who volunteer to manage and maintain campus buildings. She received a plaque and $750 in recognition of her efforts.

Stewart was nominated by Loren Schwiebert, chair of the computer science department, along with several other faculty members and graduate students.  Stewart resolves all issues in a timely manner, Schwiebert said. She goes above and beyond to keep the building maintained and all faculty members updated. 

Wayne State University’s Formula SAE team, Warrior Racing, completed the Formula SAE Michigan Competition, which was held at the Michigan International Speedway May 9-12. The team finished ninth in the non-aerodynamic vehicle category and placed fourth in the cost analysis portion of the competition. 

The team has worked on their current one-seat, formula-style racecar for two years. It is the 11th car built by the team since 2003. For the MIS competition, the design process started in July 2017 and the vehicle was ready for testing by April 2018. 

Road Warrior 11 was named Rose as an homage to WSU police officer Collin Rose, who was killed in the line of duty in November 2016. 

“Our 11th built car had big dreams and big shoes to fill,” said Filippo Caro, the team’s current president. 

Rose received numerous upgrades after the 2016-2017 season. One major design objective was to improve the vehicle’s handling and further develop its powertrain. This included moving from 13-inch to 10-inch tires, allowing the car to make turns faster and with more accuracy. 

The team will compete in the formula SAE Lincoln competition this June. For the upcoming season, the team hopes to improve speed and efficiency by trimming at least 50 pounds off the vehicle. 

“We are looking to make as much power as possible while using as little fuel as possible. Most of all, the aim is to go fast.” 

As the team’s president, Caro is not only heavily involved in the design process, but also curates sponsorships, ensures deadlines are met, and maintains outreach throughout the WSU and Formula SAE communities. 

“Warrior Racing has [grown] my education and WSU experience far beyond the classroom,” he said. “It has helped me integrate all engineering disciplines and allowed me to communicate with all types of engineering students.” 

Leela Arava, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Wayne State University, received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, the organization’s most prestigious accolade for up-and-coming researchers. The five-year, $519,241 grant will support Arava’s exploration in next-generation battery technology that can revolutionize energy storage systems.

Arava’s project, “Designing Interfaces for Electrochemical Energy Storage: A Mechanistic Perspective,” focuses on the comprehension of fundamental electrochemical principles of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, which promise lower cost and higher capacity in next-generation energy storage systems, electric vehicles, micro-sensors, and wearable technology. The batteries are hindered, however, by poor cycle-life issues and adverse chemical reactions.

“The crux of the electrochemical reactions in a battery system transpire at the electrode-electrolyte interface,” said Arava, who also noted that Li-S battery capacity is most negatively affected by what is known as the polysulfide shuttle effect, in which polysulfides spontaneously form and pass through the battery cathode, tainting the electrolyte and thereby inhibiting performance. Arava’s lab is developing a novel in-situ battery material characterization tool – atomic microscopy-based scanning electrochemical microscope coupled with Raman spectroscopy. This innovative combination of fundamental yet distinct approaches will provide a nanoscale-level view of the battery’s reaction kinetics.

“While ultimately we all aim for enhanced efficiency and durability of batteries, in our pursuit of the best battery material we often encounter many problems or challenges,” said Arava. “To gain an understanding of these challenges at the atomic level gives us a perspective that has not been gained to date.”

NSF CAREER awards emphasize the integration of research and education to build a firm foundation of leadership. Arava takes a proactive role in fostering STEM education to K-12 schools in Detroit and surrounding areas through outreach efforts such as his Mobile Energy Lab. This project provides another avenue for students to gain more hands-on experience with potential opportunities to obtain summer internships in Arava’s lab.

Arava joined the Wayne State faculty in 2013 and, among several scientific achievements, co-holds eight patents and has authored a book chapter and several influential articles in journals such as Nature Scientific Reports and Journal of American Chemical Society. He has co-authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications and his research has been citied more than 7,730 times. Arava holds a Ph.D. in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India.

The grant number for this National Science Foundation award is 1751472.

Tannia Rodriguez Valenzuela is using her biomedical engineering degree to become a doctor who fights for global health equity.  She doesn’t believe it is sufficient to receive a typical medical degree and wants to ensure her career as a doctor is backed with additional skills.  

“If I’m a doctor and an engineer, I can make new devices and technology to directly help people,” she said. 

Before graduating in May 2017, Rodriguez Valenzuela worked on multiple prototypes, including a redesigned glucose monitor for the visually impaired and an app that turns spirometer exercises into an entertaining game. Currently, she works in a tissue engineering lab, where her research focuses on creating blood vessels from stem cells.  

Rodriguez Valenzuela's fight against health care inequity began in 2013, when she and her brother founded the Wayne State University chapter of Timmy Global Health, an organization that provides reoccurring health care to international communities. Each year, the Wayne State chapter visits the Dominican Republic. These visits made Rodriguez Valenzuela determined to use her engineering skills to make global change.  

 “My goal as a future doctor is not to just make money and see patients. I want to volunteer my time," she said. "It’s not enough to do things locally — that’s just the first step. If you move abroad, you can make a bigger impact.”  

In recognition of these achievements, Rodriguez Valenzuela was granted the Student Spirit of Community Award in 2018. This award honors individuals who facilitate meaningful relationships within the Wayne State and Detroit communities. 

Rodriguez Valenzuela is currently completing her master’s in global health at the University of California San Francisco. This degree will tie together her skills in biomedical engineering and her dedication to making global change, she said. She hopes to return to Wayne State for medical school.   

“I love Detroit, and there’s so much work to be done here," she said. "This is the one place where I feel like I can accomplish a lot.” 

A new paper published today in Nature Electronics by researchers at Wayne State University, the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, and Michigan Technological University, explains how new devices with capabilities far beyond those of conventional sensors can be built by borrowing concepts from quantum mechanics.

The team, led by Pai-Yen Chen, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University, and Andrea Alù, director of the ASRC’s Photonics Initiative and Einstein Professor of Physics at The Graduate Center, developed a new technique for designing microsensors that allows for significantly enhanced sensitivity and a very small footprint. Their method involves using isospectral parity-time-reciprocal scaling, or PTX symmetry, to design the electronic circuits. A ‘reader’ is paired with a passive microsensor that meets this PTX symmetry. The pair achieves highly sensitive radio-frequency readings.

“In the push to miniaturize the sensors to improve their resolution and enable large-scale networks of sensing devices, improving the sensitivity of microsensors is crucial,” Alù said. “Our approach addresses this need by introducing a generalized symmetry condition that enables high-quality readings in a miniaturized footprint.”

The work builds on recent advances in the area of quantum mechanics and optics, which have shown that systems symmetric under space and time inversion, or parity-time (PT) symmetric, may offer advantages for sensor design. The paper generalizes this property to a wider class of devices that satisfy a more general form of symmetry — PTX-symmetry. This type of symmetry, is particularly well-suited to maintain high sensitivity, while drastically reducing the footprint.

The researchers were able to show this phenomenon in a telemetric sensor system based on a radio-frequency electronic circuit, which exhibited drastically improved resolution and sensitivity compared to conventional sensors. The microelectromechanical (MEMS)-based wireless pressure sensors share the sensitivity advantages of previous PT-symmetric devices, but crucially the generalized symmetry condition allows both for device miniaturization and enables an efficient realization at low frequencies within a compact electronic circuit.

This new approach may allow researchers to overcome the current challenges in deploying ubiquitous networks of long-lasting, unobtrusive microsensors to monitor large areas. In the age of the internet of things and big data, such networks are useful for wireless health, smart cities, and cyber-physical systems that dynamically gather and store large amounts of information for eventual analysis.

 “Development of wireless microsensors with high sensitivity is one of the major challenging issues for practical uses in bioimplants, wearable electronics, internet-of-things, and cyber-physical systems,” Chen said. “While there has been continuous progress in miniature micro-machined sensors, the basics of telemetric readout technique remains essentially unchanged since its invention. This new telemetry approach will make possible the long-sought goal of successfully detecting tiny physical or chemical actuation from contactless microsensors.”

Mark Cheng, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University, and Ramy El-Ganainy, associate professor of physics at Michigan Technological University, also contributed to the paper. Chen and Cheng have received research funding from National Science Foundation and Richard Barber Foundation.

Source: Advanced Science Research Center at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York

Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Wayne State University recently concluded a study to understand the mechanisms of primary blast injury to the brain. Their work, funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC), was awarded Best Poster Presentation at the BrainStorm symposium in April.

A collection of co-authors that included John Cavanaugh, professor and interim chair of biomedical engineering, and Srinivasu Kallakuri, a research assistant professor at Wayne State, measured pressures in different brain regions and developed computational finite element models of the brain during a blast. The study provided direct histological evidence that primary blast can cause injury to the nerve cells and inflammation in the brain.

“The study advances our understanding of brain injury due to explosions as well providing computer models to assist in designing helmets and other equipment to protect the brain during a blast,” said Kallakuri, who presented these findings at BrainStorm, an event hosted by Brain@Wayne that gathered neuroscience experts from across campus to share research.

Other collaborators on the project included Liying Zhang, Ke Feng, Xin Jin, Runzhou Zhou, Anil Kalra, Feng Zhu, Chaoyang Chen, King Yang, and Albert King.

Haipeng Liu, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Wayne State University, received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation to fund his research on vaccine adjuvants that can improve the treatment and care of cancer patients.

The five-year, $539,422 grant will support his project, “Engineering Molecular Adjuvants for Cancer Vaccines.” Liu’s work aims to address the effectiveness and safety concerns of adjuvants – substances that are added to vaccines to improve the body's immune response and decrease the amount of vaccine needed – in order to advance more clinical studies.

“This project focuses on integrating molecular engineering and immunology to gain fundamental insight into important aspects of how to rationally design molecular adjuvants for therapeutic cancer vaccines that are safe and can overcome tumor related immune suppression,” said Liu.

Liu’s strategy is to construct a series of chemically-modified physical models to predict how a molecule’s structure will affect its functionality, and to study the adjuvant-immune system interactions at the tissue, cellular, and subcellular levels.

“The knowledge gained through these efforts will bridge the gap between synthetic chemistry and immunology, and give rise to the design of the next generation of molecular adjuvants for cancer vaccines,” said Liu.

NSF CAREER awards, the most prestigious honor bestowed by the organization to rising researchers, emphasize the integration of research and education. Liu plans to leverage his research to enhance the college’s graduate certificate program in polymer engineering, with the goal of attracting underrepresented students to the field.

Liu joined the Wayne State faculty in 2013. Liu’s research focuses on the integration of synthetic chemistry and materials engineering for improving vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Purdue University, has co-authored three patents and more than 30 scientific manuscripts, and has had his research cited more than 1,600 times.

The grant number for this National Science Foundation award is 1750607.

The Wayne State University College of Engineering hosted its fourth annual Student Design and Innovation Day, which showcased 79 unique student projects covering a wide range of applications and engineering disciplines.

Sponsored by the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute, Student Design and Innovation Day demonstrates students’ solutions to engineering challenges as well as commercial and social needs. The event offers up to $1,000 in cash prizes to the best projects, and reflects the mission of the Anderson Institute to foster entrepreneurism through investment in marketable technologies.

Taking first place honors was a four-member team of mechanical engineering students — Hana Bagomaan, Russell Charles, Anthony Bertucci, and John Toth — that designed a kit intended to convert a manual wheelchair into a power wheelchair at a significantly lower cost than existing technology but with equivalent functionality. It marks the second year in a row that a mechanical engineering team under the guidance of Professor Golam Newaz has come away with the top prize.

“We decided that engineering a retrofit electrification system for a manual wheelchair would be a good challenge that could have a substantial positive impact due to the lack of reasonably priced, high quality, easy to install systems on the market,” said Toth.

“Offering a low-cost affordable motorized wheelchair option opens a pathway for improved mobility to those who cannot afford the current market options,” added Charles. “We don't believe someone should be restricted to limited mobility due to financial limitations.”

Other top projects included an economic and environmentally-friendly method of extracting rare earth elements, an optimized coronary artery bypass technique using Adipose-derived stem cells, and a real-time weather data platform for use in remote locations.

The Anderson Institute introduced two new prizes this year. The best app award, given to the top functional mobile software application, went to Car Pool, which helps users coordinate ride sharing. An award for the best three-minute video presentation went to a group that developed a predictive model to replicate underwater artifact locations using artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Another new feature at Design Day was a pitch competition, for which 22 projects were selected as finalists. Students were invited to give an oral presentation for a panel of judges that included successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, senior managers from various companies, and Wayne State business and engineering faculty. Presenters were graded on technical quality, commercialization potential, and overall presentation quality.

“The judges were impressed by both the breadth and the depths of the topics presented,” said Sorin Draghici, director of the Anderson Institute and associate dean for innovation and entrepreneurship. “The winning teams are eligible for coaching from senior Anderson Institute mentors, as well as funding for the purposes of perfecting their technology and starting a company.”

Toth and Charles both acknowledged that working with the Anderson Institute bolstered the viability of their project. “Design Day served as a platform to expose our work to instructors, students, and professionals,” said Charles. “We received great feedback from people at the event to improve further iterations of the design.”

Summary of top projects:

First place: eDrive Wheelchair Conversion Kit

A kit that can convert a manual wheelchair into a power wheelchair at a significantly lower cost than existing technology but with equivalent functionality.

Students: Hana Bagomaan, Russell Charles, Anthony Bertucci, John Toth

Advisor: Golam Newaz

Second place: Development of Sorption Technology for Extracting Rare Earth Elements from Coal Fly Ash

An economic and environmentally-friendly method of extracting REEs from coal and its by-products for high-tech applications critical to the U.S. economy.

Student: Bilal Syed

Advisor: Timothy Dittrich

Third place (tie): Developing Vascular Graft from Adipose-derived Stem Cells

A method to optimize coronary artery bypass grafting by differentiating Adipose-derived stem cells into fibroblasts through the addition of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) into the culture media.

Student: Ashley Apil

Advisor: Mai Lam

Portable Weather Stations

A platform to provide the military and others real-time weather data in remote locations.

Students: Brandon Jackson, Brian Atiyeh, Trevor Malarkey, Jeswanth Kodali

Advisors: Khayyam Hashmi, Sam Bryfczynski

Best app: Car Pool

A mobile app that matches users with similar commutes to coordinate ride sharing, compensate drivers and process payments.

Students: Muamer Besic, Evan Clifford, Omer Khan, Matthew Prigorac

Advisors: Khayyam Hashmi, Sam Bryfczynski

Best video: Underwater Artifact Location Using Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (VIEW VIDEO)

A predictive model that replicates ancient Lake Huron landscapes and inhabitants to map experiences of hunters to assist archaeologists in their field work.

Students: Thomas Palazzolo, Samuel Dustin Stanley, Paul Janiczek, Angela Allen, Olubukola Akintoroye, Bailey Walker

Advisor: Robert Reynolds

Army missions can be drastically impacted due to engine failures caused by erosion in fuel injectors. Fuel injectors are used in both air and ground vehicles that have reciprocating (piston) and gas turbine engines. Cavitation damage can alter the material and shape of the nozzles, which leads to erosion that can cause injector failure and a major decrease in vehicle power.

With the help of a grant totaling $101,453 from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Omid Samimi-Abianeh, Ph.D., assistant professor of mechanical engineering in Wayne State University’s College of Engineering, will work with the ARL to alleviate these issues and optimize engine performance in Army ground vehicles and aircraft.

Samimi’s project, “Turbulent spray combustion measurements and model development,” aims to develop a numerical model simulating the cavitating flow inside high-pressure injector nozzles, which are used in most transportation vehicles, including all Army air and ground vehicles. Performance of these vehicles is often hindered by engine failures due to material erosion.

According to Samimi, the research plan can alleviate several problems facing other investigative efforts.

“It is very challenging to visualize the flow inside the fuel nozzle to better understand the physics of cavitation and optimize the nozzle geometry,” said Samimi. “Numerical modelling can shed light on internal nozzle flow and help resolve the problem by providing very detailed analysis of flow inside the nozzle.”

The project will be a collaborative effort between ARL and Wayne State researchers and graduate students in WSU’s Combustion Physics Laboratory and the DoD Supercomputing Resource Center.

The grant number for this Department of Defense project is W911NF-18-0042.

Joshua A. Piehl, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate at Wayne State University, received a Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholarship from the U.S. Department of Defense, providing him with significant support as he continues to research the chemistry of fuel combustion.

The SMART program endorses undergraduate and graduate students pursuing technical degrees in STEM disciplines and aims to increase the number of civilian scientists and engineers working at DoD laboratories. Among the benefits Piehl will receive are full tuition, health benefits, paid summer internships, an annual cash stipend and post-graduation career opportunities.

“This scholarship is a wonderful blessing. Graduate school is difficult enough without having to worry about finances,” said Piehl. “With this scholarship, I am able to focus on my studies and research to provide higher quality work.”

SMART scholarships are highly competitive. In 2017, the DoD distributed awards to only 14 percent of the reviewed applicants nationwide.

“Josh demonstrates a strong commitment to research and has superior intellectual ability to move the combustion field forward,” said Omid Samimi-Abianeh, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and Piehl’s faculty advisor.

Piehl’s dissertation objective is to identify and quantify the intermediate species formed during combustion. His research and industry experience includes a full-time position at Chrysler and internships at Detroit Diesel and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

“Working with the Army has been an exciting and rewarding experience. It is wonderful to meet and work with other researchers who are passionate about keeping our nation safe,” said Piehl. “The projects are unique and state of the art, and will lead to innovations that benefit both the military and civilian sectors. It is a great experience to be able to give back to my country.”

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has elected Michele Grimm, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Wayne State University, to its College of Fellows, a distinguished group of outstanding bioengineers in academia, industry, clinical practice and government who have made significant contributions in research, industrial practice or education.

According to AIMBE, the organization’s fellows represent the top two percent of the medical and biological engineering community. Since AIMBE’s inception in 1991, over 1,500 individuals have been inducted into the College of Fellows.

“It is an honor to be nominated and elected by other leaders in the field of biomedical engineering to join them as a fellow of AIMBE,” said Grimm. “I appreciate the mentorship and camaraderie that many of the fellows have provided to me over the past 30 years, and I hope that I am able to pass that along to others in BME moving forward.”

A faculty member at Wayne State since 1994 after earning her Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Grimm is an expert in the biomechanics of neonatal injury as well as tissue characterization using ultrasound.

Grimm’s contributions to Wayne State University include serving as associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering from 2003 through 2010, establishing an ABET accredited undergraduate program in biomedical engineering and working with the Office of the Provost to launch the Transfer Student Success Center in 2013. She has also been a faculty advisor for various student organizations, including the WSU Formula SAE team.

Grimm was named to the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission in 2015, and accepted a two-year appointment as program director for biomedical engineering in the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems division of the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. in 2016.

The AIMBE College of Fellows induction ceremony was held April 9, during the organization’s annual conference at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

Deming Xiao, M.S. '89, and Krish Panu, B.S. '81, M.B.A. '84, compose the Hall of Fame class of 2018 and will bring membership to 144 honorees since the Hall of Fame’s inception in 1983.

New this year, the College of Engineering will also recognize distinguished engineers or computer scientists from each of its eight departments. The event will coincide for the first time with the college’s annual Student Design and Innovation Day, presented by the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute.

Xiao joined Monolithic Power Systems (MPS) in 2001 and has served in various executive positions including senior vice president of operations and president of Asia operations. Xiao is in charge of worldwide manufacturing and supply chains, corporate technology developments, product and testing engineering, quality, reliability, and corporate IT. Since Xiao joined MPS, the company has scaled from a startup to reach a valuation of nearly $5 billion as one of the fastest-growing companies in analog semiconductors. Xiao’s prior experience includes numerous engineering and management positions with Supertex Inc., National Semiconductor and Fairchild Imaging. Xiao holds a bachelor’s in semiconductor physics from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, and a master’s in electrical engineering from Wayne State University.

Panu has more than two decades of business strategy, engineering and operational experience having built successful technology businesses that have created multibillion dollar markets. He founded @Road in 1998 and grew it into a worldwide leader in mobile resource management solutions before merging the company with Trimble Navigation for nearly half a billion dollars. Today, Panu is the co-founder and managing director of PointGuard Ventures, a private equity and venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. He holds a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and master’s of business administration from Wayne State.

The distinguished engineers and computer scientists include:

• Biomedical Engineering
  Annette Irwin, M.S. ’93, Ph.D. ’94
  Technical Fellow, General Motors Global Safety Center
• Chemical Engineering and Material Science
  Keith Donaldson, B.S. ’85
  President, Engineered Materials Inc.
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Palencia Mobley, M.S. ’04
  Deputy Director and Chief Engineer, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department
• Computer Science
  Frank Riviera, B.S. ’86
  Vice President of Product Development, Nexsys Technologies
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
  Anurag Kumar, M.S. ’87
  Founder and CEO, iTexico
  Vandana Kumar, M.S. ’89
  Program Director, PowerAI Developer Ecosystem, IBM
• Engineering Technology
  Frank Kunick, B.S. ’99, M.S. ’09
  Senior Manager, Test Laboratory Operations Dept., Nissan Technical Center North America
• Industrial and Systems Engineering
  Mark Dolsen, M.S. ’90, Ph.D. ’17
  President, TRQSS, Inc.
• Mechanical Engineering
  Kelley Clark, M.S. ‘95
  Global Vehicle Integration Manager, Ford Motor Company

The honorees will have the opportunity to attend Design Day from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Student Center Building and peruse a showcase of Wayne State students’ capstone projects and startup companies, all of which present solutions to engineering challenges and commercial or social needs in the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Dean Farshad Fotouhi and the Engineering Alumni Association will then welcome the honorees and their families — as well as colleagues, alumni and industry leaders — to the awards dinner, which begins at 6 p.m. The cost to attend the event is $50 per person, with proceeds benefiting scholarships and student programs.

To make a reservation, visit go.wayne.edu/halloffame2018.

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The Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame was founded in 1983 to recognize and honor distinguished alumni who, through their leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation, have made significant industrial, educational and societal contributions to the engineering and computer science professions. The Hall of Fame celebrates the rich history of the College of Engineering and provides exceptional standards by which Wayne State University engineering students can measure success.

Recently, collagen use has gained momentum in biomaterials and regenerative medicine applications. Its strength, elasticity, wide availability and biocompatibility make collagen advantageous for such purposes. A research team led by Mai Lam, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Wayne State University, and Ph.D. student Bijal Patel is using a collagen-based hydrogel to reinforce tissue-engineered blood vessels seeded with human fibroblast cells.

“Tissue engineering blood vessels is an important endeavor for clinical care due to the limited availability of autologous replacement vessels,” said Lam.

The tunicae of blood vessels are three layers: an inner (intima), middle (media), and outer (adventitia) layer. Lam’s team specifically looked at the tunica adventitia because of its crucial role as structural support to prevent rupture under high pressure.

“In surgery, during endarterectomies, surgeons can strip the vessel of all the intima and most of the media, leaving the adventitia as the main strength layer to hold suture and close the vessel,” according to the team’s research paper, which was published in Scientific Reports in February 2018. “It is well known that the collagen content in the vessel wall is the main strength of the blood vessels.”

Other vascular grafts using fibroblast cells have required a significant maturation period to reach full strength. Lam’s team modified its novel “ring stacking method” — assembling rings of vascular tissue around a center post to create a tubular structure — to formulate fibroblast stacks, and supplemented the rings with collagen gel while using other factors such as ascorbic acid to stimulate additional collagen production.

While the group found an optimal combination for tensile strength and fiber maturity — in less time than most prior research — with the stability and functionality afforded by the ring stacking, subsequent studies will focus on methods to achieve a level of strength closer to that of native adventitia as well as an improved immune response.

“For the millions of patients undergoing bypass surgery annually, limited availability of patient vessels for self-donation is the greatest issue,” said Lam. “With further development, engineered vessels such as these could fill this need and be used as viable grafts.”

Shi and his contemporaries will each be awarded a research gift of up to $50,000 from Facebook. Only eight researchers’ projects were chosen out of more than 170 hopefuls from around the world who applied.

The project, “DIME: A Dynamic Resource-Driven Optimal Scheduling Infrastructure for ML on the Heterogeneous Edge Platforms,” brings machine learning applications into the edge computing domain as a way of bypassing some of the issues facing cloud-based applications, such as latency, bandwidth, privacy and security.

“The sheer volume of data generated at the edge of the network fueled by the wide adoption of Internet of Things requires the immediate processing of the data at the edge,” said Shi, who also directs the university’s new graduate certificate program in cyber-physical systems. “Therefore, many cloud service providers are eager to deploy their applications and services close to the sources of the data, making the edge more intelligent.”

However, unlike the cloud data center, edge nodes usually have less computing power. Hardware makers are working to provide more computing capacity for traditional processors (e.g. CPU) and more advanced systems (e.g. GPU, FPGA, DSP) without sacrificing the power budget.

While edge computing’s role has typically been to store and send data to cloud systems, there exists a need for systems to employ machine learning — computing and analyzing data — to realize the vision of edge intelligence. Shi’s research uses multiple heterogeneous processing units with varying degree of processing power to make machine learning possible on the edge.

“In this proposal, specifically, we undertake the Deep Neural Networks (DNN), a typical ML algorithm widely used for video analytics, such as object recognition and tracking, and build DIME, targeted at facilitating DNN functions on the edge node via model compression, dynamic task partition and optimal resource-task matched scheduling algorithms,” said Shi.

Edge computing allows data produced by devices to be processed in real time, a need of organizations in many industries. Shi notes that an edge machine learning algorithm is valuable to Facebook and other digital companies such as Amazon or Microsoft, but also sees its potential impact in other domains, including autonomous vehicles, smart manufacturing and smart health.

Biomedical engineering doctoral candidate Elisabeth Steel was the winner of the Three Minute Thesis competition for her presentation, “Conductive Biopolymer Nanofibers for Neural Regeneration,” a study that demonstrated the potential of combining electrical stimulation with material-based repair strategies for peripheral nerve injuries. Steel will be Wayne State’s representative in April at the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Suhail Salem Alshahrani, a biomedical engineering Ph.D. student who was one of several first-place winners in the poster competition, presented his research on a novel photoacoustic tomography system that can be used as an advanced imaging and diagnostic tool for breast cancer.

Mechanical engineering master’s student Kunal Dave, who received the Three Minute Thesis “People’s Choice” award, was among several top finishing College of Engineering representatives.

The symposium, hosted by the WSU Graduate School, is intended to elevate students’ research experience and productivity; build new knowledge to improve science, health and society; and open new doors to students through networking opportunities. Read more about the symposium and see the full list of awardees.

Winners representing the College of Engineering include:

Poster presentation

1st place
Suhail Salem Alshahrani
Biomedical engineering, Ph.D. student
Title: “An Advanced Photoacoustic Tomography System Based on a Ring Geometry Design.”
Advisor: Mohammad Mehrmohammadi

2nd place
Rayyan Manwar
Biomedical engineering, postdoctoral scholar
Title: “Feasibility of Transfontanelle Photoacoustic Imaging: Towards Neonatal Functional Brain Imaging.”
Advisor: Mohammad Nasiriavanaki

Yan Yan
Biomedical engineering, Ph.D. student
Title: “Endocavity Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Imaging System to Evaluate Fetal Brain Perfusion and Oxygenation: Preliminary ex vivo Studies.”
Advisor: Mohammad Mehrmohammadi

3rd place
Hajar Emami Gohari
Computer science, Ph.D. student
Title: “Generating Synthetic CTS from Magnetic Resonance Images Using Generative Adversarial Networks.”
Advisor: Ming Dong

Javad Roostaei
Civil and environmental engineering, Ph.D. student
Title: “Smart Wastewater Treatment: the Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge Computing Applications in Environmental Engineering.”
Advisor: Weisong Shi

Three Minute Thesis

1st place
Elisabeth Steel
Biomedical engineering, Ph.D. student
Title: “Conductive Biopolymer Nanofibers for Neural Regeneration”
Advisor: Harini Sundararaghavan

People's Choice
Kunal Dave
Mechanical engineering, master’s student
Title: “Development and Validation of a Detailed Finite Element Model of Human Eye for Predicting Ocular Trauma during Blast and Blunt Impact.”
Advisor: Liying Zhang

This full-day symposium is a collaboration between Wayne State University's Office of the Vice President for Research, the College of Engineering, and Computing and Information Technology. The program begins at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 21, in the Student Center Ballroom on the university’s Midtown Detroit campus.

“By most estimates, the amount of data in the world is doubling every two years and provides major opportunities,” said Patrick Gossman, Ph.D., Wayne State’s deputy chief information officer. “On the other hand, turning mountains of data into usable information is a major challenge, as is ensuring responsible use, security and protection of privacy.”

As a reflection of the vast number of domains data intersects, the symposium will cover topics including health care, business analytics, public safety, water quality, personal privacy and legality, and our overall understanding of the universe. This event, as well as the future symposia in the series, is intended for the general community; Wayne State students, faculty, staff and alumni are all welcome, as are guests from other institutions, government, businesses and the general public.

Keynote speakers include Professor Joseph Turow, Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, and Nick Curcuru, vice president of global big data practice at Mastercard. Turow will discuss the rise of the internet over the last 20 years, the data it has created based on our everyday activities and what happens to that data — good and bad. Curcuru will share his best practices for implementing and managing large-scale advanced analytics projects for some of the world’s largest companies. These practices include incorporating privacy by design to build confidence and trust without having to abandon personal values for the sake of innovation and convenience.

Expert panelists will discuss their research in such areas as how data analysis can distinguish aggressiveness levels of cancer, the use of crime data and statistics to improve public safety, increased protection of Michigan’s water resources through real-time monitoring systems, and how the Higgs boson “God particle” helps us understand the laws of physics. A second panel will cover legal rights regarding personal data, how to protect personal data and what to do when data privacy is violated.

The event is free and lunch is included. For reservations or more information, visit go.wayne.edu/dataexplosion.

The conference agenda is anchored by case studies from top practitioners and industry leaders. It will include keynote addresses from big data and analytics experts as well as tutorials, networking receptions, panel discussions and a startup expo.

“While data is exploding all around us, the ability of businesses to leverage data from across the enterprise through advanced analytics for actionable insights is going to be the key to survival of firms within most of our legacy industries,” said Ratna Babu Chinnam, professor and co-director for the Big Data and Business Analytics Group at Wayne State University. “This symposium show us the path for digital transformation.”

The symposium has grown substantially since its inception in 2014. Last year, over 500 registrants and 175 companies gathered to share best practices and new ideas to traverse the rapidly expanding big data space. Wayne State University devotes significant resources to develop innovative solutions to big data challenges — as evidenced not only by the success of the symposium, but also by the establishment of the new master of science program in data science and business analytics, a collaboration between the College of Engineering and the Mike Ilitch School of Business.

This year’s conference will be preceded by a special event on March 21. Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson will present “Data Explosion” as part of a six-part symposia series featuring topics that reflect the institution's rich legacy of excellence in academics and research. The symposia are held in honor of Wayne State's Sesquicentennial Celebration.

Early bird registration for the Big Data and Business Analytics Symposium ends March 5. Learn more about the event at bigdata.wayne.edu/symposium.

Biopsies have long been the primary diagnostic procedure used to determine whether a patient has breast cancer. The good news, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, is that 80 percent of women who undergo a biopsy do not have breast cancer. The bad news is that biopsies can result in physical and emotional distress, as well as pose a financial burden on the patient or health care provider.

On its own, ultrasound has a high sensitivity to invasive cancer and is effective for scanning dense tissue but lacks in specificity and predictive value. Adding photoacoustic tomography — in which non-ionizing laser pulses are delivered to biological tissues and converted into ultrasonic emissions that can be analyzed as images — to the process may lead to a point-of-care screening and diagnosis process that is fast, accurate and non-invasive, reducing the number of biopsies performed by physicians.

“Combining ultrasound and photoacoustic provides a whole new range of diagnostic information such as blood vasculature density and tissue hypoxia, which are known biomarkers for more accurate diagnosis and classification of breast lesions,” said Mehrmohammadi. “In addition, developing photoacoustic tomography of a breast opens a lot of opportunities for future development of molecular targeted contrast agents for differential diagnosis of breast cancer sub-types.”

The technology will be implemented and tested at the Karmanos Cancer Institute, with researchers from the Molecular Imaging and Diagnostics Program.

Chen is the recipient of a five-year, $500,000 grant for his project, “Integrated Research and Education on Self-Activated, Transparent Harmonics-Based Wireless Sensing Systems Using Graphene Bioelectronics.”

The microsensors in wearable health-monitoring devices are inexpensive, low maintenance and battery-free, but their performance is often hindered by electromagnetic interferences. Chen’s research examines the use of a graphene-based bioelectronics circuit in a harmonic sensor to reduce noise and create a more energy-efficient wireless system.

Among the health care applications for this technology is a sensor for contact lenses that can monitor ocular health and improve eye care. The features of Chen’s system — transparency, lightweight, flexibility and biocompatibility – lend themselves well to such medical uses.

“If successful, the compact and transparent graphene harmonic biosensor can be integrated on the soft contact lens to sensitively detect targeted pathogen bacteria, infectious agents, diseases or metabolic changes of interest and wirelessly transmit data without any power source or sophisticated circuit,” said Chen. “With further development, the proposed wireless biosensors can have broad impacts in health care monitoring.”

NSF CAREER awards emphasize the integration of research and education, so Chen plans to incorporate his work into new courses and outreach activities at Wayne State University, targeting under-represented groups and K-12 students through programs such as ReBUILDetroit, Richard Barber Interdisciplinary Research Program and WSU’s STEM Days.

Chen joined the Wayne State University College of Engineering faculty in 2014. He leads a research group dedicated to developing next-generation wireless microsensors and integrated systems based on innovative electromagnetics, materials and circuit technologies. Chen has authored more than 70 journal papers and 70 conference papers, held nine U.S. patents, and co-edited a book and six book chapters. He has a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Last year Chen received the SPIE Rising Researcher award, the IEEE Sensors Council Young Professional (Early Career) Award, the IEEE Senior Member, the URSI Young Scientist Award, and the NSF ECCS award (#1711409).

The NSF award number for this grant is 1752123.

ACCESS aims to increase the retention and six-year graduation rates of targeted students while also providing insight to factors that affect how commuters engage with the campus community. By funding 84 scholarships over the next five years, ACCESS will support students who show high potential for success in STEM disciplines and wish to pursue a bachelor’s in engineering at Wayne State yet face unique challenges as commuter students with low-income socioeconomic status.

In addition to financial support, the program includes summer engineering boot camps; mentoring from peers, faculty and working engineers; and experiential learning through internships and co-ops.

“This project really has the heart of Wayne State in it, and it builds on the best of what our faculty and staff across campus are doing to promote the success of our students,” said Jeffrey Potoff, principal investigator on the ACCESS project and associate dean for academic and student affairs in the Wayne State University College of Engineering.

ACCESS is one of several initiatives the College of Engineering has established over the last few years to bolster student success. In 2015, the college received $1.2 million from the DTE Foundation to revamp EOS, a program that provides educational and mentoring support to first- and second-year engineering students. Ford Motor Company established an endowed scholarship to support economically challenged engineering students, and Wayne State faculty have implemented evidence-based teaching innovations for basic engineering, engineering technology and computer science through a number of NSF-funded S-STEP awards.

“Our students are extremely hardworking and dedicated to the pursuit of their engineering degrees,” said Potoff. “We are equally dedicated in our efforts to provide our students with the highest quality experience both inside and outside the classroom.”

Co-principal investigators on ACCESS include Michelle Jacobs, assistant professor of sociology; Marcis Jansons, associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of early engineering programs; and Mohsen Ayoobi, assistant professor of engineering technology. The grant number for this National Science Foundation award is 1742486.

Liao, who teaches engineering technology as well as electric-drive vehicle engineering, contributed “Automotive Engineering” and “Roadmap of Vehicle Electrification and Hybridization” to the transportation section of the text.

Liao’s research interests include mechanical design, multibody dynamics and hybrid vehicle powertrain. He worked for 15 years in the automotive industry before joining the Wayne State faculty in 2001. Liao also serves on the Expert Educator Team (EET) for the Aligning Technology and Talent Development initiative of the Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT) manufacturing institute, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS).

Marks’ Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers includes contributions from more than 160 experts from around the world. It is among the best-selling texts from publisher McGraw-Hill, which prints a new edition every decade. The book focuses on core subjects related to mechanical engineering, including applied mechanics, nondestructive testing, engineering materials, power generation and engineering ethics.

Lionel S. Marks, a professor at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, first published the handbook in 1916.

Conventional operating systems may not be sufficient to manage the large number of “things” embedded in future smart homes. A research team including two Ph.D. students working in the lab of Weisong Shi, professor of computer science, is developing a project called Sofie, an acronym for smart operating system for the Internet of Everything.

Lanyu Xu, a graduate research assistant in computer science, believes that Sofie is better suited for the dynamic architecture of the IoE system. Unlike personal computers, smartphones, and cloud-based systems — which often operate in a fixed environment and use data passively — Sofie is both data-oriented and things-oriented.

“Sofie is sitting between devices and services — as both a service provider of the upper layer and a hardware manager for underlying devices — to provide high-quality data through well-performed things,” said Xu.

Sofie is capable of managing the configuration and maintenance of smart devices, including registration and requests to replace ill-performing devices. It can receive a “heartbeat” at regular intervals to ensure that devices are properly connected, and can initiate processes to remedy operational issues.

It also ensures data quality, storage and access. Sofie can use historical records to detect abnormal data and ensure system security. It records device information and event history, and stores file paths — information which is particularly useful for systems that include cameras.

The research team built Sofie on top of the architecture of Home Assistant and demonstrated how Sofie would function in a smart home environment. The system employs a multi-layer design that includes a communications adapter responsible for sending commands to devices and collecting raw data; an event hub, which captures system events and sends instructions to lower levels based on machine learning through communication with the Self-Learning Engine; and a name management layer that helps keep the system devices organized.

“The design of Sofie is quite flexible to accommodate multiple functionality,” said Xu, who also noted that the system will also have audio-based functions similar to products like Amazon Echo.

As IoE becomes more pervasive and edge computing presents greater challenges, concepts such as Sofie could represent a significant transformation from traditional operating systems.

This article originally ran in the Fall 2017 edition of Exemplar.

Organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), ICMLA is an annual conference that brings together researchers and practitioners to present their latest achievements and innovations in the area of machine learning, with emphasis on original research and applications as well as novel algorithms and systems.

Computer science graduate student Lu Wang co-authored a paper titled, "Modeling Over-dispersion for Network Data Clustering," which was selected as a Best Paper Award Top 3 Finalist by the ICMLA program committee. Wang collaborated with Wayne State University computer science faculty members Dongxiao Zhu and Ming Dong as well as Yan Li from the University of Michigan.

Milad Zafar Nezhad, a graduate student in industrial and systems engineering, co-wrote a short paper titled, "A Supervised Bi-Clustering Approach for Precision Medicine" that was chosen as a Best Poster Award Top 3 Finalist. Along with Zhu, Nezhad developed this project with industrial and systems engineering graduate student Najibesadat Sadati; Kai Yang, professor of industrial and systems engineering; and Dr. Phillip Levy, professor of emergency medicine and assistant vice president of translational science and clinical research innovation at Wayne State.

Both papers were selected from a pool of nearly 300 submissions.

The SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing (DCS) Rising Researcher award recognizes early career professionals who are conducting outstanding work in product development or research in sensing, imaging, optics, or related fields. The DCS program focuses primarily on technologies for security, law enforcement, avionics and aerospace, autonomous systems, defense, and military applications.

Chen joined the Wayne State University College of Engineering faculty in 2014. He leads a research group dedicated to developing next-generation systems based on high-frequency electronics, applied electromagnetics, photonic and lightwave technologies. Chen has authored more than 70 published papers, held nine U.S. patents, and co-edited a book and six book chapters. He has a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Chen and his fellow Rising Researchers will be formally recognized in April at the SPIE DCS Conference in Orlando, Florida.

The SPIE Rising Researcher accolade is one of several Chen has earned this year. He also received the IEEE Sensors Council Young Professional Award and the URSI Young Scientist Award.

SPIE was founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. Serving more than 264,000 constituents from approximately 166 countries, the not-for-profit society advances emerging technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, patent precedent, and career and professional growth.

Kuchta was a biology major considering medical school, but it just didn’t feel right and he was concerned about his limited job prospects. His friend was an engineering major, and when he told Kuchta about his numerous lucrative job offers, Kuchta was inspired to change directions.

Ralph Kummler, then the dean of the College of Engineering, met with Kuchta to discuss his options. Kummler suggested that Kuchta consider graduate school for engineering, but Kuchta wanted to get in while still on an undergraduate scholarship, and vowed to finish in less than two years.

“He thought I was crazy,” said Kuchta, who made good on his vow and earned his bachelor’s in chemical engineering in 1980.

As someone who previously spent most of his time in rote sciences, Kuchta recalls his system of learning being shocked when he came into engineering. He quickly learned that engineers are the world’s problem solvers, and it affirmed his belief that this was the right profession for him.

He also found that he enjoyed the classes, particularly those taught by Professor Harold Donnelly, who emphasized the fundamentals of being on time, doing homework and asking thoughtful questions.

“He was like a grandfather to us,” said Kuchta. “The guy was unbelievable.”

Kuchta joined Theta Tau and met Greg Mullins, who was the president and preparing to graduate and take a job at Marathon. Mullins not only suggested to Kuchta that he take over as president, but also encouraged him to consider the refining business. Kuchta took a co-op at Marathon, and his career was off and running.

He joined Exxon after graduation, where he worked for 12 years in various roles, including several overseas assignments. His proactive, hands-on approach and desire to break from the operational status quo set him apart.

“I loved being out in the plant, and I learned the whole operation from the bottom up,” said Kuchta. “As an engineer, you want to improve what’s in front of you and get more out of it.”

His refinery in New Jersey was eventually sold to the Tosco Corporation, and in 1993 he was offered a new job. By “picking up the crumbs” and helping Tosco acquire assets overlooked by the bigger conglomerates, Kuchta helped grow Tosco into the largest independent refining company in the country.

Kuchta went on to Premcor Inc., ascending to president and chief operating officer before retiring in 2005, when the company was acquired by Valero. However, it wouldn’t be long before he accepted a new challenge. He and a friend founded Northern Tier Energy and acquired a refinery in 2010 from Marathon in St. Paul Park, Minnesota, as well as the SuperAmerica gas station and convenience store chain.

“Two guys with a desk and a telephone turned this into a $3.5 billion company,” said Kuchta. “Our investors said it was one of the best investments they ever made. Their return on capital was monstrous.”

Among the talent that joined Kuchta on this venture was Mullins, who had parlayed his modest beginnings at Marathon into a 30-year career. Kuchta was more than happy to rekindle a connection with a Wayne State alumnus.

“I have a lot of pride in the university,” said Kuchta, who was inducted into the College of Engineering Hall of Fame in 2006. “There’s something different about the education here. I think the people here are grounded differently.”

Kuchta and his wife established the Hank and Joy Kuchta Endowed Support Fund for Chemical Engineering to benefit student activities such as Chem-E-Car and AIChE. They also founded an endowed scholarship fund to recruit students, recognize scholastic achievement, encourage continued progress and provide assistance to students in financing their graduate education in chemical engineering and materials science.

“This engineering college is a jewel,” said Kuchta. “I love to tell people I went to Wayne State.”

This article originally ran in the Fall 2017 edition of Exemplar.

This article originally ran in the Fall 2017 edition of Exemplar.

Emergency medical service (EMS) systems are critical public services that provide a level of out-of-hospital care that can often mean the difference between life and death for a patient. Over time, the role of EMS has evolved from basic life support and patient stabilization to a more robust level of care including drug administration and complex medical procedures.

However, despite this evolution of pre-hospital care, the development of resources that could enhance care quality, patient satisfaction and outcomes has not kept pace.

“Currently, the EMS system is undergoing transformation into a system more integrated with health care as a whole,” said Xiaopei Wu, a postdoctoral fellow working with Professor Weisong Shi. “Unfortunately, the technologies and techniques widely used by most EMS agencies might delay such transformation, as they still depend on the traditional and less-efficient EMS solutions used in the 1990s.”

This need for advancement inspired Wu and a research team in the Wayne State Department of Computer Science to develop STREMS, a smart, real-time, pre-hospital EMS communication system.

The team identified limitations in the EMS structure, including an antiquated radio system and a shortage of advanced life support ambulance units. STREMS leverages integrated wearable sensing as well as video technology to enhance the level of care as well as communication with emergency rooms.

According to Wu, STREMS is designed to support multidimensional data monitoring for an ambulance operating at a basic life support level. A cloud-based data sharing platform enables automated streaming of all gathered information, including vital signs, EKG, and information about an accident scene, to provide a more complete picture about an incoming patient.

“This can significantly decrease the handoff time and improve the efficiency at the hospital,” said Wu.

STREMS also supports video-based EMS telemedicine that can build live video conversations between EMS providers and ER physicians for consultation on early medical examinations and treatment options.

Partnering with the Detroit Fire Department — which has 25 ambulances, including nine equipped for advanced life support — the team implemented STREMS as an Android mobile app and conducted feasibility testing. The system delivered 100 percent of emergency data to the hospital in real time but presented challenges in video transmission in the downtown areas and at speeds of more than 40 miles per hour.

With encouraging results, Wu and her team have an optimistic view toward the development of real-time solutions for more efficient and connected medical care.

Pictured above: Weisong Shi, professor of computer science; Brandon Weidner, paramedic; Dr. Robert Dunne, EMS director at St. John Hospital and Medical Center; Xiaopei Wu, postdoctoral fellow

Luyet developed a computational research method to test the environmental impact of surfactants, specifically alcohols and carboxylic acids. Everyday products like soap, laundry detergent, kitchenware and car paint contain surfactants added to reduce the surface tension in liquids which in turn increases their wetting and spreading properties. Despite how commonly surfactants are used, long term exposure of these substances can have toxic effects on both humans and wildlife. Through Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, Luyet could mimic the behavior the surfactants in the environment without causing harm to humans and animals.

After working on the project for two years, Luyet submitted her research to the AIChE 2017 Undergraduate Student Poster Competition. Her project, “The Effect of Fluorination on the Interfacial Properties of Alcohols and Carboxylic Acids,” placed third in the "Material Engineering and Sciences V" category.

Founded in 1908, AIChE is the world’s leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with more than 50,000 members in industry, academia and government. According to Luyet, the conference, “was a great way for me, as an undergraduate student, to network with professionals in my field.”

Valley was the recipient of the AIChE ScaleUp scholarship. To apply for the scholarship, contestants chose one of five prompts provided by a conference sponsor and wrote a 500-word essay. The prompt Valley chose was provided by Chevron and regarded improving process safety in the chemical engineering field. Valley chose this prompt because he values safety above all else.

“Even the most impressive and profitable products and processes are worthless in my opinion if they can’t be manufactured or carried out in a safe manner,” said Valley, who used the $500 scholarship to cover the travel and lodging expenses of attending the conference.

Both Luyet and Valley are applying for graduate school. Luyet plans to pursue her Ph.D. in chemical engineering and has professional aspirations in the food and drug research domain. Valley is interested in research and development in either the pharmaceuticals or oil and gas industries.

Elected by the organization’s board of directors, SDPS Fellows are members that are responsible for significant engineering achievements in design and process improvement. A nomination for promotion to Fellow must be initiated by a Fellow of any other society or a member of SDPS and supported by at least five additional sponsors.

Kim’s research focuses on design science and informatics as well as product life-cycle modeling. His work has generated over $10 million in external funding from several U.S. federal agencies and industry leaders. In 2016, Kim led a team that received $1.7 million from the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) for a joint project with Ford Motor Company to develop a reliable Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) weldability prediction tool.

Kim is the site director of the NSF Center for e-Design and director of the Computational Intelligence and Design Informatics (CInDI) laboratory at Wayne State. He has published over 40 top journal papers and over 50 conference papers in proceedings and numerous technical reports and presentations.

Ghalami’s poster, “A Parallel Approximation Algorithm for Scheduling Parallel Identical Machines,” proposed a parallel approximation algorithm for the problem of scheduling jobs on parallel identical machines to minimize makespan. This is the first practical parallel approximation algorithm for the problem that maintains the approximation guarantees of the sequential PTAS and it is designed for execution on shared-memory parallel machines.

The Student Research Competition was part of the 2017 ACM Tapia Conference which gathers undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, researchers, and professionals to celebrate diversity in computing.

STARS Computing Corps is a national community of regional partnerships with a mission to grow the technology workforce. The STARS Celebration is an event for college students and faculty who are interested in broadening participation in computing.

As the world gets “smarter” and more connected, Wayne State is demonstrating a commitment to innovation in connectivity and influence in transforming how people interact with and manipulate the physical world. This certificate program is the first of its kind in Michigan, focusing on mechanisms known as CPS, which are designed as a seamless network of physical components (also known as the Internet of Things) and computational algorithms instead of as standalone devices.

Research from College of Engineering faculty and input from industry partners will provide a framework for the program that is expected to provide project-based training using CPS principles and techniques to solve real-world challenges. The program will weave core scientific and engineering concepts with diversification options to give students a foundation in CPS for a wide range of domains such as transportation, water and energy, industrial automation, advanced manufacturing, health care and public safety.

“Given the transdisciplinary nature of CPS and the broad impact of CPS applications, it is essential for having a CPS education program to provide comprehensive education of the involved scientific and engineering fundamentals and to offer choices of the scope, depth and types of learning activities,” said Weisong Shi, professor of computer science and director of the CPS program.

After taking a required introductory course, students will take two intermediate-level courses and one advanced course, choosing from six different program tracks: sensing, computing and networking, control and robotics, smart transportation, smart grid, and smart health.

Students must hold an M.S. or Ph.D. in engineering or a related field, or be admitted into a graduate program in the College of Engineering to pursue a CPS graduate certificate. The college expects graduate students from all engineering departments to enroll.

The 25,000-square-feet high bay area of the college’s Manufacturing Engineering Building at 4815 Fourth Street will be converted into the Digital/SMART Manufacturing Demonstration Center (D/SDC), an innovation and validation hub focused on developing the next generation of digital manufacturing professionals and leaders in automation and robotics. Students and researchers will have access to real-time manufacturing and design data through Cisco Systems platforms and other processes.

“As Michigan emerges as a leader in the high-tech global marketplace, faculty and students in the Wayne State University College of Engineering are working tirelessly to deliver advanced manufacturing solutions that ensure convenience, safety and efficiency,” said Dean Farshad Fotouhi. “This partnership with Cisco aligns perfectly with our innovative and proactive approach to challenges facing traditional manufacturers.”

The D/SDC will house a variety of advanced manufacturing equipment and software, connected with Cisco’s secured systems infrastructure. These resources will enable research and education in domains such as collaborative robots, additive manufacturing, computed tomography (CT) scanning, automated laser scanning, and resistance spot welding. The lab will also allow researchers to explore areas to digital manufacturing and the Internet of Things, including data management, storage, infrastructure and security.

Officials and government leaders, including Governor Rick Snyder, announced the launch of the SDA program at the 2017 North American International Cyber Summit on Oct. 30.  Michigan is the first state to join the program, a three-year collaboration modeled after Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration program that has launched in 16 countries around the world.

“Michigan has made great strides to overcome setbacks faced during the Great Recession, and the economy is coming back in a big way, thanks in large part to the state’s push to accelerate digital innovation and strengthen its workforce,” said Alison Gleeson, senior vice president for Cisco Americas.

In addition to the partnership with Wayne State, Cisco has also planned a “connected roadway” pilot project with the Michigan Department of Transportation that focuses on autonomous vehicles and infrastructure, as well as expansion of IT training through the Cisco Networking Academy.

The goal of the SDA project is to help Michigan and other states advance their digital agenda in order to bolster financial growth, attract new investment and increase innovation potential.

OR/MS Tomorrow is a bi-annual publication that includes featured articles, student publications, relevant job listings, and chapter and member spotlights. Badri will supervise the overall production of the publication, liaise with INFORMS staff to produce and publicize each issue of the publication, and collaborate with the OR/MS Tomorrow staff to develop new topic ideas, stories, and interviews.

With over 12,500 members worldwide, INFORMS is the leading international association for professionals in operations research and analytics. INFORMS promotes the best practices and advances in these fields to improve operational processes, decision making, and outcomes through an array of publications, conferences, competitions, networking communities and professional development services.

Badri came to Wayne State in 2014 after completing his studies in Iran, where he received a master’s in industrial engineering from Shahed University. His research interests include operations research, supply chain management, design of parallel approximation algorithms, and health care data analytics.

The “MicroBuoy” team, mentored by Leela Arava, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, collaborated with the “Extreme Comms” team from the University of Buffalo. They were among five groups tasked with developing a solution for real-world challenges associated with monitoring phosphorus and other harmful nutrients in Lake Erie, and establishing the first “Smart Lake” by integrating sensors, advanced networking and data analytics.

Members representing the MicroBuoy team included Ph.D. candidate Nirul Masurkar and master’s student Uday Praveen.

Last spring, MicroBuoy and Extreme Comms finished first and second, respectively, at Erie Hack, a months-long water innovation accelerator and competition focused on creating publicly accessible technology to elevate the value of clean water and foster the potential to invigorate environmental and economic vitality in the Great Lakes region.

MicroBuoy uses aquatic sensor technology to assess water quality in real time. A nanosensor contained inside a buoy can continuously measure for environmental contaminants. The device contains nano-sized batteries that can be recharged with solar energy. These batteries can also be inserted into faucets to detect lead and other contaminants.

As further proof of their concept, the team deployed the buoys in Lake Erie three times from late September to mid-October.

Another group with Wayne State representation was aqInfo, a low-cost, cloud-based modular sensor network that offers users access to secure data analyzed through machine-learning models to classify anomalies. The aqInfo team includes Jack Press, a graduate teaching assistant in civil and environmental engineering; Dillon Fitzgerald, a physics research assistant; and software engineer Greg Good.

The goal of the Internet of H₂O competition was to design and develop integrated solutions leveraging networking and IoT technology to monitor, predict and manage nutrient loading and harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, with the potential to expand a program across all five Great Lakes.

After completing his sophomore year he was hired as an engineering practicum intern at Google to work on developing simulated devices to test the Android Bluetooth stack. The goal of the project was to eliminate the need for having multiple devices present to test Bluetooth network protocols.

“By emulating devices, testing can be more automated and will allow the tester to test the stack with only one Android phone by pairing to fake devices,” said Shamoon.

Shamoon believes his grades made his application stand out to Google. In the interview, which was conducted over Google Hangouts, Shamoon recalls that his programming knowledge was the most helpful.

“In my interview, they asked me questions (about concepts) I had learned in Computer Programming 2 the week before,” said Shamoon.

The internship with Google was Shamooon’s first job, which he describes as a “fantastic place to work” where everyone is happy and enjoying their job as well as the weather. He stated that the most valuable lessons he learned at Google were “to be confident in my abilities, keep asking questions, and to welcome feedback.” Shamoon expressed that the best part of the job was moving to Mountainview, California as well as being able to be creative and work with incredibly smart and innovative people. He is excited to return next May as a software engineering intern.

Shamoon plans to use the experience from both internships to parlay him into a career at Google or another high-tech company after graduation.

Robotic and human exploration of Mars is an objective NASA hopes to achieve within the next 15 to 20 years. The potential for scientific discovery in space is limitless, which is why people like Brian Atiyeh have a keen interest in answering many of the mysteries in our universe.  

Wayne State University Professor Mohammed Ismail Elnaggar, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, joined a team of researchers from the Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on a project that received a Best Paper Award at the Sensors, Networks, Smart and Emerging Technologies (SENSET) conference last month in Lebanon.

The team’s research is aimed at making heart health monitoring tools mobile. The project, “Graphene Oxide-Nylon ECG Sensors for Wearable IoT Healthcare,” describes a sophisticated electrocardiogram (ECG) sensing device intended to be less invasive and more practical than traditional ECG probes.

The mobile ECG probe includes a system-on-chip (SoC) that processes ECG signals and executes advanced algorithms to predict the onset of a heart attack. The device can be worn as a necklace or bracelet, and is powered by energy from body heat, rendering internal battery power unnecessary.

“The ECG signals from the probe feed the SoC, which in turn detects and analyzes the heart’s electrical activity and transmits that data to a device, such as a phone or computer, or remotely through the internet, where it provides insightful information about the person’s heart to the end user,” said Elnaggar, who prior to his arrival at Wayne State was the Khalifa Semiconductor Research Center director when the project began over four years ago.

The team was one of three to win a Best Paper Award out of 65 submissions at the SENSET conference, which gathered over 150 international researchers to present their work related to smart cities. Elnaggar and his colleagues are partnering with Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi to develop testing processes.

Co-authors from Khalifa University include Ph.D. student Nicholas Hallfors; Maguy Abi Jaoude, assistant professor of chemistry; Kin Liao, interim chair and professor of aerospace engineering; and Abdel F. Isakovic, associate professor of physics and interim associate dean for research in the College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information visit news.masdar.ac.ae.

Nikolla is among 37 scientists and engineers from around the world identified by the journal as influential, early career (less than 10 years) researchers on the basis of the quality and impact of their work.

“The chemical engineering department is pleased to see that Dr. Nikolla is being recognized as a leading researcher in her field and for her contributions to the profession,” said Guangzhao Mao, professor and chair of chemical engineering and materials science.

I&EC Research published a virtual special issue showcasing papers that feature the 37 honorees. In Nikolla’s contribution, “First-Principles Study of High Temperature CO₂ Electrolysis on Transition Metal Electrocatalysts,” she and her co-authors utilized a combination of molecular modeling and experimental studies to shed light on ways to optimize the process of electrochemical CO₂ reduction. Electrochemical reduction of CO₂ provides an avenue for storing electrical energy from renewable resources such as the sun and wind, recycles CO₂, and leads to the production of high-energy molecules such as hydrocarbons.

This distinction from I&EC Research is the latest on a growing list of Nikolla’s professional accolades. She has also received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Department of Energy CAREER Award, the 2016 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award and the Young Scientist Award from the International Congress on Catalysis.

Omishope’s company was one of a dozen businesses invited to the Urban Entrepreneur Showcase for a series of two-minute presentations to Detroit expats and potential investors looking for innovative ways to positively impact the city and its residents. The startups represented a broad range of industries including urban agriculture, health care, restaurant and retail.

Omishope developed a product called Skin Shield, a natural and organic mosquito repellent. Skin Shield is a DEET-free, essential oil-based product that also serves as a skin moisturizer and sunscreen.

The goal of the Urban Entrepreneur Showcase was to connect successful business people from Detroit with local entrepreneurs. It was inspired by Urban Science CEO and Homecoming Host Committee member Jim Anderson, BSCE ’67, MSCE ’70, who in 2014 donated $25 million to the College of Engineering to launch the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute. Anderson matched a $20,000 cash award sponsored by Detroit-based Ally Financial Inc.

“We are very excited to see Iyinoluwa’s success at the Homecoming event” said Sorin Draghici, associate dean for entrepreneurship and innovation and director of the Anderson Institute. “The fact that successful business people, such as the expats in attendance, appreciated her startup company is very encouraging and meaningful to us.”

Draghici described Omishope’s approach as a triple-bottom-line business model — addressing a global health problem (mosquito-born diseases) with an environmental focus (using only natural products) and a social mission (products can be made in underdeveloped countries).

Omishope is one of many entrepreneurs trained and supported by the Anderson Institute, which was established in 2014 to help faculty and students in their innovation and entrepreneurship activities, as well as advance Wayne State’s role as a premier research university. Omishope also excelled in TechTown’s DTX Launch Detroit accelerator program, where she received $5,000 last December in the Innovation Warriors/Blackstone LaunchPad Warrior Pitch competition.

“The Anderson Institute will continue to help both enthusiastic students such as Iyinoluwa, as well as more experienced faculty, in all aspects related to bringing new ideas into the real world, including starting new companies and participating in the revitalization of Detroit,” said Draghici.

Detroit Homecoming is an event produced by Crain’s Detroit Business that reconnects former Detroit residents with the city and spurs investment opportunities.

Learn more about the Anderson Institute at engineering.wayne.edu/entrepreneurship.

SHAPE was introduced this year as an opportunity for high school students to work on emerging energy technologies, particularly batteries. The initiative was inspired by another youth outreach effort coordinated by Leela Arava, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Wayne State.

“We visited Manoogian as part of the Mobile Energy Lab program and recruited those five brightest students to come and work in the lab for six weeks,” said Arava. “They worked with my graduate students on research projects and gained tremendous hands-on experience at a very early stage of their careers.”

Students came to campus Monday through Wednesday. Each week’s curriculum was centered on a unique theme, including material synthesis, micro-level structure and composition, coin cell fabrication, battery testing, and sensor integration. In the final week, the students toured various laboratories and made presentations to faculty and mentors.

The College of Engineering leverages its resources and unique urban setting to foster community partnerships and provide foundational experiences for aspiring engineers. The purpose behind SHAPE and other programs is to introduce STEM concepts in real-world practicality and keep young people interested in engineering as a college major and career.

When the students and Principal Hosep Torossian visited the Wayne State campus on Sept. 12, they had an opportunity to share their stories with College of Engineering Dean Farshad Fotouhi and Professor Nabil Chalhoub, chair of mechanical engineering. The students gave glowing reviews of the program and several indicated that they planned to pursue their undergraduate studies at Wayne State.

“I want to extend my utmost gratitude to Drs. Chalhoub and Arava for their passion and commitment to inspire and train our future engineers,” said Torossian.  “Our students loved their engineering internship. Their lives have been changed by this experience.”

But can eating chocolate actually help people live longer and happier lives? Cerise Walker’s research aimed to answer that question.

Walker, a computer science undergraduate student in the Wayne State University College of Engineering, has been selected to participate in a poster competition at the HPCC Systems Engineering Summit Community Day on Oct. 3 in Atlanta.

Her project, “Is the Secret to Longevity Eating Chocolate,” used correlation and regression analysis to compare worldwide levels of chocolate consumption with the average life expectancy and happiness index of the corresponding countries. Walker’s findings indicated strong links between happiness and chocolate consumption and also between happiness and life expectancy, with a moderately positive correlation between chocolate consumption and life expectancy.

Walker was advised by Itauma Itauma, MSCS ’15, an adjunct faculty member in the computer science department. They brainstormed together to come up with an interesting topic for statistical analysis, and were inspired by Franz H. Messerli’s 2012 study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“We read an article about the correlation between chocolate consumption and Nobel laureates, which led us to thinking about how chocolate consumption could affect other aspects of our lives,” said Walker. “We chose happiness and life expectancy due to the vast amount of studies that focus on how consuming chocolate affects cognition and heart health.”

Much of Walker’s work on this project, including correlation modules and visual representations of her results, was performed using resources from HPCC Systems, a software platform that enables developers and scientists to process and analyze big data.

“We chose to use the HPCC Systems platform to explore potential ways it could be useful to undergraduate students,” said Walker.

The purpose of the summit, hosted by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, is to gather engineers, data scientists and technology professionals to share knowledge and future plans for the HPCC Systems platform. Representatives of industry and academia present their HPCC Systems use cases, research projects and share their experience on how they leverage the platform.

Chen has been selected to receive the 2017 IEEE Sensors Council Young Professional Award. It is given annually to promote, recognize and support contributions from IEEE members who are early in their careers and working within the fields of interest of the IEEE Sensors Council, which include the theory, design, fabrication, manufacturing, reliability and applications of devices for sensing and transducing physical, chemical, and biological phenomena.

The award will be presented November 1 at the IEEE Sensors Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Chen also received the Young Scientist Award and was invited to attend and present a paper at the URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium this week in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Young Scientist Awards are presented at the general assemblies of URSI to recognize an international collection of individuals who have made innovative contributions and discoveries in multidisciplinary research related to electromagnetic fields and waves.

The 32nd triennial symposium will take place August 19 through 26 at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal.

Chen joined the Wayne State University College of Engineering faculty in 2014. He has authored more than 70 published papers and held nine U.S. patents. He has also co-edited a book and six book chapters. Chen is an IEEE Senior Member and has dedicated years of service as a Technical Program Committee chairperson for numerous conferences and symposia and as an associate editor for international journals. He has a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Most of the recipients are upperclassmen, including Benjamin Valley, a fifth-year senior from nearby Shelby Township who, in addition to the financial relief the scholarships provide, noted that they have personal significance as well.

“Receiving the chemical engineering departmental scholarships is important to me because I feel it validates the work and large time commitment that I have devoted to my education,” said Valley, one of eight students to receive the Ralph and Jean Kummler Endowed Scholarship, established by the late former Wayne State Engineering dean and his wife.

Annabelle Chidiac has spent the summer in Flint working as an intern with General Motors. She was excited when her parents told her about a letter in the mail indicating that she received the Ernest B. Drake Endowed Scholarship, named for one of the co-founders of the WSU College of Engineering.

"The College of Engineering has done a wonderful job at merging my education into a future career in industry,” said Chidiac, a Rochester Hills native who transferred to Wayne State in 2015 from Oakland University. “This scholarship is additional encouragement toward the path of academic success and a reminder of the pride associated with being a Wayne State Warrior."

The honor of receiving a scholarship was evident to senior Chloe Luyet, who was awarded the Nick and Christine Andon Scholarship. Luyet, who is from Plymouth and competes on the WSU women’s golf team, noted the high expectations that come with the recognition.

“As a chemical engineering student at Wayne State, our community is very small, very close-knit, and I have gotten to know my classmates well the past two years,” said Luyet. “We are all studious, hardworking, and astute individuals, so to receive this scholarship means a great deal to me, knowing that many of my classmates are deserving of it as well.”

In addition to the subsequent list of recipients, scholarships were awarded to graduate students and students selected to attend the AIChE annual meeting.

Nick and Christine Andon Endowed Scholarship

John Kastler

Jacob Liccardello

Chloe Luyet

Lisa Schalm

Professor Ernest B. Drake Endowed Scholarship

Brian Almeria

Annabelle Chidiac

Henry DeMaria

Dominic Messina

Andrew Miller

Muaadah Naji

Kaitlynn Prieur

Abdul Rihan

Jason Guzik Endowed Memorial Scholarship

Fulton Smith

Ralph and Jean Kummler Endowed Scholarship

Margaret Darrow

Diego Jimenez

Kip Nieman

Laura Paz

Christina Petros

Tal Rosner

Benjamin Valley

Gabriel Yurko

James H. McMicking Endowed Scholarship

Marcus Djokic

Alexandra Gorham

Krishna Patel

Eliot Sobrig

For more information on scholarships and financial aid, visit engineering.wayne.edu/admissions/scholarships.php.

DMDII develops cutting-edge digital manufacturing technologies that target a reduction in the time and cost of manufacturing while strengthening the capabilities of the supply chain. The institute deploys and commercializes these technologies across key manufacturing industries.

Kim and his fellow representatives will participate in quarterly Executive Committee meetings, vote on R&D projects to be carried out at DMDII, approve resolutions to the DMDII Membership Agreement, and serve as a liaison between DMDII and the Tier 2 academic partners.  He will begin his one-year term in August.

Wayne State University is one of 11 Tier 2 academic partners, along with Auburn University, Case Western Reserve University, Georgia Tech, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Oregon State University, Purdue University, University of Colorado, University of Iowa, University of North Carolina, and University of Wisconsin.

At Wayne State, Kim is the site director of the NSF Center for e-Design and the director of the Computational Intelligence and Design Informatics (CInDI) laboratory. Kim’s research focuses on design science and informatics as well as product life-cycle modeling. He has received over $7 million in external funding for his research, and published over 30 top journal papers and 50 conference papers.

DMDII is a Chicago-based association led by UI LABS which received a $70 million Department of Defense (DOD) grant as well as $250 million in private sector, academic and local government funding.

Emmanuel Ssemakula, Ana Djuric and Mohsen Ayoobi have developed a project called ALERT (Active Learning in Engineering Technology) to improve student success rates and nurture interest in targeted courses including statics, dynamics and thermodynamics. The project calls for the implementation of various techniques such as in-class experiments and having students as teachers. Departmental seminars and workshops will showcase the impact of adopting active learning.

Another project led by Daniel Grosu and Alexander Kotov will reform CSC 2200 – Computer Science II, a required foundational course for computer science majors and the gateway to all the higher level courses for computer science and information systems technology students. The team plans to introduce several evidence-based practices to transform the class into a student-centered learning environment.

The two projects received a combined $130,548 from the SSTEP committee led by Andrew Feig, associate dean of the Graduate School and principal investigator on the five-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

Both teams will also benefit from the support of the university’s Office of Teaching and Learning, which provides assistance with and assessment of content and facilitates interaction between SSTEP teams to share best practices.

The SSTEP program continues work begun with the WSU NSF-WIDER grant, a two-year self-study of teaching practices and an exploration of the opportunities and barriers toward the implementation of interactive, student-centered pedagogies on campus.

The award is given annually to one Life Member Affinity Group that has made a significant impact on IEEE through its projects or achievements over the previous calendar year. The Southeastern Michigan group was chosen from approximately 90 groups across 10 regions worldwide.

The group will receive a $1,000 monetary award as well as a certificate from IEEE, which is the largest body of electrical and electronics engineers with more than 400,000 members in over 160 countries.

IEEE Life Members must be at least 65 years of age and have been a member of IEEE or one of its predecessor societies for such a period that the sum of his/her age and his/her years of membership equals or exceeds 100 years.

Kurmas (pictured right), a member of the WSU College of Engineering Hall of Fame, is a former president and current treasurer of the ESD Board of Directors. He is also a past recipient of the ESD Horace H. Rackham Humanitarian Award.

John Boulahanis, M.S. ‘96, Utpal Dutta, M.S. ’81, and Frenae Smith B.S. ’05, M.S. ’10 were inducted into the ESD College of Fellows for outstanding technical and professional achievement as well as service to ESD. Boulahanis is managing member and owner of AJA Quality Services, LLC., Dutta is a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, and Smith is a codes and standards supervisor for DTE Energy Gas Operations.

Among those that received Outstanding Leadership Awards were David Finley, Ph.D. ’96, and Latonya Waller, M.S. ’16. Finley was named interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at Lake Superior State University in January 2016 after serving four years as dean of LSSU’s College of Business and Engineering. Waller, a landfill project engineer at US Ecology, received the National Society of Black Engineers—Detroit Professionals Achievement Award at the ESD Gold Award Banquet in March, and is a past president of Wayne State’s ESD student chapter.

Linda Gerhardt, B.S. ’84, Ph.D. ’96, a senior manufacturing engineer at General Motors, received a Distinguished Service Award.

Recent electrical engineering graduate Ashraf Jaber, B.S. ’17, was named an Outstanding College Student of the Year. Jaber, a technical sales associate at Texas Instruments, served as president of the Engineering Student Faculty Board at Wayne State and was involved in the ESD student chapter. He is a founding member of Detroit Aerial Innovations, Wayne State’s first student organization focused on drone technology.

Moradi Aliabadi collaborated with Professor Yinlun Huang on the article titled, “Multistage Optimization for Chemical Process Sustainability Enhancement under Uncertainty.” They presented a methodology for improving chemical process sustainability, the applicability of which was illustrated in a comprehensive case study on biodiesel manufacturing.

“This methodology can provide a structured step-by-step guide to decision makers in defining sustainable development strategies and deriving sustainability actions systematically, said Moradi Aliabadi, who will receive a certificate of recognition for the award in October at the AIChE annual meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Moradi Aliabadi is the third student from Huang’s lab to receive this award in recent years. Cristina Piluso (B.S. ’03, M.S. ’05, Ph.D. ’08) and Zheng Liu (M.S. ’07, Ph.D. ’12) were honored in 2008 and 2012, respectively.

Fencers Ziad Elsissy and Zuzanna Sobczak, as well as swimmer Manuela Ferreira, are among an elite group of student-athletes across NCAA Division II who are starters or important reserves on their teams while maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at their current institutions.

Elsissy, a mechanical engineering major from Alexandria, Egypt, was a First Team All-American in competition as well, finishing as the national runner-up in the men's sabre at the 2017 NCAA Fencing Collegiate Championships. He was also the 2017 NCAA Midwest Regional champion.

The 11^th two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American in Wayne State history, Ferreira was a three-time First Team All-American in the pool this past season, placing fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke and joining two relays that finished third and sixth, respectively. A native of Ibague, Colombia, Ferreira is studying chemical engineering.

Sobczak, a civil engineering student from Gdansk, Poland, finished ninth in the women’s foil competition at the NCAA Championships to earn Honorable Mention All-America status. She received the 2017 Deans' Award in April for having the highest cumulative grade point average of all student-athletes in the College of Engineering.

CoSIDA has honored thousands of student-athletes from sports across all divisions since founding the Academic All-America program in 1952. Sports included in the at-large program are fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo; bowling, crew and field hockey for women; and volleyball and wrestling for men.

Established in 2003, the award is given annually to select junior faculty members who have a significant record of publications or creative achievement and who have attained national or international recognition early in their careers.

Cao will be honored at the academy’s annual banquet in October. He will also be awarded $1,000 for research and development, and have the opportunity to present his research to the academy.

Cao, who holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Washington, joined the Wayne State faculty in January 2013 and was promoted to associate professor earlier this year. His research interests include material and surface chemistry, biomaterials, antifouling and antimicrobial coatings, biosensors, nanomedicine, and tissue engineering. Cao leads a research team that was awarded a $1.3 million Type 1 Diabetes Pathfinder Award from the National Science Foundation’s National Institute of Diabetes and Kidney Diseases to support development of a material formulation intended to increase the longevity of insulin treatment implants.

He is the second chemical engineering faculty member in as many years to receive this award, as Eranda Nikolla was selected last year for her research studying various issues related to electrochemical systems

The Academy of Scholars was founded to raise the scholastic prestige of Wayne State University by bringing the most prominent academic experts to campus and creating a community of scholars from among its most celebrated researchers. Visit academy.wayne.edu to learn more.

Rizzo, a senior research mechanical engineer for the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), received the award in April during the WCX 17: SAE World Congress Experience in Detroit.

“It is always an honor to be recognized for doing the work that you love,” said Rizzo, who holds a B.S. and M.S. from Wayne State in mechanical engineering as well as a Ph.D. from Michigan Tech.

Rizzo, who was promoted to her current position earlier this year, joined TARDEC in 2008 after spending eight years in the Powertrain Group at Chrysler, where she was a controls research and development engineer. She specializes in modeling, simulation and control of propulsion systems of ground vehicles.

She says the most rewarding aspect of her job is “helping the soldiers and learning from other talented researchers.” She also demonstrates a commitment to service and mentorship in her industry as an active member of SAE, Society of Women Engineers, National Defense Industrial Association and Women in Defense.

“I was lucky to have amazing mentors such as Dr. Michele Grimm when I was an undergraduate student and new engineer. It only feels right to pay that back,” said Rizzo. “Furthermore, entering the work force and choosing a career path is not only challenging, it can be amazingly confusing. My goal is to help women understand how many different career paths exist and how to pick one that works for them.”

Rizzo has received seven awards for outstanding contributions during her tenure at TARDEC and been published in numerous journals and technical reports. She also holds two patents.

The dual alumna looks back on her time at Wayne State fondly. “Not only did WSU provide me with an outstanding technical education,” said Rizzo, “but it gave me the confidence and skill to follow a career path that is unique and rewarding.”

“The Industry Mentor Program had a significant impact on students' understanding of the connection between academics and a career in chemical engineering,” said Tracy Castle, academic advisor for the chemical engineering department.

The students worked with and even shadowed their mentors to get advice on future career paths. Student Gabriel Yurko believes that the program was one of the more helpful experiences she’s had at Wayne State.

“It helped to put my classwork in perspective, it gave me a vision for what I want to do in the future and I was able to learn to get there,” said Yurko. “I am so thankful that this program gave me the opportunity to learn from someone in chemical engineering and has been so successful.”

The program was a joint effort between the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Office of Alumni Relations. It has the potential to be implemented across the university as an example for future mentorship programs.

“We would like to build on the success of this pilot program and expand it to benefit more students in the Department of Chemical Engineering and possibly students in other departments in the College of Engineering,” said department chair Guangzhao Mao. “We welcome and appreciate our industry alumni to help us make this program more successful in the future.”

“We hosted a presentation to show our sponsors the work that we had achieved and the product that we were to taking to the competition,” Davis said. “They were very supportive and proud of what they were able to contribute to.”

After her time with EcoCAR2, Davis became a business process consultant working with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers. Similarly to her role in the EcoCAR2 competition, Davis helps her clients improve their business processes efficiency.

“EcoCAR gave me a strong foundation of understanding in the automotive industry,” Davis said. “I really enjoy my job. I get to work on versatile projects, and no two days are ever alike.”

The EcoCAR2 alumna shared advice for the current members of the Hybrid Warriors.

“Stay hungry and always ask questions,” David said. “The automotive industry is helping to lead America in terms of technology and connectivity. There are a lot of cool career paths open to you.”

The Hybrid Warriors are in the third year of the EcoCAR3 competition. Student engineers are preparing for the final competition May 13 through 21 where each of the 16 university teams will bring their Chevrolet Camaros to Milford, Michigan. During final competition, teams will be judged on engineering, environmental, and economic objectives.

Contact: Kim Gallagher, WSU EcoCAR3 Communications Manager

The Wayne State University College of Engineering hosted two notable events on April 21, including the third annual Student Design and Innovation Day, which showcased nearly 70 unique student projects covering a wide range of applications and engineering disciplines.

Sponsored by the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute, Student Design and Innovation Day demonstrates students’ solutions to engineering challenges as well as commercial and social needs. The event offers up to $1,000 in cash prizes to the best projects, and reflects the mission of the Anderson Institute to foster entrepreneurism through investment in marketable technologies.

Taking first place honors was a five-member team of mechanical engineering students — Andrew Abdulnour, Charlie Wilson, Fawaz Yono, Ghadi Kanso, and Omar Alzuhd — that designed a stair-climbing, three-wheeled hand truck intended to ease the burden of transporting heavy or bulky objects, a simple but common problem.

"It was really rewarding to be able to put all the engineering knowledge that we had gained in the past few years to work,” said Abdulnour. “Seeing the project come to life in a matter of a few weeks was really cool but the process wasn't without a few setbacks. By the end we felt like we gained a lot from the whole experience."

Other top projects included an Internet of Things sensor package for environmental sampling, a self-cleaning vehicle camera housing, and a portable audio software application for aspiring musicians.

Student Design and Innovation Day was preceded by the inaugural WSU HealthConnect Symposium, which presented an overview of trends in wireless health tools development including sensor technologies and their applications. This event also featured a design contest, with biomedical engineering graduate student Afreen Fatima taking top honors for her design of a wearable brain imaging cap.

Summary of top projects:

First place: Stair Climbing Hand Truck

A three-wheeled hand truck which would allow an operator to climb stairs while transporting boxes and other bulky or heavy objects easily, smoothly and safely.

Students: Andrew Abdulnour, Charlie Wilson, Fawaz Yono, Ghadi Kanso, Omar Alzuhd

Advisor: Golam Newaz

Second place: Low-Cost and Scalable IoT Sensor Packages for Environmental Sampling

Users can test environmental criteria using IoT sensors, an option which is less expensive, low weight, easy to use, and capable of transmitting data from anywhere to a cloud-based platform.

Students: Javad Roostaei, Hamid Sadeghi, James D. V. Wagnen, Zohreh Doosti

Advisor: Yongli Zhang

Third place (tie): PMEAS

A modulation application which can be loaded onto a small, affordable computer (i.e. Raspberry Pi) to replace expensive hardware modulation effects pedals, making musicianship more widely accessible.

Students: Matthew Gaertner, Zein Hijazi, Lee Lazarecky, Joshua Walters

Advisors: Khayyam Hashmi, Sam Bryfczynski

Project Iris

A self-cleaning camera housing for various automotive applications including backup cameras and autonomous vehicle systems.

Student: Brandon Matesic

Advisor: Mohsen Ayoobi

HealthConnect winner: Smart Crown for Brain Imaging

A wearable cap with embedded sensors that can perform functional brain imaging and transmit data in real time to a mobile/PC unit.

Student: Afreen Fatima

Advisor: Mohammad R. N. Avanaki

“I had a really cool experience at Wayne State,” said Shammas. “I got to work in groups with people I never would have worked with. It pushes you out of your comfort zone.”

Shammas, who will receive her bachelor’s in chemical engineering, will see many familiar faces in the audience from her time as vice president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), a member of Tau Beta Pi, and vice president of the Chaldean-American Student Association.

“It’s been fun. The people who you’re doing all this work with become your friends, so you get to see your friends while you work,” said Shammas.

She also participates in a group called ‘Student to Student’ through her church, where she and other American college students work to help refugee college students, all while going to school full time and still finding time to do her homework.

Shammas was recently rewarded for her efforts at the college’s Honors Convocation, receiving the Outstanding Senior Award from the Engineering Alumni Association as well as the Robert G. Wingerter Award for excellence in character, leadership, and scholastic performance.

As someone who maintains a rigorous academic and extracurricular schedule, it’s perhaps no surprise that her advice to incoming students is to get involved with the college and the community.

“There’s a lot of resources and tricks of the trade that it’s better to have way earlier in your career,” said Shammas, who noted that her favorite class at WSU was thermodynamics with Professor Jeffrey Potoff. “There’s always someone who knows what you’re struggling with who will help.”

Shammas has held two co-op positions at Denso International and DTE Energy. After graduation, she will be working at Fiat-Chrysler America as a materials engineer in organic materials.

The Wayne State University College of Engineering commencement ceremony will be held at the Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit on Wednesday, May 10 at 7 p.m. For more information visit wayne.edu/commencement.

The university recognized employees for their years of service every five years, beginning at ten years of service, as well as those who have retired. Three of the 80 retirees acknowledged worked in the College of Engineering: Raouf Ibrahim, professor of mechanical engineering (30 years); Gary Wasserman, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering (29 years); and Kathryn Maysen, secretary for the dean’s office (22 years).

Other faculty and staff honored at the event include:

35 years

• King-Hay Yang, Professor, Biomedical Engineering

30 years

• Mohamad Hassoun, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Jerry Ku, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
• Ming-Chia Lai, Professor, Mechanical Engineering

25 years

• Narendra Goel, Professor, Computer Science

20 years

• Chaoyang Chen, Associate Professor – Research, Biomedical Engineering
• Xiaoyan Han, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

15 years

• Ming Dong, Associate Professor, Computer Science
• Shiyong Lu, Associate Professor, Computer Science
• Weisong Shi, Professor, Computer Science
• Karen Wilson, Associate Director of Administration
• Yong Xu, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

10 years

• Nathan Fisher, Associate Professor, Computer Science
• Jeremy Johnson, Research Assistant, Industrial and Systems Engineering
• Manhoe Kim, Assistant Professor – Research, Chemical Engineering
• Zhifeng Kou, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
• Richard Casey Rue, Academic Services Officer
• Aaron M. Swift, Senior Systems Administrator

Rajlich’s award and several others will be presented at the 2017 International Conference on Software Engineering next month in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"Not only is (Rajlich) among the most active researchers in software maintenance, evolution and program comprehension, he is also the founder of the IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension and one of the pioneers of the IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, two of the oldest conferences in this field with very high and continuous impact,” said Rainer Koschke, chair of the TCSE Service Award committee. “His sustained efforts in promoting software evolution and guiding young researchers to focus on this highly practical and relevant research topic is an invaluable contribution to software engineering at large."

Koschke also noted that Rajlich has served IEEE committees and programs in numerous roles, received multiple awards and been a keynote speaker on many occasions.

Rajlich, who earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Case Western Reserve University in 1971, is an editorial board member of the Journal of Software Evolution and Process and published a book, Software Engineering: The Current Practice, in 2011. His research focuses on software evolution and comprehension.

Sobczak, a member of the women’s fencing team, has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term gpa 3.5+) all seven semesters, including four 4.00 terms.  A two-time College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District First Team honoree, Sobczak earned All-America accolades for the third consecutive year last month with a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Collegiate Fencing Championships.

Sobczak was among a record 73 percent of Warrior student-athletes receiving above a 3.00 last semester.

Pictured with Sobczak is Jeffrey Potoff, associate dean for academic and student affairs in the Wayne State University College of Engineering.

The conference provides a platform to share ideas that shape economic policy and improve the region’s competitiveness and sustainability in a global market.

Chinnam will lead a panel titled “Leading the Big Data Revolution Through Partnerships” on April 26 at Cobo Center in Detroit. The panel is scheduled to include these influencers:

• Anthony Scriffignano, Chief Data Scientist, Dun & Bradstreet
• Elissa Strome, Executive Director, SOSCIP
• Melissa Cragin, Executive Director, Midwest Big Data Hub
• Allen Lalonde, Senior Innovation Executive, IBM Canada

Chinnam is co-director of the Big Data and Business Analytics Group at Wayne State, which recently held its fourth annual symposium and announced the launch of a new master’s program in data science and business analytics this fall.

For more information on the Great Lakes Economic Forum, visit greatlakeseconomicforum.com.

With its “Micro Buoy” concept, the group was among semifinalists from four Erie Hack regions — Buffalo, Cleveland/Erie, Detroit/Windsor, Toledo — that gathered April 13 at TechTown Detroit to determine who would advance to the finals and compete for a $100,000 prize at the Water Technology Innovation Summit on May 2 and 3 in Cleveland.

“Micro Buoy is an aquatic sensor technology that helps assess water quality in real time using a combination of nanotechnology-based sensors, microbatteries and wireless communication,” said Arava, the principal investigator of technology for the team. “The challenge lies in incorporating all these intricate mechanisms into a working prototype.”

The team will continue its work as one of nine groups — including another from Detroit, one from Toledo, and three each from Cleveland and Buffalo — to advance to the finals.

Erie Hack, sponsored by the Cleveland Water Alliance, is a months-long water innovation accelerator and competition focused on creating publicly accessible technology to elevate the value of clean water and foster the potential to invigorate environmental and economic vitality in the Great Lakes region. The Detroit effort was designed and coordinated by TechTown in partnership with the Healthy Urban Waters program in Wayne State’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, led by Professor Carol Miller.

The program provides participants ranging from high school students to professionals the opportunity to combine their own expertise with mentoring in order to construct data-driven solutions and pitch them to a panel of environmental, entrepreneurial and technological experts.

“Erie Hack is a great platform to disseminate laboratory research and meet with people of diverse research, technological and entrepreneurial background,” said Arava. “We are pleased to have had the opportunity to participate and showcase our skills.”

“We had been looking for an opportunity to transform years of our extensive research on nanomaterials and microbatteries into viable technology that can address critical water-related issues,” said Nirul Masurkar, a mechanical engineering graduate student at Wayne State and captain of the Micro Buoy team. Other members included Udaypraveen Tiruvalluri, Chad Gainor and Andrew Nassif.

For more information on Erie Hack, visit eriehack.io.

Her project, “Placement of Multi-Component Services in Edge Systems," presented a linear programming model to address challenges with multi-component service in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), a new concept in cloud computing intended to enhance the capabilities of mobile devices. The goal of her approach was to prove the effectiveness of her component placement method while demonstrating a reduction in computation and communication costs.

Bahreini will receive a scholarship of up to $1,500 towards the cost of attending the 2017 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, the world’s largest gathering of women technologists, October 4 through 6 in Orlando, Florida.

The MICWIC conference is an Association for Computing Machinery event that bolsters a nationwide effort to address the alarming decline of American women choosing computer science professions. It focuses attention on the research success, career interests, and challenges for women in computing and information technology.

Twenty-seven engineering and business students — including 10 from Wayne State — formed six interdisciplinary teams tasked with cultivating ideas and pushing Lear’s boundaries.

The tournament-style competition began with a two-day “jumpstart” workshop March 18 and 19. On April 1, teams pitched their solutions to Lear executives and venture capitalists in downtown Detroit at the Lear Innovation Center, a hub for automotive advanced concept development and hands-on learning that opened in October.

“We were really impressed with the quality of the students’ work along with the passion that they brought to this challenge,” said Bob Humphrey, director of innovation management at Lear and one of the competition’s judges. “It was remarkable to see what the students were able to deliver in such a short period of time, and we are very much looking forward to what they will accomplish given a full summer internship.”

The Innovatrium, an innovation consulting firm, facilitated the tournament and provided the accelerated training. Students benefited from the opportunity to network with and be mentored by industry leaders and faculty, practice sales and pitching skills, and contribute to the future of mobility and vehicle connectivity.

Electrical engineering student Salim Marouf was a member of the first-place team, earning an opportunity to develop the group’s prototype this summer as a Lear innovation fellow.

Seven engineering disciplines were represented by Wayne State’s participants: electrical engineering majors Filippo Caro, Palash Pattewar, Andre Roussell, and Marouf; biomedical engineering student Afreen Fatima; civil engineering student Javad Roostaei; computer science major Yukti Dhiman; engineering technology student Wenzhe Jiao; mechanical engineering major Mohammad Hijazi; and Christopher Shah, who is studying global supply chain management with a minor in industrial engineering.

”This event highlights the need for effective communication among multidisciplinary teams,” said Ethan Eagle, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and Wayne State’s faculty sponsor for the event. “Students responded very positively to the intense pressure and came up with some wild, innovative ideas.  They were encouraged to ‘accelerate failure’ and came away with a new understanding that the best ideas come from experiment and iteration, not perfect planning.”

Ming Dong, associate professor of computer science in the Wayne State University College of Engineering, is the co-principal investigator on the project. Maysaa Merhi Basha, associate professor of neurology in the School of Medicine, is the principal investigator.

Their project, "The Sound of Seizures: Audio-triggered seizure detection,” proposes a method of identifying and capturing seizure-specific sounds such as ictal cries or grunting in a monitoring unit. A proprietary signal-processing software can be used to create an electronic signature for each sound type, which can be embedded into a smartphone app that triggers a notification when a seizure occurs to alert caregivers.

The goal of this research is to reduce the risk for respiratory distress, physical injury or sudden death in epilepsy patients who experience frequent generalized tonic-clonic (GTC) type seizures.

Finalists receive a minimum award of $5,000, and Basha and Dong have an opportunity to compete for a $200,000 grand prize at the conference.

Project Manager Ali Hussein gave a presentation to a classroom of 30 high school students at Cass Tech. The presentation included the benefits of having a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and how STEM has applied to Hussein’s experience.

“Studying the fields of STEM is very important. Not only does it apply to the classroom, but it applies in a real-world setting also,” Hussein said during his presentation. “It’s important to take what you have learned in class and find a way to apply it to your work. That’s what I do every day with EcoCAR3—I learn about a theory and find a way to apply it.”

Trinity Johnson, a ninth grade student at Cass Tech, enjoyed the presentation and expects to attend Wayne State University. Johnson plans to study mechanical engineering and is excited to join the EcoCAR3 team in 2020.

“My favorite part of the presentation was how interactive it was and I love how you connected with everyone,” Johnson said. “I learned that even though you might not want to go into the automotive field, you can still join the project as a way to get exposure to the mechanical engineering. I definitely want to join the EcoCAR3 team.”

Members of the EcoCAR3 team met with Renaissance students in small groups during their lunch break at the school’s College and Career Center. The small group setting gave the EcoCAR3 members the opportunity to talk to students more on a personal level rather than in a presentation or lecture.

Renaissance robotics students told Hussein about their experiences with STEM and coding. James Whittaker, a junior and member of the robotics team, shared stories about his team’s competitions. “Our robotics team had to design, create, and code our robot to complete a series of tasks,” Whittaker said. “We have to make our robot do things like climb a rope and exit a maze. For the maze, we coded the robot to recognize colored sticky notes indicating which direction to turn to help it get it out of the maze.”

Hussein was pleased to hear about the Renaissance robotics team’s experiences. “Programs like robotics are awesome,” Hussein said. “You are able to apply the knowledge you learn in class to a real-world situation.”

Students at both Cass Tech and Renaissance asked Hussein for advice as they prepare to start college.

“Always find yourself within a project,” Hussein responded. “Find a hobby that you are interested in, learn about it, and apply it. That’s part of being an engineer—finding a problem and trying to solve it.”

About Hybrid Warriors

Wayne State University is one of 16 North American universities selected to compete in EcoCAR3. The Hybrid Warriors is a diverse student organization comprised of 42 members across the engineering, communications, and business disciplines at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In the third year of the competition, the Hybrid Warriors must transform a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro into a fully functional hybrid electric vehicle. Hybrid Warriors aim to encourage green initiatives throughout the Detroit area and educate younger generations about the benefits of alternative fuels and STEM education.

Contact: Kim Gallagher, WSU EcoCAR3 Communications Manager

“We had close to 600 registrations and 175 companies represented at the event,” said Ratna Babu Chinnam, professor and co-director of the Big Data and Business Analytics Group at Wayne State. “The predominant feedback is that the event was a phenomenal success.”

The two-day conference agenda was built around case studies of top practitioners in areas ranging from health care to privacy and security. Attendees also enjoyed the various tutorials, networking receptions and panel discussions, as well as a keynote address each day.

“I found the symposium refreshing, as so many real-world case studies were presented,” said Nick Curcuru, vice president of global big data practice at MasterCard and one of the symposium’s panel speakers. “And there were no sales pitches.”

An added feature this year was the Startup Showcase, which gave several new companies a platform to demonstrate what they are doing in the big data sector and expand their industry network.

Wayne State students were also engaged in the conference, not only as attendees but also in the poster session, which allowed students across all engineering disciplines to display their innovative research projects.

“I was thoroughly impressed with so many young people involved in data science, applications and frameworks. Their enthusiasm was evident,” said Janis E. Landry-Lane, a global sales executive for IBM Systems and a case study presenter.

Chinnam and other WSU dignitaries took the opportunity to further illustrate the university’s commitment to leadership in big data by sharing information about the new master of science program in data science and business analytics, a collaboration between the College of Engineering and the Mike Ilitch School of Business that will launch this fall.

For more on the symposium and the new master’s program visit bigdata.wayne.edu.

“The pre-safety check lets us understand what areas of the vehicle require extra work,” Controls Lead Miriam Di Russo said. “It is an important milestone for the teams.”

The inspections conducted by Crain covered three major categories of the vehicle: mechanical, electrical, and controls. Each area was evaluated using a scorecard given to the team in advance.

“The inspections started with the mechanical part, where all the items related to the Powertrain component integrations were examined,” Di Russo said. “This included the routing of the cooling system, the exhaust system, and the critical fasteners.”

The conclusion of the mechanical inspection was beneficial for the Hybrid Warriors, as the pre-safety checks allowed the team to reevaluate specific vehicular components, including the cooling system. Di Russo said the team would focus on re-routing some of the cooling lines to avoid contacts with hot spots in the vehicle and fixing leaks in the exhaust system.

The electrical aspect of the inspection tests all the high and low voltage connections, including isolation and connections that ensure the emergency disconnect switches work properly. According to Di Russo, these tests ensure that the vehicle confirms to the competition safety standard and no hazards are present.

The final part of the safety inspection focused on the control development. Throughout this phase, Crain reviewed the vehicle’s main functionalities.

“The inspector checked the Powertrain torque delivery under the various operating mode and the competition required switches and indicator lights,” Di Russo said. “The team performed a wheels spinning on hoist under pure electric mode as well as the engine start.”

Though the team earned high marks on their pre-competition safety check scorecard, the Hybrid Warriors have components to modify for the final completion in May.

“Before being able to compete in any dynamic event, the safety inspections are the first challenge that every team will face in final competition,” Di Russo said. “This experience has been extremely helpful to identify areas that need work and optimization as well as getting a different perspective on the work completed so far from the other side of the competition.”

Contact: Kim Gallagher, WSU EcoCAR3 Communications Manager

Project Manager Ali Hussein gave parents insight to the EcoCAR3 competition, the team’s Chevrolet Camaro, and life as a student engineer on the WSU campus. The interactive presentation provoked parents to ask questions regarding the responsibilities of the student engineers in the competition. Other inquiries from parents varied from WSU’s engineering programs to how their daughter could be involved with the EcoCAR3 competition. The high school parents were most interested in the Camaro itself and were grateful for the opportunity to see the car.

During Hussein’s presentation and tour, student engineers worked on the Camaro and were available for parents to questions about their work and experience in the competition.

“It was very exciting to meet with the parents and to showcase our project to them,” Hussein said. “The parents asked a lot of interesting questions and they were interested in the program. It's important for them to understand all the great benefits that EcoCAR brings to the table because a program like EcoCAR can only succeed with a continuous influx of students eager to become the engineers of the future.”

Contact: Kim Gallagher, WSU EcoCAR3 Communications Manager

“My main motivation is that I want to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Sarhan. “Science is very important in making changes, and this is the kind of science we do here.”

Most large-scale security systems have multiple, constantly changing displays monitored by humans. It is possible to miss a crime due to distraction or the wrong display being shown on a camera. Sarhan’s system is monitored entirely by computers.

According to Sarhan, many video surveillance systems are used to deter criminals and to view evidence after a crime. Sarhan’s patent works live; the system is constantly scanning for potential threats determined by the user.

The surveillance system uses technologies such as facial and license plate recognition to recognize threats using high-quality video that the computer will analyze. The system also allows for certain areas observed by the cameras to be placed at a higher level of importance.  

“There are so many considerations that we take and then solve mathematically to get the recordings in the best way possible,” said Sarhan. “It’s unique.”

Sarhan’s other research interests include server and network support for multimedia applications, design of scalable multimedia servers, video streaming over the internet and wireless networks, video-on-demand, multimedia and data networks, computer architecture, and performance evaluation.

The event recognizes leading engineers, scientists and technical professionals who have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievement and service within their respective societies.

The Wayne State alumni awardees included:

• Najwa Abouhassan, B.S. ’07, M.S. ’14, recipient of the SWE-Detroit Professional Section Consistent Contributor Award. Abouhassan holds two WSU degrees in electrical and computer engineering and is currently a senior engineer at DTE Energy.
• Latonya Waller, M.S. ’16, awarded the National Society of Black Engineers—Detroit Professionals Achievement Award. Waller is a recent graduate of the civil engineering program and serves as president of Wayne State’s ESD student chapter.
• Suzanne Dakin, B.S. ’93, Ph.D. ’00, recipient of the AIChE Detroit Section Distinguished Service Award. Dakin, who earned her degrees in chemical engineering from Wayne State, is a senior research engineer at BASF.

The three honorees were joined by Heinz Plaumann, AIChE Detroit Section board member and adjunct faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Charles Manke, AIChE Detroit Section board member and associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Engineering; and Chris Dakin, B.S. ’93, M.B.A. ’07.

Pictured right with the Wayne State contingent is Pranab Saha, the 2017 ESD Gold Award recipient.

A fellow is the highest classification of IISE membership. Only about 500 members of IISE have reached fellow status in the organization’s 69-year history, and Yang is the first Wayne State faculty member since 1985 to receive this distinction.

Yang’s research has greatly impacted the fields of quality and reliability engineering, as well as health care systems engineering. His research teams over the years played key roles in developing quality monitoring and control software implemented in more than 16 assembly plants for General Motors and Chrysler. In 2009, Yang was one of the founding proposal writers of the VA Center of Applied Systems Engineering, the largest U.S. health care systems engineering group.

He currently serves as the director of the Healthcare System Engineering Group at Wayne State University, which since 2009 has been awarded more than $6.2 million for its research projects.

Yang will be formally recognized as a fellow at the IISE Annual Meeting May 20 through 23 in Pittsburgh.

IISE is the world's largest professional membership society dedicated solely to the support of the industrial engineering profession and individuals involved with improving quality and productivity.

The Graduate School distributed more than $16,000 in prize money to 49 award-winning participants in the research poster and Three Minute Thesis competitions. Projects were evaluated by a group of faculty advisors, postdoctoral scholars and doctoral students.

Among the first place finishers were doctoral students Javad Roostaei (civil and environmental engineering) and Melissa Wrobel (biomedical engineering). Saeed Zamanzad Gavidel, a Ph.D. student in industrial and systems engineering, was one of several to place third.

Wrobel presented her project, “Using Spinal Cord Matrix Proteins and Hyaluronic Acid Nanofibers to Direct a Pro-Regenerative Phenotype in Macrophages and Schwann Cells.” She studied the responses of these two cell types to different biomaterial cues to determine their ability to induce regeneration and repair. Wrobel hopes to develop these biomaterials for use in implantable devices to treat nerve injuries.

Roostaei’s project, “Life Cycle Optimization Analysis of CO2 Sequestration by Wastewater-Based Algae,” integrated data mining and spatial analysis applications to study the potential of using wastewater for algae cultivation in treatment plants. Algae has offered promise in many studies to sustainably produce biofuel with minimal environmental impact.

Gavidel presented a research endeavor titled “Systematic Data-Driven Client Prioritization/Triage in Service Industries with Application in Remanufacturing Industries.” His research examined the effect of prioritization and triage strategies and the prioritization-triage change point on remanufacturing operations in order to address the high levels of end-of-use product uncertainty remanufacturers face, and also to recommend and develop more optimal systems.

The symposium, hosted by the WSU Graduate School, is intended to elevate students’ research experience and productivity; build new knowledge to improve science, health and society; and open new doors to students through networking opportunities. Read more about the symposium and see the full list of awardees.

This article was originally distributed via PRWeb. For the original version, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/03/prweb14175166.htm

A research team led by Mai Lam, Ph.D., published a method to engineer scalable and customizable vascular grafts in JoVE’s Video Journal, the world’s first peer-reviewed scientific video journal. The article demonstrates a method that may lead to new and improved ways of treating coronary artery disease (CAD). Lam is an assistant professor in the Wayne State University Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Cardiovascular Research Institute in the WSU School of Medicine.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women worldwide, according to the American Heart Association's 2016 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update. Coronary artery disease occurs when plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries. Over time, CAD can weaken the heart muscle and lead to heart failure and arrhythmias.

Current treatments for CAD frequently involve harvesting a patient's own blood vessels as graft material for bypass surgery. Frequently, ill patients do not have viable vessels to donate autologously. Even when patient blood vessels can be harvested, the donor site causes considerable additional harm and has a serious risk for infection.

While other methods exist for engineering vascular grafts, these methods are not easily scalable to produce grafts in the variety of sizes that clinicians need to treat individual patients. Lam's published video article demonstrates how engineered blood vessels can be readily manufactured in a variety of dimensions and lengths to meet the needs of the clinic and patient. An additional benefit of Lam’s method is that vascular grafts can be produced in two to three weeks, much faster than existing engineering techniques. In treating patients who are critically ill and in rapidly deteriorating health, this time discrepancy can make a significant difference in the patient outcome.

“The method of engineering vascular grafts that my research team at Wayne State University developed may lead to a profound difference in the way coronary heart disease is treated,” said Lam. “In light of the potential impact this method may have in treating a global leading cause of death, we elected to publish our experiment in JoVE Video Journal so that clinicians around the world will have access to a video demonstration detailing how to replicate this important technique.”

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About JoVE 
JoVE is the leading producer and publisher of video resources with the mission to increase productivity of research and education in science, medicine and engineering. Established in 2006, JoVE has produced over 6,000 video articles demonstrating experiments filmed in laboratories at top research institutions and delivered online to millions of scientists, educators and students worldwide. Today, JoVE subscribers include more than 1,000 universities, colleges, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including leading institutions such as Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, University of Melbourne, University of Tokyo and Tsinghua University. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, JoVE maintains offices in the United States, Europe, India, and Australia. Please visit http://www.jove.com to learn more.

About the Wayne State University College of Engineering
The Wayne State University College of Engineering is a leading engineering college known for improving quality of life through education, innovation and entrepreneurship. Located in Midtown Detroit, the college offers more than 50 degree programs through eight academic departments to over 3,700 students. Our 150 dedicated faculty and staff support student success by providing opportunities for experiential learning, global perspective, hands-on experience, research and community service. For more information about the Wayne State University College of Engineering, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

One particular resource recently introduced to students that has been particularly helpful is Handshake, a virtual job board that the College of Engineering began a working relationship with in August 2016. This relationship in many ways served as a pilot program that opened the door for Handshake to be made available university-wide.

“Engineering brought Handshake to campus in order to better assist students with finding jobs and internships, as well as make it easier for employers to connect with our students,” said Erin Rook, Program Coordinator for the Career Resource Center.

According to Rook, the College of Engineering began utilizing Handshake to provide students a more modern and accessible platform. Feedback has been very positive, as engineering students have noted that Handshake is easy to use, especially when it comes to responding quickly to job or internship opportunities and keeping track of their applications. There is also a free app for phones and tablets.

Handshake has been adopted by many other universities across the country, including Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Cornell, and Stanford. There are over 120,000 active employers on the platform including 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies.

Engineering students and recent graduates can use their WSU access ID to log in to Handshake. From there, they can upload a resume and complete a profile.

Philip Rathle, vice president of product at Neo4j, will make a presentation titled “New Frontiers in Data – From Aggregating the Hoards to Connecting the Dots” on March 23. Domino’s Pizza representatives Dan Djuric, vice president of global infrastructure and enterprise information services, and Cliff Miller, data integration manager, will co-present “Using Big Data to Derive Insights on Customers and Driving Change” the following afternoon.

Rathle will share his passion and knowledge developed over two decades working with data and databases, including his experience at Neo4j, a company that uses native graph storage specifically designed to manage interconnected data. He brings a deep understanding of technologies, tools and techniques that can be used to generate value from data.

Djuric and Miller are at the forefront of managing data and customer insight obtained from Domino’s multichannel approach and high-tech product delivery, as the company has made it possible to order pizza and interface with customers on numerous social media platforms and smart devices.

Neo4j and Domino’s will be among more than 100 leading companies gathered at Wayne State to discuss how big data strategies can drive business success. The symposium will present case studies from top practitioners and industry leaders as well as tutorials, networking receptions, panel discussions and a startup company showcase — a new feature for the event.

Registration for the Big Data and Business Analytics Symposium is ongoing, but early-bird rates end March 5. Learn more about the event at bigdata.wayne.edu/symposium.

Whitehead has been teaching BE 1500 – Introduction to Programming and Computation for Engineers since 2015. Jeff Potoff, associate dean for academic and student affairs in the College of Engineering — and the one who hired Whitehead two years ago — enthusiastically recommended her for this award.

“Tonya Whitehead is an outstanding educator, committed to student success and continuous improvement,” said Potoff, who noted that she implements many of what are considered best practices in STEM education, including active learning and flipped classrooms.

Whitehead served as a graduate student assistant in the Office for Teaching and Learning, frequently participating in various OTL workshops and events, including the voluntary Mid-Semester Assessment Program. She is also involved in the STEM Pedagogy Journal Club and the FutureSWE event, which promotes female participation in STEM fields.

“I believe that teaching undergraduate students is one of the most rewarding challenges that one can undertake,” said Whitehead. “My goal is to give students the tools to solve problems in class and in their future careers while preparing them to continue learning for a lifetime.”

Whitehead’s teaching philosophy is rooted in embracing diversity, keeping students engaged in the classroom and providing them with clear expectations. She has integrated peer mentoring into the BE 1500 course, and has worked to make the course a more inclusive and interactive learning experience, incorporating many elements based on student feedback.

“Each semester I strive to improve my courses by continuing to expand my knowledge of pedagogy, carefully reviewing suggestions made by students and doing my own reflection on what is going well in the course and what could work better,” said Whitehead.

Potoff believes Whitehead’s commitment to improving her teaching is what sets her apart from other educators, and noted that her Student Evaluation of Teaching scores have risen to well above the average of the course’s sections.

Whitehead earned her B.S. in computer engineering and M.S. in manufacturing and engineering management from Michigan State University. She also holds an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Wayne State and expects to complete her doctoral program this year.

As in years past, the conference agenda is built around the case studies of top practitioners and industry leaders. The symposium, which will stretch to two full days of activities this year, also presents keynote addresses from big data and analytics experts as well as tutorials, networking receptions, panel discussions and a startup company showcase — a new feature for the event.

“The panel sessions will create some rich discussions that will provide some clarity on big data, and we will complement these conversations with case studies where companies can report on real experiences and share best practices,” said Ratna Babu Chinnam, professor and co-director for the Big Data and Business Analytics Group at Wayne State University.

The philosophy of sharing and open discussion is at the core of this year’s event theme, “Doing it Right.” Chinnam explains that many companies launch data analysis initiatives that are not only expensive but also do not provide sufficient insight for developing sound strategies in marketing, product development, distribution sales or service.

“It’s not about companies coming in and saying ‘this is the right way to do it,’” said Chinnam. “We want them to tell others what they’ve done, what experiences they had with various projects, and what were the lessons learned so that others can benefit.”

Since its inception in 2014, the symposium has provided a platform for businesses and data-intensive individuals to learn new ways to navigate the vastly expanding big data space. It is estimated that more than 90 percent of the world’s data was generated in the last two years. The Big Data and Business Analytics Group at Wayne State was formed to develop innovative answers as to how to manage and leverage this information — as evidenced by the success of the symposium, which saw over 300 attendees in 2016. The group is anticipating up to 400 guests this year.

Wayne State’s commitment to leadership in big data was taken a step further when the WSU Board of Governors approved a new Master of Science program in Data Science and Business Analytics, a collaboration between the College of Engineering and the Mike Ilitch School of Business that will launch this fall.

Early bird registration for the Big Data and Business Analytics Symposium ends March 5. Learn more about the event at bigdata.wayne.edu/symposium.

Monday, February 20

Donut Kick-off

Host: Dean's Office

Time: 10 a.m.

Location: Engineering building lobby

Cost: Free

Details: The College of Engineering Dean's Office will be kicking off National Engineers Week with free donuts for students. First come first serve!

Smash the Canoe

Host: American Society of Civil Engineers

Time: 11 a.m.

Location: Corner of Warren Ave. & Anthony Wayne Dr. (outside of Engineering building)

Cost: $1 per swing

Details: Come swing a sledge hammer at one of our old concrete canoes!

Tuesday, February 21

Small Business Entrepreneurship Fair

Host: Engineering Society of Detroit

Time: 4-5:30 p.m.

Location: Ford Activity Center (Engineering room 1520)

Cost: Free (RSVP at this link)

Details: The Small Business Entrepreneurship Fair, hosted by ESD, promotes professional development skills; encourages students interested in entering STEM related career fields; and introduces students to STEM-related businesses in the Detroit area. This is an opportunity for local businesses to discuss potential employment opportunities and offer advice to people interested in joining their business or entering the entrepreneurial world. Among the organizations expected to attend are: TechTown, Detroit Aircraft Corporation, Smith Engineering, and Rock Ventures.

Bingo Night

Host: Society of Hispanic Engineers

Time: 5:30 p.m.

Location: Ford Activity Center (Engineering room 1520)

Cost: Free

Wednesday, February 22

Bright Minds & Brunch (sponsored by DTE Energy)

Host: Engineering Alumni Council

Time: 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

Location: Ford Activity Center (Engineering room 1520)

Cost: Free (RSVP at this link)

Details: Bright Minds & Brunch, sponsored by DTE Energy, is hosted by the Engineering Alumni Council which consists of a board of Wayne State University Alumni representing each field of study within the college. The morning will be comprised of a panel discussion with 5-7 alumni experienced in a variety of fields within the engineering industry.

Resume Workshop

Host: Biomedical Engineering Society

Time: 1-3 p.m.

Location: Ford Activity Center (Engineering room 1520)

Cost: Free

Engineering Jeopardy

Host: Biomedical Engineering Society

Time: 8:30 p.m.

Location: Engineering room 1507

Cost: Free

Thursday, February 23

AIChE Industry Panel

Host: AIChE - Wayne State Chapter

Time: 5-7 p.m.

Location: Ford Activity Center (Engineering room 1520)

Cost: Free

Details: Students will have an opportunity to network with leading alumni from multiple industries, who will provide career advice and answer questions.

Escape Room

Host: Recent Alumni Network

Time: 6 p.m.

Location: Linux Lab (room 2360)

Cost: Free (RSVP at this link)

Details: Teams of 4-8 students will have 30 minutes to escape the Linux Lab using their engineering skills. The team that escapes the fastest will be awarded prizes.

Networking & Fundraiser Night

Host: IEEE

Time: 6 p.m.

Location: bd’s Mongolian Grill (430 S. Main St. in Royal Oak)

Cost: $25 adults/$5 kids

Details: Proceeds from this event benefit the 2017 IEEE Student Leadership Conference, hosted by the WSU IEEE branch this March.

February 20-23

Penny Wars

Host: Tau Beta Pi

Time: All day

Location: Engineering room 2204

Cost: Spare change

Details: Defend your department with your spare change while raising funds for the Tau Beta Pi scholarship fund. One penny equals one point for your major, and silver coins or dollar bills subtract from the others!

Friday, February 24

Pi Contest

Host: Formula Hybrid

Time: 1:30-5:30 p.m.

Location: Ford Activity Center (Engineering room 1520)

Cost: $1-5

Details: The Formula Hybrid SAE team’s Pi Contest challenges students to see if they can recite Pi to more digits than anyone else on campus. The event will benefit the Wayne State HIGH Program as well as the new Food Pantry Initiative.

Saturday, February 25

Future SWE

Host: Society of Women Engineers

Time: 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Location: Wayne State Student Center

Cost: Free (RSVP at this link)

Details: The Wayne State University chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) will be hosting an event to support aspiring female engineers. Through hands-on activities led by current Wayne State engineering students, girls will be able to learn more about the different engineering disciplines and the college experience. Women working in the industry will be there to talk about their experiences, and students from the Hybrid Warriors EcoCAR 3 team will make a presentation. Parents and educators are invited to attend and learn more about preparing their students for success in college and tour Wayne State.

Engineering Futures (Team Chartering)

Host: Tau Beta Pi

Time: 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Location: Ford Activity Center (Engineering room 1520)

Cost: Free (RSVP at this link)

Details: Join Tau Beta Pi for a workshop on synergy and how it relates to more effective teamwork. Learn about how to make a team perform well, as well a show to set goals and define future plans for your team.

This event will bring together leaders and experts in information science and health care to explore the resources, devices and methods necessary to acquire, store, retrieve and use information in health and medicine.

Attendees will learn more about how Wayne State University’s internationally renowned faculty members are using health informatics and systems engineering to bolster effectiveness, efficiency, safety and quality in health care education, systems management, and medical research.

The symposium will feature a pair of keynote speakers: Alfred Hero, co-director of the Michigan Institute of Data Science at the University of Michigan, is an award-winning professor and researcher specializing in data integration in clinical medicine for predictive and personalized health applications; and Lucy Young, director of Corporate Management Services at Henry Ford Health System, will share outcomes from several projects related to quality improvement, cost reduction and information systems implementation she has led over her three decades in the health care industry.

Kai Yang, professor of industrial and systems engineering, is one of several WSU faculty members who will be among the presenters at various breakout sessions throughout the day. Yang is the director of the Healthcare System Engineering Group at Wayne State, which since 2009 has been awarded more than $6.2 million for its research projects.

”Health care informatics and health care systems engineering are emerging areas, and here at Wayne State University we have great talents in both,” said Yang. “I hope this symposium can make our faculty and researchers excited to collaborate internally and through outreach to explore the great opportunities in research and education.”  

The Health Informatics and Systems Engineering Symposium will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m. and will include lunch following the morning keynote and breakout sessions. The afternoon activities will lead into a panel discussion before the event closes at 4:30 p.m.

The event is free, but space is limited. Reserve your spot at events.wayne.edu or visit the symposium website for more information.

For over 10 years, Raven Engineering Inc. has been a manufacturer of automotive drive shafts. Located 40 miles north of WSU, Raven is a Michigan-based company helping to improve the performance of Hybrid Warriors’ EcoCAR3 by providing the team with the proper size propeller shaft.

The main objective of the propeller shaft is to connect a vehicle’s transmission to its rear differential in order to transmit torque from the engine to the wheels. When the engine is on, it provides a rotating power that is transferred throughout the vehicle using components such as the propeller shaft to make the wheels spin.

“The power is taken from the engine to the transmission, then it needs to move to the wheels,” WSU project manager Ali Hussein said. “The prop shaft helps with this by rotating and connecting to the rear differential of the car.”

With Raven’s help, the Hybrid Warriors reduce the weight of their EcoCAR3’s by cutting the original propeller shaft to the appropriate length and re-welding it. By eliminating excess weight, WSU’s EcoCAR3 is able to accelerate quicker and transfer energy more efficiently.

AIRAID is another WSU sponsor working to increase the EcoCAR3’s performance. Based in California, AIRAID has focused on the automotive aftermarket industry with engine air intake systems for the last 10 years.

The air filter plays an important role to keep the engine’s components clear in order for a vehicle to run. AIRAID donated a filter and an engine air intake system kit to be integrated into Hybrid Warriors’ EcoCAR3. Hussein believes the donated engine air intake system will be an improvement over the team’s previous system.

“The cleaner the air and the more air we are able to provide to the engine, the better the performance,” Hussein said. “By using the AIRAID filter, we are able to achieve better performance from our engine while also creating a lot of packaging space in our engine bay.”

Hussein and his team appreciate the support and collaboration of Raven and AIRAID throughout the EcoCAR3 competition. With continued support from their sponsors, the Hybrid Warriors progress to create an environmentally friendly vehicle while maintaining power and high performance.

Contact: Kim Gallagher, WSU EcoCAR3 Communications Manager

The career fair featured 32 employers from different engineering disciplines. “It wasn't just the big contenders like GM or DTE,” according to one student who was surveyed following the event. “It made it so that even us juniors had a solid chance at a summer internship.”

This is the second year that the College of Engineering has held a Winter Career Fair to connect students and employers in response to the popularity of the Fall Career Fair. 

Many students were able to make connections with recruiters before the event and meet with them during the career fair. “The whole event was positive. I was able to meet with very relevant representatives from Little Caesars,” another student wrote. “I had just applied to them a few days before, and I got to meet the woman who was head of hiring for the position group I applied for. I had a great conversation with her and got her business card.”

Employers were equally impressed with the high turnout, with some tables having lines of students waiting to meet with company representatives. 

“An education at Wayne State really just gave me an introduction to the professional world,” said alumnus Michael Oben, an IT recruiter for Quicken Loans who has been with the company for two-and-a-half years. “Wayne State really gave me the tools to take my career to the next level.”

The College of Engineering had a post-graduation employment rate of 93 percent in the 2015-16 academic year. 

For more information on the College of Engineering’s career resources, visit their website.

Mao’s I-Corps project, “Electrochemical Deposition of Organic Nanowire Sensors,” aims to improve gas sensing for chemical and environmental monitoring, food safety and antiterrorism capabilities.

According to Mao, the global gas sensor market is estimated to be about $20 billion, while the subset of the nanosensor segment was only $13.1 million in 2014. The small market size is partially attributed to the lack of feasible manufacturing techniques that allow the utilization of novel nanomaterials for sensor applications. The complexity and cost have prevented rapid growth of the domestic nanosensor market despite tremendous progress in nanomaterials research and development.

“This technology may reduce the cost and complexity of the manufacturing of nanowire sensors and could potentially propel significant growth of the nanosensor market,” said Mao.

The project will pursue a gas sensor manufacturing technology, which is compatible with current microelectronics.

“We will rely on a solution crystallization process that places nanowires directly and precisely on chips,” said Mao. “The technology stems from a discovery of organic crystalline compounds that were mixed with nanoparticles, and nanowires nucleated on nanoparticles upon solvent evaporation.”

The nanowire sensor has been tested against a number of gases to obtain sensor performance data. In current competing technologies, nanowires need to be aligned and placed at precise locations and orientations on the patterned substrates, a complex process to scale up. The method being developed by Mao and her research team will synthesize organic nanowires directly on the metal substrates by using the substrate pattern as nucleation points for the nanowire growth and orientation.

The award number for this National Science Foundation I-Corp grant is 1657327.

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About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu.

Contact: Julie O'Connor
Phone: (313) 577-8845
Email: julie.oconnor@wayne.edu

This initiative was introduced in November with the goal of organizing a team of experts to identify the knowledge, skills and abilities needed in the workforce in order to implement new technologies, materials, and processes in manufacturing. LIFT and APLU selected the team from APLU’s 28 member universities across the LIFT five-state region, as well as LIFT’s other university research partners which includes Wayne State.

"It is my great honor to represent the College of Engineering and Wayne State University and participate in efforts to align lightweight technology development with education and workforce needs,” said Liao, whose teaching and research interests include mechanical design, multi-body dynamics, and hybrid vehicle powertrain.

Established in February 2014 at the behest of the Obama administration’s National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, LIFT is a Detroit-based public-private partnership dedicated to developing and deploying advanced lightweight metal manufacturing technologies, and implementing education and training programs to expand U.S. competitiveness and innovation. The organization’s regional focus encompasses Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Representing Wayne State were mechanical engineering students Kadhim Allohaibi, Andy Gutierrez and Tyler Knott; industrial and systems engineering major Andrew Jacks; and electrical engineering students Ahmad Aledrisi and Hunter Thornhill.

Thornhill, a freshman at WSU, appreciated the invitation after being on Yazaki’s radar since interviewing for an internship as a senior at Canton High School, which is only a 10-minute drive from the company’s North American headquarters. The event’s exclusivity was not lost on Jacks either, who saw several of his friends participate over the years and was relieved in his senior year to be offered the chance.

“After years of waiting on the sidelines, I finally got into the game,” said Jacks.

Each student was paired with a Yazaki engineer and, upon arriving at Cobo Hall in the morning, had the opportunity to network with their mentors during breakfast in the Yazaki hospitality suite, where product displays also gave them greater familiarity with the company.

Following a welcome from Yazaki’s chief engineers, the students and mentors made their way to the showroom floor, where they had full access to displays, exhibitions and more than 750 vehicles during the two Industry Preview days at NAIAS. Naturally, everyone had their favorites.

“The BMW I8 was very impressive because it’s a classic BMW sports car, but it’s also a hybrid,” said Jacks, who also noted his fondness for the Ford GT and the Chevrolet Colorado. Thornhill commented that the Lexus U.S. concept vehicle “was a beautiful SUV.”

A normal day at NAIAS can attract well over 100,000 people, but the students and mentors were among only a few thousand business and industry leaders, allowing them to see the show from a different perspective.

“On Industry Days, unlike the public offering, you have a chance to go inside some of the locked vehicles and look under the hood,” said Jacks. “It’s much more hands-on.”

The wealth of knowledge from Yazaki mentors helped the students link classroom lessons with real-world applications as they toured NAIAS for over two hours.

"These students have the opportunity to see up close the vehicles and technologies that will shape the future automotive landscape," said Doug Burcicki, BSEE ’93, chief engineer in engineering operations for Yazaki and member of the WSU College of Engineering Board of Visitors.

Yazaki was looking to gain knowledge as well, as the company used the event to conduct market research for a fresh perspective on the automotive space from the next generation.

"This is our chance to learn from the students, pick their brains and see what makes millennials different," said Burcicki.

Spending the day with Yazaki engineers gave the students plenty to consider regarding their own futures.

“I originally wanted to go into the power electronics field, so the biggest takeaway for me was learning about electrical engineering in the auto industry, because I didn’t have much insight about it,” said Thornhill. “There’s a lot of career pathways for electrical engineers in the auto industry, and that’s one of the most important things I learned from this experience.”

A Flint native, Jacks said he’s been around car culture his whole life. His father worked for over 30 years at General Motors, and his sister works there today. While he is currently completing a co-op at DTE Energy, Jacks could see himself in the auto industry, especially after observing how passionate Yazaki engineers were about their profession.

“They told us to stay curious and find something that you love to do,” said Jacks.

Find more insight and photos from program participants on Twitter and Instagram by searching #NAIASyazaki.

Photos and quotes from Doug Burcicki courtesy of Yazaki North America, Inc.

“The 2017 Student Leadership Conference will be a remarkable event for engineering students, focusing on leadership and professional development,” said Wayne State IEEE chair Christopher Lopez. “All students planning to attend are bound to have a fantastic experience.”

The conference will feature a coding competition, an interview competition, a career fair and luncheon with professionals. The Wayne State IEEE Chapter will also be introducing a pitch competition — something new to the SLC program. The pitch competition will challenge students to come up with an idea and how to develop it, presenting their pitch to industry professionals.

The Wayne State IEEE chapter was presented with the Outstanding Student Branch award at the IEEE Southeastern Michigan fall conference in December for their high level of activity, including planning business tours, professional development events and the SLC.

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. For more information on the Wayne State student branch, visit their website.

For conference registration information, visit the IEEE SLC conference website.

Wang collaborated on the paper, “Control of Vehicle Platoons for Highway Safety and Efficient Utility: Consensus with Communications and Vehicle Dynamics,” with fellow WSU faculty members George Yin, Abhilash Pandya and Hongwei Zhang, as well as Ph.D. student Ali Syed.

Recognizing that highway vehicle control is a critical component of developing smart transportation systems, the team’s research examined some of the challenges associated with longitudinal platoon formation, a strategy that ensures vehicles move in the same lane at the same speed with preferable distance maintained between them. While platoons offer promise in terms of safety, fuel economy and lower emissions for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, there are challenges with vehicle control, communication and coordination.

This paper presents a new method for coordinated control of platoons by using integrated network consensus decisions and vehicle control. The group used unique algorithms to establish a vehicle pattern and achieve global coordination of the entire platoon.

The Journal of Systems Science and Complexity is a bimonthly journal that publishes high-quality, original and innovative papers on theories, methodologies and applications of systems science and complexity science, as well as insightful survey papers.

For his article, “The role of online instruction in engineering education,” Zhao interviewed 20 of his fellow WSU faculty members, asking whether they believed the traditional classroom setting was becoming obsolete, if they thought online education would ultimately rule, and what engineering and science education will look like 20 years from now.

Read the TechCentury article or visit the Engineering Society of Detroit website for more information.

Analytics is a fast-growing STEM field with a high demand for individuals who possess the skills and expertise necessary to navigate the process of transforming data into insight for making sound business decisions.

“While a lot of programs have been created in recent years, most of them tend to focus on just technology or analytics or the business case,” said Ratna Babu Chinnam, one of the directors of the Big Data Group at Wayne State. The novel and interdisciplinary MSDSBA program is designed to give graduates a balanced core of computing, business, statistics and operations research skills to identify, analyze and solve analytics problems.

The program offers specialized training in order for students to integrate those skills in an interdisciplinary fashion, preparing graduates to succeed in various business, industry and government careers.

“There is critical shortage of good talent in the Midwest, and the program hopes to produce a stream of high-quality graduates in the years to come,” said Chinnam.

 “The depth of the commitment that Wayne State has made in the area of big data and business analytics is very refreshing and quite impressive,” said Jim Anderson, CEO of Urban Science and a College of Engineering Hall of Fame inductee. “Students should be interested in the area because it is the future.”

Anderson and Urban Science are among the industry experts and companies who have participated in Wayne State’s Big Data and Business Analytics Symposium, held every March since 2014. Representatives from DTE Energy, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Chrysler, Henry Ford Health System, Quicken Loans, IBM and many other corporations have expressed a strong interest in Wayne State establishing a master’s program of this kind.

“While the symposia have started to address the need within the business community for better understanding the business case and effective design and deployment of big data systems, technologies and processes, this program seeks to address the talent gap,” said Chinnam.

The MSDSBA program is a collaboration of the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the College of Engineering, as well as several departments from the Mike Ilitch School of Business.

“The business school’s role is to provide a broad perspective to the role and importance of analytics to business,” said Mike Ilitch School of Business Associate Dean Toni Somers. “A primary focus is on pursuing ‘analytics that matter’— those that are associated with sustainable competitive advantage.”

The MSDSBA program requires students to complete a minimum of 30 credits, including 24 credits in coursework and a six-credit practicum final project with industry.

Applicants must meet requirements for admission to the Wayne State University Graduate School. Students must have earned a bachelor’s or its equivalent in engineering or business from an accredited college or university. Students from all STEM disciplines will be considered for admission on a case-by-case basis. Learn more at engineering.wayne.edu/data-analytics.

The Warrior Fund process began in October with a series of video submissions from aspiring entrepreneurs. The field was narrowed to a group of semifinalists who benefited from coaching sessions within the Innovation Warriors’ Blackstone LaunchPad entrepreneurship program prior to making a 10-minute pitch to a panel of judges in November. The finalists made one last presentation to outside investors in early December.

Industrial and systems engineering senior Iyinoluwa Omishope, founder and CEO of It Comes Naturally LLC received $5,000 for her product called Skin Shield, a natural and organic mosquito repellent. Omishope intends to distribute her product in the United States and donate it to African countries in order to combat the spread of diseases such as Zika. The funds she received will be put toward efficacy testing as well as marketing and sales. Omishope was enrolled in the DTX Launch Detroit summer accelerator at TechTown this year.

Sean Carroll presented on behalf of EnBiologics LLC a company he co-founded with fellow WSU biomedical engineering students Ramy Habib and Gregory Apers. Their product, HoneyCure, is a natural wound care ointment made from honey and antibiotics used by veterinarians. The company, which was featured in the college’s most recent Exemplar magazine, also received $5,000 to boost its marketing and sales efforts as well as inventory.

The team from MySwimPro, led by Mike Ilitch School of Business alumnus and former WSU swimmer  Fares Ksebati, received $2,000 to translate the company’s mobile app into four other languages. MySwimPro tracks performance and metric data for competitive and leisure swimmers. The app has over 100,000 downloads and was voted 2016 Apple Watch App of the Year.

While mechanical engineering alumnus Julian Bates did not receive an award from Innovation Warriors, he was given a verbal commitment from Automation Alley to help develop C.A.F.E. (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Clutch, a patent-pending, frictionless one-way clutch used in first gear of automobile transmissions and engine start/stop systems. Bates will receive assistance with proof of concept and customer relationship building, and also become eligible to apply for a grant of $10,000 or more.

“Since 2012, the Warrior Fund has been helping kick-start some of the city’s most promising student entrepreneurs,” said Aubrey Agee, acting director of Innovation Warriors. “Innovation Warriors and our partners will continue to work with these businesses, coaching them, connecting them to resources and keeping these great talents here in Detroit, where they will continue to contribute to the region’s economic vitality.”

Warrior Fund judges included Lori Mazurek from Comerica Bank, which is also the sponsor of the competition; Kwaku Osei from Cooperative Capital; Derek Edwards from Invest Detroit; Dom Holmes from Automation Alley; Justin Anderson from Solidea; and Gary Witus from Wayne State’s Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute.

“As a company committed to the success of Detroit and the small business owners that help drive that success, Comerica and its charitable foundation are proud to support programs such as the Wayne State University Warrior Fund,” said Janice Tessier, Michigan contributions manager for Comerica Bank. “We’re proud that our support of the Warrior Fund over the past four years has helped foster new and innovative entrepreneurs in Detroit and Southeast Michigan and is helping to accelerate the growth of small businesses in our community."

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Innovation Warriors is Wayne State’s entrepreneurship hub, encouraging and supporting students, alumni, faculty, staff and the community at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey. IW is a program of WSU’s Office of Economic Development.

Microgrids are localized energy transmission systems that can disconnect from the traditional power grid to operate autonomously. They are meant to ensure local, reliable and affordable energy solutions for urban and rural communities while serving to lower emissions, improve efficiency and integrate with renewable energy resources.

Wang and his colleagues presented an optimal unit-sizing method for standalone microgrids, applying their method to the design and development of a real microgrid system on Dongfushan Island in the Zhejiang Province of China. This system consists of wind turbine generators, solar panels, diesel generators and battery storage units.

Dongfushan Island is the farthest eastern inhabited island in China. In order to improve the quality of life for the island’s residents, the Dongfushan Microgrid Project was started in September 2010 and completed in April 2011. The project was designed to improve power delivery quality and reduce the reliance on diesel engine generators for electrical power. It also supplies fresh water via a seawater desalination system.

Authors of the papers that received these awards were invited to the International Conference on Applied Energy in Beijing this past October.

Applied Energy, a journal published by Elsevier, provides a forum for information on innovation, research, development and demonstration in the areas of energy conversion and conservation, the optimal use of energy resources, analysis and optimization of energy processes, mitigation of environmental pollutants, and sustainable energy systems.

Wayne State’s IEEE student chapter was recognized in particular for its high activity level last semester, most notably in planning to host the 2017 IEEE Region 4 Student Leadership Conference in March. The group also organized tours of the DTE Wind Farm and the DTE Monroe Power Plant; a career and professional development workshop with Dr. Tarek Lahdhiri, a global strategy leader for General Motors; and an Internet of Things workshop.

“The amount of dedication and work that the students are putting on their student branch is tremendous and deserves recognition. We are honored and proud to have such a representation at WSU,” said Nevrus Kaja, chair of the IEEE-SEM fall conference.

The IEEE Region 4 Student Leadership Conference is the largest IEEE student event in the Midwest, with an average participation of over 150 engineering students from more than 15 regional universities. Wayne State will host the event March 16 through 18 at the Troy Community Center in Troy, Mich.

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. For more information on the Wayne State student branch, visit their website.

“I am so happy to be selected by ACM for this great honor that recognizes my contributions on distributed systems and energy efficient software,” said Shi. “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Wayne State University's Career Development Chair program, which allows me to start working on energy efficiency after getting tenure.”

This is just one of the many honors Shi has received this year. Shi was a recipient of the College of Engineering Faculty Research Excellence Award. In August, he was appointed to editorial positions for two industry publications.

His research interests include mobile and cloud computer systems.  Shi’s group has made significant contributions to the field on power profiling and management. pTop, a tool that can tell users how much power/energy an app has used, has been downloaded more than 600 times all over the world since its release in 2010.

Detroit Aerial Innovations provides students with knowledge, resources, and materials needed to construct their own UAV model. Additionally, the organization focuses on the social impacts and implications of UAVs, specifically addressing how these devices can be used as tools in society and their place in the revitalization of Detroit.

Albert Jose on WDTK AM 1400 (11/24/2016):

Note: this article originally ran in the Fall 2016 edition of Exemplar.

As part of its activities to advance innovation and entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering, the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute also makes investments in the development of new ideas and technologies created by faculty and students. In late September, the institute’s advisory board met to review and discuss some of the most promising new ideas, and recommended $178,500 in funding to be divided between six projects.

Over several months, Anderson Institute Director Sorin Draghici and Associate Director Gary Witus helped aspiring faculty members and students develop their applications. A total of 23 applications were submitted — four from students and 19 from faculty. The field was narrowed to eight finalists, six of whom were competitively selected to present to the Advisory Board, an 18-member panel of professionals with expertise in technology commercialization, entrepreneurship and innovation. The board includes partners or managing directors of venture capital firms in Southeast Michigan, lawyers with expertise in IP and startup companies, several successful entrepreneurs, angel investors, and former high-ranking executives from large companies.

Each of the funded projects will receive further support through the Anderson Institute, including introductions to other early funding opportunities, guidance in the preparation of grant applications and help in structuring the startup companies.

As the college embeds innovation and entrepreneurship into its curriculum, additional requests for funding are expected, and more technologies are already under consideration for the next Advisory Board meeting.

Projects:

ADVANCED HIGH-STRENGTH STEEL

Dr. Susil K. Putatunda, Chemical Engineering; Shashank Nellikuppam, Chemical Engineering

Nanostructured steel that is high strength, high fracture, low weight and low cost.

BÉBÉ BEAT

Emily Baughman, MSPH, CHES; Kamaljit Chalal, Computer Engineering; Mojgan Mehrabi, Computer Science; Brandon Wong, Electrical Engineering

A haptic device that offers peace of mind to parents having their first child by keeping in constant touch with their infant.

CARBON FOOTPRINT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: LOCATIONAL EMISSIONS ESTIMATION METHODOLOGY (LEEM)

Dr. Carol Miller, Civil Engineering; Loch McCabe, Shepherd Advisors; Stephen S. Miller, Commonwealth Associates; Guoyao Xu, Ph.D. Candidate; Todd Sykes, LEED; Dr. Caisheng Wang, Electrical and Computer Engineering

A software tool to monitor the emissions and carbon footprint associated to the energy consumption in real time.

CELL-BASED CARTILAGE REPAIR SOLUTION 

Dr. Howard Matthew, Chemical Engineering; Kevin Miles, Chemical Engineering

A mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) augmented material solution that repairs and regenerates joint cartilage by using a pair of injectable or 3-D printable “inks” using patient-derived, adult stem cells.

ITCH FREE NATURAL INSECTICIDE

Iyinoluwa Omishope, Industrial Systems Engineering

A DEET-free, natural, carrier oil-based mosquito and insect repellent that also serves as a skin moisturizer and sunscreen.

NOVEL SYSTEM OF SUPERCRITICAL CO2 DRYERS

Michael Golfetto, Chemistry; Grant Lorimer, Biomedical Engineering

A supercritical CO2 dryer for low-cost, high-volume, high-quality graphene.

POLIDBONE CEMENT FOR THE REPAIR OF BONE DEFECTS

Dr. Weiping Ren, Biomedical Engineering; Rose Carmichael, BONWRX; Song W, Ph.D.; Dr. David Markel, Providence Hospital

PolidBone is an injectable, high-cohesion, high-strength bone replacement/cement that lowers risk of infection and reduces health care costs by decreasing surgery and recovery times.

SKYPERSONIC SAFE DRONE TECHNOLOGY KIT

Professor Giuseppe Santangelo, Mechanical Engineering

A drone development toolkit that enhances STEM education.

Mashayekhy, whose dissertation is titled "Resource Management in Cloud and Big Data Systems," received her Ph.D. in computer science from Wayne State in August 2015 under the supervision of Associate Professor Daniel Grosu. She joined the University of Delaware as an assistant professor of computer science last fall.

The IEEE TCSC Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award is an annual award to recognize candidates that have recently received a Ph.D. within the last two years and have written an outstanding dissertation in the field of scalable computing. This award was established to encourage doctoral research that combines theory and practice, or makes in-depth technical contributions, having the potential to contribute to the IEEE TCSC.

Founded in 1884, IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

Khan and his team presented an app that allows Chicago citizens to report traffic issues, broken signals and potholes just by taking a picture. The city can then use the phone’s location services to track where the photo was taken and fix the issue. He also created a way to reward local businesses for helping.

The team placed first out of 175 students and received a 4-day pass to next year’s Lollapalooza music festival, guaranteed admission to the summer ThinkChicago event, and interest from Chicago tech startups.

In response to an imminent need for skilled technicians in advanced manufacturing and automotive technology within the area of lightweight materials, the two institutions intend to develop integrated curriculum in these emerging technologies in order to develop a deeper talent pipeline of educators and industry leaders. Courses will be multidisciplinary, project-based and designed around specific lightweight materials or categories of materials, rather than focused on specific manufacturing disciplines.

“The use of lightweight materials in manufacturing has emerged as a transforming innovation,” said Chen. “Lightweight materials are changing the nature of advanced manufacturing, from designing for manufacturability to the manufacturing processes to the repair of parts and objects built with these materials. Concurrent with this shift in materials and the corresponding changes in design and manufacturing processes is the need to train the workforce of today and tomorrow in these technologies.”

Washtenaw Community College is also joining with Square One Educational Network to engage and recruit K-12 students in lightweight manufacturing training, a key strategy in addressing the sustainability of the advanced manufacturing industry.

This project is the first of its kind in Michigan and unique across the nation in that it will develop course materials and laboratory exercises in lightweight materials and their broad applications for community college students and technicians.

“Southeast Michigan is a leader in research and development for lightweight materials manufacturing in the aerospace, automotive, defense and health care sectors,” said Chen. “As the use of these materials becomes more widespread, design and manufacturing technicians will require education and training to incorporate new technologies and processes into their skill bases.”

The principal investigator for this project is Thomas Penird, professor of industrial technology at WCC. Allen Day, professor of automotive services at WCC, is a co-principal investigator.

The grant number for this project is 1601261.

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering more than 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

Interfacial tension and contact angle measurements provide valuable information in different applications where three-phase (solid-fluid-fluid) or two-phase (fluid-fluid) interfaces exist. While many industrially relevant phenomena happens at ambient conditions, others, such as those in oil reservoirs, take place under extreme conditions of pressures and temperatures, and thus require specialized strategies to determine the interfacial properties that are of great relevance to important phenomena such as flow in enhanced oil recovery, and precipitation of asphaltenes. In the webinar, participants discuss strategies for the measurement of interfacial tension and contact angle at high pressures and temperatures as well as their functional properties in different industries. The webinar is free and all are welcome to join!

To learn more and register visit http://www.biolinscientific.com/types-events/webinar-measuring-with-attension-high-pressure-chamber/

Note: This is the third in a three-part series of feature stories highlighting the achievements of the Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame class of 2016.

Kathy Kay, BSCS ’83, is passionate about leveraging technology to develop business strategies and deliver results. It’s why she is so well suited for her role as vice president of business technology at the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). She is also passionate about diversity and inclusion, particularly when it comes to bolstering an information technology workforce only 25 percent occupied by women.

When Kay made the move to San Francisco and joined PG&E a little over a year ago, she was attracted to its commitment to diversity. It was outwardly evident in the number of women holding leadership roles, including Chief Information Officer Karen Austin and Vice President of IT Operations Valerie Bell.

Kay also has three women on her leadership team of technology professionals focused on developing strategic solutions for gas and electric operations, corporate services solutions, and energy supply.

“I feel as though my best teams have been the most diverse,” said Kay, who will be inducted into the Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame on Nov. 3. “I like the unique viewpoints and the different dynamic a diverse team offers.”

She has been a voice for the underrepresented everywhere she has been during a 30-year career that has intersected the automotive, finance and energy industries.

Kay has led diversity programs and initiatives nearly every step of the way to try and combat “worrisome” gender trends in engineering. She was active with the Michigan Council of Women in Technology, and this summer gave a keynote address at the IEEE Women in Engineering conference. Kay also serves on the board of directors of the San Francisco YMCA, looking to infuse some new STEM youth outreach programs.

“It’s incredibly important to have role models for girls who are interested (in technology),” said Kay. “I spend a lot of time mentoring girls to get them interested. I think it’s part of my responsibility as a female in IT and engineering.”

Kay’s development as a role model was set in motion long ago as she grew up in northeast Detroit and attended Osborn High School. In her junior year, she went on a Focus: HOPE retreat with other hand-picked students, who were told that they were viewed as leaders among their peers, that their teachers and community believed in them, and that someday they would also need to give back to their community.

Earning a full merit scholarship to Wayne State, she set out to make good on the faith people had in her. Kay’s initial plan was to become a doctor. That changed after her first semester, when she discovered she loathed biology; however, it didn’t take long to make a new plan.

“I took a programming class because I liked math and science, but also people coming out of computer science were getting jobs that paid well,” said Kay. “I loved it immediately, and I have stayed in it my whole career.”

Kay recalls that the computer science curriculum at Wayne State was one of the most technical in the country, and it helped her get a jump on her career. She was connected to a paid internship opportunity her junior year at Burroughs Corporation, once a major business equipment manufacturer that produced adding machines in its infancy and grew to be a major player in computers.

She built a parts inventory system, which Burroughs wound up installing in its facilities across the country. Kay’s influence even at an intern level was remarkable, as she gained valuable experience building and deploying software and found a niche as a fixer and problem solver.

Following graduation, two decades at General Motors, and another three years at OnStar, Kay left the automotive space and moved into the banking profession as a technology officer, first at Comerica and then at SunTrust Bank in Atlanta. She attributes her versatility to a love for helping people and adapting her skills to new industries.

“One thing I’ve learned is that you have to make sure the technology you’re providing is aligned to what the company or users want,” said Kay. “You end up spending a lot of time with the people who are going to use the systems you’re developing, and you must make sure you understand their business and what they need so you can deploy something that is of value to them.

“When you do that, you learn the business,” she continued. “You can’t be a good technologist and not know the industry you’re trying to build technology for.”

Since joining PG&E, Kay quickly realized how much of the utility industry hinges on technology – everything from smart grids, to sensors, to storage. She echoes her company’s commitments to safety and to providing reliable and affordable energy to more than 15 million customers over a 70,000-square-mile territory.

Besides being aligned philosophically, Kay likes the fact that there are a few Michigan ties at PG&E, including Chief Executive Officer Anthony Earley — the former CEO of DTE Energy — and Austin, who was once CIO of Kmart.

“There’s this little Detroit community there, so it’s made it very easy to feel like there’s a little bit of home,” said Kay.

Kay is pleased with her accomplishments — including her upcoming Hall of Fame induction — but she notes her greatest achievement is having raised two children who have gone on to their own success.

She is also a proud alumna, having rekindled her school spirit when she attended an alumni event last year in San Francisco. Kay heard President Wilson speak about the university’s growth, and also had an opportunity to see it it firsthand when she visited WSU in September. She believes there is a sincerity to Wayne State’s approach to making sure its graduates go on to professional and personal success.

“I think Wayne State has a much more personal focus with its students, which is great,” said Kay. “Seeing where Wayne State is today, I’m really proud to be part of it.”

####

Kay and fellow inductees Olga Alavanou, BSEE ’88, and Jeff Yanssens, BSME ’83, will be enshrined in the Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame at the college’s annual awards dinner on Thursday, Nov. 3, at 6 p.m. at the Detroit Institute of Arts. To make a reservation, visit specialevents.wayne.edu/hof2016.

The Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame was founded in 1983 to recognize and honor distinguished alumni who, through their leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation, have made significant industrial, educational and societal contributions to the engineering and computer science professions. The Hall of Fame celebrates the rich history of the College of Engineering and provides exceptional standards by which Wayne State University engineering students can measure success.

Grimm will serve in this position for one year to help identify the needs of the aging population as they strive to remain independent as well as how technologies can assist with this goal. The task force is made up of many representatives from departments and agencies across the federal government, including the National Science Foundation.  Grimm is currently on leave from the University as she serves as Program Director for the General & Age-Related Disabilities Engineering Program and the Biomedical Engineering Program at the NSF.

“I am pleased to have been given this exciting opportunity to interact with individuals from numerous federal agencies in order to evaluate the current state of technologies that support independence for our aging population, as well as identify areas that deserve attention through research and development,” said Grimm.  “It is an opportunity to learn a lot as well as provide my expertise to this project.”

At Wayne State, Grimm served as associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering from 2003 through 2010. She returned to the biomedical engineering department in 2010 to establish the highly successful undergraduate program.

The voluntary process was completed in August, and accreditation has been retroactively applied to October 1, 2013, meaning all alumni of the program have graduated from an ABET-accredited program.

“The BSBME program has a strong core of engineering and includes a focus on applying engineering design to solving current biomedical problems,” said Michele Grimm, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Wayne State. Grimm was a driving force behind Wayne State earning accreditation for the program, as she served as an evaluator for ABET and is now commissioner of the Engineering Accreditation Commission.

“Students start working on client-based design projects in their freshman year and get significant experience with design, prototyping and validation of their systems,” continued Grimm.  “In addition, all students gain expertise in FDA design controls and regulations. The design program was recognized by the evaluation team as a strength in the program.”

While biomedical engineering education has evolved over more than half a century at Wayne State, the undergraduate program was just established in 2010 and admitted its first class of students that year. A total of 59 students have completed the program over three graduating classes, and most have continued on to graduate school, medical school or employment in various industries.

The ABET accreditation adds another layer of quality assurance to the program and is a clear indicator to students, employers and society that the BSBME program meets the highest educational standards.

VDI is a form of desktop virtualization that allows end users to access a desktop operating system inside a virtual machine hosted by a central server cluster. This allows Connect Services to configure and manage software offerings to computer science students and faculty remotely without the need for visiting physical workstations in classrooms.

“Prior to VDI, software distribution could take up to 24 hours of continuous downtime to load the computers with a fresh copy of software required for teaching in an average classroom of 25 to 30 computers,” said Andrew Murrell, associate director of information technology for the College of Engineering. “With VDI, the same process has been reduced to under 45 minutes, with zero classroom downtime.”

Murrell also noted that a future software update, which will be implemented before the start of the winter semester, will allow for near instantaneous software distribution so faculty and instructors can request software changes and have them fulfilled while class is still in session.

The most visible change is in the eight computer science computer labs on campus, where 230 obsolete computer workstations were replaced with zero clients, a low-power embedded device that allows access to the VDI-hosted virtual machines as if they were a physical computer in front of the end user. Other upgrades included new chairs at each workstation and larger LED monitors.

The new system is largely the result of hard work put forth by Murrell and Jeremy Nofs, a systems integrator for Connect Services who was integral in architecting and implementing the system. They have spent over a year virtualizing the labs using VMware Horizon View software.

“This technology acts like remote access but functions more like you’re sitting at an actual computer,” said Murrell, who noted that one of several advantages to implementing this system is the hands-off nature when it comes to students’ devices and hardware while still allowing for the same in-classroom computing environment from anywhere with a broadband internet connection.

The administrative strain of updating and installing software has been drastically reduced. College of Engineering students frequently require the use of complex software to complete their coursework. The Connect Services IT staff would previously receive at least 1,000 student software requests per semester, which would each take up to three hours to fulfill. Additionally, compatibility issues with student computers are a thing of the past, and the university will enjoy significant savings over time in terms of energy and labor with this new system.

The computing hardware for the entire VDI system is located in a space comparable in size to a filing cabinet. The power of more than 230 computers is contained in four multi-core, high-powered server nodes. Should one of the four nodes fail, the infrastructure is designed to have redundancy so that the computing environment will continue to function as normal.

Students and faculty will reap many benefits from the VDI system, which is certain to enhance distance learning and online curricula. Students will also appreciate the fact that “an $1,800 laptop and a $200 laptop can do the exact same thing through this system,” said Murrell. Referring to internet speed requirements for using the system outside of the university’s network, “If your internet connection at home can run Netflix, using the system will give you the same computing experience you receive in the classroom,” Murrell said.

Feedback from computer science students has been positive. “I really enjoy the chairs in the lab on the third floor of State Hall,” said junior Armando Arteaga. “Programming for long hours can really take a toll on your spine if you don't have the proper equipment and postures.”

“The environment is very clean, open, and I actually like completing my work in there,” added senior India Owens. “The renovations show me that department cares about providing its student with the tools they need for their education.”

Note: This is the second in a three-part series of feature stories highlighting the achievements of the Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame class of 2016.

Jeff Yanssens, BSME ’83, rides his bike through the streets of Detroit quite often. It lets him see the city through a different lens than most people. Yanssens recently had about a dozen fellow cycling enthusiasts riding with him. He relished in the opportunity to showcase some of Detroit’s hidden gems.

“There’s a life-size statue of George Washington that is right on Jefferson,” noted Yanssens, “and most people don’t even know it’s there.”

The ties to the Motor City run deep for Yanssens, one of three Wayne State alumni set to be enshrined in the College of Engineering Hall of Fame in November. He has spent his entire life here and worked at General Motors for more than three decades. For the last three years, Yanssens has served as chief engineer of GM’s large luxury cars unit, and recently led an international effort to develop the 2017 Buick LaCrosse, which is being built at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center (D-HAM) and at SGM in Shanghai.

“The rebirth of Detroit is really important to me,” said Yanssens, who proudly boasts that his latest signature vehicle brought in sufficient volume to add a second shift of 1,400 employees at D-HAM.

While attending Lake Shore High School, Yanssens was good at math and had a passion for cars, but needed some guidance to find his path in life. When he was in 11th grade, mentor and longtime GM mechanical engineer Al Kron took him on a tour of the company’s Tech Center, and Yanssens was hooked.

After graduating from Wayne State, Yanssens was hired by GM and began his career as a test and development engineer. He has held numerous roles since and played a critical role in a number of innovations and research projects for GM, including plastic fuel tank development, magnetic ride control and supercharged engines. While working on the Corvette, he worked to implement fiberglass-balsa composite materials as well as the longest hydroformed rails ever produced.

Technology advances at a rapid pace, but Yanssens was well prepared from his time in the College of Engineering, where he feels students’ education and resources have long been on the cutting edge.

“When I started at Wayne State, we used punch cards to run software programs,” said Yanssens. “As I migrated through my degree, we went from punch cards to teletype machines. By the time I left, we were working on CAE programs on personal computers.”

Yanssens also fondly recalls a prevailing attitude pointed toward teamwork and collaboration at Wayne State, which are among the many principles he applies to his overall philosophy. Yanssens holds his people to high expectations but also puts time and effort into building camaraderie with his teams setting them up for success as well as professional fulfillment.

“I’m very driven, but I’m driven for the right reasons and the right results,” said Yanssens, who ran his own landscaping business in the early 1980s to pay his Wayne State tuition. “If you can’t come to work with a smile on your face and love what you do, you won’t do a good job for me.”

Yanssens loves what he does and indeed comes to work with a smile, even on the occasions when the job calls for long hours or travel. Besides the D-HAM and SGM facilities, he oversees another team in Shanghai and a fourth in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. International conference calls are frequent, and he even makes the 14-hour flight to China at least once every two months.

Having also lived and worked in Germany for three years while running a chassis department for GM, he has long maintained a global perspective, but keeps his cross-cultural approach simple.

“Around the world – it doesn’t matter where you go – people just want to be treated with respect,” said Yanssens. “How you navigate through (cultural differences) is just by being a good person. Talk to people, listen, and don’t go in with any preconceived notions. In the end, we’re all just people.”

International relations is one of many bullet points in Yanssens’ job description. Recognizing the broad-based level of experience necessary to be a chief engineer, Yanssens laid the groundwork early in his career. His versatility and proactive mindset was especially tested when the chief engineer and vehicle line executive roles were pared down to one job after the recession and downturn of the auto industry.

“Not only am I responsible for the engineering side of it, but also the manufacturing, marketing and business side of it too,” said Yanssens. “I’m responsible for around $8.2 billion worth of revenue.”

Yanssens remains cool under pressure, and despite the enormity of his position he encourages a work-life balance and a strong sense of community. Yanssens attended Wayne State at the same time as his high school sweetheart, Karen, who happened to be Kron’s daughter and to whom Yanssens is still happily married with three grown children.

He has devoted time over the years as a youth hockey coach and member of the Grosse Pointe Crisis Club, a privately funded charitable organization that offers aid to get people and families through unfortunate circumstances and back on their feet. He and Karen even drive around Detroit with $100 worth of Little Caesars pizzas every so often, passing slices out to people who need to eat.

It’s perhaps no surprise that Yanssens remains humble — even a little embarrassed —when it comes to being recognized by the WSU College of Engineering.

“I don’t envision myself as a Hall of Famer,” he said. “I’m just a guy that goes to work every day and tries to do the best he can do.”

####

Yanssens and fellow inductees Olga Alavanou, BSEE ’88, and Kathy Kay, BSCS ’83, will be enshrined in the Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame at the college’s annual awards dinner on Thursday, November 3, at 6 p.m. at the Detroit Institute of Arts. To make a reservation, visit specialevents.wayne.edu/hof2016.

The Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame was founded in 1983 to recognize and honor distinguished alumni who, through their leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation, have made significant industrial, educational and societal contributions to the engineering and computer science professions. The Hall of Fame celebrates the rich history of the College of Engineering and provides exceptional standards by which Wayne State University engineering students can measure success.

Photo credit: 2016 John F. Martin and General Motors

“The career fair allowed us to interact with the best Wayne State has to offer,” said Alycen Wiacek, component engineer for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. “We hope to interview and eventually extend offers to quite a few of these students either as full-time hires or for our 2017 Summer Internship Program.”

For the first time this year, the Engineering Career Resource Center held events for student organizations to meet with potential employers before the career fair to make connections. One hundred students across 13 different engineering student organizations took advantage of this opportunity.

“The brunch sponsored by AIChE and TBP gave me a chance to meet these candidates on a more conversational level and get to know students individually,” said Wiacek.

The next career fair will take place during the winter semester and is expected to draw a large crowd of students and employers.

"A group of graduate students from the geology and civil engineering departments at Wayne State University is studying how groundwater affects Lake St. Clair.

Jack Press, of Harrison Township, is in the civil and environmental engineering doctorate program at Wayne. He said not much is known about how groundwater affects the Great Lakes."

The project focuses on the use of cobots, or collaborative robots, in advanced manufacturing systems, and aims to develop critical industry-driven, hands-on learning content for cobot technicians, engineering technologists, and robotic automation teachers and faculty.

“Cobots, or collaborative robots, are safe and flexible enough to operate in the vicinity of and harmoniously with human operators,” according to the project report. “With a predicted 150,000 cobots to be installed worldwide in the next three years, cobots will become standard practice in advanced manufacturing systems and will cause manufacturers to re-evaluate traditional barriers between human, semi-automated and automated tasks.”

Wayne State and Oakland Community College will collaborate to develop a cobot course and laboratory at OCC to educate community college students and develop their cobot skills. A two-day cobot short course hosted by Wayne State will teach community college instructors advanced cobot topics. Seminars for college faculty, STEM instructors and industry professionals will serve to broaden cobot awareness.

Additionally, this partnership will forge a pathway for OCC engineering students to continue cobot education at Wayne State.

Other deliverables of this project include comprehensive educational material for STEM secondary teachers as well as community college and university faculty to educate manufacturing workers in cobot technology.

The principal investigator for this project is Deborah Bayer, interim dean of engineering, manufacturing, and industrial technologies at Oakland Community College. John Sefcovic, professor of robotics technology at Oakland Community College, is a co-principal investigator.

The grant number for this project is 1601454.

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering more than 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

Note: This is the first in a three-part series of feature stories highlighting the achievements of the Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame class of 2016.

Olga Alavanou, BSEE ’88, has never been afraid to take risks and step out of her comfort zone. It is an attitude that has served her well and allowed her to diversify her skills in a career spanning nearly three decades. The most important risk taken, however, may have been the first one.

Alavanou was 18 years old when she came to the United States from her native Greece. The only person she knew was an uncle living in the Detroit area, which at least gave her a good starting point on her new adventure.

She originally enrolled in an English as a second language program at Wayne State, where she not only was able to explore urban living and American culture, but also dive into a wider range of educational options in order to foster her strong interest in math and science.

“My professors fueled that interest and provided me with guidance and mentorship to pursue a career in engineering,” said Alavanou, one of three inductees in this year’s College of Engineering Hall of Fame class. “Of course, living in Michigan, the automotive industry was a natural choice.”

Having become a Wayne State alumna and a full-fledged Detroiter, Alavanou broke into the industry as a product development engineer for Ford Motor Company and worked for two other automotive suppliers before joining Yazaki North America, a tier-one supplier of electrical distribution systems, instrumentation and electronics.

Shortly after completing her M.B.A. at the University of Detroit Mercy, Alavanou began her tenure at Yazaki in 1998 as a sales manager, and today sits as the executive vice president for the company’s Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler business units, responsible for global customer strategy, development, engineering, quality and manufacturing planning.

“I think it’s important to be willing to step up and take the tough jobs, and do them well,” said Alavanou.

Her roles and assignments have taken her all over the world, and her cross-cultural perspective can be traced back to principles of her education at Wayne State.

“WSU gave me the opportunity to study and interact with so many different students and teachers from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds,” said Alavanou. “It taught me early on to work well in diversified teams.”

Alavanou is also cognizant of the need for more females in STEM fields. She anticipates that there may be a shortage of engineers in the future, so not putting a focus on the cultivation of such a large segment of the population is shortsighted.

“In order to attract more women in the field, we must expose them to women role models,” said Alavanou, who was named to the Automotive News Top 100 Leading Women in 2010 and 2015. “They say you have to see it to be it.”

She takes her own role model status seriously and has a passion for talent development. Last year, Alavanou joined the board of directors for Winning Futures, a nonprofit organization focused on mentoring young people.

“I believe it is very important to provide mentorship to students where it’s needed, and early on, in order to create enough talent in the pipeline,” said Alavanou. “Then industries need to attract, develop and retain that talent. This is how future leadership will be created.”

A key message Alavanou projects to those young people and others is that there is no substitute for hard work and professionalism in the pursuit of one’s dreams.

“Set goals and focus on executing those goals. Accept feedback — even when it’s critical — and use it to improve,” said Alavanou. “Respect people, do the right thing, accept responsibility when things go wrong and give credit when things go right.”

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Alavanou and fellow inductees Kathy Kay, BSCS ’83, and Jeff Yanssens, BSME ’83, will be enshrined in the Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame at the college’s annual awards dinner on Thursday, November 3, at 6 p.m. at the Detroit Institute of Arts. To make a reservation, visit specialevents.wayne.edu/hof2016.

The Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame was founded in 1983 to recognize and honor distinguished alumni who, through their leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation, have made significant industrial, educational and societal contributions to the engineering and computer science professions. The Hall of Fame celebrates the rich history of the College of Engineering and provides exceptional standards by which Wayne State University engineering students can measure success.

The project, titled Nanowire Organic Sensors, will showcase small, lightweight sensors that are being developed for protecting soldiers and industrial workers against exposure to toxic vapors. The sensor technology was created by Mao, her students and technology consultants Nicholas Cucinelli, CEO of Endectra and Edward Kim of K5 Velocity Ventures.

The Defense Innovation Challenge brings together innovators and businesses to develop tools to improve defense technology and is attended by many branches of the government.

Olga Alavanou, BSEE ’88, Kathy Kay, BSCS ’83, and Jeff Yanssens, BSME ’83, compose the class of 2016 and will bring membership to 142 honorees since the Hall of Fame’s inception in 1983.

Dean Farshad Fotouhi and the Engineering Alumni Association will welcome the three inductees and their families, as well as colleagues, alumni and industry leaders to the awards dinner, which begins at 6 p.m. The cost to attend the event is $125 per person ($75 for guests under 30), and valet parking is included. Proceeds from the event will benefit scholarships and student programs.

Alavanou has worked for Yazaki North America, Inc. for nearly two decades in various roles, including her current position as executive vice president for General Motors and Fiat Chrysler business units. Alavanou manages Yazaki’s electrical and electronic distribution business and is responsible for global customer strategy, development, engineering, quality and manufacturing planning. She joined Yazaki in 1998 as a sales manager in the GM Business Unit and advanced through the ranks, serving as executive vice president of supply chain management immediately prior to her current assignment.

Alavanou’s 28-year career in the automotive industry began at Ford Motor Company, where she was a product development engineer. She was also part of the management team at Alcoa and United Technologies. Alavanou received her bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Wayne State University and her M.B.A. from the University of Detroit Mercy.

Kay is vice president of business technology at Pacific Gas and Electric Company in San Francisco, where she and her team of technology professionals focus on developing strategic solutions for mobile, data analytics and customer applications. Prior to joining PG&E, Kay was senior vice president of business technology services at Comerica Bank in Michigan before moving on to SunTrust Bank in Atlanta, where she was the enterprise chief technology officer and executive chair of the diversity program.

Kay began her career at General Motors, where she worked in various positions for more than two decades. She holds a bachelor’s in computer science from Wayne State University and a master’s of engineering in management of technology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Yanssens received his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Wayne State in 1983 and was subsequently hired at General Motors. He began his career as a test and development engineer while completing graduate work in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, earning a master’s in 1988. In more than three decades at GM, Yanssens has worked in numerous roles, including director of the European chassis team at Opel in Russelsheim, Germany.

The Detroit native advanced through the ranks to his current position as chief engineer of GM’s large luxury cars, including the Buick LaCrosse and the Cadillac XTS. Yanssens recently led an international effort in the development of the 2017 LaCrosse, which is being built at the Detroit Hamtramck Assembly Center and at SGM in Shanghai, China.

To make a reservation for the Hall of Fame Awards Dinner, visit specialevents.wayne.edu/hof2016.

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The Wayne State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame was founded in 1983 to recognize and honor distinguished alumni who, through their leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation, have made significant industrial, educational and societal contributions to the engineering and computer science professions. The Hall of Fame celebrates the rich history of the College of Engineering and provides exceptional standards by which Wayne State University engineering students can measure success.

The grant, “Promoting a Healthier Urban Community: Prioritization of Risk Factors for the Prevention and Treatment of Pediatric Obesity,” aims to develop an innovative, data-driven health informatics system to promote comprehensive, efficient and personalized obesity-related care for preschoolers living in urban communities.

Ming Dong, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science in Wayne State’s College of Engineering and principal investigator of the study, said the project has potential to promote a healthier urban community.

“The Preschool Risk for Obesity Portal, or PROP, that we are developing will offer an innovative, multi-level, mixed-effects machine-learning method and scalable algorithms that can precisely identify and prioritize a preschooler’s personalized risk factors for obesity,” said Dong. “The data and tool-rich online system that we are designing offers novel algorithms for information extraction and understanding from multi-scale, correlated and heterogeneous datasets.”

The system will offer an improved method to prevent and treat pediatric obesity through better data integration from multiple community sources and systems. Dong is collaborating with Dongxiao Zhu, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science at Wayne State, and Elizabeth Towner, Ph.D., assistant professor of family medicine and public health sciences at Wayne State.

The grant number for this project is #1637312.

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About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu.

Contact: Julie O’Connor  

313-577-8845

julie.oconnor@wayne.edu

Potoff also serves as the associate dean for academic and student affairs. He has been teaching courses at the university since 2001. His research interests include mechanisms of membrane function, novel materials development and force field development for complex fluids.

“To be appointed to such a journal editorial board is a significant professional achievement,” said Department Chair Guangzhao Mao. “Jeff will provide his expert service to his research community through this appointment.”

Potoff is the director of the EOS program, formerly known as the Engineering Bridge program, which provides educational support and counseling for first- and second-year engineering students.

The paper, co-authored by ISE Professor Qingyu Yang and Mechanical Engineering Professor Xin Wu, is the first to incorporate material microstructure-image and micro-damage information into a reliability study that fundamentally improves the accuracy of failure and reliability prediction, according to Yang. The methods are usable in many industries, from aircraft to everyday machinery.

“During the past two years, our team has made significant progress on this NSF project. Six papers have been accepted/published by the top industrial engineering journals. Among them, two papers have been published by the Institute of Industrial Engineering’s (IIE) Transactions, the flagship journal of IIE,” said Yang.

"Work begins this week on replacing damaged lead service lines in Flint.

There’s also a little science going on as well.

Three contractors hired by the city to replace up to 250 service lines are contacting Flint homeowners to get their permission to do the work.  

Wayne State University researchers will also be contacting the same Flint homeowners to ask if they can test the water before and after the contractors do their work.  

Prof. Shawn McElmurry says the testing is part of a National Institute of Health study to see if replacing the lines helps decrease the lead in Flint’s tap water.

“We know generally what was the cause, corrosive water,” says McElmurry. “But what we don’t understand is how the system is recovering.”

Since the discovery a year ago that Flint’s tap water contained levels of lead above the federal action level, the city’s water source has been switched from the Flint River.  State and federal agencies have also stepped up treatment of the city’s drinking water in hopes of restoring a bio-film within the city’s pipes to protect the damaged pipes.

Recent tests have shown the level of lead in some Flint homes has decreased during the past year.   However, elevated lead levels remain a serious problem.    

Flint officials says water quality has generally improved in the 33 homes that have already received new service lines.  Eventually, city officials want to replace thousands of service lines which connect Flint homes and businesses to the city’s water mains.

McElmurry says the Wayne State study will take 18 months. "

Huang will be presented the 2016 SEF Education Award at a luncheon in November during the AIChE annual national meeting in San Francisco.

Among Huang’s achievements in sustainable engineering education at Wayne State was the development of capstone course materials for sustainable process design, as well as a graduate certificate program on sustainable engineering. Huang’s work is further reflected in a litany of projects supported by educational grants and awards received by graduate and undergraduate students under his supervision.

Huang was also the recipient of the 2010 AIChE Research Excellence in Sustainable Engineering Award, making him the first in the chemical engineering community to receive both AIChE honors.

Founded in 1908, AIChE is the world’s leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with more than 50,000 members in industry, academia and government.

Shi will serve as associate editor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Transactions on Services Computing (TSC). Published quarterly, TSC highlights computing and software aspects of the science and technology of services innovation research and development. He will evaluate the submissions related to energy efficiency and cloud computing.

Shi will also take the role of editor in chief of Elsevier’s Smart Health journal. The journal covers research topics that relate to devices, sensors, computing and communication tools to develop improvements in health care technology. The journal will feature works from medical and engineering fields. As editor in chief, Shi will bring together an editorial board for the journal and review paper submissions.

“The launch of Smart Health journal by Elsevier is very timely and urgent to the smart and connected health community. After we successfully launched the IEEE Connected Health conference (CHASE) last June, the community was formed and it was a natural step to have an archived journal to publish the latest results in this new and exciting field,” said Shi. “I am so pleased and honored to be appointed as a founding editor in chief of the journal.” 

According to Kyoung-Yun Kim, Ph.D., associate professor of industrial and systems engineering and site director of the NSF Center for e-Design at Wayne State University, system integrators and OEMs working with products that have metallic structures currently rely on material suppliers and testing service companies to conduct physical testing of materials for new welded assembly designs. Without timely delivery of test results, the optimal selection of new materials, processes, and related design decisions is hindered.

“When new materials or combinations of materials are considered for an assembly, industry often requires new physical tests or numerical simulations such as finite element analysis,” said Kim. “Data-driven weldability prediction will improve product design efficiency, but is underutilized because of existing data inconsistences. Resistance spot-welding processes and parameters are complex due to coating conditions and surface roughness and give rise to significant data inconsistences, a well-known reliability issue.”

The Wayne State team is partnering with Ford Motor Company to develop a reliable RSW weldability prediction tool.  The end result will be a web-based RSW weldability prediction tool that will improve design and engineering efficiency.

“This prediction tool will ultimately improve product quality through the utilization of advanced materials, allow users to rapidly assess weldment feasibility, and reduce the amount of physical testing required for new material candidates,” said Kim. “In addition, communication between OEMs and suppliers will be enhanced because of the standardization of RSW test data and material.”

The proof of concept system for the RSW weldability qualification, called Virtually Guided RSW Weldability Prediction (VRWP), will initially be applied for qualification of automotive body structure joining/welding at Ford Motor Company.

The co-principal investigators of this project from Wayne State University are Shiyong Lu​, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science; Jeremy L. Rickli, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering​; Xin Wu, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical engineering; and Qingyu Yang, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering​.

The project number for this grant is 15-07-04.

###

About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu.

Contact: Julie O’Connor   

(313) 577-8845

julie.oconnor@wayne.edu

Advaita was honored at an awards ceremony in Lansing during the 12th annual Michigan Celebrates Small Business gala event in May. The theme of the event was “Inspiring Progress and Prosperity: Michigan Entrepreneurs.”

​The Plymouth-based company was initially started with the goal of commercializing a gene pathway analysis technology developed at Wayne State called Impact Analysis. That technology is currently implemented in Advaita’s flagship product, iPathway-Guide, which allows researchers to identify the gene signaling pathways that are significantly impacted in a given disease. But with more funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Advaita has developed more advanced technologies. Another product, iVariant-Guide, allows researchers to understand the genetic background of an individual and personalize their treatment or better understand the disease.

Advaita’s overall vision is to reduce health care costs, advance personalized medicine and empower researchers through the use of advanced computational analysis tools.

“We are very happy and grateful for this recognition and would like to acknowledge the great support that we received from the department and the College of Engineering, who made it possible for faculty to maintain a successful academic research program while also undertaking successful entrepreneurial activities. I hope Advaita can serve as an example for the many very talented faculty within the college,” said Draghici, who at Wayne State serves as the associate dean for innovation and entrepreneurship. Draghici is also the director of the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute, whose mission is to stimulate and promote entrepreneurship and innovation among the faculty and students of the college.

Over the last several years, Advaita has been selected to participate in Michigan I-Corps, a program designed to foster technology entrepreneurship and commercialization, as well as the NIH Commercialization Assistance Program, which provides assistance to recipients of Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer phase II awards looking to get their products to market faster. The company garnered more than $4 million in grant funding from NIH as well as $125,000 from the Michigan Emerging Technologies Fund.

Advaita was one of several hundred second-stage companies nominated for the Michigan 50 Companies to Watch awards, a list finalized by judges from the banking, economic development, entrepreneurship development and venture capital communities. Eligibility criteria includes having between 6 to 99 full-time equivalent employees, generating $750,000 to $50 million in annual revenue or working capital from investors or grants, being headquartered in Michigan, and demonstrating the intent and capacity to grow.

Learn more about Advaita and Michigan Celebrates Small Business.

Thomas Bohnstingl, Johanna Ranninger, Peter Schuster, Julia Wasserbacher and Andreas Wurm were greeted Monday on their first official day on campus by faculty and staff from the College of Engineering, including Associate Dean Simon Ng, who initiated this exchange program with TU Graz over three years ago.

Ng sees the potential for the program to enhance the international reach of WSU through research and collaboration.

“One of my goals for this program is to see more of our students and faculty connect with theirs on various research projects,” said Ng, who noted that the exchange with TU Graz is one of several successful exchange programs the College of Engineering offers. Students have participated in programs through partnerships in China, France and Spain, among others.

“I also see this as a great networking opportunity for our students,” added Ng.

Despite being from the same university, the students had not previously met. They arrived on July 8 and spent the weekend getting to know one another and exploring Detroit. The shared experience of being in a foreign land, and both the excitement and trepidation that goes along with it, will likely galvanize friendships between this group, which Ng feels is another positive result of this program.

TU Graz selected the group through a process that allowed the university to evaluate qualified applicants against a list of over 20 potential research projects presented by Ng and other WSU faculty. As a result, the research projects and programs with which they intersect are varied. For instance, while Ranninger will work with Dr. Eranda Nikolla (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science) on the development of electrocatalysts for conversion of carbon dioxide and water to hydrocarbon fuels, Wurm is positioned to join Dr. Xuewen Chen (Computer Science) in studying Big Data applications.

Graz, which is the second-largest city in Austria, is located 120 miles southwest of the capital, Vienna – and 4,500 miles east of Detroit. One of eight institutions of higher education in the city, TU Graz combines its research into five fields of expertise: advanced materials science; human and biotechnology; information, communication and computing; mobility and production; and sustainable systems.

Ng believes the similarities in focus areas between Wayne State and TU Graz, particularly the connections to the automotive industry, are part of what makes the relationship between the institutions unique. This connection is not lost on Wasserbacher, who’s focused her studies at TU Graz on vehicle safety and will be working with Dr. King-Hay Yang (Biomedical Engineering) during her six-week visit to Wayne State.

“I feel Wayne State and Detroit are a great match for my interest in automotive engineering,” said Wasserbacher, who noted innovative ideas such as the WSU Tolerance Curve as a reason Wayne State was on her radar as a place to study.

Not only is the synergy in research appealing to these students, but also the opportunity to immerse themselves in a new culture and brush up on their English-speaking skills.

“I’ve always wanted to visit the United States and see how people are living and working here,” said Bohnstingl, who is working with Dr. Mark Cheng (Electrical and Computer Engineering) on the development of flexible sensors and electronics. Bohnstingl hopes his research will advance treatment options in hospitals and the health care industry.

“It’s great to learn the language and talk to native speakers. We don’t get those opportunities in our country,” said Schuster, who plans to research additive manufacturing with Dr. Guru Dinda (Mechanical Engineering) and hopes to visit Washington, D.C., before returning to Graz. “This is a great opportunity because it opens your mind to new cultures. I think that’s very important for personal development.”

Ng noted that this group is the largest to come from TU Graz so far, and is optimistic that there will be a high level of reciprocation from Wayne State students in the future who see the benefits of an opportunity to visit Austria.

For more information on Wayne State University’s Study Abroad and Global Programs, visit studyabroad.wayne.edu.

Ng’s presentation at SET 2016 is titled “The Future of Renewable Fuel: The Biodiesel Story.” This presentation will give an overview of the supply and demand of biodiesel, fuel properties, production processes, technical barriers, and research and development efforts in the United States. It will also examine a number of societal and economic challenges facing the biodiesel industry and discuss opportunities to develop a truly sustainable next generation renewable diesel.

Ng is among eight distinguished keynote speakers invited to SET 2016 from universities all over the world, including Canada, England, Sweden, China and Singapore.

SET 2016 is a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed international conference on sustainable energy sources and technologies. This scientific meeting aims to provide a platform to gather scientists, industrialists and politicians from around the world to exchange the latest technical information; disseminate high-quality research results; present recent advances and new developments in the area of sustainable energy; and debate and shape future directions and priorities for a better environment, sustainable development and energy security.

The team’s vehicle, Road Warrior X (RWX), finished the competition with 662 out of 700 possible points, an increase from last year’s total of 584. Warrior Racing also finished as the top team from Michigan for the second year in a row.

“This was by far the best season in our team's history,” said Tirath Matharu, president of Warrior Racing. “Everyone worked extremely hard with designing, manufacturing and testing RWX, and it definitely shows in our final results.”

The team completed all of the competition’s events with no penalties and received first place in the Cost and Manufacturing event, which scores how well teams manage a budget without sacrificing performance.

“None of this would've been possible without the support of our sponsors, family and fans. Everything our team does, from the start to the end of the season, is all made possible with various donations from our sponsors,” said Matharu. “I am extremely proud of the whole team.”

Additional coursework at ATEC includes basic, civil, industrial and mechanical engineering; computer science; construction management; and engineering technology. Courses in computer science and engineering technology also are available at the Schoolcraft Center in Livonia.

View the class listings here.

Leela Arava, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is doing his part to bring STEM education to Detroit Public Schools (DPS) through his Mobile Energy Lab.

With a team of nine graduate and undergraduate students, Arava travels to schools in the Detroit area to teach students the importance of green energy through hands-on experiments.

“We were assembling small solar panels in the classroom and the students wanted to take it into the field,” said Arava. “We hooked up some low-power LED lights to the panel, but they couldn’t handle the increase in power, so we explained to the students why it wasn’t working and changed our LEDs to ones that could support the power and also we stored part of solar energy in the battery.”

Arava was inspired to create the Mobile Energy Lab after seeing that DPS students were below the state average in science proficiency.

 “It was really eye-opening for me. I wanted to do something in the community,” said Arava.

The idea behind the Mobile Energy Lab was based on Arava’s own research on energy storage and batteries. He is developing a miniaturized  lithium-ion rechargeable battery that can withstand temperatures up to 150 degrees Celcius for oil & gas studies and high-energy sulfur batteries for electronic vehicles and consumer electronics. Arava hopes to use his research to inspire DPS students to consider STEM fields.

“As Michigan’s only urban, public research university, Wayne State is uniquely positioned to address this issue and help propel these young individuals into successful careers in the sciences,” said Arava.

View more photos and find more information about the Mobile Energy Lab and Dr. Arava's research on his blog.

The award is given annually to select faculty members who have a significant record of publications or creative achievement, and who have achieved national or international recognition very early in their careers. Faculty members who are chosen receive $1,000 to continue their research. Nikolla was selected for her research studying various issues related to electrochemical systems.

"It is a tremendous honor to have been selected to receive the WSU Academy’s Junior Faculty Award for the 2016-17 academic year, which recognizes the impact of the scientific work in my research group," said Nikolla.

The academy's purpose is to raise the scholastic prestige of the university by bringing the most prominent academic experts to campus and to create a community of scholars from among its most celebrated researchers. In the past, the academy has hosted Nobel Prize winners and experts in a variety of disciplines from around the world.

Nikolla will be officially recognized at the academy’s banquet in October, and will present her research to fellow academy members during the year.

Each student also selected their favorite professor to be honored at the ceremony. Davis and Swanson both chose Shawn McElmurry, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Wiacek chose Abhilash Pandya, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. Davis and Swanson are majoring in civil and environmental engineering and Wiacek is majoring in mechanical engineering.

Photo: (left to right) Phil Swanson, Prof. Shawn McElmurry, Amelia Davis, Dean Farshad Fotouhi, Alycen Wiacek, and Prof. Abhilash Pandya at the Academic Recognition Luncheon.

42 researchers were selected by the Journal of Materials Chemistry A editorial board for carrying out work with potential to influence future directions in materials chemistry. Deng was nominated for his research on green materials for energy and environmental applications involving sustainable materials with a low environmental footprint.

"We are delighted by this recognition of the scholarly work of one of our junior faculty members by an international journal on materials science," said Guangzhao Mao, chair of the chemical engineering department.

The RSC is a leading chemistry community advancing excellence in the chemical sciences. Based in the United Kingdom, it has more than 50,000 members across the world. 

Deng joined Wayne State University as an assistant professor in 2011 after serving in postdoctoral positions at Harvard and MIT.

View the complete list of Emerging Investigators here.

You’ve got to have heart. Under the guidance of a Wayne State University College of Engineering faculty member, Shiby George, an undergraduate electrical engineering major, trained herself to become a valuable member of a research team developing a wearable heart rate sensor for Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) of cardiac patients.

George created the Android smartphone application that connects to the sensor. “When Shiby joined my lab, she had virtually no experience in Android programming,” says Amar Basu, associate professor of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering. “Yet she agreed to build an app for our heart rate sensor. I am impressed with how she managed to learn Android programming on her own, including Bluetooth wireless, scrolling displays, material design and fundamental concepts. It’s a great example of how hard work and diligence pays off.”

Born in India and raised in Kuwait, George says her decision to attend Wayne State was a family matter. “When we became Michigan residents in 2012, I made up my mind to study in the U.S.,” she says. “My cousins went to Wayne State for their undergraduate degrees and they were like my peer mentors for my first semester here. They told me that Wayne State has a wonderful community of in-state and international students, and they talked highly about undergraduate research at this school.”

George, who recently began working as a peer leader at the Academic Success Center and is involved with Campus Crusade for Christ International, credits Basu for being “patient enough to give me six months of his time” while she learned Android app development.

Her goal now is to enter graduate school, with a concentration in engineering in the health care industry. “Being a minority gender in this field, I hope to inspire more women into research in engineering,” she says.

"FLINT, Mich. – Four civil and environmental engineering professors held a news conference Tuesday morning to announce research findings on Flint’s water quality.

Professor Marc Edwards, leader of the Virginia Tech Flint Water Study team who has been working with Flint residents since April 2015, was joined by David Reckhow, professor at the University of Massachusetts, and Shawn McElmurry, associate professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, to discuss their independent data. 

According to Edwards, preliminary data looking at the effects of a water flushing program are encouraging.  Residents have been told to flush out their pipes once a day to help rid the system of lead."

Watch the press conference below:

More coverage
MLive
Michigan Radio

Yang received the award in recognition of his writings and academic contributions to the field of automotive quality and reliability, including eight books in four different languages. One of his books has inspired the ASQ to begin working on a new certification for professionals in quality and reliability.

Yang’s research focuses on using manufacturing data to troubleshoot automotive manufacturing issues. Through the years, he has secured millions of dollars in grant funding from the Big Three and the National Science Foundation. He and his team worked with Chrysler to create software used in its plants around the world to build and maintain quality of car bodies.

“I have been working on this for many years and I’m glad. I’ve done a lot through teaching, research and work in a very important industry. Persistence, hard work and never giving up are very important,” said Yang.

The Craig Award is presented annually to the best technical/management papers relating to quality and reliability written by the Automotive Division members. Yang is the first candidate to be selected for the award after two years of no qualified winners.

“This is a very prestigious award and we are so proud to see Dr. Yang recognized for all he’s contributed to his field,” said Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering.

The ASQ has over 80,000 professional members in over 150 countries who work to increase production quality and efficiency all over the world.

The Craig Award was established by the Automotive Division to recognize the dedicated service of Dr. Cecil C. Craig, professor emeritus in the Mathematics Department at the University of Michigan. The purpose of the Craig Award is to promote interest and encourage the writing of technical and management papers by the Automotive Division membership, and to promote their presentation at Automotive Division sponsored programs.

Yang will receive his award on June 27 at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan.

"Don’t believe everything you read about the city of Detroit. That’s one of the messages Elizabeth and Gabrielle Herriman will take with them when they leave the city and, possibly, return to Sand Creek.

But, for now, the dynamic Aggie duo has found a home in Detroit’s midtown area, home of the Wayne State University Warriors. The juniors were recently awarded All-Midwest Region honors in women’s track and field. This week, Elizabeth Herriman will compete in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association championships in Bradenton, Florida.

“It’s very different from Sand Creek,” said Elizabeth. “There was a little transition when we came here. Having my sister here definitely helped me a lot. It’s made it more enjoyable. I’m very happy we came here.”

Both of the Herrimans were multi-sport athletes at Sand Creek. They were part of an Aggie basketball team that advanced to the state semifinals and also played softball and participated in track. Both girls picked up the javelin in college — an event not offered in high school.

“I heard about the javelin," Elizabeth said. “I asked my coach about it, and she said to try it. I like the event.”

Elizabeth picked it up almost right away. She was a second team All-American last year and set a Wayne State record this year with a throw of 44.45 meters — the distance that met the qualifying standard for the national championships. She is ranked No. 21 out of 22 qualifiers. Gabrielle narrowly missed qualifying, but still threw far enough (39.47m) to place second in the meet behind her sister.

The national championships begin Thursday. The javelin competition is Saturday, May 28. Gabrielle plans to go to cheer her sister on.

Both girls also throw the shot put, and Gabrielle also competes in the hammer toss.

“It’s a lot of fun to throw,” Gabrielle said. “The hammer was a slow process, because I had to learn it from scratch. You have to be technically sound to throw it.”

Elizabeth won the javelin at the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships. She threw the javelin 43.17 meters to become the first throwing event conference champion in program history. She also finished sixth in the shot put (school record 13.95 meters) and 12th in the discus (41.92).

Gabrielle took third place in the javelin (37.06) and 21st in the shot put (11.44).

Both girls are enrolled in industrial engineering programs at Wayne State. They live just off campus in an apartment for members of the women’s track team."

View the Click on Detroit article here.
"A marathon weekend hackathon takes place at Wayne State University's College of Engineering.

More than 200 high school and college students gather for "HackWSU" starting Saturday morning on the university's Detroit campus. They'll spend their time writing online-based software, creating mobile apps and designing computer programs.

Participants will work through the night — and organizers say they should bring pillows and sleeping bags. The event, which is billed as a 24-hour hackathon, is scheduled to wrap up Sunday afternoon.

"HackWSU" is hosted by the university's Blackstone LaunchPad student entrepreneurship center. Students are expected from the Detroit area and across the border in Windsor, Ontario. It's a pre-launch event for Detroit Startup Week, which begins Monday."

View the Crain's Detroit Business article here.
"The 24 hour blitz event is open to all current university and high school students, who will work together in teams. The idea is to create something useful, original and cool. This year, there will be two tracks: One for experienced developers and another for beginners.

In addition to the competition, there will be breakout workshops and an employer recruiting fair.

Hack WSU will take place at the College of Engineering, at 5050 Anthony Wayne Dr. Activities start with registration at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and kickoff off of the hackathon at 1 p.m. Coding ends at noon Sunday, with demonstrations and award presentations through 4 p.m. Sunday. Participants will work through the night and are invited to bring pillows and sleeping bags."

Listen to the whole story on WDET.

"Wayne State University’s College of Engineering and Blackstone LaunchPad will host Hack WSU, a weekend hackathon for high school and college students, this weekend.

Students will write web-based software, create mobile apps or design computer programs addressing a need or innovation of their choice.

The 24 hour blitz event is open to all current university and high school students, who will work together in teams. The idea is to create something useful, original and cool. This year, there will be two tracks: One for experienced developers and another for beginners.

In addition to the competition, there will be breakout workshops and an employer recruiting fair.

Hack WSU will take place at the College of Engineering, at 5050 Anthony Wayne Dr. Activities start with registration at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and kickoff off of the hackathon at 1 p.m. Coding ends at noon Sunday, with demonstrations and award presentations through 4 p.m. Sunday. Participants will work through the night and are invited to bring pillows and sleeping bags.

WSU’s Blackstone LaunchPad offers guidance, resources and mentoring to would-be entrepreneurs at the school. Innovation Warriors is another organizer, as well as Wayne State student entrepreneurs, faculty and staff.

To register or for more information, visit hackwsu.com."

Nikolla received the award, which provides an unrestricted research grant of $75,000, for her research project, “Oxidative Coupling of Methane using Layered, Nickelate Oxide Catalysts.” The award supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. Criteria for selection include an independent body of scholarship attained in the early years of a candidate’s appointment and a demonstrated commitment to education, signaling the promise of continuing outstanding contributions to both research and teaching.

"Dr. Nikolla is one of just a handful of young scientists in the nation to be awarded the prestigious Camille Dreyfus award this year,” said Guangzhao Mao, chair of the Wayne State University Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. “This is an outstanding recognition at this early stage of her career, and we are extremely proud of her; she is in good company with other awardees from some of the nation's top universities."

Established in 1946 by chemist, inventor and businessman Camille Dreyfus as a memorial to his brother Henry, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation advances the science of chemistry, chemical engineering and related sciences as a means of improving human relations and circumstances throughout the world. 

Senior Elly Maleski (Cedar, Mich. / Traverse City West) was a three-time All-American (two First team and one Honorable Mention) at the 2016 NCAA Swimming and Diving National Championships.  She won GLIAC titles in both the 200 free relay and 400 medley relay this past February.  Maleski finished in the top seven in six events at the GLIAC Championships.  In her collegiate career, she earned 16 All-American honors (13 First Team, three Honorable mention) and received the 2016 Deans' Award from the College of Engineering.  Maleski was voted to the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Second Team in 2015 and won a national title in the 200 free relay that broke a Division II record in 2014.  She was selected to the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team for three straight years and was named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term GPA 3.5+) for six semesters, including two 4.00 terms. 

Elly is a biomedical engineering honors major who was named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term gpa 3.5+) for Fall 2012 (4.00), Winter 2013, Fall 2013, Winter 2014 (4.00), Fall 2014 and Fall 2015 and the Coach's Honor Roll (term gpa 3.0-3.49) for Winter 2015.

Junior Zuzanna Sobczak (Gdansk, Poland) earned Honorable Mention All-America accolades after placing 11th at the NCAA Fencing Championships in the foil.  She finished seventh at the NCAA Midwest Regional earlier in the spring.  A two-time Honorable Mention All-American (top 12 at NCAA Championships), Sobczak has placed in the top-seven at the NCAA Midwest Regional for three consecutive years.  She has a 237-70 career record in the foil and ranks sixth in school history in foil wins.  Sobczak was voted to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Women's At-Large First Team in 2015.  She has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term GPA 3.5+) for five semesters, including three 4.00 terms and is also a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee

Zuzanna is a civil engineering major who was named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term gpa 3.5+) for Fall 2013, Winter 2014 (4.00), Fall 2014, Winter 2015 (4.00) and Fall 2015 (4.00)

"About 20 students at Ford's Detroit neighbor, Wayne State University, have come closest to duplicating the concept of the automaker's patent app. Working with drone maker Skypersonic LLC, the students developed a prototype that can show images from a drone's camera on a car's in-dash screen.

"We are mainly trying to design an autonomous system for the drone to come inside the car for the driver, so that whenever he wants it, with the click of a button, he can give instructions just sitting in the car," Amey Chodankar, a Wayne State graduate student told The Detroit News."

"Some automotive industry professionals say American cars need a bit of European flash. The future of vehicle design, autonomous cars and even bio-medical engineering took center stage at the Italian Technological Excellence in the U.S event at Wayne State University’s McGregor Memorial Conference Center today.

Wayne State professor Giuseppe Santangelo said Fiat Chrysler is a good example of how Italian and American automakers can cooperate effectively. 

To connect the two companies together Italian and American. Fiat as an Italian company and “Chrysler” American as a big automotive company. Now this integration created Italian style and design with the American approach."

Joseph Hummer, professor and chair of the Wayne State University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is retiring from the university after four years of service, effective May 13.

Hummer joined Wayne State in fall 2012 from North Carolina State University. He is an internationally renowned expert in traffic operations, highway design and highway safety. In addition to authoring nearly 100 journal articles and more than 50 funded research projects, Hummer has worked with federal and local governments on lifesaving transportation measures, and has been featured in media outlets such as the New York Times and Chicago Tribune.

“Joe is a leading expert in civil and transportation engineering and a huge champion of Wayne State University,” said Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering. “During his time here, he worked with the civil engineering department to update the curriculum, hire talented new faculty, increase research productivity and get the name of the department out to national and international audiences — we will miss Joe greatly, but sincerely wish him well in this new chapter.”

A Detroit area native, Hummer earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from Purdue University. He will join the State of North Carolina Department of Transportation as an administrator. The move to North Carolina also allows him to be closer to family. “When I joined the civil engineering field, I promised myself that before I retired, I would actually build something; this new role will give me that opportunity,” said Hummer.

“Thank you to the students, faculty and staff at Wayne State, in particular my department, for making these past few years some of my best professionally. I am extremely proud of this institution and know that it will continue to flourish.”

"Public perception, however, usually shifts when a superstreet is built, experts say.

Motorists navigate its course with ease and swiftly acknowledge the benefits: faster-moving traffic, less waiting at signals, fewer crashes and virtually no fatalities if there is a wreck, said Joseph Hummer, a professor and chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Just ask Austin Dickson of Holly Springs, North Carolina, population 30,000. The design has worked so well there, the town has three superstreets with another on the way.

"I was skeptical at first, and due to the introduction of more lights, I didn't find that logical by any means," Dickson said. "The goal was to improve flow, but I didn't see how lights would achieve that."

Every turn in Holly Springs' superstreets, including the U-turns, has a signal for safety. It will be the same for Port St. Lucie, Crosstown project managers said. A motorist waiting to make a U-turn, for example, will queue up in a turn lane to await a green arrow.

After his first drive through the first superstreet, Dickson changed his mind, he said.

"If you're keeping a constant rate of speed and not really gunning it to the next light, it's a really smooth drive through a really congested area," he said.

For Jim Dunlop, North Carolina Department of Transportation congestion-management engineer, the only drawback to superstreets — balancing all the benefits — is that they bring change.

"It's the fear of the unknown," Dunlop said of the initial anxiety.

Florida will be the 11th state to use the superstreet design, according to the Federal Highway Administration. The design typically cuts travel time by 20 percent and reduces the number of collision points from 32 at a conventional intersection to 14, Hummer said.

In San Antonio, Texas, for example, the installation of a superstreet on U.S. 281 reduced southbound travel time during morning rush hour by nearly 10 minutes, according to government data.

Although superstreets move their main-highway traffic faster, drivers wanting to cross Crosstown Parkway on Floresta actually would experience a slight delay, Hummer cautioned. It would take them an extra six seconds to execute the U-turn, according to city documents."

"Iron, says aging expert Naftali Raz, is like the Force. It can be good or bad, depending on the context. When that context is the human brain, though, scientists wrangle over whether iron is a dark force for evil or a bright source of support.

Some iron is absolutely essential for the brain. On that, scientists agree. But recent studies suggest to some researchers that too much iron, and the chemical reactions that ensue, can be dangerous or deadly, especially to nerve cells in the vulnerable brain area that deteriorates with Parkinson’s disease. Yet other work raises the possibility that those cells die because of lack of iron, rather than too much.

“There are a lot of surprises in this field,” says iron biologist Nancy Andrews of Duke University.

The idea that too much iron is dangerous captivates many researchers, including analytical neurochemist Dominic Hare of the University of Technology Sydney. “All of life is a chemical reaction,” he says, “so the start of disease is a chemical reaction as well.”

And as Raz points out, reactions involving iron are both life-sustaining and dangerous. “Iron is absolutely necessary for conducting the very fundamental business in every cell,” says Raz, of Wayne State University in Detroit. It helps produce energy-storing ATP molecules. And that’s a dirty job, throwing off dangerous free radicals that can cause cellular mayhem as energy is made."

Design Day showcases the work of Wayne State engineering and computer science students, from senior capstone projects to research team endeavors with industry relevance and quality-of-life implications. Projects will come from each of the college’s eight departments and combine technical engineering excellence with creative design.

“More than 40 teams are participating this year,” says Dean Farshad Fotouhi. “I know our guests will be impressed with the ideas and products that our students are creating.”

Through the support of the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute, the college is able to dedicate greater resources to assist students in research and development. The Anderson Institute’s goal is to spur engineering entrepreneurship in Detroit with the commercialization of technologies resulting from student research projects.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested. For more information, visit: http://engineering.wayne.edu/andersoninstitute/design-day.php

“I am very excited about this offer. I look forward to learning more about what I will be researching over the summer,” he said.

The goal of the project is to utilize the NIST Accelerated Weathering Laboratory to build a source for weather data collection to predict changes. The project will focus on critical polymer chemistries for infrastructure, construction and transportation applications. The data from exposure experiments and property measurements will be integrated into a database from which statistical prediction models can be developed.

“This is a very competitive internship program, and he should be very proud of his accomplishment,” said Simon Ng, associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Engineering.

They both dedicate their time to promoting and bettering the College of Engineering and ask for your support in the homecoming elections. To vote: login to piepeline, click on the student tab, and a link to voting will be on your right hand side. Voting ends Friday, October 13 at 5 p.m.

Sobczak wanted to become an engineer after being inspired by her grandfather.

“My grandfather is an environmental engineer. Since I was very little, I have always enjoyed his stories about his career, so I’d say he encouraged me to be an engineer,” she said.

Sobczak, originally from Poland, came to Wayne State University on an athletics scholarship.

“In Poland, it’s hard to combine athletics and academics, but it’s possible at Wayne State,” she said.

Even though homework and practice take up most of her time, Sobczak has learned to balance her schedule.

“Playing sports really teaches you how to have good time management. Stay organized and take advantage of your time,” she advises.

Sobczak says she has always been welcomed with kindness in the College of Engineering and the athletics department and is grateful for her opportunities at Wayne State.

“This provides me with an amazing opportunity,” says Grimm, who has maintained dual positions in Wayne State’s Office of the Provost and College of Engineering since 2013. “I’ve been involved with educational administration for 15 years, and this gives me an opportunity to broaden that base and fill in some gaps. It really will open the door for me to move on to higher-level administrative positions going forward.”

CBET operates within the engineering directorate of NSF and supports innovative research and education in the fields of biotechnology, bioengineering, chemical engineering and environmental engineering, as well as areas that involve the transformation or transport of energy and matter by chemical, thermal or mechanical means.

“Within CBET, there are a number of different programs that oversee grant funding for researchers across the country,” Grimm explains. “I’m going into the biomedical engineering program, which has a very broad scope.

 “I will be overseeing the proposal review process with potential grantees, working with other programs to determine how we can leverage funds in multiple program budgets to best support research moving forward, and working with individuals within CBET to identify where the key focus areas for research under the biomedical engineering umbrella should be.”

At Wayne State, Grimm served as associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering from 2003 through 2010. She returned to the biomedical engineering department in 2010 to establish the highly successful undergraduate program.

“I‘ve been in charge of recruitment, retention, assessment, accreditation — all those aspects, trying to make sure that students are moving forward and graduating,” she says.

 In 2013, Grimm was recruited by the Office of the Provost to launch the Transfer Student Success Center, assisting incoming students, particularly those from community colleges, in making the transition to WSU.

In 2015, Grimm completed the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering program (ELATE) at Drexel, which is designed to advance senior women faculty in academic engineering, computer science and related fields into effective institutional leadership roles within their schools and universities.

Grimm continued to teach at the same time. She believes her varied experiences at Wayne State were key to separating her from the pack of NSF program director candidates.

“I have a very different background than many researchers who are going into the NSF because of my focus on education and curriculum development and administration,” says Grimm, an NSF panel reviewer for more than a decade. “That was something they liked. They also liked the fact that I have been a biomedical engineer from day one, so I have a much broader understanding of the field than some who may have done their initial training in more traditional engineering disciplines. I definitely brought some different strengths to the process than they typically see with their applicants.”

Grimm will relocate to Arlington, Virginia. Her husband, a family physician in private practice, will stay here. The NSF appointment includes funds for program directors to return to their campuses and maintain their research and connections with students.

“I’ll be coming back through that process on a regular basis,” she says. “I’ve been reassuring my students on that front.”

Still, Grimm is enthusiastic about her Washington sojourn.

“If you only like being in the lab and doing the research, obviously this is not a position you are likely to enjoy,” she says. “But it does provide great insight into how NSF works and amazing connections. I have had my own grants funded through NSF and been familiar with their processes, so yes, this has been on my radar for a few years.”

Grimm has been a faculty member at Wayne State since 1994, having received her degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania. She is an internationally renowned expert in the mechanisms of neonatal brachial plexus palsy. And she is also a fellow in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Miller is director of Healthy Urban Waters and co-director of the Urban Watershed Environmental Research Group (UWERG), a transdisciplinary collaboration of WSU researchers who are networking within the community to foster improved environmental health. Miller’s research focuses specifically on the water/energy/emissions interface, sustainable energy technologies, hydraulic modeling and water supply.

"The College of Engineering is excited to launch this new chapter and get our students more involved with this fantastic organization that provides support and mentorship," said Dean Farshad Fotouhi, who also sits on the board for ESD.

The chapter launch will take place Wednesday, April 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Ford Activity Center room 1520. Engineering and computer science students are encouraged to attend to learn more about the opportunities provided through ESD. Pizza will be provided.

Learn more here.

Si’s paper, “An Enhanced Functional Linear Model and Application in Reliability Analysis by Utilizing Material Microstructures,” proposes a new statistical model to conduct reliability analysis. His research mentor was Qingyu Yang, assistant professor of ISE at Wayne State.

“I'm very happy to be nominated as the finalist of the ISERC 2016 Best Student Paper award,” said Si. “I want to sincerely thank my advisor, Dr. Yang, for his mentoring. I hope we’ll continue to work together in the future.”

The winning paper will be chosen in May at the ISERC conference in Anaheim, California, which Si will be attending.

"Last year members of a Rice and Wayne State University team introduced an electrolyte made primarily of common bentonite clay that operated at 120 C. This year the team validated its hunch that h-BN would serve the purpose even better.

Rodrigues said batteries with the new electrolyte are geared more toward industrial and aerospace applications than cellphones. In particular, oil and gas companies require robust batteries to power sensors on wellheads. "They put a lot of sensors around drill bits, which experience extreme temperatures," he said. "It’s a real challenge to power these devices when they are thousands of feet downhole."

"At present, nonrechargeable batteries are heavily used for the majority of these applications, which pose practical limitations on changing batteries on each discharge and also for disposing their raw materials," said Rice alumnus and co-author Leela Mohana Reddy Arava, now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Wayne State."

"Thus, George Szafnauer, a Romanian-American, found himself stuck behind the Iron Curtain in the 1950s. It was the Cold War, and the Romanian government refused to recognize his U.S. citizenship, so he was not allowed to leave. He attempted to escape, was caught and put in prison. 

"The key to success when you do not have all the resources of the big boys is to outsmart them."

Fortunately, soon afterward, an agreement was reached to normalize relations between Romania and the United States. George was released and given his U.S. passport. Three months later the family moved to Warren, Michigan.

Kids adapt quickly and George’s son, Romanian-born Otmar, attended high school in Sterling Heights, Michigan, before going on to study electrical engineering at Wayne State University."

"Many of those involved credit the creative brainpower attracted to Michigan by its historic industries with creating a culture that fuels innovation in other areas. Dr. Juri Gelovani, who heads the medical engineering program at Wayne State’s College of Engineering, said Michigan has “a huge intellectual infrastructure” in place from its manufacturing, electronics and pharmaceutical heritage. “That puts Michigan and Southeast Michigan ahead of the curve,” Gelovani said.

As just one example, Gelovani points to Delphinus Medical Technology, a Plymouth-based company that’s in stage three clinical trials with a revolutionary imaging technology for breast cancer. The procedure developed by Delphinus allows technicians to measure breast tissue without radiation or pain to the patient as an alternative to X-rays, MRIs or CT scans. The company was founded by a medical doctor at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and a researcher at WSU.

Gelovani said there’s tremendous opportunity in medical- and bio-tech right now as the country’s health care system adapts to the dictates of the ACA and incorporates rapidly evolving technology. Smaller startup entities like Delphinus are well-positioned to capitalize on that change, he said, even as some of the industry’s larger, established players struggle."

"DETROIT — To play running back, it takes a tremendous amount of vision and focus on the field.

Brent Murray knows this well.

The all-time leader in career rushing yards at Petoskey, he had everything it takes to succeed at the position on the field in high school.

Now, thanks to an off field vision for himself past graduation, Murray has the opportunity to prove himself at the next level as well, as he’ll attend Wayne State University as a preferred walk-on for the football team.

Already set on pursuing mechanical engineering at Wayne State, Murray had a one-on-one with Warrior head coach Paul Winters to discus the potential of spot on the team.

The conversation didn’t last long.

“I went down to talk to coach Winters and then it pretty much just came up, he said ‘you have a spot on the team,’ right away,” said Murray. “It was a shock. I wasn’t expecting it. I was going to ask if I had a chance to walk on. But he said ‘you’ve got a preferred walk-on, if you want.’”

"One Seaholm High School teacher is changing the “when will I use this?” mentality that students often have in math classes.

Thad Wilhelm, head of the school’s department of mathematics, worked with Kenneth Chelst, director of engineering management and professor of operations research at Wayne State University, to develop an operations research course for high school classrooms. The course aims to approach math as a way to solve practical problems beyond the textbook, such as how to find the best cellphone wireless plan or how to make an optimized schedule for a workplace."

"Chelst, who has a P.h.D in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology  and has helped major corporations such as Ford Motor Co. and IBM implement analytics programs, said he considers himself a missionary for modernized math education.

“My main strategy has been (that) every teacher I reach will teach 100 kids that year, and maybe 1,000 over their career,”  he said. “I almost never talk to high school kids directly. I only talk to their teachers in hopes of motivating them to use some of the examples, some of the concepts in their class.”

In his talk, Chelst said operations research students learn how to analyze data using Microsoft Excel. The dreaded word problems involving flagpole shadows, rates of travel between two cities, and speeds of filling a bathtub are tossed in favor of using computerized models to produce results that make students think critically about how to optimize data."

The poster, “Design and Implementation of an Integrated Endocavity Ultrasound, Photoacoustic, and Elasticity Imaging System,” focuses on designing a customized imaging probe that provides a complete set of diagnostic information. Using a single imaging probe, the device can provide physicians with the structural, functional and molecular information of tissue. The goal is to use this technology to detect  early-stage ovarian cancer as well as cervix tissue abnormalities, which lead to spontaneous preterm birth.

“We are very excited for this award, not only because our efforts are acknowledged and awarded but also because we receive attention from high-level experts in the field of medical imaging,” said Mehrmohammadi. “This shows that we are working on a project which has both technical and clinical value.”

Students from the biomedical, electrical and computer, and mechanical engineering departments worked together with faculty from the School of Medicine and researchers from the Karmanos Cancer Institute to create the imaging probe.

Mehrmohammadi joined Wayne State University in 2014. His research interests include medical imaging, bioinstrumentation and ultrasound imaging. 

The goal of his research is to make expensive testing on aircraft engines, gas turbines and other complicated machinery as efficient as possible to get more information per test. This project is a continuation of his dissertation research at Wayne State University, which was sponsored by a grant from Siemens Energy and under the supervision of ISE Professor and Chair of Research Kai Yang.

"I congratulate Dr Adel Alaeddini for his spirit of determination and perseverance, he never gives up if he thinks it is the right thing to do," said Yang.

Alaeddini received his Ph.D. from Wayne State in 2011 and is currently an assistant professor at University of Texas at San Antonio. In 2010, Alaeddini, Yang and associate professor Alper Murat were part of a team that received the Best Paper Award in Quality and Reliability Track at the Industrial Engineering Research Conference.

LOVES PARK, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cleo, a leading provider of enterprise managed file transfer and enterprise integration solutions, will sponsor and speak at the 2016 Big Data & Business Analytics symposium at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich.

Wayne State’s Big Data & Business Analytics Group hosts the annual event, which runs March 23 and 24 on the Detroit campus, to bring together expert industry practitioners to exchange ideas and insights, and share these concepts with big data professionals. The symposium focuses on issues faced while deploying big data strategies to drive business success, along with managing and analyzing the data captured through marketing, product development, manufacturing, distribution, sales, and service initiatives in a global ecosystem.

Cleo Chief Executive Officer Mahesh Rajasekharan, Ph.D., and Chief Technology Officer John Thielens will jointly deliver the presentation “Operationalizing Big Data: From Project to Production,” while Rajasekharan also joins representatives from such companies as Henry Ford Health System, LexisNexis, and General Motors on a panel discussing best practices for “Empowering Your Organization through Big Data & Business Analytics.”

“Businesses are driving the data explosion to better compete in the marketplace, and this great event hosted by Wayne State addresses important ways to actualize big data to understand use patterns, predict behavior, and provide better customer service,” Rajasekharan said. “The latest technology comprising the modern B2B gateway – and more specifically, the big data gateway – gives companies the connectivity, security, and reliability needed to move data faster to parallel the desired speed and agility of their business.”

“It’s no mystery that big data integration in today’s hyper-connected business ecosystem can be a very complex process,” Thielens said, “and Mahesh and I are looking forward to contributing to the discussion the types of next-generation tools, technologies, and processes the Cleo Integration Suite employs to solve these critical big data challenges.”

“This great educational opportunity shares insights on the best real-world methods and techniques of putting big data to use, and not just from a technology standpoint but from a business ‘end user’ perspective as well," said Ratna Babu Chinnam, professor and co-director of the Wayne State University Big Data & Business Analytics Group. “We’re excited to hear from Cleo about the gateway and secure integration needs for modern big data initiatives.”

For additional information, including registration details, visit the Wayne State College of Engineering website.

About Cleo

Companies need to move data both within their enterprise and beyond. They want to view data insights and act with informed decisions. Cleo makes it easy! With nearly 40 years of experience and more than 100,000 proven and tested installations worldwide, Cleo offers enterprise integration software solutions that are exceptionally easy to install and use. Cleo has solutions for enterprise integration, enterprise managed file transfer, secure file sharing, and big data gateway. Regardless of the size or complexity of your integration needs, Cleo has the right solution for you. 

For more information about Cleo, visit https://www.cleo.com

Nejad’s dissertation, “Frontiers in Operations Research for Overcoming Barriers to Vehicle Electrification,” focuses on network optimization and game theory to increase the electric driving range of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and also increase the efficiency of charging mechanisms for electric vehicles. Ratna Babu Chinam, professor of industrial and systems engineering at Wayne State University, served as Nejad’s dissertation supervisor.

“We are extremely proud of the dissertation research that Mark has done and all the prestigious awards he has received from several key professional societies in recognition,” said professor Chinam. “He has set the bar very high for future students.”

Over the course of his Ph.D. studies, Nejad has published over twenty peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Transportation Science, IIE Transactions, IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, and IEEE Big Data.

Nejad has received several prestigious publication awards and recognition from INFORMS, POMS, IIE and IEEE, including the 2014 INFORMS ENRE Best Student Paper Award and the 2014 INFORMS Service Science Best Paper Award. He also was a finalist for the 2015 IBM Service Science Best Student Paper Award. Nejad earned his degree in 2015 and is now an assistant professor at the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Oklahoma.

The first paper, “Integrated nanotechnology platform for tumor-targeted multimodal imaging and therapeutic cargo release,” focuses on drug delivery to cancerous tumors in an attempt to create a non-invasive approach to treating breast cancer.

The second paper, “AAVP displaying octreotide for ligand-directed therapeutic transgene delivery in neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas,” presents research on treating inoperable tumors through targeted gene therapy.

Dr. Gelovani is the leader of the molecular imaging program, a joint effort between the Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University. His labs are expanding the research activities of the new Integrative Biosciences Center.

Gelovani has published more than 160 papers on cancer research, holds over 15 patents, and is an editor for multiple publications. He has also received awards from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the George and Barbara Bush Endowment for Innovative Cancer Research, and the Gold Medal for significant contributions to the field of molecular imaging from the Society for Molecular Imaging (SMI).

She was featured by WJBK-Detroit Fox 2 News and WXYZ-Detroit 7 Action News.

This year, attendees learned about the importance of entrepreneurship in engineering. Topics discussed included launching startups, social media marketing and other essential entrepreneurial skills.

Students also took part in networking and social events that helped them connect and share ideas. Tours were given of Detroit landmarks, such as Ford Motor Company and the Motown Museum.

Civil engineering alumnus and CEO of Urban Science Jim Anderson, served as the keynote speaker and gave students advice on how to succeed as engineers and entrepreneurs. Anderson founded Urban Science in 1977 to help the automotive industry better manage their sales and marketing resources. He also funded the Anderson Institute at Wayne State University that helps students and faculty commercialize ideas. Students were able to test Anderson's advice through a "Shark Tank" competition where they pitched their ideas to potential investors.

Attendees also presented research through a technical paper competition. Wayne State student Salman Ammoun's project titled “Minimizing Wait Time in the Emergency Room" received the top award in the competition.

View photos here.

“The proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the success of rich cloud services have pushed the horizon of a new computing paradigm, fog computing, which calls for processing data at the edge of the network,” said Weisong Shi, Charles H. Gershenson Distinguished Faculty Fellow and professor of computer science at Wayne State University. “It is extremely important that the students and faculty at Wayne State University have access to and are aware of this new wave of computing technology.” According to Shi, edge computing real potential to address concerns that come with the wide deployment of IoT such as response-time requirement, battery-life constraint, bandwidth cost , and data safety and privacy.”

Fog computing is an immersive, distributed computing infrastructure that distributes the resources and services of computation, communication, control and storage closer to devices and systems at or near the users. This results in more efficient network bandwidth and more functional and efficient IoT solutions. Fog computing offers greater business agility through deeper and faster insights, increased security and less demand on the network, resulting in lower operating expenses.    

Located in the heart of the Detroit, Wayne State University has a strong research program in the realm of smart and connected communities enabled by fog computing, including smart cites, connected vehicles, intelligent transportation and connected health. Shi leads Wayne State’s Mobile and Internet SysTems Laboratory (MIST) and Wireless Health Initiative (WHI), which investigate performance, reliability, power and energy efficiency, and privacy issues of networked computer systems and applications. “Our research is critical in understanding how fog computing systems can be developed and deployed in real-world applications,” said Shi. 

In addition to developing the partnership with the OpenFog Consortium, Shi has played a leading role in initiating a new symposium on edge computing for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Association for Computing Machinery to push this emerging field. 

“Dr. Weisong Shi and his team are doing important work in networked computer systems and applications, and we are delighted to welcome Wayne State University as an early academic member of the OpenFog Consortium,” said Jeff Fedders, president of the OpenFog Consortium.  “Our academic members play a key role in defining the latest research in fog computing that will be applied to the OpenFog architecture and testbed activities.”

"Wayne State University is excited to join the OpenFog Consortium and share valuable information with other researchers and users of this emerging technology," said Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the the WSU College of Engineering. "This relationship will positively impact the work Dr. Shi and other faculty members are conducting in the areas of IoT and cyber-physical systems."

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 27,000 students. For more information, visit wayne.edu/. 

The OpenFog Consortium is a global nonprofit organization that is creating an open and interoperable architecture for fog computing. OpenFog members are working to define an architecture of distributed computing, network, storage, control and resources that will support intelligence at the edge of IoT, including autonomous and self-aware machines, things, devices, and smart objects. Ultimately, the work of the Consortium will help to enable and drive the next generation of IoT.  The Consortium was founded by ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Princeton University in November 2015. For more information, please visit openfogconsortium.org. 

"I hope you take some time tonight to enjoy the food and company of your teammates as you all prepare for the year's final competition in May," the letter read. "You get to work hands-on with one of my favorite cars: the iconic Chevrolet Camaro!"

While most of Wayne State's students are on spring break, the Hybrid Warriors are hard at work in the EcoCAR garage, located in the College of Engineering. The team is preparing for the year two final competition in May, where they will showcase the progress made in vehicle integration.

"This was a fun surprise," said Miriam DiRusso, a mechanical engineering student and the team's engineering manager. "It's wonderful to receive support from such an important person in the automotive world." 

"Thank you to Mary Barra and the organizers of EcoCAR for this treat," said Jerry Ku, associate professor of mechanical engineering and Wayne State's EcoCAR faculty advisor. "Gestures like this help motivate our students, who work long hours on this project in addition to their many other responsibilities."

EcoCAR3 is a four-year competition sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy. The competition challenges student teams from 16 universities to redesign a Chevrolet Camaro to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining the car's muscle and performance. Wayne State University has the only EcoCAR team from Michigan. 

View Hybrid Warriors Pi Day celebration photos.

View video.

"Most children know how to shoot basketballs, but designing and building a robot to successfully shoot baskets from 12 feet away using small foam balls takes a bit more knowledge and skill.

The Clawson Middle School robotics team took home two awards with robots they built in a statewide competition that set up the basket-shooting challenge.

“To be recognized with two awards in the state competitions is a pretty big thing,” said Steve Carpenter, a computer programer who advises the team along with his twin brother Dan Carpenter.

Steve and Dan Carpenter are 2012 graduates of Clawson High School. Steve is working on his master’s degree in computer science at Wayne State University and his brother is majoring in science education at Wayne State.

Robotics students and the Carpenter brothers work together on robotics on their own time on from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

“We’re in the off-season now,” Steve Carpenter said. “We’re teaching the kids CAD (computer aided drawing) to prepare ourselves for next year.”"

This online course — open to all majors, with no prerequisites or programming knowledge needed —will teach students how to keep their personal information safe. The course focuses on the risks of using digital devices, including viruses, hacking and other cyber-security threats, as well as the ways to mitigate these risks. Students also will learn how to identify, assess and repair devices that are already infected. It may count as an elective for some students.

Regardless of the career path a student takes, knowledge of these systems is a valuable skill on a résumé.

The department encourages students to register early in order to get one of the 100 open spots.

Testimonials from current students:
“When registering for Personal Digital Security, I didn't know what to expect from the course, especially since this was my first online class. I've learned a plethora of information, and this was the least stressful course I’ve taken". - Tre'Lon Hunt, Mechanical Engineering

"There are so many things I found out after taking this class... I didn't even know what malware was. I also didn't know that you could track an exact location from where a photo was taken if you don't adjust the settings first. Overall, the course is very beneficial for my life outside of the university and a tool to help me for the rest of my life," - Kayla Johnson, English

Contact Dr. Loren Schwiebert with questions. 

Register today!

According to Kou, the award is a great honor and recognition of Wayne State's traumatic brain injury research program supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research. "I would like to thank the strong support from the whole MRI center led by Dr. E. Mark Haacke," Kou said. "Many students, postdocs, research scientists and staff working behind the scene in MRI center to help our TBI program. We are also fortunate to have very strong collaborators from the emergency medicine led by Drs. Robert Welch and Brian O'Neil. In the early days, Drs. Scott Millis from Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Randall Benson from Neurology helped us set up the stage. Dr. John Woodard's team from Psychology helped patients' testing. Our radiologists Drs. Karl Kish and Conor Zuk helped review clinical images. I also sincerely appreciate the strong support from our two departments, Biomedical Engineering, led by Dr. Albert King, and Radiology, led by Dr. Wilbur Smith. Finally, I would also like to thank our Dean, Dr. Fashad Fotouhi, of the College of Engineering for his enthusiastic support. Again, this grant helps our ongoing research program, and this honor goes to our team."

“I think these events at FutureSWE are really fun because they provide an opportunity to learn about engineering and what to expect in the field in the future,” said Summer, a student attending the event.

The day's activities included making balloon-powered cars, building flashlights and creating lava lamps. Attendees also had the chance to ask questions about engineering or college to current engineering students and women in industry.

“Seeing all of the young ladies at FutureSWE excited about science and engineering makes me confident that the future generations of engineers will be more diverse,” said Tonya Whitehead, an engineering doctoral student at Wayne State and one of the event planners. “FutureSWE is a great event to inspire young women to pursue careers that they may have otherwise been steered away from by showing them role models that look like them.”

Parents who attended the event were treated to lab tours and workshops that provided valuable information on how to prepare their daughters for college and educate them on the biases that women face in the engineering industry.

View photos from the event here
More about WSU FutureSWE here
 

The program, which provides educational and counseling support to first- and second-year students with a strong interest in engineering, has been slowly undergoing a name change from Engineering Bridge to EOS. In March, executives from DTE Energy came to the Marvin I. Danto Engineering Development Center to announce $1.4 million grants to the College of Engineering from the DTE Foundation, the majority of which will be earmarked to help fund the rebranded EOS.

Steve Kurmas, DTE Energy president and chief operating officer, College of Engineering alumnus and member of the executive committee for the college’s Board of Visitors, will be the guest speaker.

“EOS is a new name, and we’ve been kind of sitting on it,” says Jeffrey Potoff, professor of chemical engineering and materials science, who has been director of the program for most of its existence. “The current students in the program probably know it as Bridge, but going forward it’s going to be branded as EOS.”

According to Potoff, EOS doesn’t stand for anything.“I am very anti-acronym,” Potoff declares, laughing. “I hate them because they usually lead to ridiculous names being created.”

In mythology, EOS is the Greek goddess of the dawn, who opened the gates of heaven each day for the sun to rise. For the College of Engineering, the name is meant to symbolize the awakening of young minds to the bright possibilities that engineering holds.

When rebranding an existing operation, “Everybody’s got a name, right?” Potoff notes. “One of the things we set out to do was give the program a name that actually means something. So we came up with EOS, which is a real name.”

It means something real to the more than 60 students currently involved in the program, which has the opportunity to provide hands-on experiences in engineering. “I get my TAs and peer mentors together to work on projects and brainstorm ideas,” explains Kristina Lenn, program instructor and College of Engineering lecturer. “We make sure the projects are manageable for the students, that the timeline we give them is workable and get all the materials together. Then I’m in charge of scheduling everything.”

The projects, incorporated as part of Lenn’s Introduction to Design course, differ each semester. “We’ve had groups build bottle rockets and compete with each other, or build a drone that can carry out specific tasks,” says Monica Prasad, a biomedical engineering sophomore from Canton, Michigan, and one of eight peer mentors in the program. “It’s more about focusing on the core of engineering, learning skills that students need for the rest of their engineering careers.”

 “A big part of what we’ve learned over the years is that when students show up, they don’t want to write papers about being an engineer,” says Potoff. They want to do things that are connected to engineering. We’ve developed these hands-on design projects so as soon as they show up on campus they are thinking about engineering, doing engineering in a tangible way, and that has been very popular.”

So popular that in at least one instance, the program convinced an incoming student to change her educational focus.

“I was going to be a film major and was all signed up for my classes,” recalls Brianna Nolasco, a freshman from Westland, Michigan. “Then a few weeks before the semester started, I realized I was still kind of confused about exactly what I wanted to do. I went to an advisor who told me to meet with Casey [Rue, College of Education incoming student/Bridge program advisor]. He explained the Bridge program and I thought, ‘That would be perfect for me.’ We did projects I enjoyed because I got to work with other people and experience what it’s like being part of a team and having to build something. It really helped me realize that engineering is what I want to do.”

Peer mentors are key to the program’s success, providing role models for incoming students as well as one-on-one tutoring and guidance. “The mentors who helped me were there for everything,” says Mohamed Elnour, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Canton who is now a mentor himself. “Not only engineering but also the classes that related to engineering like chemistry and mathematics. They wanted to make sure that the first steps I took toward considering engineering were solid ones.”

Perhaps surprisingly, most of the funds from the DTE Foundation grant will be targeted to assist students with some of their most mundane needs — on-campus parking and lunch, for instance.

“We know from our retention data that if we’re going to lose people, it’s going to be in their first two years,” Potoff observes. “So we wanted to come up with creative ways to retain students. For example, we want them to be on campus more often. If you roll up to the structure and its $7 or $8 a day to park, you start thinking, ‘Do I really want to come to campus today?’ We wanted to take that away, so now they can just show up when it’s best for them.

“If we can keep students on campus longer, we know that, academically, they can do better. So it’s just these little things to kind of keep them moving in the right direction.”

Student feedback regarding the program has been consistently positive. “I know kids who are really proud of their exam scores after we’ve helped them out with the materials and tutoring,” Prasad says. “They come back and say, ‘Hey, I did really well. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad.’ It’s always positive feedback.” Potoff says he and his team meet to discuss the program nearly every day, year-round, seeking to expand and improve its impact. Lenn, a College of Engineering graduate who was once a student and peer mentor under Potoff, says the Bridge program has changed significantly since he took it over. “I left for a few years and came back, and I can see all the ideas he’s had and what he’s wanted to do. The students are so much more engaged now and have a much better idea of what engineering is supposed to be.”

And now it will be known as EOS. “I really like the name,” Lenn says. “It’s pretty cool. It goes back to Greek mythology, and Eos was the transition between the nighttime and the daytime. Plus, as a chemical engineer, EOS also stands for equation of state, which is pretty cool in my book.”

Don’t tell Potoff.

“We’re really excited about this,” says Mai T. Lam, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and a member of the university’s Cardiovascular Research Institute. “Our most recent work presents a new, neat way to engineer blood vessels. We’re hoping it can help a lot of patients in the future.”

Until now, techniques for tissue engineering of human blood vessels took a one-size-fits-all approach — existing processes didn’t allow for natural variations in vascular size or vessel wall thickness. After more than a year and a half in the laboratory, Lam and her team — Cameron Pinnock, Elizabeth Meier, Neeraj Joshi and Bin Wu, all from the WSU College of Engineering — developed an innovative method of producing customizable, self-organizing vascular constructs built upon a major structural component of normal blood vessels: the smooth muscle layer, or tunica media. 

“Our vessels are completely made out of cells, so you should have far fewer issues with rejection when they are inserted into the body,” Lam says.

“We take human cells that are actually derived from the aorta, cardiac cells, then we make a cell sheet out of them,” she explains. “You can put them in a Petri dish and they’ll form a sheet. We take that sheet and let it form a ring around a plastic post we have in the middle of the dish, then we take that ring and stack it on top of other rings we have made out of human cardiac cells until we form a tube in the form of a blood vessel. That’s how we’re getting the blood vessel structure.”

In today’s bioengineering field, most techniques for replicating blood vessels, even from some industry leaders who have clinical trials in progress, also involve a plastic scaffolding or tube upon which cells are stacked, but the tube is placed inside the patient along with the cells. “There are inherent restrictions from the plastic itself, because it can’t really move as well as natural tissue, and it can’t grow with the body, either,” says Lam.

A prime factor in the College of Engineering team’s development of engineered vessels is the evolution of 3-D printed inserts. “Absolutely,” Lam says. “The 3-D printing technology is a very easy and rapid prototyping method for us.” 

Lam’s team is now entering the next phase of the project. “The natural blood vessel has three layers to it, and we’ve only finished one layer so far: the media layer,” Lam clarifies. “So now we’re working on the other two layers so that we can get full function out of the blood vessels. I think our ultimate goal is to combine this with our work in the lab with stem cells. You can derive stem cells from fat tissues, so we obtain the leftover tissue from cosmetic surgeries. We’re looking at isolating those stem cells and, after we finish the three-layer blood vessel construct, changing those cells into vascular cells so that we can make patient-specific blood vessels.”

Meanwhile, the team is working on its game-changing process with Wayne State Technology Commercialization. “The technique is a little hard to learn without having some experience already, so we still have some decisions to make,” Lam says. “It depends on which direction our lab wants to take.”
 
Could the stacks of customizable blood vessels eventually be called Lam Vasculature? “I’m a little too shy for that,” she replies, laughing. “We’ll probably call it something else.

View more coverage here:
The Detroit News
The Detroit Free Press
Crain's Detroit Business
MLive
WTOL 11
Phys.org
UP Matters
eScience News
 

Wu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the recipient of a five-year, $500,000 grant for the project “Spectrally-Encoded Ultrafast Microwave Panoramic Camera.” This was his first NSF CAREER application.

Microwave radar systems, used in sensors and wireless communications, detect targets using beam-scanning antennas. Traditionally, the antennas are powered by motors or electronic phase shifters, which Wu states can be slow, expensive and provide only a limited field of view. Through this research project, Wu plans to develop antennas made of novel transmission-line-based metamaterials that would enable a high-speed, microwave panoramic camera (MPC).

“The new type of transmission line has a unique property in that it can map different frequencies to particular angular locations — what is known as frequency space mapping,” said Wu. “We can build the antenna on a printed circuit board and have 180 by 180 degree, or half of a sphere, field of view for the microwave panoramic camera.” 

The main use for a microwave panoramic camera is automotive safety for both conventional and autonomous vehicles. “The proposed MPC will be applied, in particular, to automotive radar to provide driver assistance, making driving safer and more convenient,” said Wu. “The fast sensing and panoramic field of view enabled by MPC-based radars will provide early warning of potential collisions to drivers and continuously monitor road conditions.” Other uses include medical imaging as well as security and defense systems.

Through this project, Wu is applying optical imaging concepts — namely spectrally encoded confocal microscopy, a fiber-based optical imaging method for high-speed scanning — to microwave and millimeter-wave research. He will use the nFAB laboratory, a semiconductor fabrication cleanroom facility at the College of Engineering, to create the prototype.

Wu, who earned his Ph.D. from UCLA and focuses on microwave circuits, wireless electronics, radar imaging systems and applied electromagnetics, will recruit five undergraduate students from WSU and partner community colleges each year to assist in this project. He is currently involved with Wayne State’s University Bound program, which assists community college students with completing their programs and transferring to a four-year university. 

“Congratulations to Dr. Wu on receiving this prestigious award from the National Science Foundation on his first try,” said Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering. “His research in microwave radar systems and its applications will enhance lifesaving technologies and continue to demonstrate Wayne State’s leadership in automotive safety.

The National Science Foundation award number for this grant is 1552958.

##

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students.

Participants in the conference, which will be held in the newly renovated event spaces at WSU’s Student Center Building, will focus on case studies of Big Data deployment and use, explains Ratna Babu Chinnam, professor and co-director for the Big Data & Business Analytics Group at Wayne State University. 

“We have once again undertaken a case-centric approach this year. Presenters are required to come with a concrete case study,” he says.

Keynote speakers for the symposium include Lawrence Weber, director of analytics platform services for IBM, and Paul Ballew, global chief data and analytics officer for Ford Motor Company. Dozens of speakers and panelists from leading multinational technology firms fill the two-day program. Sponsors include widely recognized names such as SAS, Oracle, Lexis/Nexis and Big Data specialist firms such as Cloudera, DataStax, and MAPR.

Google and others define Big Data as an overarching term for using extremely large data sets and analyzing them computationally to reveal patterns, trends and associations that are otherwise impossible to visualize or prove. The field is especially useful in analyzing human behavior such as purchasing decisions in environments like a manufacturing operation. Business analytics is the applied use of Big Data to solve problems or improve performance.

Wayne State’s College of Engineering has been a leader in the study of Big Data. The university created the symposium when it became clear that companies and other data-intensive users needed guidance to navigate the new discipline. 

“A lot of these companies three or four years ago just went to their biggest databases, more often than not their marketing department, for analyzing social network data. It didn’t take them far, because that’s not where the problems are that Big Data can resolve. Product development, manufacturing, service, life cycle — this is where the real opportunities are,” Chinnam says.

Wayne State is able to serve as a broker, bringing together major national and regional competitors to share their practical use of Big Data in a neutral analytical setting. Chinnam says this can help companies advance in making decisions and beginning pilot projects in Big Data.

Moving to effective use of analytics and Big Data can be difficult for well-established firms with large information technology operations, Chinnam says, because IT infrastructure tends to be inward-looking and task-specific. Corporate IT was built to enhance internal processes, whether manufacturing cars or selling insurance. Taking advantage of Big Data’s benefits is hard for them to do quickly.

“It is becoming clearer in talking to leading companies that many don’t have the data ecosystems needed to do any advanced analytics. Their internal data systems have grown organically within different functions, and different systems cannot easily be combined. Many of the leading multinational firms seem to be struggling, and a majority do not have enterprise data systems in place to handle this yet,” Chinnam says.

The most successful Big Data users, on the other hand — firms such as Amazon, Google and LinkedIn — began their data approach with both inward and outward-looking data sets, with the knowledge that data manipulation itself was their business lifeline. Businesses looking to copy their success need to develop that wider focus.

Equipping participants to venture into Big Data is what the symposium is all about. Most businesses cannot wait years for a return on investment, so the symposium aims to help attendees create pilot projects. These may be based on cloud computing with relatively low investment in hardware or IT assets.

“Attendees can walk away with a clear understanding of what’s realizable today, what the requirements are and, if they want to do something, how they can get started” Chinnam says.

The symposium features separate case study tracks on Big Data Technology, Analytics, and Business Management. To register for the event, visit the Symposium website.

The district competition was open to all ITE student chapters within Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. This is the first time that Wayne State has fielded a team in the annual competition that is now in its fourth year. Additional details about the ITE Traffic Bowl competition available at www.ite.org/trafficbowl.

USACE had recently made an agreement with Brazil to help monitor and remove sediment on some of the country’s waterways to make them more navigable for larger ships. Sediment buildup in rivers can cause obstructions, making them very difficult or dangerous to travel.

Creech arrived in Brazil and became one of the engineers preparing the rivers for use. This included making the rivers deeper for barges to travel through. Creech was so motivated by his work in Brazil that he changed his thesis topic and finished his Ph.D. based on the research he conducted there.

Creech finished his thesis, “Sediment Yield and Sediment Transport Model to Support Navigation Planning in Northeast Brazil,” in December 2014.

He has now been named the USACE South Atlantic Division Engineer of the Year for the work he’s done in Brazil. He has also been selected by the National Society of Professional Engineers as a top 10- candidate for Federal Engineer of the Year.

Dr. Creech visits a dam on the Rio Doce, located downstream from a major dam failure in Brazil.

“I was thrilled to learn of Calvin's nomination for this national award,” said Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Professor Carol Miller. “He has developed into one of the most experienced sediment transport modelers in the world, and has applied his expertise to a wide variety of situations and locations. He is a unique hydraulic engineer.”

Miller, along with Shawn McElmurry (CEE), Mark Baskaran (WSU Department of Geology) and Dr. Jim Selegean (CEE and USACE) served on his dissertation committee.

Creech will head to Washington, D.C., on February 26 to receive his awards.

Justin Kietur, Humna Anjum, Ahmed Al-Jafar, Daniel Tomaszycki, and Micah Hindy were sponsored by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. ACEC represents over 5,000 engineering firms and 500,000 employees in the U.S.

“I want to thank Dr. Hummer and the CEE Department at Wayne State for allowing us to go to such an incredibly interesting and enriching event,” said Micah Hindy. “The entire day was not only a great networking opportunity but also an educational experience all of its own.”

“Our department always looks for ways to help students meet with and learn from our industry partners,” said Dr. Joseph Hummer, civil and environmental engineering chair. “At Wayne State, an engineering education extends far beyond the classroom.  This was a win-win for the students and ACEC.”

"We've found (there's) anxiety at the stage you're at right now, when there's one being proposed or being construction, but after it's in for a while, the drivers come to not only accept it, but then they really kind of embrace it," Hummer said.

The intersections typically cut travel time by 20 percent and reduce the number of collision points from 32 at a traditional intersection to 14, Hummer said. Drivers wanting to continue straight on Floresta would experience a slight delay, Hummer said.

"There's almost no way to make a mistake, and therefore there really shouldn't be much confusion there," Hummer said.

Crosstown's superstreet would be the first in Florida. As of 2014, there were 50 across the country, Hummer said. The design has been successfully implemented in North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Michigan, Utah and South Carolina, according to city documents. The intersection would cost approximately $97,500 more than a traditional one, a project manager told the council Monday."

Read the full story here.

That’s Type 1 Neurofibromatosis (NF1), a genetically inherited condition, and to date there’s no cure for it, no preventative medicine against it, and not even a good understanding of exactly how and why the tumors form along nerves. The condition affects 1 of every 3,500 people.

Harini Sundararaghavan thinks nanofibers may soon help answer the NF1 tumor formation question. In the far future, nanotech neurofibers may even help repair some of damage done by such tumors or other injuries. An assistant professor in Wayne State’s biomedical engineering program, Sundararaghavan has just received a $665,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for a new kind of model for an in vitro study of neurofibroma formation.

Her work is focused on fabricating nanofibers spun from hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring polymer, to control cell behavior. Creation of such fibers was the concentration of postdoctoral work she did at the University of Pennsylvania before coming to Wayne State in autumn of 2011. The fibers are tiny enough that they can be used to mimic the fibrous scaffold of a human nerve pathway.

While giving a seminar at the Wayne State School of Pharmacology, shortly after arriving on campus, Sundararaghavan met Raymond R.  Mattingly, professor at the University School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology, whose focus has been on creation of in vitro neurofibroma tumor models. Together, the two realized that a three-dimensional model that included not just the tumor but also the peripheral nerve structures that it grows on could provide valuable insights and allow researchers to examine how various drugs might affect tumor growth.

“Initially we were talking about using some of the materials to make better scaffolds for the in vitro tumor development, but when we looked at it more we realized maybe the fibers themselves are the key component. Maybe the fibers could mimic neurites,” says Sundararaghavan.

Neurons naturally form in a particular alignment with one another, and tumors seem to form around the aligned components. “It could be because of the physical cue of that aligned fiber, something about the physical structure, or it could be a chemical cue. We are designing fibers that can actually release these chemical cues,” she says of their preliminary research.

Ordinarily, synthetic material made for 3D culture models is gelatin-like and lacks the fibrous base that characterizes natural biological tissue structures. By creating a mimic set of peripheral nerve fibers, the investigators may be able to nail down the growth mechanism used by neurofibromas. “Once we know why the tumor forms, we may be able to get rid of it or discourage the tumor forming,” Sundararaghavan says.

What’s more, the nanofibrous structure can be used to direct particular nerve pathway development. Like the natural nerve pathway, the fibers promote the development of myelin that sheathes and protects the nerve, allowing nerve signals to flow uninterrupted. Electrospun nanofibers may eventually allow new neural pathways to be created that bypass damaged or diseased areas of the body. “In vitro we see that the neurons follow the fibers, so that could be a really good way to direct neurons,” says Sundararaghavan. Though not part of the current DoD study, this feature could be important in work to develop spinal cord repair mechanisms in particular.

Preliminary research undertaken using an internal grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research has shown that endothelial cells can form vessel-like structures along the nanofibers; that portion of the larger study will involve cooperation with the WSU School of Medicine to culture a pool of patient-derived cells. The next portion of the DoD-funded study will be to make motor neurons from embryonic stem cells for use in the models.

With those structures in place and models made, drug testing of the 3D in vitro tumor and nerve models can begin to try to isolate substances that battle the tumors. If the tumor formation mechanism is discovered and an effective chemical family is identified to control neurofibromas, a clinical trial could eventually yield the first effective treatment for the genetic condition.

In addition to Sundararaghavan, the principal investigator, and Mattingly, the co-principal investigator, the DoD grant team includes Douglas Ruden, Ph.D., an expert in human embryonic stem cells and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and clinician William Kupsky, M.D., professor of pathology at Wayne State.

The DoD-funded project is expected to take three years and follow-up from its results even longer. It’s a lengthy path, but Sundararaghavan is excited to begin.

The Wayne State University chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) will host their annual outreach event, FutureSWE, on Saturday, Feb. 27. FutureSWE is a one-day event designed to introduce middle and high school girls to the different engineering disciplines through hands-on, interactive activities.  

The event, now in its ninth year, is made possible through a generous grant from the ExxonMobil Foundation through the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), a nonprofit organization that provides resources and advocacy for women pursuing or working in engineering-related disciplines. This grant keeps the event free to students and includes breakfast and lunch, a T-shirt, and a bag filled with engineering information pamphlets and fun WSU swag.  

This year, students will build magnet-powered hovercrafts, candy asphalt, an artificial lung and other projects. Participants also will have the opportunity to talk with current undergraduate and graduate engineering students about applying to college and finding internships. Women working in industry also will be present at the event to talk to students about their day-to-day duties and what it’s like to be an engineer. Additionally, parents and educators are invited to tour WSU facilities and learn how best to prepare their students for future college success.  

Last year’s FutureSWE attracted 95 students from 41 different local area schools, 33 parents, and 65 WSU student volunteers from SWE and other engineering clubs. This year, the event is on pace to double in size, with 210 available student spots. Priority will be given to disadvantaged students such as those currently eligible for free or reduced lunches.  

Several families have already signed up to return, including Melissa Webster and her daughter, Jerzie, of Warren. “We went to this last year and learned so much and had such a good time! I wish I had gone to something like this when I was younger. If  you've got a –middle- to high-school age girl and can be at WSU on 2/27, totally check this out!”

Traditionally, FutureSWE is the chapter’s biggest and most popular outreach event of the year. Learn more and register today. 

 Freshman engineering student and football player Carterris Carter achieved the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) All-Academic Excellence Team with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher. 

Senior mechanical engineering student and tennis player Lisa Thomas was recognized as a member of the GLIAC All-Academic Team with a GPA between 3.0 and 3.49.

"Congratulations to Caterris and Lisa for making their studies a priority while also representing WSU on the field and the court," said Dean Farshad Fotouhi.
 

"Ten years ago, only a handful of universities nationwide offered big data/analytics degree programs, said Ratna Babu Chinnam, a professor and co-director in the big data and business analytics group at Wayne State University. Now nearly 100 schools are enhancing data-related curriculums, adding undergraduate and graduate degrees and offering certificates for working professional or graduate students wanting to augment other degrees.

Chinnam, who also is director of WSU's global executive Ph.D. program and supply chain research group, adds his own local observation to those numbers: "From what I hear, some ... are willing to offer $110,000-$130,000 to fresh graduates, depending on their skills, but they aren't able to attract them because these graduates are getting better salary offers elsewhere. It is another reason we need better programs." He added that there are nearly 1,000 job openings for analytics professionals within 100 miles of Detroit alone.

For its part, Wayne State plans to offer a master's degree in big data and business analytics by fall 2016, Chinnam told Crain's early last year. The board of governors in March will review the proposed degree that, if approved, would create a "comprehensive and holistic" program."

Read the full article here.

More event information can be found here.

http://www.nature.com/natureconferences/hhs2012m/index.html

Nature Medicine is one of the top scientific journals publishing the most exciting advances in the field of biomedical research. The scope of articles published by Nature Medicine covers fields such as cancer biology, cardiovascular research, gene therapy, immunology, vaccine development, neuroscience, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Original research articles published in Nature Medicine range from basic findings that have clear implications for disease pathogenesis and therapy at the earliest phases of human investigation. http://www.nature.com/nm/index.html

The Volkswagen Foundation (VoklswagenStiftung) is dedicated to advancement of science and technology in research and higher education. It funds research projects in path-breaking areas and provides assistance to academic institutions for the improvement of the structural conditions for their work. In particular, the Foundation perceives its mission in supporting aspiring young academics and in promoting interdisciplinary and international collaboration. www.volkswagenstiftung.de

These models are now used by Technical University of Graz in Austria, Tsinghua University in China, Hunan University in China, Wake Forest University, among others. WSU also developed the 50th percentile male head model for GHBMC. Continued work to develop other body sizes for males and females is led by Dr. Liying Zhang.

“Research is a labor intensive and an expensive endeavor,” said Shawn McElmurry, a Wayne State University civil and environmental engineering associate professor who will soon lead an independent team looking at the Legionella cases in Flint. “Without the proper resources, we can’t pick up everything and divert our attention to other subjects.”"

Read full article here:
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/01/23/mich-universities-move-research-flint-water-crisis/79244972/ 

Kou, who has worked with the everyday patient and NFL professionals, had some advice for those wondering about the dangers of concussions:

• Just because the medical term is a "mild concussion" does not mean the effects are mild. Concussions can have permanent effects on a person's quality of life.
• Some symptoms to look out for are loss of consciousness after impact, memory loss, fatigue and emotional control problems.
• Most people show symptoms very soon after a concussion, but some may not show symptoms for months. If you fear someone is at risk of a concussion, help them seek medical treatment immediately.

Kou and Wayne State University are working to discover a more effective way to detect concussions by checking for bleeding in the brain and examining the flow of blood throughout the brain.

Listen to the full interview here.

Read more about Dr. Kou's research. 

Hosted by the International Teaching Learning Cooperative (ITLC), the Lily Conferences on Teaching and Learning, bring together faculty and administrators from all disciplines to share scholarship on student learning. "We are extremely proud of Dr. Ssemakula and his work in this important area," said Simon Ng, associate dean for research at the College of Engineering. 

For more information on Professor Mukasa Ssemakula, visit his profile: http://engineering.wayne.edu/profile/mukasa.ssemakula/
 

“This department editor position will help me to assume academic leadership in the area of research in the field of healthcare systems engineering nationally and internationally,” said Yang. “This will put Wayne State University and the College of Engineering in the spotlight in the area of healthcare systems engineering for years to come. It will greatly enhance our industrial and systems engineering department's visibility and reputation.”

According to its publishers, IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, an official journal of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, encourages research motivated by the challenging problems related to healthcare systems. It publishes original high-quality papers on healthcare related topics of interest to researchers who want to remain current with cutting edge approaches to healthcare issues.

Yang’s goals for his new role are to speed up the review process, recruit high quality associate editors, help to establish a special editorial board of healthcare professionals to promote healthcare systems engineering to the broader healthcare community, and increase the journal's impact.

See Yang’s profile for more information on his research interests.

Professor Mao is chair of the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department of the College of Engineering. She and her collaborator at the Karmanos Cancer Institute, Professor Malathy Shekhar, received a $17,000 donation on Dec. 21 to examine how nanotechnology can be used to fight melanoma. 

The National Nanotechnology Initiative defines nanotechnology and nanoscience as the study and application of extremely small things ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers. The gold nanoparticles being used by Mao range from 3 to 40 nanometers in size. By comparison, a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. 

The Karmanos grant money was raised by 3Balls Racing LLC, a high-performance car racing company based in Holly, Michigan, whose owner, Ken Grulich, is a melanoma survivor. The company holds an annual charity event at Michigan racetracks in August to aid in cancer research. 

“Melanoma is a particularly nasty, aggressive type of cancer,” says Mao. Fortunately, though, the cancer’s aggressiveness also provides a weakness that can be targeted. Cancer cells grow quickly and are quite porous compared to other cells, meaning that tiny particles can readily enter them. Melanoma cells also have a protein, identified as Rad6, that works against chemotherapy by repairing DNA damaged by the treatment drugs. Damaging that protein could stop the cells in their tracks.” 

“My collaborator at Karmanos discovered there’s this protein inhibitor that would damage the protein and stop the repair,” Mao continues. “We plan to conduct nanotechnology research to deliver this drug specifically to melanoma cells..” 

The nanotechnology based on gold nanoparticles has been researched for breast cancer applications as well as drug delivery to spinal cord injury patients. In that delivery system, tiny amounts of a medication similar to caffeine coat gold nanoparticles that act like a sled to carry the material through the body. Meanwhile, a protein attached to the nanoparticle acts as the sled’s driver and is pulled directly to the injury site. There the drug, called theophylline, stimulates muscles that control breathing in order to prevent fatal secondary infection from setting in. 

“It has a similar effect to coffee — it excites you. But it is so toxic at the therapeutic level that patients cannot tolerate the high dosage. So we invented a nanovehicle using the gold nanoparticle as a delivery vehicle,” Mao explains. 

Now that same kind of delivery mechanism can be identified for precisely targeted chemotherapy. Direct delivery of the drug can be far more effective and longer lasting than the drug used alone, and the gold nanoparticles themselves are nontoxic. Application of the eventual melanoma drug could be as simple as using a specially engineered skin cream that lets the particles penetrate. 

“In the nanomedicine area, the goal is very simple: We want to reduce the side effects of drugs. You can reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy if you can reduce the drugs and direct them specifically to the cancerous area,” she says. “We want to make beautiful nanomaterials, but it would be even better if these nanomaterials can be used to fight diseases.” 

The donation will be used as seed money to do research and gather preliminary data, which then can be used to seek a much larger federal grant to develop the process and take it through the extensive testing needed before the therapy can be used to treat cancer patients.  

Mao began Wayne State’s nanotechnology program in Engineering and has been excited to see the cross-disciplinary growth of nanotechnology over the last 10 years, particularly in medical applications.  

Events such as the Karmanos one provide a chance to explain nanotechnology to the public and get them to share in the excitement over innovative applications, Mao says. “I think as scientists, we’re at fault. We spend so much time doing lab work and writing proposals. When we take time to show our technology, people are really excited.”

For more information, contact program coordinator Erin Rook at erin.rook@wayne.edu

Two Wayne State University College of Engineering faculty members have received more than $370,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide extraordinary research opportunities for undergraduate students in the burgeoning field of sustainability in advanced manufacturing. This is the first award of its kind from the NSF in this area.

Jeremy Rickli, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering, and Yinlun Huang, professor of chemical engineering and materials science, earned a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site grant to develop a summer academy in sustainable manufacturing.

“This site will contribute to establishing WSU as a leader in undergraduate research on sustainable manufacturing and provide national recognition for WSU's innovative sustainable manufacturing research,” says Rickli. “The site guarantees one slot for a Wayne County Community College student and at least one slot for a Wayne State Student per summer as a commitment to nurturing local talent as well as the nation's top undergraduate students interested in sustainable manufacturing."

“Establishment of such a program is timely,” the grant proposal reads, “as advanced manufacturing and industrial sustainability become crucial to the national economy."

The 10-week summer academy — which is scheduled to begin in 2016 for three consecutive summers — will bring 10 leading undergraduate researchers from across the country to the College of Engineering to perform cutting-edge experiments in the following areas: 

• Nanocoating and lightweight materials andmanufacturing 
• Energy storage materials, batteries and inversion devices
• Remanufacturing and Sustainability assessment o Chemical-energy-water nexus

Preparation to create the academy's infrastructure will begin in November, conducted by a multidisciplinary team of 12 Wayne State faculty members from six different departments: industrial and systems engineering, chemical engineering and materials Science, mechanical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and economics.

“In addition to research activities,” the proposal pledges, “the REU students will be exposed to a dynamic training environment for developing skills in self-learning, teamwork, communication and networking. The thoughtfully designed activities will excite participants to the future of Sustainable manufacturing and drive them to become the next generation of the United States' manufacturing workforce."

The Better Way Award recognizes a government-industry team that has developed and applied a technology, technique, process, or policy that advances inspection or test of civil/commercial aircraft structure, aircraft components, or aircraft systems. The team also consists of WSU faculty members Skip Favro and Robert Thomas, and representatives from Siemens Energy, the Air Force, Delta Airlines, Rolls-Royce, Florida Turbine Technology, and Sandia National Lab.

Stephen Remias, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, was recently published in the Institute of Transportation Engineers journal. Remias and his collaborators authored a piece titled "Using Real-Time Probe Vehicle Data to Manage Unplanned Detour Routes." The article focuses on sudden road closures and the usage of signals and digital signage to alert drivers to a detour. The data from the real time dashboards that track traffic data has led to improved responses to traffic issues, according to the article.
 

You can read the full article, published in December, here:
http://library.ite.org/pub/b772541b-04ab-0f6f-a863-34c8217c947e 

Why does it always happen? You go out to buy gifts or holiday supplies and instead of shopping, you end up stuck in a sea of traffic. Holiday tunes promise comfort and joy while you see nothing but brake lights and the back end of the huge vehicle in front of you. 

• Make right turns. Left turns are surprisingly dangerous and lead to what traffic engineers call “conflict points.” Conflict points often lead to crashes; at the very least, conflict points often slow or stop traffic. “My first rule is never make a left turn. Especially never make a left turn out onto a busy street. Coming out of a shopping center, make a right turn and either circle the block or look for a place to make a U-turn. You’ll minimize your delay and cut your chances of a crash by orders of magnitude.” 

• Find the back entrances. Back entrances often feed onto less-busy streets that offer easier travel than main arteries. “Don’t feel the need to use the front door even if that’s what your GPS says. Think ahead a little bit, look at a map, know the area well enough that you know the back ways. Almost all of the centers do have a back way in or out, and a lot of them are surprisingly underused.” 

• Know how to skip the freeway. Often a boulevard surface street like Detroit’s 8 Mile Road offers an easier drive than a traffic-choked freeway. “Those big freeway interchanges were built in the 1960s, but they were designed in the 1950s, and those folks were hoping that interchange would last until the year 2000. They never anticipated that same interchange would still be in business in 2016. My advice to people who have to go through those places is to know your alternate routes and don’t be afraid to use them.”  

• Avoid the five-lanes. Roads with two lanes of traffic on either side of a continuous left-turn center lane are a recipe for traffic conflicts and are typically overdeveloped with strip malls and mixed retail. Take alternate routes to get as close to your destination as possible. “Those roads were never meant to handle those kinds of demands. The five-lane road is an unsafe and inefficient traffic cross-section; it leads to a lot of those conflict points.”  

• Seek out the mall. Traffic features adjacent to malls are generally well-engineered to handle massive vehicle flow, and malls themselves usually design their entrances, exits and on-property roadways well.  

• Watch out for “spillback.” A malfunctioning signal, an accident at an intersection or simply too much traffic demand starts a queue of cars that builds backward. Soon it blocks nearby entrances and driveways and propagates a traffic jam that builds in every direction like an ice crystal forming. Many smartphone GPS and in-car navigation systems can give warnings of developing spillback. A pre-departure online check of a traffic map can help drivers avoid the red zones of traffic stoppage. “Spillback is a really nasty thing.” 

• Be weather-aware. “The bad weather that happens this time of year is really the first round of weather that people aren’t used to driving in — snow, ice or even just a nasty rain. Of course, slow down and allow extra time, and be wary of other people who aren’t slowing down.” 

• Watch out for the other drivers. Holidays bring people with diverse driving habits into your area, and they may not be fluent with traffic designs such as the Michigan Left Turn or roundabouts. “I think there’s a little bit of extra traffic difficulty because of unfamiliar drivers out there, out of town drivers or people not accustomed to the area who may be visiting. A little patience can help a lot.” 

After successful completion of the first year of the EcoCAR 3 competition, the Wayne State University team’s 2016 Chevrolet Camaro has finally been delivered. While the end of year 1 marks the completion of the design phase, the vehicle delivery initiates the integration phase of the competition. 

Alyse Waldhorn, project manager, said the team is looking forward to completing their baseline testing so they can begin to integrate major powertrain components into their vehicle in order to achieve their chosen architecture: a pre-transmission parallel (P2) hybrid-electric vehicle. This redesigned vehicle will feature a 2.4 liter, GM-donated flex-fuel engine in line with a GKN AF 130-4 electric motor generator, which is powered by a 9.7 kilowatt-hour energy storage system. 

"The program is great because you can learn these skills as an undergraduate and apply them skills in your classes" said Mike Lim, one of the team's leads.

The conference consists of multiple workshops that present challenges in different information retrieval (IR) environments. IR is used to help narrow down information to find the most relevant data, such as Google or a library database. 

Kotov and Saeid received first place in Task A, automatic and manual runs, and Task B, manual runs, in the clinical decision support track, beating out schools such as John Hopkins University, University of Cambridge and University of Michigan. They developed a search system for medical articles that can process very long queries (medical case descriptions) and uses 
knowledge base for semantic matching of those queries to relevant PubMed articles.

Drabik’s poster covered the topic “Design and Implementation of a Custom Desktop Bioreactor System.” Drabik presented on the creation and evolution of a desktop bioreactor system, inexpensively produced for assisting the growth of engineered vascular grafts as well as a variety of in-lab research applications. 

"The level of undergraduate research being conducted at Wayne State is astounding,” said Mai Lam, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and Drabik’s faculty mentor. “[Drabik] is a hard-working and diligent student, who is passionate about research. His and other students' work presented demonstrates that undergraduate research is quite a valuable commodity to us at WSU."

Mirza presented a poster titled “Polyamidoamine Dendrimer‐TPP as a Platform to deliver siRNA for Lung Cancer Treatment.” Advised by former faculty member Sandro daRocha, the poster investigates the in vitro gene knockdown ability of short interfering RNA (siRNA) complexed with amine terminated generation 4 poly(amidmine) dendrimer (G4NH2 PAMAM) modified with a mitochondrial targeting agent.

Pierce’s poster “Urban Flooding in the City of Detroit” presented research performed in his report that looks to affirm the fact that if more pavement is removed from the roads and replaced with grass, then the chance of flooding, specifically in Detroit, will be significantly reduced. Pierce’s faculty mentor was graduate research assistant Michael Schrader.

Students interested in applying for the Winter-Spring/Summer 2016, should visit urop.wayne.edu for more information.

Dr. Shawn McElmurry is an Associate Professor at Wayne State University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This is the second major water sampling trip McElmurry has made to Flint since October.

McElmurry said his goal was to test more than 40 houses Saturday, Dec. 5, but he wasn't sure if researchers and volunteers would get to them all. He said he first started working with the city about four years ago to address infrastructure issues.

"I actually started working in Flint four years ago trying to address some of the infrastructure issues that occur when you have a shrinking population and deindustrialization when industry moves out but you still have that infrastructure for that large population and that big industry." McElmurry said. "That presents challenges how to manage it, not just financially, but from a water quality perspective as well as a delivery of service."

Read full MLive article here: http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/12/water_tests_conducted_at_flint.html

Wayne State University’s College of Engineering will lead a major component of a national Big Data project announced in November by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF’s goal is to augment ongoing activities and ignite new Big Data public-private partnerships across the nation. The NSF has initially budgeted $5 million nationally to spur creation through four regional data hubs, each of which involves a consortium of members from academia, industry and government.

For the Midwest hub, the WSU portion of the project focuses on aiding computing for business analytics through the use of extensive data sets that allow corporations to optimize performance in areas ranging from customer service to manufacturing and supply chain management to dealership and store franchise management.

The Big Data initiative is mapped as a wheel, with the initial consortium forming the hub. The NSF is in the process of funding additional groups to form the spokes with special focus areas. Wayne State’s special expertise is analytics. Its strength is the applied and practical use of Big Data tools and results to further the goals of affiliated businesses rather than generate mainly theoretical research results. Thirty companies and government entities are collaborators in the Big Data Midwest Hub, with at least half of them coming through Wayne State’s programs. They include the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Ford Motor Company, Domino’s Pizza and Detroit-based automotive consulting company Urban Science. 

“Not only will we do applied research through the hub but we also are working with the private sector,” says Ratna Babu Chinnam, professor of industrial and systems engineering at Wayne State and director of the university’s Center for Supply Chain Management. “ We want to focus on helping organizations better manage their product development offerings and service organizations.” The College of Engineering takes the lead on Big Data because of the discipline’s demand for high-powered computing platforms and distributed computing methods, as well as statistical and machine-learning methods.

Big Data is popular shorthand for efforts that use extensive and high-powered computing means to analyze large sets of information for trends, patterns and logic that might defy ordinary analysis or gut feelings. For example, hospitals might claim that patients come to their emergency room because of service excellence, while Big Data might reveal that a combination of location, public transportation routes and many independent patient factors make the real difference. Chinnam points out that most entities can deal with analysis of a modest data set that might include up to five-dozen variables or factors that can be controlled or changed as part of an experiment. Big Data, however, handles situations in which thousands of variables might be applied in analysis of a particular set of information.

Such problems come up when studying networks that may include 3,000 car dealerships, 6,000 pizza franchisees or 15,000 emergency clinics, where hundreds of individual, time-stamped pieces of information are collected with every customer interaction. How do you schedule automotive service or optimize pizza delivery for a metropolitan area? What underlying trends emerge in establishing national emergency medical service? Big Data tools allow such sets of information to be analyzed and manipulated in ways that generate business intelligence rather than sometimes faulty guesswork.
“Many manufacturing and product development companies are collecting a lot of data, Chinnam explains. “There are all kinds of spurious patterns that show up just by chance. How are you able to connect the dots? You will see all kinds of correlations, but just because you have a pattern doesn’t mean anything. We want to generate information that is actionable.”

While the National Science Foundation’s initial grant does not give any particular participant much funding, Chinnam says it is the start of a larger program that will eventually bring significant grants to successful programs. In 2016, the NSF intends to invest $9 million more to fund research in the strongest spokes of each research hub. Wayne State’s business analytics spoke is a strong contender for additional funding because of the strong business interest behind it. 

Meanwhile, the Big Data project at Wayne State is already achieving educational results. Cross-disciplinary programs are being created that involve tracks in analytics, business and engineering. WSU also is home to an annual Big Data symposium that is expected to draw more than 80 participating companies to campus on March 24, 2016, at the newly renovated Student Center Building.

“We have a holistic approach to business analytics and are currently rolling out a new master’s program in collaboration with the Mike Ilitch School of Business,” says Chinnam. “We are also launching a brand new program to basically address the creation of talent in Southeast Michigan.”
At its heart, Chinnam explains, Big Data is a collaborative venture. “For the past six months, we had to make a very strong case to the hub leadership saying business analytics is a critical component. We argued for it, got it established, and we will be driving that spoke in collaboration with leading universities in the Midwest,” he says. 

The Midwest Data Hub is hosted by the University of Illinois-Champagne. In addition to Wayne State University, co-leads for the hub’s business analytics spoke include the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University.
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For information on the 2016 Wayne State University Big Data Symposium, visit Bigdata.wayne.edu

It’s common for drivers to feel anxious, frustrated and even scared when they need to cross a bridge and make a left turn across traffic to reach a freeway entrance ramp — and they’re right to have those feelings. Common design practices for so-called “diamonds,” the paired exit and entrance ramps that lead off of and onto freeways, haven’t changed much since the 1930s creation of the German Autobahn and American parkways, the predecessors of today’s high-speed freeways. Many traditional diamonds are a recipe for mistakes that lead to crashes, and left turns in particular are extremely dangerous, says Joseph Hummer, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Wayne State University.

Hummer will present major findings on the improved safety and effectiveness of a relatively recent design, the diverging diamond, at the annual 12,000-attendee meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C., in January. The new design separates traffic in a way that makes it safer for left-turning vehicles to reach a freeway on-ramp. Michigan just opened its first diverging diamond at I-75 and University Drive in Auburn Hills. Hummer’s team studied seven of the earliest diverging diamonds built in the U.S. in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and New York. The findings include a 33 percent reduction in collisions and a 40 percent reduction in traffic injuries on average compared to a standard diamond.

“I’ve told my traffic safety classes for years if people stop making left turns tomorrow, we’d be out of business the next day. My advice for everybody is avoid being a left-turn driver,” says Hummer, with only a hint of sarcasm.

Left turns are recognized as a major source of traffic conflict and cause so much financial loss that large delivery corporations, including United Parcel Service, spend millions annually to design routes for their drivers that use only right turns.

Results from Hummer’s study can be used by transportation departments and highway design experts to determine when the diverging diamond is the best choice for a new interchange. The study identified specific collision modification factors (CMFs) that can be plugged in by planners in state and local decision-making processes.

The new freeway interchanges, which prioritize safer left turns, are also known as double crossover diamonds. Traffic that approaches a cross-freeway bridge reaches a signal-controlled gentle curve to the left that places their lanes on the “wrong” side of the bridge. Drivers turning onto the freeway ramp get a turn with no opposing traffic, while through drivers reach another modest curve to the right and a traffic light that takes them back to the “right” side of their road to continue on their way.

“It is easy to drive; most drivers never know they’re on it because we’ve got barriers and glare screens that make it easy to concentrate on the lanes. As you drive through, here’s a curve, here’s a signal, you’ve got another curve and signal on the other side of the bridge. Most drivers cruise on through,” says Hummer. “It’s not a universal solution, but it’s a good one in the correct place.”

Diverging diamonds aren’t for every freeway interchange, he notes. But where left-turning traffic is dense and interchanges installed in earlier decades need replacement or repair, the diverging diamond should be considered.

The safety evaluation of the initial diverging diamond installations was funded by the Federal Highway Administration. Another phase of the study involved six months’ worth of video monitoring at five of the test interchanges to determine how drivers responded to the new traffic pattern. During those 30 months of observation, there were very few wrong way movements or other driver errors. At several sites there were so few driver errors that the team could not construct a statistical model.

During the crash analysis at the seven test interchanges, the team examined a cumulative 28 years of crash data pre-installation and 19 years of data post-installation. As part of the project, two Wayne State civil engineering graduate students analyzed 3,000 crash reports. 

“The students did the bulk of the data collection, which was very tedious work, looking at PDF files of most of those crash reports,” Hummer says. Crash data are very messy and error-prone, and so they had to basically manually screen every one of those images.” 

The safety evaluation project began at North Carolina State University, where Hummer was teaching at the time, and involved researchers from the University of North Carolina and the University of Missouri. Hummer’s co-principal investigator on the project is Christopher M. Cunningham, program manager for the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina State University.

The first diverging diamond intersection in the United States was built in Springfield, Missouri, in 2009. Today there are more than 50 such installations across the country, with many more planned.

Hummer is a specialist in analyzing traffic safety and efficiency innovations that include the so-called “Michigan left turn,” and superstreets. A Michigan native, he came to Wayne State University with a 20-year record of research leadership in traffic safety operations, highway design and highway safety. He has published more than 90 journal articles, participated in more than 50 funded studies, and is an internationally recognized expert in unconventional intersections and interchanges.
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Story by Tim Moran, Ph.D., part-time faculty in the Department of History and contributing writer at the College of Engineering.

In October, Majeed Nader was awarded third place in the student paper competition at the SAE 2015 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress in Chicago for his paper "Design and Implementation of CRC Module of eCall In-vehicle System on FPGA" . Nader's paper presents the hardware design for an emergency call system in a vehicle that has been in an accident. "My adviser, Dr. John Liu, had a great role in my achievements," said Nader. "Without his advising, it would not be possible to get these good results in my research." Dr. Liu is also a professor in the ECE department.

At the IEEE SEM Humanitarian Technology Conference in July, Amjad Almatrood won the second place award for his poster "A New Approach to the Development of Nano Digital Circuits and Its Applications." Almatrood's poster explained a procedure developed to design nano digital circuits for Quantum Cellular Automaton (QCA) implementation. Almatrood is also a student of Hapreet Singh.

The Wayne State University School of Medicine and James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute held the second “Present a Challenge Day” in Scott Hall, organized with the hope of finding and forming interdisciplinary collaborative teams to create and implement real-world solutions.

The Nov. 20 event was attended by more than 40 clinicians, engineers, biomedical scientists, entrepreneurs, technology innovators and state economic development staff, who gathered to hear opportunities for innovative, problem-solving partnerships.

The event, sponsored by Wayne State’s Office of Technology Commercialization, the School of Medicine, the College of Engineering and the Anderson Institute, included several presentations, each outlining specific “challenges.” Projects ranged from developing a portable electronic medical records system to use in transient medical clinics to creating bone “cement” to heal bones after injury. The attendees then discussed matching the scientists with people, technologies and approaches that could provide solutions.

Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Stanley Terlecky, Ph.D., co-organized the event for the School of Medicine.

Engineers, biomedical scientists and entrepreneurs listen to project presentations.

“The event exceeded even our most ambitious goals – providing an outstanding opportunity to connect technology innovators with biomedical problems,” Dr. Terlecky said. “It needs to become an annual tradition.”

Projects identified during the event were eligible to participate in the newly launched WSU-Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization Program. The program funds the development and commercialization of biomedical devices and materials.

“This event is the first of an ongoing series of steps intended to bring together engineers and biomedical investigators so strong partnerships can be formed that combine their respective expertise to address complex research problems,” said Sorin Draghici, Ph.D., associate dean for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the College of Engineering and director of its Anderson Institute.

Sarah Draugelis talks about a portable electronic medical record system.

Once partnerships are formed, the teams will work together, either performing traditional research or creating startup companies. Two teams were expected to be identified at a later date to participate in an entrepreneurship program in Europe next July, supported by the Anderson Institute.

“This process of assembling multi-disciplinary research teams and turning them loose on problems is an exciting undertaking, and we intend to include students in the next ‘Challenge Day’ offering,” added Daniel Walz, Ph.D., associate dean of Research and Graduate Programs for the School of Medicine.

More on the Leanprove Forum, R-innova here: http://r-innova.com/ 

Biomedical Engineering Professor Zhifeng Kou found himself appalled at the limited methods neurosurgeons had to monitor traumatically injured brains. When a severely sick patient with evidence of a brain injury needed brain activity monitoring, a hole had to be drilled in their head and a long, thin catheter inserted into their brain — essentially sticking a pin into the brain and watching for any electronic sign of abnormality. The process takes a relatively long time and sometimes must be repeated in order to locate the precise area of injury. 

It seemed to Kou, who holds a joint appointment in radiology, that a faster and less-invasive method of diagnosing traumatic brain injury (TBI) could be developed using the magnetic resonance imaging he was already working on. His research concept received a $425,000 grant in October from the National Institutes of Health for a study that will investigate moderate to severe TBI effects in up to 30 intensive care patients at Detroit Receiving Hospital.

Teaming with MRI pioneer Dr. Mark Haacke, professor of radiology and associate chair of biomedical engineering, Kou is developing MRI-based techniques to show what is happening with veins deep inside the brain. Arteries deliver oxygenated blood, and veins drain the oxygen-depleted blood back to the heart and lungs. By getting a picture of what the veins are doing inside the skull, doctors can localize areas of the brain that are damaged and being starved of oxygen. The veins themselves become a virtual brain catheter. By combining evidence of arterial blood supply together with venous drain, Kou can detect the brain regions with abnormal metabolic activities.

“Using the MRI, and without creating a hole, we can sense what part of the brain is hungry for blood, determine the real problem and give better support for the patient,” says Kou. “These veins work exactly like a brain catheter in that they sense the surrounding tissue, except they’re everywhere.”

The perfusion and drainage pattern shown in the MRI can be an important tool for neurosurgeons, who cut the brain to effect a cure, and for the neurointensivist, who provides critical care for brain trauma patients. While Kou is not directly involved in treatment, he says the technique can give doctors valuable information on brain metabolism at different regions and guide them for proper management and treatment protocol. Should a brain catheter need to be placed for continuous monitoring, the MRI process can remove placement guesswork and give an exact target location. 

“The brain is very complex, and different structures within the brain have different physical attributes. Using this technique, we can develop a cerebral metabolic index that tells us which part of the brain is abnormal and which is normal,” Kou says.
In addition to being noninvasive, the MRI delivers quick results. Traditional catheterization requires intervention by a brain surgeon and time both to install the catheter and wait for the area of the brain it’s inserted into to stabilize and show normal activity. With the MRI, “you see the beautiful picture right away.”

As an offshoot of Kou’s project, his M.D.-Ph.D. student Natalie Wiseman will use the same technology to measure brain metabolic changes after a mild concussion. Wiseman received an F30 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for $224,000 toward her study, which is meant to identify which concussion victims are likely to experience slower recoveries. Wiseman is the first student from Kou’s lab to receive such an award.

Kou’s investigation will follow TBI patients from initial diagnosis through recovery, with additional analysis at the six-month mark. He hopes it will lead to a powerful new imaging tool to help doctors achieve the best possible patient recoveries.
“I’m a simple and straightforward person, and I just want to make something that physicians can understand and easily use,” Kou says.

Kou’s project includes Dr. Haacke as co-principal investigator as well as Gregory M. Norris, M.D., medical director of the Neurotrauma and Critical Care unit at Detroit Receiving Hospital; neuropsychologist John Woodard, Ph.D.; and radiologist Conor Zuk, D.O. Kou also expresses gratitude to his colleagues in Wayne State’s Magnetic Resonance Research Facility for their support.
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Story by Tim Moran, Ph.D., part-time faculty in the Department of History and contributing writer at the College of Engineering.

Read more here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-speed-camera-tickets-safety-met-20151120-story.html

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2015/11/mdot_wins_national_award_for_r.html

http://uppermichiganssource.com/news/local/michigan-rumble-strip-initiative-recognized-with-national-award 

http://scitechnow.org/videos/what-lies-beneath-the-great-lakes/

Joseph Hummer, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was interviewed on the 1320 WILS show Capital City Recap with Michael Cohen in Lansing. Hummer spoke about the new highway funding that the Michigan legislature approved and what the state will prioritze when fixing the roads. You can hear the broadcast at the link below:
Listen here.
 

http://www.clickondetroit.com/back-to-the-future-day-what-will-detroit-look-like-in-2045/35970398

This introductory course is an ideal way to increase security knowledge and skills. It will show students how to easily and significantly reduce their exposure to viruses, hackings and other cybersecurity threats. Students will also learn how to identify, assess and repair devices that are already infected.

Whether you are planning on entering the IT field or not, it is valuable to have knowledge of these systems on your résumé. The department plans on offering the course in future semesters.

Syllabus

Contact Dr. Loren Schwiebert with questions. 

Register today!

Tunisian Fulbright Scholar Mohamed Kilani has chosen Wayne State University to work on his second master’s degree.

DETROIT – Wayne State University’s College of Engineering introduced a new volunteer board today to guide its plans to expand alumni programs and outreach.

The Engineering Alumni Association was established 40 years ago when Gene Tomlinson, BSChE ’56, MSChE ’61, MBA ’74, served as president of the Wayne State University Alumni Association. He worked with faculty member and fellow alumnus Stanley Stynes, BSChE ’55, MSChE ’58, who later served as dean of the college, to envision a vibrant organization that would benefit alumni and enable them to support students and faculty. Today, the Engineering Alumni Association comprises 25,000 members who live in every state and 48 countries around the world.

Tonight at its signature event, Night of the Stars, the College of Engineering will introduce the inaugural members of the Engineering Alumni Council, which will serve as the advisory board for the Engineering Alumni Association. The goal of the council is to increase the value of a Wayne State engineering and computer science degree. The 24-person board will enable members of the Engineering Alumni Association to network individually as well as at university and college-hosted events, and through social media. The council will also create opportunities for alumni to volunteer their time and expertise to help prepare students for successful careers.

“The College of Engineering’s strategic plan calls for an increased investment in our alumni network,” said Dean Farshad Fotouhi. “The council will play a key role in shaping the future of the Engineering Alumni Association. We want all of our alumni to know, whether you’re beginning your career or enjoying the fruits of retirement, there’s a place for you here.”

Individuals who have earned a Wayne State engineering or computer science degree are considered members of the Engineering Alumni Association. No dues are required to participate in events, services and programs, including those offered by the Wayne State University Alumni Association.

The council includes three standing committees, which will be charged with leading three new programs: a volunteer program for alumni to share their expertise with students and student organizations, an ambassador program for alumni at major companies to connect fellow alumni to the college, and dedicated events and community service projects for undergraduate alumni who have graduated in the past 10 years.

“Wayne State gave me an opportunity when I needed it most,” said Don Smolenski, MSChE '79, PhDChE '90, inaugural chair of the council and OEM liaison manager for Evonik Oil Additives USA. “My goal for the Engineering Alumni Association is to leverage the talent of our alumni members to create those same kinds of opportunities for today’s students.”

Smolenski joined Evonik in 2012 after a distinguished 33-year career at General Motors. Most notably, he co-invented GM’s automatic engine oil life monitor, which is now standard on most of its vehicles in North America. He is a fellow of the Engineering Society of Detroit and the Society of Automotive Engineers, and was inducted into the College of Engineering’s Hall of Fame in 2013.

Other officers are Russ Pogats, BSEE ’92, vice chair; Brian Geraghty, MSME ’72, Volunteer Committee chair; Julius Reeves, BSIE ’86, Ambassador Committee chair; and Luke Popiel, BSEE ’13, Recent Alumni Council chair.

For more information about the Engineering Alumni Council, please visit http://engineering.wayne.edu/alumni/eac.php.

# # #

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/internetcomputing

Adams created the 1969 Pontiac Trans Am while at General Motors and later became a very successful entrepreneur. The book chronicles the creation of the iconic car.

“This is a great opportunity for engineering students and all students interested in the automotive industry to hear from an expert with an incredible story,” says Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering.

The first 25 students at the event will receive a free copy of the book. More information, visit the event listing.

She gives this advice to students preparing for their first co-op placement or internship: "Develop a relationship with compnaies, thier HR represenatives, and, if you can, possible engineers that you will be working with. If a company has an idea of who you are before the interview, that puts you a step ahead of the next guy. You can develop your relationship by continually stopping at that company's booth during different career shops, asking thier represenatives questions, connecting with people on LinkedIn and keeping up to date on the company's major developments and when their intern/co-op opportunities are available. If you are interested in the company, the company will become interested in you."

"I feel honored to be invited to the College of Engineering Board of Visitors, where I may continue to support student success," says Singh.

Singh joined Wayne State University as a professor in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (now Industrial and Systems Engineering) in 1993. He has authored four award-winning books and nearly 150 research papers. In 2012, he retired from the university to focus on growing his three international companies.

Singh’s companies, Acculogix, QRD Corp. and RGBSI, all specialize in engineering and software development. Through his companies, Singh works closely with Wayne State University and has hired more than 20 WSU graduates, more than 800 people nationwide and more than 400 from Michigan. RGBSI has offices in eight different countries with three more on the way. 

Singh was a finalist for the EY (Ernst and Young) Entrepreneur Of The Year 2014 Award in Michigan and the Northwest Ohio Region.

“Dr. Singh has been a dedicated member of the College of Engineering community for many years, and we are honored to invite him to this new role where we can draw upon his expertise in the areas of entrepreneurship and management,” says Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering.

In partnership with Fotouhi, the Board of Visitors is implementing a five-year strategic plan to increase student recruitment and retention, deepen student learning outcomes and broaden the impact of faculty research. The plan also calls for a more robust connection with the alumni community and the college’s network of corporate partners. 

# # #

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

Authors of the paper are Grace Metri, Weisong Shi, Monica Brockmeyer, Abhishek Agrawal (Intel). This work was part of Grace's Ph.D. dissertation.

"We are excited to welcome this group of remarkable faculty members to our college," said Wayne State College of Engineering Dean Farshad Fotouhi. “These faculty members will complement our existing research and academic programs in the areas of energy, transportation, security and biomaterials.”

Yingxi Elaine Zhu, Professor, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Zhu’s research interests are in the areas of polymers and colloids in solutions and under confinement, lipid biomembranes, surface and interfacial science, nanocollodial and supramolecular assembly, membrane separation, and energy materials. She most recently served as an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame. Zhu received her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2001.

Matthew Nokleby, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Nokleby’s research interests include information theory, machine learning, statistical signal processing, wireless networks, and game and decision theory. Nokleby has most recently served as postdoctoral associate for the Information Initiative (iiD) at Duke University. He received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Rice University in 2012.

Fengwei Zhang, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Zhang’s research interests include areas of cyber security with a focus on trustworthy execution, memory introspection, system integrity checking and transparent malware debugging. Zhang most recently served as a research assistant for the Center for Assurance Research & Engineering at George Mason University. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from George Mason University in 2015.

Zichun Zhong, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Zhong’s research interests include computer graphics, geometric modeling, medical imaging processing, deformable image restoration, image reconstruction, computer animation, visualization, computer vision, game development, human-computer interaction, GPU algorithms, high-performance computing, mobile computing, data analytics, health informatics and biomedical informatics. He most recently served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and as a part-time lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas. Zhong received his Ph.D. in computer science from The University of Texas at Dallas in 2014.

Stephen M. Remias, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Remias’s research interests are in traffic engineering, intelligent transportation systems, crowdsourced probe vehicle data and using large data sets to solve relevant transportation issues. Remias most recently served as a transportation research engineer for the Joint Transportation Research Program at Purdue University. He received his Ph.D. in civil and infrastructure engineering from Purdue University in 2014.

Saravanan Saran Venkatachalam, Assistant Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Venkatachalam’s research interests include supply chain management, logistics and transportation, pricing and revenue management, and air traffic flow management. Venkatachalam most recently served as a research associate and lecturer in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from Texas A&M University in 2014.

Jimmy Ching-Ming Chen, Assistant Professor, Engineering Technology
Chen’s research interests are in silicon lithium-ion battery electrode development, 3D printing applications to fluid mechanics, biomorphism/biomimetics and biomedical engineering, mechatronics, and control systems of hybrid electric vehicles and robotics. Chen recently served as a senior lecturer in the College of Engineering’s Division of Engineering Technology. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Texas A&M University in 2006.

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

To learn more about HotWeb visit hotweb2015.org

Roberson’s pitch centered on the need to go beyond community service and instead aims to create mutually beneficial partnerships with communities.

“The primary benefit of this approach is that it gives the community a voice,” says Roberson. “Instead of universities wasting resources guessing what the community wants, we involve members of the community every step of the way so they can tell us what they need.”

Specific to Roberson’s proposal were key initiatives that allow Wayne State to utilize engineering techniques that improve the efficacy and efficiency of community efforts. For example, in the proposed Saturday Challenges program, 100 Detroit students, grades K-12 and their families are invited to campus to learn skills that will help them improve the effectiveness of volunteer programs, create sustainable housing in urban settings and support local tech startups that showcase the innovation in Detroit.

The curriculum is designed to allow students to recognize their own potential to affect change in their communities. During the program, students learn how to design better phone apps that can manage volunteer days, work with 3-D printing and Google Sketch in order to develop more sustainable housing, and conceptualize their own mock tech startup.

Roberson has deep roots in the Wayne State and Detroit communities. She and her sister were enrolled in the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program as students, and the experience had a meaningful impact on them. Her sister went on to become an engineer and now works for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Roberson went on to attend Wayne State and accepted a job in the College of Engineering as director of the newly created Community Outreach Office.

“Programs that promote STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics)-related education in our community open doors to students that they previously thought were not open to them,” explains Roberson. “It is a privilege to be a part of this form of education. I like to tell people that my sister got the inspiration to become an engineer and I got the inspiration to engineer student’s futures at Wayne State.”

“We are extremely proud of Jasmine. Her role at the College of Engineering is an important one as we seek to engage our surrounding community and inspire more young students to discover the field of engineering,” says Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering.

Roberson received a cash award from USU that she is gifting back into community outreach at Wayne State by offering a partial scholarship to a student for an upcoming on-campus workshop.

About the Urban Serving Universities Coalition

The USU is a network of public urban research universities that represents every region of our country, created by university presidents to leverage the intellectual capital and economic power of urban universities in service to their urban regions. They permanently partner with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities to harness the power of urban universities to help rebuild U.S. cities, improve urban life and make our country more competitive and prosperous.

Members of the USU work closely with city, state and national leaders to promote evidence-based, transformative investment in urban areas to revitalize neighborhoods and increase community and economic development develop the local and state workforce, advance student performance along the cradle-to-career continuum, and reduce health disparities to improve community health.

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

The $4000 award will supplement Laws' ongoing summer research, "Physical (in)activity-mediated changes in functionally different sympathetic outputs and mean arterial pressure." The research will culminate in a conference presentation or peer reviewed publication.

"This fellowship allows me to establish a track record for research funding with the American Heart Association that will hopefully carry on into my graduate career and will allow me to act as my own principal investigator within my research project," says Laws.

Abouhassan and Abboud joined the program during its second phase, which focused on efforts to improve sanitation conditions in the village of Laguna de Apoyo in Nicaragua. In May 2015, they traveled to the village with other members of EWB-Detroit to collect data by going house to house interviewing the community. They found most members of the community relied on outhouses, which can lead to polluted groundwater runoff contaminating the lagoon as confirmed by the water test results.

“There are very few causes that you can support where you can see the direct impact that your time and money is having on the lives of people in need,” says Abboud. “By working with EWB-Detroit, we have been able to see it in the appreciation in the faces of the people we are helping with our engineering experience.”

Responding to the need found from their data collection, Abouhassan and Abboud set out with other members of EWB-Detroit to design a sustainable method of sanitation practices for the community that would minimize water contamination and improve general health. Due to Laguna de Apoyo’s designation as a nature reserve, authorities mandated that any sanitation system design must be self-contained and sustainable so as to eliminate any further bacterial contamination to the lagoon. To fulfill this request, it is imperative that the community be involved in the planning of this project so an effective and manageable system can be implemented. Coordination with the community is organized through the community water committee comprised of representatives from the village.  

Abouhassan and Abboud’s efforts are part of a larger effort by EWB-Detroit to improve drinking water in the Laguna de Apoyo community. EWB-Detroit began a partnership over two years ago with local nonprofit and national authorities in Nicaragua. The first phase of the project involved establishing a partnership with the community, assessing the level of contamination in the lagoon, and collecting water samples for a hydrological study to determine the optimal location for a new well to be drilled. Initial visits to the village found that surface water in the lake had arsenic levels up to 30 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit, due to the volcanic soil as the lake lies within an old crater. 

The only nearby municipality is unable to provide water to the community because their tank capacity cannot support the additional capacity needed. The dry season in the village lasts for six months so rain catchment is not a feasible option. Most residents rely on shallow, hand-dug wells for drinking water that draw from the top layer of ground water, which still contains significant levels of arsenic. Arsenic contamination in drinking water can have short-term negative health effects as well as long-term effects, including cancer.

EWB-Detroit has committed to a five-year timeline for this project. They are currently in the design stage, working with the community to agree to a plan before presenting the proposal to the national authorities in Nicaragua for approval to begin the implementation stage. Local community members will implement the designs, with members of EWB-Detroit overseeing construction and testing. 

“It really is the most rewarding experience to be able to take the education we received at Wayne State and create meaningful impact globally,” says Abouhassan. “While training to be an engineer, you develop the mindset of a problem-solver, so when you see people lacking basic human needs; you go back to what you learned in school to make positive change.”

Abboud and Abbouhassan hope to increase the level of participation from current students because they believe that community service is essential to an engineering education. 

“Many students would benefit from having more program management experience, and this program really offers that experience in a dynamic environment,” explains Abboud. 

The program also offers interdisciplinary opportunities for engineers to expand beyond their current field. Both Abboud and Abouhassan are trained as electrical engineers, but they found themselves integrating environmental engineering methods such as soil sampling into their efforts. 

“Engineering is really taken to another level when you see firsthand that people’s lives are dependent on your success. Wayne State’s College of Engineering gave us the tools to make that success happen, and we look forward to offering this experience to the students and alumni of the college,” says Abouhassan.

See more pictures 

If you are interested in learning more about Engineers Without Borders-Detroit, contact Najwa Abouhassan at najwa@ewb-detroit.org.

About Engineers Without Borders-Detroit
The Detroit Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders is a group of dynamic and hard-working professionals from around Metro Detroit committed to helping communities in our region and around the world attain a better quality of life. EWB-Detroit is a chapter of Engineers Without Borders-USA, a non-profit organization with over 13,000 members and 300 chapters across the country. Visit EWB-Detroit.org

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

Three alumni will be inducted into the College of Engineering Hall of Fame. Cynthia Bir, Bruce Hettle and Earl Shipp were selected among more than 25,000 engineering and computer science alumni who live and work in every state and in 48 countries.

“Cindy, Bruce and Earl are outstanding representatives of Wayne State, and very deserving of this honor,” said College of Engineering Dean Farshad Fotouhi. “I am also excited to bring Night of the Stars to our Midtown neighborhood at the DIA.”

This year’s Night of the Stars, sponsored by Urban Science in Detroit, will benefit student programs such as undergraduate research, study abroad and career services, and scholarships.

Tickets are $125 per person or $75 for individuals under 30 years of age, and include a plated dinner and valet parking. RSVP at specialevents.wayne.edu/nos2015#rsvp

Sponsorship opportunities are available. Contact the College of Engineering Development Office at 313-577-4707 for more information.

Honorees

Cynthia Bir, MSME 1999, Ph.D. 2000, is a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and director of the university’s Center for Trauma, Violence & Injury Prevention. She has extensive research experience in the area of human injury tolerances. Her research interests include sports injury biomechanics, ballistic impacts, blast injury and forensic biomechanics. She has studied the effects of impacts to all regions of the body and is known worldwide for her work in this area.

Bir has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal papers and more than 100 abstracts and conference papers. Her research has received millions of dollars in funding from numerous organizations, including the Department of Defense, and she has served as an expert on NATO panels. Additionally, she is the lead scientist for both Sport Science on ESPN — which earned her two Emmys — and Fight Science on National Geographic. She has also been seen on Curiosity: Plane Crash (Discovery Channel), Stan Lee’s Superhumans (History Channel) and The Indestructibles (National Geographic).

Prior to joining the University of Southern California, Bir served as a professor of biomedical engineering at Wayne State University. She holds a B.S. in nursing from Nazareth College in Kalamazoo, Michigan; an M.S. in bioengineering from the University of Michigan; and an M.S. in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Wayne State.

Bruce Hettle, EMMP 1997, is vice president of North America manufacturing for Ford Motor Company. Hettle is responsible for Ford’s North American manufacturing footprint — the company’s largest in the world, with more than 30 manufacturing plants. He plays a key role in Ford’s ongoing efforts to improve manufacturing flexibility and efficiency, while also overseeing Ford’s product expansion in North America and the company’s seamless conversion to global platforms.

Hettle joined Ford in 1986 as a process engineer working on vehicle launches, and has spent his entire career with the company in manufacturing. Since 2008, he has led Ford’s manufacturing engineering group as executive director, global vehicle operations manufacturing engineering. In addition to other leadership roles, he served as director for Ford’s Manufacturing Business Office, and was plant manager for Wayne Stamping and Assembly and Edison Assembly.

Hettle holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Oakland University and a master’s in engineering management from Wayne State.

Earsel “Earl” Shipp, BSChE 1981, is vice president of operations for the U.S. Gulf Coast at The Dow Chemical Company, where he is responsible for nine manufacturing sites, including  Dow’s Texas operations, the company’s largest integrated chemical manufacturing complex.

He joined Dow in 1981 in Freeport, Texas, and has held a number of leadership positions throughout the United States and globally, including president of India, Middle East and Africa operations; business group president for basic chemicals; and global vice president for the oxides and glycols business.

Shipp is the Dow Chemical Executive Sponsor for the Society of Women Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers.

Shipp has played an active leadership role in numerous civic and professional organizations in Michigan, Ohio, Louisiana, Texas, Africa and the Middle East. He is the former chairman of the board of the New Orleans Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and is currently a member of the Federal Reserve Energy Advisory Committee. He has served as the deputy chairman of the board of EQUATE Petrochemical Company, headquartered in Kuwait, and vice chairman of the board of M.E. Global BV, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Shipp is currently chairman of the executive committee of the Economic Alliance of Brazoria County. He is also a member of the Greater Houston Partnership Board of Directors, the executive committee of the board of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, and the Texas Chemical Council Board of Directors.

A graduate of Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Shipp earned a chemical engineering degree from Wayne State University and an M.B.A. from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

“I embrace the mission of the college as a vibrant academic community focused on education, research and entrepreneurship to improve quality of life for the citizens of Southeast Michigan and the world,” says Burcicki.

Burcicki manages commercial sales for Yazaki’s global General Motors business. He ensures the alignment of all Yazaki regions to GM strategies, business results, and long-term business plan development and tracking. He is also responsible for Yazaki’s overall customer relationship and global strategy for GM as a worldwide strategy leader.

He joined Yazaki in 1994 as a systems engineer, holding positions as sales and marketing manager and vehicle platform manager. Before his role as vice president, Burcicki served as the GM customer group director, where he led several successful new program awards, forged strong customer relationships and helped drive global growth initiatives.

In partnership with Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering, the Board of Visitors is implementing a five-year strategic plan to increase student recruitment and retention, deepen student learning outcomes and broaden the impact of faculty research. The plan also calls for a more robust connection with the alumni community and the college’s network of corporate partners. Strengthening these areas will increase the College of Engineering’s ability to provide access to excellence in education to a diverse student population, while elevating the college’s profile on a national and international level.

Learn more about the College of Engineering’s Board of Visitors

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

Michigan’s flat 19-cent-per-gallon fuel tax hasn’t kept pace with inflation, especially as vehicles have become more fuel-efficient. State trunkline spending in 2015 was $141 million, down from $195.3 million in 2014 and $155 million in 2010, according to MDOT.

Joe Hummer, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Wayne State University in Detroit, said one of the biggest factors in all of it is money.

“Every DOT has projects that just go bad,” he said. But in general, Michigan’s crumbling roads are the result of “chronic underfunding.”

“When they get the money, they know how to do it well,” Hummer said.

Read the full article

More information here: http://wsuathletics.com/news/2014/6/4/MSWIM_0604144904.aspx

Jansons’ proposal, “Advanced Engine Combustion: A Path to Fuel Economy, Reduced Air Emissions and Energy Security,” was selected by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FFSB) for the fall 2015 semester with the possibility to continue through spring 2016. The Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries, and is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government.

Jansons’ grandparents immigrated to the United States from Latvia during World War II, and he grew up speaking, reading and writing in Latvian.

“My first trip to Latvia was in 1983, and I have observed transformations [there] over three decades, giving me insight and understanding of the culture and society,” says Jansons. “I wish to contribute my expertise and participate in its further development.”

Jansons’ host institution for the Fulbright Program will be Riga Technical University (RTU), the leading national research university for applied sciences in Latvia. Jansons has worked with RTU since 2011, when at the request of the Latvian Embassy in Washington, D.C., he hosted a series of visits to Wayne State by RTU administrators seeking to develop joint educational programs and identify areas for collaborative research. One outcome of that initiative was a 3-2 program in electrical engineering where RTU students can earn a B.S. from RTU and an M.S. from Wayne State in five years.

As part of the Fulbright Program, Jansons will teach courses, develop teaching laboratories, advise graduate students, guide research projects, develop an additional 3-2 program and assist in the preparation of a Latvian language textbook on internal combustion engines, the first of its kind to be published since 1980.

“Professor Jansons’ courses will be well integrated into our program, and I am glad to see cooperation between our institutions continue,” says Leonids Ribickis, RTU rector (chancellor). “I fully support his plans to develop programs while here.”

Jansons’ expertise is in the development of experimental engine laboratories and the application of optical combustion diagnostic techniques. Despite worldwide investment in the search for viable alternatives, the internal combustion engine remains the dominant prime mover of light-duty vehicles. Jansons’ research focuses on engine efficiency, especially as it relates to fuel economy and air quality. His goal is to add to a growing technical understanding of and workforce in this discipline in Latvia.

“The entire College of Engineering community is excited for Marcis,” says Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering. “He represents the collaborative and global spirit of our faculty, and I know that he will make amazing contributions in Latvia on behalf of the Fulbright Program and Wayne State University.”

"What are the best tips for preventing a car accident?

Hummer:  Besides the usual tips such as do not drink and drive and do not drive while tired, I advise a couple other things. First, take a bus or train or plane instead of driving, as those are all much safer ways to make a trip. Second, if you have to drive, use freeways as much as possible instead of surface streets, as freeways are generally much safer. Third, if you have to use a surface street try to avoid making left turns, especially at busy multilane streets. Smart drivers think about how to route themselves to avoid those kinds of dangerous turns."

Read the full interview and report

More information here: http://wsuathletics.com/news/2014/6/4/MSWIM_0604144904.aspx

Read the whole story

Read the full article

Additional resources:

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/07/15/seat-belt-use-survey-michigan-enforcement/30182961/
http://whtc.com/news/articles/2015/jul/15/state-osp-crows-over-seat-belt-use-levels/
http://woodtv.com/2015/07/15/officials-mis-seat-belt-use-rate-remaining-steady/
http://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=2980&DateTime=7%2F16%2F2015+6%3A16%3A55+AM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=2980&playclip=True&RefPage=

The Daniel W. Mead Contest was established and endowed in 1939 by Mead, Hon.M.ASCE, a former society president. As part of their annual competition, ASCE posts a prompt to their student members, challenging them to utilize their knowledge of the industry to construct a thoughtful response. The contest provides an opportunity for alert young civil engineers to further their professional development and gain national attention.

The 2015 prompt was, “Should the Engineer of Record (who has sealed a set of plans) be held responsible, to any degree, for injury or death to builders or bystanders that occurs during the construction of his/her design?” Kelley will receive a $600 cash prize as reward for her third-place finish.

“It really took a lot of initiative and hard work for Kate to win this award. She did an excellent job representing Wayne State on a national level, and we couldn’t be more proud,” says Joseph Hummer, professor and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Learn more about the ASCE Daniel W. Mead Contest

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

“These two projects illustrate the link between research and community that is part of the DNA of Wayne State,” said Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson. “Clean air and water should be available to everyone, and it is particularly important for industrial areas with large populations to lessen their environmental impact. We are fortunate to partner with the Erb Family Foundation to improve and protect our natural environment, and build healthier communities.”

The goals of the Healthy Urban Waters initiative and Transnational Environmental Law Clinic closely align with the values of the Erb Family Foundation. “Our mission revolves around sustainable, healthy communities and a healthy Great Lakes ecosystem,” said John M. Erb, president of the Erb Family Foundation. “We are proud to join with the College of Engineering and Wayne Law to support the dedicated research, education and outreach that will protect the Great Lakes’ natural systems and provide for cleaner air.”

Continuing a partnership between HEART and the multidisciplinary Urban Watershed Environmental Research Group, funding from the Erb Family Foundation will increase the capacity of four HEART field stations to advance collaborative regional water science, urban field research and integrated community education efforts. The grant also will fund a publicly accessible data archive to develop, validate and improve urban watershed models to ensure that the most effective prevention, mitigation and restoration programs are deployed.

“The Great Lakes water system is one of the most precious resources in the world, and we are fortunate that it’s right at our doorstep,” said Carol Miller, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and the leader of the Healthy Urban Waters project. “But with that opportunity comes great responsibility. The grant from the Erb Family Foundation strengthens our ability to learn more, to share information and apply solutions that protect this urban watershed.”

The grant for Wayne Law will allow TELC to convene community meetings, develop policy solutions and serve as a lead partner with other state efforts to address air pollution. In collaboration with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, TELC will create an Air Quality Advisory Committee for Detroit and southeast Michigan. The grant also will fund a coordinator to serve as a liaison between technical experts and community residents, and develop a series of informative materials detailing types and sources of air pollution and associated health impacts.

“We will be a resource for those communities with nearby industrial or manufacturing operations that affect the local air quality,” said Nick Schroeck, assistant professor at Wayne Law and director of TELC. “Often, the policies are complex and the jargon is highly technical, leaving vulnerable communities with few avenues to participate in the process. The grant from the Erb Family Foundation allows us to work on the behalf of affected neighborhoods.”

The grant from the Erb Family Foundation is part of Wayne State University’s $750 million Pivotal Moments fundraising campaign, which had its public launch in October 2014.

Additional Resources:

https://philanthropy.com/article/Grants-Roundup-St-David-s/231125

About the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation’s mission is to nurture environmentally healthy and culturally vibrant communities in metro Detroit, consistent with sustainable business models, and support initiatives to restore the Great Lakes Ecosystem. The foundation is focused on improving water quality, especially in the watersheds impacting metro Detroit and Bayfield, Ontario; promoting environmental health, justice and sustainable development; and supporting the arts as a means to strengthen the metropolitan Detroit region. For more information, visit erbff.org.

About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

Wayne State University Law School is the premier public-interest law school in the Midwest. Its civil rights, entrepreneurship, environmental and international programs, and their related clinics, set Wayne State University Law School apart as an advocate for justice committed to serving the community. For more information about Wayne State University Law School, visit law.wayne.edu.

"Alternative Intersections: Median U-Turns" can be viewed here

"Alternative Intersections: Diverging Diamond Interchange" can be viewed here

“Our team members put a lot of time and effort into making this success possible. Road Warrior 9 (RW9), aka Lily, is a clear example of how far Warrior Racing has come,” says Adam Niner, mechanical engineering student and business director for Warrior Racing. “Over the past year we have worked so hard to break program records and achieve our goals, and we are happy to say that it paid off in full at Formula West.”

The team was able to succeed despite the many obstacles they encountered. On the first day of the competition, they had to quickly swap an engine because RW9’s was compromised a week earlier, and the spare was damaged as well. The team rallied, however, and was able to tear down and rebuild RW9’s engine moments before they were called into technical inspection.

Later in the competition, the team overcame a noise test issue through quick and innovative thinking. In the last two days of the competition, they competed in every run of every event, a feat that only 14 of the 80 teams competing achieved. Ultimately, the team broke all of their program’s records, setting the bar high for the next competition.

“Our Warrior Racing Team is a great model for student organizations on campus. They mix hard work with community service and team collaboration,” says Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the college of engineering. “I am extremely proud of their accomplishments this year.”

Formula West was the final formal competition this season, but the team will continue driving and showcasing the car at various events such as race days with other universities.

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

Full story here

Additional resources:

http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-made-a-placenta-on-a-chip-prototype-2015-6

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jun2015/nichd-18.htm

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/a-human-placenta-the-size-of-a-computer-chip/396257/

Read full story here

“Undoubtedly the most rewarding aspect of my profession is to observe my students learn, mature, and develop into successful researchers in their own right.  I am delighted to see Xin's hard work recognized from among twenty-five research projects supported by the ARC at universities such as Virginia Tech, University of Michigan, and Clemson. WSU can be proud of students such as Xin and his accomplishments,” says Jansons.

“The project is titled “Validation of JP-8 Surrogates in an Optical Engine,” and explores a key element that enables the U.S. Army to apply high fidelity combustion simulation, in the design of internal combustion engines.

“The experimental studies we perform in our optically accessible engine laboratory provide unique insights into the combustion process.  The results determine the degree to which proposed models represent the real fuels, and are used to select the best fuel models for the various types of fuels used by the Army’s land systems,” explains Yu.

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

The scholarship was created through a donation from SMDI as way to honor the career of Wayne State alumna Elizabeth Krear, BSME ’88, MSME ’90, chief engineer of the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel. The $5,000 donation is intended to support a member of Wayne State’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in their pursuit of an engineering degree. Krear wants to encourage more students to study engineering and explore the myriad paths it can lead to, from research and design to management and more. She urges current students to take advantage of as many co-op, internship, volunteer and research opportunities as possible to develop their interests and strengths.

In addition to Whitehead’s studies, she has maintained an active presence in the college’s SWE chapter. In one of her many roles with SWE, she organized a Future SWE daylong event that introduces high school girls to engineering through hands-on activities. This year’s event was the largest to date with 95 students attending, two-thirds of whom were from underrepresented minorities in the field.

“Being part of SWE has given me the opportunity to meet and get to know several inspiring women. These women are from all different stages of life and have been able to give me valuable insight and wisdom into my future career,” explains Whitehead. “Events like these are critical to balancing the workforce in STEM fields.”

Whitehead is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Wayne State, where she previously earned a master’s in the same field. Her research is focused on using biomaterials for neural tissue engineering. Her doctoral project utilizes electrospun nanofibers along with growth factors to direct and enhance peripheral nerve regeneration after injury. Essentially, she is trying to use what we know about the environment nerve cells prefer to grow in to find a way to reconnect nerves so injured people can regain feeling and function in their arms and legs.

Whitehead’s involvement at Wayne State and in the surrounding community is not limited to SWE. She also spends extensive time volunteering for Tau Beta Pi, Wayne State’s Biomedical Engineering Society chapter, along with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Pawsitive Impact for Pets and the Michigan Parent Teacher Association.

“I was surprised and honored to receive the scholarship,” says Whitehead. It was definitely a blessing, and I can’t thank the committee enough for selecting me.”

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

General anesthesia decisions on dosages are challenging and depend on patient medical conditions, surgical procedures, drug interactions, and physiological variables such as blood pressure and heart rate. Therefore, drug impact is difficult to predict subjectively and manually, and depends on extensive clinical experience and highly sharpened vigilance. Errors in anesthesia decisions, while infrequent, can occur even with experienced personnel, and the resulting impact ranges from minor consequences to serious morbidity or even mortality.

While anesthesia has gotten much safer over the years, there is still a need for improved health monitoring systems during surgery. The technology, System for Identifying Patient Response to Anesthesia Infusion, developed by a collaborative team at Wayne State, uses smart, real-time monitoring of patients under anesthesia to provide individualized and dynamic prediction of a patient’s anesthesia depth and vital signs, give physicians an early warning if vital signs are predicted to go above the standard threshold, and help anesthesiologists make decisions for targeted anesthesia depths during surgery.

“Our smart anesthesia monitoring system allows physicians to look into the near-future prediction of a patient’s vitals and make decisions that are more objective, timely and accurate,” said Le Yi Wang, Ph.D., professor of electrical and computer engineering in WSU’s College of Engineering. “The core of our technology is a novel information-processing methodology that uses measured drug rates, physiological signals and real-time data analysis to establish and update individual patient models.”

The WSU team consisting of L.Y. Wang, Hong Wang, M.D., professor of anesthesiology in the School of Medicine, and Gang George Yin, Ph.D., professor of mathematics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, have blended their unique mathematical, engineering and medical backgrounds to develop this system. With financial support from The Michigan Economic Development Corporation under its MUCI (Michigan Universities Commercialization Initiative) program, a prototype of the system has been successfully developed and tested with commercial anesthesia monitoring systems.

“The advantages of our smart anesthesia monitor compared to others includes drug impact predictions, optimal drug dosage and critical condition warnings in real time,” said Hong Wang. “This ultimately could lead to increased decision accuracy, reduced clinical workload and improved patient care.”

“Our monitoring system utilizes stochastic approximation methods,” said Yin. “We have been working with Dr. L.Y. Wang on many aspects of system identification for more than 17 years, and with Dr. Hong Wang with a number of medical applications. It is nice to see mathematical methods used in real-world applications.”

“We are excited to be working with Drs. Wang, Wang and Yin on taking their technology to the next level in the technology commercialization process,” said Joan Dunbar, Ph.D., associate vice president for Technology Commercialization at Wayne State University. “They have developed a unique method to monitor patients while under anesthesia, and it offers a new protection and safety measure while they are in surgery. It has great potential to benefit surgeons and patients alike.”

About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://research.wayne.edu.

Contact: Julie O'Connor

Voice: (313) 577-8845

Email: julie.oconnor@wayne.edu

Fax: (313) 577-3626

http://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news/Annual-2015/Wayne-State-Researchers-Obtain-Patent-for-New-Anesthesia-Monitoring/

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-06-team-issued-patent-anesthesia-technology.html

http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2015/06/anesthesia-monitoring-technology-offers-better-or-monitoring

http://www.dotmed.com/news/story/25994

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20150617/WSU-researchers-receive-US-patent-for-new-anesthesia-monitoring-system.aspx

Before arriving at the competition, the team completed 17 pre-competition technical reports and deliverables, entering with a fifth place overall standing.

“This is the first time in either EcoCAR 2 or 3 that our team has ranked among the top six going in to the final competition week,” says Jerry Ku, associate professor of mechanical engineering and faculty advisor to the EcoCAR 3 team. “This team is extremely motivated, and I predict even more success in the remaining three years of the competition.”

With a perfect score for the Baseline Waiver, the team was honored with the Best Baseline Waiver Award (BBW). The BBW deliverable is used to orient the teams to the complexities of the competition waiver process and requirements for structural analysis. The team also received the award for Best Final Technical Report, a Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)-style paper ready for publication that is used to document the year’s modeling and simulation, and also controls the team’s engineering work. The Wayne State team also received the Spirit of Project Management Award to commend the special effort and achievement in the area of project management. Lastly, they received the Ron Stence Spirit of the Challenge Award for demonstrating exceptional perseverance in the face of adversity, maintaining a positive attitude throughout the competition despite significant challenges.

During the Year One Final Competition, the team gave nine scored presentations, including a tradeshow exhibit. They also gave three Women in Engineering presentations, participated in a youth education day and networked with industry representatives at the sponsor social.

The end of the Year One Final Competition marks the beginning of the second year of this four-year project. During year two, the team will receive their 2016 Chevrolet Camaro from General Motors along with other donated components, such as a Bosch Battery Pack, and begin to re-engineer and integrate their proposed hybrid powertrain into the vehicle.

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

• MD-9 CAD Detail and Assembly Drawing
• MD-11 CAD Pictorial Drawing
• MD-19 CAD Promotional Product Imagery

“I am very glad that two semesters of hard work paid off, and I am looking forward to putting forth that same effort in my studies at Wayne State in biomedical engineering,” says Cockerill.

Following this success, he received first place at the state competition in MD-11 and third place in MD-9 categories. His project involved reverse engineering a 6.2L LT1 oil pump wet sump from the C7 Chevrolet Corvette and reverse engineering a Stanley brand wood plane for his ad in category MD-19. Overall, he took home three of the first place engineering awards at regionals for Rochester High School.

“I chose Wayne State University because I was looking for a great engineering school that offered a biomedical engineering program,” says Cockerill. “Wayne State’s excellent reputation in biomedical engineering, combined with the Midtown location, made the choice easy for me. I am really looking forward to the fall!” 

Each school is allowed to nominate up to four individuals per gender for the all-district ballot. Four of the six spots garnered by Wayne State are students in the College of Engineering. Selected were junior swimmers Manuela Ferreira (Ibague, Colombia) and Elly Maleski (Cedar, Mich. / Traverse City West), sophomore fencers Ziad Elsissy (Alexandria, Egypt) and Zuzanna Sobczak (Gdansk, Poland).

All athletes will advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-American national ballot.

Ferreira maintains a 3.88 cumulative GPA in Engineering.  She was a two-time Honorable Mention All-American (200 medley relay & 100 breast) in 2015 and won two GLIAC titles (200 Medley Relay & 400 Medley Relay).  In her collegiate career, she is a three-time All-American (First Team in 100 breast in 2014; Honorable Mention in two relays in 2015) and a three-time GLIAC Champion (200 Medley Relay twice & 400 Medley Relay once).  Ferreira is a seven-time First Team All-GLIAC (finished third in 100 breast twice plus seventh the other year; second place in 400 Medley Relay) performer.  Academically, she is a two-time GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team selection and was named to the CSCAA Scholar All-American First Team in 2014.  She has earned a spot on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term gpa 3.5+) all five semesters including one 4.00 term.

Maleski maintains a 3.77 cumulative GPA in Biomedical Engineering Honors.  She was a four-time First Team All-American in 2015 (3 relays + 1 individual) and earned one Honorable Mention All-American honor (relay).  Maleski was a three-time GLIAC Champion (2 relays plus 100 back) in 2015.  In her collegiate career, she is a 12-time First Team All-American and has won four GLIAC titles on relays and one individual title (100 back in 2015).  Maleski was a 2014 CoSIDA Academic At-Large All-America Second Team selection.  She was recently named a 2015 GLIAC Winter Commissioner's Award winner.  Academically, she has earned a spot on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term gpa 3.5+) five times with two 4.0 terms.  She is also a three-time CSCAA Scholar All-American First Team honoree.

Elsissy maintains a 3.54 cumulative GPA in Chemical Engineering.  He was a Second Team All-American in 2015 after placing seventh out of 24 fencers in the men's sabre competition at the NCAA Collegiate Championship.  Elsissy earned First Team All-Midwest Fencing Conference honors in 2015.  He was named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term gpa 3.5+) for Fall 2013 and Fall 2014.

Sobczak has a 3.91 cumulative GPA in Civil Engineering.  She earned Honorable Mention All-America accolades with her 11th-place finish in the women's foil at the 2015 NCAA Championship after placing second at the NCAA Midwest Regional.  A two-time NCAA National Championship qualifier, Sobczak finished 14th in 2014 and improved to an 11th-place finish in March.  She also improved upon her fifth-place finish at NCAA Midwest Regional as a freshman, to a second-place finish in 2015.  A First Team All-Midwest Fencing Conference selection, Sobczak has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term gpa 3.5+) all four semesters with two 4.0 terms.  She is also a  member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

*Credit to Jeff Weiss, Wayne State's Associate Athletics Director/Media Relations for story content

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

IAV Automotive Engineering, Inc., a leading engineering services firm, is once again partnering with Wayne State University's College of Engineering (WSU) in support of its EcoCAR team. IAV has committed to backing the WSU Hybrid Warriors EcoCAR 3 team, the only Michigan university participating in the current Department of Energy (DOE) advanced vehicle technology competition (AVTC) series. Through this investment, which includes monetary, technology and mentorship support over four years, IAV is providing hands-on, real world learning opportunities for students interested in future careers in the automotive industry.

The EcoCAR series is North America’s premiere collegiate automotive engineering competition, and is an integral part of AVTC’s 26-year history. During the current EcoCAR 3 competition, teams are challenged to redesign a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro in a way that will reduce its environmental impact while maintaining performance. Teams will apply the latest technologies and incorporate new ideas, including alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies, to lower the vehicle’s greenhouse gas and tailpipe emissions. Throughout the prestigious four-year competition (running through 2018), the 16 teams will learn – with the help of sponsors like IAV – how to apply their own unique ideas to meet the safety and high consumer standards of the iconic Camaro.

Learn more about this partnership

Nikolla will pursue work that will lead to development of efficient catalysts for energy generation and storage. She aims to combine computational tools with nanoscience and catalysis to design nanostructured, nonprecious metal oxide electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution – a key reaction in electrochemical energy conversion systems, such as generation of H2 from water. The proposed work will have a significant impact on the development of efficient energy conversion systems.

“It is a great honor that our research was recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy with a 2015 Early Career Research Award,” said Nikolla. “The funded work will have a significant impact in the field by providing fundamental insights that can guide the design of nonprecious metal oxide systems for electrocatalysis.”

The DOE’s Early Career Research Program, now in its sixth year, aims to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during their early career years, when many scientists do their most important work.

“Dr. Nikolla was awarded this prestigious grant from the Department of Energy for her transformative research ideas that may one day soon make a major impact on how energy is converted and stored,” said Gloria Heppner, Ph.D., associate vice president for research at Wayne State University. “She is most deserving of this outstanding recognition from the DOE.”

The award number for this Department of Energy grant is 0000216565.

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About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://research.wayne.edu.

Learn more about this award

View Wayne State University's release

Additional Resources:

http://www.sciencearoundmi.com/2015/06/wayne-state-professor-earns-doe-award/

Wayne State University

Mark Haacke, (pictured right) director of Wayne State’s MR Research Facility and professor of biomedical engineering, spearheaded this agreement by arranging for funding from ECNU that can be used for exchange purposes to enhance MR research at ECNU, and to fund additional research at Wayne State. The program will be effective in fall of 2015 and will involve the selection of one or more graduate students from each institution to conduct part of their dissertation research at ECNU and Wayne State, respectively, for three months to two years. A Wayne State faculty member will act as a faculty advisor in conjunction with an ECNU faculty member as a co-advisor. A key part of the agreement requires faculty members and students from each institution will have to spend time researching at Wayne State and ECNU.

“It was my background in physics and engineering that led me to affiliate with ECNU and their MRI physics group,” said Haacke. “Having visited Shanghai several times last year I was able to develop a small group focusing on susceptibility weighted imaging and fast imaging methods. Now it is our hope that this agreement will allow our researchers and students at each respective institution to learn from each other in order to improve our outcomes.”

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

http://thefinancialbrand.com/40693/disruptive-innovation-banking-introduction/mueller@decisionscience.info

Guangzhao Mao, professor of chemical engineering and materials science, has been appointed chair of the Wayne State University Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science in the College of Engineering. This five-year appointment begins Aug. 19.

Mao joined Wayne State University as an assistant professor in 1995. She has served as director of the graduate program in materials science and director of the certificate program in polymer engineering. She also is a founding director of the nanoengineering undergraduate certificate program and co-director of the multidisciplinary nanotechnology incubator program.

“I am extremely pleased that Guangzhao has accepted this role, said Farshad Fotouhi, dean of the College of Engineering. “She has done incredible work as a professor, researcher and program director, bringing much attention to Wayne State. The department, and students in particular, will benefit immensely from her leadership and vision.”

An expert in nanomaterials, Mao’s research has received over $6 million in funding, mainly from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Her research group develops a wide range of nanomaterials, including molecular nanowires for electrochemical sensing, gold nanoparticle carriers for targeted drug delivery in spinal cord injury and cancer therapies, and bioreducible polymer coatings for programmable gene delivery. She has received several awards, including an NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award, a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award and a Wayne State University College of Engineering Teaching Award. 

Mao is a 2015 graduate of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering (ELATE at Drexel®) Program from the International Center for Executive Leadership in Academics at Drexel University. This yearlong development program is designed to advance senior women faculty in academic engineering, computer science and related fields into effective institutional leadership roles within their schools and universities.

Mao earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s in chemistry from Nanjing University in China. She lives in Bloomfield Hills with her husband and son.

Current chemical engineering and materials department chair Charles Manke, who has served since 2000, will remain at the college as a full-time faculty member. “The department has grown immensely with Chuck at the helm,” said Fotouhi. We thank him for his many years of service.” 

Adam Skornia graduated from Wayne in December with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering, but he never played video games until he went to college. Those hours spent in front of a screen playing first-person shooter games inspired him to invent a patent-pending design for a new crossbow.

After a couple of years fiddling with the design, the idea started to become real.

Read more

Additional Resources:  

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/business/20150602/royal-oak-resident-wins-seed-capital-for-lightweight-crossbow

“Rumble strips are a proven, cost-effective countermeasure to lane departure crashes brought on by driver drowsiness, distraction and/or inattention,” the WSU TRG’s report said. “We can project…this initiative in Michigan will result in an annual reduction of 337 crashes, saving 16 lives and 62 serious injuries each year.”

In 2008, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), acting on the recommendation of a previous Wayne State TRG study, started a major rumble strip program for two-lane, high-speed rural highways. Centerline and shoulder rumble strips were installed on all MDOT rural, non-freeway highways with posted speed limits of 55 mph and appropriate paved lane and shoulder widths. To date, MDOT has placed 5,700 miles of centerline rumble strips and 1,700 miles of shoulder rumble strips.

MDOT approached Wayne State’s TRG to conduct a study assessing the success of this transportation initiative. The study ultimately found significant reductions in several targeted categories of crashes, including head-on, sideswipe and run-off-the-road crashes. In the categories examined, the study showed a 47 percent reduction in total crashes and a 51 percent reduction in fatal crashes.

“This study is one of the largest and most comprehensive investigations of effectiveness of any safety countermeasure that has ever been performed at a state level,” said Tapan Datta, a WSU civil and environmental engineering professor and principal investigator of the research project. “Analyzing all of MDOT’s two-lane, high-speed highways with rumble strip treatments targeted to alleviate lane departure-related traffic crashes makes the results real and reliable. They can be used by other states to establish their own rumble strip programs.”

Datta said future research should focus on use of rumble strips on two-lane country roads and multi-lane, non-freeway, high-speed roads.

These safety gains aren’t coming at great cost to taxpayers. The report’s economic analysis of the rumble strip program showed a high benefit-to-cost ratio. Depending on how the cost was spread out over time, the ratio was between 58:1 and 18:1. Researchers estimated a total safety benefit of more than $79 million over three years.

In a previous rumble strip study completed in 2012, WSU’s TRG found that the presence of centerline rumble strips improves driver performance in most conditions. Drivers position themselves more centrally in lanes, leading to fewer encroachments over centerlines and shoulders, thus increasing safety. And while drivers generally tended to ride onto or across the centerline when passing bicyclists, they did so less frequently when centerline rumble strips were present. They also found that centerline rumble strips did not contribute to short-term cracking in asphalt pavements. Further, rumble strips typically produced no more noise than that made by tractor-trailer trucks traveling on normal highways.

Read the full rumble strip report

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?id=1212036#.VWyf189Vgg0

http://www.upmatters.com/1fulltext-news/d/story/study-shows-rumble-strips-save-lives/17001/TtbZgo-Zzka0_X7JcYXGXA

http://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=2985&DateTime=6%2F1%2F2015+11%3A07%3A17+PM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=2985&playclip=True&RefPage=

http://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=5245&DateTime=6%2F1%2F2015+5%3A05%3A01+PM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=5245&playclip=True&RefPage=

http://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=2155&DateTime=6%2F2%2F2015+6%3A37%3A09+AM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=2155&playclip=True&RefPage=

http://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=2150&DateTime=6%2F2%2F2015+6%3A34%3A02+AM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=2150&playclip=True&RefPage=

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-dolsen/2b/13/866

Learn more about this partnership

The paper can be accessed at:

www.cs.wayne.edu/~weisong/papers/metri14-BatteryExtender.pdf

"These type of events are essential for bringing more diversity to the future of engineering and promoting the great possibilities of the field," says Nikolla. GO-GIRLs KIT is designed to encourage Detroit-area girls to consider education and careers in STEM. Forty-five middle and high school girls attended the event. This workshop began with a presentation on energy systems followed by a hands-on lab activity where students built their own electrolytic cell to power an LED. In the afternoon, students attended demonstrations on materials design for other applications. Students learned how batteries in series could power a car and how to design biomaterials to control cell behavior and provide cells with ‘energy’ for migration.  

Qingyu Yang, Assistant Professor, of industrial and systems engineering co-authored a paper with Nailong Zhang that was featured in the May edition of IIE Transactions, the IIE’s Industrial Engineer magazine. The paper is titled, "Optimal maintenance planning for repairable multi-component systems subject to dependent competing risks."

"Order of the Engineer is a rite of passage for our graduates. It is a fun celebration, but everyone takes the public statement of ethical obligation very seriously — they show they are ready to make engineering decisions for the betterment of humankind," says Darin Ellis, associate dean of academic affairs and student services.

Over 100 students attended and joined the honorary engineering organization by reciting the pledge, accepting the Obligation of the Engineer and receiving a stainless steel ring. The Order of the Engineer was initiated in the United States to foster a spirit of pride and responsibility in the engineering profession, to bridge the gap between training and experience and to present to the public a visible symbol identifying the engineer. By accepting the Obligation of the Engineer, engineers pledge to uphold the standards and dignity of the engineering profession and to serve humanity by making the best use of Earth's precious wealth.

See more pictures of the ceremony

For more information see the links below:

http://www.nasf.org/news/category/nasf-national/
http://www.nasf.org/news/2014/09/05/2014-science-and-engineering-scholarship-competition-now-open/
http://www.pfonline.com/blog/post/nasf-science-and-engineering-scholarship-competition-now-open
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/09/prweb12148604.htm

Salley will co-chair "Educational Programs on Transportation Electrification: Current Status and Future Needs." The panel will discuss the status of programs and courses developed with support from the U.S. Department of Energy for the advancement of electric-drive vehicle engineering educational programs.