Category: DataS

Weihua Zhou to Present Friday Seminar Talk

Weihua Zhou

The College of Computing (CC) will present a Friday Seminar Talk on November 15, at 3:00 p.m. in Rekhi 214. Featured this week is Weihua Zhou, assistant professor of Health Informatics and member of the ICC’s Center for Data Sciences. He will present his research titled: “Information retrieval and knowledge discovery from cardiovascular images to improve the treatment of heart failure.” Refreshments will be served.

Abstract: More than 5 million Americans live with heart failure, and the annual new incidence is about 670,000. Once diagnosed, around 50% of patients with heart failure will die within 5 years. Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is a standard treatment for heart failure. However, based on the current guidelines, 30-40% of patients who have CRT do not benefit from CRT. One of Zhou’s research projects is to improve CRT favorable response by information retrieval and knowledge discovery from clinical records and cardiovascular images. By applying statistical analysis, machine learning, and computer vision to his unique CRT patient database, Zhou has made a number of innovations to select appropriate patients and navigate the real-time surgery. His CRT software toolkit is being validated by 17 hospitals in a large prospective clinical trial.

Mark Rouleau Is Co-author of Article in the Journal Landscape and Urban Planning

Mark Rouleau

An article by Mark Rouleau, associate professor of social sciences and member of the ICC’s Center for Data Sciences, was recently published in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning, published by Elsevier. The article, titled, “Agent-based modeling for bioenergy sustainability assessment,” is co-authored by Robert J. Zupko II.

Article Abstract: Woody biomass bioenergy is an important renewable alternative to conventional fossil fuels. However, the negative land-use change impacts of biomass harvesting necessary for bioenergy production can potentially outweigh its positive benefits if poorly managed. In this paper, we explain how Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), a form of computer simulation, can be used to conduct a comprehensive bioenergy sustainability assessment to identify possible gains and trade-offs necessary to develop bioenergy in regions with large numbers of private family forest owners or smallholders who own a significant share of available biomass. We discuss how ABM simulation can overcome the barriers of existing sustainability assessment tools and provide a demonstration of the sustainability assessment capabilities of an ABM using a hypothetical case study that explores the introduction of a bioenergy conversion facility in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States. We conduct a series of alternative futures scenarios and compare the sustainability outcomes of three alternative policy regimes using voluntary incentive programs to encourage smallholders to harvest biomass.

Michigan Tech Digital Commons listing: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/513/

Recommended Citation: Rouleau, M., & Zupko II, R. J. (2019). Agent-based modeling for bioenergy sustainability assessment. Landscape and Urban Planning, 188, 54-63.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.04.019

Timothy Schulz Receives University Professor Award

Timothy Schulz
Timothy Schulz

Timothy Schulz, professor of electrical and computer engineering and member of the ICC Center for Data Science, has been awarded the prestigious University Professor title, which recognizes  faculty members who have made outstanding scholarly contributions to the University and their discipline over a substantial period of time.

The University’s most prestigious faculty awards–announced last spring–were presented Wednesday, September 18, at a ceremony in the Van Pelt and Opie Library. Making the presentations were University President Richard Koubek, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Jacqueline Huntoon and Vice President for Research David Reed.

Alex Sergeyev Wins ASEE Best Paper Award

Alex Sergeyev

College of Computing Professor Alex Sergeyev (DataS) presented his research article, “University, Community College and Industry Partnership: Revamping Robotics Education to Meet 21st Century Workforce Needs – NSF Sponsored Project Final Report,” at the 2019 American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) annual conference, receiving the Best Paper Award in the Engineering Technology Division.

The conference took place June 16-19 in Tampa, Florida.

Co-authors of the publication are S. Kuhl, N. Alaraje, M. Kinney, M. HIghum, and P. Mehandiratta. The paper will be published in the fall issue of the prestigious Journal of Engineering Technology (JET).

Tim Havens Quoted in The Enterprise Project Blog

Timothy Havens

Timothy Havens (CC/ICC), the William and Gloria Jackson Associate Professor of Computer Systems and director of the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC), was quoted extensively in the article “How to make a career switch into AI: 8 tips,” which was published September 5, 2019, on The Enterprisers Project blog.

https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2019/9/ai-career-path-how-make-switch

Oommen Part of Team in Mumbai Working on Disaster Management Curriculum

Thomas Oommen

Thomas Oommen (DataS), associate professor of geological and mining engineering and sciences, was recently featured in a Michigan Tech Unscripted Research Blog titled, ” Geohazards on the Horizon.”

Oommen was part of a US team in Mumbai this August working on disaster management curriculum with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), the only institution in all of Mumbai—one of the world’s largest cities with 19 million people—to offer a degree in disaster management.

Oommen’s trip was funded by the US Consulate General in Mumbai. Read more about the team’s work on the Unscripted blog here: https://www.mtu.edu/unscripted/stories/2019/august/geohazards-on-the-horizon.html

Mari Buche Is Co-author of Article in ACM SIGMIS Database

Mari Buche

Mari Buche (DataS), School of Business and Economics associate dean and professor of management information systems, is co-author of the article, “He Said, She Said: Communication Theory of Identity and the Challenges Men Face in the Information Systems Workplace,” which was published in the August 2019 issue of the newsletter ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems.

Co-authors of the article are Cynthia K. Riemenschneider, Baylor University, and Deb Armstrong, Florida State University.

Abstract: The preponderance of the academic research focused on diversity in the IS field has emphasized the perspectives of women and racioethnic minorities. Recent research has found that following the appointment of a female CEO, white male top managers provided less help to colleagues, particularly those identified as minority-status (McDonald, Keeves, & Westphal, 2018). Additionally, Collison and Hearn (1994) assert that white men’s universal status and their occupancy of the normative standard state have rendered them invisible as objects of analysis. To develop a more holistic view of the IS workplace, we expand the academic exploration by looking at the challenges men face in the Information Systems (IS) workplace. Using a cognitive lens, we evoke the challenges men perceive they face at work and cast them into revealed causal maps. We then repeat the process evoking women’s perspectives of men’s challenges. The findings are analyzed using the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI) to determine the areas of overlap and identity gaps. This study advances our understanding of the cognitive overlap (and lack thereof) regarding the challenges facing men in the IS field, and provides another step toward developing a more inclusive IS work environment.

Citation:
ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems
Volume 50 Issue 3, August 2019
Pages 85-115
ACM New York, NY, USA

https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3353407

DOI: 10.1145/3353401.3353407

Susanta Ghosh is PI on $170K NSF Grant

Susanta Ghosh

Susanta Ghosh (ICC-DataS/MEEM/MuSTI) is Principal Investigator on a project that has received a $170,604 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation. The project is titled “EAGER: An Atomistic-Continuum Formulation for the Mechanics of Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides.” This is a potential 19-month project.

Dr. Ghosh is an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics at Michigan Tech. Before joining the Michigan Tech College pof Engineering, Dr. Ghosh was an associate in research in the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University; a postdoctoral scholar in the departments of Aerospace Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and a research fellow at the Technical University of Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. His M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. His research interests include multi-scale solid mechanics, atomistic modeling, ultrasound elastography, and inverse problem and computational science.

Abstract: Two-dimensional materials are made of chemical elements or compounds of elements while maintaining a single atomic layer crystalline structure. Two-dimensional materials, especially Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs), have shown tremendous promise to be transformed into advanced material systems and devices, e.g., field-effect transistors, solar cells, photodetectors, fuel cells, sensors, and transparent flexible displays. To achieve broader use of TMDs across cutting-edge applications, complex deformations for large-area TMDs must be better understood. Large-area TMDs can be simulated and analyzed through predictive modeling, a capability that is currently lacking. This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award supports fundamental research that overcomes current challenges in large-scale atomistic modeling to obtain an efficient but reliable continuum model for single-layer TMDs containing billions of atoms. The model will be translational and will contribute towards the development of a wide range of applications in the nanotechnology, electronics, and alternative energy industries. The award will further support development of an advanced graduate-level course on multiscale modeling and organization of symposia in two international conferences on mechanics of two-dimensional materials. Experimental samples of TMDs contain billions of atoms and hence are inaccessible to the state-of-the-art molecular dynamics simulations. Moreover, existing crystal elastic models for surfaces cannot be applied to multi-atom thick 2D TMDs due to the presence of interatomic bonds across the atomic surfaces. The crystal elastic model aims to solve this problem by projecting all interatomic bonds onto the mid-surface to track their deformations. The actual deformed bonds will, therefore, be computed using the deformations of the mid-surface. Additionally, a technique will be derived to incorporate the effects of curvature and stretching of TMDs on their interactions with substrates. The model will be exercised to generate insights into the mechanical instabilities and the role of substrate interactions on them. The coarse-grained model will overcome the computational bottleneck of molecular dynamics models to simulate TMDs samples comprising billions of atoms. This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation’s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.