MSE News Briefs

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Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) co-authored “Photovoltaic System Performance Enhancement With Nontracking Planar Concentrators: Experimental Results and Bidirectional Reflectance Function (BDRF)-Based Modeling” published in the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.
Graduate students Negin Heidari (ECE) and Jephias Gwamuri (MSE) co-authored a paper with Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) titled “Impact of Snow and Ground Interference on Photovoltaic Electric System Performance,” published in the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) co-authored “Feeding Everyone: Solving the Food Crisis in Event of Global Catastrophes that Kill Crops or Obscure the Sun” in the journal Futures. Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was interviewed for CBC in October on feeding everyone in the event of catastrophe. Pearce’s research in low concentration solar photovoltaic technology was also covered widely by the international media including the Epoch Times and the EE Times in Europe and India.

Research on distributed manufacturing with 3D printers in isolated communities co-authored by undergraduate mechanical engineering student Nick Anzalone and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE), was quoted extensively in Vedomosti (Ведомости, translated literally “The Record”), the largest Russian financial newspaper.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) gave a plenary presentation “Making Open Hardware the New Standard in Science” at the 2015 Open Hardware Summit, Saturday in Philadelphia. The summit was sponsored by the Open Source Hardware Association.

Graduate students Tony Pinar (ECE) and Bas Wijnen (MSE) collaborated with Jerry Anzalone (MSE), Tim Havens(ECE), Paul Sanders (MSE) and Joshua. Pearce (MSE) on a paper titled: Low-cost Open-Source Voltage and Current Monitor for Gas Metal Arc Weld 3-D Printing published in the Journal of Sensors.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) published an article “Overcoming the North’s Diesel Dependence With Renewable Energy” in Circle, the magazine of the World Wildlife Federation’s Global Arctic Program and was posted on their arctic blog, Thin Ice Blog. Joshua Pearce’s (MSE/ECE) research showing a high ROI for open source scientific hardware development was the top story on NSF’s Science 360. It was also covered by others including ECN Magazine and 3Ders.

Graduate students Wyatt Adams (ECE), Ankit Vora (ECE) and Jephias Gwamuri (MSE) co-authored a paper with Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) and Durdu Guney (ECE). Controlling optical absorption in metamaterial absorbers for plasmonic solar cells, for the SPIE Proceedings on Active Photonic Materials. Graduate student Bas Wijnen (MSE) co-authored a paper with Jerry Anzalone (MSE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) on Multi-material additive and subtractive prosumer digital fabrication with a free and open-source convertible delta RepRap 3-D printer published in the Rapid Prototyping Journal.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) is quoted on the performance of solar in the Richmond Times Dispatch and Tulsa World.
The Pearce group solar-powered 3-D printers made the Tech.Mic top 6 list for Here Are the Big Ways 3-D Printing Is Creating the Future of Renewable Energy. 3D Printing Industry reports that copies of Pearce’s book The Open Source Lab are prizes inthe Second Great Big Gigabot Giveaway.

Professor Yun Hang Hu and his doctoral student Bing Han have had extensive media coverage on their research focused on hydrogen production using light and water. Their method is currently the most efficient artificial photosynthesis process developed. Read more on e Science News, Kurzweil AI, Red Orbit, World Industry Reporter, MyInforms.com, phys.org, Laboratory Equipment, Pune Mirror, Mumbai Mirror and Fuel Cell Works.
Yun Hang Hu and his doctoral student Bing Han have developed an efficient method for hydrogen production using light and water. The research was covered by Industrial Safety and Security Source, Lab Manager, Space Daily, News R, Michigan Ag Connection and One News Page. Additionally, the Kurzweil AI story was reblogged on the Alex Torex Blog, CJC in 484 and several other blogs.

Erik Herbet (MSE/IMP) has received $81,342 from UT-Battelle, LLC per contract for a research project titled, Mechanical Properties at the Protected Lithium Interface. This is a two-year project totaling $236,806.

Several news outlets, including Chem Europe and Hackaday, have picked up a recent story about Joshua Pearce and NECi collaborating on developing an open source nitrate test kit. The online website Environmental Research Web picked up the story of Joshua Pearce’s collaboration with NECi and the open source nitrate test kit they developed.

The Chicago Tribune published an article from Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, quoting Associate Professor Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) on the use of solar panels in cold northern climates.

Technology Century, a science and technology news website published by the Engineering Society of Detroit, ran an article about Associate Professor Joshua Pearce’s (MSE) research on a 3-D printed device that measures nitrates in soil and water. The device is smaller, less costly and more effective than traditional measuring techniques.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) wrote “Win a Giant 3-D Printer for Making a Positive Social Impact” in ELSEVIER SciTech Connect.

Graduate students Jephias Gwamuri (MSE) and Ankit Vora (ECE) co-authored a paper with Durdu Guney (ECE), Paul Bergstrom (ECE) , Anand Kulkarni (ECE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE); Limitations of Ultra-Thin Transparent Conducting Oxides for Integration into Plasmonic-Enhanced Thin Film Solar Photovoltaic Devices, in Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

Graduate students Amber Haselhuhn (MSE) and Bas Wijnen (MSE) co-authored a paper with Jerry Anzalone (MSE), Paul Sanders (MSE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE); In Situ Formation of Substrate Release Mechanisms for Gas Metal Arc Weld Metal 3-D Printing. Published in the Journal of Materials Processing.
Research on reusable substrates for 3D printing by PhD students Amber Haselhuhn and Bas Wijnen along with Jerry Anzalone (MSE), Paul Sanders (MSE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was covered 3D Printing Industry and by 3Dprint.com.

Michigan Tech Materials Science & Engineering Department now has a 550 Ton Extrusion Press for Materials Research, donated by ALCOA, see photos and a video clip “Michigan Tech Material Research: 550 Ton Extrusion Press

Amberlee Haselhuhn, a PhD candidate in MSE, received the Silver Quill Award from Brigadier General Anthony Funkhouser, commander of the Northwestern Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Michigan Tech is the lead research partner with Grede working on thin-walled iron casting for automobile transmissions. The collaboration was highlighted in Foundry Management and Technology and has received support from the LIFT (Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow) program.

Technology Century, a science and technology news website published by the Engineering Society of Detroit, reported on a visit by ESD executives to Michigan Tech and plans to establish a student chapter of the ESD at Michigan Tech.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was the keynote speaker for the Shared Resource Laboratories: Driving Innovation and Discovery joint Mid-Atlantic Directors and Staff of Scientific Cores (MAD SSCi) and Southeastern Association of Shared Resources (SEASR) meeting in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia. Pearce was also quoted in “5 upcoming developments in 3D printing” in the Business Reporter distributed with the Daily Telegraph (UK). Pearce and MSE PhD student Amberlee Haselhuhn coauthored “Intellectual Property as a Strategic National Industrial Weapon: the Case of 3D Printing.” in the May-August issue of Engineer: the Professional Bulletin of Army Engineers. Read the article.
Pearce is quoted in the article “Money-Smart Reasons to Install Solar Panels at Your Home Now,” on Kiplinger.com and in the August 2015 edition of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. Pearce’s research on low-cost heat exchanger technology was featured in the Mumbai Mirror (daily circulation of about 700,000). Pearce also published an article in Gaceta Sanitaria, the official journal of the Spanish Society of Public Health and Health Administration. The translated title of the piece is “Maximizing Return on Investment for Public Health with Open-source Medical Hardware.”

Paul Sanders (MSE/IMP) is the principal investigator on a research project that received a Co-op/Joint Agreement-Cost of $362,000 from the American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute. The project is titled Melt-5a – Developing and Deploying Thin Wall Ductile Iron Castings for High Volume Production. Also involved with the project are Gregory Odegard (MEEM) and Stephen Kampe (MSE).

Ben Wittbrodt (MSE masters student) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) co-authored the article “Total U.S. cost evaluation of low-weight tension-based photovoltaic flat-roof mounted racking” published in Solar Energy. Pearce also published, Buckle up for fast-tracked science thanks to open-source hardware in Engineering for Change.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) and Richelle Winkler (SS) coauthored “Resilience to Global Food Supply Catastrophes“, published in Environment, Systems, and Decisions.
Pearce coauthored “Peanut shaped ZnO microstructures: controlled synthesis and nucleation growth toward low-cost dye sensitized solar cells”, published in Materials Research Express.

The Graduate School Announced Award Recipients for Fall 2014 and Spring 2015, Doctoral Finishing Fellowships: Jie Zhou, PhD Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering, “Five years training and researching background on physics and materials science give me the ability of identifying scientific problems and finding the way to walk through individually or collaboratively.”

Michigan Tech is featured in a video from CNN about graphene for Tolou Shokuhfar’s and Reza Shahbazian-Yassar’s work in 3D bioprinting.

Yu Wang (MSE) has received an $88,467 research grant from the National Science Foundation for the project, Collaborative Research: In-Situ Three-Dimensional Diffraction and High-Resolution Electron Microscopy Study of Modulated Martensites.
The funding is for the first year of a potential three-year project totaling $272,539.

The Michigan Tech Vice President for Research Office announces the Research Execellence Fund Awards. Thanks to the volunteer review committees, as well as the deans and department chairs, for their time spent on this important internal research award process. Infrastructure Enhancement Grants: Stephen Kampe, IMP/MSE. Environmental Test Chamber; Link to full list

Global Scientist published an article by Jephias Gwamuri, a fellow of the Fulbright Science and Technology Award program from Zimbabwe and an MSE PhD student, titled “3D-Printing Technology for Economic Revolution in the Developing World.”

UPmatters, a news site published by WJMN-TV (CBS) Channel 3, Marquette, featured a story about a collaboration between the Michigan Tech foundry and Finlandia sculpture students. Tech’s chair of materials science and engineering, Stephen Kampe and Dale Dewald, who manages the foundry, arranged two sessions for Fredendall’s students to work at the facility. There, they were able to cast in both bronze and aluminum. Read more here

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was quoted on NBC New York in the story “Beyond Plastic: New Technology Promises Greener 3-D Printing” . Pearce published Applications of Open Source 3-D Printing on Small Farms in the journal Organic Farming. Pearce was quoted by EcoWatch in an article about Michgan Tech’s Solar Powered 3D printers. EcoWatch is a leading news website reporting on environmental news, green living and sustainable business. Pearce co-authored “A Virtual Educational Exchange: A North-South Virtually-Shared Class on Sustainable Development” for the Journal of Studies in International Education. Pearce’s article on Michigan Tech’s course to build your own 3D printer, which was supported by a William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning grant, was the editor’s pick and most read story on OpenSource.com last week.

Yongmei Jin (MSE) has received $150,000 from the National Science Foundation for a three-year project titled “Collaborative Research: Computational Study of Low Volume Solder Interconnects for 3D Integrated Circuit Packaging.”

Alumnus/Winn Fellow Joseph Rozario (ECE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) published “Optimization of annealing cycles for electric output in outdoor conditions for amorphous silicon photovoltaic–thermal systems,” in Applied Energy. DOI.

Joshua Pearce’s MSE/ECE cross-listed course was covered by OpenSource, 3D Print (Unchained with Open Source: Michigan Tech 3D Printing Course Teaches Students to Build 3D Printers) and 3D Printing Industry (Michigan Tech’s Open Source Course – The Future of 3D Printing Education). Pearce was quoted in the Examiner story What ever you need, chances are a 3D printer can print it and in a Science News story about a new method to 3D print.

Jaroslaw Drelich (MSE) and Jeremy Goldman (Bio Med) have received $203,996 from the US Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Health for the first year of a 22 month-long project titled “Improved Biocompatibility and Biodegradation of Zn-based Stent Materials through Surface Non-Engineering.”

Research on new polymer recycling codes by students Emily Hunt, Chenlong Zhang, and Nick Anzalone, and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was covered widely by the recycling, technical and 3-D printing press such as “New and Improved Recycling Standards for the 3D Printing Era” in 3D Printing Industry and Hack-A-Day: “Adding Recycling Codes To 3D Prints.”

AlterNet, a news service ran a story that covered content from the book Feeding Everyone No Matter What by Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE).

Yun Hang Hu, Charles and Carroll McArthur Professor in MSE, has been elected president of the Hydrogen Storage Division of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE).

Chelsea Schelly (SocSci), Gerald Anzalone (MSE), Bas Wijnen (MSE), Joshua M. Pearce (MSE/ECE). Open-source 3-D printing technologies for education: Bringing additive manufacturing to the classroom. Journal of Visual Language and Computing.

Research by Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) on open hardware was covered by Punto Informatico –– the largest Italian online newspaper –– and Open Electronics. Pearce was quoted in a story “Can Open Source Really Work in Scientific Research?” published in 3D Printing Industry. Pearce co-authored – “A novel synthesis of tin oxide thin films by the sol-gel process for optoelectronic applications” for AIP Advances.
Pearce was quoted in the Washington Diplomat article “World of 3-D Printing Brings Medical Breakthroughs to Life,” pages 25–28 and also quoted in “Design and Tech Communities Confront Ethical Conundrum” in SXSWorld Magazine and Joshua Pearce and his group was highlighted in the article “Can We 3D Print Our Way to Sustainability,” in the Earth Island Journal.
Pearce coauthored “Effect of ambient combinations of argon, oxygen, and hydrogen on the properties of DC magnetron sputtered indium tin oxide films” in AIP Advances.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) published “Quantifying the Value of Open Source Hardware Development” in Modern Economy.
Amberlee Haselhuhn (MSE) and Bas Wijnen (MSE) and undergraduate students Eli Gooding (MSE) and Alexandra Glover (MSE) and collaborators Gerald Anzalone (MSE), Paul Sanders (MSE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) published Substrate Release Mechanisms for Gas Metal Arc 3-D Aluminum Metal Printing. in 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) published How to make a customizable 3D-printed corn sheller in Engineering for the Change. Pearce was interviewed by Nautilus magazine for What to Eat After the Apocalypse.
Pearce was quoted by Accuweather in Are Solar Panels Usable in Snowy Climates?

Graduate students Jephias Gwamuri and Ben Wittbrodt (MSE) co-authored a paper with Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) titled “Reversing the Trend of Large Scale and Centralization in Manufacturing: The Case of Distributed Manufacturing of Customizable 3-D-Printable Self-Adjustable Glasses,” which was published in the journal Challenges in Sustainability.

An article that was co-authored by Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) titled “10 Ways to Feed Ourselves After a Global Agricultural Collapse” was the top-rated article on Elsevier Connect.

Professor Lawrence Sutter (MSE) has received $40,828 from Iowa State University for a three-year research and development project titled “Technology Transfer for Jointed Concrete Pavements.”

Associate Professor Joshua Pearce’s (MSE/ECE) new book, “Feeding Everyone No Matter What: Managing Food Security After Global Catastrophe,” was covered by Science Daily, CNN Money, Nature World News, the Food Processing Magazine and others, including “10 Foods You Could Eat After a Global Catastrophe” by Discovery News. It was also covered extensively in the international press, including in MSN Nieuws (Dutch), N-TV (German affiliate of CNN) and Huffington Post Deutschland.

Research by PhD student Bas Wijnen (MSE) and his collaborators Jerry Anzalone (MSE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was highlighted in Make Magazine and covered by 3D Print.

Michigan Tech’s open-source 3D printer was recently covered extensively by the international technical press, as an Australian company released a commercial metal printer based on Michigan Tech concepts, noted in the article “Metal Printing For the Consumer–The S1 From Aurora Labs“, in 3D Printer World. TU Delft University (Netherlands) also made a derivative printer using an open-source Prusa i3 RepRap, described in the article “Printing In Metal with a MIG Welder,” in Hackaday. Gizmodo, 3Ders and others have also covered this technology, and the Michigan Tech 3D printer remains on “Malaysia’s 6 Trends That Will Dominate in 2014.”

TechGen Magazine published an article about Associate Professor Joshua Pearce’s (MSE) study on what families could save by 3D printing common household objects.

The work of Associate Professor Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) and his group was featured in “How 3D Printers Are Boosting Off-the-Grid, Underdeveloped Communities” in Motherboard.

PhD students Chenlong Zhang and Jephias Gwamuri (MSE) coauthored an article with Associate Professor Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) titled “Design of Multijunction Photovoltaic Cells Optimized for Varied Atmospheric Conditions” published in the International Journal of Photoenergy.

Technology Century, an online and print publication of the Engineering Society of Detroit, featured editor Matt Roush’s interviews with faculty and graduate students from the College of Engineering at Michigan Tech, the first stop on his annual Tech Tour of university campuses in Michigan.

The work of PhD student Bas Wijnen (MSE), research scientist Jerry Anzalone (MSE) and Associate Professor Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) on their open-source water-quality tester was featured by Hack A Day.

Associate Professor Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was quoted in an article, Solar 3D Printer Technology to Revolutionise Developing Countries, by BBC Capital.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was quoted in news stories about his group’s solar-powered 3D printers, which were covered extensively in the 3D printing press, 3D Print, and by technical news outlets such as CNET.

The work of PhD student Bas Wijnen (MSE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) on fair trade filament has been covered in the technology and international media, including 3D Printing Industry “Fair Trade Filament for 3D Printing, Here We Come!” and the German DRUPA in “3D Printing at Home Could Be a Green and Socially Responsible Choice.”

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was quoted in “The Road Ahead for 3-D Printers” by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) from an extensive interview they also published.

Michigan Tech’s release of an open source syringe pump library was widley covered in the technical press including Gizmodo, Gizmodo India and Gizmodo Australia: Doctors Could 3D Print Their Own Tools For a Fraction of the Cost , Motherboard: 3D Printed Syringe Pumps are Perfect for Cash Strapped Scientists and Med Device: 3D Printable Syringe Pump Design Lowers Lab Costs.

Joshua Pearce’s (MSE/ECE) lab was featured in “Printing a Better Community,” published in Laboratory Equipment. It was was highlighted by Open Electronics in “Building your Science Lab with Open Source.”
Pearce was also interviewed on opportunities for mechanical engineers in the solar industry in “Have You Overlooked Photovoltaics?” for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

PhD student Bas Wijnen (MSE) coauthored a paper with Jerry Anzalone (MSE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) titled “Open-source Mobile Water Quality Testing Platform” in the Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development.

PhD students Ankit Vora (ECE) and Jephias Gwamuri (MSE) co-authored a paper with Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE), Paul Bergstrom (ECE) and Durdu Guney (ECE) titled “Multi-resonant Silver Nano-disk Patterned Thin Film Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells For Staebler-Wronski Effect Compensation,” in the “Journal of Applied Physics.”

PI Reza Shahbazian Yassar (ME-EM) and Co-PIs Yoke Kin Yap (Physics), Stephen Hackney (MSE), Tolou Shokuhfar (ME-EM) and Claudio Mazzoleni (Physics) were awarded $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation for “MRI: Acquisition of a High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope for In-Situ Microscopy Research and Education.”

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) co-authored an article “Simulations of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions from Low-Cost Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic and Cogeneration Systems for New Communities” in Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, Volume 8, pages 34-41. It is available>online

Pearce also co-authored “Towards Low-Cost Microchannel Heat Exchangers: Vehicle Heat Recovery Ventilator Prototype” in the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics (HEFAT).