Jeremy Worm (MEEM/APSRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $47,000 contract from the U.S. Department of Defense-Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC).
Chris Morgan (APSRC) and Jeff Naber (MEEM/APSRC) are Co-PIs on the project “Delivery of Hands-On Professional Development Modules in Diesel Engine Calibration and Powertrain Instrumentation.”
This is a five-month project.
By Sponsored Programs.
Kishan Bellur, a postdoctoral scholar (ME-EM), recently attended the annual meeting of the American Society of Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) in Bethesda, Maryland. This is now the primary microgravity conference for NASA.
At the conference, Bellur received the award for “Best Poster Presentation.” His poster presentation was based on his dissertation research, which will be extended with the new NASA Physical Sciences Informatics System (PSI) grant.
The meeting took place October 31st, 2018 through November 3rd, 2018.
The members of ASGSR represent academia, government, and industry interests bonded by a common issue – how living organisms and physical systems respond to gravity.
NASA offers the PSI data repository for physical science experiments performed on the International Space Station (ISS). The PSI system is now accessible and open to the public.
Mo Rastgaar (ME-EM) along with PhD students Guilherme Ribeiro and Lauren Knop, presented “Correlation between Ankle Impedance and EMG Signals,” at the Fourth International Conference on NeuroRehabilitation (ICNR), Pisa, Italy, Oct. 16-20, 2018.
Andrew Barnard (MEEM/APSRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $49,804 research and development contract from the University of Michigan. The project is titled “Demonstration of a Coaxial Thermophone for Active Noise Control in Vehicles.”
This is a seven-month project.
By Sponsored Programs.
Andrew Barnard (MEEM) was referenced in the article “Beaver Stadium can get as loud as a rock concert. How to cheer and protect your ears,” in Centre Daily Times. The story referenced research Barnard conducted as a graduate student at Penn State on noise levels at the university’s Beaver Stadium.
In the late 2000s, Andrew Barnard, former Penn State graduate student and current Michigan Technological University professor, measured the sound levels in Beaver stadium during games with sold-out crowds of well over 107,000 people. He measured sound intensity that occasionally reached levels louder than jack hammers. Think about that!
Mo Rastgaar (MEEM/MuSTI) is the principal investigator on a project that has recieved a $680,182 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation. The project is titled “NRI: INT: COLLAB: Anthropomorphic Robotic Ankle Prosthesis with Programmable Materials.” This is a four-year project.
There are currently 2 million Americans living with an amputation; the majority of those amputations are of the lower limbs. Leg amputation is a significant life-altering event that has an overwhelmingly negative effect on many aspects of life, even years after the injury. Leg amputation can cost in excess of $1.8 million per individual. Most available prostheses are designed to replicate some aspects of normal ankle function during level-ground walking. These prostheses allow many individuals with below-knee amputation to return to basic daily activities. However, these devices are best suited for level-ground walking and many users experience difficulties during other important tasks, such as walking on slopes, stairs, or different terrains. Therefore, the general aim of this project is to address this gap in the design of existing powered ankle-foot prostheses by enabling new prosthetics that adapt to different environmental conditions commonly found in daily life.
In addition to advancing research, undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in research activities and will receive interdisciplinary education/innovation/outreach experiences. Outreach activities will allow the project team to engage diverse middle and high school students, especially those from underrepresented groups and low-income families. The findings from this project will be disseminated through publications, software sharing, and technology commercialization.
The Michigan Tech Mobile Lab is visiting the campus of Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) today, giving GRCC students the chance to gain exposure to an ongoing National Science Foundation (NSF) Project—”CAREER: An Ecologically Inspired Approach to Battery Lifetime Analysis and Testing.” The principal investigator on the project is Lucia Gauchia.
Participants range from all over the technical campus, with specialized tours for on-campus classrooms, as well as an open house for students and community members. Inside the Mobile Lab, there is further detail on the project and a real-world demonstration of a battery testing process.
Students in the Mobile Lab will be exposed to battery technology in today’s modern world. There will be discussions on battery types, chemistry and applications; including mobile devices, automotive, grid storage and more.
The Mobile Lab will be on the GRCC downtown campus, located in the student commons area. For more information on the Michigan Tech Mobile Lab, contact Chris Morgan.
Mahdi Shahbakhti (MEEM) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $269,976 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation. Jeffery Naber (MEEM/APSRC) is the Co-PI on the project “Control-oriented Modeling and Predictive Control of Advanced Dual Fuel Natural Gas Engines.” This is a three-year project.
About 200 million internal combustion engines (ICEs) are produced in the world every year and used in energy, transport and service sectors. Furthermore, ICEs account for over 22% of the U.S. total energy consumption and produce the largest portion of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas. Dual fuel natural gas (NG) engines in advanced low temperature combustion regimes represent the state-of-the-art ICE technology with some of the highest reported fuel conversion efficiencies and 25% lower CO2 emissions compared to conventional engines. However, achieving a robust and high-efficiency performance of these engines on a broad operational range using existing control technologies is not possible due to their highly nonlinear and uncertain dynamic behavior.
This project is a collaborative effort between Michigan Technological University, University of Georgia, and the industry partner, Cummins Inc.
Undergraduate mechanical engineering student Justin Mondeik was featured in the story “Mondeik leads Kulwicki Cup,” in Merril Foto News. Mondeik is in his second year in the Kulwicki Driver Development Program for Super Late Model stock car drivers. Mondeik currently sits in first place for the $54,439 prize.
Michigan Tech was well represented at the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) Global Annual Forum July 22-25, 2018, at the GM WarrentTech Center.
Five graduate students in mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics were a part of TEAM 3 which did well in competitions at the forum. The team took:
The Michigan Tech grad students participating were; Manjo Balabadhruni, Karan Gundre, Aniket Jadhav, and Mayuresh Kange.