Saturday February 11, 2012 5:07 p.m.
MacInnes Presidential Skybox of the Student Development Complex
Reservations required, (906) 487-2551
Thursday February 2, 2012 4:00-5:00 p.m.
ME-EM building, Room 112
Eds Zentner
Society benefits when we treat life as a continuous learning experience. Individuals who are the leaders in any profession or aspect of life continually learn in support of their vision and desired goals. At the root of continuous and intentional learning as a means to achievement is the concept of “Define-Learn-Do”. Learning is an active process anddoesn’t stop once formal engineering education ends. Developing a plan for a self-directed educationonce your formal education is completed allows you to truly differentiate yourselfamongst your competition in any field of endeavor. You will have a difficult timeleading others if you don’t learn to lead yourself. Principles of leadership and peopleskills are timeless, regardless of where they get applied. They never get outdated as is often the case with technology. Growing your people skills, recognizing the underlying servant nature of leadership and forming superior habits, reduces stress and conflict bycreating a more balance life. Ultimately everyone who continues to grow and improve will excel.
Ed Zentner Video
Thursday January 26, 2012 4:00-5:00 p.m.
ME-EM building, Room 112
Karen Roemer
Michigan Tech, Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology Department
The precise analysis of joint reactions and muscle forces that are responsible for specifichuman movements represents a basic task in human movement biomechanics. Multi bodysystem models of the human body allow gathering detailed information on the interplaybetween human body biomechanics and for example sports equipment. The focus of thispresentation is set on leg extension movements. How does the set-up of a leg press machine influence joint reactions and muscular effort? How does body shape influence joint reactions for a given set-up in ergometer rowing
Professor Gordon Parker (ME-EM/PRC) and co-PI Wayne Weaver (ECE) have received $325,000 for a project, “Sandia National Laboratories Agent Based Control with Application to Microgrids with High Penetration Renewables.”
Thursday January 19, 2012 4:00-5:00 p.m.
ME-EM building, Room 112
Donggang Yao
School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology
The critical issues of fossil fuels are their limited natural sources and contribution to the increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases. To solve those problems, hydrogen is being developed as a promising alternative fuel, and the conversion of CO2 into valuable materials is considered as an effective approach to control the emission of greenhouse gases. In recent years, we have made an effort to develop hydrogen storage materials and to convert CO2 into novel solid materials.
Lithium nitride (Li3N), which is only one metal nitride that can be formed at room temperature, is an active material. This compound can be used to store hydrogen via its hydrogenation into lithium amide (LiNH2) and lithium hydride (LiH), which contain about 10wt% hydrogen.However, a potential issue regarding the N-based material for hydrogen storage is the generation of NH3, which consumes some H2 and also constitutes a poison for the downstream processes. The second issue is that the reversible hydrogen capacity of Li3N is about 5.5wt%, which isbelow 6.0wt% required for an effective on-board hydrogen-storage technique. This presentationwill demonstrate that the ultra-fast reaction between NH3 and LiH can eliminate NH3 during the hydrogen storage process of Li3N. Furthermore, it will show the reversible hydrogen capacity forLi3N can be remarkably enhanced by pre-doping LiNH2.
The conversion of CO2 represents a great challenge due to its high stability and low reactivity.Very recently, we explored lithium nitride for the CO2 conversion. It was demonstrated that Li3Ncan rapidly react with CO2 into two important types of solid materials carbon nitrides andlithium cyanamide. Different from current processes of CO2 conversion that are endothermic,this reaction is exothermic. Therefore, it constitutes not only a novel process for CO2sequestration, but also a unique approach for synthesis of carbon nitrides and lithium cyanamide.This presentation will discuss this novel process.
Friday, January 13
11-12 am
Rekhi G06
Dr. Vladimir Vantsevich
Lawrence Technological University
Mechatronics Foundation for Ground Vehicle Engineering
Multi-Discipline and Systems Engineering Approach to Multi-Scale Systems
Assistant Professor John Hill (ME-EM/MTTI), co-PI Colin Brooks (MTRI) and co-PI Liza Jenkins (MTRI) have received $94,789 from the Michigan State Police, Office of Highway Safety Planning for a project, “2012 Michigan Seat Belt Observation Study.”
Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Room 112, ME-EM Bldg.
Room 112, ME-EM Bldg.
Nina Mahmoudian
Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan Technological University
There is an increasing interest in having multi autonomous vehicles as mobile sensor networks for data collection for different purposes in air, ground, and water. This seminar will give an overview of the Nonlinear and Autonomous Systems Laboratory (NAS Lab) research activities in this regards.
In water, underwater gliders enabled oceanographers to take measurements underneath the water surface over spatial scales that expand the ocean and time scales that expand months, something that was not possible using satellites and remote sensing. These efficient buoyancy driven vehicles have proven their value in both long-term, basin-scale oceanographic sampling for environmental monitoring and littoral surveillance and military applications.
The problem is to optimize performance of both individual and multiple glider systems for energy use, time to task completion and efficiency in sensing. This talk will describe the development of efficient motion control system for underwater gliders for autonomous information-rich data collection. Also, synthesize multivehicle controls for underwater gliders with corrupted limited communication will be presented.