Report 2009
college of engineering
INFINITE POSSIBILITIES
I N T R O DU C TION
the outstanding engineers needed to lead technological growth.
The College of Engineering at The University of Arizona (UA) is a world leader in engineering research and education.
Today, the College has more than 130 faculty members, including nine faculty and emeritus faculty who have been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering. Three faculty members are Regents’ Professors, the highest distinction bestowed on university professors by the State of Arizona. Many other engineering faculty members are internationally respected leaders in their disciplines.
The College was born when UA was founded in 1885, when mining was the bedrock of Arizona’s economy. Then, as now, educating mining engineers was a priority. As the state’s economy grew and diversified, the College diversified with it and helped provide the research and engineering expertise necessary for that growth. In today’s high-tech era, graduates of the College continue to develop technologies and start companies that are creating jobs and improving our quality of life. The College has now seen three centuries, and continues to evolve and respond as the economies of the state and nation change. In the coming years, the College of Engineering will continue to produce the research on which new industries are built and to educate
The College of Engineering enrolls about 3,000 undergraduates who pursue degrees in 17 engineering disciplines. Approximately 650 graduate students are enrolled in master’s and doctoral programs. Total annual research funding in the College of Engineering has grown from less than $5 million 25 years ago to nearly $30 million today. This report describes some of the major research under way in the College of Engineering that is supported by this funding.
Contents
About this Report
Microelectronics 4
This Progress Report highlights several areas of strength within the College of Engineering at The University of Arizona.
Digital Imaging and Signal Processing 12 Nanotechology and MEMS Research 18 Networks and Simulation 26 Aerospace 36
Sections contain feature articles that explore research efforts and short articles about other research projects in a particular area of strength. Sections include descriptions of the laboratory facilities serving research areas and lists of faculty conducting research in those areas.
Engineering, Art and Artifacts 40 Transportation 48 Sustainability 56 Philanthropy and Support 74
www.engineering.arizona.edu Editor/Designer Writers Photographer Photo Art Director
Pete Brown Ed Stiles, Pete Brown Matt Brailey Meg Askey
The University of Arizona College of Engineering P.O. Box 210072 Tucson, AZ 85721-0072 Telephone: 520.621.3754 E-mail: pnb@email.arizona.edu All contents © 2009 Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
Front cover: Professor Pierre Deymier, associate head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Back cover: Assistant Professor Jennifer McIntosh of the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources. Inside front cover: Professor Peter Beudert, director of the Design Division in the School of Theatre Arts. This page: The Fox Theatre in downtown Tucson, Ariz., which is the backdrop for the story on Regents’ Professor Michael Marcellin. Photos by Matt Brailey. The University of Arizona is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. The University prohibits discrimination in its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or sexual orientation and is committed to maintaining an environment free from sexual harassment and retaliation. university of arizona | college of engineering | progress report 2009 | 3
MICROELECTRONICS Kathleen Melde, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and an expert in electronic packaging, examines test materials for microscopic fabrication errors.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
Researchers working in the area of microelectronics focus on electronic packaging and applications of microelectronic devices. They explore the digital, thermal, analog and radio frequency characteristics of electronic devices, packaging materials, packaging structures and interconnected devices. They also develop computational tools and simulation software that are used to design microelectronic circuits and devices.
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Microelectronics
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Fundamental Data for New Electronics Emerges from UA Lab There’s a microchip in just about all of the hardware attached to your life these days—your car, cell phone, iPod, guitar amp, kitchen range, children’s toys, you name it. Most of these microchips were designed using computer simulations. Until a few years ago, engineers often designed these chips using a method called “breadboarding.” This involves fabricating, housing and testing real circuits and then tweaking them with changes in the hardware until they perform properly. With today’s accurate, full-wave computer simulations, all that has changed. The complex fabrication business can be simplified, meaning that designs can be tested and refined in days instead of weeks or months. “But I always tell my students—because we do a lot of modeling using these software tools—that for every right answer there are a hundred wrong answers if you don’t start with the correct data,” says electronic packaging expert Kathleen Melde, an associate professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Melde works on characterizing the materials used for packaging electronic circuits, trying to find the most accurate values to plug into simulation software. Going High Speed—5 Gigahertz and Beyond Melde and her students are studying state‑of‑the-art, microwave-grade materials in UA’s Center for Electronic Packaging Research (CEPR) that are similar to those you would find if you took apart your cell phone or computer. But unlike the materials you’d see in current electronics, these new materials will
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
Kathleen Melde and graduate student Christin Lundgren examine a materials sample in the Center for Electronic Packaging Research.
“For every right answer there are a hundred wrong answers if you don’t start with the correct data”
run where almost no electronics have gone before—in the rarefied region where clock speeds exceed 5 gigahertz. Engineers need to know the characteristics of these materials because future electronics will produce harmonics at much higher frequencies than currently produced. These harmonics can occur at even and odd multiples of the circuit’s fundamental frequency. If it’s a 5 gigahertz signal, for instance, harmonics might occur at 10, 15 or 20 gigahertz. CONTI N U ED ON PA GE 6
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Fundamental Data C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 5
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
In May 2008 Melde was honored with the IBM Faculty Award for her ongoing work to develop physically consistent physics-driven models of new materials to be used in industrial modeling and simulation tools.
“When we characterize a material, we want to go to very, very high frequencies,” Melde said. “We’re doing material characterization to frequencies of 65 gigahertz or more.” It’s All in the Details At these extremely high frequencies, the way samples are made and measurements are taken can influence the results. “So we have to carefully go through the procedures to be sure we’ve ruled out any possible physical effects that could show up in the data from a fabrication mistake or a measurement mistake,” Melde said. This is further complicated because there are few other measurements for comparison. “Most of the material characterization work we are aware of stops at about 20 gigahertz,” she explained.
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There are different calibration techniques for these materials, which are tested on what’s called an “on-wafer probe station.” The National Institute of Standards Technology has one method, a company called Cascade Microtech has another, for instance. “What we can do, which is really nice about being at the university, is be an independent party to check these various methods,” Melde said. “I have a student who compared two of these calibration techniques and he can back out the materials characteristics from that. So our methods become a little independent of the measuring techniques.” Test samples also have to be meticulously prepared. The signal lines have to be etched to an accuracy of one-tenth of the wavelength at the operating frequency,
Microelectronics
“What we can do, which is really nice about being at the university, is be an independent party to check these various methods.” which, at 65 gigahertz, is less than half a millimeter. The samples also have manufacturing variations. “If I take measurements at various places on the sample, I can get different readings,” Melde said. “With this kind of variation, we can’t produce an exact value. Instead, we take measurements on several samples and get a statistical average with a plus-or-minus error factor.” Material Characteristics Change with the Frequency Microchip manufacturers have invested millions of dollars in high-performance modeling and simulation software and—just like Melde’s students—they need the most accurate data they can get on materials when they are designing the next generation of microchips. And this data can change, depending on the frequency. “Even at 10 gigahertz, we can usually characterize the material as having electromagnetic characteristics that are fairly constant,” Melde said. “But as you go up to 65 gigahertz, materials have frequency‑dependent parameters. So in addition to characterizing these materials, we would eventually like to supply companies with a formula that shows how the parameters vary with frequency.” Much of the work in the CEPR is funded by the Semiconductor Research Corp., which manages a program of basic and applied university research for its member companies. “The SRC companies want the ability to develop their own packaging materials or to work with special vendors to develop custom materials for their applications,” Melde said. “The techniques we’re developing to characterize these materials will help them do that.”
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
The stereo zoom microscope is just one of many high-tech devices used by Kathleen Melde’s group in their study of new materials that can deliver high speed and low power consumption while remaining environmentally friendly.
OT HER PROJECT S
Electronic Packaging and Electromagnetics Professor Steven L. Dvorak, of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his students are developing an accurate and efficient prototype program for full-wave simulation of interconnects at frequencies from DC to more than 50 GHz. The simulator will have significantly improved run-times compared to existing commercial simulators. Richard W. Ziolkowski, Litton Industries John M. Leonis Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his students are designing, simulating and testing metamaterials. These are artificial materials whose electromagnetic properties can be tailored to specific applications. They are investigating the use of the exotic properties of metamaterials in electrically small antenna, resonator, scattering and wave guiding systems.
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New Capacitor Technology May Improve Hybrid Performance Hybrid vehicles—those that run on both rechargeable batteries and gasoline—benefit greatly from being able to rapidly convert mechanical energy to electrical energy, and vice versa. Hybrids need to do this during short periods of heavy acceleration or braking, both of which require nearly instant access to large energy pulses. Unfortunately, batteries aren’t very good at these tasks. Batteries have high storage capacity, but they have difficulty quickly charging or discharging energy to meet pulse power requirements. Digitized Energy Storage Devices Researchers at UA are developing a technology based on digitized energy storage devices (DESDs) that could solve this problem. DESDs quickly store and discharge large amounts of power using capacitors built on nanoscale structures. Capacitors have been around for a long time. In their simplest form, they consist of two conducting plates separated by an insulating material. If they’re connected to a battery, a charge appears nearly instantly on their plates and they can discharge all this energy in a fraction of a second. But conventional capacitors aren’t suitable for hybrid vehicles because they would have to be huge to handle the energy needs of automobiles.
Professor Olgierd Palusinski is director of the Nano‑interconnects, Devices and Circuit Simulation Laboratory within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The DESD breakthrough was made by Professor Olgierd Palusinski, his former graduate student Ken Bartley, research 8 | progress report 2009 | college of engineering | university of arizona
engineer Jaeheon Lee, and others on their team in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. DESDs have a very high capacitance-to-volume ratio that’s more than 10,000 times greater than a conventional parallel-plate capacitor of the same size. This makes for a device with large capacitance in a small package. The UA researchers, working jointly with a group of Arizona State University
Microelectronics
DESDs don’t wear out quickly like batteries and would last for the life of the vehicle and beyond.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
researchers directed by Professor Dominic Gervasio, construct DESD capacitors by using commercially available porous membranes as template platforms. The membranes have a pore diameter ranging from 15 nanometers to 1 micron and a density of 10 million to 100 trillion pores per square centimeter. One micron is 1/1000th of a millimeter. A nanometer is 1/1000th of a micron. To get an
idea of how small this is, consider a pore 15 nanometers wide. You could line up 66,000 of them in a space one millimeter wide. To form the capacitors, the membrane pores are filled with copper to create a large copper surface area in a small space. This is important because the ability to store electric charge increases with the CONTI NUE D ON PAGE 10
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New Capacitor Technology C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 9
Professor Palusinski’s research interests include signal integrity in circuits and systems, phase noise in oscillators, interconnect modeling and simulation, behavioral modeling of signal converters for wireless applications, simulation techniques for radio frequency circuits, electronic packaging, nano‑scale structures and passive devices.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
surface area of a capacitor’s plates. The honeycomb of conductors formed in the nanometer-size membrane pores has a much larger surface area and ability to store electricity than a conductor with just the surface area of the membrane alone. The intellectual property developed by the group is protected by patent.
Environmental Advantages DESDs not only make hybrid vehicles more efficient, they also make them more environmentally friendly. DESDs don’t wear out quickly like batteries and would last for the life of the vehicle and beyond. In addition, unlike batteries, DESDs do not contain any toxic components.
L A B OR ATORIE S
The Center for Electronic Packaging Research The Center for Electronic Packaging Research (CEPR), which was founded in 1984, is based in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Center researchers explore the digital, thermal, analog and radio frequency characteristics of electronic devices, packaging materials, new packaging structures and interconnected devices. Center researchers are also developing computational tools that are used in the design of microelectronic circuits. This
includes modeling and simulation of the electrical and thermal characteristics of electronic packages and experimental verification of the modeling results. CEPR’s research is heavily funded by the Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC), which is based in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. SRC plans and manages a program of basic and applied university research at universities worldwide on behalf of its participating member companies.
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“We get a lot of direction from member company liaisons, which is rewarding because these projects usually involve some cutting-edge, long-term basic research that doesn’t fit into the market-driven time frame of most companies,” said CEPR co-director Kathleen Melde. “SRC member companies work with our center because we can do longer‑range research and development work,” Melde said.
Microelectronics
Unlike batteries, DESDs do not contain any toxic compounds. “The limiting factor right now is the low voltage (less than 5 volts) that can be imposed on the DESDs,” Palusinski said. The voltage limit is caused by the small space between conductors in the membrane. At higher voltages, electricity will spark between the conductors, causing loss of charge in the same way that the static charge on your body will discharge to a doorknob during dry weather. This voltage limitation can be bypassed by connecting the DESDs in series, with the voltage capacity increasing in direct proportion to their number. Unfortunately, connecting them in series lowers the overall capacitance of the array, which decreases the amount of electricity it can store. “But this reduction in capacitance can be compensated by connecting several DESD arrays in parallel,” Palusinski explained. The capacitance of devices adds when they are connected in parallel. “We are looking to both industry and NSF for additional funding to pursue this research,” Palusinski added. “We are getting close to the commercial development stage, but still need to do additional studies.” Other Applications In addition to hybrid vehicles, DESDs also have application to microchip technology, portable electronic devices and sensor networks. Bartley, who is now working at the U.S. Patent Office, is a finalist for the WAGS/UMI Innovation in Technology Award for his work in developing DESDs while he was a master’s student at UA. WAGS is the Western Association of Graduate Schools and UMI is University Microfilms International.
FACULT Y John R. Brews Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Semiconductor device physics, metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor design, and electromagnetics of interconnects. brews@ece.arizona.edu Steven L. Dvorak Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Electromagnetic modeling of high-speed circuits, theoretical and computational electromagnetics, and microwave measurements. dvorak@ece.arizona.edu Kathleen Melde Associate Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Antennas, phase shifters, radio frequency feed networks, radiator elements, and transmit and receive modules for antennas, and high‑density circuit packaging. melde@ece.arizona.edu
Harold G. Parks Associate Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Device electronics, solid state electronics, physical electronics and microelectronics manufacturing. parks@ece.arizona.edu Miklos N. Szilagyi Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Particle beams and optics, agent-based simulation of nonlinear systems, n-person game theory, microfabrication of integrated circuits, computer-aided synthesis of electron and ion optical systems, and physical electronics and neural networks. szilagyi@ece.arizona.edu Janet Wang Assistant Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Computer-aided design of high-performance nanometer integrated circuits wml@ece.arizona.edu
Erdogan Madenci Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Composite structures, nano-scale material modeling and testing of interconnect and packaging technologies. madenci@ame.arizona.edu
Hao Xin Assistant Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Microwave and millimeter wave technology, active microwave devices and circuits, electronically scanned antennas, and novel materials for microwave applications
Olgierd A. Palusinski Professor and Director of the Circuit Modeling and Simulation Laboratory Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Modeling and simulation of mixed-signal circuits, interconnections, and packaging; behavioral models of circuits; and numerical techniques for accelerated simulation. palusinski@ece.arizona.edu
Richard W. Ziolkowski Litton Industries John M. Leonis Distinguished Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Metamaterials, computational electromagnetics, antennas, ultrafast optics, nanomaterials, nanodevices, and localized wave and directed energy systems. ziolkowski@ece.arizona.edu
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DIGITAL IMAGING AND SIGNAL PROCESSING Image processing technology pioneered at the College of Engineering will allow digital movies to be compressed at a ratio of about 36 to 1, which will enable a 6-terabyte file to be compressed to just 250 megabytes.
iStockphoto/Dino Ablakovic
Transmitting data, communications signals, movies and still images requires efficient ways to digitize, compress and code signals. Researchers working in this area combine digital and analog signal processing techniques with cryptology, computer simulation and error coding to produce robust systems that transfer data quickly and efficiently.
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Digital Imaging and Signal Processing
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Digital Cinema a Reality Thanks in Part to UA Engineering JPEG2000 will revolutionize the quality and distribution of major motion pictures. What is JPEG2000? It’s a “just enough” method for compressing and displaying digital images. Professor Michael Marcellin and his students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) did a lot of the development work on JPEG2000. One of the biggest contributors was Ali Bilgin, a former graduate student of Marcellin’s who is now a research assistant professor in ECE. They worked closely with David Taubman from the University of New South Wales, who is probably the leading contributor of ideas to what eventually became the JPEG2000 standard. Taubman and Marcellin coauthored JPEG2000: Image Compression Fundamentals, Standards, and Practice, which has become the definitive reference book on the subject. In addition, Marcellin has worked as a consultant with Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), a consortium of seven major motion picture studios, to develop the new standards for digital cinema. Studios Aim to Avoid Chaos The movie industry’s move to JPEG2000 started when DCI was formed in 2002. The studios saw that digital movies would be the future of cinema and they decided to agree on a voluntary standard to prevent the chaos that nonstandard competing systems would produce by fragmenting the industry with incompatible movies and projection equipment. Marcellin was subsequently attending a meeting of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, and a DCI representative hired him to answer questions about various digital
iStockphoto/Izabela Habur
compression systems and to find out specifically if JPEG2000 could become the industry standard. The studios—which included Disney, MGM, Paramount, Fox, Sony Pictures, Universal, and Warner Brothers—were at an impasse at that time because some wanted a 2K system that would have images sized at 2,048 by 1,080 pixels and others wanted a 4K system sized at 4,096 by 2,160 pixels. “JPEG2000 allowed them to get beyond that because it could handle both formats and they didn’t have to make a decision,” Marcellin said. This was one of the major reasons that JPEG2000 was chosen over competing systems.
Studios expect that digital movies will save a billion dollars a year in distribution costs.
To understand how JPEG2000 can handle both systems with equal facility, an explanation is needed of how it works. CONTI NUE D ON PAGE 14
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Digital Cinema C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 1 3
How JPEG2000 Works The single most important concept in JPEG2000 is that it’s designed to give you only what you can use in the shortest possible time. If you go to a website, for instance, and want to look at a still photo, JPEG2000 will find out if the image is larger than your computer screen. If it is, it won’t send you the huge file. Instead, it will send you a smaller version that just fits on your screen. This will reduce download time while maintaining the image quality that your computer is capable of displaying. If you decide you want to zoom in on part of the image, JPEG 2000 will give you that enlarged area in sharp detail, but only that area. Again, you don’t have to download the entire image. It works similarly with your printer, sensing whether it’s color or black-and-white and what image quality it can produce. Then it sends only the data suitable for your system. JPEG2000 also works for movies Returning to the studios’ 2K and 4K standards: A 2K movie will run on 2K projection systems and JPEG2000 can scale it up to show on 4K systems. Similarly, a 4K movie will run on 4K systems and JPEG2000 can pull out a 2K version for 2K projectors without choking those smaller systems with a huge 4K file.
Studios to Save $1 Billion a Year JPEG2000 will compress digital movies at about a 36-to-1 ratio, allowing a 6-terabyte file (6 trillion bytes) to be compressed to just 250 megabytes. That makes it small enough to fit on a magnetic tape that’s a little bigger than a cassette music tape. This cassette will be delivered to theaters.
Michael Marcellin holds the International Foundation for Telemetering Distinguished Professorship.
Think about that: A projection-quality movie on a cassette tape, as compared with what theaters receive today—a stack of big metal cans containing movie reels. Producing and delivering these reels to a single theater costs between $1,200 and $1,500 a movie. If a cineplex is running a popular movie in four of its theaters, it costs as much as $6,000 to distribute the reels. A digital cassette tape can be produced and delivered much more economically, and once it’s loaded into the theater’s computer system, it can serve multiple screens. Studios expect that digital movies will save a billion dollars a year in distribution costs. But what about that 36-to-1 compression? Won’t it degrade the images? “When movies are decompressed from the cassette tapes, you don’t get back mathematically exactly what you started with, but the compression is adjusted so people can’t see the difference,” Marcellin said. CONTI NUE D ON PAGE 16
Ot h er P rojects Professor Malur Sundareshan and his students are developing advanced architectures and algorithms for registration (overlaying of different data), super-resolution (enhancing spatial resolution in acquired data) and fusion (integration of disparate data) to support applications in military, medical imaging, industrial inspection and remote sensing environments. Advanced surveillance and tracking systems employ multiple sensors that provide large amounts of data. Novel processing 14 | progress report 2009 | college of engineering | university of arizona
methods are needed to use this data because of the different forms of data collected and the differences in resolution. Jeffrey J. Rodriguez, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Art Gmitro, professor of radiology, are developing a system for automated tissue classification using endoscopic microscopy. The main application is early screening of ovarian cancer. By capturing microscopic images of the surface of the ovary, the technology will assist in early screening as an alternative to a biopsy.
Digital Imaging and Signal Processing
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
L A B OR ATOR I E S
Digital Image Analysis Laboratory The Digital Image Analysis Laboratory (DIAL), in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, serves as a center for interdisciplinary research in digital image analysis and processing. DIAL focuses on systems that process multispectral imagery acquired by aircraft or satellites.
The lab’s research ranges from sensor simulation and scene modeling to algorithms for evaluating image quality and extraction of mapping information. Projects include computer‑based analysis of tree rings for climate study, estimation of traffic flow from aerial video of street systems, and research in other areas related to remote sensing and analysis. DIAL, which is directed by Professor Robert A. Schowengerdt, has three main areas of research: Earth-science remote sensing systems, image processing and image archiving. university of arizona | college of engineering | progress report 2009 | 15
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Digital Cinema CONTI NUE D FROM PAGE 14
Movie Quality for Everyone Besides saving billions for the movie industry, digital movies give theatergoers better movie quality. Digital movies will be sharper, with greater dynamic range and more vibrant colors than film. In addition, “you can play back the movie 700 times and on the 700th time it will look every bit as good as the first time,” Marcellin said. “Unlike film, there is no wear and tear.” For the first time, theater audiences will also see the kind of high-end image quality that has previously been seen only on what are called “answer prints.” “Answer prints come right off the negatives,” Marcellin said. “The film shown in theaters is two generations removed from answer prints. But now the average theatergoer will see the equivalent of answer prints—the same quality that was previously reserved for directors, producers and others involved in making films.” Digital movies also don’t suffer from “spatial jitter,” the vibration sometimes seen when the credits are rolling. It’s caused by the film jumping around in the projector. Because the mechanical process of film-through-a-projector is replaced by computer manipulation of a digital file, spatial jitter disappears. Piracy Will be More Difficult With reels of film, it takes a long time to make copies and distribute them. So movies typically are rolled out in phases around the world. This creates a market for low-quality movies made with camcorders from the back of a theater. Those who won’t have the real movie available in their area for weeks or months may be tempted to buy a pirated copy.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
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“With digital, the movie can be easily distributed everywhere at the same time,”
Digital Imaging and Signal Processing
Marcellin said. “This will drastically reduce the value of low-quality versions made with a camcorder. Why pay to see a low-quality pirated version when you can see the real movie?” Copying a movie from the original cassette will be just about impossible because the movies will be distributed on magnetic tapes that can only be opened with a key that the movie theaters will receive by e-mail. And that key will only decode the movie in the projection equipment at that particular theater.
While the movies are the most glamorous application for JPEG2000, it’s also being used in many other places, such as ... medical imaging systems.
Even if someone gets the key and the cassette, they won’t be able to open the movie because they’ll need the equipment in a specific movie theater. “The key is encrypted uniquely for each server,” Marcellin said. “It can’t be done with outside equipment. So this is a very, very secure system.” By the end of 2008 some 5,000 theaters are expected to have digital projection equipment. All the major chains are expected to be completely converted in the next three to five years, Marcellin said. Currently, Marcellin is studying error resilience—how to transmit images in a noisy environment, such as wireless communication networks, computer networks and phone networks. While the movies are the most glamorous application for JPEG2000, it’s also being used in many other places, such as MapQuest on the Internet, medical imaging systems, and software, such as Adobe Photoshop. As the world becomes yet more visual and more wired—think of 3G wireless networks that enable high-speed Internet access and video telephony, for instance—the future for JPEG2000 looks as bright and glitzy as one of those 1930s movie openings at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
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FACULT Y Ali Bilgin Research Assistant Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Image and video compression, image processing and magnetic resonance imaging. bilgin@ece.arizona.edu Michael W. Marcellin Regents’ Professor and International
Foundation for Telemetering Distinguished Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Image and video compression, digital communication and data storage systems, and image processing. Marcellin is a major contributor to the development of JPEG2000. marcellin@ece.arizona.edu
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NANOTECHNOLOGY AND MEMS RESEARCH Professor Eniko Enikov is director of the Advanced Microsystems Laboratory, which specializes in the development of MEMS, or microelectromechanical systems, and in the emerging field of nanotechnology.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
UA’s nanotechnology researchers are developing ways to combine biology and electronics to produce smaller, faster and more efficient circuits for cell phones, computers, MP3 players and a thousand other electronic devices. Other MEMS researchers are working on ways to assemble MEMS circuits and apply them to problems such as constructing touch‑sensitive screens that would allow visually impaired people to browse a website by touching objects on the screen.
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Nanotechnology and MEMS Research
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Biology and Electronics May Soon Meet Inside Your MP3 Player UA’s nanotechnology research group is using proteins from living cells to “grow” wires on microchips. Their work promises to revolutionize the way microchips are made by combining biology and electronics—leading to smaller, faster and more efficient circuits for cell phones, computers, MP3 players and other microelectronic devices. The work also holds promise in several areas, such as improving test methods for anticancer drugs, connecting molecule-size transistors to the outside world and extracting electricity from photosynthesis proteins. Proteins called microtubules (MT) are the key to all of this. MTs form long, thin strands that can be turned into tiny wires, said Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Professor Pierre Deymier, one of the cofounders of UA’s Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT). Connecting Nano to Micro “Microtubules are about 25 nanometers in diameter,” Deymier said. “They’re hollow, with an inside diameter of about 15 nanometers. But they can grow to be 100 microns long. They have nanoscales in cross section, but they have micron‑scale lengths.” CONT INUED ON PAGE 2 0
Professor Pierre Deymier’s teaching interests include thermodynamics, imperfections, computer simulation, scientific visualization and virtual reality.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
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Biology and Electronics CONTI NUE D FROM PAGE 19
This makes them ideal for connecting nano-size components to standard microchip-size circuit elements. The difference between nano-size and micro-size ones is one to one thousand. The NIRT team works at the interface of biology, chemistry, materials science and electrical engineering. It includes Pierre Deymier in MSE as well as Srini Raghavan and Brian Zelinski from MSE, Olgierd Palusinski from Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ian N. Jongewaard from Pediatrics, Roberto Guzman from Chemical and Environmental Engineering, and Ludwik Adamowicz from Chemistry. MTs are also ideal for making circuit connections because they already “know” a lot about connecting components. Nature uses them to segregate DNA and chromosomes in a dividing cell. During mitosis (cell division) MTs grow and shrink, appear and disappear, as they’re needed. Exploiting Natural Cellular Processes “Our strategy is to look at what’s happening in the cell, extract these protein elements from the cell, modify them genetically so they can be attached to metal surfaces, and then set up processes that exploit the biology for circuit assembly,” Deymier explained. MTs form the proper connections through a complex process involving several proteins. They grow from nucleation sites, searching for the correct connection. A capping protein identifies the target site. NIRT researchers have been able to attach MTs to circuit sites and then have caused them to grow to capping proteins, which are located at the proper connection sites.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
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Materials Science and Engineering doctoral student Jaime Bucay uses a pipette to prepare a sample for analysis in professor Deymier’s research lab.
Nanotechnology and MEMS Research
After an MT attaches and caps, it becomes stable and the process can be reversed to disassemble the MTs that did not attach. Proteins don’t conduct electricity. So after they are attached, copper molecules are deposited on them to form wires. A Significant Breakthrough This is where the NIRT team has achieved a significant breakthrough. If the MTs are coated on the outside, the resulting wires are about 45 nanometers in diameter. But Raghavan and his students have discovered a way to control the coating process so that only the inside of the tube is coated. This results in wires that are 15 nanometers in diameter. Because the tubes are coated on the inside, they’re insulated by the protein coating. “So if you think about two tubules crossing each other, the metals are not going to touch,” Deymier said. “This cuts down on the number of circuit layers needed in the chip and reduces processing costs.” Other Promising Applications In their natural state, MTs are involved in mitosis. Some cancer treatments depend on blocking mitosis to stop cancer cell growth.
Anticancer drugs are tested now by putting them in a test tube with MTs to see if MT growth slows. But the MTs are not in a configuration that mimics their natural placement in a cell. “Since we can make the MTs grow in specific patterns, we also could grow them in a configuration that is an analog of how they are ordered in a cell, and we could test the drugs in a more realistic environment,” Deymier said. In another area, researchers in university and industry labs are building transistors that are only as large as a single molecule. One of the big issues is how to connect them to the outside world. One answer might be to connect them using MTs. In addition, microtubules might become the link between the outside world and proteins that act like solar cells.
Microtubules might become the link between the outside world and proteins that act like solar cells.
Researchers at the University of Tennessee are using plant proteins to efficiently convert sunlight to electricity, but their main problem is getting those electrons out into micro-size circuits where they can be used. Microtubules might be used to bridge that gap.
OT H E R P R OJE C TS Pierre Deymier and his students are at the forefront of research in the science and engineering of materials based on the use of biomolecules (DNA, proteins) or entire cells as templates or building blocks for technological applications. Examples include the use of proteinaceous microtubules as templates for the manufacture of nanoscale interconnects for integrated circuits. Mark Riley and his research group in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering are developing ways to interface animal cell cultures with optical sensing methods to quantify changes in cell physiology and function in response to stresses. This approach can be used to evaluate cell behavior and to detect pathogens and toxins in the environment.
Professor Jeong-Yeol Yoon, of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and his team of researchers are developing an on-site/point-of-care lab-on-a-chip device for detecting microbes in water or disease markers in blood serum. His group is also working on developing a protein nanoarray system capable of single-molecule detection. Stanley Pau and his research group in Optical Sciences are using their expertise in nanofabrication to create novel photonic devices that have engineered electrical and optical properties. The optical properties of many materials change drastically as their dimensions are reduced to optical and de Broglie wavelengths of the quasi-particle transitions. Optical and impedance spectroscopy are key techniques to probe and understand these nanostructures
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R ES E A R C H
MEMS Research Covers Big Area in Tiny World Associate Professor Eniko T. Enikov, of the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, is one of the leaders in MEMS technology research at The University of Arizona. Since coming to UA in 2000, he has initiated several research efforts in MEMS and nanodevices, which are two or three 22 | progress report 2009 | college of engineering | university of arizona
magnitudes smaller than MEMS devices. MEMS devices include components that are about 10 to 20 microns in size. One micron is 1/1000th of a millimeter. A nanometer is 1/1000th of a micron. To get an idea of how small this is, consider a circuit strip 15 nanometers wide. You could line up 66,000 of them in a 1-mm slot.
Nanotechnology and MEMS Research
This technology would allow visually impaired people to browse a website and “touch” objects that don’t exist in solid form.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
MEMS research is inherently multidisciplinary and Enikov works with researchers in many areas, such as Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, the Department of Surgery, Materials Science and Engineering, Biochemistry, the Arizona Cancer Center and Chemical Engineering. Some of his research projects include: Microassembly Techniques How do you see and manipulate tiny MEMS and
nanocomponents without crushing them? And how do you place them exactly where they need to go in a complex assembly? Enikov has been working with electrostatic manipulators that depend on static electricity to hold pieces in much the same way that tiny bits of paper will cling to a statically charged piece of plastic. The parts are moved with a visual guidance system
Professor Eniko Enikov in the Advanced Microsystems Laboratory.
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MEMS Research C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 2 3
based on a microscope and video camera linked to a computer. Enikov also has looked at static electricity for assembling molecules. This could be applied to constructing molecule-size transistors and linking them to the outside world. Low-Temperature Bonding and Metal/Organic “Nano Glues” It’s not sufficient to just assemble MEMS devices. If they’re not held in place, they can get washed away or move over time. Enikov is exploring two methods for solidly fastening them in place. The first method relies on the fact that the melting points of particles get lower as they become smaller. This is because it’s easier for atoms to escape a solid when it’s composed of only a small number of atoms. The temperature needed to bond metallic
The 3-D display would use arrays of miniature pixels that vibrate to produce the feel of a 3-D object.
junctions can drop by 50 per cent or more. This low-temperature bonding could have application to microchips, MEMS devices and other areas where delicate components need to be fastened together. The second method involves using metal and organic nanoparticles as bonding agents to securely fasten micromachine parts to a substrate. Cell Detection This involves growing E. coli bacteria on microchips, measuring their electrical properties and using observed changes in those properties to detect the presence of viruses. Thermal Microactuators This project aims to develop low-cost metal actuators on traditional silicon substrates and nontraditional flexible printed circuit board
FA C U LTY Ludwik Adamowicz Professor Departments of Chemistry and Physics Expertise: Physical chemistry, computational techniques, theoretical chemistry, materials synthesis and characterization. ludwik@u.arizona.edu Joel Cuello Associate Professor Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Expertise: Application of engineering design and principles in optimizing the performance of biological systems. jcuello@ag.arizona.edu Pierre Deymier Professor and Associate Department Head Materials Science and Engineering Expertise: Computational materials science and engineering; multiscale and
multiscience simulations; Nanobiomolecular engineering, science and technology; and acoustics (phononic crystals and megasonic cleaning technologies). deymier@email.arizona.edu Eniko T. Enikov Associate Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), bioMEMS, electroactive polymer actuators, and assembly of micro- and nanosystems enikov@engr.arizona.edu Roberto Guzman Professor Chemical and Environmental Engineering Expertise: Synthesis of organic and inorganic nanomaterials, nanoparticles for controlled drug delivery, functional nanoparticles as contrast agents,
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nanobiomolecular engineering, nanoreactors for synthesis of inorganic materials, nanobiotechnology for biomedical applications, nanomaterials for environmental applications, and nanofilm technology. guzmanr@engr.arizona.edu Ian N. Jongewaard Research Assistant Professor Pediatrics Expertise: Cardiology, gene expression of developing hearts, and protein engineering. ianj@peds.arizona.edu Anthony Muscat Associate Professor Chemical and Environmental Engineering Expertise: Process chemistry at solid surfaces, especially in integrated circuits and optical devices; and gas/solid surface reactions in integrated circuit fabrication. muscat@erc.arizona.edu
Olgierd A. Palusinski Professor and Director of Circuit Modeling and Simulation Laboratory Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Modeling and simulation of mixed-signal circuits, interconnections, and packaging; behavioral models of circuits; and numerical techniques for accelerated simulation. palusinski@ece.arizona.edu Stanley Pau Associate Professor Optical Sciences Expertise: Micro-optics, MEMS and NEMS for imaging and sensing applications, optical lithography and novel techniques for nanofabrication, microfabricated traps for mass spectrometry and quantum computing, and microfluidic and microfabricated chemical reactors. spau@optics.arizona.edu
Nanotechnology and MEMS Research
substrates. These actuators are made of nickel, copper and other metals deposited in trenches cut into the substrate. The actuators can be used in microrelays and miniature medical instruments. Virtual 3-D Displays This technology would allow visually impaired people to browse a website and “touch” objects that don’t exist in solid form. Where others can see a geometric shape or the structure of a DNA molecule on their screen, for instance, a visually impaired person could use this technology to touch the objects. The 3-D display would use arrays of miniature pixels that vibrate to produce the feel of a 3-D object. The National Science Foundation has funded this project for $270,000 over three years.
Srini Raghavan Professor Materials Science and Engineering Expertise: Silicon wafer cleaning and photomask cleaning, electrochemical and environmental aspects of chemical mechanical polishing of metals, etching and drying issues in microelectromechanical systems. srini@u.arizona.edu Mark Riley Associate Professor Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering Expertise: Study of animal cell metabolism using near infrared spectroscopy. riley@ag.arizona.edu Supapan Seraphin Professor and Faculty Fellow Materials Science and Engineering Expertise: Carbon
nanoclusters; and transmission and scanning electron microanalysis of various materials, including semiconductors, ceramics, metals and composite materials. seraphin@u.arizona.edu Pak Kin Wong Assistant Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Single molecule detection and manipulation, molecular and cellular biomechanics, BioMEMS, micro- and nanofluidics, computational systems biology and point-of-care diagnostics. pak@ame.arizona.edu Jeong-Yeol Yoon Assistant Professor Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Expertise: Lab-on-a-chip for water safety and quality,
LABOR AT OR IES
Arizona Materials Laboratory Most of the research carried out by UA’s Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) is done in individual faculty labs. But some research is also conducted in the Arizona Materials Laboratory (AML), which is based in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. AML offers a large array of state-of-the-art equipment suitable for measurements at the nanoscale. Other work is conducted in UA’s Micro/Nano Fabrication Center, which is located in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Building. The center includes 3,800 square feet of clean rooms. These facilities include many of the tools needed to construct nanoscale devices.
protein nanoarray for single molecule detection, protein adsorption on polymer surfaces. jyyoon@email.arizona.edu Brian Zelinski Associate Professor Materials Science and Engineering Expertise: Solid state chemistry, glass science, crystallization, ceramics processing. bzelinski@mse.arizona.edu
Yitshak Zohar Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Science and technology of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), microscale fluid mechanics and heat transfer, bioMEMS, microsensors and microactuators, and integrated microfabrication technologies. zohar@ame.arizona.edu
Richard W. Ziolkowski Litton Industries John M. Leonis Distinguished Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Metamaterials, computational electromagnetics, antennas, ultrafast optics, nanomaterials, nanodevices, localized wave and directed energy systems. ziolkowski@ece.arizona.edu university of arizona | college of engineering | progress report 2009 | 25
NETWORKS AND SIMULATION A student in Professor Hariri’s Autonomic Computing Lab demonstrates the power of the lab’s visualization techniques.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
Telecommunications systems, the Internet and office computer Ethernets are examples of networks and distributed systems. Researchers working in this area design, test, model and simulate these complex systems to make them more robust and efficient and less costly.
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Networks and Simulation
R ES E A R C H
Designing Computer Software to Analyze Asymmetric Threats
Professor Jerzy Rozenblit is head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where activities span a spectrum of projects from theatre arts and entertainment technologies to astronomy, neuroscience and medicine.
In 2007, Professor Jerzy Rozenblit received a $2.2 million grant to design computer software that will analyze volatile political and military situations. The software will predict the actions of paramilitary groups, ethnic factions, terrorists and criminal groups while helping commanders to devise strategies for stabilizing areas before, during and after conflicts. It also will have many civilian applications in finance, law enforcement, epidemiology and the aftermath of natural disasters, such as hurricane Katrina. The Asymmetric Threat Response and Analysis Project, known as ATRAP, is a massively complex set of computer algorithms that sift through millions of pieces of data, considering many factors, including social, political, cultural, military and media influences, said Rozenblit, who holds the Raymond J. Oglethorpe endowed chair in electrical and computer engineering, and is head of that department. The software can handle data loads that would overwhelm human analysts while dispassionately exploring actions and behaviors based solely on available data, sidestepping human cultural biases that might prematurely rule out unorthodox or seemingly bizarre courses of action. Actions Sometimes Defy Logic “Since the end of the Cold War, our opponents have behaved in ways that defy what we would consider normal logic, pursuing actions that we find almost inconceivable,” said Rozenblit. “Predicting these asymmetric behaviors is difficult
College of Engineering/ECE
and further complicated by the massive amounts of intelligence data available.” ATRAP will use sophisticated computational methods based on game theory, coevolution and genetic algorithms to find solutions that make sense in illogical times. Genetic algorithms analyze situations in an evolutionary context, where actions with the highest “fitness factor” (chance of achieving the greatest success) gravitate toward one another, produce offspring and eventually rise to the top. Coevolutionary algorithms analyze how the actions of one group affect other groups and how those other groups adapt, or coevolve, in response to the changing situation. For instance, “if one group
“The goal is to handle conflict areas in a manner that leads to stability and support, so war is not necessary.”
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Research Aimed at Predicting C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 2 7
move that would achieve its goal of winning the game.”
becomes more influential in an area where ethnic factions are vying for supremacy, the other groups will respond in ways that will try to make that first faction less influential,” Rozenblit said.
However, chess is a good, but not exact, analogy because the rules are very constrained, only two players are involved, and the end goal is for one player to win.
The algorithms are designed to recognize links and patterns within the data and to find connections—much like a forensic accountant might do when examining financial records, but on a vastly more complex and detailed scale. Augmenting Human Predictions “The system acts as a cognitive amplifier by examining very, very complex data sets that, as an individual or even as a group of individuals, you could never analyze,” said Brian Ten Eyck, ATRAP project manager and director of research support in ECE. “The computer can bring to the surface patterns of activity and connections between people, organizations and events, and can suggest scenarios that might never occur to human analysts.”
In unstable areas, “winning often means establishing an environment in which the factions coexist in a win-win situation or at least in an equilibrium in which there are no rewards, and some penalties, for disturbing the status quo,” Rozenblit said.
The software ultimately could save millions of lives.
Deep Blue, the first computer program to beat a world chess champion, is an example of how ATRAP can respond to changing factors, Ten Eyck explained. “Every time its opponent makes a move, Deep Blue recalculates all the possible courses of action, eventually settling on the fittest
“Deep Blue is a good analogy because it illustrates the complexity of the problems, but in chess you have a finite court and a well-defined set of operations,” Rozenblit added. “Therefore, a move constitutes a valid move. But what we’re dealing with now is a world with no rules, with infinite possibilities and moves that defy logic, such as total disregard for the basic instinct of self-preservation.” Quick Response is Vital Ultimately, the software program will be designed to display data in graphical, 3-D and other forms that can be quickly grasped, allowing decision makers to rapidly respond to changing situations.
OT H E R P R OJ E C TS In the near future, all US defense operations will take place using Web services over the global information grid. Bernard Zeigler and his group in the Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation are using advanced modeling and simulation technology to develop the strategy and software needed to rigorously and thoroughly test mission‑critical performance and interoperability of such military operations.
Interim Dean of Engineering and Associate Professor Jeff Goldberg, of Systems and Industrial Engineering, and his students are developing software for modeling ambulance-based emergency systems. Prototypes of the software have been used in Toronto, Canada; Tri-Cities, Ill.; El Cajon, Calif.; and Knoxville, Tenn. The models have helped EMS managers reduce response times, system costs, and wear and tear on employees.
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Professor Leo Lopes, of Systems and Industrial Engineering, and his students are creating novel methods for optimizing systems when data are unknown, unreliable or even wrong. This research has wide applications from basic science to business. Active research areas for this technology include cell regulatory networks, border security, Web services for optimization, and data filtering for large-scale optimization.
Networks and Simulation
Since the end of the Cold War, our opponents have behaved in ways that defy what we would consider normal logic.
iStockphoto/joyt
In managing conflicts such as those that occurred in Kosovo or Somalia in the 1990s, commanders will need to respond quickly. “In those situations, we don’t have two months to figure things out,” Rozenblit said. “So the second part of our project involves harnessing massively parallel computing architectures to do computations very rapidly.” Parallel computing, which relies on several large computers working on portions of a problem simultaneously, will allow commanders to rapidly analyze millions of data points from intelligence reports. Students and Local Firms Benefit While the software ultimately could save millions of lives, it’s immediately benefiting local companies and students. Rozenblit is outsourcing some parts of the project to local contractors because his lab’s strength is in research, not professional software development. “It’s critical to the Army that our research and systems design gets realized as a robust, commercial-quality software application,” Rozenblit said. “Also, while there is nothing classified about this project from an R&D perspective, we
will ultimately need contractors to handle the deployment of ATRAP into a military environment.” ATRAP research also is giving students valuable skills. “There is a dire need for engineers with expertise in this area and our graduate students and undergraduates are in great demand,” Rozenblit said. One student who recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree after doing research related to ATRAP was hired at an annual starting salary of $90,000. The ATRAP software is being developed in collaboration with the Army Battle Command Battle Laboratory at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. While ATRAP can also address many complex, nonmilitary situations that require analysis of complex data and balancing the desires of competing factions, its military application is equally concerned with conflict avoidance. “The goal is to handle conflict areas in a manner that leads to stability and support, so war is not necessary,” Rozenblit said. “That’s the philosophy behind much of the ATRAP effort.” university of arizona | college of engineering | progress report 2009 | 29
Networks and Simulation
R ES E A R C H
UA Lab Plays Vital Role in Helping US and Foreign Military Work Together
Joint interoperability isn’t a buzzword for most of us. But in the Department of Defense (DoD) and other military planning centers it’s an urgent priority. Network-centered command and control is vital to extensive joint coalition operations that rely on forces not only from several branches of the U.S. military, but from other countries as well. New weapons systems need to be flexible, reliable and capable of operating in real time with a wide variety of other systems. To make this happen, DoD has set up the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Ariz. JITC is developing modeling and simulation methods to: • Test new systems early in their life cycle. • Assess their performance and interoperability long before deployment. • Examine the effects of design and development options before making costly decisions. ACIMS Plays Key Role The Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation (ACIMS) at The University of Arizona is central to this effort. Researchers, under the direction of ACIMS codirector Bernard P. Zeigler, are involved in a long-term subcontracting relationship with Northrop Grumman Information Technology (NGIT) to develop an Automated Test Case Generator (ATC-Gen) system for JITC. ATC-Gen is a computer modeling and simulation toolset. It includes tests to verify that new systems can share information and are jointly operable by all U.S. forces and their allies. This means that radar systems used by the Army, Air Force and Navy, for instance,
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must be compatible and able to share data rapidly and in real time. “We have been testing a network of different sensors and their associated computers and command systems,” Zeigler noted. “It’s a very advanced and complicated radar system that is intended to produce a single integrated air picture. “Various units have to share information, especially when threats are happening very fast. They might have radar signals from airplanes, ships and ground-based units, and these have to be shared and combined for the best view of what’s occurring out there. It’s important because they all need to come to a quick decision to take action or not.” They Said it Couldn’t Be Done “At first, there were a lot of reservations that we could develop a robust ATC-Gen system,” Zeigler noted. The specification document that sets the standards for tests and interoperability is more than 1,000 pages long, with many interdependent elements. “Others have tried to automate the tests but failed,” Zeigler said. “So there were some doubters. But when we got our software and simulations working and convinced them that this was the way to go, our approach became the basis for developing the testing procedures. We have a long-term contract to continue developing this system through 2010 and beyond.” Zeigler and his students are working in several areas. These include: • Developing test and evaluation systems for DoD’s acquisition process. • Creating simulation software for the Joint Distributed Engineering Plant (JDEP), which supports systems engineering, integration and testing of distributed systems.
Networks and Simulation
Professor Bernard Zeigler, ACIMS codirector, is an expert in modeling and simulation environments.
• Developing formalized standards that will allow engineers to simulate systems independently of the underlying simulation middleware technology. • Creating high-performance simulation software needed for many of the processing functions required by JDEP. Creating Web Compatibility As part of this effort, ACIMS is creating test and simulation software that will make military units 100 percent compatible with operations on DoD’s version of the World Wide Web. “The fact that everybody can go on the Web doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to collaborate, that they’re going to exchange meaningful information,” Zeigler said. “So JITC has tasked ACIMS with actually developing that strategy and the software needed to implement it.” For instance, ACIMS is helping JITC develop software that will replace the electronic hardware that’s now used to convert analog radio signals to the digital signals needed for transmission on the Web. “This involves developing better translators, and there are compatibility issues,” Zeigler noted. “They need some gateways to get there, and these cost a lot of money if done commercially with full capability,” he said. “It’s too expensive. But the software we’re developing will do the job for a small fraction of that cost.” JITC’s mission is to “support warfighters in their efforts to manage information on and off the battlefield.” Modeling and simulation of a huge variety of systems are critical to that effort, and much of the software needed for this modeling and testing is being developed in the ACIMS lab at UA. College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
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Networks and Simulation
R ES E A R C H
Army Awards ECE $1 Million to Develop Biomimetic Software The College of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) has received $1 million to fund research and development of security software for military computer networks. The software will mimic biological immune systems by screening a computer network for abnormalities; isolating the infectious computer viruses, worms and other attack agents; and developing software “antibodies” to fight them. Professors Jerzy W. Rozenblit and Salim Hariri received the grant from the Army Research Office to collaborate on the project with Arizona’s Fort Huachuca Network Command Center. The research is vital to national security because military and other government computers are under constant attack from both freelance hackers and those working for foreign governments. A story in Time magazine, for instance, details how Chinese cyberspies are stealing secret information about the U.S. nuclear arsenal and other military secrets. “Not only are secrets being lost, but the cost of fending off these attacks and then repairing the problems they cause runs into billions of dollars,” Rozenblit said. “And it’s not just an issue with defense networks. Financial centers, the health sector and even the educational sector face similar problems.” College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
Professor Salim Hariri is director of the Autonomic Computing Laboratory in the College of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 32 | progress report 2009 | college of engineering | university of arizona
Rozenblit and Hariri will be working with Fort Huachuca Network Command Center through the Center for Intrusion Protection at the Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Md.
Networks and Simulation
Current attempts to protect computer systems have failed repeatedly. Testing Systems for Vulnerability The researchers will model the types of attacks the Army encounters and design vulnerability analysis software. This software will then be used to determine whether an anomaly in the computer network is caused by a hardware breakdown, a software problem or because an attack has occurred. “Once the anomaly has occurred, the question is how to isolate it and how to take protective steps that will fend off this anomaly on systems further down the network,” Hariri said. “This will require a very rapid response.” The current project is an expansion of the work Hariri has been conducting on self-detecting, self-healing computer‑protection software in ECE’s Autonomic Computing Laboratory. He says this new approach—mimicking biological systems—is necessary because conventional methods used to protect computers from attack have failed. “The vulnerability of computer systems to malicious attacks, as well as the number of attacks, is threatening national security, business, industry and educational institutions,” he said. Every enterprise that depends on computers is at risk and current attempts to protect computer systems have failed repeatedly, Hariri added. The researchers will use the $1 million to fund phase one of the research, which is to establish the basic modeling techniques and
LABOR AT OR IES
Autonomic Computing Laboratory The Autonomic Computing Laboratory (ACL) is based in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department. The laboratory provides a controlled environment for experiments directed at better understanding the operations, behavior and limitations of the current technologies used to implement network-centric systems and applications. Students in the lab gain hands-on experience in Internet technologies and network-centric computing. Network-centric systems include the Internet and office intranets, for instance. The lab is directed by professor Salim Hariri and research interests include: • Autonomic computing systems and applications. • Communication protocols and networks. • Performance modeling and analysis of parallel and distributed computing systems. • Fault-tolerant distributed computing. ACL’s current research projects include: • Autonomia: An Autonomic Computing Environment. An autonomic computing system is self-defining, self-healing, self-configuring and self-optimizing. • Self-Configuration Engine—It automates the application configuration in Autonomia. • Network Vulnerability Analysis Toolset—It helps systems recover from complex network faults and attacks. • Autonomous Middleware for Wireless Sensors—The framework autonomously manages the resources and sensors in a distributed wireless sensor network. • Vehicle Internet Application (VIA)—The VIA would set up a Web site for individual automobiles and include information such as data on speed, internal temperature and fuel supply. It would also include live video and audio information. • Adaptive Fusion of Stochastic Information for Imaging Fractured Vadose Zones—Understanding and predicting flow and transport in fractured rocks is a concern for many environmental, energy and mineral resource groups. • Pragma: A Proactive & Reactive Grid Application Management Infrastructure for the Next Generation Simulations—This simulation project is related to the vadose zone project above. • Autonomic Computing Middleware—This middleware has application to automatic computing systems. • Programmable Visualization Toolkit—This toolkit converts data sets to pictures and movies while minimizing human involvement in the translation.
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Army Awards ECE $1 Million C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 3 3
tools. Phase two will involve implementing those techniques. “Ultimately, we would like to build a network test bed that would link us with the networking infrastructure down at Fort Huachuca so that we can simulate attacks and their consequences, as well as test our theories on real systems in real time,” Rozenblit said. “The Center for Intrusion Protection would supply the data they collect on attacks so we would be able to try our ‘what-if’ scenarios on real examples and do a forensic-style analysis to see how closely our models predict actual situations.” Although some data can be protected with sophisticated encryption programs, Rozenblit noted that cyberspy problems go beyond data security.
Malicious Attacks are Costly
“The Army funded this project because they know that UA’s ECE department has traditionally been very strong in the networking area.”
“Many of these malicious attacks not only compromise data, they compromise the entire infrastructure,” Rozenblit said. “They can cause major shutdowns or anomalous behaviors that are extremely costly to recover. In some of them you lose data, in others you may lose lives. In addition, some of these intrusions get into systems and lie dormant until they hit you when you least expect it or when the consequences will be the worst.” No computer system can be totally invulnerable to attack and those involved in computer security recognize that there will be some degree of penetration, Rozenblit explained. “The question is how to mitigate and minimize the consequences of that penetration.”
FA C U LTY Moshe Dror Professor Eller College of Management Expertise: Vehicle routing and scheduling, generalized combinatorial problems, and interactive multiobjective linear programming. mdror@eller.arizona.edu Guzin Bayraksan Assistant Professor Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Stochastic programming and Monte Carlo simulation-based optimization. guzinb@sie.arizona.edu Jeff Goldberg Interim Dean of Engineering Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Design and analysis of emergency vehicle systems, and analysis of spatially distributed
queuing systems. jgoldberg@arizona.edu Salim A. Hariri Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: High-performance distributed computing, parallel and distributed systems, software design tools for large‑scale interactive networks, high-speed networks, communications protocols, and proactive network management. hariri@ece.arizona.edu Mark Hickman Professor Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Expertise: Stochastic and time‑dependent shortest paths, path enumeration and pruning methods, and airline and transit passenger routing. mhickman@engr.arizona.edu
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Marwan M. Krunz Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Quality of service network routing, web traffic modeling, resource allocation, and scheduling. krunz@ece.arizona.edu Simge Kucukyavuz Assistant Professor Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Integer programming; computational optimization; and applications such as network design, supply chain management and logistics. simge@sie.arizona.edu Kevin Lansey Professor Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Expertise: Metaheuristic
development, soil aquifer treatment systems, water distribution systems, and reservoir optimization. lansey@engr.arizona.edu Leonardo Lopes Assistant Professor Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Modeling, hedging, and computational optimization. leo@sie.arizona.edu Ahmed Louri Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Computer architecture, optical interconnects, parallel processing, optical computing, and computer networks. louri@ece.arizona.edu Michael M. Marefat Associate Professor
Networks and Simulation
Rozenblit has been working on modeling and simulation software for military decision-making at Fort Huachuca since 1992. This new research project on computer security evolved from that close association. Loss of data in daily operations and the cost of manpower and equipment that has been compromised finally led the Army to seek ways to test the vulnerability of its systems to assess threats and to determine how well those threats can be intercepted. “The Army funded this project because they know that UA’s ECE department has traditionally been very strong in the networking area,” Rozenblit said. “They also know that we’re very strong in modeling and that we have a good understanding of defense needs due to the projects they have funded here for quite a few years.”
Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Artificial intelligence, knowledge-systems engineering. marefat@ece.arizona.edu Pitu Mirchandani Professor Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Advanced traffic and logistics algorithms and systems. pitu@sie.arizona.edu Samy Missoum Assistant Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Structural and multidisciplinary optimization, reliability-based and robust optimal design, design of experiments and metamodeling techniques, and evolutionary optimization algorithms. smissoum@ame.arizona.edu
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
Students at work in Professor Hariri’s Autonomic Computing Lab. ECE’s laboratory facilities are available to students, educators and researchers alike. ECE supports more than 30 research and teaching labs in a modern building that includes more than 50,000 square feet of lab space.
design, symbolic visualization, and embedded systems. head@ece.arizona.edu
resources management and economics. szidar@sie.arizona.edu
Stanley S. Reynolds Professor Eller College of Management Expertise: Online auctions, electricity policy, game theoretic modeling of business strategy, and laboratory experimental tests of game theory models. reynolds@eller.arizona.edu
Young Jun Son Associate Professor Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Modeling and control of complex enterprises, modeling human decision‑making, cyberinfrastructure, computer integrated control of the extended manufacturing enterprise, and shop floor control. son@sie.arizona.edu
Jerzy W. Rozenblit Raymond J. Oglethorpe Endowed Chair and Department Head Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Modeling, simulation, artificial intelligence, knowledge-based
Ferenc Szidarovszky Professor Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Game theory, conflict resolution, multicriteria decision making, and applications in natural
Miklos N. Szilagyi Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Particle beams and optics, agent-based simulation of nonlinear systems, n-person game theory, microfabrication of integrated circuits, computer-aided synthesis of electron and ion optical systems, physical electronics, and neural networks. szilagyi@ece.arizona.edu
Srinivasan Ramasubramanian Assistant Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Optical networking and wireless networking srini@ece.arizona.edu
Bernard P. Zeigler Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Modeling and simulation. zeigler@ece.arizona.edu
university of arizona | college of engineering | progress report 2009 | 35
AEROSPACE Professor Hermann Fasel’s dynamically scaled flight research is partially funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. An Air Force F/A-22 is shown.
U.S. Air Force/Ben Bloker
Researchers at The University of Arizona are working in many disciplines and technologies related to flight and spaceflight. Their work includes investigations in fluid dynamics, flight controls, aircraft structures, propulsion, acoustics, vehicle dynamics, flexible structures, computer-aided design and differential game theory.
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Aerospace
R ES E A R C H
Research Could Cut Aircraft Development Costs, Improve Safety A distressing fact for aeronautical engineers: Scale model airplanes don’t fly anything like their full-size counterparts. And that makes aircraft design a lot more difficult. “Right now, for developing a new airplane, there’s only so much you can do with wind tunnel testing and computations,” said Hermann Fasel, a professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at UA. “Then you have to make a big jump and build a full-size airplane, a prototype. Then you fly and test this airplane to see if it performs as predicted by calculations and wind tunnel tests. Oftentimes, engineers have to make major changes, in view of flight test results, in order to not compromise the efficiency and safety of the original design.” Supercomputers to the Rescue Fasel is using some of the world’s largest supercomputers to crack this problem by constructing simulations that create scale models with the same flight characteristics as their full-size counterparts. Aircraft companies are interested in Fasel’s “dynamically scaled flight” research because it could save them millions of dollars by shortening the time needed to develop new aircraft. Simultaneously, it would create safer airplanes. What’s needed is a way to decode the nonlinear relationships that link the airflow around models to that around full-size aircraft. But this hasn’t been possible in the past because engineers didn’t understand the physics of airflow, particularly the complex interaction between transition and
College of Engineering/Pete Brown
separation—that is, the change between the time when air is flowing smoothly across a surface and when it separates from the surface and becomes turbulent. Engineers are now gaining a better understanding of complex flow physics problems because of the computing power available in newer supercomputers.
Professor Hermann Fasel (front left, with some of his students), a recipient of the Maier-Leibnitz Award for outstanding research in fluid mechanics, is head of the Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.
Fasel is one of a handful of engineers with the extensive background in flow transition physics and computational sciences needed to take full advantage of the increasing capabilities of supercomputers. He has received Department of Defense and Department of Energy grants for millions of supercomputing hours to carry out this work. Motorglider Serves as Testbed Fasel and his students have built one-fifth‑scale models of a motorglider—a sailplane with an engine that can be CONTI NUE D ON PAGE 38
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Aerospace
Research Could Cut CONT INUED F ROM PAGE 37
OTHER PROJECTS Professor Israel J. Wygnanski and his students are using micro adaptive flow control (MAFC) to increase the payload capacity of the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft. MAFC involves controlling the behavior of large-scale flow fields by exploiting the natural flow response to small‑scale disturbances that are generated by small-scale actuators. Wygnanski is working with Boeing and DARPA. The focus is on the measurement and alleviation of the download on the wings of the Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey and the XV-15 caused by the rotors in the vertical flight mode. Professor Sergey Shkarayev and others in his lab are studying failure analysis of structures with multiple site damage. They are developing a deterministic and probabilistic method for modeling fatigue damage of the critical components of an airframe. They are studying crack initiation and growth, linkup, and final failure. The major feature of this method is that multiple critical sites (fastener holes) have individual fatigue-life and crack‑growth characteristics.
Courtesy Hermann Fasel
This composite photo shows the size difference between a full-size motorglider and a one‑fifth‑scale model built in Hermann Fasel’s lab. Fasel is using supercomputers to learn how to construct scale models with the same flight characteristics as their full-size counterparts.
turned on and off during flight. The U.S. Air Force has four of these full-size motorgliders at the Edwards Air Force Base Test Pilot School that also are being used in the research. “The motorglider is ideal for this kind of flight research because you can investigate the aerodynamics with and without the noise from the engine and propeller,” Fasel said. “Noise and vibrations can affect the transition from laminar to turbulent flow, and as a consequence of that, affect separation.” The Air Force planes and the models will be flown through the same flight tests so that data from the model and full-size planes can be compared directly. “My students carry out enormous computational fluid dynamics simulations,” Fasel said. “These are some of the largest simulations that have ever been done on any problem.” Some of the problems require months of calculations by the most powerful supercomputers available.
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Going Where Real Planes Can’t Once accurate scale models can be built and simulated in computers, the best designs can be flown in ways that might cause structural damage to a real plane and would never be tried on full-size aircraft because the plane and pilot might not survive. “One motivation of this research is to reduce the cost of developing airplanes. And the other one—and this can be done even if the airplane already exists—is reducing risk and improving safety by testing in certain flight regimes where you wouldn’t put a full-size, $500 million prototype airplane,” Fasel said. Currently, Fasel’s group is developing a larger scale model, a one-third-scale of a Cirrus SR22, to expand the research effort. Fasel’s dynamically scaled flight research is funded by a NASA Small Business Technology Transfer grant through Advanced Ceramics Research Inc., of Tucson, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Aerospace
FA C U LTY Thomas F. Balsa Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Fluid mechanics: boundary layers, jet noise, and nonlinear waves in shear flows. tbalsa@email.arizona.edu Hermann F. Fasel Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Computational fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic stability, laminar-turbulent transition, turbulent flows, flow control, and nonlinear dynamics and aerodynamics. faselh@email.arizona.edu
Edward J. Kerschen Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Fluid mechanics, applied mathematics, unsteady flows, hydrodynamic stability and receptivity, aeroacoustics, active flow control, and unsteady aerodynamics. kerschen@ame.arizona.edu
response, and allowable damage limit assessment. madenci@email.arizona.edu
Erdogan Madenci Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Structural analysis of composite components, including bolted joints, bonded joints, buckling and post‑buckling
Anatoli Tumin Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Hydrodynamic stability, laminar-turbulent transition, flow control, and aerodynamic heating.
Approximately 20 faculty, staff and students conduct research on the dynamics of flow and active flow control, including oscillatory blowing that can delay separation and enhance lift.
The biomimetic approach used in the current projects provides unique capabilities oriented towards identifying, modeling and demonstrating autonomous, flexible and reconfigurable flight.
Sergey V. Shkarayev Associate Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Designing micro air vehicles, fracture mechanics, and structural analysis. svs@email.arizona.edu
Israel J. Wygnanski Professor Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Expertise: Aerodynamics related to fixed and rotary craft; control of separation, high lift devices, and drag reduction; aeroacoustics (jet noise, cavity noise, screech); turbulent shear flows, control of turbulent mixing; laminar‑turbulent transition; and hydrodynamic stability.
L A B OR ATOR I E S
Aerodynamics Laboratory Researchers in the Aerodynamics Laboratory study flow separation and active flow control. Professor Israel J. Wygnanski, who is also a member of the engineering faculty at Tel Aviv University, directs the laboratory. The Aerodynamics Lab contains wind tunnels and a water tunnel, which include: • A closed circuit, temperature controlled wind tunnel • Two open circuit wind tunnels • An oscillatory flow vertical water tunnel The lab also has an area for 3-D model testing and an anechoic chamber. Measuring devices include PSI model 8400 pressure transducer, Scanivalve Zoc pressure transducer, laser doppler velocimetry, and particle image velocimetry.
Aircraft Structures Laboratory Professor Sergey Shkarayev directs the Aircraft Structures Laboratory, which is organized into two main research areas: • Aerodynamics and design of micro air vehicles (MAVs). • Fracture mechanics and structural health monitoring. Aerodynamics and Design of Micro Air Vehicles. The small size and mass of MAVs pose significant scientific and technical challenges regarding their structure and shape, aerodynamics and control.
Research includes: • Modeling and simulation of the aerodynamics of fixedand flapping-wing MAVs. • Design and demonstration of teleoperated MAVs with in-flight adaptive wings. • Fully autonomous MAVs. Fracture Mechanics and Structural Health Monitoring This research area includes experimental, theoretical and computational research addressing issues related to aging aircraft structures. Specifically, the lab’s researchers are investigating: • Mechanics of failure of structural components. • Crack-repairing methods in aircraft.
• Airframe damage tolerance concepts through computer‑aided design.
Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory The Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory is headed by Professor Hermann F. Fasel. The laboratory’s main areas of research are: • Investigation of instability mechanisms and transition to turbulence of wall‑bounded and free shear flows using temporal and spatial direct numerical simulations (DNS). • Development and testing of turbulence models. • Investigation of active flow control mechanisms for turbulent flows using DNS, LES and RANS modeling.
university of arizona | college of engineering | progress report 2009 | 39
ENGINEERING, ART AND ARTIFACTS One of the engineering research strands of the Heritage Conservation Science program at UA centers on discovering what our ancestors had to know and use to invent and practice ancient technologies.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
UA’s program in Heritage Conservation Science focuses on saving priceless antiquities and unraveling the processes and materials that created them. Engineering expertise helps musicians to create nontraditional instruments and theater arts students to understand the engineering aspects of complex stage design. Some of the most exciting research innovations in engineering are occurring where traditional engineering overlaps with artistic creativity.
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Engineering, Art and Artifacts
R ES E A R C H
Materials Science Enables Engineers to Conserve the Past Each time an ancient vase disintegrates, a ceramic tile crumbles or a painting cracks and fades, another link with our past is lost and we understand just a little less about where we came from and, ultimately, who we are. When the last artisan dies and an ancient technology is lost, we’re similarly impoverished, says Pamela Vandiver, an internationally recognized expert in artifact preservation and a Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) professor at UA. Vandiver came to UA in 2004 to start a program in Heritage Conservation Science (HCS) that trains students to stabilize, preserve and better understand ancient artifacts and how they were created and used. The curriculum, which combines engineering, anthropology, architectural history and art history is particularly important today because many of the material links to our past are disintegrating, while the ancient technologies that created them are disappearing. “To preserve our inheritance, we really need a group of scientists and engineers who can work with conservators and other experts to stabilize and preserve these objects,” says Vandiver, who holds a joint appointment in Anthropology and in MSE. Knowing how these objects were made is just as important as preserving them, she added. UA Has All the Tools Needed Vandiver came to UA because much of the basic infrastructure needed to start an HCS program already existed on campus. Architecture has a degree in architectural preservation. Archaeology is a strong discipline at UA, and the university has world-recognized tree-ring and carbon‑dating labs. The Arizona
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
State Museum is a center for conservation of Southwestern artifacts, and UA has materials-based studies in art history, chemistry, classics, geosciences and Near Eastern studies. In addition, UA has a long history of sociocultural studies and interdisciplinary cooperation between MSE, Anthropology and other programs. For Vandiver, UA was the ideal location to transfer her work after 18 years as a senior research scientist at the Smithsonian and as a MSE faculty member in the cultural heritage program at Johns Hopkins University. “We’re trying to put materials science education at the core of historic preservation, rather than just wallpapering over an archaeologist or conservator with a few materials science courses,” she says. “We are producing students who are truly dual disciplinary.”
Pamela Bowren Vandiver is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and in the Department of Anthropology. Her teaching interests lie in the materials science of art and archaeological objects.
“We are producing students who are truly dual disciplinary.”
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Engineering, Art and Artifacts
Engineering and Theater Students Combine Their Skills to Produce High-Tech Stage Sets R ES E A R C H
Engineering and theater students are working together at UA to design the kind of sophisticated stage machinery that’s used at stadium rock concerts, and in Cirque du Soleil and similar productions. The Advanced Motion Control class has been offered to graduate students in Theater Technology and to both graduate and undergraduate students in Electrical and Computer Engineering for the past three years, said Professor Peter Beudert,
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who directs the Design Division in the School of Theatre Arts. Beudert and other faculty members hope to expand the concept into a multicourse offering that will lead to a master’s degree option in Engineering and an entertainment technology certificate in Theatre Arts. High-tech staging can help or hinder a performance depending on how it’s
Engineering, Art and Artifacts
Professor Peter Beudert is head of the Division of Design and Technical Production in the School of Theatre Arts.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
designed and implemented, Beudert said. So there’s a need for technicians and engineers who understand the demands that the human-computer interface puts on actors, and who can seamlessly integrate technology into a performance. Cirque du Soleil, for instance, employs 150 people behind the scenes during each performance and another group is needed to maintain the sophisticated equipment, Beudert said. Rock concerts
and other performances that combine actors and machinery also use large numbers of technicians. “You have a lot of technology mixing together,” Beudert said. “You have lighting, audio, hydraulic, electrical and computer systems mixing with stage scenery.” “But there is no place in America, and possibly the world, where a student
Engineering and theater students are problem solvers and equally creative.
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Engineering, Art and Artifacts
Engineering and Theater CONTI NUE D FROM PAGE 43
Professor Beudert is a recipient of the College of Fine Arts Charles and Irene Putnam Award for Excellence in Teaching.
interested in studying theater as a technician can get the kind of training that allows them to operate in shows that demand very high technology,” he added. “There isn’t a training program that provides the opportunity for theater students to work hand-in-hand with engineering students at the graduate level that prepares them to work in the profession.” The concept of the Advanced Motion Control class, and eventually of the certificate and degree option programs, is to develop engineers who can work in the performing arts, as well as theater specialists who have a strong background in engineering, said Hal Tharp, of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who is one of the engineering professors who helps teach the class. In addition, Beudert believes the program could benefit Tucson and Arizona by attracting companies that produce high-tech theater equipment and one-of-a-kind stage sets. “With so much growth being in the West because of the dominance of theme parks in Los Angeles and the shows in Las Vegas, there’s a lot of growth potential for the industry in the Southwest,” he said. The Advanced Motion Control class, which will be taught again in 2009, has shown the value of mixing the talents of engineering and theater students, he said. Different Disciplines, Different Outlooks, Different Approaches Both engineering and theater students are problem solvers and equally creative, but they bring different outlooks to the class, Beudert noted.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
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The engineers tend to analyze problems in detail, working through several iterations to optimize a solution, while the theater students tend to say, “This might not be an optimal solution, but it works. So let’s use it,” Beudert explained.
Engineering, Art and Artifacts
The course already has produced students who are industry ready at graduation. “In theater, we do things quickly,” he said. “When we do a production, we have six or seven weeks to build the show, get it in the theater and get it working. We don’t really have time in that six-week period to try a whole new system, because if it doesn’t work, we have a major problem. So we tend to work modularly. If we have things that work, we tend to use them a lot.” While the engineers learn about “the show must go on” side of theater technology, theater students gain an insight into ways of thinking about designs from the ground up that are standard practice for engineering design. “For example, the theater students benefit from seeing the kinds of analyses and design techniques that can be applied to their ‘what if’ questions,” Tharp said. The class has been different each semester. During the first year, students designed and programmed a stage set that included 16 sections that were four feet square. These modules were at the same height initially but could be elevated independently. Tucson’s Caid Industries did much of the fabrication work on the modules and the students added the hydraulic and electrical systems and designed the control systems. At the end of the semester, the stage set was used in a theater production, and the audience was invited onstage after the performance to examine the machinery. A Combination of Light, Jazz and Optical Sensors During the second semester, students worked with a percussion jazz ensemble from the School of Music to design moveable stage sets that could be operated by musicians on stage. The students also designed and built automated musical instruments. “One instrument could be played by directing
high-intensity flashlights at optical sensors,” Tharp said. “Another instrument had an array of nine laser beams and could be played by holding a hand over the beams.” The sets and instruments were used in “New Genesis,” a public performance that focused on astrobiology and the arts. During part of “New Genesis,” the musicians played the light instruments and “taught” automated lights to play along with them. Later, these mechanical lights appeared to teach the musicians a tune. “There were a lot of control issues and programming issues the students had to deal with, and the result was visually quite stunning,” Beudert said. Last spring semester, the students created a three-part motion sensor system. The first part detected a live actor on stage within two or three inches. The second part translated this information into data that could be used by standard theater equipment, such as a computer-based lighting control board. The third part involved creating a way to track an actor on stage and reproduce that track in a way that a motorized object could follow, appearing to travel in the actor’s footsteps. The course already has produced students who are industry ready at graduation, Beudert said. “Right after our second concert, we had four students graduate from our program and move to Las Vegas to work for Cirque du Soleil.” “Every year we’ve had a great mix of students,” Beudert added. “The partnerships created have been strong and all the students have learned a tremendous amount from each other. The course has really given them a chance to grow in ways that aren’t possible if they stay only in their own disciplines.”
LABORATORIES
Arizona Materials Laboratory The Heritage Conservation Science program is based in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, which includes the Arizona Materials Laboratory. The lab’s state-of-the-art equipment is available to other UA programs, industry and the larger scientific community. Some of the equipment and analysis techniques available through AML are: AAS
Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy
ASAP
Accelerated Surface Area and Porosimetry System
FESEM
Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope
FTIR
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy
SEM
Scanning Electron Microscope
TEM
Transmission Electron Microscope
XRD
X-Ray Diffraction
DSC
Differential Scanning Calorimetry
DTA
Differential Thermal Analysis
TGA
Thermogravimetric Analysis
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Engineering, Art and Artifacts
R ES E A R C H
Discarded Fire Extinguishers Are Music to Students’ Ears
A musical instrument made from discarded fire extinguishers proved to be one of the most popular exhibits at 2008’s Engineering Design Day, an event that showcases projects designed and built by engineering students during the school year. Few people could pass the instrument’s five fire extinguishers without tapping at least one of them to hear the eerie shift in pitch that occurred when they released a foot pedal and lowered the extinguisher into a bucket of water. Most of the projects at Design Day come from senior design classes, but this musical instrument, called Extinguished Oasis, was built for an experimental class that brought together students from engineering, music and architecture. Eighteen students built four instruments for the class, but Extinguished Oasis was the only one displayed at Design Day. Regina Reed, an Aerospace Engineering student and one of the five students who
built the instrument, explained that her team established several goals for its design: • The instrument had to be made from scrap metal. • It had to have multiple, predictable pitches. • It needed to be playable by all five group members at the same time. • It had to be easy to master. • It had to have a unique sound. The group salvaged empty fire extinguisher canisters at a local scrap metal yard, cut them into different scoop shapes and suspended them over buckets of water with cables hooked to foot pedals. The canisters ring when they’re struck with rubber mallets. The difference in density between air and water causes the canisters to vibrate at different frequencies as they’re lowered into the water.
OT H E R P R OJ E C TS Chinese Ru Glazes The last Chinese potter who knew how to create a translucent, blue-green glaze known as Ru glaze died more than 900 years ago. The secrets of this highly prized glaze died with the potter. Pam Vandiver and her students are working to understand and reconstruct the technology. Sikyatki Pottery Hopi artists created what archaeologists call Jeddito ware between about 1200 and 1650 A.D., Sikyatki Polychrome is a subset of Jeddito pottery. The mystery is how it was made. No one knows for sure,
understand the differences between the two materials.
and no one has been able to consistently produce ceramics with this even, tan-yellow buff surface because the last ones were fired around the time that Spanish settlers arrived in the Southwest. Heritage Conservation researchers are unraveling the Sikyatki technology that has been lost in time. Historic Iron-Making Process Pamela Vandiver and her students are studying the technology of bloomery furnaces that were used to make iron and steel in Europe and the United States until about 200 years ago. These furnaces also have a long
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history in many other cultures, stretching back more than 2,000 years. Adobe Making Vandiver is analyzing brick and mortar from Tucson’s 18th century presidio wall and from the Old Adobe Brick Co. to
Tohono O’Odham Pottery Heritage Conservation Science researchers are working with Tohono O’Odham potter and UA grad student Reuben Naranjo to better understand the traditional materials and techniques used for making pottery in the Tohono O’Odham community near Tucson, Ariz. Laser Cleaning Technology Vandiver is collaborating with Associate Professor Kelly Potter, of Electrical and Computer Engineering, on how to better use lasers to clean old coatings from artifacts.
Engineering, Art and Artifacts
This musical instrument was built for an experimental class that brought together students from engineering, music and architecture. “We didn’t grind the canisters to bring them up to a specific pitch,” Reed explained. Instead, the students would strike one of the canisters when it was out of the water and then use a piano to find a matching pitch. They did the same with the canister fully submerged, and this gave them the range of pitches available with each canister. Other student teams built Zarp, a harp-like instrument; the Fire Escape, a set of tuned tanks and fire extinguishers; and the Happy Accident Perpetual Poolside, a xylophone-like instrument made from a stainless steel pool filter and an oxygen tank. The teams brought their instruments together for a concert at the end of the semester. The class is called Making Musical Instruments Out of Scrap Metal, and was created by Gary Cook, professor of music; Dale Clifford, assistant professor of architecture; and Jeff Goldberg, interim dean of engineering.
College of Engineering/Ed Stiles
Extinguished Oasis was built by aerospace engineering junior Regina Reed (above), architecture graduate student Matt Gindlesparger, environmental hydrology junior Lisa Wade, mechanical engineering master’s student Dan Alfred, and computer engineering senior Tyler Coles.
FA C U LTY Pamela Vandiver Professor and codirector of the Program in Heritage Conservation Science Materials Science and Engineering Expertise: Inorganic materials technologies, materials characterization and conservation science. vandiver@mse.arizona.edu Nancy Odegaard Head of Conservation, Arizona State Museum, and codirector of the Program in Heritage Conservation Science Expertise: Conservation. odegaard@email.arizona.edu Joseph Simmons Professor and Department Head
Materials Science and Engineering Expertise: Optics and materials research. simmons@mse.arizona.edu Srini Raghavan Professor Materials Science and Engineering Expertise: Corrosion and materials characterization. srini@email.arizona.edu Douglas Loy Associate Professor Materials Science and Engineering Expertise: Sol-gel and polymer chemistry. daloy@mse.arizona.edu
David Killick Associate Professor and Adjunct Professor Anthropology, and Materials Science and Engineering, respectively. Expertise: Metals and archaeological science. killick@email.arizona.edu R. Brooks Jeffery Associate Dean and Head of the Center for Preservation Studies College of Architecture Expertise: Architectural preservation. rbjeffer@emai.arizona.edu Supapan Seraphin Professor and Faculty Fellow Materials Science and Engineering
Expertise: Materials research and characterization. seraphin@email.arizona.edu Peter Beudert Professor School of Theatre Arts Expertise: Theatre design and technology. pbeudert@email.arizona.edu Hal Tharp Lockheed Martin Corporate Professor and Associate Department Head Electrical and Computer Engineering Expertise: Modeling and simulation. tharp@ece.arizona.edu
university of arizona | college of engineering | progress report 2009 | 47
TRANSPORTATION Assistant Professor Yi‑Chang Chiu’s research interests include intelligent transportation systems and large-scale regional evacuation modeling.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
The United States is moving to intelligent transportation systems that will set the course of not only highway transportation but rail, transit and multimodal systems in the 21st century. Intelligent traffic systems are interactive. They collect real-time data on vehicle traffic flow and use that data to move vehicles more efficiently and safely. Faculty in UA Engineering are fostering development of these systems through research on algorithms, software, logistics management and intelligent vehicles. 48 | progress report 2009 | college of engineering | university of arizona
Transportation
R ES E A R C H
Disaster Simulation Software Can Evacuate Millions of Vehicles Yi-Chang Chiu wants to move people efficiently—lots of people, millions of people—in response to a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Suppose, for instance, that a disaster occurred in Southern California and suddenly 700,000 vehicles headed for the Arizona border. How would transportation officials generate the best traffic management strategy to cope with the resulting congestion? One very good option would be to use the computer simulation package that Chiu, an assistant professor in UA’s Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, has been developing since 1995, when he was a graduate student at the University of Texas in Austin. “Solving large-scale evacuation problems is overwhelming,” Chiu said. “No one can just sit down with a map and draw lines and figure out the best answer to problems like these.” No single plan or even series of plans is sufficient, he added. “We’re not focusing on a script because a disaster scenario is very unpredictable. You can’t have one plan that fits all situations, and you can’t evaluate hundreds of scenarios or your plan will end up looking like a phone book.” Instead, Chiu and his colleagues have focused on developing software that can react to a situation in real time, adjusting as conditions on the ground change. Planning on the Fly “If we’re reacting to a hurricane, we have 72 hours to plan,” he said. “But what if an unforeseen disaster occurs? We need to make a decision in 15 minutes.” The software package depends on detailed traffic census data that is collected by
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
state and city transportation departments in conjunction with real-time traffic surveillance data. “The cars aren’t just randomly placed on the streets in our simulations,” he said. “We know where every car has come from, where it’s at and where it’s headed, and vehicle movements follow rigorous traffic flow theories. So the simulation is very realistic. It’s not just a random process.” It’s also very complicated. The software considers decisions each driver might make about factors such as when to leave, which route to take, if they listen to radio reports and change their route, if they are slowed by congestion and change routes, or if they react to freeway message boards that carry routing advisories.
“We know where every car has come from, where it’s at and where it’s headed ... the simulation is very realistic. It’s not just a random process.”
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Transportation
Disaster Simulation Software C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 4 9
Responding to Airborne Hazards The model also can be combined with an air-plume dispersion model to predict how traffic will respond to airborne hazardous material. “We have a scenario that says a refinery caught fire and every 30 minutes the wind plume is progressing according to the wind speed and temperature,” Chiu said. “So we can calculate the health risk. In the case of an extremely toxic substance, we can also calculate the number of casualties and where they will occur.”
Pictured with Professor Chiu are Professor Pitu Mirchandani, left, director of the ATLAS Research Center (see page 51), and Professor Mark Hickman, right, holder of the Delbert Lewis ‘51 Distinguished Professorship.
The model isn’t finished when the disaster ends. It also has post-disaster applications. For instance, Chiu and his colleagues analyzed a high-rise, multilevel interchange in El Paso, Texas, where I-10 and US 54 meet. If that interchange were completely destroyed, what would be the immediate and long-term impact to the city and what would be the best scenario for recovery?
“If you have only limited funds or time, which project will do the most good for recovery?” Chiu asked. “Do you open I-10 first or US 54? The model allows us to make those kinds of after-disaster recovery decisions based on the detailed, day-to-day traffic-flow data that has been collected by the City of El Paso and the projected traffic patterns from the model.” In a real-world application, the Federal Highway Administration asked Chiu to use his traffic simulation model to help reroute traffic in Minneapolis following the collapse of the IH-35W bridge. Value Pricing on Toll Roads Chiu and his colleagues also have used the software to model what’s called “value pricing” on toll roads. The idea is to use a sliding toll scale to manage congestion. When traffic increases, the toll notches up incrementally to a maximum amount. This information is broadcast to drivers in various ways, with the hope that they will choose a
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
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Transportation
different route, use public transit or delay their trip. “The real research focus here is to develop a fair method for calculating tolls,” Chiu said. “It can’t be arbitrary or people won’t accept it. You need to do very careful planning.” The traffic software, which Chiu and others began building line-of-code by line-of-code back in 1995, has undergone several software engineering cycles since then and now is a mature product that will soon be ready for state transportation and emergency medical agencies. The next generation of the software, which is now under development, is called MALTA (Multi-Resolution Assignment and Loading of Traffic Activities). It is being designed to run even faster, to handle networks with much larger sizes, and to respond minute‑by-minute to real-time emergencies. Instead of running on a single computer, it employs parallel processing, whereby several computers work together on the problem. The
National Science Foundation and Arizona Department of Transportation are funding the development and field testing of MALTA. Chiu is developing this next-generation software with Professor Pitu Mirchandani, of the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering, and Mark Hickman, an associate professor of civil engineering. Chiu originally worked on the software at the University of Texas with his major professor, Hani S. Mahmassani. The Federal Highway Administration funded that project. Chiu has worked with the following agencies on developing and testing the software: Federal Highway Administration; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Arizona, Florida, Texas and Virginia departments of transportation; CalTran; Maricopa Association of Governments; Pima Association of Governments; and the cities of Houston, El Paso, Austin and Tucson.
The Federal Highway Administration asked Chiu to use his traffic simulation model to help reroute traffic in Minneapolis following the collapse of the IH-35W bridge.
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ATLAS Research Center The Advanced Traffic and Logistics Algorithms and Systems (ATLAS) center is based in the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering (SIE), where faculty and students from both SIE and Civil Engineering study and develop algorithms for traffic management and transportation system logistics. The center has a wide array of tools, including microscopic traffic simulation models, network planning models, and real-time traffic management systems. The lab also has a
large collection of traffic signal control hardware for testing and experimentation. ATLAS is linked to the City of Tucson traffic management system and has the ability to collect detailed real-time data on traffic flow and operations. The lab collects additional data near the UA campus through a system of video cameras that are linked to the lab by a fiber-optics network. The center also collects real-time traffic flow data from the freeway management system in Phoenix.
ATLAS research includes work on traffic-adaptive control systems for both signals and ramp meters that are designed to move traffic more efficiently by responding to traffic conditions in real time. This work includes using remote sensing techniques and traffic-simulation models. These algorithms have been implemented in real traffic management systems in Tucson, Phoenix and several other cities in the United States and Canada.
Faculty and students work on a wide variety of projects, including predicting bus arrival times at bus stops and intersections, determining how to prioritize traffic flow at signals, and using video cameras mounted on helicopters to measure traffic flow performance and to collect vehicle trajectory data for modeling purposes. In addition, the lab has been developing technologies related to intelligent vehicles that drive themselves in traffic while interacting with the traffic control system.
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Industry and Academia Meet in the Classroom
Intelligent traffic systems are Larry Head’s work and his passion. Head, associate professor and department head of Systems and Industrial Engineering, has worked on intelligent transportation systems and traffic management both at UA and in industry. Intelligent traffic systems are interactive. They collect real-time data on vehicle traffic flow and use that data to time the signals to move vehicles more efficiently and safely. Head, who earned his PhD from SIE in 1989, worked on traffic systems research as an SIE faculty member until he left the university in 1996 to become a partner in and senior vice president of R&D at
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Gardner Transportation Systems, a start-up transportation consulting and development company. The company designed, developed and deployed traffic management systems for large cities. After three years, the company had grown to 66 employees and was acquired by Siemens ITS of Germany, the largest traffic signal company in the world. Head spent an additional three years with Siemens ITS before returning to UA. “We grew pretty quickly as a small business in those first three years,” Head said. “We had offices in Salt Lake City; Tucson; Concord, Calif.; Houston; Dallas; Ft. Lauderdale; Atlanta; and New York City.
Transportation
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
“We did the traffic signal system for the Olympics in Salt Lake City and designed a predictive priority system for the Salt Lake TRAX light rail system. We made the train move through downtown, while the signals stayed coordinated. The goal was to keep the train from stopping at traffic signals—we were able to do it such that it didn’t stop very often. That was a really great project and, actually, that design turned out to be the light-rail design that is being used in Houston and Phoenix. I’m proud of that.” Head enjoyed working in industry and thrived on seeing his designs implemented, but always knew he wanted to come back to UA. “I really enjoy teaching and I enjoy the research we do here,” he said.
He’s now applying much of what he learned in industry, and it’s significantly influencing his approach to research and to teaching. “I appreciate some of the details that you can only learn by building, deploying and operating systems,” Head said. “Some of these details make the research problems we’re working on here in SIE more interesting and sometimes harder. Sometimes they make me bypass an interesting research question because I know the results won’t be relevant to real-world systems.”
Associate Professor Larry Head is chairman of the Traffic Signal Systems Committee, a technical committee of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, which advises the federal government and others on scientific and technical questions of national importance.
His industry experience also has changed the way he teaches. “I try to relay my experiences to the students with practical CONTI NUE D ON PAGE 54
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controllers should make decisions. These controllers decide how traffic signals should operate based on real-time data and, hence, how traffic should flow.
examples and rational foundations for why some of the ideas are so important.” Industry and Academia Have Different Approaches Head noted that the primary objectives of business and academia are different, and that’s what eventually led him to return to the university. “In business we concentrated on work that allowed us to successfully fund our staff and our activities,” he said. “We focused our efforts on developing products and solutions for our customers that would give us a competitive edge and realize our vision of how traffic management systems should work.” “In business, we didn’t have a lot of time to do research, and we couldn’t afford to take as many risks and try new ideas,” he said. “So when I came back to the university, I enjoyed having the space and time to think about some of the problems that we had encountered that I thought could be addressed through fundamental research.”
There’s a big difference between theoretical, ideal systems designed in a university lab and what can be implemented on the street.
One of his first projects was to develop a robust model that defined how traffic
“We had programmers who were making changes in our software to add a certain function, but then something in the system would break,” he said. “I worked with several other traffic signal manufacturers and they had exactly the same problem. Part of the reason was that we weren’t working with a sound, structured model. Since I’ve come back to the university, we’ve been able to work on that problem and give industry a model that’s more useful.” Head says his industry experience also helps in understanding that there’s a big difference between theoretical, ideal systems designed in a university lab and what can be implemented on the street in terms of complexity and cost. Having worked with those limitations first-hand helps him find practical solutions that will implement most of the desired functions at a fraction of the cost.
FA C U LTY Yi-Chang Chiu Assistant Professor Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Expertise: Spatially scalable dynamic traffic assignment modeling tools, regional corridor management, and regional evacuation planning. chiu@email.arizona.edu K. Larry Head Associate Professor and Department Head Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Traffic and transportation systems, traffic signal control, microscopic
traffic simulation, traffic flow theory, systems engineering methodology, software engineering, communications, and human factors. larry@sie.arizona.edu Wei Hua Lin Associate Professor Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Transportation network optimization, intelligent transportation systems, traffic flow theory, logistics and supply chain management, and computer simulation modeling. weilin@sie.arizona.edu
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Mark Hickman Associate Professor Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Expertise: Public transportation operations and management, application of information technologies in transportation, transportation systems analysis and quantitative modeling. mhickman@engr.arizona.edu Pitu B. Mirchandani Professor and Director of the ATLAS Center Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Models and
algorithms for optimization, control of stochastic systems, logistics, routing, location, and scheduling. pitu@sie.arizona.edu Fei-Yue Wang Professor Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Agent-based control for networked transportation systems, artificial transportation systems, intelligent vehicles and embedded real-time operating systems for vehicular electronics. feiyue@sie.arizona.edu
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“If we could get drivers to just obey the signals ... we might be able to deal with traffic a lot more efficiently.” OT HER PROJECTS Associate Professor Wei Lin, of Systems and Industrial Engineering, and his students are developing a GIS‑based travel-time prediction system that integrates real‑time traffic information with historical travel‑time information to capture more accurate time‑dependent traffic congestion data.
iStockphoto/egdigital
Accommodating Driver Behavior Driver behavior, of course, is an integral factor in traffic systems and a major problem in deciding between what’s maximally efficient and what’s safely possible. “I don’t have the magic answer,” Head said. “But we would really like to explore the driver expectancy issue.”
some red light enforcement would help us to implement this. Maybe some other things will get drivers to do that.” While he continues his work on traffic systems, Head also is moving into new areas that concentrate on integrating vehicles and traffic control systems.
In the past, the mantra of good traffic design has been that a system should operate in completely predictable ways. That is, all the turns should be lagging left turns or leading left turns, for instance, not a combination. But traffic might move more quickly and efficiently if the phasing was designed to optimize the traffic flow—sometimes leading and sometimes lagging, depending on the conditions at the moment.
One of these is a smart car that could drive itself through city traffic. Another, which is related, is directly integrating cars with the traffic system. For instance, the car’s computer might get a message that it’s 600 feet away from an intersection traveling at 40 mph and the traffic control system recognizes that it cannot get through the intersection before the light turns red. If there’s no response from the driver, the control system could take control of the brakes and throttle to stop the car at the light.
“Driver expectancy” is a 1950s and 1960s human factors concept. “But now we live in an era where information and technology are more prevalent,” Head said. “If we could get drivers to just obey the signals and do what they say, then we might be able to deal with traffic a lot more efficiently. Maybe
“There will be a gap in deploying this kind of technology because of market penetration,” Head said. “Your car doesn’t have this kind of system now; my car doesn’t have it. But the auto manufacturers are involved in this in a big way. It’s pretty exciting stuff.”
Associate Professor Mark Hickman, of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, and a student, Chi Pak Chan of Systems and Industrial Engineering, are developing models that can be used to generate evacuation strategies for the car-less. The models can help emergency managers decide where to send public transit and school buses, to carry people away from disaster areas. Assistant Professor Yi-Chang Chiu, of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, and his team are developing a cluster‑computing‑based spatially scalable dynamic traffic assignment (SSDTA) modeling tool for regional corridor management and evacuation planning with real-time evacuation operations support. They are also developing an anisotropic mesoscopic simulation traffic flow model.
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SUSTAINABILITY The College of Engineering conducts numerous environmental research programs in and around Tucson, including in the Santa Rita Mountains, an ecologically fragile region of outstanding natural beauty and one of the world’s premier birding areas.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
Technology can only continue to grow if resources are used wisely. Researchers in engineering and other departments at UA are tackling sustainability issues to help preserve the environment while fostering economic development in areas such as water conservation and management, and mine planning and remediation. The college’s mining program dates back to the university’s founding in 1885 and UA offers one of the few mining programs at a major research university. 56 | progress report 2009 | college of engineering | university of arizona
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R ES E A R C H
Conserving Resources Key to Meeting Demand for Skyscraper Chips The demand for faster computers and smaller, more capable electronic devices, such as MP3 players and cell phones, requires ever-smaller, more-complex microchips—or integrated circuits (ICs), as they’re called in the industry. “ICs are becoming tiny skyscrapers,” explained Ara Philipossian, a professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering who holds the Koshiyama Distinguished Professorship in Planarization at UA. “As we shrink the footprint to make smaller chips while demanding more functionality, there is only one way to go, and that’s up.” Today’s skyscraper ICs have eight or more layers of circuitry piled on top of one another, he noted. This is expected to grow by three or more layers within the next five years. After each layer is fabricated, its surface must be polished perfectly flat so the next layer can be built on top of it. Engineers call this “planarizing.” It’s the technology that makes today’s ICs possible, and it can be achieved only through a process known as chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). In CMP, a silicon wafer that contains the circuitry for hundreds of ICs is pressed against a rotating polishing pad. A slurry of abrasives and oxidizing chemicals is introduced between the pad and wafer to aid in removing material and flattening the surface. In addition to the pad and slurry, CMP also employs a rotating diamond disc to resurface the polishing pad both at the beginning of a production run and continuously during the planarization process. The diamonds on the disc resurface
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Koshiyama Professor of Planarization Ara Philipossian works on applied research related to environmentally benign semiconductor manufacturing.
the pad, roughening its surface while removing accumulated polishing debris and by-products. Navigating the CMP Labyrinth CMP is a relatively simple process—not unlike sanding wood, except that sanding is a purely mechanical process whereas planarizing tiny microchips at the molecular level also involves forming and breaking chemical bonds. That’s the “chemical” part of CMP. Beneath this seemingly straightforward exterior, however, CMP is a maddening CONTI NU ED ON PA GE 58
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labyrinth of interdependent factors that influence the planarization rate and wear on the polishing components at the molecular level, Philipossian explained.
“In most cases, overpolishing gains you nothing, but you lose a lot of consumables you could have saved.”
His research involves studying the composition of the surfaces, the chemical and mechanical interactions of the surfaces and the slurry, surface temperatures and pressures, and how to combine these interconnected factors to make the process as efficient as possible. The end goal is to reduce wear, machinery downtime and the use of the polishing materials that are expensive, difficult to produce and sometimes difficult to dispose of. Take polishing pad resurfacing, for instance. This is done with the diamond pad. Diamond crystal size, morphology and surface density are all factors in the process. “People think diamonds don’t wear because they’re so hard,” Philipossian said. “But we have so much evidence showing that even contact between a diamond and elastomeric pad material, such as polyurethane, causes the diamond to wear. It’s not all mechanical wear. There also is considerable chemical wear in the form of etching of the substrate on which the diamonds are mounted and other interactions at the atomic level.” It’s not much wear, and 99 percent of the diamond may still be there, he said. But
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the 1 percent that had a sharp cutting edge is gone. “It’s like a knife blade,” Philipossian explained. “When a knife loses its edge and is no longer suitable for the job, nearly all of the knife blade is still there.” When the diamond cutter goes dull or the polishing pad wears out, the equipment must be shut down. “Servicing equipment involves using more energy to produce new parts and machine downtime,” Philipossian said. “Then you have to run the machine in its nonproductive mode to be sure the new parts work properly. You have to polish dummy wafers and you have to run in new slurry to be sure that the process works. So it’s expensive, uses energy and creates waste products.” CMP Pit Stops Cost Money, Resources Chip manufactures try to minimize downtime, and this can also lead to using additional materials. “Let’s say you have to take your tool down to replace the polishing pad,” Philipossian said. “It’s a pit stop, just like with a racecar. If you’re a racecar driver and you have a pit stop to change tires, you’ll change other things that don’t need replacing to avoid an additional pit stop later in the race.”
Sustainability
The same thing happens in the IC manufacturing industry, he said. While the machine is down, the company may change the machine’s filters, the partially worn diamond conditioner and other parts. Although it’s wasteful, changing those parts costs less than bringing the machine down again. “To extend the life of parts and to minimize shutdowns, we’re trying to understand the factors that cause wear,” Philipossian said. “We can then understand what materials to use and not to use, what pressures to avoid, and what sliding velocities and slurry-flow rates to promote to make sure that parts are worn at a low rate, while not compromising the quality of the wafer.” Philipossian and his students are studying two-body and three-body contact—two-body being a diamond or wafer on a pad, for
instance, and three-body being a diamond or wafer on a pad with tiny slurry particles between them. In addition to understanding how the materials wear, it’s vital to determine the instant when the wafer surface is flat. This is called end-point detection. “In most cases, overpolishing gains you nothing, but you lose a lot of consumables you could have saved,” Philipossian said. “Sometimes too much overpolishing actually is counterproductive because softer materials may be gouged out, either mechanically or chemically, leading to a nonplanar surface.” “We want to create processes that quickly reach equilibrium and experience minimal wear,” he added. “We want to extend this equilibrium period to thousands of wafers so that companies don’t have to take their CMP polishers off line every 500 or fewer wafers.”
“We want to create processes that quickly reach equilibrium and experience minimal wear.”
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The Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas The Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA) promotes sustainable management of semiarid and arid water resources. SAHRA conducts multidisciplinary research to advance hydrologic knowledge and study problems that limit sustainable management practices. SAHRA emphasizes long-term, basin-scale research. The center was established in 2000 with funding from the National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology Centers (STC) initiative. This initiative
promotes collaborative research and education through collaboration between academia, industry, government laboratories, and other public and private organizations. STC’s focus is on complex, multidisciplinary issues that cannot be adequately addressed through individual investigator research projects. SAHRA draws on expertise from a variety of fields, including hydrology, civil engineering, agriculture, urban engineering, biology, geosciences, chemistry, public policy, law, soil science, environmental science, conflict resolution, economics and education.
The center is a collaborative effort of many institutions and agencies from the United States and Mexico. SAHRA’s headquarters are at the University of Arizona.
are broadly aimed at K-12 students and their teachers, undergraduate nonscience majors, and undergraduates and graduate students affiliated with SAHRA.
SAHRA has links with a wide audience so that it can:
These efforts often take place in informal settings where students and their teachers can become involved in hands-on activities, such as summer camps, workshops and field camps.
• Share its research results. • Collaborate with water professionals, decision makers and scientists. • Keep abreast of needs and concerns of water managers and users. • Raise public awareness about water sustainability in arid and semiarid regions. SAHRA’s education efforts
SAHRA is expanding its educational activities throughout the Southwest by exporting its educational programs and resource kits to science education centers and school districts.
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New Mining Institute Will Be Global Center of Excellence
Arizona is sitting on a gold mine, figuratively speaking. Literally, this mineral-rich state is sitting on billions of tons of ore, including a copper ore body estimated at 1.34 billion tons, enough to meet 20 percent of expected U.S. demand for copper during the next 50 years. Exploration near Superior, Ariz., by Resolution Copper Mining has detected what could be the biggest body of ore ever found in North America. Production is expected to begin in 2019; an April 2008 study concluded that the total economic benefit to the state during the 66-year project could amount to $46.4 billion. “We haven’t even scratched the surface,” said Professor Mary Poulton, head of the UA’s Department of Mining and Geological Engineering (MGE). “This is a very well endowed state. And it is primary wealth, it is new money that enters the economy.” Poulton is director of the newly established Institute for Mineral Resources (IMR), a collaborative push by Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz), the mining industry and Arizona’s universities, led by UA, to found a global center of mining excellence. “It’s one of the most exciting things going on in mining research in this country,” said Poulton. “We think this new initiative is going to have tremendous impact. For the first time, we will be able to create an interdisciplinary center that really can tackle the breadth of issues related to mineral resources.” Poulton added: “Alternative and renewable energy strategies are material intensive. Arizona has an opportunity to lead in producing materials needed for alternative and renewable energies, and copper is at the core.” The concept of the institute arose in 2004 at an MGE industry leadership board meeting. “Several industry people really felt that the depth and breadth of talent at this university was unique in the world, and that we needed to capture that in some package,” said Poulton. “It obviously needed resources to take off, so when this SFAz call for proposals came up, we were ready to respond quickly to it.” Recognizing the pre-eminence of Arizona’s mineral wealth and UA’s faculty expertise, SFAz and IMR’s industry partners are funding
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the institute to the tune of $17.7 million spread over the next four years. J. David Lowell, for whom the institute will be named, has pledged philanthropic support of $2 million. Lowell is the legendary mining engineer and 1959 UA engineering alum who discovered more copper ore than anyone else in history. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1999, and inducted into the American Mining Hall of Fame in 2002. His gifts to UA have established a scholarship, an endowed chair and a professional engineering program. A major plank of the IMR’s strategy during this period, said Poulton, will be to “build capacity” in the areas of research infrastructure, workforce and organization. The objective of this capacity building is to
firmly position the institute for the future, Poulton explained. “This will give us the leverage we need to attract more funding after this funding ends.” The institute’s plans for the San Xavier Mining Laboratory are an example of how it will expand research infrastructure capacity. As much as $3 million will be sunk into upgrading the San Xavier Mining Laboratory. “Developing the San Xavier Mine into a lab with greater capability to test new mining technologies will generate revenue,” said Poulton. “We are going to turn it into a 21st century mine technology test site.” “Building research capacity also involves bringing lab equipment up to higher standards so we can do more advanced geomechanics testing in support of deep underground mines,” said Poulton. “We will build up our mineral processing lab capabilities as well. A lot of the money is going to building research capacity.”
Sustainability
Those billions of dollars locked in Arizona’s subsurface deposits can only be extracted by skilled workers, which is where increasing workforce capacity comes into play. “We will get more students into these fields, and extend our education programs around the world,” said Poulton. “We’ll look at partnerships for teaching, not just with community colleges but also with universities around the world.” “Global” and “around the world” crop up fairly regularly when Poulton talks about the IMR because she sees other universities in other countries as collaborating partners in the institute. “It’s not entirely envisioned to be a global mining university,” she said. “But what we’re trying to do is have a center that has global reach. And that means including partners from all over the world.” The institute’s “global reach” will be achieved in large part by teleconferencing and online video. Poulton and MGE faculty are well versed in distance learning techniques—the department currently offers a number of Internet-based courses, including the J. David Lowell Master of Engineering in Mineral Resources. The IMR strategy to build organizational capacity refers to the “who” and the “how” of the institute. “The institute will be an interdisciplinary research group,” said Poulton, “which involves building a multidisciplinary faculty around campus.” Poulton and her colleagues at the institute have written the IMR’s charter, and are working on the business plan. “A lot of nuts and bolts things need to be done with the institute in the next 6 months,” said Poulton. Beyond the capacity-building strategy of the institute are the specific research projects. One project will test the feasibility of using low-quality water in mineral processing. Such processes currently use clean water because contaminants can adversely affect mineral recovery. “That is a problem that people have been looking at for 30 years, and nobody has succeeded yet,” said Poulton. “We think that with the new tools we have to look at what happens in the chemistry of mineral processing down at the atomic level, we’ll be able to fundamentally understand what the
contaminants in the water are doing to harm the recovery.” These new tools include atomic force microscopy (AFM) and other surface chemistry characterization tools. New expertise has also been brought aboard. Poulton used the Phelps Dodge endowment to hire a new an AFM expert: Jinhong Zhang, assistant professor, holds the Douglas C. Yearley Phelps Dodge Chair in Mineral Processing in MGE. “For the first time we actually have the tools and the expertise to really look in detail at what’s going on in the chemistry,” said Poulton. “If you can understand it, then hopefully you can solve it.” The institute’s other principal investigators are Professor Mark Barton of the College of Science’s Department of Geosciences, and Associate Professor Jeff Burgess, director of the Community, Environment and Policy Division of the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. One of Barton’s projects at the IMR is focused on increasing knowledge about how and where mineral deposits form, which will make exploration more successful and provide a clearer picture of Arizona’s mineral inventory.
“If you can understand it, then hopefully you can solve it.”
There are two main projects in Burgess’ area of expertise, public health. The institute will examine the effects on mine workers’ health of biodiesel emissions, and look at new models of safety training, such as that used in the Australian mining industry. One of the institute’s great strengths is its close research links with its industry partners. In many cases, partner companies have an interest in a specific research project. For example, Newmont is the primary sponsor of the biodiesel emissions study, and Freeport and Resolution Copper are the primary sponsors of the mineral processing projects. “All our industry partners are best in class in a number of areas related to safety and environmental stewardship and technology,” said Poulton. “This institute will take the best in the university related to mineral resources and partner them with the best companies.” iStockphoto/Gary Milner
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Biogenic Gas Fields Could Become CO2 Storage
Oil is a finite resource but some of the largest natural gas reserves in the world are biogenic, which means they’re being created by microbes today and could potentially be a renewable resource. Jennifer McIntosh, an assistant professor in UA’s Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, is studying the factors that influence how microbes create these gas fields and how fluids migrate in the subsurface.
in the midcontinental United States and Canada—specifically the Michigan, Illinois and Appalachian basins. These biogenic gas deposits are also found in basins in the West, such as the San Juan Basin in northern New Mexico and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana.
Her work is of vital interest to the oil and gas industry in the areas of exploration and exploitation of microbially generated gas fields.
Summer Field Work McIntosh has ongoing funded projects in all three midcontinental basins, and she and her students recently spent a summer sampling oil, gas and groundwater wells in the Michigan, Illinois and Appalachian basins. Her team (which included graduate students Stephen Osborn, Melissa Schlegel and Brittney Bates, and undergraduate students Justin Clark, Lisa Wade and Joe Wade) also sampled in Southwestern Ontario, studying the sustainability and recharge history of the area’s major aquifer system.
The biogenic gas deposits are found in sedimentary basins worldwide, including
McIntosh’s research focuses on understanding how groundwater flow
She also is exploring how conditions miles underground could be modified to create more gas resources and how they might be used to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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Sustainability
affects microbes that generate methane within organic-rich shales and coal beds that are found up to 2.5 miles underground.
Assistant Professor Jennifer McIntosh is director of the Aqueous Geochemistry and Hydrogeology Laboratory in the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources.
The sedimentary basins she is studying were inland seas during the Paleozoic Era, 542 to 251 million years ago. These seas eventually filled with sedimentary rocks—sandstones, shales and carbonates—and sank beneath the Earth’s surface. These basins also contain highly saline brine, with a salinity ranging from about 100,000 mg/liter to 400,000 mg/liter, making it about 10 times saltier than seawater, which registers about 35,000 mg/liter. Devonian Period (415 to 360 million years ago) black shales within these basins contain high concentrations of organic carbon, which is a food source for microbes called methanogens, McIntosh explained. Methanogens consume the shale, CONT INUED ON PAGE 6 4
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producing methane as a by-product along the less salty, shallow margins of the basins where they live. Fresh water has diluted the brine along these margins, creating a methanogen-friendly environment, whereas undiluted brine is toxic to the microbes. Ice Sheet Drove Water Deep Underground Fresh water was driven into these basin margins during Pleistocene glaciation when pressure from the Laurentide ice sheet drove dilute waters deep underground. This occurred multiple times over a period of approximately two million years, and as recently as 18,000 years ago, when the ice sheet was melting and large amounts of fresh water suddenly became available.
such as Chicago, because of the large volumes of high-quality water available in these basins.
Biogenically produced natural gas is a huge resource.
In addition to providing a friendly environment for methanogens, Pleistocene meltwaters are an important groundwater resource for large metropolitan areas,
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Today, the basins are isolated from shallower groundwater aquifers. Without the weight of glaciers to drive fresh water deep underground, the gas deposits and associated fresh water supplies are out of communication with the modern groundwater system, McIntosh said. So they represent a finite resource that is being mined to provide fresh water for many metro areas. “We sample the gas and water that comes out of the wells and look at its chemistry and its isotopic composition, and then we’re able to determine how the gas was created,” she said. “We can determine whether it was created by methanogens or if it was created by thermogenic (heat and pressure) processes. The gases created by these different processes have different isotopic signatures.”
Sustainability
It’s important to determine how the gas was created because this helps geologists determine where they should explore for gas in a specific region, McIntosh said. The research also is important for determining the source and timing of freshwater recharge and how that recharge affects the water quality and sustainability of the underground water resources being pumped by Midwestern cities. Where Did the Methanogens Come From? One of the questions McIntosh is studying is whether methanogens were deposited with the sediment during the Devonian and were sitting dormant in a saline environment before the ice sheet melted, or whether they were surface microbes that migrated with the water from the ice sheet and evolved to exploit their new environment. CONT INUED ON PAGE 6 6
LABOR AT OR IES
National Science Foundation/Semiconductor Research Corporation Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing In 1996, UA (lead institution), MIT, Stanford and UC Berkeley established the NSF/SRC Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing. In 1998, Cornell, ASU and MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory joined the center. The University of Maryland became a partner in 1999. The center’s goals are to: • Develop solutions to environmental, safety and health issues in semiconductor manufacturing. • Create environmentally benign manufacturing processes. • Demonstrate the positive impact of design-for-environment on semiconductor manufacturing. • Develop educational programs in which environmental factors are integral to the curriculum. Rather than relying on abatement and end-of-the-pipe treatments
for waste minimization, the center emphasizes process optimization and an integrated approach in which interactions among processes are considered. The center applies this methodology to manufacturing process groups that are significant to environmental safety and health. Center activities are integrated with academic programs for undergraduate and graduate students and for continuing education and short courses directed at industry engineers. The center also works with high school teachers to improve science and math education. In addition, the center provides a technical forum for experts from industry, research institutions and government agencies to exchange ideas and information on environmental, safety and health concerns in semiconductor manufacturing.
San Xavier Experimental Mine The San Xavier Experimental Mine serves as a center for research, education and training. Students in Mining and Geological Engineering (MGE) get hands-on training at this working underground mine, which is owned by the department and located about 20 miles south of Tucson. The mine, which MGE acquired after it became unprofitable as a commercial mining operation, also serves as a research laboratory and
site for training workers who must go underground to develop highways, light rail systems, sewers, water systems and mines. Mine rescue and mine health and safety programs are conducted at the San Xavier Experimental mine, and it also serves as a recruiting tool, public relations center and home for collaborative training programs for future engineers, industry groups and regulatory agencies.
iStockphoto/imaginegolf
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Biogenic Gas Fields C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 6 5
Her work is of vital interest to the oil and gas industry.
“If the microbes came with the groundwater, you would want to explore for new deposits in areas that have active groundwater recharge,” McIntosh said. “If they were dormant within shale, you could possibly dilute the brine to encourage growth by adding fresh water to wells. So this work has a lot of consequences for gas exploration and production.” Regardless of their origin, methanogens have been producing methane in the midcontinental United States and Canada for about the past 18,000 years, unlike thermogenic gas reserves that were created over geologic time scales measuring millions of years. It’s a Huge Resource Biogenically produced natural gas is a huge resource, McIntosh noted. There are more than 10,000 shallow gas wells in northern Michigan alone, representing the largest natural gas production in the state.
“There are large, unexplored areas, such as the western Canada sedimentary basin and the Hudson Bay,” she said. “So it’s important in those areas to determine the source of water recharge—if it’s modern recharge or if the water was recharged beneath this continental ice sheet,” she said. “Again, this has to do with where you explore for natural gas, the rates of microbial activity in the subsurface, and groundwater resources.” McIntosh’s research is also important to radioactive waste storage and carbon dioxide absorption. “Understanding how groundwater flows affects the security of the carbon dioxide in these aquifers,” she said. “Once you get it into these aquifers, you want to know how much fluid flow you’re going to have over a geologic time scale. When you’re interested in things like radioactive waste or carbon dioxide in deep aquifers, you need to take things like the next ice age into account.”
OT H E R P R OJ E C TS Jinhong Zhang of Mining and Geological Engineering (MGE) and Srini Raghavan of Materials Science and Engineering are carrying out a surface chemical investigation by applying an atomic force microscopy surface force measurement to optimize the dilute ammonia-peroxide mixture for high-volume manufacturing of silicon wafer for SRC-Sematech Center and Intel. The findings will clarify the mechanism of silicon wafer cleaning using dilute ammonia-peroxide mixture and the optimization will greatly reduce the cost of the industrial practice of wafer cleaning.
Moe Momayez and his research group in MGE are developing techniques to integrate data of similar and dissimilar nature obtained over a wide range of scales and resolutions. Noninvasive measurements from satellite, airborne and ground-based sensors are combined with traditional direct observations, allowing global hydrological and geotechnical condition assessment of land masses to be carried out on an hourly or daily basis as required. James F. Hogan, assistant director for science at SAHRA, is using isotopic methods to study fundamental hydrologic and geochemical processes.
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His current research projects include identifying salinity and nutrient sources in the Rio Grande, understanding groundwater recharge and salinization processes in the Hueco Bolson Aquifer of the El Paso-Juarez area, and identifying recharge source and groundwater flowpaths in the Verde and San Pedro Basins of Arizona. Mary Poulton in MGE and Art Warrick of the Soil, Water and Environmental Science Department are working with researchers at Ben-Gurion University in Israel to develop a neural‑network-based predictive tool for water infiltration from common
irrigation methods. This tool will help farmers in arid environments use water and fertilizer more efficiently and will minimize soil and water pollution. Jinhong Zhang and his students are studying chemical adsorption on copper and molybdenite minerals by applying contact angle measurement, zeta potential measurement, atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The investigation will classify the flotation mechanism of sulfide minerals in pulp at different pH and chemical concentrations, and the findings will be used to develop efficient methodologies
Sustainability
Carbon Dioxide Storage McIntosh noted that carbon dioxide is absorbed much more strongly by organic matter than methane. Therefore, flushing carbon dioxide through a coal bed or a black shale will cause the carbon dioxide to be absorbed onto the coal or shale, at the same time displacing the methane. “So you actually sweep the methane out of the reservoir,” she said. “This is the only proposed mechanism for carbon dioxide storage that would produce an economically valuable byproduct.” “I’m interested not only in how carbon dioxide will displace methane in these coals and shales, but if it could potentially generate more methane,” she said. Methane is produced in black shales and coal beds through carbon dioxide reduction. So it’s possible that bacteria could consume the carbon dioxide and produce more methane.
to improve the flotation process in industry practice. Tom Meixner and his research group in Hydrology and Water Resources are investigating water sources and biogeochemical states in riparian ecosystems of Arizona. Research focuses on the role floods play in providing a sustainable water resource and a nutrient pulse for biological productivity in these systems. Moe Momayez in MGE and Stuart Hoenig in Electrical and Computer Engineering are working with Friedemann Freund at NASA AMES Research Laboratory to investigate the reasons for the observed “softening” of rocks
“These are anaerobic bacteria,” she said. “They can exist in the subsurface and reproduce forever as long as they have sources of energy and the environmental conditions are favorable.” McIntosh conducts her research jointly with microbiologists Klaus Nüsslein and Steven Petsch of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, hydrologist Mark Person at Indiana University, geologist Peter Warwick at the USGS, hydrogeochemist Stephen Grasby at the Geological Survey of Canada, hydrogeochemist Anna Martini at Amherst College, and noble gas geochemist Chris Ballentine of the School of Earth and Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University of Manchester. Her research is funded through the Geological Survey of Canada, the USGS, NSF, the American Chemical Society and the New York State Energy Research Development Authority.
when a direct current of a certain polarity is applied. The effect may be due to surface potential canceling or some other, as yet unknown effect. Applying an electric current to alter the mechanical properties of the rocks at the tool–rock interface is a concept that provides the opportunity to develop more efficient systems to drill, cut and grind rocks and other materials faster, using less energy than conventional systems in use today. Sean Dessureault and his research team are developing an integrated information system infrastructure for mine engineering and business process redesign. Using data
warehousing and data mining technology, the projects are being undertaken with industry partners from Arizona to Indonesia for both surface and underground mining. Jeff Burgess and his colleagues in Public Health are comparing a risk management regulatory system used by the Australian mining industry to the compliance‑based regulatory structure used by the mining industry in the United States. The implementation of a risk-based regulatory approach provides one potential explanation for the more rapid decline in injuries in Australia compared to the United States.
Moe Momayez is investigating the option of using the tailing ponds found in every mining operation as a potential sources of heat and electricity production not only for the mine, but also for the surrounding communities. This would allow mining operations to optimize their energy consumption to reduce costs and lessen the environmental impacts of using fossil fuels. In addition, the tailing pond could provide the local community with an inexpensive and potentially lucrative energy source, attracting other industries to the area and helping to sustain the community long after the mine is shut down.
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R ES E A R C H
UA Mining and Public Health Team Up to Boost Mine Safety Two UA colleges are collaborating on several projects to improve the health and safety of miners around the globe. The Department of Mining and Geological Engineering (MGE) and the Community, Environment and Policy division in the College of Public Health are working together on three such programs, said J.R.M (Ros) Hill, an MGE adjunct professor who directs the department’s health and safety program. They are: • A certificate program in mining health and safety that will provide distance‑learning courses to those working in the industry and others interested in learning more about health‑and-safety-related topics. • A program to improve the health and safety of miners and mining communities in developing countries.
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
Professor Ros Hill is director of the San Xavier Mine. The University of Arizona is among very few universities in the world that have a college of public health and a department of mining and geological engineering, which makes possible several joint degree and certificate programs unavailable almost anywhere else.
• A study of the risk management regulatory system used by the Australian mining industry compared to the compliance-based regulatory structure used in the United States. Certificate Program The certificate program, which is still being set up, will extend courses already offered at UA as well as create new ones targeted for those working in health-and-safety-related jobs in the mining industry, Hill said. Mining engineering students now are required to take a class in mining health and safety and some of the topics from that class will be expanded to form certificate program courses. These include mine ventilation, illnesses and disease in mining, 68 | progress report 2009 | college of engineering | university of arizona
chemical exposures, basic epidemiology and environmental health. International Health and Safety Program Public Health and MGE efforts to improve the health and safety of miners in developing countries started in 2001 with a Fogerty Grant through the National Institute of Health, Hill explained. The program is a collaborative effort between MGE and the College of Public Health conducted through the International Center for Mining Health, Safety and the Environment that focuses on occupational health and safety, industrial hygiene, sustainable development and environmental remediation. It includes projects in the Philippines, Guyana Shield and sub-Saharan Africa. The Philippine project was part of an international collaboration to evaluate the safety, health and environmental effects associated with a mine disaster. The Guyana Shield projects focused on environmental and health issues at mines in northern South America, specifically involving pollution from mercury and sediment loading in rivers in Guyana and Brazil.
Sustainability
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
The sub-Saharan program includes collaborations between UA and the mining schools at the universities of Zambia and Zimbabwe. UA faculty members have taught courses at the African schools and students from those schools have come to UA for training. All the noise- and dust-monitoring equipment taken to Africa by UA faculty members was left there so that educational efforts could continue after UA faculty left, Hill added. Australian and U.S. Injury Rates in Coal Mining Between 1996 and 2003, lost-time injuries per 100,000 miners declined by 20 percent in the United States, but by 78 percent in Queensland and 52 percent in New South Wales, Hill said. MGE and researchers from the Community Environment and Policy Division are trying to determine if differences between the Australian and U.S. regulatory approaches account for at least some of the gap in injury rates. “This is a NIOSH-funded project, primarily being carried out in the College of Public Health with input from MGE,” Hill said. NIOSH is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
“There are many confounding factors that we haven’t evaluated completely and we don’t know how they affect the data,” Hill explained. “For example, we don’t know how the data is affected by mine size, since there are many more smaller mines in the U.S. than in Australia.” The project focuses on the change in lost-time injuries between 1996 and 2003. This covers the time in which Australia converted to a risk-based system, versus the U.S. compliance-based enforcement program.
Mining engineering senior Kevin McCoy uses a jackleg drill in the San Xavier Mine. One vein of research in the department is the development of sustainability performance management systems, indicators and design processes to ensure that the resulting development is socially stable and causes no permanent damage to the natural environment.
Queensland implemented risk-based compliance in 1992 and revamped the system in 1994. It became law in Queensland in 1999. New South Wales started using the system in 1998 and it became law in 2002. “In the risk-based system, tasks are evaluated and enforcement is based on how the miners comply with the way they are trained to do the task,” Hill said. “In the United States, we have a list of rules and the rule book basically says, ‘This is the way it will be done or you will be cited.’” “In Australia, they deal more with the specific task the miner is doing, rather than evaluating the mine as a whole,” he added. university of arizona | college of engineering | progress report 2009 | 69
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R ES E A R C H
AzRISE Focus is on Arizona’s Future Solar Energy Needs
“We want to do whatever is possible to make solar energy generation cheaper and more efficient,” said Joe Simmons, director of UA’s new Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy (AzRISE) and head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “Solar energy may be the one solution to provide additional energy to this population without significant water use and loss of air quality.” Simmons sees AzRISE as a resource for encouraging interdisciplinary research among scientists and engineers who would not normally work together. Two research areas of interest to AzRISE are solar energy generation and storage, and solar-powered desalination, which are of particular concern to the Southwest. If Arizona succeeds in developing large‑scale, low-cost solar energy conversion
strategies, it may be able to sell energy to other states in addition to meeting its own energy needs. AzRISE is funded through the Technology and Research Innovation Fund (TRIF), a special investment in higher education made possible by the passage of Proposition 301 in November 2000. Proceeds from a 0.6-cent increase in state sales tax are apportioned to statewide education at all levels. Each Arizona university determines how it will invest its allocations. AzRISE is a response to the challenge of planning for large-scale, affordable solar energy power generation and training the workforce that will make this transition possible. AzRISE research goals include identifying, funding and coordinating Arizona-specific solar energy research opportunities,
FA C U LTY Robert G. Arnold Professor Environmental Engineering Expertise: Applied microbiology and abiotic catalysis of hazardous waste transformations. rga@engr.arizona.edu Paul D. Brooks Associate Professor Hydrology and Water Resources Expertise: Biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nutrients. brooks@hwr.arizona.edu Sean Dessureault Associate Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Mine management, information technology, automation management science, sustainability, economics, simulation, database management, organizational
models and data mining. sdessure@email.arizona.edu Wendell P. Ela Associate Professor Environmental Engineering Expertise: Particle–particle interactions in natural systems, remediation of contaminated surface water systems, and processes occurring at natural solid–water interfaces. wela@engr.arizona.edu James Farrell Associate Professor Environmental Engineering Expertise: Transport and fate of organic contaminants in groundwater, mechanisms controlling adsorption of hydrophobic organic compounds in water‑saturated microporous materials, and electrochemical water treatment of chlorinated
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organic compounds and redox active metals. farrellj@engr.arizona.edu James A. Field Professor Environmental Engineering Expertise: Soil science, anaerobic biodegradation of priority pollutants, lignin‑degrading system of white rot fungi, and biosynthesis of organohalogens by fungi. jimfield@email.arizona.edu Hoshin V. Gupta SAHRA Leader for Integrated Basin-Scale Modeling and SRP Professor of Technology, Public Policy and Markets Hydrology and Water Resources Expertise: Philosophy, theory and practice of building, calibration and application of mathematical models, and how to merge quantitative, fuzzy and
qualitative data with models. hoshin.gupta@sahra.arizona.edu James Hogan SAHRA Assistant Science Director and Adjunct Assistant Professor Hydrology and Water Resources Expertise: Arid climates, biogeochemistry, geochemistry, heavy metals, hydrogeochemistry, isotopes, recharge, salinity, solute transport and water chemistry jhogan@sahra.arizona.edu Kathy Jacobs Deputy Director SAHRA Soil, Water and Environmental Science Expertise: Hydrology of the Southwest kjacobs@azwaterinstitute.org Thomas Maddock III Professor and Department Head Hydrology and Water Resources
Sustainability
developing intellectual property and promoting development and widespread adoption of solar energy. Ardeth Barnhart is codirector of AzRISE. She leads the outreach and business side of the institute, and works with utilities, industry, the Arizona Corporation Commission, local governments and other organizations to identify areas where AzRISE can make a difference. “We are looking at state, national and global policies to see how certain approaches may help Arizona,” Barnhart said. AzRISE will eventually have a tiered affiliate structure for individuals, corporations and government agencies, along with a board of advisors. Faculty members from several colleges at UA are involved in AzRISE. These CONT INUED ON PAGE 7 2
Expertise: Mathematical models for water resource planning. maddock@hwr.arizona.edu Jennifer C. McIntosh Assistant Professor Hydrology and Water Resources Expertise: Chemical and isotopic tracers of groundwater flow, water–rock reactions, hydrocarbon generation and microbial processes. mcintosh@hwr.arizona.edu
College of Engineering/Pete Brown
The College of Engineering’s solar-powered car, Drifter 2.0, finished 10th in the North American Solar Challenge in 2008. The car was built by engineering students with guidance from AzRISE.
Chemical and Environmental Engineering Expertise: Process chemistry at solid surfaces, especially in integrated circuits and optical devices; and gas-solid surface reactions in integrated circuit fabrication. muscat@erc.arizona.edu
Thomas Meixner Associate Professor Hydrology and Water Resources Expertise: Hydrologic processes and their fundamental role in controlling biogeochemical processes and fluxes at the catchment scale. tmeixner@hwr.arizona.edu
Ara Philipossian Koshiyama Distinguished Professor in Planarization Chemical and Environmental Engineering Expertise: Fundamental study of the thermal, kinetic and tribological attributes of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), and post‑CMP cleaning processes using novel experimental and numerical techniques. ara@engr.arizona.edu
Anthony Muscat Associate Professor
Mary Poulton Professor and Department Head
Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Neural networks, geosensing and geophysics, mineral exploration and production, environmental investigations, resource characterization, water and energy resources exploration, management, optimization, and unexploded ordnance detection. mpoulton@email.arizona.edu Farhang Shadman Regents’ Professor and Director of the NSF/SRC Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing Chemical and Environmental Engineering Expertise: Application of chemical reaction engineering in semiconductor manufacturing, advanced materials processing and environmental
contamination control. shadman@erc.arizona.edu Jim Shuttleworth SAHRA Director and Professor Hydrology and Water Resources Expertise: Arid climates, atmospheric processes, climate change and global warming, crop water use, developing countries, ecosystems, evaporation, evapotranspiration, forests, hydroclimatology, hydrometeorology, and rainfall runoff processes. shuttle@sahra.arizona.edu Reyes Sierra Associate Professor Environmental Engineering Expertise: Microbially catalyzed transformation CONTI NU ED ON PA GE 72
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AzRISE C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 7 1
include the colleges of Science, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Engineering, Law, Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Optical Sciences and Management. AzRISE is an outgrowth of the Arizona Solar Electric Roadmap Study, which recommended the development of a solar energy center of excellence within the Arizona university system. Simmons served on the committee that helped conduct the study. “After attending community meetings in Southern Arizona, I discovered that there was another need beyond solar energy research,” Simmons said. “The community was looking for leadership that would help businesses, utilities, local governments and others.”
FA C U LTY
The institute’s stated mission is to lead the nation in fundamental interdisciplinary solar energy research.
AzRISE was launched in August 2007, and placed an initial emphasis on contacting businesses and organizations throughout Arizona and identifying solar energy research already taking place. The institute’s stated mission is to lead the nation in fundamental interdisciplinary solar energy research. Since its launch AzRISE has coordinated and supported research on more than 20 projects covering solar energy generation, storage and economics, and desalination and education. AzRISE also supported the Solar Racing Car team and its participation in the North America Solar Challenge, and the UA’s entry in the Solar Decathlon in
C O N T I NUED F ROM PAGE 7 1
of metals and hazardous organic pollutants, bioremediation, biological treatment of industrial wastewaters, biotechnology for environmentally benign manufacturing rsierra@email.arizona.edu Jim Washburne SAHRA Associate Director of Education and Adjunct Assistant Professor Hydrology and Water Resources Expertise: Evapotranspiration; hydroclimatology; remote sensing; and education outreach, including solar distillation jwash@sahra.arizona.edu Mark D. Barton Professor Geosciences Expertise: Economic geology, geochemistry, petrology, mineralogy, and tectonics. barton@geo.arizona.edu Jeff Burgess Associate Professor
Environmental and Occupational Health Expertise: Occupational health and safety, environmental health, toxicology, medical surveillance and respiratory illnesses. jburgess@email.arizona.edu Bob Cassavant Research Associate Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Petroleum geology, drilling and production engineering, petrophysics, remote sensing geomorphology, subsurface characterization, arctic geology, basement tectonics, sequence stratigraphy, and methane hydrates. casavant@geo.arizona.edu William Davenport Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Extractive metallurgy, mineral beneficiation, electrorefining,
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electrowinning, SO2 emissions minimization, and sulfuric acid plant optimization. wgd@mse.arizona.edu Sean Dessureault Associate Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Mine management, information technology, automation management science, sustainability, economics, simulation, database management, organizational models, and data mining. sdessure@email.arizona.edu John R. (Ros) Hill Adjunct Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Mine health and safety, and geomechanics. jrhill@email.arizona.edu J. Brent Hiskey Associate Dean and Research Professor
Materials Science and Engineering Expertise: Electrochemistry of conducting and semiconducting minerals, extractive metallurgy of gold and silver, and morphological studies of copper deposition. jbh@engr.arizona.edu John Kemeny Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Rock mechanics, fracture mechanics, microcrack imaging, measurement of fragmentation and fracture properties using digital image processing. kemeny@email.arizona.edu Pinnaduwa Kulatilake Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Rock mass fracture geometry characterization and
Sustainability
Washington, D.C., which involves building a solar house on the Mall. In June 2008, AzRISE organized the Southern Arizona Development Conference in partnership with the office of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and in October 2008 organized the PV 2008 Research Conference in partnership with the Research Corporation. In 2009 is the Arizona Leadership Summit on Solar Energy and Economics, organized by AzRISE in partnership with the University of Phoenix, Arizona Public Service, Tucson Electric Power, Salt River Project, General Plasma, Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc., Cox Communications, Arizona Institute for
network modeling; rock joint mechanical and hydraulic properties; jointed rock mass mechanical and hydraulic properties; rock slope stability; and statistical, probabilistic and numerical modeling in geoengineering. kulatila@email.arizona.edu Ihor Kunasz Adjunct Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Mineral resources exploration and development. Ihor.kunasz@comcast.net Moe Momayez Associate Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Development of noninvasive technologies for structural health monitoring and quality assessment, site characterization and evaluation, orebody delineation and mapping, geosensing, nondestructive testing,
Renewable Energy and Arizona Economic Resource Organization.
“It is a clean source of energy, totally renewable and abundant. What is wrong with wanting to develop it?”
geophysics, time series and statistical analysis, forecasting, rock mechanics, ground fragmentation, and ventilation. moe.momayez@arizona.edu Eric Seedorff Associate Professor and Lowell Chair in Economic Geology Geosciences Expertise: Porphyry copper and molybdenum deposits, normal faults and crustal extension; carlin-type gold deposits; mining project stages and best practices; and organizational leadership, strategy and innovation. seedorff@geo.arizona.edu Ben Sternberg Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Electrical and electromagnetic geophysics data acquisition and processing; integration of geological and geophysical data for mining,
The Summit is endorsed by university presidents Shelton (UA), Crow (Arizona State University) and Heager (Northern Arizona University). AzRISE holds bimonthly solar networking breakfasts in Tucson and Phoenix with guest speakers. Simmons sees no disadvantage to the prospect of widespread adoption of solar energy. “In some cases you can develop it using very little water. It is a clean source of energy, totally renewable and abundant. What is wrong with wanting to develop it?”
petroleum, environmental, water resource, and geotechnical applications; and development of new instrumentation and novel techniques for high-accuracy measurements and imaging and sensing applications. bkslasi@email.arizona.edu Spencer Titley Professor Geosciences Expertise: Ore deposit geology, theory, and exploration with an emphasis on exploration parameters, regional settings and metallogenesis. stitley@geo.arizona.edu Feiyue Wang Professor Systems and Industrial Engineering Expertise: Agent-based control for networked transportation systems, artificial transportation systems, intelligent vehicles
and embedded real-time operating systems for vehicular electronics. feiyue@sie.arizona.edu Terril Wilson Adjunct Professor Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Coal and metals production, environmental management, mineral processing, mine and plant design, and equipment selection. wilsont@email.arizona.edu Jinhong Zhang Assistant Professor and Douglas C. Yearley Phelps Dodge Chair in Mineral Processing Mining and Geological Engineering Expertise: Mineral processing, surface chemistry, flotation, dispersion and flocculation, waste water treatment, and atomic force microscopy (surface force measurement and surface imaging). jhzhang@email.arizona.edu
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PHILANTHROPY AND SUPPORT Hoshin Gupta is SRP Professor of Technology, Public Policy and Markets, and head of the Data Assimilation Group in the Department of Hydrology and Water resources. The SRP professorship is funded by the Salt River Project and supports an engineering faculty member who is researching water sustainability or other issues of interest to SRP. Professor Gupta is pictured here touring the SRP reservoirs by helicopter.
College of Engineering/Koray Yilmaz
Endowed chairs and professorships are extremely important to the recruitment and retention of excellent faculty members, who directly benefit students in the College of Engineering. Support from patrons fuels the creative spark that enhances research and enriches education.
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Philanthropy and Support
END O W M E N T S
Endowments Add Excellence to Faculty The College is fortunate to have a group of dedicated and generous donors who have funded several endowed chairs and professorships. These chairs are extremely important to recruiting and retaining excellent faculty members, which, in turn, directly benefit Engineering students.
Jerzy Rozenblit Raymond J. Oglethorpe Endowed Chair The Raymond J. Oglethorpe Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is named for ECE alumnus Raymond Oglethorpe. The chair is funded by Raymond and Jean Oglethorpe and goes to a distinguished scholar and faculty member in the ECE department. Oglethorpe is a former president of America Online. Richard Ziolkowski Litton Industries John M. Leonis Distinguished Professorship The Litton Industries John M. Leonis Distinguished Professorship is jointly funded by John and Edie Leonis and by the Foundation of Litton Industries. It is designed to help the College retain bright young ECE faculty members who might otherwise leave UA for better offers from industry or other engineering programs. John Leonis is the retired chairman of the board for Litton Industries. Hal Tharp Lockheed Martin Corporate Professorship The Lockheed Martin Corporate Professorship recognizes those who are doing outstanding work in the undergraduate program, particularly in areas important to Lockheed Martin. The professorship is designed to support dedicated faculty advisors who work closely with industry representatives to mentor undergraduates and to teach the design process. Jinhong Zhang Douglas C. Yearley Phelps Dodge Chair in Mineral Processing The Douglas C. Yearley Phelps Dodge Chair in Mineral Processing supports a faculty member in UA’s Mining and Geological Engineering (MGE) Department. Phelps Dodge funded the professorship partly because UA has one of the few minerals programs left in the United States that educates economic geologists, mining engineers and mineral processing engineers. The faculty member who fills this endowed chair teaches both undergraduate and graduate students, and provides continuing education and additional education for those who become involved in the mineral processing industries who do not have a background in mining or extractive metallurgy.
Courtesy of the Brown Family Foundation
Thomas R. Brown (1926–2002) was one of Tucson’s most successful businessmen. In 1956, Tom Brown and Page Burr founded Burr-Brown Corp., a microelectronics and semiconductor manufacturer that was bought by Texas Instruments in June 2000 for $7.6 billion. In 2007, the Brown Family Foundation donated $4 million to UA to endow two faculty chairs—one in the College of Engineering and one in the Eller College of Management. Each college received a gift of $2 million. Michael Marcellin The International Foundation for Telemetering Distinguished Professorship The International Foundation for Telemetering (IFT) Professorship provides support for an outstanding professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering to help that professor carry out research. IFT’s interests are focused on telemetering—any process that measures a quantity and transfers the data to a remote location. Robert Fleischman Delbert R. Lewis Distinguished Professorship The Delbert R. Lewis Distinguished Professorship in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics provides supplemental support for an outstanding faculty member who is in the early stages of his or her career. It funds support that can help a young faculty member set up a high-quality teaching CONTI NU ED ON PA GE 78
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Philanthropy and Support
DEVE L OP M E N T
Materials Research Touches Lives Materials science research touches many facets of our lives. New materials give us more beautiful buildings, better memory chips for computers, and improved processes that make industries cleaner and more efficient. Innovative materials are integral to many other facets of research, such as environmental microelectronics, nanobiotechnology and conservation science. These all span various disciplines within engineering as well as other fields.
Planned New Materials Research Building Will Benefit State and Nation The College of Engineering is planning to build a 200,000-square-foot Materials Research Building at Speedway Blvd. and Mountain Ave., just east of the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Building on the UA Campus.
The pursuit of excellence ... depends on the generosity of private philanthropy.
The new building and its state-of-the-art facilities will foster more efficient research and synergistic cooperation across disciplines. Arizona and Nation Will Benefit Materials research carried out in this new facility will offer many benefits, including: • Strengthening Arizona’s economy and improving global competitiveness. • Providing the groundwork for new technologies that will contribute to environmental sustainability.
The estimated cost of the building is $70 million, and UA has made the substantial commitment of $30 million to the project, with the balance to come from philanthropic donations.
• Supporting industry with the development of cleaner and cheaper technologies and with a well-rounded pool of graduates who can implement those technologies.
The building will house researchers from several disciplines whose work is related to materials. The researchers will be drawn from chemical engineering, environmental engineering, materials science and engineering, and biomedical engineering.
• Providing better faculty access and greater research opportunities for students.
The building will include research and teaching labs, classrooms, offices, auditoria, conference rooms, a courtyard and atrium. The design will feature spaces for world‑class research programs, public events and professional meetings.
• Increasing the ability of the college to carry out public outreach and education.
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• Advancing the interdisciplinary research that leads to important technological advances.
• Meeting the needs of special populations, such as people with disabilities (new medical devices) and indigenous peoples (preservation of cultural materials).
Philanthropy and Support
Public Support is Vital The College of Engineering depends on public funding for academic program support and on government and industry sponsorship of research. The pursuit of excellence exemplified by the work to be performed in the Materials Research Building also depends on the generosity of private philanthropy. Donors have a variety of opportunities to contribute to the Materials Research Building, including naming of facilities such as classrooms, labs and auditoria. For information about the new building and to get involved in making it a reality, contact the development office at 520.621.8051.
Graphics by Ayers/Saint/Gross
S UP P ORT
da Vinci Fellows Selected for Distinguished, Sustained Efforts Talented and resourceful faculty drive important academic programs. The da Vinci Circle Fellows Program is designed to reward and encourage these faculty leaders. Each year, the da Vinci Circle nominates an exceptional faculty member to the
2007 Supapan Seraphin Materials Science and Engineering
2006 Barry Ganapol Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Fellows Program, based on the nominee’s teaching, research or service achievements. New Fellows are recognized at a College reception and awarded a one-time grant to support their research or teaching.
2005 Anthony Muscat Chemical and Environmental Engineering
2005 Charles Higgins Electrical and Computer Engineering
2005 Achintya Haldar Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
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Philanthropy and Support
PAT R O N A GE
da Vinci Circle Patrons Fuel Research and Education Patrons play a vital role in The University of Arizona’s College of Engineering, where their support fuels the creative sparks that enhance research and enrich education. To establish closer relations with patrons and to reward them for their valued and continued support, the College formed a giving society named for Leonardo da Vinci. The da Vinci Circle offers programs, events and
excursions to its members that reflect the diversity and richness of da Vinci’s broad‑ranging intellect. Like the patrons of the College of Engineering, da Vinci saw what the world could be. As a Renaissance scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer, his endless curiosity was equalled only by his extraordinary creative ability.
da Vinci Circle patrons support engineering scholarship and research in two critical ways: unrestricted gifts and focused contributions. Unrestricted gifts give the College flexibility to direct resources where most needed. Focused contributions allow members to direct their gifts to a specific department or educational program. The College of Engineering invites potential patrons to join the da Vinci Circle, which includes an annual
dinner, tours and events. Members learn about today’s innovative developments in engineering and science, as well as those occurring in art, music, architecture and other disciplines. To learn more about the da Vinci Circle, contact the Engineering Development Office at 520.621.8051 or go to the da Vinci Circle website at www.engineering.arizona.edu/ visitors/davinci. iStockphoto/jodiecoston
Endowed Chairs C O N TINU E D F R O M PA G E 7 5
and research program. Such support includes supplemental salary, graduate student assistance, professional travel, research support and other academic and research activities. Ara Philipossian Koshiyama Distinguished Professorship in Planarization The Koshiyama Professorship in Planarization was established by Fujimi Inc. and its chairman, Isamu Koshiyama, to help support a faculty member in the NSF/SRC Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing. The faculty member’s research focuses on chemical mechanical planarization, which uses fine abrasives and polishing to create microchip surfaces that are perfectly flat. Koshiyama, who is recognized as one of the pioneers in developing planarization
technology, has funded a significant part of the endowment. The Edward Keonjian Professorship in Microelectronics The Edward Keonjian Professorship in Microelectronics is an endowed faculty position designed to enrich the study of microelectronics and related areas at UA. This professorship honors Edward Keonjian, PhD, who was a distinguished leader in microelectronics and its application to aerospace technology. Linda Powers Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair in Bioengineering The Brown Chair honors the engineering and entrepreneurial achievements of Thomas R. Brown, founder of the Burr-Brown Corp. The professorship was established by Brown’s family to recognize a distinguished engineering professor who is working in a developing field that demonstrates potential for substantial future societal
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benefit. The specific field of endeavor may change, following areas of greatest promise and potential. Raymond Kostuk Kenneth VonBehren Professorship This professorship is awarded to an associate or full professor in UA’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in recognition of excellence in teaching and research. Hoshin Gupta SRP Professor of Technology, Public Policy and Markets The SRP professorship is funded by the Salt River Project and supports an Engineering faculty member who is working on issues related to water sustainability or other disciplines of interest to SRP. The holder of this professorship collaborates with the SRP professor in the Eller College of Management. Jeffrey Jacobs Elwin G. Wood Distinguished Professorship This professorship was established by Loren M.
and Sally Wood in memory of Loren’s father, Elwin G. Wood, who was a professor of marketing and head of the marketing department of the College of Business and Public Administration. The professorship recognizes a full professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering for exemplary service in teaching or research. Loren M. Wood received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Arizona in 1952 and a master’s of business administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1958. Brian Ma Analog Devices Corporate Professorship This professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering was established by Analog Devices Inc. to provide a means for the College to recruit and retain a faculty member with specific strengths in analog, radio frequency and mixed signal circuit design.
Philanthropy and Support
S UP P ORT
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
da Vinci Fellow is Chef, Mentor and Travel Guide Each year, the da Vinci Circle sponsors the da Vinci Fellows program. Fellows are selected for their distinguished and sustained records in teaching, research and service. Special emphasis is placed on substantial and continued contributions. A new fellow is named each year and each term is two years. The fellows receive $10,000 over the two-year span of their fellowship. Professor Supapan Seraphin was named the da Vinci Fellow in 2007. Seraphin, an expert in electron microscopy and carbon nanoclusters, directs the electron microscopy and X-ray facility in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). She is recognized throughout the College for her dedication to students and as an outstanding student mentor, working with students from middle school to graduate school. Each summer she leads a group of students and K-12 teachers on a research and summer
study program at King Mongkut’s University of Technology in Thailand. She also has offered many outreach classes and activities for students and teachers, including preparing a weekly Thai food lunch for undergraduate students.
Professor Supapan Seraphin and some of her students prepare the weekly Thai food lunch for Seraphin’s undergraduate students.
Seraphin makes special efforts to support minority students, training them in electron microscopy and engaging them in her lab’s research efforts. She particularly targets middle school students, encouraging them to pursue studies in math and science. MSE faculty often find members of the new freshman class have been acquainted with Seraphin since they were in junior high school. Seraphin says she plans to use her fellowship money to partially support her graduate students’ research and their travel expenses related to presenting research results at academic conferences. university of arizona | college of engineering | progress report 2009 | 79
Philanthropy and Support
S UP P ORT
Industry Advisory Council Plays Key Feedback Role in UA Engineering The College of Engineering is fortunate to have a group of dedicated friends who meet regularly to review college programs. The College of Engineering Industry Advisory Council is made up of representatives from industry, business, government and academia, who have an interest in the success of UA Engineering. The group reviews UA Engineering programs and recommends areas of opportunity for the College. Its members consult with the dean on college operations and serve as liaisons between the College and government and industry. The group also serves as an advocacy network to make industry and government more aware of College accomplishments and the services the College provides.
The IAC members David Areghini Associate General Manager, Power Construction and Engineering, Salt River Project Mike Arnold Founder and former CEO, Modular Mining Systems Director, Engineering Management Program, University of Arizona Bill Assenmacher President and General Manager, T.A. Caid Industries Ed Biggers Corporate Vice President, retired, Hughes Missile Systems Alan Boeckmann Chairman and CEO, Fluor Corp. Paul Brokaw Fellow, Analog Devices
Herb Burton Bell Labs, retired Jerry Charlow Deputy, Advanced Missile Defense and Directed Energy Weapons Product Line, Raytheon Missile Systems John Deal E&IS Vice President of Systems Engineering, BAE Systems Enrique Delannoy Assistant Chief Engineer, Fusion-Milan-Zephyr OPD/MCR/2007 Program, Ford Motor Co.
Joe Gervasio President, Gervasio & Associates Inc.
John Marietti Chairman of the Board, Cleaves-Bessmer-Marietti Inc.
Peter Gill Vice President and Director of Technical Staff, retired, Motorola
Kathryn A. McCarthy Deputy Associate Laboratory Director, Nuclear Programs, Idaho National Laboratory
Martha Gilliland Chancellor, retired, The University of Missouri at Kansas City; former Vice Provost, The University of Arizona; Director, The Abraham Path Initiative; Fellow, The Council for Aid to Education
Jim Melsa Dean Emeritus, College of Engineering, Iowa State University
Craig Goehring CEO, Brown and Caldwell Dan Hartley Vice President, retired, Sandia National Labs Ray Haynes Director, University Technical Alliances Corporate Technology & Strategy Office of the Chief Engineer, Northrop Grumman Space Technology Steve Lasswell Director, Lockheed Martin Fellows, Integrated Systems & Solutions Engineering, Lockheed Martin Tom Leahy ATD Factory Operations Manager, Intel Corp. Bob Lepore Vice President, Engineering, Raytheon Missile Systems Tony Lovato Leader, Engineering and Business Resource Management, Honeywell Aerospace Electronics
Dick DeSchutter CEO, retired, DuPont Pharmaceuticals Co.
David Mahaffay Senior Vice President and Regional Manager, Black & Veatch Corp.
Duane Dimos Director, Materials Science & Engineering Center, Sandia National Labs
Papu Maniar Manager, Motorola Labs Embedded Systems Laboratory, Motorola
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Bill Mensch President, Western Design Center Mary Moreton Senior Vice President, BNI Operations, Bechtel National Paul Peercy Dean, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison Brian Perry UA Campus Manager, Raytheon Missile Systems Paul Prazak Director, University and Community Relations, Data Acquisition Products, High Performance Analog, Texas Instruments Inc. Ron Rich Director, Advanced Technologies, Honeywell Don Ruedy Director, Engineering Processes & Tools, retired, Raytheon Systems Co., JACMET Southern Arizona Ron Schott Executive Emeritus, Arizona Technology Council Greg Shelton Corporate Vice President, retired, Raytheon Corp. Doug Silver Chairman and CEO, International Royalty Corp. Jon Slaughter Manager, MRAM Magnetic Materials & Structures, Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
Philanthropy and Support
College of Engineering/Ed Stiles
Members of the 2007 Industrial Advisory Council (too numerous to mention individually here) pose for a group photograph outside the College of Engineering. Dan Stephens Chairman of the Board, Daniel B. Stephens & Associates Inc.
Tom McGovern Vice President and Regional Manager, Psomas
Jack Thompson Vice Chairman and Director, retired, Barrick Gold Corp.
Subhas Sikdar Acting Associate Director for Science, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Al Winn Vice President, Apache Programs, Boeing Steven G. Zylstra President and CEO, Arizona Technology Council
UA College of Engineering Administration
UA Engineering Departmental Advisory Council Representatives
Tom Peterson Dean (through December 2008)
Michael Kazz P.E. and President, Zelen Environmental Tony Mulligan President, Advanced Ceramics Research
Jeff Goldberg Interim Dean J. Brent Hiskey Associate Dean, Research and Administration Ray Umashankar Assistant Dean, Industry
Relations and Multicultural Programs Pete Mather Assistant Dean, Business and Finance Beth Weaver Senior Director of Development R.D. Eckhoff Director, Engineering and Professional Development
College of Engineering Department Heads Ara Arabyan Interim Department Head, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Kevin Lansey Department Head, Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Tom Maddock Department Head, Hydrology and Water Resources Mary Poulton Department Head, Mining and Geological Engineering Jerzy Rozenblit Department Head, Raymond J. Oglethorpe Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering Glenn Schrader Department Head, Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Jennifer Kehlet Barton Chair, Biomedical Engineering Program
Joe Simmons Department Head, Materials Science and Engineering
Larry Head Department Head, Systems and Industrial Engineering
Don Slack Department Head, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
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Philanthropy and Support
S P ON S OR S H I P
Student Clubs Are Real-World Engineering The College of Engineering’s student-run engineering project clubs are the Baja Racing Team (pictured), the Arizona Solar Racing Team, the Micro Air Vehicle Club and the Formula Racing Club. Team members use their club membership to learn how to communicate and work as an engineering team while they design,
build, test, promote and race their vehicles in international competitions. They must also generate financial support for their projects. Thanks to industry sponsorship, these students gain invaluable experience of how to function as part of an engineering project team, and graduates are highly sought after by industry.
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Philanthropy and Support
College of Engineering/Matt Brailey
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