Engineering Magazine: Spring 2021 by CMUEngineering

CARNEGIE MELLON ENGINEERING

SPRING 2021 MAGAZINE

ADVANCES IN WIRELESS

It starts with a vision. At Carnegie Mellon our engineers always push past boundaries to change the world.

CONTENTS F E ATURE 4

DE TE CTIN G WIR E LE S S IN TE RFERENC E

S QUE E ZIN G M OR E OUT OF WI REL ESS RE SE ARCH

3 D- PR IN TE D H E AR T PR OV IDES NEW T O O L FO R SURGEO NS

S H OULD UBE R AN D LY F T BE EL EC T RI FYI NG MO RE VEHI C L ES?

CAR - F R E E DAY S LE AD TO CL EA NER AI R

E LE CTR IF IE D F UTUR E F OR AV

N E W M ATE R IALS F OR BE TTER BAT T ERI ES

MAKIN G PR IN TE D ME TALS ST RO NGER

CR E ATIN G THE WOR LD’S LARGEST C A T AL YSI S DA T ASET

THE POWE R OF LATCHE S

A N E W PE R S PE CTIV E IN THE FI GHT AGA I NST C O VI D-19

CALCIUM H E LPS BUILD S TRO NG C EL L S

S E N S IN G TIR E WE AR

CUTTIN G V E H ICLE E M IS S IONS A ND I NSPEC T I O NS VI A Io T

PR E DICTIV E PLACE N TAS : AI PRO T EC T S MOTHE R S ’ F UTUR E PR E GN ANC I ES

N AN OPAR TICLE S TO IM M UNI ZE PL ANT S A GA I NST H E AT S TR E S S

DE P ARTME NT NE WS INSIDE TH E COLLE GE

N E W LE ADE R IN MATE R IALS SC I ENC E A ND ENGI NEERI NG

N E W PAR TN E R S H IP WITH ARMY RESEARC H L A B

MAR C DE GR AE F : BE H IN D THE RESEARC HER

CON GR E S S ION AL BR IE F IN G O N FUT URE O F U.S. E LE CTR ICAL GR ID STUDE NT NE WS

EDITOR SHERRY STOKES (DC’07) COPY EDITOR EMILY FORNEY (DC’12) DESIGNER TIM KELLY (A’05, HNZ’14) CONTRIBUTORS •MADISON BREWER •KRISTA BURNS •DANIEL CARROLL •HANNAH DIORIO-TOTH •ADAM DOVE

BR IN GIN G TH E LAB TO S TUD ENT S DURI NG A PANDEMI C

•BRUCE GERSON

S TUDE N TS CLIM BE D TH E M O UNT AI N T O GET HER

•LISA KULICK

ALUMNI

•TARA MOORE

ALUMN I WR ITE BOOKS TO CO MBA T C L I MA T E C HA NGE

CON S TR UCTIN G TOM OR R OW’S WO RKPL AC ES

R E E LIN G IN CY BE R ATTACKS

•DEANA LORENZO •AKARSH PRABHAKARA •GEORGIA SCHUMACHER •JESSICA SHIRLEY •DANIEL TKACIK

From the

Dean Follow Dean Sanders on Twitter at @SandersCMU

Greetings, Like many of you, this past year I have spent an inordinate

that delivered a congressional briefing in February on “The

amount of time on my laptop. It seems like the entire

Future of Electric Power in the U.S.” (See page 52.) I served

world is relying on smartphones, tablets, computers – all

on this committee with Granger, and this isn’t the first

IoT devices – to work and to connect with people in ways

time I’ve had the pleasure of working with him. We were

we wouldn’t have envisioned a few short years ago. The

members of the previous NASEM committee that focused

pandemic hastened the way for online schooling, doctor

on enhancing the resilience of the U.S. electricity system.

appointments, grocery shopping, you name it. Maybe more

I am proud of the contributions that the College is making

importantly, the internet provided us with the means to

in power grid evolution by advancing technology and

reach out to others and confirm that we are not alone.

informing public policy.

Keeping the internet “reliable, secure, and trustworthy”

Being a conduit for constructive societal change

is a longstanding research goal in Carnegie Mellon College

motivates our work and often brings out the best in us. The

of Engineering, and this issue offers a look into some of

pandemic changed how we live, and it highlighted aspects

our projects. Moreover, we have discovered a way to better

of our lives that could be improved through engineering.

connect to the internet wirelessly by using inexpensive

I believe that our faculty and students who have worked

devices that scan broad bandwidths to avert interference or

and studied through the pandemic will approach future

spectrum pollution. This means less lag time to connect to

work with a deeper sensitivity toward human need. This will

our apps and devices. In other research, we examine ways to

become another strength of a Carnegie Mellon engineer.

meet insatiable wireless demands by squeezing more out of existing frequency bands. The findings from these projects

Sincerely,

and others will cohere together and collectively make it easier to stay connected to one another and the world. Sharing the findings from our work is important if we want to see them realized. Recently, Granger Morgan, professor of engineering and public policy and electrical and computer engineering, chaired a National Academy of

William H. Sanders

Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) committee

Dr. William D. and Nancy W. Strecker Dean, College of Engineering

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FALL 2018 // CARNEGIE MELLON ENGINEERING //

DETECTING WIRELESS INTERFERENCE

RESEARCHERS RECEIVE A $1M NSF GRANT TO INVESTIGATE A SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS DEVICES TO SCAN WIDE BANDWIDTHS TO AVERT INTERFERENCE.

In a time where countless devices are

allows teams of geo-distributed low-power

connected to the internet wirelessly,

devices to quickly and efficiently scan wide

interference is inevitable. Spectrum

bandwidths to avert interference.

pollution in the Internet-of-Things (IoT)

“The core challenge is the low-power and

era is something all users experience—a

simplicity of most IoT devices,” said Swarun

lag in connecting to your favorite app, not

Kumar, assistant professor and principal

being able to sync to a wireless printer, the

investigator. “They are narrowband and

dreaded loading circle when trying to stream

unable to sense and avoid incumbents on

your favorite show. But what if IoT devices

shared spectrum.”

could detect and respect the presence of

The proposal presents a system designed

other devices on a shared spectrum? This

for low-power devices to sense spectrum

would allow for devices and users to have a

at minimal energy and cost, allowing

seamless wireless experience.

these devices to behave as low-cost and

Swarun Kumar, Anthony Rowe, and Robert Iannucci from Carnegie Mellon

distributed spectrum observatories. Much like land and water, radio spectrum

University’s Department of Electrical and

is a shared resource by many stakeholders;

Computer Engineering have been awarded

Wi-Fi routers, cellular companies, AM/

a $1 million National Science Foundation

FM radio stations, television towers, etc.

(NSF) grant to investigate a system that

Companies lease spectrum use under

multi-year contracts. However, a lot of the

and will leverage these connections to

spectrum is not used consistently, leading

deploy Swallow at scale.”

to significant wastage of a costly resource.

The project will be implemented and

What if there was a way to monitor the

evaluated on a large programmable Low-

spectrum and signal when it’s available at

Power Wide-Area Networking testbed in

a given location so that it could be leased

the Carnegie Mellon University campus that

on-the-fly when vacant? This would save

serves large parts of the city of Pittsburgh.

companies money, and increase the speed

This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission

of our devices. However, building such a

and has been deemed worthy of support

spectrum monitoring infrastructure can

through evaluation using the Foundation’s

be costly. It would need to be replicated all

intellectual merit and broader impacts

over the country, and it would need to scan

review criteria.

huge swaths of spectrum, increasing the cost further. Referred to as Swallow, this project explores the use of low-cost and lowpower IoT devices to serve as spectrum monitors that are cheap and can be placed anywhere. Globally, IoT devices are projected to be deployed in tens of billions and be ubiquitous in the coming years. Rather than viewing these as yet another part of the spectrum sharing problem, this project views them as part of the solution in effectively monitoring radio spectrum. The project’s objective, if successful, could pave a new way to manage, monitor, and better exploit spectrum—a valuable national resource—as the world embarks on highspeed wireless beyond 5-G. “The testbed developed through the project will serve as a vehicle for undergraduate and graduate-level projects as well as workshops for K-12 students in the city of Pittsburgh,” said Kumar. “The team has direct experience working with sensor deployments at Carnegie Mellon, the city of Pittsburgh, United States Geological

PA GE 0 5

Survey (USGS), and local industry partners

SQUEEZING MORE OUT OF WIRELESS Wireless data needs are increasing every day. As users add

transmit and receive in the same time slot but using two

devices, radio spectrum is becoming increasingly scarce.

different frequency bands, known as half duplex. Full duplex

According to the Ericsson Mobility Report 2020, wireless data

has the potential to double the data rate by transmitting and

traffic needs are expected to increase by almost 50% every

receiving on the same frequency band at the same time.

year. Currently, most wireless devices operate on the MHz

“When faced with the question of using higher frequency

frequency. If devices could move to a higher unoccupied

bands and dealing with the associated hardware challenges,

frequency, like GHz or terahertz, it has the potential to offer

we tried to see if we can squeeze out more from the

low latency and high-speed services. This trend is evident

existing frequency bands,” said Swarun Kumar, assistant

from the growth of millimeter-wave technology as part of

professor of electrical and computer engineering and head

5G wireless and initial research in the 6G technologies for

of WiTech Lab. “Full duplex communication, which has been

wireless. However, it comes at the cost of creating much

widely studied in theory and with some promising system

more specialized hardware that can reliably operate at such

implementations over the past decade, emerged as an

high frequencies.

exciting option.”

Researchers in Carnegie Mellon University’s WiTech Lab

While full duplex systems have been implemented

have demonstrated an alternate way to fulfill the traffic

at lower sub-6 GHz frequencies, the researchers have

demands, by squeezing out more from existing frequency

demonstrated the first bidirectional full duplex link at

bands using a technique called full duplex.

millimeter wave frequencies using novel techniques at the

Traditionally, wireless radios either transmit and receive in the same frequency band but in different time slots or

hardware and software domains. “The main challenge in enabling full duplex communication

is that since the radio transmits and receives at the same

high frequency and as a result, a small wavelength, the

time and frequency, the receiver is overwhelmed with

self-reflector can be implemented in a small form factor

interference from transmission from its own transmitter,

which was not possible earlier at lower frequencies,” says

known as self-interference. Hence, to receive and decode

Vaibhav Singh, a Ph.D. student in electrical and computer

any useful signal from the other radio, it needs to remove

engineering and one of the project team members.

the self-interference signal which is almost 10-100 million

The team also designed a custom RF self-interference

times stronger. At millimeter wave frequencies, the problem

cancellation IC at the analog domain and devised new

is exacerbated by the large signal distortions that are

wideband self-interference cancellation techniques that are

inherent to high bandwidth and high frequency operation,”

robust to high-frequency signal distortions at the

said Kumar.

digital domain.

Due to the high self-interference signal power that

“The most exciting part of the project was getting to learn

needed to be cancelled, the team broke down the

about all the three parts of the wireless radio chain: the

cancellation into three stages, each contributing partially to

antenna, analog and digital, from experts in their respective

achieve the required cancellation. At the antenna domain,

fields,” said Singh.

they used a self-reflector, a tiny strip of metal placed in front of the radio antenna, to reflect a negative copy of the

The project and paper, Millimeter-wave Full Duplex Radios,

transmit signal into the receiver.

authored by Vaibhav Singh, Susnata Mondal, Akshay Gadre, Milind Srivastava, Jeyanandh Paramesh, and Swarun Kumar was presented at the virtual ACM MobiCom Conference. PA GE 0 7

“The best thing about the self-reflector is that it is unique to the millimeter-wave context. Because of its

RESEARCH

3D-PRINTED HEART PROVIDES NEW TOOL FOR SURGEONS THE FEINBERG RESEARCH TEAM. ADAM FEIN BERG ( RIGH T) .

Surgeons will soon have a powerful new tool for planning and practice with the creation of a 3D bioprinted model of the human heart. Adam Feinberg and his team have created the first full-size 3D bioprinted human heart model using their Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technique. The model, created from MRI data using a specially built 3D printer, realistically mimics the elasticity of cardiac tissue and sutures. This milestone represents the culmination of two years of research, holding both immediate promise for surgeons and clinicians, as well as long term implications for the future of bioengineered organ research. The FRESH technique of 3D bioprinting was invented in Feinberg’s lab to fill the demand for 3D printed soft polymers, which lack the rigidity to stand unsupported as in a normal print. FRESH 3D printing uses a needle to inject

“We can now build a model that not only allows for

bioink into a bath of soft hydrogel, which supports the

visual planning, but allows for physical practice,” says

object as it prints. Once finished, a simple application of

Feinberg. “The surgeon can manipulate it and have it

heat causes the hydrogel to melt away, leaving only the 3D

actually respond like real tissue, so that when they get into

bioprinted object.

the operating site they’ve got an additional layer of realistic

While Feinberg, a professor of biomedical and materials science and engineering, has proven both the versatility

practice in that setting.” This paper represents another important marker on the

and the fidelity of the FRESH technique, the major obstacle

long path to bioengineering a functional human organ. Soft,

to achieving this milestone was printing a human heart at

biocompatible scaffolds like that created by Feinberg’s group

full scale. This necessitated the building of a new 3D printer

may one day provide the structure onto which cells adhere

custom made to hold a gel support bath large enough to

and form an organ system, placing biomedicine one step

print at the desired size, as well as minor software changes

closer to the ability to repair or replace full human organs.

to maintain the speed and fidelity of the print. Major hospitals often have facilities for 3D printing

“While major hurdles still exist in bioprinting a full-sized functional human heart, we are proud to help establish

models of a patient’s body to help surgeons educate patients

its foundational groundwork using the FRESH platform

and plan for the actual procedure; however, these tissues

while showing immediate applications for realistic surgical

and organs can only be modeled in hard plastic or rubber.

simulation,” added Eman Mirdamadi, lead author on the

Feinberg’s team’s heart is made from a soft, natural polymer

publication.

called alginate, giving it properties similar to real cardiac

Published in ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, the

tissue. For surgeons, this enables the creation of models

paper was co-authored by Feinberg’s students Joshua W.

that can be cut, sutured, and manipulated in ways similar to

Tashman, Daniel J. Shiwarski, Rachelle N. Palchesko, and

a real heart. Feinberg’s immediate goal is to begin working

former student Eman Mirdamadi.

with surgeons and clinicians to fine tune their technique and

OPPOSITE PAGE: 3-D PRINT ED HEART HAS APPLICATIONS FOR SURGICAL SIMULATIONS

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ensure it’s ready for the hospital setting.

SHOULD UBER AND LYFT BE ELECTRIFYING MORE VEHICLES? Jeremy Michalek and his Ph.D. student Matthew Bruchon have published a study investigating what vehicle electrification would look like in a world where ridesourcing companies like Uber and Lyft were held responsible for the air pollution and carbon emissions created by their business. Ridesourcing has changed the way people travel, affecting air emissions in the process. Researchers like those at the Center for Air, Climate and Energy Solutions (CACES) have quantified the negative health effects of airborne particulates created by cars in rates of cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and they’re also the largest source of

vehicles have a higher cost in initial capital, their lower

greenhouse gases in the U.S. With public sector fleets such

operating costs and cleaner environmental profile are well-

as the U.S. Postal Service and many private companies

suited for high use-intensity scenarios like ridesourcing.

moving to shrink their footprint, the researchers asked what

To their credit, companies like Uber have already

would happen if ridesourcing companies were charged for

acknowledged the need to electrify the U.S. automotive fleet.

the costs resulting from the emissions their business creates.

Uber and Lyft have pledged to shift to 100% electric vehicles

“Air pollution is a classic case where free markets fail,”

by 2030, and the ridesourcing firms have initiated programs

says Michalek, professor of engineering and public policy

like Uber Green, which allows users to request a hybrid or

and mechanical engineering. “I get the benefit of driving my

electric vehicle and rewards drivers with an extra $0.50 from

car, but the cost of the air pollution it creates is shared with

a $1 rider surcharge. The company is also testing programs

everyone in my region. The conventional way to efficiently

in major cities to allow Uber drivers to rent EVs.

correct for this failure is to charge the polluter for the cost

However, the rate of electrification motivated by private

its pollution imposes on society so that it has an incentive to

interests today cannot compare to the rate that they might

reduce pollution when it is cost effective to do so. We wanted

achieve were ridesourcing companies forced to factor in the

to see the effects of such a policy for ridesourcing fleets like

public costs of increased emissions. Michalek and Bruchon

Uber and Lyft.”

found that with an emissions-based incentive toward

To do so, they first estimated the societal impact of

electrification, ridesourcing companies would likely cut their

emitted greenhouse gasses and conventional pollutants

emissions by amounts ranging from 10 percent in New York

in terms of higher medical costs and premature deaths in

to 22 percent in Los Angeles. In LA alone, they estimate that

surrounding communities, as well as the broader economic

this represents a reduction of about $29 million per year in

and environmental costs. With these numbers in hand, the

health and environmental costs.

team created a model that envisioned how ridesourcing

While good work is being done by both public and private

companies might act were they forced to internalize these

interests to push for electrification, greater public awareness

public costs via an emissions-based fee.

and stable policy are still needed to internalize the public

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found that when companies

costs created by private vehicles, including ridesourcing.

like Uber and Lyft are charged for the cost of polluting, they

Doing so will provide greater incentive to eliminate the

find ways to pollute less, including shifting from traditional

harmful externalities for our community and environment,

conventional vehicles to cleaner hybrid electric vehicles

and create a cleaner, more efficient vehicle fleet.

(HEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). While electrified

B O B ( MECH E ’ 5 3 ) & MAR TY DU SHAW ( MM ’53)

“ M Y B U T T O N S PO P O F F MY SHI R T W I T H PR I D E B E CA USE I S E E C A R N EG I E ME LLO N M A K I N G A D I F F E R E NCE AC R OS S T HE W O R LD . ” - B OB D U S HA W Bob and Marty’s relationship started at Carnegie Tech and took them around the world. Their careers (Bob in manufacturing and Marty in the medical field) and Bob’s commitment to the ROTC brought them everywhere from Ohio to the UK. After serving in the Army, Bob spent over 34 years working for The Timken Company. Marty left Carnegie Tech to earn her nursing and doctorate degrees, eventually working at the Centers for Disease Control until she retired. They generously chose to give back to their alma mater by creating a gift that pays them income now and will later create a scholarship to support students in the College of Engineering, specifically those who study robotics.

GIVE STRATEGICALLY, SUPPORT GENEROUSLY Learn how easy it is to achieve your philanthropic vision

Contact the Office of Gift Planning today at 412.268.5346 or mickkoster@andrew.cmu.edu.

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through a planned gift by visiting giftplanning.cmu.edu.

CAR-FREE DAYS LEAD TO CLEANER AIR

Every other Sunday in Kigali, Rwanda,

Carl Malings, as well as collaborators at

instead of driving to shops or public parks,

the University of Rwanda. Subramanian

people walk or ride bicycles. Instead of

led the development of RAMP monitors in

sitting in traffic, they gather together in

partnership with a local start-up, SenSevere.

green spaces to participate in organized

“The World Health Organization

sports. Established in 2016 by the Kigali city

estimates that in 2016, ambient air

council, these car-free days are designed

pollution caused about three thousand

to promote the health of Kigali citizens by

deaths in Rwanda,” the team writes in the

encouraging physical activity and a sense

paper. “However, such estimates can be

of community. But in addition to physical

uncertain because exposure is inferred

activity, these car-free days are having a

from satellite estimates. There has been

positive effect on public health.

no long-term ground-based monitoring in

Using real-time affordable multi-

major cities like Kigali to validate estimated

pollutant (RAMP) monitors, a team led by R.

exposures. This lack of monitoring due to

Subramanian of the Center for Atmospheric

resource limitations also hampers scientific

Particle Studies (CAPS) and Paulina Jaramillo

understanding of the sources contributing

of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) has

to air pollution in these countries, which

shown that these car-free days appear to

is essential to formulating effective

reduce ambient air pollution, particularly

environmental management policies.”

fine particulate mass (PM2.5) and black

To fill in this gap in air quality data, the

carbon (BC), both of which are associated

team deployed their RAMP monitors around

with premature human mortality and

Kigali. Through their measurements, the

other negative health effects. The team

team found that from March 2017 to July

also included Department of Engineering

2018, the average ambient PM2.5 in Kigali

and Public Policy Department Head

was significantly higher than the World

Peter Adams, Department of Mechanical

Health Organization’s recommended targets,

Engineering Department Head Allen

and the average BC was comparable to mid-

Robinson, EPP doctoral student Nathan

sized urban areas in India and China, and

Williams, and CAPS postdoctoral researcher

significantly higher than similar-sized cities in

developed countries.

Subramanian adds, “Due to the high cost

Certain observed fluctuations in

of traditional air-quality monitoring, there

measurements suggest that morning

is a significant infrastructure gap in many

peaks are associated with rush-hour traffic

parts of the world, including many African

related air pollution, while late evening

countries. Low-cost sensors can fill in that

peaks can be attributed to both traffic and

gap as part of a cost-saving hybrid network

domestic biofuel use, suggesting that traffic

that includes traditional (but expensive)

restrictions could go a long way toward

reference-grade monitoring. Following our

improving the air quality in Kigali. And

study, the Government of Rwanda set up

indeed, these car-free days do appear to

their own hybrid air-quality monitoring

reduce both PM2.5 and BC by 10 – 12 and 1

network including the RAMPs. Our success

micrograms per cubic meter respectively,

in Rwanda was facilitated by Carnegie

though according to the team, this requires

Mellon Africa, CMU faculty discretionary

further investigation.

funding, and College of Engineering

“While these car-free days do appear to

support. It has led to the creation of the

moderately reduce certain air pollutants,”

new AfriqAir network, expanding our efforts

says Jaramillo, “there is still a long way

to several other cities in Africa. We look

to go. These lower-cost monitors can

forward to working with local partners and

play an important role in the continued

governments to improve air quality and

monitoring essential to track the

reduce premature mortality across Africa,

effectiveness of pollution-control policies

and welcome philanthropic support for

recently implemented in Rwanda and other

these efforts.”

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countries in Africa.”

ELECTRIFIED FUTURE FOR AV Autonomous vehicles come at a cost: increased energy

from automation technology and the smoother driving of

use. Some suggest that these increased power needs are

computer control.

significant enough to drastically reduce vehicle range,

While they did find a decrease in driving range, it wasn’t

eliminating the possibility of electric autonomous vehicles.

significant enough to eliminate the possibility of electric-

Instead, these analysts claim autonomous vehicles must be

powered autonomous vehicles. It was, however, greater in

gas-electric hybrids. In a paper recently published in Nature

cars that used protruding sensors that increased drag.

Energy, Carnegie Mellon researchers Aniruddh Mohan,

“We find that design choices with respect to energy-

Shashank Sripad, Parth Vaishnav, and Venkat Viswanathan

efficiency of computing hardware and aerodynamic design

determined that electric power can supply enough energy

of sensors will decide if the two revolutions of electric and

for an autonomous vehicle without a significant decrease

autonomy are in-sync,” said Viswanathan, an associate

in range.

professor in mechanical engineering.

Two revolutions are happening side-by-side in the

Next, researchers will investigate how drivers view

automotive industry: the transition to electric power and

the decreased range. While consumers value longer

the rise of autonomous vehicles. Self-driving cars may use

driving ranges, they may also value the luxury of not

more energy than people-driven cars to power sensors and

having to drive.

computers for safe navigation. On the other hand, they

“Future work must assess whether this loss in range is

drive more smoothly than humans do, which would reduce

significant that consumer preferences will be impacted,”

energy use.

said Vaishnav, an assistant research professor in

An overall increase in energy usage would reduce driving

engineering and public policy.

range, requiring more frequent charging and causing faster battery degradation. Since many fear electric vehicles have

Aniruddh Mohan and Shashank Sripad are Ph.D. candidates

a shorter range than gas cars, some believe an electric

in the Departments of Engineering and Public Policy and

autonomous vehicle cannot exist. This concern motivated

Mechanical Engineering, respectively, and at Carnegie Mellon

the team to investigate the effects automation has on

University. Viswanathan and Vaishnav are also part of the

vehicle range.

Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at CMU. The project

“We want to know if automation will affect the range so

was funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S.

much that we cannot have electric and automated vehicles

Department of Transportation, and CMU’s Block Center for

together in one car,” said Sripad, a Ph.D. candidate in

Technology and Society.

mechanical engineering. “We wanted to quantify the tradeoffs between the two.” Using a vehicle dynamics-based model, Mohan and Sripad estimated the energy demands of self-driving cars to discover how much power is needed for safe autonomous driving. They took into account any extra drag

A P ERSP ECTI VE O N TH E P RO P U L SI O N SO U RCE F O R A U TO NO MO U S VEH I CL ES “Autonomous vehicle technology (AV) is essentially orthogonal to electric or fuel cell propulsion. In other words, AV technology can be applied to all kinds of propulsion. That being said, AV sensors and computers must be powered by the source of propulsion energy—the engine on a gasoline vehicle, the battery on an electric vehicle (EV), etc. In the internal combustion case, mileage will be negatively impacted. In EVs and fuel cells, the range will be adversely influenced. Different techniques could be applied to minimize the impact of the additional energy draw based on the source, but these techniques must not compromise the safety of

RAJ RAJKUMAR THE GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE PROFESSOR OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING DIR ECTOR, METRO21 SMART CITIES INSTITUTE

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the AV technology itself.”

NEW MATERIALS FOR BETTER BATTERIES In the quest for safer and longer-lasting batteries for electric

engineering at Carnegie Mellon.

cars, trucks, and planes, researchers are exploring a new

“Batteries with increased energy density are critical to

class of materials to suppress the formation of dendrites.

enable mass electrification of transportation. Lithium metal

Dendrites are the destructive by-products of the cycle of

anodes offer a promising approach to improve the energy

charging and discharging lithium ion batteries. These tiny

density of batteries, but dendrite formation plagues the

deposits form between the battery’s anode and cathode,

safety and cycle life of lithium metal anodes,” said Zeeshan

building up over time. Inevitably, they diminish battery

Ahmad, the lead author on the paper.

life. More problematic is their risk of causing the battery to

The findings build on the research team’s previous work

burst into flames. In the quest for safer and longer-lasting

on dendrite suppression using solid electrolytes. Although

batteries—especially for electric cars, trucks, and planes—

solid electrolytes provide superior dendrite suppression,

researchers continue to explore methods to suppress the

they have slower lithium ion conductivities and cannot

formation of dendrites.

be integrated easily into the current lithium ion batteries.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found that liquid crystals can be used as electrolytes with lithium metal anodes in batteries to suppress dendrite growth.

Liquids, on the other hand, have faster conductivity but cannot suppress dendrites. The liquid crystal materials lie somewhere in between

Liquid crystals represent a new class of materials that have

because they possess some orientational order but no

properties that are different from conventional liquids

positional order like solids. They are easily integrated

and solids. The dendrite suppression happens due to

into current lithium ion batteries, are safer, and offer

the tendency of liquid crystal molecules to line up in an

spontaneous dendrite suppression.

ordered arrangement.

Liquid crystals do have a disadvantage: their stability is

In findings published in the Proceedings of the National

currently not as good as that in current liquid electrolytes.

Academy of Sciences, the research team proposed various

The next step in this line of research is to further examine

design criteria for selecting liquid crystals as battery

liquid crystalline materials so that they can satisfy all design

electrolytes that can enable well-functioning lithium metal

criteria for future batteries.

batteries. “This comprehensive set of molecular level design rules

Ahmad completed his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 2020 and is now a postdoctoral research scholar at the

will pave the way towards the realization of this new class

University of Chicago. Zijian Hong, an additional author of the

of electrolytes for practical lithium metal batteries,” said

paper, completed his postdoctoral research at Carnegie Mellon

Venkat Viswanathan, associate professor of mechanical

and is now a faculty member at Zhejiang University.

MAKING PRINTED METALS STRONGER Laser powder bed fusion is a dominant additive

“You can think of the boundary as a speed limit, except

manufacturing technology that has yet to reach its

it is the opposite of driving a car. In this case, it gets more

potential. The problem facing industry is that tiny bubbles

dangerous as you go slower. If you’re below the speed

or pores sometimes form during the printing process, and

limit, then you are almost certainly generating a defect,”

these pores create weak spots in finished products.

adds Rollett.

When a slow-speed, high-power laser is melting metal

At a broader scale, by proving the existence of well-

powder during the 3D printing of a part, a keyhole-shaped

defined keyhole porosity boundaries and demonstrating

cavity in the melt pool can result. Pores, i.e. defects, form

the ability to reproduce them, science can offer a more

at the bottom of the keyhole. New research published in

secure basis for predicting and improving printing

Science reveals how the pores are generated and become

processes. Rollett, who is the faculty co-director of Carnegie

defects trapped in solidifying metal.

Mellon’s Next Manufacturing Center, thinks that the

“The real practical value of this research is that we can be precise about controlling the machines to avoid this problem,” says Anthony Rollett, a professor of materials science and engineering and a lead co-author of the paper. Building on previous research that quantified the keyhole phenomenon, the research team used extremely

findings from this research will quickly find their way into how companies operate their 3D printers. The research team includes co-lead author Tao Sun, University of Virginia; Cang Zhao, Tsinghua University, China; Niranjan D. Parab and Kamel Fezzaa, Argonne National Laboratory; Xuxiao Li and Wenda Tan, University of Utah.

bright high-energy x-ray imagining to watch instabilities of the keyhole. Pores form during fluctuations of the keyhole,

Funding sources include the Department of Energy, the

and it changes its shape: the keyhole tip morphs into a “J”

Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space

shape and pinches off. This unstable behavior generates

Administration (NASA) University Leadership Initiative program,

acoustic waves in the liquid metal that force the pores away

the National Science Foundation, and startup funds from the

from the keyhole so that they survive long enough to get

Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University

trapped in the resolidifying metal. The team is the first to

and the University of Virginia.

focus on this behavior and identify what is happening. “When you have a deep keyhole, the walls oscillate strongly,” explains Rollett. “Occasionally, the oscillations are strong enough at the bottom of the keyhole that they pinch off, leaving a large bubble behind. Sometimes this bubble never reconnects to the main keyhole. It collapses and generates an acoustic shock wave. This pushes the remaining pores away from the keyhole.” It’s important to note that keyholes themselves are not flaws; they increase the efficiency of the laser. Using synchrotron x-ray equipment at Argonne National Laboratories, the only facility in the United States where the researchers could run these experiments, they noted that there is a well-defined boundary between stable versus unstable keyholes. “As long as you stay out of the danger zone [too hot, too slow], the risk of leaving defects behind is quite small,” says Rollett. Fluctuations in the keyhole’s depth increase strongly with side of the boundary.

PA GE 1 7

decreasing scan speed and laser power on the unstable

CREATING THE WORLD’S LARGEST CATALYSIS DATASET IMPROVING RENEWABLE ENERGY STORAGE THE OPEN CATALYST DATASET IS AN OPEN SOURCE DATABASE CONTAINING MOLECULAR DATA ON MORE THAN 1.3 MILLION ELECTROCATALYST RELAXATIONS

For decades, the push toward renewable

and solar can’t provide constant energy due

energy sources like solar and wind has

to the variable nature of their generation, we

necessitated the development of countless

have to figure out how to store that energy

technologies. From generation techniques,

for later use. One of the most promising

to power grid infrastructure and storage

ways we can do this is by converting that

methods, renewable power development

energy into other fuels, like hydrogen or

requires innovation from all angles. Today,

ethanol, through chemical means. But

thanks to the tireless work of researchers

doing so requires highly efficient, effective

and engineers all over the world, methods

catalysts to do that chemical conversion—

for generating renewable energy have come

and the discovery and creation of these new

a long way. But there are still major barriers

catalysis comes with a whole host of its own

to the full implementation of renewables

problems.”

into the power grid. Now, Zack Ulissi has teamed up with

Current methods for converting renewable energy into other fuels requires

Facebook AI Research (FAIR) to break

catalysts that are often incredibly expensive

down one of these barriers. Combining

and fairly inefficient, such as platinum. In

the expertise in machine learning, dataset

order to reduce the cost and increase the

development, and computing power of FAIR

efficiency of these processes, new catalysts

with Ulissi’s years of prior research using

will have to be discovered and implemented.

machine learning techniques for novel

But discovering new catalysts is an arduous

catalyst discovery, the team is empowering

and costly undertaking. Catalytic surfaces

researchers around the world to join in the

are made using a combination of several

effort through the Open Catalyst Project, an

elements known to be effective for these

open effort to produce datasets and models

purposes. There are 55 of these elements in

designed to help researchers discover new

the current dataset alone, with nearly 10,000

catalysts for renewable energy storage.

possible combinations. Add to that the fact

“The adoption of renewable energy

that different ratios and configurations of

sources into the national power grid will

these elements also have an effect, and the

require us to answer many questions and

possibilities expand into the billions.

solve many problems, such as the problem

The Open Catalyst Project was created to

of intermittency,” says Ulissi, an assistant

facilitate the rapid exploration of all these

professor of chemical engineering. “As wind

billions of possibilities. As the first step in

the project, Ulissi, along with Facebook AI

effort to move the field of catalysis forward.

research scientist Larry Zitnick and others at

The hope is that as more researchers

FAIR, have created the Open Catalyst 2020

begin to utilize the dataset for their own

(OC20) dataset, an open source database

electrocatalysis research, the more quickly

containing molecular data on more than 1.3

the research community as a whole will be

million electrocatalyst relaxations across

able to find solutions that will usher in the

chemistry and catalysts—the largest dataset

widespread adoption of renewable energy

of its kind in the world. It’s essentially a

sources. Additionally, further use will lead

catalogue of data on molecules known

to the continued refinement of the data

to be important for renewable energy

and resultant modeling tools. For instance,

applications, which will allow machine

while generating calculations for the OC20

learning algorithms to quickly test millions

data set currently take anywhere between

of possible combinations, and eventually

12 hours and three days to execute, the

discover more efficient and inexpensive

ultimate goal is to accelerate the process

electrocatalysts.

until they take mere seconds.

“This project represents a turning

“We hope that the Open Catalyst Project

point in the adoption of AI in the catalysis

and release of the accompanying datasets

community,” says Ulissi. “It will enable

and models will inspire researchers in the

approaches to electrocatalyst discovery

broader community, whether interested

across a much broader set of new materials

primarily in AI or catalysis,” the team writes.

and chemistry. This new collaboration

“This problem presents an interesting

between the machine learning community

opportunity for AI research, both because

and catalysis researchers ensures that

of the complexity of the systems involved

models built on the OC20 data set will

and the accuracy required. And for catalysis

address the most common day-to-day

researchers, we hope the Open Catalyst

challenges in catalysis.”

Dataset helps jumpstart efforts that were

While Ulissi has been working for many

previously hindered by lack of compute.”

machine learning algorithms to help

The team has also earned funding from

accelerate the field of electrocatalysis,

Carnegie Mellon’s Kavčić-Moura Endowment

the Open Catalyst Project represents the

Fund.

largest effort to date to mobilize a global

PA GE 1 9

years on the development of unique

SOURCE: ANTWEB. SPECIMEN CODE 0746790 WWW.ANTWEB.ORG. CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE PHOTOGRAPHER MICHELE ESPOSITO.

DRACULA ANTS USE SPRING-LATCH SYSTEMS FOR SOME OF THE FASTEST RECORDED STRIKES IN NATURE.

THE POWER OF LATCHES Spring-powered latch mechanisms have been around for

To find this result, the team analyzed latch systems using

a long time—Leonardo da Vinci’s cam hammer is one early

mathematical models, physical models, engineered systems,

example. Compressed springs store large amounts of

and Dracula ants in biology. When the latch was quickly

potential energy, and latches are used to contain the energy

released, the projectile was launched at a higher speed,

before releasing it all at once. In fact, the fastest organisms in

like an instantaneous latch. The opposite was true when

nature are powered by springs, not muscles. Dracula ants use

the latch was slowly released, and it behaved like a delayed

spring-latch systems for some of the fastest recorded strikes

latch. The team was able to find a threshold unlatching

in nature, froghoppers use them for some of the highest

speed, above which the latch acts like an instantaneous latch

jumps, and some fungi even use them to eject spores.

and below which acts like a delayed latch. With these results,

“In the past, latches were assumed to be really simple things,” said Sarah Bergbreiter, professor of mechanical engineering. “They were either compressing the spring and holding it in place, or they were just gone.” Bergbreiter and her team of Carnegie Mellon University

unlatching speed can be varied to achieve the desired projectile velocity. “It comes down to how fast you move it out of the way. If I move it out of the way super-fast, the system hasn’t even had time to react, like an instantaneous latch,” Bergbreiter

researchers teamed up with other universities to publish a

said. “If I move it out of the way really slowly, then I get only

paper describing how latches can be far more complex than

a tiny amount of energy out in the end. And then there’s the

previously thought.

whole swath in between.”

In general, latch mechanisms can be either instantaneous

The ability to control launch velocity has many exciting

or delayed. Instantaneous latches release the energy as fast

implications. Jumping robots could vary the latch release

as possible, but delayed latches have more control over the

speed to have more control over the distance of their

amount of energy that is released and when that happens.

jumps. Biologists can use these results to look for biological

Instantaneous latches tend to have straight edges, while

latches. And researchers have a new language to talk about

delayed latches tend to have round edges. Some latches can

latch mechanisms.

even behave like either instantaneous or delayed latches, depending on how fast they are pulled out of the way. “In this paper, we’re looking at the complexity of the unlocking process and how that can ultimately affect the performance of the system,” Bergbreiter said. When designing, engineers tend to use a straight edge

When conducting this research, CMU engineers teamed up with physicists and biologists for a wholistic analysis of latch mechanisms. “The entire project is very interdisciplinary,” Bergbreiter said. “Working with this group of people has helped me explore some of these more fundamental questions.”

latch in their design to create an instantaneous latch. In biology, however, straight edges are not found. This forced

The paper was published in the Journal of the Royal Society

the question: why do these super-fast organisms have round

Interface in 2020. CMU mechanical engineering Ph.D. students

latches that engineers would avoid?

Sathvik Divi and Xiaotian Ma and postdoctoral researcher Ryan

The rounded edges found in biological latches can be

St. Pierre were also authors of the study. Additional authors

thought of as part of a circle with a known radius. If the

include Mark Ilton from Harvey Mudd College, Babak Eslami

radius of the latch is big enough, the team found that the

from Widener University, and S. N. Patek from Duke University.

latch can display either instantaneous or delayed latch

PA GE 2 1

properties.

A NEW PERSPECTIVE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 Carnegie Mellon University Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Elizabeth Wayne has received funding from the National Science Foundation through their Rapid Response Research (RAPID) program to study an often-ignored cellular factor in the mortality rate of SARS-CoV-2 induced disease, COVID-19. Much of the current research on COVID-19 has focused on cells found in the nasal passages, cell linings of vessels, and the gastrointestinal tract, as these are the cells most susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 virus infection and replication. The thought is that to fight the virus, you have to target the cells that help it spread, and in doing so, stop it from proliferating in the body. But Wayne is taking a different approach, by studying a previously overlooked cell type: one that plays a major role in the body’s innate immune system. “Monocytes and macrophages are members of your innate immune system,” says Wayne. “Their main job is to maintain balance in the body. For instance, when an injury

MONOCYTES

or infection occurs, monocytes go to the tissue and start the process of cleaning the tissue. Then, when the injury or infection is taken care of, they switch their response to a healing phenotype. However, when these cells aren’t able to switch their inflammatory response, the body experiences an imbalance that can lead to uncontrolled inflammation. “Think of it like driving in a car. In a healthy person, these

innate immune systems to secrete elevated levels of

cells have the ability to speed up and slow down. When

cytokines, the cells responsible for causing the inflammatory

you press on the brakes, the car stops—or in this case, the

immune response that helps to combat the condition.

inflammatory immune response resolves itself. But what if

While the COVID-19 causing agent SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t

when you pressed on the brakes, the car sped up instead?

use monocytes to help it multiply in the patient’s body, it is

This kind of disrupted wound healing is a hallmark of

able to alter their function, and essentially turn their “turn

disease, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing with COVID-19.”

off” function into a “speed up” function. This means that

According to Wayne, monocytes could be key in understanding why COVID-19 is so deadly to some, but not others. Clinical studies have shown that more than 70% of

instead of reducing inflammation in the lungs, they make the inflammation worse, leading to increased lung damage. “We need to better understand why people with

people who are dying of the virus also suffer from a pre-

preexisting conditions are more susceptible to mortality

existing condition such as diabetes (30%), hypertension

due to COVID-19,” says Wayne. “Our findings might also

(74%), or cardiovascular issues (24%).1 These pre-existing

help us understand why people who seemingly don’t have

conditions on their own can cause the cells of these patients’

preexisting conditions are also dying of COVID-19. Just

because someone hasn’t been diagnosed with a preexisting

COVID-19 mortality could change the way we approach

condition, doesn’t mean their immune system isn’t already

treatment for a number of different viruses.

irregular. There are people who are prehypertensive, who might develop it in five or ten years.” Knowing how these cells affect the deadly potential of this

“Since many viruses target cell surface receptors that regulate immune response, this research could in the future have a huge impact on how we treat viruses of all

virus will help doctors and researchers predict whether the

kinds, including things like Zika and Ebola. In particular,

virus will become deadly for certain patients, and use that

it could help doctors decide whether to treat patients

information to make decisions on how best to treat them.

with preexisting drugs, or whether new drugs need to be

For instance, in the discussion around COVID-19, there has

developed.”

been some conflicting information around whether or not existing drugs could be effective in treating the virus. This

research could help answer those questions.

based on available data on March 24th, 2020

Characteristics of COVID-19 patients dying in Italy Report

In fact, it is Wayne’s hope that furthering the scientific

PA GE 2 3

understanding of how monocyte function correlates with

CALCIUM HELPS BUILD STRONG CELLS Every time you flex your bicep or stretch your calf muscle, you put your cells under stress. Every move we make

proper cell function, or in extreme cases, cancer. “Our colleagues who research materials science are

throughout the day causes our cells to stretch and deform.

often trying to find materials that are force-responsive,”

But this cellular deformation can be dangerous, and

says Dahl. “But here we’ve found actively responding

could potentially lead to permanent damage to the DNA

materials inside of living cells. Not only is there the quick

in our cells, and even cancer. So how is it that we’re able

response using calcium, but there’s also the longer-term

to keep our bodies moving without constantly destroying

response that cells use to withstand persistent, high-

our cells? Thanks to a new study by Carnegie Mellon

amplitude stretch, by changing the epigenetics of the

University Chemical Engineering Professor Kris Noel Dahl,

cell. This has exciting implications for how cells respond

and Associate Professor Sara Wickström of the University

genetically, as well as how tissues respond mechanically.”

of Helsinki, we now know that the answer lies in a humble mineral we consume every day. “Basically, every time we flex a muscle, we’re risking DNA

“This entire research project is truly a testament to the collaborative spirit here at Carnegie Mellon,” says Dahl. “The project was conceived during a conference in Singapore,

damage that could lead to cancer,” says Dahl. “Or we would

where Professor Wickström and I met. We gathered the

be, that is, if it weren’t for the calcium in our cells.”

data using a microscope in Finland, and analyzed it here

Their paper published in Cell marks the first time that

at Carnegie Mellon using algorithms we developed in

researchers have definitively shown how cells maintain their

Pittsburgh. This is a truly global collaboration, the kind that

structural integrity despite the strain of mechanical forces.

the culture of CMU really encourages.”

“As cells stretch and compress through the course of

Next, the researchers will use this new understanding

our daily activities,” says Dahl, “they have to rearrange their

of how cells respond to stretch to consider what happens

internal structures to compensate. Our study found that

to cells during the aging process. As we age, our cells

they are able to do this through the use of calcium. It’s kind

and tissues don’t deform as well as they used to, and the

of like when you’re tying a bow in a ribbon. When you have

consequences of this reduced deformation can lead to an

to shift your hands, you ask someone to put their finger on

increased risk of cell damage. The question is, do cells not

the knot to hold it in place and make sure it doesn’t come

deform as well because they are stiffer, resulting in cellular

apart. For our cells, that ‘finger’ is calcium.”

dysfunction? Or does cell dysfunction lead to reduced

In particular, calcium is essential in protecting the

deformation? The next step will involve studying cellular

nucleus of the cell and the DNA it contains. When

deformation at different points throughout the aging

mechanical stretch acts on the cell, it deforms the nucleus,

process, to determine if it’s possible to interrupt this cellular

putting the DNA inside at risk. Healthy cells are able to

stiffening, and improve cell function during as we age.

counteract this deformation using a calcium-dependent nuclear softening, which allows the nucleus to stretch without breaking. But failure to mount this response can

PA GE 2 5

result in DNA damage, which can lead to cell death, loss of

SENSING TIRE WEAR

Has your car ever lost traction with the

emits radio waves at the tire to measure

road during inclement weather? When car

wear. This technology is similar to the

tires wear out, they pose a huge safety

radar used in air traffic control towers and

threat to vehicles and drivers. Although the

aircrafts.

lifespan of a tire depends on many factors,

They presented their work at ACM

like the type of vehicle, driver habits, road

MobiSys 2020, winning Best Paper

conditions, and tire brand, drivers are

Honorable Mention and the Best Demo

encouraged to change their tires when the

awards.

tread wears out.

“Millimeter wave radars are common in

It was during a visit to Bridgestone

vehicles today,” said Prabhakara. “It’s used

Americas Technical Center in Akron, Ohio

for collision avoidance, cruise control, and

that researchers from Carnegie Mellon

other such features. Our system repurposes

University, Akarsh Prabhakara, Vaibhav

these radars for tire wear sensing.”

Singh, Swarun Kumar, and Anthony Rowe,

The radar data is processed using a

came across this interesting problem: How

technique called Inverse Synthetic Aperture

can we measure and monitor tire wear?

Radar. This technique exploits the natural

Today, every car has tire pressure sensors.

rotation of the tire and boosts the resolution

But what if they also had tire wear sensors?

of commodity radars to be able to measure

This would increase safety on the road, save

millimeter changes in tire wear. This

drivers money, and ultimately, save lives.

technology also includes special metallic

“Wear measurement today is either done

structures stuck in the groove serving as

manually with a coin, or using full resolution

markers and ensuring that the radar still

laser scans,” said Prabhakara, Ph.D. student

receives important reflections even when

in electrical and computer engineering.

dust, snow, or similar debris accumulates in

“Neither of these techniques provide a

the grooves. In addition to tire wear sensing,

convenient solution to mount on a car and

their system also tackles another important

to deal with different kinds of debris that

problem—detecting and localizing harmful,

may stick in the tire over time. Designing a

foreign objects, like nails.

wear sensor is challenging.” They started working on this problem

“This technology provides a sensing infrastructure which can measure tire wear

in October 2018 in collaboration with

accurately, without embedding any sort of

Bridgestone. After experimenting with

electronics in the tire and being resilient to

different technologies, their solution uses

debris,” said Prabhakara. “Our ultimate goal

a radar device mounted in the tire well that

is to save lives.”

A RADAR DEVICE MOUNTED IN THE TIRE WELL THAT EMITS RADIO WAVES AT THE

PA GE 2 7

TIRE TO MEASURE WEAR.

CUTTING VEHICLE EMISSIONS AND INSPECTIONS VIA IoT Across the U.S., there has been some criticism of the cost

Fischbeck published their recent study in IEEE Transactions

and efficacy of emissions inspection and maintenance (I/M)

on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

programs administered at the state and county level. In

Their new method entails sending data directly from

response, Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) Ph.D. student

the vehicle to a cloud server managed by the state or

Prithvi Acharya and his advisor, Civil and Environmental

county within which the driver lives, eliminating the need

Engineering Scott Matthews, teamed up with EPP’s Paul

for them to come in for regular inspections. Instead, the

Fischbeck. They have created a new method for identifying

data would be run through machine learning algorithms

over-emitting vehicles using remote data transmission

that identify trends in the data and codes prevalent among

and machine learning that would be both less expensive

over-emitting vehicles. This means that most drivers would

and more effective than

never need to report to an

current I/M programs.

inspection site unless their

Most states in America

vehicle’s data indicates that

require passenger vehicles

it’s likely over-emitting,

to undergo periodic

at which point they could

emissions inspections to

be contacted to come in

preserve air quality by

for further inspection and

ensuring that a vehicle’s

maintenance.

exhaust emissions do not

Not only has the team’s

exceed standards set at

work shown that a significant

the time the vehicle was

amount of time and cost

manufactured. What some

could be saved through

may not know is that the

smarter emissions inspecting

metrics through which

programs, but their study

emissions are gauged

has also shown how these

nowadays are usually

methods are more effective.

measured by the car itself

Their model for identifying

through on-board diagnostics (OBD) systems that process

vehicles likely to be over-emitting was 24 percent more

all of the vehicle’s data. Effectively, these emissions tests

accurate than current OBD systems. This makes it cheaper,

are checking whether a vehicle’s “check engine light” is on.

less demanding, and more efficient at reducing vehicle

While over-emitting identified by this system is 87 percent

emissions.

likely to be true, it also has a 50 percent false pass rate of

This study could have major implications for leaders

over-emitters when compared to tailpipe testing of actual

and residents within the 31 states and countless counties

emissions.

across the U.S. where I/M programs are currently in place.

With cars as smart devices increasingly becoming

As these initiatives face criticism from proponents of

integrated into the Internet of Things (IoT), there’s no

both environmental deregulation and fiscal austerity, this

longer any reason for state and county administrations to

team has presented a novel system that promises both

force drivers to come in for regular I/M checkups when all

significant reductions to cost and demonstrably improved

the necessary data is stored on their vehicle’s OBD. In an

effectiveness in reducing vehicle emissions. Their study

attempt to eliminate these unnecessary costs and improve

may well redefine the testing paradigm for how vehicle

the effectiveness of I/M programs, Acharya, Matthews, and

emissions are regulated and reduced in America.

@CMUEngineering

PREDICTIVE PLACENTAS: AI PROTECTS MOTHERS’ FUTURE PREGNANCIES After a baby is born, doctors sometimes

slide, only one diseased vessel is needed to

examine the placenta—the organ that

indicate risk.

links the mother to the baby—for features

“Pathologists train for years to be able

that indicate health risks in any future

to find disease in these images, but there

pregnancies. Unfortunately, this is a time-

are so many pregnancies going through the

consuming process that must be done by a

hospital system that they don’t have time to

specialist, so most placentas go unexamined

inspect every placenta,” former CMU Ph.D.

after the birth. A team of researchers from

student Daniel Clymer said. “Our algorithm

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the

helps pathologists know which images they

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

should focus on by scanning an image,

(UPMC) developed a machine learning

locating blood vessels, and finding patterns

approach to examine placenta slides so more

of the blood vessels that identify decidual

women can be informed of their health risks.

vasculopathy.”

One reason placentas are examined is to

Machine learning works by “training”

look for a type of blood vessel lesions called

the computer to recognize certain features

decidual vasculopathy (DV). These indicate

in data files. In this case, the data file is an

the mother is at risk for pre-eclampsia—a

image of a thin slice of a placenta sample.

complication that can be fatal to the mother

Researchers show the computer various

and the baby—in any future pregnancies.

images and indicate whether the placenta is

Once detected, pre-eclampsia can be

diseased or healthy. After sufficient training,

treated, so there is considerable benefit

the computer is able to identify diseased

from identifying at-risk mothers before

lesions on its own.

symptoms appear. However, while there are hundreds of blood vessels in a single

It is quite difficult for a computer to simply look at a large picture and classify it,

so the team introduced a novel approach

“This is a beautiful collaboration between

where the computer follows a series of steps

engineering and medicine as each brings

to make the task more manageable. First,

expertise to the table that, when combined,

the computer detects all blood vessels in

creates novel findings that can help so

an image. Each blood vessel can then be

many people,” said Jonathan Cagan and

considered individually, creating smaller

Philip LeDuc, professors of mechanical

data packets for analysis. The computer

engineering at CMU.

will then access each blood vessel and

“As healthcare increasingly embraces the

determine if it should be deemed diseased

role of artificial intelligence, it is important

or healthy. At this stage, the algorithm also

that doctors partner early on with computer

considers features of the pregnancy, such

scientists and engineers so that we can

as gestational age, birth weight, and any

design and develop the right tools for the

conditions the mother might have. If there

job to positively impact patient outcomes,”

are any diseased blood vessels, then the

said Dr. Liron Pantanowitz, formerly the

picture—and therefore the placenta—is

vice chair for pathology informatics at

marked as diseased.

UPMC. “This partnership between CMU and

“This algorithm isn’t going to replace a pathologist anytime soon,” Clymer said.

MACHINE LEARNING CAN PROVIDE FEEDBACK ABOUT WHICH CASES WOULD BENEFIT FROM IN-DEPTH PATHOLOGICAL INSPECTION, LIKE THIS SAMPLE REVEALING A DECIDUAL ARTERIOLE AFFECTED BY EARLY STAGE DECIDUAL VASCULOPATHY.

UPMC is a perfect example of what can be accomplished when this happens.”

“The goal here is that this type of algorithm

might be able to help speed up the process

The paper, titled “Decidual Vasculopathy

by flagging regions of the image where the

Identification in Whole Slide Images Using

pathologist should take a closer look.”

Multi-Resolution Hierarchical Convolutional

This technology can decrease healthcare

Neural Networks,” was published in The

costs, allowing a majority of mothers and

American Journal of Pathology. This work

infants to have access to a microscopic

was partially funded by the Center for Machine

placenta examination. The UPMC team

Learning and Health at Carnegie Mellon

provided the de-identified placenta images

University through the Pittsburgh Health Data

for training the algorithm; it would have been

Alliance as well as the Office of Naval Research.

difficult to conduct this research without them. This kind of partnership is common at CMU. One of its most valuable assets as a research university is the level of collaboration

PA GE 3 1

that happens in almost every field.

NANOPARTICLES TO IMMUNIZE PLANTS AGAINST HEAT STRESS

Greg Lowry and his team are creating nanoparticles (NP) and

industry will only grow. Tilton and Lowry’s star polymers will

NP coatings that will revolutionize the agricultural industry.

lie dormant in plants until heat waves hit, at which point

Already, his research has demonstrated that NPs that are

they will activate to release antimicrobial agents like CV to

coated with the right polymers can be applied to plant leaves

give the plant the added boost they need to survive these

with 99 percent uptake—orders of magnitude more efficient

high-stress periods. They’re now looking at inserting other

than current agrochemical delivery methods. Their NP’s are

therapeutics into plants that could not only help them fight

also able to target specific plant structures with pinpoint

off dangerous pathogens during periods of heat stress, but

accuracy.

could actually mitigate the heat stress itself by stimulating

Now, as the next step in the emerging field he’s coined “plant therapeutics,” Lowry, a professor of civil and

photosynthesis within. “Polymers with qualitatively similar characteristics have

environmental engineering, and Bob Tilton, a professor

been investigated for use as drug delivery vehicles for

of chemical engineering are working to “immunize”

medical therapies,” says Tilton. “Of course, the conditions

plants against some of the greatest stress factors in

under which drug delivery vehicles and agrochemical

agriculture: drought and extreme heat. In their paper in

vehicles must work, and the types of physical and chemical

ACS Nano, they’ve detailed the first ever demonstration of a

signals that can be exploited for stimulus-responsive release

temperature-programmed release of a model antimicrobial

of the active agents, are quite different. The key was to

agent within a plant.

design the right chemical properties into our vehicles to suit

“Prolonged high temperatures can induce stress in crop plants,” says Tilton. “Our materials are designed so they can

the crop protection applications.” As the climate changes, arable land shrinks, and

bind heat stress relief agents and release them inside the

populations continue to grow, maximizing the efficacy of

plant on demand when it becomes very hot.”

agriculture has never been more crucial. The high absorption

The NPs are a new type of star polymer. Each NP contains

rates and array of applications for plant protection and

a model antimicrobial agent known as crystal violet (CV).

nourishment offered by plant therapeutics may well be

The team sprayed the NPs onto tomato leaves, observing

the key to offsetting these monumental forces. As Lowry

similarly high absorption rates to those in Lowry’s prior

and peers outlined in a recent article in Nature Food,

research, which then circulated throughout the entire

agricultural nanotechnology is on the cusp of moving from

plant over the next three days. The programmed release

the engineer’s lab into the farmer’s plot. However, the field

properties then became active once temperatures within

still requires greater investment and effort to push testing

the plant reached 35-40 degrees Celsius, causing the NPs to

into the field scale to demonstrate the efficacy and economic

release their cargo of CV throughout the plant’s interior.

viability of revolutionary technology like the team’s NPs.

Drought and extreme heat can kill plants, as well as making them highly susceptible to both biotic and abiotic threats. As global warming continues to increase the length and severity of heat waves, the difficulties for the agricultural

CONTROL IMAGES OF THE LEAF SURFACE (A), STOMATA AND EPIDERMIS CELLS (B) , AND STOMATAL CAVITY AND THE MESOPHYLL CELLS (C).

LACK OF COLOR INDICATES COMPLETE ABSORPTION. SPECTRAL ANGLE MAPPING TEST INDICATING REMAINING

PA GE 3 3

NPS IN RED.

DEPARTMENT NEWS

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

A National Institutes of Healthfunded study explores how neurons in the brain prepare and maintain a state of attention. Matt Smith led the project in collaboration with Byron Yu. “We’re interested in covert attention, meaning the ability to pay attention to things you’re not looking at,” says Smith. Virtually every major neurological disorder affects a person’s attention. Understanding how states of attention are managed may reveal how these conditions affect the brain.

CYLAB

ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Carnegie Mellon has partnered with

Maysam Chamanzar and his team

the Cybersecurity Manufacturing

invented an optical platform

Innovation Institute (CyManII),

that will likely become the new

a $111 million public-private

standard in optical biointerfaces.

partnership funded by the U.S.

He’s labeled this field of optical

Department of Energy. CMU’s

technology “Parylene photonics,”

CyLab will bolster CyManII’s goals

in a paper in Nature Microsystems

of improving the security of the

and Nanoengineering. This work

manufacturing industry’s Internet-

could mark a new chapter in

connected automation systems

the development of optical

(Industrial IoT) and help secure

biointerfaces, similar to what

supply chains.

silicon photonics enabled in optical communications.

INTEGRATED INNOVATION INSTITUTE

MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

Eric Hager and Chanson Kuo,

Partnering with the University of

students in the Master of Integrated

Utah and the Los Alamos National

Innovation for Products & Services

Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon

program, teamed with CMU Tepper

University was named an awardee

School students to win first place in

in America Makes and the Air

the Kellogg Design Challenge. More

Force Research Laboratory’s

than 100 student teams competed

additive manufacturing (AM)

in the challenge hosted by North

challenge titled “Micro-scale

Western University’s Kellogg School

Structure-to-Properties.” Tony

of Management and sponsored

Rollett represented CMU on this

by Exelon. Exelon prompted

project. The team improved the

participants to consider how the

accuracy of model predictions for

energy company could engage with

metal AM, using INCONEL® nickel-

customers to reduce consumption

chromium alloy 625.

during peak-demand times.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

A new Master’s in Biotechnology

Xuesong (Pine) Liu was honored

and Pharmaceutical Engineering

by the International Facilities

program prepares students to

Management Association as a 40

succeed in the pharmaceutical

under 40 finalist. The program

industry. The program is a joint

recognizes Liu’s contribution

effort between the Departments

and work at the intersection of

of Chemical Engineering and

information technology, facilities

Biological Sciences. Students will

management, and artificial

bring biopharmaceutical design to

intelligence.

industrial scales and use synthetic biology tools to engineer cells to treat diseases.

ENGINEERING & PUBLIC POLICY

INFORMATION NETWORKING INSTITUTE

Uber and Lyft increase average vehicle

Samantha Allen (‘15) is

ownership in urban areas. In a study

the incoming chair of the

published in iScience, Jeremey Michalek

Information Networking

led the team that showed that on

Institute Alumni Leadership

average, transportation network

Council. As the Executive

company (TNC) entry into an urban

Director of The Cyber Security

area increases per-capita vehicle

Intellects, she is dedicated to

registrations by 0.7%, compared to

inspiring the next generation of

what they would have been otherwise.

cybersecurity professionals. In

Future research will estimate

2020, she received the Women

environmental and traffic implications

of Color Technology Rising Star

of the shift toward TNCs.

Award for her STEM outreach activities.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

To better predict a material’s properties using artificial intelligence, Amir Barati Farimani trained an algorithm with data about the chemical makeup of materials— in particular, information about the role electrons play in determining properties. This algorithm is proving better than other leading ones. “The essence is to prove that it’s predicting for different kinds of every industry can use it,” says Barati Farimani.

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materials with high accuracy—then

INSIDE THE COLLEGE

NEW LEADER IN MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

lizabeth Dickey, a leading researcher in the field of materials science and engineering, has been named head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at Carnegie Mellon University effective January 2021. Dickey succeeds

Greg Rohrer, the W.W. Mullins Professor of MSE. Rohrer, who has served as the department’s head since 2005, has returned to CMU’s faculty. Dickey joined the CMU community after spending 10 years at North Carolina State University (NCSU). In 2011, she joined as a professor of materials science and engineering before advancing to her most recent positions, Associate Department Head and Distinguished Professor in the NCSU’s Department of MSE. With more than 150 peer-reviewed research publications that have collected nearly 20,000 citations, Dickey has focused her research to understand functionality of material systems in which the physical properties of materials—such as their mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties—are governed by interfaces within the materials—such as the interface between grains in polycrystalline materials. Her work has applications in industries ranging from energy storage and management to energy harvesting. “Elizabeth is a stellar researcher in her own right, but also has demonstrated leadership skills both academically and as a leader of large research facilities,” said Bill Sanders, Dean of Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering. Prior to her tenure at NCSU, Dickey spent nine years at Pennsylvania State University, where she served as associate director of the Materials Research Institute, a multidisciplinary research center that supported more than 200 faculty and their students, and as director of the Materials Characterization Laboratory, a state-of-the-art analytical facility that facilitates research and education for the development of the next generation of materials

30 member companies and laboratories from the US, Europe, and Asia, including start-ups to billion-dollar global companies. She is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society and of the Microscopy Society of America. Her successes have earned her the Richard M. Fulrath Award from the American Ceramic Society, the Northwestern University Early Career Achievement Award for Alumni in MSE, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and induction into the World Academy of Ceramics. Dickey received her Ph.D. in MSE from Northwestern University and her B.S. in Materials Engineering from the University of Kentucky.

science researchers. Dickey brought the model of the Materials Characterization Laboratory to NCSU to help transition the NCSU Analytical Instrumentation Facility through a reorganization in 2011. After joining NCSU, she also founded the Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, an NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center in collaboration with Penn State University and the University

PA GE 3 7

of Sheffield. The center has grown to approximately

NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH ARMY RESEARCH LAB

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the U.S. Army Combat

microstructures that can be linked to defects or potential

Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research

weaknesses in the additive manufacturing build process;

Laboratory (ARL) have entered into a five-year program that

and establish datasets to enable real-time part verification.

will total $25 million to support machine learning-enabled

By building expertise into the system, non-expert users

additive manufacturing to enhance the expeditionary

will be able to reliably produce parts where and when they

manufacturing capability of the Army.

are needed. The ability to print parts at the point-of-need

The program, led by CMU’s College of Engineering, will

in forward-deployed scenarios is increasingly important

address two main challenges facing additive manufacturing:

to the Department of Defense, particularly in the ability to

1) scaling up methods to enable part production

replace aging parts for which operational logistics have been

while maintaining quality, and 2) improving additive

disrupted or are no longer available.

manufacturing equipment’s ease of use, which will enable

“The College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University

scaled out manufacturing processes in varied locations by

has been strategically investing in this area under the

non-expert users. Current additive manufacturing processes

umbrella of the Next Manufacturing Center for several

require expert knowledge in materials, design, process

years as part of the College’s moonshot initiative, aiming to

optimization, and post-processing methods, which creates

enable multi-disciplinary teams of researchers to lead high-

barriers to adoption.

impact research centers,” said Burcu Akinci, associate dean

Developing solutions to these problems via expeditionary

for research for the College of Engineering, director of the

manufacturing will permit the Army to manufacture parts

Engineering Research Accelerator, and professor of civil and

quickly and reliably at the point-of-need. Additionally, the

environmental engineering.

ability to source various manufacturing materials from

The Next Manufacturing Center, led by Executive Director

forward-deployed locations will further enhance mission

Sandra DeVincent Wolf and Faculty Co-Directors Jack

effectiveness and versatility. Overall, this collaborative

Beuth and Anthony Rollett, is one of the world’s leading

agreement has the potential to increase mission readiness

research centers for additive manufacturing research and

and resiliency across many military platforms and equipment.

education. The center leverages knowledge from across

CMU and ARL researchers will focus on leveraging

disciplines to work collaboratively to advance additive

computer vision to analyze and characterize additive

manufacturing research and widespread adoption of

manufacturing powders and their potential impact on

additive manufacturing technology. The center has an

design; develop and train machine learning algorithms

engaged on-campus community that includes nearly 100

to detect and classify critical material compositions and

faculty, postdocs, students, and staff, and is strengthened by

its diverse set of consortium members and nearly 100 yearly interactions across industry, government, and academia. In addition to research, the first year of the agreement

The core principle investigators for this program are: Jack Beuth, professor of mechanical engineering; Anthony Rollett, professor of materials science and engineering; Elizabeth

includes funds to support the purchase of equipment that

Holm, professor of materials science and engineering; L.

will enable these research efforts in CMU’s new additive

Burak Kara, professor of mechanical engineering; Amir Barati

manufacturing lab at Mill 19 at Hazelwood Green, which is

Faramani, assistant professor of mechanical engineering;

part of CMU’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative.

Barnabas Poczos, associate professor and co-director of the

“The cooperative agreement is the culmination of years of

Ph.D. program in the Machine Learning Department; and

strategic relationships between Carnegie Mellon University

Aarti Singh, associate professor of machine learning. Many

and ARL,” says William Sanders, dean of the College of

other faculty across CMU, in both the College of Engineering

Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “The project and

and School of Computer Science, will also be involved as

Mill 19 lab have also benefited from strong support from

additional projects are pursued under this program.

the Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation, state and local

PA GE 3 9

leaders, and Pittsburgh’s generous foundation community.”

BEHIND THE RESEARCHER: GUITARIST AND MATERIALS SCIENTIST MARC DE GRAEF

Marc De Graef, a professor of materials science and engineering, is best known for his work in materials characterizations. He uses electron microscopes and quantum mechanics to model various characterization techniques. In addition to being an accomplished materials scientist, however, De Graef is also a talented guitar player. De Graef first started playing guitar in high school after learning that half of his class already knew how to play. He would listen to cassette tapes of Harry Sacksioni, a Dutch guitarist, and play along until he perfected the song. By his senior year, he joined a local bluegrass band that played on the streets of Antwerp, Belgium. De Graef found that he liked “finger picking,” where the musician plucks individual strings instead of strumming them all together. In college at the University of Antwerp, De Graef played at open mic nights. In graduate school, he would open for a Greek musician at bars on Friday nights, and the musician taught him more about guitar. He has been playing at Pittsburgh open mic nights for the last three or four years. De Graef finally got a chance to combine his research and music after reading a paper by Norman D. Cook from Japan’s Kansai University. De Graef realized he could create a better plot by modeling the data a different way, so he sent these new plots to Cook. When Cook replied enthusiastically, they began collaborating on this project. De Graef was interested in the way mathematics relates to music, particularly in harmonies and chords. He now teaches a class at the University of Antwerp every other summer where he gives a presentation on the relationship between math and music. When he retires, De Graef says he’ll be happy to spend more time on music and woodworking. Still, he’ll always be

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a scientist at heart.

STUDENT NEWS

BRINGING THE LAB TO STUDENTS DURING A PANDEMIC

More than 500 electrical and computer

lab courses, including the large Introduction

engineering students studying remotely

to Electrical and Computer Engineering

last fall had all the materials and tools they

class for nearly 150 first-year students,

needed for their core lab courses, thanks to

and Electronic Devices and Analog Circuits

a team effort that delivered on time to 12

for more than 90 students. Both of these

countries on five continents.

courses have multiple lab assignments

“We never expected to become a logistics shipping powerhouse,” said Megan Oliver, manager of the Academic Services Center

throughout the semester, and in one case a single week’s lab required 23 different items. “We had three weeks to purchase it all,

for the Electrical and Computer Engineering

put them together and ship them or get

Department. “It was unlike anything we’ve

them ready for pickup,” Oliver said.

ever had to do.” Oliver and lab technician Quinn Hagerty

Hagerty said once inventories were set in August, it took him about a week and a half

led the massive undertaking along with

to order the bulk of the items he needed for

service center coordinators Lyz Prelich-

the kits—from resistors and capacitors, to

Knight and Valeria McCrary; facilities

wire cutters and jumper wires, to breakout

coordinator Andrew Bolla; Kimmy Nguyen

boards and breadboards. Some items he

and Charissa Murray of the ECE department

knew would be used he ordered in mid-July

head’s office; administrative coordinator

to avoid any stocking issues.

Chloë Mattingly; and a host of student teaching assistants and helpers. Hagerty worked with instructors

With ECE’s loading dock closed due to the pandemic, Hagerty received the purchased materials at his home garage

and teaching assistants last summer to

and transported them to campus—it took

determine the materials needed for nine

him seven trips in his Chevy Traverse.

He set up assembly lines for the different lab kits in various rooms in

It was nice to see people in person, and we

Hamerschlag Hall.

were excited for the students to get the kits

rooms,” Oliver said. “Lab kits were being made in one room, toolboxes in

we put together.” Two hundred lab kits were shipped via

another. We also had to assemble the shipping boxes themselves, and we

UPS and about 300 kits were assembled in

staged them in another area.” Oliver said while the work grew tedious at

tote bags for pickup at an outdoor tent on

times, it was fun.

Frew Street near Hamerschlag Drive. Oliver

“It was the first time back on campus for many of us,” she said. “We came in every day for two straight weeks and just plugged away and got it done.

managed the student lists for shipping and pickup. Students signed up for pickup times to avoid too many students being there at once. “Getting all the boxes to first-year students in 18-100, the Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering course, was a big moment for us. We filled two UPS trucks,” she said. Oliver said she has received positive feedback from students and professors. “People came together and answered the call at the last minute when we realized the scope of what we had to do,” she said. “This was the ultimate test of collaboration and teamwork.”

PA GE 4 3

“We were wearing masks and we were spread out and using different

STUDENTS CLIMBED THE MOUNTAIN TOGETHER Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley’s proximity to the tech

from Silicon Valley. The convenience of everything being

industry has long attracted students. They become

virtual lent itself well to bringing in top speakers who

entrenched in the Bay Area’s innovation culture, and

graciously gave their time to support CMU students,” says

networking is an integral part of their education experience.

Schachar. The fall speaker lineup included: Dan Rosensweig,

When the pandemic forced the campus to operate remotely,

president and CEO of Chegg Inc.; Chenxi Wang, founder and

the Student Affairs team asked themselves how could they

general partner of Rain Capital; Michael Brown, director

provide students with professional and social opportunities

of the Defense Innovation Unit at the U.S. Department of

to keep them engaged, and they conceived a virtual

Defense; Matt Rogers, founder of Incite.org and co-founder

immersion program called Fall Summit 2020.

of Nest; Alvy Ray Smith, co-founder of Pixar and Altamira;

“We took inventory of how we operate under normal circumstances,” says Lauren Schachar, assistant dean of

and Sophie Alcorn, founder of Alcorn Immigration Law. The third leg of the program was the career component,

student affairs. “We leverage strong connections to the

and alumni were tapped to speak at workshops. Sticking to

amazing alumni in the Bay Area. We have a community-

the Summit theme, the Student Affairs team injected wit into

oriented spirit at the Silicon Valley campus, and we’re able

the sessions with topics like “trekking through negotiation

to do niche programming. We also provide opportunities for

conversations” or “grab a compass and learn how to navigate

students to engage with Silicon Valley companies and with

your career.”

one another.”

“We invited Pittsburgh students to attend the speaker

The Student Affairs team pondered on how they could

series and career workshops. We were motivated to make

preserve these aspects of the student experience, which

this a CMU community effort while still providing a unique

was no easy feat considering in-person restrictions. Their

Silicon Valley experience,” she says.

brainstorming kept circling back to the idea of a summit.

“The Student Affairs team developed resiliency in that

“Summit is a concept used for a lot of conferences. But

we had to learn what works for students in this reimagined

we were thinking of summit in the context of 2020 being a

way. When students weren’t participating our team reached

challenging year for the students, their families, faculty,

out to them individually to help them connect with other

and staff. We were all in this process

students if they weren’t finding what they wanted at Summit

of climbing a metaphorical mountain

events. It wasn’t lost on us that students were struggling

together,” says Schachar.

in ways other than social isolation. Some needed help

“When we designed Fall Summit 2020,

navigating healthcare options and other issues. So, in that

we considered the components of our

way, we focused on individual relationships to provide an

programming from a remote-only lens,” says

ethos of care, which is core to our work in student affairs,”

Schachar.

adds Schachar.

The first step was to get students on

However, many students did participate in Summit 2020

board with the plan. The administrators

and their feedback indicated that they understood how

launched the Summit Social Guide

CMU-SV was creating meaningful, memorable and extremely

program, and student leaders served as

valuable experiences for them.

Summit guides by steering classmates toward communitybuilding activities. “We created a system where students received a virtual badge for event participation. They collected badges throughout the semester, and there was a prize at the end,” says Schachar. After introducing the concept to the students, the Summit Speaker Series commenced. “Through a collaborative effort with CMU-SV faculty, we had very distinguished speakers

“Summit 2020 was a virtual all-access pass to the Silicon Valley experience in that it was designed to connect, motivate and inspire students, and we think that is what it accomplished,” concludes Schachar.

MA N UJ A GOK UL A N S TU D EN T I N T HE IN TE G R A TE D IN N O V A TI O N INST I T UT E

P U J I E W A NG STU DENT I N EL ECTRI CA L A ND CO MP U TER ENGI NEERI NG

The Summit Speaker Series had a diverse mix of guest

The Fall Summit helped me stay connected to CMU-SV

speakers who were prolific experts having made a mark in

by giving me the opportunity to become a Peer Career

their respective fields. It was interesting to learn about their

Consultant. I held drop-in advising sessions, and I

career paths. Some of them always knew what they wanted

connected with so many new talented people that I was

while some explored different things that led them to find

able to listen to and learn from. We may become colleagues

their passion in their current profession. As someone who

in the future, so getting to know them and staying

enjoys the big picture view, I was drawn to these sessions

connected matters. Also, as a person who speaks English

as I was getting condensed insights on life lessons, skills,

as a second language, I learned several new words and

attitude, behaviors and decisions that these speakers had

phrases to make my language sharp. I really appreciated

used to guide their journeys.

this experience.

For me, Dan Rosensweig stands out because of his practical tips and approach. When asked what career advice he would give students, he said “Find what you really want to do—find an industry, find a company, find a boss and then say ‘yes.’ The rest all can be figured from there.” I loved his closing remarks that there were no failures in life; it’s only when we don’t give something we aspire another shot

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that we choose to fail.

ALUMNI NEWS

ALUMNI WRITE BOOKS TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE

of smart, scientifically minded animals from around the globe, who keep watch over the planet. In the first book in the series, the Earth Defenders discover that the weather is changing, which is negatively impacting their homes. Working together, they learn that the cause of the weather change is a humanoid named Earl, who has wrapped carbon blankets around the Earth—just one of a number of climate problems Earl causes over the course of the series. Throughout the series, however, Earl is never depicted as a bad guy. Instead, he is meant to represent humankind

Climate scientists have long known the reality of climate

in general, a common engineer, inventing things and

change. Yet there are still many people in the world who

discovering their unintended consequences. But when he

either have no idea how climate change works, or don’t

learns that he has been hurting others with his inventions,

believe that it’s really happening. While there are a number

he is remorseful, and clumsily tries to fix it. Together with

of reasons for this, many scientists recognize that a big part

the help of the Earth Defenders, Earl—and by extension, the

of the problem lies in the way that we communicate science.

children reading—learn about the many causes of climate

Much of the public discourse that exists around climate

change, and what humans can do to develop solutions.

change is either too technical to be useful to a broader audience, or too negative to motivate people to action. A pair of Carnegie Mellon Chemical Engineering alumni

“We chose to write the books for the kids aged nine to 13,” says Yanyo, “because we feel that it’s important to reach children at an early age about these subjects, and to

are out to change this, with their new book series The

encourage them to not only develop a sense of curiosity

Adventures of the Earth Defenders. Alex Bertuccio (Ph.D. ’17)

for the world around them, but also to feel comfortable

and Lynn Yanyo (BS ’81) have come together, combining

learning through experimentation.”

their entrepreneurial spirit with their passion for the

Bertuccio and Yanyo first met when at Carnegie Mellon in

environment and chemical engineering expertise in the

2017, when Yanyo came back as an alum to give a seminar

hopes of creating positive, real-world change.

to the ChemE department on entrepreneurship. Afterward,

“Our simple, easy to understand book series,” says

she offered to meet with anyone interested in starting a

Bertuccio, “uses scientifically accurate language to

business, and Bertuccio, who had been enthralled by the

encourage kids to explore and discover the science in daily

seminar, took her up on it. The two sat down for coffee the

life, test ideas without fear, develop solutions as a team,

next day, and began to discuss a shared passion of theirs—

and learn from experimentation. The comic book format

reversing the effects of climate change. This discussion led

engages with early readers through middle school with role

to Tree4All, an organization that sells hearty tree saplings

models for all ages.”

to encourage kids to plant trees, with the goal of removing

The Adventures of the Earth Defenders introduces a team

carbon from the atmosphere.

The Earth Defenders grew out of this entrepreneurial venture. Originally, the book began as an eight-panel comic, meant to help explain to kids the importance of planting trees and how it can help combat climate change. But the stories quickly grew into their own business, as Bertuccio and Yanyo saw the power they could have in teaching the next generation how to undo the mistakes of the past. “The first book made us think about how we can show kids and their parents that humans are capable of undoing the damage they’ve caused,” says Yanyo. “That led to the second book. Meanwhile, we loved having Earl tinker around with everyday engineering problems and learn about problem solving, and testing ideas and physics. We want to help both young readers and their parents get comfortable with the idea of failing as a way to identify problems, and learn and develop solutions.” Now, The Adventure of the Earth Defenders have gone on three different adventures, with a fourth on the way this year, and The Calamities of Earl is its own growing series, with Earl exploring common, everyday items and helping kids understand how they work. “While at CMU, I learned to be a much more effective communicator, both in presenting, and in writing,” says Bertuccio. “We were both inspired to write these books because we love science and engineering, and we want to help other people understand what we know, so they can appreciate the world the way we do. We also hope that these books will reach a wide range of children from all different backgrounds, races, and genders, and encourage them to explore and pursue careers in STEM.” All of The Adventures of the Earth Defenders, as well as The

PA GE 4 7

Calamities of Earl, can be found on Etsy.

HARVEY BECKHAM

CONSTRUCTING TOMORROW’S WORKPLACES As Carnegie Mellon alum Harvey Beckham, P.E. (CE and EPP

Professional engineers were rarely involved outside MEP

’90), left his office in March of 2020, everyone around him

design, and, too often, the crucial early planning needed for

was also departing. His colleagues were preparing to work

success was neglected.

from home in response to COVID-19, but Beckham was

Here, Beckham found an excellent opportunity that

preparing for something more. Before the pandemic began,

perfectly aligned with his experience and passion, and soon

he had decided to launch his own business, GPS Partners,

GPS Partners (short for Great Project Solutions) was born.

offering conception-to-completion project advising services

GPS began as a professionally based workspace planning

in commercial real estate construction and design. “I was

firm, offering PE expertise to start and with future growth

going home like everybody else, but I was going out to a new

plans to include design professionals.

job, a new adventure, a new everything,” he says. After 30 years in the field, Beckham was ready to strike out on his own.

Even as the start of his business aligned with the start of a pandemic, Beckham has found that the skills he developed at CMU and honed over his career have positioned him

He started his engineering career in 1990 in building

well to meet his clients’ needs. In particular, organizations

repair and restoration, lacing up his boots every day to

have a renewed focus on indoor air quality (IAQ) and fluid

work at job sites across Washington, DC. Within a mere six

mechanics (air flow)—topics that were at the heart of

months, however, Beckham replaced his boots with loafers

Beckham’s civil and environmental engineering classes.

as he transitioned into project management. It was an area

“I lean on that knowledge heavily when talking with

he’d first found a passion for at CMU, fondly recalling time

clients. I’m not a pandemic specialist, but because I

spent working closely with CEE professors like Tung Au

understand airflow and concentrations of pollutants and

and Dave Dzombak. “Starting civil engineering and finding

microns, I can read the CDC reports and synthesize the

project management and really getting into engineering

takeaways,” he says.

economics, I loved it,” he says. “It felt like home.” As Beckham progressed in his career, he went on to

Looking to the future, Beckham sees workplaces evolving in other substantial ways using lessons learned from recent

earn an MBA and excel across various companies, focusing

months. “Any company designing or redeveloping a space

on interior and workspace construction. By 2001, he had

will not only keep COVID and IAQ in mind but also be asking

managed projects that included developing a 200-acre

what has been beneficial and what has been detrimental in

corporate campus for MCI WorldCom, converting a historic

how employees have been working,” he says. “The result is

row home into an office for the Embassy of the Republic of

not going to be the same workplace.”

Botswana, and developing cutting-edge medical research

As Beckham continues to grow GPS Partners to help

laboratories for the National Institute of Health. Before

clients adapt their workspace to meet these changing needs,

starting GPS Partners, he served as Senior Vice President for

he has found support and camaraderie from fellow alumni

a prominent real estate services firm.

who have offered invaluable insights and shared their

In every role, Beckham has had a front-row seat to

experiences running a business. “I have a strong personal

changes in the workplace. “Planning a workspace went from

network of friends from school who are very accomplished

paint and carpet to something that’s much more technical to

in their careers and have so much to offer,” he says. “Since I

put together,” says Beckham.

have started my business, I have absolutely seen the power

Yet, he had seen a growing gap between the expertise needed for modern interior projects and the way most

of the CMU network and my incredible CMU friendships, and I am proud to be a Carnegie Mellon graduate.”

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interior workspace construction was designed and managed.

to avoid falling victim to hackers and scammers. PhishMe expanded its product portfolio to provide a more holistic approach to workplace cybersecurity. In 2018, PhishMe was bought by private equity giant BlackRock for $400 million and has since rebranded itself as Cofense. Belani stayed on as CEO of the company, which now serves nearly half of the Fortune 100 and close to 400 Fortune 1000 companies. As a leader in information security, Belani has since appeared on CNBC, CNN, BBC, and in Forbes magazine, as well as received numerous honors, including 2017 EY Entrepreneur of the Year and Washington Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list. “I would be lying if I said I anticipated where I am today, professionally, 15 years ago,” he said. “I feel very fortunate to have, in some ways, surpassed my own expectations.” Belani received a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College (University of Mumbai) and attended the INI at Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned his M.S. in Information Networking (MSIN). “My experience at INI was life-changing,” he said. “It taught me the meaning of hard work. If there’s ROHYT BELANI

one thing I learned at Carnegie Mellon University, it was the fact that sleep is not necessary for survival!”

REELING IN CYBER ATTACKS No one understands phishing better than Rohyt Belani. While working on the frontlines of information security for Fortune 500 companies, he noticed a troubling phenomenon: more than 90 percent of these attacks started with an employee acting on an email. “Hackers do a lot of online research [on their human targets],” Belani explained during a segment on CNBC. “So that when they do draft an email, it’s quite contextually appropriate, and makes it really hard to decipher good from bad.” As a security consultant in the early 2000s, Belani realized that something needed to be done to better address phishing attacks targeting personnel. “While the catalysis of these attacks was human susceptibility, no one was, at the time, doing anything to better condition humans to be more resilient—at least not in a way that was measurable,” he said. This lack of human-focused solutions was what drove Belani and co-founder Aaron Higbee to launch PhishMe in 2008, focused on arming employees with training and tools

In 2002, with just eight weeks shy of graduation and the US economy in recession, Belani was looking for a job when he ran into one—literally—in the halls of Heinz College. “I met this gentleman who was the founder of a security company and an adjunct professor at Carnegie

Mellon,” Belani told Sramana Mitra’s One Million Blog. Belani described himself at the time as being “unshaven, in flip-flops, with bloodshot eyes, having spent the previous night coding”—in other words, he was not prepared to be interviewed. But after talking for 45 minutes, the man made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: “he actually offered me a job at his company.” He worked at that company—Foundstone—for two and a half years as a consultant and “ethical hacker,” tasked with breaking into enterprise networks in order to assess security weak points. The experience gave him the credentials to teach the Hacking Exposed class at Carnegie Mellon from 2006 to 2010. Foundstone was acquired by McAfee in 2004. By that time, Belani was receiving lucrative offers from major tech firms, but he decided to join Mandiant, a fledgling startup based in Virginia that specialized in cyber forensics. As Managing Director, he took on the role of setting up their New York City office. Although Belani left Mandiant in 2007 to start his own company, he celebrated Mandiant’s $1 billion acquisition by FireEye in 2013. Despite his many career highlights, he is still humbled by the experience. “Most people only see the highs of successful entrepreneurs, but there are a lot of scars that go unnoticed. From having the door slammed shut on you in early sales situations or by investors, to protecting your company’s intellectual property–there is no dearth of challenges,” he said. “At the same time,” he added, “the adrenaline rush of starting a company and being fortunate enough to see it be successful is an unparalleled feeling in one’s professional life.” Now, as the CEO of Cofense—the company he cofounded a decade ago as PhishMe—Belani looks forward to continue working with the world’s leading companies to “stop phishing attacks in their tracks.” “To experience these organizations’ faith in us, especially in a domain as crucial as cybersecurity, is unique and most fulfilling, and something I am most proud of,” he said. “I feel honored that we are able to serve this mission globally every day.” His advice for current INI students is that there is no single path to becoming an entrepreneur. “One can be entrepreneurial in many ways—working at a large company, a startup, or starting a company.” What’s most important, he emphasized, is “the spirit to challenge the norm, and the grit to get up repeatedly after being knocked down in an effort

PA GE 5 1

to solve unique challenges.”

Morgan and Sanders were both members of the previous NASEM committee on enhancing the resilience of the U.S. electricity system. They provided recommendations, underscored in this newest brief, to assess and prepare

CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING ON FUTURE OF U.S. ELECTRICAL GRID

against “plausible large-area, long-duration grid disruptions that could have major economic, social, and other adverse consequences.” The committee’s final report was informed by workshops on cybersecurity and planning models, as well as numerous briefings and webinars. Morgan, who chaired the study, and his fellow authors laid out likely ways in which the U.S. power grid may evolve. They emphasized safe and secure operations as the core priority in grid evolution, and noted the need to balance additional considerations for affordability and equity, sustainability and clean power, and

Granger Morgan, professor of engineering and public policy and electrical and computer engineering, chaired a

reliability and resistance. They also created 40 recommendations to Congress,

briefing by a National Academy of Sciences, Engineering,

DOE, state entities, and other federal and private institutions

and Medicine (NASEM) committee as they delivered a

operating within or around the energy sector. This list of

congressional briefing on “The Future of Electric Power

suggestions offers the most informed perspective for how

in the U.S.,” followed by a public webinar. The committee

the U.S. may continue providing safe and secure power and

also included William Sanders, dean of the College of

avert future crises, with particular consideration toward the

Engineering.

social, economic, and environmental impact of the decisions

Many vital services and utilities in the U.S. are dependent on electrical power. Current events, such as the crisis in

being made. “Electric power is essential to the welfare of all Americans,

Texas, have shown the disastrous effects of prolonged mass

and is increasingly dependent on other infrastructures,”

power disruptions; however, the challenges to the future of

said Morgan, leading into the webinar. “…We can identify

our electric grid go well beyond this most recent example.

drivers of future change, but how they’re going to manifest

The committee was brought together by NASEM in

is uncertain, and it will be different in different parts of the

response to a Department of Energy (DOE) request to

country. An environment that promotes technical, economic,

evaluate the medium- and long-term evolution of the electric

and regulatory innovation is essential to ensuring that our

grid. In particular, the committee was asked to consider:

future electricity system serves America’s needs and that the U.S. positions itself as an international leader.”

• Technologies – for generation, storage, power

During the webinar, other members of the panel

electronics, sensing and measuring, controls systems,

lent their expert outlook, touching on topics such as

cybersecurity, and loads;

systems architectures, equitable accessability, resiliency &

• Planning and operations – evolution of current practices in response to changing generation, technologies, and end use; • Business models – cost and benefits to modernization; potential changes to oversight and market operations; • Grid architectures – technical and jurisdictional challenges to implementation.

redundancy, research & development, and more. Sanders discussed future grid development from a cybersecurity perspective. “The power system is becoming increasingly vulnerable to both physical and cyber disruptions,” Sanders said, “It’s inherent complexity demands a system-centric rather than a component-centric approach to cybersecurity and cyber resiliency.”

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