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High Performance Computing Used to Model Big Data By Rebecca Mirsky
Weather forecasters try to predict it. High-tech clothing is designed to resist it. Energy companies hope to harness it. And Inanc Senocak and his students are using computational science and high-end computer systems to model it. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” Gollum tries to stump Bilbo Baggins with a riddle: Voiceless it cries,
Wingless flutters, Toothless bites,
Mouthless mutters.
“Wind, wind of course,” Bilbo answers. The science of modeling and forecasting wind for energy resources is incredibly complex. It requires massive data sets and powerful, high performance computing capability. Accurate wind models are critical for evaluating wind farm siting and layout for optimum power production. Models have to account for the effects of terrain, temperature and atmospheric conditions, and be able to predict speed, direction and turbulence. A model with this level of complexity requires the science of computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
Senocak is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering. He recently presented the ongoing research in his laboratory at the International Conference on Future Technologies for Wind Energy, held Oct. 7-9 in Laramie, Wyo. The title of his presentation was “Microscale Wind Simulations over Arbitrarily Complex Terrain using Cartesian Methods and GPUs.”
Mechanical engineering graduate student Clancy Umphrey also attended the conference in Laramie, along with his labmates Rey DeLeon — a Ph.D. student and recipient of University of Idaho’s President’s Doctoral Scholars award — and mechanical engineering senior Luke Weaver.
Last summer, Umphrey was accepted to the EarthCube Summer Institute 2013 at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at University of California, San Diego. He also is a recent recipient of the Idaho NASA EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship.
The EarthCube Summer Institute is designed primarily for geoscience researchers engaged in computational and data science, including graduate students, postdocs, faculty and research staff.
Continued on page 7
Researchers Building a Computer Chip Based on the Human Brain By Kathleen Tuck
Today’s computing chips are incredibly complex and contain billions of nano-scale transistors, allowing for fast, high-performance computers, pocketsized smartphones that far outpace early desktop computers, and an explosion in handheld tablets.
Despite their ability to perform thousands of tasks in the blink of an eye, none of these devices even come close to rivaling the computing capabilities of the human brain. At least not yet. But a Boise State University research team could soon change that.
Electrical and computer engineering faculty Elisa Barney Smith, Kris Campbell and Vishal Saxena are joining forces on a project titled “CIF: Small: Realizing Chip-scale Bio-inspired Spiking Neural Networks with Monolithically Integrated Nano-scale Memristors.”
Team members are experts in machine learning (artificial intelligence), integrated circuit design and memristor devices. Funded by a three-year,
$500,000 National Science Foundation grant, they have taken on the challenge of developing a new kind of computing architecture that works more like a brain than a traditional digital computer.
Continued on page 7
From the Dean’s Desk It should come as no surprise that the College of Engineering is a major advocate of STEM education at Boise State. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are the bedrock on which every one of our majors is built. But what does that mean for our students? The mention of these topics used to bring to mind images of thick textbooks with lots of equations, late night hours running experiments in the lab, or solitary scholars whose best friends were their computers. But if you haven't been watching lately, STEM education is not what it used to be! Today at Boise State, we're coming up with a new equation for 21st century STEM, and we’re using some detective work to get there.
Like academic sleuths, we're looking at the evidence to find what works best for our students. I'm especially excited about our recent grant from the National Science Foundation to help faculty learn about and adopt new teaching practices for STEM education. The WIDER-PERSIST project (described further on page 4) is reaching across college and departmental boundaries, beginning with the foundational STEM courses (e.g., General Chemistry, Calculus and Pre-calculus, General Physics, lower division Engineering courses, and upper division Geoscience courses). Mathematics, which is crucial to STEM student success and retention, is an important focus area. We’re redesigning fundamental courses from the old, teacher-centered model to a new, learner-centered experience where students take an active role in their education.
What does this look like in the classroom? To the students in Krishna Pakala’s Thermodynamics class, it looks like energy in the form of a potato chip (page 5). To the students in Gary Hunt’s Intro to Engineering class, it looks like a robot arm that can be oriented to demonstrate trigonometry functions. In many other classes, students play various roles as project team members, analyzing problems, devising solutions, and presenting findings. The evidence shows that students learn more, and retain more, when they are actively engaged in the material – when they can hold something in their hands, or when they have to figure out how to explain it to someone else. Evidence-based learning strategies connect textbook STEM topics with real-life situations and challenges. And as an added bonus – it also happens to be a lot of fun. Amy Moll
Dean and Professor College of Engineering
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Engineering Student Earns Nuclear Materials Fellowship By Kathleen Tuck
Dale Brown, a graduate student in the Boise State University Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is the recipient of a Nuclear Materials Fellowship funded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The award supports the first year of study by a science or engineering graduate student.
The purpose of the fellowship is to support development of a workforce Conceptual image of high energy particles with technical expertise in nuclear inducing defects in an atomically thin graphene science and engineering and related sheet. Understanding the effects of such processes could lead to novel radiation sensors or technical fields. Recipients agree to work energy-efficient transistors for applications in the in a nuclear-related field for a specified period of time following graduation. energy and aerospace industries.
Basque Engineering Students Awarded Scholarships By Kathleen Tuck
The Boise State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has awarded its first doctoral assistantships to two students from the Basque Country. The scholarships are made possible by a partnership among the engineering department, the Basque Studies Program at Boise State, and the Basque Museum and Cultural Center in downtown Boise.
Ander Martinez and Virginia Molina were each awarded an assistantship upon their acceptance into the electrical and computer engineering doctoral program. The assistantship covers the students’ cost of tuition and provides them with a living allowance for the duration of the program.
Engineering Student Holds Patent for ZipBin Storage Box By Leah Sherwood
When little Michael tells Mary Poppins he won’t clean his room because it isn’t fun, she responds by singing “A Spoonful of Sugar,” one of the most iconic musical numbers in film history, as the toys magically put themselves away.
Max Rothschild, a Boise State freshman, also disliked cleaning his room as a boy, but the solution he came up with relies on ingenuity rather than magic. With the help of his father, he invented and patented ZipBin, a collapsible storage box perfect for holding toys.
When children are ready to play with their toys, they can unzip the four corners, transforming the box into a mat with the toys on top. When the children are finished playing, their toys and mat zip back up into the storage unit. The device is made from polypropylene for ease of cleaning. For more information about Neat-Oh! or ZipBin, visit neat-oh.com
College of Engineering Newsletter | Fall 2013
COEN Faculty and Students in Action Yonnie Chyung
A research article titled “An investigation of the profiles of satisfying and dissatisfying factors in e-learning” by Yonnie Chyung, professor of organizational performance and workplace Learning (OPWL), and Mark Vachon, an OPWL alum, was invited to be reprinted in the journal Performance Improvement Quarterly. The article was originally published in 2005 and is one of five selected influential articles from the past in the performance improvement field.
Chyung’s research discusses ways to deal with “healthy” and “unhealthy” attrition in online learning environments. In the current journal issue, Chyung and OPWL student and graduate assistant Susan Virgilio also published an article with an update on the previous research topic. The new article is titled “Watching both sides of the e-learning satisfaction seesaw.” Amy Moll
Casey Cline
Amy Moll, dean of the College of Engineering, was quoted in an Idaho Statesman story about local firms stepping up to help Boise State secure a $1 million grant to beef up the computer science program. Read about it here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/09/13/2757883/tech-firms-kick-infor-computer.html Casey Cline, assistant professor of construction management, was quoted in an Idaho Business Review story about the use of tablets at constructions sites. Cline is requiring freshmen enrolled in his classed to use iPads. The story was later rewritten by the Associated Press.
Sin Ming Loo
A Boise State research partnership with two other universities may reduce miners’ exposure to diesel exhaust and its harmful health effects.
A $405,301 exploratory grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health will permit researchers from Boise State, University of Washington and Montana Tech to evaluate novel approaches for assessing the exposure of underground miners to diesel exhaust.
Dale Stephenson, professor and chair of Boise State’s Department of Community and Environmental Health, and Chris Simpson, associate professor at the University of Washington, are co-principal investigators. Sin Ming Loo, professor and chair of Boise State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is a co-investigator on this project. Student-Created Training for Charity Wins Award Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of Idaho recently won an award for a service standards training that was created by a team of Boise State Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (OPWL) students.
RMHC Global’s team selected it as the winning entry over three other finalists in the Management Effectiveness category at the 2013 international conference in Chicago. As part of the award, RMHC Idaho received a $10,000 unrestricted grant. Engineering Students Experience Unique Internship in Maryland By Rebecca Mirsky
Three students from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) participated in a summer internship experience at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md.
The experience was highlighted in the October/November 2013 bulletin of the American Ceramics Society (ACerS) (volume 92, number 8). Junior Kevin Talley wrote the article describing his experience with fellow MSE students Koyuki Fritchman (senior) and Eric Nelson (sophomore). Talley also serves as a delegate for ACerS’ President’s Council of Student Advisors, a liaison group between the professional society and students of ceramics and materials science.
Researchers Take Boise State and its Logo to New Nano Limits By Rebecca Mirsky
As part of a research effort aimed at controlling matter at the nanoscale, Boise State University researchers have created a moleculesized Boise State logo using DNA. The team, led by Elton Graugnard, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), used a technique known as “DNA origami,” which was invented by Paul Rothemund, senior research fellow at Caltech.
Undergraduate MSE major Kelly Schutt and MSE Ph.D. student Brett Ward programmed a long loop of single-stranded DNA to “fold” into the shape of the B logo using short, complementary, single-stranded “staple” DNA strands to hold the structure together. Using DNA-specific computer-aided design (CAD) software called caDNAno (created by Shawn
Douglas, now at UCSF), Schutt generated a design to program the DNA into the B logo shape. With feedback from MSE Ph.D. student Sadao Takabayashi, the CAD design was rendered into molecular form to confirm the target structure and analyzed by finite-element analysis using CanDo (created by Mark Bathe, MIT).
The DNA strands were mixed in solution, and roughly one trillion identical DNA Bs were produced in about four hours. (For comparison, in the late 1980s, IBM was able to create just one copy of their logo using 35 xenon atoms.) Proper synthesis of the Bs was verified by imaging the structures with a Bruker MultiMode 8 atomic force microscope. The results, shown in the figure above, demonstrate the ability to program DNA to form arbitrary shapes with extreme precision. Such DNA structures are being developed in Boise State’s Nanoscale Materials and Device Group as novel materials for building future electronic and optical computer circuits from molecules. Read more at http://news.boisestate.edu/update/2013/09/23/researchers-take-boisestate-logo-new-nano-limits/ College of Engineering Newsletter | Fall 2013
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The Evidence is Grants Help COEN Researchers Explore New Teaching and Learning Strategies By Rebecca Mirsky
Over the past decade, teaching methodologies have been evolving from teachercentered to learner-centered. This evolution has grown out of a desire by educators for hard evidence that teaching practices are effective, as shown by scientifically based research findings. What the body of evidence is showing is that learner-centered approaches that engage students in active roles in the classroom are more effective than the old model teachercentered approaches that emphasize a passive transfer of knowledge from teacher to student. A number of exciting new initiatives in the College of Engineering are living proof of the benefits and successes of teacher-centered learning and evidence-based instruction. In the summer of 2013, the National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a program solicitation called WIDER (Widening Implementation and Demonstration of Evidence-based Reforms). The program's intent was to support research that would lead to widespread and sustainable implementation of instructional practices aimed specifically at improving STEM learning (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). By targeting teaching practices across the STEM disciplines, the program seeks to ultimately change practices across the institution, not simply in one or two courses.
In September 2013, a team of Boise State STEM faculty and staff were thrilled to learn that their WIDER program proposal had been funded by NSF. The Boise State project, Promoting Educational Reform through Strategic Investments in Systemic Transformation (PERSIST), is funded by a $2 million, 3-year grant. Its fundamental purpose is to help Boise State engage faculty in exploring and adopting best practices in teaching and learning. Many Boise State STEM faculty from both the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences were involved in this proposal and contributed strategies they were eager to implement in their own departments; these became the center and strength of the
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College of Engineering Newsletter | Fall 2013
successful proposal. The ultimate impact of the project will be increases in STEM majors and bachelor’s degrees, including a specific focus on women and other underrepresented groups in STEM, persistence in STEM from first to second year, and a university culture that sustains long-term efforts of continuous improvement in STEM pedagogy.
One such change is being tested this fall in a special section of ENGR 120 Intro to Engineering. In this section, lecturer Gary Hunt is connecting "just-in-time" math to engineering concepts - a method developed by Dr. Nathan Klingbeil at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. The course design is being funded by an NSF grant under the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP), and is part of a larger effort at Boise State to increase STEM retention and graduation rates by targeting first-year STEM students and the STEM faculty who teach those students.
At Wright State, Klingbeil wanted to address the nationwide problem of students who were leaving engineering because they were having trouble with their first year math. His solution was to develop a novel first year "justin-time" engineering math course, taught by engineering faculty, and including lecture, lab, and a recitation (problem solving session). Klingbeil’s course uses a hands-on approach to teach math topics in physics, engineering mechanics, electric circuits and computer programming - the same topics that are actually used in the core engineering courses. As with other evidence-based learning, the course design is strongly supported by research on how students learn. This fall semester, the College of Engineering is testing its own version of the Klingbeil just-in-time engineering math in Hunt's section of the Intro to Engineering course. The section uses a special engineering math text, and includes laboratory exercises and recitations modeled after the Wright State program. The students also learn to work with MATLAB, a programming platform for performing numerical analyses of data and creating mathematical models. Hunt is encouraged by the results he has seen so far,
which show an improvement in test scores over the traditional approach, where students study math and engineering in separate classes. Within a few more semesters, Hunt expects to have solid proof that just-in-time math is as successful at boosting retention and graduation rates for engineering students at Boise State as Nathan Klingbeil proved at Wright State.
Across the hall, in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Associate Professor Will Hughes is working with collaborators from the University of Florida, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and Bucknell University to reinvent the Introduction to Materials course using Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL). The team’s project, Implementing Guided Inquiry in Diverse Institutions, is being funded by a grant from the NSF under the program for Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Another form of evidencebased learning, the POGIL approach places students in teams to complete worksheets that guide them through the process of learning. Instead of passively listening to a lecture and trying to sift through the information later, students are actively engaged during class in completing the worksheets, which are designed to lead them from an idea, to inquiry, to practice. Throughout the process, students develop additional important skills such as teamwork, communication, and critical thinking. The same worksheets are being used at all four universities involved in the grant, and the faculty will be working together to share best practices and evaluate the results of the program. Preliminary results at all four universities show a
in the Learning positive impact of the POGIL approach, helping students learn and retain a better understanding of the material. Students in the STEM disciplines face an array of challenges and opportunities as they
prepare for careers in a technologically complex society. They must not only learn how things work today, but also be ready to anticipate how they might work tomorrow. Faculty in the College of Engineering recognize this, and are
researching methods that will teach students a lifelong skill: learning how to learn. And whether it’s just-in-time math, or POGIL, the methods are based on the evidence of success.
Everyday Examples in Engineering Grab Students’ Attention By Rebecca Mirsky
This past spring, the 80 students in Krishna Pakala’s ENGR 320 class had no idea that they were about to become living, breathing examples of a thermodynamic process.
The students arrived at their Thermodynamics I class one morning to find Pakala handing out bags of potato chips, which he encouraged them to share with their classmates. Pakala, a lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, then asked each student to estimate the amount of energy in the chip that he or she was about to bite into. Students could use the nutritional information on the side of the package to help them come up with an estimate. They then were asked to brainstorm and write down all the different activities they would be engaged in over the rest of the 75-minute class period that would expend that energy. The students were surprised and intrigued that they could be learning about engineering analysis and problem solving through an everyday activity like eating a snack.
The potato chip activity is one of several thermodynamics lesson plans published in Real Life Examples in Thermodynamics, one of the topical areas covered by the National Science Foundation’s ENGAGE project. The overarching goal of ENGAGE is to increase the retention rate of undergraduate engineering students by using strategies that improve the educational experience during the first and second years, when students are most vulnerable to switching out of engineering. The program draws on the results of studies that have shown that the use of everyday examples to illustrate theoretical concepts has a powerful impact upon students’ satisfaction with, and perseverance in, engineering.
Pakala received a mini-grant through the ENGAGE program to implement Everyday Examples in Engineering (E3s) in his thermodynamics class. This fit right in with an earlier ENGAGE minigrant he had received with fellow mechanical engineering lecturer Sarah Haight, focused on increasing faculty-student interaction. Other activities he has used in his Thermodynamics class include: • Using a tire gauge to measure the pressure in a bicycle tire
• Using mobile devices to find the current outdoor temperature, and then converting that reading to different temperature scales
• Discussing open and closed systems and the properties of pure substances while brewing and drinking coffee
• Demonstrating a steam engine to explain energy conversion
• Illustrating the process of entropy by making a pile of inflated balloons and watching them drift apart
Students had plenty of opportunities to weigh in on Pakala’s choice of activities. Each week he handed out index cards with a problem to solve on one side and their opinions about how the class was going on the reverse (all anonymous). Feedback from mid-term evaluations showed an overwhelmingly positive response for the E3s and lots of comments asking for more Everyday Examples.
Pakala recently was recognized as an “E3 Hero” in the ENGAGE project newsletter, where he was quoted as saying, “When difficult concepts are put in simple layman terms, I remember those forever. I was hoping that doing [everyday examples] with my students would mean that they would remember the concepts even beyond graduation.”
According to the ENGAGE website, there are three types of Everyday Examples in Engineering (E3s): lesson plans and solutions; demonstrations (including directions for building and using the demonstrations); and lists of engineering ideas that could be used to illustrate engineering concepts.
E3s are examples that demonstrate concepts based on objects and ideas with which students are familiar, like exploding soda cans, musical instruments, salt-water taffy, bicycles or avalanches. Not surprisingly, these types of examples are more successful at getting students’ attention than the more traditional examples such as steel beams and pressure vessels.
So the next time you’re looking for ideas to engage your students, give Krishna Pakala a call. You might just get a bag of potato chips out of it. Find out more about the ENGAGE program at www.engageengineering.org
College of Engineering Newsletter | Fall 2013
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Alumni News Sonya Shawver Christensen, MS ECE, 2012, RF Engineer at CradlePoint Inc.
Civil Engineering Brad Reavy, CE 2003, Owner of Sawtooth Structural Engineering Meghan Malloy Slupe, CE 2006, Design Engineer at Shoemaker & Haaland Professional Engineers in Iowa. Joe Lane, CE 2007, Structural Engineer at DC Engineering, and his wife, Ashley
Shilo McCrory, MSE 2009, Demolition Contractor in Phoenix, AZ Chris Stifter, MSE 2012, Materials and Process Engineer at Zodiac Aerospace
Computer Science Teresa Triolo, CS 2006, Firmware Engineer at Hewlett Packard
Curt Osborne, CM 2002. Regional Manager for ACCO Engineered Systems
Rick Everton, ME, 1998, Mechanical Engineer PE at Engineering Consultants, Inc. in Boise
Jose Lepe, ME 2004, Mechanical Design Engineer for Cardiac Rhythm Management Division at St. Jude Medical in CA
Mike Foran, CM 2004, Senior Project Manager at Energy 1 in Bozeman, MT
Seth Kuhlman, MSME 2007, Praxis Resources in Arizona
Joshua Legg, CM 2004, Project Manager/Project Controller at Henkels & McCoy
Daniel Feeser, ME 2010, Maintenance Engineer at Fiberon LLC
Electrical & Computer Engineering Jon Cole, MS ECE 2007, Firmware R&D Engineer at Preco Electronics Mike Owen, MS ECE 2007, Software Engineer at JST Manufacturing Harsh Mantri, ECE 2008, IT Project Manager - Bed Bath & Beyond Corporate HQ in Union, NJ
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Dustin Hilgert, CM 2008, and Brett Bishop, CM 1998, Project Managers at RSCI Sam Campbell, CS 2013, Developer at Clearwater Analytics
Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering
Construction Management Jessica Aguilar, CM 1997, D.L. Evans Bank in Corporate Real Estate & Construction
Kelly Riley, CS 2001, and his brother Casey Riley, ECE 1997, First to File
Materials Science & Engineering Mariela Bentancur, MSE 2008, Project Facilities Engineer at Chevron
The Alumni Homecoming BBQ on October 19th
Mike Rippee, ME 2010, Hardware Engineer at Hewlett Packard Matt Forest, ME 2012, Development Engineer at Rekluse Motor Sports
College of Engineering Newsletter | Fall 2013
Eamonn Harter, ME 2006, Cimarron Technology and Craig Brasher, ME 2006, AHJ Engineers Ben Hawkes, ME 2004, and Carl Coombs, ME 2004, ConAgra Foods
Steven Parker, ME 2006, Director for Research and Development at Performance Design, and family Jerry Belmont, ME 2013, Metalcraft and his wife, Monica
Jason Logan, CE 2003, Power Engineers, Jeff Ward, CE 2003, CSHQA, Laila Maqbool Kral, CE, LHTAC, Brandon Logan, CE 2006, Kiewit, Yvette Barrios, ME 2003, Hewlett Packard Anthony Guho, CM 2009, Guho Corp, Tyler Resnick, CM 2009, McAlvain Construction
Ian Morse, ME 2010, EIT at L&S Engineering Derek Reis, ME 2010, Reticle Engineer at Micron Technology
Doug Kellis, MS MSE 2011, Micron Technology and his wife, Jean
Alumni represented at the annual COEN Career Fairs!
Nick Church, CE 2007, Superior Steel Products, Inc. and his wife, Shannon
Alumni Notes
We want to stay in touch. Please send your updates to Leandra Aburusa-Lete at laburusa@boisestate.edu
R U Following Us? Boise State College of Engineering
https://www.facebook.com/pages /Boise-State-College-ofEngineering/286253614738328
BSUEngineering
http://twitter.com/BSUEngineering
Matthew Leslie, EE 2007, Micron Technology, and family
Boise State College of Engineering Related Blogs
http://coen.boisestate.edu/blogs/
High Performance Computing Continued...
Presentations at the 2013 EarthCube program included topics in data management, interpretation, workflow, visualization and modeling — all geared toward projects using extremely large data sets.
It was an information-packed week for Umphrey, an avid paraglider who became interested in studying the science of the invisible currents that kept him aloft. Over the course of the week at EarthCube, he learned about tools such as Globus — super-sized file sharing software for securely moving large data sets — and VAPOR (Visualization and Analysis Platform for Ocean, atmosphere, and solar researchers), a sort of high performance Google Earth. He also got to meet Gordon, the SDSC’s data-intensive supercomputer. If you’re impressed by the 4 GB of flash memory in your MacBook, consider the fact that Gordon has more than 300 TB of high performance flash memory.
About the time that Umphrey was on his way to EarthCube, mechanical engineering senior Derek Wade was returning from an intense two weeks at the Argonne Training Program in Extreme Scale Computing. He was selected out of more than 150 applicants for the 60-person program, which was attended primarily by Ph.D. students and postdocs from Caltech, Stanford, MIT, national labs at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, and other high profile research institutions from around the world.
In classes that ran from 7:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m., Wade was immersed in hands-on training on the skills, methods and tools to design and implement computational science and engineering applications on current high-end computing systems. As part of their training, students were given access to some of today’s most powerful supercomputing resources, such as Argonne’s IBM Blue Gene/Q systems (Vesta and Mira), Oak Ridge’s Cray System (Titan), and Georgia Tech’s 264-node cluster (Keeneland).
Starting with architecture, Wade moved on to programming languages, algorithms and smart code writing, all with an eye toward the next generation of computing systems. His key takeaway was learning techniques for smarter programming and streamlined workflow. And just as Umphrey discovered in San Diego, there are special file formats for data intensive operations, and tools like Globus for sharing large data sets with collaborators.
Senocak already plans to integrate into his teaching some of the things that Umphrey and Wade learned over the summer. In Spring 2014, ME 571/471, Parallel Scientific Computing, will explore visualization of simulation data and parallel computer programming an emerging hardware.
Bilbo Baggins may have been able to answer Gollum’s riddle, but as Boise State’s wind researchers are learning, it takes computational fluid dynamics and a supercomputer to visualize which way the wind is really blowing.
Computer Chip Based on the Human Brain Continued...
“By mimicking the brain’s billions of interconnections and pattern recognition capabilities, we may ultimately introduce a new paradigm in speed and power, and potentially enable systems that include the ability to learn, adapt and respond to their environment,” said Barney Smith, who is the principal investigator on the grant.
The project’s success rests on a memristor – a resistor that can be programmed to a new resistance by application of electrical pulses and remembers its new resistance value once the power is removed. Memristors were first hypothesized to exist in 1972 (in conjunction with resistors, capacitors and inductors) but were fully realized as nano-scale devices only in the last decade.
One of the first memristors was built in Campbell’s Boise State lab, which has the distinction of being one of only five or six labs worldwide that are up to the task.
The team’s research builds on recent work from scientists who have derived mathematical algorithms to explain the electrical interaction between brain synapses and neurons.
CMOS-chip“By employing these models in combination with a new device technology that exhibits similar electrical response to the neural synapses, we will design entirely new computing chips that mimic how the brain processes information,” said Barney Smith.
Even better, these new chips will consume power at an order of magnitude lower than current computing processors, despite the fact that they match existing chips in physical dimensions. This will open the door for ultra low-power electronics intended for applications with scarce energy resources, such as in space, environmental sensors or biomedical implants.
Once the team has successfully built an artificial neural network, they will look to engage neurobiologists in parallel to what they are doing now. A proposal for that could be written in the coming year.
Barney Smith said they hope to send the first of the new neuron chips out for fabrication within weeks.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CCF-1320987 to Boise State University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Researcher Aims to Use Waste Heat to Make Cars More Efficient
Yanliang Zhang wants to make vehicles more efficient by using a resource most people aren’t even aware of — the waste heat that results from the inherent inefficiency of engines when converting fuel into energy.
Zhang, an assistant professor with Boise State’s Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, is working on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The project, “Nanostructured HighTemperature Bulk Thermoelectric Energy Conversion for Efficient Automotive Waste Heat Recovery,” received $8 million from the DOE’s Vehicle Technology (VT) Program for a total period of four years.
College of Engineering Newsletter | Fall 2013
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College of Engineering Dean: AMY MOLL (208) 426-1153 amoll@boisestate.edu
The Engineering Residential College – Nearly a Decade of Community Engagement By Janet Callahan
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs: JANET CALLAHAN (208) 426-1153 janetcallahan@boisestate.edu Assistant Dean for Research & Infrastructure: REX OXFORD (208) 426-5744 roxford@boisestate.edu Development Director: DONALD MURRAY (208) 426-1422 donaldmurray@boisestate.edu
Civil Engineering Chair: MANDAR KHANAL (208) 426-3743 mkhanal@boisestate.edu
Computer Science Chair: TIM ANDERSEN (208) 426-5767 tim@cs.boisestate.edu
Construction Management Interim Chair: ROBERT HAMILTON (208) 426-3764 rhamilton@boisestate.edu
Electrical & Computer Engineering Chair: SIN MING LOO (208) 426-2283 smloo@boisestate.edu
Instructional & Performance Technology Chair: DON STEPICH (208) 426-1312 dstepich@boisestate.edu
Materials Science & Engineering Chair: PETER MÜLLNER (208) 426-5639 petermullner@boisestate.edu
Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering Chair: MICHELLE SABICK (208) 426-4078 msabick@boisestate.edu
Top Row: Wan Kuang, Thad Welch, Amy Moll, Sondra Miller, Krishna Pakala Bottom Row: Janet Callahan, Lucy Home to more than 160 first-year students since 2005, the Engineering Residential College (ERC) is a Living Learning Community (LLC) at Boise State University for first-year engineering, computer science and construction management students. The LLC Program enriches student learning through direct connection with faculty who bridge academic and personal life and foster interdisciplinary inquiry. The LLC program is administered through Housing and Residential Life, and overseen by Melissa Wintrow, Assistant Director for Residence Education.
When Boise State University established LLCs in 2004, the College of Engineering moved quickly to support the initiative, and the first two years of the ERC were supported by faculty coordinators. In 2007, Sondra Miller, associate professor with the Department of Civil Engineering, became the first live-in Faculty in Residence. Nearly a decade later, four more faculty members have contributed, with a fifth already approved for the 2014-15 academic year. The community has also been supported by several extremely dedicated program assistants and resident assistants.
The Faculty in Residence have been joined in their campus experiences by their families, including spouses, a teenager, a preschooler and even family pets. A big draw is the ERC's current location in Taylor Hall, adjacent to the Boise River Greenbelt. In addition to the apartment for the Faculty in Residence, the floor accommodates 18 first-year students in single rooms arranged in suites.
Each year, the ERC has grown in terms of the scope of its community engagement. Between four and five hundred volunteer hours are generated annually by the ERC on community service activities that have included: · Habitat for Humanity;
· Reforestation Project (planting sage and bitterbrush in burn zones);
· Fundraising for the Rose Beal Legacy Garden at the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial;
· Discover Engineering Day (an annual outreach event attended by thousands in the community); and
· Botanical Gardens accessibility ramp (with the Construction Management Association student club).
By 2015, when the program will complete its first decade, nearly two hundred students will have enjoyed the community of being an ERC member. For students and faculty alike, it is an experience of a lifetime.