2018 Swanson School of Engineering Annual Report

U A

R T

+ +

L E T T E R

F R O M

ooking back on my first year as the Swanson School’s U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering, I am in awe at this school’s history and the potential future ahead of us.

This has been a year of learning and growth for me, but also of tremendous accomplishments for the Swanson School itself. I am also inspired by some of the milestones over nearly two centuries that have us poised on the edge of a transformative future. • In 1846, J.B. Stilley and Isaac Motley were the first students to graduate in engineering from Western University of Pittsburgh, under the tutelage of Lemuel Stephens, Pitt’s first engineering professor. • The tragedy of the Civil War also reshaped Pittsburgh. Its nascent manufacturing industry provided munitions and supplies to the Union Army, but the war also advanced technology at breakneck speed. In 1867, Military Science and Civil Engineering was established as the first department by trustees. • Samuel Pierpont Langley, who was hired as director of Allegheny Observatory in 1867, conducted the first engineering research at Pitt. His contributions set the foundations for solar research and the new field of aerodynamic engineering. • George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla grounded Pittsburgh as the Alternating Circuit front in the “Battle of the Currents” against Thomas Edison. And it was Westinghouse who recruited Reginald Fessenden, the father of radio, to create the University’s first electrical engineering program in 1893 – the same year Westinghouse bathed the Chicago World’s Fair in electric light. • Also in 1893, William Hunter Dammond was a senior studying civil engineering. He would become the University’s first African American graduate and the inventor of innovative railroad safety systems. • One of many significant partnerships between engineering and industry was formed in the 1920s when the School of Engineering engaged with Westinghouse to create the first graduate cooperative program. Today our co-op program partners with more than 300 companies throughout the U.S. • Fast forward to 1961 – Elayne Arrington became the first Black woman to graduate from the School of Engineering. In 1974, she earned her PhD in math – the 17th Black woman in the country to do so. But prior to that she was one of history’s “Hidden Figures” who worked at Wright-Patterson during the Space Race.

T H E

D E A N

• Dr. John Swanson, our namesake, after leaving Westinghouse started his own business to create a new computer modeling system, ANSYS, now ubiquitous at engineering schools and companies worldwide. • And most recently, Dr. Wanda Austin, who earned master’s degrees in systems engineering and mathematics from Pitt, was the first woman and African American to lead the University of Southern California as interim president. These are just some of the incredible touchpoints in the history of the Swanson School of Engineering where we made incredible headlines. This annual report gives you a taste of just some of those stories from the past year. But what will our next headlines be? And how can you help? I have been and continue to be tremendously impressed by the initiative and accomplishments of our faculty, students and staff. They are part of the community that includes more than 27,000 alumni worldwide who are proud to call themselves “Pitt Engineers.” Every day they create the headlines that would make our founders proud. We need to leverage the strength of that greater community to build a more vibrant, dynamic and even revolutionary engineering program at Pitt – one that establishes itself as the University’s academic and research powerhouse. We’ve made headlines since the first engineering graduates in 1846, almost 175 years ago – and we’ll make even bolder headlines in the months and years to come. Making those headlines requires thought leaders from throughout our community, and so I encourage you to share with me your ideas for a greater Swanson School of Engineering. How will your headline contribute to our history? Hail to Pitt!

James R. Martin II U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering

T A B L E

O F

C O N T E N T S

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Paul Kovach Director of Marketing and Communications

Matt Cichowicz Communications Writer

Bioengineering

Chemical and Petroleum

Civil and Environmental

Electrical and Computer

Industrial

MANAGING EDITOR

Carey Anne Zucca Senior Executive Director of Development and Alumni Affairs DESIGN

Leslie Karon-Oswalt Senior Graphic Designer

Mechanical and Materials Science

Office of Diversity

Distinguished Alumni Award

Awards and Honors

Statistics

Adam Reger Contributing Writer (p.28) Leah Russell Content Manager/Editor PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY

John Altdorfer Ric Evans

ENGINEERING.PITT.EDU

TWITTER.COM/PITTENGINEERING

FACEBOOK.COM/PITTENGINEERING

YOUTUBE.COM/PITTENGINEERING

The information printed in this document was accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of printing and is subject to change at any time at the University’s sole discretion. The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution. 07/2019

engineering.pitt.edu

B I O E N G I N E E R I N G

High-Risk, High-Reward Research on magnetically activated engineered cells attracts prestigious NIH funding

uring graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Warren Ruder wondered if it might be possible to genetically engineer cells to respond to magnetic fields. When implanted in the body, cell-based therapies could then be fine-tuned by exposing a patient to a magnetic field. Though the necessary technology to pursue this project did not exist at the time, Ruder has found himself back in Pittsburgh a decade later with diverse training, advanced technology, and a significant NIH award to now further his original idea at the Swanson School of Engineering. Ruder, assistant professor of bioengineering, was one of 58 researchers awarded $1.5 million with the competitive and prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. Established in 2007 under the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, the award supports “exceptionally creative scientists proposing high-risk, high-impact research,” according to the NIH. Ruder’s research group works at the interface of biology and engineering to create new biomimetic systems that provide insight into

“ We hope to make scientific discoveries and create technologies that can be applied to biomedical interventions and successfully regulate disease pathways.” biological phenomena while also serving as platform technologies for future medical applications. He plans to combine his backgrounds in synthetic biology and biomimetics for this project titled “Creating Magnetically Inducible Synthetic Gene Networks for Cell and Tissue Therapies.”

“Pitt and its surrounding environment have allowed me to move from a focus on engineering bacteria, which has been straightforward for synthetic biologists for over a decade, to engineering mammalian cells,” said Ruder. “Now, my lab is moving beyond engineering bacteria species that live in our guts and focusing on the actual human cells that make up our bodies.”

Ruder’s background in biomechanics and biomimetics started as an inaugural trainee in the Joint Pitt-CMU Biomechanics in Regenerative Medicine Training Program in 2005, where he learned to manipulate the cell environment, particularly with magnetics.

This NIH-funded project combines the skills he learned in his previous training and appointments with the goal of reprogramming mammalian cell behavior, incorporating magnetics and magnetic field manipulation. “In this project, we will design and build mechanical protein scaffolds that will be inside of the cell, and upon application of a magnetic field, these scaffolds will morph and control the cell’s behavior,” explained Ruder.

“During my graduate studies, I learned how to use magnetic tensile cytometry – a form of magnetic tweezers – to place very small forces on the membrane of mammalian cells,” said Ruder. “I was also introduced to biomimetics and learned to create microscale and nanoscale systems – such as lab-on-a-chip or microfluidic devices – that mimic cellular environments.”

An advantage to Ruder’s strategy is that magnetic fields may be able to reach places that similar technology cannot. “A complimentary approach is optogenetics where researchers use light to manipulate cellular behavior,” said Ruder. “One of the advantages of using a magnetic field, particularly if you can manage the challenge of concentrating it, is that it can penetrate the body where light may not be able.

Ruder took this training and continued his scientific career as a postdoctoral research associate in Boston where he joined the lab of Jim Collins, PhD, a founder of synthetic biology. In Collins’ lab, he learned to manipulate genetic circuitry to reprogram and put new functions into cells.

“We hope to create structures that could regulate multiple downstream pathways, creating a new class of magnetically activated transcription factors as opposed to membrane-bound channels,” said Ruder.

Ruder later received his first faculty position at Virginia Tech where he combined his research experience from Pittsburgh and Boston to pioneer the use of synthetic biology with robotics. His team engineered living bacteria to command and control a robot and mimic the connection between a gut microbiome and an animal host. They also engineered a nutrient-producing bacteria designed for an organ-on-a-chip system that mimics a gut.

Ruder’s short-term goal is to build the system and instrumentation for the project. His long-term, ultimate goal is to regulate a pathway and work with collaborators at Pitt to explore the effects of these tools on diseased organs, such as the heart or lungs. Ruder said, “We hope to make scientific discoveries and create technologies that can be applied to biomedical interventions and successfully regulate disease pathways.” +

After four years honing his research, Ruder decided to make a change and return to Pittsburgh.

Coming Into

CUS

ur local environments are full of moving objects, but when we look at them, our brains can take around 5060 milliseconds to put together an image. How does our vision compensate for that lag in time when the world around us keeps moving?

Neeraj Gandhi, professor of bioengineering, received funding to explore that question by comparing the neural mechanisms of eye movements directed to stationary and moving objects. He leads the Cognition and Sensorimotor Integration Laboratory which investigates neural mechanisms involved in the multiple facets of sensoryto-motor transformations and cognitive processes. In this project, the group uses eye movement as a model of motor control. The National Institutes of Health awarded Gandhi $1.5 million to develop experimental and computational approaches to study the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Neural Control of Interceptive Movements.â&#x20AC;? The team will record the activity of neurons in the superior colliculus, which is a layered structure in the midbrain and a central element in producing saccadic eye movements. They will simultaneously compare the spatiotemporal properties of the neural activity at different speeds and directions during saccades to stationary and moving targets. They will then integrate these results in a computational neural network model that simulates the neural signals and their contributions in producing both types of eye movements. +

Helping Stroke Survivors

One Step at a Time

major issue in rehabilitation robotics is that devices such as exoskeletons and treadmills correct patients’ movements only while they are using the device. Gelsy Torres-Oviedo, assistant professor of bioengineering and director of the Sensorimotor Learning Lab, hopes to change that.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Torres-Oviedo leads a research team that uses rehabilitation robotics and motion capture cameras to study “locomotor learning.” That’s the ability of a patient with an impaired gait to adapt their walking patterns and learn new movements. This research has broad impact for public health because it aims to guide the use of technology for effective gait rehabilitation after stroke, which is the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States. “We’re very interested in understanding the factors that determine that specificity in learning and how we can manipulate them. We want to help patients retain what they’ve learned and carry it over to their daily living,” says Torres-Oviedo. The ultimate goal is to use quantitative tools to characterize in a very systematic way the impairments that every stroke survivor has and tailor the intervention. + Originally published in NSF Science Nation

Pictured are Pablo Iturralde (left) and Gelsy Torres-Oviedo (middle) recording a participant for their study. 5

C H E M I C A L

A N D

P E T R O L E U M

Coming Full Pitt ChemE research group is one of five winners of international Circular Materials Challenge

ach year more than eight million tons of plastics pollute the ocean, forming mammoth, so-called “garbage patches” via strong currents. Even with new collection methods, only 0.5 percent out of that volume is currently removed from the seas. One solution to this growing crisis is to prevent plastic from becoming waste to begin with – and researchers from the Swanson School of Engineering are one of five international teams awarded for their novel solutions to this problem.

Associate Professor Sachin Velankar. The group was one of two winners in Category 1: “Make unrecyclable packaging recyclable,” and proposes using nano-engineering to create a recyclable material that can replace complex multi-layered packaging – mimicking the way nature uses just a few molecular building blocks to create a huge variety of materials. “Over the past few years I had noted with interest that industries such as automotive, home appliance, and even aluminum cans were transforming their business models from traditional products to services, where goods are designed to be recovered and reused,” Dr. Beckman said. “By contrast, the paradigm of the chemical industry has, for 150 years, been short lifetime and single use. In fact, one study found that the United States only recycles nine percent of its plastic waste, well behind Europe (30 percent) and China (25 percent).1

At the 2018 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and NineSigma announced the winners of the Circular Materials Challenge, each of which will receive a $200,000 share of the $1 million prize. Together with the winners of the earlier $1 million Circular Design Challenge, these innovations will join a 12-month accelerator program in collaboration with Think Beyond Plastic, working with experts to make their innovations marketable at scale.

“Since simple plastics are composed of molecules that can be manipulated to perform various functions, I wondered whether we could transform a molecule from a product to service, with the most interesting applications of this being textiles and packaging.”

The Pitt team represents the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and includes Eric Beckman, Distinguished Service Professor and Co-Director of the University’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, Assistant Professor Susan Fullerton, and 6

Circle According to Beckman, current packaging layers for food products and drink containers are made of several different materials that are responsible for maintaining freshness, blocking UV light, holding inks for labeling, etc. Because the initial manufacturing process, the layers cannot be easily separated and therefore cannot be recycled.

“Creating recyclable packaging is one of the toughest challenges if we want to create a true circular economy in the U.S., since tens of millions of tons of packaging waste go straight to the landfill each year,” Dr. Beckman said. “We hope that our design not only can set a new standard for high-performing and recyclable plastics, but will stimulate people to think about other ways in which we can transform molecular products to services by mirroring nature and taking advantage of nanostructure building blocks.” +

The Pitt team’s solution is to alter the nano-structure of polyethylene – simple plastic – to mimic the properties of other complex materials (such as PET, EVOH, or even aluminum) in current laminate packaging. Since the basic chemistry of each layer would remain polyethylene, the packaging can then be collected with other plastics and recycled using traditional methods, removing it from the waste stream.

Illustration above shows packaging such as juice pouches are made with bonded layers of metal such as aluminum, and different types of plastic, making them almost impossible to recycle. Because only 1-3 percent of such packaging is collected for recycling, food and beverage containers are among the top 5 items found on beaches and coastlines. To solve this problem, the University of Pittsburgh researchers propose manipulating polyethylene molecules to design layers that can each perform a specific function, creating a fully recyclable PE product. (Illustration: henkel-diagrams.com)

The importance to reducing and reusing plastic is clear: according to the foundation’s 2016 New Plastic Economy report, by 2050 oceans are expected to contain more plastics than fish (by weight), and the entire plastics industry will consume 20 percent of total oil production, and 15 percent of the annual carbon budget.

1“Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean.” Science 13 Feb 2015: Vol. 347, Issue 6223, pp. 768-771. DOI: 10.1126/science.1260352

Vouching for Vonnegut

n Kurt Vonnegut’s sci-fi classic “Cat’s Cradle,” ice-nine is a substance capable of raising water’s melting point from 32 to 114.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Once in contact with water, it spreads instantly and indefinitely, leaving frozen oceans and chilling consequences in its wake. Luckily, as Vonnegut explains in the epigraph, ‘Nothing in this book is true.’ However, Assistant Professor John Keith and colleagues have discovered the fantastic behavior of a liquid polymer capable of freezing water at room temperature. The resulting mixture seemingly defies the second law of thermodynamics, which states that within an isolated system, entropy always increases. “That disorder almost always causes mixtures to have a lower freezing point than either of the components individually, not higher,” explains Keith, who is also the Richard King Mellon Faculty Fellow in Energy.

The researchers published their findings in the American Chemical Society (ACS) journal Macromolecules (DOI: 10.1021/ acs.macromol.8b00239).

A mixture of salt and water, for example, freezes at lower temperatures than either salt or water individually. This quality makes salt well-suited for melting ice on roads and sidewalks in the winter. However, when a particular polymer known as polyoxacyclobutane (POCB) is mixed with water, it raises the mixture’s freezing point from 32oF to about 100oF.

The researchers have already collaborated with Alexander Star in Pitt’s Department of Chemistry to coat a nanotube electrode with the polymer to turn it into a computer memory device, with results published in the ACS journal Chemistry of Materials (DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b00964). +

Computing Catalysts

olyisobutylene (PIB) is a workhorse polymer that is found in a multitude of products, ranging from chewing gum, to tires, to engine oil and gasoline additives. Although commercially produced in large quantities since the 1940s, PIB chemistry was a mystery – scientists weren’t sure how the reaction mechanism that creates the polymer happens at the molecular level, which limited further potential. However, a collaboration between the Swanson School of Engineering and Wickliffe, Ohio-based Lubrizol Corporation has unlocked the secrets of PIB’s reaction mechanism. The group’s findings were published in the journal ACS Catalysis (DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.8b01494). Principal investigator is William Kepler Whiteford Professor Karl Johnson. Funding for the research was provided by Lubrizol, which in 2014 established a $1.2 million strategic partnership with the Department

and Swanson School to jumpstart research innovation that also offers opportunities for undergraduates to participate. “PIB is an incredibly versatile polymer. It can have many different properties depending on how it is made. There are many different ‘recipes’ for making PIB, each employing different catalysts and reaction conditions, but it turns out that no one really knows what is happening at the molecular level. Finding out what is going on is important because it is harder to control a process that you don’t understand.” Solving this catalytic puzzle is of interest to Lubrizol, which specializes in ingredients and additives for polymer-based products. Utilizing the University’s Center for Research Computing to analyze the molecular processes, the Pitt/Lubrizol group found that the assumed reaction mechanism was not correct and that initiation of the reaction requires a “superacid” catalyst.

“These findings provide fundamental insight into the PIB reaction mechanism that could potentially be used to design different catalysts and to control the reaction – and hence, the potential range of products – in ways that are currently not possible,” Johnson said. “This project shows the value of creating academic/industrial partnerships to pursue research that might not be possible if pursued independently.” The research group included students Yasemin Basdogan, Bridget S. Derksen, and Minh Nguyen Vo; Assistant Professor John A. Keith, the R.K. Mellon Faculty Fellow in Energy; and Lubrizol researchers Adam Cox, research chemist, Cliff Kowall, technical fellow of process development, and Nico Proust, R&D technology manager. +

Pictured above is a representation of the superacid catalyst, discovered by the Pitt/ Lubrizol team and the PIB polymer chains. (Minh Nguyen Vo/Johnson Research Group)

C I V I L

A N D

E N V I R O N M E N T A L

Fishy Chemicals in Farmed Salmon Carla Ng goes against the current to show livestock feed, more than location, can accurately predict toxic chemicals in food

ersistent organic pollutants – or POPs – skulk around the environment threatening human health through direct contact, inhalation, and most commonly, eating contaminated food. As people are becoming more aware of their food’s origin, new research at the University of Pittsburgh suggests it might be just as important to pay attention to the origin of your food’s food. The American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology featured research by Assistant Professor Carla Ng on the cover of its June 19 issue.

“ PBDEs can act as endocrine disruptors and cause developmental effects. Children are particularly vulnerable.”

Dr. Ng tracked the presence of a class of synthetic flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which were once a popular additive to increase fire resistance in consumer products such as electronics, textiles, and plastics (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b00146). “The United States and much of Europe banned several PBDEs in 2004 because of environmental and public health concerns,” she explained. “PBDEs can act as endocrine disruptors and cause developmental effects. Children are particularly vulnerable.” The Stockholm Convention, an international environmental treaty established to identify and eliminate organic pollutants, listed PBDEs as persistent organic pollutants in 2009. Despite restrictions on their use, PBDEs continue to be released into the environment because of their long lifetime and abundance in consumer goods. They are particularly dense in areas such as China, Thailand, and Vietnam that process a lot of electronic waste and do not regulate much of their recycling. “The international food trade system is becoming increasingly global in nature and this applies to animal feed as well. Fish farming operations may import their feed or feed ingredients from a number of countries, including those without advanced food safety regulations,” she explained. Most models to predict human exposure to pollutants typically focus on people in relation to their local environment. Ng’s model compared a variety of factors to find the best predictor of PBDEs in farmed salmon, including pollutants inhaled through gills, how the fish metabolized and eliminated pollutants, and of course, the concentration of pollutants in the feed. Ng said the model could be modified and applied to other fish with high global trading volumes such as tilapia or red snapper. It could also be used to predict pollutant content in livestock or feeds produced in contamination “hot spots.” She also believes it could inform contamination control strategies such as substituting fish oils for plant-based materials or taking measures to decontaminate fish oil before human consumption. +

MINING THE DATA

lthough Pennsylvania’s vast coal resources have been mined since before the creation of the United States, protection of the environment from the effects of mining have slowly evolved and expanded since the Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act of 1945. Act 54 of 1994 amended the Commonwealth’s mining statutes to include a new set of repair and compensation

provisions for structures and water supplies impacted by underground mining.

and responds to the concerns of individuals and industry.

Under the Act 54 amendments, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is required to assess the implementation of the new repair and compensation provisions every five years. Since 2009 the University of Pittsburgh has helped to mine the data that shapes how the Commonwealth conducts this assessment

Funded by DEP and the U.S. Department of the Interior, an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by the University of Pittsburgh has begun the fifth report on “The Effects of Subsidence Resulting from Underground Bituminous Coal Mining on Surface Structures and Features and on Water Resources: Fifth Act 54 Five-year Report.” The $794,205 contract includes a comprehensive review of the built and natural environments impacted by long- wall, room-and-pillar, and retreat mining methods from August 21, 2013 – August 20, 2018. Principal investigator for the fifth report is Daniel Bain, assistant professor of geography and environmental engineering at Pitt and Faculty Fellow in Sustainability, and co-PI is Anthony Iannacchione, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. Investigators from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History are Stephen Tonsor, director of science and research, as well as John Wenzel, director of the museum’s Powdermill

The New Standards of Sustainability Leanne Gilbertson takes a “systems approach” to designing nanotechnologies for agriculture

I Nature Center, and Powdermill’s aquatic entomologist Andrea Kautz. “Thanks to this regular review, the DEP has adjusted assessment focus to evolve from basic structures to water, then streams, then wetlands, taking a deeper look at the watershed as a whole,” Dr. Bain said. “The challenge is collecting sometimes limited data from various resources, as well as new types of data such as the interaction between groundwater and streams. This process is an evolving territory for everyone involved, from the Commonwealth and mining companies to public interest groups and NGOs, but it is vital research that has a tremendous impact on environmental remediation and restoration.” The fifth report, due August 20, 2019, will include sections on impacts to structures, water supplies, groundwater, streams, wetlands, and a list of recommendations presented to the Governor, General Assembly and Citizens Advisory Council, as well as through public hearings in Harrisburg and California, Pa. +

n 1948, Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Müller received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the insecticide properties of organochlorine dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, or DDT. Many heralded it as a “miracle chemical” capable of protecting people from diseasecarrying insects. Twenty-four years later, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, established by President Richard Nixon, banned DDT for threatening the environment, especially birds of prey, and human health.

Volume 5 Number 5 May 2018 Pages 1047–1254

Environmental Science Nano rsc.li/es-nano

ISSN 2051-8153

“DDT is interesting because it effectively eradicated serious diseases like typhus and malaria but was banned after later realizing its adverse impacts,” said Assistant Professor Leanne Gilbertson. “There are many examples of new technologies that aren’t so ‘green’ when you consider the entire product life cycle such as compact fluorescent lights that rely on toxic mercury for energy-efficiency gains, solar panels made with finite and rare metals, or electric cars charged by electricity generated from coal.” PERSPECTIVE Leanne M. Gilbertson et al. Life cycle considerations of nano-enabled agrochemicals: are today’s tools up to the task?

Gilbertson’s research group takes a “systems approach” to new technologies to determine their impact on the environment from production to disposal. Her research team published a review (DOI: 10.1039/c7en00766c) in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Environmental Science: Nano featuring some of the ways nanotechnology might enhance agriculture sustainability, so long as designers and developers of these innovative solutions see the forest for the trees. “In sustainable engineering, our goal is to consider lasting effects when designing new technologies rather than narrowly focusing on the intended benefit,” Gilbertson said. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts a 34 percent increase in world population and about a 70 percent required increase in food production by 2050. The increased demand for food will affect the entire supply chain including farmers, manufacturers, processors, suppliers, retailers, and consumers. Each individual stakeholder only provides a snapshot of new technology’s impact on the environment, but taking a systems approach forces you to account for the full picture. +

E L E C T R I C A L

A N D

C O M P U T E R

Pitt in

SPACE “ Space is the ultimate challenge, where systems face big-data demands in an extreme environment…"

omputer and electrical engineers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering got a sneak peek at their new space supercomputer as it finished final integration testing before heading to the International Space Station (ISS). The photos, taken by an engineer at NASA Kennedy Space Center, show the Space Test Program-Houston 6 (STP-H6) pallet featuring a hybrid and reconfigurable space supercomputer developed at Pitt. The spaceflight computer is the first of its kind and is supported by dual high-resolution cameras capable of capturing five megapixel images of Earth. “This new research experiment and testbed is called Spacecraft Supercomputing for Image and Video Processing, or SSIVP,” explained Dr. Alan George, the Mickle Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Space is the ultimate challenge, where systems face big-data demands in an extreme environment with limited power, size, and weight. Our SSIVP system represents a leap forward for highspeed computing in space.” Dr. George is the founder of the National Science Foundation Center for Space, Highperformance, and Resilient Computing (SHREC). The research center focuses on “missioncritical computing,” a field of ECE that includes

Pictured is the SSIVP system at the University of Pittsburgh (left) and a close-up of the system on the STP-H6 pallet (right, edited for clarity) at NASA Kennedy.

space computing, high-performance computing and data analytics, and resilient computing to ensure system dependability at high speed and low power in harsh environments like outer space. The STP-H6 pallet, including Pitt’s SSIVP system, completed integration and testing at NASA Johnson Space Center in Texas last spring. Further environmental testing took place at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia over the summer of 2018. “We collaborated with a team of Pitt mechanical engineers led by Professors Dave Schmidt and Matthew Barry to design and build our enclosure to meet NASA requirements,” said George. “They managed mechanical design challenges and ensured the system was safe and could dissipate heat generated by the high-performance electronics.” A team of ECE students assembled the SSIVP enclosure and electronics in a cleanroom at the Spacecraft Assembly Lab at SHREC. The enclosure, a golden outer case emblazoned with the Pitt script, can be seen in the middle of the pallet.

Credit: (left) Swanson School of Engineering; (right) NASA

The SSIVP team traveled to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland to conduct environmental testing to assess the SSIVP payload’s ability to survive the vibrations of launch and the thermal vacuum of space. The team also traveled to NASA Johnson to integrate and validate the SSIVP payload on the STP-H6 pallet and NASA Langley Research Center to program and validate the final flight software. “We handled testing for the power systems to characterize our payload and ensure conformance with NASA and Department of Defense standards,” said

Nicholas Franconi, an ECE PhD student on the SSIVP team. “We delivered and integrated the SSIVP payload this past spring and are excited to see it launch in spring 2019.” +

Editor’s Note: The STP-H6 payload was successfully launched on May 4, 2019 and delivered to the International Space Station.

Finding Big Data Solutions for Complications from Anesthesia

he National Science Foundation awarded $1,182,305 to Heng Huang, the John A. Jurenko Professor in Computer Engineering, to support research into using machine learning and Big Data to analyze electronic anesthesia records and prevent postoperative complications and death. The study will analyze more than two million cases of anesthesia data taken from 303 UPMC clinics and treatment centers. “A human doctor uses guidelines from manuals in combination with subjective experience to determine patients’ risk factors and needs,” said Huang. “We are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop an objective way to predict surgical outcomes based on historical patient data.” Huang is collaborating with University of Pittsburgh co-principal investigators Dan Li, assistant professor in the School of Nursing, and Fei Zhang, certified registered nurse anesthetist in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. The research team will design new deep learning algorithms and software to mine patient data and identify common risk factors in patients about to receive anesthesia. They will then develop a “decision support system” to better inform doctors when patients are at high risk for post-operative complications and in-hospital mortality. +

Designing a Creative Spark

Sometimes a learning environment needs to not only be inspiring, but also “electrifying.”

he Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s new Design Education Laboratory combines cutting-edge technology with a sleek, contemporary design to reflect the modernization of the department.

“The new lab is our showcase, not just for its looks but also the functionality,” said James Lyle, ECE department technology lead. “The space brings together everything an electrical and computer engineer can do. It provides an environment for our students to gain the knowledge and experience to build things on their own.” Located on the 12th floor of Benedum Hall, the lab serves as a classroom, a meeting place for workshops and study space. The facility is open 24 hours and gives students access to a variety of tools and equipment. Features include: • Custom-designed work benches • Testing equipment (soldering stations, power supplies, multimeters, oscilloscopes, etc.) • Five smart TVs • Clean, wireless workspaces Professors and instructors can use the smart TVs during their lessons and demonstrations, and students can use them to facilitate group projects. They are fully accessible by students for wireless pairing with their smart phones, laptops or other devices. +

I N D U S T R I A L

Making a Transparent Flexible Material of Silk and Nanotubes Pitt researchers find that nanotube interactions with silk fibroins hold the key to developing flexible, degradable electronics

he silk fibers produced by Bombyx mori, the domestic silkworm, has been prized for millennia as a strong yet lightweight and luxurious material. Although synthetic polymers like nylon and polyester are less costly, they do not compare to silk’s natural qualities and mechanical properties. And according to research from the Department of Industrial Engineering, silk combined with carbon nanotubes may lead to a new generation of biomedical devices and so-called transient, biodegradable electronics. The study, “Promoting Helix-Rich Structure in Silk Fibroin Films through Molecular Interactions with Carbon Nanotubes and Selective Heating for Transparent Biodegradable Devices” (DOI: 10.1021/ acsanm.8b00784), was featured on the October 26 cover of the American Chemistry Society journal Applied Nano Materials. “Silk is a very interesting material. It is made of natural fibers that humans have been using for thousands of years to make high quality textiles, but we engineers have recently started to appreciate silk’s potential for many emerging applications such as flexible bioelectronics due to its unique biocompatibility, biodegradability and mechanical flexibility,” noted Mostafa Bedewy, assistant professor and lead author. “The issue is that if we want to use silk for such applications, we don’t want it to be

in the form of fibers. Rather, we want to regenerate silk proteins, called fibroins, in the form of films that exhibit desired optical, mechanical and chemical properties.” These regenerated silk fibroins (RSFs) however typically are chemically unstable in water and suffer from inferior mechanical properties, owing to the difficulty in precisely controlling the molecular structure of the fibroin proteins in RSF films. Bedewy and his NanoProduct Lab group, which also work extensively on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), thought that perhaps the molecular interactions between nanotubes and fibroins could enable “tuning” the structure of RSF proteins. “One of the interesting aspects of CNTs is that, when they are dispersed in a polymer matrix and exposed to microwave radiation, they locally heat up,” Bedewy explained. “So we wondered whether we could leverage this unique phenomenon to create desired transformations in the fibroin structure around the CNTs in an “RSF-CNT” composite.” According to Bedewy, the microwave irradiation, coupled with a solvent vapor treatment, provided a unique control mechanism for the protein structure and resulted in a flexible and transparent film comparable to synthetic polymers but one that could be both more sustainable and degradable. These RSF-CNT films have 18

potential for use in flexible electronics, biomedical devices and transient electronics such as sensors that would be used for a desired period inside the body ranging from hours to weeks, and then naturally dissolve. “We are excited about advancing this work further in the future, as we are looking forward to developing the science and technology aspects of these unique functional materials,” Bedewy said. “From a scientific perspective, there is still a lot more to understand about the molecular interactions between the functionalization on nanotube surfaces and protein molecules. From an engineering perspective, we want to develop scalable manufacturing processes for taking cocoons of natural silk and transforming them into functional thin films for next generation wearable and implantable electronic devices.”+

The cover illustrates a new approach for creating helix-rich RSF films based on molecular interactions between the protein molecules and carboxyl-functionalized surfaces of a small quantity of added carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Local heating of CNTs using microwave irradiation (depicted here as glowing red) then leads to the formation of helical conformations in fibroins near the CNTs. (Randall McKenzie/ McKenzie Illustrations)

October 2018 Volume 1 Number 10 pubs.acs.org/acsanm

www.acs.org

Using Video Games to Unlock New Levels of Artificial Intelligence

xpectations for artificial intelligences are very real and very high. An analysis in Forbes projects revenues from A.I. will skyrocket from $1.62 billion in 2018 to $31.2 billion in 2025. The report also included a survey revealing 84 percent of enterprises believe investing in A.I. will lead to competitive advantages. “It is exciting to see the tremendous successes and progress made in recent years,” said Assistant Professor Daniel Jiang. “To continue this trend, we are looking to develop more sophisticated methods for algorithms to learn strategies for optimal decision making.” Jiang designs algorithms that learn decision strategies in complex and uncertain environments. By testing algorithms in simulated environments, they can learn from their mistakes while discovering and reinforcing strategies for success. To perfect this process, he and researchers in his field require simulations that mirror the real world.

Julie Shields Named 2018 National Co-op Student of the Year

One strategy for preparing advanced A.I. to take on real-world scenarios and complications is to use historical data. For instance, algorithms could run through decades’ worth of data to find which decisions were effective and which led to less than optimal results. However, researchers have found it difficult to test algorithms that are designed to learn adaptive behaviors using only data from the past. Video games, as an alternative, offer rich testing environments full of complex decision making without the dangers of putting an immature A.I. fully in charge. Unlike the real world, they provide a safe way for an algorithm to learn from its mistakes. “We designed the algorithm to evaluate 41 pieces of information and then output one of 22 different actions, including movement, attacks and special moves,” he explained. “We compared different training methods against one another. The most successful player used a method called Monte Carlo tree search to generate data, which is then fed into a neural network.” Dr. Jiang published his research in a paper co-authored with Emmanuel Ekwedike and Han Liu and presented the results at the 2018 International Conference on Machine Learning in Stockholm, Sweden. +

ecognizing her exceptional performance at FedEx Supply Chain, graduating senior Julie Shields was selected as the 2019 National Co-op Student of the Year by the Cooperative Education and Experiential Division (CEED) of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh on December 9, 2018 after completing three, four-month rotations with FedEx Supply Chain. During her third rotation, Shields played a critical role in a competitive bid with a major company. Based on her performance during her first two rotations, she was trusted to represent FedEx during the initial phases of the bid process. Impressed by her success, she was selected as lead engineer on the project and developed plans for a new one million square foot building with automation. This design helped secure a win for the company. Within FedEx, Shields received two Bravo Zulu awards, which is the second highest performance award at the company. She was extended an offer to join FedEx Supply Chain and started as a project engineer in January 2019. Within the Swanson School, Shields participated in the Freshman Engineering Conference as co-chair and mentored 10 freshmen students during their second semester. She was also involved in Pitt’s Students Consulting for Non-profit Organizations, a group that allows students to provide consulting work to organizations around the Pittsburgh area for free. +

M E C H A N I C A L

A N D

M A T E R I A L S

S C I E N C E

A Better Way to Capture

lthough the use of renewable energy is on the rise, coal and natural gas still represent the majority of the United States energy supply. Even with pollution controls, burning these fossil fuels for energy releases a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in the U.S. alone, coal and natural gas contributed 1,713 million metric tons of CO2, or 98 percent of all CO2 emissions from the electric power sector in 2017.1. In an effort to mitigate these effects, researchers are looking for affordable ways to capture carbon dioxide from power plant exhaust. Research led by the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) uses microcapsule technology that may make post-combustion carbon capture cheaper, safer, and more efficient.

“Our approach is very different than the traditional method of capturing carbon dioxide at a power plant,” said Assistant Professor Katherine Hornbostel. “Instead of flowing a chemical solvent down a tower (like water down a waterfall), we are putting the solvent into tiny microcapsules.”

abundant than conventional solvents. Cost and abundance are critical factors when you’re talking about 20 or more meter-wide reactors installed at hundreds of power plants.” Hornbostel explained that the small size of the microcapsule gives the solvent a large surface area for a given volume. This high surface area makes the solvent absorb carbon dioxide faster, which means that slower absorbing solvents can be used. “This is good news,” says Hornbostel, “because it gives cheaper solvents like baking soda solution a fighting chance to compete with more expensive and corrosive solvents.”

Similar to containing liquid medicine in a pill, microencapsulation is a process in which liquids are surrounded by a solid coating. “In our proposed design of a carbon capture reactor, we pack a bunch of microcapsules into a container and flow the power plant exhaust gas through that,” said Hornbostel. “The heat required for conventional reactors is high, which translates to higher plant operating costs. Our design will be a smaller structure and require less electricity to operate, thereby lowering costs.”

Hornbostel detailed her model in Applied Energy, “Packed and fluidized bed absorber modeling for carbon capture with micro-encapsulated sodium carbonate solution” (DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.11.027).

Conventional designs also use a harsh amine solvent that is expensive and can be dangerous to the environment. The microcapsule design created by Hornbostel and her collaborators at LLNL uses a solution that is made from a common household item.

“Our proposed microcapsule technology and design are promising for post-combustion carbon capture because they help make slowreacting solvents more efficient,” said Hornbostel. “We believe that the decreased solvent cost combined with a smaller structure and lower operating cost may help coal and natural gas power plants maintain profits long-term without harming the environment.” +

“We’re using baking soda dissolved in water as our solvent,” said Hornbostel. “It’s cheaper, better for the environment, and more

Illustrated is the proposed design of a carbon capture reactor filled with baking soda capsules for a 500 MW coal power plant. Power plant exhaust is sent to hundreds of cylinders packed together (shown on right). Each cylinder (shown on left) is a hollow cylinder that lets exhaust gas flow through the core, then out through a packed bed of capsules.

Discovering Surface of an “Ultra-smooth” Nanomaterial Steeper than Austrian Alps

eople can usually tell if something is rough or smooth by running their fingers along its surface. But what about things that are too small or too big to run a finger over? The earth looks smooth from space, but someone standing at the foot of the Himalayas would disagree. Scientists measure surfaces at different scales to account for different sizes, but these scales don’t always agree.

Dr. Jacobs and his team’s research appeared in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b09899). They took more than 100 measurements of the diamond film, combining conventional techniques with a novel approach based on transmission electron microscopy. The results spanned size scales from one centimeter down to the atomic scale.

New research from the Swanson School of Engineering measured an ultrananocrystalline diamond coating, prized for its hard yet smooth properties, and showed that it is far rougher than previously believed. Their findings could help researchers better predict how surface topography affects surface properties for materials used in diverse environments from microsurgery and engines to satellite housings or spacecraft.

The ultimate goal is to have predictive models of how roughness determines surface attributes such as adhesion, friction or the conduction of heat or electricity. Dr. Jacobs’ breakthrough is the first step in an uphill, and very steep, battle to create and validate these models. +

“One important measure of the ‘roughness’ of a surface is its average slope, that is, how steep it is,” said Assistant Professor Tevis Jacobs. “We found that the surface of this nano-diamond film looks wildly different depending on the scale you’re using.” 24

A Structured Solution

sing additive manufacturing (AM) to fabricate complex components from metal is fairly straightforward – the process requires sintering layers of powders together, which requires support structures to maintain the component’s structural integrity during printing. Unfortunately, removing these supports is not only expensive, but can also be difficult-toimpossible if the supports are located in the interior of the component. This limits the adoption of AM by industries such as nuclear energy, which rely on cost-effective manufacturing of complex components. To find an effective solution to these complex processes, the Swanson School of Engineering will be the lead investigator on a $1 million award to advance design and manufacture of nuclear plant components via AM. The award is part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy’s Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) program. The novel research will be directed by Associate Professor Albert To and co-investigator Wei Xiong, assistant professor, with Owen Hildreth, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Corporate collaborators in Pittsburgh include Curtiss-Wright Corporation and Jason Goldsmith at Kennametal Inc. “Many gaps still remain in the scientific understanding of additive manufacturing, most especially the optimization of the assembly process while reducing build failure and cost,” Drs. To and Xiong explained. “By integrating dissolvable supports, topology optimization, microstructure design, we have an opportunity to drastically reduce post-processing costs for AM components, while ensuring manufacturability of designs with complex internal features like those needed in the nuclear industry.” The Pitt Award is one of five NEET Crosscutting Technologies projects to address crosscutting nuclear energy challenges that will develop advanced sensors and instrumentation, advanced manufacturing methods, and materials for multiple nuclear reactor plant and fuel applications. +

O F F I C E

O F

D I V E R S I T Y

INVESTING NOW in Tomorrow’s Engineering Future

or a third consecutive year, the EQT Foundation awarded the Swanson School of Engineering’s INVESTING NOW Female Empowerment Mission (FEM) a $15,000 grant to fuel an ongoing commitment to provide enhanced, specialized opportunities for female high school students. At the Swanson School, The FEM program will focus specifically on engaging students in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). “The EQT Foundation is proud to provide continuing support for the University of Pittsburgh’s INVESTING NOW Female Empowerment Mission,” said Charlene Petrelli, president of the EQT Foundation. “Supporting diverse education initiatives in the areas where we operate is a priority for EQT, and it is our hope that by participating in this program, these young women will work to create change and a continued understanding of the role women have in STEM careers.”

“These funds will help us carry out programming designed to further inspire and encourage young women’s interest and participation in STEM fields,” added Alaine Allen, the Swanson School’s Director of Educational Outreach and Community Engagement and the INVESTING NOW program. Three main objectives of the FEM program are to: • increase the number of female participants interested in pursuing STEM fields, • increase the number of female graduates choosing to major in STEM fields, • and increase the confidence and knowledge of the young women entering college to pursue STEM majors. The EQT grant will help support monthly workshops led by female professionals, college students, and faculty in STEM fields. The workshops will include guest

speakers who will share their knowledge and personal experiences and engage students in discussions and activities to help the students understand the significance of pursuing STEM majors and careers. “The high school students will also have the opportunity to share their personal stories and preconceptions about STEM careers and other STEM-related experiences,” Dr. Allen added. She and the Pitt INVESTING NOW team have a variety of other strategies planned that will benefit from the EQT funding and help achieve the FEM program objectives. They include: • field trips designed to expose the students to STEM fields and provide more opportunities for the students to interact with professional STEM women; • visits to colleges and universities to learn more about their respective STEM programs and enrollment

requirements and to speak with faculty and students in these programs; • attendance at regional or national diversity conferences to allow participants to network with female professionals who serve as role models in STEM fields; • and two special outreach projects that will enable college students to provide mentoring and STEM exposure to girls in the Pittsburgh area. “For the outreach projects, we will connect with a local school districts or community-based organizations to identify opportunities to bring INVESTING NOW FEM participants to young girls in the community who would most benefit from their mentorship,” explained Dr. Allen. +

D I S T I N G U I S H E D

A L U M N I

A W A R D

Wesley C. Pickard, BSMIN â&#x20AC;&#x2122;61 From the beginning, planning for the future has defined the career of Wesley Pickard

s a student at Pittsburgh’s Taylor Allderdice High School, Pickard was captivated by the space race between America and the Soviet Union.

Pickard’s job drew upon both his sharp grasp of technical details and his advanced knowledge of financial and economic concepts. His work for the Air Force, for example, predicted the failure of key aircraft parts, allowing leaders to order spare parts in a timely fashion, while also helping the Air Force’s financial managers ensure that sufficient funds were available to keep its fleet combat ready.

“At the time, we’re talking the 1950s, Sputnik and all that, everybody said the place to be was engineering, particularly if you had good science and math,” Pickard says. “Engineering was kind of automatic.”

“My role at Synergy evolved over time due to the growth of the company,” Pickard says. He served as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and President during his 33-year tenure at Synergy.

Enrolling at the University of Pittsburgh was just as automatic. Pickard grew up with the Cathedral of Learning visible from his family’s front porch in Greenfield. He remembers going to Pitt football games at eight years old with an aunt, the first in his extended family to attend college. Years later, when Pickard was in high school, that same aunt convinced Pickard to serve as Santa Claus for a holiday reception in the Commons Room.

During that time, the five-person company Pickard had joined in 1972 grew to more than 200. When the company was sold in 2005, Synergy’s annual revenue was approximately $25 million. Pickard retired when Synergy was sold, and has kept busy volunteering on the boards of a D.C.-area theater group and an education nonprofit.

“I had to pad up,” Pickard says, laughing. “I wasn’t very good.” At Pitt, Pickard intended to study petroleum engineering until a presentation on the extraction process swayed him toward mining. He switched majors and left Pitt committed to a mining industry career.

He’s also lent his considerable talents and expertise to giving back to Pitt. Pickard has served as a Board Member of the Pitt Alumni Association (2007–2011) and on the Executive Committee (2007–2008). In 2012, he received the Pitt Volunteer of Excellence award, and in 2017 was named a “Significant Sig” by Sigma Chi Fraternity, which Pickard joined while at Pitt and of which he remains an active alumnus.

“I had the engineering background, and I figured I should understand some of the business side of the industry,” says Pickard. He earned a master’s degree in mineral economics from The Pennsylvania State University. Pickard is quick to credit his time at Pitt for providing the “quantitative foundation” for his later work.

Pickard has also supported the university through the establishment of a scholarship for Washington, D.C.-area students attending Pitt, and the Wesley Pickard Fellowship. His strong philanthropic support led to Pickard’s induction, in 2016, into the Cathedral of Learning Society, which honors the University’s most generous alumni.

Pickard began his professional career with Bethlehem Steel, America’s second-largest steel producer. After several years at the company, Pickard foresaw that growth and advancement at Bethlehem Steel would be difficult. He decided to pursue a business degree at the University of Chicago, which boasted one of the premier business and economics programs. At Chicago, Pickard earned a Master of Business Administration and completed the coursework and exams for a PhD in economics.

“It was just kind of automatic that when you have opportunities like I’ve had, giving back seemed like a natural thing to do,” Pickard says. “I want to make the same opportunities available for people who have the same kind of need that I had. I probably wouldn’t have been able to go to any of those schools without a lot of financial help. I felt it was important to me to help students in similar positions of need.”

In 1972, Pickard was one of the first hires at a new company, Synergy, Inc., aimed at providing strategic planning analysis and technology solutions for defense operations and logistics.

Pickard was “stunned” when he learned he would receive the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award. “I have great respect for Dean Gerald Holder, so the fact that he had something to do with my being named makes this honor especially meaningful,” Pickard says. “Dean Holder did enormous things for the Swanson School of Engineering in his many years as dean, and to have that recognition from him is hard to top.” +

At the Washington, D.C.-based firm, Pickard conducted strategic and economic analyses for clients, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and the U.S. Air Force.

A W A R D S

Faculty

A N D

H O N O R S

Stephen Badylak, professor of surgery and bioengineering at and deputy director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine, was named one of 148 renowned academic inventors elected as fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded to academic inventors. To be chosen for this honor, fellows must demonstrate a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. In recognition of his contributions to the field of nanomanufacturing, Mostafa Bedewy, assistant professor of industrial engineering, was named a 2018 recipient of the Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). The Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award is given to exceptional young manufacturing engineers (35 years old or younger) from academia and industry for their contributions in manufacturing. Recipients are selected based on work in emerging manufacturing applications, technical publications, patents, and academic or industry leadership. Melissa Bilec, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and deputy director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, was the recipient of the 2018 Swanson School of Engineering Faculty Diversity Award. Bilec was selected for creating a positive and inclusive academic environment, participation in diversity related initiatives, and diversity enrichment within the community.

Pictured on the left is Albert To receiving the Carnegie Science Award for Advanced Manufacturing and Materials. 30

Renee Clark, research assistant professor of industrial engineering, and Sam Dickerson, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, were recipients of an Innovation in Education Award from the Provost’s Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence (ACIE). The awards support faculty proposals which aim to reinvent traditional classroom instruction. Clark and Dickerson are developing active learning programs to promote critical thinking and improve knowledge retention in engineering classrooms. Richard Debski, professor of bioengineering, with Volker Musahl, chief of sports medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Kang Kim, associate professor of medicine; and Gerald Ferrer, a bioengineering PhD candidate, received a $25,000 award from the Pitt Innovation Challenge (PInCh) to help develop a new technology that predicts tendon overuse and prevents injury. Debski and bioengineering faculty colleagues Lance Davidson and Jonathan Vande Geest were inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows, which is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers, and membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.”

Susan Fullerton, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, was one of five recipients of the 2019 Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Fullerton and the awardees were recognized for “extraordinary contributions through their research programs and demonstrate a commitment to move their fields forward.” The American Society of Safety Engineers elected Joel M. Haight, associate professor of industrial engineering, to its 2018-19 Board of Directors as a Director-At-Large for a three-year term. Gerald Holder, professor and dean emeritus, received the Distinguished Service Award from the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers (PSPE) – Pittsburgh Chapter for his contributions to the engineering profession and his legacy in engineering education. Karl Johnson, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, served as Meeting Program CoChair of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting from October 28 to November 2. Serving with him was Cliff Kowall, Senior Technical Fellow in the Process and Development Department and the Corporate Engineer at The Lubrizol Corporation in Wickliffe, Ohio. More than 5,600 chemical engineers gathered in the Steel City to attend the. The meeting, which took place at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, marks the second time Pittsburgh hosted the professional society in six years. Assistant Professor Susan Fullerton served as General Arrangements

Chair and helped to make the conference more accommodating for nursing mothers and families. Amenities included private nursing rooms and events for children on Halloween. In the future, Dr. Fullerton would also like to facilitate onsite childcare.

biomedical devices for tissue engineering. He also serves as a consultant at local industryleading organizations, including America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, which is managed by the NCDMM, and The Ex One Company.

Robert Kerestes, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, was a recipient of a Provost’s Personalized Education Grant for projects with studentcentered approaches to “enhancing education through tailored engagement in educational activities that reflect each student’s unique identities, experiences, interests, abilities, and aspirations.” Kerestes is developing a mobile application to match students with nearby tutors based on availability, qualifications, and distance.

The Controlled Release Society named Steven Little as the recipient of its 2018 Young Investigator award. The honor annually recognizes one individual in the world, 40 years of age or younger, for outstanding contributions in the science of controlled release. Little focuses on novel drug delivery systems that mimic the body’s own mechanisms of healing and resolving inflammation. He was also recipient of the 2018 Pittsburgh Section ACS Pittsburgh Award for his service and commitment to the field of chemistry, with particular emphasis on his efforts to reinvent chemical engineering education in the Pittsburgh area.

The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers honored Jeff Kharoufeh, professor of industrial engineering, with the award of Fellow for his outstanding contributions to serving and advancing the field of industrial engineering. A Fellow is the highest classification of IISE membership. The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) awarded its highest honor, the Lawrence J. Rhoades Award, to Howard A. Kuhn, adjunct professor of industrial engineering. NCDMM established the Lawrence J. Rhoades Award to honor the memory of Mr. Rhoades, one of the founding fathers of the NCDMM, and his entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to the advancement of manufacturing processes was known industry-wide. Kuhn teaches manufacturing, product realization, entrepreneurship, and additive manufacturing, and conducts research on additive manufacturing of

Civil Engineering Associate Professor John Oyler was awarded the Michael A. Gross Meritorious Service Award by the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The award recognizes a lifetime of work and commitment to the civil engineering profession and is selectively bestowed, sometimes between spans of several years. In recognition of his excellence in teaching and development of its Art of Making program, the Swanson School of Engineering presented Joseph Samosky, assistant professor of bioengineering, with its 2018 Outstanding Educator Award. In the Art of Making course, students apply innovative methods to solve real-world problems while gaining hands-on experience with cuttingedge technologies including robotics, smart systems, and user interfaces.

Ervin Sejdic’, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was among eleven University faculty members to be recognized with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching, Research and Public Service Awards. Sejdic’ was selected for his work establishing the field of signal processing for swallowing accelerometry, and for significant contributions to multisystem quantification of the human gait. He also participated in the sixth annual ArabAmerican Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine symposium, presented by the US National Academy of Sciences and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, presenting his research on the use of modern data analytics tools to develop computational biomarkers to track diseases.

Gelsy Torres-Oviedo, assistant professor of bioengineering, presented a plenary lecture at the 2018 Advances in Motor Learning and Motor Control symposium. The annual meeting provides a forum for presenting research advancements in the areas of human motor behavior, imaging, motor neurophysiology, and computational modeling. Torres-Oviedo runs the Sensorimotor Learning Laboratory in the Swanson School of Engineering where she investigates the ability of the human motor system to adapt walking patterns and learn new movements upon sustained changes in the environment.

Inanc Senocak, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, was elected to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Class of 2019 Associate Fellows. His research interests include computational fluid dynamics, wind forecasting, parallel computing, turbulence modeling, cavitating flows, and atmospheric dispersion.

David A. Vorp, Associate Dean for Research and John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, was named a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA) in recognition of his innovative and sustained contributions in scholarship, education, and volunteer service to the organization. Vorp’s election was conferred by the Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology recognizing his achievements in cardiovascular research over the past 26 years.

Albert To, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, received the 2018 Carnegie Science Award for Advanced Manufacturing and Materials for his research in design optimization for additive manufacturing, multiscale methods, and computational mechanics. Honorable mentions included Gregory Reed, professor of electrical engineering and director of Pitt’s Center for Energy and the Energy GRID Institute, in the Innovation in Energy category; and the Investing Now program in the Leadership in STEM Education category.

William Wagner, director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and professor of surgery, bioengineering and chemical engineering, received the 2018 Inventor of the Year award by the Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Law Association. The award also recognizes the positive, significant economic impact the McGowan Institute has had within the western Pennsylvania region. Wagner, who has 26 issued patents and 27 additional patent filings, also co-founded Neograft Technologies, which is developing new

treatment options for coronary artery bypass surgery, and has raised over $34 million in funding. Savio L-Y. Woo, distinguished university professor emeritus of bioengineering and director of the Musculoskeletal Research Center (MSRC), was named an inaugural Fellow of the Orthopaedic Research Society. ORS Fellows are recognized for their significant contributions to the field of musculoskeletal research and the ORS. The Microscopy Society of America (MSA) inducted Judith Yang, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, into its 2018 class of Fellows. The MSA recognizes fellows as the most distinguished members of the Society who have made contributions to the advancement of the fields of microscopy and microanalysis. Yang’s citation for fellowship reads “For world leading research in gassurface reactions, especially oxidation, and catalytic reactions using innovative in situ electron microscopy techniques.” 01. Greg Reed (left) and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto (right) witness Danish Ambassador Lars Gert Lose sign the new energy partnership memorandum. 02. Lev Khazanovich, professor of civil and environmental engineering, prior to presenting his Provost's Inaugural Lecture with former Provost, Patricia Beeson. 03. Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and former Provost Patricia Beeson present Gerald Holder with the honor of Dean Emeritus. 04. Dean Emeritus Holder presents Melissa Bilec, Associate Professor and Roberta A. Luxbacher Faculty Fellow, with the Swanson School's Diversity Award. 05. Chancellor Gallagher awards Anna Balazs, Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and the John A. Swanson Chair of Engineering, with a medallion at her Inaugural Lecture with Provost Ann Cudd and Dean James Martin II.

Students

Group Awards American Institute of Chemical Engineers The Pitt ChemE Car Team, “The Volts Wagon,” finished in the top five at the Chem-E-Car Competition during the 2018 AIChE Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference at Princeton University. Their car also earned a spot in the National Chem-E-Car Competition.

Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Dina Perlic, Dwight D. Gardner Scholarship Regina Munsch, Harold & Inge Marcus Scholarship Julie Shields, Rack Manufacturers Institute/ John Nofsinger Honor Scholarship Marni Sirota, Marvin Mundel Memorial Scholarship

American Society of Civil Engineers

Dina Perlic, Southworth International Group, Inc. Honor Scholarship

For the third year, the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers was named the Region 2 Outstanding Chapter. The Pitt ASCE student chapter includes about 170 members from the undergraduate civil and environmental engineering program and interacts regularly with other student and professional chapters from ASCE Region 2, which includes Washington, DC, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and parts of northern Virginia. Judges select the regional winner of the Distinguished Chapter Award based primarily on activities recorded in the Student Chapter’s Annual Report.

Master Builders’ Association of Western Pennsylvania Scholarships

George Washington Prize

Sarah Hemler, bioengineering

Le Huang, bioengineering

Monica Fei Liu, bioengineering

Finalists Isaac Mastalski, chemical and petroleum engineering Adam Smoulder, bioengineering

Henry Phalen, bioengineering

Semi-finalists Jennifer Cashman, mechanical engineering and materials science Sean Justice, electrical and computer engineering

Alexander Citerone, first place Nicole Bell and Kate Lundy, second place tie

National Science Foundation Fellowships Abraham Charles Cullom, civil and environmental engineering Luke Drnach, bioengineering alumnus Angelica Janina Herrera, bioengineering

Megan Routzong, bioengineering Adam Lewis Smoulder, bioengineering Vani Hiremath Sundaram, mechanical engineering and material science Thomas Robert Werkmeister, engineering science alumnus

NSF Honorable Mentions Maria Kathleen Jantz, bioengineering Anthony Louis Mercader, mechanical engineering and material science Anthony Joseph O’Brian, chemical and petroleum engineering Zachary Smith, electrical and computer engineering Corey Williams, bioengineering alumnus

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers The Swanson School chapter was named National Outstanding Small Chapter of the Year for its efforts promoting diversity among students, advancing members academically and professionally, and encouraging students to engage with Hispanic culture.

Swanson School of Engineering Co-op Awards Student of the Year Julie Shields, industrial engineering, FedEx Supply Chain Finalist Xavier Strittmatter, chemical and petroleum engineering, Johnson & Johnson/McNeil Healthcare Co-op Tenacity Award Cole Burden, civil and environmental engineering, American Bridge

A New Generation of Award-Winning Entrepreneurs: From left: Dan Chi and Brandon Contino, co-founders of Four Growers, and Blake Dubé, Mark Spitz and Alec Kaija, co-founders of Aeronics.

Honorable Mentions Robyn Moyer, Electrical Engineering, ZOLL LifeVest Julia Marzocca, Mechanical Engineering, Nissan Sean O’Brien, Mechanical Engineering, Nissan Logan Higinbotham, Computer Science, ANSYS Jessica Rodgers, Mechanical Engineering, FedEx Ground Casey Kinol, Chemical Engineering, Lubrizol Abigail Wezelis, Computer Engineering, ANSYS Jenna Rudolph, Mechanical Engineering, Cleaveland/Price, Inc. Rushil Shah, Industrial Engineering, The Bank of New York Mellon Casey McBride, Bioengineering, Mine Safety Appliances

Co-op Employer of the Year Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc.

Hack This. Help Kids Pediatric Healthcare Hackathon Kids’ Choice Award Sailbot 2020 with Kaylene Stocking (bioengineering and computer engineering), Jay Maier (mechanical engineering), and Andrew Lobos (computer science student). Four Growers, an interdisciplinary group of students led by Dan Chi and Brandon Contino, won the $25,000 top prize at the Randall Family Big Idea Competition. The startup is developing a robotic system for harvesting tomatoes in commercial greenhouses. Four Growers was also one of two Pitt teams been accepted into the prestigious Rice Business Plan Competition.

The Robotics & Automation Society won three of six awards, including Highest Overall Score, at the American Venue of AUVSI Foundation’s International Aerial Robotics Competition. The collegiate competition challenges students to complete a mission described by founder Robert C. Michelson as “impossible at the time, but technically feasible.” Mission 7 required teams to demonstrate several autonomous drone behaviors while attempting to herd ground robots out of a designated area. The ground robots, which resembled Roombas, moved around a gymnasium floor and changed direction when a drone blocked their path or touched a button on its back. RAS also took home awards for Best System Design and Best Technical Paper. The combination of the technical paper, a presentation to judges, the drone design, and in-flight performance contributed to the award for Highest Overall Score in the robotics competition. Ali Behrangzade was awarded the Leonard H. Berenfield Graduate Fellowship in Bioengineering. Recipients of this award receive one year of funding for cardiovascular research performed in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. Behrangzade is currently pursuing a PhD in bioengineering under advisor Jonathan P. Vande Geest, professor of bioengineering and is developing functional tissue-engineered vascular grafts for coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The American Society of Civil Engineers Pittsburgh Section presented Charles (Chaz) Donnelly with the 2018 American Bridge Leadership Award, recognizing his impact on the Pittsburgh Section as well as his demonstrated leadership qualities in the civil engineering profession.

Bioengineering undergraduate Andrea Hartman and chemical engineering undergraduate Nadine Humphrey were admitted to the Vira I. Heinz Program for Women in Global Leadership (VIH). The VIH program provides funding for women who have never traveled internationally and prepares them for tomorrow’s global challenges. In addition to international experience, recipients are required to attend two leadership development retreats in Pittsburgh and “create a Community Engagement Experience” designed to use their new-found skills to impact their local community in a positive way. Erin Hunter and Nicholas Waters traveled to Lucca, Italy to present at the 2018 Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Biointerface Science with Tagbo Niepa, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering. Waters, a junior chemical engineering student, was granted a travel award by Pitt’s University Honors College to support his participation in the conference. His research focuses on understanding how bacteria interact with fluid interfaces. Hunter, a junior chemical engineering student, also spent her sophomore year in Niepa’s lab. Her research focuses on examining microbial dynamics in artificial confinements, referred to as microbial nanocultures. Ellen Martin, a senior bioengineering student, received an award for her research presented at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. The conference paper, “Characterizing the Required Friction during Ladder Climbing,” details her work on improving ladder safety and was selected as the best student paper by the Safety Technical Group at the meeting.

Martin works with Kurt Beschorner, associate professor of bioengineering, in the Human Movement and Balance Laboratory where part of their research aims to create safer occupational environments by investigating the mechanics behind slips, trips, and falls. The American Society for Artificial Internal Organs selected chemical engineering graduate student Alexandra May as a finalist for the Willem Kolff Award at its 64th annual meeting. The award, named after the late Dutch physician who invented the original artificial kidney, recognizes the top abstracts at each annual meeting. Bioengineering graduate student Tyler Meder was awarded first place among more than 40 participants at a poster session during the 7th annual Symposium on Regenerative Rehabilitation. Meder works on peripheral nerve repair research in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering under the supervision of Bryan Brown, assistant professor of bioengineering. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) selected Aryana Nakhai, an undergraduate electrical engineering student, as the recipient of its 2018 Lockheed Martin Corporation Scholarship for the 2018-19 academic year. SWE Scholarships recognize outstanding academic achievement and strong engineering potential, according to the SWE website. Recipients must be women admitted to accredited baccalaureate or graduate programs in preparation for careers in engineering, engineering technology, and computer science. The SWE Scholarship Selection Committee chose 2018 award recipients from a pool of more than 1,800 applicants.

Senior mechanical engineering student Joanna Rivero was one of four recipients of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Collegiate Award. NCWIT is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in computing starting from K-12 and continuing through their professional careers. This award recognizes technical projects that demonstrate a high level of creativity and potential societal impact. Samantha Schloder, an undergraduate in materials science and engineering, was awarded a WAAIME academic scholarship from the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME). The WAAIME Scholarship fund provides scholarships to students pursuing earth science degrees including mining, geological sciences, metallurgy, petroleum, mineral sciences, materials science and engineering, mineral economics, chemical engineering and other related studies. WAAIME (formerly known as the Women’s Auxiliary to the American Institute of Mining Engineers) was created for philanthropic work in local mining communities where members lived, providing service to the country, to the community and to provide scholarships. Stephanie Rigot, DPT, a physical therapy and bioengineering graduate student, received a Postdoctoral Clinical and Translational Science Fellowship. This competitive award provides a stipend and partial tuition support for up to two years of multidisciplinary clinical and translational research. Dr. Rigot is a member of the inaugural cohort of the Doctor of Physical Therapy/PhD in Bioengineering (DPT-PhD) dual-degree program, a unique offering that integrates clinical and research experiences

in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and the Swanson School of Engineering. Bioengineering graduate student Soroosh Sanatkhani was named the 2018 Wes Pickard Fellow by the Department of Bioengineering. Sanatkhani is involved in multiple cardiovascular research projects under the supervision of Sanjeev G. Shroff, Distinguished Professor and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair of Bioengineering, and Prahlad G. Menon, adjunct assistant professor of bioengineering. His primary research is focused on hemodynamics indices and shape-based models of the left atrial

appendage of the heart to enhance stroke prediction in atrial fibrillation. Bioengineering graduate student Ravi Vats was awarded an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship. The program will provide two years of support for his work with vaso-occlusive crisis among Sickle Cell Disease patients. Vats conducts research in Pitt’s Vascular Medicine Institute under the supervision of Prithu Sundd, assistant professor of medicine. His research aims to understand the primary reason for acute painful vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC), which contributes to cardiovascular abnormalities in Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) patients.

The Pitt Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers was well-represented at NSBE's 44th annual conference in Pittsburgh, March 21-25, 2018.

John Swanson PhD ’66 accompanied faculty and students on a Clean Energy Study Abroad venture to Scandinavia.

2 0 1 8

S T A T I S T I C S

Undergraduate Enrollment in the Swanson School 3,100 3,000 2,900 2,800 2,700 2,600 2,500 2,400 2,300 2,200 2,100 2,000 1,900 1,800 1,700 1,600 1,500 1,400 1,300

Engineering Endowment: Book and Market Value Increases Goal: $100 Million $200,000,000 $175,000,000 $150,000,000 $125,000,000 $100,000,000 2012

2014

2016

2017

2018

$75,000,000 $50,000,000

Graduate Enrollment in the Swanson School

$25,000,000

1,000

900

2012

800

2014

2016

Market Value

2017

2018

Book Value

700 600

Research Productivity in the Swanson School Research Expenditures ($ Millions)

500 400 2012

2014

2016

2017

2018

$100 $90 $80 $70

SAT Scores, Incoming First-Years, Swanson School

$60

1,450

$50

1,400

$40

1,350

$30 $20

1,300

$10

1,250

1,200

2013-14

1,150

2014-15

Interdisciplinary

1,100 1,050 1,000 2012

2014

2016

2017

2018

2015-16

School

2016-17

2017-18

Swanson School of Engineering 104 Benedum Hall 3700 Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hara Street Pittsburgh, PA 15261

engineering.pitt.edu