Syracuse Engineer Summer 2012

vol. 11

summer 2012

L.C. SMITH COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

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ON THE COVER New frontiers in wireless.

The future of communication lies in wireless technology.

The Summer 2012 issue of Syracuse Engineer explores how students, faculty and alumni of L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science are bringing the future to life today.

syracuse

engineer Dean Laura J. Steinberg, Ph.D.

Assistant Dean for College Advancement Steve Savage

Design Pinckney Hugo Group

Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Can Isik, Ph.D.

Assistant Dean for Student Recruitment Kathleen M. Joyce

Photography Steve Sartori Chuck Wainwright

Associate Dean for Research and Doctoral Programs Mark Glauser, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Student Affairs Julie Hasenwinkel, Ph.D.

visit us on facebook

Assistant Dean for External Relations Ariel DuChene Executive Editor Ariel DuChene Contributors Kathleen Haley Chris Powers Amanda Smith

Web Site www.lcs.syr.edu Contact engineer@syr.edu

Denise Hendee Ellen Robb Elizabeth Wimer

www.lcs.syr.edu

from thE dean As the world continues to connect, network, linkup, and find new ways to communicate and move data from source to user, we rely more and more on the technologies which make these movements of data possible. This issue of Engineer magazine highlights the research of L.C. Smith faculty working in wireless technology, an area at the heart of the continuing advances in communication capabilities.

Wireless technologies, based on the pioneering radio wave work of G. Marconi over 100 years ago, are today finding use in a wide variety of applications, from interpersonal communication devices like cell phones to tactical wireless networks for ensuring the safety of our troops on the battlefield. With these new technologies comes the need for researchers and teachers who are dedicated to finding ways to make systems work smarter and more reliably. Currently, LCS has six faculty members working in the area of wireless technology, five of whom have been awarded the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation. The sixth faculty member was just awarded the internationally recognized Judith A. Resnik award from the IEEE for his lifelong body of work in data fusion.

This year, as part of our annual Nunan Lecture and Research Day, we highlighted the great work these faculty are doing as well as celebrated the deepening culture of research at L.C. Smith. As we look to the future, we are proud of the leadership role the College is taking in exploring new frontiers of wireless technology and paving the way for future discoveries.

Laura J. Steinberg, Ph.D. Dean

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contents

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new frontiers

in wireless

senior design projects

faculty highlights

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research in cognitive radios

Keynote Speaker Bruce Fette at Nunan Lecture and Research Day

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Nunan Lecturer Offers a Glimpse at the Future of wireless Ray Freiwirth Discusses the Future of Wireless Technology

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Nunan winner highlights

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wireless faculty

spotlight

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yingbin liang

The PHY-Based Approach to Network Security

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jian tang

Unifying the Platform for Green Wireless Sensing

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biao chen

For Optimal Network, Ignore Interference ••••••••••••••••••••••••••

cow2

Converting Organic Waste into Savings

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herby

Mobile Palletizing System to Harvest Biomass

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lawnmower Autonomous Grass-Cutting System

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wheelchair

Redesign Improves Life for Youth with Cerebral Palsy

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Jeongmin Ahn Demonstrates Promise of Hydrocarbon Fuel Cells

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Sam Salem Garners National Attention for Wastewater Research ••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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tao cong

Modified Direct Delivery System for Cancer Drugs

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catheter

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bridge

Pedestrian Bridge Connects Past and Present ••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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student profile Alex Weiss is an NIH OxfordCambridge Scholar

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Grad Student Profile

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Information Security Practice makes perfect career for lcs alum

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alumni notes

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convocation Speakers Waleed Abdalati ‘86 and R.K. Anand ‘90

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stone canoe

development message

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L.C. Smith Sponsors Prize for Technology Writing

brad strait honored

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new frontiers

in wireless

The L.C. Smith Nunan Lecture and Research Day continues to grow and evolve over the years. This year the event was expanded thanks to a collaboration with the center for advanced systems and engineering (CASE) to address an area of research that impacts numerous aspects of our day-to-day lives, wireless technology. In addition to both a keynote address and featured lectures, the faculty of L.C. Smith was able to feature the research they are doing in this area of growing importance.

This year’s theme, Exploring New Frontiers in Wireless, gave faculty, staff, industry and the community the opportunity to come together and discuss new technologies and the challenges and opportunities that accompany them.

Nunan lecture and research Day is made possible thanks to a gift given in 2006 from the estate of Jim Nunan ’37 and his wife, Marge.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

research in cognitive radios better integrates land-, air- and sea-based communications.

Currently, the three do not operate on the same wave form or protocol because each system is optimized for its mission.

What is needed for one is not necessarily needed for the others. According to Fette, however, future communication systems should optimize within subnets and enable communications between subnets.

The technical challenges of achieving this include interoperability constraints, unreliable spectrum access, interference in urban areas, adapting to user mobility, and providing content to soldiers at affordable overhead and traffic. According to Fette, cross-layer adaptation is the key to performance and robustness and providing high capability and reliability at low cost. “Better radios alone cannot overcome challenges for dense deployment,” he said.

Bruce Fette

The keynote speaker at this year’s Nunan Lecture and Research Day was Bruce Fette, Ph.D., program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

His presentation, “Research in Cognitive Radios,” gave a thorough overview of both the current state and the future of wireless radio communication for military use.

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In addition to his role at DARPA, Fette has more than four decades of experience in the wireless industry that includes positions at Motorola and General Dynamics. He has 36 patents to his credit and received a Motorola Outstanding Contributor award and a Dan Noble Fellowship for his work in voice coding.

Since he joined DARPA in 2009, Fette’s work has focused on improving wireless communications, especially cognitive radios.

In this keynote address, he presented several projects currently in development at DARPA, in particular the Communications in Extreme RF Spectrum Conditions (CommEx) and Wireless Network after Next (WNaN). The goal of CommEx is to develop innovative technologies for interference suppression, while WNaN is a cutting-edge program that is designed to provide reliable and highly available battlefield communications at low system cost.

Fette provided his opinions regarding important directions in the future of defense communications. From a military perspective, the emerging operating environment is one that

While much of Fette’s speech was specific to the demands and constraints facing the military, many of the concepts he discussed also affect the industrial and consumer markets.

For example, consumer communication is hindered by the fact that roughly 50 percent of the land area in the United States is currently rural and poorly connected to existing cellular and wireless networks.

The demand for high-bandwidth access in consumer markets also presents challenges to the military use of wireless communication. The U.S. Department of Defense currently has no official statement permitting military communication devices to use Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) as a means to select between authorized and available frequencies. Given the projected density of wireless devices throughout the world and the increasing density of spectrum usage, it will become necessary to be more agile about spectrum usage. The military’s current practice of allocating clear spectrum for each equipment or each squad will become increasingly difficult as more and more devices compete for limited spectrum.

“Technologies that provide revolutionary increases in network spectral efficiency or use unencumbered spectrum are needed to address this problem,” Fette said.

Following his presentation, Fette participated in a panel discussion where he took questions from members of the enthusiastic audience. Along with Fette, the panel included Pramod Varshney, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Rashid Attar ’96, senior director of engineering, corporate research and development at Qualcomm Inc.

www.lcs.syr.edu

Nunan Lecturer Offers

Glimpse of Future meaning that they meet certain technical standards for transfer speed and reliability. It has taken just over 10 years to reach 1.6 billion, a number that is expected to double by 2016. By 2015, worldwide data transfer traffic is estimated to be between 10 and 12 times greater than it was in 2010. By 2020, it could be 1,000 times greater.

“The user’s vocal tone will suggest their mood, and the device

will recognize it.”

ray freiwirth

Ray Freiwirth

This year’s Nunan Lecture was presented by alumnus Ray Freiwirth ’75, patent counsel at Qualcomm Inc., a world leader in mobile technology. Freiwirth understands the wireless industry from multiple perspectives, having spent many years as an engineer before becoming a patent lawyer.

His presentation, titled “Pushing the Boundaries for a Future Wireless Communication Environment,” outlined the current status of the wireless industry and gave some hints as to what new technology is coming up in the not-sodistant future.

Freiwirth began his exploration of the future of wireless by providing an overview of the current state of the industry, saying, “You must know where you are in order to know where you are going.”

According to Freiwirth, more than 6 billion wireless connections currently exist worldwide. About 1.6 billion of those connections are third-generation (3G) connections,

From those figures, it is clear that the wireless industry is evolving quickly, a fact that is not lost on Freiwirth and his colleagues at Qualcomm. Freiwirth predicts a future where intelligent, connected devices will pervade. Such devices will provide real-time data and will be concept-aware, highly personalized and cloud-based.

Some devices today already meet those criteria, but Freiwirth sees things going even further. “No matter what the electronic device is, it’s better if it’s connected, even a refrigerator. Every device is better if it’s connected,” he said, predicting a future wireless environment where everything is connected and devices will be “personified” to organize the world around us.

For instance, devices will learn to anticipate the user’s needs and wants. “The user’s vocal tone will suggest their mood, and the device will recognize it,” Freiwirth said. In other words, the same vocal command will result in different suggested applications, according to the user’s perceived mood.

The world is not too far away from the next big leap forward technologically, Freiwirth said, but small improvements to existing technologies are just as important. “Foundational changes are rare,” he said. “Most problems that engineers solve are incremental. Those incremental changes are critical to making things better for everyone. The key is to put it into the hands of the people and then draw from it.”

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

Winners of 2012 Nunan Research Day

nunan winners A highlight of the Nunan Research Day is the annual graduate student poster competition. This year’s overall winner received $1,000 and departmental winners received $250. The research deemed to be most applicable to business and industry was given a $50 prize. Faisal Alobaid received the top prize for his poster presenting research on the optimal alignment of structured motifs, where the gaps between the motif boxes have known positions and known minimum and maximum sizes.

Congratulations to all the winners. Their names, abstract titles and advisors are:

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Faisal Alobaid, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (co-authors: Kishan Mehrotra, Ramesh Raina), “SMAlign: Alignment of DNA Sequences with Gap Constraints.”

Advisor: Chilukuri Mohan BIOMEDICAL AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING: Viswanathan Swaminathan, “Evaluating the impedance response of Ti-6AI-4V alloys under fretting conditions.”

Advisor: Jeremy Gilbert

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CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING: Afshin Pourmokhtarian (co-authors John L. Campbell, Katharine Hayhoe), “Identifying key indicators of forested watersheds’ responses to climate change and increasing CO 2 effects in the northeastern U.S. using a dynamic biogeochemical model (PnETBCG) and cross site analysis.”

Advisor: Charles T. Driscoll ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE (Two winners selected due to the large number of entries): Amit Ahlawat (co-authors Apoorva Iyer, Tongbo Luo, Paul Ratazzi, Vicky Singh, Yifei Wang, Xiao Zhang), “Android Genome Project: Understanding & Improving Smartphone Security.”

Advisor: Wenliang (Kevin) Du

Sijia Liu (co-author Engin Masazade), “Temporally Staggered Sensing for Field Estimation with Quantized Data in Wireless Sensor Networks.”

Advisor: Pramod K. Varshney MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING: Waleed A. Abdelmaksoud (co-author Thong Q. Dang), “Perforated Tile Models for Improving Data Center CFD Simulations.”

Advisor: H. Ezzat Khalifa PRACTICAL APPLICATION AWARD Viswanathan Swaminathan, “Evaluating the impedance response of Ti-6AI-4V alloys under fretting conditions.”

Advisor: Jeremy Gilbert Vijay Srinivas, senior director of corporate relations and technical alliances at Syracuse University, organized the panel of judges, which included these alumni and individuals from the business community: Timothy J. Cavanaugh, Ph.D., BASF Corporation; Raj Khare, Ph.D., Texas Tech; Patrick Magari, Ph.D., Creare Inc.; Warren Debany, Ph.D., Rome Air Force Research Laboratory; Paul Houpt, Ph.D., GE Global Research; and Swiatoslov Kaczmar, Ph.D., O’Brien & Gere.

www.lcs.syr.edu

Wireless

Faculty Spotlight L.C. Smith currently has six faculty members conducting research in the field of wireless networks. Of those six, five are former or current CAREER award winners. The sixth faculty member is Distinguished Professor Pramod Varshney, who was most recently recognized with the IEEE Judith A. Resnik Award for his pioneering work in wireless sensor networks.

As part of the focus on “New Frontiers in Wireless� for Nunan Lecture and Research Day, several of the faculty presented short overviews of their research in the field of wireless networks. Two of the members of this group are recent hires Mustafa Cenk Gursoy and Senem Velipasalar, who were profiled in the last issue. Highlighted on the next few pages are Yingbin Liang, Jian Tang, and Biao Chen.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

faculty

YINGBIN highlight LIANG Yingbin Liang is focused on three primary areas of research related to wireless networks. The first is a physical layer-based, or PHY-based, approach for wireless network security. Liang is especially interested in finding secure rate limits for information theoretic models and securing communication over wireless fading channels.

The PHY-based approach is particularly useful for the security of ad hoc wireless networks that feature dynamic componentry with a lack of centralized control.

Liang’s goal is to use the PHY-based approach to design a framework for multiple network layers, and to use such an approach as a tool for solving classic security problems, such as key development and secret sharing.

Her second area of research involves the development of reliable communication via network information theory.

Specifically, she is attempting to characterize the fundamental rate limits for broadcast channel, interference channel and relay channel models.

Assistant Professor 8

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science B.S. and M.S., physics, Tsinghua University Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign

Thirdly, Liang’s research concentrates on applications of machine learning for designing wireless networks. Liang is addressing communication and signal detection problems involved in larger networks by exploiting the methodology of probabilistic graphical models. She is working to develop distributive and efficient message-passage algorithms for developing high-efficiency protocols for these networks.

Before joining L.C. Smith in 2009, Liang was an assistant professor in the electrical engineering department at the University of Hawaii. She earned the highly competitive Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation in 2009, along with the State of Hawaii Innovation Award.

www.lcs.syr.edu

faculty JIAN TANG highlight Assistant Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Science B.S., M.S., Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications Ph.D., Arizona State University

Since joining the L.C. Smith faculty in 2010, Jian Tang has focused on two primary areas of research. The first is the development of a unified green platform for mobile phone sensing whereby mobile phones around the world can exchange data.

Essentially, Tang and his research team are trying to build on existing mobile sensing research to create a common platform whereby various sensing applications can be supported. Mobile phone sensors include internal sensors, such as built-in cameras, Wi-Fi interfaces, gyroscopes, global positioning systems and digital compasses, and external sensors, such as Bluetooth attachments.

The objective of this research is straightforward but daunting: to offer every person in the world a “third eye” to extend their senses to every corner of the world. Tang believes this seemingly overwhelming goal is possible.

The key to a successful sensing application, Tang says, is that users can define, specify, and input information about what they want to sense. In other words, the user defines the application that can then be deployed on the phones immediately.

Because the intent is to use a mobile phone for a function for which it is not specifically designed, sensing can cause the device’s battery to drain quickly. Energy efficiency is therefore critical. For example, current mobile sensing

technology is reliant on global positioning systems (GPS) to obtain a user’s location, but Tang is currently working to avoid the use of GPS because it consumes a large amount of battery power. Tang’s research so far has demonstrated 80 percent power savings using a cloud-assisted collaborative sensing approach.

Tang’s second area of research is one for which he earned a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation: leveraging smart antennas for WiMax-based mesh networking. The objective of this project is to provide a comprehensive networking solution for WiMax, an IP-based wireless broadband access technology intended for “metropolitan area networks” that are usable up to 30 miles from the source. (By contrast, the more commonly known “local area networks” are typically only usable up to 300 meters from the source.)

Tang’s research in this vein focuses on designing efficient algorithms to solve fundamental resource allocation problems, such as transmission scheduling, routing, and relay station placement.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

faculty biao chen highlight

Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Science B.S. and M.S., Engineering, Tsinghua University M.A., Statistics, University of Connecticut Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Connecticut

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Upon joining the faculty at L.C. Smith in 2000 following a postdoctoral stint at Cornell University, Biao Chen became interested in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), a method of encoding data on multiple-carrier communication systems. His work in that area led to an interest in wireless sensor networks, which he calls a good mixture of his backgrounds in both communication and signal processing.

One of his most outstanding research findings came a few years ago in the area of how to handle interference in wireless transmissions. Common wisdom says a network should try to eliminate interference. However, in a joint work with his student and a collaborator, it was established that it is actually optimal to ignore interference and simply treat it as noise. Chen says that this surprising result has further driven his interest in the effects of interference on wireless communication systems.

Since 2006, however, Chen has been primarily focused on researching problems involving information theory, studying the fundamental limits of communication systems. For example, Chen is especially interested in how fast a particular system can perform and the optimal level at which a system can operate before it fails.

Another of Chen’s research interests is statistical signal processing, which has applications in various current and emerging systems, including various wireless communication networks and wireless sensor networks. Among the current problems of interest are decentralized inference and information fusion, network information theory, and multi-input and multioutput (MIMO) communications.

www.lcs.syr.edu

senior design projects The senior design capstone courses at L.C Smith provide students with experience working on real-world projects that involve design constraints, budgets, reviews and deadlines. Highlighted are projects that exemplify the types of experiences the College strives to provide each student to best prepare them to meet the contemporary needs for engineers and computer scientists.

COW2 – Syracuse University biodigester in collaboration with Whitman students Herby – Mobile pelletizer for switchgrass in collaboration with Newhouse students SUMo – Award-winning Syracuse University autonomous mower

Rhys’ wheelchair – Modifications for wheelchair for 8-year-old boy with cerebral palsy Catheter – Modeling a new version of drug delivery catheter for entrepreneur Robert Goldman Skaneateles Bridge – Provide bridge solution for Skaneateles Historical Society

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

turning trash

THE IDEA Every calendar year, Syracuse University disposes of 300.6 tons of organic waste. To put that into perspective, the roof of the Carrier Dome weighs 220 tons. In 2009, members of the organization Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) initiated a project to find a way to create a more sustainable system for dealing with food waste on campus.

The group explored options and landed on the idea of building an anaerobic digester. Anaerobic digestion is a process in which microorganisms decompose organic matter in the absence of oxygen. As a result of this decomposition, biogas and sludge are produced as byproducts. The initial idea was that the methane gas created could provide the energy required to run the digester, and the sludge could be used to replace the fertilizer that SU buys each year to landscape on campus.

THE PROBLEM Initially, the SIFE students worked with SUNY ESF professor David Johnson to create a pilot anaerobic digester. They secured a small grant to support a graduate student in the summer who could test their idea. The promising results the students saw prompted them to pursue the creation of a large12 scale digester for campus.

It was at this point that the SIFE students realized they needed technical expertise to take this project to the next level. Their advisor, Professor Amanda Nicholson, reached out to Dean Laura J. Steinberg for help from the engineering students of LCS. Steinberg thought this would be a great opportunity for a senior capstone design project for the environmental engineering students. She connected Nicholson with Professor David Chandler to coordinate bringing the students together.

The first meeting of the SIFE and LCS students became the first of many learning experiences for both groups, and they tried to work out what needed to be done to scale up the anaerobic digester idea. The students met with SU’s vice president for sustainability initiatives, Shere Abbott, and she

revealed that she saw this project as potentially being a part of a larger idea for sustainability on campus.

The University wanted to explore incorporating a wind turbine and hydroponic greenhouse as part of the concept.

The hydroponic greenhouse will grow foods such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and peppers that will be used at the dining centers. Energy produced by the SIFE students with their pilot lab. wind turbine and anaerobic digester will be used to power the hydroponic greenhouse. At the same time, the liquid nutrients produced from the digester will be used in the greenhouse to grow some of the University’s food. When these three components are designed to work together, it will create a sustainable closed loop system of food production, consumption, and disposal.

www.lcs.syr.edu

“A particular strength of the project is the depth to which the students investigated and then assembled commercially available components into a dual tank parallel reactor.“ david chandler

THE PROJECT

WHAT’S NEXT

The LCS students began researching how they would accomplish the goal of scaling up the anaerobic digester.

At the direction of the Center of Excellence, the students worked toward creating a multistage process with three major steps: pretreatment of the waste in order to have a more uniform and workable feedstock (hydrolysis); loading of the waste into the digester (acidogenesis); and storing and treating the produced biogas (methanogenesis). Based on the Syracuse climate, waste stream, and other parameters, an indoor batch anaerobic digester with high solids yield was chosen as the most rational design.

SU is looking at securing space on South Campus in the Syracuse University Research Park to work toward actually building the anaerobic digester, wind turbine, and greenhouse system. SIFE will continue to work toward making this idea a reality and will look to continue to engage LCS engineering students throughout the project.

The digester design involved the use of two holding tanks so that a batching system could be used.

“I am extremely proud of our students. This was a difficult project for them, due to the uncertainty in the specific composition of the material and the relatively brief coverage of this process in our curriculum,” said Chandler. “A particular strength of the project is the depth to which the students investigated and then assembled commercially available components into a dual tank parallel reactor.”

It is estimated that the cost of the project will range between $900,000 and $1.2 million. The engineering students calculated a minimum payback period of 9-10 years. However, looking past the financial aspect, there are also a number of immeasurable and instant benefits that the digester brings to SU, such as becoming a more environmentally friendly campus, as well as using the digester as an educational tool for future research.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

Have you met

Herby?

This is the question posed by graduate students taking

Advertising Tomorrow: The Care and Feeding of Technology Brands, a course taught in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. As part of this course, the advertising graduate students partnered with senior mechanical engineers from the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science to prepare a full campaign strategy for the project they were working on in their capstone design course. in this collaboration, advertising students gain valuable experience interfacing with a technical team and addressing the challenges of giving a consumer face to technology brands, and engineering students gain an understanding of how their technical innovations require positioning and

14 communication strategies to make them successful.

So who is Herby?

PART I: THE ENGINEERS

A team of students in the senior mechanical engineering capstone design class set out to create a small-scale, mobile pelletizing system that would harvest biomass to create pellets that could be used to heat homes by burning them in a wood stove.

They looked at a variety of organic sources for their pellets, including corn, wood, and switchgrass. Through their research, they determined that switchgrass had several environmental advantages over corn and wood. Switchgrass

is a perennial grass that grows readily in North America. It is easy and inexpensive to establish, maintain, and harvest, and has the added benefits of reducing soil erosion, increasing water quality, and enhancing wildlife habitats. And since harvesting this grass does not involve separation of plant parts, as corn does, there are no necessary steps between mowing and pelletizing.

The members of the engineering team initially sought to design each component of the pelletizer, but realized that

www.lcs.syr.edu

most of the components they needed to create their project already existed, so they revised their scope to focus on optimizing the layout of the components to create a mobile pelletizing system. They created a trailer that could be attached to most tractors so that pellets could be ground, pressed, extruded, and cooled on-site.

Initially, the engineers thought the target for their product would be rural farmers who might be looking for a way to use the overgrowth of their fields to create pellets they could sell for additional revenue. “As engineers, we were focused on ensuring our product worked, but we weren’t necessarily thinking about the design appeal of our pelletizer or who the best target user might be,” said Nancy Menapace, a senior mechanical engineering student on the team.

PART II: The Advertising Students

In stepped the advertising team. The team members began conducting market analysis to determine the right target audience for their campaign for this product. Their preliminary research showed that, when you factored in the cost of buying and running the equipment and the cost of labor, the cost for a farmer to produce a bag of pellets was greater than the cost of going to a hardware store and buying a bag.

Instead, the advertising team members came up with the idea of targeting rural local governments to fund the purchase of a pelletizer that would be used by the community. They saw this as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly opportunity for communities to work together and produce enough pellets to heat people’s homes. They identified the South and Midwest regions of North America as the best

areas of opportunity because these areas are favorable for switchgrass growth and these communities are more likely to have wood pellet stoves and large plots of land, and are more accustomed to operating heavy machinery.

The engineering students were integral to the product design, and this project served as an opportunity for both sets of students to experience the type of cross-disciplinary collaboration they expect to see in their future careers.

“The brands that are ascendant and that will define the advertising graduates’ careers are all driven by technology and engineering,” said Kevin O’Neill, professor of practice at Newhouse. “It’s enormously valuable for Newhouse students to directly engage with the inventors at L.C. Smith. It makes them familiar with the difficult translations technical products require and exposes them to the unique characters of the engineers themselves.”

The advertising team even provided input to the engineers on revisions they could make to their design, including giving their project some color, reorganizing the components on the trailer to make them aesthetically pleasing, and giving their project its signature name, Herby.

Together these students answered the question, “Who is Herby?”

Herby, the revolutionary mobile pelletizer, could be your favorite new neighbor. Thanks to his mobility, any local resident can use him to turn excess waste into fuel, save money on heating costs, and give back to the local economy.

To watch the videos of both student presentations, and to hear the radio ad, go to lcs.syr.edu/2012magazine.

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“It’s enormously valuable for Newhouse students to directly engage with the inventors at L.C. Smith. It makes them familiar with the difficult translations technical products require and exposes them to the unique characters of the engineers themselves.” kevin o’neill

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

sumo: syracuse university’s

award-winning

autonomous lawnmower by amanda smith Chris Budwey, Andrew Cash, David Perra, and Minghao Ruan were undecided and running out of time to pick their senior design project when Ruan came across the ION Autonomous Lawnmower competition online and thought it looked cool. The group of four electrical engineering students met to go over videos from previous competition entries. All having previous interest and experience in robotics, they decided to pursue the project.

Their goal for the Syracuse University Mower (SUMo) was to create a lawnmower that would allow the user to press a few buttons and watch their lawn be mowed autonomously. SUMo is a self-contained, autonomous lawnmower that uses various on-board sensors and cameras to navigate a pre-defined mowing region. The group set out to create an affordable independent lawnmower with the potential to be used in the consumer and commercial sectors.

16 Their first challenge was raising enough money to fund the project. Despite knowing that previous winners reported spending more than $50,000, the group went ahead with their plans and a budget of just $5,500.

Due to the tight budget, the team had to find a balance between “inexpensive” and “reliable” parts by taking a completely unique design approach and using open source software with consumergrade sensors.

This caused them to run into several unique challenges, including some with the heading. Heading is the angle where the vehicle is pointing compared to the angle of true north. They used a commercial Inertial Measuring Unit (IMU), which contains a compass inside to determine which direction it is facing at all times. The trouble was that the IMU was inexpensive and did not

provide accurate enough readings of the robot’s turns. The IMU contains three angular rate sensors. The sensors are normally arranged at 90 degrees to each other, so they can measure the three directions of our 3D universe. Through adjustments they were able to make the IMU work.

Similarly, the team had to get creative to correct the mowing blades.“We kept burning out relays that we purchased, because there was a big spike in current for about one second when we initially turned on the blade,” says Cash. “Our solution involved a two-stage relay system, with one of the relays taken from a Mack tractor-trailer, which is capable of handling more than 100 amps.”

With the guidance of lab instructors Duane Marcy, Ph.D., and William Tetley, the SUMo team created an intricate combination of complex mechanical, electrical, and software designs.

When a person mows their lawn, they control the lawnmower to go straight, cut the entire space, and avoid any obstacles.

The challenge of a robotic mower is to outfit a computer to complete these same tasks using several sensors and carefully crafted algorithms.

The group implemented an object-detection system to allow the mower to adapt to more complex terrain. By utilizing inexpensive and mass-produced sensing technologies and combining their

www.lcs.syr.edu

functionality, the group was able to find a reasonable alternative to such costly products as a laser imaging detection and ranging (LIDAR) system.

“I am very happy with what Ming, Dave, Chris, and I were able to accomplish in such a limited time and with a limited budget,” says Cash. “I am really hoping that a new team can take over this project next year and expand the budget to purchase more expensive equipment and continue to refine what we have done.”

The SUMo works by mowing a rectangular plot of land until an obstacle is detected by stereoscopic vision. The mower will turn back and continue on its way, basically shortening the “lane” to the distance between the position of the obstacle and the outer boundary.

The mower itself features wheel encoders that inform the mower of its linear displacement by determining how many revolutions the wheels have made. A GPS provides global position for the mower and is unfazed by wheel slippage. GPS data is fused with encoder displacement to form an accurate robot pose.

“I am very happy with what Ming, Dave, Chris, and I were able to accomplish in such a limited time and with a limited budget.” andrew cash

“A new team would have to expand upon our budget to purchase new sensors and then integrate these new sensors with our current electrical and mechanical platform,” says Cash.

The team believes that SUMo would be useful for elderly people or individuals with disabilities who may need mobile assistance and also has a potential for industrial use in place of landscaping services.

The project was made possible with financial support from Blue Highway and the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science. Technical assistance was provided to the group by instructors Marcy and Tetley and professors Makan Fardad and Steve Chapin.

To watch a video of SUMo in action, go to lcs.syr.edu/2012magazine.

Chris Budwey, Andrew Cash, David Perra, and Minghao Ruan with SUMo

about their achievement

After completing their senior design project, Chris Budwey, Andrew Cash, David Perra, and Minghao Ruan entered their SUMo design in the Ninth Annual ION Robotic Lawn Mower Competition held in Beavercreek, Ohio, in June. The competition was based on who could successfully cut the most lawn, while avoiding obstacles and staying within the boundaries. Eleven teams from all over the country participated.

The four L.C. Smith students took second place in the static competition despite the fact that other teams had at least three years of experience and had more expensive technology like LIDAR and directional GPS in their systems. Parts on the SUMo cost less than $3,000 while the second-least expensive mower was more than $10,000 and the most expensive was more than $50,000.

The team won $1,500, which will be split among the four students. Special international recognition will be provided for all participating teams in the ION Newsletter. Winning teams will be invited to display their mowers during ION GNSS and will have the opportunity to present their robotic mower design.

eecs

The SUMo is currently designed to avoid static obstacles, but it has the ability to be easily extended to more challenging tasks, such as dynamic obstacle avoidance and more intricate path planning. The project was created with expandable architecture, which means that it can have additional functions incorporated into the platform.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

New Wheelchair Design Will Open Many Doors When it comes to wheelchairs, the adage “one size fits all” does not apply. No one knows this more than Barbara Williams. In December 2011, she had her 8-year-old son Rhys’ wheelchair in pieces trying to fix his headrest herself, just as she has done for the last six years, until she finally said to herself, “I am not a mechanical engineer, and I don’t know how to do this.”

Then she had an idea. Syracuse University has an entire college of engineers, and maybe they would be willing to help. So being the proactive mother that she is, she picked up the phone and called SU. She was put in contact with Instructor Fred Carranti, who teaches the senior design capstone course for 18 the mechanical engineering students at L.C. Smith. After their conversation, Carranti offered to make this a project for a group of students in his class.

In May 2004 Rhys was diagnosed with gross global developmental delays and cortical vision impairment. The combination of these conditions means that Rhys has a severe form of cerebral palsy that includes physical challenges such as poor muscle tone along his spine, which inhibits his ability to control his body and to speak, and vision problems from damage to the cortical part of his brain.

The team of students met with Rhys and his mom, and it didn’t take long for them to realize both how inadequate the wheelchair was for meeting his needs and what a great attitude and sense of humor this little boy has in the face of adversity. They were immediately energized to find a solution that would work for Rhys.

“We try to instill in our students that the profession of engineering is more than merely technical; there is a very human side to what we do,” says Carranti. “No project demonstrates that for us more than helping this little boy to have a better life.”

There were two components to the project: • Fix Rhys’ headrest so he could sit comfortably in his chair and have his head face forward instead of up to the sky. In his current position Rhys was having trouble breathing, was uncomfortable and had difficulty communicating.

• Design a mount for Rhys’ DynaVox Eyemax system.

This device uses eye-tracking software to allow Rhys to communicate but requires him to have constant eye contact.

The current mount needed to be removed every time Rhys traveled which meant a time-consuming process to reattach and adjust the unit.

The team divided into two groups to tackle both of the design issues.

www.lcs.syr.edu

HEADREST DESIGN

DYNAVOX MOUNT

The goals for the new headrest design were to allow Rhys to sit in a comfortable position, to avoid mechanically altering the chair itself and to make a system that would be easily adjustable.

The goals for the new computer mount were to make it easy to adjust, make it completely collapsible, and allow it to stay on the wheelchair at all times. They also needed to make sure the computer was 19 inches from Rhys’ face, which was the optimal distance for using the device.

After examining Rhys’ chair and the joint that connected the headrest to the back of the chair, the team noticed that the current configuration only allowed for adjustment in a linear motion. They recognized that they needed the ability for rotational motion in order to achieve the desired position for his head.

What the team came up with was using a tie rod end, which is most often used in car applications, because it can be moved both radially and linearly. The additional advantage is that since it is a generic machined part, it would minimize the cost of manufacturing their design.

The headrest team was able to build a working prototype for their design. After the design was installed on the wheelchair, Rhys was placed into the chair and his physical therapists adjusted the headrest. They were able to significantly improve the position of Rhys’ head and neck. This improved both Rhys’ breathing and attitude.

“When they put the first template in, my son said, ‘Aaaah,’” said Williams. “Now he won’t be looking up at the ceiling all of the time. He will actually be making eye contact with people and with his communication device, which will open many doors for him.”

Originally the team thought that a relatively easy mount could be created to meet their goals, but as they started designing, the complexity of their challenge became more evident. The students decided that a telescoping arm mounted at the back of the wheelchair would offer the best solution to all of the presented problems of the current mount.

The telescoping aspect would allow for the arm to remain attached but be stored when not in use. By affixing it to the back of the chair, it wouldn’t get in the way of trying to transport Rhys as it does in its current position on the arm of the chair.

Additionally, they designed a ratchet system that would allow for adjustments to the telescoping arm over time as Rhys continued to grow.

After testing their device, the mount group found areas where they could improve their designs. Based on their stress and strain calculations, they found that there was too much force from the device on the mount for it to be an ideal solution; however, they were able to come up with some possible solutions that could be explored further.

For videos about this project, go to lcs.syr.edu/2012magazine.

“We try to instill in our students that the profession of engineering is more than merely technical; there is a very human side to what we do. No project demonstrates that for us more than helping this little boy to have a better life.” fred carranti

Images from left to right: headrest design modification, telescoping arm design for DynaVox System, rachet system to allow for adjustments

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

Multi-Faceted Distal

Balloon Catheter After seeing several family members succumb to cancer, entrepreneur Robert Goldman ‘81 invented a catheter system that allows for the infusion of fluids into a target area while maintaining blood flow to the same area, enabling medications to reach areas that could not previously be treated directly. The catheter is inserted over a guide wire for precise positioning within a patient’s body, and a dual-balloon system isolates the target area when inflated. Medication is then delivered directly to the isolated area.

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This groundbreaking catheter system was offered as the basis for a senior design project after Goldman was approached by Syracuse University through the Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises program at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

THE PROBLEM

The traditional radiation treatment commonly used to fight liver cancer helps kill tumor cells but can also damage the healthy tissue surrounding them. In recent years, a treatment technique called Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT), or radioembolization, has gained prominence. SIRT delivers glass microspheres, smaller in diameter than a human hair and irradiated with yttrium-90, directly to the tumor area rather than delivering radiation to the whole body. However, the microspheres have a tendency to travel elsewhere in the bloodstream, a process known as reflux. Sometimes, they become lodged in healthy tissue, which can cause further health problems.

www.lcs.syr.edu

A team of five students from the biomedical and chemical engineering (BMCE) department at L.C. Smith collaborated with one student from the industrial and interaction design program at the College of Visual and Performing Arts to test Goldman’s catheter system specifically for liver cancer treatments.

Andrew Darling, assistant professor and undergraduate program director for bioengineering, says, “The students were tasked with taking Mr. Goldman’s design and modifying it for this slightly different function. They modeled a new version of the catheter and performed some computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to make sure it would work.”

THE PROJECT

One of the students’ first steps was researching the microspheres that currently exist on the market. There are two primary manufacturers, and the students determined that their distal delivery system would have to be able to accommodate spheres from both. Their solution would also need to maintain the drug injection at a velocity fast enough to keep it in suspension, yet slow enough to avoid reflux. Because of the complex anatomy of human vascular tissue, the catheter system also needed to be mobile and trackable for precise and accurate positioning.

With all these factors to consider, the team took aim at the project. The students’ delivery system included a distal tip attachment, 4 centimeters in length, that gives the medicine’s path few obstacles and allows it to be more easily transported to the inside of the body. The distal tip includes a blood bypass lumen, balloon, lumen consolidation, barium sulfate tip, marker bands and a two-into-one extrusion.

A guide wire with a barium sulfate tip is used to correctly position the catheter. At that point, the attached balloon is inflated tight to the vessel wall to prevent the microspheres from traveling down the blood vessel. Blood flow is maintained through the inclusion of a blood bypass lumen down the center of the catheter. Then, the guide wire is pulled back to allow blood to enter the bypass, and the yttrium-90 microspheres are injected into the catheter. Once treatment delivery is completed, the balloon is deflated and the catheter is withdrawn.

THE RESULTS

The students’ simulations demonstrated that their design would allow the microspheres to flow smoothly while minimizing reflux when the yttrium-90 microspheres were delivered from the distal tip of the catheter. Furthermore, they determined that optimum drug delivery was found to have occurred at the location where the velocity profile is at a maximum.

“This was the first time an industrial and interaction design student was involved in the bioengineering senior design projects. It made for a useful combination of skills and really helped the process.” andrew darling

“The students validated their version of the catheter through computational fluid dynamics, simulating the flow of microspheres by computer. They also were able to find fluid velocity ranges where the catheter system could deliver the microspheres effectively without reflux,” says Darling.

The students also outlined a manufacturing benefit of their distal tip design. “Being that the catheter’s main function is to deliver the SIRT to a specified area, the distal tip is introduced to allow the drug to be administered as closely to the targeted area as possible. This, in turn, allows the catheter to be manufactured as a straight tube with two lumens being cut straight through in one pass with other perforations made for the other features later along the production line,” the students say in their report.

Darling was impressed by the student team’s work and also with their collaborative process. “This was the first time an industrial and interaction design student was involved in the bioengineering senior design projects,” he said. “It made for a useful combination of skills and really helped the process.”

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

Bridging the

Historical gap by elizabeth wimer

Skaneateles (Skan-ee-atlas) is both an Iroquois word meaning “long lake� and a village close to Syracuse that is just that—a 16-mile lake with about 2,500 residents calling the small town

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nestled against it home. In the historic downtown district, shops and galleries are housed in restored buildings dating back to 1796. The historical development properties include a beautifully restored creamery that is the home of the Skaneateles Historical Society and features permanent and rotating exhibits and historical research facilities.

www.lcs.syr.edu

Respectful incorporation of the historical character of Skaneateles was one of the most important elements of the project. This, combined with a limited construction budget of $100,000, presented the student team with a challenging assignment. Project research revealed that the long-range plan of the historical society is to acquire a neighboring property for additional parking spaces and a green area. In response to this master plan, the students designed a pedestrian bridge, incorporated some changes to the original creek walk plan and alignment, and concentrated on attracting visitors and providing a future icon for Skaneateles.

Over the course of five months and two meetings with the historical society expansion project’s steering committee, the student team developed a design. Its work was based on the educational foundations provided by L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science and research of specific on-site assessments such as substructure, subsoil analysis, and subsurface design.

The final design was an 82-foot-span, cable-stayed bridge using a 28-foot-tall H-tower pylon with five steel cables suspended on each side of the tower, connecting to a unique V girder to support a precast concrete slab and a cast-in-place concrete slab. There are five V girders, and at each intersection point is the connecting steel cable to allow for tension as its main support. Although the steel design was a natural fit for the team’s expertise, its members needed to take the initiative to learn steel design.

While aesthetically pleasing, the structure is also a strong nod to the rich history of manufacturing and boating in Skaneateles. The town was the first to create the “Lightning” class sailboat, and the design of the

cable-stay bridge across the creek bordering the historical society was inspired by the rich boating history of the town.

With the pylon rising toward the sky, it represents the mast of a sailboat, with the cables radiating out of the pylon stretching toward the deck, representing the sail of a boat.

“The village mayor and several others are interested in reviving the creek walk project, and the bridge alignment identified by the students enhances the whole concept and will result in added

visitors at our museum.”

bent thomsen

The bridge represents the hull. An innovative design, the cable-stay bridge pays its respects to the old, connecting the town’s history with the more modern version of itself, seen today.

“The village mayor and several others are interested in reviving the creek walk project, and the bridge alignment identified by the students enhances the whole concept and will result in added visitors at our museum,” explains Bent Thomsen of the historical society. “To make it all happen, we need to find the money. We are exploring joint village/historical society grant possibilities. That will govern the completion date. The first task is to acquire the adjoining property. We have a right of first refusal on that.”

While keeping its eye on the future, the historical society has plenty to keep it busy in the present. The next step in its building plans is to finish the small annex addition to the newly opened expansion. If the bridge comes to fruition, it will be a testament to the work of the College in the community.

cie

When the small town needed big plans for a bridge design project, Syracuse University engineering undergraduates were a perfect fit. Sam Clemence, Meredith Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, dispatched a team of seven senior civil engineering students. The students were given the task of designing a pedestrian bridge and reviving interest in a previously proposed creek walk to connect the historical society to the creekside parking lot areas.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

student profile:

Alex Weiss is an NIH

oxford-cambridge

scholar Growing up, Alex Weiss suffered from so many bad ear infections that he lost a significant amount of his hearing by the time he turned 3. As a result, he had to go through a lot of speech therapy, but he was able to overcome the adversity of his childhood disability. He believes that this experience drove him to study bioengineering so Alex Weiss

that he could find a way to help others.

Weiss is a truly remarkable student, and his drive for success has resulted in his acceptance into the highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program. There were approximately 50 finalists for 15 spots in the final cohort of accepted students. “It doesn’t feel quite real,” Weiss said. In the program, Weiss will have an advisor both at the NIH and in England at either Oxford or Cambridge.

During the course of his Ph.D. studies, he will split his time between the United States and England. The unique aspect of the program is that he will be working on his thesis but conducting research while navigating two very different research cultures.

24 Weiss was in the Honors Program at Syracuse University,

which entails a rigorous curriculum on top of the already challenging bioengineering coursework. “I have always clung to the idea that if I’m not working hard, I’m not doing it right,” Weiss said.

It was through the Honors Program that Weiss was introduced to the work of Dr. Norman Doidge. Doidge’s area of expertise bridges philosophy and science in a field of research known as neuroplasticity—the idea that the brain is plastic in that it is malleable, changeable, and adaptable. Neuroplasticity can be defined as the property of the brain that allows it to change its structure and its function.

As Weiss listened to Doidge speak, he realized it was this exact idea, that the brain can adapt with practice and training to overcome trauma or to build new connections over time, that

had allowed him to learn to speak despite his hearing loss at an early age. To him, the idea that the brain is constantly changing and there are yet so many unknowns is inspiring.

In addition to the Honors Program, Weiss worked in the lab of his advisor, Professor Jeremy Gilbert, since his sophomore year, supporting his research efforts. He received funding from the National Science Foundation under the program Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU). Through his work at the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, an abstract he submitted to the Society for Biomaterials was accepted. “Alex’s efforts, skill and poise quickly led him to be able to present his work on bacterial persisted cells on biomaterials surfaces at the annual meeting of the Society for Biomaterials,” says Gilbert.

“I have always clung to the idea that if I’m not working hard, I’m not doing it right.“ alex weiss

Weiss’ drive for results and his passion to take advantage of every opportunity to learn make him uniquely positioned to succeed in the rigorous program of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program. He envisions ultimately teaching and doing research at a university. He has a great appreciation for the academic setting and looks forward to contributing to the understanding of the human body and mind.

www.lcs.syr.edu

stone canoe In the summer of 2011, Dean

Excerpt from the winning piece:

Laura J. Steinberg announced

Boffins, Tech and RADAR, Oh My!

the inaugural L.C. Smith Prize

Our British friends across the pond would most certainly call me a “Boffin.” I take an abundance of pride in that, even though the name isn’t always glamorous. The precise origin of the term is a bit murky, but it rose to prominence at the beginning of the Second World War. A group of scientists, led by one Robert Watson-Watt, had just finished developing a system of tracking stations called Chain Home, which allowed the detection of incoming aircraft and missiles. Today, we would call that system RADAR, and it proved to be invaluable to the war effort. During the Battle of Britain, it gave British pilots the ability to precisely locate incoming attacks and intercept them, saving thousands and thousands of lives.

for Engineering and Technology Writing for the 2012 issue of

Stone Canoe, A Journal of Art, Literature and Social Commentary, published by Syracuse University.

Individuals were invited to submit essays that would contribute to the public’s understanding of engineering and technology. This initiative was intended to increase public awareness of the role engineering plays in the shaping of modern society.

The winner of this year’s prize was Brian Rautio, a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University, majoring in electrical engineering and computer science. The winning piece, titled “Boffins, Tech and RADAR, Oh My!,” discusses the changing perception of the value of scientists and engineers over time and how the decline in public understanding of these topics affects everything from public policy to technical innovation.

The technical editor was Jerrold Heller ’63, an L.C. Smith electrical engineering alumnus and current member of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees. Heller has played a key role in the development of state-of-the-art digital communication technology, and has been awarded several patents and authored many papers on a range of discoveries in this area.

He has held leadership positions in several major corporations and has received two Emmy awards from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for outstanding achievement in engineering development.

The heroics and bravery of the pilots and crews were nothing short of extraordinary, and the public commended them accordingly. However, a new set of heroes emerged from this battle, and they weren’t all strong and brave. They were far from the front lines, residing in laboratories, wearing lab coats, and conducting experiments. The public welcomed their new heroes but didn’t quite know what to call them. Somehow the term “Boffin” arose to adoringly refer to these brilliant backroom heroes—and it’s likely that Robert Watson-Watt, by inventing RADAR, was the first.

Over time, however, the term lost prestige; in modern usage, its meaning is far closer to “nerd” than “hero.” I believe this happened for several reasons. First, nowadays there are fewer clear examples of technology winning wars and saving lives. We still have great engineers and scientists backing up our armed forces in this time of conflict, but it’s necessary to keep much of their work secret to protect us from those who would use such knowledge against us.

To read more, visit lcs.syr.edu/2012magazine.

Launched in 2006 at University College of Syracuse University in support of Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s ongoing efforts to forge creative community partnerships, Stone Canoe has won medals in four Independent Book Publishers’ Competitions and is now recognized as the most comprehensive and innovative publication of its kind in the Upstate New York region.

The L.C. Smith prize is the sixth offered by Stone Canoe, in addition to previously established prizes in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, visual arts and arts leadership, and a special series of arts prizes for high school students, funded by the Gifford Foundation.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

Faculty Achievement

Highlights jianshun zhang honored as

ashrae fellow Pramod Varshney honored by IEEE with the 2012 IEEE Judith A. Resnik Award The 2012 IEEE Judith A. Resnik Award was given in November 2011 to Pramod Varshney, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of CASE: Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering. The award, sponsored by the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Control Systems, and IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Societies, recognizes Varshney for contributions to and leadership in the theory and practice of multisensor data fusion for aerospace and bioengineering applications. The award was presented in July 2012 at the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory in Cambridge, Mass.

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At the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 2012 Winter Conference held in Chicago, SU professor Jianshun Zhang was elevated to the grade of fellow. Approximately 500 of ASHRAE’s 50,000 members are fellows, a membership grade recognizing distinction in the arts and sciences of heating, ventilating, air conditioning, or refrigeration. Zhang, professor and director of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department’s building energy and environmental systems lab, is part of a comprehensive research program for improving indoor air quality. It covers test and evaluation method development, performance evaluation of a wide range of existing air-cleaning technologies, and the development of new air-cleaning technologies.

Zhang’s work has led to several journal publications and many conference papers on experimental methods, modeling, and performance characteristics. It has also resulted in an aircleaning design manual, and has even contributed to Standard 145.1, Laboratory Test Method for Assessing the Performance of Gas-Phase Air-Cleaning Systems: Loose Granular Media.

Tapan Sarkar: Highly Cited Researcher and Honorary Doctorate Recipient Tapan Kumar Sarkar, professor in the L.C. Smith Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is included in the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Highly Cited, which lists the top 1% of the researchers in that area of expertise. He is an IEEE Fellow and a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (for 2011-2013).

An honorary doctorate degree will be conferred on Sarkar at Aalto University in October 2012. He is one of 10 eminent persons in the fields of science and society who will be awarded the degree. He is an internationally significant scholar and teacher in the field of electrical engineering and is very active as a developer of electromagnetic computing software. Sarkar has been a long-term, close research collaborator and a popular guest lecturer at Helsinki University of Technology and later at Aalto University, which was created from the merger of three Finnish universities: the Helsinki School of Economics, the University of Art and Design Helsinki, and Helsinki University of Technology.

www.lcs.syr.edu

James H. Henderson selected as DARPA Young Faculty Awardee for the Class of 2012

Jeremy Gilbert awarded international fellow status by the Fellows of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE) Jeremy Gilbert, professor in the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, was awarded the status of International Fellow by the Fellows of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE) of the Society for Biomaterials (USA). The organization’s mission is to foster the field of biomaterials science and engineering and to support its professional development as a practical and intellectual endeavor.

Gilbert was inducted as a FBSE at a ceremony during the World Biomaterials Congress held June 1-5 in Chengdu, China. This honorary fellow status is awarded for life.

James Henderson, assistant professor and bioengineering graduate program director for the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute and the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, was selected for the 2012 Young Faculty Award (YFA) program by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). “The goal of DARPA’s Young Faculty Award program is not only to provide funding for young faculty researchers, but also to inspire them to serve their country by contributing their talents to help solve some of the most challenging problems of our time, from vaccine production to cybersecurity,” said DARPA Director Regina E. Dugan.

Professor Henderson’s work is driven by the increasingly complex challenges of orthopedic reconstruction of injured extremities injuries in war fighters, a direct result of improved survival rates due to advances in body armor. The award will support his research of the unique shape-changing properties of shape-memory polymers to address the limitation of previous synthetic bone graft substitutes.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

Jeongmin Ahn Demonstrates

Promise of

Hydrocarbon

Fuel Cells 28 Thanks to the continuing miniaturization of computers, smart phones, iPods and other electromechanical devices, the field of microscale combustion and power generation is growing. Jeongmin Ahn, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at L.C. Smith, is at the forefront of this cutting-edge industry.

Jeongmin Ahn

www.lcs.syr.edu

The push to make such devices smaller and smaller is posing challenges in developing power sources that fit inside them. For several years, Ahn has focused his research on creating micro-scale power sources. His work has resulted in the development of several types of devices called power micro electromechanical systems, or Power MEMS devices.

Ahn’s devices include a micro heat exchanger, a micro fuel cell and a micro heat engine.

Most recently, Ahn has begun researching the development of miniature hydrocarbon fuel cells, smaller in size than a penny, that will reduce the weight of electromechanical devices and increase their power life. Hydrocarbon fuels include butane, methane and propane, and the use of such fuels in micro combustion marks a change from the current micro fuel cell market that is driven by hydrogen.

Hydrogen, however, presents numerous challenges at the micro level. Its gaseous nature makes it difficult to contain, volatile and unstable. Hydrocarbon fuels such as butane or propane, on the other hand, can be easier to work with at the micro level. They are easily transportable, are safer than hydrogen and have a high-energy density—nearly 100 times the energy density of a typical micro battery. “That’s why cars and airplanes are powered by fuel and not driven very long on batteries. A battery for that much power would be too heavy. However, a lighter, miniaturized combustion device, even with low efficiency, would still be more powerful than batteries,” says Ahn.

“Cars and airplanes are powered by fuel and not driven very long on batteries. A battery for that much power would be too heavy. However, a lighter, miniaturized combustion device, even with low efficiency, would still be more powerful

than batteries.”

jeongmin ahn

Promising applications for power micro electromechanical systems (Power MEMS) include micro thrusters, which can be made smaller in size than a penny.

Even though MEMS technology is still in the early stages of development, Ahn believes significant progress has been made within the last few years. Functional micro-scale turbines and rockets have been developed and shown to produce thrust. The future of combustion and power generation using hydrocarbon fuels is showing promise for Power MEMS applications.

Ahn’s work is generating much attention within the microcombustion industry. In 2011, he collaborated with David C. Walther, formerly of the University of California, Berkeley, and now an employee of biofuel company Cobalt Technologies, on an overview of the advances and challenges in the development of micro power-generation systems for the high-impact combustion society journal Progress in Energy and Combustion Science (PECS). The research presented in that review also appeared in trade magazines Manufacturing Engineering and Remote, as well as on industry news website www.fuelcellsworks.com. In addition, MEMS Investor Journal published an in-depth interview with Professor Ahn, which can be read at lcs.syr.edu/2012magazine.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

Sam Salem Garners

National

Attention for Wastewater Research In today’s economy, governments and businesses of all

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types are seeking to optimize their expenditures. That holds particularly true for wastewater utilities, which face costly repairs when infrastructure unexpectedly fails.

www.lcs.syr.edu

Research led by Ossama (Sam) Salem, Yabroudi Chair of Sustainable Civil Infrastructures and Professor of Construction Engineering and Management at L.C. Smith, can help prevent such costly repairs.

Ossama (Sam) Salem

Salem and research associate Baris Salman developed regression models that can be used to assess and identify pipelines and other wastewater infrastructure that have the highest probability of failure. By proactively identifying the assets at risk, utility companies can perform preventive maintenance or replace them before they fail.

Salem and Salman obtained data from the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati and used it to generate various statistical prediction models. Their work, titled “Modeling Failure of Wastewater Collection Lines Using Various Section-Level Regression Models,” was initially presented in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Journal of Infrastructure Systems.

Since its publication by ASCE, the research has been attracting attention from other academic publications, trade publications, and wastewater industry magazines WaterWorld and Water & Wastes Digest.

“The models presented in this paper allow utility and wastewater management companies to develop a sound maintenance plan and predict potential failures,” Salem said.

“This has impact not only economically, but socially and environmentally as well.”

He also pointed out that while the presented models are useful for the data set provided, their applicability to different sewer systems depends on the characteristics of those particular networks. Since weather conditions, soil properties and construction methods vary among cities and among infrastructure systems, different deterioration patterns may be observed in different regions.

“We want to help streamline decision-making from planning to construction and

predict potential problems

rather than react to failure.”

sam salem

The research is related to prior analysis done by Salem, who also has studied the life cycle of transportation infrastructure. For instance, he has been a co-author of studies about bridge rehabilitation and pavement rehabilitation that transportation asset managers can use to evaluate risk. “We want to help streamline decisionmaking from planning to construction and predict potential problems rather than react to failure,” Salem said.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

In 2010, after having just earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering, Tao Cong G’10 wanted to pursue research in renewable energy as he worked toward his doctoral degree. Exploring his options, Cong spoke with then-newly appointed professor and chair of biomedical and chemical engineering at L.C. Smith, and professor of physics, Radhakrishna Sureshkumar. Cong quickly realized he had found a place that fit his interest—and a Ph.D. advisor. “He has a project using nanoparticles to enhance the efficiencies of solar cells,” Cong says. “His idea is pretty amazing and novel—and I thought it was a very promising area to do a Ph.D. project.”

Tao Cong

32 In the two years since, Cong has participated in work with Sureshkumar’s team that has generated a patent-pending process involving the manufacture of suspensions of metal nanoparticles (particles with dimensions of several or several 10s of nanometers) capable of capturing sunlight; presented his work at several conferences; and received awards for his poster presentations of the work.

Cong, who is from Anhui, China, first became fascinated by chemistry during experiments in high school and combined that with his strength in math to pursue a chemical engineering degree at Tianjin University.

During his master’s program at L.C. Smith, he worked on an independent study research project that looked at enhancing biodiesel properties to create a more efficient reaction.

His current research work with nanoparticles stems from looking at ways to cut down on the high cost of solar cells due to the thickness of silicone needed in the cell. Silicone is not a good light absorber, so the efficiency decreases as the thickness increases. “That’s why now people are trying to make thin film solar cells to reduce the thickness into several micrometers,” Cong says.

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Cong first started out assisting in the production of nanoparticles, using gold, silver, and other types of metals, which can trap more light as long as the particles are smaller than the wavelength of light. More recently the work has involved the synthesis of those particles into stable solutions—or nanogels—that contain evenly distributed nanoparticles, which are then adhered to silicone or glass. “We’re trying to design light-trapping layers using different types of nanoparticles to increase the efficiency of the thin-film solar cell,” he says.

“We’re trying to design lighttrapping layers using different types of nanoparticles to increase the efficiency of the thin-film solar cell.” tao cong

The various types and shapes of nanoparticles that can be made interact differently with light—absorbing different wavelengths of light and allowing for the visible variances of color in the gels. Different types of nanoparticles can also be combined to make a broadband absorption spectrum that might work best for a solar cell.

In recognition of the work, the Society of Rheology (the study of the flow of matter) invited Cong to its annual meeting last October in Cleveland after he submitted a poster on the work to the conference. The poster, titled “Self-assembled multicomponent plasmonic nanogels: Structure, rheology and optical properties,” was awarded a prize as part of the student competition. Earlier in the year, he also won an award during the Nunan Poster competition at L.C. Smith, which showcases graduate student research.

This year, Cong was selected to discuss his work in June for the Langmuir Student Awards during the American Chemical Society Colloids and Surface Science 2012 Symposium. In his first international conference, he presented at the 16th International Congress of Rheology in Lisbon, Portugal, in August.

The working relationship among the research team members, including Ph.D. student Satvik Wani and master’s student Pete Paynter, and Sureshkumar’s support have played an important part for Cong in his experience at L.C. Smith. Working with ‘Suresh’ you have a lot of freedom. He will give you advice on your research work, but he won’t push you. So you decide what you want to do and how you want to do it,” Cong says. “Some people are doing modeling work or theoretical work and some people like me are doing experimental work, so you get a chance to talk to different people with different perspectives.”

As he finishes his Ph.D. work at the end of this year, Cong hopes to work for an energy-based company in the field of renewable energy, possibly in research involving polymers or semiconductors. “Energy is the biggest issue in this world,” Cong says. “It’s an open question to a lot of researchers. I’m trying to get involved and contribute a little bit to solving this problem.”

“Energy is the biggest issue in the world.” tao cong

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

Information Security Practice

Makes Perfect Career for LCS Alum In high school, as Sabett took a special interest in computers and computer hardware, he thought he would end up pursuing electrical engineering. But when he began looking at colleges, he saw that an electrical engineering major required chemistry courses. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I was sure that I did not like chemistry,” he recalls. Luckily, he noticed that L.C. Smith was one of the few schools at that time that offered a separate, no-chemistry-required track for computer engineering. “The computer engineering program allowed me to be much closer to the computer and the hardware than application-based computer science,” he says. “That was really what made my decision for me.”

34 As a child, Randy Sabett ’85 had visions of becoming a marine biologist, but once he found out that there was more to marine biology than exploring the seas like Jacques Cousteau, he realized that marine biology wasn’t for him. However, another childhood passion—his interest in “tinkering and taking things apart”—has guided him through a successful career in computer engineering and information security law.

Sabett enrolled at L.C. Smith, and immediately began working on cutting-edge concepts that shaped his future career path.

One of his first courses covered a mathematics-oriented programming language that was designed not for typical end-user applications but for mathematicians and scientists. “That class was so ahead of its time. We worked on implementing a public key cryptographic system, which at the time hadn’t even been patented yet. It was the exact kind of work I would end up doing years later,” Sabett says.

After graduating from L.C. Smith in 1985 with a B.S. in computer engineering, he joined the National Security Agency (NSA), working as a software engineer. He mostly worked on cryptography solutions for protecting client communication as part of NSA’s information assurance initiative, earning two patents for his efforts.

During his stint at NSA, Sabett was working with a colleague on the design of a cryptographic chip. While waiting for a simulation to finish, the colleague pulled out a stack of large books and began reading. “He was going to law school to become a patent attorney, and that really intrigued me,” Sabett recalls. “I could see how the things that technology designers were doing

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would have legal impact in the future.” In particular, Sabett was interested in digital signatures, a way for designers to effectively put their signature on a document cryptographically, a topic to which he was initially exposed at L.C. Smith. “I was already planning to go back to get an advanced engineering degree, but from that moment forward, I was more interested in law school.”

He acquired his J.D. degree from the University of Baltimore in 1996 and began building a legal practice in information security.

In 2007, he joined his current employer, ZwillGen PLLC in Washington, D.C., and he spends his time counseling clients on information security, privacy, information technology licensing, Internet strategy, digital and electronic signatures, state and federal information security and privacy laws, identity theft, and data breaches.

Currently, a major security topic of interest to Sabett’s clients involves security issues and the push to use a person’s cellphone as a second authentication factor. “There are three levels of authentication. Level 1 is something the user knows, like a username and password. Level 2 is something the user has, like a specific cellphone number. Level 3 is something the user is, such as a biometric identifier. The industry has been stuck on Level 1 for a while, but two-factor authentication is much stronger when it’s appropriate,” Sabett explains.

Among business clients, a trending topic concerns network liability related to bring-your-own-device policies, or BYOD policies. In the business world, many companies are struggling to find the proper balance that allows employees to bring their own mobile devices to work and use the company wireless network. “Such policies introduce liability and security issues for the company and accessibility issues for the users. It’s a unique situation,” Sabett says.

Sabett believes these and other issues provide lots of problems for current engineering students to solve. “Many of the security issues we have today have arisen because security was not an important part of the product design,” Sabett says.

That kind of forward thinking is good advice for L.C. Smith students, and Sabett also dispenses such advice in his role as an adjunct professor at George Washington University. In addition, Sabett served on the Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency, the goal of which was to identify a strategy and set of recommendations to help the administration move ahead in securing cyberspace. “But we are learning that it is never too early to start focusing on security in wireless design,” Sabett says.

Serving on the committee was an honor for Sabett, who understands the importance of wireless and network safety to overall national security. “Within the whole area of critical infrastructure, from phone lines to the electric grid, a lot of information is exchanged wirelessly. Our attackers could do significant damage if they were to access that information.

Going forward, we must step up our security initiatives.”

“But we are learning that it is never too early to start focusing on security in wireless design.” randy sabett

Throughout all of his career endeavors, Sabett has learned a lot and enjoyed every step along the path. “I am fortunate that my law career has coincided with the commercial growth of the Internet. We now have, in the palm of our hands, incredibly powerful machines that have transformed, and will continue to transform, the way people interact,” Sabett says. “So I know that for me to be working in computer engineering during this time has been really lucky. I really couldn’t have written a better job description for myself.” Even if it hasn’t involved marine biology.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

alumni notes 1950s Philip Schuls ’59 G’64 of Syracuse is staying active in retirement with a second career as a licensed associate real estate broker. He and his wife, Joan, are team brokers for Realty USA in Manlius. Schuls, a member of the L.C. Smith Alumni Association Board, retired from GE 19 years ago and continues to stay engaged with his alma mater.

Russell Ford ’86, water treatment engineer, was appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s science advisory board drinking water committee, where he is helping to guide how the agency regulates drinking water. Ford is the drinking water infrastructure global service leader at CH2M Hill in Parsippany, N.J.

1960s

Shawn Halpin ’89 G’92, product line manager at Anaren Microwave in East Syracuse, served as president of the L.C. Smith Alumni Association (LCSAA) for the past two years as well as chair of the LCSAA Whitey Hotze Golf Classic. A coach for his kids’ soccer and lacrosse teams, Halpin also volunteers on the field of the Carrier Dome during football games, working as part of the chain crew. Shawn is one of several “orange-bleeding” Halpins who attended LCS and SU, including his father, Bill Halpin ’60 (LCS), of Baldwinsville; his brother Bill Halpin Jr. ’88 G’95 Ph.D.’05 (LCS/A&S) of Palo Alto, Calif.; his sister, Kathleen Harrington ’91 (LCS), of Pittsfield, Mass.; and his brother Patrick Halpin ’92 (A&S) of Locust Valley, N.Y.

K. Wayne Bunn ’67 has retired after a nearly 45-year career as a consulting civil engineer, the last 24 years as founder/president of K.W. Bunn Engineering, P.C., Consulting Engineers. Bunn says, “Thank you, Syracuse University, for the great civil engineering education!” He now spends the summer season at his family camp on Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, N.Y. You may e-mail him at kwbe@hotmail.com.

Alan Willson G’65 Ph.D.’67, the Charles P. Reames Professor of EE at UCLA, has received the 2012 Darlington Award. The Darlington Award recognizes the best paper bridging the gap between theory and practice, published in the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems. Alan received the award at the 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, in Seoul, Korea, for his January 2010 IEEE CAS Trans. paper “Desensitized Half-Band Filters,” which presents his new method for design and implementation of digital half-band filters.

1970s

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James W. Moore ’78, a software engineer, earned the 2011 Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The award recognized him for leadership in the standardization of software and systems engineering.

André W. Renna ’75 wrote You’ll Land on Your Feet—How Anyone Can Survive and Thrive after Job Loss (AuthorHouse), which offers the reader an honest portrayal of the emotional roller coaster that follows job loss (www.authorhouse.com).

1980s Bob Alger ’86 of Cicero, N.Y., is director of business development at SRC, Inc. Bob, who is often traveling on business, is a member of the L.C. Smith Alumni Association Board and is a dedicated and active volunteer for the college.

Kenneth D. Ellsworth ’84, managing member of Keystone Associates Architects, Engineers and Surveyors, LLC, in Binghamton, N.Y., was named engineer of the year by the Broome Area Chapter of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers.

Jerry Ozovek G’84 was named president of L-3 Communications Electron Technologies, Inc. (ETI), located in Torrance, Calif. In addition, he has taken on the role of senior vice president of L-3’s Space and Power Systems Sector, one of two sectors in L-3’s Microwave Group. Ozovek joined L-3 in April 2003 and served as president and general manager of L-3’s SPD Electrical Systems with increasing responsibilities added to include L-3’s Ocean Systems & MariPro business units before being appointed to lead L-3’s Power Systems Sector. In May, Jerry and his wife, Donna, celebrated the marriage of their daughter Julie to Matthew Brandel.

Mark Shay ’84 is senior vice president for marketing and business development at Drexel University Online in Philadelphia.

1990s

William Scott Carron ’92 and his wife, Jennifer, announce the birth of their son, William Patrick. They live in Bergen, Norway, where Carron works as a senior engineer in the development of a 10MW, direct drive, floating, offshore wind turbine.

Diane Ozovek Reineke G’90 is vice president of business development and account management for Northrop Grumman’s Intelligence Systems Division (ISD). Last March, Reineke served as the keynote speaker at the National Center for Women & IT (NCWIT) “Award for Aspirations in Computing” ceremony in Fairfax, Va. This ceremony honored 10 high school students for their IT-related achievements, along with two high school teachers who were recognized for educational excellence and their advocacy to

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promote and encourage young women to pursue education within the information technology field.

Dawn Penniman ’90 G’97 of East Syracuse is a certified project manager at ARCADIS. Penniman races at Labrador Mountain during the winters and consistently wins medals every season. A longstanding member of the L.C. Smith Alumni Association and the SU Central NY Alumni Club, Penniman plans to travel to the Galapagos Islands this summer.

Robert J. Wood ’98 has been promoted to the rank of tenured full professor at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Wood has been awarded the prestigious Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This award recognizes an outstanding researcher under the age of 35 in any field of science that NSF supports. Wood, founder of the Harvard Microbiotics Laboratory, will receive a million-dollar grant over a five-year period for further advanced study.

2000s

Tariq Awwad ’02 and four partners launched Focal Point Consulting in Jordan. The firm specializes in organizational development, human capital services, financial and franchising advisory services, strategy and business planning, and market research.

Evangelia Bellas ’04 graduated in May 2012 from Tufts University with a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. Her research in using silk biomaterials for soft tissue regeneration is in development for a startup company. Bellas is working on developing a silk hair serum with two other graduate students and will be starting a postdoctoral position at the University of Pennsylvania in bioengineering.

Nikhil Bodhankar ’07, a lead electrical engineer for CHA Consulting in Albany, N.Y., was nominated to the National Engineers Week Foundation’s “New Faces of Engineering” for his dedication to advancing the profession through mentoring and promoting global student research collaboration while providing incentive and inspiration to those considering engineering careers. Bodhankar also was chosen by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) as a 2012 ACEC Young Professional of the Year Award Winner.

Patrick Driscoll ’00 is an associate and technology specialist at Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds, an intellectual property law firm in Concord, Mass. Before joining the firm, Driscoll served as senior electrical engineer in the antenna and microwave department at Raytheon.

Darrek “DJ” Isereau ’01 (Electrical), was one of 40 Central New York residents named to BizEvents’s 2011 “40 Under Forty” list for his contributions in the workplace and community. He is the business area manager of analysis and communications in SRC, Inc.’s defense and environmental solutions unit.

Ryan Jean ’09 has returned from Oman, where he was a field engineer with Schlumberger Ltd. for the past three years. Jean, one of the original members of the L.C. Smith Young Alumni Board, now resides in Chicago, where he is an industrial sales engineer for REXA, covering the Midwestern U.S. Lan Luan G’04, senior product manager at Microsoft, received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School this past May. Luan manages product marketing for Microsoft’s online advertising business in the greater Asia and Pacific regions. She returned to campus last February during National Engineers Week 2012 as a guest lecturer for SU’s Alumni Speaker Series. Luan visited Professor Kevin Du’s Internet security class and later gave an inspiring presentation to a packed audience of students.

Terry Marshall ’09 G’11, civil engineer at O’Brien & Gere in Syracuse, recently traveled to his home country of Barbados, where he competed in the National Olympic Trials 110-meter hurdles for a spot on the Barbados team. Marshall, who ran track and field for SU as a student, was just short of qualifying, but will use his experience competing at the world’s highest levels to be a role model to encourage and inspire young athletes.

Jennifer Zhao ’09 is a reliability and maintainability engineer at Raytheon Co. in Portsmouth, R.I. Zhao, who served as president of ASIA (Asian Students in America) at L.C. Smith, recently returned to campus as the alumni guest speaker for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month last April, during which she visited Professor Young Bai Moon’s sustainable manufacturing class and later presented her inspiring story, “Paving the Way,” to SU students.

2010s

Timothy Holland ’10 received an M.S. in space studies last May at the University of North Dakota and has started his career as a biomedical flight controller for NASA’s International Space Station.

Let us know about your accomplishments! Please send your alumni news and notes to engineer@syr.edu.

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l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

convocation

38

“If you remember nothing else I say today, please remember this: If it energizes you, it’s right. If it drains you, it is wrong. This is true in work, in love, and in life.”

“As you graduate today and decide on what to do next, you are at what I call a ‘fork in the road’ or a ‘decision point’; at an ‘intersection.’… My guidance to you is to make those ‘fork in the road’ choices consciously; take the risks with this one life to live; maximize your opportunities.”

Waleed Abdalati ‘86

R.K. Anand ‘90

NASA Chief Scientist and Director of the University of Colorado’s Earth Science and Observation Center

Visit us at facebook.com/LCSmithSU

Executive Vice President and General Manager of Juniper Networks’ Data Center Business Unit

www.lcs.syr.edu

Honoring an L.C. Smith Legend L.C. Smith College recently honored Professor and Dean Emeritus Bradley J. Strait. It was a wonderful evening full of stories from friends and colleagues detailing many of his accomplishments during his time as student, faculty member, administrator, and volunteer. I can honestly say that, in my time working with the alumni of the L.C. Smith College, there is no other person whose name is mentioned more when I am visiting with them than that of Brad Strait. If I had a dollar for every time his name has been invoked, let’s just say my job of raising money would be much easier.

I have had the pleasure and honor of working with Brad in his role as volunteer since I came to Syracuse in 2005. He had agreed to lead the committee to organize the L.C. Smith War Years Reunion, which recognized all those who had attended the college during the time of the G.I. Bill. His legendary attention to detail and commitment to the reunion was apparent as we worked together. This was reinforced by the fact that he took the time to personally respond to notes sent in by those who were unable to attend and their families.

When it was Brad’s turn to speak on June 1, he said several times, “Everything I’ve ever accomplished was because somebody helped me.” Though this is an expectedly humble and noble statement, I think that everyone who knows him would agree that the help Brad Strait gave to others during his time at Syracuse University far exceeded any he received. This was exemplified when, in a visit with Brad and his lovely wife, Nancy, I conveyed the desire of many people to establish a scholarship in their honor, he responded that the two of them

wanted to be the first to contribute. Thus, once the scholarship is endowed, Brad and Nancy Strait and all those who honor him by contributing to the Bradley J. and Nancy B. Strait Endowed Scholarship Fund will continue to help engineering students in perpetuity.

Thank you to those who have supported this effort to honor someone who has impacted LCS and so many of those who have passed through these halls. If you would also like to do so, I look forward to working to accomplish that with you.

Contact me at 315-443-3330 or sasavage@syr.edu and share your story of how Brad Strait has helped you. quiant.

Steve Savage Assistant Dean for College Advancement

39

l.c. smith college of engineering and computer science summer 2012

brad strait honored On June 1, 2012, the College honored Professor and Dean Emeritus Bradley J. Strait for his years of service as an alumnus, faculty member and leader of L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science. As part of the celebration, the College announced the establishment of the Bradley J. and Nancy B. Strait Endowed Scholarship Fund. In a move that exemplifies why Strait is so revered, he was the first person to volunteer to donate to the College to help endow the scholarship.

As many who know Strait remember, he was fond of composing poems to commemorate 40 auspicious occasions like convocations and retirements of esteemed faculty. He wrote such a poem for the retirement of Dean James A. Luker in 1982. Alan Levy, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, read this poem to all of the guests of the event but changed the end to honor our good friend Brad Strait.

Here is an excerpt: We could go on this way for an hour and a half, But most of you need to get home to a bath.

The truth is you know that despite these few lines Our Dean is a good one and a good friend of mine.

The saddest part of this day for us all – Dean Strait has left us – he’ll not be here in the fall.

He’s devoted his life to this Engineering College; We’ve gained a great deal from his experience and knowledge.

He’s helped me personally in many many ways.

He’s helped us all in our professional days.

He’s leaving us now to begin a new life; We extend all best wishes to him and his wife.

And now I shall close as I’ve closed before, Or else you’ll consider this a terrible bore.

The time has now come, if I have a vote To end this oration on a serious note.

I suspect here today it may have occurred to each This is not the usual farewell speech.

The point, Dean Strait, that I’d like you to recall Is we appreciate your life of service to us all.

And now as you leave, I do hope you’ll plan To return to S.U. as oft as you can.

It’s a good old place; we wish you God-speed, And we hope all your sunsets will set Orange, indeed.

www.lcs.syr.edu

“Everything I’ve ever accomplished was because somebody helped me...”

Now, Brad Strait is helping future L.C. Smith students.

Professor and Dean Emeritus Brad Strait ’58, G’60, G’65 has left a legacy in the hearts and minds of his students, faculty, staff, and everyone who has worked with him.

After more than 50 years of dedicated service to Syracuse University and L.C. Smith, he and his wife, Nancy Strait ’58, G’89, have made a generous gift to the new Bradley J. and Nancy B. Strait Scholarship.

Help us endow the Strait Scholarship!

Make your gift today at lcs.syr.edu/giving

41

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Engineer magazine promotes a clean, sustainable environment. Throughout production, we have embraced green practices and principles.

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