UVM Professors honored with National Science Foundation CAREER Awards
FINDING & BUILDING
THE WAY FORWARD
SUMMER 2023
CAREER
AWARD WINNERS 2023
Above: Nick Cheney, Joe Near, and Hamid Ossareh Photos: Joshua Defibaugh
BY GEEDA SEARFO ORCE
Three University of Vermont professors have been honored with National Science Foundation CAREER Awards for their outstanding contributions to science. College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) assistant professors Nick Cheney and Joe Near, from the Department of Computer Science, and Hamid Ossareh, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, have received National Science Foundation CAREER Awards. The honorees join over 30 other CAREER grant winners at the University of Vermont (UVM) from the last 20 years. All three investigators are working on important emerging problems. Cheney’s award takes inspiration from how human/animal brains and bodies grow and evolve to improve the construction of artificial neural networks. Near’s award addresses data privacy challenges and approaches due to the explosion in both AI and data analytics. Ossareh’s award aims to integrate model-based and data-driven paradigms to establish a new framework
for control of complex dynamical systems (power grids, satellites, cars) that is easily tunable, interpretable, and provides guarantees of performance and safety. Linda Schadler, Dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, puts the awards into context. “Recognition of UVM faculty with CAREER awards signals the high quality of our faculty and the impactful work they are doing.” Christian Skalka, Chair of the Computer Science department, agrees. "These awards reflect the exceptional talent and impact of our Junior Faculty," he said. "Due to their efforts and to the innovative, supportive community we're working to create in CEMS, we are achieving a higher level of impact and visibility in the broader scientific community." As for the winners themselves? Read on to see how their work – in artificial intelligence, data privacy, and automated control – is critical right now.
U V M. E D U/C E M S
$20M UVM GRANT TO ‘HARNESS UNPACKING THE COMPLEXITY THE DATA REVOLUTION’ OF SNOW IN VERMONT BY ST R AT EG I C C O M M U N I C AT I O N S
A groundbreaking data science effort to better understand and harness the power of stories has earned the University of Vermont a $20 million research capacity building award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Science of Online Corpora, Knowledge, and Stories (SOCKS) will employ the Science of Stories to better understand the world. In astronomy and biology, the telescope and the microscope helped us describe phenomena far beyond our limitations, opening up vast new scientific realms. With the SOCKS program, UVM is working to do the same for stories by building and refining instruments that can ‘distantly read’ and make sense of enormous collections of texts, whether they be libraries of books, streaming social media, or Vermont folktales from the 1800s. Humans need to understand how stories evolve and spread, and the effects stories have on populations. With the help of SOCKS funding, UVM will develop a measurement-first science of stories. You can learn more here: https://www. uvm.edu/socks/
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U V M S U M M I T | S U M M E R 202 3
BY JOSHUA DEFIBAU GH
Starting last April, Associate Professor Arne Bomblies and his team began installing a series of snow sensors and meteorological instruments throughout the state, from the top of Mount Mansfield to the shores of Lake Champlain. “What we’re after is a better predictive model of snow in Vermont and in the northeast in general,” Bomblies said. “The goal is to ultimately understand how things like trees, slope aspect, elevation, rainfall, and cloudiness impact snow and be able to model that.” “Snow is critically important to the state and the region,” said Beverley Wemple, a professor of Geography & Geosciences and member of the research team. “Our winter recreation economy depends on our snowpack. Snowmelt events deliver carbon and nutrients to our waterways, and the increasing frequency of mid-winter rainfall and icing events creates hazards for travel and alters fragile ecosystems. Our winters are shifting rapidly and we need more information about these dynamic changes.”
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GREENING THE FUTURE WITH VERDE TECHNOLOGIES BY GEEDA SE ARFO ORCE
The UVM startup's thin-film solar panels are poised to transform the clean tech industry. With their revolutionary solar panels, Verde Technologies enthralled the judges and participants at the Clean Tech Open—the world's largest and longest-running clean technology accelerator. The University of Vermont startup’s thin-film perovskite solar panels, which are lightweight, flexible, affordable, and easily installable because of their adhesive backing, won second place and the People’s Choice awards at the Cleantech Open's annual Global Forum, held in San Jose, Calif., in the fall. Verde competed against over 90 companies from across the globe. Randall Headrick and Richards Miller of UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences are the Research Lead and President/CTO, respectively. The two invented this innovative solution and founded Verde Technologies with a simple but profound mission: to create the lowest-cost clean energy the world has ever seen.
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CONDUCTING THE FUTURE OF VERMONT’S WORKFORCE BY GEEDA SE ARFO ORCE
UVM’s enhanced Semiconductor Curriculum and Certificates will help build the State's workforce in chip manufacturing and design. In 2022, when the U.S. Department of Education (DoE) awarded the University of Vermont (UVM) $2.6M to develop and implement enhanced educational opportunities in semiconductor technology, they not only understood the need for increased knowledge in the field, they also recognized its potential benefits. Over 2 million people are either directly or indirectly employed in the semiconductor industry—a number that is projected to increase as technologies evolve. The 17-credit certificate program leverages UVM’s new laboratory facilities and advance simulation modeling tools to help students grow their own comprehensive, hands-on understanding of this vital technology. The certificate also requires that students gain research experience, undertake a capstone design project, or hold an internship related to semiconductors—experiences in which students will apply their course knowledge.
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COUNTRY ROADS BY GEEDA SE ARFO ORCE
UVM plays a key role in DOT-funded research focused on sustainable and equitable solutions to rural travel. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently awarded $20 million to the National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) to study transportation’s effects on the environment. The University of Vermont (UVM), one of the original members of the NCST consortium, will play a key role in research focused on sustainable and equitable solutions to rural travel. Greg Rowangould, Director of UVM’s Transportation Research Center (TRC) and Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, understands how transformative this funding can be. “This funding will not only continue our partnership with some of the world’s top sustainable transportation research centers, but it also sets up UVM to play a leading role in research that aims to transform the sustainability of travel in smaller communities and rural areas.” Dana Rowangould, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, works in the areas of environmental justice, transportation and health, and transportation planning.
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WE, ROBOTS BY JOSHUA BROWN
“The body, in a very simple way, is the foundation for intelligent and cautious action,” said CEMS’ Joshua Bongard in a recent New York Times article about AI’s evolution. “As far as I can see, this is the only path to safe A.I.” Bongard and other prominent A.I. researchers say that the technology won’t reach true intelligence, or true understanding of the world, until it is paired with a body that can perceive, react to and feel around its environment. Don’t miss Josh’s captivating conversation about technology, artificial intelligence, and cognition with UVM philosopher Randall Harp and Tina Escaja, University Distinguished Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages and Cultures, and director of UVM’s program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. “…these underlying issues remain: What are machines? What are humans? How closely do we want to keep an eye on our machines? Those questions and tensions have remained, but now they've become pressing because the robots are no longer in science fiction or in plays. They're here. And we have to decide: what do we want to do with these things?” — Josh Bongard
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NSF GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP WINNER BY KRISTEN MUNS ON
Bryn Loftness wins a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to help support youth mental health. Bryn Loftness, a doctoral student in the University of Vermont’s Complex Systems and Data Science program, studies wearable technologies and develops algorithms that can improve human health. In late March, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded her a Graduate Research Fellowship, distributed over the next three years, for her work uncovering the digital phenotypes (think digital fingerprints) for childhood internalizing disorders like anxiety and depression. At 24, Loftness is a digital native. Before she could reach the keyboard on tiptoe, she recalls “dinking around” on the family computers trying to unlock their special powers. “I remember how fun it was to experiment with them,” she said.
CULTIVATING MEAT FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE BY JOSHUA DEFIBAU GH
UVM Researchers are Using Algae to Create Better Cultivated Meat Scaffolds As the field of cultivated meat grows, so does the need for affordable inputs to facilitate the growth of cultured cells in large quantities. Scaffolds, which provide an underlying structure for cell attachment, are particularly cost-intensive and still largely rely on animal-based media such as collagen and gelatin. In order to create a truly animal-free, affordable scaffolding technology, University of Vermont (UVM) researchers Dr. Rachael Floreani and Irfan Tahir are turning to algae-based polymers to build cell-supporting structures, reports UVM. Working from the University’s Engineered Biomaterials Research Laboratory (EBRL), Dr. Floreani and Tahir published an opensource paper discussing how such scaffolds, made from plant-based hydrogels, can be mechanically “tuned” to produce cultivated meat.
CEMS ON ACROSS THE FENCE BY GEEDA SE ARFO ORCE
Three recent episodes of UVM’s Across the Fence offer a fascinating look at some of the vibrant and varied research and outreach from CEMS faculty, students, and staff. Take a look! Discover Engineering, featuring student STEM Ambassadors
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AERO Student Club, featuring current students and club leadership
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UVM’s Knee Joint Research Study, featuring Mechanical Engineering’s Nic Fiorentino
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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 109 VOTEY HALL, UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT 33 COLCHESTER AVENUE, BURLINGTON VT 05405 (802) 656-3392 | info@cems.uvm.edu | www.uvm.edu/cems
A NOTE
FROM THE DEAN Dear Alumni and Friends of CEMS, We’ve had a magnificent year in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at UVM! We are very proud of our CAREER award winners, our students, and the important research our faculty are doing. We hope you enjoy reading the selected stories inside and encourage you to keep in touch. You can scan the QR code associated with each story to read more – and you can always access all of our stories at uvm.edu/cems. Cheers,
Linda S. Schadler DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
WE’RE SO PROUD OF OUR GRADUATES! Visit our Facebook page to view the commencement image album at:
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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES