UWM College of Engineering & Applied Science | Condensed Research magazine | 2019-2020

2019-2020

LUBAR ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER

A human-centered approach to training physicians Inside the new state-of-the-art facility learn to be flexible and adjust when things for the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center don’t go as expected.

(LEC), faculty members equip students MCW faculty recently gave their students with the skills and knowledge to create new a chance to implement the LEC strategies. products and launch their own businesses.

At an LEC workshop, 160 medical and But the underlying skills that make a pharmacy students conducted an exercise good entrepreneur, such as creative and to improve a local hospital’s admissions innovative thinking, are applicable to any department. In addition to interviewing academic field. doctors and nurses, students consulted At the Medical College of Wisconsin with a wide circle of users – including (MCW), the Kern Institute for the paramedics, firefighters and front-desk Transformation of Medical personnel – to include a variety of Education is revamping perspectives in their fact-finding. how medical education It’s not the type of issue is delivered to the you’d expect to see future next generation of physicians exploring, doctors, and the having little to do LEC is helping with that mission.

The partnership features a training method that develops innovative ideas based on basic The Lubar Entrepreneurship problem-solving.

Center’s new home Called humancentered design, the method guides critical thinking, and it begins with surveying Niu the potential user’s needs.

“In the marketplace, customers care about their problems, not about cool ideas,” says Ilya Avdeev, director of innovation at the LEC and an associate professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering & Applied Science. “Human-centered design is about identifying which problems are the right ones to focus on and getting the user to help you by providing targeted feedback.”

User feedback is the secret sauce of innovation, Avdeev says, because it confirms whether you’re on to something useful. LEC training provides a structure for framing questions, whether the person using it is researching public health, launching a product or training physicians.

Dr. Chris Decker (left) LEC students also are exposed to a and Ilya Avdeev “lean launch” method – a path of creation, testing and validation of an early-stage solution. Researchers learn targeted interviewing techniques to discover exactly what potential users are looking for. Both 2

with traditional diagnosis or treatment of patients. But both the lean-launch and human-centered design techniques are relevant to MCW’s work, says Dr. Chris Decker, a professor of emergency medicine and a faculty director of the Kern Institute.

Established in 2017 with support from the Kern Family Foundation, the Milwaukeebased institute is rethinking medical education by making sure students have a skill set emphasizing character, competence and caring.

Although the medical training model has remained static for years, the health care environment is changing quickly, and new physicians must be ready for that. At the same time, students are less responsive

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

A better look at diabetic brains to traditional teaching methods, such as sitting in large lecture courses.

Decker hopes the LEC’s philosophy will give MCW faculty the tools to create a more meaningful educational experience for students. He says prioritizing empathy means better physician training and, by extension, better patient care. That’s because graduates come out as systemlevel thinkers who can make changes and address problems in a human-centered way.

“Where the ideas and improvements come from really depends on establishing collaborations,” says Decker. “The more diverse the partnerships you have, the more creative the ideas that result.”

Consistently high blood sugar levels caused by Type 2 diabetes can damage organs and blood vessels, and if the damage occurs in the brain, result in stroke and dementia.

Medications help about 28 million Americans limit these risks.

But UWM researchers believe more can be done.

What if they could recognize subtle changes in a diabetic’s brain before there was irreversible harm?

That’s the long-term goal of Mahsa Ranji and Ramin Pashaie, associate professors of electrical engineering in the College of Engineering & Applied Science.

The researchers are developing innovative imaging technology that detects tiny alterations in the brain’s blood flow and metabolism, which could eventually damage vessel or nerve cells. Their approach offers both visual and quantitative measurements of these changes, and Ranji says a detailed quantitative analysis provides much more objective results than those that come from qualitative image comparisons made with the human eye.

“Our hypothesis is that vascular and metabolic changes in the diabetic brain are linked,” Ranji says. “Imaging both processes over the same period of time in living tissue has never been done before.”

The project is a unique combination of its leaders’ expertise.

Pashaie has developed portable technology for tracking

blood flow that can be customized for the brain and many other tissues. Ranji is an expert in fluorescence imaging and biomedical optics. It’s a type of imaging that makes use of fluorescence to image cells and living tissue at greater depth than other methods.

Scans focus on two proteins that help convert the chemical energy contained in blood sugar to energy that brain cells can use. Both proteins naturally emit absorbed light, which makes them ideal for fluorescent imaging.

Ranji measures the ratio of the two proteins as a marker of the tissue’s metabolic health. Abnormal values suggest that diabetes may disrupt the brain’s energy conversion.

Ranji notes that the work is in its early stages.

“If our approach detects a direct correlation between vascular and metabolic brain changes in mice, that would be a major finding,” Ranji says.

“Years down the road,” she adds, “it may help design new interventions at early stages of human diabetes to reduce the risk of complications, such as stroke or dementia.”

Fluorescent imaging lets Mahsa Ranji (above left) take a detailed look at cells and living tissue in the brain.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Measuring turbulence to keep Lake Michigan healthy Like many other ecosystems, Lake Michigan has been infested by invasive species. To evaluate their impact, Qian Liao builds computer models that simulate the lake’s complex interplay of physical and biogeochemical processes, including its turbulence: the small-scale pattern of moving water caused by random changes in pressure, temperature and wind that is especially challenging to describe.

In 2008, Liao, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, deployed in Lake Michigan the first prototype of a compact device he designed to measure turbulence in natural environments: the underwater miniature particle image velocimeter (UWMPIV), essentially a waterproof digital camera and powerful laser mounted on a floating platform. In contrast to PIVs for laboratory settings, it is lightweight, battery-powered and can be left unattended for up to eight days to periodically record the movement of tiny particles at the water surface or near the bottom.

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“The UWMPIV illuminates particles with a 2D laser sheet and photographs them in rapid succession so that image processing software can resolve the instantaneous velocity distribution in the entire 2D plane, and soon in 3D space as well,” Liao explains. “This is a great improvement over traditional field instruments that measure turbulent velocity at single points within a conceptual water column.”

Since more accurate estimates of turbulence result in more realistic simulations, Liao and Harvey Bootsma, a professor at the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences, are now using these models to predict the long-term impact of quagga mussels on phosphorus cycles.

Their work is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The quagga mussel, an especially notorious, cold-tolerant invasive species that colonizes the lake bottom, feeds on the floating collection of miniscule plants (phytoplankton) that forms the bottom of the aquatic food chain, along with tiny

animals (zooplankton). The mussel’s enormous appetite Qian negatively affects organisms Liao higher up in the food chain.

By releasing dissolved phosphorus, the mussel also causes eutrophication at the bottom of Lake Michigan. This stimulates the growth of macro-algae in the near-shore area and may contribute to the formation of large-scale harmful algae blooms. To reduce the mussel’s ecological impact, regulatory agencies employ policy tools, such as nutrient management and fish stocking—and these tools rely heavily on Liao and Bootsma’s computer models.

“Our existing model uses circulation, winds, temperature and other measured parameters to generate a long-term 3D simulation of Lake Michigan,” Liao says.

“The UWMPIV adds realistic boundary conditions to help answer our key questions: How much phytoplankton will the mussels consume and how much phosphorus will they release during the next 10 to 20 years?”

Liao has no shortage of future research plans. Measuring the carbon dioxide exchange rate between the atmosphere and oceanic surfaces could improve climate change models; and new techniques for water flow measurements in rivers could improve flood prediction models.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Better understanding blood flow and brain aneurysms A weak blood vessel in the brain is a dangerous thing.

Six million Americans have one that bulges out like a bubble and fills with blood, creating a brain aneurysm.

If it ruptures – as D’Souza it does in about 30,000 people annually – it can result in a coma, permanent brain damage, paralysis or death.

To better diagnose and treat brain aneurysms, Roshan D’Souza, a UWM associate professor of mechanical engineering, is developing new methods of analysis for a special kind of magnetic resonance imaging technology: 4D Flow MRI. Unlike traditional organ scans, 4D Flow MRI provides spatial 3D measurements of blood flow velocity and tracks its variation over time – the fourth dimension. D’Souza wants to use the shear stress that the flowing blood imposes upon a vessel’s wall as a biomarker for the potential growth of an aneurysm. This would indicate if and when treatment is needed to prevent rupture.

Because the resolution and raw data from the MRI scans aren’t of a high enough quality to be clinically useful, D’Souza is developing a new approach that merges two pieces of complementary information: flow physics simulations and actual data from the scan.

“It’s similar to how meteorologists produce storm warnings,” D’Souza says. “A highresolution storm simulation based on a physics model receives updates from sensors that track an ongoing storm to generate improved predictions.” In this case, the MRI data update the parameters of the physics model to generate a higher-resolution image.

D’Souza and his collaborators at the Medical College of Wisconsin hope to eventually design clinical trials to quantify the new method’s benefits. And the brain is only the beginning.

“We can expand our research to 4D Flow MRI studies of the liver, heart and kidneys,” D’Souza says. “I think this method has the potential to make a real difference for many patients.”

Rostami and her 2-year-old

COMPUTER SCIENCE

Getting computers to know your face Reihaneh Rostami’s 2-year-old daughter recognizes her mother instantly, even when Mom is wearing sunglasses. Rostami’s research aims to teach computers to distinguish individual human faces just as accurately.

It’s a tall order, says the computer science doctoral candidate, because computer programs must account for so many variables. Factors such as emotion, gender and race could all foil the outcome.

Despite the proliferation of facial recognition programs, such as the one Facebook uses to tag your photos, none can replace the ability of human detection. “For some applications, you need 100 percent accuracy,” says Rostami, who’s working under the guidance of Zeyun Yu, associate professor of computer science. “So there is a long way to go.”

To move things forward, her research focuses on blending the most successful aspects of two different computer recognition strategies while building a public database that will help future software solutions get it right.

The first recognition strategy involves extracting each facial feature, or landmark, and writing descriptive code for it. Once that’s done, programmers provide that knowledge to the

recognition system. The entire process is time-consuming and difficult.

In the second strategy, the computer teaches itself exact facial features by using a machine-learning algorithm, a process of matching a face to an existing pool of images of that same face. As this is happening, Rostami provides samples of correct information and tags poor performance so the computer corrects itself over and over.

In that approach, however, the program is only as good as the database of existing images. Even something as simple as a smile can trip up a computer that’s been trained on faces with neutral expressions.

Another obstacle involves creating large databases of 3D images, which programs use to create a “morphable model” that can account for weight change or aging. “To train the system, it has to be exposed to diverse 3D data,” Rostami says. “And enough databases just don’t exist yet.”

Because Rostami’s current work happens to focus on recognizing the faces of Chinese men, she’s creating a database of 3D faces appropriate to that race and gender. She hopes it will someday serve as a valuable resource for other researchers, in the same vein that databases involving other race and gender variables will advance broader recognition efforts.

Rostami says the blended strategy is delivering promising results, while reiterating that fully accurate recognition is far down the road. Still, she finds herself cheering at the algorithm’s successes, much in the way she would at her toddler’s.

“You get so happy about it,” Rostami says, “because it feels like you’re training a human.”

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Bringing energy reliability to

M I C R O G R I D S C A N P L AY A K E Y R O L E I N P O W E R I N G T H E F U T U R E

BY LAURA L. OTTO

Robert Cuzner (left) and Adel Nasiri believe microgrids can transform the power grid and help keep the lights on.

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T

he power went out in parts of New York City twice within eight days in July 2019. Blackouts may be nothing new, but they’re becoming more common in the United States. Over the past two decades, the incidence of blackouts – discounting those caused by natural disasters – has doubled.

In fact, Americans experience more power outages than people in any other developed nation in the world. Fueled by the perfect storm of high demand, aging infrastructure and extreme weather brought on by climate change, the problem shows no sign of abating. Experts say the national network of energy distribution equipment, simply called “the grid,” needs an upgrade.

It will not be an easy task, says Adel Nasiri, who holds the Richard and Joanne Grigg Professorship in the College of Engineering & Applied Science, because it’s not a matter of simply replacing old parts.

“We need a future grid that is made up of smaller, flexible units that can operate either as part of the whole or as independent agents,” Nasiri says. “In short, we need microgrids.”

Microgrids are power sources for a limited area, such as a factory complex or military base, that integrate different kinds energy, often including renewables.

Although not yet in widespread commercial use, microgrids can be connected to the main grid – and contribute energy to it – or operate disconnected, serving as backup power for the immediate vicinity.

Although microgrids can provide supplemental power to keep the lights on during a blackout, Nasiri believes they have a much bigger role to play. He and Robert Cuzner, associate professor of electrical engineering, are researching how microgrids can be models for transforming early 20th-century infrastructure into an automated, modern system. Realizing that vision is within reach, says Nasiri, an expert in the architecture of microgrids.

At UWM’s Connected Systems Institute, researchers from the Lubar School of Business and the College of Engineering & Applied Science are helping industry better manage manufacturing by analyzing and optimizing factories using sensors, software and artificial intelligence. That same concept is part of what makes

microgrids so promising.

A main feature of microgrids is their embedded sensor network that streams information in real time. The main power grid, by and large, doesn’t have this ability.

If it did, it would be much more reliable.

The grid distribution system that carries electricity from power plants to consumers has evolved since the late 1800s without a comprehensive plan. It’s grown to meet demand through a patchwork of improvements that needed to be compatible with the original infrastructure.

The grid was designed to work with power plants that dispatch electricity in amounts that match, as closely as possible, with user demand. Keeping that balance is necessary because power plants can’t store energy. If it’s not used immediately, it’s lost.

Integrating microgrids with the main grid was a pie-in-the-sky notion as recently as 10 years ago, mainly because microgrids couldn’t adjust the output of their various energy sources like power plants could.

But Nasiri’s research helped pave the way for microgrids’ commercial use. He did so by integrating better energy storage techniques.

Take, for example, a microgrid incorporating wind energy. Winds tend to pick up at night, so wind turbines generate more energy, but consumer demand is usually lower at night. “When contributing renewable energy to the grid,” he says, “you have to smooth out peaks and troughs.”

Storing excess energy using primarily lithium ion batteries lets a microgrid’s output match consumer need.

With microgrids now able to contribute to the main grid, they bring other features to the table that would be a major step forward for an infrastructure that essentially works the same way it did a century ago. Making the whole grid more reliable depends on fixing how blackouts currently occur.

Power plants send electricity over transmission lines that carry it long distances. Transformers then step down the voltage in those lines so that it can be distributed at the city level. The voltage is reduced even more before it’s fed to individual buildings. Cuzner likens it to a tree, with power sent from the roots through the trunk and then out to many branches.

Circuit breakers placed where the voltage changes can isolate faulty branches. If

equipment breaks down, the breaker simply stops the flow of electricity to that branch. The problem is, public utilities added more power plants and substations to boost output as demand grew – and the linear system became more complicated.

Staying with the tree metaphor, Cuzner says it has evolved to have connections between multiple branches of multiple trees. This offers more avenues to distribute energy, but it overwhelms the old circuit breaker system.

Blackout can occur when equipment can’t locate a defect in the grid quickly enough for the circuit breakers to deploy, allowing the power failure to spread throughout the network. “The big grid isn’t nimble enough to avoid a blackout,” Cuzner says.

Because the grid has grown so complex, it needs microgrids’ systemwide communication. The old infrastructure largely relies on a physical search for the source of a problem. A microgrid’s components can immediately detect a disturbance in the grid and alert the entire system by exchanging data on the internet of things. Internal sensors can quickly pinpoint equipment failure, and this data is used to predict when future failures will occur.

Nasiri and Cuzner are working toward a future “big” grid that has the ability to manage electrical disturbances locally without shutting down whole cities.

This digital transformation could eventually include machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence that enables systems to teach themselves what leads to breakdowns, dramatically improving the grid’s resiliency.

“Now you have more control,” Nasiri says. “You use smart techniques to look at weather, energy load patterns and storage, and then you can decide on the way to best feed your system.”

This approach recasts microgrids as much more than backup power systems.

Nasiri and Cuzner see a market for microgrids that can run for longer periods – perhaps continuously – as part of the grid.

“Smart features won’t give us 100 percent protection,” Nasiri says.

“The downside is, when you add intelligence, you also add vulnerabilities.

In fact, adding any components increases the risk of failures.” But the digital lessons learned from microgrids, Nasiri notes, provide a path toward reinventing our national energy system.

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An Early Diagnosis Helping parents and children learn more about an extremely rare disease

BY KURT CHANDLER

Brooke Slavens (top) directs Avery Fregien through one of the tests designed to give scientists a broader knowledge base about hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, with an eye toward better diagnosis and treatment.

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It’s a rare disease that renders children susceptible to constant joint pain and fatigue for their entire lives.

Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is an inherited disorder marked by defects in a person’s collagen, a protein that helps form and support connective tissues.

The condition has no known cure. It’s part of a group of connective tissue disorders more broadly known as Ehlers-Danlos syndromes. Much about these syndromes is shrouded in mystery.

Unlike other connective tissue disorders, the genetic origin of hEDS hasn’t been identified. Experts have noted the relative lack of research into hEDS regarding genetics, proper diagnosis and patient counseling. The lack of knowledge is frustrating for both those affected by it and the medical community at large.

“Sometimes, parents don’t even know their kids have it.

They don’t know what to do with it,” says Brooke Slavens, an affiliate professor in the College of Engineering & Applied Science and associate professor in the College of Health Sciences. “There are a lot of unknowns, which is why parents come to the hospital for help.”

Slavens leads a UWM research team’s collaboration with the Genetics Center at Children’s Wisconsin hospital to characterize the features of hEDS. The disease is estimated to affect anywhere from 1 in 5,000 people to 1 in 20,000.

By creating and developing a better understanding of it, researchers will be able to develop diagnostic criteria and treatment strategies.

Much of the project’s clinical testing takes place at the Mobility Laboratory on UWM’s Innovation Campus in Wauwatosa. Slavens, who specializes in biomedical engineering as well as occupational science and technology, is the lab’s director. Using its state-of-the-art equipment, including motion-capture technology, she and her research team measure the movements of children with the disease.

The team’s ultimate goal is to devise better treatment and care plans for hEDS, the diagnosis of which is especially difficult. The most obvious symptom is an expanded range of joint motion, like an extreme form of being doublejointed. Beyond that, hEDS results in frequent joint

dislocations, chronic joint pain, and skin that is extremely pliable and easily bruised, as well as other problems.

“With their skin being extremely stretchy,” Slavens says of children with hEDS, “it can lead to significant bruising and scarring. Fatigue is another major symptom.”

Joint hyperflexibility by itself is not all that unusual, occurring in as much as 25% of people in the United States. In children, it can mean having the ability to do the splits, bend their thumb to touch their forearm, or twist an arm behind their back.

Such flexibility might seem like a gymnast’s gift, but not for people with hEDS. Instead, hyperflexibility impairs balance, movement, strength and other functions while being a major source of pain.

Joyce Engel is a professor in the College of Health Sciences whose research focuses on the effects of and treatment for pain, particularly in children. As part of the hEDS project, Engel is collecting data by interviewing children with hEDS and their parents. She’s measuring the children’s chronic pain, whether it comes from the joints, from headaches and gastrointestinal discomfort, or from depression, anxiety and fatigue.

“The pain is there almost constantly,” Engel says, noting that it leads to sleep disorders, poor appetite and low energy, so many of the children are home-schooled.

“If they do attend school, they can’t participate in gym class. They have to sit out recess. I can see that they want to do things, but it’s the pain that’s stopping them.”

Dr. Donald Basel is the medical director of Children’s Wisconsin’s Genetics Center and an associate professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He emphasizes the importance of creating the crucial biomedical phenotype, which involves quantifying the disorder – its physical characteristics and possibly its biochemical properties – by comparing people who have hEDS to those who don’t.

Researchers are also focusing on the genetics behind hEDS. “We’re collecting the genetic sequencing data,” Basel says, “so that we can analyze it and see if there’s any commonality between all of the patients, in terms of a genetic

Researchers employ motion-capture technology, which makes use of the reflective markers being attached to Avery Fregien, and video screens attached to force-sensitive plates (below) to learn more about hEDS.

underpinning of the disorder.”

If researchers can identify a defect, it could guide them toward better support or treatment that holds potential to make a difference for patients and their families.

Although hEDS doesn’t affect life expectancy, researchers ultimately want to learn how to correct or eliminate the disease’s origins. They also want to find interventions that will improve the quality of life of hEDS patients.

That goes to the heart of what Slavens and her team are exploring in the Mobility Lab, where the focus is on evaluating the musculoskeletal symptoms.

In one room, an array of 15 motion-capture video cameras mounted on three walls can track reflective markers affixed on the children as they move about, bending their knees, raising their arms, walking across the floor.

An adjoining room houses a virtual reality apparatus that resembles a 10-foot, shell-shaped video screen. In front of it, subjects stand on a forcesensitive platform, balancing on one foot, reaching for virtual objects projected

on the screen, and testing muscle strength and equilibrium.

These tests hold the promise of informing a helpful course of occupational therapy or assistive devices, such as braces and scooters. One idea being explored is using clothing or limb wrappings made of neoprene, a synthetic rubber-like fabric, that could improve posture control.

Additional therapy possibilities include relaxation techniques to ease pain or exercises to improve balance and endurance. Something as elemental as walking might prove to be an effective remedy.

Plans call for the project to include up to 20 children with hEDS and 20 typically developing children without hEDS. Since its inception in 2017, the project has received funds through Children’s Wisconsin and a College of Health Sciences Stimulus Project to Accelerate Research Clusters grant.

Researchers have applied for additional grants.

“Our research is being driven by clinical questions,” Slavens says, “and a clinical need for solutions to help this group of kids.”

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GOING MOBILE

How an app could make it easier to leave the car at home

BY SILKE SCHMIDT Jie Yu knows that more young people want transportation options beyond the automobile, and it’s particularly true among the UWM student population.

So the assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering searched for solutions with students and colleagues.

She found the answer in the palm of her hand. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a customized package that bundles multiple public and private modes of transportation into one smartphone app. Users can plan their daily trips and pay for their trips on a single platform. They also receive real-

time traffic and parking updates.

MaaS apps for public transportation already exist in parts of Europe, where they have helped reduce transportation congestion and emissions. With support from several funding organizations, Yu is working to bring this concept to UWM – and eventually other Wisconsin communities.

“We hope UWM will become the country’s first testbed for Campus MaaS,” Yu says.

She sees UWM as a perfect proving ground because it already offers multiple

transportation options to a large and diverse population of students and employees. Its geographical status as an urban campus is representative of most of the country’s higher education institutions. And the interest on campus in choosing public transportation over privately owned cars is high.

A survey released in 2019 reported that 71% of college students in Wisconsin would be somewhat or very likely to use public transportation to get to school if it were more convenient. Conducted by the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group,

Photo illustration

"Our goal for Campus MaaS is to make trip planning easy and convenient enough so that many people will leave their cars at home and use healthier forms of transportation that are better for the environment."

Jie Yu (left) with two of the graduate researchers who assisted in developing Campus MaaS, Shamsi Trisha (far right) and Zihao Jin (second from right).

the “Millennials on the Move” survey included more than 600 students at 24 of the state’s colleges and universities.

To study the feasibility of Campus MaaS, Yu’s team in the College of Engineering & Applied Science conducted its own survey of Prowl Line users. Operated

by UWM as a supplement to county bus service, the Prowl Line connects UWM’s main campus to other areas of Milwaukee, including student housing and a commuter parking lot. Researchers also analyzed transportation data collected by the UWM Office of Sustainability, UWM Transportation Services, the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) and Bublr, a nonprofit bike-sharing program that offers a discounted annual pass to UWM students.

The results encouraged them to take the next step. Yu’s team has already designed a prototype for the Campus MaaS app and is collaborating on backend programming with UWM’s information technology and transportation personnel, as well as MCTS.

The app’s first iteration will bundle several transportation options: campus shuttles; the prepaid U-PASS for MCTS buses; and the B.O.S.S. (Be On the Safe Side), an on-demand after-hours van service.

Down the road, Yu hopes the app can include commercial bike-sharing and car-hailing programs, as well as the option to reserve and pay for parking spots on or near campus.

Yu plans to initiate Campus MaaS field testing with selected student organizations during the next two years. Eventually, she says, all UWM students and employees will be able to install the app.

Yu’s broadest ambitions for the MaaS concept, however, extend beyond the UWM campus to other parts of Wisconsin.

She sees it as a solution for other public transportation needs, and her initial focus is on user groups like older adults.

The number of Wisconsin residents 65 and older is expected to nearly double by 2040, and Yu wants to provide them with a trip-planning tool called SilverGo.

She’s designing it with features to address the physical and cognitive needs of seniors, such as the inclusion of public transportation services that require minimal walking.

It would be available as an app, but seniors without smartphones could access the information on a user-friendly website and via telephone. Yu says several senior communities have already expressed an interest in testing a SilverGo prototype.

In the meantime, work continues to take Campus MaaS from concept to reality.

“Our goal for Campus MaaS,” Yu says, “is to make trip planning easy and convenient enough so that many people will leave their cars at home and use healthier forms of transportation that are better for the environment. And with the lessons learned from Campus MaaS, we hope to bring similar services to other Wisconsin communities in the future.”

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STUDENT Research MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Safer fueling for rocket launches

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Isaac Ngui, senior Isaac Ngui has loved space since he was young.

Now, he relishes the potential robots hold in space research. “My dream goal would be to use robotics to explore the universe,” Ngui says. “Space is dangerous, but robots aren’t going to worry about that.” Working with Mohammad “Habib” Rahman, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, Ngui is researching how to coordinate the actions of as many as three robots with mechanical arms capable of carrying objects.

Launching rockets into space is dangerous business. Past launches have been plagued by fiery explosions that happen for numerous reasons, including combustion problems.

To minimize the chance of such disasters, fuel has to be delivered to a rocket’s engine in a controlled manner, especially as the rocket moves away from Earth’s gravity. As a UWM mechanical engineering doctoral student, Amin Zarandi explored a method to improve the stability of the combustion process.

He worked under the guidance of Krishna Pillai, a professor of mechanical engineering.

A rocket’s fuel tanks are designed with special channels filled with porous material. This provides a path for fuel to flow from the fuel tank to the combustion chamber 12

through a process called wicking.

It happens similarly to how a liquid is absorbed by and moves through facial tissue or a diaper.

“It’s the way the wicking unfolds that’s really important,” Zarandi says.

In Pillai’s lab, Zarandi identified two different wicking patterns. In one pattern, the porous material is partially saturated. In the other, the material is fully saturated. Only the latter pattern, Zarandi explains, results in the steady delivery of rocket fuel under any conditions.

It’s the microstructure of the wicking material, Zarandi says, that affects the fuel’s saturation pattern.

His research could enable engineers to fine-tune the porous material to improve the fuel-burning process.

That, in turn, would lead to more stable combustion and safer rocket launches.

MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Kari Berna, Sophomore As a high school student, Kari Berna interned at UWM’s foundry to learn about metal casting processes. Now studying materials science and engineering, she’s working with research associate Benjamin Schultz to invent a new material that could be used to make 3D-print molds for bone scaffolds, which help patients regrow damaged bones. The material would allow doctors to easily customize scaffolds to suit individual patients’ needs.

COMPUTER & MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

Putting a premium on utility cybersecurity

Insurance companies have no trouble setting premiums for their clients’ car insurance policies. The massive data available about car models, driver age and more makes gauging the average cost of a car accident relatively easy.

But insuring public utilities against losses from cybercrime is quite different.

“Cyber risk is posing challenges to insurance companies because the nature of the risk is not known, and there is no sufficient data collection to support effective statistical analysis,” says Wei Wei, an associate professor of mathematical sciences in the College of Letters & Science. “To make it worse, cyber risk events could cluster and bring a disaster to insurance companies.”

Wei specializes in actuarial science, which leverages mathematical techniques for prediction and risk assessment.

Uncertainty about the potential payoff is a reason electric utilities have been slow to invest in cybersecurity efforts, because the latest measures wouldn’t guarantee complete protection. Meanwhile, the threat grows daily, as utilities become increasingly reliant upon streaming operational data to the internet.

Wei and Lingfeng Wang, a professor of electrical engineering and computer

U.S. DOE INDUSTRIAL ASSESSMENT CENTER

Earns national recognition for training energy engineers Four recent awards from the U.S. Department of Energy recognize the outstanding work being done at UWM in training the next generation of energy engineers.

The awards shine a spotlight on UWM’s DoE-funded Industrial Assessment Center (IAC), which has emerged as a national leader in the areas of manufacturing and industrial energy efficiency, waste and water use reduction, smart manufacturing, energy management systems, productivity improvement and cybersecurity. The DoE funds 31 industrial assessment centers at campuses nationwide. UWM’s is the only IAC in Wisconsin.

Under the direction of Ryo Amano, professor, mechanical engineering, students who work through the IAC provide free, in-depth energy assessments to small- and medium-sized manufacturers and utilities. The more than 600 companies and water treatment plants that have used the center’s services have received average energy-consumption recommendations to save about $150,000 annually, higher than the national IAC average of $130,000.

In 2020, a UWM team was awarded a DoE Advanced Manufacturing Office’s Industrial Assessment Center Award for Excellence in Applied Energy Engineering

science in the College of Engineering & Applied Science, are helping utility companies shore up their efforts. With funding from the National Science Foundation, they’re researching ways to quantify potential losses caused by cyberattacks and build a structure for premiums without the benefit of historical information. Their work confirms that cyber risk events, and thus related losses, can cluster. For example, they’ve found that two utility grids that are physically separated can both be exposed to losses from common cyber threats.

Wang and his students have examined current cybersecurity measures and quantified the effects of a wide range of hacking scenarios. They constructed a probabilistic model that assigns monetary value to damages across the scenarios, and Wei applied actuarial techniques to calculate premiums.

“Cyberinsurance premiums will be high for those with low cybersecurity performance audits, based on our novel actuarial models,” says Wang, who develops quantitative models to evaluate and mitigate emerging risks in public infrastructure. “Conversely, utilities with high cybersecurity efforts will enjoy low premiums.”

Research. Engineering graduate students Ahmad Abdel Hadi, Alaa Hasan and Abdel Rahman Salem, along with Amano, were awarded $25,000 for their proposal —The Power Reclamation of Utilizing Microhydro Turbines in the Aeration Basins of Wastewater Treatment Plants. It was one of just six winners deemed “excellent” in this highly competitive, nationwide competition among all IACs. The award money is earmarked to fund UWM undergraduate and graduate students who pursue assessment-inspired research projects through the IAC. Also in 2020, the DoE recognized the research of two of the college’s graduate students at the 2020 IAC Student and Alumni Awards. Farah Nourin and Mohammad Qandil each received an Industrial Assessment Center Outstanding Student Award. Qandil took home another award -- the Distinguished Dissertator Award. Only six students received awards in this nationwide competition open to students and alumni from all IACs. 13

Rehab with Robots How patients can use exoskeletons and artificial intelligence to help restore movement

BY LAURA L. OTTO It takes 38 muscles to send a text message on your phone, 94 muscles to walk the dog and about 60 to put on a shirt. But in every case, the most important body part contributing to these actions is your brain.

Movement is possible because the brain and muscles exchange information through an electrical signal that’s unique to each muscle. Injury or stroke interferes with those electrical impulses, leading to a feeble response in the corresponding muscles.

Now, a new generation of robotics is helping debilitated patients regain much of their former abilities by using technology that essentially communicates with muscles when the brain cannot.

Islam with a prototype of the exoskeleton for the whole arm. It incorporates artificial intelligence to assist rehabilitation patients.

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Exoskeleton robotics, a relatively new kind of assistive technology, involve wearable frameworks that cover the surface of limbs and boost injured muscles’ electrical impulses. You’ve seen fantastical examples of them in movies,

Because every muscle contraction is different, these devices must adjust constantly. conferring Herculean strength on ordinary people. But perhaps the greatest potential of this technology is restoring everyday abilities –a heroic

achievement for those who need it.

Mohammad “Habib” Rahman, an assistant professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering, designs exoskeletons and a variety of other biomedical robots, some of which are used for rehabilitation and surgery. Two of his most promising devices are a glove that’s used in hand and finger rehab, and a customizable exoskeleton designed to fit the entire arm from shoulder to wrist.

Unlike most assistive tools for physical therapy, Rahman’s exoskeletons include sensors and motors, and they use artificial intelligence. The combination informs the exoskeleton how much motion the patient is capable of, and it allows the device to automatically amplify a muscle’s weakened electrical impulse to make up the difference.

Because every muscle contraction is different, these devices must adjust constantly. “It will not be the same electrical signal for the same person moving the same muscle, because each time, there will be different circumstances,” Rahman says. “For example, if the user is tired, the signal will be different than if they aren’t. The robot’s algorithms are based on dynamic signals, so they compensate for gravity more exactly.”

Robotic assistive devices must be able to handle passive rehabilitation – instances where the patient isn’t contributing any effort to movement – and also the shared efforts between the patient and the device. The controller, which is basically the robot’s artificial brain, calculates necessary forces like torque and provides that to the motor.

THE ARM

Rahman noticed that physical therapists often use many assistive devices intended for specific motions. So he and doctoral student Md Rasedul Islam have created one robot that can do the job of several.

It’s a multitasking exoskeleton that can be used for any of an entire arm’s eight movements that originate from the shoulder, elbow or wrist joints. Detachable parts allow the therapist to focus on a single joint or all of them at once.

"I am also really passionate about design and about adding intelligence to the devices. There are so many needs they could address."

-- Habib Rahman The prototype offers features that are unavailable in current devices, Rahman says. Its modules are quickly assembled and customizable, meaning the device can be used for a wide variety of injuries or debilitation. Sensors provide therapists with range-of-motion information, and a session’s results are recorded so that PTs can monitor progress.

Interested in marketing this whole-arm exoskeleton, Rahman and Islam formed a team with senior scientist Rathindra DasGupta, doctoral student Md Assad-UzZaman and undergraduate Fidel SierraFlores Jr., and they enrolled in the I-Corps program based at UWM. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the I-Corps program helps academic researchers turn their discoveries into commercial products. In Wisconsin, the program is hosted by the UWM Research Foundation.

The versatility of the robot so impressed

Scott Johannes, a UWM alum and physical therapist at Children’s Wisconsin hospital, that he became the team’s mentor.

“As physical therapists, we treat our patients by observing what’s not working,” Johannes says. “So, to have a modular tool that allows us to look for solutions a la carte is really valuable. As a clinician, I would want to work with one tool to get a complete assessment of the arm.”

More than 40 interviews with physical therapists, patients and caregivers helped the team identify a demand for a versatile device for upper-arm rehabilitation. The I-Corps program considered the demand substantial enough to award the team $50,000 for additional market research.

Rahman, who grew up in Bangladesh, fell in love with robots at a young age, and there was never a question about what he would study in college. After earning his bachelor’s degree in Bangladesh, he chose Saga University in Japan for his master’s degree because researchers there were pioneers in exoskeleton robotics.

In Japan, he discovered a more specific interest in building exoskeleton robots to help people reclaim their lives after illness or injury. While earning his doctorate at Université du Québec in Montreal, he began working with patients and observed that health care and disaster relief could benefit from assistive systems with artificial intelligence.

“The fact that we can program autonomous robots is fascinating to me,” he says. “I am also really passionate about design and about adding intelligence to the devices. There are so many needs they could address.”

THE GLOVE

One of those needs, Rahman says, is more time for therapy. The recovery process for patients is directly related to when and how often they engage in physical therapy. And yet, most patients only get it a few times a week in a medical facility.

“If you haven’t gained back your full range of motion within 12 months, it’s less

Rahman

likely that you will,” Rahman says.

Devices that could be used at home would help solve this problem. Rahman believes that if he can make robots that are affordable, covered by insurance, portable and lightweight, patients will do their physical therapy regimens more often and fewer will give up.

So he and his lab members are building these features into a second device – a glove that helps users significantly improve strength and agility in their fingers.

Tasks such as feeding yourself, taking medication, opening doors and dressing all require finger movement, Assad-UzZaman says.

The prototype is still rough, but the idea is clear: The glove includes a series of wired pulleys to help the fingertips curl and knuckles bend, which assists in grasping movements.

“If the finger is rigid, any force pulling it forward will cause the finger to move only at the bottom joint, near your palm. So that’s why this device is a like a skeleton,” Assad-Uz-Zaman says. “It can lock the bottom joint so that only the top or middle joints of the finger are activated.”

The pulleys work in both directions, helping to constrict the weakened finger muscle and relax it as it returns to its original position, the way a healthy brain would.

Rahman sees such biomedical robotics as providing people the opportunity to maintain or regain their autonomy.

“It’s important that physically disabled individuals have the chance to take care of themselves,” he says.

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uwm.edu/engineering

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Setting the table This is not a scene from the next Avengers movie.

It’s the Virtual Reality Infrastructure Laboratory in the College of Engineering & Applied Science.

UWM is the first nonmilitary user of this Euclideon hologram table in the United States. It’s unique in allowing multiple people to simultaneously view 3D digital objects from different perspectives, and do so without bulky VR headgear. It takes group planning, design and research collaborations to a new level.

Lab director Jian Zhao, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, says these factors are particularly useful when evaluating structural designs for problems. Beyond design applications, the holotable

can be used for close-up, detailed examinations of existing environments – from buildings to entire cities – which are recorded using laser scanners.

In addition to incorporating the holotable into his research, Zhao is working with engineering students who are already using it in their coursework. Doing so, he says, means they’ll graduate better prepared for the workforce. Plans call for the lab to be available for faculty and students in other areas of study, too.

The lab is funded by gifts from the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee Education & Research Foundation, as well as GRAEF and the Graef, Anhalt, Schloemer Foundation.

Stories drawn from 2019 and 2020 UWM Research magazine.