Dr. Yong Shi along with researchers: Dr. Chang-Hwan Choi, Dr. Frank Fisher, Dr. Stefan Strauf, Dr. Eui-Hyeok Yang, Dr. Adeniyi Lawal, Dr. Hongjun Wang, Dr. Xiaojun Yu, and Dr. Daizong Li recently were awarded a National Science Foundation MRI Grant for the "Acquisition of an Inductively Coupled Plasma Etching System for Nano/Micro Device Fabrication."

The objective of the Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) etching system is to achieve uniform and highly selective anisotropic etching capabilities for research and training in fabrication of micro/nanoscale sensors, actuators and devices at Stevens Institute of Technology.

The ICP etching system will greatly augment existing micro/nano fabrication capabilities within the MicroDevices Laboratory. Current research projects directly benefiting from the requested system include:

1. Nano and micro devices for sensing, communications and medicine;
2. Single-electron carbon nanotube memory devics;
3. Nanoengineered surfaces for microfluidic and nanobioscience applications; and
4. Bottom-up prototyping of microchemical systems.

Further, the ICP Etcher will promote and foster a multidisciplinary research-intense learning environment in microsystems and nanotechnology on campus.

The ICP etcher is essential to complete the fabrication process chain for micro/nano fabrication capabilities. It's capability will greatly impact research projects in a number of multidisciplinary areas, many of which have significant broader impact, including:

• new methods for thrombus retrieval from stroke patients,
• novel memory and waveguide devices,
• biomolecular sensing, and
• nerve regeneration and wound healing.

This instrumentation grant will also support two educational initiatives underway at Stevens: a new cross-disciplinary PhD program in Nanotechnology and an NSF Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education grant, by increasing the number of students exposed to the proposed ICP Etcher and the research projects leveraging its capabilities. Research results will also be made available to K-12 students through the outreach program.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Yong Shi
Assistant Professor
Edwin A. Stevens Hall
Room 207
Phone: 201.216.5594
Fax: 201.216.8315

yshi2@stevens.edu

Dr. Marehalli G. Prasad, a professor and Director of the Noise and Vibration Control Laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stevens Institute of Technology, has been elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The Fellow grade of membership recognizes exceptional engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession. Newly elected Fellows are recognized annually in the November issue of Mechanical Engineering Magazine.

At the time of advancement from member grade, a Fellow shall be a corporate member of the Society, have been responsible for significant engineering achievements, and shall have not less than 10 years of active practice and 10 years of continuous corporate membership in ASME.
Dr. Prasad has made significant contributions in teaching and research to the field of acoustics and vibration. His pioneering research on acoustical source characterization of sources in ducts using direct and indirect methods has important applications to muffler design. At Stevens, he built the Noise and Vibration Control Laboratory including anechoic and reverberation chambers. He has published 100 papers. Two papers have received awards. He has made several invited presentations at national and international meetings. Under NSF International Travel Grants, he has presented papers in conferences in France, China, and India. He has worked as a Noise Control Expert for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. He has chaired ASME Technical Committee on Duct Acoustics. 

Dr. Prasad’s research contributions have been published in several refereed international journals and have been included in several acoustics books by other authors. He has presented several invited lectures including at Nelson Industries, Wisconsin; Nova-Husky Research Corporation, Calgary; Carrier Corporation, Syracuse; and at a research symposium of International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Currently, Dr. Prasad is the faculty advisor for ASME Student Section and also a co-advisor for Student Section of Engineers without Borders (EWB) at Stevens. Dr. Prasad is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of India, and a Board Certified Member of Institute of Noise Control Engineering.  

“We are very proud of Dr. Prasad’s accomplishments to-date, wish him good health and look forward to his continued contributions to the progress of our department, school and Institute in the years to come,” said Costas Chassapis, Professor and Director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens.

“I am very pleased to have been elected a Fellow of ASME as it indicates the recognition of my contributions to area of acoustics and vibrations as part of mechanical engineering. In addition, I am happy with this recognition as Stevens has a special role in the history of ASME” said Professor Prasad.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Marehalli Prasad
Professor
Edwin A. Stevens Hall
Room 305
Phone: 201.216.5571
Fax: 201.216.8315

mprasad@stevens.edu

The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security recently appointed Stevens Institute of Technology among the first institutions to be recognized as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance (IA) Research. Dr. Susanne Wetzel and Dr. Sven Dietrich (both in the Department of Computer Science) coordinated and compiled the Stevens application. Their efforts were supported by Dr. K.P. Subbalakshmi (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering).

In September 2007, the National Centers of Academic Excellence in IA Research Program was launched to address the need for robust IA technology, policy, and practices to effectively prevent and respond to a national catastrophic cyberspace event. This program recognizes schools that foster an IA research focus in their curriculum and labs. The vision for this program is to establish a process that will drill deeper into much needed solutions for securing the global information grid, and provide NSA, DHS, and other federal agencies with insight into academic IA programs that can support advanced research and development capabilities for securing cyberspace.

The President's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace refers to cyberspace as the nervous system of our Nation's critical infrastructures, and indicates that the healthy functioning of cyberspace is essential to our economy and our national security. Securing cyberspace presents a difficult strategic challenge, and information assurance education is a critical component in successfully meeting that challenge.

Photo Left to Right:

Mr. David Wennergren
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Information Management and Technology & DoD Deputy Chief Information Officer

Susanne Wetzel

Sven Dietrich

Ms. Brenda Oldfield
Director of Education, Training & Workforce Development Department of Homeland Security

For more information, please contact:

Susanne Wetzel
Assistant Professor
Babbio
Room 634
Phone: 201.216.5610
Fax: 201.216.8249

swetzel@cs.stevens.edu

At the recent ASEE Zone 1 Conference hosted at the US Military Academy at West Point, the paper, "Promoting Systems Thinking in Engineering and Pre-Engineering Students," by R. Jain, K.Sheppard, E. McGrath and B. Gallois, was awarded 1st Place in the conference's Best Paper Competition.  ASEE Zone 1 includes the three sections covering all of the north eastern portion of the USA & Canada.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Keith Sheppard
Associate Dean of Engineering, Schaefer School of Engineering and Science
Edwin A. Stevens Hall
Room 216
Phone: 201.216.5260
Fax: 201.216.8372

ksheppar@stevens.edu

On April 24th, 2008, at the Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering's (ISPE) NJ Regional Poster Competition both (post)graduate student Dr. Simarna Kaur and an undergraduate design team won awards for their posters.

Dr. Simarna Kaur, presented a poster titled "Regulation of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) and Delta-F508 mutant by Rab GTPases", and came in 1st place in the Graduate student's division.

In the Undergraduate division, the BME senior design team of Mike Trapani, Steve Gadol, Adrienne Quiray, and William Kowalski, presented a poster titled "Back-UP", and came in 2nd place.

Both of these groups will receive an all-expense paid trip to the ISPE Annual Meeting in Florida in October 2008, where they will compete with teams from each state. Last year, Kate Freed was the overall winner in the undergraduate category for her poster titled "Impedance Mammography".

Congratulations to all the winners and good luck for the national competition in October.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Richard Berkof
Distinguished Industry Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Engineering Program
Edwin A. Stevens Hall
Room 306
Phone: 201.216.5538
Fax: 201.216.8315

rberkof@stevens.edu