2013 I&E Summer Scholars Projects - Engineering

  1. Computational investigation of signaling molecules’ biological effects and detection agents

    Quantum chemical studies will be employed to elucidate some un-solved problems of the structural, spectroscopic, and mechanistic properties of protein complexes with signaling molecules, as well as design aspects of their efficient molecular probes. These signaling molecules have significant biological effects that may be used in the treatments of many health problems, such as cardiovascular diseases, reduction of neuron damages, and cancers.

    Advisor: Prof. Yong Zhang
    yong.zhang@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5513

  2. A mechanistic investigation of highly tunable metalloporphyrin catalysts

    Heme proteins are versatile biocatalysts for numerous chemical and biochemical reactions. Their biomimetic metalloporphyrin complexes have also been found to be efficient catalysts for a wide range of organic reactions, such as C-H bond functionalization. Selective C-H functionalization represents a powerful paradigm-shifting strategy in organic synthesis that can streamline and accelerate synthesis of complex organic molecules and libraries of similar compounds to promote development of new drugs with reduced costs. Given the highly tunable nature of metalloporphyrins, a systematic investigation using accurate quantum chemical methods to characterize their reactivity nature and selectivity trends will facilitate development and optimization of highly selective metalloporphyrin catalysts with minimal toxicity and cost.

    Advisor: Prof. Yong Zhang
    yong.zhang@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5513

  3. Coastal Urban Flooding Research

    Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge had a devastating impact on our region, and Stevens researchers are hard at work quantifying what happened, what risks there are from future storms, and how to protect our region from flooding.  Our main tool in our research is the ocean model sECOM, the Stevens Institute version of the popular ECOM (Estuary and Coastal Ocean Model).

    Student research projects are available with our research group and include:

    • Quantifying storm wave run-up on barrier islands and urban shorelines using FEMA methods (sample question: Are the new FEMA flood zones too onerous for areas like Hoboken?)
    • Comparing Sandy’s modeled and observed flood elevations in urban neighborhoods (Matlab or similar required) – (sample question: How did waters enter neighborhoods and how can we prevent it from happening again?)
    • Batch programming on a Linux supercomputer for creating hundreds of model simulations of different storm surges (sample question: Are there worse storms than Sandy?)
    • Statistical hazard assessment research, fitting modeled flood elevations to probability distributions (Matlab or similar required) (sample question: What is the per-year probability of flooding for a property or component of infrastructure?)

    Advisor: Dr. Alan Blumberg and Dr. Philip Orton
    Alan.Blumberg@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5289

    Philip.Orton@stevens.edu
    Ext: 8095

  4. Passive Energy conversation through optimized thermochromic crystals coating

    Advisor: Rainer Martini, PhD
    Rainer.Martini@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5634

  5. Thermal analysis (and observation) of energy from bacteria cultures

    Advisor: Rainer Martini, PhD
    Rainer.Martini@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5634

  6. Biomechanical Modeling and Simulations of Stents in Blood Vessels

    Stents are expandable meshed tubular scaffolds that are inserted into blocked or damaged blood vessels. They offer a practical way to treat coronary artery disease, repairing vessels and keeping them open so that blood can flow freely. When stents work, they are a great alternative to radical surgery. Biomechanical modeling and simulation of blood vessels and stents can help in determining optimal designs and materials for the stents in order to improve the biomechanical interaction of the stent and artery wall.

    An ongoing research project focuses on simulations of coronary stents with arbitrary geometry and arbitrary material under complex loading conditions.

    The students of the scholar program will be involved in the design and development of virtual prototypes of cardiovascular stents, the generation of 3D patient-specific virtual models of blood vessels and vasculature networks and simulations of the deployment of stents into vascular tissue.

    Research topics includes:

    • Geometric and biomechanical features of blood vessels and vasculature networks.
    • Vascular geometry generation.
    • Virtual modeling of cardiovascular stents.
    • Biomechanical optimization of stent design.
    • Finite-element simulation of stent expansion.

    Advisor: Prof. Sven Esche
    SEsche@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5559

  7. Direct fabrication of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) using Focused Ion Beam (FIB)

    This project is to utilize Focused Ion Beam (FIB) to deposit highly energetic Cu onto a substrate in H2 and CH4 ambient to directly draw Cu nanoribbon structures. Once Cu nanoribbons are created using the FIB process, a standard chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of graphene will create GNRs without going through any nanopatterning process. The student will need to master the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and FIB in order to accurately control ion energy.

    Advisor: Prof. EH Yang
    eyang@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5574

  8. Stereo Vision for Driver Assistance and Autonomous Navigation

    In parallel with Google's driverless car project most automobile manufacturers are engaged in research for lower cost solution to assist the driver by sensing the environment and providing real time feedback. Examples include obstacle avoidance, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warnings etc. A key technology for achieving these goals is stereo vision. Using input from two or more cameras the car's computer can estimate distances and velocities with much higher accuracy than by using a single camera. Several projects are available in this area, see for example, for students with knowledge of C/C++ and geometry.

    Advisor: Prof. Philippos Mordohai
    Philippos.Mordohai@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5611

  9. Human Activity Recognition Using Smartphones

    Passive human activity detection and localization serve as key enablers for various pervasive applications such as smart space, human-computer interaction and asset security. Students involved in this project will learn and research on various sensors in the smartphones that can contribute to human activity recognition. The undergraduate students will work closely with the Ph.D. students in my lab. This project falls into the category of Software Engineering and Cyber Security. The outcome will have the student perform prototype development.

    Advisor: Prof. Yingying (Jennifer) Chen
    yingying.chen@stevens.edu
    Ext: 8066

  10. Proprietary Medical Catheter Product Development

    Students will work with Stevens founded medical catheter device company (Nascent), for which a patent application has been filed. The team will assist a PhD student, who is a co-inventor (Sara Budar), and her co-inventor colleagues (and recent BME grads) to execute elements needed for the next business plan. This effort will focus upon:

    1. Design optimization using computational fluid modeling and lab modeling
    2. Market research
    3. evaluating manufacturing process and cost strategies

    and any other aspects needed to bring the Nascent co. to the next fungible milestone.

    Advisor: Dr. Vikki Hazelwood
    Vikki.Hazelwood@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5051

  11. Inkjet-Printed Flexible Supercapacitor as Power Booster for Smart Phones

    We discovered that graphene oxide nanosheets can be easily inkjet-printed and thermally reduced at a moderate temperature to produce inkjet-printed graphene electrodes for flexible supercapacitor applications. Supercapacitors offer tremendous benefits, as a new class of power sources that have long cycle life and can be rapidly charged and discharged, e.g., in seconds, beyond what is possible with rechargeable batteries. Our patent-pending, award-winning discovery offers exciting opportunities in complementing a battery to provide short-term power boost ideal for enhanced performance of power-intensive smart phone components such as global positioning systems and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This summer project will demonstrate the simulated power boosting capability of our graphene-based supercapacitor device for enhancing the light intensity of an LED flash beyond what can be achieved by the use of a commercial rechargeable battery alone. This project falls into the category of Sustainable Energy. The outcome will have the student perform prototype development.

    Advisor: Dr. Woo Young Lee
    wlee@stevens.edu
    Ext: 8307

  12. SOFTWARE RADIO AND COGNITIVE RADIO RESEARCH

    Software radio and cognitive radio are advanced technologies for future wireless communications systems. This research includes several project modules

    1. Test Bed Development

      Use GNU Radio software and USRP hardware modules to development a cognitive radio test bed. Implement and test cognitive radio algorithms for efficient and reliable wireless communications. C++ is used in software implementation.

      This project is in support of the Stevens strategic themes: Software Engineering and Cyber Security and STEM. Specific outcomes required from this research are; prototype development, preparation of a white paper, and/or conference presentation.

      Additional Information:
      http://www.ettus.com
      http://gnuradio.org

      Advisor: Prof. Yu-Dong Yao
      yyao@stevens.edu
      Ext: 5264

    2. Interactive simulation Platform for Cognitive Radio Networks

      Java/Java Scripts or Matlab to develop a simulation platform with interactive GUI to model and simulate cognitive radio networks for both military and civilian application scenarios. Issues related to wireless communications throughput, reliability, security, and energy efficiency will be investigated.

      This project is in support of the Stevens strategic themes: Software Engineering and Cyber Security and STEM. Specific outcomes required from this research are; prototype development, preparation of a white paper, and/or conference presentation.

      Additional Information:
      http://personal.stevens.edu/~yyao/CR-simulation-pic.pdf

      Advisor: Prof. Yu-Dong Yao
      yyao@stevens.edu
      Ext: 5264

    3. Mathematical modeling of interference in cognitive radio networks

      Use of calculus and probability theory in modeling and analyzing cognitive radio networks. Different interference and malicious attack scenarios will be examined. Algorithms to mitigate interference and counter malicious attacks will be developed.

      This project is in support of the Stevens strategic themes: Software Engineering and Cyber Security and STEM. Specific outcomes required from this research are; prototype development, preparation of a white paper, and/or conference presentation.

      Additional Information:
      http://personal.stevens.edu/~yyao/paper-pdf/2012-hu-yao-mitola-tw-898.pdf
      http://personal.stevens.edu/~yyao/paper-pdf/2011-chen-cheng-yao-tw-2135.pdf

      Advisor: Prof. Yu-Dong Yao
      yyao@stevens.edu
      Ext: 5264

  13. Micro aerial and ground vehicles

    This project is related to the design, build, and testing of a novel, low-cost, micro (0.5 meter scale) aerial and ground vehicle robot platforms. Duties will include component assembly, text fixture design and fabrication, programming, and subsystem functional testing.
    Strategic research area: Defense and Security
    Outcomes: Proof-of-concept; Prototype developed; Conference Paper

    Advisor: Prof. David J. Cappelleri
    David.Cappelleri@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5072

  14. Micromanipulation and Assembly

    This project is related to automating manipulation and assembly of micro-scale parts and cells. It includes the mechanical design and fabrication of fixtures, micro-scale parts, LabView Programming, and control system design. The student working on this project will design, prototype, and test a mechanism to add an extra rotational degree of freedom to the existing micromanipulators in the system.
    Strategic research area: Defense and Security; Healthcare and Medicine
    Outcomes: Proof-of-concept; Prototype developed; Conference paper

    Advisor: Prof. David J. Cappelleri
    David.Cappelleri@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5072

  15. Mobile Micro/Nano Robots

    The goal of this project is to develop the theory, technology, fabrication, testing, and control methodologies needed to create true micro-scale (less than 500 um) mobile, untethered (wireless) robots. The applications for this technology are in both the biological and manufacturing areas. The student working on this project will focus developing vision-based control strategies for the microrobots.
    Strategic research area: Defense and Security; Healthcare and Medicine
    Outcomes: Proof-of-concept; Conference paper

    Advisor: Prof. David J. Cappelleri
    David.Cappelleri@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5072

  16. Innovation Design Laboratory IDL/LMSI Student Innovator Pilot Program

    This pilot program will intensively train a group of seven undergraduate students in the art and practice of advanced Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) imaging and Focused Ion Beam (FIB) nanofabrication and then, together with discipline-specific IDL Faculty Mentors, creatively exploit these methods to solve state-of-the-art domain-specific scientific and/or engineering problems. As articulated by the Stevens Strategic Plan, the IDL is an inter-disciplinary environment that fosters creativity with translation to innovation. This program uses the new Zeiss Auriga SEM/FIB within the Stevens Laboratory for MultiScale Imaging to pursue IDL goals with a group of five faculty members and seven inter-related projects.

    During the academic year IDL students will commit approximately 6 hrs/wk or more for instrument training and independent practice and skills development. During the summer, each student will work on his/her project full time.

    Project Pillars:
    Healthcare and Medicine
    Sustainable Energy

    Outcomes:
    White paper
    Conference presentation
    Invention disclosure

    1. Substrate induced anti-dot superlattices in graphene

      Advisor: Prof. Stefan Strauf
      strauf @stevens.edu
      Ext: 5639

    2. 3D Imaging of Bacteria/Cell – Surface Morpologies

      Advisor: Prof. Matthew Libera
      Matthew.Libera@stevens.edu
      Ext: 5259

    3. 3D Imaging of Neural Cells on Nanofiber Surfaces

      Advisor: Prof. Xiaojun Yu
      Xiaojun.Yu@stevens.edu
      Ext: 5256

    4. Advanced SEM imaging of Organic Materials

      Advisor: Prof. Matthew Libera
      Matthew.Libera@stevens.edu
      Ext: 5259

    5. FIB-assisted chemical vapor deposition in graphene

      Advisor: Prof. Eui-Hyeok Yang
      Eui-Hyeok.Yang@stevens.edu
      Ext: 5574

    6. Microgel-Patterned Surfaces

      Advisor: Prof. Matthew Libera
      Matthew.Libera@stevens.edu
      Ext: 5259

    7. 3D Imaging of Cells in a Nanofiber Construct

      Advisor: Prof. Hongjun Wang
      Hongjun.Wang@stevens.edu
      Ext: 5556

  17. Towards a Framework for Visualizing and Interacting with Online Content

    This project aims to create a framework and system for visualizing online content. Online content today revolves around web-pages and web-portals, which have a long list of problems that make them less intuitive than what they should be. This includes common problems that plague us everyday: thousands of "tabs", wasteful screen real-estate, linearity of content, and a failing "bookmarking" scheme, to name a few. This project will investigate ways of making the browsing experience more intuitive while overcoming the limitations posed by present day technology. This project will strike a healthy balance between research and software development, where the end goal is to create a portal that is deployed on the world wide web.

    Advisor: Prof. Mukundan Iyengar
    Mukundan.Iyengar@stevens.edu
    Ext: 5603

  18. Summer 2013 Biorobotics Project 1

    Biorobotic arial disaster response robots: The design of physical, electronic, and programming for a system of coordinated autonomous arial robots capable of recognizing and maping out an environment, identifying hazards and casualties as well as differentiating and triaging casualties by severity.

    Advisor: Dr. Arthur B. Ritter
    Arthur.Ritter@stevens.edu
    Ext: 8290

  19. Summer 2013 Biorobotics Project 2

    Biorobotic limb/surgery design: A group with multiple focus' all in the region of robotic limbs and kinematics for in or with the body. Includes robotic surgery system design, as well as prostetic design.

    Advisor: Dr. Arthur B. Ritter
    Arthur.Ritter@stevens.edu
    Ext: 8290

  20. Summer 2013 Brain-Computer interface for prosthetic Control

    Use of a EEG headset and software to analyze EEG signals for “intent to initiate” a motor action. The decision to initiate a motion begins in the motor area of the brain. This project focuses on using the EEG signal to move a virtual object that mimics the original intent.

    Advisor: Dr. Arthur B. Ritter
    Arthur.Ritter@stevens.edu
    Ext: 8290

  21. Scope of Spinal Range of Motion Project

    Spinal range of motion is traditionally achieved by repeated measurements from x-rays while the patient maintains their maximum position in bending. Not only does this process increase radiation exposure but the resulting measurements only account for a single plan of motion. It is clinically accepted that the human spine displays coupled motion; that is, motion in one plane induces motion in the remaining anatomical planes. Further, the current method only evaluated maximum range of motion and not the dynamic performance of patients.

    To alleviate these shortcomings, a team of Stevens BME students designed and developed an electrogoniometer that allows simultaneous measurement of spinal range of motion in all three anatomical axes under dynamic movements by the patient. Since graduation, the students have formed a company called VERSOR, Inc. and filed for a patent through Stevens. While the original design was sufficient for an undergraduate design, commercialization will require input from several areas. More specifically, the mark II design will require characterization and validation. Further, the resulting performance of the newly redesigned device will need to be compared to current methodologies. Clinical studies to evaluate the application of the device will also be required as well as development of marketing materials based on the current business plan.

    Advisor: Prof. Antonio Valdevit
    Antonio.Valdevit@stevens.edu
    Ext: 8529

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Ms. Sandra Furnbach
Programs Manager