Summer Undergraduate Research Experience
S.U.R.E. Projects for 2017
| Faculty Mentor | Undergraduate Students | Research |
| Kristen Comfort, bioengineering | Cameron Crasto, Maggie Jewett and Jacob Reynolds |
Elucidate the presence of negative combinatorial responses in a mammalian lung model (A549) following exposure to aluminum oxide (Al2O3) NMs under normal and reduced oxygen levels. |
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Kimberly Bigelow, biomechanical |
Sarah Hollis | Project focuses on improving the effectiveness of ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) to improve mobility and balance while preserving strength and energy for individuals with multiple sclerosis and stroke. |
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Timothy Reissman, biomechanical |
Kevin Nowacki | Project is a mechanical design of an omnidirectional treadmill to be used as an advanced biomechanics research tool by my lab and our biomechanics / physical therapy faculty. |
| Kellie Schneider, engineering management, systems, and technology | Alexis Wingfield | In addition to the development of a risk assessment methodology, this source water protection project will include an evaluation of the need for future data collection, analysis and potential best management practices. |
| Sidaard Gunasekaran, aerospace | Nathan Thomas | A new approach to increase aerodynamic efficiency (lift-to-drag ratio) by allowing the air to pass through inbuilt channels in certain areas of the wing and will be tested on a 2D wing and a 3D finite wing. |
| Kevin Myers, chemical | Shannon Hoffman | Goal of this project is to gather sufficient performance information to develop a design procedure that would permit optimized a priori design of agitators for future applications without the need for additional experimentation. |
| Robert Lowe, mechanical, and Thomas Whitney, civil | Alex Elsbrock and Rocky Bowman | Goal of proposed research is to lay the basic theoretical and computational groundwork for developing an appropriate specimen geometry, or representative unit volume, for high-rate testing of WFRPs. |
| Erick Vasquez, chemical | Connor J. Evans, Duquesne University, and Hannah E. Sims | First part of this project will consist on a unique method for the separation of ethanol from water use an economic, environmental friendly and non-toxic solvent as the extractant phase. The second part of this work will involve multi-phase flow analysis of water and air. |
| Sandra Furterer, engineering management, systems, and technology | Baxter Rechtin | The project goal is to apply the process architecture meta models and the process architecture mapping tool to the healthcare industry, and subsequently develop a standard healthcare process architecture reference model. |
| David Myszka, mechanical, and Andrew Murray, mechanical | Joseph Raffoul | The objective of this project is to create principles for the design of automation mechanisms that have reduced energy needs. |
| Feng Ye, electrical and computer | James Althoff | The project is to conduct research on wireless security in body area network and study energy efficient security protocols/mechanisms that can better support wearable devices based on IEEE 802.15.4 (Zigbee) technology. |
| Imad Agha, electro-optics, and Jay Mathews, electro-optics | Anna Mathews | Support an on-going project involving the periodic poling of lithium niobate crystals for nonlinear optical applications. The poled crystals will be used as part of a larger project for lifetime measurements of infrared emitting materials via upconversion detection. |
| Andrew Murray, mechanical, and David Perkins, mechanical | Luke Schepers | Rapidly locating and accurately tracking the center of mass (COM) in human beings is an ongoing challenge. The DIMLab is developing a method that is fast, accurate and inexpensive to implement. |
| Allison Kinney, biomechanical | Kayla M. Pariser | The purpose of this study is to use simulation and optimization methods to optimize placement of the shoulder implant, and therefore, the deltoid muscle force for fourteen RTSA patients. A model of the shoulder joint, implant, and muscles and an optimization framework will be used to calibrate muscle parameters and predict the shoulder muscle forces. |
| Robert Penno, electrical | Joe Vinci | The work proposed will more accurately predict the onset of these spurious modes by modeling its operation in the active region as an ungrounded, multi-conductor coplanar waveguide. |
| Robert Wilkens, chemical | Ronald Knapp | Specifically, the student will analyze the electromigration of sodium and chloride ions through model soils and field soils. Contaminated soil samples will be exposed to a low voltage gradient to induce ionic migration. Pore water outflow at the cathode will be analyzed for composition over time. In-situ monitoring along the migration path will also be conducted to monitor concentration profiles and soil resistance with time. An end-of-study homogenization of soil regions will be used to verify the concentration profiles. |