www.pitapa.org Spring 2014

NEWSLETTERPENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCEA Commonwealth-University-Industry Partnership for Economic Development through Research, Technology, and Education

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: FIGHTING DISEASE WITH EDIBLE MEDICAL DEVICES • LEHIGH-TE CONNECTIVITYPARTNERSHIP ADVANCES NEXT-GENERATION ELECTRONICS • IMPROVING THE SYNCHRONIZATION OF MOBILE NETWORKS

Futuristic Infrastructure Inspection in Pennsylvania

Message from PITA Co-DirectorsBurak Ozdoganlar and Richard Sause

PITA is playing a key role in fostering successful collaborations between Pennsylvania

industry and researchers to develop next-generation technology. We began 2014 with the po-

tential of newly awarded Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance (PITA) research

projects. We also celebrate the R&D that has emerged from recently funded projects.

PITA is a sponsored program designed to provide economic benefit to Pennsylvania

through knowledge transfer, the discovery of new technologies, and the retention of highly

educated students. It is a collaboration between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the

Center for Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS) at Lehigh Universi-

ty, and the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems (ICES) at Carnegie Mellon University.

In this issue, we feature recent projects that have created exciting new technologies,

provided R&D to Pennsylvania industry, and strengthened the state’s economy and reten-

tion of talent.

As seen in this issue, flying robots are not just an image from science fiction but a real

solution to inspecting infrastructure. Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute Sys-

tems Scientist Sebastian Scherer and his team have collaborated with Pittsburgh start-up

companies Near Earth Autonomy and Sensible Machines to develop small aerial robots

with 3D imaging capabilities that allow for close-up, high-resolution inspections of a struc-

ture from any viewpoint.

Also featured in this issue is the research Lehigh University researchers Rick Blum

and Shalinee Kishore are conducting with Allentown-based LSI Corporation. Together

they are working to help cell phone towers better synchronize their operations and thus,

reduce delays for cell phone users. While this research was developed for mobile net-

works, the results have the potential to make an impact in a wider class of applications

from radars and sensor networks to voice and video calls over the internet.

As seen here, PITA funding allowed Carnegie Mellon University researchers Christo-

pher Bettinger and Jay Whitacre to discover key concepts that make it possible to develop

edible medical devices that are made from biologically-derived materials and are less in-

vasive. They have received subsequent funding and are now developing partnerships with

pharmaceutical companies to explore the testing and commercialization of these devices.

Finally, in this issue, we highlight the collaboration between Mechanical Engineering

and Mechanics Professor John Coulter and TE Connectivity, a Harrisburg-headquartered

company, as they advance next-generation electronics. This partnership is successfully

working to advance manufacturing approaches that optimize the high precision/high per-

formance requirements of nearly all of the products that TE Connectivity produces.

With the help of PITA, Pennsylvania is successfully competing in the development of

new technologies. If you would like more information about the featured articles in this

issue or about PITA in general, please feel free to contact us. Information is also available

on our web site at www.pitapa.org.

Burak Ozdoganlarozdoganlar@cmu.edu

412-268-9890

ICES, Carnegie Mellon

University

Richard Sausersause@lehigh.edu

610-758-3525

ATLSS, Lehigh University

PITA • PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE • SPRING 2014 NEWSLETTER • WWW.PITAPA.ORG

Implantable medical devices have provid-

ed new opportunities for the medical treat-

ment of a variety of diseases, including heart

disease, obesity, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and

chronic pain. However, the potential chal-

lenges that these devices create are also well

known. They can cause problems like infec-

tion, chronic inflammation or scarring, and

can also be quite expensive.

What if medical devices could be created

that do not cause these complications? What

if you could ingest a medical device that

would reside in your digestive track tempo-

rarily, release a drug in a controlled manner,

and then, leave your body naturally without

causing any problems? What if these kinds

of devices could be used to treat a variety of

medical diseases?

Carnegie Mellon University researchers

Christopher Bettinger and Jay Whitacre have

been asking questions like these and collabo-

rating to develop implantable devices that are edible and

less invasive. With the help of a Pennsylvania Infrastruc-

ture Technology Alliance (PITA) grant, they have been

developing the technology needed to create self-powered,

biologically-derived, edible medical devices.

PITA provided the seed funding to help Bettinger—as-

sistant professor of materials science and biomedical

engineering—and Whitacre—associate professor of mate-

rials science and engineering—discover the key concepts

needed to develop this technology. They began with the

questions: “how do we power these devices?” and “if they

are degradable and temporary, what is the best way to

integrate them with the human body?”

Using these questions as their focus, Bettinger and

Whitacre developed a device containing a drug delivery

system that does not harm the body when ingested. It can

sense when it is time to release a drug into the body and

when to stop releasing the drug.

To do this, they use biologically-derived materials; spe-

cifically, they use naturally occurring melanin pigments—

which hold a stronger charge than synthetically made

melanin pigments—to power such a device. When used in

combination with mineral-based cathodes, sodium-ions,

and aqueous electrolytes, a current (power) source can be

created that lasts more than two hours.

With PITA and subsequent funding, this team is open-

ing up a new world of edible electronics. They have

published journal articles and presented their findings at

over 15 international conferences and universities. They

have also received additional funding from the Shurl and

Kay Curei Foundation and are now developing partner-

ships with pharmaceutical companies to explore the

potential of testing and commercializing these devices.

The core concepts Bettinger and Whitacre have devel-

oped for the design and fabrication of edible electronics

will, ultimately, help reduce the cost of health care and

medical treatment delivery. This technology has the im-

mediate potential to be used in bio-edible devices to treat

diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes.

For more information, contact Christopher Bettinger at cbetting@andrew.cmu.edu

INNOVIA Automated People Mover (APM), Phoenix, USA

Fighting Disease with Edible Medical Devices

PITA • PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE • SPRING 2014 NEWSLETTER • WWW.PITAPA.ORG

The sight of a low flying robot hovering next to a bridge

support, sensing for cracks and imperfections, collecting

needed data. Is this an image from science fiction or is it

real? Thanks to Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology

Alliance (PITA) funding, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)

researchers are making technology like this a reality. They

are using flying robots to more accurately, efficiently, and

safely inspect the state’s infrastructure system.

Robotics Institute (RI) Systems Scientist Sebastian

Scherer and his research team—including RI Senior Sys-

tems Scientist Daniel Huber and Professor of Civil and En-

vironmental Engineering Burcu Akinci—received a PITA

seed grant in 2012 to develop the first robotic prototype

used to assist in the process of inspecting bridges, dams,

and other infrastructure.

The flying robots that this CMU team has developed pro-

vide a combination of high-resolution imagery which can

create a virtualized 3D representation of infrastructure be-

ing inspected. Their visualization system—designed within

a low-cost, highly maneuverable, unmanned, and aerial

vehicle (i.e., the flying robot)—allows for the close-up, high-

resolution inspection of a structure from any viewpoint.

This project brings together the talents of Scherer, who

is a leading expert in low-flying unmanned aerial vehicles,

with Akinci’s expertise in infrastructure inspection, and

Huber’s advances in 3D modeling and interactive visualiza-

tion. They also partnered with Pittsburgh start-up compa-

nies Sensible Machines and Near Earth Autonomy, Inc.,

both of which are leading the commercial development of

low-flying robots and their applications.

Says Sanjiv Singh, Near Earth Autonomy CEO and RI

research professor: “This pilot project has served as an

impetus to explore applications of small low-flying robots

on a commercial scale. There is potentially a large need for

such technology in a diverse set of applications.”

Since receiving this initial PITA seed funding, the

research team has received a $2 million grant from the

National Science Foundation’s National Robotics Initiative

(NRI) to develop an autonomous robotic assistant for use in

infrastructure modeling and inspection.

The NRI-funded aerial robot project furthers the work

the team initially accomplished with PITA seed funding.

They are combining small aerial robots with 3D imaging

techniques and state-of-the-art planning, modeling, and

analysis to evaluate the health of Pennsylvania infrastruc-

ture. They are also studying the potential role of humans

in the assessment process—including robot deployment or

data registering—and developing a curriculum to involve

robotics and civil engineering students in the research.

This PITA-funded research has combined human judg-

ment with machine intelligence, advanced modeling, and

visualization approaches, as well as being a successful col-

laboration between researchers and industry. Their work

is helping Pennsylvania take a lead role in technological

advances of infrastructure inspection and maintenance.

For more information, contact Sebastian Scherer at basti@andrew.cmu.edu

Futuristic Infrastructure Inspection in Pennsylvania

PITA • PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE • SPRING 2014 NEWSLETTER • WWW.PITAPA.ORG

Laser Odometry and Mapping (LOAM). The LOAM algorithm dynamically builds a 3D map from laser scan data obtained with a rotating or nodding single line laser scanner.

The vehicle was tested by scanning the Schenley Bridge in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park. This historic bridge from 1897 spans 620 feet at a height of 120 feet. The photo inset to the left is a view of the bridge from the robot’s perspective.

Lehigh-TE Connectivity Partnership Advances Next-Generation Electronics

In Pennsylvania, academic researchers and industry

are being challenged to develop innovative approaches

to improve the performance capabilities of manufactured

products. A Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alli-

ance (PITA) funded partnership between Lehigh University

and TE Connectivity has been successfully accomplishing

this goal in the area of next-generation electronics.

With support from PITA, TE Connectivity—headquar-

tered in Harrisburg, PA and specializing in the design and

manufacturing of electronic connectors, components, and

systems used in products—is working with Mechanical En-

gineering and Mechanics Professor John Coulter at Lehigh

University to advance manufacturing approaches that opti-

mize the high precision/high performance requirements of

nearly all of the products that the company produces.

With most of TE’s electronic connector devices—which

tend to be plastic or polymer based products—the local-

ized configuration and orientation of polymer molecules

throughout the product determines everything. The key to

success and global leadership is understanding and opti-

mizing this through innovative injection molding.

Coulter’s research team is developing injection molding

concepts that he refers to as Dynamic Melt Control tech-

niques. The fundamental idea with them is to dynamically

and intelligently control the polymer melt flow that occurs

during molding processes in order to yield final molecu-

lar states throughout products that are different from and

better than those that result from conventional injection

molding. This is accomplished by coupling traditional re-

search inquiry regarding how polymer molecules respond

to localized processing conditions with practical industrial

thinking to identify types of enhanced process control that

might be possible. To date, this multidisciplinary approach

has led to process innovations such as molding machine

injection screw oscillation, active mold cavity back pres-

sure control, and novel in-tooling melt control valves to do

the trick.

By incorporating dynamic melt control innovations

into actual injection molding systems, the team has seen

dramatic changes in molecular orientation distributions

throughout products and associated macro-scale perfor-

mance. For example, product mechanical strength en-

hancements of over 30% have been achieved repeatedly,

with this level increasing to over 60% in certain targeted

localized product regions. In addition, other product per-

formance attributes such as electrical conductivity, optical

clarity, and biodegradability have been similarly affected.

“The close working relationship that we have enjoyed

with Coulter and his students at Lehigh has helped us cre-

atively advance important manufacturing initiatives and

attract top-level technical talent at the same time,” says

Aleks Angelov, TE Connectivity principal engineer. “With

the help of the PITA program, TE Connectivity continues

to be an industry leader that provides quality high-tech

career opportunities throughout Pennsylvania.”

This research has enabled a new paradigm of thinking

about the molding process itself as a tool to design en-

hanced application-specific performance into either entire

or specific regions of molded products. This type of col-

laboration and innovation makes TE Connectivity a leader

in a competitive global market, and also has far reaching

impact that extends into a wide range of additional indus-

trial and biomedical arenas.

For more information, contact John Coulter at jc0i@lehigh.edu

PITA • PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE • SPRING 2014 NEWSLETTER • WWW.PITAPA.ORG

PITA • PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE • FALL 2013 NEWSLETTER • WWW.PITAPA.ORG

In modern cellular networks, there is a need to en-

sure that the clocks inside neighboring cell towers agree

precisely with each other, to within a few millionths of a

second. This kind of highly accurate synchronization is

necessary for network operators to efficiently coordinate

the procedures of their cell towers. However, messages

travelling through large networks hop across several nodes

between their source and destination and as a result,

accumulate random delays at each node. The resulting

randomness in the overall network transit time—referred

to as packet delay variation (PDV)—hinders the success

of employing network-based synchronization techniques,

which are both cost-effective and easy to deploy.

Recent PITA funding has supported the collaborative

work being done by Lehigh University researchers to bet-

ter understand how and why PDV occurs and as a result,

to improve network-based synchronization techniques in

cellular networks. To accomplish this, Electrical and Com-

puter Engineering researchers Rick Blum and Shalinee

Kishore have partnered with Mark Bordogna, distinguished

engineer at LSI Corp. in Allentown, PA. Their research is

having an impact on important products being developed

by LSI engineers, who also have the opportunity to be

directly involved in later stages of the collaboration, as the

work moves towards a software implementation phase.

“The PITA grant was critical to the creation of the

University Sponsored Research Program between LSI and

Lehigh University,” Bordogna says. “This research work

has lead us to a better understanding of packet delay varia-

tion algorithms and novel approaches for characterizing

performance.”

Preliminary investigations, performed by graduate stu-

dent Anand Guruswamy, consisted of extensive simulations

of such networks, which helped characterize the nature of

PDV under a wide range of real-world network conditions.

The degrading effects of PDV can be combated by repeat-

edly exchanging data packets, just as people might com-

municate in a noisy room by speaking repeatedly until they

are understood. Such schemes, which jointly process mul-

tiple data packets to provide clean outputs, are referred

to as PDV cancellation techniques. While several popular

PDV cancellation techniques exist, their design has not

been well studied from a statistical perspective.

The Lehigh – LSI collaborative effort recently led to

novel results, which for the first time, can characterize fun-

damental limits on how well such cancellation techniques

perform under any given network condition. These results

can help designers understand how well their cancellation

techniques work and where scope for improvement may

exist.

Future work for the collaboration will aim to improve

the performance of cancellation schemes under diverse,

changing network conditions and also reduce the complex-

ity of their implementation. While the research is primar-

ily geared towards synchronization for mobile networks,

the results have the potential to make an impact in a much

wider class of applications where time synchronization is

required, ranging from radars and sensor networks to voice

and video calls over the internet.

For more information, contact Shalinee Kishore at shk2@lehigh.edu

INNOVIA Automated People Mover (APM), Phoenix, USA

Improving the Synchronization

of Mobile NetworksPITA • PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE • SPRING 2014 NEWSLETTER • WWW.PITAPA.ORG

ICES, 1201 Hamburg HallCarnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE

TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE

www.pitapa.org

PITA’s Mission: The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance (PITA) is a Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) funded program which provides economic benefits to Pennsylvania through the creation of new infrastructure technologies, knowledge transfer, and the retention of highly educated students. By linking Pennsylvania’s industries and agencies with faculty and students from the Commonwealth’s leading research universities, PITA encourages highly educated students to

remain in Pennsylvania and helps to attract highly qualified professionals and faculty to the Commonwealth in an effort to create and maintain high paying jobs within the state. PITA unites the physical and informational infrastructure expertise at Carnegie Mellon and Lehigh Universities with the capabilities and needs of Pennsylvania companies and agencies to develop solutions to some of the Commonwealth’s most serious infrastructure problems which impact economic growth and quality of life, including:

Energy: Clean, affordable, and sustainable energy

sources; reliable delivery of energy through electrical

grids and natural gas pipelines; and efficient transmission

and use of energy.

Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery: Mitigation of impacts from natural hazards (floods,

hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes) as well as other

hazards, such as explosions and fires; and infrastructure

systems that permit continued operation after a

hazardous event.

Public Health and Medicine: Healthcare

technologies to save lives, to improve patient quality of

life, and to reduce healthcare costs.

Telecommunications: Secure information

technology systems that can withstand both intentional

attacks and accidental errors.

Transportation: Safe and efficient highways, bridges,

tunnels, mass transit systems, railways, and airports.

Water Management: Protection and restoration

of water resources to provide an adequate drinking

water supply; treatment and control tools to improve

water quality; and innovative technology for monitoring,

managing, and operating critical waterway infrastructure

(dams, locks, and bridges).