Research 2014

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THE

FUTURE

HUMAN

M I C H I G A N T E C H N O L O G I C A L U N I V E R S I T Y / 2 0 1 4

New hopeat thecrossroadsof engineeringand medicine

New cardiacarteries grownfrom stem cells

bypass the pitfallsof artificial grafts.

Magnetic sensorsbeam good newsand badfrom deep insidean artificial knee.

Hip implantsetched withnanotubes roll outa welcome mat forhealing bone cells.

A prostheticankle brings anatural stride toan artificial limb.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

They come in peace

Drone technology developed for defense is makinglife better for everyone on the home front.

A micro-engine for a nanosatellite

A Michigan Tech scientist co-opts an unusualmaterial used to treat liver cancer, transforming itinto an engine for the tiniest spacecraft.

Superior Ideas:

Making research reality

Michigan Techs Superior Ideas crowdfundingsite has raised $70,000 to support Universityresearch. Here are four projects that wouldnt have

happened without it.

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Research in brief

From toxic algae to cancer-killing rice

Make whatever you want

3D printers let you make everything fromorthotics to chess pieces. Will this new technologychange the world?

Beyond silicon

A transistor with quantum dots, nanotubes, andnot a semiconductor in sight

The future humanIn this special section, we explore how fourresearchers in Michigan Techs College of

Engineering are opening new frontiers inmedicine.

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Researchis published by University

Marketing and Communications and the Officeof the Vice President for Research at Michigan

Technological University, 1400 Townsend

Drive, Houghton, MI 49931-1295.

Vice President for Research, David Reed;

Associate Vice President for Enrollment,

Marketing, and Communications, John

Lehman; Editor, Marcia Goodrich; Designer,

Clare Rosen; Art Director, Brandy T ichonoff;

Photographer, Sarah Bird.

Send your comments to the editor at

[email protected]. Learn more about

research at Michigan Tech at www.mtu.edu/

research.

Michigan Technological University is an equal opportunityeducational institution/equal opportunity employer, which

includes providing equal opportunity for protected veterans andindividuals with disabilities.

Reindeer herders struggle for a

voiceand their way of life

The Smi people of Lappland are convenientlyoverlooked by a Swedish government eager for

mineral development.

30

33 Decisions, decisions: CAREER Awardwinner Edward Cokely and the science

of risk

34 Plankton power: LimnologistW. Charles Kerfoot receives

University Research Award

35 Green steel: Rath Award goes tomicrowave steelmakers

Jiann-Yang Hwang and Zhiwei Peng

36 Graduate research: Making a betterstent

37 Undergraduate research: Capturingthe chaos of clouds in numbers

38 Research centers and institutes

39 Research and sponsored activity

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The science of yellow snow

White-tailed deer may be making the soil in their

preferred winter homes unfit to grow the very trees that

protect them there.

PhD candidate Bryan Murray and two faculty members in

the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science,

Professor Christopher Webster and Assistant Professor Joseph

Bump, studied the effects on soil of the nitrogen-rich waste

that white-tailed deer leave among stands of eastern hemlock,

which are their favorite wintering grounds in Northern Michigan.

They compared eastern hemlock stands where deer

congregated to stands where deer were fenced out and found a

strong relationship between the amount of soil nitrogen from the

deers urine and feces and the kinds of plants that flourish there. In

particular, all that nitrogen may hasten the transition of hemlock to

hardwood species that provide scant winter cover.

Long ago, before logging enabled the white-tailed deer to move north and

before the deer population exploded, the ecosystem stayed balanced.Now

more deer are crowding into less winter cover, shifting the equilibrium.

Rice-cell cocktail killscancer cells, leaves

normal cells alone

Juice from rice cells knocked out two

kinds of human cancer cells as well

or better than the potent anti-cancer

drug Taxol in lab tests conducted by

Michigan Tech biologists Ramakrishna

Wusirika and Aparna Deshpande. Plus,

it did something extra: it played nice

with normal cells.

Wusirika and his team made their anti-

cancer cocktail with blobs of rice stem-

cells called calli. Then they collected

secretions from these calli and applied

them to colon and kidney cancer cellsin the lab. Ninety-five percent of the

kidney cancer cells were killed, along

with 83 percent of the colon cancer

cells, while normal lung cells were

virtually unharmed. Taxol was lethal to

the cancer cells too, but it also killed a

significant number of normal cells.

Wusirika thinks the rice callus culture

may be attacking cancer with the same

sort of plant chemicals that make

vegetables so healthy to eat.

Unlike many native species,white-tailsthrive in the disturbed landscape left by humanhabitation. Michigan is home to about2 million deer and logs about 60,000 car-deeraccidents annually.


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Sleep better, look better

Getting treatment for a common sleep problem

may do more than help you sleep better. It

may help you look better too, according to new

research from Michigan Tech and the University of

Michigan Health System.

The findings arent just about looking sleepy after

a late night. Researchers found that patients facial

appearance improved after they received CPAP

treatment for sleep apnea, a condition marked by

snoring and breathing interruptions that afflicts

millions of adultsmost undiagnosed.

Sleep neurologist Dr. Ronald Chervin, director

of the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders

Center, led the study. His longtime collaborator,

Joseph Burns, a signal analysis expert and

engineer at the Michigan Tech Research Institute

in Ann Arbor, developed a way to precisely map

the colors of patients facial skin before and afterCPAP treatment. Objective measures showed

that patients foreheads were less puffy, and their

faces were less red after CPAP treatment.

Twenty-two independent raters looked at photos

of each patient without knowing which were the

before pictures and which the after pictures.

About two-thirds of the time, the raters thought

the patients in the posttreatment photos looked

more alert, more youthful, and more attractive.


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3D graphene: Solar powersnext platinum?

D

ye-sensitized solar cells are thin, flexible,

easy to make, and very good at turning

sunshine into electricity. However, they

require one of the most expensive metals

on the planet: platinum. While only small

amounts are needed, the cost of the silvery

metal is still significant.

Yun Hang Hu, Michigan Techs Charles and

Carroll McArthur Professor of Materials

Science and Engineering, has developed a

new, inexpensive material that could replace

the platinum in solar cells without degrading their

efficiency: 3D graphene.

Regular graphene is a famously two-dimensional form of

carbon just a molecule thick. Hu and his team synthesized a unique 3D version

with a honeycomb-like structure.

The 3D honeycomb graphene has excellent conductivity and high catalytic

activity, raising the possibility that it could be used for energy storage and

conversion. So they replaced the platinum counter electrode in a dye-sensitized

solar cell with one made of the 3D honeycomb graphene. Then they put the

solar cell in the sunshine and measured its output.

The cell with the 3D graphene counter electrode converted 7.8 percent of the

suns energy into electricity, nearly as much as the conventional solar cell using

costly platinum (8 percent).

Synthesizing the 3D honeycomb graphene is neither expensive nor difficult,

said Hu, and making it into a counter electrode posed no special challenges.

For scientists, it waslove at first gigabyte

Michigan Tech now has one of the most

powerful supercomputers in the

region. Dubbed Superior, this multi-

teraflop thoroughbred located in the Great

Lakes Research Center can undertake

calculations that were previously the stuff

of scientists dreams.

Approximately twenty faculty members

from eleven departments and institutes

are already using Superior, which went

online in June. Superiors power enables

heavyweight projects, such as the

hydrogeological modeling of all the Great

Lakes being undertaken by Pengfei Xue,

a newly arrived assistant professor of civiland environmental engineering. Im glad

Im in the right place at the right time,

Xue says.

A laser calibration system for asuper-high-energy gamma-ray telescope

Super-high-energy galactic gamma rays have trillions

of times more energy than visible light, and they

disappear in the atmosphere before they hit the

Earths surface. To learn about them, scientists

build elaborate observatories, and one of the most

advanced is the new High-Altitude Water Cherenkov

(HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory, in Mexico. It is

the only place in the world that can detect echoes ofthe highest-energy gamma rays, subatomic particles

that leave the barest traces of light upon penetrating the

observatorys array of water tanks.

Physicist Petra Huentemeyer leads the team that designed

the observatorys laser calibration system. Calibration at the

HAWC Observatory is critical, because the science depends

on measurements that must be accurate to within tenths of

billionths of a second. Those measurements, which reveal air

showers generated by the gamma rays, not only detect the

presence of gamma rays, they reveal where the rays come from.

Scientists are interested in the highest-energy gamma rays

because they hold clues to the nature of space and time. The

HAWC collaboration involves approximately 150 scientists fromthe Los Alamos National Laboratorys Neutron Science and

Technology and Subatomic Physics groups, 15 universities in the

United States, and 15 in Mexico.

Petra Huentemeyer

PHOTO: JORDAN GOODMAN


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B Y M A R C I A G O O D R I C H

M

ost people view the 3D printer as an interestingnovelty. Joshua Pearce sees it as the prelude torevolution.

Its not because making your own plastic soup ladleis an incendiary act, or even because some peoplemight print arsenals of Uzis and take to the barricades(that hasnt happened yet). Its because 3D printers putthe means of production into the hands of the masses.

If this sounds like the rhetoric of class struggle, itisntnot yet, anyway. Open-source 3D printing is alogical extension of the Internet Revolution, whichliberated data that had once been tucked away inlibraries, recipe boxes, and classified government files.Conceivably, 3D printing will move the InformationAge a step ahead, by giving everyone access to freedesign files and inexpensive equipment to make mostanything.

Pearce had his eureka 3D printing moment a coupleyears ago, when he needed a lab jack. He was shockedto see a quote for one that cost a thousand dollars.

All it does is move things up and down, he says with

unveiled exasperation. Using a simple 3D printer andopen-source software, his team fought back and madea utilitarian replica for about five dollars.

Then they posted the code to make the lab jackon Thingiverse.com, a free web repository where peo-ple submit open-source digital designs for all kindsof objects and receive feedback. Anyone can submit adesign, and anyone can download it, all for free.

Immediately someone Id never met said, Thisisnt going to work quite right, you need to do this,Pearce said. We made a simple change, and now Ihave a lab jack thats superior to our original design.It has since been downloaded thousands of times.

The typical 3D printer makes things by layingdown sub-millimeter-thin layers of plastic one afteranother in a specific pattern. The inexpensive printersthat are popping up everywhere are controlled by atiny computer, typically an Arduino microcontroller,which itself is open source. Since information aboutits hardware and software ia freely available, it can beprogrammed to make practically anything.

The microwave-sized RepRap (short for self-rep-licating rapid prototyper) 3D printers start at under$500 and, with proper direction, can print out partsfor themselves. Once you have one RepRap, you can

make an entire flock. Pearces lab has more than adozen.As Pearce started printing his own stuff, he began

to apply his scientists mind to the whole concept of3D printing. In a September 13, 2012, article in thejournal Science, he lauded printers ability to make labequipment, thus slashing the cost of doing research.Since then, he has published an entire library of print-able optics components that cost about 97 percent lessto make than to buy. Plus, the designs are customiz-able. You get exactly what you need for your experi-ments, even if its not commercially available, he says.

Its not justa new wayto makecellphone

cases.3D printingcould changeeverything.


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Following this method, Pearces lab has saved tens ofthousands of dollars.

In November 2013, the academic publisherElsevier released his book Open-Source Lab: How toBuild Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs.

Pearce wanted his book to be open source (i.e., free)too, and Elsevier compromised by releasing two chap-ters online, with a promise to make more contentavailable in the future.

The typical homeowner can also reap huge sav-ings, he says. After conducting an economic analysisof 3D printing in an average American home, Pearceand his team concluded that it would cost the typicalconsumer from $312 to $1,944 to buy twenty typicalhousehold items, compared to $18 to print them in aweekend. Under those conditions, 3D printers shouldpay for themselves in a few months to a few years,

even if you only print twenty things a year.The technology isnt just cheaper; it s also greener.In a separate environmental study, Pearces groupshowed that 3D printing uses 41 percent to 64 per-cent less energyand therefore releases less carbondioxidethan producing goods en masse overseasand shipping them to a US warehouse.

A 3D FUTURE, WITHOUT THE SPECIAL GLASSES

Pearce believes 3D printers are igniting a secondIndustrial Revolution, one that decentralizes manu-facturing and lets small businesses and individualsquickly and easily fabricate their own goods.

It will be a different kind of capitalism, where youdont need a lot of money to create wealth for yourselfor even start a business, Pearce said. For the develop-ing world, it will be a huge benefit, first, by opening aSantas knapsack of previously unattainable goods, and

second, by improving education, because lab equipment and other supplies would suddenly becomecheap and readily available.

This has the potential to eliminate scarcity, Pearce said. Theres no technical reason everybodycouldnt have high-end customized everything, fabricated in their own communities.

This brave, new world can only be realized if it remains open source, Pearce cautions. Its success isdriven by the free designs that are constantly improved upon by the whole 3D printing communityand growing in number exponentially. He believes that inserting intellectual property legal restric-

tions into the mix would shackle that process.When innovations are open source, it speeds things up so much, he says. Science goes faster,technology develops faster. But the current economic order may use intellectual property as a pretextfor cracking down on 3D printing, and thats a little bit scary. Any country that does this will fallbehind the rest of the world.

I can see a 3D printer in an auto body shop that could print out any part youd need, he said.The question is, will you be allowed to do it? Or would those designs be proprietary, and essentiallyillegal to reproduce?

We shouldnt have to wait long to find out. All this is going to come to a head in our lifetime,Pearce predicts. The idea that all information should be free is something that resonates with theyounger generation. As a society, we need to think about how we adapt to take advantage of thatrather than try to put the brakes on innovation.

3D printing can slash the cost of doingscience. Joshua Pearce printed thisDremelFuge chuck, part of a mini-centrifuge,for only a few cents.


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Steel thisprinterMichigan Techscientists build anaffordable 3Dmetal printer

U

ntil recently, 3D printing has been apolymer affair, with most people print-

ing out plastic consumer goods rangingfrom tent stakes to chess sets. MichiganTechs Joshua Pearce and his team have

built a printer that could add hammers tothat list.Using under $1,500 worth of mate-

rials, including a small commercial MIGwelder and an open-source microcon-troller, Pearces team has built a 3D metalprinter than can lay down thin layers ofsteel to form complex geometric objects.Commercial metal printers are available,but they cost over half a million dollars.

The detailed plans, software, and firm-ware are all freely available and open

source, so anyone can use them to maketheir own.

Pearce is the first to admit that his newprinter is a work in progress. So far, theproducts he and his team have producedare no more intricate than a sprocket. But

thats because the technology is so raw.Similar to the incredible churn in

innovation witnessed with open-sourcingof the first RepRap plastic 3D printers, Ianticipate rapid progress when the makercommunity gets their hands on it, Pearcesaid. Within a month, somebody willmake one thats better than ours, I guar-antee it.

His make-it-yourself metal printer isaffordable enough for home use. However,because of safety concerns, Pearce suggests

that for now it would be better off in thehands of a shop, garage, or skilled DIYer,since it requires more safety gear and fireprotection equipment than the typical 3Dplastic printer.

While metal 3D printing opens newvistas, it also raises the specter of home-made firearms.

It s kept me up at night, Pearce admits.There are lots of good things a metalprinter can do, but they can be abused likeany other technology. What we shouldnt

forget is that guns, like agricultural tech-nologies, are not inherently good or bad.Harnessing our agricultural technologyhas allowed us to feed 7 billion people,yet we abuse it. We allowed about fifteenthousand people to starve to death today

while more than two-thirds of Americansare overweight or obese. Similarly, gunscan be used by freedom fighters to over-throw dictatorships or by oligarchs tothrottle democracy.

Despite the dangers, he believes thatthe good to come from open-source 3Dmetal printing will far outweigh the evil.

Small and medium-sized enterpriseswould be able to build parts and equip-ment quickly and easily using download-able, free and open-source designs, which

could revolutionize the economy for thebenefit of the many.I really dont know if we are mature

enough to handle it, Pearce added cau-tiously, but I think that with an open-source approach, we are within reach ofa Star Trek-like, post-scarcity society, inwhich replicators can create a vast arrayof objects on demand, resulting in wealthfor everyone at very little cost. Pretty soon,well be able to make almost anything.

Joshua Pearces 3D metal printer in action.While it opens the door to affordable rapidprototyping, Pearce confesses that it has ledto some sleepless nights. I really dont knowif we are mature enough to handle it, he says.


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A nano-transistormade withoutsemiconductors


F

or decades, electronic devices have been gettingsmaller, and smaller, and smaller. Its now possi-bleeven routineto place millions of transistors

on a single silicon chip.

But transistors based on semiconductors can onlyget so small. At the rate the current technology is pro-gressing, in a decade or two, they wont be able to getany smaller, said Michigan Tech physicist Yoke KhinYap. Also, semiconductors have another disadvan-tage: they waste a lot of energy in the form of heat.

Scientists have experimented with different mate-rials and designs for transistors to address these prob-lems, always using semiconductors like silicon. Backin 2007, Yap wanted to try something different that

might open the door to a new age ofelectronics.

The idea was to make a transistor usinga nanoscale insulator with nanoscale met-als on top, he said. We chose a nanoscaleinsulator, boron nitride nanotubes, orBNNTs,for the substrate. For the metal,they used quantum dots of gold as small asthree nanometers across and placed themon the BNNTs.

With scientists at Oak Ridge NationalLaboratory, they fired up electrodes onboth ends of the quantum dotnanotube

assembly at room temperature, and something inter-

esting happened. Electrons jumped very preciselyfrom gold dot to gold dot, a phenomenon known asquantum tunneling.

Imagine that the nanotubes are a river, with anelectrode on each bank. Now imagine some very tinystepping stones across the river, said Yap. The elec-trons hopped between the gold stepping stones. Thestones are so small you can only get one electron onthe stone at a time. Every electron is passing the sameway, so the device is always stable.

They had made a transistor without a semiconduc-tor. When sufficient voltage was applied, it switchedto a conducting state. When the voltage was low or

turned off, it reverted to its natural state as an insulator.Furthermore, no electrons from the gold dots

escaped into the insulating BNNTs, thus keeping thetunneling channel cool. In contrast, silicon is subjectto such leakage, which wastes energy in electronicdevices and generates a lot of heat.

Other people have made transistors that exploitquantum tunneling, says Michigan Tech physicistJohn Jaszczak, who developed the theoretical frame-work for Yaps experimental research. However, thosetunneling devices have only worked in conditions thatwould discourage the typical cellphone user.

They only operate at liquid-helium temperatures,said Jaszczak.The secret to Yaps gold-and-nanotube device is

its submicroscopic size: one micron long and about20 nanometers wide. The gold islands have to be onthe order of nanometers across to control the electronsat room temperature, Jaszczak said. If they are toobig, too many electrons can flow. In this case, smalleris truly better: Working with nanotubes and quan-tum dots gets you to the scale you want for electronicdevices.

Beyond silicon

Yoke Khin Yap


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More than ever,engineering is informing medicine.

Breakthroughs that range fromsynthetic skin to artificial hands are

restoring people to health and challengingthe very concept of disability.

This special section features some of the work beingdone by Michigan Tech researchers at the junction ofhealing and engineering.

An artificial leg that mimics our innate gait

Cardiac vessels made from stem cells

A wireless biosensor that reports on the inner workings of artificial knees

A new nano-surface that could slash the failure rate of titanium implants,from hip replacements to new teeth

Science fiction is replete with cyborgs, seriously injured

souls rebuilt to have amazing powers. Todays scientistsand engineers are accomplishing something moreextraordinary: re-creating the natural intricacy of a healthyhuman body.


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S

tem cells are a bodys newborns, bright, malleable,and full of promise. Feng Zhao is guiding themtoward a future as life-saving blood vessels.

In the United States alone, hundreds of thousandsof people a year undergo surgery to bypass a blockedartery and restore blood flow. Typically, surgeons firstcut a vein from the patients leg or chest and use it

to create a detour around the blockage,restoring circulation.

The technique works wellif thepatient has a good vein and suffers nocomplications. However, thousands ofpatients lack healthy veins and must set-tle for grafts made of synthetic materials,which are prone to clots and blockages, or

veins taken from animals, which can pro-voke a dangerous immune response.

New research is leading to the develop-ment of blood vessels grown from humanstem cells, but so far, the vessels have beenon the large side. Most cardiac bypassesrequire smaller grafts, with an interior

diameter of six millimeters or less. Scientists can growsmaller blood vessels on a scaffold, but the scaffoldcan set off the bodys immune system.

Theres not a perfect solution on the market, saysZhao, an assistant professor of biomedical engineer-ing. So were trying to make a completely biological

vessel. We let the stem cells do all the work.

The stem cells used in her research are harvestedfrom bone marrow and fatty tissue. Like all stem cells,they have a unique advantage. They can be extractedfrom a donor and then transplanted into someoneelse without triggering an immune response. If allgoes well in their new host, they become naturalizedcitizens, differentiating into a specific cell type andblending in with the natives.

However, a blob of stem cells is no substitute fora working blood vessel. So Zhaos team has coaxedthem into forming proto-blood vessels in the lab. Shegrows them in a nutrient-rich, low-oxygen fluid thatmimics conditions inside the body. They are like silkworms; they build a little house for themselves out ofproteins and carbohydrates, she said.

Initial tests show promise; she has successfullytransplanted these stem cell tubes in rats. Aftertwo weeks, they look pretty good, she said. We seethem differentiating into vascular cells and becomingdenser and stronger.

In a similar vein, Zhao is also using stem cells togrow the bodys tiniest blood vessels. Unlike theirlarger cousins, these sheets of capillaries would not beused to treat blockages. Instead, they would serve asthe plumbing system for artificial tissue.

Artificial tissue is made from cells and other mate-rials to replace or repair living tissue damaged byinjury or disease. But, unless artificial tissue is very

thin, it may not get sufficient nutrition and die. Thatis where Zhaos work comes in. We pre-vascularizethe tissue, so it can hook up to the patients blood sup-ply after it is implanted, she said.

Her team has developed a way to grow dense websof tiny vessels from stem cells, which can be layeredon a sheet of artificial tissue. The tissue can then berolled up, like a jellyroll, or stacked in alternating lay-ers, like a club sandwich. Either way, the capillariesbring blood to the interior of a transplant, providinglife-giving nourishment.

Zhao hopes to begin animal studies with tissue

embedded with capillaries and do long-term animal studies with her bloodvessels. Plus she wants to speed

up the time it takes to makea new artery. Success, shebelieves, is just a matter oftime.

The stem cell is quitemagic, says Zhao. They are

very smart cells.

Feng Zhaodreams ofthe day whenreplacement

blood vesselswill be aseasy to buy asgarden hoses.

Arteries in aisle 9

Feng Zhao hopes that stem-cell tubes like the one on theright will someday be used to restore blood flow to thehuman heart.


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Successful bypass surgery dependson good blood-vessel grafts.

Not everyone who needs them

has them. Yet.


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BY MARCIA GOODRICH

F

or Tolou Shokuhfar, developing better surgicalimplants had always been about engineering. Thenan orthopedic surgeon approached her after she

gave a talk on her work.She recalls the conversation. You are changing peo-

ples lives, said the surgeon, a faculty member at theMarshall University School of Medicine. You neverwant to see a patient with an infected implant. It is so

hard on them. When they come to see me,we cry together.

Until that moment, Shokuhfar con-fesses, she hadnt given the matter muchthought. I was happy to be solving a seri-ous problem, but the actual patients in thehospital were so far from my reality in the

lab. Now I tell my students, Guys, remem-ber, we are really helping people.

Titanium and its alloys have a leg upon all other materials used to make theorthopedic implants used by surgeons torepair damaged bones and joints. They arelight, strong, and virtually inert. Most ofthe time, titanium implant surgeries aresuccessful. But if an infection sets in, or ifthe bone simply fails to heal properly, theresults can be agonizing.

Since she was a graduate student,Shokuhfar, an assistant professor of

mechanical engineeringengineering mechanics, hasbeen researching a new surface for titanium implantsto help head off such disasters. Using a simple proce-dure she developed (You could do it in your kitchensink.), she etches nanotubes into the titanium dioxidethat naturally encases metallic titanium.

To bone cells, those nanotubes feel like home. In labtests, osteoblasts have clung to them and proliferatedfar better than to plain titanium or even the roughenedtitanium used on some implants. This may be becausethe nanotube surface forms a regular lattice, not unlikethe matrix that forms the basis of bone tissue.

Ironically, early tests show that bacteria are repelledby the nanotube surface. Now scientists at BeaumontHospital in metro-Detroit are conducting additionalresearch into how MRSA, an antibiotic-resistantform of staphylococcus, reacts to the surface. And sci-entists at the University of Tennessee are investigat-ing its effect on bacteria that cause the gum diseaseperiodontitis.

Why periodontitis? Shokuhfar is also workingwith colleagues at the University of Chicagos Collegeof Dentistry to develop better dental implants. They

are posts, usually made of titanium, that are surgi-cally placed into the jawbone and topped with artifi-cial teeth. Occasionally, they fail or become infected;the same nanotube coating that could improve kneereplacements could also brighten somebodys smile.

The nanotube surface has yet another attribute thatShokuhfar believes could reduce the failure rate in alltypes of titanium implants. It can serve as a drug-de-livery system for antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs,or even silver nanoparticles. Silver has antimicrobialproperties, and we are capable of obtaining a dose thatcan kill microbes but would not hurt healthy cells andtissues, she said.

On the horizon are animal tests and eventu-ally clinical trials. Because the nanotubes are simply

another form of titanium dioxide, Shokuhfar hopesthe approval process will be short.

We want to get to the clinical stage as soon as pos-sible, so we can get this out there to people who needit, she said. I hope that in the future, none of thesepatients will ever cry again.

Good to the bone

When anorthopedicimplant goesbad, there

are no easysolutions. AMichigan Techscientist aimsto keep themfrom failing inthe first place.

Tolou Shokuhfarwith a conventionalhip implant. If theywere etched withnanotubes, suchimplants could speedhealing.


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The friendlydrones ofMichigan TechB Y J E N N I F E R D O N O V A N

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veryone knows what drones are, right? Drones are unmanned flying machines,and theyve gained visibilityand notorietyin military and spying operations.But they have a wide variety of friendly, beneficial applications here at home.Researchers at Michigan Tech are working with three different kinds of unmanned

vehiclesaka dronesand not all of them fly through the air.The Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) in Ann Arbor is looking into the use of

drones in transportation. MTRI scientists and faculty from the main Michigan Tech campusare using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to help government agencies develop low-cost, highlyefficient ways to handle tasks that range from mapping the condition of unpaved roads to under-standing traffic jams and evaluating the conditions inside culverts. The research will help transpor-tation agencies save money and reduce risk to staff who would otherwise have to go on a roadway or

bridge, or inside a confined space, to understand infrastructure conditions there.Meanwhile, a graduate student in the School of Technology is developing a fixed-wing, autonomous

aerial vehicle to take high-resolution digital images from heights of three hundred feet. And the GreatLakes Research Center is saving time, money, and lives by checking underwater pipelines, cables, and munic-ipal water intakes with Iver 3, the latest generation of autonomous underwater vehicle.

Using aerial imagery to understand conditions on the ground is nothing new, MTRI Senior Research ScientistColin Brooks points out. During the Civil War, the Union Army used balloons to take photos of Confederateearthworks, he said. Were just making data-gathering quicker, easier, safer, and more detailed for rapidly under-standing our transportation infrastructure.

Brooks, who specializes in remote sensing technology and geographic information systems (GIS), heads MTRIsproject team evaluating uses of UAVs.


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Pothole prowler

UAVs like this oneat the Michigan TechResearch Institutemay soon be cruisingAmericas highwaysand bridges andreporting back on theircondition.


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DIFFERENT KINDS OF OPPONENTS: POTHOLES, RUTS, AND WASHBOARDING

Now about those drones at MTRI down in Ann Arbor, where theycall them unmanned aerial vehicles, the preferred moniker of the UAVindustry. They look like miniature helicopters. MTRI is currently using twoUAVs: a Bergen hexacopter and a DJI Phantom quadcopter. The hexacopter,the larger of the two, has six blades and a four-foot rotor span. It costs $5,000as configured for research, weighs just over eleven pounds, and can fly a high-

end, multimedia camera like a Nikon D800. The smaller UAV has four blades thatspin in a two-foot diameter. It weighs only two pounds, costs just $700, and can flysmaller cameras like the GoProa favorite among action sports users. Both havecameras, GPS, and on-board stability systems.

Both UAVs take full-sized, high-definition digital images, with the higher resolutionones capable of better than one-centimeter 3D resolution. They can show us how manypotholes are in a road and how deep they are, the degree of crown in a roadway, identifyrutting conditions, washboarding, and drainage issues, and evaluate the density and severityof road and bridge problems, says Brooks. Up to now, agencies responsible for roads have beenreactive, checking out problems after someone calls to complain, he explains. This technologyturns reactive responses to proactive responses through improved asset management practices.

The UAVs flight is controlled by a pilot on the ground, reminiscent of remote-control modelairplanes, but if they have to, the vehicles can find their own way home. They fly about one hundredfeet above the ground, well below the Federal Aviation Administrations permitted ceiling for modelaircraft of four hundred feet.

And MTRI is experimenting with another, even smaller quadcopter, the open-source Crazyflie, forinspecting confined spaces to see if its safe to send a person inside. It weighs two-thirds of an ounce andcosts $179. Its controller is bigger than the vehicle, Brooks remarks.

A ROBOTIC AQUAMAN

Based at the Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) on the Michigan Tech campus waterfront, the autonomousunderwater vehicle (AUV) Iver 3 has been out on two test runsone in the Keweenaw Waterway and one in theStraits of Mackinacand it performed like a superhero, said Guy Meadows, the GLRC director.

Iver has two dual processor computers on board, Wi-Fi, GPS, water flow and speed-of -sound sensors, and the latestin sonar technology. It can dive 330 feet and cover 30 miles of water on missions up to 12 hours. Iver returned to the fac-

tory this winter to be fitted with a high-definition camera, lights, and a satellite phone.Iver is an impressive research tool. You end up with a survey-quality map of the bottom over the selected swath,

Meadows said. The map size depends on the altitude of the robot above the lake floor, but at ten meters above the bottom,you can map an entire football field.

Meadows hopes to use Iver to gain an understanding of the currents flowing through the Straits of Mackinac. Ournew supercomputer at the GLRC lets us numerically predict the flow through the Straits, but we need a tool to validatethis information. Thats where Iver comes in, he said. Using its sensors, Iver should be able to give researchers an accurateunderstanding of the movement of currents in this area as well as the bottom sediments.

Ivers uses are not limited to the behavior of currents. Nina Mahmoudian, assistant professor of mechanical engi-neeringengineering mechanics and an expert on autonomous control of robots, is working with GLRC researchers to

develop algorithms that will allow Iver to track long underwater features. Those could be pipelines crossing the GreatLakes, or they could be underwater communication cables, Meadows said. If we decided to develop offshore wind-

power systems in the Great Lakes, it could follow those power cables. Most importantly, it could check municipalwater intakes.

THE FIRST RESPONDER

Meanwhile, in the School of Technology, Loakeim Tellidis, a masters student from Greece,is working ona fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle.

Tellidiss UAV costs less than $2,000 to build. It takes pictures with two-inchresolution from 300 feetup and has a 50-minute flight time. And, says Tellidis, it is more stable than the copter-like UAVs and

can cover more distance.We can use it almost everywhere, said Tellidiss advisor, Associate Professor Eugene Levin.

Agriculture, floods, fires, transportation infrastructure, you just name it.


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See hunt

Researcher Colin Tyrrellchaperones Michigan TechsAUV in the Universitydiving pool. The vehiclehas also navigated wilderwaters, including theStraits of Mackinac, whereit scanned a pipeline.

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King, the Ron and Elaine Starr Professorof Mechanical EngineeringEngineeringMechanics. They are easily destroyedeither by a careless bump or an electrical arcwhen theyre running.

To get around the problem, King andhis team have developed an elegant strat-egy: eliminate the expensive and tediousmicrofabrication required to make theneedles by letting Mother Nature takecare of the assembly. Were working witha unique type of liquid called a ferrofluidthat naturally forms a stationary pat-

tern of sharp tips in the liquid surface,he says. Each tip in this self-assemblingstructure can spray a jet of fluid just like amicro-needle, so we dont actually have tomake any needles.

Ferrofluids have been around since the1960s. They are made of tiny magneticparticles suspended in a solvent that moveswhen magnetic force is applied. King illus-trates with a tiny container holding a fer-rofluid made of kerosene and iron dust.

The fluid lies flat until he puts a magnetbeneath it. Suddenly the liquid forms aregular series of peaks reminiscent of amountain range or Bart Simpsons hair-cut. These peaks remain perfectly stabledespite vigorous shaking and even turn-ing the container upside down. It is, none-theless, completely liquid, as a finger-tiptouch proves undeniably. When the mag-net is removed, the liquid relaxes to a per-fectly flat surface.

Kings team was trying to make an ionicliquid that behaved like a ferrofluid when

they learned about a research team at theUniversity of Sydney that had already doneit. The Sydney team was using magneticnanoparticles made by the life-sciencescompany Sirtex, which are used to treatliver cancer. They sent us a sample, andweve used it to develop a thruster, Kingsaid. Now we have a nice collaborationgoing. Its amazing that the same technol-ogy used to treat cancer can also functionas a micro rocket for spacecraft.

Kings first thruster is made of a one-inch block of aluminum containing a smallring of the special fluid. When a magnet isplaced beneath the block, the liquid forms

a tiny, five-tipped crown. When an electricforce is then applied to the ferrofluid crown,liquid jets emerge from each point, produc-ing thrust. Its fascinating to watch, Kingsays. The peaks get taller and skinnier, andtaller and skinnier, and at some point therounded tips instantly pop into nano-sharppoints and start emitting ions.

The thruster appears to be almostimmune to permanent harm. The tipsautomatically heal themselves and re-growif they are somehow damaged. Kings teamhas already demonstrated its self-healing

properties, albeit inadvertently. We acci-dentally turned the voltage up too high,and the tips exploded in a small arc, Kingsays. While this would spell death for atypical thruster, a completely new crownimmediately formed from the remain-ing ferrofluid and once again resumedthrusting.

Their thruster isnt ready to push a sat-ellite around in orbit just yet. First wehave to really understand what is hap-pening on a microscopic level, and thendevelop a larger prototype based on whatwe learn, King said. Were not quitethere yet; we cant build a person out ofliquid, like the notorious villain from theTerminator movies. But were pretty surewe can build a rocket engine.

They dont look like rocket engines, but ifyou apply electrical force to the tiny spikesof ferrofluid, below and left, jets of ionsstream outward. That could generate enoughthrust to maneuver a nanosatellite in space,says scientist L. Brad King, right.


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SEEKING SUPERIORSUCCESSESB Y D A N N Y M E S S I N G E RJust one year inand Michigan Techs

crowdfunding website,Superior Ideas

(superiorideas.org), has

already raised $70,000 to

support University research.

As of press time, severalMichigan Tech projects have

been successfully funded.

Developing anopen-sourceconcrete analysisprogram

RESEARCHER:Gerald Anzalone

FUNDS RAISED:$8,000

Concrete pavement must

contain the right amount of air

to hold up in freezing climates.

To verify this, technicians

either manually count air

bubbles using microscopes or

use automatic methods, which

rely on costly software. Lab

supervisor Jerry Anzalone of

the Department of Materials

Science and Engineering

wanted to hire someone

to develop open-source

software, and Holcim, a Swiss

cement company, funded theendeavor. The software should

be available later this year.


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Restoring coasterbrook troutspawning sites

RESEARCHER:Casey Huckins

FUNDS RAISED:$10,000

The coaster brook trout in

the Salmon Trout River near

Marquette have been losing

their spawning sites as road

construction, logging, and

other development erode the

watershed. Sand now covers

the small cracks and cobbles

in the riverbed, leaving the

fish nowhere to lay their eggs.

With funding from Superior

Ideas, the biological sciences

professor removed sand along

a forty-meter stretch of the

stream with special equipment

and installed a sedimentcollector upstream to stop

further accumulation. Huckins

hopes to scale the project up

fivefold and ultimately increase

spawning rates of other native

fish, like shiners and dace.

Linking sleep apneaand heart disease

RESEARCHER:Jason Carter

FUNDS RAISED:$24,875

Doctors have long suspected

untreated sleep apnea of

causing dangerously high

spikes in blood pressure.Now, Jason Carter, chair of

kinesiology and integrative

physiology, aims to prove

it. With the money raised

through Superior Ideas,

Carter will conduct a study

on ten individuals with sleep

apnea. All ten regularly use

a CPAP machine to keep

their symptoms at bay but

will abstain from using it on

some nights. We want to

demonstrate the importance

of CPAP useeach and every

night, said Carter.

Bringing mobilemedical stations toremote Ghana

RESEARCHER:Erik Wachlin

FUNDS RAISED:$8,319

Mobile Wellness Systems,

part of Michigan Techs

International Business

Ventures Enterprise, needed

to refurbish a Michigan Tech

van to create a mobile health

clinic. They wanted to take it

to remote villages in Ghana,

where healthcare is hard to

come by. But they lacked the

funds to build and equip their

clinic and send it across the

Atlantic. Through Superior

Ideas, they were able to install

refrigeration, auxiliary-power,

and clean-water systems inthe van and ship it overseas.

Four Tech students traveled

abroad in summer 2013 to

oversee the clinics handoff to

Ghanaian doctors, who used

it to examine and treat more

than four hundred patients.

Five Tech students plan to

travel to Ghana next summer,

supplies in tow, to keep the

clinic well stocked.


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L

ast year, when Michigan Tech professor Nancy Langston arrived in themining city of Kiruna in far northern Sweden, it was just after Christmashigh season for tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus among

the frozen reindeer pastures. The arctic sun sat just below the horizon for sev-eral hours each day, suffusing the snowy boreal forests with an otherworldlylight. It was the coldest Ive ever been, but the most beautiful light and forest

Id ever seen, Langston says.A visitor could be forgiven for assuming that the icy landscape beyond thecity would be uninhabited. Indeed, this is how the Swedish tourism industrysells the regionas a pristine, empty landscape beyond the reach of humans.The truth, Langston found, is quite the opposite. The indigenous Smi peo-ple have been living among and herding reindeer in the region for ten thou-sand years, at times suffering brutal repression from governments based insouthern Scandinavia. The kinds of ideas that theyre now selling, of Comesee this empty world, denies these humans, Langston says.

This willful ignorance of Smi land-use traditions becomes particularlyconvenient whenever new mineral deposits are discovered in Smi territory.

Environmental historyprofessor Nancy Langstonvisited far northernSweden to study theimpact of a proposedopen-pit mine on theindigenous Smi people.B Y M I C H A E L A G R E S T A

Pay attention!We live here!


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Indeed, Langston, an environmental historian, had been invitedto the area to study the effects of an open-pit mine on the Smistraditional pastoral way of life. Smi leaders and others were con-cerned that the iron mine, planned by the British firm BeowulfMining, could make reindeer herding impossible.

Langston came to Ume University in northern Sweden asthe 201213 King Carl XVI Gustaf Professor of EnvironmentalScience. Each year, universities around Sweden nominate foreignacademics theyd like to host for a year, and the King of Sweden,along with his Royal Academy, chooses one lucky honoree.Langston had no idea that the award was coming. I got an emailfrom the kings secretary, and I kind of thought it was one of thoseNigerian scams, Langston says. I thought, Oh yeah, the King ofSweden, gimme a break. Then my colleague at Ume called me

and said, Guess what?Langston had been nominated because of her recent work onsimilar environmental history questions in Wisconsin, where theBad River Reservation has been fighting a proposed iron mine on the grounds that itthreatens to pollute their wetlands. These renowned wetlands encompass the largest wildrice beds in the world, an important traditional food source of the Ojibwe Indians. Inthe past, similar mines have led to problems in local watersheds, including the famousReserve Mining case in the 1970s, when the water supply of Duluth was contaminated.There are real similarities between that and what s happening now, Langston says. Inan effort to lower legal barriers to the project, Wisconsin has relaxed environmental reg-ulations on new iron mines.

Top, a Smi herder in a winter reindeer corralnear Jokkmokk, Sweden.

Above, a Smi man displays a placardappealing to the Swedish king to help inthe battle against mining on Smi land.While these indigenous people have theright to roam vast territories in northernScandinavia, they do not own the landand have little or no control over itsdevelopment.

PHOTO: ELISA FER


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In Kiruna, Langston found a scenarionot so different from the controversy shedbeen studying in Wisconsin. Even thelandscape of northern Sweden remindedher of the shores of Lake Superior. As inWisconsin, locals around Kiruna faced theprospect of new open-pit mines with lowore content and, they feared, a high risk ofpollution. Most locals were not opposed tomining in principlein fact, some of thestrongest opposition came from employeesat an existing, underground, more environ-mentally responsible mine, who worried

about their own jobs being undercut.The Swedish government did not

seem interested in engaging the local com-munities, Langston says. It wasnt just

the Smi, it was everyone in the community. They all wanted to be involved in the process.At Ume, Langston made a study of the environmental history of the region. The study cul-

minated in an article for American Scientistthat laid out the environmental concerns of the Smiin light of complex, longstanding pastoral land-use traditions. Reindeer herding, she discovered,actually involves eight seasons of migration to higher or lower pasture, depending on temperaturesand vegetation available. Such complex usufruct traditions are impossible without some type ofcommunal land rights.

The relationship between Smi and southern Swedes is, Langston says, similar to that between

American Indian nations and Americans as a wholeexcept that American Indians have muchbetter-established rights to their lands than Smi do. Though the Swedish government has officiallyrecognized the Smi right to herd reindeer on traditional land, in practice Smi have won fewimportant legal battles.

The Swedish government has always ruled in favor of timber management, highways, andhydro-management, Langston says. Theyve always said, You can just move your reindeer. Smifeel that they dont have legal recourse, that theyre not taken seriously as collaborators.

Langston began her academic career as an ecologist, but changed course when, during her PhDwork on birds in Zimbabwe, she found herself in the middle of a humanitarian refugee crisis. At herresearch site, a national park with a rhino-poaching problem, guards had been instructed to shootblack African intruders on sight as assumed poachers. This outraged Langston, who sympathizedwith the real social and political pressures on refugees to take cover in the park. I realized that con-servation had to be more than putting up walls around sites, she says. Since then, her research has

often focused on the role of indigenous groups in environmental planning and protection.Langston is still unsure how the controversy over the open-pit mines near Kiruna will turn out.

This summer, a group of activists blockaded an important road, holding up testing of a proposedmine and fighting for hearts and minds in a national and global public opinion battle. PerhapsLangstons American Scientist article will have some impact on the conversation, making it moreaccessible to informed outsiders.

Langston herself doesnt pick sides in this or any particular environmental controversy. She does,however, encourage the Swedish government to hear out Smi concerns. My position is the moredemocratic and open the conversation, the more sustainable itll be over the long run, she says.

Smi people protest plans to build anopen-pit iron mine that would disrupt theirreindeers grazing and migration.

OTO: ELISA FERRARI


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H

ow risky would you think a surgery was if 95 per-cent of patients survive and fully recover? Wouldyou feel differently about that same surgery if the

doctor told you that 5 percent of patients die?Edward Cokely would like to see all of us make

better choices about such weighty matters, from open-heart surgery to investing all our savings in pennystocks. The ability to grasp the consequences of deci-

sions like these is known as risk literacy, and its not asephemeral as you might think. Theres even a test foritmore on that later.

Its useful to be smart, but risk literacy is not reallyabout intelligence, says Cokely, an associate professorof psychology in the Department of Cognitive andLearning Sciences. Even very smart, well-educatedpeople struggle to understand information about risk,which can lead to overconfidence and ill-informed,even dangerous, decisions. Instead, risk literacy istightly linked to math skills, specifically statistical andprobabilistic reasoning.

In 2009, Cokely led a team of researchers atGermanys Max Planck Institute for HumanDevelopment that formulated one of the best tests ofrisk literacy: the Berlin Numeracy Test. With onlytwo or three questions, we can identify who is likely tobe a good decision maker, said Cokely. For example,we can predict who is likely to be tricked by manipu-lative advertising and political reports.

The test can also identify who will recognize risksassociated with household products, consumer debt,and lifestyle choices. Our test also predicts whetheror not patients and their doctors are likely to share inmedical decision-making, said Cokely. Performance

on the test is even related to health outcomes likeheart attacks and strokes.

Since 2012, over forty thousand people in morethan a hundred countries have taken the test, found atwww.RiskLiteracy.org.

Unfortunately, being risk literate isnt alwaysenough. Often, key information isnt presented, so itcan be difficult for the average personrisk literateor notto make informed decisions. Many typesof medical tests, like mammography and prostate

screening, result in a surprisingly highproportion of false positive test results forlow-risk patients. This is something thateven very careful and caring physiciansdo not typically understand, said Cokely.

If we can make these kinds of risks moretransparent, we may avoid a lot of anxiety,fear, depression, and even suicide.

Cokely aims to improve risk literacy bybuilding peoples analytical skills and bydeveloping ways to present risks accurately and clearly.He is moving forward with the help of a $451,000Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER)Award from the National Science Foundation. Hehas also established a Risk Literacy Research Groupat Michigan Tech, including faculty from across thecampus, to develop Internet-based tutoring programsand custom-tailored educational brochures to assess

and improve risk literacy.Improving risk literacy has benefits that go beyond

an individuals decision to, say, turn down an unwisevariable rate mortgage and thereby dodge financialruin. A century ago, H. G. Wells predicted that statis-tical thinking would one day be as necessary for effi-cient citizenship as the ability to read and write, saidCokely. This day has come. These are skills that arenecessary for all of us to make good choices, both forourselves and for society at large.

Good decisions

are less

about smarts

and more

about math

C A R E E R A W A R D

Doing the right thingB Y M A R C I A G O O D R I C H


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P

rofessor W. Charles Kerfoots insatiable curiosity and enthusiasm for discoveryhave propelled him into all corners of his discipline and well beyond the confines ofMichigan Tech. For both the breadth and depth of his contributions to limnology, he

received the Universitys 2013 Research Award.Kerfoot is a member of the biological sciences faculty and an adjunct professor of

geology. He is also director of the Lake Superior Ecosystem Research Center.I dont think you could have picked a more deserving candidate for the award, said

Norman Yan of York University. Charlie is considered an international star in the fieldof freshwater zooplankton ecology.

Winfried Lampert of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology cited the1978 Symposium on Evolution and Ecology of Zooplankton Communities, whichKerfoot organized, as a turning point in freshwater ecology. A few years later, his theorythat zooplankton move up and down the water column to escape predators settled a longdispute and is now textbook stuff, Lampert said.

Furthermore, Kerfoot was the first researcher to recognize the potential in hatch-ing eggs of zooplankton that had been dormant for decades in sediment layers. Hecoined the term resurrection ecology, and no other concept has been used so extensively

in plankton ecology and evolution during the first decade of thepresent century, Lampert said.

Mary Power of the University of California, Berkeley, praisedKerfoot for his interdisciplinary research. She noted that he inte-grated limnology and the natural history and ecology of planktonin his research documenting the disappearance of the doughnutin southern Lake Michigan. He also predicted that, as quaggamussels consume the gyre of plankton, zooplankton and fish spe-cies would be threatened.

Kerfoot has always taken the broad view. As an undergradu-ate at the University of Kansas, he majored in both geology andzoology. After earning a PhD in Zoology from the University ofMichigan, he held appointments at the University of Washington,Dartmouth, Cornell, and the University of Michigan before com-ing to Michigan Tech in 1991.

Since coming here, Ive done much more than I could haveelsewhere, he said. In particular, Michigan Techs location hasbeen an asset. He partcipated in two of the largest freshwatergrants ever awarded, the KITES (Keweenaw InterdisciplinaryTransport Experiment in Superior) and EEGLE (Episodic

EventsGreat Lakes Experiment), which totaled more than $20 million.York University s Norman Yan thinks Michigan Tech was wise to honor a plankton

expert. Quite simply, we would be hungry, dim-witted, and likely dead without the ser-vices that plankton provide, he said. We need plankton for our survival, and we needresearchers like Charlie to ensure that we understand and manage the threats to thehealth, diversity, and functioning of plankton communities.

Charlie isconsidered an

internationalstar in the fieldof freshwaterzooplanktonecology.

R E S E A R C H A W A R D

Science from the bottom

of the food chainB Y M A R C I A G O O D R I C H


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M

aterials science and engineering professor Jiann-Yang Jim Hwang and 2012 PhD graduateZhiwei Peng have received Michigan Techs

2013 Bhakta Rath Research Award for their studieson the use of microwaves in steelmaking.

They were nominated by Stephen Kampe, the St.John Professor and chair of the materials science and

engineering department.Kampe called Pengs work incredibly thorough

in scope and rigorous in its approach. He noted thatHwang has researched microwave steelmaking foryears and has become a renowned authority on envi-ronmental and sustainability issues within the materi-als processing industries.

The researchers did theoretical and experimental work on using micro-waves to heat materials, particularly magnetic substances, and developed waysto improve microwaves heating efficiency. They also provided guidelines formaking large-scale microwave furnaces for industrial use. Pengs dissertationresearch was an integral part of three grants totaling $2.6 million.

Their work has led to five books, twenty-five papers, and invitations toprepare books on microwave heating.Mingming Zhang of the Canadian steel and mining company

ArcelorMittal wrote that Pengs research attracted my attention becauseof its huge potential in energy savings and environmental protection com-pared with conventional technologies, adding that the achievement is all themore remarkable because steelmaking consumes more energy than any otherindustry. Moreover, there is a great possibility to substantially reduce theCO

2, SOx and NOx emissions, contributing to an environmentally friendly

world, Zhang said.Pengs solid foundation in math and science and his interdisciplinary

approach have been key to the projects success, said his advisor. He is notafraid of challenges, and he willingly took courses from other departments

that advanced his research, Hwang said. By combining knowledge fromseveral disciplines, Zhiwei has developed a new field of research.

The award, endowed by Michigan Tech alumnus Bhakta Rath and hiswife, Sushama, recognizes a doctoral student at Michigan Tech and his/her faculty advisor for exceptional research of particular value that antici-pates the future needs of the nation while supporting advances in emergingtechnology.

R A T H A W A R D

Greener steel throughmicrowavesB Y M A R C I A G O O D R I C H

A technologywith hugepotentialin energysavings andenvironmental

protection.


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I

n 2012, more than 3 million people hadstents inserted in their coronary arteries.These tiny mesh tubes prop open blood

vessels recovering from procedures like bal-loon angioplasty, which widens arteriesblocked by clots or plaque deposits. Afterabout six months, most damaged arteries are

healed and stay open on their own. The stent,however, is there for a lifetime.Usually, thats not a problem, says Patrick

Bowen, a doctoral student studying materials scienceand engineering at Michigan Tech. But the longer a

stent is in the bodyand it can be in place for decadesthegreater the risk of side effects, like inflammation and clotting.

Thats why Bowen and his advisors, faculty members Jeremy Goldman and JaroslawDrelich, are developing a stent that will gradually and harmlessly dissolve after the blood

vessel heals.Many studies have investigated iron- and magnesium-based stents. Iron is not prom-

ising: it rusts. Magnesium, on the other hand, dissolves too quickly. We wondered, Isntthere something else? Bowen said.And we thought, Why not zinc?

So they placed tiny zinc wires in the arteries of rats. The results were astonishing.The corrosion rate was exactly where it needed to be, Bowen said. On top of that, therats arteries appeared healthy when the wires were removed.

The researchers have filed a provisional patent on their discoveries and are now test-ing new materials, because they still have one drawback to overcome.

A stent made of conventional zinc would not be strong enough to hold open a humanartery, Bowen said. We need to beef it up. The good news is that we have some alloysthat appear to fit the bill.

Since he was ten, Bowen has known he wanted to be a met-allurgist, just like his father. But I certainly never saw myselfworking with biometals, he said. He had a chance to pursue thatline of research as an undergraduate at Michigan Tech and hasntlooked back. It was challenging, and I loved it, he said. It turnsout that some of the most interesting science is at the interface ofmaterials and biology. After he graduates, Bowen hopes to teachand continue his research as a university professor.

ZincThe Goldilocks

material for stents?


G R A D U A T E R E S E A R C H


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C

louds arise out of nowhere and dissolve into nothingness, an intricate interaction ofheat and cold, dampness and dust. Michael Adler aims to describe a portion of thatdance in numbers, the sign language of physics.

Adler is a senior majoring in both physics and applied/computationalmathematics. An accomplished violinist, he is minoring in music,sings with the Michigan Tech Concert Choir, and plays withthe Marquette and Keweenaw symphony orchestras. Hereceived the 2013 Provosts Award for Scholarship,Michigan Techs highest honor for academicexcellence.

For his senior research project, Adleris developing a mathematical model todescribe how clouds form, in collabora-tion with physics professor RaymondShaw. The model is based on Rayleigh-Bnard convection, which anyone who has

boiled water has observed, whether they know it ornot. As a fluid warms, currents rise and circulate, form-ing fountains and whirlpools. A similar pattern arises in the atmosphereas air ascends and clouds condense. The main variable in Rayleigh-Bnard convectionis temperature, but because we are talking about clouds here, Adler is adding another,water vapor.

Water vapor condenses as it rises and cools, which adds an extra level of complex-ity, said Adler. That means you have a latent heat release in a region where condensa-tion is taking place. Its very interesting.

Adler will be graduating in May and hopes his model can be tested in MichiganTechs new cloud chamber this spring. The chamber will generate clouds by coolingthe top surface and warming the bottom, so air plumes and water vapor are con-

stantly rising and falling.This isnt his first project. Since he enrolled at Tech, Adler has also beeninvolved in research on thermoelectric materials and high-performance com-puting. Last summer, he went to Europe on a German Academic ExchangeService Research Internship to develop simulations of jet-engine combustion,a far cry from his current work. That was very exciting, he said. It was acompletely different regime. Atmospheric flows are nice and calm for themost part, and then theres this jet engine with supersonic flow and violentreactions. It presents some challenging numerical issues.

Next fall, he plans to begin graduate studies in aerospace engineering. And hell becontinuing his music, both for love and for balance. It is such a relief to take your mindoff science and express the creative side a little more, he says.

The calculus of cloudsQuantifying the ephemeral

U N D E R G R A D U A T E R E S E A R C H

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RESEARCH CENTERS AND INSTITUTES

Advanced Power Systems Research

Center (APSRC)

www.me.mtu.edu/research/power

Director, Jeff Naber, Mechanical Engineering

Engineering Mechanics

[email protected], 906-487-1938

Advanced Sustainable Iron and Steel

Center (ASISC)

www.chem.mtu.edu/asisc

Director, S. Komar Kawatra,

Chemical Engineering


Biotechnology Research Center (BRC)

http://biotech.mtu.edu

Director, Keat Ghee Ong,

Biomedical Engineering


Center for Agile and Interconnected

Microgrids (AIM)

http://aim.mtu.edu

Director, Gordon Parker, Mechanical

EngineeringEngineering Mechanics


Center for Computer Systems

Research (CCSR)

www.mtu.edu/cs/research/ccsr

Director, Saeid Nooshabadi,

Electrical and Computer Engineering


Center for Environmentally Benign

Functional Materials (CEBFM)

www.sfi.mtu.edu/cebfmDirector, Gerard Caneba,



Center for Fundamental and Applied

Research in Nanostructured and

Lightweight Materials (CNLM)

www.chem.mtu.edu/cnlm

Director, Michael Mullins,



Center for Water and Society (CWS)

www.mtcws.mtu.edu

Director, Noel Urban,

Civil and Environmental Engineering


Computational Science and

Engineering Research Institute

(CSERI)

www.cse.mtu.edu/projects.html

Director, Warren Perger,

Electrical and Computer Engineering


Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences

Institute (EPSSI)

www.epssi.mtu.edu

Director, Will Cantrell,

Physics


Ecosystem Science Center (ESC)

www.mtu.edu/forest/esc

Director, Andrew Burton, School of Forest

Resources and Environmental Science


Great Lakes Research Center

www.mtu.edu/greatlakes

Director, Guy Meadows


Institute for Leadership and

Innovation (ILI)

www.iis.mtu.edu

Director, Robert Warrington,

Institute for Interdisciplinary [email protected], 906-487-4371

Institute of Materials Processing (IMP)

www.mtu.edu/materials/research/imp

Director, Stephen Kampe,

Materials Science and Engineering


Keweenaw Research Center (KRC)

www.mtukrc.org

Director, Jay Meldrum


Lake Superior Ecosystem Research

Center (LaSER)

Director, W. Charles Kerfoot,

Biological Sciences


Michigan Tech Research Institute

(MTRI)

www.mtri.org

Co-director, Robert Shuchman,


Co-director, Nikola Subotic,


Michigan Tech Transportation Institute

(MTTI)

www.mtti.mtu.edu/index.php

Director, Ralph Hodek,

Civil and Environmental Engineering


Multi-Scale Technologies Institute

(MuSTI)www.me.mtu.edu/Institutes/MuSTI

Director, Craig Friedrich, Mechanical

EngineeringEngineering Mechanics


Pre-College Innovative Outreach

Institute (PIOI)

Director, Steve Patchin,


Power and Energy Research Center

(PERC)

www.ece.mtu.edu/perc

Director, Bruce Mork,Electrical and Computer Engineering


Sustainable Futures Institute (SFI)

www.sfi.mtu.edu

Director, David Shonnard,




8/9/2019 Research 2014

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20132012201120102009200820072006

44.2

56.660.4 60.4

63.5

70.0 72.0 70.7

RESEARCH AND SPONSORED ACTIVIT Y

Federal 73%

tate of Michigan 4%

Industry 9%

Foreign 1%

All other sponsors 3%

Gifts 10%Crowdfunding

8/9/2019 Research 2014

40/40

Michigan Technological University

1400 Townsend Drive

Houghton, MI 49931-1295

Time travelers prove elusive

Michigan Techs Robert Nemiroff and his

students were chatting last summer,

and, as often happens when physicists

are involved, the conversation took an

unexpected turn. They wondered: if there

are time travelers among us, are they on

the Internet?So Nemiroff and graduate student Teresa

Wilson developed a sleuthing strategy.

They began looking for evidence of

prescient awareness of things that only

time travelers could know. To do that, they

searched for references to Pope Francis

and Comet ISON posted before they were

known to exist. The scientists used search

engines, rummaged through Facebook

and Twitter, and combed through the

Astronomy Picture of the Day site, which

Nemiroff co-edits.

Alas, they found no evidence of timetravelers. Yet, their work yielded a brief

but mighty media frenzy, including

Michigan Techs first appearance on The

Colbert Report.

Nemiroff, who normally researches more

arcane subjects, says this endeavor is not

as big a stretch for him as some might

thi k I l d i t ff

Documents

Research 2014