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Dust In the wind

EAS Prof. Natalie PAGE Mahowald studies 16 the complex impact of atmospheric aerosols on climate MAGAZINE

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Engineering Entrepreneurs: Dust in the Wind: Three alumni entrepreneurs EAS Prof. Natalie Mahowald studies the complex impact of atmospheric talk about going into business 16 aerosols on climate. 24 and the technical skills that By Lauren Cahoon helped them get there. By Dan Tuohy

Cornell Engineering 1 ‘Game-changing’ tech campus goes to Cornell, Technion MAGAZINE Cornell University and Skidmore, owings, & merrill Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute brings exercise in inclusion and having all the ships rise in this fine city.” a number of initiatives to Roosevelt Island. Technion President Peretz Lavie From creating the next receiving required accreditation, spoke warmly of the partnership generation of high-tech the campus will offer Technion- ISSN 1081-3977 with Cornell and New York. “We are Volume 17, Number 2 entrepreneurs to exemplifying Cornell dual Master of Applied not going to have an extension of Fall 2011 the highest standards of Sciences degrees. Cornell or Technion,” Lavie said. “We Cornell Engineering sustainable building, the Green: The campus will be are going to have something new ... Magazine is published CornellNYC Tech—Home of the a living laboratory of green by the Cornell University that will really energize this city.” Technion-Cornell Innovation building and reduced energy use. College of Engineering At a Feb. 3 open forum to answer Institute will bring a number Its main educational building, Dean questions, provide updates, and of transformative initiatives to which will be LEED Platinum Lance Collins reiterate the transformative nature Joseph Silbert Dean A digital rendering of the proposed NYC tech campus on Roosevelt Island. If built Roosevelt Island. certified, is planned to be “net- CornellNYC Tech—Home of the world come to New York and of the project for Cornell as a of Engineering today, the campus’s 150,000-square-foot core academic building would be the largest Hubs: The campus will be zero energy”—harvesting as Technion-Cornell Innovation help us become the world’s net-zero energy building in the eastern United States and among the top four largest whole, Lance Collins, the Joseph Executive Editor such buildings in the United States. organized initially around much energy from the site as Institute—is scheduled to leading city for technological Cornell University and Skidmore, owings, & merrill Silbert Dean of Engineering, said Dawn S. McWilliams three interdisciplinary hubs — it consumes. A solar array will Director break ground on New York innovation,” Bloomberg said. Technion will bring additional Engineering Marketing Connective Media, Healthier generate 1.8 megawatts at daily City’s Roosevelt Island in early In the months since Cornell expertise in entrepreneurship to and Communications Life and the Built Environment peak. A four-acre geothermal 2015. The first students will first announced its intention the new venture. Editor — meant to encapsulate a well field will exceed any current start in temporary off-site to win the bid, there was “Their ability to take ideas and spin Robert B. Emro wide range of disciplines and geothermal heating system in Assistant Director space in fall 2012. mounting evidence that it had them out into working companies is designed to evolve over time. The the city. Engineering Marketing The partnership with support from many corners—a legendary,” Collins said. and Communications school will immediately offer Buildout: The completed Technion-Israel Institute of fact not unnoticed by the There’s work to be done at all master’s and doctoral degrees campus will encompass Art Director Technology was announced mayor and his staff. Deputy levels, Fuchs told the forum, from Todd Edmonds in such areas as computer 2 million square feet that the winner of a bid to build the Mayor Bob Steel mused that acquiring academic accreditation, Creative Director/CEO science, electrical and computer includes housing for up to 2,500 irondesign.com groundbreaking new campus of the approximately 50,000 to hiring a principal designer and engineering, and information students and aprroximately 280 in New York City at a press New York area alumni, “most architect for the site, to structuring Graphic Designer science and engineering. After faculty members by 2043. Louis Johnson conference Dec. 19. of them called me directly”; the entrepreneurship-oriented Senior Designer New York City Mayor Michael others sent him a book of curricula, to hiring faculty and irondesign.com Bloomberg said the “game- 21,000 signatures petitioning Multiple spaces are connected and designed around facilitating idea creation. All proposal, Bloomberg said, was the to generate nearly 600 spinoff recruiting students—all while Printer changing” project promises for Cornell’s bid. public spaces are designed with the understanding that many of the most innovative boldest and most ambitious, as it companies over the projection Cayuga Press ideas are a result of chance encounters. maintaining Cornell’s Ithaca Cortland, N.Y. to spur economic growth, This groundswell was a large included an enrollment of 2,500 period, which could create up to an campus and entering into key job creation, and high-tech factor in Cornell’s success, students, approximately 280 faculty additional 30,000 permanent jobs. phases of the “Cornell Now” Photography entrepreneurship. noted Cornell Provost Kent and 2 million square feet of state- Finally, Bloomberg noted the All photos by University fundraising campaign. Photography unless The announcement came Fuchs: “I think we were the of-the-art classroom and research aggressive schedule to which The new campus is intended to otherwise indicated just as Cornell announced only university that had space. He talked about the dynamic Cornell has pledged to get the be financially self-sufficient, Fuchs Editorial and a $350 million gift—later unanimous support from the partnership between Cornell and campus up and running. said. The $350 million gift from Business Offices revealed to be from Chuck administration, Technion. He praised Cornell’s With “humility” and “gratitude,” Atlantic Philanthropies will help 247 Carpenter Hall Ithaca, NY 14853-2201 Feeney’s ’56 Atlantic faculty, staff, established presence in New York President David Skorton described the university immediately start phone 607 255-3981 Philanthropies—in support of students, trustees, City with its Weill Cornell Medical the win not as a “touchdown recruiting and hiring new faculty to fax 607 255-9606 the tech campus. and alumni.” College, many academic and dance” for Cornell or Technion, e-mail cornell_engr_mag@ populate the campus. None of the cornell.edu Congratulating the winners, Flanked by extension programs, and its active but as a boon for New York City Ithaca campus’s $2 billion operating Visit Cornell Engineering Bloomberg invoked Cornell’s Cornell and alumni base. and a demonstration of the two budget is expected to be diverted Magazine online at history as New York state’s Technion officials The campus is expected to institutions’ desire to serve the www.engineering.cornell.edu/ to the new campus, Fuchs said magazine land-grant university. With and by members generate $23 billion in economic city’s high-tech future. With this (continued on next page) the promise of an 11-acre of the New York activity over the next three decades, “vote of confidence,”S korton also parcel on Roosevelt Island and City Economic Bloomberg said, as well as $1.4 pledged to work with K-12 schools, CORRECTION: In “Hola from Santander” in the Fall 2011 issue, our $100 million in infrastructure Development Corp., billion in tax revenue. Building it the CUNY and SUNY systems, and graphic designer drew inspiration from the flag of the improvements from the city, politicians and Roosevelt will create 20,000 construction the city as a whole to make the Department of Santander in Colombia, rather than © 2012 Cornell Engineering the flag of the city of Santander in, Spain, where the Magazine The Printed on recycled paper. Bloomberg called the proposal Island representatives, green jobs and 8,000 permanent jobs to partnership even more fruitful. Universidad de Cantabria is located. We regret the error. a “new land grant” that will Bloomberg waxed about why roof system will operate it. These jobs, Bloomberg “This is not an exercise in 09/11 ML 40M 100196 capture and retain up power economic growth. Cornell and Technion had to 80 percent of rainwater, added, run the gamut from exclusion or winning,” Skorton said, “We believe this new land emerged as the ideal choice provide insulation, sustain plant building staff to office workers— before wowing the crowd with a life and the natural habitat, and reduce grant can help dreamers and for the plan. cooling loads and the heat island effect. not just “people with Ph.D.s.” digital fly-through of the proposed entrepreneurs from around the The Cornell-Technion The campus is also expected campus rendering. ”This is an Santander, Columbia Santander, Cantabria, Cornell University and Skidmore, owings, & merrill Spain

2 Spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 3 Fuchs went on to predict that due in large part to the tech Until approximately the end programming. Now you see it, now you didn’t: Cloaking a moment in time having the tech campus in New campus bid. of March, the leadership team The year 2012 will bring work lab

In movie magic, people and higher, leaving a gap, like the hare York City will create a symbiotic Dan Huttenlocher, dean of planned to “take a step back” on environmental reviews of

objects can appear or disappear pulling ahead of the tortoise. aeta flow of people and ideas that computing and information and engage many people in the site, master planning and or move from place to place in During the gap the experimenters G will end up attracting people— science, who was later named the process of ironing out opening a satellite campus in an instant. Just stop the camera, introduced a brief flash of light and philanthropy—to Cornell in vice provost and dean of the details of bringing the leased space, which is to be move things around and start it at a still higher wavelength that Ithaca, not just New York City. CornellNYC Tech, said he and campus from idea to reality, occupied by current Ithaca- again. Now, Cornell researchers would cause a glitch in the beam “It elevates the visibility of Collins are engaging with said Cathy Dove, associate based students. have demonstrated a similar coming out the other end. Ithaca as a city and Tompkins faculty members to commence dean of administration in the Fuchs shared some rough dates: “temporal cloak”—albeit on a very Then the split beam passes County and all of this academic planning for the College of Engineering, who Cornell expects to sign the official small scale—in the transport of through more optical fiber with a environment we love, and new campus. As soon as was later named vice president lease for the site in December 2013. information by a beam of light. different composition, engineered The trick is to create a gap to slow lower wavelengths puts us on a worldwide stage accreditations and approvals of CornellNYC Tech. Fuchs January 2014 will see demolition in the beam of light, have the more than higher. The higher A laser beam passes through a “split-time lens”—a specially designed that we’ve never had before are in place, students will start added that an email address— of Goldwater Hospital, which hidden event occur as the gap wavelength signal now catches waveguide that bumps up the wavelength for a while then suddenly as a community,” Fuchs said. being admitted to specific [email protected]—was currently occupies the future goes by and then stitch the up with the lower, closing the bumps it down. The signal then passes through a filter that slows down the higher-wavelength part of the signal, creating a gap in which the He noted, for example, the degree programs, initially being created through which campus site. Phase I construction beam back together. Alexander gap. The hare is plodding through inaugural tech startup fair held professional master’s degrees in people can ask questions will commence in early 2015 and is cloaked event takes place. A second filter works in the opposite way from Gaeta, professor of applied mud, but the tortoise is good the first, letting the lower wavelength catch up, and a final split-time lens in Ithaca Feb. 1; more than a select fields that are core to the or make suggestions about scheduled to open in 2017. and engineering physics, and at that and catches up. Finally, brings the beam back to the original wavelength, leaving no trace of what thousand attended, probably new campus. anything from aesthetics to —Anne Ju colleagues report their work in the another four-wave mixer brings happened during the gap. Jan. 5 issue of the journal Nature. both parts back to the original physics at Imperial College in have to start from somewhere.” The researchers created what wavelength, and the beam London, in the Journal of Optics in The research was funded by Eighth student-designed water plant rises in Honduran town they call a time lens, which can emerges with no trace that there November 2010. the Defense Advanced Research manipulate and focus signals ever was a gap, and no evidence “But his method required an Project Agency and by Cornell’s Atima, HONDURAS—This spring, nearly every such as one in early design phases le in time, analogous to the way a of the intruding signal. nic optical response from a material Center for Nanoscale Systems, home in this modest Honduras hilltop town in the town of San Nicolas. ro glass lens focuses light in space. None of this will let you steal h that does not exist,” Gaeta said. which is supported by the will have safe, clean drinking water, thanks to a A previous generation of C They use a technique called the crown jewels without anyone “Now we’ve done it in one spatial National Science Foundation water treatment plant principally designed by AguaClara students invented nell four-wave mixing, in which two noticing. The gap created in the dimension. Extending it to two and the New York State Division Cornell Engineering students. an automated design tool /Cor u beams of light, a “signal” and experiment was 15 picoseconds J [that is, hiding a moment in an of Science, Technology and The Atima plant, under construction, is that has greatly increased the a “pump,” are sent together long, and might be increased up nne Innovation (NYSTAR). A entire scene] is not out of the the eighth project of AguaClara, Cornell’s efficiency with which students through an optical fiber. The to 10 nanoseconds, Gaeta said. realm of possibility. All advances —Bill Steele internationally recognized small-scale water can generate basic designs for two beams interact and change But the technique could have treatment design team that has been working new plants. Improvements are the wavelength of the signal. applications in fiber-optic data ided v since 2005 in Honduras, where 60 percent constantly being made on the To begin creating a time gap, transmission and data processing, ro P to 70 percent of people do not have access tool, and Weber-Shirk says it is a the researchers first bump the he added. For example, it might to clean water. So far, AguaClara plants serve key reason why AguaClara plants wavelength of the signal up, then allow inserting an emergency some 25,000 people. can be scaled to fit individual by flipping the wavelength of the signal without interrupting the Sixteen AguaClara team members, mostly communities. pump beam, bump it down. main data stream, or multitasking undergraduate civil engineering students, On site, the students can deal AguaClara students visiting Honduras Jan. 6–20 toured existing The beam then passes through operations in a photonic visited the Atima construction site as part of an with many unknowns, many of water plants and helped improve others, including one in Marcala, another, very long, stretch of computer, where light beams on a exhaustive two-week excursion Jan. 6-20 across which cannot be solved from where they installed a new inlet manifold. From left, AguaClara optical fiber. Light passing chip replace wires. Honduras with their leader, Monroe Weber- Ithaca. faculty leader Monroe Weber-Shirk; Jordanna Kendrot, M.Eng. ’12; through a transparent material The experiment was inspired, Shirk, senior lecturer in civil and environmental “Every plant is different, and Breann Liebermann ’14; and Patrick Farnham, M.Eng. ’11. is slowed down just a bit, and Gaeta said, by a theoretical engineering. It was the seventh such adventure the terrain is always different,” as AguaClara engineers, serving as advisers how much it is slowed varies with proposal for a space-time cloak for AguaClara; the winter break trip is said Annie Newcomb ’13. between APP and Cornell. the wavelength. So the lower or “history editor” published considered an integral part of the students’ In Honduras, the students also get to see the In Ithaca this semester, Klug and Newcomb wavelength pulls ahead of the by Martin McCall, professor of connection with their work and their ability to politics, fundraising and technical challenges are designing a more efficient, unified chemical experience the political and social aspects of that sometimes derail projects. But Weber-Shirk dosing system for future plants to allow plant implementing water plants. maintains AguaClara’s plans for scalability, cost operators to be more precise in knowing how Students see so much of the computer reduction and expansion are on the right track. much chlorine to add to the water. software engineering they use for design that “Every one of the AguaClara facilities continues The system would build on AguaClara’s “it’s interesting to see an actual physical process to provide safe drinking water,” he said. “This is innovative chemical dose controller, an going on,” said Tori Klug ’14. “It’s also really good an amazing accomplishment in a world of failed automated tool that adds coagulant at a we’re forming relationships with everyone development projects.” consistent rate, without the use of motors or down here.” That AguaClara works so well is due to its electricity, as the water enters the plant. AguaClara’s longstanding partner is Agua partners on the ground. Antonio Elvir, APP’s And Jordanna Kendrot, M.Eng. ’12, is working Para el Pueblo (APP), a Honduran nonprofit social and education coordinator for AguaClara on improving the dose controller, which has organization that offers technical expertise and projects, is the students’ key liaison with proven tricky to get just right. Hopefully, an education to help municipalities implement Honduran communities. upgrade would allow completed plants to easily water treatment systems. Also, for the past several years, Sarah Long retrofit their equipment to more accurately and Time cloaking doesn’t involve a DeLorean, just a kilometer of optical fiber This year’s AguaClara team visited working ’09; Jeff Will ’10, M.Eng. ’11; Dan Smith ’06 consistently apply coagulant. coiled up on a lab table, supervised by postdoc Moti Fridman and research plants, plants in process and future plant sites, and others have moved to Honduras to work —Anne Ju Grad student Allessandro Farsi Alexander Gaeta associate Yoshi Okawachi.

4 Spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 5 Biosensor may improve disease detection, water monitoring Undergrad synthetic biology team takes a top prize at world championship u

A quick, inexpensive and highly molecules onto the nanowires. L ided

ui With today’s most pressing project involved molecular sensitive test that identifies When those molecules come r rov ue problems ranging from the biology, chemistry and chemical P Y disease markers or other into contact with a target single- environment to health care, engineering—using a known molecules in low-concentration stranded DNA, the relevant it’s clear that life scientists and biosynthetic pathway to convert solutions could be the result molecules bind together, engineers need to work together. tryptophan into prodeoxyviolacein, of a Cornell-developed changing the mass detected A Cornell undergraduate project a useful precursor to some nanomechanical biosensor, which by the device. The mass change team, only three years old but biopharmaceuticals. The device, could potentially help with early causes a change in the resonance already winning international an array of chips etched with stage disease detection. frequency of the device. accolades, is getting in at the microfluidic channels and lined The biosensor, based on a A laser beam is shined on ground floor. with modified enzymes that photonic crystal nanowire array, the device, and the nanowires’ CU GEM (Cornell University act as a linear biochemical was developed by Yuerui Lu, a innovative design allows for more Genetically Engineered Machines), pathway, was made in the graduate student in the lab of than 90 percent absorption of the a mostly undergraduate, highly Cornell nanofabrication facility by Amit Lal, professor of electrical light, resulting in an efficient opto- interdisciplinary project team that electrical, mechanical engineering and computer engineering. Their thermo-mechanical excitation of started in 2008, achieved its highest and materials science students. The 2011 CU GEM team with their world championship award. research was published online the resonator. An optical readout A drawing of how single-stranded DNA is immobilized and hybridized on the sensor. honor yet at the iGEM 2011 World “We’re interested in developing undergraduate adviser. Department of Electrical and Dec. 6 in the journal Nature of the resonance frequency Championship Jamboree, Nov. 5-7. biopharmaceuticals inside of cells,” The projects were scrutinized on Computer Engineering, Weill u Communications. change can be accomplished L technical details as well as ethical Institute for Cell and Molecular

ui Presenting their tested and said team leader Jim Mathew ’14, The sensor’s operation was remotely, quickly and free of r ue working “Biofactory”—a series a chemical engineering major. considerations. Teams were also Biology, Cornell Institute for Y confirmed in collaboration with electrical wires, making the device of microfluidic chips that use a “But sometimes you have a lack of judged by their commitment to Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Dan Luo, professor of biological convenient and inexpensive to biosynthetic pathway to produce reactor control when working with outreach and helping public school and Cornell NanoScale Science and environmental engineering, make, the researchers said. a useful chemical—the students cells, and it’s hard to get a final students, for example, gain access and Technology Facility. They and his graduate student Lal said he imagines doctors beat out 120 other teams to take chemical output.” to science. In its short duration, CU have also garnered corporate Songming Peng. could use such a device in clinical the “Best Manufacturing Project” CU GEM’s microfluidic reactors GEM has hosted outreach events sponsorship from Corning Inc., The experimental device is a analysis, for example, in DNA prize. CU GEM had previously are a scalable, cell-free method for at both the Ithaca Sciencenter and New England Biolabs, Integrated mechanical resonator 50 microns testing. Typically today, DNA in won a gold medal at the iGEM producing complex biomolecules, at Cornell’s CURIE Academy, and DNA Technologies and Modo. in diameter made of a thin silicon- drawn blood is compared against Americas regional competition in which could reduce unwanted side has already sprouted an alumni CU GEM is breaking into a silicon dioxide membrane with a standard sequence. October, catapulting them among reactions and ultimately lead to a network. relatively new field called synthetic ordered, tightly packed vertical The new device could instead 60 others to the worlds. lower-cost method of production, Shen also pointed out that biology, said Shen, who teaches nanowires on top. The design be coded with particular DNA “At Cornell, our goal is to foster Mathew said. Cornell’s relatively young team the course Introduction to Systems achieves a high surface-to-volume sequences of relevance, and future leaders,” said Xiling Shen, Virtually every area of beat out more established teams and Synthetic Biology, which has ratio for biomolecule detection, those specific molecules could A schematic drawing of the biosensor, which consists of ordered assistant professor of electrical engineering, chemistry and from other top institutions. doubled as a recruiting ground for nanowires on top of a silicon-silicon dioxide membrane. which means it can detect be detected in early stages when and computer engineering and biology were tapped in order to They were one of the few who CU GEM. molecules at very low—down to concentrations are low. Such sensors could also because they do not bind as team adviser. “We are not trying to make the project successful— came with an entire working The team hopes to pique femtomolar—concentrations. “You could have a cartridge with be useful for environmental specifically as DNA molecules do. have research superhumans who including mass spectrometry data system, rather than staying on a the interest of freshmen and The sensor could be useful, for an array of the membrane sensors, applications, such as water quality The research was funded by can do it all, but to learn how to to confirm their results. conceptual level. sophomores especially. Their next example, for finding just a few and you could quickly scan to monitoring. The researchers hope the Defense Advanced Research harness other people’s expertise.” “The judges said they were The team’s interdisciplinary information session will be Dec. molecules in a glass of water. see what DNA imperfection you to improve their device by making Projects Agency Microsystems The nature of CU GEM’s especially impressed with how nature is evidenced through 3, 3-4 p.m. in 120 Physical Sciences The sensor works by attaching might have,” he said. “Today’s tests it sensitive to certain protein Technology Office. successful BioFactory project we tied everything together,” said its growing list of sponsors: Building. single-stranded probe DNA take time and are expensive.” molecules, which are trickier —Anne Ju says it all. The goal of the Malinka Walaliyadde ’12, senior The College of Engineering, —Anne Ju

Device will quickly detect pathogens Two Cornell professors will combine their inventions to develop a on different aspects of the technology, and eventually their work will be When the mixture is exposed to a portable ultraviolet light, the handheld pathogen detector that will give health care workers in the integrated to make a practical, low-cost testing kit, Luo said. polymer molecules at the ends of each double-Y link to those on other developing world speedy results to identify in the field such pathogens Luo’s research group has found that DNA can be used like molecular- double-Ys, forming long chains that clump up into larger masses. This as tuberculosis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV. level Lego blocks. A single strand of DNA will lock onto another single polymerization won’t happen, the researchers emphasize, unless a Using synthetic DNA, Dan Luo, professor of biological and strand that has a complementary genetic code. By synthesizing DNA targeted pathogen is present to link two Ys together. A single Y with only environmental engineering, has devised a method of “amplifying” very strands that match over just part of their length, his team can assemble one polymer molecule attached can only link to one other single Y, and small samples of pathogen DNA, RNA, or proteins. Edwin Kan, professor unusual shapes—in this case, a Y. Attached to the base of the Y is a DNA no chain will form. of electrical and computer engineering, has designed a computer strand or antibody designed to lock onto a pathogen. Attached to one of Kan’s new chip measures both the mass and charge of molecules chip that quickly responds to the amplified samples targeted by Luo’s the upper arms is a molecule that will polymerize—chain up with other that fall on it. The large clumps of Y-DNA have a much larger mass method. They will combine these to make a handheld device, usable similar molecules—when exposed to ultraviolet light. and charge than single molecules, and trigger the detector. The chip under harsh field conditions, that can report in about 30 minutes what When a pathogen is added to a solution of these Y-DNA molecules, uses the popular and inexpensive CMOS technology compatible with would ordinarily require transporting samples to a laboratory and the matching receptors on the stem of the Y will lock onto pathogen other common electronic devices. A detector might, for example, be waiting days for results. molecules, but only onto part of them; the mix will contain two different controlled and powered by a mobile phone, Luo suggested. The work will be supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as Y-structures, each tagged to lock onto a different part of the pathogen All this can be combined with nanofluidics to make a robust battery- To “amplify” a pathogen sample, two different Y-shaped DNA structures are part of the Grand Challenge program to develop “point-of-care diagnostics” molecule. The result, when the targeted pathogen is present, is the operated testing kit, the researchers said. After further development they plan used, each one designed to lock onto a different part of the target molecule. for developing countries. The foundation has distributed $25 million to 12 formation of many double-Ys linked together by a pathogen molecule, to conduct tests simulating field conditions in the developing world. Along When two Y’s are linked, polymer molecules attached to the ends of the teams, selected from more than 700 applicants. Various teams are working each assembly carrying two molecules capable of polymerizing. with surviving hot or cold weather, Luo said, “It has to work in dirty water.” double-Y can chain together to form a large, easily detected clump.

6 Spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 7 Structured English brings robots closer to everyday users Graphene to propel mechanical device technology forward hy p

Move over, Jetsons. A humanoid humanoid made by Aldebaran a r Graphene is sort of a scientific graphene in nanoelectromechanical are working on making mass a way to “read out” carbon g o robot named Mae is traipsing around Robotics, to simulate looking for t systems (NEMS), analogous sensors out of graphene, which nanotubes, a technique that can o rock star, with countless groups Ph Cornell’s Autonomous Systems Lab, missing items in a grocery store studying its amazing electrical to an earlier generation’s is atomically structured so it’s also apply to graphene, Barton said. guided by plain-English instructions while also avoiding spills in the ity rs microelectromechanical systems sensitive to both mass and electric The rapid progress of graphene

e properties and tensile strength and sometimes even appearing to aisles. Depending on what she v ni and dreaming up applications (MEMS). charge. What can result is that a makes its future very exciting, get frustrated. finds, the robot takes action based /U ranging from flat-panel screens to “We’ve moved beyond working bit of mass landing on a surface of Craighead said. Mae understands and executes on the specifications that were ance elevators in space. with little exfoliated flakes and suspended graphene will perturb “Graphene has gone from Fr

English commands, thanks to given to her. ay s The single-layer carbon sheets’ more with grown materials that can the mechanical and electronic an oddity in a physics lab to d

algorithms and a software toolkit The “store” is located in the in L stellar qualities are only just being be incorporated and connected with structure simultaneously, something that can be practically called Linear Temporal Logic Mission Rhodes Hall Autonomous Systems understood in all their capacities, electronics and other mechanics,” analogous to today’s mass incorporated into a variety of Planning (LTLMoP) being developed Lab. Mae knows how to react in say scientists at Cornell—and Craighead said. “So the question spectrometry but on a much potential devices,” he said. “The in the lab of Hadas Kress-Gazit, certain situations—for example, researchers can dream big (or is, can you make these reliably, smaller and more sensitive level, ability to fabricate things in these assistant professor of mechanical if a “missing item” is encountered, rather, very small) when it comes uniformly and reproducibly?” Barton explained. ways, to integrate them and to use and aerospace engineering. she alerts a manager. If she sees a to everything graphene can offer. It was only a few years ago The Cornell researchers are using them for different types of sensors, According to Kress-Gazit, the “spill,” she’ll avoid the area. That’s what scientists in the lab that scientists figured out how optical interferometry to monitor physical and chemical, is quite future of robotics is in the ability Traditionally, a controller for Mae demonstrates her understanding of structured-English commands of Harold Craighead, the Charles to make arrays of hundreds of the motion of a sheet of graphene. a step forward in a short time, during a demo in Rhodes Hall. Background from left, graduate students Vasu of robots to easily understand these relatively complex tasks W. Lake Professor of Engineering, thousands of graphene devices In this technique, the subtle device and our group is one of the many Raman, Jim Jing and Cameron Finucane stand with Hadas Kress-Gazit. everyday users and to act reliably in requires specifically programming say in an American Vacuum using a process called chemical motions are read as variations in that’s contributed to this.” Mae is told to visit all the corners different situations. the robot to react in every hy vapor deposition. This involves reflected light intensity, which are The authors’ work is supported p Society online review article, a

“The big picture is that we want conceivable state it may find of the “store” and to look side r g Sept. 9, about graphene’s present growing the single-layer sheets monitored by a fast photodiode by the National Science o to side while walking through t to have anybody tell the robot what itself in. This is the tedious and o and future. The article made the of honeycomb-latticed carbon connected to a spectrum analyzer. Foundation. Ph to do,” explained Kress-Gazit, who error-prone nature of robotics the aisles. The commands can atoms on top of copper, then Another group at Cornell, led by —Anne Ju

ity cover of the printed journal and

studies how to create provably today, the researchers say. There’s be written concisely because rs e manipulating the graphene to McEuen, had earlier developed

v quickly became one of its most-

correct, high-level behaviors for no guarantee that the code has the robot understands breaking ni

make devices. lab

downloaded pieces. /U robots. “You don’t want to have accounted for every situation, and the store into “regions,”—and “It’s becoming clear that with One of the Cornell researchers’ a programmer who’s been doing that it will work. There’s also no prepositional statements, such ance Fr

modern fabrication techniques, devices is like a drum head—a aighead ay Cr the job forever to have to write the guarantee the behavior is even as “between” and conditional s you can imagine turning graphene piece of graphene, one atom thick, ind code for every single behavior, as possible. statements like “if … then.” L into a technology,” said Robert A. suspended over a hollow well. is currently done in the field. You For their work, the Cornell “Instead of giving it a list of Barton, graduate student and lead Although growth of graphene want to take what someone said researchers are looking at how to things to do in order, you give it a author. “People often focus on the by chemical vapor deposition on and automatically generate the provide explanations to the user specification of the sort of behavior electronic applications of graphene, copper was invented elsewhere, code for the robot to successfully when, for whatever reason, a task it should exhibit at all times,” Hadas Kress-Gazit, assistant and they don’t really think as much Cornell researchers were the accomplish its task.” cannot be done. That kind of feedback said graduate student Cameron professor of mechanical and first to figure out how to make aerospace engineering. of its mechanical applications.” The LTLMoP toolkit combines from the robot does not exist in Finucane, who works on the It’s precisely this area where mechanical resonators from the logic, language and control robotics today, Kress-Gazit says. LTLMoP platform. and a Department of Defense Cornell has produced some large-area material. algorithms. The group has In LTLMoP, a high-level Kress-Gazit’s research is Multidisciplinary University pioneering work. In particular the “Four years ago we were able demonstrated the algorithms by specification can be written in supported by the National Science Research Initiative. Craighead group, in collaboration to make about one, and that getting Mae, a 2-foot robot NAO structured English. For example, Foundation CAREER program —Anne Ju with others including Jiwoong Park, took several months,” Barton assistant professor of chemistry said. Speeding up the fabrication A false-color microscopy image of a 30-by-30 micron square of graphene and chemical biology, and Paul process has greatly increased covering a square trench to form a nanomechanical resonator. These devices, which are the thinnest possible microelectromechanical systems and are McEuen, the Goldwin Smith graphene’s potential in devices. NSF-funded project to test cloud computing for smart grid useful for sensing and signal processing, can now be batch-fabricated as a Professor of Physics, has used At Cornell, Barton and colleagues result of recent advances in graphene fabrication technology. A Cornell research team has scalable, consistent and secure of thousands of generators and is cloud computing a viable platform received a four-year, $1.9 million operation of smart grids, and novel substations, linked by transmission for something like the smart grid?” grant from the National Science stochastic optimization techniques and distribution networks. But Cornell collaborators on the Foundation to develop a system for future energy systems. Among these once-engineering marvels are project are Bob Thomas, professor Campus researchers get a private cloud for computation and information their goals is to develop new being challenged by a worldwide emeritus of electrical and computer sharing when designing a “smart” software tools for cloud platforms. effort to mitigate climate change engineering; Ken Birman, the N. Suppose you need just a little bit provides root access to virtual Cloud environment for MATLAB “Cloud computing has the electrical grid. The electric grid in the United by reducing carbon emissions, the Rama Rao Professor of Computer of computing power for a long servers and virtual disks on Dell includes NVIDIA graphics potential to advance U.S. research The team, led by principal States has evolved over a century proposal states. Science; and Tim Mount, professor time or a huge amount for a short PowerEdge C servers with 50GB of processing units for improved discoveries and better prepare investigator Lang Tong, the Irwin and from a series of small, independent, “The fundamental question is, of applied economics and period. Neither situation makes it storage. Red Cloud subscriptions performance. Subscribers program students for STEM careers by Joan Jacobs Professor of Engineering, community-based systems to one where should computation be done?” management. The team also worthwhile to buy and maintain provide fast access to data via applications on their desktops making computing, software is exploring the computational of the largest and most complex Tong said. “Locally, centrally, what are includes collaborators from the your own server. 10Gb Ethernet in and out of the using their licensed copy of Parallel and data resources more readily aspects of how to manage the cyber-physical systems in the the types of information that need University of California-Berkeley So the Cornell Center for cloud at no additional charge. Computing Toolbox, then scale up available at an economy of scale,” changing electrical grid, or so-called world, according to the project to be shared at different locations, and Georgia State University. Advanced Computing (CAC) The second offering, “Red Cloud to Red Cloud with MATLAB. said CAC Director David Lifka. “smart grid,” which is evolving due team’s proposal. The grid consists can we make things consistent, and —Anne Ju has launched Red Cloud, an on- with MATLAB,” allows subscribers Red Cloud services are also To learn more visit http://www. to a growing need to integrate demand research computing to run the MATLAB numerical available to researchers at other cac.cornell.edu/redcloud. renewable energy systems. service available by subscription. computing environment and academic institutions. Industry can —Bill Steele The team will study a cloud- Two Red Cloud services are its graphical extension Simulink access Red Cloud through CAC’s computing architecture for Follow @CornellEng on available. The basic offering on a computer cluster. The Red corporate program.

8 Spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 9 ellana

Study may lead to drug therapies to prevent atherosclerosis Optof luidics could change energy f ield, say engineers C

ing blood cells to the site to digest the the pulling apart of the cells, The ability to manipulate light and fluids on a scale systems that use microorganisms such -K t r cholesterol; both then get trapped or their contractility, include single chip, broadly called “optofluidics,” has led as algae or cyanobacteria, to convert light nha in the area, forming plaques that Rho and Rho-associated kinase to such technologies as liquid-crystal displays and carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels. Rei

ia clog the vessels. (ROCK). When the cultured hy- and liquid-filled optical fibers for fast data Photobioreactors employ photosynthesis for A class of medications called drogels were treated with a drug ynth transfer. Optofluidics is now also onthe cusp energy conversion, and Erickson envisions C statins (e.g., Lipitor and Crestor) called Y-27632 (which has not of improving such green technologies as solar- using an optofluidic chip to optimize how light and work by changing how the liver yet reached clinical trials) that powered bioreactors, say Cornell researchers. and chemicals are distributed in the reactor. uynh metabolizes cholesterol and inhibits ROCK, the gaps between The biggest challenge, says Cornell’s David In such systems as open-air ponds that H

hn lowering the total amount of the cells tended to close, which Erickson, associate professor of mechanical harvest algae and collect sunlight, the Jo LDL cholesterol in the blood. The prevented more plaque buildup. and aerospace engineering, is how to light is scattered haphazardly, and the drugs are effective, Reinhart-King As it turns out, statins like Lipitor upscale optofluidic chips, which are built at top layer gets more exposure. Optofluidic A bioreactor with an open pond like this one, said, but they have side effects, and Crestor, while FDA-approved nanometer scales, to deliver enough energy technologies, such as plasmonic which uses photosynthesis to make fuels, could be and they seem to be most effec- to lower cholesterol, also appear to make a difference. These challenges nanoparticles or photonic waveguides, could improved with the use of optofluidic technologies. tive in patients who already have to inhibit ROCK, and so might and opportunities are detailed in a Nature more directly target the microorganisms and Psaltis of Ecole Polytechnique Federal atherosclerosis and not as a pre- benefit high-risk patients as dem- Photonics Review article by Erickson and two lead to greater energy output. Lausanne, Switzerland, and David Sinton ventative treatment. onstrated in the Cornell experi- colleagues, published online Sept. 11. Similarly, the paper also describes how of the University of Toronto. His research is Endothelial cells on biomaterial substrates, where the nuclei are blue, the “[But] if you just prevent the ments. The researchers also hope “Over the last five years or so, we have optofluidic devices ouldc be used to improve supported by the Academic Venture Fund of actin cytoskeleton is green and the cell-cell junctions are red. On the left cholesterol from getting under that their discoveries could lead developed many new technologies to photocatalytic systems, in which light energy Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable is a mimc of a younger vessel in which the cell-cell junctions are narrower, the vessel wall to begin with, you to better therapies for preventing precisely deliver light and fluids and biology splits water into the components hydrogen and Future and the National Science Foundation. evidenced by crisper red lines. On the right is a mimic of an older, stiffer vessel stop the whole process,” Reinhart- atherosclerosis by counteracting to the same place at the same time,” Erickson oxygen, or converts carbon dioxide and water Erickson is also a member of the Kavli where the cell-cell junctions are wider, evidenced by more jagged red lines. King said. the effects of vessel stiffening be- said. “It’s these new tools that we want to into hydrocarbon fuels. Other applications Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science. As inevitable as the wrinkling of professor of biomedical engineer- Her team focused on how cho- fore they do irreversible damage. apply to the area of energy.” include optofluidic chips in solar collectors. —Anne Ju skin with age is the hardening of ing and lead author of the Science lesterol gets trapped. As the vessel The paper’s first author is gradu- For example, photobioreactors are large- Erickson authored the review with Demetri the blood vessels—a condition Translational Medicine study pub- stiffens, the endothelial cells tend ate student John Huynh, and the called atherosclerosis that is often lished online Dec. 7 and featured to pull apart from each other, cre- collaboration included Michael ating gaps through which choles- King, associate professor of bio- blamed for heart disease. on the journal’s cover that week. Diversity Programs honored by President Obama New Cornell research offers a The researchers showed that by terol can leak and lead to plaque medical engineering; Chris Schaf- clue into the underlying causes changing the behavior of endo- buildup. The researchers found fer, associate professor of biomed- President Barack Obama cited Cornell’s Rick Allmendinger, associate dean for of atherosclerosis in terms of thelial cells in the hardened vessel, that just by tuning the stiffness ical engineering; and research as- Diversity Programs in Engineering among the diversity, faculty development and mentoring how the cells that line the blood without making the vessel any of the vessels, they could change sociate Nozomi Nishimura, former four individuals and four other organizations for the College of Engineering, said: “Here at vessels, called endothelial cells, less stiff, they could reduce the how tightly bound the endothelial graduate student Kuldeepsinh to receive the 2011 Presidential Award for Cornell, we see diversity as an opportunity, behave as the vessels stiffen effects of aging on vessel health. cells were to each other. Rana, former M.Eng. student John Excellence in Science, Mathematics and not an obligation. We have to leverage an with age. The researchers hope In other words, they could dull the They did experiments by making Peloquin, graduate student Joseph Engineering Mentoring. The announcement increasingly diverse pipeline of students if the these insights could lead to more vessels’ inflammatory response to “vessels” of varying stiffness out Califano and former postdoctoral was made Nov. 15. university—and the country—is to remain targeted drug therapies for the stiffening by, in essence, tricking of a commonly used biomaterial. associate Christine Montague. The mentors received their awards at a competitive, and as engineers we firmly prevention of atherosclerosis. the cells in the blood vessels into They tuned the stiffness of each The research was supported by White House ceremony Dec. 12. The award believe that a diverse population leads to “One of the things we wanted thinking the vessels were not stiff. biomaterial to exactly mimic the the American Heart Association, recipients received $25,000 from the better, more creative solutions to the problems to do was understand how aging Atherosclerosis starts when stiffness of vessels at various American Federation for Aging National Science Foundation to advance their we face. If we are successful at building From left, Trey Waller, Rick Allmendinger, Sara Xayarath is linked to atherosclerosis, and excess cholesterol gets trapped states of aging, and they seeded Research, National Institutes of mentoring efforts. diversity, it will pay dividends for Cornell.” Hernández and Jami Joyner receive the 2011 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and how the mechanism of vessel underneath blood vessel walls, set- them with endothelial cells to Health and L’Oreal USA Fellowship “Through their commitment to education The Presidential Award for Excellence measure their permeability. for Women in Science. and innovation, these individuals and in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Engineering Mentoring Dec. 12 in the Eisenhower stiffening plays into this link,” said ting off an inflammatory response. Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. Cynthia Reinhart-King, assistant The endothelial cells recruit white The molecules that regulate —Anne Ju organizations are playing a crucial role in the Mentoring recognizes the crucial role that development of our 21st century workforce. mentoring plays in the academic and of color, women and others historically Our nation owes them a debt of gratitude personal development of students studying underrepresented in engineering have the JumpStart funds faculty-business collaborations for helping ensure that America remains the science and engineering—particularly those opportunity to realize their aspirations while global leader in science and engineering for who belong to underrepresented groups in also contributing their ideas, skills and talent. This semester, four small of their matching funds in in Syracuse will collaborate by concrete producers and turning years to come,” said Obama. these fields. By offering their expertise and Through various initiatives, Diversity Programs businesses will receive up to material and employee time as with Emmanuel Giannelis, the a waste product into a resource. Upon hearing the White House encouragement, mentors help prepare the in Engineering is providing students with $5,000 in matching funds well as cash. Walter R. Read Professor of In addition, NOHMs Technology announcement, Lance Collins, dean of the next generation of scientists and engineers. access to tiers of role models and mentors. High from the Cornell Center for Three Cornell Engineering Engineering, to transform a Inc. in Ithaca will collaborate College of Engineering, said: “Diversity Sara Xayarath Hernández, director of school students participating in engineering Materials Research JumpStart faculty are involved in the Spring unique nanoparticle technology with Héctor Abruña, the E.M. Programs in Engineering has been a leader Diversity Programs in Engineering, explains programs gain access to undergraduates program to develop and semester projects. into a light-curable primer Chamot Professor of Chemistry on the campus at all levels since its inception the importance of mentoring. “For science, and graduate student role models—a critical improve their products through Intrinsiq Materials Co. in coating for use on plastics that and Chemical Biology, to study in 2004. I am delighted to hear that we have technology, engineering and mathematics, element to envisioning themselves as Cornell collaborations with university Rochester will collaborate with will reduce energy consumption the efficiency and reliability been selected as among the best in the engaging students from a diversity of engineers. Said Hernandez: “Role models for our scientists. The ultimate goal of Chris Ober, the F.N. Bard Professor and solvent emissions. of advanced electrode and nation. It’s an incredible honor. backgrounds is a national imperative. At Cornell, undergraduate and graduate students include the program, funded by Empire of Metallurgical Engineering, Thalle Industries Inc. of Briarcliff electrolyte materials for next- “The work Diversity Programs in Engineering we take that imperative seriously, and mentoring other, more advanced students as well as faculty. State Development’s Division to investigate using copper Manor will collaborate with generation lithium-ion batteries. is doing to build and sustain the pipeline of is an integral component of the solution.” Through our mentoring and other programs, we of Science, Technology and nanoparticles in low-cost print Kenneth Hover, professor of civil Since its inception, 47 outstanding women and underrepresented Reinforcing diversity within the College are helping our engineering students to define Innovation, is revenue growth processable conductive inks for and environmental engineering, companies have benefited from minority students will impact our profession for of Engineering is a central priority at the and fulfill their aspirations as well as to achieve and job creation. Participating the electronics industry. to develop a manufactured sand the program. decades to come. I could not be more pleased undergraduate, graduate and faculty levels. success at Cornell and beyond.” companies may provide part Rapid Cure Technologies Inc. blend yielding a workability desired with their success,” he said. The school strives to ensure that students —George Lowery

10 Spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 11 Life Achievements Cornell at the frontier of biomolecular engineering from its very beginnings By Robert Emro

When emeritus professor Bob Finn matriculated at Cornell’s new School of Chemical Engineering in 1937, developing a process for manufacturing a vitamin, drug, or enzyme usually involved finding its chemical structure and then figuring out how to synthesize it. But even then, the founding director of the school, F.H. “Dusty” Rhodes, had an inkling that there would be a growing role for engineers that knew some biology, and he let promising students, including Finn, substitute some microbiology courses for their chemical engineering requirements.

That background proved quite useful to Finn after he graduated penicillin in a broth and you want a crystalline product in the in 1942 and went to work at Merck. The United States had recently end,” he explains. entered World War II and the pharmaceutical company was part Merck was still working on the purification problem when of an unprecedented collaboration between government, industry, Finn decided to enroll in graduate school at the University of and academia to quickly ramp up production of penicillin. The Minnesota in 1946, where he minored in microbiology. “Most of us new drug, discovered by British researchers, had the potential to engineers at Merck realized that there were engineering problems save millions of lives, but first it had to be mass-produced—from in the fermentation,” say Finn. a mold grown in fermentation tanks. By the time Finn had his Ph.D., the Korean War had just ended It was the dawn of a new era in chemical engineering, one in and the U.S. economy was in recession, so he followed his which the production of biomolecules would increasingly be done professor who went to head the biology department at the by microorganisms, and later tissue cultures of living cells. “The University of Illinois. “I couldn’t get a job in industry. I wanted to world was turned upside down by antibiotics,” says Finn. “It made work; I wasn’t planning to be a professor,” says Finn. “I went down true believers that there are some things that chemists cannot there and spent six years as assistant professor. And this is where I do. Living organisms can do it cheaper.” started teaching a course. We called it ‘Biochemical Engineering.’” Finn was paired up with a microbiologist for the penicillin At the time, Finn was one of just a handful of academic project. While his biology coursework at Cornell gave him a leg chemical engineers in the country doing this kind of work, but he up on some of the other engineers, Merck still wouldn’t let him soon had company. “Biotechnology was a brand new thing,” he near the fermentation tanks. “They knew we’d contaminate the says. “All of a sudden we found out that, ‘Hey,’ these bugs could whole doggone business,” says Finn. “It was a touchy business not only make penicillin and streptomycin, but they could make a in those days. It wasn’t at all sure that anybody could so change whole lot of other products.” the fermentation industry as to allow pure cultures of aerobic By 1955, Finn had investigated continuous fermentation bacteria or molds or yeast.” techniques and was finishing up a critical review of aerations and Instead, Finn worked on purifying the “gunk” that was harvested agitation that was published in Microbiological Reviews when he from the tanks using liquid-liquid extraction. “You got this got a call from Rhodes’ successor, Chuck Winding.

Emeritus professor Bob Finn began his professional career at Cornell in 1955, marking the beginning of more than 50 years of continuous research in what <<<<< <<< would become known as biomolecular engineering.

12 spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 13

currents—Finn’s work continues to have relevance.

“He thought of a lot of problems and did a lot of things before The world was turned upside they were ever really popular in the field. Twenty years later “ people came back and saw they were important,” says Michael Professor Michael Shuler followed another new down by antibiotics. It made <<<<< path, growing not independent microorganisms true believers that there Shuler, who joined the School in 1974. “He was one of the first but plant cell tissues capable of producing useful “ people that did work on shear sensitive cells in bioreactors. He did biochemicals. are some things that it with protozoa but it became extremely important when people wanted to use mammalian cells in culture. Bob’s was the only chemists cannot do. Living prior work that anybody could look at.” organisms can do it cheaper. Shuler, now the James M. and Marsha McCormick Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Chemical Bob Finn Engineering, came at a time when Finn—20 years into his career at Cornell—was starting to dabble in what he calls the “new kind” of “He said to me, ‘Would you like to come back to Cornell and be a biotechnology that followed the unraveling of DNA. Now instead teacher here?’” says Finn. “I accepted the job on the phone.” of hunting for useful microbes, he could alter them to produce Finn’s return marked the beginning of more than 50 years of compounds more effectively, or even make completely new products. continuous research at Cornell in what, with the discovery of DNA, “He was one of the first ones that did what we call metabolic would become known as biomolecular engineering. One area Finn engineering,” said Shuler. “Bob was a real pioneer in that area as well.” explored was measuring the cell damage caused by aeration. “We Shuler followed another new path, growing not independent made it more quantitative to characterize the shear damage that microorganisms but plant cell tissues capable of producing useful was caused by various types of impellers,” he says. “That still is biochemicals. Two of his students, Chris Prince Ph.D. ’91 and Bobby more of an art than a science. It’s so complex.” Bringi ’91 ChemE, formed Phyton Biotech to commercialize a process to produce Taxol, an important cancer drug that was first extracted Finn also branched off into waste treatment, especially chemical from the bark of the Pacific Yewtree. “It was very scarce, so we waste, developing a patented process for treating wastes low in developed a process that is based on using yew cells in culture and says that what we’re interested in is understanding the biology nitrogen with bacteria that fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. “My that process is used commercially by Bristol-Myers Squibb to make at the cellular and molecular level and then using that in terms of process has been used in Belgium for this. It’s used to treat certain all its Taxol,” says Shuler, who advised the company. “That was the processes, typically involving chemical change, and those could be As scientists fill in the picture types of food waste, even from the wine industry,” he says. “You first large-scale commercial process based on plant cell culture and it ones that have medical implications, or impacts on bioprocesses can discharge the whole thing; you don’t have any sludge. It’s a really came from the work and ideas that we developed here.” to make something like pharmaceuticals, or it could have an of how molecules interact to highly aerobic process for special waste.” Shuler also collaborated with researchers at the Boyce impact on things like waste water treatment.” perform the functions of life, On the hunt for useful microbes, Finn sampled soil all over campus. Thompson Institute for Plant Research on using insect cell As scientists fill in the picture of how molecules interact to “We found some bacteria out here in Wee Stinky Creek by Barnes Hall,” cultures to make therapeutic recombinant proteins. “There perform the functions of life, engineers are manipulating them engineers are manipulating them he recalls. “They would grow on methanol—wood alcohol—that’s is a cell line which became very, very popular and was used more rationally and effectively. For Associate Professor Matt DeLisa, more rationally and effectively. kinda poisonous to most things. They couldn’t grow on anything else.” extensively by a lot of people called the High-Five cell line,” he cells are filled with useful molecular machines all with millions of Finn wondered where these bacteria were finding methanol says. “One of the things that’s good about Cornell is you have moving parts known as proteins. By swapping in parts from other in dirt and thought of pectin, found in the skin of many fruits. It such a diversity of people working on a wide variety of different organisms, he is working to engineer supercharged cells that can turned out that the bacteria made an enzyme that could release topics, it’s possible for someone in engineering to interact with produce treatments for Alzheimer’s, cancer, and autoimmune methanol from pectin methyl esterase. Finn found that these people that have real expertise with other systems. The graduate diseases. “One of the most important types of therapeutic proteins its effect. Assistant Professor Jeffrey Varner is already developing methanol bacteria made an interesting polymer, similar to xanthan field system kind of promotes that.” that we have an eye toward making are glycoproteins,” he says. “A such tools to rationally reprogram cell machinery. “Our ability to gum, the product of another bacteria. Marketed commercially as glycoprotein, just like a regular protein, is made of amino acids but make accurate predictions is still in its infancy,” says Shuler. “In 40 Kelzan since 1968, the gum is used to thicken everything from salad Over time, Shuler’s interest turned toward biomedical it’s then further modified with complex sugar structures. These years we’ll be able to make much more accurate predictions.” dressing to concrete. Large quantities are used to fortify the drilling engineering, such as treating brain tumors, investigating cancer sugars are attached to many proteins and this attachment turns It may one day even be possible to tailor make entire mud used to push the last recoverable oil from wells. Finn figured metastasis through blood cells, and using the techniques of out to be very important in terms of drug development.” microorganisms from scratch. “That’s not an impossibility and in his biopolymer could be used the same way. nanofabrication to build scaffolds for tissue engineering. “We’ve By inserting human genes into E. coli, DeLisa can give this simple fact in some sense is probably closer than many people realize,” “You could have a fermentation out on the oil field and make invented a body-on-a-chip which is to try to predict the response organism the machinery to attach different sugars to proteins, giving says Shuler. “The idea in both of these cases is to have a human- your own stuff right on site and pump it down in. We’re talking a of the body to new drugs or combinations of drugs or potentially them specific biological actions. He has co-founded Glycobia, Inc. to designed organism fulfill a predetermined task as efficiently and lot of gallons,” he says. “This would be a cheap way—because it to chemicals which might be toxic,” he says. commercialize the process. “We bring in the entire protein machinery effectively as possible.” wouldn’t be so contaminated if all you added was mineral salts But the distinctions between biochemical, bioprocess, and for sugar biosynthesis and attachment and give E. coli the ability to Creating such artificial life forms presents a host of technical and methanol as your fermentation medium.” biomedical engineering have blurred, says Shuler, in part because perform glycosylation, something it does not normally do,” he says. challenges, not to mention philosophical questions, so most Cornell took out a patent and nearly licensed the technology many of the same techniques are used. “If I’m interested in tissue “It’s a very bottom-up engineering approach that is made possible by chemical engineers will continue to work with modified cells but the deal fell through. While not all of his research was engineering, I can use it in the context of making a chemical, a deep understanding of the underlying biological mechanism.” for the foreseeable future. What biomolecules they will create is commercially successful—an earlier effort to scale up testing how the body is going to respond to the chemical, or Such a mechanistic understanding of biomolecules raises the anyone’s guess. “There are still all sorts of things to be learned. It’s electrophoresis as a method of separation revealed that it could to potentially make replacement parts for the body. So it’s a prospect of computational models that can not only show how hard to imagine what the next use of living organisms will be,” not work on Earth where gravity gives rise to natural convection spectrum,” he says. “The term biomolecular engineering really to make a protein that might not exist in nature, but also predict says Finn. “So, you know, we’re just getting started.” cem

14 spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 15 Dust In the Wind EAS Prof. Natalie Mahowald studies the complex impact of atmospheric aerosols on climate By Lauren Cahoon m o c . ck o iSt

Natalie Mahowald studies how dust—both man-made and natural—affects the planet’s ecosystems and climate, revealing multilayered feedback systems Natalie Mahowald studies the complex climate impacts of dust, here driven he climate turned cooler that, despite their broad-ranging effects, have largely been ignored. by a sand storm toward Merzouga in Morocco’s Chebbi Desert. Tby 0.1 degrees Celsius—a seemingly small change, but a e all know dust can be a pain; it makes you significant one. More important, Wsneeze, collects under your bed, and then there’s Climatic Consequences Mahowald says, is that many scientists don’t understand that the way it can mess with geological climate change Carbon dioxide is the primary culprit when it comes to climate change, but, thanks to Mahowald and her collaborator’s, dust and the change was due to dust. “It’s aerosols are beginning to get attention. In fact, Mahowald will important to understand what’s patterns and models. Didn’t know about that last one? serve as a lead author on the next edition of the International CPanel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. She will work with 250 going on,” she says. “Even people You’re not alone. “Even people in the scientific community other experts in Working Group I, which assesses the physical, in the scientific community scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change. overlook it,” says Natalie Mahowald, an associate professor Mahowald will write the introduction and contribute to chapters are ignoring mineral dust, on paleoclimate and the impacts of clouds and aerosols—a topic especially when looking at what’s in Cornell Engineering’s Earth and Atmospheric Sciences that didn’t get much play in the last report. “That was one of the big uncertainties that came from the 4th happened in the past.” department. She studies how dust—both man-made and assessment report,” says Pauline Midgley, head of the technical support unit for IPCC Working Group I. For this iteration, Midgley natural—affects the planet’s ecosystems and climate, noted, there was a “large enough nucleus of work” for an entire chapter to be dedicated to clouds and aerosols. from the earth. CO2, for example, traps only outgoing radiation— revealing multilayered feedback systems that, despite their Dust’s role in climate change is “really complicated,” Mahowald thus the term “greenhouse effect.” Dust, however, can alter the says. In fact, one of its most significant effects on the climate is heat that both enters and leaves the planet’s atmosphere. “Dust broad-ranging effects, have largely been ignored. actually a cooling one. Dust affects the ”radiative budget,” or the acts like a greenhouse gas,” says Mahowald, “but it reflects solar ratio of incoming solar radiation to the radiation that is reflected energy too. We think that in the net, it actually cools.”

16 spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 17 Mahowald clearly enjoys being a teacher as well. She raves “She is one of the most productive young scientists in this area,” with Christine Goodale, a forest ecosystem ecologist in the about a climate change class that she co-taught at Cornell with says Siegel. “The work that she does is the best in the field.” Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “She’s greatly a philosophy professor, and is looking forward to teaching classes expanded the opportunities for me and my lab group,” Goodale on climate change and how it impacts humans. “ Teaching is really says of Mahowald. While Goodale’s group typically looks at how hard, a whole lot of work,” she says, “but students make you think nitrogen affects one particular section of land, Mahowald and so much more creatively.” her group have helped put that phenomenon into a larger, more “Whenever I’m meeting with Natalie to discuss research, she ahowald estimates comprehensive context. “She’s provided a door opening for people will often come up with entirely new ideas and directions for who work on plot scale to look at things on the global scale,” science,” says Daniel Ward, a postdoc in Mahowald’s lab. “This Mthat this cooling Goodale adds. “She’s amazingly collaborative and productive—I makes her a scientist that many people want to collaborate with was at a conference last week and three colleagues and I were … she shifts people’s viewpoints.” effect is enabling the land just saying how we wish we could be more like her,” she adds with and the ocean to take a laugh. Effects on Ecosystems As with ocean ecosystems, the overall effect of aerosols on up an extra one to 50 forest ecosystems seems to also create a cooling effect on the Part of Mahowald’s view-shifting work has looked at how ppm of CO2. As humans climate, thanks to nutrient-rich aerosols that enhance plant dust’s effects can go beyond the atmosphere and affect other growth and CO2 uptake. Natalie Mahowald works with earth and atmospheric sciences ecosystems, such as the oceans. Mahowald first began to unravel Mahowald has summed up the myriad climate effects of postdoctoral researcher Daniel Ward in Bradfield Hall. reduce aerosols for health this connection more than a decade ago while working as an reasons, they will also aerosols, both natural and man-made, in a paper published Passistant professor at the University of California Santa Barbara’s this last November in Science, with a cautioning message: Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. There, reduce the cooling and reducing aerosols, which has long been an environmental goal A dramatic example of this effect is illustrated in global climate she collaborated with oceanographers such as Dave Siegel, now due to public health reasons, could exacerbate warming global data from the 1950s to the 1980s, a period in which North Africa director of the Earth Research Institute at U.C.S.B. He recalls carbon uptake these temperatures. Mahowald estimates that this cooling effect is experienced massive droughts, turning once-lush regions into Mahowald’s novel perspective toward the relationship between enabling the land and the ocean to take up an extra one to 50 parched desert. With deserts came the dust, so much that dust and the living planet. “So much of our planning on how aerosols indirectly provide. ppm of CO2. As humans reduce aerosols for health reasons, they by 1980, there was four times as much dust pouring into the aerosols work has been on their roles in [the atmosphere],” says will also reduce the cooling and carbon uptake these aerosols atmosphere as there was in the ’50s. The climate turned cooler by indirectly provide. 0.1 degrees Celsius—a seemingly small change, but a significant “I’m thinking about the uncertainties,” says Mahowald. “Right one. More important, Mahowald says, is that many scientists As Mahowald and her colleagues found, when desert dust now 50 percent of CO2 that humans are emitting is being taken don’t understand that the change was due to dust. “It’s important lands in the ocean, it deposits key nutrients and minerals, such up by land and ocean, which is unlikely to continue. That’s a to understand what’s going on,” she says. “Even people in the as iron. The iron is consumed by phytoplankton, the base of the huge negative feedback on the climate system and we poorly scientific community are ignoring mineral dust, especially when iegel says that her ocean food chain. A higher abundance of iron yields greater understand it. If we cut aerosols, that’s going to impact the looking at what’s happened in the past.” S ability to think blooms of phytoplankton, which then pull more CO2 out of carbon cycle—it will make things tougher.” while a cooling effect sounds like a good thing when it comes outside the box has earned the air as they photosynthesize, a phenomenon known as a to droughts, Mahowald and her colleagues argue that the ’80’s biological pump. This effect, which reduces CO2, adds yet another FC S A/G drought was partly due to the dust. As the tiny particles reflect Mahowald significant complicated layer to dust’s impact on the climate. Adding to S back heat and cool the air, the air sinks, preventing precipitation the complexity is the fact that man-made aerosols given off by NA , eam T

(warm, rising air is the kind that breeds rain clouds) and pollution can chemically react with desert dust, making the iron e recognition within the s n

exacerbating the drought. It’s subtle phenomena like this that more soluble, thus increasing the amount that enters the ocean. spo Re scientific community. drive Mahowald to increase awareness and understanding of “We showed that humans have probably doubled the amount id p Ra desert dust’s effects on climate change. of soluble iron going into the oceans,” says Mahowald. Overall,

“She is one of the most and L In an effort to do this, Mahowald and her collaborators have she says that the iron deposition from desert dust since 1870 has S DI O compiled a series of data sets that aggregate dust-relevant productive young scientists resulted in the uptake of roughly 4 parts per million (ppm) of CO2. M s, e r information—including data from satellites, wind observations, Mahowald has also studied how aerosols affect terrestrial it o

in this area,” says Siegel. cl s deposition data, as well as paleoarchives such as ice cores and ecosystems. Desert dust can carry phosphorus, a limiting nutrient e s D

marine, terrestrial, and lake sediments. This information is for many tropical forests. “These forests use all the phosphorus they ue

“The work that she does is q ac combined to create climate models that simulate atmospheric can,” says Mahowald. Thus, she says any that comes via mineral J by o

the best in the field.” t

dust’s effect on the climate for every year between 1870 and 2000. dust is eagerly absorbed. As it turns out, “North Africa is probably o Those datasets, and similar datasets for paleoclimate time periods fertilizing the Amazon, and Asian dust is fertilizing Hawaii.” Ph (e.g., last glacial maximum), are “available to anyone who wants Even anthropogenic aerosols, typically viewed as having a to use them,” Mahowald says. As a result, the model data have negative impact on the environment, have a more nuanced become the gold standard of dust data for climate researchers Siegel. “And what Natalie did was to say, wait a minute, there are role. These man-made pollutants can often carry nitrogen— As it turns out, “North Africa is probably fertilizing the Amazon, and worldwide. “That’s our claim to fame,” says Mahowald. A key ecosystem-based systems...that are playing a role.” another necessary nutrient for plant growth, a fact that has Asian dust is fertilizing Hawaii,” says Mahowald. finding from this wealth of data is a stunning one; the amount of siegel says that her ability to think outside the box has earned led to more interdisciplinary collaboration between Mahowald atmospheric dust has doubled over the 20th century. Mahowald significant recognition within the scientific community. and other scientists. At Cornell, Mahowald has collaborated

18 spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 19 Intel in Everything Cornell and chipmaker launch national embedded systems competition By Sherrie Negrea

You are about to leave your office for home. With a couple last keystrokes on your computer, you turn up the thermostat inside Jim Kehoe ‘12 ME poses wearing team-made The rapid growth humanoid RockBand robot controlling harness. your house and turn on the oven. Driving home, you pass through an The top three entries will be awarded of such devices meets that challenge’s needs, and how prizes of $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500. to measure how well your solution “intelligent” intersection where the traffic light automatically changes The competition grew out of the is creating an has met its goals. Add in a bit of risk success of an Intel Cup embedded “Internet of Things” management and planning, some technology competition in China— objective decision justification, and as it senses your car approaching. It begins to rain, and without your which now includes over 26,000 expected to include attention to communicating your students—and one started more more than 15 billion ideas effectively, and you have many noticing it, your car reacts by adjusting the power to your wheels. recently in India. The company of the skills that are targeted by this that introduced the world’s first devices within the competition, but that industry says Embedded systems make it all happen. Devices containing will challenge college students across the country to invent the microprocessor asked Cornell systems next four years. are often lacking in college graduates microprocessors that monitor information and react to it next generation of embedded systems. engineering lecturer David Schneider from even the nation’s top colleges. are already prevalent in our lives: it’s what makes your smart May 4–5, the Cornell Cup USA Presented by Intel finals are slated M.S. ’06 ME, Ph.D. ’07, how he would “So we wanted to try to provide this phone “smart,” and it’s what allows more and more consumer to kick off at Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Resort in Lake create a U.S. competition. Schneider very exciting and very empowering electronics to communicate with Buena Vista, Fla., with 24 teams from was given just a month to craft his proposal. Intel approved it experience that would bring these skills to the forefront.” other devices. The rapid growth 19 American colleges and universities last spring and work began on a competition that would give a Schneider says, “And at the same time, allow the students to of such devices is creating an competing. Equipped with donated Intel new generation of innovators the chance to showcase their own express their creativity.” “Internet of Things” expected Atom boards, Tektronix test equipment, “world’s first.” “From an engineering and educational perspective, they’ve to include more than 15 billion MathWorks software, and $2,500 in “We know and we’ve seen through the participants that these broken ground in this competition on the types of things that devices within the next four years. development and travel funds, the teams hands-on projects give students a very rich learning environment,” students can do,” says Professor Linda Nozick, director of Cornell’s With an eye toward this will present a wide array of inventions: says Kimberly Sills, Intel university relations manager. “They get to Systems Engineering Program. “This one I believe is unique technology’s growing importance, solar-powered unmanned aircraft, belts do everything they’ve been working on in their classes. They get because of the flexibility on the kinds of entries and allowing a lot Intel Corporation and Cornell’s that allow the visually impaired to detect to test it and put it together and see if it works.” of creativity on the part of students.” Systems Engineering Program are obstacles, home energy control systems, Schneider says one of the aspects that makes this competition The competition is open to any invention using an embedded launching a new competition that and robots that pick up stray tennis balls. unique is its attention to what he calls professional design: system. Teams can consist of three to five undergraduate or defining the challenge you’re trying to solve, how your solution master’s degree students. By October, teams from schools

20 spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 21 schools to use as the basis of their own embedded systems projects. As a “We“We know know and we’ve seen and through modular system, the 12-inch-by-12-inch “It’s a really powerful experience in terms of silver and gray robot’s wheels, motors, just managing the product. We’re giving the the participants that these hands- sensors, and even supporting software on projects give students a very have all been designed to be replaced, plans up to other teams and this needs to be added to, or otherwise modified as cost effective as possible. So it’s given the rich learning environment. They via well-documented “plug’n’play” get to do everything they’ve been interfaces. Schneider says this flexibility students on this team a great perspective on is empowering. “It will aid students in how to keep costs in mind and overall just how working on in their classes. They learning the basics while providing a get to test it and put it together robust framework to build their own to execute a successful engineering project. and see if it works.” unique aspects,” he said, estimating It’s really an experience on a scale that you just that at least half of the competing don’t get in the undergraduate curriculum.” Kimberly Sills, Intel’s teams’ entries would have benefited university relations manager. from this modular platform, and he Jim Kehoe ’12 ME Makhlook Singh ’12 ECE, M.Eng. ’13 Systems, demonstrates to Intel CTO Justin Rattner the plug’n’play modularity of the ModBot’s hopes that future entries will be even electronics system. more amazing as a result of it. including the University of California at Berkeley, MIT, and Purdue “The fact that we’re delivering a had submitted a diverse range of ideas. The finalists’ concepts can complete starter system for other teams is really important,” says like Saturday Night Live has a band, this is our band for the now be found at www.systemseng.cornell.edu/intel. Jim Kehoe ’12 ME, a mechanical engineering team leader for the competition,” Schneider says. Besides Intel, the competition has attracted support from other robot. “To create just the core system in a robotic platform takes Beyond learning how to create an embedded technology companies, including Tektronix, a Beaverton, Ore.-based company a lot of time and effort. And to be able to have the time to create project, the students say preparing for the competition has that makes testing and measuring equipment, and MathWorks, additional functionality on top of that, most teams wouldn’t given them valuable skills that will help them in the job market. a Natick, Mass.-based company that develops mathematical be able to fully accomplish that over the course of just one year, “Working with a team that has 11 people in our subgroup and computing software. As the competition approaches, Cornell which is the time frame for the competition.” 30 people overall, you really have to learn just how to do project expects other companies to also become sponsors. “If what Besides the modular platform, the Cornell team has another management and work in groups and teams and learn how happened with the Intel China Cup is any example, we expect project to exhibit at the competition at Disney World: a three- to motivate people,” says Chad Meis M.Eng. ’12 EE, an electrical that this new competition will bring in sponsors of all sorts,” says member robotic rock band. With a guitar, drum, and bass, the engineering team leader. “I think it’s pushed all of us in a lot of Abby Westervelt, Cornell Engineering’s director of Corporate and human-size robots, running on an Intel Atom board, will perform different ways, not necessarily just engineering.” Foundation Relations. RockBand and Guitar Hero video game songs on an XBox as As an undergraduate engineering student at Cornell, Kehoe Having Cornell create and develop the competition presented a background music to welcome each speaker on stage. “Just says design was not a focus of the curriculum, since most of the quandary to Schneider. If Cornell sponsored a team and won the courses are based on textbooks, problem sets, MA

competition in its inaugural year, participants might question S and exams. Yet while working on the modular

The ripple effect of this work can already be seen in other Cornell projects G the fairness of the competition. So Schneider decided that his like Cornell University Sustainable Design (CUSD). David Schneider shows platform, Kehoe also helped with a range Justin Rattner potential renderings of the CUSD SRF building. robotics lab of more than 30 students would instead showcase of tasks, including monitoring the budget, two innovative robotic systems they working with vendors, and controlling costs, have developed with the additional all while justifying the team’s decisions to assistance of electrical and computer better help them obtain their technical goals. engineering senior lecturer Bruce “It’s a really powerful experience in terms Land and mechanical and aerospace of just managing the product,” Kehoe says. engineering assistant professor “We’re giving the plans up to other teams Brandon Hencey. and this needs to be as cost effective as “It’s one thing to win the possible. So it’s given the students on this competition—that’s great and team a great perspective on how to keep exciting,” Schneider says. “But in a lot costs in mind and overall just how to execute of ways, that’s kind of a flash in a pan. a successful engineering project. It’s really an Getting to construct the competition experience on a scale that you just don’t get and continue to bring it to life and in the undergraduate curriculum.” cem grow it, I would say is an even higher honor.” The Cornell robotics team’s first Part of the Cornell project team stands proudly displaying their latest showcase project is a modular ModBot and RockBand playing guitars. Industry expects 24 billion connected smart devices by 2020. Intel partners with Cornell robotic platform developed for other Systems Engineering to inspire students to harness the power of this “Internet of Things.”

22 spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 23 Steve Haas ’89 ME SH Acoustics has a proprietary “Concertino” system, which changes the Founder and President, SH Acoustics acoustics of a place electronically. It is not a sound system, but more of an enhancement system, Haas explains. ided “Basically what we “If you bring a musician, a cellist, or a pianist into a small place and you rov P look at is the quality play naturally, it’s not going to sound like much. It’s going to sound like of sound in a space, a small room. But by integrating our technology and our system in this but also controlling space we can actually turn it into a virtual Carnegie Hall.” the sound so that The Newseum remains one of his signature projects. It was handed to it’s not noisy or him only two months after he launched his firm in 2003–after 14 years of working for a major consultancy. Completed in 2008, the Newseum may that sound doesn’t be the biggest project he may ever work on, and most complicated, given get from one the size and number of technological exhibits. space to another “It was a challenging project but everything turned out incredibly well.” and interfere Haas, a pianist, saxophonist, and electronic musician, does not often play with any kind of professional gigs; but he does play in connection with his work. It’s very functionality.” handy, he notes, to be able to sit down at a grand piano in a private studio to demonstrate the acoustics of an environment. His great-grandfather was a mason who worked on some of Europe’s Haas has challenged himself since his days at Cornell Engineering. finest concert halls. His grandfather was a concert pianist and violinist There was not a lot opportunity to study sound at the time, so with the who played in numerous orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra. His help of Professor Al George, he made his own. He basically created his own uncles were engineers, including one who would regularly quiz him as a kid curriculum. His senior thesis was designing a recording studio for Cornell’s on the three laws of thermodynamics. So destiny would find him early in Music Department. life, and propel him as a versatile and industry-leading acoustical designer. “It helped really introduce me to the industry and I never looked back The elevator pitch. “I could say it very simply:W e make spaces sound from there,” he said. “I did not want to transfer out of Cornell to look for good. But there’s more to it than that. Basically what we look at is the an acoustic engineering program. I really loved all that Cornell brought quality of sound in a space, but also controlling the sound so that it’s not me and the opportunities to graduate from there, so I basically made my noisy or that sound doesn’t get from one space to another and interfere own path, so to speak, and it worked out. I certainly will be forever grateful with any kind of functionality.” because it has led to a very rewarding career.” Steve Haas has dedicated his life to making concert halls, museum spaces, home theaters, and private residences sound better. He has designed hundreds of acoustic spaces. Gavin McKay ’99 OR He has played a major role in the acoustic and audio designs for a wide Owner/Manager Fusion Cross-Training

variety of prestigious facilities, including the U.S. Holocaust Museum and ided It courses through rov the Newseum, both in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall P his fitness in New York City. By Dan Tuohy It can be unsung work, and Haas is fine with that. company, Fusion “I often tell people that when I do my job well, nobody notices.” Cross-Training: Three alumni entrepreneurs talk about going into business Haas works with architects and engineers, and other project members, to Heart. Muscle. make sure that whatever solution is implemented works from a functional Mind. “It’s the and the technical skills that helped them get there. and technical standpoint, as well as from an aesthetic standpoint. core of everything Haas and his team also work in audio system design to make sure the way we do.” Steve Haas had an ear for music and a nose for business. He knew what he that sound is delivered is appropriate. They are often involved with a project wanted to do during his years at Cornell University. Gavin McKay applied his early on, and can be among the last on site to tweak and calibrate systems. One friend went to Sonoma to become a winemaker. Another went to a expertise in a more traditional milieu before he had a professional epiphany start-up. Another became a Bain investment strategist. And Gavin McKay proceeded to work in consulting and marketing. and pursued a less conventional, more personal path. Cheryl Yeoh was So there he was, in New York, a young man in love with the idea of getting ahead, when he realized his job was not stirring his creative energies. He working in New York when practical experience met opportunity and she applied to business school, having felt the pull of climbing the corporate went her own way. ¶ Once wedded, their personal drive and their formative ladder, and on a trip to California he got a taste of working for a start-up. B-school would have to wait. His creative energies were firing, and he set educations transformed them into entrepreneurs. They are in different fields out traveling the world. The farther abroad he went, the closer he came to purpose and meaningful living. “Getting so lost that you are kind of coming today, but they have much in common: They love a challenge. They love back to your core,” McKay describes it. He made his way back home with a singular focus, an understanding that making a difference. And they love solving stubborn problems. Annenberg Theater – Newseum, Washington D.C.

24 spring 2012 Cornell Engineering 25 synergy has interplay in every single thing of import. It courses through his “That made me think,” she recalls in a light-bulb moment, “‘Hey, there fitness company, Fusion Cross-Training: Heart. Muscle. Mind. “It’s the core of should be a product for this.” everything we do,” he said. So the hands-on, practical user emerged as visionary: CityPockets, a “digital ided

The exhilaration that comes with sense of place and purpose is one wallet” and secondary marketplace for online deals and discounts, was born. rov P thing. Getting to launch is another. McKay still marvels at the challenge he “I like to say that I created the product to solve my own problem and it The Geometry of Sailing took head-on. happened to work for a lot of other people.” Geometry puzzle “I’ll never forget how hard it was. The first piece was just getting a bank to Before launching CityPockets, Yeoh was a management consultant Professor Andy Ruina, give me a loan.” for KPMG and Opera Solutions—with a focus in strategy, marketing, You are given > 0, 0 < α* < π/2 and 0 < β* < π/2. Mechanical and The young entrepreneur eventually found a bank that was specializing in and operations. It wasn’t what she thought it’d be, especially during the The unit vector Ĵ points along the y axes and = Aerospace Engineering small lending. “The other hard part: just maintaining faith in yourself.” economic downturn. She wanted to make a real impact in the world and – Ĵ. Find the biggest υ = | | for a given θ, where θ His business was a different kind of fitness center—and he knew it would launching a tech company seemed like a good way to do that. is the angle between Ĵ and . But first you need to Hints take time to build his brand. The research, design, and development of a prototype came next. She pick vectors and to be anything you like with a) Try a special case first, like = 10, α* = π/4; b) the Fusion Cross-Training has 12 employees at two locations: Philadelphia and CityPockets co-founder Jhony Fung ’05 CS, then a senior developer at the provisos that: 1) |α| α*, where α is the angle answer to Question 2 depends on whether α* + β* < or and Laurel, N.J. Heading into 2012, he was working on establishing two IBM Technology, logged many hours investigating the idea and crafting a between and – , 2) |β| β*, where β is the angle > π/2; c) it may help to use the angles π/2 – α* and additional locations and becoming a franchise. user-friendly interface. After two months, they launched the beta version. A between and – , and 3) + = . π/2 – β*; d) the best boats have α*  and β* as close to McKay is dedicated to group and personal training. Engagement is his key couple hundred friends joined, and it took off. to success. There is coaching, counseling, and nutritional programming. His CityPockets tracks a user’s daily deals, sending reminders to use them 1. What is the range of values of θ for which π/2 as possible; and e) the set of answers is called X’s HMM Cross-Training (Heart. Muscle. Mind) features 30 minutes of cardio, 30 before they expire. It currently supports more than 40 deal sites, including you can find some and so you can find theorem, where X is a mildly famous person. minutes of strength training, and then 15 minutes of yoga and stretching. Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe, and restaurant.com. υ > 0? Please give concise answers in terms of , α* or , “We push people to do things in a smarter way, in a more efficient way, Yeoh estimates 40 percent of CityPockets traffic comes from word of and β* or . but in a harder way.” mouth. “That’s when you know you have a product that fills a need in the 2. What is the biggest possible value of υ and His studio includes a cardio arena with treadmills, bikes, and rowing market,” she says. in what direction θ is it? machines, and a separate area for the muscle and mind training. In a logical extension of its service, CityPockets launched a secondary 3. If you draw all possible vectors with the tail “We kind of take you on a journey every time,” he said. marketplace in April 2010 to help users sell vouchers they can no longer of the vectors at the origin, what is the shape As he plans growth in 2012, he is putting himself through paces he first use. A quarter of users now profit from reselling vouchers, but at its core, of the boundary of the region that encloses took at Cornell. CityPockets remains a digital wallet, according to Yeoh. “We’re the best all possible tips of the arrows? “I took ‘Entrepreneurship for Engineers’,” he said, recalling learning to organizer out there and that’s why people come to our site,” she said. approach everything in a structured way, to assess and evaluate. “People are putting money down for a daily deal—pre-paying for a service “It was the best course I ever took. It was exactly what you need. Above with an expiration date—and they need a helping hand to manage this Sailing interpretation and beyond the best course I ever took.” new form of currency,” she said. “If you don’t use it in a given time you’re The wind speed is , going South. The boat velocity McKay is an entrepreneur, but an engineer at heart. That is ... Heart. throwing your money away and nobody wants that.” is making angle θ from North. The force of the Muscle. Mind. Yeoh has enjoyed watching her first Internet start-up take off.S he water on the keel is and has to make less than an continues to study the market as well as field user feedback. Heading angle of α* with the motion of the water relative to Cheryl Yeoh ’05 OR, M.Eng. ’07 CE into 2012, Yeoh estimated there were about 400 daily deal sites—with the boat (tan α* = the best lift-to-drag ratio of the CityPockets established as the go-to organizer. The company has found CEO and Co-founder, CityPockets hull). The force of the air on the sail is and has to plenty of investors who agree, raising $770,000 in seed funding.

ided make less than an angle of β* with the velocity of the “The story there In a way, Yeoh has returned to her business roots. She launched her first rov P is to really put business when she was 8, manufacturing and selling a traditional game wind relative to the boat (tan β* = the best lift-to- yourself out there, to school friends in her native Malaysia. She kept at it, even when she drag ratio of the sail). The net force on the boat must never give up, and encountered obstacles from school administrators. be zero. The shapes of the keel and sail determine “The story there,” she said, “is to really put yourself out there, never give up, α* and β* and the sizes of and can be adjusted don’t let anybody and don’t let anybody discourage you from realizing your passions.” cem by changing the size of the boat and sail. Assuming discourage you given shapes for the keel and sail: from realizing 1. What directions can a sailboat sail? You are given α*, β* and . You pick and your passions.” Marshall Cox ’03 any way you want, but following the given 2. What is the fastest a sailboat can go and in

ided MS, M.Eng. ’04 launched not restrictions. For given θ what is the biggest

rov what direction is that? P one, but two ventures. Radiator Labs is possible ? developing a low-cost, easily installed Cheryl Yeoh is always on the lookout for a great deal. 3. What is the set of all possible speeds and radiator retrofit that can equalize At one point in 2010 she had signed up for eight different daily deal directions for a sailboat? temperatures across apartments in websites and purchased close to 40 vouchers, everything from restaurant a building and Chromation company deals to spa treatments. So many that this highly organized person started uses new, low-cost nanotechnology to Solve this to win Cornell Engineering gear to lose track of them. measure the color content of light. We will draw three winners from correct entries submitted by July 1. They will receive a Garland gift pen, a stainless So she created a tab on her food blog where she could list her growing steel water bottle, or a Cornell Engineering car decal. Congratulations to Jerold Green ’80 EE, Jeffrey Hart ’95 EE, and number of deals. Friends quickly noticed and touted the value of a place to Read more online at Yakov Shkolnikov ’99 EP for correctly solving the fall brainteaser! You can see the solution, and submit your answer, at organize and track daily deals. www.engineering.cornell.edu/brainteaser.

WEB EXTRA WEB www.engineering.cornell.edu/magazine.

26 spring 2012 CornellCornell E Engineeringngineering 27 She also won a Humboldt Research whose mission is to empower Prize from Germany. women to succeed and advance in She initiated and led a nine-year engineering fields. multidisciplinary international At the SWE annual conference, project, sponsored by the Scientific held Oct. 12–15 in Chicago, Cornell Committee on Problems of the SWE took home a Gold Award for Environment and the United Nations Outstanding Collegiate Section. The Environment Program, that brought award is the highest honor to be information and workshops about bestowed on a collegiate section. groundwater contamination to Collegiate awards are determined developing countries at a time by such activities as effectiveness (1987–96) when those regions were of communications among chapter doing little to prevent contamination members, the chapter website, from industrial chemicals. Such member recruitment activities, and Christine Shoemaker Gregory Fuchs A. Kevin Tang Mason Peck Jefferson W. Tester contamination is often irreversible or Eric Tan regional and national participation. NAE Electees extremely expensive to remove The program, administered by the NASA’s chief technologist, effective have been demonstrated on NASA In addition, two Cornell SWE resources” over more than three because it is in groundwater, so Air Force Office ofS cientificR esearch, Concerto King January 2012. Peck will serve as the microgravity flights. alumnae were recognized with decades. His most noteworthy Christine Shoemaker, Cornell’s Joseph prevention is the best strategy. is open to U.S. scientists and agency’s principal adviser and He has worked with NASA as an top awards for professional contributions are pioneering work P. Ripley Professor of Engineering, has Shoemaker, who joined the faculty engineers who have received a Ph.D. Pianist Eric Tan ’14 CS won the eighth advocate on matters of technology engineer on a variety of technology membership. on many aspects of enhanced/ been elected to the National in 1972, was the first woman faculty or equivalent in the last five years annual Cornell Concerto policy and programs. programs, including the Tracking Allison Goodman ’99 received engineered geothermal systems, Academy of Engineering, among the member in the College of and have shown “exceptional ability Competition, held Dec. 11 in Barnes Peck leads several Cornell spacecraft and Data Relay Satellite System the Distinguished New Engineer including thermal energy conversion highest professional distinctions for Engineering to be awarded tenure. In and promise for conducting basic Hall Auditorium. Tan performed the research programs including CUSat, and Geostationary Operational Award “for creative and effective and utilization, tracer methods for an engineer. 1985 she was the first woman to be research.” The objective of the first movement of Beethoven’sP iano an in-orbit inspection system Environmental Satellites. The NASA team leadership in her career and characterizing reservoir thermal Shoemaker, a professor in the School an engineering department chair at program is to “foster creative basic Concerto No. 4 in G major, consisting of a pair of twin satellites Institute for Advanced Concepts in her contributions to SWE and hydraulic behavior, and geothermal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Cornell. She received a national research in science and engineering; accompanied by Tiffany Tsay ’13. designed and built at Cornell. CUSat sponsored his academic research in the community.” She received her systems analysis. (CEE), was cited “for development of award from the Society of Women enhance early career development of Tan, a computer science major in is scheduled to launch in 2013 on a modular spacecraft architectures bachelor’s degree in electrical and Tester began his career in decision-making optimization Engineers in 1991 for her scholarship outstanding young investigators; and the College of Engineering, studies Falcon 9 rocket through the U.S. Air and propellant-less propulsion, computer engineering from Cornell, geothermal technology as a member algorithms for environmental and and efforts to encourage women increase opportunities for the young piano with associate professor of Force Research Laboratory’s University and the International Space and is now senior systems engineer of the Los Alamos Hot Dry Rock water resources problems.” engineers during years when there investigator to recognize the Air Force music Xak Bjerken and is a member Nanosatellite Program. Station currently hosts his research and validation program manager in project in the 1970s and 1980s and as Her research focuses on cost- were few women students or faculty mission and related challenges in of CU Winds. A native of Toronto, he Peck also is principal investigator of group’s flight experiment in the Non-Volatile Memory Solutions a professor of chemical engineering effective, robust solutions for members in engineering. science and engineering.” has won top prizes at music festivals the Violet satellite experiment, also a microchip-sized spacecraft. Group at Intel Corp. Goodman serves at the Massachusetts Institute of environmental problems by using Membership in the National Fuchs, assistant professor of applied and competitions at the national, Cornell-built system that will provide As an engineer and consultant on the Cornell SWE advisory board and Technology in the 1990s, and he optimization, modeling, and Academy of Engineering honors and engineering physics, has been provincial, and local levels. an orbiting test bed for investigating in the aerospace industry, he has is also former president of Cornell SWE. continues his initiatives in advanced statistical analyses. This includes those who have made outstanding awarded $375,000 over three years to Sixteen student musicians, with better commercial Earth-imaging worked with organizations including Stephanie Shanley ’93 received the drilling methods and geothermal development of general purpose, contributions to “engineering support his research into optical student and faculty accompanists, satellites. Violet carries an ultraviolet Boeing, Honeywell, Northrop Emerging Leader Award for “strong resource assessment and numerically efficient nonlinear and research, practice or education, methods of probing magnetization participated earlier in the day in spectrometer that will be used Grumman, Goodrich, and Lockheed personal leadership that balances applications for combined heat and global optimization algorithms including, where appropriate, with nanoscale spatial resolution and preliminary rounds of the 2011 as a precursor to understanding Martin. He has authored 82 academic environmental stewardship, power. He chaired the 18-member utilizing high-performance significant contributions to the picosecond time resolution. He plans competition. Judges chose five exoplanet atmospheres. articles and holds 17 patents in the professional accomplishments and international panel that evaluated computing and applications to data engineering literature,” and to the to use these techniques to study the students to compete in the In his NASA role, Peck will United States and European Union. dedication to community.” Shanley the long-term geothermal potential from complex, nonlinear “pioneering of new and developing dynamics of magnetic oscillators final round. help communicate how NASA Peck earned a doctorate in received her bachelor’s degree in of the United States and, in 2006, environmental systems. fields of technology, making major and memory. As the winner, Tan performed a technologies benefit space aerospace engineering from the civil and environmental engineering produced a major report, “The Future Shoemaker’s research is advancements in traditional fields of Tang, assistant professor of concerto as a featured soloist with missions and the day-to-day lives of University of California–Los Angeles from Cornell, and is now senior of Geothermal Energy.” interdisciplinary; she has supervised engineering, or developing/ electrical and computer engineering, the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, Americans. The office coordinates, as a Howard Hughes Fellow and a environmental engineer in the From 2009 to 2011, Tester Ph.D. students from a number of implementing innovative approaches has been awarded $375,000 over March 10. tracks, and integrates technology master’s degree in English literature environmental, health, and safety served as the U.S. representative fields including operations research to engineering education.” three years to conduct a research The other finalists were soprano investments across the agency and from the University of Chicago. department at Intel Corp. for geothermal energy to the and information engineering and Also elected to the NAE this year project to help monitor such large- Marybeth Keiser ’13, an exchange works to infuse innovative discoveries —Anne Ju —Anne Ju Intergovernmental Panel on Climate applied mathematics, as well as were Mark Adamiak ’75 EE, M.Eng. ’76, scale networks as the Internet and student from the Manhattan into future missions. Change working group evaluating students in CEE. director of advanced technologies, power grids to avoid possible system School of Music, studying music in In addition, Peck will lead NASA the global potential of renewable With NSF funding from various GE Digital Energy Multilin, “for failure and to optimize performance. the College of Arts and Sciences; technology transfer and technology Geothermal Achiever energy. He was a member of the directorates, her projects are often contributions to power system The scale and complexity of such and violinists Elaine Higashi ’12, a 1997 Energy R&D Panel of President commercialization efforts, facilitate Jefferson W. Tester, the Croll collaborative and include physical protection, control, monitoring and systems raise the need to quickly biological engineering major in the internal creativity and innovation, and Professor of Sustainable Energy Clinton’s Committee of Advisers on and biological groundwater communications”; and Amit Singhal, infer and monitor component College of Engineering; Jonathan work directly with other government Systems in the School of Chemical Science and Technology. remediation, pesticide management, M.S. ’95 CS, Ph.D. ’97, Google fellow, characteristics from a relatively small Park ’14, a psychology major in the agencies, the commercial aerospace and Biomolecular Engineering, Tester has published extensively in ecology, climate modeling, carbon Google Inc., “for contributions to number of indirect aggregate College of Arts and Sciences; and community, and academia. director of the Cornell Energy the energy field, co-authoring more sequestration, and surface water information retrieval and search.” measurements. Tang’s project aims Moriah Son ’14, an environmental Peck will serve in the position Institute and associate director for than 210 research papers and 10 pollutant transport in large —Anne Ju at providing fundamental engineering major in the College of books, including two monographs on through an intergovernmental energy in the Atkinson Center for a watersheds. understanding and constructing Agriculture and Life Sciences. personnel agreement with Sustainable Future, was honored geothermal energy technology and a Shoemaker is a distinguished algorithms for such measurements. —Daniel Aloi Cornell, where he will continue as a with the Geothermal Special popular energy textbook, Sustainable member of the American Society of Flying High This year the Air Force received 220 faculty member. Achievement Award from the Energy—Choosing Among Options. Civil Engineering (ASCE). She has proposals in such areas as aerospace, Two Cornell faculty members— At Cornell, Peck’s work focuses on SWE Success Geothermal Resources Council Oct. been elected a fellow in the American chemical, and materials sciences; spacecraft dynamics, control and Gregory Fuchs and A. Kevin Tang— NASA chief Cornell’s chapter of the Society of 26 in San Diego. Geophysical Union, ASCE and physics and electronics; and mission architectures. His research are among this year’s 48 winners of Women Engineers (SWE) has been Tester was cited for his INFORMS (Institute for Operations mathematics, information, and Mason Peck, associate professor of includes microscale flight dynamics, the Air Force Young Investigator recognized as a top collegiate “outstanding contributions to Research and Management Science). life sciences. mechanical and aerospace gyroscopic robotics, and magnetically Research Program. section by the national organization the development of geothermal Doug James —Susan Lang engineering, has been named controlled spacecraft, most of which

28 SpringSpring 20122012 CornellCornell E Engineeringngineering 29 Dynamic Modeler From football to ambulance deployment, Matt Maxwell Ph.D. ’11 OR predicts the future. hen you call for an ambulance, you want it ASAP. But how can Wan ambulance company ensure the fastest possible response time when previous calls have sent ambulances all over town? This is the question Matt Maxwell Ph.D. ’11 OR Topaloglu. One was a finalist for best answered in his thesis. “As the day progresses, paper at the 2009 Winter Simulation and ambulances are called out, that creates Conference. And he says he has two holes in coverage,” he explains, “so you want more in the works. to move them around dynamically so they can No ambulance company has yet to Rajesh Bhaskaran Jonathan Butcher Salman Avestimehr David Erickson serve calls rapidly.” implement Maxwell’s work, but there This year’s program will focus on Maxwell used approximate dynamic has been some interest, and fire and Frontiersmen teaching leading-edge engineering programming to improve a simulation-based police redeployment present similar knowledge, project-based learning, algorithm developed by a previous student. problems. Cornell faculty members Rajesh active and self-directed learning, “I was able to boil it down to a very simple Maxwell’s skill with algorithms caught Bhaskaran and Jonathan Butcher and assessment of student learning algorithm so you don’t need a lot of additional the attention of Andrew Daines ’10, were among 65 researchers and education innovation. Matt Maxwell Ph.D. ’11 OR selected to take part in the National —Anne Ju complexity to run it,” says Maxwell. “I was able to an undergrad philosophy major and Academy of Engineering’s third speed up running the simulations by up to 100 Cornell Daily Sun columnist Maxwell outcomes to get a good estimate. So you have Frontiers of Engineering Education times faster.” knew from church. Daines and Emily Cohn ’10, to define what is similar and what is the right (FOEE) symposium, Nov. 13–16. President’s Men With that speed, Maxwell could run many a communications major and Sun editor, were amount of data.” The conference, held in Irvine, weeks’ worth of simulations, giving him the working on a social app, but they needed help. With some startup capital from family and Calif., invites early-career faculty Cornell engineers Salman Avestimehr, data he needed to fine-tune the algorithm, Daines came up with the idea at a New York members who are “developing David Erickson, and John C. March are friends, PrePlay Sports hired a development firm to and implementing innovative recipients of this year’s Presidential cutting response times by a small, but significant Yankees game in June of 2009. By the eighth create a prototype. It was greeted enthusiastically educational approaches” in their Early Career Awards for Scientists and John C. March Kyle Shen amount. “These performance increases are a big inning, the score was heavily lopsided in the by investors and the company raised enough Engineers (PECASE)—the highest engineering disciplines to share deal for ambulance companies,” says Maxwell. Washington National’s favor and he wondered money to create a beta version. After launching in honor bestowed by the U.S. wireless networks with rapidly bacteria. He proposes examining ideas, learn from research and government on early-career science changing topologies. the use of these bacteria, called “If they can take one ambulance and crew off the how to keep fans interested in the game. When the fall of 2010, the free app was ranked number best practice in education, and and engineering professionals. Erickson, associate professor commensal bacteria, for the road, they can save about a million dollars a year.” he looked around, he saw that many were on one on Apple’s list of hot sports apps. leave with a charter to bring Annually, 16 federal departments of mechanical and aerospace controlled expression of an insulin- about improvement in their home Maxwell has co-authored several papers on their smart phones checking stats and scores. Today the company employs around 10 people and agencies unite to nominate engineering, was awarded through stimulating peptide in the intestinal institutions. the work with his advisers Professor Shane If fans could use them to compete with their in New York and Paris. It has raised $2 million the scientists, of which there are 94 the Department of Energy for his epithelial cell space, which could Bhaskaran, senior lecturer Henderson and Associate Professor Huseyin friends at predicting the outcome of the next in venture capital and boasts of users in the this year, who show “the greatest work in directed assembly of hybrid mediate a glucose regulatory in mechanical and aerospace promise for assuring America’s pre- nanostructures. His research deals mechanism through reprogramming play, he thought, they would remain engaged no hundreds of thousands. During the 2011 season, engineering, is interested in with self-assembling nanomaterials of intestinal stem cells. March hopes matter how bad the blowout. eminence in science and engineering ided they made about 600,000 guesses and the integration of modern computer- with optical and energy conversion these results will translate to orally

and contributing to the awarding rov

P Daines sought out Maxwell and PrePlay Sports average number of guesses per weekend hovered based simulation technology into properties, and he has recently dosed treatments for type 1 diabetes agencies’ missions.” was born. “He needed someone to come up around 60,000. Subway sponsored the PrePlay the mechanical and aerospace Avestimehr, assistant professor demonstrated how electromagnetic that cost just pennies a day, to with a probability-based scoring algorithm,” 2012 Playoffs contest, in which users competed engineering curriculum. His efforts of electrical and computer fields in nanophotonic devices potentially mediate the long-term are directed not only at providing engineering, was awarded through are strong enough to physically effects of the disease. says Maxwell. “That’s how I got involved. And for prizes including a 32” flat screen VT , Apple TVs, students with a solid foundation in the National Science Foundation manipulate biological and non- Kyle Shen, assistant professor of because of my computer science background, and gift certificates to Dick’sS porting Goods. biological materials that are just a physics, also received a PECASE the use of simulation technology for his work in complex wireless I also got involved in some of the server-side The company also has expansion plans. “Our but also at enhancing the learning few nanometers in size. He proposes through the Department of Defense to information networks. As society programming.” company has attracted interest from sports and experience through this technology. becomes more and more mobile, studies that aim to elucidate the advance his work on new Because real-time stats on past plays were entertainment companies and we are currently Butcher, assistant professor Avestimehr says, it is critical to find underlying physics behind this superconductors in artificially of biomedical engineering, novel ways to significantly enhance new assembly process. Specifically, engineered quantum electronic more readily available from the NFL, the young building technology for them,” says Maxwell. conducts a research program wireless network capacity in order he uses optically resonant materials. entrepreneurs switched their focus to football. But for now, PrePlay Sports remains a sideline “nanotweezers” and kinetic models The PECASE awards, established on understanding the roles of to enable the future mobile world. Maxwell devised an algorithm that, given a for Maxwell, whose day job is at the SAS Institute, mechanical forces in shaping to determine conditions under which by President Bill Clinton in 1996, are Avestimehr is proposing new team’s current field position and score, could the North Carolina-based business analytics cardiovascular morphogenesis and approximation techniques to tackle stable nanoparticle manipulation coordinated by the Office ofS cience estimate the probability of outcomes, like an services and software company, working on a adult disease with an emphasis longstanding problems in wireless can take place. Efforts will extend to and Technology Policy within the on heart valves. His long-term network information theory whose such complex materials systems as Executive Office ofthe President. incomplete pass, a hold, or a run over 5 yards. It revenue management product for hotels. objectives include discovery of solutions are expected to reveal gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, Awardees are selected for their wasn’t so different from ambulance deployment, Maxwell still finds time to play the app, though and carbon nanotubes. pursuit of innovative research at the novel disease paradigms and principles for designing large-scale according to Maxwell. he says he’s not the best at predicting plays. “I March, assistant professor of frontiers of science and technology regenerative strategies. distributed wireless networks of the “In both situations you come up with a think the most fun part of it is actually holding it The attendees were nominated future. In particular, he is targeting biological and environmental and their commitment to fundamental model of what you think can in my hand and watching the game and saying by fellow engineers or deans and fundamental problems in multi- engineering, was awarded through community service as demonstrated chosen from a highly competitive hop communication networks, the Department of Health and through scientific leadership, public describe it, but then you have to make it fit,” he ‘Hey, that number is there because of something I pool of applicants. distributed networks with local Human Services to support his education, or community outreach. says. “You can look through previous history and did,’ and that’s a pretty neat experience,” he says. network views at the nodes, and research into human intestinal The PrePlay app lets users compete with their friends not find an exact match, but maybe something — Robert Emro at predicting the outcome of NFL plays. a lot similar. The key here is to group similar 30 SpringSpring 20122012 Cornell Engineering 31 CornellCornell E Engineeringngineering 31 CORNELL

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fessor of mechanical fessor the scientists’ main goals is to the scientists’ siaki, pro siaki, P ne of O om Cornell include they om Cornell A. Fr A. S aduate students in students the fields of electrical andaduate Cornell professor of electrical and computer professor Cornell n pso m o h T ’Hanlon, gr ’Hanlon, ey s O NASA-funded collaborative research team led by Steven Powell, Cornell senior senior Cornell Powell, Steven by led team research collaborative NASA-funded rocket a sounding launched engineering, computer and electrical in engineer a aul Kintner, : C : P O T vestigator for the mission; David Hysell, co-investigator and co-investigator Hysell, David the mission; for vestigator The project, in its third and final year, was initiated bywas initiated the year, in its and final third The project, O H in and aerospace engineering. engineering. and aerospace on G of space weather the effects investigate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences; of earth sciences; and atmospheric professor computer engineering; and Mark engineering; computer late principal investigator as who served the mission’s engineering, phases. and early development during its proposal Brady Brady Feb. 18 from Alaska’s Poker Flat Research Range to collect data straight from the the from straight data collect to Range Research Flat Poker Alaska’s from 18 Feb. borealis. aurora of the heart Space Weather Space Weather A in Coupling The project — the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere 60 scientists, mission — involves (MICA) resonator the Alfven several from students technicians and graduate engineers, institutions and NA P

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Industry expects 24 billion connected smart devices by 2020. Intel partners with Cornell Systems Engineering to Page inspire students to harness the power of this “Internet of Things.” 20