Cornell Engineering Magazine Magazine Spring 2021

BIOMINING RARE EARTH ELEMENTS Cornell engineers are pioneering a novel method for mining metals that are key to unlocking a sustainable future PAGE 18 CornellEngineering Online CornellEngineering Magazine Follow Cornell Engineering on social media and share with us what, how and why you engineer

CONTESpringNT 2021 S FEATURES CONTAINING COVID-19 AT CORNELL The modeling behind Cornell’s successful fall semester and the engineers who skillfully crafted it By Syl Kacapyr 12 THE MODERN TA Undergraduate teaching assistants are changing the classroom thanks to Cornell Engineering’s outstanding training programs By Eric Laine 24 COVER BIOMINING RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS Cornell engineers are pioneering a novel method for mining metals that are key to unlocking a sustainable future By Chris Dawson 18

ALUMNI PROFILE Laura Jones-Wilson, Ph.D. ’12 From Cornell to NASA to an icy moon of Jupiter By Olivia Hall 30

@CornellEng @CornellEng DEPARTMENTS

NEWS AWARDS DISTINGUISHED facebook.com/CornellEngineering http://bit.ly/1LukNq1 ALUMNI AWARD JOHN A. www.youtube.com/CornellEng www.engineering.cornell.edu/magazine SWANSON 2 28 33

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CORNELL STARTUP RAISES $44M CORNELL ENGINEERING TO ADVANCE ‘C DOTS’ BIOTECH MAGAZINE lucida Oncology, a Volume 24, Number 1 E biotechnology company Spring 2021 based on C Dots – ultra- small nanoparticles developed Cornell Engineering Magazine is published at Cornell that show promise by the Cornell University in identifying and fighting College of Engineering cancer – recently secured Dean $44 million in financing, in Lynden Archer addition to $28 million raised Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering in 2018. C Dots, originally called Associate Dean for Administration Cornell dots, were created Erin Mulrooney more than 15 years ago in the lab of Uli Wiesner, the Executive Editor Syl Kacapyr Spencer T. Olin Professor of Marketing and Communications Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Editor Chris Dawson Engineering. Wiesner has been Marketing and Communications working to put C Dots to use A rendering of the molecular structure of a Cornell dot, which is smaller Graphic Design in the fight against cancer ever than 10 nanometers. Robert Kurcoba since. Marketing and Communications studies. The new funding team and its laboratory As a result of their size, C Printer Ferrets, similar to humans, generate antibodies against COVID-19, yet display limited clinical signs. will help the company gain capabilities. Dots proved safe and effective Cornell Print Shop for use in human beings regulatory approval as a “This vote of support from as both an imaging and a targeted cancer therapeutic, investors means a lot to me,” Photography NASAL SPRAY BLOCKS COVID-19 INFECTION IN All photos by University diagnostic tool in early clinical and to expand its management Wiesner said. “Given C Dots’ Photography, broad applicability, I have Robyn Wishna, unless FERRETS been pushing efforts in health otherwise indicated. esearchers at Cornell, “This is a simple nasal develop antiviral peptide- proliferates inside, humans. On the Web care-focused startups since Editorial and Columbia University formulation that we think can lipid conjugates that prevent “It’s the best of both worlds,” Business Offices R Cornell Engineering Magazine has a Website, with videos, Web 2005 to commercialize this Irving Medical Center prevent the transmission of measles and Ebola. When Alabi said. “They mimic the extras, and the latest news. Come see what’s happening and technology. At the beginning it 252 Carpenter Hall and Erasmus Medical Center SARS-CoV-2 in humans,” said COVID-19 emerged and disease indication seen in sign up for digital delivery. Ithaca, NY 14853-2201 was a reagent company. Then phone 607 255-6095 in the Netherlands have Chris Alabi, associate professor scientists identified the humans, but they can recover we started a company focusing fax 607 255-9606 developed a nasal formulation of chemical and biomolecular sequence of the viral proteins, at a given dose. It’s a similar www.engineering.cornell.edu/magazine e-mail cornell_engr_mag@ on diagnostics, and now we cornell.edu that blocks the spread of engineering and a co-senior the Columbia and Cornell mechanism that allows have a company emphasizing COVID-19 among ferrets – and author of the research paper, groups were able to adapt certain cohorts of the human therapeutics.” Visit Cornell Engineering are hopeful the formulation which published in Science. their approach, because all population to also clear the Magazine online at Elucida was founded in www.engineering.cornell.edu/ could have the same effect “The beauty of the research three viruses share a similar virus.” 2014 and co-founders include magazine on humans, and potentially is its simplicity. The ultimate fusion mechanism. They The Erasmus Medical Wiesner, Kai Ma, Ph.D. ’15, © 2021 generate therapeutic goal is to create a nasal spray swapped out the measles or Center team found that the and Dr. Michelle Bradbury, Cornell Engineering Magazine treatments as well. drug product that can be made the Ebola peptide for the HRC lipopeptide fusion inhibitors director of intraoperative Printed on recycled paper. Ferrets are one of the best widely available, one that can peptide in SARS-CoV-2 and successfully prevented imaging at Memorial Sloan animal models for COVID-19, be kept readily in a purse or tagged it with a cholesterol transmission of the SARS- Kettering Cancer Center and because they take the virus pocket. A key feature of this lipid. CoV-2 virus. The collaborators professor of radiology at Weill quite readily, and undergo research is that it’s a plug-and- Researchers at Erasmus are currently studying the facebook.com/ www.youtube.com/ Cornell Medicine. News clips abbreviated from both direct contact and play platform technology that Medical Center in the spray’s effectiveness as a CornellEngineering CornellEng Elucida is planning to start Cornell Chronicle articles airborne transmission. Ferrets, can be adapted and applied to Netherlands tested the therapeutic treatment for clinical trials this summer; written by Blaine Friedlander, similar to humans, also other viruses or mutations.” formulation on ferrets, which subjects who are already @CornellEng @CornellEng by the spring of 2022, the David Nutt, Syl Kacapyr, generate antibodies against In recent years, the turns out to be an ideal model infected, as well as its ability http://bit.ly/1LukNq1 company expects to have the Chris Dawson and Krishna the virus, yet display limited collaborators have been for replicating the way SARS- to combat other strains and first data from those trials. Ramanujan. clinical signs. using the technique to CoV-2 spreads among, and viruses.

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SOFT ROBOTS USE CAMERA AND SHADOWS TO RESEARCHERS CREATE ‘BEAUTIFUL SENSE HUMAN TOUCH MARRIAGE’ OF QUANTUM ENEMIES ornell scientists have perfect as silicon, meaning it Such integration could components, but we haven’t identified a new has a lot more defects,” said help to condense the size of put them all together. We’ve C contender when it co-author Huili Grace Xing, quantum computers and other just discovered they can comes to quantum materials the William L. Quackenbush next-generation electronics, coexist.” for computing and low- Professor of Electrical and just as classical computers Potential applications for temperature electronics. Computer Engineering and have shrunk from warehouse the material structure include Using nitride-based of Materials Science and to pocket size. more efficient electronics, materials, the researchers Engineering. “But because of “We’re wondering what such as data centers cooled to created a material structure its robustness, this material this sort of material platform extremely low temperatures that simultaneously exhibits has thrown pleasant surprises can enable because we see to eliminate heat waste. And superconductivity – in which to the research community that it’s checking off a lot the structure is the first to lay ShadowSense can turn an inflatable skin into a touch-sensitive device by using a camera and image classification. (a) and (c) show two tactile gestures; (b) and (d) show the device’s view of the shadows generated by these gestures. electrical resistance vanishes more than once despite its of boxes,” said Jena, who the groundwork for the use of completely – and the quantum extremely large irregularities added that new physical nitride semiconductors and ornell engineers professor in the Sibley School to embed in a deforming a palm, punching, touching Hall effect, which produces in structure. There may be a phenomena and technological superconductors in topological C have created a low- of Mechanical and Aerospace skin – the team took a with two hands, hugging, resistance with extreme path forward for us to truly applications could emerge quantum computing, in which cost method for soft, Engineering, and Kirstin counterintuitive approach. pointing and not touching at precision when a magnetic integrate different modalities with further research. “It the movement of electrons deformable robots to detect a Petersen, assistant professor In order to gauge touch, they all – with an accuracy of 87.5 field is applied. of quantum computing has a superconductor, a must be resilient to the range of physical interactions, of electrical and computer looked to sight. to 96%, depending on the “This is a beautiful marriage – computation, memory, semiconductor, a filter material material defects typically seen from pats to punches to hugs, engineering, to develop The prototype robot, lighting. of the two things we know, communication.” – it has all kinds of other in nitrides. without relying on touch at all. inflatable robots that could designed by Petersen’s The robot can be at the microscale, that give Instead, a USB camera located guide people to safety during Collective Embodied programmed to respond to electrons the most startling inside the robot captures emergency evacuations. Such Intelligence Lab, consists of certain touches and gestures, quantum properties,” said the shadow movements of a robot would need to be able a soft inflatable bladder of such as rolling away or Debdeep Jena, the David E. hand gestures on the robot’s to communicate with humans nylon skin stretched around a issuing a message through a Burr Professor of Engineering skin and classifies them with in extreme conditions and cylindrical skeleton, roughly loudspeaker. And the robot’s in the School of Electrical machine-learning software. environments. Imagine a robot four feet in height, that is skin has the potential to be and Computer Engineering The new ShadowSense physically leading someone mounted on a mobile base. turned into an interactive and Department of Materials technology is the latest down a noisy, smoke-filled Under the robot’s skin is a screen. Science and Engineering. project from the Human- corridor by detecting the USB camera, which connects By collecting enough data, Jena led the research with Robot Collaboration and pressure of the person’s hand. to a laptop. The researchers a robot could be trained to doctoral student Phillip Dang Companionship Lab, led Rather than installing a large developed a neural-network- recognize an even wider and research associate Guru by Guy Hoffman, associate number of contact sensors based algorithm that uses vocabulary of interactions, Khalsa. professor and the Mills Family – which would add weight previously recorded training custom-tailored to fit the The two physical properties Faculty Fellow in the Sibley and complex wiring to the data to distinguish between six robot’s task, according to the are rarely seen simultaneously. School of Mechanical and robot, and would be difficult touch gestures – touching with researchers. The research is the latest Aerospace Engineering. validation from the Jena-Xing “Touch is such an important Lab that nitride materials may mode of communication for have more to offer science most organisms, but it has than previously thought. been virtually absent from Nitrides have traditionally human-robot interaction. One been used for manufacturing of the reasons is that full- LEDs and transistors for body touch used to require a products like smartphones and massive number of sensors, home lighting, giving them and was therefore not practical a reputation as an industrial to implement,” Hoffman said. class of materials that has “This research offers a low- been overlooked for quantum cost alternative.” computation and cryogenic Doctoral students Phillip Dang (left) and Reet Chaudhuri at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, The technology originated electronics. where measurements were made on a material structure that concurrently has superconductivity and the as part of a collaboration “The material itself is not as quantum Hall effect. with Hadas Kress-Gazit, A camera inside the robot’s body captures the shadow created by touching its skin.

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“This kind of information uncertain due to limited on- REED AWARDED $1.4M GRANT TO ADVANCE will ensure the correct site measurements. selection of wind turbines Development of this HUMAN-NATURAL SYSTEM MODELING for specific deployment,” research product was Cornell engineer is between snowmelt, reservoirs, within and between human approaches for projections Pryor said, “and help ensure motivated by a need from advancing the field of and water rights affect the and natural systems; using of human-natural system cost-efficient and dependable the wind-energy industry, A electricity generation from Barthelmie said. Quantifying ‘multi-sector dynamics’ availability of irrigation water these capabilities to study dynamics. with a new $1.4 million grant to farmers in the Yakima River the evolution, vulnerability “We want to promote a deep those turbines.” extreme winds may also be from the U.S. Department Basin, and how hydropower and resilience of interacting integration across scientific Knowing extreme wind useful in civil engineering of Energy that will focus on dams constructed along the human and natural systems disciplines, where new modes speeds is key to turbine design applications and in structural techniques for better projecting Mekong River affect ecological and landscapes from local to of analysis can rapidly emerge for cost effectiveness, proper reliability analyses for tall the outcomes of human systems. continental scales, including and be synthesized into turbine selection and structural buildings and transportation interactions with the natural Reed said the core objectives their responses to the decision relevant insights,” integrity on any given site, systems – including long- world. of the new grant include: compounding effects long- said Reed. “Accelerating our said the researchers. Before, in span bridges – as well as for Cornell wind energy scientists have released a new global wind atlas – Patrick Reed, the Joseph C. Developing flexible, open- term influences and short- ability to make these insights is many locations, extreme wind- electricity generation and a digital compendium filled with documented extreme wind speeds for Ford Professor in the School source, and integrated term shocks to natural and critical for societal systems that load estimates on projects were distribution. all parts of the world. of Civil and Environmental modeling capabilities socioeconomic systems; and are facing acute shocks while Engineering, received the that capture the structure, advancing the understanding simultaneously trying to deal grant in collaboration with the dynamic behavior and the implications of uncertainty with the pressures from long- DIMENSIONAL ENERGY EMERGES AS $20M Pacific Northwest National emergent properties of in data, observations, term changes.” Laboratory’s Integrated the multiscale interactions models, and model coupling CARBON X PRIZE FINALIST Multisector Multiscale Dimensional Energy – a Cornell McGovern Center startupimensional company Ener thatgy – a After developing small-scale fuel. to equilibrium conversion as Modeling project. Cornell McGovern models on the laboratory “We found that our we modeled the entire time – As scientists and policy canD capture industrial carbon dioxide and then Centerconvert startupit by way companyof sunshine bench at the McGovern conversion had percentage for about 10 weeks – without makers increasingly turn that can capture industrial Center, Dimensional Energy numbers that were high and any degradation in catalytic toward mathematical into an environmentally friendly productscarbon like dioxide aviation and fuel then– has brought their pilot reactor to successful, validating the performance. We got it done.” modeling to help inform their emergedconvert as it one by ofway two offinalists sunshine in the Gillette, Wyoming, last fall whole process for the Carbon Tobias Hanrath, the Marjorie decision making, the project $20into million an envirCarbononmentally X Prize competition. for a long stretch of scaled-up X Prize finals,” said Jason L. Hart ’50 Professor in aims to better predict how Thefriendly contest’s pr winneroducts will like be aviation testing. The group successfully Salfi, Dimensional Energy’s Engineering, in the Smith human systems – such as announcedfuel – has this emer summer.ged as one of demonstrated their technology cofounder and chief executive School of Chemical and the economy, urbanization, two finalists in the $20 million with a 10-ton per year scale officer. “We have validated all Biomolecular Engineering; technology, and agriculture – Carbon X Prize competition. proof-of-concept solar fuels the modeling we’d been doing and David Erickson, the S.C. co-evolve with Earth systems, The contest’s winner will be reactor that can turn carbon for years, but now at a larger Thomas Sze Director of the such as climate, natural announced this summer. dioxide into a carbon-neutral scale. The reaction ran as close Sibley School of Mechanical resources and wildlife. and Aerospace Engineering, For example, Reed’s prior are cofounders and partners in research has modeled how the company. the complex dynamics Flowchart depicting the research field of multi-sector dynamics. In 2018, Dimensional Energy joined the McGovern Center and began pioneering artificial photosynthesis to GLOBAL ‘WIND ATLAS’ PROPELS SUSTAINABLE produce environmentally green polymers and chemicals. ENERGY Before the gaseous, industrial ornell wind energy energy. Applications,” published in Sara C. Pryor, professor in waste carbon dioxide ends C scientists have released This wind atlas is the first Nature Energy. the Department of Earth up in the atmosphere, it a new global wind atlas publicly available, uniform “Cost-efficient expansion and Atmospheric Sciences, is captured. After adding – a digital compendium filled and geospatially explicit of the wind-energy industry who authored the paper hydrogen and sunlight to the with documented extreme (datasets tied to locations) is enabled by access to this with Rebecca J. Barthelmie, carbon dioxide in a reactor, it wind speeds for all parts of description of extreme newly released digital atlas of professor in the Sibley School can emerge as a useful liquid the world – to help engineers wind speeds, according the extreme wind conditions of Mechanical and Aerospace fuel for aviation and surface select the turbines in any given to the research, “A Global under which wind turbines Engineering. Both are faculty transportation, or if desired, region and accelerate the Assessment of Extreme Wind will operate at locations fellows at the Cornell Atkinson Dimension Energy demonstrates their reactor where carbon dioxide meets sunlight to create more durable products like development of sustainable Speeds For Wind Energy around the world,” said Center for Sustainability. environmentally friendly fuel. plastic.

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SLOW MOTION PRECURSORS GIVE CELL-FREE BIOTECH ENABLES SHELF-STABLE EARTHQUAKES THE FAST SLIP VACCINES ON DEMAND t a glacier near the South lead author Grace Barcheck, Sesquicentennial Fellow in glacier. Data from GPS stations The project is the latest All the reaction components, A Pole, earth scientists research associate in Earth and the Department of Earth and indicated that 73 – or 96% – of iteration of an ongoing including the polysaccharides, have found evidence of Atmospheric Sciences, in the Atmospheric Sciences. the 75 earthquakes showed collaboration between are derived from the a quiet, slow-motion fault slip College of Engineering. As these faults are mostly a period of precursory slow Matthew DeLisa, the William engineered E. coli chassis, that triggers strong, fast-slip Barcheck said that these offshore and deep underwater, motion. L. Lewis Professor in the which itself is non-pathogenic. earthquakes many miles away, slow-slip precursors – and because it is difficult to The data from the GPS Smith School of Chemical and Therefore, there is no need according to Cornell research. occurring as far as 20 miles know when or where a large tracking stations and surface Biomolecular Engineering and to ever handle or cultivate a During an earthquake, a fast away from the epicenter – are earthquake will occur, the seismometers allowed the director of the Cornell Institute pathogen, making the process slip happens when energy directly involved in starting start of large earthquakes is team to identify how the slow of Biotechnology, and Michael far safer than the conventional builds up underground and is the earthquake. “These generally hard to observe. precursory slip triggers the fast Jewett, a professor of chemical method. In addition, while released quickly along a fault. slow slips are remarkably To overcome these earthquake slip. and biological engineering at the extracts can be used Blocks of earth rapidly slide common,” she said, “and they challenges, the scientists “Before we pored over the Northwestern University and immediately following their against one another. migrate toward where the fast placed GPS sensors above an data, I thought that if we saw director of Northwestern’s preparation to mass produce However, at an Antarctic earthquake slip starts.” icy glacial fault at Whillans Ice any precursors before the Center for Synthetic Biology. vaccine doses, they can also glacier called Whillans Ice Observations before Plain, where large magnitude earthquakes, they would be In 2018, their team jointly be preserved for future use by Plain, the earth scientists show several large tsunami- 7 earthquakes occur nearly rare and in the same place as pioneered a method for freeze-drying, which reduces that “slow slips” precede generating magnitude 8 and twice a day over a 60-mile- the earthquake epicenter,” cell-free biomanufacturing their storage volume and dozens of large magnitude 9 earthquakes on subduction wide area of the glacier. Barcheck said. “Instead, in which engineered E. coli increases their shelf-life at 7 earthquakes. “We found zone faults suggest a similar Within a period of two we found many slow-slip bacteria are used as a kind ambient temperatures. that there is almost always process may have occurred, months in 2014, the group precursors – starting miles of chassis. The bacteria are The technology, which the a precursory ‘slow slip’ according to Patrick Fulton, captured 75 earthquakes at from the epicenters and equipped with biosynthetic team calls iVAX (short for in before an earthquake,” said assistant professor and Croll the bottom of the Antarctic migrating across the fault.“ machinery for protein vitro bioconjugate vaccine glycosylation – the process expression), has already of attaching a complex attracted the support of carbohydrate to a protein the Bill & Melinda Gates – which is something that Foundation, which last year E. coli cannot do naturally. awarded the researchers These bacteria are then used a $100,000 seed grant to to source cell-free extracts, develop the technology to which are enriched with all address diarrheal diseases in of the ingredients for making developing countries. bespoke glycoproteins. The “We hope to make a technology opened the door universal vaccine candidate to the cell-free production against diarrheal pathogens of COVID-19 therapeutics. using the technology,” Importantly, eliminating the DeLisa said. “We have a firm need for living cells affords understanding of how to make A collaboration between Cornell and Northwestern University many advantages, including these conjugates, so now we’re has led to the creation of iVAX, which uses extracts derived from bioengineered bacteria to create shelf-stable vaccines on demand. lower cost-of-goods and faster starting to shift our focus to production. more of the biomanufacturing esearchers from Cornell Because the technology can “This new [research] is the aspects. We’re also really R and Northwestern be easily reconfigured for next conceptual leap for the excited about the opportunity University have devised different pathogenic foes and technology,” DeLisa said. “By to use our expertise to tackle a a new method of using extracts freeze-dried for portability changing the composition of really profound problem that derived from bioengineered and refrigeration-free storage, the carbohydrate structures is global in terms of the scope.” bacteria to create vaccines it could be a game-changing that are made, we can – by that protect against life- approach to fighting infection, design – create glycoproteins threatening infections caused especially in locations where that have the potential to by pathogenic bacteria. access to such medicines is protect against infectious Matthew Siegfried, forefront, and seismologist Marino Protti, of the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica, prepare to move limited. disease.” equipment at Whillans Ice Plain. The Transantarctic Mountains are in the background.

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ANTIBIOTIC TOLERANCE STUDY PAVES WAY FOR NEW TREATMENTS new study identifies Antibiotics,” published Feb. 3 of Biomedical Engineering in the cell, according to the A a mechanism that in the journal EMBO Reports, the College of Engineering, experiments the researchers makes bacteria tolerant reveals how tolerance and Lars Westblade, associate conducted. In further tests to penicillin and related occurs, thanks to a system professor of pathology and with mutant V. cholerae antibiotics, findings that that mitigates iron toxicity laboratory medicine at Weill bacteria, both in test tubes could lead to new therapies in bacteria that have been Cornell Medicine. and in mice, the researchers that boost the effectiveness of exposed to penicillin. Some bacteria, including the showed that reducing the these treatments. “We’re hoping we can model bacterium used in the influx of iron increased the Antibiotic tolerance is the design a drug or develop study, Vibrio cholerae, which bacteria’s tolerance to beta ability of bacteria to survive antibiotic adjuvants that causes cholera in humans, lactams. exposure to antibiotics, would then basically kill are remarkably tolerant Fortunately for normal in contrast to antibiotic off these tolerant cells,” to penicillin and related V. cholerae, exposure to resistance, when bacteria said senior author Tobias antibiotics, known as beta antibiotics and the breakdown actually grow in the presence Dörr, assistant professor lactam antibiotics. It has been of the cell’s walls activate of antibiotics. Tolerant of microbiology in the known for a long time that the VxrAB system, which bacteria can lead to infections Weill Institute for Cell and beta-lactam antibiotics break works to repair cell walls and that persist after treatment Molecular Biology in the down bacterial cell walls, but downregulates iron uptake and may develop into College of Agriculture and how bacteria survive loss of systems, and thereby creates resistance over time. Life Sciences. their cell walls was poorly antibiotic tolerance. More The study in mice, “A Co-authors included Ilana understood. study is needed to understand Multifaceted Cellular Damage Brito, the Mong Family In the study, the researchers what triggers the VxrAB Repair and Prevention Sesquicentennial Faculty developed a V. cholerae system in the presence of Pathway Promotes High Scholar and assistant mutant that lacked a two- beta-lactam antibiotics. A new research project led by Cornell will seek an integrated approach to turning waste from steel manufacturing plants into valuable materials. Level Tolerance to Beta-lactam professor in the Meinig School component damage repair The research opens the response system that controls door for developing new a gene network encoding drugs that could be combined $1.5M GRANT TO EXPLORE INTEGRATED REUSE diverse functions. Without with antibiotics to exploit the system, known as VxrAB, oxidative damage and iron OF INDUSTRIAL WASTE, CO2 when the cell wall is damaged influx in tolerant bacteria. In ludge, slag and other dusts and slag – waste matter products using carbon dioxide investigators from Columbia by antibiotics, the transfer future work, the researchers S waste produced by containing a mixture of generated during the iron and University, research and of electrons across the cell will search for parallel the steel industry are chemicals and metals. steel-making process. development firm Reaction membrane goes awry, leading mechanisms of tolerance in not only hazardous to the The steel industry has sought “Our interest is in developing Engineering International, to electrons ending up on other bacterial pathogens. environment, but can be methods to reuse those by- holistic solutions that harness and engineering management the wrong molecules. This Jung-Ho Shin, a postdoctoral expensive for companies products for steel and other all the metal-bearing residues company HATCH, will focus misdirection causes hydrogen researcher in Dörr’s lab, is to discard. A new research manufacturing processes, and carbon dioxide generated on three specific areas: The peroxide to accumulate in the paper’s first author. Co- project led by Cornell will however, efforts have mainly in iron and steel making synthesis of uniform nanoscale the cell, which changes the authors include researchers seek an integrated approach focused on treating waste processes to produce nano- calcium carbonate from slag oxidation state of cellular iron from the Korea Advanced to turning that waste into materials independently of scale calcium carbonate and using regenerable solvents; and disrupts signals for the Institute of Science and valuable materials using a $1.5 each other. iron oxide and remove heavy iron oxide recovered from cell to tell how much iron it Technology and the Intelligent million grant from the U.S. A group of academic and metals,” said Gadikota. “A key the alkaline residues will be has. Synthetic Biology Center in Department of Energy. industry experts led by differentiator of this approach reused in the steel making In the presence of hydrogen Korea. Steel production is a messy Greeshma Gadikota, assistant from existing pathways is the process; and recovered silica peroxide, the mutant bacteria The study was funded business. Blast furnaces reduce professor in the School of use of regenerable solvents will be functionalized to cannot sense how much by the National Research iron ore into pig iron, which Civil and Environmental for capturing carbon dioxide separate the undesirable metal iron has been acquired, and Foundation of Korea and the is then converted into steel Engineering, proposes a new directly from flue gas to constituents such as lead, it behaves as if it is iron- National Institutes of Health. using a variety of processes approach that would synergize produce nano-scale carbonates copper, and nickel. starved and seeks to acquire and materials. Each step of the recycling of industrial at much lower temperatures in Stock image of antibiotics more iron. Left unchecked, the way produces a variety steel waste by improving the a process-intensified manner.” these circumstances cause of by-products such as flue recovery and quality of by- The group, which includes iron toxicity, which will kill

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By Syl Kacapyr

n God we trust. All others must bring data.” The Faculty and students began thinking about logistical aspects THE MODELING words spoken by the late engineer and statistician of the pandemic, such as how to optimize transportation of William Edwards Deming imply the importance ventilators needed to treat COVID-19 patients. But it was an BEHIND CORNELL’S of translating data into information for decision interest in an epidemiological approach used in World War II to “Imaking. help curb the spread of syphilis that would eventually bring the It is a notion that Cornell University understood as the school’s capabilities to the university’s attention. SUCCESSFUL FALL fall 2020 semester approached. Whether or not to bring tens What came next was a Herculean operation to of thousands of faculty and students back to campus amid a mathematically simulate the months to come and inform SEMESTER AND deadly pandemic was a decision that could not be left to sheer university leadership of the best path forward, according to judgement. It needed science. science. The results would capture the attention of the academic THE ENGINEERS Fortunately, the university is home to the School world and provide Cornellians with a semester they would of Operations Research and Information Engineering, never forget. WHO SKILLFULLY internationally recognized for its experts who use advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. Pooled testing and a path forward CRAFTED IT “In late March, the world was turning upside down,” said Shane Henderson, the school’s Charles W. Lake, Jr., Professor During World War II, an outbreak of syphilis among U.S. in Productivity. “It was clear there were a lot of choices that the troops forced health officials to develop a eativecr solution to university was facing along with the rest of the nation, and we prevent its spread. Regular testing of every soldier would have wanted to help. We knew that our ability to apply science to been expensive and inefficient given testing methods at the time. decisions could be important and we were trying to figure out Instead, multiple blood samples were pooled together to reduce how to have the most impact.” the total amount of required tests.

13 1212 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING | 13 “A simulation model is a representation of reality, where you try to mimic what would happen in real life,” said Henderson, “and you build in as many realistic assumptions as you feel like you need for the decisions you’re facing.” Simulating how Cornell’s entire semester might play out during a pandemic was a massive undertaking, recalled J. Massey Cashore, doctoral student in Frazier’s research group. “The number of parameters in this kind of simulation becomes really huge – things like disease length, length of time it takes to incubate, how many contacts a person has per day. We were scouring the literature on COVID-19, trying to get these answers.” Knowing that models are only as good as the assumptions built into them, the group began searching the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website for reports and statistics on the disease, which was still relatively new at the time. They were also contacting epidemiologists and other experts, trying to find as much data as they could to build their models. “We cobbled together I don’t know how many different sources, trying to get some estimates of infection and hospitalization rates as a function of age,” said Henderson. “In those early days, I think for the asymptomatic rate we saw Clockwise from top left: Christopher Wofford of eCornell; Provost Michael Kotlikoff; Sharon McMullen, assistant vice president of student and estimates ranging from 20% to 85%. That’s an enormous range.” A test sample is taken at Cornell’s COVID-19 testing site at campus life for health and well-being; Gary Koretzky, vice provost for academic integration; Diego Diel, Cornell COVID-19 Testing Laboratory; Another doctoral student, Alyf Janmohamed, found Fischell Band Center. and Peter Frazier, associate professor in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, during the COVID-19 Summit, a data from an unlikely, but helpful, source – cruise ships that 2-day event featuring researchers from across Cornell. experienced COVID-19 outbreaks. “The ships had good, comprehensive data about whether see on the Cornell campus. That was another set of parameters Peter Frazier, associate professor of operations research and Scouring the literature… or not passengers had COVID and whether or not they were we needed to get, using enrollment data.” information engineering, had taken an interest in this “pooled and cruise ships asymptomatic,” said Janmohamed. “People in these data In the end, the group’s model for infection rate was testing” technique, and envisioned its application for curbing sets had vastly different ages, different races, and different remarkably accurate considering what little information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Working as part of a university committee to support geographies that we were stitching together to get our initial COVID-19 was available at the time. They estimated that around “We know most of the people we’re going to be testing will decision making for university leadership, Frazier and his team estimates of asymptomatic percentage.” 50% of COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic. Nearly a year be negative, so what you can do in a situation like that is instead enlisted the help of a talented roster of students. Their goal Added doctoral student Yujia Zhang: “In turn, we needed later, the CDC has determined the rate to be roughly 40%. of testing each sample – each swab of the nose – individually, was to provide data-driven options as leadership considered to apply that data to the different separation of the age levels we The team’s effort continued. They needed more data. you dissolve those nose swabs into some fluid and run one whether and how to bring students back for an in-person fall chemical reaction in order to test for the presence of the virus,” semester. Close contacts and Cashore’s coding said Frazier, who specializes in Bayesian optimization and “We thought quite hard about not opening Cornell and One of the most important numbers the group sought simulation. “If it tests negative, you can rest assured that all who instead going to virtual instruction in the fall, but the challenge to model was the number of people that, on average, a single participated in that pool are negative. If it tests positive, then that we faced was there were a number of students who said infected person could transmit the disease. They would have you do follow-up testing on each of the individual samples.” they would come back anyway,” said Frazier, referring to a to consider the number of close contacts per day, the chance of As fate would have it, Cornell Provost Michael Kotlikoff university survey in which 31% of respondents said they were transmitting the virus during those contacts, and the amount of had independently taken an interest in pooled testing, and likely to return despite virtual-only instruction. That translated time that person would be at large before being isolated. began exploring the idea by contacting a close colleague of to roughly 5,000 students. “We were worried that if students Based on the scientific literature, the group expected Frazier’s – David Shmoys, the Laibe/Acheson Professor of weren’t officially on campus, then the mechanisms by which individuals to have an estimated 8.3 close contacts per day. Business Management and Leadership Studies. Cornell could enforce testing compliance would essentially be “But we really had a lot of uncertainly about that number,” “I knew that Peter had been looking for an opportunity voluntary.” said Frazier, “and we knew if, in reality, the true number of to work on developing pooled testing as a means to achieve In order to determine which option would produce the expected contacts per day was much larger, then we would regular asymptomatic screening on a national scale, but the fewest COVID-19 infections and, hence, be the safest, the team likely see much larger numbers of positive cases on campus. possibility of helping Cornell would be a way to have a more wanted to know how COVID-19 might spread among the That’s a really dangerous thing we wanted to avoid and so that’s immediate impact,” said Shmoys, who is also director of the Cornell and greater Tompkins County communities. To do what kept me and a lot of us up at night.” Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society. “I put Peter this, they used a stochastic compartmental simulation, a type And there were other estimates that concerned the group, in touch with the provost, and this led to the formation of the of mathematical model frequently used in epidemiology. The according to doctoral student Jiayue Wan. Cornell Covid Modeling Team.” simulation tracks people based on the state of their disease “For instance, the accuracy of COVID-19 tests using Wondering if this technique could be a path forward to – susceptible, exposed, infectious, symptomatic or recovered different sampling methods – nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal, having in-person instruction during the pandemic, Frazier, – and by length of time in each of those states. The population saliva – and I remember that the team and I were reading dozens supported by Henderson and Shmoys, launched a full-fledged was compartmentalized into groups including undergraduates of papers that were fresh-off-the-shelf just to find evidence for effort to mathematically model Cornell’s options for the fall. in high-density housing, undergraduates living off campus, one single parameter,” said Wan. What their simulation modeling revealed was a counterintuitive graduate students, and faculty and staff. To counter this and other uncertainties, the group finding that was met with a healthy mix of curiosity, hope and Students wait in line to submit test samples as part of Cornell’s COVID-19 surveillance testing program. performed sensitivity analyses in which they varied data skepticism.

15 1414 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING | 15 parameters to see how the simulations would respond. “Everyone had been in quarantine for five, six months at Never losing hope If a simulation showed potentially dire consequences for that point and it was hard to predict what people were going small variations in the data, the group would use the most to do when they came back to campus and had a little bit more Based on lessons learned from the fall and new challenges conservative estimates they had in order to be safe. freedom,” said Janmohamed. “But seeing the way that Cornell that have emerged during the pandemic, university officials “We’d have a small change of the parameter settings, but it students took it upon themselves to follow the social distancing have made adjustments to its policies and protocols for the would launch an avalanche of additional work we had to do to guidelines and make sure the semester went well, it was really spring semester. But for the most part, the spring is mirroring rerun the set of simulations,” said Cashore. “By the end, we got inspiring to see.” the fall – a semester backed by data, science, operations research really good at automating the sensitivity analysis runs, because As it turned out, Cornell saw a 97% compliance rate with and information engineering. this is something we had to do so frequently.” its testing protocol. But before regular testing could begin in “There’s an introductory course I always start by There was a considerable amount of coding to be performed earnest, cases began to spike. By Sept. 4, the university saw a presenting a few applications of what operations research can as the group continued to find information about COVID-19. new high of 14 cases in one day, adding to the 24 cases it had do,” said Shmoys. “This year was so completely different – in More data. More simulations. Repeat. The main software script seen the previous two days. a few minutes one could explain the broad outlines of how used to run the simulation models eventually reached about 700 “During this period, there were clusters of cases that mathematical modeling enabled the students to be on campus, lines of programming code, according to Cashore. started in off-campus apartments,” said Frazier, “and when the taking this class in person.” The group was closing in on a final simulation that would asymptotic screening started, that’s when we found all the cases. For all their hard work – the all-nighters, the seemingly help inform university leadership which option – having an in- This was a scary period, but over the course of about a week and endless modeling and coding, the thoughtful approaches and person or virtual-only semester – would be the safer option. But a half, we were able to drive down this cluster.” careful attention to detail – the faculty and students from the first, the group had to go back to where it all started – Frazier’s On Sept. 13, the university reported its first day with zero School of Operations Research and Information Engineering idea of pooled testing. new cases. That was followed by two consecutive days of no said there was just as much in it for them as everyone else. new cases, and through the end of October the university was “It’s been a fantastic experience working with such Moving heaven and Earth finding three or fewer cases per day. incredible people, pouring their heart into this. I think it’s been Cornell’s success gained national attention. Some the highlight of my academic experience,” said Janmohamed. The cornerstone of Cornell’s ability to have in-person universities began modeling their protocols after Cornell’s, “In terms of personally dealing with the pandemic, going instruction amid the pandemic is the Animal Health Diagnostic while many of those that didn’t were experiencing outbreaks. through this exercise of how you control the virus was Center at the College of Veterinary Medicine, home to the In the case of Michigan State University, the county in which something that helped me process everything that was going Test samples are processed at the Cornell COVID-19 Testing Lab. Cornell COVID-19 Testing Lab. The lab already had experience it resides saw a major jump in infections despite the university on.” testing for COVID-19 in dairy cows, and university leaders not opening its campus – 640 cases one week in September. It Zhang added: “It’s the sense of control that we are building wanted to know if it could be modified for screening the campus COVID-19 outbreaks on Cornell’s campus. was exactly what Frazier and others had feared for the Ithaca up, and in a more abstract sense, it’s never losing hope. We population. The report also detailed how the group’s simulations community had Cornell not opened its campus. know that the efforts we make actually contribute to making the But because of the lab’s limited size, the goal for Frazier predicted that the number of infections for a virtual-only situation better, at least in the scope of the Cornell campus.” and the group was to find the sweet spot in which the number semester would be approximately 7,200 during a 16-week Beating the models of daily tests would be within the lab’s limits, but enough to semester, while an in-person semester with the protocols contain the spread of the disease on campus. So the group recommended by the group would produce only 1,200 By the end of October, Cornell had reported a total of 155 simulated different percentages of the campus population it infections, an estimate that was later reduced to 900 based on COVID-19 cases, much fewer than the 900 Frazier and team had might test each day, from zero all the way to everyone. refined models. estimated in their report. “Each run of the simulation produces a percentage of the It was a counterintuitive finding, but it was one based on Frazier attributes the discrepancy to a number of factors, population that becomes infected,” said Frazier. “What you see data and science. Having students on campus, according to the including the conservative data the team used out of an is that in most runs of the simulation, if I test everyone once report, would enable testing compliance and other key factors abundance of caution, and a lower prevalence of the disease every five days, I usually have about 5% of the population in limiting spread of the disease. A virtual-only semester risked among students returning to campus, likely due to a high infected. If I don’t do asymptomatic screening, I often have as large outbreaks that would have endangered not just the Cornell compliance to the university’s request to quarantine before much as 50% of the population infected.” campus, but the surrounding community in Tompkins County leaving. Using this data, a number range that stood out to Frazier and beyond. “I really do believe – and I’ve seen the data – that students was 6,000 to 7,000 tests per day. The simulations showed that After reviewing the report, among many other at Cornell are doing a much better job at complying with social infections exponentially rise as the number of tests per day considerations by university leadership, the decision was made distancing and masking restrictions as compared to other dip below that range, but as testing rises above that range, no – Cornell would have an in-person semester beginning Sept. 2. universities,” said Frazier. “I think that’s a big part of why we’ve dramatic shift in infection rates occurs. had success – because our students are great, but also because And with Frazier’s pooled testing plan, screening 7,000 The moment of truth of a number of innovations that the administration put in place people per day would mean only performing about 1,500 tests – and designed quite effectively.” a measure that would make testing economically feasible. The anticipation. That’s what Henderson remembers most Another reason infections were much lower than the “The testing lab moved heaven and Earth to get to that about the start of the fall semester. The anticipation of whether models predicted was because of adaptive testing, according number,” said Frazier. “The people in that lab, every day they or not the simulation models would accurately reflect reality. Frazier. Adaptive testing is the concept of testing everyone in the open 7,000 tubes by hand, and then they close 7,000 tubes by After all, epidemic modeling is fundamentally imperfect, as the social circle of an infected individual, not just those identified hand. They do that every weekday and then run 4,000 or 5,000 group’s report stated, and it was impossible for their models to through contact tracing. tests on Saturday and Sunday. We’re really appreciative of those fully capture the intricacies of the real world. “For example, if a student who is on the wrestling team people.” “Everybody was watching,” said Henderson. “We put tests positive, we would test the entire wresting team. If a More data. More simulations. More sensitivity analyses. in a lot of effort to try to make the estimates conservative, but student who lives in a dormitory tests positive, we would test all The work culminated in a 54-page report that the group accurate. But at the end of the day, there’s going to be some people who share a bathroom with that student,” said Frazier, published on June 15, 2020. In it, the modeling results suggested uncertainty.” who also points to Cornell’s strong partnership with Cayuga that a combination of contact tracing and pooled testing, One of the main parameters the group was watching was Health System and the Tompkins County Health Department as among other measures, could achieve meaningful control over testing compliance, according to Janmohamed. reasons for the successful fall semester. Staff process test samples at the Cornell COVID-19 Testing Lab.

161 6 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING | 1717

BIOMINING RARE-EARTH CORNELL ENGINEERS ELEMENTS ARE PIONEERING A NOVEL METHOD By Chris Dawson FOR MINING METALS THAT ARE KEY TO UNLOCKING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE.

“ BUZ AND HIS TEAM ARE RUNNING EXPERIMENTS TO EXTRACT RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS FROM ROCKS USING ACIDS PRODUCED BY MICROBES. AND IN ORDER FOR THEM TO QUANTIFY THE EFFICIENCY OF THEIR MICROBES, THEY NEED TO QUANTIFY THEIR INPUTS AND THEIR OUTPUTS PRECISELY.” — Assistant Professor Megan Holycross

n the search for more sustainable energy technologies, many of the solutions humans are turning to – rechargeable batteries, massive wind turbines, electric cars, LED lighting – rely on what are known as rare- Iearth elements. There are 17 rare earths on the periodic table, ranging from the lightest, scandium, to the heaviest, lutelium, and they are highly valued for their unique physical and chemical properties that make them useful in sustainable energy technologies. As is so often the case, solutions to existing problems can create their own, new problems. This is certainly true of our reliance on rare earths to make technologies greener. The industrial processes used to isolate them from their naturally- occurring ores often rely on strong acids or bases that can pollute the environment. Harmful effects of the mining include contaminated soil and water, deforestation and negative health impacts on humans and other animals. These processes also require large amounts of energy. Our reliance on rare earths is not going to end any time soon, so researchers have begun to look for ways to obtain them in less environmentally harmful ways. RARE-EARTH EL EMENT S BIOMINING

18 18 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING |9 1 9 Each variant of G. oxydans will be tested as a bioleaching agent for rare earths. Those that perform best will be further developed.

BEE Assistant Professor Buz Barstow in his lab.

A multidisciplinary team at Cornell is on the leading after receiving an Academic Venture Fund seed grant from the edge of this push to help green technologies get even greener. Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Between the Department of Biological and Environmental Schmitz got to work right away with a bacterium called Engineering and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Gluconobacter oxydans. It had already been shown to have Sciences – units shared between the College of Engineering potential as a bioleaching microbe through initial work done (ENG) and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) – at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. faculty, postdocs and graduate students have all come together Schmitz used a method developed by Barstow called Knockout to tackle this problem. Sudoku to selectively inactivate one gene at a time and then Led by Buz Barstow, assistant professor of biological and build a collection of several thousand variants of G. oxydans. environmental engineering (CALS), the team is looking at Each of these variants will be tested as a bioleaching agent for ways to “program” microbes to produce organic acids that can rare earths, and then those that perform best will be further leach rare-earth elements from crushed ores or from recycled developed. electronics components. These microbial acids will be far safer As she gathers data, Schmitz – who is continuing the work than the acids and bases used in existing industrial processes. with help from the Cornell Atkinson Small Grants Program – Altogether, the processes Barstow and the team of says she will be compiling a roster of genes that could be key to engineers are pioneering can be called “biomining,” and if the development of an efficient and sustainable system to extract proven scalable, will have a major impact on the sustainability rare earths. of future electronics as well as on the health of people and the environment. Mutant bacteria

‘Risky, cutting-edge work’ Monazite is one of the ores known to contain rare earths in sufficient quantities to be worth mining. Schmitz can’t just Postdoctoral researcher Alexa Schmitz joined Barstow’s throw a chunk of monazite and some bacteria into a beaker and effort when, as a Cornell grad student earning her doctorate in wait to see what happens. Rather, the initial screening for genes plant pathology and plant-microbe biology, she was in a biofuels that may be related to leaching of rare earths will happen in seminar presented by Barstow. But in the discussion afterward, microplates that can be read spectroscopically. he also talked about bioleaching and its potential in the mining Schmitz explains, “Once we know which genes are most and recovery of rare earths. important for bioleaching, we will target those genes – and “It felt like risky, cutting-edge work,” says Schmitz, “but at genetic elements controlling those genes – for mutagenesis. This the same time I thought ‘Yes. This can definitely work.’” Schmitz can be done in combination, targeting several genes at once, was finishing her Ph.D. and looking for a postdoctoral position, and the resulting modified strains are screened for changes in and Barstow was looking for help on his biomining project bioleaching.” BEE postdoc Alexa Schmitz

2020 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING | 2121 Mutagenesis is a process whereby the genetic information Recycling electronics and waste Faculty Fellows together. of an organism changes by mutation. That mutation can be products Assistant Professor Megan Holycross’s (ENG) specialty spontaneous or it can be controlled in a laboratory. Schmitz is understanding the processes that have differentiated the and Barstow will force mutations on the genes that are most In addition to helping to craft the microfluidic device the chemistry of earth’s solid interior. “The instruments in my lab in involved in bioleaching and then measure how effective the group will use in their process, Medin is also working on an Snee Hall are capable of achieving temperatures and pressures mutated organism is at gathering available rare earths. Their essential step in biomining rare earths – separation. that recreate the conditions up to 120 kilometers deep in the hope is that with a high-throughput method for evolving G. Once the rare earths have been leached out of the monazite earth,” says Holycross. “I am studying what happens in the oxydans, they will be able to engineer an organism that can or other ores, they still need to be separated from each other and lower crust and the upper mantle of the earth.” leach rare earths more efficiently and sustainably than existing from the impurities that make it through the leaching process. Serendipitously, some of Holycross’s lab equipment can industrial methods. Current methods of separation, such as liquid-liquid solvent also be used to create homogeneous samples of ores. “Buz and This is where Mingming Wu comes in. Wu, a professor of extraction and the ion-exchange process, are energy-intensive his team are running experiments to extract rare-earth elements biological and environmental engineering (CALS), is an expert and result in large amounts of dangerous waste products. from rocks using acids produced by microbes,” says Holycross. in microfluidic devices. Traditional methods of identifying, Medin will instead use a bacterium called Shewanella “And in order for them to quantify the efficiency of their isolating, and mutating microbes are labor and time intensive, oneidensis MR-1, and he will subject it to a similar directed microbes, they need to quantify their inputs and their outputs requiring a lot of careful and repetitive pipetting. evolution process that Schmitz is using with G. oxydans. Medin precisely.” “Buz and I started to talk about his work,” says Wu, will be selecting for variants that show higher than average Holycross is growing synthetic monazite samples with “and we realized that in microfluidics there already exists an ability to adsorb rare earths. These variants will be subjected Sample of monazite (NdPO4) synthesized by EAS post-doc Brian Associate Professor Esteban Gazel (ENG) and postdoc Brian Balta. established way of identifying and selecting ‘super-bugs’ that to several rounds of mutagenesis with the aim of creating a Balta. Gazel will use his geochemical expertise to characterize exhibit a desired characteristic.” bacterium that is able to adsorb specific rare earths in high The right tools for the job the samples, and he will also carry out mass balance calculations This existing process is called directed evolution. Together quantity. to help Barstow determine which mutant version of G. oxydans with Sean Medin, a second-year Ph.D. student in Barstow’s lab, Medin joined the Barstow Lab with the express intent is most efficient – and therefore most commercializable. Sabrina Marecos, a first-year Ph.D. student in the Barstow the team is in the process of designing a microfluidic device of working on this project, and he hopes to someday start a “This is an idea that I believe could only happen at Lab, is working to validate the genetic models being used. that forces individual bacteria through a channel, with several company to commercialize some of the processes honed in the Cornell,” says Gazel. “There is this culture of interdisciplinary Previous research at Cornell and elsewhere supports the theory “stations” along the way. lab. However, his focus would be on recycling existing rare collaboration here that is very hard to find elsewhere. Buz and that Barstow’s Knockout Sudoku process should work with “We can put sensors in the device so that when a bacterium earths from electronics, mine tailings and fly ash, which is one of Mingming knew as little about monazite as Megan and I knew Gluconobacter oxydans. binds with a rare-earth element, it changes color and we can see the waste products of coal combustion. about synthetic biology before collaborating.” “At the moment,” says Marecos, “I am working on the it,” says Wu. “Those that bind will be sent down one route in “Ideally,” says Medin, “I’d like to be able to take fly ash Holycross agrees. “This is why I came to Cornell – to do verification of the knockout of the membrane-bound glucose the device, and those that don’t bind will be sent down another or permanent magnets or other recycled sources of rare-earth interdisciplinary things like this and work on exciting problems dehydrogenase gene. This would confirm that it is possible to route.” elements, bioleach them, and then extract the rare earths out for with colleagues.” knock out genes in Gluconobacter. After that, I will proceed to The bacteria that worked will be directed back through the reuse. And I’d like to do all of that in the U.S. and make sure it is “The powerful perspective of our work is not only the fact try and validate the over-expression of another gene to confirm device to a station where they will be mutagenized and then environmentally friendly.” that we are open to crossing the boundaries of disciplines,” it can be done and which method is most suitable.” sent through the device again. In this way, Barstow’s team can Currently, the United States imports most of the rare Gazel says, “but that we are all open to learning new areas and Once Marecos validates the methods Barstow, Schmitz create an improved variant of the bacterium that Medin will be earths it uses, and recycles just a tiny percentage of rare-earth- communicating with each other. It is in these interdisciplinary and Medin plan to use, the resultant tools will supplement using to adsorb rare earths. containing products. spaces where solutions to old and new problems can be found.” the relatively few that already exist. “This would allow us to engineer the bacteria using data indicating that some genes are more involved than others in the production of important acids,” says Marecos. “By modifying the bacteria and observing its behavior, we will better understand the bioleaching process and how to enhance it.” ‘An idea that can only happen at Cornell’

Barstow makes a point of highlighting the importance of Cornell’s culture of collaboration in enabling biomining research. In addition to his lab member’s individual projects, there is one pivotal piece of the work none of them can do: synthesize monazite containing precisely quantified amounts of various rare earths. In order to know exactly how effective and efficient the bacteria are at leaching and separating rare-earth elements, the team needs to know exactly how much of each element there is in the initial ore. After all, it does not help to know how many grams of lanthanum have been collected through bioleaching if you have no idea how many grams were there to start. Lucky for Barstow, there are two recent faculty hires who can synthesize and characterize monazite in exactly the way he requires. It was a chance encounter at a Cornell Atkinson brown- The initial screening for genes that may be related to leaching of rare earths will happen in microplates that can be read spectroscopically. bag lunch that would eventually bring the three Atkinson Postdoc Alexa Schmitz and M.Eng. student Don Flood.

2222 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING | 23 THEBy Eric Laine MODERN TA UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS ARE CHANGING THE CLASSROOM THANKS TO CORNELL ENGINEERING’S OUTSTANDING TRAINING PROGRAMS he role of teaching assistants is no longer limited to basic and a shared understanding of diversity and inclusion have model,” said Jed Dove, director of administration for the School works with engineering faculty to develop dynamic teaching classroom and lab administration such as answering placed Cornell Engineering at the forefront of modern classroom of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). “Particularly for methods and improve course design, and the Center for questions and grading assignments. Today’s TAs are practices. large enrollment courses, if we didn’t have TAs it would just be Teaching Innovation provides a wealth of teaching resources responsible for the ambitious task of creating a positive Investment in training impossible for our professors to teach.” for both faculty and TAs across the university, including the Tsense of community where students feel comfortable and ready Recognizing the need for a focused training experience for Teaching Assistant Online Orientation, developed last year. to learn. Hundreds of students work as TAs at Cornell undergraduate TAs, in 2013 ELI collaborated with engineering Cornell Engineering recognizes the importance of this Engineering each year, and these days, many of those TAs are departments to create a half-day program, drawing upon the A classroom for everyone and invests heavily in substantive training programs through undergraduates. The expanding number of undergraduate TAs educational content developed for Ph.D. TAs, but tailored to the its office of Engineering Learning Initiatives (ELI). The office is not unique to Cornell but represents a growing recognition of work undergrad TAs do. One of the very first considerations of the modern TA applies the latest research on pedagogical practices to its TA the value of peer-facilitated learning nationally, particularly at The ELI training gives TAs practical strategies for getting is ensuring that the learning environment is engaging and training, expanding beyond the traditional model of relatively large universities. students talking to one another, answering each other’s inclusive, according to Lisa Schneider-Bentley, director of ELI. static knowledge transmission from teacher to learner. The goal One indicator of the value teaching assistants provide is questions, and building a sense of community through active “And when I say inclusive, I’m talking about awareness is to excite and engage students by giving TAs a sophisticated the considerable resources Cornell Engineering devotes to their learning, a core guiding philosophy of the TA development of the diversity of learners along all kinds of social identity understanding of how human learning occurs – along with training and compensation. In some departments, the budget program. dimensions and backgrounds, as well as understanding how to administrative management and interpersonal skills – to create allocation for TA positions can reach over a million dollars each ELI’s TA development programs are but one angle from use an array of teaching strategies to reach students who come an educational environment that works for all students. academic year. which Cornell Engineering, and university, focus on teaching. in with a broad variety of learning strengths and challenges,” Emphasizing peer education, student-centered learning, “TAs are an absolutely critical part of our education The James McCormick Family Teaching Excellence Institute said Schneider-Bentley.

In a large lecture hall, TAs are incredibly valuable for helping clarify, redirect and support idea development during group work segments. (Pre-pandemic photo.)

242 4 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING | 2525 “The lab environment tends to be a bit stressful for AEW facilitator for Multivariable Calculus. “One of my favorite students,” said Hunter Adams, lecturer for the popular ECE things about teaching is what you learn from the material. I 4760 microcontrollers course. “For many of them, it may get a lot of energy out of teaching. Every time I come out of a be the first time that they’ve attempted to build something facilitation session, I feel energized and I have a lot of curiosity themselves.” about many other things.” Students often feel more comfortable with their TAs than Other impacts from the experience of being a TA are even with their professors. That’s one of the strengths of the peer more personal. “As a freshman coming in, I was probably one of education model. “Student-to-student communication is often the most shy students at Cornell,” said Juan Berrio ’20, who now more casual,” said Lin. “I think some students feel a little bit has several years’ experience as a TA and AEW leader. He says intimidated about asking professors questions during a lecture. that being a peer educator forced him to break out of the shell But when it’s just students in the room, I feel like they have no he had. “As a result, I never get nervous in interviews. I have problem asking questions.” so much experience teaching and talking to students that I just “Students can bounce ideas off the TAs; there’s a lot of back don’t get nervous public speaking anymore.” and forth. As the semester progresses and the students become The emphasis on peer education helps to build a sense of more competent, the TA role shifts more and more to that of a community. Lin, who was the electrical team lead for Cornell sounding board,” Adams said. “They’re the experienced voice Racing in addition to being a TA, spoke about this. “A really that can suggest a better direction.” big part of it is just getting to meet a lot of other students in AEW facilitators receive paid training twice per month on topics as complex as developing learning objectives, conflict resolution and engineering,” she said. “You’re working with them in a context facilitating small group discussion. After content is shared by the undergraduate leadership team, groups of TAs work together to process, share Winning with workshops where it’s more collaborative, and those interactions help you and role play various scenarios. (Pre-pandemic photo.) meet other students in the college and lead you to a stronger Realizing the value of peer education decades ago, Cornell understanding. It goes beyond the coursework.” “People have different ways they process material,” said “Active learning is teaching the TAs to facilitate and not Engineering created a program to supplement the regular Students who work as TAs and AEW facilitators enjoy Celia Evans, ELI’s associate director. “They have different teach, essentially,” said Evan Austin ’21, a student in materials course structure which offers a peer-facilitated, collaborative long-lasting benefits. Some see themselves pursuing academic ways they express themselves and different ways they engage science and engineering. “It’s very collaborative and structured learning experience for first- and second-year students in core careers, where an understanding of different learning modalities mentally and emotionally with material. We have a really around activities instead of just sitting around and watching a engineering courses. These Academic Excellence Workshops and experience teaching and collaborating with students will diverse student body and it’s very important that everybody lecture.” (AEWs) are optional 1-credit courses taken in conjunction serve them well. Some also value the opportunity to teach or feels like they can interact, contribute and ask a question.” Concepts like active learning are explained, modeled and with core engineering courses in math, computer science, facilitate because it cements their own understanding of core Strategies for creating engagement, belonging and equity infused throughout ELI’s TA training programs. Activities chemistry and statistics. AEWs are led by trained undergraduate content, especially as they move into advanced courses. are integrated throughout ELI’s training components. For such as “Think-Pair-Share” – in which students consider an engineering students and focus on active, collaborative problem- “You really understand the material and the bigger picture, example, the session on fair and effective grading includes instructor’s question, meet with a partner to discuss answers, solving. how it fits together, after you have started teaching it,” said guidance and practice in creating consistent rubrics so students then share their solutions with others who might have reached Students who enroll in an AEW workshop section benefit Evans. “So the gains for TAs are professional development, know how their work is evaluated, employing anonymous different conclusions – are modeled in the interactive training from an educational environment where working together public speaking and a much better command of that material grading to guard against unconscious biases and giving clear sessions. Meanwhile, TAs are encouraged to utilize such on concepts, problems and projects gives them a deeper than they had before.” and usable feedback so students can learn from their mistakes. techniques in their own teaching. understanding of the course material. The engineering students “It’s just something I’m passionate about,” said Berrio. “A Ultimately the TA training is intended to frame a shared Some of the most important tasks that TAs in Cornell who serve as AEW facilitators also report their own knowledge friend asked me, ‘why are you teaching so much?’ It’s because understanding of diversity and inclusion at Cornell, and the best Engineering perform are in course labs. Like most courses of the coursework is enhanced. I enjoy it. That was my first gut reaction. It’s just something I teaching strategies to facilitate effective learning. during these pandemic semesters, labs have moved online, but “I fell in love with that course material,” said Austin, an really enjoyed doing.” “Undergraduate TAs contribute diversity to the teaching the critical role of the TA has not diminished. team,” said Aaron Wagner, professor and associate director of “We had the students remote desktop into the lab electrical and computer engineering. “While an introductory computers,” said Hadas Kress-Gazit, professor of mechanical ECE class typically will have one instructor and, at most, two and aerospace engineering. “But we had one TA in the lab that Ph.D. TAs, it might have several undergraduate TAs who was moving robots around. We set up cameras in the lab and represent a wider range of identities and lived experiences, had a livestream of the field where the robots are moving.” better reflecting the composition of the student body.” Other labs were conducted entirely through Zoom video conferencing, with parts kits being shipped to engineering Active learning and adapting to students working at home, which presented new challenges for COVID-19 the TAs. “The hardest part was if there was a defect, or if a student Once a welcoming and inclusive environment is developed, was running into a software or hardware issue, it was much then the complex task of engaging students through active harder to debug, it was a lot harder to visualize their setup,” learning can begin, providing avenues for students to construct said TA Andrew Tsai ’21. “We had to say, please point your their understanding and ask questions. camera at this, or take a screenshot and then share it.” Active learning is a teaching approach that is learner- Students and TAs alike adapted to labs over Zoom and soon centered as opposed to traditional lecture in which content is some positive aspects of the remote learning setup emerged. unidirectional from teacher to student. Teaching with active “One cool thing was being able to see the code on your own learning means designing activities that require interaction. screen,” said TA Nicole Lin ‘20. “Usually, you have to bend over The idea is to get students thinking, talking and writing about a student’s computer to see what’s happening on their screen, what they are doing. It emphasizes the importance of students but with screen sharing and being able to control the student’s controlling their own learning process with structured, guided screen, some of the workflows are easier.” Low tech solutions like having students work on organizing and connecting concepts through ‘concept mapping’ are powerful ways to create discovery. collective thinking, help students generate questions and teach each other. This can work in any learning format. (Pre-pandemic photo.)

2626 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING |27 27 AWARDS AND HONORS

Lynden Archer, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering, was featured in Chemical & Engineering News’s Trailblazer profile series, in which he discussed research, entrepreneurship and opportunity with the publication. Iwijn De Vlaminck (BME), was elected associate professor with indefinite tenure by the Cornell University Board of Trustees. Greeshma Gadikota, assistant professor (CEE), is part of a group of researchers to share a 1.15 million grant from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Alfred Lynden Archer Iwijn De Vlaminck Greeshma Gadikota Ziv Goldfeld P. Sloan Foundation, and the Thistledown Foundation as part of the Scialog: Negative Emissions Science initiative. Ziv Goldfeld, assistant professor (ECE), received an NSF CAREER Award for his proposal, “Smooth statistical distances for a scalable learning theory.” Jefferson Tester Lance Collins Debdeep Jena, the David E. Burr Professor of Tester, Collins elected to National Academy Engineering (ECE, MSE); Huili Grace Xing, the of Engineering William L. Quackenbush Professor (ECE, MSE); and Alyosha Molnar, associate professor (ECE), Jefferson Tester, professor of chemical and received a 2020 Intel Outstanding Research Award for their biomolecular engineering, and Lance Collins, professor project “Wide-Bandgap pFETs: Materials, Devices, and emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering Circuits.” and the former Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering, are Huili Grace Xing Debdeep Jena Alyosha Molnar Atieh Moridi among the new class elected to the National Academy of Atieh Moridi, assistant professor (MAE), received Engineering. an NSF CAREER Award for her proposal “In Operando Election to the academy is among the highest Investigation of Laser Powder-fed Directed Energy Deposition: professional distinctions for an engineer, with Process Physics, Microstructure Evolution, and Mechanical membership honoring those who have made Properties.” She was also one of three faculty to receive a 2021 outstanding contributions to “engineering research, Schwartz Research Fund from Cornell. practice, or education… and to the pioneering of new Kirstin Petersen, assistant professor (ECE), and developing fields of technology, making major received and NSF CAREER Award for her proposal advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or “Environmentally-Mediated Coordination in Natural and Robot developing/implementing innovative approaches to Swarms.” engineering education,” according to an announcement by the academy. David Putnam, professor (BME, CBE), was named the Tester, the David Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow, inaugural associate dean for innovation and entrepreneurship was elected for his “leadership in development of novel Kirstin Petersen David Putnam Jery Stedinger Madeline Udell at Cornell Engineering - the first dean-level position at Cornell renewable energy systems.” He is considered one of the University dedicated solely to innovation and entrepreneurship. The termed position will oversee all activities in the college leading experts in the world on the thermodynamics, SCHOOL AND DEPARTMENT ABBREVIATIONS related to technology transfer and entrepreneurship, and reservoir science, and techno-economics of geothermal energy systems. AEP – Applied and Engineering Physics ECE – Electrical and Computer Engineering elevate the college’s stature as a nationally-recognized institute for innovation and commercialization. Collins was elected to the academy for BEE – Biological and Environmental MSE – Materials Science and Engineering “contributions to understanding turbulent processes, Engineering MAE – Mechanical and Aerospace Jery Stedinger, the Dwight C. Baum Professor of leadership in engineering, and contributions to the BME – Biomedical Engineering Engineering Engineering (CEE), has been approved for emeritus status. diversity of the profession.” He left Cornell in 2020 CBE – Chemical and Biomolecular ORIE – Operations Research and Stedinger, a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, to become the inaugural vice president and executive Engineering Information Engineering has focused his research on statistical issues in hydrology and director of Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus, but CEE – Civil and Environmental Engineering optimal operation of water resource systems. remains an emeritus faculty member and was elected CS – Computer Science Awards and honors received from January to March 15, 2021. Madeline Udell, assistant professor (ORIE), was to the academy under his title as the former dean of the EAS – Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Honors received outside of this timeframe appear online. selected for the 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred College of Engineering. P. Sloan Foundation.

2828 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING |29 29 LAURA JONES-WILSON, ALUMNIALUMNI PROFILE PH.D. ’12 By Olivia Hall

FROM CORNELL TO NASA TO AN ICY MOON OF JUPITER

aura Jones-Wilson, Ph.D. ’12, has long had her sights set and National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate on outer space. “I learned about space at an Earth Day Fellowship program, Jones-Wilson was free to explore a wide celebration when I was five, and as soon as I found out range of projects and technologies with Peck, from small Laura Jones-Wilson, Ph.D. ’12, prepares a microgravity experiment to gather data on magnetic flux pinning. L that people had left the planet, I was like, ‘I’m in, let’s do satellites to control moment gyroscope steering laws. For her this!’,” she remembered. “I got the word ‘aerospace engineer’ dissertation, she settled on studying how the phenomenon of Jones-Wilson constructed spacecraft analogues to collect data Jones-Wilson also took advantage of the close relationships from watching Star Trek episodes, and by early middle school, magnetic flux pinning might be applied to maintain a specific and better model the flux pinning interface. After first hovering that exist between MAE and Cornell’s Department of that’s what I was convinced I was going to be.” close-proximity position and orientation between spacecraft them on a testbed consisting of a sheet of glass with compressed Astronomy in the College of Arts & Sciences. For example, Indeed, that early enthusiasm and determination have carried without mechanical contact. air, she expanded her tests to two microgravity flights at Peck points out, faculty regularly collaborate on large research the graduate of Cornell’s Sibley School of Mechanical and “When a type-II superconductor interacts with magnets,” NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where a ventures, and astronomers and engineers come together for Aerospace Engineering (MAE) right to the forefront of today’s she explained, “you can build a magnetic potential well that modified aircraft temporarily creates a space-like experience of summer programs on spacecraft projects. space exploration. At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) maintains a stable, pre-selected relative position and orientation weightlessness during freefall dives from around 30,000 feet. Like many aerospace engineering doctoral students, Jones- in Pasadena, California, she currently serves as the payload between the magnet and superconductor. We can use this “When you’re not constrained by gravity in the same way, you Wilson took classes such as optical astronomy and planetary verification and validation lead for the Europa Clipper mission, phenomenon to levitate the magnet against a gravity field on can actually measure the subtle cross-coupling in the dynamics science and invited an astronomy faculty member, Professor expected to launch in the mid-2020s. Jones-Wilson is tasked earth, but in space we can use the fact that the effect works in across degrees of freedoms that we were looking to characterize Terry Herter, to sit on her special committee. “Having access to with ensuring that a variety of scientific instruments are all six degrees of freedom to maintain relative position and in this interface,” she said. a world-class engineering program and world-class scientists properly tested and ready to study the surface of an icy moon orientation between spacecraft without the need for an active To make it happen, Jones-Wilson drew on a broad pool of in one space makes Cornell unique,” she said. “It’s the perfect of Jupiter as the 20-foot-high spacecraft makes approximately control system.” undergraduate and master’s-level talent at Cornell Engineering, incubator for what JPL, in particular, is looking for: scientists 45 close passes to determine its habitability. from experts at soldering and machining to students focusing who understand engineering, and engineers who understand “There’s a certain romance about aerospace engineering,” on mechanical and electrical design work. “I think at one point science.” said Jones-Wilson. “Space lets us see how small we are in the I had 20 students working for me,” she said, “and we were As a result, “the folks who come out of our program are universe and the variety of worlds that are out there. Many of all focusing on different parts of the project. I couldn’t have highly sought after,” Peck said, pointing to the fact that both us in the industry are really taken by the idea of the ‘exploring done it without those teams. It was really empowering to have established companies in the industry, such as Northrup the final frontier’ aspect of our work.” access to such smart people who were all really interested in the Grumman or SpaceX, as well as newer startups, such as Ithaca- Internships at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia research.” based Ursa Space, actively recruit Cornell graduates. Through and the Ames Research Center in California during her Jones-Wilson was benefitting from a form of experiential research collaborations with faculty, these businesses also help undergraduate years at Virginia Tech first introduced her to the learning – at all levels – that Mason Peck calls a hallmark to ensure students’ exposure to the practical considerations of problem-solving skills required to work at the cutting edge of of Cornell’s programs in aerospace engineering. “As an contemporary space technology. “One thing that characterizes the unknown. “These NASA internships cultivated a can-do undergraduate you might expect your time here to include our program is being at the cutting edge,” Peck said. attitude and willingness to ‘MacGyver’ a project into working,” four years, or maybe more if you stick around for the M.Eng. For Jones-Wilson, these connections meant a foot in the door Jones-Wilson said. degree, of continuous engagement in a particular project, which with her dream employer. A visit from JPL leaders to Cornell She brought both to her doctoral work at Cornell, attracted I think is rare,” he said. Students get to contribute and take on led to conversations, an interview, and ultimately her first job not only by the opportunity to work with her advisor, Mason leadership positions at the level of their abilities, regardless of on the Pasadena campus. For the first five years with NASA, Peck, the Stephen J. Fujikawa ’77 Professor of Astronautical seniority. she pursued guidance and control work for small satellites. “A Engineering, whom she calls “a visionary in the field,” but also His advisee, for one, “really took ownership of her project,” lot of what I found most interesting was talking to the scientists by a supportive student body that shared her love for tackling Peck recalled. “Part of our mission here in advising Ph.D. about how to effectively get the science they wanted,” she challenges with team work. “Ithaca’s gorges also helped,” said students is to give them the freedom to be successful – or, I recalled. She found herself looking increasingly for positions Jones-Wilson, who enjoys hiking, biking and skiing. Laura Jones-Wilson, Ph.D. ’12, stands in front of a modified Boeing suppose, to fail – on their own terms. And Laura’s tendency to in systems engineering, which brought her to a number of Armed with funding from the National Science Foundation 727 used by NASA to conduct microgravity experiments. just go ahead and wrestle a problem to the ground is clearly one different roles for the Europa Clipper mission. of her strengths.”

3030 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING |31 3 1 Now, as the payload verification and validation lead, Jones- surface and put them through the laboratories we have on Earth Wilson finds that her time at Cornell prepared her well for would be really exciting. Being involved in that project would SWANSON ’61, M.ENG. ’63, TO RECEIVE her job. “Being sensitized to a scientific point of view really be pretty cool.” enriches the work I do today,” she said. For example, the team By then, she may have already advanced to working as one was having trouble translating the requirements for scientific of the JPL supervisors, who typically split their time between 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING data collection at Europa in a way that would allow systems administration and engineering projects. “I could see myself engineers to make informed decisions about how to build the doing that,” said Jones-Wilson. So could her former advisor. flight system. So Jones-Wilson and a colleague developed a “The key features I’d say that make Laura successful are her framework for these conversations, a kind of “periodic table” dogged insistence on getting things right and being very DISTINGUISHED By Amy Horner of requirements. By mapping science objectives onto the way detail-oriented and thorough,” Peck said. “She’s terrific as measurements need to be collected to achieve them, it shows an organizational leader, and I’m confident that in the years useful patterns that support analysis and reveals potentially to come she’ll continue to rise through the ranks of JPL or ALUMNI AWARD missing requirements to ensure a complete set. “The framework whatever organizations she finds herself part of.” ohn A. Swanson ’61, M.Eng. ’63, internationally College Council. More recently, he has shifted his attention to ended up really successfully facilitating key science and Jones-Wilson herself is curious to discover where she may recognized authority and innovator in the application of renewable energy, including solar and bio-diesel enterprises; he systems engineering decisions across the whole project,” Jones- end up. “A lot of careers at JPL are made by just following your finite-element methods of engineering, will be honored is a developer of Green Key Villages in Lady Lake, Florida, the Wilson said. “It’s probably the work I’m most proud of to date.” heart and doing what’s exciting to you at the time,” she said. with the 2021 Cornell Engineering Distinguished Alumni only “net zero energy” home development in the area. And while Jones-Wilson thoroughly enjoys her day-to- For now, that is the Europa Clipper mission, though somehow J Award. Swanson received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees day work of meetings, talking to colleagues, writing code, she also finds time to get trained to serve on JPL’s Team A, conducting analyses and attending science lectures, what a kind of brainstorming group of experts to solve “crazy The award, established in 2018, celebrates the in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Cornell, ultimately inspires her efforts is an understanding of what they problems;” occasionally stop into the Small Satellites Dynamics accomplishments of graduates whose leadership and vision and his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, where the contribute to. “Figuring out in meetings how you’re going to Testbed that she co-founded at JPL with fellow Cornellian have been truly transformative and who have brought great Swanson School of Engineering is named in recognition of his timestamp a data packet really does come out to – how do you Swati Mohan ‘04; continue to collaborate on projects with Peck; pride to their alma mater. Swanson will be presented the award involvement and support. He began his career at Westinghouse know if there’s a saltwater ocean under the ice shell of Europa? and help to pave the path for the next generation of aerospace by Lynden Archer, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering, at an Astronuclear Laboratory, where his discovery that “developing Is this a place that could have been habitable? There are a lot of engineers. on-campus ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 14. the tools was more fun than solving the problems” led to his cool questions we can answer if we get this right,” she said. “I’m really grateful to the Cornell community for all the Swanson, elected a member of the National Academy of founding of Swanson Analysis Systems. Bitten by the planetary science bug, Jones-Wilson plans to opportunities they’ve given me, so I like mentoring students Engineering in 2009, is founder and former president and CEO Swanson and his wife Janet are among Cornell’s foremost continue helping to find those answers. “The scientists have and bringing them over to do internships at JPL to see what it’s of ANSYS Inc. Founded in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems benefactors. They have given generously to the College of been cooking up some really exciting missions I hope get actually like to work on big engineering projects at the scale Inc., ANSYS develops and globally markets engineering Engineering and the College of Veterinary Medicine, with gifts funded,” she said. “I know that Mars sample return is going to Clipper has,” Jones-Wilson said. “It’s what I wanted when I was simulation software and technologies widely used by engineers to programs – including Engineering Student Project Teams – five and thought about exploring the cosmos, and now here we be a big thing – being able to get actual rocks back from another and designers across a broad spectrum of industries. The faculty support, scholarships and capital projects. are.” company was awarded the CAD/CAM Leader Award by Machine Design in 1991-1993, and Manufacturing Systems ranked it among the “Top 50” software companies. Among Swanson’s numerous honors are the American Association of Engineering Societies John Fritz Medal, the Computers in Engineering Award, and the Pittsburgh Entrepreneur of the Year in High Technology. After selling ANSYS in 1994, Swanson focused on engineering education and the training of future generations of practicing engineers. He founded the Swanson Engineering Simulation Program at Cornell, and joined the Engineering

Laura Jones-Wilson, Ph.D. ’12, and her colleagues conduct microgravity experiments aboard an aircraft that simulates weightlessness during freefall dives.

John and Janet Swanson 32 33 32 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING | 33 Cornell Engineering NON PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE Cornell Engineering Magazine 252 Carpenter Hall PAID Ithaca, NY 14853-2201 Cornell University

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THE MODELING BEHIND CORNELL’S SUCCESSFUL FALL SEMESTER AND THE ENGINEERS WHO SKILLFULLY CRAFTED IT