The Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University

engineering news for alumni and friends WINTER 07 Crossing Disciplines The 21st Century Engineer’s Role as Collaborator

inside: Arizona Technology Investor Forum Flexible Display Center New School of Computing and Informatics New School of Materials Biomedical Imaging

fulton.asu.edu Full Circle is published by the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University. For more information about the Fulton School of Engineering, please visit fulton.asu.edu on the web. For details about the programs or research highlighted in this magazine, please contact the editor or sources directly.

Editor, Full Circle Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering Arizona State University PO Box 879309 Tempe, AZ 85287-9309 Telephone: 480.965.2825

Editor Joel M. Horn

Contributing Writers Trisha Coffman Deanna Evans Melissa Crytzer Fry

Art Director Kathleen Harrison

Design and Production SOLS Visualization group

Photography Ken Sweat Tom Story

Cover Illustration Jacob Sahertian and Sabine Deviche

The sunburst logo is a registered trademark, and the Arizona State University word mark is a trademark of the Arizona Board of Regents. All other brand, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks used herein are the property of their respective owners. Information in this document is for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice.

For more information, please visit: fulton.asu.edu Table of Contents

The Schematic

03 18 19 24

02 Letter from Deirdre R. Meldrum, 19-23 New School of Materials, a Dean of the Ira A. Fulton School collaboration between the Fulton of Engineering School and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, advances materials 03 Engineers in the Fulton School are science and teaches students how to coming together to ﬁnd solutions to apply the advances to the real world society’s most plaguing issues 24-28 Harrington Department of 07 Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to Bioengineering leads a collaborative invest in technology-based ventures effort to integrate the physical developed at ASU and life sciences for the purpose 09-13 Newly renamed Department of of improving the diagnosis and Chemical Engineering collaborates treatment of disease with U.S. Army and 15 industry 29 Calendar of Events partners to develop commercially- for March-May, 2007 ready display technology 14-18 New School of Computing and Informatics spreads informatics education into disciplines not traditionally associated with the world of computers

The Spring 07 issue of Full Circle will highlight the Civil and Environmental Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Departments.

Editor’s Note: The fly featured on the cover of the Fall 2006 issue of Full Circle was misidentified. Quentin Wheeler, newly-appointed Vice President and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, e-mailed us in mid-December to let us know that the fly belongs to the family Bombyliidae, subfamily Lomatiinae (bee flies). Wheeler, an entomologist, added that without a photo of the fly’s wings and information about its geographic origin, it is impossible to identify it further because there are about 4,500 species in the family. Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 1 Message from the Dean

As the pace of technological change accelerates there is an increasing demand for engineers that can work in academia and industry as well as other fields such as business and policy making to improve the quality of life. Engineering education trains students to have strong analytical skills and practical ingenuity that is necessary for solving problems in a variety of disciplines. To function successfully in a rapidly changing global economy the engineer of the future must be creative, have good communication and business management skills, and provide leadership to the community. Lifelong learning coupled with flexibility will enable engineers to adapt to new fields and careers throughout life.

The Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering is training engineers of the future. The transdisciplinary Fulton engineer is trained in the fundamentals of engineering coupled with individually selected opportunities to pursue entrepreneurial courses and research opportunities, as well as courses and programs in other colleges such as earth and space exploration, sustainability, biodesign, and business. Diversity of ideas and experiences is encouraged as collaborative teams work on solving challenging problems, cognizant of the impact on society. Research is integrated into the curriculum to enhance the educational experience. Professionals from around the world are trained by our faculty through on-line courses offered by the Deirdre R. Meldrum Center for Professional Development. Dean, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering

Opportunities abound at the Fulton School and ASU to engage engineers and others in the community as entrepreneurs through programs such as Ira A. Fulton School Entrepreneurial Programs Office, Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), the Edson student entrepreneur initiative, InnovationSpace, and ASU Technopolis. Faculty, staff, and students in the Fulton school partner with the Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (CRESMET), the Arizona Initiative in Math and Science Education (AzIMASE) and others at ASU and the broader Phoenix community to improve science, technology, “The Ira A. Fulton engineering, and math education for students from preschool through college. School of Engineering is training engineers As we celebrate the tremendous strides of the first 50 years of engineering at ASU, the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering is poised to generate thousands of the future.” of engineers of the future that embody the vision and mission of the school and benefit from and contribute to the New American University created by President Crow as “an accessible university of high academic rank focused on excellence, access and impact” that is “responsible for the economic, social, and cultural vitality of our region.”

http://www.asu.edu/president/newamericanuniversity/

Arizona State University Cover Story

Left to right: Lisa Clifton, Hong Luo, Jennifer Triplett Kingston and Executive Dean Paul Johnson

Developing the Entrepreneurial Engineer of the 21st Century The Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering: By Melissa Crytzer Fry

At first glance, an electrical engineer working with biologists on single-cell analysis – racing to understand why some cells proliferate and others die – might seem a bit of an anomaly.

Consider the computer scientist working shoulder-to-shoulder with psychologists to better understand gaming theory, or the physicist collaborating daily with materials engineers on the design of super-efficient solar cells. Or even the civil engineer working closely with environmental engineers to ensure safe and sustainable water supplies.

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 Cover Feature

“Engineers always need to keep in mind, ‘What is the application, the long-term benefit and impact of my work? If I choose this solution or approach, how will it impact society?’”

Dean Deirdre R. Meldrum

To some, these groups of individuals might seem a collection Leading the charge is newly appointed Dean and visionary, of mismatched pairs – people who have wandered far Deirdre Meldrum. “We have to break away from the silo outside of their areas of expertise. But by the Ira A. Fulton approach in our training and our thinking,” says Meldrum, School of Engineering’s standards, these researchers are previously an electrical engineering professor at the exactly where they should be. They’re people with expertise University of Washington. “We need to train experts who in different fields – in different areas of engineering are strong in engineering, but who are also effectively – coming together collectively to solve society’s most engaged in learning about other disciplines. They need to plaguing issues. be entrepreneurial – showing creativity, innovation, and a willingness to take challenges and risks.” “The engineering fields need to become more closely linked,” says ASU President Michael Crow of the Their focus, adds Meldrum, should be on problem-solving engineering discipline that has historically been segmented. and discoveries that benefit humanity. “Engineers always “Bioengineering, electrical engineering, computer science, need to keep in mind, ‘What is the application, the long-term civil engineering, mechanical engineering – they need to be benefit and impact of my work? If I choose this solution or leveraged and need to build from each other.” approach, how will it impact society?’” she explains.

This trandisciplinary approach – where solutions are sought Meldrum is, in many ways, the perfect role model for this independent of departmental boundaries – is just one of the new engineering paradigm. An electrical engineer with a hallmarks of the Fulton School’s new model for engineering civil engineering background, she developed a knack for research and education. combining her expertise with research interests outside of her formal training. The end result has been nothing short of amazing.

Arizona State University Cover Feature

“She’s building electrical devices to work with people articles, attending seminars and working closely with fighting cancer,” Crow says of Meldrum’s ability to advance different professors in the University of Washington’s technical solutions. “She’s working with oceanographers wet labs. who are studying new life forms in the ocean. She is working with people exploring space. Dee Dee is able to cut across These same types of opportunities she wants to make all those areas and bring together all of these disciplines to available to Fulton students and researchers. focus on problem-solving.” According to Paul Johnson, Fulton School’s Executive Dean, An internship with NASA while she was a civil engineering the key to success is creating a nimble and entrepreneurial student was the first of many defining moments that environment where faculty and students feel free to exposed the inquisitive Meldrum to new fields of research. generate and discuss curricular and collaborative “I was working on training astronauts in a Shuttle Mission research ideas. simulator,” Meldrum explains. “In doing that work, I saw that the things I got excited about were better enabled by an “Traditionally at a university, it might take several years to electrical engineering background.” get a new degree approved,” explains Johnson. In ASU’s entrepreneurial setting, the pace is highly accelerated. The master’s degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering For example, in only six months, a Master of Real Estate she later earned from Rensselaer Polytechnic and Stanford Development degree was conceived, approved and offered University, however, didn’t stop Meldrum from delving into through the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, the School fields outside of her professional comfort zone – including of Architecture and Design, W.P. Carey School of Business, genomics. She took every opportunity to learn about and the Fulton School’s Del E. Webb School of Construction. genomics, self-training by immersing herself in research

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 Cover Feature

“It was very timely, very successful, right on the mark, and right at the right time,” Johnson says of the new degree. “Something like that could never happen unless people were saying ‘That’s a good idea. Let’s explore it. Let’s give it a try.’”

This same exploratory and entrepreneurial approach is also evident in course options. A Fulton School elective course prepares engineers to thrive in entrepreneurial organizations, while the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative provides funding, ofﬁce space and training for teams of students to explore innovative business products and services.

“We recognize that at some point in their careers, people start their own companies, pursue their own inventions or work in small, entrepreneurial ﬁrms,” Johnson explains. Opportunities such as InnovationSpace, a joint venture between the Fulton School, College of Design and W.P. Carey School of Business, prepare students for those realities, helping them create progressive, possible and proﬁtable products.

Still other opportunities fund undergraduate and graduate research opportunities – many that require students to take courses from a range of disciplines, and others that provide hands-on experience writing research proposals.

One thing is certain for Fulton students. As Meldrum and Johnson continue to embody a progressive, entrepreneurial management style – Meldrum focused on developing departmental, campus-wide, industry and community connections, and Johnson responsible for oversight of day-to-day activities in the Fulton School – students will learn from their example.

As Dean, people-connector, researcher, and Director of the Center for Ecogenomics at ASU, Meldrum will continue to make advances that beneﬁt humanity. Johnson, playing the role of COO, environmental engineering researcher and Professor, will maintain open lines of communication among faculty and students. Both will transform the way engineers touch the world. Innovation Bridging the Gap Arizona Technology Investors Forum Brings Technology Start-ups and Venture Capitalists Together By Trisha Coffman

Did Silicon Valley start with technology first, followed by the money? Or was it the money that propelled the technology forward?

As far as Thomas Duening is concerned, there is forum, joint initiative between the EPO and Arizona no chicken-and-egg question. Instead, when it Technology Enterprises (AzTE), is a vehicle wherein comes to such perfect storms, “It forms together, like-minded individuals have early opportunities to because people realize there are real opportunities. invest in technology-based ventures growing out of It’s not just technology first, or money first. It the university. churns together,” says Duening, Director of the Entrepreneurial Programs Office (EPO) in the Ira A. The strong emphasis on funded research at ASU, Fulton School of Engineering. conducted by “tremendously gifted researchers,” can only result in commercially viable output, Duening is churning away, hoping for a tech-meets- Duening says. But brilliant ideas typically require capital state of affairs in Arizona and at Arizona State an infusion of capital to get beyond the lab and into University, with the Arizona Technology Investor the marketplace. “The faculty realizes that we’re Forum (ATIF), which launched on Sept. 29. The encouraging them to be entrepreneurs. But it’s hard

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 Innovation

Left to right: Dr. Thomas Duening, Bart Katz, Nicholas Aretakis and Bruce Bowers at the quarterly ATIF meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz.

to be an entrepreneur when you don’t Membership in the investing and We socialize and sometimes play know how to raise funds. It can be networking forum is made up of golf. It gives them a chance to come extraordinarily difficult to do. So we’re accredited private equity investors, into the Valley for a weekend and get closing that final loop of what it takes venture capitalists and corporate/ caught up on the latest technologies,” to be successful in entrepreneurship by institutional investors, with fees of Duening says. providing seed capital,” he says. $2,000 a year (which go to the ASU Foundation), and an obligation to Of course, the opportunity to let money Forum member Brian Currie agrees. “If invest a minimum of $25,000 in one or make money is another potential there is no money stream, there’s no more deals over a two-year period. The privilege of membership, but “the capability, and ideas just languish,” investment possibilities are as varied majority of people involved are doing it says Currie, an ASU electrical as an engineering education, Duening for a higher level,” Katz says. “You feel engineering graduate. “ATIF acts as says, covering everything from nano- strongly about what ASU has done for the financial arm to make ideas reality. and biotechnology, to software and you and what you can do for ASU, and People see they can make a business solar technology. by extension, ASU is Arizona. There’s a and make money, as opposed to strong allegiance.” saying ‘Here’s this great invention,’ At three or four events a year, and that’s it.” members will get a close-up of “the Duening is counting on that loyalty to best deals coming up through the the region. “We’re trying to aggregate While cash is essential to advancing pipeline from the Fulton School labs,” and increase the velocity of capital technology, so is mentorship—hence says Duening, who estimates that in one localized region of the United the forum, rather than a fund, says around 80 percent of ATIF’s members States”—Arizona—much like what forum member and ASU engineering are ASU alumni. As of the end of goes on in other high-tech meccas, alum Bart Katz. “We wanted to provide 2006, membership stood at 30, with such as the Boston Corridor and the a forum by which we can mentor a goal of 100 members by mid-2007. Research Triangle in North Carolina. potential technology start-ups coming “We have alums who have been out out of ASU, and if the mentoring of engineering school for quite some “I think it will happen in Arizona,” went well, provide the opportunity for time, have been successful and now Currie says. “It’s a pent-up opportunity. financing,” he says. may be quasi retired and want to There hasn’t been a vehicle to do this, stay connected with the action. The but now ASU has arrived. I think it’s forum is the perfect setting to do so. going to go crazy.”

Arizona State University Chemical Engineering

Breaking Down Barriers Flexible Display Center Develops Commercially-Ready Display Technology By Trisha Coffman

Graduate research assistant Jovan Trujillo shows a tantalum pentoxide film covered with more than 2,022 capacitor dots. “Something good happens here every week.”

That can’t always be said about the “two steps forward, one step back” world of research and development, but for Greg Raupp, Director of the Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University, it’s often one exciting breakthrough after another.

The FDC is accelerating flexible display technology—which allows for displays that are lightweight, require little power and are intrinsically rugged—in a collaboration established by the U.S. Army in February 2004, and which also includes 15 industry partners. The goal is to develop commercially-ready display technology that the Army can integrate for its purposes. “Our mission is to broadly advance the technology and break down the barriers to commercialization,” says Raupp, Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 Chemical Engineering

Commercial possibilities include sturdier displays for cell That’s one reason Raupp suspects the Army selected ASU: phones and other handheld devices, “electronic paper,” rapid technology development in a pilot line manufacturing and wearable displays on sleeves for everything from first environment. “We’re not just pushing along flexible-display responder situational awareness to personal fitness, technology, we’re also pushing along manufacturing Raupp says. But for the Army, flexible displays are not technology. Not only can we fabricate the device, we can tell only about convenience, they are also about safety and you how to manufacture it,” he says. facilitating strategy. This environment of many technologies brought together As early as this summer, the FDC is delivering prototypes makes for a unique educational experience. “Students of hand-held devices with rugged flexible-display technology get exposed to a very dynamic, fast-paced, high-tech to the Army. “They will incorporate wireless communications development effort that isn’t found in a typical university and link to Global Positioning Systems. The software will setting. They get immersed in it,” Raupp says. center an individual on the map and include other icons to indicate positioning of their objective, as well as friendlies Jovan Trujillo is a chemical engineering graduate student, and foes,” Raupp explains. but he’s the FDC’s jack-of-all-trades, cross-training with chemical, materials and electrical engineers to improve That sort of real-time situational awareness in the field transistor performance for flexible displays. “It’s more is one application. Other possibilities include somewhat challenging to be in a multidisciplinary research project,” larger displays for Army vehicle applications and even very Trujillo says. “There’s a rich assortment of problems for a large displays that could be rolled up and used as portable graduate student to work on. I want to go into industry, so I’ll command posts. have a broader understanding of these problems and how to apply them to industry.” Last fall the FDC leapt from producing one-inch diagonal displays to those of four-inches. Recent advances in the Trujillo performs fundamental, applied and developmental display pilot line scale will allow for even bigger displays research in his work on anodically oxidized tantalum in the coming years. Through “dozens of breakthroughs,” pentoxide and its use as a high-κ dielectric, which helps the Center has accomplished the fabrication of high-quality lower the operating voltage of the displays and will allow for thin-film transistors at low temperature conditions that smaller transistors for future color displays. are compatible with flexible substrates. Raupp anticipates exploring color displays in the next year. Not only does Trujillo work with others in academia, but also with those industry collaborators offering their technology “It’s amazing how quickly we move,” Raupp says. “We get and know-how. “He gets the help of an entire staff trying to through a cycle of learning in well under a month in process build his process,” Raupp says. “We all have the opportunity development. Relative to the speed of typical R&D, we’re to collectively advance the technology.” more like a start-up company in the speed at which we work.”

Professor Bryan Vogt discusses the analysis of a thin dielectric film using ellipsometry with chemical engineering graduate student Lingyan Song.

Flexible Display Center 4-inch QVGA Display Chemical Engineering: Undergraduate

“By coming up with new ways to power small cars, students are making steps toward the creation of a viable alternative to diesel oil.” Engine-uity Left to right: Bryan Sexton, Joshua Ashcroft, Susan Kubinski, Robert Ruttle, Sam Villalobos, AlChE Chem-E-Car Competition David Valdez, Brandon Knott, Dr. Jeff Heys and Joshua Gemmell. By Deanna Evans

What do you get when you mix beef liver and hydrogen Nearing the end of the design stage, the students have found peroxide? Ask the chemical engineering students who that the biggest challenge so far has been deciding on the are preparing to enter the American Institute of Chemical kind of chemical reaction to use and finding a way to contain it. Engineers’ (AIChE) Chem-E-Car Competition. “Traditionally there have been a wide variety of reactions This March, Arizona State University students will both host used in the competition,” Heys says. “Now we are seeing and compete in the regional competition for the first time fuel cells replace the potentially dangerous high-pressure under the direction of Dr. Jeff Heys of the Department of reactions such as beef liver and hydrogen peroxide.” Chemical Engineering. ASU student teams will compete amongst themselves and The Chem-E-Car Competition, held in conjunction with then with other student chapters in the Rocky Mountain the AIChE spring regional conferences and AIChE Annual Region. Regional winners across the U.S. will go on to meeting, asks student teams to design and build a car that compete in the national competition in Salt Lake City is powered by a chemical reaction. The car must be able to in November. carry a specified load over a given distance and stop on its own. There are cash prizes for winning teams at both stages of competition, but the real aim of the event is to facilitate A total of 12 chemical engineering students led by Brandon collaboration between chemical engineering students and Knott, Susan Kubinkski and Sam Villalobos spend several foster relationships between students and the professional hours a week in a lab, testing their knowledge of chemical organization. interactions in attempt to build a car that will run and stop without the use of commercial batteries, remote control, The competition also allows students to address one of brakes or timing device. society’s most pressing issues – the need for renewable energy. By coming up with new ways to power small cars, “In the classroom you learn about ideal reactions, like how students are making steps toward the creation of a viable much voltage you should ideally expect from any given alternative to diesel oil. reaction,” Kubinkski says. “Working in the lab for this project, we have found that it’s difficult to get textbook results.”

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 11 Chemical Engineering: Graduate Student

Jessica O’Brien Solving the Hydrogen Puzzle By Trisha Coffman

Fulton Fellow Jessica O’Brien, a chemical engineering graduate student, is investigating inorganic membranes, specifically zeolites, for the development of new hydrogen separation technology. Her faculty adviser, Chemical Engineering Professor Dr. Jerry Lin, leads the Materials for Separation Laboratory at ASU.

“We all know the benefits of the end use of hydrogen as a fuel, but what we’re really going for is setting up the foundation.”

Efficient, cost-effective production has so far eluded efforts engineering them for a purpose that can’t be achieved any toward a hydrogen economy. The research that Jessica other way right now, so it’s really exciting,” she says. O’Brien is doing in her second year as a graduate student in the Chemical Engineering Department in the Ira A. Fulton “This is cutting-edge research,” says Jerry Lin, the Chair School of Engineering involves hydrogen separation, one of the Department of Chemical Engineering. “The current foundational piece in the overall efficiency puzzle. technology cannot produce hydrogen in a cost-effective manner. It’s a major effort in developing nanoscale materials O’Brien’s research entails the synthesis of molecular sieve for membrane reactor systems for hydrogen production.” zeolite membranes, as well as the study of gas transport and Indicative of her quick progress, O’Brien, who is a Fulton separation properties of those membranes. “We’re basically Fellow, presented a paper at the North American Membrane developing the infrastructure for the use of hydrogen,” Society in Chicago in May 2006, and she has received an O’Brien says. “We all know the benefits of the end use of invitation to present another paper at the 2007 International hydrogen as a fuel, but what we’re really going for is setting Zeolite Conference in Beijing. up the foundation.” Ever full of ideas for what to do next (a trait Lin says “We’re developing membranes that are able to separate helps to fuel her success), O’Brien is eager to finish hydrogen from carbon dioxide, so we’re actually breaking the membrane development phase and move on to the apart a gas stream into its various components. To do that, membrane reactor, another step toward efficient hydrogen you need really special membranes with really small pores,” production. “Applications are fun, but I’m hoping to take in the range of 0.5 nanometers. The work is “groundbreaking what I’m doing to the next level,” O’Brien says, “rather than in the sense that these materials don’t really exist yet. We’re just, ‘Here’s the membrane I made! Put it on the fridge!’”

12 Arizona State University Chemical Engineering: Alumnus

“I signed up for chemical engineering straight away and just never looked back...”

Dr. Douglas K. Ludlow Mirthful in Missouri By Joel M. Horn

Talk about a handful. “At the time – they still do – it looked like they had an active Chemical Engineering Department graduate program and had Douglas Ludlow and his wife had two children when he a nice packet to support the graduate students,” he says. “I started his graduate work in the Chemical Engineering guess part of it was we just thought it would be fun to live Department in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at in Arizona.” Arizona State University, and they had their third daughter while they were in Arizona. Ludlow, who earned his Ph.D. from ASU in 1986, now lives in Rolla, Mo., where he is a Professor at Missouri’s premier “But it was still a fun time,” Ludlow says. “Graduate school technological research university, the University of Missouri- was fun.” Rolla. His research areas include surface characterizations of absorbents and catalysts, and applications of fractal Ludlow, a native of Spanish Fork, Utah, always liked science, geometry to surface morphology. chemistry and math. He had an older brother who was an industrial engineer, and his brother went to school with a Twice he has been Chair of the Department of Chemical friend who was a chemical engineer. and Biological Engineering, but he has no desire to become a Dean and derives his greatest pleasure in teaching and Through high school, Ludlow thought he wanted to be interacting with students. Other than the occasional ice a lawyer, but when he got his Scholastic Aptitude Test storm, such as the one that caused severe damage to many results they indicated that he should consider a career in trees around campus in mid-January, he is very happy where engineering or chemistry. His older brother agreed. he is and sees no reason why he’d ever leave UM-Rolla. “I signed up for chemical engineering straight away and just never looked back,” says Ludlow, who earned his bachelor’s Now the father of five daughters, he looks forward to the day degree from Brigham Young University. when all of them are out of college and he doesn’t have to worry about tuition payments. When it came time to pick a graduate school, he and his wife decided to head south at ASU.

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 13 School of Computing and Informatics

1 2

1. Haptics technology allows humans to use computers to interact with their environment. 2. Dr. Shez Partovi, a Clinical Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, demonstrates the use of computers in medicine. 3. Left to right: Dean Deirdre Meldrum, Dr. Jonathan Fink and Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan speak at SCI’s Launch in September.

New School of Computing and Informatics Data Doctors By Trisha Coffman

It’s positioned to be an exemplar, and now the new School of board of international stature,” SCI Director Sethuraman Computing and Informatics (SCI) is advancing in its role Panchanathan says. “We have board members who are as pioneer. recognized leaders in the computing and informatics community, and, more importantly, innovators from academia The school, in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, was and industry who exemplify the spirit of interdisciplinary launched on Sept. 29, making ofﬁcial the spreading of computing and informatics.” informatics education into disciplinary areas not traditionally associated with the world of computers—archeology, Symposium events included remarks by Crow, new Fulton geology and psychology, to name a few. ”The creation of School Dean Deirdre Meldrum, Executive Dean Paul Johnson the School of Computing and Informatics is a major step and Panchanathan, as well as research theme presentations for ASU’s evolution in this critically important arena of and talks by advisory board members. “The board gave us innovation,” Arizona State University President Michael feedback in terms of how to build a world-class school at Crow says. “It’s a response to the increasingly important role ASU,” Panchanathan says. They were also forthcoming with that the acquisition, evaluation and utilization of massive compliments: “They were very impressed by SCI’s mission amounts of data play in many aspects of modern life.” and what we’ve accomplished so far. They felt that some of the things we are doing, such as informatics literacy and Given the pioneering spirit of SCI, it was ﬁtting that a informatics competency for students across ASU is a unique gathering of world-class computing and informatics pioneers and novel model. They were also impressed with the quality from around the country and abroad took part in the launch of the faculty.” symposium and ceremonies. “We’ve assembled an advisory

14 Arizona State University School of Computing and Informatics

“We have board members who are recognized leaders in the computing and informatics community, and, more importantly, innovators from academia and industry who exemplify the spirit of interdisciplinary computing and informatics.”

Advisory board members who spoke included David artifacts. “You can write computer programs that automate Gries, Cornell University; Michael Fourman, University human activities, ones that serve as models of human of Edinburgh; Genevieve Bell, Intel Corporation; and Raj behavior, or ones that assist people in carrying out complex Reddy, Carnegie Mellon University. “SCI is embarking on an tasks,” he says. exciting vision that encompasses innovative transdisciplinary research and a national model curriculum,” Reddy says. “SCI Just as Langley is combining ideas from fields with has excellent potential to be one of the leaders in this area.” underlying commonalities, so is BMI, in the use of biomedical knowledge and data, says Howard Silverman The school is home to the Department of Computer Science MD, Clinical Professor. He says that informatics is especially and Engineering (CSE) and the Department of Biomedical apropos in the current clinical world, where, “the use Informatics (BMI), in collaboration with the University of of computing is coming of age. We’re at a tipping point, Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix. where far more clinics and hospitals are adopting electronic medical records.” Professor Pat Langley says the content of the launch talks reflected the school’s views on informatics. “Computer Silverman explains that the department will help to answer science is an important discipline, but it sometimes defines questions associated with the growing availability of itself too narrowly,” Langley says. “Informatics takes a electronic records and other data. “How should we house, broader perspective that includes all techniques for storing interpret and use that kind of data, whether they are clinical and using content on computers. Informatics builds on or human genome sequences or other biological data sets? computer science, but takes a more integrative view and How do we optimize the use of information to improve the reaches out to other fields.” quality, reliability and efficiency of clinical care?” he asks. “Those questions include technological, human and ethical As an example, Langley works in the area of cognitive dimensions.” informatics, which combines ideas from cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence and human-computer As SCI’s offerings reach out to all university students, interaction. He explains that this branch of informatics it’s exactly that combination that SCI will emphasize: the incorporates results from psychology about the nature of technological with the human. cognition, perception and action into three types of software

Technology allows for groups to view medical procedures. School of Computing and Informatics: Undergraduate “I’m not aware of every problem out there that needs to be solved, but I would like to try to take some work out of the researchers’ hands.”

Anthony Gitter Collaborative Effort By Deanna Evans

Left to right: Dr. Chita Barral, Anthony Gitter and Dr. Graciela Gonzalez.

Anthony Gitter is not your typical ASU student. The software currently runs as a browser add-on As an undergraduate engineering senior, he when researchers view an article on the PubMed has been working with university researchers website, a repository of the National Library of formore than two years while maintaining his Medicine which houses more than 16 million status as a Barrett Honors student with a 4.0 abstracts of biomedical data. CbioC combines grade-point average. information extraction with user collaboration and aims to ultimately create a body of reliable, peer- An early desire to go to graduate school led reviewed, easy-to-access facts. Gitter on a search for research opportunities in his sophomore year. Majoring in computer As with many new concepts, the application science with an interest in biomedical of CbioC revealed its weaknesses. “Scientists applications, he soon found himself working as from all over the world used our program for a part-time research assistant under Dr. Chitta about a week and then realized that some of the Baral through the Fulton Undergraduate Research information they were getting was incorrect,” Initiative (FURI). Gitter says.

Working with Dr. Baral and Dr. Graciela Gonzalez, For his senior thesis, Gitter is attempting to both Professors in the School of Computing and iron out the barriers to CbioC’s effectiveness by Informatics in the Fulton School of Engineering, proposing new information extraction methods. Gitter has been a key figure in the development The current accuracy of biomedical information of a software program called Collaborative Bio extraction systems is 60-65 percent – a mark Curation (CbioC), a program that could potentially Gitter would like to see surpassed. change the way biomedical research is conducted. After graduate school, Gitter hopes to stay in the Launched last December, CbioC has been field of research. “I want to build my artificial- described as a kind of Google meets Wikipedia for intelligence background in machine learning or biomedical literature. The software was created logic without losing the biomedical focus,” he to save time for researchers by extracting facts says. “I’m not aware of every problem out there regarding protein interactions, gene-disease and that needs to be solved, but I would like to try to gene-bioprocess relationships from the vast swell take some work out of the researchers’ hands.” of biomedical literature on the web.

16 Arizona State University School of Computing and Informatics: Graduate Student

Professor Subbarao Kambhampati (left) and Fulton Fellow and University Graduate Fellow William Cushing.

William Cushing Planning Technology By Trisha Coffman

It’s what helps NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover robots carry out their daily tasks and expedites packages carried by UPS or FedEx along their routes. It’s planning technology, and it serves to determine the necessary actions to achieve a particular goal.

Willliam Cushing, graduate student in the School of Computing and Informatics (SCI) in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, has been researching temporal planning and its concurrency requirements. Temporal—or time-dependent— planning differs from classical planning, in which plans are always linear sequences of actions. “With temporal planning, the idea is to select a bunch of actions and times for them to start so you can take a situation and transform it to satisfy whatever goals you have,” Cushing explains. “With temporal planning, you have complete freedom for starting actions. That could mean that several of them are happening concurrently.”

Many problems by their very nature require concurrent actions, Cushing says—and that opens up a variety of considerations when programming. “It’s more difficult to solve those types of problems, because there are so many more possibilities. This research helps to clarify when different temporal planning languages in fact do or don’t have required concurrency,” he says.

Cushing presented a paper demonstrating flaws in temporal planning systems at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in January in India. He argues that temporal planning isn’t really temporal unless it’s accompanied by concurrency. “There is an international planning competition held every two years with a track for temporal planners. His paper shows that much of the work done under temporal planning really wasn’t following temporal planning at all,” says Professor Subbarao Kambhampati. “These are benchmark domain design issues. His paper is likely to have an impact on the community.”

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 17 School of Computing and Informatics: Alumnus

Aeree Cho Good Choices “I decided, ‘Well, if I’m going to program, By Joel M. Horn I’m going to go all the way.’”

Aeree Cho says every path she has taken has been very with DHL for a position as a contractor, doing quality lucky. Others, including those who promoted her to a full- assurance on localized, Korean-language software for web time position after six months at Intel, would disagree. applications. She got the job.

They’d say she has gotten to where she is by hard work, She subsequently took another contracting job, this time dedication, and the excellent education she received in the at Vital, before a consulting agent contacted her about a School of Computing and Informatics in the Ira A. Fulton position at Intel – a company for which she had long wanted School of Engineering at Arizona State University. to work.

Cho, a 2004 graduate of the Fulton School, is a native of After six months, she was promoted to a full-time position, South Korea. Fortunately, she has uncle and aunt who live in and now she is a localization project manager. Her job the Valley and they invited Cho to America. After graduating involves taking software, having vendors translate it into up high school in 1998, she came to the Valley of the Sun to to 26 languages, then having language specialists test the learn English. She took an English-as-a-Second-Language software in the lab with language-speciﬁc operating systems class at ASU and subsequently decided to go to school there to ensure that they’re culturally proper and there are no instead of returning to South Korea. defects such as misspellings. She says her job is very global, exciting, fast and challenging. After much deliberation, Cho decided to major in computer information technology at ASU, but then she changed her Her parents, who still live in South Korea, are very proud her. mind to major in computer science. “They like it,” she says with great humility. “I decided, ‘Well, if I’m going to program, I’m going to go all the way,’” she says. Cho, who was actively involved with Women in Computer Science as an undergraduate, plans to return to ASU soon, After graduating from ASU, she went back to South Korea either to pursue a master’s degree in computing or a Master for two weeks. But before she left, she had an interview of Business Administration.

18 Arizona State University Loading samples for external particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis. School of Materials

“You can invent, but you can’t produce your invention if there is no material to do so.”

New School of Materials Materials World By Trisha Coffman

The concept of the semiconductor—a feat of science and engineering no doubt taken for granted in the world at large today—was known since the early 1930s, but at the time the manufacture of such a thing wasn’t possible. The technology Douglas Thompson and Shekhar Bhagat was intellectually available, but the ready materials were too demonstrate a surface unrefined, not up to the delicate task. activation process used in high strength wafer bonding. It wasn’t until the mid-1940s that Bill Pfann at Bell Telephone Laboratories made the computer chip possible through the development of zone-refining and zone-leveling methods, which could prepare high-purity materials. Pfann’s sights were set on manufacturing transistors, but the concepts based on materials science and engineering provided the ability to refine silicon to ultra-pure levels. At last chip technology wasn’t mere invention; its very feasibility changed the world.

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 19 School of Materials

Senior Research Specialist Shahriar Anwar with two students from his Loading samples for Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) analysis. MSE 315 (“Mathematical & Computational Materials Science”) class, Inho Kim (left) and Jordan Sperko

Subhash Mahajan, Director of the new School of Materials Which circles back to the science of semiconductors. (SOM), recounts that story as a classic example of the “We’re learning how to take semiconductor processing importance of the materials education. Technology will get technology—something we as a country do well—and nowhere without the proper materials, he says. asking, can we apply these techniques to other things?” Alford says. “You can invent, but you can’t produce your invention if there is no material to do so,” Mahajan says. “If you talk Alford is applying semiconductor techniques to biomedical to those in industry, such as chip manufacturers, they’ll tell uses in his work with hydroxyappetite, the mineral content you it is mostly materials problems that are the constraints. of human bone, in conjunction with the Center for Solid The ideas are there, but the implementation is difficult.” State Science and faculty in Bioengineering. “One thing Implementation would also prove difficult without the we’re working on is coating of prostheses. If a person properly educated. obtains a hip joint replacement, what we’re interested in doing is using semiconductor techniques to put thin films of That’s the double gist of SOM, a collaboration between the hydroxyappetite onto the prosthesis such that it promotes Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and the College of Liberal bone fixation, and improves adhesion,” says Alford. Arts and Sciences: to advance materials science and educate students to apply those advances to real-world needs. The application possibilities are boundless. “Seeing how materials have been used throughout the history of mankind SOM began offering classes in the fall of 2006. Mahajan to resolve social issues, be they communication, housing, likes to say that the school is “fast-forwarding materials storage of food, transportation, there has always been that science.” But what does he see in that not-too-distant ability to have materials that can do specific functions,” future? “Materials science will not just be confined to he says. “That’s why if we really want to think about the metals,” he says, naming electronic materials, dielectrics, many problems facing society right now, materials will be polymers, ceramics, composites and so forth. “Electronic expanded to even broader, unfathomable venues,” such as properties of materials will become very important. What medicine and alternative fuels. we see is that we need to integrate faculty from physics, chemistry, electrical and mechanical engineering into the Mahajan has in mind innumerable examples of technological same unit. That’s what we’re doing.” advances just waiting for the requisite materials. At SOM, materials will further be understood, developed and refined. SOM’s formula will match materials science to society’s “By using the principles of materials science,” Mahajan challenges. “The whole key is to do some fundamental says, “we can elevate them.” science, but we want it to be applicable to the real world,” says Professor Terry Alford.

20 Arizona State University School of Materials: Undergraduate

Allison Engstrom, Thomas Heaton, Jordan Kennedy and Larry Mickelson Undergraduates Raising Standards By Joel M. Horn

Left to right: Professor Cody Friesen, Thomas Heaton, Allison Engstrom, Jordan Kennedy and Larry Mickelson.

Cody Friesen loves his research group. Friesen’s microscope to see atoms. An article of his group of 10 is part of the School of Materials recently was published in the Journal in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at of Applied Physics. Arizona State University. Five of the group’s members are undergraduate students, four Heaton, who majors in chemical engineering, are graduate students and one is a research joined the group subsequent to taking a materials professional. Under the direction of the ASU- and class created by Friesen, “Electrical, Magnetic, MIT-educated Friesen, they all do exceptional, and Optical Properties of Materials,” in 2005. cutting-edge research. His current experimentation involves real-time surface stress measurements of metallic thin Allison Engstrom, Thomas Heaton, Jordan films in electrochemical systems. Recently, he Kennedy and Larry Mickelson – all native co-authored a paper with Friesen that will be Arizonans – are four of the undergrads. submitted to the Journal of Physical Chemistry.

Mickelson, who met Friesen at a graduate open Engstrom was the last undergrad to join the house and started working for him in September team in the middle of her sophomore year. 2004, changed his major to materials because he Her current project involves trying to create wanted to get away from computer programming. a completely different kind of fuel cell which The first project Friesen gave him was to modify utilizes fluidic flow rather than a membrane to a molecular dynamics program which simulates prevent mixed potentials at the anode. She is atomic motion on a sub-nanometer length scale. also looking into improved catalyst synthesis Interestingly, Mickelson discovered that “when I using nanoparticle platinum. use the computer as a tool, as opposed to being an end in itself, I really enjoy it.” Engstrom, Heaton, Kennedy and Mickelson are top-notch students. The latter three are Kennedy spent his first eight months repairing an graduating in May and aspire to become ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscope professors at major research universities or that had huge reliability issues, but now can professional researchers. image atomic scale features. For his research, he has set up a surface stress monitor to measure Friesen wouldn’t expect anything less. stress in films and used a scanning tunneling

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 21 School of Materials: Graduate Student

Rajen Sidhu Big Advances, Small Packages By Trisha Coffman

Electronics is shrinking, sometimes seemingly before our very eyes. And it’s no secret that they’re also becoming faster, increasingly complex and chock-full of features

The cell phones, laptops and other electronic products so many use on a daily basis are essentially comprised of electronic packaging; they operate thanks to “packages” of electrical interconnections and appropriate housing for electrical circuitry. Rajen Sidhu, a graduate student in the School of Materials in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, and Nik Chawla, a Professor in the School of Materials, are working to understand the mechanical behavior and reliability of electrical interconnects between different layers of the package so that quality won’t diminish along with size. The research is funded by the Division of Materials Research of the National Science Foundation.

Tiny solder balls are placed between electrical package layers to serve as both electrical and mechanical interconnects. Because environmental regulations dictate a switch from conventional lead-based solders to solders composed of an alternative material, Sidhu is researching the thermomechanical behavior of Professor Nik Chawla (left) and Rajen Sidhu. environmentally benign, tin-rich solders. “It’s a combination of the environmental aspect and the advancing of technology,” Sidhu says. “The new alloys have a higher strength material, so this will improve the mechanical integrity of the package.”

It’s the kind of fundamental, systematic science best performed at the university level, but that is immediately applicable to industry. “Our findings are directly related to reliability of the packages that companies like Intel or Freescale are making,” says Chawla, Director of the Mechanical Behavior of Materials Facility. “The material is still relatively new, so we don’t fully understand how it will behave long term. Through this research, we can hope to design newer, better, more reliable electronic packages.”

Sidhu took first place in the ASM International Graduate Student Paper Contest in 2006, and second place in the TMS (Minerals, Metals & Materials Society) Outstanding Student Paper contest in 2005—a near-unheard-of achievement. “It’s very rare for a student to place in the top two in both contests,” Chawla says. Tiny solder balls. Sidhu also received one of five Division of Graduate Studies Fellowships in 2006.

22 Arizona State University School of Materials: Alumnus

Norman Hubele Hometown Boy Makes Good By Joel M. Horn

By his own admission, Norman Hubele had only marginal A few months before first leaving for ORNL, he started work grades as an undergraduate at Arizona State University. He with Garrett AiResearch as a development engineer. He says it was due to his workload, and he was much more started at Garrett making special valves for use in nuclear concerned with learning the material than he was with power plants, just at the time when Three Mile Island had the grades. its meltdown caused mostly by a similar type of faulty valve made by another manufacturer. Besides, he adds, it was the ‘70s. After about a year of working on nuclear control valves, he But he has more than made up for that now. As founder and began working on more exotic fluidic controls, which were owner of Refrac Systems in Chandler, Ariz., Hubele leads a primarily being developed for producing missile guidance company that has diffusion bonded more than a million parts control systems. After several years, he was added to a in the past 22 years. It has touched everyone’s lives in ways special problem-solving team that was working to improve that often are overlooked, from airplane control systems, the MK-50 torpedo propulsion system. emergency room and other medical devices, automotive systems, defense hardware, vision systems, cell phones “Working on high-energy chemical systems was very and computers. exciting for a true pyromaniac such as me,” he jokes.

Hubele is a native of the Valley of the Sun, having been During all of these programs, Hubele kept a strong interest raised mostly in Tempe, where he attended McClintock High. in high temperature metallurgy. He also made friends with a He earned a BSE in mechanical/nuclear engineering in 1978 number of key vendors from all over the country, several of and an MSE in materials science engineering in 1982, both whom encouraged him to consider starting a business using from ASU. his knowledge of metallurgy in response to their need for a supplier of specialized vacuum furnace services. Two summers in a row, Hubele was loaned out under contract from the State of Arizona/ASU to Oak Ridge Since its inception in 1984, Refrac Systems National Laboratories (ORNL), where he did a lot of (www.refrac.com) has been responsible for the environmental work developing the solvent extraction manufacturing/processing of about 1,000 different products. radiochemistry of Polonium-210 – the very same stuff It has grown over the years into what is believed to be the allegedly used to kill a Russian spy recently. world’s largest diffusion bonding service provider.

NASA astronaut Dr. Richard M. Linnehan (left) and Norman Hubele. Refrac Systems

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 23 Harrington Department of Bioengineering

Biomedical Imaging The Eyes of Science By Trisha Coffman

Intelligent guessing, backed by wisdom and understanding, has for the most part led the progression of medical science. It’s accomplished a great deal, to be sure, but there’s a new bridge in town, one that makes the pathway between the medical sciences and engineering principles a regular thoroughfare.

Left to right: fMRI and PET imaging. Above: EEG imaging “The investigations of complex biological and physiological systems and processes require an extensive collaboration between life and physical scientists and engineers to improve our understanding,” says Metin Akay, Interim Chair of the Harrington Department of Bioengineering (HDBE) in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

Leading the way toward a crisper understanding is a particularly hot field, that of biomedical imaging and informatics, a developing Fulton School thrust area led by HDBE in collaboration with the Department of Electrical Engineering and the School of Computing and Informatics. Biomedical imaging is an interdisciplinary field based on the integration of the physical sciences and the life sciences for the improvement of diagnosis and treatment of disease.

24 Arizona State University Harrington Department of Bioengineering

“There’s an increased appreciation of the need for cross cutting departments that bridge engineering and medicine.”

Where once only the entire body or individual organs could Technological advancements aren’t the only thing driving be imaged, advancements in imaging technologies—such the field. “There’s the realization that things are not less as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), magnetic complicated, but more complicated. We need to add resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography principles to medical investigation, and engineering can (PET)— allow imaging of specific cells or molecules within bring that to the table,” says Andrew Laine, Professor of an organ or tissue. “From system to cell we can use imaging Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at Columbia University. technology to predict and to diagnose disease, as well as to monitor the disease,” Akay says. “We were unable to see Biomedical imaging programs such as that being planned molecular activities using other tools before. Now we can at HDBE are “absolutely growing across the country,” Laine do it.” says. “There’s an increased appreciation of the need for cross cutting departments that bridge engineering and medicine. That the imaging paradigm has been changing over the past The reality is that a lot of problems in science and medicine 10 years or so is due to improved resolution and progress today can’t be solved by working in a traditional and single in developmental chemistry, allowing for the labeling of discipline, and that’s especially true in medicine.” individual molecules and seeing how they interact, says Zhi-Pei Liang, Professor of Electrical and Computer At ASU, the Fulton Biomedical Imaging Program (FBMI) Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. will train a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers, priming them to tackle those problems. “Fulton is building on Reduced healthcare expenses and more individualized these advances by supporting pioneering research to develop medical treatment are just two of the visualized benefits of innovative biomedical imaging technologies and improve advancing imaging technology. For example, heart bypass existing imaging systems jointly with the internationally- surgeries were once always considered major surgeries; new renowned Biodesign Institute, the School of Life Sciences at imaging technology allows for a much less invasive procedure ASU and our clinical partners,” says Akay. with minimal collateral damage, Liang says. FBMI will expose students to the relatively new approaches Images can also inform medical professionals about of the biomedical imaging technologies, from nano to macro treatment. “Different people have different metabolic rates, mathematical and computational challenges. The three so the same treatment won’t have the same impact on research areas will include molecular and cellular imaging, everyone,” Liang says. “How do you know what the impact clinical medical imaging and image processing. will be? Imaging technology allows us to get that kind of information.”

Drs. Metin Akay (right) and Yasemin Akay with bioengineering students. Bioengineering: Undergraduate

Markus Renno with Radiology Technologists at the Regional Hospital in Koforidua, the capitol of the Eastern Region of Ghana. Renno volunteered at the hospital and observed the technologists for a week over winter break. Photo courtesy Markus Renno.

Markus Renno

Getting a Markus Renno is very advanced. You (3-D plus time) images of the heart. might even say he’s ahead of his time. The model can beat and be viewed by cardiologists and radiologists to Jump The members of his thesis defense determine where there might be By Joel M. Horn committee certainly thought so when a problem. Renno, a senior bioengineering major in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering “And three months later, I had at Arizona State University, presented something that was worthy of his senior honors thesis to them at the publication,” Renno says. beginning of his junior year – and they approved it. His paper was published at the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Renno, who also is a member of Conference. Dr. Metin Akay, professor the Barrett Honors College, did the and interim chair of the Harrington research for his thesis the previous Department of Bioengineering at ASU, summer in Germany. He realized that is a member of the EMBS and was the the engineering curriculum at ASU is co-chair of the conference. very demanding and doesn’t allow much time for study abroad, so he went to “So it ended up turning into a real Germany, where he has some family he thesis defense,” Renno says. was able to stay with over the three- month summer break. One of the readers of his thesis is a medical physicist and the radiation He had e-mailed the department chair safety officer in the Radiology of bioengineering at the Universität Department at the Mayo Clinic in Karlsruhe (TH) and said he would be Scottsdale, Ariz. He asked Renno what in town all summer and would like to he was planning to do the following do some research for free if lab space summer, and Renno replied, “Well, I was available for him to work. The chair was hoping to get a job to pay for last said, “Sure, just come in when you get summer’s free labor in Germany.” here and we’ll set something up.” This past summer, Renno started Philips Medical Systems provided some working at the Mayo Clinic as an sets of cardiac image data from the assistant medical physicist. He also has beginning to the end of the cardiac applied to medical school and plans to cycle. Renno then helped develop go into radiology. software that automatically segments the left ventricle, and built a digital He already knows how the model from the four-dimensional technology works.

26 Arizona State University Bioengineering: Graduate Student

Doris Hom Small Steps By Trisha Coffman

Spinal cord injury is perceived as one of the incurables, Hom has developed a hydrogel composed of a condition to which the words “hope” and “someday” are often applied when talking about a cure. Doris Hom, hyaluronic acid—a material naturally found a graduate student in the Harrington Department of in high concentrations in the central nervous Engineering in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, system during neural development—that is using both hope and science in her research involving treatment of spinal cord injuries, in collaboration with can mimic what occurs in the body. “My Barrow Neurological Institute. research is to try to optimize the physical

Hom’s research involves tiny-but-essential steps toward structure of the gel, how stiff to make it, the providing a way for those with spinal cord injuries—of concentration of it, etc. Then the next step which there are 11,000 new cases each year in the United would be to try to incorporate molecular States—to put one foot in front of the other by themselves. Through funding from the Arizona Biomedical Research cues within the gel to help better guide Commission, Hom is investigating whether a certain material neurite growth,” leading to the long-term placed into the injured area as a scaffold could provide the right environment for neurite regrowth and regeneration of goal of possible restoration of functions and the spinal cord. Hom describes neurites as extensions from ambulation, Hom says. the cell body. Metin Akay, the Interim Chair of the Harrington Department “Once you get an injury in the spinal cord, there are injury of Bioengineering, believes that Hom’s work is a novel signals and wound healing responses that block the nerve approach to a persistent problem. “It’s an emerging field,” from growing because the body is trying to heal itself,” Hom he says of these possibilities in treating spinal cord injury. explains. Scar tissue prevents neurite growth, so a scaffold “Neuroengineering, neurogenesis and neurochips are the incorporated into the region may promote growth, she says. final frontiers, in my opinion.”

Full Circle/Engineering News Winter 2007 27 Bioengineering: Alumnus

Dan Kasprzyk with two of his employees, Project Manager Melissa Lachowitzer (ASU Bioengineering Class of ’02) and Business Development, Eastern Region Daniel Bogen (ASU Bioengineering Class of ’05). Daniel J. Kasprzyk Didn’t He Ramble By Joel M. Horn

Dan Kasprzyk may not know the northern or southern United After that, he was off to Colorado Springs, Colo., where he States very well, but he certainly is familiar with the east focused on using Excimer laser energy to treat coronary and and west. He has moved from one direction to the other peripheral artery disease. And three years after that came an five times in his professional career, but he finally has found opportunity with a company in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. a home – one he loves – in the ponderosa pines and brisk mountain air of Flagstaff, Ariz. Subsequently, he went into business with a cardiologist

The 80 or so people he employs are very glad he has, and At the time, ASU was one of less so is the medical industry, which has embraced the cutting- than 10 universities nationwide edge technologies developed by his company, Machine Solutions Inc. that offered four-year degrees

Kasprzyk, a 1984 graduate of the Harrington Department of in the then-emerging field of Bioengineering in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering biomedical engineering. at Arizona State University, transferred to ASU after his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin. At the time, who developed a device to close up vascular access sites, ASU was one of less than 10 universities nationwide that and moved to W.L. Gore & Associates in Flagstaff, where offered four-year degrees in the then-emerging field of he worked on a project to develop a stent delivery catheter biomedical engineering. using Gore Tex.

One of his mentors in the Harrington Department of He and a co-worker at W.L. Gore & Associates, Tom Bioengineering, Dr. Vincent Pizziconi, helped him get his first Motsenbocker, saw an opportunity to provide better process job out of college, developing a fiber optic blood gas sensor technology to the medical industry, so they decided to start a for a company in Columbus, Ohio. After 18 months at that company, Machine Solutions, which has become one of the job, he moved to the Bay Area in California, where his goal leading process and testing-equipment suppliers to catheter was to develop a balloon angioplasty catheter that allowed and stent manufacturers worldwide. for blood perfusion and delivered thermal energy during angioplasty procedures.

28 Arizona State University 03.07 Events Calendar March 2007 April 2007 May 2007

Friday, March 2 Thursday, April 5 Tuesday, May 8 10:40 a.m.-12 noon 7:30 a.m.-12 noon 4-5:30 p.m. Seminar Series – Professor Peter Davies, Research Forum Discovery Series (Sneaker Tours) – Professor and Chair, Materials Science Memorial Union Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania “ASU School of Computing & Informatics” “Getting the Lead Out: Friday, April 6 (New ASU School for Biological, Computing Bismuth-based Ferroelectrics” 10:40 a.m.-12 noon and Information Sciences) ERC 490 Seminar Series - Professor Ian Robertson, ASU main campus School of Materials ASU Professor and Chair, Materials Science and Register at [email protected] Engineering, University of Illinois Tuesday, March 6 “From ‘Seeing’ the Behavior of Dislocations Friday, May 11-Sunday, May 13 4-5:30 p.m. During Deformation to Development of All-day event Discovery Series (Sneaker Tours) – Macroscopic Predicative Models of the DEWSC alumni event Dr. Vijay Vittal Mechanical Properties” “Power Systems Labs: ERC 490 Friday, May 18 Generation, Transmission, Distribution, School of Materials ASU 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Power Electronics, High Voltage, Technology Investor Forum Energy Conversion” Monday, April 9 Brickyard Engineering 6th Floor ASU main campus All-day event Register at [email protected] Kickoff School of Earth & Space Exploration

Monday, March 12-Friday, March 16 Tuesday, April 10 All-day event 4-5:30 p.m. Nano and Giga Challenges in Electronics and Discovery Series (Sneaker Tours) – Photonics: From Atoms to Materials Dr. Jerry Lin to Devices to System Architecture “Materials for Separation Laboratory: 05.07 Symposium and Spring School Membranes, Absorbents, Catalysts in Energy (Tutorial Lectures) and Environmental Applications” Phoenix ASU main campus Information: Ngc2007.asu.edu Register at [email protected]

Friday, March 23 Thursday, April 12 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. 7:30 a.m.-12 noon Arizona Nanotech Symposium Research Forum (Second Annual Symposium on “Real Memorial Union Progress – Real Products”) Scottsdale Community College Performing Arts Center Information: acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=128130 1-4 p.m. ISTB2 Labs Open House 2007 Please visit fulton.asu.edu for additional information and updates ISTB2 Building on Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering events. ASU main campus Reservation required 480.965.1713 04.07 Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering PO Box 879309 Tempe, Arizona 85287-9309

show your school If you have information to include in this publication, please let us know. We at the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University are particularly interested spirit in reconnecting with alumni and emeriti, especially in light on the 50th anniversaries Get Recognized as an Alumnus of the Fulton School Today! of three of our departments – Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and sportswear • accessories • gifts Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Manuscripts should be less than 1,000 words and contain pertinent contact information, and photos should be high resolution (at least 250 dots per inch). Submissions should be sent to: Editor, Full Circle, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, Arizona State University, PO Box 879309, Tempe, AZ 85287-9309, [email protected].

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