THIS ISSUE Parking Lot Archaeology VR For Everyone Andean Peatlands Immortal Batteries

MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY / 2019

SLEEP We sleep one third of our lives. Big data reveals why our hearts need plenty of sleep, which may matter more to women than men. Research TABLE OF CONTENTS 10 SLICE OF LIFE by Cyndi Perkins Industrial archaeologists uncover unexpected layers of history, ethnicities, and cultures in a small town parking lot.

12 3 PERCENT FOR THE PLANET by Kelley Christensen Peatlands cover only 3 percent of global land but store 30 percent of Earth’s soil carbon. To mitigate climate change, teams restore Andean peatlands.

16 SLEEP LAB GETS TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Kelley Christensen Researchers wake up to the importance of sleep for healthy hearts, especially for older women.

20 A BATTERY’S GUIDE TO IMMORTALITY by Marcia Goodrich Batteries die fast. Engineers seek battery reincarnation through ecological principles and old-school mining techniques.

24 EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM FOR STEM edited by Allison Mills

Mi-STAR, Mechatronics, ETS-IMPRESS: a sustainable, empowering education ecosystem.

28 READY USER ONE by Stefanie Sidortsova

This isn’t your grandpa’s typewriter. Computer scientists integrate text into virtual and augmented realities.

REGULAR FEATURES

06 RESEARCH IN BRIEF 30 AWARDS 32 BEYOND THE LAB 34 RESEARCH CENTERS AND INSTITUTES

Research is published by University Marketing and Communications and the Vice President for Research Office at Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, Michigan, 49931-1295.

Allison Mills John Lehman David Reed Managing Editor Vice President for University Vice President for Research Relations and Enrollment Nicole Kelly Jason Carter Creative Director Ian Repp Associate Vice President for Assistant Vice President for Research Development Crystal Verran University Marketing Director of Operations and Communications Cathy Jenich Assistant to the Vice Vassilissa Semouchkina, Jessica Brassard, President for Research Jon Halquist Natasha Chopp, Designers Jodi Lehman Research Office

2 RESEARCH 2019 Andrew Barnard is an acoustic engineer. From loud stadiums to quiet hospital hallways to near-silent anechoic chambers, he analyzes how different noise sources, sound waves, and materials interact.

2019 RESEARCH 3 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 2018 Between 2017 and 2018, Michigan Tech’s research expenditures grew 9.8 percent, totaling more than $78 million. The number reflects the University’s expanding expertise in Great Lakes research, mobility, remote sensing, and health sciences.

Above water: The Great Lakes Research Center oversees the Marine Autonomy Research Site (MARS) in Lake Superior, the first freshwater test bed of its kind. It is part of the Smart Ships Coalition, which brings together researchers, policy makers, and resource managers to study and set ground rules for the use of autonomous marine vehicles on the Great Lakes.

Navigating risk: In January 2018, the State of Michigan placed Michigan Tech at the helm of an independent risk analysis of the Straits Pipelines. The 41-person team looked at 4,380 simulations of “worst-case-scenario” spills.

Eruptions: More than 10 faculty, grad students, and alumni responded to the eruptions in Hawaii and Guatemala. Seismic surveys and remote sensing data help geoscientists better understand volcanoes, their plumbing systems, their emissions, and evacuation protocols to keep people safe.

Stream gauges: Following the June 2018 flash floods that hit the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan Tech ecologists worked with state and federal agencies to advocate for reinstalling local stream gauges. Better data means better predictions for events like last year’s 1,000-year storm.

Traffic signals:The Michigan Department of Transportation installed five upgraded traffic signals in Houghton that provide a local corridor where engineers can safely study vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology and communication.

4 RESEARCH 2019 Research Statistics

FOREIGN | 2% 2017 INVENTION DISCLOSURES | OTHER 3% CROWDFUNDING | <1% PER $10 MILLION OF RESEARCH STATE OF MICHIGAN | 5% EXPENDITURES (COMPARED TO BENCHMARK UNIVERSITIES) GIFTS | 7% MICHIGAN TECH 5.3

INDUSTRY | 12% GEORGIA INST OF TECH 3.3 SPONSORED AWARDS FEDERAL | 71% FISCAL YEAR 2018 MASSACHUSETTS INST OF TECH 4.6

STANFORD UNIVERSITY 4.6

UNIVERSITY OF 2.0 NC CHAPEL HILL

US DEPT OF ENERGY | 4% US DEPT OF EDUCATION | <1% US DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION | 4% US DEPT OF 2017 INVENTION DISCLOSURES US DEPT OF AGRICULTURE | 6% DEFENSE | 32% PER $10 MILLION OF RESEARCH EXPENDITURES US DEPT OF HEALTH (COMPARED TO MICHIGAN UNIVERSITIES) & HUMAN SERVICES | 6%

FEDERAL MICHIGAN TECH 5.3 AWARDS FISCAL YEAR 2018 MICHIGAN STATE 1.7 OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES | 12% UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 3.0

NAT’L AERONAUTICS NAT’L SCIENCE WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY 3.1 | & SPACE ADMINISTRATION 12% FOUNDATION | 24%

RESEARCH EXPENDITURES $78,678,397 (IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS) 78.7 TOTAL 2018 RESEARCH EXPENDITURES 72.5 72.0 70.7 71.6 70.1 68.5 69.6 63.5 60.4 9.8% INCREASE OVER FISCAL YEAR 2017

18 RESEARCH CENTERS AND INSTITUTES

277,684 SQUARE FEET OF RESEARCH SPACE 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 | FISCAL YEARS |

2019 RESEARCH 5 Research IN BRIEF

NOT JUST A DAD SPORT More young women are buying fishing licenses in the Great Lakes region, while the number of ADVANCING male anglers is generally declining. The finding is FACULTY CAREERS one of several in a new study exploring regional demographics of fishing. A more diverse STEM workforce starts with more diverse faculty. To make that a reality, Stefan Liebermann Richelle Winkler, associate professor of sociology an interdisciplinary campus team has a goal: and demography and the principal investigator for measurable increases in retention and career the study, with doctoral candidate Erin Burkett, advancement of women and under-represented GLIMPSE THE STARS examined changes in the angling population by minorities at Michigan Tech within the next looking at recent trends in anglers through various three years. Among the initiatives are career Robert Nemiroff, professor of astronomy and demographic lenses, such as gender, age, and development teams, programs addressing astrophysics, co-created the Astronomy Picture of generational differences. intersectional disadvantages, and managerial the Day (APOD) website with Jerry Bonnell, training for chairs. a fellow astrophysicist and staff scientist at Each year, approximately 1.8 million recreational NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center working anglers fish the Great Lakes. Millions more fish The National Science Foundation has granted on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope team. inland lakes and streams across the Upper Great $1 million to Michigan Tech faculty Adrienne Nemiroff and Bonnell track down, post, and Lakes region. Anglers play a critical role in the Minerick, Patty Sotirin, Sonia Goltz, Andrew explain images that endeavor to inspire a spirit region’s fisheries, their related ecosystems, and Storer, and Audrey Mayer to continue the work of curiosity and open the eyes of viewers to the fisheries management practices and policies. of existing programs and implement new ones myriad opportunities to take a voyage through based on other university programs. space via photography. >>>Find out what the changing face of anglers means for fisheries management: “We are inspired by, but not bound to, the work APOD, translated into more than 20 languages, mtu.edu/greatlakes/fishery of similar teams on other campuses,” Sotirin typically receives more than 800,000 views with says. “We look forward to the collaborative a social media following of more than 1.3 million development of programs that are responsive to people, popularizing science and inspiring a love our uniqueness and that open new possibilities for of astronomy. campus culture change, equity, and success.” >>>Enjoy the view from this “Small and Drifting >>>Learn more about the ADVANCE program: Planet” in an Unscripted photo essay: mtu.news/2NtOYog mtu.news/2BzTZEm

6 RESEARCH 2019 The Sabana Research Station, Luquillo, Puerto Rico.

Tana Wood Tana Wood

BEFORE AND AFTER: researchers Tana Wood from the USFS, and “We got four good years of data,” Cavaleri Sasha Reed with the US Geological Survey. says. “I’m so grateful my whole lab was there all HURRICANES IRMA summer. I had three undergraduates there doing AND MARIA HIT When Irma passed the island, the forest canopy projects, my PhD student was doing a project all PUERTO RICO where the TRACE project is located was patchily summer, and they finished a full campaign. They damaged. Hurricane Maria finished the job, and got back a week before the first hurricane hit. We When Hurricanes Irma and Maria carved their marred project equipment at the same time. were lucky.” destructive paths across the Caribbean, they left behind grieving communities without power, These events left the researchers wondering Cavaleri and her team secured a DOE Office badly damaged homes and infrastructure, and how to move the project forward now that of Science grant to document and study the completely altered ecosystems. One of these many, if not all, of the parameters had been disturbance and recovery of the El Yunque was the El Yunque National Forest, on the dramatically altered. TRACE site. They will also continue their work northeastern side of Puerto Rico. on detailing the effects of rising temperature “When you walk into what was previously a impacts on tropical forests and carbon storage El Yunque is the only tropical forest in the closed-canopy forest, it’s hot, there’s no shade, through above- and below-ground processes. US Forest Service (USFS) system, which makes and the forest is basically reset,” Cavaleri says it ideal for understanding the effects of climate of her visit to El Yunque Experimental Forest in >>>Follow the TRACE experiment: change where those changes will impact the January 2018. forestwarming.org most. Molly Cavaleri, associate professor of tree physiology in the School of Forest Cavaleri has pivoted the project with Resources and Environmental Science, is her co-investigators into a warming and leading Tropical Responses to Altered Climate disturbance regime study—the only one of its Experiment (TRACE), a USFS and Department kind in the world. of Energy (DOE)-funded project, with fellow

2019 RESEARCH 7 Research IN BRIEF

VACCINE

THE MICHIGAN LEGISLATURE Virus-like particles (VLPs) are empty viral HAS GRANTED PLANNING shells formed by structural proteins. In vaccines, they elicit immune responses and are AUTHORIZATION FOR A NEW noninfectious, but can be fragile. Ebenezer H-STEM ENGINEERING AND Tumban, assistant professor of biological sciences, uses bacteriophage VLPs as platforms HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES to develop vaccines against viruses such as human papillomaviruses (HPV), Zika virus, and COMPLEX ON CAMPUS. THE Chikungunya virus. He uses the FEI 200kV FOLLOWING PROJECTS, MANY Titan Themis Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM) to assess whether the FUNDED BY THE PORTAGE structural proteins can assemble into VLPs and HEALTH FOUNDATION, WILL whether assembled VLPs are stable after storage at room temperature for months. USE THE SPACE TO CREATE TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS >>>Look at VLPs under a microscope with the high-powered STEM: mtu.news/2QbrHst TO ENHANCE HUMAN HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE.

CANCER

Cells need carbohydrates; facilitative glucose transporters (GLUTs) bring nutrients in and out of cells. GLUTs are the foundation of research by Marina Tanasova, assistant professor of chemistry. WOUNDS In partnership with Smitha Rao, assistant Nitric oxide and hydrogen peroxide are two professor of biomedical engineering, they test healing compounds the body naturally makes GLUT-based fluorescent probes to detect cancer to help close wounds. Megan Frost, associate and distinguish one type from another, providing professor of biomedical engineering, leads a team a fingerprint of the disease. using nitric oxide technology to drop the healing ALZHEIMER’S time for diabetic foot ulcers from 150 days to 21. She joined Bruce Lee, assistant professor of What if cognitive decline could be detected SKIN biomedical engineering, and Caryn Heldt, James early with motor skill learning tests? That’s and Lorna Mack Chair in Bioengineering in the focus of a new National Institutes of Lasers can help skin-firming serums and chemical engineering, to test a microgel powder. Health study led by Kevin Trewartha, assistant anti-wrinkle creams. Sean Kirkpatrick, professor While making smart glue, Lee’s team discovered a professor of cognitive and learning sciences, as and chair of the Department of Biomedical handy byproduct: hydrogen peroxide. In microgel well as kinesiology and integrative physiology. Engineering, designs laser technology to measure form, it reduces bacteria and virus ability to infect His team uses robotic handles and augmented the effectiveness and longevity of beauty by at least 99 percent. reality screens to gauge how well patients think products. He partnered with Avon to create and about and learn new physical skills, which may test experimental formulas quickly and without >>>Healing with nitric oxide is a cell-mediated reflect early signs of cognitive impairment. relying on subjective feedback from focus groups. symphony of complexity: mtu.news/2DE4nNI

>>>Learn what kind of tech the team hopes >>>Watch how laser diffraction patterns detect >>>Healing with the sticky amino acids in will help doctors: mtu.news/2wXJgRw skin firmness: mtu.news/2vmOKXz mussel feet: mtu.news/2zaUiUr

8 RESEARCH 2019 TIME TRAVELER historical data sets. The public uses it and so Data, shown via do Michigan Tech researchers. They work to maps and overlays, Don Lafreniere, associate professor of understand industrial contamination patterns connects people to geography and geospatial information sciences and for geoheritage tours. To manage relief place and history. (GIS), and Sarah Fayen Scarlett, assistant efforts in Ripley, Michigan, after the June 2018 professor of history, travel through time. floods, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) examined historical It started in 2013 when Lafreniere co-authored land uses. a paper about a concept called deep mapping: Projects curated by scholars that offer the The next steps include continuing to improve public a spatial playground to explore open- the functionality of the program and the ended questions about a particular place across expansion of stories within the Time Traveler’s time. Deep maps allow multiple representations Explore app. For example, how has Michigan of a place, rather than a solitary cartographic Tech’s campus evolved, and how did the lives, concept created by a single person, to weave professions, and personal contributions of rich narratives that would otherwise be lost certain people influence change? to antiquity. “It’s our hope that people use the platform to Deep maps are built on scaffolds of spatial better visualize the data they need to answer data, which include contemporary and their questions, to think of new questions, or historical records from census data, personal to learn something they didn’t know about narratives, photographs, environmental the area,” Scarlett says. “When people feel information, and more. In the paper, more connected to the places where they live, Lafreniere wrote about the possibilities of deep they usually make better connections with mapping for both academics and the public. each other.” In 2015, Lafreniere, Scarlett, and collaborator Explore the Keweenaw’s history for yourself: Robert Pastel, associate professor of computer keweenawhistory.com science, and other colleagues, including local heritage partners, embarked on a journey to >>>Watch the Time Traveler in action: create the first deep map. The Keweenaw mtu.edu/magazine/traveler Time Traveler, the public-facing application of the Copper Country Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure, allows users to contribute to an online interactive historical atlas of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The project starts BY THE NUMBERS conversations—online and in person—about the region’s industrial past and how it continues to affect lives and identities today. Stories contributed 630 in the Explore app “This project brings together qualitative and quantitative information and allows multiple interpretations about the past,” Lafreniere Classifications of map says. “We asked ourselves, how can we build an features by citizen infrastructure that allows researchers to study 259K social mobility, immigration, and segregation, historians as well as allow a framework for the public to share their stories about how these things played out?” Variables about people 17.4M and places across space The Time Traveler embeds users in more and time than 60 years of historical maps, images, and contributed stories. It’s a compendium of big

2019 RESEARCH 9 ARCHAEOLOGY LEVEL 1

CERAMIC SLICE OF LIFE FRAGMENTS LEVELS 1 & 2 Chinese. Greek. African American. Native Fragile Woodland-era pottery, made sometime American. Summer fieldwork uncovers deep, in the last 2,000 years, delicate (and sometimes muddy) history. was a shocking discovery. The shards were found close to the surface,

Corner of Oak and 9th, Calumet, Michigan. Across from about 20 cm deep. The the train station; built in 1885, demolished in the 1960s. But shallow depth suggests that builders unearthed

humans lived here for as long as 2,000 years before the 818 LEVEL 2 Oak Street address. them while excavating the cellar. Another site Timothy Scarlett, associate professor of archaeology and lies beneath. anthropology, expected students conducting a two-week survey to uncover artifacts from the Chinese laundry that was also a grocery, boarding house, and community center for Chinese immigrants. Starting in 1905, the owners— who included Chung Wang, Chin Hee, and Wo Chung, TEAPOT SPOUT speculated to be the men in the photo below—leased LEVEL 2 to Greek immigrant cobblers. As Scarlett says, “It was Late 19th-century a big home, and people lived tight.” Life was not easy. porcelain. “We don’t LEVEL 3 Discriminatory laws. Sweeping immigrant arrests. The know who these people home’s façade ripped off the building after being chained are yet,” Scarlett says. to a train. By 1916, all Chinese residents departed. Names were often approximations. “Census From 1927 to 1944, an African-American family set up enumerators were house: Lulu Fowler Gardner and her kin. The home passed notoriously inaccurate through other hands, including the State of Michigan in when counting 1958 and final owner Socrates Antioho. immigrants and people of color. We must also “People dig up deeper, older layers, and mix them with new dig deeply into archives trash. Soils grow and are buried,” says Scarlett. “The detritus and oral histories.” of daily life builds, and leaves us clues to find as we peel back the layers.”

CHINESE STONEWARE LEVEL 4 Neck and lip of a 19th-century liquor bottle. Found while excavating deeper, LEVEL 4 basement rubble; other artifacts were unearthed from yard spaces. Clear photos of the house are lacking; it was usually obscured by wooden fences plastered with billboards—profitable Michigan Tech Archives ad space facing the train station.

10 RESEARCH 2019 ARCHAEOLOGY LEVEL 1

BLUE BEAD PURPLE GLASS LEVEL 1 LEVEL 1 Beads—often blue— Lampshade or candy have long been dish, an artifact important symbols representing in African-American middle-class stability culture. Adornment and refinement. Fowler or talisman, beads Gardner kept the home convey social meaning, as a boarding house including wealth, and her husband, age, marital status, and John, was a traveling political and religious barber. The artifact’s LEVEL 2 affiliations. Blue is a domesticity belies the color of protection stereotypical image and security. of a poor, working- class household. SHELLAC RECORD LEVEL 1 Yodeling cowboy or big band fox trot? PUNCHED Stamped catalog COIN numbers indicate two LEVEL 1 LEVEL 3 1930s possibilities: Holes to string it for “Rambling Yodeler” safekeeping, to wear, by Cliff Carlisle or to hang? The answers Jerry White Hoffman’s hinge on two pivotal Hollywood Dance questions used to Orchestra, “While I am evaluate potential Here and You are historical sites for There (How Can We further archaeological Get Anywhere).” exploration and funding: Is it significant? Is it intact? The answer to both, Scarlett says, is yes.

PORCELAIN SHARD LEVEL 2 LITHIC FLAKE “Geisha pattern” LEVEL 2 china was marketed to Shallow find with age: blue-collar American tool-making scraps. households. Common Native American LEVEL 4 find in mining towns, toolmakers used historically Chinese microcrystalline silicate, neighborhoods, and flint, agate, or chert the trash of working- rocks for scrapers, knives, class households. points, flintlock weapons, “Each fragment and fire starters during becomes a pixel in an “pre-matches” eras. increasingly detailed Students will try picture of people’s to “refit” the flakes lives,” says Scarlett. to understand the maker’s process.

2019 RESEARCH 11 PEATLANDS

A peatland near the Pastoruri Glacier in Huascarán National 3 PERCENT FOR Park, Peru. THE PLANET

Peatlands cover 3 percent of land and store 30 percent of soil carbon.

Called swamps, bogs, marshes, muskegs, and MEASURING quagmires, peatlands are much more than Chimner’s work in the Andean peatlands is in wet, low-lying areas. Despite such ignoble partnership with the Sustainable Wetlands Adaptation nomenclature, the planet needs peatlands. and Mitigation Program (SWAMP), a joint program through the Center for International Forestry Research, “All ecosystems store carbon, but wetlands store the US Forest Service (USFS), Michigan Tech, and a lot more than all the rest,” says Rod Chimner, Oregon State University with funding support from the professor in the School of Forest Resources US Agency for International Development. Chimner and Environmental Science. Peatlands cover first came into partnership with SWAMP through his just 3 percent of the Earth’s land, but store past work on Andean peatlands funded by a National approximately 30 percent of the Earth’s soil Geographic Society Research Exploration grant. carbon. When peatlands degrade, the carbon releases into the atmosphere, which contributes As the effects of climate change increasingly impact

to climate change. Following the October 2018 people’s daily lives, many nations see value in measuring publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on their carbon stocks—the amount of carbon stored in a Climate Change’s most recent report, the need given area—and taking steps to ensure the carbon is not

for carbon sequestration to fight rising global released into the atmosphere. One of SWAMP’s primary temperatures is more imperative than ever to goals is to help nations quantify their carbon stocks—a prevent catastrophic climatic changes. process that involves coring peat samples, in situ gas emission analysis, and extensive mapping. Peatlands occur across the planet in low- lying boreal, temperate, tropical, and even Coring peat is more than a scientific endeavor; it’s also mountainous regions. Mountain peatlands thrive a great workout. Using a Russian peat corer, which is a where it’s cool and wet, perfect conditions for side-cutting auger made of aluminum, Chimner, a post- slow decomposition of organic material—the doctoral researcher, and graduate students extract peat process by which peat is created. 50 centimeters (approximately 1.6 feet) at a time, delving as deep as 11 meters (approximately 36 feet). Nestled in the high valleys between the 20,000- foot peaks of the Andes, the peatlands of Twist, twist, twist, side cut, lift the sample out. Add five- Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia do more foot handle sections to continue going deeper into the peat. than act as carbon sinks. They also purify water Attach a carjack to help pull the increasingly long corer as it travels from the mountains to the arid cities out of the ground. Stop to admire the scenery because it’s along South America’s western coast, cycle breathtaking—and so is the coring effort, which frequently nutrients, and provide grazing areas for native occurs at 14,000 feet in elevation or higher. camelids like llamas, alpacas, guanaco, and vicua as well as cattle and horses. The team chunks the 50-centimeter (20 inches) sections into 10-centimeter (4 inches) samples to analyze in Overgrazing and other human activities lead the lab for mass, percent carbon, and bulk density to to peatland degradation around the world. calculate total carbon stocks. The samples are like fine Chimner explains that for global carbon compost, but old roots add structure to the peat so it accounting to remain balanced, peatlands need isn’t crumbly. They use radiocarbon dating to calculate a to function as carbon-capture systems, and the peatland’s age and how fast it accumulates peat. nations where peatlands occur need tools to protect them.

12 RESEARCH 2019 PEATLANDS

Rod Chimner

2019 RESEARCH 1 3 PEATLANDS

For reference, Indonesian peatlands are known In Southern Peru and Bolivia, the arid conditions as the deepest in the world. They are capable made it easy to find the wetlands, but the many of storing upwards of 3,000 megagrams per wet meadows interspersed with the peatlands had hectare of carbon—which is 3 million kilograms similar vegetation, again making distinguishing the (roughly 6.6 million pounds) of carbon in an two difficult. However, the carbon stocks of wet area one-kilometer square (.38 miles square), meadows are much smaller than the peatlands, so Laura Bourgeau-Chavez or the equivalent of stacking 1,743 sedans in a classifying them correctly is important to accurately suburban backyard. calculate carbon stocks. Confusing matters in the field, wet meadows and peatlands are frequently Rod Chimner, John Michigan wetlands store about 1,200 megagrams called by the same name—bofedales—and Chimner Hribljan, and master’s per hectare of carbon, while peatlands in the says this has befuddled land managers, scientists, student Ana Maria Amazon store slightly less than 2,000. Mountain and carbon stock accounting in the past. To Planas Clarke coring peatlands are capable of storing up to 4,000. distinguish wetland types, Chimner and others an 11-meter (36 feet) are combining soil samples with other methods, deep peatland in Los Here and there, too, are gray layers in stark including ground-penetrating radar and extensive Nevados National Natural contrast to the darker peat. These ash layers remote sensing mapping. Park, Colombia. accumulated from volcanic eruptions, which scientists use like mile markers to accurately In addition to mapping peatlands, three long- date the age of the peat. Once, while coring in term research sites were monitored in Colombia, Colombia, Chimner’s Colombian guide said they Ecuador, and Peru to quantify greenhouse gas were the only people in Los Nevados National emissions in areas unaltered by humans or grazing, Natural Park—because it had been closed due to and those that provide a picture of whether a volcanic activity. particular peatland is acting as a carbon sink or a carbon source. Chimner and colleagues conduct Moving south through Andean ecosystems, greenhouse gas flux measurements using either the vegetation changes dramatically from the eddy flux towers (which they are using currently rainy páramo of Colombia and Ecuador to the in the Amazon) or chambers (which work better drier puna of Peru and Bolivia. Colombia’s and in small mountain peatlands). They look like large Ecuador’s peatlands are frequently comprised of plastic terrariums placed on the peat. Infrared gas sedges, grasses, and cushion plants—a misleading analyzers hook up to the chambers to measure name as the green, hump-like mounds are quite carbon dioxide emissions and a portable, flame hard because they are adapted to high, cold, and ionizing detector measures methane emissions. windy areas. A human can walk across them, but These are the first carbon cycling measurements the hooves of grazing animals can break down from Andean peatlands. the mounds. The páramo’s weather presented a challenge to sampling because the constant The researchers found that the natural peatlands rain blurred the landscape, making it difficult to are still slowly accumulating carbon. But when distinguish the peatlands. degraded by either grazing or water diversion, the peatlands become a source of carbon to the atmosphere.

Cushion plant peatlands of the Andes have some of “NO ONE EVER the lowest methane emission rates of any peatlands THOUGHT THESE in the world. However, when degraded from cattle grazing, they became large sources of both carbon MOUNTAINS WOULD dioxide and methane, which doubles climate harm. HAVE THIS MUCH Carbon cycling can be improved in degraded CARBON. THEY HAVE peatlands by restoring the peatlands. SOME OF THE HIGHEST MAPPING STORING CAPABILITIES Greenhouse gas measurements are point samples. IN THE WORLD.” And while Chimner and others have taken many point samples over the years, these samples must —ROD CHIMNER be extrapolated up to the country level to provide Rod Chimner nations with carbon stock estimates. Using modeling

14 RESEARCH 2019 PEATLANDS

Bourgeau-Chavez is beginning to RADIOCARBON map Peru next, but her efforts are DATING not confined to the Andes. SWAMP is an exercise in collaborative science Radiocarbon dating allows scientists Quito, between researchers, governments, to determine the time period during Ecuador and people, with benefits, insights, and which peatlands were established in spatial management data shared across a particular area, how quickly the borders and continents. peat has been accumulating, and if there is loss of peat associated “Now that the methods are with historical and contemporary developed, we are seeking to apply disturbances. them in the US,” says Erik Lilleskov, research ecologist at the USFS’s Kate Heckman, Radiocarbon Northern Research Station in Collaborative administrator at the Houghton, Michigan. “It’s a real Northern Institute for Applied positive for the USFS, because a lot Climate Science, supervises of the federal lands in the American the preparation of samples for Rockies are high-elevation mountain radiocarbon dating. peatlands as well.” “As all living things do, the peat tools and remote sensing in combination with MITIGATING samples submitted to our lab contain point samples allows researchers to map wetlands a variety of elements, including Mitigating the effects of climate change will require on the landscape. nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and concerted, multinational efforts, so SWAMP emphasizes hydrogen, among others,” Heckman capacity building for local communities where the Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, research scientist at the says, explaining a process called team samples. Michigan Tech Research Institute, has undertaken graphitization extracts and isolates creating national wetland maps for the project. individual carbon atoms. “We’re training people to do leading-edge science Using field samples, radar, and multiple multidate in these countries to aid in their ability to manage remote sensing imagery sources—Landsat, Radiocarbon dating only reveals these ecosystems more effectively,” Lilleskov says. PALSAR, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission the relative abundance of “To the extent we can help other countries stabilize (SRTM), and RADARSAT—in a machine- radiocarbon in a particular peat their environment, that allows them to thrive, and to learning algorithm, Bourgeau-Chavez creates sample, which allows scientists to be better partners of the US and maps that are four- to 30- calculate a calendar date associated the global community.” fold improvements upon with the creation of the peat. existing maps. The environmental context, cross “IF YOU TAKE CARE SWAMP projects include workshops validation, and the knowledge with local universities, government The improved maps OF THE PEATLANDS, of the scientist is then needed agencies, and nongovernmental show that, in Ecuador, to interpret what this date means. NOT ONLY DO YOU organizations on how to core peat, half the landscape or measure carbon and methane more is peatlands, a HAVE CLEAN WATER, The Radiocarbon Collaborative emissions using trace gas and eddy significant increase is jointly supported by the USFS, YOU’RE STORING MOST flux measurements, quantify carbon over the Ecuadorian the W.M. Keck Carbon Cycle stocks, and wetland ecology basics. government’s estimates. OF THE CARBON IN Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Chimner takes people into the field Facility at University of California, THE COUNTRY. IF YOU to demonstrate how to build check Bourgeau-Chavez Irvine, and Michigan Tech to MANAGE CARBON, dams to restore damaged wetlands confirms what a advance climate and carbon science and works with ranchers to adopt difference mapping YOU’RE MANAGING by making radiocarbon analysis more sustainable grazing practices. has made to wetland EVERYTHING ELSE.” accessible, decipherable, and management: “This was collaborative. “We’re teaching them how to do the first time someone —ROD CHIMNER this, so eventually they’ll take it over has mapped the peatland >>>Get a behind-the-scenes tour of completely,” Chimner says, adding alpine regions,” she the Radiocarbon Collaborative: that several Ecuadorian and Peruvian says, noting that seasonal moisture patterns add mtu.edu/news/radiocarbon students have completed graduate studies at Michigan complexities to the mapping. “In Ecuador, even Tech with the goal of taking their knowledge back to the non-peatland areas are wet. If this mapping improve Andean peatland management. process works in Ecuador, it’ll work anywhere.”

2019 RESEARCH 1 5 SLEEP

simulate a binge-drinking episode by SLEEP LAB GETS TO THE providing three alcoholic drinks before a Brief Biphasic Alcohol Effects Scale (B-BAES test, which measures alcohol’s HEART OF THE MATTER acute stimulant and sedative effects on the participants, followed by three more Using novel combinations of advanced technologies to understand sleep alcoholic drinks. The time is now 9:15 PM and cardiovascular health. and the participant is hooked up to the polysomnography equipment that measures brain waves, blood oxygen levels, heart rate, and breathing, as well as eye and leg movements. The sleep study continues with three more B-BAES tests staggered every 15 minutes along with what amounts to a more detailed drunk driving test—blood draw, Like death and taxes, another certainty “What implication does sleep have? We questionnaire, psychomotor evaluation. for most Americans is lack of sleep. But sleep one-third of our lives. It’s a huge Four more B-BAES tests every 15 what does sleep loss do to our bodies? chunk of our days,” says Jason Carter, minutes, and it’s lights out at 11 PM. What happens when we factor sex associate vice president for research differences or alcohol into the mix? development and professor of kinesiology Both of the sleep rooms in the new and integrative physiology. “An elephant facility not only have the capabilities The recently opened Michigan Tech only sleeps three hours a day, while a lion of the overnight polysomnography, but Sleep Research Laboratory aims to sleeps up to 20 hours day. We see huge also take simultaneous measurements

answer those questions by combining species variation in sleep, but we still don’t of beat-by-beat blood pressure: finger sleep analysis technologies to provide a fully understand what sleep does.” plethysmography, which constantly window into the effects of sleep on people records blood pressure throughout the in different stages of life. night; pulse oximetry, which measures GOOD NIGHT, oxygen content in the blood throughout SLEEP TIGHT The two-bed sleep facility is located in the night; and transcutaneous carbon the Student Development Complex and When people check into the new sleep dioxide levels from the skin. has a core staff of two faculty researchers, research laboratory, they find their a sleep physician, a registered nurse who schedules are packed, which is perhaps DREAMS AND is also a certified sleep technician, a lead surprising considering the focus of the DATASETS doctoral student researcher, as well as session is a good night’s sleep. The Michigan Tech facility meets all graduate and undergraduate students. of the physical requirements to seek a Upon arriving at 4:30 PM, a participant in sleep study center accreditation from the Studies at the facility hinge on research the National Institutes of Health-funded American Academy of Sleep Medicine. into the effects of sleep on cardiovascular “Alcohol and Neurovascular Control in Additionally, researchers are working health, contributing to the broader Humans” study undergoes numerous with sleep study software company Natus field of sleep research—a field that is measurements, including arterial stiffness, to add blood pressure readings to the growing rapidly. baseline alcohol intake test, urine test, and data. The team’s interdisciplinary, big blood draws. After a Beat-to-beat data approach to sleep research includes standardized dinner assessment biomedical engineering signal processing followed by a sleep of blood pressure techniques applied to physiology. throughout the questionnaire, the participant has about night is a “We’re using these technologies in novel 30 minutes of rest key marker of combinations to better understand while lying down— cardiovascular the impact of things like alcohol, sleep just in time for health. deprivation, and insomnia on blood Jeopardy!—followed pressure,” Carter says. “There’s a by blood pressure complex relationship between sleep measurements and and blood pressure control. The a psychomotor epidemiological evidence is clear that evaluation. these are strongly coupled.” Researchers then

16 RESEARCH 2019 SLEEP

Nasal cannula and EMG electrodes track airflow and ocular and chin movements to complement brain wave signals.

The amplification box has 32 channels that include input of brain wave signals.

The respiratory belt measures respiration and height correction unit for blood pressure.

Continuous monitoring of blood pressure throughout sleep is possible through finger plethysmography.

TRACKING ZZZS Both of the rooms of the new sleep research lab are outfitted with numerous technologies that, coupled together, provide the datasets necessary to analyze what makes for a good—or poor—night’s sleep. The pulse oximeter measures Blood oxygenation levels, blood pressure, and sleep cycles are just a oxygen saturation. few of the nearly two dozen signals the researchers track.

2019 RESEARCH 1 7 SLEEP

Carter and his team are using the vast datasets collected during HEARTFELT SLEEP a night of sleep and analyzing them with advanced analytics Humans are most at risk for heart attacks to answer questions that were never possible before. “We between 6 AM and noon. And a good night of characterize based on what’s happening during different stages sleep may matter more for women of sleep,” he explains, “based on the physiological differences than men. between men and women, and based on whether insomnia is a factor, to help guide therapeutic strategies and interventions.” Greenlund notes that blood pressure typically dips 10 to 15 percent during the night, and in During the night, people with hypertension, obstructive sleep the Michigan Tech “WE TALK ABOUT apnea, and insomnia, there’s an exaggerated sleep research lab staff surge of blood pressure in the morning, EXERCISE AND EATING monitor a participant’s potentially leading to cardiovascular events. RIGHT, BUT WE ALSO sleep to watch in real time as the data is At 7 AM, the sleep study participant is NEED TO FOCUS ON collected. unhooked from the polysomnography HOW IMPORTANT SLEEP machine, and their urine is tested for “People say that sounds hydration status. Researchers conduct an like such a boring job. IS. IT’S LIKE BRAGGING alcohol intake test post-sleep to further It’s not,” says Anne understand how the body processes alcohol ABOUT HOW MANY Tikkanen, registered during sleep, and follow that with blood nurse and the lab’s lead STEPS YOU WALKED pressure and blood draws. sleep technician. “We IN A DAY. WE NEED TO have 20 signals going “We know men and women don’t metabolize across the screen—we SWITCH THE FOCUS TO alcohol the same way or at the same can see the stages speed,” Carter says. “We believe there are of sleep and watch TELLING PEOPLE HOW some important differences in evening them change. Once alcohol consumption, particularly binge MUCH SLEEP WE GOT, you unhook the study alcohol consumption, on sleep and participant in the NOT HOW LITTLE.” on risk throughout the night and the morning, those signals following morning.” —ANNE TIKKANEN are gone. Each signal has to be clean, so you After another affective questionnaire and have to stay on top of psychomotor evaluation, the researchers it during the night. If a sensor falls off, you ask yourself, how begin microneurography at 8:15 AM, which Tiny sensors important is it to the analysis?” measures cardiovascular risks: blood pressure, embedded in a heart rate, nerve activity, respiration rate. finger cuff allow Ian Greenlund, doctoral student in the sleep research Carter likens the stress of the human for continuous laboratory, says sleep apnea events are a common observation sympathetic nervous system—the so-called monitoring of during a session. fight-or-flight response—to revving an engine blood pressure. to redline. The team puts study participants “Some people can stop breathing for up to 20 to 40 seconds through stress tests in the during an apnea,” he says. “You find yourself staring at the lab’s safe and controlled screen saying, ‘Breathe!’” environment.

But study participants can rest assured, “We are closely They mimic everyday watching in case we need to intervene. Apneas are a common stressors like shoveling occurrence throughout the night, but various conditions snow by having the person can increase their number and severity, including obesity,” put their hand in a bucket Greenlund says. Obesity leads to obstructive sleep apnea— of icy water to simulate the excess tissue blocks airways, and when you bring in binge thermal stress and raise drinking, it makes apneas worse. blood pressure. Does the sympathetic nervous system surge after a binge-drinking episode? Does dehydration factor in? The ultimate goal

18 RESEARCH 2019 SLEEP

is to understand the combined effects of alcohol on sleep and cardiovascular risk as well as compare the physiological effects on men versus women.

EVERYBODY NAP NOW Population-based data suggests certain cardiovascular diseases like hypertension are more strongly associated with short sleep in women than they are in men. The sympathetic nervous system’s reaction to sleep deprivation is more pronounced in women.

“When women are deprived of sleep, their nervous systems appear to respond more aggressively than men,” Carter says. “There’s an acceleration of the nervous system. We see higher blood pressures and greater potential risk for heart attack. The surge of sympathetic activity also increases the risk of stroke. Too much of an excitation of the body sets a person up for negative cardiovascular events acutely and chronically.” Alzheimer’s disease. Carter advocates for napping because the total amount of sleep Jason Carter The sleep research lab also recently completed a study into the a person gets doesn’t necessarily need to be examines brain effects of menopause on sleep. Carter says that sympathetic consolidated into an uninterrupted eight waves and blood nervous system excitation was even more dramatic in post- hours. Depending on your body’s needs, 30 to pressure menopausal women than in younger women. 90 minutes is the ideal amount of time for an simultaneously afternoon siesta. If you wake up groggy, you’ve recorded “We tend to see overactivity of the nervous system across napped too long. throughout the the lifespan of women—and the cumulative effects of sleep night. deprivation could be a key contributor to hypertension,” he “There’s a reason from a physiological says. “When women hit menopause, their risk factors for perspective people take naps around 2 to hypertension exceed that of older men.” 3 in the afternoon,” he says. “We can get a tremendous amount of restorative sleep Carter notes that women tend to be “cardio-protected” in early during a nap. I think naps represent a life compared to men, but that women lose such protections strong countermeasure to consequences of when their hormonal levels change during menopause, which short sleep.” seems to accelerate other risk factors. Whether it’s a full night’s rest or a good nap, But getting a better night’s sleep consistently isn’t just Carter wants everyone to wake up to the need recommended for post-menopausal women. Sleep researchers for good sleep. hope to see wholescale societal shifts toward valuing sleep more—and at the college level as well. College students are “We have the ability to combine various chronically sleep deprived, and what sleep they do get is advanced technologies to drive creative often low quality. Combined with the stresses of school, interventions and make up for chronic sleep unhealthy diet, or drinking choices, the consequences deprivation in today’s society,” Carter says. can be life altering. “The real-world applicability and emphasis of our research is to ultimately inform and Carter says that lack of sleep is ultimately as detrimental on educate the public on how we might avoid or health as being overweight or smoking. “Sleep deprivation slow down the risk for cardiovascular disease slowly accumulates into major health problems,” he says. “We as it pertains to sleep insufficiencies.” use advanced technologies to answer questions that lead to better quality of life. When you’re sleep deprived it affects your mood, it affects everything about you.”

During deep sleep cycles, the brain’s production of growth hormone surges, healing the body. During the rapid eye movement (REM) cycle, memories solidify. There’s also evidence that REM sleep reduces risk of dementia and

2019 RESEARCH 1 9 BATTERIES

A BATTERY’S GUIDE TO IMMORTALITY

Born again and again and again. Two engineers and their students look at how to reincarnate lithium-ion batteries.

Nearly all lithium-ion batteries live once KICKING THE TIRES ISN’T ENOUGH and die. Those that power our cell phones Sure, you can check an EV battery’s age and mileage, but those are only can be charged hundreds of times, and approximate measures. “Aging depends on how you use it,” she says. “It depends on when they fail, we can recycle them (or, a lot of different variables, like driver behavior, temperature, and driving conditions.” many times, chuck them in the trash). In other words, batteries that aren’t taken care of won’t last as long as the ones that amble back and forth to the grocery store. Not so with the big batteries in electric vehicles (EVs). “They can have two lives,” And while engineers are comfortable evaluating the condition of bridges, batteries says Lucia Gauchia, assistant professor are another matter. “The funny thing is, people in engineering aren’t used to our of mechanical engineering as well as systems aging so fast,” Gauchia explains. “The aging behavior of batteries is a lot Lucia Gauchia electrical and computer engineering. “The more dramatic than other systems.” studies the first life is in our vehicle, but that only lasts second lives until the battery is 20 percent dead.” HOW IS A BATTERY LIKE A FISH? of batteries. Being 80 percent alive isn’t good enough A couple of years ago, when Gauchia was trying to design a study to predict how for an EV, but it’s fine for storing power batteries age, she realized that she needed to stop thinking only in terms of the as part of a home photovoltaic system or battery itself and start looking at its environment. What she needed was to study electrical grid. But how fine is it really? batteries the way scientists study living things. Like fish. Just as there’s a bit of mystery to buying a used car, it’s hard to know what you’re Fish biologists predict whether they will survive and thrive under a staggering getting when you repurpose an old variety of conditions: differing water temperatures, pollutant levels, food availability, lithium-ion battery. predator and competitor populations, oxygen concentrations, etc. To find out how scientists study fish, she reasoned, read the fisheries journals. “Because of the way batteries age, it’s difficult to understand how its first life will “That’s when I saw that a lot of the studies use Bayesian statistics,” she says. “I went, affect its second life,” Gauchia says. “How ‘Maybe I should turn Bayesian.’ That was an a-ha moment.” damaged is it? How does the customer know it’s a good, safe product?” THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND BAYESIAN STATISTICS Bayesian statistics incorporate probability and is a standard tool for weighing the effects of multiple environmental variables. Inspired, Gauchia took her cue from ecological Bayesian models, except instead of trying to decide whether to stock a lake with walleye, she aims to predict how long batteries will have useful first and second lives.

20 RESEARCH 2019 BATTERIES

The experiment began last fall, with Gauchia Battery and her students writing reams of code to create materials: a computer model of a battery’s two lives, silver including the conditions that it’s likely to face and graphite the probability that those conditions will occur. bubbles and black “Then every day, I sample those probabilities to lithium decide what the battery will do that day, and I oxide download that profile into my test system,” powder. an array of about 100 battery cells, all wired up to charge and discharge at the direction of the computer.

The model replicates how a battery might run any day of the year, from first-life driving conditions to the demands of its second life, when homeowners will be doing laundry, turning on electric heaters, powering up the air conditioning, and maybe selling their excess electricity back to the power company. Yes, she admits, it is complicated.

The research is funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award and also includes an educational component: a lab specifically for students, which will complement the work being done in her research lab. In addition, Gauchia, a native of Spain, has reached out to students—Latina women in particular—at Grand Rapids Community College to encourage them to participate in the study and gain research experience.

Gauchia will use her results to fine-tune the team’s original models. “When we are done,

2019 RESEARCH 2 1 BATTERIES

I hope to propose new management algorithms each is 95 percent or higher.” Finally, you need a for batteries that will improve forecasts of their commercial infrastructure to make it all work. As use,” Gauchia says. “We want to figure out how Pan notes, “Somebody has to actually use it,” and to give them a longer life, first in EVs and then in it needs a track record. their second life, before they have to be recycled.” Though Pan is in the chemical engineering department, his graduate degrees are in mining BEYOND THE AFTERLIFE engineering. He figured the same technologies When a battery dies for good, recycling is the to separate valuable minerals from ore could most sustainable option. But while nearly all old- be applied to separating 21st century battery style automotive batteries are recycled, that’s not components. So, he assembled a team of students, the case with their lithium-ion counterparts. gave them a crash course in basic minerals processing methods, and set them loose in the lab. “There is no plant in the US for recycling lithium- ion batteries,” says Lei Pan, assistant professor of chemical engineering. That’s because there’s STEP 1: FIND THE no economically viable recycling program, and BATTERIES federal law does not mandate the recycling of The crew needed to get their hands on a bunch spent lithium-ion cells. As a result, people usually of spent lithium-ion batteries. They found several just toss them into the garbage. Nevertheless, willing donors, including Michigan Tech’s Office Students help lithium-ion batteries can be highly problematic of Information Technology, the Marquette Gauchia and in landfills. They contain trace amounts of toxic County Solid Waste Management Authority, and Pan study battery chemicals, and unless they are fully discharged, the owners of various old laptops and consumer reincarnation. batteries have an alarming tendency to catch fire electronics. Then, the team discharged the and blow up. batteries and opened them all manually, removing the plastic casings to obtain more than 100 cells. SOMETHING OLD FOR SOMETHING NEW STEP 2: BREAK The main stumbling block for recycling lithium- EVERYTHING APART ion batteries is that the two conventional They shredded the batteries’ copper and recovery technologies are expensive, says Pan. aluminum conductors, then pulverized the anodes In pyrometallurgy, the most valuable materials, and cathodes to dust before blending the whole copper and cobalt, are melted and converted mix in water to create a slurry. Their challenge into an alloy, which is processed to make the raw was then to separate out each of the original materials for new batteries. The second process, components—especially the high-value cathode, called hydrometallurgy, uses acid to leach metals which often includes cobalt as well as lithium. into solution and convert them to salts, which must be processed into new materials before “My mind goes back to the beginning, when becoming the feedstock for new batteries. nothing was working,” says team member and Cathode ( + ) soon-to-be graduate Trevyn Payne. Fellow “Those processes convert the material you chemical engineering student Zachary Oldenburg Electrolyte want into something else and then back into provides an example. “We were trying all kinds what you want,” Pan says. “That’s a waste of of solvents to liberate chemicals, and after hours Li-Metal Oxides energy.” Federal agencies are asking the research and hours, we found out that plain water worked community to try a different approach: separating the best.” materials in the batteries without changing their chemistry. If it were easy, someone would have Eventually everything came together. “You Separator done it already. can see your results improve experiment by experiment,” doctoral chemical engineering “There are a lot of challenges,” Pan says. “You student Ruiting Zhan says. “That’s pretty good. Graphite have to make sure the battery components remain It gives you a sense of achievement.” intact during the recycling process. You have to separate each component—there are a lot Anode ( - ) of components—and make sure the purity of

22 RESEARCH 2019 BATTERIES

STEP 3: SORT THE MATERIALS The students developed two separation techniques designed to form the heart of a commercial recycling process. To retrieve the aluminum and copper bits, they ran the slurry through a screen. That left them with a mix of coarsely shredded metals. To sort them, the team used the ancient technique of gravity separation, relying on typical industry tools: a shaker table, a teeter-bed separator, and a spiral separator. Like a miner panning for gold, the machines isolate materials by density, sorting them into near-pure copper, aluminum, lithium- metal oxide, and graphite.

Separating the dust from the anodes and cathodes was more complicated. The team used a technique called froth flotation, which relies on materials’ different affinities for water. Air is bubbled through a solution containing the particles, collecting those that are hydrophobic in a froth at the surface, where it can be skimmed off. In this case, the graphite from the anodes floated in the froth, while the valuable cathode material plant that can be operated continuously. sank to the bottom. Inspired by It will start by crushing whole batteries mining, Lei Pan and add steps to separate out all the STEP 4: PUT THEM BACK extracts battery materials, including plastics and steel TOGETHER AGAIN components. casings. When they are sorted and cleaned, The students were able to recover approximately 75-90 the components can be remade into new percent of the cathode material and verify its purity at batteries or recycled for other uses. more than 95 percent. To put it to a real-world test, they made a working battery from the isolate. The results “A similar process has been used to recycle were gratifying. “For the purpose of remanufacturing, lead automotive batteries for about a our recycled materials are as good as virgin materials, hundred years,” Pan says. More than 99 and they are cheaper,” says Oldenburg. percent of lead batteries are recycled, according to Battery Council International, They also did an economic analysis comparing their and the average lead battery is made of methods with the standard pyrometallurgy and more than 80 percent recycled material, hydrometallurgy techniques. The bottom line: Their from lead and plastic to sulfuric acid. The process yielded more valuable materials at a lower cost. near-perfect recycling rate comes from “The biggest advantages of our process are that it’s very industry investment in a system that keeps inexpensive and very energy efficient,” Pan says. 1.7 million tons of batteries out of landfills each year. Their work caught the eye of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), which gave the team “We are applying the same model to the its 2018 Youth Council on Sustainable Science and lithium-ion battery,” Pan says. “The idea Technology P3 Award. They were invited to give an is simple. It’s just a matter of making sure oral presentation on their process at AIChE’s Annual everything works.” Meeting in Pittsburgh last fall, with AIChE covering their travel expenses. And they hope to make it work on a national scale. Pan is one of the researchers WHAT’S NEXT: PROOF OF involved with the new Battery Recycling CONCEPT R&D Center, an initiative funded by the US Department of Energy and led by With funding from the Michigan Tech Translational Argonne National Laboratory. From cobalt Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Statewide to lithium, they plan to make reclaiming Innovation Hub, the Environmental Protection Agency, battery materials as common as lead. and an Innovation Corps grant from the NSF, Pan is working toward making a bench-scale, battery-recycling

2019 RESEARCH 2 3 EDUCATION

24 RESEARCH 2019 EDUCATION

All in, hands on. Mechatronics students precisely tune intricate electro- mechanical systems.

EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM FOR STEM

Science, technology, engineering, and math are not verbs. But putting STEM—a blend of all four concepts—into action is the best way to help students learn.

Pedagogy, the science of teaching, And like a forest, desert, or coral reef, keeps educators on their toes. They are each ecosystem’s growth is shaped greatly challenged to create exciting, relevant, and by its substrate. These educational ecosystems comprehensive environments that promote are nourished by good mentors, who are active, practical learning—preparing people committed to fostering resilient learners for future jobs and communities. able to weather the storms they will encounter throughout their lives and careers. Looking Which is greatly needed: By 2020, one in deeper into these Michigan Tech programs five jobs in the state will be STEM-related, reveals the interconnectedness and organic reports the State of Michigan Bureau of circuitry that fosters healthy educational Labor Market and Strategic Initiatives, which environments. also projects that STEM job opportunities will grow by 11.8 percent, outpacing the expected MIDDLE SCHOOL 8.5 percent increase in other occupations. Mi-STAR is the Michigan Science Teaching and Assessment Reform. Within a Mi-STAR Three Michigan Tech initiatives, Mi-STAR, middle school classroom, it’s readily apparent ETS-IMPRESS, and mechatronics, address something is different. Lectures are few and specific, high-priority state and national goals far between; student team projects range from to improve STEM education. The programs making a smoothie to treat a digestive issue to are designed to be affordable, inclusive, and pouring glasses of water on toy towns to study to address career needs for individuals flooding. The program’s relatable curriculum, and industry. which integrates science and engineering, sets it apart. Each initiative is an ecosystem—a space full of life, ready to change and evolve.

2019 RESEARCH 2 5 EDUCATION

Started in 2015, the program has grown exponentially Initially funded by the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Michigan Tech from six school districts reaching 1,700 students and Foundation, Mi-STAR received new support from the programs build 16 teachers, to 132 districts, 65,000 students, and 655 National Science Foundation (NSF) and the State of connections between teachers. Mi-STAR aspires to provide a full middle- Michigan last year. Barb McIntyre, retired Midland schools, community school curriculum for Michigan schools in the near future Public Schools teacher, says: “This has got to be one of partners, and that aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards the most important things the Herbert H. and Grace A. industries. (NGSS) for K-12 education. Dow Foundation has ever funded. The difference this has made for underserved students in terms of growth and Mi-STAR improved performance is phenomenal.” YR1 - 6 Three-Year Jackie Huntoon, Michigan Tech provost and senior vice DISTRICTS YR3 - 132 Increase president for academic affairs and an inaugural member of the Federal STEM Education Advisory Panel, helps guide Mi-STAR. “Teaching with Mi-STAR can be challenging at first, because teachers “WE NEED TO ADDRESS have to give students control of the YR1 - 1,700 REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS learning process,” Huntoon says, adding that with practice, teachers see THAT ARE OF WIDE changes. “Kids who used to sullenly INTEREST TO 21ST- YR3 - 65,000 STUDENTS drag themselves into science class are now eager for class to begin. All CENTURY SOCIETY.” students have something valuable to —JACKIE HUNTOON contribute. We know Mi-STAR is making a difference for them.”

And for their teachers. Professional development and YR1 - 16 support are key parts of Mi-STAR. Emily Gochis, Western Upper Peninsula regional director for the TEACHERS YR3 - 655 MiSTEM Network, based out of the Copper Country Intermediate School District, and a Michigan Tech doctoral student in geoscience, has been with Mi-STAR since the beginning.

26 RESEARCH 2019 EDUCATION

“Things are always changing, especially “Our program uses complementary, open- in science,” Gochis says. “There’s new source robotics software to teach a general information constantly coming out. Science robotics curriculum,” Sergeyev says. Teaching teachers are challenged in a lot of ways; robotics normally requires expensive Mi-STAR empowers them.” hardware, so to bring the cost down, Sergeyev tapped the expertise of Scott Kuhl, associate PREPARING FOR professor of computer science. Kuhl, together CAREERS with Michigan Tech undergraduate computer science students, designed RunRobot, a free ETS-IMPRESS is Engineering Technology program available on GitHub. Scholars IMProving Retention and Student Success. It picks up where Mi-STAR and “We wanted to know if it was possible to K-12 education leave off; students in the write a program that was not necessarily as program work on cultivating their engineering complete as a software package you’d buy, but careers, no matter their background. with enough to help people trying to learn the basics,” Kuhl says. “Our overall goal is to increase student retention and graduation in technology To some extent, the limitations, namely a fields, which are vital to the regional and US lack of specific production features, are an economy,” says Nasser Alaraje, professor and advantage, Sergeyev says, because training program chair of the electrical engineering only uses 10-15 percent of complex, pricey technology program and principal investigator software. Through RunRobot, inexperienced for the project. “In partnership with users can learn to control a robot in a Michigan Tech’s Pavlis Honors College, ETS- simulated environment, including operating, See unit lesson IMPRESS fosters leadership, technical programming, and object recognition using examples and know-how, and employability skills for image processing. follow the technology fields that actively recruit and Mi-STAR blog: employ graduates from diverse backgrounds mi-star.mtu.edu and communities.” ECOSYSTEMS The routes into STEM are often nonlinear. Funded by the NSF for five years, the project While Michigan Tech’s new and existing will award 12 first-time undergraduate STEM programs are already expanding engineering technology students with opportunities across educational levels, there four-year scholarships and 36 community will always be room to grow. college transfer students from Michigan and neighboring states with two-year scholarships With 655 teachers in training, Mi-STAR of $4,500 per year. ETS-IMPRESS’ research continues to serve more schools every component investigates how a structured year. Mechatronics hopes to grow into an support program influences transfer student interdisciplinary graduate degree program, performance, retention, and time addressing a need affirmed by Tesla, GM, to graduation. Ford, FANUC, and Kaufman Engineered Systems, for midcareer engineers. And ETS- MAKING CONNECTIONS IMPRESS will welcome a new cohort—of many to come—later this year. Mechatronics is a combination of disciplines—mechanical, electrical, computer, Each program is a microcosm of the greater and systems engineering, along with changes happening within STEM education. telecommunications, robotics, automation, Together, they demonstrate how Michigan and controls. To bring mechatronics to the Tech supports, challenges, and prepares classroom, Michigan Tech is partnering students for social mobility. with Bay de Noc Community College with funding from the NSF, US Department of >>>Learn more about ETS-Impress: Labor, state agencies, and industry. Aleksandr mtu.edu/ets-impress Sergeyev, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is leading the initiative.

2019 RESEARCH 2 7 VIRTUAL REALITY

“Lots of people are buying READY head-mounted displays, USER ONE but it’s mostly for video games,” Kuhl says. “We’re Reality might leave a lot to the figuring out how to use imagination, but researchers at a head-mounted display Michigan Tech are filling in the gaps. for office work like writing and editing a While cranking out text is an integral part of document or sending a our digital lives, it’s a field of research missing in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality message to someone.” (AR) development. Our computer scientists delve into the different ways to type in VR and AR spaces.

In VR worlds, the user’s environment is entirely simulated, whether it be a video game, military exercise, or flight simulation. AR technology allows people to add digital content to their existing physical environment, from the simple (fun filters on Instagram) to the complex (helping surgeons perform complicated operations).

In both worlds, keyboards come in handy (pun intended). Keith Vertanen, assistant professor of computer science, and doctoral student Jiban Adhikary developed a mid-air virtual keyboard by mounting a hand-tracking device on a VR headset. The device senses the position of both hands and renders them in the virtual world. The user also sees a floating QWERTY keyboard.

Research from Scott Kuhl, associate professor of computer science, and James Walker, lecturer in computer science, allows the user to work on a physical keyboard while in VR. An image of the keyboard shows what keys have been typed, but the user doesn’t see their hands.

Both programs use a powerful text recognition algorithm, VelociTap. “Think autocorrect on steroids,” Vertanen says. “It can make sense of very ‘noisy’ data, so you don’t have to always hit the correct key.”

28 RESEARCH 2019 VIRTUAL REALITY

Virtual reality is often associated with video games, but what if it could be used for productivity apps? With the virtual keyboard “People underappreciate the developed by Vertanen and redundancy in natural language,” Adhikary, travelers can leave their Vertanen says. “Our recognition laptops at home and turn the algorithm,VelociTap, is extremely airport into a virtual office. accurate as it’s been trained on billions of words of data.”

2019 RESEARCH 2 9 Awards

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION KEITH FACULTY CAREER AWARDS VERTANEN Michigan Tech researchers earn awards that reflect their dedication Assistant Professor, and innovation. Computer Science

What I do: Develop desktop, mobile, and augmented reality interfaces for communication

Why I do it: Give a voice to those with speaking challenges

Project: “Technology Assisted Conversations”

mtu.news/2rINw4E

SUMIT

PAUDYAL YE SUN Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering– Electrical and Computer Engineering Mechanics; Engineering Affiliated Assistant Professor, What I do: Calculate energy Biomedical Engineering use ebbs and flows to optimize load flexibility and distribution What I do: Build embroidered networks electronics to replace wearable health monitoring devices Why I do it: Ensure people have electricity and make Why I do it: Art and engineering distributed energy a reality meet in the stitches of electronic fabric to make health data more Project: “Operation of accessible Distribution Grids in the Context of High-Penetration Project: “System-on-Cloth: A Cloud Distributed Energy Resources Manufacturing Framework for and Flexible Loads” Embroidered Wearable Electronics”

mtu.news/2NGvrRz mtu.news/2zHRGQx

30 RESEARCH 2019 BHAKTA RATH ACCELERATE MICHIGAN RESEARCH AWARD INNOVATIVE COMPETITION

The Bhakta Rath Research Award recognizes a doctoral student and GRAND PRIZE their Michigan Tech faculty advisor. The pair earns the award for research that dares to be cutting edge while remaining focused on the social contribution of the work. The award was established by L. BRAD KING Bhakta B. Rath and his wife, Sushama Rath, to promote and reward Ron and Elaine Starr excellence in scientific and engineering research at Michigan Tech. Professor in Space Systems, Mechanical Engineering- FENG ZHAO ZICHEN QIAN Engineering Mechanics Associate Professor, PhD Student, What I do: Propel the small satellite revolution with better data, Biomedical Engineering Biomedical Engineering lower costs, fewer launches

What we do: Engineer soft tissues from naturally derived scaffolds Why I do it: More than 9,000 satellites are set to launch in the and multi-potent adult stem cells next seven years, more than all satellites in human history

Why we do it: Help patients recover more quickly and effectively mtu.news/2NIodMU from burns and heart attacks

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NATIONAL STEM EDUCATION ADVISORY MICHIGAN TECH PANEL APPOINTEE; RESEARCH AWARD; GEORGE G. MALLINSON ACCELERATE MICHIGAN AWARD FOR LIFETIME UP AND COMER AWARD ACHIEVEMENT IN The Michigan Tech Research Award recognizes outstanding THE FIELD OF scholarly achievement by a faculty member. It is based on the SCIENCE EDUCATION impact of the person’s research, particularly sustained research or a noteworthy breakthrough. The Michigan Tech Research Award is symbolic of the University’s high standard for research endeavors. JACQUELINE HUNTOON Provost and Senior YOKE KHIN YAP Vice President for Professor, Academic Affairs Physics What I do: Advise a newly formed committee on best practices What I do: Develop and commercialize functionalized boron in STEM education nitride (BN) nanostructures Why I do it: K-12 STEM education is vital to the nation; our Why I do it: Precise medical diagnosis and quantum transistors students deserve a bright future for future electronics

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2019 RESEARCH 3 1 Beyond the Lab

ALONG THE WILD INNOVATION SHORES OF LAKE CENTER FOR SUPERIOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP Innovation is more than coming up with new A collaboration between the Pavlis Honors ideas. It’s making them happen. College, School of Business and Economics, and the Vice President for Research Office, Here’s how we use our unique location in the Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship Michigan’s remote Keweenaw Peninsula to push (ICE) kicked off in 2015 to cultivate the boundaries of research: test winter tires on a innovation and entrepreneurship on specialized ice rink at the Keweenaw Research Michigan Tech’s campus. Programs include Center. 3D print adaptive aids for people with the New Venture Pathway, National Science hand arthritis and share the open-source designs Foundation-sponsored Innovation Corps worldwide. Survey underwater infrastructure; (I-Corps) business development program, sample the water above from a University The Alley campus makerspace, student research vessel. Build thermophones from carbon Entrepreneurs Club (E-Club), and the ICE nanotubes—see the photo to the left—that House residential learning community. can reduce noise from heating ducts and help ICE launched the Husky Innovate series— Carbon nanotubes reduce dust, while even smaller nanoparticles can workshops and events that guide participants make heat-generated sharpen medical imaging with high-brightness through key phases of innovation and startup sound to cancel out fluorophores. And more—nanosatellites, blood business development. the thrum of noisy typing, meditation, cybersecurity. industrial heating Co-director Jim Baker, associate vice units in hospitals. Michigan Tech is at the confluence of these president for research administration, future-thinking projects and this remote, explains, “Whether someone plans to work beautiful place. It spans many fields and fosters for a new company or an old company, interdisciplinary teams in the effort to take ideas for their own small startup or a large out of the lab, refine them, and bring them to established corporation, the foundations of market. an entrepreneurial mindset are universally valuable and there are resources within ICE and through our collaborators to develop it.”

>>>Discover the campus entrepreneurial spirit: mtu.edu/honors/ice

Superior Ideas

When researchers have the next big idea, we want to make sure they have every opportunity to carry out their project. We created a pretty big idea, too: 110 110 projects 1518 1,518 donations crowdfunding research, using a University-operated platform. Since October 2012, we bring together donors and researchers, ideas and innovation. more than more than 69,530 unique >>>Check out more projects at: superiorideas.org 308K $308,000 raised 69K users to the site

32 RESEARCH 2019 Student Research

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT SONGER AWARDS Foundation Undergraduate Research Internship Program scholarship. Matthew ’79 and Laura Songer She explains: “We’re developing injectable hydrogels to accelerate wound ’80 recently donated funds healing in tendons and ligaments. Our hydrogels are unique because they to the College of Sciences not only reestablish extracellular matrix structure and function, but also and Arts (CSA) that support have a controllable drug-releasing element.” undergraduate and graduate student research. Meyers started doing research the third month of her first year on campus. And she knew before Orientation Week that she wanted to UNDERGRADUATE do biomedical engineering research. She recalls, “I actually decided on Abby Sutherland, pursuing biomedical engineering at Michigan Tech the summer after my “New Age-predicted Maximum Kaylee Meyers is a biomedical junior year [of high school] when I attended the Women in Engineering Heart Rate Equation for Upper- engineering student developing an Summer Youth Program.” body Exercise Prescription” in vitro model system to study the Department of Kinesiology and effects that extracellular matrix Only in her second year, her sights are already set on graduate school. Integrative Physiology stiffness has on cells during acute “I like learning new things,” she says, “and I enjoy the research we Advisor: Steve Elmer and chronic injuries—integral for are doing: the meaningful work, the challenging atmosphere, and the tendon and ligament healing. sense of belonging that the comradery of our lab creates.” Meyers was Gilliane Kenyon, accepted to present both an individual poster and oral presentation at “Establishing the Impact of Meyers is building on research she the American Society for Matrix Biology Conference in October 2018. DNA Minor Groove Alkylation and her advisor, Rupak Rajachar, Before two days of presentations, Meyers competed in a half marathon. on DNA Replication and principal lecturer of biomedical Despite long days spent in classes or the lab, her eyes light up when she Transcription” engineering, did over the summer talks about her vocation. Department of Chemistry through a Portage Health Advisor: Marina Tanasova

GRADUATE Rupsa Basu, GRADUATE STUDENT “Development of a Safe, Highly Immunogenic, Long-lasting, paths and embraced two forms of frost: the Keweenaw and the personal Bacteriophage VLP-based (her graduate advisor is biomedical engineer Megan Frost). “I read about Chikungunya Virus Vaccine” Frost’s research in nitric oxide-releasing polymeric materials used for Department of blood-contacting devices and how nitric oxide is involved in preventing Biological Sciences the formation of blood clots,” she says. Advisor: Ebenezer Tumban

Kwesiga is the 2018 recipient of the Department of Biomedical Jeremy Bigalke, Engineering Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year award, vice “Orexin Control of Arginine president of the African Student Organization, and winner of Vasopressin in DOCA-salt presentation awards from the Upper Peninsula Local Section of the Hypertension” As a medical intern in Algeria American Chemical Society, Michigan Physiological Society, and Department of Kinesiology in 2014, fourth-year biomedical Michigan Tech’s three-minute thesis competition. “I can’t say enough and Integrative Physiology engineering PhD student, Maria good things about her.” says Frost. “On all aspects of what a graduate Advisor: Jenny Shan Paula Kwesiga, met a patient who student is intended to be doing, she’s doing awesome.” changed her life. Complications from a prosthetic heart valve caused In the lab, Kwesiga is building on Frost’s research for clinical application the patient’s death; blood clots in cardiology and skin-wound healing. She’s also helping students learn blocked a faulty heart valve. Kwesiga experimental techniques, something she says she enjoys and would like to realized engineering could help do after she graduates. “What drove me into coming to Michigan Tech improve current treatments for such was gathering the knowledge I need to be more involved with research pathologies. So she changed career and teaching in clinical practice.”

2019 RESEARCH 3 3 Shared Facilities mtu.edu/research/shared

Advanced Power Systems Research Center Jeff Naber, [email protected]

Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis Laboratory Owen Mills, [email protected]

Geospatial Research Facility Donald Lafreniere, [email protected]

Microfabrication Facility Paul Bergstrom, [email protected]

Marine Research Assets Facility Guy Meadows, [email protected]

Microanalytical Facility Andrew Burton, [email protected]

High Performance Computing Facility Gowtham, [email protected]

Research Centers and Institutes mtu.edu/research/about/centers-institutes

Advanced Power Systems Research Center (APSRC) Michigan Tech Aerospace Engineering Research Center (MARC) Jeff Naber, [email protected] Greg Odegard, [email protected]

Center for Agile and Interconnected Microgrids (AIM) Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) Rush Robinett, [email protected] Robert Shuchman, [email protected] Wayne Weaver, [email protected] Nikola Subotic, [email protected]

Center for Technology & Training (CTT) Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI) Tim Colling, [email protected] Pasi Lautala, [email protected] Jake Hiller, [email protected] Earth, Planetary, and Space Science Institute (EPSSI) Will Cantrell, [email protected] Multi-Scale Technologies Institute (MuSTI) Craig Friedrich, [email protected] Ecosystem Science Center (ESC) Andrew Burton, [email protected] Pre-College Innovative Outreach Institute (PIOI) Cody Kangas, [email protected] Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) Guy Meadows, [email protected] Research and Innovation in STEM Education Institute (RISE) John Irwin, [email protected] Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC) Timothy Havens, [email protected] Center for Leadership and Innovation for Transformation (LIFT) Lorelle Meadows, [email protected] Institute of Materials Processing (IMP) Steve Kampe, [email protected] Sustainable Futures Institute (SFI) David Shonnard, [email protected] Keweenaw Research Center (KRC) Jay Meldrum, [email protected] The Elizabeth and Richard Henes Center for Quantum Phenomena (CQP) Jacek Borysow, [email protected] Ravindra Pandey, [email protected]

34 RESEARCH 2019 2019 RESEARCH 3 5 Non-Proft Org. U.S. Postage PAID Houghton, MI Permit No. 11 1400 Townsend Drive Houghton, MI 49931-1295

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