Cornell Engineering Magazine Magazine Spring 2021 BIOMINING RARE EARTH ELEMENTS Cornell engineers are pioneering a novel method for mining metals that are key to unlocking a sustainable future PAGE 18 CornellEngineering Online CornellEngineering Magazine Follow Cornell Engineering on social media and share with us what, how and why you engineer CONTESpringNT 2021 S FEATURES CONTAINING COVID-19 AT CORNELL The modeling behind Cornell’s successful fall semester and the engineers who skillfully crafted it By Syl Kacapyr 12 THE MODERN TA Undergraduate teaching assistants are changing the classroom thanks to Cornell Engineering’s outstanding training programs By Eric Laine 24 COVER BIOMINING RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS Cornell engineers are pioneering a novel method for mining metals that are key to unlocking a sustainable future By Chris Dawson 18 ALUMNI PROFILE Laura Jones-Wilson, Ph.D. ’12 From Cornell to NASA to an icy moon of Jupiter By Olivia Hall 30 @CornellEng @CornellEng DEPARTMENTS NEWS AWARDS DISTINGUISHED facebook.com/CornellEngineering http://bit.ly/1LukNq1 ALUMNI AWARD JOHN A. www.youtube.com/CornellEng www.engineering.cornell.edu/magazine SWANSON 2 28 33 CORNELL ENGINEERING | 11 ENGINEERINGNEWS CORNELL STARTUP RAISES $44M CORNELL ENGINEERING TO ADVANCE ‘C DOTS’ BIOTECH MAGAZINE lucida Oncology, a Volume 24, Number 1 E biotechnology company Spring 2021 based on C Dots – ultra- small nanoparticles developed Cornell Engineering Magazine is published at Cornell that show promise by the Cornell University in identifying and fighting College of Engineering cancer – recently secured Dean $44 million in financing, in Lynden Archer addition to $28 million raised Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering in 2018. C Dots, originally called Associate Dean for Administration Cornell dots, were created Erin Mulrooney more than 15 years ago in the lab of Uli Wiesner, the Executive Editor Syl Kacapyr Spencer T. Olin Professor of Marketing and Communications Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Editor Chris Dawson Engineering. Wiesner has been Marketing and Communications working to put C Dots to use A rendering of the molecular structure of a Cornell dot, which is smaller Graphic Design in the fight against cancer ever than 10 nanometers. Robert Kurcoba since. Marketing and Communications studies. The new funding team and its laboratory As a result of their size, C Printer Ferrets, similar to humans, generate antibodies against COVID-19, yet display limited clinical signs. will help the company gain capabilities. Dots proved safe and effective Cornell Print Shop for use in human beings regulatory approval as a “This vote of support from as both an imaging and a targeted cancer therapeutic, investors means a lot to me,” Photography NASAL SPRAY BLOCKS COVID-19 INFECTION IN All photos by University diagnostic tool in early clinical and to expand its management Wiesner said. “Given C Dots’ Photography, broad applicability, I have Robyn Wishna, unless FERRETS been pushing efforts in health otherwise indicated. esearchers at Cornell, “This is a simple nasal develop antiviral peptide- proliferates inside, humans. On the Web care-focused startups since Editorial and Columbia University formulation that we think can lipid conjugates that prevent “It’s the best of both worlds,” Business Offices R Cornell Engineering Magazine has a Website, with videos, Web 2005 to commercialize this Irving Medical Center prevent the transmission of measles and Ebola. When Alabi said. “They mimic the extras, and the latest news. Come see what’s happening and technology. At the beginning it 252 Carpenter Hall and Erasmus Medical Center SARS-CoV-2 in humans,” said COVID-19 emerged and disease indication seen in sign up for digital delivery. Ithaca, NY 14853-2201 was a reagent company. Then phone 607 255-6095 in the Netherlands have Chris Alabi, associate professor scientists identified the humans, but they can recover we started a company focusing fax 607 255-9606 developed a nasal formulation of chemical and biomolecular sequence of the viral proteins, at a given dose. It’s a similar www.engineering.cornell.edu/magazine e-mail cornell_engr_mag@ on diagnostics, and now we cornell.edu that blocks the spread of engineering and a co-senior the Columbia and Cornell mechanism that allows have a company emphasizing COVID-19 among ferrets – and author of the research paper, groups were able to adapt certain cohorts of the human therapeutics.” Visit Cornell Engineering are hopeful the formulation which published in Science. their approach, because all population to also clear the Magazine online at Elucida was founded in www.engineering.cornell.edu/ could have the same effect “The beauty of the research three viruses share a similar virus.” 2014 and co-founders include magazine on humans, and potentially is its simplicity. The ultimate fusion mechanism. They The Erasmus Medical Wiesner, Kai Ma, Ph.D. ’15, © 2021 generate therapeutic goal is to create a nasal spray swapped out the measles or Center team found that the and Dr. Michelle Bradbury, Cornell Engineering Magazine treatments as well. drug product that can be made the Ebola peptide for the HRC lipopeptide fusion inhibitors director of intraoperative Printed on recycled paper. Ferrets are one of the best widely available, one that can peptide in SARS-CoV-2 and successfully prevented imaging at Memorial Sloan animal models for COVID-19, be kept readily in a purse or tagged it with a cholesterol transmission of the SARS- Kettering Cancer Center and because they take the virus pocket. A key feature of this lipid. CoV-2 virus. The collaborators professor of radiology at Weill quite readily, and undergo research is that it’s a plug-and- Researchers at Erasmus are currently studying the facebook.com/ www.youtube.com/ Cornell Medicine. News clips abbreviated from both direct contact and play platform technology that Medical Center in the spray’s effectiveness as a CornellEngineering CornellEng Elucida is planning to start Cornell Chronicle articles airborne transmission. Ferrets, can be adapted and applied to Netherlands tested the therapeutic treatment for clinical trials this summer; written by Blaine Friedlander, similar to humans, also other viruses or mutations.” formulation on ferrets, which subjects who are already @CornellEng @CornellEng by the spring of 2022, the David Nutt, Syl Kacapyr, generate antibodies against In recent years, the turns out to be an ideal model infected, as well as its ability http://bit.ly/1LukNq1 company expects to have the Chris Dawson and Krishna the virus, yet display limited collaborators have been for replicating the way SARS- to combat other strains and first data from those trials. Ramanujan. clinical signs. using the technique to CoV-2 spreads among, and viruses. 2 2 | SPRING 2021 CORNELL ENGINEERING | 33 ENGINEERINGNEWS SOFT ROBOTS USE CAMERA AND SHADOWS TO RESEARCHERS CREATE ‘BEAUTIFUL SENSE HUMAN TOUCH MARRIAGE’ OF QUANTUM ENEMIES ornell scientists have perfect as silicon, meaning it Such integration could components, but we haven’t identified a new has a lot more defects,” said help to condense the size of put them all together. We’ve C contender when it co-author Huili Grace Xing, quantum computers and other just discovered they can comes to quantum materials the William L. Quackenbush next-generation electronics, coexist.” for computing and low- Professor of Electrical and just as classical computers Potential applications for temperature electronics. Computer Engineering and have shrunk from warehouse the material structure include Using nitride-based of Materials Science and to pocket size. more efficient electronics, materials, the researchers Engineering. “But because of “We’re wondering what such as data centers cooled to created a material structure its robustness, this material this sort of material platform extremely low temperatures that simultaneously exhibits has thrown pleasant surprises can enable because we see to eliminate heat waste. And superconductivity – in which to the research community that it’s checking off a lot the structure is the first to lay ShadowSense can turn an inflatable skin into a touch-sensitive device by using a camera and image classification. (a) and (c) show two tactile gestures; (b) and (d) show the device’s view of the shadows generated by these gestures. electrical resistance vanishes more than once despite its of boxes,” said Jena, who the groundwork for the use of completely – and the quantum extremely large irregularities added that new physical nitride semiconductors and ornell engineers professor in the Sibley School to embed in a deforming a palm, punching, touching Hall effect, which produces in structure. There may be a phenomena and technological superconductors in topological C have created a low- of Mechanical and Aerospace skin – the team took a with two hands, hugging, resistance with extreme path forward for us to truly applications could emerge quantum computing, in which cost method for soft, Engineering, and Kirstin counterintuitive approach. pointing and not touching at precision when a magnetic integrate different modalities with further research. “It the movement of electrons deformable robots to detect a Petersen, assistant professor In order to gauge touch, they all – with an accuracy of 87.5 field is applied. of quantum computing has a superconductor, a must be resilient to the range of physical interactions, of electrical and computer looked to sight. to 96%, depending on the “This is a beautiful marriage