Magazine Fall 2020 BIOMOLECULAR WEAPONS FOR FIGHTING COVID-19 Years before coronavirus was a pandemic, Professor Susan Daniel was already looking for ways to defeat it. PAGE 18 Cornell EngineeringCornellEngineering Magazine MagazineCONTENTS Fall 2020 CONTEFall 2020NTS FEATURES DESIGNINGDESIGNING NY’S FIRST NY’S STATEWIDE FIRS ‘INTERNETT OFS THINGS’TATEWIDE ‘INTERNET OF THINGS’ By Eric Laine 14 CORNELLCORNE ENGINEERINGLL ENGINE 2030 EANDRING BEYOND 2030 AND BEYOND By Syl Kacapyr 22 YOUR GIFT CAN HELP ADDRESS SOCIETY’S GRAND YOUR GIFT CAN HELP ADDRESS COVERCOVE R CHALLENGESSOCIETY’S GRAND CHALLENGES BIOMOLECULARBIOMOLECULAR WEAPONS Novel approaches are needed to address one of the world’s most important challenges, climate change. FORWE FIGHTINGAPONS That’s why a very special friend of Cornell Engineering is defying conventional thought and including the FOR FIGHTING college in her estate plans to establish the Climate Change Solutions Program. COVID-19COVID-19 She knows that Cornell Engineering’s student and faculty research takes holistic, systems approaches to By Chris Woolston climate change solutions. Moreover, students gain real-world experience deploying renewable energy 18 through Cornell’s living laboratory, where campus buildings, utilities, people and transit systems serve as a platform for demonstrating new technologies. The Climate Change Solutions Program will incentivize student involvement in the work needed to address climate change. Through her visionary program, students will receive stipends to pursue internships or research opportunities with non-profits, for-profits and startup organizations. This involvement will POWERFULPOWE RFULDESIGN SOFTWARE DESIGN BRINGS SOFT STUDENTWARE IDEAS encourage work during their time at Cornell as well as motivate students to choose careers focused on TO LIFE solving climate change. BRINGS STUDENT IDEAS TO LIFE By Jackie Swift Our friend has chosen to remain anonymous for now. When asked why create the program at Cornell 27 Engineering, she said “My husband and I have felt strongly that the two most important issues facing society in the 21st century are equitable access to high quality education for all, regardless of income, and real-world solutions to climate change. By funding the Climate Change Solutions Program, we hope to help underserved students to work on solutions to climate change, improving upon both issues. We are delighted that Cornell has shaped this initiative to meet our objectives.” DEPARTMENTS NEWS AWARDS ALUMNI CONTACT: PROFILE Office of Trusts, Estates, and Gift Planning—Cayuga Society GREG 130 E Seneca Street, Suite 400, Ithaca, NY 14850 GALVIN Phone: 1-800-481-1865 Email: [email protected] 2 30 32 PageCORNELL 1 ENGINEERING | 1 ENGINEERINGNEWS CORNELL ENGINEERING LIQUID CRYSTALS GIVE RED BLOOD CELLS MAGAZINE MECHANICAL SQUEEZE ISSN 1081-3978 n some diseases, such as individual cells’ mechanical biological systems, like origins of disease, and you Volume 23, Number 2 sickle cell anemia and properties. The process mammalian cells. want to understand the effects Fall 2020 I malaria, the elasticity also illuminates minuscule The research team found of biological agents on cells, Cornell Engineering and mechanical properties differences between cells that, surprisingly, the red you have to consider that not Magazine is published of red blood cells are within a large population as blood cells folded in different every cell is the same as the by the Cornell University College of Engineering compromised. Scientists each cell reacts to the same ways and displayed varying one next to it.” hoping to understand these strain or force, revealing just degrees of stiffness. Although An imaging process was Dean Lynden Archer diseases can take heart: how diverse the cells are. the cells look alike before being used to analyze thousands of Joseph Silbert Dean Researchers led by Nicholas Liquid crystals flow like a placed into the liquid crystal, red blood cells within minutes, of Engineering Abbott, a Tisch University liquid but have the internal the liquid crystal reveals them collecting data on the overall Associate Dean Professor in the Smith School organization and long-range to be highly variable in their population and individual for Administration of Chemical and Biomolecular atomic order of a solid crystal. mechanical properties. cells simultaneously. The Erin Mulrooney Engineering, created a way of As synthetic materials, “There’s a lot of method can also be applied The Cornell COVID-19 Testing Laboratory at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Executive Editor using synthetic liquid crystals they have the potential to heterogeneity within the to other cell types, and to Dawn S. McWilliams to squeeze red blood cells provide new functions when population,” Abbott said. “If differentiate between healthy Director 140 polymerase chain reaction Marketing and Communications and gain new insight into interacting with complex you want to understand the and diseased cells. tests performed at the College EPIDEMIOLOGICAL Editor of Veterinary Medicine. Syl Kacapyr MODEL INFORMS To proactively identify cases Marketing and Communications across campus, Cornell is ALGORITHM BOOSTS EFFICIENCY, NUTRITION CORNELL’S FALL Graphic Design testing everyone in the social Robert Kurcoba circles of people infected with Graphic Designer FOR FOOD BANK OPS SEMESTER Marketing and Communications the virus, in addition to those ornell systems engineers efficiently, based upon pantry Said Gao: “We hope our boosting nutrition and policies eveloped by Cornell instruction was conducted who meet the definition of Printer examined data from a requests, demonstrated research is used as a baseline to help people at risk for engineers, the remotely. In that scenario, close contacts. The aggressive Cornell Print Shop C busy New York state a 7.73% improvement in model for food banks hunger.” D approach, known as adaptive epidemiological model Cornell would have had no Photography food bank and, using a new efficiency from 2018 to 2019, improving practices and used by university leadership authority to mandate testing testing, has already identified All photos by University algorithm, found ways to compared to standard food cases in a recently discovered Photography, to make decisions about or restrict students’ behavior. Robyn Wishna, unless better distribute and allocate bank allocation practices. Their reactivating and operating Now, students living on-or-off cluster that would have otherwise indicated. food, and elevate nutrition calculations also showed a On the Web campus are subject to follow otherwise gone undetected. campus amid the coronavirus Editorial and among its patrons in the 3% improvement in nutrition Cornell Engineering Magazine has a Website, with videos, Web pandemic is receiving national public health guidelines and The modeling and testing Business Offices process. using a wider variety of food, extras, and the latest news. Come see what’s happening and attention as Cornell continues a requirement to comply efforts have received national 252 Carpenter Hall Faisal Alkaabneh, Ph.D. Alkaabneh said. sign up for digital delivery. to limit the virus’s spread. with a testing program, also attention from publications Ithaca, NY 14853-2201 ’20, Cornell’s first doctoral Most food banks face multi- Wall Street Journal phone 607 255-6095 www.engineering.cornell.edu/magazine The modeling has been led developed by Frazier. such as the fax 607 255-9606 graduate in systems dimensional complexities, as Washington Post by Peter Frazier, associate Undergraduate students and the . e-mail cornell_engr_mag@ engineering, and his adviser, they coordinate several food cornell.edu professor in Operations are required to be tested Frazier has been quoted Oliver Gao, professor of categories to distribute finite Research and Information twice weekly, while graduate in media outlets such as Visit Cornell Engineering civil and environmental resources such as canned Bloomberg News Inside Engineering, who determined students, faculty and staff and Magazine online at engineering, reviewed data of goods, fresh produce, meats Higher Ed, and was featured www.engineering.cornell.edu/ before the fall semester began are tested once per week, all magazine the Food Bank of the Southern and dairy. that two to 10 times more with the goal of identifying on ABC’s “Good Morning Tier, which serves six counties “One pound of beef is America.” © 2020 people could be infected with infected individuals and Cornell Engineering Magazine in upstate New York. In 2019, not the same as a pound COVID-19 during a semester quickly isolating them. In Operations Research and Printed on recycled paper. the food bank distributed 10.9 of vegetables or a pound conducted entirely online, with order to test 5,000-7,000 Information Engineering million meals to about 21,700 of bread,” Alkaabneh said. significantly higher numbers Cornellians daily, a ‘pooled faculty members Shane people each week. Nearly “It’s so challenging from a becoming seriously ill. testing’ approach is used, in Henderson and David 19% of its patrons are seniors mathematical perspective. facebook.com/ www.youtube.com/ CornellEngineering That’s because surveys which samples of COVID-19 Shmoys, along with several and about 41% are children, When you have more than CornellEng indicated a large percentage tests are grouped together and students, played supporting according to the group’s data. one similar dimension, @CornellEng www.instagram.com/ of Cornell students planned