materials to do anything under the sun

44 Pages·2017·4.97 MB·English

Magazine
Summer 2016
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
MATERIALS
TO
ANYTHING
DO UNDER
THE SUN
20
2 8 14 30
News OpenLoop What’s in a Name The Maker Movement
Creating the Future of New faculty title draws Cornell’s maker culture is
Transportation industry experts to providing space & tools to turn
academia imagination into reality
ESTABLISHING
a
PLANNED
gift
SHOWS YOUR DEEPEST COMMITMENT
TO THE CORNELL YOU KNOW AND LOVE.
To find out if a gift of
appreciated securities
is right for you, too,
contact the Office of
Trusts, Estates, and
Gift Planning.
What will your gift support?
Susan (’01 and M.Eng. ’02) and Michael Hanson
(’01 and MPA ’02), active and engaged Cornell ORIE
alumni, felt compelled to support the major renovations
on the Cornell Engineering Quad with a gift of
appreciated securities. Their gift will help us continue
the modernization of Upson Hall so that the labs and
classrooms will support Engineering education
as it is today and into the future so kids like the
Hanson’s children can learn here!
CONTACT:
JENNIFER SAVILLE

[email protected]
ALUMNI.CORNELL.GIFTPLANS.ORG
Photography by: RodneyBailey.com
CornellEngineering Magazine
CONTENTS
Summer 2016
FEATURES
OPENLOOP
CREATING THE FUTURE OF TRANSPORTATION
By Geoffrey Giller
8
PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
NEW FACULTY TITLE DRAWS INDUSTRY
EXPERTS TO ACADEMIA
By Chris Dawson
14
COVER
MATERIALS TO
DO ANYTHING
UNDER THE SUN
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND
ENGINEERING
By Syl Kacapyr
20
THE MAKER MOVEMENT
CORNELL’S MAKER CULTURE IS PROVIDING THE SPACE AND
TOOLS TO TURN IMAGINATION INTO REALITY
By Chris Dawson
30
DEPARTMENTS
NEWS PEOPLE HOMETOWN
HERO
RENEE KING
2 37 40
CORNELL ENGINEERING | 1
ENGINEERINGNEWS
NIH provides $2.3M Cornell, ADC tackling
grant for FeverPhone rescue ropes issue for
development U.S. Navy
When you’re dangling with a replacement for the
above the ocean or the current steel cables used in
side of a mountain, helicopter rescue systems. The
suspended from a rescue researchers have developed
helicopter, having to worry several prototypes using
about anything except the a liquid crystal polymer
mission at hand is the last material, Vectran, and are in
thing you need. But Navy the process of designing a test
Aviation Rescue Swimmers, rig that can simulate the stress
whose life-saving jobs are put on these cables in rescue
done at the end of a cable less situations.
than a quarter-inch thick, are One of the challenges with
dealing with exactly that kind the new material involves the
of problem—namely, a jolt winch system used to wind the
of static electricity due to the cable onto a reel. In testing, the
An early prototype of the FeverPhone, developed by David Erickson, conductivity of the steel cables new rope is very strong, but
professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. on which they descend. has been found to burrow into
The U.S. Navy has the layers of rope underneath
The National Institutes of the system will be validated commissioned a team of as it’s being reeled in. Thus,
Cornell Engineering faculty coming up with the proper
Health’s (NIH) National and ready for FDA approval
and students—led by Stuart “jacket,” or coating, along with
Institute of Biomedical when the research is complete.
Leigh Phoenix, professor of a slight re-engineering of the
Imaging and Bioengineering The technology will be one
mechanical and aerospace winch drive will be necessary.
has awarded to Cornell a of the first to emerge from
engineering—and Advanced The collaboration will continue
four-year, $2.3 million grant to the Institute for Nutritional
Design Consulting of in the fall semester.
develop FeverPhone, which Sciences, Global Health and
Lansing, N.Y., to come up —Tom Fleischman
will diagnose six febrile Technology (INSiGHT)—a
diseases in the field: dengue, newly launched project
malaria, chikungunya, typhoid supported by Cornell
fever, leptospirosis and Chagas’ Engineering and the Division
disease. The research is led by of Nutritional Sciences.
David Erickson, Sibley College INSiGHT aims to develop
Professor of Mechanical advanced diagnostic tools
Engineering, and Saurabh to allow health workers,
Mehta, associate professor of researchers and policymakers
global health, epidemiology with minimal resources
and nutrition. to address public health
They will develop an app problems. “We’re at a really
for a smartphone or tablet important convergence
to work in conjunction with of mobile and health care
a small blood tester—called technologies, and it is these
Tidbit—that looks similar to a types of collaborations that can
countertop coffee maker and really move things forward,”
transmits its data wirelessly to Erickson said. “Our goal
the smartphone for analysis. with INSiGHT is to provide a
The team will then perform a clearinghouse to make more of Engineers from ADC meet with Cornell graduate students, led
field validation at an existing these interdisciplinary efforts a by Stuart Leigh Phoenix (pointing), professor of mechanical and
infectious diseases monitoring reality.” aerospace engineering, to discuss their joint project to develop
site in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and —Blaine Friedlander improved rescue ropes for the U.S. Navy.
2 | SUMMER 2016
6 Ph.D. students learning CORNELL
ENGINEERING
to commercialize their
MAGAZINE
research
ISSN 1081-3977
Many engineering multiphoton microscope that Volume 20, Number 4
Summer 2016
students spend their uses 48 channels of color
graduate years deeply information, a proprietary Cornell Engineering
immersed in a particular line of insect cell cultures, Magazine is published
by the Cornell University
technology. Now six doctoral an energy storage system College of Engineering
students are spending the designed for a power grid,
Dean
summer and the fall semester a stretchable light-emitting
Lance Collins
exploring the potential to turn material that provides This prototype device, developed
Joseph Silbert Dean
that research into a business. tactile feedback and can by Commercialization Fellow of Engineering
They are the first form buttons, and a signal- Bryan Peele, features a
Associate Dean
stretchable, rubber-like material
Commercialization Fellows, processing method to produce for Administration
that illuminates, provides tactile
part of a new entrepreneurship better MRI and CT scans. feedback and can be pressurized Erin Mulrooney
initiative offered by Cornell The fellows are learning the
to form buttons. Executive Editor
Engineering in which students methods and skills to bring a
Dawn S. McWilliams
work one-on-one with mentors technology to market, connect
business experts, and will be Director
and coaches to identify with expertise in supply matched with teams of MBA Marketing and Communications
potential market opportunities chains, intellectual property,
students who will assist in Editor
for their technology by product development, capital
finalizing business plans and Syl Kacapyr
developing comprehensive, raising and startup company pitch materials. Marketing and Communications
strategic business plans. formation. In addition to the
—Syl Kacapyr Graphic Design
The technologies include an fellowship’s coaches and
Robert Kurcoba
x-ray technique for analyzing mentors, students have access Graphic Designer
chemical composition, a to alumni, entrepreneurs and Marketing and Communications
Cornell and Iceland team to model Printer
Cayuga Press
geothermal energy
Photography
All photos by University
Photography unless
Cornell is partnering with otherwise indicated
the world’s premier
Editorial and
facilitator of geothermal Business Offices
energy, based in Iceland,
252 Carpenter Hall
with the goal of establishing Ithaca, NY 14853-2201
faculty and student exchanges, phone [phone]
fax [phone]
internships and field trips for
e-mail cornell_engr_mag@
students, joint research projects cornell.edu
and promotional efforts to
Visit Cornell Engineering
encourage more geothermal
Magazine online at
energy projects in the U.S. www.engineering.cornell.edu/
Cornell’s Energy Institute Ríkharður Ibsen, left, Jefferson Tester and Albert L. Albertsson sign a magazine
signed a memorandum of MOA between Cornell and GRP, while Ambassador Robert Cushman
© 2016
agreement on April 28 with Barber, back left, and Minister Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir witness it.
Cornell Engineering Magazine
the Geothermal Resource Park, Printed on recycled paper.
is to conduct a feasibility study campus in Ithaca, with an
a key player in the Iceland
for formalizing a joint research eye toward transforming the
Geothermal Cluster that aims
center for sustainability, as campus into a zero-carbon
to promote clean energy
well as to design a renewable model for other campuses and
internationally.
energy park for possible communities.
A key aim of the agreement
deployment on the Cornell —Syl Kacapyr
CORNELL ENGINEERING | 3
ENGINEERINGNEWS
Bioactive macrocycle Cornellians to advise
shows promising Starshot exploring Alpha
antibacterial activity Centauri
Assistant Professor Christopher Alabi, second from left, and graduate Mason Peck, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace
students Mintu Porel, Ngoc Phan and Dana Thornlow. Their paper engineering, and Stephen Hawking after the announcement of the
on sequence-defined bioactive macrocycles was published on May 9 in Breakthrough Starshot project.
Nature Chemistry.
Cornell faculty and alumni nanocraft will likely be similar
A group of Cornell delivery systems. are helping to advise to the Cornell Sprites in that
researchers has Christopher Alabi, assistant Breakthrough Starshot—a they will have to pack a lot of
published a study professor in the Smith School $100 million research and technology, yet be inexpensive
detailing a simple, efficient of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering project aiming to to produce so that large
method for the assembly Engineering, led the study and demonstrate proof of concept numbers could be deployed.
of biologically compatible his group’s paper, “Sequence- for light-propelled nanocraft Each craft will be attached to a
polymers, with complete defined bioactive macrocycles that could capture and send thin “lightsail” just a few atoms
control over their composition via an acid-catalysed cascade back images and scientific data thick and be pushed by a laser
and arrangement. Their reaction,” was published from our nearest star system, light beam shot from Earth,
findings could lead to new May 9 in Nature Chemistry. Alpha Centauri. creating an effect much like
antibacterial drugs and drug- Collaborators, all from his The project was announced wind pushing a sail boat.
lab, included postdoctoral April 12 during a press Other Cornellians serving
researcher Mintu Porel, and conference in New York City by on the project’s management
On the Web
Dana Thornlow and Ngoc philanthropist Yuri Milner and and advisory committee
Phan, graduate students in the renowned cosmologist Stephen are former astronaut Mae
Cornell Engineering Magazine field of chemical engineering. Hawking, who say the goal is Jemison, M.D. ’81; Princeton
has a Website, with videos,
Web extras, and the latest “I think we’ve made to fly nanocraft at 20 percent professor Bruce Draine, Ph.D.
news. Come see what’s significant progress,” Alabi the speed of light and reach ’78; Planetary Society founder
happening, leave a class note said. “I think the overall goal Alpha Centauri within 20 years Louis Friedman, M.S. ’63;
to let your college friends
know what you’re up to, or is not to recreate biological of their launch. theoretical physicist Freeman
sign up for digital delivery. molecules—the goal is to Among those advising Dyson, who taught at Cornell
www.engineering. maybe capture some of the the project will be Mason from 1951-53; and Ann Druyan,
cornell.edu/magazine functions of what we want, in Peck, associate professor of author and producer of the PBS
the smallest sequence that we mechanical and aerospace documentary series Cosmos,
facebook.com/
can make.” engineering, and his former and board member of Cornell’s
CornellEngineering
“We’re just scratching the student Zac Manchester, Carl Sagan Institute: Pale Blue
@CornellEng surface,” he said. “Biological Ph.D. ’15, now a researcher at Dot and Beyond.
molecules fold into myriad Harvard University. Peck and A group of students from
www.youtube.com/
structures, so we’re taking Manchester have engineered Ithaca High School will also be
CornellEng
baby steps and trying to tiny, cracker-sized satellites working with Cornell students
http://bit.ly/1LukNq1 understand the role of called “Sprites,” which are to model a lightsail spacecraft
composition and structure on serving as models for how after winning an international
www.instagram.com/ molecular function.” the Breakthrough Starshot competition to have their
CornellEng/
—Tom Fleischman nanocraft could be designed. design engineered into reality.
The Breakthrough Starshot —Syl Kacapyr
4 | SUMMER 2016
Cancer cells’ ability to Metal-foam hybrid has
self-repair may spawn potential in soft robotics,
new treatments aeronautics
Research by Jan Lammerding, associate professor of biomedical The metal-foam compound developed in the lab of Rob Shepherd,
engineering, shows the stages a cancer cell goes through after associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, can be
squeezing through a constricted space. heated in order to change its shape, then cooled to regain stiffness.
Because they have First Release, from the journal Imagine an aircraft that Field’s metal with a porous
narrow bodies and no Science. could alter its wing shape silicone foam. In addition to
collarbones, mice are The group looked at two in midflight and, like a its low melting point of 144
able to squeeze through holes factors in the cell’s migration pelican, dive into the water degrees Fahrenheit, Field’s
as small as a quarter-inch in process: the rupturing of the before morphing into a metal was chosen because,
diameter. Cancer cells similarly nuclear envelope, which they submarine. unlike similar alloys, it
are able to migrate through tracked using green and red Impossible, you say? A little contains no lead.
extremely tight quarters but fluorescent proteins normally too “Transformers,” perhaps? The elastomer foam is
with a major difference: The localized to the cell nuclei, but Well, the U.S. Air Force doesn’t dipped into the molten metal,
journey often comes at a that spill into the cell body think so, and believes Cornell then placed in a vacuum so
price—the deformation and, when the nucleus ruptures; engineering professor Rob that the air in the foam’s pores
in some cases, rupture of the and damage to the cell’s DNA. Shepherd and his group might is removed and replaced by
outer lining of a cell’s nucleus. “We’re still trying to find help make that futuristic- the alloy. The foam had pore
A research group headed by out if there are differences sounding vehicle a reality. sizes of about 2 millimeters;
Jan Lammerding, associate between cells, and a lot of The key is a hybrid material that can be tuned to create
professor of biomedical what we see is very similar featuring stiff metal and soft, a stiffer or a more flexible
engineering, has been between normal cells and porous rubber foam that material.
studying this phenomenon cancer cells,” Lammerding combines the best properties In testing of its strength and
in hope of using it to develop said, adding that by trying to of both—stiffness when it’s elasticity, the material showed
both treatment and diagnostic identify potentially unique called for, and elasticity when an ability to deform when
solutions for the millions of deformation-and-repair a change of shape is required. heated above 144 degrees,
people who deal with cancer properties of cancer cells, The material also has the regain rigidity when cooled,
every day. treatments that are minimally ability to self-heal following then return to its original
Lammerding’s group reports deleterious to healthy cells damage. shape and strength when
on this research in a paper may be developed. This hybrid material reheated.
published online March 24 in —Tom Fleischman combines a soft alloy called —Tom Fleischman
CORNELL ENGINEERING | 5
ENGINEERINGNEWS
Cornell looks to make Surface mutation lets
PARADIM shift with $25M canine parvovirus jump to
NSF grant other species
P P
ro ro
v v
id id
ed ed
An optical floating zone furnace, center, is used to synthesize
new materials together, including Pr2Zr2O7, left in blue, and
Yb2Ti2O7, right in green. The resulting single crystals are several
millimeters in diameter and several centimeters long.
Cornell University is systems enabling low-power
leading an effort that signal processing and data
will empower scientists, storage), and human welfare
engineers and entrepreneurs (miniaturized sensors for
throughout the nation to medical imaging).
design and create new interface To balance the desire for
A schematic of the single-particle tracking binding assay used in
materials—materials that do a rich nationwide user
the research into parvovirus, conducted by Susan Daniel, associate
not exist in nature and possess group and the practicality of
professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
unprecedented properties— managing physical resources
thanks to a $25 million grant across different locations, Canine parvovirus, or A research paper co-authored
from the National Science PARADIM locates its Web- CPV, emerged as a by Susan Daniel, associate
Foundation (NSF). based theory facility at Clark deadly threat to dogs professor in the Smith School
The Platform for the Atlanta University, its bulk- in the late 1970s, most likely of Chemical and Biomolecular
Accelerated Realization, crystal growth facility at the result of the direct transfer Engineering, which contends
Analysis, and Discovery of Johns Hopkins University, of feline panleukopenia that a key mutation in the
Interface Materials (PARADIM) and its thin-film growth and or a similar virus from protein shell of CPV—a single
will invite users to take characterization facilities domesticated cats. CPV has amino acid substitution—
advantage of various facilities, at Cornell. PARADIM also since spread to wild forest- plays a major role in the
data and expertise at Cornell leverages expertise from dwelling animals, including virus’ ability to infect hosts of
and its partner institutions Princeton University as well raccoons, and the transfer of different species.
to create new materials from as existing user facilities such the virus from domesticated One of Daniel’s specialties is
the bottom up, eliciting novel as the Cornell NanoScale to wild carnivores has been the investigation of chemically
ways for electrons to carry Science and Technology something of a mystery. patterned surfaces that interact
information in solid-state Facility, the Cornell Center With a major assist from the with soft matter, including
devices and efficiently interact for Materials Research, and Cornell NanoScale Science and biological materials such as
with magnetic, electrical and the Johns Hopkins Materials Technology Facility (CNF), cells, viruses, proteins and
optical stimuli. Characterization and a multidisciplinary team of lipids. Her lab has pioneered a
These interface materials Processing Facility. researchers has identified method called single-particle
produce properties that “PARADIM is a mecca for a mutation in CPV that can tracking—placing artificial cell
will impact electronics materials discovery. We look profoundly alter transferrin membranes into microfluidics
relevant to national security forward to helping users receptor (TfR) binding and devices, fabricated at the CNF,
(quantum computation, realize their materials-by- infectivity of the virus. The to study the effect of single
universal memories and design dreams,” said Darrell methodology used in this virus particles on a variety of
secure communication), clean Schlom, professor of materials research could blaze a trail membrane host receptors, in
energy (improved catalysts), science and engineering and for future research into other this case from both dogs and
national infrastructure (smart PARADIM director. viruses, including influenza. raccoons.
—Syl Kacapyr —Tom Fleischman
6 | SUMMER 2016
Cornell student project
• Baja received second place overall and
teams place in national first place in suspension at the Baja SAE
Collegiate Design Series at Tennessee
competitions Tech.
• Cornell Earthquake Engineering
Several engineering student project teams placed high in Research Institute Seismic Design
took third place at the 13th Annual
their respective national competitions this year.
Undergraduate Seismic Design
Competition in San Francisco.
• Cornell ChemE Car won its fourth title
after competing in the 2016 Northeast
• Concrete Canoe paddled their way to
Regional Competition hosted by
third place overall at the Concrete Canoe
the American Institute of Chemical
Race hosted by SUNY Buffalo.
Engineers.
• Steel Bridge won first place in the
• Cornell Rocketry is the Centennial
poster/bridge display and in the oral
Challenge and NASA Student Launch
presentation categories at the Steel
2016 champions.
Bridge Competition hosted by SUNY
• CUAIR came in second place in the Buffalo.
14th annual Association of Unmanned
• Design, Build, Fly completed all
Vehicle Systems International Student
three missions, taking eighth place
Unmanned Air Systems Competition
overall at the AIAA Design/Build/Fly
held in Patuxent River, Md.
Competition in Wichita, Kan.
Neafsey gift helps launch
eHub
Examine the DNA of Most recently, Neafsey
the strong relationship and his wife, Rilla, have
between the Johnson reengineered their ongoing
School and Cornell commitment to Engineering
Engineering, and you’ll find and Johnson, converting their
one alumnus intertwined longstanding professorship
with just about every strand. into a program-endowment
For decades, John P. Neafsey, fund to benefit both colleges.
M.Eng. ’62, M.B.A. ’63, has One program supported
been energetically contributing by the gift is eHub, Cornell’s Jack Neafsey and his wife, Rilla, funded the John P. and Rilla Neafsey
to the two Cornell colleges 15,000 square feet of Engineering/Johnson Program Endowment to support eHub.
that gave him his start in collaboration and incubator
a transformative way for great time to start a business!”
business. Neafsey, who served space in two locations:
students, faculty, and staff said Shulman. “Under Zach
for decades on the Advisory Kennedy Hall on campus
to ‘do’ entrepreneurship at Shulman’s leadership, eHub
Councils of the College of and 409 College Ave. in
Cornell,” said Zach Shulman and other entrepreneurial
Engineering and Johnson and Collegetown. Created as
’87, JD ’90, director of programs can distinguish
is a former Cornell Trustee and a collaboration between
Entrepreneurship at Cornell. Cornell from other institutions
past overseer of the medical Student Agencies, Inc., and the
Neafsey’s funding is essential and serve as a complement
school, chaired Johnson’s $46.6 Johnson School, Engineering,
to the initiative’s success. to what’s happening on the
million capital campaign in Entrepreneurship at Cornell,
“Funds to support founders Cornell Tech campus,” said
the 1980s, playing a key role and other Cornell units,
are critical to enable them to Neafsey.
in renaming and transforming eHub fills an important
take advantage of their time —Irene Kim
the school. niche in Ithaca. “eHub is
while they are students—it’s a
CORNELL ENGINEERING | 7
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