the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

Densmore’s Work Honored by UVM CEMS Deans

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Left to Right: Former UVM CEMS Deans: Richard Foote, Domenico Grasso, (Dawn Densmore), George Pinder, Robert Jenkins, Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean, UVM CEMS (Unable to attend: Robert Arns)

After 23 years of dedicated service, Dawn Densmore will retire from CEMS and the University effective July 1, 2013. An honorary luncheon was organized by Interim Dean Bernard “Chip” Cole for staff and former UVM CEMS Deans under which she has served. While her regular presence in Votey and the College will be sorely missed, Densmore will continue to work with CEMS on a contract basis to keep the critical outreach programs functioning within UVM CEMS.

“I have had the great pleasure to work directly with Dawn over the last four years, and she's quite simply a most wonderful colleague and person,” said Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.

Densmore has delivered quality educational programs to young scholars across the state and the region as an outreach leader for engineering and the mathematical sciences. Her work includes oversight for programs such as National Engineers Week, the UVM/Aiken TASC Challenges, the UVM/GIV Engineering Summer Institute, as well s generated participation for Odyssey of the Mind, MATHCOUNTS, and the Vermont State Science & Mathematics Fair. In addition to these activities, she has coordinated publicity for the College, writing countless press releases, organizing media visits, generating the SPIRE newsletter articles and videos, and keeping our ever-important web page up to date with the latest CEMS news.

Densmore received a 2011 IEEE “Leadership” award by the Green Mountain Section of that organization. The citation of the award recognizes Ms. Densmore “for seminal improvements to the state of the art of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education,” and for further contributing “to the advancement of the engineering profession.”

More information about the college’s outreach programs can be found at:

http://www.uvm.edu/~cems/?Page=outreach/default.php.

Joan Jordan Retires

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0400

After 25 years of dedicated service, Joan Jordan has retired from CEMS and the University.
A graduate of Middlebury Union High School and the University of Vermont, Joan began her UVM career in the financial aid department in the fall of 1988. She transferred to the Dean's office of EMBA in 1990 where she embarked upon a long and distinguished path as a representative in the office of Student Services. She subsequently rose to the position of Student Services Administrator and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs of CEMS.

Joan was a tireless advocate for faculty and staff and over the years she shepherded many students through the obstacles of academia by using her institutional knowledge and her unbounded energy. "Joan made a difference in many lives," said Dawn Densmore, director of outreach for CEMS.

According to colleague Joan "Rosi" Rosebush, "Joan Jordan was the go-to person for many of our students and their parents. They all knew that Joan had 'seen it all' and was prepared to help. Parents knew that Joan would not 'mince words' when dealing with their students. Students also knew that Joan would tell them what they needed to hear, not always what they wanted to hear. In the long-run, some of the students whom Joan was toughest with were the ones who were most grateful at graduation and beyond."

Joan will be missed. We all owe thanks to Joan for all that she has done in advancing the mission of our College and UVM. On behalf of the faculty, staff, students and alumni of CEMS, let us wish her a happy and restful retirement.

Dr. Luis Garcia Appointed CEMS Dean

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0400

UVM President Thomas Sullivan has announced the appointment of Dr. Luis Garcia as Dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at The University of Vermont, effective August 15, 2013. In addition, Dr. Garcia has been named the Barrett Foundation Professor in the College. President Sullivan expressed his appreciation to Interim Dean Chip Cole for his dedication, leadership and service as Interim Dean since July 1, 2009. Dr. Cole will return to his position as Professor of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics.

“Dr. Garcia is an outstanding scholar, an excellent teacher as well as a seasoned administrator and leader,” says Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of CEMS. “He inherits an outstanding faculty and staff and a University leadership committed to the success of the College.”

“It is an honor to have the opportunity to join the UVM Community, and I look forward to working with UVM CEMS faculty and staff in this great college,” says Dr. Garcia.

Dr. Garcia has been a member of the Colorado State University faculty since 1991, and has served since 2005as Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and as the Director of the Integrated Decision Support Group in The Water Center at Colorado State University (a group that he created shortly after arriving at Colorado State University). In addition, he served as the Associate Director of the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station for five years.

Dr. Garcia is an accomplished researcher, with 54 refereed papers published or in press in the leading civil or environmental engineering publications and over 150 presentations at conferences, symposia or workshops. His primary area of research is Decision Support Systems, calculations of evapotranspiration (ET), remote sensing of ET, and spatial analysis in natural systems, specifically in applications for water resources and irrigation and drainage. He has been the single principal investigator on over 70 projects with a total funding of over $6 million. As Director of the Integrated Decision Support Group, he has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 95 funded projects with total funding over $12 million. He is an active member of the America Society of Civil Engineers and is an elected member of the United States Committee on Irrigation and Drainage.

For a more detailed articulation of Dr. Garcia’s professional background, please visit:
http://www.uvm.edu/provost/Garcia,%20Luis%20-%20CV.pdf

For more information on Dr. Luis Garcia, visit:
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~garcia/

CS Crew members in the News

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Ethan Elderidge, alum CS ’13 (who was an active CS Crew member) is one of the students featured in news coverage by TV5 of the recent event for “Coders/Designers Hack for Change”. To view video visit:

http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/burlington/Coders-designers-hack-for-change/-/8869880/20394732/-/13wdolaz/-/index.html

The UVM Computer Science Crew (CS Crew) is located in the Student Resource Center Votey 332, created to provide students with help with Computer Science (CS) homework, or for advice on computer-related issues.

This CS Crew works to connect undergraduate students with upperclassmen and grad students who provide help on a volunteer basis, and who work to foster relationships with the community.

For more information on the CS Crew visit: www.uvm.edu/~cscrew/.

For questions, contact: CS Crew (cscrew@uvm.edu)

VTSGC/VT NASA EPSCoR Leadership Change

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

After over 21 years of outstanding service, Dr. William Lakin, Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics in the Mathematics and Statistics Department, has stepped down as the Director of the Vermont Space Grant Consortium (VTSGC) and Vermont's NASA EPSCoR Program. Dr. Lakin (Bill) was one of 52 Directors in the National Council of Space Grant Directors and one of the Charter Directors of NASA Space Grant, the National College and Fellowship Program. He formed the VTSGC Affiliate Advisory Board and NASA EPSCoR Technical Advisory Committee in Vermont in collaboration with the Vermont EPSCoR Program. Dr. Lakin has been commended for his formation of the VTSGC Undergraduate Scholarship Program and two special scholarship programs, the VTSGC Native American Scholarships and the VTSGC BTC Aviation Technology Scholarships. During his leadership, he guided VTSGC to be considered a quality NASA Space Grant Capability Enhancement Consortium. Prior to his years as a Professor at UVM, Dr. Lakin was in the National Science Foundation Grant Department in Washington DC and at NASA Ames Research Center, where his team solved the first adhesion problem of the Space Shuttle Tiles and at NASA Langley Research Center, where his team solved the rotor wash for helicopters. His main research for NASA at UVM was in “Modeling the Role of Intracranial Pressure in the Development of Space Adaptation Syndrome” as Research Principle Investigator of the Intracranial Pressure Modeling Project and was nationally recognized among his peers and by NASA for his grant writing and administration abilities. Dr. Lakin was selected and served many years as a member the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering and had international research collaborations.

“Bill's outstanding and dedicated leadership, which he selflessly provided even after his retirement, has been crucial to the many successes of the VTSCG and VT-NASA EPSCoR,” says Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Director of UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) . “The institution and the state owe Bill a debt of gratitude for his tremendous service -- his legacy will always be one of great forward progress in scientific research in Vermont that has been supported by NASA.”

Dr. Darren Hitt Announced as Interim Director of VTSGC and NASA EPSCoR

Dr. Darren Hitt, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been appointed by NASA as Interim Director of the Vermont Space Grant Consortium (VTSGC)/ NASA EPSCoR, with a secondary faculty appointment in the Mathematics and Statistics Department. His confirmation as Director is expected when the NASA's official Space Grant Director transition period is complete. An Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA) and a Senior Member of the American Astronautical Society, Professor Hitt comes to this position with enthusiasm and an established research record in aerospace engineering and related sciences. His research focus is in micro-scale fluid mechanics with applications to small satellite micro-propulsion systems. This work, in collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, has received past funding from NASA and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Among his teaching interests is a popular senior/graduate-level course in orbital mechanics that he regularly teaches at UVM.

“Darren's background and experience will be a great asset to the VTSGC as the program continues to flourish under his leadership,” says Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean UVM CEMS. “It is indeed a great pleasure to welcome Darren into this important role.”

The VTSGC and VT-NASA EPSCoR, funded by grants administered by NASA and mandated by the United States Congress, are extremely important programs for CEMS, UVM, and the State of Vermont, and they have supported valuable, cutting-edge scientific research and STEM education. Indeed, a great many UVM investigators and students have benefited from these programs over the years. More information on the VTSGC can be found at:

http://www.vtspacegrant.org/ or http://www.cems.uvm.edu/VSGC.

Strong Gold and Weird Kinks at the Nanoscale

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

One nanometer is about five atoms wide. That’s roughly 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Weird stuff happens at this scale. Or, as the great physicist Richard Feynman presciently noted in 1959, “atoms on a small scale behave like nothing on a large scale.”

Take gold. It’s the softest of all metals, prized since ancient times for both its beauty and malleability. It can be easily bent into rings or pounded into foil. But that can be changed at the nanoscale.

A recent experiment — reported in Nature Communications and led by University of Vermont engineer Frederic Sansoz and Scott Mao at the University of Pittsburgh — demonstrated that gold nanowires could be made to have Herculean strength: ten times stronger than steel.

Nearly perfect

To do this, the scientists created tiny layers called “twin boundaries” in the crystalline structure of the gold. Each of these layers was especially tiny even by the yardstick of nanotechnology: about 0.7 nanometers thick, only a few atoms across.

The microscopic wires were all pure gold, but “just by changing the structure of the material at the atomic scale we increased the strength fifty times,” Sansoz says. “It’s higher than titanium alloys and comparable to Kevlar fibers. It becomes a super-strength material.”

In fact, the gold wires that they tested in both the lab and in computer simulations on the Bluemoon supercomputer at UVM’s Vermont Advanced Computing Center come very close to a state of matter that physicists call “theoretical strength.” This is the strongest possible arrangement of atoms of that element.

“We demonstrated that we attained nearly the maximum strength that Mother Nature could achieve,” Sansoz says.

To strengthen the gold, they relied on one of the basic principles of nanotechnology: that when you make things extremely small they are going to become more perfect.

"Perfect in the sense that their arrangement of atoms in the real world will become more like an idealized model," says UVM’s Sansoz. "With smaller crystals — in for example, gold or copper — it's easier to have fewer defects in them.”

And eliminating the defects at the interface separating two crystals, or grains, has been shown by nanotechnology experts to be a powerful strategy for making materials stronger, more easily molded, and less electrically resistant — or a host of other qualities sought by designers and manufacturers.

Not so perfect

But while Sansoz’s work with gold pushes it toward a kind of perfection of strength, another experiment he and colleagues recently completed demonstrates that one perception of perfection at the nanoscale may not actually be so perfect after all.

Since 2004, when a seminal paper came out in Science, materials scientists have been excited about "coherent twin boundaries" or CTBs. Based on theory and experiment, these CTB's are often described as "perfect," appearing like a dead-flat, one-atom-thick plane in computer models and electron microscope images.

Over the last decade, a body of literature has shown these coherent twin boundaries — found at the nanoscale within the crystalline structure of common metals like gold, silver and copper — are highly effective at making materials much stronger while maintaining their ability to undergo permanent change in shape without breaking and still allowing easy transmission of electrons — an important fact for computer manufacturing and other electronics applications.

But new research by Sansoz and colleagues from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and elsewhere shows that coherent twin boundaries found in copper "are inherently defective."

With a high-resolution electron microscope, using a more powerful technique than has ever been used to examine these boundaries, they found tiny kink-like steps and curvatures in what had previously been observed as perfect.

Even more surprising, these kinks and other defects appear to be the cause of the coherent twin boundary's strength and other desirable qualities.

Kinks and curves

"Everything we have learned on these materials in the past 10 years will have to be revisited with this new information," Sansoz says.

The experiment, reported in the May 19 edition of Nature Materials and led by Morris Wang at the Lawrence Livermore Lab, applied a newly developed mapping technique to study the crystal orientation of CTBs in so-called nanotwinned copper and "boom — it revealed these defects," says Sansoz.

This real-world discovery conformed to earlier intriguing theoretical findings that Sansoz had been making with "atomistic simulations" on a computer. The lab results sent Sansoz back to his computer models where he introduced the newly discovered "kink" defects into his calculations. At UVM’s Vermont Advanced Computing Center, he theoretically confirmed that the kink defects observed by the Livermore team lead to "rather rich deformation processes at the atomic scale," he says, "that did not exist with preconceived-to-be perfect twin boundaries."

With the computer model, "we found a series of completely new mechanisms," he says, for explaining why coherent twin boundaries simultaneously add strength and yet also allow stretching (what scientists call "tensile ductility") — properties that are usually mutually exclusive in conventional materials.

"We had no idea such defects existed," says Sansoz. "So much for the perfect twin boundary. We now call them defective twin boundaries."

Better understanding

For several decades, scientists have looked for ways to shrink the size of individual crystalline grains within metals and other materials. Like a series of dykes or walls within the larger structure, the boundaries between grains can slow internal slip and help resist failure. Generally, the more of these boundaries — the stronger the material.

Originally, scientists believed that coherent twin boundaries in materials were much more reliable and stable than conventional grain boundaries, which are incoherently full of defects. But the new research shows they could both contain similar types of defects despite very different boundary energies.

"Understanding these defective structures is the first step to take full use of these CTBs for strengthening and maintaining the ductility and electrical conductivity of many materials," Morris Wang says. "To understand the behavior and mechanisms of these defects will help our engineering design of these materials for high-strength applications."

For Sansoz, this discovery underlines a deep principle, "There are all manner of defects in nature," he says. "With nanotech, you are trying to control the way they are formed and dispersed in matter, and to understand their impact on properties. The point of this new Nature Materials paper is that some defects make a material stronger."

UVM Engineering Student Prototype Systems Presented

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Approximately 50 projects designed by UVM senior engineering students were on display on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 in the Dudley Davis Center from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

To view WPTZ-TV5 video visit:

http://www.uvm.edu/~cems/video/WPTZ130501Final_StephenBosley.mp4

To view The Burlington Free Press– Tim Johnson videos visit:

Julian Tryba and fellow University of Vermont engineering students have built a flying robot, or drone, with the goal of capturing video while following its subject:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/section/VIDEONETWORK?bctid=2245573119001

Solar Powered Top:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/section/VIDEONETWORK?bctid=2344374016001

Each team worked with an outside company, non-profit,entrepreneur or community; or with the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences School of Engineering and other UVM faculty research projects to undertake system- and product-design projects that address a variety of engineering issues. Innovative ideas and devices included:

Eleview – a flying robot that can follow and film you
A Solar Gyroscope
NASA Lunabotics Mining Robot
Innovative Golf Driver
Automated Testing of Torsional Loads on Guided Munitions
Hops Pellet Mill
Energy Efficient Smart Skylight Shades
Pneumatic Ski Press
Analysis of Wind Tunnel Turning Vanes
Foam Suppressant System for Maple Evaporator
Home Steam Dock: A Household Steam Appliance

Twenty five of the projects represent the work of UVM seniors in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering who take a year-long capstone project course known as SEED, for “Senior Experience in Engineering Design”. In addition, fourteen teams from the Civil and Environmental Engineering senior project course will present their project outcomes.

“These ‘real-world’ projects require integration of student knowledge of undergraduate engineering topics from several disciplines as well as original creative thinking,” says John Novotny, Coordinator of the SEED Projects. “All parties gain: the students learn new skills and gain confidence from creating the prototype devices, while the external partners receive prototype solutions to their problems – as well as an extended opportunity to observe senior engineers who will soon be looking for jobs.”

Each team has one or more mentors from the faculty of CEMS and other UVM Colleges, and most work directly with engineers and professionals from off-campus partners, this year partners include: Applied Research Associates, Ascension Technology Corp, Milton, VT, BombTech Golf, Burton Snowboards, Caledonia Spirits, Choquette Dairy LLC, Gordon’s Windows, IBM, Ideas Well Done, HG Skis, Kaman Composites, NASA, Alternative Energy Racing Organization and Plasan Carbon Composites, SOH Wind Engineering LLC, UTC Aerospace Systems, UVM Proctor Maple Research Center, Vermont Lung Center, and Bill Powell and Kris Anderson.

Civil Engineering Partners: City of Burlington, Chittenden Solid Waste District, Milton Public Works Department, The Farm Between (Jeffersonville), Town of Charlotte, Town of Jericho, Town of Williston, Village of Essex Junction, Village of Johnson, and UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Opportunities for 2013-2014

Interested companies of all sizes, consumer advocacy groups, industry organizations, non-profits, entrepreneurs and faculty research groups are encouraged to develop SEED projects for Academic year 2013-1014 by contacting:

John Novotny, Principal SEED Instructor

Research Associate Professor

"John E. Novotny" John.E.Novotny@uvm.edu

The UVM CEMS SEED Teams are:

Team A

Title: Innovative Golf Driver

Team: Mark Belanger (ME), Ryan Corey (ME), Ryan Mickelson (ME), Evan Olson (ME)

Project Mentor: Douglas Fletcher

Project Sponsor: BombTech Golf

Liaison: Tyler Sullivan, Owner

Team B

Title: Monitoring Snowboard Vibrations In A Laboratory Setting

Bryant Hughes (ME), Robert Seal (ME), Justin Strohsnitter (ME), Benjamin Walters (ME), Dane Weister (ME)

Project Mentor: John E. Novotny

Project Sponsor: Burton Snowboards

Liaisons: Jeff Burga, Rachel Gitajn

Team C

Title: NASA Lunabotics Mining Robot

Will Baker (EE), Adam Benjamin (EE), Stephen Bosley (EE), Elise Mazurak (ME), Jake Giffuni (ME)

Project Liaisons and Mentors: Stephen Titcomb, Darren Hitt

Project Sponsor: NASA

Team D

Title: Solar Gyroscope

Margo Adams (ME), Courtney Allen (EE), Hans Brakely (ME), Brendan Meryman (ME), Nathan Powers (EE), Liana Schneidman (ME)

Project Mentor: Jeff Frolik

Project Sponsor and Liaison: Ethan Bond-Watts

Team E

Title: Eleview- A flying robot that can follow and film you

Julian Tryba (ME), David Bernstein (ME), Cyril Brunner (EE), Nicholai L’Esperance (EE), David Hinckley (ME)

Project Mentor and Liaison: Jeff Frolik

Project Sponsor: MITRE Corporation and the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

Team F

Title: Low Noise Amplifier

Britney Adamczak (EE), Eric Hunt-Schroeder (EE), Tri Nguyen (EE)

Project Mentor: Tian Xia

Project Sponsor: IBM

Liaisons: Jui-Chu Lee, Randy Wolf

Team G

Title: Novel Method for Characterizing Breathing Flow in Partially Ventilated Patients

Will Turner (ME), Peter Aldermeshian (EE), Charlie Lacroix (EE), Josh Nason (ME)

Project Mentors and Liasons: Jason Bates, Baoshun Ma

Project Sponsor: Vermont Lung Center

Team H

Title: Carbon Fiber Cantilever Suspension for FSAE Racing

Richard Wester (ME), Marc Soldini (ME), Sam Wagner (ME)

Project Mentor: Dr. Rachael Oldinski

Project Sponsor: Alternative Energy Racing Organization and Plasan Carbon Composites

Team I

Title: Home Steam Dock: A Household Steam Appliance

Phil Foerster (ME), Joe Gallo (EE), Sam Holland (ME), Moustafa Mendscole (EE)

Project Mentor: Michael Rosen

Project Sponsor: Ideas Well Done

Liaison: Steve Bogner

Team J

Title: 2D Actuation System for Precise Sensor Manufacture

Andrew Killorin (EE), Joe Koltz (EE), Brian Richardson (ME), Charles Storey (ME)

Project Mentor: Michael Cross

Project Sponsor: Ascension Technology Corporation, Milton, VT.

Liasons: Gary Walz, Operations Manager. Glenn Dewar, Process Engineer Technician.

Team L

Title: Water Recycling System

Alyssa Enderle (ME), Dan Kendall (ME), Erica Weber (ME), Cory Haas (ME), Leanna Cornelius (ME)

Project Mentor: Dr. William Louisos

Project Sponsor: Caledonia Spirits.

Liaisons: Todd Hardie, Ryan Christiansen and Brent Bartlett

Team M

Title: WAVES – Wave Action Volatiles Extraction System

Libby Kirby, Tanner Haskins, Cooper Van Vranken, Chris Smith

Project Mentor: Jeffrey Marshall

Project Sponsor: Applied Research Associates

Liaisons: Greg Hewitt

Team N

Title: Extendable Eye for the Pointman Tactical Robot

Sean Arsenault (ME), Peter Elliot (ME), Robert Serra (ME), Colby Vavolotis (ME)

Project Mentor: Michael Fortney

Project Sponsor: Applied Research Associates

Liaison: Scott Teuscher

Team O

Title: Foam Suppressant System for Maple Evaporator

Will Roohan (ME), Cody Spiegel (ME), Steve Zaloudek (ME), Chris Ghazi (ME), Will Murphy (ME), Pat Costello (ME)

Project Mentor: Yves Dubief

Project Sponsor: UVM Proctor Maple Research Center

Liaisons: Timothy Perkins, Mark Isselhardt

Team P

Title: Automating Hand Lay-Up of Carbon Composite Parts for the Military and Medical Industries

John Huss (ME), Nicholas Ellison (ME), Kai Leo (ME), Lauren Johnson (ME)

Project Mentor: Dryver Huston

Project Sponsor: Kaman Composites

Team Q

Title: Energy Efficient Smart Skylight Shade

Christopher Carlos (ME), Vasu Sojitra (ME), Steve Kling (EE), Anthony Maccarone (EE)

Project Mentor: Michael Rosen

Project Sponsor: Gordon’s Windows

Liaisons: Gordon Clements and Rob Conklin

Team R

Title: Hops Pellet Mill

Niall Motson (ME), Tyler Ellis (ME), Christina Foster (ME), Kyle Kulp (EE)

Project Mentor: Michael Rosen

Project Sponsors and Liaisons: Bill Powell and Kris Anderson

Team S

Title: Quantifying Fracture of Ceramic Armor Tiles

Tyler Arnold (ME), Marc Biondi (ME), Ryan Dulude (ME), Kevin Schneider (ME)

Project Mentor: Dryver Huston

Project Sponsor: General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products

Liaison: Ajit Sane

Team T

Title: Development of a Hi-Throughput Centrifugal Sucrose Melt Spinning Process & Device

Matthew Mainer (ME), Ian Mattoon(EE), and Charlotte Morgan (ME)

Project Mentor: Walter Varhue

Project Sponsor: -

Liaison: -

Team U

Title: Automated Testing of Torsional Loads on Guided Munitions

Joe Shannawi (EE), Elvis Beric (ME), Derek Wilczynski (ME)

Project Mentor: John E. Novotny

Project Sponsor: UTC Aerospace Systems Project

Liaison: Richard Manning

Team V

Title: Pneumatic Ski Press

Gus Barber (ME), Mike Perkins (ME), Mike Noel (ME), Will Kearney (ME)

Project Mentor: Yves Dubief

Project Sponsor: HG Skis

Liaison: Harrison Goldberg

Team W

Title: Choquette Dairy Paper Shredder

Chris Carswell (ME), Andrew Choquette (ME), Bryan Choquette (ME), Shawn Fitzgerald (ME)

Project Mentor: John E. Novotny

Project Sponsor: Choquette Dairy LLC

Liaisons: Lisa Choquette, Adam Choquette

Team X

Title: Modified Theremin

Andrew Biss (EE), Harry Hollister (ME), Amanda Meltzer (ME), Rich Smith (EE)

Project Mentor: Stephen Titcomb

Project Sponsor: Student Team

Team Y

Title: CFD Analysis of Wind Tunnel Turning Vanes

Ian Pond (ME), Danny Moore (ME)

Project Mentor: Yves Dubief

Project Sponsor: SOH Wind Engineering LLC

Liaison: Robert Stewart, General Manager

The UVM CEMS CE Projects are:

Jericho Center, Vermont: Browns Trace Road Traffic Calming and Parking Realignment, Town of Jericho (Students: Nicole Rrogers, Kyler Parrow, Ben Joslin, Brian Ribbans)
Williston Green Streets: Mitigating Roadway Ponding via Rain Gardens and Infiltration, Public Works, Town of Williston ( Students: Olivia Lincoln, Nate Robeson, Tyler Fish, Pat Flaherty, Scott Goodwin)
Feed Optimization for Combined Heat and Power co-Digestion, Village of Essex Junction (Students: Tyler Cofelice, Will Chandler, Amanda Raab, Chris Mangieri, Michael Webb)
The Village of Essex Junction Snowmelt Staging Area Redesign, Village of Essex Junction (Students: James Coolidge, Danylo Whalen, Josh Kline, Anders Franon)
Design of Railroad Adjacent Multi-use Recreational Path and Bo Culvert in the Village of Essex Junction, Village of Essex Junction (Students: Whitney Dumville, Nathan Baker, Jonathan Watroba, Kasy Cybulak)
Design a hiking/biking trail (and alternatives) along State Park Road, Town of Charlotte (Students: Will Hayden, Justin Whipple, Chandler Smith, Annabelle Dalley)
Silage Runoff Management, Rainwater Salvage and Energy, UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) (Students: Jesse Danner, Mollie Caliri, Sara Fleishman, Mitch Switzer, Danielle Bassignani)
Hort Farm Stormwater Remediation and Sustainable Facility Redesign, UVM CALS (Students: Sebastian Downs, Dane Liljestrand, Henry Maquire, Shawn Cunningham, Dan Thomas)
North Winooski Avenue Complete Street Redesign, Burlington Bicycle & Pedestrian Program (Students: Aaron Wiener, Ian Robison, Kelsie Record, Ricky Sughrue, Matt Matuszewski)
Archibald Roadway and Intersection Redesign at North Prospect Street, City of Burlington (Students: JJ Newland, Tim Manahan, James Thorne, Reed Case)
Solution to Rural Roadway Washout during High Water Events at the Scribner Bridge in Johnson, VT, Town and Village of Johnson (Students: Ryan Dwosh, Margaret Duffy, Josh Maxfield, Travis Gingras, Josh Kennedy)
Design of Sidewalk, Retaining Wall, and Drainage Solutions for 3 Sites Along US Route 7 in Milton, VT, Town of Milton Public Works Department (Students: David Marsee, Robert Worley, Ian Adams, Wayne Johson, Lindsay Taylor)
Slope Failure and Watershed Delineation, Chittenden Solid Waste District (Students: Will Greenwood, Eric Denardo, Nick deMontigny, Karl Roth, Tim Glassberg)
The Farm Between Restoration: Structural Analysis and Repairs of Historic Dairy Barn, and Concrete Silo Deconstruction Proposal, The Farm Between (Jeffersonville) – (Students: Odanis Rosairo, Hannah Malloy, Joe White, Colter Peterson, Robert Peterson)

Happiness: There’s an app for that

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Pick up your smartphone. How are financial markets faring? Check Dow Jones or the S&P 500. Average temperature in the United States last July 4? Steer your iPad over to the National Weather Service. OK, so how unhappy was the world after the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday, April 15?

Wait a minute. You can’t measure global happiness, can you? Yep, now there’s a website for that: www.hedonometer.org.

A team of scientists from the University of Vermont and The MITRE Corporation have been gaining international attention over the last few years for the creation of what they’re calling a hedonometer. It’s a happiness sensor.

Now findings from this research are updated every 24 hours (soon to be every hour, and, eventually, every minute) — and are available to the public for free.

The day of the Boston Marathon was the saddest day measured by the scientists in nearly 5 years of observations.

Twitter, BBC, Bitly, and beyond

The new website went public on April 30. On its front page, a wavering graph rises and falls like a ticker at the New York Stock Exchange. Except, instead of averaging the value of thousands of companies, the hedonometer compiles and averages the emotional state of tens of millions of people.

“What it’s doing right now is measuring Twitter, checking the happiness of tweets in English,” says Chris Danforth, a UVM mathematician who co-led the creation of the site with fellow mathematician Peter Dodds.

But soon the hedonometer will be drawing in other data streams, like Google Trends, the New York Times, blogs, CNN transcripts, and text captured by the link-shortening service Bitly. And it will be data-mining in twelve languages.

Hedonometer.org is based on the research of Dodds and Danforth and their team in the Computational Story Lab at the University of Vermont’s Complex Systems Center, and the technology of Brian Tivnan, Matt McMahon and their team from MITRE, a not-for-profit organization that operates federal research and development centers and has expertise in big data analytics.

In February, the research team made headlines with the hedonometer. Studying geo-tagged tweets from cell phones, they reported on the happiest and saddest cities in America: Napa, CA, at the top and Beaumont, TX, at the bottom. In future versions of the new website, the researchers plan to make this kind of geographically linked data available, allowing as-it-happens observation of how a happiness signal varies, say, between Seattle and San Diego.

“Reporters, policymakers, academics — anyone — can come to the site,” says Danforth, “and see population-level responses to major events.”

Like the Boston Marathon bombings.

Boston’s impact

On Monday, April 15, reporters and TV crews from all over the world flocked to Boston to report on what they thought would be stories of athletic triumph. Instead, as the world now knows, two crude bombs near the finish line were detonated, killing three and injuring more than 260. Reporters turned to telling this new, tragic story. Many went out and started interviewing people. The stories were compelling; many people they spoke to around Boston seemed scared, angry and sad.

But suppose reporters wanted to find out how the bombings were affecting the mood of the world — in real-time. Was this horror registering in the global psyche, and how deeply?

“Many of the articles written in response to the bombing have quoted individual tweets reflecting qualitative micro-stories,” says Danforth. But capturing a few online comments or reactions on video does not necessarily reflect the overall mood of the English-speaking world anymore than talking to ten people in the park equals the US Census.

What if a reporter had also turned to the hedonometer? First, she’d have seen a dramatic downward spike in happiness for that day. Clearly, the Boston Marathon bombings were registering around the world. “Our instrument reflects a kind of quantitative macro-story,” Danforth says, “one that journalists can use to bring big data into an article attempting to characterize the public response to the incident.”

Then — in the same way that a stockbroker might drill down into a market average to get a sense of which companies are moving the markets the most — a reporter could dig deeper into the hedonometer’s data. There, she could see that “explosion,” “victims,” and “kill” are at the top of a list of trending words pushing the hedonometer down to its lowest ever point on April 15.

“They rise to the top because they are words that are negative,” Danforth says, “but primarily because they appear so much more than they usually do in the background in the ambient chatter of English.”

Emotional temperature

The hedonometer draws on what scientists call the “psychological valence” of about 10,000 words. Paid volunteers, using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, rated these words for their “emotional temperature,” says Dodds, director of UVM’s Complex Systems Center.

The volunteers ranked words they perceived as the happiest near the top of a 1-9 scale; sad words near the bottom. Averaging the volunteers’ responses, each word received a score: “happy” itself ranked 8.30, “hahaha” 7.94, “cherry” 7.04, and the more-neutral “pancake” 6.96. Truly neutral words, “and” and “the” scored 5.22 and 4.98. At the bottom, “crash” 2.60, the emoticon “:(“ 2.36, “war” 1.80, and “jail” 1.76.

Using these scores, the team collects some fifty million tweets from around the world each day—“then we basically toss all the words into a huge bucket,” says Dodds—and calculate the bucket’s average happiness score. As the site develops, the scientists anticipate that it will be gathering billions of words and sentences daily.

"Our method is only reasonable for large-scale texts, like what's available on the Web," Dodds says. "Any word or expression can be used in different ways. There's too much variability in individual expression," to use this approach to understand small groups or small samples. For example, “sick” may mean something radically different to a 14-year-old skateboarder than it does to his pediatrician.

But that's the beauty of big data. Each word is like an atom in the air when you’re trying to figure out the temperature. It’s the aggregate effect that registers, and no individual tweet or word makes much difference. In the Boston Marathon bombings example, positively scored words like “prayers” and “families” also spiked, but, obviously, not for positive reasons.

“If we remove ‘prayers,’ ‘love,’ and ‘families,’” says Chris Danforth, “it’s not going to change the day’s overall deviation from the background, because of all the other words.”

Changing which words are used to assess the overall emotional picture, “is like changing the filter on a lens you’re using,” explains Peter Dodds. “You can take out all the color, or you can turn up the contrast, but you can still see the picture.”

The verdict of consciousness

In 1881, a little-known book, Mathematical Psychics, published by Francis Edgeworth, asked the reader to “imagine an ideally perfect instrument, a psychophysical machine, continually registering the height of pleasure experienced by an individual, exactly according to the verdict of consciousness.”

In other words, a hedonometer. While Edgeworth’s was a thought experiment, Dodds and Danforth’s hedonometer is a real device. Of course, it doesn’t directly measure “the height of pleasure.” While the team is opening conversations with experts in brain scanning about how fMRI images might corroborate their remote-sensing approach, "we can’t — and really don’t want to — look inside people's heads," says Dodds.

Nor is their hedonometer “ideally perfect.” They’re working now to expand beyond the “atoms” of single words to explore the “molecules” of two-word expressions. But the hedonometer does work.

“The key piece is not whether we’re correctly measuring atoms and molecules,” says Brian Tivnan, a researcher from MITRE. “It’s the relative context that is so important: which is why the sudden drop from the Boston
Marathon bombings jumps out at you. The hedonometer shows the pulse of a society.”

Of course, happiness isn’t simple. Plato, Buddha, Freud and Tina Turner all pondered its meaning. Many Americans rank happiness as what they want most in life, but what is it, really?

“We’re not trying to tell you that contentment is better than happiness — we’re not trying to define the word,” says Danforth. The Nasdaq Index doesn’t capture the whole stock market. Gross Domestic Product doesn’t define the meaning of the economy. An EKG doesn’t tell a doctor everything about your heart. But all these aggregate measures, of something remote, are widely studied. The hedonometer may prove to be the same.

“We’re just saying we’re measuring something important and interesting,” says Chris Danforth. “And, now, sharing it with the world.

UVM/PITT Research Featured in Nature Communications

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

The current issue of Nature Communications published online on April 23, 2013, features an experimental and computational study led by Prof. Frederic Sansoz at UVM and Prof. Scott Mao at the University of Pittsburgh entitled, “Near Ideal Theoretical Strength in Gold Nanowires containing Angstrom Scale Twins”. The new material is shown to attain unprecedented failure strengths up to 3.12 GPa that is very close to the ideal limit predicted theoretically for gold, and about fifty times that of bulk gold used in applications. Detailed computer simulations of deformation processes at molecular scale have been performed in this research using the Bluemoon supercomputer at the Vermont Advanced Computing Center, which led to the discovery of new twin-mediated fracture mechanisms that are different from past observations.

“Gold is the most malleable of all metals and since ancient times has been used for many applications ranging from jewelry to electronics and medicine,” says Dr. Frederic Sansoz, associate professor in the School of Engineering. “With the advent of nanotechnology, materials scientists have focused on ways to dramatically improve the failure strength of gold by either size reduction to the nanoscale or by adding special interfaces, so called twin boundaries. Yet nano-sized or nano-twinned metals generally fail well below their theoretical strength due to boundary and surface imperfections. Here, we observe strengths close to the ideal limit in ultrathin gold nanowires, where these twins have a very fine thickness, below one nanometer. This discovery is important for mechanical reliability in miniaturized devices, from gold nanoparticles used in medicine and electronics applications to foldable nanowire-based touchscreen panels and solar cells.”

Figure caption: (left) Molecular dynamics simulation of tension and fracture of an ultrathin gold nanowire containing angstrom scale twins. (right) Comparison of experimental strengths measured in present work to ultimate strengths in gold nanocrystals reported in the literature.

The article and supplementary movies are also available from:

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n4/full/ncomms2768.html

Reference:

Near Ideal Theoretical Strength in Gold Nanowires containing Angstrom Scale Twins
J. Wang, F. Sansoz, J. Huang, Y. Liu, S. Sun, Z. Zhang, S. X. Mao, Nature Communications, 4 , 1742 (2013). doi:10.1038/ncomms2768.

ABSTRACT

Although nanoscale twinning is an effective means to enhance yield strength and tensile ductility in metals, nanotwinned metals generally fail well below their theoretical strength limit due to heterogeneous dislocation nucleation from boundaries or surface imperfections. Here we show that Au nanowires containing angstrom-scaled twins (0.7 nm in thickness) exhibit tensile strengths up to 3.12 GPa, near the ideal limit, with a remarkable ductile-to-brittle transition with decreasing twin size. This is opposite to the behaviour of metallic nanowires with lower-density twins reported thus far. Ultrahigh-density twins (twin thickness

Marshall Featured by VT Bioenergy

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Dr. Jeffrey Marshall, professor in the School of Engineering, is one of the UVM microalgae researchers featured by Vermont Bioenergy on the Algae to Biofuels Vermont Bioenergy videos prepared by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.

Vermont Bioenergy has completed an exciting series of short videos covering 5 years of Vermont Bioenergy projects and the farms & people involved. They will also promote videos featuring oilseeds to biodiesel, grass as a heating fuel, and algae to biofuels and wastewater management.

To view videos visit the VSJF-Vermont Bioenergy YouTube channel:

www.youtube.com/VermontBioenergy

For more information contact:
Jeffrey S. Marshall, Professor, School of Engineering, 307 Votey Hall, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405
Ph: (802) 656-3826 jmarsh1@uvm.edu http://www.cems.uvm.edu/~jeffm/

National Robotics Week at UVM

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

UVM CEMS exhibited some very cool robots as part of National Robotics Week.On display were innovative robotic designs that included: R Robot, quadcopter, lynxmotion hexapod with concrete climbing sucker feet, as well as other robots.

To view video from BFP of Dylan Burns with Tim Johnson, visit:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/VideoNetwork/2291819822001/Robots-perform-at-UVM&odyssey=mod%7Cvideo

This was the first year thatVermont joinedwith other states inparticipating in theNational Robotics Week designedto increase interest in STEM education and to create a general awareness about the robotics industry.

For more information contact on the UVM CEMS Exhibit contact:

Dryver Huston, Professor, School of Engineering - 802-656-1922

For more information on National Robotics Week visit:

www.nationalroboticsweek.org

For more information on National Robotics Week contact:

Matt Lloyd, Dir. Public Relations, Phone: 781-430-3720Email: mlloyd@irobot.com

Foote Receives 2013 George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Dr. Richard Foote, professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics has been named the recipient of the 2013 George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award by the UVM Alumni Association. While many faculty, alumni and students wrote in support of the nomination, the sentiment of the advocates can best be represented in the words of a former student who wrote, "Professor Foote does not teach, he changes lives."

A member of the faculty since 1981, and a previous winner of the Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award (1990), Dr. Foote was nominated for his effectiveness as a teacher, including: his ability to provoke student interest and enthusiasm; his commitment to student advising; and for his effectiveness in motivating students in ways that have a lasting influence on their lives and for his ability to constructively influence campus life beyond the classroom.

"I view this [Kidder] award as really a tribute to all the students, faculty and staff I have had the privilege of working with," says Dr. Foote. "I have been especially lucky to have such wonderful and gifted people to first have as students, and then as (often long-distant) colleagues and friends, and to keep in touch with as they go on in life to so many outstanding and diverse accomplishments. I am deeply touched by all their appreciation; and I remember vividly and with enduring fondness the classes, help sessions, meetings, flashes of revelation, hours of struggle, joyful triumphs, and just the simple one-on-one friendly conversations with so many marvelous students over my 30+ years at UVM."

"This prestigious recognition of Dr. Foote reflects the academic excellence found within CEMS and its faculty," said Bernard "Chip" Cole, Interim Dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. "Richard is also well known worldwide for his much-admired advanced algebra textbook, Abstract Algebra, which is co-authored with UVM colleague David Dummit." Now in its 3rd edition, this is the most widely used Abstract Algebra graduate textbook in the country.

Dr. Foote has opened the world of Mathematics to countless undergraduate, Master's, and PhD students. Many of those have continued on to serve the University of Vermont (e.g., Mathematics lecturers Matt Welz, Joe Kurdle, Helen Read and Karla Karstens), while many others hold faculty positions at other colleges (Hy Ginsberg - faculty member at Worcester State University; Kirsten Stor - faculty member at Castleton State College; Natalie Cartwright - faculty member at SUNY New Palz; Jo-Ellis Monaghan - faculty member at St. Michael's College; Elizabeth Wilcox - faculty member at Colgate University; Sandy Rhoades Gokey - faculty member at Greenfield Community College; Karen Ricciardi -- faculty member at UMassBoston) or high schools (John Painter -- South Burlington High school, Nichole Caisse -Lamoille Union HS; Chaim Lodish and Emmanuel Amoah at Burlington High School). Other former students, such as Michael Maguire, Doug Robinson, Sean Cohen, Ben (Martin) Reist, have gone on to work in industryand speak to Professor Foote's approach of mentoring as "living on" in the work that they do in their approach to working with mentees. Not only has Dr. Foote served students at the University of Vermont, but he has also been active in the wider academic community as well. Sandy Rhoades Gokey completed her M.S. in Mathematics at UVM. She continued her Doctoral work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst because at that time UVM did not have a PhD program in Mathematics. Dr. Foote was made a graduate faculty member at UMass Amherst so that he could act as her PhD supervisor. He has additionally advised local high schools' Mathematics teams such as the Mater Christi Math Counts Team (in 1996 their team placed first in the region, third in the state and contained the top individual in the state) and Rice Memorial High School's Greater Burlington Math League Team. Dr. Foote also served as the Senior Challenge advisor for CVU High School student Ben Bond, now a student at MIT.

Background

Dr. Foote completed his PhD at Cambridge University in 1976 under the supervision of Field’s Medalist John Thompson. While still a research student, he was awarded the University’s Knight Prize for Research and a Research Fellowship at Trinity College. He went on to positions at the California Institute of Technology, Rutgers University and the University of Minnesota before joining the UVM faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1981. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1983 and Full Professor in 1991. At UVM Dr. Foote was awarded the Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching (1990), the Pizzagalli Distinguished Publication Award (in 2007, for his paper “Mathematics and Complex Systems” appearing in Science), and the University Scholars Award (2010). In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. Foote has served as Associate Dean and Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematics, Interim Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the first Co-Director of the School of Engineering. Dr. Foote’s research is in the area of group theory and its applications, and his interests include Complex Systems and their relations to group theory and theoretical physics. He has explored applications of group theory to problems in algebraic number theory, topology, and digital signal processing, and his early research and continuing touchstone is the Classification of Finite Simple Groups. Dr. Foote has recently worked with Drs. Gagan Mirchandani and Robert Snapp in UVM's School of Engineering on discrete and algebraic notions of multiresolution analysis and wavelets, and the applications of group theory and algebra to image processing and edge detection. His research has been funded by the NSF, NSA and NASA.

As a graduate advisor, he has advised dozens of M.S. and PhD theses and served on numerous graduate theses committees. He has been director of the Mathematics Graduate Program.

The George V. Kidder Award

For more than 25 years, the George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award has been synonymous with quality teaching and dedication to the enhancement of the academic experience for undergraduate students at UVM. The Kidder Award is presented annually in honor of Dean Emeritus George V. Kidder '22, who loyally served the University of Vermont for more than seventy years. He touched the lives of thousands of students, now alumni, who fondly remember him for his insight and encouragement, which left a lasting impact on their lives. The inspiration of George Kidder's example gives this award its special meaning.

For more information contact:

Catherine Bliss
Complex Systems / Mathematics
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont 05404
www.cems.uvm.edu/~cbliss
Email: Catherine.Bliss@uvm.edu

To contact Dr. Foote: E-mail: foote@math.uvm.edu

For more information on these awards visit:
http://alumni.uvm.edu/events/kidder_award_prev.asp

Partnership To Expand Career Opportunities For UVM Students

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

The University of Vermont’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (UVM-CEMS) and the workforce development nonprofit Vermont HITEC, announced the creation of a new partnership today. The partnership is designed to expand internship and employment opportunities for UVM students in engineering, computer science, mathematics and statistics. In collaboration with UVM’s Career Services as well as other workforce agencies in the state, CEMS and Vermont HITEC will work to provide students with a wider array of internship and cooperative-learning opportunities with Vermont businesses. The partnership will link as well with the Vermont Technology Council Internship Program.

The partnership was forged by Dr. Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of UVM-CEMS and Gerry Ghazi, President of Vermont HITEC, and was formally launched today after piloting it over the past six months. During the pilot phase, over a dozen UVM-CEMS students took part in summer and fall internships with a number of Vermont companies including CVSAS, Semi-Probe, Smart Resource Institute, AllEarth Renewables, EnSave, the Compass School, and ArtsRiot.

“These learning opportunities are essential for our students. They provide training and experience critical for success in a globally-competitive job market in science and technology,” said Cole.

The partnership is funded in part by UVM and a U.S. Department of Labor grant to Vermont HITEC secured by the Honorable Senator Patrick Leahy in 2010. Vermont HITEC has been a leader in innovative workforce development activities over the past 12 years, serving over 1,000 individuals in cooperation with over two dozen companies in Vermont and New Hampshire.

The Senator lauded the partnership stating that, “to remain globally and nationally competitive, our higher education institutions need to embrace more immediate and deeper connections with industry. Students benefit greatly from opportunities to learn directly from employers at the same time they are pursuing academic studies. It is a perfect marriage I am proud to support.”

The announcement comes only six months after the Governor’s higher education advisory group released its report entitled “New Ideas for Changing Times: Strengthening the Partnership Between the State of Vermont and the University of Vermont.” The report cited that “nearly 90% of UVM undergraduate students engage in some form of experiential learning, through study abroad, internships, industry partnerships, volunteerism, or other forms of ‘real life’ learning,” and recognizes a need for increased connections between UVM and Vermont employers.

The CEMS-HITEC partnership also follows on the heels of Governor Shumlin’s Inaugural address where he highlighted education and workforce development initiatives as key to keeping Vermont’s economy on track over the next few years. As the Governor stated in his address: “At a time when Vermonters are facing unemployment and underemployment, many of our jobs creators can't find qualified employees, and it’s government’s responsibility to help fix this problem.”

For more information contact:

Bernard F. Cole, PhD, Interim Dean and Professor, CEMS University of Vermont
109 Votey Hall, 33 Colchester Avenue, Burlington, VT 05405-0156
E-mail: bernard.cole@uvm.edu Tel: 802-656-8413

Gerry Ghazi, President, Vermont HITEC, Inc.
156 Commerce Street, P.O. Box 1548,Williston, VT 05495
E-mail: gerry.ghazi@vthitec.org Tel: 802-872-0660

Media contacts:

656-2005 Jeffrey Wakefield

598-7603 Dawn Densmore ddensmor@uvm.edu

UVM Engineers Recognized by National Braille Press

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

E.A.S.Y. LLC (Engineering to Assist and Support You) is a year-old start-up spun off from the UVM School of Engineering. The company was recognized this month by the National Braille Press, receiving Honorable Mention and $5,000 in the annual Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation competition for their development of tactile graphics products for the blind. E.A.S.Y. LLC was founded and is owned and run by SoE faculty Michael Coleman and Michael Rosen with Joshua Coffee who graduated with an engineering degree from UVM in 2011. According to the NBP web site, “The Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation has attracted innovators from all over the world in the fields of education, technology, engineering, tactile graphics, and general literacy. This is the only prize to foster and reward innovation and offers a direct and compelling incentive for researchers, teachers and the like to support literacy efforts for blind people.”

"We are pleased and honored by this national recognition. For us, this award represents validation of our engineering design efforts and confirmation of our expectation that our products can have a substantial effect in the education and working lives of blind people”, says Mike Rosen, E.A.S.Y.’s President.

“This national recognition is truly well deserved,” says Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.

E.A.S.Y. LLC has had continuous guidance and support from UVM’s Office of Technology Commercialization, as well as the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, the on-campus UVM-affiliated incubation site. To date, financial support has come in the form of an equity purchase by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), a low-interest loan from the UVM Ventures Innovation Fund, and a Phase-1 small business grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Prior to the formation of the company, the focus on tactile graphics emerged in Academic Years 08-09, 09-10, and 10-11 in SEED (Senior Experience in Engineering Design), the Mechanical/Electrical Engineering capstone course. NFB provided program sponsorship and market-based guidance in every one of those years. Then and now, several blind individuals – including Marc Maurer, Mark Riccobono and Al Maneki of the NFB, and UVM business School Lecturer Marti Woodman – have played pivotal roles. In addition, participation by Rosen, Coleman, Coffee and past SEED students at the annual NFB conventions and various outreach activities has provided invaluable feedback from many of the blind and low-vision people.

E.A.S.Y. LLC is developing and integrating three novel tactile graphics products (with patents pending for all of them). All make use of the standard means of scribing a raised line with a stylus on a sheet of plastic film supported by a resilient rubber pad. The first product is the inTACT™ Eraser, a hand-held spot iron that blind users can apply to erase and edit their tactile sketches. The second is the inTACT Digital Raised-line Drawing Tablet that will store and transmit digital graphics files, allowing communication of tactile drawings with blind and sighted people. And the third is the inTACT Raised-line Printer. All have been prototyped and demonstrated publically. The Eraser came to market this month.

For more information on The Touch of Genius Award, visit:
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/programs/tog/tog_prize

To read an August BFP article visit:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120830/BUSINESS08/308300003/In

To view a video describing and demonstrating the E.A.S.Y. LLC products, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyt1lIIoI50

For more information contact:
Michael Rosen at:
mrosen@uvm.edu or tactile.rosen@gmail.com

National Engineers Week Recipients Recognized

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Brad Aldrich, Elizabeth Ann Kirby, and Jessica Sands Clark Louisos received Engineer of the Year Awards, and Elizabeth Ann Kirby received the Student Engineer of the Year Award during a banquet held Friday, February 22, 2013 at the DoubleTree Hotel in So. Burlington, VT. Richard Dall, P.E. ’72 and ’73 Graduate College UVM alumni, and 2012 Vermont Engineer of the Year honored awardees during the ceremony where William J. Stenger, Chief Executive Officer of Jay Peak Ski and Summer Resort served as guest speaker. Recipients were also honored by Governor Shumlin during a special ceremony at the State House in Montpelier.

Brad Aldrich, P.E., UVM ’81 BS Civil Engineering, was named Vermont’s Engineer of the Year (EOY).

Jessica Sands Clark Louisos, P.E., ’04 UVM BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering and ’06 MS in Environmental Engineering, was named Vermont Young Engineer of the Year (VYE).

Elizabeth Ann Kirby, a senior undergraduate student in electrical engineering, was named Student Engineer of the Year (SEOY) for outstanding academic achievements and for excellence in studies and research, as well as for significant service contributions to fellow students, UVM and the community (pictured with Professor Steve Titcomb (left) from the UVM CEMS School of Engineering).

The banquet is part of Engineers Week February 17-23, 2013, founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, which is among the oldest of America's professional outreach efforts. The goal of Engineers Week is to raise public understanding and appreciation of engineers' contributions to society. More than 75 professional societies, major corporations and government agencies support Engineers Week and are dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in mathematics and science.

FIRST@UVM Features Students Robot Inspirations!

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The global sensation FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) made its inaugural appearance in Vermont on Saturday, February 23, 2013 in the Davis Center on the campus of the University of Vermont with an all-day cooperative competition.

With two berths up for grabs in the World Championship which will take place in St. Louis in April, 28 high school-based teams from CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, MI, and VT took to the playing fields with their creative robots which were designed specifically for the annual challenge.The Vermont teams were: (Essex HS/CTE, U32 (East Montpelier); Lyndon Institute (Lyndon); Champlain Valley Union HS (Hinesburg); and Windham Regional Career Center (WRCC, Brattleboro),

President Thomas Sullivan opened the competitive robotics matches after the airing of an inspirational video message from Governor Shumlin. After nearly fifty matches, the CHS Cougars from Columbia HS in Maplewood, New Jersey emerged as the winners of the Vermont Championship while scoring one of the highest point totals in the country this year.

The FTC platform features teams competing in alliances head-to-head, robot-against-robot, as they work to maneuver around the 144 square foot playing field to acquire and strategically relocate colored plastic donuts on a three dimensional structure reminiscent of a 3D tic-tac-toe board. While most of the robot’s decision making is done by the drivers who are connected by game controllers, there is also an autonomous period where the pre-programmed robots try to use sensors to locate an Infra-red beacon. The level of technological sophistication of the teams left the crowd alternatively stunned and screaming encouragement.

“The FIRST Challenges produce the type of student mindset that leads to great solutions; not just technical ones, but solutions for society,” says John Abele, Vice Chairman of FIRST. “The only way to win is to collaborate with your competitor.”

“This is the best type of learning environment, “said Olaf Verdonk from Champlain Valley Union High School and team mentor for Team Robo Hawk. “These types of challenges contain team work skills and problems solving skills that are vital to student success in college and the business world.” Thomas Stevens, one of the RoboHawk team members commented their team was excited to see their spider drive and scissor lift device designed with a bucket on the top to transport rings in competitive action.

The goal of FIRST is to motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) while building knowledge, self-confidence, and collaborative life skills. Founded over twenty years ago by inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST now attracts more than 300,000 youth and more than 100,000 mentors, coaches and volunteers from more than 50 countries around the world. The annual programs culminate in an international robotics exhibition, competition and celebration where teams win recognition, make new friends, and perhaps discover an unanticipated career path.

In addition to the CHS cougars, Team Ingenium from Pelham, NH advanced to the World Championship because they won the coveted “Inspire” award for their innovative approach to the engineering problem posed by this year’s challenge.

To view results visit:http://www.uvm.edu/~first/

To read the TECH JAM article visit:
http://www.techjamvt.com/2013/02/12-reasons-to-love-vermonts-first-ever-first-robotics-tournament.html

To view the WCAX-TV3 videocoverage visit: http://www.wcax.com/video?clipId=8472954&autostart=true

To view WPTZ-TV5 footage visit:
http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/burlington/Bots-battle-for-victory-at-UVM/-/8869880/19070628/-/o7g96z/-/index.html

For access to Fox44 news visit:

http://www.fox44abc22yourvoice.com/story/21327316/uvm-hosted-for-inspiration-recognition-of-science-technology-event-saturday\

To access The Burlington Free Press news visit:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20130223/NEWS02/302230018/1007/NEWS02/A-riot-robots-compete-UVM-29-teams-show-nerdiness-cool-?nclick_check=1

Teams that competed were:

Team	Team No.	From	Organization
Academy of Science and Design	4024	Pelham, NH	ASD
Central Vermont Robotics (Robo-Raiders)	4946	East Montpelier, VT	U32 High School
CHS Cougars	4102	Maplewood, NJ	Columbia High School
Crandroids	5459	Bloomfield Hills, MI	Cranbrook Schools
Cyborg Gentleman Crabs	3397	Essex Junction, VT	EHS/CTE
Finding Blue Moose	5468	Foster, RI	Lurgio Home Robotics
Hammerdillo	6607	Lyndon Center, VT	Lyndon Institute
Hillers	4392	Hopkinton, MA	Hopkinton HS
Horse Power	6822	Putnam, CT	(None)
Ice Wolves	3568	North Brunswick, NJ	North Brunswick TwspHighschool
Ingenium	3590	Pelham, NH	MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Metal Marauders	6337	Morris Plains, NJ	(None)
MITiBot	2875	Lexington, MA	MIT Lincoln Laboratory
NanoGurus	4347	Morris Plains, NJ	NanoGurus Robotics
PAKBOTS	38	Bloomfield Hills, MI	Cranbrook Schools
piotech	6719	clifton, NJ	pioneer academy of science
Python	37	Bloomfield Hills, MI	Cranbrook Schools
Radioactive Raiders	6508	North Brunswick, NJ	(None)
Robo Mustangs	4554	Putnam, CT	Putnam Science Academy
RoboHawks	5741	Hinesburg, VT	Champlain Valley Union HS
RoboSpartans	4082	New Hartford, NY	RoboSpartans Robotics
Robot Frenzy	6608	Lyndon Center, VT	Lyndon Institute
Rockybalboto	3694	Brattleboro, VT	WRCC
some assembly required	5241	Manchester, NH	The Derryfield School
Team HAX	40	Windsor, CT	Loomis Chaffee
Team Unlimited	0001	Sharon, MA	(None)
The Gingerbread Men	39	Bloomfield Hills, MI	Cranbrook Schools
Wildcats	4580	Meriden, NH	Kimball Union Academy
Wyverns	36	West Hartford, CT	Kingswood Oxford School

UVM Transportation Researcher Honored at Washington DC Ceremony

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Tyler Feralio, a PhD student in Civil & Environmental Engineering, the UVM University Transportation Center Student of the Year, was honored with fellow recipients from around the country at the recent meetings of the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) and the US Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) in Washington, DC. His research entitled, "Prediction of Transient Diesel and Biodiesel Particulate Emissions through the use of an Artificial Neural Network,” received special recognition from the UVM Transportation Research Center in addition to his other accomplishments in research, academic performance, professionalism, and leadership.

“Being recognized with this award is truly an unexpected honor,” says Tyler Feralio.

“This recognition is truly warranted,” says Dr. Britt Holmén, associate professor in the School of Engineering and Tyler’s advisor. “Tyler's research project has resulted in the very significant development of our unique light-duty diesel particulate emissions sampling apparatus in the Transportation Air Quality (TAQ) Lab that will be a valuable resource to future UVM students studying vehicle emissions and their control .”

Each year the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) brings these students together to showcase major achievements and excellence in research and the promise for future contributions to the field. This year Tyler was one of 43 students from around the country to be acknowledged at this event.

“We are truly excited that a student of Tyler’s caliber was able to represent UVM in this national forum,” says Austin Troy, Director, Transportation Research Center (TRC).

“This award draws attention to young impressive researchers within our College,” says Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.

CUTC was established in 1979 by the major transportation research centers and institutes in the United States. CUTC provides a forum for the Universities and Centers to interact collectively with government and industry. For more information: http://cutc.tamu.edu/about.html

RITA coordinates the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) research programs and is charged with advancing the deployment of cross-cutting technologies to improve our Nation’s transportation system. RITA brings together important data, research and technology transfer assets of the Department of Transportation. RITA also provides strategic direction and oversight of DOT’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Program. For more information on RITA visit: http://www.rita.dot.gov/about_rita

The UVM TRC was created in 2006 with University Transportation Center (UTC) funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The TRC’s research, education and outreach efforts focus on mobility, sustainability and livability.

For more information on the UVM TRC contact: glenn.mcrae@uvm.edu
Phone: 802-656-1317
Web: http://www.uvm.edu/TRC

For more information on this award contact: Tyler Feralio

Dr. Rizzo Receives NSF EEID Award

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Dr. Donna Rizzo has received a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) award for $2.5 million for research entitled, “Modeling disease transmission using spatial mapping of vector-parasite genetics and vector feeding patterns.” The NSF EEID program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases.

This study takes a multidisciplinary approach to better understand Chagas disease, the most important parasitic disease in the Americas in terms of mortality and economic impact as a wide variety of mammals, including humans can serve as hosts to the parasite. Co-PIs include Drs. Leslie Morrissey (UVM Rubenstein School of Natural Resources), Lori Stevens and Sarah Cahan (UVM Biological Sciences), Patricia Dorn (Loyola University) and Carlota Monroy (Universidad de San Carlos).

“I am truly honored to receive this award,” says Dr. Rizzo. “The award provides new unique research opportunities for our students.”

“This prestigious award provides national recognition for the innovative research being accomplished by a collaboration of talented faculty and researchers within our College, across campus and in Central America,” says Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.

This five-year interdisciplinary study combines expertise from the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (Donna Rizzo, UVM), the Rubenstein School of Natural Resources (Leslie Morrissey, UVM), the Department of Biological Sciences (Lori Stevens and Sarah Cahan, UVM; Patricia Dorn, Loyola University), and the Laboratory of Applied Entomology and Parasitology (Carlota Monroy, Universidad de San Carlos). Students from all educational levels (high school through postdoctoral associates) are involved, learning techniques in field ecology, genetics (e.g., qPCR) laboratory analysis, geostatistical methods, and systems modeling. Their research efforts will be used to help determine specific community-based interventions that have the largest impact on lowering the risk of Chagas disease.

Chagas disease, a parasitic infection caused by the protozoan, Trypanosoma cruzi, is endemic to 21 Latin American countries. Approximately 8 million people in the America’s alone are infected with the disease, with ~40,000 new infections each year [1]. Most communities have limited access to health care and vector control through the spraying of insecticides and house improvements are currently the only means of combating further spread of disease. Chagas is spread primarily through blood feeding insect vectors, commonly known as kissing bugs, or chinches (in the order Hemiptera, family Reduviidae and subfamily Triatominae); these insects can live in domestic environments such as cracks in interior walls of houses, as well as in peridomestic animal shelters and natural environments.

Dr. Rizzo is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Computer Science in the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. She joined UVM in 2002 and holds undergraduate degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Connecticut, Fine Arts from the University of Florence in Italy and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine and University of Vermont, respectively.

For more information contact: Donna Rizzo

For more on this grant visit: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5269

Abstract

Building on earlier research, a collaborative effort between the University of Vermont (UVM, Burlington, VT), Loyola University (New Orleans, LA) and la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (Guatemala City, Guatemala) received an NSF grant in August 2012 entitled "Collaborative Research: Modeling disease transmission using spatial mapping of vector-parasite genetics and vector feeding patterns" to study Chagas disease in Guatemala and El Salvador.

DNA forensic analysis will reveal genetic relatedness (parents, siblings, first cousins, etc.) and describe vector movement, by determining the number of vector “families” in homesteads and sylvatic (natural) areas. The development of new geospatial analyses and complex systems models, in turn, help guide our understanding of the factors most important in human-vector interactions and parasite transmission. Our modeling approach will explore the interplay between ecological and landscape variables, insect and parasite genomics, vector blood meal source information, and socioeconomic variables, while combining historical and ongoing field programs to build working agreements and relations between multiple universities, public health organizations and communities in the U.S. and Central America.

[1] Rassi A Jr, Rassi A, Marin-Neto JA, 2010. Chagas disease, Lancet 375: 1388 1402.

Hines Receives NSF CAREER Award

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Dr. Paul Hines has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for $400,000 for his research proposal entitled, “CAREER: Harnessing Smart Grid Data to Enable Resilient and Efficient Electricity.” According to the NSF, “The CAREER program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.” The objective of Hines’ research project is to harness Smart Grid data (Big Data) to enable more resilient and efficient electricity. The award begins September 2013.

“Dr. Hines exemplifies the incredible research being done by our younger faculty members,” says Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of CEMS. “His research has been featured in prestigious journals such as: Scientific American, the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, and Energy Policy”

“This award provides the unique opportunity to conduct research that will hopefully lead to technology that can make power grids more resilient, including the ability to better incorporate variable power sources, such as wind and solar power,” says Dr. Hines.

Dr. Hines, assistant professor in the School of Engineering, has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Seattle Pacific University, an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in engineering and public policy. He previously served as a research scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), and as an Electrical Engineer at the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Dr. Hines scholarly contributions are in the areas of electrical energy systems, decentralized (agent-based) control systems, complex networks and vulnerability, optimization, and energy policy. A key goal of his research is to reduce the frequency of very large power grid failures, such as the Northeast blackout of August 2003.

ABSTRACT

Three research sub-projects contribute to the goal of harnessing Smart Grid data (Big Data) to enable more resilient and efficient electricity. Project 1 combines a new “Random Chemistry” computational algorithm with complex networks methods to find patterns of vulnerability in power systems, and uses the results to reduce cascading failure blackout risk. Project 2 transforms smart grid data into actionable information about the health of a power grid by looking at statistical properties (structured noise) in data from grid sensors. Projects 1 and 2 seeks to make power grids more resilient to fluctuations from renewable generation or weather events. Project 3 uses crowdsourcing to identify trends affecting residential energy consumption through a web-based energy efficiency social network.

Intellectual Merit

This project integrates research ideas from diverse scientific disciplines, including complex systems, graph theory, data science, computational intelligence and crowdsourcing. Projects 1 and 2 use abstract complex systems approaches, while retaining critical information about the physics of power systems. By using data from real power systems the project will contribute to the emerging field of data science. The third project combines computational intelligence with crowdsourcing in a way that could open new ways to improve energy efficiency.

Broader Impacts

This project tests new educational approaches, including a unique LEGO-based grid simulator, and integrates smart grid data into new courses. New curriculum and a hands on “smart grid road show” will be leveraged to attract students from diverse educational and demographic backgrounds to study electric energy.

For more information, on this award visit:

http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1254549&HistoricalAwards=false

Contact Paul Hines at paul.hines@uvm.edu.

BBC News Health Features UVM Researchers

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The BBC News Health January 10, 2013 features an article by researchers from The University of Vermont entitled, “Lung infection identified using ‘breath-print'.” The research, also featured in the Journal of Breath Research, focuses on analyzing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) given off in exhaled breath by different bacteria as well as different strains of the same bacterium. Breath analysis could be a very useful tool for children with cystic fibrosis, for example, as a guide on how to treat them.

Dr. Jane Hill, co-author of the study, from the University of Vermont, an assistant professor in the School of Engineering, feels there are still some challenges to overcome with "breath-prints" but her team is working systematically to move from the bench to the bedside.

The Journal of Breath Research article highlighted by the BBC and others is entitled, “Detecting bacterial lung infections: in vivo evaluation of in vitro volatile fingerprints” features researchers:

Jiangjiang Zhu, Heather D Bean, and Jane E. Hill, from School of Engineering, University of Vermont; Matthew J Wargo, Laurie W Leclair, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont College of Medicine, and the Vermont Lung Center, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Department of Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine.

To read the BBC news article visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20975948

To read this research article visit: http://iopscience.iop.org/1752-7163/7/1/016003

Dr. Hill works in the area of rapid detection of pathogens using novel technologies. This work was supported by NASA EPSCoR and the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Immunology and Infectious Diseases.

This collaborative work amongst experts from multiple disciplines is a valuable component of the interactive nature of the UVM research community.

For more on the Hill Research Lab visit: http://www.cems.uvm.edu/~janehill/

Karen Bernard - 2012 Outstanding UVM CEMS Staff Member

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Karen Bernard was presented the 2012 CEMS Outstanding Staff Member Award during a 2012 UVM CEMS Holiday Celebration held Friday, December 6, 2012 in the Fleming Museum by Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of the College, for her achievements in her role as Administrative Assistant for the School of Engineering.

“Karen plays a key role in the success of our College,” says Bernard ‘Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. “She creates functionality and continuity for faculty, staff and visitors within the School of Engineering.”

"Karen's assistance to me has been invaluable,” says Jason Bates, as Interim SoE Director. “Her unwavering efficiency and constant good nature, together with her wealth of knowledge about the operational aspects of the School of Engineering, have made all the difference in keeping things running smoothly. I am extremely happy that Karen is receiving this award."

Comments from colleagues in their nominations include:

Karen has been a model of professionalism and competence in the School of Engineering since its formation in 2006. While other administrative staff resisted the various changes involved in forming the SoE, Karen supported the new administrative structure and worked diligently with a succession of directors to help ensure that the SoE office is a professional, competently run workplace.

Having worked with her for many years in a variety of capacities, I have found Karen to be always cheerful and helpful. If she doesn't know the answer to a question that I ask, which is rare, she is able to quickly find the correct answer through her extensive contacts on campus.

Karen rarely makes mistakes in her work, and on the few occasions when she does she works quickly and professionally to correct them. I believe that Karen in every way embodies the excellent capabilities and cheerful demeanor that characterize the best of the CEMS staff.

Since 2006 CEMS faculty and staff have submitted nominations for a staff colleague for their contributions to UVM CEMS. Criteria for the award include having a positive attitude, exceeding job expectations, engaging in tasks beyond one's job description, making special contributions to the College, and participating in public service.

The winner was chosen by the Director of the School of Engineering, Chair of the Department of Computer Sciences, Chair of the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and the Dean. Karen received a $100 gift certificate to a restaurant of her choice and a $250 shopping certificate to the store of her choice.

Prior winners:

2006: Karen Wright, Floyd Vilmont (co-winners)

2007: Joan Jordan

2008: Jim White

2009: Monika Ursiny

2010: Marnie Owen

2011: Penni French

Vermont Businesses Support UVM/Aiken Middle and High School Engineering Opportunities

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Over 3,000 Fastenal 1.5" fender washers were moved through two challenging courses by teams of middle and high school students in vehicles that were powered with human energy during the 2012 UVM Aiken/TASC Transportation Challenges. UVM Aiken/TASC Challenges are sponsored by The Aiken Lecture Series and the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) as well as by approximately 60 businesses. Approximately 35 teams from 19 middle and high schools competed for awards that included: IBM Overall Design Awards, PC Construction Most Freight Delivered Awards, General Dynamics Test Tract Best Time Awards, IEEE Hill Challenge Most Freight Moved up Hill Awards, Husky Marketing Awards, Dynapower Off Road Tract Best Time Awards, Mylan Technology Emergency Most Efficient Uphill Climb Awards, and the NRG Green Transportation Video Awards, for the best 30 to 60 second videos featuring the benefits of Green Transportation.

Teams were challenged to transport as many washers as they could through two courses within the five minutes. They also had to transverse an 80 foot obstacle course. Members of the Vermont Army National Guard participated as judges, and Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts visited to view the event prior to individual classes offered by UVM CEMS as part of the Technology Knowledge Fair/Scouts in Engineering event done in conjunction with UVM Aiken/TASC/ This program offers classes on a variety of topics including: Architecture, Astronomy, Computers, Electricity, Electronics, Engineering, Metals, Photography, Riflery, Robotics Space Exploration, and Surveying.

“It is through outreach programs such as the UVM AikenTASC Challenges that students learn how to make a difference in the world while learning firsthand what it takes to be an engineer or scientist,” says Bernard “Chip” Cole, Interim Dean of the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.

The event is named after George D. Aiken, former U. S. Senator and Governor of Vermont who was an advocate for student education. The Aiken Lecture Series sponsors this event because it encourages middle and high school students to create engineering solutions to address needs within communities in our world. Many student participants of the Aiken/TASC Challenges go on to study engineering within UVM CEMS.

To view WCAX-TV3 news coverage by Melissa Sheketoff of the 23rd UVM Aiken/TASC Challenges held Saturday December 1, 2012 in the UVM
Patrick Gym tennis court areas, visit:

http://www.wcax.com/story/20235637/powering-cars-and-brains

For more pictures and video, visit (wining pictures to be posted soon):

http://www.cems.uvm.edu/tasc

WINNERS LIST The 2012 UVM Aiken/TASC* Challenges (Technology And Science Connection)

2012 UVM TASC AWARDS
MS IBM Best Overall Award
• 1st Place: Browns River Middle School – Ricochet
• Runner Up: Browns River Middle School – HONKA

HS IBM Best Overall Award
• 1st Place: Champlain Valley Union High School – Project RedHawk •
Runner Up: Hanover High School – The Neanderthals

MS Husky Marketing Award
• 1st Place: Browns River Middle School – Think
• Runner Up: Browns River Middle School – Ricochet
HS Husky Marketing Award
• Runner Up: Hanover High School – The Fresh Princes of Isengard
1st Place: Champlain Valley Union High School – Project RedHawk

MS General Dynamics Award
• 1st Place: Browns River Middle School – HONKA
HS General Dynamics Award
• 1st Place: Sharon Academy – Rampin' It Up
• Runner Up: Middlebury Union High School – TIGER Team

MS PC Construction Award

1st Place: Peoples Academy Middle Level – Team Vulcan
• Runner Up: Browns River Middle School – E.O.J.T

HS PC Construction Award
• 1st Place: Champlain Valley Union High School – Redhawk 01
• Runner Up: Mt. Mansﬁeld Union High School – Team Fantastic

MS IEEE Award
• 1st Place: Browns River Middle School – The PVC Something or Others
HS IEEE Award
• 1st Place: Sharon Academy – Give Me Instructions
• Runner Up: Hanover High School – The Neanderthals

MS Mylan Technologies Award
• 1st Place: Browns River Middle School – Think
HS Mylan Technologies Award
• 1st Place: Missisquoi Valley Union High School – The Mighty Ducks •
Runner Up: Hanover High School – The Fresh Princes of Isengard

MS Dynapower Award
• 1st Place: Browns River Middle School – Ricochet
HS Dynapower Award
1st Place: Champlain Valley Union High School – Project RedHawk •
2nd Place: Hanover High School – PSI Robots
Runner Up: Hanover High School - The Neanderthals

MS NRG –Green Transportation PSA Video Awards
• 1st – Camels Hump Middle School - Cow Hoot Special
HS NRG –Green Transportation PSA Video Awards
Tie - 1st – Mount Anthony HS - Lady Patriots •
Tie – 1st – Mount Anthony HS – Live MAUS
Runner Up: Mount Anthony UHS – Patriotic Blue

PERFORMANCE Honorable Mention: CVU Team RamRod - Will exhibit at the University Mall, Dorset Street, South Burlington, (January 2013)

For more about George D. Aiken visit: http://learn.uvm.edu/aiken/?Page=aiken_challenge.html

Xindong Wu Named AAAS Fellow

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Dr. Xindong Wu, professor of the Department of Computer Science in the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), to honor his “distinguished contributions to the field of data mining”. AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publishes the Science magazine. Each year the AAAS Council elects members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished. The AAAS Fellows induction ceremony will be held Saturday, February 16, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts at the Marriott Copley Place. “I am very honored to receive this national recognition,” said Wu, “there are many more senior researchers both at UVM and in the wider scientific community, and I am just lucky to get elected this year.”

“Our College and the university as a whole are truly proud to have Dr. Wu receive this prestigious honor,” says Interim Dean, Bernard “Chip” Cole.

Dr. Wu was also elected to an IEEE Fellow in 2010 (Class of 2011) and recently received the 2012 IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award for his “pioneering contributions to data mining and applications”. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a non-profit professional association dedicated to advancing technical innovation. He was also the first at UVM to receive the Computing & Communication Foundation (CCF) medium-size collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research entitled, “Integrating and Mining Bio-Data from Multiple Sources in Biological Networks.”

Dr. Wu’s research on rule generation for data mining in large, noisy data sources, and on innovative data mining applications in Web and video information processing, has been widely cited in the research community. He is a well-recognized world leader in data mining, and has won both the ACM SIGKDD Service Award (2004) and the IEEE ICDM Outstanding Service Award (2006).

Others from UVM also elected in the past as AAAS Fellows are:

Physics: Wesley L. Nyborg, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA
(Nyborg was also a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and passed away in 2011 at the age of 94)
Medicine and Biochemistry: Burton E. Sobel, University of Vermont, Colchester, USA
Biochemistry: Gary S. Stein, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA
Biology: Judith Van Houten, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA

Contact: Dr. Xindong Wu

For more information on AAAS visit: http://www.aaas.org

UVM TRC 2012 Student of the Year

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Tyler Feralio, a Ph.D. student in Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences has been selected as the 2012 Outstanding Student of the Year by the UVM Transportation Research Center (TRC). This recognition is part of the USDOT Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) program to highlight the work and accomplishments of students in the Transportation field.

Feralio received BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Originally from Abington, Pennsylvania, he worked at Honda Research and Development as a design engineer, and then for a small company designing aftermarket suspensions for all terrain vehicles. In 2009 he enrolled at UVM to focus more on environmentally conscious endeavors.

“I am particularly grateful to have received support from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Signature Project 2, entitled, “Emissions and Performance of Alternative Vehicles in Northern Climates” provided through UVM TRC, and to the UTC Graduate Scholar Research Assistantship,” said Tyler Feralio. “Support from members of the Holmén Research Group for my research, has also been great!”

“Tyler’s persistence and initiative has been critical to the development of our biodiesel research program,” said Dr. Britt Holmén, head of the Holmén Research Group. “His hands-on mechanical skills, organizational abilities, ability to quickly master new concepts combined with enthusiasm and dedication has resulted in significant development of our unique light-duty diesel particulate emissions sampling apparatus in the Transportation Air Quality laboratory (TAQLab).”

Feralio will be included in the national annual recognition ceremony to be held during the TRB Annual Meeting at the annual banquet of the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) on Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 6 pm.

Feralio was recognized with a unanimous committee decision from a field of very qualified candidates for the combination of his outstanding academic record, the quality and importance of his research initiatives, his interdisciplinary interests and initiatives, his contributions and support toward fellow students and researchers, and his leadership and initiative in the TAQ lab. His preliminary results on particle number emissions from the CM-12 engine operating on biodiesel fuels have been presented locally and at national conferences and will be submitted soon to Elsevier.

“Tyler Feralio’s dissertation entitled, “Prediction of Transient Diesel and Biodiesel Particulate Emissions through the use of an Artificial Neural Network,” will make a significant contribution to the literature,” said Glenn McRae, the TRC Graduate Program Coordinator.

The recognition carries with it a $1,000 award plus the cost of attendance (conference registration, and travel/lodging expenses) to the 2013 TRB Annual Meeting and two free registrations to the CUTC Banquet courtesy of USDOT.

For more information on the UVM TRC and this award contact: glenn.mcrae@uvm.edu Phone: 802-656-1317 Web: http://www.uvm.edu/TRC

Dr. Snapp Testifies at Statehouse on Cloud Computing

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Dr. Robert Snapp, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, testified before representatives in the Statehouse in Montpelier on Monday, November 19 regarding implications of the Vermont Sales and Use Tax related to Cloud Computing, the latest innovation in web-hosted services. Within the last five years, the paradigm of cloud computing has significantly changed the information technology (IT) landscape. As more consumers are purchasing cloud services instead of boxed software, the Vermont State Legislature is considering how best to tax the cloud to compensate for the lost sales tax.

To hear the testimony visit Vermont Public Radio:
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/96621/technology-tax-policy-are-issues-cloud-computing

Cloud computing will enable ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can rapidly provision and release with minimal management efforts or service provider interaction.Dr. Snapp provided information on cloud characteristics, the different types of cloud service models, and the types of available cloud infrastructures.

Some of the questions raised by the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST)include: If the location of a cloud cannot be pinpointed, which state's laws apply in taxing the cloud? If a state taxes at the point of use, what if services are free at the point of use? If tax is based on the location of the servers or the office of the cloud computing provider, will providers simply move to the lowest-tax jurisdiction? How does a provider or purchaser avoid being taxed in two locations simultaneously when states apply different sourcing rules for sales and use tax purposes?

For more information on the Cloud Tech issues visit:
http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/state-local-tax/assets/pwc-how-does-one-tax-the-cloud.pdf

To contact Dr. Snapp email: Robert.Snapp@uvm.edu