Spring 2011 - College of Engineering - The University of Tennessee ...

COE Researchers Play Role in Winning $20 Million EPSCoR GrantUT College of Engineering researchers are playing akey role in a recently awarded five year, $20 millionprogram devoted to increasing Tennessee’s researchbase in renewable energy technologies.The Experimental Program to StimulateCompetitive Research (EPSCoR) program wasestablished in the 1970s. The mission of EPSCoRis to assist the National Science Foundation(NSF) in its efforts to strengthen research andeducation in science and engineering throughoutthe United States. EPSCoR’s goals are to providestrategic programs and opportunities for EPSCoRparticipants that stimulate sustainableimprovements in their research anddevelopment capacity and competitivenessand to advance science and engineeringcapabilities in EPSCoR jurisdictions fordiscovery, innovation and overall knowledgebasedprosperity.EPSCoR districts are defined as states thatreceive less than 7.5% of federal researchfunding. Tennessee was designated as oneof five EPSCoR districts four years ago. Thisdesignation means that both public andprivate universities within the district cancompete for federal grants. However, theeducational institutions must compete as astatewide block for the funding.In October of 2010, the Tennessee StateEPSCoR partnership officially receiveda grant for a proposal submitted by theUniversity of Tennessee System, theTennessee Board of Regents System,Vanderbilt University and the TennesseeIndependent Colleges and UniversitiesAssociation. The overall goal of the proposalis to improve the competitive standing ofTennessee Science, Technology, Engineeringand Mathematics (STEM) researchers bycreating and enhancing a culture of collaborationwithin Tennessee’s research base.Titled “Tennessee Solar Conversion and Storageusing Outreach, Research and Education (TN-SCORE),” the proposal focused on outreach andeducation. The total of the grant awarded throughEPSCoR was $20 million, $10 million of whichwas designated for the University of Tennessee,Knoxville. A total of 14 entities applied for thegrant and seven received the funding, which willbe spread out over a time period of five years. TheState Economic Development Office overseesdistribution of the EPSCoR funds, while the overallcoordination of the program is supervised by Dr.David Millhorn, Executive Vice President and VicePresident for Research and Economic Development,the Principal Investigator of the project.The overall theme of the TN-SCORE wasalternative energy technologies, which complementseveral recent statewide research and demonstrationinitiatives and industry recruitment successes.The proposal was separated into three mainscientific thrust teams:Thrust 1: Advanced Solar Conversion andInnovation, featuring the development of highlyeffective, hybrid active layers to improve theefficiency and sustainability of solar cells.Thrust 2: Components and Devices for EnergyStorage and Conversion, focusing mainly on thedevelopment of primary technologies, electrochemicalenergy storage (batteries, supercapacitors) andconversion (fuel cells) devices, to address criticalareas of national interest and need.The EPSCoR team (back row, left to right): Dr. Stephen Paddison, Dr. Shane Foister, Dr. PeteCounce and Dr. Jimmy Mays; (front row, left to right) outreach coordinator Kat Forst, Dr.Zawodzinski and outreach coordinator-technical Gabriel Goenaga.Thrust 3: Nanostructures for Enhancing EnergyEfficiency, encompassing the development anduse of nanostructures to synthesize, fabricate,characterize and implement nanostructures withthe aim of enhancing energy efficiency in solid statelighting and solar energy conversion.Dr. Tom Zawodzinski, the UT Governor’s Chair inElectrical Energy Storage, was the co-thrust leaderfor Thrust 2. Dr. Cindy Rice-York, a professor atTennessee Technology University, was the otherco-thrust leader.“We wanted to have leaders for the thrusts fromboth universities that were research-oriented andfrom smaller academic institutions that were lessfocused on research,” Zawodzinski said.Zawodzinski’s original thrust team includes UTprofessors and Department of Chemical andBiomolecular Engineering colleagues Dr. R.M.“Pete” Counce and Dr. Stephen Paddison as wellas Dr. Jimmy Mays, a UT Distinguished Scientistbased in the Department of Chemistry. ProfessorShane Foister in the chemistry department has alsojoined the team. Researchers from Vanderbilt andMemphis round out the group.“There are a number of opportunities, with someflexible funding, for us to add other researchersfrom UT and other institutions as well,”Zawodzinski said. “What makes EPSCoR uniqueis that the program’s goal is to increase statewideresources, using the primary educational resourcesfor outreach with an emphasis on STEM.”When a previous effort to attain EPSCoR fundingwas unsuccessful, Zawodzinski led efforts toaugment the research focus with a battery andfuel thrust.Leaders of Thrust 1 were Dr. Barry Brucefrom the College of Arts and Sciences’Department of Biochemistry and Cellularand Molecular Biology and Dr. KaneJennings from Vanderbilt. UT participantsin the solar conversion and innovation teamincluded Department of Chemical andBiomolecular Engineering professors Dr.Ramki Kalyanaraman, Dr. Paul Frymier,Dr. Eric Boder, Dr. Stephen Paddison anddepartment head Dr. Bamin Khomami; Dr.Gerd Duscher, Dr. Bin Hu and Dr. Phil Rackfrom the Department of Materials Scienceand Engineering; and many collaboratorsfrom other state and private universities andcolleges.University of Tennessee participants in Thrust3 included Dr. Aly Fathy from the Departmentof Electrical Engineering and ComputerScience. A faculty contingent from Vanderbilt,as well as other academic institutions in thestate, was also involved. Dr. Sandy Rosenthalof Vanderbilt leads this Thrust.Each thrust team will contribute to the technologyinnovation base being developed in Tennessee toadd value to the research enterprise in the state.Also, each thrust includes an aggressive outreachand workforce development approach designed toenhance research capacity while creating a cultureof collaboration across the state, educating thenext generation of scientists in the classroom andproviding opportunities for students and facultythat might otherwise not be available.Workforce development programs under theEPSCoR grant include both summer and yearroundundergraduate research programs; collegefaculty summer research programs; a Council forUndergraduate Research Workshop; a secondaryschool science teacher summer program; industrysummer internships; and “Meetings in Miniature,”two conferences that will involve all TN-SCOREparticipants, one at the beginning and end of eachsummer.Continued on page 10Real Problems Make for Real LearningBreast cancer, battery design, solar houses, Alzheimer’s disease, mobile food irradiation and bridgeexpansion are just a few examples of the COE’s capstone design projects.Capstone design projects are collaborationsbetween the UT College of Engineering andlocal, national and regional businesses andgovernment entities. These projects allow uniqueopportunities for students to be involved inhands-on, complex research under the directionof engineering faculty.“Theoretical problems are essential for learningprinciples,” said Dean Wayne Davis, “However,engineers like to make things and solve realproblems. Capstone projects connected toindustry partners enable our students to delveinto real engineering issues.”The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)supports several student design projects, includingone in the Department of Chemical andBiomolecular Engineering (CBE). A joint projectinvolving 10 students, the project was proposedby CBE’s Dr. Pete Counce, Governor’s ChairProfessor Tom Zawodzinski and adjunct facultymember Dr. J.S. Watson. The project focuses onvarious aspects for redox flow battery design.Another long-term capstone design project inCBE is the collaboration with Eastman ChemicalCompany, which has been facilitated by Dr.Charlie Moore for more than 20 years. Thedepartment sends five to 10 senior chemicalengineering students to work on a process controlissue for Eastman in exchange for class credit.Eastman also has coordinated with theDepartment of Mechanical, Aerospace andBiomedical Engineering (MABE) on severalcapstone projects supervised by MABE professorDr. Don Dareing.Dr. John Schwartz and his students in theDepartment of Civil and EnvironmentalEngineering are currently collaborating on acapstone design with the Tennessee Departmentof Transportation (TDOT) on a road realignmentand bridge expansion over Little Turkey Creekat Kingston Pike and Everett Road intersectionin Farragut, Tenn. The objective is to develop aset of TDOT roadway construction plans thatinclude a five-lane curb and gutter facility andsidewalks. The bridge structure will also be widenedto accommodate the additional lane, sidewalks andcurbs.The Department of Industrial and InformationEngineering (IIE) has several capstone designprojects in conjunction with area hospitals andhealth care providers including East TennesseeChildren’s Hospital, Covenant Health and St.Mary’s Medical Center (now Mercy Hospital).Projects include operating room sterile processingreview; a pharmacy chemotherapy investigation; areview and study of the efficiency of a medicationadministration process; and procedures used forprocessing patients in an emergency room setting.IIE has also coordinated capstone design projectswith EPRI, American Safety Razor and AmericanAccessories International.In the Department of Electrical Engineeringand Computer Science (EECS), several capstoneprojects are in progress. One notable example isthe Solar Decathlon 2011 Competition projectfor the design, construction and testing of acomplete solar house for the U.S. Solar DecathlonCompetition that will take place in Washington,D.C. in September. Supervised by EECS professorDr. Leon Tolbert, the design includes an optionallyconnected DC power storage system to allow thehouse to be used in a stand-alone configurationwhen disconnected from the grid. EECS professorsDr. Paul Crilly, Dr. Michael Berry, Dr. JensGregor, Dr. Kevin Tomsovic, Dr. Fran Li, Dr. GregPeterson, Dr. Mongi Abidi, Dr. Syed Islam, Dr.Seddik Djouadi, Dr. Ben Blalock and Dr. HairongQi are involved in capstone projects ranging fromelectric vehicles to android-based robot control to awireless dog leash.Dr. Carl Lundin supervised several capstone designprojects for students in the Department of MaterialsScience and Engineering (MSE). Corporatesupporters of the projects provided funding and inkindcontributions and included Lear Corporation,Metal-Tech, Homesteader Trailers and John Deere.The MSE department collaborated with the MABEdepartment on the Homesteader Trailers project,which involved a study of the breakdown designfor a utility trailer.In the MABE department, Dr. MohamedMahfouz and Dr. Bill Hamel collaborated withUT Medical Center on several capstone designprojects, including developing a touch-sensitivebreast phantom for use in the training of medicalprofessionals in clinical breast examinationsand designing and improving a laparoscopictiming device in a simulation lab. Mahfouz alsosupervised projects in coordination with OakRidge National Laboratory (ORNL) to createan epilepsy seizure forewarning system and ananalysis method for early detection of Alzheimer’sdisease.MABE faculty member Dareing, adjunctprofessor Dr. Steve Foster and Dr. Butch Irickhave worked with Denso Corporation, Accu-Router, Lexmark, Republic Plastics and CarlisleTire on several capstone design projects formechanical engineering.In the Department of Nuclear Engineering(NE), research professor Dr. Martin Grossbeckis heading up several capstone design projects,including a mobile food irradiation facility,a small mobile reactor designed to fit into atruck for rapid assembly in remote areas and aninstrumented dry fuel storage cask.“Companies who sponsor capstone projects areamong our many corporate partners, and we aregrateful for their support,” remarked Davis. “It’sa win-win situation for both the businesses whichget the power of our creative student minds andthe students who develop a better understandingof corporate challenges.”Companies who want to explore ways topartner with the College of Engineering maycontact Marc Gibson, Director of CorporateDevelopment at 865-974-7592/ mgibson4@utk.edu, Dr. Bill Dunne, COE Associate Dean forResearch and Technology, (865) 974-3608/wdunne@utk.edu, or you may visit http://www.engr.utk.edu for individual department contact listings.8 THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE KNOXVILLE, COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING • www.engr.utk.edu TENNESSEE engineer • Spring 2011 • www.engr.utk.edu9