MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY
2 01 4
Making the college a place where creativity can thrive
DEAN’S MESSAGE
Creative Problem-solving Defining Our College
There are many reasons why someone may choose to pursue a career in engineering — job opportunities, aptitude in math and science, following a family member. For me, it was the desire to make a difference in the quality of life by solving challenging medical problems. Though it doesn’t feel that long ago, it has been nearly 30 years since I received my bachelor’s degree in engineering from Marquette. And I can honestly say that drive to find innovative solutions to tough problems still motivates me today. This most recent issue of Marquette Engineer is filled with stories about individuals driven by a similar motivation. From faculty seeking ways to improve the mobility of individuals with spinal injuries, to students designing robots that can emulate human motion, to alumni helping inventors patent and commercialize their ideas — Marquette engineers go beyond equations, schematics and book knowledge, using their technical, business and leadership skills to address global problems.
At Marquette, the creative and curious student is supported by a hands-on, challenge-based, student-centered engineering curriculum offered by faculty who leverage their research to inform their teaching.
That ability to tackle complex problems is made possible through a combination of creativity and engineering practice, a winning combination the Opus College of Engineering proudly embraces and celebrates. This creative spirit is highlighted by the recent opening of the state-of-the-art Visualization Lab, a virtual 3D lab being used for both teaching and research that allows students and researchers to immerse themselves in a patient’s artery, cruise along a newly designed freeway or care for patients in a busy surgical suite, all without ever leaving campus. Though it’s necessary for engineers to be proficient in math and science skills, creativity and curiosity must be encouraged as we educate the next generation of Marquette engineers. At Marquette, the creative and curious student is supported by a hands-on, challenge-based, student-centered engineering curriculum offered by faculty who leverage their research to inform their teaching. All of the creative activity shaping the college’s future is made possible thanks to the amazing mentorship and support of our alumni and benefactors who embrace the mission of the college. People like Gerry Rauenhorst, a visionary who founded The Opus Group® and is recognized for helping create the integrated design-build approach. Gerry, who passed away in April, embodied the creative problem-solving defining the college today. Throughout his life, Gerry generously supported the college with his expertise and philanthropy. To recognize the unique scope of his impact on the college, the university renamed the college the Opus College of Engineering. It’s a fitting honor that is described in more detail on the magazine’s back inside cover. I am incredibly grateful to be a member of such a vibrant, supportive and faith-filled community that is committed to finding solutions to global challenges in creative ways that, in the spirit of Ignatius, set the world on fire. Dr. Kristina Ropella Interim Opus Dean Opus College of Engineering
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY OPUS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
414.288.6000 marquette.edu/engineering Engineering Hall 1637 W. Wisconsin Ave.
In this issue 02 // RoboCup2014
Olin Engineering Center 1515 W. Wisconsin Ave.
P.O. Box 1881 Milwaukee, Wis. 53201-1881
04 // Innovators in Action
Marquette Engineer is published for colleagues, alumni and friends of the college. Feedback and story ideas are appreciated. Please email jessica.bulgrin@marquette.edu. Editorial team: Andy Brodzeller, Jessica Bulgrin, Kathy Durben, Stephen Filmanowicz, Bridget Kesner, Sarah Painter Koziol, Jennifer Russell Art director: Karen Parr Contributing photographers and illustrators: Daniel Alfonzo, Dan Johnson, David Junkin, John Nienhuis, Kat Schleicher, John Sibilski, iStock, Dreamstime
Student robotics team heads to Brazil for international competition.
Dr. Brian Schmit: Intense exercise is the prescription for improving the health of those with spinal cord injuries. Center looks to contribute to a Milwaukee manufacturing renaissance. Dr. Ting Lin: Improving earthquake engineering.
08 // Promising Pursuits Marquette embraces intellectual property developed by its researchers.
12 // A-ha!
The college discovers its creative streak and cultivates a culture of problem-solving.
18 // Building Tomorrow’s Leaders Leader formation is the driving force behind two college programs.
20 // Nuts & Bolts
The latest college news in brief. 22 // Marquette Research and Innovation
A special section highlighting
how our researchers are discovering innovative solutions to the world’s greatest concerns.
30 // Opus College of Engineering Pays Tribute to Alum’s Dedication
OPUS
College of Engineering
marquette university opus college of engineering
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RoboCup 2014 Shooting for their goals BY ANDY BRODZELLER
Established two years ago, Marquette’s Humanoid Engineering and Intelligent Robotics Lab is making impressive progress on its lofty goals. The lab qualified for the RoboCup, an annual international robotics and artificial intelligence competition. The team traveled in July to Brazil, where their robots played soccer against teams from across the globe. The team finished fifth out
of the six teams in its division, but that didn’t lessen the achievement. The largest robotics event in the world, the competition is a serious platform for research and learning. The team will apply the lessons it learned to the lab’s goal of creating assistive humanoid robots that will address global problems, including childhood obesity and low literacy levels.
From left to right: Josh Panka, computer engineering; Kellen Carey, computer engineering; Dr. Andrew Williams; Raoul Chinang, mechanical engineering; Elise Russell, electrical and computer engineering; Adam Stroud, biomedical engineering; John Williams, computer science; Darryl Ramgoolam, biomedical engineering 2 // 2014
Photo by John Nienhuis
The Team
The Coach
The Robots
The Competition
Sixteen students from all engineering disciplines collaborated to build and program Marquette’s first automated robot from the ground up. Six traveled to Brazil to compete in the RoboCup.
Dr. Andrew Williams, Grad ’95, the John P. Raynor, S.J., Distinguished Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering, was recognized as one of the top 50 most important African Americans in technology.
Affectionately known as Sunny and Forrest, the robots each use 24 motors, an Android smartphone, and a gyroscope and machined aluminum torso. They stand 3 feet tall and weigh 17 pounds.
As the only American representatives, Team MU-L8 (pronounced emulate) competed against five teams from Brazil, Canada, Germany and Iran. More than 4,000 engineers from 45 countries participated in RoboCup 2014.
marquette university opus college of engineering // 3
I N N OVATO R S I N A C T I O N
PROFESSOR PRESCRIBES INTENSE EXERCISE FOR PATIENTS WITH SPINAL CORD INJURIES Biomedical engineering professor Dr. Brian Schmit is nine months into a four-year research study. Like his study participants, he remains focused on the end result: improved muscle function and mobility for men and women with incomplete spinal injuries. “We’re going to learn a lot of science along the way, which is important,” Schmit says. “But the ultimate goal is to change the way we prescribe exercise for patients with spinal cord injuries.” People who suffer incomplete spinal cord injuries typically aren’t fully paralyzed but do face issues: Autonomic dysreflexia, spasticity and other conditions, which make muscles react unpredictably, are among the most serious. Regardless of the area of injury, spinal trauma results in the loss of neuromodulators coming 4 // 2014
By Jesse Lee
from the brain stem. These neurochemicals, which tell muscles when and how long to contract, are severely disrupted, causing muscle spasticity and mobility problems. The sympathetic nervous system — the system that causes the “fight or flight” response — is part of the autonomic, or involuntary, nervous system and is also seriously affected by injury. This system controls blood flow to muscles and other organs. Disruption of the sympathetic nervous system can lead to autonomic dysreflexia, a life-threatening reaction causing extremely high blood pressure that could result in a heart attack or stroke. Typically, a patient would be prescribed an exercise regimen as part of normal rehabilitation. According to Schmit, however, the current intensity level of this prescribed exercise isn’t enough.
“
The ultimate goal is to change the way we prescribe exercise for patients with spinal cord injuries. — Dr. Brian Schmit
“Intense exercise has a better therapeutic effect than mild exercise,” he contends. “Intense exercise provides training of the control of muscles, as well as control of blood flow to those exercising muscles. Without proper control of blood flow, patients tire out more easily. The more tired they become, the more other issues arise. “There’s a coupling between the motor and sympathetic nervous systems that we see in exercise,” he says. “Coordinated exercise can increase the therapeutic effect.” Schmit’s research aims to prove that rigorous exercise will improve cardiovascular health and functional movement, take advantage of the coordinated coupling of the motor and sympathetic nervous systems, and build the muscles and make them more reliable. He’s applying his engineering expertise to design new devices that will enable patients with partial paralysis to exercise more intensively. To start, he built a system of pulleys and cables designed to provide prescribed resistance and even help patients raise themselves into a walking position. This specialized equipment allows practitioners to provide a minimal amount of enabling to get the maximum amount of exercise intensity, which should, in turn, provide the most effective level of rehabilitation for patients.
Dr. Brian Schmit
“Take an issue like spasticity,” he says. “Some people will actually use their spasms to help them walk, but the muscles often come on when you don’t want them to. It can be debilitating; it can mess up abilities like walking or transferring to and from a wheelchair, and it can be painful. “In our trials, we’re using techniques like resistance training to build and control the muscle so people can train themselves to swing their legs a certain way when walking, for example, to move more reliably.”
”
Those trials, funded by a $325,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, include 40 subjects being tested in three areas: arm ergometry, intense walking and assisted walking therapy. How the subjects perform on the trials will allow Schmit and his team to measure changes in muscle response and even changes in the way the blood vessels involved in the exercise work. “Blood flow control and exercise go hand in hand,” Schmit says. “If we can improve the blood flow to the muscle, we can improve the muscle function.” It’s a collaborative effort among engineers, physical therapists and exercise scientists in which each plays a critical role. “Engineers help the physical therapists study what they otherwise couldn’t. We’re developing and building the instruments they need to test and measure the clinical results,” Schmit says. “By being directly involved in the studies, we can customize the instruments right away when needed and make real-time adjustments.” With more than three years remaining in the study, Schmit and his team still have a lot of work ahead of them. But, for him, it’s three years to make an impact on a largely unstudied area. “The idea of coordinated exercise to take therapeutic advantage of the sympathetic and motor coupling is unique — it’s really what got us funding,” he says. “No one is studying it together this way. We’re creating tools and techniques to leverage new research and access new knowledge.”
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I N N OVATO R S I N A C T I O N
CENTER SEEKS TO BUILD ON MILWAUKEE’S MANUFACTURING MOMENTUM By Sarah Painter Koziol
With renewed motivation to improve the global competitiveness of the American manufacturing industry, the Opus College of Engineering’s Center for Flexible Assembly Systems is looking to grow. Recent funding will allow the college to hire a director to improve the center’s profile by attracting new research projects and funding and establishing critical relationships with local and global industry partners. The mission of CFAS is to provide a forum through which problems — found within the center’s membership — can be solved. It will be dedicated to advancing the technologies associated with mechanical fastening; welding, brazing and soldering; and assembly, particularly the use of automation to reduce the cost of labor.
“With approximately 152,000 manufacturing jobs in the area ... the center’s influence on the region’s manufacturing industry could be significant.” — Dr. Joseph Schimmels
“To create more domestic jobs, the federal government is increasing its investment in advanced manufacturing during the next several years, so we’re expecting more manufacturing operations to return to the United States,” says Dr. Joseph Schimmels, associate dean for research and professor of mechanical engineering. “More domestic manufacturing can be justified if it is transformed from a skills-based activity to a knowledge-based activity. Our center will assist in this transformation by creating and disseminating the knowledge needed to make manufacturing a more labor-efficient activity.” Schimmels, Eng ’81, hopes the CFAS’s central location will positively impact the Milwaukee region, which has been a manufacturing stronghold for decades and was recently designated a “Manufacturing Community” by the federal government. Among only 12 areas selected from 70 nationwide,
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Milwaukee will receive preferential consideration for up to $1.3 billion in federal grant money because of the designation. “With approximately 152,000 manufacturing jobs in the area — corresponding to more than 15 percent of the local workforce — the center’s influence on the region’s manufacturing industry could be significant,” Schimmels adds. The center will be modeled after an Industry/ University Cooperative Research Center, a model supported by the National Science Foundation since 1978. An I/UCRC contributes to the nation’s research infrastructure base and enhances the intellectual capacity of the engineering and science workforce by integrating research and education. The Water Equipment and Policy Research Center, in which Marquette is partnering with businesses and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee to pursue pre-competitive research that will benefit the water industry, is one of approximately 60 such centers affiliated with the NSF.
LOOKING TO THE PAST — AND FUTURE — TO IMPROVE EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING To better understand Dr. Ting Lin’s commitment to improving earthquake engineering, consider her tour last spring of sites affected by the great 1964 Alaskan earthquake. Near Girdwood — a town largely engulfed 50 years ago by sinking ground and surging tides — the assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, together with her colleagues from the Seismological Society of America, donned rubber boots, waded into a marsh and dipped a long pole into the muck. To her satisfaction, the group retrieved sedimentary evidence both of the 1964 earthquake and another massive seismic event about 800 years earlier, while gaining new respect for the paleoseismologists who scour geologic sites for records of long-ago earthquakes. Only a warning from a tour leader stopped her from seeking traces of even earlier ones. “If you go too deep, you can sink into the marsh and pretty much risk your life,” she recalls. Lin and an emerging set of interdisciplinary peers are keenly interested in how knowledge gained from sites such as Girdwood can help the designers of buildings — or even transportation and water delivery systems — better predict the kind of shaking their creations will receive from future earthquakes. Recordings from seismometers positioned around the world go a long way in serving as the basis for these predictions, but they face a serious limitation.
By Stephen Filmanowicz
constructive engineering-oriented dialogue with seismologists, including CyberShake’s creators at the Southern California Earthquake Center. Armed with improving hazard projections, structural engineers are learning to hit more precise earthquake performance targets, says Lin. That brings reassurance about the safety of people and precious contents such as museum art and high-value corporate data, while inviting new efficiencies and innovation in design. “It’s about allocating resources more effectively,” she says, “so you can really focus on the parts of the design that have the greatest bearing on performance.”
Dr. Ting Lin: better estimating the risks tall buildings face from future earthquakes by forging links among engineering, seismology and high-performance computing.
“Those recordings are valuable, but they cover a short span of history, just 100 years or so,” says Lin. Cue the development of advanced seismic hazard maps, incorporating not just recorded data and ground motion prediction models but inputs ranging from geodetic observations of today’s global-positioning satellites to geologic evidence dating back eons. As a fellow at Stanford’s John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center, Lin helped factor in uncertainty from some of these models in computing the design target for engineering applications. She also contributed two advanced features of the interactive hazard deaggregation website administered by the United States Geological Survey.
Photo by John Sibilski
Again seeking to use advances in one field to solve problems in another, Lin is now addressing a special challenge involving tall buildings, where structural engineers are particularly concerned with the behavior of the tower at specific vibration frequencies that exaggerate its natural swaying motions. Although existing hazard maps inform these risk assessments, Lin and colleagues think these predictions can become even more accurate through the contributions of high-performance computing simulations. Incorporating fast-advancing knowledge from geophysics, these simulations provide detailed forecasts of likely earthquake scenarios for a given geographic area. Since joining Marquette in fall 2013, Lin has been conducting research that validates current simulations such as Broadband Platform and CyberShake for use in engineering applications. In the process, she’s maintained a marquette university opus college of engineering
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BY ERIK GUNN
Dr. Shrinivas Joshi has been working for years on better ways to measure the flow of water. Success could mean everything from more accurate water bills to better detection of leaks in municipal water lines.
In October 2013, Joshi made a provisional patent application for the new meter design, which Milwaukeebased Badger Meter has an exclusive license to market once it’s ready for commercial development.
One approach that’s showing promise is using surface acoustic waves, a kind of ultrasonic wave, explains Joshi, professor emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Working with Marquette’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and under the guidance of university attorneys, Joshi and his team prepared answers to a raft of questions. A final patent application soon will be submitted. Then, as they continue testing and refining the design, they’ll wait one to three years before the patent is granted.
He has several projects in progress using variations on the technology. Among the most recent is a meter that water utilities could use to more accurately measure individual household water use — ensuring home and business owners are paying what they should for water.
DR. SHRINIVAS JOSHI
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Just coming up with the technical ideas, testing them and working out the bugs, and then figuring out how to scale up production for commercial use is demanding enough. But equally important is making sure any project innovations can’t be stolen. The meter is still a year or two away from a prototype for laboratory testing, but securing the intellectual property embedded in the design couldn’t wait until then.
Securing the intellectual property that is developed by Marquette professors and researchers is an ongoing task for the university. And with academic researchers paying more attention than ever to pure research and the practical applications of their findings — and with intellectual property law becoming ever more complex — it’s never been more essential. “If you don’t have the intellectual property covered, you could have the greatest invention in the world, but it probably isn’t going to be put into the marketplace to be useful,” says Dr. Daniel Zitomer, P.E.,
“In preparing a patent, a good idea isn’t enough.” — Dr. Joseph Schimmels
professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering and director of the Water Quality Center. “Marquette sits at a critical place in time where we could greatly increase our sustainability by embracing and supporting development of intellectual property.” During the fall 2013 semester, Zitomer received a patent for a means of preserving in a dry, powdered form microorganisms that digest sewage and produce methane gas. The technology could enable greater production of biogases from sewage treatment, further expanding the options for creating renewable sources of energy. He also has two provisional patents for projects in earlier stages of development. The organism-preservation patent was a long time coming. Zitomer first jotted down the underlying idea for the process in a personal memo he wrote in April 2004. It took years to develop it to the point at which something DR. DANIEL ZITOMER, P.E. could be submitted for a patent and many months before the federal patent office approved the patent in October 2013. But researchers start thinking early. “As soon as we start to talk to a company about a funded project, we’re thinking about intellectual property and the protection of it,” Zitomer says. Although there is often standard university contract language, it can still take months for the university and a corporate funder to reach agreement on licensing terms. Attorneys working for the university handle the lion’s share of details by drawing up the application, but the researchers still must be able to answer their questions and describe what makes the particular subject of the proposed patent special. As Marquette site manager for the Water Equipment and Policy Research Center — a joint project of Marquette and the University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee, designated as an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center by the National Science Foundation — Zitomer also expects to become even more engaged with intellectual property issues. Already seven outside organizations — water-related industries, as well as government agencies — are members of the center. There are openings for more. Helping bring ideas from researchers’ brains and laboratories to the marketplace is part of its mission. And that means, as Zitomer points out, making sure the necessary rights are secured. Dr. Chung Hoon Lee, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, followed that playbook, filing a utility patent application for a thermal microfluidic chemical sensor developed with support from the water research center (see p. 28).
THE PATENT PROCESS:
STEP01: What’s the big idea?
Is it new? Is it useful but not yet used or disclosed? Not every idea is patent-worthy, even if you’ve put years into its development. You must first determine if any person has beaten you to the punch. If not, meet with a patent attorney or patent agent.
STEP02: Apply here.
You got the green flag! Now it’s time to apply to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. You’ll need a description of the invention, including how it will be used; a drawing (if applicable); a brief explanation of the general field, background and circumstances of how it is made and how it works (best mode); and the claims (the legal dimensions and limits) of your invention.
STEP03 A waiting game.
Here’s where your patience pays off. As the government reviews your application — which can take anywhere from one to three years — you get busy refining your product. Creating prototypes, fixing bugs and determining how your idea can be mass-produced, this is your focus now. Continued on page 10
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STEP04: Get defensive!
The Patent and Trademark Office has reviewed your patent application to see if your invention meets federal regulations. If they reject your application, you can make amendments to the claims (as supported in the original application) and appeal a further rejection.
STEP05:
“ A lot of them, when they graduate,
are going to be hired as engineers
but also as inventors.” — Joy Graf, Eng ’02
Patentable subject matter. Your patent is issued in your name under the seal of the Patent and Trademark Office and is signed by the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks and a patent office official. Your patent does NOT give you the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import the invention because any person is ordinarily free to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import anything he or she pleases. A grant from the government is not necessary. The patent only grants you the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the patented invention without your permission. Congratulations!
STEP06
Expiration date: 20 years. After all that hard work, your patent is good for 20 years from the date of filing the application — assuming you have paid the three maintenance fees on time. Don’t worry. That’s just enough time for you to come up with your next invention.
In preparing a patent, a good idea isn’t enough. Dr. Joseph Schimmels, Eng ’81, associate dean for research and professor of mechanical engineering, has been working on a series of projects to develop an ankle prosthesis. A colleague was developing a motorized bionic ankle, Schimmels says, but the power was inadequate. He joined the effort, developing an alternative system that uses springs and gravity instead of a motor to give the prosthesis its power. Schimmels and colleagues produced a first design for which a patent has been granted. In uncovering some of its limitations, they developed a second model that would rely on the same patent. A third approach is in the works. That’s still under wraps, however, because it’s likely to require a separate patent. “The majority of the work is coming up with the idea for the invention,” Schimmels says. “Once you have the idea, the next phase is proof of concept prototype — how we demonstrate the idea has promise.” At some point, the idea gets shared beyond the walls of the laboratory. Then the team has to take a formal step — invention disclosure — that sets in motion the patent application procedure. Once the patent application is submitted, for the researcher it can be a bit like being a doctoral candidate all over again. But instead of defending a thesis before a group of senior academics, patent applicants must defend the originality and exclusivity of their ideas to a federal examiner, one who often seems predisposed to discourage the applicant. Joshi understands why that is. “They don’t want to issue a patent to something that is obvious and has been done before,” he says. That requires them to put the applicants against a stringent set of criteria to establish if the sought-after patent really represents a sufficiently new idea or if it’s nothing more than a minor tweak to a wellestablished concept. But the applicant’s goals are almost the exact opposite. “The patent examiners want to narrow the claim as much as possible,” says Joshi, “and you want to get them to be as broad as possible.” Receiving a patent may protect the inventor’s rights to the profit from his or her invention, but there can also be a certain psychic reward. “Getting a patent is recognition you did something that is useful,” Joshi says. “It’s a recognition of something practical that you’ve done. It’s a good feeling.”
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Instructors James Wilke, Eng ’70, Law ’74, and his daughter, Joy Graf, Eng ’02, help engineering students understand their rights and responsibilities when making discoveries on the job.
As an engineering undergraduate, she says, there wasn’t any formal course work in intellectual property, but her awareness of the subject meant she often asked her father questions. For a senior project that included designing and engineering solutions, students were required to research potential patent violations in their proposed designs. That’s how the class on intellectual property issues was born. “A lot of them, when they graduate, are going to be hired as engineers but also as inventors,” Wilke says.
Alumni prepare students to protect their future inventions By Erik Gunn
For many engineers, just learning about intellectual property has been something they’ve had to do on the job. They also rely on specialists — legal and other experts — to make sure the procedure is followed correctly.
The goal of the class is to make students aware of their rights and responsibilities related to intellectual property as individuals and as employees, as well as the rights and responsibilities that may fall to employers. Among other things, understanding more details can help them be more economical with employers’ resources. “Patenting devices is an expensive proposition,” says Wilke, who practices at Milwaukee’s Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C. “We’re teaching that there is a law but not the intricacies of the law itself,” he adds. “This is not a law class, and we’re not giving legal advice.” (Wilke emphasizes that in all public comments he speaks only for himself, not the law firm.)
That’s unlikely to change. To paraphrase Dr. McCoy from Star Trek, they’re engineers, not attorneys. But some engineering students have an opportunity to learn much more about the intellectual property arena. For several years, James Wilke, Eng ’70, Law ’74, and Joy Graf, Eng ’02, both patent lawyers, have co-taught an elective undergraduate course on the topic, Intellectual Property for Engineers.
The class goes beyond patents to cover other intellectual property subjects such as trademarks, copyright and trade secrets. There are case studies that look at what missteps a past inventor might have made. And, as a project, students write a formal invention disclosure statement — the document an inventor submits to his or her employer detailing the item to potentially be patented — as well as do a patent search.
By the time Graf was enrolled in Marquette’s biomedical engineering undergraduate program, she knew she wanted to go to law school to study and practice patent law. She did that at Michael Best & Friedrich from 2005–09. Graf learned about the field’s possibilities from her father, Wilke.
Although it’s just one course, Graf and Wilke think it gives students excellent exposure to the complexity of intellectual property. “We think it’s another essential tool that Marquette engineering graduates can come out with that will set them apart from their peers at other schools,” Graf says.
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A-ha!
I WONDER if a child would exercise more with a robot.
IF ONLY
David Junkin
I could see how blood flowed in the head.
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BY CHRIS JENKINS
WHAT IF
I built a nebulizer that didn’t need electricity?
SOMEWHERE OUT THERE, A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT IS SITTING WITH AN IPAD, QUIETLY SKETCHING OUT IDEAS FOR THE NEXT BIG THING IN PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY, ARCHITECTURE OR TRANSPORTATION. From an early age, the student has heard the same refrain from friends and family: You’re so creative! I love your drawings! But the student comes up short on one traditional litmus test for a career in engineering: They’re OK at math, but they don’t love it. Does that mean those great ideas should remain stuck on an iPad, never to come to life? Perhaps it’s time to take a big-picture look at the way we think about who should — and who shouldn’t — study engineering. That conversation already is happening at
an essential skill, not an afterthought.
Marquette. “I talk to parents and students when
Expressions of that creativity can be found
they come for visits, and I say: ‘We don’t just
throughout the college, from research and
want bookworms. We don’t just want people who
service projects to senior design prototypes.
are good in math and science,’ ” says Dr. Kristina
Even the structure of the college is designed
Ropella, interim Opus Dean of the Opus College
to promote creativity: Students and faculty
of Engineering. “We don’t want to just develop
are tasked to work on global challenges such
somebody who’s going to sit in a cubicle all day
as clean water, health and human performance,
and apply certain skills. We want people who
infrastructure, and secure, renewable energy.
are comfortable working together with multiple disciplines and can envision how to pull it all together to solve problems. That’s what Marquette is looking for in an engineer.” Thanks to generations’ worth of stereotypes about thick glasses, pocket protectors and T-squares, “creativity” might not be the first word that pops into people’s minds when they think about engineering.
By making those creative outlets clearer to prospective students and rethinking the way engineers are educated, Ropella thinks the college will have an opportunity to open its doors even wider. “Take a look around the world,” she says. “Can you find some people who are doing work that you think you would enjoy doing? What about the people who create animation
As it stands now, high school kids who are
for Pixar movies? What about people who are
good at math and science typically are steered
designing new buildings? What about the people
into engineering, even if they’re more passionate
who are developing new visualization software
about something else, such as design. Meanwhile,
for medical imaging technologies? Let’s look at
students who have a creative streak, but have to
those role models. What were their backgrounds?”
work a little harder to succeed at math, often are discouraged from trying engineering at all.
How can Marquette’s Opus College of Engineering be a place for creativity seekers? In countless
Whatever the public perception may be,
ways, really, but here are five key examples of
Ropella, Eng ’85, knows engineers are, at their
creativity taking center stage in this college’s
essence, problem-solvers — making creativity
approach to engineering.
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WAYS ENGINEERING EDUCATION
IS GETTING CREATIVE
5
1
FIVE
C O L L A B O R AT I N G Blending engineering and design Ropella sees significant potential in the college’s partnership with the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. For nearly a decade, MIAD’s industrial design students have partnered with Marquette engineering students to work on senior design projects. Dr. Jay Goldberg, P.E., says engineering students don’t always understand why they might need any help from an industrial designer, but one look at some of the prototypes they produce might make it obvious. “They’re functional, but they might have sharp edges and wires hanging out of them, and I can’t figure out where the ‘on’ button is,” says Goldberg, director of the healthcare technologies management program, Lafferty professor of engineering and a clinical professor of biomedical engineering. After engineering seniors collaborate with the MIAD students, the final prototypes they present in May typically are more intuitive to use, safer and more aesthetically pleasing. Along the way, the process exposes MIAD and Marquette students to new perspectives.
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Ropella sees a strong future for the MarquetteMIAD partnership — perhaps adding programs that give students the chance to work together as early as freshman year and having faculty collaborate on research. In a recent brainstorming session, faculty members from both institutions were struck by how similar they were in their approaches to education. “They might use different words or vocabulary, but they’re very similar in terms of what we want to see in our ultimate product,” Ropella says. “So that’s definitely going forward. We’re already strategizing about how we can take advantage of each other’s curriculums and how we exchange students.” Goldberg says only a few engineering programs across the country allow engineering and industrial design students to collaborate on projects, giving Marquette a chance to stand out and perhaps catch the attention of those students with a creative streak. “This is an opportunity for people to be creative,” he says. “So if someone has a creative streak, I would say think about engineering.” n
of the most memorable students are those who stay after class, “ Some looking for advice on personal projects they are working on in their spare time.
You can’t stop them. Those are the engineers who are going to
CHANGE
the world.” — Dr. Robert Scheidt
3D
2
The new Visualization Lab is a place to virtually step inside a patient’s artery — or stage a dramatic production.
Marquette theatre art students used the Viz Lab for a production of Zoo Story.
5
30 Number of people in the audience
10 10 18
feet tall feet deep feet long
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DESIGNING
2
Creating a path to independence One of many senior design projects that benefited from collaboration with MIAD students was a device designed to help children with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a disease that limits joint development and movement. Children with the disease often have little or no use of their arms. A previous project, called Nourish, was designed to help a girl with AMC feed herself. This year, a team of senior engineering students set out to design a device that would help three other girls in their early teens with AMC get dressed without the help of their parents or a caregiver — an independence booster. Starting from scratch required plenty of creativity. “I think that’s the most fun part,” says Heidi Klancnik, Eng ’14. “We would all agree that it’s what was so awesome about this device. When we were brainstorming, we asked, ‘Well, how would you put on a shirt if you couldn’t use your arms?’ ” The final design incorporates a U-shaped PVC pipe with two large clips to hold the end of a T-shirt in place. The user sits on a bench and operates a switch with her foot — many AMC patients learn to use their feet to accomplish everyday tasks — which prompts an electric motor to gently lift the shirt over the user’s head and onto her body as she leans forward. Thanks to input from two MIAD students, the final prototype is pretty slick, too, a far cry from the team’s initial mock-ups of cardboard and duct tape. “Our end users are tween girls who like pretty-looking things,” says Alia Mian, Eng ’14. “They would not have liked a device that was put together with duct tape.” Kaitlin Conti, Eng ’14, says working with the MIAD students gave them a new perspective: “They also opened up our mind to lots of different things and also had a lot of input, even with the engineering components. It broadens our ideas as well.” n
VISUALIZING New dimensions of creativity
3
One of the most creative spaces in Engineering Hall is tucked away in the lower level. Launched in January, Marquette’s Visualization Lab simultaneously projects digital images onto three walls, the floor and the ceiling. When a user wears 3D glasses and walks into the space, those images pop out and spring to life. There are plenty of potential engineering applications for such 3D renderings. The lab’s director, Dr. John LaDisa, Eng ’00, Grad ’01, ’04, has taken data from his extensive research on cardiac patients to create complex blood vessel graphic renderings that allow doctors to virtually step inside a patient’s artery. From there, they can simulate the effects of a specific course of treatment and observe from one of the most unique perspectives they’ll ever see. LaDisa, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, goes out of his way to make it clear that the space is something to share with everyone on campus.
PRO “T HE
The Theatre Arts Department recently used the lab as a stage, presenting the play Zoo Story with virtual grass and trees that made a public park setting come to life. Chester Loeffler Bell, who helped with the play’s production, was impressed by the examples of creativity he saw in Engineering Hall. “They’re doing some really neat stuff here,” says Loeffler Bell, an assistant professor of digital media and performing arts. “And you get a little buzz, too — a sense in the building, in the workspace, that the kids are cranking out great stuff.” n
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BLEM-
S
DEM
4 EXPLORING
Some of the college’s most creative work is found in its research. Dr. Andrew Williams recently was named one of Milwaukee Magazine’s “20 most creative Milwaukeeans” for his work with humanoid robots. Williams, Grad ’95, is John P. Raynor, S.J., Distinguished Chair and director of the Humanoid Engineering and Intelligent Robotics Lab. His research uses those technologies to address childhood obesity. More creative problem-solving can be found in the lab of biomedical engineering professor Dr. Robert Scheidt, who is unraveling the way the human brain uses sensory information to plan and execute actions. Scheidt leads a team studying three populations of patients with brain impairments — stroke victims, multiple sclerosis patients and children with autism. As part of those studies, Scheidt and his team design robotic devices to move patients’ limbs and study how they respond to those motions. Some of Scheidt’s robots must be able to work in concert with magnetic resonance imaging scanners to monitor how a person’s brain responds to robot-induced limb motions. But there’s one major issue: To work inside an MRI scanner, a robot can’t have electric motors.
5
One of Scheidt’s doctoral students, Dr. Aaron Suminski, Eng ’00, Grad ’06, spent long hours developing a pneumatic robot to do the job. “I remember lying in the scanner for more than six hours straight in our quest to collect that initial brain imaging data,” Scheidt says. “No small part of that time was spent with Aaron finding creative fixes to limitations in his robot’s hardware and software.” To take their first steps toward building human knowledge of the inner working of the brain, creative engineering was essential. “You can’t simply say, ‘I’m strong in the subjects of math and science.’ That’s just part of what makes a successful engineer.” Scheidt says. “Other key ingredients are a strong sense of curiosity and the drive needed to overcome obstacles standing in the way. Overcoming those obstacles is where creativity is needed.” That’s why some of Scheidt’s most memorable students are the ones who catch him after class, asking for advice about projects they are working on in their spare time. “Those are the ones who are going to be successful,” he says. “You can’t stop them. Those are the engineers who are going to change the world.” n
Creativity in service: Engineers Without Borders
IMPROVISING
SOLVING P
Creativity in research
Marquette’s Engineers Without Borders chapter has sent groups of students to villages in Guatemala and Honduras to build bridges, create clean water delivery systems and even wire village-wide electrical grids. Students must adapt the designs they made in the classroom to fit unexpected and changing conditions on the ground. They work with volunteers from the village who don’t speak any English. And, if they need a part in the middle of the jungle, they can’t exactly just run to the local hardware store. “Nothing works the way it’s supposed to,” says Dr. Mark Federle, P.E., adviser to the EWB chapter. “In my mind, we’re using creativity almost every step of the way.”
ROCESS OF ENGINEE
CREATIVITY.” MAN—DDr.SMark Federle, P.E.
RING
One of their most recent projects was a 255-foot-long pedestrian bridge to help villagers cross a river gorge in La Nueva Providencia, Guatemala. The bridge required support cables to keep it from swaying too much in the wind, but the installation plans they’d brought with them didn’t fit the conditions they found on location. Students had to improvise while working 100 feet in the air, measuring and installing on the fly to make sure each of the wires that tied the bridge to its support cables ended up in exactly the right spot to keep it from swaying. “The problem-solving process of engineering demands creativity,” says Federle, associate dean of academic affairs, professor, and McShane Chair in Construction Engineering and Management. “And I think you’ll find yourself using more creativity on a daily basis in engineering than perhaps almost any career.” n
5
HOW TO KEEP A 255-FOOT-LONG PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE FROM SWAYING TOO MUCH IN THE WIND?
BUILDING TOMORROW’S LEADERS BY CHRISTOPHER STOLARSKI
DEVELOPING LEADERS At the helm of E-Lead is Dr. Kristina Ropella, Eng ’85, interim Opus Dean and professor of biomedical engineering. She describes a people-focused program built on leadership, engineering and Jesuit ideals. “Leadership is about people and change,” she says, adding that E-Lead extends beyond the technical training of engineering students by focusing on soft skills and developing them as individuals.
” I joined E-Lead because I wanted to better understand what leadership really is — I was curious. I want to become the best leader that I can be. — Julie Griep, junior, biomedical engineering
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Academically qualified students apply to E-Lead in the fall of their sophomore year after completing a requisite professional development course. From there, they take a one-credit leadership course each of the program’s three years. They also must complete an industry internship, co-op, research internship or major service project; create a personal leadership development portfolio; shadow chief executives in technical industries; attend national leadership workshops; and complete a senior capstone project. The program’s development is highly dependent on industry partnerships, Ropella emphasizes. In fact, before launching E-Lead, she spoke with approximately 50 companies, including GE Healthcare, Johnson Controls, Northrop Grumman, River Valley Bank, Joy Global and the McShane Construction Co. “Many industries already invest significant resources in leadership development for their employees,” Ropella says. “Through our industry partnerships, as well as financial support from these partners and our alumni, our students may be immersed in these leadership programs much earlier in their careers.”
Forty-one students applied to E-Lead in its first year; 20 were accepted. Ultimately, Ropella and Kate Trevey, Bus Ad ’04, director of engineering leadership programs, aim to develop the program into a full-blown concentration. Students like Julie Griep and Jessica Willard will be the word-of-mouth ambassadors to help make that happen. Griep, a junior biomedical engineering major, says: “I joined E-Lead because I wanted to better understand what leadership really is — I was curious. I want to become the best leader I can be.” For Willard, also a biomedical engineering junior, E-Lead was a missing puzzle piece. “Although I knew engineering was the right track for me, I still felt like there was something missing on my journey,” she says. “I needed something to help me fill that gap.” A year later, the program is helping both do just that. “I want to be the best version of myself, and the classes we are taking and the knowledge we are acquiring has helped me begin to reach these goals,” Griep says. “It will always be a work in progress because leadership is always changing, but that is also what makes it exciting.” Willard found the program’s weekly reflections the most beneficial. “E-Lead is forcing me to answer questions I didn’t even know I had,” she says. “In the long term, I hope to learn how to handle situations when I am between a rock and a hard place.”
To graduate successful engineers, you must first build a community of leaders that is guided by industry needs. Such is the driving philosophy behind two Opus College of Engineering initiatives: the newly formed E-Lead Program and the Opus Scholars program.
GROWING OPUS SCHOLARS Dr. Mark Federle, P.E., associate dean of academic affairs, professor, and McShane Chair in Construction Engineering and Management, took over as director of the Opus Scholars program a year ago with an ambitious goal: nearly double it, from nine scholarship students to 16.
”
We have to enhance
our competitive advantage,
and programs like the Opus Scholarship help us do that. — Dr. Mark Federle, P.E.
Funded by the Opus Foundation, the program provides full-tuition scholarships to first-generation students, often from organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Cristo Rey network of Jesuit high schools. According to Federle, the scholarships provide a unique opportunity to those who might not otherwise have considered Marquette or the engineering disciplines. “We need more engineers in the United States,” he says. “We have to enhance our competitive advantage, and programs like the Opus Scholarship help us do that.” Federle acknowledges that the program requires a community element much like E-Lead to be truly successful and transformative, likening his vision for the Opus Scholars program to the university’s Urban Scholars program, which, introduced in 1996, offers up to 10 annual full-tuition scholarships to economically disadvantaged students. To achieve that, Federle plans to bolster the program’s social components, including site visits to local firms, such as the Milwaukee corporate office of The Opus Group®. Though not a requirement, he’d also like to see all Opus Scholars enroll in E-Lead. “Ultimately, we want to take students who have a strong passion for engineering and give them the support they need to succeed at Marquette and beyond,” he says. 2014 Opus Scholars: Top row: Luis Jimenez-Gonzalez, biomedical engineering; Kevyn Schwab, electrical engineering; Daniela DeFrancesco, civil engineering; Tyler Grymkoski, civil engineering; Gizel Ojeda-Gomez, biomedical engineering; Bottom row: Santiago Esquivel, civil engineering; Sam Kissel, construction engineering and management; Theresa Le, computer engineering marquette university opus college of engineering
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NUTS &BOLTS Master class turns corporate tower project into massive engineering classroom Megan Maki, Eng ’16, has long known that she wants to go into construction and eventually be part of a landmark project as an engineer. Now, she’s one of eight engineering students participating in a master class series taking them inside what is expected to be the largest building in Wisconsin based on square footage: Northwestern Mutual’s downtown Milwaukee expansion. Along with five students from the College of Business Administration, the engineering students are enrolled in the six-part series that Northwestern Mutual is conducting as it remakes its downtown campus — removing one 16-story tower and replacing it with a new 32-story headquarters tower and related commons area. More than 80 students and faculty advisers from partnering local institutions are learning directly from members of the project’s development, design and construction team during a two-year period. Students such as Maki have already been exposed to diverse aspects of the project, ranging from site design and how wildlife consultants are minimizing the project’s impact on bird flight paths to the schematic
design of the curtain wall, or window system, that will cover the tower. “It’s been an incredible learning experience so far,” Maki says. “I’m really looking forward to seeing the construction side of the project.” Dr. Mark Federle, P.E., professor, McShane Chair in Construction Engineering and Management, and adviser to the master class, says: “This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our students. The project really allows them to get a behind-the-scenes look and access to professionals at a point in their careers that is provided to very few.” BY KATHARINE MILLER
Photo courtesy of Engineering is Elementary, Museum of Science, Boston
partnership with the STEM school in Wauwatosa, Wis.
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Among the most popular programs are the Engineering is Elementary sessions, which are developed by the Boston Museum of Science. Often filled to capacity, these courses are training teachers to deliver the programs as part of their curriculums.
College outreach program expands offerings
“The program is unique in how it incorporates reading and culture along with science and engineering,” says Dr. Jon Jensen, associate dean for enrollment management, who manages the college’s outreach efforts. “Students learn how engineering helps people — and the fact that not everyone is fortunate enough to have running water, electricity or cars. This is a message Marquette supports.”
For more than 10 years, the Opus College of Engineering has offered outreach programs to grow the pipeline of students interested in STEM fields. They now include about 20 academies for K–12 students throughout the year, weeklong residential programs for high school juniors and seniors, school tours of Engineering Hall, and a
The training started during summer 2014 with one group of 20 teachers, who each received the materials and instructions to implement a program in the classroom. The college eventually hopes to expand the program to provide three to four trainings each year. Find out more at marquette.edu/outreach.
“Treating patients where they live saves them time and money, and having patients treated in the villages before symptoms get too bad saves the already overstretched regional clinics workload,” says Olson. “One village nebulizer was used 45 times in the first two weeks of deployment, which is about three times per day.”
Student startup wins funding at international business plan competition
Human-powered nebulizer earns Eureka Award
During their junior year, Devin Turner, Eng ’14, and Charlie Beckwith, Eng ’14, had an idea: What if they could improve how people operate projected computer presentations? With Turner’s interest in entrepreneurship and Beckwith’s programming expertise, the two partnered to create FocalCast, a mobile app that allows users to wirelessly present PowerPoint presentations from a tablet or smartphone. The two formed Narsys LLC and developed and tested the app during their senior design capstone course.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease claims nearly 3 million lives each year, but the human-powered nebulizer has the potential to help thousands of people who don’t have access to life-saving medical treatments. The Marquette invention recently earned a 2014 Eureka Award from the Milwaukee Business Journal that recognizes its creativity and innovation in the health care field.
They then won the $2,000 grand prize in Marquette’s ImpactNext Business Model Competition, propelling them to the Rice Business Plan Competition, the world’s largest and richest graduate-level business startup competition. That earned them two awards totaling $53,000. “The wealth of connections with investors and specialists is just as beneficial to us as the prize money,” Turner says. After graduation, the students demonstrated the technology at the American Society of Engineering Educators national conference. Marquette engineering faculty plan to use FocalCast in their classrooms.
Nebulizers convert liquid medication into a mist that can be inhaled into the lungs. The human-powered nebulizer, developed by Dr. Lars Olson, interim chair and associate professor of biomedical engineering, and his students, doesn’t need electricity to operate. This is a significant advantage for people residing in remote, rural areas with no power. Thirteen human-powered nebulizers, assembled on campus, are being used in eastern El Salvador, each one provided to a medical team supporting a specific village. These medical teams are participating in a Marquette study to assess how much money and time the nebulizers are saving the El Salvador Ministry of Health and patients.
Olson is working on securing funding to deploy 20 or more nebulizers to Guatemala and eventually wants the device to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Seminar series brings influential minds to campus The Opus College of Engineering is preparing for another group of inspiring leaders to speak at Marquette after successfully launching the Connecting with the World Lecture Series in early 2014. The series’ purpose is to bring the most influential minds in engineering to campus to share innovations and ideas that have changed or promise to change the world. Through this lecture series, students, faculty, and local industry and academic partners benefit from opportunities to meet and learn directly from leaders in the field. Supported by Ronald O’Keefe, Eng ’57, the series is free and open to the public. Past speakers included Drs. Gary May and Thomas Kurfess, professors from the Georgia Institute of Technology; Dr. Kathryn Weiss, Eng ’01, a senior flight software engineer with NASA; and Dr. Chris Lowney, author of Heroic Leadership. Watch for upcoming lectures to be announced at marquette.edu/engineering.
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MARQUETTE RESEARCH & INNOVATION The Opus College of Engineering is TRANSFORMING engineering education by PREPARING today’s engineers to be CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVERS. Marquette targets four global areas of concern for which it encourages students to find innovative solutions. These include Health and Human Performance; Technology and Energy; Water; and Transportation and Infrastructure. We invite you to read how our professors and programs are seeking the next solution to our world’s greatest concerns, all the while LEADING THE WAY for the next generation of Marquette engineers.
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TRAILBLAZER A trailblazer in recognizing the value of combining engineering experience at partner companies with compatible classroom instruction, Marquette created one of the first co-op programs in the nation as the United States emerged from World War I. This year, more than 285 STUDENTS ARE WORKING AT 100 COMPANIES across the country through the program. A few examples:
GE HEALTHCARE
BRADY CORP.
MODINE
ABBOTT
MILLION
Amount awarded in the past five years by government, corporate and foundation sources to support the work of research and innovation in the Opus College of Engineering.
REGIONAL PARTNERSHIPS WATER EQUIPMENT AND POLICY RESEARCH CENTER U 5 FACULTY U 9 PROJECTS FUNDED U 13 GRANTS MID-WEST ENERGY RESEARCH CONSORTIUM U 7 FACULTY U 11 PROJECTS FUNDED U 11 GRANTS CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE INSTITUTE U 9 FACULTY U 12 PROJECTS FUNDED U 12 GRANTS
PLEXUS
MORTENSON CONSTRUCTION
ARCO DESIGN/BUILD INC.
2ND LARGEST
Where Marquette’s Opus College of Engineering ranks in undergraduate enrollment compared with engineering programs at U.S. Catholic universities and colleges. Source: American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.
FIVE
FLOORS
29.6 ROCKWELL AUTOMATION
of Engineering Hall focused on experiential learning and solutions to global problems:
LL EFFICIENT ENERGY AND SAFE ROADS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 1
2
E NGINEERING OUTREACH, STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING AND RAPID PROTOTYPING OF STUDENT DESIGNS
NANOSCALE DEVICES, SENSORS AND CONTROLS
3 HUMAN PERFORMANCE AND HEALTH CARE
4
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HEALTH & HUMAN PERFORMANCE DR. TALY GILAT-SCHMIDT BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER Improving human imaging
In her resolve to improve human imaging and reduce human radiation exposure, Dr. Taly Gilat-Schmidt, associate professor of biomedical engineering, has been working with a state-of-the-art spectral CT scanner, which is able to identify material composition by sorting detected X-ray energies. While bringing into focus what would sometimes be indistinguishable content in conventional scans, spectral CT may also reduce radiation doses by making better use of the detected data, according to Gilat-Schmidt. Her lab has developed an efficient method of determining material composition, for which she recently submitted a provisional patent. Gilat-Schmidt is also researching with a recently acquired bench-top micro-CT system. This new technology scanner is able to see details as small as a few microns. In a typical scanner, the gantry rotates about the object. In the bench-top system, the object is rotated instead, making it appropriate for imaging specimens and perhaps small animals. In addition to the high-resolution digital X-ray detector that is required for the micron-level imaging, the new bench-top system also includes the spectral X-ray detector she has been investigating. The new scanner, which will be a university-shared and regional resource, will be used for quantifying bone structure, nondestructive testing and metrology.
Early detection $2.5 BILLION, the annual average spent on health care for the 250,000 people in the United States affected by acute respiratory distress syndrome, the most severe form of acute lung injury. The high costs and high mortality rate are largely because of late diagnoses and limited treatment options, according to Dr. Said Audi, associate professor of biomedical engineering. Supported by funding from the NIH Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Department of Veterans’ Administration, and Alvin W. and Marion Birnschein Foundation, Audi is researching lung physiology at the Zablocki VA Medical Center to develop a clinical means for early detection of ARDS and novel therapies for ARDS patients.
DR. GERALD HARRIS, P.E. BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER Treating children with gait challenges
BREATHS
The Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Engineering Center run by Dr. Gerald Harris, P.E., opened an affiliated pediatric motion-analysis clinic in Manila, Philippines. As the only gait-analysis lab in the country, the clinic will serve more than 300 CHILDREN a year, by Harris’ conservative estimate.
With the lab in their luggage — 10 cameras, a computer, software and interface — the PGH physicians returned to the Philippines. A few months later, Harris, a professor of biomedical engineering, and two of his OREC colleagues joined them there to provide additional training for two weeks.
“That’s a clientele equal to those of fully staffed and equipped labs in the States,” he says.
The lab’s mission is to treat underserved populations of children with conditions affecting their gait such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, clubfoot, spinal cord injury and other orthopaedic challenges. The Manila lab’s operations include orthopaedic and rehabilitative care, clinical research, and physician training.
The new lab is run by an orthopaedic surgeon and a physiatrist from the Philippine General Hospital. The pair traveled to the United States this past January to train at Marquette, where Harris oversees collaborations in biomechanics, biomaterials, rehabilitation engineering and human motion analysis, funded by a five-year $4.75 million federal grant.
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DEEP
A similar sister lab was opened in Cali, Colombia, two years ago, and Harris is developing a memorandum of understanding with a new lab in Mexico City.
Improving arm function
DR. JOHN LADISA BIOMEDICAL ENGINGEER Visualizing cardiovascular processes
The latest research of Dr. John LaDisa, Eng ’00, Grad ’01, ’04, is devoted to the principle that improvements in our ability to visualize the flow of blood through our arteries, and the forces applied by that movement, can help us better understand, manage and prevent cardiovascular disease. One of the main research techniques LaDisa uses in Marquette’s Translational, Experimental and Computational Cardiovascular Research Lab, where he is director, is called computational fluid dynamics. CFD is often used to study blood flow within computer-based arterial models generated from medical imaging data. In doing so, CFD produces simulation results containing millions of data points during a single beat of the heart. But the traditional way of displaying these results involves viewing the multidimensional data in two dimensions at a single time point within a predetermined spatial configuration. This can result in some features of the artery — such as the relationship between engineering metrics and atherosclerotic plaque or the response to vascular damage from stent implantation — being hidden or overlooked. To address some of the shortcomings of this traditional viewing, LaDisa is using Marquette’s new Visualization Lab, an immersive visualization environment with 3D stereoscopic capability that offers improved depth perception and active movement. These advancements allow a researcher to see within and around an artery created for CFD. LaDisa and his students recently published their first paper using this novel approach in the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.
150 MILLISECONDS
FORTY FIVE PERCENT
The increase in time it takes for people with multiple sclerosis to “see” their arms move when they have intention tremor. Dr. Scott Beardsley, associate professor of biomedical engineering, received a grant from the Alvin W. and Marion Birnschein Foundation to develop retraining strategies to improve arm function in people with the disease.
SPEED + STRIDE
Ankle stability Use of a skating treadmill and a six-camera motion analysis system allowed Dr. Barbara Silver-Thorn, associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, to determine a newly designed hockey skate, Easton Mako, significantly increased a user’s maximum speed and stride width while decreasing stride rate, suggesting a more efficient stroke. Silver-Thorn’s research was supported by Easton Sports.
Activating prosthesis’ movements
The time the residual muscle activity of a transtibial amputee predicts how the prosthetic limb should move. Dr. Scott Beardsley, associate professor of biomedical engineering, is part of a multidisciplinary team developing a motorized prosthetic ankle that uses brain signals sent to an amputee’s residual muscles to control the prosthesis’ movements.
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TECHNOLOGY & ENERGY DR. CASEY ALLEN MECHANICAL ENGINEER Developing cleaner engines To reduce development costs, engine manufacturers would like to design new products using only computational tools. But to ensure new engines meet efficiency and emissions requirements, simulation tools must predict the physical and chemical processes that occur in an engine. Dr. Casey Allen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is improving the quality of the experimental data needed to optimize these chemical kinetic models used to predict combustion under in-cylinder conditions. The models predict the chemical processes that unfold before ignition but are traditionally validated by globally collected data of the time required for the fuel-air mixture to ignite. This approach, however, has a major shortcoming because, for most fuels, thousands of chemical species are produced and consumed in a matter of milliseconds. Allen is developing a better validation approach, which involves measuring the concentrations of chemical species during the ignition process. The availability of these comprehensive speciation data sets will be invaluable for improving the predictive capabilities of kinetic models, consequently leading to cleaner engines. At the 2014 Combustion Symposium in August, Allen was honored with the BERNARD LEWIS FELLOWSHIP, which is awarded to outstanding young scientists in the field of combustion.
Improving performance
SAY WHAT? 30 MILLISECONDS The amount of time it takes the newly engineered Rehabilitative Articulatory Synthesis System to collect movement data from sensors attached to people's tongues and lips, send the data to a speech synthesizer that creates sound matching the movements, modify the sound in a way that’s designed to help people improve their pronunciation patterns, and play it back to them through headphones. Dr. Michael Johnson, P.E., professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Dr. Jeffrey Berry, associate professor in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, are using this system to collect data that can be applied to pronunciation and accent-modification systems, speech recognition technology, and speech therapy tools. Their research is supported by two National Science Foundation grants totaling more than $500,000.
SHOCKING Building safer vehicles
0. 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 SECONDS
The time it takes a shock wave to travel through 1 millimeter of aluminum, according to Dr. John Borg, P.E., associate professor of mechanical engineering. Borg uses a laser Photon Doppler Velocimeter to measure the shock responses of aluminum foam when projectiles impact it. Aluminum foam is used as a structural component in space vehicles to absorb damage from atmospheric debris collisions. Borg’s measurements can help designers build safer vehicles.
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“WHILE ENGAGING STUDENTS ...
WE CAN ALSO HAVE A FAR-REACHING POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY, INDUSTRY AND SOCIETY.” DR. CRISTINEL ABABEI ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEER Improving microchip reliability
Future integrated circuits — like the ones found in our personal electronic devices — will contain hundreds or possibly thousands of cores per chip. However, the technology that makes this possible may also make the underlying hardware less reliable because of an increasing number of defects and the effects of wearout mechanisms. This can result in poor performance and, eventually, failure of the device. Because the failure of cores or networks on chip can become a bottleneck for these systems, their reliability must be addressed in a unified manner, according to Dr. Cristinel Ababei, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. To address this challenge, Ababei developed a novel unified theoretical lifetime-reliability modeling and estimation framework to treat multiprocessor systems on chip as a combination of computation and communication units. This framework is used to develop and investigate new dynamic reliability management schemes, which strive to increase the lifetime of chip multiprocessors with minimal performance degradation. Ababei’s research is supported by a $175,000 NSF grant. “While engaging students to deal with increased levels of complexity and uncertainty in the design of tomorrow’s integrated circuits,” says Ababei, “we can also have a far-reaching positive impact on the academic community, industry and society.”
GASDAY
2,880,000,000,000 Avoiding excess supply or shortages
Cubic feet of natural gas consumption forecasted by Marquette’s GasDay in 2012. This represented more than 20 percent of the total natural gas consumed in the United States that year. GasDay generates highly accurate natural gas demand forecasts during a rolling eight-day period, allowing natural gas utilities sufficient time to plan gas supply for the week. Reliable usage estimates are critical for avoiding excess supply or shortages of
natural gas distribution. GasDay uses weather forecasts, historical trends in the weather and past consumption data to generate these predictions. GasDay’s forecasts were particularly valuable during this past winter’s polar vortex, as many parts of the country experienced much colder-thannormal weather conditions and much higher natural gas usage.
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WATER
4
DR. PATRICK MCNAMARA CIVIL, CONSTRUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER Cleaning contaminants from water
Renewable fuel The number of cows needed to produce enough manure for an anaerobic digester to make enough biomethane to provide all the electricity for your house. Much of the lab efforts of Dr. Daniel Zitomer, P.E., involve anaerobic digestion in which specific microorganisms convert waste to biogas that contains methane, which can be used as a renewable fuel. Zitomer, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, is director of Marquette’s Water Quality Center, which brings together researchers, the government, private foundations, industry and others to solve problems related to lake, river and groundwater quality.
DR. CHUNG HOON LEE ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEER Developing new contaminant sensors
Imagine a device for detecting contaminants in water sources that’s as small, inexpensive and quick to report results as a pocket glucose meter. Certainly a welcome change from current options requiring samples to be shipped to labs and tested by technicians, this vision for improved detection is fast becoming a reality thanks to Dr. Chung Hoon Lee, who has created a working prototype for such a device. Support comes from the industry-university research center associated with Milwaukee’s Water Council. For Lee, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, progress happened indirectly. An original metallic nanodevice with carefully engineered microfluidic channels proved to be highly proficient at themal-based detection but susceptible to a problem that often frustrates those in microfluidics: bubble generation. “When a bubble blocks the channel, the device is done. That’s it,” reports Lee. With the project stalled, he was half-interestedly watching a YouTube video of a conference presentation when he heard a presenter tout benefits of paper-based microfluidics — no bubble generation, no complex parts or configurations. Soon he was back on track, using the same action that draws water from one end of a coffee filter to another. His device that incorporated a metallic temperature sensor has outperformed commercial glucose meters in published benchmarking tests and excelled in measuring concentrations of lead and other contaminants. The technology is filed for patent.
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Dr. Patrick McNamara, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, and his team are investigating how antimicrobials — found in many household products likes soaps and toothpastes — are possibly creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria through wastewater treatment plants. Though many new water management systems encourage water and nutrient re-use, these micropollutants may remain in the byproducts, which must be managed so they don’t negatively impact public health and ecological processes. One of McNamara’s many research efforts is testing the usefulness of pyrolysis as a sustainable process to remove contaminants in treated water while producing a valuable end product, such as fertilizer. Pyrolysis is the heating of wastewater solids at high temperatures (400–800 degrees Celsius) in an oxygen-deprived system. McNamara, Eng ’06, and Dr. Daniel Zitomer, P.E., received an $84,000 grant from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District this past winter to study pyrolysis.
Diving in Dr. Fabien Josse, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is researching the direct detection of water contaminants by using a variety of sensor technology. One such technology he’s investigating is the use of microcantilevers — likened to microscopic diving boards — whose vibrations change when they contact specific molecules. Josse’s goal is to develop sensors sensitive enough to detect contamination at levels matching pollution standards.
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
120 Improving infrastructure with smart technology
Marquette’s Transportation Research Center provides leadership and education in the design and deployment of state-of-the-art health monitoring systems for transportation infrastructure components. Smart infrastructure technology can provide continuous feedback from instrumented components and eliminate the need for routine manual inspections, which can enhance worker safety and reduce inconvenience to the driving public. This smart technology is already in use at Marquette: MORE THAN 120 SENSORS ARE BUILT INTO ENGINEERING HALL, allowing students, faculty, and researchers on campus and around the world to study the structural behavior of the building.
The estimated cost to maintain the nation’s bridges from 1999–2019 is estimated at $5.8 billion per year, according to a study conducted by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It’s a staggering number that does not include the billions more needed to improve bridge deficiencies during that same 20-year period.
DR. BAOLIN WAN CIVIL, CONSTRUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER Analyzing infrastructure repair methods
Supported by a grant from the Wisconsin Highway Research Program, Dr. Baolin Wan, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, and Dr. Chris Foley, Eng ’86, Grad ’89, ’96, professor and chair of civil, construction and environmental engineering, studied the relationship between cost and service life of modern infrastructure repair methods. Their research yielded a set of decision matrices comparing the costs and estimated service life of 72 different repair methods, as well as a repair manual for use by Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation. Understanding these relationships can help maintenance engineers make informed decisions that will maximize efficiency. Wan’s major research focus is on the use of fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials to repair or retrofit infrastructures such as bridges. FRP was one of the materials involved in his repair methods study. “FRP materials have exceptional stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios and corrosion resistance,” he says. “These properties allow FRP solutions to be widely applicable and to address sustainability issues. Also, these composites may offer new life to otherwise obsolete structures, eliminating the significant impact associated with demolition and reconstruction.”
Measuring impact of heavy vehicles on freeways When freeway speeds drop to 10–15 mph in heavy congestion, drivers of loaded trucks keep about 60 percent longer distances from other vehicles than lighter vehicles do, significantly reducing the number of vehicles a freeway can serve, according to Dr. Alexander Drakopoulos, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering. Drakopoulos’ research, co-authored by Umama Ahmed, Grad ’10, received the Best Freeway Operations Paper in 2013 award from the Transportation Research Board, a division of the National Research Council. It was selected from 61 worldwide. According to the TRB, Drakopoulos’ research is critical to operating freeway facilities and presents an innovative framework for developing and using models under forced-flow traffic conditions.
INNOVATION marquette university opus college of engineering
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Opus College of Engineering recognizes Rauenhorst’s lifelong to finding ‘a better On Sept. 2, 2014, Marquette University unveiled the Opus College of Engineering to honor the life and legacy of alumnus Gerald “Gerry” Rauenhorst, Eng ’51, who founded The Opus Group®, a family of commercial real estate development, construction and design companies headquartered in Minneapolis. In announcing the naming, President Michael R. Lovell said, “It’s clear Gerry embodied the Bible verse ‘to whom much is given, much is required,’ and all of Marquette has benefitted from his leadership and support.” The university celebrated Rauenhorst a month later with an on-campus event that featured a panel presentation with engineering leaders who discussed how their field is transforming the world.
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Gerald “Gerry” A. Rauenhorst
commitment way’
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Gerry Rauenhorst committed his legacy to finding “a better way.” In his book titled the same, he wrote: “One evening ... I blurted out, ‘There has to be a better way.’ A way that is honest. And straightforward. Where integrity counts.” Those are the principles on which Rauenhorst founded his company more than 60 years ago, and they are the same values that guided his philanthropy. “The generosity of Gerry Rauenhorst and his family has transformed the way we educate our students and prepare them to address global challenges,” says Dr. Kristina Ropella, interim Opus Dean of Engineering. “Because of Gerry’s investment in our people, places and programs, our work is now more visible and impactful. We are providing more opportunities for the local community and local industry to partner with our faculty and students to solve problems, make a difference and serve humanity.” The university’s longest-serving trustee, Rauenhorst has a storied history at Marquette. “Gerry is known throughout the United States as a man who constructs buildings,” former President Robert A. Wild, S.J., once said. “However, at Marquette, he is better described as a creator and builder of a better future for generations of our students.” Dr. Christopher Foley agrees. “The Rauenhorst/Opus legacy is foundational for the college,” says the professor and chair of civil, construction and environmental engineering. “It has created opportunities for the college to take on more significant roles in solving national and international engineering problems, enabling our undergraduate students to become active participants in solving these problems, and becoming the thought leaders of tomorrow.”
OPUS
College of Engineering
Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage
PAID
Milwaukee, WI Permit No. 628
Marquette University Opus College of Engineering, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-1881 USA
CREATIVITY. WE BUILD ON THAT.
A creative person looks at a problem and sees opportunity. In Marquette University’s Opus College of Engineering, our most successful students are curious and creative. And their skills and talents are not limited to math and science. So whether you have a flair for design, an ear for music or a gift for storytelling, bring your diverse talents here. At Marquette, we build on people’s passion and creativity to provide solutions for the 21st century. marquette.edu/engineer