2020-21 Dean's Report

DEAN’S REPORT // 2020-21

CONTENTS

Leadership 6 Academic Departments and Degrees

7

Annual Report Data

8

Fellows

13

Student Support

16

Student Highlights

20

Faculty Highlights

22

Excellence In Teaching

24

Stopping The Spread Aerospace

26

Supporting Family Farms Through Poultry Research

27

Biosystems Personalized Medicine Through Therapeutic Proteins Chemical

28

Preventing Soil Piping and Landslides Civil and Environmental

29

Shedding Light On Dark Protein Families Computer Science and Software

30

Encryption for the Quantum Age Electrical and Computer

31

Improving Technology Adoption In Manufacturing Industrial and Systems

32

Flexing Research Muscle in Electronics Mechanical

34

Next Generation of Nuclear Technology Materials

36

Keeping It Fresh

37

Wireless Research Centers

40

New Faculty Members

42

DEAN’S MESSAGE What a difference a year can make. Around this time

last year, the nation was gripped with fear and uncertainty over the COVID-19 pandemic. The Auburn campus was largely quiet as the 2019-20 academic year came to a close with faculty, staff and students working and learning from home.

Now, we are seeing the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel.

After beginning the fall 2020 semester mostly online, we were able to introduce more in-person, blended and hyflex instruction for the spring 2021 semester. Most of the Auburn Engineering community was back on campus by February. Students, faculty and staff bought into our campus safety protocols, and because of that and a first-rate vaccination program through Auburn University and the East Alabama Medical Center, COVID-19 cases on campus hovered in the single digits for the latter half of the spring semester.

As we begin to finally overcome this pandemic, our hope is for the fall 2021 semester to look, and feel, as normal as possible. With that, we can fully resume the hands-on, experiential learning that is a hallmark of the Auburn Engineering experience and makes us the best studentcentered engineering experience in America.

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Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

Although some institutions will look at 2020-21 as a lost year, I am happy to report it was anything but at the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. We maintained our top 30 public ranking in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs and climbed five spots to No. 18 in the Best Online Engineering Programs rankings.

Auburn Engineering students continued to excel with many major achievements — both individually and as part of student groups. We once again added to our list of Goldwater Scholarship winners, while our American Concrete Institute chapter and the Autonomous Tiger Racing team also picked up national accolades.

We also took a big step to elevate Auburn’s already prominent transportation engineering research programs with the establishment of the new Auburn University Transportation Research Institute and the appointment of national transportation leader Laurence Rilett from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as its director.

As we look back on the past year’s accomplishments in the 2020-21 Dean’s Report, please know there is much more to look forward to as our outstanding faculty, staff and students drive this great college forward.

Sincerely, Our research program also grew to new heights, driven by the outstanding grantsmanship of our faculty and research staff, and we added to our impressive recent roster of National Science Foundation CAREER Award winners. Our research efforts are poised for further growth after the 2020 debut of the new $22 million Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory, which is perhaps the finest structural engineering lab in the country with unique experimental capabilities.

Christopher B. Roberts Dean of Engineering

Auburn University is committing unprecedented levels of support for research across the Auburn campus, bolstering engineering research programs that have long been on the ascendancy. Our faculty and students are conducting novel research in many emerging and established research areas, including advanced manufacturing and materials, cybersecurity and intelligent systems, energy and environment, infrastructure and transportation, and biomedical and health systems engineering.

Ari Goldman, an aerospace engineering doctoral student in assistant professor David Scarborough’s lab, is shown conducting a study on the characteristics of wildfire burning and the ways that naturally occurring fuels interact.

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Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

Index DEAN Christopher B. Roberts DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Austin Phillips EDITORS Chris Anthony Cassie Montgomery CONTRIBUTORS Jeremy Henderson Cassie Montgomery Virginia Speirs Alyssa Turner Lauren Winton GRAPHIC DESIGN Danny Doyle WEB MANAGER Tyler Patterson PHOTOGRAPHY Marcus Kluttz Mary Ballard 2020-21 Dean’s Report The Dean’s Report is published annually by Auburn University’s Office of Engineering Communications and Marketing.

Engineering Communications and Marketing c/o Editor 1210 Shelby Center Auburn, AL 36849 eng.editor@auburn.edu 334.844.3447 © 2021 Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, Auburn University.

Auburn University is an equal opportunity educational institution/ employer.

2020-21 Dean’s Report

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COLLEGE LEADERSHIP

Christopher B. Roberts Dean

Jeffrey Fergus

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Program Assessment

Maria Auad

Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Faculty Development

Steve Taylor

Associate Dean for Research

Janet Moore

Assistant Dean for Student Services

Auburn Alumni Engineering Council 2020 Executive Committee Kenneth Kelly

Larry Monroe

Brad Christopher

Olivia Owen

Chair

Brian Thurow

Aerospace Engineering Chair

Oladiran Fasina

Biosystems Engineering Head

Mario Eden

Chemical Engineering Chair

Vice Chair

At Large

Jim Cooper

Gerald Pouncey

At Large

Development

Nicole Faulk

Ashley Robinett

Second Past Chair

Maury Gaston

Nominating Committee, Second Past Chair

Andrzej Nowak

Civil and Environmental Engineering Chair

Hari Narayanan

Computer Science and Software Engineering Chair

Mark Nelms

Electrical and Computer Engineering Chair

Carol Godfrey At Large

Melissa Herkt At Large

Anne Cleary

Public Relations Committee

Zeke Smith

Government Affairs

John Evans

Industrial and Systems Engineering Chair 6

Jeff Suhling

Mechanical Engineering Chair

Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

At Large

Young Alumni Council Liaison

Ken Smith

Academics and Student Experience Committee

Jeff Stone

Capital Campaign Committee

Jack Waddey Research

Walt Woltosz

Immediate Past Chair

ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS AND DEGREES Aerospace Engineering

• Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering • Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering • Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Bachelor of Electrical Engineering • Bachelor of Computer Engineering • Master of Science in Electrical Engineering • Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering

Biosystems Engineering

Industrial and Systems Engineering

• Bachelor of Biosystems Engineering

• Bachelor of Biosystems Engineering – Ecological Engineering Option

• Bachelor of Biosystems Engineering – Forestry Engineering Option

• Bachelor of Biosystems Engineering – Bioprocess Option

• Master of Science in Biosystems Engineering

• Ph.D. in Biosystems Engineering

• Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering • Master of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering • Master of Industrial and Systems Engineering • Master of Engineering Management • Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering

Materials Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

• Bachelor of Chemical Engineering • Master of Science in Chemical Engineering • Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering

Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Bachelor of Civil Engineering • Master of Science in Civil Engineering • Master of Civil Engineering • Ph.D. in Civil Engineering

• Bachelor of Materials Engineering • Master of Science in Materials Engineering • Ph.D. in Materials Engineering

• Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering • Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering • Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering

Wireless Engineering

• Bachelor of Wireless Engineering

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Interdepartmental Programs

• Master of Engineering

• Master of Science in Polymer and Fiber Engineering

• Master of Science in Data Science and Engineering – Interdisciplinary

• Ph.D. in Polymer and Fiber Engineering

• Ph.D. in Earth System Science – Interdisciplinary

• Bachelor of Computer Science • Bachelor of Science in Computer Science • Bachelor of Software Engineering • Master of Science in Computer Science

and Software Engineering • Master of Science in Cybersecurity Engineering • Ph.D. in Computer Science and Software Engineering

2020-21 Dean’s Report

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NATIONAL RANKINGS

29

th

Undergraduate program ranking among public universities1

st

Graduate program ranking among public universities1

41 18

th

1

23

Graduate online program ranking among all engineering colleges1

2021 U.S. News & World Report rankings |

2

21

40

st

Graduate computer information technology program ranking1

rd

Ranking in undergraduate enrollment among all engineering colleges2

th

Tenured/tenure track faculty members among all engineering colleges2

2019 American Society for Engineering Education data

Enrollment1

Engineering

University

Undergraduate

5,386

24,505

Graduate

1,116

6,232

Total

6,502 30,737

21.5% female 12% underrepresented2 1 2

Auburn University Office of Institutional Research Includes African American, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students, or students of two or more races, per the National Science Foundation

UNDERGRADUATE ENROLLMENT

8

4,018

4,157

4,294

2011

2012

2013

Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

4,618

2014

4,968

4,963

2015

2016

5,282

2017

5,559

5,579

2018

2019

5,386

2020

FRESHMAN CLASS SNAPSHOT

1,097

29.65

FRESHMEN

AVERAGE ACT

4.06

AVERAGE HIGH SCHOOL GPA

10

NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARS

Largest college at Auburn University with 22% of the freshman enrollment

GRADUATE SNAPSHOT

504

593

MASTER’S

26%

19

DOCTORAL

FEMALE

CERTIFICATE

Graduate Students by Program Aerospace: 72 Biosystems: 29 Chemical: 90 Civil and Environmental: 124 Computer Science and Software: 189 Cybersecurity Engineering: 25 Data Engineering: 6 Electrical and Computer: 126 Master of Engineering: 19 Engineering Management: 87 Industrial and Systems: 130 Materials: 50 Mechanical: 142 Polymer and fiber: 8

Undergraduate Students

by Program Aerospace: 535 Biosystems: 202 Chemical: 534 Civil and Environmental 545 Computer Science and Software: 1,278 Electrical and Computer: 552 Industrial and Systems: 397 Materials: 60 Mechanical: 1,173 Wireless: 27 Pre-engineering: 83

(30 master’s and 42 doctoral) (16 master’s and 13 doctoral) (15 master’s and 75 doctoral) (64 master’s and 60 doctoral) (69 master’s and 120 doctoral) (25 master’s) (6 master’s) (50 master’s and 76 doctoral) (19 master’s) (87 master’s) (52 master’s and 78 doctoral) (13 master’s and 37 doctoral) (57 master’s and 85 doctoral) (1 master’s and 7 doctoral)

GRADUATE ENROLLMENT 834

853

885

2011

2012

2013

917

2014

851

2015

897

2016

971

936

2017

2018

1,003

2019

1,116

2020 2020-21 Dean’s Report

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RESEARCH SNAPSHOT

$72.9 MILLION in research expenditures

FACULTY SNAPSHOT

195

Tenured/tenure track faculty

Research Expenditures (in millions)

2011

$57.4

2012

$60.1

2013

$61.3

2014

$60.0

2015

$58.3

60

2016

$61.7

2017

$62.6

Non-tenure track teaching/research faculty

2018 $64.3 2019 2020

$65.6 $72.9

31

Postdoctoral researchers/fellows 10

Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

HIGH PROFILE RESEARCH AREAS

STRATEGIC RESEARCH AREAS

FUNDING AWARDED IN FY 2020

Advanced Manufacturing and Materials

Transportation Engineering: $24.3 million Additive Manufacturing: $11 million Autonomy and Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing: $7 million Micro and Nano Electronics: $4.5 million

Infrastructure and Transportation Cybersecurity and Intelligent Systems Energy and Environment Biomedical and Health Systems Engineering

Research Awards Highlights in 2020 United States Army – “Auburn Payload or ground-systems enhancement and evaluations (APOGEE)”

Mark L. Adams, Michael Hamilton (electrical and computer engineering) | Scott Martin, David Bevly (mechanical engineering) - $2,654,015 National Institute of Standards and Technology – “On The Structural Integrity Of Additive Manufactured Parts: Defect Criticality, In-Situ Monitoring, Post-Fab Non-Destructive Evaluation and Cyber Security”

Nima Shamsaei (mechanical engineering) - $2,625,000 Federal Aviation Administration – “Effect Of Machine &Machine-To-Machine Variability On Mechanical Properties Of Additive Manufactured Ma”

Nima Shamsaei, Hareesh Tippur, Jeffrey Suhling, Michael Ogles (mechanical engineering) | Steven Taylor (biosystems engineering) | Aleksandr Vinel, Daniel Silva Izquierdo (industrial and systems engineering) - $1,799,967 United States Navy through IntraMicron – “High Power, Thermally Compliant Battery System”

Bruce J. Tatarchuk (chemical engineering) - $1,194,756 National Academy of Sciences – “Quality Assurance Aspects Of Performance Related Specifications”

Randy C. West (National Center for Asphalt Technology) - $800,000 National Science Foundation – “Concurrent Multiscale Moving-Window Scheme For Shock Wave Propagation and Microstructural Interaction”

Vinamra Agrawal (aerospace engineering) - $408,164 2020-21 Dean’s Report

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ENSURING ENGINEERING’S FUTURE The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is committed to providing the best studentcentered engineering experience in America.

Our Keystone Society donors are a strategic part of this vision, providing much-needed annual funds to the college. In fiscal year 2020, members of the Keystone Society collectively contributed more than $5 million to all areas of Auburn Engineering. These funds enhance engineering education and allow the college to remain nimble and tackle any unexpected challenges.

Students are seen in a classroom in the Brown-Kopel Engineering Student Achievement Center.

Largest areas of support:

Strategic Leadership Team The Strategic Leadership Team exists to help move the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering’s highest-level strategic priorities forward. Since it was established, the team has contributed more than $52 million to propel these priorities.

SCHOLARSHIPS: The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering provided more than $3.6 million in engineering scholarships in the academic year 2020-21 through a total of 2,880 scholarships.

84%

25.1% of funds received went to scholarships – a total of $7.7 million raised PROGRAMMATIC: The college raised $19.8 million for programmatic support. These funds are mostly unrestricted Funds for Excellence, which allow the deans and department chairs to meet priority goals for the college.

of funds raised were endowed

2,885 DONORS

3000

Who are Auburn Engineering’s donors?

2500 2000

5,309 GIFTS

1500

in fiscal year 2020

1000

ni

m

Alu

Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

361

330

500 0

12

have given

2,017

ds

93

en

Fri

Co

ns

tio

ra rpo

73 ts

ren

Pa

lty

cu

Fa

$31 MILLION

Funds raised in fiscal year 2020

FELLOWS IN THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING Aerospace Engineering

John Cochran – Fellow, American Institute

of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

Roy Hartfield –Fellow, American Society

of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

Biosystems Engineering

William Batchelor – Fellow, American Society

of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE)

Oladiran Fasina – Fellow, ASABE

Steven Taylor – Fellow, ASABE

Chemical Engineering

Thomas Hanley – Fellow, American Institute

of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)

Harry Cullinan – Fellow, Technical Association

of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI)

Bruce Tatarchuk – Fellow, National Academy

of Inventors (NAI)

Fa Foster Dai – Fellow, IEEE

Mark Halpin – Fellow, IEEE

Charlie Gross – Fellow, IEEE John Hung – Fellow, IEEE

Dave Irwin –Fellow, IEEE; Fellow, NAI Dick Jaeger – Fellow, IEEE

Hulya Kirkici – Fellow, IEEE Shiwen Mao – Fellow, IEEE Mark Nelms – Fellow, IEEE Adit Singh – Fellow, IEEE

Jitendra Tugnait – Fellow, IEEE

Dan Wilamowski – Fellow, IEEE John Wu – Fellow, IEEE

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Sean Gallagher – Fellow, American Industrial Hygiene

Association (AIHA); Fellow, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

Rob Thomas – Fellow, AIHA

Joseph Shaeiwitz – Fellow, AIChE; Fellow, American

Society of Engineering Education (ASEE)

Engineers (IISE); Fellow, IEEE

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Alice Smith – Fellow, Institute of Industrial and Systems Jeff Smith – Fellow, IISE

Chan Park – Fellow, IISE

John Evans – Luminary of Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA)

Xing Fang – Fellow, ASCE; Fellow, Environmental

and Water Resources Institute

Andrzej Nowak – Fellow, ASCE; Fellow, American

Bryan A. Chin – Fellow, ASM International; Fellow,

American Nuclear Society; Fellow, American Welding

Concrete Institute (ACI), Fellow, International

Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering

Robert Barnes – Fellow, ACI

Anton Schindler – Fellow, ACI; Fellow, ASCE

Mechanical Engineering

Malcolm Crocker – Fellow, Acoustical Society of India;

Fellow, Acoustical Society of America

Huaguo Zhou – Fellow, Institute of Transportation

Engineers

Society; Fellow, Electrochemical Society

Jeffrey Fergus – Fellow, Electrochemical Society; Fellow, ABET

George Flowers – Fellow, American Society of Mechanical

Engineers (ASME)

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Daniela Marghitu – Fellow, Society for Design

Jay Khodadadi – Associate Fellow, AIAA

and Process Science

Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Fellow, ASME; Fellow, NextFlex

Levent Yilmaz – Fellow, Society for Modeling and

Simulation International (SCS)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Prathima Agrawal – Fellow, Institute of Electrical

and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Vishwani Agrawal – Fellow, IEEE

Pradeep Lall – Fellow, Alabama Academy of Sciences; Fellow, Institute of P. K. Raju – Fellow, ASME; Fellow, American Society of Engineering Education; Fellow, Acoustical Society of India; Fellow, The Institution of Engineers, India

Subhash Sinha – Fellow, ASME; Associate Fellow, AIAA

Hareesh Tippur – Fellow, Society of Experimental

Jeffrey Suhling – Fellow, ASME Mechanics; Fellow, ASME

2020-21 Dean’s Report

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Auburn Engineering is focused on providing the best student-centered engineering experience in America. We pride ourselves on providing hands-on, experiential learning opportunities for students both inside and outside the classroom. By providing a student-centered learning experience and high levels of engagement with faculty, we graduate engineers capable of addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges in the engineering field.

At right, Symone Alexander, assistant professor of chemical engineering, is shown working with graduate students from the Alexander Research Team.

Listen to our podcast with Symone Alexander at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

14

Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

2020-21 Dean’s Report

15

STUDENT-CENTERED ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE

2,880

Students supported by scholarships in 2020-21

$27.7 MILLION

Scholarship support awarded to engineering students in 2020-21

40+

Engineering student organizations

16

Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

The Brown-Kopel Center serves as a central gathering space for engineering students.

2020-21 Dean’s Report

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GUIDING THE NEXT GENERATION OF AUBURN ENGINEERS The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering has many avenues for students to find academic and professional support and guidance on their path to graduation. These student-centered learning opportunities elevate the Auburn Engineering experience and better prepare students to address the engineering challenges of tomorrow.

100+ Women Strong

Fostering the success of female engineering students is the guiding principle of 100+ Women Strong, an organization to recruit, retain and reward Auburn women in engineering. Alumni and friends of Auburn Engineering offer their time to encourage female engineering students through mentoring, sharing professional experiences and unique networking opportunities.

Engineering Academic Excellence Program

The Academic Excellence Program supports underrepresented students throughout their entire Auburn Engineering experience, from before their first semester starts through graduation and beyond.

Students form life-long connections while focusing on academic preparation, professional readiness and exploring career paths.

Through collaborative learning sessions, peer tutoring and professional development workshops, the Academic Excellence Program forms a solid foundation on which students thrive.

Engineering Tutoring Center

Students are encouraged to participate in individual and group tutoring services that cover nearly 75 subjects in math, science and highdemand engineering courses.

Mentoring and Advising

The academic advisors and faculty in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering are engaged and ready to help students achieve their academic goals. Additional peer advising and mentoring programs serve to further highlight the Auburn Engineering experience as one that centers on student academic achievement.

Student Involvement

Student engagement is a vital part of the Auburn Engineering experience. With more than 40 engineering student organizations and more than a dozen global engineering programs, Auburn Engineering offers co-curricular programming for every student who wants to get involved beyond the classroom and make a difference in their community.

The Academic Excellence Program supports underrepresented students throughout their Auburn experience.

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Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

Career Development and Corporate Relations

The Office of Career Development and Corporate Relations (CDCR) puts Auburn Engineering students first. Experienced and dedicated staff serve to support Auburn Engineering students throughout their college experience as they design their future engineering careers. From growing professional development skills, connecting with experiential educational opportunities and finding valuable information regarding career options available in each engineering field, CDCR has something for every student, no matter there they are on their career journey.

Through CDCR, students gain access to some of the most powerful companies and organizations in the nation, all eager to hire Auburn engineers. Here, students find the resources they need to become one of the more than two million engineers working in the U.S. today – in fields ranging from defense infrastructure to telecommunications, consumer electronics and beyond – who are making the world a better place.

65%

of all engineering students completed an internship and/or co-op

Students celebrate accepting internship, co-op and full time positions at CDCR’s inaugural SignEng Day event.

77%

of students experienced positive career outcomes within six months of graduation

85%

positive outcome rate for students who completed an internship and/or co-op

Latest data available is from 2019-2020 academic year.

Auburn Engineering graduates move directly into lucrative engineering positions in both the public and private sector, or they pursue graduate studies that lead to a career in research and academia.

2020-21 Dean’s Report

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STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS Shelby Wales

GOLDWATER SCHOLAR

Nathan Adkins, a junior majoring in aerospace engineering and minoring in computer science, was awarded the German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship, or DAAD Rise, to attend Furtwangen University in Tuttlingen, Germany.

Auburn Engineering senior Shelby Wales was named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, an honor bestowed on only 410 students nationwide in 2021. The scholarship is widely considered the most prestigious award in the United States for undergraduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Industrial and systems engineering seniors Caroline Allen, Annie Dorsey and Anne Curtis Giovanelli were the winners of the Southeast Regional Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers’ Technical Paper Competition.

Wales, originally from Sylacauga, Alabama, is majoring in chemical engineering and minoring in supply chain management. Wales was chosen from a field of more than 5,000 college students.

The student chapter of the American Concrete Institute was awarded an Excellent University Award in the 2021 ACI Awards for University Student Activities. This is the sixth year in a row the student organization has earned ACI’s highest university honor.

Her research investigates different pathways of implementing 3D printing to investigate geochemical reactions. Wales hopes that by producing 3D printing models of real rock structures that possess the same reactive properties, further insight may be obtained about the geochemical reactions that occur in conjunction with carbon capture and sequestration.

The Autonomous Tiger Racing team placed in the top 3 among all university teams in the first three rounds of competition of the Indy Autonomous Challenge. The first rounds have included white papers, performance of passenger vehicles and race simulations ahead of the official race Oct. 23, 2021.

“I think the community of Goldwater Scholars I have already been connected to will be immensely helpful as I continue learning and begin my career,” Wales said. “I am incredibly honored to have been selected for this scholarship, and I hope it will put me in a position to continue doing work I enjoy with incredible people.”

Wales noted that assistant professor Lauren Beckingham in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has supported her research interests and personal academic journey from the time Wales joined Beckingham’s research group in spring 2019.

Industrial and systems engineering doctoral students Allison Brown and Mohsen Nikfar place second in a national 3D design competition hosted by Physna, a Cincinnati-based technology startup, for their design, Space Shuttle Launch.

Four Auburn Engineering students were chosen to partner with fellows at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in conducting research and initiatives for the Alabama Innovation Corporation.

The students are industrial and systems engineering senior Madeline Ellison, electrical engineering senior Shivam Patel, chemical engineering senior Emily Schramek and mechanical engineering junior Daniel “Trey” Sims.

“The open, collaborative environment fostered in our research group has been formative toward my perception of the value of scientific research,” Wales said.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program was established to provide scholarships to outstanding students who intend to pursue careers in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering. Each scholarship covers eligible expenses up to a maximum of $7,500 annually for undergraduate tuition, fees, books and housing.

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Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

Listen to our podcasts with Andrew McGehee, Emily Schramek, Shelby Wales and Zac Young and learn about the American Concrete Institute and Autonomous Tiger Racing at eng.auburn.edu/ginning.

STARTUP SUPER STARS Mit Patel and Daniel Mazur, seniors in mechanical engineering, recently won the Grand Prize in the 2021 Rice Business Plan Competition, the world’s largest and richest student startup competition.

Christian Fauer, a senior in mechanical engineering, received the Duane Hanson Scholarship presented by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning as one of only seven $5,000 scholarship winners awarded by ASHRAE each year.

Recent graduates Bryana Harris, ’19 chemical engineering, Elizabeth M. Prior, ’19 civil engineering, and Tyler Toner, ’19 mechanical engineering, were awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

The duo took home several awards, including the Business Angel Minority Association Investment Prize, and almost $450,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. Patel and Mazur beat out 53 other student startups, including teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

The two are among the first occupants of Auburn University’s New Venture Accelerator, where more than 8,000 square feet of office space is dedicated to fostering student startups.

Andrew McGehee, a senior in software engineering, won the Best Poster Award in the 11th ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Health Informatics for the poster “PolyFold: an interactive visual simulator for distance-based protein folding.” Fellow students Sutanu Bhattacharya and Rahmatullah Roche and computer and software engineering assistant professor Debswapna Bhattacharya were collaborators.

Pooriya Nezhadfar, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, won the best student presentation, beating out more than 55 other students, at the 2020 ASTM International Conference on Additive Manufacturing.

Michael Norwood, a senior majoring in computer science and minoring in Asian studies, was awarded a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State to undergo study of the Japanese language.

Aerospace engineering doctoral student Roberto Perera and aerospace engineering sophmore Lila Saunders were awarded the Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship from the Department of Defense.

Zac Young, a senior in mechanical engineering, won the concept stage competition and a $25,000 prize in the Alabama Launchpad startup competition sponsored by the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama for his business idea called the Wave Timer, a small device that measures sag, tension and the temperature of power lines in a matter of seconds. As owner of Vulcan Line Tools, Young also won Auburn University’s 2021 Tiger Cage Business Idea Competition and the 2020 virtual Southeastern Conference Pitch Competition.

Mit Patel (left) and Daniel Mazur

Patel and Mazur are co-founders of SwiftSku, a scan data solution that leverages business intelligence and machine learning for independent convenience stores.

SwiftSku is no stranger to pitching before judges. In 2020, the startup captured Auburn University’s annual Tiger Cage Student Business Plan Competition and secured $25,000 in capital funding.

The duo also recently took third place in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) U.S. University Startup Competition, earning up to $100,000 in AWS credits and $5,000 in cash. The AWS U.S. University Startup Competition is one of the premier student events of its kind in the country.

“We were delighted to see an Auburn student-team place third in this prestigious national competition,” said Lou Bifano, director of Entrepreneurship Strategy at Auburn University. “Mit and Daniel are bringing an exciting data analytics service to market for independent convenience store owners. They will be able to put their AWS winnings to good use.”

2020-21 Dean’s Report

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FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS JAKITA THOMAS

Jakita Thomas, the Philpott-WestPoint Stevens Associate Professor of computer science and software engineering, was included in Cell Mentor’s 2020 list of 1,000 inspiring Black scientists in America. The list was compiled by the Community of Scholars, a group of Persons Excluded because of their Ethnicity or Race (PEER) composed of postdoctoral fellows, earlystage investigators, instructors and consultants.

“I am incredibly humbled to be included among this incredible list of brilliant Black scientists who are doing work on the cutting edge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Thomas said. “Black scientists have been involved in most of the scientific breakthroughs and innovations that have occurred throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, from GPS to the development of the first gaming console with interchangeable cartridges to computer-generated imagery. However, their contributions and leadership have often not been a part of the narrative of innovation and scientific advancement.

It’s exciting and encouraging to know that, going forward, Black scientists can be recognized and acknowledged for the role they have played and will continue to play in leading innovation here in America and having impact around the world.”

MICHAEL ZABALA

When Michael Zabala, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, started 3D printing highly customized braces for Auburn football players in 2019, the players and athletics trainers loved them and word got out. Now, that favor has turned into a startup business — XO Armor — with a home in Auburn University’s New Venture Accelerator.

“It’s very difficult to 3D print strong materials. It’s traditionally been one of the most difficult parts of pursuing 3D printing technology, but that’s something we’ve figured out how to do,” Zabala told the OpelikaAuburn News. “We’re able to give these guys stuff that’s not only perfectly customized to their body shape, but it’s also extremely strong and can withstand all the abuse that it would see during the season.”

Athletes can choose their gear, scan their bodies with the XO Armor app and receive customized protective equipment. The company also provides the option of putting 3D printers onsite in athletic training facilities for a faster turnaround time. XO Armor recently signed its first customer outside of Auburn University, another high-profile Division 1 athletics program, with this onsite model.

22

Samuel Ginn College of Engineering

Jakita Thomas (right) working with students in the classroom.

Thomas is director of the CUltuRally & SOcially Relevant (CURSOR) Computing Lab. Her research interests include exploring the development of computational algorithmic thinking, promoting access to health care information and services for under-served populations, improving reasoning using expert cases, scientific reasoning, complex cognitive skills learning and computer-supported collaborative learning.

A noted researcher and leader in promoting equity and inclusion in computer science, Thomas helped launch the inaugural Black Women in Computing Conference, which has since morphed into a computer science education and workforce development organization called blackcomputeHER.

The XO Armor team has created customized braces for athletes in sports ranging from football to soccer to lacrosse. And interest in the company continues to grow from other collegiate and even professional athletic programs.

XO Armor is uniquely fitted to the contours of an athlete’s body.

“The athletes like the feel and fit of the pads. The custom fit technology allowed the pads to be very inconspicuous under padding or clothing,” said Robbie Stewart, Auburn’s head football athletic trainer. “I believe this technology is something that can be used at every level of athletics for prevention and protection from injury.”

Listen to our podcasts with Lauren Beckingham, Robert Jackson, Pradeep Lall, Frances O’Donnell, Nima Shamsaei and Michael Zabala at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

Lauren Beckingham, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, was named the inaugural recipient of the Emerging Investigator Award from Applied Geochemistry, the Journal of the International Association of Geochemistry.

Jeffrey Fergus, professor of materials engineering and associate dean for undergraduate studies and program assessment, was named a fellow of ABET, the organization that accredits collegiate engineering programs.

Saad Biaz, professor of computer science and software engineering, was awarded the 2021 Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award by the Computing Research Association.

Sa’d Hamasha, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering, is principal investigator on an $830,000 award from the Defense Electronics Consortium to develop a comprehensive evaluation system for solder selection to meet specific defenserelated requirements. In total, $7 million is expected to come to Auburn over five to seven years.

Natalie Cápiro, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, was awarded a $1.3 million grant by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program for her project “Development of Predictive Tools for Assessment of Natural Attenuation Capacity and Treatment Transition at Chlorinated Solvent Sites.”

Pengyu Chen, assistant professor of materials engineering, was awarded a $2.6 million Research Project (RO1) Grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a biosensor designed to guide a novel immunotherapy for better treating cancer, specificially leukemia.

Fa Foster Dai, the Godbold Chair of electrical and computer engineering, and his former Ph.D. student Hechen Wang were issued a U.S. patent for “Radio Frequency (RF) to Digital Polar Data Converter and Time-toDigital Converter Based Time Domain Signal Processing Receiver.”

Virginia Davis, the Dr. Daniel F. and Josephine Breeden Professor of chemical engineering, and Robert Ashurst, the Uthault Family Associate Professor of chemical engineering, received a $477,650 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a project titled “Cellulose Nanocrystals: A Versatile Platform for the Detection of Allergens and Emerging Contaminants.”

Mario Eden, the Joe T. and Billie Carole McMillan Professor and chemical engineering department chair, was recognized as the author of one of the top 1% most cited articles by Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, a prominent chemical engineering journal.

Roy Hartfield, the Walt and Virginia Woltosz Professor of aerospace engineering, was named a fellow by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Robert Jackson, the Albert J. Smith, Jr. Professor of mechanical engineering, won a Best Presentation Award at the 2020 International Tribology Research Symposium for his presentation titled “An Investigation of the Elastic Cylindrical Line Contact Equations for Plane Strain and Stress Considering Friction.”

Pradeep Lall, the John and Anne MacFarlane Endowed Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering, won the IEEE Region 3 Biedenbach Outstanding Engineering Educator Award for 2020.

Fabricio Leiva, assistant professor at the National Center for Asphalt Technology, received a $228,028 grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation for a project titled “Continuous Asphalt Mixture Compaction Assessment Using Density Profiling System.”

Shiwen Mao, the Earle C. Williams Scholar Chair of electrical and computer engineering, won the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society’s 2020 Jack Neubauer Memorial Award for the paper titled “CSI-Based Fingerprinting for Indoor Localization: A Deep Learning Approach.” He was also named a distinguished lecturer of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Communications Society for 2021-2022.

Jack Montgomery, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Frances O’Donnell, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, received a $233,602 grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation for their project titled “Geotechnical Health Monitoring and Assessment of Landslides.”

Frances O’Donnell, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for a project titled “A landscapescale approach to wetland mitigation of nonpoint source agricultural runoff.”

Anton Schindler, the Mountain Spirit Professor of structural engineering and Highway Research Center director, was awarded the 2021 Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award from the American Concrete Institute for outstanding leadership of ACI’s Technical Committee on Self-Consolidating Concrete.

Nima Shamsaei, Philpott-WestPoint Stevens Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering, is principal investigator on a $3 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration for a project focused on improving commercial air travel through the use of additively manufactured metal components.

Shuai Shao, associate professor of materials engineering, received the ASTM Young Professional Award in Additive Manufacturing, which recognizes outstanding research contributions to the field of additive manufacturing.

Alice Smith, the Joe W. Forehand/ Accenture Professor of industrial and systems engineering, was named a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Ambassador for the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science for her project “Stimulating Participation of Underrepresented Groups in INFORMS Editorial Boards.” Yellowhammer Media also named Smith a 2020 Woman of Impact, which recognizes Alabama women who have made lasting impressions across business, government, medicine and many other industries.

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EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING

RICK WILLIAMS Mechanical engineering senior lecturer Rick Williams doesn’t let his students use their cellphones in class. Break the rule one too many times, and he’ll even ask you to leave. It’s a strict policy. And they love him for it.

Williams, director of Auburn University’s Nuclear Power Generation Systems program, has become a fixture at faculty recognition ceremonies in recent years thanks in large part to the mutual respect he’s able to foster in the classroom.

In 2018, he won Auburn Engineering’s Outstanding Faculty Award. The following year, he received the William F. Walker Teaching Award, which recognizes outstanding faculty achievement in the education of engineering students.

Williams says he’s built his approach to instruction around a single maxim: every student matters.

“I randomly call on students using an iPad app that I developed, and usually by the end of the semester, I know all of my students by their name,” he said. “I’ve learned that although students do not necessarily like being called on by name to answer questions in class, they do appreciate the fact that it makes them pay attention.”

Listen to our podcast with Rick Williams at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

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CORDELIA BROWN “Find the thing that you are passionate about and stick with it, despite adversity.”

This piece of advice is one that Cordelia Brown, senior lecturer of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Academic Excellence Program, has given to many of her students since she began working at Auburn in 2015.

Brown currently teaches Engineering Success Strategies and Digital Logic Circuits while also directing AEP, a program designed to support underrepresented students in their engineering studies at Auburn, and has excelled in both roles.

One of the most important lessons that teaching has taught her is to always have flexibility, especially with a diverse range of students, she said. AEP is a program that is diverse, and being able to teach in a way that a wide range of students will understand the material is important, she said.

As a lecturer, Brown focuses on helping students navigate their engineering career both inside and outside of the classroom by encouraging problem solving. Her goal is to help students work through challenges and misconceptions by first identifying them and then solving them, she said.

“Being committed to different teaching approaches and also being adaptable is one of the key pieces that has really helped how I approach working with students,” Brown said. “The greatest human engineering problem is being able to work with one another.”

MOLLY HUGHES When it comes to Auburn, Molly Hughes, lecturer of civil and environmental engineering, has come full circle.

Hughes, raised in Auburn, is a former Auburn Engineering student. After receiving her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in civil engineering from Auburn University, she relocated to Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida to begin working in the research lab to develop and improve the materials used in missile defense. After receiving her doctoral degree from Georgia Tech, she relocated to Eglin Air Force Base to create missile material to defeat buried structures.

After 13 years with the Air Force, Hughes returned to Auburn University to begin her influential career in engineering education, teaching courses with a classic, tailored instruction strategy every student she encounters seems to love.

Hughes describes her lecturing style as “old school” with added modernity. Fulfillment is derived from her students’ accomplishments; whiteboards, class polls, Zoom breakout rooms and a passion for personalized interaction accompanies each lecture.

“I want everyone to understand the basic building blocks they need to be successful in his or her chosen profession,” Hughes said. “No position fits me better than the role I play in students’ lives at Auburn Engineering.”

Hughes was previously selected as the Civil Engineering Outstanding Faculty and has received the William F. Walker Teaching Award. Additionally, she is an active member of 100+ Women Strong and has served as the faculty liaison.

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STOPPING THE SPREAD A E R O S P A C E B Y

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Being able to predict how droplets are dispersed during coughing, sneezing or speech is critical to understanding the spread of infectious diseases. Aerospace engineering assistant professor Vrishank Raghav is leading a combined $464,846 National Science Foundation award, in collaboration with the University of Michigan, to explore this topic. In this project, the collaborative team will take existing industry and academic tools a step further by considering the underlying turbulent flow physics at play.

VRISHANK RAGHAV

Assistant Professor Aerospace Engineering Ginn Faculty Achievement Fellow 334-844-6811 raghav@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/VRaghav

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“Droplet-laden flows are ubiquitous both in engineering applications and in nature.

For example, fuel injection in engines, paint sprays, air pollutants, platelets in blood, respiratory aerosols, to name a few,” Raghav said. “Our research group started conducting experiments to quantify speechgenerated aerosols at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this NSF grant will help us continue this work. For this study, we will be using a combination of human subjects and an ex-vivo cough simulator at

Auburn University to achieve our goals.”

Raghav, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Michigan, will combine 3D time-resolved velocimetry with an extensively validated fluid-particle simulation method, to uncover new flow physics relating the influence of flow interactions on the entrainment and dispersion of droplets. This combined approach will make advances toward the development of improved reduced-order models that could be easily embraced through direct implementation into existing tools.

“Such improved quantification of flow physics and the development of reducedorder models will enable better prediction of droplet dispersion, a key step toward understanding the spread of viral infections,” he said. “The methods developed will be used to study the interaction of dropletladen expiratory jets with flow barriers, such as face masks and face shields, and evaluate their efficacy to mitigate the dispersion of expiratory flows and contain outbreaks.”

SUPPORTING FAMILY FARMS THROUGH POULTRY RESEARCH B I O S Y S T E M S

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The poultry supply chain is in high demand after the chicken sandwich wars. Poultry production is the No. 1 agricultural commodity in Alabama, and in the United States, poultry is the most consumed meat. By providing applied research and education to increase the efficiencies of housing, equipment energy and environmental control, the National Poultry Technology Center works to improve the profitability of the many family farms supporting the U.S. poultry industry.

“Our emphasis is to improve the economic viability of poultry production facilities to meet market demand,” said Jesse Campbell, assistant extension professor.

To preserve a farm from catastrophic loss, the NPTC aids in decisions to implement cost-efficient methods. For a grower in North Alabama, the price of water is economically equivalent to gas after the substantial rise of water costs. The NPTC tackled the problem and implemented a rainwater harvesting system with fullhouse farm functionality. By capturing and re-filtering the water, the system cut water costs by 190%.

JEREMIAH DAVIS Associate Professor Biosystems Engineering Director, National Poultry Technology Center 334-844-3541 jdd0042@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/JDavis

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“We solve immediate problems through training and fieldwork,” explains National Poultry Technology Center Director Jeremiah Davis. “Our direct stakeholders are the growers, and they need help now.”

The facility has provided hands-on workshops to several thousand attendees from over 20 countries and 35 states. Now, the center is re-focusing its efforts on the digitalization of agricultural research to allow its services to be more accessible. Partnering with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, the NPTC expanded its outreach by developing the first-of-its-kind smartphone application, Poultry Farming Toolkit. The app features a service and maintenance checklist accompanied by calculators for minimum ventilation, evaporative pads and radiant heat. For Davis, quantitative data is unable to capture the extent of the facility’s outreach.

“We grew up around farming, and we want it to stay,” he said.

“We know the center has made its mark after we hear our growers say, ‘You helped me save my farm.’”

JESSE CAMPBELL Assistant Extension Professor Biosystems Engineering 334-844-3546 campbj1@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/JCampbell

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PERSONALIZED MEDICINE THROUGH THERAPEUTIC PROTEINS C H E M I C A L

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ROBERT PANTAZES Assistant Professor Chemical Engineering Ginn Faculty Achievement Fellow 334-844-4805 rjp0029@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/RPantazes

For Robert Pantazes, the decision to devote his research to therapeutic proteins was made for two reasons. Professionally, more effective techniques for designing proteins will improve the efficiency and safety of the chemical engineering industry. However, his particular focus on optimizing therapeutic proteins is more personal.

“I’m focused on therapeutic proteins in particular because over the course of my life, I’ve had a number of complex health challenges and I’ve been fortunate to always be able to work with really talented doctors who helped me figure out the solutions to those challenges,” he said. “Not everyone has access to the same resources and opportunities that I did and so health has always been a major interest.”

Pantazes, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, is furthering his research in therapeutic proteins with a $1.75 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a part of the National Institutes of Health. The award 28

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is designed to support Pantazes’ research lab at Auburn University, where he and his graduate students are developing and experimentally testing computational methods to design therapeutic proteins.

Specifically, Pantazes is interested in personalizing medicine to meet an individual person’s needs. This approach, making something to meet a need when a need is identified, differs from the method more commonly used where a therapeutic is prescribed from a pre-selected set of options. There are many situations where personalized medicine could benefit a patient, including when treating a cancer patient or fighting antibiotic resistant bacteria.

“Over the next 10 years, what I would like to do is get to a point where we can reliably and consistently design a protein to bind to whatever we want it to bind to,” he said. “The goal of my career is to develop an effective computational method to design proteins for whatever purpose someone might want to use them for.”

PREVENTING SOIL PIPING AND LANDSLIDES C I V I L B Y

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Assistant civil and environmental engineering professor Jack Montgomery was recently selected for the prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program. Montgomery, whose focus is geotechnical engineering, was awarded $531,818 to explore the relationship between soil piping and rainfall-induced landslides in unsaturated soils.

“We’ll be using the geotechnical test chamber to build some near fullscale slope models,” he said.

“This award lets me expand my research and teaching into new areas,” Montgomery said. “This project is specifically focused on piping in slopes, but the findings will apply to many different areas, including dam safety.”

Montgomery, who came to Auburn in 2015, is the fifth Auburn Engineering faculty member — and the third in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering — to earn the Early CAREER Award in 16 months, a fact that Andy Nowak, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, feels reflects the college’s commitment to hiring and retaining the best engineering minds in the country.

Much of Montgomery’s previous research has focused on field work or computational analyses.

“But this grant will allow me to build some really unique experimental capabilities at Auburn,” he said.

The award also involves integrating Montgomery’s research into an outreach program geared toward increasing interest and retention among traditionally underrepresented students in civil engineering.

“Jack has already received plenty of professional accolades,” Nowak said. “But it’s always rewarding when the NSF recognizes the same promise in a researcher that you saw in them.”

Specifically, he plans to take advantage of the 4,700-cubic-foot geotechnical test chamber — one of the few test chambers in the nation included in a university laboratory — inside Auburn’s new $22 million Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory.

JACK MONTGOMERY Assistant Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering Ginn Faculty Achievement Fellow 334-844-6283 jmontgomery@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/JMontgomery

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SHEDDING LIGHT ON DARK PROTEIN FAMILIES C O M P U T E R B Y

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Assistant professor Debswapna Bhattacharya is using a $1.86 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to further research “dark” protein families.

The five-year project aims to develop novel computational and data-driven methods to structurally annotate the “dark” protein families – protein families that are undiscovered by modern structure determination techniques and are inaccessible to molecular modeling.

The study aims to gather key information in the understanding of biological systems at the molecular level.

a crucial role due to its scalability and wide applicability, he explained.

“Nearly a quarter of protein families are currently dark, where molecular conformation is completely unknown,” Bhattacharya said.

“The key challenge is how to shed light on this unknown protein universe to gain a comprehensive understanding of biology and disease, thereby paving the way to structure-based drug design at a genomic scale.”

The MIRA is the second major award that Bhattacharya received in 2020. He was also awarded $557,340 through a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to develop novel computational and datadriven methods to substantially improve protein structure refinement, bringing protein models closer to biologically relevant experimental accuracy. In 2018, Bhattacharya’s research group earned international acclaim when it placed No. 9 in the world in the Community Wide Experiment on the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction.

Bhattacharya’s laboratory focuses specifically on the computational modeling of protein structures. Computational protein modeling plays

DEBSWAPNA BHATTACHARYA

Assistant Professor Computer Science and Software Engineering Ginn Faculty Achievement Fellow 334-844-6321 bhattacharyad@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/DBhattacharya

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“Latest developments on computational and data science based on artificial intelligence and machine learning are getting more and more matured,” Bhattacharya said. “We now can interrogate a biological system through the lens of computation. We can try to mine biological big data and develop a new generation of data-driven predictive models that can help us understand the unknown protein universe at the molecular level and their impact in human disease.”

ENCRYPTION FOR THE QUANTUM AGE E L E C T R I C A L A N D C O M P U T E R E N G I N E E R I N G B Y

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Listen to our podcast with Mark Adams at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

As technology continues to evolve, what will it take for the United States military to maintain secure communications? Low-Earth orbit satellites with quantum key distribution abilities, to start. With a recent grant, Auburn University is helping make sure our soldiers have the best communication possible — the unhackable kind.

“The Army is interested in secure communications,” said Mark Adams, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and assistant director of the Alabama Micro/Nano Science and Technology Center. “What we’re doing is supporting an effort to establish secure military communications using small satellites the size of a loaf of bread. We are currently working with them to develop the infrastructure necessary to do that.”

The focus of this project is not simply to make an unhackable connection, but to make it resilient, as well. Small satellites allow a low-cost, rapid access to space which provides the Army with a greater degree of mission flexibility.

Quantum key distribution is a crucial aspect to this project. In a typical encryption scheme, a mathematical algorithm called a cipher is used to encrypt and decrypt information. Depending on the length of the key, the encryption is more difficult to break. Because of the continued evolution of quantum computing, typical encryption is not as secure as it once was. QKD provides elevated security not only by creating a shared random key that cannot be recovered, it can also alert users when an eavesdropper is present and the key may have been 31

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intercepted by a third party, providing an additional level of security.

Adams and his team are working to develop all components of this project, both hardware and software. The physical satellite design has to be discreet yet have both encryption and tracking capabilities. The software needs to be able to transmit communication in protected, low-observable wave forms that would be nearly impossible to hack and have the ability to send clear messages back and forth from sender to receiver.

“We have since added some additional elements [to the project] where we’re looking at developing new types of encryption,” Adams said. “We’re working on developing hardware that will allow us to use concepts like quantum key distribution in these small satellites, so we can provide an ultra-secure communication method.”

MARK ADAMS

Associate Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Director, Alabama Micro/ Nano Science and Technology Center 334-844-1865 markladams@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/MAdams

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IMPROVING TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION IN MANUFACTURING I N D U S T R I A L B Y

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Utilizing a $4.26 million award from the U.S. Department of Defense, the Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Manufacturing (ICAMS) will explore the digitalization of manufacturing and become a resource for small and medium manufacturers throughout the country.

“The most significant way ICAMS can make a difference is in helping small and medium manufacturers understand the technologies they should be utilizing and helping them understand the need for adopting Industry 4.0/Smart Manufacturing concepts, therefore really digitalizing the full supply chain,” said Gregory Harris, ICAMS director and associate professor of industrial and systems engineering.

There is a growing digital divide between large manufacturers and the small- to medium-sized manufacturers that make up 85% of the industrial base in the United States. These large, original equipment manufacturers have blended their manufacturing physical and virtual domains into an Industry 4.0 environment, achieving positive productivity results. ICAMS researchers hope to help close this gap,

GREGORY HARRIS Associate Professor Industrial and Systems Engineering 334-844-1407 greg.harris@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/GHarris

PETER LIU

Associate Professor Industrial and Systems Engineering 334-844-1428 lzj0040@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/PLiu

in part by promoting advanced manufacturing principles to create a skilled workforce pipeline that starts in high school and continues through community college and beyond.

ICAMS is led by Harris and several additional faculty members from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering: assistant professor Peter Liu, assistant professor Konstantinos Mykoniatis, associate research professor Lewis Payton and assistant professor Gregory Purdy.

“Part of what we’re doing with ICAMS is helping develop the skill base and the skillsets needed so that the community college system and high schools can train students in the new technologies to be potential employees,” Harris explained. “We’re working with industry to train their current employees in these new capabilities and create a more effective system. Finally, we’re training engineers to be able to go out and help design, build and run these systems, thus ushering in the future of manufacturing.”

KONSTANTINOS MYKONIATIS

Associate Professor Industrial and Systems Engineering 334-844-1420 kmykoniatis@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/KMykoniatis

LEWIS PAYTON

Associate Research Professor Industrial and Systems Engineering 334-844-3422 paytoln@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/LPayton

GREGORY PURDY Associate Professor Industrial and Systems Engineering 334-844-1390 greg.purdy@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/GPurdy

Listen to our podcast with Gregory Harris at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

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FLEXING RESEARCH MUSCLE IN ELECTRONICS Auburn is blazing the trail in utilizing additive manufacturing for flexible hybrid electronics.

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Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) is one of the most rapidly emerging fields of electronic research in the engineering discipline. By using a breadth of flexible materials, researchers are discovering new ways of making pliable electrical components, such as batteries and circuits.

The functionality and practicality of additive manufacturing allows FHE technology to accomplish this goal. Pradeep Lall, the John and Anne McFarlane Endowed Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering and director of the National Science Foundation Center for Advanced Vehicle and Extreme Environment Electronics, is a trailblazer of FHE research, especially with additive manufacturing. Lall has been studying flexible hybrid electronics for more than 20 years and has specialized in FHE research since he began his career at Auburn University in 2002.

One of the reasons Lall came to Auburn for this research was his interest in design of electronics for operation in extreme conditions and harsh environments, which is a major research thrust at Auburn.

“The unique thing we have here at Auburn is we have a very strong background in extreme environment electronics,” Lall said. “It is a wonderful compliment to be able to bring additive manufacturing into the harsh environment community. The bulk of the work has been largely focused on subtractive manufacturing in the past, so the fact that we can print things additively brings a higher level of control, now that we can support systems for very long periods of time.”

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John and Anne MacFarlane Endowed Distinguished Professor Mechanical Engineering Director, National Science Foundation Center for Advanced Vehicle and Extreme Environment Electronics 334-844-3424 lallpra@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/PLall 34

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With additive manufacturing, Lall and his team are able to be more creative with the materials they can print, which paves the way for a more flexible product, he said. There are three different platforms for additive creation of circuits that Lall is able to work with – AerosolJet printing, InkJet printing and direct-write and screenprint based methods. These forms of printing allow for a wide range of materials to be used for FHE circuit printing, Lall said.

A very applicable use for FHE technology is its ability to wrap around a curved surface, such as a wrist. One recent project of Lall’s has piqued the interest of companies and organizations such as NASA. The project is an FHE bracelet that has the ability to sense the health conditions of a person in an extremely harsh environment. The bracelet is able to detect potential health risks, such as abnormal pulse, anxiety levels and overall health by monitoring physiological functions, such as cortisol levels, he said.

“We have two programs going on with NASA currently, both are very exciting,” Lall said. “They are both related to what is called an astrosense platform. One of the programs we are attempting to develop is an additively printed human body sensor that can monitor the state of stress in the human body. One of the common indicators of stress is cortisol, which is in the sweat itself, and we’re developing sensors to be able to monitor and correlate the cortisol to a stress or anxiety level that a person may be undergoing.

“A second aspect of the program is to develop additively printed sensors of various types to better understand the states where the temperatures are very low,” Lall continued. “For example, on a planet where there is a great degree of temperature difference on the lighter side from the shady side, there can be a difference of a hundred degrees or more. To be able to explore extreme environments from an unmanned vehicle using additively printed sensors is a technology that has never been available before.”

Another recent advancement of Lall’s is the ability to additively print multi-layer antennas, he said. The antennas are designed for data

transmission, and can be mounted on the side of airborne, unmanned vehicles and can be conformally mounted on the body of the vehicle itself. This is another technological advancement that has a particular interest from NextFlex National Manufacturing Institute. Lall has worked on a number of flexible-hybrid electronics sponsored contracts encompassing flexible batteries, multi-layer z-axis interconnects, reliability test protocols, flexible encapsulation. Lall serves as the technical-lead for Auburn University’s participation as a Tier-1 founding academic member of NextFlex. In this role, Lall serves on the Technical Council of the Institute and as academic co-lead of the asset monitoring TWG. Lall is using FHE technology to break the stereotype that rigidity equals strength, he said. Lall wants to prove, with flexible technology, that electronics do not have to be inflexible to be strong. The NextFlex manufacturing institute bridges the chasm that normally exists between fundamental research and technology realization in high-volume manufacturing, explained Lall.

“The challenge of flexible electronics is that you need robustness and ruggedness, but you don’t want it at the cost of flexibility,” Lall said.

Listen to our podcast with Pradeep Lall at eng.auburn.edu/ginning “Flexible electronics proves we can have technology that is flexible and robust at the same time. Generally, we like to associate stronger things with more rigid ones.”

Lall is a fellow of NextFlex, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute, and they have sponsored him in a number of programs in FHE research. Lall has received over $2 million in financial support from various federal agencies and commercial companies in CY2020 in a number of projects related to FHE manufacturing, design and reliability. Auburn’s capabilities have only continued to grow since he started studying harsh environment electronics at Auburn nearly two decades ago, according to Lall.

“Auburn has progressed so much from where we were 20 years ago in terms of the things that we can do,” Lall said. “The resources and the center we have here has grown tremendously and, therefore, our capabilities have grown tremendously.”

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NEXT GENERATION OF NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY M A T E R I A L S

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The United States Department of Energy awarded Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering a combined $1.21 million to develop advanced manufacturing technology for nextgeneration reaction designs and expand the university’s existing nuclear research infrastructure.

“In the United States, nuclear power represents approximately 20% of the electricity consumed without greenhouse gas emission,” said Xiaoyuan Lou, principal investigator of both projects and associate professor of materials engineering.

“Innovative manufacturing technologies and advanced materials are both crucial to the future economic outlook of nuclear power and the development of next-generation reactor designs.”

Through the first award of $1 million funded by the DOE’s Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) program, Auburn will lead a joint university-industry team to develop and demonstrate the powder metallurgy-hot isostatic pressing (PM-HIP) cladding and joining strategies to manufacture dissimilar metal pressure retaining components.

XIAOYUAN LOU Associate Professor Materials Engineering 334-844-5071 xzl0092@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/XLou

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The traditional approach to manufacture these structures often involves multiple lengthy and costly fabrication steps and requires vastly different expertise, resulting in high manufacturing cost and delayed deployment schedule. PM-HIP can be an alternative solution to handle the design complexity, reduce manufacturing cost and time, and eliminate the burden of in-service inspection.

The second infrastructure award of $210,000 supports Lou to enhance the advanced mechanical testing capabilities at Auburn University. Bart Prorok, interim program chair for materials engineering, is the co-PI on the project. Lou said the new equipment acquisitions would boost the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering’s nuclear research and training opportunities and expand the existing nuclear research programs.

“Nuclear power not only ensures reliable and clean electricity for the American people but also supplies propulsion energy to Navy operation and NASA’s space exploration,” Lou said. “These awards provide us opportunities to work closely with the major nuclear technology providers at the forefront of technological innovation.”

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Assistant Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering 334-844-1867 yzs0078@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/YSun

Auburn Engineering assistant professor Yin Sun is the co-author of a new monograph revealing the Age of Information concept and its connections with information theory, signal processing and control theory. Sun collaborated with a research group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to produce the book, “Age of Information: A New Metric for Information Freshness.”

“Remote surgery is one example of the essentiality of the freshness of information that is needed in real time systems and networks,” Sun explained. “The robot is there with the patient, but the doctor is controlling the machine at a distance. The timely information about the real-time operation and robot arm are necessary for conducting a controlled, safe operation.”

Detailing the analytical tools and insightful results on the generation of information-update packets and the design of network protocols when forwarding the packets to its destinations, the 224-page book is centered around the Age of Information concept. The theory quantifies information freshness and provides an opportunity to improve the performance of real-time systems and networks. Sun notes the concept surrounding information freshness is necessary and present in real-world everyday situations. He describes the importance of information freshness, and the crucial role it plays in an intense setting like robotic surgery.

Although essential to modern technologies and everyday lives, information freshness is a newly developed concept. Sun has recognized the topic’s importance and founded the workshop, Age of Information Workshop, which is affiliated with a leading conference in the area of networking.

“It is very important to introduce the latest developments in the research community to our engineering students and show them how useful it is for right now and their future job,” Sun asserted.

“I am training graduate and undergraduate students to become future leaders in the field.”

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020-21 academic year looked different than normal. But our faculty, staff and students bought into Auburn’s health protocols, and as cases dropped and vaccinations increased, the college was able to introduce more in-person instruction and activities with appropriate precautions in place. The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering looks forward to returning to full capacity in the fall.

Michael Zabala, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, teaches a hyflex course that was available in person and online simultaneously.

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RESEARCH CENTERS Auburn Engineering is one of the nation’s top 50 institutions in research expenditures. Pioneering research is underway in our 21 research centers and dozens of labs across campus, focused on producing technology and innovation that will help drive economic growth while improving human life on a global scale. Read more about Auburn Engineering’s quality indicators in research on pages 10-11.

Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering

Center for Cyber and Homeland Security

McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security

Alabama Micro/Nano Science and Technology Center

Center for Microfibrous Materials

MRI Research Center

Alabama Transportation Assistance Program

Center for Polymers and Advanced Composites

Auburn University Detection and Food Safety Center

Cyber Research Center

National Center for Asphalt Technology

Erosion and Sediment Control Testing Facility

NextFlex Alliance - Harsh Environment Node

GPS and Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory

Occupational Safety, Ergonomics and Injury Prevention Center

Highway Research Center

Thomas Walter Center for Technology Management

Auburn University Transportation Research Institute Center for Advanced Vehicle and Extreme Environment Electronics Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts

Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Manufacturing Systems

National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence

Wireless Engineering Research and Education Center

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION LEADER TAPPED TO HEAD AUBURN UNIVERSITY TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE As the Southeast’s leader in transportation research and education, Auburn University took another step forward in 2021 with the formation of the Auburn University Transportation Research Institute and the hiring of national transportation leader Laurence Rilett as the institute’s inaugural director.

The institute will provide greater visibility and a shared identity for all transportation-related research and educational programs at the university. It will also foster continued growth and expansion of Auburn’s rich history in its transportation research programs, ranging from advanced roadway design, aviation systems, next generation vehicles and transportation related logistics.

In fiscal year 2020, Auburn Engineering’s centers and labs secured a combined total of more than $24 million in extramural funding for

Laurence Rilett

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transportation research, education and outreach efforts. This level of extramural funding for transportation is greater than any other single research topic on the Auburn campus.

“I am a big believer in multi-disciplinary research, and bringing all of Auburn University’s transportation-related research teams under one roof will position us to solve the complex challenges facing our nation’s multimodal transportation system and to educate the next generation of transportation professionals,” Rilett said.

Rilett comes to Auburn after having served as a distinguished professor of civil engineering and the Keith W. Klaasmeyer Chair in Engineering and Technology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as well as the director of the Mid-America Transportation Center and the Nebraska Transportation Center.

Listen to our podcast with Justin Marshall at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

ADVANCED STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY STRENGTHENS AUBURN’S CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL REPUTATION Auburn University strengthened its reputation as the premier destination for civil and envrionmental engineering research in 2020 by opening the doors on a $22 million state-of-the-art laboratory that will provide solutions to the nation’s growing infrastructure issues for years to come.

“The Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory is the next step in elevating Auburn University’s prestige,” said Auburn University President Jay Gogue. “It will allow for our exemplary faculty to find life-saving solutions to extreme events by creating more sound buildings, bridges, towers, pipelines and machinery that can withstand the forces of nature.

And the new Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory provides a unique, hands-on learning experience for our students.”

Located on the western edge of campus, the 42,000-square-foot Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory, or ASEL, includes a high bay laboratory with a strong wall and strong floor specially engineered to handle extreme structural testing loads; a geotechnical chamber within the strong floor; a concrete materials research and testing laboratory;

wind testing capabilities that can replicate hurricane-level loads; and faculty and graduate student spaces.

Due to its location, the university’s previous structural testing laboratory in the Harbert Center could only accommodate elements up to 40 feet in length. The new facility allows for elements up to 140 feet long.

Additionally, the new lab’s floor is twice as large and features anchor points that hold more than 10 times the load as the floor in the previous lab. The former structural laboratory in the Harbert Center will be repurposed for other academic and research use.

But the ASEL’s most unique feature may be the 4,700-cubic-foot geotechnical test chamber within the strong floor footprint — one of the few test chambers in the nation included in a university laboratory — that will allow the department’s geotechnical researchers to conduct testing on foundations, anchorages and towers previously only possible in the field.

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NEW FACULTY MEMBERS

Since 2015, Auburn Engineering has hired more than 100 new faculty members to bolster our growing research programs and educate the next generation of engineers. Learn about our newest faculty members here and find profiles of all our new faculty members dating back to 2015 at aub.ie/newENGFaculty.

SYMONE ALEXANDER Assistant Professor Chemical Engineering

Ph.D. Case Western Reserve University From fundamental understanding to materials design, Alexander’s research uses nature as inspiration to solve scientific problems related to toxin remediation, transport in complex environments and mechanics of biomaterials. By reverse-engineering biological systems, she strives to create high performance materials that are earth-friendly and sustainable.

REZA GHIAASIAAN Assistant Research Professor Mechanical Engineering

Ph.D. McMaster University, Canada Ghiaasiaan’s research is in additive manufacturing, focused on the characterization and the fatigue properties of various AM metallic alloys, such as nickel-based superalloys.

SUHASINI GURURAJA Associate Professor Aerospace Engineering

Ph.D. University of Washington Gururaja’s work explores issues at the intersection of advanced material property-structureperformance by leading intertwined research activities in areas of multi-scale damage development, progression and sustainable manufacturing of composites.

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MICHAEL HOWARD Assistant Professor Chemical Engineering

Ph.D. Princeton University Howard’s research applies modeling and computer simulations to design advanced soft materials, including coatings, composites and self-assembling nanomaterials.

UMBERTO SAETTI Assistant Professor Aerospace Engineering

Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University Saetti’s research focuses on modeling, simulation, order reduction and control of high-order models of the coupled flight dynamics, aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of aircraft, rotorcraft and biologically-inspired flying vehicles. These models are used for studies involving immersive simulations that make use of Extended Reality (XR), human-machine interaction, synthesis of advanced flight control laws, and development of innovative pilot cueing methods and algorithms.

NEK SHARAN

Assistant Professor Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne Sharan’s research focuses on development of computational methods and flow models for turbulent mixing, combustion and fluid-structure interaction simulations. He uses highperformance computing with parallel numerical algorithms to solve fundamental and engineering problems of interest in aerodynamics and propulsion.

SHIQIANG (NICK) ZOU Assistant Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Virginia Tech Zou’s research focuses on developing affordable and reliable engineering systems for wastewater treatment and resource extraction. He is passionate about transforming resource-intensive wastewater management into a resource-supplying hub towards a circular water economy.

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Auburn University Samuel Ginn College of Engineering Office of the Dean 1301 Shelby Center 1161 W. Samford Ave, Building 8 Auburn, AL 36849

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