Engineers' Forum April 2021

Engineers’ Forum APRIL 2021

VOLUME 42 NUMBER 2

VIRGINIA TECH’S PREMIER STUDENT-RUN ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

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Photo / Hayley Stout

On the Cover Goodwin Hall

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Hyperloop

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Human Powered Submarine

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Student Spotlight

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Ocean Energy

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Galipatia Engineering LLC

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Graduate School at VT

Engineers’ Forum | www.ef.org.vt.edu

Adeline Ghosh

Isabella Bartolome

Dianna Kim

Kashyap Bhatt

Jessica Barbish

Soumya Khanna

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to the April 2021 issue of Engineers’ Forum!

With the end of the spring semester fast approaching, our team is glad you picked up a copy of our magazine to read. In this issue, we have a wide variety of articles ranging from design teams who have adapted to the limitations of COVID-19 to addressing diversity within the College of Engineering (COE) to sharing insight about engineering graduate school. Enjoy.

Adeline Ghosh leads our magazine with a captivating article about Virginia Tech’s Hyperloop team and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s New Initiative.

Continuing our Ware Lab spotlight series, Isabella Bartolome showcases the Human Powered Submarine and how interested students can get involved.

Shifting from design teams to student spotlights, Dianna Kim highlights Tam Vu’s student project centered on simplifying skin care with her iOS app: Bare Skin.

Interested in a competition team that focuses on harvesting ocean energy as well as the business aspect of prototyping? Kashyap Bhatt writes about how the Ocean Energy Club is inventing the future.

Jessica Barbish captures the student experience and benefits as a member of the Galipatia engineering living learning community in Hoge Hall.

Lastly, Soumya Khanna wraps up the April issue with her piece on graduate school after interviewing Richard Tran, BS/MS computer science student, and Jake Viar, materials science and engineering MS student.

Lastly, congratulations to all the seniors graduating in May! The 2020-2021 school year has been challenging, and we continue to persevere. With incoming vaccinations and Virginia Tech’s plan to be fully in-person by fall 2021, we hope everyone continues to stay safe and obey COVID-19 guidelines.

Warm regards,

Julia A. Pimentel Editor-in-Chief

**Photos shown throughout this issue may have been taken prior to COVID-19 and Virginia Tech’s recommended best practices, including wearing masks, and social distancing.**

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Engineers’ Forum Editor-in-Chief Creative Director Chief Copy Editor Managing Editor Business Manager Social Media Manager Webmaster Writers

Photography Team

Design Team

Faculty Advisors

Julia A. Pimentel - Materials Science and Engineering (‘22) RJ Weaver - Industrial Design (‘22) Dianna Kim - Public Relations, Professional and Technical Writing (‘22) Alexander Petsopoulos - Aerospace Engineering (‘22) Soumya Khanna - Computer Science (‘21) Jessica Barbish - Mechanical Engineering (‘22) Hayley Stout - Industrial Design (‘22) Jessica Barbish - Mechanical Engineering (‘22) Isabella Bartolome* - Electrical Engineering (‘21) Kashyap Bhatt - Mechanical Engineering (‘22) Adeline Ghosh - General Engineering (‘24) Sumaiya Haque - Industrial Systems Engineering, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (‘23) Maaz Hasan - Mechanical Engineering (‘23) Soumya Khanna* - Computer Science (‘21) Alexander Petsopoulos - Aerospace Engineering (‘22) Julia A. Pimentel - Materials Science and Engineering (‘22) Meredith DePuy - General Engineering (‘24) Maaz Hasan - Mechanical Engineering (‘23) Sean Stroud - WIldlife Conservation (‘22) RJ Weaver - Industrial Design (‘22) Hayley Stout - Industrial Design (‘22) Sumaiya Haque - Industrial Systems Engineering, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (‘23) Linda Hazelwood Alex Parrish * Congratulations to our seniors!

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(Background) Parts from Randolph Hall Photo / Kendal Price

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Virginia Tech - Engineers’ Forum

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(1) Mountain Lake - Golden rays of sunset stretch out over the mountain lake wilderness.

(2) Frozen Cascades - Cascade Falls, favorite hike among many students at Virginia Tech, appears frozen after some intense winter weather.

(3) Golden Winter Sun - The evening sun strikes a lone tree standing out amongst a farm by the New River.

(4) NRV Snow - The late afternoon sun lights up a mountainside in the New River Valley after a fresh snowfall.

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YPERLOOP and VTTI’s New Initiative Article /

Adeline Ghosh (‘24)

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What is Hyperloop?

It’s best said by the Hyperloop at Virginia Tech that, “Hyperloop is a high-speed transportation system using a passenger-carrying pod in a near-vacuum tube that is envisioned to reach speeds in excess of 700 mph.”

This design team was started in 2015 when the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition was announced.

Hyperloop focused on creating a pod that would be able to transport through a straight track at a supersonic, but safe, speed. After this point, SpaceX decided to expand their competition track to include curves. This means that the Hyperloop pods will need to be able to change direction and break in intervals rather than just at the end point. After the competition was cancelled, due to COVID-19 and the track alteration, the VT Hyperloop design team started to shift into a research- based club so that they could focus on the application of hyperloop instead of just the competition.

Thanks to the space given to them by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), Hyperloop has been able to start a few different research projects.

Unfortunately, there are only 30 out of the 170 members participating in these projects, mostly because of the limitations that arose with COVID-19.

In terms of starting any new upcoming competitions, Hyperloop at VT has registered a team for the new Not-A-Boring international competition! Some of the requirements are that the tunnel boring machine has a diameter of 0.5m and can bore a tunnel of 30m long. The team will be making this completely from scratch and has already started designing using CAD software.

“The Diggeridoos,” Hyperloop at VT NotA-Boring International Competition team.

Photo / Hyperloop at VT.

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Dr. Zac Doerzaph, director of the division for vehicle drivers and safety systems at the VTTI.

What is the VTTI? As said by their website, the VTTI focuses on “advancing transportation through innovation and has affected public policy on national and international levels” (VTTI). One of their goals, as stated by Dr. Zac Doerzaph, director of the division for vehicle drivers and safety systems at the VTTI (one of four divisions), is “looking at how to make the next generation of sensing systems better so that automated vehicles and advanced driving systems are more capable.”

The VTTI has been working with students for as long as their institution has been running. The most common majors to be involved are Mechanical Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Civil Engineering.

Students can be involved in research that affects people on a day- to- day basis. Anne Deekens, VTTI Communication Manager, stated “we conduct ground transportation safety research. It’s focused on saving lives. We do research on a variety of different vehicle types. Most people think of cars but we also study trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, new cars, and scooters.”

Martin, a Virginia TechVT student and Hyperloop Design team leader, mentioned “We do not have projects with VTTI but are working within it for the same goals.”

Anne Deekens, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute Communication Manager.

Students can get more involved by conducting or participating in different tasks within research. For example, analyzing data or working on a project for a thesis, if you are a graduate student. This can help them to “fill in part of the academic experience which is often neglected, by giving them hands-on, mindson opportunities where students are working with hardware and software directly” (Doerzaph). They usually focus on topics like machine learning, automated vehicle systems, and how to make interactions of public services safe (EMS, police, first responders, work zones). Students also get to participate in lab studies and use smart road technology, which is the kind of “experience that allows them to interact with industries that would potentially hire them in the future” (Doerzaph).

About the initiative and how to get involved: The initiative is a strategic partnership between the VTTI, Hyperloop at VT, and Internhub. The VTTI, as Dr. Doerzaph mentioned, wants to launch something meaningful into the “research enterprise that is Hyperloop. It’s a small but growing industry with a lot of promise to offer.” There a lot of transportation problems that remain unsolved so by working with Hyperloop, they can channel their “expertise into bringing that industry into fruition and creating solutions that may help offset some our environmental and safety challenges which can be potentially improved through hyperloop if its appropriately developed and deployed correctly” (Doerzaph). This initiative is really about “leveraging resources together and launching a significant research enterprise surrounded around the Hyperloop topical area” (Doerzaph).

To get into what the student perspective of Interhub would look like, they would be able to Josie Martin, a Virginia Tech student and Hyperloop get more experience Design Team Leader. than a regular student.

Deekens talked about an example where “students went to Michigan to Continental’s headquarters and were trained by engineers on driverless shuttle technology (automated driver systems). They then came back to Virginia Tech at the start of the fall semester and continued that internship, but at Virginia Tech instead.” To put this into perspective, these internships can last anywhere from six months to two years while regular internships usually take place during the summer time.

Overall, the purpose of the initiative is to not only work with students but to “explore and find partnerships with industry. We are actively seeking industry members to be a part of the exciting relationship they are bringing together,” as Dr. Doerzaph said.

What does the future look like?

For Hyperloop at VT, there’s a hope to have their club be more evenly split between research with the VTTI as well as participating in competitions. Martin mentioned that they have a “vision for the Hyperloop team to have a research side to focus on technology as well as implementation, so what routes make sense and what would be possible based on where people and cargo travel right now.” They’d also like to involve more of their team members.

Overall, Hyperloop and the VTTI would like to expand and further develop their initiative so they can progress their journey in the supersonic transportation industry.

The 2019 Hyperloop at Virginia Tech SpaceX Competition pod with team.

Photo / Erica Corder.

Looking at Hyperloop at VT, they will be reaching out to companies and completing research projects while under the administration of the VTTI. As Josie Volume 42, No. 2

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WARE LAB SERIES: HUMAN POWERED SUBMARINE Article /

Isabella Bartolome (‘21)

What is your name, major, and role?

Corral: My name is Audrie Corral and I am the President of the Human Powered Submarine Team (HPS).

I am a senior majoring in materials science engineering.

Hersh: My name is Gillian Hersh and I am the Vice President of the Human Powered Submarine Team. I am a senior majoring in aerospace engineering.

What is Human Powered Submarine?

Hersh: HPS is a design team based out of the Ware Lab and we are tasked with building a human-powered submarine, which is an underwater craft that can be pedaled like a bicycle. We have two-year design cycles, so we spend one year designing and one year building, and then we have a competition every two years. The goal of that competition is to ultimately have the fastest and best-performing human-powered submarine.

All photos provided by the Human Powered Submarine team.

Why should students get involved with HPS and what are some of the benefits of being on the team?

Corral: Students should join HPS because we welcome students of all experience levels and all majors.

You can be useful to the team no matter what background you have. We emphasize the learning aspect of design and manufacturing, and that’s what drew me to HPS in the first place.

Hersh: It’s a rare thing to do something in the College of Engineering where you’re part of the process from conception through testing and competition, so it’s really cool that you can be part of that twice within the time that you’re here for our submarine. Joining HPS is a great way to get some real-world engineering experience and work on a big team, and it also allows everyone to be a part of the entire process rather than just one singular part.

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Corral: Everybody and the work that they do is driven by pure passion for the project and the people on the team. We do the project for each other as much as for wanting to complete the project, so that creates an atmosphere that you wouldn’t get with senior design teams. We’re more exploratory in what we pursue and in the way that we go about completing our project. Our project is also very unique; you’re not going to find anybody else making a submarine!

How can students get involved with HPS? Hersh: If you are in Hypatia or Galileo, they take you to the CEED O-Show where every single engineering organization goes and sets up a little booth; it’s a mini Gobblerfest but just for engineering. We also go to Gobblerfest and this year, we had an online information session.

Corral: We will go to any of the fairs that happen in the beginning of the school year and try to get people to sign up. Then we hold the information session and that’ll lead you to an application. Once the application period ends, we review all the application materials and decide who to interview. Then, you are interviewed and if we decide to accept you, you are free to start working.

Hersh: Our application has a variety of questions.

We ask people about their technical backgrounds, what they think they would be interested in when working on the team, and we always ask them a design question. The design question might ask students to design a buoy, a cart, or some sort of electronic system for the submarine. If you put effort into your design question and the others in general, that would lead you into getting an interview. We also ask how you work with others. We take a lot of focus on these questions to see if you’re willing to be a team member.

Corral: During interviews and when deciding who should join HPS, I’m looking for self-starters, meaning if you initiate projects, how motivated you are,

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and how much hand-holding you’d need to be able to get work done.

Do you have to be a specific major or grade to join?

Hersh: Most of our members are ocean or aerospace engineering majors, but we don’t require you to be either of those things. I think HPS is a project that appeals to those majors more so than others, but we still have had quite a few electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and other majors on the team.

We’ve had people come onto our team that were seniors, but primarily freshmen and sophomores are the ones looking to join.

Corral: We emphasize that anyone and everybody can be valuable to the team, and the reason why that is is because that was made very clear to me when I first joined. I was trying to find which design team I would be useful to and HPS recruited me. During my freshman year, the president was also a materials science engineer, so I was able to relate to him and he was able to tell me how he’s been useful to the team.

What is the design/competition process for HPS? Hersh: We have a two-year design cycle. Usually, the first year focuses on designing and prototyping the submarine systems and getting a hull at least partially made. The second year is fully dedicated to manufacturing the current sub with a little bit of time given to think about the design of the next sub. At the end of year two in the summer, we go to the International Submarine Races, a competition that’s sponsored by Booz Allen and held at Carderock, a navy base in Maryland. There are five days of racing and there’s usually anywhere between 17 and 22 other submarines. It’s an international competition. We have teams coming from different places in Europe and there’s another team from Mexico, so it’s cool that this race is available internationally. At the end

of the races, they have a little awards ceremony and then we get right back into building the next sub.

Corral: We’re also testing throughout that whole two-year process. We do at least two pool tests a semester and we’ve also done a quarry test in the past, which is an open water test. This year, our competition has been switched to a virtual format and it’s going to consist of mostly report writing. There is a real-time problem-solving challenge that they are going to present to us in June.

Hersh: We made the executive decision that we’re going to continue our normal design process as we would under normal circumstances. We are allowed into the Ware Lab and we obviously have very strict COVID guidelines, but most of the team has been comfortable continuing work on the sub. We’ve decided to proceed like we are going to have a competition with a submarine at the end of the year because that helps us not get behind, and it boosts team morale. Also, two years down the line, Virginia Tech could take two submarines to the races: this one that we’re currently making and a new one.

What is the best thing/favorite moment you have gotten out of HPS?

Corral: Back in April of 2019, we really needed our control surfaces to be made for a pool test that was scheduled for a Saturday, so we were on a super tight timeline. The casting process for those control surfaces involves waiting for them to cure, so we ended up sleeping overnight at the Ware Lab. Somebody was actually in the submarine sleeping and someone else was on the lab table, so that was a really fun night.

Hersh: I have always really enjoyed the company of everybody on the team. Everybody is really cool and we get along well! Competition was one of my favorite times because we were able to bond really well with each other. Competition could’ve been really stressful, but we made it not so, which was awesome and I really appreciated it.

Any last thoughts for potential team members?

Corral: Join HPS! We would love to have you.

Hersh: I second that! Whether you join HPS or not, don’t be afraid to join a design team. It’s so much fun, you make lifelong friends, and you get pretty intense hands-on experiences that you probably wouldn’t get in class.

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Student Spotlight: Simplifying Skincare with Bare Skin Article /

Dianna Kim (‘22)

Although skincare has always been a self-care essential for skincare veterans, it has recently crept into the lives of many during COVID-19 as the “next big thing” during lockdown. However, unlike many other quarantine fads, skincare is here to stay. Backed by intense research conducted by industry experts, skincare involves science more than many might think.

For example, many products contain active ingredients that may clash with other formulas, balancing pH levels within products is a necessity, and different chemical acids are becoming a popular skin-refining option. The partnership between science and skincare is certainly fascinating for seasoned skincare enthusiasts. This can quickly become overwhelming for beginners, however, especially in terms of tracking and managing the various steps of skincare.

The solution?

Enter Tam Vu, a Virginia Tech sophomore majoring in computer science. Vu, along with her two teammates, developed a skincare habit tracker iOS app called Bare Skin at HackViolet in January. Hackathons are a great way for all students, regardless of major, to pitch new and innovative ideas that serve to solve problems, create solutions, and improve the already-existing. These events are also a prime example of student collaboration as teams work towards producing a final project that all members can be proud of.

Tam Vu, the mastermind behind Bare Skin, a skincare habit tracker app. Photo / Tam Vu HackViolet, formerly known as SheHacksVT, is “a 24-hour female-empowerment hackathon open to all genders, majors, and backgrounds” (HackViolet).

In fact, it was Vu’s very first hackathon! “I had never been to a hackathon before, and I originally just wanted to go to spectate and attend the workshops,” Vu said. “After joining the Discord and realizing how many other people were beginners, I got inspired to join for the heck of it and for the experience.”

It didn’t take long for Vu to devise a charming, yet simple concept for her team’s mobile app idea. “I

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Bare Skin’s pitch graphic describing the inspiration behind the app and its exciting features. Graphic / Tam Vu

honestly love bears, and thought the pun was adorable,” Vu explained. “I pitched it to my team, and they loved it! I started conceptualizing the bear and theme, and thus Bare Skin was born.”

Bare Skin prides itself on being a user-friendly skincare habit tracker app that Vu and her teammates developed to inspire and encourage healthy skincare habits among all users. Inspired by Vu’s love of bears, Bare Skin features a cute and customizable bear character that cheers users on throughout their skincare journey. As Vu likes to put it, your personal skincare bear “never stops believing in you, spouts skincare facts, and offers an incentive to complete your skincare routine every day, morning, and night!”

The paramount feature of Bare Skin is the routine checklist, which allows users to track the completion of their skincare routines on a morning and night basis. Skincare routines can differ drastically depending on skin type, environmental factors, and even stress levels, so Bare Skin makes it easy for users to input their personalized routines within the app. Users can even build “streaks” by regularly logging their skincare routines every morning and night. Not only do

longer streaks ensure a happier skincare bear, but it also allows users to earn coins to buy accessories for their bear!

The app also showcases a community page feature that empowers users to further educate themselves by reading articles and posts about a plethora of skincare topics from combatting dry skin to beginner skincare tips. On this community page, users can save articles, comment on posts published by other community members, and even create their own posts!

Vu and her team created Bare Skin using a variety of creative programs and structural languages. The app’s memorable logo, clean design, and lovable icons were created in Adobe Illustrator. Initially, the team envisioned Bare Skin as an Android app, but with the departure of a teammate who had experience in coding Android apps, the team had to quickly adapt to their remaining skillsets. As a result, the team switched gears and began coding the webbased version of Bare Skin using HTML/CSS. Finally, the app was successfully prototyped and wireframed in Figma as an iOS app.

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Bare Skin includes a routine checklist feature allowing users to track the completion of their skincare steps. Graphic / Tam Vu

Given the unique format of HackViolet due to COVID-19, many participants found and formed their teams virtually from around the globe. “I found my team through messaging people on Discord, and we began working together that night,” Vu said. “One of the girls was from Nigeria, and the other was from Europe.” With Vu’s team consisting of members from three different time zones, it became clear that communication and organization would be instrumental in Bare Skin’s success. “It was difficult to coordinate,” Vu recalled. “But after a long, sleepless night and day, we managed to make it work!”

The team’s long 24-hours of coding, designing, and prototyping ultimately paid off as they received the fruit of their arduous labor. Bare Skin won first place in the Best Self-Care Hack category that was sponsored by Estee Lauder Companies.

Moving forward, the team behind Bare Skin is striving to push changes within the app to boost user engagement

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and experience! These updates include more customization options and the gamification of the skincare bear to allow for a more interactive experience!

Users can also look forward to a weather database linking system that will improve notification customization and enable reminders (such as reminding users to reapply sunscreen more frequently on sunnier days). Lastly, Bare Skin hopes to inspire inclusivity within the skincare community by making the app more accessible for all users to include text-to-audio features and color blindness support.

Whether you are a STEM student or a coding newbie, hackathons act as a bridge between the competitors, their ideas, and learning crucial skills. “My favorite part about participating in HackViolet was definitely meeting my teammates and internationally collaborating,” Vu said. “I also learned a lot about time management, rapid prototyping, and honestly just how to participate in hackathons.” The next time you find yourself sparked by an idea, consider competing in an upcoming hackathon — you might just be able to build something amazing.

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Graphic / Hayley Stout

Inventing the Future

OCEAN ENERGY Article /

Kashyap Bhatt (‘22)

Energy is all around us. The phones we use, the stove in our kitchen, and even the engines in our car require different kinds of energy to run. While society as a whole has advanced leaps and bounds over the years, so has our energy consumption. No matter what part of the world we come from, no matter what our political standpoint is, no matter our level of education, we can all agree that our planet is going towards a path of a global energy crisis. One of the largest challenges facing our generation is upgrading and creating new and reliable renewable energy sources that can satisfy our current energy consumption needs. While there are several different clean energy forms like wind turbines, hydroelectric dams, and even nuclear power plants, these technologies have limitations that make them unsuitable as our primary source of energy.

With the advancement in science and technology, a new kind of energy known as “marine energy” has emerged and has shown immense potential. 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water and marine energy utilizes the waves to create energy in the form of electricity. To contribute to the field and spread knowledge about it to the population, a group of motivated students started an Ocean Energy Club at Virginia Tech.

Upon talking to Duncan Lambert, a senior at Virginia Tech majoring in mechanical engineering who is

currently a member of the club and a team lead for one of the ongoing projects, I discovered insightful information.

What does the Ocean Energy Club and its members do?

The members of the Ocean Energy Club take part in the annual Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC) hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The competition aims to not only make a small-scale appliance that has functionality and can harvest energy but also has marketability for future large-scale production.

Ocean Energy Club is different from a traditional engineering club in that we focus equally on the engineering as well as the production and business side of our prototype. Marine energy is a relatively new and budding technology and to bring more people together to support our cause, we must promote new concepts to reach more numbers. We not only have members from engineering, but also business and marketing. Having a multidisciplinary team from all majors is one of the mission statements of our club because we aim to make marine energy a viable energy source for the future. We believe that to positively impact our future, we need a blend of effective engineering and a sustainable business model.

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with students and faculties from different universities. Apart from the technical knowledge, I was able to learn how to operate as a multi-campus team which was an enriching experience for me. Our faculty advisors, Dr. Lei Zuo from Virginia Tech and Dr. M. Khalid Jawed from UCLA, have extensive experience in the field. Dr. Zuo is the director of the Center of Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems (CEHMS), an NSF-funded industry consortium with sites in Virginia Tech, Columbia University, and Penn State University. Learning from one of the best in the field and interacting with them gave me immeasurable work experience in terms of ethics and knowledge. Additionally, getting to work alongside students from different states in the U.S. and countries like China and India was a new experience for me.

How does the technology work?

Dr. Lei Zuo. Director of the CEHMS lab.

Photo / Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering website

What made you interested in joining the club? What are some of the benefits of joining?

Apart from learning about the technology, what made me interested in joining the club was the opportunity to share information about marine energy with the students of Virginia Tech. We are always looking for young and bright minds to come and work together.

We are currently collaborating with UCLA for the annual MECC competition. This allowed me to work

A device that harvests wave power is widely known as a wave energy converter (WEC). There are dozens of different types of WECs that have been developed and used for various applications. Furthermore, the primary component of a WEC is the power take-off mechanism or PTO. The PTO is a system that converts one form of electricity to another.

The primary goal of research in the field of ocean energy is either optimization of existing WEC designs, the invention of new WEC designs, or application of existing WEC technology to new markets. For this project, we largely fall under the first and third categories of trying to optimize an existing WEC concept while also applying it to an optimal market.

Specifically, the type of WEC that our team is re-

Existing laboratory and bench testing for MHK power take-off and systems at Virginia Tech.

Photo / Duncan Lambert

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CAD design highlighting the bidirectional heave motion.

Photo / Duncan Lambert

searching is a variation of the common point absorber WEC. A point absorber WEC is one that simply converts the bidirectional heave motion of a buoy/structure relative to a base structure into usable electricity. Our research involves removing the base structure and instead relying on the relative motion of an internal mass to generate electricity. This can be referred to as an internal two-body, point absorber WEC. The figure below highlights the motion conversion process of the PTO mechanism.

The process starts with the bidirectional heave motion of the outer buoy structure. This motion then causes the relative motion of the internal mass suspended on springs. As this internal mass oscillates, it drives a belt, resulting in bidirectional belt motion.

Finally, this belt drives a pulley which creates bidirectional rotational motion of a shaft. This shaft is then used to power a generator. The key factors that need to be considered with this design include the mass of the internal body, the mass of the buoy, and the K value of the springs. Ideally, the optimization of all these terms will result in a highly efficient WEC.

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The Galipatia

Engineering Living Learning Community

Article /

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Jessica Barbish (‘22)

Engineers’ Forum | www.ef.org.vt.edu

The Galipatia Living Learning Community (LLC) is one of many communities within the residential halls that freshmen can apply to join. This particular LLC is designed for engineering students at Virginia Tech to help them adjust to college life and prepare them for a successful transition into their careers. When students join, they are mentored by one of the many upperclassmen within Galipatia for their first ten weeks. Galipatia resides within Hoge Hall and offers both study lounges and a studio! After freshman year, students can choose to remain within the community as upperclassmen to help share their experiences with the community.

What has been your experience within the Galipatia Living Learning Community?

Jessica Barbish: Mentor Liaison for Galipatia

My name is Amber Clauss and I am a sophomore in industrial and systems engineering at Virginia Tech. I am currently a Galipatia mentor and a Stable Minds Initiative (SMI) committee member. Being a part of this community has given me a better understanding of all engineering fields and fostered an atmosphere for deeper connections with my fellow engineers and lifelong friends.

I attribute many of the skills I have developed to the people of this community. The people I interact with are excellent at providing opportunities for my personal growth while maintaining a guiding presence when I need encouragement. The general personality of a student in Galipatia is deeply empathetic, supportive, and intelligent. In my freshman year, one of my now closest friends spent two hours trying to help me fix my laptop when, at the time, he barely knew me. In short, this community has created a place for me to grow, accomplish, and connect with others. I am so thankful for the people that contribute to the atmosphere in the building we call home.

My Experience Within the Galipatia Living Learning Community

As a freshman, I enjoyed being around other female engineers who could relate to me. The community helped me form connections and strong friendships with those around me. I was able to use the resources to help me adapt to college life and find my way during freshman year.

As a mentor, I got to connect closely with four women and watch as they discovered their way in college.

I learned how important each role within the community is and decided to stay on as a mentor liaison to start giving back all the care and assistance that I was given in my first two years at college. There is something for everyone who may want to join. It has become a place that I can always come back to as the people have become a second home.

Amber Clauss Photo / Amber Clauss

My name is Jessica Barbish and I am a junior in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. I am currently one of the GLT (Galipatia Leadership Team) who help to organize the underclassmen within Galipatia.

More specifically, I am a mentor liaison. The mentor liaison is in charge of a group of mentors who check in on their progress with their mentees and assist them with anything complex.

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What is DeAnna Katey’s background?

DeAnna has an extensive background involving education and mentoring programs. She got her B.S. in Secondary Education Social Studies at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. She also got her Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction at Clarion and her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration at Morgan State University. At Morgan State University, DeAnna was a resident director for two male dormitories, one of which was focused on engineering students. She eventually left Morgan and worked as an assistant director of residential life at the University of Kentucky. Deanna then traveled to Michigan and worked for first-year experience. Finally, DeAnna Katey has her current role as the Director of Undergraduate Programs.

DeAnna Katey: Director of Undergraduate Programs at Virginia Tech

We also interviewed the new Director of the Undergraduate Programs at Virginia Tech, DeAnna Katey.

She took over Galipatia about two weeks before the onset of COVID-19 on March 2, 2019.

What inspired DeAnna to come work at Virginia Tech and lead Galipatia?

DeAnna’s passions lied with living learning communities and she was pursuing a job that allowed her to help freshmen. When she first came upon the application for the job, she was thrilled by the opportunities it offered her. DeAnna liked the idea of working with engineers who held a strong academic focus. As she learned more during her interview, she realized that Virginia Tech was where she wanted to go to fulfill her wishes of working with first-year students.

What is DeAnna’s favorite thing about Galipatia?

DeAnna’s favorite thing about Galipatia is that Hoge Hall is completely filled with the community. She loves that the building can contain 800 students and has a small makerspace. DeAnna also loves seeing how many students want to give back to Galipatia and return as upperclassmen, GLT, and even graduate assistants.

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Studio 1

The CNC machines in the lab.

How has COVID-19 affected DeAnna and her plans for Galipatia?

Creations made in the studio using a CNC machine!

COVID-19 has had a huge influence in restricting what needs to be done within Galipatia. DeAnna’s originally easy transition became hard given that the college went into quarantine two weeks into her starting her job. After everything went virtual, many of the events normally held in-person were canceled and still may not happen. However, DeAnna hopes that going into her second year at Virginia Tech, she will be able to hold many of the greatly missed in-person events.

Where does DeAnna see Galipatia in the future?

DeAnna would like to see Galipatia continue to grow and eventually have an even split between males and females. She would also like to expand the Invents studio space and find a way to give scholarships for the community and the leadership roles within the LLC.

Why should freshmen join the LLC according to DeAnna?

She would have liked to see such a helpful program when she was an undergraduate student. The program is a great way to connect with others. Galipatia isn’t a one size fits all and has a gathering of people coming from various backgrounds. Having a diverse community allows for everyone to feel welcome and learn from each other.

Some final words from Deanna “It’s a great opportunity and everyone should apply and it’s a good way to meet people. Even if you can’t join Galipatia, you can still be a part of the CEED family and you can ask for help.”

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Virginia Tech

GRADUATE SCHOOL

Article /

Soumya Khanna (‘21)

Have you thought about applying to graduate school? If not, you might want to consider it after reading this article.

The College of Engineering provides graduate students the opportunities to excel in their careers while exploring their research interests through doctoral and master’s degree programs and a breadth of research centers and labs. Currently, the College of Engineering offers 15 doctoral and 17 master’s degree programs in 18 areas of study.

Undergraduate students can also begin to earn graduate credit with the Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Degree Program. The Accelerated Master’s Degree Program is for Virginia Tech undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing graduate studies at Virginia Tech. Richard Tran, BS/MS student in computer science tells us about his experience at Virginia Tech.

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What should a prospective student in your program expect?

Prospective students should expect more in terms of both workload and research opportunities. The accelerated BS/MS program offers a plethora of opportunities to foster one’s growth and expand one’s knowledge and experience in research through both graduate classes and being a GTA or GRA (Graduate Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant respectively). Students are saving one entire year of education, compared to a normal two-year master’s degree, which is a lot of money and hours conserved.

Overall, prospective students should expect opportunities to advance their knowledge in their respective research areas to make themselves stand out much greater than they would if they did not pursue a master’s from different applicants for jobs.

Could you tell us about your experience so far?

The difficulty of graduate courses has taken me some time to get used to. Especially for the first couple graduate classes you take, you must learn how to balance that alongside your undergraduate classes, research, and extracurriculars, which can prove challenging as the time you spend on graduate course assignments tend to be much greater than those of undergraduate courses. For my specific research area, I needed to learn the concepts and applications in deep learning, so my thesis advisor pushed me to take the CS deep learning class without even having taken its prerequisite classes.

“It has challenged me in many ways, but working hard to understand the concepts to be able to apply them into my research has been extremely rewarding.”

- Richard Tran

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Richard Tran

It even motivates me to try harder in this class to be able to utilize more concepts in my research.

Student-Faculty interaction The student-faculty interaction varies depending on the advisor. Different thesis advisors have different styles of managing their students, as they are also caught up with their own work as well. I have the pleasure of working with Dr. Chandan Reddy to use machine/deep learning concepts for healthcare applications. He has advised me on what classes to take for my specific research interest, allowed me to help one of his Ph.D. candidates, Ping Wang, on her research project to expose me to this research field, and also given me an outline of what milestones he expects me to achieve in order to graduate spring 2022 on time with my MS degree.

Research opportunities The amount and quality of research opportunities available to you are only as great as how many you are proactively searching for. Make sure you are subscribed to the graduate student mailing list to stay up to date with all CS graduate news including seminars/talks from professors and guest speakers, GRA openings, and other research breakthroughs and other opportunities.

What are some advice and tips that you would give to interested students?

• •

•

Maintain a good GPA (at least a 3.5).

Participate in undergraduate research or independent study to not only increase the chances of you getting accepted, but to also help you determine what you want to do in graduate school so you can make the most out of this opportunity.

Talk to potential professors you would like to work with based on their research areas, personality, management styles, and current projects.

Jake Viar Jake Viar, an MS student in Material Science and Engineering, shares his experience of being a graduate student.

What should a prospective student in your program expect?

Students coming into the MS program in MSE should expect to treat graduate school like a job. Students should expect to work hard and take their graduate degrees seriously.

Virginia Tech Graduate School Photo / Hunain Ali Shamsi

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“Successful students take the initiative to actively reach out to other collaborate and look for opportunities to further the impact of their research.”

- Jake Viar

Research opportunities My experience with research opportunities has been unique. I’ve had the opportunity to work in three labs: the DREAMS lab where I work primarily with additive manufacturing technologies, the Hume Cen-

ter which has a strong EE and ECE focus, and the advanced composites lab in the ESM Department.

All three of these areas were new to me when I first became a graduate student. Fortunately, as a member of the MEEP program through the Hume Center, I had a lot of flexibility when I chose my thesis topic.

What are some advice and tips that you would give to interested students?

Being in graduate school allows studying one particular subject very intensely. However, it is important to always stay curious and remain teachable even as you become an expert in your field. Additionally, there will be many times where you find yourself in a seminar or in a talk that might not be particularly relevant to your work, but pay attention always.

Arguably the true value of the graduate school is being able to think deeply and critically across many domains. One final piece of advice that I would offer is to make sure that you write often, read often, and manage your time efficiently. Time management is fundamental.

We also heard some important information about the Ph.D. student experience in the department of chemical engineering from an anonymous student.

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What should a prospective student in your program expect?

The department of chemical engineering organizes research presentations where professors who are interested in taking newly admitted Ph.D. students in their research groups present their research. New Ph.D. students meet at least three professors in the department to decide the research group they want to join. Then, the student decides the projects to work on with his or her advisor. The student is expected to publish research papers in reputed journals to showcase the results achieved in the Ph.D. journey.

Student-Faculty interaction I meet with my advisor every week to discuss the progress in the research projects, get his feedback and decide next steps involved in the project. The purpose of a PhD is to make a person an independent researcher. Therefore, the student in later stages of the program is expected to be more independent in his PhD journey compared to the initial years in the program. Apart from the advisor, I developed better interaction with the faculties whose courses I took or professors I assisted in teaching. Faculties helped me when I approached them during office hours or when I needed to discuss problems related to research.

Students can figure out whether they like experimental research or computational research.

Students should also think about what they want to do after their Ph.D. since job opportunities are different for different areas of research.

- Anonymous

Since a Ph.D. takes 4-6 years one should be selfmotivated to do research.

Research opportunities Faculties at Virginia Tech are working in various areas of chemical engineering for example polymers, colloids, surface chemistry, biomedical, catalysis, and machine learning. Virginia Tech provides a great resource for using the instruments and computational software for research. I chose to work on a project related to the impact of surface topography on the motility of bacteria after discussing it with senior graduate students and Dr. William Ducker.

What are some advice and tips that you would give to interested students?

Interested students should expose themselves to research projects in various areas during undergraduate studies so that they can decide the area or nature of work that suits them.

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