Undergraduate Research
Engineering and computer science students continue to work with faculty to push research projects forward. Below is a sampling of the research projects that took place this past summer.
Fabrication and Characterization of Alumina Aerogels made via Rapid Supercritical Extraction - Michael Bono
Hometown: Clifton Park, New York
Class Year: 2009
Major: Mechanical Engineering Minor: Visual Arts
Research Advisor: Prof. Ann Anderson
Project Description:
Aerogels are a unique class of materials consisting of a porous network of molecules surrounded by air. They are the lightest solids on earth, and are used as insulators, catalysts, and support for chemical probes. In 2002 a new method to fabricate silica aerogels was developed at Union called Rapid Supercritical Extraction (RSCE). The goal of my research was to use the RSCE process to make aerogels with a matrix of alumina (aluminum oxide), the main component of rubies and aluminum ore. I then measured the properties of the Alumina aerogels and compared them to the silica aerogels made at Union and other alumina aerogels made elsewhere.
Photogrammetry of Bullfrog Hearts - Matthew Adams
Hometown: Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Class Year: 2009
Major: Mechanical Engineering Minor: Bioengineering
Research Advisor: Professor Ron Bucinell
Project Description:
The Purpose of this experiment was to study the strains and deformations of a bullfrog heart while beating. To do so, the ARAMIS photogrammetry system was used in conjunction with a pair of high speed cameras. High speed cameras recorded images of the heart beating, and the photogrammetry system used those images to calculate deformation and strain. In future research, a heart attack will be simulated with the bullfrogs and the resulting strains, and deformations will be studied. A pressure transducer will also be used to calculate the stresses on the heart.
Microfluidics: Slug Flow Project - Joseph Martel
Hometown: Unionville, Connecticut
Class Year: 2008
Major: Mechanical Engineering Minor: Psychology
Research Advisor: Professor Bruno (Mechanical Engineering)
Project Description:
There were two chapters to my summer research project. The first included modifying a setup and attempting to reveal the internal motion within slugs of fluid moving through a microchannel using PIV technology. This project is now in a state of readiness for more fine tuning and trouble shooting with the software being used. The second project was doing background research for my senior project which is to create a setup to measure shear stress in a microfluidic channel using liquid crystals. Over the next two terms I hope to create and use a new experimental apparatus and collect data using this liquid crystal technique for one and two phase flow through microchannels.
General Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units - Jan Novak
Hometown: Turnov, Czech Republic
Class Year: 2007
Major: Computer Science Minor: Computer Graphics
Research Advisor: Prof. Brendan Burns
Project Description:
General Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units is an area of Computer Science that is investigating the use of graphics cards for solving non-graphics, general purpose tasks. In other words, this research was focused on exploiting the possibilities of the modern Graphics Processing Units for simulating a computationally demanding particle system. Using the traditional technique of programming on the regular processors we could achieve only poor and insufficient results, whereas the great performance of the used graphics card allowed us to simulate the same system with higher accuracy and larger number of particles. We also summarized the results and the advantages and pitfalls of programming on the graphics cards in the final paper, which should help the others interested in this kind of programming.
Computer Model of Early Human Cognitive Development - Adam Sadilek
Hometown: Prague, Czech Republic
Class Year: 2008
Major: Computer Science
Research Advisor: Prof. Brendan Burns
Project Description:
We have addressed the problem of developing a general autonomous learning mechanism to allow an agent to achieve high accuracy in its prediction of the unknown features of objects. Being able to asses “what can I do with this object” and “what would be the effect of this action” is essential for the emergence of intelligent behavior and efficient planning. Ultimately, only interaction with objects can truly show how they behave when acted upon. Additionally, objects have a substantial set of attributes - such as mass, attachment, friction properties, or softness - whose values are virtually impossible to estimate based solely upon visual inspection. Without a good mental model, revealing these “hidden” attributes requires motor activity. However, physical manipulation is slow and dangerous in comparison to “just looking and thinking.” Therefore, noticing patterns in past experience and selecting objects for interactions intelligently can dramatically reduce the amount of actual experiments needed to achieve a given level of accuracy.
Visualization of Cascading Undo - Jan Vratislav
Hometown: Mzany, Czech Republic
Class Year: 2008
Major: Computer Science
Research Advisor: Prof. Aaron Cass, Prof. Chris Fernandes
Project Description:
We have proposed various ways how to replace current linear undo approach and researched several visualization of the new approach called cascading undo which allow to selectively undoing arbitrary action from history list without leaving the document in meaningless state.
Facial Emotion Recognition - Jaromir Horejsi
Hometown: Lisov, Czech Republic
Class Year: 2007
Major: Computer Science
Research Advisor: Shane Cotter
Project Description:
The goal of my research was to study and implement an algorithm, which would carry out facial emotion recognition, i.e. from a given picture of a human face the program extracts some important data and on the basis of the data it determines expressed emotion. I implemented and tested three different methods of facial emotion recognition and success rates of recognition were in all cases between 80% and 95%.
Development of an Undergraduate Engineering Design Textbook - Wendy Beatty
Hometown: Saratoga Springs, New York
Class Year: 2009
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Research Advisor: Professor Bill Keat
Project Description:
This summer I assisted Professor Keat in beginning work on a text concerning the engineering design process. The text will be aimed at undergraduate students, and will be designed to particularly assist those with little or no practical experience in the field. We set and completed the dual goals of taking an engineering design project from start to finish – to be used to in the text as an illustrative example – and of researching a chapter on creativity. In the future we hope to complete chapters on tools and their uses, manufacturing processes, brainstorming, and other useful subdivisions of design theory and practice.
Matinal Noesis - Ondrej Vrzal
Hometown: Brandys nad Labem, Czech republic
Class Year: 2007
Major: Electrical Engineering
Research Advisor: Professor Fernando Orellana
Project Description:
Aim of my summer research was to help Professor Fernando Orellana to realize his Matinal Noesis art electronic sculpture. The original idea was to create device, that would measure EEG signals of a person while dreaming and to use these signal to "draw dreams". My role in project was to build and EEG device and to make application that will measure the EEG signal and through the serial port send the measured data to parallax BS2 board. During work on the project and experience measuring EEG signals project idea was further evolving and was changed. Now the idea is in giving the life to robots using EEG.