Tufts University School Engineering Top Stories

	Nan Yi Wins Student Award from the Materials Research Society Nan Yi, a chemical and biological engineering graduate student in Professor Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos' Nano Catalysis & Energy Laboratory (NanoCel), received the Graduate Student Silver Award from the Materials Research Society (MRS). This award is "intended to honor and encourage graduate students whose academic achievements and current materials research display a high level of excellence and distinction." Nan is the first Tufts graduate student to win this award.
	Matt Panzer Wins Grant from Massachusetts Clean Energy Center The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) named Matt Panzer, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, as one of several researchers to receive a grant under the MassCEC Catalyst Program, which supports the commercialization of game-changing clean energy. Panzer will use the MassCEC funding to build an ionogel-based supercapacitor device prototype and to assess its energy storage and delivery capabilities.
	Fiorenzo Omenetto Named OSA Fellow Fiorenzo Omenetto, professor of biomedical engineering, was named a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) for contributions in ultrafast nonlinear optics, photonic crystal fibers and for pioneering the development of silk optical applications and silk-based photonic structures and devices.
	Reversing a Birth Defect The work of biomedical engineer Catherine K. Kuo could advance the treatment of orthopedic deformities before a baby is born. Clubfoot, one of the most common orthopedic birth defects in the United States, affects more than 4,000 newborns each year. Exactly what goes wrong in these tendons is still unclear, but Catherine K. Kuo is trying to figure that out by studying how they form in a developing embryo.
	Fresh Water for Shilongo Thanks to some enterprising undergraduates involved in Engineers Without Borders (EWB), the village of Shilongo has a water storage tank that holds up to a full day’s supply of clean drinking water for all 800 villagers. Instead of pumping the water by hand, a pump powered by a stationary bicycle gets the work done faster—with a dash of fun for the kids who usually do the pedaling.
	Diane Souvaine Named ACM Fellow On Dec. 8, 2011, Professor Diane Souvaine was named a ACM Fellow for contributions to computational geometry and for service on behalf of the computing community
	Eric Miller Elevated to IEEE Fellow Professor Eric Miller has been named an IEEE Fellow for contributions to inverse problems and physics-based signal and image processing. In his Lab for Imaging Science Research Miller's research methods are applied to a range of problems associated with environmental and medical sensing. In the environmental space, he is working closely with Professor Linda Abriola and Assistant Professor Andrew Ramsburg in the development of processing methods for the characterization of regions of subsurface contamination based on hydrological as well as geophysical data sets. In the biomedical imaging field, Miller has been looking at statistically driven geometric image segmentation methods to help doctors better understand MRI images.
	Panetta Wins Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring On Nov. 15, 2011, President Obama named Karen Panetta, Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, among nine individuals and eight organizations recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. The award recognizes the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering—particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in these fields.
	Deadly Predictions Researchers, including Research Associate Professor Robert Peattie in biomedical engineering and Associate Professor Luis Dorfmann in civil and environmental engineering are building flexible models to calculate the odds that potentially fatal abdominal aneurysms will rupture.
	Auspicious Beginnings On a sunny matriculation day, we welcomed our largest and most selective undergraduate class in our school's history—223 undergraduates were received as the newest SOE Jumbos by our new President, Anthony Monaco. We also welcomed our largest graduate cohort ever, including 51 entering Ph.D. students, at our first formal graduate matriculation ceremony.
	Let Your Life Speak Freshman applications were up by more than 13 percent this year, representing the fifth consecutive record-breaking applicant pool. The undergraduate Class of 2015 includes a computer engineer from Providence who rock climbs while blindfolded and a computer whiz from New York City who has already developed 30 iPhone and iPad apps that have been downloaded over 2 million times! Watch Undergraduate Dean Lee Coffin welcome the Class of 2015.
	Rubik's Cube's Math Secret Andrew Winslow, EG14, a doctoral student in theoretical computer science, and a group of Boston-area researchers decided to figure out how a computer might most efficiently solve the Rubik's cube—and not just the standard one with three squares per row, but ones with up to 17 squares per row. They came up with some surprising findings that relate to real-world problems.
	An Engineering GEM Through participation in the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, or GEM Consortium, Tufts grants fellowships to highly qualified students from underrepresented groups to pursue their graduate degrees. Ninrat Datiri joins Tufts University School of Engineering as the first GEM Fellow.
	What's the best web browser to use? Ming Chow, E02, EG04, a lecturer in computer science, reveals his favorite web browser. In his class on web development, students use and develop for all browsers, not just one. But for web browsing, he suggests going with Google Chrome. Find out why.
	A Window on Research As part of the Leadership Alliance program, Tufts engineering faculty and grad students host Morehouse College undergrads who are tracking Twitter trends and using brain imaging technologies to explore human cognition.
	A Less Painful Colonoscopy Scientists and engineers are continually researching new methods of screening to reduce patient discomfort while also ensuring the accuracy of a colonoscopy exam. Researchers at the School of Engineering led by Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Caroline G.L. Cao, have developed a device that could potentially do both. Tufts endoscopic fiber optic shape tracker (EFOST) technology is a possible solution to the problem that occurs when the endoscope is inserted into the colon during routine screening.
	Dr. Charles Vest to Deliver Commencement Address Dr. Charles M. Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering and president emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will deliver Tufts University's commencement address on Sunday, May 22, 2011. Dr. Vest will receive an honorary doctorate from Tufts and will join the engineering ceremonies for the hooding of doctoral candidates and the presentation of graduate degrees.
	Tufts Seniors Join the Order of the Engineer In early May, our Tufts engineers participated in the Order of the Engineer ceremony spearheaded by our Engineering Student Council. The Order of the Engineer was initiated in the United States to foster a spirit of pride and responsibility in the engineering profession, to bridge the gap between training and experience, and to present to the public a visible symbol—a ring worn on the fifth finger of an engineer's writing hand. The ring acts as a reminder to act ethically in engineering practice. More than sixty engineers participated in the ceremony, including 55 graduating seniors.
	Flexible, Rolling Robot Copies Caterpillar's Escape Mechanism Tufts researchers designed a robot that mimics the behavior of caterpillars in order to better understand the mechanics of "ballistic rolling." In a report published in Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, graduate student Huai-Ti Lin, Gary Leisk, senior lecturer and research assistant professor in mechanical engineering, and biology professor Barry Trimmer report that their GoQBot mimics two caterpillar modes of locomotion: inching along like a worm or ballistically rolling at comparatively high speeds.
	Spanning the Distance: Engineers bridge theory and practice Structural engineers in Tufts ASCE chapter spent their senior year designing and constructing bridges—and putting their classroom knowledge to the test in the real world by participating in the annual steel bridge competition sponsored by the ASCE and the American Institute of Steel Construction. The competition challenges student teams to design bridges and build them on-site at the competition in less than 45 minutes.
	Stanković Delivers Inaugural Alvin H. Howell Professor Lecture Aleksandar Stanković, the Alvin H. Howell Professor in Electrical Engineering, presented the inaugural Howell Professorship lecture: "Interconnected Energy Grids: a future for electric energy" on Thurs., April 28, 2011.
	Omenetto Named Guggenheim Fellow Fiorenzo Omenetto, professor of biomedical engineering, received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Omenetto received the only Guggenheim fellowship in engineering. The prestigious award will support Omenetto's efforts to demonstrate the first implantable and fully bioresorbable optical and electronic components that seamlessly integrate into living tissue.
	On Fire: Robotics Club Participates in Firefighting Competition With financial support from the School of Engineering Dean’s Grant Program, the Tufts Robotics Club recently competed in the Trinity Firefighting Competition held at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. on April 9-11, 2011. With their two robots, Precipitating Pachyderm v2.0 and Jumbo Shrimp v1.0, the team won first place in the written exam, and eighth in their division.
	Vannevar Bush Dean's Medal Recipient Speaks about Fukushima Dr. Richard A. Meserve, president of the Carnegie Institution, international expert on nuclear energy and Tufts University alumnus spoke about the impact of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident and also received the first Vannevar Bush Dean's Medal from Tufts School of Engineering on Monday, April 4, 2011.
	Panetta Named 2011 Women of Vision The Anita Borg Institute named Karen Panetta, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the 2011 Women of Vision Award winner in the Social Impact category. She is recognized not only for her contributions in both academia and industry but also as one of the leading U.S. experts in innovating successful low-cost methods for disseminating engineering and science to youth, parents, educators and the general public to help recruit young women to the STEM disciplines.
	Vandervelde Wins NSF CAREER Award for Thermophotovoltaic Research New research on converting heat to electricity has earned Assistant Professor Tom Vandervelde, the John A. and Dorothy M. Adams Faculty Development Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a NSF CAREER Award. Vandervelde conducts research on thermophotovoltaics—cells that convert thermal radiation, or heat, into electricity—with implications for a new class of green energy technologies.
	Meserve Named First Recipient of Vannevar Bush Dean's Medal Tufts School of Engineering will name Dr. Richard A. Meserve (A'66), president of the Carnegie Institution, the first recipient of the Vannevar Bush Dean's Medal awarded to an internationally recognized technology leader who has contributed substantially to the betterment of society through not only extraordinary technical achievement but also significant contributions at the intersection of engineering and other fields.
	Veeraraghavan Named New Face of Engineering Sam Veeraraghavan (EG'10) was named one of the 14 New Faces of Engineering 2011 by the National Engineers Week Foundation. Sam has developed technology-based solutions to address global humanitarian issues for children with disabilities, women and students below poverty lines in India.
	Verizon Foundation Awards Grant to CEEO to Engage Girls in Engineering The Verizon Foundation provided a $60,000 grant to Tufts University's Center for Engineering and Education Outreach (CEEO) School to help engage more girls in the field of engineering through the Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program (STOMP).
	Hescott Receives IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award The IEEE Computer Society awarded Ben Hescott, Senior Lecturer and Research Assistant Professor in Computer Science, the 2011 Computer Science and Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award "for making computer science accessible to a broad spectrum of students through his energy, enthusiasm, and dedication to teaching."
	Pickering Named 2011 "Woman to Watch" Melissa Pickering (E'05), Co-founder of iCreatetoEducate, was named a 2011 "Woman to Watch" by Mass High Tech for her contributions to the technology sector and her ongoing role as a leader in the engineering education community.
	Hidden in Plain Sight Remco Chang uses visual analytics to puzzle out secrets from financial fraud to terrorism. In essence, Chang says, the emerging field of visual analysis is a way of sorting through a sea of data to find patterns and outliers that might otherwise have gone undetected.
	Burn Like the Sun Luisa Chiesa, Assistant Professor in mechanical engineering, is testing superconducting cables for fusion power plants of the future. When most people think about using the sun's energy, they envision dark solar panels quietly soaking up rays. But engineers such as Chiesa see another way to harness the power of the sun—by recreating it, in small doses, here on Earth.
	Guyer Receives Early CAREER Award Sam Guyer, Assistant Professor in Computer Science, received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for his project entitled "Cooperative Virtual Machines: Mechanisms and Policies for Application-Aware Runtime Services."
	Abriola Named Top American Woman in Science Linda M. Abriola, dean of the School of Engineering at Tufts University, has been recognized among the top American women in science. Dean Abriola appears in "American Women of Science Since 1900" an encyclopedia focused on 500 of the 20th century's most notable American women scientists.
	Vandervelde Earns Air Force Grant for Photodetection Research Tom Vandervelde, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, received an Air Force Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) grant for his work on exploring and increasing the capabilities of photodetectors with applications for advances in biomedical diagnostics, health care, and sustainable energy.
	Citizen Engineer Allison St. Vincent Models the Effects of Air Pollution Graduate student Allison St. Vincent has been researching ultrafine particles in air pollution as part of the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH) initiative, led by Professor Doug Brugge at the Tufts School of Medicine and John Durant, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Currently a second year Ph.D. candidate, her work has already earned her numerous accolades, including an EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship.
	Endy Gives Inaugural Lecture for Kim Knox Lecture Series in Engineering Ethics Stanford University biologist Drew Endy delivered the inaugural Knox Lecture in Engineering Ethics, sponsored by the Tufts Gordon Institute. According to Endy, biotechnology can play a role in solving problems like dependence on oil, but the biologist cautions that developments in the field may create new ethical dilemmas with which the public will have to grapple.
	Deadly Resurgence As cholera makes a comeback, Maimuna Majumder, E'12, seeks ways to combat it. Majumder spent the summer in Bangladesh, beginning a study of 10 years worth of cholera patient data to see which variables seemed to play a role in protecting people from the disease.
	McNamara Delivers Fall Lyon & Bendheim Alumni Lecture Engineering consultant Pamela McNamara (E'81) returned to the Hill to speak with students about the significance of critical thinking and problem solving in the workplace, skills that she called essential to engineers and liberal arts students alike.
	Tufts Launches Water Diplomacy Doctoral Program The National Science Foundation has awarded a $4.2M, five-year grant to Tufts' Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) initiative to create an interdisciplinary doctoral program in water diplomacy. Tufts' IGERT team, led by Professor Shafiqul Islam, comprises 17 faculty members from three schools, with eight U.S. partners and five international partners.
	Stanković Named Alvin H. Howell Professor in Electrical Engineering Aleksandar Stanković has been named the inaugural Howell Professor in Electrical Engineering. Stanković's research on electric energy processing has applications for power systems. He recently received an award from the National Science Foundation to improve the containment of complex system-wide events such as blackouts.
	Engineering Welcomes New Faculty Members This year, the School of Engineering has recruited six new tenure-track faculty members, four of whom have started in fall 2010. Computer Science Associate Professor Matthias Scheutz’s (left) current research and teaching interests focus on complex cognitive and affective robots with natural language capabilities for natural human-robot interaction.
	Meet the Incoming Engineers This was another banner year for Tufts School of Engineering, with freshman applications up by more than 5%. This represents the school's fourth consecutive record-breaking applicant pool, with a total increase in applications of 32% since 2006. The number of graduate applications to the school also grew substantially, increasing nearly 20% over last year.
	Implantable Silk Metamaterials Could Advance Biomedicine, Biosensing Research conducted by biomedical engineering professors Fiorenzo Omenetto, David Kaplan and collaborators at Boston University, provides a promising path towards the development of a new class of metamaterial-inspired implantable biosensors and biodetectors.
	Tiny Microphone Array May Help Tame the Effects of Turbulence Doctoral student Joshua Krause builds hypersensitive microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) arrays that may give the most fine-grained look yet at the various forces encountered by a jet aircraft as it cuts through the atmosphere.
	Get Your Motor Running Friday afternoons are notoriously quiet on college campuses, but not inside a work space at Bray Laboratory. In a back room, a group of students were working on a Formula-1 style race car as they did every Friday afternoon, preparing for the fourth annual Formula Hybrid Competition.
	Graduate Students Win Top Tufts Awards Graduate students Adam Carberry (left) and Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan received Tufts Presidential Awards for Citizenship and Public Service for their research and "outstanding civic achievement."
	A Brain-Recording Device that Melts into Place Biomedical engineers David Kaplan and Fio Omenetto have helped develop a brain implant that essentially melts into place, snugly fitting to the brain's surface. The technology could pave the way for better devices to monitor and control seizures, and to transmit signals from the brain past damaged parts of the spinal cord. Photo credit: John Rogers
	White Light New technology in Sergio Fantini's lab has the potential to provide diagnostic information about breast tissue in a way that could complement--and perhaps one day replace--the standard mammogram.
	If you build it... Will Langford, E'12, (left) uses his passion for engineering to energize the do-it-yourself community. Langford founded the Tufts Robotics Club.
	Safety Hits Home Geotechnical engineer Gabrielle Rigaud, EG'10, was part of a 10-member team led by the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) to assess post-earthquake infrastructure damage in Haiti.
	Lessons from the Internet May Help Solve Energy Crisis According to Robert Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet, the pressing global need for cheap and clean energy can be met by using networking concepts from the development of the Internet. If the Internet is any guide, when we are done solving energy, we are not going to use less energy but much, much more--a squanderable abundance, just like we have in computation, says Metcalfe.
	Junior Faculty Receive Prestigious Awards In Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professors, Sameer Sonkusale and Valencia Joyner have received early CAREER awards from the National Science Foundation. Valencia Joyner will continue research in wireless optical sensors for high resolution imaging of biological structures. Sameer Sonkusale will pursue research in nanoelectrochemical systems. In Mechanical Engineering, Assistant Professor Luisa Chiesa received an early career award from the U.S. Department of Energy for her work in superconducting technology for magnet systems in fusion machines.
	Homegrown Talent Heads Up CEEO Starting this spring, three engineering graduates will assume leadership positions within the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO). Engineers Merredith Portsmore, Ethan Danahy, and Morgan Hynes will enhance the School of Engineering's research and educational programs at the CEEO.
	Kullman Delivers Leadership in Lyon & Bendheim Alumni Lecture Ellen Kullman, E78, CEO of DuPont, Tufts Trustee and Engineering Board Overseer, gave the Spring 2010 Lecture in the Lyon & Bendheim Lecture Alumni Series. Ms. Kullman shared how her experiences at Tufts School of Engineering influenced her exciting and successful career as a business leader. Read an interview with Ms. Kullman in the Tufts Daily.
	McDonnells Pledge $3 Million to Enhance Engineering Instruction The James S. McDonnell Family Foundation and members of the McDonnell family have pledged $3 million to support the growth of the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) and to endow the McDonnell Family Professorship in Engineering Education at the School, pending Trustee approval. This generous gift will enhance the School of Engineering's research and educational programs in engineering education innovation, one the school's strategic areas.
	First Haber Professor of Sustainability Named Chemical and Biological Engineering Professor Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, whose research into fuel processing catalysts will make it less expensive to produce clean energy, has been named to the Robert and Marcy Haber Endowed Professorship in Energy Sustainability in the School of Engineering.
	Engineering Leaders Dr. Bernard Gordon, known as the father of analog-to-digital conversion and for breakthroughs such as the fetal heart monitor and portable CT scan, has given a transformative gift to the School of Engineering to advance its engineering leadership education programs.
	Monitoring Change Kofi Aninakwa (E'11) uses the Summer Scholar program to combine medicine and engineering through the creation of a wearable health monitor. Working with Sameer Sonkusale, electrical and computer engineering assistant professor, Aninakwa has spent this past summer building electrical circuits for this health sensor.
	STOMP Goes to Google The Center for Engineering Education and Outreach's program called STOMP--Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program--now has a branch called iSTOMP in which Tufts students train industry engineers, like those at Google, to reach out to local schools and improve existing science, technology, engineering, and math curriculum using LEGO.
	Mapping the Technological Edges Graduate student, Shahan Nercessian's research gives computers the 'vision' to make advances in medical and security imaging. The algorithms that Nercessian writes help computers determine the edges of an object, like the outline of a tumor in an MRI scan or a suspicious package in the airport security scanner.
	Graduate Student Diversity Day Successful This summer, more than 140 undergraduate students from underrepresented groups visited Tufts campus to learn more about advanced degrees from Tufts' professional schools, as well as programs in Arts, Sciences and Engineering. This conference provided a window into higher education possibilities for students who, traditionally, make up a small percentage of the graduate student population in the United States.
	Solar House Teaches Tufts Students Sustainability Engineers Dante DeMeo (E'08), Matt Thoms (E'10), and Mike Sidebottom (E'10) are three of the students working on the design and construction of an affordable and energy-efficient solar house as part of the 2009 Solar Decathlon competition. Tufts University, in conjunction with Boston Architectural College, has begun building the 800-sq ft. home for display on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall.
	Engineer Wins Environmental Scholarship Matthew Thoms (E'10) has been named a Morris K. Udall Scholar for 2009. Candidates are selected based on commitment to environmental research and issues. As an engineer passionate about sustainability, Thoms' focus is on renewable power generation and his current research involves increasing the efficiency of solar panels.
	Alumna Named a New Face of Engineering Sarah Freeman (E'05, EG'08), a water resources engineer for the Louis Berger Group, has been named as one of the 2009 New Faces of Engineering by the National Engineers Week Foundation. Freeman recently conducted a two-year study using global water data sets and GIS to give a much richer picture of water availability in Africa than traditional studies have shown.
	Lecture Series on Ethics Named for Dean Knox A new lecture series on engineering ethics gets underway, made possible by a $40,000 gift from an anonymous member of the School of Engineering's class of 1999.
	Exploring Attributes of Engineering Leadership As part of Tufts School of Engineering's commitment to educating tomorrow's engineering leaders, the school hosted an engineering leadership panel to discuss both what makes an effective engineering leader and how to teach these attributes to future engineers. Watch a video of the event.
	Engineering Innovation Gives Electric and Hybrid Cars a Boost Technology developed by Ronald Goldner, Engineering Professor Emeritus, could recharge the batteries of any hybrid electric and electric-powered vehicles, thereby increasing the miles per gallon or total driving range performance of vehicles like the Honda Civic by 20 to 70 percent. The technology actively uses the weight of a vehicle for energy recovery and could help speed the expansion of the hybrid and battery electric vehicle market from cars to vehicles of greater size, weight and payloads.
	Flights of Fancy: Engineers Create Virtual Hang Time Engineer Mike Stefaniak, along with teammates Daniel Thayer and Rachel Yu, created a virtual hang gliding flight simulator for their mechanical engineering senior project. Take a virtual flight.