[BNC-all] Monday Memo: 09.24.07

[Deborah Starewich]

MONDAY MEMO, September 24, 2007
 
 
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1. Announcements
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1.1:  Mark your calendars! 2nd Annual Boot Camp, Oct. 8 and 9, 9:00AM to
5:00PM; MRGN 121, open to faculty, staff, and student organizations. Day
One:  Key topics include: company formation, the importance of human
capital, selling your idea, sources of capital, and company valuation. Also,
hear about the experiences of the companies who won last year¹s event.  Day
Two:  The morning session is devoted to presenting your company¹s ³quick
pitch² to investors.  The remainder of day two is for companies
participating in the coaching sessions.  No cost but registration is
required: http://www.purdue.edu/dp/bdm/bootcamp/.  For more information,
contact Julie Goonewardene (jkgoonewardene at prf.org).
 
1.2:  DURI Program Proposals due Tuesday, Oct. 9:  The Discovery Park
Undergraduate Research Internship (DURI) program is accepting proposals for
research projects for the Spring 2008 semester.  DURI involves Purdue
undergraduates in the cutting-edge interdisciplinary research environment of
Discovery Park.  The program offers 50 internships per academic semester at
the West Lafayette campus, funded through the Discovery Learning Center.
Select interns to help advance your research from a pool of highly talented
and motivated students.  Mentor undergraduate students by fostering the
exchange of ideas and creating new research opportunities.  View additional
information (including sample projects) and use the simple form to submit
your project proposal online:  http://www.purdue.edu/dp/duri
<http://www.purdue.edu/dp/duri> .  If you have any questions, please
contact:  Amy Childress; Intern Coordinator; Discovery Learning Center;
63590; childres at purdue.edu.
 
1.3:  Asian Initiative Announces Grant Opportunities for Fall 2007:
Purdue's Asian Initiative, together with the Office of International
Programs, announces two grant opportunities for Purdue faculty collaborating
with partners in India and China.  The grant programs are designed to foster
and develop ties between Purdue and its Asian counterparts.  ³Asian
Initiative Research² (AIR) grants are designed to support faculty in the
development of research collaborations with strategic partners in India and
China. Grants will be in the range of $5000­$10,000 to support activities
that produce early, tangible results with the potential to attract
significant outside funding and support.  ³Visiting Indian and Chinese
Scholars² (VICS) grants were created to bring to the West Lafayette campus
high-caliber scholars from strategic institutions in China and India for a
period of up to one semester. The goal of this program is to stimulate
substantive, world-class research collaboration between Purdue and Chinese
and Indian institutions, and to strengthen faculty and student exchange with
these institutions.  Copies of the RFPs for these two programs can be found
via Purdue's Office of International Programs:
http://www.ippu.purdue.edu/aid/.  For additional information, contact
Matthew Sikora; Asian Initiative Coordinator; Office of International
Programs; 47552; mvsikora at purdue.edu.
 
 
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2. Seminars
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2.1:  Monday, September 24, 2:30: ³Understanding approach curves and scanned
images in tapping mode AFM via VEDA,² Arvind Raman, Associate Professor,
Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University; EE 317.
ABSTRACT: Much information about the tip-sample material properties is
buried in the amplitude and phase vs distance curves that are routinely
acquired in tapping mode AFM. We will illustrate this with some example
problems using the Dynamic Approach Curves (DAC) tool under VEDA- Virtual
Environment for Dynamic AFM. Following this, we will use a few examples
using the Amplitude Modulated Scanning (AMS) tool under VEDA to understand
how imaging feedback parameters influence quality of images.
BIO: Arvind Raman is Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical
Engineering and the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue University. He
joined Purdue as an Assistant Professor in 2000. Earlier he earned his PhD
from the University of California, Berkeley (1999), an MSME from Purdue
(1993) and a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (1991).
His interests lie in predicting and exploiting nonlinear dynamical phenomena
in micro and nanosystems, and in coupled fluid-structural systems. Raman
received the NSF CAREER award in 2002, the Purdue Teaching for Tomorrow
award (2003), the Discovery in Mechanical Engineering award (2004), the
College of Engineering's Outstanding Young Researcher award (2006), and is
currently the BFS Shafer faculty fellow in Mechanical Engineering.
 
2.2:  Tuesday, September 25, 2:30PM:  ³Aviator vs. the Environment:
Learning to Protect the Health of the High-Altitude Aviator during World War
II,² Jay B. Dean, Professor, Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology, Hyperbaric
Biomedical Research Laboratory, College of Medicine, University of south
Florida; MRGN 121.
ABSTRACT.  The air war of 1939-45 was a physiological war. Aviators flew
non-pressurized planes to altitudes of 20,000-35,000 feet during long-range
reconnaissance and bombing missions in order to evade enemy interceptors and
anti-aircraft fire. Above 20,000 feet, aircrew performance was often
impaired by hypoxia, decompression sickness (DCS), and hypothermia.
Escaping from a disabled aircraft at high-altitude presented numerous
physiological challenges to safe escape, including hypoxia, frostbite and
the opening shock of the parachute. High-performance fighter aircraft
subjected allied pilots to tremendous centrifugal forces during violent
dog-fighting maneuvers that would leave them temporarily blinded and
unconscious due to a reduction in brain blood flow. America would deploy its
first pressurized bomber in the spring of 1944 (B-29 Superfortress) in the
Pacific war to alleviate the physiological problems caused by reduced
barometric pressure and cold.  Pressurized flight, however, created a new
problem; namely, it was unknown how aircrews would respond to explosive
decompression at high-altitude following structural failure of their
pressure cabin. If they survived decompression at 35,000 feet, how long did
they have to don their oxygen masks before succumbing to hypoxia?  Would the
incidence of DCS increase? What were the physical forces during rapid
decompression; specifically, was the ensuing wind blast during decompression
great enough to inflict physical injury?  Pioneering research on the
physiologic effects of high-altitude and explosive decompression was
conducted at the Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio,
and several of the countries leading universities. Beginning with only 3
research laboratories in 1940, the nation's research program for
high-altitude physiology would grow over the course of the war, such that it
was without equal in the world by 1945 for providing protective flying
equipment and training for allied aviators.  By 1945, the high-altitude
training program employed over 200 aviation physiologists running 65
altitude chambers at 45 Army airfields who indoctrinated more than 58,000
men per month in the physiologic effects of high altitude flight. Allied
aviators were taught many procedures such as O2 discipline; prevention of
DCS with 100% O2-prebreathing; appropriate use of bail-out O2 equipment in a
high-altitude/low-opening parachute jump, which was necessary to avoid the
opening shock of the parachute and to prevent hypoxia; use of the G-suit,
which enabled pilots to withstand greater G-forces, and consequently to
outperform their adversary in a dog-fight; and how to survive an explosive
decompression.  The successful aeromedical research and training programs
established by these pioneering "physiological warriors" played a
significant role in the Allies' air victory in the air war.  The knowledge
gained and the new practices established during the war years would propel
the aviator into the jet age and lay the scientific foundation for space
medicine in the post-war era.  During the presentation, Dr. Dean will
present archival photographs and film footage, much of which has never been
published, from the original technical reports of the Wright Field Aero
Medical Lab and the Ohio State University Laboratory of Aviation Physiology.
 
2.3:  Thursday, September 27, 4:00PM refreshments; 4:30PM seminar:
³Structural Magnetotrictive alloys,² Dr. Alison Flatau, Aerospace
Engineering, University of Maryland, ME 161.
ABSTRACT:  Magnetostrictive materials belong to the family of smart
materials that are enabling major advances in noise, vibration and shape
control and new approaches to structural health monitoring.  An introduction
to magnetostrictive materials will be presented, followed by an emphasis on
the new structural magnetostrictive alloy Galfenol with discussion of
current and potential applications that range from nano-and mems sensors to
large scale sonar devices.  The presentation will include a summary of
on-going research in our ONR MURI Program that is focused on structural
magnetostrictive alloys, a discussion of some of the challenges associated
with transitioning this relatively new alloy (still in the process of being
patented) to commercial scale production and thoughts on taking advantage of
its unique structural attributes (e.g. ductility and a negative Poison's
ratio) will be included in the presentation.
BIO: Dr. Flatau joined the University of Maryland Aerospace Engineering
Dept. in 2002 after serving as Program Director for the Dynamic Systems
Modeling, Sensing and Control Program at the National Science Foundation
from 1998-2002.  Prior to that, she was on the Aerospace Engineering and
Engineering Mechanics faculty at Iowa State University (1990-1998).  Her
experience also includes four years at the National Small Wind Systems Test
Center in Golden, CO where she was a Senior Research Engineer.  One of her
key research activities is the development and application of
magnetostrictive material actuators and sensors.  A second research interest
is active flow control.  Since joining the University of Maryland, she has
joined an active team of researchers in projects on rotorcraft and on the
design and development of unmanned air vehicles with morphing capabilities
using smart and multifunctional material actuation schemes.  Dr. Flatau is
currently the PI of an ONR MURI investigation, working with researchers from
U. Maryland, U. Minn., Penn State, Va Tech, Rutgers, Ohio State and Iowa
State on Structural Magnetostrictive Alloys. As the author of over 30
archival journal and book chapter contributions, Dr. Flatau currently serves
as an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and
Structures (2002-present).  Dr. Flatau is a Senior Fellow of the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Fellow of the ASME.
 
2.4:  Friday, September 28, 3:30PM refreshments; 3:45PM seminar: ³Flow
behavior of cast pur Mg and Mg-Zn alloys,² Gemma Mann, Engineering Education
(ENE), INSPIRE, Purdue University; MSEE B12.
ABSTRACT:  It has been shown that the tensile and compressive behaviour of
Mg alloys have two characteristics that set them apart from ferrous alloys
and Al alloys. These differences appear to be significant for users of Mg
alloys and their explanation also poses significant fundamental questions.
The first characteristic is that yield in Mg starts at a far lower fraction
of the 0.2% proof stress than it does in other alloys.  The second
characteristic is that unloading from the peak stress is highly non-linear
in Mg alloys whereas in Al alloys and in steels unloading is linear.  These
two phenomena are important for designers of structural components. The
alloys do not conform to the ideal of an elastic-plastic solid, and the
non-linear behaviour may need to be taken into account in the appropriate
numerical stress analysis codes. In a practical sense, therefore, it is
necessary to quantify the behaviour.  Tensile and compressive testing of
alloys with various solute contents and grain sizes shows the effects of
these parameters on the yield and flow of the material.  At a more
fundamental level, the microscopic mechanisms responsible for the behaviour
were not previously understood.  Microanalysis and hysteresis tests were
aimed at determining the role of twinning in the deformation processes.
BIO:  Gemma Mann received her Bachelor of Science majoring in Physics with
Honors at the University of Queensland, Australia, and has submitted for PhD
in Materials Engineering.  Her doctoral research was in cast magnesium
alloys of different grain size and alloy content.  She is currently a
research associate in the Engineering Education (ENE) Department at Purdue
University working for INSPIRE.
 
 
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3. Birck Visitors
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3.1:  Monday, September 24, 9:00AM: Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce
Visit/Tour, BRK 2001.
 
3.2:  Thursday, September 27, 11:20AM:  Indiana Economic Development
Corporation
 
3.3:  Thursday, September 27, 9:40AM:  College of Science Office of
Undergraduate Education
 
3.4:  Saturday, September 29, 9:30AM:  James Sperlik and family; Tom Scholl,
venture capitalist
 
 
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4.  Funding Alerts
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4.1:  NSF-SIA/NRI Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Supplements to
NSF Centers in Nanoelectronics (NSF 07-051); National Science Foundation
(NSF); http://fundingopps.cos.com/alerts/110528.
 
4.2:  Defense Sciences Research and Technology ‹ Nanostructured Materials
for Power; United States Department of Defense (DOD), Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA); http://fundingopps.cos.com/alerts/110540.
 
4.3: Annual Showalter Trust Competition, per Dr. Charles Rutledge: proposals
are for one year with a project period of July 1, 2008­June 30, 2009.  All
guidelines, procedures, and instructions are available at
http://www.purdue.edu/research/vpr/funding/showalter.html
<http://www.purdue.edu/research/vpr/funding/showalter.html>
http://www.purdue.edu/research/vpr/funding/kinley.html
<http://www.purdue.edu/research/vpr/funding/kinley.html> .
The Showalter Will specifies that the following areas of research would have
priority for funding:  1) Air and water pollution research; 2) Research in
the field of biochemistry; 3) Research for the control and prevention of
disease; 4) Research for development of new technologies in food production;
5) Research in medical and biophysical instrumentation, including the
adaptation of the modern computer in the measurement of biological
processes, in the collection, recording, analysis, and interpretation of
data.
 
 
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5.  Life on the Outside
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5.1:  How many apples do you have?  Do you have the 5 apples needed to
finalize the criteria for the Healthy Purdue Initiative? If you do, great!
You will receive $250 (minus taxes) in 2008! You¹ve also learned new skills
and techniques for a healthier lifestyle ­ worth much more than $250.  The
deadline to earn five apples is November 9, 2007. That is 7 weeks from
today. Please don¹t delay.  Check how many apples you have earned:
https://www2.itap.purdue.edu/bs/WorkLife/index.cfm; enter your career
account login and password; click on ³Wellness Criteria Tracking² on the
left side of the page; there will be checkmarks below the apples with dates
that they were acknowledged.  If you have any questions, Barbara J.
Doremire; 43513; bjd at purdue.edu.
 
5.2:  Welcome the newest Birck family member! Bridget Hines announces the
arrival of Olivia Rose: Olivia entered the world at 5:45AM on Sunday
morning.  She is beautiful! 6 Lb 3 1/2 oz, 19 in. Pictures to come.


Deborah S. Starewich
Administrative Assistant to Timothy D. Sands, Director
Birck Nanotechnology Center
Purdue University

765-494-3509
dstarewi at ecn.purdue.edu

http://www.nano.purdue.edu/



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