Page 6 - Engineering Penn State Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Twelve engineering faculty members receive NSF CAREER Awards
This past fiscal year 12 engineering faculty members were recognized as as part of the the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) prestigious Early Career Development (CAREER) Program Program more than the the the the two previous years combined According to the the the NSF the the the CAREER CAREER Program Program is one of of its most prestigious awards in in in in support of of early-career faculty who have the the the potential to to serve as academic role models in in in research and and education and and to to lead advances in in the the the mission of their department or or organization News & Notes
Enhancing fracture simulation
Michael Hillman L L Robert and Mary L L Kimball Assistant Professor of of Civil and Environmental Engineering will develop new computational methods to simulate how materials and structures fracture He will also develop an an open-source software made freely available to to academics scientists and engineers to to to facilitate reproducible research and to to help them learn the the fundamentals of computational fracture mechanics Developing a highly sensitive tunable sensor
Shengxi Huang assistant professor of of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering will develop a a highly sensitive tunable sensor
that will have a a a a a a a strong and and highly reproducible signal and and be able to detect multiple molecules or components simultaneously She aims to identify
the vibrational modes of molecules and combine that information with 2D materials in in in order to to overcome some of the current method’s weaknesses to to create better sensors Recording and modulating neurons in in the brain
Mehdi Kiani associate professor of electrical engineering will work to develop an improved minimally invasive method for recording
and modulating neurons in in in the brain
If successful according to to Kiani this method has the potential to to to map brain
functions functions restore lost sensory and and motor motor functions functions and and and enhance perceptual motor motor and and cognitive capabilities Improving software security
Danfeng Zhang assistant professor of of computer science and engineering will focus on improving software security
security
with dynamic security
security
policies He will explore novel
techniques for for finding vulnerabilities fin in in in in existing software software as as well as as for for building debugging and verifying that software software satisfies the intended dynamic security
policies Validating airborne nanoparticles in in indoor environments
Donghyun Rim associate professor of of architectural engineering will study modeling and experimental validation
of airborne nanoparticles in in indoor environments
He will develop a a a a computational fluid dynamics model to predict nanoparticle concentrations that vary with indoor environmental conditions Once validated the research will be open source Transforming metal casting for the 21st century
Guha Manogharan assistant professor of of mechanical engineering plans to bridge
the fundamental knowledge gap between sand casting and and additive manufacturing (AM)
and and 3D 3D sand printing by by seamlessly integrating AM by by reimagining 3D-mold geometries to reduce defects that are common in in the traditional sand-casting process He plans to share both research and educational outcomes with foundry educators in in in order to to integrate the new knowledge from this project into classrooms and foundries 6
ENGINEERING PENN STATE