Extraordinary Engineering Impacts on Society Proceedings of a Symposium (2023) / Chapter Skim
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4 NSF Centers That Catalyzed Extraordinary Engineering Impacts on Society
4 NSF Centers That Catalyzed Extraordinary Engineering Impacts on Society
Pages 43-62
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From page 43... ...
Furthermore, they have acted as models for other NSF center programs, including the Science and Technology Centers, Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers, Earthquake Engineering Research Centers, and Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers. THE ERC PROGRAM: AN OVERVIEW Kon-Well Wang, Stephen P
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From page 44... ...
Its goal has been to improve engineering research so that US engineers will be better prepared to contribute to engineering practice and to assist US industry to become more competitive in world markets. Its high-level guidelines are: • Promote cross-disciplinary basic research.
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From page 45... ...
sought to transform engineering systems, develop a globally competitive and diverse engineering workforce, and provide cross-cultural, global research and educational experience through partnerships with foreign universities and other means. And Generation 4 (2019–)
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From page 46... ...
The third was initially to reanimate paralyzed limbs but later changed to create a cellular testbed to develop a photoactivated cellular 1These are, respectively, ERCs for Advancing Sustainable and Distributed Fertilizer Production, Hybrid Autonomous Manufacturing Moving from Evolution to Revolution, Precision Microbiome Engineering, and Smart Streetscapes (NSF, 2022)
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From page 47... ...
Through the ERC, the number of electrodes rose to 60, and now 240-electrode devices are being developed, "which really does start to improve the vision and the number of people we can help." The device developed by the ERC is the first FDA-approved implanted device to treat adults with advanced retinitis pigmentosa. Humayun showed a video of a patient with retinitis pigmentosa who was able to recognize letters projected on a screen using one of the devices and of a blind grandmother shooting baskets with her grandson.
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From page 48... ...
This work could restore neural function "to potentially millions of patients for whom there's no foreseeable cure," said Humayun. ENGINEERING NANO-REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITES IN SOUTH TEXAS Born in Monterrey, Mexico, Karen Lozano, who is now Julia Beecherl Endowed Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)
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From page 49... ...
A Major Research Instrumentation grant from NSF enabled her to buy equipment that has attracted hundreds of students to her laboratory, which specializes in work on nano-reinforced polymer composites. An NSF CAREER award subsequently enabled her to create a "NanoTeam" that enabled research projects that prompted students to be positively engaged with their academic careers.
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From page 50... ...
This industrial system is now producing hundreds of meters of nanofibers per minute." FibeRio Technologies Corporation, founded in 2009, drew the attention of chief executive and technology officers, technology scouts, and others, and received notable international technology awards. It was later acquired by the technology firm Parker Hannifin Corporation.
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And now we are ready to explore bigger and better opportunities to further catalyze engineering impacts on society. We have proven that we can do it." FROM STRUCTURES TO CITIES IN EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Engineers have often had to build structures with incomplete understanding of how they will behave in an earthquake, observed Gregory Deierlein, J.A.
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It worked with the California Earthquake Authority, which regulates insurance in the state and provides funds and incentives for homeowners to retrofit their houses to make them more seismically resilient. Studies demonstrated that retrofitting was cost effective, said Deierlein, and the California Earthquake Authority has been conveying information to homeowners about how to avoid large costs by retrofitting their houses.
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From page 53... ...
Black distinguished professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University, elaborated on the three-level approach that has been pioneered by the NSF ERCs and explained how it can be applied in a variety of settings. The three-level approach boils down to a set of pointed questions, he observed: So what/who cares?
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From page 54... ...
The system applications, level 3, emerging from the testbeds were built around important real-world problems: the 3D imaging of cellular structure to understand the development of a mouse egg into a healthy mouse (which, if successful, "would completely revolutionize the in vitro fertilization industry," said Silevitch) , 4D image-guided therapy of cancer tumors so that movements during treatment do not damage a healthy part of the body, 3D multimode imaging of breast cancer tumors, remote assessment of coral reefs underwater, and underground assessment of buried waste.
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The COVID-19 pandemic made the problem even worse, with mortality rates from COVID higher for people with chronic diseases. The center is working to develop continuous monitoring of a variety of important health parameters through self-powered wearable devices as a way of managing chronic disease.
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From page 56... ...
They would be wearable, wireless, and comfortable and would generate informative and continuous data. "With all of this information combined, we wanted to explain, influence, and even predict health outcomes and gain fundamental insight into disease." For the ASSIST ERC, the level 2 testbeds were selected and defined based on the needs of chronic disease use cases chosen in consultation with clinicians: asthma, atrial fibrillation, diet management, wound healing, and medical detection.
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From page 57... ...
The center has developed a translational engineering skills program for undergraduate and graduate students, because many of the skills they need are not necessarily taught in courses. And it has generated a pipeline of K–12 students by bringing them to ERC programs at partner schools where they are exposed to challenges that allow them to build wearable devices that have particular functionalities.
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From page 58... ...
One approach the center took was to focus on browsers, which now have a number of built-in protections such as password authentication systems that resulted from this work. With healthcare infrastructures, the center took advantage of the fact that Vanderbilt University Medical Center was just launching a patient medical portal called My Health, and the central issue became how to encode privacy provisions such as those contained in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
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Spinoff companies were generated and bought by larger companies, and a variety of training and education initiatives were undertaken by the center, including a summer enrichment program for early-career women faculty, new and expanded courses and other forms of curriculum development, graduate specializations in security, professional master's and certificate programs, and summer programs for high school students and middle school girls, with a focus on broadening participation of underrepresented minorities. "In 10 years, you can build partnerships that last a lifetime," said Sastry.
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"In fact, many industry partners tell us the most valuable thing they got from us as researchers is our students, because the students naturally transfer all of these technologies to industry." Partnerships among stakeholders become more valuable over time, observed Silevitch. "We are still working with many of the same people that we worked with in the year 2000.
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NSF CENTERS THAT CATALYZED EXTRAORDINARY ENGINEERING IMPACTS 61 FOSTERING MULTIDISCIPLINARY WORK In response to a question about how best to enable multidisciplinary work, Wang pointed out that one of the major challenges when working together as a convergent team is differing cultures. Changing the culture, whether for research or for furthering diversity and inclusion, can be one of the most challenging problems an ERC faces.
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From page 62... ...
62 EXTRAORDINARY ENGINEERING IMPACTS ON SOCIETY be part of their dissertation committee." It also allows students to build longer-term relationships with industrial partners, which is particularly important to UTRGV -- in part because SpaceX has been building a new development and production facility for its Starship rockets nearby. On that note, Sastry observed that a large amount of manufacturing now takes place just south of the US-Mexico border.
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