�鶹ӰԺ

Below are example research projects by potential host faculty at CU �鶹ӰԺ. However, research topics are constantly evolving, and any��faculty member from the College of Engineering & Applied Science��may host an ARETe researcher. If you are interested in the program but��don't see something below that particularly fits with your background and/or future goals, please don't hesitate to apply.

Benchmarking in Soft Robotic Manipulation Research –

Project Description: We have proposed a series of manipulation benchmarks that require exclusive use of tactile sensing and include making contact with an object without exerting forces, localizing contact on the robot's hand, inferring the 3D geometry of an object from tactile sensing alone, differentiating between different objects based on touch, and others. This project allows Faculty to get engaged with research by collecting data for specific benchmarks, for which the experiments will then serve as the basis for further exploring robotic perception and control algorithms and explore novel robotic tactile manipulation behaviors.

2YC Faculty Component:��Faculty will characterize soft robotics devices and systems for manipulation (synthetic hands) following procedures and protocols designed by members of the Correll group. They will carry out various force tests to benchmark their performance, collect data gathered from a network of sensors, and then analyzing the data to determine values of multiple performance benchmarks. Finally, they analyze benchmarks in aggregate to provide guidance for design of the next generation of manipulation hardware.

Remote Sensing for Precision Agriculture – Prof.��Albin Gasiewski (ECEE)

��

Project Description:��The Center for Environmental Technology is developing a drone-based system for use in precision agriculture. The system uses an electric-powered small unmanned aerial vehicle to fly an experimental microwave sensor, the Lobe-Differencing Correlation Radiometer (LDCR) that maps soil moisture by measuring the passive microwave thermal emission from crops. The system has the potential to improve the use of pumped groundwater that is heavily relied upon for irrigation. The LDCR on the Black Swift SuperSwift small UAV will be operated in eastern Colorado in an attempt to measure the diurnal and seasonal behavior of soil moisture. The goal of the measurement campaign, planned for June-July 2018, will be to determine how soil moisture mapped with the sensor can be used to optimize pumped groundwater irrigation practices.��

Community College��Faculty Component:��Faculty will help with the field operations and later data analysis; faculty gain cutting-edge research experience at the interface of engineering, environmental, biological, and agricultural sciences as well as computer science techniques needed to analyze the large amounts of data acquired.

Characterization of Ultrashort Optical Pulses – Prof.��Juliet Gopinath (ECEE)

Project Description:��Accurate characterization of the pulse amplitude and phase of ultrashort pulses is very important for nonlinear optical experiments. While the standard method for pulse characterization is an autocorrelator, frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) enables complete characterization of the pulses. In the Gopinath lab, a FROG set up capable of near and mid-infrared operation will be modeled, designed, assembled and tested in a 10-week period.��

Community College Faculty Component: Faculty will characterize laser pulses from both near and mid-infrared fiber and solid-state laser systems, using established analysis software. ��They will use the results of the system to provide important pulse characterization for ongoing mid-infrared spectroscopy and integrated optics projects.

Rewiring Water Electrolysis for Renewable Chemicals and Hydrogen –��Prof. Adam Holewinski (CHBE)

Project Description:����Future hydrogen production will rely on electrolysis of water. This process involves two reactions at opposing electrodes, one of which produces hydrogen, while the other produces unneeded oxygen and dominates efficiency losses. Replacement of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) from water splitting with value-adding alternatives—for example, upgrading of renewable carbon-containing molecules such as from biomass—has been proposed to yield useful products at both cell electrodes.��In this project, researchers will investigate electrochemical upgrading of “platform chemicals”—derived from biomass—using various electrode materials. The reactions to be studied are mainly partial oxidations of furanic molecules, which have applications in the synthesis of renewable and intrinsically recyclable plastics, among other valuable outlets. Relationships between the composition of the electrode, reaction rates, and selectivities to various products will be explored.��

Community College Faculty Component:����Faculty will gain experience in synthesis of catalyst materials, construction of electrochemical cells, and analysis of reaction products with liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Coherent Light Sources for Field Deployable Sensing – Prof.��Shu-Wei Huang (ECEE)

Project��Description: Recent progress on broadband and femtosecond pulse generation in chip-scale nonlinear microresonators has attracted wide attention due to its potential towards exciting applications such as next generation optical communication, optical frequency synthesizers, integrated light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system, and miniaturized 3D/4D biomedical imaging modality. This project will leverage our group's experience in chip-scale nonlinear microresonators to build a functional 3D/4D biomedical imaging modality based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) principle.��

Community College Faculty Component: Faculty will acquire skills for designing optics and optomechanics in modern scanning microscope system, interfacing optoelectronics with digital computers, and developing real-time control and image processing programs.��

Dynamic Windows – Prof.��Michael McGehee (ChBE)

Project Description:��Electrochromic materials are highly desirable because their tinting can be adjusted by a switch or automated control to allow the ideal amount of light to pass through a window, a skyroof or eyeglasses. A key advantage of attenuating light with electrochromics is that the view is not distorted as it is when a curtain or blinds are used. McGehee has developed a completely different approach to dynamically controlling the tinting of windows that is based on a transparent electrode similar to those used in flat-panel displays and a polymer gel containing metal ions. When a voltage is applied to the electrode, a thin film of metal that is capable of absorbing light forms. When the opposite voltage is applied, the metal is stripped away and the transparency of the window is restored. These windows are color neutral and can be switched on and off more than 5000 times without degradation. They are simpler than electrochromics and have the potential to be cost-effective when scaled up. ��

Community College Faculty Component: Faculty will assist in the development of the electrolyte to optimize the color, switching speed, and durability of the windows. They will carry out optical spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and scanning electron microscopy. A great advantage of involving high school teachers is that it is very easy to construct these windows, and their performance can be monitored with a simple low-cost equipment; 2YC faculty’s students can construct and test the windows.��

Volumetric Additive Manufacturing��– Prof.��Robert McLeod (ECEE)

��

Project Description: Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (VAM) is a relatively new form of 3D printing inspired by time reversal of the mathematics of Computed Axial Tomography (CAT) scans.�� The McLeod group works on the materials, optical systems and computational approaches to VAM and has a new computational approach for which we would welcome collaboration.���� In brief, the central computational problem of VAM is to solve an inverse problem.�� This is currently solved as an optimization problem by several iterative techniques.�� We have recently cast this in terms of linear algebra that, by using sparse matrices, is tractable numerically.

Community College Faculty Component:�� Faculty participants with mathematical background��will work toward��non-iterative solutions to the inverse problem central to VAM.��Participant with deeper��mathematical knowledge and experience��may work on��fundamental proofs about VAM that are currently not possible.�� These and related topics��would be of great interest to our group and the field in general.

Designing catalysts for conversion of biomass and waste plastics to fuels��– Prof.��J. Will Medlin (ChBE)

Project Description:��Solid catalysts are used in nearly all large-scale chemical processes, for example playing a major role in petroleum refining. New types of catalysts are needed to transition to a more sustainable infrastructure for chemicals and fuels, as in the conversion of renewable biomass to fuels and chemicals in a “biorefinery”. Identifying catalysts capable of accelerating the necessary reaction steps requires a focus both on product specificity (i.e., producing high yields of value-added products with minimal waste) and catalyst durability and lifetime. Our groups focuses on understanding how changing the nanoscale structure of catalyst materials translates to improved performance for conversion of renewable biomass to products such as jet fuel. We also consider closely related problems such as the utilization of waste plastics. We investigate the effects of parameters such as surface metal composition, the chemical functionality of modifier films, and changes in environmental conditions. In this project, we will investigate how changes in these parameters alter the performance and lifetime of supported metal catalysts that can be used in hydrogen-assisted bond cleavage of polymeric species present in biomass or waste plastics.��

Community College Faculty Component: Faculty gain experience in using scalable methods to prepare catalysts, use of bench-scale reactors, analysis of reaction products with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, and catalyst surface area measurements.

Organic and Hybrid Photovoltaics – Prof.��Sean Shaheen (ECEE/Physics)

��

Project��Description:��Organic and hybrid perovskite photovoltaics are being pursued commercially by several companies in the U.S. and abroad. This project will entail fabrication and testing of small-scale photovoltaic devices with the goal of understanding the impact of device structure and layering on its efficiency and stability. Fabrication will be carried out through chemical-solution based printing techniques; testing will involve various optoelectronic methods to probe the device’s power conversion efficiency, quantum efficiency, time-resolved photoluminescence behavior, and charge carrier lifetime. These will be carried out for organic photovoltaics as well as for hybrid organometallic perovskite photovoltaics, each of which has potential advantages for future commercial applications.

Community College Faculty Component:��Faculty Fellows will gain experience in wet-chemical laboratory techniques, thin film deposition, vacuum deposition, and various optoelectronic and stability characterization techniques; be provided with fabrication recipes to follow, in which one of the parameters required further optimization and understanding); and gain experience with the broad array of skills in chemistry, materials science, and engineering required to work in this rapidly emerging field.