Dr. Xiaobo Tan - Principal Investigator

3213 Engineering
xbtan@egr.msu.edu

Dr. Tan: Artificial Muscles & Bio-inspired Robotic Fish. Dr. Tan’s group investigates the development, modeling, and control of an emerging class of soft actuation and sensing materials, called electroactive polymers (EAPs). Producing large deformations upon application of voltages, EAPs are also known as artificial muscles and have great potential in biomimetic robots, biomedical devices, and micro/biomanipulation. Dr. Tan’s group is also developing highly maneuverable, autonomous robotic fish that use EAP materials as flexible fins and exploring the applications of such robotic fish in monitoring of aquatic environments, such as, aquafarms, drinking water reservoirs, rivers and lakes. Potential projects for teachers include: 1) measuring and characterizing the performance and behavior of EAP materials using laser sensors, force transducers, and CCD cameras; 2) upgrading an artificial muscle-enabled sociable robot; 3) developing viable body solutions for robotic fish targeted for deep-water operations; 4) performing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation using software FLUENT to understand hydrodynamics of robotic fish; and 5) programming robotic fish to realize control, navigation, and sensing functions. See full biosketch here.

Dr. Evangelyn Alocilja- Co-Principal Investigator

213 Farrall Hall
alocilja@msu.edu

Dr. Alocilja: Biosensors. Biosensors exploit biological sensing elements, such as DNAs, bacteria, cells, enzymes and antibodies, to detect substances of interest in an analyte. Dr. Alocilja’s research focus is on the development of nano-structured biosensors for applications in homeland security, food and environmental safety, and health care. Her group uses knowledge and tools from nanotechnology, microfabrication, biochemistry, microbiology and genomics to develop novel biosensors. Her lab has been active in involving high-school students and K-12 teachers in research. Potential projects for RET participants include development, fabrication, and testing of various biosensors, with the end goal of developing new, or enhancing an existing, science curriculum on nanotechnology and biosensors for middle and high school students. See full biosketch here.

Dr. Seungik Baek

2457 Engineering
sbaek@egr.msu.edu

Dr. Baek: Biomechanics. Dr. Baek’s research focuses on development of experimental and theoretical tools to characterize material behavior of biological tissues and synthetic materials, and development of computational methods for biological tissues to guide clinical interventions as well as to aid in the design of bio-instruments. Of particular interest is the growth and remodeling of soft tissues in response to altered physiological and pathological conditions, including mechanical loads, biochemical signals, injury, and diseases. Possible research projects for teachers include: 1) performing mechanical testing of artery and studying its biomechanical properties, microstructure, and the contents of elastin, to improve the understanding on vascular pathophysiology; 2) investigating biomechanics of abdominal aortic aneurysms using patient-specific models and computational simulations; 3) developing an educational kit for biomechanics of skeletal muscles, to be used in high school biology class; and 4) developing a 3D, interactive educational tool for students to learn human anatomy, by constructing 3D views of internal organs from medical images and combining them with raw image data. See full biosketch here.

Dr. Jongeun Choi

2459 Engineering
jchoi@egr.msu.edu

Dr. Choi: Bio-inspired Coordination for Swarming Robots.
Dr. Choi’s core research area is collaborative control of groups of robots, by exploiting inspiration from nature. Swarming robots, used as mobile sensor networks, can have a plethora of applications in environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and surveillance. Potential projects for teachers include: 1) collecting videos and data on fish schools from web resources and literature, and analyzing how schooling fish adapt and learn to balance between threats and fitness-related behaviors; 2) working with Dr. Choi and his graduate students to derive simple and distributed adaptive laws for swarming robots; and 3) implementing such adaptive laws on a fleet of mobile robots. See full biosketch here.

Dr. Lixin Dong

2325C Engineering
ldong@egr.msu.edu

Dr. Dong: Artificial bacteria flagella. Dr. Dong’s group investigates nanorobotic systems including the manufacturing and application technologies of nanorobotic manipulation systems, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), and nanorobotic swimmers (artificial bacteria flagella). Current projects focus on nanorobotic manipulators inside scanning electron microscopes, high-resolution nanorobotic manipulation inside transmission electron microscopes, nanosystems on a tip, atomic-scale mass delivery, and NEMS based on shell-engineered carbon nanotubes. Potential projects for teachers include: (1) modeling and analysis of artificial bacteria flagella; and (2) experimental implementation of scaled-up artificial bacteria flagella.

http://www.egr.msu.edu/people/profile/ldong

Dr. Tonghun Lee

145 Engr Research Complex
tonghun@msu.edu

Dr. Lee: Understanding Combustion of Novel Biofuels. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on applying advanced laser diagnostics to investigate the combustion characteristics of novel propulsion systems and alternative fuels. Efforts are also being made to investigate innovative combustion concepts with higher efficiency and cleaner chemistry. One of his key research topics is to understand the characteristics of novel blends of biofuels, ranging from ethanol and biodiesel to a wide variety of components from both plant lipids and plant carbohydrates, under energetically enhanced combustion. The energetic enhancement is achieved through energetic nanoparticles or coupled plasma energy. Potential projects for teachers include: 1) performing laser-induced fluorescence imaging of key thermal oxidation species such as OH, CH, CO and NO as well as temperature fields in the microwave plasma reactor; 2) measuring the degree of thermal equilibrium in combustion using spectrally resolve demission spectroscopy; and 3) working with Dr. Lee and his graduate students to analyze the obtained combustion data. See full biosketch here.

Dr. Wen Li

1216 Engineering
wenli@egr.msu.edu

Dr. Wen Li: Implantable brain-machine interface. Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) allow the control and communication of prosthetic devices (e.g., robotic limbs) with neurons through an individual’s brain signals, which provide a new therapy to restore motor control in severely disabled patients such as spinal cord injury and stroke. Dr. Li’s research focuses on the development of advanced BMIs to permit seamless communication between the central nervous system and the machine, by integrating recording and stimulation microdevices on biocompatible and flexible polymer platforms. Potential research projects for teachers include: (1) Evaluating the long-term stability and reliability of the microscale neural interface using accelerated lifetime soak testing; and (2) implementing an educational interactive interface for LEGO robotics control.

http://www.egr.msu.edu/people/profile/wenli

Dr. Wei Liao

202 Farrall Hall
liaow@msu.edu

Dr. Liao: Biofuels and Renewable Energy. The focus of Dr. Liao’s research is in the area of biofuels and bioproducts, with an emphasis on development of environmentally friendly processes to convert agricultural crops and residues to value –added energy/chemical products. Addressing both the energy and environment issues, Dr. Liao’s group has a number of research projects that middle and high school teachers can contribute to. These include: 1) development of a biological process to treat lignocellulosic feedstock forethanol biorefining; 2) coproduction of hydrogen, methane, and biorefinery feedstock from lignocellulosic residues by psychrotrophic microbial consortia; 3) production of bio-ethanol refinery feed stock using anaerobic digestion for lignocellulose pretreatment 4) and development of an integrated small-scale animal manure management system to improve energy efficiency and generate high-value co-products. See full biosketch here.

Dr. Philip McKinley

1133 Engineering
mckinley@cse.msu.edu

Dr. Philip McKinley: Evolutionary robotics. Much of Dr. McKinley’s research focuses on the evolution of cooperative behavior such as collective foraging, group-oriented predation, patrolling a region, and global synchronization/consensus, sometimes with evolved behavior transplanted into commercial robots. Recently, Dr. McKinley has started to addresses the application of computational evolution to both the behavior and morphology of robots, with a focus on evolving and fabricating flexible robotic components. Project examples for teachers include: (1) translating evolution of a cooperative behavior, such as group predation, into a game-like environment suitable for high school or middle school students; (2) investigation of novel physical structures and corresponding controllers through computational evolution, 3D fabrication, and experimental evaluation on the Evolution Park Testbed; (3) translation of new research results (e.g., most effective combination of morphology and gait) into robots that can be demonstrated in the classroom.

http://www.egr.msu.edu/people/profile/mckinle3

Dr. Charles Ofria

2140 Engineering
ofria@msu.edu

Dr. Ofria: Digital Evolution. Dr. Ofria’s research focuses on using evolution of digital organisms to improve the understanding of how natural evolution works, and then applying this knowledge to solving computational problems. In digital evolution, a population of self-replicating computer programs is subjected to external pressures (such as mutations and limited resources) and allowed to evolve subject to natural selection. With these digital organisms, one can produce hundreds to thousands of generations per hour while recording every detail of their evolution and use the data to answer questions in biology and complex systems. Potential projects for teachers include: 1) experimenting with the digital evolution platform Avida to explore intriguing questions in biology, such as evolution of sex and evolution of genetic structures; 2) using digital evolution to search for intelligent behaviors for engineered systems, e.g., groups of autonomous robots; and 3) adapting Avida-ED (http://avida-ed.msu.edu/), an educational tool to teach evolution in undergraduate biology class, for use in high school biology class. See full biosketch here.

Dr. S. Patrick Walton

3249 Engineering
spwalton@msu.edu

Dr. Walton: Biomolecular Engineering. Dr. Walton’s research is focused on the development of nucleic acid-based technologies, with application to therapeutic strategies targeting diseases-related gene expression. For example, he is investigating RNA interference (RNAi) as a mechanism for inhibiting gene expression. A potential approach to RNAi in mammalian cells is to first transport a short interfering RNA (siRNA) to cytoplasm, then bind siRNA to certain proteins to form RISC loading complex (RLC) and RISC (RNA-induced silencing complex), and finally hybridize RISC in the targeted region of the messenger RNA (mRNA) to silence the target gene. The goal of Dr. Walton’s research is to understand the critical biophysical and biochemical parameters involved in such processes, and in turn, tune these parameters to achieve improved technologies. Potential projects for teachers include: 1) investigating the performance of candidate siRNAs in silencing target mRNAs using experiments and models developed by Dr. Walton’s group; 2) learning the concept of synthetic biology, by building a particular reaction pathway using a set of given organisms that contain enzymes for certain reactions; and 3) designing nanoscale drug delivery vehicles, given desired properties for such vehicles for a prescribed drug cargo. These projects will be designed for the teachers to learn the concepts of RNAi, synthetic biology, and nanobiotechnology, while contributing to the lab research. See full biosketch here.