Categories
Workshops, Seminars, & Events

 NextProf Pathfinder applications are now open!

The University of California San Diego and the University of Michigan are pleased to announce the 2022 NextProf Pathfinder Future Faculty Workshop on October 2-4, hosted in La Jolla, California.

This workshop is designed for 1st and 2nd year Ph.D. students and master’s students intending to apply to a Ph.D. program. NextProf Pathfinder prepares participants for a successful career in academia over three days by offering information from current faculty on what it takes to build a competitive graduate school record to obtain a faculty position in the professoriate.

NextProf Pathfinder encourages those in groups underrepresented in the engineering and computer science professoriate to pursue careers in academia. It is open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents of any ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ability, veteran status, socio-economic status, first generation to college status, and religion. All travel and housing costs are covered for accepted applicants.

Applications are now open on https://nextprofpathfinder.engin.umich.edu/, and will close on June 22nd.

Categories
Jobs/Internships

Full Time Non-Tenure Track Position at Rice University

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas, invites applications for a full-time, benefits-eligible, non-tenure-track lecturer position beginning July 1, 2022. The initial term of appointment is one academic year, which may be renewed contingent upon performance, availability of resources and the needs of programs. The successful candidate will teach three class sections per semester in courses or laboratories focused on mechanics, statics, dynamics, and/or CAD.  Service duties include student advising and outreach as well as participation in department committees with an undergraduate focus. Rice University is committed to a culturally diverse intellectual community. In this spirit, we particularly welcome applications from all genders and members of historically underrepresented groups who exemplify diverse cultural experiences and who are especially qualified to mentor and advise all members of our diverse student population.


Qualifications: Candidates must have a PhD degree in mechanical engineering conferred by June 2022,  be eligible to work in the U.S., and have demonstrated potential for excellence in teaching. Familiarity with and/or interest in engineering education, undergraduate teaching at the introductory level, and curricular issues is preferred. Apply here: https://apply.interfolio.com/106842

Categories
Jobs/Internships

Doctoral Researcher needed at the The Finnish Meteorological Institute in Finland.  

MIs Climate system modelling -group seeks a doctoral researcher positioned in Helsinki, Finland.

The Climate System Modelling group studies the physical and chemical processes, interactions and feedbacks of the climate system. Atmospheric aerosols, radiation, clouds, snow and interactions between atmosphere, land and oceans are the main research subjects. The group develops and uses a wide range of different models including process-level, large-eddy simulation, regional climate, Earth system, and integrated assessment models. Groups climate simulations are also used to support regional and global adaptation and impact studies of climate change.

You will participate in the Academy of Finland-funded research project Designing robust climate strategies with Negative Emission Technologies under deep uncertainties and risk accumulation (NETS). The work consists of using a simplified climate system model to examine how the uncertainties in proposed carbon removal techniques (so-called negative emissions techniques) relate to uncertainties in the global climate system, such as to the climate sensitivity. With the climate model, your task is to generate a large set of simulations spanning uncertainties in climate system response. The results of these simulations are then the base of more detailed analysis with Gaussian process emulators . The task involves collaborating with other researchers in the project, especially in utilizing the results for designing optimal emission reduction strategies. The task also includes writing scientific publications aiming for an article-based dissertation, as well as collaborating with international partners.

APPLY HERE; the deadline is MAY 19TH, 2022: https://www.valtiolle.fi/en-US/Vacancy?id=31-107-2022

Categories
Jobs/Internships

Multiple job openings at the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering

Post-Doctoral Researcher
Position ID: 11231009
Full Description and Application: https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/90499

Specialist / Software Developer
Position ID: 11240115
Full Description and Application: https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/90498

Graduate/Hourly Assistant
Description: Looking for a candidate with strong problem solving and scientific computing skills to develop/maintain simulation codes in C++. Strong background through coursework and/or experience in the following: C/C++, Object Oriented Programming, Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 or later, Convective Heat and Mass Transfer, Numerical Analysis. Other duties may include writing user manuals for simulation codes (but not required). For the application: Send CV to vikrant@umd.edu


Candidates with strong programming skills (C++, C#) & especially with any professional experience are encouraged to apply. Please email Dr. Vikrant Aute (vikrant@umd.edu) if you have any questions.

Categories
Announcements Defenses

UPCOMING DISSERTATION DEFENSE – VARUN KHEMANI

Name: Varun Khemani
Title: Prognostics and Secure Health Management of Analog Circuits
Committee Members:
Professor Michael G. Pecht, Chair
Dr. Michael H. Azarian, Co-Chair
Professor Peter Sandborn
Professor Abhijit Dasgupta
Professor Mark Fuge
Professor Pamela Abshire, Dean’s Representative

Date: Friday, May 13th, 2022 Time: 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)Location: EGR-2164 (ENGR)
Zoom Link:https://umd.zoom.us/j/96565970442?pwd=MU1xMWJyZUJEbS9zS1Zla21EN3hLdz09
Meeting ID: 965 6597 0442
Passcode: 4VrtYb

Abstract:
Analog circuits are a critical part of industrial circuits and systems. Estimates in the literature show that, even though analog circuits comprise less than 20% of all circuits, they are responsible for more than 80% of faults. Hence, analog circuit prognosis and health management (PHM) is critical to the health of industrial circuits. There are a multitude of ways that any analog circuit can fail, which leads to proportional scaling in the number of possible fault classes with the number of circuit components. Therefore, this research presents an advanced design of experiments-based (DOE) approach to account for components that degrade in an individual and interacting fashion, to narrow down the number of possible fault classes under consideration. A wavelet-based deep-learning approach is developed that can localize the circuit component that is the source of degradation and predict the exact value of the degraded component. This degraded value is used in conjunction with physics-of-failure models to predict when the circuit will fail based on the source of degradation.
Increasing outsourcing in the fabrication of electronic circuits has made them susceptible to the insertion of hardware trojans by untrusted foundries. In many cases, hardware trojans are more destructive than software trojans as they cannot be remedied by a software patch and are impossible to repair. Process reliability trojans are a new class of hardware trojans that are inserted through modification of fabrication parameters and accelerate the aging of circuit components. They are challenging to detect through traditional trojan detection methods as they have zero area footprint i.e., require no insertion of additional circuitry. The PHM approach is modified to detect these hardware trojans in order to incorporate circuit security, resulting in the PSHM framework.
Deep neural networks achieve state-of-the-art performance on classification and regression applications but are a black-box approach, which is a concern for implementation. Wavelets are approximations of cells found in the human visual cortex and cochlea. They were used to develop wavelet scattering networks (WSNs), which were intended to be an interpretable alternative to deep neural networks. WSNs achieve state-of-the-art performance on low to moderately complex datasets but are inferior to deep neural networks for extremely complex datasets. Improvements are made to WSNs to overcome their shortcomings in terms of performance and learnability. Further applications of the research are highlighted for rotating machinery vibration analytics, functional safety online estimation. 

Categories
Announcements Workshops, Seminars, & Events

2022 Spring MeGrad Award Ceremony

Thank you to all of those who attended our Annual Spring Award Ceremony and congratulations again to all of our awardees on your many achievements and successes! You can explore photos from the event by clicking here.

Categories
Defenses Uncategorized

UPCOMING DISSERTATION DEFENSE – JOSEPH BAKER

Name: Joseph Baker

Title: ANALYSIS OF MASS TRANSFER IN ELECTROCHEMICAL MEMBRANE PUMPING DEVICES

Committee Members:

Professor Reinhard Radermacher, Chair
Research Professor Yunho Hwang, Co-Chair
Professor Chunsheng Wang
Associate Professor Katrina Groth
Professor Bao Yang
Professor Peter Sunderland, Dean’s Representative

Date: Thursday, May 12th, 2022
Time: 2:00PM
Location: CEEE conference room, 088-4164B
Zoom Link: https://umd.zoom.us/j/2448374295

Abstract:

Considering the environmental challenges posed by traditional energy systems, we must strive to
seek out innovative strategies to sustainably meet today’s demands for energy and quality of life.
Energy systems using electrochemical (EC) energy conversion methods may help us to transition
to a more sustainable energy future by providing intermittent renewable energy storage and
improving building energy efficiency. EC pumping devices are a novel technology that use
chemical reactions to pump, compress, or separate a given working fluid. These devices operate
without any moving parts. Unlike mechanical pumps and compressors, they operate silently,
producing no vibrations and requiring no lubrication. In this dissertation, I examine the
applicability for EC pumping devices in energy storage via compressed ammonia and in
dehumidification for air conditioning.

Hydrogen fuel cells are a promising technology for on-demand renewable power generation.
While storage of pure hydrogen fuel remains a problem, ammonia is an excellent hydrogen
carrier with far less demanding storage requirements. EC ammonia compression opens the door
to several possibilities for separating, compressing, and storing ammonia for intermittent power
generation. Using the same proton exchange membranes commonly used in fuel cells, I
demonstrated successful ammonia compression under a variety of operating conditions. I
examined the performance of a small-scale ammonia EC compressor, measuring the compression
and separation performance. I also conducted experiments to investigate the steady-state
performance of a multi-cell ammonia EC compressor stack, observing a maximum isothermal
efficiency of 40% while compressing from 175 kPa to 1,000 kPa. However, back diffusion of
ammonia reduced the amount of effluent ammonia by as much as 67%.

Dehumidification represents a significant portion of air conditioning energy requirements.
Separate sensible and latent cooling using EC separation of water may provide an energy
efficient thermal comfort solution for the hot and humid parts of the world. I conducted
experiments of several EC dehumidifier, considering both proton exchange and anion exchange
processes. Diffusion of the working fluid was significant in this application as well. I observed a
maximum Faradaic efficiency for dehumidification of 40% for a 50 cm2 cell using an anion
exchange membrane under the most favorable case. I developed a novel open-air EC
dehumidifier prototype. To alleviate the back diffusion issue, I investigated a method for mass
transfer enhancement using high-voltage fields. I also developed a numerical model to simulate
the performance of the EC dehumidifier devices, predicting the experimentally measured
performance to within 25%.

Categories
Jobs/Internships

Quality Assurance role at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

The job(s) available are for a Quality Assurance (QA) role in the USACE, working specifically on decommissioning army nuclear reactors. The information that was passed to me is:

This position is located in the North Atlantic Baltimore Division, the Environmental and Munitions Design Center (EMDC), Remedial Investigations and Design Section.  The mission of the EMDC is to provide district program and project management; design management; and field oversight for Hazardous Toxic and Radioactive Waste (HTRW) and Military Munitions (MM) projects executed by Baltimore District. In addition, the EMDC serves as a regional HTRW Design Center, a regional Center of expertise for Radiological Health Physics, and a national MM Design Center. The EMDC is organized into the following groups: Military PM Section, Civil PM Section, Remedial Investigation and Design Section, Environmental Safety Office, Munitions Safety Office, Radiological Safety Office, and Front Office.

Job Duties include:

-Identify common hazards related to general worker safety practices during demolition or remediation activities executed by tradesmen or craftsmen, and the equipment used, such as critical lifts, industrial machinery.

-Provide general surveillance of quality assurance activities for demolition/decommissioning projects.

-Determine work methods or approaches for conducting demolition or remediation of structures on land areas impacted by radioactive materials.

-Serve as a consult to personnel on the field engineering aspects of an assigned Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Project, to include, but not limited to, SM-1A Reactor in Fort Greely Alaska, and SM-1 in Fort Belvoir, VA.

For additional information, please reach out to our Radiological Center of Expertise Chief, Mr. David Watters, (443) 702-6177, david.j.watters@usace.army.mil.

The project websites are:

https://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Missions/Environmental/SM-1/

https://www.nab.usace.army.mil/SM-1A/

Categories
Fellowships & Scholarships

2022 ExxonMobil LOFT Fellowship Program

ExxonMobil LOFT Fellowship

ExxonMobil Corporation, the largest publicly traded international energy company, has partnered with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) to create fellowship opportunities in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) for Hispanic college students. Through HHF’s Latinos On Fast Track (LOFT) program, ExxonMobil seeks to nurture motivated college students across the country, with a passion for Engineering and Science.

Selected students will be exposed to a top-quality company by participating in this signature mentoring program. Each student will be paired up with an ExxonMobil professional to learn how their knowledge and skills are applied in a corporate setting. 

Fellowship Components
The Fellowship consists of five 1-hour meetings with a mentor (virtual or in person), participation in the Harvard-certified ExxonMobil mentee program (on-line), an exclusive curriculum to introduce Fellows to ExxonMobil and career opportunities, and a $1,000 educational grant. In addition, there exists the possibility to interview for ExxonMobil positions (internships/full-time) upon successful completion of the Fellowship.

Fellowship Requirements
This opportunity is highly competitive and open to rising sophomores, juniors, Seniors, and Graduate Students attending a 4-year college or university.
Fellowship applicants with the following majors will be given priority: 

·       Civil Engineering

·       Chemical Engineering 

·       Computer Engineering

·       Electrical Engineering

·       Geoscience 

·       Material Science and Engineering 

·       Mechanical Engineering


Applicants with these majors will be considered also: Chemistry, Computer Science Environmental Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mathematics, Petroleum Engineering, and Physics.

Other Requirements:

·       Must plan to pursue a career in the fields/majors listed above

·       Have a GPA of 3.5 or higher

·       Be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States with a valid Social Security Number at the time of application. All legal permanent residents must submit a copy of their valid permanent resident card or passport stamped I-551 (not expired).

 
For the 2022 ExxonMobil LOFT Fellowship

If you have questions please contactJulian@hispanicheritage.org. Please use “ExxonMobil LOFT Fellowship” in the subject line.

The 2022 ExxonMobil LOFT Fellowship Application will close May 15, 2022, @11:59 p.m EDT.


This opportunity available through the LOFT program are for Hispanic students.

Categories
Workshops, Seminars, & Events

Trailblazers in Engineering Program

The deadline for receiving applications from TBE (Black/ Latinx Trailblazers) is June 2nd and the actual program will be held in-person on Purdue campus on July 26-28th, 2022. Apply here: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/Trailblazers