Author: Daniel Wysling

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Three University of Maryland engineers have been awarded new National Science Foundation (NSF) grants through an NSF program that fosters research on how human neural and cognitive systems interact and intersect with advances in engineering, computer science and education.

These grants are among 19 NSF awards issued to U.S. cross-disciplinary teams to conduct work that is  “bold, risky, and transcends the perspectives and approaches typical of single-discipline research efforts.” According to the agency, the awards will contribute to NSF’s investments in fundamental brain research, in particular support of Understanding the Brain and the BRAIN Initiative, a coordinated research effort that seeks to accelerate the development of new neurotechnologies.

Professor Jonathan Simon, who holds joint appointments in electrical and computer engineering (ECE), biology and UMD’s Institute for Systems Research (ISR), and Assistant Professor Behtash Babadi, who holds joint appointments in ECE and ISR, have received a $900,000 grant for research that will take advantage of recent advances in noninvasive neuroimaging to learn more about how the brain’s neural mechanisms work in adaptive auditory processing. Simon and Babadi are two of more than 140 UMD faculty in the university’s Brain and Behavior Initiative, which seeks to revolutionize the interface between engineers and neuroscientists by generating novel tools and approaches to understand complex behaviors produced by the human brain.

UMD Associate Professor Sarah Bergbreiter, who holds a joint appointment in mechanical engineering and ISR,  and two colleagues from Northwestern University, L. Catherine Brinson and Mitra Hartmann, were awarded a $1,000,000 grant to better understand how animals use the sense of touch to gather information and then use this information to perform complex behaviors. The University of Maryland’s portion of the grant is $320,000.

Using brain imaging to study how our brains adapt  to varying sound environments 

Recent, growing evidence suggests that sophisticated brain functions happen when more than one region of the brain is activated at the same time, and the brain forms networks between these regions that can dynamically reconfigure. These networks allow humans to rapidly adapt to changes in their sound environment, such as when walking from a quiet street into a noisy party. Currently, little is known about the workings of these brain networks, which bind, organize, and give meaning to higher cognitive functions.

Adaptive auditory processing is one such higher function. It is the brain’s ability to attend to, segregate, and track one of many sound sources, to learn its identity, commit it to memory, robustly recognize it, and use it to make decisions. And it is in this area that the new NSF funding will support new research by Simon and Babadi.

“Deciphering the neural mechanisms underlying the brain’s network dynamics is critical to understanding how the brain carries out universal cognitive processes such as attention, decision-making and learning,” notes Simon. “However, the sheer high-dimensionality of dynamic neuroimaging data, together with the complexity of these [brain] networks, has created serious challenges, in practice, in its data analysis, signal processing, and neural modeling.”

The researchers will use modern signal processing techniques to combine high temporal resolution, non-invasive recordings with high spatial resolutions.

“Our work will bring new insight to the dynamic organization of cortical networks at unprecedented spatiotemporal resolutions, and can thereby impact technology in the areas of brain-computer interfacing and neuromorphic engineering,” says Babadi. “It will also allow for the creation of engineering solutions for early detection and monitoring of cognitive disorders involving auditory perception and attention.”

Neuromorphic engineering is the use of a very large-scale system of integrated circuits to mimic neuro-biological architectures present in the nervous system.

Using robotic whiskers to help understand how animal brains’ use real ones

The research by Bergbreiter and her two Northwestern colleagues will advance understanding of how animals first gather information through the sense of touch and then how the use this information to perform complex behaviors.  At Maryland, Bergbreiter will be developing artificial, modular, reconfigurable whiskers that imitate the functions of animal whiskers.

The whiskers will be mounted on robotic platforms that can mimic the head movements of animals, contributing to the development of novel robots and sensors that use touch to sense an object’s location, shape, and texture, to track fluid wakes in water, and to sense the direction of airflow.

“Engineering arrays of sensors to serve as physical models of a rat’s whiskers will allow us to better understand the connections between what a rat senses and its actions,” Bergbreiter says. “Using this understanding, we can design robots with the ability to explore dark areas or work in other challenging environments that require a sense of touch or flow.”

The NSF Neural and Cognitive Science Program

The complexities of brain and behavior pose fundamental questions in many areas of science and engineering, drawing intense interest across a broad spectrum of disciplinary perspectives while eluding explanation by any one of them. Rapid advances within and across disciplines are leading to an increasingly interconnected fabric of theories, models, empirical methods and findings, and educational approaches, opening new opportunities to understand complex aspects of neural and cognitive systems through integrative multidisciplinary approaches. According to NSF this program seeks to support innovative, integrative, boundary-crossing proposals that can best capture those opportunities

“It takes insight and courage to tackle these problems,” said Ken Whang, NSF program director in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE). “These teams are combining their expertise to try to forge new paths forward on some of the most complex and important challenges of understanding the brain. They are posing problems in new ways, taking intellectual and technical risks that have huge potential payoff.”

Source: UMD Right Now News Story.

College Park, Md. — On August 14, 2017, state and university leaders gathered at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) campus to officially launch the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute (MEI²), created by the state to turn research breakthroughs by Maryland academic institutions into commercial, clean energy solutions that meet the needs of the state and its people.

“[The Maryland Energy Innovation Institute] of course is a great collaboration between the University of Maryland and the Maryland Clean Energy Center, which has been a really important part of the state’s strategy for consistency in our clean energy policies,” said U.S. Senator for Maryland Chris Van Hollen. “More than 100 [University of Maryland] faculty have been involved already in developing breakthrough technologies in the areas of solar, wind, energy efficiency, and battery and fuel cell technology, and [the University] will expand those efforts with the launch of this institute.”

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan authorized $7.5 million in state funding earlier this year for MEI², an initiative that is designed to catalyze clean energy research programs at academic institutions in the state and attract and develop private investment in clean energy innovation and commercialization. The institute will seek to bolster economic jobs in the clean energy industry sector in Maryland, and also promote the deployment of clean energy technology throughout the state.

MEI² is a partnership between the state’s Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC), directed by Katherine Magruder, and the University of Maryland Energy Research Center (UMERC), directed by Eric Wachsman and situated within UMD’s A. James Clark School of Engineering. Wachsman is also director of MEI².

“Clean energy is an engineering challenge of our day and, more importantly, of the 21^st century,” said Darryll Pines, dean of UMD’s A. James Clark School of Engineering and Nariman Farvardin Professor. “Because of the extraordinary commitment of our elected officials who are here today with us, and our partners across the campus and state, we can continue to grow investments in clean energy, innovation, and commercialization for the State of Maryland.”

“When you look at our energy past and our energy future, the first gas lamps in North America turned on in Baltimore almost 200 years ago exactly. The pivot to fossil fuels started here in Maryland—so, isn’t it fitting that the pivot to the next generation of energy also happens in Maryland,” said Maryland State Senator Richard Madaleno. “That’s why I’m so excited, the General Assembly is so excited, to participate in [the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute] so that the clean energy revolution starts here, and we can capture in Maryland not only the environmental benefits, but the economic benefits, as well.”

Additional speakers included University of Maryland President Wallace Loh; Mary Beth Tung, director of the Maryland Energy Administration; and Joshua Greene, chairman of the MCEC board and vice president of A.O. Smith. Also present were Maryland State Delegate Tawanna Gaines, other government officials, and corporate partners, as well as UMD researchers affiliated with the institute who showcased examples of the kind of battery, fuel cell, solar, and energy efficiency technologies that MEI² will work to move into commercial use.

Source: James Clark School of Engineering News Story.

Title: FRAMEWORK FOR SMALL FATIGUE CRACK PROPAGATION AND DETECTION JOINT MODELING USING GAUSSIAN PROCESS REGRESSION

Date and Time: Tuesday,August 22nd,2017  from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Location: DeWALT Conference Room, Glenn Martin Hall

Committee:

Dr. Mohammad Modarres (Chair)

Dr. Enrique Lopez Droguett

Dr. Aris Christou

Dr. Monifa Vaughn-Cooke

Dr. Sung Lee (Dean’s Representative)

Today’s robots can perform more complex tasks than robots of a decade ago, and they’re at work in a variety of industries. With increased complexity and usage growth in mind, the scope of robotics research is expanding.

Several advancements have fueled robotics development, including Internet of Things connectivity that permits devices to be mobile, says John Santagate, a research manager at IDC.

“The growth today is a function of the technology that surrounds robotics: sensors, artificial intelligence, improvements in safety and software,” he says. “That’s really driving the current levels of adoption.”

More Streamlined Software Eases Communication

Standardized software now makes it easier for various components of a robotic system to communicate, says Cornelia Fermuller, an associate research scientist at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies and instructor at the Maryland Robotics Center.

“If I want a robot to pick something up, a camera has to point at it and give me the images, and those images have to be passed to software that controls the arm and maybe plans how it moves. The planning software has to call the arm, and the arm starts executing,” Fermuller says. “Before, I’d have to do every stage from scratch. Now, the vision and the executor talk to each other.”

In recent years, UM researchers have pursued exploratory projects, ranging from developing a robotic ­system that learns to cook by watching online videos to creating Robo Raven, a robotic bird. Much of their current work involves robots interacting with unstructured environments, says Sarah Bergbreiter, the center’s director and an associate professor of mechanical engineering.

Industry Experts Needed for Robotic Future

Unlike a factory setting, where robots might be stationary, unstructured environments require robots to perceive and avoid obstacles as they move around an area. For example, a robot might be equipped with a processing architecture that allows it to reason and learn how to respond to complex goals.

“The idea is being able to perceive your world. That requires a lot of computation and computer vision — a lot of emphasis on use, for example, of graphics processing, sensor processing and learning algorithms,” Bergbreiter says. “Robotics has changed quite a bit in the last decade or two. We’re moving away from the paradigm of giant robots to smaller, more social robots being used in applications beyond manufacturing and defense.”

Some institutions are already preparing for this emerging field. At the University of Michigan, construction of the $75 million Ford Motor Company Robotics Building is under way, and the University of Pennsylvania has launched an online robotics course.

“In the future, there will be far more robotics and, therefore, a demand for folks who understand how to engineer from a mechanical and application perspective,” Santagate says. “Autonomous vehicles, warehouse robotics, medical robotics — all of those areas are going to take off. There’s going to be a lot of incentive for academic institutions to train students.”

On August 3, the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland received one of twelve grants awarded by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for the sole purpose of mitigating disasters. Peter Sunderland, FPE Professor and PI on the Project entitled, “Temperature Measurements of Airborne Firebrands,” will use the funding to study the wildland urban interface (WUI). Wildfires have become a huge problem in the U.S. Indeed, the federal government spends over $1 billion every year in suppression costs. A better understanding of firebrands (i.e. pieces of burning wood), which are the main reason these fires continue to spread and burn out of control, could significantly mitigate wildland fire destruction. Size and temperature are significant attributes of firebrands, although their temperatures have not yet been studied.

“An improved understanding of firebrand temperature is crucial to understanding the viability of firebrands to ignite spot fires,” Sunderland stated in his NIST proposal. “If the temperatures of airborne firebrands can be measured easily and accurately in laboratories and in wildland fires, the [data obtained] could be transformational,” providing improved fire resistance to communities in WUI areas (e.g. northern California and Montana, where developed areas mix with natural areas). This NIST proect will begin August 15.

Over the summer, Sunderland was also informed of his receipt of funding for a National Science Foundation (NSF) project. This project, also supported by NASA ACME (Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments) and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), will study cool diffusion flames (CDFs) – a phenomenon first observed aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2012.

“Cool diffusion flames aren’t very hearty, and require very special conditions to ignite and continue burning,” said Sunderland. “On Earth, buoyancy sweeps the gases away before a cool diffusion flame can establish itself. This is where a microgravity environment will be key. CDFs probably require large fuels like propane or butane, but no one knows…. yet.”

The conditions necessary for CDFs to ignite and burn consistently will be studied aboard the ISS over a three-year period beginning September 1. The data collected will yield valuable insight into cool flame chemical kinetics and, hopefully, aid in the development of cleaner, more efficient internal combustion engines – currently a huge driver of pollution and the so-called ‘greenhouse effect.’

Related Media:

UMD Experiments Launched into Orbit on SpaceX Capule – June 6, 2017

Gravity’s grip on heat and fire to be studied in space – August 9, 2017 (NSF)