Graduate Research

‘��-Dearborn is a respected institution . . . I feel very lucky to study here’

stuxbury — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 18:08:09 +0000

‘��-Dearborn is a respected institution . . . I feel very lucky to study here’ stuxbury Sun, 02/02/2025 - 13:08

Sambathchatovong Na is ��-Dearborn’s first Fulbright Scholar studying in a doctoral program. This point of pride can be added to other experiences he’s had. Na, who goes by the first name Vong, is a volunteer researcher with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, commonly known as UNESCO, through their Asia-Pacific Regional Center of the CultureLink Network. Na has also heard President Barack Obama speak — and shook his hand.

Na, who has a reserved, humble nature, appreciates the experiences that he’s had. He sees them as milestones on his path to help others.“President Obama spoke about how we need to work together to effectively solve problems and he encouraged us to not sit back, but to get involved,” says Na, a cybersecurity professional who was selected as a Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative fellow in 2015. This is a still-active program created by the Obama administration that aims to build leadership capabilities and cross-border cooperation for solving global challenges. “I want to be a part of advancing cybersecurity technology — which changes second by second — while also helping shape how it is used through public policy.”

Na is learning to do this through his latest endeavors — studying in the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s Computer Information Systems doctoral program as a Fulbright Scholar, with CIS Professor Di Ma as his advisor. Ma is a cybersecurity and information assurance expert.

Na wants to strengthen his country’s education and legislation in the always-evolving industry by seeing how other nations fight hackers and enforce the safety measures in ways that work for the citizens.“Cambodia, my country, has not passed cybersecurity laws to protect our infrastructure yet. It’s in the process. I’m hoping, with my combined experiences, that I’m a person who can assist with this,” he says. “I am very appreciative that I am here to earn my degree and Dr. Ma is helping me meet my research goals.” His goals include drafting a cybersecurity framework for Cambodia that balances government and citizen needs when it comes to security and privacy, along with appropriate enforcement. Na also hopes that his degree will assist him in contributing to Cambodia’s foreign policy direction in cyber diplomacy.

Na has worked in the cybersecurity field in Cambodia for nearly a decade, both in the private and public sector. He established information technology security and IT governance departments for a bank in his country, Na has served as a cybersecurity-advising official for Cambodia's deputy prime minister cabinet. And Na teaches at two universities — American University of Phnom Penh and Royal University of Phnom Penh — to develop the next generation of Cambodia's cybersecurity experts and grow interest in the field.

“I started with an interest in the technology aspect, but the more we learn and things change — like AI and data-science mining — the more I’ve become interested in the public policy surrounding it,” he says, noting that the U.S. is a good place to study because there are many U.S. protection laws related to cybersecurity.

When applying for the Fulbright award, Na had his sights set on ��-Dearborn after reading about the university’s faculty expertise in the computer science field and seeing the number of research publications. “I looked for the best programs in the United States. ��-Dearborn is a respected institution in my field with professors who have published research in prestigious journals and have connections to industry. I feel very lucky to study here,” he says.

Na earned his undergraduate degree from Royal University of Phnom Penh and a master’s degree in cybersecurity from the University of Southampton in England, where he attended as a Chevening Scholar, which is a fully funded award to study in the United Kingdom.

“I had dreams to study in other countries for programming skills, networking and learning how other countries do things so I can help my country build a framework for cybersecurity. The resources for education in cybersecurity are limited in Cambodia, so I kept looking for ways to go out and bring what I learn back with me so I can teach others,” Na says. “It’s hard to study abroad when you don’t have the money. I kept applying even when I didn’t have success at first. You don’t give up on your dreams.”

Na’s parents must have known about their son’s commitment and drive from the beginning — as evidenced by his name. “My first name, ‘Sambathachatovong,’ is three words put together,” Na says. “‘Sambath’ symbolizes a richness or a wealth. ‘Chato’ is because I am the fourth born. ‘Vong,’ which is short for ‘Vong Trokaul', is for family tree. It’s about working together to bring about a richness. It doesn’t need to be about money, it can be about knowledge or community.”

Now in his second semester at ��-Dearborn, Na says he has met friends, enjoys the campus and has the best of all worlds by being a part of the U-M system. “Both campuses are beautiful and provide very good, but different, things. Going to Ann Arbor is great for being in a busy place and meeting up with friends. Staying in Dearborn is nice because it is peaceful and welcoming and your professors and colleagues look out for you.”

In addition to traveling to Ann Arbor — Na first took the train, which is walking distance from campus, but now has a car — he’s planning to see other parts of Michigan. He especially wants to travel to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to see its forests, rock formations and waterfalls.

Na shares his fun Michigan adventures and plans with his family and friends in Cambodia and looks forward to the day when he can share his completed research work too.“I’ve been building layers of education for many years to help me become a qualified person to help advise my country,” he says. “I am grateful for all of my experiences, but my time at ��-Dearborn is especially important. Earning my PhD here is a big step forward when it comes to reaching my goals.”

Story by Sarah Tuxbury

Graduate Research

International

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Graduate Studies

Off

Sun, 02/02/2025 - 18:07

Meet Sambathchatovong Na, ��-Dearborn’s first doctoral Fulbright Scholar. He’s a cybersecurity professional from Cambodia who’s in CECS’ computer information systems program.

Sambathchatovong Na, who goes by Vong, is ��-Dearborn's first doctoral Fulbright student. Photo by Annie Barker

‘Healing’ batteries with ultrasonics

lblouin — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 17:59:20 +0000

‘Healing’ batteries with ultrasonics lblouin Wed, 01/08/2025 - 12:59

High-capacity batteries have emerged as an essential building block of the clean energy future, but it likely won’t be today’s lithium-ion batteries alone that get us there. That’s because, as powerful and ubiquitous as they are, lithium-ion batteries have some major limitations. For starters, they are very heavy — a fundamental quality that curbs the range of today’s electric vehicles and basically rules them out as an option for powering commercial aircraft. The world’s growing demand for the minerals needed to manufacture lithium-ion batteries also requires ever expanding mining operations, which have environmental, climate and geopolitical consequences. And on the safety front, the liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion batteries are highly flammable, which is one reason why electric vehicle battery fires can be so catastrophic.

Because of these issues, researchers are developing new kinds of batteries, including solid-state batteries, which are lighter, can hold more energy for their weight and require fewer materials. They are also considered safer, since, as the name suggests, they don’t require a liquid electrolyte. But mechanical engineering postdoc research fellow Yaohong Xiao, who works with Associate Professor Lei Chen, says that last quality is both a blessing and a curse. Inside a typical lithium-ion battery, the liquid electrolyte is responsible for transferring charged particles back and forth between the cathode and anode sides of the battery, which is necessary both for charging and discharging. Because this electrolyte is a liquid, Xiao says it creates a nearly uniform interface between the two sides of the battery, since liquids naturally fill tiny nooks and crannies that might exist between the anode and cathode materials. In a solid-state battery, however, the electrolyte separating the anode and cathode sides is a strong, stiff, solid piece of material, and Xiao says that makes it more difficult to get really good contact between the two sides. “Essentially, you have solid on solid on solid,” Xiao explains. “Right after manufacturing, you might have no problem with this interface, but after a few cycles, or after the battery has experienced vibrations from being on the road, you start to get little voids in the interface so the electrolyte is no longer making perfect contact with both sides of the battery.” As a result, Xiao says a battery can develop zones of higher than usual current, which reduces its overall effectiveness.

Typically, Xiao says researchers have tried to solve this solid-state battery interface problem in a couple of different ways. First, they use pressure to basically squish all the components back together. Or they can use an “interlayer” material, which, kind of like double-sided tape, keeps the anode and cathode materials snug up against the solid electrolyte. But each approach has its limitations. Xiao says introducing interlayers to a process is typically expensive. That might not be a huge deal for experiments in a lab, but it would increase the already high costs of solid-state batteries when they’re being manufactured at scale. On the other hand, Xiao says using pressure to smooth out the interface is sort of like trying to squish two pieces of wood together. The rigidity of the lumber and any imperfections along the surfaces mean that pressure alone often isn’t enough to create perfect contact.

A couple years ago, Xiao began kicking around a sort of unconventional solution for this interface challenge. Xiao’s background is actually in metallurgy, not battery chemistry, and he saw this issue primarily as a question of how to get different metals to stick together. As it turns out, this is actually a pretty common problem in the metals universe, and one with a variety of well-established solutions. Specifically, Xiao was thinking that a technique called ultrasonic welding might be able to “heal” the voids in the interface, restoring uniform contact with the electrolyte. Ultrasonic healing, which is commonly deployed in a wide range of industries to weld pieces of plastic or thin pieces of metal together, uses high-frequency acoustic vibrations instead of high temperatures or solders to join materials together. The result is a highly uniform bond, but the process doesn’t use a whole lot of energy and can be done very quickly. Xiao worked with his postdoc colleague in Chen’s lab, XinXin Yao, who helped provide the theoretical feasibility for the welding concept, to set up an experiment, which revealed that ultrasonic welding could indeed nearly completely restore the uniformity of the electrolyte interface in as little as a minute. Moreover, the process required temperatures barely warmer than the water in your hot water heater and used about as much energy as an old-fashioned incandescent light bulb.

Xiao says the effectiveness of this metals-based approach came as a surprise to many of his colleagues, most of whom are experts in battery chemistry. Now, he’s hoping the results, which were recently published in “Advanced Energy Materials,” will help inspire other researchers to further explore the technique’s full potential. He says one possible application would be to use this as a tune-up strategy for eventual solid-state battery-powered EVs, which could come in for a quick ultrasonic healing treatment and get their optimal range back. And one other surprise finding from his experiment is that ultrasonic welding actually increased the conductivity of the electrolyte, albeit temporarily. That result was particularly intriguing to some colleagues at ��-Ann Arbor, who recently visited the newly established Battery Manufacturing and Testing Lab for a firsthand look. “They were very interested in this point,” Xiao says. “The conductivity would slowly recover after treatment, but they were thinking, what if we can fix that? What if we can figure out a way to not let it recover? So it’s very exciting to see this research already inspiring further work in this area.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Mechanical Engineering

Off

Wed, 01/08/2025 - 17:58

Two mechanical engineering postdoc research fellows have discovered a novel way to solve a pesky challenge with next-generation solid-state batteries.

In Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Lei Chen's lab, postdoc research fellow Yaohong Xiao has been working on developing solid-state batteries, a safer, more energy dense alternative to today's lithium-ion batteries. Photo by Annie Barker

PhD student is helping pave the way for high-performance metals

jpow — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 19:47:57 +0000

PhD student is helping pave the way for high-performance metals jpow Fri, 07/26/2024 - 15:47

Metals are one of the most essential classes of materials for modern life, prized for their strength, flexibility, conductivity, durability and aesthetic beauty. But you don’t always get all these properties in a single metal; in fact, those qualities are sometimes at odds with each other, says second-year mechanical engineering doctoral student Hossein Abbasi. One of the property tradeoffs engineers regularly encounter is between strength and ductility, the latter of which Abbasi says can be thought of as a metal’s elastic ability to temporarily deform and spring back to its original state. Typically, metals that are very strong aren’t very ductile, which makes them brittle. Conversely, metals that have high ductility usually sacrifice strength. The reason, Abbasi says, has to do with their crystalline structure — particularly the size of the “grains” that comprise the metal’s base architecture. Large grains, Abbasi says, make a metal more ductile, while smaller grains give it strength.

Materials scientists are trying to defy this basic rule of physics, however, with a new class of metals called gradient nano-grained metals. Unlike most metals, which have a singular grain size throughout their entire thickness, GNG metals have large grains toward the material’s interior that gradually taper into very small grains at the surface. This continuum of grain sizes gives GNG metals a rare combination of ductility and strength — and thus dozens of interesting possible applications. A turbine blade in an airplane engine, for example, must be both very strong and able to bounce back after impacts in order to avoid catastrophic failure. Similarly, Abbasi says, GNG metals could one day be an ideal material for vehicle suspension components, which have to be strong but also stand up to dynamic loads.

So if GNG metals have such desirable properties, why aren’t they in widespread use already? Abbasi says one reason is they’re still a relatively new class of materials, and as such, materials scientists and engineers don’t fully understand how they perform under a wide variety of conditions. Abbasi’s doctoral research, supervised by Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Lei Chen, is focused on helping engineers get a clearer picture of GNG metal behavior. Abbasi’s biggest contributions thus far are some advanced computer models, which map not only GNG metals’ ideal crystal structure but also defects within the metal. This makes his models much more representative of metals in the real world. “It’s almost impossible to create a perfect metal. In the real world, all metals have some defects, which we call geometrically necessary dislocations,” Abbasi explains, owing to the fact that the grain crystals don’t fit perfectly together. “So if we run our simulations without accounting for these voids in the underlying structure, we don’t get very accurate results compared to the real world.”

Using these highly detailed models, Abbasi can perform a battery of relatively quick, inexpensive tests. In one simulation, for example, he predicted how different grain sizes affect stress and strain behavior. In another, he modeled the effects of different strain rates on the metal’s tendency to “recrystallize,” which refers to the process in which large grains are subdivided into smaller grains as a result of applied stress. Simulations, of course, are only useful if they reflect what happens in the real world, so Abbasi then validated his simulated experiments with collaborators at Michigan State University, who put actual GNG materials through the same tests. This demonstrated that Abbasi’s models are able to provide highly accurate predictions of how the materials actually behave — making them an incredibly useful tool for engineers interested in GNG metal applications.

Abbasi’s work has won the ��-Dearborn doctoral student poster competition two years running — which is particularly impressive given he’s relatively new to the field of computer modeling and simulation. Abbasi came to ��-Dearborn from Iran, where he studied and then lectured at the University of Tabriz. His work focused on nanomaterials, but his research was focused on the manufacturing of experimental materials in the lab. When he was looking for a PhD program in the United States, he says he was attracted to Chen’s work because it combined manufacturing and modeling, giving him an opportunity to broaden his skillset.

Abbasi says his experience at an American university has been great so far, even if his studies will likely require him to be away from his family until his doctoral program is complete. With political relations strained between Iran and the U.S., he said he honestly didn’t know what to expect from Americans, and he was pleasantly surprised by how friendly most people are. “Right from the very start, in fact, when I arrived in Chicago, the border officer asked me to take everything out of my pockets, and I had some snacks I had brought with me from Iran,” he explains. “And he told me that I could not take them with me, that they had to go in the trash. But then a few moments later, he tapped me on the shoulder and brought me a package of nuts to replace the snacks. So here I am, my first minutes in the United States and a border officer is being very nice to me. That made me feel good about my new adventure in the United States.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Mechanical Engineering

Off

Fri, 07/26/2024 - 19:47

Hossein Abbasi’s doctoral research is untangling the mysteries of gradient nano-grain metals, a unique material with some seemingly contradictory properties and dozens of promising applications.

Mechanical engineering doctoral student Hossein Abbasi. Photo by Kristin Palm

Office of Research update: July 2024

stuxbury — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 12:26:12 +0000

Office of Research update: July 2024 stuxbury Mon, 07/08/2024 - 08:26

External Awards Received

The Office of Research is pleased to announce and would like to congratulate our Dearborn faculty members on receipt of the following external funding:

U-M Principal Investigator: Areen Alsaid, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
Project Title: Longitudinal Vehicle Operation
Direct Sponsor: Toyota Motor North America, Inc.
Awarded Amount: $399,595.00
This project aims to enhance customer safety and comfort by integrating various longitudinal vehicle operation (LVO) features such as adaptive cruise control, proactive driving assist, and BEV one-pedal driving. The primary objective is to assess how these LVO features interact and empirically evaluate their impact on driver performance in diverse scenarios. The project will also generate design recommendations and evaluate human-machine interface (HMI) concepts to ensure a cohesive and user-friendly experience for drivers.

U-M Principal Investigator: Joe Zhou, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Project Title: Supplement: Fuel Cell Testing and Modeling: Sample Analysis and Engineering Services for Fuel Cell System Development
Direct Sponsor: Hyzon Motors USA Inc.
Awarded Amount: $134,504
Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells operate by converting hydrogen into electricity through a chemical reaction, with water as the sole byproduct. This project aims to ensure the optimal performance and reliability of Hyzon's fuel cell systems. By leveraging end-of-test (EOT) cells from durability-tested short stacks, along with beginning-of-test (BOT) cells for baseline comparisons, this collaborative effort focuses on analyzing specific sections of the cell, including the cross sections of the bipolar plate and the membrane electrode assembly (MEA).

U-M Principal Investigator: Maggie Wang, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Project Title: Integrated Three-level GaN Inverter and PMsyn RM Motor for Electric Passenger Vehicles and Medium/heavy duty Trucks
Direct Sponsor: University of Tennessee - Knoxville (U.S. Dept of Energy prime)
Awarded Amount: $300,000
The objective of this project is to develop and integrate an 800V/200kW Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based three-level high-power-density inverter and Permanent Magnet assisted synchronous Reluctance Motor (PMsynRM). The inverter will meet the performance targets of high power efficiency, high power density, and low cost, and conform with related vehicle standards. The novel PMsynRM using alternative magnet material and liquid cooling will achieve more than 55kW/l at <$3.3/kW. Together, this innovative, integrated electric traction motor and drive will meet the aggressive, >33 kW/L volume density and <$6/kW cost system targets.

U-M Principal Investigator: Wencong Su, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Project Title: HEVI-LOAD Augmentation for National-Scale Infrastructure Assessment
Direct Sponsor: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (U.S. Dept of Energy prime)
Total Sponsor Authorized Amount: $25,000.00

Dr. Su will assist the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory team (LBNL) to enhance the HEVI-LOAD model fidelity to identify optimal grid interconnection topology and configuration to support future high-power charging medium and heavy-duty (MHD) electric vehicles (EVs). This work will support the development of a national-scale charging infrastructure assessment for future MHD EVs.

Announcements

Mardigian Library Support for Data Management Plans
Data management plan support available from the ��-Dearborn Mardigian Library. Data management planning is often required by funders in the form of a document called a Data Management Plan (DMP) that will describe the handling (collection, storage and archiving) of data collected during your project. A DMP may also need to include plans for the dissemination of your data, (sometimes referred to separately as a Data Sharing Plan). To help faculty navigate data management planning, the ��-Dearborn Mardigian Library offers both a subject guide on Research Data Management as well as a DMP review service.

The ��-Dearborn Mardigian Library’s Research Data Management subject guide covers definitions, online tools for creating a DMP, guidance from ICPSR, example plans and more. Read the Research Data Management subject guide to learn more about DMPs.

��-Dearborn librarians are also available to help answer questions and offer support to faculty improving their DMPs as a part of their DMP review service. To contact a librarian for a DMP review, fill in their DMP review request form.

REMINDER: New NSF Requirements for Biosketch, Current & Pending Forms
The newest NSF PAPPG is in effect for all proposals submitted effective May 20 includes a requirement to use an updated version of both the Current & Pending Support form as well as the Biosketch form from the SciENcv tool. In addition, significant changes have been made to the biographical sketch required for all senior personnel. The biosketch will no longer include the section for “synergistic activities” and instead this will become a separate required document. Instructions for the new Synergistic Activities document are available in our shared folder of Standard NSF Proposal guides & templates resource for faculty.

Effective Oct. 23, 2023, NSF requires all biosketch and current & pending support documents for senior personnel to be prepared using SciENcv. SciENcv offers researchers the option to create a new Current & Pending form or Biosketch for proposals submitted after 5/17/24. It will also allow you to migrate your data from the old form to the new form. In addition, the 3-page limitation of the biographical sketch has been removed–there is no longer any page limitation for this section of the proposal.

Resources for Using SciENcv
U-M Library Services has put together a guidance page to help you get started. You can also request a one-on-one Zoom session with Dearborn Office of Research staff to walk you through this process. Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) is a researcher profile system for all individuals who apply for, receive or are associated with research investments from federal agencies.

Any researcher can register for SciENcv and create multiple biosketches, for different research projects or different funding agencies. You can find much more information about how to use SciENcv on their FAQs page. The central Office of Research and Sponsored Programs has recorded workshops available on how to create a biosketch in SciENcv specifically focused on NSF and NIH. These resources are available linked below:

NSF Biosketch and SciENcv Webinar (July 2020)
- Slide Deck (MLibrary Presentation)
- NSF Biosketch Webinar Transcript
- How to Create Your NSF Biosketch in SciENcv Step-by-step (MLibrary Handout)
NIH Biosketch and SciENcv Webinar (May 2020)
- Slide Deck (MLibrary Presentation)
- NIH Biosketch Webinar Transcript
- Biosketch and SciENcv Step-by-Step (MLibrary Handout)

If you have questions about SciENcv, need additional support, or would like to schedule one-on-one assistance with setting up your SciENcv profile and documents, please email our office at DBN-research@umich.edu.

Research Events in July

MICHR, The Study’s Funded! Now What? Tips to Navigate Study Start Up
- In this workshop, you will learn best practices in preparing for a new study before you submit an IRB application or for beginning a new phase of the research.
- Thursday, July 18, 2024 from 10 a.m. - noon ET (Virtual)
NSF, Shaping the Future of Mathematics Learning and Education: A Scoping Workshop
- This free, online-only event brings together expertise in the Science of Learning, education research, data science and AI to engage a community of interdisciplinary scientists, education researchers and education practitioners, with shared goals of advancing K-12 mathematics learning and education through innovative use of data science and AI.
- Tuesday, July 23 and 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET (Virtual). Registration required.

Research Resource Highlight

Every month, the Office of Research features a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month we are featuring Michigan Research Cores.

The University of Michigan Research Cores website provides a catalog of equipment available in core facilities across campus that are available for use by a researcher or investigator. The Medical School Office of Research, in partnership with the University of Michigan Biosciences Initiative, developed this university-wide research core services directory in response to feedback from research faculty that the University offers rich core infrastructure but it is hard to easily identify the breadth of cores available that can support their research.

To learn more about the Research Cores, sign up for the quarterly At The Core Newsletter, delivering news, events, and more directly to your inbox.

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

Use the updated U-M Research Commons to look up internal (to U-M) funding opportunities and Limited Submission opportunities open to Dearborn researchers.

Contact the ��-Dearborn Office of Research if you would like more information about submitting a proposal to any of the programs.

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Mon, 07/08/2024 - 12:25

See whose work is getting funded, browse new funding opportunities, learn about services that can advance your work and check out this month’s research events.

If you want kids to learn music, teach it like a language

lblouin — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:59:01 +0000

If you want kids to learn music, teach it like a language lblouin Mon, 03/04/2024 - 07:59

The adorably awkward end-of-year music concert featuring kiddos singing their hearts out is a cherished school tradition that Eric Bottorff says he can live without. The Livonia Public Schools elementary music teacher has his reasons for doing away with the “cute concert” genre at his school. For starters, he never wants to set anyone up for disappointment, and the reality is that many of his students have life circumstances that will keep them or their loved ones from attending an after-school event. Prepping a performance is also a huge time suck. The conventional wisdom among music educators, which Bottorff figures is about right, is that every minute of a concert costs a music teacher an hour of instruction. Plus, it’s clear to him that teaching kids to sing a prescribed set of songs, mostly to ensure a cute photo op for their parents, is not the same thing as teaching kids music anyway. Above all, he wants children to leave his classroom feeling like music is “something everyone can do.”

Bottorff’s willingness to experiment with new ways of teaching kids music is earning him recognition and an increasingly large platform for sharing his ideas. He’s a regular presenter at educational conferences, and now gets so many requests for his lesson plans, he’s turned that into a little side business. Here at ��-Dearborn, in addition to being a student in the Department of Education’s doctoral program, he teaches a course on how to incorporate the arts into all kinds of classroom subjects, a key part of which is getting teachers-in-training to see themselves as musical people. Earlier this year, Bottorff received one of his highest-profile accolades: He was named the Michigan Music Educator of the Year by the Michigan Music Education Association, in part for creating a new research-based curriculum for his district that’s more inclusive of the needs of special education students.

Central to Bottorff’s approach is a belief that traditional ways of teaching kids music leave something to be desired. On one end of the spectrum, having children sing songs in unison doesn’t do much to teach them what music actually is. Interestingly, Bottorff says the opposite approach — introducing students to formal musical notation and instrument instruction at a very early age — can leave kids with the same deficits. Instead, Bottorff says we should think about learning music like we do learning a language, an idea that’s supported by research suggesting the brain processes language and music in a similar way. “Very often, in music teaching, we try to jump straight to reading music, as if the note on the page is the only true version of the song,” Bottorff explains. “But realistically, when we learn to read English, or any other language, we’ve had three or four years of hearing people speak it and us speaking it back. But we try to skip all those steps when we try to teach kids music.”

This is why in Bottorff’s classroom, students won’t see musical notation until the end of the second grade. By that time, they’ve had nearly three years to experience music in more developmentally appropriate ways. For example, in kindergarten, Bottorff introduces the students to a diverse range of musical styles, so they can begin to internalize different genres, rhythms and time signatures, using mostly their ears and voices. By first and second grade, they’re starting to learn a bit of vocabulary for reading and writing music. But like a baby learning to babble, they use a language of music that makes sense to them. Quarter notes and eighth notes, for example, are “doos” and “doo-days.” Rhythms and time signatures are learned by clapping hands or stomping feet. Bottorff says this makes the leap to learning musical notation, or an instrument like the recorder or ukulele, a pretty straightforward process by third or fourth grade, since the students already have a working knowledge of what music actually consists of. “I tell my kids my goal is not that you’re a good ukulele player. My goal is when you’re 30 years old, and you need a hobby because you’re tired from working or need a break from your family, you don’t need to call me to learn how to play guitar,” he says. “You can remember some of these skills and figure it out on your own. And feel confident enough to try.”

Bottorff has also revamped how special education students experience music in his classroom. For a variety of reasons, he says music class has traditionally been a “tough time” for many special education students — and the paraprofessionals who aid them throughout their days. When he started teaching special education music classes, he noticed that when students were struggling with a task, their parapros often couldn’t resist the temptation to intervene, either by singing for the student or even taking their hands and clapping for them. So Bottorff collaborated with the aides to come up with some new approaches, based both on his expertise and the parapros’ experience of what worked well for the kids in other settings. “For example, we actually made a poster that hangs in the classroom — the ‘Rules for Adults in the Music Room’ — which I have to hold myself to as well,” he says. “Don’t sing for a kid, let them sing on their own. Let the kids find their own beat. Give them time to process. I mean, we decided that we’re willing to wait 30 seconds for a response, because we want the student to find their way to an outcome that makes sense for them.” Ultimately, his philosophy, which he borrowed from his mother, a retired special education teacher, is to “make sure the kids are happy to show up, sad to leave and are learning something in the middle.” The fact that many of his special education students say music class is their favorite part of the day is an indication that something is working.

Given the impact Bottorff’s had on music education in his district, it may surprise you to learn that he doesn’t see himself in the music field forever. People have been telling him for a while that he’d make a good principal, and he sees how an administrative role would give him a broader platform for creating a supportive educational culture that goes beyond the music room. In fact, his dissertation work at ��-Dearborn isn’t focused on music — a subject he says is so specific it tends to “pigeonhole you as an educator.” Instead, Bottorff is studying various aspects of “advisory,” an educational approach that’s experiencing a bit of a revival. Advisory takes a huge range of forms, but the core idea is that fostering a quasi-parental role for teachers can aid students' social-emotional development. He got a crash course in a fairly intensive form of advisory while he was a young teacher in South Korea. He was assigned 10 sixth graders, for whom he “was their person.” He would meet weekly with the kids, often at the school’s on-campus coffee shop, where they’d do things like play games and talk about their lives. He was also their official advocate if they had a behavior issue that required intervention from the school. Bottorff said he saw some huge benefits to this approach. But he also felt totally unprepared for having that kind of relationship with a student. “I think we have teachers who already feel stretched in their responsibilities. Or teachers who feel like they don't know how to make connections with these kids outside of, say, teaching them chemistry,” he says. Bottorff’s dissertation is focusing on several schools who are using advisory, so he can study what kind of support teachers need to make this approach work.

Those are the kinds of larger reforms he could help foster as a principal, which is one of the main reasons he’s willing to leave a role he loves. He figures he can always teach trombone lessons on the side if he needs his music kick. Plus, it’s hard to imagine someone who’s spent 14 years as a music teacher totally giving it up. A principal who loves to sing and plays tuba, ukulele, trumpet and about two dozen other instruments would likely be someone students never forget.

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Story by Lou Blouin

Faculty and Staff

Graduate Research

Inclusion or Diversity

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Education

Off

Mon, 03/04/2024 - 12:50

Education doctoral student and elementary music teacher Eric Bottorff recently won the Michigan Music Educator of the Year award for his inventive classroom approaches, including teaching music to special education students.

Graphic by Violet Dashi. Images by Ruslan Grumble, kues1 and Prot via Adobe Stock

From collaborative research to a Ph.D.

lblouin — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 16:21:40 +0000

From collaborative research to a Ph.D. lblouin Mon, 02/19/2024 - 11:21

When Professor of Geology Jacob Napieralski published a new study last month, it grabbed headlines in a host of local and national outlets, including Bridge Detroit, Michigan Radio and Next City (stay tuned for that one). But there is another notable aspect to the project, which examined the impact of buried “ghost streams” on flooding in Detroit’s historically redlined neighborhoods: Napieralski’s co-authors — both master’s students at the time — are currently pursuing doctoral degrees. Napieralski, who chairs the M.S. in Environmental Science program, says the program primarily attracts working students who stay in their fields after graduation. But not only did Cat Sulich and Atreyi Guin both decide to continue their studies, their interests dovetailed so well with Napieralski’s work that the three became a research team.

Sulich and Guin took very different paths to the master’s program. Sulich completed her undergraduate degree in biology at Madonna University. She works as a clinical research coordinator at Michigan Medicine, and U-M’s generous tuition reimbursement, plus a partial match from ��-Dearborn, made pursuing her master’s at Dearborn a no-brainer. Going on for a Ph.D. didn’t take a lot of deliberation either. “It had been my childhood dream,” Sulich says. “I remember the first time I sat down with Jacob, I told him that, and he was, like, ‘Oh, yeah, we can get you set up.’ He was very encouraging.” She is pursuing her doctorate in public health with a concentration in environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Guin came to ��-Dearborn as an international student after receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees in biotechnology from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, India. “I don't think I ever thought that I'd do a Ph.D.,” she reflects. “But then, through the course of this program and working with Dr. Napieralski, I realized how much I really liked it. So I think a Ph.D. was automatically the next course of action for me. I just wanted to stay in this field longer and do more research.” She is pursuing her doctorate in geographical sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Sulich and Guin’s research interests were, naturally, influenced by Napieralski, who was their advisor. But they proved a perfect complement to his ongoing work as well. “Cat and I published a paper where we looked at surface water inequities in Phoenix and there were lots of different concepts and data that were brought into that. One of them was redlining, which fascinated us,” Napieralski explains. “My previous research focused a lot on the Rouge watershed, and Atreyi’s thesis focused on comparing flood risk from different models. So our collaborations came from overlapping projects and required the integration of collective expertise, creativity and persistence.”

The project the trio worked on together used historical maps to identify once-active, now-buried waterways in Detroit. They then correlated those waterways with flood risk data and historic Home Owners’ Loan Corporation maps that graded neighborhoods on perceived financial risk, a now outlawed, highly discriminatory practice known as redlining. The team confirmed that flooding disproportionately impacts historically redlined neighborhoods and that the buried waterways contribute to flooding risk. They published their results in the January 2024 issue of City and Environment Interactions.

Their hope is that their research will be used to direct resources to the communities that need them the most. “Cities should begin mapping their ‘hidden hydrology’ so that residents know they are at increased risk of flooding and can make informed decisions and prepare,” Napieralski says. “We need to step back and evaluate how we manage water in urban environments, and also think about the people and history and mitigating factors that we invest in one community and not the other. All these things add up and people who have the least bear the greatest burden.”

Professor Jacob Napieralski poses for a photo on the banks of the Rouge River in Lola Valley Park, Redford, Michigan.

The process leading the group to look at ghost streams was iterative. “Anytime you map real world entities, you can always learn something new. And then that leads to further questions,” says Napieralski. “If you have people like Cat and Atreyi, who are smart, ambitious and have creative ideas, you just lay it out on the table. We would have a number of brainstorming sessions where we would just flesh out the key ideas. For many students, that works better than me telling them what to do, just because you never know what ideas someone else has that could be really valuable.”

Sulich and Guin both say their ��-Dearborn research experiences prepared them well for their next academic step. “If you want to know which parcels flood more, if they're redlined or not, you can't just open Google and search it. You have to just solve the problem yourself,” Sulich observes. ”That was what my master's thesis was like. Whenever there was a problem, because it’s original work, you can't just look it up. You have to find a way to solve that. And that's literally what a Ph.D. is.”

Guin says the research project helped her become more selective — a key skill for an academic. “All the work that we did during the research, we did not present all of it,” she observes. “To understand what to choose and what not to, what would be the most important thing to tie into this paper, that was also a big takeaway for me.”

Napieralski says he learned from Sulich and Guin as well. “I can just sit around at home and spitball great ideas, but it takes a team to see it through,” he explains. “I don't know if I ever saw it as mentoring so much as just collaborating. It was always sharing ideas and tasks, and we all had the same final goal. It wasn't for a grade, it was, ‘Let's get this published. Let's go to a conference and present this.’”

Napieralski has a long history of involving his students in his research, and he’s found they tend to form strong bonds. “There's a connection that lasts much longer,” he says. ”I don't like it when students just pack up and leave and I never see them again. I think it's healthy for faculty members to lean heavily on talented students and then also have that long-term partnership that lasts well beyond this stay on campus.”

Proving that point, Sulich recently enlisted her former advisor as a collaborator in her doctoral research. “I get to sit on the other side of this,” Napieralski reflects. “Just like our research evolves, so does the partnership that I share with them.”

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Article by Kristin Palm

Faculty Research

Graduate Research

Student Success

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Natural Sciences

Off

Mon, 02/19/2024 - 16:14

Two M.S. in Environmental Science grads are taking what they learned working with Professor Jacob Napieralski into prestigious doctoral programs.

Jacob Napieralski, far right, and his students at the American Association of Geographers annual meeting in Denver in 2023. From left: Atreyi Guin, graduate student Renato Marimon, undergraduate student Audrey Taylor and Cat Sulich.

Why used EV batteries are poised to play a big role in the electric grid

lblouin — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 19:08:02 +0000

Why used EV batteries are poised to play a big role in the electric grid lblouin Mon, 01/22/2024 - 14:08

As wind and solar become a bigger share of our electricity mix, the reliability of our power grid faces some fundamental challenges. Because the wind isn't always blowing and the sun isn't always shining, supply from these sources can vary greatly throughout the day. Large-scale energy storage, which could bank renewable energy for later use, is seen as a fundamental way of dealing with this unpredictability challenge, and energy engineers are working on a variety of interesting storage technologies. In fact, one of the most promising solutions may be lurking in our driveways. Electric vehicles, after all, are basically huge batteries on wheels: The 98 kWh standard range battery in the Ford F-150 Lightning, for example, can power an average American home for three days. And since a typical car spends the vast majority of its life parked, connecting our EVs to the grid could, one day, create a massive, reliable backup power system — absorbing excess renewable energy during peak production and sending it back to the grid when we need it most.

Researchers are also looking for ways to harness the power of gently used EV batteries. Due to performance issues, batteries in electric vehicles are typically retired when they reach 80% of their original capacity. But the used batteries are still valuable. Right now, the market for used batteries is strongest among recyclers, who covet them for a variety of their component materials, especially nickel and cobalt. There’s also a lot of interest in keeping the batteries intact, since a slightly diminished battery can still hold a lot of energy. By stringing together thousands of them, we could potentially create a whole “second life” for EV batteries as a storage system for the electric grid. This application is also considered one of the most environmentally friendly grid storage options, as it cuts out the mining and energy-intensive manufacturing required for creating new batteries.

A recent project by ��-Dearborn doctoral students Ali Hassan and Shahid Aziz Khan explored just how much potential this second life approach holds. Supervised by Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Wencong Su, their work was part of an international CO₂reduction competition sponsored by OPAL-RT Technologies. The simulation technology company hosted the challenge to discover new ways that its advanced “hardware-in-the-loop” simulation systems could be used to reduce climate-warming emissions. For their project, Hassan and Khan modeled a microgrid that integrated a large proportion of wind and solar energy and used 80%-degraded Nissan Leaf batteries as backup storage. They then simulated several real-world scenarios, including using the batteries to cover sudden surges in demand, which grid operators typically respond to with fossil fuel-based “peaker” power plants. The potential for carbon savings looks promising indeed. According to their models, they estimate a single used 80 kWh battery, if used until it can hold 40% of its capacity, could save 46 metric tons of carbon dioxide over five years. That’s the equivalent of removing 10 average gasoline-powered cars from the road for an entire year — for each battery.

Hassan and Khan took home the top prize in the competition, and they’re excited their work is helping demonstrate that used batteries have real potential as a storage system for the grid. They say one of the advantages of using an OPAL-RT hardware-in-the-loop simulator is that it gives you a much clearer picture of how a complicated system like a microgrid, which uses high-voltage hardware, will function in real life. “We have many ways of building simulations, but for the most part, they aren’t going to give you something that’s implementable in the real world without any hiccups,” Hassan explains. “But with the hardware-in-the-loop simulator, you can connect your software models of, say, an EV battery, and you’re going to get real-life voltage and current levels that you’d expect in a real grid or microgrid. So it’s much more accurate.”

Hassan and Khan say it could still be a few years before used EV batteries are playing this kind of role. That’s mainly because EVs are simply still too new to have yielded enough used batteries to create a market for this kind of application. But with global EV sales growing at about 30 percent a year, and batteries lasting eight to 10 years before they need to be replaced, Hassan and Khan say this market dynamic could change relatively quickly. In the meantime, they and other energy engineers will be busy figuring out the details of how to make our cars a vital link in a cleaner grid.

###

Story by Lou Blouin

Graduate Research

Research

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Off

Mon, 01/22/2024 - 19:07

Two ��-Dearborn doctoral students recently scored first prize in an international CO₂ reduction challenge for modeling the “second life” potential of used EV batteries.

Doctoral students Ali Hassan (left) and Shahid Aziz Khan work with an OPAL-RT "hardware-in-the-loop" simulator in the lab of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Wencong Su.

Office of Research update: August 2023

stuxbury — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 16:18:11 +0000

Office of Research update: August 2023 stuxbury Mon, 07/31/2023 - 12:18

The Office of Research is pleased to announce and would like to congratulate our Dearborn faculty members on receipt of the following external funding:

U-M Principal Investigator: John Chenoweth, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Project Title: River Raisin Battlefield Archaeology Project
Direct Sponsor: Department of the Interior-National Park Service
Total Sponsor Authorized Amount: $107,321

This project seeks to provide a basis for the sustainable preservation and stewardship of the War of 1812 River Raisin Battlefield in Monroe, MI, through archaeological evaluation combined with community engagement and educational activities. Despite their enormous impact on the course of the war and events that followed, and their accounting for a fifth of all US combat casualties from the war, the January 1813 Battles of the River Raisin and the entire War of 1812 are often neglected and under-recognized, even by local populations. With potential development pending, analysis is needed to evaluate current subsurface preservation, locate features associated with the settlement where the battle took place, and lay groundwork for establishing its extent and layout, a vital step for preservation and development planning. These excavations will meet preservation and planning needs that would not be otherwise addressed, and will be supported by analysis of “orphaned” collections from previous but inconclusive excavations, archival work, and GIS analysis.

U-M Principal Investigator: Xuan Zhou, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project Title: Fuel Cell Short Stack Durability Testing Sample Analysis and Engineering Service on Fuel Cell System Development
Direct Sponsor: Hyzon Motors
Awarded Amount: $134,120

Hyzon Motors is a leading supplier of zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells work by converting hydrogen into electricity through a chemical reaction, producing only water as a byproduct. To ensure the optimal performance and reliability of its fuel cell systems, the company will work with researchers at ��-Dearborn to conduct extensive testing and diagnosis of its PEM fuel cell technology.

U-M Principal Investigator: Shan Bao, Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
Project Title: User-Centered and Data-Driven Real-Time Charging Station Recommendation
Direct Sponsor: Ford Motor Company
Awarded Amount: $55,000

This project’s objective is to develop a novel user-centered charging station (CS) recommendation system. Dr. Bao will use data-driven methods to calculate and provide personalized charging station recommendations that minimize total charging time and account for user preferences.

U-M Principal Investigator: Xuan Zhou, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project Title: Fuel Cell bipolar plates examination and diagnosis
Direct Sponsor: Hyzon Motors
Awarded Amount: $9133

Hyzon Motors is a leading supplier of zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. To ensure the optimal performance and reliability of its fuel cell systems, the company will work with researchers at ��-Dearborn to conduct extensive examination and diagnosis of its bipolar plates material composition and thickness.

Announcements

Innovation Partnerships - Celebrate Invention Event on Sept. 14
Celebrate Invention is an annual event that honors University of Michigan inventors and the growing impact of U-M innovations hosted by Innovation Partnerships. The U-M community is invited to attend the Celebrate Invention event on Sept. 14 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Michigan Union, 530 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.

The annual event will feature demonstrations from promising U-M projects and startups, a presentation of this year’s Distinguished University Innovator Award, networking opportunities and also kicks off this year’s Ann Arbor SPARK’s a2Tech360. Celebrate Invention is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Learn more and register.

Reminder: Resources for Using SciENcv
Effective Oct. 23, 2023 NSF will require all biosketch and current & pending support documents for senior personnel to be prepared using SciENcv. The fillable pdf forms will not be accepted after this date. We recommend that you take the time to register with ScieENcv and begin to create your documents in that system if you expect to be involved in a proposal to NSF in the near future.

U-M Library Services has put together this guidance page to help you get started. You can also request a one-on-one Zoom session with Dearborn Office of Research staff to walk you through this process. Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) is a researcher profile system for all individuals who apply for, receive or are associated with research investments from federal agencies. SciENcv allows researchers to document their education, employment, research activities, publications, honors, research grants, & other professional contributions to create multiple SciENcv profiles in official biographical sketch formats funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). In addition, the SciENcv application can be used to create the official NSF Current and Pending Support document.

Any researcher can register for SciENcv and create multiple biosketches, for different research projects or different funding agencies. You can find much more information about how to use SciENcv on their FAQs page. The central Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and U-M Library have resources and previous workshops available on how to create a biosketch in SciENcv specifically focused on NSF and NIH. These resources are available linked below:

U-M Library SciENcv Guide (including step-by-steps for creating NSF and NIH biosketches)
NSF Biosketch and SciENcv Webinar (July 2020)
- Slide Deck (MLibrary Presentation)
- NSF Biosketch Webinar Transcript
- How to Create Your NSF Biosketch in SciENcv Step-by-step (MLibrary Handout)
NIH Biosketch and SciENcv Webinar (May 2020)
- Slide Deck (MLibrary Presentation)
- NIH Biosketch Webinar Transcript
- Biosketch and SciENcv Step-by-Step (MLibrary Handout)

Research Events in August & September:

Teaching and Technology Collaborative Workshop, “Help! I Have To Share My Data: Preparation For Sharing and Choosing a Repository For Long-Term Data Storage” - Thursday, Aug. 10, noon to 1 p.m., virtual
The Ginsberg Center Learning in Community (LinC) Workshop, “Foundations of Community Engagement” - Thursday, Aug. 24, noon-1:30 p.m., virtual
Save-the-Date! ��MS Office of Research, “Researchpalooza 2023” - Wednesday, Sept. 13, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m., in-person: 1150 West Medical Center Drive Driveway
MICHR Workshop, “Conducting and Obtaining Valid Informed Consent” - Wednesday, Sept. 13, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., virtual

The Office of Research website is also updated regularly with research-related events and announcements, so we would encourage you to bookmark our landing page and subscribe to our Research News email list.

Research Resource Highlight: Mardigian Library Data Management Planning Support

Every month, the Office of Research will feature a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month we are featuring the resources for data management planning available from the ��-Dearborn Mardigian Library.

Data management planning is often required by funders in the form of a document called a Data Management Plan (DMP) that will describe the handling (collection, storage and archiving) of data collected during your project. A DMP may also need to include plans for the dissemination of your data, (sometimes referred to separately as a Data Sharing Plan). To help faculty navigate data management planning, the ��-Dearborn Mardigian Library offers both a subject guide on Research Data Management as well as a DMP review service.

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

The Office of Research publishes a list of selected funding opportunities, organized by college, every month on our website under Announcements. In addition, yearly grant calendars organized by subject area provided by Hanover Research are available there as well. Contact the ��-Dearborn Office of Research if you would like more information about submitting a proposal to any of the programs.

Off

Mon, 07/31/2023 - 16:17

See whose work is getting funded, browse new funding opportunities and learn about services that can advance your own work in the August update from the Office of Research.

Mini cars are launching big careers

lblouin — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 18:39:15 +0000

Mini cars are launching big careers lblouin Mon, 06/12/2023 - 14:39

Back in September, we brought you news that ��-Dearborn scored a National Science Foundation grant to purchase a fully autonomous research vehicle, which Assistant Professor Jaerock Kwon expects will arrive on campus later this year. When it does, it’s going to be a huge boost for several faculty doing work in the autonomy space, primarily because it will provide an opportunity to do real-world testing of ideas they’ve been working on in simulation for years. While working with a full-size, fully autonomous vehicle is the ideal scenario for researchers, it turns out it’s not the only avenue for real-world testing. For the past couple years, graduate students in a lab led by Automotive and Mobility Systems Engineering (AMSE) Program Director Taehyun Shim have been testing autonomous features like lane keeping, parallel parking and emergency braking using souped-up toy cars that are about one-tenth the scale of an actual vehicle. Because they’re equipped with the similar camera-, radar- and lidar-based sensor systems, Shim says the scale cars actually allow for testing of similar types of perception algorithms used in real AVs. But the smaller vehicles have one huge advantage: They cost a fraction of the $244,610 that was recently granted to ��-Dearborn to purchase a real AV.

��-Dearborn alum Arun Joshi

In fact, the scale car lab got its start on a shoestring budget of about $3,000. A few years ago, then-master’s student Arun Joshi was working with Shim on algorithms for autonomous lane keeping, object detection and emergency braking systems, and his work looked promising in simulation. But Joshi knew that the real test would be to see how his programming performed in an actual vehicle. When you ask algorithms to take the leap from simulation to the real world, Shim and Joshi say all kinds of issues can arise. The functioning of the various electrical components can introduce “noise” that can muddle signals coming from the sensors. You might not have enough onboard computing power to process all the information coming from the sensors in real time. Even mounting all the sensors to the car chassis in a way that the vehicle can still handle properly can be tricky. Joshi knew he wouldn’t have access to a real AV, but when he started doing some searching online, he ran across a possible alternative. It turned out there was a whole community of researchers building autonomous toy cars for racing as a way to advance autonomous technologies. He contacted some of the researchers at UC-Berkeley who were working in this space, who generously shared their plans. Shim loved the idea and helped Joshi score a small grant from the university, so Joshi could make the autonomous scale cars the subject of his master’s capstone project.

Joshi built the first of the autonomous scale cars in 2019, which he used to fine-tune his lane keeping and object detection algorithms. As expected, having an opportunity to do real-world testing was kind of a game changer. “In simulation, you can get it very close to perfect. But then when you’re dealing with the actual sensors functioning in a real environment, you run into issues that force you to account for all these things the simulation doesn’t include. You want the project to be successful, so you naturally begin to work on how to address those pitfalls, and you end up with a much better system. I mean, we didn't get it perfect, but it was much better than if we had only tested it in simulation.”

In subsequent years, other students have built on Joshi’s work. One year, a CECS undergraduate senior design team designed and built a four-meter track for the autonomous scale cars. Another master’s student, Pavan Anandareddy, used the scale cars to develop and test automated parallel parking algorithms. And one of Shim’s current graduate students, Syed Adil Ahmed, is working on lane keeping and adaptive cruise control systems. Shim says they now hope to use the scale car lab in the Automotive and Mobility Systems Engineering master’s program, which was updated this year to emphasize new technologies like intelligent vehicle systems and electrification.

Shim also says this kind of project-based work has huge benefits for students’ education and career prospects. “When you work on a project like this, I think the main benefit is you end up with this more complete understanding of the vehicle,” Shim says. “They have to work with the hardware, they have to do the programming, they have to build the vehicles and make all the systems work together. I think more and more, that’s the kind of holistic thinking that industry is looking for, because you’re able to troubleshoot more complex challenges when you have this more complete understanding.”

Joshi and Anandareddy can both speak to that. After graduation, Anandareddy landed a job at the electric truck startup Rivian. Joshi is now working in the autonomous vehicle division at Ford. “I think the way the auto industry is today, you have to have knowledge of a multitude of things,” Joshi says. “It’s all moving toward electric cars and autonomous systems, so you can’t confine yourself to knowledge of a particular thing. You sort of have to understand the whole picture. And now that I’m in the industry, I can see it’s not all that different from what we got to do with the scale cars. So I’m very thankful to have had the opportunity to do that.”

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Are you interested in learning more about autonomous vehicles at ��-Dearborn? Check out the newly refreshed Automotive and Mobility Systems Engineering master’s program, which has new concentrations in electrification and intelligent vehicle systems. Story by Lou Blouin

Faculty Research

Graduate Research

Technology

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Mechanical Engineering

Off

Mon, 06/12/2023 - 18:36

Students and faculty are doing advanced work in autonomy using one-tenth-scale cars.

Professor Taehyun Shim and doctoral student Syed Adil Ahmed work in the scale car lab at ��-Dearborn. Photos by Taylor Featherstone

Two ��-Dearborn students awarded prestigious Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship

lblouin — Mon, 15 May 2023 16:03:34 +0000

Two ��-Dearborn students awarded prestigious Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship lblouin Mon, 05/15/2023 - 12:03

Back in 2019, the four doctoral programs in ��-Dearborn’s College of Engineering and Computer Science kicked off a formal partnership with the Rackham Graduate School at ��-Ann Arbor. The Rackham affiliation did more than just add some additional cachet. Brahim Medjahed, CECS Assistant Dean and our campus liaison with the Rackham Graduate School, says it’s helped us strengthen those Ph.D. programs in fundamental ways, including adding evidence-based strategies for effective mentoring and a curated lineup of professional development opportunities. Perhaps most importantly, it’s now a standard requirement that all doctoral students be fully funded with a graduate assistantship — a feature that’s designed to help students finish their degrees as quickly as possible, while their research and dissertation work is still relevant.

Graduate assistantships, which require doctoral students to have campus employment duties such as teaching courses, are a key part of making doctoral programs affordable. But teaching classes while conducting research, taking doctoral courses and working on a dissertation can obviously be a lot to handle. One thing that can be a big help: the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, a competitive program that provides a $36,084 stipend, plus doctoral candidacy tuition and fees, for especially promising doctoral students in their final year. This means they can forgo their regular instructional responsibilities and focus solely on their research and dissertation. “That last year is so crucial,” Medjahed says. “It’s when students start publishing research results, finish their dissertations and start looking for jobs. So the fellowship puts students in a much stronger position to launch their careers. And it’s also obviously a great thing for a resume because it’s a highly competitive and prestigious fellowship.”

The Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship is traditionally awarded to around 100 doctoral students on the Ann Arbor campus. But this year, for the first time, two students from CECS’s doctoral programs were named to the list of fellows. Look at their work and it’s easy to see why Computer and Information Science student Nada Lachtar and Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering student Dania Ammar were given the nod. Both are working on high profile problems: Lachtar is developing broadly applicable, novel solutions to ransomware attacks, while Ammar is designing human-machine interfaces that will help pedestrians interact safely with autonomous vehicles. As doctoral students, both have published in high quality journals and presented at top conferences. And even with their busy schedules, both have found time to serve on university committees and mentor ��-Dearborn students coming up behind them.

Lachtar says she first developed an interest in ransomware when she was an undergraduate student in 2016, the year ransomware blossomed from a niche attack strategy to a major cybersecurity threat. At the time, Lachtar was looking into graduate programs and ended up connecting with ��-Dearborn Assistant Professor Anys Bacha, who was also working in this area. Over the past five years, they’ve tackled a broad range of ransomware related issues. One of Lachtar’s earliest projects was a machine learning threat detection system that was 99% effective at recognizing malware. Later, she developed operating system-level defenses that were capable of shutting down attacks and limiting damage. She’s also worked on strategies for detecting adversarial machine learning, a type of attack that actually uses machine learning to sidestep machine learning-based defenses.

Ammar’s research is exploring one of the more fascinating emerging challenges related to autonomous vehicles: How will pedestrians safely interact with cars when humans aren’t doing the driving? Ammar says we typically rely on visual signals, like eye contact, to negotiate who has the right of way, and absent a human driver, cars will presumably have to have some way of declaring their intentions. For example, through her research, Ammar has discovered that pedestrians tend to favor technologies that closely mimic their interactions with human drivers — say, a visual or auditory message, delivered from the car, that says “I see you! It’s safe to cross.” Ammar’s dissertation work is focused on resolving many such design complexities, including the incredibly murky territory of “trust calibration.” Essentially, she says, keeping traffic moving efficiently and keeping humans safe rely on pedestrians being both trusting of vehicles and sufficiently wary so they can adapt to surprises. Designing systems that encourage this “sweet spot” behavior will be just as key to making autonomous vehicles a reality as the core technology now being developed by automakers.

As someone who’s been key to building CECS’s doctoral education culture, including the affiliation with Rackham, Medjahed is proud to see students from the ��-Dearborn campus earning this recognition. “Both Dania and Nada are extremely deserving,” he says. “You look at what they’ve accomplished — the research maturity, the level of productivity and their engagement with the university — they’re everything you’d expect from the top Ph.D. candidates in top Ph.D. programs around the country.” Mike Solomon, dean of the Rackham Graduate School, also sees it as an important milestone for the Dearborn campus. “The Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship is an important part of our school’s rich legacy,” Solomon says. “That legacy has been enhanced by the addition of Ph.D. programs at ��-Dearborn, which are now fully integrated with the graduate school. I am therefore very pleased to welcome this inaugural cohort of Dearborn Rackham Predoctoral Fellows, and I thank the many staff and faculty on both the Dearborn and Ann Arbor campuses who have worked to make this opportunity possible.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Computer and Information Science

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Off

Mon, 05/15/2023 - 16:02

Nada Lachtar and Dania Ammar are the first ��-Dearborn doctoral students to be recognized with the competitive fellowship from one of the country’s premier graduate schools.

Nada Lachtar (left) and Dania Ammar were recently awarded the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship.

Graduate Research

‘������-Dearborn is a respected institution . . . I feel very lucky to study here’

‘Healing’ batteries with ultrasonics

PhD student is helping pave the way for high-performance metals

Office of Research update: July 2024

External Awards Received

Announcements

Research Events in July

Research Resource Highlight

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

If you want kids to learn music, teach it like a language

From collaborative research to a Ph.D.

Why used EV batteries are poised to play a big role in the electric grid

Office of Research update: August 2023

The Office of Research is pleased to announce and would like to congratulate our Dearborn faculty members on receipt of the following external funding:

Announcements

Research Events in August & September:

Research Resource Highlight: Mardigian Library Data Management Planning Support

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

Mini cars are launching big careers

Two ������-Dearborn students awarded prestigious Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship

‘��-Dearborn is a respected institution . . . I feel very lucky to study here’

Two ��-Dearborn students awarded prestigious Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship