Yanina Barrera

University of California, Irvine

Chemical Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dava Newman

Direct Supervisor: Lara Pierpoint

Analysis of Nuclear Fuel Cycles for Hazardous and Radioactive Pollution Potentials...

Title: Analysis of Nuclear Fuel Cycles for Hazardous and Radioactive Pollution Potentials, and the Political Issues Associated with Nuclear Energy: A High-level Look at the Motivations and Barriers to Waste Disposal Abstract: It is inevitable that as population increases alternative sources of energy must be implemented in order to meet today's need without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own. Although it is necessary to overcome technical hurdles, a social structure that permits emerging technologies to not only foster economic development but to provide a new standard for the environment must be encouraged. Though one of the focal points of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has been to reduce green house gases, renewable and non-renewable energy technologies must be considered for all of their pollution potentials on land, water and air. One technology, in which sciences and politics haver merged, is with nuclear energy and the issues associated with spent fuel storage and disposal. Thus, t his study will investigate nuclear fuel cycles for their hazardous and radioactive pollution potentials in order to provide different pathways to reduce nuclear energy ! environmental impacts. In addition, the policy issues associated with each pathway will be studied and presented.

Joel Batson

Morehouse College

Need Info

Faculty Mentor: Unknown

Direct Supervisor: Unknown

Information not submitted

Indira Deonandan

Smith College

Aeronautics and Astronautics

Faculty Mentor: Alvar Saenz-Otero

Direct Supervisor: Alvar Saenz-Otero

Synchronized Position Hold, Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellite (SPHERES) Controls Enhancement

The SPHERES laboratory environment provides a testbed for authenticating high risk metrology, control, and autonomous technology for the use in autonomous docking and reconfiguration algorithms. For researchers mostly associated with estimation, autonomy and control problems, it provides a standard library of modular control functions to be called in the control interrupt. The ultimate goal of my project is to assist in developing, testing and analyzing an additional modular modern control functions for greater precision and accuracy in tasks such as docking. This will include the implementation of Linear Quadratic Regulators (LQR’s), an ‘optimum’ feedback controller operating at minimum cost and designed for a dynamic system. Secondary projects include a) general support of SPHERES operations in both hardware and software, and b) developing a manual for SPHERES experiments and analysis.

Timothy Fedkiw

North Carolina State University

Aeronautics and Astronautics

Faculty Mentor: Paulo Lozano

Direct Supervisor: Paulo Lozano

The Scanning Negative Ion Microscope

The Space Propulsion Lab (SPL) has developed a technique for extracting monoenergetic negative ions from a Room Temperature Ionic Liquid (RTIL). a Tungsten needle is coated in the ionic liquid, then a voltage is applied to cause the emission of negative ions. This technique was originally developed for the purpose of propulsion, but has other applications. One such application would be a Scanning Negative Ion Microscope (SNIM). This device would work by propelling high energy (~1keV) negative ions into a target sample, which would cause secondary electron emission which could be analyzed to produce an image. My project involves designing and constructing an electrostatic lens for the purpose of focusing the ion beam to a small enough area such that it could be used for micron-scale microscopy (~50 microns). Upon successful evaluation of the beam size, a prototype of the SNIM will be constructed.

Weslee Glenn

Hampton University

Chemistry

Faculty Mentor: Sarah E. O'Connor

Direct Supervisor: Lesley-Ann Giddings

Substrate Specificity of Tabersonine 16-Hydroxylase-Reductase Enzyme in Catharanthus roseus

Catharanthus roseus is a plant that produces thousands of biologically interesting natural products, such as vinblastine, a terpene indole alkaloid, which is noted for its anticancer activity.  In order to produce novel unnatural terpene indole alkaloids with potentially enhanced biological activity, the substrate specificity of the enzymes utilized in the biosynthesis of vindoline, vinblastine's precursor, must be investigated.  The enzyme tabersonine 16-hydroxylase is a key enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of vindoline.
     This specific project's goal is four-fold: (1) to isolate both the tabersonine 16-hydroylase and P450 reductase genes from C. roseus cDNA; (2) to clone genes in an optimized plasmid for epression; (3) to epress, isolate and purify the resulting fusion protein, tabersonine-16-hydroylase-reductase and (4) to develop a radiolabeled assay for the activity of the resulting fusion protein.

Chinyere Goddard

Morgan State University

Computational Architecture

Faculty Mentor: Lawrence Sass

Direct Supervisor: Lawrence Sass

 Digitally Designed and Fabricated Housing in New Orleans

On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina destroyed a great deal of housing in the Gulf Coast of the United States of America. One solution to this housing dilemma involves the use of digital design and fabrication processes to construct a single housing unit from varying perspectives. The first of these perspectives considers the cost of the unit which is solely dependent upon the amount of material used. Another perspective concerns the ease of assembly of the housing unit. It is designed such that the assembly is uncomplicated and minimally labor intensive in order for production to occur in a timely fashion. Digital design and fabrication is essential, both virtually and physically, in this scenario because it satisfies and enhances the parameters, cost and ease of assembly. The goal of this project is to build a model 1/6th the size of the full scale prototype plan to be built this winter using digital fabrication technologies.

Juan Camilo Medina

Florida International University

Aeronautics and Astronautics

Faculty Mentor: David Miller

Direct Supervisor: Alvar Saenz-Otero

 Development of SWARM elements for SPHERES

The Self-assembling Wireless Autonomously Reconfigurable Modules(SWARM)program utilizes the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) to develop control algorithms for the assembly of complex space structures. This research project focuses on the design and implementation of supplementary hardware for SPHERES to enable the SWARM project. Air carriages, used to operate the satellites on the ground will be adapted and improved.       

Moreover, Mechanical vibrations are an intrinsic property of any structure. To simulate the dynamics of such vibrations becomes important for the development of control algorithms. Prior research has developed a model simulating the dynamic response of a straight panel-like structure. In addition, it is necessary to model structures with different configurations. An experiment will be designed to determine the accuracy of the dynamic models. Next, the best model, and configuration will be employed to characterize and build a panel such that the frequency and amplitude of the vibrations will provide a challenging configuration for SWARM to demonstrate algorithms that will successfully
control the assembly procedure.

Justin Morrissette

Hampton University

Biological Engineering

Faculty Mentors: Douglas Lauffenburger and Linda Griffith

Direct Supervisor: Manu O. Platt

 Differentiation in Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Cell based bone graft technology is an aspect of tissue engineering that will ultimately lead to increased bone healing potential in patients with bone cancer, bone fractures, or other bone diseases requiring the removal of large sections of bone. The use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) is important because they are found in bone marrow and are multipotent cells capable of differentiating down several lineages which include chondrogenic, adipogenic, and most importantly osteogenic cells. in particular epidermal growth factor (EGF). One of the challenges with development in bone graft technology is the body's natural inflammatory response. Previous work has shown that tethered EGF(tEGF) coated onto a comb promotes survival and attachment of cells and also increases connective tissue progenitor colony formation when compared to a comb only and soluble EGF(sEGF) surface. The goal of this project is to determine if tEGF also furthers the differentiation of MSCs in osteogenic media. We will test the hypothesis that tEGF will allow MSCs in osteogenic media to differentiate at a faster rate than the comb only and sEGF surface. Differentiation test will be measured with several assays which include 1) Alkaline Phosphatase Expression, which protein increases osteogenic differentiation and is monitored by the Western Blot and Alkaline Phosphataste Activity Assay, 2) Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) of other important factors, and 3) Mineralization Assay.

Ana Mosquera Pelegrina

University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez

Material Science and Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Hsu-Yi Lee

Direct Supervisor: Marianne Terrot

Architecture of Cartilage Aggrecan from Various Cell Types-Based Tissue Engineered Constructs

The objective of this research is to identify the best cell type for regeneration therapies of cartilage in joints. To provide an insight for the cartilage regeneration process, it is crucial to study the structure of a particular molecule, called aggrecan. It is this molecule’s unique structure what permits cartilage to withstand the forces produced when bones press against each other. It has been determined that the structure of aggrecan degenerates over time, causing bones to crush against each other, leading to Osteoarthritis. Presently, studies have proposed the use of synthesized tissues to grow different cartilage cell types that have the ability to produce aggrecan, therefore, providing a remedy for the age effect in cartilage. The current research considers two different cell types at two different ages, young and adult, and studies the differences between aggrecan’s structure. These differences will determine which cell type provides the most promise for joint tiss! ue regeneration.

Jimmy Samaha

University of Florida

Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science

Faculty Mentor: Cynthia Breazeal

Direct Supervisor: Dan Stiehl

The Huggable

The Huggable robot is a new type of robotic companion being developed to be used in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other locations. It features a full body sensitive skin, quiet back drivable mechanical drives, microphones, cameras, and other sensors. I will be responsible for designing software applications for the behavior system and sensors of the Huggable robot through creating GUIs, developing robotic services, and helping to build and improve the interactive experience with the robot.

Georgiv Teverovskiy

Long Island University Brooklyn Campus

Chemistry

Faculty Mentor: Stephen L. Buchwald

Direct Supervisor: Ruben Martin

Domino Cu-catalyzed C-N Coupling/Hydroamidation

Drug development is a very expensive process. What makes matters worse is that drugs that have been developed are incredibly expensive to synthesize. It is therefore the goal of this project to generate an easy and cheap one step method by which an entire class of nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur containing compounds can be made. This procedure will be highly effective in producing five and six membered rings which can then be used in industry to generate more complicated molecules that have some type of biological function. This, the end result, should bring down the price of many curently known and future drugs.

Shanita Wilburn

Tuskegee University

Chemical Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Neidi Negron Rodriguez

Direct Supervisor: Kristala Jones Prather

Recombinant Inorganic Polyphosphate Chain Length Variations as a Function of Gene Dosage

This project revolves around the areas of biochemistry and metabolic engineering of recombinant bacteria. The main objectives are to separate and isolate the polyphosphates, which is ubiquitous is nature, produced by the different recombinant strains of E.coli and subsequently characterize the average chain length of the polymers as a function of plasmid copy number.