Author: ecr_bmj801

Kristen Cetin, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, is harnessing smart energy technologies to enhance building performance and occupant comfort. “We’re combining the power of sensors, automation, the internet of things and modeling to create data-driven, real-time energy efficiency strategies for the built environment,” said Cetin.

Photography by Chris Gannon Lie Tang’s research team designs plant measuring robots that quickly and accurately collect the plant-trait data needed for data-driven crop performance research. “We combine intelligent robotics and sensing technologies to improve both the throughput and the quality of plant measurements, a core need in the growing fi eld of predictive plant … Continue reading Robotic Plant Measurements Roll Toward Data-Driven Agriculture

Renewable energy offers promise for cleaner, cheaper electricity, but the variability in its production levels introduces new levels of uncertainly into the electric power system. Sarah Ryan, Joseph Walkup Professor in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, is developing new stochastic optimization techniques to help electric system operators effectively plan for deeper integration of renewables.

Big data holds big potential for solving pressing problems of our time – but big data also brings the significant challenge of working with high dimensional data sets. Namrata Vaswani , professor of electrical and computer engineering, is developing novel algorithms for high-dimensional data recovery. Her algorithms can recover data from noisy or distorted measurements … Continue reading Data Recovery Tools for the Big Data Age

Cleaner, Greener Technologies Xiaoli Tan is creating new materials needed to solve international sustainability and environmental challenges. Tan, professor of materials science and engineering, is an expert in designing, creating and measuring new compositions of functional oxide ceramics, materials widely used in electronics. “Our goal is to establish the interrelationships between materials’ composition, microstructure, and … Continue reading Better Ceramics

To quantify threats of power grid cyberattacks Threat levels for cyberattacks on the power grid are usually labeled high, medium or low. That’s too qualitative and too subjective for Cyclone Engineers. Current assessments are inadequate to account for dynamic and uncertain adversaries and the complexity of the computer controls and networks that support the grid. … Continue reading Game Theory

For a smart, resilient grid Zhaoyu Wang, Harpole-Pentair assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is using data-driven science and machine learning to bring real-time modeling to electric power systems – and to enhance system resilience in severe weather events. Real-time, grid-wide monitoring Wang’s team is customizing machine learning algorithms currently used in photo processing … Continue reading Data-Driven Modeling

Cyclone Engineers have developed a new smart and responsive material that stiffens up like a worked-out muscle. Stress a muscle and it gets stronger. Mechanically stress the rubbery material – say with a twist or a bend – and the material automatically stiffens by up to 300 percent, the engineers said. In lab tests, mechanical … Continue reading Smart material gets stronger when stressed

IINSPIRE LSAMP: Thriving in STEM Disciplines Iowa State leads the $5 million Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Iowa-Illinois-Nebraska STEM Partnership for Research and Education (IINSPIRE) project that aims to increase the number and improve the experience of underrepresented students completing STEM degrees in the Midwest. IINSPIRE offers students evidence- based academic, professional and … Continue reading Boosting diversity in engineering with evidence-based strategies

Cyclone Engineer Robert Brown is pioneering the use of thermochemical processes to efficiently and inexpensively turn biomass into biofuels and biobased chemicals. Brown, Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering, has built a nation-leading research program in scaling biomass processing discoveries from the bench to pilot and demonstration scales. He directs Iowa State’s Bioeconomy Institute, which researches … Continue reading Advancing biorenewables processing for a sustainable, agriculture-powered future

Stronger, cheaper, greener foundations for offshore renewable energy generation “A challenge of foundation research is that you can’t see through soil, so you often can’t see exactly what’s happening in an experiment. We used a transparent soil – a gelatin that acts like soft clay – to make observations not possible any other way.” – … Continue reading NSF CAREER PROJECT IN PROGRESS

More than 50 named professors and chair positions “Philanthropy propels early-stage, innovative research at Iowa State, making discoveries possible that simply wouldn’t have happened without donors’ gifts,” said Sarah Rajala, James L. and Katherine S. Melsa Dean of Engineering. “The outstanding level of support from our donors also helps us attract the best faculty to … Continue reading Philanthropy jump-starts research innovation